#octaviper

[basuralindo]

These fuckin guys again

#twst memes #octaviper #jamil viper #azul ashengrotto #floyd leech #jade leech #octotrio #scaravinelle #my bullshit #disney trigger warning

[deezneezz]

I said on twitter that Jamil and Octavinelle deserved a Riverdale level romantic plot twist (ending up in a quad), so i had to deliver... (Thank you to my friend @dirtspouse on twitter for the Idia dialogue it's perfect)

#jamil viper #azul ashengrotto #jade leech #floyd leech #twst #twisted wonderland #octavinelle #my art #octaviper

[basuralindo]

#help I'm sleep deprived and I have an agenda #twst memes #octaviper #ashenviper #idakei #my bullshit #disney trigger warning

[basuralindo]

#more of the fishjam agenda #with side of poor kalim #scaravinelle #twst memes #incorrect twst #my bullshit #octaviper #slipping in the one that's just bizarrely exact to yhmr

[basuralindo]

rip to Jade he deserves to be here too but I couldn't come up with anything

🍄 in his honor

#blorbo rotisserie #twst memes #twist #octaviper #mostly. jade's there in our hearts #my bullshit #ashenviper #azujami #flojami #floazu #azufloi #??? fuck I'm bad at remembering ship names

[basuralindo]

"How's the next chapter coming along?" Wellll I made an overly specific meme for my very niche ship, so, there's that.

credit to @alchemivich, Wizard and Hero, for the hollowed sprites.

#twst memes #octaviper #octavinelle #jamil x octavinelle #octatrio/jamil viper #floyd x jamil #jade x jamil #azul x jamil #my bullshit #disney trigger warning #flojami #jeijami #azujami

[basuralindo]

I'm probably not gonna use this premise in a fic of my own any time soon, but I gotta say

Given a circumstance where Jamil can't willfully quit/escape his servitude without his family suffering the consequences, faking his own death is always an option.

And of anyone in his school, the octatrio would be best equipped to convincingly fake a death, while under the sea would be a pretty effective place to disappear and change your identity. Even the Asims can't have enough resources to search the entire ocean for a single servant with a shape changing potion. The guy would never be seen again as far as they're concerned.

#jamil viper #octaviper #ashenviper #fandom drivel #lol sorry I've got a high fever still. prepare for weird babble

[basuralindo]

YHMR chapter 20 finally up!!

Thank you all for being so patient with the updates lately, I've been impatient to get this one finished, but here it is at last! More commentary under the cut

-So, I guess everyone has their own unique approach to consent when it comes to Jamil. Azul, who's both horrified at the idea of unintentionally forcing Jamil into something and so over being the one begging for scraps of attention from people who find him repulsive, has decided to wait stubbornly for Jamil to prove what he wants by coming to him. Floyd, being Floyd, figured "why is everyone playing chess with this when I can just make him tell me what he wants straight up?". And Jade… having taken notes from both of their stories and observations, decided that Jamil couldn't be trusted to give an honest answer and therefore the most efficient and surefire way around it was to push him past his comfort level and see what he acts like when he's lying.

-Joke's on Jade, Jamil is also Very Aware of microexpressions, and can catch his subtle changes in demeanor just as well.

-I know I've mentioned the idea of Jade having sensory issues before, but now I'm adding touch repulsion because I just can't get enough drama (or representation tbh. I've seen like three touch repulsed characters in my entire life).

-believe it or not, I actually try hard to make sure not every character is perfectly capable of raising a single eyebrow. Jamil kinda does it in canon, and also just seems like the type who'd master the art of annihilating people with a single judgy expression since he can't talk back. There's no way Floyd wouldn't figure out how, and no way Jade would let him be the only one capable. So really that just left Azul as the only one in the relationship who can't, and that feels like it'd be exactly his luck.

-Was the oral agreement kiss a happy coincidence, or did Jade introduce the term in the hopes of getting Jamil to say "oral"? That's for him to know

-Jamil at it again with the modified curses for basic household tasks. Maybe I'm reaching but I feel like it makes a decent metaphor for everything he could so easily be, vs everything he's had to put effort into contorting himself to become.

-Alsoooo I know the fish are all good cooks, but considering how different food prep must be on the surface, and the way Jade is shown to be very formulaic with new projects and how Azul just, IS, I imagine they started out approaching surface cuisine through research and carefully following recipes, and there's bound to be a lot of practical tricks that they aren't experienced with yet. Which is to say, watching human cooks break rules and wing it with recipes must be new and interesting for them, because while they probably have some theories on how things could work if they tweaked it (like in Floyd's chef vignette), they probably haven't had much time to experiment as much yet

-I'm picturing Jade making the aprons for everyone, half as a joke. Azul's is designed to be cute enough to be embarrassing, but still fitting his tastes enough that he can tell Jade put real thought into it, and Azul loves it for the gesture despite the teasing. He would never let another soul know it exists, and will die when he finds out Jamil's seen it. Floyd's was something Jade knew he would love the second he saw the fabric (it's inspired by this tourist shirt I found)

#twst #twst fic #yhmr #chapter update #fuck i literally forgot what i tag for these #octaviper #jeijami #flojami #jade x jamil #floyd x jamil #you'll have me rise you'll have me fall fic #writing

[basuralindo]

You'll Have Me Rise ch.19 is up!

Content warnings for nongraphic discussion of animal death, relatively graphic arachnophobia, mentions of family death and funerals.

Editing by @kamikazequail

And as always, commentary under the cut

-Yeah Jamil just walked straight into that pickup line completely unaware… Jade's never gonna let him live it down, if anyone ever tells him.

-Jade hides his emotions as well as he wants to when he's prepared, but have you noticed he's totally transparent when caught off guard in canon? I think he'd be more obvious than expected if something he wasn't prepared for made him uncomfortable.

-Yugioh voice: "You've activated Jade's special interest! You must stand by and listen to nature facts for a full hour." 

-Yeah Jade totally picked blue for poison specifically because it's such a universally innocuous color

-Jade: "Yeah I got whosits and whatsits galore" *opens door to reveal a horde of roadkill and mold*. Rizz game like no other

-tbh I just love slime mold and wanted to bring up slime molds because they're so fucking cool <3

-Oh btw, another fun psychology thing: If someone has a lot of stressors that they can't control or afford to be afraid of, the repressed terror can manifest as really intense irrational fears to things that are safer to avoid. For example, Jamil can't do anything about his situation and the risks and pressure involved, but he can absolutely obliterate a bug with very little repercussion. I feel like that phenomenon explains the level of fear he has with bugs in canon tbh.

-I also just really love bugs and didn't want Jamil killing them for character accuracy, so I've inserted Jade as protection. 

-I might go into this more in some other post but like, I love the contrast of classic fishtail mermaids in their reef environments vs deep sea monster mermaids. There's just so much room to build on the potential cultures surrounding that.

-Did I need to go on a tangent about mermaid funerals? Will the details ever be plot relevant? Probably not. But hey, world building. (I'm considering Azul keeping a locket with his stepdad's teeth)

-!!! I've been waiting to drop more info about the tweels parents! Anyway, it's a personal headcanon that the twins' social issues developed in response to being involved in mob violence early on. Too much ugliness to handle as kids, and they both kinda broke in opposite ways. Also kinda ties into their unique magic imo: Floyd being expected to handle himself in a fight and needing a defense, and Jade needing a more efficient way to extract info from people. 

-I could go on a whole ramble about my ideas for the Leech parents, but the short of it is that I think Jade and Floyd each picked up some personality quirks from the parent they were around more, but mostly developed emotional responses to balance out each parent's behavior (ie: reserved, observant, and meticulous in response to unpredictable emotional outbursts, vs emotional instability and exaggerated emotional reactions in response to emotional neglect and under-reactivity), hence the two comparing each other to opposite parents last time it was brought up. It also resulted in them balancing out each other's dispositions, leading to the kinda codependent dynamic they have as adults. I think they'd both feel like they specifically came out wrong as a result too. Like, Floyd believing he should be more pragmatic and levelheaded like Jade (like his mom wanted), and Jade feeling like he's too far gone and distant to connect with other people the way Floyd does.

-Mind games can be a form of foreplay, if you're tedious enough.

-I think Jade and Jamil would have similar ways of showing insecurity, Jamil's just more flexible about it. Jade, meanwhile, has ensured a position where he doesn't have to relinquish control unless he chooses to

-Will these people ever make out with Jamil in a normal location? The world may never know.

#jeijami #octaviper #jade x jamil #twst fic #yhmr #yhmr fic #you'll have me rise you'll have me fall #chapter babble

[basuralindo]

New oneshot!

You guys have no idea how much I worked to get this posted on valentine's day, and I failed most of you by a few hours, but it's still valentine's somewhere!

This is technically a future point in YHMR, and might get incorporated into the main fic in some way, but I'm leaving this one as a oneshot because I don't really wanna change the rating and warnings on the main story.

So, to all of you who've been patiently waiting for over a year for these people to finally hook up, thank you, and enjoy some Jade/Jamil smut. Happy (late) valentine's! ❤️

(Mind the tags, this is kinda dicey. It's also very much 18+)

#jade/jamil #jade x jamil #jeijami #jeijami smut #twst fic #twst smut #octaviper #yhmr adjacent #writing

[basuralindo]

These Wicked Depths ch.4 is up!!

Editing again by the fantastic @kamikazequail

I don't have as much to say as usual, I'm just relieved to have finished it after so long, but there's still commentary under the cut (along with inspo image)

-I feel like Azul + baroque was fate, he's made for that shit, maximalist hoarder of precious things and all.

-lbr there is no way the tweels would let Azul get away with playing the cool guy in front of their new collective hyperfixation

-Azul is not remotely exempt from the theme of mermaids collecting random shiny human stuff and treating it like treasure. He's just acting like he's more sophisticated about it by using it for interior decorating. (I mean, I can't imagine there's a lot of mining or processing of metals under the sea, so all the silver houseware and everything popular back then must be impossibly fantastical to them, right?)

-Jamil literally out here ruining his own chances of escaping the Asims because Azul skeeves him out so much he won't admit he wants to

-I did way more research into the development of writing utensils than sane or necessary, but it's actually pretty neat! Fun fact, quills were a big european thing, but metal dip pens already existed before them! Also, before either of those, people all across the mediterranian and egypt were using small rods of lead to engrave wax tablets and mark papyrus, which were called styluses, as in yeah, using styluses and tablets has been around for literally thousands of years, which just makes it funnier. Also bone was used as essentially an erasable whiteboard for pencil before erasers for paper were invented! And pencils have always been made with graphite, but people thought graphite was a type of lead (specifically it tended to be referred to as "black lead"). The specific application of Azul's bone tablet and graphite …holster? thing?? weren't used in anything that I've read about, but seemed plausible to invent with the knowledge and technology of the time, so I just made that up wholesale

-Azul's magestone ring is based around this piece I saw in a shop window:

#twd fic #these wicked depths twst #chapter update #octaviper #azujami #ashenviper #flojami #jeijami #twst pirate au

[basuralindo]

WIP Wednesdayyyy it's been a while

So, I got obsessed with this art collection drawn by @deezneezz a while ago, and since it's been living in my head rent free, I was inspired to write a chapter based around it in YHMR!

It's not exactly coming up soon in the story, but it'll be there! So, here's that scene under the cut!

   

  "Seasnake~!"

     "Floyd?!" Jamil whirled to track down the familiar voice in an unfamiliar setting. 

     He almost missed the teal hair hidden among a cacophony of vivid fabric. Floyd was seated on the arm of one of the waiting couches, wearing casual clothes in bright shades of teal and purple, accented in yellows and magenta. 

     He was beaming in Jamil's direction, while stiffly poised boutique staff lingered nearby -clearly uncomfortable with his demeanor, but hesitant to approach. Their glares shifted to Jamil when it became clear he and Floyd were affiliated. 

     Embarrassment burned in Jamil's cheeks at the unwanted attention. He looked away to assess the rest of the situation and found that, unsurprisingly, Floyd was not alone. Standing behind his brother, dressed in more muted shades, Jade was grinning at the whole scene. 

     It was Jamil's first time seeing Floyd without black in his clothing, but the look suited him. Jade, on the other hand, was making Jamil realize that he'd never considered what the man's personal tastes would be outside of his uniforms. 

     He wouldn't have predicted red. Or patterns, for that matter. Least of all accessories. 

     Jade caught him staring and offered a small wave. He was dressed in a burgundy turtleneck sweater, worn under a black T-shirt and paired with plaid trousers. Jamil realized with further embarrassment that it was simply a shock to see him dressed his age. 

     The both of them, actually, looked like they had pulled their looks from a fashion magazine. It struck Jamil belatedly that they wouldn't have much experience with human clothing outside of what the school provided, and he was charmed by the idea of seeing what they would show interest in without the influence of cultural associations.

     He let his gaze drift to the chains hanging from Jade's belt, and noticed the collection of charms they hosted. One side included a few varieties of mushrooms and insects in vivid colors, and on the other, an eel the color of his hair, a purple octopus, and something red that looked like a feather and gem.

     Jamil squinted at the last one, finding it uncomfortably familiar…

     A sputtering "owww" jerked his attention back to Kalim before he could finish the thought. The prince met his concerned look with a pout.

     "Your hair whipped me in the face," he grumbled. "The bells hurt…"

     Jamil clutched at his ponytail, mortified, only to be interrupted by Jade's snickering.

     The merman changed expression the second Jamil turned to glare at him, and Floyd broke into a giggle fit of his own. Jamil rolled his eyes and turned back to Kalim.

     "I'm sorry, are you alright?"

     Kalim laughed brightly, perhaps finding the twin's joy contagious, perhaps just not wanting to be left out. "I'm fine! Just surprised. But look! Floyd and Jade are here, hello!"

     He scuttled over to greet them, the raucous energy distressing the staff even more. Floyd's smile turned false at the approach, gaze flicking over to Jamil with weighted interest, while his brother beamed almost sincerely in anticipation of chaos.

     "Hello Kalim, Jamil, a pleasure as always to see you. Doing some shopping as well today?" 

     Jamil smiled back in greeting, and hurried over to join the group before Kalim could say or see anything he shouldn't.

     He was already chattering out an excited reply, much to Floyd's quiet displeasure. It allowed Jamil the chance to sidle up to Jade and get a better look at his belt charms. To his alarm they did, indeed, include a red feather and oval gem, like a small replica of his hair charm.

     "Kind of you to join us…" Jade murmured once he was near. "Had I known we were heading to the same place today, I'd have invited you properly. Although, the surprise appearance does mean that-"

     "Look Jamil, Azul's here too! Hi Azul!!" 

     Kalim's voice echoed through the room, immediately followed by a startled yelp and Azul's voice stuttering out Jamil's name in alarm.

     The twins broke into nearly matching grins at the sound. They all turned in time to see a silvery head emerge from behind a trifold changing mirror, blink in surprise, and duck back out of view long enough to clear his throat.

     Azul reemerged a moment later, straightening an outfit in layered shades of purple, price tags still hanging from the sleeves. He, too, was trying out patterns; similar to Jade's pants but in shades of lavender and gray on a button up shirt. It was layered under a pale sweater and a darker, lightweight coat to form a look very similar to one of the mannequins in the window.

     "Jamil!" he greeted with more confidence this time. "And Kalim, of course, how wonderful to see you both!"

     Jamil smiled at the sight of his flustered antics, only to smother it at the reminder of Kalim's presence. He greeted Azul more formally, then turned back to Jade with a nudge.

     He motioned to the feather charm with his eyes and fixed Jade with a serious look. "If that is what I think it is, I need Kalim not to see it."

     Jade responded with a playful smirk. "Do you like it? I put it together myself, and daresay did the original some justice." 

     Jamil desperately suppressed a flush, turning away to dodge the teasing. "Just hide it from him, please?" he whispered urgently. The significance of the gesture was something he'd have to explore when Kalim was not there to witness it. 

     Floyd didn't give him a chance to think on it any further, coming around to drape his arms over Jade and Jamil both. His body wedged between them effectively hid the charm from view enough for Jade to tuck it away into a pocket.

     "Snakeyyy~" Floyd trilled. His voice was as upbeat as his demeanor, but both held a subtle tension that Jamil had become familiar with as a sign he was straining to be on his best behavior. "What're you guys doin' 'round here? You shoulda told us you were gonna be headin' down this way!"

     "Small island, isn't it?" Azul cut in brightly. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

     Jamil looked up to see that Floyd had ditched Kalim just in time to leave him in Azul's path, forcing the man to address him instead of Jamil. It also allowed Jade and Floyd to heckle Jamil freely, much to the dismay of the now hovering shopping assistants.

     Kalim tore his eyes away from the three of them to beam at Azul. "Hey! I didn't know you were out shopping today! Jamil and I are looking for winter coats."

     "Is that so?" Jade's expression brightened menacingly. Some meddling temptation pulled him away to Kalim's side. "It so happens that we came here for some shopping of our own. Azul has actually been doing rather …extensive research into the available coat options himself, so we would be happy to help you two find the perfect choice."

     Floyd snorted at the comment, and slouched lower to murmur to Jamil. "What he means is Azul's been here for hours fussing over every single jacket in this fuckin' place. Still hasn't picked a single one, but he must've tried 'em all on three times over-"

     "I like to be thorough," Azul said tersely, having reached earshot. He shot Jamil a warm smile. "But Jade, at least, is right. We would be glad to join you in picking something out, isn't that right Floyd?"

     Floyd cocked an eyebrow in Kalim's direction and rolled his eyes, but shrugged in the end. He gave Jamil's shoulders a short squeeze as he responded. "I mean, if we get to watch Seasnake tryin' on clothes, I'm not gonna complain."

     Azul and Jamil both flushed at the comment, and simultaneously glanced over to be sure Kalim hadn't heard. Fortunately, Jade was keeping him occupied enough with conversation to remain oblivious. Though the look Jade threw over his shoulder at them said that he'd heard everything.

     Jamil smiled sweetly at Azul, and elbowed Floyd in the ribs. "It looks like Kalim is happy with the idea, so consider your offer accepted. However," he dropped his voice sternly, "We do still need to be subtle."

#yhmr #you'll have me rise fic #wip #wip wednesday #yhmr wip #writing #twst #twst fic #octaviper #flojami #jeijami #azujami #ashenviper #octatrio #merfia #floyd x jamil #jade x jamil #azul x jamil #these guys got too many goddamn tags

[basuralindo]

YHMR ch. 17 is hereeee!!

With editing by @kamikazequail!

Commentary under the cut

-Shoutout to those surreal early morning encounters with almost-strangers after sleepovers

-Based on Jamil's beans vignette, I have a theory that Lilia actually does know quite a bit about cooking (I mean, he's had plenty of time to research and learn about it at least in theory), and either can't resist tampering because he's a menace, or just SUCKS at applying the knowledge.

-Everyone's tryna help Jamil out in their own way. He's just too distrusting to appreciate it

-Yes I'm implying that Azul still didn't think to google the name and checked the library for an Arabic dictionary instead. I like to pretend that the mermen still aren't really used to electronics. …I also needed an excuse for Azul to be wandering around campus. We can blame it on a hangover idfk

-Yeah so, personally, I think the kind of mind/magic that is inclined towards manipulating minds would also have an easier time getting into intricate, fiddly mechanisms like locks. Or breaking past wards. I just feel like if you can't keep Jamil out of your mind, you wouldn't be able to keep him out of a room either

-This actually plays into my previous headcanon about his approach to crafting wards through modified curses too. Instead of just a barrier to keep people out, it's more like a boundary that does someone serious harm when they cross/trigger it. It may not be the correct way to go about it, but it sure does keep people out anyway, and they don't get broken through the same way proper barriers would

-I don't actually have any headcanon of like, specific lighting spells that draw from childhood joy, though I realized it kinda sounded like it. My thinking was that there's probably a million ways to cast light, taking varying levels of skill or focus and producing different types of lighting results, but I think any mages that figured out their magic early on would have their own unique spells for it. Like, kids wanting a light at night is pretty universal, and so is wanting to entertain themselves when they should be sleeping (think about how many fancy lamps and projectors are targeted to children). So, I figure a lot of young mages would come up with ways to produce light pretty early on, and, using it mostly while alone in the dark, would probably start coming up with entertaining projections or snowglobe effects and stuff. 

-Continuing that thought: It was mentioned a few chapters ago that Jamil had developed his light sphere as a way of playing out scenes from stories (partially inspired by Jafar's hourglass scrying scene in the original movie). He also comes from a culture that, based on the game, seems to still use a lot of lanterns and firelight for atmosphere, so he easily associates light with a flame in the dark. Meanwhile, I picture Azul having a fascination with the surface (little mermaid ref), and kinda imagine him getting a few rare opportunities to visit the ocean surface, being dazzled by it, and wanting to recreate images of it later on. And, since pretty much all light he sees from the sky ends up filtered through water, his subconscious notion of what sunlight looks like is pale blue ripples. Also, bubbles underwater look shiny and luminous and come in clusters, so associating a series of small orbs with light would make sense for a merchild. So yeah, not a specific spell drawing on childlike wonder to create light, but just kids being kids, sorry.

-You might think Jamil's greatest skill would be cooking or combat, but in fact, it's the ability to drastically misinterpret all attempts at love and kindness

-Is Azul painfully dramatic? Yes. Does it absolutely work on Jamil? …Also yes. Their heads are in the wrong era

-Poor Azul out here getting the double whiplash of learning Jamil and Floyd are both crushing on each other without him knowing. …And Jade having his love for chaos tested -idk how to explain what I'm describing with Floyd here. It's like, coming back from a bipolar episode really can feel like waking up from a lucid dream. Like you're present, and you're conscious of what you're doing, but the world doesn't feel quite there the same way, the details feel fuzzy, and everything kinda slips in and out of control in a way? And usually you can feel it start to ease up a little, sometimes not. Either way, at some point the madness breaks like a fever and you're just, suddenly awake. So yeah, sometimes Floyd is lost in the pits, and his loved ones are stuck sitting by and waiting for him to come back.

#chapter update #you'll have me rise you'll have me fall fic #yhmr #twst fic #octaviper #ashenviper #azul x jamil

[basuralindo]

You'll Have Me Rise ch.16 is up!

And I finally got to properly include Cater! (he's kind of a crossover from @terrible-eel's Trey/Cater fic!)

This time it's also featuring editing by @kamikazequail, so, if you notice an overall improvement in the polish, you know who to thank!

Also, thank you to everyone for being so supportive and patient this past week. It's been hellish, but you've all been great, and I'm glad to be able to pull back and put some time into something nice for a bit.

Now, I know I'm missing a few chapter notes that I wanted to mention on this, but I've been trying and failing to remember them since last night so I'm giving up for now (just leave a comment if you wanna hear my thoughts on something specific). Anyway the rest, as always, is under the cut

-Soooo about my "Kalim grew up around brutal assassination attempts and his only friend was a trained killer and overall he's just completely desensitized to graphic or spooky shit" theory? Slasher films must be more chill than his last family reunion,

-Hey so did I mention I love Cater and Lilia? This was my first time trying to write them, and I feel like it was clumsy, but I really wanted to show an outside view of Kalim and Jamil's dynamic through someone who's more familiar with modern human society. I feel like anyone observing these guys interact is eventually gonna experience that skincrawling dread of "something is not okay at home"

-Also yeah I imagine Jamil having the most deeply uncomfortable vibes once he's in his own environment. Like, the housewarden chambers is where he doesn't usually have to perform and mask for other people the same way, so once he drops the act a bit there's gotta be some sinister, angry detached shit under it all. Not to mention all the hostile magic woven into the area to protect Kalim. Kalim, of course, is desensitized to all this because that's just what his lifelong friend feels like. It's probably cozy

-Oh? The scarabia duo starting to develop wildly different english dialects as they spend more time with people of their choosing instead of assigned company? Big time side agenda to show an immediately perceivable metric of them growing into themselves separate of each other as time goes on? Couldn't be

-Speaking of language: I think I've mentioned before that Jamil allows himself to admit ignorance and ask questions to Azul more, because Azul always takes him seriously and doesn't try to embarrass him for not knowing a word or phrase. There's trust and respect there. With Cater he's also asking more questions because he knows Cater has been helping to tutor Kalim with some decent success, and is willing to test the waters a bit. Partially because he can barely keep up with Cater's lingo and is treating it like learning a new dialect, which he knows he'll need some help figuring out.

-Notes on their speech: Jamil focuses a little obsessively on impeccable grammar, vocab, and pronunciation in the hopes of not giving anyone more material to criticize him. He struggles more with casual lingo and slangs because of this (and not socializing much in general), and is afraid to fuck up at contractions so he tends to drop them when stressed/flustered or over text (some are easier than others, like I'm and it's vs don't and won't). Since he mostly learns from Azul lately, his speech skews even more towards formal and anachronistic. Kalim isn't that concerned with accuracy. He likes to socialize and starts up casual conversation easily, so he picks up a lot more slangs and dialectical quirks but doesn't apply himself to learning "proper" english much. He's able to navigate casual conversation well, but often fucks up at unfamiliar vocab and grammar rules, and doesn't sweat correct use of things like conjunctions so long as he can get the general point across. Cater helps him out a lot, so he picks up a lot of Cater's terminology and cadence and ends up sounding much more modern than Jamil. So, their differences in speech aren't a matter of intellect, just a difference in learning style and social values.

-So, Cater's supposed to be from the shaftlands, and his Halloween vignette mentioned moving a lot and never really fitting in, so I'm choosing to believe that he moved to the queendom of roses as a kid and had to transfer around there a bunch growing up.

-Headcanon that, because there weren't a lot of mages around the palace, and even less who would spare time to teach a servant, Jamil is mostly self taught. The result of that being a lot of kinda juryrigged practical spells that, once mastered, ended up being modified in various ways for whatever needs they could apply to. The things that weren't so self taught were mostly curses and assassin techniques passed down through his family, which also got modified over time for practicality and protecting Kalim. So a lot of his magic just feels immensely uncomfortable, like protection wards that are actually modified curses and shit like that. The rest is just very noticeably different from standard teaching, and of course Jamil doesn't want anyone to know he's invented so many of his own spells, so he downplays and straight up lies about it if asked

-Writing from Cater's perspective was a lot harder than I expected, but I really like him and wanted more of him in the story. And again, an outside perspective on this whole situation is much needed imo. Just, let someone actually look at Jamil and see that he hasn't gotten to be young yet

-The whispers movie is a reference to the Suspiria remake. The way dance is used for spells in that partially inspired Jamil's sandstorm dance in the first chapter, and it seemed like something he'd like

-Anyone: "Don't worry about it." Jamil: *Worry intensifies*

-Cater is out here holding the emotional intelligence and basic social skills of the entire school together. There wasn't a lot to go around, but he's making it work.

-I love the idea of like, between the preferential treatment and Jamil's own warped standards, his description of the octatrio and their merits being completely unrecognizable to the rest of the school. I don't think Cater would have been so encouraging if he knew who he was encouraging Jamil to give the benefit of a doubt to.

-Headcanon slightly supported by actual canon: I think Floyd has a relatively photographic memory, and he shows affection by taking note of the things that make people light up, and supporting those hobbies/interests with little relevant gifts, or just encouraging them to explore and talk about it and listening to them infodump. If it's particularly important to them he'll learn up on it enough to hold a real conversation. Since Azul and especially Jade are the type to get really deeply invested in every little detail of an interest, and he sees that Jamil seems to happily talk to both of them about that kind of thing, he figures there's a good chance Jamil would enjoy being bombarded with informative material and the like too.

-Since I'm bringing up Floyd's love language, I might as well add that I think Azul would deeply investigate to determine what someone might want from him, then try to provide it at a level above and beyond all expectations (partially driven by an obsession with proving his worth. potentially disastrous results when he misjudges what was actually wanted). Jade would give little gifts of things that a) he thinks they'd like, b) he wants to see how they'll react to, and/or c) he wants them to have because he likes the idea or aesthetic of it for them. These almost never include things they actually ask for, because it's more fun to experiment than just do something with guaranteed results. And he'd gift an overwhelming amount of these little things constantly, half because he gets a thrill out of seeing the reactions, and half because he wants the recipient to always feel the presence of his affection.

-Jamil, meanwhile, would probably show care through acts of service because it's all he knows so far (this may change over time as he heals). His hate language would be malicious compliance.

-Okay so I think Cater is absolute drunk aunt friend? I think he compulsively adopts people and drags everyone else into it and makes a whole project of helping them, and then ditches out for several weeks to have his own secret crisis. Then he pulls himself together and comes back chipper and doubles down on the project to keep his mind off of his issues because if everyone else is happy then he can fake it till he makes it. …I also think Riddle's overblot was a little traumatic and the idea of another one happening is freaking him out.

#yhmr fic #twst you'll have me rise you'll have me fall #chapter update #chapter babble #twst #octaviper #ashenviper #floyd x jamil #jade x jamil #azul x jamil

[basuralindo]

YHMR Ch. 18 drop!

This one gets very mildly NSFW, so, don't read it at work I guess idk. Enjoy!

Editing done by @kamikazequail, and commentary under the cut!

As always feel free to comment, I'm constantly fiending for feedback.

-Jamil: Decides to worry less about something for once in his life. The universe: "Oh, bitch…"

- But yeahhh I imagine him as the type to get stabby when he's startled. In case that wasn't apparent yet.

-You may have wondered what the point of that whole tangent about spatial compression pockets five chapters ago was for. It was literally for this moment. I need Jamil to have a knife on him at all times, can't picture him not doing that, and I needed a way for him to not get caught with it ("But a magic school would be prepared for students to have access to things like that and would have security measures against hidden contraband items-" NRC is so fucking lax. students try to murder each other all the time. Everyone always goes 'nooo it's against the rules to use magic in a fight!' and then they do it anyway, and staff never gives a shit -and that's for the canon highschool version. Universities, by nature, give even less fucks. If there was a stabbing on campus, Crowey would only pay attention if it became a publicity issue. I think the staff would actually encourage hidden pockets if it means they gain plausible deniability for knowing what the students are up to). Aaand when I realized I was gonna be writing this scene, I needed to be able to mention the knife without having to stop and explain where it came from or why he has it. So yeah, there it is, Checkov's magic wristband of holding. He'd keep it hidden under his PE wristband

- ….Jamil finally has someone willingly following his orders. Of course that's immediately gonna go to his head

-What's that? Jamil giggling happily for the first time in his life because his crush maimed someone in his honor? Sometimes "perfect for each other" involves both parties being incredibly unwholesome.

-Aaand finally, Jamil realizes he's a monsterfucker

-Yeah btw, eels have to move their bodies side-to-side to swim, and I figure that any mermaids who swim that way would need side musculature similar to abs, which would look…. unique. I guess. So yeah the tweels would have fucked up torsos. And you need a decent understanding of anatomy to consistently win knife fights, so Jamil would definitely notice. (also the lateral line sensory organ in fish runs down the sides, so, idk. it'd be a sensitive area is what I'm saying) (yeahhh I've always been really into marine biology, and tbh I never thought this is how I'd end up applying the knowledge, but here we are.)

-Poor Ace. I actually like Ace, he's just chronically unfortunate. I dunno if it's out of character for him to be tryna help out, but I think he has a genuine nice streak.

-Aaand yeah, Floyd grew up with very different ideas surrounding leadership and respect than Jamil, and he's not particularly keen on someone he respects having to follow the orders of a guy who'd never survive in the mafia

-So, I realize that it's been confirmed in canon that the mermen need potions to transform back and forth, and I'm choosing to ignore it. Thank you for your understanding.

-The eels in the little mermaid are always tangled around each other and everything, and I think that's really cute, so the tweels are gonna be in constant contact too

#yhmr update #yhmr #you'll have me rise you'll have me fall fic #octaviper #flojami #floyd x jamil #floyd/jamil

[basuralindo]

Chapter 10 of You'll Have Me Rise, You'll Have Me Fall is up!!

You can read it right here:

And there's some commentary in the notes but I have so many more thoughts and am gonna go on about them under the cut. Please read the chapter before looking through my commentary, but you're all welcome to interact about it on here

Okay, so, in roughly chronological order:

-Idk if the Jamil and Kalim stuff is coming off shippy, but that's not the intention. What I'm tryna present is the fact that they have no concept of boundaries with each other. Jamil was basically instructed, as a child, to look after this whole ass other child with way too little actual adult supervision, and it didn't go well.

-Jamil has a Very loose understanding of free will as is, considering his situation, and Snake Whisper has always been kinda just another tool used to desperately try to get through situations. The idea that forcing someone to not have nightmares without their knowledge or consent might be fucked up doesn't really cross his mind, because he's been doing it since they were little and Kalim always seems happier than when he's left to just deal with his own bad dreams.

-People tend to get stuck with the aftereffects of an intense trigger for quite a while after, and Jamil's behavior is definitely gonna be influenced more heavily by ptsd in the next few chapters.

-Yes, Jamil really is out here basically poledancing on that broom. Why? Because athletes are literally the least self aware people when it comes to doing weird shit with their bodies and I know this from so much personal experience. I also imagine that the brooms operate a lot based on the rider's clarity of intention. So Jamil being already very comfortable with heights because of playing on the carpet with Kalim as kids, and having pretty good focus with multitasking in general, he has very little issues with getting the broom to do what he wants. Meanwhile, Azul would be able to fly just fine, but he's so scared of heights he loses all sense of intention once he gets a couple feet off the ground

-✨Guess who never learnt what dyslexia is because royalty aren't supposed to have learning disorders!✨ Just wait till those two find out about adhd. (Also, major headcanon that Kalim self medicates with caffeine)

-Anyway THE TEXTING!! This is the part that I had no plans to write until going "wait, they should exchange numbers because duh" Then wrote the actual scene and went "wait omfg the teins would totally find that!" Anyway I'm glad I did because it was a lot of fun to write and finally breaks the ice between them all a little more. It ended up taking a lot longer than I'd expected to depict the sheer chaos of texting three people in the same room at the same time.

-I actually thought a lot about the texting patterns on this. Floyd writes in a hurry because his thoughts come and go so fast he just spits them out as they come, which results in spamming with a million short messages when he's actually in the mood to talk. He also canonly has this tendency to just say shit that makes sense in his head, where he has context, and doesn't get it when other people don't understand, so with texting that kinda comes out as not bothering with much punctuation to indicate tone because he knows what tone he's using and forgets that nobody else does. Azul on the other hand is suuuper neurotic about how he presents himself, and texting is no exception. Perfect diction, punctuation, etc. Uses autocorrect and then doublechecks the outocorrect. Jade figures Azul already put all the effort into establishing how to present himself flawlessly, and just imitates his style. (They're both wrong. Azul comes off like a car salesman, and Jade comes off like an alien impersonating a car salesman). I have a reason for this dynamic and I'm gonna go into it eventually in the fic. Jamil is just trying to spell things correctly and uses punctuation as normally as he can. He uses contractions and slangs even less over text because he's not confident in being able to spell less familiar words and doesn't wanna risk it. (He also uses contractions less in general around Azul because, while he tries to come off like he's mastered English around all his potentially hostile peers, Azul never mocks him for his speech so he's more comfortable about wording things awkwardly. Jamil hasn't noticed this consciously yet.)

-Jadeeeeee. This fic is slow burn in general, but it's definitely burning at different speeds for each of them, and Jamil/Jade is definitely the slowest. Neither of them are the kind to openly pursue someone without the other party initiating A Lot, and they're much more emotionally distant than Floyd or Azul. Also, Jade is territorial and Jamil is paranoid and it's gonna take a long time before they get anywhere near trusting each other. Despite that, they're finally starting to notice that they have some shit in common and actually enjoy talking to each other in all the convoluted mincy bullshit ways that nobody else wants to engage in.

-Yes, Jamil feels the need to conceal laughter and smiles even when he's alone in his room. No, he's not okay, but that's kind of the whole plot.

-Again, I just really enjoyed getting to write Jamil having a nice time?? Finally starting to think about the fact that he actually WANTS these guys in his life, for non-strategic purposes, just because they make him happier! I'm finally getting somewhere in this mess of my own making lmao

Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk. I have a lot of feelings about these guys and I'm tempted to do more posts like this about previous chapters just so I can get myself to babble less in the fic notes

#banging on my own head from the inside like ''LET THEM FUCKING KISS'' #chapter babble #twst fic #octaviper #ashenviper #I'm realizing I don't actually know any ship names for jamil and either eel #if anyone knows some lemme know #octatrio