#also including

[decaydanceloser-mp3]

Gabe Saporta doing random shit

[twstinginthewind]

For today's Createober prompt I went with a character I haven't written an awful lot for yet. A special guest comes to Ramshackle to help my Yuu, Thea Yuuni, celebrate a

Milestone

It was a dreary December evening, and the wind whistled around the battered shutters of the old Ramshackle dorm. The days had been getting shorter and shorter lately, and the campus had fallen into a deep chill. Thea shivered next to the fire, wrapped up tightly in the blanket from her bed. Grim snored on the couch beside her, his thick fur offering more protection from the cold than her collection of blankets and throws provided. Although she had a book open to study, she could feel her eyes starting to droop as well. Maybe sleeping through the worst of the cold would help…

As she started to drift off, though, a loud pounding snapped her back to sensibility. She shook her head. What was that? The pounding noises began again. Oh! The door. Someone was knocking at her door. Thea rose from the couch, letting her blanket wrap trail along the threadbare carpet behind as she walked. The loud knock continued, along with some familiar-sounding whining, muffled through the door. “C’mon, Thea! It’s freezing out here! Open the door!”

Thea peeked through the peephole out of habit. A familiar face waited impatiently on the other side, his ginger hair almost completely covered by a thick fleece cap. Ace scrunched up his nose as he shifted a box and thermos from one arm to the other, and knocked again. “I know you’re there! C’mon, sometime tonight, would ya??”

Thea pulled away from the peephole, and secured her blankets against the cold air before opening the door. “Ace,” she greeted him, ushering him inside and quickly closing the door. “Our study night was supposed to be tomorrow. Or was I mistaken?” Her head tilted to one side, inquisitively. “No, I am fairly certain it was tomorrow. What brings you here now?”

Ace had put his things down onto a side table in the entryway. He rubbed his hands together, shuddering. “Ugh!! It’s SO cold out there. Guess it’s really almost the winter solstice, huh? Man! It sure gets colder on Sage Island than it does in the Queendom.” He pulled off his hat, the static from the fleece making his hair bloom outwards like a terracotta dandelion. “It’s almost as cold in here as it is outside, T. You all right?”

“I’m as well as I can be.” Thea took the hat from where he had dropped it on the table and hung it on a hook beside the door. “There’s not much I can do aside from endure it until Crowley repairs the drafts. You still haven’t said why you’ve come?” She turned to face Ace, who had picked up the box and thermos again. “I wasn’t expecting company.”

“Well? I brought you a little something.” Ace gestured with both hands. “Got permission to use the kitchen at the dorm, and all. Today’s a pretty important day, you know? Couldn’t let it go unrecognized.”

“Important?” Thea gave Ace an inquisitive look. “Is it a holiday here that I am not aware of? The professors had not acknowledged anything of the sort to me.”

Ace rolled his eyes. “Psh. They ain’t paying any attention to this, I’m sure. I’ll tell you what. Let’s go into the lounge. You got a fire going in there?”

“I do…”

“Then it’s gotta be warmer than this foyer. Let’s go sit there. I’ll show you what I mean.”

Thea led the way, readjusting her blankets to keep herself covered as they returned to the lounge. In her absence, Grim had somehow managed to sprawl himself out further than she had believed possible, and occupied most of the space on the large couch. She looked apologetically at Ace. “I suppose we will have to share the loveseat.”

“I won’t complain too much about that.” Ace grinned, rubbing his nose. “I will complain about the temp in here, though. What are you burning in that fireplace, a couple of toothpicks? I’ve seen bigger fires on top of birthday cakes.”

“I did not want to use up my firewood ration too soon,” Thea sighed. She sat on the loveseat, and Ace quickly took the space beside her. “It grows colder each night, and I have only gotten a small amount for the month. I make do with what I have. I haven’t experienced a winter before, as it was always spring in my forest… is it always so chill?”

“It is, and it’s only starting up. Hey.” Ace put everything down, and took both of her hands between his. Despite having just been outside, they were warm against Thea’s chilly fingers. “You don’t gotta deal with that, you know. I keep telling you, you can stay with us at Heartslabyul. I can kick ol’ Deucey out. Or you can crash in my bed. Whatever. It beats freezing in this dump.”

“This ‘dump’ is my own space, though. And dear little Grim is so comfortable. I could not imagine taking him from his home.” She gave Ace a rare, grateful smile. “Your kindness is appreciated, but I am made of stronger stuff than you suppose. Do not worry yourself about this. I suppose I can gather extra wood from the forested area, or find some other solution. I have always managed, and will be fine.”

“You’re stubborn as a mule, you know.” Ace snorted. “Anyway. Let me open up what I brought you.” He unscrewed the top of the thermos, and a fragrant wisp of steam came out. “I, um. Found a tea in the shop today.” He stammered a bit, his ears uncharacteristically red. “It was way too sweet for me, but I figured you might like it. Heh.” He poured a measure of it into the attached cup, and handed it to her.

Thea inhaled the steam from the cup. It was floral, a scent that made her nostalgic for her days before she came to Twisted Wonderland, and had sugary undertones to it. And more importantly, it was WARM. She took a small sip at first, and then a larger one. “It’s good,” she sighed, settling her shoulders back against the worn cushions of the loveseat. “I think I needed this.”

“And that’s not all!” Ace’s chest puffed out proudly, and he carefully opened up the white paper box. Inside, there was a small cake, with the number 100 written on it inexpertly in red buttercream icing. “Trey walked me through the process, but technically? I did it myself.” He looked a bit sheepish. “It’s, um. It’s been one hundred days since you first came to Twisted Wonderland. And I wanted to commemorate that. And also eat cake,” he added hastily. “Always a good excuse to have cake, haha.”

“One hundred days… it’s funny. I have never counted days before.” Thea reached for the little box. The cake was lopsided, the icing uneven and flecked with crumbs. “It seems as though these are the first days that I will remember as significant. The limited time that humans have is so precious.”

Thea looked Ace in the eyes. His face looked flushed, his expression expectant. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. “It… yeah. It seemed important, you know? Been… some pretty significant days for me, too.”

“Then let’s enjoy what you made.” She patted Ace on the hand, then put the cup of tea down. “I’ll go get some forks.”

“Forks….?” A muttered voice came from the couch. “Nya…. did I fall asleep? Are we having snacks, minion? I like snacks!”

Thea inclined her head fondly, and Ace grimaced. “It wasn’t for YOU, weasel,” Ace groaned.

“There is enough to share. I’m glad you woke up, Grim. Ace was kind enough to remember that today was a milestone for me. We have been here at Night Raven College for one hundred days, did you know?”

“So long?” Grim stretched out, grumbling. “Sheesh! I should be a great mage by now, three times over!!”

“You should indeed, Grim.” Thea got up, leaving her protective shell of blankets behind her on the loveseat. “Alas, our time runs on such different rules here. I will be back with everything we’ll need to share your treat, Ace. Thank you for remembering this special day.”

And thank you for reading!! If you're interested in more, ask me to add you to my tag list!

@twst-the-night-away @oseathepebble @ice-cweam-sod4 @hythlodayus @cyn-write @thehollowwriter @twstchaos @the-trinket-witch @gloomyeiscue @tixdixl @boopshoops @valse-a-mille-temps @candiedwrath @comingyourlugubriousness @cyanide-latte

[gremlinbehaviour]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In the Cooldown for episode 1, Brennan mentions that if Azune had said to Thjazi that Thimble was supposed to place the glyph on him, rather than just someone, the execution scene would have gone very differently. This is my take on that (although it doesn't end up being very different) Thjazi Fang still dies, but now he knows it's going to happen.

Bonus chapter now up, focusing on Kattigan's reaction to knowing there was a plan to save Thjazi, knowing it failed, and not being there

[crow-in-snow]

THE THICK OF IT | Spinners and Losers

Malcolm Tucker making faces in the specials part 2

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

on the one hand i'm like, i know there are some pretty obvious reasons Powerful Cosmic Big Good Beings(tm) in fiction tend to in fact be some of the worst bastards in a series, and my sentiment toward them ends up being I'm Going to Fucking Fight You Actually.

namely: they usually have enough power to do some absolutely horrific stuff--through action, inaction, or both--on a massive scale. like full-on 'pokemon villain you have to stop from causing the apocalypse at the climax of the game, because they've decided they have the right to make that call and have gotten their hands on the means to do it.' and often the call that the Big Good makes is portrayed as the right, justified, well-informed thing, which inevitably ends up revealing some pretty disturbing beliefs on the part of the creators.

often they mean well and just haven't thought it through, but a lot of people are operating on some real pokemon villain shit that they haven't questioned yet because it hasn't come up in a context extreme enough to follow to its logical conclusion. 'if you could press a button to kill every trauma survivor in the world to end their suffering, would you?' is not a situation most people will ever be in, and put in those terms they might realize how monstrous that would be and say no. but they might have the philosophy in the back of their head somewhere, influencing their beliefs and interactions with the world, that survivors would be better off dead than traumatized but alive, and that someone else could ever have the right to make that decision for them.

speaking of which. a major reason i have mixed feelings about the ending of sdmi is that the new 'happy' timeline is portrayed with a deep, creeping sense of loss and unease, which seems intentional; otherwise it would just be incredibly upsetting and i would straight up hate it with a passion. whereas i am REALLY bothered by the fact that the nova entity is treated as a kind, benevolent guiding force to lead the heroes where they need to go, and not the single most evil motherfucker in the show surpassed only by the nibiru entity.

she directly, intentionally orchestrated the genocide of an entire timeline, up to and including literally erasing them from existence. she manipulated a bunch of children into doing this without telling them what would happen. the gang are the sole survivors of the murder of every single person they ever knew, and they will have to live the rest of their lives knowing the nova entity used their hands to do it. the only real way she was 'better' than the nibiru entity here was that she decided to cleanse the world with fire so she could make some new people to be happy, instead of ending the possibility for happy people to exist ever again.

like. the nova entity would actually make a fantastic villain played as a foil to the nibiru entity. god damn.

eldritch cosmic Big Good characters are usually treated as some kind of, like, force of nature that arbitrates what the ideal world would look like, and maybe just needs some help from the heroes to make it happen. at worst, they're treated as being too eldritch and above the understanding of mortals, mutual or otherwise, to be held accountable for the decisions that they make. at worst in that case, the heroes are frustrated with them for not being much help, but then things just move along and that stops being considered a Relevant Issue to Address. maybe, maybe the results of those actions are treated as a bad thing, but the person actually responsible gets off squeaky clean.

the consequences of the noventity ending the world are unnerving and bittersweet at best, and the uncomfortable question is left in the air of whether the gang might have done things differently knowing this would be the outcome. the noventity herself is a benevolent hero who saved them all in the end.

and like. that's not how it works. if you're a person making decisions, you are a person making decisions. you are accountable for those decisions. there are a lot of really, really interesting stories to be told exploring the nature of that dynamic with '''higher''' beings who really are working on a different scale than us--with maybe a genuinely deeper understanding of a lot that's going on in the world, just from time, experience, and capacity to hold and process information--and still don't get to decide what's best for us.

i am both fascinated by the potential for stories like that and really frustrated by the way they're handled in fiction, and the way that plays out tends to treat them as Not Actually People and therefore Not Actually Characters, which means it's easy for them and the bullshit they do to blend into the narrative unless you deliberately stop and turn the spotlight on them. so i do.

on the other hand, it is really funny to me that in practice this means my response to Big Good Entity characters is consistently just

[doeblossom]

okay i had a THOUGHT

i know i just made boe (toh doeblossom) literally just me but in the show style again. but since i made her raine's kid (cringe but free) what if she was the OPPOSITE of amity

natural mint green from papa raine but dyes it brown

its already canon to me that shes overly protective of her hair and would never dye it because thats just asking for trouble but its a FUN concept

im already attached to the way she currently looks but it DOES bug me a little that raine being their parent doesnt affect the way they look (im imagining single parent of a magic-born baby)

full mint green ver. !

i think it looks kinda cool. but im already so attached to how she looks

also there WAS that one time sol (@briarborealisart/@briarborealisocs) accidentally turned it pink... and she cried (only a little)

[pandascanpvpmoved]

the discord is fun bc I didn’t bother trying to figure out how to make the emotes transparent so now neevo has made a bunch of the pogchamp s with pride flags