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avaelangel · 1 year

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I don't really think I would be able to let go of 1899. So, I want to talk about attire and memories. Please let me know if I should talk about the rest of the characters, because for now it's Maura, Daniel and Eyk. Spoilers and a lot of trailing away.

Let's start with Maura. The thing that won't let me rest about her is her character in the simulation. Woman, traveling alone, educated in a man's profession, a person worth making rumours about. She gets slightly chastised by Mrs Wilson and surely insulted by the only practicing doctor on the ship. But she doesn't give and helps, volunteers to a dangerous task that a man wouldn't consider at first.

I think she was coded as an ''adventorous british lady''. In my other post I said that maybe it was a part of Eliot's world. Family of British-Welsh travelers, that exceed expectations and prove mean people wrong. I also said that I might have met Maura before. And I kinda did. I randomly remembered The Essex Serpent.

Now, there isn't really a similar theme in that book. It's a great book by the way. But the main character Cora is reinventing herself after a traumatic marriage, explores percuilar circumstances, wears men's clothing and generally either makes people uncomfortable or fascinates them sometimes. She also has a rather odd son. I'm not saying that Maura was inspired by Cora or follows her path. I'm saying Maura (or Ciaran) might have picked up some tropes from the outside to mask her memories under more baggage, real or not.

Funny thing to mention: Cora's love interest is married and has a daughter. And also is a priest. At least in the book, I'm not aware of show's changes.

There is also a game called The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, where a woman is trying to look for whatever took her father. Henry is mostly harmless on a bigger scale, he is a shield of Ciaran's, just a way to move the plot into a fluid, familiar way. Probably, that's what makes Maura so lovable and intresting. She's a partly known character with a deeper pain and maybe, a secret.

So. Let's talk attire. We first see Maura in a hospital gown in her nightmare\memory. There is clearly more versions of her getting viped and they all have the same scenario before a new cycle.

She probably has the most...outfits? If you can call it that. She has her main outfit: (i think that's the name) long turkish pants with pockets, which are clearly big and the material is warm, the blouse is seemingly layered on something also, so Maura won't die after going on the deck in the middle of October. It's practical. She has a coat\cloak, but it barely even matters because the worst of it Maura endures uncloaked.

Most of the time, her hair is up, but in her son's and husband's memories her hair is down. It's clean and nicely curled. She never had a need to run or do something where her hair is going to be in the way. Peaceful times.

Daniel's memory bugs me. It's not that it's not real, but it seemes to show the level of their attachment and\or the way they express love. I prefer to think that ''I love you. Never forget'' is used depending on the situation by both of them. The moment is Daniel's memory seems to be when he feels Maura pulling away. Maybe that is something that always was there. Daniel loves her so much he's afraid that he's overbearing or annoying. I think his memory also shows that they fit very well togeter. In my mind, Daniel is somekind of a developer and my favorite trope wants to make him a writer. He is a different kind of smart compared to Maura. Does it make sence? I don't know. But he's loving and caring outloud. Maura's love is more quiet and goes deeper. They are both willing to overcome so much for their loved ones. Probably, everything.

What bugs me, why the gown? It doesn't look like a nighty. Maura says that she's starving, puts on a mental hospital gown and...disappears? Is that the guilt that Daniel carries? On the surface, I think he's supposed to be different from all the others, but is he running towards his guilt? He couldn't prevent his family from falling apart, he couldn't prevent Ciaran taking over, but he still can get Maura out. That's why he persevers and that's why he doesn't really care about people outside his purpose. He's there to mold the simulation to his needs.

He also looks...the most different from time to time, I think. Maybe, he didn't get in at the same time with the others or he left and came back. ''I won't leave you again''. Maybe, after that moment shown by Henry to Eliot, Daniel did leave. He had the suit on.

We see Maura in that suit twice. Daniel only once and in the spaceship one bed\capsule is open. Did he leave then? And doesn't Maura's haircut in the end look like her ponytail was cut off? I only just noticed that.

His hair seems to be different each time. Also, I think it's a sad thing that he wasn't made as curly as Aneurin is. Did he comeback only four months ago, interfering with Ciaran's plans? His outfit seems era appropriate, but also really warm and kind of thoughtout for a ship. Was he a part of the crew on Prometheous? Did he still his coat the same way Jerome stole his uniform?

But the pictures...I first thought that he wears that short male coat with big buttons. But it certainly not the coat he wears on the ship. His hair is shorter, the same length like in his memory. Maybe it's that second layer under the main coat, but really, who knows.

Pictures are still tricky. They all there almost the same clothes. The same haircuts. So, It was one that one day Eliot comes back to? A moment to remember which was a part of a simulation. Pictures also remind me of that childhood photoalbum from Black Widow. The one where years we shot in one weekend or something.

It kinda looks like there were different cameras or different film.Different way of development? Maybe, the black and white ones are pictures that Eliot tried to develop. There is also a picture that seemingly was taken by him. A picture in his little playing room. Daniel also seems...not as traumatized? I don't want to say it, but did they agree to spend that day together, in the simulation, for Eliot? Without being on the best of terms? Eliot is always in the middle, also. Make of it what you will.

Eliot deserves his own mention. He is a good little sport. He has to come to many hard realizations. He almost doesn't cry, only when Eyk and Henry scare him. He also has a memory that ends with Maura's hospital gown. Is the picnic his last memory before the first cycle?

He also wears..only this. In every memory, in every appearance. Beside that one hazy moment that Henry shows him. Was Maura put in the chair as a punishment for what she did to Eliot? Could her and Daniel's suffering be at least partly revenge?

Let's talk about Eyk. He also, as far as I have noticed, wears the same clothes. He is also the only one who didn't cause the reason for his guilt directly. He probably didn't see his house burning down. Even worse, he might have goten a telegram about it or something. That's why he keeps imagining it, dreaming of it.

He wakes up into his nightmare.It's a common thing, but I think he's the only one to do that.

He probably remembers the woods, the road to his house. To me, it doesn't seem like he was coming up and saw his wife droping the lamp. He also sees only Nina in the window with her. It's horrible to think that his wife was jealous of Nina. But she clearly was Eyk's favorite, as a I said so before. Even though in the family picture he is the only one in black, but he isn't the only brunette.

I went to re-check it, his middle daughter isn't blonde either, but she is closer to her mother in the shot. An argument to my insanity: you can't really say that Eyk's late wife is blond. ANYWAY. I still think that Nina was the only one who stayed late with him to talk. He probably raised only her. The other two saw very little of him and that is where his guilt lies. Didn't pay enough attention, didn't ask more questions, didn't take time to see that everything is okay. He probably was a neglectful husband, at least. It gets sad with him real fast here.

He's also the only one to walk out of his memory. He opens the door, just like Tove later, and then just stays in his burned down living room. If it wasn't for Albert, who knows what Eyk would have done. Could Daniel be using him to speed things up? Is it his purpose? To be Maura's sidekick, make her consider the fact that she has a husband even less? He knows about the sea as much as possible, but connecting to people is so much harder. Their connection makes them both feels special on a base level.

Eyk for sure is special. I wanted to be edgy for a second and make a post "What if he IS Ciaran?''. I mean, they never kiss and traumatized siblings tend to stick close to each other. But I am more inclined to think that Eyk was Maura's patient. I said the same thing about Daniel, but it would be to different situations. I can very clearly imagine Eyk being anxious and weirded out in grief group counceling.

I was going through screencaps and this shot caught my eye.

Maura is his confidant to the end. It's so sad that they strike as a couple that won't work out. One is neck deep in his grief, the other desperately tries to avoid it, run away. This probably means she would run away from Eyk too. A sad, sad irony.

Show's intro is very interesting also. It shows Eyk reaching out to Nina (assuming) and crumbling. Did he lead him to his demise in previous cycles? He probably did die at some point on previous ships.

If you reached this point, thank you. Let me know if you enjoyed it and if i should ramble more about 1899. I probably will, because I can. Might even take writing requests, who knows.

#1899 #1899 spoilers #1899 netflix #save 1899 #1899 theories #maura x daniel #maura x eyk #maura franklin #eyk larsen #daniel solace #what can i say i have very little amount of friends #i wish i could pretend i'm smart about cinema for a living

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anxiouspotatorants · 1 year

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I did a rewatch, here are a bunch of smaller things I feel like can be important in the future (cancellation? what cancellation?):

Ada’s ghost ship story. It’s about how the sea gets so angry when the passengers and crew of a ship kill a whale that it sends a storm their way and turns it into an actual ghost ship. Could be an allegory for what the passengers do to Elliot and the simulation subsequently killing them afterwards, or it could be part of an even larger narrative.

Franz has been part of Eyk’s crew for as long as Maura and Daniel have been married.

Several important characters have scarring and wounds on their faces or arms, and some of Franz’ are fresher even before we see him physically fight.

Anker literally means anchor. It’s probably just a characterisation detail for Anker but still an interesting name choice.

«Die Gedanken sin frei» is a song celebrating freedom of thought.

When Maura wakes up the first time it’s Henry’s voice telling her to do so but afterwards and for everyone else it’s Maura’s voice.

When Ramiro and Angel hook up in 1.02 the scene ends with a shot of a painting of a wolf and a sheep.

While the earth symbol is everywhere, only Ling Yi, Virginia Wilson and Clémence seem to have it on their clothes or accessories. It might be a stretch, but I also think the embroidered flower on Clémence’s collar looks like a bug.

Tove describes Iben’s religious conviction and the fact that she hears voices as creating her own world that the people around her have decided to follow. This could be a parallel to Maura creating the simulation and pulling everyone into it.

In 1.05 Maura tells Eyk that she remembers being a doctor and that her father must have changed her memory to make her a patient. This is probably her doing because of the Elliot reveal, but she also says she thinks she managed to remember the purpose of what was happening and was made to forget. Is this her projecting her deeds onto her father again, or did she actually manage to remember one time and get forced back into forgetting by someone else?

After exiting her first flashback into the shooting scene, Tove sees that she stands in front of room 2102. There’s a big visual focus on room numbers in general too.

Speaking of numbers, Maura’s room in the ship and the room in the mental hospital are both numbered 1011.

Virginia Wilson is confirmed to speak and understand English, French and Cantonese so far.

There are multiple closeups of Eyk’s family photo.

All of the photos on Daniel and Maura’s nightstand seem to be from the same day. One of the photos shows Elliot holding the bug, indicating that this day is the same as Elliot’s flashback. Also Maura and Elliot’s clothing in the photos seem similar to if not identical to their simulation outfits.

When Maura and Daniel kiss we see flashes of them together, the mental hospital, the wooden cross from the tomb, a brain and Maura walking down a corridor with a hammer.

Daniel says that if Maura doesn’t wake up, there will be nothing left to wake up for.

Elliot and Daniel’s simulation flashbacks both end with either of them holding Maura’s frock in the middle of the same faulty simulation that Henry is in.

Henry says Maura has fooled «all of us».

Ángel’s song (a version of La Tarara) mentions a finger that can’t be healed and a white dress. The finger could be Virginia and the white dress could be Maura in her hospital gown. The white dress verse claims La Tarara only wears it on Maundy Thursday, and the finger verse says no surgeon can cure it.

#I have collected the dots (probably just some of them) now it's time to connect them #1899 theories #1899 speculation #1899 #1899 netflix #save 1899 #renew 1899 #maura franklin #virginia wilson #anker 1899 #franz 1899 #elliot 1899 #daniel solace #ángel 1899 #eyk larsen #henry singleton #clémence 1899

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adultswim2021 · 8 days

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Southies: “Mutiny” | February 18, 2010 (online) | Pilot

“Full” version released online February 25th.

“Final” version released online February 26th (or thereabouts)

Aired on television January 19, 2011 @ 4AM

Oh, Wowthies, it’s Southies. Part of the Burger King Big, Über, Network Sampling, an event in which people were invited to go online, watch some pilots for potential television programs (with two different ones going head-to-head each round), vote on your favorites, and reflect on the deliciousness of Burger King restaurant’s many available food products. Sorta like the Night of 1000 Pilots, but far less successful.

Southies was about a crass couple in South Philly Boston (note: I am so mad at myself that I wrote Philly that I'm leaving the evidence that I edited my post up. what the HELL). They have a daughter, who we don’t see until the last third of the episode. New neighbors move in, who are considerably less crass than them. In fact, they are so squeaky clean that they haven’t even had children. There’s no visible proof that they’ve even had sex with each other!! They clash slightly, personality-wise, though everyone is trying their best to make a good impression. When loutish ____ (I watched this literally two and a half times and can’t remember the main guy’s name, which instead of going back to find out I’m going to let stand as a testament to… something.) finds out the new neighbor is a doctor for the New England Patriots, he starts seeing him as a source for free tickets to football games. They throw a party, try to impress them, fail, and that’s the end.

While I firmly consider this to be a dud, it’s not horrible. But: I didn’t really laugh. The show has fleeting moments of extreme comedy; like when a man is seen in the beginning of the show driving recklessly while ranting on his phone to a sports radio guy (I think! AGAIN IT’S ALL SO HAZY I’M SORRY). This scene ends with him crashing into a pedestrian, with a splash of blood, which is barely noticed by the main characters of the show. The rest of the show is mostly just character-based comedy. The characters are pretty colorful and the design of the show is, while objectively ugly, pretty specific. By that I mean they are admirably defined. I really do think that the bare-minimum a cartoon should be is “specific”. You know? Also, the sound design is really great, and is maybe the best thing about the show.

One thing that’s notable about the show is that it’s beset with MULTIPLE VERSIONS, which can perhaps feel daunting to a prospective viewer looking for a definitive experience. I watched this two-and-a-half times, and had to tap out on my third watch. The version I’d recommend is the version that actually aired on television at 4AM in 2011. It’s in 16:9, has tell-tale signs of television broadcast (TV rating, onscreen bug, etc), and looks and sounds as good as it ought to. Here’s a rundown of the versions floating around:

Version one, which is basically just a short clip, actually. There’s a brief opening (an abbreviated version of the opening sequence), and a little “next time, on Southies” sting showing our main characters downing beers on their neighbors porch. The clip in question is an early scene, where the main guy talks to his neighbor outside while movers bring in their new neighbors boxes. It’s the scene where the guy pees on the van. When I clicked on the Burger King site to check out the shows, THIS is what was offered, initially.

Version two, which runs over 13 minutes and resembles the final version, except for the recurring abbreviated opening and a “next time, on Southies” clip occurring every couple minutes. This gives the impression that at one point they intended to chop up this pilot into shorter segments and turn them into webisodes. This seems like a bad plan, honestly, because all the scenes flow together pretty well. It feels like they tried to retrofit an 11 minute pilot into the webisode format and not the other way around. This is the “longest” version, but most of it is because of the repeated opening and closing sequences.

Version three, which is the “final” version and the one that aired on TV, and actually feels like an episode of a TV show. Easily the definitive version of the show.

Cosmetic differences between each version include a discrepancy in aspect ratios. I compared the aired version with the web’s “final” version and saw that the web version was cropped to roughly 4:3. Rougher versions look like there might be additional squishing going on, as well, but I was rapidly losing interest to truly confirm it. Could also be whoever ripped them putting weight on that scale.

There ARE some content differences between the “full” version and the “final” version. The scene where the guy runs someone down with his car does not end in a gory spectacle, for example, and the street shots showing local color are also less extreme (the final version shows a nude vagrant, and an uncouth woman breastfeeding a baby, the “full” version doesn’t even have jokes that I recall). Also the “full” version had more censorship, at least from the few minutes of it that I could stomach. A guy says “asshole” that goes unbleeped in the other version, but is bleeped in the “full” version. The full version is full of crap if you ask me.

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO KON FOR SENDING ME ALL OF THE VERSIONS!!! YOU KICK ASS DUDE

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #southies

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stareiiez · 2 years

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Having a Kid with Lavernius Tucker ( HCS. )

A/N : hihihihih!!! long time no see yah goofs! I’ve been gone for years but i was busy dealing with life and new jobs and what not. i’m just in time for RVB back to base-ics coming out!

why not make this place come alive with good ole having babies with tucker hcs.

Warnings: none, just rusty floof.

Lavernius Tucker x Fem (AFAB ) Reader

creds to jomeimei12 for the art in header

----- this dude has done this before. he's a father. this dude birthed a whole ass alien out of his . . . yeah.

--- when you go to him with a positive pregnancy test in hand, not going to lie, this boy BOOKS it.

---- its old habits so excuse him for not breaking out in a happy dance and screaming for joy towards the sky, he is physically pale. he's a terrible actor and clearly, he's not happy for a few hot minutes.

--- whether you're in a relationship or not, this lad can only handle one baby at a time, and right now his body has shut down and left him running out the door for an hour or so.

------ when he returns? immediate apologizes,

---- perhaps gets on his hands and knees for his goddess and doesn't shut up til you manage to shut him up or forgive him till you lose your voice.

---- frankly, tucker loves being a father, so when he calms down. he's the biggest supporter you're EVER going to get.

------ immediate anxious dad mode regardless if he's more nervous than you for this shit.

---- he knows the pains of brief morning sickness and weird cravings you get at three am and demands him to run out for salt and vinegar chips dipped in Nutella with pickles.

--- this dude HATES the doctor though. when it comes to checkups and scans when the months come and go and your stomach gets bigger, he would suggest Donut be your plus one while he waits in the lobby of the hospital.

----- is he flirting with the nurse at the front desk? maybe. but that's totally up for debate since he.s here for you and you only. Sure he still has those un-loyal tendencies. the straying eyes too far low, the once over and wink? he does that.

--- it stopped bothering you after a while, don't worry.

------ the moment he heard an actual heartbeat at one of your appointments? he was on the monitor like glue. his eyes were bugged out of his skull and watching the blurry image of something that resembled ' Junior 's twin brother'.

---his words, not yours.

----- preparing for the baby boy or girl was a whirlwind of Tucker putting his sense of style into making sure his baby was dressed to the nines constantly. even the finest duckie footed pajamas he could find off the internet.

- this was his way of making parenting fun, dressing his baby up to look like him, hell he would make the both of them match if you didn't get your infant ready for the day.

------ The baby's nursery was an homage to Blood Gulch. Poorly painted outlines of the Reds and Blue troopers were on the walls in pastel versions of their armor colors. Don't forget Carolina and Uncle Wash. They were included too.

----You best bet said troopers showed up to help Tucker properly hold a paintbrush and make sure he didn't have the nursery look like a disaster.

------ Donut helped with every other little detail, to make the entire thing unisex. He even designed the crib and mobile to include the baby's extended family drifting through the air completed with cute little glow-in-the-dark stars.

------ As for the actual delivery of a said baby? Washington drove both you and Tucker to the hospital for that.

------Tucker was on the floor vomiting from the sight of catching the tail end of your water breaking and running around half awake screaming on the phone for Wash to get over here before the baby ' uses your coochie for a slip and slide in the living room.’

---- No baby bag, no nothing you guys were raw dogging this shit going 90 on the highway in the back of Wash's minivan and you screaming with every contraction.

------- Bringing your brilliant baby to this very world was something Tucker managed to miss out on the moment all three of you were settled in the hospital room.

------ Tucker had taken one look between your legs the moment the birth process started and he fell flat on his face after giving a rather girlish scream.

--- he didn't wake up till two hours later, yet by then. you had a baby swaddled in blue held in loving arms

------ Junior had a new baby brother and you were outmatched with men in your household, unfortunately.

----- With a new baby, it was far more different than raising an alien for Tucker's sake. It came with a lot of sleepless nights of crying and Tucker always taking the night shift for you to feed the new bundle of joy in the house.

------- For someone that was a grade a ' womanizer ', he was proud of the little things he did and got to experience as a father. he LOVED his kid with his entire heart.

----- He was the father to carry pictures of his baby in the creases of his wallet, and his phone was full of videos of you and the baby he made with you.

--------- He didn't mind babysitting when you had to run out for odds and ends, but usually, that involved calling the boys over and him mostly bragging about smart and awesomely cool his kid was to the rest of the gang.

------- He was the little wuss to cry when your baby begin to crawl around the house, and with crawling came the baby's first steps.

- that's when he bawled and threw himself all over you with snot dripping from his nose.

------- Tucker loved his baby, and even came up with the most badass name ever for his little lookalike. All brown curly hair, warm brown chocolate eyes yet your (s/c) he was a handsome young man.

- Sebastian Tucker, the second best name he could come up with since Junior Junior Tucker was off the table.

#rvb #red vs blue #rvb fanfic #rvb fanfiction #lavernius tucker #tucker x reader #rvb tucker x reader #lavernius tucker x reader #rvb x reader #red team #blue team #agent washington #rvb headcanons #domestic rvb headcannons #bluebird writes rvb

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carveredlunds · 2 years

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inspired by this post and this post (and probably others i’ve seen over the years but can’t remember! if you’ve talked about this idea before, chime in!) and the fact that i’ve just watched “the man who would be king”. but why didn’t season 15 have more meta episodes?

we had “atomic monsters”, where becky called out chuck’s bad writing, which was kind of meta, and we had “the heroes’ journey”, a send-up of sam and dean’s plot armour that ground the dramatic tension of the season to a screeching halt and was played for laughs. i guess we had chuck watching tv screens in “galaxy brain”, and several references to chuck ‘cancelling shows’, but the meta was shockingly light for a season where god is your final antagonist.

why didn’t we have sam and dean look directly into the camera, like castiel does in “the man who would be king”? they could have looked directly at the camera, begging the audience to let them go (because what was the ‘point’ of season 15 if not to be a commentary on how it had become a shambling and zombified version of its former self, with the characters desperately fighting for freedom?)

instead of whatever the heck “the heroes’ journey” was, why not go the opposite way with it, and go full existential horror with the idea of plot armour? instead of having sam and dean lose their plot armour, why not increase it? have sam and dean on a regular hunt, and sam gets stabbed, but he doesn’t die, because chuck doesn’t want him to go out this way. or dean gets horrifically injured, but it just heals by itself, in front of his very eyes, because chuck doesn’t want his favourite toy to be broken.

why not have them become aware that they’re in a tv show? have them say they’re going somewhere one scene, and then suddenly, the scene changes and they’re there, but maybe sam says to dean “what just happened?” because they insta-travelled. they didn’t drive or walk. (side note: an episode of “doctor who” called “forest of the dead” did this, and it was so creepy.) or how about the brothers become aware of background music? suddenly, the music goes all tense and scary, and tfw look around wildly for where it’s coming from, before a monster of the week shows up.

and, to take that further, imagine having chuck interact directly with the scenes themselves? imagine something absolutely wild happening. like in “proverbs 17:3”, we open on one of chuck’s planned endings. sam is dressed all in white, clearly possessed by lucifer, and dean shoots him in the head, only for him to sit back up again. the scene freezeframes, and chuck steps into the shot and says “nah, too old school” or something like that, and rotates his finger, and the scene rewinds like an old video tape, and another ending plays out. the big thing here? this isn’t alternate universe sam and dean, but our sam and dean, playing out endings for a while until chuck gets bored and leaves or something.

sam and dean did talk about free will and destiny and yada yada yada, but they never truly acknowledged the cosmic horror of being two very special bugs in a jar that god has personally kept alive and suffering for his own entertainment. the season 14 finale set up such an interesting and self-aware situation that season 15 never followed through with. the penultimate episode was literally what was left of tfw, alone on a dying planet, the only characters on an empty stage, and the absolute mind fuckery of that was never really talked about.

for a show as meta as “supernatural” that had iconic episodes like “the french mistake”, lines like crowley’s ‘castiel, haven’t seen you all season’ in “caged heat”, and so many directly paralleled shots to past episodes, season 15 could have really gone full meta, but they were cowards.

#spn #spn meta #sophie speaks #sophie talks about spn

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ladypepperofdavenshire · 1 year

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Something that takes place a good decade or so before the main story (or however long I decide since people in this future have a fairly long lifespan)! Felt like a good introduction to the protagonists, and a peek into their relationship prior to the chaos that ensues in the present timeline of the story. I’m still waffling on whether or not I want this to actually be in the book as a prologue or not,,,we shall see!

---

Exploring

Ariadne Fenway II, next in line as Empress of the Fenway Dynasty, scrambled across the rocky bed like a nimble Rigelian mountain goat. She wouldn’t be ascending a throne anytime soon—seeing that she was only twelve—but everyone, her family included, made sure to remind her of the future that was planned for her. So she took every opportunity she could to escape those watchful eyes with their lofty expectations.

“Slow down! What’ll your dad say if I have to go back and tell him you broke your neck slipping on a bunch of rocks?”

She threw a glance over her shoulder, red braid swinging along her back and tendrils of hair blowing across her face from the fierce wind. The boy was right on her heels, face set and eyes scanning ahead of her to make sure her footing was secure.

“You sound just like Captain Wrenth,” she scoffed. “Daddy would understand. He knows it’d be my fault and chew me out as long as it takes for the doctor to fix it.”

She moved a booted foot to settle on a rock ahead of her, immediately sliding sideways on the mossy surface. A hand grabbed the back of her jacket to keep her from smashing her head into a particularly large boulder. Ariadne felt her face grow hot and kept it turned away from her rescuer.

“You’re welcome,” the boy replied in a singsong voice.

“Thanks,” she grumbled, crawling the rest of the way on her palms and the balls of her feet.

By the time they made it beyond the bed of rocks, her palms were covered in dried mud and the knees of her khaki pants had dark patches on them. Her nanny would give her an earful about etiquette and ruining clothes when she was supposed to set an example for everyone else. Well, she had snuck off with Judd because she was sick of feeling like a bug under a microscope at the festivities going on at the Summer Palace, all eyes on her at all times, waiting to see if she would step out of line or act as a Fenway was supposed to act.

Honestly, it got on her nerves.

Ariadne straightened up to wipe her hands on one of the mossier boulders at the edge of the rock bed, watching Judd smack his together to get the caked dirt off. They wouldn’t have been friends if his own dad wasn’t in the military, therefore showing up at events thrown by the Emperor with other soldiers and their families. Judd wasn’t a son of a noble, a senator, or even a high-ranking general. The children who were the sons and daughters of nobles, senators, and high-ranking military officials were quick to remind him of that. Ariadne could sense it annoyed him, but he was never the one to actually start throwing punches when fights broke out. It was always the other boy who had started the heckling, and who in turn became furious enough to attack when Judd began firing barbed insults back.

He looked around the spot where she had taken him. It was a small valley lined by tall, cascading rock walls with massive, ancient statue pieces lying around the grass. His gray eyes flitted up to the overcast sky as a rumble sounded from the distant mountains.

“We should get back to the Palace soon,” he said, rubbing his hands on his pants to get the rest of the dirt off. “Looks like it’s gonna rain.”

Ariadne had hopped up to the ridge above the rock bed, scanning the valley for the one statue she wanted her friend to see. She spun about and placed her fists on her hips, looking like a miniature version of her mom right down to the slight furrow between her brows and the narrowing of her jade eyes.

“We can’t leave now! I haven’t even shown you what we came here for!”

“We came here to get soaked if we’re gonna stay here any longer, Princess.”

Ariadne felt herself rankle at the title. Judd only used it when he wanted to annoy her, and she could tell he was enjoying it by the satisfied amusement she could sense from him. There was a tinge of worry there too, but that was always hovering over his mind whenever she dragged him off to places without bodyguards or soldiers to yank her out of danger. Naturally, he decided to act in place of one of her assigned bodyguards. She had a feeling he’d try to make that his future job if possible, and she’d make sure that wouldn’t be the case so he wouldn’t be hovering over her like her dad or Captain Wrenth always did.

“It’s not that far,” she insisted. “And if it does rain, we can stay dry in one of the statues.”

To add emphasis, she swept her arm around the little valley to indicate the heads half buried in the grass and dirt, most with gaping mouths that would act as the perfect shelter from the approaching stormclouds.

She folded her arms across her chest as she stepped up to Judd, feeling that she had at least one argument going for her. She lowered an eyebrow at him.

“And do you really want to go back there right now? I know you saw Baron Gryppe’s son before we left. He’s still angry you gave him a black eye last time.”

Judd tried to smother a smirk and squash the feeling of elation that came with beating up Baron Gryppe’s bratty boy. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t had it coming. The Baron tried to shove his son at Ariadne thinking they might get married in the future so he could get himself closer to the throne. Ariadne wasn’t that interested in marriage or all that it entailed yet, but she knew that Claudius Gryppe was the absolute last boy she would want to marry if it came down to it. She’d told him as much and then said she’d rather kill herself than kiss him. Then he tried to kiss her. And then Judd materialized out of the crowd and socked him in the face. It was one of the few things she still owed him for, even if he insisted he would have punched Claudius anyways.

He sighed, admitting defeat without saying a word.

“Where’s the dumb thing you’re so excited about?”

Ariadne flashed a grin, snatching one of his hands and racing over the field to the statue she had found on her previous wanderings. Small round ground fowl popped up and darted away in the opposite direction, chirping at the disturbance brought on by the two youngsters. Ariadne came to a halt at knoll in the grass, moving to scramble up it. Judd made sure she didn’t lose her footing before he was standing alongside her on the knoll, looking down at what might have been a six storey tall, bone-white corpse. At one time, it had stood nearly as high as the valley’s surrounding walls. Two massive columns that upon closer inspection turned out to be legs stood against the wall. The rest of the statue had toppled over ages ago. The knoll they stood on was one of the arms, hidden by an overgrowth of grass. The chest and face were the only things still visible as having been manmade. The chest itself had caved in, bright flowers growing along the rim of it adding to the effect of a fresh, red flesh wound.

“That’s neat, I guess,” Judd huffed.

Ariadne made a face at him.

“We have to go on it to see–”

She caught herself before she spoiled the surprise, instead taking his hand again and heading down the knoll and up towards the statue corpse.

“They’ve got these all over the place,” Judd was saying, still glancing up at the sky as another warning rumble sounded. “What’s so special about–?”

“You have to see it!” Ariadne groaned. “Help me climb up–”

Several more minutes of scrambling had them a little more sweaty and panting as they edged closer to the crater in the statue’s chest. Ariadne watched with satisfaction as Judd’s black eyebrows lifted two inches high, mouth parting slightly.

“Oh, that’s–”

“Told you.”

The interior of the chest gave way to an aquamarine pool of water at least three yards down where the valley floor would be. Plants grew inside the statue, along with a few scrubby trees and a field of flowers that crowded close to the light source provided by the hole. Slickness on some of the cracks on the surface of the statue’s chest showed that when it rained, a steady stream fell into the deep pool. Judd yanked a loose stone from the statue and chucked it down. It hit the pool and created a series of perfect ripples. He laughed and searched around for another rock.

“If I can get Captain Wrenth to get me some steel-rope and hooks and an ascender, we can climb down there and explore it,” Ariadne said, kneeling beside him. “But I’ll have to be sneaky about it because nobody asks for those sorts of things unless they’re doing something dangerous. Hey, does your dad have any steel-rope?”

“Nope,” Judd said, watching another rock fall and add to the ripples. He cast a wry look at her. “We?”

Ariadne bit the inside of her cheek.

“Nobody else would go down there with me. If Daddy knew I knew about this–”

“—He’d have Captain Wrenth glued to your side.”

“Or worse: I’d be stuck on Palace Grounds for the rest of my life.”

“Or until you become Empress and change the rules,” he countered, plucking one of the flowers and dropping petals down the hole. They twirled slowly on their descent, spinning around in the wind before touching down lightly on the pool’s surface.

“He’d make up a rule so I can’t,” Ariadne snorted, crouching on the lip of the hole to try to get a better look at the little oasis.

“There's probably a lot of artifacts down there if we could get inside. I think there’s some sort of bio, um, biolum’nescent moss or something growing under the—“

The ledge she had been holding onto crumbled in her grip, bits of the flowers and roots coming along with it as her fingers grasped nothing. Momentum carried her as Ariadne pitched forward without a single cry of alarm, tumbling head over heels before hitting the water flat on her back. It stung hard enough to wrench a garbled curse from her lips, one she’d heard Captain Wrenth say so many times. A gasp also came out as the icy waters soaked through her clothes in a matter of seconds. She had to jolt her brain into remembering to swim as she flailed towards the nearest edge of the pool. All the while, Judd’s presence was basked in nothing but panic. She could see his silhouette reflected in the pool as he scurried around the edge of the rim, trying to get a better view of her.

“Ari?! Ari?! Are you okay?!”

“Fine!” she shrieked, frosty fingers clutching the wet ground as she pulled herself out of the water and onto the spongy grass.

She scooted as far away from the pool as possible to avoid rolling back in, wrapping her arms around herself as her teeth began to chatter. Her head tilted back to look at the craggy opening in the roof, heart sinking. It was too far to climb. The only way she’d get out would have to be Judd going back to get the guards.

“Judd!” she called, her voice strained from the cold.

“Yeah?”

“Go get help!”

He hesitated. She could sense the reluctance to leave her, but also the need to find someone more capable to help. She hoped he’d go soon so he wouldn’t see the tears starting to sting her eyes. It was a long trek, and they probably wouldn’t be able to get back until it was fairly dark. Ariadne didn’t know what was lurking in the cavern with her but she hoped that they kept their distance. The only thing she could make out was the hard-edged silhouette of Judd staring down at her that was growing blurrier as her eyes grew more wet.

“I’m coming down!”

As much as Ariadne would appreciate the company, she didn’t want the both of them being stuck in the cavern with no way of getting anyone to come find them.

“Don’t be stupid!” she snapped. “Go find the guards!”

But Judd was already swinging inside the hole, clambering along the inner side on the parts of the statue that hadn’t been ripped to shreds by centuries of wear and tear. They looked like supports of some kind meant to keep the cavern from falling inwards. Ariadne had to wonder if some other people had tunneled into the statue to use it as a safe haven, and if so, did they make a way to get out on foot too?

“Be careful,” she whispered to herself, her fingers digging hard into her shaking arms as she watched Judd maneuver down the supports.

Parts of them looked like they might have been stairs a long time ago, but had fallen away from neglect and disuse.

She heard the sharp crackle before she realized what was happening. The old ledge Judd had been on was there one second, gone the next. His fingers tried to grip the rock, blood scraping on the ashy surface before he was careening downwards like one of the pebbles he had thrown. He was still trying to get a grip as he fell, only to pinwheel sharply against the side, creating another red smear on the stone. He missed the pool that would have broken his fall and instead landed facedown on the ground. Ariadne felt herself jump as she heard the impact, throat still too tight to emit a scream but not tight enough for her to suck in a shaken breath.

She was on her feet, quivering violently and forcing her legs to carry her towards the body.

Why did she think “body?” He wasn’t dead–she could still sense his emotions, a tangle of alarm and pain. One of his arms was twisted at a strange angle as she approached, an ankle also wrenched the wrong way. Ariadne dropped down onto her knees, stretched her numb hands out and rolled him over onto his back.

“Judd…?”

His scraped, pale face contorted into a grimace as he cracked one eye open.

“ ‘m okay,” he grunted.

“You sure? Your arm looks broken, and your ankle–”

Ariadne pressed her lips together to keep a sob from coming out, remembering what her parents always told her about keeping up appearances. A future Empress wasn’t supposed to show vulnerability to her subjects. She held her head high and walked through the storm without so much as a flinch. One heavy breath through her nostrils helped to steady herself enough to keep from breaking down entirely.

“I’m sorry,” she said calmly. “I shouldn’t have dragged you here.”

“It’s okay,” Judd replied, trying to sit up using his one good arm. Ariadne helped him the rest of the way, peering at the back of his head to make sure there weren’t any fractures she could see. “I left a trail.”

She stared at him.

“You what?”

“On our way here,” he gasped. “I left a trail in case we got lost.”

Ariadne opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. She didn’t know whether she wanted to light into him for ruining their plans of sneaking off without anyone following, or bless his incredible insight. While she was still trying to decide on how she felt, the cloud cover split open and began dumping rain on the valley, and down into the hole in the statue’s chest. The droplets hammered on them both, causing Ariadne to jump again at yet another unpleasant surprise.

“Told you it’d rain,” Judd muttered, though there was a pained grin on his face. He was shuffling his shoulders, confusing Ariadne for a few seconds before she realized he was working out of his jacket.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, feeling just a tinge of warmth coming to her icy cheeks. “You need that more than I do.”

“Sure,” Judd replied, getting the jacket off one arm.

He couldn’t work the other so Ariadne gave up and helped him the rest of the way, letting him throw it over her shoulders. It was considerably warmer, especially when they were able to shuffled away from the opening and into the shade. The glow of the fungi was more prominent now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. Various swathes of bright blue, green, and gold mottled the interior shell of the statue, some looking organized enough to fall into line with her theory that someone at some time had inhabited the statue’s innards.

Judd’s shoulder brushed against hers as he propped himself up beside her, their backs to one of the glowing boulders. Ariadne huddled close to the only source of heat down in the cavern as she pulled her arms up against her chest, remembering what Captain Wrenth had said about keeping the body’s core warm to avoid freezing to death during an offhand conversation. The pool was suddenly alive with the rain pelting it, turning the mirror-like surface into a murky circle. Lightning drew a jagged line across the sky, providing a brilliant flash for a few seconds before it was gone. The thunder that followed made Ariadne’s molars rattle.

“How long do you think it’ll take them?” she asked quietly. It seemed wrong to shout now that they were both down there…with whatever else lived in the cavern.

“Probably twice as long as it took us to get here if they’re bringing hovercars. And they have to drive through the rain too, so that might be longer.”

He suddenly looked at her with a lift of his brows.

“I don’t think anything’ll happen to us while we wait for them.”

“You don’t know that,” Ariadne murmured, her own eyes darting to the darker corners of the cavern.

“I’ll make sure nothing happens, okay?”

His tone had her looking back at him. That, and the sudden determination that flared up in his chest made her believe what he said. She searched out his good hand, entwining her cold fingers in his warm ones as she felt a genuine smile crawl across her lips.

“Okay.”

#ladypepperofdavenshire #writing #untitled sci fi story #untitled sci fi wip #judd #judd kaspar #the soldier #ariadne #ariadne fenway ii #the empress #sci fi #science fiction #i'm planning on reblogging this with an illustration #once my hand feels better 8')#inktober sorta hecked it up a bit

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koinvyokan · 2 years

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dsmp fic recs!!!

ive narrowed the list down to only completed works so none of these will leave you hanging and you can binge to your hearts content.

* = most highly recommended

Rated T

for you, the stars *

By andthentheybow

Relationships: DNF, Karlnap, SBI as a family

Words: 115k

Why you should read it: this is an au of The Martian, with george being trapped on mars. its heartbreaking, raw, so poetic and still very much keeps the realistic and scientific tone of the original work. this fic broke my heart and put it back together slowly.

~~~~~

how dare you love me like you’ve never known fear *

By andthentheybow (just read all their fics, theyre such a good writer)

Relationships: DNF, Karlnapity

Words: 11k

Why you should read it: immortal soulmates au??? do i need to say more?? its so filled with longing and cool worldbuilding its ridiculous.

~~~~~

We Must Have Good Pitch, ‘Cause Baby, You and Me are So In Tune!

By Quid_Pro_Cure

Relationships: Karlnapity, DNF (background)

Words: 73k

Why you should read it: probably my favourite karlnapity fic! its a small town rock band AU about dtqk trying to win a festival competition that features a very badass sapnap and a really lovely romance. the characters are vividly described and its just a nice, funny, light on the angst read.

~~~~~

I wish I were you, Optimism *

By valleyofthesun

Relationships: DNF, Georgebur (past dont let this make u not read it i beg), SBI as a family

Words: 62k

BIG TW FOR SUICIDE

Why you should read it: want to preface this by making it clear that this fic is about the c! versions of these characters. it follows george as he deals with the grief from his boyfriend, wilbur, committing suicide and shows how dream helps him start to recover from this. i read this at a time in which i needed to read something like this, after losing a friend to suicide myself, so believe me when i tell you that this fic’s depiction of grief is like nothing ive ever seen in fanfiction or in any type of media in it’s accuracy. the characterization is very true although the characters are in this very unlikely situation, the prose is absolutely beautiful, and it does have it’s funny and heartwarming moments to detract from all the angst and pain. this fic is really taxing to read, at least it was for me maybe that because i was too personally connected to it, but do consider that before you read as it deals with extremely triggering material. this fic changed me. read it right neeeooowww!

~~~~~

The Night Window *

By backtopluto

Relationships: DNF

Words: 51k

Why you should read it: i could recommend all of backtopluto’s works, honestly they are one of if not my favourite dnf author. but my favourite of their works is definitely this one. this is a 1930s car racing au, which is something i never would have thought to look for, but now i wish there were a million vintage racing aus because i need more of this dynamic. there’s so much good angst and character study in this fic, i would describe it like one long race itself, there are so many ups and downs and by the end you feel like a different person. their writing puts you into the character’s head so well, and i have such massive respect for their ability to make a historical au so realistic, im surprised the author didnt live through this time period themself.

~~~~~

Tender is the Night

By backtopluto

Relationships: DNF

Words: 18k

Why you should read it: dream dodging the vietnam draft au! another amazing historical au by backtopluto, this one is just really sweet and, well, tender.

~~~~~

lightning bug

By saintaches

Relationships: DNF

Words: 21k

Why you should read it: early 2000s emo warped tour band au. this is just super fun and cute and you feel like the author somehow knows what its like to spend a summer in a sweaty tour bus with your best friend and your maybe more than best friend

~~~~~

head or heart

By effervescentlies

Relationships: DNF, Karlnap (background)

Words: 58k

Why you should read it: grey’s anatomy/doctor au! very fun, good angst, well done enemies to lovers, and dnf respecting and thirsting after each other’s intelligence as surgeons <3 love it

~~~~~

take this compass, follow it home

By lightning_anon

Relationships: SBI as a family

Words: 49k

Why you should read it: obligatory SBI foster family au! usually i actually dont much like the SBI foster trope, but damn this one knocks it out of the park. a really brutally honest depiction of mental health issues. this actually helped me realize i have adhd and get help for that so uh. good representation matters! i would recommend the entire encompass series that this is the start of, especially wilbur’s section as a very interesting depiction of intersex and ftm trans issues.

~~~~~

a moment apart

By fictionalparadises

Relationships: Karlnap

Words: 44k

Why you should read it: what?? a fic with actual asexual karl jacobs rep??? do my eyes deceive me? no, its real! its really fucking sweet and a realistic portrayal of asexuals in relationships! crazy, right?

~~~~~

a lifetime, my lifeline *

By wooowriter

Relationships: DNF

Words: 10k

Why you should read it: the perfect dnf meetup fic. soo full of longing and the pain of missing someone so bad, contrasted beautifully with the absolute awe of seeing them. if you’re gonna read a dnf meetup oneshot make it this one!!

Rated M

Fit Like A Daydream *

By keepAPlaceForMe

Relationships: Foolish/Punz

Words: 37k

Why you should read it: i had never read Funz before BUt. this fic made me insane. its so good and im so invested in the Vegas lore thats developed in their Funz fics. mwah mwah mwah

~~~~~

whatever you make me (wherever you are)

By squigly

Relationships: DNF

Words: 24k

Why you should read it: 500 days of summer au!! so angsty and that makes it great. does true love really exist or are we just making it up because we want it so bad?? read to find out

~~~~~

Devil Town

By hooray

Relationships: SBI as a family, Karlnapity (background)

Words: 100k

Why you should read it: This one is for horror fans, its pretty creepy and atmospheric. Reminds me a lot of Stranger Things! If youre into SBI then I dont know what you’re doing if you havent read this

Rated E

thunder in vials *

By squigly

Relationships: DNF

Words: 8k

Why you should read it: punk band au! but like, not sanitized. very atmospheric. its just sex rocknroll and the harsh reality of drug addiction

~~~~~

to burn with desire and keep quiet

By falsettodrop

Relationships: DNF

Words: 47k

Why you should read it: i feel like this is the seminal george moves to florida dnf fic. if you havent already read it then read it before you start anything else. its just so good. a lot of meetup fics blend together for me which is why there arent many on this list, but this one is very memorable and impactful

#i spent so long on this i think i managed to narrow it down to fics that have been super memorable and impacted me #if u end up reading these plss lmk lets talk about it!!#dsmp #dsmp fanfiction recs #dsmp fanfiction #dnf fanfic recs #praying all these links work

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glowyjellyfish · 1 year

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OUAT Rewatch Report Part 5: Lady of the Lake through The Doctor, plus Forget Me Not and The Serpent

1. Emma’s far from my favorite, but her feelings are really doing it for me this time. Seeing her walls go up, and how hard it is for her to adjust to having a mom who cares about her. And seeing her walls come down, too, seeing her vulnerable when she puts so much effort into making herself tough. And I enjoy watching her fumble around not knowing how to handle Fairy Tale Land but also needing to prove she can take care of herself. I don’t think I realized it before, but there is an entire theme of parental dynamics in this arc, isn’t there.

2. Henry’s a manipulative little sneak, isn’t he? He came by it honestly, considering his many relatives.

3. I definitely made a mistake in setting up a viewing order where I get New Robin Hood before I even see Old Robin Hood.

4. I love Will so much. I love the way he talks about himself and his past, and how he has clearly thought everything through very carefully and figured himself out. I’m totally convinced that he had therapy sometimes in Storybrooke. And probably got diagnosed with depression, because that’s what his heartlessness looks like. And I love the way he admits to feeling like a monster and going through dark times, even when he can’t really feel it without his heart.

5. It does sort of bug me that Maleficent is hyped up as super evil and dangerous, but in practice we mainly see her as losing to Regina, her BFF, and vaguely chiding a group that stole from her. And she was a dragon, and there’s been talk of what she did to Aurora, but she just comes off a little weak.

6. rumple is the first person on the show to discuss deaging anybody, which is interesting given future plots and revelations.

7. I love rumple but he is in fact an awfully horrifying person. Like, The Crocodile started out and Milah was callous towards him and Hook was a bully. He comes back with power, planning to murder Hook for taking (and, Rumple thinks, raping and killing) his wife. Milah comes out and tells him she’s alive and admits to lying to escape him, and he still has to be bartered with to stop murdering Hook (which was supposed to be revenge for Milah). It’s understandable that he’s still upset, but then when his ex wife is trying to honestly explain herself, he murders her—CLEARLY projecting his own issues with abandoning Bae. I sympathize with him, of course, knowing that in the present he’s more or less trying to be better, and usually directing his energy in a more productive direction, but like… I don’t think Hook’s wrong for wanting revenge.

8. I’m not a fan of how they chose to make their version of Hook. That man is NOT CAPTAIN HOOK, and I could just call him Killian and convince myself he’s not the real Hook but just some other pirate guy, but honestly the name Killian bugs me even more. But in practice, the character’s perfectly good as his own character. More than anything else, it’s just annoying that they either did minimal research or threw virtually everything out before slapping a couple of Captain Hook traits on a completely new pirate character. Other characters are either super recognizable as the most well-known version of the story, or were cardboard cutouts in the original leaving room for whatever. Idk, it’s fine just irritating.

9. ANYWAY I think from Hook’s perspective, he played the role of a giant bully to discourage Milah’s weak husband from coming after her, and to help her escape her boring life and loveless marriage. And then later, he was trying to shield her from an ex who suddenly turned up powerful and abusive. I don’t know if this was old meta I read or what, but I immediately concluded that he plays parts an awful lot, and am trying to compare this to what I saw in other pirate media (ie mainly Black Sails). I maintain OUAT Hook is a giant weenie compared to most other pirates in media, but I guess the whole point here is that he’s a big softie underneath his exterior, going for revenge because his heart was broken.

10. I love how Ruby automatically protects any and all women without batting an eye. Ladies helping ladies!

11. I forgot just how bad Bae’s abandonment issues should be. Jesus fucking Christ. First abandoned by his mother, then he slowly loses his father to the dark one curse and becomes a social pariah, then his father breaks a promise and abandons him to another entire world. I’ll have to update this litany of tragedy as I go forward and remember more details; I know he is briefly taken in by the Darlings and then goes to Neverland, and he then has a short period of doing Treasure Island with Hook before he figures out this guy’s the reason his mom abandoned him, and then he’s stuck in neverland for a long time before getting to the real world in more or less the present day. And of course he’s then coerced into leaving Emma, and abandons his own son without realizing it. Neal’s gonna have so many issues, I cannot WAIT.

12. I adore OUATW’s Jafar, who I like to call Hot Jafar. They did a wonderful job of giving him motivation that’s so complex and interesting I want it to be the backstory of every Jafar, and making him understandable without making him less ruthless and terrifying.

13. recently on regular ouat, Henry was chilling in Emma’s car, so I’m not sure my timeline even has a fixed point anymore. OUATW could even have started during The Doctor, which features a storm. And the two shows were not designed to be watched like this—maybe with s3. HOWEVER, there continue to be fascinating parallels popping up between the two shows when watching them like this. OUAT had The Crocodile, OUATW had The Serpent. OUATW had an episode about Jafar learning magic and how far he was willing to go, OUAT’s next episode was about Regina learning magic and being pushed to go farther than she wanted to.

14. ugh I love the Will/Ana dynamic so much. It’s so spicy and interesting compared with all regular OUAT relationships!

15. it occurs to me that it’s also just possible that Regina chose to bring Jefferson and Victor along in her curse because she thought they might be useful, and Jefferson maybe was just able to resist the amnesia of the curse because of his portal jumping abilities. She doesn’t seem to be particularly pissed off with either one of them, and she had zero qualms about asking Jefferson to help her. And they WERE both useful to her; aside from keeping an eye on David for her and keeping Henry alive when he had the sleeping curse, Whale was probably very helpful as she tried to raise a small child.

16. Victor literally thought her curse destroyed his world and he was the sole survivor. And found himself the sole survivor of a whole world, living in a community of refugees from another world that all know each other and follow the same rules and logic as each other, while he only knows them from the curse. I think it’s interesting he (apparently) didn’t try to talk to Jefferson or Rumple until after his science failed and he couldn’t get Regina to send him home. Probably he didn’t know Jefferson was there until after he heard about Charming talking to him, and Regina absolutely relied on Whale during the curse and she was still a nice, relatively innocent young woman when he knew her, so it’s not really surprising he thought he might be able to convince her to help him despite leading an angry mob to her like a couple days ago. And of course, he was both intimidated by Rumple and too proud of his own methods to admit to needing magic until he thoroughly failed, and presumably didn’t trust anybody from the magical fantasy world to perform decent surgery to reattach his arm. (…I tried writing so many fanfics about him back in the day and it sounds like I may need to try again) I still think there were some deliberate light Wizard of Oz hints sprinkled into The Doctor. Maybe we were just meant to be misled for this one episode, but I am still convinced that SOMEBODY in the writers’ room wanted to make Victor also be the Wizard of Oz. Not gonna lie, I had an entire theory about that and I am still positive it would have been better than the nonsense Oz plot we got.

I finally came up with a selection of gifs describing each (regular OUAT) episode in s2 so far! Next time I think I might do gifs for all OUATW so far, because I have an absolutely perfect gif for the next episode… but we’ll get there.

(…I want to find a good collection of gifs for Emma, especially something resembling the FACES she makes when confronted with magical nonsense, but haven’t had much luck so far)

#OUAT

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slowlydamageme · 1 year

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My overall thoughts on Slow Damage

SPOILERS FOR ALL ROUTES AHEAD YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED they're mostly vague but still read at your own risk

Having finished the game after bingeing it for like 2 weeks straight I'm left feeling a little conflicted.

When looking at the story as a whole it's a solid 9/10. If it wasn't a hardcore BL game I'd be recommending it to all of my friends because woaaa it's soooooo goood!!

However, there are so many little things with the game that bug me.

The sequential route setup

The way the routes are set up kind of made me feel like everything before Fujieda's route was just there to extend the length of the game. Don't get me wrong though! Taku, Rei, and Madarame's stories were enough to keep me coming back for more in the moment but once you get the full story through Fujieda everything else feels like filler. It 100% feels like they wrote his route first then were all like "ah, we need more boys for Towa to fuck otherwise the fans will be disappointed" I get that it's common practice in VNs to have the 'canon' pairing so to speak but it never felt quite so egregious in dmmd and it just left me feeling 'meh' to see it happen here. It doesn't help that while I was playing through Rei and Taku's routes I noticed that they didn't really feel 'complete'. I had chalked it up to covid-era development woes but then realized "oh... THIS is the story" after tens of hours when I finally made it to the final chapter of the game.

If I had to compare it to something that a lot of people would be familiar with then Rei/Taku's routes would be the 2003 anime version of fullmetal alchemist, Fujieda's would be brotherhood, and Madarame's route would land somewhere in the middle of the two in terms of how 'complete' they all feel.

And now to actually complement the format

Despite the shortcomings described above, the way the routes are set does help the story tell itself in small pieces sometimes. I am actually surprised by how much narrative consistency there is between routes. After you play through Rei/Taku's stories you get to sit there finger-wagging them every time they suspiciously disappear because you know EXACTLY what they're up to. And the package that shows up in Madarame's route being significant in Fujieda's route was really good and sheds some light on Sakaki's behaviour in Madarame's route too. They were good little flavour touches that add depth to the game so I can't entirely fault the N+C team for telling the story in the order that they did.

I'm going to complain about the semes now

Honestly, I found them all a little boring? Perhaps that's a result of having such a strong and interesting MC but Towa shines far brighter than any of the guys he can end up with on the main routes (ie not Kotarou/Mayu). Rei was the only one with a remotely interesting character design at first glance and was the only one that didn't immediately strike me with a 'bara daddy but softer' vibe. Of course, that kinda got ruined by the fact that his route is all about him becoming more 'manly' (whatever that means) so I don't even know what to think about him anymore to be honest. Taku's design is stereotypical for a slightly rough around the edges doctor type character so I wasn't impressed there. Furthermore, he was ruined for me because of how much he knows and how much he keeps from Towa. He's the closest thing Towa has to a trustworthy parental figure and he's not very trustworthy at all. Madarame.... well... If I had played this game like 7+ years ago I probably would have loved him but as it stands his kidnapping, grooming, and Stockholm syndrome-ing of Towa just turned my stomach the entire time I was playing his route. Hits a little too close to home for me to like his route even the slightest although the scene where Towa is disguised as one of Toono's bodyguards and walks up to him all secret agent style to tell Toono that Madarame wants to speak with him was 9999/10 It's not a real critique, I know, but I spent so much mental energy just trying to get through it that I don't really have much to say about him other than he's a god damn asshole. Fujieda is a weird one. I think his character design is hella boring just like the rest but he grew on me during his route. His personality feels a little like a more uptight Taku but he's also more trustworthy by the end of his route than I felt Taku was at the end of his. He's def my favourite of the four, even if I wish he was just a liiiiiittle more interesting i think the scars were probably trying to achieve this but by this point in the game I'm so used to everyone being fucked up that it's not very impactful to me.

So basically what I'm trying to say is... why are all the really interesting characters (in terms of both design and personality) just 'side' characters rather than having full routes for themselves? Igarashi, Kotarou, and Mayu deserved better imho and Eiji might be ace but I wish he had some sort of small side-route or something... And don't even get me STARTED on Ikuina I have so many feelings about this strawberry flower boy. I guess this is what fanfiction is for I suppose.

Conclusion

Slow Damage has an absolutely amazing story with all the dark, gritty, debasement you'd expect of an N+C game and the MC is by far one of the most likeable of all their games imho. Sadly, if you're like me you're going to have to be in it for the long haul to get to a conclusion that makes the story feel complete and once you do it might make the other routes feel a little disappointing. Still, I would recommend this game to anyone that likes the kind of dark stuff N+C puts in their games because it was 100% worth the coin I spent on it despite my misgivings.

#slow damage #a stupid review #slowly rambling

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bonelady · 2 years

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Just finished Mostly Harmless, and with it the Hitchhiker's Guide books as Douglas left them.

I was pretty down on the first one, as I'd read it before a couple times growing up (I'd read the whole series at like, 12 or 13 and the vast majority of it flew over my head) and once you know what the twists are, it doesn't have a lot holding it up. It was interesting having seen Adams compared to Pratchett before really reading either, and finding that they are wholly dissimilar, from style to intent to message. Terry Pratchett gave a shit about humanity. There is a love and a reverence for people that pervades his work. Adams was a Dawkins-type Atheist, and it showed in his writing. When you ignore the twists of the first book, aside from a few good jokes the book boils down to "everything that has happened or will ever happen is random. There is no God or meaning". The only thing they really have in common is that they're British satire writers.

The second book in the trilogy (the six book "trilogy"), The Restaurant at the End of the Unverse is actually a lot of fun, if not the most memorable. The writing is a lot punchier, the jokes more frequent. All the side characters that show up are *way* more interesting than anyone of the main cast. Some of the bits at Milliways were really good, but little bits of worldbuilding (like in the notably infinite universe there being only 50 major lifeforms, and the fact that most space life is generally humanoid) point to a lack of broader imagination about space that kinda bugged me. There are more interesting jokes that you can make than 'the gjdiwlebfudje people of planet crumoulous theta were kinda weird with it' ad nauseum. A lot of the book is also the same sort of 'everything is basically happenstance' bit.

The third and formerly final book, Life, the Universe, and Everything, was actually adapted from a rejected Doctor Who special that Adams had pitched. It's mostly an extended cricket joke and aside from a few pretty good jokes was largely unmemorable. The antagonist and its motives were introduced over halfway into the book and as a result didn't feel very impactful. The most notable thing that happens in this books is what I have to assume was originally a throwaway line that became the basis of the entire fifth book.

The fourth book, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, is where things start to get interesting, if not necessarily good. Arthur Dent returns to a version of the Earth that wasn't destroyed by the Vogons in the first book, and meets a manic pixie dream girl. The book is largely about their relationship, the nature of preception, and finishes setting up the last book's conceit of the fifth dimension being probability and the way that produces alternate Earths. It's probably the first interesting bit of sci-fi worldbuilding he does (the creation of the Improbability Drive is funny, but not like, an interesting scifi hook), and its not even really explored in this book.

Mostly Harmless, the fifth book of the trilogy, and the last that Adams wrote is probably my favorite. It does however start with Adams immediately killing off the love interest from the last book (a symptom of his broader lack of ability to write compelling female characters). It's altogether more nihlistic and I think has some funnier jokes than a lot of the series, even if the plot itself was a bit wobblier. The underlying story of the book is about trying to find your place in the nightmare that is our Universe and making what meaning you can. It ends with him killing everyone off in a way that calls back the throwaway line from the third book, which got a good fucking laugh out of me because I hadn't noticed other jokes earlier in the book that pointed to the ending. I think despite the aforementioned plot wobbliness (in a series of frankly quite a bit of deus ex machina and hand waving), it's probably the sharpest of his books. I much prefer the more grounded nihilistic edge that it takes compared to the much more flippant earlier entries.

There is also something to say about those last two books that he appended onto the original trilogy, and the way that they are very much only loosely connected, both in terms of content and style. It feels very much like someone coming back to an argument with 'And another thing!', although I'm not sure if they would have sat with me as well if they were their own things. Looking at the review scores and the alternate ending that people penned for the radio play adaptation, people really did not care for the darker tone. The alternate ending is also especially cringe, for lack of a better word.

Altogether, I think the series probably sits somewhere in the middling to pretty alright range for me, but it is especially a product of it's time and creator (as all things are, but you get what I mean). Read em if you want to get references to the series beyond the number 42, but probably keep your expectations low.

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baezdylan · 2 years

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By the way there's a character on Cobra Kai who's really into Doctor Who...

This little guy!

He's can be kinda badly written tho lol cause basically his entire personality is just "lol nerd is unpopular". It's funny, the show makes an entire point about how one of Johnny's biggest problems is that he's living in the past, but the show itself lives in the past in some ways, mostly that they haven't caught up to the fact that nerd culture is mainstream now. Like, my dude Demetri here gets bullied for, um *checks notes* liking Game of Thrones? It's so stupid, he'll make a Game of Thrones reference and everyone looks at him like they think he's weird and don't know what the fuck he's talking about and I'm just here like "You're literally the weird ones here if you don't know who Daenerys Targaryen is." Then there's this moment where Daniel gets through to him about Karate by speaking in his language (aka Game of Thrones references) and Demetri looks genuinely shocked that he knows about Game of Thrones and I'm just like "OMG IT WAS LITERALLY LIKE THE BIGGEST SHOW IN THE WORLD WHEN IT WAS AIRING STOP TRYING TO GASLIGHT ME SHOW!" Also like every word out of his mouth is a reference to something nerdy, and not even good references he basically just name drops characters lol, literally no one talks like that the writers are so stupid.

I love him, though. I love him so much because I decided to. Literally I saw all these annoying decisions the writers were making that really bugged me and just said "No, I am going against my instincts and deciding to love this dude despite what happens. It shouldn't be that hard, he is a dark haired nerd after all, that's just my type." And so I love him now (see I am just like Lorelai Gilmore). He just needs a little spice. I just need to reheat him a little in my head and he'll be great. Just some minor changes shy of perfection and I decided to take on that job.

I think you could really help with joining me to perfect him with your Doctor Who angle and everything.

Mal, I love you for this let's adopt that little guy... (+ both of us having a thing for characters who are bound to the past in some way... we are merging into the same person) I've seen my fair share of GOT btw, my mom and I used to watch it casually. (read: we were Gilmore-ing together, literally Lorelai and Rory) I feel like there's a discussion to be had about different characters and how they would be written if guided by different creators which is why fandom is such a fascinating concept to me, especially fic writing! You get to meet so many different versions of the same character and even though you might disagree with a particular interpretation, it's still kinda fun and requires brain gymnastics, dissecting why you disagree with a certain point and comparing your opinions to the opinions of others. It's pretty awesome that you saw a character and said: I see you! I think you could be great! It's such a welcoming approach to fiction and a love letter to imagination in a way. I'D BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO HELP!!!! If you wanna rewrite him, feel free to reach out (I love it when you talk to me about fandoms I'm not in, I LOVE to know more about well... everything, I just wish I could control the passage of time somehow) Considering how being a DW fan is a personality trait for him just like it is for me, I'd be honoured to contribute to this project. (also he looks so cute dhjdjdjdjdkdkd my DW obsessed nerd) I'm gonna go through his tag and try to figure out who would his favourite character be.

#💌restless wind inside a letter box💌#mal the writer wizard 💜💫📝

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321spongebolt · 2 years

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“What if Operation was adapted into a TV show?”, well, you’re about to find out!

For starters, I would have the production of this show handled by the same people who worked on “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, “Littlest Pet Shop (2012)” and “Pound Puppies (2010)”. Distribution-wise, I would pick either Universal or Paramount, with worldwide distribution by WildBrain Studios. This also applies to the show’s DVD, Blu-Ray, and Ultra HD Blu-Ray releases by Shout! Factory.

RATING

While “Operation” will still be marketed as a kids’ show, the best thing to do would be to give the series a TV-PG rating. It’s not because it’s got swearing in it (it actually wouldn’t). It’s not because there’s family-unfriendly violence. It’s not because there’s smoking and drinking (Obviously those will send the wrong messages to kids, or cause a controversy.). It’s because in order to be faithful to the board game it’s based on, some scenes will have Cavity Sam torn up in a certain spot so the doctors and nurses working on Sam can extract the funatomy part of the episode out. While it’s still aimed for kids, a “Viewer Discretion is Advised” title card will be put up before every episode.

GENRE: SILLY OR SERIOUS?

Well, I would kind of have it be a bit of both. Sure, it can be silly. But at the same time, have Cavity Sam’s injuries be serious, this way, people who are generally scared of Sam’s nose lighting up feel sorry for Cavity Sam. If you want to, maybe have the first episode be an origin story about why Sam has that red nose on him that lights up and makes that buzzing sound every time he gets physically hurt.

ANIMATION

Like those other three Hasbro shows mentioned above, “Operation” can be done with 2D flash animation. It art direction can be somewhat identical to “Littlest Pet Shop” in a way. In fact, cameos of characters from past Hasbro programs can be shown in the background, but we’ll get to that later.

SETUP

I’m flexible with the series either having one episode taking up a full 30 minutes, or have the series consist of two 11-minute episodes. Either way, each episode focuses on the ailment bugging Sam like the frog in the throat, the Adam’s apple, the bread basket, the water on the knee, and anything else from the classic game itself. In terms of originality, some episodes can have original new funatomy parts created just for this show like brain storm, chicken fingers, twinkle toes.

The series would be about 2 seasons long at best, as the first season would focus solely on Cavity Sam. Season 2 on the other hand can focus on his dog, Rex-Ray, the mascot of 2020′s “Operation: Pet Scan”.

CAST

As I mentioned before in my previous post, I would personally choose Jack McBrayer as the voice of Cavity Sam because I felt his natural speaking voice fits the character perfectly. Other than him, I don’t really know anyone else who would work best. As far as the voices of the doctors, nurses, and other medically trained professionals, you can do what “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” did by allowing North American and Canadian voice talents.

CALL-BACKS

Some of Sam’s funatomy parts from “Operation Brain Surgery” can have episodes too.

Dr. Humerus from the 2008 PC game, “Operation Mania” can appear as either a cameo or supporting character. Who should voice him? I don’t know.

Some of the other doctors and nurses from past box art for the game and its spinoffs can appear too like the female surgeon from 2007′s “Operation Rescue Kit Game” and the male surgeon from 2008′s “Silly Skill Game” version.

CAMEOS

Blythe Baxter from “Littlest Pet Shop” can appear as a silent cameo in some episodes. If Ashleigh Ball ever wanted to reprise her role as Blythe, I’m more than welcome to allow her to.

Other cameos include plush toys and action figures of other Hasbro characters like the ones from “My Little Pony” and “Transformers”.

MUSIC

Daniel Ingram and Steffen Andrews can provide the score for the series, and songs too if you’d like. Though, if the show ever gets any musical numbers, then whatever song they use for the show should be available on CD and Digital with the just the music and pre-recorded voice acting alone.

I don’t know anything else to include, but this is all I can think of for right now.

#321SPONGEBOLT's Ideas #meme template #operation #operation board game #operation game #cartoon concept #show concept #show idea #tv concept #tv show concept #tv show idea

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elxctrics · 6 months

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the sinclair/calvary family

"you got a fast car, is it fast enough so we can fly away? still gotta make a decision - leave tonight, or live and die this way."

persephone sinclair (37 years old)

julian calvary (36 years old)

austen sinclair (22 years old)

archie sinclair (22 years old)

tw: abortion mention, drugs, alcoholism, depression, overdose

she didn't know that there was more to life than work - thought her sole purpose of existence was to work hard, to be the best she could be and most importantly, make her parents proud. they wanted her to be an oscar winning starlet and working towards that was all she had ever known. that is, until she walked on the set of the mickey mouse clubhouse and locked eyes with a curly haired, blue eyed shy boy that had stolen her heart from the moment she met him. she was only twelve years old, but the second she saw him sheepishly smile at her, she knew that she was home.

an outgoing child, because she was forced to be, she spent all of her time around the shy and reserved julian calvary, wanting to know everything there was to know about him, was fascinated and mesmerized by his tales of what his life was like - going to school, playing with his friends, going on family vacations. and it was through his stories that she realized for the first time that she wasn't normal and that her family wasn't actually a family. they'd spend their days on set disappearing on the backlots, running away from responsibilities and coming up with elaborate plans on how they were going to run away together.

persephone couldn't have been more excited when they both got cast in freaks and geeks together - work simply didn't feel like work when she got to be around him all day. and much to the dismay of the rest of the cast, the crew and especially, persephone's parents, as they entered being teenagers, they were even more crazy about each other. it wasn't rare to find them with their lips locked in a secluded corner, constantly entangled in each other and always needing to hold the others hand or have their arms around each other. and it was excessive, but it was the first time in her life that persephone had felt love and she swore that this was a love that she'd never let go of or tire of. whoever found themselves in the unfortunate circumstance of being in the overly affectionate couple's presence often joked that if they kept at it, they'd end up creating mini versions of themselves and boy, were they right.

she was fifteen years old when her usually, over energetic self started to feel sluggish, started hating the smell of her favorite foods and started having to run off set in the middle of filming to puke. and for weeks, she was in denial that it was nothing more than a bad stomach bug, not wanting to accept what was right in front of her face. but one day, after being too sick to show up for her call time and after realizing she had missed her time of the month, she had her assistant take her to the doctor where everything she was hiding from was confirmed - she was pregnant with twins.

she was young, but she wasn't naive enough to know what this meant - knew that the world would rip her apart, knew that her parents would rip her apart, knew that julian was just as young as she was and that what were the odds that he'd want to stick around? she was on the road to becoming a serious actress, her career just starting to blossom. she had been working since she was just two years old to get to where she was - a baby, let alone two of them, would halt everything. she was absolutely terrified and who's the first person that a girl turns to when they're scared to death? her mother.

however, she didn't get to cry into her mother's arms, didn't receive any kind of warmth or reassurance from the stoic woman. she simply said 'we'll take care of this' and scheduled her for an abortion that week. her and julian had never kept secrets from each other, and she wasn't about to start now, so she told him, but reassured him not to worry and that her mom was going to help her take care of it - not giving him a say or a chance to share his thoughts on the matter. this was her choice and she was sticking to it - having these babies would be bad for the both of them, she knew it. what she didn't know, however, was that her doctors would sell her sonograms to the tabloids the night before her abortion appointment.

the sinclairs had to completely pivot on their plans and decided that persephone and julian were going to become the poster children for making this work, an abortion after the news was out simply would be bad for both of their images and that was something the sinclairs couldn't take. overnight, the relationship that had once been her one and only safe space became something else that her parents got their hands on and because of what they had done - they were in her parents' control without even knowing it. they were hiding behind the sweet promises of 'we'll protect you two' and 'we'll take care of everything' and what kid wouldn't believe that?

austen and archibald sinclair came screaming into the world when persephone and julian were only sixteen years old, and while julian seemed more okay with it than persephone was, persephone went into absolute shock. while julian held the babies in the hospital, persephone couldn't even stand to look at them, only putting a smile on her face when the cameras from 'people magazine' came in to shoot the cover spread that was going to feature the new, happy family. but persephone was anything but. she was absolutely miserable, felt as though she could barely take care of herself and now, the weight of two lives was upon her shoulders. and her mother took note of this - noticed the look of dread and despair written all over her daughter's face - saw the way she didn't even want julian to touch her when the two had spent the past four years attached at the hip, and that's when the drugs started. lucielle and jasper needed persephone on her a-game and if numbing all the things she was feeling kept her there, then so be it.

lucielle and jasper took full control of not only the twin's lives, but julian and persephone's lives. julian was managed by the sinclairs as they put him on the path to oscar stardom that they had originally wanted persephone on and as for persephone, considering her 'girl next door, good girl' image was now tarnished, they decided to feed into what the world thought of her and turned her into an overly sexualized pop sensation. besides, two different career paths meant the more time julian and persephone spent apart and that's all the sinclairs wanted. however, despite lucielle and jasper raising their babies and the two of them on separate career paths, nothing could stand in the way of how much they loved each other. they'd fall asleep at night, wherever they were in the world, on the phone with one another, making up sweet stories about how they'd run away from all of this and start over, even though they both knew deep down that they were trapped. but it was fun playing pretend.

the only time julian and persephone spent as a family with the babies was when lucielle and jasper allowed, or when they simply wanted a photo op of the 'happy family' that had 'managed to juggle it all.' but persephone didn't know her children. she didn't know their favorite colors or what their favorite food was, didn't know how to soothe them when they were crying or even how to speak to them, julian had always done a better job at that and whenever she was around them? she just felt sad, sad that she had birthed the two most beautiful things she had ever laid eyes on and she didn't even know who they were, which caused her to take more and more drugs.

the memory that stuck out to her most was the time that they had a family beach day completely staged for the paparazzi. her and julian had been fighting because of what had been coming out in the tabloids about her and she was dreading coming face to face with the children she was forced to leave behind. she had been so high that day she was barely there, completely spaced out. it was when her little son came up to her calling her out on it that she realized that none of this was her poor babies faults, it was hers. she could win grammy after grammy and sell out show after show, but her children would always see her as nothing but a failure. she cried the rest of the day until her parents forced her to leave because she was causing a scene. after that day, she only got worse and worse as the weeks and months went on.

despite that, lucielle and jasper weren't going to lose this 'all american' branding that they had worked so hard to curate. when persephone and julian were twenty years old, lucielle gave julian a ring and simply said 'you know what to do.' the two were married in a lavish, televised wedding ceremony, their children acting as ring bearer and flower girl as they put on the show for the entire world. and persephone doesn't remember a single second of that day. she had been so spaced out at her own wedding that things between her and julian began to become tense. the image of the couple that defied the odds began to crumble as tabloids and paparazzi followed the two everywhere - the two of them often seen screaming at each other in dark clubs or persephone running away from him after another verbal spat in public. they became messy and toxic and everything they swore that they'd never be.

they only lasted four years before they inevitably divorced when they were twenty four years old and the next two years would be the worst of persephone's life. she felt as though she had no one. she lost her best friend and the only semblance of sanity she had left and fell further and further into addiction - often calling him up and picking fights whenever she saw footage of him with other girls, simply because it was the only way she could hear his voice. she spent those two years living in a hotel room in las vegas as she wore herself out performing night after night at her residency and after each and every performance, she lost a little bit more of herself while julian went on to skyrocket into a star. she hated him for being so okay without her, because losing him had sent her over the deep end.

it only took a year for her to have a complete public breakdown and at the end of her twenty four hour bender, she was exhausted. she laid on her bathroom floor - head shaved, barely able to breath, feeling life slipping away from her, as her entire life flashed before her eyes. and as she tried to think of a time where she was happy, all she could see was a twelve year old persephone and julian, running around the back lots with their hands intertwined, promising each other the world. she used her last bit of strength to reach for her phone, to call julian to say goodbye, and that was the last thing she remembered before everything went dark.

when she woke up in the hospital and saw that julian was the only one there next to her bedside, it was as if a switch went off. she was given another chance and her head immediately went to her children. all of the love she had never felt for them came rushing to her all at once and she realized that they were the reason that she didn't die that night, that they were the ones that she had to keep going for and to fight for their lives, because there was no way in hell she was going to allow them to end up like her. and one year in rehab and a grueling court case against her parents later, persephone made that happen.

upon gaining custody of the twins when they were eleven years old, her and julian immediately agreed that everything would be 50/50, that they would do whatever they could to make sure that their kids had as much of a normal life as they possibly could, that they'd do their best to rectify all of the wrong that persephone's parents had done. she immediately pulled them out of hollywood, moved out to palm springs and enrolled them in normal school as she stepped out of the spotlight and dedicated one hundred percent of her time and herself to her children. however, they both had completely different reactions to this upheaval of their lives.

while archie started out cautious and quiet, eventually warming up to persephone and becoming her little best friend, austen was defiant. she fought everything persephone tried to do, screamed that she hated her and that she wanted to go back to grandpa and grandmas and cursed her for taking her away from them. but persephone never scolded her or shouted at her. she gave her the grace to feel all of the big feelings she was feeling, she stepped back when she asked her to, and held her on the rare occasions that she allowed her to. she never wanted her kids to feel the way she felt growing up, the way she was certain her own parents had made then feel in the eleven years that they had them. as difficult as things could be at times with two pre-teens, persephone looked at them each and every day with so much love in her eyes because for the first time, she felt like she mattered, she felt like she was doing something important and while she may have failed at everything else in this world, she wasn't going to fail her kids.

while the defiance and phases of pre-teens and teenagers was inevitable, what came as a surprise to her was how involved julian had been. with her parents completely out of the picture, she grew much closer to the calvary's, who had been the ones who got her out of the mess she was in. and despite their original agreed upon schedule, they spent far more time as a family than persephone ever expected. julian was at her house more often than not - from random week night family dinners, to falling asleep on each other's shoulder on the couch when they were up all night with sick kids and they had finally gotten them to fall asleep. they made sure to fill their free time with family vacations, just the four of them, as it always should have been, and they soon realized just how well they worked as a team.

every decision about the children was made together. they faced every hardship side by side and they didn't just 'put on a united front' for the sake of the kids, they truly became each other's very best friends. the kids never saw nothing but two people with the utmost respect for one another, who genuinely enjoyed being together and couldn't help but laugh in one another's presence. and as the years went on, persephone saw more and more of the curly haired, blue eyed shy boy that had stolen her heart from the moment she met him. and she fell in love with him all over again. only this time? he has no idea. and she's convinced it's better this way, convinced that after everything they've been through, he'd never look at her the way he once did, despite how much her heart aches for him. so she's decided to bury it, for the sake of their friendship and their family.

the first eleven years of motherhood were cruelly stolen from her. she'd never know what it would be like to snuggle into that newborn baby smell. she'd never experience the joy of hearing that first word or watching first steps. she'd never get to hold their little hand in hers as she walked them to their first day of school. she'd never get to sing them to sleep on nights when they were having nightmares and were still little enough to lay in her bed with her. but she can't bring her mind to that place, it only breaks her when it does. instead, she does the best she can today, to be a pillar of strength for her kids, to constantly remind them that they're loved and that no matter what, she's there. and even though she wasn't there in the beginning, she swears to them that she'll be there for every day after that.

#persephoneheadcanons

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