#and we were shown that the first time twilight did that it was in direct contrast to his previous mentality when he trained her

[beannoss]

Hmmm

114.1:

and 114:

and also 103:

Still fully anticipating a Yor arc upcoming and the maths are mathing, is what I'm saying

(More seriously, it gave me vibes from 58.2 when Twilight and Bond save Daisy the pup from the fire, and Twilight gives his "You have to take care of yourself because there's someone waiting for you at home" speech - more specifically to the theory that 58.1-58.2 are the concluding chapters for the Cruise Arc*, and so is in direct dialogue with Yor's speech "Even if it means living a life that could end at any moment... even if it means leaving the Forger family," recommitment to self-sacrifice... Do you see the dots?)

*I alas don't have access to this theory: I read it summarised somewhere (reddit?) that it's a popular theory on the Japanese side of fandom and haven't been able to shake it since. But if anyone has links, pls drop 'em!

[starryalpacasstuff]

Last Twilight Ep 8; Thoughts

We're at the 2/3 mark of the show, and the episode honestly felt surreal. Last Twilight is continuing to parallel iconic moments of Bad Buddy, this time with running away and scenes on the beach. However, it never feels like it's boring or repetitive, because while the parallels are clear, the shows are also distinct. It's clear that the characters in the two shows are pushed by different things.

I was yelling at the screen when I realized Mhok and Day were going off on their own, because ditching Night = recipe for disater (he'd obviously call Day's mom!?!)

But then this happened, and I had to pause and take a moment, now that my fears had been resolved. We know so little about Night, and yet so much. Understanding his character requires a lot of reading in between the lines, and until we know what happened between the brothers, the picture won't be complete. I did, in fact, breathe a huge sigh of relief when I realized that Night was in on it, because while Mhok and Day are capable of handling themselves, if Day's mother found out, we all know that it wouldn't make for a pretty situation.

Which calls in something else I'm curious about. Is Day really naive enough to believe that they can ditch Night with no consequences? Or is there some trust left in Day, that Night will let them go. Has he figured that Night is likely in on it, and is choosing to remain quiet?

There's a number of possibilities, and I'm curious to see how it plays out. It's highly likely that his anxiousness to get away from Night, and trust in Mhok meant that the though simply hasn't crossed his mind too.

On that topic, if we rewind to the beginning of the ep

I just love how much Day trusts Mhok. It's obvious, but I felt it was worth pointing out. Mhok tells Day that there's no one there, and Day accepts. Mhok having played the caregiver role for Day for so long is definitely the main reason for this, and it's beautiful to watch.

Speaking of transparency in their relationship, can I take a moment to talk about just how much I loved this scene? Mhok was upset about the prank, and Day wasn't taking it seriously. Mhok could have clammed up, creating tension between the two. It would even be expected, given his role as Day's caretaker and the 'put Day first' mentality that we've seen so far. But he doesn't, and oh my god, this calls for aplause. He calls Day out on it, and gives Day a taste of his own medicine. And, this is something that perfectly shows that things are not the same now that they're boyfriends. Mhok gets more agency, more say, because he's one half of the relationship. I've said thia before about the subversion of faen fatale, and I'll say it again; Last Twilight has a very strong identity as a show, and a very strong grasp on what it's doing. Time and time again, it has shown us opportunities that it could have taken to create drama, and veered in the opposite direction entirely. The subversion is intentional, and clearly so.

While we're talking about characters standing up for their feelings..

I feel like someone should create a masterpost of everything we know about Night, and we can add on every bit of new info we get and compare it to the rest, because everything tells us so little yet so much. It seems that Night is still willing to push against Day's hatred. But of course, he's more willing to allow Day to live happily, as we see him letting the two go off on their own. It seems that every time Night does something for Day, he prefers to do it anonymously, such as showing up to the race. We've seen that he's accepted the villain image. Is this why he seems keen on upholding that villain image in front of Day, while helping him behind his back? P'Aof isn't one to write conflict for small or petty reason, so I'm starting to be more and more convinced that Night genuinely did something wrong to Day. He regrets it, but he also knows he can't take it back or heal their bond, so he's simply keeping the status quo, helping his brother behind his back, while only allowing himself to be selfish on occasion, like this one. I'm so intrigued by Night and his mannerisms, his actions.

Back tracking a bit again, (this is a mess)

This scene was a pivotal moment. I've previously mentioned that Day was living in a fantasy, and I've also briefly touched on Day's sence of normalcy in a post, how he was relying on things to go back to 'normal' and how he's been able to build a new normal with Mhok. He'd get the transplant eventually, and things would go back to 'normal'. Mhok helped Day redefine his 'normal', but the hope that his sight would return one day was still present. Here, it's shattered. Up till now, Day was living his life as if he were biding his time till he got his eyesight back. Now he's going to be living as if he has to wrap up a lifetime of memories in three months. He's feeling as though time is running out.

I think this is one of the first times I've seen Day talk back to his mom, which is fair, because it's ingrained in asian kids to not talk back to your elders. Day is, in the end, a rich kid. On top of that, he has a single mom. 1+1=2, Day didn't get to see much of his mom growing up. @waitmyturtles talked about this a bit in a post, mentioning how Day's mom's career always came first. She didn't have time to attend a game because she had an event, she couldn't come to school for something because she had a meeting, etc etc. (I don't know how much of an age gap there is between Day and Night, but anyone thinking that Night had to fill in on occasion..?) He's making a jab at his mom, that she's far to busy to be there with him for stuff, and she's far too overprotective to let another be there with him for it. Again, typical rich family dysfunction. Day and his mother's dynamic will be an interesting thing to watch as the episodes progress, that's for sure.

Alright, onto the last one

When I'm not sure if there's a deeper meaning behind a scene, music is always a great clue that there is something greater behind it. As episodes progress, we've seen Day slowly reassimilate himself in society. This is such an important theme, because being a part of and engaging with society is a huge part of asian culture. I view this dance as a sort of culmination of the progress that Day has made over time with Mhok. Would the Day at the beginning of the series have danced with a stranger at a party while having worse eyesight that before? No way in hell. Also, paying respect and interactling with older people is, again, a HUGE part of asian culture, so this was essentially the perfect way to depict this culmination. When the first episode had aired, @twig-tea had first introduced in a post the theme of liminality in Last Twilight. One of the definitions given was "of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition : IN-BETWEEN, TRANSITIONAL". Since Mhok entered Day's life, he's been in a liminal (transitional) state, as he moves closer to rejoing society. In this scene, we see what I'd like to say is the end of this liminal state. Of course, this isn't to say that Day is no longer in a state of liminality. Liminality presents itself in various ways throughout the show. This is simply a culmination of Day and Mhok's efforts to reintegrate Day into society. While the battle is far from over; disable people often find themselves outcasted and removed from society; it's a sign of hope, a sign of growth, a sign that their efforts have a result.

[ivecomeforsouls]

Hello to all Linked Universe Fans on Tumblr. Please give me feedback on my first Fanfiction. Let's me know if I should keep writing. Thank you!

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Summary: The portal splits off the Chain into mostly there own eras. Wind fights the war if ages, Wild heads off on his second adventure, Time has kids, ect, and they all reconvene five years later to continue there adventure.

I only have one chapter ready at the moment. Do I continue with this story idea or try another one?

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Chapter One- Final Watch

Legend had the final watch that night. As he sat not-so-comfortably on a stump that very courteously had decided make its sharper sections known, a small, white portal appeared just behind the sailor.

Legend drew his weapons and shook Time awake, who then proceeded to pull out his own sword and kick Twilight.

"Get up!"

"Out of bed! Weapons out!" Captain ordered as he quickly climbed out of bed. "We've never seen this kind of..." he faltered. He was about to say something more when the portal came and swallowed Wind whole.

"Hyrule! Move!" Legend shot towards him and yanked him backward and away from the portal that had shown up behind him. "Do you recognize these portals? That question had been directed to Warrors, but he was still in a frenzy over Wind.

"Wild!" Time and Twilight shouted in unison and began to pull him out of a portal. As they were doing so, Hyrule was ripped from his arms and through the white circle, and Four's yelp was heard from across camp as he, too, vanished without a trace. Without a trace. At least they were all keeping there stuff. A shout of surprise sounded from Time, but the Captain was too late. He'd already fallen through.

"Who's still here?" Warriors asked as he help Twilight hold onto Wild.

"You, me, Wild, and Twilight." Legend answered.

A loud snore escaped Sky's blanket, and it immediately diapeared on a flask of white light. The Captain did the same and Wild fell through before he noticed that Twilight wad missing. Legend let the portal take him, but he did not allow himself to go unprepared.

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No preparation had been necessary. All of his belongings were sprawled across his living room floor, and Ravio was sitting up groggily from where he had fallen asleep at a desk covered in books and maps.

"Mr. Hero?" Ravio yawned. "Welcome home. I have some new deals on display if you'd like to check them out."

"No! Shut up or I'll make you start paying rent!" Legend ran through the event in his mind, attempting to figure out exactly what do next but to no avail. Ravio was fully awake now, and realized that Legend came alone and without the chain.

"Is it over? The adventure?" Ravio asked quietly.

Legend shook his head. "It couldn't be. We didn't do anything. At least, nothing that could have pulled it to a close."

Legend spent the next couple hours talking to Ravio about what happened, and what it could mean.

"So we are absolutely clueless." Legend let out a defeated sigh.

"So it would seem Mr. Hero." Ravio paused for a moment. "Didn't you tell me once about an Orical?"

"Which one? There are three."

"I recall you called her Nayru. The orical of ages? If anyone would be able to provide answers about what's happening in different ages, I think it would be her."

"True. Nayru could probably give me some answers, though I'm not sure if she'd be able to provide something helpful."

They sat there for a moment in silence. Except for Ravio who had slowly made his way back to bed and was lying there suspiciously still, and particularly quiet.

Home | Next Chapter

[maddy-k-reads-all-day]

I just realized something wild

I just realized something WILD about Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle's lore. Spoilers below

We know that the Demon King Twilight is trying to improve the relations between the human and nonhuman kingdoms. We are shown time after time just how wrong the average human perception of a demon is. How even human children and schools are getting shown a very flawed depiction of demons and their culture.

A big part of the story is how Princess Syalis unlearns a lot of this stuff by spending time with actual demons. Eventually, she comes to want the same thing as Twilight.

But what's wild to me is the way the other members of the royal family act about this.

Let's start with Syalis's grandmother who is very "close friends" (depending on how you see it) with the demon Silmoth. Now being a former member of royalty would probably give her a lot sway over the public opinion. She could've spoken positively in the demon's favor at any point in time. It might not change everything but if a member of the royal family has a positive image of demons and believes humans and demons can coexist (considering her coexistence with Silmoth) it would probably sway at least some people in favor of peace between humans and demons. But clearly, she didn't do that. Otherwise I feel like things would be different, but maybe she did and nothing happened idk.

What's worse though is Syalis's mother. She seems sweet on the outside, but when you think about it... she is messed up. In volume 14, the Queen visits Syalis to discern her safety in the Demon Castle, afterwards she apologizes to Twilight for all the trouble Syalis caused. She seems to be okay with human-demon peace but says the King is stubborn. However, in Chapter 318 when we finally meet this king, he seems okay with it as well, but spies on the Demon King to make sure (and there's that whole miscommunication thing going). The Queen had anonymously uploaded a video showing the demons in a positive light, here we learn that the King doesn't know she was the one who did that. But also, he clearly doesn't know that Syalis is actually safe and happy in the castle. It seems really messed up in my opinion for Syalis's mom NOT to tell her father that his kid is safe and well. The mention of her video that is direct callback to that arc makes me think this isn't some plot hole.

Then there's Syalis's aunt who holds a mixed human-demon training ground. I think she's the only one of Syalis's family who is actually doing something toward human-demon peace. Twilight came to her for advice on how to achieve demon-human peace. Considering the whole situation with her kidnapped niece, and her also discovering Syalis is doing well in the demon's care... she could've also sent some sort of message to her brother letting him know this information. I'll give her the most leeway though since she lives in the mountains and has to manage the temple and I'm not sure about how good the communication technology in this world is.

The human royalty is supposed have the power to change this relationship between humans and demons and they learned that the demons have no ill will against them. And yet they do nothing with that information.

The Demon King felt like he needed to do something drastic (aka kidnap their princess) in order to open up any sort of conversation between them. At first it sounds dramatic but... now it kind of feels like he had the right idea. But even kidnapping Syalis doesn't seem to have worked. Lowkey they don't seem to care that much. We learned the Queen (and probably the king too) Can teleport right to the Demon kingdom. Heck, they could send a whole army directly to them and instead they sent Dawner and his friends who are hopelessly bad at their jobs. They have no agency towards any of this.

I used to think that they were good people because they weren't inherently evil... but now I'm starting to doubt that. IDK... am I overthinking it? It's just really weird that they haven't done anything. I mean, at least the story hasn't told us they have done anything. Is it intentional? Is it a plot hole or bad writing? It's definitely a confusing situation. I hope future chapters clear this up. Like maybe they don't have as much political power as we thought? But if so, who has that power?

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

what the hell is the male or female gaze and why are zutarians obsessed with it

You know how some scenes in movies and shows, especially those from a few decades ago, have some scenes that exist solely to show off how hot an actress is, but in a really, really weird way that doesn't feel like a hot moment in a story, but a story suddenly being interrupted and turned into a cheap porno? You know, those scenes where there's a conversation going on, but the camera is practically up the actress's ass?

Some feminists starting pointing out how these scenes neither fitted the tone of the stories, nor were all that appealing, how many of the actresses were coerced into them, how many directors treated them like shit during said scenes, and how some of these actresses were MINORS, and how often times this was the only role of women in stories. "Look hot for the benefit of this male director and male audience members that think women are sexual objects, then disappear."

They also noted how, in some states of the US and in other countries, some set-in-stone rules about what things related to sex could or could not be shown to certain audiences had some sexist undertones. For exemple, a scene with no nudity of a male character getting a blowjob from his girlfriend was ALWAYS considered less inappropriate than him eating her out - again, even with no nudity or anything too explict. Violent rape scenes with the girl crying her eyes out for several minutes did not change movie ratings, while a quick scene showing a girl getting to orgasm did (but a guy having an orgasm wasn't a problem).

There was also the classic "Guy was in charge of directing a lesbian sex scene, made it look like a horny 11-year-old boy's very confused notion of how sex without a penis could even work."

They refered to that kind of thing by the catch all term" the male gaze".

Some people thought the term was great. I always felt it was unnecessary and a bit pretencious since we already had terms for those things: Misogyny, double-standards, exploitation of minors, abuse of authority, puritans seeing consensual sex/sex positivity as inherently more sinful/inappropriate than violence (even sexual violence), clueless men that think the experiences of gay women are the same as this fantasies, or just the regular crap movie trying to get the audience horny enough to watch it even though it has nothing to offer.

There was also a tiny, small, huge with problem with it: it implied men were always the bad guys, and women always the victims. No room to discuss women that abused their authority (look at the literal thousands of abusive "mom managers" of child/teen stars that gladly allowed hollywood creeps to perv on their children) or the men, and underage boys, that were also sexualized to absurd degrees (plenty of the infamous Twilight scenes of the werewolf guy constantly being over-sexualized happened when he was still a teenager).

And, it also led to a bunch of very stupid consequences:

1 - People claiming any kind of eroticism on screen was ALWAYS bad, inherently exploitative, served no purpose in a story, and could only be appealing to guys, not girls.

2 - People labeling ANYTHING they didn't like as "male gaze" or "male fantasy" - see Zutarians claiming Kataang is the writers' incel fantasy of the Nice Guy getting the girl that is totally not into him).

3 - Women labeling anything they personally liked "female gaze" as a way to imply their opinion was "superior" due to supposedly being "feminist" - see Zutarians claiming Zutara is the "female gaze", the "feminist ship", or that all the fanon content for it "by women, for women (and guys that are not sexist)."

These words are just like toxic, problematic, abusive, etc. It's the classic "There was a point to this at first, it got derailed pretty fucking fast, and now annoying, pretencious people on the internet will use this term incorrectly FOREVER because they think it makes their opinion objectively correct."

(The only difference being, again, I personally always felt like "male gaze" had some problems even without the internet watering it down to meaning "I'm right and you're wrong because I'm better than you")

[joshuamj]

fresh direct thoughts:

at first when i heard about the Mario Kart free roam i was like hrrmmm (derogatory), but then i was like hmmmm (affectionate? curious?)

the wheelchair basketball seemed neat!

was hoping for a wind waker remake, but ig i'll take gamecube version. i heard there were quality of life updates or smthn in the hd remaster or whatever that was, so i hope they keep those despite it being gamecube windwaker... might get this one tho! haven't played windwaker since i was tiiinnnyyyy and i never got far

deltarune!!! very excited, one of the best things announced there fr

silksong!! 2025!! but they just glossed over it D:. genuinely thought theyd end the direct on it. i mean, i guess its better to end on a more Nintendo thing like they did with donkey kong, but sorry donkey kong fans but ending on silksong wouldve been more hype

botw and totk switch 2 edition.... idk how to feel but im certainly not getting them. Is there more than what they showed? cuz they didn't show much. and how much does it cost?

the new hyrule warriors game.. again not sure how to feel. I wouldve been a lot more interested if this came out like. a year ago. im kinda done with totk now and have lost that investment. Like i wouldve appreciated seeing what zelda was actually up to more like a year ago, and wouldve been more interested if we knew more about what she was up to like, beforehand. cuz yea sonia and rauru are there, and theyre neat characters n all, but im not invested. and we know like nobody else from that time and like nothing else about it. so im just not drawn to the premise as much as i couldve. plus, didn't they do weird time travel things in the last hyrule warriors prequel they did?? i never played/watched a playthru, but didn't they like have the modern champions like time travel to before the calamity for some reason??? like it just makes me wonder if this is gonna be a real prequel or if theyre just gonna get weird with it again

im curious if the pokemon legends za switch 2 edition will be worth it? normally i wouldnt care about like, game performance, but after scarlet/violet? now i do, at least with pokemon. Could make for a genuinely noticeable better experience

kinda wish there was a switch 2 edition of scarlet/violet. like come on! you had a good opportunity to fix that mess of a game and weasel even more money out of it! (i wonder if its just too bad to fix at this point)

was kinda hoping for a new animal crossing, but after they showed some new horizons early on i realized that likely wasn't gonna happen :(

was also lowkey hoping for a new zelda, which ig we kinda got?? and was hoping for windwaker/twilight which again we kinda got??

after silksong got shown and i realized it wasn't gonna be the finisher, i thought maybe they'd do new Smash Bros, but ig we'll have to wait on that

overall they showed lots of neat looking games, so while im personally disappointed (just not a whole lot shown that im personally interested in), im not disappointed in the direct itself (mostly). was a mistake to gloss over silksong tho, im not forgiving them for that

[anarchopuppy]

It's time for another one of my long-ass Zelda posts that no one actually reads but that's okay because I'm just posting it for myself. The topic today:

The Zelda Timeline Actually Makes Perfect Sense If You Just Think About It For A Minute

Casual fans and non-fans will take any opportunity to mock the Zelda timeline, with their criticism often starting and ending with "Look, there are three whole branches! Three!" followed by not inspecting it any further. Even big Zelda fans who know the lore extensively will still claim (without giving evidence) that the developers never intended for there to be a timeline or shared story at all while they were writing the games, and just made it up post-hoc to put in Hyrule Historia. But is that true?

Even as early as 2003 (around Wind Waker's release), Miyamoto and Aonuma confirmed that they had an official document with the entire timeline laid out in it, and that claim was reiterated in several other interviews following that. So, there's that idea put to rest right away. Straight from the horse's mouth, there has always been an official timeline

Fun fact: Did you know that back when Ocarina of Time was still called Zelda 64, around the same time that the very first ingame footage was being shown to the public, before the time travel concept was even decided on - we're talking very early development - Nintendo reportedly told IGN that its story took place after Adventure of Link? Now, you may say that that proves that they don't care much about the timeline if they're changing it up partway through production, but to me it says the opposite. Even in the experimentation phase, before they had even come up with the central concept of the game, they were already considering where it would fit into the timeline

But the claim I made at the top wasn't that the timeline was considered beforehand, but that it makes "perfect sense"

The Official Timeline Is The Only One That Works

Let's consider the games in the Zelda series in release order and see how they fit with each other

First was Zelda 1. After that came Zelda 2, an obvious direct sequel with the same Link. Then LttP, which the devs clearly stated was a prequel to Z1 - and it couldn't really have been anything else, since Z1 ends with Ganon being killed and AoL ends with his resurrection being prevented. Link's Awakening is just a dream and could go anywhere on the timeline. Ocarina of Time is a clear prequel to LttP, exploring the origins of Ganon and the beginning of his life as a man, as established in LttP's manual (I'll talk more about OoT and the Downfall Timeline further down). Majora's Mask is a direct sequel to OoT

After that comes Wind Waker, the first seemingly ambiguous placement. The game begins with a legend of the Hero of Time, the player character from OoT, sealing Ganon and then disappearing forever. It's clear that this is referring to the timeline that Link left in OoT. And since in LttP Hyrule hasn't been flooded and abandoned along with the Triforce and Master Sword and Ganon's corpse (which is how WW leaves it), we can be pretty certain that this doesn't come before any of the previously released games. Nor does it come after, since it makes clear reference to the events of OoT and explicitly states that no hero like the Hero of Time has appeared since. So it must be a new timeline split from all that time travel stuff. Cool

Then is Twilight Princess, which also doesn't fit with any of the other games we've seen. In its backstory, Ganondorf was stopped before taking over Hyrule or even touching the Triforce, which doesn't match with either of the two histories that have been established. It does match perfectly with the timeline the Hero of Time returned to at the end of OoT, though, and there's other evidence (such as the Hero's Shade, which is heavily hinted in-game to be the Hero of Time) that supports that. Again, can't come before anything else we've seen since Ganon dies, and can't come after since Ganon never got the Triforce. So the only option that makes sense is for this to be another timeline branch following from OoT

After Twilight Princess comes Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, both of which are explicitly sequels to WW. Then Skyward Sword, which is heavily established as the first game in the series chronologically and came with an official timeline to prove it. Then Link Between Worlds, a sequel to LttP (in Japanese it's even a numbered sequel), and finally Breath of the Wild which has its own nonsense going on and effectively soft reboots the timeline

Ok, so where's that famous ambiguity and arbitrariness? Everything locks in pretty solidly, there's just no other option that makes sense. This is supported by the fact that the Zelda fanbase came to the exact same conclusions before there was ever an official timeline. There were some people who were so attached to a unified timeline that they came up with wild and varied theories to fit it all together, but among the people who recognized that there was a timeline split, they effectively all put the games in the exact same order that would later be revealed as official. But with one major difference - everyone agreed on the order of the 2D games, but no one could figure out whether they belonged at the end of the Adult Timeline or the end of the Child Timeline, with some even arguing that the split timeline "merged" somehow before the 2D games. No one had even considered the Downfall Timeline as an option

What's Up With The Downfall Timeline Anyway

The DT is the most controversial part of the official timeline. There are two timelines that are clearly explained by the events of OoT, and then a third that splits off at the same point that just exists for seemingly no reason. Before the official timeline was released, the fanbase couldn't make sense of the 2D games and how they fit into everything. So what gives?

As I said above, OoT was conceived of and established as a prequel to LttP. But even before the timeline split nonsense, that didn't really make sense. In the backstory of LttP, Ganondorf acquires the entire Triforce before being sealed by the sages - and in-game we do see Ganon in possession of the completed Triforce, even able to wish on it - but in the events of OoT Link and Zelda retain their pieces at all times. OoT is clearly intended to be the events of LttP's backstory, but the ending is changed, like a "what if" scenario where Ganon loses instead of winning

And I argue that's exactly what it is. The Zelda team wanted to flesh out the stuff from LttP's manual, but a game where you lose at the end no matter what you do isn't fun, so they had to make it so you can win. The DT doesn't make a lot of sense when you think of it in timeline order, in terms of how it came to be in-universe, but it becomes a lot more clear when you think of it in development order, in terms of why the developers made the decisions they did. Ocarina was a reboot, a "what if we won instead" story in the same vein as Age of Calamity

In other words, the Downfall Timeline split isn't something that mechanically exists in-universe like the Child/Adult split, and it becomes very confusing if you try to think of it in those terms. Instead, it's another story being told by Nintendo where a different version of events happened, like an alternate history. And when you realize that, the entire timeline starts to make perfect sense

Hold On You Left Out Like Half A Dozen Games

Yeah, you caught me

The other most controversial part of the Zelda timeline is the placement of third-party games. This is the source of the only retcon in the official timeline, which was moving Link's Awakening from after the Oracle games to before them. It also results in the "Vaati trilogy", which was clearly meant to be one continuous story, being split up by thousands of years across multiple timelines. Surely, you say, I can agree that that's confusing and arbitrary?

And I would respond, yeah. Trying to fit games and stories from third-party devs into a timeline with the mainline games post-hoc was a bad idea, and the Vaati trilogy, the Oracle games, and Tri Force Heroes fit into the history about as well as the CD-i games and the Nelsonic Game Watch do. They're great games, by and large, but they're spinoffs and should've been treated as such - trying to include them is the only thing that screws with the timeline. Throw them out, and everything makes sense

[themelodicenigma]

You know, I was thinking about how Kairi was a little bit of a tomboy in KH1, and how in the later games she became more feminine over time. And I'm probably overthinking things, but I think part of the reason was that up until the events of KH1 she probably spent most of her time with Sora and Riku. Later when she was separated from them it seems she spent more time with her female friends, or at least Selphie. Again, I could be overthinking this.

Hmm, maybe? Or to me, she's really just the same—it's more that as the games she's involved in go on, we get more opportunity to see her character growth and personality spectrum. Just more as we get more.

In KH1, we get she works well in her friendship with two males, not only counting them off to race, but even joins them (though is too slow). She spends her time making trinkets, which according to Terra, is a "girly" thing to do. XD She dresses with feminine attributes, and I wouldn't exactly say her personality is "masculine" or anything. She has a strong will and courage to protect, as shown in Sora's "death" scene and when she covers him from other Heartless. She even wanted to join Sora for the final bout in the Final World. Romance-wise, she straight up sees that Sora drew the Paopu Fruit. We wish we could've gotten more out of her, but it was a foundation for everything that follows.

Her being more involved = more of the above, essentially. More of what we already know.

We see she still has that same courage and desire to be involved—in KH2 she takes this more into her own hands as she goes to look for Sora. Literally goes into a weird, Dark Corridor, which even Axel commends her for having the guts to do. She jumps off a ledge and doesn't even break her ankle, kicks Heartless butt, gets a Keyblade, has a very nice interaction with Riku, with Namine and the Twilight trio, and if circumstantially she and everyone else [besides Sora and Riku] weren't separated, she'd been wanting to square up with Xemnas too at the end. XD We get just a small taste of "adventure" Kairi.

Feminine-wise, yeah she let her hair grow out (which I believe long hair is typically thought of as more "feminine" by people??), and she's still wearing a skirt—so really still roughly the same. Except now instead of just another trinket, we see she wrote that letter for Sora + is completely unfazed by the idea of being "the girl he likes" and that her journey to find him is a "romantic/wonderful story". lol Not to mention that conversation with Roxas and Namine—"We'll be together every day". Of course romance isn't REALLY just a feminine thing, but we could say the writing has it more direct than it was in the first game.

And then in KH3, well, same principle. She's the same, but just more opportunity...eh kind of. We REALLY should've gotten more from her training with Lea/Axel, I honestly was looking forward to that being it's own segment where we could play as her, similar to what we did for Riku. Could've saved it even for just one time, like what Kairi was talking about with her and Lea/Axel "meeting in the ring" as they were apparently going to spar each other. It's great that this was made up for in Re:Mind playable-wise, AND in MoM, that she got her VERY OWN action cutscene in her skirmish with Xehanort—a full on 1vs1 battle cutscene. KAIRI has one. That's pretty sweet. But still, that training segment still would've been great.

Now we know she's going to be training even more, BUT she's also going to be with Aqua, someone who also is designed to be a very feminine, strong character. If the games take from the novel, maybe the game (or the inevitable novel) will show Aqua showing Kairi how to bake, and even better ways to make the trinket charms (sorry Kairi, but Aqua's have a little more quality lol).

[blu-moon]

Analyzing The Twilight Saga Book Titles

Twilight

Twilight is defined as the time before a sunset, taking place between daylight and darkness. It makes the smooth transition from evening to night.

In the Twilight Saga, I think this title either symbolizes the beginning of night (which I explain later) or it is supposed to represent two worlds coming together. It uses the transition of twilight where night meets day to symbolize two things coming together.

We can easily discern that the night is Edward or better yet the “vampire world”. The day is Bella, or the “human world”. Twilight is supposed to represent the coming together of these two people from different worlds. It the collision of the unusual.

New Moon

New Moon is the Lunar Phase where the moon is not visible in the sky as it’s between the sun and earth and cast in complete shadow on the side we can see.

The New Moon often symbolizes change and new beginnings as it signals the start of a new moon cycle. In the book, this symbolism can be seen by the drastic change that occurs in Bella’s life.

New Moon has a few different ways you can interpret the title. First, we have established that the mystical or “vampire world” is represented by the night. As for Edward, he is specifically symbolized as the moon. In New Moon he leaves Bella, hence the book title being about the absence of the moon.

Second, New Moon can also be related to the introduction of the Quileute wolves. Wolves are often depicted alongside the moon and in general fiction humans who could turn to into wolves mostly did so under the presences of a (usually full) moon.

Eclipse

Eclipse is the rare occasion when the moon will pass between the sun and earth during daytime. The moon will overlap the sun, blocking out the majority of light.

It’s important to know that there are actually two types of Eclipses. A lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse. A lunar eclipse is when the moon is completely visible but has a sort of orange or red tint. The earth, sun, and moon are all aligned. A solar eclipse is the typical image one would find when looking up ‘eclipse’. It is the moon over the sun, creating what looks like a circular ring of light. One occurs during the day, one at night.

In The Twilight Saga, the title Eclipse specifically refers to a solar eclipse. It represents the coming together of these two worlds or even “Bella’s”. In the books, Bella refers to two different versions of herself, “Jacob’s Bella” and “Edward’s Bella”. She’s described trying to force two magnets together, believing them to be Edward and Jacob as she wanted them to get along. She eventually realizes that the magnets she was trying to force together were instead “Jacob’s Bella” and “Edward’s Bella”. This applies to the title because she chose to be with Edward and that choice, her picking Edward (the moon), is shown through the solar eclipse where the moon overshadows the sun.

Throughout New Moon Bella describes and refers to Jacob as her sun, thus making him symbolize the sun in the title Eclipse. He’s overshadowed by Edward as Bella chooses him over Jacob.

Breaking Dawn

We know that dawn refers to the morning, but the term breaking dawn is a bit more specific. It instead refers to the point of morning where the light begins to grow after the night has ended.

The title Breaking Dawn seems like the odd man out when compared to the other book titles in the saga. The book titles so far had all referenced the night or the moon, which breaking dawn doesn’t fit into that category at all. With the title being Breaking Dawn it went in an entirely new direction, steering more toward references to the morning and daylight.

At first, I thought the title was stupid and didn’t make any sense, but the more I analyzed the more I understood why that title may have been chosen. The coming of morning signals the end of night and dawn can symbolize the coming of new things; a sunrise.

The title Breaking Dawn refers to the end of Bella’s journey. Her journey starts at nightfall (Twilight) and she goes through the night (yes, I know Solar eclipses occur during the day, but it still refers to the moon) and emerges a completely changed being by morning. The rising sun, or breaking dawn, symbolizes her change into a new life and the ending of the journey. Over night, her life has completely changed and she has altered her future for the rest of eternity.

I think Breaking Dawn symbolizes the end of Bella’s story and or her human life. It symbolizes the change she went though from human to an immortal being. Although the title would have made more sense if she had chosen Jacob, as he has been symbolized as the sun, the title still has other meanings that can be applied to the overall story.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate Eclipse and Breaking Dawn and think they totally ruined the saga, but their titles are pretty clever! They can be applied to both the story’s plot and the characters with relevant symbolism that makes you think about the deeper meanings nestled in the books.

Hope you enjoyed my little analysis :]

[luimagines]

I was wondering how the boys would react to you having a breakdown?

Masterlist

SO so softly.

This one won't be as long as the others but I will be splitting it into two parts.

This one contains Hyrule, Sky, Legend, Warrior and Wild.

Content under the cut!

Hyrule

Hyrule had noticed that you were having a rough day.

He wasn't sure what had set it off or how it started because you were fine in the morning but something happened along the lines that tipped you over the edge.

You were walking down the trail of this unknown Hyrule. Until you tripped and landed directly on your knee.

Hyrule stopped in his tracks at the sight.

Usually you'd just get back up and brush it off, act like it never happened. But this time...

He hears you sniffle and his heart breaks.

"Hey," Hyrule makes his way over to you. "Are you ok?"

"I... I don't know." Your voice cracks.

You shift to get off of your knee and look at the cut. It appears that you landed directly on a rock and it cut through your pants.

"No... I'm not ok." Your eyes quickly fill with tears and Hyrule all but runs to your side.

He's quick to pull you close and rub circles on your back. The touch seemed to be the final straw on the camels back and sobs began to rack your body with such force that it shook Hyrule to his core.

His heart bled with you as you cried.

"Anything I can do to help?" He asks after a few minutes of silence.

"No." You sniff and hug him tightly.

"You sure?"

"My brother... He's sick." You admit. "And I... I can't-"

You look up and into his eyes. "I can't go see him. He's not getting any better. I'm stuck. I-"

You freeze, glancing over his shoulder and the sobs turn to rage. "YOU!"

Hyrule lets you go and turns around.

A shadow. Formless and floating. A single black mass with no face or discernable features but all the more watchful.

You rip yourself away from Hyrule and stand up again. "Why are you here?!"

You know this thing?

"Is it dangerous?" Hyrule stands up as well and makes a grab for his sword.

"To me? No." You admit and grab his hand. "But it's never really shown itself to be an ally."

You glare at it, wiping the last of your tears away. "You can't hurt my friends, you hear me? I'll kill you if you even try."

Hyrule put his hand on your shoulder and begins to lead you away. "Ca you even kill that thing? Are we safe?"

Your glare hardens. "I don't know, I've never tried. We should be safe though. It's a long story."

"I've got time." Hyrule smiles. "We're at the back of the group, so it's not like we have to worry about the other walking up on us."

"Maybe later." You sigh and take his hand in yours. "Let's go."

Your voice is soft and quiet, he has to strain himself a bit to hear it but he knows its because the sadness has returned.

He takes his hand out and places it around your shoulders instead, holding you close.

Hyrule walks with you, side by side until to reach the rest of the group.

Maybe you just need a friend right now.

He can be that friend.

Sky

Sky had noticed that you were quieter than usual.

And not within the same brand that Link’s were typically used to.

It was like a loaded spring waiting to burst from confinement and he thinks he can see the moment when it happens.

The group was simply teasing and rough housing each other until someone said something and you didn’t appreciate it.

You shoot straight up from where you’re sitting, fists at your side, jaw clenched and what looks like to be tears beginning to build in your eyes. Without a word, you turn on your heel and leave the group behind. 

The camp falls silent at your departure, no one knowing what went wrong.

Sky hums in contemplation and stands up as well, silently waving to the group that he has you covered.

He’s to follow where you went and he picks up the pace to make up for lost time. You didn't seem to go far, just out of ear shot.

When he finds you, you’re pacing back and forth, muttering to yourself in a language he doesn’t understand or even heard for that matter. Your hands are still clenched into fists, but one’s by your mouth, pressed tightly enough that the skin pales and the other is gripping your wrist tightly enough that he thinks you’re digging into your skin.

There are tears openly falling from your eyes but aside from the miniscule voice cracks that he barely catch, you’re silent.

If no one followed you, he doubt that they wouldn’t have even known this was happening.

“Hey.” Sky clears his throat and he sees you snap in his direction. You’re eyes widen in shock and he’s made a witness to all your pain and frustration and he’s aware how vulnerable you’ve made yourself by not leaving them entirely. 

You knew that any of them could have followed you and didn’t actively try to hide yourself.

He doesn’t want to make it worse.

“Hug?” He opens his arms and tries to show how unjudgmental he’s being. He doesn’t want you to think he’ll think less of you. That any of the group would think less of you. It has to be why you just left. But he also knows that there is a time for talking and a time for silence.

This is not a time for talking.

You look at him a moment, your grip on yourself tightening by a fraction.

The spring is wound up even more. 

“You don’t have to talk about it fi you don’t want to.” Sky reaches out.

It explodes.

You run to him and collapse into his arm. He’s quick to wrap you up and hold you tight. As tight as he can manage without the fear of actually hurting you.

You don’t say anything and sob into his shoulder.

He lets you.

He doesn’t lessen his grip until you stop crying, and even then, he holds you until you pull away first.

You stay close to him until you’re breathing easier and the evidence of your breakdown lessens somewhat. At least until it’s not so obvious.

“Thank you Sky.”

“Any time.”

Legend

“Hey, The Old Man is looking for you.” Legend walks to where he knew you ran off.

It wasn’t any of his business to know where you were going or why.

It... tickled his curiosity however, he couldn’t help the want to follow you and make sure didn't just go off and die.

But he knew you could handle yourself if you needed to.

So he shrugged and let you be.

But now that he sees you....

He regrets it.

Your back is turned to him and you don’t turn to face him when he calls him. The air around you is heavy and somber and your completely still in posture. You’re leaning up against a tree with your arms crossed and with one leg crossed around the other.

It’s a blocked off stance that Legend is familiar with. What’s concerning to him is that there was no one around you to consider blocking off- unless you were blocking off the group... And he supposes that you did, since you left... But to still be blocking something off...

He hates to think about the other option.

You’re blocking off yourself.

He creeps closer, trying to be as quiet as possible, until he’s close enough to hear you gulp.

“Yeah I’ll-” Your voice cuts itself off with a slight crack. He knows what you’re doing. You’re trying to project your voice to be as normal as possible. “I’ll be there in a minute. I didn’t mean to be away for so long.”

Legend creeps around you until he’s facing you head on. He sees that your eyes are closed and shut tight and there are tear tracks on your cheeks. Not to mention that you have an iron grip on both your arms, enough so that your knuckles turn white.

Oh... Now Legend feel like a horrible friend.

The worst actually.

He knows he’s probably the last person to be here. He’s not at all equipped for the emotional...anything. But he’s also not inclined to go back and find someone who is.

This.... Looks really personal. He doubts that you want more people to know about this.

Legend takes a step closer and places a hesitant hand on your shoulder you.

You wince and slowly, oh so slowly, lift your head and open your eyes.

Legend gulps and puts his other hand on your opposite shoulder. “I’m not very good at this-”

Your legs give out.

Legend is quick to fall with you and pull you away from the tree and against his chest. You cry openly and loudly this time, clinging to him like your life depends on it. He’s your life line in this vulnerable moment and Legend feels.... Honored is not the word he wants to use. But he does feel a certain way about being the one here to share this moment with you, to be the one you trust with this, to be the one you’re clinging to.

Forget the others right now, he thinks as he begins to cling to you just as hard as you do him, this is more important.

Warrior

Warrior wakes up with a start one night. He’s confused and disoriented, the only thing he’s aware of right now is that something is wrong.

But it’s quiet, his brain registers a second later. So no monsters.

Weird. Why is he awake then?

He sits up slowly, trying to gather his surroundings and what could have woken him up.

Legend, Hyrule and Wind are accounted for, they’ve gathered together in a twisted pile of limbs that makes it difficult to tell where one starts and the other ends, but they look warm and comfy.

Wild and Twilight are both leaning up against Time, the Old Man has both of his arms around them and holding them close.

Sky and Four are by his side, Four is wrapped with Sky’s sailcloth and is snuggled close to the knight and wait a minute...

It was your watch. Where are you?

Warrior shoots up straighter and makes a quiet maneuver to his feet to not wake the others. He gets his sword and stands up turning in a circle to survey the whole camp.

You’re nowhere in sight.

A striking fear hits him right in the heart, like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. He’s immediately thinking the worst.

You’ve defected. You’ve betrayed them. You’ve been kidnapped. You’ve deserted them. You’re hurt. You’re dying.

He stops himself from screaming out your name.

He’s overreacting.

You’re fine.

Healthy even. You probably just had to relieve yourself and would be back just as soon. He can wait until you come back.

Warrior takes the post and sits by the fire. 

This is fine. You’re fine.

It’ll only a be a few minutes and then he’ll go right back to bed.

Minutes pass.

You don’t show up.

Warrior stands up again and tries to look around for you or any evidence as to where you might have gone. He doesn’t really find anything. He begins to panic again.

He makes the executive decision to move away from the camp and try to find you. He gets a little ways into the tree line and begins to travel in around the perimeter. The group will be fine for a minute. If he can’t find you then he’ll go wake the group up, start a search party and then go find you.

Then he hears something.

A sniffle.

A chocked sob.

Warrior should expect a wave of relief to wash over him at you both being nearby and alive but instead, a different sort of dread washes over him and he all but runs in the direction of the sound.

You’re not fine.

He finds you sitting against a tree, almost camouflaged with how dark it still is, with your legs hugged close to your chest and your head against your knees. 

He places his sword down and kneels next to you.

“Hey...” Warrior reaches out and places his hand on your shoulder. You don’t react to his presence and it breaks his heart. 

He sighs and takes a seat next to you. Warrior takes his arm and wraps it around your shoulders, pulling you against his side. His other arm comes up to cradle your head and his finds that his fingers gently take your hair and methodically begin to run through it.

Warrior resolves to stay next to you until you’re done, until you feel better.

And he does.

Wild

Wild was cooking lunch and minding his own business for a change when he sees you storm into the camp, ignore absolutely everyone, and continue power walking through until you’re gone again.

It stuns him enough that he actually drops his spoon into the pot, losing it to the boiling contents within.

Twilight hisses by his side. “That’s... unfortunate.”

“Watch this.” Wild points to the pot and stands up, not giving Twilight a chance to say his piece.

He storms after you, trying to match your pace before you get too far for him to track.

Wild considers himself lucky that you don’t go that far from the group, only just slightly beyond what would have been the perimeter of their camp.

You’re entirely wound up, hands by your face and pacing back and forth.

Words fail him in that moment and he watches as you press harder against yourself trying to calm yourself with deep breath.

It’s not working.

Wild calls your name quietly and you freeze up in your spot. “Are you ok?”

You lock eyes with him and crumble.

The Champion rushes to your side and catches you before your knees hit the floor. You curl into him and grip his tunic like a life line as the strongest sobs Wild’s ever heard just completely rack your body. He’s quick to wrap his arms around you and hold you close and tight. One arm goes around your waist as the other cradles your head by his neck.

The position is familiar to him and the deja vu Wild’s experiencing is a kin to a smack to the face but he powers through.

It’s not about him right now.

He says nothing while you cry. He asks no questions and makes no claims. Comfort words don’t flow either however and the only sounds that reach his ears are your broken gasps and his own quiet breaths.

I’m here, he thinks. I’m here for you. It’s ok. Let it out.

He’s almost jealous for a moment about how you still have the energy to cry, to still find the strength and space to let out your emotions even after everything you’ve been through.

He’s cried for a long time, coming to terms with what’s happened to his home, his love, his friends, and at the same time he thinks he hasn’t cried enough.

But he’s has no more tears to shed.

He’s also has no shoulder to cry on.

But you need one right now and he’s not willing to leave someone he cares about alone in a time of grief.

Hopefully Twilight doesn’t let the food burn. Good food is always good for the soul.

He thinks that it’ll help when you’re done.

Part 2

[itstheimpossibledream]

It’s Only A Play -Part 3

Word Count:3244

Pairing : AU Henry Cavill x FemBlack!Reader

Summary: We love a good slow burn. SMUT

The bag crackled in his large hands. You found yourself wondering why he even bothered delicately tearing the wrapping, when he could easily smash both the wrapper and cookie open in one fist. The fortune seemed so small in his hands.He held the paper back a bit further than you would have expected and you realized he was probably one of those people who needed glasses but refused to get them.He cleared his throat again."It says 'The art of living is taking the biggest chance.'"

"In bed." you said quickly

"What?!" his eyebrows flew up in shock but,he laughed to keep from appearing to hopeful.

"It's an American thing. You read a fortune cookie and at the end you add in bed. It makes every fortune cookie funnier, I promise."you said not breaking eye contact. He threw his head back and laughed even harder. It was a childish trick but, something about it tickled him so much he hardly noticed when his hat fell off of his head and onto Kal who had been peacefully sleeping in the slice of floor behind Henry's chair. His baritone chuckles echo through the apartment and you’re amazed that neighbors didn't even cross his mind as a concern in this place.Realistically he probably wasn’t even home enough to get a noise complaint. His laughing had lessened and you could feel him watching you. You knew people who had embarrassingly nice apartments but, nothing like this. This was just lavishly ridiculous.

"It gets lonely being here alone." He said evenly,reading your mind. "Family doesn't visit much and keeping friends with a schedule like mine is just..."

"Not easy ." you finished for him.You could feel his eyes boring into you carving out a space in your heart for him and you try to will yourself to stop. You both sat comfortable on the silence for a while, momentarily mutually mourning the lifestyle you lost to live your dream.

"Okay read yours!" Henry gestured to you cookie. You smashed it to bits,gingerly pulling out the paper fortune. You sat up tall clearing your throat trying to figure out if this fortune would be equally funny or if your childish trick had run it's course.

"You Are very talented in many ways in bed." You say bursting out laughing as he doubled over again.

"Come on! How come I couldn't have gotten that one" he jokes shrugging his shoulders.

" Just wasn't your fortune."you tease winking at him and getting up from the table.Okay so you were flirting with him,definitely flirting with him. But a highschool showmance was so unlike you. You knew the golden rule was to never go for your co-stars and yet here you were winking and shit. Maybe he'd ignore it , he really knew nothing about you outside of your work.

"So what made you like this story? When you got the script when did know you had to do it ?" He had moved from the table, his eyes shown brightly as he recovered his hat from the floor on his way. At the end of dinner you assumed it would be normal to grab your jacket and go back to your room.It's not like he had really planned for you to be over, and you weren't even friends so staying up this late with him to gossip wasn’t exactly in the cards. You had already learned so much more about him than you had expected to. He expertly moved to the kitchen,uncorked a bottle of wine he had chilling in the refrigerator and returned to the couch handing one of the glasses to you. So, now you were staying, I mean it’d be rude to turn down wine.

"Uhhhhh- well I think the relationship is relatable, it's real. It's not about these two perfect people but, it's about this perfect love they have... ya know?" You whirl yourself onto the seat on the couch next to him."To imagine what they were going through as a couple I mean- it must have made everything harder, these characters are from completely different worlds and they still choose each other in their own way. " He nods next to you , this was new. Geeking out with him about work wasn't what you expected but, you were actually enjoying it.

"So let me ask you something?"he pushes leaning in , He wrings his hands together and you’re distracted by the veiny passageways that mark down from his forearms."When do you think it would actually be necessary for them to have a sex scene?"he asks timidly.

"Right!" you exclaim! "I love Stephen but the way he directs it makes it feel so clunky !"you emphasize with your hands and he chuckles saying "Okay I'm so glad you noticed it too- like who has sex like this robots?"

"You know his partners have to be weird." you laugh , noticing how pointy his canines are. God, he looks like one of those twilight vampires, his stupid skin probably did shine in actual sunlight Not that New York would get any though,you acknowledge while making a mental note , not to drink to much of the wine that was clearly causing you to get distracted. You finish your glass and set it on the coffee table.

"Yeah I don't know i just think it's an unconventional love story and we need more of those." you smile , sheepishly meeting his eyes , going back to the topic of the show. His lower lip juts up as he nods,in agreement.

"Soooooo what's next?"you pop up, moving to his kitchen opening random cabinets, trying to find his liquor stash. You come across the empty bottle, of what must have been the wine you just drank and turn to him in the living room with a fake pout. It wasn’t that you were bored, or even that you didn’t want to spend time with him sober ;as much as it was that you desperately needed to cling to the idea that he wasn’t a good man for you.

"O. you can smoke out on the terrace if you want, and I don't have any more drinks here but,I can call down to the frontdesk to run and get you something.” Your eyes rolled so hard they almost fell out of your head.

"Of Course you have a front desk."you chortled to yourself.

"Hey, this is the flat the show is paying to keep me in not my own." he pointed at you in mock sternness

"No I'm okay. I don't smoke and drink all the time " you chided at him,he probably didn't really think that. He was just trying to drum up some conversation.

"and here I thought you were a real New Yorker." he jokes breaking into a toothy grin.

" I'm from a very small town-" you divulged with a sigh"definitely not New York.”

"Yeah- there's not many people from where I grew up around here either." he said plainly , moving to take off his rehearsal sneakers, for what was probably the first time since you had gotten to his place.

"You miss it a lot huh?" you ask

"I mean I go back often but, it's just much nicer to not have camera's up your ass all the time."he huffs, moving to the second set of laces.

"Ahh that good old Hollywood fame." you joke, with a sigh. He just smiles at you, beaming embarrassingly knowing he can never seem to say the right thing around you. For some reason busting his balls was somehow so much better than admitting to a feeling that you were becoming increasingly aware of,you wanted him.

"I'm not like a smoker smoker" you say, slicing through the silence "I picked it up from my ex and it just kinda stuck." you admit with a flippant gesture of your hand." But, only when I'm nervous or something."you felt the need to clarify.

"And why would you be nervous?"He smirked, pushing his shoes under the decoratively simplistic coffee table across from him and sliding down the front of the couch to sit on the floor. His thighs seemed abnormally large as he spread his legs out and started stretching. This time it was your turn to look away from him.You peeled your eyes,just as quick as he had before your shower. The confidence that radiated from him was absolutely maddening. You couldn't understand how any man could be so aware of their looks and yet still come off as slightly shy.

"I'm always nervous the first days of rehearsal.The new schedule, the new people, it's all just overwhelming at times." you divulged honestly. He pulled a knee into his chest heaving a sigh as you continued. "I wish I never started smoking though." you circled back.

"Do you wish you never met him too?"Henry asked, inquisitively peering up from under his hat as he switched knees. You exhaled slowly,fighting for the right way to answer that question.

"Sometimes yes" you nodded. "When I first moved to New York it was really tough, I felt really lonely too." you allowed your voice to trail into a whisper. There is a silence and then you can feel his eyes on you, your cheeks burning red-hot and the more you avoid looking at him the stronger the urge is.

"So that's why you're single." it was brutal but, you weren't upset.Long ago you had come to a similar realization about yourself. Plus, european’s had a way of sounding rude while simply stating facts, it’s part of what makes them so trendy.

"You've allowed life to make you become tough and jaded so you just don't date?Is that it?" he perked an eyebrow in your direction while removing his baseball cap.While you took no offense to his comment, that didn't stop you from hating it.

"Why do you care?" you asked immediately, choosing the defensive instead of going deeper and chasing him down the rabbit hole of honesty.

"See what is that?" he questioned.It was clear he was not going to be letting this go anytime soon.

"I'm trying to do the assignment. I'm trying to get to know you and you push me away."

"Don't be ridiculous."you roll your eyes toward him once again."I'm not pushing you away I just have boundaries and things I don’t want to discuss with you."

You push up from the couch and head in the direction of your room. It was not within his right to pry about your personal relationships,and truly there was nothing more to discuss. Plus, you knew if you stayed close to him a moment longer, you would give into his eyes and the beautiful vanes bulging in his large hand.

"Why?" he asked jumping to his feet,his agility momentarily shocking you as you turn to leave.

"Because I don't want to ! Because you're not-"

"Not what?" he pushes" I've been working around you and this thing between us and I don't why you can be blunt about everything else except this !" He got dangerously close to raising his voice and it stirred the butterflies in your stomach. Something about him being so stern with you set your sex drive ablaze. You could feel yourself biting down hard on your bottom lip and the more you refused to break eye contact with him the more fired up you became. You could see the honesty behind his eyes, he was trying with you, he was proving himself every step of the way and you hated how much you loved it.

"Fine. What is it? What's the THIS?" you ask sarcastically, staring directly at him. His face looked blank and you wondered for a moment if you had asked the right thing. He grabs your hand,falling back onto the couch and pulling you onto the couch on top of him.You quickly realize you are able to put yourself in a position where you can straddle him as he grabs your face, pulling you down to kiss him. You kiss him back slowly , taking time to explore with your tongue. You can feel his hand tangled in your hair at the back of your head and it does something wild to you. You grind down into him and you hear a slight moan escape his mouth.

You bite down suddenly on his bottom lip before coming up for air and he simply can't take it anymore. He wraps his arms around your legs and lifts you up by the bottom of your thighs, carrying you into the bedroom. You feel ridiculously delicate in his arms as he carries you. You break from the kiss momentarily, to make sure your head is ducking all the way under the doorframe as he holds you,smiling into your kiss.

You pull your own shirt off, letting it hit the floor with a loud 'thwack'. The noise momentarily wakes you out of your horny haze. As he lays you on the bed,you bring your forearm up to cover your eyes, in the vaguest attempt of shielding yourself from your own embarrassment. He pulls your pants off and while unsure ,you don't protest as he gingerly splays your legs open for him to see the wetness that had pooled in your underwear.

"O you're so wet for me now."he smiles from ear to ear as you peek through your hand just enough to see his perfectly chiseled chest and you shut your eyes again wondering if this could be real, if he's real.

" We're not done ."he smirks, grabbing you by the legs and pulling you towards him. He then gracefully flips you over onto your hands and knees facing away from him.He pulls your panties down and drags his large fingers over your wet slit and you arch your back at his touch. He settles one hand on your hip as he uses the other hand to work himself into you.You had imagined he was big, but when you feel his head poking into you, you knew your fantasies could never compare to the reality. He uses the hand on your hip to slowly pull you further onto him until you are taking in his whole length. Moving painstakingly slowly, in and out of you. You hear him moaning above you and then he whispers "Fuck” in that stupid accent before snapping his hips into you and pushing you forward. He uses his other hand to prop you up because he knows he's pushing way to hard for someone of your size. Slamming into your pretty little cunt over and over again. You let out his name and you allow plea after plea for him to let you cum. He pounds into you grabbing your hair and pulling your face up to meet his.After a few more thrusts he finally graces you with a reply.

"No." he says and then pulls out of you. Your body immediately feels drained, completely and utterly fucked out and somehow all you want is more. You hold the position for a minute breathing into the lack of movement when you look back to see Henry watching you. Working himself in his large hand, the veins in his arms bulging and a slight bead of sweat beginning to work it's way onto his forehead.

"Turn over" he commands, and as much as you want to move quickly your legs feel like jelly,the smile line at the corner of his mouth fades as he walks towards you and flips you over himself. He positions himself above you again and says "I want to see that pretty face you make when you cum." he smiles down at you sweetly. Pushing in between your hot folds again and the noise you make is downright pornographic. You know it , he knows it and only fuels the fire behind his thrusts . He reaches for your neck again, giving you a pale necklace of fingers and veins that contrasts with your skin . With his other hand you feel him grab at your hand and interlace your fingers with his, above your head. Your eyes fly open and he is looking directly at you, smiling a bit and you can tell he is taking you in. Revelling in all the tiny noises and ways your body responds to his. You can feel his pace quicken as his moans increase, it almost feels as though the longer you look at him the harder he fucks into you, challenging you, seeing if you can handle him. His curls begin to dampen and stick to his forehead, you watch while he looks down on you. He momentarily breaks having his hand at your throat to bring his own pointer to his mouth. You watch as he lighlty bites down on it while letting out a moan.It's almost as if he's trying to keep himself quiet, or burn this view into his brain, but he's to turned on to focus. He fucks into you harder and harder, you can't take it, seeing his teeth around his own finger made you absolutely feral. You cried out his name immediately and before you could realize what was happening you felt your walls tightening again under him. Your legs shook as waves of pleasure washed over you and you could feel yourself clamping down on him. He fucked you through the orgasm, and when it seemed as though you had recovered, he climbed up your body, forcing his cock down your throat, and came instantly. He shudders and makes deep grunts on top of you. You can't help but gag a little on his length as you try to take in the art that is his unclothed body. He hears you struggling for breath and immediately pulls himself out of you. He holds a thumb at the bottom of your chin and watches as you swallow every drop of him. When you're done you look up at him, giving him your best attempt at doe eyes and he turns your chin up for him to kiss you . Fuck. Fuck. you were not supposed to fuck your coworker.Especially not this coworker, you barely even liked him. After a few moments of making out the contact fizzled and eventually he was just laying next to you, breathing heavily.

"It's purely physical." you sighed, watching the small curly hairs on his pecs as his chest heaved.

"Is it?" he began laughing. His smile shone bright in the dimness of the room. He turns to face you, leaning in for a kiss again and you're to weak to deny him.

"Dammit." he whispers between your lips. You grab the back of his head pulling him closer to you, your mind to blissed out and high for you to think.He kisses you hard and then pulls back. He hops off the bed, chest heaving as he uses his forearm to wipe away the sweat. You sleepily roll over to face where he's going. Some minutes pass and before you know it your overly fucked body is begging for rest.You drift of to sleep feeling euphoria in the big bed.

[canmom]

Animation Night 72 - Studio Colorido

Good Thursday my friends! Apologies for the lack of Toku Tuesday this week, for various reasons I had to clean most of the carpets in my house with a carpet shampoo machine and that took basically all of my time. But no more on that.

This week, I want to shine a spotlight on a studio whose work we’ve seen a couple of times on Animation Night, most notably when we watched their miniseries Pokémon: Twilight Wings, but they’re also the animators of Takashi Nakamura’s short Bubu & Bubulina in the Japan Animator Expo. More recently, they’ve become known for summer films like Penguin Highway...

Of course, as the saying goes, a studio is just a building: many of the animators who made Twilight Wings shine like Weilin Zhang and Bahi JD are freelancers who do not regularly work at Colorido. Nevertheless, there are a consistent set of people who give them their distinctive style - and since they made one of the better received shorts in the recent anthology Star Wars: Visions, let’s take a look in while we wait for someone to replace the dubtitles on that with a proper fansub!

My major source for this is - guess who? - kVin of Sakuga Blog, who wrote a detailed retrospective on the studio back in 2018. Founded in 2011 by Hideo Uda, a businessman with relatively little experience in anime, the motivation behind the studio was not so much artistic as practical:

(...) creating that initial blank slate was by all means a deliberate move; though he had no ideas to uphold on a creative level, Uda did have a goal: to establish a studio where artists could work comfortably, shielded from the abysmal working conditions and complicated financial situations that plague anime as a whole. He’d be the pragmatic core of the company, lessening the burden of the creatives and allowing them to become the studio’s leading voices as much as possible. By doing that, the studio would ideally develop a creative ethos along the way. And that it did!

As portrayed in the video above (ty again kVin), this is an all-digital studio; not a rarity these days by they were ahead of the curve. In the early years, they brought in Takashi Nakamura, an animation director on Akira and the director of the wonderful Chicken Man and Red Neck short on Robot Carnival.

kVin praises Nakamura as an inspiration to some of our favourite animators like Koji Morimoto (who you may remember as one of the most creative directors in all the 4°C anthologies, and also in 80s works like the Franken’s Gears segment of Robot Carnival) and Hiroyuki Okiura (long list of credits as a key animator, including Akira and the Magnetic Rose segment of Memories; as a director, he’s probably best known for taking on Oshii’s live-action Kerberos franchise in Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade about scary cops in a fascist future Japan, which we haven’t shown on Animation Night but tends to get a lot of praise.)

By 2011, Nakamura had also moved to directing, and Colorido offered him a chance to realise some unfinished ambitions...

And while as a director he didn’t make quite as much of a splash as he did as an animator, hence his relative obscurity among the fandom, Nakamura’s works are still rightfully held in high regard by those who’ve gotten a chance to experience them (especially A Tree of Palme, an official selection at the Berlinale back in 2002). As a storyteller he proved to have a ludicrous range, seemingly capable of tackling all sorts of genres and tones. But some things remained consistent: the rock-solid fundamentals he gained as an animator, a dignified air that was maintained even during the sillier or most tragic moments… and profound unmarketability, which is why the project he had in mind at the time got scrapped by the studio that was supposed to produce it. Promising him an opportunity to actually bring it to life, Nakamura hopped onto studio Colorido to share their very first adventure.

This resulted in two short films with Colorido: the sweeping historical cross-section Shashinkan, and of course Bubu & Bubulina featuring a pair of sisters dancing through a colouful collage realm reminiscent of Inu Curry, before he amicably parted ways to let younger animators more familiar with digital tools have their turn. (He would go on to direct Harmony (2015) at 4°C with Michael Arias of Tekkonkinkreet fame.)

So, the identity of the studio would end up following most from their other major figure, Hiroyasu Ishida aka Tete. We can trace him back to 2009 when, as a student, he’d delighted everyone with an impeccably timed short film about a girl careening down a hill, Fumiko’s Confession:

and his melancholy graduation film rain town showing a girl meeting a decaying robot in a waterlogged city:

Both films show an exceptional talent for both storyboarding (check out those shot angles and compositions I mean come on wow) and character animation. At Colorido, he invited his friend Yojiro Arai, a young designer and background artist who had managed to achieve his dream of working at Ghibli; yet he was rather overwhelmed by the workload and when Ishida contacted him on Pixiv, he decided to take the risk of going to a new studio.

Their first work together at Colorido was another short film, titled Hinata no Aoshigure, released in 2013 alongside Shashinkan...

It combines Ishida’s proclivity for elaborate flying shots, child POV and wild camera angles with Arai’s Ghibliesque settings and colours, and the studio’s facility with 3D compositing and non-photorealistic backgrounds; the result is something that sounds really delightful.

2003 - a busy year! - also marked Colorido’s first foray into advertising. Which falls under ‘using their powers for evil’ in my book, but all the same it was Arai’s own debut as a director, and the result was so popular that Colorido was soon fully booked for ad work, including things like... zips. Apparently in Japan it’s worth funding a full anime short film series to advertise zips. I guess people would use them to modify clothes for fashion or something? This is after all the country of Tetsuya Nomura’s design sensibility...

Anyway, if you’ve seen a charming animated ad in recent years, like a certain viral McDonald’s job ad (subbed), it’s probably someone Colorido wot did it. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this, turning the rather miserable reality of food service into a short story arc about a clumsy anime girl finding fulfilment. Charming, colourful animation certainly doesn’t have to come with a false, sanitised world, with Boy and the World as the perfect counterexample, but under the supervision of ad men? That’s what it’s going to be.

Well, luckily they did a lot of other stuff. In 2015, they joined forces with niotaminA (‘Animation’ written backwards...), another small studio with a very similar ‘good work conditions’ ethos, becoming ‘Twin Engine’. This allowed them to step up production to much larger projects such as Typhoon Noruda, almost half an hour long. Apparently (by kVin’s account) the result was great-as-ever art direction let down by dodgy writing, but it demonstrated the studio’s potential to start working on longer projects...

...which they did a few years later with the feature-length Penguin Highway, naturally directed by Ishida, adapting a novel by Tomihiko Morimi who also wrote the original book of Night is Short, Walk on Girl (whose adaptation is one of my fave Yuasa films) and The Tatami Galaxy (also done by Yuasa but I haven’t seen it yet). So definitely someone popular with some really great directors! kVin describes the decision to make an adaptation rather than an original work a careful one to keep scope in check; the story is a coming-of-age romance story framed by a lady who can summon transforming penguins. kVin writes of it...

The whimsical nature of Morimi’s coming of age story, equal parts straightforward romance and morphing penguins, turned out to be as compatible with Ishida’s own qualities as he’d imagined, even actively encouraging his own quirks. As the director he was able to provide a thoroughly joyful experience, but also to isolate themes like the pathways and make them into a motif, the visual core of a deceivingly smart film. Penguin Highway is a cute movie you’re bound to have fun with on your first watch, and the kind of work that will refuse to leave your mind afterward, no matter its rougher spots.

That’s about where kVin’s article ends, speculating on the new directions the studio might take with the arrival of Ishida’s university friend Tatsurō Kawano, whose own graduation film Loud House is definitely worth a watch. He spent some years following his own path on action shows like Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.

We can join them again with a second article written a couple years later, in which we learn that Arai left to found a new story called FILMONY (though returning for episode 2 of Twilight Wings), and the studio split into three subteams, among them Team Yamahitsuji consisting of Kawano and some very creative young webgen animators...

It included Natsuki Yamada, a Tatsunoko-trained animator who captures the simple joy of movement so well that she’s already become a leader of sorts for their animation duties. Taiki Konno – I think I can spare you that introduction – was also a member of that initial lineup, alongside wild fledgling director Yuji Shimizu and digital artist Takashi Nakamichi, who bridged the gaps between disciplines as is often the case in modern environments.

One of their first works together was an opening to Boruto, the Naruto sequel and thus one of the highest profile shōnen shows, and indeed they pulled out some impressive background animation and effects shots.

That brings us to their most recent works! They’ve really expanded production (though as ever in anime, in part through outsourcing to other studios like WIT and Toho) to the point of multiple feature films per year, now often released for Netflix. Burn the Witch adapts a standalone Bleach spinoff set in - guess what - the city where I live, London! A Whisker Away has the look of a post-Makoto Shinkai summer movie; it seems to have reviewed well but not received as much attention as their other movies. They’re definitely very much in the idiom (particular drawing style etc.) of modern digital era anime, but I think we can say at their best, they’re at the more inventive and expressive end.

Tonight, then, I’m going to give a cross-section of Colorido’s works (and I guess some of their major figures’ short films made before they joined the studio, such as Hinata no Aoshigure); the main feature will of course be Penguin Highway, and we’ll see if this Burn the Witch business is at all comprehensible if you’ve not watched Bleach. We’ll also check out their latest Pokémon outings. If that sounds like your jam, see you at 7pm UK time (about 90 minutes) at twitch.tv/canmom!

[tired-sky-lian]

What do you become? Chapter 2

Words: 5,608

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Chapter 2: The clear, and ruined, surface

It was the relentless rays of sunlight berating his eyelids which brought his mind back to the waking world. Though it was the feeling of mud caked in his hair that finally had his mind churning. With hazy, unfocused sight, his eyes grazed over the empty, barren land around him. Unfamiliar, shattered wooden walls were caved in around him. The scent of long-settled dust clung to the air, leaving a heavy presence in his lungs as he tried to breathe. In his frantic state, his mind almost didn’t register the other two sleeping bodies.

Almost.

Twilight and Wild both laid in the mud, Wild half flung over his mentor’s legs. Though it was a sight to see, Sky needed the both of them awake. He had no idea where they were.

Managing to get to his feet, he stumbled to where the two laid. To his astonishment, it was frighteningly easy for the two heroes to wake; just a simple tap did the trick.

Wild was the first of the two to peel his eyes open, and not a second after was he scrambling to his feet and pulling on Twilight’s shoulders. The sudden jolt had Sky on-edge, almost falling back at the sudden switch in his mood.

“Wild-”

“We need to get out here.” Twilight’s eyes flung open at his words, getting back on his two feet like he had been shocked awake.

“What’s… what do you mean?” The rancher's voice was groggy with sleep, almost like he decided to swallow rocks in his sleep.

Sky had to jump back as Wild sprang to his feet, ducking under the wooden frame of a long-gone window. Twilight had moved next to him, crouching in the soft layer of mud as they peered out the window. Sky hunched over, balling the end of his sailcloth in his arms as he kneeled down into the dirt. Before Sky could formulate another question, Wild pointed out of the window into the sunny field outside the ruined walls. A giant pink-laced spidery figure the cook had been pointing out was looping the fields, almost like it was on patrol. Another question died on his tongue as it began to walk closer to where the three sat. Sky had an amazing view of it’s red, pulsating eye, before it turned meters from the wall and continued its mindless circling.

“It’s a guardian, corrupted by the Calamity itself. It’s fast, doesn’t feel pain, and can shoot beams of death from its eye.” Wild turned from the window, pulling out his slate. For the first time, Sky could see how it worked. Wild dragged his fingers against the slate’s surface until a small, yellow arrow was shown in an empty grass plain. Pinching his fingers, the details on the map became smaller, showing more of the surrounding area full of blue shapes and dull yellow stickers.

“Hyrule Castle is full of guardians,” Wild pointed to the large island with five leaning towers all pointing to the spires of the great castle. “Our current problem is that we are too close to the castle .”

The hulking form of the mechanical spider became much more of an issue than Sky had originally thought.

"So what do we have to do?"

Twilight ducked back under the windowsill, a certain anger tied up his brows as he looked toward the cook.

"Let me see your slate."

Wild handed over the device, screen still displaying the map. Twilight raked his fingers over the surface, settling the map on one spot, and turning it so the other two could see the surface.

"South, at the bend of the road here, is a group of trees we can vanish into. We just need to continue heading that direction until we hit Whistling Hill. We'll be able to stay at the Riverside stable, and we can grab your horses there, cub." Twilight handed the slate back.

Wild quickly changed into something more suitable for running, his hood disappearing in a blue light to be changed out with a dull red bandanna.

Sky didn't know how he would be able to make it. His health problems aside, if his sailcloth got caught on anything, he'd have a greater issue on his hands. He unclasped the blue diamond, letting the clip rest in his tangled and mud-ridden hair, as the rest of the sailcloth fell into his arms.

"Sky, what are you doing with that?" Twilight, voiced hushed as the guardian passed by their window once more. That really was the question of the hour, what could he do with the sailcloth. The easiest option would be letting Wild enter it into his slate, and let it disappear into the folds of Wild’s extensive inventory written in a language he couldn't read. It wasn’t a bad idea, but…

"Sky?"

He's had better ones. The cloth draped heavily against his shoulders, the beautiful stylized loftwing centered between his shoulder blades. As he looped it around his arms, the excess was tied at the small of his back. The sailcloth appeared just as it had the first time he had seen it, a wrap bundled around Zelda’s arms.

He nodded his head towards the other two in ready, and in turn, he was handed a bottle full of murky green liquid by Wild. Whatever it was composed of, it made the liquid much more… viscous than any of the potions he had seen before.

“It’s a stamina elixir, we’ll be running past at least three guardians on our way to the stable. Hopefully they won’t spot us as we pass by.” Sky wanted to hand the potion back, build up his case on why he didn't need handouts. He had to admit, however, if the elixir worked the same as a stamina fruit, he would most likely need it if he had to run. He took the elixir with a "Thank you," and slipped it in his right-side adventure pouch.

Wild turned, slowly making his way through one of the holes in the wall. Glancing at the slate’s map every few seconds, he slipped outside and pressed his back to the musty, corroded wall. Twilight was a step behind.

As Sky saddled up next to them, Wild clipped the slate back to his hip. The Cook pointed towards a mound laced with tall trees before turning his head around the wall’s corner to look back at the circling guardian. It wasn’t before long before he whispered directions.

“Twi, go” Wild whispered. Without fanfare, Twilight launched himself towards the hill at a breakneck speed. Sky moved closer, shoulder to shoulder with Wild as he waited for his cue.

A metal, clawed leg pierced the dirt just in front of their boots. If Sky hadn’t been through Hell itself before, killing the God of Hatred and malice, he might’ve screamed. He assumed Wild felt the same, the cook’s hand had wrapped itself tightly onto Sky’s wrist. The two hardly breathed as the shiny metal leg of the guardian lifted, dirt trailing from the crevices between its plates. Sky could hear the harsh, electric whizzing noises that didn't sound unlike a beamos. The one, circular glowing eye passing over their heads held the same level of fear as well.

The second the guardian stalked away, the murderous, mindless machine strayed back to its circular path on the ranch fields, Wild let go. His hand had started to tingle from the lack of blood flow.

As he looked back, Wild wasn't staring at the guardian anymore. Instead, Sky caught the cook quickly looking back to the trees. Twilight was hardly hidden, but the guardian couldn't tell the difference between a Hylain and an oddly-shaped bush. The rancher peaked his head over one of the twig-like trees, giving a "thumbs-up", or whatever it's called.

"Sky, go." He almost forgot about this part, the one where he runs for his life. Without much hindrance, Sky darts across the green field, the faint whirring of the guardian growing quieter by the second. As his boots reached the patch of dirt Twilight was ducked behind, he was dragged behind the bush by his elbow.

An indignant squawk left his vocal cords without permission as he almost slammed into Twilight. The rancher covered both of their mouths with his palms as Sky laid bodily in the dirt and high grass. Lifting Twi's hand from his mouth, slightly unimpressed, he tried to speak, resulting in Twilight making a shushing gesture.

He must have looked confused, or Twilight is taking initiative like always, and points to a particularly budding monster camp just further down the trail.

It was tiered, with bokoblins and moblins unlike any he had seen before. They all somehow looked more piglike than the creatures infesting his surface. Along with all the variety in color, he could partially smell the difference, even from their current distance. The monsters here carried a foul scent, strong enough for any adventurer to sniff from miles away.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Wild’s sudden voice made him jolt, and Twilight ducked his head back below the line of bushes.

"There's a camp just further down, well up , on that hill." Twilight pulled Wild to show him the fresh, shoddy construction of the bokos.

"Oh, that's new." Bringing his slate to his eye, Wild studied the camp, clicking a few invisible buttons on the device. He sat back down, turning the screen of the slate to show the other two.

"We'll also have to go around. They've got horns, and just up that hill is both a guardian and a hinox. If the bokoblin guard sees us, he's going to blow a horn, and if he blows the horn, he's going to wake the Hinox. I don't want to fight a hinox, and I don't think you all really want to fight a hinox either." Turning the slate back to himself, he pulled a thin stick from the edge of the slate. The stick itself was too thin to hold any sort of ink inside. However, it traced a light teal line along the map despite holding nothing within.

Twilight snorted, arms crossed with a smirk. "C'mon can, I think we can take a hinox ."

Wild dropped the slate in his lap, shooting a look at his mentor. "Have you ever seen a hinox before?"

Twilight shrugged, and Wild rolled his eyes. Instead of gracing Twi with any sort of remark, he beckoned the two to come closer. Flipping the slate around, Sky and Twilight could see the teal lines wrapping around the mound ahead of them.

"We have a few options, but most of them are bad. Any that require us moving closer to the castle," Wild drew an 'X' through the lines leading back towards the ranch ruins. "are bad. Going down this road?" Wild struck through more of the teal lines. "Unless you're in for the fight of your life tonight, bad idea."

"Then what are our feasible options?" Sky asked, and Wild smirked.

"We wait till nightfall, then we-"

"No, pass. Your field is covered in stals. We'll have just as rough of a fight if we go out their flailin' our arms about now." Twilight cut him off, with a glare Sky considered soft on his face. Twilight, like the rest of them, is a stubborn hero. There would be no budging on any sort of life-or-fight-or-death scenario.

Grumbling, Wild knocked off another few paths from the slate.

"Alright, the only few things we cannot do is 'let the guardian or bokos see us' and 'wake the hinox'. Other than that, it's incredibly easy."

Shifting the small stick back into the slate, Wild pinched the map. The glowing blue diamond of the shrine became visible, as well as the small label of a horse head, which Wild declared a "stable".

"The hinox is between the stalker guardian and the boko's outpost. Since going near the guardian is almost certain death and or injury, we'll go between the camp and the hinox. If we stray in the small patch of trees closer to the hinox, then I don't think the camp will see us." After tracing a path with his finger, Wild pressed something on the slate to clear the lines from his map. After clipping the device back to his hip, he steadily walked towards the edge of the patch of trees.

"Cub, are you certain this is a good idea? If we are seen-"

"I'm not too worried about it." He waved to two heroes over, and Sky almost tripped over a stray root in the ground. "If we end up needing to make a run for it, then I think we'll be able to outrun them."

Sky hoped they could, he hoped he could. Even with the stamina elixir resting heavily in his front pouch, the wilds of this Hyrule looked to stretch on for miles. Nothing on the surface in his time could match the sheer scale of the vast lands of Wild's time. Everything here was just so much… more.

The light touch of pain rippled throughout his brain as he managed to stand next to Wild. The headache, it appears, hadn't decided to leave him be just yet.

There was a hand on his shoulder, Twilight's by the heaviness of it.

"Are you okay?" The question echoed, and his brain couldn't discern if Wild had also asked, or he was hearing Twilight twice. Sky ran a hand through his hair, pressing his palm against the dull, growing pain.

"I'll be fine, I think I just need to rest. We just need to get to the stable for now." Lifting his hand, he shook out the small flecks of dirt and crusted mud from his hair. He really needed a shower.

"Alright, we'll go up this hill here, don't stray, we'll go through the woods, around the bottomless swamp, and follow the Hylia River down to the Riverside Stable, go it?" Twilight and Sky nodded, Wild grinned like the manic he was.

"Cool, follow me." The cook took the first step through the path, and when none of the bokos in the camp turned to him, he ducked across the road into a small spatter of trees. Twilight followed him, and Sky was trailing slightly behind with his eyes trained on Twilight’s fur pelt.

As they swiftly scaled the hill, it became apparent that the bokoblins weren't the ones with the absolutely fatal smell.

The hinox was large and strangely blue, wearing nothing more than a loincloth, a bone-based knee brace, and a thread of gold, shining weapons along its neck. They rounded his head, where the hill began to descend, as the giant monster scored on. Sky debated on whether or not untying the sailcloth to cover his nose would be worth it. Instead, he settled with digging his nose into the crook of his elbow, and Twilight shared the same sentiment. Wild, however, looked as if he could not be bothered.

Something snapped, Sky thought at first one of his bones had miraculously broken. Wild whipped his head to glare at Twi, who almost looked ashamed. The rancher moved his foot, revealing a small broken twig underneath his boot.

Everything would have been fine if the beast had continued to rest. All hopes were dashed as the deep snoring had hitched and halted, a single, bleary eye slipped open to stare at the open sky above.

No one moved. No one made a sound. Sky had barely dared to breathe as the hinox blinked and grumbled. He stood, frozen midstep with every single nerve in his body alight with terror. He could hear the blood sloshing in his ears, the faint ringing in his head. The piercing ache decided to be more apparent. Sky had to stop any vocalations coming from his throat, had to stop himself from tearing the cloth of his tunic where it was caught in a deathgrip.

The hinox, unperturbed, unaware of the three terror struck Hylians, closed its single eye. And waiting for what felt like centuries, the hinox began to snore once more.

Sky could feel the air grace his lungs and his body decided to work. The slow movings of both Wild and Twilight persuaded his feet to begin moving as well. This time, they were all staring at the ground as they stumbled down the hill.

The ground rounded out as they stopped by the lake. A sandbar with a blue, glowing shrine stood atop was slightly to their left in the river. Wild, who glowed with the technological magic of the sheikah as his boots were replaced by sandals, waded in the lake with his bow drawn.

Twilight stood by Sky's shoulder along the grassy shore of the lake. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, and Sky was confused about the brief stop.

A blue creature, it almost looked like an octorok burst its head above the surface of the water. Its cheeks puffed as if it was going to spit out something, and Sky had an innate feeling to duck. Before the thing could do so much as to scream, an arrow pierced its fat head. It burst into a mass of purple smoke and Wild didn't waste a single second throwing himself into the water to grab whatever dropped from its body.

The cook came back drenched with a green, flailing fish in one hand and a flaccid, spiked purple sack in the other. Both objects disappeared with a blue light into the slate.

"C'mon, I just caught some dinner!" Wild began to walk with the river downstream. Tugging him along, Twilight steadily walked alongside him.

They reached the stable nestled between two bridges as the sun finally fell behind the horizon line. The entire structure was circular and massive, adorned with a patchwork roof and the giant, stylized head of a horse. Wild had already taken to the cooking pot, chatting with a man with a blue horse-patterned vest as he threw more than just one fish into the cooking pot.

"I'm going to get us some beds," Twilight said, and he appreciated the rancher’s soft tone as he left Sky with Wild and the other Hylian.

"Sky! This is Gotter, I helped him get some recipes from the castle this one time, and now he helps me cook whenever I ask him to."

The other Hylian waved, and Sky could barely get out a generic "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Sky." before Twilight arrived back at the cooking pot.

"Hey, if you want to rest before we get dinner ready, we have the three beds closest to the left entrance. I'll bring you your playe once it's ready."

Sky could not be more grateful for help from the two. As Twilight gave him a hand to help him stand, he wished Hyrule had been sucked into the portal with them. Who knows if the healer had some kind of magic to get the pain out of his head.

He stepped into the stable with Twilight at his back. Once his feet were off the wooden floor, he could feel the wave of exhaustion flood through his veins. It took much more than he had in himself to thank Twilight as the man disappeared back into the darkened night sky. He didn't bother shedding his boots or the layers of cloth and chainmail before he was asleep on the soft bed, listening to the waves buffer the grassy shore of Hylia river.

He awakened many hours later, the light blanketing every surface outside the archway of the stable. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forefinger and thumb against his eyelids. He missed dinner. Sky was almost upset by it, the two believed his rest was more necessary than a meal.

Even if they were right, and he felt much better than he had since before they arrived at Lon Lon Ranch, he was still hungry. Sleeping had done wonders for his body, especially his mind. The dull throb and blurry vision had faded away into something insignificant.

He threw his legs over the side of the bed, and with a look back, he could see neither one of his companions. Though, the scent steadily flowing in from the outside clued him in to where one of them was. And since the two of them were glued at the hip, he was sure to find Twilight at the cooking pot as well.

The early sun was bright, but nothing could compare to the early mornings of Skyloft. Every morning was the perfect warmth to settle the cold of the night with how close the island was to the sun. The rising sun, always in full view plastered against the light blue sky could never stop being beautiful.

Growing laughter caught his attention and, sure enough, both the cook and the rancher were side-by-side at the cooking pot. As Sky made his way over to the pot, Twilight and Wild both shot him a smile.

"You're looking better, good to see you up this early." Wild called, stirring a pot full of yellow fluff they called ' eggs' .

"I do have to admit, nothing gets anyone out of bed faster than the smell of food. That or the scream of a bird." Sky took a seat on one of the few stools.

"Yeah, we're so lucky at least one of us knows how to cook proper meals." Twilight dug his fingers into Wild’s greasy, dirt ridden hair, and ruffled it like an older brother would.

Wild threw his arms up with a feral screech, dislodging Twi from his hair.

"That could've gotten in the food, Twi! And I don't want to start over!" Twilight laughed at the protectiveness Wild had over the cooking pot, but he stopped nonetheless. After all, he didn't want dirt in his food either.

"After we eat," Sky started as Wild began to portion the breakfast into separate plates. "What do you say we all head down to the river and, um, be rid of all the dirt."

The two agreed, and began to shovel down the eggs. Sky almost laughed at the small clump of eggs hanging on the edge of Twilight’s lips.

Sky took his time eating as the two began to clean up. The fluffy, airy food did wonders for dispelling his hunger. He might ask how Wild had made these some time in the future, and about whatever the cook sprinkled on top.

It wasn't until Wild had the pot cleaned out and the dishes laid to dry, when the three of them went down to the small running river. The first to shed his clothes was Wild, who was also the quickest. Everything the cook was wearing disappeared into the slate, which would come back out later good as new.

Twilight and Sky didn't bother folding any of their clothes. All of it needed a good run through the waves, and would benefit from a little bit of Malon's secret "clothes soap".

It was all thrown against a certain large rock to be buffeted by the waves as Sky and Twilight settled down. All except for Twi's wolf pelt and Sky's sailcloth and the blue diamond broach. Close by, Wild had rid himself of his hair tie, ducking his head beneath the water and running his hands through his hair.

Sky had a hard time watching the boy, especially with all of the scars he bore on full display. It was a sort of deep-set sorrow in his bones, a view that made his heart ache. Wild wasn't that much younger than he was, as far as he could tell, they only had a few months of age separating them. He could understand why Twilight was so overprotective of Wild. No one wished those kinds of scars on anyone.

He could feel his right hand twitching at the thought.

"Hey," Twilight brought the attention of both his companions. It was the pinched, downcast look on the rancher's face that made Sky feel slightly apprehensive, foregoing a response. Wild, next to him, stopped splashing in the water and sat next to them to create a circle.

"What's up, Twi?" Wild bundled his hair up on the top of his head with the blue band.

"Do you think the others fell through with us?" Twilight looked up, and Sky could see something akin to loss in his eyes.

"We were separated from them," Wild began, "And the portal looked… different than usual."

"Different?" Twilight chucked a laugh. "Damn thing wasn't even close to normal. It opened on the floor and was bright as Hell. "

The more Sky thought about it, the more his brain started picking up the differences. It didn't appear to open the same and looked more… divine than the normal black abyss of a gate they all had gone through before. There was also the suffocating pressure of the light. It was much brighter, and he's not sure how he went through, but the entire thing felt more right than the archway of swirling black they had previously been utilizing.

As the other two heroes continued to discuss the strangeness they've been subjected to for the travels thus far, Sky dunked his head into the water. The water was cool against his face as he raked out the dirt and mud that made itself home in his hair. Still, he found himself wishing for the hair soap in a bottle from the knights academy, or a similar product Wars carried around called ' shampoo' .

Sky brought his head from the water as the last of the gunk and mud was dislodged and carried downstream. As the water trailed from his ears, he turned back to the other two. Then, promptly froze. Both Wild and Twilight were staring, slack jawed.

"What?" Sky, without thought, covered his face with his left hand. "Is there something…?"

"Your hair…" Twilight's sentence dropped off as soon as he started, though it looked as if he hadn't started speaking at all.

Wild, instead, finished for the rancher. "It's more… white than before."

Sky launched from the water, hardly bothering to pull on some sort of clothes as he rushed back to shore. Over where he stashed his sailcloth, the sword of Evil's Bane rested against a rock. Without the usual fanfare, he pulled the Master Sword from its sheath and brought the blade up to his face.

Sure enough, more of the strands of hair had turned white, the color spreading like a poor dye job. Sky almost dropped the blade from the subtle shake and not-quite-firm grip of high right hand. The existence of his toes would not appreciate being chopped off, however. In the end, he managed to lower the blade back into her scabbard and rest her back against the rock.

Why was his hair going white ? Normally, it's the older Skylofians who have to deal with this type of issue, or overworked young adults who manage the few shops in Skyloft. It shouldn't be spreading like it is, or how fast it is, no matter if he was stressed or old.

He didn't know what was spreading through his hair, and since Wild or Twilight shared the same astonishment, he assumed they wouldn't know how to fix it either.

The touch to his shoulder jolted him from his thoughts. Wild stood in front of him, mostly clothed, hand trailing back to his side as he looked up to Sky.

"Twilight’s drying the clothes, so we should be able to get out of here soon." When Sky didn't respond, Wild took ahold of both of Sky's hands, bringing the two down to sit. They stayed like this until Twilight returned, with Wild rubbing circled into Sky's hands, and Sky himself, lost in his frantic, racing thoughts with his eyes fallen on the grass.

Soon, Wild's hands disappeared, replaced with the several layers of clothes he usually wore. He dressed in absent thought to what he was doing with his hands, his mind screaming " Am I cursed, well of course I'm cursed, I didn't get out of the fight with Demise without a gift. Am I dying? Is this what dying feels like?"

It's only when he failed to clasp the broach on the two ends of the sailcloth did his mind jolt back to now. He wasn't in his time right now, and he wasn't with his entire group in the second most dangerous Hyrule they know. First place went to Hyrule himself.

He sighed once the clasp didn't go through once again. Throwing the diamond into his hair, the sailcloth went back to the form of a wrap as he tied it with shaking hands.

A pair of hovering hands drifted into his line of sight. Something made him raise his head, he didn't know if it was respect or some form of hope, until his eyes locked with the rancher's.

"Hey," the voice sounded muddled, almost like he hadn't gotten all the water out of his ears. "I know we've kind of asked you this a lot recently, but are you really okay?"

Sky hesitated, like he's always done, wondering if he should tell the blatant lie. It would be pointless, they know something is going on with him, something Sky doesn't know about himself.

Well, he was never really too prideful. That was left up for Groose, and more recently, Warriors.

"I don't know. Well, wait, no. I know I'm not okay right now, but I don't know what's going on. I've-" The air caught in his throat, hitching a breath before he could begin to cough it out. "I've never seen anything like this before."

Twilight paused, and soon enough there were two grounding hands on his shoulders. There must have been something wrong with his breathing, because Twilight was taking in large, deep breaths, like he wanted Sky to follow along. It worked, for the most part, and the familiar feel of something wrapping itself harshly around his throat loosened into light, blessed butterflies brushing their wings against his skin.

"We'll figure something out, maybe we can get Wild's Zelda to channel her divineness and give us some Goddess insight." Twilight gave what he supposed was a comforting smile, but Sky could only hold back a small bout of laughter at the statement. He knows Hylia doesn't work like that. He knows Hylia more than he knows about any of his future reincarnations. Contrary to popular belief, that would be saying a lot. The heroes tend to overshare.

"Where-" Sky cut himself off, trying to ignore the feeling of something rising in his throat.

Twilight, the smart boy he is, caught on at least. "Wild's on his way back, he went to grab the horses we need from the stable."

Twilight stopped, if only to stare at Sky funny for a few seconds before blurting, "Have you ever rode a horse before?"

All of his current and previous thought processes came to a screeching halt. He had seen a horse before, they were dotted all around Lon Lon Ranch, but had he ever been on one…?

In the end, he managed to say, "Can't be too different from a Loftwing."

"We'll, can't dispute that if I'd never seen one before." Twilight finally removed his hands from Sky's shoulders just as Wild rounded the bend, tugging along three horses.

"Hi guys! So, Twilight, you get Soup." He passed the lead for the light brown mare to the rancher, who immediately began to run his hand up her snout.

"Sky, you get Monsieur Pierre." The stallion he was handed was a dark grey color, but with strange green braided hair. He held his hand out for the horse, the same as one would do to get familiar with a loftwing. Soon enough, Twilight had displayed the motion of getting on a horse, which was much easier than trying to avoid the wings of his giant bird. Once he was actually up on the horse, he realized just how much he had missed riding on his crimson loftwing.

"Well, are we all ready to go?" Wild asked, hopping right on top of his white, golden maned horse.

"Uh, not quite. Where exactly are we heading, cub?" Twilight strode over, the image of the rancher he was.

"Oh, so, our goal is to get to Hateno, but we're going to stop by Kakariko Village on the way. Impa might have something weird and mildly prophetic to say about our situation. And if she doesn't, Zelda probably will." As Wild had begun to lead his horse off, Twilight had to quickly show Sky how to get his horse moving. Then they were following right behind the cook, who was tracing lines around on his map again.

"We're gonna pass through the East Post Ruins to get to Proxim bridge. Then we just need to pass through Dueling Peaks, go up the Big Twin Bridge, and make a little lunch break at the Dueling Peaks Stable. After, we just go up Kakariko bridge and follow the path until we get there. Simple!" Wild urged the stallion for a faster pace, while Twilight kept in pace with Sky.

"Hey, quick question Twilight."

"Yeah, what's goin on?"

"Was any of that actual words to you?" The two laughed, Twilight showing him how to spur the horse onwards to catch up with Wild, who was already thrusting a spear through the gut of a moblin as he passed through the ruins.

"It would truly be a great day if people could begin to understand him."

[anakinisvaderisanakin]

My entry for Rebels-week: Discourse, Ahsoka vs Vader.

I’ve seen quite a few posts online questioning why could seemingly Ahsoka (almost) go toe to toe with Vader in Twilight of the Apprentice; and I figured I’d break down why I believe she succeeded as far as she did. I have three main arguments, although they interlock and are valid contributors to one final conclusion.

One - Ahsoka was trained by Anakin. Vader is Anakin.

Despite the fact that as Vader, he has adapted new saber techniques, new practices, and relies much less on just raw Force power and more on physical brute prowess; he is still the man that trained Ahsoka as a padawan. She has learnt everything from him, and the signature moves Vader has maintained from his days as her master she inevitably would be familiar with.

Ahsoka would know how to counteract these moves; and how to sneak past Vader’s aggressive offenses. While he is a tad more restrained as Vader; Anakin still does fight with an overtly aggressive lenience. If we as an audience can still recognize certain moves of Vader's from his Jedi days, it goes without saying that Ahsoka would have no problem picking up on the same thing and deducing beforehand what move to make next as a counter attack. Add to that the fact that Dave Filoni himself did point out that Anakin trained Ahsoka specifically to be able to take on enemies much stronger and larger than her - a description Vader fits perfectly.

Pretty ironic.

Two - Ahsoka is powerful.

We may have not been tuned in to see Ahsoka hone her skills with the Force between her appearance in Rebels and her self titled book; but it is clear she has definitely grown. The Siege of Mandalore arc already gives us clues to her skill as a duelist when she actually beats Maul. Filoni pointed out that Ahsoka is an OP of the SWR universe; and that using her in the show too much would have lowered the stakes all around. He mentioned that only Vader (or the Emperor) would pose a threat to her - something I can definitely buy into - and thus, not only because of their history, but because of their powers with the Force; the two had to fight each other if we were to receive any duel worth writing home about.

Ahsoka’s appearances in Rebels are kept to a bare minimum, as are Vader’s. When Ahsoka leaves the show, so does Vader. Because neither Kanan nor Ezra stand a chance against Vader; we have seen him very nearly kill them both in Siege of Lothal; we know he could easily pick them off, especially in one-on-one combat. Vader is too powerful for our remaining heroes where the Force is concerned; and using him as a villain is pointless when we know he would win - or have to be severely downgraded in a manner that might break, or at the very least bend pre-established canon.

Hence; we know Ahsoka is the only Force wielder within the show’s direct vicinity who can take Vader on in a battle with any hopes of lasting a good amount of time, and even she would not have survived had Ezra not found a way to save her.

Three - the final argument, and my favourite.

Vader struggles briefly against Ahsoka because he still cares for her, deep down. This is the same reason he didn’t obliterate Luke in Empire; although of course Luke means much more to him in the end. Vader even asks Ahsoka, just as he later does Luke, to join him. He professes himself that they “need not be adversaries,” suggesting he would rather see her turn to the Dark Side as his apprentice, in favour of downright executing her. He will kill her if need be, as we see, but he doesn’t miss the opportunity to attempt to sway her beforehand.

Ahsoka was Anakin’s padawan, as close to his heart as any blood related little sister would be. I would argue she is the closest thing to Luke, and Padmé, in terms of Anakin's attachment. Indeed, there is the attachment to Obi-Wan; but him and Anakin clearly harboured a sort of brotherly rivalry - which in Anakin, as he fell to the Dark Side, would develop into full on resentment.

This did not happen where Ahsoka is concerned; Anakin is indeed still bitter towards her, but instead of obsessively hunting her to kill her as he does Obi-Wan; he offers her to join him, and does promise her mercy if she helps him in his quest. This speaks of how important Ahsoka is to Vader, even now.

Neither can we forget the evidence supporting this final point; that Vader actually hesitates when Ahsoka professes she “won't leave you this time”. You see it in his eyes; you can tell he's taken aback and rattled. You can tell it raises painful memories; and that Vader for a moment allows himself to open up to his past, and the pain he struggled with when Ahsoka first left the Jedi Order, as well as her almost callously brushing him off when they finally did have a chance to catch up in favour of rushing off to Mandalore.

Meanwhile Ahsoka blames herself, and believes she should have stayed for Anakin’s sake; she too doubts and second guesses her own decision as we see in Shroud of Darkness. We, the audience, know that the vision she is shown is likely very close to - if not spot on - how Vader is feeling towards what he views as her betrayal.

Final thoughts.

In conclusion; while I don't believe Vader was truly struggling against Ahsoka in terms of sheer skill and power, it is evident that he underestimates her. He knows only the saber duelist he trained during The Clone Wars, and has as little of an idea regarding how much she has grown as we do. He knows she's skilled, more so than his Inquisitors, which I would presume to be another reason why he requests of her to join him.

But he doesn't know how skilled she is now. On top of that, Ahsoka is clearly more defensive than anything throughout their duel; her only real attempt at a strike is when she splits open Vader's mask. She knows she's outmatched, and she's trying to stall Vader in order for Ezra and the crew to escape. She is only keeping Vader busy; because she's the only one who stands a fighting chance. And Vader is surprised she can stay on her feet as long as she does.

When she finally does land a blow; he's visibly shocked. And when she addresses that she won’t abandon him, and clearly shows that she is not afraid of him or of dying by his hand - Vader is overcome by a sliver of his old love for her, which is what reinvigorates his urge to kill her and sees him victorious in the end. If he was merely testing her limits before, he's not taking any risks now and he bests her.

Ahsoka is Anakin's apprentice, who has become an extremely talented duelist in her own right. But she is also one of the people Anakin loved the most. 

These things combined make her a fierce adversary for Vader; and it is all of that old attachment that links her to Vader's past which has him somewhat faltering during their final battle. This is why he goes from willing to spare her if she complies; to vowing to kill her when she refuses. If he cannot convince her to side with him and justify the lingering remnants of their old bond by making her useful; it has to die with her - as does every other remainder of who Vader really is.

To add the one thing I forgot - the way in which Vader does not brush Ahsoka off when she calls him Anakin. He startles, and instead of her receiving his usual “that name no longer holds any meaning for me,” tangent; he allows it. In that brief moment, he cannot deny that he is Anakin, and that Ahsoka and him have this deep connection. When he later states that she must die; he doesn’t say it as a threat or as a promise. It’s warning to her, that if she doesn’t leave now - he will not be held responsible for her fate. She can still flee and leave one last time, if she wishes to.

It is clear that Vader deep down doesn’t want to kill Ahsoka. Add to that, the fact that while she does engage in some defensive tactics; Ahsoka is actually the offensive combatant when they intially engage in battle. She attacks Vader first; which is another uncharacteristic mark of any duel Vader has taken part in. Usually, it’s Vader who’s on the offensive.

Thus, when Ahsoka calls Vader Anakin; it has meaning. She finally admits to herself what she has suspected and denied, but deep down knows, is true. Meanwhile, Vader for a fleeting moment acknowledges the same thing. He is Anakin; and besides Luke, Ahsoka is the only person who has ever managed to get such a reaction out of Vader. She came the closest, and that’s worthy of admiration.

[crystalgirl259]

The Flame and the Dragon Chapter 35

Chapter 35: The Blizzard

Scorched needles, scarps of wood blackened by rage, and bits of ash and charcoal scattered across the burnt snow where the proud pine tree once stood. Specks of blood and splinters dropped from the Sorcerer's scraped and roughened fingertips like someone had scattered rubies. His nails were shredded and his cuticles were split from clawing at the bark in a fit of rage. His fury had reduced the aged pine to a pile of ashes. All while, the raven remained still on its perch in the snow, completely unfazed by his master's wrath.

The Sorcerer's growl was dangerous and low before he suddenly screamed and spun around delivering a powerful blow to the young sapling unfortunate enough to be in the path of his wrath.

It made no effort to protests the Sorcerer's rage. Blinded by his rage, all he could see were the images his spy had shown. Images of that disgustingly repulsive beast, not even a beast but a half-beast, dancing with the Occulti, his Occulti. He clenching his fists causing his fingers to scream in pain but he was numb to all but his rage. He could forgive Kai for that. Surely the Dragon was becoming desperate and would use any kindness to trick the youth into saying the words needed to break his curse and deny him his greatest triumph.

He could forgive the youth for his naivety and his defenselessness.

He was merciful, but not after treachery. His wrath erupted, sending the curling shadows at his feet exploding in all directions. They shattered and pierced whatever they came in contact with until the clearing was a hollow circle of scorched earth.

"He's dirty! That damned whore! Damn him for giving away his purity, and damn me for thinking any one of their kind was redeemable!" He screamed and stomped his foot and tore at his hair and clothes until he panted like a beast after a hunt. But no matter how loud he screamed or how much he destroyed, it could never destroy that last scene from his mind. That beautiful boy, who should have been his consort and ruling at his side, wantonly giving his virginity to that monster and enjoying it.

He wanted to scream again, but someone else beat him to it.

"Lloyd! Where are you?!" A woman cried and the weak call was followed by a loud stumble against the carpet of snow. Bewildered, the Sorcerer quickly shielded himself among the trees careful not to let a spot of his red clothing betray his location. He watched a young woman rise stumbling from the muddy earth, and choke loudly on air. Like a shadow, the Sorcerer swooped closer and gasped. It was easy to miss from a distance but beneath the thick winter clock and the leaves and mud matting the sister of his Occulti.

The girl bulldozed through the woods and threw herself forward through the snow.

The action caused her heavy cloak to fall open revealing a shower of black hair, shiny even in the shadows of the winter forest. The girl immediately stumbled and almost fell over, but she was able to remain standing by leaning against a nearby tree. She was clearly sick as a dog and should be going home, but she had to keep going. She tried to scream, but instead choked on her own words and coughed in a way that made even the Sorcerer's skin crawl.

"I have... to find... Lloyd," She wheezed, shoving herself off the tree with surprising strength and half stumbled in her haste. She didn't get far before exhaustion and the brutal cold forced her to her knees. "I have to find them! I have to find Lloyd then we can save Kai! I have to get them back!" She spoke passionately to no one, but it was laced with the madness of grief. Again she shoved herself forward but instead her hands clenched her head and formed fists against her hair.

"I have to protect them! I promised I would! I promised them! Mom and Dad, I promised, and look what I've done! Lloyd's probably dead and I can't even think of what Kai's going through!" She screamed and tore at her hands and clothes with the rage and madness that only grief could drive a sane man to. She slammed her fists against the ground and punched at anything she could. All of a sudden, she was suddenly filled with new determination and charged into the blizzard, not aware she was being watched.

A triumphant smile split the Sorcerer's face.

Perhaps, there was some hope left after all. He smirked cunningly and called his pet. The bird abandoned its statue state and flew to its master's wrist.

"Tell me, my pet is he the one? The one our little Occulti spoke off?" He asked, but even though the bird said nothing a flash of its eyes and the Sorcerer had his answer. "And this 'Lloyd' she searches for, is he the other?" He questioned and again the bird was like a prop, only its glowing eyes gave an indication that it was alive. The Sorcerer snickered to conceal his glee, not wishing to betray his location to the still wandering mage. He spun in delight, thinking this was fantastic. It seemed that the Fates favored him after all.

"Follow her, when you've reached them both, alert me; now go!" He ordered as a grin curled wickedly on his face. The bird was off without another word, vanishing in the darkness while its Master laughed at his fortune. "Oh don't worry, girl, you shall see your little brother again soon!" He cackled like a flock of crows taking to wing and threw his bloody cloak over his shoulder...

****************

It had been two weeks since he ran away from home to find the castle where his beloved brother was being held prisoner by that beast. Two weeks he had been living in the woods surviving only because of the warming weather of the upcoming spring and because years of living a nomadic life had taught him to pack and prepare for the worst of situations. Two weeks since he had begun his search for Kai and he had found nothing. He thought it would be easy, with Spring fast approaching, that is until a blizzard appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

It had caught Lloyd completely off-guard and forced him to stop his search and find shelter.

Lloyd whimpered as he bunched his knees to his chest, shivering but not from the cold. The multiple fires he had started to keep the cave air warm, and the thick clothing he had packed had taken care of that. He covered his mouth to silence the heavy, haggard coughs fighting to escape. Quickly, he unpacked the bag containing a herbal blend and dumped it into the pot of water that had been boiling over the fire. He inhaled a sharp, large breathe and exhaled contently.

Immediately, he felt his throat soothe and his chest became less constricted.

He hadn't needed to use the herbal vapors so much before, but the cold weather wasn't doing his weak chest any good. He knew he would have been fine if he stayed in that warm house at night like a good boy. But how could he when Kai had been missing for almost five months, and the castle where the dragon kept him prisoner seemed to completely vanish? The thought made Lloyd's eyes prick with tears, but he managed not to cry. His fingers trembled, he clenched his arms and knees tighter in an attempt to feel some form of comfort.

But there was none. Nothing he did could replace the warmth and security he felt when he, Nya, and Kai were all together at home.

He knew he couldn't go home. Nya would never let him leave the house again until he was eighty. Lloyd didn't blame her, he ran away after all, but he couldn't keep waiting. He couldn't keep sitting around and doing nothing while his older sister worked and searched diligently for their missing sibling. He had traveled deeper and deeper into the woods. No matter how many times he found himself back at the path where they got lost in the storm, however, he couldn't find any trace of the huge castle.

Had it been sheer dumb luck that Kai found it the first time?

Or that they found it at all? Lloyd shook his head, forcing himself to dry his sleepy eyes. He then sat up with new determination, mentally forcing the tears and shivering down deep. If Kai could find the castle to save him and Nya then he could do the same thing to save Kai. He removed himself from the warmth of his fires and carefully approached the edge of the cave entrance, where he could hear the blizzard howling and blowing. The cold air bit angrily against his lukewarm skin, as if punishing him for daring to defy it.

Over the woods, he could see the setting sun was nothing more than a yellow sliver above the trees and the night had gone a deep grayish purple of twilight that bled into the dark blue and black of night.

Seeing that there was no point in traveling in the dark, Lloyd slid back into the crevice in the rocks and carefully covered it with a thick net of branches to keep out the cold. He had found this cave by sheer accident when he had slipped and fallen into the entrance. Through that, he discovered a fairly large-sized cave, hollowed out of the dirt and lined with rocks like a fox den. Lloyd had decided it would be the perfect place to camp while he explored the woods by day.

That proved to be true when the underground and rocks blocked out much of the night's cold.

The small opening allowed just enough air so that he wouldn't suffocate from the smoke of the fires. Sometimes, when he felt really weak and his medicine wasn't helping. He would have to spend all day curled up in his makeshift tent under the thick blankets he had brought until his shivering stopped and he could move again. Tonight had been one of his rare nights where he had just enough energy to go exploring again, but he regretted it when he had received an unwanted follower.

Lloyd shivered and blew air into his gloved hands, and rubbed them together before returning to the fire.

Outside a loud crunch of the snow made him scream, the sound echoing off the cave walls forcing Lloyd to cover his ears until it faded out.

"LLOYD!" Nya's voice suddenly screeched, coming closer to the cave. Before he could say anything, she pulled away from the cover and started sobbing tears of joy when she saw her little brother huddled in the dark. Lloyd didn't get a chance to react before she suddenly hugged the air out of his lungs. They stayed like that for a few seconds, before a look of rage fell over her face and she started shaking the little boy. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING LLOYD?! I'VE ALREADY LOST KAI, DO YOU THINK I WANT TO LOSE YOU?! WELL, DO YOU?!" She screamed, still sobbing through clenched teeth.

However, her rage suddenly vanished when Lloyd finally released all the tears he had been holding in and started sobbing loudly.

Nya sighed and hugged her little brother again, letting him sob into her shoulder until he eventually tired himself out and fell asleep. As soon as she was sure he was out cold, Nya packed up his things and lifted him up in her arms. Once he was secure and safe, she left the cave and began to head home. However, it only took a few seconds to discover that she couldn't find the trail leading back to the village in this monstrous blizzard. She tried turning around and heading back to the cave.

But her face paled when she realized that the blizzard had covered her footprints in fresh snow.

She was now stranded in the middle of a blizzard in the forest with one brother sick in her arms and the other being held prisoner by a monster...

****************

Kai screamed for his siblings in his sleep as he thrashed around in the bed, only to find himself restrained. His eyes suddenly flew open and he found himself being held in place by Cole, the man's green eyes fixed on him with a mixture of fear and concern. A cold stab of fear pierced him, completely unaware of where he was. He recognized Cole's room, but the bedsheets were twisted and half flung off. One of Kai's arms raised over his head the other clenched the pillow in a fierce death grip, with Cole holding both his wrists.

Cole's tail was wrapped firmly around Kai's waist to keep from thrashing about.

Slowly, so as not to scare him further, Cole unwound himself and looked him over for any sign of injury.

"Kai? Are you alright?" He asked, carefully and tenderly. The details of his nightmare came back to him like a cold knife twisting into his heart. A sudden stab of guilt and terror knifed through him, making Kai flip over and smother his face in a pillow and burst into tears. "Kai? Talk to me!" Cole pleaded as he kept shaking him, his voice sterner, but not losing an ounce of concern.

"I'm fine," Kai lied wiping his eyes. "I just had a nightmare."

"I can see that, you don't wake up crying and screaming if you've had a good dream," Cole said bluntly, lying down next to him and pulling Kai into his arms. Despite Cole's attempt at light humor, Kai said nothing. He just looked at the pillow beneath his face. A tear he hadn't noticed ran down his face and he found himself shaking again. He tried to speak but the only coherent thoughts in his head were the pleading, effusing eyes of his two brothers.

Determined to relieve his precious flame of his distress, Cole wrapped tentative arms around Kai.

He then pulled the brunette into his lap and brought him down with him against the pillows. Kai resisted the embrace and tried to protest but regretted it when Cole looked him straight in the eye. His face was a mask that betrayed no emotion, but his serious eyes held unspoken trust.

"You saw your siblings, didn't you? You're worried about them." He said and Kai's flinch of shock was the only answer Cole needed. "Don't look so surprised, you screamed both their names; I've had nightmares about my sister and parents for years after they vanished, so you don't have to hide your worry, and I don't want you thinking you can't come to me when you're upset like this." He promised as he tucked one of Kai's loose bangs behind his ear.

"It's not that," Kai admitted, feeling his chest stir at the words. He paused, guilt shaking him to the core. "I don't know if that was a nightmare or another premonition, but... it made me realize just how selfish I've been; here I am, happier than I've ever been in my entire life, surrounded by people who adore me, wearing the most expensive things I've ever owned! I'm practically living a fairy tale and they think I'm starving to death in some cold, dark tower, being tortured."

"Oh," Cole muttered as Kai covered his head with his arms and buried it in Cole's chest.

"They probably think I'm dead, Cole!" Kai cried as tears streamed down his face. He had never stopped thinking of his siblings, not since the day he had arrived at the castle. It seemed wrong to do anything else. Even when he started to like his confinement, and enjoy the company of the Dragon Lord, he still remembered his brother and sister and was comforted in the thought that they were both safe and hopefully happy. He never stopped to consider that his sacrifice might have the opposite effect of what he intended.

Or that his disappearance had destroyed their lives in a way he never considered.

But he had been so happy. The last few days were like a dream come true and he wanted nothing more than to pretend that it could last forever, and he dared, for once, to be selfish and think of nothing but his own happiness. Of course, that decision would come back to haunt him. Guilt pooled in Cole's gut and he cursed his own helplessness as he watched Kai weep. He hated seeing Kai like this. The brunette deserved to be happy and content, not feel like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and be consumed by guilt and shame for wanting to forget that and enjoy life for once.

Especially since it was his fault Kai's family was separated from him.

Looking back at the darkest and earliest days of when he and Kai met when he had unleashed his bitterness and rage against Nya and Lloyd. Kai's siblings had every right to be afraid of him. He had only agreed to Kai's proposal because the boy fascinated him and not because he cared at all about their fates, even if Lloyd's health had concerned him. It had filled him with shame and he knew he had to make up for it. None of them deserved to be separated from one another.

Especially not because of him.

They deserved better than that ridiculous town trapped in time, and he knew just how to do it. Cole stroked Kai's back and gently shook him. When Kai raised his head, eyes red-rimmed and cheeks damp with tears, Cole comforted him with caring words pressed with butterfly kisses along his neck and temples.

"If you're that concerned about them, then you can always invite them to stay here." He said with a soft smile and Kai shot up.

"What?" He croaked in a weak voice forced through a constricted throat.

"There's more than enough room here, the staff will adore them; you already said you three planned on leaving your town anyway, and I don't think they'll argue if you ask them, and I can bear the bulk of their hatred for your sake."

"Why would they hate you?" Kai blurted, too stunned to think clearly, and Cole raised an eyebrow of annoyed obviousness.

"Given the fact that I locked them in a tower and technically kidnapped you, I doubt they'd be happy to see me or be comfortable with the fact that you're now my lover, but as I said, I can bear the bulk of their hatred until they see I'm not as cold as I act."

"You'd do that for me?"

"I'd do anything for you," Cole replied, pressing their foreheads together. Overcome by emotion, Kai launched himself into Cole's chest and held him tight with such force he nearly knocked Cole over. Tears rained down his cheeks but this time they were happy tears.

"Thank you, Cole! Thank you so much! I don't deserve you!" Kai cried as he buried himself in Cole's torso grateful for the man's comfort and support and his understanding more than anything else.

"Don't ever say that again, don't even think it." Cole scolded but there was little force behind it. Cole pulled the comforter up to Kai's shoulders as they fell back asleep. "We'll talk more about it in the morning."

"Thank you, Cole, thank you for everything." Kai yawned as he dried his eyes.

"You have nothing to thank me for, it's the least I can do since you saved my soul." Cole smiled as he sensed Kai's lingering uncertainty, he continued to hold his lover close and comfort him until they finally fell back into a peaceful sleep. Cole continued to hold Kai, keeping a careful watch for the rest of the night, treasuring the feeling of holding Kai close. When the nightmares bothered him again, Cole was quick to chase them away and coaxed Kai back to sleep with soothing touches and caring words until Kai quieted...

[cutest-bug]

Interview with Adrien Agreste! Subject: The Oxygen Project.

Conducted by Alya Cesaire

Ok so I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this addition to a post I made on my main blog about Adrien low key trashing the Agreste brand the way Robert Pattinson does Twilight. I know it was meant to be more of a goofy idea but my head is full of angst and this is what I came up with at 4 a.m. lol.

Alya smiles warmly as Adrien settles into the seat across from her.

“Are you ready?” She asks. He gives her a slightly nervous smile but nods. She nods to Nino who hits record and Adriens face immediately smoothes over into a pleasant and unreadable mask. It’s actually a little freaky to watch.

It’s a Monday afternoon and they’re set up in the art room during their lunch period. Adrien looks as perfectly neutral as always. Non flashy designer labels and tousled hair that probably took 20 minutes to style. For once though, his actions will be a little less perfect and easy to swallow.

“Hi Adrien, thanks for agreeing to an interview on the Ladyblog, I’m glad we could finally do this.”

He smiles and considers for a moment before answering, tiling his head a degree, “The pleasure is mine Alya, especially since I’m the one who approached you about doing this.”

That’s true. Right after the class joined Mylene and Ivan for their protest of the Oxygen Project Adrien asked to speak with her. He was upset that he had been tricked into modeling for the project without knowing what it was for. While most of his die hard fans had gotten wind he didn’t support it, he wanted to farther remedy the situation and use his position to reach a wider audience. Of course there weren’t many platforms he could do that on behind his fathers back, hence asking for Alya’s help.

“Still, I know interviews aren’t your favorite. Otherwise I probably would have asked you a while ago.”

Adrien smiled again, a little more genuinely (the one she knew Marinette was so fond of), “I don’t really like probing questions from journalists about my personal life. The fact that you’ve never asked or taken advantage of knowing me means a lot. I trust you.”

“Personally I think it’s a little crazy you have to do all of those interviews at all. You’re only 15, your life shouldn’t be so public.”

Adrien lets the smile fall several degrees. It’s deliberate, he’s letting people see his discomfort, “Well, it kind of goes hand and hand with all of the modeling. I’m the face of the Agreste brand.”

Alya nods and looks down at the papers in her lap, “Which is the point of our interview today, really.” They had agreed on what was and wasn’t to be talked about before hand, however they don’t have a planned out dialogue. They agreed that they both do well with more organic conversation, and it’s important the interview comes off as very genuine.

Adrien nods in agreement and Alya continues, “Now that the plan for the Oxygen Project is officially canceled, it’s time to clear up what your involvement with the promotion of it was. Nearly everyone in Paris saw the ads that ran.” Unfortunately it had been to late for Mayor Bourgeois to cancel the first few days of ads. For nearly a week Adriens face played on every television in the city, telling everyone about what a great breath of fresh air the project would be.

Alya hands him the first photo in her lap. It’s of him with the class after they first arrived at the protest, looking interested but not particularly emotional yet. It’s from the video that she filmed, but there was a pretty low view rate on the protest coverage. The interview with Adrien will probably get anywhere from 3 to 5 times as many.

“What not everyone realizes is that you were present during the planned tree cutting ceremony and following protest. So what was going on for you at this point in the day Adrien?”

“Our whole class had just gone to the park to support Mylene and Ivan, our friends who lead the protest. Right after we arrived Mylene started arguing with the Mayor about whether the project was good for the environment or not.”

“That girl has a hidden fire!” Alya adds, “I have a section dedicated to activism on the blog now. The video from the whole day is there but I also posted some smaller segments explaining the conflict and a few more that Mylene recommended on how to get involved.”

Adrien gave his most genuine smile yet, “I watched those! I hope your viewers take the time to check them out. I know the super hero fights are exciting, I mean I’ve been glued to your blog from the start, but I’m glad people like Mylene and Ivan are reminding us to keep our eyes on the big picture too.”

Alya nods, “So am I. Ok, it was during this argument that the ad was first shown correct?”

Adrien lets the smile fall completely this time, “Yes. Apparently the plan was always to air it for the first time during the tree cutting ceremony. It was also the first time I’d seen it.”

“I’m sure most of our viewers have seen it already, so I’m not going to play it now,” Adrien shoots her a grateful look, “Adrien, she says kindly, “I remember how surprised you were when the ad played. Do you want to tell everyone why?”

Adrien looks down at his hands, “I hadn’t known what the ad was for when I filmed it. I thought it was another one of those silly perfume commercials.” Alya isn’t sure if him saying “silly” was a slip up or on purpose but she struggles not to laugh.

“Did someone tell you it was a perfume commercial or did you just assume when you were given the script?”

“I was told it was for perfume.”

“Can I ask who by?”

She thinks the discomfort is genuine this time. Everything else is the video isn’t that bad, but this line could bring hell for him.

“My father told me it was.”

This isn’t news for Nino or Alya but she pauses for a long moment to let viewers digest that before asking her next question, “Do you know why he lied to you?”

“I suppose he thought I wouldn’t be ok with doing it otherwise.”

Alya smiles, a little proud, before handing him another picture. She’ll edit them into the screen for viewers to see later, “Well he thought correctly. Here’s a picture of you standing with Mylene and our friend Marinette, forming a physical barrier so the trees wouldn’t be cut down,” she pauses for a moment while Adrien examines the picture, “I gotta say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so angry.”

“I had just found out my image was going to be used to promote an anti-ecological plan that would harm our city. My friends had spent months trying to prevent it. I was furious.”

And Bam! As soon as she posts this video Adrien’s empty head, pretty face, good boy persona is shattered. He just admitted to having feelings. Angry ones. Directed at his father. Not to mention opinions on political matters. That is not the pretty face most of Paris is familiar with and fawns over.

“I’d be angry too,” Alya sympathizes.

Adrien puts the photo down and looks at her with a serious expression, “That’s the main reason I wanted to do this interview. For better or worse I have a lot of sway with my fans and public opinion. There’s still some controversy about the Oxygen Project being canceled so I want to be very clear that I do not stand with it,” he looks directly into the camera, “The oxygen project would have only helped the people profiting from it. The only ethical solutions for our city, and the whole world, are complicated, long term, sustainable options that will protect and rejuvenate our planet. No one has said it better than Mylene and Ivan so please go check out those videos under the activism section. Help if you can, and spread the word about the truth. It’s important that people know when they’re being lied to by a corporate campaign.”

Alya realized she stopped breathing for a moment because oh my god that was so good. She manages to quietly clear her throat and thank Adrien for the interview again. He plasters back on his polite smile and they give a brief hug before she gestures to Nino to stop filming.

“OH MAN! That was awesome!” Nino pulls Adrien into a one armed hug and doesn’t let go.

Adrien smiles a little bashfully, “You think? It wasn’t to much?”

“No way Adrien,” Alya cuts in, “the whole thing was great but that bit at the end? Amazing. Mylene will be thrilled.”

Nino pulls away from their friend a bit and clasps his shoulder, “Are you going to be ok though? Your old man is not going to be cool with like, any of that, is he?”

Adrien purses his lips and shrugs, “Don’t worry about my dad, I can handle him.”

Alya can see the fake nonchalance a mile away. Marinette is the queen of it after all, so she tells him, “Adrien this is really brave of you but I just want to make sure you know you’re in charge of this narrative. I probably won’t finish editing everything until tomorrow because I have a project to finish tonight. If you change your mind there’s no hard feelings. Or if there’s something you decide you want left out I’ll work some editing magic.”

Adrien smiles but her words don’t seem to relieve any tension, “Thanks Alya, it means a lot. By the way, where’s Marinette? I thought she was coming?”

“She’s probably just got caught up with something but I’ll see if she messaged me.” Alya checks her phone and realizes she left it on silent after the test last period. No texts from Marinette, but there is an akuma alert which explains her absence. She tries to ignore the immediate twinge of worry.

Adrien suddenly looks up from his own phone and rushes to grab his bag, “I actually got to go, my dad wants me home until the akuma attack is over. Best keep my head down until the bomb drops tomorrow right?” He rushes out before Alya or Nino can respond.

Nino sighs after his best friend runs out, “It’s so unfair he’s having to rectify his dad’s bad choices.”

Alya takes his hand, “I know. Something tells me this won’t be the last time he does so either. We’ll be there to support him though.” Her boyfriend gives her a soft smile and she kisses him on the cheek, “Come on, I want footage of that akuma fight.”

Nino glances down at his phone, “Actually it looks like the fight just ended a minute ago.”

“Wow that was short. It couldn’t have gone longer than the ten minutes we did the interview with Adrien for.”

“You’ll catch the next one,” he grins at her, “one way or another.”

She laughs, “okay turtle boy, let’s go get some lunch before we have to head back to class.”

They run into a slightly dejected Adrien on the way. He gives them an interview smile. They all find Marinette and get lunch. They keep the conversation light and avoid talking about the bomb Alya’s going to post tomorrow.

This is self indulgent. I really need Adrien taking some control of his life and standing up to his dad. Yes it’s painful but it’s so important that Adrien puts some distance between them in the public eye before Gabriel is revealed as Hawkmoth. I’m just hoping that can actually happen in canon but I have many fears this season.