#crazy how you know these characters mostly by listening to the narrator and yet

[asolitaryrose]

Thronebreaker is such good writing

it would have been easy to portray Meve as this awe-inducing force of nature, badass queen (and don't get me wrong, she is) but it's every time the narrator shows us her moments of weakness - a trembling arm, a shaky breath, tears being blinked back, questioning her decisions - that i truly lose it.

kuddos to the writers for turning me absolutely feral about this woman

[toontails]

Toon Quest|| Reader Insert

Chapter 1: Like an Open Book

Ah...yes. A quiet, quiet neighborhood--oh, hello! I didn't see you all there. Haha, hello. I am your narrator, yes. I know, every convenient film or novel needs one, am I annoying you? Sorry, just getting into the groove, because I have a story for you all today. 

The birds chirped, singing a melody that could repeat in anyone's head hours on end, the warmth of the sun on a summer morning, the dew on the grass waiting to greet people from their sleep, the crisp air that gave that comforting chill to start everyone's morning off. 

A blue bird--a toon bird at that. It's simple look would seem out of place for anyone that doesn't live in this world. You would find it odd to see a dainty blue bird with its blue eyes standing out from any other ordinary bird. Simply--because it's a cartoon, or a Toon as we like to call these guys. 

The bluebird delicately flapped its wings, its eyes closed with a calm expression on its face, soaring over to a house. Where it slowly yet softly placed its talons on a sill of a window, which was closed. The blue bird peered into the window, it could see a girl laying in her bed, asleep. Her back turned from the window and her breathing ever so softly inhaling and exhaling. Sound asleep. 

Ah, it seems little blue birds want to sing a song to wake up our friend. Go ahead little birdie, give us a song.

The bluebird gave an excited expression. Taking in a big inhale, it's chest becoming larger before it lets out a nice melodic loud;

"COCKLEDOODLEDOOOO---!!"

Y/n flinched quickly and shot up, snorting abruptly from her sleep she was so deep into. Her eyes wide open and heart beating in her chest, the sudden noise scared the poor soul!

The bluebird lifted a wing to its beak to hide its from and muffle and snickered mischievously at the reaction. 

Oh, you sneaky little rascal. Well. Now that she's up. Let's get this show on the rode shall we?

-

"Okay. We have 3 tickets for 2PM. But I want to go and get gas first, your dad drained the gas yesterday--" 

Y/n sat in the passenger seat of the car, her mother talking on and on of the 103 things she had accomplished in the day, a busy woman, but she got things done. Music blared through the speakers as she spoke, but Y/n busy scrolling through her phone to pay the woman any mind, which her mother noticed. Glancing at her daughter,  the lady gently jabbed Y/n's ribs, causing Y/n to tense up at the sudden jab and made a small noise at the sudden feeling. 

"Hey-Hey, are you even listening to me?" Her mother smiled at Y/n. Y/n turned her phone off and nodded. "Yes, You were ranting about errands. And your lottery tickets." She said. Her mother had her focus on the road, but the smile was still glued to her face, being able to drag her daughter with her, was a way to spend time with Y/n. The highschool graduate had been busy in the house for most of the time...well...basically relaxing, of course she did things around the house, but the mother wanted to take her daughter to her to work, to experience mother and daughter time. 

"So. What exactly are we going to do today?" Y/n asked. Sitting up in her seat as she watched the builds pass by. 

"Well. I was thinking, maybe a movie? Walk in the park maybe? But, before anything. I have to drop off some paperwork at the studio."

Ah, yes. Y/n's mother worked as a secretary at a studio, not such a big role, nevertheless, it was a job with the big leagues...in a way!

In this particular area, she worked for a company named JoeyDrew, years ago it was formerly known as MeatlyStudios, the company had history, Joey Drew, who was originally the owner, but with many cases on his back for various reasons, that was not classified to the public, but within his arrest the company was given to better hands and care, a man named Henry Stein. 

Y/n had never really stepped foot into the building her mother worked at, of course she knew what shows were produced there as she saw some of them play on television countless times as any other film out there. Living with a world of toons, you were born into a world with Toons and humans and things are normal, so, heating about going to her job didn't raise too much excitement. 

But, it didn't hurt to get a glimpse at the workplace her mother works in. 

"Well, would  look at that--she looks just like you!" 

Starting at the middle aged woman that circled from around the counter with a joyful smile. Y/n's mother gives a welcoming smile to her co-worker and she grabs Y/n's hands and shakes it. The silver name tag, which had the woman's name engraved in the silver with a cartoon horns coming from the bottom read; 'Annie'

"Hey, Annie, I'm just stopping by to drop off these files." Y/n's mother placed a beige portfolio on the counter as Annie gently grabbed Y/n's hand, giving her a firm welcoming shake. Y/n gave a close lipped smile to Annie as the woman mostly had her focus on her. 

"Hi, nice to meet you." Y/n spoke, the lady smiled and nodded. Her hand slipping from Y/n's grasp before placing her hands behind her back, looking at the simplistic formal uniform, Y/n took in the attire, a black blouse and dress pants, but Y/n wasn't paying too much attention to that, she looked at the white pearls that formed a necklace. Annie had turned to look at Y/n's mother as she then started to speak, not paying much attention to their conversation. Instead, she observed her surroundings in the lobby of the studio. Beige carpet, and clear windows to show the parking lot that was being filled by the minute for many interns, animators and other people that work for the industry. 

On the walls were some posters of the many shorts and animated films of Bendy the devil. The main protagonists of the many shorts, and from what Y/n could remember, one of the first characters introduced by Joey Drew and Henry Stein. The fluorescent light made the posters look more alive and exciting. Her optics danced around the studio, before landing on a cardboard cut out--she assumed it was a cardboard cutout. Of Bendy. Not finding much interest in the cutout, she decided to look back over to her mother to see if she was about ready to leave, but seeing Annie and her mother speaking, going over the paperwork in the portfolio. A sudden moment from the corner of her eye caused her to look back over, her eyes landing on the Bendy cutout. The black and white demon only stood there with its famous grin and pie cut black eyes. 

"..." Y/n's slowly looked back at her mother, yet again, and once again. She saw movement. Looking back over to the cut out again, she was astonished to see it was gone. With much confusion, she would have suspected someone for moving it, though, no one seemed to be paying attention to her general direction as it was the early morning and people were too busy doing work. 

A white gloved hand rose from behind Y/n's back and tapped her shoulder twice. Causing her to whip around in the direction to see the person, only to find nothing. 

"What?" She finally spoke up in utter confusion, once again, a white glove rose and tapped her shoulder yet again, repeating the action by turning around, she was once again met with nothing. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She suddenly heard a tsk, glancing to her right. A few inches away from her, stood the all knowing black and white demon, Bendy. Though, living in a world with Toons where obviously Humans and Toons Co-exists. On any other day, or any other everyday toon, seeing one wouldn't be such a surprise, but seeing the star of the company, in the building, as Bendy and the the rest of the cast  weren't exactly in the studio as often as anyone would think, more so being out for the most part--well. Doing their job. Starring as a cartoon in films. 

"Whoa--how did..?" Y/n felt a smile form on her face. She never met Bendy. Or, any of the cast, yes, her mother worked for the studio, but that didn't mean she had the free will and access to meeting anyone she desired that worked with JoeyDree Studios. 

Bendy rose a finger to shush Y/n, his grin expanding her so slightly. 

"Well! I don't see why you're surprised, you're M/n daughter, huh?" He asked. Y/n was still busy looking at the toon, her reply was delayed for a moment, but she replied. Nodding she gave him a toothy smile. 

"Yes. I am."

Bendy gasped, placing his gloved fingers on his mouth. "Well--why I outta--c'mere you!" Bendy extended his arms and pulled Y/n in a hug. Y/n lets out a short laugh before wrapping her arms around the room, feeling him pat her back. After a moment he pulled away, still with the smile on his face. 

"Now, I can say I've met everyone's family." He said. Y/n took a moment to understand what he meant. Putting things together, she assumed he met everyone who worked in the studio building children or other relatives. 

"I'm assuming you were going around to try and meet everyone's family members?" Y/n asked. Motioning towards the people in the lobby--but still motioning forward every one that worked in the studio. Bendy nods. 

"Yes! You see I've met Jacob's 4 sons, Alex, Zachary, Matthew, Isaac, I've met Bethany's 6 nieces, such cute little dolls. I must say so myself, Amy, Sam, Debbie and Anna--" He ranted and went on and on about the many family members he had met, counting on his fingers, so many people he had met that were family members of the workers in the studios, so many, in fact, he already counted his 4 cartoonish fingers and grew a 7th one countings on them!

"--And then there was Mary, her uncle's fathers 3rd cousin who owned a diner down the street. Which he soon gave to her, and there I met her two sons and 2 daughters. Crazy thing is--they're quadruplets!" He tugged at his horns out of excitement that he couldn't seem to contain. Y/n held a smile on her face, listening to him rant, one thing about toons was that some acted exactly how they did on screen. Happy, go lucky, enthusiastic. Of course Bendy more was a mischievous character. But regardless, toons were very animated people--no pun intended. But they were very lively, really, they could bring a smile to anyone's face. 

"And then, I met you. I believe. Is it?" He took a moment to think, tapping his chin in thought as he tapped his foot on the ground. But he quickly regained his original posture. "Yes! The last of it." He answered for himself. 

"Well, it's nice to meet you too." Y/n said. Walking through the double glass door, which got Bendy's attention as he looked over, as well as Y/n. A middle aged man, formally dressed, speaking on a phone walks through the doors. He seemed to be in a busy call as he spoke in a low voice. It was Henry. Who also wasn't exactly seen around the studio as often as he was a busy many running a company, and a studio isn't the only place a businessman needs to be. Usually being in tons of board meetings for different ideas, financial things and much more that was needed for the company to work smoothly. Henry noticed Annie and Y/n's mother. He smiled and waved at them as he pressed a button on the elevator, the two waved back with graceful smiles and went back to their small meeting for...whatever it was they were talking about for the portfolio. 

"Who's that?" Y/n asked. Bendy looked away from the elevator and to Y/n. "Well, Henry of course. He runs this place." Bendy answered. Nodding, Y/n knew of Henry, but never really met him--well she never met him, only heard about him occasionally in her mother's conversation about work. 

"Don't tell him--but I actually run this place." Bendy said, cupping a hand over his mouth as if he were telling the most classified secret ever. But it did cause Y/n to snicker. Suddenly, with the sudden voice of the news lady on the TV that hung from the ceiling stole the two attention. Looking over, the screen showed a lady sitting in the news studio, giving a report. 

"This just in. The book of vida has been reportedly stolen from a storage facility down in Manhattan, this ancient book was supposedly attended to be sent off overseas to the France Museum of Natural History, but unfortunately has been stolen, 2 security guards were guarding the building last night. When at approximately 3AM, a broken glass was heard in the North side of the building, upon investigation, the glass box was broken into and the book of vida was gone. An investigator, Detective Droopy, is now on charge and at the scene."

The screen soon switched to a Toon, which was Droopy the Detective, many interviews where there taking photos, the clicking of the cameras and the bright flashes didn't seem to faze him. Droopy was a notorious detective around town, being one of the first toons to have such an important role as a--'human' job, which would be working in the officer department--a detective. But, he was good at his job regardless...maybe because he was a dog?

He was standing in front of the building that allegedly was robbed, as in any other invertivew, he held a nonchalant expression. 

"Yes, we all know how important this is, the good news is that we have a lead, and I feel that this can quickly give us all our answers on who, what, when and where." He said. From behind him, he pulled out one singular red feather, the auburn frigid plume, the color of the feather similar to the reddish hues of an Autumn season. 

"I can say that this will help us out tremendously, and that's detective talk."

The interview went on in the background as Y/n lost interest in it, recently cases have been occurring around time, with homicides and robberies, for example, the arrest of Joey Drew was one case out of plethora of them. It seemed for the most part, Toons were the ones making these sudden flux of incidents, and lately some people didn't take good eye on how the Toons were portraying themselves. And some still stood beside toons regardless. Bendy had looked away from the TV screen as well, holding his arms behind his back. 

"Well, I didn't expect things like this to go too far." He said. 

"What's a book of Vida?" Y/n asked him, she rarely paid attention to any...politics? Well shouldn't really say the book had anything to do with politics, just simply not really paying too much attention with all the news had been going around specifically case wise, of course she knew the sudden rise and tension that was growing between Toons and humans. It was like a brick wall. 

"It's a book. Or as people that are archeologists would look at is, as a book of prophecy. What's in it? I don't know, it's mostly been transported from different museums. I have heard that it has information about life--which--" he paused for a moment. Tapping his shoe on the floor in thought. 

"It is about life in fact. It's called The Book of Life. Basically I've heard that it holds a prophecy, hero's or whatever, I dunno. I think that's really far fetched if you ask me." He said. Waving a gloved hand as if dismissing the idea. Y/n could understand him. A book speaking about future heros? Yes, far fetched. And...very fantasy like. 

"Alright, that should be all for now." Y/n's mother spoke as she walked over. Looking in her purse for her car keys, obviously making it known it was time to leave. When she looked up and noticed Bendy standing next to Y/n, she smiled. 

"Oh hey, I didn't know you were here too, did you tag along with Henry?" She asked. Bendy once again smiled brightly and nodded at her question. 

"Yes, he's upstairs in a meeting and I decided to stop by with him, glad I did, because I was finally able to meet Y/n!" He motioned towards Y/n. 

"Oh yes, I've tried getting her in here plenty of times, but I'm so busy, I can barely remember anything." 

The two shared a laugh, obviously it wasn't the first time the two met, which would be understandable as Y/n's mother worked in the study and was bound to run into anyone major, like Bendy himself at times.

"Well, I'll leave you two be now!" Bendy smiled and waved goodbye. 

-

Walking out of the studio, and once again feeling the heat of the sun spreading its welcoming warmth to the world after being in the AC for some time. Y/n and her mother walked to the car that was parked, the clouds were making themselves known, making it vaguely obvious that later it might rain. 

"Alright, I'm hungry. Are you?" M/n said, unlocking the car doors with a click of a button, Y/n opened the door to the passenger side and slid in the car. 

"I've been hungry since I woke up." Y/n said. Causing a chuckle to come from her mother. 

"Don't worry, I'll find us something to eat." 

-

The chattering of people in the restaurant was incoherent, plates clattering together, it wasn't as busy seeing it was still in the early morning. Staring down at the menu, as if Y/n didn't know what she was going to order, when really she did. Her mother spoke up. 

"I would bring your dad something to eat when we get back, but I'll let him suffer since he didn't do the Landry last week." M/n said, staring at the menu with squinted eyes. Y/n cracked a small smile. 

"Not even an appetizer?" she asked. 

"Nope, he's good. There's food at home for him."

Y/n could practically hear the crying of her father with no food when they got back home with take out boxes. But she knew she wasn't going to change her mothers mind. 

For a brief second she heard the people in the booth in front of her and her mother, talk about the news segment from this morning--which was barely even an hour ago. 

"I can't believe that a toon went out of their way to steal a book"

"I know right, it's like there are more cases of toons committing crimes than humans."

"Hey mom." Y/n abruptly looked over to her mom and away from the two people talking. Her mother looked away from the menu and to Y/n. Raising an eyebrow. 

"What's the Book of Vida? I've seen it on TV today." She said. Her mother set her menu down before speaking. 

"It's a history book basically, a book of toons and humans, some people around the world see it as a prophecy book, it depends on who you ask." She replied. 

"Why is it so important for someone to steal it?"

She was only replied with a shrug. 

It seemed not many people knew the exact reason for the book, other than it being some sort of history book. 

"There's a woman at work, she used to be a history teacher in High Schools, she told me that the reason why it's important is because it only opens when--I believe she said, a time comes, and when the right person that is part of the prophecy can open it."

Y/n quickly stopped fiddling with the straw for her drink. Perking up slightly in interest. 

"Whoa, so it..only opens for people that are a part of the book?" she asked. Her mother took a moment to think, before she nodded. 

"Yes. But, some people don't believe it. I can't give you too much detail in the book, I don't know much of it myself."  The woman chuckled slightly at the smile on Y/n's face. 

"Bendy told me he heard from someone that the book was about heros."

"Hell, maybe it might be." 

Placing the straw back into the cup, Y/n took a moment to think, information on that book was nice to hear, but, with the sudden tension of Toons and Non-Toons. It was evident now. 

"How do you feel about the toons and some cases revolving around them?" Y/n asked her mother. Her mother gave her an expression, well. More of a dissatisfied one. 

"Y/n. I work with Toons. Anyone that starts going against a toon for making a crime when humans did it for years on end are just dumb as hell, even toons have breaking points." She chuckled. Y/n smiled at her and looked at her drink. 

Her mother went back to looking at the menu for the 5th time they spent that time in the restaurant. 

-

After hours being out, Which needed with M/n having to take a visit to the bank, the two made it home, the sun on the verge of setting, the clouds overtaking the sky, with its various shades of gray, walking into the house, Y/n's mother was on the phone, more likely for it being something that had to deal with work, so she walked off upstairs to her room, to have the call in there. 

Y/n placed the take out bags on the counter, her father was upstairs most likely asleep. Walking over to the couch in the living room, Y/n sat down on the couch and sighed in relief to finally sit down. Feeling the tension in her leg be put at ease from standing and walking around with her mother for hours. Removing her phone from her pocket, and not even a second later, both of her parents came down stairs. Her mother was still dressed in her clothes, and her father was lazily slipping on a shirt. 

"Um--where are you guys going?" Y/n asked. Her father motioned towards her mother. "She's going to work, they just called her in. I'm tagging along, because your mom says so."

"I sure did." Her mother said as she dug through her purse. Taking out another set of keys she placed them on the kitchen counter. "If you're going out to get anything. Here's the keys to your dad's car. Be careful though, it's going to start raining soon--"

"Oh man! What the hell, you guys didn't bring any food for me?!" Y/n's father was searching through the bags, but to avail. Only finding two take out boxes for Y/n and M/n. 

"You'll be fine. Get to the car." M/n ushered her husband out the door in a hurry, who groaned heavily. Y/n only smiled and shook her head slowly. 

"Oh, and take the trash out. We'll be back soon!"

And with the closing of the door, the two left out. Y/n leaned back into the couch, letting the silence engulf her. Too silent.

Her parents were always busy, working that is. For the most part it was only Y/n at home for half the time, filling most of her days with just herself, her neighborhood was small, and mostly filled with kids, as Y/n was 18, and didn't exactly want to spend half her day with 8 and 15 year olds. Not that she had anything against them. 

Slipping off her shoes, Y/n decided to take out the trash later, instead, feeling a familiar fatigue start to rush through her. Taking her shoes, she stood up and walked upstairs towards her room. Once opening her door and closing it. She tossed her shoes to the side and sat down on her bed where she placed her phone on the nightstand. Crawling onto the bed, she finally laid down and pulled the blankets over her to sleep. 

Or. Try to sleep. The sudden shuffle from the side of her room caused her to open her eyes. Sitting up, she looked over to her shoes to see if they had maybe fallen over. But they were still in the same tossed position. One upside down and the other upright. 

"..."

Shuffle shuffle

This caused Y/n to quickly hop from the bed with a gasp. Standing next to her night stand where she quickly grabbed a dictionary she used in English back in high school. Holding it tightly to use it as some sort of weapon, she looked around the room, and finally over to her window, where she found the little blue bird from this morning trying to get out of the room. But the window pane was too low for him to escape. 

"Oh...it's just you.." Y/n muttered. The blue bird looked at her with its big eyes before looking back at the window. Obviously signalling her for help, which Y/n took heed of. She walked over to the window, and slid it open for the bird. It was already raining outside. The bird must have gotten in a while ago out of curiosity. The bird chirped in happiness before flying through the window, turning back to Y/n to look at her through the window. It waved one wing at her before flying off. Y/n waved back as well. Closing the window to not let the now cool air in. Y/n turned around to return the book back to her nightstand. But she came nose to beak with a toon. 

"AAAAH!"

"AH!"

Y/n quickly tossed the dictionary onto the intruder, causing it to fall on the toon's face. Who fell backwards and onto the floor. Y/n quickly back into the wall. Glueing her back to the corner as she watches the person. The toon had its hands on its beak. 

"AH-ow-ow--Ah! ¡¿Qué te pasa mujer?!" He spoke...spanish. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows, her heart beating in her chest. What?? What was going on? 

"Who are you?! Why are you in my room?!" Y/n shouts. But the toon didn't answer. Instead, stayed still on the ground. Hands covering its beak, which was mostly its face. 

Taking a longer look, Y/n took note of it's auburn feathers, its beige sombrero was large, it resembled a rooster, a mexican rooster. He wore a red barlo jacket, with golden lining, and red charlo pants with spurs. He had on a belt, and what took Y/n by surprise were the gun holsters on his sides , packed with two 8 caliber pistols. This caused Y/n to gasp lightly and further take a step back. Taking caution of the Toon. The rooster removed his hand from his beak. Leaning back on his elbows as he looked around the room and soon his eyes landed on Y/n. 

"I know this s-"

"Why are you in my house? Who are you?!" Y/n watched as the rooster slowly heaved himself off the floor, he took off his sombrero and dusted it off before placing it back on his head. He raised his hands to show he didn't have anything dangerous on him, though he didn't seem to notice the pistols in his holster. 

"Mi señora, I mean no harm. You see my name is Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González IIl." He then raised a finger. 

"But, you can just call me Panchito, or Francisco! Either is fine, but I am here because this--" he pulled off the red book bag that Y/n didn't know he was wearing until then. Opening the bag. He pulled out a book. Black leather book. With golden lining. With words engraved on it in gold. 

'Libro de la vida'

Under it, it was small, it was embralled into the book, in white. 

'Book of Life'

Wait...it made sense. Y/n looked back at Panchito, the color of his feathers. Red. He stole the book. 

"You're the one who stole it?" Y/n said quietly. But enough for him to hear. He slightly lowered the book. 

"Yo no diría robar...I simply took something that will save mankind." He defends. 

"You see. Libro De La Vida, is a book of the present. It picks who will make a right change! Ah,No puedo explicarlo, excuse my English, I am not very good at it, but. This Book--" he lifts it up once again. 

"Is powerful. It has the answers for all sorts of bad things that people want to get their hands on. Genocide!"

"I-what? Genocide?" Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. And Panchito took that as a bad sign that he used the wrong term. 

"AH, lo siento, I think I have used the wrong term, what is the term you use for when someone wants to wipe out an entire species?" He asks. Y/n blinked slowly. 

"That's...that's genocide."

"Well then yes! Genocide!" He snapped his fingers with a smile. 

"Wait-wait-wait. So you're meaning to tell me. You stole a book--broke into my house, to tell me about a fantasy book--"

"It is no fantasy book. This book leads us to people--people that are..chosen to help us, mi amigo! No other person can open this book. But me, and you, and whoever else says it is worth opening it. I know it sounds fantical--but you have to believe me, see. Look." He opened the book quickly, and almost immediately, it shot out of his hands and flew towards Y/n's direction, jabbing her in the torso. Knocking the wind from her. 

 "Ow!" Y/n wheezed and held onto her torso, now seated on the ground from the impact. The book was now on the ground as well. It flipped through the pages as if wind was circling in the room. It landed on a page. It's blank yellowish paper soon filmed with a name in cursive. 

'Y/n L/n'

Y/n stared at the page. In..awe. Astonished. Confused. Excited? Mixed emotions turning into inner turmoil, this was real. The page gave a faint glow. Soon. Panchito slowly walked over. Cautious of Y/n not to scare her. He soon sat down beside her. 

"Look." He said. He grabbed her wrist and pressed her palm into the page. Removing her hand, her hand print was seen in ink.

"You are the only human that has access to the book of Vida."

"Why the only? There aren't other people?" She asked. 

"The book is a story, of history, of the past, present and future. It spoke about 8 hero's, or warriors, one of these 8 hero's, was a human. And in this--"

He motioned around the two.

"Generation. You. Are that human."

Eight, heros in total. That includes Panchito and Y/n. 

"So...if it opens for you and me..where are the other 6?" She asked. Panchito hummed before tapping his finger to his beak. 

"No tengo ni idea, I do not know. The book has led me to you, I will think that as time passes, it will collect energy to track down the rest." He says. Y/n was thinking of 101 things, questioning everything. Staying silent for a moment she found the most reasonable question. 

"How did you know you were a part of the book?" She asked him. Panchito perked up slightly. 

"A dream, more of a vision, but It was a reoccurring vision I've had for years, I've always dreamed of various people, but they were.." He tried to think of a best term for his analogy. 

"Shadows! And, the book. Right here.  When I found out it sailed here to America, I traveled here." He seemed to pride in his short adventure safely to America, Panchito felt that he never really had done anything as important as to seek out a book that could have not given him answers all along. His adventure was purely based on a vision that he had, he didn't seem to see the problem, but Y/n did. A vision? Making an entire trip to another country, just because of a vision. If the book was just a fib and nothing more than an actual history book. The trip would have been for nothing. 

She was about to open her mouth to speak, but Panchito quickly stood up and took a hold of her hand to shake. 

"But! It's a pleasure to meet the first person in this group mi amigo! Tú y yo formaremos un buen equipo cuando trabajemos juntos para encontrar a los demás!" Y/n let's put a small laugh that sounds wobbly from the hasty hand shake. Panchito soon pulled her off the floor to stand her up next to him. Both around the same height, the toon only inches taller than her. 

Y/n picked up the book and opened it once again. Flipping through the pages, some were blank and others were filled with different languages, and odd pictures, that Y/n  was pretty sure could explain something. 

"You were on the news this morning Panchito." Y/n closed the book and looked over at the rooster. He looked at her for a moment in confusion, before understanding what she said. 

"Oh yes! Ah. My poor feather." He turned his lower part to the side slightly to show her two of his auburn feathers. "One of the guards almost grabbed onto me. And they pulled my feather." He said. But he didn't seem too worried about the fact that he..indeed committed a crime. Or he probably did and he didn't seem to really care. 

"No. This is serious. They are looking for this book, for whatever reason." Y/n paced the room. Staring down at the leather black book. Panchito watched her with his arms by his side. 

"This doesn't make any sense. What is it that's in danger, and why does the government want this book so badly. It can't be just to put up in a museum." 

"We should find the others!" Panchito said, more of an announcement. Y/n turned back to him, he picked up the book once again, and grabbed Y/n's wrist before he started over to her room door to exit. But Y/n tugged her arm away. "Whoa--no."

He turned around with a puzzled expression as he looked at her. 

"No?"

"If you came from a different country, entirely different from where I am. What makes you think any other person would be in the same area here?" She asked. 

"Aha! Mi señora, I've sailed here. You can come with me, surely it's better than sitting here all day." He said. Y/n ignored the fact he assumed she slouched around all day, but she shook her head. 

"I can't just up and leave. Not out of state or the country-"

"Well maybe around town?"

"At 7PM? It's raining."

"Ah...you are very good with excuses!"

"I'm not m--no. We can't go anywhere. You're a fugitive now."

"But they don't know my face!"

"They have your feather. They can easily track you down with that simple thing of evidence called DNA. Or whatever they'll use to know who you are. But whatever it is. You're wanted. A wanted bird--"

"Oooh. I wonder if a bounty hunter will put money on my name. Son of a gun! I've always wanted that to happen to me, it'll be a brawl till we see gore!"

Y/n placed a hand on her face and rubbed her temple. 

"We. Can't. go--"

"Oh please. The rest are Toons! The rest of the team should be fairly simple to find. You were the hardest to track down, my friend."

"I'm the only person you tracked d-"

The book abruptly flew from Panchito's grips. Causing him to look down at his hands in surprisement. The book flew past Y/n. She quickly turned around and saw the book shot straight through the window. Shards of glass broke, the sound of glass breaking echoed. Cutting the two from their back and forth of bickering on what they should do next.

CRASSH--CRACK!

the book floated in the dark of night. A golden glow illuminated from the book. Panchito and Y/n stared at the book in awe and utter disbelief. What? What is it doing?

Soon. The book quickly dashed off, the only thing being seen was the erradecents of the glow, trailing down the street. It was a trail. 

"It's a trail…"  Y/n muttered slowly. 

"A trail! It's leading us somewhere!" Y/n grabbed her shoes and ran past Panchito. 

"Let's go!"

She stomped down the stairs, jogging over to the kitchen counter, she took the car keys her mother gave her, Y/n unlocked the front door and ran outside. Panchito followed in suit--obviously not forgetting to close the door behind him. 

The rain pelted at the two, but Y/n slipped in the car as well as Panchito--who took the passenger side. 

"See, things are working well in our favor." Panchito said with a smile. 

"Let's hope it actually leads us somewhere." Y/n said. Turning the keys in the ignition. And backing out of the driveway, before safely driving down the road. 

Unbeknownst of the two. A silhouette watched the car descent down the street. It's gaze looking over and landing on the window that was broken that the book had caused. 

-

The black double doors opened up to reveal Henry, who walked in the lobby, Annie was still on Duty, she gave a small nod to Henry with a smile, M/n was standing at the desk filling out paperwork. Too busy to really pay much attention to Henry. 

Over up on the 3rd floor. Was Bendy. He was still waiting for Henry to finish his work. Much to his luck. He was nowhere near finished. Sitting in one of the smaller meeting rooms to look out the window, he was sitting in a chair when he noticed. A glowing spark in the distance. He assumed it was a bright star despite the clouds covering up the majority of the stars in the sky. But, nevertheless. He opened up the window to take in the view of the odd star. But it got closer and closer. But the devil didn't seem to take much heed on it. 

He picked up noise at the bottom of the building. Causing him to gaze down and see figures hopping out of the car and into the building. But due to the lack of light because of the nightfall and being 2 stories up. He pushed that aside. 

But, almost immediately, something slammed into his face. He flew off the seat and onto the floor, rolling over in a few summersaults before landing on his back. A book pressed into his face. 

"...."

His tail twitched as he let out a painful wheeze from the harsh impact. He slowly raised a wobbly hand. And took the book off of his face. His dark eyes squinted at the leatherback book. 

"What….?"

-

Meanwhile, Panchito and Y/n were about to barge into the building. But Y/n skidded to a stop. Placing a hand out in front of Panchito, thankfully he stopped as well. He took a moment to examine the 5 storey building. The glass, the gray and black color scale, he was pulling from his examination by looking back at Y/n when she started to speak. 

"We can't just barge in. My mom works here. Plus. That'll give away we have the book." She said. Before quickly adding. "We also can't have you out in the opening, cops knowing your face now or not, we can't risk any thing.." Y/n stared at the glass door once moving over to the side where they wouldn't be seen. Panchito and Y/n stood under a lamp post. 

"We sneak." He gave out the idea with a grin slowly forming on his beak. Y/n stared at him for a moment. "Sneak in? There's at least 10 or so people in the lobby, this is a studio. We can't just walk in whenever we want." Y/n tried to dismiss the idea, she was rarely ever in the studio. Today was her first day, she didn't know the layout nor the where any room was located, it would be noticeably harder to navigate around the building to find the book. 

"Ah, every building has an emergency exit, chica."  He moved his eyebrows up and down, as if sending a hint towards the idea, even though basically stated it. 

She looked back at him. Well...of course! The backdoor!

"Oh. I forgot about the emergency exit."

"Thank me later, now, ¡Adelante!"

-

The exit sound that illuminated the dim area glistened and glamored, basically calling out the two to its glow. Panchito lifted a foot and shook his talon. The water from the puddle he stepped in. Flickered everywhere. Causing some of the water droplets to land on Y/n. She shielded her face and a small laugh came from her. 

"Now." He walked over to the door, and with swift motion, pushed it open, he walked in the building and held the door open for Y/n, who walked in. 

"Thank you." She said. Slowly trailing off, Y/n looked at their surroundings. Panchito did as well. The door slowly closed behind the two, it echoed down the hallway. A black carpet under their feet, soaking up the water and white walls. Though Panchito wasn't facing the direction Y/n was. He placed his hands on his hips. 

"Hm, odd. Muy extraño…" he muttered under his breath, looking at the emergency exit door. Y/n looked over her shoulder to Panchito before turning around to face the door as well. 

"What?" She asks him. 

"Correct me if I'm wrong. But--Is this door not supposed to work as an emergency system? Should it not have an alarm system?" He asks. Y/n stared at the door for a mere moment. 

"Now that you said something about it y-"

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

The two jumped at the sudden sound of the alarm going off. Three beeps would omit before going silent for a split second, before the 3 beeps would occur once again. 

"God-lee! I thought I fixed this damn thing!" A voice echoed from the hallway and set of footsteps. Y/n quickly turned around towards the stairwell where she saw a shadow of someone ascending down. 

"Here--" Panchito grabbed Y/n's wrist and quickly ushered her and himself over behind the staircase. Y/n quickly pressed her back towards the corner. Behind the stairwell, as Panchito stood in front of her. Though, curiously. He peeked from behind the staircase. Y/n didn't notice as she was busy dusting away her shirt from the dust invading the air. Obviously the emergency stairwell was neglected for cleaning. When she spotted Panchito peeking to look at the man. Y/n shuffled over as well. Peering under Panchito to look at the man. His back was turned. But he wore a gray button down, a few ink spots painted on the shirt. Jeans and boots. In his free hand, he held a mop. He obviously was the janitor. A head of brown slick hair, it only took a couple of smacks to the panel that operated the fire alarm for the emergency exit to stop abruptly with its beeping. 

Once the hallway went silent. He turned around, the two ducking back behind thr stairwell before they could be seen. Y/n couldn't get a glimpse of the man's name tag. Not that she really cared too. 

"I swear if that thing goes off one more time this week, I'm outta here.." He muttered back up to floor level. Listening to his footsteps ascend further away, and soon another door closing, echoing throughout the hall. The sound of water droplets hitting the concrete floor in the distance wherever in the hallway. As well as the AC that filled the odd ambience of the hallway. 

Soon Panchito and Y/n exited from behind the stairwell. 

"So much for a discreet plan." Y/n said before giving Panchito a sarcastic expression. But nevertheless, he only smiled. 

"We've made it inside the building, have we not?" He gave her a smile, which. He was right. At the end of the day, the two still made it in the building without getting caught. 

Y/n turned and started walking up the stairwell, Panchito following behind her. 

"Now we need to locate the book. It could be anywhere in this place. I saw it fly through a window but I couldn't catch what floor it was." Y/n went on, reaching the 3rd floor. Hearing Panchito's footsteps near her as she peered through the small window into the hallway, seeing a few doors were closed on the other side of the hallway, a few people walked down the hall to wherever they were going. The sound of muffled music emitted from down the hall, a tune that was vaguely from the early 40's. The room must have not been too far if the two could hear the cheers and singing. 

"Ooh--I love parties." Panchito pushed up the door, and immediately walked out of. Y/n quickly grabbed his tail feather and tugged on it to pull him back. 

"No! You'll get us caught!" She whispered to him hastily, Panchito cringed in pain at the tug, he whipped around and grabbed at her wrist. 

"¡Ah, cuidado con las plumas de la cola, chica!" Y/n couldn't understand what Panchito said, but she was glad it stopped him from wandering off. The two stood in the doorway of the now opened door in the empty hallway. 

"We can't just wander everywhere." She said. Panchito shuffled on his feet, he wanted to explore where the cheering was coming from,  but he stayed glued next to Y/n.

"Can we at least take a peek at the gathering?" He asks. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. "That's not giving us any answers--"

Just as she was about to more than likely prove Panchito wrong. A voice from the room a few doors down spoke up. 

"Hey! Henry, you finally made it. Where's Bendy?"

"He's in one of the meeting rooms, last I checked on him, he was reading. Oddly. He should be down soon."

Y/n and Panchito stared at each other, both seemingly trying to put two and two together. 

"Are you..?"

"I think we may be on the same page." Y/n finished, turning in the opposite direction to peer down the hall. "I'm taking a safe guess Bendy found the book, we just need to find him." Y/n said. Panchito hummed in thought. Placing a hand on his hip. 

"Bendy...you mean the--" he lifted his hands to the side of his head, lifting his index fingers to form two horns on the side of his head. Y/n looked at him, and the silly interpretation of the cartoon demon.  With a smile. She nods.

"Yes, him. Though, I don't know how many rooms are on this floor. So he'll be a bit tough to fi-"

The door from across from them opened. Revealing the demon, his eyebrows stitched together in a more perplexed and irritated expression. In his hand he held a book, the book! That was their book! Bendy was muttering under his breath, but abruptly stopped in his tracks and when he spotted Y/n and Panchito in the emergency exit. His slanted black pie cut eyes that were one resembling an angry and irritated expression. Immediately widened in surprise when he saw the two. Mostly towards Panchito as he had never seen him before. 

Y/n didn't expect to be seen so quick--which...wasn't much of a surprise as she wasn't an expert in sneaking in areas she wasn't supposed to be in. 

"Oh...Hey...Bendy.." Y/n smiled and lifted a waved. Panchito looked between the two.  

"Ah. A demon? I was thinking he was more of a bull." Panchito said. 

"I didn't know you were here today, I thought you went home." Bendy walked over to the two, but Y/n didn't want anyone to walk out and spot the two--mostly for Panchito's sake. 

"It's a long story, but. We need that--" Y/n pointed towards the book in his gloved hands. Bendy looked down at it. "Oh! This? I was just about to toss this away, it hit me in the face and--"

"Ah! It hit you? Well that--" Panchito was cut off when Y/n grabbed Panchito's jacket, pulling him back into the emergency stairwell. And closing the door quickly. Bendy looked at the two through the door in confusion. 

"Y/n! Can you believe it? We found the other, a bit less intimidating if you ask me, but nevertheless, he is a part of our equipo." Panchito hopped from one foot to the other, a small cheer. Y/n ran a hand through her hair and sighed. Bendy? Out of all people the book could have chosen. It chose the one person that worked in the same facility as her mother. What if he didn't take it well? What if he destroyed the book? What if he tells the cops about who had the book, which would not only get Panchito in trouble but also herself as she was literally helping the rooster out! 

Things she should have thought over, biting off more than what she could chew. 

Panchito noticed Y/n's distressed expression. He took a few steps towards her and placed a hand on her arm. 

"Ah, cariño, don't be stressed, all will work out fine, okay? Things are a bit sudden and bumpy,  but look! Two in one day!" He extended his arms and smiled. Y/n felt the corner of her lips stretch in a smile. Calming down and melting away the problems...for now. 

Looking over. Bendy was still standing outside the door. 

"Alright. We need a meeting then."

-

The three stared down at the leather book that was laying on the meeting table, it seemed now lifeless after flying through the neighborhood. 

“So…” Bendy removed his gaze from the book and to Y/n and Panchito. 

“Explain to me, what’s going on?” 

“I mean...I thought it would be self explanatory, a book just hit you in the face and you’re coming to me for answers?” Y/n muttered under her breath. Bendy only looked at her, at first with a blank expression, until he seemingly furrowed his ‘eyebrows’ 

Deciding on to stop fooling around and actually try to get to the bottom of the raising questions, Y/n glanced over at Panchito. Who was looking at Bendy, more curiously than anything else. 

“This book, we talked about it this morning.” Y/n said, turning to look back at Bendy. Bendy’s expression softened before a look of realization appeared on his face, his black pie-cut shaped eyes looked over at Panchito, who noticed the demon looking at him, Panchtio smiled and waved. 

“He had the book--or--stole it.” Y/n said, motionion towards Panchito, he only frowned, turning to face towards Y/n and crossing his arms. 

“No! Why must you say I steal? I never steal, I simply took something that didn’t belong where it was.” Panchito dropped the last sentence to a mumble, almost as if sleepily saying it. Y/n only turned her gaze back to Bendy. 

“Either way, that’s the book, it flew away, because it’s looking for people that revolve around the book, or the..prophecy. I know this sounds far fetched and crazy, and...illegal? Bu-”

“I’ve been hit in the face by a flying book, I don’t think anything we’re about to discuss is too out of this world.” Bendy said. He picked the book up and once again examined it. His gloved fingers feeling the texture of the leather book against his fingers. 

“Well, apparently...the book only opens up to people that are a part of the book, it opened for me and Panchito, and I’m assuming that if it flew to you and tracked you down, you’re the next member to...whatever..this is.” She motions towards the three of them. Panchito then nods, raising a hand to interject. 

“Indeed! Y/n, is the only human that can access the book, as it says in the wordings of the book, the rest are toons. In all. There are eight of us.”

“8?” Bendy repeats, he seemed surprised by the number, his tail slowly lifting up. Panchito nods once again. 

“Sí, señor--”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Bendy interrupts Panchito. Waving a hand slightly, Bendy closes his eyes to think for a mere moment. He raises a pointer finger before looking between Y/n and Panchito. 

“Why..exactly is the book looking for people, how would we find the rest of the team? I would ask why exactly us specifically are involved around this, but I can tell, I won’t get a good answer from that, but that’s besides the point,  but why is Y/n the only human involved in this, and what exactly is it that’s...bad for this thing to try and suddenly wake up and choose heroes for whatever reason?” Bendy lifts up the book slightly. Y/n listened to him, but she had no answer on her because...well she didn’t know, for the most part, those were the same questions she was internally asking herself! 

So, she turned her head to look over at Panchito. Who with no problem, took the lead in asking. 

“The book leads us to the people it is looking for, why and what it is that it’s warning us about, I do not know! Why us specifically? I also can not tell you, because I don’t know.” He said. Bendy looked back at the book. Y/n motioned towards it, having a small hunch of one of the questions.

“When I touched the book...I guess in a way, signed it, as if taking my signature, which I guess signaled it that I was found, maybe if you touch the book as well it’ll do the same for you.” Y/n said. Bendy opened the book, the golden light that was one seen before escaped from the crevices of the book, The debri sparkles floating from the pages. Bendy’s eyes widen in bewilderment and surprisement. The three stared down at the book, the golden glow illuminating from their faces. 

Bendy had opened up on a blank paper, soon, his eyebrows furrowed yet again.

“It’s blank. I don’t---I don’t think it works for me.” He said before deadpanning. Looking between the two as if they were pulling his leg. Y/n could only shrug slowly. Panchito waved his hand and spoke. “Nonsense. As said, the book only opens for people that are chosen, it’s like a safe, and only the chosen people are the code to it, my friend, if it opened up for you, you are with us.” Panchito then rose his gloved hand, showing his palm. 

“Ahora, place your hand on the page.” He told Bendy, Bendy did as told, holding the book with his left hand, and placing his right palm on the blank paper, soon, the golden light traced around his hand, similar to what it did for Y/n’s. Bendy soon lifted a hand up, seeing his hand printed labeled the paper in ink. The same ink soon scrawled a name above the hand print. 

‘Bendy’ 

“Dear me…” Bendy whispered slowly, flipped a page quickly to the next, One that Y/n had yet to discover, though it was written all in a language she couldn’t understand, but pictures were drawn in what seemed to be red and black pigment paint on the beige paintings. Similar to how cave paintings were drawn. Panchito and Y/n moved closer to get a better look at the pictures, Bendy tilting the book so the three of them could examine it. 

On the first page was a picture of 12 people in all, they all seemed to be jumping towards the 8 black figures, the black figures had white thin slanted angles, as if resembling resentful and angry eyes.  Looking over to the next page, it showed the 8 black figures once again, One stood out from the 8, standing in front of the group, a lanky figure, but...really considering the fact that it was in all black, the features weren’t exactly too noticeable. But the picture had a lot going on, the 8 figures were hovering above what seemed to be a city, with figures of red pigment running away  in fear, it seemed the 8 black figures were terrorizing the people, Bendy turned to yet another page, on the page the 12 blue figures were standing next to each other, one vaguely similar to a human and the rest had the exaggerated details of toons. 

“I think you two have the wrong idea.” Bendy said, it took Y/n a moment to look away from the book. Glancing at Bendy who looked between Panchito and Y/n.  

“There aren’t 8 of us, there’s 12 of us.” He said. Y/n scoffed. 

“Twelve?! That will take years to find twelve different people. He--” She jabbed a thumb over to Panchito, pointing at him.

“Came from Mexico to find us, god knows wherever the others are located, we’re basically split apart. Eight people? Yeah, that seemed like a reasonable number, but twelve? No. I’m out.” Y/n crossed her arms, a scavenger hunt for now, 9 other people? Who were the even up against, it pretty much seemed like a suicicde job already, a stolen book, a wanted rooster, a telltale book that’s some sort of warning for some odd future armageddon. Red flags were everywhere! 

Bendy closed the book and straightened his posture. 

“Whoa, whoa. What do ya’ mean you’re out? This--” He lifts up the book slightly.

“This is our guide, our time to do right and-gosh. I assume it will stop something from happening that will be a problem to--oh, I don’t know. All of mankind! You’re a part of this as much as Panchito and I.” Bendy says. Panchito nods firmly in agreement, taking a step forward and standing next to the demon.

 “¡Sí! He is right, chica! We all have to stick together.” 

Y/n looked between the two, her eyebrow twitched slightly before furrowing. 

“Are you serious? Do we look like the Justice League or something?” 

Panchito actually took a moment to think.

“I was thinking more along the lines of--” 

Y/n shook her head, dismissing Panchito’s thought to her rhetorical question. “It doesn't matter. But think about the danger we could be in, Bendy, you have shows to star in, you can’t just go missing to play superhero for...lord knows how long, and Panchito--”

“Actually.” Bendy cut her off, taking a few steps towards her before standing next to her.

“I’ve been meaning to take a vacation off, toots. Thanks for that advice though,  real sweet of ya. But, we have things to do, now I don’t mind dragging you around if need be.” He smiled sweetly at her. Y/n deadpanned. 

“That’s not funny.” 

“This is serious talk Y/n, the world as we know it might be at stake.” Bendy motions around their area. 

“Might be. It’s more than likely not a serious call, this stupid old book is probably broken.” Y/n flicks the book with the tip of her fingers in Bendy’s hand. Panchito suddenly appeared behind the two, wrapping an arm around Bendy’s and Y/n’s shoulders. Pulling them flushed against his sides.

“My friends! Think of this this way, endless possibilities and adventures, don’t you all want to feel the rush of the wind as we take off to go solve this mystery?” He looks between the two, letting the two go. A bright yet determined smile on his beak, he seemed to run from adrenaline, a wild hearted toon that yearned for wild things, to him this was exciting, brand new. Exhilarating! 

Bendy looks at Panchito and then to Y/n. “See? He’s in, and I am too.” Bendy placed his gloved hand in the middle, his palm facing downward. Panchito hopped up and down quickly.

“Ay caramba! ¡Yo también quiero participar! I am certainly in!” He placed a hand on top of Bendy’s, Bendy’s smile widened before both he and Panchito looked at Y/n, who had her arms crossed, a sour expression written on her face, although it was much of a facade, she did...want to join. Not only was it a chance to finally do something productive--if she would even call it that. But she would break down the mystery of all that’s going on. As detective Droopy would say. The why, the when, and the where? She thinks it...it..wouldn’t hurt, they technically aren't breaking the law by wielding a book that is being searched for, not when it was for a good reason? Right? 

“Come on...you know you want to.” Bendy mischievous tone interrupts her. Y/n sighed slowly. Placing a hand on top of Panchito’s who once again excitedly smiled at her. 

“Fine. I’m in too. If one of us is wanted, then we all are.” She said. Bendy smiled and let out a boisterous. 

“And if one of us dies, we all die together! Oath!” 

“Oath!”

“Oa-wait no--” 

But the three already tossed their hands up, taking the oath that Y/n was too late to decline for. Bendy could tell she was about to say something, but he only smiled and walked back over to the meeting table. 

“Now, let’s see where the next one is!” 

-

Annie was back at the front desk, seated in the chair scrolling through her phone to pass the time as the studio would be running late since Henry was back in the building. Soon, a figure walked through the door. Wearing a heavy black trench coat, the finest coat in town it seemed, the water droplets from the rain stuck to the trench coat, the black boots tapping yet squeaking on the linoleum floor, A black fedora tilted down, covering the face of the man, who stopped directly in front of the receptionist desk. Annie took notice, and she gazed up, turning off her phone and placing it on the desk, she stood up and smiled. 

“Hello, what may I do for you today?” She asks. The man was silent for a moment.

“It’s me you dingus, I just sent you in here.” The voice was a husky yet deep voice. The blue eyes piercing at the lady.  Soon Annie lost her posture, slouching slightly. Her voice changed, turning several octaves, a shrill and jagged voice emitted from her. 

“Oh right, I don’t see why ya’  didn’t just walk in, the broad wasn’t even around, no one woulda’ suspect a thing.” Annie’s body morphed in and quickly dropped to the ground, only leaving a shadow that quickly zipped out of the receptionist desk, stopping right next to the man. Soon a short figure morphed into what could assemble a toon shadow. Only standing around half the height of the man. 

“Go find the book. And take it.” The man ordered the shadow. The shadow stood stiff as a board before quickly saluting the man.

“Yes sir!” And soon, it zipped away, only seeming like a shadow on the floor zipping across the room. The man looked forward, only to look back over to his side when he saw the shadow zipped right back to him. The shadow sheepishly nudging the tip of its foot to the ground.

“Ah, who has the book again?” 

“The girl and those two other idiots you fool!” 

“Ah! On it!” 

And once again the shadow zipped away. The man muttered under his breath shaking his head in annoyance,

“I don’t even know why I even deal with those two idiots…” He muttered. Soon, lifting a hand and pressing a hidden black button on the color of his trench coat jacket. 

“Zot, come in. Zip just left to find the book. Is the toon still with you?” The man spoke into the two way radio. 

-

From outside the two way radio reached to a black van, from inside thumping was heard, as if someone was hitting the inside of the van. Sitting in the driver seat was another stout shadow like toon, it’s blank eyes were closed, feet propped up on the steering wheel, he was asleep. Snoring ever so slightly, until he heard his commander speak on the radio. The static picking up the man in the trench coats voice. 

“Zot, come in. Zip just left to find the book. Is the toon still with you?”

Zot--as he was referred to. Flinched quickly got up once hearing the voice. Quickly taking the walkie talkie, as it almost slipped from his hands multiple times. Zot soon spoke. 

“Yes sir! The lil’ guy is still back there.”  Zot stood up in his seat, placing a hand on the metal peephole slider, sliding it over and revealing a black abyss that was the back of the van. 

“Hey...where’d he go…?” Zot muttered. Clenching the eye he wasn’t using as his blank white optic stare hardened to try and find the toon. 

PPPPPFFFT!!

The droplets of saliva fell in his eye, causing Zot to flinch back and his head to hit the steering wheel. 

Honk!

The air horn went off at the touch of the shadow toons head on the wheel. Zot quickly got up. Lifting a hand and flicking a button on the roof of the van. The lights came on in the back of the vam, where the hostage toon was located. 

“Nice try, bunny.” Zot scoffed. 

From the other side of the van. Sat a black and white rabbit, with blue trousers. His pie cut shaped eyes slanted, his arms crossed tighty. 

“I’m a rabbit! For your information.” 

“Same thing.” 

This rabbit was known as Oswald the Lucky rabbit. A peculiar and mischievous character. Zot laughed and then sat back down in his seat. 

“What’s the matter rabbit boy? Your luck is not much of a help? Seems like you’re runnin’ out of it.” Zot placed his feet back onto the steering wheel. Oswald got up. His ears slowly rose as he stared at the peephole. 

“My luck is very much accurate, and good. Thank you very much..” He said. Zot only hummed in acknowledgment. 

“Whatever you say. Boss’ll get that book, and the next thing you know, his plan will be in full action.”

“Where’s the book?” Oswald asks, leaning near the peephole. Zot motioned towards the building, that Oswald couldn’t see.

“The building. Don’t get your tail in a twist, you’ll see it soon.” 

-

“Okay, let’s see what this bad boy will do…” Bendy places the book on the table. And opened it yet again. The book once again opened, the golden glow escaping from the pages, illuminating the room with its warm glow. Soon, the pages started to flip quickly, turning towards the middle of the book, a world map was located on the page. 

“A map?” Y/n squints at the paper. 

“Well, amigos. It is a map, perhaps it will help lead us to our next destination.” Panchito said, reaching over and flipping the page. At first the next page was blank, until an ink sketch of the U.S. was drawn. The ink splitting up to draw down the states in the country. 

One state was completely covered in blank, as it marked. Or, targeted. 

“Oregon?” Y/n whispered. Bendy looked closer to the paper with squinted eyes. Near the coast of Oregon, a red down bled through, as if marked by a dot. Bendy could mesmerize exactly where exactly to go.

“Duckburg.” He said. Y/n and Panchito looked at him. Though, Y/n hadn’t said anything yet. A quick look of realization quickly took over his face.

“Ah!  ¡Oh, sí! ¡Oh, sí! ¡Oh, sí! ¡Qué buen trato! ¡Estoy muy emocionado! ¡Mi amigo, mi honorable amigo! Donal'” He screamed and yelled in passion of excitement. Hopping up and down, his arms wrapping around Y/n, causing her to hop around with him. But she placed her arms on his forearms.

“Wait! Wait! Panchito, calm down!” She said. Which he listened to her, coming to a halt, he removed himself from her. His tail feathers frantically frizzing up.  

Bendy turned away from the book and turned to look at Panchito.

“I’m assuming you know someone from down there?” He asks. Panchito quickly nods.

“Yes! My blood! My friend! A true gentleman he is! His name is Donal’ A bit of a stubborn bull, but--by god, isn’t he one adventurous duck!” Panchito said. He spoke with such passion about his friend. Bendy pie cut shape eyes were slanted slightly, he was thinking who Panchito could be referring to by the name of...Donal’. Until Panchito finished his sentence with ‘duck’

Bendy quickly perked up.

“Duck? As in, Donald Duck? Sailor wearing, Donald Duck?” Bendy asks. Panchito nods quickly with a smile. Y/n heard of the duck. Obviously. He wouldn’t. But oddly enough, he didn’t live in the city of Hollywood L.A. like most notorious toons did, such as Bendy. And hearing Panchito knew and was friends with Donald Duck, made her curious. 

“You know Donald Duck?” Y/n asks Panchito--who once again nods.

“Yes! We are very close friends, we have been friends for years! I also have another friend, that sly malandro he is! His name is José Carioca! A-”

“Perfect! This is perfect!” Bendy extended his arms and looked at the two. 

“A much easier way to get to the toon, all we need is to leave for Oregon, Duckburg, and that’ll be 4 of us when we get Donald.” He says. Panchito tails quickly ruffled as he shuffled on his feet in excitement. 

“I can’t just leave home and tell my mom, ‘hey, I’m leaving to a state that’s 10 hours away, to save the world.’ Plus, how will we get there?” She asks. Bendy chuckles, pointing a thumb to his bow tie. 

“Leave it to Bendy, I got a plan that’ll let you go, plus. You have a car don’t you? How’d you get here? Or did you walk all the way in the rain?” 

“I drove my dad's car, and no. We’re not using his car to drive.” She then looked over at Panchito, who still was a bit excited with the mention of his friend.  

“And we can’t ride a plane. Not with him and knowing he’ll be on the lookout for, we need to be as inconspicuous as possible. We can’t risk getting caught in a way.” Y/n said. 

“I hear ya’ loud and clear sweetheart, We’ll just take Henry’s car, he rarely uses it anyway, and usually hands it to me and Boris whenever we need places to go.” He said. Y/n nods with a small smile.

“Well we have that, I need to find a way to influence my mom to let me go..”

“Like I said. I got it, I gots the talks, looks and…” Bendy tried to think of another attribute before Panchito butted in.

“Style.” He said. Bendy smiled in gratitude at Panchito. 

“Indeed, Thank you.”

“Ahahaha! Yeah! But you don’t have the brains!” A shrilly voice cackled. Y/n, Bendy, and Panchito looked at eachother, puzzled expressions etched on their faces. Soon, the voice spoke up yet again.

“Over here you idiots!” The three quickly looked over to the opened window that Bendy left open when the book collided into his face. Zip--the shadow was standing in the frame, holding the book above his head as if showcasing a trophy. 

“Oh mamá..” Panchito muttered. Bendy quickly patted himself down and looked around to see if the book they had was still present, making sure that the book wasn’t actually taken. Once seeing it was indeed the book the shadow had in its hand, his tail dropped to the ground. 

“Well, I think I can confess where I went wrong--” 

“Hey! Give it back!” Y/n ran towards the window, once getting closed she outretcted her arms in an attempt to grab at the book, but the shadow quickly ducked down and zipped down the building, with the book in town, down straight to the first level. 

“No!--”

“Who was that?!” Bendy looked at Panchito, to see if he had any answers, but the mexican rooster only shrugged frantically. “¡No lo sé!” Panchito said. Bendy quickly ran over to the door and opened it, revealing Henry standing at the doorway, but he was busy looking towards the side--talking someone pass by to notice, Y/n and Panchito in the room. Bendy’s tail stiffened, he quickly slammed the door with a loud.

‘SLAM!’

Henry flinched at the sudden door slamming, the wind from the door slamming slightly moved his hair. He gave the door a questioning look. 

“Bendy? Are you okay in there? We all heard you shouting.” 

Henry’s worried muffled voice emitted from the door. Bendy pushed Panchito into a nearby filing cabinet storage, slamming the door in his face and quickly locking it with the spare key that was in the room. Hiding the key in his glove before he turned over to Y/n who was quickly trying to find a place to hide, but there weren't many places to hide in a meeting room that only had a table and chairs. With the adrenaline rushing from the fact someone stole the book and getting caught to Henry Stein himself only made her overwhelmed. She peeked out the window once again, and noticed a black van. The shadow that took the book was standing next to two others, a man in a trench coat was opening the back of the van. 

“Yeah! I am completely fine, you know, I’ve been losing my voice lately, so--I was doing voice exercise and whatever--”  Bendy said, grinning at the door.

“I smell a lie, maybe he’s destroying stuff again.” Stated a new voice from behind the door, another worker from in the studio. Bendy seemed offended by the accusation--which was partially true, but still! 

“Shut up, Sammy.” a female voice piped up. Ah, Alice Angel. From what it seemed, most of the main coworkers were in front of the door. 

Y/n was still peering through the window. Watching. Soon, the man in the trenchcoat pulled out a toon from the van, a rabbit--gripping him by his ears. The rabbit flailed his feet in anger and irritation, distant shouts  from the rabbit, clearly showed distress. 

-

“Hey! Let me go! Hey--watch the ears!” Oswald shouts, flailing his feet. The man in the trench coat ignored Oswald, before looking over at Zip, Zip lifted up the book to Oswald’s heights due to the man having a grip on the rabbits ears. 

“Open the book.” The man ordered. Oswald crossed his arms. 

“No.” 

“Open it. Now.” 

“Do it, yourself.”

“We can’t, duh. That’s why we have you.” Zot said. Oswald only swung and his foot hit Zot square in his face. Sending the shadow toon back and hitting the ground, falling into a puddle. Luckily, the rain had subsided. 

“I.Said.No!!!” 

The man in the trench coat, slowly looked up, over towards the building. Locking eyes with Y/n. 

“Get that girl.” He ordered. Zip looked up once again towards Y/n, who was still looking, not breaking down...or what they thought. Zip dropped the book on Zot, causing the shadow toon to groan yet again. 

Zip soon zipped off yet again towards the building. 

-

“Are you going to join the party with us?” Henry asks through the door. Standing beside him was, Sammy Lawrewnce, the well kept yet stubborn and easily aggravated music composer, head director in the studio, next to him was M/n, Alice Angel. Everyone’s favorite sweet angel, and Boris, Bendy’s loving best friend, standing next to Bendy, was Normon Polk the southern worker in the studio. Normon chuckled and nudged Sammy. 

“He’s hidin’ somethin’.” Norman said. Sammy rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, I bet. Bendy, stop joking. Come on, we breaked our ass putting this party together, let’s go or I’m busting in.” He said.

On the other side of the door, Bendy only laughed through his teeth. 

“Oh, Sammy you tease! You get me everytime, would you hide already?” Bendy turned to Y/n, muttering the last part to her, Y/n quickly turned around towards Bendy.

“There’s a person, with a coat--and-he-and--he had a toon, th-”

“Surprise!” Zip suddenly appeared in the frame of the window yet again, grabbing the hood of Y/n’s jacket, snatching her out of the room, the girl didn’t have enough time to react, as she was suddenly dragged out the window. Feeling the floor below her disappear. She could see Bendy quickly try to grab onto her foot, but by an inch he missed.

“Y/n!” He shouts. 

“Y/n?” M/n said from the other side of the door. Bendy realized his error and quickly slammed the door closed, cursing under his breath before and rushed over to the door.

“I mean! I-Yes! Y/n, oh--I miss her so much, our meeting today was just so wonderful--you know, M/n, I miss her so much, I believe both me and Y/n should go on a trip--” He started, he took the key back out of his glove, frantically crawling over the meeting table, sliding papers out of the way and almost falling onto the floor, but, he made it back over to the filing cabinet, where he quickly pulled Panchito back out. 

“A trip?” M/n said. Sammy nudged her. 

“Don’t even buy into it.” Sammy said. Annie suddenly appeared once hearing the conversation about a trip. “I love trips, the young lady should get out of the house more.” Annie said. This actually made M/n think for a moment. Well..yes, Y/n was 18, able to do what she pleased. 

Back on the other side of the door, Bendy turned Panchito around and grabbed the lasso that was hidden behind his feathers that he almost hadn’t noticed--luckily earlier he did. As doing so, he reached into the filing cabinet and took another set of rope---that oddly was in the cabinet, but he took it and lifted it to his horn, cutting off a small amount to make the lasso longer. He spoke as he did so; “Yes, I was thinking Oregon, you know. Tomorrow, me and her. I promise that nothing bad will happen, you know I myself needed a break too, and Y/n is such a great person! Though M/n I think maybe I should talk to you first about it.”  

“You know, Y/n does need some time out away from home! I’ll tell her when I get home!” M/n smiled. Sammy scoffed. “What? Are you serious?” 

“Who’s Y/n?” Alice muttered to Boris. Boris only shrugged in response. 

“Well, we’ll be in the next room where the party is, join us whenever--come on guys.” Henry ushered everyone away from the door. Sammy scolded M/n, as Annie was defending why Y/n should leave the house. Once Bendy knew they were away, he quickly rushed over to the window window and flung it open. Panchito looked around frantically. 

“Where is Y/n?”

“That thing took her.” Bendy said, he soon heard a shout, looking off across the parking lot--which was empty--it was an old parking lot, that was never used, and he could see the van that Y/n was talking about, Y/n was dangling in the air, the shadow toon held her by her hood. 

Panchito noticed, and was the first to speak up.

“Hey! Put her down you scoundrel!” He shouts. 

Oswald looked up and saw Zip had a hold of the girl he saw peeking from the window.  The man in the trenchcoat growled.

“Zip! Take the girl away and get rid of her!” He shouts. Zip looked down at the man, Zot looked up at Zip, they were distracted. Oswald quickly swung his body, and flipped, his feet ramming right in the man's face, the man in the trench coat lost grip of the rabbit's ears. Causing Oswald to land on his feet perfectly. Zot quickie looked over at Oswald, his white eyes widening at the fact the rabbit got loose from his boss. Oswald quickly rammed into Zot, causing the shadow to fall to the ground back into the puddle. Oswald grabbed the book and with all his strength tossed it towards Zip, the book hit the flying shadow toon, causing him to drop Y/n, who yelped and felt her body freefall towards the concrete. Oswald quickly ran over towards where he suspected she would fall. 

“I gotcha sweetheart!” Soon, Y/n landed in his arms. Oswald smiled at Y/n, who was shivering from almost thinking she was about to die. 

“Thank you.” Y/n quickly said. Oswald smiled in return and nodded before placing her on the ground. The book started to fall towards the ground once again, in the building. Panchito grabbed the lasso and hopped onto the frame of the window. 

“¡Sube, amigo!” Pancito said. He swung a loop of the lasso and tossed it out the window where it wrapped around a nearby lamppost.Tightening his grip, Bendy hopped on the window as well, grabbing to the rope as well, and without hesitation Panchito pushed off the building, sending the two swinging across the parking lot, growing closer to the book, Panchtio spoke to Bendy, shouting above the wind.

“The book! Grab the book!” He shouts. Bendy took notice of the book that was nearing the ground, and just with the nick of time, he grabbed the book. 

“Get them!” The man in the trench coat shouts in anger.

“Y/n!” Panchito extends an arm for Y/n to grab onto. Y/n looked at Oswald and quickly took his arm. 

“Grab on.” She told the rabbit. Once the two grew closer, Oswald jumped up and grabbed onto the rope near Bendy, and Y/n hopped up, Panchito grabbed onto Y/n, wrapping an arm around her waist, as Y/n tightly held onto the rope, the wind traveling and hitting the 4 of them, Y/n couldn’t help but smile, feeling the bits of rain hit her face and the wind made her feel as if she were on a coaster, the rope was so long, and they had so much momentum that they made it out of the parking lot, the many lights of the cars driving down the street of L.A. caused Y/n to watch in awe. 

“Wow! You’re good at this!” Bendy shouts to Panchito over the wind. Panchito only smiles. 

“Oh no, this is my first time! I lasso bulls and horses.”

“Wait what?” 

Soon, the four were abruptly jerked back, the rope ran out and Panchito lost his grip on the rope, seeing he was the main support, everyone abruptly fell, luckily they were above a building that was across the street.

“Oof!” Y/n fell onto her side, her hip hitting the ground harshly. Bendy had fallen on top of a vent, the cage breaking and he soon fell into the vent.

“Aah!” The bumping and the echoing of his sudden scream trailed down the vent wherever he was heading. 

“Bendy!” Y/n groaned, she quickly got up the stinging pain of her side itched in irritation. Panchito fell somewhere near her. But he quickly shot up, looking around for his sombrero, once he found it behind him, he dusted it off and placed it back on his head. 

“Ahaha! Ay caramba! That was amazing, chica,  mi amor, you might be better at adventuring than Donal’, not many people can perfect hopping onto an ongoing rope!” 

Soon, a scream was heard and then a loud; THUD! CRASH!

The two quickly turned around and saw Oswald, who quickly stood up in a hurry to take buket off from his face. Angry slurs emitted from the bucket, but they were incoherent. Oswald finally took off the buck and almost immediately hurled it off the roof. Another crash was heard and then the sound of a car alarm going off.

“I have had enough! This can’t be!” He shouts at the top of his lungs. His ears flattening against his head. 

“My luck! It’s gone! It’s gone! It’s gone! IT’S GONE!” He hurled a foot back and kicked another bucket away. 

Y/n and Panchito stared at Oswald. Panchito looked at Y/n and with his index finger, twirled a finger around the side of his head. 

“Loco.”  He whispered to her. Y/n didn’t utter a word to the rabbit...maybe..there was a reason he was in that van. No, that’s crazy. Those...shadow toons, the man in the trench coat, they wanted to book, they had to be some sort of bad guy to them, but why did they want the rabbit? 

Oswald had his clinched closed, suddenly, his hostile demeanor diminished rather quickly before he turned around and looked at the two with a smile.

“I’m sorry, I’ve-You see I’ve been held hostage for about...four. Five days now.”  He said, walking over to the two and then standing in front of them.  

“Why?” Y/n asked.

“Trench Coat, fella’ wants to use me as a key to open the book for him for..whatever plan he has, I was his key basically after he figured that I was--as he claimed--one of the chosen people for the book that will only open for select people.” He said. He...he was the 4th one. 

“We...have the book because it opens for us.” Y/n said, pointing to herself and Panchito. Oswald's eyes widened.

“Wh-I’ve been searching for at least one person high and low for years and you two found each other how long ago?” 

“Oh, we all met each other today! Ah, and we met you, the new addition,” Panchito said. Oswald seemed astonished. Panchito smiled.

“I know, crazy, I guess you don’t have much luck huh?” He blindly said...but it seemed to Y/n, Panchito purposely said it. Nudging him, Y/n spoke up. 

“Yes, there’s actually 3 of us a---oh fu---Bendy fell in the building, I forgot!” Y/n looked at the two.

“He has the book, we have to get in there.”

“Oh-wait wait, My name is Oswald, I was thinking since we’ll be working together from now on I would introduce myself.” He said, reaching a hand out. Panchito was the first to grab onto the rabbits hand and shake quickly.

“Hello, friend! My name is Panchito.” Panchtio then looked over at Y/n. 

“And my name is Y/n.” 

“Very well, now. Let’s go.”

-

Pushing open the double doors opened, two black boots stepped into the room that was filled with the smell of cigarettes, booze, the sound of biker rock music echoing through the establishment of the bar, the dim golden lights brought a warm glow. The people in the bar paid no mind to the newcomer. The man in the trenchcoat walked passed the table of the two men arm wrestling the man on the left lost, his hand hitting the table, the bear glass cups fell to the floor and shattered due to the sudden impact, the man who won laughed and cheered in victory. The man in the trench coat clicked his tongue and shook his head. 

Bendy hid behind a wooden pillar that the man walked by, gripping the book close to his chest. 

“Hello sir, what can I get for ya.” The bartender said. The man in the trench coat sat down on a stool Placing his forearms on the table. 

“Whisky on rocks.” He replied. The man nodded before turning away to make the drink. Bendy had peered from around the pillar, seeing the man was seemingly distracted. He turned around slowly and with all his might, tried to sneakily sneak through the front door.  But the man with the trench coat quickly, with the speed of lightning, tossed something to his side without batting Bendy an eye. 

THUNK!

The sound of a knife wedging into wood caused Bendy to immediately stop walking. Above him, between his horns, a pocket knife was embedded in the wood of the pillar. Bendy’s tail immediately dropped to the floor, before he turned around to face the man. A strained smile pulled onto his face. 

Soon, the two doors burst open, Panchito rolled through the doors somersaulting, landing on his right knee as he supported himself with his left foot. He pulled out the two pistols from his holster and aimed them towards no one in particular.

“Alright, hands in the air, now!” He shouts. Bendy noticed a red bandanna wrapped around Panchito’s face. The people in the bar immediately stopped speaking and looked over towards the door towards Panchito. Bendy looked at Panchito as well. Oswald walked through the door as well, and soon, Y/n entered as well. Mostly hesitantly. 

It was a part of the plan, creating a distraction. Soon, the man with the trenchcoat only squinted his eyes at the odd group. And soon, he snapped his fingers, and the two shadow toons jolted from a shadow of another person from the bar, creating two lanky and stout toon, Zip and Zot that the four saw several minutes ago. 

Panchito finally got a good glimpse of the two components, and stood up straight.

“Ah, what short fellows! So cute.”

“Cute!?” Zip exclaims, he soon shot towards Oswald quickly and tackled him to the ground. Scratching at the rabbits face like a rabid dog.

“Ow! Oh my--why me! Ow! Get it off!!!” Oswald screams. Y/n cupped her face from anyone, as if not wanting to seem like she was associated with the three toons. Soon, Oswald yelps to Panchito.

“Get on with the plan already! Oh dear!!” 

“Right! Hey you!” Panchito looked over at the two arm wrestlers. One man placed a hand on his chest as if saying; ‘Who me?’

“Yes, you. Your friend hates the way you compete with him, he said you smell like a bag of rotten onions.” Panchito said. The man gasped and looked at his arm wrestling component.

“Oh yeah?! Well how about this!” The man hurled a punch towards the man, the man fell to the ground, blood spraying from his nose, he lifted a hand up to feel the blood on his fingers, before looking at the man that hit him. 

“...”

“AAAAAH!” Soon the bar started fighting, tossing glass, chairs, tables, and all. A bar fight! Immediately Oswald pushed Zip off of him, the rabbit got up quickly, Bendy rushed over, holding the book in his hands. 

“What’s up with the guns?”

“Dramatic effect.” Panchito says. 

“Let’s get out of here, guys.” Y/n said, turning around to open the door, but the door was immediately opened up, standing in the doorway, were three toons, the three wore the same shirt, cap and pants.

“Beagle Boys..” Oswald hissed as he held his eye closed that was scratched. 

“Oh please. No need to worry about them,  excuse us sirs, we will be on our way.” Panchito stood in front of the group protectively.

But, they didn’t listen to him. Instead they pushed Oswald and Panchito over slightly. Looking over at Bendy, who was holding the book. One of the beagle boys rose a buff arm, Y/n almost a; ‘cl clink’ as if they were cocking a gun, and with all their might, sent a punch to Bendy, hitting him in the face, and like in any other cartoon and the toon he was, sent him flying across the room, loud crashes and shouts echoed, Y/n yelped and turned around and saw Bendy’s feet hanging out of a wall that he broke through from the strong impact. 

Steam emitted from the beagle toons fist, and all it took was one blow, to blow away the steam as if it were a gun. 

“Bendy!” Y/n shouts. She watched him shakily and slowly remove himself from the wall, she saw stars and birds flying around his head as he stumbled back and forth, a dazed look on his face as he held a finger up as if he were about to speak, but he soon fell to the ground. 

Panchito, Oswald and Y/n looked back at the beagle boys, Panchito’s narrowed his eyes and immediately got into a stance to fight. 

“¡¿Pusiste tus manos sobre mi amigo?!” He shouts. 

“Let’s get 'em all.” Said one beagle boy. But a new voice piped in. 

“Leave the girl to me, boys.” a female sultry voice emits, the beagle boys stepped to the side to reveal...a duck toon. Short silky black hair, a black blouse and black pants. Her dark eyes pierced into Y/n’s e/c eyes. 

“Eliminate them. We have what we need.” The man in the trench coat stood behind them all, holding the book. 

“And don’t kill the rabbit, we still need him. Bring him to me when you all finish them off.” He said as he turned and walked off, waving a hand the emergency door opened before he left the building with the book! No one in the bar cared for the fact off the man in the coat, but much rather they were still fighting. 

“No, the book!” Oswald tugged his ears in stress. Soon, the female duck walked closer to the group. Panchito moved his gaze to her. 

“Magica..” Oswald said yet another name. Y/n was...who was that? Who were the beagle boys?! Were they working for that odd man in the trench coat?! 

“Sorry, not hear to talk, have to do my job.”  

Immediately, one of the beagle boys launched at Panchito, Panchito was quick to back away, grabbing onto broken wooden plank and swinging it, hitting the beagle’s face, Oswald did the same, instead he picked up a beer bottle hitting the beagle boy with the glass, which broke into shards from the compact.

Y/n had her focus on the Magica women. 

“Alright, show me what you got.” Magica said. Y/n quickly found a stance, her gaze focusing on the duck. Magica threw a punch towards Y/n, with surprising good speed, Y/n moved away from the fist, in an attempt to throw a punch as well, Magica quickly raised a hand and Y/n’s hand froze in midair. 

“Wha-” Y/n tried to throw another punch with the other arm, but Magica did the same with that arm, Y/n finally took notice, the duck was more than likely wielding some sort of powers...hinting towards her name..

Magica lifted a foot, and immediately kicked Y/n in her torso, the girl fell down, hitting the wood floor, falling on top of glass shards and other debris. Groaning at the impact, Y/n made a painful expression, feeling the sore on her torso, the wind knocked from her. Magica took a knife from the counter, she grabbed Y/n by the collar of her shirt, lifting her up with ease.

“You know, it’s nice to see one of the few heros, didn’t expect to kill you guys off so quick,” She said. Y/n reached behind her as Magica examined Y/n’s expression, Y/n felt the beer bottle on the counter. Grabbing the neck of the beer bottle, she felt the adrenaline pump through her, no, she was not going to let some random person hit and beat on her, they needed that book, the burning feeling of determination was firing up, and with quick speed, Y/n swung her arm, and smashed the glass bottle across Magica’s head, the duck gasped in surprise, along with a small yelp, she dropped Y/n, and Y/n quickly.  Threw yet another punch, Magica fell to the ground, holding her beak with closed eyes and a pained yet furious expression, Y/n spotted Panchitio striking a punch to one of the beagle boys, Oswald did the same to the last two of them, Panchito whistled across the room to Oswald, tossing the rope to him, Oswald grabbed the end of the rope that was tossed, and the two ran, Panchito running around clockwise, as Oswald did the same, counter clockwise. The rose wrapping the beagle boys up. 

“Ahah!” Panchito laughed as the beagle boys fell to the ground as the rope tightened. Y/n didn’t notice Magica get back up. The sudden feeling of someone on her caused Y/n to fall and roll across the ground, it was Oswald. Soon, a chair was seen falling in the position that Y/n was in, Magica must have thrown it. 

Oswald got off Y/n with a smile and helped her up. 

“Thanks I didn--watch out!” Y/n noticed the array of knives and forks flying towards the  two, both Oswald and Y/n  split and ran towards different directions. Y/n hopped over a table, landing on the dishes that were still there, the feeling of foot plastering on her clothes, she rolled off the table and onto the floor. The knives hit the table as if it were raining. She quickly scattered across the floor, pushing past people that were still fighting, like any other bar fight. 

Y/n grabbed a ceramic plate and quickly tossed it as if it were a frisbee, but it didn’t hit Magica, instead she hopped from out of the way, Y/n ran past Panchito, who pulled out another rode from behind it--turns out he had to lassos. 

“Y/n, here!” He calls out. Y/n ran back over, almost falling as she dodged a flying cup that Magica tossed. Y/n ran over and took the rope, and as Oswald and Panchito did, Y/n and Panchito did the same, circling the rope around Magica, the duck tried to keep track of the two speedy enemies--in her eyes--she couldn’t keep a good track. But--the rope wrapped around her, and Y/n tossed the other rope to Panchito, who took it and tied a knot to the rope. 

“Let go of me!” Magica shouts. 

“Hey! Watch out!” Oswald shouted from across the room, Y/n and Panchito looked over and saw Zip zipping passed, under Y/n’s feet, causing her to lose balance and fall on to the floor yet again.  The shadow ran around the room quickly, speedily, so quickly that Y/n could feel the wind and cool air circulating in the room, Panchito tried to keep track of where the shadow went, but Zip was like a speedy mouse. Y/n quickly stood up, and spotted Zot, who had  charged for Oswald, the rabbit was busy trying to track down Zip he didn’t know they fell for the trap, Zip was the distraction as--

“Hey! Let me go!” Zot took ahold of Oswald, holding onto his ears, Oswald lifted a foot to kick the shadow, but soon, from the wall, a dark bubbling rip of black ink like liquid, formed on the wall, and soon, Bendy shot from the ink, arms outstretched, he rammed right into Zot, the two somersaulting and rolling onto the ground until he hit a table. The table fell over, stopping Zip from running around the building, and slamming into the table. Bendy quickly got up, Oswald held the door open and shouted at the three.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” He shouts. And, Oswald, Y/n, Bendy, and Panchito ran out of the establishment, back out into the moist air, Y/n’s shoes slapping the wet pavement. 

“There!” Y/n pointed at the van leaving the abandon parking lot, another figure that wasn’t the man in the trench coat, it was a woman with black hair, pale skin, she laughed and got into the driver's seat of the car, in her hand was the book, she tossed it in the van, and hopped in the car and with no need to even heeding the traffic laws she drove out of the parking lot and down the street. 

“Where did the man go with the trenchcoat?” Oswald asked. Panchito rose an eyebrow.

“Was that him---or her?”

“I don’t think so, that doesn't matter, but we need to get to the car, come on!” 

-

Y/n drove down the street quickly, but not enough to get pulled over, and that was where the problem was. 

“You need to drive faster! We’ll lose the book if we stay at this speed!” Bendy shouts, moving Y/n over so he could stick a foot down to touch the pedal, but Y/n pushed him away quickly, glaring at him.

“No! If I get pulled over, that’ll put my name in jeopardy!”

“No, it won’t! Pick up the speed, or let me drive!” 

“Fine! Drive then!” 

Quickly, Y/n and Bendy, switched seats, as the car was in motion, crawling over each other frantically, but once Bendy was in the driver's seat, he slammed the pedal to the floor, the engine roaring, and Y/n immediately felt her back get glued to the seat.  The car moved through lanes and cars, to get to the can that was a few meters away.

“Someone is going to have to jump out to get the book.” Panchito said. Oswald and Y/n looked  at Panchito, he looked between the two before smiling. “I’ll happily do it!” 

“I’ll go with.” Oswald said, Oswald then looked at Y/n, she scoffed. 

“No. I’ll stay in the car and make sure he doesn't crash into anything.”  Y/n said. Bendy was too busy nearing the van to listen, but once he reached the van, he rolled down the window and honked the horn causing the van to roll its windows down, revealing the woman that that saw, though they all couldn’t get a good glimpse of her, but the man in the trenchcoat saw the four, his eyes squinted.

“Hey, You should try and get better guards!” Bendy yelled to them. Panchito rolled down the window, and immediately crawled onto the roof of the car. Oswald followed suit. 

“You’re too late, turn back before we kill you all!” The man shouts over, not noticing Panchito and Oswald, until when they hopped over and the heavy thump on the car caught their attention.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me.” The woman whispers. Y/n watched As Oswald slid down the front of the vans car, sticking his tongue out to get their attention. Which it did for the lad, she cursed loudly and tried to swerve the car slightly to get the toon off. But, Oswald didn’t budge. Panchito dove into the car landing in front of the woman, she shrieked in surprise.

“Ah! Hello, ma’am. Excuse me, i am here for something.” Panchito then moved his gaze over to the man in the trench coat, hurling a punch to the man, the man grunted in pain, and Panchito quickly took the book, he was about to exit until the woman took ahold of his talon, Panchito looked at her questionable, she dragged him back and Panchito yelped in surprise, but he kept ahold of the book. Before she could do anything to Panchito, Oswald hung from outside of the window peeking into the car.

“Boo!”

“Ah!” The woman screamed at the sudden toon appearing, Oswald grabbed Panchito’s arm, and dragged him out of the car, and grabbed him onto the hood of the car.  Oswald bent down and clicked the latch for the hood of the van's hood, and almost immediately when the hood opened, it sent the two springing into the air. Unfortunately the can had crashed by a stop sign. And the car Bendy and Y/n sped up, Y/n quickly pressed a button to open the moonroof of the car, it slid open, and Oswald and Panchito landed into the car with a heavy thud with the book in hand.

“YES!” Y/n cheered as she hopped around in her seat. But, the sudden car crash behind them got the best of them, a car pile up was created, and a semi truck was rolling in from behind. Oswald noticed and quickly hopped to the front of the car, he placed his hands on the steering wheel, and jerked the steering wheel, causing the car to swerve and turn in 180 degrees, the tires screeching on the street, everyone in the car screamed, looking out the window of the car to see the semi truck rolling their way, but Oswald muttered under his breath, the car speed up, wheels screeching and it drove towards the truck, Y/n grabbed the wheel as well.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”  She shouts, Oswald didn’t reply, instead, reaching a foot down next to Bendy’s and the car sped up, he turned the wheel yet again, the car screeching and turning down a street, and car knocked over a empty car that was parked on the side, that car served bump for the oncoming semi truck, what semi truck only slightly lifted off the ground when it rolled over the car and above the car the toons and Y/n were in, it were as if she were looking at it in slow motion, the semi truck tossed over the car, untouched, and landline on the side, away from other people and cars, where it wouldn’t cause damage to the town or people. The car zoomed off down the street before the end of the semi truck could hit the car, and in the nick of time, the car revved down the street. 

“YES!” Oswald cheered, he lets go of the steering wheel, and then lets out a boisterous laugh. 

“My luck! Ah! It put us in good hands this time!” He shouts with glee. The car slowed down, reaching a neighborhood, Y/n’s neighborhood. Her house a few blocks away. When the car came to a complete stop, everyone took  a moment of silence to take in the air they would get to breathe, breathing in and out.

“Oh...my...gosh.” Y/n laughed and ran her sore hands through her hand, that was….fun. Exhilarating.

“We doggone, surely do make a team, huh?” Oswald smiled at the three, Bendy turned and looked at everyone. 

“I didn’t expect the two of you to plunge yourselves into the air by the hood of a car!” He laughs, Panchito and Oswald smile. 

“Did you see the way Panchito handled those beagle boys?! And how Y/n fought Magica?!” Oswald wrapped an arm around Y/n’s shoulders, Y/n smiled brightly. 

“No, did you see Bendy come through the wall and stopped that fast running shadow thing?!”

“Or when we all, literally swung from one roof to another with Panchito’s lasso?!”

The four all shared a memorable laugh, the night was chaotic, and they still managed to kick butt and take back what was theirs?!

“Next up, Oregon.” Bendy said. He then looked at Y/n. 

“Don’t worry, I influenced her...under pressure, yes. But hey, I did what I had to do.” 

Y/n was astonished..her mother would let her go? This was new!

“This is a new beginning, wherever any of us go, we all go.” Oswald said, looking between everyone. Y/n took the book from Panchito, she opened it, and showed it to Oswald. 

“We’re all a team, and we stick together.” 

Oswald smiled at her.

“Through--” He placed a hand on the page, the ink printing his hand print and then signing his signature.

‘Oswald’

“And through.” He finishes. 

“Let’s get you home, we all have a big day tomorrow, a long one at that.” 

-

The man in the trench coat stood by the crashed car, the jammed hood pouring with steam, the lady next to him had her arms crossed as she looked at the car. 

“What now..? They have the book.” She says. The man thought for a moment.

“We’ll work harder...they aren’t a bunch of idiots as I assumed. We work harder.” He said. The woman hummed in acknowledgment. 

“And smarter?”

“Get the rest. We plan.”

“Fine.”

-

Y/n groaned as she sat on the floor in her room, cleaned herself off, through her clothes in the washer, and placed the book in a book bag for safe keepings. Oswald wandered around her room, looking at the various posters, books and other decorations, Panchito sat next to Y/n for once enjoying the silence and Bendy was rubbing his eye that he was so gracefully socked in.

“That guy did a number on you.” Y/n told Bendy. Bendy grumbled. Oswald looked over at Bendy and his ears perked up.

“Yeaj, they really did, straight through a wall, tell me. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much pain did you feel.”

“Oh shut up.” 

Y/n heard the keys jingling of the front door,  immediately, Y/n and Panchito stood up, Bendy opened the window up, as Oswald, and Panchito walked over. 

“Well, I’ll take them with me, you get sleep, I’ll more than likely be here with Henry tomorrow to come and get you, so we all can leave.” Bendy explains. Y/n nods at the plan, but she was exhausted and needed rest from todays events, mostly what happened tonight...she was so glad no one was injured during the small pile up car crash. 

“Bye, Y/n.”

“Goodbye”

Oswald and Bendy crawled out the window and hopped out, Panchito quickly scurried over to her, pulling her deep into a warm hug. Y/n couldn’t help but smile, and wrap her arms around him as well, rocking back and forth for a moment as Panchito pats and gently runs her back. Soon, then pulled away and Panchito smiled at her.

“Adiós, cariño, te veré cuando salga el sol.” He said, though Y/n could only understand when he said goodbye, she smiled and waved her hands goodbye.

“Bye, Panchito, I’ll see you tomorrow, I had fun with you all.” She said, Panchito smiles and walked backwards for a moment, he seemed to not want to leave yet, he made many friends...Donald and his friend Jose, and he missed them every day as the years pass, Panchito never like being away from his friends, and now Y/n was apart of that. Sitting in the window he waved goodbye once again. Y/n laughed softly and waved goodbye yet again.

Soon, he dropped down from the window, leaving nothing but the tree to look at and the moon that was clouded slightly by the clouds. Soon, her door opens revealing her mother, and her tired husband walking down the hall to his room to sleep.

“By the way, Bendy wants to take you on a road trip tomorrow, and you should go, you don’t have to, but I really want you to go, because I love you and I want you to go out more.” Her mother smiles after that quick statement, and Y/n already had her answer.

“Yes, I would love to go.” Her mother was surprised. But nevertheless, smiled.

“Good, make sure you bags are packed tomorrow, you’re going to Oregon, Bendy should be here tomorrow, but it's late, I’m tired. I’m hittin’ the hay, Night!” Her mother closed the door and Y/n heard her footsteps descend off to her room. Well...adventure truly awaits tomorrow, a new beginning. A reason, a step further in their quest to find out the meaning of whatever is going on. Y/n flicked her light off, and crawled into bed.

Next up, Duckberg, Oregon, to find Donald Duck himself.  This will be an adventure indeed. 

-

A/n : You made it to the end?! Don’t worry, there is more to come! 

But, I do really hope people will like the plot of this story and the characters, I’m not a fan of crossovers, but this will be a fun and crazy adventure, everyone from each of these fandoms will have alot in common. But anyway! I’ll catch you all in the next chapter, go ahead and comment, I run off of comments, I love reading them and interacting with you all, but I hope you all join and stick around for this adventure, catch you in the next chapter! 

[irhinoceri]

I read “I Am The Messenger” by Markus Zusak several years ago, sometime between 2002 and 2005 (because I know it wasn’t brand new when I read it but I’m pretty sure “The Book Thief” hadn’t been published yet) and at the time I loved the book. I thought it was amazing. I vaguely remember thinking the ending was a bit anticlimactic, that the resolution to the mystery of who was sending the cards felt unsatisfying, but I loved the rest of the book so much I felt like hardly mattered.

Well... gosh.... hmmmm. I have very complicated feelings now, because I listened to the audiobook, and though the narrator being Australian really gave it that perfect voice that I wasn’t able to achieve in my head when I first read it, it was a slog. I thought about turning it off several times because I just couldn’t.... stand.... it.

And it’s making me think again about The Literary Discourse posts about whether a story is good or bad based on the moral conduct of the main character. And while Ed is certainly not the most unlikeable character ever, the really problematic aspects of both him as a protagonist and a POV character leapt out at me in 2021 the way they almost completely went past me in the early 00s. I was younger, I was far more conservative, so even reading books with swearing and sex and violence in them felt kind of revolutionary to me at the time, but still. I am trying to remember what it was that I liked about it.

Part of the problem is the textbook case of The Friendzone that runs throughout the book re: Ed being in love with Audrey who considers him her best friend and refuses to have a sexual relationship with him, though she comes to him for emotional intimacy and the sort of borderline sexual intimacy of being barely clothed around him, getting drunk and sleeping with him (platonically) all while maintaining vigorous sexual relationships with other boyfriends, who mostly go unnamed because they don’t matter.

In the end, of course, Audrey finally relents and comes to him and they get together, which feels hollow to me because a far more satisfying outcome would be for Ed to learn to move on and find someone else, or at least to let Audrey go (which he ostensibly does, but then he is “rewarded” for letting her go by her finally being willing to start a sexual relationship with him). And I’m just going.... why can’t he let her go and that’s it? Why can’t it be that he lets go of the desire to have a relationship she is not willing to give, and it truly does free him? That is a wonderful feeling. I’ve been “in the friendzone” as a girl in love with guys who valued me as a friend but found me sexually unappealing, and never once did it turn out where they finally woke up one day to realize that the emotional connection we had was more important than the sexual chemistry they had with the girls they actually wanted to date. You know what feels like Growth? The point where you realize that you don’t actually Want to date that person anymore, and the point where you are free from the desire and the unrequited yearning.

I wish more stories with Friendzone plots had the guts to end the story that way. Even (or especially) in a case like this where she’s constantly telling him that he’s her best friend and the only person she loves and that’s why she’d can’t have a sexual relationship with him and coming to him at night for cuddling after she’s had E rated fic levels of sex with her “boyfriend” she doesn’t Love.... like jeezus I do feel bad for the guy in the Friendzone when the story is framed like that, you know? And this is probably how most incels think of themselves, as the long suffering Only True Gentleman who is Better than the Chad getting all the pussy (even while he’s overcome with lust whenever the Love Interest enters the scene and we have at least a few sentence describing her hips and legs and breasts).

Anyway, at this point this particular phenomenon has been debated, hashed out, disproven, what have you.... so to re-read a story where it’s so firmly romanticized and realize I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it the first time around it was an eye-opener. I was torn between disgust at the protagonist for his constant objectification of Audrey and disgust with him for allowing her to emotionally manipulate him for literal years while she fucked around and kept him her back pocket (thus the near perfect embodiment of the highly sexual yet unattainable friendzoner). I was never rooting for them to become a couple. I was always rooting for Ed to get over her or for her to leave him him alone.

The other thing that really got to me was how Ed was stalking literally everyone in the story, including a 15 year old girl whom he lusted after despite repeatedly saying he wasn’t a creep and he wasn’t doing it For Those Reasons.... but it was Okay because stalking people to help them was the point of the whole story.

(Quick plot beak down... after foiling a bank robbery, 19-year-old taxi driver (it was 2002 so he’s basically an Uber driver) Ed Kennedy starts getting playing cards with cryptic messages on them, in the form of addresses or clues to addresses, and when he goes and stalks the people who live there, he figures out some way they need help in their lives and helps them, thus growing in confidence as a person along the way.)

At the end he’s helped a lot of people and learned to be a better person, almost a la Bill Murray in Groundhog Day... and the only thing left is to find out who has been sending him the playing cards and orchestrating events all along. Without spoiling it, the answer is very unsatisfying and unclear. It’s almost a precursor to the narrator/character of Death in “The Book Thief” but far less defined and a bit more like “Stranger Than Fiction” in a boring way.

The other thing that kept driving my a little crazy was the fact that Ed was only 19. I felt like I was reading about a guy in his 30s. He just felt like such an Old and Jaded character, and granted some 19-year-olds have lived harder lives or whatever... but also he had his own apartment and full time job and a close knit circle of friends he met up with in person regularly... and yet it was hammered home again and again that he was a loser. A pathetic person who hadn’t accomplished anything in life and never would.

Granted, it was 2002 when this book was published. But a 19-year-old with their own apartment and job? In THIS economy? And THREE (3) IRL friends whom he gets together with on a regular basis??? Okay so he’s not having sex, big deal. This guy is a fucking success by any millennial barometer, though I suppose a 19-year-old in 2002 would be a Gen Xer?? Hmmmm no I turned 17 in 2002 and I’m a millennial so... whatever. Tangent.

Anyway, the whole book hinges on this idea that he’s a total loser and needs to learn to.... connect with people... and make a difference in the world.... and ok look I’m not saying he shouldn’t be aspiring to bigger things than being an Uber driver, but I have a 39 year old friend who is an Uber driver! And he’s a cool guy and a smart person and is valued by his friends! It’s Okay! To have! A service job! And also he’s going back to school and trying to get his life back on track and all, which is good, and I’m not saying Ed shouldn’t do the same thing or whatever. But I don’t know, this story just feels so much more like it would hit harder if the protagonist was in his mid 30s instead of 19. I just felt like telling everyone, the author included, to chill the fuck out and lay off Ed for not being the fucking poet laureate of Australia (is that a thing?) or surgeon general at 19 years old, a year after his alcoholic father died. I will say it again: JEEZUS.

Also also there’s a pretty disturbing rape plot where Ed must save a woman from her rapist husband, and I’m not gonna say that much about it beyond the fact that hopefully we, as a society, can progress past rape plots that revolve around an outside male observer. I mean, good on anyone who tries to help someone who is currently trapped in a domestic abuse situation, but the particular way that plot was handled in this story was just all kinds of gross and it gets even worse in retrospect at the end.

This post is not meant as literary criticism. I have an English degree and I know that this post would not hold up as a paper by any stretch of the imagination, it would get an F as a work of literary criticism, this is just me thinking about how I feel now versus how I felt nearly 20 years ago when I loved this book.

[peabodyandemerson]

The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog

- Completed January 19, 2021 -

Murder! Amnesia! False Identities! Cat sitting! 

Amelia and Emerson return to the scene of their first adventure together in Egypt in this seventh book of the series. My thoughts under the cut...

As you can see, I finished this book last month. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t sit down right away and write out this post because I’ve read several books since then and it’s not as fresh in my mind!

I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, but this really would have been 3 1/2 stars, I think. Honestly, most books in this series rank around there. There always seem to be moments I actively dislike, and the mysteries never really do it for me. The action is too spread out, and the stories all seem to follow the same patterns. And, of course, there’s never enough actual archaeology going on.  I used to love the dynamic between Amelia and Emerson, but with this book I think I grew a little tried of their more unhealthy attitudes. Ramses didn’t have an active part in this book, so he wasn’t there to make me hate him more or start to hate him less. His letters were fine enough. Nothing too eye-rolling this time lol. 

Since I only remember bits and bobs of the story, I’ll just divide my thoughts into two sections:

Nitpicks: I had a problem with the way Mertz kept referring to Nefret in the last book, and it really didn’t get any better here. There’s so much objectification of “exotic” women in these books, and there’s no shortage of “whiteness is the superior beauty” sentiment to be found in the series either. I hate how she feels the need to constantly mention Nefret’s physical appearance. This is a child we are talking about, and the author thought it would be totally cool to mention her adult male character (who acts as a father to this 13 year old girl) admiringly watching her figure as she walked? Am I the crazy one here to think that is irredeemably gross??

Ramses having a crush on Nefret is fine as long as he doesn’t turn into more of a creep, but I sincerely hope Evelyn raises Nefret instead because the girl is already calling Ramses “brother” and I don’t want this to be more creepy. 

Amelia is writing this down as if she is working on publishing it. And yet refers to keeping the secret of the lost oasis? 

I hate Emerson’s hypocrisy about sex and gender roles. It is not endearing. 

I hate the constant “in your face” nature of the “English gentlemen” stereotype. It is mentioned in this book so often that I started to lose my patience. I know Mertz is American and these books are often tongue-in-cheek, but it was just too much for me this time around. “No English gentlemen would do this,” or talk of “the infallible British moral code” ...like these aren’t the folks committing the highest number of atrocities in the world during this time.

I usually love dragging men when they deserve criticism, but I’m afraid Amelia really crosses the line into “man-hating feminist” sometimes. But you get the feeling she has a ton of internalized misogyny too. At least she almost acknowledges it from time to time. Plus Amelia is classist as heck. 

Amelia’s comments about beards on men were really messed up.

You knew something was up with Cyrus this whole time because Mertz goes out of her way to constantly show how much Amelia trusts him wholeheartedly. It was so silly because he hasn’t showed up in a book for ages. I pretty much knew Sethos was involved very early on. 

Emerson punched Amelia in the face to knock her out. Sorry y’all, there is NO EXCUSE for this. I don’t care what his motive was. I loved Emerson in the early books, but this is not okay.

Things I liked: Abdullah and Amelia finally showing a bit of relationship development. Him referring to Amelia as “my daughter” was a very sweet moment.

This was my first time listening to Barbara Rosenblat’s narration. She brought Amelia to life in a way I hadn’t previously experienced, and it definitely enhanced my reading. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t say she did the male voices particularly well though. 

Despite my criticisms with the way Mertz writes everyone around Nefret behaving and thinking, I do like Nefret herself. She has a bit of an Anne of Green Gables thing going on at the start of the book. Nefret of Amarna House. Her making Amelia promise not to go down to the school and hit the mean girls over the head with her parasol was pretty funny.

One thing I appreciate about this series is the way Barbara Mertz will tie in some of her real world knowledge of ancient Egypt to loosely fit the theme of the book. Most of the time it is a flimsy connection, but at least it may teach me something new! In this case, I had never heard the tale of the Doomed Prince, so I was happy to learn about it.

The scene where Amelia was drunk was very funny, but I’m sad a dog was tortured and killed for this scene to happen.

“Cats cannot be held guilty for their actions, since they have no morals to speak of.” Can agree. Have cats.

Conclusion:

So I’m sorry this isn’t a well-written, thought-out review. I guess this is mostly for me to come back to reference. These books are best enjoyed really spaced out from one another lol. They can be really difficult to enjoy. I thought they were going to be comfort books, but they are a bit too problematic for that. I will continue to read thought the series, but it will probably be longer between entires if they stay so same-y, predictable, and disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t bad. It’s just that I’ve been chasing the same feeling I got when reading the first book in the series, and I just haven’t had that experience again. Also, I’m sorry if I sometimes refer to the author as Mertz, but say Peters other times. I’m also sorry for my poor writing skills in general, but like I said, these posts are mostly for me. 

[tortuerex]

My honest, humble, and not-objective-at-all opinion about THE CLONE WARS : STORIES OF LIGHT AND DARK

THE CLONE WARS : STORIES OF LIGHT AND DARK by various authors, published in 2020 (canon)

To be really honest, this book wasn't supposed to be the next on my « to-do » list. I'm currently reading Lords of the Sith and enjoying it, and was willing to make my next review about it, but the last two weeks has been a rough time and I couldn't manage to read a single page.

So instead of making you wait longer, I'll use the Clone Wars book as a filler, because I think I can be quick on this one (I think ? Let's see how many pages I'm going to write then).

In case you're not aware, Stories and Light and Dark (let's just call it SLD) is a short stories collection about the Clone Wars, each different story being about a set of Clone Wars episodes you already know about, but from a different point of view, focusing on one character being the narrator.

If you haven't seen the Clone Wars TV show yet, this book will probably be very confusing most of the time, because clearly what's at stakes isn't the story itself but what's going on in the head of a certain character. You'll probably end up thinking « yea that was cool I learnt about what was thinking Kenobi at this point but I haven't had any idea what was going on. »

Since every story is independant and was written by a different author, I can't give you a summary of the whole book. I'll give my opinion on the book at the end of the ticket but I'll take a bit of time to say what I thought about each story first.

Get your seatbelt on because we're going to start the SLD rollercoaster now :)

SHARING THE SAME FACE by Jason Fey

Not bad but no overly interesting. The whole point is to tell us how Yoda feel about the Clones, but to be honest we don't learn really much more in the story than in the episode.

I liked how Yoda compare the Clones to children and how different from each others he make them feel, reassuring them that they are all different and they all matter for him. That was nice.

Not much more to say about it.

DOOKU CAPTURED by Lou Anders

Probably the most goofy story of the book, based of some of the goofiest episodes on the show. It's telling us from Dooku's point of view the story of how he was captured by Hondo Ohnaka and had to team up with Obi-Wan and Anakin to escape.

It was really funny to read but also really awkward (faithful to the show...), and in my head I was constantly thinking « there's no way he's going to tell all of this stuff to his master without being slowy burned by his own shame ». At the end of the story, when Dooku changes his mind and decides to delete his holorecording and never tells his master about this whole story, I was like « yas boy I would have done the same, just keep it to yourself ».

That's the kind of story that put a smile on your face but leaves you with a bit of « wtf did i just read »

HOSTAGE CRISIS by Preeti Chhibber

This story suffers from what will a major problem in others stories : telling us something we already know without sounding redundant. It's the whole «Cade Bane and his crew taking the Senate hostage » but from Anakin's pow, and... the show was already mostly on Anakin.

It wasn't bad, not gonna lie, I liked reading how Anakin was feeling about Padmé, their relationship and her job. But it was only the first pages of the story. Once the hostage-taking has begun, it's just about describing us Anakin trying to save the day (and I've seen the show, I know how it goes) and not much about how Anakin feels. Yet it could have been interesting, Anakin being under the urge of saving his wife, the stress and the anger against Bane... but I didn't feel any of that. Just a Jedi doing Jedi stuff and being the hero at the end of the day.

To me, this story is a missed opportunity to show us how the Dark Side of the Force is strong in this one.

PURSUIT OF PEACE by Anna Ursu

Before reading this story I wasn't sure about how I felt about this whole book. This was the first one allowing me to make my mind and to think I was glad I bought it.

Unpopular opinion (depending on how you feel, of course) : I'm not a fan of Padmé. I liked her in The Phantom Menace, because she's a young, fierce, and powerful girl trying to make her way as the queen of Naboo. In Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, I feel like she has been switched from « young powerful woman » to « Anakin's love interest in need of being saved ». I know that's not completely true and I know she can still make her way with a lasergun, but like a lot of female characters in stories, once she is completing her role as a love-interest, there's not much left for her except waiting for her husband at home and making children.

That being said, that's not her fault if her character was poorly written in the AotC and RotS. I feel like The Clone Wars is trying to correct it and make her a stronger character, even leading some episodes of the show.

And because this review is already longer that the other ones, I'll try to make the rest of it short : I can say I loved this story. It's about Padmé meeting her separatist friend Mina Bonteri with Ahsoka, and how she tries to stop the war.

We see how strong and determined she is, how aware she is of the mask she has to wear in public as a senator, how far she's ready to go to stop the slaughter. How hard it is to be a female senator wanting peace.

I liked that, like the matching episodes, this story isn't all black and white with bad separatists and good republicans. I liked having a glimpse at Star Wars politic too (not-so-unpopular opinion : I'm not a fan of politics either).

Over all the rest, I loved that this story made me appreciate Padmé more that before.

Big thumb up.

THE SHADOW OF UMBARA by Yoon Ha Lee

As you could guess, this is the Umbara quadrilogy episodes, and it's from Rex's pow. And my biggest disappointment of the book. I loved The Umbara quadrilogy, even though I feel like it could have been a trilogy instead because sometimes it's a bit repetitive, but I loved it.

This story is nothing more that the description of the TV show. I'd love to say « no more no less » but it won't be true, since in the show we can see the sacrifice of Hardcase. The only bit you'll get is « Rex wanted to mourn Hardcase properly, but there was no time. » That's all, case closed, move along.

Oh, and when Clones realise they were shooting each others and were fooled by Krell ? « Rex clenched his hand as Waxer took his last breath. » Not a SINGLE word about how he FEELS.

The episodes was more effective in showing us Rex's dilemma with facial expressions than this story is with words.

So this story would be better called « No more than the Umbara quadrilogy, only less ».

It made me really angry because so more could have been said. I still wonder how this story passed the quality test to make it to the final book.

BANE'S STORY by Tom Angleberger

Or, as I like to call it, « Bane's story, by Bane, with Bane as the hero »

This was sooo fun and good to read. Bane is one of my favorite Clone Wars characters and I really felt like Bane was the one telling me the story. A breath of fresh air after the Umbara failure.

It's about these episodes when Obi-Wan disguise himself as Hardeen, a bounty hunter, to foil Dooku's plan to capture Palpatine, but all from Bane's pow. And he's so sassy about it.

I could hear Bane talking directly to me, with his words and his personality. Some of my favorite sentences of the book are in this story.

When they get chased by Anakin and Ahsoka and he tells us « I always heard Jedi were supposed to be in control of their feelings, but the two crazies on our tail sure weren't in control. » and « She had two lightsabers and was swinging them around to much I thought she was going to cut off her own horns. »

Or when he met Dooku : « I hope he wasn't expecting me to kneel like Eval. That's one thing I won't do. Another is call some old man my lord just because he's got a long beard and a big house. »

And a last one that made me laugh so hard, when they're about to abduct Palpatine during his speech on Naboo : « If you ask me, listening to that old bag of wrinkles run his mount ain't no festival. If we could kidnap him before he started, the Naboolians or whatever they're called would probably give us a medal ».

That's what I wanted from this book. Episodes I already knew about but told from a new perspective. And it was such a pleasure.

THE LOST NIGHTSISTER by Zoraida Córdova

Another bet won for SLD. It's about Ventress joining the Boba crew to earn some money, by protecting a certain box on a certain train (you know what I'm talking about if you saw the Clone Wars).

Maybe not as insightful as Bane's Story (definitively not as fun, but clearly it wasn't the point), but really intersting too. It takes us into Ventress's mind after the Dathomir massacre and the despair is palpable. And while the show leaves us uncertain about why Ventress is saving Pluma, the story is very clear about it and gives us some introspection about Ventress, her sisters, her family.

It could have been a little further, but still it was really good to read. I honestly don't have much to say about it, not my favorite but I genuinely liked it.

DARK VENGEANCE by Rebecca Roanhorse

or The true story of Darth Maul and his revenge against the Jedi known as Obi-Wan Kenobi

(just to be clear, this subtitle isn't by me, it really is in the book :D )

I hated to admit it, but it was a liiiitle bit of a disappointment too, but that's just because I expected so much from it (in case that's not clear by now, Maul is my absolute favorite and I got his face tattooed on my leg okay?).

I'll focused first of what I loved from that story. Maul talking directly to the reader, as if he was talking to a child. That gives a strong feeling of power from him, good characterisation. He apologizes when his description are too bloody, justifies his slaughter of innocents, really talking like he was relating what was going on in his mind, sometimes interrupting or correcting himself. That was good. Like Bane's story, I felt like the character was adressing to me directly.

So, why the mitigated opinion, why the disappointment, you'll ask ? Maybe because the story was uneven. Sometimes I really was into Maul's mind, but sometimes it was just plain descriptions of the episodes I already saw. I may be hard on this one. I liked Maul's reactions to Kenobi teasing, how he want to crush him and make him swallow back his words.

I liked the fact that Maul sincerely, deeply, thinks the Jedi are liars and hypocrites.

I didn't really like the fact that sometimes Maul was sounding just like he was complaining. Like, you know, in Clone Wars, when someone is like « Hey Maul, how are you today ? » and he's like « MY PATH HAS BEEN SO DARK ».

… well, after all I guess it's faithful to the show :o

Don't believe everything I wrote before. This story was good, it's about Maul. Go read it.

ALMOST A JEDI by Sarah Beth Durst

About how a bunch of kids and Ahsoka escape pirates, then Grievous.

Another usually unpopular opinion : I don't like kids in stories or TV shows (nor in real life). I always feel like kids are supposed to be the comic relieves, or the cute factor, making you say « aaaw look how adorable and naive and dumb that little kid is » and I'm always rolling my eyes and thinking « get your shit together kiddo, that's an adult story and you're ruining it ». (I might be a little excessive on this one, I'm not always doing it).

In the quadrilogy about the young apprentices and Ahsoka, most of the kids were going on my nerves, and I'm glad I didn't felt this way about Alsmot a Jedi. I'm so glad Katooni was chosen to be the narrative instead of Petro.

Overall it was a good story. Katooni's insecurities were touching, her admiration for Ahsoka was too. Like in this passage, « I wanted to scream. But I didn't, because Ahsoka wasn't screaming ». She's so afraid, so petrified to be unworthy. I really cared for her. And her relationship with Hondo is great too. (And Hondo is great, what did you expect?)

That was cool and refreshing to read.

KENOBI'S SHADOW by Greg Van Eekhout

This. This is my favorite story from the whole book. It was so dark, so growling with sadness and anger and pain.

I don't think I can describe how it was to read it. That is how I wanted to feel. I wanted to know how Obi-Wan felt when Maul murdered Satine before his eyes. Now I know and I want to hide in a hole and not mess with that Jedi, ever.

Obi-Wan is usually used as a fun character in Clone Wars, with his deadpan sens of humour. It was heartbreaking to see him in the Mandalorian episodes, and reading it... well it was heartbreaking but frightening too.

An absolut must-read. Believe me. I was shocked.

BUG by E. Anne Convery

Bug is a original story, not an adaptation of a Clone Wars episode, thus it can't be treated like the other stories.

Real real quick plot summary ? Bug is about a little girl called, well... Bug, living with her parents, running an inn on a planetoid, near an abandoned military relay tower. One day a witch from Dathomir comes to the inn and wants to use the tower in hope of finding tracks of her disappeared daughter.

It was good.

Ok that's the end of that review, thanks for reading and nah I'm kidding.

Why was Bug good ? First of all, because it was the only original story of the book. And even though some of them were really really good, it didn't bring the curiosity of discovering something new. You lack suspens and surprises. Bug brings them back. I wanted to learn so much more about this young girl and the witch ! And Falta's story was hypnotizing. Litteraly. Hooray for learning more about Dathomir, about their culture, their history and the relation between the witches's clans. (Not hooray for learning that loving for the sake of love and not power is unthinkable for Talzin. I wouldn't have wanted her as a mother if you see what I mean.)

I hope so much that we'll see more of Bug and Falta in the future. This was too interesting to be left apart as a one-short story.

So, if I had to FINALLY resume my opinion on The Clone Wars : Stories of Light and Dark ?

PRO :

- getting involved inside the mind of characters in situations I already knew about

- some really fun, dark and/or insightful stories

CON :

- an overall mixed feeling about the books because some stories are not up to the rest.

- you'll have to get through some passages that are just formal descriptions of what happened in the TV show

TO CONCLUDE :

This took way more time than I expected and I should definitively not have called that review « a filler ».

As I aleady said, SLD is an rollercoaster. You'll get stunned and you'll get disappointed, and go through all the emotions between.

Was the book worth the money ? Well, the hardcover is pretty and some illustrations are cool, but the quality is irregular.

If you're short on time or money, I'll suggest you find a way to read only the stories that are really interesting you, based on any review you'll find on the internet.

Cheers to everyone reading me, thanks so much for all the notes, follow and reblog. It means a lot. Take care of you and your relatives during these hard times.

Tagging @maulpunk <3

[himbo-buckley]

idk if you've talked about this before but the complete shift in how they wrote buddie in s3 compared to s2 still gets me it just is so Obvious

Hello friend 🥰

Puh, I don’t remember either tbh?

(Sometimes when I look for sth specific I go through my blog and have these, „huh, wait, I wrote this?“ - moments, so maybe we just forgot)

(I know I messaged with some people about it and I know @chimbuckleys answered an ask about it not too long ago, though I can‘t find it right now)

(Also I will talk about it a little in „The big buddie guide“ though by the time that is finished we will all be old and grey and unable to read any longer, sigh)

But as you said: it‘s very noticable!!! They feel a lot lighter and more fun in Season 2 and a lot more emotionally involved and soft and romantic in Season 3, right?

Part of it is that the topics and the things happening between Buddie and to Buck and Eddie are far heavier so the writing of their relationship is reflecting that

Part of it is that they know each other better by now so they don’t have to ... fumble around the heavy shit I guess? They know each other now and their relationship has been tested and it survived so they are far more secure to do and say shit

Part of it is that early Buddie? Mostly shot from Buck‘s point of view, I mean if Eddie and Buck are in the scene, than the focus always went: Buck > Buck seeing Eddie (our whole intro to Eddie was through Buck, in the first four episodes we got exactly 2 scenes and 1 montage of Eddie that didn’t involve Buck somehow and two were about Eddie and Chris)

If I had to assign themes for Buddie I‘d say:

2a: flirty coworkers

2b: friends who‘d fuck each other if the chance arose

3a: #mutual pining,

3b: familyTM

I have to say, for me the big shift happened with Eddie?

Even though we had scenes like the hospital scene in 2.13, their relationship was still fairly light and mostly just a normal very close friendship

Like, if 2a was Buddie narrated by Buck then 3a is Buddie narrated by Eddie because here HE is the driving force behind their relationship, he is the one setting the pace, even in 3.06 when he is avoiding Buck, he is the one who decides: jup, okay, I‘m ready to listen now, I do wanna talk now

While in 2a it was Buck setting the tone, it was Buck who initially didn’t like Eddie but followed him into the truck anyways, it was Buck who asked about who Eddie tried to reach, Buck who followed Eddie into the skyscraper and drove him around and introduced him to Carla and so on

I also think that sometime during 3a, beginning with 3.03 in particular and ending somewhere between 3.09 / 3.10 where Buddie went from coworkers and best friends and part of the firefam to a family of their own and an „us“ separate from the rest of the 118?

In „the big Buddie Guide“ I like to call it „the ambiguous us” and basically what I mean is that a few times throughout the season 3 Buddie refers to “us” and to “family” and while it is always with other people around the subtext can very easily be read as “you and me” and not “you, me and everyone else”

There is also a great focus of the relationship between Buck and Christopher in Season 3 which we didn’t have in Season 2 either, like, we had Buck reference Chris a few times and interact with him but always with Eddie around

Season 3 on the other hand side gave us a relationship between Chris and Buck that was separate of that of Buck and Eddie, which also informed the way Buddie was written, right? Because it gave us all this coparenting and Buck being fatherly toward Chris

I mean, puh, friend, it’s so crazy obvious?

I know that Timbo isn’t sure yet and all but he has definitely been writing Buddie in a way that keeps that door wide open and he has definitely been testing the waters with how far he can go in Season 3

In my opinion if they keep the progression of Buddie going this way - which they have to unless they do sth to break them up in Season 4 or they say “fuck character development” or the SOMEHOW and against everyone’s expectations manage to introduce love interests for the two of them that would realistically work - romantic Buddie is the only way it can end

Which tbh is why I am so for them getting involved with someone else? Because the way they have been written and the way these two characters work they would be each other’s endgame - but it also has to be a slow progression (for me at least) to stay in tone with their relationship and their development, so dating someone else for a bit and then figuring out: oh, it was you all along! is the only way I can see these two develop right now?

So yeah, these are my thoughts on the Buddie shift between Season 2 and 3!

Hope it all makes sense and please ignore all grammatical errors I made here and in the past few days in general, it seems the more I write in english, the worse it seems to get but also I am typing on my phone and I can barely text in german, sooooo

[16th-cornelia-street]

just a jumbled mess of stream of consciousness thoughts while listening to folklore: (alos heads up i don’t know any of the song names so i’m just going mostly with the lyrics that stood out to me. but it is mostly in order of the songs as they play out.)

I remember when first listening ot lover thinking how melancholy all th songs were. i don’t feel it as much anymore, it just must have been my state of mind at the time. but listening to the first two songs of folklore i’m getting that feeling again and i don’t feel its going to go away. haven’t listened to rest of this ,but hte wishing and longing for htings to go back to how they were seems like its going to be the theme of this album

song after american dynasty gave me chills. that guys voice: beautiful.

same song gives me vibe of this is last time on red, which is a good song, couple having conversation about not listening to each othe rand feeling like neithe is being heard and thngs are falling apart. its my sisters favorite song on that album wonder how she’ll feel about this one.

mirror ball song makes me think of that dress she wore to award show for lover. and remember when joe and taylor posted that wine photo i wonder if thats the day they were working together on the song peopel theorize he worked with her on.

because i like to crazy theorize what if the three love sotry is about forbidden love stories both taylor and the cowriter had not together but with other people. i’m just in writing mode so creating all kinds of wild theories.

mirror ball also gives vibes of miss americana how she just wnats to be liked and shows various aspects of herself ot be accepted and the ball showing the viewer various aspects of themselves reminds me of how the fans talk about seeing themselves in her writing, parts they didn’t know aobut or parts tehy don’t show others. how they see thsemlves in her songs so in a way she is a mirorball to her fans not just her lovers.

folksong song sounds like a first love childhood before the singer learned to what was proper and accepted how to act like a “lady” back when her love was wild adn free pacing up her dolls and swaeter (cardigan) so they could run away together and be free in teh way they wanted to be. 

sometimes its easier to talk about aspects of ourslves by putting on othe people on othe stories slipping in fiction with truth so no one knows what was real or imagined (august)

august gives me back to december vibes.

man taylors vocals this album just i’m so speeechless so many ways she’s never sung before, a new side of her and her vocals so haunting nad beaitiful and breathy its enchanting. i don’t know how to describe it.

it doesn’t have ot be an affair to feel this way to feel like the perosn you’ve broken up with is someone you’ll never find agan never feel that way agin with who created worlds with you and then tears them all apart hwne they leave you.

invisible string i take it this is from male perspective talking about a girl and not realizing at time tehy liked you back and finding connnection years later. that yes they did like you.

gold string and dive bars gives me reputation feels.

really liking all the instrumentals in teh scong calm and soothing of course becauase thats the theme but i like that taylor changes up her sound each album not alwaysa rocky or poop or coutnry, its nice ot get the narrative beauty that is taylor but have the story told in different genres, if you will

when i saw that hte album was explicit i was like taylor is going to say the f word and when she id i was not ready for it espcialy with teh full sentence i think she said of mouth-f so ya that was boht unexpected and jarring and...wow, taylor. when you decide to use that word you go all in. good for you.

madwoman seems like sequal to the man. the man’s “crazy” sister

does he beat kind of pick up at the end of madwoman, either i was getting anxiety or the beat picks up when its just the insturmentals to give it a kind fo manic feeling

ther is a lot of mention fo dead nd peopel wishing someone was dead and funeral.s are you okay taylor. i just need to chck in with you.

the song about the soldier is giving me soon you’ll get better and will probably end up being the song i skip the most like all taylors songs about her mom becuause i can’t always handle those  feels.

betty’s garden. james girl drives up in car talk abou summer i was thinking august the whole tiem that maybe this song is tied to august song liek she said three songs tie togtehr in love triangle so that confirms it so is the third song the one about running away togetehr with suitcase of dolls and sweaters?

idk why as soon as i saw taylor message about love triangles i didn’t think the usual he loves her but she loves him, i was thinking he loves her and she loves her and she loves him. like a circle but it guess th twoudln’t amek ti a triangle then. but was totally thinking forbiddne and secret love and not realizing that she actaully liked you while you wer in love with her best friend. idk. i’m a mess.

sometimes i when i listen to taylor i think her voice hasn’t changed i listen to old songs and they basically sound the same but this album you really get to see her range and a new side of her voclas and tones and its nice ot hear the old and new together working togteher to make this album. 

okay this song cardigen is giving me vibes but then thers is the laughter at the end that pervades the cardigan song so betty garden seems tied to that.

bety garden is like book when he arrived at party at end its like ia rrived at your paryt i ws like what what di she say how did she react.i need to know.

 idk i just rally like this album i know its different in a good way and its really i really like the storyteller in me is squeeling.

brittle heart seems like a mess of phrases when first impresion but listening closer but its like youre trying searhcing for he word prhase thing syou need to say finding the right words finding the right combinaton of words either your own or someone else’s to get them to listen to hear you to accept you and let you be a part of their life.

hoax started and i knew it was the last song and it jsut felt like thigs wre getting starrted and alreayd its over. i’m not ready for it to be over. play it again sam.

edit; like this wasn’t long enough, here are more jumbled notes from the second listen.

unrequited love. missed opportunities. young love. mistakes taht could never be fixed.

what happesn when you take out all the prhases that seem out of place, like kissed two girls and lost the one. later in teh story you find out about james and him doing that and it seems like a hint taht he lost betty.

be a friend to all be afriend to none also seems out of palce seesm like taylor speaking from hr own experience

i can’t tell how much of this is narrative insertion? is that the word. and how much of it is just the narrative.

cardigan really feels lke this is betty’s song when he left for the summer and ruined everything.

he did come back to her but i don’t know feels like it might have been too late but maybe not. mixed readings on this one.

dynasty is a bop and i have many thoughts on it like that i love rebecca she is my life goals.

also get black widow vibes from her when couple dynasty with mad woman and teh idea that waht happend to the dog might have happened to her husband.

do you tay, you do you. ruin everything ebcause evertyhing is already ruined and its time they realized that and that its not really your fault.

not really any woman’s fault. 

some of the songs seem like they are about othe poeple but then likewith  lemony snicket it feels liek teh narrator is telling his own story in his own words or through the characters.

the couple fight song gives me miss americana nad heartbreak proince both as a romance and the current state of our country

ricochet what is that jumbled instrumental jazz mess that happeesn after the first mention fo her tears

sweet tea does it mention braids idk it just keeps giving me vibes of two girls in love but that could be because i’ve been on a supercorp writing stint.

the insturmentals just take you to another plane of existence

mentions a girl and talks about guys she gives their babies present (strign song) don’t know what to make of this song. gives me many feelings and so much to unpack

where is centenial parrk and do they ahve a yogurt stand there where someone worked. it makes me wonder if songs about not realizing how many times your paths crossed with someone utnil the moment you finally collide and have your first official encounter

mad woman almost seems like its tied to american dynasty hinting at the reasons she went mad after her husband died

when i heard mouth f*ck in madwoman i had teh same reaction as i did when i heard taylor sing “only bought this dress so you could take it off” in dress. adn i am reminded yet again, our girl is growing up. is grown up. she says fu and everything.

betty’s gardne mentions being 17 and not knowing anything and in cardigent we were young and they said we don’t know anything like she was calling BS on his excuse. you knew exactly what you were doing

btrittle heart maybe its like snatches of conversations memoires of meoments togteher things that were said that wer promised that weren’t said things you wanted to say

hoax mentions number one bringing it all back to the first song

[izzyovercoffee]

@tiender replied to your post:“I know Republic Commando is a small fandom, but has anyone out there...”:

before or after the head injury? 'cos some weird stuff went on there, you know it did

both, I guess lol

mostly I’m trying to decide if I personally want to devote the time/energy to picking apart repcomm for the meta for these two, when I don’t ... really like Bardan Jusik for a long list of mandaboo related reasons (reasons that are... more about brown-nosing to Kal than actually having any real other reason to “go native” like he did in the way he did, when looking at it from an objective perspective)

I used to love Jusik, back when there was a really, really incredible writer for him in the repcomm rpc, but that was ... idr how many years ago that was actually (5+ years minimum), but it’s been a long time and that blog (and its headcanons and its meta) is long, long gone. generally a good writer can get you to love anyone, really, especially when they pick apart the little nuances of character.

I’m rambling. I’m gonna ramble some more since I’m thinking about it now and since I made the mistake of listening to the Lore podcast before bed

my thing is, I’m looking at a potential argument to concoct for a Fi/Jusik ship. after having briefly talked over an au timeline w/ @thelightreturns that’s completely unrelated to them, we realized that bc KT is so painfully straight it’s a ship that just ... completely reads as an impossibility / not a thing, and it’s a ship that as it turns out most if not the entire fandom has never even considered. 

considering that this specific fandom has explored some really crazy/crack ships just because they can, just because it’s titillating or a challenge to write or just fun, even from before AO3, that’s ... a really big surprise. 

also considering that it hits some of the big points fandom loves:

hurt/comfort

friends to lovers

closet key (maybe even for each other, idk)

height difference

brothers-in-arms / love on the battlefield

unrequited / one-sided 

it just surprises me that there’s barely anything out there.

and like... the thing is, even platonic (or one-sided, whatever), the pros are:

it deals directly with Fi’s internalized homophobia (I can’t find the meta that I’m thinking of rn but I’m also sleep deprived, but someone had done a very thorough read-through of the books and went through Fi’s internal narration, and it was genuinely heartbreaking the ways in which he absolutely sounds like ... someone so deeply in the closet that he can’t seem to even consider the possibility that he might not even be attracted to women. from the way he thinks about his relationship to Parja, to the way he thinks about her, the language he uses towards them vs the language he uses when interacting with men ... it’s a lot. I wish I could find it, and I’m starting to worry it was on one of the older RP blogs that have long since been deleted..... but anyway, it’s yet again another example of how KT thinks she’s writing one thing, but the entire narrative is actually building something else) 

it re-contextualizes Jusik’s otherwise culturally appropriative attitudes towards mando culture in a way that actually gives him genuine motivation, respect and justification to learn the language, absorb the culture, learn the nuances to really connect with someone he feels for ... because his motivation extends beyond chasing on the heels of an inconsistent father figure, to actually forming a foundation of a family unit (or a love interest), which I would argue is something more solid. the books give us a “well of course Jusik would” with no real explanation actually being provided to us, only chasing Kal’s approval (and the implication that that is somehow being a totally healthy, totally good thing ....... and it’s not)

it gives an out for the Fi/Parja relationship that doesn’t result in a rushed marriage that has Parja giving up everything for Fi, and I have a hard time actually buying that Parja would see his hesitation and ... not press to understand it better. (there were also headcanons back in the good ol’ days that Parja and Jusik were bffs, so seeing that kind of dynamic would genuinely be wonderful)

it provides an avenue to explore force-healing, force-bonds, and the ... unique ... development of a connection between Bardan and Fi, bc Bardan clearly put more into that healing than just the Force (the graying of his hair, the implication that he somehow looked older or more worn after, he essentially sacrificed part of himself for Fi, and it’s ... never addressed, never explored, never mentioned again)

we can just avoid the horrific Arla bull shit entirely had this been a thing

I am realizing this got really long so my bad, but yeah. you’re right, weird shit happened there, but it’s the kind of weird shit that if it was any other characters in any other niche fandom within star wars, there would at least be SOME jumping on it! the very idea that a soul-deep force-healing happened there, that Bardan sacrificed parts of himself to reverse Fi’s brain damage, that he spent months devoted to Fi in healing him, that he thought of ways to “reach” Fi even through his coma ....

and Fi is free. he becomes a free man after this genuinely traumatic experience, but he doesn’t talk about it with anyone in the series afterwards, and I used to think (and still do, I guess) that Bardan would actually be a good person to talk to about it (not just for Fi, I wrote a short series of Mereel recording his pseudo therapy sessions w/ Bardan, but I digress). 

idk. there’s a lot of potential here that’s just totally missed bc KT is so straight she made both these guys straight as boards when they literally potentially have a bond knit together by the force and near-death experience, and that relationship is potentially more compelling than the ones we were given for either of the, as is.

[apolloappreciationblog]

What do you love about Trials of Apollo and why? How'd you get into the series? What do you hope/think will happen in books 4 and 5?

Thanks so much for asking! This got really long so I’m putting it below. I guess it’s also sort of like an about me also in regards to the fandom, for anyone who wants to talk Trials (please do, I’m obsessed)

How did I get into Trials?

I read PJO a long time ago back when it was new, fresh, and super popular, and instantly fell in love with the series (like everyone else) but fell off the boat a bit after the first Heroes book came out (I guess, also like everyone else). It’s not that I didn’t like it, I was busy at the time, and since The Lost Hero had just come out, I lost track of waiting for the next books to come out and somehow just forgot about them as a whole (No I still haven’t read them all (oops). Yes, I’ve been stuck on the “It’s Percy! Oh my gods he has amnesia!” cliffhanger for years now).

It’s been a long time since then, and I thought I’d pretty much made peace with the series. But for some reason I was smacked over the head with nostalgia after someone I know mentioned how fun it would be to play a powered by the apocalypse game in a PJO setting (I’m a pretty huge tabletop rpg nerd). Naturally that thought sent me down a rabbit hole and I decided I was going to literally build a big homebrew system for PJO (which I still am, currently), despite the fact that I hadn’t engaged with the series in years. My memory was far from perfect, and I ended up doing a ton of research-sifting through wikis and even rereading some parts of the books-and while I looked around I noticed there was a new series being written. I read the synopsis and instantly fell in love. I’m a huge fan of the tropes present in trials, and the more I thought about what ridiculous shenanigans were possible from the idea, the more I absolutely could not resist reading them. I came to be entertained and stayed for the heart wrenching character development, but I’m sure we’re all the same.

Which brings me to your first question! What do I love about Trials?

First and foremost I am a real sucker for the whole general concept. Like, taking one of the gods and making them a pathetic mortal teenager?? Making it PJO’s Apollo of all gods??? I don’t think I would have ever said I needed that absolutely horrific and yet genius concept, but here we are. I was also under the impression this was a freakishly fun spinoff series (RIP me), and I mean, it kind of was, for like…half of book one.

And then, oh gods, I realized Rick had made this self important asshole likeable. In fact, even more than that, he had made him a sympathetic and compelling asshole. Where it was completely fine and fun to relish in Apollo’s hilarious punishment in book one, suddenly it wasn’t funny anymore (ok maybe just a little)-it was heartbreaking (Rick you monster, stop making him wet his pants!). But hey, that’s good writing for you.

So basically I really love the concept and, well, I just really love Apollo. The books are executed so good you don’t even realize you are completely rooting for the kid you were laughing at two books ago (because, like YIKES man, that ego!), and gladly die for him (No? Just me?) and the character development is such a subtle and delicate change, but it’s noticeable, really effective, and extremely compelling (and heartbreaking, mostly, in a good way). The comedy is on point (Sometimes it’s hard to tell if Apollo’s taste in pop culture is just bad and cringey or if it’s Rick. The truth is that it’s both and thanks, I hate it) and all of the characters, both new and old, are nostalgic and fun, and there are real reasons you can understand for every action they take and thing they say. The plot doesn’t let you down with twists and turns, but also easy to grasp and follow, and keeps you turning the page even if it’s 3am and you have class at 8. I found that TOA’s books seemed to be more focused, every encounter, no matter how seemingly random, pushes the protagonists in a way that progresses something meaningful, whether it’s the plot or their own development. It’s also really nice to see Rick return to his first person roots, especially when he does it so damn well.

It’s a fresh take on a series I grew up with and it’s just as enchanting now as it was when I was a kid. I do have some gripes with a few things in the series (Listen, I didn’t even read HoO but I loved Jason) but overall it does what it’s set out to do really well, and Rick sure knows what he’s doing (for better or worse).

What are my hopes or predictions for the rest of the series?

Oh boy. Honestly, the overall plot of Trials being “Will Apollo be restored to godhood or not?” is probably the worst plot for my heart, since I don’t even know, ever? We all know it’s going to be a yes, but at the same time…

I didn’t read HoO, though I know the general plot of it, so I can’t really do any elaborate theorycrafting in regards to Camp Jupiter or the roman demigods, but here are my thoughts on the big plot themes:

Promises Kept: Rick’s made it really clear that Apollo didn’t give a flying hoot about promises or oaths before Trials, but it’s quickly evolved into one of the biggest themes in the books. Apollo will keep his promises, maybe even regardless of the cost, and I think we’ll really see that shift in the next two books given the ending lines of book 3. This sort of also bleeds into Apollo considering the weight of life and his own heart, and the whole idea of him trying to change to make amends for his past behavior. I think by the end of this, we really might just have #1 Dad (and God) Apollo (I’m very hopeful).

Choice of Mortality: Heavily foreshadowed in book 2 (looking at you, cal), there’s going to be some crazy stuff in the coming books regarding this. We got a small glimpse of it near the end of book 3 when Apollo was questioning that, if given the option, would he go back to Olympus and abandon his friends in that moment? With circumstances debating, it’s really the heart of the plot and the series and I think we’ll see him questioning Olympus in general. The similarities between Zeus and Nero, and in turn, Apollo and Meg, are made incredibly clear in the series. Apollo would never let Meg return to Nero-it’s his goal to help her to free her from his influence and guide her through her trauma-and yet Apollo is in the same exact situation, the stakes are just, arguably, a lot less black and white. Meg will most definitely not return to Nero and overcome his manipulation, and in turn, I think it will inspire Apollo-making the choice harder than it already is.

There’s no doubt Apollo will ultimately return to Olympus, but that doesn’t made the ride any easier. While there’s no hope of Meg coming to terms with Nero (And I’m not saying there should be (please kill Nero)), Zeus is a problem that isn’t going to go away, and I hope that at the very least, Apollo can overcome his abusive relationship with his own father at the end, and maybe even revolutionize Olympus. It would make a great resolution to the series, and I think that’s what it’s pushing for and heading towards, the complete opposite of what the gods are doing now, and Apollo may just be the one to start it.

Misc predictions and wants:

>Meg and Apollo will HUG (godsdammit, even if I have to force them myself!) And for the love of the gods, can we please get a clear cut reference to their relationship regarding the SUN and PLANTS. LISTEN MAN,

>Someone else is going to die. If they don’t, they will come extremely close, and be saved by Apollo (solidifying his character development regarding the effects of his actions on others) in some intense true self sacrificial way that can’t be debated (i.e., Apollo’s excuses for being able to stabbing himself in the chest). And…the Styx is hungry.

>I have no idea what Annabeth’s up to in MC, but I’m hoping that she will make an appearance (and hopefully along with percy?). I’d also guess that camp jupiter and half-blood will come together again, but that’s just purely hoping (Don’t look at me like that, I have no idea what funk was in HoO).

>REUNION WITH ARTEMIS. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS.

>I really want more camp half blood life. I really, really, really do. We’re sure as hell not going to get it. But oh, what I wouldn’t do for Apollo’s extended stay at camp, or even just, camp in general for anyone. Please!

>Everyone is going to hate the shit out of Apollo for Jason’s death (arguably, they should be upset at Rick and not my stupid, stupid son…) and oh boy is he going to have a fun time with that. I initially thought that Apollo didn’t react nearly as strong to Jason’s death as he should have (was it just me or did he mourned Crest harder than Jason?? You could argue unreliable narrator, but come on), but oh boy, I think it may be because the worst is yet to come regarding that.

>Probably some shitty forced romance for Apollo. I do not want this. I really do not want this (does ANYONE want this???). But the arguments predicting this are pretty darn hard to refute, sadly. One can only pray.

At the end of the series I really want Apollo to be like “Fuck you guys, I’m the god of demigods now. Fuck you. Especially you Zeus. I’m protecting everyone in this bitch. You can’t stop me.” and proceed to aggressively aid demigods everywhere wearing the camp half-blood shirt. Also if he moved in to camp, I sure as hell would not complain. I also wouldn’t complain if he gave driving lessons to his kids in the sun chariot. Or if he made amends with everyone he’s ever hurt. Or if he kept aspects of Lester’s appearance (like those love handles) because hey, he doesn’t have to be insecure anymore and you know what, it’s cute dammit, abs are so out. Or…well, you get the idea I’m gonna stop myself there.

That was long (LIKE, FOUR FREAKING PAGES LONG) but I hope I answered your questions!

[buzzdixonwriter]

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood [SPOILERICIOUS]

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is now my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie even though I think a few of his others are better made films.[1] 

But, man, does it ever capture the era and the vibe.  In that sense it's like La Dolce Vita (and in another, like Singin' In The Rain).

I know this era, and I know Los Angeles of the time -- from the Summer of Love in ’67 through the year of unraveling in 1968 to the end of the era in ’69.

And while Hunter S. Thompson’s brilliant Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas marked the official death notice of the Swingin’ Sixties in 1971 (with a few die-hards like the Symbianese Liberation Army literally dying hard in 1974), the truth is 1969 was when it all came to an end.

Nixon won, thanks to his own now well documented treason behavior and to a few million white bigots voting for George Wallace instead of Hubert Humphrey, and (as Thompson himself noted two years later) “with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

Now some of you are saying, “But wait -- how can little Buzzy boy -- a mere lad of 13 summers in 1967 and not yet fully 16 when he finally actually visited Los Angeles for the first time in 1970 – how can he know what Los Angeles was like in that era?”

Ah, for that, my friends, we can thank television.

. . .

For those of you too damn impatient to get into the meat of my review of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, just skip this block and go to the next one.

I’m gonna pull a Tarantino here and seemingly meander in order to set up what comes next.

Even though I lived in the rural South (Appalachia mostly but with a few years in the Piedmont of North Carolina), we had this invention called television, and on this invention were these shows.

I’m not talking about Shindig! or Hullabaloo or even The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (though the latter interestingly paralleled in real time the rise and fall of what we now call “The Sixties”).

I’m not even talking about that perennial American Bandstand which started in 1952 and ran a staggering 37 seasons, grinding to a halt only in 1989 at the tail end of the Reagan Era, a pop culture show that lasted long enough for the grandchildren of its initial audience to be watching it when they finally pulled the plug.

No, I’m talking about cheap-ass, under-the-radar syndication efforts like Where The Action Is (itself a spinoff of American Bandstand) and The Lloyd Thaxton Show a Bandstand imitation that relied more on whacky humor, proto-music videos, and local-to-LA pop culture icons.

We’d see these shows (briefly back-to-back during Where The Action Is’ short run) not as cheap entertainment for teens and tweens but rather as a glorious portal into that land of myth and magic:  Southern California.

In particular, Los Angeles.

(It’s not as if nobody ever did this before.  In all its variations from the mid-1950s through Walt’s death in 1966, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World Of Color seemed to make every 4thshow either about Disney Studios or Disneyland itself, thus by extension priming the national pump for interest in Southern California.)

Where The Action Is and The Lloyd Thaxton Show needed to squeeze the most out of their bare minimum budgets, and the cheapest way to fill screen time was to convince some local SoCal / LA attraction to let you shoot footage of young kids (with disposable incomes, one might add) having a good -- no, great time at said attraction while listening / dancing to top forty tunes lip-synched by an astonishing roster of talent.

Look, this was back when TV was big but before it became H*U*G*E.  Successful show biz folks made money but they didn’t make that much money, and popping down for an afternoon to lip-synch your latest release for Lloyd or Dick Clark was a sure way to guarantee a few thousand more sales across the country, a few more paid gigs in the hinterlands, so whyda hell not?

The Monkees tried covering the same territory on prime time, but as popular as that show was (and it stands up well to this day albeit more as an artifact of its time), it felt just too slick, too packaged, too ersatz compared to the scruffiness of Where The Action Is and The Lloyd Thaxton Show.[2]

Add to this almost weekly illustrated news and culture stories of SoCal / LA and the youth movement delivered to even the most remote rural homes via Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, and The Saturday Evening Post, and it was pretty much hard not to be aware of -- and influenced by -- Los Angeles culture in the 1960s.

And if like little Buzzy boy you were interested / intrigued / enthralled by that culture, there was a virtual tsunami of sights and sounds to wallow in, even if you lived 2,467 miles away.

On my first visit to Los Angeles in the summer of 1970, when I had just stepped off the airliner, when I was no further into the city than the gate of the airline terminal, I looked around, took a deep breath, and realized:  I’m home.

. . .

So here’s the plot of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood:  

Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a fading TV star, frets over his career.  

Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), his stunt double buddy, tries to boost his spirits.  

Rick lives next door to Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), a vivacious young actress married to a world famous director.  

Cliff the stunt man bumps into members of a crazy criminal cult.  

Weirdness ensues, but everything ends happily (except for three of the cultists).

A conventional movie would have put points 1, 2, & 3 in Act One, made point 4 part of Act Two but then stretched that act out with a big pointless chase and a few small fights, and finished with point 5 as Act Three.

20 pages / 80 pages / 20 pages

Not our lad Quentin.

A screenwriting guru once observed It's A Wonderful Life has a traditional 3 act structure only it's constructed so act 1 occupies 80% of the picture. Likewise Casino opens with virtually a 45 minute documentary on the casino business so they won't have to stop and explain things as they go along with the main story. 

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is like that: Two hours to build up to a literal life-or-death moment in order to show that for all their sins and short comings, Rick and Cliff would not merely survive but be worthy of survival.

(Most "assemble the squad" movies have a similar structure only they disguise it by indulging in hijinks along the way viz The Dirty Dozen spending most of their movie just training.)

Points 1, 2, 3, and 4 above are Tarantino’s Act One, and based on the 161 minute running time, I’m guessing it occupies the first 130 pages of the script.

Point 5 is his Act Three, and I’d say 20 pages sounds about right there.

But what about Act Two?

That’s the beauty of this story.

Act Two is about ten minutes long and is told mostly with narration (provided by Kurt Russell, who may or may not be speaking in character as Randy, the stunt director).

The crisis point in Rick and Cliff’s story is not that they’ve intersected with the Manson family, it’s that Rick decides their friendship must end. 

Now, ostensibly this is because Rick’s new Italian wife, Francesca (Lorenza Izzo), wants to cut expenses and move out of his home in Benedict Canyon and into a condo in the San Fernando Valley, a move that we know from Rick’s earlier statements that he would find shameful and a mark of his slide in status , but the unspoken reason may be that the volatile Francesca learned of Cliff’s own troublesome past (see below) and wants nothing to do with him.

So Act One tells us who these two guys are, explains their relationship in part, hints at an elephant neither wants to acknowledge, and carries us to a point where they can no longer continue as once they had.

Act Two consists of the final decisions the two make as part of this friendship, not really wanting to break it off, Cliff clearly hurt by Rick’s abrupt dismissal, yet trying to have one last good time together before parting, ostensibly not forever but…yeah, forever.

Their respective decisions impair their ability to respond to the dangers posed by the trio of killers in Act Three.

. . .

Let’s talk about Rick Dalton for a moment.

Leonardo DiCaprio proves himself to be one of the gutsiest actors of all time, playing a whiny, petulant, rude, brusque, self-involved, over-anxious crybaby of a man…

…and getting us to admire him because despite his myriad character flaws, the sonuvabitch has two things going for him and the first is a fierce dedication to his craft.

A conventional movie would cut the scenes of Rick practicing his Lancer dialog all by himself.

Tarantino realizes the audience needs to experience that in full, because otherwise they won’t appreciate his frustration at blowing his lines during filming the next day.

And when he blows his lines, Rick erupts in a epic full-bore meltdown rage aimed at himself and himself alone.

And this points to the second thing Rick has going for him:  Rick knows when and how to accept help, and is thankful for it.

Without the lengthy scene of him practicing at home (and drinking too much in the process), audiences would dismiss Rick blowing his lines as par for the course.

We need to see Rick make a conscientious effort to prepare for his role, see him screwing up by getting hungover, see him blow his lines, then see him correctly shouldering the blame and taking positive steps to overcome his error and deliver an outstanding performance.

The help that Rick accepts in this scene comes from “Maribella Lancer” a.k.a. Trudi Fraiser (Julia Butters), a child method actress who refuses to break character between takes. (This is one of the most delightful scenes in the film and well worth the price of admission alone.)

Despite a rather awkward-bordering-irritating meeting, “Maribella” / Trudi feels empathy for Rick as he inadvertently confesses his own career anxiety by talking about a pulp Western he’s reading.

That he can accept this empathy from a child stands well in Rick’s favor.  It shows he actually listens to others and accepts their feedback and input.

And it pays off for both of them when Rick not only comes back from his lunch break meltdown all fired up and determined to give an outstanding performance (which he does), but also when we learn he suggested a bit of business for “Maribella” / Trudi that delights both her and the director (Sam Wannamaker, a real life actor and TV director of the era, played in this film by Nicholas Hammond).

And when “Maribella” / Trudi tells Rick that his acting was some of the best she’s ever seen, he’s genuinely moved to tears.

We may shake our heads at some of the stuff he does, but we like this guy.

. . .

Part of the headshaking is due to his relationship with Cliff, his stunt double / majordomo / best friend.

Rick often seems like an arrogant prick with Cliff, seemingly bossing him around, acting like Cliff is at his constant beck and call.

We’re about two thirds of the way into the film when we learn that without Rick to champion him, Cliff would pretty much be persona non grata in Hollywood.

Cliff is known throughout the town (and Hollywood ain’t that big, folks) as a wife killer.

While some (such as Rick) argue he was absolved of any criminal intent, there’s no doubt he deliberately and personally caused the death of his wife, he didn’t merely have an accident that left her dead.

He’s a wife killer.

Most of the people in town assume he got away with murder.

Francesca, despite being an Italian starlet, may have heard the stories from other Americans working in Italy and that is the real reason she laid her foot down re Rick selling his house and abandoning Cliff as his friend.

Hell, even nearly blind old George Spahn (Bruce Dern) holds him in contempt.

Cliff can’t get hired in town unless Rick asks for him to be employed as his stunt double.

Even then he runs into strong pushback, viz Randy the stunt director who is reluctant simply because he doesn’t like the vibe Cliff gives off, and is especially reluctant because his wife, fellow stunt coordinator Janet (Zoë Bell), nurtures an enormous hate-on for Cliff based on the presumption he did indeed murder his wife and get away with it.

Cliff blows his chance of working his way back into Hollywood’s good graces by getting in a fight on the set of The Green Hornet with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) that caves in the side of Janet’s car.

But what’s crucial in that scene is Lee explaining his refusal to fight: “My hands are registered as lethal weapons. We get into a fight, I accidentally kill you. I go to jail.”

“Anybody accidentally kills anybody in a fight, they go to jail,” says Cliff.  “It’s called manslaughter.”

Sounds like Cliff may know what he’s talking about from personal experience.

When Lee learns Cliff is a wife killer, his reluctance to fight him disappears.

Nobody in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood disputes Cliff killed his wife, they dispute if he got away with murder or not.  In view of his comment on manslaughter to Bruce Lee, the coroner’s verdict may not have been murder or accident but justifiable homicide

We don't know what happened on the boat in the flashback scene with him and his wife (Rebecca Gayheart). 

If she attacked him with a weapon (the spear gun they carried onboard or a knife or a wrench or whatever) and he defended himself from her attack but unintentionally inflicted a lethal injury on her, then both a charge of manslaughter and verdicts of "not proven" or "justifiable self-defense" are possible.

We don't know, and that ambiguity is what makes Once Upon A Time In Hollywood such a morally and ethically complex film.

(When I next see the film, two things I'm keeping tabs on the contents of Rick's store room and when Cliff's various scars appear.)

. . .

And Sharon Tate, the third leg of this triad?

She is depicted in this movie by Margot Robbie as light and as airy and as harmless as dandelion pollen blown on the breeze.  She is a perfect wish fulfillment character, not merely because so many men desire her, but because she appears to live a blissfully stress free, rewarding, and happy life.

This is where real life collides with “reel life” and if you haven’t guessed by now, we’re up to our necks in spoiler territory.

You have been warned.

For audiences half my age, Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) is vaguely known in a Jack the Ripper-ish sort of way (i.e., a really, really bad guy who did some really, really terrible things but just what they don't fully know) while Tate is unjustly forgotten.

The glory of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is that for however briefly, for however artificially, it lets Sharon Tate come alive again and enjoy the happy ending she deserved.

What is that happy ending?

To be honest, we don’t know.

At the end of the film she meets Rick, recognizes him from his TV shows, and the implication hangs in the air that she’ll introduce him to her husband, Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha) who in real life at this stage of his career had not yet descended to drugging and raping 13 year old girls.

I hope in “reel life” that never happens, just as I would hope that Polanski’s criminal moral failing would never have materialized in the real world had Tate and her unborn child lived.

We just don’t know.

We assume Rick will meet Polanski, and from that meeting his career would shift to A-list motion pictures, and his dreams of success and security would come true.

We just don’t know.

Would Tate herself have gone on to bigger and better roles?

The odds are not in her favor.

As the writer David Gerrold said:  “Hollywood uses up young women as if they're disposable.  It is one of the worst things about the industry.”

Very few female actors of that era enjoyed a sustained shot at A-films, especially if they were regarded primarily as eye candy.

By the time of her murder in real life, Tate had a good role in a minor but good movie nobody saw (Eye Of The Devil), a good role in a major bad movie everybody saw (Valley Of The Dolls), and provided eye candy in three mediocre movies (including The Wrecking Crew, part of the gawdawful Dean Martin “Matt Helm” series[3]).

Her career might well have stalled out as so many other promising young starlets’ careers stalled out.

We’ll never know.

But even a stalled career would be preferable to what really happened to her.

. . .

A lot of people get second chances at the end: The four[4] at the Tate house, for sure, but also Rick (who finally gets to move into Polanski's circle) and Cliff (who has atoned for killing his wife either by accident or a well staged murder).

But y'know who else gets a second chance?

Charles Manson.

Cliff sees Manson at the Tate house but never learns his name. When he visits Spahn Ranch, he hears constant references to "Charlie" but never meets him since Manson has taken the family's children on an outing to Santa Barbara.

He recognizes Tex (Austin Butler) and Susan Atkins (Mikey Madison) and Patricia Krenwinkel (Madisen Beaty; many people mistake her character in this scene for Squeaky Frome, played by Dakota Fanning in an earlier scene) from his visit to the Spahn Ranch, but for all he knows they've come after him for revenge after he beat up Clem (James Landry Hébert) at the ranch. 

Since Cliff was out of the country for 6 months stunt doubling for Rick in Italy, the lapse in time is accounted for: They waited until he returned.

When the hit team doesn't come back and there's no news reports of a mass murder, Manson knows his plan failed and has an opportunity to flee the LA area, either by himself, with a small group of followers, or the entire Family.

If the police do trace Tex and the women back to Spahn Ranch and they do confront Manson on this, Manson can feign innocence.  If they bring up Cliff's visit and fistfight, Manson can say he knew the three were angry over the incident but he never knew they plotted revenge.

With the three would-be killers dead and Linda Kasabian (Maya Hawke) presumably fleeing LA to escape the Family there's no link between Manson and the attack on Rick's house.

Manson is in the clear.  The police consider the matter closed (movie star kills three drug crazed hippies; why look further?) and Manson gets a breather to ponder his next move.

Maybe he realizes how close a call it was.  Maybe he realizes he's got a nice little scam going with the Family.  Maybe he focuses on that and becomes a garden variety cult guru who, with viral marketing, becomes a prominent New Age personality.

Stranger things have happened...

. . .

To be honest, I approached Once Upon A Time In Hollywood with some trepidation when I heard the ending would not synch up with reality.

Tarantino most notably did this before with Inglorious Basterds, but most of his movies occur in the Red Apple universe, so named after a popular brand of tobacco that appears in those films (I can’t remember if Red Apple products appear in Jackie Brown and have not seen either Kill Bill movie).

The Red Apple universe almost-but-not-quite synchs up with ours.

The biggest and most obvious deviations from the norm is Inglorious Basterds, where Tarantino wipes out Hitler and the Nazi high command in a fiery climax later echoed in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, but Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction suggest a world far more immersed in its own pop culture than we are.

The Hateful 8 is another Red Apple universe film (again specifically referenced in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) that strongly implies Abraham Lincoln survived the assassination attempt against him and negotiated a post-Civil War peace that saw the Confederate states reunited with the rest of the country much sooner than actually happened but in return saw them agree to full emancipation and equality under the law of all formerly enslaved people.  There's still a lot of racial tension in era of The Hateful 8 but there is also an explicit acknowledgment of equality under the law.

As such, race relations in Tarantino’s films Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood do not synch up with the reality of our own era.

. . . 

On the one hand, there’s not as much carnage in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood as there is in most Tarantino movies.

On the other, there’s just as much only we don’t recognize it for violence because it’s presented in the form of  “play acting”.

It’s not real.

It’s all a movie (or a TV show).

Or so we think.

Even Manson’s own killers debate this point, one of them arguing that all American TV shows “except for I Love Lucy” glorify in murder and violence, so why not visit murder and violence on those promoting it?

Really, what separates the violence of bounty hunter Jake Cahill (a name that’s an amalgam of two John Wayne Westerns:  Big Jake and Cahill, US Marshal) from Rick Dalton playing Jake Cahill from Leonardo DiCaprio playing Rick Dalton playing Jake Cahill from the violence of Leonardo DiCaprio playing Rick Dalton at the “reel life” climax?

And what do we make of Brad Pitt playing Cliff Booth who doubles for Rick Dalton (as played by Leonardo DiCaprio) playing Jake Cahill, especially in the end when Cliff’s under the influence of LSD and isn’t sure if what he’s experiencing is real?

You tell me.

. . .

Tarantino’s flamethrower beats Chekov’s gun

By this I mean if you need a flamethrower in act three, you set it up and pay it off in an entirely different context in act one or two, but you also establish however obliquely that it’s not impossible for it to be present though uncommented on in act three. 

We see Rick Dalton use a flamethrower in a film; we see a flashback and hear him say he practiced long and hard to master the weapon. 

This fits in nicely with Rick’s character, both poking fun at him for not being the tough guy he portrays onscreen yet establish his willingness to learn a dangerous skill if it enhances his performance.

After all, he could always request Cliff, his stunt double, handle the flamethrower in that scene.

Dalton is also established as a person who collects memorabilia about himself, reinforced repeatedly though not always blatantly thru the film (viz Cliff bringing in a huge framed poster of one of Rick’s Italian movies just prior to the climax). 

So when Rick pops out with a fully functional flamethrower at the end, our suspension of disbelief goes, “Yeah, he’d still have that”.  (When I next see the film, I’m paying close attention to the contents of the storage room prior to Cliff fixing the antenna; if we don’t see the flamethrower stored there, Tarantino missed a bet.)

Part of the genius of this film extends to the trailer.  

There is a big honking clue to at least part of the climax when Rick is shown using the flamethrower and the images freeze frames while a title announcing it as Quentin Tarantino’s 9th film is superimposed.  That’s brilliant marketing as it preps audiences for what would otherwise be a deus ex machina before they've even seen the movie.

. . .

re the flamethrower and Cliff’s scars: This is a film that will endure multiple repeat viewings just to catch all the details. There's a shot of Cliff driving down the 134 Freeway that if you aren't a Los Angelino you won't recognize he's driving past Forest Lawn, thus prefiguring the ominous background of the film. 

When Pitt goes to see the elderly George Spahn at the infamous Spahn Ranch, he passes by two photos of Zorro and the Lone Ranger -- both with masks over their eyes -- as Squeaky tells him "He's blind."

The background is filled with posters and billboards and books and magazines and memorabilia, some real, some ersatz.

That being said, I do not think it will age well.

To the degree it skillfully recreates an era, that will be studied.  

But as time puts more and more distance to the actual events, the impact of the film will lessen.

Casablanca loses some impact when we aren’t aware of how vicious the real life Nazis were, but in the context of the story they’re big enough bastards for us to understand why it’s important to stand up to them.

After The Fox is a delightful comedic romp that is hilarious even if you don’t know anything about Italian neo-realism, but if you do know anything about Italian neo-realism It.  Gets.  Even.  FUNNIER!

But you really need to know what happened on August 9, 1969 at 10050 Cielo Drive to fully appreciate what Tarantino hath wrought.

Like 2001:  A Space Odyssey, future generations of viewers will appreciate the skill and artistry employed, but they just won’t get why it makes such an impact today on many viewers.

 Gordon Dickson wrote a classic sci-fi story back in 1962 called “Three Part Puzzle”.  Without spoiling it, it’s safe to say a big hunk of the story’s appeal lays in the efforts of aliens to comprehend why human children are delighted by the old fairy tale of The Three Billy-Goats Gruff.

To the aliens, the story contains a simple, straight forward message:  Wait until your strongest team member arrives before engaging an enemy.

What they don’t understand is the morality behind the story.

To the aliens, goats and trolls are all equal, there is no reason to take delight in the victory of one over another.

But to humans…ah, to humans there’s a far deeper, much more important message than a mere tactical stratagem.

This is the risk Once Upon A Time In Hollywood will face in the future, that audiences as yet unborn will come to see it as a big, goofy buddy action movie in which two friends (and the wife of one and the dog of another) take on a trio of killers, dispatching them in spectacular fashion.

The catharsis may be lost, and in losing that, so will be lost the heart and soul of the film.

Enjoy it now while you can.

  © Buzz Dixon

 [1]  I rank Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, and The Hateful 8 above it in terms of cinematic quality.

[2]  In real life, for reasons too involved to go into here, Charles Manson actually got a courtesy audition for The Monkees; he was never seriously considered for a role and if I remember correctly, the show had already been cast by that point but the formal announcement had not been made. Nonetheless, if the quantum physics hypothesis of alternate timelines is correct, somewhere there’s a universe where Charlie Manson is a beloved 1960s pop culture icon and people still talk about the infamous Peter Tork murder cult.

[3]  Do yourselves a favor and track down the original Matt Helm novels by Donald Hamilton.  They’re far superior to the crappy movies.

[4]  There were actually five victims that night but Steven Parent, who had been visiting the property's caretaker William Garretson at the property's guest house, was shot in his car as he prepared to drive away. Garretson, apparently under the influence of drugs and / or alcohol, first claimed to have slept through the horrendous attack and was a prime suspect until forensics cleared him.  (Years later he admitted to witnessing part of the attack and doing nothing for reasons he never made clear.)  Tarantino left Parent and Garretson's presence out of the film presumably because it would have been too much of a diversion to explain them if they weren't going to be victims.

[suteshiro]

ALL of the asks.

Hey! I didn’t get to this right away so I’m making an educated guess on what ask meme this was for ksjvnksjfnv

chocolate: when was your first kiss?

Ah,, haven’t had that yet!

french vanilla: how old are you?

I’m 18 babey

cotton candy: three places you want to travel to?

America, Canada and I can’t really think of anywhere else because I just really want to see my friends skvjnfkjv

strawberry: a language you wish you could speak?

Probably Japanese! Hindi might be neat too

coffee: favorite cosmetic brands?

I’m not that into cosmetics skvnsjkfv but theres this one brand that keeps making Sailor Moon themed makeup, I think it’s Creer Beaute? I can get behind that. 

mint chocolate chip: indoors or outdoors?

I’m an indoors guy

cookie dough: do you play any instruments?

I’m learning the guitar! It’s mostly my voice tho

rocky road: favorite songs at the moment?

Rn I have All my loving stuck in my head skjfvnskjfv but I think my current favs are What’s a devil to do, Mordred’s Lullaby and Kick it up a notch? Idk, all I’ve been listening to lately is this one playlist i made for my character and every song there is great

butter pecan: favorite songs for life?

YOU CAN’T ASK ME THESE THINGS I’M SMALL AND INDECISIVE

Hijo de la luna has been in my heart for forever and will probably always be

Love like you is,,, very dear to my heart as a song that I can very much relate to

I can’t think of anything else at the moment sknsfvn

cheesecake: what's your zodiac sign?

Scorpio!!

toasted coconut: the beach or the pool?

Depends!! The pool is my fav by default bc I don’t have to deal with things like. The sun. But when I went to Córdoba with my friends and we hung out at the river I had a blast

chocolate chip: what's your most popular post?

A really dumb Yugioh shitpost sknvjsfvk it’s been years and every now and again it comes back and I die inside

bubblegum: books or movies?

hhhhhh both? A while ago I would’ve said books and they’re very dear to my heart but I’ve been having a harder time reading fiction lately. and I think there’s a certain beauty to cinema

pistachio: manga or anime?

Manga!!! Anime’s great tho. I have a great amount of respect and love for voice actors so I always love watching animated media

salted caramel: favorite movies?

Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, Princess Kaguya and Nausicaa of the valley of the wind are all. very very dear to my heart

Conqueror of Shamballa is also a fav skfvnskjfvn

Oh! And Moana!

I’m sure I have quite a few not-anime favs but I can’t think of any rn ksvjfnkfv

birthday cake: favorite books?

Geisha, a life by Mineko Iwasaki is very important to me. When I was a kid I was amazed by how much I related to her and really wanted to be like her. Also I just think it’s really cool that she went out of her way to right the wrongs of Memoirs of a Geisha (which I am upset about, let it be known)

Betibú by Claudia Piñeiro is a really really good Argentinian murder mystery and i looove it

Also Argentinian, I’m a big fan of La Doncella Roja/The Red Maiden

moose tracks: favorites for manga?

PET SHOP OF HORRORS

Uzumaki by Junji Ito!!!

Mermaid Saga by Rumiko Takahashi was very sadly short but I loved every second of it

orange sherbet: favorites for anime?

Card Captor Sakura and FMA03 are probably my absolute favorites

peanut butter: favorite academic subject?

uuuuuUUUUUH

i don’t know what counts as an academic subject skjvnksfjvn

one of the subjects i have in school rn is based around making a videogame and im having a blast

in General Aspects I love art and have great appreciation for computer science in theory though im starting to doubt whether its My Thing academically

black raspberry: do you have any pets?

sadly no

mango: when and why did you start your blog?

fuck, I think it was like 6 or 5 years ago by now skvjnskfn and it was to be able to browse tags easier I believe

mocha: ideal weather conditions?

warm, windy, cloudy

black cherry: four words that describe you?

Kind, loving, needy, emotional ksjnsfjn

neapolitan: things that stress you out?

trying to approach a wide subject im not familiar with. even when i know i can handle it and have an idea of where to start its just so overwhelming

raspberry truffle: favorite kind of music?

probably pop? I don’t know honestly

chocolate marshmallow: favorite brands of candy?

Bonafide, Royal, Cofler I think

toffee: a card game that you're good at?

I don’t fancy myself very skilled in any card games honestly skjvnskfjvn I enjoy this one called We didn’t playtest this at all. Oh and I love Uno/Crazy 8s

lemon custard: do you eat breakfast?

Yes!!! Every morning. Sometimes I forget to eat but I try to be very consistent with That

dark chocolate: turn ons?

Am I allowed to talk about this? Can I be horny on main?? Is this allowed??

fudge: turn offs?

See above skjnskjfvn 

peach: how do you relax?

if I’m doing real bad my go-to is a ghibli movie and some tea. I like laying down and playing games on my phone or reading to chill

praline: a popular book you haven't read yet?

there’s so manyyyy

The Magnus Chase saga I really want to read

Also Good Omens

superman: do you like sweaters?

Yes!!! but only if they’re Really soft

cherry: do you drink tea or coffee?

around 80% of my liquid intake is iced tea ksjvfnsfv mostly peppermint. I enjoy coffee when I’m made to drink it because I sweeten it to death but honestly I don’t drink it by choice unless I have to stay up quite a bit

dulce de leche: an instrument you wish you could play?

well, i really want to get into the guitar, but also I would love to... piano

blackberry: have you ever laughed so hard you cried?

just a few times, but yes!!

latest time was when a friend narrated to us the story of his fish and it fucking killed me, I wish there was any way for me to replicate that mess

ginger: a new feature you wish tumblr could have?

Give me an easy way to block through my side blogs pls

blueberry lemon: favorite blogs?

im having a Lot of trouble thinking of them rn ksjfvnkjsfnv but i just saw @un-repentant in my dash and everything they ever put in their blog is great

almond: favorite mean girls quote?

I,,,,, didn’t watch Mean Girls, 

butterscotch: what color are your nails right now?

They’re not painted, sadly

cinnamon: have you ever been confessed to?

Nope! I mean, I have had my feelings reciprocated but nobody’s come up to me to tell me they liked me without prompting on my side

blue moon: have you ever had a crush on someone?

Yup! Still do

cappuccino crunch: do you take naps?

Not often which is a shame bc I love them

mint: the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?

I don’t wanna think about it skjvnksjfnv

brownie batter: do you like sushi?

I love it and it’s sad bc I’ve only eaten it twice in my entire life

key lime: where do you want to be right now?

Cuddling with a good good friend,

red velvet: do you wear prescription glasses?

Yes! I can barely see without them ksjfvnkjsfv

green tea: favorite flavors of ice cream?

Mint with chocolate chips, bitter chocolate? idk how to name it in English, white chocolate and Kinder chocolate

[princeandreis]

great comet -- explained!

so I was talking to @viennaleia who just recently started listening to great comet, and I remembered how hard it was for me to figure out what was going on. it involved a lot of googling, re-listening, genius lyrics, and wikipedia summaries. a mostly enjoyable but rather difficult process. so I decided I’d make an easy summary for those of you who are as confused about great comet as we all were when we started out!

warning: there are obviously hella spoilers ahead for great comet (and war & peace), so read at your own risk!

a few things -- 

one, this summary goes song-by-song narrating the plot and filling in gaps. great comet is an entirely sung-through show, so you aren’t missing any scenes by listening to the soundtrack. 

two, I’m using the Broadway version of the soundtrack to narrate. I’m not sure how different the off-Broadway version is.

three, I’m gonna try to keep this as bare as possible. I love great comet with my whole heart and I could talk about all of the themes and motifs and everything forever, but I’m trying to keep this just as a summary so people have less of a hard time with the plot.

so here we go!! this is gonna be super long so buckle tf up!!

act one

prologue ~ introduces the characters and tells you what you need to know about them. pretty self-explanatory so I’m gonna leave this one here.

pierre ~ he’s so complex that he can’t be summed up in a few words like all the other characters, so he gets his own introductory song. puts pierre’s existential despair on full display.

moscow ~ natasha and sonya, the two cousins/bffs, arrive in moscow to spend time with natasha’s godmother, marya dmitrievna, who is well-respected in society. they’re there to pass the time before their fiances get back from the war (in the book the circumstances are a bit more complicated, but we’ll ignore that for now). natasha talks about how much she misses her fiance, andrey, whose family she’s about to meet for the first time. marya assures her that all she has to do is make sure she gets along with andrey’s sister, and everything will be fine.

the private and intimate life of the house ~ offers the audience a look into how things are at the house of andrey’s family (princess mary and old prince bolkonsky, their father). bolkonsky is abusive and manipulative, which has left mary feeling like she’s the only one who can take care of him. she expresses her loneliness, and she and her father discuss natasha, who is coming shortly for tea. bolkonsky shows off his crazies.

natasha & bolkonskys ~ natasha arrives for tea, and it’s awkward. I mean awkward. natasha and mary immediately hate each other, but try to mask it with cold politeness. bolkonsky shows off his crazies, pt 2, and is super rude to natasha. she leaves in tears, leaving mary feeling horrible.

no one else ~ natasha sings about her love for andrey, begging him to come home. it’s beautiful and sad and fantastic. she just really loves him, dude

the opera ~  marya takes natasha and sonya to the opera, which is natasha’s grand moment of coming out in society. she’s wearing a more revealing dress for the first time, since she’s now considered a woman. she is flattered and bewildered by the attention she receives for her beauty. helene and dolokhov come in together, and it’s revealed that she’s cheating on pierre (her husband, who’s not there) with dolokhov. the opera begins, and natasha doesn’t understand it. she becomes kind of intoxicated (idk this part’s super weird sghjfdkhsdjfmv) by the lights and the crowd. anatole enters in the middle of the opera, and natasha is captivated by his looks. the opera continues, and anatole and natasha ogle each other from their seats and it’s weird. the opera concludes and anatole enters natasha’s box.

natasha & anatole ~ natasha and anatole get to know each other a little. and by that I mean anatole is super thirsty and natasha doesn’t know what to do about it. she is frightened of how much attraction there is between them. anatole asks her to come to a ball that’s happening at his house soon, but she doesn’t give him a straight answer.

the duel ~ anatole greets pierre, his friend, and invites him to go to the club with him and dolokhov. pierre accepts. they go to the club, where a raucous party is happening. pierre drinks a bunch and talks about his alcoholism and sadness. anatole tells his sister helene (whom he’s probably sleeping with on the side OOF) and his friend dolokhov about how thirsty he is for natasha. he knows she’s engaged, but doesn’t care. it also turns out that anatole is also married, but it’s a secret to everyone except pierre, dolokhov, and helene. dolokhov taunts pierre about how he’s sleeping with pierre’s wife and everyone knows it. pierre drunkenly challenges him to a duel (for honor reasons and whatnot). dolokhov agrees, because he’s a bitch and a “crazy good shot.” pierre shoots dolokhov, but he doesn’t really mean it and regrets it right away. he stands straight up, fully ready to die, but dolokhov misses, and is taken away to be cared for. pierre is declared the winner. anatole asks helene to get natasha to come to their party, and she agrees. he helps the inebriated pierre get home.

dust & ashes ~ pierre reflects on his brush with death, and regrets how much of his life he’s wasted looking for truth in places he’d never find it. he also talks about love and stuff and it’s full of cool themes. it’s drunken existential crisis 101, but he decides he’s ready to change and live a better life. inspiring af 10/10.

sunday morning ~ natasha and sonya light a candle in front of a mirror and look into it, which is a russian fortune-telling tradition. natasha thinks she sees andrey lying down, and is frightened because she doesn’t know what that means. she reflects on what has happened with anatole, and wonders if she’s being unfaithful to andrey because of her confused feelings. marya leaves to confront prince bolkonsky about how rude he was to natasha. helene shows up while natasha is in her room trying on dresses.

charming ~ helene uses her charms and flattery (and a fair amount of bad logic) to convince natasha to come to the party at the kuragins’ (her and anatole’s) house. natasha agrees to attend.

the ball ~ natasha and anatole dance together, and anatole tells her he loves her. she resists his advances initially, but he puts a lot of pressure on her and kisses her. she admits she loves him, too, and they promise their love to each other.

act two

letters ~ people write letters. pierre writes to andrey at the war, updating him on life in moscow. he reveals that dolokhov will recover from his gunshot wound, and discusses natasha’s arrival in town. (if you didn’t know, pierre is super in love with natasha, who’s an old family friend, but he doesn’t really know that himself yet.) pierre talks about how he’s done a lot of reading as he searches for the meaning of life, and he’s used that study to do some funky math to “prove” that he’s meant to kill napoleon (yes, that napoleon. pierre really hates napoleon). natasha struggles to write a letter to andrey explaining what’s happened. she receives a letter from princess mary, who still feels awful about what happened between them and wants to try to be friends. natasha has no idea how to answer. anatole sends a love letter to natasha (which was written by dolokhov). he asks her to elope with him, and she agrees. she falls asleep with his love letter in her hand.

sonya & natasha ~ sonya finds and reads anatole’s love letter, and figures out what’s going on. she tries to convince natasha that what she’s doing is a terrible idea, and not just for her sake. sonya worries also for the sake of their family’s honor and wellbeing, since a scandal like this would ruin them. natasha doesn’t listen, and scorns her cousin’s advice, even telling sonya she hates her. she writes a letter in response to princess mary, telling her that things are over between her and andrey.

sonya alone ~ sonya resolves to protect natasha from ruin at all costs, even though natasha is extremely upset with her. she watches her cousin become distant and dreamy, and figures out that natasha has some kind of plan in mind with anatole. she misses natasha’s friendship, and will do everything she possibly can to keep her from harm.

preparations ~ anatole runs into pierre, and tells him he’s running off to get married. pierre, not knowing who he’s talking about, teases him since he’s already married. anatole and dolokhov prepare for anatole to abduct natasha, carry her off to poland, and marry her. dolokhov tries to convince anatole it’s a stupid idea, but anatole won’t listen and he relents. balaga, the driver they hired, arrives.

balaga ~ this is a fun song that’s just kind of a break from plot. it explains how balaga is a longtime friend of anatole and dolokhov’s, and is an absolutely insane driver who loves drinking (especially while he drives).

the abduction ~ anatole throws his “bachelor party,” so to speak -- it’s his last hurrah before eloping with natasha. pierre joins in, still unaware what exactly is taking place or who anatole’s running away with. the party sets out for natasha’s house, where anatole’s plan is set in motion. a maid leads him into the house to collect natasha, but he is stopped by marya. he and dolokhov make their chaotic escape.

in my house ~ marya scolds natasha for her actions, and sonya tries to comfort her. natasha throws a temper tantrum, and refuses to admit she or anatole did anything wrong. she goes back to waiting for him at her window.

a call to pierre ~ marya sends an urgent letter to pierre, begging him to visit her. she explains the situation, and he’s infuriated. he reveals that anatole is already married. marya asks him to send anatole away from moscow, and he accepts.

find anatole ~ pierre rushes around moscow trying to find anatole. he enters a club, where patrons are gossiping about the elopement. pierre shuts down the rumors, preserving natasha’s honor. natasha is told that anatole is married, and she is destroyed by the news. pierre returns home, where helene is with her brother. pierre insists on speaking to him alone, to which he agrees.

pierre & anatole ~ pierre confronts anatole about what he has done, threatens him, and demands any letters he has from natasha. (onstage, natasha poisons herself.) he then tells anatole that he must stay out of moscow forever. anatole leaves for petersburg.

natasha very ill ~ sonya reflects by herself. natasha has poisoned herself and is safe now, but is still very sick. andrey is due to return, and tensions in the house run high.

pierre & andrey ~ andrey returns, reunites with his old friend pierre, and they discuss what has happened with natasha in his absence. he has heard the rumor that she wanted to elope with anatole. andrey tells pierre that even though he knows it would be the right thing to forgive natasha and ask for her hand again, he just can’t do it. he leaves pierre with all the letters natasha had written him.

pierre & natasha ~ pierre visits natasha to return the letters. he fully intends to despise her for her foolishness, but his heart is broken by her childishly pitiable state. he does his best to comfort her, even though she despises herself for what has happened. he tells her that were he not a better man -- and unmarried -- he would propose to her right then and there. grateful, natasha gives him a loving glance and leaves the room in tears of relief.

the great comet of 1812 ~ getting into his sleigh, pierre reflects on all that has happened. something has radically changed within him because of the way natasha looked at him, and he feels hope for the future. he sees the great comet of 1812 in the sky. this specific comet is supposed to be an omen for terrible tragedy, but for pierre it symbolizes joy and new life. the show ends with a sense of peace, hope, and love.

[uncheckedtomfoolery]

Nitori Kawashiro

Featuring a total absence of clever subtitles because your humble narrator is currently a worn out husk.

Before you read on, please understand that I am a terrible choice for this because I actually like Nitori, so I’m likely to have Opinions, and a personalised take that gleefully diverges from canon here and there. Take it with a grain of salt. Better yet, carve off what parts you like, and adapt it for your own use. With that said, presenting: Nitori. Long post ahead!

There are several questions to be addressed when it comes to Nitori, before I can get to other stuff. I’ll leave one for later, and address two right away. For a start, the whole science thing. I expand it a bit for kappa, where tinkering is the main pursuit, but mostly they’re just driven and obsessive, and tend to find others a bit apathetic by comparison. Most kappa are, by someone else’s standards, a mad something. Why? My personal theory is that they’re running on a whole lot of backlash and trying to redefine themselves (content warning I guess, the origins of the kappa legend are unpleasant).

The second point is the ‘discrepancy’ between her MoF depiction and that of Hopeless Masquerade on. This, I answer with what I’ve been told is a copout: People can have multiple facets to them, and act differently depending on context. Extradiagetically, it may well be an artifact of ZUN changing his mind, or wanting to show something else, or the shooters being an inadequate place to show much about a character. Maybe all of them!

Nitori is not a good person, a fact which comes as a surprise to no one (except, I can only assume, Shinmyoumaru). Nitori isn’t a very bad person either, much to her disappointment. It’d make things a lot easier, but no, she’s not that lucky. She hates anything she perceives as owing a favour (even if there’s no expectation of repaying it), jumps at any chance to help friends should they need it, and has some strict (if outwardly sometimes arbitrary) lines on what is acceptable, shrewd business versus scamming someone.

As I noted here, from other kappa, she’ll take anything but monetary payment. This model doesn’t translate well to non-kappa friends, so she ends up going ‘okay sure, I’ll do it for nothing, you owe me,’ which is something she never actually follows up on. Similarly, Nitori is a bit of an educator towards anyone who’s clueless but eager to learn. She won’t like it and there’ll be a lot of ‘listen carefully because I’m not doing this twice’, but she will do it.

She will usually claim, somewhat accurately, that this is for her benefit so she has someone to talk to that can follow what she’s saying. Basically, Nitori’s decent enough that it gets in her way and annoys her constantly. She’s also more down to earth than most kappa, more on that later. Nitori’s willing to be relentlessly pragmatic, but only to strangers and people she dislikes. Past that the whole thing, much to her dismay, comes unglued.

The elephant in the room is - even leaving aside the whole framework wherein almost all youkai prey on humans in various ways, because that’s how humans imagined them - the kappa attitude towards humans, and let’s be clear, it’s not just Nitori here. They like humans. They are also, at best, somewhat condescending towards humans. Leaving aside wildly differing cultures and predominant mindsets, they also (usually rightly) assume humans don’t have the first clue of what kappa are doing, and parse that as a kind of endearing idiocy, or at least ‘listen, you’re nice and all, but don’t touch anything’. While this is an exaggeration, golden retrievers may be a useful analogy: You might like them, and find them adorable, but you would be somewhat perturbed to find one driving the car you’re in. It’s not exactly a pretty attitude (though, exposed to more humans and also Sanae’s furious avalanche of nerdery, I imagine Nitori’s eased up on it), but there you have it.

I mentioned that Nitori’s more down to earth. Pragmatism is again the order of the day here. She’s not much of a mad scientist because circumstances have pushed her into being the reluctant adult supervision and general organiser of the kappa community. You can tell by the way even her crazier inventions are mostly get-rich-quick schemes at worst, rather than “I don’t know, I felt like making it”. Invention as a business, not art or compulsion. She probably overcompensates with hobby projects she chips away at just to unwind, though.

I take the view that Nitori is a Big Deal and perhaps a mildly controversial figure in the kappa community, but it’s not because she’s an above average tinker. What separates her from the pack? Well, she may have backed off in MoF (special circumstances plus maybe she was on edge/didn’t feel like it at the time), but by and large she’s got much more confidence and general people skills than your average kappa. She’s in a great position to be the face of kappa society in negotiations, to wrangle the chaos that is a society of deeply weird and reclusive enthusiast artisans, and to try to steer some of that energy into making huge piles of money, as one of the few kappa with even a minor grasp of business.

This does draw a few snide comments in line with the age-old theoretical vs. applied mathematics kind of jokes, but what can you do? She’s mostly respected, but it’s for what she does that most kappa can’t or won’t, not for invention, which she’s about average at. She’s not a big fan of this, buuuut someone has to do it. It’s the equivalent of being The One Who Knows About Computers, in a society of people sorely lacking in all skills except knowing about computers (obviously not to be taken literally).

She fought some of Gensokyo’s big names, too, and held her own (approximately). This is probably significant.

Nitori can be out of her element quite readily. She doesn’t like surprise encounters and would prefer to deal with people on her own terms. Having said that, she’s difficult to scare. This is someone who has no real hesitation about muscling into every imaginable situation even at great risk, and negotiates terms with tengu and gods frequently. She doesn’t much care, and to hear her tell it, it’s about half as dangerous as what she deals with in her workshop. Reverence towards anything or anyone is generally off the table. Oni get cautious respect. Tengu get deference until she catches herself; it’s more of an ingrained instinct by now, not actual conscious behaviour.

She maintains a balance of grumpy, dour terseness and outbursts of all-day-long delighted nerd enthusiasm otherwise usually found in Patchouli (they’d probably get along well, actually). Only in Nitori’s case she combines it with a serious coffee habit. Which is, incidentally, extremely expensive in Gensokyo.

While I’m keeping up the trivia, in my personal take, she cooks a lot. She doesn’t eat all that much, you understand. Part of her brain just goes ‘hmm, low-effort freelance assembly work, costs a whole lot less in materials than a death ray. Yes, that sounds like a fun puzzle I could definitely go for’, and the food is just sort of a byproduct.

Finally, one last tidbit, courtesy of a friend: Kappa technology is a bit crazy in Gensokyo, because convenient but discredited scientific theories also drift into Gensokyo... and any kappa who’s aware of them can make good use of them. It gives you quite the leg up.

That’s about it for Nitori except for everything I forgot because it’s past midnight.

[kellyinboston]

WHAT Wednesday

I have a feeling the next 3 weeks are going to be a cluster. I am exhausted, both mentally and physically but more so mentally. Work is just crazy and it is not a matter of whether things are falling through the cracks, it is just how many things and how bad is it. Phew. But, to be fair, everyone in my office feels this way, which doesn’t necessarily make me feel much better, but we are all in this together!

But…I clearly still have to time to post a WHAT Wednesday post. I need a mental break and talking about myself is one of my favorite things to do. So here I am.

WHAT am I reading?

I am tired. Did I mention that? So reading is starting to feel like work than an escape. That being said, I have finished two (?) books since we last spoke. I finished listening to the 3rd book (there are 4 books in the series) in the Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante. It was called Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. Just a quick reminder, this series follows Elena and Lila (but mostly Elena) and their life in Italy. The story is too much to even try to explain, but it essentially follows the lives of Elena and Lila (a unique friendship) and their life in Italy (growing up, college, work, husbands, kids, etc.). The third book follows Elena while she graduates, marries and moves to Florence and Lila who ends up back in their childhood neighborhood. I have one more book to listen to (18 hours long) and then I will be done with the series. I enjoy these books immensely, but I have to say Elena (the narrator/main character) has become increasingly unlikeable. I have never warmed to her, but I found her to be almost insufferable the second half of the book. That being said, I like that she is a complex character and that my feelings towards her are not black and white. I like Lila for the most part, but she may be a sociopath…who knows. I’ll start the next book probably tomorrow…I just needed a couple days off from that world.

I started and finished (pretty quickly because I am impressive) I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. This was a thriller which made it a quick read. It starts off with a woman and her son walking home from school and for one moment she lets go of his hand and he runs into the street and is hit (and killed) by a driver who flees the scene. There is a HUGE twist in the middle of the book and it made me question everything I read prior to that point. I can sometimes skim when I read…so I worried I totally misread the first 200 pages…I didn’t, but that is how wonky the twist was. I didn’t like the 2nd half as much as the first, I am getting sensitive in my old age and I didn’t like the abuse that took place. That being said, I enjoyed it enough.

I am now reading a book Neil just finished reading and I am only 40 pages in…it is interesting.

WHAT am I watching?

I am tried. Have I mentioned that? I cannot mentally invest in a new show right now so I am watching Scandal season 3. I use to watch Scandal weekly then I stopped at season 4 maybe? Anyways… I am re-watching because it is mindless entertainment.

We watched the movie Wonder Woman this past weekend, I didn’t watch it too closely, but it seemed okay. We also re-watched Zodiac, which is a good movie. 

WHAT is up with the family?

Big news people. Neil and I switched spots on the couch. We have an “L” shaped couch and we had our designated spots (for 6+ years now) and I came home on Saturday from yoga and Neil was sitting on my side. So I just rolled with it and we have settled into our new spots. Not sure if it is permanent or not. It is interesting, ever since Neil has been sitting in my spot he has been more helpful around the house. Seriously…it must be a magical seat. And I have been less helpful. Interesting.

Anyways…this change has also affected Snoop who now…lays on the couch with us. Not sure how that started…but she is on the couch now. Not all the time, she seems interested in getting up at only certain times. She laid between us the other afternoon and I tried to capture of a picture of her and Neil cuddling, but mostly you just see her big butt.

WHAT did we do over the long weekend?

We had Neil’s coworker and his wife over for Thanksgiving and that was nice. The turkey turned out great and the rest of the food did too.

I timed it all perfectly. On Friday I met my coworker/friend in Backbay to do a little shopping. Our first stop was L.A. Burdick, a chocolate shop to get delicious hot chocolate and a raspberry chocolate treat.

After shopping I went home to watch the NE football game, we watched LOTS of football. The long weekend was much needed.

WHAT am I looking forward to?

We are having friends over this weekend for dinner and board games (they don’t know about the board game yet).

I want to make homemade dog treats for all my dog friends in the building. There is a recipe I found…maybe I’ll do that this weekend.

Alright that’s all I’ve got.

Thanks for reading!

(PS - pic below is of Snoop when I was vacuuming...scared pup) 

[nosouphere]

So, I just started Riverdale and almost finished the first season in less than 24 hours and here are my thoughts.

First of all, I grew up with Archie comics. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. Look, I'm a 31 year old woman and I don't have the time or patience for all these CW formulaic teen drama shows, still, I gave this a shot for the sake of nostalgia.

Initially, I was surprised by how different the universe was. This is clearly 'darkest timeline'esque in its treatment. Tbh, I kind of wanted to hate it. But then I noticed something interesting happening. Yes, this show is brimming over with your stereotypical teen drama tropes, yet, these tropes were being handled in an intelligent, self aware way, with maybe an edge of ironic self deprication, (thank you, occasional narration via Jughead POV).

In short, I'm surprised by how gripping the plots are, how dynamic the characters are, how well written the dialogue is and generally the decent acting chops on these actors.

My favorite character is surprisingly enough, Veronica. I haaated Veronica when I was a kid. Being one of those artsy, sensitive, rebellious, tomboy type girls, to me, her character embodied everything I found utterly repugnant, which I think was sort of the intent of the writers at the time, which is why I was delightedly surprised to find her character being given such a remarkable overhaul. No more detestably snobbish, caustically petty, catty, backstabbing mean girl. Now, Veronica Lodge is a smart, worldly, surprisingly wise and well grounded young woman. A feat made more remarkable since it exists in spite of her past upbringing and present hardships. Even though it's only hinted at, her mean girl past transformation/redemption arc makes her so much more likeable. Listen, she's always working to overcome her less admirable impulses and elitest grooming to be a better person, and the fact that she's almost always demonstrating success in this endeavor proves her worthy of admiration and respect. She not always perfect though, yet she owns up to her flaws, rocks her assets, all while being loyal af to her friends.

Veronica Lodge was such a flat character, but now she's written with empathy and heart, and regardless of whether or not this is mostly a product of her 'Arrested Development' style family situation, I love it. (Can we just be honest? Veronica is basically a charming amalgam of Michael and Lindsay Bluth).

Jughead is also extremely well written, and Cole Sprouse does his character justice. Somehow the writers successfully portray a non neurotypical kid-- your classic, offbeat outsider riddled with stereotypical teenage angst and external family issues without making him a boring stereotype.

I also particularly enjoy the mean girl train wreck that is Cheryl. This girl needs so much therapy and her story arc is one of the most compelling. The situation with her brother and Polly and Blossom/Cooper blood feud is...not gonna lie, over the top, but it does give the show that extra edge of crazy that definitely appeals.

'Perfect Betty' and 'Golden Boy' Archie are suddenly accessable, relatable characters with their own, very real baggage, damage and demons. This type of protagonist has always bored me to tears, and when shows attempt to make these characters more flawed or whatever, sometimes they take it too far and make them too one dimensional in their motives and predictable in their reactions (I'm looking at you, Gotham...Jim Gordon is your hero and your least interesting character.) However, the writers avoid this trap. Archie and Betty are legitimately /interesting/. I actually want to watch when they're the focus of screen time.

Betty's superficially 'perfect girl next door' image is undermined (or should I say enhanced?) by her hidden depths, suddenly understandable when we learn about her home life. Her mother and father are seriously emotionally and mentally unstable characters in their Stepford family aspiring ways, yet instead of completely villifying them by their critically questionable ethics and actions, the writers actually cared enough to give them /reasons/ for why they act the way they do. And even more importantly, not to excuse their actions, but to help explain them. The same goes for FP Jones, Fred Andrews and Hermione Lodge.

I could expound upon this subject in greater detail, but in summation, I'm profoundly impressed by how this show handles 'adults' and 'parents'. All these parents are /people/. Fallible people. People who (we mostly presume) love their children, although perhaps are only capable of loving their children in the only ways they know how, which sometimes is damaging.

Ultimately, ALL of these families portray different types of often quite dysfunctional dynamics, yet the show does a great job of writing this in a way that doesn't just conform to lazy, flat archetypes.

The way the show handles issues of sexism, friendship, romance, sexuality, abuse, crime, adultery, manipulation, racial issues, bullying, classism, etc., isn't always perfect or handled in the most delicately or cleanly of fashions, and at times it can feel a little heavy handed, but Archie comics was always known for attempting to address modern day issues and morality, and so far, they're doing a decent job of it.

So, yeah, I am tentatively admitting to liking this show.

[vitaevictoria]

Every Book I Read in 2018: Part 2 http://bit.ly/2Fr2swN

Let's finish this list! It's already 2019, baby! Here are the rest of the books I read in 2018. I read SEVENTY (70!) in total, which is the most I've ever read in a year. Make sure you follow me on Goodreads to see what I read this year! 36. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth Read in Sarande, Albania. Had this on my Kindle for years but was saving it for when I ran out of physical books to read which was easy to do since ALL of the books on hostel shelves were in German. The writing is nothing to write home about (lol) and it could've easily been shorter. I'm sure the movie is better. 37. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood Read in Greece. This is the third Atwood book I've tried to read but the only one I've actually succeeded in reading. It was alright. 38. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The only book in English at the last hostel on my last stop in Greece. Finished on the plane going home. Read it once in high school but also enjoyed it this time! 39. Upstream by Mary Oliver Read in my bedroom. My first book back on American soil! It's been on my to-read list for a while so I was excited to read it. There are some really good passages but Oliver might be too smart for me. 40. The Witch Elm by Tana French I gasped when I saw this on the shelf at the library. French is one of my favorite authors and this is her first standalone book. Compared to her other books it wasn't her best, but not-her-best is still better than most people's greatest. 41. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan Read at my aunt's beach house. Read for bookclub. I probably wouldn't have finished this book if it wasn't a bookclub pick. It just...wasn't good. Would be more bearable as an audiobook. 42. Buffering by Hannah Hart Also read at my aunt's beach house (I had nothing to do there but read). I'm not big into YouTube but I enjoy memoirs and this one blew my socks off. Hannah has been through A LOT and discusses the complexity of love and family. 43. Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown [AUDIOBOOK] Listened to in my car. Not good. Hard pass. 44. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz Read on my couch. I loved Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe but this was a big disappointment compared to that one. 45. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh Read on my couch. Definitely wasn't what I thought it would be but I still loved it. I LOVE self-absorbed, unreliable female narrators. 46. Lethal White by J. K. Rowling Read at my grandma's house. This is the fourth book in her Cormoran Strike series and wasn't the best. I'm looking forward to the next one since I have a feeling it will be better. 47. The Power by Naomi Alderman Read half on my friend's couch in the Scottish highlands, finished it at home. Loved this book and would be a great one for kids to read in high school. 48. Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham [AUDIOBOOK] Listened to in my car. Covers a bit of Gilmore Girls and a bit of the rest of her life. Listening to this feels like a big sister giving life advice. Some bits could've been cut out but I mostly enjoyed it. 49. Paper Girls vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan Read at my aunt's. I've never read a comic before and I think I need to read a few before my brain gets adjusted to the rhythm of them, but this was good! 50. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera Read on my aunt's front porch. Very disappointing. I really wanted to like it but the writing has no pizzazz. 51. Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

Read in my room. It was alright! Not as good as Divergent but one of the better YA books I've read. I've heard the sequel is better so I'll read that. 52. Heartburn by Nora Ephron Read in my childhood bedroom. I read this in one day, it's that good (and that short). No one can write like Ephron. She is so smart and so funny and I'm so sad she's gone. 53. Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown This is about a lesbian pastor daughter's in Georgia and I was so excited to read it and yet I was so disappointed! The writing was bland and it just felt like a lot of wish-fulfillment and didn't really reflect evangelical Christian culture at all. 54. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney A breath of fresh air after a lackluster book. There are no quotation marks which annoys me when Cormac McCarthy does it but is smart when done by Rooney. This book is weird and a little fucked up and none of the characters are perfect and I LOVED it. Can't wait to read more by Rooney. 55. The Diviners by Libba Bray [AUDIOBOOK] My first loan using the Libby app, which I highly recommend! Your library probably has it, or something similar! The narrator, January LaVoy, is very talented and can do lots of different voices. Can't wait to listen to the other books in this series. 56. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Mackenzi Lee Gay and fun and cute! Definitely want to read the sequel in 2019. 57. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones I wish I loved this as much as everyone else does. 58. I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara [AUDIOBOOK] Brilliant and chilling to listen to. Usually, I would never want to re-listen to an audiobook but this one was so good. 59. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour Probably would've like this more if I read it in high school. Decent and quick. 60. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett [AUDIOBOOK] I loved Commonwealth by Patchett and she narrates this one. It was alright! And probably very therapeutic for her to write. 61. Just Kids by Patti Smith I love this and her! M Train is next on my list. She sings a song called "Because the Night" written by Bruce Springsteen and it's an honest to goodness bop. 62. By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham [AUDIOBOOK] Read by Hugh Dancy who does a HORRIBLE Virginian accent but I loved every second of this book. Over the top introspective which is right up my alley. 63. How to Be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky Alright! Better to read slowly over time. Or just read Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. 64. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman During all the hype of this book and no ONE EVER BOTHERED TO MENTION THAT IT'S SET IN GLASGOW!!! Loved this book so much and will definitely read again in the future. It's just so soft and kind and honestly a great guide on how to be an adult??? 65. The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani Beautiful and creepy and artsy and probably even better in the original French! Must learn French! 66. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie [AUDIOBOOK] Always been meaning to read this. A great starter to feminism and something that every gender should read (would be a great high school or middle school read). 67. Women & Money by Suze Orman [AUDIOBOOK] Trying to up my financial literacy. This book was alright. It's definitely aimed at a middle-aged woman freshly out of a divorce who doesn't even know the passwords to her bank accounts. Suze is brutally honest and I respect her for that. 68. Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda Cute and quick and definitely want to buy for my nightstand so I can annotate it/read it whenever I need a pick me up. 69. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder [AUDIOBOOK] Not as much fearmongering as I thought there would be. This reads like a to-do list to be a good citizen. Take this book with a grain of salt and a pinch of optimism. 70. Talking to Women by Nell Dunn Started reading in Sweden when I borrowed Poppy's copy and was able to buy my own when I was unexpectedly stranded in London for a few days, so yay, silver lining! It's a transcript of Dunn's conversations with her friends in 60's London and it's mindboggling how so much and so little has changed about women's lives since. My goal for 2019 is to read at least 50 books! Let's do this!