#i also love how one of the very first things fd did was make sure we know this guy is pretty as hell. thanks king

[karamazovanon]

rip rodya you would've loved american psycho

[crazylittlejester]

(I apologize in advance because this'll be a long one for I have so much to say)

Malon proposed to Time and it was the cutest thing ever and it made Time so red he thought he caught a fever.

Warriors may look thin, but that man could easily carry both Time and Twilight (with their armor on) without breaking a sweat. My man swings a huge ball and chain around that could easily be a few hundred pounds, he's shredded beneath those clothes.

Twilight has both the triforce of courage and power, and often uses the blessing from the triforce of power more often.

Hyruke has all three segments of the triforce. He uses the blessing from the triforce of wisdom the most.

Wild does not have a triforce price, neither does Flora, as in their era the triforce has been hidden away in the sacred realm.

All the Zeldas are taller than their Link. Even if by an inch, they are taller (With the biggest height difference being between Time and Lullaby, as she towers him by a good foot. The hardest to see is Sky and Sun, as she is only an inch taller.)

Four has a fear of every insect except for spiders, which makes him the only Link to not have arachniphobia.

Legend has fist fought a child before. No I will not elaborate.

If sleepy or pissed off, both Twilight and Warriors shift into their native tongues (I like to think Ordon is based in an Eastern European country, so I will happily be spreading my Hungarian Twilight agenda thank you very much.)

The most passive aggressive person in the group is Sky, as he gets tired of being all nice when somebody is being a prick but doesn't want to be outright rude.

Wind thinks Time's and Twilight's facial markings are cool and wants his own.

Time is short and his boots make him taller. He is around the same height as Sky without them, and Malon is taller than him too. It's because the lost forest didn't really have enough food for him to grow properly, so he's short now.

Wind, Warriors, and Time all have some sort of PTSD relating to the FD mask. (Warriors nearly died during battle because a possessed young Time didn't realize he was a friend and not a foe. Wind was forced to wear it once during battle and doesnt want to be near it after the pain it cause him. Time is basically fusing with the Deity with how often he wore it in his youth.)

Wild is not fully mortal and is considered half dead, so certain beings either like him or hate him more for it. (Fairies tend to avoid him while spirits tend to trust him).

Four can still see the Minish despite being considered to old to. They sometimes help if the chain gets lost.

Hyrule is not the field medic, it's actually Legend and Warriors.

Sky talks about Sun so much that everybody assumed they were already married. It surprised everyone when he revealed they weren't engaged yet.

During the events of the story, Malon is pregnant with her and Time's first child. The child is born after Time returns permanently, and it is Twilight's mom!

Everybody has cuddled Twilight, either it be when he was Wolfie or not, he has been cuddled.

Warriors is his Ganondorf's son, and the only ones to know is Time, Wind and Twilight. Wild somewhat knows due to the ruins he and Flora once found from his era, though he isn't quite sure.

Wild is not the only foodie in the group. All the boys can eat their own weight and not gain a single pound afterwards. They all love food and love trying different dishes from all places.

Certain Hyrules have myths and folklore about monsters we know about (such as ghouls, vampires, werewolves and such). For example, Hyrule thought Twilight was a werewolf after learning he was Wolfie and kept placing silver objects on top of him while he was on bedrest. (Which did nothing since Twilight isn't a werewolf.)

Hylia heavily favors Wild and Sky the most out of all the boys. (Since I like the idea of BOTW and TOTK being direct sequels to SS instead if further down the timeline)

Dark Link is an amalgamation of all the Link's darkest desires. He also has the ability to shift into any of the others if he focused enough of his energy to do so.

Twilight has committed cannabilism before. His wolfish instincts got the better of him, and the guy was trying to hurt Legend. Legend hasn't spoken about it since the incident, and only they know.

All the Links have eaten something inedible and every time they do it infront of Malon she does the clutching her pearls gesture and it's really cute.

I have so many more but I'm to tired to continue. I hope you're taking care of yourself ♥

You have no need to apologize I absolutely LOVE reading people’s headcanons, feel free to stop by my ask box and tell me ur headcanons whenever you’d like :)

1. I firmly believe this was the case, Malon absolutely proposed to him. I also believe she can pick him up and carry him around

2. I have a post I’m planning on making soon about body types but I am a FIRM believer that just because Warriors is thin doesn’t mean that man isn’t strong. He’s incredibly thin looking, the kind of guy you’d assume you can see his ribs, and people underestimate his strength because of it. Yes, physically there isn’t a whole lot of him, but that’s because he has very low body fat because it’s all muscle. To me he has a build similar to female ballet dancers. Very small and you wouldn’t assume he’s capable of much if you just saw him out and about, but when he’s in his element, NO ONE doubts his strength

3. EVERY ZELDA IS TALLER THAN EVERY LINK REAL. Personally I think Sky and Sun are like the same exact height from a distance, but if you look real close, she’s taller

4. The concept that Four is the only one who wouldn’t scream and absolutely loose it at the sight of a spider made me laugh. I wholeheartedly agree with you on that one

5. Legend vs. Child (chid won)

6. Hungarian Twilight is super cool! I really like that headcanon :)

7. Sky is FOR SURE the most passive aggressive because all the others would probably get at least a LITTLE snappy but Sky would whip out a customer service voice but there would be no light in his eyes

8. Wind absolutely asked for a face tattoo and Time definitely had to shut him down.

9. THE IDEA THAT TIME IS WALKING AROUND WITH LIKE 3 INCHES OF HEEL IN HIS BOOT IS HILARIOUS. I personally think he’s about 5’8 and roughly Malon’s height in Jojo’s au, but for my own interpretation of him He Is 5’5.

10. I have a headcanon that Wild’s eyes are more of a glowly sheika blue since he was brought back. I think there’s probably something slightly off about him that gives people and animals an uncanny sense about him, even though he’s very sweet and nice, something about him just feels odd

11. Four can always see the minish, I firmly believe that

12. WARRIORS IS THE FIELD MEDIC AND I’LL DIE ON THAT HILL. Sure the others know basic first aid and such, but Warriors has the most medical knowledge and training, though I like to think he teaches what he knows to Hyrule because Hyrule is curious

13. My personal headcanon is that Twilight is Time’s great grandson, but Time lived long enough to be able to meet his son’s daughter, who is Twilight’s mom. I like to think Twilight’s mom would’ve sung him songs she learned from Malon

14. Twilight is definitely one of the more cuddly members of the group, he’s definitely down for hugs you just gotta ask him first

15. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a headcanon that Wars is Ganondorf’s son but that’s cool! I headcanon that his father died in the army💀💀💀 He just gives me absent/dead father energy

16. I think Hylian folklores and myths are definitely wildly different throughout the eras, and it probably extended to the heroes as well! Like imagine an ‘Old Hylian Myth’ and it basically says that Sky is a giant or something and the others all meet this great hero of the skys and he’s 5’4

17. I can imagine Malon being like “Wild what are you making?” and he just goes “Monster parts stew :3”

I loved reading all of these! I hope you’re taking care of yourself as well :)

[tutuandscoot]

I finally watched and the waltz goes on for the first time I’ve been putting it off so long. And it was gorgeous! Not my top favorites or anything but god they know how to waltz. Such grace. What are your thoughts on it? I watched a few different versions and yeah they did struggle here and there. I thought the commentary for the worlds version was a tad bit harsh? But idk I for sure don’t have the best technical eye.

Yeah I really like that program. I think it’s so sweet. They changed it quite a bit between the GP series and the second half of the season. I really liked the qwerky touches of the first version with the fixed feet and playful moments between them- it was still a very traditional kind of dance but those little choreographic/story touches made it interesting.

They’ve aluded to this being quite a rough season with small injuries not to mention M + I splitting up so now both TS and DW had to share Marina as their main coach. I’m not to assume what specific difficulties all that brought them in their actual performances but yes it was clear this wasn’t their most ‘effortless’ season.

Like you I have hardly any technical knowledge but I do feel they were judged extremely harshly in general that season and were not rewarded for their creativity, innovation, along with the running theme of their career their superior chemistry not being accounted for in the performance score. As for the twizzles at worlds I’ve seen MUCH WORSE twizzle mishaps judged kinder (ie pc SD in 2018 SOMEHOW got lvl 4 which I mean if that’s not an indication of it being fixed idk what is!) I mean TS’s wasn’t even a mishap they only opened slightly off time to each other so not that I understand the scoring and requirements for various levels (and I haven’t looked at the protocols) but I would only say should be a small quality deduction.

My favourite overall performance of Waltz was 4CC it was by far the most effortless, joyous, they were so happy at the end. It was such a shame with what happened in the FD bc they were leading after the SD and I felt up until the mishap Carmen was going so well they should’ve won. I also really like the nationals skate and although I’m often bothered by Tracey Wilson’s commentary, when she starts saying ‘look what they’re doing..(I don’t remember what she says exactly) but what she’s getting at is like when I say that TS are just so much better than everyone else and a lot of it is these teeny tiny things like unison and connection and being true dancers that most people just don’t appreciate enough when the rest of us say that they are the best ever.

I actually started watching the SD from Worlds 2013 (it’s on YT with Czech commentary) and in regards to the Polka portion TS have so much more bounce, body movement, their edges are superior, elongation- syncopation and finishing their lines then speeding up on the quicker steps (while being perfectly in the music). The other teams I’ve watched so far are very bland, everything is on one level both physically and musically. TS always manage to make the compulsory portions highlights in their programs and make them memorable moments rather than boring steps everyone has to do.

I think this program was a great example of it not necessarily being their most memorable program or the one you think of when you say ‘VirtueMoir’ but at the same time it is perfectly them because of the way they dance- waltz can be considered quite boring but they really truly dance it- I love, I think it’s someone from BESP says it’s like a mini FD because you forget about the elements and just enjoy them dancing. It was a great character piece for them- not as obvious characters as say Carmen or MR but they really took you to that village setting- like the first act of Coppelia or Giselle. It also was another reason to highlight their versatility in their body of work, obviously they had no choice they had to do a waltz/polka but when you line all their programs up it’s not like they had done a very similar dance before of after it.

[daja-the-hypnokitten]

Jukebox reviews part 14! For context, see my post “A Project”   under  this same tag. If you want to see a full list of his EMCSA   stories,  they can be found here, sorted alphabetically.And if you want to see some of his drabbles, check out his blog at @jukeboxemcsa  

 Sharp Dressed Man

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

4/10/2010                                     mc mf md

Trust someone in marketing to care more about the presentation of something than the content. And, as a scientist, I do resent the way Nina just acts as though scientists don't know how to dress. Just because I get to wear street clothes to the lab (look, you don't want synthetic fabrics around chemicals. You just don't. Cotton all the way, folks! Or linen or wool, depending) doesn't mean I don't know how to dress up and look stunning when I want to. Or, at least, my partners have used stunning to describe me, but I suppose they may just be biased. REGARDLESS, Nina's being a bit catty here, and that definitely makes me feel like she deserves what she gets. But the control isn't ... it isn't a style I enjoy in my kink stories, so on a lot of levels this is just a miss for me. If you like someone being overwhelmed with ... well, ok, in this universe it's science but no, that isn’t how any of this works, so it's magic. You might just enjoy this. 3/10 spirals.

Show Don’t Tell

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4/17/2010                                     mc ff cb

Given who Adventure Girl makes me think of, it's WEEIRD to see her juxtaposed with Venus Ascendant, given who Venus makes me think of. (Look, her age says Supergirl, but her origin says Ms. Marvel. And I'm a Carol Danvers fan.) But holding that aside, because it isn't really important, gosh this is a Good Story. The Girdle of Minerva works so well, and watching Adventure Girl grapple with the same sorts of "but good girls don't!" that I too had to unlearn is ... cathartic? Kind of? It doesn't hit my hot buttons exactly - too much magic, which if y'all have been following my reviews won't come as a surprise - but it's still really good. 7/10 spirals

  Closer to the Heart

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

4/25/2010                                     mc mf fd

How can I even *start* to review this one? This isn't just my favourite Jukebox story - my favourite story on the EMCSA *other* than one my spouse wrote for and dedicated to me! - but it was FORMATIVE to my hypnokink, to my sense of what I might possibly *find* in a relationship. I didn't know what healthy, happy romantic relationships looked like when I was as young as I was when I read this story, back when it was first posted. Not *really.* My parents were always so very private about their relationship, and I knew enough to know that media wasn't ... it just wasn't. Add in the "I'm not really interested in sex itself" with the strong hypnokink, and I was so adrift. Sure, there were, like, 2 book series I read that had Healthy Relationships, but they didn't have any of the kink nuance, so that didn't help.But this story. This story has so many moments that I read and my brain went "that. I want *THAT.*" The mix of romance and fun kinky things in this story became my measuring stick for relationships I was in, and if I realized that a partner wasn't living up to that? That they weren't showing me the respect Lynn shows Michael? I was done. And I needed that, more than once, unfortunately. But it also helped me internalize that I *could* have that kind of relationship. And now I do - 4 times over! I've mentioned before on my blog how a line from this story became a guiding benchmark for me, the idea of "everything we do comes from love." Whether love of community, love of a friend, or romantic love, that central tenant has helped me know when to stop doing something I was no longer doing for the right reasons, and to grow into an adult who knows when to - and how to! - say no.That's a LOT to put into a story, I realize, and it isn't just this story that did it. But it was absolutely a catalyst for so much of that. I would not be who I am today if it weren't for this story. I probably wouldn't have even felt like I belonged in this community without this story, and a few others (one by Jukebox, and a couple by Wiseguy).So all that said, let's get into the actual text of the story, shall we?

While we start with sexual stuff immediately, it's also instantly clearly part of the conditioning/brainwashing process, so that's all good by my standards. There's such obvious love and connection between Michael and Lynn, and she so gently and tenderly reinforcing her control as she moves through the chakras. And then, when we get to the heart chakra, and Michael stops being passive because he loves Lynn so much, and has such a need to communicate that to her... it melts my heart. The way she drops out of pet names and just uses his name in that moment, the mantra... so much good here. And then the moment where we see Michael is so aware of how much Lynn loves him in return is so tender... to me, that's the true climax of this story, the sharing in love that has been well tended and grown by *both* of them. It's just tender and sweet and lovely and I am so very fond of both Michael and Lynn, here and in every story we see with them. 9001/10 spirals.

Already Gone

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5/2/2010                                       mc ff

There's a really interesting suggestion in here, and it's one I definitely plan to use for (short-term) shenanigans with a partner at some point. The idea of them being consumed by curiosity, focusing entirely on a fixation object as it sucks their thoughts away? Oh yes, I'm using that. The rest of this story? It's good enough, but doesn't quite get me invested the way other stories have and do. Some of that is the contrast to Closer to the Heart, of course; I remember 12 years ago, reading this one the week after Closer to the Heart and wishing that this had been closer to that - and I still do. But this one stands well on its own, if I make myself stop comparing it to Closer to the Heart. Seeing how Cat's mind changes in response to the control is *delightful,* and it's well thought out. It's just a bit impersonal for me, is all. 8/10 spirals.

  I Ran So Far Away

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5/8/2010                                       mc mf md

Hmm, another one of those stories that never quite feels erotic - surreal horror, maybe? Still really good for what it is, just a bit ... not quite fitting amongst the rest of the stories on the archive. But it's well written, we really, TRULY get a sense of what Monica was running from and why she's scared, and it fits so very well. Though I have to wonder how nobody's noticed this before now. Surely enough folk gathered by those who serve would have people who miss them! 7/10 spirals

  Zombie

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5/15/2010                                     mc mf md

I feel bad for Addison here; he's mostly an innocent bystander in this one. Wouldn't it have made more sense to just tell him to forget the secrets involved and only have to worry about one person - a seemingly not well-liked one! - disappearing? Ah well, leaving my opinions on what makes sense aside, this is a bit ... clinical? which is the point, of course, but it makes it hard for me to see it as erotic, personally. But the method works, and I enjoy the (entirely too brief) description of the experience Addison has. If you like more detatched/clinical control, you'll likely enjoy this one? 6/10 spirals

  Talking In Your Sleep

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

5/22/2010                                     mc ff

This ends the only way it possibly could, and I don't think that's inherently a bad thing? Because the *how* we end up where it ends up is a bigger draw than the "where is this going?" sentiment would be. It's fun to watch how Alicia slowly brainwashes herself with Holly's voice, though I can't help but shake my head at her not realising she was doing that. Ah well, hopefully it will work out for the best and they can be a happy trio; I've seen well how two subby gals can be in love and reinforcing their submission to a shared dominant partner; it can be *super* cute. Though that does involve more consenting submsision, but what can you do, I suppose? I do have to wonder just how much actual rest Holly was getting, but it seemed to work for her? 8/10 spirals

  You’re the Inspiration

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5/30/2010                                     mc

Another of the inductions Jukebox has written, and one very not to my taste; a central image of it is, effectively, serial recruitment, which is a hard limit for me. So it's not an induction I can rate well, though the technique is as solid as always.

  Common People

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6/5/2010                                       mc mf md fd

I feel like the last part of this sort of skews away from what would be - to me! - a much more interesting story. But it ends up more or less exactly where I expected it to - after 139 stories, I think I'm getting a sense of where Jukebox is going with these pretty quickly from the tone. The first two thirds of the story is good - the approach of a telepath who's trying not to give into her powers is fun! But the cruel ending to it, caused by another telepath, is less my vibe. 6/10 spirals.

  Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

6/12/2010                                     mc ff

Honestly, do people not understand the idea of too good to be true? I suppose there would be fewer good stories if they did, and after all it can be hard to resist temptation. And to be fair, Isabelle did speak truly, for all she left significant details out. It's a fun story, and the sense of how Sylvia is overwhelmed and conditioned and brainwashed is wonderful. Having said that, I don't actually like the light and sound machines - unless I'm already SUPER fractionated, they just give me a wicked headache (I should know, I experimented with them once upon a time, thanks to Wiseguy) - so I do wince a little at the idea of waking from sleep right into one. But that's a me thing - plenty of folk really like light and sound machines, and I know from friends' testimonies that they can be amazingly hypnotic for a lot of folk! So that just makes all of this feel more real, and more personal. It's just all around a good story that hits a lot of things I like. 9/10 spirals.

[sunskate]

I will collect my thoughts a bit more but this was my first season watching skating, specifically ice dance, and how exciting it was!

My favorite programs definitely included both RD and FD for LaLa, Lolo and Nik’s FD, Kaitlyn and Jean Luc’s FD, both of CPom’s programs, Green/Parsons RD, and Piper and Paul’s Evita (I know it was unpopular, Broadway really gets me feeling things and I thought they did it well even if not super innovative or complex).

I liked Lily and Nathan’s programs, hope they can get a boost next year. And Miku and Tyler at Canadian Nationals made me emotional with their FD. There were other things that I grew to like in pieces, like some parts of Lilah and Lewis’s Gaga, Charlene and Marco’s FD music, Madi C’s outright star energy on ice. I guess I liked at least a small something from most teams. Maybe I’ll develop more of a critics lens as I keep watching the sport, but I think I just appreciated what these athletes did throughout the season on the whole.

Recently, loved Hannah and Ye! They did so well at World Team Trophy. Of the other juniors, I watched a few but mostly at IAMO with Scott Moir being the head coach of the school, but I really enjoyed Noah and Jordan’s FD and liked Layla and Alex’s as well (Broadway again, yes!)

Also in general I’ve been loving watching any and all BTS from IAM and IAMO. I’ve been reflecting on how important it is to have community in general, and particularly as adults when that more easily fades away, and I’m so happy to see the community of skaters who seem to truly support each other coming out of that school. I can’t wait to see what happens in the off season, I’m not sure how long I can wait for new programs, I can’t believe the whole summer has to come and go!

Thanks for being such a fun and informative source of information this season. Looking forward to more!

Aww I love this- thanks for sharing 🥰 i get critical sometimes and disappointed by judging shenanigans, but the teams themselves, anyone competing at the senior GP level is a highly accomplished and dedicated athlete, and some are beautiful performers and artists - it makes me really happy to watch. and seeing the talent in juniors and watching their progression is also❤️

have you watched Broadway RD season??? 2019-20 and 2020-21 both were Broadway/operetta/musicals. if you love Broadway, there were so many fun programs - Lolo and Nik’s Bonnie and Clyde was my favorite those seasons, but it was a good theme for variety. Skating ISU on youtube has entire RD events still up, like from 4CC and Europeans in 2020, which adds up to most of the top teams, though you might need a vpn. maybe you know all this, but if you didn’t, you might really like it☺️

i love the sense of community and kindness and friendship the skaters at the IAM schools have too - it makes the sport better when schools foster those values. you can feel the night and day difference in women’s skating this season compared to the Eteri years. the winning at all costs mentality was so toxic that it’s like the sun came out in their absence

we don’t have to wait for the whole summer to come and go🤗 there are summer competitions 🥳 the very first ones start end of June, just over 2 months from now. the first one with a good number of dance teams is often Lake Placid International end of July, and Skate Canada has been streaming its Next Gen development camp from July sectionals around the same time. and then JGPs start Aug 23 in Bangkok this year

[jonathankatwhatever]

My keyboard broke. That’s the 4th or 5th with this iPad. It won’t stand up, but still types. I have it lying on my bag.

I used to dig into stuff, particularly your stuff, and work it over and back, over and back. But now I wait to see what shows up. This morning, I put together that I love lavender in part because it’s the color of the crown chakra, and also the limit of the visible (which means up to and down to from above), and that a haze is both a reference to the haze that comes over you from an altered state, as reflected in the marijuana strains like tangerine haze, and that which descends from above to fill the space you are in, which is love. And love pairs so the choice exists to hate.

I assume this understanding flows from the proximate work on pairing. In this AMT, I saw a repeated image of an HG gliding over itself to become an fD so >< is the same as <>. Took a bit to realize that this maps to 4 Hexagons, the same image we’ve been using with the two Hexagons that are linked by an fD located Between 2 Hexagons that, typically, we stack vertically on the image because we tend to align the Triangular sheet to x. Note I don’t use xK here: that’s for grid squares. This is I(x), meaning Irreducible in the x view. Glad I cleared that up in my head.

This means that the fD, which is <>, does indeed equate to ><, but that work goes through the Hexagons. That connects to the idea that there is always mechanics, and that is through mechanics that choice arises.

Can we nail choice? Can we identify a maximal or minimal element? Yes. That is the nature of the 1-0Segment. And if you apply some criteria of your own device, that is enabled because that is the nature of the 1-0Segment. And you can see this in the ways the dimensions attach just to shift an <> to a >< and vice versa.

And note that this process necessarily inverts. This leads to fakery, like how an animal shows pretend eyes to appear larger: how you present so this <> and >< relationship appears true. At least true enough. Which may not be a lot of the time, but if it increases the odds of survival by dissuading attacks, then it may persist as a trait. That is how selection works. What did we call it? Conformity? Like all the potential DNA words that can be spelled reduce to the one that can be spelled because of this process.

I hope that can be explained better. We wrote it out yesterday, didn’t we? The gap that we can call ‘need’ because that is an n-Dimensional object which attaches across the gap. That gets to the relationship of n-dimensional to concepts like Thing and fCM itself. I’m not sure what to say here. I could use some help.

As we noted late last night, IC and the other contexts scale. So we can make CM100 and have it break apart at any scale. That’s inherent in thinking dimensionally: it doesn’t just work in one iteration, but rather in all the potential iterations. I say potential because possible means that which is possible given some restriction, notably that you evaluate in threads. So, for example, what do you call everything one the other side of the axis? What do you call the pair side not chosen or threaded in that thread but threaded in other threads? Each of those are possibilities, and they together describe potential. That’s all I mean.

Remember that we expanded potential to the limit of comprehensibility, meaning to the limit of what we can comprehend. That becomes this structure, if I am seeing and trusting this correctly. I need to trust this to get this out.

Holy fuck! I just looked at pictures of you from last night and for the very first time really ever I was totally able to see you as an object, as a projection of an ideal image without seeing you at all. I’ve never been able to achieve that depth. It’s the same depth that I find in me when I am projecting at least to my own eyes an archetype, where by archetype I mean not only that the pose is realized but that the person disappears from the pose so only the pose remains. And that attaches or fits or generates the need. Need attaches to you across as the archetype carries that.

Oh, the attachment theory stuff from yesterday! The 100k attachments look like a dog’s tug rope frayed at each End. Or braids that connect around your head. That works so beautifully: I see an object eroding because the interactions of the relationships of its extended threads or tendrils cost, which is the same as the object reducing toward its stable minimum, which could be nothingness.

And I see the relationship dimensionally, if that’s the correct word. Because each thread has a physical existence, a point like at the center of a Hexagon, which is also the meeting End in an HG ><, surrounded by Triangular, by Hexagons, and by grid squares. I’m not leaving out the other dimensions, but I can’t draw those on paper because Hexagonal is the limit of that projection. I love the idea that each object, each person, each life, each existence is an End. That maps Ends over Ends. That’s an example of how gs processing generates locality as well as universality. This, I now remember, was AMT. I don’t know why I couldn’t recall that until now. I guess I needed to understand the idea for it to pop.

This enables statistics. You are an End. An End in projection which counts D6 on its face, and which actually counts higher dimensions because each count is a 1-0Segment, as we showed over the past few days. And D3 occurs within these dimensions. And the mapping of a dimensional object to flat is known, so there’s a picture of you. And you.

No, I don’t think we need to so much adjust or rewrite axioms as we need to generate those axioms. So, a consequence of 1-0Segment counting of dimensions is that each set is well-ordered. Take the old work and add to it the new work: that we not only have a 1-0Segmenting but that this generates need, that n-dimensional object which fills the gap and which thus defines the set over the dimensions of ordering. That is old work rephrased; we had the idea of dimensions of ordering in the concept of multi-dimensional, but it lacked the mechanics. It draws as we’ve drawn it.

So, we’ve done all this. Zorn’s Lemma, etc. We can put check boxes next to all those.

BTW, I think another, better way to look at why a proton is 2 and 1 quarks is the idea from yesterday that poles or pairs form. That mean the middle, the Between has to pick sides if it doesn’t halve. And these don’t, so it becomes a this or that choice, and it goes up.

[tortilla-of-courage]

Okay! Essay incoming!

I guess the first thing to talk about is sorting.

There's the Golden Goddesses (Din, Nayru, Farore)

The Guardian Goddesses (Hylia, Lolia, the goddess of time)

Minor Gods (SkSw's dragons, the Great Deku Tree, Jabu Jabu, etc.)

And Lesser Gods (Great Fairies, Satori, etc.)

Minor Gods and Lesser Gods are both categories of mortal gods. These gods can die, as seen by the Great Deku Tree in OoT. Think, the ancient norse pantheon. Those are gods that can die.

The Golden Goddesses and Guardian Gods are immortal gods, where no mater what damage is done to their physical form they still live. Think, the ancient grecoroman pantheons. Those gods can't die.

Here's something we know for a fact: Hyrule and Lorule are mirror images of each other, with their own triforce. Meaning that the Golden Goddesses made at least two separate worlds, thus two separate triforces. I like to believe they actually made three worlds, one for each of them.

Lorule was Din's world. Hyrule was Nayru's world. And Termina is Farore's world.

Each of these worlds was given a Guardian Goddess to watch over the triforce, and these Guardian Goddesses have roughly the same sphere with a focus on one part of them. Protection, Light/Magic, and Time.

(Note, sphere is a term I stole from tes, it basically just means 'What the god rules over/what they're the god of')

Lolia, Lorule's Guardian Goddess, is a goddess of Protection.

Hylia, Hyrule's Guardain Goddess, is a goddess of Light/Magic.

Termina's Goddess of Time (henceforth called Termanius or Terma because it's lees typing), is, well, she's Termina's Guardian Goddess and her sphere is obvious.

There's the small issue though in that Protection and Light/Magic are both active forces, whereas Time is a passive force. This means the Terma is a more passive goddess compared to her sisters (Hylia and Lolia). So I imagine she was given a second god to act where she couldn't. Enter Fierce Deity, a war god, who falls under the same banner of Guardian God without being a Guardian Goddess. He's both equal and servant to Termanius.

Demise falls into his own category, he's a Demon God. A deity that is both demon and god.

He's, in my interpretation, a god of chaos. But specifically Chaos-Before-Order.

Lorule and Termina also had Demon God's who ruled over chaos. Majora is Chaos as the opposite of Order, and Ruin (the name we gave Lorule's Demon God) is Chaos as a lack of Order.

They are what was before the Golden Goddesses created the worlds. What was before there was a was. And they are mad about there being something there now.

The other Major Gods couldn't help Hylia because it was a coordinated attack on all three realms. Lolia and the Termanius/Fierce Deity pair were busy fighting their own wars and the Golden Goddesses had already screwed off.

The Minor and Lesser Gods are, well, mortal. They are very much able to die. The dragons had a more important role for the future, and the other gods didn't have the skill or power to help. Or they might not have existed yet even. I mean, I don't know for sure but I'm pretty sure SkSw doesn't have a Great Deku Tree (correct me if I'm wrong). But even if he did already exist, he's a tree.

It's very possible that the other gods didn't help Hylia not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't. And who knows, maybe a few Lower Gods DID try to help, and died in the battle. They are mortal after all.

I, uh, I also at one point wrote a fic detailing what I think happened in Termina and why no one knows Terma's name and how FD ended up in the mask. I posted it a while ago and can reblog it and tag you if you want to read it.

-Attllhak

okay first of all, this was an amazing and very interesting read, thank you so much for sharing

second - the worlds and their protector Deities being created in Threes, like the Goddesses themselves, would make so much sense?? I love the idea of Termina being Farore's world, and Terma and the FD being its protector deities. I just... yes. all of this. yes.

the coordinated attack being the reason they couldn't help is also so good?? Att your brain is huge

[theonlygamergost]

Girls and pigs night out - Fd!au

This fanfiction is based on the Family Dynamic au made by @antarctic-bay if you would like to know more, go check them out!!!

Also please bear in mind that the things written in this might not be canon!

This fic was corrected by the lovely @im-default

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Niki has the house to herself this weekend, but her plans get cancelled last minute, so one of the Pandel brothers decides to become the back-up plan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warning!: Swearing

Enjoy~

“What colour do you-“ “Pink”

Niki was asking Techno the colour he wanted her to paint his nails, but his reply cut her off before she could finish the sentence. She stared at him, blinking a few times.

“That was… quick” she grabbed the pink nail polish, “Ouu~ What if we do pink and black?” she excitedly showed him the two glass bottles next to each other, “Sure” he softly smiled at how happy the girl was.

Niki had the house all to herself this weekend, Eret had left for an update course regarding his job and Tubbo was sleeping over at the Pandel household, leaving her alone.

She had tried to invite someone over, but everyone she asked already had plans, making Niki quite sad.

What made her extremely sad was when Minx agreed to a girls' sleepover but had to cancel it last minute. Techno was with her when she received the text and the poor girl felt avoided.

”I know they don't mean it Techno” she sobbed, holding the tears in, ”But it looks like everyone is avoiding me” dropping the phone on the sofa, she held her head between her hands, her body shaking with each sob.

”There there…” he caressed her back. Techno wasn't one to comfort people, he was usually the one to make them cry, so being on the comforter side wasn't familiar to him.

But be understood the situation Niki was in; Wilbur and the musical friend group weren't available, she had asked classmates only to be rejected with a ”We have an exam to study for, we aren't all like you who gets good votes because we are pretty and sweet talk the professors” which was first of all very rude, and second of all, not true. Techno knew how much Niki studied, they sometimes even studied together. And for a third, she invited Minx, she agreed and then sent her a text saying she couldn't make it, even Techno would feel avoided at this point.

”I know it's not like that but-!” she started crying, Techno could only feel bad for his friend.

But then, a thought arrived.

”What if you still have the sleepover, but instead of being girls only, it's for girls and pigs?” she looked up at him in disbelief, a tear rolled down her face, ”Y-you would do it?” he shrugged, ”It's not like I had anything better to do at home anyway” she smiled and hugged him, catching him off guard, ”Thank you Technoblade” he smiled and hugged the girl back.

So that's how they got in this situation, listening to One Direction songs while Niki painted Techno’s nails, of course all topped by a glitter face mask and some good old gossip.

”Wait wait wait- so you're telling me she stole her friend's money only to gift it back to her, look nice, and hit on her boyfriend?!” Niki stifled a giggle as Techno repeated what she had just told him, ”Yep, Janet had a crush on Adam for a while now, and even if he is taken, with her best friend, she is still trying to hit on him” Techno adjusted the border of his face mask, ”What a bitch” Niki burst out laughing, she had never seen Techno gossip, and the funniest thing was that he knew a lot about his classmates, he just kept quiet about it since he had no one to gossip to.

”If I remember correctly, she also tried to hit on Will” he gave Niki his other hand, shaking the one with fresh polish on around to dry it faster, ”Let's be honest Techno, who hasn’t tried to hit on Will? Every girl in the school has fallen for his charm” they giggled at the fact that yes, that was true, but even if that was a thing, Wilbur was still single.

”Well not all of the girls, you didn't hit on Wilbur” Niki rolled her eyes, ”That’s… correct, but I did fall for his charms, just not in that way, I am his friend after all” Techno nodded, mumbling ”true true” to himself.

”And done! Oh my God Techno you look so good!” Niki closed the nail polishes and admired her work, ” You did an incredible job Niki, oh! oh! Can I paint yours?” Techno asked excitedly, already looking at the drawer with the polishes, ”If I did pink and black you have to get pink and white” she giggled at the sight of Techno in Eret’s borrowed t-shirt, it was too large for him and it made him look like a blob, ”Are you suggesting we get matching nail polish?” she fake-gasped, ”Heck yeah I am” he smiled as he sat back down next to her with the small glass bottles, his nails weren't even fully dry yet here he was, painting Niki’s nails.

After the nails dried out and they took off the face masks, Techno proposed a “Midnight snack” aka strawberry vanilla and chocolate ice cream (of course eaten directly from the box with a big spoon) while bingeing various Netflix series.

After a couple of hours, Niki looked at the boy lying next to her and noticed how soft his pink hair looked, so she reached out to touch it and gasped, slightly scaring Techno, “Oh my god your hair is so soft for being dyed! How do you do it?!” He smirked, “Conditioner and hair mask?” He replied like it was the most normal thing in the world, she gasped again, “You use a hair mask?” She looked at him in shock, his smirk got wider “Once a week”

They ended up talking about their hair care routine and what brands they used for dyed hairs shampoos, while the tv was just background noise, Niki started to gently make small braids in Techno’s hair, “I can’t believe I never noticed how soft and bright your hairs are! I need to try out your brand” Techno’s hair wasn’t that long, but long enough to make multiple braids, decorating his silk smooth hair.

“If you want to try out various brands, do not try the purple-bottle one, it slightly darkens the colour of your hair, especially if it’s a bright colour” Niki nodded making a mental note.

“I have tried a lot of brands before I found mine, but-” Techno’s phone started ringing, interrupting his sentence, Niki kept braiding his hair peacefully.

It was a video call from Phil, Techno was resting his head on a cushion on Niki’s lap so he extended his arms in front of him and answered:

“HELLO TECHNOBLADE, Hi Technomate~” The greet of his two brothers came in at once, the two distinct voices overlapped.

“Helloo~” He greeted back, Phil was sitting at the kitchen counter while Tommy was standing behind him.

“Where are you Techno? You didn’t tell us you were spending the night out” He apologised by moving the phone so Niki was in the shot behind him, “I’m staying at Niki’s tonight, I’m sorry I forgot to text you” Phil nodded and reassured him it was fine, meanwhile, Tommy noticed Niki who kept braiding Techno’s hair.

“Oh my- BWAHAHA!!!” he burst out laughing, “What are you laughing at Tommy?” Everyone got a bit confused, “Look at Techno’s hair!” to that, Phil awed, thinking it was very cute, Tommy laughed once more while Techno blushed.

“Y-your just jealous I look better than you!” He did something he rarely did, stutter in embarrassment, but Tommy got angry at the roast and didn’t realize it.

To get back at him he asked one of his cringy questions:

“Hey, Technoblade! Wh-what are you doing at a girl’s house all alone?!” Techno grinned and brought his phone closer to his mouth so he could whisper the reply, “Girls and pigs night out, bitch”

That phrase went into Wilbur’s quote book.

[sternbilder]

Hi!! Stumbled on your blog via the buried stars tag and I'd like to say thank you so much for the kr>eng translations! There aren't many english-speaking fans so I was happy to read about the game & its characters. I was wondering, what do all the characters call each other in Korean? Or what honorifics they use? I could hear it in the audio sometimes (Gyu-hyuk: "Do-yoon-ah", or I think Seil: "Inha-ssi" ?) but I didn't catch all of them. Google tells me some of it is based off of (1/2)

(2/2) Google tells me some of it is based off of respect, friendship/closeness, or just being older/younger than one another, but I'm still new to the intricacies of what it implies about the characters' relationships and how their individual personalities are. If it isn't too much trouble, I'd love to know ^^

Hello!! You're very welcome and in fact thank you for the question, I'm always receptive to more excuses to talk about this game!

It seems like you already have some context on rules surrounding Korean honorifics. There is a lot of nuance, obviously, but to put it simply...Yes, I'd say the speech patterns the cast (particularly, the TOP5—the others are a bit more complicated) uses are what you'd see in a casual social setting between people who already know each other somewhat, but aren't necessarily friends, which is what I think I would expect from a group of twentysomethings who probably had a chance to bond socially as a cohort throughout the whole audition process (it's explained in the Q&A that they lived together in a dorm for most of the show, too). And as you've pointed out the rules there I would say are much more tied to age and closeness. I'd generally characterize their speech patterns as informal, but polite—basically, you have to use the polite form with people who are older than you, but you can use casual speech (banmal) with people who are the same age or younger. The exception is if you are close enough with someone that you mutually decide it's OK to drop honorifics despite the age difference. More on that later.

The order of the age of each of the main cast are as follows: Seungyeon (33), Juyoung (28), Gyuhyuk (27), Doyoon and Inha (25), Seil (24), and Hyesung (20). So with no other caveats we'd expect, for example, Doyoon to use polite form with Juyoung and Gyuhyuk but not with Inha and Hyesung, etc. Now, with that as the basis, here are some notes based on what I can remember, though disclaimer that my memory isn't perfect, and there are also things I might have missed because I haven't done a full playthrough yet with Korean text.

(Character spoilers for the "Other" section at the end; otherwise a few minor spoilers)

TOP5

Juyoung (28)

Juyoung is the oldest of the main cast, so she uses banmal with pretty much everyone and refers to them by name, or name + ah/ya (which is the casual vocative marker), and it's perfectly acceptable for her to do so.

The rest of the TOP5 call her 언니/누나 (unni/noona, lit. "older sister" but more generally used to refer to any slightly older female acquaintance; which one is used depends on the speaker's gender). They also sometimes call her 영이 언니/누나 (Young-i unni/noona) for short, which I thought was cute. There's actually a Q&A question that asked about this because it is a very familiar/affectionate nickname, and the director explained that Juyoung asked the others to call her that because she was afraid of seeming unapproachable due to her age and because of the fact that she was a former idol.

Gyuhyuk (27)

As the second oldest, I believe he uses banmal with everyone but Juyoung. The younger male characters all call him 형 (hyung, lit. "older brother", see above), though I can't seem to remember Inha calling him 오빠 (oppa). I might be projecting that assumption onto her based on her somewhat brash personality, since 오빠 can come off as a bit...Girlish? Cutesy? Flirtatious? in certain contexts? Idk.

Doyoon (25)

What's notable about Doyoon is that he uses the polite form with Juyoung, but not Gyuhyuk. He calls Gyuhyuk 형 (hyung), of course, but he uses the casual form, which suggests that they're close enough with each other that they've already agreed to drop formalities. Their first rapport event gives me the sense that they're especially close, too, compared to the other contestants (as does just like...waves in their general direction, but anyway,)

Inha (25)

Inha is the same age as Doyoon, so you would also expect her to use polite form with Juyoung and Gyuhyuk. However, she doesn't with either of them IIRC.

As for Juyoung, I don't remember how much of this came through in the text of the game itself, but I would guess they were probably already pretty close in a way similar to Doyoon and Gyuhyuk were. At the very least, I think I remember one of the Q&A answers indicating that they kept in touch very frequently after the events of the game.

I don't really remember too many interactions between Inha and Gyuhyuk, tbh. I do recall that she (not sure if any others do) refers to him as 규 (Gyu) at least once, which I think is adorable, LMAO. This might indicate that they may have been on close enough terms to use casual speech? But then again, she did seem to resent Gyuhyuk at least a little bit for the scholarship thing, and according to the Q&A she took much longer than Juyoung and Doyoon to see him again after the game, so??? She could just be kind of disrespectful like that, which...Kinda tracks, honestly??? 🤷‍♀️Like I said, I don't remember too much about these two, so don't take my word on this.

Hyesung (20)

Hyesung is the youngest, so you would expect him to use polite speech with everyone, but he, uh, does not. With anyone. LMAO. Maybe he's just super tight with everyone, but something tells me it's more because he's a rude little shit who's just Like That. (I mean, he uses banmal with Seil, who does hate his guts, so.) He does call everyone 형/누나 (hyung/noona), though, at least—though, now that I think about it, Seil might be an exception to that, LOL.

Since he's the youngest, everyone just calls him Hyesung.

Also, this is tangential, but I also just wanted to throw in that Hyesung notably has a slight "old man" dialect in that he sometimes uses expressions and slang that you would expect from the older generation, because growing up his only friends were the other vendors at his mom's fish market. This is unrelated to politeness, but it does come off as really funny considering how young he is, and definitely gives his speech a unique vibe.

Staff

Seil (24)

The speech patterns between Seil and the TOP5 are pretty similar to speech patterns within TOP5 itself, which is to say, fairly informal but still polite. He uses polite form with everyone older than him, and uses banmal with Hyseung. I actually wouldn't necessarily have expected this to be the case since he technically has more of a professional relationship to the TOP5 than they do with each other (so I wouldn't have been surprised if he actually used formal speech, rather than just polite), but it's probably because he's in that same age range and because he was the staff member who was closest to them socially.

I believe you are correct that he calls Inha, and Inha alone, -씨 (-ssi), which is actually formal, rather than simply polite. Probably just indicating his high level of admiration for her in particular.

The rest of the main cast just call him Seil. Hyesung also occasionally calls Seil 세일 FD님 (Seil FD-nim) which is technically extremely formal, but obviously said in sarcasm.

Seungyeon (33)

I believe she calls everyone by their full name, and uses casual speech with them. Makes sense. She's the boss.

Everyone else calls her PD님 (PD-nim, formal). Including, notably, Hyesung. AFAICR Seungyeon is the only character Hyesung shows even an ounce of deference toward in this game. 😛

Other

Suchang (27) & Suyeon (18)

AFAIK Suchang only really has in-game interactions with Doyoon and Suyeon, and Suyeon only has interactions with Suchang, who she of course calls 오빠 (oppa), in the familial sense. Though IIRC at the very end she does once refer to Doyoon as 그분 (geubun, lit. "that person") and 도윤님 (Doyoon-nim), both of which are extremely formal/deferential in tone but in kind of a "little girl talks about her crush as if they were Prince Charming" sort of way...Which causes Suchang to hilariously go into overprotective/jealous older brother mode.

The Ha siblings use casual speech with each other, which is standard among siblings. However, Suchang also talks down to Doyoon, which is pretty audacious of him considering they're strangers—he basically talks to Doyoon as if they're already friends. He's kind of an audacious guy in general, though, so I'd say that kind of fits his character.

Doyoon, on the other hand, being the polite young man that he is, uses polite speech with Suchang. There's a funny scene where he accidentally slips up and uses banmal, and then immediately gets called out by Suchang, who chews him out for talking down to someone older than him. (Though ofc Doyoon had no way of knowing this, and also, Suchang shouldn't be using banmal with a stranger in the first place.) At the very end of the true ending when they finally meet, Doyoon actually takes it up a level and calls Suchang 수창씨 (Suchang-ssi) but Suchang tells him to drop it and just call him 형 (hyung). It's sweet.

[beeluvsbunni]

Buncha shit I’ve written over the past couple o’ months

Lotta shit here, 23,950 Characters and 4,379 words. LONG AS FUCK, BEW A R E

okay but deadass imagine if Techno's crown is a cardboard crown that Tommy made for him when Tommy was like 6??? IMAGINE BRO THE POSSIBILITIES angst? sure, Tommy died or suddenly hates techno and the crown is all techno has left of Tommy. fluff? sure, flashbacks showing Tommy making the crown/au where Tommy is Technos VERY younger brother. gore? someone breaks the crown and techno snaps and kills a bunch of people (bonus points if techno just walks back home all casually to 6 y/o Tommy and asks for a new one, Tommy completely ignoring the smell of blood yet he knows what happened). smut? GET OUT OF HERE FILTHY DISGUSTING MONSTER

okay, so idea:

Phil lectures Tommy for doing dumb shit (getting into a fight) and Tommy starts to cry and Phil doesn't know why because he wasn't even being that harsh on Tommy so he's like

"what's wrong? oh fuck oh shit oh fuck oh shit oh fuck oh shit oh fuck oh shit" because panic, and Tommy's like

"its nothing, I'm fine, it's stupid-" because teenage angst and plot purposes, so Phil is like

"bullshit, tell me what's wrong"

and Tommy's like "I punched the guy because he said that you and Wilbur and techno don't love me and that's why you never hug me and that I should stop complaining about it- oh shit wait-" and Phil's like

"complaining about what? COMPLAINING ABOUT W H A T???" and Tommy says

"... I think I'm touch starved."

BAM ANGST IS OVER, THEN YOU GOT YA FLUFF

Fd Au. Tommy coming home after getting detention in school, where he got an F on his test, coffee got spilled all over him, constantly made fun of, no lunch, and overall a really bad day. Wilbur asks him to get him a glass of water, and Tommy says no. Wilbur and Tommy start arguing, and eventually, out of spite, he came back with a glass full of ice cubes and tell him to wait. Wilbur gets pissed and goes to yell at him, but Tommy shoves him and yells at him to fuck off. Wilbur asks what's wrong with him, and Tommy shouts back, "I was supposed to be home three hours ago and all you care about is me getting you water! Do you even care about me at all?" While crying, and runs up to his room. After a little while, and after Phil gets home, Wilbur tells him about the argument. Phil takes Tommy's side and tells Wilbur to apologize. Wilbur goes to Tommy's room and finds his window open and Tommy not there. He climbs up onto the roof and finds Tommy smoking pot, and starts to yell at him.

Fd Au. Tommy comes home hours, past curfew, really late, like after Phil comes home. Wilbur is about to yell at him when he notices how tired Tommy looks, and then how much blood was on him. He instantly panics and yells at Techno to get the medkit, and Tommy passes out due to blood loss. Fd Au. The Pandel siblings go to a party and Tommy gets pulled away from his siblings by some random people he doesn't know. When they find him, with the help of DTeam, The Trio, and The L'manburg Crew, a group of 16-20 people are trying to pressure him into drinking/smoking. Tommy refuses every time, and then Bad, Toby, and Phil comfort him while everyone else beats up the people that were trying to pressure him, other than A6D and Fundy, who are both getting rid of the stuff people were trying to make Tommy consume.

DreamSmp Is Real Au (????). Dream finds Tommy crying. He asks what's wrong, and Tommy completely breaks down. He tries to respond without his voice shaking but all that comes out is a sob. Dream walks over and tries to comfort him, but Dream isn't good with emotions. He panics and calls Bad because he knows how to deal with kids. Dream tells Bad that he's gonna bring Tommy to base-area, and asks Bad to comfort Tommy. Bad agrees, and Tommy and Dream set off. Dream tries to make small talk and asks what's wrong, and Tommy starts crying harder. "I feel so fucking lonely. All the time. But I know I shouldn't, because I have Wilbur and Toby, and- and everyone else on ou- MY side. I miss not fighting. I-I miss talking to you- and George- a-and everyone else without it being fucking fighting! I-I miss Eret- GOD I miss Eret so fucking much-" While sobbing. Dream doesn't know how to react, and Tommy collapses. He sobs with his face in his hands, and Dream collapses next to him and begins to just hug him. He messages Bad and tells him that there's been a change of plans and that Bad needs to come to them. Bad agrees.

IMAGINE DREAM FINDS A FUCKED UP TOMMY, HE'S CRYING AND SHIT, ALSO PROLLY DRUNK??? LIKE STOLE LIQUOR FROM WILBUR (or imagine they find Tommy cause he broke into their base and stole all their liquor- LMAOOOO-) AND IS FUCKING H A M M E R E D AND DREAM HELPS HIM, BEING SOFT N SHIT, LETTING HIM SLEEP IN DREAMS BED, AND WHEN TOMMY WAKES HUNGOVER AS FUCK DREAM ASKS HIM WHAT HAPPENED AND TOMMY EXPLAINS (god I cannot do ANYTHING that involves Tommy without adding angst IM SORRY) (you make up a scenario, I'm lazy) AND DREAM TAKES HOME TOMMY CAUSE TOMMY IS HUNGOVER AND WHEN SOMEONE ANSWERS THE DOOR (TOBY??? WE LOVE SEEING PROTECTIVE TOBY AAAAAAAA-)  THEY GET ALL PISSED CAUSE dream bad person, he kills us, and now he has Tommy who was missing all night, I wILL KILL HIM-Aa AND TOMMY DEFENDS DREAM AND SHIT AND THEN EVERYONE IS SURPRISED BUT THANKS DREAM AND DREAM SAYS 'don mention it' AND LEAVES AND TOMMY prolly gets grounded for life cause he got drunk and also went missing for a whole ass night???? lol loser)

imagine everyone (ie. dteam, l'manburg boys, sleepybois, the trio, etc etc) all have a job working for the mafia. after a mission (idk they steal something from someone, no killing cause a child is on the job), Tommy asks dream to give him a ride home and offers to pay for gas money. and dream's already taking out his keys like 'ur like twelve no you don't have to pay gas money get in the jeep child' LMAOOO

Totoro recasted

mei kusakabe - Tommy

satsuki kusakabe - wilbur

tatsuo kusakabe (their father) - Phil

yasuko kusakabe (their mother) - nonexistent. instead of a mother, it'll be a brother, aka techno

kanta ōgaki - dream

granny (yes that's her name) - uhhh fuck idk. I would say voiceoverpete but he sexually harrassed some girls so no. y'all can figure that one out ig.

totoro and the chibi totoro's are normal.

kiki's delivery service

kiki - Tommy

jiji - wilbur

lily - niki (:DDDDD)

tombo kopoli - toby (BUT ITS PLATONIC)

osono - idk phil (BTW, OSONO IS A PREGNANT WOMAN. SO HAVE FUN WITH THAT???)

fukuo - techno

ursula - idk fundy????

'dream looked at the crying teenager who was being held by wilbur. tommy was sobbing, coughing on occasion. bad and eret had quickly got off of the ground after comforting the younger teen and walked over to the rest of the group, either not caring or remembering that tommy was the enemy.

"tommy- why would you go out and try to negotiate with THEM?" wilbur asks panic and a slight amount of annoyance evident in his tone. dream whips his head up instantly, offended.

"you think WE did this? jesus wilbur, i know you think we're horrible people but horrible enough to do that?" dream questions, glaring at wilbur through the mask. e opens his mouth to say something but tommy cuts him off.

"t-they didn't-" he coughs harshly, "do it." he manages to weaky finish, burying his face back into his older brothers neck. dream doesn't know how tommy knows that dream and his group were innocent but is thankful that tommy defends them, because he knew that when wilbur gets angry, he'd call techno. and everyone is scared of techno. wilbur makes eye contact with dream or the closest thing they can get to that, and subtly nods his head as an apology. dream accepts it, knowing he would probably blame them if they were somehow in the same situation, giving the same nod back to wilbur. dream thinks for a second, just a split second, that maybe tommy was overreacting, but he quickly shuts himself down, chastising himself as that was a cold thing to think, even for the sadistic man.

because he knew, that at the age of sixteen, he would probably be crying if he had been almost hanged in front of seven people who were out for blood. even if he knew they didn't do it. which caused his heart to yearn to comfort the child even more.' ok so basically someone (we don't know who) sets up a trap for tommy that wraps a rope around his neck and hangs him, which goes off while he's trying to negotiate with dteam. dteam calls wilbur while eret and bbh comfort tommy, and everyone else tries to figure out who set the trap because even the dteam aren't sadistic enough to do that.

ok fuck it adding in other people

"Playing in the backyard, whispering in the dark, catching fireflies with mason jars." Wilbur says this line, talking about how much fun they had as kids.

"It's 2007, the closest that I'll ever get to heaven, but I can't see that far." Phil says this one, and flashbacks show four-year-old Tommy running around with his older siblings while Phil watches, as a calendar in the background shows that its 2007.

"You were just a baby, of course, you'll always be my little lady," Techno says this, and a flashback shows (now) nine-year-old Tommy after getting his haircut, and the first thing he says is, "I LOOK LIKE A GIRL!". A calendar shows that the year is 2012.

"But then you were free." All three say this line, each giving their own perspective on it. Wilbur thinks about how much he is pressured by being a streamer so young while dealing with people who tell him to ||off himself|| every day. Techno thinks about how much he is pressured going through highschool while being popular. Phil things about how much he is pressured by life in general, dealing with the pressure of upcoming jobs, taxes, love, etc.

"Before you started, bout what you were wearing, God you're turning into me." Surprisingly, Bad says this line. He can't help but think that Tommy is probably a little self-conscious, like him, due to some specific things both of their chats say about them. (I DONT THINK TOMMYS CHAT IS AS MEAN AS BADS BUT LETS PRETEND IT IS FOR NOW)

"I just wanna hold your little face, look at you and say," Sap says this line, smiling at how innocent Tommy can seem at times (COUGH COUGH CRAFTING TABLE).

"It's not as good as it seems." Schlatt says this line, talking about how much Tommy seems to wish to grow up (or become a become a buisness man).

"Cause growing up's forever," George says this line, smiling faintly as he remembers what he was like as a kid.

"It never gets better than being a kid with a dream." Dream (lol) says this line, speaking directly to a sixteen-year-old Tommy. A calender in the background shows that the year is 2020.

HERES ANOTHER ONE BECAUSE I DONT HAVE A LIFE

Fallen Kingdom - Cover by Katelyn Lapid.

"I gazed off into the boundless skyline." It shows Tommy leaning against a railing over a cliff, staring at the sunset. He's crying. He's wearing all black. He looks dead inside.

"Noteblock choirs playing in the sunshine." As the camara moves away from Tommy, it moves to a graveyard. On the gravestone that a crowd has gathered around is the words, 'R.I.P Techno. The king forever and always.' As the people (I.E, Wilbur, Phill, Dream, etc.) gathered around him are shown crying as well.

"Turn around, pick up my sword, and wield." Dream turns around and grabs Technos cape and sword, setting it onto the casket before it is lowered into the ground.

"The blade that once forced evil mobs to yield." A flashback is shown of Techno, Phill, Wilbur, and Tommy all laughing as they run through a forest.

"If this battle should leave me slain." A different flashback shows Techno talking to Wilbur, just before a fight (you can pick which, maybe the ender dragon?) telling him to leave him if he gets close to death.

"I know Herobrine will call my name." A little farther forward into the flashback, Techno is on the ground dying with Phill kneeling next to him, trying to help Techno stay alive.

"Better to take a stand." Wilbur and Tommy run over, just as Techno begins to lose consciousness.

"And that was when I ruled the land." Techno hands Tommy his crown, and then dies in Phill and Wilburs arms.

Yeah sorry for the angst.

Play Date by Melanie Martinez.

In the beginning, where the music plays, Dream is shown surrounded by the (dead) bodies of Sap and Bad, and then stalks George to his house.

"You call me on the telephone, you feel so far away." A flashback where Dream is shown calling their house phone constantly, asking where they are and mocking them.

"You tell me to come over, there's some games you want to play." Another part of the flashback shows Sap finally answering, and telling him to come over. He says that they just want to watch some movies. What Dream isn't supposed to know, is that there's a trap set up for him. (which fails miserably, and probably is the reason that Dream's mask is broken.)

"Walk into your house, nobody's home." George walks into his house, closely followed by Dream. George calls out for Sap and Bad, but their dead (obviously).

"Just me and you, and you and me alone." A creepy zoom in of Dream in the dark holding a bloodied sword. His mask is a little broken, and you can see him smiling. Sap and Bad are shown respawning in a field.

"We're just playin' hide n seek." Dream pins George up against a counter and holds a knife to his throat, telling him that he wants to play (drumroll please) hide and seek (wowowowow what a surprise). Bad and Sap begin to go in the right direction to where they last died.

"It's gettin hard to breathe." George attacks Dream (like a fuckin idiot) and Dream reacts by using chloroform to knock out George (which works.).

"Under the sheets with you." George wakes up in a basement, with a sheet over his head, with Dream sitting in the corner.

"I don't wanna play no games. I'm tired of chasin', chasin' after you." Dream says, 'I don't wanna play games with you, I want to marry you.' Bad and Sap are shown fighting some more mobs.

"I don't give a fuck about you anyways. Whoever said I gave a shit 'bout you?" George rejects him, and Dream says "I don't give a fuck about you anyways. Whoever said I gave a shit 'bout you?" (who woulda guessed?) but since George can't see, Dream starts crying. (Awww, almost feel bad for him.) Sap and Bad are now in the forest where they died.

"You never share your toys or communicate." George yells at him for always ignoring Sap and Bad, and only paying attention to him. He says that its Dreams own fault that he got kicked out of the group. Sap and Bad reach where they died last, and grab all of their stuff that will help them kill Dream.

"I guess I'm just a play date to you." Dream starts to kill George by putting lava around him, and the wooden chair that George is sitting in catches fire. Sap and Bad are almost there.

As the music plays, Dream leaves the basement, just as Sap and Bad arrive, now fully equipped with gear. They hear George screaming, and run past Dream, who follows them. When they open the door, Dream pushes them down. They fall into the lava and die, just as George dies from the fire.

Big Hero 6 Au (mostly here for the family dynamic at the beginning)

Hiro: Tommy

Tadashi: Wilbur

Aunt Cass: Phil

idk who the fuck techno is, you can write him yourself ig, but Tadashi's friends are Lunch Club :p

GOD I LOVE ANGST SORRY

Techno joins the server, and instantly starts beating the shit out of people (not killing) on the other side for what they did to Tommy, Wilbur, and the rest of L'manburg. As he corners Eret, he mutters, "Backstabbing bastard..." with a glint in his eyes, and raises his sword to kill him (You can even do a rlly cool shot of Techno's POV where he sees everything in red :oooo), he stops. You can see someones arms around his neck.

Tommy's hugging Techno, sobbing, and asking him to stop hurting everyone. Eret scrambles away, and (if you added it) Techno stops seeing red. The murderous glint in his eyes go away. He drops his sword and hugs back.

(Then if you want to contuine the comic/more angst, Tommy gasps suddenly. Techno instantly backs away. He sees a red stain on Tommy's shirt, near his chest. Tommy collaspes. Dream is standing behind him, smiling, holding Techno's discarded sword. Tommy starts to die, and Techno goes fucking sicko mode, and almost kills Dream [with his bare hands because Dream has his sword]. Techno can just barely hear Tommy call his name, and instantly backs away from Dream, running over to Tommy. He either A, brings Tommy back to L'manburg and heals him up, or B, Tommy dies in Techno's arms and Techno is scarred for life and vows to get revenge. [Maybe Dream gets scarred for life too because 'holy shit i didnt mean to kill him oh no i killed a teenager'])

Option C, WILBUR AND PHIL WALK UP TO THEM AND STAY WITH TOMMY AND TECHNO FOR TOMMY'S FINAL MOMENTS

option D, tommy starts to bleed out and they patch him up and he becomes delirious and starts talking abt how much he loves them (PLATONICALLY) and will miss them if he dies. they reassure him that he wont die, and tell him that they love him too, but he starts writing a will with his own blood (which they quickly stop him from doing) and then he continues babbling on and on about toby and fundy and everyone else fro l'manburg and how nice they are and that he loves them.

(he also talks abt niki and says 'shes really pretty and nice, i was kinda mean to her wasnt i' and wilbur smacks him on the head and goes 'yeah, be nice.' and everyone just laughs and- AUGHSHS)

when they get back to l'manburg and tommy starts recovering phil techno and wilbur all tell them how he was talking abt how he loves them and they all get him gifts and- AAAAAAA

tommy starts crying because 'oh my god everyone is so nice holy shit i am overwhelmed'

maybe tommy even talks about how he likes dteam too, and phil tells them what he said and they all soften and boom war is over. (when telling dream what tommy said abt him [idk smth like 'hes cool and nice sometimes and stopped me from drinking vodka once' and phil is pissed that tommy drank vodka but whatever] phil just casually throws shade like 'yeah while he took him home cause he was bleeding out he was delirious from blood loss and then started talking about how he looked up to you' and dream feels bad and stops the war)

suggestion: we all know sbi + tommy (TM) being siblings is the BEST thing ever, right?

what if we were to add dream???

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITES

tommy getting beat up at home even more now :DDDD but he genuinely looks up to dream (along with his other siblings) and tries to be cool and dream makes fun of him for it but secretly dream finds it rlly adorable and he and phil gush abt it together.

dream and wilbur never 'dated' cause uh??? incest is sincest. but the two are still rlly close and bond over their 's/os' being stolen by an e-girl (george and maia, niki and minx) (YES I JUST CALLED MAIA AN EGIRL, CRY ABOUT IT)

techno and dream having the BIGGEST rivalry (unless it comes to beating up tommy, they literally will ALL throw hands with him LMAOOOO) and get into 'play' fights all the time

phil and dream lit rally just vibin, like all the time??? although tommy getting beat up stresses phil out even more, but tats fine because phil doesnt need to know (when phil finds out theyre all gonna ge BEAT lmaooo)

he pretends he hates his siblings but he doesnt, and he gets into fights a BUNCH (not as much as tommy tho LMAOOO) cause his siblings are always fucking fighting and he needs to defend them like omg calm down

literally just beats up tommy??? like i cant stress this enough????? will see tommy making a sammich atlike 3am and he just??????? punches him like six times?????????? and tells him to go to bed????????????????? and calls him a moron??????????????????????? (he then tells wilbur and techno the next day, who in turn beat him up and threaten to tell phil) (tommy now has to make sammiches in secret) (poor tommy)

[My friend Pillar wrote this] im sorry but- techno and dream are close in age and go to school- and have half the same classes- and are competitive as fuck?? and phil is constantly buying bandaids because the two of them fight OTHERkids at school and EAChother at home

THEY TRY TO SEE WHO CAN FIGHT THE MOST ASSHOLES- 😭😭

"Okay so-" "I got like... 7 this week, theres no way you-" "HAH NEEEEERD! I got 8! AND the twins after science class- you *know* thats an extra point!" "Your kidding- no way! No one said anything about that, your lying!!" "Of course I'm not!" and somehow they start to fight

[i wrote this stuff] imagine dream gets a better score than techno on a test (both are RLLY smart LOOOOLLLL) and techno just like??? fucking kicks the shit outta dream??? and they both come home with like fucjing black eyes and bloody noses and phils either like 'omg whta happeened whtf' or 'goddamntpt agian????'

dream and wilbur dont beat eachother up (often) so everyone thinks theyre dating cause they hang out a lot and dont look alike and *thats* where that came from (they were quick to debunk the theory and were just- yucked out????) (is yucked a word? prolly not LOOOLLLLL)

tommy and tubbo are always fighting (i love writing tommy fighting someone/someone fighting tommy, fuck off) and people like ALWAYS side with tubbo no matter WHAT because they always assume he's innocent, and that little shit (hes a devious motherfucker im tellin ya) uses it to his advantage

tommy gets beat up (I LIKE THE IDE A OKAY????) because 'stop fighting tubbo, hes done nothing wrong' and tommys like 'nothing wrong??? ...HE FUCKIGN THREW A GLASS BOTTLE AT ME-' 'i did no such thing!' 'ITS CAUGHT ON CAMERA YOU FUCKING MORON'

TW: Thoughts of soup-of-side, thoughts of self harm, eating less, depression, bullying, drinking, sneaking out.

"tommy gets beat up by dream (in the sibling way) (TM) and someone makes fun of him for it and tells tommy that he deserves so much worse. the person starts to constantly bully and harrass tommy for no reason and tommy starts changing as a person because of it. he gets quieter, stops talking as much, stops going out as much. he stops talking to his friends as much, and he genuinely starts believing that he deserves nothing and that he's just a burden.

he puts up a facade around his family and, at first, they had caught on almost instantly. but now, after a couple of months of lying to his friends and teachers, his voice doesnt seem to waver as he tells people that 'he's fine'. his eyes dont sting as he walks away from people who bought it. he's better at lying.

he starts to hate everyone around him for not noticing. he wants to be helped, but doesnt know how to say it. he wants to take it out on something, on someone, but cant bring himself to. his temper gets worse. he starts sneaking out at night and drinking. he starts talking to bad people. he stops caring.

then dream goes to hit him again, and tommy just sees the bully, standing infront of him, talking down to him. he panics, and runs up to his room in the middle of dinner, locking the door and not opening it as his siblings ask him whats wrong. he ends up waking up to all of his siblings cuddling with him, and yet again, he breaks down.

they tell him how phil has keys to all of their rooms, and tommy tries to joke about it but cant, instead just sobbing. he tells them everything, about how he hasnt been eating much, about his wish for self harm, about how he wishes for death. everyone cries.

over several months (and therapy), they start to help him slowly believe that he is worth it. that he'll never not be worth it. that everyone is worth it. he stops drinking as much, stops sneaking out, stops listening to the little voices in his head that tell him that he's not worth it. he starts going out again, starts eating more, starts being happier, and he may not be completely ok but goddammit he was close enough."

its a slow burn but i LIKE slow burns ok.

[writingsbychlo]

Fluffy fftommy idea. Nurse readers cat gets stuck up a tree and runs to the fire station across from her house asking for help. Tommy helps her but the cat isn’t very nice to strangers and nurse reader patched him up after getting the cat down. Fluffy?

it would actually be newt that spots you first

he’s unpacking the ambulance and you’re pacing up and down in front of the firehouse and staring at it, which in retrospect, you realise probably made you look like a threat.

but then he realises he kinda recognises you from the hospital, he’s pretty sure you’re one of the nurses he sees sometimes when he drops people off.

he comes out and asks you if he can help you with anything, and you just kinda break down.

“I did something really stupid, and you’re probably going to laugh at me, which is okay, but I need help, and I didn’t know where else to go-”

“did you set something on fire? because we am handle that, it’s what we do, but we should probably get to it.”

“not exactly.. i opened my window.”

he just kinda stares at you for a minute to explain

“I have this really old indoor house cat and I opened my bedroom window because it’s hot, and he jumped out into a tree and I can’t get him but now he’s stuck and I think he’s going to fall!”

he’s trying not to laugh

“okay, um,-” checks your name tag, still can’t read it and actually lifts it up. “(Y/N). you’re a nurse, right? I’ll send one of our guys over, what’s your address?”

you list it off, right around the corner, and newt is smirking a bit as he watches you go.

because thomas has been hung up on teresa for months now, even though she left him a year ago, because he thinks he has no game left and nobody will want him, and you’re exactly his type. cute and funny, and you need a knight in shining fire truck.

so, he sends thomas over to save a little old lady’s cat, not a hot young nurse. otherwise thomas would have diverted to minho.

thomas stutters a little bit when he walks over and you’re standing there staring up into a tree with a pout on your lips and your hands on your hips, trying to tell a cat to sit still and be patient.

“I-Is this your g-grandma’s cat?”

he’s already setting up a ladder, and he decided you might have the prettiest damn smile he’s every seen as you jump a little and turn to look at him.

“nope, my cat.” thomas just kinda makes an ‘o’ face and blushes, and then you’re giggling a bit, and damn, if that isn’t the prettiest sound he ever heard

and he thinks that nobody, never mind strangers in pale blue scrubs and messy ponytails, should be able to have him whipped this fast

“did you draw the short straw? it would be less embarrassing if I was a little old lady, wouldn’t it? what kind of woman can’t get her own cat out of a tree?”

“the cute ones, apparently.”

he has no idea where that came from, and he kind of wants to choke on own breath, or just keep climbing up into the tree and get stuck with the cat, but then you make that cute little laugh again and he feels better

“well, if I didn’t, I’d never be able to call on handsome firefighters to come to the rescue, huh?”

he slips, and hits his forehead on a branch. he can’t stop smiling though, even when you’re asking him if he’s alright and he should probably be more embarrassed

his head hurts though

when he finally gets the cat, it freaks out, and scrabbles a little bit in his arms, and there’s a fair amount of scratches on his shoulders, arms and jaw when he finally touches ground again, and hands the furry ball of stress to you.

you put him down inside and close the door, and thomas disassembles the ladder, kinda wishing he’s worn a jacket and not just his ‘FD’ t-shirt now.

“you want me to patch you up? those are some mean scratches.”

scratch that, he wishes he’d worn no shirt at all, and taken a little longer bringing the cat back so you had more to patch up.

you invite him inside, and exchange names, and he thinks your perfume smells amazing when you stand close to him to start cleaning up his cuts. it stings a little, and he kinda wants to reach out and grab your legs as you stand between his looking down at him, but he resists the urge.

instead, he asks you about how the cat got into the tree, and what you said to newt when you came by, and about the hospital, to which he promises to say ‘hi’ when he sees you next.

after that, he leaves, and he’s half-way down the road before thinking ‘fuck it’ and making a U-turn and coming right back.

except, you had exactly the same thought, and right as he’s about to knock on the door, you open it, and you barely dodge in time before getting hit in the face.

he holds your face in his hands, looks absolutely mortified at almost having punched you for a second, before the two of you are laughing.

“are you going out?”

“to see you, actually. is that embarrassing?”

he just shrugs a little bit, shoving his hands in his pockets when he realises he’s still holding your face and if he doesn’t let go soon, he might just kiss you.

“you lost your cat in a tree and i hit my head on a tree branch because you called me ‘handsome’, I think we’ve reached out quota for embarrassing. I have none left. which is why I have no shame about walking all the way back here just to ask you out. I didn’t want to wait until I got to see you again at the hospital.”

“a date?”

“that’s what I was hoping.” he does that cute little neck scratch thing as he starts to get shy.

“I was really hoping you’d ask that, actually, but then you left, and I’m not really one to chase after a guy, but I was about to walk all the way to the firehouse again, so, definitely yes.”

he has this cute little bashful grin on his face, before you exchange numbers, and arrange something. dinner, two days from now, real casual. just pizza and a walk around the park. that’s it. and you love it.

before he goes, you place a little kiss to his cheek, and he turns his head, catching your lips instead and grinning when he feels you press back into him just as eagerly. he pulls back before it gets any further.

when he gets back to the firehouse, for real, newt is waiting there and so is everybody else, who newt let in on the plan after he left.

“how’d it go?”

“it was a cat in a tree. I got it down.” everybody sighs a little bit, clearly disappointed, and thomas goes straight to the coffeemaker, back to them all, not seeing their reactions when he smiles to himself and says. “oh, yeah, and I also got a date.”

[surrerafics]

The narrative….

Andy and Robert constantly argue about unresolved issues within their marriage because they don’t practice communication. Their pride and egos get in the way of that. They’re both stubborn, hardworking and strong-minded first responders. They often replace communication for sex for the tension rising in their marriage which has made matters worse. Andy has a lot of decisions to make concerning her marriage and a new unexpected surprise that has popped up to make matters even more complicated than they already were. Now that Andy is furious with her husband about causing Maya to lose her job she’s not so sure she really knows her husband at all. Decisions! Decisions!

ROBERT AND ANDY AT HOME IN BED -DAY

Andy- okayyy it’s not Carinas French toast but it’s the only thing I know how to make for breakfast.

Robert- It looks amazingggg. (Kissing Andy) then pulls her in for more.

Andy- Maya asked me to step in for her for the week.

Robert- step in?

Andy- As acting captain.

Robert- Doesn’t the department usually send a sub for bereavement leave?

Andy- well, due to COVID and stuff they said that one of the lieutenants could do it so she asked me!

(Robert becomes silent) and you’ve gone all quiet.

Robert- No, no, no(kisses Andy) it’s good. I’m happy for you!

Andy- yeah?!

Robert- Yes! You were made for this!

Andy- plus, it couldn’t hurt to be sleeping with the boss right?!

Robert-No special treatment just like when I was your captain.

Andy- well maybe a little special treatment! (Puts hand under the covers playing with his….em hem!)

(Andy’s POV)

Station 19- Night

Locker Room

Robert comes in while Andy is changing

Robert- Andy I have more experience than you. Decades more. It’s just.. Andy interrupts Robert.

Andy- Are you trying to help yourself here?

Robert- Can I finish? I have years under my belt. Okay. And I’m not using them on the job so I guess I thought I could use them to help you. Help you didn’t ask for I get it. *sighing* come on. I just need you to understand where I’m coming from.

Andy- look, I get that you hate being a probie. I hate you being a probie.

Robert- hey, hey. We found a common ground. Let’s just end this another way.

Andy- No, Robert we need to talk about this.

Robert: You’re only Captain for another shift and then Bishop comes back. Then this won’t be a problem anymore.

Andy: yeah, except I’ll still be your lieutenant and hopefully soon, one day after that a captain for real.

Robert: Not hopefully. you will.

Andy: Well, then this is a problem we need to solve.

Robert: well, is it a problem we need to solve tonight?

Andy: I guess not.

Robert gets up to finish taking out the trash and leaves the locker room as Andy looks complexed.

(Andy and Roberts POV)

The SULLIVAN’s Home - Bedroom- NIGHT

Later that night after work.

Andy tries to make an attempt to have the same conversation about him undermining her authority at work in the locker room.

Andy: Baby, *sighing* why do you have an issue with titles and your wife ranking higher than you?

Robert: babe, I thought we weren’t gonna try and solve this problem tonight?

Andy: I know but…. (Robert interrupts Andy by grabbing her and begins kissing her passionately and deep)

He begins to undress her while still kissing her passionately and seductively. Andy falls weak to her husbands advances and gives in. They move over to their bed and they begin to become intimate throughout the night.

A Few Weeks LATER….

Station 19- Day

Andy is in the beanery scoffing down sugary cereal with her hands when suddenly she was hit with a sudden feeling of nausea and started for the ladies room, while met with Travis on his way to the beanery.

Travis to Andy as they run into each other asks Andy if she’s okay.

Travis- oops! Sorry Herrera. Hey, you feeling okay?

Andy- it’s okay. Uumm, yeah! Just got to run to the ladies locker room for something.

Travis looks confused.

Ben and Robert are in the turnout room having a conversation while organizing gear and equipment.

Robert- You know being demoted was no ones fault but my own, but this is hard being a probie. I feel as though all my hard working years as a firefighter has gone to waste. I feel useless now.

Ben- Ey, look man I know it isn’t easy and hearing that you can work your way up seems like dead hope to you, but you’re not useless and despite what you might be feeling you are a great asset to,19. I mean you did help run it before.

Robert- You know I find myself reminiscing about my days back in Montana and how I miss the weather and my days there as Captain. You know I moved there after my wife Claire died.

Ben- Sounds like you’re missing Montana a lot. You thinking of going back there? Maybe a little getaway for you and the Mrs?

Robert- Nah, man haven’t given it much thought,to return there anytime soon but it has crossed my mind a time or two.

The fire alarm sounds. People stuck inside a burning house. Robert, Ben and the team rush to the location. Upon arriving Captain Bishop orders the team to get in for search and rescue inside the burning house. Everyone has been safely rescued except a neighbor realizes and informs Captain Bishop that a little boy is missing and that he could still be stuck inside. The team finds him with 3rd degree burns inside of a closet. Upon bringing him out the commander in chief orders Captain Bishop to wait for an aid truck to come and transport the little boy to Greys-Sloan Hospital, but Bishop goes against the Chiefs orders and orders her team to put him on the fire truck to the hospital instead. Now, Bishops job could be in jeopardy.

Andy and Sullivan were called into the chief commissioner’s office. After speaking with them he asked Sullivan to stay as Herrera walked out. Herrera stood by the door to listen in on the conversation.

Chief- Sullivan. Hold on a minute.(Herrera walks out)Have a seat. You appointed Bishop? What’s your take?

Sullivan- She’s a good captain sir. I basically raised her up myself.

Chief- But she’s gotten cocky. I’ve been hearing things. Taking her team to protests. Defying cops on the scene.

Sullivan-Well, those things are separate conversations…

Chief- But there both indicative of Bishop acting outside the balance of the Seattle Fire department. Ummm…. Your record…

Robert- yea Sir, I know I made mistakes. But I’m clean , sober, strong

Chief- we can’t afford anymore bad press for our first responders

Robert- No, we can’t. This team stood behind me when my job was on the line. They have my back and I have theirs. I can get this house in order sir. You do not want these fire fighters talking to the press saying that FD values protocol over their kids lives. You need someone who can reunite them and that someone is me. Plus with me you get a Battalion chief for the price of a Captain.

Andy hears what Sullivan says outside the door and walks away enraged.

The SULLIVAN’s home- Day

Maya’s Wedding Day

Andy walks into hers and Roberts bedroom and throws the covers on their bed after sleeping on the couch.

Robert- You really didn’t have to sleep on the couch you know.

Andy-The only reason I slept here and not at Maya’s is because it’s her wedding day and I don’t want her to know what you did. Not today.

Robert- What I did was save your job Andy!

Andy- This is not a discussion! This is not a discussion! Because today I am a maiden of honor and if we have a discussion I will say some things that are very very not maiden like or honorable!

Robert- This is absurd.

Andy- You don’t get to tell me what’s absurd. (Walks away …. Be there by 5!) slams door!

Two weeks later….

Andy is talking to Dean in the locker room area.

Dean- what’s up , kiddo? You okay? You look …

Andy- I know. I don’t look my best these days. I don’t feel like myself. I’m questioning everything including my marriage and if marrying Robert was such a great idea. I mean sure I married the man I love but I also married the man I love for the sake of my Dad having the opportunity to walk his only daughter down the aisle and give her away before his cancer took control which, in turn he didn’t die of but died saving his family. But after what ROBERT did… I’m, I’m just not… I don’t know what I’m trying to say.

(Robert overhears their conversation outside of the lockers.)

Dean-I’m probably not the best person to talk about this too. I’m not an expert or anything but it appears you two have issues communicating. My only advice is maybe seek therapy and talk it out. Maybe alone , then with Sullivan. My advice? Contact Dr. Diane Lewis and schedule a session with her. We all know she’s really good. I wish you both the best.

Andy- Maybe you’re right. I’ll sleep on it.

After Dean leaves and Robert slipped away so that Dean and Andy wouldn’t know what he had just heard between them. Robert looks really down and depressed because he has no one and the entire team, including his wife aren’t really talking to him.

A SUDDEN REVELATION

Suddenly Andy holds her stomach and runs off to the ladies locker room and pukes in the toilet. Afterwards, she brushes her teeth and swishes with mouthwash to get the nasty taste out of her mouth over the sink. Andy looks at herself and whispers under her breath, “Oh, no! I can’t be! Andy suddenly realized with everything that had been going on in her life from her family secrets, the loss of her dad and best friend to the underlying unresolved issues in her marriage that a few times she forgot to take her birth control pills. There have been plenty of times Andy and Robert were intimate without using any form of protection. Andy looks at her phone to check her app that keeps track of her monthly cycles and realized she was already a few weeks late! Andy hurries out to the nearest pharmacy to purchase a pregnancy test and heads back to the station.

POSITIVE RESULTS!

After taking two separate tests Andy discovers her worst fear of being pregnant! She is anything but thrilled about it as she never really saw herself being a mother or a wife of that matter. Also, with her marriage on the rocks she’s just not sure what her next steps are.

Takes phone out to schedule an appointment with Dr. Diane Lewis.

ANDY’S THERAPY SESSION WITH DR. DIANE LEWIS.

Dr Diane’s Lewis’s office- DAY

Dr. Diane- Welcome Andy.

Andy- HI. thank you for clearing your schedule to see me today.

Dr. Diane- Well, you seemed a bit distraught and troubled when I listened back to your voicemail. You seemed desperate. So, what seems to be your problem?

Andy- (blurts out) I’m not so sure marrying my husband was such a great idea!

Dr. Diane.- Why do you say that? It’s okay. You can say it. It’s strictly confidential.

Andy- I won’t go into details. Ever since Robert was demoted he hasn’t been himself. He thinks I’m ashamed of him because he was demoted to a probie. We don’t communicate. We substitute conversation for good sex to ease the tension of our unresolved issues. He did something to cause someone close to me lose her position just so he can climb back up to battalion chief as if that title defines him.. it’s … DR DIANE INTERRUPTS ANDY….

Dr. Diane- for someone who didn’t want to say too much you just said a mouthful.

Andy- maybe you were right. Maybe I’m with my husband cause he’s like a father figure or someone who could fill my fathers shoes as Battalion chief.

Dr. Diane- Do you love him? Are you in love with your husband?

Andy- I do love my husband and in love but as of late I’m questioning everything. All we do is work, argue and have good sex. That’s a recipe for a disastrous marriage. And, and I’m afraid I won’t be a good mom or end up just like my mother who, had postpartum depression, never wanted to be a mother or married. She only wanted to fight fires. (Andy touches her stomach)

Dr Diane- you’re afraid you won’t be a good mom? Are you expecting?

Andy- (hesitantly) yes. I just found out two days ago.

Dr. Diane- And let me guess. You’re not thrilled about it? Have you told your husband?

Andy- Not exactly. I haven’t told him yet. I realized when I found out my mother was alive and learning why she abandoned me and my father I realized I’m just like her. I was once proposed to by jack before meeting Robert and I remember distinctly telling him I didn’t want to be married or have a family. That I didn’t want something separate because the firehouse was my family and fighting fires and making captain was all that mattered to me. It’s like I’m mirroring my mothers life reincarnated. I never wanted any of this. Yet I’m afraid for him because I’m all my husband has.

Dr DIANE- Let me ask you this. Do you want to save your marriage or get out? Is it worth fighting for? How badly do you want this marriage?

Andy- I love my husband. There isn’t a doubt. I only regret how rushed our marriage was as we really didn’t get to do the dating phase to learn how to deal with each other’s past. I honestly wish we could have a do-over but right now I don’t have the energy to even speak with him. I’m pretty stubborn.

Dr. Diane- seems you’re carrying the burdens of your mother and the burdens of your husband. You’re worried about abandoning your baby and becoming like your mother. And you’re afraid of what possibly leaving your marriage behind due to what it may do to him. Andy, that is a quite a heavy load for one person to carry. I think it’s time you had another meeting with your mom and express these concerns to her so that you may get closure and more clarity on what it is you need to do concerning your life’s decisions.

Later as Andy leaves Dr. Diane’s office she heads back to the Station as she recognizes a familiar face…. Her Mother’s Elena. Andy looks taken a back.

Elena- Hello Mi hija .

Andy- What, what are you doing here? It’s really weird as I was thinking of calling you anyway.

Elena- you were? I, I just wanted to see how you were.

Andy- actually, not good. We need to talk. Let’s take a walk.

Scene intercuts to Robert packing a bag and highlights on his phone that he’s just purchased a ticket to Montana.

Andy and her mom Elena are sitting on a park bench discussing some very pressing matters that’s concerning Andy and the decisions she needs to make about her marriage and the growing little being inside of her.

Elena- what’s wrong Andrea?

Andy- I’m pregnant. Just found out a couple of days ago, my marriage is in shambles and my husband doesn’t know I’m pregnant yet.

Elena- you should be estactic!

Andy- yeah but I’m not.

Elena-why, why mija?

Andy- Because I’m just like you!! I never wanted to be married or become a mother! I guess the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree after all!

Elena- Then why did you marry him, Andy? Do you even love him?

Andy- Robert asked me to be his wife because he loves me and is in love with me, but we knew my Dad didn’t have long before his cancer would take its course on him so Robert and I got married really fast so that he could walk me down the aisle as one last memory of me and my Dad giving me away to Robert. And….yes I love him but I’m afraid I’m mirroring your life with my dad, who would suffer from mental illness, postpartum depression and won’t be able to bond with our child and leave them. What if I’m like you in that aspect? What if I inherited those same traits? but lately all we do is argue and have sex. We don’t communicate. We bump heads a lot. And his recent actions have me questioning if we should even remain married.

Elena- Andrea, considering the mistakes I’ve made what I’m about to say may not carry much weight to you but, from what your aunt Theresa has said about your husband he’s a really loving, caring and kind man and that he takes good care of you. If this is true, don’t make a permanent decision on temporary emotions or doubts. I know I don’t deserve to be in your life and I have no one to blame but myself, but you don’t have to be like me. You are not me. You have a loving heart and you need your husband. You need each other. And that baby you two made out of love need their parents just as much. I know I never said I was sorry but I am sorry nena for my selfish acts and leaving my child. You may not believe me but there were times of regret. Think this through. Talk to your husband. You don’t want to realize you made the wrong decisions and carry around regrets. It will haunt you Nena. It’s haunted me.

THE NARRATIVE

Andy thinks long and hard about what her mother shared with her and decides after their talk to pick up her phone and call her husband but he doesn’t answer and it goes straight to voicemail. Andy leaves a voicemail, then texts him so that he could get back to her sooner rather than later. Andy hasn’t been staying at home with Robert due to the marital issues they’ve been dealing with and has been couch hopping at Maya’s and at Deans. Meanwhile, Sullivan is on a plane to Montana to get away and clear his head. He feels alone at Station 19 and after hearing his wife’s thoughts and concerns about if marrying him was a mistake it broke his heart as he is afraid of losing the only good thing he has in his life and that’s his wife Andy. He couldn’t bare the thought of hearing his wife say to him that she wants a divorce. So, he packed up a bag and headed to Montana. Robert has no one in his life, no other family members that he’s close to or aware of. His only family is his wife. It’s two days later and Robert is on a plane and Any realizes her husband hasn’t returned any of her calls or messages and hurries on to the Station to see if he was there or to ask if anyone else has seen him. This was hers and Roberts day off so she couldn’t imagine why he wasn’t answering his phone. Andy runs into Vic and Travis and asks if they had seen her husband or if he had been by the station. They haven’t seen or heard from him. Vic asks Andy if everything is okay because she looked a bit flushed and frantic. Well, it’s been over 12 hours since I last contacted him and he hasn’t replied to any of my messages. Ben walks into the lobby where Andy, Vic and Travis are and asks what’s going on? Vic tells him how Andy is looking for Robert because he isn’t answering any of her messages and it’s been well over twelve hours since she contacted him with no avail. Andy asks Ben if he’s seen or heard from him and if he thought he’d have any idea where he would be or any strange behaviors with him. Ben tells Andy they had a brief conversation a few days ago and he seemed down in the dumps. Says he’s found himself reminiscing of his old life back in Montana back when he was Captain there. I asked him if he thought of taking the Mrs. well, you there for a little getaway and he said he hadn’t given that part much thought. Andy listens and softly says to the team that she had to go home and check into something and to please let her know anything if they hear anything from Robert.

ANDY DRIVES UP TO THEIR HOME.

Andy arrives at their home and quickly runs upstairs to their bedroom seeking Robert but he isn’t there and in their bedroom she finds his drawers open and begin looking though his old things to see if she can find any clues to where he could be. She soon finds old photos of him as a captain in MONTANA and spotted this photo of and a beautiful stow away cabin he would often resort to during get always or vacations Andy decided it was time for her to take a road trip to Montana to find her husband. In the back of her mind she’s thinking he may relapse because of everything that has transpired in their marriage and at work. Andy calls the station to tell them she’s gonna have to take off for a few more days to take care of a pressing matter and to please cover for her two two shifts. Andy packs a bag, hops in her car and heads for Montana. Before driving off, Andy takes the baby sonograms and places them in her cars glove compartment, takes a deep breath and starts for the road. The drive from Seattle to Montana is about a 10-12 hour drive. Andrea has been driving now for the past 5 hours straight. She’s tired and sleepy so she stops at a nice hotel for a nights stay and will pick up tomorrow and finish her trip to Montana. She grabs the sonogram from her gloves company, stares at it and takes it inside with her as she checks in to a room. She calls Robert one last time still with no avail of reaching him. She sent him another text and no reply still. So Andy settles in, takes a shower and climbs into bed with her baby sonogram on the night stand propped up next to her, while placing her hands on her now growing belly. Still in shock and hasn’t processed the reality that’s she’s pregnant. Andy is watching the tv but soon finds the tv is watching her as she soon dozed off.

THE NARRATIVE….

(Andy’s POV)

Andy is back on the road the next day headed for Montana and as she’s driving her mind wonders back to when she found out she was pregnant a few days ago and how Carina did a sonogram on her to see how the baby is and how far along she was. The baby’s heartbeat is fast and healthy. Andy begin to become emotional of the thought that a little being was growing inside of her. She had fears and all kinds of concerns because this pregnancy wasn’t planned and considering she’s never really wanted to become a mother just like her mom. Carina tells Andy she is about 6 in a half weeks along which shocked Andy but quickly explained her increasing appetite the past several weeks. Carina congrats her and Sullivan on their new addition and tells Andy to come back in six weeks for another check up on her and the baby. Andy comes back into her thoughts and stares at the sonogram in her right hand while the other hand is on the steering wheel. Andy has been driving a few hours now and should reach the address of the cabin she suspects her husband is staying at in about another hour and stops for gas and a nearby gas station and grabs a sandwich inside the store and a drink to carry her over till she arrives at the cabin. To keep from falling asleep Andy turns the radio up to keep her alert. Meanwhile, intercut to Robert settling in and laying up in his bed staring at pictures of him and Andy in happier times. He looks so lonely and broken and feels he no longer has anyone. Not even his wife whom he is so in love with. He puts the pictures down and breaks his thoughts of his wife to take a shower. He takes a nice long hot shower to release some stress and just stands under the shower allowing the water to fall off his head down his back. Meanwhile, Andy finally arrives at the cabin and quickly glances at the picture of the cabin she found in her husbands things back home in Seattle. Andy pauses for a moment before getting out of her car to approach the door, meanwhile, Robert is stepping out of the shower, drying off and wrapping his towel around his waist. Robert walks into the bedroom and suddenly hears a knock on the door. He grabs a shirt to throw on and sweats. He has no clue who it could be because no one would know him there except the owner who knew Sullivan back when he worked as captain back in the day in Montana. Robert creeps to the door to see who it is but it’s too dark too tell, so he cautiously opens the door to find a petite, fair-skinned and soft-spoken little lady standing before him, a little lady he calls his wife. It’s Andrea Herrera Sullivan. Robert has the the biggest , most shocking expression on his face to find his wife standing before him. Andy says hi to her husband and asks can she come in and he steps aside to let her in. Robert asks Andy what was she doing there and most importantly how did she find him?

Robert: Babe, what are you doing here? How did you find me?

Andy- That isn’t important right now. We need to talk.

Robert- I can’t live without you and if you came here to tell me you want a divorce I really can’t handle that right now.

Andy- What? A divorce? What makes you say that?

Robert- Andy, I overheard you talking with Dean in the lockers a few days ago. You’re doubting your decision to marry me. I panicked and took off. I have no one else. Everyone hates me and I just feel, that maybe I just don’t belong there anymore. I needed to come back to the one place I use to escape to when I was here and missing Claire —-this cabin.

(Andy grabs Roberts face and kisses him to assure him that everything is gonna be okay.)

Andy- baby, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you when you tried to explain to me about Maya’s position. I soon learned it wasn’t what I thought and that there were other parts of the conversation you had with the chief commissioner I missed because when I heard you offer up to be battalion chief at the expense of Maya being relieved of her duties I instantly assumed the worse and questioned if this marriage was a mistake. I had a therapy session with Dr. Diane Lewis and my mom and they made me realize some things. That I shouldn’t make a permanent decision on temporary emotions or misunderstandings. I had time to think about it and I realized I had a lot of thinking to do and decisions to make and I knew I couldn’t make those decisions without my husband and the father of my child. Robert’s expression upon hearing the news was priceless. He asked, Are you….? Andy replies, yes! Robert is in shock! Are you serious? He asked. I’m gonna be a father?! Andy says yes! How far along are you? I’m about six in a half weeks along. (Shows Robert the sonogram)Robert exclaims, “this explains your sudden increase in appetite and your appetite for more sex! He picks Andy up and swings her around in excitement and they kiss! He asks Andy, “Does this mean we’re not getting a divorce?” Andy replies, “No, but if we want our marriage to strive and survive I suggest we continue having counseling and learning how to communicate and respect each other at home and in the work place and now as parents. I know having tough conversations are hard but we must if we want this marriage to have a fighting chance. Do you agree on this that our marriage does need work and to seek counseling? Robert, I’ll do anything to keep from losing my wife and baby. I’m sorry for undermining your authority. I was just so use to being in charge and lost my confidence after being demoted to probie. Andy replies, I understand that it was hard and I know you’re on your way back up, so hang in there. I love you, babe. Andy responds,” I love you too baby.

Robert- How do you feel about the pregnancy?

Andy- well, I’m nervous and I feel a bit uncertain.

Robert- uncertain? Why?

Andy- because we only briefly spoke about having a family and with everything going on in both our lives where we weren’t able to catch a break the conversation was never continued. Baby, I was afraid of ending up like my mother. I honestly never wanted to become a mother or a wife of that matter just like my mom, I had fears of having mental illnesses like her or not able to bond with our baby and abandoned her or him. But who would’ve thought that the most unlikely person in my mom would be the one person who gave me hope in my marriage?

Robert- God and life has a way surprising us. Robert screams, “I’M GONNA BE A FATHER”!!!!

Andy and Sullivan kiss and put on some music and Salsa dance together! 💃🏻🕺🏾

Days later Robert and Andy return to Seattle to tell the team they are expecting a baby and that Andy is nearly two months pregnant! Instantly, Maya claims godmother and Ben as the baby’s Godfather! Vic, Travis and the team plan for a baby shower. The Sullivan’s tells the gang to chill for a bit as the baby shower is a long ways off, but he understood everyone’s excitement to have another firehouse baby in the station and a playmate for little Pru! With all of the excitement Andy runs to the restrooms to puke! Morning sickness has been rough on her lately. I guess that’s typically how it is during the first trimester. Robert runs behind her to check on her. Oddly enough after Andy puked she asked her husband for pickles and bananas over vanilla ice cream!🤮 Clearly, his wife’s weird ravings are through the roof. The Sullivan’s are tired after a very long road trip back to Seattle and are headed home but before that Robert stops by a supermarket to get his wife all of the foods she was craving and then they headed home. Once they arrived home they went upstairs and Robert ran him and the Mrs. a hot bubble bath to sit and relax. Andy sat in front of him in the tub while Robert rubbed both his hands on his wife’s growing belly. He whispers to Andy, “We made this baby in love from our love” and I already love him or her so much. Robert takes Andy’s hand and kisses it and then kisses her neck. Andy, I know. We made a lot of love. A baby was sure to pop up at some point. Under her breath she whispers,”I love you, baby.”

THE NARRATIVE….

7 in a half months later Andy is at work on desk and phone duty while the team Ben and Carina is out on a call for an elderly woman whose blood sugar dropped and fainted as her eldest daughter found her lying on the floor unconscious when she called for aid-car and Robert, Dean, Vic and Travis are on the other side of town putting out a building fire for a local business. Intercut back to Andy at the Station 19 was answering a,phone call at the front desk when she said, “uh-oh! The person on the other line was calling for her to answer, but couldn’t because her water broke! Another worker behind her took the phone and hung it up and Called for the aid car to transport Andy to Grey-Sloan Hospital. On the radio they alerted the team that Andy went into labor and her Husband Robert heard it, panicked and rushed to Grey-Sloan Hospital to be with his wife! Luckily, the team was already on they’re way back after completing their duties. With Carina being Andy’s physician and gynecologist she rushed to the hospital as quickly as she could! Robert arrives in a panic asking what room his wife was in and rushed to be with her! He was the only one that could be in the room with her during labor. He rushed by her side as he entered into the room and said, “Baby, “I’m here”! Are you okay?! How far apart are the contractions?! Right now every 5to 6 mins. I had just had one before you burst in the room! Robert took his wife’s hand and kissed her lips and her forehead. Carina comes into the room ready to check Andy to see how many centimeters she is. Carina checks Andy and she is about 6 centimeters so not too long before baby is born! As Andy attempts to say something a contraction hits and Robert tells her to breath it out slowly. Carina says I’ll be back to check you in an hour and that in the meantime she should try to rest during that time. Robert ask Andy if there was anything she needed and she asked for a cup of ice chips because her mouth was dry. Andy was a soldier and didn’t want an epidural but wanted to give birth naturally. So, Robert went and got her a cup of ice chips. Meanwhile, the station 19 crew were all out in the lobby awaiting to hear the birth of Robert and Andy’s baby and what they’re having because they agreed early in the pregnancy that they didn’t want to know the gender and to be surprised. At their baby shower the crew threw for Andy they all bought baby neutral items and loads of diapers of different sizes and phases of the babies growth. They were set for life! The team caught Robert headed back up to Andy’s room and asked how she was doing. Robert replied, My wife is a trooper and is doing well! She didn’t even want to have an epidural! I’ll keep you all posted. The baby should be born tonight as Andy Is at 6 centimeters now! Robert yells , “I gotta go”! Don’t wanna miss a thing! Robert heads back to Andy’s room and shocked to see Carina back so soon with a couple of nurses. Andy Is progressing so fast towards birth. I guess the Pitocin sped up the contractions because She was now at 8 centimeters dialated! Robert quickly washes his hands and puts on his scrubs and rushes back in to help his wife bring they’re child into the world. Only two more centimeters to go and it’s push time! 30 minutes later Andy is pushing for the 3rd time and they hear they baby cry! Sullivan is over the moon and so proud of his wife! Carina announces , “IT’S A GIRL”!!! Weighing in at 6LBS 10 ounces and 21” long! She’s gonna be tall like her father! Welcome to the STATION 19 world baby “TAINA ANDREA HERRERA SULLIVAN”!! Robert is given the honor of cutting the umbilical cord of his new baby daughter! 5 minutes after their daughters birth Robert burst out to the lobby to shout, “ITS A GIRL”!! To the crew! Baby and Andy are doing well. She came in weighing 6 lbs 10 ounces and 21 inches long! We named her TAINA ANDREA HERRERA SULLIVAN!! You can hear 19 ooohing and ahhhing over the beautiful name they chose for their baby daughter! Congratulations to the new parents!

The End

BABY SULLIVAN-COMING SOON!

[the-omni-princess]

Burnt (Firefighter!AU)

Author: @the-omni-princess

Summary: Another late night at the fire house is interrupted when dispatch calls out a very familiar address.

Pairing: Bucky x Fem!Reader 

Word Count: 2.3K

Prompt: Firefighter Au!

Warnings: Established Relationship, angst, fluff, gambling (kinda), brief mention of death and its implications, fire injuries (not burns, but smoke inhalation), loss of property because of a fire

A/N:

Written for @sunmoonandbucky

and their #1.5kconstellationswritingchallenge :D 

love ya babe <3

Also, while I looked up codes and such, I am probably really wrong at some of these, so if you happen to know the Brooklyn FDNY codes/dispatch please let me know so I can fix it :D

-

[My Masterlist]

---

It was late, however, the bright lights of the firehouse kept Bucky wide awake. He took another glance at the clock on the wall, but only a minute had passed since the last time he looked. Time seemed to move as slowly as possible.

“I know your shifts almost over, but if you paid attention, you might actually win the game,” Sam taunted him, letting his cards fall in front of him, an 8,7,6,5, and 4, a Straight.

Bucky, being the only other one left in the game, smirked faintly, “Keep dreaming, Sam,” he placed his own cards down. Every single one had a red diamond that seemed to stare straight into Sam’s soul. A Flush. He reached forward, grabbing his prize, the best snacks of the week from each of the crew, from the middle of the table.

Sam groaned loudly just as Steve laughed. “Better luck next time, Sam,” he teased, earning him a glare from the man. He turned towards Buck just as he pulled open the gummy snacks, determined to keep his mind off the counting clock. “Don’t worry Buck, in two hours you’ll be clocked out and passed out beside your gal,” he nudged him with his shoulder.

“Snuggled up with the millions of blankets she owns,” Natasha joined in, already having folded out of the game before she could lose more precious pretzels.

“Are really suggesting that Barnes is immediately going to sleep when he sees his girl? Because I’d like to bet an alternative-“ Nat tossed a pretzel at Tony to shut him up, rolling her eyes as he yelped when it hit him square in the head.

“I’m exhausted, I will be happily passed out and snuggled against my gal,” Bucky gave Tony a pointed look, before sighing. He looked towards his phone, knowing you were probably asleep so late at night. He couldn’t help but hope you had texted him, despite having exchanged good night texts two hours ago.

He glanced towards the sofas, Clint had the tv on, captions on, volume low so the rest of them could hear the dispatch radio placed on the counter. The news jumped back and forth between stories, a robbery, a missing person, a cat stuck up a tree from yesterday. Most of the footage was old, making Bucky lose interest.

Just as he was about to turn back to a new game, Natasha already shuffling the cards behind him, the bright red headline of BREAKING NEWS caught his attention. A fire right up the street from one of the other stations. The frequency had already called out one of the other stations to a nearby fire, but it wasn’t bad enough for this part of Brooklyn FD to be called out. Looked pretty bad now though, the apartment building was on frame at a weird angle, and it was grainy footage from a cell phone, but the entire right side was streaked with red and orange flames.

“Dispatch hasn’t called it yet, but I have a feeling we’re gonna be called in for this one, up and at ‘em,” Bucky called, the others glancing at the tv before agreeing and standing, starting to get ready for the inevitable call.

Not two minutes later, as Bucky tugged the suspenders from his uniform on correctly, the call was ringing out across the station. “Dispatch to Brooklyn, 10-26, 10-23. 10-85 Brooklyn.” Occupied high-rise, three-alarm fire, Need for additional units.

Steve jumped to answer, calling out “10-04, 10-07?” Acknowledged, Verify address?

Bucky had already jumped into the truck, pressing the lights button on as Sam jumped in as well, Nat and Tony grabbing the other truck, turning on their lights as well. Dispatch gave out the address and everyone in both trucks tensed. Bucky went pale. Oh God, this can’t be happening.

“On our way,” Steve quickly closed the door and turned the sirens on, out on the road and dashing towards the address, not needing the GPS. Bucky was silent, fear and panic filling his eyes as he gripped onto the seat of the truck with one hand, and his helmet with the other. New York, the city that never sleeps, was determined not to let him get to his destination. Red lights meant slowing down to make sure opposing traffic knew they were coming, and every damn light was red.

Sam placed a hand on Bucky’s shoulder, hoping to calm him. “Maybe it-“

“Save it Sammie,” Bucky warned, eyes straight ahead as he tried not to over think. “Step on it, Rogers. Now.”

“Trying,” Steve muttered in response, only a block away and closing in. Steve had barley put the truck to park when Bucky pushed Sam out the truck, jumping out after him and ignoring his frustrated cry.

He looked around frantically, hoping the other units grabbed everyone already. Your neighbor and best friend Wanda recognized him instantly, already brushing off the police officer trying to ask her questions. She looked an utter mess, wrinkled, grime covered pajamas, her twin standing a few feet away getting oxygen from one of the EMTs, soot in his white hair. “Bucky! Thank God you’re here! She’s still inside, they said the fire started in her apartment.” She was frenzied, shaking as she tried to tell him. He nodded in acknowledgment, words lacking at the moment. He turned to the building, able to see it now. The flames were centered right by your fifth-floor apartment window. He felt his heart tighten as he tugged on his helmet, already rushing to join Steve and the others in running inside.

--

Coughing again and again, covered in soot, huddled in the bathroom, gripping onto Alpine. The poor white cat looked like a different bred all covered in soot. She purred in your arms, trying to comfort you as you stayed curled into a ball at the very corner of your bathtub. Trapped by the fire while in your pajamas, and there were no windows but a small slit in the wall. Alpine could probably barley squeeze through that and escape, but the lock had rusted months ago and wouldn’t open.

Now, nose buried under a soot covered pajama shirt to not inhale the smoke, Alpine under the same shirt to prevent as much smoke inhalation as possible, you couldn’t help but notice the true irony of your situation. The fireman’s girlfriend and rescue cat, dying in a fire. You felt like you were living in an irony.

Why did you decide to not move out sooner? Why did you happen to stumble into the bathroom in the middle of the night? Why didn’t you insist to the landlord that your faulty electrical lines in your bedroom should most definitely be replaced now instead of later? Was this really the way you were going to die? The fight had already left you once the fire had spread to right outside your bathroom door. Truly and utterly trapped. No windows, no doors, no way out. Since the fire was electrical, they had already shut the power off to the building. The only light was the fire being barley contained on the other side of the bathroom door. The heat radiating in the room from the mixture of the fire and the AC being off, and well, being on fire, was starting to make you woozy.

Coughing once more, you couldn’t hear the front door to your apartment being kicked down. God, you hoped Bucky wouldn’t blame himself. He always tended to do that anyway, and if you were going to die with any regrets, it would be how you died. That would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The door to the bathroom was suddenly axed down, making you jump faintly, gripping Alpine even tighter. Your eyes lit up at the sight of two soot covered, full uniform wearing firefighters standing at the door. One was already reaching towards you, the second was subduing the fire away from the door.

The one above you wrapped you in a fireproof blanket, helping you to your feet to escape. You stumbled, still holding onto Alpine for dear life; not that the cat minded snuggling into your chest, smelling your perfume instead of the smoke. The firefighter quickly caught you and didn’t waste a second in picking you up and making their way out the door. Everything was getting hazy, and you glancing around, it didn’t really set in that this was your apartment in flames. That was your favorite chair and curtains being burnt to a crisp. And Bucky’s favorite blanket on top of the chair, mostly ash in a neat little pile. You buried your face into the soot covered jacket of the person holding you, trying not to inhale to much smoke and to save yourself from seeing the destruction of your home.

The first thing to hit you when you were outside was how cool it suddenly was. The second was the oxygen. As you took a ragged breath, the cool air burned in your throat. The firefighter holding onto you rushed towards an EMT, but you caught a glance behind you. With everyone evacuated, they were starting to gain control of the blaze. As the firefighter holding you sat you on the edge of the ambulance’s open tail gate, you noticed the Brooklyn Fire Truck. The very one you had painted Brooklyn on in baby blue just last summer. One of the firefighters pulled off his helmet and mask, and you instantly recognized Sam. God that means Bucky’s here.

You coughed roughly, not fighting the paramedic who took Alpine to give her some oxygen, while another paramedic placed an oxygen mask over your face. You groaned lowly, the voice stuck in your throat felt like tar. You looked towards your savior, the firefighter. Considering how close you were to the FDNY, having gone to plenty of their cookouts and bowling nights, you most likely knew the person who saved you. Yet, you only cared to find him.

Taking a deep breath, you pulled the mask off just long enough to gargle out a “B-Bucky-…” while trying to get Sam’s attention. You needed to find him. He was a self-sacrificing idiot at times, just like his best friend, and would probably go back into the fire to make sure every single person and animal and even the hamster upstairs was safely rescued. The firefighter beside you quickly put the mask back over your nose and mouth, and despite the helmet and mask covering their face, you could practically hear the silent ‘Why would you do that?!’ from their body language.

You pulled the fire blanket closer to your shoulders, shuddering before realizing which blanket it was. It was the blanket you had gotten Bucky as a joke last Christmas, the one that was folded neatly on your couch when you went to bed. If the fire fighter knew what it was then that would mean-

Your eyes widened as you looked up towards your savior, who was pulling off his helmet and mask. You couldn’t stop the smile from your face as you took in his worried expression and your favorite ocean eyes. “Bucky,” you murmured.

Despite being muffled behind the mask, he heard you, and didn’t stop the relieved expression from overtaking his features. He threw the gloves off, placing them and the helmet beside you before cupping your face in his hands. “You had me worried sick, sugar. When the address came in, and then when Wan said you were still upstairs…. I don’t know what I would have done if I lost you.” He stepped in between your legs, careful to make sure you were still getting oxygen but were now safely tucked into his arms. You stayed quiet, nuzzling closer to him, with Alpine, who was perfectly fine just a little dirty, curled on your lap.

It stayed like that for a few moments, the red lights from the now quiet sirens lighting up his features, the oxygen starting to calm you; his arms wrapped around you, filling you with warmth. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispered into your ash covered hair, too grateful that you survived that close call then to worry about the new dirt on his face.

You took another breath, feeling good enough to actually speak again, you pulled the mask off again, “You know,” you rasped, “When I agreed to move in with you, I didn’t mean this soon.”

He chuckled faintly, holding you closer as you took more breaths from the oxygen. “Good thing most of your stuff is at my place now,” he took a glance towards your apartment, most likely a bad – if not total – loss.

“And thank god for insurance,” you muttered into the mask. He chuckled again, kissing your head and running a hand through Alpine’s fur. The cat purred, happily rubbing against the two of you. “I love you, honey,” he whispered softly, reverent, as if the entire weight of tonight’s events had finally settled on him.

“I love you more, Bucky Barnes,” you teased, grinning into the mask. And in the light of the emergency vehicles, your pajamas covered in dirt and soot and ash, he couldn’t help but think you were absolutely perfect. As you buried your face in his chest, ignoring the chaffing from his uniform, ready to fall asleep again, he couldn’t help but smile. And he couldn’t help but be grateful that the ring he was going to propose with, was locked in a fireproof safe hidden at the back of his closet.

---

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[anewbeginningagain]

Ok, just watched the senior Canadian dance FDs. What was Romain thinking with L/L's FD??? Who allowed this??? Are they trying to qualify for the Salt Lake City Olys??? Where's MF??? FB/S had cool lifts and transitions but I'm not sold on the concept or costumes. Both programs seemed like something out of the early 2000's, not a good look. The best program in this flight out of Montreal was F/A's Frida. G/P did expectedly well, not much to say there.

So here’s the thing about L/Ls new FD - I love big parts of the music (the first 30 seconds though with the birds are horrible imo) and I LOVE LOVE LOVE their costumes, but other than their character step sequence which truly fits the theme nothing else really does and it’s mostly a repeat of moves from pervious FDs. And I love L/L but they are not ready for this theme yet, maybe they will grow into it but I tend to think they need a few more seasons to be able to own this carnival vibe. But really A+ for the costumes.

And here’s the thing about FB/S new FD - they can sell me anything and I’ll buy it, that how good they (mostly her tbh) are. After Chock/Bated performed their FD at US championships Tanith asked if there’s a more memorized performer than Madi Chock and the answer is 100% yes - Laurence Fournier Beaudry, her command in the first part of their FD is to die for. Their character step sequence wasn’t great but the combo lift and stationary lift with the crazy entrance into it were amazing, I wonder what made them get only level 3 for the stationary lift. I think the concept is a good one and I mostly enjoyed their program, the choreographic lift at the end of the program is something I really want to see performed clean because it looked really cook and they botched it. Overall there’s potential there. My two issues though? a big NO for the spoken lyrics, especially at the end, and I also think FB/S need an FD that will make them rise and I doubt this is the one.

I have yet to watch F/A and G/P though I’m sure G/P did great, they are repeating two (very good) programs which makes it easier.

Do we know why S/F didn’t participate? 

[travllingbunny]

The 100 7x12 The Stranger

This is an episode I’ve enjoyed a lot more on rewatch than the first time. Which I kind of expected. The first time, I really didn’t like it, but this was mostly because I was too impatient to see Bardo and Bellamy, and really didn’t have patience for the Sanctum scenes, which again took up so much of the episode, or focus while watching them - that is, I did at the beginning, but not in the second half o the episode. 

In fact, there was nothing that bad about the Sanctum scenes, and I enjoyed many of them on rewatch, but this storyline is simply not as interesting as the one about the Anomaly, Bardo and the Disciples, especially now when Bellamy has returned and just had a most dramatic character transformation, 5 episodes before the end of the show. And that’s been the main problem of the season so far: pacing. Jumping from one plot to another works when you have two equally interesting and exciting stories, and that really isn’t the case here.

It also didn’t help that this episode - by a first time writer - had too much clunky dialogue, such as so many times when characters were recapping events to each other:

Indra recaps to Memori what happened in a scene we saw 5 minutes earlier (at least this was brief)

Hope recaps her life story to Jordan, which we already saw in 7x02 and 7x04 and heard retold 7x07

Madi recaps what happened to her on Earth (to be fair, we did not actually see that on screen)

Bellamy recaps not just 7x11, but also season 3 and season 6

Murphy recaps 7x03 to Nikki

Now, some of this was probably necessary, but some of it wasn’t exactly - for instance, did we really need to hear Hope’s life story again? The scene was very nice, but we could’ve just have Hope tell Jordan “Dev was my friend” and assume she already told him who he was. This wouldn’t bug me if it was just one scene, but it was so many of them in the same episode. It’s OK to have characters sometimes learn info off-screen, especially when there’s just a few episodes remaining. It’s not that there isn’t enough time left to resolve all the storylines - there are 4 episodes left, about the same net amount of screentime as the entirety of Avengers: Endgame - but the show needs to pick up the pace.

It could’ve been a better episode, especially considering the fact that some big things happened, and the storylines finally converged by the end of the episode, setting up potentially exciting final 4 episodes. 

On the more positive note - it was very interesting to see Bellamy’s conversation with Cadogan and his repressed but clearly conflicted emotions in his scenes - first with Echo and Raven, and later with Clarke and Octavia, and his attempts to find reconcile his new faith with his desire to save the people he loves. And on rewatch, I enjoyed a lot of the other scenes -nice character moments with Madi and her friends, and with Jordan and Hope, cute moments with Memori, or even Murphy’s confrontation with Nikki, though I would’ve enjoyed some of them better if they had happened in some other episode earlier in the season.

Bardo

Bellamy is now in full-blown Disciple mode, wearing one of those ridiculous white robes, similar to what Doucette wears, even though Bellamy is not a Conductor or a science-oriented person like Gabriel, hasn’t gone through any Disciple training and isn’t even Level 1 (as seen by the lack of the marks on his face). He is clearly being treated as one of the top Disciples anyway, one of Cadogan’s inner circle, which may be justified by the fact that he has gone through the Etherea pilgrimage. We know that Cadogan’s pilgrimage is a big deal in Disciple religion, which would raise both his and Doucette’s status, but he is also, of course, important to Cadogan because of his connection to Clarke and the “Key”.(Sidenote: I don’t think anyone has been appointed the new First Disciple after Anders’ death. The job of the FD was to act on behalf of the Shepherd and lead in his absence, and wake him up every 20 years to update him on the progress of the search for the Key and the Final Code. Now that Cadogan is there to lead himself, he has no need for a deputy anymore.) 

He is also getting to have one-on-one talks with Cadogan. This scene is one of the most interesting in this episode. Bellamy is incredibly repressed, with subdued feelings, but those emotions are still simmering and coming through on his face and in his voice, thanks to Bob’s great acting. Bellamy gives Cadogan condolences for Anders’ death, and Cadogan replies that he really barely knew and didn’t care about Anders, which we knew already. Cadogan interprets this as Bellamy testing him if he has any attachments. I don’t know if that is true or just how Cadogan read it, or if Bellamy assumed Cadogan and his FD must have been close, and/or if he was doing it so he could bring up the issue of his friends, who are supposed to be executed for “their” crimes. (Which are really just Echo’s and Hope’s crimes, but the Disciples seem to have decided they bear collective responsibility, even though many of them tried to stop it - and no one is disputing it.) Cadogan goes on about how trying to suppress attachments and emotions is a long way and says he is still struggling with it after doing it for hundreds of years. (No, Bill, you haven’t been even conscious for hundreds of years. You were in cryo. Shut up.) He says Bellamy reminds him of his son Reese/ Since Bellamy and Reese are nothing alike, I can only interpret this as Cadogan trying to manipulate Bellamy by presenting himself as a father figure. I thought at first that he may really have meant it because he assumed Bellamy would be as loyal to him as Reese was - but that’s clearly not true, since the end of this episode shows that Bill does not fully trust Bellamy.

Bill thinks that Callie must have killed Reese, since he apparently can’t see any other reason why Reese never got to bring him the Flame. It says a lot that 1) he assumes that 1) Reese always remained loyal to him and that 2) Callie would be willing to kill her brother. He always put them against each other and made them fight as children. And he doesn’t even entertain the thought that Reese may have had any character growth and changed his mind. I have a feeling he may be wrong on both accounts.

But Bellamy is good at manipulating Cadogan, too, in order to save his friends - he realizes that Bill’s family is his weak spot. Cadogan was not entirely convinced by Bellamy’s suggestion that the Flame can be repaired, but he was affected - even if he didn’t admit that - when Bellamy told him he may find out what happened to his children through the Flame.  I’m not entirely sure if Bellamy believes that 1) the Flame can be repaired (which may or may not happen) and 2) the Commanders' memories would still be there (which doesn’t make a lot of sense and seems unlikely). He is very sincere about his faith, and he says later he can’t lie to the Shepherd, so he wouldn’t be lying... But he is clutching at straws to save his loved ones, maybe even trying to convince himself. And there’s also the fact that he does lie to Cadogan later, during Clarke’s MCap.

We then see two conversations Bellamy has with the people close to him - the first one is with his Spacekru family: his girlfriend Echo and his long-time friend Raven. The second one is with Clarke and his actual family, Octavia. The Disciples again made sure to put characters in cells for two people, but we don’t get to see Bellamy talk to Miller and Niylah (even though the scene was filmed, as we saw in the promo pictures). I hope that scene was not cut due to time - considering how much screentime was used up by the Sanctum storyline, again, and these characters are constantly getting short-changed. But I think it may have instead been cut because of the story structure - to focus on just these two scenes. What’s more, Raven’s role is much smaller than Echo’s in the former scene as she leaves early, and, surprisingly, Octavia plays a secondary role in the latter, which is mostly focused on Bellamy and Clarke’s interaction. And considering how the former scene was changed from the script, - Bellamy’s emotions toned down, Bellamy not explaining his experiences to Echo and Raven as he does later to Clarke and Octavia - which made the contrast between the two scenes stronger, I think the intention was to focus mostly on Bellamy’s relationships with Echo and Clarke, and that the compare and contrast was deliberate.

Throughout both of these scenes, Bellamy insists that he is trying to save everyone from death, while also being true to his faith, but his loved ones, understandably, are shocked by this new Disciple Bellamy, who feels like a stranger, and who is acting as one of their captors and is even willing to let them be put in MCap against their will. He notably does not answer the question Echo asks - if he is ready to watch them die, which is a strong possibility if his attempts to placate Cadogan don’t work. Instead he just says “You know that’s not what I want”, which doesn’t answer the question. Maybe because he is not sure yet what the answer is. But he does answer one other question...

In his talk with Raven and Echo, Bellamy shows emotions (including concern when noticing Echo’s scars), but they are very subdued, and he eventually makes it clear that, if push comes to shove, he is prioritizing his new faith over his people. Raven reacts with typical Raven anger, and throws the words "So much for family" in Bellamy’s face (echoing what Bellamy himself said to Miller in season 5 - "So much for the 100"). Echo is also indignant but tries to plead with him, hoping to bring back old Bellamy in him - without any success. Which may be seen as a sign of how strong Bellamy’s indoctrination is... but looking a little beneath the surface, a lot of what she says makes me wonder how well she knew the old Bellamy in the first place. Bellamy, on his part, asks Echo to believe in him and be on his side, but his argument is to appeal to her feelings for him (”I am the man you love”), expecting her trust and loyalty without really offering anything in return, such as, say, some promise, some mention of his feelings for her. Echo tells him about how obsessed she was with saving him... and then avenging him - she is really channeling S2 Finn with how she refers to her genocide attempt as a grand romantic gesture and sign of love that he should appreciate. Even if Bellamy was his old self, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be happy to hear that. Disciple Bellamy remains stone-faced and gives her only a flat “I’m sorry you had to go through that”. 

(And this is what annoys me about this scene and this storyine in general: somehow, Echo is made to look morally superior, after having murdered and betrayed multiple people this season an some two days after she murdered people as a way to torture Levitt and almost committed genocide, and no one has any time to even mention that or blame her for anything. If Bellamy had done a fraction of her actions, it would’ve turned into a huge story of guilt and Bellamy being blamed and needing to redeem himself forever.)

But regardless of how you see these characters’ respective arcs, one thing is clear: they are on completely different wavelengths. Echo mentions how she tried to keep her identity by scarring her face - but that scarring was an Azgeda custom; the core identity she was trying to preserve was that of an Azgeda warrior/spy, which is hardly something to mention as a positive thing to Bellamy. Not only does it have nothing to do with them as a couple or as a team/”family”- her Azgeda spy/warrior identity made her Bellamy’s enemy and caused him a lot of trauma. This is either some weird and bad writing, or an intentional attempt to show the cracks in this relationship that have been there all along. Bellamy, on his part, seems to think Echo will understand the appeal that this faith has for him - a promise of “no more war, no more killing”. Why does he think this is something that would appeal to her? Fighting and killing for her “people” and her “King” and fulfilling her mission is what she lives for, even after having spent 11 years in peace.

Throughout this scene, Echo looks very emotional, especially by her standards, while Bellamy is incredibly restrained. She finally asks him point blank “Is this (his faith) more important than us?” This is a very ambiguous line, because the pronoun “us” can be understood as “all of us, your family/friends” or “you and me/our relationship”. There’s been a debate on which one she meant - I even created a Twitter poll about it (where about 2/3 of voters said they thought she meant their relationship). I can see both of these interpretations, but the intimate way she said that line and the way she was looking at him make me think that she meant “us” as in their relationship. Either way, the fact that Bellamy - after a pause - unambiguously answered “Yes”, makes it pretty clear that this relationship is over. I find it hard to see any future in this relationship even if/when Bellamy stops drinking the Kool-Aid. I do think someone will be able to get to him, but it won’t be Echo.

Echo cries after he has left (which I feel was much more in character than if she had been crying during their talk, as in the script.). Back in 7x04, Echo asked Orlando: “ It must be hard to dedicate your whole life to something that may never come.” I’ve always felt that was foreshadowing for Echo’s own arc - with the way she was saying she wouldn’t know what to do without Bellamy. I didn’t expect their relationship to end for this reason - but this is a much stronger blow for Echo than if they had just broken up for more mundane reasons. She didn’t just lose her boyfriend, she lost her king.  If her arc is to make any sense, the show will have reflect on her life, identity and priorities and her find some purpose in life that’s not about Bellamy or serving another leader.

Octavia and Clarke are together in another cell - and we get a brief interaction, where Octavia tells Clarke she “finally understands” her, because she knows what it’s like to have a child you’re desperate to protect. I’m not too fond of this line, because it feels kind of obvious but also reductive - “I finally understand you” makes it sound like she finally understands who Clarke always has been, since she met her in season 1, which doesn’t make sense. It’s reducing Clarke to the role of the mother, and it would make a lot more sense if Octavia said she now understood the post-Praimfaya Clarke. But understanding was never an issue between them in season 5 - Clarke was simply standing in Blodreina's way. It was back in seasons 1-4 that Octavia had trouble understanding Clarke and her decision as a leader - something that she probably understood when she became a leader herself, responsible for a bunch of people.

Bellamy’s second big confrontation is with Clarke and Octavia. And in this one, Bellamy was much, much more openly emotional, much more vulnerable. This time, he not only told his experience to his sister and Clarke - he is now desperately  pleading with Clarke to believe in him. He doesn’t bring up her feelings for him, but their connection and - in a way - his feelings for her, what he did for her, the fact he did not give up and brought her back to life in S6. They are both yelling and looking in pain and with tears in their eyes. He isn’t shouts “I am trying to save you, all of you!” But this is not about Clarke believing in him or dismissing his experiences. She accepts that what he says may be true, but refuses to give in to a man like Cadogan and let him start a war, and she stands her ground, while Octavia turns away from her brother to comfort her, looking at him disapprovingly. If someone can get to Bellamy, if his feelings could outweigh his faith and loyalty to Cadogan, it is most likely to be Clarke (It could be Octavia, of course, but the show is not choosing to focus on their relationship at the moment.)

I’d like to point out that we have seen this kind of angsty conflict between Clarke and Bellamy almost every season, and often around this part of the season, and that it always ended in an equally huge reconciliation. In season 3, it was earlier (3x05 to 3x11). In season 4 it was in 4x10/4x11 with a reconciliation in 4x12. In season 5, it lasted from 5x09 to their big reconciliation in the season 5 finale. They always end up forgiving each other because they can understand each other - and are a united team in every season finale.

I want to address something else I’ve seen people say: that it is “worrying” that Clarke has called Bellamy her best friend twice this season, after never having defined their relationship that specifically before. Which is seen by some as a sign of the show trying to “clear” that they are “platonic” - even though this really doesn’t do that. (Anyone remember a certain real life tweet going: “Recently, I married my best friend and soulmate...”?) If anything, it is a step forward, since she has previously only referred to Bellamy as one of her friends/family. What else would she call him that would give him a special place, unless you expect a love confession from her at a moment like this (or talking to Cadogan in front of everyone), which wouldn't make sense. Specifying their current relationship status  of two characters feels like something you would do if that status is to change - one way or other. (I think that Bellamy has also been called Echo's boyfriend for the first time in S7.) 

The struggle inside Bellamy continues as he sends Clarke to MCap - which rightfully shocks and hurts both Clarke and Octavia, But he clearly has a hard time seeing Clarke in pain. and, in spite of what he said earlier (that he can’t lie to the Shepherd), lies to Cadogan, claiming Clarke doesn’t know where the Flame is. There is no way he actually believes that - Clarke didn’t even try to pretend that she didn’t know it, and she’s struggling to hide that knowledge. Unfortunately it’s an obvious lie Cadogan sees through, but the cracks in Bellamy’s loyalty to him are starting to show.

(Many people were hoping that the MCap session would allow Bellamy to see Clarke’s memories and that this would be some kind of breakthrough that would let him realize her feelings for him and get him emotional - but I’m glad nothing like that happened, Mind violation is not a good way to bring two people together..)

Clarke, being Clarke, hurts herself rather than giving Cadogan what he wants and letting him start a war, until he promises he release her friends.

The show is really not subtle with its imagery - first we had Kane crucified in season 3, and now Clarke looks like Jesus with a crown of thorns. 

So, Cadogan sends the rest of the group (Octavia, Echo, Hope, Miller, Niylah, Jordan) to an unknown location, as a collateral, so Clarke would keep her end of the deal and find the Flame for them. But he doesn’t reveal the location to Clarke - or to Bellamy, because, in his words, he doesn’t trust Clarke. But this means that he doesn’t really trust Bellamy, either - at least not when Clarke is around.

Doucette seems to be constantly hanging around Bellamy - he was there when Bellamy was reunited with his people, he appears after Bellamy’s talk with Clarke and Octavia, and he’s with Cadogan, Bellamy, Clarke and others in the team that goes to Sanctum. I don’t think it’s just because they are the Disciple version of friends - I think Cadogan has made Doucette Bellamy’s unofficial Handler, and that he’s supposed to keep an eye on him and make sure he stays loyal and doesn’t give in to the temptation of emotional attachments to his friends and family. He also has a brief interaction with Echo, where he seems amused and mildly contemptuous. Which makes me think he’ll have some interesting interactions with Clarke and possibly others in 7x13 (but mostly Clarke, especially going by the promo photos) while he is  around Bellamy to remind him of his Disciple side.

There’s been a lot of speculation where the group has been sent. It’s certainly not Skyring, Etherea or Nakara or Sanctum, which means that the options are either Earth, or some new place we haven’t seen yet. It would make sense if it was the same place where Gaia was. It certainly seems that we won’t see this group before 7x14, as the upcoming episode will probably be full focused on Sanctum. The Stone on Earth has been shown to be offline - but so was the Stone on Sanctum, and that didn’t end up mattering at all.

What I don’t understand is why Cadogan thinks they won’t be able to find their way to Sanctum - which is why he didn’t let Gabriel and Raven go with them. But they do have Disciple helmets (unless all info in them has been disabled), and Jordan was around when Raven talked about the Anomaly and has spent a bit of time researching the Bardoan text on the Anomaly Stone on Bardo - so I expect him to be able to figure things out.

So many of the characters need to resolve their storylines - Echo, Hope, Jordan? The former two have character arcs that badly need resolution and character development, after they have lost everything. Hope has been driven by anger, pain and revenge all season - and it all came crashing down when she attempted to commit genocide, and unintentionally caused her mother’s death as a result. Diyoza’s last words were to be better than she was. Hope still has Octavia, who has struggled with and resolved the darkness and violence in her soul, and now she also has Jordan to bond with, as they did in their scene in the cell in this episode. They are two of the kids who grew up in isolation and raised on stories of Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Murphy and others as legends, but with drastically different worldviews and experiences. I expect both of them to survive to the end, together with Madi, as the new generation/hopes for the future of humanity.

As for Jordan, I would say that his arc needs a resolution, but his brainwashing by Trey at the end of last season seems to have been completely forgotten and ignored. Maybe it became a casualty of the rewrites, when the show opted to go with another brainwashing/indoctrination storyline with another one of its men of color. I certainly prefer this Jordan we saw talking to Hope and comforting her, but why didn’t the show keep him that way all the time, without that really annoying Prime-apologism phase?  

I feel that Octavia, on the other hand, has completed her character development, but she needs to deal with the loss of Diyoza, have some meaningful interactions with Hope, and of course, a resolution to her relationship with Bellamy. 

It really struck me how little Bellamy/Octavia interactions got focus in this episode - their one scene was more focused on Bellamy's interaction with Clarke, and Octavia didn't even get a line or closeup in the scene where they were being sent off (unlike Clarke, Echo, Raven, Gabriel and Miller) nor even a moment of eye contact with Bellamy (unlike Echo and Clarke). That must mean there are going to be big Blake sibling scenes later, probably in the finale.

Sanctum

When you think Sheidheda can’t get more over the top, he does it again. I don’t know if this is a bad or good thing. If you’re doing a cartoonish villain, go all in, right? It’s kind of entertaining, though it doesn’t fit with the usual way this show does villains. This time, he actually has a throne made of skeletons! (That’s one way to use those skeletons of the Primes’ former hosts.)

He’s also borderline  Villain Sue, with a bunch of incredible fighting skills that now go beyond Grounder style fight. Now he’s also really good with automatic guns. When did that happen? I mean, Madi does know how to shoot a gun, but still? The scene where he shoots all of the Children of Gabriel would’ve been much more convincing if he had given a sign to Wonkru to start shooting them, instead of doing it all by himself.

Nelson’s (Sachin)’s death was fitting for his character, and many would say it was heroic and impressive, refusing to kneel to another false god. Or one could say it was stupid and pointless - as it did not result in just his death, but also the deaths of all the people he was leading, and that he should have instead taken Emori’s advice and knelt today so he could find a way to beat Shady some other day, while saving his people. I’ll let you guess which one of these is closer to how I feel. In any case, on the Doylist level, I’m not fond of how fast the show is to kill off another bunch of people, but it is what it is, the show has always been fond of mass murder. And this is Shady’s second one this season. First he killed the majority of the Faithful, and now almost all of the Children of Gabriel - so we wouldn’t have to deal with more factions of people in the show’s endgame. And conveniently, CoG got removed from the board just before Gabriel comes back to Sanctum, Now we won’t have to have that arc followed up on. How many people are left in Sanctum now that aren’t Earthkru? There must still be quite a few of the ordinary Sanctumites there, such as Delilah’s parents, but we rarely get to see them. I would hate it if the show killed off the majority of the Sanctum residents just because they’re not major characters.

The only CoG who gets to survive is Madi’s friend Luca, the one other CoG we know. Indra, who witnesses the massacre and saves Luca, must be thinking back to how her mother knelt to save her (just like she knelt to save Madi) and hopefully realizing that her mother wasn’t a coward and did the right thing. 

Meanwhile, Murphy and Emori are hiding Madi, the remaining Faithful, and now Luca, too, in the nuclear reactor. Trey, the big believer, has no problem suggesting they kneel to the guy who killed his god Russell, before Murphy points out that Shady would kill them anyway for fear they would want revenge. Oh, Shady - you killed so many people and didn't even have the decency to kill that annoying asshole Trey?  

One of the best parts of the Sanctum plot in this episode is Madi comforting a really traumatized Luca - who has lost first his biological family when Shady killed the Faithful, and now his people/his real family - and telling a group of orphaned children a story of her own survival in the Shallow Valley. Whether or not this is foreshadowing for a possible return to Earth (I am in two minds if this is going to happen or not), it is a sweet moment of hope for rebuilding life and society, similar to the scene between Jordan and Hope.

Murphy confronting Nikki and telling her how and why her husband died and that his sacrifice should not be in vain, is a good scene - and won’t be pointless if it finally results in some sort of character development for Nikki, who has been so one-note throughout this season. But she is simply not that interesting. The one interesting thing about her plot is that she could remind Murphy of who was back in season 1, but the show, usually not subtle with parallels, hasn’t done anything with that so far.  

There also some lovely Memori moments - they are the one couple in the show who are getting to be happy and have these ordinary coupley scenes. And you know that I have always shipped Memori. But the problem here is - there have been many cute Memori scenes this season; they have both proved to be good leaders, who take care of people, playing the role Clarke and Bellamy did once; Murphy has been proving every episode that he’s a real hero now, coming a long way not just since season 1 but from his questionable and selfish choices in season 6, too. He gets told “I’m proud of you, Murphy” again by someone, this time Indra. All of this is very nice, but repetitive. After so many episodes this season have shown us these things - we get it. We don’t doubt anymore that Murphy and Emori are heroes. Sheidheda is 100% a villain. There is no moral ambiguity - except with minor characters: the only unpredictable thing about the storyline is what Nikki will do and whether Knight will stop obeying Shady. It’s not that this is a terrible storyline, and on rewatch, it was fine in this episode - but the other storyline is way more interesting, and there are so many other characters that are in pressing need of character resolutions, with 4 episodes to go.

At the end, we’re left with a stalemate, as Murphy is captured by Shady, but Shady can’t move to capture or kill Emori and the people they are protecting in the reactor, because she could blow it up, so he leaves Knight to wait for them to come out. 

And then, finally, Cadogan and the group come from the Anomaly. Why did we have that Disciple so dramatically disconnect the Sanctum Stone in 7x04? Another abandoned subplot? Wonkru simply moved the Stone and brought it tot Shady, and it worked just fine. 

(I suspect the Flame may turn out to be impossible to repair or useless, because the show has been emphasizing Madi’s remaining memories so much this season - and that wasn’t needed for this plot, since Shady also remembers the Anomaly Stone and could have been the one to tell Wonkru about it. The Disciples may end up trying to get her into MCap to see if she remembers the Final Code that Bedca used.)

I’m ecstatic that the Bardo storyline is finally converging with the Sanctum one. But that somewhat initially ruined by the bad direction in the last scene, which made it less clear which of the characters were back on Sanctum, until you went back and paused the scene. Clarke asking “What the hell happened here?” and Murphy’s reply “Gee, where to start” was great, but the fact that so many people  were asking “Did Bellamy come to Sanctum with them?” and weren’t sure of it before the Inside the episode and sneak peeks came out, shows how poorly this scene was done. It should’ve made it crystal clear that Bellamy, Raven and Gabriel were coming back to Sanctum together with Clarke and Cadogan - getting people excited for the next episode.

Rating: 6.5/10 

[dazais-guardian-angel]

This post has been sitting in my drafts since like mid-November around when I finished replaying the game, long enough for me to write and upload a fic about some of the concepts I wrote here, what the fuck. DGS brainrot is real. But aNYWAY finally, here are my massive thoughts on Unwound Future, the golden child of the PL series. This is literally *checks* 8k words, because I can never shut up!! and because there is just SO much going on in this game at all times, so many different interweaving plot threads and funny moments and incredible, fascinating characterization, especially combined with the games that come after it; I just had SO much to say. So much analyzing and headcanons and crying galore. :’) There’s a reason this is considered the best game, and that’s why I had so damn much to talk about.

behold the incoherent, rambling, unconnected mess of a novel that I hope makes a modicum of sense under the cut:

Continuing the trend, this game has simply AMAZING graphics/art/music, with a huge uptick in cutscenes and voice acting, and I feel like the sound/music quality is greatly improved too? I love the main bgm for London in this game, never really remembered loving it before, but it’s just *chef’s kiss* and so is the song that plays in other areas like the hospital and subway

Quickly mentioning the gameplay, I really love all the minigames, and the storybooks are especially hilarious to play with putting the wrong things in the spaces to create mad libs-esque crack that makes no sense; it’s so fun lmao

The beginning flashback segment with the time machine demonstration is honestly just so funny, for so many different reasons: Dimitri droning on and on with time travel technobabble while Luke, Bill, Chelmey, and Barton represent the definitive last four brain cells. Hershel being skeptical about successful time travel after all the magical shit they went through just like a year or two ago. The way that Bill’s sprite slowly and nervously shuffles onscreen after Dimitri calls him to the stage, like omg I don’t know why that cracks me up so much but it does. Dimitri’s lowkey savage shade he’s throwing at Bill throughout this whole thing. The way Bill says “wHAT” when Dimitri asks him to help, clearly about to shit his pants. Dimitri just standing there completely unfazed as the smoke from the machine flies past him. And of course, “sOmEtHiNg’S gOnE vErY wRoNg!”

…okay but in all seriousness, am I just stupid or do they never explain how they get Bill to the underground city, like the machine CLEARLY explodes with him in it, there was no secret elevator built into the thing like at the clock shop, so…???

also the presenter’s voice is really funny lmao

Still disagree that this is the biggest mystery they’ve ever encountered, despite being near the top; Luke you say that literally every game!! so what is the truth!!

Spring’s face is terrifying as FUCK in the two cutscenes in the clock shop… why they decided to show both of them in ominous, shadowed lighting in those scenes I do not understand a;lskdl;fds

I need someone to draw a diagram of how exactly the shop looks as a giant elevator because frankly I still can’t wrap my brain around it-

THE FACT THAT WE NEVER GET TO MAKE UP WITH HAZEL IS A TRAVESTY, HONESTLY

Belle… why…… ugh

Wish they’d had “Schrader” drop a casual nod to the events of Diabolical Box; it would have been cool :’) (especially since this is Paul so he’d know about all that)

College-age Hershel is just….. the pinnacle of adorableness. someone protect him from all the pain

One of the few flaws/plot holes in the story of Unwound Future that I only noticed during this replay with more media under my belt, is the that the developers didn’t really decide on what kind of time travel they wanted to portray, or more likely just didn’t scrutinize Clive’s fake role enough when writing it. This is blatantly obvious upon the very first meeting with Clive where he desires to test Hershel to make sure he’s really him. Obviously in a closed loop scenario, everything Luke and Hershel are doing “Future Luke” should remember doing himself in his past, so a test would not be necessary; this is a major trip-up on his part that it’s very odd Hershel doesn’t notice for how smart he is, imo. However, later on when meeting “Future Layton”, Paul calls Dimitri out on this exact principle, proving that he’s not actually Future Layton because he doesn’t remember the absence of a pen in Hershel’s pocket in this moment in his past, and it’s a nice little touch that Paul, on the other hand, an actual scientist, would mention this. Back to Future Luke, though, he should know how everything goes down with stopping Future Layton, because he lived it all as a child with Hershel, which makes it even more dubious to the fact that after seeing all this, Hershel still goes dark and everything plays out the exact same way it’s portrayed in the “future” of the game; it’s the idea that destined fate can’t be changed, but the suspension of disbelief is quite high, especially since we already doubt that Hershel would ever do such a thing, knowing what kind of person he is. Of course this wouldn’t be the case in an open-loop/branching timelines universe, but since the game uses the former type with the pen argument (and something else important I’ll mention in a second), I feel like the rest of the game should have adopted this idea as well and addressed it. Because Dimitri is outed via the fact that he should have memory of things he doesn’t, so it would have been easy to simply add Hershel adding that argument into his final explanation in the bar (”my suspicions were first raised when we first met Big Luke, and he didn’t know if I was really who I said I was- [etc etc]”). Even if they didn’t want Hershel to bring this up early else the entire story would fall apart, they could simply draw attention to the fact that he notices something in these moments, like with a “...” or “Hmm”, and then he explains it at the end like I said. Interestingly enough, Clive actually addresses these concepts at one point in the game with Luke in the statue plaza: he doesn’t want to tell Luke how things play out in his future, so that… things play out the way they’re supposed to…? Even though his entire story here is that he wished Hershel hadn’t gone dark and distanced from him, and ruined the city? But then he makes the suggestion that they could instead be operating on an open-loop/multiple timelines system, where in his past he never travelled to the future, but in our Luke and Hershel’s timeline they do. This is only a hypothetical he gives though, with him seeming unsure of how things truly are, which… again, in this story he’s concocted, he should know for sure, because if he doesn’t “remember” time traveling and how everything went down, then they’re operating on different timelines and it shouldn’t matter how much he tells Luke about his future. You can definitely argue that in-universe Clive didn’t think all this through when planning his dialogue for this role (but I honestly find that hard to believe, since he’s so intelligent, and he nailed the realism of everything else to a T), but it’s obvious just that the writers didn’t think it through, because like I said Hershel really should have picked up on his blunder when they first met, as well as later when Clive is surprised to see Flora suddenly with them and didn’t know for a fact that she and Chelmey/Barton would arrive there. Since the time travel scenario in 99% of the game isn’t actually real, I don’t entirely fault the writers for not getting every single detail right… and yet, that 1% exists where time travel is real, with Claire’s situation. It’s a very isolated incident though that wouldn’t be replicated, with only her going to the future… and yet, she does return to the past again, if only for a split second before dying and thus not enough time to do anything with her future knowledge, the real thing to note here being that they took care to show that she was wearing the same outfit when she died that she gets in the future, one she wasn’t wearing when she entered the lab originally. So they DID think about some things very well, like such a minor and easily-overlooked detail here (but that blows your mind once you realize it). All this is hardly enough to ruin the game or break the immersion completely though, especially since the player is already predisposed to heavily doubt everything with PL’s “the town is a lie” track record lmao, but I can’t help but be bothered by it now after playing games like Zero Escape and watching time travel shows like netflix’s Dark, which have bootstrap parodoxes and timeloops galore looool. My friend who watched me play the game blind this time around brought up all these questions as Clive said things, as someone who didn’t know if it would end up being real or not, and so I spent a lot of time puzzling (har har) it out with her… even though it wouldn’t matter lmao.

……In short, if it wasn’t obvious, despite Unwound Future’s time travel setup being completely fake, I’m really fascinated by the notion of how it would all work if it was real. >.> …and I mean, I know I’m not the first one; monocle Layton aus are popular, after all, but I don’t really care quite as much about the allure of an “evil Layton” as I do just about how everything else would be, I think.

Because, like, lets be real? taking the prequels into account with Unwound Future’s proposed setup, the potential is endless. It honestly KILLS me that the prequels didn’t exist yet at the time of UF, because!! so many people from Hershel’s past!!! SO MANY REASONS FOR HIM TO WANT TO HARNASS TIME TRAVEL AND CHANGE THE PAST, NOT JUST FOR CLAIRE’S SAKE. FOR RANHENGELA’S SAKE. FOR LUKE AND EMMY’S SAKE. FOR HIS PARENTS’ SAKE. FOR DESMOND. listen, listen, you don’t understand how much the idea of Desmond being involved in UF’s concepts destroys me. I wrote about this in my last fic but. imagine if Desmond learned about Hershel going down a dark path for his sake and everyone else’s, just like he did. Or imagine if, instead of Hershel being the one to do it, it was Desmond himself; he’s willing to play the bad guy once again, one very final, this time definitely final, time, if it means he can undo everything that caused all of them so much pain in the first place: his betrayals, the death of his former wife, he and Theodore’s separation, their father’s betrayal, ALL of it, and Hershel would never know. When Luke first is like “oh it’s gotta be Don Paolo right” and Clive says no, i LITERALLY screamed “BUT IT COULD BE DESCOLE!!”. JUST. PAIN. And where would Randall be in this future; what would he, too, think if it was Hershel going after time travel? Imagine him trying to smack some sense into him just like Hershel does in MM, trying to tell him that despite those lost 18 years of his life, despite everything wrong he ended up doing, he’s still happy, and so are Henry and Angela. So is Desmond. And Emmy, she wouldn’t want undone those years she had with Hershel and Luke and then Aurora and Desmond, despite how sadly it ended. Just… so much pain. So much potential. I hurt :’)

and adding on to this, i love love LOVE the idea of Clive knowing about some of this stuff in Hershel’s past, in order to faithfully play his role as Future Luke. Like obviously he wasn’t in Misthallory with them all, he wasn’t on the island in ED, he wasn’t at Monte’dor, and he wasn’t on the Bostonius or at all those Azran ruins that I can’t remember the names of right now, of course he wouldn’t know the intimate, specific details of what all went down, but if there was just one npc who was in the right place at the right time at any of these locations, who knows what beans they could spill? Maybe even an ex-Targent person or something. Hell, fucking Bronev is in jail for at least a little while before the events of UF. There are possibly MANY people Clive could have gotten information from to pull off this role - he’s a reporter, he’s skilled at digging for stuff. Not to mention just reading and hearing about large incidents in the news. And this makes his character so much better because he’s admired Hershel for so long, grateful that he saved his life all this time, to the point that he asks him to unknowingly come and save him again… and he most definitely didn’t know back when he first encountered Hershel that he’d already experienced so much loss and pain as well (some of which Hershel hadn’t even gone through yet by that point), but learning about everything he’s suffered? I think it would really affect him, and possibly contribute to why he asks him for his help in the first place in UF: because Hershel has suffered just as much as he has, and he feels a connection to him, feels like he can relate to him, and wants someone who can empathize with him, and show him how to cope. All of these reasons and emotions would probably be completely on an unconscious level, but they would exist - he’d use this limited but meaningful knowledge to try to connect with Hershel more when he’s still in Future Luke mode, to try to convince him he’s really Luke, at first, but unconsciously it’d be an effort to get closer to him emotionally, which is what he truly desires deep down, until his so-called act somewhat stops being an act, and talking about these things makes his vulnerabilities start to show (again, i wrote a fic about this). This all just adds to why Hershel is the perfect person to help and support Clive - the prequels make their similarities even stronger, more than just with Hershel losing Claire, and those accidental parallels when the writers hadn’t even conceived the prequel trilogy at the time of UF are just *chef’s kiss* beautiful.

THE CASINO SCENE IS JUST ICONIC, IT’S SO FUNNY. LUKE BEING SCARED OF THE SHOOTING AND HERSHEL JUST DITCHING HIM. CLIVE’S LITTLE HOP AND ROLL BEHIND THE SLOT MACHINES. THE SLOT MACHINE GUN IN GENERAL. THE CLONE FAMILY MEMBERS FALLING OVER LIKE DOMINOS UPON BEING HIT. BOSTRO CRYING AND SPLINTERS AND LOCKJAW RUNNING IN CIRCLES PANICKING WHILE LAYMAN JUST IS LITERALLY PUSHED BACK SLOWLY WITH ONLY A CHAIR TO DEFEND HIMSELF, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW FUNNY LAYMAN AS A CHARACTER IS TO ME. it’s just so glorious, oh my god. this series is ridiculous i love it so much lmao

Luke wanting to use the time machine though… there are so many reasons why he might want to, mainly from Azran Legacy. :’)

The statue is the worst thing ever for multiple reasons. The fact that it represents Hershel & Luke’s relationship, the two main characters, who have been through so much together and have such a strong bond that can never be broken, and how it ties into the whole Evil Layton scenario and seems to foreshadow that their bond does end up breaking, as “Future Luke” seems to be proof of (though the game doesn’t really put much emphasis on this; Luke is more worried about the fact that he’s moving away soon straining their relationship, and not the whole Future Layton thing. imo it would have been interesting to see his actual thoughts on/feelings about it, since he’s surprisingly calm throughout the entire game before the reveals happen; you can argue he just has complete faith in Hershel and doesn’t think he would ever go dark, but then why doesn’t he bring this up, insist that this can’t be true? I think he should have). The fact that as I just said it foreshadows how Luke will leave Hershel at the end of the game, something that Luke worries about later on in the game. And most of all, the biggest, worst thing it foreshadows… Hershel’s relationship with Clive. Clive had that statue made himself, put it in his giant set. He WANTS that kind of mentor-student bond with Hershel, that’s how he sees them, just from their one interaction in front of the exploding buildings… or at least, that’s how he wants to see it. He sees how close Hershel and Luke are throughout the entire game, and he yearns for that kind of bond with Hershel, too. The fact that the boy in the statue story has an illness that he eventually dies from, but that their friendship withstands… it’s probably meant to represent Clive’s insanity, that he hopes Hershel will save him from - he is Clive’s light of hope in his despair. Or, to be more accurate to the statue, even if Clive’s madness ends up killing him (which it very nearly does, and by that point he fully expects that it will), he’ll still have had those memories of that time he spent with him, and Hershel will never forget him, and that will mean something special. man though can you imagine an AU where Clive is literally terminally ill too, and that’s why he’s yolo-ing this entire thing so hard and doesn’t care if it ends up killing him in the end, at least he got to be with Hershel one more day; ahahahaha turn up the angsttttttttttttt-

Shmelmey and Shmarton do not at all look like Chelmey and Barton, smh

For everything Clive accounted for with his role and setting, he’s honestly way too rude and crass sometimes to be Luke lmao, even if you try to imagine a world where Hershel did go dark and Luke was changed by it… at least imo

the like 4 puzzles that give Clive’s solving animations/dialogue are the most serotonin-boosting things in the world

“you will come back, won’t you?” Clive asks Hershel about his trip to visit Chelmey, desperately wanting him to stop him before it’s too late :’)

Rosetta and her....... sessions....... with Hershel........ hajkkALSKDLD

Okay but Hershel is kind of dickish sometimes though, despite his whole “gentleman” thing??? There’s the elephant in the room which I’ll Get To, but like first he guilt-trips Chelmey into getting him access to confidential information about the lab explosion, and then he has the absolute balls to tell him “Bill Hawks is being held in the future” and that’s IT. No explanation, nothing else, just THAT, and then he LEAVES, after he’d promised to share every last detail with him. I don’t blame Chelmey at all for tailing them and barging in to get information himself, like damn Hershel, why so savage sometimes in not a good way

which brings me to Ranting About Flora’s Treatment, Part 3: The Finale. Y’all I literally cannot even BEGIN to describe how much the way Hershel and Luke treat Flora in UF specifically makes me seethe..... It was already bad in DB, no doubt, but in this game they are straight-up rude to her, mostly Hershel, for absolutely no reason, and I CANNOT fathom why. He constantly makes the excuse that he’s concerned for her safety, and that the places they’re going to are too dangerous for her, but it all exudes a level of thinly-veiled annoyance, even confusion as to why Flora is so upset that they never bring her along and wants to go with them at all... almost like her “frail” feminine appearance (which isn’t helped by how the games make her feel sick or dizzy or tired multiple times), compared to someone like Emmy who could fight and has more masculine traits, means she’s less capable in Hershel’s mind, which, like, even if it’s unconscious on his part... how about no?? I could accept being worried about her, even if I’m still frustrated at her being left behind, and her constant kidnapping (which isn’t Hershel’s fault, even if he probablyyy could do a better job both times at protecting her), but I CANNOT excuse how short and dismissive Hershel is with her in this damn game; it honestly borders on ooc to me for him, I don’t know what the writers were thinking; do they just hate Flora that freaking much??? He treats her like a burden the entire time, apologizes to people for her, acts irritated at having to accommodate for her, when poor Flora just wants to spend time with him and feel like an equal to him and Luke. Meanwhile Clive of all people is the first one to treat her with kindness and respect and pleasure to see her when they first meet, like when Luke bitches about Flora being excited to see the river and not taking things seriously and Clive tells him to go easy on her (Clive, the one who has been rushing them along this entire time himself). honestly can see why it’s so easy to ship them, when literally everyone else treats her like crap It’s SO depressing honestly. Flora asks them if they thought to wonder where her future self was, and Hershel is just like hhhhh we’re kinda busy thinking about... you know.... important things... sorry not sorry....... like BITCH I WILL STRANGLE YOU, BE NICER TO YOUR DAUGHTER!!! Luke at least is a kid, but Hershel??? there’s no excuse!!! Luke be like “damn I hope Becky doesn’t look down on us for leaving Flora behind... >.>” THEY KNOW. THEY KNOW IT’S NOT RIGHT BUT THEY DON’T CARE AND DO IT ANYWAY. I’M SO MAD

Beasly just gets... straight-up murdered yo... between him and Subject 3, what were they smoking when coming up with the animals in this game, jfc. Test subject animals?? that’s unnervingly dark, despite how glossed over it is and how hilarious Subject 3 is a;lksd

LUKE LOVES SHERLOCK HOLMES THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THE DGS CROSSOVER IS WAITING, LEVEL-5 AND CAPCOM. MAKE LUKE’S (AND MY) DREAMS A REALITY

the intentional zoom-in on Clive’s sinister face in front of the tower will never not amuse me, and baffle me as to why they drew attention to it lmaooo

And okay back to time travel bullshit shenanigans, WHY the fuck does Dimitri not pick up on why him not remembering about the pen is such a big deal as soon as Paul first brings it up?? bruh. bruh. aren’t you a fucking TIME TRAVEL SCIENTIST. WHY DO YOU NOT KNOW SUCH A BASIC CONCEPT THAT BREAKS YOUR WHOLE FACADE IN SECONDS. It’d be one thing if he just couldn’t provide the right answer, but no, he straight-up HAS NO IDEA WHY HE SHOULD HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT THE PEN. “HOW THE FUCK SHOULD I KNOW-” bruhhhh. Dimitri. my dude. i love you but you are actually so dumb sometimes, like holy shit (more on this later though)

Paul talking to Dimitri about his plan is really good; he has a “...” moment before telling him what he’s doing can’t be excused, like “oh shit let me jump on board, wait fuck i gotta stay in character, Layton is a wuss he would never agree to this god dammit Layton-”. jokes aside though, I’m honestly confused as to how much he actually knew before Dimitri’s exposition in the pagoda, and why exactly he goes along with helping Hershel stop him... and what Dimitri was thinking roping him into this. Because I can’t really figure out Paul’s motives here and how they changed, if they did at all. The only information we get about how he first became involved is that Dimitri was paying him a lot of money to get Hershel to the pagoda and to him - he knows that “future London” isn’t real, he knows Future Layton isn’t real, so the extent of his knowledge seems to be that “this man wants to screw Layton over somehow and is giving me $$$ to get it done; there’s no downside here, never mind this suspicious as fuck fake London and all these people that shouldn’t be here”, but then Hershel gave him more information, probably that Claire was involved in what Dimitri was doing, and his concerns about a traitor being involved if he had already begun to suspect Clive by that point, and then he suddenly decided to turn against Dimitri? Even though you’d think saving Claire would be a reason for him to want to help him...? Or did he plan to turn against him from the very start, and wanted Hershel to come because he knew he could stop all this (part of his character development)? The latter is the most likely, though I still don’t entirely understand or maybe I’m just having a brain fart, that’s very likely too. And Dimitri on the other hand, did he know that Paul liked Claire too and would want to save her (and maybe about his salt for Hershel too), and that’s why he got his help? That makes more sense... but also doesn’t, cause as I said it seems like Paul didn’t know Claire was involved until Hershel told him and then Dimitri told everyone at the pagoda, so maybe he literally just said “here’s some money, help me fuck over Layton, not telling how” and just trusted in him that much, even though Paul is an evil genius who could and does put a stop to all his plans with his machines... once again, Dimitri looking dumb....

Clive, in the most deadpan voice ever at the top of the pagoda: oh no, the prime minister is in danger, someone help him

Flora as they’re escaping the tower: “professor no please take me with you instead of future Luke” Hershel: *ignores her feelings and makes a decision for her yet again* Clive: “shhh don’t worry Flora; i know i’m going to kidnap you in like an hour but i’m just trying to rescue you from these insensitive jerks. not Don Paolo though; he’s a gentleman.”

It’s interesting to me that Luke and Hershel keep acting as if Future Luke and future London are legit even after Future Layton has been revealed to be a fake. Hershel at least probably knows none of it is real by now, even if he hasn’t exactly figured out Clive’s role in everything yet, and is just not revealing his knowledge for now, but Luke is still rolling with it... wonder what’s going through his mind by this point. again, it frustrates me that Luke really has no emotional reaction to anything in UF, aside from the statue and his worries about leaving Hershel soon and how that in particular will affect their relationship

I also wonder what Clive is thinking by this point. Now that the Future Layton jig is up, what kind of story is he going with now? We never find out because Hershel reveals everything completely the next time Clive joins up with them again, but in the (unreasonable) case that he hadn’t, would Clive have just acted like he didn’t know that Alain Stahngun was actually someone named Dimitri, who was actually pretending to be Layton, and that the real Layton was somewhere else out there that they needed to find? I don’t know WHY I’m so interested in details like these that don’t matter at all in the long run a;lksdfklfd, but I am... he tells Flora to continue the “investigation” without him, so clearly he still had something in mind, and didn’t expect Hershel to out him quite so soon after that even if deep down he wanted it

Chelmey really cares for Barton and it’s actually so sweet, oml :’)

I didn’t really praise Paul’s character development in this game enough before, but I really do love it, even if I don’t quite understand the circumstances that started it. It’s not something I would have expected with how he’s presented in CV and DB, but it’s very nice to see this be the culmination of his character, and it’s kinda sad that it feels a bit more natural than Descole’s sudden shift in backstory/character between ED and MM/AL... It’s very funny and good to see him and Luke bicker at each other, and how he seems to have a soft spot for Flora... it’s all cute. I just wish there’d been a bit more time for him to talk to them, but that’s what fanfic is for

Don’t make me have to see Hershel beaten up in the street :’(

The sprite of Dimitri standing in the bar is incredibly hot.... damn why are all the older male characters my type >.>

Alright but it’s about time I finally talk about Dimitri without dissing him for being stupid sometimes and say that in short, I love him. He might even be my favorite new character in UF, even more than Clive; I don’t know if it’s just the Liam O’Brian Tragic Sexy Tired Villain effect or what (nah let’s be real, that’s a huge part of it lmao), but he’s fantastic and utterly breaks my heart, in a much more understated way than how the game shoves Clive’s angst in your face, but his tragedy is nonetheless impossible to ignore. The flashback with young Dimitri is my favorite scene in the entire game, it is devastating and feels so cinematic, so raw and painful, and I’m glad they animated that part because it humanizes him so much more. Claire was his everything, he loved her so much, but it is so obvious to me (and to a lot of the fandom too, I think) that his love was entirely selfless - he might have been a little sad, but he was still mostly content letting Hershel have her, and when it comes to after her death, Dimitri would have been absolutely happy not being able to have her if he managed to save her life; he just wanted her to live. He was in love with her, yes, but he also loved her, as a friend, as a scientist, as a person whose time was cut far too short for entirely selfish and unnecessary reasons, and the majority of his anger and bitterness and drive came from a desire to fix such an injustice - to save an innocent person’s life. And the saddest part of him doing all this and trying to sustain Claire’s existence in the present once he finds her, if you go with the closed loop time travel theory, is that Dimitri should already know it’s impossible for him to succeed in this as long as he remembers finding her body in the past - him succeeding would create a paradox, thus, he can’t save her. But he’s so deep in his despair and obsession and insistence on preserving her life that I don’t think he ever stops to think about this - or he does, but refuses to acknowledge it. I’m sure he was incredibly sweet and kind and soft in the past, with her, and with his passion, and it’s heartbreaking to see how broken he is now, how miserable and tired he is, how much everything changed him. And wanting to get back at someone like Bill, who had it all to begin with and then carelessly used them to gain even more, well, I don’t blame him for that. >_> Not to mention his relationship with Clive, which is all kinds of fascinating to think about: the most chaotic, dysfunctional mess of a half-business partnership half-father/son relationship there is, ahaha... Both of them are unhealthy to the extreme in different ways, but with how much time they spent together, it’s inevitable they had vulnerable moments around each other... Clive is the only other person Dimitri would have around during his research to possibly grow to care about, even if it was entirely unconsciously. Learning he was using him would, well, ruin their relationship even more than it was already messed up, but maybe he would visit Clive in prison at least once, assuming Hershel was. I just crave content for them, ugh. Dimitri just deserved so much better, he makes me so sad </3 and I honestly hate that we don’t get to see him say goodbye to Claire at the end before Hershel; sure it would have utterly killed me, but surely he deserved that much...

The utter, frankly amazing, stupidity of Flora’s kidnapping has been stated everywhere, we all know it, but just.... yeah. smh

Seeing the mobile fortress be like *war flashbacks to the Detragon* “Not This Shit Again” Hershel why tf you putting Luke in more danger AGAIN???

The car scenes with the mobile fortress are, at least to me, the funniest parts of the entire game, even better than the casino, oh my god they’re AMAZING. Luke screaming and flailing his arms while Hershel deadpan flings the car towards the fortress, all the bumps they hit riding across it later on, the car just FALLING and Bill almost falling out of it, and then the plane, all the while Hershel displays no more than mild frustration while everyone else is PANICKING... “a plane? This is an automobile!” ...iconic. top PL moments ever. Luke don’t you recall the time when Hershel built an entire mini plane out of a chainsaw and a barrel in ED, come on now

Onto Claire. Claire doesn’t get much screentime, but some of the moments she does have are very good; she’s one of the best and most fleshed-out female PL characters imo, and like a lot of things, I appreciate her a lot more after this replay than I did years ago... LayClaire is a cute ship and all, but I was never really obsessed with it; rather, I’m realizing now I’m more invested in what Claire has to offer by herself. I hate to use the term “strong female character” cause that sounds so cliche... but she really is strong. The entire part with her wanting to save Clive, their conversation, and her bringing him out... god it gets me, it really does. She’s known she’s going to die for ages, and at this point in the game she knows it could be any moment now, so she has no reason to try to keep herself safe; she’s doomed no matter what, so she might as well spend the last few minutes of her life saving another life, and not just anyone: someone who’s just killed countless people, who anyone else would see as insane, who doesn’t care for her, doesn’t care if he lives or dies - but Claire is compassionate enough that, despite everything, she fiercely believes he deserves to live. Because of her own guilt and sins she believes she bears, yes, but also simply because she believes he can still change, and doesn’t deserve to die, despite the HORRIBLE atrocity he just committed. She’s just that good a person. It’s no wonder she and Hershel loved each other and were made for each other; both of them are such kind, loving, selfless people who see the best in anyone no matter what. Perhaps she hoped and suspected that Hershel would look out for and care for Clive once he was in prison, so she wanted to make sure that could happen, even if she wouldn’t be around to ever see it.

sorry I just get really emotional about this part, about the entire mood and tone of Claire desperately trying to save this kid, and the way the camera focuses on the massive scale of the fortress and how it dwarfs them in size... It’s a really powerful and melancholic scene (just like Dimitri’s flashback scene; have I mentioned how much I adore the atmosphere and cinematic direction of this game? cause god I do) with the knowledge of her real identity and circumstances, the visuals and the music are so good, ugh i just have so many feels. mom Claire hurts me </3 she’s so good... Despite the fact that she dies, and so much of what everyone is doing is because of her death, her presence in the story is so strong, and it never feels like her only purpose is to die for everyone else’s development and that’s it (unlike... well, a lot of other pl females :’); she has her own things to do, she stops the fortress alongside Hershel, and literally saves the main antagonist’s life. Seriously I just adore the fact that she of all people is the one to rescue Clive in the end even though she wasn’t at all obligated to (although I’d be interested and cry over an AU where Hershel saves him instead; it honestly surprises me that he wasn’t going to until Claire said something...), because Clive is the only character (of the adults) who doesn’t have a direct relationship with Claire, but they’re still connected by the explosion, and so it makes for an interesting and terribly sad dynamic, even if they only have a few minutes with each other, for all the reasons I said earlier. Claire doesn’t think what he did was right, but she knows what she and the other scientists did wasn’t right either - and it’s too late for her now, but it’s not too late for him; she knows he has a kind heart, deep down, and that he needs help if he wants to redeem himself. She feels responsible for him, feels like she owes him that second chance, after indirectly taking his parents from him and causing him such misery and brokenness... She’s so brave and strong-willed to be able to do and admit all that she does; I just love her. It clearly kills her to leave Hershel, I don’t think she intended at first to ever let him know who she was (hence Celeste), but she’s not too upset in the end, because she (rightly) knows that he will be all right. ;; She’s so beautiful, too... wish we could have seen her interact with so many of the other characters </3

and so my favorite “insert Descole into the main trilogy” AU is where Descole intercepts Claire and makes some sort of body for her, like how everyone headcanons that for Aurora post-AL. (or/also just mobile fortress vs. Descole robots, that’s cool too lol)

And finally, Clive, the infamous star of Unwound Future, thought I talked about him a bit already (and also in this post a few weeks ago). Clive is probably the PL series’ best written villain Anton excluded, I absolutely love him, like everyone does. Nothing really about him hasn’t been done before elsewhere, but that’s not a bad thing; when I was younger and first played the game I really only paid attention to his sympathetic side, but now I’ve also grown an appreciation and fondness for that kind of unabashedly awful, manic, evil insanity a villain like him has, it’s just SO entertaining to watch. If PL was a more mature/higher rated series I’d love to see his chaotic crazed energy played up even more, just to really hammer in how messed up he is, ahaha, but of course that would make it harder to sympathize with him..... and unfortunately, it already is kind of hard, because.... shit, the number of people he must have killed? It’s a LOT. A FUCKTON. The level of sympathy the game gives Clive and the way it presents him at the end is not at ALL relative to the astronomical amount of people that had to have been squashed to death by his machine, to the point that it honestly makes me uncomfortable, and I try to just retcon that in my head, as hard as it is to imagine a scenario where that thing could have come up to London and not hit any houses, because like..... There’s no coming back from that. He knew exactly what he was doing, madness or not, and I honestly just... don’t want him to be such a mass murderer. Maybe it’s wrong to ignore it, but the game wants me to feel sorry for him and see his potential for redemption, and his relationship with Hershel is so good... dammit game, why’d you have to show those houses being crushed. Ugh. Because Clive is so compelling as someone who feels betrayed by people in power, who desires revenge not only for himself but for all the people who suffered just like he has that he says he bore witness to as a reporter; it’s a very relatable position and a good story, for his well-meaning intentions to be skewed and lost in the midst of his rage and despair and hatred and insanity, where his very valid point of “hey people in government are fucked up and don’t give a shit about us and that needs to change” gets turned into “they all need to die even if the very innocent people I want to save get hurt by this as well”, and I really wish that whole angle of it had been played up a bit more, and there had been more of an opportunity for Hershel to reason with him and argue that in the midst of his blind need for revenge, he’s become even worse than the people who need justice handed to them (cue some Descole allusionssss). He wouldn’t have to win him over, Clive is already too deep by that point despite how much he wanted to be stopped, but just having more of that than just what happens in the surveillance room would have been sooooooo good, I love that conversation. It would have made Clive even better and really drive home that he’s 1) kinda right about some things and wants better for people 2) still very fucking wrong and selfish at the same time and has taken it all way too far 3) very fucked up and broken. Not that the third point isn’t already abundantly clear, but... yeah. It would have given him even more depth, made him more sympathetic, and helped juuust a little to offset how much the game handwaves his mass murders... just a little... One of my favorite Clive scenes though is when the fortress is breaking down and he’s still there, desperately trying to save it, still in denial about the fact that all his plans have failed and that everything he’s done (and himself) is about to go up in flames; I know everyone loves making fun of him and that that scene is pretty memeable (he does get bodied so much in the game, lmaooo), but it makes him look so vulnerable, all alone in there by himself, like a child, which is what he really is, deep down: he never truly wanted to do something so abhorrent and evil, but his emotions and mind spiraled so badly out of control and it led him to such a dark, horrible place, where he couldn’t stop himself, no matter how much he wanted to, and in the end all he can do is watch helplessly as the reality of what he’s done and his unwound future all comes crashing down in front of him, never to be salvaged. And he believes wholeheartedly that he is going to die, that he deserves to (this is my favorite Clive scene; he’s so hurt and resigned, the voice acting kills me ugh), he doesn’t understand at all why Claire wants to save him, especially if he knows she’s one of the scientists (as his line of “why are you of all people helping me” implies), because he always thought none of them ever cared about him and people he saw as like him, thought everyone was like Bill Hawks, but Claire still cared enough to want to save his life, even though she was one of the people he was actively targeting with his revenge... I wonder how he would have felt at the time if he had known about her situation and that she was dying. </3 I just want so many good things for him, as so much of the fandom does. He’s so messed up but that’s what makes him so interesting, and his potential relationship with Hershel that the ending of the game suggests could happen is so touching and lovely and uplifting, one of my favorite kinds of relationships in fiction: Clive’s issues would persist for so long, for forever, really, but Hershel would support him and help him heal, and be there for him always, no matter how much Clive would feel like he didn’t deserve it. I eat this dynamic up, I really do, every single time I encounter it in a story, and it’s made even better by the fact that as I’ve said, Hershel has so much in common with Clive, and so they would get along very well for that reason, and Clive could unknowingly help Hershel just as much Hershel tries to help him. They’re so good for each other. Add Luke too, and Flora, and Desmond...! just ahhhhh........ there’s so much goodness. Clive you absolute glorious, fucked-up mess of a character, I love you. :’) and I love fic writers who explore facets of his personality and write about him. He’s only in one game, and there’s still a few hiccups, as I said, yet he’s handled far better than Descole or Randall in my opinion (though I love them too)... just an amazing fucking villain, and character. I wish UF could have gone deeper with him than it did, but even so, the possibilities with Clive are endless. I love him, so much ;;

and some of the themes of the plot in this game, uhh, hit a little close to home in good ole’ 2020/21 time we live in? :’) #FuckBillHawks

Hershel saying goodbye to Claire.... god. One of the top scenes in the entire series, probably the #1 most iconic I’d even go so far as to say. I don’t even really ship LayClaire, but there’s an indescribable emotion that finale gives me... it’s just breathtaking, in the most gutwrenching, nostalgic, beautiful way. I still maintain that Diabolical Box’s ending is sadder than this one, for a multitude of reasons, just comparing the stories and situations the characters are in, but I 100% don’t blame people for bawling at this scene more than any other, just because of the way it’s done yes I know I won’t shut up about the cinematography; the lighting, the camera angles, the pacing of it, Hershel’s fucking kicked puppy faces, the dialogue oh god the dialogue; it ALL hits like a TRUCK and comes together beautifully. At this point in his life Hershel has been through so much loss, so much so that it is unbearable - when he cries that he doesn’t want to say goodbye again, that he can’t say goodbye again, that he refuses to, nothing in the world is more true: this man has been through too much, and he’s hit his breaking point. even if you don’t have the prequels in mind when watching this, as most people don’t/didn’t the first time through, the overwhelming sense of burden and loss Hershel is feeling is so palpable, so painful - you get the sense that this isn’t just about Claire; Hershel has never shown emotion like this before up to this point, so for him to finally break down like this... it speaks volumes. After so many years of holding everything in, he finally can’t take it anymore, and basically stabbing me in the fucking chest would hurt less </3 I complain about Hershel never showing emotion like this (never crying) in the prequels whenever he’s hit with an equally horrible bombshell, and I still feel that way, but at the same time a part of me is also glad that’s the case, because it makes the very last (two) scenes in the entire series hit so much harder, knowing that he finally loses his composure after dealing with so much. As the titular character of the series, Hershel’s development is very understated and subtle, so it’s all the more meaningful when he actually snaps, because it makes him feel so much more real and human than he ever is the rest of the time, when he maintains his facade of being a perfectly composed, calm, and together gentleman; this scene finally say that, no, Hershel is a person, and he is broken in a lot of ways, because some puzzles you just can’t solve no matter how hard you try, and it’s so sad. And this sad tone of loss and longing permeates the entire cutscene; the way the title is dropped in Claire’s dialogue (both versions equally haunting imo), and Hershel taking off his hat for the first time ever, and the pan up and transition back to show the falling snow as “Time Travel”, my favorite instrumental in the series, kicks in... y’all there is no other feeling in the world like the feeling that elicits, there really isn’t ಥ⌣ಥ ❤️💔 the only thing that might even come close to it is the ending of Azran Legacy with Surely Someday, simply because it was the ending of the series, but the ending of Unwound Future hits me harder knowing it’s the end of the timeline, and with everything else in hindsight. And then an unknown amount of time later, even with Luke gone and Hershel only having Flora there with him anymore unless we headcanon DESMOND COMES BACK BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DID RIGHT, Hershel is still no longer wearing his hat, to show that he’s finally started to heal from his pain, and accepted the loss(es), because throughout all of UF Hershel had never really gotten over Claire’s death no matter how much he tried to pretend like he had, but you don’t realize that until you see the ending, until he got one final chance to see her. I just... ugh I love it so much, so much. It means so much, for Hershel and for the series, and that’s why it makes me cry (and don’t even get me sTARTED on Luke’s goodybe, and how upsetting yet beautiful THAT is. yes, Luke isn’t a gentleman yet, and Hershel finally learns that maybe he doesn’t always have to be one, either :’’’’’’)

Unwound Future is a masterpiece. Diabolical Box has my favorite characters and story for the new characters, and favorite settings, personally, but Unwound Future is such top-tier storytelling and writing; it feels so epic and sweeping and (here i go again) cinematic, it’s so polished and everything flows so well, the pacing is wonderful, everything ties up so perfectly and there’s very little I would change Flora bitching aside and practically nothing that feels like filler, even though some of it technically is. The tone stays consistent and they really push the boundaries of how serious and heavy these games can be, and it works, and doesn’t feel silly or glossed over or too unrealistic or too heavyhanded like some of the other games are at times; the plot twists/reveals feel the least absurd and the most grounded in reality, despite still being wild, and it focuses on some really relevant stuff and themes (again, it feels really grounded and raw, and the least fantastical, which isn’t a bad thing for the other games/movie per se, but being more realistic works in this one’s favor. No one is going to have their family separated and murdered by a criminal secret organization working to unearth ancient advanced civilized ruins, or lose years of their life and memories in said ancient ruins, or have their life ruined in an eternal unaging state from hallucinogenic gas, but being screwed over by people in government who will do anything to make sure they never have to face consequences? now that’s a mood). It’s just a really fucking good game, by far the best Professor Layton game, and I’ll always stand by that, despite preferring DB just a bit more cause it hits more of my personal tastes (DB is still very good too though, don’t get me wrong), and it’s also enhanced even more by the prequels, though it stands perfectly on its own. The perfect culmination of Hershel’s character arc, and the absolute high point of the series. It’s one of the ones I keep coming back to the most, just because it has so much to offer; as someone who is absolutely enamored with near-perfect stories of this caliber, I couldn’t ask for more. ❤️