#genuinly

I was like "oh I'll just tidy up my sketch--" 3 hours later I have this and my eyes hurt.

I like to think this is before King Parrot happened, but after The Director Arc. Parrots obviously super depressed, not taking care of himself, but Theo is like this shining light that gets him out of his depressing hole and gets him flying around!! Birds can't survive in solitude for every long, so Theo is a genuine life saver here *⁠\⁠0⁠/⁠*

Alt version (except the only difference is that Theo has his fuckass sunglasses on. I hate drawing those things.)

This whole post hinges on Gertrude not lying to Elias about the whole "The Desolation killed my cat" thing, so make of that what you will. I know that line is kinda played for laughs but considering The Desolation is the fear of loss, for someone who was already very lonely (as we know Gertrude was) I imagine the loss of a pet would have been devestating enough to leave lasting impact.

Then we compare that to Gertrude's time as archivist. For the first few decades it goes perfectly swimmingly, but then Fiona dies in what Gertrude probably assumed to be a careless mistake, then Eric drops off the face of the earth and years later she finds out he's been tortured in a skin-book for all that time (which she was apperently could have Known, but I respect a woman who puts her fruitless, revenge driven crusade against evil gods above personal friendships). After that comes the worst part, where Michael, Sarah and Emma all die within probably a few weeks of eachother. We know she was genuinely close to Emma, and while it seems she distanced herself from Michael he was still a person who cared for her wholehertedly (I can't in any way speak for her relationship with Sarah Carpenter as we know nothing about her except for the fact she was very driven, something which one could suppose would lead to Gertrude seeing herself in her, but that's a stretch).

I am, for this post, also assuming that those three are the assistants Leitner mentiones Gertrude missing, and talking about, in his statement. In actuality it was probably meant to be Fiona, Eric and Michael (I'm guessing, since those three had an actual connection to the plot at the time of Jurgen's statement, with Fiona and Michael actually being mentioned to one degree or another while Eric's connection lies with Gerry) and Jonny just did some messing about with the timeline afterwards, but Emma, Sarah and Michael are Gertrude's last assistants so for lore reasons I'm saying it's them.

So, Gertrude has by this point lost everyone who was in any way close to her, The Desolation is having an absolute feast. Speaking of, while they may not actually be friends, I'm sure Gertrude felt the loss of Agnes as well. I can't actually say if it was before or after the assistants all died. Agnes had the unfortunate situation of her timeline in any way intersecting with that of Michael Shelley and everything regarding when she died is therefore kinda up in the air.

So, a few years (?) pass and then she meets Eric's son whom she promised she'd look after if he hadn't gone the same route as Mary. He hasn't, so she helps him out and brings him along on her work trips. Then he gets brain cancer and dies. It's implied she Knew he wouldn't be coming back from the US but we can't be sure if she was aware it was cancer. She, against her better judgement, seems to have actually cared for Gerry, making me wonder why she didn't tell him about it. Not telling him also meant she went against her promise to Eric.

My only real guess is that is was a sort of mercy kill, letting him die of natural causes before any of the powers could do anything worse to him. (Although her leaving him in the Catalouge does speak against that, I really don't know what to make of anything Gertrude Robinson did, this is just me rambling).

big pet peeve in the ddlc community is just the:

"heh.... Natsuki right? rude. 24/7 😼 yeah.... hehe thats her.. she's just has a nonsensical anger towards the world even after finding a comfortable friend group and feeling accepted."

YOU FOOL. CLOWN. JESTER. CHARLATAN. THAT WAS IN THE BEGINNING. AND WHEN SHE DIDNT HAVE A CHANCE TO FULLY DEVELOP CHARACTER AND LEAVE HER TOXIC FRIEND GROUP!!!!!!! SHES GENUINELY A GOOD PERSON, AND WHEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY, SHE IS ACTUALLY SWEET!!!!!!! SHES KINDER WHEN SHE FEELS SAFE IN HER ENVIRONMENT!!!!!!

HER INITIAL ATTITUDE WAS HER WAY OF MASKING HER INSECURITIES, FUCKER.

guys, guys look!!! look this scene was in base ddlc before dan salvato went woke apparently look!!!! look natsuki's not going "yeah!!!! be sorry idiot >:(" SHES BEING MATURE. SHES EVEN EXCITED THAT YURI IS ENGAGING HER INTEREST?????? cmon y'all shes literally just a girl why do none of you understand how teenage girls work ☹️

also people arguing she was really trope-y and annoying in act one uh hey!!! hey so were sayori and yuri!!!! like .LITERALLY BRO. they were also trope-y and annoying so like.!!?? that argument between natsuki and yuri was immature on BOTH SIDES and I STAND BY THAT. the thing is, yuri made more of an effort to connect to natsuki herself and natsuki tried to tie their interests together and they both lowkey sucked at it!!! as well, they both struggle with social cues. Also the fact that by the end of ddlc+, natsuki and yuri are SHOWN to be compatible emotionally, they just literally started off on the wrong foot, and in base ddlc, their competing was encouraged by nature if a shared crush so like??? it was just misunderstanding after misunderstanding that made them butt heads(once again, this is how teenagers work people, take notes)

the synopsis for this is just: