#sunbrat

I have a question about OL. Even though Eliot chose to stay in the Otherlands, he can still travel back and forth right? I'm asking bc he implied he couldn't go back to the "normal" world and that's why he had to stock up on pens and other modern stuff.

I hope you are having a lovely day too!

Elliot can still travel back and forth, yes. He can make a run for pens! But one of my friends lives in another county but is Irish, and when she comes back or I visit her, she wants me to bring Barry’s teabags because they’re the best kind. (I agree with her on this.) She can come back, but not without difficulty and she’s made a decision to set her life elsewhere. Little in this life is permanent but as far as things can be, it’s a permanent move for her, and this is a permanent move for Elliot. The place he crosses over is walkable, but it won’t be on a sea voyage to see mermaids, or many of the places he ends up getting posted. His original world won’t be very accessible to him, in a variety of ways.

During the book, Elliot realises getting his education in a magical land would make returning to his own world on a permanent basis difficult. He’s not going to have a record of going to school after the age of 13, or a college degree, and he would need them to live the kind of life he wants and have the kind of job he’d find interesting. He’s aware the longer he stays the more difficult returning would be - implied though not stated in the text: his mother could not stay in that world, when she wanted to leave the man supporting her. She’s explicitly got healer skills. She doesn’t have a medical degree.

Also during the book, Luke has a freak attack about Elliot staying longer than scheduled in the other world. Luke cannot go there (‘don’t go where I can’t follow’ a feeling many of us have had about our loved ones). It’s on Elliot’s mind afterward that Luke worries about him when he’s away and that is both touching and a new experience for Elliot. He’s not going to have a good time in Cancun if he thinks Luke is frantic with worry that Elliot will be murdered by an airplane or a phone. So he will do his best not to go.

Elliot tends to do and say hurtful things so often that they hold absolutely no weight. People often assume he’s kidding during the few times he’s actually genuinely trying to insult them.

And Luke understands that very often Elliot is kidding… he just always isn’t sure when. The answer is probably most of the time. But also sometimes Elliot is serious, and hurtful when Luke doesn’t expect it.

So when Luke is at his best, he can assume that Elliot is affectionately mean. But when Luke is feeling stressed or insecure, he flips on a dime and assumes that all of Elliot’s mean bullshit is dead serious. And that it’s always been dead serious. And he’s been putting so much love and effort into a boy who probably hates him.

Luke is generally very kind. He tries very hard not to have the meanest and most reactionary responses when Elliot is mean to him. But he does tend to let that build up to a point of resentment where eventually he lets it all explode. And then when he actually wants to hurt Elliot he goes in for kill shots and says the meanest possible thing he can think of. (Big fight #1: I only invited you this summer because I pity you. I never wanted you here. Big fight #2 your family doesn’t want you and I don’t want you either. You have no friends).

And both times Luke is LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH. He says the thing he thinks will hurt Elliot most and then assumes his words have had no lasting impact because he assumes Elliot knows they are so obviously not true.

Of course Luke wants Elliot there. He invited him. He’s going to continue inviting him. Why does Elliot not want to go all the sudden? Does he hate Luke?

Of course Luke is Elliot’s friend. Luke only has two fucking friends. How could Elliot take that statement at face value?

but then there’s his whole complex about luke. he spends YEARS spinning this whole love triangle narrative in his head and freaking out about it. and it’s like, why does this one matter to him? the one where it’s not actually an issue?