Starryarchitect - Architect Of The Stars

fheskekkvrjkckec okay so the all left AU (courtesy of @sabertoothwalrus) would not leave me alone, so I wrote this fic.

I told myself that the first story I'd link to on here would be one I was confident in and proud of, but then this happened, and (as is becoming a trend in this AU) I had to get it out and share it.

It's so late where I live, I'm so tired, I have no idea how bad this is, but I wrote it and I'm sharing it and uh . . . yeah.

Edit: If you liked this, here's the "sequel"

I WANT YOU TO KNOW I HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR SABERTOOTHWALRUS ALL LEFT AU FIC EVERY SINGLE DAY SINCE YOU POSTED IT AND I JUST SAW THERE WAS A PART 2 AND ?!?!?!??!?!?!?!? I AM SCREAMING OVER UR WRITING IT IS SO SO GOOD

EVERY DAY?!? DUDE I POSTED THAT LIKE A MONTH AGO HOW—

But really, thank you thank you thank you so much! I can't tell you how happy this made me. The idea that anyone could like my writing that much, especially a short one-shot I posted in a moment of sleep deprivation and manic inspiration, is enough to make me grin my head off. Seriously, thank you. This made my day. I hope you like part 2!

Look me in the eyes and tell me that Plance and "Princess and the Frog" don't have almost exactly the same character dynamic

Simon's even more sympathetic if you over analyze because he clearly has a mental illness making him afraid of abandonment, resistant to change, emotionally unstable and having immense difficulty relating to others. Like he gets worried about Hazel in the cabin when the Cat gets near her, its clearly foreshadowing the next episode.

Agreed! And actually, I pulled put the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to research your suggestion that Simon has some mental disorder, and . . . you're right! He almost definitely has a mental disorder.

The criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder are: (not quoted, but paraphrased directly from the DSM-5)

Instability in personal relationships and self-image, impulsivity, indicated by five or more of the following:

Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. - check, this is kinda Simon's shtick.

A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, fluctuating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. - there's not much potential for a "pattern" here, but his relationship with Grace definitely fits this.

Markedly and persistently unstable/fluctuating self-image or sense of self. - Simon does not qualify—if anything, his inability to paradigm shift indicates the exact opposite.

Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging. - violence, aggression, murder, all may or may not qualify. Simon ticks this box.

Recurrent suicidal or self-mutilating behavior or threats. - Simon does not qualify for this.

Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood. - In other words, subject responds intensely to swings in interpersonal relationships. Which sounds a heck of a lot like episodes eight through ten. Check.

Chronic feelings of emptiness. - We can't know whether or not this is true, because we can't really get inside a cartoon character's head. So . . . maybe?

Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger. - This is definitely present in him. He has a temper, he shouts, he gets angry, and it gets more extreme as the show progresses.

Transient, stress-related paranoia or severe dissociative symptoms. - Simon displays this too—lines like "everyone always lies to me" come to mind as evidence. (No dissociative tendencies, but the paranoia is present, so he meets this criterion.)

Now, the subject of a diagnosis needs to meet at least five of these criteria to qualify for BPD. Simon definitely meets five of these criteria (specifically, criteria one, four, six, eight, and nine), possibly even a few more (two, perhaps seven). In other words, Simon Laurent has Borderline Personality Disorder.

I'm not sure what conclusion to draw from this discovery that Simon is provably mentally ill. Does it mean calling him "evil" is deeply problematic? Does it mean he could've been saved? Does it mean he can't be blamed? Or is it just as toxic to argue that people with mental disorders are not responsible for their own actions as it is to argue that people with personality disorders are inherently irredeemable? (Not that anyone's argued either of those points—I'm mostly thinking in frantic hypotheticals at the moment.)

And of course these questions raise other questions (well, one other question) that has been on my mind since I first heard Simon called "irredeemable." What do people mean by "he's irredeemable"? Do they mean he couldn't improve and grow after the events of episode ten? Do they mean that his actions were unforgivable? Do they mean he was predestined to be a murderer from episode one, unlike the redeemable Grace? "Irredeemable" has become Simon's buzzword, but no one's ever really defined it. And until I get a concrete definition, I can't slap that label on him and throw him in the garbage with the rest of the characters I hate. (To be clear, I'm not saying anyone's wrong that he's irredeemable, I'm just asking what people mean when they say he's irredeemable.)

However, one thing is clear: as Anon pointed out, Simon is easy to relate to, easy to sympathize with, and easy to pity because of this. We may not all have personality disorders, but we all have flaws that make our brains work differently from how we'd like them to, whether those flaws are anger, laziness, or selfishness, or a mental illness, or something else. Yes, few of us are driven to be murderers because of this, but it still means that we can feel bad for Simon, even as we condemn his actions.

Every time I post something about Simon and it's not ten thousand words long, I'm showing enormous self-restraint and deserve a few claps. Also, sorry, Anon, for using your ask as an excuse to rant about Simon. You made a good point and I wanted to explore it!

I'm an asexual Plance shipper and a fan of Miraculous Ladybug. The pundit should declare me the best punster on the planet, but all my puns are either punbearable or so punassuming that no one even notices them.

they ship in warmies who think they know war but no one knows war before

no one from terra knows what it is to feel your lungs fill with ice as the red eye watches you forever

no one from terra knows how to fight in tunnels or trenches; that planet is too crowded, everywhere has people, no one knows what it's like to fight inside the ground itself

no one from terra knows how the fighting goes when the line between soldier and miner is as blurry as your vision gets as the ice sets in

no one from terra knows how fighting used to be, without plasma guns or electro-bombs, no one knows how to fight when it gets so cold that all the modern tech dies and you're left with your frozen purple hands and the rifles of your ancestors

no one from terra knows what war is. no one knows what war is before—

before they come here.

Women in suits are the best thing

So maybe I'm unqualified to say this as someone who's never been in a relationship, but actually, forehead touches are much more romantic than kisses

One of my favorite side effects of my Year of Overthinking my Sexuality is what I learned about the differences between aesthetic and romantic attraction.

Did you know you can think someone is pretty, or cute, or handsome, without liking them romantically? Yeah! Maybe that's common knowledge, but I sure didn't know until I went down the rabbit hole of researching asexuality. The result of that extensive research and the discovery of separate terms for separate kinds of attraction is that I now feel much more comfortable finding people attractive.

The curly-haired boy on my cross country team? Cute. The woman with the braid carrying her child? Very pretty. The short kid I keep passing in the halls? Gorgeous. The big lady I ran into at the grocery store? Breathtaking. It's made me realize that the vast majority of people in real life actually look really good. Very few of them perfectly fit what I've been taught to see as conventionally attractive, but so many of them have faces I long to just . . . look at. I swear, ninety percent of the girls I know from church are prettier than any model I've ever seen. Most people, maybe even all people, are attractive in a very genuine, very mundane, and very beautiful way.

I like feeling like I can say someone looks good without implying that I like them. And I like admitting that if I'm honest, everyone looks good.

🎉If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog. :)

This is so cute! Let's see, three random facts. I've never lived anywhere for more than three years, I'm trained in search and rescue techniques (technically. it's been a minute), and I love to hike! I feel like I'm very obvious about my nerdiness and love of art on here so I thought I'd try to throw in some other parts of myself with this