#and from what we know of the early drafts it's very unlikely that the end to his arc would've been to become a cop lmao

[petr1kov]

zootopia would have never truly been able to work like it was meant to because using the prey vs predator dynamic as an allegory for racial prejudice is fundamentally flawed at an unfixable level, BUT if they had decided to go through with the shock collar concept all the way instead of turning it into a cop bootlicking party it would've at least been cool and interesting for a disney movie

[puckpocketed]

5/08/2023 - Berkly Catton captains Team Canada to gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, leading the tournament with 8 goals and 2 assists in 10 games || 19/01/2024 Meet the Future - Berkly Catton named Team White's captain for the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game || 5/07/2024 - Berkly Catton signs his ELC with the Seattle Kraken

Introduction, quotes/transcripts/bits and pieces under the cut!

I can't even begin to describe how jazzed I am that Berkly Catton got drafted to a team I already love. I wrote in my Sharks off-season roundup that I was hoping against hope Catton would drop to 14th overall (back before we had moved up to 11th) and the Sharks would snap him up, as unlikely as it was that they'd try to gather more firepower when we sorely needed defensive prospects. I'm so glad I got my wish one way or another <3

Krakenblr you will LOVE this dude. He's such a star. Such a character. Berkly Catton is so, SO fun to watch. You have no idea!!! I followed him in the months leading up to the draft because there was buzz that he might be available lower down because of the Height Issue (he is, tragically, 5'11 <- which makes him undraftable unfortch) + concerns with how his game will translate to the NHL level. He is an electrifying playmaker. He's so creative, throws in so many fakes, WILL break ankles, very good hands... ough <3 everything I personally love to see in a forward all rolled into one neat little package !!!

There's the suggestion that he's been "over-scouted," which really just means they've all been watching him so long they're probably overthinking things and looking for stuff to critique. I'm inclined to believe this take over the other one because I'm an optimist and he was one of my little guys going into the draft! I won't include more of that here, but there's plenty of material out there if you'd like to look for it.

Below are some of my favourite bits and pieces from media he's appeared in <3

“I don’t like to give it away (pause) but I look at guys before games,” Catton revealed. “What’s weird is going from midget to junior hockey is a big jump. Last year I was learning. This year I wanted to add stuff. My pregame stuff and to look at guys doing draws and seeing what works. That’s pre-scouting on my end. If a guy has a certain move, and you can trump it early, it gets in his head a little bit. That helped quite a bit.”

“I think I sometimes have a problem with passing the puck too much. I love seeing my teammates score and setting up for an open net. It’s one of my favourite things in hockey, if not my favourite,” Catton admitted. “That’s something I can work on. When I get a chance put it home kind of thing. I got better this year at it’s still something I’d like to improve. Honestly, I’m a pass first mentality guy I would say.”

- Berkly Catton’s video scouting has improved his overall game

You know, when I first read and saved this article I was like; this prospect who reviews VIDEO is gonna haunt me. That's my weakness btw, I'm freak4freak. If you tell me a hockey player is also deeply infatuated with the game to the point of reviewing tape in their free time that's IT for me. it's JOEVER. i have a type and i know it <3 also wowie a pass-first guy who gets really really happy when his teammates score??? crying. crying. Berkly Catton . tucking uou gently away <3 forever <3

From A Day in the Life: Berkly Catton & Conner Roulette

Fave movie is The Notebook (<- unrelated there's a . really funny comment on this video from a philly fan lamenting that Catton likes the Notebook - I assume because that's some uhhh how do the kids call it,, femme soyboy shit? lmao anyway stay LOSING toxic masculinity !!!)

The boys call him 'Berk' <3

He talks about Jack Hughes being a big influence on him (in other media, he gives Hughes as a player comp!) and going to hang out and work with the Hughes family in Michigan. I sense a thread of admiration here like it's such a sweet little crush LOL <3 I hope he notices you Berkly !!

he gives the player of the match hat to a coach/trainer (one of the two) it's lovely... ouhhh... good little fella so polite and so conscious of staff being the foundation of his success... mwah!!

From Berkly Catton Talks Hockey Sense, His Start In Hockey & More | Game Tape With Tony

His father and grandfather built him a rink in his backyard, very sweet.

1OA in the WHL draft!

Anime main character levels of training-arc... my guy shot thousands of pucks over the summer in his backyard and then came back suddenly able to score goals. <- this is where the DIY goalie made of wood and blocker pads comes in. lol. lmao. are u even real.

sorry. sorry. OLEN ZELLWEGER MENTION. <- one of my personal favourite little guys (undersized puck moving defensemen my BELOVED) "Kind of a funny story [...] I pretty much had a breakaway, when he just turned backwards and played it as a 1-on-1 somehow, and I was like 'wow, this guy's the real deal', so." I really liked how Catton easily recalled a specific person/moment when asked who challenged him the most in the WHL; I think it speaks to a thoughtfulness about the game - it would've been easy to just give a vague Oh Everyone Is Good answer here and I like that he didn't!

There's a section where he talks about how he got so good at stick lifting, such an interesting perspective I never considered - he played in situations and against people where he couldn't just throw his body around to win, so he had to learn to get the puck in other ways. KEVIN KORCHINSKI MENTION <- another one of my little guys <3

mentions his dad being a big influence on his 'patience'. parents are so funny to me. ur watching your sons juniors matches? and Ohhhhh Chris Catton was a hockey player too . it all makes sense. Berkly Catton product of jockdad like so many before him <3

I do love that throughout this interview, Catton defers to his linemates a lot. Always hyping them up and talking about how he owes his success to them. it could be construed as false humility, given Catton was the highest scoring draft-eligible in the league - but he really does go out of his way to emphasise how highly he regards them and how much of their on-ice success is owed to good chemistry built up over the entire season. It strikes me as genuine!! He's a good boy <3

Revealed he can solve a rubix cube at the end... wow... he just liek me fr...

PLEASE watch this on-ice interview where he's chatting after a game and then gets ABSOLUTELY WASTED by 5 water bottles and all the boys. he is clearly so so so beloved in that locker room waaaahhh <3

Anyway this isn't an exhaustive list but it IS a lot of the reasons why I really liked him pre-draft. welcome to the deep Berkly <3

[mortal-kombat-1]

what is your opinion on johnny cage's character?

Oh boy, this took me a good bit to think on and type out, lmao. Like, would have it all ready to post then think of something else to add. Thank you draft option 🙏

Overall, I think he's more complex than a lot of folks make him out to be. Yeah, its really easy to just think he's the comedic relief only when the game(s) kinda lead you to believe that. You can't really judge him based on one timeline since the plots/stories keep changing with each game (even if you add in the comics and movies). There's no connecting the dots when it comes to MK lore, lol. You gotta be fairly new to the franchise to think otherwise if I'm being very honest.

But given this blog is primarily MK1 Johnny, that's the timeline/version I'll jot my thoughts out for.

He's obviously not a parent in this timeline unlike 10 and 11, so we can scratch even mentioning that. But, he's once again married, not to Sonya but to Cris. Even so, his ego, money spending and his need to be the prime center of attention gets the better of him causing things to sour in his marriage. Of course ending in divorce. I won't stick up for him, he has his flaws, Cris was definitely in the right to divorce 'em. She deserved to be treated better. I'm not saying the man didn't care for her, it was pretty damn obvious that he did. He's very protective and regrets how he's done her -- he made that clear in a couple of intro's. I really felt like he got into the movie business not only because it was something he always wanted to do, but to make a better life for the both of them at some point, but I think he kinda let it all get to his head and let slip away the reason he was initially doing it all for. So in short: He's gotta take responsibility for his own actions. Nobody else is to blame but himself. But even with that being said, he struggled, obviously an alcoholic -- he's mentioned recovery to Ashrah in one of their intro's; though I'm really convinced he started drinking to forget about certain details of his past... and maybe stress because Hollywood. We don't really get enough information on his childhood other than whats mentioned in intro's with other characters. And even then, they never really seem good nor happy. So I like to think his need to be a people pleaser really stems from his parents. That is in no way me trying to make an excuse for his character, though. The man isn't a child/teen, and I've seen people on here and elsewhere, thinking he's in his 20's or early 30's. And after going through some of the files in the game, a lot of the things he's won or collected were from the 90's -- awards being more specific. So I tend to say he's in his early 40's at the youngest. Also, he's mentioned getting someone younger to take on his role so yeah.

I like how even though others might find his tactics and odd sense of humor (which happens 99% at the wrong time) annoying, they still want him there. And he knows that, the damn smirking gives it away. Does he mature in any way in this timeline -- eventually, but I wouldn't say he's changed completely or he wouldn't be Johnny Cage. I'd say he finally realized there's more to life than money and fame when you got the right people surrounding you, and he gets that by the time the game ends.

Also, that damn boopable nose... they ever change that I'm gonna riot.

I could keep going on about this idiot, but I gotta stop there or I will never shut up sdfghjkl;. It's one of those "I see so much of myself in this character and I'm gonna glue myself to them" type of thing.

[savelockwoodandco]

Hi! Do you think the show has a good chance of being saved? It's been a month and 11 days since the cancellation and everytime I rhink about that it drives me crazy

Hi Anon, thanks for the question!

We've said a few times our feelings about the timeline, so I won't go super into-depth here, but we do want to reiterate that a month and change is not at all a long time for a show not to be picked up. Short of B99, shows just aren't picked up in their first month of cancellation, nor announced to be picked up.

This is going to be a months-long -- emphasis on the plural -- fight, but we are still fully confident that we're going to come out the victors. We haven't even hit a month and a half yet; these are early days. Let me state clearly again: we think the show has a great chance of being picked up, "even" at this stage.

However, we get that it can be discouraging, especially since in current culture there's a sense of "if it doesn't happen immediately it won't happen at all" that's rather pervasive, only getting more intense the younger the person in question is. That can make it hard to work towards a goal that doesn't have an end date and that'll take months.

So here's a fun little tidbit to keep our engines revved and moving: CF has been very, very quiet this last week.

Why is that a fun fact? Well, because CF has been relatively aware after the first week or so of the campaign with us fans.

On their Twitter -- which we know some people (Tumblr Mod included!) aren't really involved with -- CF tweeted the phrase "Nice Things" (their capitalization, not ours) with a piece of fanart. Afterwards, a tweet went around praising CF for their use of coded messages in Tweets -- which CF liked. Previous to this, CF had tweeted that they wouldn't try to trick us or falsely build us up, so this like had a number of heads scratching.

And since then, CF has been quiet.

There are so many reasons for a business to be loud on twitter -- it helps build their brand, they enjoy engaging with fans, they're having time between projects, etc etc. For a company as small as CF, it's likely that, unlike Netflix and other Giants, Someone from CF actually is in charge of the twitter, rather than a faceless intern. Many fans have theories on who it might be, but it's not the purpose of this post to speculate on that.

The important thing to note is that while there are many reasons to be loud, there's really only one reason to be quiet: they're busy.

Which is something very much in our favor.

We know that media business isn't something that everyone's interested in, so here's the facts: signing contracts for a show takes a long, long time. Signing contracts for renewing a show takes a long time as well. Meetings are scheduled, meetings to discuss those meetings are scheduled, both sides have to have separate meetings within their teams, then between teams, then company-wide, and then schedule follow-ups with the other party. It's a process and even if both parties (CF and whoever picks it up) agree immediately on terms, which never happens, contracts still have to be drafted, considered, debated, re-drafted...

It's a process, and we don't get to see any of it. Lucky for us, honestly, because it'd probably drive us crazy. The only thing we get to see is the end result -- the show being saved -- popping up like a bolt from the blue.

But we have to remember it's not from the blue, it's from weeks and weeks of hard work and negotiation. If CF is smart -- and CF is very, very smart -- talks of saving the show will include the ability to tell the whole story, whether that's negotiating for 2 more seasons, or for 1 season of ~16 or so episodes.

We have no say in contracts or anything like that for S2. What our presence does have a say in is helping out CF with negotiations. The louder, more passionate, more demonstrative, and yes, more consistent we are, the more negotiating power CF has. They have great numbers to present for the show itself, growing every day, but because of LockNation, they can demonstrate the ongoing market appeal of Lockwood & Co. That translates to the opportunity to earn more money and clout for whoever it is picks us up, and that puts CF is a very good position.

We're of the firm belief that the best mindset going forward is not "it's already been X amount of time", it's instead "it's only been X amount of time".

It's only been a month and 11 days.

The things we do help. The things we do matter. They will continue to matter as long as we do them.

So let's help our show out as best we can, and be cheerful about it. Take breaks -- please, please take breaks, or you'll go crazy -- and take care of yourself.

Good things are coming. Or, to use CF's words, Nice Things are coming.

[tench]

Wait, that's it? That's where you decided to end this game????

I'm so puzzeled by their narrative choices.

Anyway, I finished the goblin series and I think, that I'd rate them as such:

1 - Of Orcs and Men is my favorite storywize (it has characters that have arcs! And fashion!) . Also found family (I'll die on this hill). Again, problem with abrupt ending (and so many gay jokes..), but other than that pretty straightforward road trip with unlikely allies to friends to "you know what you are". And horrendous fighting. But still very unique and very atmospheric setting.

2 - Styx: Master of Shadows. Honestly? I liked it! Very pretty game, very atmospheric. I love the character study of Styx in it. I was absolutely lost all the way from very beginning to the very end. I have questions to the way they tell the first half of the story (and the rest too tbh), but maybe it's a design choice, so you'd feel as confused as the main character. Would be improved significantly if the npcs were more than plot devices. But still, good game.

3 - Styx: Shards of Darkness. I would put it lower if it was an option. If you come into it not as a fan of the series (not where I expected to find myself in the beginning of 2024 but here I am) it was a solid stealth game. I feel like they lost pretty much most of the unique atmosphere, but maybe it's because they decided to sacrifice the whole character of the protagonist to some very low quality 4th wall breaking jokes. And I do like that Styx as a character can't shut up to save his life and very bad at humor, but leave it at least canon-adjacent. You can't put a player into one of the two boss fights in the whole game and put a lotr one-liner as the line of dialogue! Have some respect for yourself? For your story?? Also your players, what the hell were these death cutscenes? Still the story feels like a very rough draft. But! We finally have other characters! Two of them! Unfortunately their motivation is not very clear especially in the story that is all over the place, that doesn't know how properly end. Speaking of it, I am very confused by this storytelling move when they clearly set up the villain, but at the last second we fight some henchmen and the story ends. It was in several games of different studios and I can't say that it's a setup for a sequel because the main characters just don't acknowledge this in any way? It's odd. What can I say.

Anyway, Happy New Year, I was planning on staying late playing the game but I guess I'll go to bed early!

[beyourlionheart]

WIP Whenever

Christening this brand new sideblog with a lovely tag from @emimayooo <3

Tagging: Absolutely anyone who would like to participate!! Please let me see your WIPs

This is a little bg3 bloodweave WIP that I found in my drafts from about a month ago. Will it actually become a publishable fic? Who knows.

The general premise is based on the early iterations of Gale that involved him having a rotting arm from the orb's presence. Astarion is, of course, nosy.

Read more under the cut.

WC: 935, Rating: T

When Astarion finally comments on Gale’s arm, it’s with even less tact that the wizard had come to expect from the vampire.

“Come on, just unwrap it. It can’t be any more unseemly than the rest of you, can it?”

A smile dances on his lips as his red eyes seem to egg Gale on. He had at least waited until the rest of their companions had gone to bed, leaving the two of them alone around the campfire, but Gale still finds himself frantically looking around to see if anyone had overheard. No one stirs. 

He had done his best to keep his orb-rotten arm underwraps — both literally and figuratively — since being picked up by the nautiloid. For the most part, he had succeeded. He had managed to keep his thick black glove covering his hand whenever anyone was looking, and his robes would hide the rest of his wrappings well enough. Dollops from a vial of sandalwood oil that he had so fortuitously kept on his person at the time of his capture had even managed to cover  the strange smell of otherworldly magic, so long as no one was intentionally pressing their nose to his wrappings.

How Astarion had managed to figure out his secret had only been made clear a few mornings into their journey, when Tav had emerged from their bedroll with an open wound on their neck to match the trickle of blood that had dried on Astarion’s chin. 

Of course Gale would manage to end up camping with a bloodhound. He narrows his eyes at the elf now, making it known that his comment is most unwelcome.

“My arm is none of your business, Astarion.”

“Isn’t it?” Astarion leans back, somehow managing to make the misshapen log he’s sitting on look comfortable. “We are traveling together, for better or worse. I have a right to know what troubles plague my companions, just as you all were so concerned about my vampirism.”

Gale’s lips curl into a sneer, which makes him feel very unlike himself. He rarely reacts this strongly to anything, but his arm is a particularly sore subject. 

It’s no small thing for a wizard to lose his arm. His leg would be a different story — he doesn’t need his leg the same way. Or, at least, he wouldn’t normally, when he’s lounging about his tower rather than trekking through the wilderness. His leg doesn’t cast spells or prepare food or flip pages in a book. It does not gesticulate or hold other hands or scratch behind Tara’s ear. His leg does very little other than get him from point a to point b, and Gale would happily sacrifice it if it were to mean his continued survival. 

But his arm… Gale rubs at his gloved hand absently, feeling that familiar numbness where the sensation of touch should be. It would be easier if it were simply lobbed off one day and he were forced to accept its absence and find new ways of existing. But this? This slow death? The mocking kindness of its continued semi-cooperation as he holds his breath and waits for the day when the nerves no longer respond to his brain’s instructions? It is a torture so cruel he can’t begin to describe it.

“Your vampirism is no concern to me as long as you keep your fangs out of my neck. Similarly, my arm is no concern of yours, ever. I’ve already told you everything you need to know about the orb, and my limbs pose no threat to anyone here.”

Astarion flashes sharp teeth but plays it off as a laugh. It feels like a warning. “Trust me, darling, my fangs will never touch your neck as long as you’ve still got that smell about you.”

Gale huffs and sits up straighter, trying not to be obvious as he deigns to sniff at the arm in question. It doesn’t smell particularly strongly to him today, but he does not have elven or vampiric senses. Perhaps it is as offensive as Astarion seems to think.

“If it smells so terrible then why in nine hells would you want me to unwrap it?” Gale asks warily. “One would assume that you’d keep your distance from something that makes your nose wrinkle so.”

The click of Astarion’s tongue reminds Gale very much of Lae’zel. They’ve all been picking up each other’s mannerisms. “I never said it smells bad, did I? It’s just… unnatural. Forgive me if I’m curious about the unnatural, given my condition.”

Silence blossoms between them as they study each other for a long moment. Gale’s not quite sure what to say — Astarion doesn’t seem to find the smell of his arm directly offensive, despite its current state, which Gale can only think to describe as decaying. 

Part of him wants to indulge Astarion’s curiosity. Gale had always fancied himself an adept teacher, when the moment to convey knowledge presents itself, and a surefire way to his heart has always been a keen interest in learning. 

A larger, much more damaged part of him can’t stand the idea of anyone — particularly Astarion — getting a glimpse of the true horror that his body had become. 

He purses his lips and then settles on: “I would suggest growing acquainted with disappointment, Astarion.”

The look Astarion gives him is, for the briefest moment, so sad that it takes Gale’s breath away. Before he can figure out the reason behind the harrowing gaze, Astarion’s eyes are dark and unreadable once more. “Believe me, disappointment and I are old friends.”

[cerastes]

I have to wonder how Specter is perceived in-house at Hypergryph because both times they’ve done something big with her it’s been trouble for them and harsh complaints from the fans, “both times” being her 1st Operator Record and Specter the Unchained.

In the case of her 1st record, it’s because they had an ambitious, interesting idea that nonetheless was both executed poorly and ended up being a huge nothingburger that centered on Suzuran of all people instead. The concept, I insist, was interesting: Specter does not appear in her own Record, rather, we see her being spoken of in whispers and murmurs as this enigmatic Operator that is only sent on the most dangerous of operations and whose existence in Rhodes Island is strictly on a need to know basis, with Kal’tsit alone being allowed to do her medical checks… and That’s All We Learn. The rest of the Record is like 80% “look at how precious Suzuran is”, which obviously almost nobody liked, we’re here for Shark, not moeblob, and it’s otherwise all ultimately stuff we already knew from Specter’s Files. This happened at the same time CN players were angry as hell over Passenger having been, well, severely undertuned on release (he’s good now), so that only added kerosene to the firestorm. Hypergryph apologized and said they’d release a 2nd Operator Record for Specter. This gave birth to the idea of some Operators having more than one Record. Her 2nd Record is great, by the way.

Then there was the Unchained situation: Specter the Unchained is not at all a bad unit. She’s a great unit, even! The problem is that she exists in direct competition with her perpetual god-tier 5* Guard iteration. Unlike the other Alternative versions, her original iteration is the best at doing what she does (immortality stalling + burst damage) and is very good at other roles otherwise (cornerstone, solo lane holding, helidrop assassination). Ch’en and Skadi, for example, aren’t bad, but they certainly suffer Early Game Syndrome in that they are very inflexible units that only do few things, and aren’t the best or non-replaceable in these roles, and Nearl isn’t a bad Defender, either, but 1) her role and toolkit runs contrary to what most people play like and 2) the breach between her and Saria, the 6* version of her role, is HUGE, especially notable in that a breach this big does not exist between other archetypes’ 5* and 6* characters. This isn’t because Nearl is undertuned, it’s because Saria is overtuned, and being a launch 6* means a lot of people have her already. 5* Specter, however, regularly sees play in high level content, and the role her 6* Specialist iteration fills is closer to her 5* than any other non-3* Alternative is to their original. That is to say, they compete in a way other characters do not with their Alternate version. S2, Specter’s immortality stall signature move, has more time as Unchained —20 secs vs 15 secs— but she is not helidroppable, and the loss of AoE attacks and 3 block means you play her differently.

Unlike the situation with her Operator Record, which I do believe was mishandling of the character and that the complaints levied against HG were legitimate, I don’t think HG handled Unchained wrong. I think this was more a case of the Operators being similar enough that people didn’t like that Unchained had to be played differently than Guard, and judged Unchained by Guard standards. As time passed, players have found Unchained to be really good, but the complaints had already been launched, and in response, they announced another Module altogether for Unchained, the first time someone got an alternative Module.

With this in mind, I go back to the start of this post: I imagine that whenever they plan something with Specter now, they immediately take stomachache medicine preemptively and start drafting a new gameplay system because they know they’ll get complaints one way or another. Which is funny, because both times Specter has had something, it has come with a Special Gift for everyone else, like a deepsea santa, as various Operators have 2nd Records and 2nd Modules now.

[outpost51]

The 51 Post

Figured I'd start some kind of digest!

Contents:

Things You Might Have Missed

This Week's Jams

WIP Breakdowns

From the Skwad

Around the 'Blr

Things You Might Have Missed:

I've got a taglist form now! Because who doesn't love a good form?

BRHP: Chapter 14 posted; Atria learns the meaning of touch starvation and really, really misses her dad.

WIP Intro: Caught in the Crossfire (18+)

WIP Intro: The Arsonist Chronicles (18+)

WIP Whenever (Open Tag): BRHP chapter 15 snippet; pop pop is having a time time

Crossing Over: the 5th entry into the Lighthouse in the Fog shorts; a new player has entered the fray, and a familiar face reappears.

Vampire Council lore and vampire origins lore

Aria/Omega snippety snip

This Week's Jams:

friends like these || Brassie [spotify/youtube]

Little Girl Gone || CHINCHILLA [spotify/youtube]

EVERGREEN || PVRIS [spotify/youtube]

Eyes on Fire || Gold Souls [spotify/youtube]

WHEN THE PARTY'S OVER || Cami Petyn [spotify/youtube]

Lizard Lady || Laura Doggett [spotify/youtube]

WIP Breakdowns:

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Chapter 15 should be coming out later today, with 16 slated for release sometime late this week or early next week. I'm finally in the chapters that don't require a ton of rewrites; most of what I've been doing is adding content. The whole thing is outlined through chapter 30 though! Since this is my entry for WIP Big Bang, updates will "stop" at chapter 18, since that's what I had published before the rewrites. After that, you'll have to wait for the release date! Which also means I have to wait for the release date for the serotonin, and that's going to be a nightmare.

Unlikely Adventures of Bitchface and Go F*ck Yourself

At this point, it's just a matter of making myself work on it. About a third of chapter 9 is written and the entirety of Act II is outlined.

Blinding Neon, Shades of Grey

nervous laughter

Stellar Parallax

Fuck, I missed this WIP. I missed Jane especially, she's so fun to write -- I'm about a third of the way into chapter 9 and it seems to be flowing pretty well? I just wanna get to the part where she and Saren beat the shit out of each other LMAO

Lighthouse in the Fog

Dunno if y'all saw, but the lighthouse keeper stories have a tag and a tentative title now! It's going to remain as a series of loosely connected shorts, and that may very well be what I end up doing with Xatal as well. Anyway, we have some lore groundwork laid! Look out for the 6th short later today!

In the Works

I still have questions in my inbox that I am absolutely getting to! I've also got a bunch of unanswered tags in my drafts and Notion. Losing a week and a half of planned answer time threw my schedule WAY off. Submission for SSSC #006 is in the planning stage. Hannah and the MILF Squad Get Up To No Good is about 30% written and fully outlined. I have... so many Kryterius prompts left to fill, and so many more spotify wrapped prompts left, send help. Still working on separating out the Daddy Issues smutshots, hoping to finish up the rewrites for the F!Shali one before the end of July. TIPYNTS is most likely going to come out in October, and by then I'm hoping to have a backlog of chapters to make posting more consistent.

From the Skwad:

Door's always open! 18+ writing server for both fanworks and original works! Camp is starting soon! We also have a flash fiction challenge and three bingo cards running until the end of the month!

@teamdilf continues to absolutely baffle me with her productivity here we go: A Cheesy Situation is now complete, ch 16 of Alice's Adventures in Andromeda is live, ch 18 of The In-Laws and the Grandparents is live, A Night in the IKEA dropped which I'm absolutely dying over, and that's not even all of it. holy shit J i don't know how you do it but i'll have whatever you're having thx

@thetrashbagswasteland dropped ch 4 of the Sunseeker rewrite and I'm adsfdafdadsf yes. thank you king

@sparatus is tearing me to fucking pieces with Make Less the Depth of Grief. i hate you (i love you)

@uraniumwriting also obliterated me with their FFF entry.

@wrathbites is back and I'm literally beside myself I missed the Vampire AU so fucking much.

oops @commander-krios got me invested in Star Wars please look at this.

@starknstarwars updated Smuggler's Ruin aaaaaaaaaaaaa

A few of our members participated in Shenko Summer!! @dandenbo wrote Volta and @mrsd-writes wrote both We Got Here the Hard Way and Forever Home!

@regalbois dropped a new original oneshot and has been going bananas over Bioshock lately and gifting us MORE mlm deliciousness, ch 3 of Magnum Opus went live last night.

@inflarescent has a new wippppp aaaaaaa -- intro post for The Roulette Paradox here!

@discoeffect updated Far From Any Road and I am devouring the first book so I can read this one!!

Around the 'Blr:

Have you checked out the Writeblr Directory or Writeblr Cafe yet?

I'm literally still thinking about @captain-kraken's Heitha translator.

@void-botanist dropped some witch lore I'm eating with a spoon.

@tc-doherty ALSO popped off with the conlang.

The dates IRL are lining up with the dates in @elshells's Agent Ace EXCITING also a new chapter is dropping probably by the time I post this lmao

@liv-is dropped this GOLDMINE of relationship writing tips also TIL what Liv does for a living not sorry

@writernopal first of all made me absolutely CRY being sweet in the tags last night and also dropped an aasoaf 3 sneep while i was composing this thank you my friend i needed the energy snack

did y'all see Find the Word XVIII from @artdecosupernova-writing i'm going FERAL

@tabswrites's Silver Sentinels has a second chapter, I am VIBRATING

@oh-no-another-idea just slid in with this little diddy that i LOVE.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Outpost Updates Taglist: @tabswrites @writernopal @freedominique @asher-orion-writes @liv-is @starknstarwars @captain-kraken

Ask to +/- in the tags, replies, DMs, or HERE!

[rinasunny]

Red Eye (2005) Early Screenplay Trivia

First of all, I'm very sorry for clogging your Red Eye/Jackson x Lisa feed with DVD commentary. I was planning to do the same with the final shooting script but I guess it will just one post with the juiciest stuff (and just give the link to the script with highlited Jackson/Lisa stuff).

Now, to the main topic of the post. In 2011 someone nicknamed "cougarlady" posted a link for Red Eye's early script draft by Carl Ellsworth on Cillian Murphy's fan forum (https://cillianforum.proboards.com/thread/4257/original-red-eye-script). The bad news is the link currenty doesn't work. The good news is one printed copy of that script still exists. If you have spare 169$ you can purchace it on e-bay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/353755359870). Another good news: some lucky fellas on the forum shared their impressions regarding the script so we have some bits and pieces of the early movie script, which is quite different from the final product. So here's what they

One more important thing to consider (it wasn't discussed on the forum) - Lisa and Jackson were meant to be older (5-10 years) than Rachel and Cillian were at the time of shooting. Especially given that Wes' first dream casting were Sean Penn and Robyn Wright (who were married at the time btw).

Lisa's backstory was different: she wasn't raped but lost her husband instead (he died). Also she had an affair with Keefe at some point. (accoriding to Cyraus)

Speaking of Keefe, he was meant to be a businessman, he only became a polititian after test screenings. (this wasn't mentioned on the forum, but you can find it out in DVD commentary and interviews maybe).

Rippner was the one to stand up to irritated passanger (Lisa didn't take part in it, I guess). (accoriding to Cyraus)

Jackson seems to be much more cruel and cold-hearted than Cillian's rendition. Users described him as narcissist and sociopath. "Also, this Script-Rippner seemed very inconsequent about his feelings for Lisa. He seems to REALLy hate her at some parts." (quote by iseebutterfly)

Jackson threatens Lisa to kill not only Joe, but her entire family. It seems like he killed her grandmother, unfortunately no context, 'cause in the movie the last part would make no sence. (according to cougarlady)

Funny enough Jackson has no tangible evidence that he can order kill anyone (unlike the movie). (according to cougarlady)

And despite this the chemistry is still present. "I love the scene where he kisses her forehead, even if just to unsettle her, but I hate that the took away this thing they had, this weird chemistry, neither of them could explain." (quote by iseebutterfly)

The early script doesn't have the lavatory scene yet. (accoriding to Cyraus)

"The part where he has her in his clutches ready to break her neck with his mouth crawling over her almost makes up for not having the lavatory scene." (quote by Cyraus)

A little bit about Jackson's name. Given his "No Lie" rule (at least when it comes to Lisa) the watchers assume it is his real name. However, Wes said in one of interviews that it is made up (to suit Lisa's father initials). A this is quite confusing tbh. Anyway the early draft suggests that Jackson's real name is... George King. And you thought Jack Rippner was bad... Although there is no consensus on whether or not "George" is his real name either. (according to Cyraus, cougarlady and iseebutterfly)

Jackson and Lisa had a dialogue where Lisa said that his is fucked. His replies are "Lisa, that language doesn't suit you." and "If you don’t look at me, you’ll get a glimpse of just how f*cked I am." There's no context unfortunately. (according to Cyraus and Cait)

The ending was different. They do not specify it. But from what we know from DVD commentary, the final fight in the Reiserts' house was Wes's idea.

P.S.: I probably missed something, so I suggest to check out the forum page yourself.

[chirpsythismorning]

I think people are just coping or trying to cope. Realistically it is very unlikely that we could get the season that fast. They have not even started filming yet. Almost all actors have other projects. They could get some actors earlier but it is expected that the scheduling will create problems, even if the actors have ST as their priority on their sheat... it is not really realistic to just get all actors on set. And the filming will last probably about 7-8 months (at best) and then there will be editing CGI stuff... which could take 10 months or so... yeah. So, do the math, and i did not even mention the potential writers strike thing. I do not think they'd want to rush things anyways, this is the last season, they'd want it to make sense and with a solid editing+CGI. That takes kinda... 10 months or so, and the promo has to also happen. Realistically we'll get the season in 2025. Early 2025 if we are lucky.

I agree! And I completely get where they're coming from.

I struggle with deciding if I should be honest about what I think realistically. Is it something that's disappointing and so people are just going to reject it, even despite the evidence bc it's not what they want? And if that's the case, what even is the point bc I obviously don't want to upset people or stress them out.

All I'm trying to do is think logically, so that way we can be prepared instead of disappointed over and over and over again. And tbh, telling ourselves the best possible case scenario is the most likely case scenario, is just setting ourselves up for even harsher disappointment.

I know 1 year and 10ish months seems like a lifetime from now, but it really isn't. We're going to be much more sad once it's over and we won't ever be able to see these characters again. The Duffers don't want to ruin the magic of Stranger Things, meaning there will be no reboots with these actors ever again in official canon. At best, we could get something animated, and that's at best. If anyone joins a literal live-action spin-off/reboot, it's unlikely to be someone from the MAIN main cast, as they'll have plenty of work opportunities after it's over. They also vouch for the ending of s5 being perfect. Which is why I think they wouldn't want to risk its eternal quality being ruined solely for a cash grab with a reboot set in the 2000's of them being re-traumatized all over again, essentially taking away all meaning and depth to s5's ending. It's just not happening (good thing we have fan-fiction).. ,

So again, once it premieres and it's over, there will be no more theorizing or getting excited for canon content beyond harmless fodder. I try to think about it that way when I get sad about waiting and it does honestly make me feel a little bit better. Bc surprises are arguably the best part of this experience. And so once there are no more left to be had, what even is there!!?

Although on that same note, once it's over, with the revelations all out in the open, they'll all finally be able to talk about things they couldn't during the shows run. So it will still be fun for fans that want to stick around for a while post-s5, but that also won't last forever. People will move on. Every phase of this experience is something we will look back on and wish we appreciated more, including hiatus right now. We will miss these times, when so much was still unknown and there was so much to hope and look forward to. The unknown is one of the best parts.

I do understand wanting to get closure sooner than later too though, bc waiting can sometimes feel like wasted time almost?

I will say that personally this is a good wake up call for me bc I do want to step back a little bit and focus on crafting major posts instead of like daily shit posts. I have so many in my drafts waiting for ?hrs of editing to be posted. Sometimes I find time for them, but then I get distracted and just end up making a random shit post instead. And so maybe it would be good to try to shift my focus to something more casual so that I can enjoy this experience more long-term instead of it feeling like an obligation more or less.

Not saying I'll be gone for months at a time. Quite frankly, if there's news to be reported, I want to be of the first to know, so I couldn't really leave permanently even if I wanted to... the FOMO would eat me alive.

[adarkrainbow]

Perrault’s fairytales: A quick intro

After talking about a lesser fairytale writer of the “second wave”, of course I now need to talk of a famous first-generation fairytale writer... And I will talk about the most famous writer of fairytales to this day, Charles Perrault himself - THE great master of fairytales, to the point French fairytales are now often synonymous with just him. 

Everybody knows his tales: Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty... Or do they? 

I won’t do here a breakdown of Charles Perrault’s life and biography - this will be for another day. But I want to specify something... Very often, not just in foreign countries, but also in France, all of Perrault’s story are placed under one name “Mother Goose’s fairy tales”, “Les contes de ma Mère l’Oie”. In truth, this book does not exist.

Perrault created two different books of fairytales. One is “Contes en vers” (Tales in verse), which contains Griselidis, Donkey Skin and The Ridiculous Wishes. Then came “Histoires ou Contes du temps passé, avec des moralités”, “Stories and tales of the past, with moralities”, which is a prose work (unlike the first book, all in verse) and which contains Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Toads and Diamonds, Cinderella, Riquet with the tuft, and Little Thumbling. 

No “Mother Goose’s fairy tales” in sight... So where does this title comes from? Well... it was Perrault’s INTENDED name for the book, or rather the first name of its collection of prose fairytales. His pre-publication manuscript, his earlier drafts, were titled “Les contes de ma Mère l’Oie”, that people like to translate as “Mother Goose fairy tales” but whose exact title should be “The tales of my Mother Goose”. However, as I said, this was the title of the early manuscript - after several other rewrites and drafts, Perrault changed the title to the one we have today. But “Mother Goose’s fairy tales” stayed thanks to one thing... The front illustration of the book, the first page engraving, which is this one (this is a colorized version, the original is in black and white):

And has the old title written on it. Given the mass-spreading of Perrault’s fairytales was through uneducated/illiterate classes that often relied more on the images and illustrations than the actual texts, and through rushed copies that did superficial re-editions of the text, the title on the illustration ended up becoming more famous than the one of the actual book. The reason the illustration shows a different title has led to many speculations - some think the engraving was prepared BEFORE Perrault changed his book’s name, and this is just an editorial mistake, while other think this double-intended was intended by Perrault as a sort of game - because “tales of my mother goose” was one of the common expressions that designated at the time what we could call later “fairytales”. Other nicknames included things such as “tales of old women”, “tales of wolves”, “tales of donkey-skin”, “blue tales”, “tales to sleep while standing”... And you might notice something here: all these common appelations given to these “folk-tales” were actually included by Perrault in his own fairytales, in one way or another. “Tales of donkey-skin” are found in the titular “Donkey-Skin” fairytale, “tales of wolves” are found in Little Red Riding Hood, while “tales of sleeping while standing up” are literaly what happened to the people of the castle of Sleeping Beauty... We see what you did there, Perrault.

It is especially interesting when we realize that this picture, at the front of the book, was designed with a specific meaning - it illustrates the very “tales by the fireside, told by nurses or grandmothers to children” that Perrault pretend to have taken inspiration of/to write about. With here the old, lowly-dressed, spinster woman, sitting by the fireside with various well-dressed youths to which she seems to tell her tale, with “Tales of my mother goose” written on the door. This is a visual metaphor of how Perrault will try to take the old, low folktales, to bring them to a more upper-class, civilized, educated and refined audience. (Or at least, that’s what he pretends... With Perrault, nothing is ever as it seems).

Doré, as you can see above, clearly played with his own “frontiscipe drawing”, by twisting the original picture of Perrault’s first editions into something else entirely. We still have the grandmotherly figure, but who this time reads from a book instead of telling the tales orally - showing the change in the tales’ nature over the centuries. The panel indicating “Tales of my mother goose” is replaced by a painting of the vanquished ogre on the wall, and the profusion of toys in the mass of children clearly shows the “childish/childhood” nature of those stories... But the characters eyes expresses various mixed emotions, from fascination to terror. 

To end this brief intro I’ll take the back-cover of my study-edition of Perrault’s fairytales.

Eleven strange stories. Eleven stories of incest and madness, of desire and cannibalism, of horror and love: under their apparent childish simplicity, the fairy tales of Charles Perrault are one of the most singular pieces of French literature. By celebrating the tradition of “mothers and grandmothers”, these tales manifest the existence of an “ancient feminine memory”, a clandestine storytelling that was fought and buried by the official culture of the “Great Cneutyr”. Ovnis appeared in the pure sky of the classicism, these texts with obscure origins still contain numerous enigmas that critics have a hard time solving. We do not know who exactly is their author (it is a debate I’ll talk about later) and we don’t know their exact sources - there is an aura of mystery around them, which maybe explains the enormous interest of people for these tales. They might be short, but they have built up centuries of commentaries and analysis - by folklorists, by psychanalysts, and more recently by experts of the “gallant literature”. 

[mareastrorum]

The Fool and the Soldier: Chapter Commentary

Chapter 6: Tavern & Lust

On off weeks, I’ll be posting some commentary on the prior week’s chapter. Since this is a longfic, I expect that it will be helpful for keeping track of stuff, plus I might mention something you missed. Of course, this will include spoilers, so continue with that in mind.

These aren’t meant to be comprehensive! There is so much more going on that I’m not saying. Feel free to ask questions too, either in replies or asks. If it’s too spoilery, I’ll let you know. I’ll add them to the body at the bottom as I receive them.

See the directory for other meta posts.

Tavern & Lust

The literal meaning of the card is not quite the theme of this chapter. In the deck, Tavern refers to respect, a meeting, and negotiation. Lust refers to desire and indulgence. We saw each of those in non-sexual contexts, so sorry to any readers that were expecting some smut. It’s too early for that, and honestly, while I am considering whether to up the rating for potential scenes later in the story, I wouldn’t have chosen this chapter title for those developments anyway. No promises on whether that will actually happen—and even if it does, the category is going to stay “Gen.” Romance is not the primary focus of this fic.

Beach

I wanted this to be a fun contrast with the wind down on The Mist at the end. Shenanigans and relaxation without any lasting consequences.

I chose Fjord’s POV for this because, unlike the others, the sea is what he would consider a homecoming. Everyone else is seeing something new, and even Jester probably hadn’t been to a beach very often. The rest would have probably fixated on their own experiences without paying as much attention to anyone else. I think Molly would have enjoyed the beach and wandered around to different things, but his perspective on the actual environment wouldn’t have been as cohesive in the story. In the stream, Fjord had interacted with several of the Nein, so I got the impression his focus was on his companions—which is perfect for an introductory scene. Plus this is the prelude to his initial arc, and this was a good spot for some introspection.

The actual events didn’t deviate much from canon. The peacock messed with Nott hunting seagulls, and Molly was around for tomfoolery. I also added a bit about the tide pools and Fjord looking for interesting things to share.

However, when I first posted the WIP, I fucked up: I forgot Fjord didn’t have Summer’s Dance to teleport to ambush Caleb. I changed it to Blink for the final version. And that mistake was with notes reminding me about that, so I added even more annoying notes to myself so I don’t miss it later.

Luck

The original draft of this scene basically spilled onto the page as a stream of consciousness thing. I didn’t have an outline or plans to include anything specific. I just wanted a scene between the Tombtakers now that they were all in Zadash. This was initially going to be the same day they left, but as I planned out the order of the scenes for this chapter, I wanted to spread out the Tombtakers scenes, so I moved it earlier. I also moved Tyffial’s introductory scene earlier by 1 day and split them across 2 chapters.

The very first version didn’t have the intro discussing Zoran’s new mace or the dragonborn from the Claret Orders and skipped right to the Tombtakers in their room. Those two parts got added in another revision, also without any plan, and just fell onto the page as I went. The Orders member was going to be an aasimar, but I didn’t have plans for any dragonborn NPCs yet, so I switched it. As I drafted that part, I figured this would be a good way to remind the reader of the developments with the bounty and make sure the Tombtakers were all aware of it. Plus it includes an overt use of Otis’s Detect Thoughts spell in case the readers weren’t quite aware of the fact that they had used it on Beau in chapter 1.

I also wanted to introduce how Zoran’s weapon is surprisingly different. The mace in the stream was somewhat shaped like a grater, and as I thought it over, that wouldn’t be effective against armor as much as spikes would be. Thus, the reason was probably to do superficial wounds on himself to trigger a rite, not to consistently increase damage against opponents. Honestly, there’s other ways to do it, but shaving away a layer of your own skin is pretty damn intimidating.

Taliesin had his own reasons for choosing Molly’s name, but I realized there would probably be an in-universe meaning to it as well. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge about a captain that kills an albatross (related to mollymawks), thereby inflicting his voyage with all sorts of trials. Cockney (which is close to the accent Matt used in stream for Zoran) rhyming slang also has a meaning for Tealeaf that was too apt to pass up.

Altogether, that combined into a pretty dense scene that gave a lot of insight into the Tombtakers’ relationships to each other (particularly Otis), the Orders, and the Empire. They lived, worked, and traveled together for years after leaving the Orders, so their connections are far more established than the Nein and don’t require nearly as much dialogue to communicate. They’re intimately familiar with each other’s toolkits, strengths, and weaknesses.

Zoran and Otis have a lot of unspoken trust and watch each others’ back unprompted, relying on the other to help sort things out. They went through town together and then had drinks, all without chatting much. Otis used Detect Thoughts to check whether Zoran had anything to worry about from the dragonborn, and Zoran elicited information so Otis could use the spell effectively. Otis also pointed out that Zoran’s weapon could make him a target (Otis is int-based while Zoran is wis-based, hence investigation versus insight specialties). Neither did anything more than give the other a heads up, and they didn’t harp on any decisions made.

Zoran’s also the complainer, which I took from his griping outside the dome when the Tombtakers caught up to the Nein in episodes 120 and 121. Lucien told him to be patient and eat his jerky, which he did. So Zoran makes his disapproval known when he dislikes anything, but he’ll put up with whatever the others decide. So he shoots distrusting looks when Tyffial offers drinks and grumbles when they discuss the curse of undeath, but he still takes the alcohol offered and doesn’t argue with Cree.

Tyffial had very few lines in canon and mostly just followed Lucien’s lead in a fight, so there was little to go off of for personality other than how dismissive she was of the Nein. To round out my version of the Tombtakers, Tyffial takes action and will push back when she disagrees with something. This causes some tension with each of them, so Zoran gets agitated, Otis brushes it off, and Cree doubles down on being stubborn. However, she and Zoran still shared a laugh over Molly’s name when they both had sufficient understanding to catch it—Zoran is from the Menagerie Coast and Tyffial once traveled through there, so they’ve both heard of the story and the slang.

Tyffial and Otis didn’t interact as much. Otis didn’t have any substantive criticism of the way she did things other than it meaning another day in Zadash. Tyffial gets things done and says what she thinks, and Otis likes that. While she finds the halfling unsettling at times, she isn’t dismissive of their “creepy bullshit” either. She still recognizes it’s effective enough to be listed as a way of getting rid of Molly. So the two have their own brand of mutual respect even when they make no sense to the other.

We’ve seen Cree and Otis interact several times by now, so the halfling’s knack for getting on her nerves isn’t surprising. Otis still listens to her when she’s “the boss” even when they disagree and sass her about it.

None of the Tombtakers has a high opinion of the Claret Orders, which I took from canon. Cree had described the Orders as “a bit clouded” to the Nein in episode 14, and since she was the cleric of the Raven Queen, that’s probably the most generous any of them would have said. In episode 121, Lucien said, “Some of us just found like-minded interest in taking the things we learned and eventually sticking out on our own because we’ve all got an inherent dislike of authority.” So there was something common among them about not liking how the Orders was run, which I expect would manifest as varying levels of distrust. So they don’t heed the warning too strongly, but recognize that the bounty could pose a problem.

Similarly, the Tombtakers don’t have a high opinion of the Empire, also taking from the “inherent dislike of authority” that Lucien mentioned in canon. Otis’s initial thoughts were about fucking with the local political scene, but they didn’t know enough to make it work without causing problems for Cree. Tyffial has a connection at the Cobalt Soul, which Otis believes is just as corrupt as the other institutions. Both Zoran and Cree work for the Myriad, but other than keeping their respective bosses off their backs, they don’t have any real loyalty to the organization. Neither shows any hesitation for picking up and leaving beyond avoiding troublesome consequences. They’re there for the perks and nothing else.

In short, the Tombtakers like each other better than everything else they’ve encountered, even if they aren’t particularly affectionate or kind. No hugs and trying to comfort each other’s trauma; they’re comfortable with their own identities and compensate for each other’s shortcomings rather than try to fix something. Or poke at each other just for funsies, knowing that putting up with whatever they dislike is worth it anyway.

Nicodranas

Molly would have adored Nicodranas, but he’s also somewhat classist. In episode 6 of Talks Machina, Taliesin said:

[Molly] hasn’t decided if [Beau] comes from too much money to be a civilized human being. If he decides she comes from too much money, he’s going to be really irritated at her. … Molly’s a little classist too. He thinks people with too much money aren’t doing anything of value just holding onto it.

Because of that, I put a lot of thought into how Molly would react to the lifestyle at the Lavish Chateau. Like, he’d have been fully aware how spoiled rich Jester was before episode 26, but he never treated her as though she was a lesser person or that something was wrong with her for it. So I imagine there must have been some separation going on there. He’d have had some preconceptions about rich neighborhoods generally, as well as businesses in them, like the Chateau. But Jester is “one of the good ones” compared to all the rest. She’s an exception. His judgment on Marion is reserved until they actually meet.

However, before they even get to that point, Molly wouldn’t have had any reason to have met parents of someone he knew before. That would have been more groundbreaking than a few rich people not being terrible. So his initial thoughts on “oh, this place is full of people who are too rich to be good people” gets sidetracked by some heavy existentialism springing to mind. Of course, Molly nopes out and focuses on something he can enjoy because that’s just not his thing.

Parents

Fun fact: I had originally planned to have this scene from Nott’s POV and the docks from Beau’s POV. But I just couldn’t get anything down for either of them. I swapped them as an exercise to see if that’d work, and it did, so I stuck with those drafts. Beau’s POV works a lot better for this scene anyway. She’s got hangups on her parents that we haven’t yet explored, and Nott’s arc is still on the “I’m bad because I’m a goblin” phase, not the “I’m an okay person, but a terrible mom for not going home” phase.

So Beau figures out that the Gentleman is Jester’s dad first, and also realizes he’s a deadbeat first. Sad times. However, I didn’t want to dive too deeply into Beau’s issues because the resolution with her parents is a long way off. It would get old after a while if I frontloaded a lot of it, so it’s a soft introduction.

We also got to see how much Beau empathizes with Jester specifically, which matches up with the fact that Beau had a pretty strong crush on her at this point in the campaign. That said, while Beau recognizes what Jester’s probably going through, she’s not yet cognizant enough to know how to comfort anyone going through that. She’s socially awkward and hasn’t even come to terms with her own trauma.

Leaps

Molly’s gotta do something stupid in every town he visits, and I felt jumping across third story balconies was probably good. I did roll for that, he got a 19. (Every time there’s some flavor where it’d be funny if he failed, I roll for it.)

Molly was again thoroughly distracted from how rich Marion and Jester are by how distraught they were that the Gentleman blew Jester off. Even so, Molly doesn’t have a story about how to cope with shitty parents that let you down, else he would have had something to rely on for coping about Gustav. So he distracts her with cards, because as far as he’s concerned, Jester just needs time and she’ll get over it, like he did. Yep, there’s no lingering wounds nor complexes about losing faith in a role model at all. Totally fine.

Pfft.

Fjord also makes a realization that he was concerned about Molly and Jester spending time alone in her room. At this point in his arc, Fjord had not yet developed any deep romantic feelings for Jester. He’s got too much on his plate to recognize it until Molly does something suggestive.

And there’s some new cards! There’s no foreshadowing there. Don’t worry about it.

Dream: Games

The rhyme at the beginning of the dream is from the poem “Hymn (for Boys’ Voices)” by C.S. Lewis. He was born in Ireland and moved to England, and while he is often referred to as British, he considered himself Irish. He was a fan of W.B. Yeats (an Irish poet who was a nationalist and eventually became a fascist); raised Catholic, became a teenage athiest, then became an Anglican; badly wounded while he served in the British Army in World War I; rejected from service for World War II and evacuated children from London; and a prolific writer in both prose and poetry. His intersectional identity reflected heavily in his works, and he had an ego that I felt suited several of these dreams. His poetry’s going to pop up in a few others.

I almost included the next stanza, but decided to drop it since I didn’t want to modify this poem to make it match (lowercase god or plural gods), and it felt a little too early to start referencing deification in TF&TS:

Every man a God would be Laughing through eternity If as God's his eyes could see.

See what I mean about Lewis having an ego? He had a ton of poetry like that.

It’s hard to find reliable information about cultural traditions for what to do with baby teeth, but what I mostly found for Ireland was burying the baby teeth to avoid getting swapped with changelings. However, as I thought that over for Shadycreek Run, I felt a superstition relating to the river was more likely, and there were other traditions that throwing teeth in nearby rivers was good luck. So I split the IRL myth in two: the Nightback Clan buries teeth so that they grow strong (matching well with tabaxi that worship Melora), and Shadycreek Run denizens throw them in the river to avoid attracting changelings.

The rest of this dream went though numerous iterations. I brainstormed several games the kids could play that would reflect the skills and athleticism necessary to survive on the streets in Shadycreek Run next to the Savalirwood. There are a lot of dangers that require them to be quick, violent, and paranoid.

When I was growing up in unfavorable circumstances, there were a few teenagers and adults that took it upon themselves to teach younger kids how to fight. Most of the time, it was so they could sic the kids on someone in particular, so they only taught enough to cause someone very specific problems. Other times, they expected pay of some kind. Of course, kids then need to get money somehow, or booze, or certain valuable items that may or may not have been “found” in nearby residences and businesses. Alternatively, they did some small jobs like stand lookout, swipe something from somewhere nearby, or leave some particularly flammable or noxious substances somewhere no one is going to look.

Don’t worry about it.

(Relatedly, the plot hook that Auntie Mama—a known retired Mardoon gangster—continued to openly live in the Run and even welcomed one of the street kids to hang out on her porch without demanding any pay or loyalty is probably the second dumbest thing that I read in TNEOL, and I am fully willing to call that out without apology. That was genuinely stupid. As a friend phrased it, “that’s how you get car bombed.” Does anyone actually believe that a city run by four rival crime families and no government would have a culture of letting people retire from that life with dignity and safety? Ridiculous.)

Anyway, I wanted to explore exactly how Lucien would have first learned how to fight properly. He could have joined a gang, but since he’s a tiefling, I doubt that he would have been welcomed openly. Most likely, if he was ever offered an opportunity, he’d have had to prove himself before joining, so he’d likely need to know how to fight before that in order to have a real chance as succeeding, regardless of the type of initiation demanded. Thus, I went the paid lessons route.

The hobgoblin teacher was a Tasker (identifiable by the single blue pauldron), one of the Grudge Gang, which was “neutral” in the sense that they just generally enforced the peace in town without any intention of eliminating the tribes. They got hired on as extra muscle by whomever has the coin. Why train the kids? Because kids that know how to fight are less destructive than those that don’t. A kid that wants to hurt one person is less of a problem with a knife they know how to use than a kid who doesn’t know how to fight and feels like lighting some fires about it.

Again. Don’t worry about it.

The hobgoblin’s lessons are legitimate advice for anyone learning the basics. Obviously, there’s a ton more to being able to fight competently and assessing opponents, but for an introductory lesson, stances and how to move are pretty solid. They’re also much more important than knowing how to throw a good punch or any other sort of attack. Screwing up a punch is how you break a finger. Screwing up a dodge or not knowing when/how to escape is how you get stabbed.

Don’t worry about that either.

Of course, they’re still kids, so there had to be times and places that they would find a way to play. Early in the morning in open spaces with the Greytraders patrolling would be one of them, hence jump rope in Clover Plaza. We also get another instance of rhythms and rhymes having some importance to Lucien, this time in a game that favors dexterity. Given that we (the audience) know that he had to survive Shadycreek Run until he joined the Claret Orders, I figured it would have been at least partially attributable to the stats he’d rely on later as a blood hunter, so speed and agility would have been his strengths.

The first two rhymes are common jump rope rhymes. The second is for double dutch (jumping with two ropes swinging in opposite directions). I used to play with super thin ropes from the chop shop across the street (don’t worry about it), and the third was one of the rhymes I remembered from that time. Each of the later lines is supposed to be accompanied by a special move, such as hopping wide (front or sideways), touching the ground, spinning, turning, jumping out backwards and back in, etc. However, the rhyme originally went “twenty-four robbers” and “Spanish lady” (the second varies regionally), but I modified those lines to match the story here. Some of those lines seem awfully apt for stuff that happened to Lucien later on, don’t they? Hmmm…

Another game was tag, so we see Lucien and a half-elf playing deeper in the forest, away from the streets. However, even if they knew of relatively safe areas in the Savalirwood, there’s many dangers. Slavers were a big thing, and even though they were covered in the prior dream, I felt it was important to bring them up multiple times. That would have been a huge threat to any children living in Shadycreek, and I wanted to demonstrate that they weren’t just present as thugs snatching kids up. Thus, the two boys wander a little too far and stumble onto the road to one of the workshops referenced in episodes 53 and 54 of campaign 3. Depending on the race, gender, and appearance, kids would be pretty valuable in certain slave markets, but as in any venture, some merchandise just won’t sell. No worries, the Jagentoths have sweatshops. They run a business, they wouldn’t like to waste effort.

Hey. Don’t.

Last was hide and seek. We saw Lucien already knew how to hide from slavers in the tag scene (gray cloak and in the bushes), and also from shorter kids by climbing out of reach.

Of course, all these games have a key commonality: they’re good skills to have for escaping from predators. So along come some fey—yet another threat to street kids in Exandria—that chase them all the way back to the Run to show that off. The Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount featured a hook in the Savalirwood that a hag coven (including Nanny Filthtouch) in Molaesmyr kidnapped a Mardoon kid from Shadycreek Run, so I figured the hags were probably collecting other kids from there, too. Thus, teams of child-hunting fey. Redcaps are pretty fucked up, and Quicklings are just as nefarious. (Note: Quicklings are usually 2 feet tall, but I made them a little smaller because that is creepier, IMO.) Neither has an innate charm or stun ability, but I figured the hags probably armed them with some items to handle that; after all, if the hags wanted live kids instead of pieces, they’d need to equip their minions with some way of fetching at least some of them. Thus, items to stun and chains to drag them back.

The song the Quicklings sang is The Fairy Nurse, an Irish lullaby about a baby stolen by faeries. It’s sung by a faerie to comfort a crying baby that they “love thee dearly, And as thy mortal mother nearly”—so, almost as much as their mother did. The lyrics are pretty fucked up, just like in a lot of other lullabies about faeries. I felt that D&D fey would probably sing this song in mockery of the kids they were hunting, because, hey, they work for hags. None of this is nice.

There’s some Irish folklore that fae cannot cross running water, but it’s not very consistent, and I couldn’t find a source that the aos sí/aes sídhe specifically couldn’t do it. The sources I found that mentioned it were in English with anglicized spellings. Thus, I suspect that could be more recent compilations mixing it up with folklore from other cultures. However, it is a common myth about fae in general, and considering the prominence of the river to Shadycreek Run, I thought it would be a nice touch that weaker D&D fey (Quicklings are CR1) wouldn’t cross the water, but the Redcap (CR3) would.

The last bit of the scene is Greytraders running in to defend the town from the Redcap. They’re yet another neutral faction, but they’re reformed criminals/outcasts and want to solve the issue of violence in the Run. That’s about as close to “good guys” as anyone gets in Shadycreek. Unfortunately, they’ve got a lot to fight off, including murderous fey, and it doesn’t necessarily go well.

As @captainsparklefingers guessed, these dreams are in chronological order. Events in earlier dreams come into play in the later dreams. Just something to keep in mind.

And the kids all made it for once! Yay! This one time, everyone lives!

Don’t worry about it.

Flowers

In the stream, Nott and Jester had accompanied Caduceus and Caleb to the lighthouse, but I figured Molly would be persuasive (read: insistent) enough to lure them into going shopping with him. Nott gets the itch, after all, and Jester would love to show off her city.

Then I skipped both the other scenes because there really wasn’t much progress to them. The cast rolled badly for the most part. :(

However, that gave the chance for Yasha to come back with a bit more substance than just appearing in the same bar. Ashley’s absences made it difficult to explore Yasha’s arc early on in the campaign. I wanted to dip into why she collects flowers, and even if the Nein aren’t aware of it, they’re helping her to come to terms with Zuala’s death, step by step.

The flower Yasha had collected near Bladegarden was the Blue Perennem that Matt introduced in episode 66 of campaign 3. It seemed like a prime location for it to grow, and the flower likely has other uses as an antitoxin than one specific assassin poison. It’s got a distinctive look, so it wasn’t unreasonable for a shopkeeper in a busy trade hub who also frequently trades with adventurers to recognize it.

There’s a reason I’m introducing more gold and items to the Nein: they have one more member to outfit and pay for. Normally, a DM would just increase the enemies and loot to account for more PCs, but the enemies and loot drops are preset through canon. Rather than discard canon out of convenience, I included some creative explanations for how the Nein could afford stuff now that Molly’s here. I figured some gold, two flavor items (pouch and staff), and two practical items (sending stones and hat) would be a good balance heading into the next arc.

This scene was also to ensure that the readers understand that Jester is on good terms with Molly and Nott, even if they poke fun that they’re going to eat the new animal companions. It’s just a bit to Molly, and while Nott was actually tempted to eat Sprinkle, she wouldn’t do that to Jester. Jester also isn’t the type to hold a grudge, so no hurt feelings.

The Sluice Gate

I almost skipped this scene for a flashback, but Caduceus did not have a good day in canon, and I felt that was important to include since it was the first turning point in his arc. Until then, everyone else assumed he had his shit together. Thus, seeing him stumble psychologically and start doubting the Nein was too significant to summarize.

That said, doing the whole fight from start to finish, plus the smaller fight leading up to it, was just going to be excessive. It wasn’t relevant otherwise and the dock fight was more entertaining. Thus, we jumped into the middle, right Caduceus was beginning to unravel. Much more exciting and tense.

However, Caduceus’s key flaw is that he is not all that self-aware. He focuses on others to his own detriment, not too unlike Molly. He sees himself as the support. Thus, his mind focuses on Jester and her pets instead of himself. It brings a horrible awareness that he and Jester could both die and no one else can heal them. Not good.

I also thought that the reaction to Fjord’s Accursed Specter would be different now that the Nein have faced Lucien as an undead. Caduceus had already suspected that maybe Lucien wasn’t gone for good, and Molly keeps having dreams that are totally about him and not some other tiefling but maybe he’s haunted andwhoknowsbuthe’snotpanicking, so the two of them are on edge seeing Fjord control an undead spirit.

Combined with the rather unhelpful stop at the Mother’s Lighthouse, that chips away at Caduceus’s confidence that he’s following the right path. He hasn’t found any clues to how to fix the Blooming Grove, there’s been no sign of his family, and the Nein not knowing what they’re doing is actually kind of a problem.

But, hey, maybe tonight will go better. (It doesn’t.)

Night of Ascension

There is a lot in this scene I’m not going to talk about because it will be a big part of the plot and/or themes. So here’s your heads up that this scene is Important.

I first drafted this part without knowing which chapter it would go in. It was before I had ironed out the outline to know exactly where the first confrontation would fit (though I knew it would be in Zadash). However, once I reviewed the calendar to check when the Nein would be doing XYZ, I realized that they missed out on any festivities surrounding the Night of Ascension because of their shenanigans around Nicodranas. Then the idea occurred to me that it would be wonderfully delicious irony to summon Lucien as an undead on the Night of Ascension, which led to this scene.

I chose Cree’s POV specifically because I wanted to include some introspection about her changing faith and comparing that to how the Dwendalian Empire makes use of religious holidays. The contrast between the Empire’s traditions and those in the Run and Nicodranas also matches the theme of the chapter title card regarding transactional business versus merrymaking and indulgence.

I also wanted to explore how she differs from Lucien on issues of faith and fate. A lot of this came from brainstorming about what sort of beliefs they likely held before Lucien found the Somnovem’s book. That’s going to come out more over time, especially in the dreams, so stay tuned for that.

Lastly, we got more interactions between the Tombtakers. They’re rough with each other and are happy to give each other shit when there’s nothing else going on, but they’re still a cohesive unit even after so long. As soon as Zoran was freaked out, Tyffial was ready to fight too, even if Cree seemed unconcerned. (Otis didn’t help by being creepy about it.) That said, Tyffial still stood down once she was sure it was actually Lucien.

There was also some word play in Irish in this scene. When Tyffial asked if the ghost was Lucien, he replied, “Tá mé,” and I included the following explanation:

Literally means ‘it is me’ but is grammatically incorrect. Irish has two verbs that mean ‘to be,’ and in this specific sentence, it would be either ‘tá’ or ‘is’ (pronounced ‘eess’ with soft ‘s’ sound, not ‘ihz’ like English’s ‘is’). ‘Tá’ is the present tense of ‘to be’ meaning ‘he/she/it is,’ but the verb refers to what something is like, descriptors, and temporary states (e.g., ‘I am tired.’). ‘Is’ is a copula, which is a grammatical function that links a subject to another noun or an adjective, so that is used to identify or classify the subject (e.g., ‘I am a tiefling.’). Lucien used ‘tá’ intentionally because he’s emphasizing that this is not what he actually is and that this is temporary. Instead of confirming his identity as Lucien (which is what Tyffial literally asked), he’s saying ‘This is what I am, for now’ (in response to the implication that Tyffial doesn’t quite believe that Lucien is undead and possessing Zoran).

I think I spent about 2-3 hours researching on numerous websites to make sure I was actually getting the different versions of “to be” correct. (The hard part about this stuff is finding reliable sources.) A similar remark could be made in Spanish, which also has two forms of that verb, and that was how it occurred to me in the first place.

Note: He made this comment to Tyffial, who would only understand the meaning if she spoke the language. Curious…

Pets

I wanted to include a check in with Jester after the heavy stuff hit because her father’s identity and developments with Algar all came about without much commentary from her in the stream. Jester doesn’t like to focus on negative emotions, so we see her taking after Marion and Molly by pretending everything is okay.

Thus, there’s definitely no reason that Xundi’s decision to immediately return to his partner was so memorable. And there’s no special significance to the act of leaving Nugget and the peacock behind with Marion while Jester goes off to do something dangerous. No parallels of any sort.

Pfffft.

The Docks

This scene was initially about half the length, but @fruitzbat (author of an amazing Kingsley epic and my beta reader) pointed out that it would have a better impact and lead into the next scene more fluidly if it wasn’t as clipped. Thus, I added most of the beginning of the scene the day before posting.

As I mentioned above, this was initially going to be Beau’s scene, but Nott’s POV was just too funny to pass up. She was separated from the Nein and spent most of the fight hiding, so her perspective was hilariously out of the loop. In canon, the players rolled terribly on every attempt to avoid detection and de-escalate, and I wanted to keep that train wreck.

Beau had originally tried to use Caleb as her partner for the distraction, but since Molly was here, he was the perfect guy to drag into it given that he loves distractions. He was surprised that Beau of all people was the one that leapt into it, but this was also after her Tracy persona that afternoon (which I skipped since it wasn’t that substantive). The first line was canon, and coming up with the rest of their soap opera bullshit was fun.

Aftermath

Caleb was in the background for most of the Nein’s trip through Nicodranas. I got the impression that this was about the time he came to terms with Molly’s death, that he was truly attached to the Nein, and took the “better than you found it” advice to heart. I don’t think Molly’s survival would have kneecapped that development.

Caleb’s perspective was also that the Nein didn’t do anything wrong in canon. Thus, he glosses over the developments and isn’t as troubled as the rest. This helps us skip a lot of the boring stuff and speed toward the next arc.

Finally, Caleb also unveils a hat of disguise for Nott. I wanted to mess with her arc so she wouldn’t be in the background the whole time (Sam was so good at hiding it in plain sight). There are plans in motion.

Don’t worry about it.

[mysticstarlightduck]

Songs and OC Ships Tag Game

Thank you so much for the tag, @dancinginsepia!

Rules: write two to five songs from them that represent your ship between your ocs (it can be platonic or romantic or a secret third thing). then add a quote from said WIP (if possible!) underneath it.

Because there are many ships in my main WIP The Last Wrath, I'll go with my favorite ship from my second main WIP, Tales of Wilted Flowers.

Xarian/Lorelai - WIP Tales of Wilted Flowers

Set in the fictional world of Ravaryn, this book follows the story of a fae outlaw and a human adventurer in their quest to clear both their names and get their lives back, while fighting an ancient evil the kingdoms tried to ignore.

(This book is still very early in the drafting process, so I don't have as many quotes as I would like. There will be a full excerpt here tho!)

Willow - Taylor Swift (Bardcore Cover by Hildegard Von Blingin)

Xarian and Lorelai meet by accident (or what one could call fate), and that encounter leads them to the adventure of their lives while they slowly fall in love. Not only do some of the lyrics in this song really fit this context, but the overall fantasy theme of the cover music suits the ship!

King and Lionheart - Of Monsters and Men

They're a very supportive couple, who are always there for each other and ready to take a stand to protect the other should they need to - even if it means facing their worst fears. Throughout the story, they become each other's best friends, forming a bond that cannot be broken easily.

Wild Uncharted Waters - Jonah Hauer-King

I think this song fits their romance so well! They took a while in the story to actually confess to one another that they are in love, plus Xarian actively tried to hide his feelings in fear that being with him would put Lorelai in more danger - but eventually, they realize that they are stronger together than apart (plus it's in the moments where they're far from one another that they realize how much they need one another). I think this song fits that moment of realization.

The Tragedy of Julian and Rosaline (Raney Shockne ft. Alina Gingertail)

The story of Xarian and Lorelai almost ends in a tragedy, especially when their pasts come to haunt them both. Luckily they were able to prevent it - unlike the events of this song. Still, I think that this song perfectly encompasses the feeling of that bit of the story - when all seemed to go wrong - plus, it has a perfect fairy-tale romance style that this ship is all about.

My Demons - STARSET

Both of them have "demons" in their pasts that haunt them throughout the story. For Xarian it is his time as a captive of a cruel sorcerer for years in his backstory. For Lorelai, it is her family's secrets. Both of them help each other when their pasts come back to destroy their current lives. This song has the perfect vibe for this!

For the Dancing and the Dreaming - HTTYD Soundtrack (Cover by Peter Hollens)

What can I say? I am a huge fan of HTTYD, and this song is one of the most beautiful romantic songs I ever heard. I think that the lyrics are pretty self-explanatory, and fit Xarian and Lorelai's story beautifully!

Quote/Excerpt

[...] "I have spent so much time running, from my past and ... from myself. Running away that horrid fate he said was mine. At the time, everything seemed so clear, so linear, my revenge so close I could almost taste it."

Xarian paused, glancing up at the starry sky with a hand reached out, before scowling, frustrated as he crossed his arms over his chest. There was a nervous edge to his voice, which wasn't there before, almost sorrowful.

"But now... I don't know. I don't know exactly who I am, or where I'm going - or even if we're going to make it out of this alive without bloodshed. I don't want to feel that pain again."

Lorelai listened, head tilted as she tried to think up an answer. She walked closer to where he was leaning over the parapet, looping her arm around his.

"How about... we figure this out together? There are many things I don't know as well, and any of our fates couldn't be less certain than what they are today. Gods know I am not one to speak about how things are going to end up." She spoke, playfully twirling with a small ribbon of her hair, before turning to Xarian, who met her eyes, unsure. "But if there's one thing this adventure has taught me, is that we can do anything. If we do it together. What do you say?"

Lorelai looked at him as Xarian considered her words. For a moment, she was afraid he would say no, that he'd withdraw, trying to solve everything alone as if it befell him to shoulder the world. He always wanted to help others, but never himself. But then, he smiled - a happy, genuine smile.

"I would like that, my love," Xarian said, moving gently so that he could hold her closer. "That would be ... perfect. I'm new to this, but I trust you - more than I trust myself, sometimes. With you beside me, I'm sure we'll find out all those answers, or at least some of them" [...]

Tagging (gently): @writernopal @chauceryfairytales, @clairelsonao3, @elshells, @exquisitecrow, @cabbojage, @aziz-reads, @rickie-the-storyteller and OPEN TAG

[hopefulstarfire]

Here it be, the complete outline for the ocs adventures in what would be my yugioh fic series if I ever have time and or a life outside of my job and podcast again enjoy. General trigger warnings but I will also be tagging any and every one I can think of and if I miss anything lemme know.

Pre Series

All of the OC backstories go here, as seen in their profiles.

Something worth noting here is that Chelsea, Mason, Wes, Jonathan and Rosalie Gayle (Alisters parents) and Robert Knighton (Raphaels father) had been friends for years and years and basically considered each other family (especially bc Mason and Wes's parents Bo and Josie considered them all their kids) and so their kids became the "cousins".

It just kinda worked out that Robert and Mason married girls that were in fact first cousins so their kids are actually cousins 😂

Another is that Solomon, Arthur and Iris's grandfather Cillian are old, old friends, who went on several archaeological expeditions together. Cillian also officiated for Solomon and his wife Hinas wedding, and did the same for Arthur and his wife Faye. All three of them have attempted solving the Puzzle as well, all three have failed. Cillian even spectacularly so; he made a giraffe with the pieces. Atem was Very Confused.

Maximillion meets Cecelia at a gala his father hosted, and he met her through her Uncle Robert.

Cecelia starts battling health problems when she's 12 and at some point during her extended hospital stays, Max comes up with the very first rough draft of what would become Duel Monsters, inspired by dreams (that are 100% connected to his future destiny as a Millennium Item wielder) and the cards he make have their own lore and the game is more of a loose dnd with cards and the rules followed solely the rule of cool.

The Harmonia sinks and kills off most of the Knightons and Max's own parents, leaving him to basically move in with the Mercers. Raphael is found alive just in a matter of a couple months before Cecelia passes and he does not get to say goodbye to her.

Wes and the Griffins fight to try and gain custody of Raphael, knowing that he's miserable and that he was actually supposed to go home with them. However, they found that the Allards had put up a fight, the courts were very suddenly not on their side and a restraining order got placed against them, while Raphaels relatives made him believe everyone forgot about him and hated him for living instead of his parents and siblings. When Duel Monsters hits shelves, Max releases the Guardian Cards to try and let Raphael know they never forgot about him and love him but it's not taken that way. At all.

Seto and Mokuba get adopted when Seto is 10/11 and he sees the first Duel Monsters tournament on TV in the orphanage and he thinks Kat, the winner of the tournament, is the coolest. They actually meet at a gala after their adoption and they bond for that one night and he can't ever forget her. Max even sticks up for them, as he's the one that brought Kat, and it makes Seto even more open to trust him...something that is going to hurt all the more later on.

They meet River and Iris when Nesbitt and Gozaburo try to arrange a marriage contract to be fulfilled once Seto is 18. The four find themselves becoming an unlikely family and have to survive everything together. Including what Gozaburo pulls when Seto takes over the company.

Roland and Meredith are there early on for the boys and basically become like their parents, with Roland especially taking on a role of father for both the Kaiba brothers and the McGinnis kids. Having at least a semblance of stability prevents Death-T from happening. But Kaibas still gonna be Kaiba, just more in line with the anime route.

Alister goes undercover and begins working for KaibaCorp about a year and a half to two years before Duelist Kingdom and eventually finds himself befriending Iris as a means to an end of getting to Kaiba and the Big 5.

"Season 0"

A lot of it will follow the Mangas storyline and villain of the week format with some additional Filler.

One of the biggest changes is that Hanasaki and Miho are actually gonna be present for the stories and become part of the main gang themselves. Because they're the best and they were underutilized and I am FIXING THAT!!!

Nana is basically just growing more and more concerned about what the fuck is happening to her brother. She's happy he's making friends, but the Puzzle seems...off to her, now that it's complete and Yugis gaps in memory and all the insane shit happening to them makes her start to believe something is wrong with the Item, but the ony person she really has to confide in that is her best friend Harue, so it's a case of trying to figure out "what the fuck is going on here".

Duelist Kingdom

Kaiba kidnaps Grandpa and beats him in a Duel and tears up Blue Eyes. Nana, typically the voice of reason, has to he held back from hurting this idiot for what he did.

After he loses, Mokuba immediately reaches out to the rest of the family, pulling Iris away from a date hangout with Alister to come help her younger brother through being genuinely shaken that he lost.

Max is hanging out with Kat and the Griffins for movie night when Croquet delivers the news of Kaibas defeat. Kat is Pissed and goes to dig into who this kid is, only for the both of them to be shocked and confused when he's got the Millennium Puzzle, which looks eerily similar to the golden eyeball shoved into Max's head.

Three weeks later, Max announces the Duelist Kingdom tournament at regionals. Kaiba runs off early that morning, before the tournament, going to try and clear his head. The board calls Max that night, after he's already sent the tape to Yugi, so that they can have their little chat the day after next when and where he kidnaps Mokuba for them.

Nana is like. 5 seconds away from a panic attack because the guy who's art she has like idolized for years now just kidnapped her Grandpa's soul and everything is connected back to the Millennium Items and she very quickly realizes they're in over her head so ofc she's sneaking on board with Téa and the others. Somebody has to keep these idiots safe.

Max had basically barred Kat from entering the tournament because aha she doesn't need to know what's going on clearly, and he also enlists the Big Fives security detail as supplied by Leichter, versus using Griffin Security, with the claim it was to make investors happy only. Maddox, who has been his best friend since they were eight and knows Max usually does not care about that shit at all, is Suspicious.

When Mokuba gets kidnapped, Roland and Iris mobilize to figure out what happened and just how the Big Five are involved and drag their names through the mud. Alister is either going to be helping them from the get go to ger information and be the one to stop them first or is brought in right after they finally get a hold of Seto because he's conveniently turned his phone off to go and be emo for a while and only reaches back out after he had an assassination attempt on his life by and realized the man he saw as a mentor, as someone who might have actually cared about him and his brother, was the one who sent them after him so Max could get control of KaibaCorp from the Big Five.

Kat sneaks onto Duelist Kingdom island on the day the tournament starts and Max is greeted by her right after the opening ceremony and he is sweating bullets bc oh God she can't know what I'm doing she will stop me. He does allow her to stay to watch the Duels commence, but tells his security to keep a close eye on her and make sure she doesn't snoop.

He doesn't seem to realize that the security that the Big Five really aren't shit and weren't trained to deal with her, aka someone who was raised by the owners of one of the biggest security companies in the world. So she's walking around with her dog Lola and hears something coming from one of the rooms and discovers Mokuba.

After hearing what happened and being in complete shock Max would ever do anything like that, she still decides Mokuba is probably telling the truth but she needs to know the full story as to what the fuck is going on. She helps smuggle him out and hides when one of the guards comes to check on him and then promptly goes to sneak out herself and yes she brings Lola with her. She has no idea what is going on in her brothers head and she doesn't trust any of these guys to take care of her baby or even remember to feed her. She loads up her backpack with dog food and treats; it's her and Lola til the end damnit.

While still trying to hide the best she can from the goons, she does run into Yugi and the gang after Kemo nabs Mokuba again and obviously Yugi recognizes her since she's kind of. Yknow. Famous. The others don't trust her because of her name but Yugi and Ryou both point out Mokuba said he had help escaping so she challenges Yugi to a pick up Duel with no star chips on the line and no Duel Arena (she can't let Max know where she is) to talk it out.

Ryou is also wondering why, for the first time, the spirit in the Ring is completely silent. No smart comments, no pushing to take control, nothing. Like he actually feels just how stunned and weirdly nervous he is during them meeting Kat.

Kat explains how she has no idea what's going on, but the Max she grew up with would never have done anything like this; how it's been him, Maddox and her against the world since she was eight. But, she also believes Mokuba and now Yugi hearing his story, even as she's trying to wrap her head around the fact her brother even had the powers to do what he did, and she wants to help get to the bottom of it. The gang decide they can trust her and she and Lola join up with them.

Maddox gets a hold of Max to check up on how the tournaments going and Max is acting the best he can like everything's not on fire, and promptly makes up a quick excuse when Maddox says he can't get a hold of Kat (her having left her phone in her room to keep from being tracked) and hangs up. Maddox realizes somethings fishy so he goes to talk to his parents.

The Duel between Joey and Rex goes the same way, and then when Mai decides to camp out with them that night, Kat borrows a phone to go and call Maddox and tell him what's going on. As the VP of I2, she's also able to give the go ahead for him to do a deep dive, proper investigation into what exactly has been going on at I2, not just security wise, but business wise and figure out what Max is planning and why.

Rather than Bakura challenging the others to the Duel he does in the anime, as the TTRPG has happened in this timeline, Bakura puts on a show as Ryou and takes Kat away for a bit to meet with her and figure out if she remembers anything from her past life as Kema. He does explain to her more about the powers and origins of the Items to give her a tip on what her brother could ultimately be planning by trying to take the Puzzle and more about himself and Yami as spirits trapped in the Items, but tells her not to trust the Pharaoh. Kat asks why he's telling her all this and he tells her that he knows her eyes better than anything else and in a past life, she was the person that mattered to him. He's vague and cryptic about it, but, the part of him that is still Bakura (as he did fuse his soul with Zorc) wanted to tell her, to reach out, to hope because he's spent 5000 years trapped alone and he had lost Kema and it devastated him and pushed him further towards his goals.

The Duels against Panik, Bonz and the Paradox Brothers go pretty much like normal, with the gang cheering on their friends.

However, after Joey Duels Kaiba, Kat actually offers to help him and he rejects the offer. Max's betrayal cut deep and he doesn't fully believe the Yugi gang when they tell him she helped Mokuba escape, because he knows Kat would do anything to protect her brother-in-law.

Maddox does more thorough investigation and gets confirmation on the investor deal between Max and the Big Five; he knew Max had met with them, but not what it was about. He does know about Roland being Kaibas right hand man, through Max and Kats interactions with the Kaiba brothers and reaches out to offer assistance in getting this cleared up. Iris and Roland are distrustful at first because of his connection to Pegasus and Alister even more so because he's worked with Raphael for years and knows about the whole Raphael believes his family forgot about him bit so he tries to steer them away. Maddox however shares all of the information he has and tells them that he wants to figure out what the fuck his best friend is up to because it could directly put his little sister in danger because he's acting crazy and if a kid got kidnapped and another had an assassination attempt on him, why the hell would he cover that up? So, they agree to work together to get to the bottom of this.

We also get to see some of Alister and Iris trying to snoop around in some specific places and almost get caught snooping and Alister is like "we need an excuse" and knowing that everyone at KaibaCorp is about 98% sure those two have been hooking up for months now bc everyone sees the chemistry he kisses her and makes it look like they snuck off for a quickie rather than to get dirt on the Big Five.

"Get a room, you two." "That's exactly what we did. Now, if you'll excuse us." And then just slams the door on the goons face and Iris is still processing what the fuck just happened.

On top of the confirmation of them meeting with Pegasus and being able to hack into email and phone records, they find some other little projects they were hiding from Seto in their attempts to regain proper power. And while doing so, Alister finds some interesting information about a certain Cyber World that a certain somebody is being kept alive in and a plan to use this for profit as well as a way for the elite to cheat death and live forever. There are many peoples names he deletes off of that first chance list including Raphaels aunt and uncle because fuck them. He covers this up from Iris and Roland and decides to keep an eye on it in case things go south.

Maddox also gets a warning from Shadi about what could happen if he keeps investigating this and trying to uncover the truth about the Millennium Items and what will happen to Max.

When the Seto and Yugi rematch happens, the others are still confused why Seto is acting like this and Kats literally like "gee it could have to do with my brother. Yknow. Being my brother, I guess." And Nana even reminds them he's probably stressed out and still offers up the chance for them to help him.

When he gets up on the ledge, Kat literally has a panic attack yelling at him to come down. Even with as much bad blood as there was between her and her mother, losing her mom to suicide ripped a part of her heart out and she cannot stand to see Seto go the same way or let Mokuba have to experience that same level of grief she did.

Téa yells at Kaiba and Kat tells him that she knows he'd do anything to save his brother, but that his life isn't worthless if he lost; that if he threw away his life, Mokuba would lose everything and they aren't gonna let that happen. Him, finally also knowing from Mokuba that she did in fact help him, decides to let Kat join him in confronting Pegasus and rescuing his little brother and she leaves the gang to go with him.

She also begins to see why Bakura told her not to trust Yami and she's now a little more open to at least somewhat trusting the vague and cryptic spirit with any new information he could offer her.

Nana, meanwhile, is at that same level of distrust Yugi is at. She's seen the dangers of the Puzzle and she sees how practically catatonic her little brother is and she gets the Puzzle off of him and is at a point now where she wonders if maybe they should just trade it off to get their Grandpa back because she is terrified of what the spirit inside of it will make her brother do.

Like, on the other hand, she doesn't know what Pegasus would do with this type of power and doesn't trust him but also like. She just doesn't want it around her brother. She doesn't even trust the Spirit of the Ring and now Yami has proven to her She can't trust him. She thought he was doing better and he's not SO. And if they haven't started connecting the pieces of like Yamis definitely murdered people before, it all kind of clicks now and she just is Over It.

When they finally get into the castle, they watch the Duel between Kaiba and Max and the entire time Kats standing behind Seto just demanding answers from her brother and when Seto loses his soul, she tries to run to grab him and Kemo and a couple other goons grab her and drag her away to Max's office.

They also muzzle Lola to take her with Kat and Max is like "that is not a good idea" and Kat straight up bites Kemo to try and get to her dog because fuck that.

She and Lola still get taken to Max's tower and she's demanding answers and they get into a huge blowout and then he finally confesses that he is doing all of this to revive Cecelia and goes through a state of both shock and horror. This also causes an even bigger fight because Cecelia would not have wanted him stealing people's souls, a CHILDs soul, just for him to play God trying to bring her back.

She gets locked in her room because Max refuses to listen to that. At this point, he's worked far too hard and it's far too late to stop. He has to do this. Not just for his own sake, but because Kat and Maddox need Cecelia back and even if they're mad at him for now, it'll be worth it in the end.

That night after the dinner, Mai actually manages to sneak Kat out of her room and Kat tells her she's gonna go and try to find the boys and then figure out where Max is holding people's souls and how. Mai makes her promise not to tell anyone how she got out and Kats just happy she got somebody; though, she does ask Mai to borrow her phone so she can call Maddox and tell him to get out there right the fuck now.

Hanasaki and Miho go with Tristan, Téa and Ryou to figure out how Max is cheating in all his Duels and are with them at the tower.

Bakura finds Kat trying to avoid the guards and get her way towards the dungeons and yanks her back to his room to since he knows the guards are really gonna be on high alert after his and the gangs stunt. They get more of a chance to talk though he's still. Odd to her. Though she does get bits and pieces of more answers out of him.

Nana basically holds on to the Puzzle until the matches the next day and Yugi asks for it because he doesn't want to risk anyone else's safety if they have it, and especially not his big sister. He thinks he has to try and control the Spirit, no one else. The night before however she stays up trying to figure out what exactly is going on with it and why it's acting like this. To the point she starts talking to Yami, knowing she's not gonna get an answer because she's not wearing it and she doesn't trust him enough to do so but it does leave an impact on him.

Hanasaki goes off with Tristan the next day when he goes to look for Mokuba because it's what a hero would do. Nana and Miho stay with Téa and Joey, mainly because Nanas still worried about her little brother.

They run into Kat while trying to do their rescue and then Bakura shows up and then it's just that whole mess.

Meanwhile, Maddox reached the island that morning after having to get some sleep and get some other things squared away and was fighting past the goons to get to the castle and gets there after Max and Yugis Duel.

Him and Kat both hurry after Croquet when they find out Max is hurt and is missing his Eye. Kat realizes it couldn't have been Yugis other self since they were with them this whole time. Maddox thinks it could be Shadi, given the cryptic warning he received. But Kat starts to believe it could be something else.

The gang also read Max's diary and find out more about Kats older sister and some more hints about the tragedies in her life and they understand more of why Max did what he did; it doesn't excuse it by any means, but they have their answers at least.

Iris, Alister, River and Roland, once they get confirmation that Seto and Mokuba are safe, confront the Big Five with their findings and tell them that they're currently suspended pending further investigation and will be fired once Seto is back and fully rested for the next quarterly meeting. Roland also gets to just fucking deck Nesbitt when he goes to attack Iris for daring to stand up to him.

Seto (begrudgingly) flies the gang all back to Domino with him and Mokuba and after they land Nana tells him he should come by the card shop sometime...and...yknow...maybe apologize for ripping her Grandpa's prized possession. Just uh just a thought there Kaiba.

Cue the Rebecca meeting and Nana invites her and Arthur to have dinner with the family and she'll cook. They get to hear some fun stories too about all of their old archaeology days, especially with their other best friend.

Iris hangs out at Alisters house (which is just one of the safe houses Paradius has) after everything happens and they find themselves taking the next stages in their dynamic together and become romantically intertwined; he argues it's to help further his goal and his justice, but he also finds himself genuinely falling for her where as Iris has been on that boat for a while just in absolute denial about it.

Kat is put in place as acting president of I2 while Max is very much recovering and decides she needs to further investigate what happened. So, she asks Maddox to go with her to Domino to at least figure out what's going on, because she knows her godparents aren't gonna let her do this alone. Originally, it's just supposed to be staying there for a few days, but, they soon realize they're gonna need to relocate to Domino City altogether with this situation.

Kat confronts Bakura and finally gets more of a full picture of their past life connection on top of more explanation to the Items. He points out that there's a strong chance the Eye had been corrupting him and he should be learning to see the error of his way by the time he's recovered fully. And, after all, the Pharaoh did almost kill Kaiba and he's done other shady things; who's to say the Puzzle didn't have some corruptive influences of its own?

"You keep saying this like you're the good guy in all this." "Darling, I'm far from it. I'm just the lesser of the evils in all this. I'm fighting for the right reasons."

Maddox doesn't trust him as far as he can throw this guy. He still wants a proper explanation to the Items and he's certainly hiding quite a bit of knowledge.

Kat slowly begins to trust him, however and decides to give him a shot.

Legendary Heroes / Dungeon Dice Monsters

After an entire debate, Kat wants to settle in Domino for a while and get everything straightened out and get to hang out with her new friends. Chelsea and Vance decide to keep the main office in San Fransisco, but open up a new one in Domino, and can do it if Maddox is able to square a deal with KaibaCorp and some other businesses in the area if he can manage it.

He's set to meet with Kaiba after the start of the new quarter and so he gets an apartment for him, Kat and the twins while they reconfigure everything. Kat gets enrolled into Domino High, which is her first time back in public school.

The start of the new quarter brings the meeting and Kaiba does fire the Big 5 still, however, they still manipulate him into going to test out his new game before he does; something Iris thinks is a big mistake and tells him not to do, because she doesn't know what they're up to. But this game is important to him; while he hasn't told anyone but her, this game was a way to honor his deceased mother and for Mokuba to see the kind and loving person she was in the only way he can.

Iris and River are with him and Mokuba when Seto gets trapped and Iris has to basically fight their way out of there. Mokuba convinces them they need to go find Yugi and his friends and Iris debates on making a call to Maddox after all his help, and also to Alister but he's out doing work for one of the other KaibaCorp offices (aka he's out on a mission for Paradius and used it as an excuse). Thankfully, Maddox is there with the rest of the gang at the card shop so they all get caught up to speed.

They get to the pods and Iris goes with Yugi, Mokuba and Joey; they instruct River to be on standby in case anything happens, as River actually helped Seto with coding some levels for practice. Maddox is to help him break back into KaibaCorp security measures and try and get that part of everything sorted out.

Maddox also is Packing Heat for this and does fire a warning shot at Kemo and his lackies when they try to break in.

Iris is basically scrambling having to use her ace monster and River's deck because she does not carry the one that she used just to Duel them on her, just the one card, so she's struggling a bit in this but doing her damndest.

She's still the second to last one to get gunned down by the Big Five, trying to keep Mokuba safe from an attack.

Once they're out of the Virtual World, Iris gets a call from the Big Fives doctoral staff, asking her to hell and saying that they need to try and save them, and she asks them point blank if they have any brain activity. When they say no, that the voltage was too much, but their heart rate is still there, she reminds them that without brain activity they would be dead and keeping them alive wouldn't bring that activity back. It's more merciful to let them die and even still there's a large amount of guilt she has in the relief that Nesbitt specifically cannot touch her family again. Their death is simply labeled as suicide and its not anything anyone would question at their company after what Gozaburo did.

Iris decides the Yugi gang may not be all that bad and Nana actually helps set her up with a job at the card shop; Solomon figures out who she is because she and her grandmother share a lot of similarities and when he hears the name McGinnis, he realizes she's most certainly his old friends granddaughter and is more than happy to have her there.

Maddox gets a meeting with Kaiba and manages to convince him to use Griffin Security for his newer security measures in this newer era of the corporation. He also is willing to still keep a business relationship with I2 after meeting with Kat and they both begin discussing what they want to pursue to create a better way to play Duel Monsters aka actual rules.

Maddox almost weeps in relief because God Max made it so looney tunes just to spite him.

The Dungeon Dice Monsters Arc there is two things worth noting.

One; Miho gets the fattest crush on Duke, because of course she would.

Two: Kat is standing there this entire time like knowing that name sounds familiar and he kinda looks it why does she know-- OH SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO CALL HIM AND TELL HIM MAX WAS RECOVERING FROM THE EYE BEING STOLEN AND HE STILL WANTS TO MAKE A DEAL WITH DUKE OH NO.

Kat chooses not to move forward to try and fight to stay president once Max recovers, but does decide to keep being the VP, just working from home.

Battle City/Cyber World

Battle City gets announced with the new rules implemented by Kat and Seto in their joint venture.

Both her and Maddox receive invitations to compete in the tournament, both of them with high ranking stars. Kat's all for it, ready to test out her new cards Max had done up for her and her Deck since it's been restructured. Maddox ultimately decides to sit this one out and he's glad he does, because he finds out he wants to focus more on trying to figure out what the deal with the Rare Hunters are and investigate more into the Millennium Items.

Iris does not get an option. Seto enters her in knowing she's got a Deck that actually holds potential and she needs to take her mind off of what happened with the Big Five.

Also it's better to have two of the siblings in this. So they have an even higher chance of getting all the God cards. It's science.

River gets to be co-commissioner with Mokuba and their baby sister Flora gets to be the unofficial tournament mascot and her big brother and sisters cheerleader.

Maddox and Nana both swing by the museum right before the tournament starts up to do some investigating, and Nana meets Ishizu and she's instantly smitten. Maddox is gonna Regret laughing and teasing her Later.

The tournament gets under way and Kat heads off with Maddox to go do matches and Iris heads out on her own, though they do all meet up with the gang here and there.

Miho actually goes with Tristan to help Serenity post surgery and they become quick friends. Tristan is very confused tho when Miho also just is not phased when Duke starts hitting on Serenity and she's like "Tristan were both poly; as long as were both alright with it, Dukey-kins can flirt with whoever, just like I can. Besides he's so cute when he tries to put on the charm!" and then he's just later on like "can you please control your boyfriend and tell him to back off" "Oooorrrr Renny could figure out for herself if she wants either of your guys attention. Kinda seems like you got friendzoned. And I don't think you're her type, honey."

I don't have many ideas on the Duel match ups, but Iris and Mai actually have a draw when they meet up and promise to see each other in the finals for a proper rematch.

Hanasaki pulls his Zombyre cosplay out of retirement so that he can fight against the Rare Hunters to help Yugi, like in the video games. Because it's awesome.

Nana will just fucking tackle them. She's Strong and somebody's gotta help Maddox handle these clowns.

She's also with Joey when he goes and Duels Mako, and runs into her childhood best friend Nami (@icychill), and they have a really time together and promise they're gonna get Harue (@kohakuhime) next time, once Battle City is over and go out for a girls trip.

This is also why Marik isn't able to nab her like he does Téa and Joey, she's with her other girlfriend and soulmate bestie.

Kat runs into them when Marik carries over a stabbed Ryou and she's instantly concerned over her new best friend so she goes with him and Grandpa to the hospital.

She is Not Happy when she finds out it was her boyfriend that did the stabbing. He gets an earful and he gets the Angry Southern Accent.

"Alright, I have all the locator cards I need-- why are you looking at me like that?" "Technically, it doesn't matter because you didnt enter the tournament properly to begin with." "Rouhi, it doesn't matter. I've got the Duel Disk, I've got the locator cards. If Kaiba throws a bitch fit, I have you and you're the one person that can make him shut up and deal with it."

Iris is like. This close to strangling her brother the entire time from the semifinals all the way to the finals and it all starts with him being like "yeah we're Dueling on a blimp" and he knows she has a fear of heights.

He made her enter to torment her she's pretty sure.

Kat and Iris also make it to the semifinals and they have to Duel each other. Kat comes out the winner, but Iris has a good shot in with it. She also gives Iris her card back on the downlow like "Nah, Gramps helped help you build this Deck, I don't wanna make you lose any of your cards."

Maddox sees Rishid for the first time by the way and immediately he's just the "Oh no he's hot!" Bit from SpongeBob. But he figures out Rishid isn't Marik, but nobody believes that until Joey tells them this isn't Marik and he's like "really? REALLY?" "Maddox you've been staring at him, you're biased cause you think he's hot." "SHUT UP."

But his big give away is Rishid is polite and keeps calling Joey Mr. Wheeler instead of Little Joey.

Also when Shadi shows up and Maddox sees him he's immediately on sight like "No, every time you show up, our lives get worse, GO AWAY, NO, OUT--"

There is a thing that they are gonna have to make two of the semifinalists compete for that 4th finalist slot. The unlucky selected contestants are Yami Marik and Kat.

So.

Yknow how he made Mai forget everyone important to her?

Yeah

Uh.

He makes Kat have to remember and relive the worst and most traumatic memories she has.

Including the one that happened a week before her mother took her own life, that basically shattered any chance at those two having any sort of relationship and got Evie kicked out of the house by Wes.

Because she hit Kat and told her that "the wrong daughter died".

Everyone is freaking out bc she's clearly having a traumatic episode and even Kaiba tries to tell Roland to end the match but Marik delivers the final blow before anything happens and Kat is banished to the Shadow Realm.

Lola refuses to leave Kats side after that and almost doesn't let any of the doctors near her and has to be calmed down enough to let them check her over.

Kaiba actually tells the others the only way to take down Marik is to beat him at his own game and strip him of his power, rather than just stopping the tournament altogether. He also tells him his want to beat Marik is "entirely selfish". The others think it has to do with just the God cards, but his siblings know better than that.

Bakura also wants to doubly murder Yami Marik because of this when he wakes up.

Iris has been having a Time and a Half with her brother and then finding out they're having the finals on Alcatraz only makes her want to throw herself out into the ocean and swim back home.

Then Noa shows up. And surprise the Big Five are still around.

Flora is left on board with Roland, though Roland is more desperate to try and get everyone out of there. Especially because he knows Noa is supposed to be dead and it stirred up some old grief.

This specific Arc causes a lot of emotions stirring with the siblings and they have some struggles with each other and in their shared pasts with Gozaburo and Nesbitt and what they each individually had to experience in their trauma.

Iris has to face things she has kept hidden from her brothers on her own, still managing to keep the secret from them, but maybe not some of the others. I.e., how the marriage contract got changed when she was sixteen, just two months before Seto took over KaibaCorp.

Iris and River are just floored to find out Noa even existed and River later asks Roland in private if he knew Noa and he says yes; he never brought him up because it was one of the worst things most of the staff experienced, seeing him pass, and he always worried it would just cause further pain for Seto and Mokuba if he even brought him up, especially when Gozaburo was alive.

Maddox is just ready to get out of all of this and go home. He's tired of Kaiba Family Drama.

The rest of the tournament goes as expected, and Iris and River leave with the rest of the gang and when Seto and Mokuba appear to be dead Iris just crosses her arms, frowns and goes "Give it a minute."

She's just glad to see that fucking island reduced to rubble.

Maddox exchanges contact info with the Ishtars, specifically Rishid, and promises they're all gonna stay in contact as friends this time around.

Camelot / King Arthur (Original Filler Arc)

A few weeks after Battle City, Iris's granddad Cillian comes into town for a museum exhibit involving Celtic and Welsh lore and there's an entire area for King Arthur era items. She brings Yugi and the gang with her so Grandpa can reunite with one of his old friends. He tells them he's about to go on a trip to Wales to investigate some ruins they found and invites them to come along with him.

Right before they leave, Maddox basically makes Iris take a pregnancy test because she's exhibiting a lot of symptoms and this arc also has her facing if she wants to go through with this or not and she doesn't wanna tell Alister over the phone bc she's going on a trip and he's "on vacation" (on a mission for Dartz).

Said ruins were found to be the remains of a castle and with a battlefield. There's tomes in there and a very conveniently placed item that would essentially free Mordred from his slumber.

Merlin also awakens and basically recruits the others into an adventure to be their own knights of the round table and compete to try and take down Mordred and stop an enchantment that washes over the area to hurl it back into Arthurian times.

So we know with some of the games it shows the gang having certain other past lives and its kinda hinted that Hermos, Critias and Timaeus were probably the big 3s past lives. Something similar happens here with Yami/Yugi with Arthur, Mordred with Bakura, Kat with Guinevere, Kaiba with Lancelot, Iris with Morgan le Fay, Joey with either Percival or Galahad, Tristan with Tristan (bc it's Funny gdi), etc.

It's also hinted Maddox is a descendent of Merlin and this becomes relevant towards the end of this arc when he basically has to perform a spell with Merlin and he gets to fulfill his childhood dream of being a Magician and he's just kinda blown away by it.

Kat does the jousting tournament that's set up to be her own knight against the black knight and just owns it like a badass.

Yami and Yugi have to pull the sword from the stone and harness the power of Excalibur and use it in the games.

The last trial is probably gonna be used to find the Holy Grail bc that was another big thing in Arthurian myth and it would be giving Joey time to shine because HE DESERVES IT DAMNIT.

Ultimately it's a break from having to play Duel Monsters but also there are Duel Monsters spirits there to tie everything back together.

Towards the tail end of the arc, Alister gets a suggestion from Dartz as to what happened with Noas virtual world and why it was destroyed and finds out the VR incident and what happened to the Big Five, realizing Iris was there for their deaths and told the doctors to pull the plug to begin with since they would have no quality of life. Not knowing the full story of what happened, he gets obviously upset and pissed off and even more motivated back onto his mission and he just ignores any call she sends his way.

This hurts Iris all the more, because she has no idea what's going on and why he's blocked her out, and she specifically tries to reach out to him after the events of this arc, originally, to tell him about the pregnancy. But, about a week before Waking the Dragons kicks off, she has a miscarriage and she's just both trying to get a hold of him so she can ask to see him in person to tell him and maybe not feel so alone and get comfort from her boyfriend.

Mai also was talking to the gang at the beginning of this arc / in bw this and Battle City, but didn't know how to bring up any of the shit she was going through. She actually does try to reach out at one point bc she can't handle the nightmares anymore and they literally have no service bc of their situation so they have no clue and it's pretty quickly after that that Valon finds her.

Waking the Dragons

Welcome to the Angst Zone motherfuckers.

This is my favorite one. Because the ocs get to go through so much fucking Pain bc this is my favorite Arc besides Death-T and since Death-T doesn't happen in this? I get to put alllllllll my energy into this.

Maddox and Kat are with Nana, Yugi and the others when the God cards get stolen and Kats frazzled trying to figure out why the monsters appeared and dealing with frantic emails because the public thinks if it's not KaibaCorp, then it's I2.

Maddox gets footage from where the Duel was and gets a close up of the three bikers and his and Kats heart sink when they see the faces of their cousins, now so much older than the last they saw them, but there's no mistaking it; Alister and Raphael both look so much like their fathers, it's hard not to tell it immediately for them.

Until they get to the bottom of this, they agree to keep it on the downlow from Chelsea and Vance and go to investigate.

Kat and Bakura go to San Fransisco separately from the others; Maddox and the gang are to go to I2 and Kat and Bakura are going to Max's penthouse to divide and conquer.

Meanwhile, Seto has to deal with Alister and it takes him a minute to even realize who it is but Mokuba knows right off the bat.

They get a hold of Iris and she's shaken to the core because why would Alister go out and try to hurt them? It's her first time hearing about his past and now she realizes she has to step in and do something.

Her confrontation with Alister basically is their big break up and him telling her she's lied to him, that he's worked hard to take down everything connected to KaibaCorp and he stupidly thought she was different. He tells her that she's just like Nesbitt and it digs a knife deep into her chest.

He takes her soul when he wins the Duel, but he hesitates to complete the finishing blow, even if only for just a moment and still drops her body off at her house for her mom to take care of her.

Flora doesn't understand why her sister won't wake up and River decides to go off with Mokuba and Seto and help them when they stop back, hearing Iris is in the hospital. He feels betrayed and angry and he wants to do whatever it takes to get Iris back, and Seto is in that exact same boat.

When Kat and Bakura reach Max's place, they're met with a shock of their own;

There's a fourth swordsmen (not including Mai and uhh another character but that's for my friends to share 😉); Mason Mercer himself.

Turns out, he survived the car accident, but suffered from amnesia. Dartz saved him and told him that his wife had his car sabotaged so he would die and she could be rid of him. He's gotten select memories back over the years, and now his goal is to get his surviving daughter back; he believes Cecelia died the same day he did or shortly after, and he has been led to believe the Griffins and Maddox took her and used her for fame, just like Evies mother did to her and he wants to save her.

Bakura and Kat tag team to Duel Mason, while Kat tries to talk some sense into her father. Bakura awakens his own dragon, Socrates and, he tries to get an edge in with this card.

This, however, fails and Mason goes to finish him off but Kat uses a card that allows all the damage to go to her instead and before Mason can break the seal, Bakura lashes out and Kat loses her soul. Mason takes his daughters body and flees, going to see if he can plead with Dartz to get her soul back.

Bakura is especially lashing out because Kats last words to him before the Orichalcos took her was "If one of us has to survive, I'd rather it be you." Which were Kemas very last words to him before she died and he can't go through this again.

Dartz does tell him that the Leviathan needs souls, but, he may be able to make a wager and trade, should Mason acquire Bakuras soul.

Maddox is just. Fucking Stressed as Hell. His best friend and sister are now without souls, his cousins are in a cult, Alister doesn't seem to remember shit from what he understands, Raphael hates him and thinks they abandoned him, and now also his Uncle Mason is alive.

He's thankful his parents are watching the girls because Ahaaaaaa. Ahaaaaa.

He also has to explain to them what happened and Chelsea, Vance and now also Wes, who gets looped in, are out for blood with Dartz.

Nana is also going through it. One of her friends has joined up with the Doma bikers and then the next thing she knows YUGI'S GONE AND ITS YAMI'S FAULT.

She has a much harder time forgiving this one. Like she eventually gets to that point but hoooooo boy.

She and Miho are with Joey and Tristan when the train issues happen, as is Maddox. Bakura, Yami, Téa and Hanasaki are all together.

Tomoya and Téa are just trying to stop Yami from killing Weevil and Bakura is just like "who the hell cares, let the little twerp die, we've got more important matters, wrap this up".

Seto tells Alister that he's angry that Iris got the revenge against Nesbitt when he didn't and she's not the one to be mad at; Alisters mad at himself, sure, but if he wants to be angry at someone for the Big Five stuff, he can be mad at Seto for ending those fuckers twice over himself.

And Gozaburo for that matter.

Rivers still angry but Mokuba is the one that's probably the first and only one to forgive Alister at that point or at least meet him with visible sympathy.

They get to Florida and then the other Duels commence.

Bakura Duels Mason and wins and gets Kats body back, but sees she doesn't come back, unlike how the Shadow Games tended to to operate and its the first time Yami actually sees the human, vulnerable, breaking side to Bakura, because he just wants her back.

This gets replaced with the Murderous Rage Bakura that comes with the Zorc side and he decides he's gotta go all the way to the top. So he runs off and ends up confronting Raphael and loses.

Maddox is with the others when Yami Duels Raphael and desperately tries to reach out to his cousin and tell him what actually happened and that they never stopped trying to bring him home.

Maddox also just about Murders Dartz where he stands when he finds out that all of the bad things in his Uncle and cousins lives were his fault. That his aunts and uncles and three of his cousins are dead because of Dartz. That Mason was supposed to actually die in that accident and Dartz was gunning to make Kat the fourth swordsman, but, when Mason pulled himself out, decided hey waste not want not.

Bakura gets to help Kaiba, Yugi and Joey in their struggle with Dartz at the end and then the gang all reunite together.

Kat and Maddox are both just. Drained emotionally and trying to pick up the pieces and Bakura doesn't leave Kats side. As much as he hates Mason, he wants to be there for her and when she says she wants to find them and bring them home, he tells her that when the time is right, he'll help her do just that.

Nana becomes determined to find her best friend friend again and do better this time around.

Iris wakes up in the hospital and when her brothers and sister come to visit her and Mokuba tells her he thinks Alisters finding peace now, that Seto broke through, she weeps.

For the first time in her life, she cries in front of her siblings and let's herself break.

KC Grand Prix

In the weeks in between Waking the Dragons and the KC Grand Prix, Iris basically takes all of her depression and focuses it into the only thing that family knows how to do to chase any emotions away; Dueling. She actually wins some different tournaments and it's enough for Seto to invite her to participate in the Grand Prix. Because he also knows she needs something to help her rn because she's drowning and this is the only way he actually knows how to help his sister right now because haha she's never cried and he's at a loss.

Mokuba invites Yugi, Joey, Rebecca and Kat to all participate in the tournament, with Yugi being the big finale match up.

The lineup will look Different. Namely because I hate how many no name unimportant characters there were and we know nothing about them.

So, the participants go as follow; Joey Wheeler, Rebecca Hawkins, Kat Pegasus, Iris McGinnis, Apdnarg Outum (bc Kaiba figured it out like that and thought why not this'll be funny), Mako Tsunami, Leon "Wilson", Vivian Wong, Shepherd (who becomes chancellor of the later established Duel Academy), Kagemaru, Koyo Hibiki, Ziegfried "Lloyd", Midori Hibiki, Ryuichi Fuha, Aileen Rao and Ridley Sheldon.

I'm still figuring out how the match ups will go. I just know for a fact Iris mops the floor with Shepherd and Kat gets to Duel Mako for that first round. But they will both ultimately lose, though Kat gets a bit farther in this one than she did Battle City so win for her.

No Weevil and Rex don't show up in this they try to sneak in and get kicked to the curb. I don't have time for their bullshit this arc. We should have let Yami kill Weevil back on the boat to Duelist Kingdom.

Maddox helps Kaiba figure out what's going on as to who tf is hacking into their secure systems and he just wants to fight Ziegfried.

Everyone wants to fight him actually.

Iris comes this close to beating this man on national television.

(On the other side of the world, Alister is still watching it while trying to remind himself Iris isn't his girl anymore, he fucked that up, but also very much yelling "Let her at him! Forget this guy!")

All in all, it's build up goes to the same place as a nice final tournament for the gang and it ends just about the same.

Capsule Monsters

The same batshit crazy adventure but now featuring Kat, Miho, Hanasaki and Ryou!

All Roads Lead to Tiamat (Original Filler Arc)

This is the one I'm still fleshing out the most ahaaa.

Basically the gang are gonna be whirlwinded into an adventure based around the Mesopotamian pantheon, and specifically Tiamat.

Why? Because referencing Tiamat is a staple with me and my friend group. We love our favorite mother of Monsters.

It would be tied into fleshing out some more lore in the worldbuilding of YuGiOh and the Duel Monsters as while they were the Ka for for Atems time, we also know they connect back to Atlantis and in my head it would make sense that they span back to Mesopotamia and with Tiamat being a mother of Monsters I thought it'd be interesting if there was a connection back to that as well and maybe even to Zorc. Because it makes sense in my brain.

Listen all I'm saying is import gods are a thing and also they keep saying Zorc is the/an underworld God but he's not Osiris (who is chilling with Atem over there) or Anubis so. Putting him in the category of we don't know where the fuck he came from or why he looks like that.

Also Gilgamesh would probably show up bc he's an og hero.

Ride of the Sacred Beasts

This is an optional Arc that will either follow the Tiamat Arc or replace it. Haven't fully decided yet on that.

Would explain the whole thing with the Sacred Beast cards and how/why they were locked underneath what becomes Duel Academy Island and they have to fight a version of what would later become the Shadow Riders.

Should we do this arc, Mai would actually reunite with the gang a bit and start to make amends and help them take on the rough draft of Shadow Riders.

I may explore and expand upon them being counterparts to the Egyptian gods and specifically what Armityle would be in contrast to Horakhty.

Also can we talk about the fact that it would have made for a better Zorc design imo.

Also if I do go with this arc we'll see more of Kagemaru and Shepherd in this arc as well.

Either in this arc or the Tiamat Arc (depending on if I still go with it), Maddox and Rishid will get together as well because fuck yeah.

I'm leaning more towards this arc vs the Tiamat Arc but we shall see.

Also if I do go with this arc since they did fight Alexander the Great I do wanna add in Julius Caesar or a guy who thinks he's Caesar reincarnated for them to fight and Bakura wanting to go for blood and Kat's holding him back and just;

"But, darling, it's like that one movie you love says; we should totally, like, stab Caesar!" "Don't you dare bring Mean Girls into this--"

Millennium World

The night before they're set to go to Egypt, Yugi and Nana hear Grandpa's story on how he found the Puzzle.

Also on that night, Bakura forces control back and bargains with the Zorc half of his fused soul to get one last night with Kat and try and push her from going to Egypt as he doesn't want her hurt in this. He also presents her an engagement ring and has her take the Millennium Ring for a night so she can meet him in his soul room and truly see him for the first time. He also fulfills his bargain with Zorc in this by sealing a piece of his soul away into her as a "backup" (this does not goes as planned, we will discuss why later).

She wakes up the next morning, alone, with both Ryou and the Ring gone and she gets a bad feeling about everything; it pushes her to still go on the trip.

Her and Maddox go with Nana and the rest of the gang, but they're worried about why Ryou hasn't joined them. They get a text saying he's not feeling well but Kat doesn't know what to make of it.

Yami gets thrown into his memories, where he meets a cast of old and new faces, and gets properly introduced to Kat and Maddoxs past lives of Kema and Masoud.

During Bakuras confrontation with Mahad, we also ultimately find out what led to Kemas fate and final momenets; she got him shoved out of the tomb fast enough to keep him alive to escape and fight another day, and sacrificed herself to save him. Bakura reels when he has to relive it, especially because in the present day he almost lost Kat the exact same way, and it's enough for the Zorc half of him to regain more control

Masoud meanwhile grieves the death of Mahad and works hard to try and help Mana through it, taking on a mentor role for her.

Iris arrives in Egypt with Seto when he finally decides to investigate and ends up in the Memory World as well. She's shocked to see Kisara and starts putting two and two together about who she is in relation to Seto and his past life when she sees a similar shock on his face.

When Bakura reveals himself to be possessing Tristan, by that point Zorc has fully taken over their fused spirit and is merciless in trying to kill them; even Kat, which devastates her and Maddox has to try and be her rock for the rest of the adventure.

Also worth noting; Yami gets actually visibly angry when he finds out about the people of Kul Elna and tries to take accountability for his family's actions and apologize to Bakura. Because that would have helped fully resolve his arc and also Bakura deserved that much and it shocks him. He doesn't expect it to be different this time and before he can even react, he is pulled away immediately and his side of the personality loses any ounce of control that was left and Zorc becomes all that's left at the moment.

Iris, the one who tried to help reason out magic with Seto, tells him straight up she doesn't want to believe in it anymore after seeing Zorc. Because she does not want that to be real.

When they get on the boat, Atem has found out what happened to the others with Bakura and he tells Kat what he saw and that he believes it was not her Bakura that tried to kill them, that he was gone and out of control by the time it happened and he's sorry for both of them that their story ended in tragedy. Kat kind of locks herself in her room on the boat, hiding from the others so she can break down and mourn. The only person that manages to get his way in to try and help her is Seto, and that's because he threatened to stay out there the entire night until she did let him and she knew he'd follow through on it.

Nana meets with Atem that night and tells him that while they had their own difficulties at times (something Atem does apologize for as well), she tells him that he's become family and she sees him as her brother just as much as Yugi is and she is going to miss him terribly. She also gives him an art piece she made that shows all of their friend group together with him and she wanted him to have it as a memento, a reminder of their beautiful bond that came with him. She'd been working on it for a while and she had finished it that night, with some tweaks to make Atem look like Atem. And he's grateful to have it and makes sure it goes in his pocket when he's given his own body to Duel Yugi.

When they get home, Nana gets into a video chat with one of her best friends and promises that all three of them are going to ger back together soon, and she's just thankful for the bonds she has and can keep up.

Maddox and Rishid both take the twins to go out for a day, to help them as they process the loss of Atem and take some bonding time together and the twins just absolutely latch onto Rishid and Maddox knows that he's made the right choice in love this time.

Iris brings River home and Meredith tells her that she had something left on the door for her. It was flowers with a card that simply read I'm sorry and the first edition of a book she'd been trying to find for herself but was a rare find. And she knows exactly who sent it and finds herself in her own mental debate of where to go from there.

Kat comes home to find Max and he goes to comfort her with Vance, Chelsea, Wes and her Memaw. She's thankful for them, and curls up and cries with them but they also know how much she needs her Dad home and Vance promises her they're gonna bring his stupid ass home soon.

There is some post series and next gen ideas I have locked and loaded too but this post is long enough and if anyone wants to hear about those I will gladly share but uh yeah that's the whole outline I hope yall like it.

[watermelonlovershigh]

You Get Sick in the Back of an Uber

AN: so this was a story i have had in my drafts for like three months and just never found motivation to finish it. i decided to finish this first out of my drafts because it was one of the ones that had the most already written for it. unlike some of my others that don't have much written yet. and this was supposed to be longer but i got lazy and ended the end with no dialogue and shorted the story. but i guess that's fine because the main part of this was the uber incident and not necessary the aftercare. (i just love to always include aftercare whether its with sex or getting sick. unless its a blurb) @harryhoney-bee suggested number 1. on my voting post so thank you for requesting i finish this one shot idea that was in my drafts.

This story contains: puke, drunken person, caring husband

{ husband!harry - dad!harry - Grammys 2021 Harry - 4 kids (any age you imagine) }

word count: 1765

When you drink too much at the Grammys, you end up having to get sick in the uber ride home and Harry cares for you.

-------------------------

Back Story-

After the Grammys, Harry and I decided to go to the little after party that was being held for the Grammy attendees. We knew we couldn't stay too long because we had to get back home to our kids. They were currently with our babysitter but she couldn't stay all night. She has to go home at some point. So we made sure to watch the time.

At the afterparty, drinks were flowing. I haven't drank in a while due to the fact I had been pregnant not too long ago. This was the first night I was allowed to drink and I decided to do just that. Harry was aware of me drinking and promised to watch and take care of me. Though we were at this afterparty for him, he wanted me to let loose and have some fun as well.

But what he wasn't expecting was for me to drink the amount I did. I didn't mean to go over board. It just kind of happened. People handing out drinks left and right and next thing I knew, I was drunk. Not tipsy, drunk. When Harry noticed how drunk I was, he decided it's best to go home.

And because Harry also had drank some alcohol, he wasn't in a state to drive either. By no means was he as drunk as me though. Maybe just tipsy but he didn't want to risk it. So he decided to call an uber for us.

--------------------

Current-

We're sitting in the back of the uber on our way home. It's about an hour drive since the city is crowded with traffic due to the Grammys. Right about now is when I regret drinking any alcohol tonight. Because I haven't drank in over a year, my body isn't use to the poison running through my veins. So you could say I'm a lightweight now. My head is throbbing. My vision is blurry. My stomach is turning. Lets just say I regret all my decisions tonight that lead to me feeling this way.

"Harrrrry I don't feel good." I manage to slur out.

"You probably should have stuck to champagne instead of vodka my love." Harry responds, while stroking my hair out of my face in a gentle manner.

Another 10 minutes pass and I'm feeling very nauseous. I'm trying to focus on my breathing but it's not working.

"Harry my stomach hurts." I whisper with hooded eyes.

"Like you're gonna be sick?" Harry questions with panic.

I nod my head and hear Harry asking the driver if he can pull over.

"Can you pull over? My wife is feeling ill." Harry frantically questions the uber driver up front.

"I'm sorry sir but this freeway is packed and there is no way I can get to the side of the road right now." the driver says with a bit of an attitude.

Hearing that made me and Harry both start to panic.

"Well do you have any sick bags in here?" my husband asks.

"Sorry I don't." the driver retorts in a uncaring tone. What kind of uber driver doesn't carry sick bags for when drunks potentially need a ride but feel like they are going to be sick?

I just barley hear Harry let out a frustrated sigh and turn to me.

"Try and relax love. Take deep breaths for me, alright." Harry whispers while rubbing my back as I'm slumped over his body, too disoriented to even hold my head up.

About 3 minutes later, I feel vomit rise up my throat. There isn't much I can to do. The driver already said he couldn't pull over, nor does he have sick bags. I sit up from my slouched position and clasp a hand over my mouth. My legs are bouncing up and down. I'm trying desperately not to puke but I'm doing a poor job. Harry is sitting up with me, trying to comfort me but his words are all a blur at this point.

"If you have to be sick darling, let it out. I'll pay to get this uber cleaned, okay." Harry states in my ear. I know he'd rather not have me puke on the floor of the uber, right beside him, but he can tell I'm struggling and in discomfort.

Hearing those words was all the conformation I needed. I remove my hand from my mouth and let out a gush of alcoholic bile spew from my mouth and onto the backseat floor board. Harry gathers my hair in his hands so it's not in my face. My vomit splatters all over my legs and on the bottom of Harry's Gucci suit. I'd feel terrible about that if I wasn't so out of it, but my mind is a mushed up blur.

"Shhh, that's it. You're alright." Harry reassures me. The uber driver lets out a sigh of disgust, but this is truly his fault that I'm throwing up in his uber right now anyways.

Heave after heave, I let out more of the alcohol that was poisoning my system, right onto the floor. It's not a pretty sight. I'm having a cold sweat and my body is trembling. Though Harry has a weak stomach, when it comes to his wife (me) or his kids, he can always handle a bit of throw up. Or a lot like currently. It's like a fatherly/husband instinct that comes over him and he feels only adrenaline, not yuck.

Finally I feel my stomach relax and I sit up, breathing heavy with vomit dripping down my chin. Without thinking, I wipe it off with the back of my hand and smear it on my already ruined dress. "Feeling better?" Harry asks in a low tone.

"Mhmm." I hum, not really feeling like talking. My drunken brain has cleared up some from the majority of the alcohol being out of my system, but I still feel the after affects drinking brings. I just lean my head on Harry's shoulder for the rest of the ride home and allow the cool breeze to blow on my face. The uber driver did us all a favor by rolling the windows down so we didn't suffocate on the nasty smell of my sick.

---------------------

After-

When we arrived home, Harry payed the uber driver, not giving much of a tip and told him that he'd have someone clean his car out in the morning. As well as a half assed apology for my incident beings it could have been prevented. Then carefully, Harry lifted me out the uber and carried me into our Los Angeles home. Good thing our kids were all asleep because they shouldn't have to see their mother like this. Covered in puke and half drunk.

Harry took me to our bathroom and quickly ran down stairs to pay our babysitter, hoping she didn't question my appearance when she saw my state as we came through the front door. She didn't thankfully and left soon after her check was handed to her. Harry came back up to where he left me and helped me clean up and get ready for bed.

He stripped us of our vomit covered clothes and helped me into the big walk-in shower we have in our master bathroom. Then after he delicately washed our bodies along with my hair, he helped us out and dried us off. We brushed our teeth, me with the help of my husband because I was still a bit dizzy. After we're clean of sick and smelt fresh, he helped me put some panties and a t-shirt over my nude body and boxers on himself; just incase our kids woke up and needed us for whatever reason.

Harry helped me into our large bed and tucked me in, bending down to kiss my forehead. Then he walked down to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water and a bucket incase I needed to be sick again at some point through-out the rest of the early morning. When he had all the items he intended to grab, Harry came back to our bedroom where I was already passed out with sleep.

So he just set the water on my night stand and the bucket on the floor, beside my side of the bed. Then Harry quietly exited our room and went to each of our child's bedrooms to make sure they were fine and still asleep like they should be, which they thankfully were.

When everything was done and taken care of, Harry turned the bedroom lights out and slipped in the covers with me. He helped my body scoot over and I cuddled into his warm body. I didn't realize it in my state of sleep but I knew when I awoke, I'll be thinking about how grateful I am to have a wonderful husband like Harry.

He takes such good care of me. He didn't get upset that I drank too much on his special night and accidently got wasted. He never once got upset that I basically got throw up on his expensive suit tonight in the uber. He didn't get annoyed that he had to shower both me and him past midnight, though he was exhausted. Harry loves taking care of me (and our kids) and wouldn't wish for any other life. Even when his life becomes chaotic and stressful. Harry loves his family dearly and his family love him just as much or more.

Masterlist (regular smut, fluff & sicfics)

My Favorite Harry Styles Fics MASTERLIST

Harry Styles Series - One Shots & Blurbs Masterlist

Harry Styles blurbs, concepts, & short stories Masterlist- (short writing with little to no dialog)

[mariacallous]

As a teen, I developed an interest in genealogy. I interviewed any relative who could help me understand the people whose lives had made my life possible. Three decades and hundreds of ancestors later, I have a clear picture of the people who make up my family tree.

I am the descendant of African slaves and their captors in America. As such, I read the draft decision by the Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and wondered what my ancestors would think of us - the U.S. - at this moment.

I knew immediately what one might think. Her name is Lillie and her story motivates my work as an obstetrician-gynecologist and as an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights globally. She would say that history is repeating itself after learning little from its past.

1892

This is the year Lillie delivered her first child. She was 17 and her child did not live to see his 20th birthday. Lillie experienced at least 18 pregnancies during her lifetime.

1894

The numbers separating the paragraphs in this essay mark each year Lillie gave birth. Undoubtedly some pregnancies are lost to history. But the 18 recorded births speak volumes about her life and the options that were available to her.

1897

Lillie was one of my paternal grandfather’s sisters. Like him, she was born shortly after slavery ended. Yet, their family suffered indignities more commonly associated with slave life. Rape.

1899

Several of Lillie’s siblings were conceived through rape - the result of white men repeatedly taking sexual advantage of a Black woman’s body. That Black woman had chosen another man as her life partner. Yet, she had to raise the children of both her chosen partner and those of her rapist.

Like Lillie, I did not always have a choice about which men touched my body. From the man at a shoe store who groped me when I was out of my mother’s sight, to men on crowded public transportation who touched me with anonymity, to the hotel employee who tried to force himself on me in my hotel room. As a poor Black girl in America, those assaults were a daily reality.

1900

I do not know if Lillie was conceived through rape. The 1880 census records suggest this is the case as she is recorded as a “mulatto”; her pictures suggest the same. She and my grandfather’s skin colors are as different as night and day. She is fair; he is jet Black, like the coal he mined for decades in the West Virginia coalfields.

1901

I often wonder how the social dynamics around conception played out in my grandfather’s childhood home. He died shortly after I was born so I never got to ask him. From family conversations 100 years later, it is clear the effects of reproduction without consent linger on my family’s psyche across generations. Slavery has long arms, no matter the form it takes.

1901

Lillie married at 15 and had her first child two years later. She had little choice in either decision. Early marriage and childbearing were socially sanctioned. One hundred years after her marriage, I graduated from high school at age 17 and headed to a prestigious women’s college. Although Lillie and I were similar in that we grew up in poverty, without health insurance, and in redlined communities, I was destined for a very different life. Unlike her, I had access to reproductive health services, like sex education, birth control, and abortion.

1904

Although Lillie’s life opportunities were limited, access to family planning options might have afforded her some important benefits. Birth spacing may have prevented the deaths of several of her infants born in close proximity between 1900 and 1914.

1906

Lillie lived before the era of modern birth control options. She had little choice in how many children she would conceive and birth.

Sometimes I like to imagine how she might have benefited from what birth control offers many women today: flexibility to pursue an education, wider employment opportunities, and more time in the labor market to accumulate wealth. Those imaginations are brief because the reality is that Lillie would not have reaped those benefits due to her race and gender. It is a stark reminder that reproductive autonomy is contingent. Its potential is intricately tied to other forms of autonomy. When decoupled from access to other life opportunities, reproductive choice is not real autonomy. It is the appearance of choice but functionally is like removing a shackle from one limb while leaving the other three bound.

1909

Lillie was lucky. Maternal mortality rates at the turn of the century were very high. Given that the risk of death due to pregnancy and childbirth is cumulative, the fact that Lillie survived 18 pregnancies is remarkable.

1910

Her children were not so lucky - especially those born in the years when she had more than one child in less than one year. One lived for 4 months, another a few weeks, and one lived for only a day.

A paper published in 2019 estimated that disparities in infant mortality rates between Black and White infants in the U.S. in the first 12-months of life have increased since 1850. This raises critical questions about the health care system and the larger environment Black families must navigate to nurture and sustain their children. Respecting their right to choose their family size and timing preserves dignity for Black people living in an America where daily indignities are the norm, not the exception.

1910

The Supreme Court is poised to eradicate the small but important step the Roe v Wade decision made in allowing women the right to privacy when making reproductive decisions. If you have never read it, do so. It is hard to get through not because of the legal language, but because it is clearly less about respecting women as able-bodied decision-makers and more about the state’s interest in controlling women’s reproduction.

Lillie would not need to read it. She watched her mother live it.

1912

When I look at the case before the Supreme Court through the lens of Lillie’s life, I see the fight to control Black women’s bodies enshrined. I see white men’s desire to leverage white women’s reproductive potential when it suits their needs. And, I see controls on Black peoples exercise of other freedoms. These intrusions are reinforced through adjacent policies, such as policing policies that result in mass incarcerations among Black people thereby strangling their voting rights and economic options.

1913

I want to be clear – what Roe offered, while important, was a small concession to women. If it falls, it will have stood for less than 50 years. That’s less than twice Lillie’s reproductive life span. She had 18 children in 29 years and had little choice in the matter. That is the very reality the Supreme Court decision and the hundreds of recently proposed abortion bans wants take us back to.

Black women will endure the harms of the proposed SCOTUS decision more than white women. Those with economic means, access to transportation, and robust social networks for navigating legal hoops will still be able to exercise some bodily control. They tend to be white. They may not be able to fend off the creep in the shoe store, but they will have options for managing an unwanted pregnancy should it result.

Poor women and many Black women, women who already feel the sting of chronic disadvantage and marginalization, will feel the effects of this decision even more.

1914

Lillie buried 6 children before her last child was born. All died before their 25th birthday.

Although I do not know the reasons for most of their deaths, I know their experience parallels today’s reality where Black Americans experience disproportionately higher rates of early death compared to whites, with most of their deaths occurring in the early decades of life. This too is codified in U.S. policies where the legislative emphasis has been on promoting the birth of children without a parallel policy fight to advance children’s health and well-being. Unlike peer nations, the U.S. has no nationwide parental leave allowing parents to nurture their infants. It provides little access to subsidized childcare thereby deepening poverty for many families. And, it provides children with limited access to preventive health care or equitable access to quality education, despite being one of the most highly resourced nations in the world.

When I wonder what Lillie might think about all this, I suspect she would be unsurprised to find White men in her family’s bed again telling her she must give birth then cursing her for the lot her child might endure in life.

1915

Amy Cohen Barrett proposed adoption as an alternative to abortion. This is an option some women have and will always choose.

My family tree blossomed by welcoming children with no biological ties to the parents who loved them. My tree is also full of holes representing children forcibly taken from mothers to serve the chattel system of economic exploitation upon which this country was built. It is the height of disrespect for to tell Black women that they cannot choose whether to birth and when a Black woman does give birth to suggest giving the child away if the mother’s situation does not allow her to parent the way she feels her child deserves. That is not a noble position. It is slavery masquerading as kindness.

Lillie would recognize that hypocrisy, even if it is hiding behind religious values as it so often does today.

1918

I know Lillie would be proud of what I have made of the opportunities I have had. She would be proud of my educational achievements and the fact that I became a doctor. However, I think she would be more proud of the reproductive choices I have been able to exercise. Lest you forget, reproductive opportunities, like educational and economic opportunities, have been weaponized against Black women in this country. My reproductive opportunities made it possible for me to seize those other opportunities. I have had a choice in who I have sex with, who I bore children for, how many children I had, and the conditions in which I raised them.

1921

It is not the number of children a woman has that defines her status as a citizen. Our government’s ability to recognize a person’s ability to decide with whom, how many, and the conditions in which people will give birth defines citizenhood. Regardless of its final decision, the Supreme Court has already made it clear that women are still not considered full citizens in its eyes. Even Lillie could look at where the Supreme Court is headed and see what is at stake – this case is about denying choice and controlling liberty. Women’s liberty.

Men’s reproductive liberty clearly remains protected. You can replace the shoe store creep or the hotel employee who tried to assault me with one of the Supreme Court justices aiming to remove a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. Intent here is irrelevant; harm is imminent.

For Black women, this decision looks and feels like white men and women making reproductive choices for us again, without our consent, and while doing little to ensure that our children’s needs are met beyond ensuring their birth. That is what my grandfather’s sister would think of this moment.

I agree with her.

Originally published in Ms. Magazine.