#will be updating this masterpost regularly

[booksandpaperss]

Welcome to booksandpaperss (aka chaos lol)

Hello hello fellow gay people! Apparently people actually follow me?? And since I usually end up spamming my page with reblogs this is me making an effort be somewhat organized on here so ppl can actually navigate this blog and find my posts (to a decent degree anyway 💀)

update as of 4/4/23: my apologies to feminism bc as you will see 90% of this blog is Mike Wheeler. there’s rlly nothing I can do abt it, hope you understand 🙏

Other sites where you can find me:

ao3 - booksandpaperss

instagram (art acc) - @/fizzy.noodle.doodles

Blog Index:

Writing (WIP excerpts, ficlets, snippets, etc) -

My mandatory Be Nice to Me (by TBF) byler fic- byler fic WIP sneak peak, aka my painting fight fic that completely spiraled out of control and is now also Mike hostage theory, petergate, and lettergate all wrapped into one

And I’ll look directly at the Sun (but only in the dark) - byler fic WIP sneak peak, title loosely based off of anti hero, it’s a pre s3 byler relationship study

right by your side- byler WIP sneak peak, Will-centric and Will has powers fic, among other things ;)

A Look inside Max Mayfield’s “last word” letters to the party- an index of ficlets for my version of Max’s letters to each party member, very angsty, will be updated as I post each letter <3

Info dump post of my season 1 rewrite - byler fic WIP (multichapter), it’s just a general overview of my season 1 AU where Mike goes with Will into the UD ;)

Clinging to Before - a bite sized byler rain fight study/ficlet/poem of sorts

To Swing in our Rusty Memory (like the age old pact) - a Mike gets vecna’d poem from Will’s POV, heavily inspired and influenced by Achilles Come Down and I Know the End

Will comes out to Mike- some quick dialogue only writing practice with the blorbos

Fanart-

Angsty Will animation

Stranger Things posts Masterlist-

List of current in progress analysis posts

major clue in s4 that Mike is vecna’s next target

Let’s talk a lil abt Mike Wheeler, his depression, and what it means for s5

My iconic Stranger Things HotTakesTM

The REAL fruity four

why canon byler is gonna be a huge win for the queer community (breaking down dumb comments on why byler shippers are “overdramatic” 🙄)

we’re really overlooking how much the painting lie was a huge break in Mike and Will’s understanding of their friendship (aka how it’s definitely gonna blow up in Will’s face later)

Mike’s Basement Beats: When love breaks down- analysis (a look at Mike’s s4 arc)

Mike’s train wreck of a “love confession” actually just confirmed byler is mutual

Mike’s expression right before he starts his monologue is confusion + heartbreak

My perspective on Mike’s monologue when I was watching it as a casual viewer

Mike is sooo getting targeted by vecna in season 5: an essay in screenshots

Still having doubts abt byler bc of the monologue? Don’t worry I gotchu

Using my perspective as a lesbian to prove that Mike Wheeler is gay asf (we been knew but still)

Finn Wolfhard’s acting choices in the first flirty byler scene (you know the one)

More on Finn’s acting choices and style

Another look at Will Byers in the Van Scene (will, Mike, and feeling like a mistake, ft the amazing @heheidks)

Shaggy bowl cut Byers agenda

Some Unhinged van scene byler proof

Byler’s love languages <;3

Byler vol 1 in a nutshell

Byler endgame proof: screenshot compilation

Will’s feelings for Mike have been made a crucial part of the plot and will be addressed properly in s5

a brief look at s4 El and overcoming abuse (I’m soso proud of her omg)

Mike’s gay realization arc is already almost complete and can be broken down into 3 parts (mid s2-s4)

Mike and El already broke up in s4 onscreen (Will just didn’t realize and since we got the breakup primarily through his POV we didn’t notice at first either 👀)

Mike gets a sword in s5 agenda has evidence behind it 👀

Episode 9 lighting parallels/analysis (byler and lumax ft some of my moots)

Mike, Will, and queer realization

Mike and El both associate their romantic relationship with losing their best friend

A quick look at how the show shows Will and Mike’s crushes on each other, and what that means for s5

Dustin and his well meaning but horrible no good very bad gaydar (ft byler being dumb and Lucas being tired)

100% accurate and byler tumblr approved analysis of Mike fans vs Will fans

My delusional and self indulgent but also kinda realistic byler scenario for a season 5 trailer

PSA for byler shippers/stranger things shippers in general (and even just fandom with teenage characters in general) to stop shaming teenagers for having sexual thoughts and acting like it’s abnormal

Mike’s alleged romantic love for El was never actually believable to her

Camera angles, volume 2, and Mike Wheeler (aka an analysis of the subtle transition into Mike POV for season 5)

Stranger Things 4 through the lense of a Shakespeare tragedy

the Wheeler parents: a quick debunking of fanon assumptions and misconceptions

Unhinged bowlcut metaphor (you’ll see lmao)

[hollyannewrites]

Masterlist of Original Works

Hey y'all! This post is going to be updated regularly and contain links to all of the original works I've posted so far!

Goodnight, Kay: Tumblr // Wattpad // AO3

No Way to Move On...: Tumblr // Wattpad // AO3

Halfway Cafe: Tumblr // Wattpad // AO3

Out of Shape (pt1): Tumblr // Wattpad // AO3

Out of Shape (pt2): Tumblr // Wattpad // AO3

Heavenly Bodies: Tumblr // Wattpad // AO3

Ditches (series): Tumblr // Wattpad // AO3

Last Updated: 6/26/2023

[august-anon]

Oh also by the way y’all, while I am still only taking (and hoarding lol) prompts for OFMD currently, i DID update my fandoms page last night to add in some more specificity about ships and such!

[nabulsi]

Palestine Donation Links Masterpost

This is a masterpost of places to throw your money at to support Palestine. I'm gonna try and keep this updated as much as I can.

*** Please note, donating does not mean you should stop boosting Palestinian voices. Spreading awareness is JUST AS IMPORTANT as sending money since misinformation is one of the Zionist movement's most dangerous tools. ***

(Last Updated: 13-02-2024)

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

In addition, follow the PCRF on twitter (@/thePCRF) as they regularly post about opportunities to donate to support Palestine.

UNRWA

Doctors without Borders

Defense for Children Palestine

Palestinian Red Crescent Society

United Palestinian Appeal

Heal Palestine

eSims for Gaza

Care for Gaza (PayPal / GoFundMe)

Medical Aid for Palestinians

Islamic Relief USA

ANERA

Help Gaza Children

Sulala Animal Rescue

Hirbawi Kufiyas

Palestinian Youth Movement

BDS Movement

Decolonize Palestine (Patreon)

Aid requests from Palestinians in Gaza:

Help Ahmed Saad get to safety

Help Lama AlJamous Evacuate

Support Khalil in Gaza

Help Yoseph and his Family

Surgery fund for Abdulaziz

Support Abdelrahim Alfarra

Help Yosef Kassab Evacuate

Safe Passage for Nadin

Help Yousef Yaser get treatment for cancer

Help Adel Al Zaharneh

Help Shaymaa's family leave Gaza

Evacuate Abood's family from Gaza to safety

Help Mohamed and his family evacuate

*** If you have any additional recognized and trustworthy places to donate, please either reply or send me an ask or DM and I will update this list! ***

In addition, Palestinians (both in Palestine and diaspora) can feel free to leave your paypals / ko-fi's / cashapps / venmo.... whichever you want in the replies.

[isatforpalestine]

In Stars and Time for Palestine

Requests: Open! | Goal: $400/750

(To sign up to volunteer, please fill out this form or DM this account/@siffrin-enthusiast! Whichever is easiest for you!)

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Rules

We ask that receipts/proof of purchase be included with the request to help keep track of things.

To sign up as a volunteer, please fill out this form or DM this account and or @siffrin-enthusiast! Whatever works for you!

You will receive confirmation that your request has been received and when work has started.

You can ask for updates on your request, but please remember that artists are human and have busy lives.

Shipping requests and requests for multiple characters or specific poses are allowed, but may be less detailed and take longer than asking for a single character.

NSFW and gore requests are not allowed.

If an artist asks for credit, you must give credit.

Please do not send donation requests in our asks as unfortunately this is a common way to scam donations.

Charities

Donations can be made to any of the following reputable charities:

Palestinian GoFundMe Masterpost, regularly updated

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Medical Aid for Palestinians

UNICEF

Doctors Without Borders

Due to GoFundMe's giving money to Palestinians directly and immediately, donations to them are highly encouraged and requests made through GoFundMe donations will be given preferential treatment (assigned and completed first). Donations to charities are still of course open, encouraged, and accepted, but if possible please consider donating to a GoFundMe!

Prices

Prices have not been set in stone yet, as I'm waiting on feedback and sign-ups from other artists, but they're around here!

$1-9 = Sketch/doodle.

$10-14 = Lineart, uncolored.

$15-20 = Colored sketch.

$21-30 = Flat shading.

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$45-59 = Rendering and a simple background free of charge.

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Additions to add on to the original price (unless it's included in the price, i.e., if you spent $45-59 you would not have to pay for a simple background). Please note that these will almost always increase the time it takes for your request to be completed.

$5 for a simple background.

$5 for another character sketch or uncolored lineart.

$10 for a detailed background.

$10 for very complex poses.

$15 for another character in flat shading or colored sketches, with $10 each for any additional characters.

$20 to select the artist of your request. Note that if they're busy with other requests, this will take longer than letting us choose.

$25 for another character in detailed shading and above, with $20 each for any additional characters.

$30 for another character with rendering, with $25 each for any additional characters.

Artists

Meet our volunteer artists!!

@outeremissary can make doodles, uncolored linearts and colored sketches!

@pied-piper-pluto can do everything on the list, from doodles to rendering with complex poses, multiple characters, and colorful backgrounds! he can do digital or traditional medium, or watercolor for large donations!

@siffrin-enthusiast can draw sketches, doodles, flat/detailed shading or take other requests/make edits, but doesn't know how to render. i'll give it an honest shot if you want though!

@moopermoment can do everything except detailed shading, rendering, and complex poses!

@kadethecat does sketches to flat shading and enjoys collab pieces!

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@kensiesss who can do anything except for complex poses!

@forgetful-storyteller can make anything from sketches to rendering with a simple background, but might take a bit to finish complicated pieces due to a busy schedule!

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[fumifooms]

Chilchuck’s wife and family - Facts, theories and headcanons

I want to keep this as a sort of masterpost on Chil’s family situation if I can, but if we get a lot of information on it (in the additional content that Kui is gonna make) that renders this more or less useless I probably won’t update this anymore. If you find other crumbs of information or I've said anything factually incorrect please do tell me! I'm planning to edit this as we go since I want to compile most if not all of the information and pages we get about this topic on here, and if I just wait to post it perfection paralysis will nip this in the bud. It focuses a lot on Chilchuck and Chilchuck's wife relationships, but the daughters and Chilchuck's own parents and siblings are talked about as well.

CW/disclaimer: This post talks about messy family dynamics and such, there’s no outright abuse I’m implying anywhere, but alcoholism and neglect are mentioned and discussed. I’m not here to demonize anyone! I love every character involved and I just want to theorize about the topic as a layered issue that involves complex characters. Also, I try to use very transparent language as to when I’m citing or analyzing canon information and when I’m giving a personal interpretation or headcanoning.

Abbreviated table of content:

Timeline and circumstances

Possible strains on the marriage

The hair question. Confirmation on what his wife looks like?

Other family dynamic & post-canon theories & headcanons

Parenting style + misc in a reblog addition (new)

Let’s start with the facts, shall we?

Timeline and circumstances

So, we see that Chilchuck and his wife are childhood friends, and they married at 13 years old and had two children in that same year. Since half-foots reach the age of maturity at 14, they seem to be what we'd call teen parents. It's a bit debatable though, since Laios says the age of maturity for tallmen (humans) is 16 instead of 18 or even 21, so what's considered to be the age of maturity is a cultural thing and isn't fully reliable when we want to compare to our irl understanding and what developmental stage it perfectly aligns with. Also, during the succubus chapter Chichuck says that his daughters were all now of age to be independent, and Chilchuck's wife leaves to live with Flertom, which would mean that Puckpatti was independent at age 10 and lived away from home as well (since she's the third/last daughter). Ah yes another interesting thing to note is that we don’t know the pregnancy periods for the races, since Meijack and Flertom were born the same year. It could be tight timing or it could be something else, but I don’t think they’re twins, they keep talking about them being the oldest and the middle child, them being twins is definitely the sort of thing that would get mentioned.

Him starting working on the island notably happens just one year before his wife leaves him. I don't remember the other instances of him mentioning it though I feel like it happened, but since he started working at the Island's dungeon, working as a dungeon diver and then forming the half-foot guild, that probably means he started being away for longer periods of time and having a less reliable schedule on when he'd be coming back home. It is said that he went back home somewhat regularly iirc, though he usually ends up sleeping at the half-foot guild quarters. I'm not sure if Kahka Brud is also where he lived with his family, or just since he rented someplace new after she left him. He and his timeline state that he was born in a small village "northeast of the island", which he left at 14 one year after being married, but it isn’t stated where they go after so it’s unsure how far his home was from the island if it wasn’t in Kahka Brud. We don’t know when his father died so if that factors in to him leaving his village we have no clue.

Chil also says that he hasn’t seen or spoken with his wife nor daughters since the incident, which would mean he's gone 4 years without contact with his family during the events of canon. I don't remember if Chilchuck is said to exchange letters with his daughters, beyond the initial one from Flertom saying her mother was with her, so I've been assuming he hasn't.

He also says "For about ten years I’ve been travelling to dungeons in various areas and doing work" which considering he’s turning 29 that year would mean he started around 19 years old? The panel also gives details what sort of work he’s been doing. Either way it’s confirmed that Chilchuck travels for his work a lot.

In addition, since Chilchuck has the seal of approval of the bicorn + says so himself, he has always stayed faithful to his wife. So that means that unless he's had previous adventures before he was 14 and got married, he's never dated anyone else in his life, nor had romantic or sexual encounters/experiences with others in his 16 years of marriage right up to canon (year 514). I feel it’s safe to say that it’s implied that during all these years starting from when they were married, Chilchuck's wife was a housewife whose main job was taking care of the kids and the house.

Marcille's take on what happened is unreliable, as Kui even takes the time to directly say so in the Adventurer's Bible, so I don't want to use it as a baseline even if it offers some insight on what could have happened (her feeling out of place, leaving to test his love, etc etc).

What Chilchuck says seems to be accurate though since it pertains to his perspective of the events! Unlike how Marcille's theory flows, Chilchuck was aware that something was off before she left since she "suddenly fell into a bad mood".

Piecing everything together, my theory: Chilchuck and his wife were childhood friends and have always always sort of danced around of each other, the classic movie love story with childhood sweethearts, until they ultimately confessed and got together. While dating, Chilchuck's wife becomes pregnant and they're both unequiped to deal with the situation but decide to marry, either a bit forced in order to cover it up or hopeful to make the best of it. They make it work as they can and Chilchuck works to provide for the family while she takes care of the home and the kids, which means that even though he's not a deadbeat father (he cares, he was at least a bit involved in their lives and raising them since for example he knows how to braid hair after all) he ends up being rather absent from home. It only gets worse over the years, especially when Chilchuck starts working further and further away from home and coming home less often, and since Puckpatti left home Chilchuck's wife is alone at home most of the time, never knowing when Chilchuck would be coming and if to prepare the table for two instead of one, or even if he'd be coming back at all since his work is dangerous. The humdrum and lifestyle would get to her, they've grown into different people in these 10 years of marriage and she doesn't feel the spark or feels valued & seen anymore, so she leaves. He feels confused and betrayed which turns into anger so he doesn’t try to reach out and mend things, and with the way he says they’re estranged and he moves away I think he’s avoiding his family somewhat.

Possible strains on the marriage

Tfw all your daughters are independent and your husband is gone to work almost all the time and he barely even tells you that he loves you, is there even a reason to stay together anymore? Every day it’s just you and an empty house and chores to do, wondering if you have to cook for one or for two today.

Alright it’s analysis and theorizing time! Although there are more facts down in this post if you care about Chilchuck's wife's appearajce, Chilchuck's parents & siblings or the kids, the essential facts so to speak were all in the first part.

We don't see Chilchuck showing any discontent with his wife through the manga so I'm assuming that he was content in his marriage, happy with his wife, and with how he stayed faithful to her even in the 4 years after she left (and never stopped calling her his wife. Which also shows a weird stubborn attitude since he wasn’t planning on reaching out to her and mend things but I’ll put aside the possible entitlement/coping mechanism for another time) I think he truly loved her and still does. Since she left him and not the reverse, I'm putting a lot of emphasis on his wife's side of things. Especially since we do see how Chilchuck is at work quite a bit but never see how he is at home. I’ll be sounding harsh towards Chil on this but he’s pretty much the only party we can criticize since we don’t know her, I still side with Chil on the leaving issue though, he’s justifiably pissed if she left without a word what the hell even.

Alcoholism and health

Chilchuck’s favorite food as listed in the Adventurer’s Bible is beer, and it’s shown that he’s prone to drinking until drunk whenever he gets the opportunity to. A cheerful drunk is still a drunk. (Extra reading: if interested here's a oneshot FMA fanfic by a friend that goes in depth about this very topic that really illustrates what sort of family dynamic that can bring about. It’s not dunmeshi but it’s a good read.) Chilchuck is also canonically underweight, starving himself for a strict weight management diet (Extra reading: you can look at a short compilation post about that here). Did you know under eating makes one irritable? And this is on top of Chilchuck sometimes/regularly coming back home with "horrible injuries", since Marcille guesses it and he acts like she’s dead right on everything that far.

It’s rough seeing someone you love mistreat themselves, not being able to shake them out of that and having to stay to see them wasting away. It’s rough seeing them put their work above their own health. Putting their work even above their family. Putting alcohol over family time. It's not that simple, but there's always that element when asking someone you love to tone it down with things like alcohol or such, that if they refuse, then it feels like they value that thing more than they value your feelings or opinions. That they love alcohol more than they love you.

You know how there’s often this thing of "Well I’m providing everything for this family, so whatever else that I do you don’t get to complain." I do think that it’s something they’d have argued over a little bit, not that he’d say it that way, but the essence of it. "Chilchuck, you’re drinking a lot of alcohol often, I’m worried maybe you should ease up on it." "This is what I want to do in my free time, give me a break.", "Dear, your mood gets worse when you’re hungry, I really think you should stop dieting-" "Would you rather I die in a trap because I was too heavy?", "Honey I don’t like when you work so far away from home for so long" "Well what else can I do, do you have any better idea?". That sort of thing. Even if not being passive agressive or snappy, or even spoken upon, these situations can cause tension, or a feeling of powerlessness or imbalance in the relationship. Although I personally feel like they were both rather passive in their relationship (thus having little arguments), which itself can be a problem since yes they let each other live but they grew more distant and less communicative as a result, more on that later. Content and tolerating, rather than happy and fulfilled.

Workaholism and long distance

Spending a lot (or even a majority?) of time away from home for years and years obviously can strain relationships in many ways. Besides becoming more distant, both with his wife and his daughters, there's just that side that maybe you grow apart or you end up not knowing them all that well. Like the fictional dialogue excerpts I wrote just above, the way Chilchuck puts work above most things can by itself be the source of a lot of unhealthy habits and strains that could not only hurt himself but his relationships too. Devoted doesn’t mean attentive, even if Chilchuck 100% devotes himself to only her romantically and works in the goal to support her that doesn’t transfer into being there for her, even when he physically is.

An absent father isn't necessarily a deadbeat father, but an absent father is absent. And alright, we don’t know what his schedule was like exactly, but he was busy and traveled around, I think it’s fair to assume that if we were to make comparisons it’d be like parents irl who are often on work trips. We don't know what Chilchuck's wife's social circle is like, but regardless of how big or small or supportive it is it would be easy to get lonely I think. Besides raising the kids undoubtedly falling more onto her shoulders as well. Managing a household can be very hard and tiring even when not alone, I can imagine she felt like she missed the support of Chilchuck either as help or comfort oftentimes. We know very little about her, but I don't get the impression that she'd build up resentment over it except maybe her ‘falling into a bad mood’, but exhaustion? Absolutely.

It’s also implied imo, even beyond Chil not often being at home, that they rarely go out together. And that could very well be part of why she was mad after the outing. In Marcille’s theory she says that her wife felt out of place amongst all the cool adventurer coworkers, and if it’s a rare time that they go out together and it was supposed to be about her meeting his coworkers… I feel like what could have happened was that she felt out of place yes, and even moreso if she ended up not participating in conversations much because of it and no one really seemed to care, and the evening was all Chilchuck and his coworkers chatting it up as always and she was an outsider, if she sort of just faded into the background, if it felt like nothing would have changed wether she was there or not... If she felt like her presence didn’t matter on this special outing that rarely happened, it could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for her to want to leave, definitely. He finally comes back after a long work travel and they finally go out and this is what their quality time is like? The outing that was supposed to be about her & them both ended up being all about him, and once more she was supposed to just orbit around him and his life without complaint or her own selfish wants like a devoted wife. With how Chil said that she got mad "all of a sudden" on the way home and he didn’t know why, plus that he was probably drunk (which may very well have made the whole thing worse), I feel like it supports that he didn’t pay her much attention during the evening, not that I’m assigning him ill intent at all, I’m sure that for him, it was a casual and fun night out and he didn’t think it'd been unpleasant or alienating for her.

That night

And all of this speculation in order to try and figure… What happened? Why did she leave? I've already gone into it a fair bit, but this is where I discuss it fully in depth.

We can’t rely on Marcille’s theory. Neither in the why she felt so out of place enough to want to leave, nor if her intention when leaving was to "test" him. I definitely agree that the reason why she left is layered and that the night/outing was the straw that broke the camel’s back more than the cause perse, but besides that it’s hard to say how much of it was impulsive and how much was because nothing else had worked to fix their relationship, or how long she'd been thinking of maybe leaving him.

Personally my favorite interpretation isn't that she found herself to be boring surrounded with Chilchuck's adventurer coworkers, or her reason for leaving is super centered around insecurity and if Chilchuck even loves her anymore, but that she sees how rich and eventful Chilchuck's life is and at the same time realizes how stagnant her own life has been. Chilchuck has adventurers for coworkers and they go out to bars and spend evenings together chatting it up, while she always does the same house chores every day and waits, and wonders, uncertain about when her huband would come back, and waits some more. She has a sort of passive role in her own life that gets pulled in one way or another by the people around her at their whims and needs, which is also a recurring theme in the manga: having a passive role in your own life, or a role that's devoted to others. Like with Falin who's always following her parents' directives or following Laios around, being the party's healer and eventually sacrificing herself for Laios and Marcille (she also doesn't seem to think much of marriage, as seen with Shuro proposing to her and her not having answered yet, which fits with how she was supposed to have an arranged marriage in her hometown too; a loveless marriage isn't something alarming to her). Izutsumi too, whose whole arc is about her gaining freedom and figuring out how to use this empowerment for herself and what she wants.

So she'd sit there, not knowing anyone except Chilchuck and not being able to follow their conversations about dungeons, and think about how this is a world she's totally apart from. How she knows so little of the world compared to him. She'd realize that while she's always waiting for Chilchuck to come home, dedicated to him and their family, Chilchuck's world doesn't stop and end at where and when he sees her, that while she's waiting he's living and experiencing things and being self-fulfilled. She's so passive and devoted and her tasks seem almost senseless now that the house is empty except for her, and in that time he's formed half-foot unions and she understands so little of what his life has become outside of her sight. This isn't a diss on Chilchuck or his attitude, I just think that it'd make her ponder about happiness and lifestyles, what's worth it and if she's content with her life. I think she'd find that her and Chilchuck aren't on the same page anymore, and probably they don't communicate much or even that they don't know how to communicate with each other anymore.

Other factors

They really do seem to be on different pages and not know how to communicate with each other well, since for example Chilchuck thinks that on the way back home she "suddenly" fell into a bad mood and seemingly left it alone, or otherwise they didn't talk until he knew what was wrong. Or like how she left and Chilchuck never reached out to her to talk or mend things, just like she never reached out either. According to Marcille it could be that she wanted to "test his love" and see if he'd even care if she was gone, but Chilchuck just got angry that she left like that and never reached out to her, so if that's true they definitely have incompatible expectations or ways to deal with things like that. Maybe she thought of leaving as something he should react to by trying to win her back, but Chilchuck did nothing and let her do her thing, and tbh if that were me I'd also have waited on her to reach out because I figure out that if someone leaves me they want space from me idk. He seems to be rather passive when it comes to interpersonal relationships and how they can mess up, made an analysis post here that talks about it, so the way he reacted by not reacting doesn't feel surprising, maybe she didn't know/remember that part of him, or wanted to shake him out of that tendency. He has no clue why she left, and there are just so many misunderstandings here that it's impossible to know what happened and how she felt and what she wanted for the future.

Also, we’re shown that younger Chilchuck, when he started dungeon crawling, is much more "innocent" and optimistic, less closed off on himself and bitter, and maybe he hasn't even developed his famous "sarcastic retorts" and "abusive remarks" yet as is plastered on all his character introductions and stats. Chilchuck has definitely changed a lot over the years, and some would argue not for the better. Staying with someone for so long has implications that they'll change and be different of course, but signing up for marriage with someone can still leave you questioning that choice decades down the line when they're so different

We get to see his freckles fade in sync with his corruption arc /j

Tfw when you can’t recognize the man you fell in love with.

The hair question

Edit 1/13/2024 leak!!!! Things aren’t officially confirmed but this is a safe bet. You can still read this section to see my reasoning to thinking she had black hair prior to this tho haha

It's not all that important rationally, but the community's been split on the topic: is Chilchuck's wife blonde or not?

Kui highlights Chilchuck being attracted to blondes a grand total of three times, and many assume that his wife is blonde due to this. However, the only vision we see of Chilchuck's wife is Marcille imagining herself as a halfling, so it's up for debate! Flertom has black hair, and that's mostly been the key clue that has people arguing.

I'm not an expert in genetics but black hair is a dominant gene, but it also doesn't mean a black haired parent can't have a brown haired kid, or that two brown haired parents can't have a kid with black hair. As long as one of the parents have it in their genetic code from somewhere in their family tree, it's possible, if not maybe unlikely.

People have been taking Flertom having black hair as evidence that Chilchuck's wife has black hair, but it could be Chilchuck that has the gene and could pass it on. Although...

That seems unlikely. We don't know what Chilchuck's elder brother's hair color was, and his elder sister does have a darker brown hair color, but in the case their parents had black hair or the gene for it, it seems highly unlikely if not impossible for the dominant black hair gene to miss this many amount of time in the gene russian roulette game.

And so I shall now call a witness to the stand, and you reader shall be the judge… Dandan.

You know, this guy? He makes appearances throughout the whole manga, but only has one spoken line in an easy to brush over flashback iirc. He's most often seen hanging out around Chilchuck and other half-foots, but it's unsure how far back he and Chilchuck go.

Now. Remember how Chilchuck and his wife are childhood friends? What if, and hear me out, what if Dandan is related to her. A cousin, or a sibling. Or maybe he's Chilchuck's cousin, even, if we go the reverse route.

The chapter cover

Look at the chapter cover below! We see each member of the main party at a table that's meaningful to them and their history, mostly showing themes of family, community and routine. Laios and Falin sharing a meal by themselves, Marcille at a meal in the cafeteria at the magic academy, Senshi by himself cooking in the dungeon, Izutsumi with Inutade at the Nakamoto household, and... Chilchuck, surrounded by much more mysterious and unknown characters and surroundings.

The only face we see besides the infant is a young one on the left which strikes me as looking a ton like Chilchuck! I doubt it's Meijack or Puckpatti, or someone else, especially since Chilchuck left his hometown pretty early which must make family gatherings harder (and routine is implied with the others’ panels). If it were Meijack I think Kui would have drawn it to more closely match her too, and have her usual freckles. I also don't think it's just Chilchuck and his own family, since if that's Chilchuck the only sibling with black hair he could have is his elder brother and the infant in the middle is clearly, well an infant.

My thoughts are that the table is shared with family friends, or at least members of the community. The elderly person implies that either there's extended family or it’s a gathering, especially if Chilchuck's grandparents don't live with them. Community is implied to be very important with half-foots imo, and if Chilchuck is from a small hometown like he says that would surprise me even less. Childhood friends are often brought together as friends because of circumstances, such as proximity or their families being friends! Doesn't that kid almost off-panel on the right, with a Flertom-like hairstyle and black hair, look to be the same age as the Chilchuck on the left? 👀

Also… Notice the dragon plush she’s holding?

Passed down from mom to daughter? The "most likely belonged to his daughters" is interesting too

If he is related, Dandan could be the infant. I suppose he doesn't end up mattering all that much in the end if you theorize that the Flertom-like kid is his wife on its own though haha. But wether or not you think that this is convincing enough, it's all we have on the topic for now.

Ah yes! Lastly, I've seen the sentiment around that his wife should be blonde, that Chilchuck's taste for blondes, if not the thing that brought them together, should be an acquired taste from loving his wife. That if that's not the case, then Chilchuck's type being blondes is either out of place or insuting or unromantic, etc etc. I can't help but disagree! I think, especially with how Chilchuck and his wife are domestic and all about knowing each from a young age, familiarity etc etc, that it would be so sweet if she wasn't his type! Loving someone so deeply, even if they aren't an idealized type... Which is a common theme/story & character beat in Dungeon Meshi.

Family dynamic theories

Meijack is the most capable, takes after her father the most, seems to have her own business as a locksmith but has a stable steady life. Flertom is the most social, she works at a tavern which seems stable and is ambitious with marriage plans, she has a caring side to her since she sent her dad a handmade gift. Puckpatti is the most upbeat, though she has the most unstable lifestyle, seemingly doing odd jobs.

His daughters do seem well adjusted, which encourages me in that their family seems amicable on the whole and (at the very least) decently functional. We don’t hear what they think of Chilchuck but presumably none of them are on bad terms with him or each other. Flertom does say that "half-foot men are stingy" which, gee, I wonder what half-foot man would have made taught her that- though it does also seem to be a racial stereotype in general, with how for example Namari also says to "steer clear from stores with half-foot clerks".

Flertom seems to be the only one who reached out after their mother left (the only one who's mentioned to have done so at least), and it's because she was the one who took in her mother. It’s not implied that they exchange letters regularly too iirc, it possibly was the only letter they've exchanged since then. I wonder if the daughters even know the full story, if their mother told them all about it or very little. Maybe some are pretty out of the loop, or more distant.

It strikes me that they don't seem to be very close. We're not shown anything that leads us to believe they don't like their father, but I think they're so used to him being absent for work that such distance is normal for them and they don't really long for a deeper relationship or to see him often. They were already out of the house and it seems like they didn't see each other much at that time either so for them it would be just a bit less than the regular amount of Dad time. It's been 4 years Chilchuck what are you doing... But yeah! From what we see they seem mostly unaffected, almost indifferent, not that we can truly tell. I imagine Flertom is the one most attached to Chilchuck with how she sent him a handmade cowl, and I think he rubbed off the most on Meijack teachings wise (besides her attitude, she’s also the one who still wears braids, and we see that Chilchuck braids hair). It makes sense, since they're oldest, and on the contrary I think Puckpatti is the one that knows her father the least. It'd fit the timeline with him working away more while she grew up imo.

Wouldn't it be interesting then that she's the one that Chilchuck says is carefree, in the official translation "doesn't treat life real seriously"? That she's the most optimistic, the most go-with-the-flow, out of the bunch? To me that sounds like a result from her being the youngest and Chil being the most often at work, thus her getting raised by her mother without as much involvement from Chil. Far be it from me to say Chilchuck would raise his daughters to be unhappy btw, not at all, we just all know what down-to-earth values he wants others to have so he doesn't have to worry about them.

Although… Puckpatti spotted?? Seems like he wants to stop her from buying something? His heart meter for her is full <3 (Note: I’ve seen it be argued that this could be his wife. I disagree, since the "stop them" and way that the long haired one is off-center compared to everyone else gives the sense that it’s many of his daughters, and the fact that it’s styled after a dating sim doesn’t mean it’s romantic love as we see with the others. Otherwise imagine being her wife and he tells you not to buy stuff when you go shopping together rip)

Headcanons time:

When naming the daughters, together they choose a pool of names they’d like but only one has the final say, and they alternate between who that is. Chilchuck sticks around more near the end of her pregnancies, and he hasn’t missed any of their births. I don’t have any opinions on who named who right now, but there could be some interesting stuff to theorize with Puckpatti, like them taking extra care picking the name together because they settled on her being their last daughter for fluff, or it was supposed to be Chilchuck but he was so busy that he ended up not picking in time and she was the one to name her for angst.

Actually scratch that I have a new theory : What if it’s actually customary for each parent to pick one half of their half-foot kid’s name? So then each would have chosen half of each girl’s name… And this could be why Chil calls Puckpatti Patti instead of Puck which is her first name, because he’s stubborn since Patti was his pick lmaoooo. Pattipuck doesn’t have the same ring to it alas, his wife was so right

Chilchuck liked to do activities with the girls when they were young. He's not opposed to relaxing at home with them perse, but he likes to do workshops with stuff like arts & crafts to develop their agility some. I don't think they'd do much outings to places like restaurants or theatres for money reason, and I don't think Chilchuck is much of an outdoors type, but he could accompany them to nice fields to play in, or in winter places to play in snow and sled, and organize some activities at home. He's not home very often so when he is he likes to take it easy as a break from work and values the time he gets with his family.

Chilchuck would sometimes work from home as a locksmith, say, unlocking a chest for a customer. In those times, Meijack would take interest and watch him work, even handing him the tools he needs as he goes. In this way, Chilchuck taught her a lot about the work of a locksmith over time. He's also the one that would oil door hinges or do renovation around the house- when he's available.

Like the plushies under his table in his home that we see in illustrations, Chilchuck has a lot of mementos from his daughter (and his wife) he keeps around. Sometimes they take a bothersome amount of place, but throwing anything out isn't something he's seriously willing to consider. Flertom's the most artistic and she used to help with sewing clothes back together, so he has a cheap ceramic mug painted by her when she was really young and small embroideries around.

Imo Meijack would be the most distant in the present. Flertom makes efforts for her parents and is pretty involved, and Puckpatti's distance is more out of being a bit airheaded and being busy + not having a great grasp on time or what's a normal amount of family contact, but Meijack's the one who knowingly and intentionally keeps some distance. I think she’d be the least optimistic about their family situation, and although she’d be hopeful when Chilchuck reached out to them again she’d be a but hesitant. I think Meijack would hold some grudges, being the one most critical of their parenting, both grateful to her dad for working so hard for them and saddened that he wasn't in their life more. Since Flertom was born in the same year I think it’s possible that Meijack was pushed aside a bit to take care of the younger baby more, out of necessity rather than lack of love. Her mom probably needed a lot of help around the house too. Flertom wasn’t blind either, and she cared about & noticed her mom’s emotional states, but she’s on the whole more hopeful and forgiving.

This is my most far fetched one but it is a hc after all, but I think it'd be interesting if one of them had food hoarding tendencies/stress. I like to think it's Flertom, because she's the middle child and would get told that her older sister and younger sister are "growing and need the food" so she wouldn't be allowed to take as much refill or such, add that to them not having much money to frivolously spend on food and that makes a kid who's worried about not eating to her hunger and tends to be possessive over food (I'm projecting). Differential treatment is inevitable in families with many siblings, and it can manifest in small or big ways, maybe they realize it maybe they don't. Working in a tavern has helped eased that tendency of her though, and while she does diet a bit she always leaves a meal feeling satisfied.

When they were younger, Flertom was a real firecracker, loud and spirited with some troublemaking tendencies! She was the daughter that got in trouble & got scolded the most. You can still see slivers of it now that she’s an adult, but she’s much more poised and diligent. She has much more acquaintances than friends, but she has a couple of best friends and usually gets along well with most people. Puckpatti was always a bit head in the cloud, very kind if not gullible, and tended to make friends somewhat easily but didn’t keep them for long, preferring to keep meeting new people and not keeping in touch well. She isn’t super talkative but tends to ramble when she does. Meijack is very introverted, she has more trouble making friends, she has a good handful though they don’t meet up often, her friendships tend to last and she’s close to them. She’s grown more confident over the years, less repressed and more quiet. Meijack as the big sister tended to be the listener for her younger sisters who had more social mishaps. Flertom has dated once before and it only cemented to her that she was going to have very high standards from then on.

Meijack wears thigh-high boots because she hates when sand, dirt or snow gets in her shoes. She wears practical clothing but avoids anything frilly or flashy. Puckpatti also dresses practically, but she does enjoy pretty clothes, it’s more out of necessity and due to not having enough money to indulge. Flertom has a social stable job and she loves prettying herself up (especially as she’s in search of a husband) so she’s the one who gets the most and nicest fashionable clothes and accessories.

Chilchuck is hinted to have had a rather dysfunctional family himself (alcoholic father, distant siblings, etc). So he doesn’t really have the best model on how to raise someone and such. I imagine it was a sort of neglectful home situation, where the kids are encouraged to be independent. If they didn’t have to work or help around much, then free range parenting sort of thing. We do see how the family has full and warm feasts, where someone cleans his mouth with a rag, so it’s not like he didn’t have a caring circle or a tragic childhood though! I don’t remember if it’s explicitely stated, but he’s heavily implied to having grown up poor, as most half-foots, and I just think it's the hardened hardworking family type of childhood where just like he does with others they instill somewhat harsh life lessons in him, which in turn encourages him to indulge in the simple pleasures of life like alcohol and sex, or at least women’s beauty and crass jokes. We do see he seems more optimistic when he's younger in flashbacks, so a bunch of his harsh view on the world is still likely learned and earned rather than taught. I still think he inherited many flawed views from how his father acted, like his attitude about excessive drinking not being a big deal and worth it. That work hard play hard, enjoy life die young mentality he has, shown mostly in the "alcohol" section of his Adventurer's Bible profile, could very well be partly a result of the general poverty half-foot communities are that he grew in as well, like how he doesn't hope for things to be as best as they could be and contends with good enough. As far as I remember, his mother is never mentioned, but I doubt it implies she was out of the picture. She was probably a regular sort of mother that took care of the home as well and was still around when his father died. It looks like there’s a good age gap between one sibling to the next, that could be interesting to dig into too.

A part of Chilchuck’s character is that he takes responsibility for safety and actions of people around him and is very often looking out for them to not do faux-pas wether socially or literally with stepping onto traps. The way he says "I’ve got three people to think of here" makes me think that’s also how he’d think about having to provide for his family, and that could be a source of stress and insecurity for him. Caring for others is a pretty integral part of his character and we see time and time again that his family is very important to him, in any case.

Post-canon

This pic has so much to say!! It’s the ‘thank you for reading’ double page spread where they’re going to a big dining table at the castle with Laios and the main gang. First family gathering in 4 years perhaps?! I’ll say, not feeling very hopeful that his wife isn’t in this, not even implied to be just off-panel with a hand or anything… I imagine before this he still talked to them at least a bit and figured their family situation out, but I think this is still in the early stages of reconnecting. Haha imagine being one of them and receiving a letter saying "Hi it’s been a while… I want to introduce you to my ex-coworker the king and his friends, you up for that?" I don’t want to reconsider all my hcs for this yet, but this pic does seemingly show an eagerness from all the daughters to reunite and reconnect! Meijack’s could be seen as more hesitant, but I think it’s just awkwardness from meeting so many new people, of high status no less. Chilchuck does seem awkward and somewhat self-conscious though, and while that could be just from say Marcille and the others meeting his daughters and him not knowing how to act, I think that also shows that Chilchuck is unsure how to act around his daughters too. Can’t blame him, I’d be stressed too. Anyways, the daughters are all dressed up! Puckpatti even brought flowers! And I doubt it’s just for Senshi, or just to be in with the king. Oh also also, Puckpatti chides Meijack here, seemingly on manners?, so that implies new/different family dynamics there~

We know with the succubus chapter that he does plan on reaching out to his wife again and shooting his shot, and when Marcille was dungeon lord he told her she could help think of a plan to make up with her together at which point Marcille showered him in gifts and flowers intended for her and his daughters. So we do know that whatever happens and however it happens, Chilchuck definitely will at least reach out to her to win her back or worse case scenario get closure on the situation.

-

These are his plans before it’s revealed that the Island is… Well, not an island but the golden kingdom, so the news that Laios is king and that might have changed them a bit, but I think he’s still gonna stick around to help with the half-foot guild for a while.

My personal ideal post-canon Chilchuck life is that after around a year or two of helping around in the golden kingdom, especially regarding half-foot working rights, he gets his shop and finally settles down. He prioritized the whole half-foot guild because there are changes to attend to and people to help, but also used that to procrastinate a bit on getting in touch with his wife again. He does send a letter though, and when she replies they then meet face to face. They explain how it was like on their end, their grievances and their feelings, and they do reconcile. But… It’s been 4 years and his wife has frankly moved on. She’d rather they stay as friends, and Chilchuck has mixed feelings on it but is ultimately fine with it. He was halfway resigned to not reconciling with his wife in canon after all. But no longer do they have cut contact! They get together with the girls for the holidays and the ambiance is nice! He starts exchanging letters more regularly. He also gets a second family of clingy asses with Izutsumi and the main gang and so though he lives alone in his shop he’s well surrounded and well loved, and his daughters visit to check up on him every so often.

I really like the… Maturity of Chilchuck’s plotline, if that makes sense? To me the ending that fits the most is him and his wife reconciling, but not getting back together. I like that they could still be adults about it and at least amicable even after divorce, and that that wouldn’t be treated as a tragic ending. In the end, they were childhood friends and teenage parents, they rushed things a bit and I genuinely think they’re just not that compatible. If not then, at least having it be a gradual process, getting back together and making it work until they’re truly comforatble with each other. Destroy the relationship to better build it again stronger!

Although, his arc in the manga is to allow himself to form connections and be optimistic, which would fit well with him and his wife getting back together. I def think Chil would get healthier post-canon which could fix the issues they had in their relationship though. Like for one he starts eating more, which improves mood & irritability & health, and also after the whole half-foot guild he plans to settle down with a shop so it wouldn’t be long distance or unstable anymore which would definitely give his wife some peace of mind. If they still do some long distance at first while he gets the half-foot guild stable, it’d be really cute if he sent pressed flowers with his letters to her… That could make a nice fic concept, like over time all the pressed flowers and exchanged letters hehe (oh shit that’s a nice title)

My post-canon timeline is Chilchuck lives a nice life living alone in his house except his friends all visit him and care and even tho he likes living alone it’s also bittersweet and every corner of his life is haunted by mementos of the ones he loves and the moments he had with them. But then it’s also like the shared duty of everyone to pass by his shop when they can and keep the old man company and sometimes that means many people come at the same time like if both Meijack and Marcille came the same day~ Cozy life, no regrets except a lil regrets still. That’s it that’s all I want.

Misc

I didn’t know where to put this, so new category time! Family truly is a central theme of Chilchuck’s character. His reaction to learning more about how life gets made is so awed by the wonder of the world. Life indeed…

The implication of this page is that Chil didn’t know about the science side of how procreation works, though of course he did know about the practical side of it. This is speculation, and we have no clue how widespread the information of how reproduction scientifically works lol, but I think it’s fair to think that half-foots’ education especially in smaller communities is handled by the parent, school of life style, or if there are schools then the education is very general and it probably ends early. I think this is supported by how for example half-foots’ jobs we’ve seen are based on experience rather than knowledge, like being a locksmith. Of course any job has its fair share of specialized knowledge to learn, but jobs you learn on the fly pretty well. This sort of dynamic contrasts a lot against elves many tallmen communities, like with the magic academy, where education and knowledge are valued almost above experience, this is what the mandrake chapter was all about after all. Poorer communities tend to have poorer education systems as well irl, it’s a whole issue.

So I already said my piece about his wife not being blonde and it being nice and romantic because literally you don’t need someone to be a beauty ideal to love them and that’s fine and normal and even more romantic imo. But!! I do have an headcanon, now that his wife’s appearance is all but explicitly confirmed. While their hair is blonde, yes their hair is wavy and the ‘main’ one has deep-set eyes, not unlike his wife! Now this is a ‘which came first the egg or the chicken’ question, but while most people seem to be assuming that he got with his wife because she was his type, since they’re childhood friends I feel like it’s his love for his wife that shaped his preferences in that deparment. Like ok he loves golden hair and hers is black, but isn’t it so much more romantic that he has so much love and devotion for his wife and has stared lovingly at it so much over the years, that it’d become his ideal? He loves her eyes <3

Conclusion

Reminder that I’ve got more stuff in a reblog addition now. What I've got left to add at some point:

Compile more info on Chilchuck's father and his other family

Reread the manga and catch details like exchanged letters & his work schedule. Reword some things to repeat myself less maybe

A buddy is planning to make a name analysis post for everyone, and I might have more to say especially about the daughters once I know what possible meaning their names have

Other stuff I may be forgetting about

And thus I leave you with a lil web weaving I made about Chil & his wife’s relationship~ And this is where I’d put panels of Chilchuck’s wife… IF THERE WERE ANY

Should we call Chilchuck's wife Mrs. Tims... We don't know dunmeshi marrital traditions though, and half-foot already have somewhat complex naming conventions... I hate that we don't really know if the daughters' last names are Chils or Chilz. Oh yeah the last names change each generation, that’s odd right? But in english it sounds like saying Chil’s, like, [father]’s, so I think this also supports how half-foots communities tend to be tightly knit and live in the present, for them to be like "Ooh so you’re [father]’s little one eh? I know who that is and this is insightful as to who your family is to me!". Iceland’s a place where last names are like this, though I don’t know about pros and cons of it in that context

Ah and I have a bittersweet spotify playlist about her and Chil too, here if ya want. That’s it the post is over

[angelpuns]

Kid Leo Au: Family Arc

Finally starting the new arc!! This one took a while cause I didn't really like the first page - it's a lot slower than the last few arcs, but it picks up near the mid point! This arc is a bit medium? Like it's kinda short but has some other stuff going on.

Anyway, enjoy!! I have only finished the first page, but I'll be working on it for the next few days and I should be able to regularly update!!

Kid Leo au Masterpost | Next

[mauesartetc]

FREE PALESTINE MASTERPOST

Trying to keep this blog more art- and creativity-focused in general, so I'll be removing the Gaza-related reblogs that are about a month old. But I'll use this post as a permanent archive that will update periodically (some of this information will grow dated as the situation develops, but I think it's important to keep a record of just how fiercely opposed people were to Israel's actions from this moment forward). We should all continue to raise our voices about this, and refuse to support politicians who enable genocide. Remember, they work for us, not the other way around. Keep going.

October 2023

-Donation links

-Social media links

-US congress ceasefire script

-Decolonizepalestine.com (information, mythbusting)

-More donation links

-Ways to pressure politicians for a ceasefire

-HUGE resource list

-"Is there anything I can do to help Palestinians besides call my representatives and beg them to stop killing people?"

-"We are isolated now"

-Palestine and landback

-210 PAGES of dead people's names.

-Bail money for Palestine Action

-Article list

-US action items

-Boycott info

-Grand Central Station shut down by protestors

-Message to white American citizens

-UK ceasefire petition

-How YOU can help Palestine (regularly updated!)

-"Please try amidst all this fury and grief to still have faith in the common people." (+donation links)

-Reminder about protest etiquette and privacy

-Prints for Palestine

-"We have no communication with the outside world. They are using their military might to harm us. We have no power but the power of God, no one but God. Please, pray for us." (spoken over mosque speakers)

-DAILY donate button + more donation links

-"Doesn't Israel have a right to exist too?"

-Script for US Congress calls

-Queerness under apartheid

-Sudan is also at war

-Hundreds of thousands of protestors in London

-Half a million.

-Tips for folks with phone anxiety

-This comic got real

-European and Canadian ceasefire scripts

-"The people of Gaza see the protests. That is reason enough to come even if nothing else." WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOU. WE ARE HERE.

November 2023

-More genocides than just Palestine

-How to buy e-sims to circumvent Gaza's internet blackout

-"Occupying territories is illegal. Resistance to occupying forces is legal."

-MASSIVE resource list

-"For decades now the media has told us Muslim men are savages, terrorists, wife beaters and everything in between. I want you to challenge this trope the next time you see it in the media. Let these photos serve as a reminder."

-"Don't stop talking about the Palestinian genocide. IT'S WORKING."

-UN resignation letter

-Israel won't allow Irish or Brazilian citizens to leave Gaza

-"Palestine must never be forgotten. Promise me that." (from the documentary "Children of Shatila")

-Gifs of pro-Palestine rallies around the world

-Support Palestine's last kufiya factory

-Protestors flood the streets in Washington DC

-Explanation of why calling representatives is a numbers game

-FREE ebooks on the history of this conflict

-Petition to screen films by Palestinian directors

-Call to boycott Gal Godot's work

-Indigenous activists block weapons shipment to Israel

-If you're attending a protest, DON'T TELL YOUR GOVERNMENT SHIT. Y'know, friendly advice.

-Links to support Palestine Action and Palestine Legal. Get in the way.

-Parallels between Israel and the surveillance tactics used by NYC mayor Eric Adams

-Don't spiral into doomerism. Persevere.

-Want a different strategy to contact your representatives? Try faxing them!

-Florida rep Michelle Salzman calls for the death of all Palestinians

-"The phone doesn't stop" :)

-Indian trade unions call on the government to scrap deals with Israel

-An overview of Israel's human rights violations, and two major political groups that have exacerbated Zionism in the US

-Israeli man explains why he's protesting

-"Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us."

-US House of Representatives votes to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel

-Canadian email campaign and petitions

-"Canada's First Nation standing with Palestine"

-"Freedom is infectious as it is just and no one is free until they ALL are."

-Israeli forces invade al-Shia hospital

-Leaked list of weapons the US has sent to Israel

-Only 32% of Americans believe the US should support Israel

-Cop City action demonstrates how to protest effectively

-Refugee grandmother "doesn't have to imagine a multicultural and integrated Palestine- she remembers it".

-Protestors block the Bay Bridge in San Francisco (plus bail fund)

-Israeli forces attack schools in northern Gaza. SCHOOLS.

-Journalist shares an update from an Indonesian hospital and pleads for others to spread it around as it "may be the last video we are able to send"

-Scottish Parliament votes overwhelmingly to demand a ceasefire

-Sobering texts from a friend providing humanitarian aid in Gaza. "They have been distributing guns to the civilian settlers and allowing them into the West Bank to terrorize people" "We have been given option to leave. None took it"

-"the absolute bare minimum in this situation is 1) a complete ceasefire and immediate humanitarian aid in Gaza, 2) complete halt of all military foreign aid to the Israeli government, 3) the Israeli government being prosecuted for its war crimes in the International Criminal Court, and 4) land back and reparations for the Palestinian people. free Palestine means free Palestine, not just temporarily stop carpet bombing Palestine."

-"It's important that you keep posting and speaking about the ongoing genocide. This 5 day agreement isn't the end of things."

-Boosting the incredible, FREE daily donate button again

-Protests at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

-"REMINDER THAT ANTISEMITES AREN'T WELCOME HERE AND WON'T BE TOLERATED"

[pickleking8]

12 - Adoption Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be - Chapter Twelve

Words: 412 (very short chapter today, sorry)

Ao3 Link

Previous - Masterpost

I don't think there's any content warnings for this chapter, but let me know if I missed something.

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Danny was getting close, so very, very close. He sat on his bed. No, the bed. It wasn’t his bed, no matter how many nights he had slept in it, it was Jason’s, and he wasn’t Jason. He wasn’t. No, he was Danny. He liked stars and space, not “Pride and Prejudice", and loved his sister, Jazz, not these lunatics of siblings. His favorite color was yellow, not red (never green). 

That’s who he was. 

…right?

Right.

He squeezed his eyes shut, spots dancing in front of them as he cleared the thoughts. 

He’s not focusing on that. He’s focusing on the buzzing, the humming. He can feel it under his skin, writhing and squirming like worms. He squints, staring at a wayward ant resolutely marching across the carpet. Ants are brave, he thinks. So small, so fragile, but tenacious all the same. 

Focus. Come on, Danny. He’s focusing right now. On what?

…

…

His pinky. He’s focusing on his pinky, he knows this. 

He feels weird. Lethargic. It’s been too long.

It’s been too long, he’s lethargic.

The buzzing builds. Danny squints. An acorn plinks on the windowsill. It’s funny, he thinks, how acorns have little hats.

FOCUS. His pinky. His right pinky. 

He remembers this, this buzzing. When he first got his powers. Like his mind was swimming through molasses. Too much, too much, too much. Just too much. He was expanding, him, his awareness, his everything, and it was too much. He couldn’t keep up. He couldn’t-

He couldn’t keep up. 

Focus. He tastes watermelon. Sweet, a little mushy (overripe, maybe), juice dribbling down his chin. Why does he taste watermelon?

Ah. He remembers. The picnic, when he was seven. It doesn’t seem so long ago, now. Perhaps it’s still happening. Perhaps it’s always happening. Maybe, he’s still eating the watermelon. That’d be nice, he thinks. He was happy then. 

Happy. It was a good picnic, except for the flies. They buzzed. Buzz, buzz, buzz. It was loud, the buzzing, almost like static, like his brain was a broken TV. Buzz. It made him feel like he would vibrate out of his skin, like there were worms underneath. Writhing. Squirming. 

He hears buzzing.

FOCUS. The buzzing. The worms. The pinky. The power. 

There! His pinky. Invisible. He pushes it, slowly, through the blanket. Intangible. Good. He smiles. It’s bitter. Empty. 

It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter.

He’s close. He’s so very, very, close. 

…

The buzzing doesn’t stop.

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Taglist: @tkiesai, @simplestoryteller

Hey! At this point I'm going to stop saying that I'm excited to get back into writing regularly and accept that my update schedule is usually about once every two months. But who knows. Perhaps the inspiration will strike. Anyway, I know this chapter is pretty short, but I felt that kind of fit it, so here we are. This isn't how I envisioned this chapter going but eh. Here. Have this. Thanks for reading!

[entomolog-t]

How many characters do you have?

ACK! Too many. I think this is a nice opportunity to show off some wips/art of my mains 💕

Currently I have 4 ongoing stories (Which you can find here on my Masterpost)

Bite Me has Aedes and June

The Shadow We Cast has Mark, Sal and Betty (with another character to be introduced very shortly)

Finding Strength has Rose and Tamius

INSTAЯ has Dawn, Honey, Bram and Clyde

These guys are still going through designing, but I should get a design settled soon!!

----

I am still on a bit of a posting hiatus until I make a big enough buffer to post regularly, but on my return I'm planning to post one chapter of each story, followed by weekly Bite Me updates, and monthly updates for The Shadow We Cast. The other two will have sporadic updates until I either finish Bite Me/TSWC or create a big enough buffer for either of them to put on a posting schedule.

[panelshowsource]

hello everyone and happy christmas day! 🎄 i hope wherever you are, whatever you are or are not celebrating, whoever you're with, you're having a joyful season~

after a lil pandemic hiatus, i've been back and blogging regularly — updating my google drive to share, posting gifs, answering funny and silly and engaging asks — for the last six months, and it's been quite fun 🥹 i still think i'm a little too sensitive for the internet and i don't know why i don't seem to get any better at making gifs and i know i post too much of the same stuff and i want the blog to be better — but, regardless, it's been a nice space to come to every day. we watch these dumb shows because they distract from the harder days for 45 minutes at a time and remind us there always reasons to smile, so thank you for coping alongside me. and for all the kindness! really. i got so many holiday messages and they were too sweet...💝 ≧◡≦

if you need something to watch, i posted a recap of some of the christmas specials this month and they should all be updated on the masterposts. hope you enjoy them!

i'm with my family for the season and between apartments after a big move and full of mashed potatoes and exhausted by it all, but i will be back posting regularly in the new year: big taskmaster sets, friendship sets, peep show/ttoi/blackadder/fawlty rewatches, polls, ugh i have so many wips and fun ideas...

in the meantime, thank you again and happy holidays 🤍

sarah

[thatwasthenightthingschanged]

MASTERPOST: eras tour presale (German dates)

since there’s already so much information floating around & we’ll probably get new info regularly, I’ve decided to create this post which collects all information available for the presale for Taylor’s German dates (Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg & Munich). I will pin this post to my blog and update it regularly! also, if you find information that is not on this list yet, please send it to me so I can update this post!

INFORMATION FOR ALL PRESALES OF THE GERMANY SHOWS

FYI: When in doubt, check out the FAQ page of eventim for the Germany shows!

+ I don’t know enough about the other European shows to be able to give you 100% right answers (keep that in mind if you send me an ask about those shows 😊)

UPDATED: July 11th, 7pm CET (latest two updates are marked through cursive font)

REGISTRATION for the pre-sale is only possible until June 23rd at 10am Central European Time (CET) (note: the website also names 23:59 as the time when registration ends. I don’t know which time is the right one, so I’d advise you to register before 10am). To register, click here or follow the link on Taylor’s homepage. Important information regarding registration:

Make sure to register with the same email address you use for your eventim account. They‘ve stated that they will check all e-mail addresses to make sure bots don’t get access, and they do so through checking if the email address refers to a valid eventim account. If you haven’t gotten an account under the email address yet, you should be safe as long as you create an account for it until registration ends (Friday, June 23rd).

Registration does NOT guarantee you will receive a code. They will randomize who will get a code, and the rest of the people who signed up will be put on a wait list.

it does NOT matter when you’ve registered, as long as it is before the deadline ends. like I’ve said, it’s randomized.

you should receive an email from eventim. in it, you have to confirm your registration. however, it might take a while for you to receive the email (e.g. on the first day of registration some people had to wait quite a while to receive the email, as the servers were overloaded).

YOU HAVE TO REGISTER FOR PRESALE TO BE ABLE TO BUY TICKETS! one of the venues tweeted that you’ll only get to buy tickets if you’re registered for pre-sale (x). (don’t know if that means there won’t be a general sale for now)

you have to register separately for each show you want to have access to. If you for example aim for Hamburg and Gelsenkirchen, you cannot make a joint registration for them. click on “register now!” for the dates you’re interested in (see screenshot below)

you cannot register for the additional shows that were announced for Germany. The registration you’ve done before suffices. Via the company organising it: The code you’ll get for a city is valid for all the shows in one city. aka: you can pick the date you want to get tickets for, for example if you’ve gotten a code for Munich you can choose between the two dates.

eventim said that whether ticketholders of Lover Fest Berlin tickets will get a separate presale is up to the concert company organizing the concert, therefore they don’t have any information on it. I personally don’t think there will be a presale for Lover Fest Berlin ticket holders.

The PRESALE for the German shows will take place on July 12th. Important information regarding the presale:

please note that the presale for some of the European shows takes place on July 11th or other dates. however, July 12th applies to all shows in Germany.

The times when the presale starts are now different! The Gelsenkirchen presale starts at 9am, the Hamburg presale at 11am and the presale for the Munich shows at 1pm CET.

If you were chosen (per the email on July 5th), you will receive your code via email until July 11th, 5pm CET at the latest.

click on the link in this email for access.

it is very likely you’ll be sent to the waiting room. eventim says this about the waiting room: When completing your ticket purchase, stay within one browser window. Opening multiple windows or tabs to purchase tickets may result in errors.

tickets are limited to four per customer per unique code. this means: if you receive a code for, for example, Hamburg, you can pick a date and purchase up to four tickets for that date. If you purchase four tickets for that one date, you cannot use that code anymore. If you, however, only purchase two tickets, you can purchase two tickets for the second show as well with that code (see eventim’s reply).

UPDATE: please note that each code only refers to a specific venue. once you’ve gotten through the queue on presale day, you can only buy tickets for that one venue, but you can choose which date you’d like to try for. If you receive codes for several venues, you have to finish purchasing your first order before you get purchase tickets for another venue.

TICKET CODES CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT BE SHARED OR TRANSFERRED. you might not be able to buy tickets if you do so. (imo transferring does work if you’ve got the other person’s account info, as the code is specific to the eventim account tied to it)

tickets will be sold until inventory lasts.

per eventim’s faq page you can only deposit your payment info into your account if you buy tickets from the website. Otherwise it is NOT possible to save your payment info in your account before the sale. But! This should not matter since, after you have added a ticket to your basket, that ticket will be reserved for you for approx. 15 minutes, so plenty of time to put in your payment info! But you should still make sure to check if your credit card has a spending limit!

UPDATE: Tickets will be personalized for the person from whose account the tickets are bought. the people accompanying them do not have to be noted when buying. The buyer of the tickets has to attend the concert! If for some reason the buyer cannot go, you can transfer the tickets to someone else, but it’s a rather lengthy process. an example for how to transfer personalized tickets for a different artist can be found on eventim’s faq page under 3.

UPDATE: USEFUL INFORMATION FOR BEFORE THE PRESALE

make sure you have your password and payment method ready!

clear your cache & cookies!

you CAN and SHOULD already click the link in your presale code email before presale starts. the link sends you to the general presale page. Pick the date of the show you want to attend & click on the grey button to at the right (I’ve added a screenshot below but it’s for the Vienna shows for which the presale was already today, so the button is blue. The button tomorrow will be gray before presale). NOTE: dates may appear twice, as you can see below. the date at the top is always for regular tickets, the one below for vip tickets:

after you have clicked the button, you will be send to a page which will say sth along the lines of “presale hasn’t started yet”

They’ll open a waiting room 30 minutes before presale starts. This waiting room will refresh & send u to the queue automatically once the clock hits the time of the presale. I don’t know whether it influences your position in the queue but I would recommend going into it anyway.

you will be send to the queue once presale starts. DO NO OPEN ANY OTHER TABS OR BROWSERS ANYMORE ONCE YOU’RE IN THE QUEUE! if you do, you’ll lose your spot in the queue.

If you’re WAITLISTED:

per eventim’s faq page, this means that you’re waitlisted until more, if any, tickets become available for your chosen city.

if that is the case, you will be notified via email with the relevant information & timing details.

your notification may come at ANY TIME after July 12, 2023.

eventim & all the venues recommend signing up to the Taylor Nation newsletter in case new presales happen/more shows are added

PRICES & SEATING: 

eventim tweeted that they don’t know the prices for tickets until pre-sale begins (it was the same with the Lover Fest Berlin show). so I’d recommend setting yourself a budget (x)

UPDATE: eventim finally released the seating maps for all of the shows! here’s the one for Gelsenkirchen:

this is the map for Hamburg:

and this is the map for Munich:

UPDATE: for Vienna, you could not pick your seat but only the price category of your ticket. eventim tweeted they can’t tell whether that will be the case tomorrow. So, once again, set yourself a budget!

INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO THE GELSENKIRCHEN SHOW (VELTINS-ARENA)

Link to the venue’s site for Taylor’s concert

the stadium will sell hospitality tickets - those will go on sale on July 12th, 10am, too (you’ll be able to buy them under this link)

below, you’ll find the general seating chart for the stadium. They will close the roof of the stadium in case of rain, so - in contrast to Munich - you’ll be sheltered from it anywhere.

General Advice

the venue is cashless - alternatively you can buy a card from them onto which you can load money via cash or use the “schalke 04″ app to preload money on a digital card. this is relevant for buying merch! the physical card might also have a special design for Taylor’s show. (thank you @youlooklikeasixtiesqueen​ for the info! for more information, you can read her full asks he/re)

INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO THE HAMBURG SHOW (VOLKSPARKSTADION)

below, you’ll find the general seating chart for the stadium. All seats in the bowl are covered by a roof, the floor isn’t.

INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO THE MUNICH SHOW (OLYMPIASTADION)

(I’ve actually been to a concert in this venue before, so if you need info re: where to sit & what the venue is like, send me an ask!)

Link to the venue’s site for Taylor’s concert

General Advice

the Olympiastadion has a roof (in case it rains). but! only sections E2 until V1 one are fully under it, with sections F1 to G2 and U2 to S2 being partially roofed (see general seating chart below). I had tickets for section U2 at my concert and I would actually recommend not going further than this if you really want to be covered by the roof.

if you’re looking for cheap tickets: there should be standing tickets available for the bowl (besides the regularly seated tickets) and those should be the cheapest ones. I can highly recommend them! I had standing tickets for section U2. This section is tiered and has sectioned off rows. Each row consists of two stone steps on which you can sit down. So, imo, it’s essentially like having seats but paying much less money. And you have a great view from them! You also don’t have to worry about when you arrive - they fill these rows up from the back, so technically if you arrive shortly before the show begins, you should be at the front of the section.

[carionto]

Carionto-verse Timeline Masterpost

The regularly updated timeline of all major events within this silly Humans Are Space Orcs verse I'm cobbling together. Shouldn't be too different from my archive as I do not like time travel, will not retcon anything, and everything is canon.

_______________________

2070 - First Contact 2071 - The Galactic Coalition erects the "Responsibility Barrier" around Earth 2131 - Earth "vanishes" 3130 - Earth reappears and Humans have a fuckyuge fleet, god-tier production capacity, but are good sports and join up the Coalition immediately as an equal to the longest-standing members, and begin cooperation and integration efforts. [We'll do it Our Way] and nobody can figure out [What did they even do?].

2132 - 3129 - From the Human perspective, it was chaos and they were [Alone with themselves]. - "Vanishing" is a transition and turns out [There's Something In-between] and that something is just waiting for [An Idle Mind to invite It in] , and, oh boy, It is not happy about that [Faint Light] caused by the transition process. - Advances happened, a reactor blew up and now Humanity [Can No Longer Wait] for things to get better on their own. [Humans are trying] to keep Earth from crumbling, but destruction is always simpler than mending. - Oh yeah, [Cthulu lives down there] btw.

3131 Q3 - Somebody finally managed [to notice something strange like that]. And uh... [PANIC] (but secretly)

3131 Q1 - There's this certain Captain Knoslark who is really eager to show how Humans [Ignite] their engines, demonstrate how [awesome warp gate tech is gonna be one day] (with some [added accidental possible uses]).

3131 Q2 - He's also moving the warp gate project to a [new level], but is learning that [large undertakings are a bit slower] on the progress side. His subordinates are no slouches and are [considering opportunities] when they arise. While he's passionate for sure, it doesn't translate to every aspect of his job and [sometimes you make a typo] and destroy the wrong moon, who hasn't?

Okay, me from the top of this post is a liar, this is becoming a mess and that's okay I think (currently). Honestly the best way is to read them from the archive in the order they were posted.

[best-childhood-book]

Welcome to the Bracket of Childhood Books!

Hello! Welcome to the Best Childhood Book bracket, reminiscent of many going around on Tumblr right now, that will decide what this userbase thinks is the best childhood book.

Since we need some clarification, the definition of childhood book in this competition is as follows: a book people read in childhood that must be for a YA age group or younger and has chapters. I developed this definition to keep it as open as possible while making sure picture and adult books were excluded. There are a lot of books that skirt the line between middle grade and young adult, so I figured it best to play it safe and include all YA books, especially for those of us who read at a much higher level. There is a difference between “children’s” book and “childhood” book. ANY book that met those requirements could be submitted, as I am striving to keep my personal opinion out of this competition for the most part. This definition will not change for the foreseeable future.

This masterpost will be updated with links to all the polls regularly, and each poll will last 7 days. If you vote, reblog if you can so more people can vote, and feel free to campaign for your personal favorite if you want!

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD BOOKS (320/320)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD WORLDS (192/192)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR FANTASY BOOKS (320/320)

Please submit with the name of the book and the author. Check the lists to see if anything has been submitted before trying yourself. If a book is part of a series, it will be listed under the series name (i.e. The Lightning Thief > Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Golden Compass > His Dark Materials). You can find the current list of childhood books here. A world will be listed with its series, and you can find the current list of worlds here. You can find the current list of fantasy books here.

Poll links and rules under the cut

Help decide parameters for submissions with some fringe cases: recently published YA, adult books lots of children/teens read, retelling worlds

First Competition (here)

Second Competition (here)

Third Competition (here)

Fourth Competition (here)

BCW First Competition (here)

Rules/Guidelines

Submissions for Childhood Books

Must be a middle grade or young adult book

Must have chapters

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Submissions for Childhood Worlds

Must be the setting of a middle grade or young adult book.

Must be either a whole other world (i.e. Narnia, Panem), a setting largely separate from our own world (i.e. Hogwarts, Camp Half-Blood), or a specific setting within our own world that is invented for the purpose of that book (i.e. 221B Baker Street, Ferryport Landing)

Main characters have to have visited this place

Cannot be somewhere that already exists in our world outside that book

Submissions for Fantasy Books

Must be listed as 'fantasy' or some fantasy subgenre within the first three genres on Goodreads or Storygraph

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Must have chapters but can otherwise be for any age range

Polls

Be respectful (no hate, no harassment, I will block you)

I'm totally okay with spam reblogs; if you want to subject your followers to seventeen copies of a poll, you do you

If you're trying to get my attention about something, @ me or submit an ask, there's no guarantee I'll see all the reblogs

Propaganda

Submit it to me as an ask; I won't be reblogging personal posts or reblogs of the polls

Promote the book you're supporting; it's okay to poke fun at the other books, but please don't attack them or the authors

Only ONE (1) propaganda post per user per book. I really don't want to clog people's dashes with sixty posts about voting for a single book

Asks

Be respectful, not just to me but to all the people who will end up seeing that ask when I post it

If you're asking about a poll or a rule or anything else, please check and see if it's in this post or elsewhere

Try to keep things focused on the competition/books

Competition Hall of Fame

First Competition: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Second Competition: Animorphs by K. A. Applegate

Third Competition: Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Fourth Competition: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

[misc-obeyme]

THE THREADS THAT BIND

CHAPTER FIVE

MASTERPOST for summary/info/chapter list

a/n: I apologize for how long it took me to post this chapter. I spent all day thinking yesterday was Thursday instead of Wednesday and not realizing it until today. And then I got distracted by the new lesson. But here it finally is! Back to the regularly scheduled Sunday update for the next chapter.

We have a bit of a time skip and then we get a little scene from Barbatos's point of view.

GN!MC x Barbatos | word count: 1,217

Warnings: none

The days passed at the Demon Lord's Castle, as you fell into a regular routine with Barbatos. You never again tried to go too far from him, always staying close to prevent further painful episodes.

The days with Barbatos were pleasant. His steady presence reassured you through every moment. When you weren't at RAD, you spent your time helping him with his butler duties, though he didn't usually let you do much. You often found yourself in the garden having tea with him and Diavolo. You did have to go to the House of Lamentation regularly - not just for more things, but to reassure the demon brothers that you were doing okay.

Every night, you had odd dreams. They always started with the teal streams of magic in the night sky, but they transformed into something different every time. You didn't know if Barbatos was aware of what you were experiencing. He never said anything and you didn't want to tell him. He was dealing with enough and already worried about you. You didn't feel the need to add to that burden by telling him about the dreams.

Most of the dreams you had seemed insignificant. There were even a couple that were dreams about things you remembered happening. You were in some of your own dreams.

But none of them stayed with you the way the first one had. Not just the odd oozing darkness that had swallowed both of you, but the one just before it, too. Barbatos and Solomon in a field of flowers… someone coming to meet them from far off… my love.

Who had that been? How far into the future was that moment? Why had that first dream been the only one that showed Barbatos's memories of having visions of the future? The rest were also memories, but of things that had already happened with no future visions.

You tried not to think about these things as you spent your evenings reading through books in an attempt to find the counter curse. Solomon had known what it was, but there didn't seem to be a lot of information about binding thread curses. And whenever you asked him about it, Solomon only said he was still looking.

You were enjoying your time with Barbatos, but you also felt like the curse was a burden. The sooner it was broken, the better for everyone.

-

Barbatos was fully aware of what you were going through. He knew that when you slept, you were seeing some of the visions that existed in his memory. They were memories of things he'd seen as he traveled through the time streams. He knew that you had mostly seen things from the past. He knew you had seen things from the future, if only because you had seen his own memory of it.

Barbatos could feel the traces of you in those spots in his memory. He could feel the slight vibration of the thread magic running through those time streams. He had not ventured into those places to see what you had seen, so he couldn't know exactly which memories you'd touched.

He was not pleased about any of these circumstances. It was one thing to have you bound to him in a way that caused you pain should you leave his side, but it was something else to have you wandering around inside his mind. Stumbling through his memories of different times as the threads pulled you this way and that.

Barbatos had decided it was better if he acted as though he had no idea what was going on. You clearly didn't want to talk about it and he wasn't going to push you.

It did make him want to find the counter curse as fast as possible, though. You weren't sleeping well. He could tell from the circles that had formed up under your eyes the last few days. Even if none of the memories you were dreaming about were causing you the same level of distress as that first night, the dreams made your sleep restless.

And yet, he hadn't been able to find the information he needed to break the curse. He had even tried simply doing it himself, using his own power to break the threads, but it hadn't worked.

After nearly two weeks of this, Barbatos confronted Solomon at RAD. You were in the classroom, too, but you were on the other side of it and couldn't hear their conversation.

"Tell me you have found the counter curse by now," Barbatos said to him.

Solomon frowned. "It's already a rare curse," he said. "But there's something different about this one. I can see it, just a little, and it has too many threads. I've been looking, but I can find no information about a curse that looks like this one does."

Barbatos watched Solomon's face. He could see that Solomon was waiting for his reaction, judging how he would respond to this information.

"There must be something," Barbatos said mildly.

Solomon sighed. "Barbatos, you have to tell me what really happened. I don't know why you won't, but if I know that, I'll have much better luck figuring out the counter curse."

Barbatos looked across the room at you. "What else can I do? This curse is taking it's toll on MC."

"Not you?" Solomon asked.

"It was cast on MC directly. I was able to redirect the part that connects them to me, but the bulk of the magic rests inside MC at this time," Barbatos said. "You must get the counter curse as quickly as you can. If that means I need to tell you the truth, then so be it."

Solomon also looked across the room at you, where you were engaged in schoolwork with another classmate and not paying attention to what was happening elsewhere. He looked back at Barbatos. "I need more information and you two are the only ones who have it."

Barbatos explained to Solomon what actually happened that night outside the castle.

"I don't understand why you didn't tell me this to begin with," Solomon said. "How long has this sorcerer been harassing you?"

"That is irrelevant," Barbatos said. "Are you familiar with him? I believe his name is… Tim. Or perhaps…"

"Tobias?" Solomon asked, folding his arms and looking unamused.

Barbatos nodded. "Yes. That sounds correct."

"I've heard of him, but I don't know him personally," Solomon said. "I'm not exactly on friendly terms with most of the Sorcerer's Society."

"You were once," Barbatos said. "Why not apologize for whatever it is you did to them?"

Solomon's expression became bemused. "Come on, Barbatos. You know me better than that."

Barbatos sighed in exasperation. "Of course. There's no doubt that whatever you did will not be remedied by a simple apology. Do you ever tire of causing this kind of trouble?"

Solomon laughed. "You make it sound like I do it on purpose!"

Barbatos gave him a look that clearly stated he absolutely believed that Solomon did it on purpose. Solomon only laughed again.

"Listen, Barbatos," Solomon said. "I want to help MC as much as you do. I will find a way to break the curse, okay? I promise."

"I will hold you to that," Barbatos said, his threatening smile in place.

masterpost | chapter one

chapter four | chapter six

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[yamayuandadu]

A replacement for the various "recommended reading" posts from a few years ago. I'll probably keep updating it semi-regularly. The section titles indicate what I am interested in actually discussing, to avoid further potential issues with people asking me to essentially provide them with bibliographies pertaining to topics I have no interest in discussing in depth or knowledge of or both.

I don't expect everyone who wants to send an ask to read everything here or even everything in a given section but I do recommend at least trying to find out if a question can be answered by an article or book listed here first.