#deslay

Thank you Nyen for the art!!!

June 21-27, 2026

Hello, and welcome to the first Descolay Week! Descolay Week is an organized ship event celebrating the relationship between Professor Hershel Layton and Jean Descole. The ship has been widely popular among fans of the Professor Layton series for over a decade, and we hope that those who enjoy it will participate in any way they can!

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Rules

1.) Be Respectful Treat all participants with kindness and respect. Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. This includes hate speech, bigotry, and ship-bashing.

Because of the nature of this ship, we also ask that anyone who does not intend to participate or contribute positively kindly step away from this blog as a basic sign of respect and courtesy.

2.) Follow Guidelines Please follow any rules and guidelines provided by this blog. This includes prompts, the FAQ, and other rules outlined here.

3.) Tag Your Work Properly Required Tags:

#descolayweek

Mention the blog in your submission: @descolayweek

4.) Credit All Creators and Sources If your work involves collaboration or uses assets (music, edits, bases, or other fanworks), be sure to give proper credit.

5.) Respect Content Boundaries Clearly tag any content warnings (e.g., violence, spoilers) to protect viewers.

6.) NSFW Policy Submissions depicting extreme gore or sexual content are strictly prohibited and will not be accepted.

7.) No Plagiarism or AI Usage Do not repost, trace, or heavily reference someone else’s work without permission. The use of generative AI is also prohibited.

8.) Submissions Deadline Submissions should be made on the day of the corresponding prompt. Some leeway may be given for timezones, but the expectation is that submissions match the day of the prompt they respond to.

9.) Just Have Fun! Most importantly, enjoy yourself! We encourage participants to engage for the entire week and make the event as fun and creative as possible.

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FAQ

When is Descolay Week happening? Descolay Week is scheduled to run from June 21–27, 2026.

When will prompts be announced? Prompts for the event will be announced in May 2026. Please keep an eye out for updates regarding the prompt announcements.

How do I participate? To participate in Descolay Week, you must create a post that follows the prompt of the day and appropriately tag and mention your post.

What tags should I use?

The main tag for participation is #descolayweek.

Please also mention the blog @descolayweek when submitting a post.

Other tags such as #deslay or #descolay are optional but recommended.

What kind of content can I create? Descolay Week accepts submissions in the following forms:

Fanfiction

Fanart

Video edits / AMVs

Graphic designs

Cosplay

Music creation (original fan music)

Are NSFW works allowed? No. Submissions depicting extreme gore or sexual content will not be accepted.

Who do I contact for questions or assistance? For questions or assistance, please use our ask box. This ensures your message is properly received and reviewed. If you need to reach out to a moderator, we also request that you use the ask box.

How will submissions be shared? Submissions will be reblogged on the main Descolay Week blog, with credit given to the creator alongside the work.

What is your stance on spoilers? Due to the spoilery nature surrounding the ship — especially content about Descole — we ask that you spoiler-mark your submission. Clearly indicate if your post contains spoilers. Submissions that fail to do so will not be accepted.

Is there a collection for AO3 Submissions?

Yes, there is! https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Descolay_Week_2026 ________________________________________________________________

If you have any questions, please remember to leave a message in our ask box.

…It’s kind of funny how both of them include Layton himself, eh? Anyway, thoughts?

BWAHAHAHAAAA oh such good ones! As a bonus, I'll even add some stuff where they interconnect! A lot of these are copied and pasted from what I wrote down so if you want me to talk more about something, go right ahead!

LayLuke

Luke drinks the rest of Hershel's tea if there's any left because it feels like an indirect kiss

Hershel lets Luke take the lead to alleviate feeling like he's taking advantage of him (Luke is in complete control here. Don't be fooled Hershel ain't got NOTHING)

Luke makes the first move by kissing him

Hershel sometimes lends Luke his clothes, though they're big on him. Luke, in return, steals them and he'll keep them, making Hershel have to get his clothes back

Both get possessive (Luke being jealous and possessive because he doesn't feel like he's good enough and wants to make sure he still has Hershel; Hershel being possessive because he doesn't want to lose anybody else). Luke gets less possessive overtime, but he's still possessive and jealousy prone as an adult

Hershel actively buys him stuffed animals, much to Luke's (outward) dismay. Luke secretly loves it, though

Puzzles are their love language

Them talking in a way that seems innocent by the general public but actually has a secret meaning is also their love language

(Can work platonically or romantic, I was primarily thinking romantic with this) Since Hershel can't truly tell Luke no, Luke takes full advantage of it

DesLay (Azran Legacy spoilers below for those reading)

They were together as kids before Hershel (Layton) got adopted. They're no longer together in their adult years

They were each other's first everything

Desmond tried to make a move first, but Hershel closed the distance and kissed him first

They always slept next to each other, whether or not they had separate beds

Whatever they saw the adults do, they experimented together

If Hershel wasn't monogamous, the two would be together again (even if they'd have Luke on Desmond all the time) after a while of reconnecting. Hershel ends up regretting this (mainly during the anime period of time)

Descole leaves as quickly as he did because he's unsure if he can handle being around Hershel at that moment. Hershel, on the other hand, wishes he stayed around because he wants closure

They actually do still keep in touch after a while, but for years them reuniting has been… awkward, to say the least. It doesn't help Luke's leering at Desmond/Descole the entire fucking time

Okay so anything for them interconnecting:

When Luke noticed how chummy Desmond was getting with Hershel, he straight up grabs onto him and glares at him in a "he's mine you fucking BITCH you can't have him!" Ofc he doesn't say anything bc yknow, their relationship is a secret and they can't have that be out in the open, but still. Desmond just looks at him like "wtf why is this CHILD looking at me like that?! He can't have figured out I'm Descole has he???"

Desmond figures out that oh wait. No. He's just in love with Hershel. They're probably together too. …HOLD THE FUCK UP A MINUTE WHAT DO YOU MEAN-

When Hershel's feelings resurfaced, it left him confused and feeling guilty. Confused because well, he wasn't around Desmond for a year (I hc Hershel as demi) so he doesn't know why he's feeling that way and he's wondering if he just didn't fall so easily or if he was mistaken about how he was or what; guilty because well. He's with Luke, he shouldn't be feeling this way towards someone else. He doesn't say SHIT about it until after everything that happened in Azran Legacy lol

It's actually because of this that before Luke leaves for America, Hershel tells him that if he likes someone else as well… go for it. Don't restrict yourself because of me being in the equation. Hershel doesn't want Luke to be in the same situation he was when it came to Desmond, even if they didn't end up back together

Descole, before he (unfortunately in Luke's opinion) didn't die, kisses Hershel one last time and tells Luke to take care of him. Luke was too focused on the fact he kissed Hershel RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM to register what Des told Luke. It hits him much later

If Hershel DID start dating Desmond again tho, Desmond and Luke would be fighting each other on a regular basis because "nah he gives ME more attention" "no ME" and Hershel would just be left in the corner like "my lord what on earth did I get myself into?"

granted, this 1am hot take is definitely influenced by the fact that i have only ever seen the surface layer of this ship---my only exposure has been that one time i mass-muted users on ao3 and the small handful of deslay shippers ive encountered in the wilds of tumblr (like 3 people total lol)---but every single time ive seen deslay fanart or fics posted ever since the year of our lord 2011, the dynamic has always been completely ooc, woobified hershel and soft protective des

guys. these two fucking hate each other. they have tried to kill each other. theyre both stubborn and persistent and like to be in control of everything. and youre doing this to them???

the dynamic that they have is genuinely so good. istg if the fact that they were related never existed, theyd be the pl fandom's top ship, and rightfully so. they are polar opposites, could not be more different, yet theyre bound together by fate and by their shared past that only one of them is aware of, and that one is the villain. they keep crossing paths, always fighting, until they finally work together towards a shared goal, and then des betrays him anyway, and then they have a near-death confession moment. they parallel each other in as many ways as they diverge, two sides of the same coin, both extremely repressed individuals, one putting on a mask of grandeur and ego and the other putting on one of stoicism and perfection in order to fucking cope with their immense traumas. they both have lived completely separate lives and yet their most formative experiences are so eerily similar to each other. they are enemies, and yet they are so drawn to each other, one out of an indescribable familiarity and the other out of seemingly lost love. you can ship them with or without the incest and it would be fucking incredible! you dont even have to ship them! i dont! but the ones that do water it down so much that they eroded all the edges and left us with something generic and boring?

maybe thats more a product of 2010s fandom than deslay shippers but its like...why? theres so much to work with there!