Exploring Unconventional Bad Kid/Ratgrinder Parallels

Obviously, when Brennan introduced the Ratgrinders in FHJY, some clear parallels in class composition popped up. Every member of the Bad Kids has a corresponding Ratgrinder who shares their general build/role in the party and (presumably) some of their psychological issues as well. But when I was rotating the characters in my mind, as one does, I realized that there were some other interesting character foils to be pointed out. I've listed them below under the read more, along with more detailed thoughts on what aspects of the characters are highlighted with each comparison.

Also I spent way too much time working on this, so I'm including a DNI banner on here (made by @kipperlillyforpresident, who also graciously let me bounce ideas off in the DMs)

Kipperlilly Copperkettle/Gorgug Thistlespring: the first parallel that i came up with. they both have issues around rage that are belied by their physical appearance, with klck being a tiny halfling who experiences an excessive amount of rage that doesn't "benefit" her adventuring-wise as she's a rogue, while on the hand, gorgug is a half-orc who started out as a barbarian in part because it is what he's physically predisposed to be, despite actually having an extremely gentle personality, only transitioning to artificer in his junior year. both have relatively normal middle-class backgrounds but still have issues; klck's anger issues regarding not having a tragic backstory are well-documented, but gorgug also has baggage that made him minimize his presence at the beginning of his high school career, stemming from growing up in a household where rage wasn't really considered at all bc it's an emotion so antithetical to the thistlesprings' way of existence (to be clear, i think the thistlesprings are great parents; it's just that they didn't really know how to address this aspect of gorgug's development)

Ruben Hopclap/Fabian Seacaster: black boys showing off the sensitive side of masculinity. last episode established that the ratgrinders are living in ruben's mansion, which he presumably bought with his rockstar money and lives in without any parental figures, meaning that he and fabian have similar living situations and probably similar issues with trying to avoid loneliness that result in attention-seeking behavior (ruben's music career and fabian's max legend status). finally, the turncoat potential: fabian has admitted to listening to ruben's music and beefed with gertie bladeshield against the rest of the bad kids. meanwhile, ruben's experiencing some sort of guilt/reluctance with the ratgrinders' plan as expressed through his interactions w/ wanda childa. i believe they can bridge the bad kid/ratgrinder divide and i want them to be friends sooo bad

Ivy Embra/Fig Faeth: most straightforward similarity is their sylvan elf heritage, but i think that the similarity that matters the most would be their image/self-portrayal, with ivy being a sort of mean girl with an edge, similar to the type of person that fig wanted to portray herself as in freshman year (even though fig is actually much more soft-hearted/sentimental). this comparison is honestly more of a what-could-be scenario that sheds light on potential alternate facets of fig's story bc 1) ivy being an elven ranger is pretty similar to sandra lynn but has the edgy persona fig only took on after she found out about her tiefling heritage and 2) we have literally no idea what's going on with ivy's emotional landscape. still, this comparison compels me, especially in light of finding out how porter and jace groomed the ratgrinders, and the way that sandra lynn got used by bobby dawn when he was an adventurer. it's like a dark mirror of what could have happened to fig if the circumstances were worse (and the fact that bobby dawn is a teacher in aguefort rn and was also collaborating with porter to an extent.... the cycles are cycling!!)

Mary-Ann Skuttle/Riz Gukgak: just little guys. specifically smaller races often stereotyped as villainous and acting in the service of the party rather than for themselves, though while we see that riz acts for the party out of genuine passion, mary-ann seems to be more apathetic. both are disconnected from regular teenage social norms, generally unbothered/unaware of looking "uncool", and more focused on their personal interests, as mary-ann has her plushies and riz has his mysteries (and his business cards from freshman year lol). even when riz joined all the school clubs this year, he did it for the sake of kristen's campaign/getting scholarship money to help his mom more than for his own reputation. another prominent similarity is a heavy compartmentalization of emotion: we don't really know what's going on with mary-ann but she hasn't shown any emotion even when trying out for bloodrush and seems remarkably unbothered for someone who's been presumably been shatter-starred. riz, in contrast, has a lot of emotions/anxieties but channels them into mystery solving and other activities, an approach encapsulated by the baron quote from fhsy: "You love the truth. You seek it so much that you cut your hands upon the inside of crystals. But, you use deception to protect yourself from something you fear." riz also isn't very forthcoming with his emotional state, evading questions from his mom and Jawbone, as well as his friends. His initial drive to solve mysteries stemmed from the emotion from his father's death, but iirc he didn't even tell the bad kids about how pok died until sophomore. And now, he's grinding in school/extracurriculars for scholarships to avoid considering the possibility of the bad kids splitting up

Buddy Dawn/Adaine Abernant: catty and blonde. (jk) both of them feel anger prominently and express it in their spellcasting (versus a more martial class), but in very different ways. adaine's whole arc throughout freshman and sophomore year has been about accepting that she has the right to be angry about the way that her parents abused her, and that her anger can be a source of power in her spellcasting; contrast the way she brained doreen with the ladle in the first battle with the corn cutie bc she didn't know what to do versus later battles in sophomore and junior year when she's learned adaine's furious fist. on the other hand, buddy uses his cleric spellcasting as a healer in order to sublimate discomforting feelings and avoid dealing with the idea of agency and consequences of emotions like anger. his whole conversation with kristen is basically him going "i don't feel anger because i repress it so deeply and i don't engage in violence, just help other people kill because that is helio's will. my hands are clean tho :)" (he is so funny) additionally, adaine has found a support system in her adventuring party, as well as jawbone and ayda, while buddy is the odd one out in the ratgrinders as lucy's replacement, isolated from preexisting support systems as he has just moved from highcourt and subsequently becoming so very vulnerable to getting shatterstarred

Oisin Hakinvar/Kristen Applebees: idk these are the only guys i have left. ok my original idea was they both have plot-relevance related to adaine's summons, with oisin hijacking adaine's dust mephits to tamper with the cloud rider engine and whatever the fuck is gonna go on with K2 in the next episodes. also have a narrative presence defined in part by the women they're crushing on, with kristen dealing with her attraction to tracker/gertie/women in general throughout all the campaigns and oisin being introduced as seemingly flustered by adaine's attention. but honestly i think the strongest parallel is that they're both haters (kristen calling klck "4dogs" and oisin calling buddy dawn "hayseed", fight!)

and of course, how could I forget...

Lucy Frostblade/Gilear Faeth: the Chosen Ones. both have plot relevance and relation to Ankarna through their ancestry. both just have a melancholy vibe. ppl from mountainous cultures often live off dairy products... i'm gonna extrapolate and assume that lucy loved blueberry yogurt

the one with the abortion - jj maybank × ex!fem!reader

summary: JJ is taking care of his ex!girlfriend because she's having an abortion

warnings: hurt/comfort, no happy ending

word count: 1.9k

author's note: inspired by that one episode in Heartbreak High season 2. I know it's a heavy topic, that's why I'm advising you to maybe not read it if you have a trigger or just don't feel comfortable with this kind of thing.

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You knock at the door of the Château and a moment later John B is standing before you, leaning in the door with an unpleasant look on his face.  “What do you want?” he snarls.  “Is JJ there? I need to talk to him,” you press out the words. Your heart lies heavy in your chest, throat dry and eyes close to tears.  “He doesn't want to see you,” John B replies, and you nod, knowingly. Of course, he didn't, you had broken up with him, had broken his heart and refused contact for a whole month.  “I know,” you bite your tongue and clear your throat. “It's important. Can you tell him I came by?”  “Sure. Whatever,” John B shrugs, and you leave, wrapping your arms around your middle to not start crying instantly. 

You walk home, it's not like you could call anyone to pick you up, either. But you have made your choice, and no matter what he'd say, it won't change it. So you go to your doctor, she prescribes you the pill and an hour later you sit at home, a hundred bucks lighter and with an even heavier weight on your shoulders.  The instructions are clear, take the pill, wait for the hours to pass and take the second one. And if your calculations are correct, you're gonna be able to survive school the next day before anything even starts to happen. It's easy. 

The next morning you wake up to light cramps, nothing that you hadn't expected, nothing you couldn't deal with. You get ready and make your way to school, ignoring the pain and instead focusing on the horrible day that lay before you. 

You are standing at your locker when he walks closer. You don't have to see him walk over to know it. JJ has the type of presence to him that just keeps pulling you in no matter how hard you try to stay away, and how much you wish right now that you had stayed away from the very start.  “Hey,” he greets you rather flat.  “Hi,” you give him a small smile, but he doesn’t reciprocate it.  “John B said you wanted to talk to me?”  “Yeah, but… it's, uh…, it's not really important anymore,” you murmur, looking into your locker instead of his striking blue eyes that made you fall in love with him in the first place.  “All right.” He rolls his eyes and is about to turn away when a rather nasty cramp hits you like a wall of bricks, and you cry out in pain, clawing at your abdomen.  “Y/n! Are you okay?” he lunges forward to hold onto you, no longer cold and distant, but the same way he always had for the months that you had been together.  “No,” the tears are starting to slowly trickle down your cheeks as you look up at him. “Can you take me home?”  “Yeah, of course,” he nods and holds you up the whole way home. It's not a far walk, but with every step you feel like your insides are being ripped to shreds. 

“Don't go,” you beg as he turns to the door after having laid you down in your bed. “Please don't leave me.” “I don't think it's a good idea,” JJ runs his hand through his hair. You know how weird it must be for him, after all the only reason you had broken up with him, was because you were scared that he could cheat on you. Simply because you didn't put much worth to yourself.  “I have no one else, please. Just today,” you cry, and he caves. Putting his backpack down and taking his boots off before climbing into bed to hold you as you tried to fight the pain. 

“What's happening?” JJ asks with a whisper, and you pull your face from his chest and peak up at him.  “Don't be mad at me,” you whisper.  “I don't think I can be mad at you for being in pain,” he smiles softly, flattening the hair on your head.  “I'm having an abortion,” you whisper, and he furrows his brows.  “What?”  “Right now.”  “How? What? Y/n/n what do you mean?” You can see his mind racing, trying to connect the dots and keep up with what you had just told him.  “You're pregnant?” he asks slowly, and you nod. “I wanted to tell you yesterday, but- John B didn't let me see you,” you whisper before groaning with how hard the last cramp had hit you.  “I mean- But- Whose is it?” JJ asks, and you feel like laughing about how ridiculous it all sounds.  “Yours. There wasn't anyone else, and timewise- I didn't plan on having an abortion, but you- and then I was alone, and I'm always alone, and we're too young anyway. I wouldn't be able to provide for it,” you ramble.  “Maybe we should call your doctor,” JJ says and reaches for your phone, the pin code still unchanged, to his surprise. 

You watch him carefully, helping him answer the questions and holding onto him for your dear life.  “All right, thank you,” he hangs up the phone and sighs.  “What now?” you ask, and he rolls to the side to get out of bed.  “She said you should take the second pill and keep yourself warm, so I'm letting in a bath,” JJ explains softly before leaving for the bathroom.  You reach over to your nightstand and take the second pill before getting up and dragging yourself to the bathroom.  “I would've come to get you, you shouldn't be walking,” JJ sounded concerned and pulled you into his arms.  He helps you take off your clothes and sits down next to the tub as soon as you are in. 

“I'm sorry you have to go through this,” he whispers, holding onto your hand.  “Life is funny like that. I always thought we'd do this the right way,” you sigh and let your head fall back to lean on the edge of the tub.  “The right way?” JJ asks quietly. “Finish school, get married, have a bunch of kids, grow resentful towards each other, divorce as soon as the kids are out of the house. The way everyone does it these days,” you explain through gritted teeth, the hot water is easing the pain, but it's still not gone completely.  “That doesn't sound happy to me.”  “It's not, but the start was. We'll hold onto that,” you sigh, closing your eyes and picturing one of the good days; a picnic at the beach that ended with the both of you drenched to the bones running back towards the Château. “We can try again,” he whispers, and you lift your head to look at him.  “I'm literally killing your child right now,” you say and he shrugs.  “Just cells, nothing we haven't done in a messier way before.”  “Don't make me laugh,” you close your eyes and force the chuckle away. “It hurts to laugh.”  “Sorry, princess. I don't know what else to talk about,” he leans his chin on the edge of the tub.  “Anything,” you beg quietly.  “We never- you know… I mean, how did it even happen?” JJ looks at you and you shake your head.  “Condom probably broke or something. I don't know. Doesn't matter.”  “You have a specific one in mind that we could've told the little blob about if it didn't get murdered?” JJ grinned and exhaled a long breath to not laugh.  “I don't know, was probably a boring one. Or just nothing anyone ever wants to know about,” you give him a lopsided grin.  “I like to think it was the supply closet, gives it some type of mystery.”  “Mystery?”  “Yeah. You know what's funny, I can't even remember how we got into that situation, but I'd do it again,” he smiles and brushes a strand of hair from your face. “I'd do it all again, no matter the pain.” “I'm sorry,” you whisper, but he shakes his head.  “Pope said it's not either of our fault, he said you were being a better person than most for leaving early instead of growing resentful towards me over your own dumb insecurities. He didn't call them dumb though, that's all me.”  “I can't help it,” you admit and he nods.  “I know, and I can't convince you. I would've given you the world if you'd let me. Just you, me and the blob, perfect little family.” He smiles, and you feel your heart sink even further.  “I do love you,” you hush, and he blinks two times before looking away.  “I don't think that's a good idea.” 

You sit in silence, he's still holding onto your hand and the water has gone more cold. It's not like you had wanted to, but your hormones were all over the place so it didn't surprise you when you started crying.  “Hey, y/n/n, what's up? Should I call the doctor? Pain meds? What can I do?” JJ asks, frantically searching for a solution to the problem.  “I don't wanna die, JJ. I'm scared. I'm so scared,” you cry, and he leans closer, holding your face in his hands and leaning his forehead against yours.  “You're not going to die. I won't let that happen,” he whispers, and you nod with him.  “I should've told you before. I'm sorry,” you weep, and he wipes your tears away.  “It's your choice, baby, I'm gonna be here either way, you know that,” he whispers, and your heart warms at his words. At the pet name he had always kept reserved just for you.  “It hurts,” you cry, and you don't know if it's because he still loves you or because he's scared, but the small kiss he presses to your lips relieves you of so much pain that you can only sigh into it.  “I didn't mean to-” you stop him with another kiss, quick and just as relieving as the first.  “Y/n/n, I love you, but we can't do this. We need time, just like you said and…, I don't know if that's enough,” he whispers against your lips.  “I know, but I want to forget the pain,” you admit and with a soft nod he allows you to kiss him again. It's gentle and not like you had usually done it, it felt like a last time, like a happy end. A tragic but beautiful happy end. 

You bite down on his bottom lip when a particularly nasty cramp hits you and JJ pulls away, looking at you with concern before you see his eyes go wide.  “I think you should get out of the water,” he mutters, and you look down at the fine trail of blood that was starting to mix with the water.  He leaves you alone in the bathroom, standing behind the door and constantly asking if you are okay, until you wrap yourself in a bathrobe and come out of the tiled room.  “I think it's gone,” you whisper and he nods.  “Do you want me to leave now?”  You shake your head, although you know it's a bad idea. “We can go back to not talking tomorrow, if that's okay.”  “All right,” he smiles, but his eyes are filled with pain, and you hate yourself even more than you had before. “Should we watch a movie?” 

That's how you spend the last few hours of your day, curled up in your bed, watching a romcom on your laptop until you fall asleep. And when you wake up the next morning, he is gone as if nothing had ever happened. 

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please don't copy and/or post my work onto other platforms! ~e©ho

taglist: @ijustwantttoread @spideysimpossiblegirl @redhead1180 @kys4-20 @drwstarkeyy @immyowndefender @julczimozart @princessmaybank

oh so it’s okay for you to kiss your friends?? but when i, judas iscariot,

another one that I'm not super happy with, but continuing to mess with it isn't going to help! so here he is! 🦇 there was a lot I was trying to get across in this one, so uhhhhh hopefully it reads.

we're almost out of unique magics now...just Ace (and maybe Grim?) left!

Okay i dont know if anyone else has pointed this out but throughout the vast majority of the ball (and honestly throughout many scenes in episode 5 as well but they don't seem as significant), Aziraphale and Crowley are on opposite sides of the screen they would normally be on. Particularly when Crowley is trying to tell Aziraphale about the demons outside the bookshop and he doesn't listen.

It's so interesting because this scene, in my opinion, is the crux of Aziraphale's denial and refusal to see what is actually going on and the danger of it (affectionate). The entire season we've witnessed Aziraphale downplay the real danger of hiding Gabriel in his bookshop. This is partly on Crowley, who knows more of the extent of the danger they're in and does not tell Aziraphale. BUT, we can't deny that Aziraphale is also ignoring the severity of the situation. I mean, he literally says that Crowley is overestimating the trouble they are in:

I just think it's INTERESTINGGGG. After the ball their positions return to normal and don't switch again until Episode 6 Crowley puts his sunglasses on and crosses to leave the bookshop.

It's also an interesting moment to choose switching their places on the screen because it's the moment Aziraphale's fantasy of being in Heaven with Crowley is crushed as well. You can tell that through Crowley's confession, Aziraphale isn't listening to a word he's saying, much like during the ball. BUT the dynamic doesn't switch until Crowley has totally rejected Aziraphale's offer.

Would love to hear anyone else's opinions on this, I could be overthinking it (I am the person who spent multiple days analyzing the lengths of Crowley's sideburns in each promo photo only to discover it was just a continuity error when the actual show came out LMAO.)

[...] right before captain Rose retired, the Four Pirate Lords…met. There’s a place in the Sakura Sea, or the Eastern Sea now, called The Crescent Chain. It’s like mountains. Huuuge mountains. And uh, they met so Rose could announce his retirement. Heh…all the rest of the crews of course didn’t join. Cause when the four pirates - these are the strongest pirates in the entire world - and when those four fight, doesn’t matter how strong we were. We weren’t helping. So they fought, but it was never malicious, always out of respect. Always ended in a draw. It’s said that the four original Pirate Lords are the ones that made the Pirate code. Though I mean, by our day it was more suggestion than rule. And when one of them wanted to retire like that, they needed the other three’s permission. Cause eventually someone was gonna take his seat, or so we thought. ~ Drey Ferin, episode 82.

Okay guys hear me out. HEAR ME OUT.

What if after everything is done, Arlin is found, Navy is fixed, the world is saved, what if after all that the three Riptide Captians become the three strongest pirate captains and finally take over and replace the legendary four as the new genration, the Three Pirate Lords? What if from then on THEY are be the ones to keep the balance in the world? The balance between the Undersea and the Navy, as the guardians and representatives of those who dare to call themselves free, the ones who keep the pirate code alive. What if after a while, they go their different ways, create seperate pirate crews, but occasionally they also meet in some faraway place, some secret special spot only they know about. And everytime they do, it feels like coming home.

Maybe the Four Pirate Lords were a family once too. Maybe the Three New Pirate Lords will always be one as well.

It's a cool AU idea, I think ^^ I'm already imagining how cool their legendary pirate outfits would be <3

Watching episode one of Voyager is like watching the first act of a horror movie

thinking about the time i got to chat with eric and melissa (and nathan) and melissa recognized my sailor moon tattoo in my zoom pfp and immediately starting singing the theme song. 🥺💗

I really do deserve a fucking apology for all the times my friends and family valued strangers on the internet and their opinions more than me

How am I supposed to be just fine with being ignored for years and years or bullied for openly liking what I like, only for those same fucking people to then turn around YEARS LATER, AFTER THE DAMAGE WAS ALREADY DONE, and be like "actually this is cool, so glad I found it" while still ignoring me. Why am I not allowed to be fucking pissed about it? Why is it considered ""gatekeepy"" when I get upset someone who deliberately ignored me for years and insulted the shit I enjoy when I asked them to get into it cuz I thought they'd like it suddenly finds interest in it because it got popular online, not because I'd been begging them to give it a chance and to listen to me for years???? Why is that not allowed????? THAT'S SUCH AN ASSHOLE MOVE, WHY IS IT 'NOT OKAY' TO BE MAD? WHY DON'T THEY GROW A SPINE AND APOLOGIZE FOR DISMISSING ME FIRST? HOW ABOUT THAT?????

Being the way I am, I ignore the shit I haven’t processed, but now I’m crying because I don’t want to go to camp

I've been officially in 2024 for 33 minutes and it's great so far 😁

Happy new year to all of you again!!

No one talk to me I am currently thinking about the "smothered to death by mark" ending and wondering how long it took for the resentment to break him. Did it start out small, with him just hiding bits and pieces of himself in order to avoid demerits? Did he slowly begin hiding things from the captain, the person he once said he trusted more than himself, because he thought he would be punished for being himself? How long did it take him to realize that him being hurt over and over again was not worth whatever fleeting praise he got from the captain? That he was limiting himself from living a life for himself, that this version of the captain could never adore him the way he had once adored them? How many years of constant punishment did he take before he finally gave up? I am in shambles I feel so BAD for engie my poor boy :((

so i reread 'magnus chase and the hammer of thor' and i must say. "the final frame" stole its plot from the section in that book where they're all at utgard-loki's bowling alley n alex n magnus have to bowl against giants

After they said "goodbye, see you soon"

I never saw them again

People only last so long

It seems like I've lost sight of something important

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so um. hi. it sure has been a while since i’ve posted any lemverse art huh. have an mmo nofy

Once again, I’m BEGGING to be allowed unlimited PTO

i was tagged by @sevlawless to do this oc post! 

tagging: @ambrosykim, @griffin-wood, @marzely (no pressure <3)

FAVOURITE OC: right now it’s shun. she’s so fun to play around with because she’s such a menace. but she’s tall and hot and popular so she can do what she wants 💔

NEWEST OC: my sweet girl tomiko!! an irl friend and i came up with a really cute concept for a h/q oc and thus tomiko was born <3

OLDEST OC: ms devon kang lmao. back in 2020 during quarantine i thought it would be fun to make an episode story and devon was the second lead. anyway i wrote and coded three chapters before scrapping the whole thing but it’s nice to see how she’s changed. 

MEANEST OC: this was a hard one but definitely shun. it was a toss up between her and bree but while bree WISHES she could do/say things without any consequences, shun doesn’t care. 

SOFTEST OC: def drew. so its VERY unfortunate i threw her into kotsam because she’s such a sweetheart and doesn’t wanna hurt anyone. among all my ocs drew is definitely the one who’s capable of doing the most harm so i think its cute that she’s also the sweetest and softest 🥹

MOST ALOOF OC: devon. it’s partly because she doesn’t really get social cues. she doesn’t really care for other people and can be blunt to the point where she’s kinda rude but it’s never actually malicious.

DUMBEST OC: drew lmao. i don’t remember too much about my kotsam playthrough but i’m pretty sure her intelligence/cunning were her lowest stats. she’s just a dumb jock doing her best 😭

SMARTEST OC: idk if derek would be considered smart but i’m throwing him here. there are ocs more book smart than derek but he’s definitely my most shrewd character. everything he does is extremely measured and calculated which takes a lot of thinking ig??

OC I’S BE FRIENDS WITH: ruslan!! ngl most of my ocs low-key scare me (especially devon, bree and shun) but i think ruslan has that calm quiet presence i’d enjoy. special mention to tomiko but i think her frazzled energy would stress me out too.