#I really really really really really reALLy REAlly REALLY wanna draw more Bernard

[herbalsingularitea]

.

[sirwow]

As I’m currently resting my wrist from drawing and I’m still thinking out more detailed story beats for WC I thought I’d just do some random rambling about my Pikmin au that won’t be very organized lol. Also adding a cut here as not to flood anyone’s unfortunate timeline

First off since I imagine I’ll get asked this someone someday, a small list of all the local losers preferences.

Olimar - Straight Cis. Doesn’t really get anything outside his bubble but is supportive regardless.

Louie - AroAce Cis (also has the tism). His only love is food.

Alph - GayDemi Cis. Likes love but not actively looking for it.

Brittany - GayDemi Cis. Her and Alph always laugh about the fact people think they’re dating just because they show physical affection to one another sometimes.

Charlie - Bi Cis. Koppite crew is literally the LGB.

Pom - Straight trans. You are not safe from Pingo propaganda.

Terry - Bi Cis. Probably doesn’t even know what being bi is and just thinks he has to make up his mind.

Penelope - Pan cis. Olimars shock when he found out when they were dating that she found girls cute too.

Zack - Pan trans. Saw he had 13 brothers and said wouldn't it be funny to have another.

Yorke - Straight cis. The most gay looking straight guy.

Nelle - Straight cis. to yorke "i hate you sm. wanna kiss"

Dobbs - Gay cis. Charlie and Dobbs are the local toxic yaoi so sorre

Shepherd - AroBi cis. the only dates that exist are DOG PARK dates.

Collin - BiDemi cis. Currently married to coffee and 4 hours of sleep

Russ - Straight cis. Probably does have a wife but no kids

Yonny - AroAce non-binary (F to NB) masculine presenting. Galaxy record for being the first person to survive giving top surgery to himself.

Dingo - Straight cis. Yonny makes fun of his failure of flirting.

Bernard - AceBi cis. He will never realize hes being flirted with at any point in time.

Now thats done, some more stuff about just some general relationships people have with each other. Olimar and Louie when Louie first joined HF were pretty neutral about each other even after 4 but after 2 and deeply apologizing for leaving him behind scared, Louie and Olimar got much friendlier with each other. They started carpooling and even spending some time outside of work together. While Terry thinks Louie is cool if a bit strange sometimes, Lebe is rather more skeptical and scared of him. Penelope worries he might be a bad influence but can't help but worry about Louie as much as Olimar does when Oli vents to her about Louie.

Alph and Brittany are best friends but their relationship isnt the most balanced at times. Brittany is quite quick to getting emotional and blaming others for things. Alph tries not to hold it against her too much given hes aware of her issues and why she is like that in the first place but it can rub off on his timid nature. Though he admired Charlie all through 3, Brittany's negative comments eventually changed Alph's perception on Charlie to just being someone he works with.

Now some of my own world building brain rot wo! a time system, joy. I was just thinking about how do people keep time between every other planet so i propose: Galactic time. Galactic time is not based off anything but purely numbers. 1 "day" is 20 hours long and there is no PM or AM. Its based of a single founding clock that all the other galactic clocks follow now and is usually exclusively used for interstellar work and jobs or meeting up on different planets. The galactic months are all 25 days long with only 10 of them. a galactic week is 5 days long and though i don't have names at the moment the months and days also have different names as not to get confused with any planet names or calendars they might have.

thank you if you've read my ramblings this far. have louie drinking paint

[im-captain-basch]

What would be your voice fancasts for your version of Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Country franchise?

Fun fact: the reason I never answered your DM to me with this question is mostly because I was trying to figure out who would be best for who, but also because I was trying to decide if I should make this a public thing or not, so thanks for helping make that choice. XD

I know this says fancasts for my version, but I went more of a "general voice headcanon" route for most of these. Some also have the actual fancasts, or at the very least the people I wouldn't be upset about having be the VAs even if the voice winds up different from what I hear in my head.

I could really only figure out the Kongs, so uh... Ye. Also, all the underlined names are linked to pages to see more of the stuff they've done!

DK: Mark Fischbach. Zero rhyme or reason, other than I spent a full year drawing practically nothing except DKC characters set to GMOD moments, mostly Markiplier's, so now it's all I hear. However, I would not be mad if Richard Yearwood reprises the role (or even Sterling Jarvis).

Diddy: Ben Schwartz. My Diddy is more teenager-adjacent than most people's probably is (around 14), and I'd be lying if I said my hyperfixation with DuckTales 2017 a couple years back didn't have anything to do with that.

Cranky: This one is surprisingly hard to pin down. Here recently I've been imagining him more with Keith David's voice, but in the past I've also imagined David Tennant, Bernard Cribbins, and Aron Tager (his VA in the cartoon), the latter two of whom have both sadly passed in the last couple of years. I'll also happily take Bill Farmer, tho. For me it all depends on the tone and other factors of the situation presented (eg, an AU, the actual game series, others' interpretations, etc).

Funky: Gotta still be Damon D'Olivera, his VA from the cartoon, but I wouldn't be against Phil LaMarr or Greg Eagles voicing him either.

Candy: I do not hate Joy Tanner's voice for her in the cartoon at all. In fact, like Funky, it's mostly all I can hear for her. If I had to choose someone else to fill the role, it'd probably be Jennifer Hale.

Dixie: I think I had the most trouble with her surprisingly. I didn't necessarily like or hate her voice in the cartoon, but I have to go with Mae Whitman on this one. I was thinking along the lines of how Amity from The Owl House sounds, if you wanna know the thought process.

Wrinkly: Wendie Malick is the only voice I've really actively pictured for my specific version of her. The second I heard the line "Wait---those are MY dumb kids!" in The Owl House, my brain has never let the idea drop. However, if there ever actually is a show version of the DKC series that included her, I would not be against Tress MacNeille being her VA.

Swanky: Will Arnett is just how I hear him by default (I blame DK Vine in part). IDK, similar reasons to Diddy in that it has to do with other fixations of mine colliding into my brain. However, here recently my brain has also been tickled by the idea of James Monroe Iglehart being his voice in a version of the show that actually uses him.

Kiddy: OK, so y'all know how my brain runs. Sadly, sometimes I forget about him. However, I feel like Dee Bradley Baker is a safe bet.

Lanky: Rob Paulsen. IDK, even his normal voice just works.

Tiny: Kristen Schaal, solely because sometimes there's moments of her that cross my mind that make me go "Oh that's Louise Belcher (or Mabel Pines) vibes."

Chunky: Of all the actors, voice or otherwise, I've dug through today to find voices for characters I otherwise couldn't picture... I'ma have to give Chunk the monk Richard Horvitz. It also helps that this is literally one of those VAs I grew up hearing, so I can imagine the role working well, although other VAs mentioned throughout this list could potentially also work well.

Originally the Kongs from the actual DKC series proper is all I was gonna do for now, because it's late and brain hurty, but y'all know me a little better than that. I've got at least two bonus people for y'all.

K. Rool: Similar to a couple of characters above, I'd love it if Benedict Campbell could reprise the role, as he's literally the only voice I've been able to hear for him for years. However, that being said, there are a few others I will accept in his place, being Mark Hamill; Keith David (mentioned above); Clancy Brown; and Alex Hirsch.

DK Jr.: You said it was a fancast for my version, so while I know some people think Junior and our DK are the same person, in this instance I don't. I've racked my brain for a while trying to figure out who I best hear as his voice, and I had songs from a certain Disney animated show playing on loop last night and anyway, long story short, Jeremy Jordan is the headcanon voice for my version of him.

[birdies-aus]

Au Masterlist / Tagging Key

ok so half intro post half au list

My names Ru or Birdie and i make a lot of AU ideas in my silly little head and i lobe having attention so ill draw those ideas and occasionally ill post them on this account.

most of my aus will go off of the Young Justice (Cartoon) season 1 team dynamics simply because thats the first piece of DC content i consumed.

Though i will eventually try to branch more into comic characterizations of characters (kon) and team dynamics (nightwing being closer with titans than yjcartoon team)

#Birdie AU - Talon!Dick Grayson Au

my second au ever made ... honestly its my au that stretches at the bounderies of whats considered an au the most

most bc along with basically deaging to around tims age i deaged the YJcartoon team with him so i could give him some friends

character list:

- Birdie - Dick Grayson

he doesn't remember his past before the court. Hes spent the last several years either cryogenically frozen or being trained or following orders.

he sees Jason as an older brother. But also a younger brother after hes told that he is actually supposed to be older.

He has a lot of identity issues, unsure of who or what he is or how he should present himself.

its a lot of fun for me

endgame relationships

birdie/wally/artemis/zatanna | birdie&artemis | wally&zatanna || Timber || superbat

#TMAAU - The Magnus Archives Au

An AU placing the YJCartoon team into the Magnus Archives

TMA fans might be concerned bc of the canonical character dwath in the podcast but i am avoiding it bc i am a weak baby

character list:

-Jon - Connor

-Sasha - Kaldur

-Tim - Wally

-Martin - M'gann

-Michael - Dick

-Melanie - Tim

-Basira - Zatanna

-Daisy - Artemis

-Elias - Luthor

-Agnes - Bernard

-Gertrude - i wanna make her Slade for silly reasons

#Mermaid Wally AU - The Little Mermaid Au

Basically the plot of the little mermaid but its Birdflash bc im a simple birdflash fan

characters/roles:

Ariel - Wally

Eric - Dick

Grims - Alfred

Flounder - Artemis C

Sebastion - either Garth or Kaldur

Scuttle - either Mgann or Zatanna

Roy and Jason r in more made up roles that parallel scuttle and sebastion trying to help dick and wally get together. Jason is Dick little brother wants everyone to stop talking about when his older brother is going to get married AND he seems to he making Heart Eyes Around Wally so like win win and Roy is usually fine to let Dick do what he wants, best firend things. but descides to help dicks little brother in his antics

(disclaimer this au is Not Jayroy endgame simply bc their ages in it would make it weird- theyre just friends)

I have no idea who ursula should be its so hard

#PKMN AU - Pokemon Trainer Au

really a simple au that gives me an excuse to imagine them as pkmn trainers and gives my friend excuses to create plmn teams for them

alsp mostly @mbirnsings-71 s au as she makes the teams tbh i might just occasionally draw things from it

#miracu au - Miraculous Ladybug Au

An au where i take dc characters and shove them into the miraculous ladybug universe !!

the character list would make this pinned post too long, so I'll link a miracu au info post in a little bit but ill add

that obvious its birdflash... im so predictable...

Marinette | ladybug - wally | junebug

Adrien | Chat Noir - dick | acrocat

TBC...

there are more, but these are the ones I've posted so far, and im unsure if i should add the unposted ones to the list before i post them / make tags for them

[lmelodie]

I KNOW I said that I would keep these kinds of posts to 1 spread only

BUT I JUST CREATE FAR TOO MUCH FOR MY OWN GOOD. I got a truck load of doodles and concepts that I can only scream about on tumblr.hellsite because no one else can decipher my nonsense. Im sorry these kinds of posts are always so wordy. But here ya go. 

I have also taken to writing notes on these pages, so you’ll get a little more of the thought process here.

Spread 1 (The Kids are Alright):

Since spirits in my universe don’t age this funtime What if really only applies to the Crystal Springs universe, so have fun with this Dani!

And I have formed a parental attachment to baby!Kills ok, that is my own son thank you very much. He’s a fucking MENACE. 

Because kids need to actually be BORN in CS, Kills, I would imagine, is a little orphan trash baby. He never knew who his birth parents were (and frankly doesn't particularly care), but he was adopted at a very young age by Duna! His canonical mother figure! He cares about this goblin woman to NO END I love her.

Plus, the DITELINE KIDDOS! I didn't know what their color schemes were besides Robyn having white hair, so I guessed. They're cool, I like em! (The random color dots right above them is the very basic genetics chart I did for hair/skin/eyes)

Spread 2 (MN Adjacent):

Hey look it’s me!

Aren’t you tired of not being soft? Don’t you just wanna be held? Don’t you just wanna be TENDER? (Mans might be a little touch starved and thats Ok)

Funtime Gender Swap shenanigans! This is NOT an AU because Kills is a shapeshifter and therefore can be a lady whenever he wants (But mostly on Jack’s birthday 🤫). I might, heavy on the MIGHT do dome more gender swap doodles of everyone else. Lady!Bernard and MILF!Jack are fun thoughts to have.

These MN concepts are REAL OLD from when I first got into the fandom. It was SUPER HARD to decide on how i was gonna draw her, but I take all of these as other clothing options she has in her closet.

MN and Jack used to go to the groundhog announcements together before the falling out, and its a tradition that they’ve recently picked back up again after the redemption! But just to annoy him and heckle the little creature >:)

It’s a toss up where or not they both agree to follow the groundhog any given year or they just do their own thing to piss him off more.

Continuation of the little incident where Lucy was almost thrown across the room (Don’t mind that i accidentally made him too big in this panel, getting the heights consistent is HARD)

[elio-monroe]

speedtober days 11 & 12! this was originally going to have to be a triple post, but instead i'll be filming tomorrow so i have some time to post tonight!

day 11 - i really love puppy bernard and i really wanna draw a more complete drawing of that sometime. but also its a little embarrassing :p haha (11 minutes)

day 12 - my brother asked me to feed their cats and oooh my god! it felt like i was surviving a night at freddy's! haha! i don't know why food turns these cats into germlins. (12 minutes)

continuous drawing is at 78 minutes! starting to add some colour!

[mercheadcanons]

Team Furtress (Tf2 dog AU)

Sorry for the mass amount of tags, I spent a long time making this and wanna get it seen lol.

There are speed draws and animations in this video during the refrains so watch the whole thing if you want to see those. Or just skip to the refrains.

Song is Most Fashionable Faction by Stupendium

In order of appearance:

Scout: Beagle - While not really known for being speedy, a Beagle seemed right for Scout. Scrappy and little, more bark than bite.

Demoman: Scottish Deerhound - Aside from Scottish Deerhounds being straight up Scottish, they are big and scruffy, seemed good for Demo.

Sniper: Dingo - Dingos aren't usually domesticated, wild terrorizers of the Aussie outback. Probably smell bad too, like our very own Sniper.

Soldier: Golden Retriever - In my mind, Golden Retrievers are the default 'American' dog. I could've gone for a Lab also, but something about the fluffiness of Retrievers made for a more appealing design.

Spy: Siamese cat - The Blu team is probably all cats and one dog. I knew I wanted to make Spy a cat, and a Siamese coat pattern fit his vibe the best, with their dark and 'masked' faces

Heavy: St. Bernard - Big and built for cold weather, nothing could fit Heavy quite like a St. Bernard.

Engie: Corgi - Because the fandom often characterizes him as Short :tm: something with stubby legs was what I went with. A Corgi fit his vibe.

Pyro: Dalmatian - Getting less creative now, I couldn't make Pyro anything other than the one dog breed associated with fire.

Medic: German Shepard - Get it? Medic's German too?

[grimacingheron]

I made art! Again! Inspired by a friend who did a similar thing I just chose a more questionable colour palette. :) I will say, though, I am enjoying the Halloweenish theming.

Anyway, gaze upon...

HIM! :D

Finger guns!

(Beyond this point is about the design and the songs I chose.)

This is, I kinda consider him an original character at this point, but he's probably, more accurately, an avatar or persona.

I call 'im Grimace because I'm a lad with a shtick now. This is actually the first complete piece I've done of him that shows his bottom half.

He used to not have pants. Be grateful. /j

He's purple and furry because I want to be soft(not a Furry). I also enjoy giving him facial fur, perhaps to emulate a beard/stubble I don't have. Look at his hairy shoulders and elbows. :)

I also really enjoy his ears. The goat/lamb ears are my favourite kind of animal ear, so, of course, a creature meant to represent me in some distant way would have parts I enjoy. Also also, it's not just an art style, he really has no nose. :)

And his tail! I started drawing tails like that when I was drawing my friends as Dreamworks Trolls trolls. I love tails and now that I'm given Grimace a bottom half outside of my Minecraft skin, he has a tail. He also doesn't wear shoes. You can see probably the best bare foot I've ever drawn if you squint behind the song list.

Speaking of the song list, that went through such heavy filters in my mind it's a wonder I scrounged up three of them. "The Fall" by Half Alive was easy, it's been stuck in my head every other day for a couple weeks now. Top tier song. It gets me. "Tell Me You Know" by Good Kid was also pretty easy because it took a couple of times to fully understand, but once I did, I felt it, y'know? I, too, want to fall of the face of the Earth and hope someone'll come looking for me.

Now, picking a third song was struggle. I finished reading "Hell Followed With Us" and for the first, like, six? Hours of this drawing I listened to a Spotify playlist based on the book. It put me in an righteously angry mood. I wanted to put some songs, but I wasn't sure if it was because they were my favourite or I just wanted to convey my vaguely religious queer rage to anyone who saw this piece.

Some of the runner-ups(that're still hella banger): "You're Nobody Till Somebody Wants You Dead" and "To My Enemies" by Saint Motel, any Glass Animals song, "The Sailor Song" by Autoheart, "EVIL" by Melanie Martinez, "Kiss Me, Son of God" by They Might be Giants, "Saint Bernard" by Lincoln.

D'you see my issue? Too many good songs. If y'all would like a playlist(or you give me a playlist?), let me know.

Anyway, this is going in my portfolio of examples for when I set up commissions. I wanna draw for money. :)

Thank you for reading. Don't steal my art. <3

[kevinlaforest]

HOUR // Peter Gabriel présente "New Blood Live in London 3D" à Montréal (12 septembre 2011)

The legendary Peter Gabriel was in Montreal this afternoon to present an advance screening of New Blood Live in London and hold a press conference.

The concert film, which was shot last March during two concerts at London’s HMV Hammersmith Apollo during which the former Genesis frontman was accompanied by a 46 piece orchestra, will be shown again in select Cineplex theaters (including Montreal’s Cinéma Banque Scotia and Cinéma StarCité) on October 12 and 17, before being released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 25.

The New Blood CD will be released on October 11.

PETER GABRIEL ON…

3D as a gadget: “It’s just a gadget in the same way that your eyes are just gadgets. But they connect to the brain and they allow you to process images, and you have two of them. So I think it’s a device, it’s a tool [that] allows you into this world which I think is closer to real life.”

The challenges of making a 3D movie: “Blue Leach, who directed it [and] did a fantastic job I think, he had most of the problems. A thing we tried that I think I would have loved to have a little more time with, I put on a camera rig myself, just a few shots that we used from that… I think if I’d had my own monitor and just a little more time, I would have learned how to use it better. But I thought it was quite interesting, and the other thing I liked is when the camera’s able to move through the musicians, cause obviously you don’t get to do that when you’re sitting in the audience. And again, had we known how that was gonna work, I think we would have tried to engineer more of that.”

Making music with a full orchestra: “This grew out of the covers project which is called Scratch My Back. It was a song exchange: you do one of my songs, I do one of yours, that was the original idea. We’ve only got half the number of songs back again, but… Then it was a question of how to arrange the songs and I thought at first about all hand-made instruments, I wanted to do something that was different and fresh for me. And then actually, as I began thinking about that, I thought, ‘If I use traditional instruments, it’s gonna be, you know, more range of expression and great players to draw from.’ And I’d never really done an orchestral project… We always try to make some rules to help the process cause I think if you really wanna castrate an artist, tell them they can do anything they want; they haven’t got a clue what to do. If you tell them, ‘You can’t do this, you definitely can’t do that, and you absolutely must’nt do this,’ then they start thinking creatively. And so I try to do that to myself. In this case, we said, ‘no guitars, no drum kit’ – we use classical percussion – and we’ll try and make some things really, really empty, sparse, and other sections so very full. So, with that in mind, we sat down with John [Metcalfe], this amazing arranger I’ve been working with on this, and we talked about our influences, things that might have reference to this project, for instance Bernard Herrmann, who did all the wonderful Hitchcock work, with a track like Intruder [...] So we wanted to be bold. I specifically avoided some of the more popular songs, we went for things that would be an interesting journey from start to finish. I think that some of the classical projects can sound like rock-lite, and we were trying to avoid that.”

How he can navigate various genres of music while not losing his fans: “I think the best policy is to follow your passion – Joseph Campbell used to say, ‘Follow your bliss’ – and then you try and find find a way to sell it afterwards! Because I think that way, if things don’t work out, you still had a great time and an interesting journey, so that’s sort of been the way I approached things. And I know with this project, some people who like Sledgehammer and Solsbury Hill don’t like the orchestra; some do. But then I’ve also come across people who really disliked everything I’ve ever done, but they like this! So I think you have a chance, if you do something different, you lose some and if you’re lucky, you win some.”

What he likes best about the film: “I see plenty of myself so I prefer so I prefer to watch the others! The thing that I got most excited with was an idea to take the drums sections of Rhythm of the Heat and I thought, maybe what we could do is try and take the parts of drums and put them on orchestral instruments, and that’s what I asked John to do. I think that’s my favorite moment in this and in the concert.”

His relationship with Montreal: “Well, it’s always been very kind to me, Montreal, so I appreciate that. And it seems it is a home from home.”

How he sees himself: “I think, um… A man who went for an interesting life.”

His greatest achievement: “There’s this dream [I had] to make an organization of former statesmen and women which is called The Elders (theelders.org). Sir Richard Branson and I were determined to get Mandela to found that, and he was at first reluctant, but then agreed. The fact that that’s in existence is amazing to me, so I think that’s probably well up there.”

REVIEW

Up until now, save for 2008′s U2 3D and maybe a few others, 3D concert films have been reserved to teen idols à la Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber and the Glee cast. Enter Peter Gabriel, who couldn’t be farther removed from that, especially the way we find him here, singing in front of a 46 piece orchestra conducted by Ben Foster and focusing in great part on lesser-known art rock numbers such as Intruder (off 1980′s Melt), San Jacinto and The Rhythm of the Heat (off 1982′s Security), Blood of Eden (off 1992′s Us), as well as Darkness and Signal to Noise (off 2002′s underrated album Up ).

Also included are a few tracks from Gabriel’s 2010 covers album Scratch My Back (Regina Spektor’s Après moi, Lou Reed’s The Power of the Heart, The Magnetic Fields’ The Book of Love) and some favorites from his own repertoire like Biko, Digging in the Dirt, Mercy Street and Red Rain, culminating with the timeless Solsbury Hill and, during the encore, the very moving one-two punch of In Your Eyes and Don’t Give Up.

Visually, Blue Leach’ film is not the most dynamic thing in the world, relying mostly on Peter Gabriel holding our attention with his powerful voice and presence, which he does. White-haired and dressed in black, often bathed in red light, the singer is surrounded by the orchestra, through which the camera swiftly moves. There are also some interesting mise en scène tricks, notably involving LED screens. The use of 3D is immersive enough, if not particularly impressive.

[lisacatara-actress]

Almost Lisa: Pt 10, “Almost Festive”

*I retain all rights to my photography and story, story details, biographical information, fashion designs, art work, and anything and everything I have posted which is my own creation*)

Hiraeth (n.)  A homesickness for a home to which you cannot return,     which maybe never was (Welsh)

It’s Christmas Eve. An unusually frigid 20* here in Atlanta. I’m cafe-hopping from favorite spot to spot, trying to find the distraction of good energy to preoccupy myself in the laptop, writing and editing photos. Christmas music (old and new) is everywhere. All around me are friends and families, sharing beverages, pastries and plans for tomorrow together. Many flew in to celebrate with loved ones. Others are on their way out. Then there’s me: head down in my screen, writing this blog, secretly listening to everyone around me, wishing I could experience what they are. For real.

I haven't celebrated a holiday for many years. Too much struggling. Not many people in my Tribe to celebrate with. Painfully isolated by health issues. Disinterested in traveling to Cleveland and “celebrating” with the parents and siblings (it’s just not the same since my grandparents passed). Instead, I indulge in my own Christmas traditions (GOD, I wanna be traveling right now!!!). Cafe/coffee/writing, maybe a drive to grab food which I’ll eat in my car (I eat most meals in this manner), then jammies by 5pm, and a marathon of corny Hallmark Christmas movies and “streaming blah-blah” as I begin to prepare my taxes. What more could a gir..........er, woman, want?

Flashback: On my last Christmas abroad (in 2019), I was experiencing Madrid, Spain. Someone offered I take a walk to the Mercado for lunch. FANTASTIC recommendation!! It’s a tasty smorgasbord for picky, undecideds like me. Everywhere I travel, I indulge in local food, fall in love, then attempt to find the cuisine back in the States, in Los Angeles. In Spain it was the tapas (never found it), in France it was quiche (kinda found it) , Lisbon was red wine (found it!), and Cambodia it was Khao Soi, a delicious creamy yellow curry  dish with boiled and fried noodles. It would sound impossible that The Valley could have such a delicacy. Nevertheless, I searched. One day, after visiting my credit union, I looked up across the parking lot Id been  in nearly every other day for a year and there is was: A restaurant CALLED Khao Soi!!! Right in my back yard. And low and behold, the namesake was a featured menu item. SOLD!

Another tradition is to be kind to strangers. Okay, in all honesty, I practice this every day. But on Holidays, I try to do something kind for those who deserve it. Sometimes that's simply buying lunch for firemen & women, police officers, or nurses. Other times, it's noticing someone- like me- sitting alone at a restaurant/ cafe. I’ll often invite them to join me and share stories/ conversation. There’s so much to learn from each other. It’s a joy to listen and validate someone who may be feeling unheard and invisible. I know all too well what that feels like. So it’s a privilege to help lift their spirits. We never know the battles anyone else is facing. And we cannot know the expiration on our greatest gift: TIME.

George Bernard Shaw once wrote that “Youth... is wasted on the Young”. I never had a disrespect for my Time and Energy. As a child, I hardly hesitated to create, explore, pen, perform, sew, draw... to explore every aspect of my growing artistry. Though I understand fully what he meant.

When I was in elementary school (at Coventry Elementary, back in Cleveland), we had lots of group assemblies. One in particular left a strong impression on me. Our principal, a kind, 35-40-year-old tall, slightly overweight man with glasses, held up a clock for all of us to see. He asked us all to sit there and watch the clock in complete silence for one minute. It felt like a really long time back then! After a minute, he told us "that was just one minute of your Life. One minute can be a very long time. Never waste it!".

I never forgot that lesson.

I often struggle with the overwhelming accumulation of Time I’ve lost. Time I’ve wasted in unhealthy environments and with unhealthy people, as well as Time taken from me by such environments and people. This includes recovering from events beyond my control (9/11, writers strike, pandemic... all painful as hell to overcome, and accompanied by substantial financial loss). It’s easy to become angry now that my physical body is preventing me from living the life I’ve earned and desire. I dress for comfort, not fashion anymore. I seldom go out. I rarely make appearances. I'm quieter. I seldom seem to want to grab lunch or dinner with anyone. Not to mention physical changes, like my skin and face changing, my body always bloated and widening. I work constantly at curbing the disappointment, lest it should ever be projected elsewhere. I am not that person. Though I wonder all the time how on earth those who have been around me for years fail to notice any of these changes in my life. It may be as simple as they do not care. Hollywood, after all.

Something I learned in my 30′s:  Surround yourself with people whose faces light up when you walk in the room. Those who ultimately make you feel stronger, more possible, and more appreciated. Those who call to check in on you from time to time.

Those are your people. And in my Biz, they're precious.

   (to be continued...)

(PS If you like what you're reading, I welcome contributions to the efforts via Venmo @LTarantinoDesigns)

[ectonurites]

Bernard's so paranoid. Must psychoanalyze

So yes but I also wanna ramble about this because I see the concept of 'paranoia' playing out with him in a specific way that I feel might not be what you mean/what others would mean when they hear the basics of Bernard as a character.

Because I don't think he really fits the immediate imagery of 'paranoia' that one might think of- it's not like he's constantly looking over his shoulder afraid that the crazy conspiracy theory stuff he's talked about is gonna happen to him (although frankly between being present for the school shooting during War Games, what Darla/Laura did to his car, and then this whole Chaos Monster kidnapping thing, I wouldn't blame him if he was like that). Like I think there's elements of paranoia to him, but what feels more prominent to me is his curiosity & interest in outliers/the unexplained.

Just from the moment we meet him, he's purposefully placing himself as being an outlier.

(Robin #121)

Looking at this all these years later with the knowledge we have of the character now, we can also draw a connection between his insistence of being outside of the norms presented to him by his peers, and his queerness (whether it's something he's conscious of at this point or not). Like- it's him seeing all these other kids and neatly fitting them into categories he can't identify with himself for some reason, and thus deciding to embrace being something different (despite not realizing quite what that... really means for him yet).

He sees this in Tim too, this other person who also feels different from the rest, that's why he's so drawn to him. The bit from Urban Legends about how Tim helped Bernard realize his 'true self' sticks out a lot to me:

(Batman: Urban Legends #6)

Like, this very heavily implies Tim's the guy who made Bernard realize he was queer, and I like to think that thought process at least started (even if he didn't reach the conclusions) all the way back in the Louis E. Grieve days. Like, Bernard meeting Tim and feeling like he's found someone else like him, and eventually realizing it's not just a sense of kinship but that he's actually attracted to Tim and 'oh, maybe that's the thing that's... different about us' ya know.

But anyways, back to the curiosity thing- if from the time we meet him he's already embracing being an outlier from the norms, it's not that big a logic leap to consider that as why he's interested in other things that fall outside norms. Batman and Robin, these urban legends that are part of his hometown, people who wear masks to hide who they are and it's debated whether they're even real or not? Yeah, not out of nowhere to think he'd be drawn to them as a concept.

Him turning to conspiracy theories and unknowns and other quirky stuff like that just makes a lot of sense to me. It's him looking for other outliers like him, and then just I can see him getting carried away with some of it because that shit can be a fascinating rabbit hole. It can even connect to how he got involved in the Chaos Monster stuff! The boy got involved in a cult because he was looking for answers/enlightenment in a city like Gotham, which is full to the brim of outliers and weird shit.

(Batman: Urban Legends #5)

Now, to bring it back to what you said about paranoia though, I do think there's an element of that but it comes a lot less from this outlandish 'Batman's secret government graveyards and chaos pain cults' sphere, and a lot more from parental expectations.

(Batman: Urban Legends #5)

If you are Bernard, and you meet this guy who you feel a real sense of connection to in ways you can't quite explain but at core it's because it feels like he's like you... and then your parents who have high expectations for you actively dislike him... that's not gonna feel good. That's gonna make Bernard want to hide things about himself from his parents. There's a sense of paranoia that would come from that, especially if when he realizes he's queer he thinks that's the/a thing they're not cool with (whether it is or not is definitely just in a speculation place right now, but it feels implied by Tim's narration in that panel combined with him realizing his own queerness the following issue).

So yes to paranoia, but just not connected to the conspiracy theories and the outlandish shit in Gotham... which is what I feel like a lot of people would assume it's from when they bring up the concept with him. It's more that his identifying as/feeling like an outlier leads into his interest in conspiracy theories, and paranoia about being himself around his family separately.

Especially because like- I think he's relatively fearless in terms of 'weird shit happening around him', rather than being paranoid about it! Even though he was clearly scared shitless at first when Laura had destroyed his car, he got pretty chill about it real quick and wanted in on whatever magic shit she had going on- not nervous she'd use her magic to do something bad to him again or something.

(Robin (1993) #140)

This sort of fearlessness is also exemplified by him jumping right into action beside Tim after getting saved.

(Batman: Urban Legends #6)

I personally like the idea of contrast between Bernard being really confident in his interest in the things that deviate from the norm/all the conspiracy theories and being gung-ho about jumping into the weird shit, but then having paranoia that stems from something so much more grounded like his family and pressures they put on him... ya know?

[just-like-playing-tag]

Personal highlights from the fourth chapter of the fanbook!!! You can read the entire chapter translation here :)

Thank you so much @/1000sunnygo for the translation!!!!!!

According to Shirai, one of the reasons why Emma needed to be a girl is because of her so called "soft idealism" in not wanting to kill demons, which (somehow????) could come off as "uncool" or "naïve" to readers if coming from a guy (?????????????). However Shirai also says that “he wished Emma's words were acknowledged even if it came from a male protagonist instead of having the stereotypical expectations of what a man should be like”, which is nice in its own way.

The idea of a demon with no face under the mask, which was used both in chapter 103 and later in chapter 155 for Legravalima's transformation, was inspired by an old note Demizu left on a early draft where she commented on how it would be “creepy if a demon is actually faceless if you remove their mask”.

Sugita comments that Shirai often used to say "I wanna draw another jailbreak!", like dude same 😔😔

Shirai says that the escape from the bunker felt close enough to a new jailbreak, but the sadness of knowing that Yuugo and Lucas would have had to die “overshadowed the joy of being able to draw an escape again.” (╥﹏╥)

Sugita thinks that since most of the adults of the story are selfish and filled with hatred, it was nice having Yuugo and Lucas as adults who were loving and caring towards the kids. I never thought about it that way, but it's actually a very sweet fact. Yuugo, Lucas and grandpa Alex for the best adults awards!!!

Shirai speds time complimenting Sandy's good heart and ability with the younger kids which has me (◍•ᴗ•◍)

Shirai actually addresses the matter of Lucas not having recognized that Minerva's voice in chapter 110 was too young to belong to an adult: he says that there was too much noise for Lucas to suspect the difference.

While Sugita had repeatedly asked Shirai and Demizu to make the series darker, he jokingly says that Andrew's face was overdoing it- Shirai remembers Sugita saying “It's too scary! The children will cry!” pffttttt

Sugita actually had Andrew's face at the end of chapter 110 censored because the original illustration was too gorish (the mangled half of Andrew's face was blurred)

Andrew survived the explosion by doing the opposite of what Yugo and Lucas did: using his subordinates as a shield.

This is such a cool fact yet I feel like I didn't want to know ಥ_ಥ

The initial plan was to have one of the children shoot (and supposedly kill?) Andrew, but “it was more satisfying to let him be eaten after he called the children "food" ”; I actually really like this detail. Shirai also says that thanks to the stray demon, Ray didn't have to become a murderer. Thank goodness! For once Shirai chose the non-traumatic way for Ray XD

The wild demon saying “uh” after eating Andrew is indicative of it gaining human intelligence. Said demon was supposed to reappear in his human form, but that plotline was ~once again~ discarded.

Shirai regrets not having named Andrew Bernard or Bell had him been female, both references to Tinkerbell. I love this!! Wish you had thought about it sooner @Shirai ahah

Vincent calling Norman "James" instead of "boss" in chapter 112 was him just being playful

Hayato "looks as a protagonist", since his design was taken from a resistance leader from a discarded plotline. Shirai's initial intention was to make him cool and serious, but Sugita suggested to make him kind of a fanboy of Emma's group to reflect how amazing they had become.

Sugita (jokingly) says he “used his absolute authority as the editor to make Anna and Ray interact”, since he likes them as a couple

During the serialization, Shirai used to calculate the timing of information release of both the SJ serialization and volume release so that magazine and volume readers could enjoy similar revelation simultaneously. Following that logic, he synchronized Norman's riapparence in the manga and the volume 12 “merry Christmas Vincent” to happen around the same time, which was also when anime season 1 started airing.

THIS Q&A:

Q: Why do Peter’s men wear sunglasses?

A: Because Peter-sama is too dazzling.

Shirai says the symbol on the back of Norman's Minerva cape is the crest of the demons who lived at the hideout. Though I'm not completely sure it was intentional, the choice of having Norman wear the robes of a demon while planning the eradication of demons is... Peculiar, and also kinda ironic.

Peter and Andrew are related!! Andrew too was born from a branch of the Ratri family.

Okay this matter is tricky, but I think it was actually explained how there's demons like Musica and Sonju's horse and the demon pigeons that won't eat human meat. Apparently as of this panel of chapter 103 (which is also one of the few things included in the anime, ahah)-

There's five different species of demons, one of which - fourth column - may have gone extinct. Out of these five species, only one includes humanoid demons, who thus are the only ones who need to eat humans in order to maintain their form.

Also the Demizu note at the end of the chapter is such an highlight:

How he [Shirai] never gives up. Till the last minutes, he keeps adding corrections. I really admire his belief, “I'll surely bring a better result than the last time”. This “I'll bring something better than last time” mentality is a huge thing. Usually, when I make corrections, I feel like maybe it was better the last time. So I always used to think it's best not to mess with my arts too much. But I changed my mind after seeing Shirai sensei. There were times I'd be surprised to receive a text message at 4 am (laughs) It made me worry if he was resting properly.

You have my heart Demizu-san 🥺🥺🥺

[thattimdrakeguy]

I Think They’re Wasting Timber.

Ech. I don’t want to be more negative, ‘cause like, I don’t normally have that kind of energy in me anymore most of the time, despite making several negative posts the past couple days. But I am genuinely disappointed in the latest Tim special. I haven’t read it, but I seen enough already to know that it was just a pandering mess. Like you don’t really have to read the whole thing sometimes when you’re main worry can be seen within like two or three pages so much so that it’s actually depressing.

Fictional or not I thought Timber was going to be more than what it’s shown to be. I really only think Travis Moore put any meaning into the Timber relationship to give it any depth. That and of course the fans.

Like I want them to just stop pretending that Tim and Steph’s relationship was more than it was. Like they didn’t get along. They been doing it again and again for ages now. It’s not like it’s good for Steph either to be reduced to Tim’s love interest that’s ‘quirky’. They are two separate characters. It comes off as ridiculous after a while. They didn’t have a healthy relationship, just writers that would pretend like it. Let them fucking move on already. Not everything needs a cutesy, softie, happy ending, at least not when it feels so ignorant to their own past. Like regardless if people think it was Tim or Steph that was worse, it seems like most people that read more than just what the fandom usually knows (’Cause, comics be hard to find, and some people don’t wanna pirate) can agree that they weren’t a good couple.

4 stories and only one of them actually focuses on them as a couple, and it wasn’t written by the usual writer. That gives me a bad feeling.

And something about the way they wrote Bernard just made him feel so trivial. Like they don’t try to draw him to look like himself at all, like you’d never guess that’s him unless you saw how the same artist drew him before, he has no importance, they definitely aren’t writing him to have a personality, he’s just a generic civilian. And the way it’s written...it seriously doesn’t feel like Tim gives his relationship with Steph any actual weight compared to how the writer wrote Tim and Steph. Something about that was genuinely heartbreaking to me. A few lines and it made it feel like Bernard was just a test he was using to see what his sexuality was. In a fucking pride special no less. It sort of made the whole fucking thing feel pretty little.

And Steph’s mostly just portrayed as “quirky”. Like I’ve talked a lot about why I don’t like Tim and Steph’s relationship, and how I don’t like Dixon’s weird shoving her in treatment. But I do like her character. She has angles, and edges that make her stand out. They’re just never used, that’s why I sound so upset whenever I talk about her, she’s been wasted for over 20 years. Even when she got a solo they didn’t bother using much of her character to do anything interesting. They make her so typical it gets on my nerves. Her issue in Y.J. was the best content of her in years because it actually showed more sides to her, and made her feel like what made her compelling to begin with. And she doesn’t need to be mad at the time. But this constant portrayal of her, feels condescending. It is not her. Literally just let them move on, and let her do stuff that doesn’t feel like they never paid attention to her before.

Like who wants a story that feels like it was written by someone who only heard about the characters?

I know people will like it ‘cause it’s fluffy and queer content. Which I get, completely. The fans, they care. Care so much they’ll take anything, which isn’t a bad thing. People will simply like what they like, and don’t like what they don’t like.

But I don’t think this upcoming story is very well-crafted or well-done content. It’s so simplified and dumbed down, that it’s condescending too. It felt like a lot of it was spent trying to validate the writer’s ship over making anything resembling a compelling story. It was honestly like a lazy fan fic. Which really sucked, ‘cause I thought Sum of Our Parts, despite a part of it being so unnecessarily edgy out of no where, was actually a well-done story despite how short it had to run due to the formatting of Urban Legends. And fan fics have proven you don’t need a lot to have a lot of space to have a lot of character and depth.

Travis Moore’s story was super well-done too, so maybe I got my hopes up too much. I have no interest in one dimensional fluff, that doesn’t give a damn about it’s characters, past cutesy stuff that didn’t land the mark characterization wise. When his story when it was cutesy, worked, because it felt right. It had character in it that felt right.

I’m still into Timber, but I was really hoping it’d actually BE something. There’s fan fictions that only last a single chapter with more character work that represents Tim and Bernard WAY better, and it’s literally amateur writers doing it for fun, they’re not even allowed to get paid for it.

Like I’m so annoyed with how little Bernard matters. It honestly might as well have not been Bernard at this point. It’s not even really him. It’s a puppet with his name. And that’s making me so upset. I’m genuinely not mad really. I’m a bit frustrated, but honestly I’m just sad. Not like, crying sad, but I feel so lowly after seeing the spoilers. Tim mostly managed to avoid the lifeless fan service sort of stuff, but now that he’s stuck in it now, it has me bummed beyond belief.

There’s been FOUR stories with Bernard as Tim’s boyfriend now. Only one got his character right, and he had like 3 lines in that story. That’s so stupid. I’m beside myself right now FOUR STORIES, and he’s mostly a NOTHING CHARACTER. The most depth their relationship had WAS IN THE TRAVIS MOORE STORY. It’s like he’s the only one of the two writers that actually gave a shit beside both feeling like Tim was queer, which is cool, he’s definitely had that energy. But I’m not even convinced it was for the reason’s everyone else saw. I think it was just done ‘cause of shipping and not actually seeing many of the signs.

Like you feel like it’s Bernard in his lines. It captures the tone, his expressions capture his personality. And he’s drawn to look like himself and not a stereotype. You can feel a genuine love between two characters, that make it work. Not the coldest of it feeling like it’s a background thing that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Of only dating him to figure yourself out--which I don’t think is the total thing they wanted to come across as in the latest story. But when Tim’s ex is presented with more importance despite their history, and Bernard for two stories in a row by the same writer is tucked into the background doing nothing but--well, not even being drawn to resemble himself. It’s hard not to feel like it.

And I’m still happy Tim is queer. But it’s honestly the fans giving it any meaning beside Travis Moore so far. It feels pretty meaningless in the comics themselves, and it’s making me sad now. Like the person who’s going to be Tim’s main writer going forward so far as gave no actual shits about the queer relationship beyond it starting. It’s just a thing Tim’s involved with. It feels weightless under her writing.

[dis--parity]

humility.

Summary: Alex begins to see the bigger picture.

Word count: idk I wrote this in like an hour lol

Author’s notes: Happy birthday to Alex! I wanted to make a very quick piece with these two developing in the background to commemorate the occasion!

“Hey- hey, c’mon, no-... I thought you were trained better than this! You can’t have my drink, d- don’t be all... j- just, don’t be like this, buddy--”

That pitbull sure are rowdy today; maybe they just knew I’d be here, spending time with their owner. One of them, at least - he didn’t text me to say that he wouldn’t be in until later that day. Sure, it’s about twenty minutes away, he’ll probably arrive in five, and I’ve got Bernard here to accompany me until then, but... even that comes with the knowledge that Theo is probably skulking around in the back. I guess this will do, though. A dog’s a dog, I can’t control who his owner is, or what he’s like.

I’m more than happy to sit here with my hot chocolate, gently letting him down so that he doesn’t end up poisoning himself. It’s crossed my mind once or twice, in brief moments of anger - but I think that’s just the Gale in me being a little extreme. Like I said, a dog’s a dog. And, hey, he’s a cute little pitbull, too. At least he likes me.

In the same instant my free hand reaches out towards him - the prosthetic one, I should note, which is probably a bad call on my part, but I just can’t get enough of the warmth of the mug on my hand - he seems to plod away, distracted. What could be more interesting right now? There’s only one other person here, do they have a chew toy or somethi-

... oh. Right.

I realise the moment he steps out and enters my field of view from behind the counter; that ostentatious red letterman of his with those black jeans gently dusted with flour. His white shirt hides those stains better, for sure. Of course he’s the only other person that dog would defer to - brushing past his hand for a gentle pet to his head. 

I swear, the sigh I feel myself let out is heavier than a black hole; at least I’m used to the words we share being just as crushing to our patience.

“What do you want, Theo?”

No reply - not at first. If he wanted to get my attention, he’s got it; what on this good green earth could get a loudmouth like him choked up? I push myself a bit past my comfort zone, just out of the curiosity it brings. His face looks... well, there’s one expression I do know. His lip is puckered, his single visible brow furrowed in uncertainty. He sucks in a deep breath - drawing a hand from behind his back, and from it...

A new plate - donning a thick slice of cake. I can smell the sweetness of it from here; white chocolate, and strawberries. He’s even put little white chocolate shavings on top, alongside the fresh strawberries.

“Uh...” I can’t help but be lost for words; what’s he trying to do? Does he think he can just gift his way to forgiveness? If that’s the case, I’d be glad to let him keep on giving - I’m not gonna be swayed by that superficial bullshit. I blink, raise my brows - not out of confusion, but as though to ask; you really thought this would make things better?

“Just... wanted to wish you a happy birthday.” he says at last. “You’re twenty-four now?”

“... yeah.” I don’t make any move to reach for his offering; my fingers, freed from the mug I was so gently holding before, drum against the table top.

I hear him sigh the moment I look away - watch him step a bit closer in my peripheral vision. My eyes stay away from him, utterly fixated on the gentle sway of the liquid in my cup.

“Look,” he huffs. “I know this isn’t the day to bring up shit. I just-... wish this happened less.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” I reply. “But I guess I’m not gonna catch a break from you.”

“I don’t mean that,” he rushes to clarify his own semantics. “I just... I know I can’t take back what I did to you. Same goes for you.” On a worse scale, I admit to myself, but go on. “But I also know that I don’t wanna be your enemy for as long as we’re around each other.”

“And what?” I scoff - finally turning to face him in that one eye that stares me down so intently. “I already know you can’t forgive me. And... I- I’ve made peace with that. And- and you know I can’t forgive you for-”

“Forgiveness isn’t the point,” he cuts me off - for once, I can only hear pain lacing his assertion. “It’s just... we’re not kids, Alex. I just wish we’d stop acting like them.”

Is he trying to insult me now?! Trying to insinuate that, despite everything I’ve been through, I’m still the same kid I was before? Everything we’ve put each other through, everything I’ve been through that he wasn’t there to see–

... everything he’s been through, that I wasn’t there to see.

Oh, God, is this what he means?

“Listen,” he speaks through my pause. “I know I can say sorry as much as I want and it won’t mean shit. We’re past that, I know. But... we both know Souji’s sick of this. Somethin’ tells me, just... sooner or later, both of us are gonna be, too. Shit’s gonna turn into a fuckin’... Motague and Capulet situation, you feel me?”

He always did like his theatre. I wonder if he feels good about himself for drawing comparisons to it, scholar that he is.

“Maybe,” I huff, eyes still staring into that hot chocolate. “But... look. You were right about one thing. This isn’t the day to bring this up. I’m... I’m not in the mood for this. I’m in a good mood... and I wanna keep it that way. So, if you don’t mind...”

There’s probably a million more harsh ways I could tell him to leave me alone on my birthday, to tell him that I don’t have to - don’t want to put up with this from him today of all days. My eyes just end up drifting away again, back to the hot chocolate waiting patiently for me to meet it again.

“Well, uh... I’ve said what I wanted to say.” he concedes. “Uh-... and I made that cake special for ya. The hot chocolate, too.”

... wait, really?

“But, uh... yeah. I guess we’ll... save that for some other time.” He stands up again, taking his steps past the counter - pausing for one last comment. “Happy birthday, Alex. Have a good one.”

Well, that was... weirdly candid of him. I can’t help but feel like he’s just mellowing out because of what day it is; any other day, we’d be wasting no time just pretending the other’s not here, but... he actually approached me this time.

... maybe I am just a child. Maybe I’ve overestimated my own growth. Maybe things aren’t as far-gone as I imagined they’ve always been. Maybe one of these years, I’m due to change.

... come on, Souji. Don’t leave me alone with that stewing in my head too long, will you?

[rorythehorse]

Hi! I just found your blog and i got ta say your stuff if really great :3. I barley see any COTC art, and your drawings are really good. And your AUs. Which is wat i wanted to ask u bout, is it ok u can give me a brief explanation of your Teen and Adult AU. Only if u have the time too :P

Heh, thanks you very much ♥️

Ok, I gonna try to (sorry for bad English anyway).

Teen! AU takes place about 5 years after "Craig's evolution". Craig moved to Baltimore with Bernard and Alexis, cause's his parents believe Baltimore is much better place for Craig to find himself then a little town like Herkleton.

Meanwhile, the unlimited freedom that Craig gave to the othersiders made them uncontrollable. Some creek kids from Craig's side were trying to control them, some of them started to create chaos too, some just left the creek. This had led the new rules of the creek that turned the creek into very dark and cruel place, where teens do whatever they want.

• Most of them don't wanna leave the creek for the new generation and banned it from kids.

But, there's a little hidden place. "The tree" — the only place at the creek which is actually guarded and save for kids.

• Kit found new sponsors and with the help of the Tea timers had developed the new system of trading with using real money. Now, there's a lot of adult things available to everyone: a**ohol, light d**gs, casino and etc.

Also, Maya, Omar and Xavier left the creek two. Omar decided to be just a teen and stay out of the creek problems, cause' nobody, besides Craig, never appreciate him. Xavier joined a military school in another state.

But nobody really knows what happened to Maya.

Next gen!Au or Adult!Au takes place 26 years after teen!au ending (2051). The creek was abandoned and burned. The Sergeant prohibited to playing or even just walking on the creek territory.

Nobody really know what happened to the creek and what was the actual cause of the fire many many years ago. Audrey, the 13 years old Sergeant's daughter, got the old damaged map of the creek from her step-father, Craig. Being such a curious adventurer, Audrey assembled a team of her friends: Julian, her babysitter, who moved to his grandpa from Annapolis for a while; Tennyson, her best friend; Euge, the silent kid who she had never met before, but they actually agreed to help with the map re-drawing; and Rayford, Julian's new social awkward tall classmate.

While Audrey, Tennyson and Euge are trying to recreate the map and learn some more about Herkleton adults with a help of the other kids, Julian and Rayford are exploring the creek at night and looking for some ancients. Julian thinks the tarot cards that Tabitha, an old lonely lady, gave to him can also read the past if use it a reverse way. Nobody really believe in his idea and thinks he's kinda freaky one, even Rayford, but Ray helps him with it anyway.

[jess-the-vampire]

Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 49

Previous / Next

Mason felt he searched every room in the castle, but there was no sign of his older brother, he had very much vanished. He couldn't have gone too far, there was no way they could even leave the castle without anyone knowing about it. But he clearly put in a lot of effort to hide himself from everyone else, not even wanting to be seen by anyone else.

As soon as he saw him mason wanted to drown him in apologies but that required finding him first.

But apologies might not be enough here, landon just accidentally confessed to his crush.

This was pretty serious, especially since even bernard had gone cold from texting, as if the boy wasn't exactly sure what to respond with or that he was waiting to hear more from landon before he even attempted to respond. Part of mason wanted to text him back, pretending to be his brother to ease the situation but that felt more then a bad idea, plus who knew if he might make it worse or not.

Right now he needed to find his brother, that was the most important thing he needed to do.

Though he was moving so fast, his guards could barely catch up with him, zooming past servants and guards who were worried the boy was trying to run away. He had wings so that gave him an extra edgae over other demons, he could fly faster then most could run and though who could fly could barely catch the smaller boy who could get around with more ease.

He was moving so fast he didn't notice Sunny until her hit her full force, catching landon's violin safety before it hit the ground with his telekinesis. Galexia helped sunny up, dropping her own stuff, the floor now covered with papers and drawings as sunny helped gather everything. Sunny thankfully was not one to hold a big grudge so she didn't seem really mad, but upon seeing what dropped she looked at mason with more confused eyes.

"Are these...landon's? Mason...everything alright? You were going pretty fast?".

Mason was red with embarrassment.

"Have you seen landon? I'm trying to find him and return these, he kinda ran off and it's all my fault and i'm so sorry i ran into you i wasn't trying to cause i wasn't trying to and-", he was speaking so fast, panic in his voice that sunny could barely tell what he was saying. "Mason, what's going on? Why are you so upset, you both didn't like...have a fight or something right?".

"Well...i uh...".

"Mason, c'mon, you gotta tell us if something is wrong, friends tell friends.".

"He accidentally confessed to bernard...cause of me...on accident", he spurted out, still red faced and panicked.

Sunny seemed to take a moment to process what he just said before looking to the phone, "Oh...oh no...wait, how did this even happen?". Mason nearly about to say before remembering landon didn't want anyone to know about him doing magic, quickly changing gears to tell a bit of a half truth to save face, "I uh...watched a confession video he made and i kinda might've sorta accidentally pushed a few buttons...".

"Oh...yeah that's...oh no".

"Look, landon ran out and i need to say sorry to him and...i can't find him anywhere, you need to help me !". The girls looking between each other, their visit to seeing Arana being cut short in the blink of an eye, but...they couldn't not help their friend. "Ok, we'll spread out and try and find him, the guards will help! right guys?!", she eyes the huffing guards around them, who had been tailing them, getting thumbs up in return.

"Thanks so much".

"Nah, anything for our fellow dungeon buddy, the sooner we find him the better right? Tell us where you already checked and we'll check everywhere else, maybe get the others to help us out, cover more ground", she was quickly reassuring him as they picked their spots and spread out around the castle, informing whoever they could that the prince had run off somewhere.

He wasn't going to go too far, but it was a big castle.

And indeed he didn't go too far, landon pressing himself against a wall before slumping down and crying, hugging his body close as he felt his marks start to glow even more despite the fact he didn't want them to now. Everything was such a mess he didn't even care if he got caught like this anymore, his life was doomed, it was over, he was finished.

There was nothing he could do the laugh the situation off or pretend it didn't happen and he knew it, there was no going back now.

His emotions were starting to get unstable, he couldn't be around anyone like this, no way, there was more then a high chance he'd hurt someone in this kinda state. He didn't know what to do or say and maybe running out was a bad idea but...he felt so lost, his world was suddenly crashing all around him, burning to the ground and he couldn't stop it.

"Landon?".

He sniffled, looking up to find a famialr kindly woman above him.

"Eclipsa? You're...here?".

"Well, i mean, this tower is where i'm supposed to be going over the evidence, did no one tell you that?", landon shook his head and he backed up against the wall, "Go away, last thing i need is to get in trouble for hurting someone with my magic on accident". Eclipsa watching his marks glow further as she squatted down to get a better look, "Something happened didn't it?".

"It's...not your concern".

"Landon if you're not going to talk about it, then i'm not going to be able to help you like this".

"What makes you think i want help?", he snapped back.

"You said you didn't want to hurt anyone just now".

He fell silent, sniffling some more as he wiped at his face, "Look, i...bernard knows, mason accidentally leaked it to him and i...panicked, i...don't wanna go back out there, i don't wanna know what he's going to say to it ". Eclipsa felt pity for the boy, patting at his head and trying to ease his worries, "It's alright, but you'll have to face him eventually, you can't hide from him, even if you really want to".

"I know, it's just-".

"Landon, dear...c'mon, join me, have some tea and chocolate, you can hang out with me for now". She ushered him to join her and he reluctantly stood up, still batting at his eyes and face, looking upon all the junk laid everywhere. It was kinda organized, but not as well as someone like judas would have, but all of it was some form of evidence she was going over.

For fingerprints, dna, anything they could use to find their criminal.

Most of this stuff was probably stolen, or even there when she moved into the underground part of the bar, but some of it might actually be theirs. Apparently it had been hard to even get most of this stuff as there were a few traps lined in the room. Grab mask off the wall and vines lung at you, take a book you aren't supposed to and it blasts fire at you.

The room was practically trying to destroy it's own contents, to keep it's secrets hidden. It was cleverly enchanted, the person behind it must've spent hours trying to get it booby trapped in case someone broke it and started messing with any of the stuff, frankly they were all lucky they went right for Bernard and completely ignored most of the other things if they anted to avoid possible death.

"You...been here awhile?".

"I did hear you slamming the door and heading in yes, thought you were star for a second, she's been coming in and out to see if there were any new leads, and as an excuse to get away from moon", she handed him a teacup and a seat and landon sat down, still sniffling, "Sorry, i didn't mean to walk in on you or anything, i didn't know you were doing this in here". But she didn't seem to mind at all, sitting down with him, "It's alright, i should've had a sign out there or something, but we didn't want anyone to know this was were we were keeping this stuff in case the thief came back for any of it, much rather they be confused where to even start".

"I would've ignored it anyway, i just wanted somewhere to be...alone. I wanted to get away from mason and the situation and everything, i didn't want to see things get worse, i didn't want this...i didn't ask for any of this, i didn't ask for all of this to happen to me...to be so ignored, to get powers, to constantly be a screw up and to expose myself like that to my crush of all people".

He tugged at his hair, rubbing at his horns and trying to hide his red face, "I don't know if i'm just unlucky or if i'm cursed...i just can't seem to win, i can't seem to get anything to work how i want it to...i just wanted to confess, that's all i wanted and i screwed up and now everything's going to get so much worse. I just want things to work out for once, i want to stop being the screw-up brother".

He didn't mean to lay so much out on the table to eclipsa but thankfully she wasn't judging so much, listening intently.

"Dear, we all have bad days like this, bad months, bad years, and i doubt anyone thinks of you as a screw up like that...you've simply have had some bad luck these last few months, and you've gotten yourself into bad situations. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself for this, not everything is your fault or is part of your control, you'll have your time.".

"But-".

"Haven't your brothers had bad days too? Days where they also felt the world was against them and nothing was going right?".

He thought about judas almost immediately and all the bad luck he was currently having, or mason losing his plants and his garden, "Yeah".

"And haven't they screwed up? Countless times and had to deal with problems resulting from them?".

"Yeah...".

"Then you're not as alone in this as you think you are, your brothers also probably think of themselves as the screw up brother right now. Landon your issues are not dumb, but your own brothers are not feeling much better either, you all have messed up these days. You're all screw ups". Landon sent her a look, eclipsa noticing the daggers in his eyes.

"Uh...is this supposed to make me feel better?".

"Yes...well, i'm trying at least, but i'm a screw up as well, so think of it as one screw up to another on this", she winked and went back to her work, "I haven't exactly had the best kinda life either and i've had more then enough days where this happened. Imagine how i felt having to tell meteora the truth recently...but regardless, your brothers aren't perfect either."

Upon thinking about it more, she was indeed right.

"Well...I guess i can sorta see what you mean, i mean i'll be honest...to some extent i was...jealous of jude. He had his curse but he was special, he got so much attention from anyone...not always great attention but attention, i wish i had so much of that attention. But i guess now that i have powers, now that i'm actually kinda special now...i can't think of it like that anymore.".

He rubbed at his temple, still sniffling and wiping at his eyes, "My powers don't always work how i wanted them to but...i understand them to some extent, judas never really did and like...i know he was miserable when we were younger...he didn't like being cursed". He shouldn't have been jealous of judas, judas didn't want his arm curse. he wasn't getting attention because he wanted it, but he had been.

"Now that i have these powers i'll admit, it doesn't feel as good, and...i don't want people to see them".

"Now that's a surprise".

He turned his head away from her, "Yeah well, ever since they found out everyone is hammered on me and me using them and doing this and that with them, now that i'm getting this attention i kinda just find it a little...annoying. I can't go anywhere without feeling like people are judging me for now having powers...i guess, this is how jude felt for years".

He reached up to feel his face, "It's everything i wanted to have and i'll be honest, it's so much more stressful...i wonder if judas...well...if he wishes he had been given these and not his arm. If he thinks i got lucky compared to him...". But no, judas probably wouldn't think of it like that, he knew about what happened during their creation very well at this point.

"I wouldn't say anyone is "Lucky" in this situation, magic is dangerous and not everyone who has it...deserves to have it, or even should have it at all. I'll admit, i think there's something good about being in the shadows and away from the spotlight, all that ever did for me as get me imprisoned and miserable...a lot like how that poor demon feels, i can understand his pain that way".

"So...what? I should feel bad for having powers?".

"Landon...".

He huffed, "Sorry...".

She handed him a candy bar, he unwrapped it and took a bite as eclipsa kept speaking. "These powers are a part of you whether you like it or not, it's something you'll just have to adapt to, but there's nothing wrong about wanting attention and fame, a lot of people do. Your parents have three kids and royal stuff to deal with, of course that would mean some of you kids would feel neglected at times, even if they didn't mean to".

"They're trying...i know".

"You should address it more with them so they can work into making up for it, you know they never intended to hurt you...taking the time to talk about this with them might help a lot right now. I know you're going through a lot of emotions right now, teenager...y'know? But you're going to have to start talking to people more about these issues, especially your direct family...".

She wasn't wrong, he barely really sorted all those issues out with his family, and he was still angry as a result.

But right now he could only think about bernard, it was too fresh for him to ignore.

"I don't know why you're helping me...", he muttered, "You really have to have better things to be doing then listening to all our drama and sorting out our problems like some weird therapist. You can't just talk to us like this and expect things to just...get fixed, things just don't work out like that...even if you want them to". But she seemed to agree, nodding along, "Well that's why I'm mostly making suggestions, things you could do...".

"And whose to say if i do anything things will go my way for once?".

"I mean, it's worth a shot isn't it?"

Landon took another bite of chocolate, "I don't think no matter what i do i can laugh off what just happened with bernard, i knew i should've deleted that video, i just...i didn't want things to go this way, not with him. I shouldn't have run out...i'm just...bad with this stuff...i don't...like talking about it that much, especially not with...people i care about".

"I'm not the best at people either, might have something to do with me being considered strange to mewmans, but well...if you want a good relationship with them...you're going to have to work on talking about things.". Landon stared into his teacup, "I know, i know i'm never going to be able to have a real relationship with bernard if i don't just talk to him or even keep what ever friendships i even have if i keep doing this...i just...can't help it".

"Old habits die hard".

"Or they just never die...".

He put down the tea and chocolate , "I always chicken out eclipsa, what am i supposed to do? ". He was to punch something right about now, his hands shifting into fists, "I just...i just...i don't know how i'm supposed to do this". He quickly relaxed himself lest he risk some form of magical outburst, and in a room full of evidence that he couldn't risk destroying no doubt.

"Well, you can start by talking to bernard i suppose, and work your way up from there, if i can talk to meteora about hard topics then you should be able to".

She was right.

As much as he wanted to he couldn't just hide in here for the rest of his life, he had to go out there and face this whole mess. He wasn't ready to right now, right now he was far too emotional to really deal with it without making things worse, but he knew he had to. He was terrified bernard knew, but he was more terrified they'd never speak ever again.

This was not how he wanted their friendship to go out.

"Can i stay..a bit longer?".

"You can stay as long as you need dear, but don't stay too long, they'll all get worried and you know they'll start to panic unless you say something. Last thing we need is for them to tear up the entire castle looking for you, we already had to fix one castle", he understood, eating the chocolate and tea some more, Eclipsa getting back to work as she went through all the odds and ends in her midst.

"Hey, i'm happy you came anyway though, i like having company, been sad ever since sky and angel stopped taking my classes due to everything happening. Maybe you wouldn't mind me having you apart of my lessons next time, better i help you with your magic then you going rouge and attempting to do it all by yourself in secret, though i did do that when i was younger too".

Landon forgot she read minds, his face more flustered.

"I considered it".

"And how do you feel about the idea now?".

He shrugged, "i feel i want to deal with my current problem first before i pile that on top of it. But i mean...i dunno, do you really want me there? Like i'm not even next in line to my family's throne or anything". But the woman didn't seem to care, sending him a smile, "That doesn't matter, you have magic, you outta learn to control it, next in line or not, besides it's a part of you now...might as well get the hang of it to help your out".

"Well i'm trying to...but...", he started, before realizing exactly where this was going, "-I need more help...i'm not very good at tryng to do it, i only get...a spark at most and at worst...yeah". He didn't really have an excuse, especially if eclipsa knew. But then again, wasn't he hiding enough behind everyone's back? Hadn't he been exposed enough trying to do this kinda thing? His change of expression from considering it to sad worrying eclipsa.

"We could tell them together, no more secrets, i'll openly take responsibility for you...sky and angel have their reasons for not taking my classes, but you don't have the same excuses, so if you're interested...?", landon wasn't going to jump into it, but maybe now that he talked about it he could consider it a little more. It would be better then doing...what he was doing.

"It's ok if you don't, but i am impressed you've been able to do anything without practice...or a wand", she really needed to stop going into people's heads, it was really uncomfortable. "Yeah...thanks, it just seems to work when it's a perfect balance of my emotions and music, there's almost a math to it...i never considered it before but it gives me the best results...".

"And when one is off balance...things go wrong?".

"Exactly".

"That's why balance is important in magic, you go too far one way and things go off the rails...", she laughed to herself, thinking back on old memories, "But you should be impressed, even the littlest bit can help. You can get back to me on if you want my lessons, but in the meantime, are you feeling any better? Even a little bit?". Landon nodded softly "Well, you distracted me enough from what happened i guess".

"Does that mean you plan to talk to him about this?".

Landon hesitated, but eventually he did cave, nodding and taking a long breath. "Yeah, i...i can't hide in here...but i might...give it a few days...i...don't want to speak to him like this...i want to speak to him when things have cooled, not when i'm so upset...and i'm so upset. I still didn't want this to happen, but i guess now i'm stuck with it and just gotta hope for the best".

"Hey, your friend seems like a nice kid, i think he'll understand ok?".

"Yeah, you're right, i'm just...really embarrassed".

She gave him some pats on the back as he finally stood up, "It's ok, crushes are like that, globgor was the same way when we were dating, he said so many embarrassing things but the best part is we handled it together and laughed it off. At least you have the bandage ripped off now, it's out in the open and you have it off your chest finally, no need to panic about telling him".

"That's...true, i guess, it's out there, whether i want it or not".

"Hey, for the record, i think you'll do great, have more faith in yourself", she sent him a thumbs up, "Have more confidence in yourself, you're no less capable then any of your brothers, just take it easy for a bit ok?". He understood, getting ready to head out before stopping to get a better look at the stuff around the room, he had mostly ignored it when he walked in but something caught his eye.

"What's the spellbook doing in here? Was that like...in the hidden chamber thing as well or did you take it from sky's room or something?", he wasn't a butterfly, but he knew that musty old book when he saw it.

"Evidence", she said that like it was obvious, even though the spellbook never left the castle during the whole kidnapping event as far as he was aware, what in the role did eclipsa need it for? He was about to question further before the door opened and sure enough, marco was standing there, tired and relived to see landon was ok. They quickly hugged landon and he could hear eclipsa giggling from her work.

Guess it figured the minute he would hide away like this one of his parents would start going all over the caslte to find him, frankly he was just shocked how quickly they found him. At least it was his mom of all people, if it had been mason he might've had more of a heart attack after what just happened, and he felt he needed a good hug from his mom right about now.

Marco clearly had been panicked, and for good reason.

Nowadays, a kid going missing wasn't reassuring much anymore in terms of their safety.

"Landon you scared your brother and us half to death! Were you in here all this time?", they looked really tired, they probably had been running all over the place to find the teenage boy and make sure he was safe. Landon feeling slightly guilty about freaking out his mom like that, he was probably going to be in a bit of trouble for the upraoar but at least marco could breath again.

"Uh...yeah, kinda", marco let him go and he admitted," I just...things went so wrong with bernard and i needed to get away, i didn't mean to panic anyone...i just...got really stressed and emotional and...i didn't know this room was occupied". Marco finally noticed eclipsa, who sent them a wave, before going back to their son, "It's ok, just don't scare me like that again...i was really worried when i heard you ran off without anyone...c'mon, let's head back, ok? We can talk about it more if you want and vent if you need to."

His mom was too nice to him sometimes, though landon felt his stomach growl and he mumbled under his breath awkwardly. Marco blinked at him, still worried before landon got himself together, he needed to talk to his parents properly and adress his needs to them right? Now was a good time to do so if any time, he spoke more clearly this time, shifting his head.

"Can...we eat something?", he didn't mean to sound needy, but at the same time, food might help. "I'm kinda...hungry...and i just need a break and everything...if that's ok and stuff i know you're busy but it might help".

"Anything you want?", they asked with no hesitation.

"Uh...ice cream...might be nice, i mean i know it's not exactly FOOD food but i-", marco smiling and petting his hair, "No no, i've had ice cream binges during sad moments in my life as well, i perfectly understand, i'll accompany you and we can talk about what happened ok? If you want to at least i won't make you i know this whole thing really upset you".

"Are you sure i'm not bothering you...i know you're busy right now with everything-".

"Landon, you're my kid, i can take a bit of time out of my day to spend with you and help ok?".

Landon nodded, smiling.

"Here, go get something outside of the castle for once, my treat", eclipsa smiled as she pulled out some money and threw it over to them, "Landon was lovely company today, but he might need to take some time out of the castle briefly, just stay safe and take care of each other, in the meantime i'll keep up with what i'm doing and send you updates later!".

Marco didn't even fight back against it, holding the boy tight as they headed out, leaving eclipsa to her work. She sighed a bit sadly as they left, maybe landon could take her offer? Put her back in everyone's good graces after all the other messes she had caused for years at this point. It was nice to think about at least, going though the papers upon papers of spells. "Whoever is making these is obsessed with multiverses...and people thought i was silly for liking monsters...", she flipped through a few more, before eyeing the spellbook landon mentioned.

"I've never seen anything as crazy as this in all my years of being in this bizarre kingdom. Kids from multiple universes, masked people with unusual powers, and all of this...there's something here for sure we're missing that should clear things up but what is it? Why are they going through so much effort for magical items? This is so...bizarre...but maybe...hmm..".

She had a few theories of her own, stuff to ponder, but for now...if she had any idea what was actually going on...she didn't like where this was heading.

-

"Hi luna".

"Sky...".

Sky put down her bag and took a seat on the nearest chair, facing her sister coldly. "Sorry i'm late, hung out with judas for a little...he's seeing angel and his mom right now, then mom wanted to talk with me about...uh...you, so...yeah now i'm here". Luna really seemed like she could care less about how "Late" sky was, especially since for her, time was blending into each other.

She didn't even really answer sky, just sipping on her tea and resting.

"Look, it's simple, landon brought her to me, we got into a fight, that's all", she put down her cup, "Yes we shouldn't have been out there, you're right about that, but it was a situation we had to settle, celeste got a bit out of control and i was forced to go a long with it". Sky was already rolling her eyes, "You could've settled it without trying to agree to a fight at all, you guys are supposed to be trying to hide yourselves here, you should know better. Like, you especially should know better, you didn't even attempt to fix things, if we hadn't stepped in things would have gotten bad, celeste nearly combusted at you!".

Luna said nothing.

"Look, you know this by now but...people don't like you...that much, you stink at making friends around here. Maybe it's worth considering not tolerating fights and maybe try saying sorry to the people trying to help save you right now? You're not getting out or here without us and you're not making this easy for anyone involved, sometimes we aren't even sure if you are innocent...".

"Your accusing me of being under that mask? You've seen us int he same room together, just because i was found with the costume on and i was asleep during the sleepover incident does not mean i played both sides the entire time, if i wanted to steal from you or kidnapp Bernard going through this much effort to dress up and make myself a separate persona is a lot of effort on my part...even if i had a partner".

"Well, we're not certain you actually did it, but you're so good with magic we wouldn't be shocked if you had fooled us for so long...you don't exactly have the best track record right now, like we want to believe you are innocent but it's hard to not have some doubts with how you've been, you need to give us a reason to trust you and believe you are on our side for sure. No offense here luna but of course we're all not sure if we can trust you after how shady you've been in the past"., the blonde biting at her lip and facing her sister intently, "Look, back home i could never get too attached to anyone, not even my own parents, we were in the middle of a major conflict and i never could focus on something like that...".

"So what? You just push people away? Boss people around so you can feel less sad when they're gone?".

Her silence was a yes in sky's eyes.

"Maybe it's time to consider having friendships or forming bonds...judas has been my rock for years, i dunno where i'd be without him. Like, we're your sisters and you treat us like we don't even matter, makes us wonder why we even bother trying to help you! I know you wanna get back home but we're not pawns for you to play with! These are people you're messing with and hurting!".

"If you don't care about me then why are you-".

"That's the thing luna! We do care about you, even though we shouldn't, we do! It's more then you deserve, you have done a lot to help us luna but that doesn't change the fact you hurt us constantly and made us feel...like garbage. Luna if you don't start working on yourself...you know it's going to get so much worse, we're only getting out of this as a team and we aren't a team if you keep doing this".

Sky didn't expect much from this talk but something about luna's facial expression did show signs of some remorse.

"Look, if you want nothing to do with us when you get home then fine, but i can't imagine life back home is so great because you treat people like this. At the very least you could tell celeste you're sorry, she shouldn't have like...threatened you but...it's not like i don't fully get why she's so angry either. You're just so...hard to deal with, more then my mom or eclipsa or anyone for that matter".

Luna looked as if she had been told this countless times, it was nothing knew to her, but to an extent it did seem to hurt.

"I mean, do you actually like doing this? Everyone being pissed with you can't be THAT much fun, you keep going off about how it's a defense thing or whatever but have you ever tried to not be a jerk? Tried to actually keep these friendships? I'm not just concerned for you but like...judas is my friend and you really hurt him too!. I can't just ignore that! He likes to see the best in most people and help people if he can and you really hurt him!".

Sky really wasn't expecting luna to change her mind much about this situation, but venting this out did feel really good, and since her wand wasn't there she didn't have to be fearful of her anger setting off any magic. She had reached a point with luna where she was just kinda done with her, and luna couldn't do much to beat her down. She was in deep trouble, she was in no position to do anything.

"I never really meant...to hurt anyone that badly".

"I think landon would argue against that, and judas, and me...what did you expect was the result when you said some of this stuff? You're a bully luna, nothing but a bully".

Luna took a moment of silence, the tension in the room rising, carefully planning her next choice in words before things got any more heated.

She grumbled, "I'm not good at any of this, not good with relationships and i'm not great at...keeping them. It's not even as if...i don't want any friends or anything but i just, can't deal with losing people or things getting worse because they were friends with me during a time of danger back home. I have always been better off working all by myself outside of my soldiers".

"But like...what happens after it's over? You'll just be...alone, right? You won't have anyone to celebrate with all that much, you make it sounds like nobody misses you much back home".

Luna hadn't seemed to think that far into the future, she had been very preoccupied with the conflict, little thought had been put into what her life would be after it was all over. Sure she was planning to be one of the most powerful and respected queens on mewni but...sky was not wrong, there was little to do outside of being a queen and doing all the stuff that comes with it.

"What sky? What exactly do you think i should do? You're...so much of an expert on me right? Clearly you should tell me how to live my life now right?".

"I'm not saying i'm an expert on you! I just...i just don't think you actually really want any of this and i'm trying to help! You're the only one of us five who...still distances themselves, even celeste is getting slightly better. Look, when you get home, i just don't like the idea of all of us parting on bad terms...i'd...like to see everyone again, and it feels like-".

"Like i don't want to?".

"I just...i guess part of me wants you to be my sister, even if it's probably never gonna happen".

"Honestly...surprised you even still want that, i'd think at this point you would have fully given up on me, everyone else seems to...", but sky interjected, "Look, personally, i think...not all of them, but a decent portion of them would like to get along with you, if you just said sorry and started working on yourself. It's not my problem if you don't but...at least consider it? Consider thinking about how you treat people...cause y'know...it can really bite you".

"That, i do know".

Sky sighed, "Look, i'm gonna go, if you got nothing to talk about i might as well go back and see jude and everything. Me and angel wanna try and get him through his emotions and at this point i'm better off there then here." Luna huffed as she sat back and mulled over her tea, "Tell him i wish him well...and...that i want to see him, at some point soon".

Sky seemed surprised.

"Why? Need him to lawyer you too?".

"No it's just, it's...lonely, in here...i've been away for so long and well...he was always a good listener, not that he has to i just...wanted you to tell him". Sky didn't protest, just shrugging and nodding as she gathered her things, "Look, we all got some serious issues going on, but you got a lot of issues luna, maybe it's worth looking into a solution for".

She shut the door behind her as luna pulled her wand back out, mulling it over as she touched her marks. She didn't exactly regret leaving but had to admit things were better before she left around here, at least for her. Now no one wanted to really speak to her unless they had questions about anything and she was left more alone then she ever was back home.

She could feel her cold exterior wavering a little, whether she liked it or not.

Pacing around her room for a few minutes, she headed back towards the door to her room and knocked, hearing a guard come to open it, armed in case she pulled anything. "What exactly do you need?", luna huffed and made it short and sweet, "I want to talk to queen eclipsa...and...queen star, if they'll have me...i have some things i want to say to them".

She was still a prisoner, and she couldn't just ask for anyone.

But the queens were an exception, they would hear her out if anyone was to, she was a prisoner after all.

They gave her a nod and shut the door, luna sitting and waiting on her bed. She had been trying her best not to really speak directly to her mother but it seems it was time to face the music and just get it over with. The girl clutching her hands together and staring at the door, ready to be prepared for anything when facing the queen of mewni in the position she was.

She needed to stay cool, she couldn't lose her cool, but she could feel things starting to boil.

A tear running down her cheek, wiping it quickly with her arm.

"Alright luna, It's time to talk".

-

"Sky!".

Angel, Judas, and Nora greeted the girl with a large smile, and one big group hug. They were so happy to see her, even judas was in a slightly better mood still by being here with friends. Sky had to imagine nora and angel spent a lot of time giving him attention and trying to ease him while she had been out, and for now it had been putting him at ease.

God she was lucky to have some sweet friends.

"Sunny and lexi aren't here yet?", she ended their hug and looked around, "They told me they were heading over here awhile ago...did they leave?". Only for the rest of the group to look at her questioningly, "We thought they changed their minds and went to help you or something...but i guess if they also aren't with you...i'm not sure, we haven't seen them".

Judas quickly pulled his compact out, "Here, lemme ask them, don't mind me". He quickly made his way around the corner so he wouldn't disturb the others as they caught up, hoping nothing bad had happened to the girls in between time. At least he could rely on sunny to check her compact extremely quickly if they were just caught up, quickly messaging her.

Leaving sky with both spider royals, who seemed in pretty good moods now that she was here, nora especially seemed to be in a decent mood and before sky could ask she quickly answered. "I know you're going to ask...well, since luna got captured, my parents have eased up on their...anxiety...and well...they're no longer considering separating us...especially with how judas protected me and everything...i can't believe it! They're giving me the choice to stay here if i want! All because of luna's capture, i'm sticking around longer!".

She looked like she had been wanting to say that for days, and she probably did, if she hadn't been so occupied with all the stuff she had to do in the medic wing she might of told everyone in mewni. "I kinda almost wanna thank luna, but i also know she's probably innocent, but at least for now my parents are considering putting things back to normal and not locking me away".

"They really think it was luna?".

"They...have no reason to think otherwise, they never saw her like we did".

Guess to a lot of the outside world it would seem that way, and with luna having been a guard they probably chalked up her knowledge of queens to sneaking through the castle and learning via her guard abilities. How anyone was going to explain her clear magic abilities on the other hand- now that would get very messy if they didn't act fast, unless they did assume she wasn't working alone.

"Well the important thing is we clear her".

"Yeah but, it's a lot harder then trying to clear you angel, you at least had the ability to claim you were fooled and you barely knew what you were doing, luna doesn't exactly...have that, we can't fake her out of this one because there's too much against her. And it's hard to explain what was actually going on without...y'know...the only reason she's not being crystalized is my mom right now".

"So...what is the plan then?", nora set them aside, and away from the guards nearby, trying to talk as quietly as possible. "I'm not fully sure, i think right now our best bet to to hold till we catch whose under that mask and expose them, that way people will know luna wasn't it and hopefully we can maybe pull it off like she was being framed or mind-controlled or something".

If they couldn't win through a trial, they could win through catching the real culprit. Maybe get a confession and therefore, they could free luna and finally get themselves back home without dealing with the issues they did. Luna was just going to have to hold out till further notice, unless something else came up that would get her out of the eyes she was under.

But on the plus side, no more running away for her.

"Sunny and Lexi are looking for landon...mason says he ran away to hide somewhere or something", the three turned to judas, still holding his compact, "Maybe we should-". Then his compact buzzed again, "Wait, nevermind, mom found him...he seems to be ok, and they're on their way back to join us and see arana. I wonder what happened, please don't tell me landon did something crazy again...he worries me".

"You're one to talk".

He pushed sky gently.

"Well, scare over...everything ok over there by the way?", sky ld them away and towards arana's room, "Just luna stuff, oh and that reminds me by the way, she wants to speak to you judas, like...one on one i guess". Stopping the demon in his tracks, "Wait, she wants to speak to me personally? You know why? We haven't spoken privately since...well...before she left".

"She didn't elaborate".

"Maybe she wants to apologize?", nora added, more optimistic then the others, "Well...maybe i'm just trying to give hope...but...i don't know what else she would do that for...but it must be important if well...she is asking for it. But i mean, if you don't want to you don't have to, i know she really upset you and you're still not fully over it and everything-".

She was starting to panic, worrying about hurting judas accidentally by pushing him to luna but he tried to relax her. "No no, i can handle it...i think, i'll see what she has to say and if i have to leave i'll leave, if she has something important to say i think i should hear her out. It might be useful or important...even if it's not an apology or anything for what happened".

"Don't push yourself too hard judas".

"I know, i'm not going to from now on, but i think at the very least i can handle that...worst thing she can do is break my heart again...", he laughed it off but everyone knew it was true. But he took sky's hand, ushering them to head inside, "C'mon, enough stalling, let's go see how she's doing, sunny and lexi can join us when they get here". He didn't mean to be pushy, but he just wanted to change the subject before he got emotional again.

And frankly, everyone was on the same page, they wanted to change the topic too.

Heading inside, they were delighted to see the spider couple waiting for them, the two eating together as notes were spread all over the walls of arana trying to recover as many memories she had. Her body finally getting stronger as she got more food into her system, her husband never leaving her side as much as he possible could. A sleeping bag having been brought into the room in case he wanted to sleep in it instead of on the bed with her, but he hadn't even touched it.

The appearance of judas delighted him, maybe because judas looked actually like he was in a good mood this time around, and his presence seemed to light something in the queen. She sat up, Her white eyes practically glowing, she knew this boy from somewhere and of course she should. Judas was hard to forget and the image of the small boy whose arm had been chained with a metal glove came to mind fast.

"Judas".

He lit up in response, "You remembered me too...i didn't think you would, we never met THAT often outside of royal stuff". But she ushered him over, quick to take his arm and look it over, which did seem to strike something in him though he didn't wish to upset her. She looked as if she had been expecting it in the glove again, or even as the monster arm, not a normal arm.

They must've been so striking in her mind it was the biggest thing she remembered.

"It's good seeing you in better shape your majesty, i hope your stay here has been pleasant for your recovery", she nodded, clinging onto her husband's hands affectionally, "Oh it's been wonderful, the food is great, everyone's been so nice...i've never seen the spiderbites...so...friendly with us before, i...i don't remember us getting along that much before".

"Well i mean, with nora and angel being on decent terms...it kinda backed them into making changes.".

Even for as progressive as the spiderbite kingdom was in terms of monster rights, the tension between them and and the arachfords was very much still a sore spot. So this kinda progress was indeed something to be happy about and a good thing for her to basically wake up to. She'd probably thought she'd never see the day, especially with how angel was.

"I'm so happy to hear angle has friends! He always wanted friends to hang out with, spend time with, oh...when he was little he used to go off about having sleepovers with friends but all the kids thought he was weird . He just had them alone with his stuffed animals before, maybe now we can have sleepovers and dinners, and oh we have so much catching up to do!".

Angel loved his mother to death and he was more then happy to have her alive and well, but he forgot how mushy she was, especially about him. He felt himself red in the face, even though he had nothing to be ashamed of and his friends were not going to judge him at all, they knew exactly how lonely he was before, nora especially could relate.

"That sounds like fun, maybe we could do that sometime in the future", sky chimed in happily, "Last time i hosted a sleepover, angel kinds barged his way in, not exactly by choice but yeah that did happen". Not that he was the craziest thing to happen to them that night of course, but maybe now they could have a normal night in the future at some point.

"Sky, i almost feel right now, we're having constant sleepovers, like we all sleep in the same room every night now for protection, we might wanna wait on having a sleepover for at least a little while", judas snickered, nora perking up excitably. " I don't mind, i like being able to sleep outside of my own room and surrounded by friends!", she was getting better at talking, though her shyness snuck through on occasion as her voice slightly softened.

"It's better then sleeping next to my parents...i can barely go anywhere when they get so freaked at me, i know they're getting better but they're just...very protective after what happened in our castle and now with bernard...".

"Oh yeah, i want to thank you parents again for sleeping near the medical wing so they could check up on us when they needed!" Amir, exclaimed happily, "They've been so kind i might do a celebration for them the next chance we get, we haven't had one of those in what feels like forever". Sky and Judas eyeing towards each other as they knew what they other was now thinking about.

"Well, let's just wait till, we have one less criminal on the streets...".

"Oh, i'm well aware".

"How much of her memory has been recovered exactly?", amir clutching the other mother's hand carefully as he eyed the notes nearby, "A decent amount, not everything, though her strongest memories are of angel it seems...she still remembers most of everything about him, from his birth, his habits, she even remembered the time he started singing in the shower...it's impressive".

Jee, did his parents want to say anything else to make him look silly in front of his friends? He was suddenly regretting having his friends come and visit them at all. But they could all relate to this kinda stuff happening, judas's grandparents were renowned for embarrassing marco and their grandkids when they got the chance. They all playfully smiled to the prince and changed topics.

"Well, you'll be invited to my coronation ceremony, as long as you're in good health for it", the mention of it seemed to spark something for the couple, how long had it been since they went to a party together? Both of them? One usually had to stay back and keep and eye on angel and of course the illness didn't help at all, the mere mention of it sounded wonderful.

Even if arana's memory wasn't good, she still seemed excited.

"Well, as long as we're guarded and things go well that sounds like fun, i'm sure since we're in good hands you'll be able to catch the crook and make this the best coronation for a king in years! I mean, if you're really sure you'll catch a crook with it, i'll trust your word in thinking the capture of the girl wasn't the end of it", he looked more excited then ever but judas did feel some anxiety creeping up on him, the pressure of a ceremony like this was already a lot...but also catching a crook with it?

"Don't worry, we got this", judas felt sky take his hand and clam him down, reassuring him as she spoke confidently.

"Well in the meantime we'll prepare to go...as long as arana is healthy, you just keep us in touch with your uh...plans, last thing we need is to get ourselves in more trouble then we already have. " No one could complain about that, after bernard no one wanted to see anyone end up in danger again, at least not in danger they didn't plan for, angel made good bate but his protection was going to be high.

"The ceremony is going to be...different this time, we got a theme going and we are changing up how we do things...so it should be kinda fun, maybe, if things don't blow up or get any worse", and hopefully if they were lucky things were not going to blow up. "The castle is pretty much back to normal at this point, we're moving all the servants back in there so butterfly castle isn't so crowded".

"Aren't you worried they'll break into the castle again? If there really is a criminal still on the loose? They could quickly break in and repeat the cycle and with how things have gone so far...".

The demon gritted his teeth, "We might've considered trying some new security methods, so hopefully things will be fine, but we can't keep them here, they all have families down there and it might be more dangerous to keep them here with targets like angel". As rough as it was, the safest place they could go was anywhere other then the place where all the targets tended to be.

But at least it meant they were finally fixing the damage that had been done, though they might not be moving in anytime soon.

"Well i'm happy to hear the repairs are nearly complete, we know better then anyone what it's like having your home...destroyed like that. "He trailed off, before moving a little away from his wife, he didn't want her to hear any that right now. Angel quick to catch on and get his mother's attention away from the others real quick by asking if she wanted to see some of the new magic he'd learned.

Amir addressing the others as she was distracted.

"I know this may not be the best time to say it, but...if i may be so allowed, i do want to request...help, from the queens of mewni...more then i asked before. On account of the damages solaria caused...years ago, i know for years i never pushed hard because i wanted the approval of your parents but...i also acknowledge my son was at least right in the fact that i could ask for more to help us...we're still a poor kingdom".

"Well...maybe we can get you selling silk again, angel talking to that freak managed to bring power back to your people and it got taken away when he left, so if we bring it back you might be able to earn your way back into being a rich kingdom again, though we could probably help a bit to set you up...i'm...still very sorry what happened to your people".

"It's not your fault, i know eclipsa shares a lot of love towards her mother but even in good conscious we can't share the same feelings despite our respect for eclipsa. the massacre of our people due to their magical abilities brought us to near extinction and wiped our culture from mewni's map and...while it isn't on you and you can refuse to help...i at least wish to ask you".

Sky looked over to angel, who was still keeping his mom distracted before nodding.

"Yeah, we'll run by it...and we'll try and do better for you...".

He pulled her in for a hug, "You are most gracious princess, thank you for your help, we will cherish it forever". Judas snickering nearby, "Hey, i'll ask my parents what they can do too, maybe help rebuild some parts of your run down castle, it'll take some time but we can work our way up there and get the whole thing done. We should've helped handle it years ago to be honest".

"We'll also try and help make sure you end up on every map from now on, i mean you're technically on most of the new ones but we could still help with that...maybe if we capture them we can find out where they got their magic and spells from to help and we can totally give them to you so you can pull the kingdom together! It's entirely possibly solaria kept some of them and they got their hands on them".

"Well if you think about it...that would explain why they raided the archives that day", judas explained to the king, "There was a raid, and we never really could tell what happened, just that the place was damaged, but if there were anything that important from a past queen, they'd find it there for sure. They might of been planning this as soon as well...when things first got crazy".

"For the record though", sky said before amir could question her further, "If it was down there, we had no idea, in fact i kinda doubt my mom even goes down there enough to even attempt to look, the place is such a mess it's hard to find anything down there...much less something from over 300 years ago. But i kinda gotta assume they didn't get the info from just anywhere".

"I'm surprised to hear solaria might of kept them, we always thought she destroyed them forever to wipe us out completely...".

"Well, eclipsa always says to an extent she could be...complex, it was probably not for the right reasons, but she might've thought having them would be beneficial to her and therefore preserving a part of your history in the process. I don't think she probably expected you all to ever get it back though...but it's not worth lingering on, if there's a way to do it...we'll figure it out".

"Doesn't that mean they well...had the knowledge to access the archives? isn't that VERY secretive and hard to find outside of the very few?", his questioning glance to sky, "Forgive me princess, but...the impression i'm being given is the person responsible for all of this, is someone who should not know the things they do, that's not a good sign for someone to face against...you never know what else they might know...that girl could escape if she's guilty".

They did make a fair point, but it was all they had to go with.

"Look, we've weeded out through everyone we can, it's hard to pinpoint anyone exactly...but we are making this plan for a reason, we...don't think it's luna...we really don't".

"Well as a friend i can only take your word, and i take your word for helping my son and wife...but i at least suggest being careful if you are indeed right".

"Will do".

The door opened and finally Sunny and Galexia made it, both of them tired from running around so much. But sunny had treats with her and galexia had a pile of drawings, they seemed super happy to see judas there, putting their stuff down to hug him. "Sorry we're late...things got a little crazy and we had to help mason, he looked like he was about to have a panic attack", looking towards the others and back at judas.

"Uh...you told them what happened right?".

"Yeah, i did, don't worry, but...you found him? He's not injured right? Well actually if he was injured i would've heard them running past this direction...but at the very least tell me he didn't get into anything crazy".

"Technically your mom just was lucky when finding him, but yeah, he's found and he's ok. Sounds like the whole thing was a mess though, he's apparently taking some time alone i guess...mason is upset he can't talk to him though", which prompted the demon to look behind them, "Wait, where's mason then? If he's not with either of you girls and he's not with landon...".

"He's with your dad, he found us when landon was found and took mason out of there to calm him down, i wanted to invite him to join us but he didn't want to...he...really feels bad about what he did to landon". Considering how emotional mason was that really seemed to hit judas, last thing the king wanted was to hurt anyone, much less his own brothers, bot that this seemed to be his fault, he'd never do something like this on purpose.

Maybe it was good he was with his father though, someone who could help calm him down.

Still, judas felt his brotherly instincts kick in.

Only for sky to put a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head, "Rest jude, let your parents handle this mess, you're dealing with enough as is, you can talk to mason later...you need to rest and relax". He backed off, nodding, knowing he needed to do more of this self-control, even if he really wanted to go check on his little brother. "Ok, but...just let me know how he's doing, i just want my brother to be ok...you know how he can get when he feels bad", he to an extent, hated feeling powerless in this situation even if it wasn't his fault.

"Ahem".

Oh right, angel's parents were in the room and were looking at them and what was happening, this had to look weird without context.

Sunny beamed at seeing the queen, expecting her to not remember her much at all, but not caring in the least. Seeing her up and with her son seemed to make her grin ear to pointy ear as she headed over to shake her hand, "Hello, you might not remember me but i'm sunny, i hung out with you once and drew you stuff, it's good to meet you all over again".

Her memory was fuzzy, but she seemed comforted in sunny's presence.

"Judy!", galexia quickly gave judas a hug, her positive personality still at it's highest. "Hey lexi, i'm glad you're alright, i got worried for a minute when you both weren't here already, it was nice to go and hang out with sky though...you been up to any new ideas?". The girl nodded and pulled a drawing out of her many drawings, showing it off to judas proudly.

"Wait...is that...sky's bubble charm?" You think we could use that?.

She nodded, looking actually pretty happy with herself and this idea.

He took a second to ponder before looking at her approvingly, "Actually, that's not a bad idea, sky's bubble charm is...well...rather useful...even when it's used...for evil, that's a pretty handy suggestion, thanks lexi". The masked foe did know the spell obviously but maybe if they caught them entirely off guard they could catch them in an instant, it would keep them entirely still too and bam, problem solved.

"This...might work, if we're careful not to well...trap everyone in bubbles...we should look into this idea more, thanks lexi. Sky's not really bad with this spell so we should consider it...never know if we might need it.", lexi then proceeded to show judas in more of her artwork, judas laughing at her antics as the room once again felt positive and hopefully.

"You kids are all so lovely..." Arana said softly, her ears twitching in delight, " Where did you all even come from? I don't seem to have much as far as memories with you, but if i did i really am sorry i don't mean to.". Sky looked over to her sisters and shrugging playfully, "Long story, we'll tell you another time though, when it's a good time to talk about it".

"Good time to talk about what?", Jackie suddenly entered the room, decked out in her gear to spot everyone inside, "Oops, sorry for interrupting, i'm just here to escort prince judas...your grandparents want to see you to chat, i'm sorry to take you away from your break. But you can go back to it after you're finished, they just needed to take you out for a-".

"No jackie, it's not a good time, let him stay here", sky stood in front of her friend, blocking him like a shield. "Just tell them to wait and do it later...it's probably not that important, or at least it's not so important they can't do it through text or something...please...no more forcing him all over the place, he doesn't need it right now...let him be".

Jackie simply looked at sky, her lip biting as she closed the door behind her, not even attempting to argue with the princess.

"Sky...you didn't have to-".

"Jude, i know, but i'm not letting you get any worse, they can wait, your health cannot".

She carefully grabbed onto his cursed hand and gripped it tight, "We're partners in this, and that means i protect you like you do me...call it even from all my previous owes...".

"Thanks sky...really...i mean it", they pulled in for a hug and sky breathed into his chest, burying her face into it. "You're going to stay out of this mess as much as possible, get some help, and deal with all of the junk you're going through, if your parents need to pull you side they come through me first?". She didn't wanna come off like she was being possessive but if she didn't do this, judas's mental healthy might decline even more then it already was.

"Pardon me your majesty but if you may be dealing with some personal issues and can't focus i suggest you may not want to be king so early", amir glanced to angel, sighing, "Being a leader requires a good head on your shoulders and if you don't have the best head, then perhaps you need to work on your head...i saw how you were, it was very troubling.".

"I know, you're not the first to say it, but i can't just...back out".

"I think your parents would make an exception for you...and if they're good parents, they very much will".

"We care about you, we just want you to be healthy and happy", sunny brightened up, "We want you to be the best leader you can be...and you can't be the best leader without working on yourself, you've been trying so hard to stop and you keep falling back into it, it's not healthy...it's time to slowly get you to focus more on yourself then others".

"You guys really don't have to-".

"You can't do it entirely alone, you need support", everyone crowding around him and hugging him tightly in a large group hug, "We all care about you and we're going to get you entirely through this...and i know we've said that like a million times but you never have to go through all of this alone anymore, we'll have your back and make sure you get through this...".

"I don't honestly think you all can...fix...me".

"Jude, we're not going to "Fix" you, we're going to help you, however we can, you mean a lot to everyone in this room...no one wants to see you how you were, you've been nothing but a positive light to everyone here, so we're going to be the same for you right now while this is happening...", judas felt himself about to cry, his head rest on sky's, shaking.

"I don't...deserve friends like you guys, i...i keep saying i want to do all this alone but...i just...i don't like being alone...i don't want to have to go through this alone...but i also don't want to feel like i'm dragging you to fix my personal issues either...last time i did that...nora nearly got hurt..."., he sniffled some more and nora only held onto her friend tighter, she didn't blame him in the slightest.

They hugged him gently as he let his feelings out properly, sky refusing to let him go the entire time as he cried.

"We love you jude...you're not alone, and we're going to get you through this".

"You should'nt have to".

"Jude, we all need help, you've been helping me for years and you've helped everyone in this room to an extent, time to take a break officially as everyone's support system, and let us be yours right now".

Judas finally calming down as tears flowed freely, smiling and hugging his friends tight. There was a lot of work to be done, but at least he knew people were going to help him at every turn in his journey. He didn't have to force himself to do it alone, and he didn't have to feel like a burden anymore. He needed to handle his issues, but not without his friends, he needed them as much as they needed him.

"I love you guys too...i promise, i'll take better care of myself from now on...".