#because she thinks there are other ways to deal with the situation

[peasack]

I have a patent-teacher conference and guys its not okay I'm cooked.

Lowkey a bit of Valentina slander at the end but that's okay cause who likes her anyway.

Thunderbolts x Gn!Teen!Reader

✦ Parent-Teacher conference headcanons ✦

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✦ Alexei Shostakov ✦

Immediate big bear grin. “Of course! I would love to! Finally, official father duties! I am ready.”

He’s way too excited. You almost regret asking him because he immediately starts planning what to wear like it’s the Olympics.

He introduces himself as your “papa” and tells wildly exaggerated stories about your achievements that didn’t happen.

“Ah yes, Y/N once lifted a car. Very strong. Takes after me.”

The teacher is just blinking rapidly “I-what?”

He lowkey embarrasses you, but he’s also so proud.

Brags about you non-stop and leaves with his arm around you, even if you’re fake-mad at him the whole way home.

✦ Yelena Belova ✦

Acts super casual about it. “Yes, I can go. Why not? Someone must supervise the situation.” But she’s secretly honored you asked her.

She shows up in the coolest outfit and definitely intimidates your teacher a little.

If the teacher complains about you, she’s like: “No. You are wrong. Y/N is perfect.” (Dead serious.)

If they praise you, she’s smug for the rest of the week.

“You know, you could have asked anyone. But you picked me. Admit it Mouse. I am the best.”

✦ Bucky Barnes ✦

Very quiet, kinda awkward. “Me? Uh… yeah. Sure, kid. If you want me to.”

He sits stiffly, probably wears his nicest jacket. Doesn’t say much unless he needs to defend you.

If the teacher says you’re struggling, he’s all protective like, “What’s the school doing to help them? They’re not doing this alone.”

Absolutely takes your side.

If the teacher complains about you hanging out alone, Bucky’s just like, “Yeah? Maybe the other kids should be less annoying.”

Buys you snacks on the way home.

Barely talks about the meeting, just quietly says he’s proud of you.

✦ John Walker ✦

Blown away. “Wait, you want me to go? Like… with you? Of course! Yeah, I can do that. I’m good at that. Totally. Parental figure. Yeah.”

(He’s so flustered it’s adorable.)

Takes it VERY seriously. Nods way too much. The teacher lowkey loves him because he’s polite and enthusiastic.

If they criticize you, John gets defensive FAST.

���Have you considered that maybe your teaching style isn’t working for them? Just a thought.”

Treats you to dinner after like it’s a whole formal event.

“You did good, kid. Real good. Thanks for letting me be there.”

✦ Bob Reynolds ✦

Looks like you just asked him to hold the sun. He’s so touched. “Me? You really want me to go? Yeah. Yeah, I’d be honored.”

Soft-spoken the whole time. Very respectful but sharp when it comes to defending you.

He listens carefully, makes eye contact, thanks the teacher even if they’re being harsh.

If the teacher praises you, he beams.

Quiet little proud smiles. Might ruffle your hair without thinking.

Gets awkward when you thank him.

“Oh—uh, you don’t have to thank me. I’m just glad you wanted me there.”

He'll be smiling after that all day.

✦ Ava Starr ✦

“Why me?” but not in a bad way—just genuinely surprised you’d choose her.

When you tell her you trust her, she agrees instantly. “I’ll be there. You got me.”

Has the most terrifying resting face. The teacher is so scared to say anything negative because Ava looks like she’ll end them.

If the teacher says you’re doing well, Ava’s eyes soften.

She just mutters, “Told you they were good.”

Doesn’t make a big deal out of it. On the way home she just quietly says, “Thanks for picking me.” But you can tell it meant a lot.

✦ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine ✦

"why would I wanna go to that"

Simply doesn't attend.

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Hope you guys liked this one!! My requests are always open<33

Is it obvious that I hate Valentina

[19catsncounting]

I'll show my age a little on this post, because this kind of situation has just come up again, so it's a little fresh.

There are times when someone dies, and their tangible grief is small. It's not really a surprise, maybe it's even expected. The elderly and sick move into hospice centers and those rooms are much smaller than their houses, or they move in with family and those rooms are smaller than their houses. It's easy to divvy up and cherish grief when it's nice and small, a sentimental box of trinkets and a shirt.

And there are times when someone dies, and it's a burden. It is. It's hundreds of pounds of grief and crap and it will crush you like a millstone - not just because it's a lot to deal with and emotionally a lot to deal with - but because it's not your crap, but it is now. It's yours, they're not here and they don't own it and you're reminded that they're not here to own it every time you look at it. You deal with it.

When my wife's mother passed away, she lived in a two story townhouse that was filled to the brim with stuff. Tapestries, posters, pictures - the woman had a habit of tacking posters and tapestries and pictures on the ceiling because she filled up every single spare space on the wall, covering light switches too. She died in that house, and my wife at the time was a teenager, and she came home one night to find that she was now a homeless orphan. My wife could not walk back into that house to take anything because her world was simply destroyed in a way you and I will never fathom - family friends got her clothes and toiletries and some of them packed up totes of things they knew mattered a lot to my wife's mother. Some of those totes were lost over the years, others were placed in sheds or under tarps outside. My wife still grieves the things that she lost, even if we've recovered some of it. We have a record collection of 1000+ vinyls, many of which are warped and damaged and frankly smell like rodent urine. And we will likely have those vinyls forever - hundreds of pounds of grief that are heavier than a human body, but not at all equal to a life.

There's a lot of notes on this post, a lot of tags, and I don't think many of the people writing them have ever been in this kind of situation.

I don't think a lot of folks would realize that the Winchester house was damaged in a fire. And that smoke leaves a smell. And that smell would linger to the point that - canonically, in this episode it is established - John and his sons did not sleep in that house again, and instead stayed with John's boss. Probably because it smelled like the fire for weeks or months afterwards.

And John packed up the kids in the car and left. Probably left the mortgage unpaid until the bank foreclosed on it due to default, which would have taken years to finalize and process, and longer to restore the house to the point that it could sell if the repairs weren't completed before John left - and they most likely weren't. But in the meantime, someone boxed up those photos that were recently taken prior to the fire (and I might have to explain to some younger fans that physical pictures like that don't often go directly into storage - in the late 1900's, when a family took pictures on a dedicated device called a 'film camera' and took those primitive film cartridges to be developed, they would change out the photos in existing frames or hang up new ones), and put them in the basement, where they would be safe from the elements, the gaping hole where the fire burned out the wall and roof. And in the basement, those pictures and the paper and any fabrics would lose the smoke smell.

It could have been a family friend, going inside the house to sort things out, but I imagine that family friend would have taken the box to their own storage as that would be more sensible. And it could have been a firefighter who managed to grab a box, grab a few things, and hand it off to a grieving father with his arms full, before telling him that the carpets and walls will be soaked from the hoses for a few days, and what companies to call to do restoration services.

And it could have been John, walking through the least-touched areas of the house on his own - the living room, the kitchen, but not up the stairs. He could have picked up a few things, put them in a box, put the box in the basement so it'd be safe while the restoration crew worked on the house, it wouldn't take up any room at any place he and his boys are staying at and always running the risk of outstaying their welcome. And John could have put that box in the basement, planning to come back to it.

And then didn't, because he couldn't, just like Dean didn't either. Because John found out the truth about the demon, and had a white whale to catch to avenge his wife instead of being forced to move on as he would have without that.

If John didn't find out the truth, he would have gone back to the house, but he didn't. Even when he left, in the early years, he always planned to go back to the house. But he didn't. Because the house still smelled too much like smoke.

i've always been pretty distraught about how john left behind a box of family phots in the basement when he took the kids out of kansas. to have so little left after the fire and to still leave what little there was behind... i mean we know at least sam has a picture of mary and john and there is a picture of john and the boys in 1.01 but that's from after the fire.

but ALSO i've realized in the same box there's a handmade card that says "DaD" that Dean must have made for john.

that john also left.

i know john was going through a period of immense grief. but there's something very painful about such tangible evidence of the way dean's childhood - and even the memory of it - was left behind.

[perseephoneee]

┈ ⟡ crash out [a frank langdon fic]

˖ 𐦍 CHAPTER 1: SOMEONE SAYS 'I DO'

↳ fic masterlist  ↳ ship exchange information ↳ taglist

After returning from rehab and looking to earn forgiveness for his mistakes, Frank makes his way back to the Pitt Trauma Medical Center, where he discovers he's been given a supervisor to oversee his progress.

a/n: finally returning to this after crashing out for the past three weeks. can you even crash out for three weeks? it doesn't matter...i did it anyway

beta'd by the beautiful @eurydiceauxenfers <3

“I’ll bet you $10 this isn’t going to work,” you said, watching as Langdon operated. The patient had been injured on a construction site, and you both were arguing over the best way to treat them. While part of you was well aware that he usually had smart ideas for how to handle these situations, you also knew he responded best to competition.

“Then you are going to be $10 short and feeling very stupid,” Langdon laughed, eyes focused on his work. He seemed a lot more joyful than he was a few weeks ago when you first met him. 

“Don’t be a douche.”

“Can’t,” he shrugged. “Because I just succeeded.”

You bit back a smile as he finished off his work, standing back and gesturing to the nurses to bandage the patient up. You left the room, knowing he’d meet you later, as he finished cleaning up. 

You’d had no idea what to expect when Robby asked you to be Frank’s supervisor. You had heard from the rumor mill that he tended to be arrogant, had a hard time not being in control, and was close with Robby. Oh, and the whole stealing drugs thing. But the man you saw on the first day seemed more desperate and sad than anything. Challenging him in his work was the closest you got to seeing that version you were told of before. 

You had also heard him referred to as ER Ken, which gave you a certain idea of what he was supposed to look like. You were not disappointed. 

He’s married, you thought to yourself, looking at the board in central. You heard his footsteps a second later. You could always tell it was him because the steps always seemed hurried, much like a puppy. He wore a grin.

“You owe me $10.”

You raised a brow at him. “How about I just get you a drink from the vending machine and we call it even.”

Langdon pretended to think about it, even though you knew he had already decided. “Deal.”

“Good. We have a sick child in six.”

Langdon pouted. “There’s an amputation in three.”

“I don’t care,” you snorted, watching as his expression fell. You enjoyed that aspect of being his supervisor, getting to make him do whatever case you wanted. He didn’t complain…much. 

He made sure to stay a few paces behind you as you approached the curtain, announcing yourself as you opened it. A little girl, seven years of age, sat on the bed with her knees to her chest and a rabbit in her arms. She was frowning as her parents sat in the chairs next to her. 

“Hi Chloe, I’m Dr. L/N and this is my colleague Dr. Langdon,” you smiled, closing the curtain behind you. “What seems to be the problem?”

“She says her ears won’t stop hurting, and we gave her Tylenol, but it isn’t doing anything.” Her mom twisted her hands, looking anxiously between you and her daughter. You grabbed your otoscope and got closer to Chloe. You hummed as you looked inside both ears. 

“Any other symptoms?” Langdon asked as you examined her ears. 

“She said her head hurt a little bit, but we thought it was just from the strep,” her dad replied. 

“Strep?”

“She just got over strep throat,” the mom replied. You put away the otoscope.

“Her ears are very swollen, but it doesn’t look like the eardrums are affected. Her strep likely didn’t go away and moved to the sinuses, which gave her an infection,” you explained. You felt bad for the little girl. Her ears were so inflamed that you were shocked she wasn’t crying. “Dr. Langdon, what would you prescribe as treatment?”

“Another round of antibiotics, as well as oxycodone as needed for the pain,” Frank smiled, hands in his pockets. You nodded in agreement. 

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” he replied. 

“Her ears right now are full of pockets of excess liquid. Her hearing might be slightly affected, but it’d only be temporary. At some point, the pockets will burst and drain out naturally. If they don’t go away and she’s still in pain after finishing the antibiotics, you should come back in.”

“Thank you so much,” the mom smiled gleefully, giving her daughter a kiss on the head. You noticed Frank tense up out of the corner of your eye. 

“We’ll write you a prescription now for everything,” you nodded, opening the curtain and stepping out with Frank behind you. He seemed quieter than before. 

“What’s wrong, Langdon?” you asked, bumping his shoulder. He looked down at you, plastering on a smile. 

“Nothing.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“You never do, cupcake,” he grinned, walking backwards towards the ER entrance. You frowned at the nickname. You don’t remember when he started calling you cupcake, but you didn’t always appreciate it. 

“Where are you going?” you called out, arms crossed.

“STEMI incoming, and I’m going to beat the record.”

“Like hell you are,” you grumbled, following after him. He was like a dog with a bone when he wanted to do something. The STEMI rolled in a moment later. You both ran alongside the gurney as you wheeled it into the emergency OR… 

Langdon did not beat the record (neither did you). But the guy survived, so all in a day’s work. Things managed to calm down a little bit, and you found yourself taking a breather in the break room. You slumped against the wall with a Rice Krispies treat, staring a hole into the opposite wall. The door creaked open, and Frank slumped down next to you.

You sat in companionable silence.

“Wanna see me shotgun this Red Bull?” He asked, holding up the can.

“That sounds like a terrible idea,” you responded. “But yes.”

It went about as poorly as expected. Frank’s scrubs were now covered in the energy drink. But it made you laugh, actually snorting laughing. He was an idiot, one whom you were in charge of.

“Glad my failures entertain you.”

“Always,” 

Frank smiled. You were waiting to see the smile reach his eyes, but you knew progress was slow. You cleared your throat. 

“What happened earlier?”

“Earlier?”

“With the kid. You got kinda…distant.”

Frank looked down at his hands. He played with the wedding band on his finger, twisting it around. You observed the action.

“I just haven’t seen Tanner in a while,” Frank admits. “And it’s hard.”

“You haven’t?” He wore his friendship bracelet everywhere. Frank wore Tanner’s friendship bracelet everywhere, you’d noticed. You knew he had to be the light of his life. “How—?”

“Abby left me,” Frank shrugged. You felt your heart drop. “After the…she was mad at me. For lying. For everything.” Langdon ran a hand through his hair. “I haven’t seen him since. Courts are still figuring out custody.” He takes his ring off, holding it up in front of you both. “And I didn’t want people to know.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I’m fine,” Frank forced a smile, in a way a totally not fine person would. 

What do you do in this situation? Sit and empathize, you guess. You’ve prided yourself on being good at comforting, but you didn’t always know what to say. 

“Do you mind not telling anyone?” Frank murmured. God, he looked like a wounded puppy with those eyes. 

“Of course I won’t.” You paused for a second. “Would working on the amputee make you feel better?”

“Yes.”

~ * ~

You’re not sure why you did it. Following your co-worker home was never a good idea. Following the mystery that was Frank Langdon was a worse idea. But you couldn’t get that look of his out of your mind, nor the way he held his ring like he wasn’t sure if he should toss it or cherish it. And frankly, you were nosy. 

You follow a little bit behind him as he walks. Luck had it that he didn’t drive to work (your snooping would’ve ended then), but that didn’t leave many options in the closest area. He didn’t ride the bus either. He walked for several blocks, and there were a few close calls where you would roll into the bushes very sleek and cool like a movie spy. You were kidding yourself; you fell into the bushes like a flying squirrel. 

Thoughts of squirrel-like tendencies left your mind as you watched him enter the three-star hotel near the hospital. 

Well, shit.

[blaithnne]

Hey, so, this might sound weird, but your post about Ragatha tadc is seriously fucking me up. But thank you for writing it! I've had to face a lot of hard truths over the past few hours lol. I hope it's ok that I talk a little about what I mean.

I have known that I'm autistic for years, but I've never once considered that I mask in public, let alone mask at all. I've always struggled with making friends, and even when I did, I never felt like I was close to anyone. I never understood what I was doing wrong. I'm kind and cheerful, and I try to see the bright side of things and help people where I can. I always thought that was my genuine personality, and I think I am, but now I think I'm realizing I put on an act for people.

The latest episode of tadc stuck with me right after I watched it. I connected with Ragatha in a way I hadn't before, but it wasn't until I read your post that I understood why and realized all of this. She's the first character in a long time where I can say, "Oh. She's me. Literally me."

I don't even know who I really am anymore. I've spent so long sanding down my edges and trying to fit in, and never be annoying or considered uncool, that I don't think there's anything underneath my mask.

Anyway, I'm sorry for venting all of this unprompted. I just wanted to thank you again for making that post. It really meant a lot to me. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Oh dude, thank you so much for sending this in because you are REAL ASF!!

I think the best part about my Ragatha post getting so much traction is the amount of people who have opened up about relating to it. I mentioned briefly in the tags of that post that I wasn’t actually sure if what I was talking about was a common autistic experience or if it was really just a me thing, it’s something I had chalked up to autism after some personal introspection but not something I’d ever seen anyone discuss. I made the post in the first place because it was an angle I hadn’t seen anyone highlight. So it’s been really comforting to find out that I’m not alone in this struggle, and if this post has helped you figure out something new about yourself then that’s truly an honour.

Masking is weird. Autism is weird! We as autistic people tend to take things very literally, which extends to the definitions of our symptoms. We’ll be asked whether or not we take everything literally, and we’ll think “well no, I don’t take every single thing I hear literally, so I don’t do that”, without realising that we’re doing it right there and then! I think it’s the same with masking, or at least it was with me. I always thought masking was more intentional, a choice one makes — a mask you can take on and off at will, but it isn’t, and that’s what makes it so hard to deal with.

Masking is something you learn to do from a young age, it’s a learned behaviour which become almost instinctual. This makes it really fucking difficult to unlearn, because by the time you realise you have to, you’ve already built your identity around the walls you’ve put up, and now it’s up to you to figure out what’s real and what’s fake, what you need to keep in order to survive in this world, and what you need to discard for the very same reason.

I spent years of my life terrified of being disliked, because for a very long time I was. So I learned how not to be, I learned to be polite and quiet and funny and I built my identity around being those things. I learned what everyone in my life liked, what different social groups valued, and I became a copy of whoever I was talking to. Every friend I made would talk about how we had the exact same sense of humour, because I only laughed when they did. I have forever sworn off playing Cards Against Humanity, because I realised that when you build your identity and value your self worth around the idea that you’re the funny one, putting yourself in a situation where your ability to make others laugh is judged and ranked is ridiculously stressful. It’s funny the things that prompt realisations about yourself.

Eventually I realised that in making myself a perfect copy of everyone I interacted with, I had robbed the people around me of the chance to get to know me. What would people think of when I was gone, what would they miss? How can you miss someone who only mimics you, who’s just sort of generally nice and not really much else. I had no unique identity, no personality for people to latch onto. I used to take pride in the fact that even those who were notorious for disliking others still liked me, until I realised it was only because I had provided them with no unique identity to dislike. I realised that at least if I was hated, I was thought of, I was known for who I was and not for what I did. I was appreciated when I was around but not missed when I was gone and that realisation absolutely killed me. But I also think it sort of saved me.

Realising you’re masking is the first step to unlearning how to do it. It’s a long process, it’s one I’m still undergoing, but it’s so worth it. Finding your voice and your identity is absolutely a worthwhile endeavour, but that doesn’t make it easy. The hardest part for me was finding the courage to be disliked, accepting that not only was it inevitable that some people would dislike me, it was actually a good thing! Those things that some people will hate about you — maybe you talk too much, or you’re often quite grumpy — are the very same things which others will love about you. You have to give people a person for them to get to know, to be drawn to, not a perfect copy of themselves who can satisfy their every desire and laugh at all their jokes.

You don’t need to be perfect, nobody really wants you to be. You have to be you. You have to figure out who that is. You have to allow yourself the space to be messy and ugly and weird and unique, you have to learn not to care what people think about you, and oh my god that’s the hardest thing in the world. I’m talking here with a lot of authority and like I know all the answers, but I only came to this realisation within the past two years, after I graduated high school and moved away from everyone I’d ever known growing up, and finally got my diagnosis. I’m still bad at remembering this stuff, I still automatically put on a front when I talk to people, because I still don’t know exactly who I really am without the mask. And even the parts of me I do know, I struggle to figure out how to show them in a socially acceptable manner. I struggle to approach conversations in a way that’s not methodical and quite calculated, because I don’t know how else to.

But I’m also getting better, bit by bit. I’m learning to work with my autism and not against it, accepting that I will interact with the world differently from others, and some people might not like that, and that’s okay. I’m learning to uncover who I am, the hints of my true identity peaking through the mask. Maybe it’s okay to approach conversations a little methodically — I recently learned that when people start up small talk by asking about the weather or some such thing, it’s usually not actually because they care about the weather, it’s because they want to talk to you! They’re just looking for a way to start a conversation, they’re saying “I don’t know what to say to you right now, but I want to talk to you, so I’ll start with this.” Isn’t that so sweet? All these things that neurotypical people know instinctively, I’ve had to learn manually, and it’s given me a greater understanding and appreciation for the people around me.

I have a terrible memory, but I’ve learned to memorise almost everything when it comes to my friends and what makes them comfortable and happy and what their lives are like, and that’s not bad information to have in the slightest. What’s important is that you don’t build your identity around that information, you allow yourself to use the knowledge youve acquired over the years you’ve spent masking without it consuming you, use it to help you but not to define you. All this stuff is just tools to give people a bridge to get to know the real you, so make sure there is a real you for them to get to know. You’re beautiful and unique, there is somebody absolutely wonderful underneath that mask of yours, and it’s your job to give people the honour of getting to find out who that is. If someone doesn’t like what they find, that means you’re doing a good job. You’ve shown them what you’ve got and they’ve made their decision, and now you’re one step closer to finding someone who’ll appreciate you. If you hadn’t shown them the real you, you might’ve spent years following that person around and let them befriend your mask, only making it harder for you to open up to them after you’ve gotten to know them better.

You know another thing I’ve learned about myself lately? I ramble a lot! I go on and on and on and my big long paragraphs will surely annoy some people, but if just one person reads this and it helps them, then it’s worth it. Besides, it helped me quite a bit to write it all down. Thank you for sending this ask in anon, I hope life treats you well, and I wish you the absolute best of luck in finding your identity. I have a feeling you’re going to like what you find!

[ironwoman18]

Scary movie night

Haruko Sakura was heading to the Cafe Ponthos when suddenly a notification popped up on his phone and then he opened it it said:

Kiryu added you to a new group

Sakura cursed under his breath, and saw the name of it “Scary Friday” which made him lift an eyebrow as he walked in.

There was Nirei eating and chatting with Kotoha “Oh, hey Sakura-san” he said with a big smile and Kotoha smiled too.

As usual Sakura buffed sitting next to him “morning, Nirei” he looked at them “What’s that group Kiryu added us?”

“Oh… it was Suo-san’s idea for tomorrow night, he and Kiryu-san wanted to do something fun and that was what he suggested”

Sakura, Nirei and even Kotoha imagined those two plotting.

“Suo-chan we should do a sleepover and watch horror movies!!” Said the pink-haired boy with a childish expression.

Suo, with his usual smile, nodded “I will bring the popcorn and sodas”

A shiver ran down their spine just imagining the scene, Suo had a reputation for enjoying watching others' scared reactions or reactions in general.

“Wait a minute… Tsugeura wasn’t scared of ghosts?” Asked Sakura, drinking some of his coffee didn't let him acknowledge that Kotoha and Nirei smiled at the fact that he remembered such a personal fact.

In this situation Kotoha would have teased him but she bit her tongue and let it go, Sakura didn’t mention anything since he didn’t even realize that what he said was such a big deal “yeah but he’s part of the group” said Nirei, checking his phone “this is part of Suo and Kiryu-san plan I guess” he continued as he was sure those two were up to something.

Sakura finished his food and stood up “Let’s go, Nirei” he nodded and both guys left the restaurant.

Kotoha just smiled and thought “he has grew up so much in these past months, I’m so proud of him”

While walking Suo joined them with his usual happy expression “good morning guys!”

“Good morning, Suo-san�� said Nirei.

“Morning” said Sakura, “why are we going to watch scary movies and where?”

“Well Kiryu-kun wanted to have a nice Friday night with his closers friends at his house and he decided what he wanted to do”

The two other boys raised their eyebrows, doubting what the other said. They know Suo loves to emotionally torment people just for fun and Tsugeura might be his next target but he was hard to read so they decided to let it go.

Then Kiryu and Tsugeura arrived, the first one had a big smile, ignoring Sakura and Nirei’s theories and the second looked already pale and his face reflected his nervousness.

“W…why scary movies?” Asked the big guy with a shaking voice.

“Because it’s Friday the 13th!” Said a clueless Kiryu, causing Tsugeura to shiver even more “and I wanted to celebrate it with my close friends”

Sakura blushed by that and looked down shy “you will have to deal with Tsugeura’s feelings”

“Aww thank you for caring for me, Sakura!” Said the giant boy making his captain to blush more, specifically as he put his arm on his shoulders.

The group arrived at school and the day was calm, going from training to patrolling and protecting people or just helping.

The next day Tsugeura was more affected by the proximity of their movie night “I asked my parents and they say you can stay!!” Kiryu said all happy.

Suo smiled big, Nirei also smiled, Sakura just buffed softly, he never had those kind of experiences so he was confused but he was too proud to even confess it to them.

“I…I will bring Mr. Muscle. My support…. Umm… animal”

“You mean your stuffed animal?” Asked Suo with mischief in his voice “what is it? A bear? Or something else?”

The boy bit his lip to hide his nervousness “you don’t have to know, Suo”

The brown haired boy smirked and patted his shoulder “it’s ok, Tsugeura-kun” he sounded relaxed but the way he said it sent shivers down his spine.

Hayato Suo was scary and Tsugeura was too naive to follow his malice or to even think of revenge.

After school the five boys went to Kiryu’s house, they were holding bags full of food from the people of the town.

Sakura still was a blushing mess holding at least ten bags in both hands and the other kids were holding the same amount.

“This is the best way to spend the night!” Said Kiryu smiling big “it’s a shame Sugishita-chan didn’t come. He would have love all this food”

“I’m glad he didn't,” said Sakura under his breath, rolling his eyes, making Suo laugh softly.

“They really don’t get along,” Suo said as they reached the house.

Sakura was surprised, it was his first time in a well equipped house, Suo and Nirei noticed this and didn’t say anything, they just looked at each other with genuine smiles.

After that they put their stuff in Kiryu’s bedroom and began the movie marathon.

Kiryu and Suo decided to do a mix between movies with actual humans doing bad things and ghosts.

The one with evil people was the dead of Nirei who was using Sakura as the protective blanket. Sakura allowed it but wasn't comfortable with it.

Meanwhile Tsugeura was joking and chatting with Suo now and then, but the next movie was The Conjuring and this one had Taiga at the edge of his seat.

And Suo was able to see his stuffed animal, which was a bunny with sunglasses. The boy smiled but decided to not say anything… this time.

Then they made a pause to refill the popcorn and get more food the town gave them.

“I’m having so much fun!” Said Kiryu to Nirei.

“Me too but when there’s a jump scare I have a bad time” Kiryu smiled at him and rubbed his hair softly.

“It’s ok to be scared, Nirei-chan” he kept smiling.

The next couple of movies were Chucky and The Nun which was the worst for Taiga Tsugeura.

In the end they finished their marathon at 1 with The exorcist which caused Tsugeura a great trama so when went to sleep he asked to be close to Sakura and Suo.

“Didn’t you say that punches don’t work on the ghosts?” Asked Suo, teasing him.

“OH MY…!!! You are right!!!!” Said the big guy with a panicked face.

Sakura looked at Suo and poked his forehead “don’t be like that, Suo”

“Awe… Sakura-kun, you are a softie now” said the eyepatched boy, making his captain blush which also made Suo’s smile get wider.

They slept all together that night which made Nirei and Tsugeura secure, at least in theory because Taiga Tsugeura was right, you can’t hit a ghost.

The next morning Sakura found himself hugged like a breathing teddy bear hugged by Taiga and Nirei and he could feel Suo’s eye looking at him even though he couldn’t see him and he also could hear in his brain the laugh of his vice captain.

“Damn it…” whispered him but he didn’t move a muscle to avoid waking up the others.

OOooOOooOO

I hope you liked this one short but fun to write. Once again a drawing from Tumblr inspired me to create something.

For AO3 readers I will leave my Tumblr so you can check out the art.

Tag Art Author: @spookberry

And the link it’s:

[phineasandferbs]

[breaks fingers off] now it's time to scream about the revised series bible

candace now being downgraded to "potential fly in their ointment" 💀 but also 😊

"spurred on by a fifteen year-old girl’s natural desire for control, order and normalcy" CANDACE BABY GIRL 🥺

"needless to say, like most healthy young boys, phineas and ferb have a pet platypus named perry" they're funnyyyyyyy

of course all age refs for p&f are removed in this one

"in terms of character, phineas is who he is, almost more so than any other character [...] since he has no achilles heel he must overcome in order to succeed, his character is not built for story arcs that change and evolve who he is. also, without the seed of self-defeat or self-destruction planted inside him, he has difficulty recognizing it in others. this keeps him focused and optimistic. it also helps make it understandable why he his [sic] baffled by these aspects in others and remains unaware of candace’s negative, self-destructive determination to bust him. phineas truly doesn’t understand why people don’t view life the way he does, but he never judges them for it [...] he is like a used car salesman who actually has the best cars in the world" i'm WEEPING!!! phineas flynn i love you with my whole heart!!! he doesn't have obstacles to success, he doesn't need to grow or change, he doesn't even understand self-doubt, he would never judge anyone for being different from him despite not getting it, he is a 👏 USED 👏 CARS 👏 SALESMAN 👏 WHO 👏 ACTUALLY 👏 HAS 👏 THE 👏 BEST 👏 CARS 👏 IN 👏 THE 👏 WORLD 👏 like my boy will promise you the world, the most unbelievable deal that common sense says has to be a scam but he'll deliver 😭 literally everything to me

"throughout the first season, phineas naturally and organically became more layered and dimensional as different situations and interactions further developed the 'who he is' of his personality" this special show <3333 the way it let itself grow and develop despite its formulaic nature that would make it a no-brainer for it to force it to stay the same

"faced with TWO goals at odds with each other can create a bit of a bump in the road for phineas, but these instances are either VERY quickly resolved or best left to be explored in longer form movies and specials" them explicitly saying we can have angry phineas only for specials and movies like angry!phineas is the fine china we can only bring out when we have guests we want to impress lol

well they didn't fix the misspelling of radar's name but he's still mentioned so a win's a win 🤷

describing ferb as "sphinx-like" precious precious boy 🥰

"he does not actively avoid speaking. he just rarely needs to talk because he and phineas are always on the same page" oh my god,,,,,, ferb doesn't need to speak because phineas speaks for them both [we already knew this] i'm having a breakdown,,,, they are EVERYTHING TO ME

"ferb is the guy who builds the greatest cars in the world, which is the reason phineas has such confidence in his words" oh my fucking god.......................phineas' confidence is rooted in ferb's abilities....... these two....... these two........ also thinking about how this was written while they were writing summer belongs to you where phineas and ferb give a pep talk to candace about believing in herself on the basis that she believes in them and they believe in her so she believes in herself all the while phineas believes in them because he believes in ferb..... oh, i am ill with love i fear

"but to say phineas is actually the idea man isn’t exactly the case. many times, hit with a bolt of inspiration from whatever they both just saw or heard, phineas will announce that HE knows what they are going to do that day, as if ferb had to follow his brother around, bent and broken to his will. the truth is ferb’s always hit with the same bolt of inspiration as his brother" what if you were twins and soulmates but you weren't actually biologically related and were born across the sea from one another but the universe still brought you together...... the most important babies in the world to me forever

"it’s best not to focus on the fact ferb doesn’t talk, though - he just doesn’t. instead, explore the ways in which his silence is a strength" guh i really do love this aspect of the show like the way ferb being very quiet is never treated as a bad thing and here they are explicitly stating it's a strength in the bible because there's nothing wrong with it 🥰

"although his silence could make him SEEM like a second banana, ferb is very much phineas’ equal. in this way, they are a two-headed machine built for making every day count" me when the titular pair of the show are in fact a pair: 🫢 god i love hearing it stated like this though <33333

"unlike phineas, though, who uses these immense powers in service of his positive attributes, candace uses her same powers in the service of her ego, fears, suspicion, paranoia, etc" oh candace, my beloved.... she's just a girl fr

"the point is no matter what Candace’s story is, the fun is to [...] to watch her scream at all the trees to move so she can see the forest" oh candace flynn, my dearly beloved darling girl ❤️ luv this as a summary of her role in the show

"it’s a catch-22 (like getting into sag)." oh they're making industry jokes now, huh?

"we are planning a feature length special in which candace and jeremy share their first kiss under the eiffel tower in paris" FASCINATING! so they were planning to have them kiss there (did we already know this? i feel like dwampy&co may have already revealed this, it feels vaguely familiar). also this being summer belongs to you's only outright mention is making me fond

"mainly, though, candace just wants to be a normal fifteen-year-old girl, and phineas and ferb’s lack of desire to be normal bratty little brothers is an endless source of annoyance for her" she just wants them to annoying brats but instead they're so good that it's even more annoying to her soooo precious

linda flynn-fletcher your odd clubs and classes will always be famous 2 me. iconic and beyond reproach

"on the other hand, lawrence is actually used more than perhaps even originally intended and the stories where he is a more central character show he has developed a sort of fun, absent-minded-professor quality which adds a lot to the episodes in which he appears" and thank god

"perry’s lack of facial reaction (or any kind of reaction, for that matter) when he’s in Pet Mode also holds true for him in Agent Mode" the way this eroded way in times of great love for both the boys and doof many times in the series 🥰🥰🥰 (and i wish it would again with the new eps but that's not what we're talking about rn)

"[perry's] countenance is virtually unbreakable" thinking about perry's look of devastation when doof dumps him in last day of summer and floating

"an agent can’t let his feelings shade his judgment, and it is for this reason that perry will not get involved with a female platypus. he’s too well trained to be tempted, and even though his theme song suggests that the ladies swoon for him, he knows better. it won’t happen. focus elsewhere!" DYING at the thought dwampy had to put this in because disney execs wouldn't stop trying to force heterosexuality on this playpus 😭😭😭 also all i'm saying is not mention of perry not getting involved with a male human........ suspicious that 👀

"perry cares deeply about his 'host family,' especially phineas and ferb, [...] his relationship with the boys is filled with the same unconditional affection as any other pet/owner relationship" i literally feel ILL over how much i love them holy shit

"as for perry’s relationship to his nemesis, dr. doofenshmirtz, [...] what began as a simple archenemy situation has developed into a very complex relationship because they both literally spend almost all day together, every day. they are like an old married couple - who want the other one to die painfully. they are like best friends - but with ray guns and fist fights" crazyyyyy they were perryshmirtz-ing on main in 2008.... also the way it started as simple enemies and became something more organically is truly sooooo special that's why it's the greatest ship <333333

"it’s as if they are both duty bound to be mortal enemies when they are on the clock, but at quitting time they’d hang out and watch videos and travel together" oh my god....... this is actually INSANE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY WANT TO CASUALLY HANG OUT AND DO SOMETHING SO DOMESTIC AND CASUAL AS WATCHING VIDEOS TOGETHER. WHAT IS A BETTER EXPRESSION OF WANTING TO BE WITH SOMEONE THAN WANTING TO DO NOTHING WITH THEM. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY WANT TO TRAVEL TOGETHER. THEY WANT TO TAKE LITTLE VACATIONS OFF THE CLOCK AND GO SEE THE WORLD LIKE SOME KIND OF HONEYMOON, HUH? WHAT IN THE ULTIMATE ROMANCE IS THIS.............

"it sometimes seems if perry is annoyed by [doof's ineptitude at being evil] to the point of giving doofenshmirtz a hand just to make the game a bit more interesting" imaging perry out here like "i can fix him" while doof is out here like "wait how do i play pool... i guess you'll have to teach me...."

"the bane of Perry’s existence (for reasons other than he wants, sadly)" i think this is referring to how hopeless doof is at evil but i'm taking this as gay. amen.

"doofenshmirtz is basically an evil genius with very poor planning skills or a very stupid man with great planning skills. either way, his plans are often destined to fail even before perry shows up, and the issue quickly becomes how to save doofenshmirtz from his own plan" oh my god the way this literally reads like doof is just bad at evil to get perry to show up and save him........ 🫢🫢🫢

"doofenshmirtz always calls perry “perry-the-platypus” as if he thinks that’s his first name" it's a beloved nickname akin to calling your partner baby when you think about it. change my mind.

"'agent p.,' which is how [monogram] always refers to his star agent" monogram viewing perry as his job, p&f viewing perry the same as if he's another member of the family and doof viewing perry as both who he is and what he is... something is here but i don't have to properly analyze and articulate it

"monogram’s formal but affectionate, boss/employee relationship with perry" thinking about this hard-ass secret agent perry with such a web of people he cares deeply about <33333333333

ah karl back when they spelt it with a "k"

calling vanessa seventeen years old while writing s2 when she turned sixteen this summer in s1......

"[doof's] focus on the evil sciences leaves [vanessa] feeling neglected and misunderstood" BABY GIRL NOOOOOO 😢

okay and they added that isabella is nine years old to the bible at some point like uh??

"while isabella’s crush on phineas surely remains intact, it is touched upon rarely (unlike candace and jeremy) and is mainly used on occasion for shading and coloring her motives. isabella is, apart from ferb, phineas’ best friend, and it is as if that deep bond came first, and, as in real life, isabella matured earlier and the bond deepened to a crush for her sooner. either way, isabella’s disappointment over this is rarely really played up, although the romantic side of their relationship is inched along in small steps every once in a while" this sooooooooo sweet, i love them!!!! sweethearts!!!

"jeremy has a good sense of humor about candace’s odd behavior sometimes, and it even seems to be part of her charm to him. she’s just not like all the other girls" noooo they pick-me'd candace "this shows a more dimensional personality for jeremy than most popular, worried-about-always-looking-cool, hunky guys seem to have" nvm they also pick-me'd jeremy, thereby cancelling out candace's pick-me-ing and making it sweet again ❤️ they're not like anyone else and they're special, that's all!

"buford first appeared as a fairly stereotypical bully, but he has somehow managed to work his way into being among phineas and ferb’s close circle of friends" i am olivia wilde nodding rn

"among his own pals, buford’s best friend is ironically the group’s biggest nerd, baljeet" vs baljeet's paragraph not mentioning buford :( but also still best friend status already confirmed in 2008!!!

"as the first season developed and phineas and ferb occasionally offered help to others, baljeet slowly came to rely on and then expect their help. soon an element of selfish entitlement began creeping into his attitude toward the boys" is it selfish if the boys are happy to give it 😕

the bible talking about how stacy's figure skating "can be explored more in second season" ....uh oh, guess what didn't happen... i do wonder why though!!

"equally sadly, jenny has appeared in only two episodes. she is certainly a character to be developed in the second season where her usefulness in more stories will help evolve and define her traits" oof the way they literally tried so hard to make django and jenny happen but it just wasn't meant to be 🤷

suzy being seen as important enough to merit a character description is wilddddd

"in the show, the tri-state area is almost used as the boundary of the known universe" this is precious to me!!!!!! like yes going to england and the moon is the same thing because it's all outside of the tri-state area

"these three (as yet) unnamed states" oh damn so they were open to possibly naming the states..... interesting..... very interesting....

"the planet earth, in its entirety, is where it all takes place. except when they leave earth - which they’ve done. twice. (phineas and ferb own a milkshake bar at the edge of the cosmos, and candace is actually the queen of the martian people. go figure.)" i love the little jokes they've added it adds a layer of confidence that wasn't previously there which is real great <333

now why is rollercoaster listed as 105 in the loglines

also unfair science fair being 133 vs the redux being 149 in the loglines

also also they definitely skipped some numbers in the loglines i wonder what that means

more leaks!

original show bible (06/08/06)

revised show bible (02/29/08)

[anghraine]

I was thinking again about the divide between the tactical seduction Kirk romances and the genuinely romantic unforced ones, and something that's been percolating through my head for awhile is the question of power.

So, the tactical Kirkmances are all responses, at some level, to power being taken from him or someone else or both, and are part of attempts to gather information, escape, and/or protect other people, whatever. But "no" is not realistically an option, whether because he's trapped or imprisoned or desperately needs some information or is under duress in some other form (sometimes the woman in question is also under duress, like Shahna or Drusilla, though most often not).

Because of that, and because of multiple cases where it's made explicit that he doesn't feel any interest in the woman in question and is willing to just lie/deceive to succeed and smooth things over afterwards, we often have no way to know what he really feels in these varyingly coercive circumstances. In most cases, whether he's actually into the woman or not is so irrelevant to him as far as his outwards behavior goes that we have a much clearer idea of the desperation of the situation, his primary agenda, and what other people would be most comfortable with him feeling than what he himself does.

So, for instance, Deela in "Wink of an Eye" enjoys seeing him struggle against her, whether it's through seduction, trickery, physically pushing her away etc, but also wants him to be actually attracted to her and ultimately willing to live out his entire life in the next few months as her, uh, sex toy/breeding stock before dying. Kirk's feelings about all this end up being messy and complicated in a believable way, but essentially culminate in "anyway fuck off forever and die."

There are multiple scenes in "The Conscience of the King" in which we see McCoy desperately wanting to believe that Kirk isn't just using Lenore Karidian, but actually likes her and has real romantic interest in her. McCoy prefers to filter his understanding of Kirk's behavior in the episode through that lens, rather than contending with the horror and injustice that drives Kirk's actions. Spock, whose judgment is continually validated throughout the episode, had already considered the idea of Lenore being a motive and found it unlikely in this case; he guesses that Kirk's real focus is on Anton Karidian and he's just using Lenore to get at him, an assumption that leads to Spock's discovery of the Tarsus IV genocide and murders of the eyewitnesses. In the final scene, McCoy returns to his insistence that Kirk must have had genuine feelings for Lenore; Kirk ignores him and McCoy takes this as proof that he's right, while Spock stands quietly by.

Even in much worse episodes, it's like ... Shahna in "The Gamesters of Triskelion" wants Kirk's sudden flirtation with her to be real, and is too sheltered and vacuous (/sigh) to connect it to his screaming panic over Uhura that immediately preceded it, or the fact that Shahna is his prison guard. Shahna is made so utterly clueless that she can't be held responsible, while Kirk transparently uses her for information to deal with the oppressive overlords of the episode that have placed Chekov, Uhura, and Kirk in thralldom. In the end, Shahna just blandly accepts his refusal to take her with him, and his hope that someday she'll understand why he had to do what he did.

But in these story lines, whether it seems like he's actually into the woman at some level, or very much not, or (as is overwhelmingly most common) it's ambiguous, Kirk takes the initiative to pursue or flirt with someone because of some loss of power. He's not exactly aggressive in the usual masculine sense (the narrative framing is more dramatically-lit morally-ambiguous noir lady), but he is highly proactive and assertive in these cases, and essentially sets out to initiate and control a romance for a distinctly unromantic agenda of his own.

There is a kind of stage management quality to it, and the cases where he seems most visibly troubled or angry about the whole thing tend to be the ones where he's least able to steer the "relationship" or where someone who puts him in some awful situation to begin with acts like they're the injured party (obvious examples: Deela, Helen Noel, Lenore, Sylvia). But he seems to have a definite preference in these "romances" for asserting some kind of power: being the flirty one, the one doing the pursuing, the one who understands what's happening more clearly, the one ultimately in control of how this is going to go, and the terms on which it will end.

But this is conspicuously different when it's an actual romance that isn't forced by the circumstances. Apart from his demeanor being radically different, something that's struck me about the genuine, unforced Kirk romances is how much this insistent assertion of power, authority, and/or control vanishes when there's no threat.

The first person we know he fell in love with was his girlfriend as a teenager, Ruth. He hasn't seen her since he was 18, when he was a somber first-year cadet at the Academy. Even accounting for 60s casting, his memory of Ruth is pretty evidently that of someone who was older than him, more sophisticated and assured, and further along professionally, in no way under any authority from him. Even his interactions with a replica of her lack that stage management quality of the tactical Kirkmances, and his instinct on seeing her is to just go along with this bizarre situation.

The timeline isn't exactly clear, but some time later, he had a disastrous year-long relationship with Janice Lester. And it is clear that something fundamental to that relationship falling apart was the fact that he had avenues of authority open to him that Janice didn't. Kirk actually agrees with Janice that the glass ceiling is wrong and unfair, he just thinks that Janice taking her frustrations out on him as her partner, and tormenting him while indulging her internalized misogyny, was intolerable. One of Janice's many grievances is that they could have stayed together as his career progressed, and she could have gone to space with him, presumably as a member of his crew, while he was and remains very much "absolutely the fuck not" about that possibility. That decision is reinforced by his very consistent, non-negotiable red line around relationships with any crew members, but seems pretty clearly even more objectionable to him than usual in this case.

Even within "Turnabout Intruder," it seems that Kirk doesn't like having to bring power to bear on Janice, although she has thoroughly violated his agency at that point and it has become very necessary. She's the only ex he's known to have unilaterally broken up with, and he would have preferred to part ways cordially, but that was never going to happen; Janice is strongly implied to be an abuser-turned-stalker who resents him getting away, and filters every violation she commits against him through her sense of eternally persecuted (white) feminine fragility.

She insists a man like Kirk could never be physically assaulted and overpowered by a weak and feeble woman like herself, despite knowing perfectly well it's exactly what happened. She isolates him through medical abuse as well as lying about why he left her to his friends and co-workers. She relentlessly targets anyone who tries to help him—the one mainly punished for Kirk's escape attempt is Spock, after all, not Kirk himself ("Turnabout Intruder" is misogynistic in many ways, but a lot of the discussion of that seems to ignore that it's also pretty obviously dealing with an abuse/stalking situation that, apart from the sci-fi conceits, includes some extremely common traits of female domestic abusers IRL).

Janet Wallace, who parted ways with Kirk some six and a half years before S2, is a very successful scientist, and was already building a career in her field when they were together. Both of them are authority figures in their own careers, but their professional paths had so little to do with each other that it was essentially the reason they broke up. Their lives were too separate, despite what seems to have been a pretty mutually rewarding relationship when both were ambitious 20-somethings, and they mutually agreed to separate rather than one of them dictating terms to the other. Jan does seem to have some kind of kink for older male authorities, though; in "The Deadly Years," her sudden uptick of interest in 34-year-old Kirk as he starts prematurely aging is directly associated with her marriage to a very much older authority in her own field, and Kirk is viscerally uncomfortable with it.

His later girlfriend, Areel Shaw, is a healthier figure, though their relationship and break-up seem roughly similar. Both are highly successful career professionals, they're still very fond of each other and obviously still attracted to each other, and there's no indication of any attempts on either side to assert power or control over the relationship in the past or present. Areel makes a joke about him outranking her, but they're in completely different parts of Starfleet, and throughout the episode, he's obviously much more professionally vulnerable to her than the other way around. She's the one to suggest their goodbye kiss by the turbolift, and she takes the initiative to blow another kiss at him as she leaves, leaving him cheerfully poleaxed for a moment before he returns to his job.

The only other ex we know about it in TOS, as I recall, is the unnamed lab technician mentioned in the pilot, whom Kirk seems to have been oblivious to until Gary Mitchell helped her out. Kirk was an instructor at the Academy at the time (implicitly teaching philosophy to cadets for several years), likely in his mid-twenties from contextual information, and she was the one who pursued him. Kirk did have a serious relationship with her, but he didn't know about Mitchell helping her with the "campaign" to catch his attention in the first place, even though he and the lab technician nearly ended up getting married.

In terms of the unforced romances we actually see in the timeline of the show, there are only a few. The earliest is the sort of mutual courtly pining between him and Janice Rand. In "The Naked Time," Kirk's fantasy of a romance with (the superior) Janice is a fantasy scenario where they're on a beach away from any kind of professional context, and specifically, where he has no captain's insignia. We find out in "Miri" (though it was already obvious) that Janice fully reciprocates his interest and wanted to attract him, though she's very professional and competent in general. It's very obviously doomed as a romance. They might hang on to each other in a crisis, but will never do more or cross that line, though it's allowed by regulation—it's doomed wholly because Kirk's position as captain gets in the way for Kirk. Kirk even vents to Bones about being frustrated at Janice's assignment to him as his personal yeoman because he specifically doesn't want pretty women filling that kind of role around him.

It obviously bothers him especially when the yeoman is Janice because he's infatuated with her, but we also see that discomfort in the notorious backrub scene, when Janice's equally photogenic successor as yeoman dutifully starts trying to help with the strain in his back. Kirk thinks it's Spock massaging his back and that's fine (more than fine lmao), but when Spock makes a point of stepping forwards and Kirk realizes the person touching him must be his pretty yeoman, he's intensely uncomfortable and immediately orders her to stop as he gives Spock a long-suffering look.

In Kirk's grand m/f romance, the one with Edith Keeler, she's very much a socially established figure with a secure, stable position, the one who provides Kirk with a job and a roof over his and Spock's heads. She evidently thinks they're eccentric homeless guys when she finds them and takes them under her wing, and later suspects they're WWI vets, but it is very clear that the security of their situation remains entirely dependent on Edith's good will towards Kirk.

Of course, there are ways in which he knows more than Edith and has an advantage in that respect, but Edith is absolutely calling the shots in general. This is the context in which their romantic walks and hand-holding and dates and stolen kisses in the stairwell etc are happening. One of their big romantic scenes occurs because she finds out about Spock stealing materials and Kirk has to sweet-talk her, and she's like ... well, I guess I could overlook it... if you took me on a date. ;) And he's delighted to be pursued by his landlady that way, let's be real.

Edith running the show at least as much as Kirk is, I think, forms part of the idyllic quality of this romance for him. He's not there when Edith casually refers to him as "my young man," but I suspect he would very much like it, yet he's extremely unlikely to think of her as his girl/young lady/whatever. But overall, it just seems very, very clear that this whole dynamic is vastly more to his tastes than one where he's primarily in control and managing things and making all the major decisions.

That's reinforced over a season later, when we find the increasingly strained, tired Kirk of S3 wistfully longing for some arena of his life in which he's not making all the decisions all the goddamn time. Then he gets amnesia, remembering almost nothing about his previous life except that he had never felt happy or at peace, and he's pretty much informed that he's going to marry a hot priestess. Without the baggage of his actual life/memories/responsibilities, he is entirely content to go along with this and seems happy with her.

I mean, "The Paradise Syndrome" is a bad episode, especially the A-plot, but that aspect of it absolutely does track with the rest of what we see of him.

In the superior S3 episode "The Mark of Gideon," the more ephemeral romance with Odona occurs in a context where he thinks they are completely isolated from all other people and institutions, and neither of them has any particular power over the other. In reality, Odona knows a lot more than he does about what's going on, including that they aren't remotely alone. She's there to steal a blood sample from him and, ideally, to make the idea of remaining on Gideon as a disease blood bag more appealing.

After Kirk and Odona are back on the real Enterprise and she's saved, and both are able to exert the autonomy to decide their futures (Odona set on returning to Gideon, which Kirk doesn't want her to do, and Kirk on returning to commanding the Enterprise and its mission, which Odona doesn't want him to do), he has no particular power over Odona specifically but is very much back in authority. They're still flirty, but it's clearly dialed down to a more courtly, going-nowhere level:

ODONA: How can you bear to look at me after the way I deceived you? KIRK: At least, you owe me the privilege of letting me look at you. ODONA: You are a gentleman, Captain Kirk. KIRK, visibly pleased: Thank you, ma'am.

His last romantic plot is with Rayna in "Requiem for Methuselah," a decidedly mid episode until the absolutely buckwild final scene. It's also probably the weirdest of the romances that aren't obviously tactical. Kirk does meet her in his professional capacity, but it's actually the crew of the Enterprise who need help from Flint, Rayna's guardian (Flint has the resources to cure a terrible disease). Kirk et al. essentially bully Flint into helping them, but Rayna isn't present at that point, and Flint evidently has his own secrets and motives. It's only later that they're allowed to meet Rayna, Flint's highly educated and intelligent, but extremely sheltered, ward. She has never met a man other than Flint before (and for the audience, Flint is very obviously grooming Rayna to be his wife).

So Rayna is not in any way subject to Kirk's authority, although it's the reason he's there, but she's so sheltered that there are definitely ways in which he seems the more proactive of the two of them in this particular romance. But she's also intelligent and curious and actively into him. At first, Flint doesn't want her around them at all, and it's Rayna who insists; Rayna is a bit overwhelmed, but interested in exploring the potential of her romance with Kirk; she starts pushing back against Flint's restrictions, and falls for Kirk in a way she never could with Flint.

Flint basically comes up with delaying tactics that involve throwing Rayna and Kirk together, allowing for the more sentimental, "high romance" type of courtship that Kirk goes for (waltzing, kissing etc). But it turns out that Rayna is a very sophisticated android and oblivious to this fact herself (this Rayna is the latest in a long series of attempts), and Flint finds her interest in Kirk promising as far as Flint's ultimate goal of making her his own immortal wife is concerned. He's essentially keeping Kirk around to encourage Rayna's capability to feel romantic love and sexual attraction in general, like a sort of ... sexy lure??? in hopes that she'll turn those feelings to Flint in time.

The problem is that this is, obviously, super fucked-up towards both Kirk and Rayna (Flint refers to Rayna as his property). Kirk's usual hatred of AI does not extend to an AI who is genuinely a full sentient person, though he has to grapple with the concept for a moment, and this revelation doesn't actually destroy his feelings for her. He insists that a) Rayna is in love with him and he with her, and b) Rayna is clearly a full person, and thus no one's property, and has the right to choose what she wants. In the final scene, the question of power is specifically raised:

FLINT: No man beats me. KIRK: I don't want to beat you. This is no test of power. Rayna belongs to herself and she claims the human right of choice to be as she wills, to do as she wills, to think as she wills.

Rayna's very newly-developed capacity for feeling is torn between her love for Flint as a mentor and father-figure, and her confusing and overwhelming feelings for Kirk, and her desire to avoid hurting either of them. The strain of all these contradictory human feelings and impulses (/sigh) fries her circuits and she self-destructs.

(Spock, who spends most of the episode visibly consumed with jealousy of Rayna, is also sympathetic to her, but his priorities are what they are. McCoy accuses him of being incapable of understanding the love triangle that created this situation, as well as of feeling romantic love in general, in all its agonies and ecstasies, after the exhausted Kirk falls unconscious upon returning to the Enterprise. Spock simply tells McCoy goodnight and once he's gone, mind-melds with Kirk and wipes his rival from Kirk's memory because, uh *looks at hand* he and Kirk are totally normal healthy platonic bros and Spock doesn't experience love.)

But I do think the chasm between the actual Kirk romances and the tactical ones is also very much felt in how Kirk navigates power/control/authority. In seduction, he hangs tightly on to some sense of power and autonomy through his ability to control himself and the situation. In romance, though, it seems like he strongly prefers dynamics where he can (or must) step down from his usual authority and the weight of decisions and responsibility is distributed away from him.

[hypexion]

Like before, Series 15 of Doctor Who only having eight episodes is bad for it. Series 14 just about held it together, but that's because the finale didn't strongly hinge on the Doctor-Ruby relationship. In constrast, the Doctor-Belinda ends up being a big deal. The problem is that said relationship does not develop in a way that actually makes sense or feels organic.

Let's review the Belinda situation in each episode:

The Robot Revolution - Belinda is kidnapped to another planet by evil robots sent by her ex-boyfriend. She watches a woman who trusts the Doctor implicitly die right in front of her. By the end, she's not fond of the Doctor and his dubious ways, and wants to go home.

Lux - Belinda gets caught up in a fight with a malevolent god, on her second "adventure". She immediately admits that the Doctor's life terrifies her. In return, the Doctor says he might not be able to get her home. Overall, she is still not thrilled.

The Well - Belinda literally almost dies, because getting shot in the chest is the only way to save her from a parasitic monster that would otherwise drive her mad. She is directly confronted with her mortality, and is again terrified.

Lucky Day - Belinda isn't really in this episode.

The Story & the Engine - Belinda has apparently mellowed out enough to be okay with the Doctor visiting his buddy instead of proceeding with getting her home (tangent: how does this make sense in the Mother Belinda timeline?). She laughs at a guy and seems to have gotten over her previous worries. There's the hook that she sympathises with the Doctor's need to find a place where in fits in, but that would be more effective if she were already warming up to him.

The Interstellar Song Contest - Belinda spends most of this episode believing that the Doctor is dead, and thus she is permanently trapped in the future. In the Mother Belinda timeline she presumably has an even worse reaction. Then she sees the Doctor torturing a genocide survivor, and still ends the episode by saying she thinks the Doctor is cool. This should lead into the nadir of Belinda's relationship with the Doctor, but instead it gets brushed off and woah finale cliffhanger.

Stepping out of the reviewing for a moment, and I think it's already clear that Belinda undergoes a sudden personality shift between The Well and The Story & the Engine. Part of this is probably just poor management where the "not hyped about the Doctor" aspect of Belinda's character wasn't passed onto the non-RTD writers. But it still ends up mangling the overall character progression. If you want Belinda to start liking the Doctor, there needs to be an episode that can make that happen.

Moving on:

Wish World - Belinda... isn't meaningfully in this one. She's been hollowed out to act as one of Conrad's perfect housewives, a fate that is both horrifying and yet somehow very boring. Other than having a bit of a scream, Belinda does nothing proactive, being pulled around by the plot. When she "betrays" the Doctor to the doubt police, it's because she's playing out a role. Rather than, say, her having a subconcious distrust of the Doctor because of all the bad times she had travelling with him.

The Reality War - Belinda remains hollowed out, her entire character being compressed down to "Mother". After sitting half the episode out, she's suddenly super buzzed to be hanging out with the Doctor and having his fake baby. You know, the guy she watched torture someone the last time she was actually herself. Although Belinda might still be in wish mode while Poppy was around so Real Belinda is even less in this episode. Then finally we get Mother Belinda, a character who didn't exist until the Doctor invents her (theories to the contrary are wrong).

Overall, Belinda has a highly disjointed "arc" if you can even call it that. She doesn't develop, but rather shift between several characterisations, and it's rather jarring. And the worst part is, you could probably fix it with two more episodes, and wouldn't you know it, Belinda isn't in one episode, and is replaced with a puppet in another.

There is too much trying to happen in Series 15 compared to the actual amount of time to make it happen. (I'll even tick everyone off by saying Flux worked out better than this, and that only had six episodes while originally being planned for ten.) I also think the episode ordering adds to the problem, as Belinda gets the worst end of adventures with the Doctor first, which should be enough to put anyone off. But no before the finale even starts she's suddenly cool with the Doctor.

I suppose the conclusion is that Belinda ends up being more of a plot device than a character, which is bad. I don't even know what else to say because this is really more of a rant than an "essay".

[duusheen]

Meanwhile, in the Pollock household, things aren't getting better for Jay, and now Daphne and Leif are arguing as well 😩

[cake-emu]

Coronation Street | Carla Connor + Daisy Midgeley (14th April 2025)

[ihavevisions]

Shoutout to Nuru for almost bagging one or two witches that one time

[itspileofgoodthings]

one of my favorite things about getting older is that I’m just more sure and more confident in taking control in social situations and making other people feel at ease. I really love it!

[justalittlebluetiefling]

Something I've seen a couple people saying is that they want to make sure that Laudna understands that she's not the only one who has been through trauma. But like. Laudna is not the only one who needs to learn that lesson. Actually, it's not even that Laudna needs to learn that she's not the only one that's been through trauma at all, because they're all very aware of what they've all been through. This became an inevitable confrontation when Laudna decided to let Delilah back in, though, and after rewatching the scene, I actually think the only people who managed this situation correctly were Imogen* and Ashton.

Orym and Laudna are both more focused on their own pasts with the sword and not thinking about each other. Orym should have talked to the group and come to a decision with them about using the sword and Laudna should have talked to him about it instead of trying to steal it.

*my feelings about this are still up in the air don't read into this too much

[lesbiansanemi]

Currently trying not to vomit over the fact that I essentially just lost almost a thousand dollars brb

[adore-gregor]

😓

[e-adlirez]

Treasure Seekers 3 Review/Ramble

Welcome to the third and last entry of the Treasure Seekers trilogy :D

"Wait what?" I probably hear you ask. "What about the other four treasures they said the girls would find?"

And to that I say

yeah it do be a bit sad that they never made a book 4

But make no mistake, Legend of the Maze is a doozy of a third book, and I'd say it's almost on-par with book 1 if not surpassing it. Unfortunately there is no free digital copy of the book, so uh if you're down to spend a bit on a digital copy on the E-book site of your choosing or on a physical copy in a bookstore, I salute you for your determination.

As for the rest of you, you're just gonna have to trust me bro :] /j

Ready? Let's go :D (also this is being written by a sleep-deprived E running on hyperfixation juice so if you find any grammar issues feel free to let me know so I can fix them)

The story begins with the Thea Sisters touring the Capelletti House in Verona with their Italian friend/tour guide Sebastiano. Yes, this Verona.

So yeah Colette is fantasizing about Romeo and Juliet as a romantic ship, Vi is trying to kill her Santa by telling her that Romeo and Juliet are fictional characters (which Colette responds to with "oh hush I can dream"), and oop-- loose floorboard-- what's this package under the flo-- LE GAAASSSPPPP LANE LOOORRREEEEE

The girls fangirl about the ABL jumpscare a lil' too loudly and Sebastiano is a lil' confusion, soooooooo the squad goes out for some snacks outside the Capelletti house to explain stuff to Sebastiano

buckle up Sebastiano you're about to get two 300-page books worth of Lane Lore™

While listening to the story, it turns out that Sebastiano may or may not have heard a peep about a legend about a treasure called the Treasure of Eternal Love (adapted Scholastic name is "Treasure of True Love" which ew, snatches the original Italian name instead), which was said to have been owned by Juliet and tho a lotta people are trying to find it, they dunno where it is now. Sounds very Seven Treasures of the World to me :]

How does Sebastiano know a peep about this very obscure legend? Turns out he learned about it from a letter written by his great-grandpappy Jacopo, who was an archaeologist like Aurora :3

So Sebastiano invites the girls to dinner at his place so the girls can look for the letter. Vi don't get too comfy with the house library I know it looks very cool and antique but we got a goal and that is sifting through a lil' box of Jacopo's kept things and find some-- HOLY CRAP LANE LORE™

-

"Hi Jacopo, tysm for helping me with my research on the Treasure of Eternal Love, you're a real g my guy, regards from me and my sister Linda, also tysm for the tour of Verona."

-- ABL

-

The girls tell Sebastiano their findings over a dinner of bigoli al pomodoro, give some extra Lane Lore™ about Jan von Klawitz and Aurora's six sisters, and mention the possibility that Linda knows where the treasure is, which means that Luke is probably after it too, but also Linda might know where the treasure is, which means a lead >:3

First stop: Verona's city hall, where Sebastiano's friend Guido works and is able to help them with finding information about a Linda Lane who may or may not have lived in Verona approximately a century ago. They find a document that says yes, Linda did in fact live in Verona once, and also her address is listed there because legalities, y'know how it is.

So the girls head on over to the address, knock at the door, and are greeted by an old lady, and :0 turns out this old lady (her name is Mia) knew Linda personally.

-

Linda and Mia met when Linda was in her older years and Mia was a smol child. Mia would read for Linda since her eyesight deteriorated in her old age, and they hung out a lot together. When Linda left to return to England, she left the house to Mia, as well as a good chunk of the stuff she had in said house as mementos for Mia to remember her by.

-

Hey guys you wanna see a trick, it's called "the Lane Lore™ %", aka how fast can we get this old lady up to speed with the ABL drama-- /j

Unfortunately Mia doesn't really know anything about the treasures, but she does have this wack painting of a scenery in Japan that just won't align correctly no matter how much finagling you do to it-- oh there was an envelope inside-- LANE LORE™?

So the letter inside the envelope is a letter from Aurora to Linda basically Aurora telling Linda she found the Treasure of Eternal Love, but because Jan is on her tail, she left the treasure in the "House of the Sun" for now. Now, if you tried looking up "house of the sun", you'd get a hotel in Florida, a manga, a former Incan temple that's now a monastery-- you get the picture, it do be a weird detail and probably not it bro, besides Aurora's too much of a gremlin to be that obvious with her riddles.

At least if you're not a Shakespeare nerd like Colette is (the kind that never read past Romeo and Juliet's wedding), because if you were, you'd know that at one point Romeo equates Juliet to the sun rising in the east. Romeo is simping for Juliet, Juliet is the sun, ergo, the Capelletti house.

But uh, thing is we already went to the house and we already know that Aurora came back for the treasure and took it somewhere else. Sooooo might as well see what the last letter says--

"Hi so I'm on the run rn I can't chat for long because Jan is pissed and he wants to find me and force me to reveal the treasure, and I don't think I wanna know how not-kid-friendly this is gonna get if he does find me. Thanks for introducing me to your friend tho :D she's cool and thanks to her help, the treasure is safe and sound in the shade of the cherry trees! I'll come back for it one day, hopefully that day comes soon. Anyway, hugs and kisses, Linda." - ABL

Spoiler alert, despite having a beeg cherry tree on the painting, there was in fact nothing else hiding behind the painting.

LUKE TRANSITION

So Luke is doing Luke things, not touching grass as per usual. Cassidy comes by to give him a lil' souvenir from great-grandpappy Jan von Klawitz's house in London: Jan's old notes. Luke immediately dismisses Cassidy without even so much as a thank you -- Cassidy girlypop you're not scoring that man no matter what you do, he's the Adrien to your Marinette girlie we're only at book 3, you might as well accept your fate -- and Luke takes a lil' peek into Jan's notebook (he also calls his great-grandpappy "Jan", like just "Jan". I dunno maybe I'm just finding it weird because I'm Asian . .) for the goods.

And goods Luke does find, which he proceeds to consume like a goblin. Bit of Klawitz lore here:

-

"Grrr grrr stupid Aurora and her smartass tricks grrrrr who does she think she is grrrrr she beat me to the Treasure of Eternal Love in Verona grrrrrrrrrrrr well at least now I know how she works, I managed to find this friend of hers Jacopo, who definitely knows about the treasure even though he keeps playing stupid like I don't know that he knows Aurora. Something something cherry trees, I ransacked every single cherry tree in Verona and there was literally nothing, wth, Aurora why are you like this" - Jan von Klawitz

-

Luke responds to this seedy lore from his great-grandpappy with "hehehHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHH JAN YOU IDIOT, YOU COULDN'T SEE WHAT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU BECAUSE YOU UNDERESTIMATED THE LITTLE PILOT GIRL, I ALREADY KNOW WHERE TO LOOK"

Cut back to the girls, and they know where to look next, too

It's Japan, i-it's Japan, y'know Japan's relationship with their sakura/cherry blossoms

Turns out Linda has a friend named Kyoko Bianchi, a Japanese-Italian botanist who was raised in Japan. Since Aurora mentions in her letter that Linda's friend came in clutch, she was obviously referring to Kyoko and now the treasure is in Japan.

So Japan transition :D (based on my personal experience in Japan and also a bit of canon continuity consistency, I headcanon that despite being written in English, this segment of the story mostly had the girls speaking in Japanese, a language they would know how to speak a bit of at least (and apparently Vi is conversational in Japanese so c'mooonnnn).)

The girls land at Narita Airport and take a train to central Tokyo (damn Kumi from Cherry Blossom Adventure you came in clutch possibly teaching the girls how to Japanese subway offscreen because they actually didn't get lost using it on their own :D). Kyoko's hometown was Tokyo, so might as well start searching for her descendants/relatives there. First stop: Shibuya.

Colette is playfully ribbed a bit for having a big-ass bag while everyone else only brought smol backpacks around with them, the luck of the girls not getting lost using the Japanese subway must be balanced out so Paulina's GPS decides now is the right time to be a dick, Shibuya Crossing, and finally they make it to the hotel where Amrita Bianchi, their first Kyoko descendant candidate, is at.

And this is the first time the girls come across the concept of cosplaying, I genuinely don't know how they managed to sidestep it for so long especially since they've been to Japan before for a student exchange, all I can really justify it with is that university has been kicking their a-- RATSUNE MIKU??

Gahd even in 2018 Italy there was no escape from her /j

Anyway so Amrita didn't know Kyoko, so their second candidate is Shinobu Bianchi, a guy living in Shinjuku. They find him-- or more accurately run into him (literally) on his way to work, try to explain things to him but this man is running late, so he invites the girls to follow him to his workplace. They find themselves in a cafe on opening time, customers start filing in before the girls can even tell Shinobu what the whole deal is, soooooo karaoke break :D

Vi c'mon it's not like there's much else to do while waiting for Shinobu-- what're you gonna do, sit there and wait? A-actually y'know what that sounds like something Vi would happily do but c'mooonnn Vi where's your sense-a humor :D

Thirty minutes of singing later, they finally get five minutes to explain to Shinobu what they're looking for and Shinobu says "sorry I dunno Kyoko, I am half-Italian on my dad's side, but my mom has a different Japanese surname"

So the girls Peter William a bit emotionally, Pam goes to what Scholastic is telling me is a kiosk but might as well be a 7/11 based on the banger food Pam got from said kiosk, the girls take a taxi to a Capsule Hotel (judging from the illustration it looks like the Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae Capsule Hotel), and after a bit of dinner, Peter William into their capsule rooms physically.

The next morning, Nicky goes out for a morning jog as usual (she prolly slept with her capsule open so she wouldn't get claustrophobic), and she finds a gardener tending to a Kyoko Bianchi flower :0 like no joke that's the name, it's a K. bianchi, named after a botanist who founded the Fairy Garden (Disclaimer: neither the K. bianchi nor the Fairy Garden Foundation in Japan exist, they're fictional bits for this fictional story and that's fine :3). Nicky gets the address for the Fairy Garden, runs back to the girls who are having breakfast, and they head on over to the venue.

At the Fairy Garden, the girls meet a gardener named Toshio who happily shows them around, and despite not knowing all the Lane Lore™ (yet), he knows enough to lead them to Kyoko's perfectly preserved office, where the late Bianchi has displayed some pictures from Verona, as well as her furniture and encyclopedia collection.

After a search, they find what was presumably a haiku alluding to Jomon Sugi and the writer's voice being hidden in there, and one jaunt to the record of Jomon Sugi in Kyoko's encyclopedia collection and uhp-- a hidden cassette tape inside the volume!

On one hand, victory, the girls have found a VHS tape that is implied to have a personal recording from Kyoko Bianchi herself, so they're super-close to the treasure now :D

But on the other hand, they found a VHS tape in the year of our lord 2018.

Good news, Toshio knows a buddy who's super tech-savvy, and that's including tech things. Bad news, he's in Kyoto, which is about 445 km/283 miles away from Tokyo.

So the girls quickly take a shinkansen and some bento boxes to Kyoto :D (their wallets are probably sobbing in an 86-USD ticket per person)

At Kyoto, meet Ren, are lowkey surprised that his house is a traditional Japanese house as opposed to a modern flat but hey it's a pleasant surprise, and Ren is able to play the tape for them.

In the tape, Kyoko explains the Treasure of Eternal Love, how it ended up in her hands at the ripe age of 20 through Linda and Aurora, and some Treasure of Eternal Love lore, or rather Ring of Eternal Love lore:

-

Yeah sure Romeo and Juliet were fictional characters, but reality, so it goes, isn't that much different. The Ring of Eternal Love was a courting gift from a suitor to a bachelorette of the Cappelletti household. The suitor and the girl's families had hate boners for each other for a while now, but instead of spiraling into a destructive mess of family feuding and death like in Shakespeare's play, they decided to call off the feud so the two lovers could be happy together. And now the ring, as Kyoko puts it, has been passed down from her to "one who shows love every day, in every way, towards everything that grows from the earth."

-

The girls are happy they got to see the tape and its contents, but they Peter William emotionally once more because well, they're back to square one now-- literally the only clue they have is the thing Kyoko said, and what is the thing Kyoko said? It's cryptic and weird and h a h ? Ren offers to accommodate them for the night, the girls get to sleep on futons for the first time since Secret of the Snow, and the next day they decide to have some downtime vacay-ing in Nijo Castle. A vacay that results in Vi having an epiphany about the riddle and thus who has the ring.

Meanwhile with Luke, he's planning something. Something that's got Cassidy in Japan and putting her master's degrees in Engineering, Chemistry and Computer Sciences to use by assembling a drone (I'm wondering how Cassidy has so little braincells out on the field despite having THREE MASTER'S DEGREES like holy crap--)

Cassidy tries complimenting Luke on the motherboard he sent in from Alaska and-- ew Omar why are you here I thought Luke fired you-- ooh what's that package thing-- oi don't diss on Japanese people being polite, once you see the ruder options you're gonna be pining for that shnit-- wait what how's this drone gonna find the Ring of Eternal Love--

Anyway the girls plus Toshio and Ren take the train back to Tokyo (istg if they took the shinkansen--) and back to the Fairy Garden Foundation, where they talk to the current head gardener: Mr. Murakami.

Mr. Murakami does in fact know Kyoko personally, and after a bit of persuading (it involves a bord like many good things in this world), he decides to bring them to his hometown Nara (which involves a train to Kyoto and then a train from Kyoto to Nara which on the Kodama plus the cheapest option from Kyoto to Nara is-- CHEESUS CRUST 91 USD PER PERSON AND THEY HAVE TO GO BACK TO TOKYO AFTER THIS???)

ANYWAY Mr. Murakami takes them to Nara Park, where he hid the treasure. He brings the girls to it, he checks the hiding place and

It's empty?

Wait, the hiding place is empty?

WAIT WHAT THE HIDING PLACE IS EM--

Off in Alaska, Luke is cackling in his fancy custom-made not-gamer chair.

Mr. Murakami is distraught, most of the girls stay to comfort him while Nicky and Ren scout out the area. In their search, Nicky and Ren find a big broken drone that seems to have crash-landed in the garden, and oop-- LVK logo. It was probably used to spy on Mr. Murakami to snatch the treasure. "DAAAMMMNNNN YOOOUUUU LUUUKKEEEE" Nicky probably would've shrieked at the top of her lungs if she weren't A. in Japan (it's very quiet generally), and B. within earshot of poor Mr. Murakami, who's still recovering from the horrible shock. The girls, Toshio and Ren take the drone to Kyoto while Mr. Murakami stays in Nara with the fam to recover because man, he deserves the break :(

In Ren's house in Kyoto, Paulina and Ren get to work hacking into the drone to snatch its data, and they find that the drone's memory goes as far back as to being in Alaska for some reason. Why would an LVK drone be in Alaska? Unless-- :OOOOO SECRET BASE??

With that lead, the girls depart for Anchorage, Alaska (if I plugged it into Google correctly the price for the flight totals out at a 567-USD one-way flight holy crap girlies have mercy on your wallets-- not including the mini shopping spree for winter clothes Colette was more than happy to drag the girls on). Ren gives Paulina a little flash drive with some written code that could come in clutch in whatever shenanigans they end up in in that secret base of Luke's. Yes Violet as much as I think you're the only person in the group who seems to be concerned for your wallet, ya'll are nawt surviving Alaska with those summer clothes ya'll are wearing.

Behold, a long rest/14-hour timeskip in the form of the last two letters the girls have yet to read from Aurora to Linda. (Well the girls besides Vi, God's sleepiest soldier over here is eeping in the back before the flight's even taken off--)

-

(These are the real letters this time around lmao, if you're confused, Aurora addresses Linda in these letters via her middle name Amaryllis.)

Dear Amaryllis,

I'm very sorry that, because of my job, you are taking on a responsibility that is perhaps too great, and that puts you at risk.

It's all because of the greed of my former professor, a mouse who is incapable of recognizing that beauty should be shared. My dear sister, I have thought about it for a long time, and I have come to the conclusion that the best solution is to take the Treasure of Eternal Love from Verona, where it is not safe... and put you at risk. I am sending you a copy of one of the photos I hold the most dear, in memory of the love that binds us. I hope it will help you make the best decision...

Yours, Aurora

-

Dear Amaryllis,

You wrote me that you are making a decision about the treasure. I agree that the mouse you're planning to entrust it to is worthy of that trust, and I will wait for more news. But you must be careful, even when you write to me, to not mention names or places. We need to watch out, because my former professor is more alert than ever.

It seems that he's building an underground shelter for his riches, designed as a kind of maze to test anyone who manages to enter it...

Professor Jan is clever, and he's always loved riddles, puzzles, and mysteries. I wouldn't wish for any mouse to find themselves in his maze!

Now I must say good-bye, my dear. Sending a big hug.

Yours, Aurora

-

Once the girls land in Anchorage, Alaska, they rent an SUV, pull out Google Maps, read some of the brochures Ren printed out for them just in case, fangirl over a moose (Nicky that's not something to fangirl about have you seen what they're capable of--), and accidental secret tunnel discovery?

Well, accidental secret garbage chute discovery, anyway, since the one thing that allows the girls to not break their ankles when landing is some garbage bags. Food waste garbage bags no less :D Ew :D

Some old aircraft bits are found too which is nice but it's never elaborated on whose old aircraft bits those were so we're moving on to the girls entering Luke's secret headquarters and Nicky trying not to die from claustrophobia :D

CCTVs pose an initial problem, but Ren's flash drive comes in clutch and allows Paulina to freeze the cameras so they can go in undetected (Ren how do you know how to program that is there something you wanna share to the class--). One lengthy labyrinth later, the girls manage to get out of the "we're walking in circles" loop-dee-loop they wound up in and find this little room with a little lit fire pit and an ominous riddle involving the "elements of nature". Pam has the idea of extinguishing the fire pit, and sure enough, inside the fire pit is a key that fits perfectly into the door across the room.

And right after Pam turns the lock on the door, a trapdoor opens up beneath her and she falls into the pit below. It's padded, it's kinda cozy, but it's way too deep for the girls to reach Pam from above without a rope or attempting to risk falling in and getting trapped as well. The girls are very reluctant to leave Pam, but Pam unfortunately only metaphorically slaps some sense into the girls and tells them to go on because they've gone too far to back out now so COMMIT TO THE BIT GODDAMMIT

(you guys like the rhyme-y bits? They're kinda fun to write I do like the rhyme-y bits a bit <:])

And thus the girls minus Pam go through the door to the next room, where there's this swimming pool with a key inside it, which Nicky swims down for, assuming that the trap in the room will only activate once they get the key into the door leading to the next room. Obviously she winds up being very incorrect, as the moment she takes the key from the bottom of the pool, the water starts to drain away until all you got left is a sopping wet Nicky in an empty pool and the key to the next room, which Nicky tosses over to Paulina while asking for her shoes and her dry clothes that they packed. Colette is devastated, devastated I tell you at the idea of leaving Nicky behind, on top of having to leave Pam behind, but Nicky's got faith that the girls will pull through and come back for her; so Colette, Paulina and Violet move on to the next room.

A LOT of walking down a twisting hallway later, the trio make it to the next room (which they use Nicky's key for), and we got four pots with something or other in them, lighting too dim to discern properly what's in the pots, a button sequence puzzle with no margin for error, and a wack riddle. Oh and Paulina's tablet's finally died after possibly uh, 18-ish hours of not charging it. RIP Paulina's tablet, that's gonna be set aside in the corner for the time being.

The pots turn out to have different types of sediment in them, and the wack riddle turns out to be the clue to the correct sequence to input, so the three figure that out fairly quickly and slide down the chute leading to the next room. Except for Paulina, who had to get her tablet from that corner she set it aside in, and wasn't able to make it to the trapdoor-chute in time before it closed on her face, leaving her trapped "forever", as the wack riddle states. The one time you're told to stop holding it, man, unbelievable. I'm never letting go of my tablet again /j

Now Vi and Colette find themselves in an empty room, and they only realize when they get down that Paulina wasn't able to make it out in time. Now this entire time, Colette has been going through it. Of the girls, Colette's been taking the whole leaving-my-friends-behind-for-the-greater-good thing not well at all, and it culminates in an emotional breakdown. Violet comforts her and reassures her that they'll get the ring, they'll pick up the other girls and they'll get outa here soon, but they gotta be brave now for the other girls. (Kinda hard to capture in short and sweet words what the emotion of the scene was but oh well). After a bit of calming down, Colette and Violet look around to find themselves in a... surprisingly simple room? There's a door on the other side of the room from them, and besides that there's literally nothing but thin air.

The two go to the door and move to open it. Yeah this one's surprisingly simple. Just walk on over, pull the door open, walk o-- a gust of wind slammed the door shut . .

Yeah that's right. You ever leave a window in your room open on a windy day and leave your door also open, and the wind going into the room slams the door shut? Yeah, it's that multiplied by uhhhh how much is a vent opposite the door opening up just to blow f%#ken WIMDY-level winds just to slam that metal door shut? However that much multiplies that. The two find themselves in a situation where had all five of them been there to do this puzzle, it would've been far easier; but it is doable with only two people. The plan is one of them wedges themself between the door and the frame and prop it open, while the other crawls under the first person's leg. Transitioning to the second person propping the door open for the first person is gonna be a bit dodgy, but it is doable kinda.

Now Colette has been going through the ringer emotionally, and if you've seen this trope before, you'd know that it'd be a real damn shame if they lost their emotional pillar and had to carry the entire plan on their own, riiiiggghhttt? She's been the handling this situation the worst (emotionally), and it would bring her a belly of the beast to trump all bellies of all beasts and force her to do a The Next Right Thing (hot take: Anna's arc in Frozen 2 was really good), presumably after a lot of sobbing in the corner! It's perfect for angst, and it's perfect for empowerment to see Colette pick herself up and be strong for the girls and save the day!

Which is why Colette doesn't end up being the last one standing :D

Colette was the one who propped the door open for Violet, who crawled through to the other side. The plan was to have Vi switch with Colette so Colette can get through, but one thing they didn't take into account was the fact that the vent would slowly create stronger and stronger winds the longer the door is held open for, so Colette winds up allowing herself to be trapped in the air room so Violet can do the thing. (Oh and the plan was Colette's idea too.)

Heeyyyy Viiiiiiii~ Do you have some cash left over in your wallet? Because I think it's time for you to put your money where your mouth is :DDD

So yeah Violet continues on alone.

Also if you're wondering where Luke is this entire time, he is in fact in his base, still not touching grass and none the wiser about the whole five lil' rat girls sneaking into his base because of the whole frozen cams situation. He does technically notice something's off, but he thinks that the clock in one of the cameras is broken and he ends up complaining about it to Cassidy, haha L. It is also at this point where we learn that the girls have been in Luke's base for a little over three hours at this point :D

Meanwhile, Violet goes down the narrow metal staircase in the hallway outside of the last room and finds herself reminding herself to stay calm but also inside Luke's treasure room, where treasures of all shapes and sizes reside. From whole dinosaur skeletons to ancient Egyptian statues to paintings to suits of armor and-- holy shnit Luke has the Ark of the Covenant in there too o o yeah this guy means business holy crap--

The Ring of Eternal Love is in there too, the lone treasure in the set of seven empty pedestals that Luke was prolly intending for the Seven Treasures of the World. So Vi, clearly not having watched Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, attempts to lift the glass case protecting the ring, which sets off the alarms in the treasure rooms, and whoa holy crap there's a robot voice speaking through the alarms? WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIFTEEN MINUTES TO SELF-DESTRUCTION

Luke, having the shock of his life, comes down to the treasure room to see what's up, and of course it's one of the five brats who's been getting in the way of his endeavors. Hardly a surprise, really, those five have been a pain in the ass from minute one of Luke looking into the Seven Treasures-- from stopping him getting the Alabaster Garden (he didn't even get to see what it was smh), to duping him with the most audacious of gottems to exist only partially due to his goon's stupidity, and now sneaking into the heart of his base without him, his cameras, or his sensors noticing. Strange how there's only one of them, though.

Just like Aurora Beatrix Lane almost a hundred years prior, this young lady is naive, morally stubborn, and idealistic. She is preaching out about sharing these treasures to all, even when the worth of these treasures comes partly in the luxury of not everyone being able to enjoy them. There is value in that sense of rarity, and it's not like any of the uncaring, ignorant whelps working in the museums look at the pieces that sit before them and realize the true value that they have the privilege of looking at everyday. They wouldn't care about them-- they would do the bare minimum to these unique masterpieces and leave it at that. And this naive brat thinks that they are more loving, more caring to these pieces than Luke is?

But as naive and morally pretentious and... ignorant of time and place this woman is (did she really not hear the self-destruct alarm and is thus willing to babble to her grave?)... she is clearly very intelligent. She was able to affect the base's security system such that she could come in undetected. She was able to get past all four traps without getting trapped herself. It is strange how she is alone here, though. She is usually with four other girls-- ah, that's it. They got trapped, and she left them, so she could get to the treasures on her own. What a show of common sense, that is! She must've seen that the traps were designed such that risking oneself to rescue a trapped person is just not worth it, and that first point already makes her far more intelligent than Cassidy or her buffoons could ever be. It could even be on-par with Luke himself. What if... perhaps....

What if they worked together?

Luke, after a bit of back and forth with Violet, gives Violet an offer to ditch her friends and become his partner. If she accepts they can divide everything between each other in the vault, and together, they'll be able to uncover the treasures of the world and enjoy them all to themselves.

I mean of course Vi turns down the offer in favor of sticking with her friends but y'know what it was worth a shot, Luke, kudos to you for spotting a gemstone instead of covering it with mud and pretending it's not there.

Heavily disappointed by Vi turning him down for the sake of "the power of friendship" (I wish I was kidding)(Scholastic!Vi's (?) words not mine)(I would be incredibly disappointed too), he turns to leave her in the treasure room, and it's only then that Vi realizes she kinda effed up. Luke is the only guy here who knows the base inside-out, and thus would know a way to get the girls out so they can Not Die. And to add insult to injury, Luke made a bomb shelter out of his treasure room, so the entire base may explode and the girls might die, but the treasures are gonna be completely fine. Intact, even. Luke leaves, and the robot voice announces ten minutes before self-destruction.

As soon as she's able to, Vi calls the elevator, juggling anxiety and being able to think under pressure. She figures out that Luke oh so helpfully uses pictograms for his elevator buttons instead of numbers, and presses the button for the control room (the heliport floor is locked by a key). She arrives in the control room, eight minutes before self-destruction.

Just as Vi enters the control room, the cameras get kicked back into action, oh so conveniently showing to Violet a timer ticking down to the big kaboom in real time, and footage of Nicky waiting anxiously in the pool room (and Luke leaving), for extra stakes. One Perception check said "yeah, this is a LOT of buttons, TOO MANY BUTTONS", and the tablet sitting on the desk required a password, so oh god what do

Six minutes before self-destruction and one panic attack later, Vi manages to psyche herself up enough to roll for Investigation. She finds a button for disarming the traps, and that allows the girls to get outa the traps and meet up again in the treasure room. Happy reunions aside tho, four minutes to self-destruction

Turns out the girls (thankfully) didn't know about the self-destruct situation. No need to explain tho because Vi is deadlifting the group braincell like she's never done before. She drags them down to the base's... basement, where a train that was probably used to carry the treasures into the base sits unused and ready for the girls to figure out how to work. Three minutes before self-destruction, no pressure :D

Pam sits at the train's controls, Paulina tries to help but immediately brain crashes at the old-timey controls, thus deciding she'd rather help Nicky get the bars off the rails up ahead. Two minutes left, and Pam figures it out and is ready to-- wait they need electricity-- okay cool Nicky and Paulina are taking care of that, cool

Pam gets the train to start up, Nicky and Paulina manage to hop back into the train, and escape the base's explosion range with about ten seconds to spare :D

After stopping the train in a spot where their braincells could afford to deflate, the girls take a minute or two to breathe y'know, just take a minute to breathe, nibble on some wild raspberries growing in Denali National Park, before figuring out what the hell their next move is.

Vi suggests they tell the authorities about the whole secret-base-under-the-park situation and the treasure room and the stuff inside it (since Luke oh so foolishly gloated to Vi about the treasures being perfectly safe), on top of removing the train so it's not getting up in nature's business. They head back to the car talking about their adventure, get a bit sad that they weren't able to find the Ring of Eternal Love-- and oop just kidding, Vi pocketed it in the treasure room right after Luke dipped :D

So on top of the girls escaping with their lives, not only is Luke gonna lose the Ring of Eternal Love as quickly as he got it, he's also losing his entire treasure vault. Can I get a ripperooni

And that's Legend of the Maze :D

I would say that the hyperfixation-that-consumed-these-girls'-lives-for-a-whole-week energy is very strong in this one in the best way, and the girls' personalities are at their most showcased here. The banter is bantering, the girls' dynamics with each other is very believable here, Vi is carrying the group's braincell the entire time and she looks like she's a bit tired from carrying it but y'know wut she's still willing to carry it because it's honest work and she knows how important it is to have it :3 also her trying to kill Colette's "Romeo and Juliet are so romantic" Santa but failing miserably because Colette unashamedly likes believing in the power of love is hilarious

The main thing I wasn't sure about was.... all the infodumpy bits? The infodump goes a significant bit harder in this book than the previous ones (even more than Compass of the Stars, which is an achievement), and it's Scholastic-style infodumping, so you get the girls calling Luke an "evil mouse" or "selfish mouse" and I'm sitting here like "just call him sewer rat please ya'll had no problems calling him that before please for the love of god use that instead it sounds better--"

Don't even get me started with Amrita Bianchi explaining to the girls what cosplay is like she's the damn Merriam Webster dictionary--

Also the Japan segment with y'know Japanese culture and stuff had the terms localized for some reason??? Like haori became "dark jacket", kimono became "long, elegant Japanese dress", they didn't even mention Ren's hakama (he was wearing a very traditional Japanese look), they felt the need to explain bento boxes as "typical Japanese portable lunch boxes" even though "Japanese lunch box" probably would've gotten the point across just fine and also there was an illustration of the bento boxes, Japanese characters became "logograms" for some reason, and dango became "rice dumplings" which became infinitely more confusing for me because the illustration made it look like takoyaki--

I could go on and on but yeah, there are a lot of these and it felt very infodump-y to me. I'm hoping it's just a translation thing, because the story overall feels pretty solid. Scholastic, what happened to the asterisks? Were they just too much for one page? I feel like you would've been able to squeeze them in just fine to make the reading experience a little smoother,,, just like, so it's an optional thing for the reader to read the mini-infodump of the term if they dunno what it means,,,

Other than that tho I don't think I have much to complain ab--

COUGHS GAGS SCREAMS CRIES WRITHES ON THE FLOOR

(I have the magic-of-friendship-invocation tolerance of an angsty teen I'm sorry :'3)

Scholastic, buddy chum pal buddy chum buddy chum pal,,,,

You could've had Vi say "the only way I got here was thanks to my friends", and it would've been fine and infinitely better-sounding and probably more in-character,,, o<-<

Gahd I hate it when Vi's used as the power of friendship prophet -m-

There's a more minor one as the girls are going back to the car and Vi is telling the girls about the deal Luke offered her, and the girls ask her what she said, and she says "I told him I already had the greatest treasure in the world... true friendship!"

Meanwhile I'm sitting there like "MMMMMGGGGGGHHHHHH 'friends like you' or 'sisters like you' or 'my friendship with you' would've sounded better -m-"

(Also the girls call each other like "friends", so like "you were in fact right, friends", which is like, what happened to "sisters" or "girls" those work perfectly fine and get the girls' close relationship across significantly better than "just friends")

Most of what I'm saying here tho are just nitpicks and probably (hopefully) are just stuff with the English translation-- in all seriousness, the book is pretty good.

Aurora's trail here makes sense and is rather logical, and the interesting thing I find about it is that it feels different from the previous two books' worth of shenanigans. Aurora in this one had far less veers and nation hopping shenanigans, and I feel that it was perhaps intentional. Perhaps to give off finale vibes-- Aurora works far more closely with her sister in this one, and the main thing the girls had to work with was not Aurora's diaries, but the letter she wrote to Linda when they were discussing the Ring of Eternal Love. Something about it feels closer, more intimate, more tragic than the previous ones. I felt the need to put her last to letters in the book verbatim because they were emotional dammit -m- Damn you British Amelia Earhart you've done it again /lhj

Luke's character I think is the strongest here. He gives off in a way the most... normal? Vibes here? He's still not touching grass and muttering to himself ominously a whole lot, but his mindset is nice and easy to wrap your head around here. He literally doesn't care about his goons unless he needs something from them, he is more than happy to overanalyze the crap out of a piece of text if he feels Cassidy didn't look through it thoroughly enough, and he wants what he wants right away, and that includes the things he needs to get the thing he actually wants. He as a character literally observes everything happen from his base in Alaska and backseat gamers the crap out of his goons if he sees something they didn't, or if they fumbled the bag and it was perfectly avoidable had it not been for SM being SM--

Also his blatant disrespect for his great-grandpappy Jan is holy crap haha-- it might just be my cultural background, but when I saw Luke call his great-grandpa "Jan" and then say "you disappoint me, Jan", I was flabbergasted haha, not a criticism I just wanted to mention it because I thought it was funny

I really like the fact that Stan and Max (aka SM) didn't show up at all in this book. It would've been easy to have them show up for regularly scheduled hijinks, but in Luke's mind, none of SM's operations have ever been... up to Luke's standards. Especially with how much of a ruckus they tended to make with their presence, they were more of a liability to Luke than an asset; therefore Luke changing up his strategy to be as hands-off and clean and non-intrusive as possible feels like something he'd do, what with how laser-focused he is on min-maxing efficiency to get what he wants as soon as possible.

Omar still being there despite being "fired" might just be a Scholastic oopsie so I can forgive it, Cassidy is still simping for Luke and trying to impress this man and trying to prove she's at an equal level to him, but every time nah. Just nah. Girlie you think you're on the same level as him, which can't possibly be further than the truth. I haven't seen Miraculous Ladybug, but I'd bet Cassidy has even less of a chance of impressing Luke, than Marinette had a chance at getting Adrien to see her as more than "just a friend" before they finally got together.

Now here's something I've been wanting to ramble about for a while: Violet being left alone instead of Colette. It's actually pretty clever when you think about it: Colette is the closest the girls have to a heart (tho she plays hot potato with Paulina when it comes to that role imo), so she's been the most emotional and the most sentimental of the group this entire time. From daydreaming about Romeo, to wanting to believe in love, to happily picking up a microphone to sing karaoke with the girls, to her strong reactions to having to leave the girls behind one by one for the sake of their mission, Colette was being set up for a moment where she is the one who is left alone. You see it a lot in media: the main character is the most sentimental one and as their friend squad make their way to the Big Bad Evil Guy, the supporting characters are forced to get left behind one by one to either hold the evil minions back or because there's no way for the character to move forward with the MC; so the MC is forced to go through the five stages of grief knowing that their friends trust them to get the job they'd set out to do done. It literally happened in Geronimo's third Kingdom of Fantasy book Amazing Voyage, and in that one Geronimo was the one who desperately didn't want to be alone, but he wound up carrying on alone anyway. You see this kinda thing everywhere.

However, in this bit, it makes total sense that Violet is the one who ends up carrying the last leg of the journey alone instead of Colette. Compared to Colette (and honestly the rest of the girls), Violet is the most level-headed. She's the girls' braincell keeper (in this trilogy), the babysitter holding the leash tied to the four gremlins, the one keeping everyone on track and also making sure that the group's collective ADHD doesn't spiral down as badly as it could possibly be. Whenever the girls make a big move that could affect the whole group, Vi is the one asking if it's a good idea or if it's worth doing, and she's the one thinking ahead enough to say "if x happens instead of y, what then?" You get the idea-- Vi is the most capable of keeping herself level-headed even when she's under all this pressure, and she's good at analyzing and planning on account of her often taking the position of the quiet observer.

With this context, it sort've makes you wonder what was going through Colette's head when she offered to help Violet get out of the air room. Violet and Colette in particular get paired together fairly often, and it's probably because of how well they're able to understand each other-- so with the plan, was Colette volunteering herself to prop the door open out of "it was my idea" courtesy, or was she thinking that maybe Violet would be able to figure things out better and thus needed to get to the other side? She probably was expecting to get to the other side with Vi, but would she have thought far enough ahead to a what-if where that wasn't possible? :3c

And Scholastic and power-of-friendship funkiness aside, Violet did handle the situation well, all things considered. The one bit where she only realized Luke was hers and the girls' only ticket out of there was a bit weird, but it can be chalked up to her not being able to take that into account in the moment because of a mix of stress, sheer bafflement from Luke's deal, and the fact that when put on the spot, observers don't exactly handle taking the driver's seat that well :'D (speaking as an observer myself here)

It makes me wonder a bit if Violet and Luke were meant to be foils of each other, what with how similar they are to each other (both of them being observers and planners who delegate more often than they do the work themselves), yet different enough that the contrast between the two is striking. Said difference being

Violet touches grass. Luke does not :)

Anyway so yeah, that's Treasure Seekers 3, and while it is kinda sad that this is where Treasure Seekers ends, y'know what? It gave a solid show as the last installment in the trilogy. I liked it, I liked the canon compliant blorbo angst, I liked the characters character-ing when the dialogue was letting them breathe :]

And of course, we can't forget

God's sleepiest soldier <3

She deserves that nap after what she went through and you know it--