Made a cover for my Pawbert redemption / horror AU, The Fall of the House of Lynxley, in honor of reaching Part Two! The horror begins. I’m happier than I thought I would be with how it turned out.
Turns out anger is a pretty good energy source for fanfic writing. Chapter eight of The Fall of the House of Lynxley is up! We’re at the halfway point!
Extras below!
- “One grand staircase that halts at a landing then splits into two separate directions, many pathways and entrances to the vast number of rooms. The painting of his family, years ago, in the center of it.” - the main inspiration for this foyer visual is the one in “The Haunting of Hill House”! Just instead of that beautiful stained glass window, it’s a big painting. Mike Flanagan inspiration is aaaalll over all my works, but especially this one.
- “ “‘Servant’s kitchen’?” Wilde echoed with a little laugh of disbelief. “You have a whole separate kitchen for the servants?” ” - yeah this is a real thing super rich people have. Isn’t that insane?
- “The funny tricks of time had blurred the details.” - this is a reference to the song “Slipping Through My Fingers” by ABBA. The line goes, “Sometimes, I wish that I could freeze the picture, / And save it from the funny tricks of time” Funnily enough, this song is on Purrsephone’s playlist.
- “It was gentle and beautiful, with a hint of a rasp from her “wild youth”, as she put it.” - it’ll come up in her backstory if I end up making the post about her, but Purrsephone had a pretty wild time in college! She was a sorority girl. The rasp comes from the “sorority vocal fry” she once had. (Although not as annoying as the usual type, it just adds a nice texture to her voice) From partying and drinking, getting sick often due to said partying, and hooting and hollering at those same parties. She really mellowed out with age, but she had her fun first.
- “ Kitty and Cattrick let out twin gasps. “Oooooh!” “The Gary?” Pawbert grimaced, his face and ears flushing. “Don’t be weird, guys. Please.” ” - he may be in a horror story, but nothing will let him escape siblings teasing about crushes. Even if he’s not aware it’s a crush yet.
- “Seemed to be a twin thing.” - a reference to “The Haunting of Hill House”. Probably won’t be as devastating as it is in that show, right? Right?
I continue to be self-indulgent in the lead up to my birthday. Chapter two of The Fall of the House of Lynxley is up!
Extras below!
- “The cougar guard who was stationed in front of his cell nearly every day (was he really such a threat that he needed ‘round-the-clock monitoring?)… ” - everyone say hi to Flo!!! I love her. Originally I made her for… another purpose (to be a certain someone’s girlfriend), but then I realized Pawbert needed someone from within the prison who wasn’t his family to push him to do things that were good for him. Hence my beautiful mean butch lesbian kitty! Also, no, he doesn’t need constant monitoring. They’re worried about his mental health, so they station someone nearby at all times. Well, someone volunteered to monitor him at all times. More on that in a sec.
- “She chatted with him idly at first, through grimaces and short sentences. Asking about how he felt, trying to prod him into going to the library or getting some fresh air in the yard.” - Flo is certainly on the spectrum. She cares about Pawbert, but struggles to show it, like his brother and sister. At first she forced herself to talk with him, and it was painful for her. Over time, she grew to enjoy talking with and teasing him.
- “But Pawbert was no match for the cougar’s commandeering personality, nor for how she easily she could lift him and force him to go about with his days.” - their dynamic was heavily inspired by that of Jake Peralta and Terry Jeffords in “Brooklyn-99”. Jake is a character played by Andy Samberg, Pawbert’s voice actor. Terry can pick Jake around and physically force him to do things with little to no effort due to how big and buff he is. He compares it to “holding a pile of grapes”. He uses this for good, physically forcing Jake to take care of himself or to remove him from potentially damaging situations.
- “It hurt, horribly, in his chest, to even think of the idea of-.. the reptile.” - shout out to the eagle-eyed reader, @reconnectionwaves , who caught that Gary is lowkey haunting the narrative before his visit!
- “So displaced from the soft, pleasant, mild image he’d tried to upkeep his whole life.” - based on a line from I think the art book? It’s stated that the reason why Pawbert wears sweaters is to look more soft and approachable than his siblings.
- “His eyes were sunken and glassy, his fur stuck out in strange places and lacked any of the healthy sheen he’d kept up for years.” - for those of you who don’t know, a way you can tell if a younger cat is healthy is by if their fur has a nice shine to it. This is usually achieved by a healthy diet, proper fur care, and a good environment. Which Pawbert now has none of lol
- “His cheap orange jumpsuit was wrinkled and had spots of blood stained on his left shoulder from when his father had-…” - he has more than one jumpsuit, the prison staff just did not care to replace the stained one.
- “Flo tossed his crutches in his direction, not caring that he fumbled and they clattered to the ground.” - Pawbert has poor motor skills and lacking hand-eye coordination because of his brain injury. Not that he was super athletic to begin with lol. Based on how my own brain injury affected me! I can’t catch anything tossed at me to save my life.
- “ “Don’t you ever take a day off?” “No. Last time I did, you got beat up.” ” - Flo doesn’t take days off anymore. Because after witnessing Milton’s blatant abuse of Pawbert, she imprinted on him and decided she must take care of him. To her, Pawbert is like a fucked up ugly cat she found in a dumpster and took in even though he’s nasty and bites everyone but her.
- “I mean when you got jumped by Bearanstein and his cronies.” - the name is for a bear inmate, based on the popular example of the Mandela Effect. The book series about a fictional family of bears is often misremembered as “Bearanstein”, but it’s “Berenstain”.
- “Pawbert froze, aside from his back involuntarily arching. The fur along his spine and on his bobbed tail puffed up in an instant.” - more cat body language, although I’m sure this is one most people are familiar with! If Pawbert was down on all fours, he’d look like a Halloween decoration. This all means a cat is alarmed or very scared. It can also, however, mean a cat is in a playful mood and all riled up. My roommate’s cat likes to chase me around like this.
- “When Pawbert first intercepted the letter from overseas in his family’s mailroom, he had little interest in the whole situation beyond morbid curiosity.” - I get super head-canon-y here. I think Pawbert and Gary had to have exchanged more than a few letters, and probably also most likely exchanged emails or numbers for quicker contact. How did Gary use a phone or computer to send those messages? No fuckin’ clue.
- “Clues left by other snakes in an abandoned lodge.” - OKAY this line is to help try to cover a plot hole in the movie. Those mountain goats say Honeymoon Lodge was a “hideaway for SNAKES”, plural snakes. And Gary had just gotten to Zootopia earlier that day, there’s no way he would’ve had time to set up all those newspapers and stay there long enough for it to cause rumors about snakes being there to spread. So I went with a popular headcanon I’ve seen: other snakes stopped there either on their way out of Zootopia or when they came to investigate what really happened, before Gary’s time.
- “But it didn’t make the infection go away. It just spread.” - a big hint to Pawbert’s actions not helping the hurt his family caused, but making it worse. Even if he had succeeded and his family had accepted him, he still would’ve felt horrible. Nothing would’ve ever been enough for them or for his broken mentality.
- “Using his brother’s connections, Pawbert helped the naive stranger come to Zootopia.” - this is based on a joke by the movie’s director that Cattrick and Kitty are really into catnip. I think it would be funny if Cattrick had a guy, Snootley, who helped them smuggle catnip. And also Gary.
- “Wanna stick close to me? It gets real cold in Sahara Square at night.” - for those of you who don’t know, deserts get really chilly at night! Perfect excuse to cuddle your cold-blooded homie.
- “All eyes were on him as his chair clattered to the floor in his mad scramble backwards and away from the approaching snake. He stopped, once he reached the table, expression so soft and somewhat hurt. “G-G-… Gary.” ” - wanted to point out that this is the first time both “snake” and Gary’s name have been mentioned in the text of this fic. Because Pawbert was suppressing thinking about him that hard.
- “Goodness! You’re looking extra puffy today.” - it’s because all his fur stood up out of fear / surprise. But Gary has no idea what that means haha
- “Don’t make me scruff you.” - cats (and a few other mammals) have a bunch of loose skin on the back of their necks that their mothers use to carry them with her mouth when they’re little. Adult cats still have it, but it is not nice at all to pick up an adult cat by their scruff. It causes a freeze response so they instinctively go along with their mom, but in adults it causes anxiety and can hurt their necks. Flo will do it anyways if Pawbert is being a shit.
- “This was a favor to a friend. Sit.” - the friend is Judy! Gary had begged her to have the prison let him visit Pawbert, and Judy pulled some strings. One of them being Flo.
- “Gary shifted his body to prop a section of his coils onto the table, like one would casually lean their elbows on the surface.” - based on a visual from “Robin Hood” (1973), where a snake named Sir Hiss did something similar. Very visually satisfying to look at.
- “ “Other than that, I’m glad to see you were unscathed!” Slowly, painfully, the feline forced his body to relax. Coaxed the shock and adrenaline to release its grip on his limbs. “I, uh… yeah.” Gary’s eyes suddenly went wide, and his mouth dropped open a little. “Oh! Your ear!” ” - Pawbert’s ears were flattened out of stress, so Gary couldn’t see his torn ear. When he relaxed, his ears perked back up, and Gary could see it. I am worried this isn’t clear enough in the text but I’m not sure how to tweak it. Oh well!
- “Eventually, he forced the words out through great effort. “Wh- uh… why, you-…” he gritted his teeth and puffed a breath out through his nose.” - cats let out big sighs / puffs of air through their nose when they are stressed or annoyed. My cats do it all the time when someone is taking up my lap real estate
- “It took some time to get the big heat lamps back in working order, but other than that it’s been great.” - I imagine Reptile Ravine had a sort of weather wall like the rest of Zootopia, especially since it neighbors such a cold place like Tundratown. Probably some big ass heat lamps, like most reptile enclosures do!
- “He then maneuvered his head so he was perfectly eye-level with the lynx, his gaze suddenly intense and impossibly more sincere. “I also-” ” - this was Gary about to segue into talking sincerely about what happened. But then Pawbert beats him to it!
- “Gary blinked, tilting his head slightly. “I just-?” ” - Gary thinks Pawbert was once again asking why he came to Zootopia here.
- “Gary drew his mouth into a tight, thin line. His joy faded into something Pawbert couldn’t quite comprehend. Maybe pity? It looked too gentle to be anything cruel, too sorrowful to be happy, so what was it?” - IT'S SYMPATHY. PAWBERT JUST DOESN’T KNOW WHAT SYMPATHY LOOKS LIKE.
- “… how much of it was real?” - part of the reason why Gary came, although it’s not stated, it to find out why. Why Pawbert did what he did. He felt so close to him, felt a genuine connection. He wanted to know how he could betray that, and how much of what they had was real.
- “He didn’t know someone’s cry could sound like “guh-buh-buh”, but his sure did in that moment.” - based on a real noise I made when I ugly cried after a friend told me he cared about me. It was alarming.
- “Gary hesitated for a moment before going to coil himself around the lynx, wrapping him in a tight embrace.” - he was going to ask “permission to hug”, but remembered that when they first met Pawbert said he never had to ask permission :))
- “Sure enough, there was a wet patch. Right next to where the blood had stained the fabric.” - something something Gary helping him heal what his father did to him
- “I can’t wait! I hope I remember to bring my markers next time!” - it’s so Gary can sign his cast :))
Chapter six of The Fall of the House of Lynxley is up! With it, we begin Part Two! Yay!
Extras below!
- Pawbert’s opinion and reaction to Zootopia’s city area is a very direct projection of my own. I’ve been to New York twice and hated it. Same with Chicago. I haaaaaaate cities. Too many people! Too loud! Too stinky!!
- “Congrats, kit.” - a “kit” is what a baby pine marten is called.
- “His nose wrinkled. He could taste it.” - again, cats have scent glands on the roof of their mouths! But also car exhaust is so fuckin’ stinky that even humans can taste it. Eugh.
- “Passing animals gave him strange, wary looks. Eyed him up and down, making the fur along his spine rise. They know who you are. They know what you’ve done.” - they don’t. They’re just looking at the guy acting strange on the street corner and then continuing their day. Pawbert’s panicked mind is making it appear worse than it actually is
- “His paws were throbbing from hitting the rough pavement with no protection.” - most animals in Zootopia are barefoot, but I imagine Pawbert’s pampered little rich boy paws are too sensitive for the pavement. He hasn’t had the chance to get used to it.
- “Underneath his clothes and his fur, he sweated. He never really had done that before, even when spending so much time in this tent. It soaked his paw pads and left him constantly wiping them on his sweater with disgust.” - cats (and furry animals as a whole) don’t really sweat. They only do if they’re reaaaaaally hot. And that means they’re in the danger zone. Cats only sweat through their paw pads! Imagine only having sweaty hands and feet. That would suck.
- “Little weasel barely gave me time to ask any.” - I think technically this is vaguely racist but Pawbert hasn’t unlearned all of that quite yet
- “Something ugly began to twist and burn in Pawbert’s chest.” - its jealousy. He’s jealous.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LYNXLEY CHAPTER NINE! GUUUHHHH.
Extras below
- “… his Modest Mouser shirt.” - an animal twist on “Modest Mouse”. But, like, that’s already an animal thing, so I made it a cat pun! Love that band. I get the vibe Pawbert would too.
- “But one twinge of his bad leg had made him nearly drop a scratching post, caught just in the nick (literally) of time by Wilde, and he was metaphorically benched.” - the “nick (literally)” is. Because his name is Nick. I think this is very funny.
- “Pawbert hated his father’s study. He was never allowed in there, except for… discipline.” - by “discipline”, he means.. well, if you’ve seen “Moral Orel”, imagine what went down in his father’s study.
- “He was never allowed in there, not since he and Cattrick (mostly Cattrick) knocked over an obscenely expensive little ship in a bottle when they were very young.” - this is a reference to a section in a song that’s a part of the official FTHL playlist, “Our Word” from “36 Questions”. Basically the same events as here, but with one kid.
- “… as he laughed at his own horrible impression.” - we all have that terrible, completely inaccurate impression of our folks. Amiright?
- “Cool. Cool, cool, cool, no doubt.” - another Jake Peralta reference. I’ve been properly rewatching “Brooklyn-99”.
- “She was also doing her best to sound casual, but her analytical gaze was far too intense and pointed for it to succeed.” - they both just need to say what they’re thinking. They’re both bad at this
- “The ZPD should hire me as a consulting genius detective.” - again, another Jake Peralta reference. I love the Halloween episodes dearly.
- “Buuut we gotta be careful snooping around too much, or Chief Beef will catch on to where we’re sticking our noses.” - when he says “Chief Beef”, he’s referring to Chief Bogo. I can’t recall if this is in the movies or if I came up with it on my own.
- “Victpurr, maybe?” - I figured that since Ebenezer was named after a classical literature villain, some other family members should too. “Victpurr” is the catified version of Victor, in reference to “Frankenstein”.
- “There were little claw marks, too. He held his paws out in front of him, trembling fingers soaked in blood and grasping at air.” - okaaayyy so this visual was inspired by something in “Doki Doki Literature Club”. If you know, you know. If not, don’t look it up.
- Not-Pawbert - I know I said to listen to this song for this chapter, but honestly it belongs to him. Listen to “Virtual Mima” from the “Perfect Blue” OST whenever he shows up for the full effect.
- “The moment he stepped out of his room, the tortured visions went silent.” - this was inspired by that horrific moment in “Get Out”.
- “Bug-Burga’s Cicada Slammers” - based on an in-universe restaurant. I made up “Cicada Slammers” to be like, this restaurant’s version of Whoppers or whatever.
- “He then licked his paws. Swiped them over his face, got any remaining crumbs or grease from his chops or whiskers.” - for those of you that don’t know, this is how cats clean their faces. It’s the best thing ever.
- “One that had an absurd amount of plastic houseplants. (Nothing real could survive the cold.)” - I wonder if that last line is thematically relevant… hmmm… something something everything in this manor is fake for appearances and nothing could actually thrive there…
- Morana - her voice claim is Carla Gugino :))
- “Sometimes, she’d play hide-and-seek with him, when no one else could find the time.” - notice how both Morana and Purrsephone used to play hide-and-seek with Pawbert :)) those are his moms
- “Twist you into something other than your mother’s strange, troubled little creation.” - this is a reference to the song “Dead Mom” from the musical “Beetlejuice”, since I can't help myself. All my other fics are from that musical. The original lyrics go, “You’re my home / My destination / And I’m your clone / Your strange creation”.
- “I won’t leave you now, little pup. I’ll be here until the end.” - notice how when Morana first approaches, she’s a bit formal. Once she realizes Pawbert is chill, she gets more affectionate. Rather than calling him a kitten or cub, she uses a nickname fitting her own species’ young, since she sees Pawbert as her own child.
Chapter one of my Pawbert fanfic. My birthday present to myself. Because he’s infected my brain. A redemption turned horror AU, The Fall of the House of Lynxley! Here’s chapter one. Extras below
- “It is something your great-grandfather, and all the great accomplished Lynxleys before and since have had to fight tooth and claw for. Something a feeble runt like you stumbled over his lucky paws into.” - I know Ebenezer was the only stated successful ancestor, but he was a benefactor. He had to have had success, or a family wealth leading up to that. So my headcanon is it’s a long line of shitheads with a lot of wealth and success! Also, this scene is partially a reference / inspired by a similar one in “Our Flag Means Death”.
- “Purrsephone Lynxley brought a warmth and light to Lynxley Manor that had been sorely missed since her death when Pawbert was eleven.” - her name is, of course, a cat pun version of Persephone, queen of the underworld. He leaving the world to visit her husband brought the winter every year, and her return to the surface would bring the spring. Figured there was some super fun parallels to be had. Shout out to @st4rbreaker for helping me figure out her name!
- “Faint memories of her scent often teased his senses. He found himself opening his mouth to try to chase the sweet aroma, to catch any swiftly fading hint.” - cats have scent glands on the roof of their mouth! It’s why they make the “stank face”. If they find a smell particularly interesting or stinky, they’ll open their mouth to get a better smell at it.
- “His mama did her best to shield him and his siblings from the worst of their dad’s admittedly monstrous nature.” - I have Pawbert call his mother “mama” in text a few times for a couple reasons. 1. He called his dad “daddy” in the movie, he clearly has some fucked up childish complex about his family. 2. He is stated in other official sources to be the runt. My roommate has two runt cats, and they become overly attached to one person in particular. Their Mama. For Pawbert, that was his actual mama.
- “He glanced behind her to find Cattrick was preoccupied with their father on the far side of the cell, speaking very intensely about something Pawbert couldn’t make out. His eyes kept flicking over to them.” - Pawbert’s an idiot, and there’s some dots he will never connect. So for the sake of readers, I will do some here! Cattrick was distracting Milton so Kitty could take Pawbert to the infirmary. The twins were worried about him for a while, but their father basically was insisting they leave him to his suffering.
- “ “… cool. Cool, cool cool cool.” He tried to smile up at his sister, but it felt more like a grimace. “Totally normal. Not a sign of anything alarming, for sure. No doubt, no doubt.” ” - a few little references to frequent phrases used by Jake Peralta, another Andy Samberg character who I love dearly. I watched a bunch of clips of him to help get a grasp of Andy Samberg’s cadence / way of speaking, as well as his facial expressions, since the animators referenced them sometimes for Pawbert.
- “ “Shut up.” Kitty slung her arm around his shoulder with a curled lip, hauling him up while refusing to look directly at him. “Forget the crutches. I’m taking you to the infirmary myself. It’d be super embarrassing if you died in our cell.” ” - her “curling her lip” was actually her trying not to smile. And here is one of many instances of Kitty and Cattrick disguising their care for their brother as doing it for selfish reasons. Hope this won’t bite them in the ass! /sarc
- “He felt what bit of hopeful energy he’d mustered knocked out of him at that, his ears drooping. “Yeah. Wow. We wouldn’t want that, would we?” ” - Pawbert is equally as maladjusted as his siblings. (Worse actually lol) He is taking Kitty’s words at face value, rather than what she’s actually meaning. He thinks she genuinely is doing this because it’d be embarrassing if he died, not because she cares. Ouch.
- “Her eyes were narrowed and her ears were angled back, her mind obviously stewing on something.” - one of the first instances of cat body language I’ll explain! A cat with narrowed eyes and angled ears is usually either falling asleep or focused on something, and she’s not falling asleep
- “She rolled her eyes, shaking her head a little and pursing her lips.” - once again trying not to smile. She’s always found Pawbert very funny, but won’t let it show.
- “Kitty wasn’t looking at him. Her head and eyes were focused forward, but her ears were angled down to listen to him.” - more cat body language! This one’s easy. Cats love to not look at you but point their ears at you. It’s “I’m listening but pretending I’m ignoring you” and it cracks me up.
- “cat-handling” - a cat version of “man-handling” lol
- “Even in his altered state, he could see the way she was fighting to keep something much more profound out of her expression. He couldn’t wrap his mind around why it affected her so much.” - once again, Pawbert not able to grasp that his sister cares. He genuinely cannot comprehend why it would concern her, because of how uncaring she’s seemed all these years.
- “He swallowed hard, bowing his head and averting his gaze to the linoleum floor.” - this is some appeasement body language. Bowing his head low and looking away to try to show her he’s no threat and he’s not going to argue / fight.
- “Getting hit by a snow mobile, chased through the hedge maze, knocked around and beat to a pulp by Officer Hopps, Officer Wilde, that random beaver he never met, and…” - notice how he won’t mention Gary directly, even in the meta text of the fic. He’s far too guilty.
- “That explained the broken right leg, which was in a cerulean blue cast from just above his knee joint, all the way down to and including his paw. (His stomach turned every time he looked at it. Did he pick that color?)” - Gary color! More subconscious stuff. And no, he didn’t pick it out, it’s just cosmic irony. Also, YES HE BROKE HIS LEG. BECAUSE OH MY GOD? That fall was insane. How did he survive that. And he’s also explicitly shown limping for the whole rest of the movie. Poor bud.
- “(It also also explained the painful, hollow feeling in his chest. But he refused to let himself dwell on it.)” - its guilt. And also the pain of losing his only real friends.
- “ “Solitary. Got into a fight with Mr. Lynxley.” Pawbert gaped at the scratches on his father’s face and arms as he shuffled into the cell, which the elder lynx was fussing over with a paw he repeatedly licked then drew over his face. He supposed that constant broiling anger their mother had helped Kitty learn to keep in check finally got the better of her.” - another example of dots Pawbert can’t connect. Kitty was furious that their father physically abused Pawbert behind closed doors. She and Cattrick thought it was only emotional. Their expressions and the way they rapidly approach the scene in the film when Milton was throwing Pawbert around tells me it’s alarming. Either it happens infrequently, or they’ve never seen it happen. Pawbert’s automatic flinches and jumps tell me it’s frequent. Kitty lost her shit, some female rage her mother helped her tame coming out again. She’s been prim and proper all these years, all for nothing, and her piece of shit father was beating her baby brother this whole time? I’d fuck him up too! Also, the paw licking / face cleaning is very much what cats do out of embarrassment / to help patch themselves up after they’ve lost a fight.
- “He slinked to his little brother’s side, quickly going to hook his arm around Pawbert’s. “Pawby! C’mon. Help me take over Kitty’s bunk while she’s gone.” ” - he’s lying. He wants to sleep near Pawbert to protect him now that he knows Milton has physically assaulted him multiple times. With Kitty in solitary, Cattrick feels like he can’t let Pawbert be alone on his side of the cell without protection.
- “ “You caught me. Kitty just..” he made a vague motion with one paw, “she… sweet-talked her way into a softer mattress!” He then clasped his paws together. “And I want a taste of that while she’s in time-out.” ” - he’s coming up with this lie on the spot. Thankfully Pawbert is gullible / easily redirected!
- Martin Payne - this guy is a ton of fun to write. His dialogue is silly. He is, as stated, a pine marten. I chose this animal for the Lynxley family lawyer because they are notoriously one of the most brutal predators in the animal kingdom. His name is “Martin Payne” because it kinda sounds like “pine marten” backwards. The last name “Payne” is also a reference to Winston Payne from Ace Attorney, because I love that game and. Y’know. Lawyers! His name was almost Martin Pym, as a reference to Arthur Pym, the character who he takes the role of from the show this AU is based on, “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
- “Milton grumbled, maintaining harsh eye contact with the lawyer.” - harsh eye contact is a no-no in cat body language. It’s a challenge, a threat, an assertion of dominance. Hence why Milton does it so much.
- “Pawbert further curled in on himself, his ears flat against his skull as he bowed his head and looked away.” - frightened body language. If his tail were long, it’d be curled in. He’s making himself as small as he can and avoiding eye contact to show he’s not a threat.
- “He licked his lips, his crooked whiskers pressed flush against his muzzle. “They didn’t do anything wrong. The-the cops, the hospital staff, I-..” he could feel the fur along his spine raising as his father stood in his chair.” - whiskers curling back against the muzzle is a sign of fear / stress. Same with the fur along his spine raising. Again, if he had a long tail, it’d be super poofy right now. If he were on four legs he’d be doing that weird crab stance.
- “Pawbert smacked his lips, then let out a puff of air through his nose.” - two anxious things my cats specifically do. Smacking their lips is a way cats sort of nervous fidget. It’s like wringing your hands together. And they let out deep sighs often when they’re nervous.
- “The twin lynxes both snapped their heads in his direction. “Alone?” “Just us two?” ” - they are extremely worried about Pawbert being alone with Milton. For good reason.
- “bull-schtick” - a reference to a line in one of my favorite movies, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. The character who says it is a weasel, not a marten, but whatever.
- “ “I knew it never would’ve worked out!” His muzzle was inches from Pawbert’s. “And even if it did, we never would’ve accepted you!” ” - this is based on something confirmed by Jared Bush, writer and director of Zootopia 2. That even if Pawbert’s plan had worked, Milton would not have accepted him. Ouch. Also, some aggressive lynx body language. They love pressing their faces together and yelling instead of actually fighting. Watch a video! It’s funny as fuck
- “You’re barely even a lynx!” - this is why he tries to bite Pawbert’s ears off. He wants to take his little ear tufts so other animals don’t recognize him as a lynx.
- “Not savvy enough to be a Lynxley. Too soft, too clumsy, too wrong. Not quick enough to be a feline. Too slow, too touchy, too uncoordinated. Not grounded enough to be a mammal. Too blue-blooded, too spoiled, too disconnected from the rest of the world. Not good enough to be an animal. Too mean. Too selfish. Too violent. Too desperate.” - Pawbert has, in this fic at least, felt ostracized on all sides. From his family, from other cats, from mammals and animals as a whole. He can’t fit into any place perfectly and it’s tearing him apart inside. Ain’t that just the way? C’est la vie.
- “What did I do so wrong to deserve this? Mama always said I never did anything to earn dad’s ire, but… I must’ve done something. Parents don’t… they don’t hate their kids for no reason. Right?” - based on a common thought I’ve had, and I’ve heard a lot of victims of childhood abuse express. But the point of child abuse is that it’s inherently unreasonable, anyways!
- “Just assisted under dur-stress, or whatever.” - he means duress, or distress. But he ain’t the brightest, and he’s got just so many brain injuries at this point
- “Pawbert’s posture became rigid, and he made purposeful, hard eye contact with his brother as he bowed his head low.” - if you’ve ever seen a video of cats squaring up, that’s what Pawbert is doing here. He’s lashing out and trying to (subconsciously) physically present himself as a threat so his brother fucks off. Lynxes do this too, but there’s a lot more weird lynx noises involved.
- “Cattrick swallowed hard, briefly smacking his lips. He looked away.” - rare instance (initially) of Cattrick doing a cat behavior. Kitty and him try to distance themselves from acting animalistic in any way to be more presentable to all animals.
- “ “If you think you can somehow use me to turn this around and get yourselves freed, don’t bother. I’m staying here like I deserve.” “That’s not-… you don’t-” his brother pursed his lips and sighed. “That’s not what… we’re doing.” ” - Pawbert thinks it’s all an act. Cattrick can’t admit that he’s caring for Pawbert. He also can’t bring himself to say he thinks Pawbert doesn’t deserve what he’s getting, because talking about feelings is hard.
- “Pawbert slowly cocked his head to one side, keeping his eyes on his brother despite how blurry his vision still was.” - again, more offensive body language that you’ll see in angry cats. He wouldn’t actually square up, but he’s trying to act like he might.
- “ “It’s not like you two care about me. You’ve got to have some other motive here.” “We-!” Cattrick crossed his arms, scoffing. “We… you’re our brother. You, uh… we..” Pawbert also scoffed. “You can’t even say it. Can’t even commit enough to the act to say it!” He jabbed an accusing finger in his brother’s direction. “Don’t start this now. Don’t you dare start acting like you care now.” ” - Cattrick physically can’t say the words “we care about you”. Pawbert wouldn’t believe them anyways.
- “ “We’ve always-!” He cut himself off with a frustrated hiss.” - cats don’t always hiss when they’re angry! It’s a stress noise. They do it when they’re confused, too. Cattrick is having trouble sorting his own emotions.
- “And- and you were supposed to be my big brother.” - this part is a reference to / inspired by another Mike Flanagan show, of course. “The Haunting of Bly Manor”. When one character says to her older brother, “And you’re supposed to be my big brother. You know, you’re supposed to protect me. But you say the meanest things to me when I try to tell you.” Nell Crain I love you so much. Flanagan is always a huge inspiration to my work, and I couldn’t have a painful sibling scene and not reference Hill House at least once.
More Fall, more House, more Lynxley. Chapter seven of The Fall of the House of Lynxley is up!
Extras below!
- Like I say in the end note on the chapter, I’m not entirely certain I’ve written Judy and Nick in character. Buuuut I don’t really care! This ain’t about them, and I don’t like copaganda characters that aren’t Jake Peralta.
- “He’d never had that sort of security before as he slept. So he supposed his lack of vigilance could be excused.” - cats are anxious, hyper-vigilant creatures. They’re both predators and prey, so they are always on alert. A cat sleeping soundly in your presence means you’ve earned their trust and it a huuuuuge milestone in bonding with one.
- “And I sure as shallots didn’t start with an arrest as important as his!” - figured Judy wouldn’t say “sure as shit”, so I replaced it with “shallots”. Y’know, like onions? Farming? I tried.
- “Whispers of her memory danced in his muddled mind for a brief moment. A gentle smile, a paw holding his own. A flowing dress. The scent of perfume. Her finest pearls, scattered across the- ” - hm! Wonder if some of that imagery has to do with her death.
- “What? You’re only animal! You can make mistakes like the rest of us!” - tried to make the phrase “you’re only human” fit them, but it sounds a bit odd. Oh well!
- “… you doin’ alright there, Pawzuzu?” - a paw pun of Pazuzu, a demon in real Mesopotamian mythology that was used as the antagonist of “The Exorcist”.
- “ “‘S aight.” He furrowed his brows at just how hard it was to get his mouth to form proper words. Yoikes.” - “Aight” and “yoikes” are both things taken from other Andy Samberg characters.
- “-pass out on us, alright, Jigpaw?” - a paw pun of “Jigsaw”, the killer in the “Saw” franchise.
- “He caught Hopps and Wilde both staring at him in the rearview mirror with their eyebrows raised, but paid them no mind.” - these two have caught on quicker than Pawbert has. Hilarious.
