#freckledstarlet

@freckledstarlet I used this as an excuse to sketch up something silly after I made myself sad with that last drawing I posted 💀

hello m'lady! please, come right this way! yes, just this way past the menagerie, we'll be going to some of the night city terrariums today - mind your fingers! i'll get you some tongs if you want to feed any of them. some of them are a bit bitey.

night city, circa 2080:

oc facts...? oc facts....? whatever oc facts gnaw upon your brains at this moment...? hoot hoot

hark! what is this, at the window? the soft sigh of an owl upon the wind...time for Character Thoughts...

lydia lang, 23

sickly girl who grew into a shy, undersocialized woman with a deeply cynical view of the world. accustomed to being a source of shame and pity for those close to her.

habitually induces very intense, accelerated relationships before pushing people away, as she prefers for people to think of her as an unfortunate lost cause over being found boring and discarded. definitely gets this attitude from watching her parents interact and internalizing that conflict is necessary for healthy desire.

was intended to be an only child and is instead the elder sister of paula, who resents both lydia and their parents for paula's being a "make-up child". lydia herself resents paula for cementing her as the "sick one". their relationship is strained.

what are a few notable thoughts tamwyn had through the process of falling in love with leonara? what did he think when he first met her, as he got to know her, when he knew he loved her?

thank you!!!!!!! ^ w ^

good morning tamber!!!! mwahh thank you so much i hope today is absolutely lovely to you too :3

Tamwyn fell in love with Leonora much more quickly and much more than he anticipated. Similar to her, he was determined to love whoever he married, but he didn't have it as an expectation for himself the way she did. Plenty of his friends/acquaintances liked their wives but didn't necessarily love them, but Tamwyn was hopeful because nothing about Leonora seemed like a compromise. On paper, she was the best of the best in every way. In life, he very quickly realizes she's so much more than that.

Their first meeting in person was a long time in the making after months of exchanging letters and knowing a lot about each other without really knowing each other. Tamwyn's first thought was that Leonora is so prepared for every little thing, he wanted to find some way to surprise her.

Over the course of getting to know her, Tamwyn particularly enjoyed seeing Leonora's reactions to his noticing and remembering very subtle details about her or her preferences, places where her accommodating and Unremarkably Nice facade cracked. He likes knowing Leonora so well that she grants him more secrets about herself, and the fact that she has secrets at all. Tamwyn often likens her to a miracle in his thoughts, especially during this period. He thinks that she is incomprehensible by most and felt that although they were set up by their families, they're also performing something close to divine work by choosing each other within their marriage.

The first time he knew he loved her was very shortly after their marriage. They were sitting in his study in a house neither of them fully felt was theirs yet, and he asked if she played chess. When she told him she knew the rules but didn't play often, he offered to teach her. Leonora proceeded to play an insane long con game of chess ending with her forcing him to either offer a draw or lose. Tamwyn looked at her smiling from across the board, the picture of quiet satisfaction, and knew he was utterly in love.

what does cassius want to be when he grows up? does he think that far? or is it kind of a getting through his life as it is right now situation? (since he has The Shoebox to contend with)

hi hi hi lovely i hope you are having a phenomenal and delicious evening! :3

Cassius has recently begun to have some long and serious thinks about what he'd like to be when he grows up! He spent his very young years being told what he was (his father's son; a very difficult little piece of treasure; a mistake) and what he would grow up to be (his father's heir; a loyal man with a good memory; a good son), so he didn't have much of an independent self-image!

He is mostly focused on getting through whatever the day throws at him, but Cassius is an optimist and a dreamer at heart. He would like to be a rich powerful businessman like he's supposedly going to be, because then he would be able to make things better. He could be really good in a really big way forever, and then everybody would be happier. The same logic follows for his other dream of joining the clergy: he could serve the highest calling there is and help loads and loads of people feel peace and love.

for matteo please!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

eeee thank you tamber!! ❤️❤️❤️ this is a teeny bit off-prompt bc matteo himself is in one of these and the email isn't exactly just about him, but i hope you enjoy anyways! was very fun to put together.

transcripts under the cut

thank you jinx i hope you have a lovely day and enjoy your delicious puff pastry :)

hiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!! ❤️ yes yes yes

laurence is a "business associate" of taligild's, in reality simply another name and identity that taligild chose for themself that makes it easier to make arrangements away from the well-integrated eyes of their family. The Etoni family keeps close tabs on everything and everyone, most of all its own.

Taligild, being the oldest and most well-appointed of their siblings, has earned certain privileges and freedoms in operating and living their own life, but Laurence is a secret identity that lets them do more, especially in ways that would get said freedoms very harshly revoked (yes taligild is fully in their forties and in control of their own money/housing/etc. But they Fear their parents and the various consequences and shame of potentially being disowned. Failure Cannot Be A Possibility.). As Laurence, they can be kinder to themselves without needing to confess it to anyone.

As for why Taligild Anthony John Etoni chose the name Laurence Elder, they put a lot of thought into it! Laurence follows the traditional naming convention of their family for daughters and is similar in meaning to a woman in their family that taligild loves and admires. Their mother whose brilliant ways of repressing I mean handling her own issues is also the root of many of taligild's Issues. Elder is a convenient surname to be largely unremarkable while reminding Taligild of everything at stake should this cover be blown. They also just kinda like signing off stuff as L.E.

Laurence Elder also gets to have things taligild doesn't! By virtue of not existing, laurence has a beautiful family home by the sea and a beautiful happy family to live in it: a wife, two kids, and their cat and dog. The realization of the age-old American dream.

Why hello, trick or treater! Let's see what we've got...

hdm AU basil darcy's dæmon is a european badger named Lilith and Sybil's is a red fox named Ariella

Lucy and Sybil are dressing as each other for Halloween this year

the etoni house has historically handed out the big full-size movie theater boxes of candy for halloween, but they also just stop answering the door at 6:30pm sharp

vasilisa's fave candy in the world is lollipops but she also has a deep fondness for pink starbursts!

imogen dressed up as a bee for her last halloween. parlan was a scarecrow that year.

vasilisa's first kiss was on halloween! (online. synced-up ctrl+shift+K. her avatar was dressed up as a witch with spiderweb accessories and a hat and everything.)

esme actually really loves group/coordinated costumes but she does not often get to do them because of her life decisions.

cassius usually spends halloween nibbling at a cupcake and watching veggie tales.

zia once dressed up as a ghost for halloween. unfortunately she did so by looking. a lot like taligild. this was a bad time for everybody (this was also the first time taran climbed out the window of his childhood bedroom)

Don't forget your handful of candy!