Militsa: We’re Not Naming Our First Child Skulduggery.

The Art Of Starting Over - Prologue: Before

It´s finally here!!

When shortly after Ian Doyle´s arrest Louise Thather is killed, Emily has to make a decision that has the power to change the course of her whole life.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31474595/chapters/77854214

INTJs in theory vs in reality

Intj in theory - done with work weeks before the deadline

Intj in real life - procrastinating till deadline is looming over their head

Intj in theory- described as “INTJ strode up to the counter and demanded the bill, leaving no room for anyone to mess around”

Intj in reality- sits in the corner, hides behind a book, asks enfp to do the talking

Intj in theory - has everything organized in neat little compartments

Intj in reality- “ladies and gentlemen, watch as I conjure from this pile of rubble anything I desire”

Intj in theory - calm cool and collected

Intj in reality - loses all shit if someone moves their things around

Intj in theory - cold, without feelings, hearts made of stone

Intj in reality- cries to sleep every night

Intj in theory - sends brief to the point messages

Intj in reality - rambles on using big words

Intj in theory - deathly stare plotting your murder

Intj in reality - gazing into space trying to come up with an equation to measure stupidity

the team is chasing the sickest murderers to ever live meanwhile these two on the phone sexually harassing each other

I recently found out why my mom would never sleep around me when I was a kid. Like she’d never let herself take naps or sleep if I was awake, ever. Or if she did, she would lock her bedroom door. So when I was 6, I was asleep in my bed in the middle of the night when I hear a loud bang, like a pot being dropped and come out to the living room to see my mom standing by the window, with just a huge pile of spaghetti all over the sill, and a pot on the ground, and I ’m like “Are you gonna eat all that?” And ya’ll she get’s BIG MAD and yells at me and chases me to my room but then a little while later a bunch of cops show up and ask me a bunch of random ass questions about my art? Like this one cop lady keeps asking me to draw dragons for her?! And they seem mad as hell

I didn’t want to get arrested so I just never asked my mom for spaghettis after that. Lesson, learned. Don’t ask mom for spaghettis or she’ll call the damn police on you. 

So I have this memory in my head, and it goes unquestioned until I say it outload for the first time a few months back and as soon as I say the words “When I was six, my mom called the cops on me for asking for spaghettis” My adult logic slams into place and is like “Hang on. Your mother definatly did not call the police on a 6 year old for asking for spaghetti.” 

So obviously that’s not what really went down. I call up my mom to tell her how I remember it and on top of her figuring out why her kid has always been really cagey around spaghettis for the last 3 decades she tells me what really happened. 

So on that night, a man tried to break into our house through the front window. It was just my mom, and her kids so she did what she felt she had too and shot him in the head. He’d been wearing a helmet, which landed on the floor under the window.

Now I just want ya’ll to put yourselves in my moms shoes for a minute here. This woman has just taken a human life. The trauma of that- the instant agony, the panic, the guilt, the fear- all of it hitting her at once, her only solace the knowledge that her children are safe. She protected her daughters. No matter the cost to her soul- her children are safe.

Then she looks up and sees her six year old staring at the inside of this mans head before saying “Are you gonna eat all that?” 

You know you're sleep deprieved when the newest chapter of your WIP is named "Dexter Vex and the clueless mages of the round kitchen table"

Tanith: I just thought he needed to listen to common sense and reasonable discourse.

Kenspeckle: Please tell me those aren’t the names of your fists.

Tanith: My feet. I’m actually more of a kicker.

this is 100% canon!! 

hey it's niche, overly specific, barely canon-compliant theory time so that i can convince myself to write this into my fic

okay so for some reason i headcanon skulduggery's wife as being called annalise? idk that's just what i call her in my head so that's what i'll call her here

annalise was caught up in the war early - by the time she was fourteen, she was helping her father (kenspeckle grouse) with healing wounded mages, and in herself was a pretty good healer. during this time, she meets skulduggery; a couple of years older, ran away from home and met ghastly on the way, and they signed up for the war together

things are dire, everyone knows too well that each day may be their last and annalise and skulduggery are close. in a relationship, in fact.

skulduggery comes close to dying one day, and annalise brings him back from the brink of death. at this stage, he's eighteen, she's sixteen. he proposes where he is, and as a spur of the moment thing, she says yes.

the wedding is messy and fast and barely a ceremony, but they're in love and everything is such a brash decision now that they want to savour their relationship for as long as they can. everything is good, or something.

annalise starts to get caught up with everything - she's struggling to find a purpose to this war, she's eighteen years old and married for two and watching her husband be battered to bits on a regular basis and going through that too, she's seeing death and blood and gore and everything awful around her and she's just so sick of it and wants it to end.

slowly, the idea of the church of the faceless starts to appeal to her. she was brought up in it as a child, her mother's family devout worshippers before her father took her away. it's something familiar enough that it's impossible not to fall back into.

slowly, she becomes more desperate. finds herself flitting between sides secretly, finds herself on mevolent's side. it was never supposed to be like this, but now she's her own faceless one - nobody knows what she looks like. she's simply a name, someone spoken about from the shadows, managing to push herself into power. nobody knows what she looks like, only that she is powerful and devout and someone who knows secrets, who holds knowledge.

skulduggery is clueless, unknowing about the way his wife leaves his side on "missions" and comes back, only for the church to have gained information, power - all from the hands of this unknown woman.

rumours, of course, start to spread. they say she is too beautiful to look at, and that is why she stays hidden. she must be older than time itself to have all of this information, and yet looks so young. she flits through mevolent's castle, seen as nothing more than a low-ranking convert, unknown and worthless. nobody associates the name known by all with that young, young face.

annalise is nineteen, and wakes, one day, to her lover's dead body beside her. she is alive, and realises that someone must know. this is a warning.

within two days, she is back at her husband's side, saying nothing about where she was. nine months later, the baby comes.

it has been three years. there is still that unknown enemy, the woman with a face beautiful enough to make men give their lives for her, and yet it is a face known by none. their daughter is three, now, and looks nothing like skulduggery. annalise knows that he'll start to suspect soon, knows that his suspicion of her unfaithfulness to him could lead to more.

one night, she leaves. releases her reflection, her child's reflection, orders them to hide until the time is right. and annalise runs.

three days of travel, alone, her child in her arms. three days and she meets a witch, offers her a deal.

a new face. a new face, one which will make men give their lives for her. a new identity, a new life.

“and,” says the witch, “what will i gain in return?”

her magic. her healing. she is young, only had her surge a year ago, and yet she is strong. stronger than she should be.

the witch accepts, and annalise brings her reflection to mevolent's castle, lures skulduggery in, and watches him die.

perhaps, in a few hundred years, she will allow herself to feel remorse. but not now. for now, she has power and a new identity to fill.

years pass. the child picks the name solace, and when skulduggery pleasant meets china sorrows for the first time, he notices her eyes. they are beautiful, a pale blue, just like his wife's once were.

four hundred years later, china still finds herself looking at her husband for longer than she should.

Fun fact:

In Bedlam the German Grand Mage is called Sturmun Drang.

Sturm und Drang is actually the name of a movement in German literature that took place during the Enlightenment. It's all about expressing extreme emotions and the original human genius.

The latter would make kinda sense for a name, but the first one doesn't really fit Drang, because he seems dry and cold in the novels...

Anywys, just stumbled over this and thought it was cool!

I mean now that Saracen's power was revealed it is basically canon that he knew since he first saw Vile... so either he didn't tell anyone or all the Dead Men (or maybe only Dex?) knew as well and just never mentioned anything.

so it seems like Skul’s Lord Vile secret will probably be made public in phase 2 with more and more people finding out about it

I hope when that happens Nef will be still alive so he can crack all of the Jekyll and Hyde jokes every time Skul enters the room

i see so many posts interpreting nat’s ‘are you incapable of letting go of your ego for one goddamn second?’ line as a defensive dig at an undeserving tony and i just need to say something about this line (as someone who loves both nat and tony!)

if you don’t think tony’s ego is a bit contributor to cacw, you’re looking at the definition of ego too narrowly. in the strictest sense, tony’s cacw isn’t about his personal moral values about oversight - he’s not thinking about himself in terms of winning an argument or anything.

however, that in no way means his ego isn’t involved.

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