Happy Pride Month To My Favorite Nonbinary Magician

happy pride month to my favorite nonbinary magician 

someone: *mentions my favorite character*

me: *vibrating at frequency that shatters glass* yeah I love them a normal amount

WAIT A MINUTE

how could I forget?

the FIRST time we discover a hidden knife is actually in the “pat him down” paid scene in front of the shop:

which begs the question, how many more are there???

... you mean to tell me that julian walks around his day to day life with secret knives concealed on his person?

... hot

thinking about how asra signs all of his postcards “xo Asra”

subtle details of julian’s two desks in the palace;

in the library

seen in the prologue, IV: The Emperor

the desk is made from a rich reddish wood, which looks newer, polished, no rough edges or risk of splinters

his items are arranged by pure organized chaos, not exactly neat and tidy but julian knows exactly where to find what he needs

bookmarks holding his place in the books, as opposed to his usual habit of dog-earing the pages (I wonder if he was less respectful of asra’s spellbook on purpose)

a brand new quill (it looks like one of malak’s feathers!)

legible, thoughtful, unrushed script on his papers, accompanied by full-color illustrations — he has canonically abysmal handwriting and art skills, so this was clearly a space where he was intellectually stimulated and could pace himself while writing

soft lighting spilling in from the elegant stained-glass windows, daylight could actually reach him here, making it easier to tell the passage of time

in the dungeon

seen in XI: Justice, ch. 2: “Pursuit of Knowledge”

I imagine this desk was salvaged from some other part of the palace, maybe lucio’s wing, as it looks older and more weathered

a state of disarray, books and other items tossed haphazardly wherever they land

loose scrolls and an overturned inkwell, indicating that the last time he was in here he left in a hurry, or that someone’s been in here snooping (*cough* *cough* valdemar)

encroaching lab equipment and jars — his library desk looks like a space strictly dedicated to researching, reading, and writing, whereas his dungeon space suggests he was multi-tasking, running experiments and recording results simultaneously during the height of the plague, running out of time to find the cure

a frayed quill that’s seen better days, likely another one of malak’s feathers (which I find kind of funny given julian’s hot-and-cold relationship with his familiar — julian probably thinks “he grows hundreds of these I can always make him give me a new one”)

frenzied writing, larger letters than his more tempered handwriting from the library, crossed-out sections where perhaps an experiment failed or his frustration outgrew his ability to put thoughts into words

no windows or sunlight, meaning no sense of day or night, or how long julian was glued to his work. he would have to rely on candlelight to keep him awake through the long restless nights, the collection of wax on the bird’s skull suggesting that he’s fallen asleep at this desk before (thankfully he didn’t burn the place down, but perhaps julian didn’t care whether he went up in flames...)

there’s not a ton of source material from these two illustrations, but I think there’s enough to go off of that we can make inferences based on the context of julian’s route. if you enjoyed this please let me know! ♡

I’m wholeheartedly on board with the head canon that Asra and Howl met during their travel and became instant best buddies and handsome powerful magician bros.