Whoah. Fantastic. No Notes. But I Will Say: I've Never Appreciated Aric As A Character More. WHAT HAVE

Whoah. Fantastic. No notes. But I will say: I've never appreciated Aric as a character more. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, JUDE /pos.

He really is a complex character. And now I, too, wonder if leaving all that unanswered matter around him was intentional on Soman's part.

And yes, I completely agree—overanalyzing is what makes it fun.

One other fun thing. At last I've found another song that reminds me of Japeth! (I'd not known its name before and wasn't able to search for it specifically.) It's "Anitra's Dance" by Edvard Grieg. Very sinuous in my opinion.

I am going to cry now

Busy lately??

Yes. If you’re wondering, I have other projects with real deadlines that take precedence over fics. I may post more at certain points of the year though. Not quite sure yet.

Sophie ought to be due more credit. How is she so sophisticated and cosmopolitan in spite of being from a close-minded town? She couldn't have derived everything she knew about high society and fashion from just the storybooks, surely? Maybe she was more inventive and pioneering than any of us could've thought since, upon becoming Dean, I think she launched several Woodswide trends.

Like to travel?? If so, solo or with family/friends??

I like to travel, but I don’t really enjoy the process of traveling. For instance, I can’t sleep on airplanes. I’ve never traveled alone before, so I can’t say if I’d prefer one option over the other.

Rafal, would you ever let anyone me touch your hair haha

It looks nice :D

(Pls drop hair routine)

Rafal: No. And what do you mean by routine? I wash it, rinse out the powdered natron and vetch. Comb it. Nothing more. The practice has been around for centuries. It's not as if showering is hard, no matter what some Never clowns seem to think. They're probably cowardly, thinking the salt will sting their open wounds, the blithering idiots. Speaking of the Circus—it wouldn't suit me to leave out mention of its ringleader, would it? Apparently, Rhian doesn't like it when I walk in with oxidized blood plastering my hair down, but I don't see the difference between that and his newfangled hair goop, or slathering his face in charcoal for that matter—how is that any cleaner coming out of a bottle when blood is already sterile right out of its vessel? It's beyond me. And why would hair need a "mask" weighing it down? Cloaks are clearly superior at obscuring identity.

i feel like Rhian is a person who is SO frightened to eat a simple medicine because it tastes horrible, and Rafal is the one who's stressed about it

I could see that happening, but I’m not sure I’d fully agree because I think Rhian values his dignity too much to act childishly like that. Also, I personally view him as a chronic hypochondriac with sky-high anxiety, who wants to set a Good example for the children and who’d rather take medicine to avoid pain, meaning, he’d probably take the medicine, even if he hated its taste, for his own sanity and his health/comfort. The one exception would be if he hated the taste more than he could tolerate the pain, not an ideal trade-off. Perhaps, in private, he would be more defensive and try to weasel his way out of taking the medicine; in that way, I could see what you’ve said actually playing out, especially if the illness caused him to be irrational. (By the way, if Rafal were the one who was sick, I’d suspect he’d deny it and ignore it until illness made him collapse, as in literally drop to the ground, because he doesn’t pay attention to or doesn’t have sensitive physical needs, and is overall under-responsive, seeing as he once didn’t move and implicitly didn’t eat for several days while watching the torture sessions in Rise. He could’ve been so engrossed that he’d forgotten.) Anyway, Rafal would definitely resort to forcing Rhian to swallow the medicine, if it came to it though—because it’s for Rhian’s “own good,” and for once, Rafal isn’t wrong about that, no matter how controlling he is. But first, I think Rafal would plunk down the pills and glass of water in front of Rhian whilst they’re in front of a large crowd, when the entire School is dining, and just dare Rhian with his eyes to not comply and make a scene in the face of nebulous future consequences (the one time a threat by Rafal would be empty and more just a reminder because Rhian would punish himself well enough by acting out and losing respect from the Evers). That, using Rhian’s heretofore spotless image against him and hidden social pressure, would probably work best. And, if that’s easiest, Rafal would, of course, chose the path of least resistance, however underhanded it may seem.