#batsalmighty

Lorey was brushing her hair when she heard the knock on her door. She deftly untangled the brush from her hair and placed it on the bathroom counter before going to answer the door. Unfortunately, Cashmere beat her to it.

“What do you want?” His bored alto voice drifted to Lorey’s ears and she quickened her step.

“I’m here for my first flute le-”

Cashmere had put up a hand to stop him. Then he turned lazily toward the inside of the house and yelled. “Sis!”

“Cashmere! There’s no need to yell; I heard the knock as well. Now, tuck in your shirt, and what have I told you about bringing your oboe to the door?” Cashmere only groaned in response and left in a march-like step. “Well, come on in, Swift. You’re a little early, but that’s fine.”

Upon entering the house, Swift immediately noticed how incredibly… in time everything was. It seemed the whole house moved at its own tempo. The clocks ticked away at a perfect 60 beats per minute, the wind chimes beat a D Major arpeggio at a slow 40 beats, and Lorey’s dress swished at 40 as well (half the tempo of her gait because they were heavy). Even Cashmere had walked away at a steady 120 (to match the clocks of course).

“Can I take your coat?” Lorey asked while she pulled out a music stand for the lesson. She had already dressed up in something a little more extravagant than her black concert dress to make sure Swift didn’t feel overdressed–curse him and his absolute obsession with lace–so she hoped he would take his jacket off to decrease the formality of his ensemble.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll wear it.” His voice came out in a lilting imitation of a British accent. London specifically if Lorey were to guess.

What a way to make things awkward was what Lorey wanted to say, but she stopped herself. She also noted that his British accent sounded forced and overly ___ but Lorey didn’t challenge him on that either. He was here to learn music, not fashion… also, the accent seemed to be employed out of respect for the way it sounded rather than contempt or outright malice. “Well then, why don’t we begin?”

~~~

The lesson was… straining to say the least. Lorey had tied up her hair in the middle to keep it out of her eyes, but she almost wished she had left it down to provide some level of cushioning between the flute’s piercing sound and her ears.

“That was a good try, Swift,” Lorey assured the boy, who was looking at the flute with some perturbation. He seemed upset that he didn’t sound like the musicians who performed in the concerts he liked so much. She meant it though. He had tried very hard and clearly wanted to do well, but nobody sounded great the first time they played. Plus, if the sounds coming from the flute proved anything, it was that Swift had gotten through the hardest part about playing: consistent air stream even when you are afraid of how it sounds.

Swift only hummed a little in response, clearly not quite placated by her praise. He quietly began cleaning his flute thoroughly and putting it away and Lorey was struck again by how determined he was to get it right.

“Swift?” Lorey interrupted him before he was able to leave once the instrument was cleaned. “Would you like to hear an oboe solo while you’re here?”

Suddenly, Swift’s face was right in front of her’s and he was nodding vigorously. “Yes, yes, of course!” In his excitement he hadn’t bothered to use his “posh” accent and Lorey could hear the faint tinge of Swedish shine through. Swift didn’t notice, but that was okay. She was just glad he seemed so passionate about this.

Cashmere was, of course, dragged over to come play the piano accompaniment with the minimal amount of grumbling Lorey could hope to get. When he began the opening refrains of the first of Schumann’s Romance, Swift was mesmerized. Swift may not have known exactly what piece it was or anything about it really, but it didn’t matter because he loved it from the minute he heard it. He was like that with most pieces from the baroque to romantic period to be honest.

Occasionally during a piano run Lorey would look up to see Swift staring wonderingly at Cashmere’s hands as they ran up and down the length of the piano.

“You both play really well!” Swift exclaimed when the last note faded out of existence. He was watching Cashmere with such intensity as he said that that Cashmere actually turned his head and blushed a little. “Your hands move so elegantly as well~~” Because Cashmere’s head was turned, he was a bit shocked when Swift grabbed his hands gently and ran his thumb down each finger. It took Cashmere a second to retract his hand.

“Ye, well, thanks for thinking that.” Cashmere wouldn’t look at Swift’s face and Lorey stifled a smile at their interaction.

Finally, Lorey spoke up. “You know, it might be nice to have a boy closer to Cashmere in age around the house…. Listen, Swift, you’re welcome in our house any time. Okay?” She was only a little surprised when Cashmere didn’t interject at all.

Omg you are so kind 🥺🥺🥺

How I feel about this character:

He’s my favorite minor character! Part of that is because I have a bad memory, and he was one of the only ones mentioned often enough for me to remember him. But mostly it’s because we got to meet him in MAG 111 and he was tragic and charming and I fell in love instantly. (I think I have a curse that makes me fall for characters who die before the story begins? It’s a trend 😔) I was beyond thrilled to hear more from him this season! I love his weird, dubious relationship with Gertrude.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

JONGERRY RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!! It’s about John being the first person to come to Gerry with kindness free of manipulation!!! It’s about Gerry always trying to save the people in John’s statements!!! It’s about John keeping his promise to burn Gerry’s page!!! It’s about Gerry finally giving John that hot lore!!! It’s about John being the first person to call him “Gerry” because he’s Gerry’s first real friend!!!

@screechfoxes and I were talking about John/Gerry/Georgie recently and that’s really good, too. Or Gerry/Mike Crew where they meet on vacation? At one point I started writing a Gerry/Michael fic where post-Distortion Michael ends up in Gerry’s book with him, idk, I’m down to ship pretty much anything. JonGerry is still king.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

I would love for Gerry to have a single healthy, mutually supportive friendship once in his entire life but unfortunately he’s doomed to be tragic 😭 Anyway I think he & Georgie & Tim would get along really well. And John, obviously.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I was ranting about him in the TMA Blades discord last week and part of it was about his naivety, which is an underrated aspect of his character in fandom—pre-death, at least, Gerry is much less cynical than I might expect of someone who grew up around so much horror. (Post-mortem is another story.) He strikes me as someone who, hm, “wants to be lied to” sounds harsher than I mean, but to have lived with two incredibly ruthless and manipulative women while believing merrily that they’re doing good in the world takes a certain type of personality. He seems to have easily transferred his allegiance from Mary to Gertrude, both of whom lied to him and others extensively. He’s either overly trusting in general, or (more likely) he wants to believe them because of his relationships with them, to the extent that he ignores the obvious red flags. I like that about his character! We do him a disservice when we portray him as Pure Badass.

ETA: I think part of the reason he’s trusting like this is because he has so much love to give the world and very few outlets for it—demonstrated by the fact that he can’t help trying to save statement givers when he gets the opportunity to, even when he’s on vacation—so when he loves someone like Mary or Gertrude, he willfully ignores the fact that they treat his loving heart so poorly. He deserves people in his life who will cherish and reciprocate his love, but since this is a horror story we don’t have time for that.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

“All set! Everything looks just perfect!” Valentino fluttered his wings and twirled around, coming hilariously close to tying himself into a knot, to grin at his boyfriend. Glaedr smiled back at him warmly before placing the tray of teacups he had carried in down in the center of the coffee table.

A look of sudden realization crossed Valentino’s face as he saw the tray. He quickly rushed into the kitchen. As the sound of the oven door slamming and transferring of a number of baked goods onto plates came ringing out of the kitchen, Glaedr looked over the items Valentino had chosen to bring out. There was the bags of balled yarn (the two had sorted those out together yesterday), a couple stacks of paper, scissors, all manner of other crafting items, and, perhaps most importantly, Valentino’s glitter collection.

“The cookies!” Valentino triumphantly lifted one plate above his head. Some other plates were precariously balanced along his lazily looped body. Glaedr immediately went over and lifted a couple of those off to place them on something a little less... excitable. "Aw, thanks, love!" Valentino darted forward to press a kiss on Glaedr's snout, upsetting another plate he had not yet relocated. Luckily, Glaedr simply reached out to steady it before nuzzling Valentino back.

While the plates of carefully shaped snowflake and snowman cookies were being moved onto the various tables, Glaedr remembered to ask “Do you know if Ville intends to join us tonight?”

Valentino reached over to the plate Glaedr was holding and slightly shifted a cookie to make it line up better with the rest of them. “Oh, don’t worry about that! I told him he could ‘help’ us run the event.” He winked and Glaedr chuckled.

“Shall I go grab him then? Guests should be arriving any moment.”

“Oh, yes!” Valentino slides past Glaedr to rush over to the window. He settles down into an untidy coil and expectantly looks out. Glaedr moves to retrieve Ville.

As he walks toward the back of the house to knock on Ville’s bedroom door, he hears a happy gasp from Valentino and the scrabbling sounds of Valentino trying to open the door. Glaedr simply shakes his head a little in amazement at the infinite energy of the Spiral.

How I feel about this character:

Love Him!!! Rudyard Fun deserves love, Piffling residents are just mean!!!

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Chapman, but only if it’s hilarious. Oh, and Eric has to fall for Rudyard first.

My BROTP for this character:

Georgie, Antigone, the Scouts, and every woodland creature in Piffling.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Sometimes Wooden Overcoats is a bummer because the Funns always lose, so I was really happy that they started gaining ground in season 3, even though their growth was more personal than professional (as I’m sure they would have preferred).

One thing I wish would happen with this character in canon:

Hmmmm, close, except that since Jonny is involved—he’s part of the band + contributes to songwriting, I think to a large degree but I don’t know how they divide it or who writes what tbh—it’s quite a bit more horrible & heart-wrenching than just taking the train. They’ve also done Odyssey Noir (in space!) and Wild West Camelot (in space!) among other things, so. It gets pretty diverse!

25. How would you end I Am In Eskew?

Oh man, we all know I have Thoughts on this, so thank you for giving me an excuse to share them:

I think ending Eskew with the city eating/absorbing/assimilating David would be a disservice to the subtle message of hope and resilience the series has been weaving since, oh, episode five or so—as I interpret it, part of the whole point thus far has been that David keeps getting up; no matter what kind of cruelty the city inflicts upon him, he stays alive (Eskew 5), keeps fighting (Eskew 19), continually plots his escape (Eskew 13, 28), and finds joy and beauty in the fleeting moments between horrors (Eskew 14, 20, 24).

David ran away to Eskew in the first place because he was unhappy and isolated (Eskew 20). To either trap him in Eskew forever or kill him would mean that he was unhappy and isolated his whole life. I hate that! I frequently enjoy tragic endings—I’m an Animorphs and Les Mis fan—but David deserves better than that. It’s fine if the city remains unvanquished and the series ends with the looming possibility of it swallowing the world, but David and Riyo have to escape or I will be deeply disappointed.

And speaking of Riyo! Riyo has to survive Eskew because her personal arc has been about processing grief, letting go of the past, and reclaiming her present (Eskew 28), and if we go through all of that and she dies in the end, then what was the point of her learning it? “Good thing she’s no longer obsessed with finding out what happened to her dead lover, because now she can go die for some other dude”? Nah. If Riyo dies at the end I’m gonna riot. Especially if Riyo dies and David doesn’t.

…Alternatively, they could both choose to stay and destroy the city from the inside. I suppose that would be all right? I guess my point is, if we’re not going to get an uncomplicated happy ending then they have to leave us with either personal hope or societal hope. Either David and Riyo are free, but Eskew’s eventually going to consume the world, or the two of them stay in Eskew, but it’s implied that by doing so they can prevent the world from being consumed.