#and are above script kitty levels

[allie-leth]

Script kitty attack? Why are cats hacking???

[msdrprofessorjessica]

Alchemists Apathy Special: The Return To Freddy's

While Fnati didn't get a lot of traction. I'm sure this one will, everyone and their mother knows about The Return To Freddy's at this point. It's become a bit of a joke... for better or for worse. It's another anniversary special like Fnati, but this one means a bit more to me than Fnati did. This is another long post so buckle up, it'll be similar to Fnati though so if you can stomach that, you can probably stomach this.

The Return To Freddy's wasn't the original name, it was originally called, and get this, Five Nights At Freddy's 3 Fanmade. The fanmade was even added a bit later, it started out as just being called Five Nights At Freddy's 3. I played this version of the game before it was renamed. There were a lot of interesting things to say about the game, but obviously. It was a buggy mess of a game, the characters were scripted and assets were just taken from Fnaf 1 and 2 (which really isn't a bad thing being honest) and of course, they stole Candy the Cat. The creator of the game, Poniator Films, was forced to take the game down and change it, while also removing the stolen Candy The Cat character. I would show you images, but they are just from Fnaf 1 and 2 so it's kinda pointless. I was one of the people who played a lot of TRTF, it was my first fangame after all. I would later find out that it wasn't Fnaf 3 on Christmas as well as finding that little game called Five Nights At Treasure Island.

Just so you know what TRTF 1 looks like, I'm going to show you one image that will describe all of it.

This... is the game. You sit in a Fnaf 1 office with broken ass doors, you put on the mask, and if you were playing the old version, you would see Sugar The Cat who looks a little too much like a certain cat you all know. As mentioned above, before there was Candy in July of 2015, in 2014 there was Sugar the Cat. It was taken without credit for the game and when the character was taken out, there was a minigame with Sugar that basically had Emil Macko being called a bitch in the files. Yeah... good first impression. There's a big misconception however that Tyler stole code from Fnaf 1 and 2 for the game... no. Scott used a different clickteam engine, Tyler used a very old engine of Clickteam called Games Factory 2. The code is just so bad that people think he stole Scott's code. Makes you wonder what Scott's code looks like. After that, there's not really much to say about TRTF 1 outside of some funny ass poses and a withered Balloon Boy edit being used to represent the creator, Tyler Ahlstrom's Inner Demons (not joking btw).

This thing is hilarious though. The inner demon child was also stolen iirc. Instead of making your own edits you steal them, BRILLIANT!!! I don't mind fangames using old assets or just images you find off of google and such, some of my favorite games are those types of games. The problem stems from not crediting and, most importantly, the game being bad. TRTF 1 has been talked about to death, just like the series itself.

Now for the sequel (yes, this game was somehow popular enough to get a sequel) original assets were made... eventually. Alpha's showed more of a TRTF 1 type deal, being edits and images taken from other Fnaf games, specifically Fnaf 2. Sugar returned as an original model and it was the funniest thing ever.

My friends and I have had a running joke with these old models, where they would grab your IP and such. This is also the introduction of Kitty Fazcat!

You heard of stealing characters, now you can hear about OC characters. Kitty Fazcat doesn't belong to Tyler, she belongs to the creator... of the same name, Kitty Fazcat. Or if you want to be fancy, she can also go by Project Suki. Kitty has since been removed from most of the TRTF stuff and will also be removed from this AU's portion of TRTF, but I do have some level of respect for the character and the creator. Also I think the character design of Kitty in later games is pretty good.

Also can you tell this was made around the time of Fnaf 3?

Yeah... looks beautiful doesn't it.

The Alphas only had two versions before a beta was made, featuring actual models! WOW! Good on you Tyler, your improving already!

Slowly but surely. It was a different time, we were satisfied by evil Mickey Mouse saying "Wanna see my head come off?" This was cool back then. The graphics were updated and a new character was added, Dug the Dog.

Oh and Kitty got an update, she no longer resembles her alpha design.

Yeah, now she looks like a Toy animatronic... which apparently she is a prototype Toy Animatronic according to the story.

Anyway, Dug the dog.

As for the game itself, it was basically a slower paced Fnaf 2, but you had to wind two music boxes, an actual music box, and a power generator that acted like a music box. This stayed for the beta versions while the alphas had a more fnaf 1 power base system... that didn't work alongside the music box iirc.

When the actual game decided to roll around, the models once again got an upgrade, getting a much more charming look that everyone knows and loves.

Yeah, the models were made smaller and looked more in line with Fnaf 1 designs. They are very charming no? They are also now shorter and not tall like the others, which I don't care about but sometimes, they can look incredibly small, like Foxy is now the smallest out of the main four characters, which is really funny.

There are many other builds I could talk about, there's a trailer build that looked like a mishmash of stolen assets and actual models, which look kinda interesting. There is no record of it though so it doesn't really matter. This game is not only the introduction of main stay Kitty Fazcat, but also the introduction of brand new character and iconic character, Lockjaw. He's only a hallucination though, but hey, Shadow Lockjaw is here. He was in the first game as well but he was a Puppet recolor and had a hat.

Now he looks like the peanut man as the kids call it. He does have an actual model as an easter egg but I'll save that for the next game... which we will be talking about right now.

The Return To Freddy's 3, my personal favorite in the series. Incredibly unpopular opinion I know, but TRTF 3 is just really cool to me. You have a brand new office that could have had 360 scrolling but it doesn't. You have withered versions of the TRTF 2 characters as well as brand new variations of characters. First of all, Kitty Fazcat is not a toy animatronic anymore, she now has an original variation, predating the Toy Animatronic lineup she would soon get.

There would be an early version of the design that would show off a more TRTF 2 Alpha Kitty appearance, but with this model. I personally didn't care much for it, I think the top hat and staff work better. The next character up is a small snake animatronic named Vigo.

He's a snake, a goofy looking Snake that looks high. He's funny. We love Vigo. He's also not created by Tyler however. Vigo is from a deviantart user whose name I can't remember and all I know is that Vigo went from many different things, a snake, a dragon, back to a snake. He was mostly a reptile and used for vore. Deviantart sure is a place alright.

Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Golden Freddy, and Shadow Lockjaw return with updated designs that show withering. But the star of the show finally shows up: Lockjaw!

Lockjaw! Aka Frankburt. Yeah, similar to Spring Bonnie/Springtrap, he was always referred to as Lockjaw by the game and community, but in reality, he name is just Frankburt. Although, Fnaf would then start calling Springtrap by Springtrap later down the line, Frankburt was never once referred to in universe as Lockjaw. Also, the face has a hole in it, that's why the mouth is weird. That's supposed to be a hole... with teeth around the hole. He's basically Springtrap of the universe, being possessed by a child whose name is, and get ready for this, BFP. Tyler's online username was also, BFP. BronyFilmsPoniator, BFPFilms, at one point the kids name was also just named Tyler, during an old version of the story. At least it was an actual name and not... BFP. Most of the children are referred to as self inserts via names in the files or something else. It's funny to think about.

This game would have a setting and gameplay based around Fnaf 3, but not be Fnaf 3. You play as Blake, and your friends Wilson and Chun/Phil/John/whoever the fuck decide you should help them bring Freddy Fazbear's Pizza back from the dead. This game takes place after TRTF 1, which is in 2015. It's also implied that the game takes place the same year as TRTF 1 or in early 2016. Freddy's has not been dead long. You have a maintenance panel to reboot the light systems but it doesn't matter if you reboot the light systems because the light systems just don't work and it doesn't matter. The doors work for five seconds before breaking. And you basically need to seal doors on characters so they don't kill you. There is no audio lure, but you do have a view animatronic to keep track of Lockjaw. I doubt you'll need it because Lockjaw tends to cover other characters. This was back when multiple characters couldn't be on the same camera in fangames. You also had a corrupt signal to deal with Chica, Foxy, and Vigo. But if you sealed doors enough or if RNG was on your side, you wouldn't have to worry about them.

There's minigames to play and a good and bad ending to unlock. The after night minigames entail you as Shadow Lockjaw in TRTF 2 waking up all the animatronics aside from Sugar and Dug. It's rumored that Dug was planned for 3, but might have gotten scrapped last minute. On the fifth night, you play as the purple guy who I kid you not is named Vincent, truly a different time. You scare BFP into running into the Frankburt suit in the Parts and Service Room of Fredbear's Family Diner (that's the TRTF 2 location don't question it). He cries and the locks go off, giving you the origins of Lockjaw. The good ending has you free the souls, the bad ending has you not freeing the souls it's Fnaf 3 stuff. The Night 6 has a phone call in which the legendary animatronic, Lockjaw, hugged six children to death. The FBI shut them down (how come the FBI doesn't get involved with Fnaf?) and the place is going to be demolished in the morning. You survive your night and a newspaper shows the body of BFP being discovered in the legendary animatronic. That's TRTF 3... it's great lol.

When I think of old fangames, one of the first games that comes to mind is TRTF 3. The simplicity of the game, the story, the characters. The missing children's incident happened at Frankburt's in this universe which is roughly around 1958. Frankburt is the world's first ever animatronic. They even call out how he is the first animatronic to ever exist. The character designs, the gameplay, it fills me with such joy and warmness that I can't help but smile when playing it. It sure hasn't aged the best, but it's still my favorite.

You know how I mentioned minigames? Well the Happiest Day esque minigame called "Happiest Moment Of My Life" had a message that said "Always Remember". Tyler wasn't exactly in the best state of mind when making TRTF. He planned to end it at 3 and move on to other ventures. Friends were telling him to end it there, but whether it be due to fan demand or whatever fucked up coping mechanism this series was to Tyler, he continued, and we got TRTF 4 out of that.

Two of my close friends don't really like 4 that much, and I can see why. But TRTF 4 was the next game to come out of the TRTF series. TRTF 4 was the more controversial game in the series as this was when the series took a turn. We have some returning characters, Chica, Foxy, and Vigo are dead. But hey, Freddy, Bonnie, Golden Freddy, Lockjaw, and Kitty are back. Kitty's ears are short as hell and they are my pet peeve but hey, they're back. We also have two brand new characters named Koly and Sally.

Yeah, these models don't have necks, I think they are just floating heads. But hey, if you don't like TRTF 2 and 3 models, you might like these ones. TRTF 4 has another new character but I will get to him later. TRTF 4's story is as follows... it's TRTF 3 again.

Many years have passed and the government, who banned the use of animatronics in the last game, decided to give the main characters of TRTF 3 and a brand new character, John, one last shot. They open an attraction called FreddyFazzyFuntime and start salvaging what they can from Fazbear Fantasy Land as well as finding records of three golden suits, not just Fredbear, not just Spring Bonnie, but a third one. Similar to Fnaf 3, you get recordings each night about the third suit, and how dangerous it is. It might not even be a springlock suit! You play as Blake again and have to survive against the animatronics as your friends look around for anything they can use. You have a steam lever to pull, a power lever to recharge your power, and a locker to hide in. It's basically a Fnaf 2 mask mechanic game again, but you can use the steam on two characters. There are after night minigames and death minigames. Death minigames are just straight up vents and show BFP dead, BFP with his friends, BFP with the creator of Kitty Fazcat with hearts flying in the air, and a scrapped minigame where BFP and all of his friends are dead. These mean nothing to the story, except maybe the scrapped one, but I'll talk about that later. The after night minigames have you play as Vincent TRTF going around killing children. Wonderful. On Night 5 though, you get to see something.

Now I glossed over TRTF 3's minigames because I felt like there wasn't much need to talk about them. They were Fnaf 3 minigames but you don't give any children cake, you just go up to dead children and that's that. Or you jump into a suit and the suits eyes light up. The after night minigames were more interesting. But, there was one I should have talked about. Introducing a character that everyone knows at this point because he's been memed to death. His name is Gron Takalikan.

This green bastard is now a mainstay with the series. He's a bit of a looney tune, and by that, I mean he's insane. But of course, it wouldn't be a TRTF post if I didn't talk about the great soap incident of the 40's.

On the fifth night, you come over to see Gron basically hanging BFP up by chains and torturing him while laughing. It's said that Gron and BFP are father and child, but that has been retconned one to many times to the point where I don't know. But Gron is laughing at the bloody BFP and he turns around to walk away. He slips on a bar of soap, falls directly into the Golden Lockjaw suit, and dies via death mechanisms because it's not a springlock suit. This has been retconned to just him putting on the suit via insanity but who cares. #Soap4Life

The sixth night has no new recordings and the building is scheduled to open up that day. Blake survives for a while but dies at 6 to Golden Lockjaw, the 3rd suit.

He's actually not a bad design but... what's the point? Lockjaw is already a springlock suit. Shadow Lockjaw had no explanation. Just make Gron Shadow Lockjaw. Hell, the only reason Gron exists was because Tyler wanted to have two murderers walking around for whatever reason. Golden Lockjaw was teased in 3 after an update to the game was made a bit after TRTF 3's release. You could have easily made him Shadow Lockjaw and no one would have complained.

There is a bit more story where after you cheat and break the game to beat the seventh night, you get a newspaper of FreddyFazzyFuntime actually opening... despite Blake being dead. Blake does come back, but it's in something stupid. But that's basically all of TRTF 4.

The next game in the series came with many, many different versions. One version had Hybrid versions of the characters that admittedly look cool. Here's a photo of Hybrid Foxy.

Most of them have Tophats for whatever reason but they honestly look kinda cool. The Hybrids are interesting but they were scrapped in favor of new models, those being the Tortured Animatronics. But I think both had the same role, creations of an animatronic machine that got tampered and are all death suits.

The Tortures all feel the same but there are some unique ones, there's The Slaughter Crew, featuring three brand new characters: The Beast, Buster, and Saber.

These guys sure are something alright. This game was very hyped up though, so hyped up that Scott Cawthon himself commented on one of the trailers saying the game looked amazing. From taking the game down to praising the trailer (the best trailer honestly) is an insane feat. Then the game was canceled because Tyler was having mental problems. It jumped from developer to developer and eventually landed on Yin Kouiu who would finish the game... that person was Tyler in disguise. TRTF 5 had such a rocky history and was also the start of Volume 2. Volume 1 was the first four games, Volume 2 was TRTF 5, RADSLA_ and Frankburt's.

I could be talking more about TRTF 5, the many teaser games it has, the other modes it has like a Fnaf World mode, a multiplayer mode, GPD mode. TRTF 5 was a massive game, it jumped engines even, it was even a free roam game at one point. Many of TRTF 5 was made as revivals by fans and not many of them have stacked up to par with the original and what it was meant to be. Most of them cut out the original stuff anyway. TRTF 5 was a massive game, to the point the original games were going to get major updates to fix things and make the story more accurate with TRTF 5. Not much is known about these major updates outside of a few model changes and keys being put into each game that would unlock a boss fight with Tyler himself... for some reason. There would be another set of major updates later on in 2018 but they didn't get far either. They had new graphics though.

I'll talk about the head in the office later don't worry.

RADSLA_ was meant to be the true beginning of the TRTF timeline, taking place in the 40's with highly advanced animatronics, in Japan. Now, this would be the part where I would go off about animatronics in the 40's. But actually, Defunctland made a video talking about animatronics in the 1700's. TRTF once had animatronics in the late 1800's, so TRTF is more accurate to history than you thought. The video in question is right here: https://youtu.be/jjNca1L6CUk?si=CoIxWAn65Gsi89yg

RADSLA_ had highly advanced animatronics for the time though, those being the Fairytales. They were made to hold the souls of children while they worked on a cure for a super cancer. Insert obligatory Super Cancer joke here.

This is the brand new character and Tyler's Fursona, Ty. This is his Fairytale version. He was planned to make an appearance in the major updates of TRTF 4 before they got canned. He was one of the four main antagonists of RADSLA_. He would be possessed by a child named Patient 20. Not an actual japanese name, just Patient 20. I'm not surprised though, the two head scientists of the project are Lloyd and Gilbert, not even Japanese names. There was also a Koly and Sally versions but they never got modeled as far as we know. These three are once again possessed by children and are apart of the "Save The Kids Project" headed by the Gilbert Facility as they try to combat the Super Cancer. Gilbert died from the Super Cancer and ended up possessing The Machine that would create The Tortures. Yes, that machine is possessed.

Lloyd himself would end up dying after a raid on the facility by a character I have yet to mention, Alison. Alison started making his way to TRTF in Volume 2. He's a mob boss and the head of Fazbear Inc. He wanted The Machine for some reason and when they said no, he raided the facility. He's also hacking the animatronics to make them attack you... for whatever reason. Alison is mostly evil for the sake of being evil so there's no real motive there. In the book (which I will get to soon along with the full "reboot") Alison would take the RADSLA_ serum which had the side effect of immortality and he would drink half of it, losing his sperm in the process. Yes, that is also in the book. I will mention that soon.

RADSLA_ was a weird game, but not as weird as Frankburt's. As the name implies, this game is all about Frankburt. If you think it would be about Frankburt's Pizza, sorely mistaken. This game has stripper animatronics. The location is a strip club, it's a mafia hangout, and you play as a brand new character named Blake, not the one from TRTF 4, he possesses Golden Kitty Fazcat. YES, FOUR GOLDEN SUITS! Golden Kitty has a cool design but her entire lore purpose is kinda like Golden Lockjaw is to Lockjaw. Kitty herself is like Lockjaw, a springlock suit iirc. Therefore, Golden Kitty doesn't need to exist just like Golden Lockjaw doesn't need to exist.

Also, speaking of Kitty. I am convinced that Frankburt's is a spite game for the sole reason that I'm pretty sure this was around or after the time Kitty Fazcat and Tyler broke up. Therefore, we have this thing.

Fun fact, this is the only animatronic in the TRTF series with boobs as the wiki says. This says a lot without saying a lot.

There isn't much story but from what I can gather, at the end of the game, the FBI shows up and shuts down Frankburt's with the character of Carson (the main character of 5) shooting Alison and killing him. As mentioned, Carson is the main player character of TRTF 5 and I never really mentioned the story of that. Mainly because it kinda changed with each iteration. But it always stayed the same, you needed to go to Fazbear Inc (Not Entertainment, Incorporated) and stop the madness, all the while the animatronics were out for blood. They might have been possessed, but I honestly don't remember. In the end, you had a choice, wear the Torture Device suit or don't fulfill the prophecy. Yes, A PROPHECY! As if this shit couldn't get any weirder. If you fulfill the prophecy and wear the Torture Device, you get the good ending. Don't wear it, the animatronics cause the apocalypse. THE END!

TRTF is fucking crazy and I still haven't gone over the book, that one game that started out as a teaser game but turned into it's own game, and the full on reboot. So lightning round. The book is called The Dreadful Truth, and it's responsible for introducing people to the Super Cancer jokes, but there's also the false god Torture Device and other weird things. The human characters don't get a lot of spotlight or any sort of character, hell, the Missing Kids have been retconned to it just being BFP controlling all of the animatronics. But one character that had always interested me was Cawnoth Cotts. Cawnoth was the main character of TRTF 2 and the book describes him as a college student, and 19 years old I think... but has a family. Either he banged a younger woman or most likely the latter option, teenage pregnancy. Though, TRTF isn't exactly free from the predator actions as one minigame planned to be in 5 had Alison, who is like over 50, flirting with a 16 year old girl, that being the creator of Kitty Fazcat. Back to the book, it's mid. It's pretty bad but hey, fangames getting a book, that's nice I guess. Though this is probably the funniest thing ever so look up The Dreadful Truth one of these days, you'll have a laugh.

MAD MIND was a teaser game for Volume 2 that soon turned into it's own game. Not much is known about the story but it possibly could have been a game adaptation of The Dreadful Truth as the game starts off with the three patients of RADSLA_ getting put into the Fairytales. You would then be put into a carnival like world and the rest of the game is unfinished but some screenshots make it out to be an RPG style game.

Mad Mind is still around, but is now an original project for Tyler's somehow running Game Studio which I'm pretty sure is just a money laundering scheme.

The Return To Freddy's Chapter One is a full on reboot of The Return To Freddy's. Made by Tyler himself, the series would have had four chapters, each being different from the last and would slowly transition into craziness. Chapter One is reportedly stated to be a major update to TRTF 1 but I don't know. The story is insanely different, there's brand new characters like some sort of Lemur, Sugar is still there. The Fnaf cast is still there and it's described as some as Sister Location but with TRTF stuff in it. Lockjaw is there as a plushie and it kinda does look like Sister Location at times.

That plushie is my favorite thing ever though. Chapter One was canceled and Tyler stated that it never existed, he then went on to work on original stuff like money laundering with The Road That Falls, which has the same initials as The Return To Freddy's... funny. There has been other things about Chapter One because it was in fact a real game at some point, and Tyler just said that to get out of the Fnaf community. I haven't talked about Tyler much because the guy is straight up a walking nut case and if I'm being honest, is probably mentally ill. I don't like saying that about people but when you draw confession art to someone while you are still in the middle of a relationship, I deem you mentally ill and a walking nut case.

That's all of TRTF I'm willing to talk about. This series means a lot to me and if it were up to me, I would talk on for more and more. I probably could, but I'm stopping myself because I know why you are all really here, to figure out how this all fits into my AU. I'm glad you asked. Similar to Fnati, this isn't super important to know, but it's a bit more important than Fnati so if you made it all this way, maybe this is your reward for me waffling about it for so long. I kinda wish that Fnati post was made better, that was the first fangame after all.

This version of the story starts all the way back in the 1940's in Japan. Tycraz Food and Fun! was put into place in 1942, though, his name wasn't called Tycraz, it was Thaikraz. Thaikraz was joined by Coricoara and Saripanda. Being part of VERY early technology, the automatons were flimsy and could only stand and talk and play automated japanese songs, though, even then the technology was faulty. The animals mouths didn't move and sometimes the characters would freeze up and not work anymore. But these animatronics were part of a special program. Originally, they would be placed in the children's wing of a hospital in the cafeteria. They would entertain the sick children who had gotten an unknown disease that was slowly killing them. As the doctors searched for a cure, the animatronics were made to show the children that everything was okay. However, one of the head doctors of the "Save The Kids" project, Girubāto Vu~orendesu brought up the idea of using the robots to preserve the lives of the children until they found a cure. Girubāto proposed that the procedure into their animatronic bodies may kill the children, so they needed to freeze them until they had a cure and they could put their souls back into their bodies.

The idea was laughed at, heavily mocked, and Girubāto was almost fired. But he never backed down from that idea. Girubāto and his son, Arei Vu~orendesu, would go out of their way to gather three patients. Amano Keita (Patient 20), Kodama Fumika (Patient 48), Kumashima Gorōta (Patient 63). The three children were hooked up to tubes and machines that would, theoretically, transfer their souls into the machines. A drug was injected into the three children and their heartrates slowly started to flatline. The freezing process began just as the doors began to open, the other doctors got wind of this stunt and were ready to stop the experiment in hopes of saving the children from Girubāto and Arei. It was too late, the children's bodies were frozen, unthawing them might kill them. However, the machines began to wake up and speak on their own. The switches for the machines were set into the off position. Everyone was stunned, the experiment had worked. The souls of the children were stuck inside of the machines. It had worked! Everyone apologized to the Vu~orendesu's and marveled at the animatronics. Such cheap materials now housed the souls of three children inflicted with the virus.

More automatons were set to be made, and the hospital now opened up a separate area dedicated to Girubāto called "Girubāto Facility" where a machine would be constructed to create a machine that would create more automatons easily and cheaply. The fame started to go to Girubāto's head. Arei noticed this. When there were delays, his father would go into rage fits. When the children asked to go back into their normal bodies, he would simply ignore them or talk down to them, like a mother to a young one. Arei didn't like this side of his father and proposed a plan to keep him in check. He called the other doctors one day and made a small mistake in front of them, causing Girubāto to go into a rage fit so badly that he was fired from the project and left the hospital. Girubāto was enraged further and told everyone that the project would fail without him. Little did he know that a medicine said to combat the unknown disease was already in testing and showed great promise with little to no side effects. The serum was called "RADSLA" as no one could think of an interesting name for it. Arei was now the head of the project and for weeks, everything seemed okay. Until Thaikraz started to walk on his own. It was a miracle that he was walking to begin with, but Keita said that it wasn't him doing it. It seemed like something outside of the building was controlling the automatons.

Coincidentally, one of the controllers for the automatons was missing. One of each character, Thaikraz, Cori, and Sari. The automatons would soon be found in the rooms of patients each night, standing over them, watching them sleep. Out of fear for the other patients, a night guard was hired to watch over the automatons so they don't hurt anymore. The first guard was Arei himself but he had mysteriously disappeared. The only place that wasn't checked was the room that held the RADSLA antidote, as it was mysteriously locked and no one had the key. The sign of "Do Not Access" was scratched out. Roido āvu~ingu was the guard of the next location, he was hired on by one of the head doctors as a personal favor for something Roido did for him. Roido was looking for work anyway. Roido was the guard for the nights and would be keeping an eye on the place via a makeshift office in the elevator of the building. Other rooms that would qualify as an office were tight and not used much for security. The elevator was the best they could do. During Roido's nights in the building, he would also be attacked other ways. The Gas Pipes breaking, the animatronics trying to attack him, and they would even try to attack the other patients.

On Roido's fifth night, Arei finally returned, but he was a mangled corpse. Using parts of The Machine that they were building, he was a different person. Bent on revenge for what the others had done to him. He moved around attempting to destroy the other bots, Roido would try to get Arei away from the automatons, but all that did was lead Arei to him. Arei would then kill Roido at 6am. Children were screaming and the police were soon called, who would detain Arei and later kill him for good with a grenade. The missing controllers were later found at Girubāto's house and he was later arrested and sentenced to life in prison. The liquid antidote was soon finished and was given to the children, curing them of the disease. However, the automatons were gone. No one could find them. The disease was cured but without the robots, the three patients that had the virus were frozen, meaning the virus was frozen with it. And it was going to stay that way... forever.

The year 1946 rolled around and soon opened up Goldie's Paradise Diner. Goldie's Paradise Diner was home to two mascot characters dressed in gold. These mascots were Goldie the bear and Yeller the Rabbit. It was owned by an unknown company that had many ties to the mob, but none of those were ever proven. Both the company and the Ahlstrom Crime Family denied everything about the connections to each other. Goldie's Paradise Diner continued to suffer from the controversies though and the owner of the company, Alison Bairren, was desperate to rake in customers. He talked with the Ahlstrom Crime Family on trying to get more publicity. The Ahlstrom Crime family cut him a deal, they would supply him with a machine they managed to smuggle from an old japanese hospital and research facility to make automatons if Alison helped with a favor they called upon him at any given time. Alison agreed, desperate to get any sort of attention. The machine was supplied to Alison and it started on making the first automaton, a wearable animatronic suit with very sharp animatronic parts. They were called "Torture Suits" by Alison. One suit was created and sent to the location, though, Alison was worried about the mechanisms in the suit.

The suit was later found by the Diner's other attraction outside of the mascot performers, Gron The Great. Gron Takalikan was a jester that performed in the diner alongside his loving wife, Lynda Takalikan, who operated a small wooden doll named "Wood Buddy". They would perform shows for the kids as well as goofily deliver food sometimes. Gron found out about the suit in the backroom, curious about it after listening to the tapes his boss had left all of the employees about some changes happening to Goldie's, a potential rebrand of the location one would say. Gron discovered the suit as well as overhearing one of his bosses phone calls with the Ahlstrom Crime Family. He left a letter of resignation that told the truth to Alison, asking him to stop this before something bad happened. The mob soon found out about this and called upon Alison to deal with the Takalikan family, who was now on their way out of the state of California. Alison did the deal, not wanting to piss off the mob. He crashed his car into the Takalikan family car, killing the wife of Gron. Gron then watched as child protective services took away his youngest son, leaving him with his oldest. He tried to be there for his oldest as he begged for his job back at Goldie's. One day, after working his job at Goldie's with his now stand up routine "The Jester and his Puppet", he came home to his son hanging in the living room, leaving a note written in blood that said "I'm sorry daddy." Gron had gone insane after this.

He wore the "Torture Suit" at the building willingly, killing himself. Though, he didn't expect to wake up inside of the suit, possessing it. He watched as they sealed him away. Alison and the mob cut ties after this, swearing to never speak of their partnership again. Alison and his company, Bairren Inc., would soon be found for insider trading. When police arrived at the company's factory, they scaled all the way to the top of the building to find a suit that was described as "A demon" with Alison no where to be found. Alison was blamed for insider trading because of the machine he got from Japan. A new owner would take over the company and use The Machine to make safer wearable suits and open up "Frankburt's Pizza". While Alison was considered to be at large for insider trading and supposedly being in a cult, Frankburt's Pizza opened up and featured two animatronics, Frankburt the Comedian and Sugar the Cat. Sugar was a blue cat that no one really knew about, so when Candy's Burgers and Fries opened up in the 1960's, many people assumed Sugar had copied Candy. Neither one copied the other, it was simply pure coincidence. Frankburt's Pizza didn't last long as the animatronics made too many "edgy jokes". Frankburt was going on about a pink cat that broke up with him, saying that "he missed her". This was a play on the owner's own girlfriend who broke up with her and met up with someone else. There was originally a pink cat character based off of his girlfriend, with an enlarged chest area when the two were still together, no wonder the girlfriend left the owner.

Outside of the edgy jokes and adult humor that should not have been said around young children, the animatronics themselves were ugly and "too scary". Frankburt's Pizza was closed down and in 1980, Fazbear Entertainment acquired the characters and soon Fazbear Enterprises was born. However, nothing was done with the characters until 1987, where a toy version of Sugar was made alongside three others as prototypes for the "Toy line" of animatronics. They were put into a Fredbear's Family Diner establishment. Now get this, the yellow bear wearing purple wasn't even the star, Freddy was. It wasn't even something like Fredbear "Nickname Freddy" Fazbear, it was just Freddy Fazbear. Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy were there as well. Redesigned from their classic incarnations to be part of a new line of characters, but they were just considered ugly and especially smelly. The toy line was made so they could slowly fade out the old characters with the new ones when they were done being tested and created. Frankburt was one of the first animatronics there, but he performed like shit and no matter what, they couldn't get rid of the edgy humor. So they coined it off as him being "Very glitchy" and tucked him in the basement of the building along with the Toy Sugar after some little girl tore her apart. That little girl would later go missing at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Sugar's replacements came in the form of a cake giving animatronic named Buster the Hare, which was supposed to be Bonnie's father, alongside a dog animatronic that didn't have a name. The owner of Fredbear's was supposed to name him but he never did, which the children did all the work and named the character "Dug". Vincent Affleck, the owner of the Fredbear's, just went with it, not caring about it. Vincent was too worried about people thinking he was the murderer of the five missing kids at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. He looked like him, he sounded like him, but Vincent was in fact not William Afton. This was not the only problem Vincent was having as he was stuck working for Fazbear Entertainment, but also he had a problem trying to find a night guard to work the night shift at Fredbear's during the night. He was desperate for anyone to work the night shift and later found Alison Bairren to do the night shift. Vincent had heard of Alison's criminal past and asked why he wanted to work here. Alison responded with that he wanted to see what happened to his characters and machine after he was taken away by demons and forced to play some game with an egg. Vincent was confused at first but decided that he had other problems to worry about and hired him anyway.

During the nights, Alison was guided by Vincent on what to do and how to deal with the moving animatronics. The animatronics were only moving because they were possessed by the victims William had killed back in 85. Cassidy was controlling the prototype Toy animatronics in the building while she was also on the attack as Golden Freddy. Alison had planned on quitting, but then remembered the real reason he took the job. So he stopped by during the day and kidnapped a boy, taking him to the basement of Fredbear's. He planned to sacrifice him to the almighty Hellhound, the demon that resembled the suit he made all the way back in the forties and early fifties. The boy was horrified and ran away, hiding in the old Frankburt suit, before dying to the slightly safer torture mechanisms inside. Alison thought that was close enough and walked away, unknown that he had done something wrong. He worked the fifth night where Vincent had left a message while screaming at a crowd that the missing child was not their fault. Vincent would end up muting the message, but soon be met with the spirit of the child he had killed. Both Melody and Charlie met up with the child, Brain Franklin Peterson, and had given him life in the suit he died in. He also found a way to escape his suit, but ended up as a shadow variation of it. He wanted to know why Alison did such a thing, but Alison explained nothing and continued to do his job, surviving against the animatronics. Alison survived two more nights and then left a complaint, quitting the job at Fredbear's and going home for some well deserved rest. However, in his nightmares, he was met with a demonic version of Frankburt, who would try to kill Alison in his sleep for failing to make a true sacrifice. Alison said he would do it and managed to get in contact with the police and worked with them to help them find the Ahlstrom Crime Family and get them off his back.

Alison would then join up with Fazbear Entertainment and find his old machine, using it to build Torture suits so he could make sacrifices to the Hellhound. The Hellhound had no business coming to earth, he just wanted souls to feast on. But he didn't want good souls, no, he wanted the souls of bad people. So Alison would punish slackers of Fazbear Entertainment, people like Jefferson Davis, who was often slacking on the job when it came to being a janitor at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. This created myths that there were underground torture bunkers at Fazbear locations, which Fazbear Enterprises denied while Alison hid the truth from everyone. Alison continued to make the Hellhound happy, which prompted no more nightmares for Alison. This all changed in the year 1996 when a relatively obscure Fazbear Location opened up. It was one of the first Fazbear locations opened up under the "Freddy Fazbear's Easy Franchisee Program!" locations, which many were opened under the program. The location was nicknamed "Chapter One" as the owner planned to open up many more locations as a soft reboot of the Fazbear brand, which Fazbear Entertainment and Fazbear Enterprises had no idea what kind of pitch that meant but they were giving this program out to random people without doing background checks. Alison was sent to supervise the location as Fazbear Enterprises believed the guy behind it was crazy. The owner of the location happened to be Jackson Takalikan, who was now all grown up and ready to get into business. This made Alison worried as he thought Jackson was going to uncover the truth.

The Chapter One location was often disregarded for a lot of reasons, and there's not much information about it known. If you have any information, let us know! One things for certain, the owner was found dead in his home along with his wife, with their youngest son Carson being sent to an orphanage to be adopted soon after, his tragic story really made people want to adopt him. Alison had also mysteriously disappeared, as many people noted that he would be up late at night in his home with night terror's. People last saw him entering Fazbear Entertainment's base of operations in St. George Utah, and then never coming out. Many things were often fabricated when the Fazbear Enterprises project "Clean Slate!" took place, an "Incident of 96" was created alongside "Children disappearing after getting struck by lightning on the Vigo Roller Coaster" which has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard, but it's real.

In 2014, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was brought back by one Tyler Ahlstrom. Tyler Ahlstrom was a part of the Ahlstrom Crime Family and was the most infamous member for obvious schemes of money laundering, especially with his ongoing scheme of the game company "Kriya Studios", which to this day still has no gameplay or any games, just cinematic trailers. This bringing back from the dead and claiming the animatronics were fixed was simply another front for a money laundering scheme. The inside of the building was rotting away, the room where the kitchen was straight up collapsed so the Dining Room had a microwave with hot pockets next to it. They brought back The Puppet from the previous location in 87 for some reason. There was also the reintroduction to Sugar the Cat, which was just Candy mishmashed with Toy Bonnie parts. Some people who visited the location made theories that the child possessing Candy was still around, despite the factory burning down. A night guard was hired and Michael Afton was selected to take the job. He was still under the disguise of Mike Schmidt and was given phone calls by Vincent Affleck during the night, however, Mike was so bored that he fell asleep, despite his plan on going there to help free the souls of his father's victims. He just put on a Freddy mask that Vincent claimed was toxic and fell asleep (it was not toxic actually, Vincent was losing his mind). He had dreams of the animatronics coming at him at the doors as well as The Puppet trying to get him, or a shadow of The Puppet trying to get him. This was Brian, who had entered the location and heard of Michael's plan to free the souls, but entering his dreams, he found his memories. He felt bad for the guy and tried apologizing to him. Michael didn't know what that meant. Michael continued to sleep on the job for the rest of his nights, despite Vincent dying to something on the phone, Michael slept through that. He was later fired by Tyler but not for sleeping on the job, but because he couldn't pay him anything. He spent the last of his money just to pay him, which was a lie. The building closed down and Tyler went on back to launder his money through his game studio, that never released one game.

2015 rolls around and three teenagers, despite them probably should be in high school or middle school, decide to open their own Freddy Fazbear's Easy Franchisee Program! location, this one is to be called Fazbear Fantasy Land. The animatronics are all salvaged from the past, even finding the original Sugar animatronic while the one from thet 2014 location was put on display and the original Toy Sugar head was found and placed by the office. The three teenagers, Wilson Gallaria Jr., Chun Philips, and Blake Johnson, would do a rock paper scissors to see who takes the night shift to watch over the place before opening. Blake had lost and had to take the night shift. He encountered the animatronics moving, but had heard stories about it and thought nothing of it. He closed the doors on them so they would be sent back, however, he was most scared of Lockjaw, aka Frankburt. Still possessed by Brian, Lockjaw would make friends with the other souls and would also like to be free with them. Although, Brian tried his hardest more than the others to get to Blake. Blake and the others were making a mockery of him, calling him "Lockjaw" and telling him about the legendary animatronic and how they ignored his corpse. Blake would survive his nights, and eventually find out on his sixth night that Lockjaw had hugged six children to death, and the FBI was going to shut the place down and demolish it. Fazbear Enterprises was pissed with them. Blake survived the sixth night and read the news, even finding out about the body inside of Frankburt. It was a tragic day, but Brian was still around, laying in the old decayed ruins of Fazbear Fantasy Land. He wasn't taken with the other animatronics to Fazbear's Fright when it was being made, but ten years later, the same three had found him and used him for parts. He was unaware that the others had moved on by now...

Freddy's Funtime Fazland was the location that Wilson, Chun, Blake, and their new friend John Jones were making as Fazbear Enterprises gave them "One Last Shot". Project "Clean Slate" was working well with them after they used an old mall as a base for their brand new game "The Return To Freddy's 2" which was a spin-off of the "Five Nights At Freddy's" line of games, books, TV shows, and just about everything you can think of. Freddy's Funtime Fazland was similar to the Fantasy Land, but was placed in an old animation studio owned by Fazbear Entertainment at one point. Blake volunteered to be night guard once more and found that the old Frankburt animatronic was used to help repair most of the run down animatronics in the building, which included a forgotten version of Frankburt, a forgotten version of Sugar, and forgotten versions of Freddy and Bonnie. There were even new characters Blake had never heard of named Koly the Koala, Sally the Panda, and Ty the Red Panda. These were characters from the old japan research hospital, but they weren't high tech like those automatons. These were just old animatronics that were discarded by Fazbear Entertainment. They had also found records about Frankburt's Pizza (which got turned into Fazbear Fantasy Land) and learned the location got rebranded to Frankburt's Pizza but there was an automaton older than Frankburt down there. They managed to find it while Blake survived for his life at the building against Brian, who wanted revenge for being used once again as a mockery of his suffering. They later found Golden Frankburt and brought him to the location. Gron was so happy to be free, but he knew that Alison was still out there. Alison was the reason he was still around, the reason his wife was dead, and the reason for everything. He needed to get his revenge.

On the day that Freddy's Funtime Fazland was about to open, Blake had disappeared, alongside the Golden Frankburt. However, the other animatronics were in tact and the place opened, but was shut down after only a month of operation after they found what happened to Blake, the golden suit killed him and escaped. The Frankburt animatronic that Brian possessed would later be used at "Midway Plaza" but that's a story for another time. An FBI agent investigated the now ruined Freddy's Funtime Fazland, looking for answers. His family had been tied to Fazbear Enterprises and it's characters that belonged to Bairren Inc. and it caused the death of his parents. He needed to find out why.

Discovering that Frankburt was a public domain character alongside other Fazbear Entertainment characters, the FBI Agent found himself busting an underground strip club featuring animatronics simply known as "Frankburt's". This strip club belonged to the Ahlstrom Crime family, he burst in and shot up the place, killing the night guard Blake Johnson, who was blonde and not like the other Blake Johnson, who was a brunette. He came in contact with the Ahlstrom Crime Family boss, Tyler. His money laundering scheme brought him to the top. The FBI agent asked where Alison was and Tyler didn't know anything. The FBI agent sighed and knew what he had to do. Go to the old Fazbear Entertainment building for answers. The FBI took care of the Ahlstrom Crime family.

Carson went on looking for answers... but that's for another time...

(Happy 10th Anniversary TRTF!! You are my favorite fangame series ever! The Legend Never Dies!!!)

[msclaritea]

Netflix’s Viewership Data On ‘Shadow And Bone’ & Other Cancellations – Deadline

Netflix’s Viewership Data Provides Glimpse Into Renewal Decisions: ‘Shadow And Bone’ Was Most Watched Canceled Series In First Half Of 2023

Nellie Andreeva

December 12, 2023

Streaming giant Netflix has always said that the decisions whether to renew a show or not are based on performance vs. cost. The release today of What We Watched, a Netflix report on global viewed hours for 18,000 titles — original and licensed — from January to June of 2023 provides context on the calls the streamer made for seasons that debuted during that period.

It won’t come as much of a consolation to Shadow and Bone fans, who are still reeling from the fantasy drama’s cancellation after two seasons, but it was the most watched English-language scripted series from that period to get the axe, amassing 192.9M hours viewed from its March 16 debut through end of June to rank #26.

Headshots of (L-R) Ranada Shepard, JB Smoove, Yvette Nicole Brown & Jay Pharoah

Casting

'Good Times' Sets Ranada Shepard As Showrunner; JB Smoove, Yvette Nicole Brown & Jay Pharoah To Star In Netflix's Animated Reboot

Shadow and Bone was one of five series Netflix opted not to continue in November, along with Glamorous and adult animated comedies Agent Elvis, Farzar and Captain Fall. The decision came on the heels of the double Hollywood strikes, which scrambled networks and streamers’ scheduling plans, with shows missing their projected launches to create long gaps between seasons and a pipeline logjam for late 2024 and 2025.

Strike-related delays and the high price tag of Shadow and Bone likely played a role in its demise, despite it also spawning a video game franchise for Netflix.

And while there are other factors beyond performance determining each show’s fate, including cost and awards attention, the streamer’s report reveals Shadow and Bone‘s viewership levels as an approximate threshold for hourlong English-language series from that period to get renewed. (Because data is based on hours viewed, comedies can draw half as many hours for a similar level of performance.)

All series above Shadow and Bone eligible for renewal have been picked up for another season, including Vikings: Valhalla (#22, 205.5M), whose upcoming third season will be its last.

The first new season below Shadow and Bone S2, Sweet Tooth (S2, #28) which posted 182.3M hours, has been renewed for a third and final season. The next English-language scripted series, Sex/Life S2 (#31, 175.5M) has been canceled, as were other dramas lower on the list whose seasons launched within the January-June window.

Data for Glamorous is skewed as it premiered in late June, drawing 36.6M hours (#484) for the first nine days of viewing within the measured period.

Netflix has been more lenient with its comedy renewals.

While That ’90s Show S1 ranked #100 with a respectable 95.1M hours viewed for a half-hour show, fellow multi-camera sitcom The Upshaws Part 3, which consisted of 8 episodes vs. 10 for the That ’70s Show sequel, ranked just below #1000 with 21.6M hours. Both have been renewed for additional installments, as has the Rob Lowe’s single-camera comedy Unstable, whose first season ranked #511 with 35.3M hours across 8 episodes.

For comparison, fellow freshman half-hour XO, Kitty (10 eps) logged 200.7M hours to rank #24, the highest for an ongoing comedy to drop a new season from Jan-June 2023.

As for Agent Elvis, featuring Matthew McConaughey as the voice of Elvis Presley, the first season of the animated comedy, which premiered in March, ranked #3306 with a paltry 5.5M hours viewed.

I knew it. Netflix lied. They said Shadow and Bone was unpopular, just to make a play at replacing it with the Queer-centered Six of Crows. I suppose it's for the best. I still enjoy the series, but after all of this, have come to notice that not one couple on that show was allowed to be happy EXCEPT the Queer one.

[denimbex1986]

'When Christopher Nolan was working on the script for Oppenheimer, the filmmaker made the unusual decision of writing the screenplay in the first person, essentially depicting events from the POV of his lead character, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. In a behind-the-scenes sneak peek, which EW can exclusively reveal in the video above, the director explains his thinking with regard to that decision.

"In the case of this film, I wrote the script in the first person," says Nolan, whose previous credits include Inception and Interstellar. "It's the only time I've done that. It made it clear to anyone who read the script that we're on this ride with Oppenheimer."

In the same video, Cillian Murphy, who plays the role of Oppenheimer — the so-called "father of the atomic bomb" — admits to being surprised by the script's format when he began reading the screenplay.

"It took me a minute to actually comprehend," the actor says, "and then I realized, oh, that's a huge responsibility."

Later in the video, Murphy explains how Oppenheimer "sees things in sort of different dimensions. Physicists operate on a completely different level than we do, and I think sometimes it's a burden. So I was really interested in that."

The featurette contains interview material with several other cast members, including Emily Blunt, who plays Oppenheimer's wife Kitty, and Robert Downey Jr., who portrays Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss.

"If Chris Nolan calls you and says that he'd like to meet with you, you're like, I don't care what it is," Blunt says.

"From the second I read the script, I knew that he had a very acute vision," Downey adds of Nolan, "and if he were able to render that vision that this film would be a masterpiece."

Florence Pugh, who plays Oppenheimer's lover, Jean Tatlock, is also featured in the clip The Black Widow and Don't Worry Darling actress describes her character as "blunt, [knows] what she wants, but at no point is she ever punished for that, and especially not by Oppenheimer."

Matt Damon costars in the film as General Leslie Groves, who put Oppenheimer in charge of the Manhattan project, the scientific initiative which resulted in the creation of the atom bomb.

"I tried to familiarize myself with Groves and the history and then talk to Chris about what he needed from that part," Damon says in the video. "Groves was almost like a kindergarten teacher in some respects, because these scientists were so eccentric and not necessarily trustworthy, I mean, if you're looking from a military perspective."

"It's a profoundly moving and overwhelming experience, watching it," Murphy says of the finished film towards the end of the featurette. "You feel so compelled to watch what's happening with these people and how they're drawn into the biggest of moral dilemmas, and what they're wrestling with, all of the characters."

Nolan and Murphy previously discussed the Oppenheimer shoot for EW's 2023 Summer Preview.

"The shoot was very sort of fast and furious and efficient," the director said at the time. "Hoyte [Van Hoytema, Nolan's regular cinematographer] and myself — from the technical end — we kind of jumped back to an earlier point in both of our careers, where we had no Steadicam on set, we had no playback or monitors. We were approaching it in a very stripped-down manner which gave us a terrific energy. I think it gelled very well with the ensemble nature of the piece. Even though Oppenheimer is at the center of it, we had this incredible ensemble of actors bringing so much to the table, and we really wanted to be able to move fast, jump around, and capture anything that was going to get thrown up by that."

"Every day, you had these phenomenal actors, who are heroes of mine, coming in," Murphy said. "Every day, you were having to raise your game to work with these legends. Everybody was so unbelievably well-prepared. Every single actor, no matter what size their role or the significance of their character in history, each one of them had this massive depth of knowledge that they could draw on."'

[usa2025store08]

Seattle Mariners MLB x Hello Kitty Night 2025 Baseball Jersey

Product link:https://flavorhauted.com/product/seattle-mariners-mlb-x-hello-kitty-night-2025-baseball-jersey/

Store link:https://flavorhauted.com/

⚾ ART CRITIC REVIEW — SEATTLE MARINERS x HELLO KITTY NIGHT 2025 BASEBALL JERSEY 🐱

🎀 A PLAYFUL FUSION OF POP CULTURE & SPORTS HERITAGE

The Seattle Mariners x Hello Kitty Night 2025 Baseball Jersey is a visual symphony of nostalgia, kawaii charm, and ballpark energy. This is no ordinary fan gear—it’s an imaginative crossover that brilliantly unites the world of Major League Baseball with one of pop culture’s most beloved icons: Hello Kitty. Designed to celebrate a special themed night, this jersey achieves the rare feat of being whimsical without compromising on team pride or athletic integrity. It is, quite simply, a wearable celebration.

Front and center, the Mariners logo is reimagined with Hello Kitty flair, blending Seattle’s nautical typography with bubbly character vibes. The jersey base is drenched in a deep Mariners navy blue, providing a striking canvas for the lighter motifs. Across the chest, the word “Seattle” is written in a retro script that mimics vintage baseball jerseys while being outlined in pastel blue and white, a nod to the soft and cute aesthetic of Sanrio branding. All throughout the fabric, a repeating pattern of the Mariners “S” logo and Hello Kitty’s bow offers visual rhythm, creating a sense of movement that feels both sporty and stylish.

🐾 BACK DESIGN: ICONIC, CUSTOMIZABLE, AND CULTURALLY BOLD

Flip the jersey and you’re met with an explosion of Hello Kitty charisma. Dead center is a large, beautifully printed Hello Kitty character in a Mariners uniform, glove in hand, bow in place—looking game-day ready. Her confident stance and oversized presence scream “mascot-level importance,” giving this piece a collectible feel. Just above her, the text “ANY NAME” appears in MLB-style lettering, a brilliant customizable feature that gives wearers the chance to make this already standout jersey their own.

The balance of proportions here is key—the back design dominates but doesn’t overwhelm, and the blend of official MLB detailing (like the red-white-blue logo beneath the collar) with Sanrio’s fun-loving essence creates a harmonious duality. It’s one part authentic baseball heritage, one part anime-convention-ready cosplay. It’s inclusive, it’s unapologetic, and most importantly—it’s fashion-forward fandom done right.

Sleeve patches add further richness to the design. On one arm, Hello Kitty winks in full Mariners uniform; on the other, a patch combines the Mariners compass with Kitty’s bow. These touches are subtle yet layered with symbolic meaning, showing the thoughtfulness behind this collaboration.

🌈 TEXTURE, FUNCTION & STREETWEAR POTENTIAL

Crafted from lightweight, breathable polyester, this jersey is ideal for both in-game cheering and off-field styling. The cut is relaxed yet tailored enough to give it shape, ensuring comfort and movement while maintaining a crisp silhouette. Whether worn oversized for a streetwear look or layered with a hoodie and snapback, this jersey was clearly designed to crossover from stadium to sidewalk.

From a tactile standpoint, the sublimation printing technique ensures that the graphics are vivid, durable, and resistant to fading or cracking. This level of quality elevates the jersey beyond novelty, positioning it squarely within the realm of premium fanwear. The button-down front adds a layer of versatility—wear it open with a crop top or tee, or buttoned up for a more traditional, sporty appearance.

Even more impressive is the gender-neutral appeal. Hello Kitty’s universal fanbase spans generations, cultures, and styles. This jersey invites everyone into the Mariners fandom with open arms and open hearts, making it more than just clothing—it’s a statement of inclusivity and joy.

🌟 FINAL THOUGHTS: WHERE WHIMSY MEETS THE DIAMOND

The Seattle Mariners x Hello Kitty Night 2025 Baseball Jersey is a landmark moment in fashion-meets-sport collaborations. It honors tradition while daring to be different, proving that you can be fierce and adorable in the same breath. In a world where jerseys are often predictable and formulaic, this one breaks barriers—between cultures, between genres, and between expectations.

This is not just merchandise. It’s a celebration of what happens when branding meets emotion, when style meets spirit, and when creativity meets courage. Whether you’re a lifelong Mariners fan or a lifelong Hello Kitty lover—or both—this jersey is your perfect match.

[zintranslations]

Kaleidoscope of Death, Extra 3

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Extra: Shameless Couple (2)

Ruan Nanzhu's stint as an actor was purely for fun, so nobody took the matter very seriously. But months later, as Ruan Nanzhu sat around bored at home with nothing to do, he got a call from Zhang Yiqing. The movie was premiering, and Zhang Yiqing sent him two free tickets for him to go have a look.

Tickets in hand, Ruan Nanzhu invited Lin Qiushi to go see the movie together. The two arrived happily at the theater, Lin Qiushi bought a bucket of popcorn, and they sat down in the audience.

The movie was a hundred minutes total; Lin Qiushi didn't have high expectations coming in, but afterwards, he was completely blown away. Though Zhang Yiqing had been an actor and had never gone through an official director’s program, he obviously had quite a lot of talent in the realm of directing. At least, the techniques he used to shoot this wuxia film that Ruan Nanzhu got a cameo in were good enough to provoke cheers and applause.

Ruan Nanzhu, playing the prince in the movie, was also exceptional.

But after they watched it, that was that. Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu went home without thinking too much on the matter, until the next day when Lin Qiushi opened up his social media and saw that Ruan Nanzhu's character was trending…He didn't understand such things very well. He clicked into the tag and found many people gushing about Ruan Nanzhu's acting and good looks, and asking how come they'd not seen this new actor before. No one thought that this new guy with so few lines would be so eye-catching.

Lin Qiushi woke the bleary-eyed Ruan Nanzhu and pushed the phone in front of his face.

"Nanzhu, are you famous?"

Ruan Nanzhu opened his eyes and peered once at the phone screen before pushing Lin Qiushi down into bed again. He kissed Lin Qiushi's chin and said, "forget about that…"

Lin Qiushi, "oh…"

Ruan Nanzhu had little actual concept of himself going viral, so when he was having lunch with Lin Qiushi one day, he was actually pretty irritated to get Zhang Yiqing's phone call.

"I'm just a minor side character," he said, "why should I go on your publicity tour? What? Blacklist me? Did you take the wrong meds this morning? I'm not even in the industry, blacklist me all you want—"

Lin Qiushi listened at the side and found it funny, but then Zhang Yiqing said something at the end, and Ruan Nanzhu actually stopped refusing. Brows furrowing, he looked up once at Lin Qiushi before agreeing to Zhang Yiqing's request to go on a publicity tour with him and the cast.

After hanging up, Ruan Nanzhu said that Zhang Yiqing wanted him to go do publicity for a bit of time.

"Go," Lin Qiushi said. "But if you really dislike it, don't force yourself. We lack for nothing."

"Mh." Ruan Nanzhu nodded, taking Lin Qiushi's words to heart.

After that, Lin Qiushi's projects got busy as well, and he didn't have the time to pay attention to developments around Ruan Nanzhu's movie. The point at which he realized Ruan Nanzhu was well and truly famous was when he discovered that a young employee had switched her desktop screensaver to a picture of Ruan Nanzhu. Lin Qiushi had even thought he'd been seeing things at first, pointing at the screensaver and asking the girl, "who's this?"

The girl turned to Lin Qiushi with an expression of excitement and began a fanatic recommendation of Ruan Nanzhu, saying how this was a super popular newcomer named Yu Qiuqiu, and not only was he good looking but is acting was also amazing!

Lin Qiushi, "…" Alright alright, enough already. I know exactly how amazing his acting is.

That night, Lin Qiushi stared thoughtfully at Ruan Nanzhu, who was in his pajamas in the kitchen, watching TV.

Ruan Nanzhu noticed Lin Qiushi's gaze. He turned around to ask, "what is it?"

Lin Qiushi, "Nanzhu…"

Ruan Nanzhu, "hm?"

Lin Qiushi, "are you famous?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "famous? What do you mean?"

Seeing his bewildered expression, Lin Qiushi had no choice but to change his wording: "Is Yu Qiuqiu famous?" And this bastard even debuted with his pseudonym.

Ruan Nanzhu slapped a hand to his thigh. "Yeah! Our Qiuqiu is super famous! Zhang Yiqing recommended me to his friends trying to make me the main character—"

Lin Qiushi, "isn't that a good thing?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "how is it a good thing? If I'm making movies I have to run around all the time. I can't keep you company like that."

Lin Qiushi thought about it.

"But you're just doing it for fun, so you don't have to worry about all that. You don't have to film if you don't want to. If you're tired you can just take a break." Other stars may have burdens, but Ruan Nanzhu didn't.

"Okay then," Ruan Nanzhu agreed. Then he seemed to recall something. "Right. The newcomer from Obsidian came to set a couple of times. I ignored him, but tell Ye Niao that if he keeps coming, I might not be able to handle it."

It took Lin Qiushi a long while to remember the existence of this person—it seemed to be the newcomer coveting Ruan Nanzhu for his good looks, who was under the impression that Lin Qiushi had taken Ruan Nanzhu by force.

He asked, "what do you mean by not being able to handle it?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "I might not be able to handle it and end up decking him, of course."

Lin Qiushi, "…"

The facts were, after being baptized by the doors, their bodies had all become stronger than those of normal people. This was the case for Lin Qiushi. He'd thought at first that he would be around Ruan Nanzhu's level, but then one evening, he’d discovered that he wasn't Ruan Nanzhu's opponent at all. Ruan Nanzhu, who'd wanted to try some fun little technique, restrained Lin Qiushi with ease; a single hand was all it took to pressed both of Lin Qiushi's above their heads. That hand that looked as pale and delicate as jade had felt just like a metal shackle, and no matter how Lin Qiushi struggled, it hadn’t budge an inch.

Also, every time he picked Lin Qiushi up to go wash, Ruan Nanzhu could lift him, a healthy grown adult male, in one arm.

Afterthis discovery, Lin Qiushi had laughed at himself for worrying about Ruan Nanzhu getting mistreated outside—Lin Qiushi counted all of them lucky that Ruan Nanzhu wasn’t mistreating people.

"Don't worry about it." For the above reasons, Lin Qiushi said as much. "If he really annoys you, do what you must."

Ruan Nanzhu nodded.

Just a few days after they'd discussed the matter, Lin Qiushi went to check in on Ruan Nanzhu at work. Ruan Nanzhu was filming a modern movie this time, and played a handsome serial killer in the script. Lin Qiushi thought this character setting rather suited Ruan Nanzhu.

He was waiting on the curbside at first. But then his ears caught onto a strange noise. It sounded like a person…keening. Lin Qiushi heard this, and his brows puckered. He turned and looked into a small, dark alley. The film was being shot in the studio backlot, which was complicated and filled with architecture of various styles. So naturally, there were plenty of out-of-the-way spots that the cameras can't capture.

Just as Lin Qiushi was wondering if he ought to take a look, he heard Ruan Nanzhu's voice.

And Ruan Nanzhu sounded a bit dark, a bit scratchy, when he said, "feels good?"

Lin Qiushi, "…"

He padded silently to the entrance of the alley and saw Ruan Nanzhu standing inside. There was another person kneeling in front of Ruan Nanzhu. Though it was dark enough that Lin Qiushi couldn't really make out the other person's face, the scene before him wasn't anywhere as raunchy as he'd imagined.

That person was lying on the ground like a dead dog. Ruan Nanzhu heard his footsteps and turned around, and when he saw Lin Qiushi, he hung a faint smile up where a cold expression had previously been. His motions were natural as he rolled down his sleeves, approaching Lin Qiushi.

"What brings you here?"

Lin Qiushi glanced at the man hanging on his last breath lying on the floor.

"He's not dead, is he?"

"Of course not, I know when to stop." Ruan Nanzhu came over, seeming like a sweet and adorable big kitty, as if the icy ruthlessness from before had all been an illusion. "We'll call him an ambulance. He'll be fine."

"I…I'm calling the cops…" The person's call from the ground was as faint as a mosquito's. "You…you hit me…"

It was only then that Lin Qiushi identified this person. Wasn't this the newcomer from Obsidian that Ruan Nanzhu had mentioned only a few days ago? Lin Qiushi hadn't expected the guy to still be harassing Ruan Nanzhu, and had apparently pissed Ruan Nanzhu off enough to get beaten up so badly that not even his own mother could recognize him.

Man, how complicated his feelings must have been when a single slap from Ruan Nanzhu, who’d seemed like nothing more than a little white bunny, was enough to take him down.

Lin Qiushi said, "if he still has the strength to threaten us, then we probably don't need to call an ambulance."

Ruan Nanzhu, "no need. I avoided all the vital areas—'tis all just flesh wounds."

Lin Qiushi nodded, fished out his phone, and gave Ye Niao a call. Ye Niao was furious. He said he was on his way and urged Lin Qiushi not to be angry.

After Lin Qiushi hung up he lifted Ruan Nanzhu's hand.

"You're not hurt, are you?"

"I am," Ruan Nanzhu pouted. "Look, it's injured."

Lin Qiushi searched the hand all over at this, and finally found a single patch of broken skin no bigger than his pinky. He looked back at the man beaten to a pulp beside them, then back at the wound on the back of Ruan Nanzhu's hand. Finally, he couldn't hold in his laughter anymore.

"You're so…"

Laughter also surfaced in Ruan Nanzhu's eyes.

Ye Niao came quickly and dragged that person off like he was dragging out the trash. Before he left he even apologized to Lin Qiushi for his poor judgment and for choosing such a person…

Lin Qiushi said, "don't worry about it. Everybody makes mistakes."

The matter pretty much ended there. Lin Qiushi never saw that person again, and no police ever came to bother them. Ye Niao took neat care of the matter.

"They didn't give you a hard time, did they?" This was what Lin Qiushi asked Ruan Nanzhu after they got home.

Ruan Nanzhu, in response, "who's they?"

Lin Qiushi, "the cast and crew, of course."

Ruan Nanzhu slid off in thought. "They think I'm being kept by some heavy hitter, and mess around with the mob…"

Lin Qiushi, "…"

Ruan Nanzhu, "so, they're actually pretty respectful?"

At this, Lin Qiushi didn't know for a moment whether he ought to laugh or cry. Ruan Nanzhu himself was the heaviest hitter—why would he possibly be the kept boy of one? But since he liked to act so much, there was no harm in Lin Qiushi playing along. They still had a long time together, after all. There were plenty of things for them to try.

Ruan Nanzhu scooted close to Lin Qiushi, setting his chin on Lin Qiushi's shoulder and mumbling something about being sleepy. Lin Qiushi stroked his hair like he was petting a giant cat. This animal, when tamed, seemed just like an overgrown kitty, but if you actually pissed him off, he was actually a ruthless beast.

But this was a beast that would never extend its claws at Lin Qiushi, was all.

Translator’s Note:

The term translated as “heavy hitter” here, 大佬, has actually appeared often in the text. It’s a slang term that kind of means “the big guy,” as in the boss, the one with the most experience, etc. RNZ gets called this a lot, especially in the Hako Onna door.

[Extra: Shameless Couple(1)] | [Extra: Twin Lives, Twin Deaths(1)]

[miraculouscontent]

Didn’t Need Burrow (August 7th-September 13th)

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow: Ladybug and Chat Noir will be asked to participate in judging a competition that Marinette and Adrien are both a part of. Ladybug will want to vote for herself as Marinette, but Tikki will tell her(once detransformed and while she is snacking) that she can’t because then people will know that Marinette is Ladybug. Chat Noir, meanwhile, will freely vote for Adrien with no repercussions or drawbacks, and Adrien will end up winning the competition. Marinette will admit that she was “so silly” to even think of voting for herself, especially since “Adrien needs the award more so that I do” despite being rich, white, male, and “perfect”(oh, I’m sorry, “purrfect”!), since all of Marinette’s legitimate problems of anxiety, dyspraxia, and the like get thrown out the window because the writers’ perfect sunshine boy incel stand-in has a “saaad home life!”, and Marinette needs to give him pity and put his feelings above his rather than wish for her own success. Cuz Girl Power.

tbh, given the leaks script, I’d reverse that and saying that Adrien voted for LadyNoir as Couple of the Year.

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow: Marinette and Adrien will reveal their identities, and Marinette actually WILL be disappointed that the boy who goofed off in fights and didn’t take no for an answer is none other than her perfect modeling celebrity crush. However, rather than this being a point towards Adrien needing to learn how to improve himself and accept Marinette’s feelings, this scene is used to make HER look bad(because of course it is) and she is blamed for expecting Adrien to be perfect(despite being encouraged and told to see him as such), and told that she should be happy that Chat was hitting on her even when she didn’t like it or it got in the way of battle plans, likely by Alya, because it was her true love under the mask all along. Eventually she “learns her lesson”(ick) and comes to accept Adrichat for who he is, warts and all. Bonus if she has a flashback to when Chat said “if you saw me without my mask you wouldn’t be able to resist me” as she realizes that he was right.

Didn’t Need Burrow? More like “Didn’t Need to Think About This”

i hate it

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Luka will be Chat Blanc "2.0"

But Luka doesn’t have Chat-level favoritism going so Bunnyx won’t be there to defend him from consequences.

Anonymous asked:

We will have Ladybug!Alya in Marinette's akumatization episode. Obviously everyone would think that she is "better" than "old" Ladybug. (Bonus points if Ladybug!Alya don't "alienate" Chat Noir, mostly by catering to his whims)

Oh, of course! No one will miss the “old” Ladybug.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Bob Roth is akumatized into Rip Off, a supervillain with power to copy anything he sees (including powers of heroes)

Okay but that’s genius.

(I know we already had it in “Miraculer” but I like this more.)

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Now that Luka knows their identities, he will push the Love Square in a romantic manner. Stans would be totally fine with this because it doesn't interfere with their endgame :)

Well, obviously!

I’m just waiting for them to basically say that the secret identities don’t matter and, because they like one side, also means they like the other side.

Because forget nuance, am I right?

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: In the end, (after Adrienette gets together) Narrator reveals himself (herself?) as Alya with words "that's how I helped my bestie [Marinette] get a relationship with love of her life [Adrien]" or something similar.

wait, Alya, are you filming a Ladybug biography

why did you include all the humilation

why

That explains her making herself look good though.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Luka will finally reveal that he knows Heroes' secret identities... to Alya, who obviously decide to hide from Marinette that Luka knows her identity (Bonus Points if reason provided by Alya why she is doing this is utterly ridiculous)

AAAAAAAAAAAA

I guess Luka would have to realize that Alya knows. Bonus if he tells her Chat’s identity too so love square shipping can commence.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: "Knitting Fairy" will be name of Marinette's akumatized form.

Can you say “reused design”? I certainly can, we’re used to it.

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow:

Luka keeping his knowledge about the identities (esp. Ladybug’s) will somehow blow up in a way for the writers to paint him in a bad light, probably ending with Marinette not trusting him. (As well as no hint of irony that Adrien did the same thing for completely selfish reasons in Chat Blanc).

MiraculousMX: Platonic soulmates!

us: Source??

Anonymous asked:

DNB: If LS gets reversed, Adrien complains about Marinette having other friends. Not just being friends with Luka or any other guys, but friends PERIOD, showing the same jealousy/desire for his 'love interest' to be isolated as Chat Noir. These MASSIVE RED FLAGS are treated as Just More Innocent Sadrien Things, because he's sOoOoOo Sad and SoOoOoO Lonely~

Oh god, now I had an awful thought that this is where Adrien getting jealous of Luka, and Luka feels bad/”knows what’s best” so he either ditches Marinette/finds an excuse to leave or makes sure that Adrien gets his time with her.

Because it’s the love square so it’s “important” that Marinette spend time with Adrien.

Anonymous asked:

Dnb: assuming the Senti-Adrien theory is true, in the season finale, Viperion joins the fight, stops SM from using the ladybug an cat miraculi by going back in time only to use them by himself, wishing for Adrien to be a real boy (and love Marinette). Of course Luka needs to give something in exchange, worst case scenario, his life.

That got really dark.

Though tbh with how much they push Luka and Marinette around, one of them will probably have to give up something huge for Adrien (they both already sacrificed their relationship, so--).

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: If Chat Noir joins Shadow Moth then he is treated by both Gabriel and Heroes as his greatest asset, even through he is still complete joke that is defeated by rest of Heroes faster than Mr Pigeon in "Timetagger". (Bonus points if Heroes defeat him by "Backhand Offhand", Offscreen or he is defeated by "Friendly Fire" from Akuma of the Week due to his own stupidity)

tbh I could probably do more sad math with “how often Chat Noir/Cataclysm is useless,” bonus if it’s put up against characters/Ladybug stroking his ego.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Adrien's fears concerning Ladybug are made more explicit through a nightmare/vision (possibly akuma-induced) of Ladybug calling him unreliable/saying she doesn't need him anymore because she has partners she can actually COUNT on. Naturally, this is treated as Pure Sadrien Hours rather than a fair critique. Bonus if he ditches/forces her to beg for his assistance AGAIN to soothe his poor bruised baby ego.

*“Malediktator” flashbacks, but Adrien instead of Chloe*

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Adrien/Chat Noir skips out on a fight/akuma attack for some spiteful, selfish reason or another. Ladybug handles it without him, either completely through her own skill or with help from Rena/other heroes. Adrien then angsts about 'not being needed', with Marinette's 'Mistake of the Day' being that she didn't cater to his pity party due to being too busy DOING HER DAMNED JOB.

me seeing that one leaked script where they talk about how Chat/Cataclysm would make things easier: *sigh*

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Plagg will encourage Adrien to act even more selfishly, skipping more battles and being even brattier. This is so his stans can blame Plagg for being 'a bad influence' on their perfect angel, even when it's clear the two of them are on the same wavelength. Oooh, he's twisting his rubber arm; how AWFUL--! Adrien would NEVER do all these Awful Things he's already done if he didn't have Plagg~! What a bad kitty~!

“rubber arm” jdfkgjndfjgfg

tbh Plagg already is super laidback and doesn’t really like transforming/complains about going into battle, so this isn’t much of a stretch.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: "Gabriel Agreste" or other episodes will reveal that Gabriel flew many, if not ALL of the same Red Flags his son displays on a regular basis. The narrative treats this as though this makes Gabriel more 'sweet, sad and sympathetic' rather than illustrating that both of them are dangerously entitled and generally awful.

This sounded really intriguing as a sort of “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” thing until that last sentence kicked in.

That’s damn accurate to what they’d do too, ugh.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Plagg is the one that discovers that Gabriel is Hawk/Shadowmoth, but is forcibly sworn to silence by Adrien. Bonus if Adrien somehow gives this command without learning what Plagg is trying to tell him -- i.e. he get irritated and orders Plagg to shut up in a way that bars him from EVER saying what he was attempting to say -- so that Adrien's stans can claim it was all a big misunderstanding and blame Plagg entirely for it. Or Marinette. Somehow.

Oh oh oh!

Alternatively, Adrien silences Plagg without realizing that he has that kind of power (like saying, “you can’t tell anyone!” and we see the magic hit Plagg’s mouth), so the fandom can say, “HE DOESN’T KNOOOW THAT HE DID IT.”

Anonymous asked:

dntb: Luka is gonna be villianised in some way for not telling Marinette he knows the identities of both of them

Meanwhile, Alya, slipping the bouncer her free pass.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: After one of the kwamis ​​makes one snickering comment too many, Marinette snaps and tells them all to shut up (with obvious outcome). Narrative obviously equals it to scene between Gabriel and Noroo from "Sandboy" (Bonus Points if Narrative deems Marinette worse than Gabriel, because "Gabriel forbid Noroo from talking as joke")

oh my goooooood

Marinette: *snaps because she’s stressed out*

the fandom: SHE SO MEAN!!! ;o;

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Adrien's reveal as Sentimonster just for additional souce of "sad points" for him

this DNB: i am inevitable

mystic-lionroar asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: The writers' Status-Quo allergy kicks in when someone very pointedly implies Chloe, Lila and/or Gabriel work for Hawk Moth with how many Akumas they tend to cause... only to get reminded point blank that "Hawk Moth is the sole one responsible for this mess, no one else". Cue two episodes later, both the characters and the writers' memories of this scene are erased. What erased it? ╰( ･ ᗜ ･ )╯Why, Marinette can be held responsible for this one, of course! (Me: (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻)

╰（‵□′）╯

OH MY GOOOOD

“Crocoduel” also basically already blamed Marinette for two akumatizations so at this point we’re just waiting.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: To further cement the whole 'destined to be' shlock, after the shock of the eventual reveal wears off, we get a call back to how frequently Chat Noir told Ladybug that they were meant for each other and that she 'was the only one who didn't see it'. Marinette agrees that she was silly and foolish for not recognizing it sooner, parroting Adrien's bullshit in order to further cement the notion that she's HAPPILY accepting her 'fate' to be nothing more than his personal prize.

You can’t see it but I have my head in my hands in grief.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Adrien's gross sense of entitlement towards Ladybug will become even more explicit, with him angrily ranting about how he DESERVES to 'get the girl'. No matter how awful and nasty he gets, the narrative continues to treat him as though he's 100% right to be pissed off at her for DARING to have agency or thinking she has a say in things. As clearly, the biggest mistake Marinette has ever made is thinking she gets to have Opinions or make her own decisions. G-girl power...?

Marinette needing to be constantly told what’s best for her by other people and it’s okay because she needs to accept+follow all opinions.

end me

Anonymous asked:

DNB: The double standard between Adrien and other characters will be more noticeable. Adrien will still be put on a pedestal.

Because no one will notice Adrien if they didn’t put him on a metaphorical and physical pedastal.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Foxy Cat and CaraBug

omg Fox Adrien.is one of the worst hero choices I’ve ever heard fjdgjfjdglfkdg

I could at least see why Marinette thought that Adrien fit the snake since the narrative gushes for him so hard.

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow: As a result of being written by a straight white male writing team, the show starts to use Marinette’s girliness against her. From her love of pink being mocked to the kwamis admitting(in the spirit of another DNB) that they don’t respect Marinette because she’s “too girly”, to her fashion designing being treated as a cutesy but ultimately fickle pastime(in the spirit that all teenage girls’ interests are treated), the show absolutely throws Girl Power out the window in favor of giving Marinette absolute hell for daring to present herself in a traditionally feminine way, treating her femininity as the butt of a joke that no one is laughing at. Bonus points of someone says(or even outright tells her to her face) that she’s “such a girl”, as if that’s supposed to be an insult. Alternatively, this happens to Rose instead of Marinette, as she’s just as girly if not more so than her, or it happens to both of them(regardless of whether or not it’s at the same time).

WOOOOW

I mean, honestly, yeah.

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow: Things other characters did that were bad will be retconned into things that Marinette did instead, or will otherwise be retconned into being her fault, no matter how improbable or contradictory. Meanwhile, bad things characters did to Marinette or good things characters did FOR Marinette will be retconned into nonexistence.

I MEAN THEY BLAMED MARINETTE FOR “SILENCER” SO--

MATTER OF TIME.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Simultaneous Akumatization of Manon, Chris, Ella and Etta, obviously when they are babysat by Marinette, because otherwise ML Writers wouldn't be able to paint it as Marinette's fault

oh god

please no

I mean, not even just to blame Marinette for it, but I can’t even stand these kids when they’re on their own, MUCH LESS TOGETHER.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: If Adrien gets akumatized, then it would be just Chat Blanc with shoulder pads and crown

Is this a reference to my Miracle Queen post?

Because yes.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need burrow: In Hack-San Chat Noir will pull a Sentibubler and refuse to listen to Alya with the Ladybug Miraculous as he doesn't have a brain unless he can progress the not so progressive four-sided Hellfire, which is actually still the best-case-scenario. I mean he could just not come at all, since he's only there to flirt with and seduce Ladybug with unfunny jokes.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Adrien causes problems because of Alyabug.

ugggggh

Anonymous asked:

DNB: Alya will immediately have access to things like the creation of charms despite how long it took for Marinette to be able to do that.

Wait--

If she doesn’t, did they literally just give Alya the ladybug miraculous because they knew that Markov wouldn’t have a way of hiding the amulet on him and they didn’t feel like putting it on his model???

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow: Alya’s Ladybug name is “Coccinelle” aka “Ladybug” in French. Or something equally lazy such as The Red Spotted One or the Scarlett Beetle. Even if it sounds cool at first glance, it will ultimately boil down to a plain and obvious name, because apparently EVERY superhero’s name has to so blatantly relate to the animal their Miraculous is based off of. For some reason. Somehow. -_-

fhkgjfdkgdfg okay but “The Red Spotted One” made me laugh.

Anonymous asked:

Hack-San DNB’s:

• Chat Noir will be upset that Ladybug trusted her miraculous to someone else.

• There will be a comment on how Alya was a just as good, if not better Ladybug than Marinette.

• Alya’s performance as LB will be used as another instance to show Marinette made the ‘right choice’ telling her her identity.

• Using the Horse to teleport back instead giving the earrings to Alya will not be mentioned as an option.

• Scene of Adrichat being sad about ‘feeling replaced’.

Especially on that “comment that Alya is just as good, if not better,” one, it probably won’t even be used as a reassurance for Marinette like, “oh, that’s good to know that I’m not the only one who can be Ladybug,” it’ll just be praise for Alya.

Anonymous asked:

Hack-San DNB: Chat Noir gets angry with LB for not telling him she was leaving & she has to apologize for it.

(Despite making sure there was a backup Ladybug to protect Paris, unlike Chat in the NY special who left the city completely unprotected).

Convenient.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: "Dearest Family" (episode where both of Marinette's parents are akumatized) will be about Marinette learning "true value" of Chat Noir

Either that or incorporating Adrien into the family.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Psycomedian will be blatant Joker rip-off

You can just say “all akuma in the season will either be rip-offs of themselves or past akuma,” it’s okay. :P

Anonymous asked:

Another DNB for Hack-San, since we see Jagged Stone in the trailer, so if they show it..:

The “most precious possession” of Jagged’s will be Fang and not, y’know, either of his children.

I missed that trailer.

Honestly there could be some funny moments with the concept, but if Jagged is the only joke made about it then yes, I will be very bitter.

Alternatively, Jagged picks his guitar instead.

Anonymous asked:

DNB: In the Alyabug episode, Alya will either be Practically Perfect In Every Way™, or will royally screw up in a way that will somehow lead to Marinette. Either way, Cat Noir will flirt with the new Ladybug, or pull a Sentibubbler. Or both. There may or may not be a comment about how Alyabug's costume is so much better than Marinette's despite being a fashion designer.

dkfgkjdfgjf I adore how this whole thing is just, “there’s so many ways it could go wrong!”

[nerdypanda3126]

Care

When Ladybug falls asleep on patrol, Viperion does his best to take care of her

Read on Ao3

Viperion heard Marinette—well, Ladybug, since he wasn’t supposed to know—tap down behind him for patrol, but his greeting died on his lips when he caught sight of her. She was barely holding herself up, instead leaning on a wall for support, and yawning like she was about to collapse any second. 

“No," he said firmly, his face drawn into a hard frown, and he crossed his arms over his chest. She blinked at him as she struggled to comprehend. 

"No?" 

"Go home." 

"But…" Her protest was cut off by another yawn. "What about patrol?" 

"I'll handle it. We need to get you home safely first, though." He stepped forward to slip his arm under hers as she sagged on the wall, and she hid a sleep-deprived giggle behind her hand. 

"Are you offering to go home with me?" She sighed as she nuzzled into his neck and he tried very hard not to think about what she was implying. 

"No, I'm saying you need to…" He trailed off as he realized she'd passed out on his shoulder. Just like that. Her breathing was slow and heavy in his ear and she was quickly becoming dead weight as she relaxed. He sighed and scooped her knees up so he was holding her more securely. "Go home before you fall asleep standing up," he muttered. 

Having her pooled in his arms like this, she seemed so small. He would never call her fragile, that’s not what Marinette was, but… vulnerable. That’s the word he was looking for. He clutched her to his chest. Only one thing for it. He had to get her home. Thankfully he knew where he was going, although he’d have to hope that she didn’t remember going out at all or there’d be an interesting conversation in his future about how he’d figured out who she was.  

As he ran over the rooftops of Paris, doing his best not to jostle her, he couldn’t help but wish she’d said something before about being so worn out. He and Chat could’ve handled patrols a few extra nights if it meant she got some rest. He ran a list in his head of things she’d told him about, projects she was working on, Kitty Section practices, responsibilities for her class, full school days, there’d been more than usual akumas lately, which was why they’d started nightly patrols… Had she been sleeping at all? Three, maybe four hours a night? 

He slowed to a stop and looked down at her sleeping against his chest. Her bangs were mussed, falling in her eyes, and her eyebrows were pulled together under her mask in an anxious frown. As he paused, she grumbled and hid her face more in his shoulder, shifting to curl against him. He silently thanked Sass for giving him enhanced strength; he was able to cradle her like this so easily. He would be able to hold her as long as he needed to get her home and into her own bed without his arms tiring or her weight slowing him down. But that also meant his pounding heart wasn’t due to the effort. 

He tightened his grip on her and pushed on, towards the glowing beacon of her balcony. Although once he’d gotten close he realized there was a glaring problem. He’d come from the wrong direction. There wasn’t a rooftop he could use as a bridge this way, just the sheer drop to the street below. Shit.

He could go around? But scanning the skyline around him, there really wasn’t any way to get to her balcony without her yoyo. She was still transformed and he was pretty sure her parents didn’t know yet. So taking her through the bakery was out. And he was not waking her up. Not if he could help it, anyways. 

He sighed. Maybe it was better this way, anyway. Ladybug already knew he was Viperion, so there wasn’t any risk of her finding out his identity if he took her back to the Liberty instead. There was just the small problem of letting the girl he loved sleep in his bed. No big deal. 

He took a deep breath to try to calm himself. It really wasn’t a big deal. Marinette needed sleep. His bed was the best option. Easy. 

And with his focus renewed, he turned away to start towards the Liberty instead. When he was street level, he detransformed as close as he possibly could while remaining hidden and Sass hid in the hood of his jacket. He adjusted Marinette to be higher on his chest, and in her sleep she threw an arm around his neck and tucked her nose into the hollow of his collarbone. But he didn’t have any time to focus on her breath fanning against his skin—without his suit, her relaxed weight was starting to sag, and his arms were already starting to complain. Quick and quiet, then. 

He snuck aboard easily enough. But the stairs. He hadn’t thought about that. They were narrow and steep and there was no way he’d be able to maneuver her around the tight corners. But the atrium was right there, to the immense relief of his trembling biceps. He stumbled over and knelt to deposit her on the loveseat. It wasn’t as secluded as he would’ve hoped; if the Captain or Juleka had an urge for a midnight stroll above deck he was screwed. But he still sighed with relief as he sat on the floor next to her still-sleeping form and leaned his head back against the edge of the couch.

Patrol would have to wait. Sass had flown away to recharge anyways, and Luka was temporarily exhausted, too. He closed his eyes and tried to even out his breathing, but found himself lulled into matching Marinette’s slow, even breathing behind him. He’d just be a minute. 

He started awake when an arm draped across his chest. He was still sitting on the floor and from the stiffness of his neck and low back he’d been there at least an hour, maybe more. He glanced down and the arm around him wasn’t red with black spots, it was Marinette’s, recognizable from the pink band-aid she had wrapped around her index finger. He dared to turn his head to check on her. 

She’d shifted while she slept, so his head was nestled into the crook of her neck as she curled towards him. Her face was so close to his and half-hidden because she had nuzzled into his hair as her cheek rested on his shoulder. She looked so at peace. So calm. That anxious frown was gone, replaced by a serene smile as she clutched him to her. 

He settled back into place and sighed, not even bothering to hide his smile. No patrol tonight, and he’d be incredibly sore tomorrow, but it was so worth it to watch over her and make sure she got the sleep she needed. He let his eyes close again, humming her song to himself, and she answered him in her sleep, a small content note that made his heart flutter even as he drifted off. 

Sometime during the night, he vaguely remembered feeling his weight being shifted, and a gloved hand brushing aside his bangs before there was a quick press of lips against his forehead. 

When he woke with the sun early that next morning, he was on the loveseat and Marinette was gone. A note crinkled under his hand as he moved to push himself up. 

‘We’ll talk later,’ it read, in Marinette’s loopy scrawl. Then, underneath that, in a more careful script, ‘Thank you for taking care of me.’

And she’d signed it with a heart.

[shadow--writer]

I Got a Feelin' I Might Have Lit the Very Fuse

hmmm it’s a writing weekend. And the start of what’s going to be an awful week haha. So expect more of me peddling my brainworms (halp I have fallen back in love with these two to the point where friends have started sending me prompts for them)

title (it’s slowed bc WHY TF NOT)

Maeve x Lucas. Second meetings might go better than firsts 3k

TW: none!

@dela-png

A week had passed, and it was slow. Her regulars, of course, had been popping in and out keeping things from being boring. As much as she appreciated that...she was going to kill them. 

How on Earth someone could anger a squirrel that badly she would never know. 

But today was calm. Calm and yes sure the ‘q’ word. 

She refused to even think of the ‘q’ word. Knowing her luck the moment she thought it, seven people would be flooding into her clinic. 

With food poisoning.  

She let out a low groan. Slow days were nice and all, but usually she had company. It was eerily silent when she was alone. 

And she was bored. 

Maeve pushed herself off the counter. She could stand to reorganize her herbs and medicine cabinet. She needed to relabel some of the bottles and jars anyways, with the amount she pulled them off the shelves she smudged her script.

She started moving the jars off the shelves, muttering to herself as she looked at the labels and did her best to decipher the smeared ink.

She had only pulled the herbs off the shelves and onto the counter when the bell above her door rang sweetly into the silence. She stopped her humming, pushing the fraying edges of her handkerchief away from her eyes. 

Oh yeah sure so now someone came in. 

Forcing a smile and a fake cheery tone to her voice, she turned around. “I’ll be with you in a moment!” she called. She couldn’t see the door over the stack of herb jars on her counter. Some were pretty empty, she’d need to stop at the market again or go foraging. 

Ugh foraging. 

It wasn’t that she disliked foraging. But it was time consuming. 

And she usually got lost.

But she didn’t like to talk about that part. 

“Thumbelina!”

She froze. She knew that nickname. She knew that voice. 

The smile climbing onto her face became real. 

“Giant!” she said, moving out from behind the counter. He looked better today. Not as bloody. In his arms he cradled the little boy from the dock. “Oh! You must be Will!” she said, dusting off her skirt. 

The boy looked much better than he had. Colour had returned to his face, and he didn’t seem to be in as much pain. That was good. She knew the bite must ache but it was good seeing him up and about.  

She stepped forward, offering her hand to shake. He shook it once, swinging their arms up violently before slamming them back down. 

Whoa there.

She laughed in her surprise. “Firm handshake you’ve got there!” she said, drawing her hand back to her side. “So what brings you to my corner of the world? Need more pain meds? The stitches okay?”

Lucas blinked at the questions, she directed her attention to the boy in his arms (who looked so tiny compared to Giant, she noted with a giggle). 

Will smiled, he was missing one of his front teeth. “Nope! Lucas brought me over to say hello! And bring you somethin!” Will ducked his head closer to her, mock whispering. Or whispering at the volume a seven year old thought was a whisper.

Aka not at all. 

“He also said he wanted to see ya again!”

Her eyes flicked back up to the man in question. His cheeks had been flooded with pink. The blush climbed all the way up to his ears. This was why she never told seven year olds anything. They had no filter, it was cute, but embarrassing. 

Though the way Lucas blushed was adorable.

She pressed her fingers to her lips as she chuckled. “Well, I’m glad you came by. It’s nice to see you again,” she said. “Would you care for something to drink? I have tea in the back.”

Lucas’ head snapped up. “We don’t want to bother you! To- W-Will here just brought a gift over to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“You...saved his life.”

Oh yeah right she did do that. “And you’re just the messenger?” 

Will tugged on Lucas’ sleeve, the man gently setting the boy down on the ground. He was walking, that was great!

“The others n I made you somethin! Sylvie mentioned yer cloth head thing.”

She touched the ratty thing on her head. It was falling apart at the seams but she didn’t have time to make another.

Will held a deep green fabric up to her. She blinked, reaching down to grab it. It was made from a soft cotton, and it smelled nice. Like cinnamon and other spices. “So we made you a new one!”

She pulled the one in her hair out, shaking out her bangs. They were a gnarled mess, but soft against her cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispered, pulling the new handkerchief into her curls. She tied it under her ponytail, bringing her hand down as she smiled down at the little boy. “It’s beautiful.”

“Lucas also wanted ta help!” the boy chattered on. He reached over to Lucas, tugging on his hand. Lucas shuffled forward, looking a little embarrassed. “We couldn’t afford any fancy fabric so Lucas gave us one of his old shirts!” The boy beamed up at her, his hand so tiny in Lucas’. “Sylvie did the little flowers!”

Oh! She didn’t even notice the messy embroidery. She ran a hand against them, it was bumpy beneath her fingers. 

She loved it. 

She squatted down, it made it easier to be at eye level with him. “Well tell her I said thank you and that her flowers are beautiful.”

“She said they were bellflowers. Those are Lucas’ favourite flowers! They’re the only ones she knows how ta make though...”

She looked back up at Lucas. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there in that moment. She giggled. “Bellflowers are beautiful, Lucas has good taste.”

“Do ya like it?” He stood on his toes, eyes all lit up. 

She smiled, closing her eyes as she tilted her head. “Oh I love it! I’ve been needing something new to pull my hair back for a while now. It was very kind of you to make something for me.”

“I uh, also brought you lunch,” Giant said, bringing her attention back up. Squatting down to be at eye level with the seven year old boy was a smart idea. 

Until she realized how much more he would tower over her. 

Goodness gracious.  

She froze, teetering on her toes. “What?”

He held up a little cloth bundle tied with a string. A nervous smile worked its way across his lips. “It’s some extra stew I made to bring with me. A...thank you from me.”

“You didn’t have to do that. I’m fine eating out.”

“But a home cooked meal is much better than eating out, wouldn’t you think?”

She pressed her palms to her knees as she got to her feet. “Well...yes, but I don’t have time to make a home cooked meal. Let alone a good one. I am an awful cook,” she joked. 

“Oh I’m sure you aren’t that bad.”

She cringed. He was so very wrong. “...oh no I am that bad. ‘Permanent ban from the kitchen back home’ bad. And that’s when I even eat something- oh.”

He was glaring at her. 

She did not like him glaring at her. 

“What?” she asked, drawing out the syllables.

“‘Even eat something’? Thumbelina you’ve got to eat. You’re tiny enough already.”

“Well I don’t have time! Dumba- dumb people don’t wait.” She caught herself. No swearing in front of the kid. 

“You should still find time to eat something. Were you even planning to get something to eat today?”

“Well y-yes!”

He raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. 

“Okay, no, but I usually get something to snack on during slow days. What’s got your goat in a twist anyways? It’s not like we know one another well.”

Her words struck a chord. He looked away from her, rubbing the back of his neck. “I...I cook,” he admitted. “So I’ve started paying attention to people’s eating habits. Yours are atrocious by the way.”

“Atrocious? You only know my lunch eating habits!” She sulked, placing a hand to her chest. “You wound me.”

“It’s true. Worse than the kids at the dock. At least they come to bother me when they’re hungry. Like stray cats.”

“Hey! We aren’t stray kitties!” Will whined. 

Lucas affectionately rubbed his knuckles into the crown of Will’s head. He swatted at the taller man to no avail. “Well to me you sure look like cats.”

“Yer just blind then!” Will huffed, trying to smooth down his hair. 

Giant turned back to her, handing her the cloth bundle. She took it, her lips twisting. “I brought you lunch out of the goodness of my heart, so I expect you to eat it at a reasonable time.” His tone was teasing but she knew his words had weight. 

“How will you know if I don’t?” she asked, her voice taking a sing-song tone.

He was still not as impressed. Ugh he was no fun. “I’ll come back to check on it.”

“...you wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“You have work!”

“I can take breaks. I work hard, the least they could give me.”

She sighed, cradling the meal he made her to her chest. “Fine! I give, I give! I’ll eat your lunch.”

He smiled. “Good.” His eyes kept moving to her hair. She touched the handkerchief, his cheeks darkened a little. 

Wait...if this was made out of his shirt…

She felt her cheeks warm. 

Oh. 

Oh.

The spices she was smelling was him.

They locked eyes, before they both turned away. She swore she was blushing down to her toes. And she never really blushed. 

Damn you Giant. 

He coughed, looking back at Will who was watching them very amused. “We’d better go little man,” Lucas said.

“Awww but I wanna stay a little longer!” He had wandered off to look at her herbs before exploring the clinic’s many tables. Currently he was looking at the deep grooves on the table. 

Lucas caught her eye again. His eyes were still a vibrant blue. Reminded her of the water when it reflected the sky. “We don’t want to bother her anymore than we have,” he said with a low chuckle. “She’s very busy.”

“Not today I’m not!” she blurted out. She hated to admit it, but she enjoyed his company. Teasing or not it was nice to be able to talk to someone. 

Lucas paused, she bit her lower lip as she smiled nervously. “If you’d like, you can stay for tea. No one’s come in today, and so it’s been very...eerie. I’d appreciate the company.”

Lucas’ brows crinkled. She wanted to smooth out the lines. “Is...that okay?”

“Of course! I’m offering.”

Will grinned, grabbing her hand. “Well if she says we can stay it’s only polite! That’s what ya taught us, right Lucas?”

Lucas sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Sometimes I wonder if you guys listen to me and then you pull this crap.”

She chuckled. “As the little eel survivor says, it’s only polite.”

“Fine. We can stay for tea.”

She smiled broadly, leading them to her small backroom. There she kept a few extra aprons, gloves and her more powerful medicines (magic pills and all that) locked up tight. 

She grabbed her kettle, settling on the fruity green tea she’d found in the market a while back but hadn’t had the chance to try. She hummed as she put it over her small stove. 

Will was chatting with Lucas about the magic items she had strewn about. Lucas looked at her, pleading for help. 

She laughed, answering the plea. “You like my charms?” she asked. “I had help making them.”

“You can do magic?” Will asked, eyes lighting up. 

She was a little taken aback, but to a little kid, of course magic was...well, magic. She smiled. “Oh yes! I can do all sorts of things. Takes a bit out of me, but I can do some illusions, I know some healing. Herbal magic is fun. And palm reading was just something my sisters and one of my cousins picked up on.”

“Palm reading?” Giant asked as the kettle started to sing. 

She moved, putting some of the tea leaves in her infuser, letting it seep in the hot water for a bit. 

“Yes, palm reading. It’s quite easy actually.” She brought the tea over to the table. She could bring glasses and the ice when the tea was steeped enough. “I can do a reading if you’d like,” she offered. 

Will bounced up and down. “Can I help? Can I? Can I?”

Giant laughed. “Calm down little man, let’s let the fairy doctor do her thing first.”

She winked at Will. “I can teach you after I do his reading.”

Will grinned, sitting back. He wiggled in his seat. He was very energetic. It was refreshing. 

Lucas held out his right hand, she reached forward, their fingertips brushing. “Your hands are cold,” he said, his hand jerking back a little. 

She held firm as she laughed. “I’m aware.”

His palms were calloused. Rough under her touch. Scarred from hard labor. She traced the lines and creases on his hand. She felt his pulse jump under her fingertips as she brushed his wrist.  

“Fire hands,” she said, meeting his eyes. 

“Fire hands? What does that mean?”

“The type of hands you have. Our hands represent one of the four elements, just like astrology. Earth, air, fire, water. You can tell a lot about a person based on their hands.” 

She looked back down at his palm. She traced the length of his palm, and then her fingers danced over his own. “Fire hands show people to be passionate, confident, and industrious. Driven by desires and on a bad day you may lack tactfulness and empathy.”

“And what about your hands?” His voice was soft. 

She looked at her hand, her fingers freezing over his own. “Mine are...water hands. In tune with my emotions, intuition, and psychic ability. Fueled by compassion and imagination, often creative. Also extremely sensitive and my feelings are easily hurt, causing undesirable interpersonal stress.” 

He chuckled. 

She brushed the edge of his hand by his pinky. “Marriage line.” Her fingers moved down to the long line below the marriage line, it curved up between his middle and index finger. “Love line.” Below that was a small curve starting at the flesh of his thumb meeting his palm. “Wisdom.” Two more lines, starting at the bottom of his palm. One curved to match the wisdom line, the other straight up to the middle of his middle and ring finger. “Career and life lines.” Small sun line. 

She searched his palm for his health line. “What are you-” he cut himself off as she traced the broken up health line.

“Health.”

He paused at her touch, she could feel his heart beat race under her touch. “Well Thumbelina? What does my palm say?” 

She breathed in, letting the air out with a sigh. “Love and marriage,” she started, tracing his love line again. His hand jerked under hers. “Line is long and curved. A happy long lasting love. But it’s all in your hands. Communication is key with this love.” 

His eyes widened. “How can you tell?”

She winked. “I just can.” She brushed her thumb along his career line. “Career and business. You’re ambitious and have strong self-confidence. If you have a dream in your heart and you’ll work hard to see it come true.”

She bent closer to his hand. “Health. You’re easily tired. You exercise a lot but don’t take the breaks you need. Short breaks will keep you refreshed and healthy. Don’t forget to exercise even if it’s hard. Don’t forget to rest and take care of your body.”

He chuckled. “I think my work is all the exercise I need.”

“But you still work out?”

“...sometimes.”

“And do you rest?”

“...”

“Thought so.”

She smiled, looking at the last lines on his palm. “Your personality and mental state. Connected to life and health. You know your mind well, you adapt easily. With your adaptability people look to you to lead them. Though reading other people and their feelings is a challenge for you.”

She looked up at him to see his face. 

But his face was close to hers. 

And he looked back at her at the same time.

So their foreheads slammed together. 

Hissing a yelp, she fell back, palm pressed to her forehead. He did the same, Will laughing at them both so hard he fell over. 

“Well now we have matching bruises,” she said with a groan, making sure they didn’t break skin. No blood. Just a bruise. Goddess of the unholy stars did that hurt. 

“My bad,” he wheezed, pressing a finger to the reddening skin. “You’ve got quite a noggin.”

She got to her feet, smiling a little. “Could say the same about yours.”

He watched her move back. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking about as she turned away from him. His forehead where they bonked heads was starting to turn red.

She got to her feet to go get ice and cups. She set three glasses down, pouring the tea over the ice. The ice cracked under the heat. She slid the glasses to the boy. Giant was still looking over his palm. Her fingers tingled from the small use of magic. 

She handed his cup to him. He grabbed the cup from her hand, their fingertips brushing again. 

There was a small spark of magic at the touch, making her jump. 

He didn’t seem to feel it. Or was able to hide the fact he could. She wondered if he had magic, it was like a surge of something strong coming from deep within her. It was unfamiliar. 

It had to be his. 

Waving her thoughts off and ignoring the weird flutter in her stomach, she turned to Will, who was gulping down the tea like a dog to water. 

She chuckled, holding out her hand. Her eyes were alight with the challenge and excitement she felt when she got to teach something. Her voice was low in pitch, but her tone was filled with lithe amusement. “So, wanna learn how to read palms?”

[angelofthequeers]

Hold Me By Both Hands: Chapter 34

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Power's back! I lost power about an hour or two after my last update and the worst of the bushfire passed that day. Since it was just yesterday with no power, I figure I'll upload yesterday's and today's chapters together.

Chapter 33 | Chapter 35 | AO3 link

“By the power vested in me, I declare you all my slaves!”

“Well,” Rena Rouge says as the golden bubble that Malediktator is creating starts to expand above his head to terrifying proportions. “We’re screwed if that pops.”

“What’s the plan, Ladybug?” Honeybee says, unslinging her trompo. “I can –”

“No, no, don’t go charging in.” Ladybug throws a hand out to stop Honeybee in her tracks. “This’d be so much easier with Chat Noir and Carapace. I’ll have to…Lucky Charm!” A massive machine gun falls into her hands, and Rena Rouge and Honeybee’s eyes bulge.

“Well, that’s an effective Lucky Charm!” Honeybee splutters. Ladybug just snorts, detaches the laser pointer, then tosses the gun away.

“No way I’d use something like that,” she scoffs.

“Are you sure?” Rena Rouge and Honeybee say in unison, eyeing the discarded gun longingly.

“Yep,” Ladybug says. “Honeybee just needs to take the sting out of Malediktator. Rena, we’ll need you on standby to make sure that Honeybee’s secret identity is safe and that no one suspects who she is.”

Honeybee grins and flips her trompo around her fingers with the string. “Venom!” she says once she’s holding the trompo, and it starts to throb like a beating heart.

“You know, part of me wants to be annoyed that all I ever get to do is hang back and trick people,” Rena Rouge says. “Then I remember how fun it is to mess with them when they don’t know who I am. And how screwed this team would be without me.”

“Just keep telling yourself that, hon,” Honeybee tuts.

“We all know what we’re doing?” Ladybug says before they can start arguing. Rena Rouge and Honeybee nod. “Alright. Let’s go!”

While Rena Rouge ducks away to hide and Honeybee starts to edge around, Ladybug aims the laser pointer at the rooftop with Malediktator and his guards. Just as predicted, Chat Noir lets out a mew at the sight and starts to chase after the laser, and Ladybug can’t help but grin as she guides him around to knock over all the guards like bowling pins.

“What?” Malediktator gasps. Honeybee takes this as her cue to swing out with her pulsating trompo outstretched and jab it into his chest. He lets out a choked cry and freezes in place like a statue, allowing Honeybee to grab the sash and throw it to Ladybug to tear it in half. Ladybug captures and purifies the akuma, then throws the laser into the air.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

The healing ladybugs deposit everyone back on the ground, and then Malediktator melts away to reveal André Bourgeois once everything’s fixed. Chat Noir and Carapace blink and shake their heads as Malediktator’s brainwashing fades away.

“Dude,” Carapace groans. “What are we doing here?”

“Missing the amazing Ladybug and Honeybee saving the city,” Ladybug grins and holds her fist out to Honeybee, whose eyes light up.

“Pound it!” she cries with Ladybug.

“I really can’t be Queen Bee again, huh?” Chloé emerges from a nearby alleyway with a wistful look on her face as she takes in the sight of Honeybee. For a moment, Ladybug has no clue what’s going on, until she looks around for the missing Rena Rouge and then remembers her instructions to her teammate.

“Sorry, Chloé,” she says, keenly aware of André and Audrey Bourgeois watching from nearby. “But Paris knows your secret identity. I can’t allow you to be Queen Bee again for the safety of you and your family.”

‘Chloé’s’ mouth droops. “I understand, Ladybug. And…I’m sorry about the mess I caused.”

Honeybee shifts on the spot at her illusion self’s words. Ladybug smiles and says, “Apology accepted, Chloé. Thank you for being brave enough to own up to your mistakes.”

“Want me to take her back to the school?” ‘Rena Rouge’ leaps down to land next to ‘Chloé’, in a mimicry of the same trick that had been pulled with the illusion Marinette earlier. “I didn’t have to use my power, so I’m not gonna time out.”

“That’d be awesome, Rena,” Ladybug says. “Thanks. Chat and I will stay here and brief with Honeybee.”

‘Rena Rouge’ scoops ‘Chloé’ up and bounds away, while André and Audrey start to bicker – or, to be more accurate, Audrey starts to tear into André while he cowers.

“Thanks for trusting me to help, Ladybug,” Honeybee says once Carapace has also leapt away. “Here, I’ll duck into this alleyway and take the Miraculous off –”

“No need,” Ladybug says. “You passed the test…Chloé.” She says Chloé’s name in a whisper that only Honeybee and Chat Noir can hear.

“The what?” Honeybee’ eyes bulge, while Chat Noir blinks and turns to look at where ‘Rena Rouge’ had disappeared with ‘Chloé’. After a moment, his face clears at the realisation.

“We test all our newbies to see if they’ll give it back when we ask,” he says. “And I’m guessing milady tested you more to make sure we could trust you with a Miraculous again.”

“Welcome to the team, Honeybee,” Ladybug smiles. “But Chat and I are responsible for you, so if you blow this second chance –”

“I won’t! I won’t!” Honeybee practically leaps ten feet in the air. “Thank you, Ladybug, thank you! See you next time!”

“Huh,” Chat Noir comments as Honeybee jumps away. “She doesn’t make a half-bad hero.”

“Pollen will be a good influence,” Ladybug says, then grimaces when her earrings beep. “Well, that’s my cue. I gotta recharge and hand out the Dragon. I think that’ll be our team for the time being, until Master Fu’s comfortable with handing out more zodiacs than just the Dragon. I know we’ve already pushed it, giving out all the working Wu Xing ones.”

“Good idea,” Chat Noir says. “Message me who gets it tonight, okay?”

“Of course, kitty,” Ladybug says. “Oh, can you drop by Chloé’s and get an email address from her so we can add her to the group chat?”

Chat Noir bows and says, “It would be my purrleasure, milady.” He takes off before Ladybug can scold him, leaving her to sigh loudly and duck into the nearest alleyway to detransform and refuel Tikki. Then she’s once again swinging through Paris, towards the small Tsurugi mansion with a sleek red car parked in front of it; although she’s never actually been to Kagami’s house, she certainly knows where it is, at least, thanks to Adrien. But she doesn’t know which room is Kagami’s, so she’s forced to take a quick peek inside each window until she finally stumbles across Kagami sitting at a desk, clearly deep in her homework. Kagami looks up at the tap on her window, and her eyes widen when she catches sight of the superhero dangling outside.

“Ladybug? Is everything alright?” Kagami says after rushing over to open the window. Ladybug slips inside and stares around at the room, marvelling at how it’s just so…Kagami. The walls and massive king bed are a deep red colour, the carpet is soft and black, the desk is made of rich, dark wood, and there are several decorations such as a Japanese flag on one wall, a few fencing trophies on a dark wooden shelf, and some photos pinned to the wall above her desk. A closer look reveals to Ladybug that these photos are of her – well, Marinette – and Adrien, cut from photoshoots and magazine articles, such as the article that had covered Marinette’s hat at the Agreste fashion show.

Oh. Wow. Kagami must really care about them…

“I know it’s not ideal, only having staged photos of them,” Kagami says as she draws level with Ladybug. “But they’re my friends, so I figure the circumstances behind the photos don’t matter.”

“Maybe you could take photos with them?” Ladybug says.

“I suppose…”

“From what I hear, you’re a very direct person. Why hesitate now?”

“It’s just…” Kagami sighs and looks away. “I’ve never had friends before. I don’t know what’s appropriate and when it’s appropriate. If I make a wrong move, how do I know I won’t lose them? Unlike fencing, I don’t get to come back for a rematch. And unlike fencing…I don’t know how to navigate this.”

“Oh.” Ladybug reaches out to rest a hand on Kagami’s arm. “Can I tell you something? I’m inexperienced when it comes to friends as well.”

“Impossible. You’re Ladybug. You’re sweet and charismatic. Me? I’m just an awkward autistic girl who only knows how to stab people.”

“You’re autistic?” Ladybug gasps. “So am I!”

“What?” Kagami’s head whips around to stare at Ladybug. “You – but you’re –”

“An awkward mess outside the mask,” Ladybug says and squeezes Kagami’s arm. “I mix my words up all the time. I melt down and flip out whenever I’m really stressed or losing control of the situation. I have to plan out what I’m going to say before I talk to people about important stuff, otherwise I turn into a blabbering mess. I have to bounce or fidget or do anything to stim because I can’t sit still. I’m clumsy. I’m obsessed with fas – uh, my special interests. I can never seem to be where I should be because I just can’t manage myself, even before I became Ladybug.”

“Oh.” Kagami tilts her head and ever so slowly reaches out to pat Ladybug on the shoulder stiffly. “You get it. I have to script my conversations as well. And…well, I don’t have meltdowns and I’m very organised, but…mostly because Mother would be extremely disappointed in me.”

“Yeah. Masking,” Ladybug says. “It’s kind of ironic, you know. I’m wearing a mask as Ladybug, but it’s the one time when I’m not masking at all. Like, I have to be the saviour of Paris, the role model for everyone…but I can also just be freely autistic because, well, who can tell me to stop fidgeting? And my main responsibility is fighting the akumas, which I don’t need to plan for in advance or work into a schedule.”

“Wow…” Kagami’s soft smile is genuine. “I can’t believe it. You really get it.”

“Yeah,” Ladybug says. “So, trust me when I say that asking your friends for photos isn’t a wrong move. And if you do mess up, you have to trust that they’ll call you out for it. That’s what friends do. But they won’t leave you because of a mistake.”

“Thank you, Ladybug,” Kagami says. “Just…thank you.” Then she squares her shoulders and slips back into business mode and says, “But why are you here? I doubt that you visited me just to give me advice.”

“You’re right,” Ladybug says. She swipes open her yo-yo and pulls out a little box. Kagami’s eyes widen and her mouth falls open. “We were hoping that you’d join the team and fight alongside us.”

“M-Me? I mean, it’s an honour to be offered the chance to fight alongside you, but why me?”

“Because you’re strong and terrifying with a sword,” Ladybug says. “But you also crave freedom, just like Chat. You’re kind and loyal and helpful and always do your best to do the right thing, even if you struggle to properly interact with people. And those are the qualities that make a hero. So, Kagami Tsurugi, if you’re willing, here is the Miraculous of the Dragon, which will grant you the power over the elements of the storm. You will use it for the greater good, to protect Paris and have your teammates’ backs.”

For a moment, Kagami just stares at the box. But before Ladybug can start to panic, Kagami nods and takes it and snaps it open, then gasps and shuts her eyes against the brilliant red light that pours out of it.

“Greetings, young lady, and good day to you!” says the little red dragon kwami that materialises in front of Kagami. “Fear not! I am Longg, the Dragon kwami.”

“You’re a what?” Kagami says after a moment.

“A kwa-mi,” Longg says. “Allow me to tell you about the many feats a magic being like myself will help you accomplish once the magic words have been spoken!”

“She’s more of a direct learner, Longg,” Ladybug says as Kagami slips on the beaded choker.

“Ah,” Longg says. “A woman of action. Very well, then. All you must say is, “Longg, bring the storm” and you will –”

“Longg, bring the storm!” Kagami says, and Longg is sucked into the choker in a blur as red light envelops her. Kagami’s superhero outfit turns out to be a tight, scaly, dark red suit with black shoulders and upper arms, both of them made of black scaly armour with golden trim spiralling along and down to her elbow-length red gloves with golden trim. Two gold-accented black dragons coil around her legs, with their tails fading into boots and their heads meeting and intertwining around her stomach, and a gold and red dragon’s tail flows out of the back of her suit. A circle divided into swirling thirds sits on her chest, with a little elemental symbol in each third, and she has short red dragon horns with gold and black accents sticking out of her windswept black hair, and a red mask with gold and black lightning bolts extending from the bottom. Her eyes, previously light brown, have turned to dark brown with gold sclerae.

Okay. Bad Ladybug. Stop staring. Stop it.

“I love the armour,” Ladybug says, and Kagami runs a hand over the scales on her shoulder.

“I know that the suits are magic, but I always feel safer when I’ve at least got a little armour on,” Kagami says.

“What should I call you?”

“Hmm…Ryuuko. My name is Ryuuko.”

“Well, Ryuuko…” Ladybug crosses over to the open window and smiles back at Ryuuko. “Let’s go for a little evening stroll.”

.

[10:46 pm] Honeybee has joined miraculass.

catitude: welcome to hell

catitude: i mean

catitude: nice work today thanks for saving us

[10:47 pm] Ryuuko has joined miraculass.

Ryuuko: Hello

ladyBIrd: hey

catitude: sup

Honeybee: ew who named this chat

mess w turt u get hurt: rena

what does the fox say: hey

what does the fox say: it’s a great name

ladyBIrd: …it grows on you

Honeybee: KNFLKDSMNZBXCKCLKSDHFOA;SLD

Honeybee: LADYBUG HI

what does the fox say: pfft

what does the fox say: gtfo with your keysmashing i was here first

Honeybee: fuck off

what does the fox say: wow rude

[10:49 pm] what does the fox say set Honeybee’s name to honeybeetch.

honeybeetch: omg

honeybeetch: i hate you

ladyBIrd: I think it’s kind of funny

honeybeetch: asdfghjkl of course

honeybeetch: it’s perfect

what does the fox say: lol desperate

honeybeetch: the only reason i’m not gonna fuckin deck you

honeybeetch: is bc i’ll lose my miraculous

honeybeetch: that and pollen will give me the look of disapproval

catitude: don’t you mean

mess w turt u get hurt: nO DONT

catitude: beecause?

Ryuuko: I’d like to leave, thanks

honeybeetch: where are u

honeybeetch: i’ve got venom ready n everything

catitude: :)

ladyBIrd: Chat, you’re grounded

catitude: :(

honeybeetch: wait

honeybeetch: laDYBUG IS BI

honeybeetch: AJSDHLDSKJ

what does the fox say: don’t even think about it

what does the fox say: i was here first and i have dibs

honeybeetch: actually fite me

honeybeetch: you think your illusions will do shit when i sting you

ladyBIrd: I’ve got a boyfriend, so

ladyBIrd: and there’s a girl above both of you on my list

what does the fox say: :(

honeybeetch: :(

catitude: :)

mess w turt u get hurt: istg i don’t understand why chat reacts half the time

catitude: 0:)

[10:53 pm] catitude has set Ryuuko’s name to airhead

airhead: Are you asking for death?

airhead: Because I have a sword and I’m intimately familiar with how to wield it

honeybeetch: omg i hate everyone here

honeybeetch: except lb of course

[10:56 pm] direct messages

Chat Noir: so

Chat Noir: ryuuko?

Ladybug: Kagami

Chat Noir: omg yes i love

Chat Noir: but i gotta ask

Chat Noir: why give Chloe another chance?

Chat Noir: not that i want her to fail

Ladybug: she’s proven she really does want to change

Ladybug: she even apologised to Marinette and everything

Ladybug: granted, it was an illusion by Rena

Ladybug: but she still passed the test

Chat Noir: i mean

Chat Noir: i’m glad you gave her this chance

Chat Noir: i guess i just don’t want her to let us down again

Chat Noir: especially with the miraculous

Ladybug: the Bee will be perfect for her

Ladybug: I know it

Chat Noir: true

Chat Noir: bee works best with someone with potential for growth

Chat Noir: sting for the greater good and remain warm without burning out of control and all that

Ladybug: ok, how do you remember that?

Ladybug: that was months ago

Chat Noir: i have a near-purrfect memory

Ladybug: does your autocorrect recognise all your puns?

Chat Noir: actually

Chat Noir: yeah

Chat Noir: don’t @ me

Ladybug: :)

Chat Noir: :(

Chat Noir: wait does that mean rena knows honeybee

Ladybug: it was unavoidable

Ladybug: I needed her Mirage

Chat Noir: oof

Chat Noir: thank god she doesn’t know our ids

Ladybug: haha, yeah

Ladybug: I’m gonna DM Honeybee before I sleep

Ladybug: night, kitty <3

Chat Noir: night bugaboo <3

[11:02 pm] direct messages

Ladybug: Hi, Honeybee

Honeybee: ASKJFDSL;KGLDKFG

Honeybee: HI LADYBUG

Ladybug: you don’t have to freak out

Ladybug: it’s just me

Honeybee: yeah but

Honeybee: i’m in a gc

Honeybee: with LADYBUG

Honeybee: and i’m a SUPERHERO

Honeybee: pollen’s trying to take my phone help

Ladybug: lol

Honeybee: so like

Honeybee: not that i’m ungrateful

Honeybee: but why me

Honeybee: why not marinette

Honeybee: she was right there

Honeybee: and she didn’t mess up and out herself to paris

Ladybug: for one, she told me she’s got a pretty busy schedule

Ladybug: for another

Ladybug: I guess I just remembered our conversation about your mother

Ladybug: and I knew there was potential there if I just teased it out

Ladybug: because you really have been trying, even if you slip up

Honeybee: i just

Honeybee: it’s easier to push ppl away

Honeybee: i have to tell my mother to fuck off tmrw and

Honeybee: i’m kinda losing my shit rn so

Ladybug: you can do it, Chloe

Ladybug: she’s a toxic influence

Ladybug: and she’s stunting your potential for growth

Honeybee: ik ik

Honeybee: pollen said it’s like pruning the weeds to let the flowers bloom?

Ladybug: yep

Ladybug: kwamis are pretty wise

Ladybug: Pollen will help and support you

Ladybug: and you’ve got the group chat

Ladybug: you’re not alone, Chloe

Honeybee: <3

Ladybug: <3

Honeybee: ASLKFHSDLK

[popculturebuffet]

Excalibur #1: “The Accolade of Betsy Braddock”

As the magic of Krakoa seeps into Otherworld and puts Morgan Le Fay in a genocidal mood, Betsy Braddock tries to find her place in the new world while also dealing with her idiot brother.. but you know instead of Paul Rudd she has a reality warping man child with mental instablity. Meanwhile Apocalypse adopts an unprouncable name and a new misson statment as a wizard man, Gambit suppresses the urge to kill him and Goldballs tries a new somehow even worse name out.

Welcome back. Due to yesterday being kinda nuts, and the last review being more taxing than planned, this one is kinda late. But better late than never as dawn of X continues it’s win streak with Excalibur, back and better than ever. And thankfully this time, the exposition is all really easy to bake in as we go compared to my last few reviews, so without any delay, it’s time to forge the sword once again. This is Tini Howard and Marcus To’s Excalibur.

We open on a long info page revealing that when Xavier gave his big “While you Slept the world changed” or, to put it more acuratley “All I wanted was to love you , to help you to save your asses and all you did was either try to kill us, look away while others did, or make a token effort at best to help. Fuck you, we’re taking what’s ours bitches. “ speech, Apocalypse gave his own, in a sense telling Humankind “Magic is ours to take back now.... “

We cut to the present where Morgan Le Fay is in Otherworld, basically the court of king arthur, the source of Captain Britan’s power, and a realm created by the british public’s collective subconscious. I don’t get it either. But Morgan Le Fay, Arthur’s evil sister and long time pain in the ass of the Avengers in the 616, has taken over in his absence and nearly drowns one of her minons upon finding something in her well.. a weed affecting it.. and since the x-men have a plant motif and apocalypse made a big MINE NOW speech to the rest of the world.. it’s easy to see Krakoa’s involved. Nice work Apocalypse, your on Krakoa one week and you’ve already pissed off the neighbors.

After the opening titles, we cut to Braddock Academy, basically the british version of Xavier’s and Avengers Academy and unsurprisingly a pet project of Brian’s. Since the school is also the Braddock ancestral home, Betsy’s been crashing here while sorting things out after getting her original body back. Yeah for those of you not that familiar with Psylocke, which I am not but know at least this much, was body swapped with the Assian Kwannon. That was reversed shortly before Dawn of X, which in order to help smooth the transition has given each their own starring roll. And really it is an intresting thing to explore: Betsy spent 5 or 6 years in a body that was not her own, living her life, loving, and doing bloody awful things in the name of the greater good. So it’s no suprise being put back in her old body after all this time and the implications of having basically lived her life in someoen elses skin with the other person now having it back and being understandably pissed about it, having only not gotten it back sooner due to dying of the Legacy Virus. Thankfully this issue dives deep into it and we’ll explore it more as we go.

The child loudly complaning is Margaret, Brian and Meggan’s daughter. Margret is one of the few things Mark Guggenheim’s run on X-Men did that was all that intresting as, probably thanks to a combination of her dad’s magical man juice and her mom’s already shifting genetics, can already talk in full sentences and comprehend stuff at the tender age of 1. Betsy is of course heading to Krakoa but much like Kitty last week, she’s unsure. But it still works: Kitty was unsure because Krakoa, for whatever reason, basically rejected her and staying would just make her a ghost again. For Betsy, she’s gone from living in a stranger’s body and back again and is understandably frazzled and unsure of tommorow.

But as Brian escorts her to the portal on his property, a touch I like as Meggan is a mutant herself and Brian is a longtime ally so it makes perfect sense to put a portal down there both for his mutant students to depart and for Meggan to visit without having to leave her husband behind, he encourages her. This is something I love about the issue: most x-runs I see betsy in kinda forget she has a brother and Uncanny X-Force turned him into an asshole. Here, their close bond and past, she was a supporting character in his book first after all, is shown beautifully as Brian , while happy to have her back, wants her to move on with her life and knows she’ll do great. 

As also seen above Betsy wishes their brother could join them though Brian isn’t so sure. I didn’t really get into Jamie in the other review, and i’m pleased as punch to get here there. Jamie is their older brother.. and also has schizophrenia and the power of god, two tastes that instead create a rancid punch that threatns all life as Jamie dosen’t think anything else is real. Despite this, Betsy wishes he’d be there to see it and hopes it’d make him better. After all if Apocalypse can find a new start here why not him? They literally have worse people on the island.

Speaking of the devil, after Betsy makes her awkward entrance, we cut to Apocalypse who’s of course standing out a window watching everything meancingly, because even when he’s on the good guy side and no longer plotting horribly Darwinian crimes.. he’s still a super villian deep down and old habits die hard. He’s visited by Trinary, a fairly new x-character introduced in X-Men Red, she’s a technopath, as well as one of the brain trust running Krakoa’s computer network. Also as you can see apocapse want’s to be called by his weird Krakoan name.. i’m just going to stick with Apocalypse as I assume it’s the same thing and even Tini Howard herself has flat out admitted she dosen’t have a translation for it and just scripts him as Apocalypse still. He also gets dagger eyes from everyone’s faviorite Cajun as he makes his villianous rant.

Remy does however have more reason than most to hate the man: He was one of Apocalypse’s horseman once: he attempted to go under cover, but underestimated how good the horseman process was and would up having to go to Mr.Sinister of all people to get himself back to normal. So yeah, having the guy who turned you into a monster that tried to kill your future wife, KINDA makes you not willing to have a ham sammich with the guy.  Trinary came to fetch Apocalypse to check out a new gate that opened.. to otherworld.. the problem is Morgan sealed it, and thus Apocalypse , not being a moron, decides they need “a champion” to break it. And since Hercules is on a three month no pants cruise of the bahamas right now, he’s going to have to be less literal about it.  Meanwhile MOrrigan is an asshole to a coven of sorcerers decreeing that they failed her by.. letting mutants exist. Yeah the one weakspot I have with the book thus far is the opening villianess: Morgan Le Fay simply isn’t that intresting and while she’s had a good storyline or too here she’s pissy because.. mutants found magic again. It isn’ t a terrible motive but her steroptical villaness “take my anger out out my minons” stuff is just tiresome and not at all entertaining. She’s the right level of threat for this book, just not fleshed out about enough and is the one real dry spot in this issue. 

Back on Krakoa, Betsy runs into Kwannon and it’s.. about as awkard as you’d expect as you can see.. and really isn’t helping Betsy’s unease. And I actually, despite not having read a ton of comics with Betsy in them get why she’s so uneasy besides the obvious problems of having the woman whose face you stole around all the time: she has no idea what to do. Everyone else on Krakoa, for the most part at least, is fully on board with the new plan, rairing to go. Sure some understandably object to their old foes being there… but theirs a sense of optimism and wonder and happy.. that just dosen’t go with someone who has so much blood on her hands she looks like she took a guys heart out with her bear hands, is in a body that hasn’t been home in years, and has to look the person who’s body she stole, intentional or not, and didn’t put any effort into bringing back from the dead or once she was back giving her her body back in the face. She’s just not in a great place. Thankfully even if her old pal Jubilee dosen’t pick up on this she does get Betsy could probably use some booze. Unfortunatley pressing matters keep her from finding out if krakoa can pour mimosa’s directily into her mouth via some kind of hose bush:

It’s your pal and mine goldballs, one of the five mutants able to raise the dead (but the car is fine). Or Egg I guess but I’m not calling him that. For one goldballs is a far better name just for the ridiculous factor. For another, just call yourself goldeggs. It’s still dumb but egg is somehow dumber. Even add a Z if you want no one cares. Your one of Krakoa’s own personal jesus’. You could rip a person’s throat out and no one would care… though granted that’s also because death is now meaningless for mutants. But yeah as you can see he has a problem and it’s Jamie.

And yup Jamie is back, alive and while not trying to kill everyone, is still kind of a weird asshole. Also I do not want to know what he did in there but I presume he fucked at least one person. Maybe he made them out of thin air, maybe they just came in. Maybe Sinister decided why not. Either way he’s fouling up the pods, and soon puts his foot in his mouth by saying Betsy’s classic look reminds him of better times right after their parents died. However in a nice little character bit he quickly apologizes, showing he has genuinely changed thanks to his resurrection on some level, and admits that the real reason is because they were all together then and all happy. As for why he’s a nusiance, it’s simple: while ressurectees DO need time to recover from you know, the whole being dead thing, it usually takes about ten minutes for the shock to wear off. And while there’s clearly no shock left Jamie is just farting around. Betsy’s response is to treat him like a ten year old. 

It..actually works.. but unfortunately Jamie has about as much intrest in seeing Brian as Brian does in seeing him. And I see why: before he went insane, Jamie was still a supervillian and still hunted brian out of jealousy, while Jamie.. is just kind of a dick. He’s like Krakoa’s own discord: he’s not an apocalyptic godlike threat to the world any more but he will fuck with you just for cheap laughs. Betsy tries using her telepathy to force him to go but Fabio stops her, as it upsets the eggs apparently and decides to drag Brian here, something even Jamie can see as a bad idea. And when the naked man whose been back for all of 5 minutes can see the holes in your plan, maybe you rethink things. But I also get why Betsy is trying so hard at this: She has almost no stablity left and Brian has been her rock, past and present. But Jamie is still her brother and now has the potetinal to do good and while still a loon, is no longer a genocidal madman and is stubbornly refusing to reconcile because he’s decided to swear off humanity. She just wants her family whole and her brothers not trying to kill each other, but is in too bad a state to recognize they need time and may NEVER get along. it’s how it is with family. Dosen’t mean she has to choose one or the other. Brian wouldn’t make her and frankly Jamie isn’t dumb enough to try that.  Thankfully apocalypse interupts Betsy’s extrodinarly bad plan to ask her about the gate.. and point out that Brian himself would be the best way and that, even as a half human, he’d be welcome here in this crisis. He probably get some leeway since apparently the captain britan thing makes him half otherworlder and he is a cosmic champion versus just some joe who wants to enjoy a paradise he hasn’t earned thorugh hard work or nearly dying a bunch. 

Betsy heads to Braddock Manor where Brian is already planning on going to Otherworld to fix this and is naturally not all that inclined to listen to Apocalypse. So as seen above Betsy goes with plan B: She’s going with him even if it’s a trap because fighting alongside her brother doing the right thing is better than moping around an island trying to dodge Kwannon. This also gives me a nice opprotunity to bring up Betsy’s approach to their former enemies. She’s far more accepting than the rest, even Logan outright objected, but I also easily get why: She’s former black ops, having served on one version of X-Force and lead the one right after it. She understands the need for pragmatism and is a pragmatic person. It’s probably why she’s so willing to forgive Jamie: yeah he did terrible things, but at his worst he was mentally ill, and as established by X-Men #1, Krakoa has terrific healthcare and telepaths and empaths to help him work through his issues. He may not WANT to of course, but he’s more likely to and him slowly improving in paradise is better than her brother just being dead to her as a genocidal mad man.  They encounter Morgan who, being basically a 50′s disney villian, expects Brian as otherworld’s champion to start drowning his own sister.. because fuck subtley. 

Back on Krakoa we meet up with Rouge and Gambit. As a tiny bit of exposition for you lapsed ex fans the two are now married. The two reconciled in the excellent Rouge and Gambit mini series, hashing out their long and messy history. Then X-Men gold happened.. see there was SUPPOSED to be a wedding of Colosus and Kitty.. but their reconcilation was so terribly forced no one wanted the wedding and editoral had gambit, of course, steal The Wedding. So the two are in a happy place, though Rouge dosen’t want to use her power dampener on paradise, understandable as said dampener is a repurposed anti-mutant thing and it’d be like brining a pile of nazi gold as your present to a jewish wedding. Rouge then decides , as shown above ot bring up the idea of having kids but before Gambit can say “of course”, Trinary summons them for apocalypse. Apocalypse needs Rouge as he figures her absoprtion power might allow her to serve as a gateway, and a way to retrieve Betsy. Remy, Understandably, dosen’t want her to do this But Rogue is willing to take the risk to save her friend. Remy , now tenativley on board, suggestings bringing in Jubes since she was the last one to talk to Betsy, but A-Train is way ahead of them. 

Naturally, having talked to her all of one sentence, she has nothing. Also curiously apparently Apocalypse wanted Jubes to bring her son, adopted if you didn’t knokw about him, Shogo with her but shockingly she didn’t want to bring her son to see the scary blue man who had no trouble trying to do a murder on a child when she was younger. However Apocalypse really needs her as a bridge between minds: Rouge will touch the portal to break through it and Gambit will keep watch and is all too happy to. As a side note i’d lvoe to see apocalypse babysit “So you see small infant, after that I cleaved the flesh off his skull and put said skull on a pile as a warning to my enimies. You always want to get the flesh nice and clean off.. .the bits create more of a smell and you need to think of the smell. Speaking of the smell I think someone needs a changie!” 

I would too, but i’m pretty sure Remy would be a ground smear, but I think Apocaypse does respect his willingess to try anyway even if he dosen’t take gambit serious as a threat. 

Back in crazy magic lady town Morgan is slowly corrupting Brian, and despite Betsy’s best attempts to stop it, is quickly turned into a warped dark knight who’s trying to shove the amulet of right in her face for some reason.

But with Apocalypse plan in motion, she figures out what’s going on and destroys the portal.. unfortuantley for Rogue this causes to feel weird and then well.. this is the end result.

What exactly the fuck dosen’t even begin to describe this.

Back in King Arthur’s House, Trinary’s words not mine, Betsy tries to kick Morgan’s ass but Dark Brian blocks her… before the above happens.. and it’s clear WHY he was cramming the amulet down her throat... Morrigan has full control of him, he can’t do anything to stop her.. but he can pass it on so she can hopefully stop her or , if he can’t be freed, destroy him before he harms anyone else. He sends her back to the real world as Betsy wails> This scene is damn powerful, as we’ve seen before Brian was one of the few people who understood she was going through some shit and offered her his full support... and now he’s gone, no idea how to rescue him, leaving a wife and daughter behind. 

Back on Krakoa things arne’t much better wirth Rouge int he flower cocoon I showed earlier and Gambit ready to blow Apocalypse’s head off.. and as you can see Apocalypse is like “Fine i’ll come  back from it stronger, but can you please wait? We’ve got a lot of shit going down. But before Apocalypse can pound Remy into a Cajun Corpse, the assembled group is distracted by a returning Betsy. 

And so we end on Betsy, now fully crowned once again as Captain Britain, wondering what the fuck is up with Rogue. We get a quick Epilogue where one of the covern from earlier joins a cult based on the same one related to apocayplypse and we’re out. ‘Final Thoughts: Excalibur #1 is a good start. While some things don’t quite gel, Otherworld isn’t explained at all for those who have never heard of it (raises hand), it feels fresh and makes me invested in Betsy’s struggle, the tragedy Brian goes through, Remy’s fury and Apocalypse, who for once gets to serve as a wise sage instead of a warrior and it’s an intresting role for him, as well as him clearly being set up to mentor Betsy as she rises higher than ever before with her new role. It makes you want to see what comes next and the only real drawback is that Jubilee is basically a tagalong while Rictor is entirely absent, but both I suspect will be fixed with time. As fhte first part of a story, and the first Dawn of X Comic to be part of an arc since the two mini series that launched it, it works well setting things up. As I said the comic suffers from a lack of exposition on Otherworld and from a weak villain, but it’s not enough to distract from this fun, well crafted fantasy and I can’t wait to see what comes next. Until next time, hail to the queen baby.  

[statusquoergo]

Part I

Early the next morning, Samantha’s already gotten wind of the suit against Brick Street and is none too pleased that Harvey didn’t tell her about it first thing, but no time for that now because Mike and Jeremy are already here for the deposition!

Small wrench in the gears: Whatever Mike was planning, he planned to do it with just Harvey, who “might have forgotten to mention” that Brick Street is now Samantha’s client, not his. Samantha’s derisive sneer of “Mm, the protégé” pours some more salt into that “Mike has been replaced” wound, but Mike cuts off Harvey’s hostile attempt to keep Samantha from taking the case (it is, after all, against her client) by pointing out that it’s frustrating, but they all know Harvey’s going to take his client back whether she likes it or not, so they might as well just let him do it. Samantha says his sob story about Brick Street’s poor factory conditions isn’t going to work here and Harvey says that “Sob stories are his specialty,” which is really just unnecessarily hurtful (and maybe also a little resentful), and Mike leaves them “to discuss who’s gonna take the loss,” patting Harvey on the arm on his way out and leaving me with some conflicting emotions (the physical contact is nice, the overall detachment of the gesture is not so much). Samantha comments that Harvey’s protégé “is a douche,” and like, I get it, but Harvey’s reply is “Not gonna argue with you there,” and what the fuck happened to “Mike’s my guy” (s04e06)? What happened to “If push comes to shove, I’d do what I had to to get Mike out” (s06e06)?

Wait, actually, I just remembered the look on Harvey’s face when Mike told him he was moving to Seattle and okay, maybe I can see where he’s coming from.

Samantha argues that she knows the client and the contract well enough that she should have the case, and in a rare example of the elusive callback/foreshadowing double-tap, Harvey says that he knows the man, reminding us again that Mike flew across the country specifically to pick a fight with him. They agree to handle the case together, and this is definitely going to go flawlessly well.

Personally I didn’t like the Katrina/Brian plot very much the first time around, and I don’t particularly care that it’s coming up again, but at least it gives Katrina an amusing (if totally out-of-character) montage of attempted and aborted (and increasingly awkward) calls to Brian’s cell phone, including both “B-dawg, it’s Kitty Kat,” and “Mother of pearl! Just tell her you love me and that it’s over!” She wraps up by reading a scripted message that signs off, “Cordially, Katrina Bennet,” and this is obviously the behavior of someone who’s totally fine.

So the deposition.

Jeremy Wall took a goodwill trip to…a place (somewhere in China, we learn later), where he saw one of Brick Street Athletics’ factories, which operates with “objectionable factory conditions.” The workers are miserable, but as Harvey points out, “misery isn’t a violation of international law.” And I mean, he’s right, but this is also very Season 1 type behavior (i.e., pre-Mike Ross), so that’s a little concerning. He then derides Jeremy for not knowing that, “because [he’s] a basketball player… not a lawyer,” and again, he’s right, but given the set dressing of Harvey’s office, and the whole “Michael Jordan on speed dial” thing, it’s a little odd that he’s so snobbish toward this guy’s profession.

Then Samantha asks why he’s only bringing this up now, if he visited the factory six months ago, and Jeremy says he didn’t know what to do or who to turn to; Harvey challenges that he was afraid he wouldn’t be paid his full contract, Mike tells him not to speak to his client that way and points out that they “can’t speak to his motivations,” and Samantha says, quote, “I don’t care about his motivations.” Which is funny, seeing as how she literally just asked him why he waited. She brings up that an activist named Charles Hu contacted him about the factory conditions eighteen months ago, which contradicts the claim that he only started caring about the conditions six months ago, and Jeremy says the letter “got [him] a little concerned, but [he] didn’t take it seriously until [he] saw the conditions for [himself].” Mike, appearing rather flustered, argues that the unsolicited letter “didn’t trigger his awareness,” Samantha zeroes in on the fact that “he used the word ‘concern,’” indicating that it did just that, Mike says that’s a technicality (I would’ve gone with the fact that the legal definition of the word “concern” is open to interpretation, but whatever), Harvey shuts him down with a cuttingly personal and mildly patronizing use of his first name (“No, Mike, it’s the terms of his contract”), and Samantha sits back in her chair to smugly proclaim that “this case is getting dismissed.”

I…want to feel bad for Mike, but mostly because Jeremy seems like a good dude. Mike himself seems kind of unprepared, which I guess is what happens when you schedule a deposition for the following day. Also he was ready to take Harvey on alone and Samantha is fucking up his plans, but like, details, whatever.

Following up on that “ready to take Harvey on alone” thing, Mike and Harvey go back to Harvey’s office so Mike can ask him what the fuck that was all about. Harvey says “it’s there in black and white,” i.e., in the contract, Mike argues that he doesn’t care because Jeremy found out about the conditions six months ago, Harvey points out that he’ll have to explain to a judge why Jeremy is on record saying he ignored the factory workers for an entire year, and then…this happens:

“Harvey, they’re exploiting these people and you know it.” “What I know is, you’re the same old Mike playing that violin to get me to help you.” “I might be the same old Mike, but you are not the same old Harvey.” “What’d you just say?” “You heard me.”

Okay, so, yes and no. Mike certainly appears to be playing up his old strengths, trying to get Harvey to care about these people on a humanitarian level and do the right thing because it’s right rather than because it’s legal, but Harvey is also being very much the old Harvey; as I said earlier, this is heavily reminiscent of his Season 1-type behavior. “It’s there in black and white,” and he’s going to use that to his advantage to win the case without paying attention to the humanitarian ramifications.

But then:

“That’s why you did this now. You know Faye’s breathing down our necks, and I can’t fight at full strength.”

Hold on. So Harvey is admitting that he’s only at his best when he’s cheating? Faye is literally there to make sure they don’t break the law in their pursuit to practice law; if he plays above board, he should have no trouble getting past her.

“Her being here might actually make you fight fair for a change.” “You saying you’re gonna fight fair?” “All my bad habits I learned from you.”

To be fair, Mike learned how to be a lawyer from Harvey, so most of his good habits, he learned from him, too.

Mike then proposes that “Anything that could get us disbarred or put in prison is off limits,” and Harvey mocks him for still being afraid of prison, since “Frank Gallo’s dead,” and do I need to replay the entirety of Season 6 for these assholes? Do I need to do that, does that need to be a thing that happens? Harvey was terrified for Mike’s safety; even before he knew Gallo was going to be there, he threw a fucking glass at his head to prepare him for how vigilant he was going to need to be.

Anyway Harvey agrees, but stipulates that “[They] end this thing on good terms, no matter who wins.” Which is when Mike pulls that “You got it. I’ll make sure to accept your loss gracefully” line from the previews, and just as Katrina saying she’s over Brian is equivalent to her admitting that she’s not over Brian, this agreement is as good as a warning label that this case isn’t going to end well, so there’s something fun to look forward to.

Speaking of Katrina, she tells Donna about her adventures in trying to call Brian; Donna decides they’re going to go out clubbing that night, and then gets an alarming message on her laptop that she has to “figure out how [she’s] gonna handle.”

Speaking of subplots, Louis gives Sheila a new, I assume larger pair of $9000 glass slippers, and Sheila tells him about an anonymous $50,000 donation that just came in this morning. Louis is thrilled until Sheila snaps that she knows he did it, because anonymous donations aren’t made anonymously, they’re just made by people who ask her to keep their names confidential to the public. They have a loud and heated argument that kind of makes sense, and Louis proposes that they go see Lipschitz together for some couple’s therapy.

Turns out that alarming message Donna got was an online edition of “the journal,” with a copy of something that’s going to be on the front page tomorrow courtesy of Mike Ross and which doesn’t sit very well with Samantha. Whatever this thing is, it’s going to “tell the world that [Brick Street] exploits people,” but Donna asks Samantha to cut a deal with Mike because he’s family. Samantha says he’s not her family and Donna says he is, and I thought she was gonna go hard on that found family metaphor, what with Mike having been a member of the firm for so long and Harvey’s protégé and all that, but no, she says that Mike is Robert’s family and therefore he’s Samantha’s, too. That feels kind of…technical, and gets back to an old theory of mine that this show spends a lot of time driving home the message that family needs to stick together no matter what (even if, say, one’s mother is an emotionally abusive self-victimizing gaslighter or something), and Samantha seems to agree with me that Mike marrying Robert’s daughter is incidental to her loyalty to her clients; Donna changes tack because “this ad is just the beginning,” and Mike, who is just as tenacious as Samantha and Harvey, isn’t going to stop here, so Samantha had better compromise with him if she doesn’t want a “lose-lose.”

Um. Advertisements don’t run on the front page.

Right, so, Katrina and Donna go out for drinks, and it seems there was a little miscommunication somewhere along the line because while Donna wants Katrina to drink martinis and lie about her identity and hook up with hot guys, Katrina just wants to talk about how she’s feeling. She tries to leave, and Donna immediately backpedals, asking Katrina when she was last in a “real relationship”; Katrina says she’s not comfortable discussing that with Donna, and Donna reminds us that one minor misstep doesn’t mean she doesn’t still know everything about everyone:

“In other words you’ve only been in one real relationship, and you broke both your hearts because you didn’t want anything to get in the way of your career, and I must be losing it because I completely misread the situation.” “What do you mean?” “Brian was your soul’s way of telling you that there’s more to life than work. That the person you need to develop a relationship with, is you.”

Alright, Marianne, you can get off that soapbox anytime. No, I agree that Katrina needs to take time for herself away from work (which she determines to do, “[starting] tonight by having drinks with a friend”), but the whole “your soul’s way of telling you” thing is just…so stupid. So very stupid. Also just because Katrina wants to talk about her feelings rather than drink and have sex about her feelings doesn’t mean she’s only ever had one serious relationship in her life, so that’s pretty presumptuous.

Samantha takes Donna’s advice to try to settle with Mike, who opens the door to his apartment and greets her with, I’m not even kidding: “You’re not Harvey.” She asks what it’s gonna take to make this all go away, and he says either Brick Street starts making clothes ethically, or they let Jeremy out of his contract with full pay (or both, but he’s a realist and he knows they won’t do that). Samantha is “trying to find some common ground,” having known Robert forever and Rachel since she was a little girl; Mike asks who’s playing the violin now and Samantha indignantly proclaims that she saved Robert from going to prison, not to mention she’s only here because Donna begged her to come. Mike, however, “[doesn’t] care what Donna did. [He’s] not handing Harvey a win, and [he’s] certainly not handing one to his new second fiddle.” Samantha hands him a defamation suit and storms out.

Let’s come back to that a little later.

For now, Faye goes to Alex to ask about Mike, and Alex says he’s “cocky, arrogant, thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, and he’s had my back more than once.” That’s nice, but Faye’s concern is that Mike and Harvey have history, and history makes people do things they shouldn’t, and I’m not touching that one with a ten foot pole, thank you very much. Though Alex fears that she wants him to spy on them, she says she in fact wants him to oversee them, and she came to him with respect because he’s the only name partner who hasn’t disrespected her; Alex says if she wants people to respect her, she should stop treating them like they can’t be trusted, and she quite correctly points out that “there’s a powder keg here” and she’s the only one trying to keep it from exploding. Also the whole reason she’s there in the first place is that they can’t be trusted, so yes, that is exactly how she’s treating them. Well spotted.

I guess Samantha went back to the office after she left Mike’s, because she finds Harvey to talk about the deposition tomorrow (again? Didn’t we go over this?) and he snaps at her for going to Mike behind his back because he “didn’t take this case to lie down. [He] took it to win.” She brushes off that she didn’t lie down, she slapped them with a defamation suit, and Harvey points out that Mike would’ve seen that coming a mile away, but now that she’s done it, they’re free to ask questions not just about Jeremy’s contract but also about Brick Street’s manufacturing conditions. I mean, yes? But also they were free to ask that before the defamation suit, since they’re still in discovery and this is just a deposition rather than a trial. Anyway Harvey says it doesn’t matter that Brick Street hasn’t done anything wrong because Mike just needs to make it look that way to a jury, and Samantha has a light bulb moment that they just need to make sure the case never makes it to trial.

The next day, Mike drops in on Katrina for one of those “fun scenes…with Mike and the old gang” that Korsh mentioned; the “fun” part lasts for about five seconds as Mike assures her that Rachel is doing good. “In fact, if [he] told [her] how good, [she] probably wouldn’t believe [him],” so that’s a nice not-subtle reference to the Duchess of Sussex. Mike then revives that old “Shiiiiiiiiit” thing from The Wire that they had going back in Season 3, before Katrina apologizes for getting senior partnership before him and Mike assures her that he’s “exactly where [he wants] to be,” in case anyone was worried about that. Katrina goes on to warn him not to push Samantha because she’s “an excellent lawyer, and deep down, she’s a good person,” and even though Mike argues that “this is between [him] and Harvey,” Katrina cautions that Samantha is “never just along for the ride.”

Part III

[undiscoveredstory]

Howdy kiddos! Well, it’s sure been a while since I posted a lil fic here, but the time has finally come again! This one goes out to @schuylergirls! Happy, happy birthday, kiddo! I hope it’s been fantastic :) 

The prompt was what happens to Martha in Heathers with the note from Ram, but with Eliza. This is inspired by that, but I changed a few things... Even the Angst Queen can’t be as dark as Heathers. “Read more” after the first few paragraphs just because this is so long. 

Enjoy, and happy birthday, kiddo!!! <333

Eliza Schuyler was on cloud nine. She could not believe that Alexander Hamilton–– the Alexander Hamilton–– had actually written her a love note.

It was weird how it’d all happened, really. Kitty Livingston, Eliza’s cousin, had tracked her down in the hallway between second and third period to thrust the note in her hands. At first, Eliza thought something was wrong because Kitty looked distraught, but Kitty raced off before Eliza could question it. Eliza didn’t have time to race after her cousin, and, besides, her cousin had been spending more and more time around the popular girls lately. Eliza was surprised Kitty had risked being in her presence long enough to give her the note.

Without questioning it further, Eliza dashed off to class, sliding into her seat, practically letting her backpack slam against the floor so she could open the note before the teacher walked in. She unfolded the loose leaf page to reveal a spidery script written in black gel pen:

Dear Eliza,

I've been thinking about you. I miss the simpler times when we were still friends. I'd like you to come to my homecoming party this weekend.

Love, Ham

Eliza had to reread the letter two more times before it hit her: Alexander Hamilton, the boy who had kissed her in kindergarten, still had feelings for her. Alexander Hamilton, the boy she’d had a crush on for the past eleven years, had a crush on her.

Eliza could not believe it. She could not believe it.

She could barely focus for the rest of her classes. All she could think about was lunch period, when she would see Alexander sitting with his friends. Normally, she sat with her sisters and their friends, far away from Alexander, but today–– today things would change.

The morning slowly passed. Eliza swore she could feel each tick of the second hand in the pit of her stomach. When lunch time finally came, she waltzed into the cafeteria with more confidence than she had possessed in the past two and a half years of high school. Angelica noticed the change in her sister right away.

“Someone’s happy today! You do well on that math test?”

Eliza shook her head. “No–– I mean, yeah, I did, but that’s not why I’m so…” she giggled.

“Giddy?” Angelica supplied, an amused eyebrow cocked.

“Yeah,” Eliza said with another laugh. She held the note out to Angelica.

Angelica read it, her brow furrowing in what looked like concern. “Where’d this come from?” she asked, her voice unusually strained.

“Kitty gave it to me!” Eliza said, beaming.

“Um, Eliza, you know Kitty’s been––”

“She’s our cousin, Angelica.” Eliza wasn’t sure what Angelica was going to say, and she didn’t want to know. She dismissed her older sister’s concern with the wave of her hand. “I’m going to go talk to him now.”

Just as Eliza was about to leave, Peggy joined the table.

“What’s up?” Peggy asked. She studied Eliza, her face breaking out into a grin. “Why do you look so––”

“Giddy,” Angelica said flatly.

Eliza passed Peggy the note. Peggy started jumping up and down as she read.

“Oh my gosh! ELIZA! Alexander Hamilton likes you!”

“I know!” Eliza said, jumping up and down with her sister. She glared at Angelica. “I’m glad at least you’re happy for me.”

Peggy smirked as she took in Angelica’s look of disapproval. “She’s just jealous.”

“Am not!” Angelica said.

“Okay, I’m really going now,” Eliza said. She pushed her shoulders back and flipped her dark hair over her shoulder. She wanted to appear confident. She felt like Alexander would like a girl with confidence.

Across the cafeteria sat Alexander with his friends, John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan, and Lafayette. They were laughing over something Alexander had said. John was laughing so hard that milk spurted from his nose, which only made the group laugh even harder.

Eliza would normally be far too intimidated to walk within a ten foot radius of their table, but the note had emboldened her. Alexander wanted her to talk to him.

She was almost there, she was so close––

Someone grabbed her arm. She spun around to see Kitty.

“Oh, hey, Kitty,” she said. “Did you know what the note was about? It turns out that Alex––”

“I didn’t read it, nope,” Kitty said, a nervous tinge to her voice. “Uh, but, uh, I need your advice on something. It’s important.”

Eliza studied her cousin for a moment. Even before Kitty had fallen in with the popular crowd, she’d never exactly asked Eliza for advice. Angelica was typically the advice-giver.

“Oh, uh, sure. What’s up?” Eliza asked.

Kitty led her away from Alexander, back toward the table the Schuyler sisters normally occupied. She sat Eliza down and began talking about how her mom was all up in her business lately and she just didn’t know what to do and…

Eliza sighed. She had really wanted to talk to Alexander, but she didn’t want to be a bad cousin. So she sat there and listened to Kitty babble on and gave some half-hearted advice. She would just have to wait until later that night.

She would just have to wait until Alexander’s homecoming party.

***

“Eliza, are you sure about this?” Angelica asked, anxiety obvious in her voice.

Eliza rolled her eyes as she held up different necklaces in the mirror. “Yes, mom.” She selected the gold necklace with a blue pendant on it. It went perfectly with her navy blue dress. “Stop worrying so much. I don’t know what there is to worry about!”

Angelica was silent for a beat too long. Their eyes met in the mirror.

“What if Kitty… Is tricking you?”

Eliza gasped. “Angie! How could you even think Kitty would do something like that?”

Angie looked down and shrugged. “She’s just been… She’s been hanging out with the wrong crowd. I’m worried they’ve influenced her.”

“She hung out with us for all of lunch today,” Eliza pointed out. “She rarely even did that before, so maybe she’s seeing through them and knows where the true friendship is at?”

Angelica shrugged again. “Yeah, maybe,” she said with a sigh.

Eliza could tell her sister still wasn’t convinced, but she tried not to let it bother her. Maybe Peggy was right, and Angelica was jealous. The thought of Angelica being jealous of her was new to Eliza. All her life, she’d admired and envied Angelica. Was this what it felt like to be the person someone else envied?

Eliza wasn’t sure she liked the feeling. She would much rather Angelica just be happy for her, like Peggy was.

Peggy popped out of the closet, where she’d been going through the girls’ collection of purses. Between the three of them, they had at least twenty.

“I think I found the perfect one!” She held out a gold clutch to Eliza. It matched her necklace perfectly. Peggy was good at making small details come together like that.

“I love it!” Eliza exclaimed. She stared at herself in the mirror.

Behind her, off to one side, Peggy’s face came into view. She beamed at Eliza. Angelica rested her chin on Eliza’s other shoulder. She looked skeptical, but her scowl lightened up a bit when she took in Eliza’s outfit and the smile on her face.

“You look beautiful, Eliza,” Angelica said. “Are you sure you don’t want me or Pegs to go with you?”

“Nah, I’m good! But thanks.” She hugged both her sisters. “Kitty will be there, but I bet once I get to Alexander we’ll have a lot to catch up on…”

Eliza and Alexander had been such good friends when they were five. Of course, everything is easier when you’re five. All they had to have in common back then was the fact that they both liked to play with Hot Wheels and enjoyed building sand castles in the sandbox on the playground.

Eliza knew Alexander liked to write, and that he was a talented debtor, but everyone knew this. He was a journalist for the school newspaper and he had won awards for his debating skills. He probably knew nothing about her. She mostly kept to herself and her sisters.

All the more to talk about, she thought with a smile.

Eliza waltzed down the stairs and into the living room where her parents sat, the younger kids playing with Legos on the floor.

“Well, look at you!” her father declared.

“You look beautiful, sweetie.”

“You ready to go?” Her father stood up.

Eliza wished she didn’t have to rely on her parents to drive her, but she hadn’t exactly wanted to ask Angelica, who she knew disapproved of her going to the party in the first place––

“Actually, I’ll take her.” Angelica stood in the doorway, car keys twirling around her pointer finger.

Eliza wanted to squeal and hug Angelica. Being driven by your cool older sister was infinitely better than being driven by your loving but awkward father.

Philip sank back down into his armchair. “Perfect. You girls have fun!”

“Thanks, Angie,” Eliza whispered as they headed out the door.

“Don’t mention it,” she said. She was clearly trying to be light, but she was failing. Angelica seemed like she was on the lookout for a predator. Like she was just waiting for something catastrophic to happen.

The drive to Alexander’s house was silent, save for the rock music playing on the radio. When they pulled up in front of the house, Eliza couldn’t help but gasp. It wasn’t like Eliza’s family didn’t have money–– they were very wealthy. But Alexander was a level above her.

Alexander was the adoptive son of George and Martha Washington. George was a US senator, and Martha also held some important position in a government agency. What, exactly, she did, Eliza wasn’t sure. Either way, the Washingtons were loaded, and it showed. Their house was huge. They owned land as far as the eye could see. It would be intimidating if there wasn’t bad pop music blasting from somewhere in the dark, and a bunch of high school students gathered on the porch.

“You sure you’re good?” Angelica asked. “I’ll come in if you want…”

Eliza did want her sister to come with her now that she saw how big the party was. But she didn’t want to appear weak. It was weird, she’d never worried about that with her sisters before. But she felt like she had something to prove, and she was going to prove it.

“I’m good,” she said with as much confidence as she could muster up.

“Okay, well, give a call when you’re ready to be picked up.”

Eliza nodded and hopped out of the car. She waved to Angie as she slowly pulled away, exiting the Washingtons’ circular driveway.

Eliza turned to face the Washingtons’ home. She squared her soldiers and marched forward, her flats crunching against the gravel of the driveway. As she approached the porch, she realized it was Kitty who was out there with her popular friends.

A look of horror passed over Kitty’s face when their eyes met. Eliza couldn’t help but feel offended–– how could Kitty spend all of lunch with them, then be disgusted by Eliza’s face just a few hours later?

“Wow, she came,” one of Kitty’s friends snickered.

Before Eliza could comprehend what that meant, Kitty stepped forward.

“Eliza, wow, you came.” Kitty looked paler than usual, which was saying a lot, since Kitty came from the white side of the family and normally looked quite pale.

“Yeah!” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I’m here to see Alexander. He invited me.”

“Oh… Did he?” Kitty said, her voice quivering.

“Are you looking for our lovely host?” one of Kitty’s friends asked. “He’s in there.” She pointed to the front door.

“Okay, thanks,” Eliza said. “See you in a bit, Kitty!”

“See you, Eliza…”

Eliza pushed the heavy red door open and the music became louder. It didn’t seem to be in English, but in French. The Washingtons’ other adoptive son, Lafayette, was French, so Eliza figured that he was the deejay currently.

She looked around the dimly lit hallway. Girls laughed too loudly at boys’ jokes. One couple was making out against the wall, nearly knocking a portrait that hung there off the wall. Then she heard his laugh. She heard Alexander Hamilton’s laugh.

She turned, and there he was, talking to John Laurens, who was clutching a can of soda and laughing too hard at Alexander’s jokes.

I’ll just say hello…

Eliza crossed the floor until she was standing in front of the two boys.

Alexander looked surprised to see her. “Eliza,” he said.

Her name had never sounded so beautiful.

“I wasn’t going to come, but then I got your sweet note, and I just had to.” She smiled at Alexander.

“What? I didn’t write you a note…”

“What?” Eliza felt something shatter inside of her. She wanted to run, but she was cemented in place.

“Why would he write you a note?” One of the popular girls Kitty was friends with said from behind Eliza. “You’re a nobody!”

Eliza wanted to melt into a puddle. She wanted to seep through the floorboards. She wanted to be anywhere but there.

“Eliza––” Alexander said, reaching out to grab her arm, but Eliza flinched away.

Before she knew what was happening, she’d raced out of the house and down the Washingtons’ driveway. She’d also pulled out her phone and speed dialed Angie on the way.

“Hello?”

“Come get me. Please.”

“Eliza? You just got there––”

“Angie, please,” she said with a sob. “You were right. You were right.”

“Oh, Eliza. I’m coming right now. Stay where you are.” Angie hung up.

Eliza wrapped her arms around her torso, suddenly so cold. She prayed the darkness of night obscured her from the view of anyone still on the porch.

Suddenly, there was the sound of someone running across the gravel. The sound stopped behind her.

“Eliza?”

Alexander.

“Eliza, I’m so sorry.”

Alexander appeared in front of her. He looked distraught, and quite disheveled. She loved his disheveled brown hair. He usually wore it in a ponytail or bun, but tonight it was down and messed up from running. It was adorable.

“I didn’t know,” he said quickly. “I had no idea those girls had… Been so cruel.”

Eliza looked down at her flats and pushed around a piece of gravel with the toe of her shoe. “It’s fine. It was stupid, anyway. I don’t know why I believed it.”

“Kitty told me what it said. She said the other girls had put her up to it.”

Kitty did it. She really betrayed me like this.

“Let’s just forget it.” Eliza waved a hand dismissively and went to turn away from Alexander, but his hand landed on her shoulder, freezing her in place.

“I may not have written it, but the sentiment is true.”

Eliza was really frozen now.

“I do miss us being friends. And I’m really happy you came tonight. I don’t want you to go.”

Eliza had no idea what to say, so the first thing she thought of just tumbled out of her mouth. “I already called my sister.”

“Angelica?”

Eliza turned to face Alexander again, his hand falling away from her shoulder in the process. She missed the contact already.

“Yeah.”

“Well, tell her she can stay. I’d love to hang out with you both.” The smile on his face seemed genuine…

Before Eliza could respond, a car pulled up beside her. Angie rolled down the window.

“Leave my sister alone, Hamilton,” she practically growled.  

The back window rolled down and Peggy’s face appeared. “Yeah, or you’ll face our wrath!”

“It’s all be a huge misunderstanding,” Alexander said, holding his hands up. “I was just telling Eliza I really want her to stay, and that I would love it if both of you could stay, as well.”

Angie and Peggy turned to Eliza. They were going to let her make the decision.

Eliza shrugged. “Why not?”

Alexander pumped his fist in the air. “Sweet! Come on in, I’ll introduce you to my friends.”

Eliza smiled. “Okay,” she said softly.

Angie parked the car. She and Peggy walked on either side of Eliza as they headed back toward the house. Eliza felt like she had her own security detail.

“Oh, and Kitty and those girls are gone,” Alexander said. “I kicked ‘em out.”

“But they’re popular!” Peggy said, her eyes wide.

Alexander shrugged, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Yeah, but they messed with one of my friends.” He looked directly at Eliza. “Nobody does that.”

Eliza couldn’t help the smile that overtook her face. Maybe the night wasn’t ruined, after all…  

[kentmansleys]

romance headcanons.

name: Kent Mansley.

nickname(s): Please, call him Kent. (Ken, Kenny, Agent/Mister Mansley, The Man (et al). Only Agent and Mister Mansley are acceptable).

gender: Cis male.

romantic orientation: Bisexual, but repressed. 

preferred pet names: He’s fond of most pet names-- call him Darling (or Darlin’), Baby, Honey/Hon, Sweetie, Love, Stud...  and for historical accuracy only, daddy. @scrapartandcoffee‘s Dean also calls him Tiger and Kitty, which is adorable.

relationship status: Single, but always mingling. Has several one-night stands. Sometimes with coworkers (the female secretaries). Sometimes they’re rather unhealthy, colored by hate along with lust. 

favorite canon ship: He doesn’t end up with anyone in canon! (Well, he kinda has a thing for Annie in the July draft of the script, but...) I ship him with both Annie and Dean, but Dean/Kent is my favorite. 

favorite non-canon ship: Aside from the above two... I really love Kent with Alistair Krei from Big Hero 6. Like a lot. 

opinion on true love: Kent definitely believes it exists, but his idea of it is very warped. His ideal partner is less of a partner and more of a servant. He pictures true love as having someone in his life who worships him, and in turn he appreciates them because of their dedication to him. 

opinion on love at first sight: That he doesn’t think exists. He certainly believes in (and experiences) instant physical attraction, but not love at first sight.

how ‘romantic’ are they?  It depends. In a best case scenario, he’s so sappy you could mistake him for a maple tree. Kent is very physical and loves cuddling, holding hands, and public displays of affection. He’s also big on high romance-- leaving love notes around the house, cooking for his partner, taking them out on nice dates, complimenting them in really flowery terms...

Worst case scenario he is just straight up abusive.

ideal physical traits: He’s attracted to women with red or blonde hair, green eyes, fair complexion, and an hourglass figure. With men he tends to gravitate toward fellas with dark hair, tanned skin, strong jawlines, and subtle to toned muscle definition. In all cases he falls head over heels for accents, and is typically (unknowingly) attracted to people who are more dominant or competent (at anything) than him, but he actively pursues rather vapid or blithe women.

ideal personality traits: Those who usually stick with him are those who are usually better people than him, morally and intelligence wise, either because they see him as a project or they like to toy with him. Those that usually only spend a night with him are on his level-- petty, self-absorbed, and quick to anger. 

unattractive physical traits: He’s kind of a racist so he usually doesn’t go for women of color. He’s usually not into people who are his level of thin or are notably plump. He likes the mid-century ideal for both men and women-- a curvy woman and a solid man. 

unattractive personality traits: Kent is intimidated by anyone with more ambition and more natural dominant tendencies than him, male or female. He also feels uncomfortable around people who are more culturally aware or intelligent than he is. At the end of the day, though, those people are who he really finds attractive. He just goes for people like himself because they’re on his level. 

do they have a type? I think I touched on that pretty well in the questions above! But in general: Kent likes a lady who is pretty but stupid, and he likes a man who is (kind of) rugged and dominant. 

average relationship length: Depends. The longer ones can last years, the shorter ones a weekend at best. 

preferred non-sexual intimacy: Cuddling. 

commitment level: Depends. Usually low, due to his fickleness. 

opinion on public affection: Loves it. He wants to be lovey-dovey all the time. 

past relationships: He’s had four major girlfriends. And countless flings and one-night stands.

TAGGED BY: Taken from @foolassery! TAGGING: Whoever feels like doing this!

[lovingwolfpolice]

CRM Inbound Marketing Strategy: Best Practices You Should Know

More often than not, entrepreneurs put a lot of effort into improving their sales and marketing functions. Ultimately, these two aspects of your business are responsible for securing more customers. However, it is not enough that you simply invest in sales tools and Best CRM software solutions.It is more important for you to follow your best practices to maximize your investment and ensure that they are strengthening your sales and marketing goals. In this article, we will provide you with a brief description of the top CRM best practices that you can use for your operations.

Customer relationship management has played a key role in inbound marketing and sales strategies. It provides marketers and sales professionals with all the information they need to improve interactions with customers and get more conversions. This is why it is no surprise that Custom CRM Software have become one of the top technologies that support customer engagement in terms of customer retention (99%) and customer acquisition (69%).

But of course, as an entrepreneur, you should also be aware that having a CRM platform at your disposal does not ensure better customer engagement efforts. For you to be able to reap the benefits of these software solutions, you have to implement strong inbound marketing and sales strategies with it. These will allow you to attract, engage and convert potential customers as quickly as possible without compromising the quality of each lead.

Compared to traditional marketing, inbound marketing can help you save up to 62% in costs for each lead. In addition, this strategy allows companies to produce conversion rates that are six times higher than those that use an outbound marketing strategy.Similarly, in a study by Aberdeen Group, the results showed that more than 64% of teams reach and even exceed their quota when they use the inbound sales strategy for their operations. With these said, it only makes sense that you maximize your CRM efforts by using inbound CRM strategies.

To help you get started, we have listed some of the best CRM practices that you should consider implementing. But before we get ready for that kitty-gritty, let us first discuss what is inbound sales and what is inbound marketing. In this way, you should know how essential they are and how they can strengthen your actions.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is the process of attracting and engaging which converts them into paying customers. Lead Management Software careful analysis of your target audience, careful creation of valuable content for customers and leads, as well as religious follow-up on prospects.

As opposed to outbound marketing, where businesses promote their brand in the hope of protecting customers, the main purpose of inbound marketing is for businesses to provide a personalized experience to customers. By doing so, they can build their credibility as a brand and build strong relationships with their customers.

Some examples of inbound marketing practices are content marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, attention reporting, and lead flow management. Having a knowledge base for contact history, contact details, and customer profiles is also an effective inbound marketing technique that many companies use to support their operations.

What is inbound sales?

Inbound sales is a way in which sales professionals act as consultants for agents who potentially offer products and services rather than agents that anyone may be interested in. Like inbound marketing, inbound sales emphasize providing an enjoyable customer experience rather than resorting to a vigorous sales strategy.

With inbound sales, you pay for advertisements with cold calls, scripted pitches, direct mail, and more targeted techniques that revolve around leads' preferences.

When used with inbound marketing, inbound sales serve as a way through which your representatives can welcome interested leads who are in contact with your company. By the time prospects emerge, your sales agents should be able to use sales management software to figure out how to get them better and close deals faster.

CRM Inbound Marketing Best Practice

Inbound marketing and sales strategy are only as good as your execution. It depends a lot on how well you use your CRM platform. To help you, we have listed some of the CRM best practices that you should consider implementing to strengthen your campaigns. Above all, you can take a look at these Sales CRM Software optimization tips to get the most out of your platform.

1. Maximize Your Sales Agents Using Lead Distribution

There are plenty of leads for your sales agents to catch. However, there is a possibility that some of your sales professionals are following the same lead. This can create friction between employees and waste the time and effort of your team. To ensure that this does not happen, you need to use lead distribution.With this, all you need to do is set the parameter through which your software will take auto-assignment to delegates. You can do this based on criteria such as geography, demographic, industry or expertise. By doing this, you can maximize each sales representative, tap more leads, and speed up the sales process with ease.

In fact, according to an analysis by Velocify, the use of a lead delivery strategy can increase response time and increase lead conversion compared to manual lead delegation.

2. Zero in strong leads through lead scoring

While you need to be as secure as you can, it is important that you pay more attention to the people who are most likely to convert into paying customers. This is where lead scoring comes in handy. Using this, marketers and sales professionals can pinpoint the status of a lead in the sales pipeline as well as provide them with all kinds of information about contact information and prospects ranging from profession to interest level and past interactions . By focusing on these figures, it is easier to find the probability of conversion and determine how much effort you should put into following them.

3. Lead nutrition goes directly to them

Communication is an important part of building relationships with customers. Therefore, it goes without saying that entrepreneurs should keep in touch to re-establish them in the sales funnel. To nurture your leadership, you should follow them. Some Sales CRM will allow you to create personalized bulk emails ahead of time so that you do not ignore any leads.There are also platforms that can support multi-channel lead nurturing so that you can leverage social media, paid targeting, and even website building to engage your prospects more effectively. These are some of the key nutrition techniques that you can use to boost your sales.

4. Create buyer to reinforce your campaign plan

Inbound marketing and sales rely on providing leads with valuable experiences that drive them to patronize your brand. This can be done by creating a campaign to focus on a certain demographic or publishing content that can address the concerns of your potential customers.However, it can be challenging to design campaigns that entice specific types of leads. To make it simple, you need to create a buyer.

Buyer personalities are research-based representations of the customers you want to acquire. It should include specific details, including interests, shopping habits, age, location and the like.

Once you have created a profile for your buyer personality, you can start designing targeted campaigns that are bound to capture these leads.

5. Leverage your content to boost conversions

One of the most effective ways to attract businesses is to give them information that speaks to them.To do this, you must first understand the interests and concerns of your customers using lead management. This will allow you to create more specific content that can promote conversions. Correspondingly, you can also use conversation history to see what kind of content your leads might be looking for.

[fountainpenguin]

What are the similarities and differences between fairy magic colours and ghost ray colours?

Oh, FINALLY! I’ve been drumming my fingers, waiting for someone to ask me about the Ghost colors. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to reveal them one by one in “No Anesthetic” (since each one is a chapter title), or do a post about them (which I wrote and scrapped three times), but an Ask makes it tough to refuse.

In both shows (under my headcanons), colors are situational, and not selected by the user at will (Well, that’s a lie. Ember can choose what color to use with her guitar, which in itself implies that different colors have different abilities or levels of strength). They’re KIND OF based on emotions, but there’s a lot of cognition involved too. 

And the emotions and situations associated with the colored powers of each show obviously vary (Ex: Green is a rare color of magic in FOP, but probably the most common one in DP).

FAIRIES

This is the tl;dr- the full color post can be found here.

Yellow -> Putting others first; delight - Can only be reverted by caster; does not revert itself with caster’s death; in “He Poofs, He Scores”, this color was associated with balance.

Blue -> Irritation (Common in fights) - Can be reverted by the caster or a bystander with great effort, but irritation must have subsided somewhat; in “HPHS”, this color was associated with speed.

> > Indigo -> High inner conflict; instant regret - Same as above, but will also reverse itself when the caster falls asleep (Some Fairies don’t believe it’s real, but since it seems to be Juandissimo’s signature magic color, I can’t just ignore it! It’s a “tested proof vs. anecdotes” argument that gets mentioned sometimes in my fanfics, but it’s not like a big deal or anything).

Pink -> Knee-jerk response; also used in shapeshifting - Any bystander can revert it with a bit of effort;in “HPHS”, this color was associated with reflexes.

> > Red -> Obsession; survival instinct - Reverts itself within minutes;in “HPHS”, this color was associated with strength.

Purple -> Neutral (Magic’s natural state) - Can only be reverted by caster; reverts itself with caster’s death; interestingly enough, in “HPHS”, this color was associated with happiness.

Green -> Misery; can also be triggered by laziness - Reverts itself within hours; in “HPHS”, this color was associated with coordination.

Reminder - because it’s FASCINATING - that Foop’s magic once went from blue to purple to green in the course of a single episode (“Scary Godcouple”). I mentioned this in a video one time (at 1:00), if you wanted to hear me talk about learned helplessness and stuff. Best homework assignment ever~

All I want for Christmas is to find the “HPHS” original script on Scribd and see if each trait is paired with its color specifically but it’s not on there so :/

GHOSTS

So, we all know where that brings us! I drove myself to F I T S trying to find any color parallels, and any previous post I may have made speculating about ghost colors will be retconned by this post. I finally settled on the idea of “emotions based on concepts that don’t translate well into English”, and gave them “ghost language” names. Check it out:

Califca (cahl-if-kuh) n. - Boldness intertwined with stupidity; well-meant rashness; orderly chaos. Deliberate intent achieved through thoughtlessness. Or i'calif (v.), the act of enjoying the presence of the color red.

Obviously, this is Youngblood’s element! Ember used the switch on her guitar to trigger it in “Girl’s Night Out” and amplify Kitty’s kiss. In doing so, this affected the entire city, suggesting it to be a very powerful color. It’s also the color associated with Freakshow’s staff, and there’s one very quick hint that Dark Danny used red when he was messing around at Nasty Burger. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem to get used much, which is interesting given its power. Also, like, Youngblood having that much power??? Wow. I suspect his prosthetic limbs help him channel that kind of energy.

Ampau (Am-paw) n. - The intrinsic joy garnered from experiencing moderation; pleasurable patience. Or ampau’du (v.), to notice and delight in the existence of the color pink.

Vlad has used pink quite often, and I’ve seen Desirée and Walker use it too (as examples). I was originally going to make it the color that only heals, helps, or defends, but then it got used as a weapon too much, so now it’s based on patience. Patience? Yeah, sorry, you’re just gonna have to go with it.

Sherch (shærsh) v. - To pride oneself in helping another achieve a goal which carried with it a sense of looming impossibility; to bathe oneself in the color purple.

The “achievement unlocked” color! Y’know that whole thing about neurons in your brain being connected when you try new things? Yeah, trying new things or hoping something works will trigger purple. It seems to be a very rare color in DP. Ember used it to hypnotize the school crowd in her debut episode (who curiously all had red eyes despite the purple energy blast), and there may be other purple examples, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.

Bruir (Broo-air) n. - The action that results when one reacts to a sudden flash of inspiration; a place where the color blue is a welcome addition.

I believe this is the equivalent of pink in FOP- the knee-jerk response color (though other colors normally take precedent over it).

Tijii (Tee-jee) adj. - Defendable, easy to find pleasure in, affectionately appreciated or admired to the point of urging others to soften their hearts; naturally-formed green tint or shade

Green boils down to being the defensive color, and feelings of self-defense can trigger it too. Since it’s also the “happy/neutral” color, it’s pretty common.

BASICALLY:

Califca -> Red -> Rashness (Equiv. of FOP blue, and some pink)

Ampau -> Pink -> Patience (Equiv. of FOP purple)

Sherch -> Purple -> Hope (Equiv. of FOP green, but with more optimism)

Bruir -> Blue -> Insight (Equiv. of FOP pink)

Tijii -> Green -> Happiness (Equiv. of FOP yellow)

Yeah, they’ll do juuuuussssst fine. My ghost “emotions” may seem a tad funky, but hey- they’re something! I have to start somewhere!