Pip they/them or whatever you want my dears,
30 (but I have an almost 3 year old )
... i feel like that explains so much about the ecclectic content of this blog ...
Autistic, Synesthesia, and Queer Writer Blog, safe-ships only please,
AO3 Puzzle_with_Infinite_Pieces
This has been updated slightly, update is above the cut
I've got a handful of new followers from a ton of different fandoms so, I'm gonna go ahead and make one of them nifty pinned posts.
Hi! I'm Pip, short for Peregrine like the bird. (Or the hobbit, but with the "e," not without, because I was sick of battling autocorrect and I chose my name before you had the option to you know ... fix that.)
I'm an ADHD autistic, transmasculine poet and an actor. I'm also a parent. If you want to read more, feel free to hit the little "Keep reading" below!
Small Update: Since this blog is starting to get more asks/ traction in general with the new reboot of Sofia the First: Royal Magic:
I am an ADHD-er and autistic with a very hectic offline life.
If I forget about an ask, a reblog thread, a comment conversation, or what have you:
Please, do not assume that means I am uninterested in what we were talking about, no longer invested in the project I started with you, or anything of that matter.
Sometimes, it can take me upwards of several hours to read something that is only a few paragraphs because I don't get silence until after 11 PM my time. Comes with the territory of having a kid, and I would change nothing, but it does make it hard to read and reply to things.
If you're still interested in my response to something that I forget about, tag me in the thread in a few days, and I'll try to come back to it. However, know that I do read everything and enjoy and appreciate everything people say IMMENSELY!
But, honestly, I think there might be a few things I've just *lost* in my "activity" over the last couple of days because there is so many things I'm getting tagged in/ asked about/ so many of my posts are getting reblogged.
Which, as an Enneagram 3, I am EATING UP the attention.
Y'all ... This is amazing, and I have never felt so overjoyed and touched by all of your sweet comments, questions, and praise. /gen
I just also don't want anyone to be offended if I don't get back to you because my peanut brain is raising a peanut, and I am going to be CRAZY busy this Summer into the early Fall in my personal life.
Therefore, if you really want me to see something, send it as a DM or Ask. Those I can usually reply to more easily at least with a cursory message.
Additionally, I also get obsessed with things I'm working on, especially when asked by folks to do things I find interesting, and I WILL talk about every minute detail I learned while working on it.
It's a hazzard of the two different spices in my spice blend ...
But, this is my update! I hope y'all are doing really, really well! :D
I occasionally talk about politics, religion, and other crap I care about, but I'm mostly here to discuss my fandoms and the fandoms my young kiddo (Squish) has gotten me into.
A lot of what I watch right now is Sesame Street and Disney Jr. (Particularly Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins on Disney Jr. because Squish likes those most. Got some banger music and some decent characters. Stuffy the dragon reminds me of my Figment plush from when I was little, and Squish has me in our Cedric and Sofia costumes more often than they don't of late.)
That said, because my kid has cast us in those roles, please keep that one ship in particula far, FAR away from me. I've always been pretty *personally* against proshipping in fandom for my own reasons, but that one in particular is just a big ol' nope! I don't wanna look at it.
When you're dancing with your kid in costumes like once a week because dress up is their favorite game, it's a *real* hard association to remove. Therefore, please, tag it so I do not have to see it. You don't tag it? It's an immediate block. I don't wanna know. Not about it. Not for me.
As a parent, my tolerance for bs that I don't want to see is in the fires of Hades. When I was younger, I had more "tolerance" because I was taught I had to in order to be a "good" fandomite. BEGONE!
My blog is my fun time. I get precious freaking little of it. You disturb my fun. I block you. You disturb me? I block you. It is my right to curate my content as I see fit. You go slink to your corner of the internet. Leave me in mine. Plain and simple.
That said, I'm currently working on a pretty extensive Sofia the First fic series for Squish when they're older that I'm posting on AO3 for others to partake in. However, the work, in the end, is for Squish when they're older.
Weirdly enough, if anyone is old-old guard tumblr, I am the same tookishcombeferre that disappeared off the face of the earth and wrote "What My Mother Would Have Wanted" from the Beauty and the Beast fandom eons ago. The thing *is* done. It's still my most read and popular work on AO3.
So, if you also call Lefou from Beauty and the Beast "Étienne," think Stanley is the younger brother of Plumette/ is the son of Mme Garderobe and Maestro, and/or think Stanley is non-binary, you can hold me personally responsible. I came up with those hcs alongside a couple of buddies in that fandom back when the live-action was in theaters. (Yes. I'm that old.)
I've always been a Disney dude. I love old school animation. 2D in particular. If my username is any indication, I am a huge Les MIz fan. Phantom of the Opera was the first musical I ever saw in person (I was 10.) I've dabbled in Shakespeare mostly from the English major side of things, but I want to perform it. One of my buddies and I tried and failed to finish playing Undertale on a laptop that kept short circuiting. We eventually watched a playthrough of it online. My spouse and I are currently playing through True Pacifist on our Switch and have been ... for two years ... we just met Mad Dummy/ Mew Mew and hung out with Napsa ... after two years ... (Update: Now currently stuck somewhere in Hotland after I went rogue one day when I was sick and started playing it by myself.)
I've been reading classic horror since I was about 11? 12? Maybe younger? (I definitely should not have been doing that, but my parents also handed me John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" at about 12 1/2 and said "This is good for you." Still actively traumatized by the ending to this day. Not a book for young children or pre-teens. Absolutely not. Steinbeck is most notable for his descriptive narrative style and he describes something ... very ... a lot ... near the end of that book. I still see that image in my head. I'm 30. I only read it once at 12 1/2.) However, none of that stopped me from becoming an academic at heart.
My degree is in English with a focus on psychological theory with dips into some sociology and some history. I once had hopes to study how World War 1 (particularly how the topography of trench warfare) influenced the psychological development of Lord of the Rings based on how Tolkien uses similar "trench" or "trapped" feelings in settings to develop character.
However, the thesis never really made it past the first section of the abstract phase. (I was exploring how Peregrin Took's social age affected his ability to process trauma before I made a career pivot.)
My end goal was to talk about how traumatic experiences appear in fantasy literature (particularly those geared at children and young adults) and assessing how they handle trauma, what lessons that leaves the reader with, and what that tells us about what society valued at that time. I was starting with Rings. I was hoping to end with the sort of "fantasy genre" as a whole to bring fantasy literature into the academic conversation and validate it as "academic" writing. I had planned to start with The Inklings and how WW1 experiences affected the modern fantasy/ sci-fi/ science fantasy genre as a whole and grow outward from there.
(This is something I can talk about at great length even if I never finished my papers.)
So, every once in a while, I'll post some kind of crazy analysis of something - a musical, a book, a children's TV show using one of my old academic theories.
(Ah, Sofia the First through the lens of Just War Theory - how I love you. How unhinged you were. I *still* really want to do that OCD case study about Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh ... you think I'm joking. I have an outline ... somewhere ...)
Currently, I'm a performer. I'm hoping *fingers crossed* to get back into opera. I had some training in high school but after having Squish my voice dropped naturally into the contralto/ tenor range. So, none of my old arias work for me. Interest in the craft is still there, and I miss it desperately.
It's just actually more euphoric for me now.
I'm also a poet. I'm working on some chapbooks/book-books. None are done. Again, if you are old guard and knew my old blog, it was like 99.9% me shouting poetry fragments into the void. Most of it was about coming out.
I freaked out someone was going to find my blog before I was ready to come out. Panicked, and then, you know, casually deleted the whole blog.
Now, I'm old, and I'm being myself on purpose. So, I don't really care anymore?
So, if you too are an 18-20-something year old nervous wreck, don't worry one day you will be a nonplussed 30 year old with developing boundaries! It's great! Usually!
Lastly, I'd once again ask if you're gonna follow and post anything edgy (NSFW) that you tag it please.
I block the tags I don't want to see actively which is, as I mentioned, mostly proshipping and a handful of other things.
This is the internet. I try to hang out in the corners of fandoms and the internet that I find safe, personally. I can't stop anyone from hanging out in the corners of the internet *they're* going to hang out in. I wouldn't poke that bear myself for personal reasons.
But, you do you. I just ask that you tag your crap so I don't have to see it. 'Cause I'm gonna do me.
Over here.
If you read this far, wow.
I'll leave you with these words of parental wisdom:
Play nice in the sandbox.
Don't feed the annons or the trolls anything but sarcasm, and only if you have the spoons.
If you're 18 or less, you have your whole darn life ahead of you.
Go outside. Touch grass. Make crappy doodles. Make terrible fanfictions with horrendous grammar mistakes that will make you blush in 20 years. You're still a child. Enjoy being a kid. You don't get that back. The skin care routine, coffee regimine, stressed out about the state of the world stuff will still be waiting for you in a few years. I *promise.*
Leave the stressing about the state of the world to the folks who can vote and do stuff about it. Read. Learn. Stay in school. Listen to your teachers.
Don't have AI write your papers or read your books. Do that part.
But, like, immediately, as in right now? Go eat a brownie in the grass and enjoy a sunset for me. Maybe blow some bubbles. You'll thank me in an hour. I swear.
Oh. And, respect each other's boundaries (and mine.)
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Disney, are you purposefully trying to get Royal Magic to fail? First off, there was the extremely early premiere time, and now it's already on hiatus? You're not gonna get the audience you guys want for this show if you keep this up, just FYI.
I also remember reading somewhere, from what someone screenshotted from BlueSky, didn’t see it myself, that several episodes of the show were still in the final animation phases? // still in test phases? (I can’t remember now.)
So, perhaps they pushed these 8 ahead to get them out as sort of “teaser” material and then the rest of the show will have time to catch up?
Disney, are you purposefully trying to get Royal Magic to fail? First off, there was the extremely early premiere time, and now it's already on hiatus? You're not gonna get the audience you guys want for this show if you keep this up, just FYI.
I also remember reading somewhere, from what someone screenshotted from BlueSky, didn’t see it myself, that several episodes of the show were still in the final animation phases? // still in test phases? (I can’t remember now.)
So, perhaps they pushed these 8 ahead to get them out as sort of “teaser” material and then the rest of the show will have time to catch up?
I don’t know, man. I think he just wanted to do gay stuff and got carried away and committed murder.
Utterson is the one I would be afraid of. Might hang out with serial killers for fun (the only person who still entertains men that society has utterly condemned), stalks a man for weeks on end just to see his face, ordered a butler to batter a door down with an axe. While the lack of emotion is very autistic, it can also be interpreted or written to be off-putting/uncanny valley to neurotypicals, or that he repressed himself so much he forgot how to feel emotions.
I’d love to see a more Biblically accurate representation of the book in play/ film form that takes up a sort of TGS-like premise.
As in, Jekyll is the one who has forgone a lot of who he was by pouring it into Hyde, and Hyde is, thus, more, in certain ways, indicative of Jekyll as he was in his more idealistic phase during university, and thus impulsive.
This would leave room for some really interesting interpretations surrounding the murder of Danvers, why it happens, why Jekyll is so bent up about it, etc.
Was it self-defense?
Was it out of defense for someone who went missing from Soho?
Was it out of an impulse for some other purpose of protecting himself/ themselves?
Is Jekyll actually bent up over his queer self having more and better morals than his “posh Victorian self?”
Is he really afraid of confronting that his mask is evil and what he was hiding, his ADHD/ queer self, was good?
(This is to say nothing for the possibilities of addressing & including the history of Stevenson’s Scottish roots as Sage did in TGS by giving Hyde a brogue or including Scottish folk music/ the Scottish language in the potential adaptation, which would have been frowned upon.)
I dunno it’s 2026.
I think it’s time for a new stage/ film version of the story where we answer these all important questions & also address that, yes, of the two of them, Utterson is infinitely scarier.
characters who get the "i can fix him" urge not because theyre a saint who loves everyone inherently but because they think "if i can prove there's good in everyone, maybe i can start feeling like i'm worthy or being seen as good too."
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Lol can we talk about this??? 🥺 I freaking love the fact that Cedric was having lunch with his students. Like there’s no doubt that there’s a teachers lounge room where he could’ve just go there but instead he decided to join his students during lunch time and that honestly has to be so freaking wholesome to me!! 🥺
It really fills my heart with so much joy in seeing how much Cedric truly has changed for the better. Sure he may still have his snarky sassy personality but yet he is a total sweetheart when it comes to his students. I kinda do wish that moment could’ve lasted a bit more in just seeing Cedric having a nice chat with Zariah during lunch time but of course there was the whole conflict with the goo monster.
And speaking of the goo monster, another thing that I loved so much is the fact that Cedric instantly went protective mode on his students! He was making sure that all his students were right behind him and far away from the monster! I love this man so much 🥺
Cedric’s bond with his students is so far one of my most favorite things about this show and I can wait to see more. I do wonder how he will interact with Devin though, cuz that has me pretty intrigued in what Cedric can teach him in order to help Devin become more humble.
Me personally, I always thought Cedric was great with kids (yes, I do know he schemed and plotted against Sofia in G1, but the moments he had with her even when he was scheming was so sweet), with the amount of scenes we got of him interacting with them in G1.
"Cedric's Apprentice" and "Substitute Cedric" are my favorite episodes of seasons 1 and 2, and I love how they foreshadowed him eventually becoming an actual teacher for Royal Magic! In "Cedric's Apprentice", Sofia even says to him that he's a great teacher!
The scene of him protecting the students from the goo monster at Charmswell is like the time he protected Sofia and Calista from Morgana in the episode "Gone With the Wand" in season 3! And not to mention, he jumped in front of Sofia and Amber when they were having the final face-off with Princess Ivy.
I was mostly reblogging this to save for later to mention “Gone With the Wand” specifically.
Part of the reason my own kiddo can’t finish that episode right now is because the idea of Cedric getting stolen // locked up is too real and scary for them right now.
The Goo is a little more approachable so we’re chill with that one. But, they do mention not particularly *liking* the moment Cedric gets stuck to (and left) on the wall because of their association of Cedric with me. Despite the fact that that moment is one the 90s/2K kid in me loves and finds ridiculously funny!!!
(It’s endearing but also kind of funny to listen to toddler/ preschooler logic. /gen)
But, yeah, it’s really cool to see this arc we see begin in “Cedric’s Apprentice,” move into the sort of begrudging substitute arc in “Substitute Cedric, his nostalgia for prank day sort of battling for helping protect RPA for a hot minute. Then, he sort of really shows his true character when push comes to shove in “Gone With the Wand,” & how he acted in “In Cedric We Trust.”
So, again, this writing did really feel nice in the greater context of G1’s arc for him in regard to how he acts towards kids entrusted to his care. :)
I do also love the animation of him in the gif though. He actually looks strong in this image as opposed to in previous shots where he looked more desperate?
Like, there’s something about this shot that really calls back to “In Cedric We Trust” where we see him facing the threat face first and head on, but he looks stronger here than he did then. His posture and stance is a little wider and he looks bigger. Which is cool to see.
Lol can we talk about this??? 🥺 I freaking love the fact that Cedric was having lunch with his students. Like there’s no doubt that there’s a teachers lounge room where he could’ve just go there but instead he decided to join his students during lunch time and that honestly has to be so freaking wholesome to me!! 🥺
It really fills my heart with so much joy in seeing how much Cedric truly has changed for the better. Sure he may still have his snarky sassy personality but yet he is a total sweetheart when it comes to his students. I kinda do wish that moment could’ve lasted a bit more in just seeing Cedric having a nice chat with Zariah during lunch time but of course there was the whole conflict with the goo monster.
And speaking of the goo monster, another thing that I loved so much is the fact that Cedric instantly went protective mode on his students! He was making sure that all his students were right behind him and far away from the monster! I love this man so much 🥺
Cedric’s bond with his students is so far one of my most favorite things about this show and I can wait to see more. I do wonder how he will interact with Devin though, cuz that has me pretty intrigued in what Cedric can teach him in order to help Devin become more humble.
or to be a little less pithy, groundedness means a sense of internal consistency, the idea that events and traits of a story or world are grounded in a coherent set of logics.
while realism means--exactly that, adherence to the specific logics of actual reality and its physics, logistics, etc.
there is of course nothing wrong with wanting realism in a story, but 99% of the people who say they do really want groundedness. like the vast majority of dumb arguments about asoiaf/got are its fans saying "its realistic" when they mean "its grounded" and people ridiculing them because it is in fact not very realistic (and not just because of the overt fantasy elements)
In my experience, another big part of the problem with talking about "realism" in fictional milieux is the product of a specific Type of Guy employing the term as a sort of semantic bait and switch, sometimes without consciously realising that this is what they're doing.
There's a particular recurring discussion of "realism" in media that goes something like this: "okay, but realistically the heroes would always win because they'd just shoot the villain while they're monologuing" – while refusing to acknowledge the obvious follow-up question: "wait, but if monologuing reliably gets you shot, where do all the monologuing villains come from?"
i.e., what we're really discussing is not a milieu which has adhered to some notional model of "realism" ab initio, but one which was apparently governed by the conventional tropes of its genre right up until the moment the character the person framing the scenario wants to win walks into the room, whereupon "realism" asserts itself.
Heck, there were folks doing this song and dance in the notes of the post this one is following up on, trotting out hypotheticals like "in a realistic fantasy setting the twelve-year-old chosen one would always lose because experience trumps skill and the power of friendship isn't real", implicitly taking it as given that in a milieu where this is true, people would still be handing out magic swords to twelve-year-olds.
It's basically treating those silly "How [Media] Really Should Have Ended" YouTube videos as a legitimate critical lens, and in circles where this song and dance is common, it leads to a lot of people reflexively shutting down the moment they hear the word "realism" because they assume (often quite reasonably!) that oh great, it's That Guy again.
I was talking to @tookishcombeferre about the RM episode 'New Horse On the Block.' I was saying I thought Wildfyre was kind of selfish in expecting Sofia to accommodate her, when Wildfyre should have been the one to accommodate her young rider. Sofia's safety is more important than Wildfyre's comfort and convenience.
And then they told me- and I'm someone who was torn between cautiously optimistic and super excited for the show ever since it got announced, and who LOVES the show now that it's out- something that blew my mind, something so obvious I can't believe I didn't see it.
That episode is like a message from Craig Gerber and the showrunners telling the old fans of the show "I know it's a new show and some things are a little different, but that doesn't automatically make it bad. Give it a chance, and we're sure you'll find stuff about it you'll love as much as the original show."
I’ve been meaning to post about this, but life has been really hectic.
(In a show, writing book, writing show?, very a lot.)
But, anyway, I haven’t ridden bareback in a long time, but I do remember the first time I did.
In the barn I rode in, in order to teach us to post in English saddle, we had to learn to ride bareback first.
Most horses that are bareback horses really are just that? I’m sure some of them can learn to tolerate a saddle eventually? But, like, a lot of the horses we rode bareback weren’t used for saddle riding - if my memory serves? And, again, at least where I rode.
But, regardless, there is something beautiful and magical about the experience of feeling the horse’s spine under your legs, about feeling their pulse against your arms as you lean in to hang on, about learning how not to pull on their mane when you ride.
There’s something incredibly special about that feeling.
And, it really feels like a sort of right of passage to be able to ride bareback.
I wasn’t big or old enough to do it the year before. I wasn’t even allowed to try it. So, like, to be allowed to attempt it!? It really was like magic.
It was scary though. Not wrong about that, and getting up was harder. (We had stools we could stand on & older partners who helped us get up by standing next to us to boost us.)
But, again, the most amazing feeling. You felt so accomplished when you mastered a new part of it.
I was forced to stop the year after because that’s when we started jumps, and my folks wouldn’t let me continue to learn jumping because it was “too dangerous.”
So, I do actually like this episode. I like that Sofia is encouraged to continue even when her sport gets tougher - been there with stuff even if it wasn’t sports, wanted to quit, and been glad I didn’t. But, I also really like that this pushes people to look at things that are “dangerous” in a new way? Possibly?
Like, I was also told I wasn’t allowed to play basketball because I might break my arm.
So, there’s that?
Anything can be dangerous.
Playing on playgrounds. Playing basketball. Theater. Everything.
Are we going to expect kids to have no experiences for risk of … I have to say it … falling off the horse? Literally … in this case?
And, yes, I understand that WildFyre was a little persistent. As always, everyone is welcome to their own opinions about her character and the episode itself.
(My spouse actually liked the message of the episode, but he found WildFyre as a character kind of annoying. Which, you know what? Valid. There’s always one. In G1, for me, that was Rex. I could not STAND Rex. So, there’s always one.)
But, yeah, this is my opinion. Is it founded in personal experience?
You betcha.
Do we consume media out of personal experience and bias?
Absolutely.
Even when we try to give an unbiased analysis of a work do our areas of interest deeply influence what types of questions we ask about a work, and as such, what we analyze?
Yep!
Do we end up making inferences based on our experiences, what we know about the world in which we live, things we’ve encountered, and our past interactions with the genre with supporting evidence from the text?
Yes. Yes, we do.
Is this why there are so many random interpretations of books from the lenses of so many theories that are all considered various degrees of correct?
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Guys, when I tell you the episode/segment 'The Royal Mix-It-Up' makes me SOB-
Zaria was SO happy to be paired up with Sofia (the way she smiled when she said in her monotone voice "It's a good day after all" 🥺🥺). I definitely hc Zaria has a hard time making friends because of how "weird" she comes across, which is why it was so important to Zane that her and Sofia become friends (Zane, you are Best Big Brother material 🥺). It was even more important to Zane than Zaria, because Zaria- being the pessimist/realist she is- already assumed it wasn't going to work out, because she presumably already has experience with others thinking she's too weird or different (likely at her last school), even though of course she is very lonely. That's why when Sofia said she couldn't believe they couldn't find a single thing in common, Zaria sadly replied "I can. But it's still too bad." 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭
Her tiny bit of hope she dared to have was crushed. She had a little bit of hope with Sofia because Sofia is SUPER nice.
And kudos to her VA for not only singing in Zaria's monotone voice, but at the same time, perfectly manging to make her sadness come through during the song she sang with Sofia. Kudos to her for SHATTERING my heart beyond what it already was. 😭😭😭
I get teary thinking of the clear emotion- the happiness and sadness, respectively- behind her monotone in this episode. The VA absolutely NAILED it.
Zaria is my favorite kid outside the Core Four (as I call Sofia, Zane, Camila, and Layla). She is precious, and must be protected at all costs.
"And kudos to her VA for not only singing in Zaria's monotone voice, but at the same time, perfectly manging to make her sadness come through during the song she sang with Sofia. Kudos to her for SHATTERING my heart beyond what it already was. 😭😭😭"
THIS!!!!
UGHHH!!!
Unless you have this natural speech pattern, it's really hard to do.
But, there's so much Zaria's VA does with dynamics and the amount of air the VA is using at certain points in speech.
There's a moment when she's talking where her voice goes up ever so slightly in that mostly-monotone voice style, but it goes up, in part, because there's a lot more airflow in the speech. You can also hear a little rasp as the voice goes up - which is amazing.
I love the control on it too. It's not like Zaria's voice is breaking, because it wouldn't, but the sadness still comes through because the rasp is there.
This combined with the animation of her sort of cat like eyes widening a little in this supremely innocent way is just so heartbreakingly real. For the first time, she doesn't sound "edgy" - which is likely how so many would perceive her - she sounds just like what she is ... a child.
And, it's so BEAUTIFULLY DONE!
Guys ... the acting ... the voice acting on this show! It's peak!!!
I can so see Cedric having tea with Roland and Miranda, telling them all about how much Sofia is thriving at Charmswell.
No doubt Roland gladly granted him permission to teach p/t there, seeing how he surely trusts him with Sofia's life after everything, and knowing he would watch out for her (no doubt Roland and Miranda would both be extremely protective over Sofia after they nearly lost her in the finale of the og show).
I do really like this idea. One thing I would add is the sort of subtle way the two of them would also probe about *Cedric.*
Let's not forget that Roland also caught Cedric during the finale after everything was over.
Honestly? I'm kind of proud of Roland for how well he handled that day? Like, yeah, sure, he did try to turn and get reinforcements for a minute instead of facing the threat head on which, again to me, has always felt more tactical than like true panic or even being cowardly.
But, like, once Roland understood the magic he had on his side and what he had going for him, he was ready to face things head on. He used and managed his resources well, and Roland didn't panic even after one of his kids got sucked inside the Amulet. He had like every right to absolutely lose his mind after Cedric got Sofia out, and he watched Cedric almost pass out.
But, he didn't!
Roland managed everything and kept his head.
He grew so much!!
But, honestly, I can imagine Roland, privately, thinking - in regards to Charmswell -
"If I have both of them at the magic school, the magic school where Sofia learns and Cedric teaches, there's less likelihood of either of them getting hurt. They'll be so busy trying not to scare each other by doing anything foolish that they'll be safe!"
(I love him your honor. But, this would be Roland's logic.)
But, anyway, all that to say, I do think Roland and Miranda take turns probing Cedric for how he's managing as well because he, likely, spends most of his time giving them the latest gossip about Sofia and her friends and next to no time talking about himself.
I'd imagine that it takes Roland and Miranda a few of these tea sessions before they'd start getting honest answers about things like grading, and which students are prickly, and how much certain things annoy Cedric, and if anything actually weighs on him based on his own past.
I do imagine Devin's near constant boasting does sometimes rub Cedric the wrong way both because it reminds him of how he once chose to cover his own insecurities and because Devin actually has the skill to back it up. This makes other young folks in Cedric's classes, with less natural ability, insecure. Cedric can't actively show it, but that probably does totally get under his skin from time to time.
Surely, there's bound to be a time when *someone* confides in Cedric that Devin's been totally throwing them off, showing them up, and just generally been bringing down the vibe of literally everything.
In other words, ya know? He's been bullying them.
That's probably the day Roland and Miranda get a little more of Cedric's end of things than they'd expected, but that for months they've been secretly hoping to learn.
I can imagine it would be hard to be told you missed it?
That all of the same things that happened to you were happening right under your nose, and you missed it.
Like, you were trying SO hard to be vigilant. You were trying so hard to be everywhere all at once. You tried to squash what you could in your own classroom. Highlight what people were actively doing well. Praise the determination and successes of those no one suspected. Nip ego in the bud of people who had it easier and therefore had more chances.
But, even you couldn't do it.
And, it's the first real heartbreak you've felt in this job you love so much. It's the first time you've felt like a failure in this job you love so much.
Because, how could you let down these children who look up to you? Who love you? Who look at you like you hung the stars, even if they wouldn't, or shouldn't, if they knew the checkered past you had led?
And, I imagine all of that lingering self-doubt, all of that just sort of tumbles out over this tea the first time one of Cedric's students pulls him aside to have the "can I talk to you about this thing?" conversation.
Because, you know he'd be the go to.
And, not only because Sofia would wax poetic about all the stuff he fixed for her.
He exudes the energy of: "I've been here before."
He exudes the energy of: "I'm weird as heck, but you can tell me anything."
So, they do.
And, he shoulders the baggage until, probably Roland, asks Cedric the usual: "And, how are things going for you, friend?"
And, instead of Cedric's typical: "Fine, fine! I probably should attack the mountain of grading? But, I'll get to it before Nettle threatens to have my head over it and not a moment sooner."
However, instead, Cedric just lets it loose. I just comes out in a wave that's impossible to stop.
And, he's caught between feeling like it shouldn't weigh this heavily on him because why is he so ... attached? He's not their parent. It shouldn't matter this much. He shouldn't care this much!
And, yet, he is also caught in the feeling of knowing that if he didn't or doesn't catch it who's going to because who else has the experience enough to know what this all even looks like!? And, he knows what happens, all too well in fact, if it *doesn't* stop!
It's probably Miranda who just sort of lovelying chuckles a little and takes Cedric's hands and reminds him that empathy is human. Cedric can't expect himself to be completely and perfectly detached all the time, and, if he were, he probably wouldn't be very good at his job. Part of the reason she and Roland suggested this was because she knew this would happen eventually. However, Cedric is also only one person. He can't have eyes everywhere. So, he can't fix everything, no matter how much he has experienced.
I like to think she reminds him that knowing what to look for is half the battle, and that she tells him he's already doing more than most teachers have just by trying. Then, she winks at him.
It takes him a minute to accept it. But, he does.
Then, Roland asks him more about the Prince in question to see if there is anything more that can be done, and it's almost a relief to turn things into something actionable.
Likely, things still happen.
Not everything can be fixed.
But, having support people, on all ends - students to teacher, teacher to friends, does wonders for the community at large.
So, the tea parties continue.
Cedric is still notorious for having his grades done late.
I like to think that the reason Amber in Royal Magic sounds so electronic is because now that she's growing up she is finally gaining her father's accent. (Not Roland, the other one that lives in the ground).
(I meant to post this before the first episode but since it hasn't been released in a majority of regions yet, technically this still counts as pre-release art for a lot of people).
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theo van gogh was the one who suggested that his older brother vincent start seriously painting. as soon as theo was gainfully employed he gave vincent around 15% of his own yearly salary for art supplies, lodging, and food. about 2/3rds of vincent's surviving letters were to theo (including vincent's earliest and last letters), all of which were found stored in theo's desk. theo's child, vincent willem, was born on january 31st, 1890, and vincent was so delighted by his nephew that he painted almond blossoms for him. vincent shot himself half a year later on july 29th, 1890. theo's distress at his brother's death worsened his syphilis symptoms and he died half a year after his brother on january 25th, 1891 (four days before vincent willem's first birthday). theo was reburied next to vincent in auvers-sur-oise at the request of theo's wife johanna.
And that love lived on Theo's wife, Johanna, who was the one who pushed for the preservation of Vincent's paintings. Johanna who made sure that her husband's beloved brother would not be forgotten. Johanna who fought tooth and nail so that Theo and Vincent would never be forgotten. Johanna who carried the family legacy, who made sure that the works of Vincent would be kept in her possession. And then Vincent Willem, named for a uncle so loved, carried this legacy and founded the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.
The van Gogh family history is deeply interwoven with love. It was the love of a brother that gave a young man the courage to paint and the resources to do so. It was the love of a woman for her husband and her husband's beloved brother that made that story known. And it was the love of a nephew, who was so deeply loved even if for such a short time, that made it possible for the world to know Vincent van Gogh.
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