I. Dare you. To tell the people about Brokenstiches. I think. It would be funny…
DARE ACCEPTED.
Okay so. Audience. Guys. Grabs you by the shoulders. HEAR ME OUT AND BARE WITH ME BECAUSE IM GONNA SAY SOME STUPID SHIT.
Oh also. @crowthingexe since you wanted me to tag you in talking about the character i was talking about. Yea its Brokenshire from The Glass Scientists :3
So uhmmm like how do i even begin to explain this...BASICALLY IN THIS ONE POST CASUALCANNIBALISMS REBLOGGED WITH TAGS ABOUT A BROKENSHIRE X CREATURE ENEMIES TO LOVER FIC THING, AND SINCE BROKENSHIRE X CREATURE HAS BEEN AN INSIDE JOKE FOR SOME TIME, I MENTIONED IT WHEN I REBLOGGED THOSE TAGS
And Inky (squid-ink-on-toast up there not irs) dm'd me asking to elaborate on that joke SO OBVIOUSLY I RAMBLED. I can't share the specific semantics cuz the thing that started that joke would be spoiled but, point being, we started joking about shipping Brokenshire with a bunch of random guys (because the FIRST Brokenshire crackship inside joke was the one I and IRS were discussing in the comments of this post was Jekynshire. I and Inky elaborated on that one a lot in DMs but THAT'S NOT THE SHIP IN THIS POST) and eventually we drew back to Creature X Brokenshire because. Well. I and Inky are THE Creature fans ever.
Obviously, since Inky's OC Caelus (drops these two info posts here. 1. 2. Also Inky has the Caelus Rossi tag if you ever wanna go look at a ton more of her content) is a huge part of Creature's storyline we had to start implementing Brokenshire into Caelus' lore, which adds to some interesting stuff but ANYWAY. INFODUMPING TIME.
(Note: while this post doesn't contain like direct spoilers for the Book 1 side story, some of the characterization used is stuff I and Inky know from the side story so yea!! ^w^)
So yea we've been discussing this since the Eighth methinks,,,
Anyhow, I'm not entirely sure where to start. I never had to break down a crackship before—oh wait on that note
Okay. So, before this screenshot, I and Inky were trying to figure out HOW Creature and Brokenshire would even get to dating because the worst part about any crackship/weedship is trying to figure out how in the absolute hell the characters would get together, ESPECIALLY since the only time they talk in canon Brokenshire calls Creature a "bloody sideshow freak" and Creature threatens to kill him less than a minute later.
I have, like...paragraphs upon paragraphs of the stuff I typed out detailing the specific way I think they'd start bonding, but, like, that is an ABSURD amount of stuff to read. The basics are that:
Somehow, by pure happenstance, they stumble upon eachother out of the blue (haven't figured out the specifics of where or how we've only had like 6 days to make the ship sail so we're still a bit lost) and obviously it's probably not a very good "reunion" but...oh well! As the person who has been Brokenshire's only fan (I'm still acab, I promise / silly) I'm like very particular about the fact that he's HEAVILYYYY implied to only be as harsh as he was towards Jekyll because the Society's shenanigans were getting the Scotland Yard busier than ever with paperwork and cases and stuff. Once Jekyll managed to ease the tension of both of those situations (first by paying for the damages caused by Jasper and then by pointing suspicion on Hyde) Brokenshire WAS notably more amicable as well as being more sympathetic in the second case. (Note: him being surprisingly good at knowing how to tell when Jekyll's being anxious or has a vulnerability is. Like. Very important to this as well so.)
Creature also understands that Brokenshire was exhausted from all that work because Creature knows what its like to be frustrated about that kind of stuff from taking care of Frankenstein, and Brokenshire can have that same mutual respect towards Creature since. Well! Overworked can sense overworked!
Somehow, they keep accidentally crossing paths and doing idle small talk and it doesn't take very long for Creature to mention that they like reading and to tell Brokenshire about different classic novels they like. Brokenshire never really had the time nor the care to read, especially not classics since he presumes that anything interesting about classics has already been analysed to hell and back in the media. (Something about this being said in an iteration of Jekyll and Hyde is. Certainly something!) And Creature insists that most of the classic books have actually been misinterpreted because, once they got popular enough, nobody bothered to read them anymore whoch is what causes the knowledge spread about them afterwards to become something of a "he said, she said" sort of deal.
They give Brokenshire short book recommendations and this causes them to actually arrange a meet up for once so that he can report back like it's some sort of two-man book club; on Brokenshire's way to check out the books, he does remember something. The Mad Galvinist was the memoire published about Creature and Frankenstein and now, with that new mentality of knowing that the constant plays and articles on a classic often don't represent the original story. He doesn't tell Creature about this, but it's in his mind when he and Creature meet the next time around.
Creature being more outwardly emotional, perfervid and outspoken throughout the book was obvious. Brokenshire doesn't know if Creature's stoicism nowadays is just because they don't have anymore impassioned confrontations to do now that they and Frankenstein are on good terms or if the lack of socialization the past thirty years has just made them relatively awkward now—probably both, he reckons—but he can tell that Creature isn't really being as openly expressive, if that makes sense? Not entirely accurate but its the best i can muster right now.
He doesn't expect them to be spilling his guts to him or anything, but—if they're going to be friends talking more often now—he does want to at least try and help them get out of their shell.
The next time Creature gets particularly eager to talk about a book or some subject, Brokenshire tries to encourage it in whatever way he can without being too blatant about it i guess? That's what kickstarts a lot of the progressing of the connection. It's THEOERETICAL SLOW BURN but in lore it'd probably have to be fast as fuck since of the time constraints,,, but actually Inky was mentioning maybe just changing the timeline a bit anyhow. That's also how they begin actually getting to KNOW know eachother. Brokenshire gets to watch Creature gradually get more open about rambling about their interests to him and seeing them actually get more relaxed talking to him, getting to see the occasional bouts of nervousness or trepidation while Creature gets to discuss tons of other stuff and also see Brokenshire get less gruff about things in general. It's nice!
Up until this point, they've probably just been meeting in random spots near the Society or somewhere in parks or whatever to talk without getting too caught up in crowds, but there's one time in between meetings where Creature notices that a storm is about to come in so they decide that they should quit this meeting early since. Well. Rain is generally annoying enough as it is and they don't want their book pages to get ruined. The meetings have always been short since Creature obviously doesn't want to leave Frankenstein and Caelus waiting too much but something in Brokenshire makes him blurt out thst Creature should just come read at his house. No, he has no idea what conpelled him to do that, but he's already suggested it and so he manages to convince Creature to come over and stay awhile to continue reading. IMPULSIVE DECISION BUT OKAY??? I don't know how to explain it but settling into someone's home is sweet to me for some reason. It's also kind of a telling experience because of seeing how someone works to accommodate you, how they show their environment, how they try to appear infront of you, etc. Guests being in houses for the first time is kind similar cuz it's them trying to act all polite and then you get to see them loosen up a bit and also they kind of get to see the most casual parts of your life in your house. I'm overly sentimental.
Brokenshire and Creature do fall into that sort of routine the first few times Creature stays over. Creature trying not to push things around too much when trying to get comfortable, Brokenshire mentioning that the recent police work has gotten him a bit busy so he just sort of passes out with Ralphie (remember the puppy he had in the comic? Yea :3 ouppies...) once work is over and hasn't been doing much around the house recently, et cetera. Brokenshire offers Creature drinks or snacks at some point and that's when he learns about Creature liking sweets (Brokenshire doesn't have much sweet stuff around the house. At least not much, so Creature requesting something he had that so happened to be sweet wasn't exactly something Creature had thought of as too picky; they didn't even realize that the moderately sweet drinks Brokenshire had around were the sweetest thing in the house but it tips Brokenshire off enough for him to notice.) One of the next visits, Brokenshire has more sugar or cream for coffee but he says he never really bothered to spend time in the mornings figuring out what to put in coffee besides...whatever was needed to make the coffee itself. That's when Creature shows him how to actually use the sweeteners and stuff to get good balance between flavours. ALSO!!! CREATURE MEETS RALPHIE FOR THE FIRST TIME SOMEWHERE DOWN THE LINE AND, EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE SLIGHTLY WORRIED THEY MIGHT ACCIDENTALLY HURT HIM, THEY TRY TO BE CAREFUL AND ARE CLEARLY MORE CONTENT WHEN GETTING TO HOLD RALPHIE. LIKE. EMOTIONAL SUPPORT DOG SORT OF? Since they and Brokenshire aren't on awkward terms at this point, Creature is also more open about smiling when they're happy and that's when I like to think Brokenshire fell in love. I have no idea when Creature did, but there is no better time for a dog owner to fall in love than when said dog owner sees someone playing with his pet dog and being super gentle with it and clearly being happy despite usually being a bit less emotional at any given time? Yea. Ouppies are the way to a man's heart. Trust me on that.
One night, Creature mentions that Frankenstein (who likely didn't know the exact SPECIFICS of why Creature was going out a ton. She's usually busy talking to the Lodgers or Jekyll at the Society anyhow, so he usually knows when she'll be attended to to go out and talk to Brokenshire, and Caelus...well, Caelus might know that Creature has been going out to talk to somebody. She doesn't know who, though) and Caelus started raising questions and Creature couldn't exactly excuse things as "just spoke with someone for a bit" or "just went out for fresh air or a walk" at this point, so they decided that they should probably leave earlier even though it's kind of obvious that they do want to stay. Although Brokenshire is also more upset over this than he'd admit, he's not going to force Creature into staying longer so he just mentions that he might as well start taking up more night hours at work.
That's when Creature tries to talk him out of that because, yknow, at this point they've kind of garnered that having these breaks and not focusing on their job/goal was good for them. Brokenshire doesn't let up and eventually he just sits down besides Creature (usually hunched against a wall nearby holding Ralphie when idle) and tells them that he's not going to back down from his tasks unless Creature takes a break from theirs as well. He puts his hand on Creature's arm even though Creature could push him off with ease and that's when Creature actually decides to sleep over. Brokenshire doesn't lean on them initially, but morning comes and he realizes he basically slumped against them in his sleep. (Ralphie was also sleeping there the whole time because OUPPY :D)
That doesn't stop him from doing it the next few times Creature comes over. They grow more outwardly affectionate throughout this time and I've been pretty torn over when their first "I love you"s would be but it would either be during this phase or somewhere when Creature actually introduces Brokenshire.
See, Creature spending whole nights (and even mornings. Domestic bliss does that to a man) outside the Society was even odder than the rest of the other nonsense, right? It's at least more noticeable so Creature can barely avoid questions by this point. They and Brokenshire have a talk about it. Again, i dunno who SPECIFICALLY would be suggesting it (either Creature would be like "I want to introduce you to them [because I love you]" or Brokenshire would be the one like "I know Caelus and Frankenstein are important to you so I want to meet them and get on good terms with them [because I love you]", brackets for IF they say that during their things.) but point being that that's what causes Creature to bring Brokenshire to the Society. (Meeting the found family?)
THUS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CONVO SCREENSHOTS:
GIGGLINGGGGG!!! ANYHOW
Frankenstein is obviously. Like. Not tolerating police whatsoever. (AS SHE SHOULDN'T! ACAB <3) because of the whole "scotland yard being under the will of the monarchy" and Frankenstein has some very obvious issues with that but AGAIN I DONT GIVE AS MUCH OF A FUCK ABOUT VICTORIA'S REACTIONS AS I DO CAELUS' BECAUSE:
EVERYONE IN THIS PLACE SAYS ACAB ABD ITS FUCJING HILARIOUS WHEN CREATURE STARTS DATING ONE OF THE BASTARDS IN QUESTION. Like Inky said here, Caelus also has a bad experience with a lot of law enforcers because! Well!! Not only do they usually SUCK!!! BUT ALSO THEY DONT ENFORCE BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS LAWS WHEN IT COMES TO HER SO SHE HAS EVERY RIGHT SHE WANTS TO BE BITTER
Anyhow. Yea. Another thing about Caelus is that she's like terribly lonely without Creature (they are like the only person who understands her) and so his sudden time spent with Brokenshire is making her anxious as fuck.
Again, Creature and Caelus are the only people who actually fully understand eachother's trauma to a T. Like they are parallels and foils for a reason and THIS IS WHY. So Caelus obviously has her moments.
YEA SO. LIKE. NOT GOING GOOD FOR GIRLYPOP.
However Creature does. Like. Still adore her obviously because that's one of his favouritest people ever!!! AND I AND INKY WERE TALKING ABOUT THIS NEXT PART FOR LIKE A BAJILLION HOURS STRAIGHT BECAUSE. LIKE. IM OBSESSED WITH THIS GROUP OF CHARACTERS AND I NEED TO PUT THEM IN BLENDERS. /POS
Anyhow yea. Creature still gushes to Brokenshire about Caelus even though she's under the assumption that Creature might be forgetting about her entirely. Brokenshire needs some talking through about it but he does also try to get closer with Caelus in order to bond with her. Yknow, getting brownie points with the in laws i guess!
THIS WAS ALSO ONE OF THE PARTS I AND INKY WERE GOING STUPID OVER BECAUSE IT'S SO FUNNY TO IMAGINE BROKENSHIRE TRYING TO SPENT FOREVER WATCHING CAELUS' EVERY MOVE TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE FUCK A MULTILINGUAL ROBOT WITH A FUCK TON OF PLAYS AND CLASSICAL LITERATURE MEMORIZED WOULD WANT.
Turns out: the answer is just. Like. Any trinket whatsoever. She isn't picky and it's good for her to be treated as the five year old she is by giving her roys or drawing supplies so that she has a nice break from the Torment Nexus of Unwanted Responsibility for once.
Oughhh god okay so like theres probably more i could say but my brains a bit fried at the moment so ending this off with the screenshots of a convo i had with my friend Tobi:
HE IS SO USED TO MY TOMFUCKERY /POS LOVE TOBI HES AWESOME
Edit: I REMEMBERED WHAT ELSE I WAS GONNA ADD. SO LIKE. ANOTHER THING ABOUT CREATURE AND BROKENSHIRES DYNAMIC IS THAT THEY'RE BOTH KIND OF GIVING UP A LOT TO STICK WITH EACHOTHER? BROKENSHIRE RISKING HIS REPUTATION AND POTENTISLLY LIFE SINCE HE COULD GET ARRESTED IF CREATURE IS SEEN AS MALE ENOUGH FOR A CHARGE OF HOMOSEXUALITY AGAINST BROKENSHIRE AND CREATURE IS RISKING THE TWO ONLY PEOPLE IN HIS LIFE THATS MATTERED TO HIM. But they wuv eachother so...yea... :> also the fact that theyre both on the lessssss...OUTWARDLY. KEY WORD OUTWARDLY. sentimental side of things and they have to kind of work that out with eachother is nice. anyhow. Uhm. What else was i gonna say,,, OH RIGHT. Inky mentioned that there is something really poetic about a cop who is well-versed in halting those who do violence actually not treating Creature as violent. Like. Its earnest and forgiving and relieving. If that makes sense.
Yaoi makes my grades go down and renders my adhd medication useless. it also makes me learn how to draw the most mid man in the supporting cast for my perfect flawless and highly respectable blorbo pride and joy who can do no wrong and is too good for mr joe schmoe over here
Brokenstitches is such a pain of a weedship to make sail logistically because slowburn works well for it but their only interaction happens in two weeks before the exhibition so the slowburn gets shoved into fastburn. Which might be objectively funnier. One of them called the other a freakshow and the other threatened to kill him and both of them have a million reasons not to be dating, ESPECIALLY TO NOT BE DATING EACHOTHER—the aforementioned horrible first impressions, the social taboo of anything involving Creature, the Labouchere Amendment, Brokenshire being at odds with the Society, Creature having been socially isolated for 30 years, Creature technically being set to leave once Frankenstein gets cured, the fact that Brokenshire is a law enforcer while Creature has killed and is entirely willing to kill again given the circumstances, et cetera—BUT UH-OH. THEY STARTED TALKING AND DISCUSSING LITERATURE LIKE SOME SORT OF ONE-ON-ONE BOOK CLUB AND THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW YOU INVITED THE GIANT ENTITY WHO HAS KILLED BEFORE AND IS MADE OF CORPSES TO YOUR HOUSE TO READ MORE AND THEY'RE HOLDING YOUR DOG, RALPHIE, AND NOW YOU'RE ACCIDENTALLY EXPERIENCING DOMESTIC BLISS AND MAKING COFFEE WITH HIM. IN LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. And you still have to deal with a stupid ton of crime reports relating to the mad scientific establishment he's currently residing in.
I just realized that this crackship probably sounded even more insane to people who didn't see the dedicated post but its funnier that way.
ahh im sorry i haven't responded to welcomes ive been doodling and i will respond in the morning promise Anywho i wanted to doodle the main bae's in my life. Osteodyn who is the total old dad. Fixed Heart who is the cutey girl of the group. Broken Stitches who is a big book worm and loves to pout and argue. And finally, Scottish Pop, who is a rather sweet huggable ghost when he's not being a poop. Kay i'll leave this here bye
