#don’t ask why or how i went into so much detail about gangs and accurate jail time

[sea-jello]

to my movie morro enjoyers yall got me curious so i did some research and tweaked the laws of youth criminal justice cause it's a movie about legos

WHOOH i expanded on this a lot and its not even all the options

uhhh should i tag the people who said they wanted to see my half ass ideas

@star-ocean-peahen @here4dragons i know hes TECHNICALLY not the villain here yet,, but its coming Soon. just ignore if you dont care SORRY BOUT THE TAG 💀💀

so morros role in the gang is he like collects intel n shit, scouts and/or recruits new members, makes plans and gives orders from the boss (preeminent) so hes sorta like the preeminents ambassador. general?? right hand man?? number 2?? something. occasionally he participates in very low key crimes where his face and identity could be hidden. never does anything big and flashy, so hes the least likely to get caught and thats one of the reasons hes so high up. the boss usually has a business to cover for the gang so the preeminent has a bar or a nightclub or something where they allow you to cover your face and morro works there to be like,, closer so its easy to recieve orders/info or something yk. when asked he says hes small for his age with a VERY obvious undertone and they leave it at that, cause so what if the nightclub is a little sketchy, goddamn this kid whips out drinks faster than anyone. hes very in the shadows undercover and thats why they couldnt catch him/had no evidence he was high ranking (i need a gang name help should it just be cursed realm?? cursed spirits maybe)

IF we want morro to just have general shenanigans with the ninja then hes on parole. if you dont know what parole is basically they let you out after 2/3rds of your sentence to let you integrate back into society or something, but youre still under supervision. so the timeline is morro starts his criminal activity at 14, gets caught and arrested at 16 and then gets released at 17. if youre worried about the 3 years in the above post trust me the logic checks out

they KNOW morros the criminal mastermind running shit behind the gang, they just cant find any way to prove it so he only gets sentenced for gang affiliation. he spends around a year or so in juvie and they let him out for the next 6 months

they let morro stay with wu cause hes like,, the head of the fucking ninja team he can handle himself, BUT he has to have security guards accompany him to school to keep an eye on him/watch for signs of him actually being highly involved in the gang. lloyd is real fucking embarrassed about it cause morro loves to come up and bother him, and it attracts even more unwanted whisperings about garmadons cousin who went to JAIL. morro bothers him even more because of it

no one knew morro was lloyds cousin, so when the ninja show up to the garage one day and find the fucking ex convict just chilling on lloyds mech theyre like ??? WHY ARE YOU HERE. they knew lloyd had a questionable cousin when he mentioned he got out of jail, but they didnt know it was HIM. like i said, morros infamous for being a mastermind escape artist (i kinda want to give him an alias so drop suggestions 👀👀) even better wu walks in and he goes "ah i see youve met my son morro!!" and the ninja go batshit cause wu had mentioned visiting his son in jail which already rose so many unanswered questions back then, but not THIS GUY

im debating on whether lloyd knows morro was a criminal during the three years or not. cause if he didnt know it would be really funny when morro/the gangs arrest was on the news and lloyd goes 👁👁 THATS MY FUCKING COUSIN. but if he DID know he sees him on the news and hes like "lmao get fucked wait till i tell uncle wu" (again,, drop the opinions)

wu knows he was a criminal pretty early on and absolutely does not give a shit cause movie wu is bat ass crazy and jaded to fuck. he sees morro on the news in his like gang getup and goes oh look at him go 😄😄 i hope he remembers to tuck in his feet like i taught him to 😄😄😄 morro was terrified when he got caught by wu, but all he did was lay out two hard rules. 1. no killing innocents and 2. no drugs. morros like ?? thats it?? and wu just sort of stares at him and goes ‘‘i believe so. now don’t you have somewhere to be?’’ and morros like yeah.. i got a bank to rob at 2. JUST TO BE CLEAR morro has NEVER ONCE KILLED ANYBODY just to be safe, even though wu was all for dismantling the dictatorship or patriarchy and whatnot. when morro gets arrested wu visits him just to laugh at him (im copy pasting most of this from tags from this post lmao)

wu absolutely makes morro train the ninja cause lets be honest theyre dogshit without the mechs. morros idea of training is jumping them all around the city at random times. he bullies them so hard jay is on the verge of tears every day

(thank you @l0on for so many of the ideas 😌😌 find them in the reblogs)

morros got the cool older cousin vibe who acts like he doesnt care and he actually doesnt care. idc what yall say he does NOT go easy on lloyd just because theyre cousins.

this is all set after the movie btw. morro only got away with so much for so long because everyone was occupied with garmadon

soo if we want him to be like the actual villain thats gonna be in another part cause god DAMN this got longer than i thought it would

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Gang of Secrets

Well... I'll give this episode one thing. It's better than what we got from both “Truth” and “Lies”, and it did do one of the things I hoped the writers would tackle this season. That's not saying much, but I'll take what I can get.

Let's get into the fourth (chronologically the third) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Gang of Secrets

We start off right after an Akuma battle, and while Cat Noir is eager for their victory fist bump, Ladybug seems to be on edge, insisting that they go on patrol. Cat Noir thinks of a place that they can relax at without talking... and he chooses to take Ladybug to see a romantic comedy.

We're not even a minute in, people, and it already looks like Ladybug is considering using her authority as Guardian to take away Cat Noir's Miraculous.

Ladybug goes on a brief tangent summarizing what happened with Luka (which conveniently happens to reflect the events of the movie), and naturally isn't happy with the movie. Gee, it's almost like Cat Noir's plan was a bad idea. He seriously tries the whole “pretend to yawn as an excuse to put his arm around Ladybug” trick, so you can't tell me he didn't have romantic intentions here.

Why Kagami couldn't accept Adrien's “true self” is beyond me.

After storming out of the movie theater, Cat Noir tries to emphasize with Ladybug (key word being “tries”) by going on about how “he knows what a broken heart is like”. At least he didn't ask if she was single now. Ladybug decides to go for a swim, but we cut back to Marinette's house, with Ladybug in her aqua form, implying she went to the pool while still transformed. And here's a big problem with the episode. In theory, I like the idea of Marinette stressing over her new responsibilities, as it could lead to some interesting plotlines. The problem is that when we get something like that in this episode, it's played entirely for laughs. At one point, Alya mentions hearing Marinette crying in the bathroom because of the stress she's been going through. And instead of being a dramatic scene, she just runs out in some Groucho Marx glasses for some reason, because according to the writers, we're supposed to laugh at Marinette suffering from a potential mental breakdown.

This just raises several questions about the way we're supposed to treat Marinette's behavior in this episode. Are we supposed to take this seriously? Not completely, because of how a lot of the “jokes” in the first act of the episode revolve around Marinette's anxiety being driven up to eleven. Are we supposed to see all of this as a joke? Not completely, because the end of the episode is when the writers decide to take Marinette's inner demons seriously. It leads to a very conflicting picture the episode is trying to paint with the way Marintte's conflict is portrayed.

We then cut to what seems to be the only thing the writers like to do with this character now, Alya acting like has control over Marinette's love life.

Of course those are the only pictures Alya got of Marinette.

Uh... Alya? Honey? Have you even considered the fact that maybe Marinette didn't tell you about Luka because that's none of your damn business??? What gives you the right to know every single detail about your friend's life? I understand that you're a hardcore Adrienette shipper (and an unintentional metaphor for how obsessed the writers are with the Love Square), but why would Marinette be obligated to tell you about Luka?

I know that I asked Marinette if she told Alya about Luka in my “Truth” review, but that was because she continued to force the belief that Marinette still liked Adrien onto her. Yeah, I'm still confused as to why Marinette didn't tell Alya, but the difference is that I was more confused at her not explaining it, and felt it would have made the conflict in the New York special a lot easier. I don't think Marinette has to tell Alya, I just think it would make some things easier between them with how much Alya wants Adrienette to be canon. Marinette has no obligation to tell Alya anything about who she's dating. What goes on in someone's love life is a private matter, and we'll see that Alya has no regards for privacy.

Alya, along with Juleka, Rose, Mylene, and Alix, devises a plan to give Marinette a friendship bracelet to show their support for her. And as usual, Alix has the simple idea to talk to Marinette about what's going on with her, and of course, she's ignored. Sorry, Alix, but this is an Alya episode, where smart choices don't fly here.

We cut back to Marinette's room where we get a pretty good scene where Marinette confides to Tikki about how she knows she has no chance of having a love life. She points out how she had to end things with Luka because of her secrets, and knows that even if she worked up the courage to talk to Adrien, she couldn't do anything because of the same secrets. She can't tell her parents or friends about her secrets and is forced to lie to everyone all the time. The voice actress gives a good performance, and the animators did a good job rendering the red eyes Marinette gets from crying.

And then we get back to the stupid stuff, where Marinette decides to transform into Ladybug and demands Hawkmoth (even though he's Shadowmoth at this point) show himself. This is really just an excuse for the Girl Squad to barge into Marinette's room, where Rose sees the dollhouse Marinette uses to hide the Miracle Ball. Marinette quickly runs back in and tries to hide the the Miracle Ball from her friends, who confront her about her “problem”.

No, real friends respect boundaries and don't demand to know every single detail about someone's life. They understand that there are secrets they don't have the right to know about. If Alya found out that Alix still needs to sleep with a nightlight and told everyone, would you really be surprised if she got mad at Alya for exposing this secret of hers? Right now, Marinette is clearly uncomfortable about telling her friends about a secret she has, and rather than understand she doesn't want to, they just keep pressing on, and don't care how unhappy she looks.

Unsurprisingly, Marinette tells them all to get out, saying she doesn't want them as friends anymore. Okay, so we're in every salt fic ever written now. Again, we get a good scene where Marinette feels remorseful for what she said (as understandable as it was), while the girls leave with their heads down.

Shadowmoth sends out an Akuma for the friendship bracelet, and because the object had personal meaning to all of them, Alya, Juleka, Rose, Mylene, and Alix all get akumatized into their previous Akuma forms, Lady Wifi, Reflekta (yet again), Princess Fragrance, Horrificator, and Timebreaker respectively. Shadowmoth calls them the “Gang of Secrets”. But they were akumatized because of secrets. Wouldn't a more accurate name be something like “The Honesty Brigate” or “Truth Troop?”

When I reviewed “Felix”, I had talked about how the motivations for the three Punishers weren't didn't reflect their Akuma forms, which were twisted versions of what they were feeling like at the time. While the same thing applies here (as well as “Heroes' Day”, now that I think about it, though I always thought it was like a drawback to Scarletmoth's powers), the titular Gang of Secrets is actually a pretty good lineup.

I think my main problem in “Felix” is that we didn't get to see the three Akumas working together much because the writers were trying to prioritize Felix as the primary threat of the episode and failed miserably. Here, we get to see a lot of interesting combos and strategies I never really thought about. Lady Wifi uses her powers to freeze some civilians while Timebreaker skates by and absorbs their energy for her skates. Reflekta zaps some other civilians while Princess Fragrance sprays them with her perfume to brainwash them into looking for Marinette, even if it’s the only time this episode that we get to hear “At your service, Princess Fragrance~!”. Horrificator intentionally goes around scaring people while growing in size, acting as the muscle (even though she doesn't do anything in this episode). They all work surprisingly well together, acting like Ladybug and Cat Noir's own Sinister Six.

After making a new safe to hide the Miracle Ball, Lady Wifi breaks into Marinette's room again, so Trixx, the Fox Kwami, uses his power to create a mirage to distract her. But like when Plagg used his Cataclysm in “Style Queen”, it has a little drawback.

The funny thing is that this doesn't even crack the top 5 in terms of weirdest things to happen to the Eiffel Tower in this show.

We cut to Adrien's room so the show can remind the audience he exists before he transforms into Cat Noir. The two don't meet up in person, but Ladybug tells Cat Noir to keep Timebreaker busy so she doesn't travel back in time while Ladybug goes after Lady Wifi. Of course, she doesn't have the friendship bracelet, but that wasn't Ladybug's plan in the first place.

Her actual plan is talking to Lady Wifi in an attempt to get Alya to break free of Shadowmoth's control. It's short, but it's a nice scene, with Ladybug explaining to Alya that even though they can't know everything about each other, they're still friends. So against all odds, Alya manages to reject the bond with Shadowmoth.

Oh yeah, it's not like we saw Chloe reject an Akuma in “Miraculer”, right? And Chrismaster giving up his akumatized object for Ladybug to purify? That didn't count either. Alya is clearly the first person to ever do this, and this is why you should immediately accept what happens later on.

Alya tells Ladybug where the Akuma is, and in response, Ladybug gives Alya the Fox Miraculous, which she uses to transform into Rena Rouge... even though she was already benched in “Feast” for endangering herself by uploading a video about the history of the Guardians to the internet, just like how Queen Bee and Ryuko were benched earlier for similar reasons, and the latter only appeared again because Ladybug wanted to get Kagami away from Adrien. Because I guess we're just going to ignore one of the biggest plotpoints of “Miracle Queen” now.

The other Akumas have Cat Noir at their mercy, so Rena Rouge uses her Mirage to create an illusion of Marinette to distract them. Timebreaker goes off to chase the illusion, and while Horrificator, Princess Fragrance, and Reflekta are about to take Ladybug's Miraculous, Rena Rouge and Cat Noir are the ones to break the object. Overall, a really clever climax to the episode.

So after Alya returns her Miraculous to Ladybug, we cut back to Marinette apologizing to her friends, who never apologize for invading her privacy. And while she mentions Luka, Marinette suddenly talks about how hard is to confess her feelings for Adrien, something that was never mentioned in this episode, because the writers are desperately trying to encourage the audience to ship the Love Square again brutally shooting down Lukanette and Adrigami. And after all this, Alya goes back up after everyone else leaves because she can just tell Marinette has another secret. How does she know this?

Okay, fine, Alya can be supportive of Marinette, and even her worst moments like the New York special were motivated by what she thought would make Marinette happy. A little misguided, and yeah, her teasing can be annoying at times, but she's ultimately there to help push Marinette to be honest with her feelings. “Reporter” is stretching it a little. No matter what the show likes to say, Alya isn't a good reporter. She barely verifies her sources and just posts things online. I'm sorry, but the Ladyblog is basically the superhero equivalent to TMZ. Alya probably doesn't even know who Joseph Pulitzer or Edward R. Murrow are, because rather than reporting the news to the public, she just wants to find things that will get her clicks on her website. Alya's biggest flaw as a character is that she is incredibly impulsive, but like everything else in the show, this flaw is never acknowledged, and is basically rewarded. Why do I say that? Well...

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this scene. On the one hand, it's very well acted, and the interaction genuinely highlights Marinette and Alya's friendship. Before she tells Alya, Marinette is just opening her heart out to her friend, and the grievances are played completely seriously. Even the reaction Alya gives when she finds out is very subdued, simply showing her shocked face before she gives Marinette a hug, with no dialogue. It's a very profound moment, and it's arguably one of the best in the entire series. Even the ending card doesn't show an action scene, but rather, it continues to focus on the hug while the Kwamis watch.

And thankfully, the episode doesn't end with the standard upbeat “Duh dun dun dun dunnnn, DA DA DA DA~!” track that almost every episode, no matter how depressing, usually ends with. It's just a really great moment, and a good way to end the episode... on its own.

When you think about previous episodes, like what I've mentioned with Alya, it's just strange that despite all the times she has shown herself to be bad at keeping secrets (like the aforementioned scene in “Feast”, posting a picture of her and Cat Noir kissing on the Ladyblog without her consent, and invading her privacy in this very episode, demanding to know her secrets), Marinette suddenly decides to give Alya a chance. Even worse, she had just said that she wasn't going to force her to tell her anything, which seemed like a strong character moment for her, but then the writers go back on the lesson and have Marinette do what Alya was trying to do the whole episode and tell her she's Ladybug.

Sure, Ladybug told Alya she was the Guardian and to keep it a secret earlier, but this lesson in keeping secrets should have stuck when she first became Rena Rouge in Season 2. I don't have a problem with Alya being Marinette's confidant (lord knows she needs one at this point), but I just don't think Alya is ready for this. It's the same thing with what happened with Adrien in “Syren”, by saying him immaturely threatening to quit being Cat Noir because of Ladybug's secrets was meant to show how he was ready to meet Master Fu even though it showed how selfish he was and was anything but ready. How is an episode where Alya tries to force Marinette into telling her everything she's keeping a secret meant to show she's ready to learn Ladybug's identity. Maybe if this episode kickstarted a character arc for Alya where she learned about why people keep secrets and that getting the truth isn't the right thing to do, culminating in a later episode where Alya learns Ladybug's identity, I'd be fine with that. As it is, this just had some poor timing and was the result of the writers not really thinking this through.

I guess I'm still interested to see where this goes, and how Marinette and Alya's friendship will change as a result of this. Maybe Alya can help Marinette get away to transform, or worry about her safety after an Akuma fight. Although the worst case scenario is that if Cat Noir finds out about this, he'll use it as an excuse to bitch and moan about how Ladybug is still keeping secrets from him and of course, she'll be blamed for whatever happens as a result of that.

Though I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting to mention something. Wasn't there someone else who wanted to know the truth about Marinette?

OH YEAH, I FORGOT ABOUT HIM JUST LIKE THE WRITERS DID.

This is what really kills the episode for me, just how it goes back on everything established in “Truth”. The whole reason Marinette broke up with Luka in the first place (which motivated the conflict of this episode) was because she realized keeping secrets from him wouldn't lead to a healthy relationship. As much as it pained her, it was a necessary evil Marinette had to do in order to protect her identity.

But now you're telling me that it's okay for Marinette to tell Alya her secret? WHY? How is this any different from what happened with Luka? Like Alya, Luka also wanted to known the truth, but the only difference was the way he confronted Marinette. He calmly asked her about what she was hiding, and even though she couldn't tell him, he respected her boundaries, and they both managed to end things on good terms.

Alya, who has a history of exposing secrets to the public, who barged into Marinette's room and demanded she tell her all of her secrets, is more trustworthy than Luka? This is why I don't buy the writers making Alya Marinette's confidant. I get that they want to give her some more story presence after how she had mostly faded into the background in Season 3, but this just isn't the way to do it.

Barring that, what did I think of the episode?

Yeah, it's just... it's just okay at best, mediocre at worst. There were a handful of decent moments in the episode, and some creative action scenes. Even stuff like Cat Noir's forced movie date and Alya violating Marinette's privacy isn't anything new, and unlike other episodes, the latter actually seems to apologize for that. The problem, as I already stated, was the ending. I think maybe the ending could have worked if Alya had found out Marinette's identity, but decided to keep it a secret. That way, it would make for an interesting dynamic, with Alya learning to be more responsible while secretly helping come up with ways for Marinette to get away to transform.

But as it stands, the episode is alright, but mostly forgettable if not for the ridiculous ending.

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

Prove Them Wrong | Reggie Peters

A/N: I got these two requests for a Reggie fic and decided to merge them together, I hope you don’t mind! 

Request 1:  Please i just want a fanfic of reggie discovering YouTube and uploading home is where my horse is video and the gang reacting to it since people absolutely love it

Request 2:  Hi!! Can you do one where the reader is julies friend and is with her when the boys come back and her and Reggie have a instant connection and he follows her around and is always talking to her

Relationships: Reggie x Reader, Sunset Curve x Reader, JATP x Reader

Warnings: Fluff? 

Words:  4,165

Your life has been pretty ordinary for the past 16 years. A life pretty much every person would call boring was a life you wouldn’t change for the world’s most expensive things. Until you met Reggie and the other boys from Sunset Curve. You say boys, but it would be much more accurate if you said ghosts. Sunset Curve was a ghost band from the 90’s that popped into your life one night when you were helping your best friend Julie clean up her mother’s studio. 

2 months earlier… 

A text from Julie comes in when you’re doing your homework on your bed whilst watching reruns of Friends on your laptop. The show makes for good background noise, you find. “911!” Worry rises within you as you read the call-for-help text from your best friend. “U ok?” you text back. Three dots begin dancing on the screen, raising suspense. “Do u wanna come help me clean out mom’s studio? :( x” A soft smile plays at your lips whilst more dots appear. “Don’t think I can do it by myself.” You close the Netflix app on your laptop and get up to put some proper pants on. You had the habit to kick your jeans off the second you got home. Prancing around in your underwear after a tough day at school has become one of your favorite things to do, but Julie might not appreciate that too much, nor would the neighbors. “OMW!” you quickly text back and hop into your Vans before heading down to the Molina house. You find your best friend behind the grand piano, looking up at the chair-decorated ceiling of the shed. Something Julie’s mom did with a superstitious meaning you’d kind of forgotten. Neither you nor Julie believed it, to be fair. “Hey,” you greet softly, making her look at you. A smile appears on her lips, glad you’d be willing to come over and help. Like you’ve been so many times last year when her mother died. You’d be there to listen to her talk about all the memories with her mom, or to hug her as she cried because she missed her.  This is just another part of the grieving process she needs to get through, and you’re there to hold her hand all the way through it. “Are you okay?” you ask, walking towards the piano and leaning your forearms on it. “Yeah, it’s just a little weird to be here…” she says as her eyes start scanning the entire space. “There are so many memories of her in here.” Her fingers glide across the piano keys. “Yeah, I know,” you whisper, not wanting to bring up anything that might hurt her. You remember the days you’d come over to play with Julie and you’d hear her mom singing in her studio. You remember when you’d make music together with Carrie and her dad and Julie’s mom. There are so many unfinished songs about bunnies and puppies from when you were kids, and even some more recent ones about the person you had a crush on or about that boy that broke your heart when you were fifteen. Those songs are now stored away in the back of your mind, waiting for the day Julie would start singing again. Along with all those memories you put on tape.  “Let’s get crackin’!” you tap the top of the piano in a rhythmic beat before stepping away and holding out your hands for Julie to take. The girl gets up from the stool behind the piano and carefully places her hand in yours. You pull her away from the piano and halt in the middle of the garage, looking up to the loft that suddenly seems very looming. Both of you know whatever’s up there is the ghost of a musician’s past, and not even Julie’s mom’s. No, all the instruments up there are from the people that used to live here. Julie never told you, but you’re certain Carrie’s dad used to live here when he was a child and sold his parents’ house to Julie’s parents when they died. You’d noticed the way Trevor always stood in the doorway, glancing around with soft eyes and a tender smile tugging at his lips. Almost like he’s reminiscing about his past. Besides, he’s accidentally slipped up a few times when talking about his childhood, saying he used to play around here with some of his buddies. No one else ever mentioned it, so you didn’t either. There’s probably a good reason for him not to speak about his past in too much detail. You climb up the stairs first and step up on the wooden floor, letting your eyes scan over all the junk up here. Keyboards, old guitars, drumsticks, even an entire drum kit, along with bags and backpacks, all strewn around the place. “Y/N,” Julie’s voice makes you snap out of your thoughts. You look down to find Julie still on the stairs, half of her body in he loft. She’s holding a CD up to show you. “Sunset Curve?” you read aloud from the black CD case. “Never heard of that band.” “Let’s give it a listen?” she suggests and after receiving an agreeing nod from you, she climbs down again, followed by yourself. She places the CD into the stereo whilst you sit down on the couch. Julie presses play and joins you. “1-2-3 Take off, last stop Countdown till we blast open the top Face first, full charge--” The music fades away as it’s overpowered by a loud screeching noise. You look over at Julie, who has her hands up to her ear to cover them from the noise. Your eyebrows knit together, confused as to what’s happening. It might just be a fault in the production of the song? Or maybe a scratch on the CD? Before you can even come up with a decent reason, a bright flash lights up the entire garage, followed by a loud thud. And, when you look up, you find three boys in the middle of the studio, scrambling up from where they’d come down harshly. You and Julie quickly get up from the couch, wanting to take a closer look at the scene in front of you.  “Woah! How did we get back here?” One of them says, confused about his surroundings. Julie lets out an ear-piercing scream before running out of the garage, leaving you with those three boys. You have no clue what’s happening, and you don’t know what to do either. Should you run and hide like Julie? Or should you just wait and see if they have a reason for being here? “Hello!” one of them yells excitedly, making you snap out of your train of thoughts. It’s the dark-haired boy with the red flannel tied around his waist that’s talking to you. “I’m sorry, who are you and what are you doing in our studio?” Your eyes widen at this. They think this is their studio? “I-I’m… I’m sorry, gimme a second,” you say, holding up your finger. The boy nods curtly before you dash out of there too, running up to Julie’s room with the question haunting your head ‘Who are they? And why do they think it’s their studio?’ After a while, you and Julie pluck up the courage to go back into the garage, armed with a cross since Julie’s positive they’re ghosts. Turns out they are. They -- along with Google -- explain they’re three ghosts that used to be in a band called Sunset Curve and that they died after eating bad hotdogs in ‘95. Luke, Reggie and Alex introduce themselves to you, and from that moment on, you’re certain these three ghost boys will change your life forever. And they do. 

Present day

To say your life has changed since the day those boys came into your life is an understatement. It went from studying while watching Friends in your room to going out to their gigs almost every Saturday and sitting in on their rehearsals every day after school. You, along with Julie, have grown very close to the boys in the last five months. They’ve become your best friends you could talk to about everything and anything. But the most special connection you have, is with Reggie. Ever since that day, the boy hasn’t left you alone. Every time you’re at the Molina house, he’ll poof in, wherever you are. Whether you’re getting a drink or a snack in the kitchen, or  you’d just come out of the bathroom, he’d be there. This caused a lot of heart attacks, but also a lot of deep conversations.

Especially if he came to your own house. This was mostly when he’d had a bad day or missed his old life or his parents. He’d poof into your room and just tell you to do whatever you were doing, that he just wanted to hang out. After a few times, you didn’t even ask anymore and he didn’t have to tell you to just continue whatever you were doing. Those nights even ended with the two of you cuddling, which is something  you realized you could do for some unknown reason. But you liked it, so you didn’t think too much about it.  Today is Friday, which means it’s the last big rehearsal before the boys and Julie have their gig tomorrow night. And though you’d much rather be there with them, you have to watch your little siblings for the night since your parents have gone out to a dinner party. You’re making some popcorn in the kitchen for all of you to munch on when watching a movie, when Reggie suddenly poofs in, making you jump. You hadn’t expected him to come in this early, which causes the worry to well up inside of you. Something must’ve happened. “Reg, you okay?” you ask in a hushed voice, glancing back at the kids in front of the tv. “No…” he murmurs, wringing his flannel in his hands. He looks sad, sadder than when he misses his old life, which means something really bad must’ve happened. “Gimme a second,” you say and turn to leave the kitchen. Reggie smiles a little as those words remind him of the first words you ever said to them. “Kids, it’s time for bed!” Moans and whines come from the little kids on the sofa, protesting their early bedtime. “No complaining! Chop chop!” you rushed them up the stairs before returning to the kitchen. “Get yourself comfy on the couch, I’m just gonna put them to bed real quick, okay?” Reggie nods agreeingly and watches you walk away again. He grabs the bowl of popcorn you’d prepared and takes it into the living room. Even though he can’t eat, he’d want you to snack on it since you’re the one that made it. “Sorry it took so long. They can be really stubborn sometimes,” you exhale frustratedly as you plop onto the couch next to Reggie. “Now, tell me, what’s going on?” “So, I suggested to Luke we’d try this song I wrote a while ago,” he starts solemnly. “Home is Where My Horse is?” you ask, remembering him writing that up in your room. You’d even helped him on some verses.  “Yes, that one! But he just rejected it… Again!” he sighs exasperatedly, throwing his head back on the backrest of the couch. “Yelled at him that he didn’t appreciate my talent and just poofed out,” he chuckles airily, and you do too. “I’m sorry Luke isn’t more open to your creativity, Reg… I really wish I could help you somehow, if I knew something I--” you stop in your tracks as an idea pops into your head. “What is it, Y/N?” he asks, getting excited as it seems you have an idea.  “What if we film you singing the song and upload it on YouTube?” you suggest, eyes twinkling at the idea alone. He nods excitedly at first, but then slows down when he realizes he has no clue what you’re talking about. “What’s a YouTube?” he asks. You let out a giggle before grabbing his hand and leading him towards the dining table where you’d left your laptop. You open it on the site and show him the home page filled with different types of recommended videos. “It’s a platform where people can post videos of whatever they like. A lot of artists use it for their music videos nowadays. It’s where I posted ‘Edge of Great’ a few weeks ago,” you explain. 

He peers at the screen with wide, intrigued eyes. You then lean forward and type in ‘Queen don’t stop me now’ before hitting enter. Reggie’s eyes widen even more as you press play on the music video.

“I could film you with my dad’s equipment and edit the whole thing together and upload it. At least then the world will see how truly talented you are and maybe Luke might change his mind too?” He eagerly nods his head in agreement, getting excited about the whole idea. Besides him being able to prove to his band that his country songs are worth taking a second look at, it’s also a good opportunity for you to test out some new techniques. 

So, on Saturday, the two of you get up at the crack of dawn -- or you do since ghosts don’t really sleep -- and make your way down to the riding club your little brother goes for riding classes. You’re acquainted with the owners, so they’ll let you film whatever you need around there. Doesn’t even matter if it looks like you’re not filming anything. “Okay, you ready?” you mutter as you set up the first scene. He’s currently sitting on a picnic bench with his guitar in his lap and the stables in the background. Your camera is set up in front of Reggie with the stable doors on each side of his head, perfectly balanced. You simply nod your head curtly as his ‘action’ sign. He immediately starts strumming his guitar and singing out his self-made words. “Home, what is it really? Sometimes it’s a someone and not a place, It’s that feeling of being safe, It’s about who you’re with at the end of the day…” You spent the entire day running around the ranch, letting Reggie sing his song multiple times in different locations. You even film a couple of nature shots to edit in later. This is just going to be the greatest music video you’ve ever made, and it’s all thanks to Reggie. Your Sunday is spent behind your laptop, editing Reggie’s footage until it’s turned into a somewhat coherent video. “Hey!” Reggie poofs into your room late that night. “Where’ve you been? You missed movie night!” he asks, worry laced in his voice. You don’t even take your eyes off your screen. It’s almost finished just a few more… Yes! “I just finished editing your video! Wanna see?” He nods his head excitedly, so you make some room for him on the chair you’re sitting on. He seems hesitant at first, but eventually sits down on the very edge. Your entire side that’s touching his tingles. It’s always been a weird feeling to touch him, but this is from an entirely new calibre. You rewind the video and press play. There’s a shot of the surrounding nature at first and some horses galloping in the distance whilst the strumming of his guitar floats out of the laptop. Then the camera pans to Reggie on the picnic bench with his guitar. “Home, what is it really? Sometimes it’s a someone and not a place, It’s that feeling of being safe, It’s about who you’re with at the end of the day… and for me” The picture changes to Reggie looking out into the meadows, watching the horses frolic around in the grass with a couple of shots of him playing his guitar as he’s walking along with the horses. “Home is where my horse is! Riding through trees by the river Feel the summer breeze smile gettin’ bigger Home is where my horse is Don’t need a house or a roof I just put on the saddle, lace up my boots  Cuz home is where my horse is” In the next few shots, you’re even in it. Reggie had grabbed your camera and placed it on the grass before grabbing your hand and pulling you out into the meadow with him to dance. It probably looked most ridiculous to any bystanders, but the footage is too pretty not to use. You can just about see two silhouettes dancing around over the grass with a flare of sunlight breaking in and giving it a magical flair. “I don’t need the streets Don’t need the city lights I don’t need a fancy car I just hop on my horse and ride” You’d filmed a couple of the riders too, since Reggie himself couldn’t really ride a horse seeing he’s a ghost and everything. But it made for some good footage to set the scene of the song properly. “Home is where my horse is! Riding through trees by the river Feel the summer breeze smile gettin’ bigger Home is where my horse is I see the beautiful beast running up to me And I know I’m home” The song ends and the screen fades to black, Reggie vanishing as he looks out into the meadow again. You look up at real-life ghost Reggie with expectant eyes. He’s just staring at the black screen for a moment, mouth ajar and eyes wide. “Woah!” he finally mutters. “That was amazing, Y/N! Show me that again!” he exclaims excitedly. Of course you oblige and show him again. This time, he points out everything he loved. “This is my favorite part!” he says, pointing at the screen as the two of you are shown dancing. You can’t help but smile at how excited he gets over this collaboration. “So, can I upload it?” you ask when the screen fades again. “What?! Of course! Put it on the Tube-thing!” he claps his hands excitedly and watches as you open the site and start the upload on the Julie and The Phantoms channel. You had edited their Edge of Great video when Ray asked your father to help him film, so you pretty much had the right to do this, even if Julie might say otherwise. “There we go! It’s set to upload in about five minutes!” you say and turn to Reggie, almost forgetting how close he’s sitting until he’s literally mere inches away. You can actually feel his hot breath tickling your lips. A wave of warmth rushes through you when you catch his eyes darting from your lips to your eyes and back again. “You’re really talented, you know that?” You simply hum in response to this compliment, not that you agree with him, but you don’t know what else to do. You’re completely frozen in place. His eyes are so pretty up close. They’re the most beautiful shade of green you have ever seen, especially with that twinkle in them. “Can I kiss you?” his soft voice makes you snap out of your thoughts about those dreamy eyes.     “Wh--what?” you stutter, hoping you did hear that right, but not wanting to assume. “C-can I kiss you?” he repeats, his voice just above a whisper. 

“Yeah.” Your voice wavers ever so slightly. Reggie’s eyes flutter close as he leans in to press his lips to yours. There’ve been times you dreamed about doing this, but you never thought you’d actually be able to kiss him. The ability to touch him was a surprise and a miracle, you didn’t think this would be possible too. A bleep coming from your computer causes you to pull away abruptly. You just about catch the smile on Reggie’s face before you turn to the screen, madly blushing yourself. “It’s ready to go!” you state excitedly and start typing up a description for the video. “What are you doing?” he asks, peering over your shoulder. “Typing up a little description for the fans, or whoever watches,” you reply as your fingers stilt for a second to think about what else to write. “Home is Where My Horse is, a Reggie original. Written and performed by your favorite bassist, Reggie Peters. Filmed and edited by Y/N Y/L/N. Special thanks to Hold Your Reins Ranch.” He reads the little text aloud. “Nice,” he nods his head, impressed by your abilities with this foreign platform. “And we’re live!” you inform him as you have pressed the post button. “Thanks, Y/N,” he says with a soft smile, making you look at him again. “I’m just gonna kiss you again, is that okay?” You nod your head before closing the distance between the two of you and kissing him again. This is not what you’d expected to come from this project, but you’re glad it had. This feels right. That night, you send Julie a message with the link to the video. “Give the boy a chance. This is an actual bop!” you sent along with it. You’re a little scared you might’ve overstepped and shouldn’t have suggested making this video for Reggie and you definitely shouldn’t have posted it to the Julie and The Phantoms YouTube channel. It probably wasn’t your place to mingle into a band conflict, but you couldn’t handle seeing Reggie so upset. 

“Get ur talented ass to the studio. NOW,” Julie’s text reads. It sounds a little passive-aggressive, but you still obey and hop into some pants and shoes before heading down the other end of the street where the Molina house stands. “‘Sup, kids?” you say when you find the boys and Julie on the couch, throwing up a peace sign. The bubbliness might camouflage the nerves building up inside you. “Care to explain yourself, miss Y/L/N?” Julie starts with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. You glance over at Reggie. He’s glancing down at the rings around his fingers. “I’m sorry, Jules. But I really think you ought to give this boy and his horse a chance!” you aggressively point at the boy in question, whose head snaps up at this. Now he’s looking at you with a scared, yet tendered expression on his face.    “I was joking, babes,” Julie mutters, holding her hands up in defense. “We didn’t think you’d react this defensive over this…” Your eyebrows knit together as confusion takes over you. “Wh-what do you mean?” you question. “Your video has been viewed over a thousand times already and it’s only been up for about two hours, Y/N,” Julie explains and turns her laptop for you to see the view count at 1,327. Your breath hitches in your throat at the large number. That’s how many people have seen your work? I mean, you would’ve watched it that many times in a row yourself because that song is actually amazing. These people are stupid for not giving it a chance earlier. “Woah, Reg! That’s a lot of people hearing your song!” you exclaim excitedly. The boy gets up from the couch and walks over to you with a proud smile on his face. “Actually….” he starts and scrolls down on the laptop. You taught him how to do that. “They’re loving your camerawork and editing!” He shows you all the comments underneath the video. The reactions are divided evenly between praise for the song and praise for your work. “Wha--” your eyes dart from Reggie to Alex, then to Luke and Julie. “We had a band meeting and we want you to become our band’s official videographer,” Alex announces with that soft smile of his plastered on his lips. Your mouth drops in disbelief. You’ve always loved videography and editing, but you always saw it as something fun, not as an official band thing. After months of sitting in rehearsals and watching gigs, you’re finally going to be part of the band. Or close enough to being a part of the band. “What do you say, babe?” Reggie asks when you’ve been quiet for a good minute. Luke and Alex exchange glances at the sudden use of pet names. That’s new. “I mean, it could be cool?” you shrug humbly. The band cheers, Alex and Luke even high five. Before you can even go over to hug Julie, Reggie’s already cupped your face and crashes his lips to yours. You’ll never get used to that feeling. “That’s new,” you hear Alex say when the two of you pull away. You need a good second to cool it after that passionate kiss, but once you do, you beckon the others over for a group hug. “Thank you, guys,” you whisper and press a kiss to Julie’s hair as a thank you. From that day on, you’re not only known as the Julie and The Phantoms videographer, but also as the cute bassist’s girlfriend. To say your life has drastically changed since meeting these boys would be the understatement of the year.

Taglist: @hannahhistorian92​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @thequirkybookaholic​ @bookdealer5​ @tenaciousperfectionunknown​ @hemmingsness​ @iainttakingshitfromnobody​ @ifilwtmfc​ @angryknightstatesmantrash​ @kiss-themoongoodbye​ @rudysbay​ @thedarkqueenofavalon​​ @caitsymichelle13​​ @calamitykaty​ @wiselight​ @kcd15​​

[gladerwolfstarkimagines]

Tea Shop Part Three: Zuko x female reader imagine series

You struggle to come to terms with the reality Lee is Zuko and can’t get your head around the idea...until a dangerous close encourter shows you how fire nation Zuko really is.

Part One here

Part Two here

Part four here

You felt like a naive idiot. You always prided yourself on being more objective than an average air nomad, more realistic, but you'd believe Zuko was good and he betrayed his uncle and tried to kill Aang. You felt utterly bewildered and couldn’t believe the person you knew would do all those things. You made Sokka tell you all about their encounters with Zuko, every single detail, to try and get it into your head that the tea merchant you knew didn’t exist. Everything Sokka told you sounded insane but you knew it was the truth so begrudgingly you started accepting it. You were starting to see Zuko as an enemy instead of an ally and then all that work went out the window when you came face to face with him again.

The gang had landed on a secluded part of an island with a nice lake so everyone was swimming and relaxing but you didn’t want to just lie around, you wanted to explore. So you convinced Sokka to come with you for a walk into town and the two of you set off. When you heard there was beach you’re excitment peaked and Sokka relaxed his rule on staying out of sight figuring nobody here would recognise either of you. Sokka stopped to look at bags by the beach front and you walked onto the beach happily. You stood in the sand enjoying the warmth when suddenly a beach ball came flying towards you. You batted it away without thinking and sent it flying down the beach. "Great job genius" a voice called and you turned to see a very angry looking fire nation girl. "That was my ball and now you've catapulted it half way down the beach". "Sorry but it was that or get in the face so..." you joked but the girl didn’t find you funny. "Go get it" she said stiffly and something about her tone pissed you off "no" you said simply "it’s your ball". The girl went to step closer to you when her friends walked over too and a boy pulled her away from you. You mouth opened in suprise to see it was Lee or more accurately Zuko. It had only been a few months since you’d last seen him but he looked so different. His hair was longer, he was in fire nation clothes and he looked changed...he looked good. You could tell it was definitely him by how panicked he looked, which also suprised you. Was he really scared because he thought you'd reveal what he did and who he was to his friends? Surely they knew he was the prince? Then you realised he wasn't worried about himself he was worried about you. "Azula leave it" he called standing infront of her and you realised who this was. The gang had told you all about the deadly fire nation trio and sure enough you recognised the other two girls from their descriptions. The pale girl didn’t even seem to be paying attention but the pretty brunette looked at Azula worried. "This peasant disrespected me i won’t leave it" Azula snapped as Ty lee frowned "it’s okay Azula, those boys are bringing the ball back to us anyway" she smiled "they’re so nice". "Exactly so let’s just go" Zuko said and you saw Azula frown at him, you were guessing he wasn’t usually an advocate for the average person. You felt his sister scanning you and knew you had to get out of this situation right now but had no idea how. "Come on" Zuko called but Azula shook her head "no". Zuko groaned "for god sake Azula what’s your problem! Leave her alone". Azula tensed "why are you so protective of this girl zuzu?" she asked and you saw Mai look up at that and stare at you too. "I’m not" Zuko babbled "i’m just sick of your temper, why start fights with a stranger for no good reason!". Azula frowned as if she hadn’t even heard Zuko "you seem familiar" she said "have we met before?". You frowned "i...i’ve never seen you before in my life" you replied trying not to touch the burn on your arm like you always did when you were nervous. She hummed still staring at you and you waited for her to realise who you were. "I’m sick of this come on lets just go" Zuko sighed and he led Mai away. "Azula come on" he called and Ty lee tugged her arm. "Fine" Azula sighed and let them drag her away. You watched them go, facinated. So this was the real Lee then? You watched him, staring at the back of his head trying to find something, a look, a subtle nod, anything that told you he was still Lee...but Zuko seemed determined not to look back at all and he walked away like he didn’t know or care about you at all.

You came to your senses after they left and rushed away from the beach, running back up to the stalls and out of sight. You breathed heavily as what could’ve happened to you sunk in and jumped when Sokka appeared next to you. "Hey, did you get what you wanted?". "What?" you asked confused. "The beach? Is it nice?". "No it’s way too crowded lets head back" you stammered and Sokka shrugged "okay". You weren’t sure why you didn’t tell Sokka what had happened. Part of you didn't say anything because you weren't sure how to feel. You hadn't been angry when you saw Zuko more sad and confused. You’d felt embarassed he ignored you even if he had to do it given the company he was in. Another part of you didn’t say anything because you didn’t want the others to persue Zuko even if he was part of the fire nation and that thought embarassed you even more. You were very confused and so just stayed quiet as you walked further and further away from the beach.

All day you ruminated over your decision not to tell the others and even with ground between you, you couldn’t get what happened out of your head. You wanted to ask Zuko why he’d helped you on the beach, shouldn’t he hate you now? Especially given your air nomad identity or was he different to the rest of his nation? Giving up on sleep you decided to go for a walk and pretended you didn’t have an exact location in mind. You knew it was stupid and risky but you headed back to the beach and arrived quickly. It was empty and you sat down slightly disappointed. You knew Zuko wouldn’t still be there but you had to check. You sighed wondering what you’d even have said to him and were suddenly glad he wasn’t here. You didn’t know if you’d be angry at him or happy to see him, so him not being here made things a lot easier for you.

"You must have a death wish coming back here" someone called and you knew who it was.

You turned and there Zuko was walking towards you slowly. The first emotion you felt wasn't anger, he'd come back here too, just like you. "I could say the same for you" you smirked and Zuko sat down next to you. You sat beside one another in silence both of you suprised and confused by the situation you were in. "Why are you here?" he asked suddenly. "I thought you might come back here so i did" you said embarassed and he shook his head "no here on the island! Are you following us? Y/n they can’t know you’re here...if my sister knew who you were she'd....". "Pft i can handle some fire" you tried to joke but Zuko shook his head "no y/n, Azula is the best fire bender i’ve ever seen, you can’t take her and you can’t let her take you". You swallowed, you’d only been joking about handling Azula, you knew she was dangerous but hearing Zuko tell you that... "We’re not here because we’re following you" you said softly "we stopped off here and i wanted to see the beach, it was chance bumping into you i swear". Zuko looked at you and nodded "i believe you, it was just...odd". You nodded and watched him out of the corner of your eye. He looked conflicted, happy but not happy, sad but not sad. "How are you?" you couldn’t help asking "how is it being back home?". "Weird" Zuko replied "it’s changed so much...i’ve changed". “Tell me about it, the last I knew you were a tea merchant not a prince”. Zuko smiled slightly “I imagine it was a lot to take in?”. You nodded “it was but it explained a lot...your spoiled attitude for one”. Zuko smirked and you laughed. This was nice and all but you couldn’t just sit around ignoring the elephant in the room. "Why did you do it?" you couldn’t help asking and felt Zuko tense, the atmosphere now uncomfortable. "I know i don’t know you well and I know Lee isn’t really you but I still can't understand why you'd betray your uncle? Why you'd side with your sister after all she’s done? You just don’t seem like that type of person". Silence settled and stretched on for so long you got ready to leave but finally Zuko spoke. "You’re right, you don’t know me". You met his eye and saw nothing but anger and hate there. You looked away scolded and shook your head feeling deflated "back to that again huh? Back to hating each other?". "Well obviously! we’re on opposing sides y/n, what did you think was going to happen once you joined the avatar? We’re not friends". You laughed in utter surprise "ow so if i didn’t join the avatar it would've been different?" you asked "stop trying to blame me because you feel guilty for the choices you made". "You were always too prying and self rightous for your own good" he snapped “you know nothing! You’re just some waitress I worked with, you don’t know anything about me”. "Wow and there’s the fire nation prince" you smirked patronisingly "don’t know how you did such a good job hiding him before now" and stood up. "I saved you as a courtesy" Zuko called after you, his voice getting louder the further you walked "the next time i won’t". His announcement made you so mad you shook with anger. He was really threatening you for calling him out on betraying his family? He thought not letting his sister attack you owed praise? "Good" you yelled back "i don’t need anything from you. Have fun in your cursed life traitor". 

Zuko’s POV

Your words hit Zuko like a strike and he glared after you burning holes in your back until you disappeared around a corner. Even though you’d gone Zuko’s anger didn’t and he angrily sent a jet of fire up into the air with a yell. Zuko sat down on the cold bench and shivered. “What’s wrong with you now?” someone asked making Zuko jump. He turned to see Azula coming towards him and looked around to make sure there was no sign you’d been here. Azula seemed relaxed so she obviously hadn’t seen you but Zuko couldn’t believe how lucky he got, if Azula had been slightly earlier or you stayed any longer...it didn’t bare thinking about. “Hello? Does that scar effect your hearing?”. “No” Zuko snapped and sighed. His temper had been bad recently and was getting worse, that’s why he’d blown up so easily. He hadn’t meant to yell at you, he’d been happy to see you and he did...had seen you as a friend. But that was certainly all ruined now he’d yelled at you. That thought made Zuko even more depressed, which he didn’t think was possible. He supposed it was best you hate him though, he was the traitor prince, he’d betrayed his uncle who only ever wanted to help him. This way he wouldn’t be able to betray you too. 

1 month later

You’d regretted what you’d said to Zuko as soon as your anger feded but you were still hurt at what he’d said about you. You weren’t friends and you never were...

You decided that was the final straw and set out to make Zuko’s words a reality. Slowly you managed to lose thought of Zuko, even during the invasion of the fire nation palace you didn’t worry about seeing him, you knew now where your loyalties lied and it wasn’t with Zuko. You were done with him and getting to be okay with that.

So after finally working all that out, when you got a visitor at the western air temple you were angry to say the least. "It’s not..." you frowned looking at the figure but it was. Zuko...and he was smiling too. "Hello Zuko here" he called waving, appearing to be as calm as ever. The others all armed themselves but you just glared. Zuko looked at you all and glanced at you last. He looked down at the intenseness of your glare and you felt proud. "What do you want here?" Aang asked. Zuko explained he wanted to join you and you snorted "seriously? Now the great prince wants to grace us with his presence?" you asked. Zuko looked at you "y/n...i’m sorry for hurting you, all of you” he said looking at everyone again "what i did was wrong and i ask you to consider forgiving me". "No" you said simply "so thank you for coming but goodbye". Zuko rolled his eyes "y/n just let me explain...". "Explain what?" you asked "how you double crossed Mushi? How you hinted i’d be next?". Zuko went quiet and lowered his head. Aang touched your arm and you took that as a sign to calm down. “We can never trust you and we’ll never let you join us” Aang took over and you nodded. Zuko’s face crumpled in defeat and you sighed in relief. You watched, glaring, until Zuko walked out of sight and went inside the temple “well done Aang” you commented. "Man i thought air nomads were all peaceful" Sokka frowned. "Well guess i’m more earth nation then" you shrugged "if i see him again i’ll catapult him from this mountain". “Why are you so angry at him?” Toph asked suddenly and you laughed “you’re joking right?”. “No I get you feel betrayed but you were furious with him I could tell by your emotions and what did you mean when you said he threatenned you?”. “Yeah you never told us he did that in Ba Sing Sei” Sokka nodded and you frowned. “He didn’t threaten me per se and it wasn’t in Ba Sing Sei. I spoke to Zuko a few weeks ago". "What!" they all cried. Sokka launched in a lecture, Katara questioned you on safety, Toph called you insane while you just blushed. "This is exactly why i didn’t tell you!" you cried "i knew the risk but we were at the beach and he’d already stopped his sister from attacking me earlier that day so i figured....". "What" Sokka yelled and you sighed and just started from the very beginning. You finished your explanation and Sokka nodded. "I get why you’re angry at him" Sokka agreed and you sighed in relief. "Yeah because of what he said to me...". "No because you guys basically broke up". "What! We did not" you spluttered "we were never dating! That’s ridiculous" and stormed away angrily.

After a fitful night of sleep you woke up to the news Toph was gone. She’d seemed pretty sympathetic to Zuko yesterday so you weren’t suprised when she returned and announced she’d visit Zuko...and he’d burnt her. You helped carry her to the fountain and managed not to gloat that you were right but Toph sensed it. “I can feel you smirking” she commented. You frowned “I’m sorry you got hurt but I did tell you...”. “I may’ve been wrong but you’re letting your feelings cloud your judgement” Toph commented. You gaped “no i’m not!” and Katara frowned “guys....” when an explosion rocked the whole temple. Sparky sparky boom man was back, the assassin hired to kill you, and you all sought cover when suddenly the attacks ceased. “Zuko” Aang commented and you sighed, apparently Zuko was determined to prove his worth. Watching Aang’s reaction you felt anger, you knew what would happen. Zuko would save the day and that would win the gang over, they didn’t have as strong grudges as you.

Sure enough after the attack they let Zuko approach and listened to him. Aang vouched for him but then turned to all of you for your opinions. Aang looked at eveyone, they all met his eye apart from you. Toph and Sokka agreed, Katara hesitated but she agreed too. Finally Aang turned to you  "Y/n" he said softly "will you agree to let Zuko stay?". You looked past Aang to Zuko and resisted the urge to glare. "Y/n" Aang said softly "please, i need a firebender teacher and i really think it should be him". You stared at Aang, those big brown eyes wearing you down, and sighed. You had to do what was right, Aang needed this and he was one of the last members of your nation, you couldn’t be selfish. You nodded your head stiffly “if you say you need him then okay”. Aang grinned at you before turning back to Zuko “okay you can join us”. Those words made your skin crawl and you stormed away.  

It was awkward to say the least having Zuko around, all of you were reluctant to approach him but Sokka seemed to be having fun with it. As night approached Zuko asked where his room was and Sokka said he’d show him. Zuko nodded and Sokka siddled up beside you “want to show Zuko to his room yourself?" Sokka asked "so you can memorise the location". You smacked Sokka over the head in reply and he led Zuko away without another comment but had apparently put the idea in Zuko’s head.

You were laid on your bed glaring at the ceiling too angry to sleep when there was a knock on your door. You sat up cautiously and the door opened to reveal Zuko. "Hi" he said timidly and you stood up "what do you want?". Zuko blushed "i think we need to talk, privately...about what happened on ember island". "What is there to discuss? You never considered me a friend, you rejected me and left". Zuko frowned "y/n...it wasn’t like that". "Wasn’t it?" you asked and Zuko frowned "well it was but y/n i’m sorry! The things i said to you were awful but i didn’t mean them! I lashed out at you because it was you, because you make me want to be a better person, that’s why i hurt you". "Ow wow that makes it so much better thank you" you said mockingly and Zuko frowned "no, you know i didn’t mean it like that". "Well i’m sorry i didn’t take you yelling at me the right way Zuko, did i misinterpret you calling me nosy and self rightous and saying you never liked me too? Or how you saving me was just a such a nice gesture". Zuko groaned "why aren’t you listening i just said I didn’t mean any of that!". "Well i find that hard to believe" you glared "you don’t get to come here and apologise and have me forgive you, i’m angry at you". "Really you did a good job hiding that" Zuko retorted and you glared. "Get out of my room i don’t want to talk to you, ever”" you yelled and Zuko nodded "fine!" and stormed away. He slammed the door and the whole temple shook. You let out a cry of frustration and collapsed onto your bed. Zuko joining the group was going to make things complicated.

----

Next part is the last one!!!

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Well I haven’t watched sp all the way through for about a decade now, so I thought it was time

Sometimes I wonder how accurate the fandom is when it comes to how we interpret the characters. Like, why is Stan a football star so often in fanfic and why’s Kyle always the smart one? So I thought I’d rewatch the show and make notes along the way to see where the source of all these interpretations is. I also wanted to see if I could get some fun info to analyze, but season 1 is pretty sparse in that regard so there’s not too much of that in this post, but I’ll make a post for all the other seasons too as I watch them

In summary, it’s established in season 1 already that Stan’s a star quarterback and an animal lover, Kyle’s an A+ student, and Kenny is poor and knows a lot about sex and doesn’t have many qualms about doing crazy shit. Cartman is a bit weird since he’s mostly just a naive brat in this season, but he and Kyle have a mildly antagonistic friendship already

I have all my notes under this cut. They include a bunch of small details and other observations. I also listed every Kenny death just because

Ike has freckles

Cartman says “Weak!” and “You guys” and “Seriously” a lot from the start, also “Kickass!” He doesn’t say weak or kickass much in the later seasons iirc

Stan says “Dude, this is pretty fucked up right here” three times in this season but they dropped that catchphrase pretty quickly

Bebe got named in episode 2

Stan’s been an animal lover since s01e03 Volcano since he won’t shoot a bunny or anything else. He does shoot Scuzzlebutt at the end though

Cartman’s a pathological liar but in a childish way

Randy got named in s01e03 Volcano (and it only got worse from there)

The mayor went to Princeton

South Park is next to Mt. Evanson

Kenny will literally drink gasoline

Stan’s a star quarterback in 3rd grade

Clyde’s voice is wrong as hell in S01E04 Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride and he has a dog, Rex

Garrison says Kyle is an A+ kid

Shelly seriously abuses Stan, punching him, throwing him, maiming him with a lawnmower

Cartman had a pot-bellied pig called Fluffy

Cartman’s mom smokes crack and has sex with strange men

Dr. Mephesto is probably a Buddhist since he says “Thank Buddha” instead of “Thank God”

Clyde’s voice gets kind of fixed in S01E06

A guy called Mr. McCormick is killed in a protest, launched and splattered against a network building. He doesn’t look like Kenny’s dad though

Zombie Clyde attacks Bebe, rude

Wendy gave her costume contest prize (2 tons of candy) to hungry children in Nairobi

Cartman’s mom is on the cover of Crack Whore magazine. “Back do’ ho… Five on one action!” is the headline

Cartman genuinely cries at Kenny’s grave after the whole zombie thing but gets over it because of candy

Stan knows his mom’s credit card number and has no problem using it to adopt an Ethiopian child (the boys wanted a watch that came with the adoption, they weren’t doing it to be nice)

Cartman calls Stan a vas deference, Stan doesn’t know what that is so Kenny says “Dude, it’s a pipe for your peepee” (according to a transcript). Kenny sure knows male anatomy

Kyle sniffs Kenny after Cartman asks why poor people smell like sour milk and Garrison says “idk eric they just do”

Cartman thinks poor people should die and decrease the surplus population

When the boys get Starvin’ Marvin delivered to them, Cartman says “Hey mom, we found an Ethiopian, can we keep him?” and his mom says “Sure, hun.” She rarely says no to Cartman

Kenny’s dad is an alcoholic who drinks scotch according to Cartman. I mean, Mr. McCormick is seen drinking in multiple episodes and has a hat that says SCOTCH so it’s probably true

Kenny’s family says grace

Craig’s first appearance is S01E09. Also, S01E09 is the first time Kenny doesn’t die (Coincidence? I THINK yeah but it’s still fun)

Clyde got named in S01E10

Clyde and Bebe both spit on Pip’s face, friendship goals <3

Cartman and Kyle have their first fight at Cartman’s birthday party because Kyle didn’t give the right gift. Cartman slaps his face and  screams “I hate you! I want you to die! Die!” while on top of Kyle who’s not really fighting back

Satan throws a fight with Jesus after everyone except Satan bet that Jesus would lose, which leads to Satan winning everyone’s money. Mr. Garrison says “What a mean thing to do!” and Jimbo says “He is a jerk!” and I thought it was quite a laugh so I wrote it down

In S01E11 Tom’s Rhinoplasty Bebe and Wendy are sitting in the swings together and generally appear together throughout the episode, then Bebe gives Wendy a makeover so they’re bffs obviously <3

Craig first appears in the classroom, though not sitting down, in S01E11

Wendy’s not happy about Ms. Ellen taking Stan away from her, she says “Don’t fuck with me! Stay away from my man, bitch, or I’ll whoop your sorry ho ass back to last year!”

Kenny gives Ms. Ellen a scrumptious looking sausage as a valentine’s gift and giggles deviously. Wendy’s gift to Ms. Ellen is a dead animal

Even Kenny doesn’t know what a lesbian is

Wendy’s grandma died in S01E11

Wendy gets Ms. Ellen killed by hiring the Iraqi government (?) to put her in a rocket and shoot it into the sun, then she and Bebe have a pool party (very cool, they wear sunglasses 😎) and watch the rocket hit the sun

Cartman and Pip play a game of kicking each other in the nuts until someone falls. Cartman calls it “Roshambo”

Kenny has a sack of marbles

The boys aren’t fans of Barbra Streisand, but Stan is a fan of the Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway (he’s not a quarterback anymore, he’s an American football executive and the president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the NFL according to wikipedia.)

Officer Barbrady is a fan of Fiona Apple (who was 20 at the time and had only one album released called Tidal)

Ned knows how to pilot a helicopter

Kyle’s mom is a fan of Streisand unlike literally everyone else, she even gets an autograph from Mecha Streisand

The boys are fans of Robert Smith, the lead singer of The Cure. Stan says “Robert Smith is the greatest person that ever lived!” and Kyle says “Disintegration is the best album ever!” and Cartman says “Robert Smith kicks ass!” and Kenny’s dead so he doesn’t get to have an opinion

Cartman has tea parties with his toys: Polly Prissypants, Clyde frog, Peter Panda, and a dragon called Rumpertumskin

Kyle wants to make fun of Cartman for the tea party but Stan stops him because he’s concerned that Cartman needs help

Craig is in front of the school counselor’s office in S01E13

A young miss Cartman drinks like a motherfucker at the 12th annual drunken barn dance where Cartman was supposedly conceived

Stan lets Cartman borrow his bike like a good friend

Garrison wanted to have a threesome with Chef and Cartman’s mom. I don’t know why I’m making a note of this but uh… yeah.

Cartman’s mom has had sex with everyone at this bar that Garrison’s drinking at, including principle Victoria, the mayor, Father Maxi, and Jesus (and maybe Kenny’s dad since he’s at the bar but the camera doesn’t pan to him when Garrison says they’ve all slept with Liane). Later Gerald Broflovski is a possible father to Eric, so he fucked her too. Also Mr. Mephesto and his friend Kevin, that little guy, are candidates along with a lot of other people, including the 1989 Denver Broncos (and Mr. Tenorman is included in that later)

Cartman doesn’t make fun of Kyle for being Jewish much at all in this season even though the Christmas episode is all about Kyle not celebrating

Clyde and Token appear very early on and Clyde has always been in the classroom (along with Bebe, Red, Kevin Stoley, Wendy, and Pip and uhh DogPoo too I think). Craig appears later in the season and Tweek’s not in season 1 at all, so Craig’s gang isn’t really a thing yet

And here’s a list of the ways Kenny died in this season. He dies in every episode except episode 9, and he dies twice in episodes 2 and 3. Altogether he dies 14 times

S01E01 Killed after alien shoots him, cows stampede over him, then cop runs him over which finally actually kills him

S01E02 Killed in a play by a falling teepee, then a second time shot by Garrison which sends him in the air and he gets impaled on a flagpole on the way down

S01E03 Killed by a volcano rock that burns him then rolls on him but he’s alive again in the end but gets shot by Ned’s gun that he drops and it accidentally goes off

S01E04 Gets his arms and head torn off in an American football game

S01E05 Stan’s clone punches Kenny into a microwave where he gets cooked alive

S01E06 Death touches Kenny

S01E07 Kenny gets crushed by a Russian space station and turns into a zombie because he gets Worcestershire sauce in his veins, then Kyle chainsaws zombie Kenny in half, then zombie Kenny rises from his grave and is crushed by a statue and a plane

S01E08 Kenny is killed by a bunch of turkeys. His eye gets plucked out. It’s dark blue

S01E10 After Kenny gets turned into a duck-billed platypus, Jimbo and Ned shoot him

S01E11 Ms. Ellen throws a sword through Kenny’s face

S01E12 While Mecha Streisand and a giant robot Leonard Maltin fight, Kenny plays with a tetherball and gets the rope wrapped around his neck and it strangles him

S01E13 Kenny gets stuck on a go kart and it drags him around but stops and he’s still alive! Too bad the go kart stops on train tracks and a train runs him over. Stan’s grandpa sends a video of the event to America’s Stupidest Home Videos and wins $10,000

If you read all that, first of all hello. I’m not new to the fandom even though this is the first thing I’ve posted on this tumblr blog. I’ve been writing a fanfic called Caffetamine though so I’m not a complete non-entity. Anyway, I’ll watch season 2 soon and post my notes on that too probably.

[vulpes-incendium]

Question 0-0 I’m writing a historical fic (Ming dynasty to opium wars if that helps) with both HK and Macau in it (also has the rest of the gang), should I use the official Hong Kong Cantonese romanization of HK’s name or not because idk if the official Hong Kong romanization existed at that point, if not, how should I write his name? (I feel like you’re the name authority now lol so that’s why I’m asking 😆)

Romanisation of Cantonese in HK (+ other Chinese speaking countries)

Ahhh this is quite a complicated question. I'll try my best 🙈🙈🙈 Remember, I’m not a linguist nor a historian, these are only information I researched and based on my own knowledge. I could answer you right away that it’s safest to stick to the HK system for HK’s name now, but since romanisation has something to do with history, I thought this bit of insight would interest you and some others as well?

Basic facts

The standard English romanisation of Cantonese the HK government uses was introduced in late 1800s to early 1900s after HK was colonised and Hanyu Pinyin (Mandarin pinyin) in the 1950s after the PRC established, both did not exist back in the period you mentioned. So even Yao might not be Yao back then! (but I’ll talk about that later)

Also, the language has evolved a lot since then, plus there are also many other dialects (that are not mutually intelligible with Cantonese or Mandarin), this could play a role in it too!

Cantonese

How the system worked in Hong Kong 🇭🇰

So I only heard this from my parents and grandparents! Back then (30s - 50s) people just went to the registration office and said their names in Cantonese, the officers (mostly British I think) would hear it and translate it on the spot. I have yet found an official romanisation guide by the HK government (unlike Macau), but I believe with time, they kind of built up a system? HKers are used to the romanisation and would just know how to romanise names. There are some cases with names romanised not in the usual way, like 林 is usually Lam (99% of the time), but there are some romanised as Lamb, could be because of the mistakes made by some officers or they weren’t too used to the system, it does happen sometimes, but they are rare.

The government probably has a system for the street names, but it’s also a mess, they don’t necessarily reflect the pronunciation well, one obvious example would be “G” to “K” like the “K” in Hong Kong, it’s pronounced more like “Gong” in Cantonese, name romanisation has this problem too, but that’s another story.

Pre-colonial Hong Kong

Hong Kong was of course in the Canton/Guangdong region back then, there isn’t really like a border or anything like now. As the name hinted, the region speaks Cantonese. I couldn’t find that much information on the people living in HK, but one of the most famous people active around the HK area was 張保仔 Cheung Po Tsai, a pirate, active in the late 1700s. He wasn’t born in the area that is now known as Hong Kong, but HK was the area where pirates were active, because it’s surrounded by the sea. His name is romanised using the HK romanisation system, but I believe this is how the HK government preserves history. Mind you, this is the modern HK romanisation, his name might not be romanised like that back then, but I couldn’t find further info.

I believe only some people’s names were romanised in Cantonese because (Nanjing) Mandarin was the language the government used (which I heard was quite different from the Beijing dialect, aka modern Mandarin). There were only a few exceptions to have their names romanised in their native dialects (Cantonese, Hokkien, etc) to highlight their heritage/ importance to the region.

Hong Kong before the colonial period was very small and there weren’t a lot of people living there, most of our ancestors fled China for HK due to wars or political instability, but that was mostly after the Brits took power. So I’d say, for the sake of simplicity and also due to lack of information, using the HK system now would be fine, which is Wong Ka Lung or Lee Siu Chun, it also shows his identity (from HK) and his language. See this post for more info on his name.

Macau 🇲🇴

I have to also mention that even among Cantonese, the romanisation could be different too! Macau’s system is similar to HK’s but not 100% the same, this is because their system is based on Portugese pronunciation. Some common differences are Leong instead of Leung in HK or Ao instead of Au in HK. I’m not quite sure when they started using the system, but the document I found from the Macau government in 1985 showed they had a system for quite a while.

My bet for Macau is that his name was probably already romanised based on the Portugese system at that time, he’d probably also be given a Portugese name for the ease of communicating with the Europeans too. I have 2 names for Macau: 王濠鏡 Wong Hou Keang, popular among the Chinese fans which is based on one of Macau’s old names (I romanised his name wrong in my previous post using the HK system) and 王嘉麟 Wong Ka Lon, suggested by a HK fan, it shows his relationship with HK sharing the word 嘉 (many parents give siblings a sharing name). I use Vicente or Marco as his Portugese name. I can do a detailed post on this later.

Mandarin

Pre-PRC China (pre-1949)

Before the PRC was established (and Mandarin pinyin was introduced), I believe each country had their own method of romanisation for Chinese (all different dialects), probably catered to  their own speakers. Wikipedia said Nanjing dialect-based romanisation systems are more commonly used until the late 19th century, but I can’t really confirm that, since I don’t speak the dialect and I couldn’t find much info on that. But it could make sense, Nanjing was once the capital and a very important city, I could see why that would be the case.

If you look at this book from 1742, you can see the romanisation is very different from what we are used to, it's a French book so it’s based on French pronunciation, on top of the fact that the language back then was a bit different than nowadays (both French and Mandarin).

A notable example would be Confucius. It’s the latinised from 孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ in Mandarin pinyin) in the late 16th centuries by the early Jesuit missionaries in China, which consisted of mainly Italians, but also Portugese and Spanish I believe. Nowadays, of course his name wouldn’t be romanised like that, but this name was made popular by them based on Italian/Latin I think. In theory, his name would probably be based on the Nanjing-dialect, which I have no clue of, it does sound like Beijing Mandarin though.

Wade-Giles I believe was the most used romanisation system pre-pinyin. It was created in the 19th century and based on the Beijing-dialect. This may not be obvious if you look at important people in the modern (mainland) Chinese history because the Chinese government has probably changed the records to make the status of Mandarin pinyin more important (eg. Peking to Beijing). However, you can still find some hints in Chinese living abroad or non-mainland Chinese (most prominent example would be the Taiwanese).

Michael Shen Fu-Tsung was one of the first Chinese people who moved to Europe (late 1600s, from Nanjing/Nanking), he was using his Portugese name Michel Alfonso most of the time when he was in Europe, but his Chinese name was romanised using the Wade-Giles system later, could be because his life was more well-known in the west than in the east, so when Wade-Giles became popular, the European used the system when they refer him by his Chinese name?

All in all, China’s name would probably be romanised differently in each period by different countries. Not sure about Nanjing-Mandarin, but in Beijing Mandarin, his name 王耀 would be romanised as Wang Yao in both Mandarin pinyin and Wade-Giles luckily.

Taiwan 🇹🇼

Taiwan still used Wade-Giles until the government started encouraging the people to use Mandarin pinyin in 2009. I would say if you’re using 林曉梅 (Lin Xiao Mei), Lin Hsiao Mei would be more accurate to the time, for 林乙玲 (Lin Yi Ling) it’s Lin I Ling according to this. For Wade-Giles, names were usually hyphanated too I think so that the westerners know they have to use both words to refer to a person’s name, so Lin Hsiao-mei or Lin I-ling? (It’s not important, I just wanna mention my observation)

Taiwan also has another official language, which is Taiwanese (Hokkien). Now I don’t speak Taiwanese, but it’s also an important representation of the culture too and some people’s names were romanised from their own dialects, which leads me to my next point...

Other dialects

Some names were romanised from their own dialects, an example would be Koxinga from 國姓爺, or 鄭成功 (Zhèng Chénggōng in Mandarin pinyin). It’s the Dutch romanisation of Hokkien. From his name, you can probably tell why his name was romanised this way. He was of Hokkien and Japanese descent and he was most active in Taiwan (well, the sea regions, his family were pirates), hence he had most contact with the Dutch (he eventually replaced Dutch Formosa with Kingdom of Tungning). His name was also romanised differently, either from Beijing Mandarin or based on other languages, but I supposed he was most well-known by Koxinga.

Most of the Chinese immigrants in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Phillipines and Myanmar are of Hokkien (Hoklo) descent. I believe this is why many Chinese names are romanised differently in these countries, say the surname 陳 is usually Tan in Malaysia because it is romanised from Hokkien or Teochew (it’s Chan in Cantonese and Chen in Mandarin). This could theoretically happen in HK too, but most people wanted to integrate into the community and the majority of HKers speak Cantonese (eg. my grandparents were Shanghaiese but their names were in Cantonese).

Cantonese in Pre-PRC mainland China

This is just an extra piece of information if you’re interested, it’s about Cantonese in mainland China after British Hong Kong was established (mid-late 1800s), which is probably not your subject of interest, but maybe if someone wants to do an oc, or idk, just want to know in general? Long story short, there’s still not really an offical way to romanise names, but in my opinion, you can tell someone’s story/background from how their names were romanised.

Cantonese like 康有爲 Kang Youwei and 梁啓超 Liang Qichao were romanised like that (pinyin) because they worked at the Chinese government and I think the Chinese government now romanised them like that? Their names were probably not like that back then, not sure.

Another example would be 孫逸仙 Sun Yat-sen. He was Cantonese, born and was mostly active in the Canton(Guangdong) region. He’s more well-known as 孫中山 in Chinese (he had a lot of names), but he mostly went by Sun Yat-sen when he’s with westerners since he studied in HK. It looks a bit different than modern HK romanisation (it would be Suen Yat Sin I think), but I believe it was because that was the time the HK government just started developing the system, and as I’ve mentioned, there are some exceptions when romanising names in HK.

And then we have Chiang Kai-shek, who was not Cantonese (he spoke Wu, another Chinese dialect) but his name was romanised from Cantonese, probably because of the KMT activities he participated in were in Canton/Guangdong? He did change his name and the romanisation for his political career (he went through a lot of names too, I don’t speak Wu unfortunately to tell you whether one of his names were romanised from Wu, but some were from Mandarin using Wade-Giles). His name looks like it’s romanised using the HK system to me, it could really be that the Cantonese in the Mainland adopting the system when it was developing and got popularised in HK.

Cantonese might not be the main language used by the Chinese government (even though it almost became the official language of modern China), but since Canton/Guangdong was an important trading spot (on top of HK and Macau), many foreigners would learn Cantonese too.

Conclusion

Romanisation is to aid their own countries, it would be catered to their own languages, Turkish doesn’t have the letter Q, or W is pronounced V in German, Yao’s name in German could be “Jau” if the Germans were to romanise his name to cater their own people. The influence of the countries contributes a lot in it too. As you can see there are many names romanised from Dutch, because the Netherlands was a strong power, so I guess that’s why sometimes the Dutch romanisation would be more used? The HK romanisation and Wade-Giles got so popular probably because the British Empire was so strong back then or that English became an international language. And of course there is history too. Taiwan’s old name, Formosa, means beautiful in Portugese, because the Portugese were the first Europeans to discover Taiwan.

There are still so many different romanisation systems nowadays, one can tell where you’re from or where your root is just by seeing your romanised name. Say the surname 鄭, it’s romanised as Cheng in HK and Taiwan (different languages though), Cheang in Macau, Zheng in China and Tay or Tee in Malaysia and Singapore (Trịnh and Jung/Jeong would be the equivalent of the name in Vietnamese and Korean respectively) and they are all based on different languages, romanising different languages/dialects based on different languages.

Again, I’m not a linguist nor a historian so I might not be 100% correct! Please correct me if I got any of these wrong! Sorry for turning this into an essay lol, I really really appreciate your effort on making your fic historically accurate! Feel free to ask me more, I’m glad to help!

[tiramisiyu]

【未定事件簿】 Tears of Themis: Main Story 6-22 Translation

Translation Masterlist | Video

Chapter 6 – Tiger’s Accomplice Ghost (Parts 1, 2): 6-1 / 6-3 / 6-5 / 6-7 / 6-9 / 6-11 / 6-13 / 6-15 ♦️ ♦️  6-16 / 6-18 / 6-20 / 6-22 / 6-24 / 6-26 / 6-27 / 6-28 / 6-29

Information on the Chapter title (helpful to know): Wikipedia | My notes

--

Pax CEO Office

Lu Jinghe: Are all the places that Qin Shan went to before he fell ill here?

Wen Chen: Mhmm, all the ones from one month before his illness are here.

Lu Jinghe: He sure lived in a sumptuous way. Basically not a single meal was eaten at home.

Lu Jinghe: He really ended up going once to each club house, high-end hotel, and restaurant that he could reach in the whole city.

Wen Chen: Do you need me to collect the records from a larger amount of time prior?

Lu Jinghe: Not for now. Wait for me to go through this one month first.

Lu Jinghe placed the materials he was holding down, reclined in the leather chair, and massaged his temples.

Lu Jinghe: Are there any updates on that Assistant Hang?

Wen Chen: Assistant Hang is named Hang Jiahe. Her parents by legal relation have no blood relation with her – she was adopted.

Wen Chen: But because it was a relatively long time ago, I have not found the detailed adoption information yet.

Wen Chen: Hang Jiahe took the place of Qin Shan’s assistant at the beginning of this year, around when Xu Ping disappeared.

Wen Chen: She is an assistant in name, but it seems like her authorizations are very large.

Wen Chen: Some resigned Heirson personnel said that Hang Jiahe is a fox who exploits the might of the tiger. There are also people who speculate that she is Qin Shan’s lover.

Lu Jinghe: Lover?

Lu Jinghe: Ever since Qin Shan divorced, he has never married again. I’ve also never heard of him having media gossip before.

Wen Chen: Qin Shan’s familial circumstances in adolescence were decent. His father worked in real estate – they could be considered as… a little rich.

When Wen Chen said “a little rich”, he furrowed his eyebrows very seriously, as if he was assessing the standard of being rich.

Wen Chen: After, the Qin father’s business failed, and the company went bankrupt. Qin Shan’s lifestyle also took a nosedive.

Wen Chen: Qin Shan sought work after graduation and joined his ex-wife’s Xu family’s Xingrui Estates company. He acquainted with his ex-wife, and they got married very quickly.

Wen Chen: After, Qin Shan gradually rose to high ranks in Xingrui, relying precisely on his wife’s nepotism.

Lu Jinghe: Like so, he still dared to cheat, hah.

Perhaps Qin Shan’s past marital history wasn’t known at the public level, but it was no secret in the upper-class business circles of Stellis City.

Wen Chen: Yes. To give financing to the real estate company, Qin Shan had ambiguous relations with a female top executive of a financial company.

Wen Chen: It was that female top executive that talked about this matter with Qin Shan’s wife, having Qin Shan’s wife manage him well, and to make sure that he wouldn’t come out to harass anyone else.

Wen Chen: Due to this, Qin Shan’s wife divorced him quickly, and had him leave the marriage with nothing.

Lu Jinghe: No wonder. Heirson’s business could also be considered as large, yet Qin Shan’s never mixed in with the top crowds.

Lu Jinghe: Have you found about the source of funds used by Qin Shan to establish Heirson?

Wen Chen: It involves an overseas investment company. Though I have preliminary results, I still can’t be completely sure.

Wen Chen: I already have people doing detailed investigation. When there is accurate information, I will report to you again.

Lu Jinghe: Mhmm, speed up the work. We must find the clear truth behind that Assistant Hang and the capital backing Heirson.

Wen Chen: Yes, second young master.

--

Wen Chen retreated from the CEO office. Lu Jinghe took out his phone, scrolling through the message and incoming call records, his face completely pitiful.

Lu Jinghe: Why won’t you send even a single message? I really have no news whatsoever on you.

As he spoke, Lu Jinghe looked towards the table, flipping through the desk calendar on the table.

Lu Jinghe: Alright, we did chat in the morning in the group chat, but several hours have already passed.

Lu Jinghe: Getting in touch with you now will probably affect your investigation.

Lu Jinghe: Ugh, then I’ll consider the big picture, and I’ll wait until the weekend when you can relax to ask you out.

--

Mo Yi’s House

Mo Yi, who basically never pulled all-nighters, slept after he returned home, only waking in the afternoon. Seeming somewhat exhausted still, he brewed a cup of hot coffee and took it to the coffee table.

Mo Yi: The experience of pulling all-nighters and working overtime is probably not unfamiliar to you.

He turned on the electronic photo frame. In it, there were photos taken on outings with the girl – there were single-person ones, and ones with two people.

Mo Yi: If it’s possible, I also hope that you won’t have to work this hard.

Mo Yi: When I calculate it, it’s been a very long time since I’ve collaborated side-by-side with you.

Mo Yi: Recently… have I been too passive…

On the flickering screen on the side, a progress bar on the comparison of data was displayed. The day was almost done, yet the progress bar was only at 50%.

Mo Yi: I still have not obtained results, so it seems that I have no suitable reason to look for you.

Mo Yi: Looks like I need to think some more about this. Losing to other people cannot be allowed.

--

Antiques Shop, 3rd Floor

Lying on his arm, Xia Yan reclined on his bed, spinning his phone with his left hand in a state of absolute boredom.

Xia Yan: …

Xia Yan: The people in the identification department are getting worse and worse. They’re just a few note pages, so aren’t they spending way too much time on this?

Suddenly, Xia Yan’s phone vibrated. His hand slipped, and the phone nearly dropped right onto his face.

Xia Yan: Hello, Brother Yang, is something up?

Xia Yan: …

Xia Yan: Why are you the one contacting me? What about the identification department people?

Xia Yan: …

Xia Yan: Okay, I got it. I’ll go and see right now.

After hanging up, Xia Yan jumped up from the bed, opening the computer on the work counter.

In his recent mail inbox, there was a detailed report on Kong Moli’s notebook.

Xia Yan: Heirson Factory Unnatural Staff Deaths name list…?

Xia Yan: …

Xia Yan: Seems like… it probably is related to certain things…

Probably because he had no ideas for now, Xia Yan sighed and closed the computer.

He reclined back on the bed and picked up the phone again.

Xia Yan: Oh well, I’ll rest first and then think. Otherwise, if you find out, you’ll harp on me again.

Xia Yan: What about you, are you doing alright now?

Xia Yan: If you’ve encountered difficulty, don’t force yourself to bear it on your own – you’ve got to tell me.

--

City Police Station

Yan Wei: What? Don’t catch him for now? Why?

When we came out the meeting room, Yan Wei told us that they had already found Fu Qiao. The police were in the middle of secretly tailing Fu Qiao; they did not immediately capture him.

Zuo Ran: Right now, whether it’s for Zhou Nan’s case or Chen Hanzhang’s illegal drug dealing case, we already have lots of witnesses and testimonies. What we lack is objective, physical evidence.

Zuo Ran: If we capture Fu Qiao now, it’s very likely that he’ll say nothing at all, or he’ll say only things that we already know.

Zuo Ran: This will not provide any substantial help in solving this case.

MC: I agree with Lawyer Zuo’s view, because…

There is no point in catching Fu Qiao right now, because…

> It’ll beat the grass, only to scare off the snake > Fu Qiao might be able to find where the blackmail leverage is

MC: Lawyer Zuo and I have inferred that Zhou Nan’s death was used to make Fu Qiao into Chen Hanzhang’s Ghost.

MC: As a Ghost, Fu Qiao must want to destroy the blackmail leverage in Chen Hanzhang’s hands.

MC: Chen Hanzhang is in custody right now. To him, this is a good opportunity.

MC: On the other hand, illegal drugs hold no importance to him. It’s too unrealistic for him to want to take over for Chen Hanzhang’s illegal drug dealings.

MC: But he’s recently gotten into contact with the drugs. This indicates that the place where Chen Hanzhang collected the blackmail leverage is highly likely to be the same as where the drugs are kept.

MC: If we don’t capture Fu Qiao, we might instead be able to follow him to find concrete evidence and catch this criminal gang in one net.

Yan Wei: But how do you two know that Fu Qiao went to search for the blackmail leverage, rather than purely slinking off?

Zuo Ran: That’s why we’re saying for the police to not catch him for now, and to only follow him secretly and observe.

Zuo Ran: If Fu Qiao is only running off to the north area to hide, and he makes no other movements, then you can capture him in one or two days.

Zuo Ran: If Fu Qiao is investigating and searching in the north area, or goes straight for some clear target location, then it’s very likely to be the place where Chen Hanzhang has kept the blackmail leverage on the Ghosts.

Yan Wei: What you’ve said makes sense.

Zuo Ran: Aside from that, if Chen Hanzhang requires custody time to be ended early, or your application for the extension of custody time is not approved, I recommend that you simply let her go.

Zuo Ran: Change it from custody to residential surveillance.

Yan Wei: You want to do the same as with Fu Qiao, by having Chen Hanzhang bring us to the evidence herself?

Zuo Ran: Yes. If you continue to detain her in the police station, she will not provide information anyways.

Zuo Ran: You might as well let her go and see what movements she makes. Give her a stage, and let her finish singing the performance.

Yan Wei: Chen Hanzhang’s alertness level is very high. It’s very possible that after letting her out, she’ll bide her time before the police stop their surveillance.

Zuo Ran: Of course, we can’t passively wait for her to move. We can provoke her.

MC: Lawyer Zuo, what you mean is…

When our eyes met, I immediately understood Zuo Ran’s plan.

MC: We can have Qing Zhian put out news to the people in Wiley Financial and the Ghosts that he knows…

MC: Saying that someone called Fu Qiao knows where the blackmail leverage is.

MC: The boss of the Ghosts might change.

Zuo Ran: That’s right. With Qing Zhian’s experience, even if he has never come into contact with Chen Hanzhang’s core business, he is still someone who has serviced the company for many years. He’ll be credible.

Zuo Ran: As soon as these remarks spread, under the situation of having been detained for so long and having her movements limited, it’s highly likely that Chen Hanzhang won’t be able to sit still.

Yan Wei: You both really are something – this is a good plan.

Yan Wei: I’ll listen to you, and I’ll go make arrangements now.

[akeshuu]

Ikerev HC

Fenrir going to the Land of Reason with MC to meet her friends

Also MC is from our time period, because a) I forgot whether she was from the 18th or 19th century and had no internet to check it and b) I’m a lazy dumbass and couldn’t stay historically accurate regarding scenery, inventions, etc. anyway.

So. EXCITED.

Alice had spent long hours talking about her friends and family back home in the Land of Reason. Fenrir knew that she loved him and her new home in Cradle, but it was also obvious how much she missed some aspects of her old life. Especially her friends.

Alice was happy most of the time, but he had caught glimpses of the shadow in her eyes whenever something reminded her of her old friends, the regret that sometimes found its way into her heart for leaving without a single goodbye.

A few months had passed and those moments had begun occurring more and more

So, of course, Fenrir decided to take matters into his own hands. He spoke with Ray and arranged for them both to be free for the next month.

When he told her that he was sending her to the Land of Reason, at first Alice was confused. Last time he had done that, it was to protect her from danger. But why this time?

“We’re going together,” he assured her. “I know you left without saying goodbye and you miss everyone from your old life. So we’re going to spend a month with your family and friends so you can assure them that you’re doing alright and see them once more. Sounds good?” When Alice just nods, overwhelmed with happiness at the thought, Fenrir smiles and embraces her.

Alice didn’t regret her decision to stay in Cradle, even for a second. But for some reason she had thought that once she had made a choice, it was final. If she decided to live in this magic Wonderland, she had to abandon her home forever.

But there was Fenrir, the love of her life, who had seen right into her heart and found a way to erase her worries and gift her with even more happiness than she thought possible.

Thus they found themselves in the garden at the next full moon, with quite more luggage than necessary. It was mostly Seth’s fault, though. At first MC had taken only a small bag with necessities, since most of her things were still in her old apartment. They only needed to get Fenrir’s stuff. But seeing how little she had planned to take for an entire month, Seth switched to panicked-big-sis mode and packed an entire suitcase in the span of mere minutes. However, he did remind her to get her friends and family gifts from Cradle, so she was grateful.

“Ready?”

“I should be the one asking. Prepared to fall into the rabbit hole into an entirely new world with no magic, where you aren’t allowed to shoot guns?”

“I’m ready for the fight of my life!”

The Land of Reason sure wasn’t as epic as he made it sound, but it was reassurance enough.

Although he hadn’t really expected the fall. Why hadn’t he expected it? Alice warned him beforehand. But boy, that didn’t make sense. She had fallen into Cradle from the sky. So why were they falling out Cradle as well? Shouldn’t they be, I don’t know, flying towards the sky or something?

Magic is weird.

It was late when they found themselves in the park, so they headed towards her old apartment for the night.

On their way, Fenrir was taking everything in and always asking questions. He knew her world was different, but it was another thing to see it for himself. “These weird rectangles all people seem to be holding. Are those the smartphones you mentioned?” “Was this fast thing the car you once told me about? It does indeed seem more comfortable than a carriage.” “Those screens are lighten up and are moving! How the hell does this work without magic crystals?”

“…I don’t actually know. I’ve always been bad at this stuff.” (same, Alice, same. Let me fall into Cradle and forget that science is a thing)

You decide to meet your friends first, because you know it’ll be easier to explain them the whole situation. (and because I only wanna write their meeting with her gang, which was meant to be a shameless self-insert with my friend group, but I got tired writing it)

After they wake up the next day, Alice texts her old friends she hadn’t used a phone in months, what is this? in their group chat, that has hundreds of missed messages, many of which aimed at her or regarding her disappearance. She ignored those for now, still feeling that ping of guilt, and asked to meet them all at their usual spot, which was a little playground with some benches, surrounded by grass. It was where they had played as kids and later on kept as a hangout spot, since barely any people went there anymore. Right after he message was sent, her friends freaked out and texted her back, mostly in all caps, asking where she had been. Alice didn’t respond for less than ten seconds, but her phone was already ringing.

“WHAT HAPPENED, GIRL? WHERE WERE YOU? IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?” It was a bit overwhelming, but it was nice hearing her friend’s voice.

“Hey, Rhia, I promise I’m fine. I’ll explain everything later”.

Fenrir placed a soothing hand on her knee and offered a smile. He knows how much she hates making people worry and could practically feel the anxiety pouring out of her in that moment.

An hour later, they were walking towards the place. They’re still a few minutes early, but MC knew her friends well enough to guess that they’ve all talked to each other previously and decided to go early so they were all together when she arrived. Fenrir held her hand during the whole way and didn’t say a word. She had a lot on her mind and he gives her the space she needs to sort those thought out.

As she thought, the others were already waiting for them when they arrived. Two girls and one boy. Fenrir had heard about them already. They lived in the same neighborhood and had always been together. Many people had joined and left their group, but in the end, they were the four that always stayed, always chose each other before anyone else.

Until Alice had left them to live in Cradle without saying anything. From what he had heart, Fenrir was sure that they would acknowledge her happiness and understand and respect her decision. She didn’t seem that confident, though.

“We thought you had been kidnapped! Murdered even! And now you come with a boy? Did you abandon us for some stupid boyfriend?”, one of the girls, probably Rhia, from what he knew, screamed at her.

“I was actually kidnapped at one point,” argued Alice. Probably not the best way to start the conversation.

All her friends froze, not knowing whether it was one of her usual jokes or something real. Fenrir spoke up, hoping to break at least some of the tension. “Hi, I’m Fenrir. Indeed her boyfriend, but definitely not the one who kidnapped her.” And then softly, only so Alice could hear him “Do you want me to leave you alone for this?” She shook her head and so he stayed.

She started her story. She told them about meeting Blanc and falling down the rabbit hole, discovering that the fantasy land from “Alice in Wonderland” was real, albeit a bit different than the book. She told them how she was stuck there for a month, but then didn’t want to leave when she had to. Told them of the world and the armies and all her adventures there.

“Thanks for listening to everything. I don’t know if you can believe me, but I promise that-“

“Of course we believe you”, the boy, Kian, said. “We made a promise when we were kids, remember? If something supernatural happens to one of us, the others have to hear them out and believe them. Or at least believe that they believe themselves.” The last part wasn’t that reassuring, but the fact that they all remembered that silly children’s promise was all she needed. (here comes the self-insert. It’s a promise I have with my friends, because we’re all obsessed with magic and stuff and honestly, it’s the best thing)

“I do believe you” her other friend said, a girl with green hair. That must be Lena. “And I respect those little mind tricks. Letting us know how much you enjoy the world, adventures and new friends, but skipping out on all details on your boyfriend so we don’t assume you’re just ditching us for some boy”

Fenrir tensed at that. He had never thought about it that way, but her friends hadn’t been there when they had fallen in love. Of course they would assume the worst. He himself wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told him he would find another person to be his partner in crime. There had never been someone equally as important to him as Ray, until he met Alice. She was their Ray, but they had lost her for a while and didn’t know why.

“I know you’re all mad that I disappeared, but I also know that you’re worried because you care. Because of that, I wanted to assure you that I’ve got it all figured out. I’ve got an amazing home, awesome friends, a job that makes me happy and all in a world that feels more like home than anything here ever has. So you don’t need to worry about me. I’m doing it for myself, not for him. However, I do love Fenrir. I’m pretty sure I always will.”

That was enough for them to accept it. They all offered her a smile and Fenrir could almost see the tension falling off her shoulders. Keeping Cradle a secret seemed to be more of a burden to her than even he had noticed. Now, she glowed with newly discovered freedom and Fenrir could feel his heart responding to it with a wave of warmth.

Her friends had accepted Cradle and, seeing the loving looks they gave each other, their relationship as well. However, there was still much they had to know about Fenrir. And so, they took turns asking… Or rather, testing him. Luckily, he was cool with it, amused even and Alice seemed to share his feelings.

“Weapon of choice?” “Guns” *sparkling eyes* “Swords are more badass” *angry mode activated*

“Did you know that Alice loved ghost stories so much, she had a notebook where she wrote down all her favorite ones, but doodled silly ghosties around them, because they were “too scary otherwise?”, this was supposed to be a way to embarrass Alice, but eventually lead to teasing Fenrir. “Well, I might’ve skipped that part for his sake?” “What? Too embarrassed to let him know you’re scared of your own interests?” “More like, I think that even the silly ghost doodles would’ve scared the shit out of him”

“Will you protect Alice at all cost?” “I’ll always be there if she needs me, but honestly, I’m not sure she needs it. She’s so badass, even our king is scared of her at this point” *flashback to that one time Alice took all his books out of his room and used them to close off the entrance to the place where all the cats meet. No one knew how she had managed to bring that a good hundred books into the city without anyone noticing. Whoever had helped her kept silent to this day*

“Do you accept that Alice is allowed to speak and be as friendly as she wishes with whomever she wishes and you, even as her boyfriend, have no say in it?”

Alice responded before Fenrir can: “One, he knows I’m not his property and can have my own friends. Two, I’m pretty much the only girl in the whole Black Army, so if that was an issue, we would’ve had a fight ages ago. And three, even if he gets jealous sometimes, he has no right to control my friendships in anyway without being a hypocrite, because I know he and his best friend were making out in high school.”

“Wait, who told you about that?” *baby was confused, he hadn’t told her yet*

“A girl never tells her secrets” *actually, it was just a pure guess*

Yeah, her friends loved him at the end of the day. There was no need to worry this much.

Now Alice could return to Cradle without all the guilt. And who knows, perhaps they could come visit every now and then.

[moved-attre]

Rewriting Cyberpunk 2077 into a bullet point list! LET’S GO!

(Disclaimer: I’m trying to be realistic. So no, “every single detail of the game changes based upon every single choice V makes” but just things I expected in an RPG from an AAA company in 2020. I take a lot of inspiration from the old trailers, and rumors of pre-2018 development.)

And this is really long, too. Sorry. 😜

Okay, so first off: Act 1 generally goes off the same as it does in canon. I’m open to other ideas, but I don’t think it’s a bad starting point. I do think V and Jackie should have had more time together, doing smaller jobs until Dex calls. Like, there should’ve been side jobs that were only available in Act 1. You have to get a minimum of 5 street cred before you get the conversation with Jackie about Dex.

The heist still goes to shit; Yorinobu kills his father, Takemura rebels against him and Arasaka factions split. V inserts the chip into their head, Jackie still dies and Dex shoots V in the head. Takemura rescues V, kills Dex, V wakes up in Vik’s and is told they have 4 months to live. (2 weeks is not enough!)

On to Act 2! The origins actually affect the game, so there’s three versions of it you can play. (Some things happen regardless of the origin, though.) For example: Corpo V has contacts in the Corpo world and pursues leads about the Relic there through their old friends. Street Kid V has contacts in the gangs, like the Valentinos or Maelstrom, who have dirty dealings with corporations and can get V in on Arasaka knowledge, Nomad V has leads out in the badlands about the corporations and gets in that way, hijacking transports to get some info. All origins can work with the corporations (like Hanako’s branch of Arasaka, Militech, Biotechnia, etc.) or against them. Like, the point is to snoop around the corporations and dig up some dirt on the Relic and Yorinobu’s Arasaka branch specifically but each origin goes about it differently?

Maelstrom vs Meredith Stout choice actually matters. It’s one point in a subplot I mentioned above, where V continually makes choices on whether they’re gonna side with the corporations or the gangs/people of NC against Arasaka in order to be rid of the Relic. Also affects V’s relationship with Johnny. You can also have a real, long term relationship with Meredith if you pick her side and get Militech support, or count on Maelstrom to help you in the main plot against Arasaka. Both sides will still attack V if they poke their nose in, meaning random encounters can still happen.

^ The subplot is like, making a deal with the devils (The corpos) or... other devils (The gangs). One person objectively could say one is better than the other, but they’re both awful. Night City is kind of rotten to the core, and V’s problems can’t be fixed by a pursuit of justice. V can still be a good person in either case, and it’s still kept kind of punk by going against the head honchos. I think this more suits the “Wake the fuck up, Samurai. We have a city to burn.” quote because V is churning up a path to the top, even if their methods are purely selfish. V themselves can be uninterested in righting wrongs, but they kind of turn NC on its head by challenging Arasaka so changes come anyway.

Point, is you fuck everything up either way. THEN, V can choose whether to trust the corporations and work with Hanako to “change the system from within” without disrupting people’s day-to-day lives (short term good choice I suppose?) or to let the gangs rise up and cause total anarchy. (long term good? since the downtrodden are rising up and maybe there shouldn’t be absolute power in the hands of a few.)

T-Bug doesn’t die. V thinks she’s dead, but sometime in Act 2 gets an anonymous call and meets up with T-Bug. She went underground after the botched heist, and isn’t eager to work with V again. Maybe you do a few missions with her, and she comes around? Or you fuck up and never hear from her again. I imagine she’d love to poke around at the Relic, if V helps her.

Giving Jackie’s body to Vik has real consequences. If you give his body to his mother, you attend the ofrenda and get his bike, his mom allows you to use his den as a place to stay... It’s basically the ‘good’ choice, if you care about the characters. If you give his body to Vik, you unlock a side mission where Arasaka steals his body to find the relic. You have to go and find it but it was destroyed(?) at some point by Arasaka. You can get his pistols (Which are, aside from Johnny’s pistol, the best weapons in the game. I don’t get why they aren’t in canon...) in this route and whole lotta angst, so his mom basically hates you because she blames you for not being able to bury her son and the bar is off limits. No getting the bike, either.

More content involving Alt Cunningham. V still witnesses the scene with her and Johnny, her kidnapping and death. But, Ghost AI Alt allows V to look into Alt’s memories for information on Mikoshi. V accidentally accesses some more personal memories. We can see Alt as more of a fleshed out actual person, not just a tragic backstory for Johnny. Some of the memories do involve Johnny, and the tone is very different from her perspective. We see that Alt has genuine affection for him, but Johnny is possessive and abusive... It’s far from the relationship Johnny recalls. Of course, Johnny can see all this too since he lives in V’s head. He and V have a heart to heart afterwards, with Johnny realising how badly he treated Alt and yeah. I wasn’t satisfied with how Alt was just used as a sob story for Johnny, but I was sent an ask by an anonymous person about how the memory was from his perspective and thus biased. It really got me thinking! If I was more creative, I’d come up with a way for Alt to live... But Johnny still needs to bomb Arasaka and Alt’s death was the reason why he did that.

You have to return one of your apartments/safe houses every few days to wash and sleep. If not, V will get a penalty that means they are less accurate when aiming and slower when breaking in a vehicle. Also some NPC’s will refuse to talk to you if you don’t bathe, because... stinky.

And you have to eat! Otherwise you get hungry, and get penalties for that too. Can’t concentrate on an empty stomach. I’d say eating once or twice a day would be enough.

Instead of fast travel points (that are supposed to be taxi services, I think...? But we never see a taxi! And why can’t we just call Del? Ugh.), V takes the metro. There are side missions that can sometimes only start once you get on or off of a train. (You meet NPC’s in the train, or waiting for one.)

Takemura and Johnny are romance options, and are available for all genders. They’re the most difficult to romance, with some (kind of obvious) dialogue choices ending the possibility. Like, for example: Takemura’s romance ends badly if you choose to go against the corporations, and Johnny’s ends badly if you go with the corporations. It’s the same with Meredith, essentially, in that going against her won’t allow you to romance her. I know a rival-mance system is possible, but I think that might be too complicated.

Takemura and V’s relationship is much, much deeper. They have more time together, and grow closer. Takemura trains V in combat, and takes over from Coach Fred in the street fights side missions. You go with Takemura to fights, he’s your coach, is very proud when you win. (He’s basically training V in the event that they have to take on Adam Smasher and Oda. Like, why did we have no training montages with Takemura?!) V is able to choose romance or stay friends with him. There’s plenty more missions with Takemura too, mainly espionage stuff against Yorinobu. Finding out his weaknesses, replacing his staff with people that are loyal to Hanako, digging for dirt on him. Lots of stake outs, hehe. 😉 Romance!™️ Also makes it that much more tragic if V doesn’t choose to trust the corporations, since Takemura will end things and leave NC.

There are garages to upgrade your cars but Panam can upgrade it further if you do her missions + befriend her, and you can find super secret parts for your cars that Panam needs all around NC by stealing them from gangs or Corpos! Like, make your car go 200 mph fast or a setting to make it hover. 😎

FOUND FAMILY TROPE... Involving the LI’s + more characters. I wanted Misty, Vik, Judy, Panam, River and Kerry to all know each other and be friends. Also, somewhere for them to hang out. Judy coming down and hanging out with Misty and Vik would’ve been so cool.

Missions involving Vik. I think he deserved his own personal missions. Also, he’s gotta be romanceable! I’ll add more to this later.

I’m still figuring out how Johnny’s romance would go. It’s a tricky one. Lots of tension, jealously if V flirts with anybody... Heart to hearts... Holding hands... Passive aggressive confessions of love...

River is introduced in the main story. Maybe you team up to hunt down somebody who knows stuff about the Relic, like Anders Hellman, or something else to do with it. River’s like “What the fuck is going on?” but V doesn’t really tell him. Then, of course, you meet him later on and recognise him in the BD given to you by Jefferson.

Meeting Kerry earlier in the story, say mid Act 2? Ideally there would have been 5 Acts, and maybe I’ll edit this to include more once I figure out how the story could have gone. AND he’s part of the main story.

Less generic, “get in, get item and get out” side missions from Fixers and more side missions like the Peralez’s and that guy who got crucified. More freaky Cyberpunk subjects like what constitutes a soul, what is “intelligence” (What makes a machine different than a human? Without shitty false racism analogies), human rights abuses (and in that: classism, racism, ableism, transphobia), pollution, more on “Cyberpsychos” and how harmful that term is, etc. Nauced and thought-provoking. Reminding us that this is a dystopia and the issues are different but not all that wildly so from today. I would’ve developed Brendan’s mission more, because it seemed like we were going to see an earnest discussion on Artificial Intelligence but instead it was just confusing and “Haha, tricked you!” 🥱 Like, what if he really was a person capable of free thought and emotion? And that company still owns him and can overwrite him? Isn’t that fucked up?! It didn’t need a happy ending, just something to unnerve me.

Adding to that, Delamain had plenty of opportunities to discuss AI and the rights of individual contructs. His “children” could be freed, but nothing really happens as a result? I wanted consequences! The emails about human staff being made redundant because of Delamain were so interesting, too. I wanted to see something about the consequences of that in a city with no basic universal income. What happened to them? What can be done to help people who are made redundant by machines? So many possibilities for truly emotional and scary side missions!

I’m gonna watch black mirror for more inspiration, but stuff like the IRL blocking feature? Freaky as hell and totally plausible. Would’ve loved if one of the side missions involved V getting involved in some dispute involving something like that. “I can’t see his face!” or the copyright stuff about people’s appearances! Imagine if there was a Johnny lookalike? Engram Johnny would either find it hilarious or get really pissed off.

I’m hoping the DLC will deliver on more Takemura, so I’ll hold my breath for critiquing the Arasaka ending.

More to come! I’ll probably edit this later, if there’s any mistakes and/or I realise I hate an idea hehe.

[jolgan]

Something Wicked Comes to Stay

Intro/Summary

Prologue

Rating: T

Warnings: teenagers making out, demons, knives, identity crises (plural), existentialism, strong language at times, violence (teenagers attacking each other in a controlled environment, mentions of gang violence, oh yeah, demons), Teen Angst and other dumb teenage bs

Word Count: 1551

Chapter: 2/?

Chapter 1

The integration of Magic School was met with varying degrees of concern and outrage from students and their families. But, even so, the decision was already made, and demons were admitted. Even with extra safety precautions put in place by the Elders, many families pulled their children from the school. Instead, they chose to educate them themselves or to send them to public school. The Halliwell family wanted to do the same, but the oldest students refused. CeCe was the most adamant. She argued that because she attended Magic School for her entire education she would not fit in at a public school. She had never been in a classroom with non-magical students and she was uncomfortable with the idea. Besides, all her friends were at Magic School. Chloe and Adam Halliwell agreed with their cousin and stood with her. Their parents did eventually yield, but the agreement was conditional. The three oldest cousins would be allowed to continue at Magic School, but they had to demonstrate they could use “the power of three.” This was a ridiculous stipulation. It was impossible. They were not the Charmed Ones. They weren’t even siblings. The only hope they had was that each possessed one of Melinda Warren’s powers.

 Specific powers alone were not enough, the cousins soon found out. Over the summer they went through brutal training. They had to learn to fight together, what each of their strengths and weaknesses were and how their powers worked together. They did have a close relationship from being so close in age and growing up together, which helped, but it was still bitter work. Their parents conjured “replica” demons for them to fight. The difficulty of each battle increased. The pressure came to a head when one training exercise ended badly. While fighting a replica brute demon, Chloe was seriously injured. The trauma of seeing his cousin in that state awakened Adam’s healing abilities. He was able to save her without intervention, but that was the final straw for Wyatt, who believed they were pushing their children too hard to achieve something that was impossible. P.J. also had growing concerns with the intensity of the training they were forcing their teenage children through. “My daughter almost died tonight because of your “training” exercises. Your son is probably traumatized from seeing her like that,” She argued to Chris. “My child is my problem. Besides, it would have happened eventually. It’s probably better that it happened now than later,” Chris reasoned. “If this is too much for them, then so is going to a school with evil students,” he finished. Overhearing this exchange, CeCe and Chloe came up with a plan. They were going to prove to their parents that they could manage demons and use their own brand of “the power of three,” they just had to get Adam on board. The girls went up to CeCe’s room to find Adam lying on her bed, his arm over his eyes. “You okay?” Chloe asked him, as she and CeCe sat on the edge of the bed. Adam groaned and his arm slid back to his side. He looked at Chloe. “Are you okay?” he asked seriously. She nodded. “Of course I am. You healed me,” she assured him with a smile. The three teens sat in silence for a few moments before CeCe broke it. “We came up with a plan,” she said, waggling her eyebrows. Adam tensed for a moment and sighed. He never was a fan of their schemes. “What kind of plan?” he asked her reluctantly. “I’m glad you asked,” she giggled, almost evilly. The girls explained their idea to their wide-eyed younger cousin. He stared at them in disbelief. “Wait a minute, let me get this straight,” Adam said. “An hour ago, you almost died fighting a fake brute demon,” he said as he looked at Chloe. “And now, you freaks want to summon a real one to try and vanquish it. Do you have a death wish? Do you need to talk to someone?” he questioned. “Come on, Adam, you can heal now!” Chloe said proudly. “I can’t heal you if I’m dead! I can’t heal you if you’re dead!” he all but screamed. “Okay, okay. Keep it down. We don’t want the parents to hear,” CeCe shushed. “Listen, I am not going to public school next year. I am going back to Magic School even if it means I’m going alone. You don’t have to get involved if you don’t want to. I’ll just do it myself,” she said as she started to get up. Adam caught her wrist. “Wait,” he gave in. “You don’t have to manipulate me. I don’t want to go to a human school either. I’m in.” CeCe’s face brightened. “Yes! You are the best cousin ever!” she exclaimed as she and Chloe both attacked him with a hug. “Yeah, yeah. Get off me. You two owe me for this,” Adam said pointedly. “I’ll give you my notes from Wiccan History and write all your spells for you this year,” CeCe offered. “I’ll help you with potions and tell you if any of your crushes like you back,” Chloe promised. “Deal,” Adam grinned. “Okay, great. Call for the book.” CeCe told him. “What? What if your mom is using it and it just orbs out by itself?” he asked. CeCe rolled her eyes. “She’s out of town, the only other people here are our parents and they are currently arguing downstairs. Get the book,” she pressed. Adam sighed and held out his hands. “Book of Shadows,” he called. The book appeared in his hands with a swirl of white light. “Let’s get to work,” Chloe cheered. With that, their preparations began. They studied the Book of Shadows and found every scrap of information that was available on brute demons. Unfortunately, not much was available that they didn’t already know. They had to write both a summoning and a vanquishing spell, which was more difficult than they thought, especially since they couldn’t really practice them. They could only make sure that they were as specific and accurate as possible, and pray that they worked. The cousins were very thorough. They went over every detail and every possible thing that could go wrong and made back up plans to cover that. If the vanquishing spell didn’t work, they hoped that CeCe’s combustion power would be enough, but during their potions lesson with Grams the next day, they brewed a potion that replicated it just in case. “Hey, Grams?” Adam asked, flipping to the right page in the book. “Would it be possible if we could make this one today?” “Why?” Grams eyed him suspiciously. “I’ve always been jealous of you and CeCe. I want to know what it’s like to blow something up! Besides, you wrote the recipe for it right?” His words were dripping with feigned innocence and flattery. A slow smile spread across Grams’ face. “Yeah, okay,” she agreed, but the suspicion never left her eyes. She wasn’t born yesterday. Adam sent a covert wink to the girls when Grams was distracted. After they brewed and played with the potion, Chloe made sure to stash a few vials in CeCe’s desk drawer. The next part of the plan was to perfect using the crystal cage. This was purely to be sure that they could get the job done before they got attacked and things started going wrong. It would be humiliating if they needed their parents to bail them out. Adam and CeCe both orbed to the attic late at night so he could practice sliding the last crystal perfectly in place. When they felt confident enough, they put their plan into motion. One evening after training, they set up the crystal cage in the conservatory. Chloe called their parents into the room and joined Adam and CeCe, potions already in hand. When their parents arrived the three of them began summoning the brute. When he appeared, Adam slid the last crystal in place using his power. The brute began to fight to escape from his prison. The cousins joined hands and recited the spell they wrote together to vanquish him. The demon burst into flames signifying that their spell had worked. The cousins reacted excitedly, thrilled that they were successful. When they were done celebrating, they looked over to their parents, who were wearing varying expressions of shock and amazement. “Did our fifteen-year-old kids just…” P.J. stammered. “Mine is fourteen,” Chris stated. “Was that a brute?” “I didn’t think there were spells to summon or vanquish brutes,” Wyatt pondered out loud. The older Halliwells were impressed with their children’s performance, but that didn’t save the teens from a lecture about how recklessly they behaved. By the end, they admitted that the cousins had proved themselves and they would be allowed to stay enrolled in Magic School. CeCe, Chloe, and Adam were thrilled. Of the nine magical Halliwell children, three remained at the school and the younger six were pulled out and sent to public school. The oldest three cousins were excited to see what it would be like to go to school with demons. Excited, but also terrified. It was a thrilling mix of emotion. They couldn’t wait for school to be back in session.

**A/N** I wanted this to just be a nice little recap and then to get right into the story, but they had other ideas. I am but a vessel, so who am I to argue? The boys are coming next chapter I promise!

[ramsayboltonsmuse]

Yin & Yang

Part 1: Memories

Pairings: Ledger Joker x Reader

Warnings: Violence, Smut, Angst

Summary: Just a tension/smut/angst ridden piece about J x The reader. J goes looking for the reader after losing her years ago, and surprise surprise there is some smut. This is what I did with my Tuesday night y’all. Hope someone out there enjoys this.

Other Parts: Part 2, Part 3 (preview); Ao3 link

You were having that dream again. The one where you’re 10 years old and it’s almost Christmas. The one where you find your family dead. 

It’s in an estate, a massive manor house you don’t know well, somewhere outside the Gotham city walls. You’re walking down the grand staircase barefoot, the elegant deep teak wood cold to the touch. Your eyes are caught by the two gigantic floor to ceiling windows framing the doorway at the bottom of the steps and the blizzard of white snow falling heavily on the great front lawn. 

But it’s not the snow that grabs your attention, not really. It’s the red that’s interspersed in its banks that grow heavier and heavier by the second. It’s like a painting, like mutilated polka dots, and you can see that the red is spilling out from bodies. From the bodies of the guards on patrol. 

And then it’s the staircase that draws your attention back in. A trickle of something wet in the corner of your eye. A tingle at the back of your neck when you’re suddenly aware of how quiet it is. And all at once you’re aware of what’s on the staircase, your snow-captive eyes having missed it before: dead people. 

Three bodies stretched out along the stairs, reaching, straining desperately toward the next step, their eyes open and in brutal anguish. You recognize one as a maid, another as a butler and the third as your great aunt, hideous, her mouth forming a post-mortem howl of terror. 

And the bodies continue, at the bottom of the steps. An older cousin, another maid, and you cry out as you see your beloved German Shepherd stabbed and lifeless beside the door, a small knife lodged deeply in his side. Adrenaline coursing through you, you run down the rest of the steps and throw your arms over his body, weeping. You lift your head up, tears blurring your vision to see more bodies to the right and left of you. 

You stand up and start running through the rooms, seeing aunts and uncles and cousins and even your grandparents, dead, dead, dead. You start calling out, your voice rasping and hopeless for your parents. You run faster and faster through the rooms past dead scullery maids and cooks and guards and your little cousin Timmy, who you just built a snowman with that afternoon. All of them, dead.

Finally you see them, and you start sobbing as the hope is stamped out of your heart violently. Your father is cradling your mother, as if to shelter her from whatever blows were coming. Their blood is wet and spilling out in a circle around them and as you kneel and crawl over to them, your hands and knees become coated with it. You reach out a hand to touch your mother’s face, a small bloody handprint left on her as you collapse next to them.

You jolt awake in bed, your heart rate racing. It always takes a moment to come out of these nightmares, and you try to steady your breathing, making note of where you are and grounding yourself in reality. It helps that Copper must have heard you call out in your sleep, and he jumps onto the bed and nuzzles you with his wet nose. You take a deep breath and run your fingers through his soft black and gold fur. 

“Hi boy. Don’t worry, I just had a bad dream.” Copper isn’t convinced and curls up close to you, warmth radiating off of him. 

It’s okay. It was just a dream. You say to yourself. You look at the clock on your bedside table. 5:00am. You throw yourself back onto your pillow groaning, debating whether or not to try to fall back asleep, but you think better of it and get up. 

You clap your hands and your bedroom is immediately illuminated in a warm glow. You look around you at the familiar objects, stacks of books and notebooks strew across the room, further reassuring yourself that it was just a dream and you are perfectly safe. Your large bed, overflowing with countless pillows, an unfortunate obsession of yours, is empty of course except for a very comfortable looking German Shepherd snuggling into the covers. 

“Come on Copper.” You say with a gentle smile, and he hops down and trots out after you as you walk down the hall to the kitchen. Your parents had left you the family estate in the country after their tragic passing, but you couldn’t bear to live out alone in the middle of nowhere. Especially considering the last time you had been out in the country. 

You elected to buy a small but elegant apartment in the city, preferring the constant noise and knowledge that you were never alone to the emptiness of the family estate, which was carefully kept in mint condition by a caretaker and his family, though you never went out to visit it. You have no need for large spaces, tending not to have many friends or really let anyone in at all. It’s just Copper and you, and that’s fine.

You scratch him behind his ears before turning the coffee maker on. As you wait for your morning dose of caffeine, you sit at the kitchen island and look out through the massive windows overlooking Gotham, watching countless lights from other apartment buildings wink on one by one. You shiver in the cold, a light snow starting to fall outside. You’re really surprised you had the dream again, you can’t remember the last time you had it. Your thoughts start wandering back to that day.

It was so long ago now, that you imagine the details in it are probably not reality. Goodness knows, you couldn’t describe it to the Gotham City police when they finally showed up nearly a day later, having waited for the heavy blizzard to pass to get out to the house. You’re grateful that part of your memory is missing too, not wanting to remember what it must have been like, alone for a full day in a mansion of dead bodies.

When the police had reached you they asked a million questions, not understanding how you survived the slaughter. At first they assumed you had hidden yourself well, but the one part of that horrific incident you did remember proved otherwise. And it left the cops dumbfounded. You remember being in your room alone, lying on the ground and drawing something with such intense concentration, you nearly didn’t hear the door to your room open. 

All you remembered was that he was tall, and seemed young, couldn’t have been more than five or six years older than you. You couldn’t recall a single physical feature, only that he smelled of something very strong, like some sort of paint and gunpowder. You had slowly gotten to your knees and looked up at him. You remember being fascinated, though you didn’t know about what, and that he had knelt down and roughly grabbed the picture you had been drawing, staring at it intensely. You didn’t remember being afraid, but you could feel the terrible dark depth and breadth of evil wafting off of him. 

Needless to say, that didn’t help the police very much. They started looking for carpenters when you mentioned paint. They had been almost angry with you, the fact that you were the only survivor of a 40 person massacre and had even seen one of the killers (they assumed it must have been a gang to murder that many people) and you couldn’t remember a single useful detail. There had been a kinder, older cop who had hushed them away, yelling at them that you were clearly traumatized. He had given you a blanket, and at least everyone left you alone for a while after that.

Your coffee’s ready. As you pour yourself a cup, you suddenly feel nauseous, without the faintest idea why. It’s like an odd unsettling twisting in your stomach, something like dread. The ominous foreboding seems to spread through you like waves, swirling and crashing inside you until it consumes you entirely. You shiver.

“Okay Copper, now I’m certain I’m going insane. First thing on the to-do list today is find a friend. Any person will do. I need to talk to someone who isn’t a dog.” Copper barks and wags his tail as though in agreement, and you manage a half smile, though the sinking feeling in your gut doesn’t go away. 

So no coffee. Maybe a shower then to cool off. You think, walking to your bathroom. The dream must have gotten me worse than usual. You shake your head, again trying to remind yourself of realities. You’re in your twenties, you have a great job at a top tier financial firm (as a side note your stilettos do sound pretty fucking awesome on the marble floors in the office), you’re a badass independent woman who basically raised herself from age 10, your only friend is a dog… okay stop listing realities. You smirk to yourself as you get in the shower.

Minutes later you’re out and quickly combing through your hair before throwing on a pair of black lace panties and an oversized Black Sabbath tee shirt, because fuck it, it’s Sunday, and you don’t need to impress anyone. The sun is coming through the big glass windows and lighting your apartment up in a warm, early morning glow. You start humming to yourself already feeling better after the shower, when you round the corner into the kitchen and notice the coffee is gone. 

Fuck.

You freeze. There is no doubt in your mind that someone is in your apartment. You curse yourself for ignoring the feeling before. You’re still debating where to run to, when one of the white swivel chairs where you like to read swivels around to face you. 

Who, or what more accurately, that is grinning at you through a malicious smirk that chills you to the bone is someone you’ve seen any number of times on the television.

The Joker is here, in your apartment.

Wearing his quintessential purple trench coat, suit and green vest, his hair a dyed green mess, he is an absolute enigma. His face is covered in white grease paint, making the black cavernous circles around his dark eyes even more terrifying. The color of his eyes are something blacker than black, the color at once pitch darkness and emitting a kaleidoscope of obsidian shadow and variation capable of portraying a vast array of sadistic emotion. 

He’s leaning forward in the chair that’s clearly much too small for his domineering broad-shouldered and tall body. From the look of him seated he must be at least 6’3. He’s holding the coffee cup in one hand haphazardly while the other dons a gun, lax in his hand. His smile is painted a viscerally bloody red, a color you have ingrained in your own memory all too well, and it sweeps up his defined cheekbones along his notorious scars to create a cheshire grin. 

The Joker casually swirls the gun in his hand, a clear warning for you not to do anything stupid, and throws his legs up onto the coffee table in front of him, crossing them comfortably and leaning back in the chair. 

“Nice of you to, uh, pour me a coffee sweetheart-ah.” He enunciates the word and flicks his tongue out over the wishbone scar splitting his lip. “Could have done with some eggs too, but-t we can’t have everything, now can we?” 

Compelled by lord only knows what force, you find your legs suddenly walking towards him. You want to scream at yourself to stop moving, but your feet pad toward the chair opposite of him. He watches you as you move with a near predatory glare that would make any sane person pick up and run the other direction. 

You reach the chair and sit down, crossing your legs. You have no idea where the confidence comes from, but your voice comes out strong.

“What are you doing in my apartment?”

The Joker eyes you with amusement. Uncrossing his legs from the table, he sits forward, resting his forearms on his thighs. You can almost feel the heat radiating off of his body.

“You, uh, invited me.” He looks you dead in your eyes and you feel unexpectedly exposed. You’ve been successful at keeping people at a distance, but the way The Joker is looking into your eyes it’s like he’s reading every tiny emotion, fear, and desire, some you may not even know yourself. 

You feel vulnerable, and you blink away, unable to hold the eye contact. You try to shake off the way he seemed to peel back your protective layers and look into what was underneath it all. 

“I most certainly did not.” 

You think you see a different emotion cross over his face, something like anger, but more sensitive, almost like heartbreak, but it moves so quickly that you don’t have a chance to catch what it is. The Joker takes a large swallow of the coffee before throwing the ceramic mug onto the ground, breaking it instantly and causing you to jump from the sudden noise. 

“Don’t argue with me doll.” His voice is cold and dangerous, and looking at the gun swinging lazily from his hand, you’re reminded of the reality of your current predicament. 

You steady yourself from his sudden outburst, taking a small breath, and it dawns on you that you haven’t heard Copper all this time. Your words come out biting and vicious, surprising even yourself. 

“What have you done with my dog?” You nearly snarl at him. 

The Joker raises an eyebrow and smirks at you, doing nothing to calm the fears that start swirling inside of you, flashes of your lost childhood pet invading your mind.

“Oh, you’re a feisty little thing aren’t ya, bunny.” You bristle as he uses the pet name. “I was hoping you, uh, wouldn’t disappoint-ah.”

“Where’s my dog?” You say again, adamant. “What have you done with my dog!” Your voice raises, bordering on a yell, and the barrel of the gun is against your forehead faster than you can blink. 

“Okay, sweetheart-ah, let’s get some things straight-ah. You’re not-t in control here, so let’s get that into your little head nice and clear.” He drawls the last couple of words out in a voice that is deeply dark and makes you think of the big bad wolf, a shiver moving down your spine. 

“You get to keep being alive by the sheer grace of, well, me. So you’d better start speaking with some respect-ah. And I mean let’s really use your manners, doll, let’s remember to say ‘yes sir’ and ‘please sir’ and ‘thank you sir’.” The Joker is smiling wickedly at you, his purple gloved hand pressing the barrel of the gun into your skull.

Your lips curl into a defiant scowl, your eyes glaring at him.

“No.” 

The blow across your face shocks you, knocking you out of your chair and onto the floor and leaving your head ringing. Without a moment to recover, he’s on top of you, the force of his powerful build crushing you as his free hand encircles your neck, squeezing. 

“Bad girl.” He tsks. “And after I’ve been so patient with you.” You start gasping for air, your hands reaching up to wrap around his forearm, trying in vain to pull him off of you. He’s so close now that you feel scorched by the heat radiating off of him, his muscles flexing as he all too easily overpowers you. 

Your senses are invaded by the smell of him, like...paint...and...gunpowder. Your hands release his forearm and you stop struggling, memories flooding back like a sink that has been sealed shut for years suddenly turned onto full intensity. The images come flashing back so erratically and powerfully, you can’t even process them.

The manor house your family had rented out for the holidays, large enough to host your entire family, staff and guards for a whole week. How you had staked out in your bedroom when none of your cousins wanted to play with you, not after you had suggested they make anatomically correct snowmen, and they wouldn’t stop calling you ‘weird girl’. 

That’s where he had found you, in your bedroom, with a rather unnatural assortment of items around you. Several barbie dolls you had stolen from a younger cousin were stripped naked and tied up in intricate knots hanging from furniture, while others were simply cut up into pieces and scattered around the room. 

There was a large history book on medieval torture open to your right and A Clockwork Orange to your left. And there you were, wearing a pretty blue and white flowered dress, tucking a strand of your long hair behind your ear and drawing a picture of a mass murder with colored pencils. 

The Joker releases the hold on your neck as he watches the series of memories flash across your eyes, his gaze trained on you intensely. He stands up and watches you as you slowly pull yourself to a seated position, the gaps in your memories filling in all at once. It’s all clear then. 

A young Joker standing in your doorway, face painted and smelling like greasepaint and gunpowder, smiling wickedly and brandishing a blood soaked knife as he kicked open the door. 

Your eyes narrow and you throw yourself onto your feet, running at him full force as you feel the weight of realization that your family’s murderer is standing in front of you. You don’t know what you expected to do when you reached him, your hands balling into fists, but The Joker easily catches your wrists with a pressure you can't break, backing you up against the glass windows. 

“Memories coming back doll?” His voice is gravely and dominant, but there’s a softer edge buried somewhere deeper in it. Your eyes fill with tears and your voice comes out in choked sobs.

“You killed my family!” 

His voice is hard as steel when he answers you, leaning closer into you. “Yes.” 

“Why!” You don’t know what to think, the memories and emotions overloading you to the point where nothing makes sense anymore. 

The Joker smiles at you, and you’re reminded that the person in front of you is a psychopath, incapable of empathy, who kills people just because he wants to. 

“Why? Why!” The Joker lets out a hyena cackling laugh, throwing his head back before wrapping his hand around your neck, his thumb pressing into your jaw. “The same reason anyone does anything sweetheart. I did it for fun-ah.”

“You’re sick.” You blurt out, your tears drying up and replacing with anger.

“Well if I’m sick,” The Joker raises his eyebrows at you knowingly, “then you’re, uh, sick too.” He laughs loudly and maniacally, causing you to jump. “Why so serious-ah?” He says brandishing the word. “It’s much too heavy in this room, doll. Whadya say we have a laugh-ah?”

You look at him disgustingly, and you’re made aware of a knife pressing gently into your side, sliding up over your t-shirt until it reaches your mouth, the steel cold against your lips, pressing lightly. 

“What is there to laugh about?” You breathe out, heart rate increasing at the knife that could so easily cut into you. 

“Well, uh” The Joker leans into your neck and you feel goosebumps break out over your skin. His lips ghost your neck, and you’re aghast that you feel a little ball of warmth move through you as the corded knots of his scars tickle your neck. “I think it’s funny, bunny, that you despise me at the same time you desperately need me.”

“What are you talking about?” You struggle against him, but the hand around your neck only presses harder while his other moves to grab your hip bone hard enough to leave a bruise, caging you in place against the windowed wall. 

Fear courses through you as you glance sideways through the glass and remember just how high above the city you are. If he pushed hard enough, he could easily break the window and send you falling to your death.

“Oh, please, babygirl. I knew it the second I saw you. You’re just a little masochist, ain’t-cha?” 

You thrash your body against him, but the more he asserts his power over you, the more you can’t help the tingling feeling spreading through you. You should feel disgusted, sickened, that the man who killed your entire family is touching you this way. 

But you don’t. The horrid truth is, he’s right. You want him to take you. You need it. All at once, you stop struggling against him, defeated. 

He releases you and pats your cheek none too gently. 

“That’s my good girl.” 

The Joker walks behind the counter and picks something up, carrying over the large bundle and depositing it on one of the chairs. You realize it’s Copper and run over to him, crouching down and running your hands through his fur until you feel a heartbeat. 

“He’s alive.” You breathe out a sigh of relief. 

“Just knocked out dollface.” 

You stand and walk toward The Joker, needing to ask him the question that’s been on your mind for years now. 

“Why didn’t you kill me that day?” 

The Joker grins and saunters over to you, absently tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear when he reaches you.

“Because-ah,” He grabs your arms, pressing into your skin roughly with a force that’s sure to leave bruises. “You’re special. And you’re mine.” The word is definitive, unquestionable, and you’re left wondering if you’re the only one of The Joker’s victims he’s let live. 

“It took me a long time to find you. But now that I have, bunny, you won’t be going anywhere.” 

Your face softens at that, and you realize it’s because no one has ever looked at you the way he is looking at you now. Like they see you. Not even your parents, who you are remembering more and more clearly as cold and almost fearful of you, desperate for you to ‘just be normal’. 

No one has looked at you the way he is now, and you find yourself wanting to be closer to him, nevermind all the warning bells going off in your head that this is likely the most stupid idea you’ve ever had, that this is The Joker. 

But you can’t help it, you’re smiling up at him, letting all the overthinking go and basking in this momentary truth that someone wants the actual you. He’s staring into your eyes with a delightful possessiveness as he pulls you to him and plants a row of kisses and bites on your neck, exposed for him in a little show of submission, causing him to growl hungrily against you. 

“And dollface,” he whispers in your ear, “You can call me J.”

Your body jolts as he lands a much harsher bite closer to your collarbone, causing you to emit a sound somewhere between a gasp and a mewl. 

“J?” 

He hums against your skin, sending warm vibrations through you.

“What are you going to call me?”

You feel him break into a smile against your skin, drawing away from his attack on your neck to stare at you, his jet black eyes a myriad of sadistic carnal desires. 

You feel the warmth spread through your core as he devours you with his gaze alone. His answer is simple.

“Mine.”

---

Next Part: Part 2

Tag List (if you want to be added just let me know!): @anyatheladyclown​

[aaronsmithtumbler]

Completed Chapter 14 Rewrite

I was awake and something was horribly wrong.

I was in a jail cell, but that wasn't what was horribly wrong. That was just a sort of encrustation of legible wrongness on top of a deeper wrongness still unplumbed, like a tiny black spot that reveals a man dying of melanoma. The wrongness was deeper and more spiritual. It surrounded and confounded me.

Hasidic legend describes a time Rabbis Zusya and Elimelech were thrown in jail. There was a disgusting bucket full of waste, and the whole cell stank. Rabbi Elimelech started crying. Rabbi Zusya asked what was wrong. Rabbi Elimelech explained that Jewish law prohibits prayer in a disgusting place, and so he could not follow the commandment to pray every morning. Rabbi Zusya pointed out that he was still following the commandment not to pray in a disgusting place, so overall he was coming out even in number-of-commandments-followed. In fact he was getting to follow a new commandment he had never followed before, and surely this brought him even closer to God. Rabbi Elimelech was delighted, and began singing and dancing in joy. Rabbi Zusya joined in, and soon all the prisoners were singing and dancing. The warden came and asked what was going on, and the inmates weren't totally sure except that the rabbis seemed very happy about the bucket of disgusting waste. The spiteful warden said that fine, then they couldn't have the wastebucket, and took it away.

"There!" Zusya told Elimelech. "Now you can pray!"

There was something terribly wrong, worse than the stench the rabbis dealt with. I didn't feel like it was inappropriate to pray; I felt like prayer <i>wouldn't work</i>, like God was somehow very far away and beyond my reach and neither praying or not-praying would bring me closer to Him. I felt hopeless, not because I was without hope, but because something was actively pumping hopelessness into me.

I was dressed in my normal clothes, but I was wearing a ball gag. A reasonable precaution; otherwise I would have spoken the Vanishing Name and been out of there. I lay on a bare cot. My cell had no bars. It had a door, locked, with a small window in it. I went to the window, looked out, saw a hallway. Turned the knob, not expecting anything, didn't get anything, lay back down.

[Ana, are you there? Where are you?]

There was nothing. Either Ana was far away, or distracted, or asleep, or – I couldn’t make myself think “dead”. I would have felt it if she died. That, I told myself, is definitely how kabbalistic marriages work.

So I knocked on the door to my cell. A few seconds later, the doorknob turned and an armed guard looked me over.

"Mr. Smith-Teller," said one of them. I winced internally. I mean, I suppose if they didn’t know my name now it wouldn’t have taken them too much longer to find it out, but it still hurt. Kabbalists are notoriously fussy about who knows their true name, it's a sort of placebomantic disadvantage, a vague way of letting someone else have power over you. "We're sorry about the gag, but we're sure you understand."

I made some hand motions. I was trying to convey something like "WHY IS EVERYTHING HORRIBLY WRONG?", but I was used to dealing with Ana, where I have telepathy to help me. In this case, I had nothing but context. Luckily, it seemed like context was enough.

"Director Bentham wants to speak to you," he finally said. "His presence...makes people uncomfortable."

Even if you're nowhere near him? Uncomfortable like you're surrounded by an impenetrable field of hopelessness? The moment this gag was off, I was going to have so many questions.

The guard cuffed me and escorted me down the corridor. I didn't know where I was, but it seemed big. Hard to hide. I knew UNSONG arrested people, I knew that they put you in prison for a long time if you used Names without a license, but I’d always heard they used the normal federal prisons. The idea of a secret UNSONG black site somewhere sounded like it was out of Valerie’s paranoid anti-government screeds. If no one had ever revealed the existence of this place before, that meant either that they were very good with the Amnestic Name, or else no one had ever gotten out of here before. I tried to remember exactly how effective the Amnestic Name was and ironically came up blank. And what about the Confounding Name? I couldn’t remember.

The facility wasn’t small, either. We walked through poorly-lit corridor after poorly-lit corridor. I tried to look for other prisoners, references to the location, even doors with signs on them, but all I spotted were a couple of locked rooms with the UNSONG seal on the front. An aleph superimposed on the United Nations globe, and around it, the name “United Nations Subcommittee On Names of God” and the motto “I TEGO ARCANA DEI”. Begone, I hide the secrets of God. There were deep kabbalistic depths in that phrase, but I didn’t have the energy to think about them, because something was horribly wrong.

We came to a room. A conference room, it looked like. The guard motioned me to sit down, then cuffed me to the chair. The sense that something was horribly wrong got stronger. The guard could feel it too. I could tell. The dissonance reached a crescendo, like some sort of reverse symphony.

The door swung open.

How can I describe Asher Bentham?

He was both very beautiful and very ugly. Every detail of his face was perfectly sculpted and the gestalt still looked hideous. His voice had a bizarre effect like a thirty-foot-tall ogre trying to speak reassuringly without realizing that this conflicted with his choice to be a thirty-foot-tall ogre. I am a master of several languages, renowned for my skill with words. The only one I can cough up to accurately describe Asher Bentham is "bad". The most reassuring thought I could muster was that my hands were cuffed to the chair so there was no way for him to offer me a handshake and I wasn't going to have to touch him.

When the President, Secretary-General, and Comet King had come together to found UNSONG, leadership of the fledgling bureaucracy had gone to a elderly Brazilian politician with a hands-off approach. He’d gone after the biggest gangs and most blatant serial abusers of Names, talking about “decapitation strikes” against networks of large-scale pirates. The policy was very popular – everyone agreed that having the Mafia in on the Name business was a bad idea – and very worthless, because most unauthorized Name use was by ordinary non-Mafia people who talked to each other online.

He had died in 2002; Bentham had succeeded him. After the fall of the Presidency, Bentham had somehow manipulated the warring states' committments to abide by UNSONG regulations into a de facto replacement of the executive branch of the Untied States. A thousand conspiracy theories about the United Nations taking over the US had been suddenly vindicated.

Since the sky cracked, we have lived in a world of inhuman powers. The Lady of Los Angeles is a Watcher. The Comet King was the Messiah. The Other King is a necromancer. Various angels and demons have intruded into our history, left their mark, and returned beyond the veil. Now I had learned that the arch-manipulative head of UNSONG was something other than human. I was less surprised by the revelation than dumbfounded at the sheer magnitude of the non-humanity confronting me.

"Mr. Smith-Teller," he said. Fuck people knowing my true name, fuck it so much. Any hope that they were just annoyed at Valerie’s secret meetings was gone. This was the Director-General. The head of UNSONG. If he was involved, they thought this was the most important thing happening in the world at this moment. Which of course it was. They knew all about the Vital Name and everything it could do, and it had gone straight to the top. Okay. So I was really, really doomed.

“I’m sorry you’re in this situation.” He really did sound sorry. I changed my assessment of Bentham from "trying to intimidate me" to "trying as hard as he could not to intimidate me, and it just wasn't enough", and shuddered. “I understand you are associated with Singer groups who have a dim view of UNSONG. You’re probably laboring under the misapprehension that I am here to hurt you. As difficult as this may be to believe, we’re on the same side. I’m going to take your gag out. If you start speaking a Name, I’m afraid we’ll have you unconscious before you finish the second syllable, and the gag will go back in. I’m sure you can imagine the reasons we have these precautions. Nod if you understand.”

I nodded.

His face, I decided, was actually quite beautiful, except for the eyes. The eyes looked like they came from one of those weird nightjar birds whose eyes are in the wrong place and don’t even look real.

"As you can tell," he said, "we're taking this situation very seriously. The Keller-Stern Act of 1988 states that anyone who discovers a Divine Name of potential military value is legally obligated to report it to UNSONG in exchange for fair monetary compensation. Most people aren’t aware of the Act, and we have no interest in punishing them for refusing to follow a law they never heard of. But now you know. So, Mr. Smith-Teller, and please tell me the truth, do you know any Names that might be covered under the law?"

Jewish law permits lying for the greater good. According to the Talmud, even Heaven is not always truthful. Rabbi Gamliel kept his classes small. Later Rabbi Elazar took over the academy and expanded classes; hundreds of new students flooded in. Rabbi Gamliel felt guilty that he had kept out so many bright scholars, but God sent him a vision of beautiful barrels full of ashes, indicating that the new students were no good anyway. The Talmud explains that the new students were actually fine; God was just trying to cheer up Rabbi Gamliel. I had no moral qualms about lying to Asher Bentham. I just wasn't sure it was possible.

“No,” I said. “I don’t know any such Name.”

And it was the honest truth. Because I had forgotten the Name. Because I was a moron. I could have told him more, but he terrified me, and the truth – that I’d known the Vital Name and forgotten it – would be neither believable nor welcome. And part of me was desperately hoping that if I said nothing, he would go away, the wrongness would end, and I would just be in a perfectly normal government black site and everything would be fine.

“Did you speak a Name that allowed you to find the location of the Moon?”

“I did,” I said.

“How did you learn that Name?”

Every fiber of my body tensed at her oppressive closeness. It was a fair question. I had no way out this time. Either tell her what had happened, or lie like a rug and see exactly what those nightjar eyes could do.

I ran through a host of scenarios. I tell the Director-General that I knew the Name and forgot it. He doesn’t believe me and tries to torture it out of me. He doesn’t believe me and tries to torture the Name out of Ana. He does believe me and tries to dissect my brain to get it. He goes to an error correction specialist, fixes the Name, and takes over the world, and I’m still alive to see it.

I am not a hero. I’ve been in one fight, but only because I was drunk, and I ended up with two black eyes. The only thing I’ve ever been good at is studying things and comparing them and trying to understand them.

But the sages of old weren’t typical heroes either, and they were constantly breaking out of prison by one miracle or another. Rabbi Meir convinced a Roman prison guard to free his friend by reassuring him that if anyone tried to punish his disobedience, he could say “God of Meir, help me!” and God would keep him from harm; when his commander tried to hang him for his role in the escape, the guard cried “God of Meir, help me!”, the rope broke, and he managed to run away to safety. When a whole Roman legion arrived to arrest the great translator Onkelos, he preached to them in Latin about the symbolism of the mezuzah, and the whole legion converted to Judaism on the spot. And when the Romans arrested Rabbi Eleazar ben Perata on five charges, God helped him craft a plausible alibi for each; when the plausible alibis didn’t work, the prophet Elijah appeared at the end of the trial, lifted up the prosecutor, and threw him out of the courtroom so hard that he landed five hundred miles away. I think I mentioned that the Talmud is kind of crazy.

So miraculously breaking out of prison is the sort of thing kabbalists are expected to be able to do, and I daydream a lot, and a long time ago I had come up with a fantasy about the sort of thing I would do if I were ever trapped in a prison, and this was by far the stupidest thing I had ever done, but something was terribly wrong and I needed to get out of here.

"I was on drugs and I had a prophetic vision," I said.

Ever since the sky cracked, drugs had gotten really weird. The ones whose names were also Hebrew words were the weirdest. MDA and its cousin MDMA gave mystical knowledge, probably because mem-dalet-ayin was madda, "knowledge", (see 2 Chronicles 1:10). The effects of LSD were more blatantly divine, since lamed-shin-dalet was leshadi, "strength" (see Psalms 32:4), and the pronounced consonants in El Shaddai ("God Almighty") to boot. The ones without three letter names were less predictable, with peyote being a demonic conduit and the rest having variable effects. I decided to go with LSD as the most likely source of divine revelation.

"Drugs always attracted me," I said. I thought for a second, and continued. "So I got some LSD from a friend and tried it out. That was a bad idea, I admit."

I suspected Asher knew I was lying. I was banking on him waiting to see exactly what lie I was going to tell, hoping that I would slip up somewhere in my story. If he would just let me keep going for twenty-seven more sentences, I was in the clear.

"Zelda was the name of the friend who sold it to me," I said, awkwardly, because I couldn't think of any other way to start a sentence with Z. "My hope was we would do it together, but she bailed out at the last second."

That was DST and ZM. Twenty-five consonants to go. I was afraid, which was good, because it let me pretend that my fear was making it hard to talk, whereas in fact I was working out how to start my sentences with the right letter.

"Regular LSD is supposed to just give you a taste of divinity. She gave me something else, I'm not sure. She didn't tell me, but it must be true. No way to know now."

DASAT-ZAM-RUSH-SHAN.

"So I had taken the drug, when I started feeling weird. Very weird. Regular LSD doesn't do that. LSD is supposed to be gentle. Some kind of angelic entity was standing in front of me. Questionably angelic. Not human. Deep-voiced. Like you would expect an angel to be."

Asher Bentham must have thought I was the least fluent, worst storyteller in the country. I couldn't read his face at all. Was he confused? Was he suspicious. No time to think about that. I'd gotten DASAT-ZAM-RUSH-SHAN-SEVER-LAS-KYON-DAL. Next letter was aleph.

"All of the things you hear about angels, the beautiful wings and the golden eyes. They don't prepare you. Not a bit. To see something like that. Right away I knew it had a message for me. You couldn't imagine what it was like."

DASAT-ZAM-RUSH-SHAN-SEVER-LAS-KYON-DAL-ATHEN-TRY. All I needed was KOPHU-LI-MAR-TAG. How was I going to bring a K in?

"Kind of quietly, it spoke to me. Phenomenal voice. 'Listen', it told me. Revealed secret names. To grant me power over the heavens and earth."

Bentham was getting impatient. "What names?" he asked. "The one you used to find the moon?"

I didn't know how to answer, but it didn't matter. He thought I had been telling him a story, but I hadn't been. I'd been forging a notarikon. The same way the kabbalists had expanded AGLA into "atah gibor le'olam A-----". Any notarikon for a divine Name is itself equivalent to that Name. A sentence-by-sentence notarikon was completely valid. There was even one in Proverbs 31:10-31, for the Hebrew alphabet as a whole. But nobody had taken the obvious next step and used it to speak a Name covertly. Well, I was going to do it. I only had one letter left: a gimel.

I realized that God had delivered Asher into my hands. The rest had been my artifice; this part was pure divine inspiration.

"Goodbye, Asher Bentham," I said, and finished the notarikon.

Don’t use the Vanishing Name, I had said during choir practice, unless you are in a situation where it is absolutely vital to your well-being and continued survival that you be accosted by a different band of hooligans than the ones who are currently accosting you. Right now, being accosted by a different band of hooligans was my heart’s fondest and most desperate desire.

As Director-General Asher Bentham strained to make sense of my poorly-narrated story, I disappeared from right in front of his face.

[ebachan]

Sonic Movie - FAN sequel

I had this idea for a sequel before this rumor appeared. It sure has its flaws, but I'll try to provide a full-movie story in enough detail to have a picture of what the story-line could be about.

I’m sorry for any mistakes, as this is just a quick draft and idea :-) Tell me what do you think about this :-) Does this sound like a good “draft“ plot?

Tags: @movie-robotnik-positivity​ @movie-sonic-positivity​ @aawesomepenguin​ @welcome-to-green-hills​ (sorry for the tags, but you are like the biggest Sonic movie fans I know out there :-D )

If you like this, please reblog ;-) And sorry, it’s reaaaaly long ^_^;

I’m using the pictures from the first Trailer to not have this as a block of text ;-)

Sonic games: Sonic 2 + Sonic CD

Returning cast: Dr. Robotnik, Annie, Tom, Sonic New cast: Tails, Amy, Metal Sonic Place: Sonic's world (mostly)

Plot: Sonic is in his world after about half of the year after Dr. Robotnik's defeat who went missing. Now, Sonic has more friends - Tails and Amy - and finds a way back to Earth. There, he invites Tom and Annie (I wasn't counting with Jojo here as she wasn't introduced at the time I had this idea) to his world for a picnic or party.

(Also, no Agent Stone - as I can't find a place in this story for him ^_^;)

Tom and Sonic chat with Tails while Annie and Amy are together, and Amy naturally asks how to win Sonic's heart. Annie is amused by this idea and is happy to provide tips and stories on how she had met Tom.

As the party goes on, Dr. Robotnik appears in Eggmobile-like craft and captures the girls. Sonic is surprised but also excited, as he can take on Dr. Robotnik once more. Tom isn't for obvious reasons. Dr. Robotnik gloats as usual, and Sonic gives him his nickname Eggman or talks about his new mustache-cut to Robotnik's annoyance and nicknaming Sonic pin cushion or needle mouse or rodent (to name a few easter eggs).

When Sonic attacks Eggman, he is deflected by equally fast blue bur which turns out into Metal Sonic. With a new threat and enemy, Sonic is unable to keep up with somebody with equal speed and fast reflexes. Sonic ends up hurt, and Robotnik takes both girls away (they are squirming, and Annie is trying to escape with Amy being more of damsel-in-distress for the time being).

Tom helps Sonic and finds out Tails was hiding in a bush. The kid is scared-cat after all at this point. Sonic wants to go after them, but Tom stops him, insisting he will go too. They only need to figure out how to tail them.

At this moment Tails mentions Tornado, his makeshift plane he was developing. They head to his house, and Sonic is hyper over the plane. together they set forward.

New place: A Robotnik's hideout resembling Chemical Plant zone

Meanwhile, Eggman/Robotnik imprisons the girls and gloats about his plan and Metal Sonic. Metal is in this movie "mute" and follows the order to the last bite (that can perhaps turn to a bit of comedic moment). Annie tries to get more info from Robotnik with moderate success, as he loves to gloat.

Robotnik explains, he had discovered great energy sources in this world and is using them to power his new robot army (I imagine the wide-smiling orange robots from Sonic Colors or Heroes for example) with some resembling Badniks. His ultimate goal is to conquer this world, then move to Earth and then the whole universe.

New place: Tail's house

There, Tails shows them his plane, and together they embark on finding Amy and Annie. Sonic stands on the plane as seen in Games. Tails uses his yellow-console to find some traces left by Metal Sonic, and they follow the robot to different zones (inspiration from CD perhaps). When flying above one, they are attacked by the new robots.

Sonic rushes to beat them, realizing inside are animals, and so he has to change his approach. At the same time, Tails in the air loses control over his plane, as he is hit and goes for an ugly crash landing. Sonic can't save them, and when the plane explodes, Sonic is devastated that he had lost his friends. But a few seconds later he hears Tom and Tails from above, and to his surprise, he sees Tails flying.

Tails then explains, he was always bullied for his two tails and was shy to tell Sonic, the first person to be nice to him, that he can fly as not to be seen as a freak. But for Sonic, this ability is way past cool, and Tom can only agree. The travel further, finding a signal coming from an old temple (Sonic 4 perhaps).

Here, Toms helps them to navigate as he had seen many Indiana Jones movies and knows how to these places works... by setting one or two traps along the way. But in the end, they encounter some robots, free the animals, and make their way toward the center. Inside is Metal, collecting data for Dr. Robotnik (we can see statues resembling Echidnas and the mosaic showing Chaos - as a tease for the next movie).

Sonic engages in the battle, frustrated he had lost the first time. He takes this fight more seriously, and it can be seen on him not having any smart-jokes or puns.

Back to Dr. Robotnik

Annie tries to figure out how to escape, but Amy is more in the corner, questioning her attempt. Annie has no intention to wait for boys to save her, as she is no princess from the tower. Dr. Robotnik is getting ready in unleashing his robotic army with a nice countdown of a few hours.

I'm not sure how would they escape in this point (outsmarting a robot-guard, perhaps Agent Stone - But I haven't had any role for him in here), but after they escape their prison, Annie and Amy are attacked by robots. Annie tells Amy to run away, while she beats the robots with a pipe without much of an effect. Amy stays, watching, and her fists curl.

When it seems Annie is getting seriously hurt, Amy jumps in the actions and with Piko hammer defeats all of them. Annie asks, why Amy didn't use her hammer before. Amy confesses she was made fun by other girls for being a tomboy and not enough lady-like, so she swore to herself she would never use her Piko hammer again.

Annie, says, "I'm sure Sonic would prefer a girl that can keep up with him by his side." This one sentence opens Amy's eyes and pushes her on the way to be herself. Armed and with more hope, they embark on the robot-crushing quest.

Dr. Robotnik isn't happy, but he still does nothing to stop them as everything still goes according to the plan. And he is having his latte time.

Meanwhile Sonic in the temple is losing to Metal, as he lets his frustration control him. Tails and Tom meanwhile figure out how to use the traps to their advantage, messing with Metal Sonic's attack patterns. In the end, Metal buries Sonic under rubble and escapes with all the data he had needed, sure Sonic is dead this time. Metal still needed to record a few places at this point.

However, that isn't the truth. Sonic is bruised, but much alive. During the evening, they patch themselves, and Sonic keeps to himself. Tom goes to him and asks what is troubling him. Sonic isn't happy to say a word, but do it after a bit. Sonic is losing confidence in his speed and is unsure what to do. Tom encourages him to do what he does always - don't give up, keep moving.

Here can resonate words from LongClaw (Sonic's Owl guardian/parental figure) which renews Sonic's passion and will. Right now, they have to hurry, as Tails picked up many signals from Chemical Plant Zone where Eggman resides.

Back to Eggman

As Amy and Annie are getting out, Metal Sonic appears but ignores them as he calculated they are no thread. His orders also didn't include keeping them in prison. With the data, Eggman/Robotnik now can start his Master Plan with the robots being just a distraction to his real plan.

Sonic uses his rings to transport them to zone (as Tails could give him accurate coordinate). There he goes after the robots with Tails and Tom right behind. However, the duo soon finds a suitable weapon - a big mecha-suit (Advanced style) Tails drives and Tom shoots from the lasers. Together, they soon beat the outside army.

While inside, Tails and Tom remain behind to stall the next robot wave, while Sonic goes to find Amy and Annie. We stay with Tails who is showing panic in his face as his brain is telling him in what danger he is. Their mecha-suit gets damaged, and they fell out with robots closing in.

Tom encourages Tails to not give up, to go for what he believes in. Tails' memories flash in the fox's mind, being reminded he was always a big coward and bookworm with little physical endurance. The fox runs away, hiding behind heaps of trash while Tom tries to fight off the robots.

Tails is shivering and flashes of his encounter with Sonic reminds him how happy he was to get the first friend. And they actually explored quite a bit before Tom and Annie arrived. With the crisis getting out of hand, Tails see a computer panel behind himself and hacks it, sending the robots shut-down-command, freeing the animals.

With this, he saves Tom and saves Sonic the trouble of busting the robots to free the animals. Dr. Robotnik notices this and sends Metal to deal with Sonic. Metal is now more aggressive and attacks more often. His calculation told him twice Sonic was dead, yet he stood in front of him. For pure 0-1 logic-brain that was unacceptable, and it had to be fixed - permanently.

While Sonic and Metal fights, Tom and Tails find Annie and Amy. Together they operate an aircraft (it would be cool if it was a blimp-like one) to follow Dr. Robotnik. Sonic boards too, kicking Metal with a big spin-dash leaving the robot crackling.

They catch up to Dr. Robonik above a big lake where appears Little Planet - a place with Time Stones. Dr. Robotnik's ultimate plan is to conquer the Time-and-Space including capturing Baby Sonic to power his machines and rewriting the history to his liking.

The gang faces flying drones, getting closer to Dr. Robotnik who landed on the Little Planet. When they catch up, Dr. Robotnik is about to take the first Time Stone and Metal returns for the last showdown. Sonic can't fight Metal and go after Dr. Robotnik at once, but with a quick-thinking and team-work, they damage Metal.

Time stones are placed on small pedestals around the planet in a special array, that allows it to "travel" outside of the time for a whole year before it appears for a few hours. Now, the gang has only about an hour to leave the planet or stay there trapped (the place has a different time-flow as well and nobody knows how it works - so one year outside can be 50 on the planet).

Dr. Robotnik possesses three stones now and is powering his main machine (Eggmobile-like) with it. The laser blasts now "evaporate" in the air to appear somewhere else a bit later or even before they were shot. Amy, navigates Sonic, as she has a sharp intuition (game inspiration) and so, Sonic avoids many hits.

The rest of the group tries to figure out how to get those stones off the Eggmobile and hinder Dr. Robotnik in going for the next stone. With Dr. Robotnik abusing the power of Stone, the Little Planet exhibits places morphing to its past or possible future self, with ice and lava spurting out of green land. The landscape turns into chaos, and Metal faces his ultimate defeat (Perhaps OAV styled, but that would be sooo sad!).

With the main robot gone, Sonic hits the Eggmobile and gets the stones out. Dr. Robotnik falls into one of the time portals, disappearing. The Little Planet is collapsing and returning back to its own flow of time. To prevent the worst, Sonic heads to place the Time Stones back to their place, hoping to restore the balance.

While the rest waits outside of the Little Planet that is fading away, Sonic is there placing the stones. He sees the rest of Metal's head (alternate ending a bit later), and he heads outside just in the nick of the time. The Little Planet is gone for another year.

With Dr. Robotnik again defeated, they return to their picnic, and Amy shows off her hammer and is more accepted by Sonic. Tails had found courage inside of him and promise to not let fear control him.  

After credits, Dr. Robotnik travels through the time witnessing the destruction of the Angel Island by the hand of Chaos and hears the prophecy. He puts one and one together and with the pictures from Metal, he formulates his new plan, while still floating in the stream of time.

Alternate ending: Sonic takes Metal's head with him and Tails turns Metal into a small hedgehog robot similar to Bits in shape and behavior from Sonic Universe - Silver Age.

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

This was so loooong. Sorry about that. I don't think this works well for the movie format, and there may be a problem with pacing as I think there is a little space for character development, but I always thought the next movie could be based on Sonic 2 and CD, saving Knuckles for the next one (Sonic 3 & Knuckles + Adventure 1). Yes, there are some logical problems as well, but I think most of it works well :-)

[porkchop-ao3]

A Thrill I’ve Never Known (Chapter 46)

Treasure

Reader receives a gift that gives her a reason to smile, and then she smiles a whole lot more.

(All chapters tagged with #ATINK and also posted on Ao3, username PorkChop)

-

Days went by, nondescript and immeasurable, practically the same routine everyday. I woke up, I did chores, I went to bed, and repeated it all the next day. The sense of hope that I'd kept at heart in the days following the discovery of that newspaper article was dwindling steadily, and every day felt longer and longer, harder and harder, till I was just going through the motions until I could go to sleep again. 

People noticed. Charles first, of course, he'd been keeping a keen eye on me the whole time, checking in on me each day to ask how I was. He was soft and careful with me, speaking to me in a tone that reminded me of how one would talk to a spooked horse. I appreciated his kindness, but it didn't matter how many times he asked me if I was okay, I'd always just say yes. I wasn't, obviously, we both knew that. But mine was the sort of sadness that nothing could cure, but perhaps time. Even that seemed impossible, for the more time that passed, the smaller the flame of hope grew, and the more I came to believe that my Arthur was gone. It was a scenario I didn't want to accept. 

Sadie approached me one afternoon an indiscernible number of days since Abigail and I's trip to Saint Denis. I hadn't left camp since, excluding the ride I'd taken that evening. 

"Hey there. I heard you was a good con-woman. You wanna come out with me, see if we can rustle something up?" She asked. I lifted my head from the arrow I was working on – Charles had taught me how to improve them to make them stronger and more accurate – to look at her in bewilderment that she'd want me to do something with her, the miserable mare I was.

"Right now?"

"Sure, nothing too fancy. Just something to put a little extra money in our pockets," she said, offering me a kind smile. 

My lips parted and I was hesitant to answer. In truth, Christ no, I did not want to go conning right then. It was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. It took enough energy just to pretend to be not on the verge of crying constantly, I didn't think I had it in me to paint another layer onto the facade for the sake of a con. But how on Earth could I say no when the gang was in such a dire situation?

Thankfully, she saw my hesitation for what it was, and her face fell just a little. She sat down on the crate next to me, leaned forwards with her elbows on her knees and stared at her hands. 

"I know what you're going through," she said quietly. "I ain't making you work, I just thought you might wanna do something more interesting than chores, try and get your mind off it. For me, that's all I wanted at the start." 

"That's a kind sentiment, Sadie," I whispered, smiling, "but I'm okay here, jus' doing this," I waved the completed arrow at her then placed it with the bundle by my feet. 

"Okay then, if you're sure," she said, then after a moment, moved to leave. I stopped her with a hand on her arm. 

"I'm so sorry about your husband. I know that was real raw when I first showed up, I never said nothing about it. I hope you don't think of me as rude for not giving you my condolences," I told her abruptly.

"I don't. You didn't know me at all, and no offense, I barely even realised you were new for a start. First couple weeks were a blur, I don't remember much. I was too torn apart," she admitted, and I nodded sympathetically. "Keeping busy helps, I know. But you gotta be careful not to just shut everything out and rely on monotony to get you through the day, you lose a lot of time that way. You wake up one day and realise how long it's been and–" she stopped abruptly, sighed and shook her head.

I felt awful for Sadie. She was a married woman, I didn't know for how long but she was married. I knew how painful it was no longer having Arthur by my side and he and I's relationship was relatively young. I couldn't even claim to know exactly how Sadie must've felt losing her husband. 

"I always liked Arthur," she began on a different note, lifting her head, "he's one of the good ones, ain't he?"

I nodded my head. 

"You keep hold of him, if he makes it back here," she advised, patting the back of my hand where it rested on my knee. I met her eyes. 

"I fully intend to. I don't know how I'd– it's hard because I don't know whether I should be grieving or not," I said, and her brow creased in sympathy. 

"Yeah, it's an odd situation. But some hope's better than none, ain't it?" She offered and I nodded slowly. 

"I suppose it is. Every time I see something move over there–" I jerked my head towards the entrance to Lakay– "my heart goes mad and I'm searching for him." 

Sadie looked at me, her eyes full of pity throughout the lull in conversation. She pressed her lips together, then sighed and looked down. 

"After my Jakey died, Abigail was a good friend to me. She'd sit with me and let me cry and whine and feel sorry for myself and she did it all with compassion. I know you and I ain't particularly close, but I want you to know, I wouldn't mind paying Abigail's favour forward. I'm here for you if you need a shoulder to cry on. Someone who knows your pain," she told me. 

She was speaking as if Arthur was definitely dead and while her kindness was appreciated, I hated what it meant. She didn't think he was coming back. She pitied me, saw herself in me, in what I was going through. I was far from ready to start accepting the very real possibility that Arthur was dead, and when a reasonable response to her offer failed to materialise in my brain, I just stared at her. I stared with parted lips and tears welling in my eyes and anger building that I did not want to direct at her. So I got up, and walked away as quickly as I could. 

I shut myself away in the building with the painted wall, my usual spot, and threw myself down on the bed that resided there. The sheets were musty and unclean, I had no clue how long they'd been there or who had slept in them last, but I couldn't care less. I curled up on my side and squeezed my eyes shut. 

Arthur wasn't dead. If he was I'd have a gut feeling, wouldn't I? I'd somehow know. It had been weeks since the night of the robbery, but it would take weeks for him to get back to America after leaving on a boat. There was still a feasible chance that he was heading home, or he could be back already, and just looking for us. Or maybe he and the others were just giving it some time, letting the heat die down before attempting to come back to us. There were plenty of alternative reasons for his absence and the likelihood of it being because he was dead was probably the smallest. Arthur's strong. He's clever.  

I squeezed my eyes ever tighter, and the next thing I knew, I was being roused by a hand on my shoulder.

I woke with a start, my eyes flashing open to find Miss Grimshaw looming over me, her expression unreadable. My heart dropped and I shot upright.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep– I know it looks that way, I'm laying in a bed, but I– I was–" I stammered, giving up on excuses and sighing. She sat down on the bed next to me, her expression shifting into a small smile. 

"It's okay, darlin'. I ain't here to tell you off," she reassured me, squeezing my shoulder once. I shifted, crossing my legs and watching her with intrigue. "Sadie told me that you barged in here earlier on, she was worried she'd upset you."

I shook my head and closed my eyes in frustration at myself. "No, she was being kind. I just ain't myself right now."

"I figured. That's why I wanted to talk to you. And give you something," she said, looking down into her hand. She was holding something I couldn't see. "Things are tough on everybody right now, but I know you must feel especially worried."

"I don't wanna claim that I'm worse off than everyone else just 'cause–"

"It ain't a competition," she cut me off, "that ain't my point, just let me speak. Your relationship with Arthur is different, more intimate, you're bound to have more intense feelings about his absence, I'm not looking for a debate about that." 

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling like a scolded child. 

"I wanted to do somethin' nice. Or at least something I think is nice, you might hate me for it, I don't know," she shrugged, she had an air of stoicism about her, but I could see that she cared. I frowned in confusion. 

"What is it?"

"I have this necklace," she began, unfurling her hand to reveal a silver necklace with an oval shaped pendant engraved with the image of a heron. It was very pretty. "It's a locket," she added, then handed it to me. 

I draped the chain over my fingers and perched the pendant in my palm, lifting it for a closer inspection. There was a lot of detail in the engraving, I could even make out the suggestion of feathers. 

"I dug around in all our old things. We've got a box of photographs we've kept for years, I had a look and found one small enough to cut up and go in there. I never wear that locket, so you can have it. It was a gift from a lover from years ago," she chuckled playfully at that. 

I pressed my nail to the groove down the edge of the locket and popped it open, carefully parting it to reveal the photo inside. My eyes were blurry in a second. Of course, it was a photograph of Arthur; it looked quite old, he was a little younger, probably in his late twenties, but he was equally as handsome as the Arthur I knew. I blinked and felt tears roll down my cheeks and wordlessly threw myself forwards, wrapping my arm around Susan and burying my face in her shoulder. She made a surprised sound, but hugged me back after a moment. 

"Alright, that's a good response," she chuckled.

"Why on Earth would I hate you for this?"

"I figured it might hurt you, seeing him when he ain't here," she explained. 

"The only pictures I have of him are my silly drawings, I will treasure this," I told her, pulling back to look once again at the locket. I held it close to my face, relishing the opportunity to refresh the image of him in my mind, to remind myself of his lovely eyes, the cute dimple on the end of his nose, the shape of his lips…

"There's that smile we've all missed," she said, nudging me. 

"Thank you so much," I whispered, pressing a kiss to the locket before carefully closing it. 

"Would you like me to help you put it on?"

"Yes please." 

I handed her the necklace and twisted around. Susan draped the thing around my neck, and I peered down at where it laid against my sternum. She fiddled with a clasp for a moment before letting it go once it was secured around my neck. 

"So, there you go, any time you miss him you'll be able to see his face," she smiled at me and I returned it, holding the locket within my palm. "Now that you're smilin' again, are you gonna come help with dinner?" She queried with a stern tone, though it was coloured with playfulness too. I smirked and nodded, rising to my feet and following her back outside.

Every night since then I fell asleep with the locket laying open in my palm. It dulled the empty feeling in my chest made by his absence enough to give me some peace. Though I still of course longed to have him back by my side, Miss Grimshaw's gift certainly helped ease my upset. I went hunting again with Charles, and he noted that I seemed to be doing a bit better, either that or I was getting better at putting on a facade. I wasn't entirely sure which was true, sure, the locket gave me something to hold at night but it wasn't flesh and blood, it wasn't my Arthur. I just told Charles that the people at camp treating me with kindness was probably helping. And it was. 

I'd grown closer to the likes of Charles, Abigail and Sadie, who each seemed to have some sort of perceived duty of care to me. I felt as if I was tucked carefully under each of their wings, and they all took the time to check on me if I'd spent too much time on my own. It made sense. We all had something in common. For Charles, it was that we were missing Arthur, both of us were particularly close to him in our own ways. Abigail, she was missing her man too, though she knew exactly where he was. She rarely outright admitted it of course, continuously mentioning Jack, who – bless him – didn't even fully seem to know what was going on. And Sadie kept looking at me with a certain softness in her eyes and I knew she still saw me as analogous to her when Jake passed, and she felt a sort of responsibility to offer me support.

We gravitated towards each other, I seemed to always have one of them nearby. I appreciated it. I felt less alone while my most treasured person was missing, and it allowed me to feel more like a part of the gang again. I realised that despite my intentions not to, I had aligned myself with Arthur while he was there, sticking to him so closely and allowing my bonds with the rest of the gang to sink into the background. When he first disappeared, I felt like an impostor, similar to when I first joined. I often wondered if that was how Molly had felt too, though she had opted to leave rather than staying. In my case, my strengthened relationship with the others helped me to once again feel at home, though it was an incomplete home. 

After a couple more days passed, I found myself feeling a little numb. It was neither positive or negative. I guessed that my emotions had been so unsteady for so long that they'd stopped knowing what to do and had given up altogether. I took it while I could, grateful for the reprieve. 

I found myself stood cleaning dishes with Abigail one evening, it had been pouring rain all day and we were standing outside underneath the shelter of the lean-to attached to one of the shacks. I lost myself in the constant hiss of the water hitting the ground as I scrubbed the plate in my hand dry. Abigail had been upset that morning, having found out that John had officially been moved to Sisika. I'd done my best to comfort her as she had done with me over Arthur, but she had been quiet and withdrawn for the remainder of the day. I stuck by her side, helping entertain Jack when it was clear that she was too distracted to give him her full attention. He was asleep now, though, curled up inside with Tilly and Mary-Beth.  

I couldn't hear much over the sound of the rain, so when Abigail spoke I was sure I'd missed half of her sentence, because all I heard was: "Arthur?" 

I glanced up at her, she was standing on the other side of the table, looking over my shoulder. 

"What about him?" I asked. Then felt a hot jolt of adrenaline surge through me when I heard wet footsteps and noticed Abigail's eyes following something behind me, I could only take a split second to pray that the conclusion I had drawn was true, then I cranked my neck around so fast it'd hurt in the morning.

There he was. In the same white shirt and dress trousers he'd left Shady Belle in, a few weeks worth of beard grown in, rosy, sunburnt cheeks and a build-up of grime covering every visible inch of his body. My Arthur. 

My knees felt as though they would buckle beneath me and my hand moved to the table behind me, gripping tight. 

"You're alive!" Abigail cheered, a joyous laugh rippling through her words as she rounded the table and jogged over to him. Arthur's eyes never left mine as she gave him a brief hug.

"Hey ladies," he said, his tone friendly but he sounded tired and strange, a little like he was forcing it. My brain had disengaged and I hadn't yet reacted to his return, I was well aware of that, but could do no more than stare at him. 

"Come on, get out of the rain," Abigail said, tugging him by the elbow until he was underneath the shelter, standing a mere few inches away from me, gaze still fixed on my face, his eyes trying to read mine. "I gotta tell the others!" Abigail added, then she was rushing into the house, calling out. 

In the moments we had alone, Arthur reached for me, and I met his hands with mine, entwining our fingers. His shoulders dropped and the creases between his brows softened, then he leaned forward, his forehead kissing mine. 

"My Angel–"

"I thought that you–" we both began, then laughed breathily. That was as far as we got. 

"Hey, Arthur!" Uncle cheered, stepping outside, joined by everyone else inside who seemed equally pleased to see Arthur. I stepped back, turning to face them. Everyone crowded around, clapping him on the back, guiding him inside, I watched as he was whisked away from me, surrounded by his family. 

I followed the crowd inside, watching everyone hug him, silently resenting the fact that I hadn't had the chance to do the same. 

"Where on Earth have you been?" Uncle questioned as a chair was pulled out and Arthur was pushed down into it, a cup of water thrust into his hand. Arthur's eyes scanned the room until he found me. 

"Some island somewhere. Uh, Guarma, I think it was. Washed up there when our ship went down," he explained. 

"So that was your boat we read about in the papers," Lenny pointed out. Arthur downed the water and handed the cup off to an outstretched hand. He was then plied with a bowl of stew. I leaned up against the doorway and felt an easy smile cross my lips at the sight of him. Alive. Right there in front of me. 

"I guess," Arthur mused. 

"We all thought you were gone for good, laying at the bottom of the ocean," Uncle admitted and everyone looked at him with a warning in their eyes. "What? Ain't my problem none of y'all would admit it."

"Well, we nearly was. We all made it, though. The others'll make their way back over the next few days, we thought it best to go one at a time, draw less attention. I volunteered to leave first, I had to–" Arthur explained, his eyes settling on me again. 

"Dutch is still alive?" Someone asked, and Arthur nodded with a mouthful of food, a look coming to his eye that I couldn't place. It wasn't a positive look, that was all.

"And Javier. And Bill," he murmured, then with a tone that nobody had to question, "and Micah."

"We buried Hosea. We got his body back and gave him a nice send off," Abigail told him. Arthur looked at her, slowed his chewing, and nodded in silent appreciation. His demeanor shifted further at the mention of his name, and my heart hurt to look at him that way. 

"The horses all came back, Kieran's been doing a fine job of taking care of 'em," Mary-Beth announced when the silence became uncomfortable. Kieran squirmed under the attention but Arthur nodded at him once. 

"Thanks, Kieran," he murmured. 

"Just doing what I do," Kieran breathed, a lopsided smile on his face. 

"How 'bout I get some water warmed up for you? You really do look like you've been washed up on an island," Miss Grimshaw chuckled, then headed outside. 

"Thank you," Arthur called after her. After a few moments people seemed to realise that staring at him while he was eating wasn't exactly making Arthur feel comfortable, so everyone moved to give him some space and murmurs of conversation filled the room. Charles came up behind him, patting him on the shoulder and bending down to speak to him.

"Good to have you back," I just about made out over the noise in the room. Then Charles' eyes peeled up to me, an expectant look in them. He smirked and pulled a chair up next to Arthur, knocking his knuckles against the back of it.

"He's all yours," he told me. 

[wezzaner]

Evie’s and Doug’s relationship develops the best, Pt. 3.1: Descendants Timeline

Yes, there’s going to be another part to this. Even if you aren’t an Evie/Doug person, just give this a read. It’s more of a timeline analysis, actually.

This has taken me a lot longer than parts 1 and 2 did for a lot of reasons. The most important one was that I was very conflicted about what to write. And my conflict had absolutely nothing to do with the Evie/Doug relationship at all.

 My conflict was strictly about how the writers did all the characters dirty with the canon timeline. All of them, I am making no exceptions. I am very confident in my interpretation of the Evie/Doug relationship that I actually have two different analysis depending on which timeline I chose to work with, but I am not choosing the canon timeline.

Why I chose not to work with the canon timeline:

Simply put, I am not about to do those characters a disservice.

If a year and a half have actually passed between D2 and D3, then I will lose all the admiration, respect, love and appreciation I have for Evie, Uma, Ben and maybe Mal. And I am not okay with that. And they don’t just screw over those four, it’s almost everyone. “They’re just characters”, yeah, I know that. But I grew up with them. And that’s not okay with me, screwing them up doesn’t sit well with me.

And the canon timeline is messed up anyway, I think.

Here’s the supposed canon timeline of the movies:

Over two years have passed since the VKs were brought from the isle.

The VKs supposedly being brought at the beginning of an academic year, around September.

Six months between D1 and D2 that would mean D2 took place between mid-February and late-May (second semester of an academic year, I am playing loose with the six months not being exact).

For D3 to take place a year and a half later, it would be mid-July to late-August. (Audrey is in the middle of summer school, again I am playing loose with the uttered timing being exact).

The problem is, someone posted about Jay being 17 and Carlos being 14 in the first book, and another pointed out yet somehow in D3 Jay is 18 and Carlos is only a year younger at 17. If someone could clarify that to me, I would be grateful.

The second discrepancy is Audrey’s royal return. Audrey says, “It has been a bit of a tough year.” Then proceeds to recap the entirety of the first two movies. Now, we know that Cotillion takes place six months after the coronation (televised report thing in the beginning of D2), that means Ben’s proclamation was passed SEVEN months before the events of D2 (which takes place over, like, three days). That actually leaves only five months between the events of D2 and D3 (again, playing loose with the ONE YEAR thing).

I am sorry, I just can’t get behind the canon timeline suggesting that:

Evie, heart of gold, compassionate, striving for goodness and equal opportunities Evie, put Dizzy and the other VKs on the back burner for a year and a half. I mean, Dizzy was sent an invitation straight away after cotillion, it probably took a few days. That’s not the Evie that was revealed after a strong character arc in D1 or the one developed in D2. I refuse to take that, I am sorry.

Uma, fiercely determined, a leader in her own rights, a rebel seeking retribution and a fair good life, just swam for a year and half around the barrier and in her time outs, discovered coconuts? What the actual hell? Uma is proactive, she won’t just hangout, staking the premises for a year and a half. She has her magic now, she would have done something, anything. But not make her presence and whereabouts known for 18 months? No, no way.

Mal left her arch enemy roaming. If there’s one thing Uma and Mal have in common, it is that they are both proactive. Mal won’t be sitting still, watching around for Uma. Mal would have scoured the freaking lands, seas and where ever else.

Finally, King Care Bear. Ben is the only AK who has been to the isle aside from guards and Lonnie. He saw, he knew, and he promised. He extended Uma the olive branch, he admitted he got sucked into his duties of being king and that the plan was always to start with four kids and expand the program. And he just abandoned ship for a year and a half? Going with the canon timeline destroys Ben’s… everything.

I am not okay with how this went. Not at all. It’s pissing me off and that’s why I refuse to take the canon timeline and just run with it.

Which is why, I have worked on putting together my own timeline, and I even put together a few points that prove it. This is gonna be all over the place, I hope you can follow.

Let’s establish the timeline, shall we?

Like I said before, I was going nuts trying to fit the timeline to the supposed narrative. I was almost loosing it when I found the clip (well, the poorly disguised recap really) that is Audrey’s royal return.

 It made me pull my hair out, really.

Now, assuming that:

The academic year starts in early September and ends in early June (maybe late May),

Ben brings the VKs at the beginning of the school year (which is a perfect time, actually), then D1 takes place throughout September and early October and D2 occurs around early April. That gives space for Audrey to have a leave off her second semester and all, instead of just dropping out mid semester. (re-check the second discrepancy in the canon timeline for further detailing).

Now assuming that Audrey was accurate when she said, ‘a year ago’, that would place D3 around September, which I highly doubt because D3 takes place in summer. So, let’s assume she wasn’t accurate and that D3 takes place, say, mid- July.

That would make sense regarding:

The Dizzy situation. Maybe three months is how long it took for the arrangements of establishing the VKs integration program and all.  

It would also explain how Uma spent only three months circling the isle because, as I said before, my girl Uma is a proactive, crafty little shit who wouldn’t just passively swim around for a year and a half waiting for shit to happen.

Also, Mal tells Ben they’re getting more guards for the Uma problem (scene right before the proposal), I don’t think they’d wait all this time to get more guards where the King resides, really.

Granted, that wouldn’t explain how much the isle changed and how everyone wants in on the move to Auradon and how all the parents are suddenly nice, good people looking out for their kids. But come on, D3 was a giant, unexplainable plot hole anyway. (I got issues with almost every minute in the movie, but I appreciate it for what it is. But come on, there should have been a screening process for people getting off the isle. Wasn’t that the point of the applications?)

This timeline though means that we’re in deep shit regarding how old everyone is:

Ben turns sixteen in D1 on coronation day and he’s still sixteen ya’ll, it hasn’t been a full year yet.

Jay is graduating, so Jay is eighteen.

I know Carlos and Jane are supposed to be younger, so I assume it is Jane’s sweet sixteen celebrated in D3.

I have no idea what’s up with Evie’s and Mal’s ages, though. But taking into consideration the birthday incident from the book, I suppose they are the same age? They’re either Ben’s age or they are seventeen. I keep going back and forth and that’s the only thing I can come up with.

From the whole sandbox/Shrimpy backstory Gil tells in D2, I can only assume Uma is the same age. No idea about Harry and Gil though, but I am assuming Uma’s age for them, give or take one year at most.

King Care Bear IS too young to be proposing. Ben’s and Mal’s relationship moved way too fast for a couple of sixteen-year olds. At least from my POV, you’re free to think what you want.

The entire franchise is just one major plot hole. That I love so much.

Please, please, please, take the time to let me know If I missed anything. This has been bothering me since I first saw the movie. Maybe I overlooked something or another. Either way, let me know what you think.

Relationships I’d consider canon-confirmed:

Only FOUR romantic relationships became canon in the actual Descendants timeline. Ben and Mal, obviously. Evie and Doug. Chad and Audrey (broken in somewhere between October and April). Carlos and Jane (Got together in April).

I am adding Jay/Gil in D3, we all saw that, right?

Harry/Uma post D3. Because you know it and I know it. And we all talk about how it will happen. Because it will happen.

The only couples who are confirmed true loves are Mal/Ben and Evie/Doug.

Harry/Uma will be confirmed post D3. Evie and/or Audrey will match make. Uma, tired of his flirtatious behavior, will seek Mal’s help to put Harry under a spell so she could save him with a true love’s kiss and assures Mal it will work. But she will get cold feet and Evie will get her sweet, sweet revenge.

He will be saved, of course.

Extra point I’d like to highlight:

Mal states in D1 that there’s no dating on the isle, that it’s mostly gang activity. That statement alone just explains all the relationship dynamics in the franchise involving any VK, but everyone is overlooking it.

It explains (somewhat, but not really) why Mal was hesitant about being in love in D2, thus doubting the concept of love, letting the pressure get to her and running off to the isle.

 That explains Jay’s playboy attitude, as well, if you think about it. Which is close to Evie’s flirtatious personality pre-Doug. That explains Carlos’s hesitance to ask Jane out, he hadn’t done this before and he’s only fifteen.

 That explains why Uma and Harry aren’t “together-together” even though they are together. Like I said above, Uma and Harry should be considered future-canon because “Uma knew, try as she might, she couldn’t hurt his feelings. It was all part of the game of question-and-rejection they’d played forever.” I haven’t read the books but thanks to tumblr, I know this exists.

Like for the core four, the isle wasn’t a safe environment for a relationship. It even explains why she would be reluctant to get with him and it develops Harry’s own flirtatious behavior. Like Jay! And, again, Evie pre-Doug.

You’re welcome, Huma people!

Now that the (well, MY) timeline is out of the way, I can go back to topic. I don’t know about what you think, but this timeline and the whole “gang activity” ordeal adds to Evie’s and Doug’s motive to take things slow.

Next part will all be about Evie’s and Doug’s relationship. I have a lot to say about that one.

[nvzblgrrl]

On the subject of old fics 2

The Artist Merle was my first OC focused fic (roughly from June 7 of 2012, though I apparently had started with her concept two years before that), which, besides coming out a few months after my muse for A Gentleman’s Tale sputtered out, was also Brook focused. This time because I was desirous of wish fulfillment, specifically in the area of OCxCanon.

Basically, it was my first (at least, first shared) Mary Sue fic, though ‘Mary Sue’ is a broken and for the better part of useless term, and god, this fic did not play well to the stereotype of ‘solved all the problems ever’.

Also the main character was just mostly sad. Sadder now that I’m an adult and am separated enough from the story to look at it and go ‘it takes a pretty sorry situation to make someone’s deepest and most selfish wish take the form of ‘I’d like someone to love me and treat me kindly without some form of secondary motive’’.

This fic - I don’t have the original copy anymore, unless a phantom copy happens to exist on the hard drive of one of my older junked computers - just a few sampler snippets I happened to post to my tumblr years ago and my own memory of what the general outline and series of events were... though that’s honestly enough with how short it was.

The main character was, of course, Merle; who, unlike the current design of Meryl, her updated self, had grey hair and ‘pansy’ colored eyes.

No, I don’t know what 18-year old me meant by ‘pansy’, unless there was some interesting heterochromia going on or they meant the pantone color (which is a bit more purple than the color I ended up using, so...).

That’s about the only notable difference between the two. They have roughly the same personality, powers, backstory (well, Meryl’s is better expanded), and appearance outside of those details (though Meryl has benefited from my improved skills and floofier hair).

The basic set up was that there was a largely abandoned island somewhere between Thriller Bark and Sabaody that was home to one living person, who was either able to interact with spirits or so desperately lonely that she was hallucinating the presence of a dead family member. Either prospect could have been likely with the ambience of the place (she lived in a somewhat creepy haunted mansion type place) or with her obvious isolation issues (which mirrored those I had at the time and pretty much set up half the ‘plot’).

Merle primarily had two subjects for her art work - birds and people. Usually people from Wanted Posters. The first, she decorated her home with, possibly to levels that bordered on the flat out weird (which the rewrite has been poking me to turn into Psycho or The Birds reference). The second... well, she’d bring to life to give her company, somehow being able to grant the copy free will, emotions, memories, independent consciousness, and the ability to get sick (this will be relevant) in the process.

No, 18-year old me never explained how that was supposed to work, but there was an implication in one of the surviving snippets that the last time she tried the last thing, something went terribly wrong down the way and not in a ‘oh it didn’t work’ fizzle out sort of way, because it’s noted in Merle’s internal monologue that she messed up severely with her last one, possibly by not treating her ‘Storm King’ with sufficient respect and then there being dire consequences for that.

18 year old me probably meant that to mean that the ‘Storm King’ died, but now me is like ‘oh, now that’s a villain origin story right there’.

Now, during the course of the story, she does this with a recreation of Brook, who then proceeds to have issues with a scattered/split consciousness (implied to have something to do with Ryuma/having his shadow separated, which was an odd touch that did serve to give the fic something of a timeline with regards to what happened in canon, but I’m not sure I can credit 18 year old me with thinking that far ahead) and a generic sickness that rendered the copy bedridden and insensate.

If I was writing this story again as a straight rewrite now, I would probably try to tie in Merle’s ghost-sense with her ability to bring her art to life - at least with regards to her recreations of people that are able to act without her input. It would explain why she used old Bounty pictures for reference (though her exact application of common sense in having reference pictures of dead criminals around is still suspect, regardless of one’s opinion on the competence and rightfulness of various charges the Government comes up with) because at least with those she could have a reasonable expectation of getting an independent being - all she’d have to do is give them a usable body to pilot. And then Brook’s weird between state of being would account for why the Brook copy has so many problems with memory, personality, and health.

We then get to go through the motions of hurt/comfort there, a situation that eventually reverses to the Brook copy having to take care of an insensate Merle, right as the Thousand Sunny pulls up to the island and our favorite band of weirdos asks the all important question of ‘what the hell are we doing at Spooky Island Part 2′ before Luffy tries to go exploring.

That’s... pretty close to where the story tapped out, I think. There was a bit of tension as the gang found the mansion and started trying to explore vs. Copy-Brook trying to juggle ‘avoid strangers’ with ‘take care of sick person’ and there was a bit of fluffy pseudo-romance as seen by someone who’d never been witness to an actual healthy romantic relationship faffing about, but that’s about the size of the whole thing.

The parts of this that I was able to see directly were from the same year as a Gentleman’s Tale, but I remember it (or at least parts of the concept) being older and a few mentions of it confirm those memories as being accurate.

The whole thing didn’t age that well, between the prose style and the way the relationships were framed, but I’m not surprised seeing as I had to do a lot of learning and emotional development after I got out of my dad’s house, which was long after I’d put this fic to bed for the last time.

The fact that the ‘wish fulfillment’ took the form that it did just makes me feel sympathetic to the person I was at the time of reading it, because I know that at the time, I didn’t cognitively recognize myself as being that alone and depressed. It helps me be more sympathetic to both the characters (both in and out of context of the rewrite) and myself, which I think most people will agree isn’t the easiest thing to do when you’re dealing with the memory of yourself at a time in your life that you associate with a lot of cringe-y actions.