#kai heron

[variousqueerthings]

happy pride reccing some anti-assimilationist, anti-capitalist, and abolitionist books and texts

BOOKS

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? edited by Matilda Bernstein Sycamore (2012)

"Whatever happened to sexual flamboyance and gender liberation, an end to marriage, the military, and the nuclear family? As backrooms are shut down to make way for wedding vows, and gay sexual culture morphs into "straight-acting dudes hangin' out," what are the possibilities for a defiant faggotry that challenges the assimilationist norms of a corporate-cozy lifestyle?"

Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come by Leslie Feinberg (1992)

This pamphlet is an attempt to trace the historic rise of an oppression that, as yet, has no commonly agreed name. We are talking here about people who defy the ‘man’-made boundaries of gender.

Transgender Warriors: Making history from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman by Leslie Feinberg (1996)

[Leslie Feinberg's] book celebrated the resistance to transphobia and a vision of trans liberation articulated from the perspective of class struggle. It understood that no liberation from transphobia or any of the divisive and violent oppressions in class society is possible without the transformation of capitalism into socialism.

The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell (1977)

Stories told of these times make the faggots and their friends weep. The second revolutions made many of the people less poor and a small group of men without color very rich. With craftiness and wit the faggots and their friends are able to live in this time, some in comfort and some in defiance.

Also this interview

Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation edited by Kate Bornstein, and S. Bear Bergman (2010)

Today's transgenders and other sex/gender radicals are writing a drastically new world into being.

Made In India: Decolonizations, Queer Sexualities, Trans/National Projects by Suparna Bhaskaran (2004)

Made In India explores the making of "queer" and "heterosexual" consciousness and identities in light of economic privatization, global condom enterprises, sexuality-focused NGOs, the Bollywood-ization of beauty contests, and trans/national activism.

That's Revolting: Queer Strategies For Resisting Assimilation edited by Matilda Bernstein Sycamore (2008)

As the growing gay mainstream prioritises the attainment of straight privilege over all else, it drains queer identity of any meaning, relevance or cultural value.

How To Blow Up A Pipeline by Andreas Malm (2021)

Malm argues that sabotage is a logical form of climate activism, and criticizes both pacifism within the climate movement and "climate fatalism" outside it.

On Connection by Kae Tempest (2020)

On Connection is medicine for these wounded times.

Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Y. Davies (2003)

If you know anything about Angela Davis—anti-racist activist, Marxist-feminist scholar—you know that her answer to the question posed in the title is "Yes." This is a short primer on the prison abolition movement

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell

This profound, urgent, beautiful, and necessary book is an invitation to imagine and organize for a less violent and more liberatory world.

Black Marxism by Cedric Johnson (1983)

Influenced by many African American and Black economists and radical thinkers of the 19th century, Robinson creates a historical-critical analysis of Marxism and the Eurocentric tradition from which it evolved. The book does not build from nor reiterate Marxist thought, but rather introduces racial analysis to the Marxist tradition.

The Transgender Issue: An Argument For Justice by Shon Faye (2021)

[Shon Faye] provides a compelling, wide-ranging analysis of trans lives from youth to old age, exploring work, family, housing, healthcare, the prison system and trans participation in the LGBTQ+ and feminist communities, in contemporary Britain and beyond.

Burn The Binary: selected writings on the politics of being trans, genderqueer, and non-binary by Riki Wilchins (2017)

This single volume offers a selection of Riki’s most penetrating and insightful pieces, as well as the best of two decades of Riki’s online columns for The Advocate never before collected, from "Where Have All the Butches Gone," to "Attack of the 6-Foot Intersex People"

ARTICLES

Assuming The Perspective Of The Ancestor by Claire Schwartz (2022)

Philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò on building constructive, future-oriented politics, at scale.

The Gender Binary Is A Tool For White Supremacy by Kravitz Marshall (2020)

A brief history of gender expansiveness - and how colonialism slaughtered it

Meet Chris Smalls, the man who organized Amazon workers in New York By Anna Betts, Greg Jaffe, and Rachel Lerman (2022)

The fired worker and former rapper did what nobody else has done in the U.S.

The Nuclear Family Was A Mistake by David Brooks (2020)

The family structure we’ve held up as the cultural ideal for the past half century has been a catastrophe for many. It’s time to figure out better ways to live together.

Universal basic income seems to improve employment and well-being by Donna Lu (2020)

Extinction Isn’t the Worst That Can Happen by Kai Heron (2021)

"This brings us to the third problem with eschatological framings of the climate crisis: they overlook the fact that for many, the end of the world has already happened. In October last year, Nemonte Nenquimo, a Waorani woman, mother and leader, wrote a desperate letter to the western world reminding us that for Indigenous peoples, “the fires are raging still”."

MISC

Manifesto: An Aromantic Manifesto by yingchen and yingtong

free to read

their tumblr (with further resources)

Essay: I Dream Of Canteens by Rebecca May Johnson (2019)

There is a space for everyone. A space, a glass of water, and a plug socket.* Chairs and tables and cleaned toilets. So many chairs so that no one is without one.

Acceptance Speech (video and text): The National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters speech by Ursula Le Guin

Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.

And here's a video to cleanse the soul: bell hooks: Transgression

bell hooks & Gloria Steinem at Eugene Lang College

[beguines]

In 1848 Marx and Engels wrote that 'the proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie'. This, I would hazard, is what animates Huber's approach to Marxist politics. But by 1869 Marx had come to realize that for workers in colonial countries, this would be impossible without first tackling the colonial question that divided the world's working classes into 'hostile camps'. As Marx argued, and as history verified, workers often have conflicting interests that pose a challenge to the kind of mass mobilization that Huber envisions. His image of the 'planetary proletariat' is not attuned to how conflicting interests, misogyny, racism and chauvinism drive a wedge between workers. It refuses to acknowledge that shared interests, far from being an objective reality, must be composed in and through struggle.

Kai Heron, "The Great Unfettering"

[asg-stuff]

Capitalist catastrophism is what happens when capitalist realism begins to fray at the edges. It describes a situation in which capitalism can no longer determine what it means to be “realistic,” not because of the force of movements assembled against it but because capital’s self-undermining and ecologically destructive dynamics have outstripped capitalism’s powers to control them. (via Capitalist Catastrophism | ROAR Magazine)

[speedyz3]

Getting a running start. With a couple of flaps from its powerful wings this Heron was off to a different spot to do some hunting for lunch.

[perverse-plasticity]

Pretty happy overall with this great blue heron, less happy with the hatching on the lower half

Done with a pilot metropolitan fountain pen, and iroshizoku shin-Kai ink

[whozkay]

28.02.24

yesterday wasn't a good day :( i met people i didn't want, got so stressed that i skipped a class to read in the school staircase and called a friend to talk about how bad I was.

but I got over this and went back to chemistry (goosebumps).

I'm understanding the subject but in a slow rhythm. I hope I will go well in the exams.

but I went to watch the boy and the heron and WHAT AN AMAZING MOVIE!! I want to see more movies like this.

and, ah! I started a new reading: Calling Major Tom and I'm honestly loving it!

🎧 soundtrack:

[sandhawk]

went to bolsa chica again today, it’s very pretty this time of year. saw approximately five billion lizards and several birds; the most interesting was a least tern diving for some fish! was so cool seeing it just drop right into the water :)

i also saw a great blue heron nest in a palm tree - two chicks still young enough to be reliant on parents for food. they’re very noisy when being fed, i kind of thought there was a squabble happening but it turned out to be dinner time

[isaksbestpillow]

Ossan's Love Returns: how do you live?

A lot of heavy themes in this episode, the heaviest of all Kurosawa's looming illness. Ossan's Love is a comedy, but it also knows how to cut deep, so it could go either way with Kurosawa, I think.

Kimi tachi wa dou ikiru no kai/How do you live? is the title of the episode. It's a question multiple characters find themselves asking: Kurosawa with his health problems, Chizu as a working single mom, Haruta and Maki in regards to having children, Kiku-sama in regards to his feelings for Izumi, Izumi when the revenge he's been living for is done - even Takekawa with his new ideals of "love share".

A lot of the episode titles so far have been humorous intertextual references. Episode 7 is intertextual as well, only less humorous this time. The episode title is the title of a novel by Yoshino Genzaburou and the Japanese title of Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron. I think it's important to be aware of this intertextuality when watching the episode. The episode opens with a child's scribbling on the wall, asking us the same question Miyazaki Hayao has been asking.

[probablyasocialecologist]

A flood is not (and never was) a ‘natural’ disaster. The floods of today and the floods to come risk amplifying historically-produced distributions of vulnerability.

Though decisions about flood protection are often made by bureaucrats and engineers, these are intensely political decisions. If flooding is political, then what is needed is a left flood politics, which connects flooding to capitalist dynamics, to class, race, gender and other historically-structured divisions, and to genuine democracy. Such a left flood politics forms part of the broader struggle against what Kai Heron terms capitalist catastrophism, where “capital’s self-undermining and ecologically destructive dynamics have outstripped capitalism’s powers to control them.” 

[...]

Rather than an affordable and less disruptive alternative to flood defence schemes, ‘natural flood management’ is a wedge that opens up questions about how land is valued and who has the power to shape landscapes. In this opening, ecosocialist politics shouldn’t overlook how cycles of flood and ebb have played a role in producing habitable waterways, wetlands and other amphibious spaces for other living beings. Flood defences as they often appear today – as walls and straightened, concrete-lined waterways – are ecological violence. An ecologically-attuned flood politics might reengineer upstream tributaries so that they hold more water, perhaps with the assistance of beavers. It might set houses back from the coast to allow salt marsh and tidal flats to develop. This approach represents an ethics of repair, responding to the decimation of the living world which accompanies and extends beyond climate disruptions.

[animehouse-moe]

The Best of 2023 Anime

First of all, I have to say that this isn't my idea: it's @444lpblue's idea. I'm just stealing it getting to it it before they do.

Anyways, the idea was to pick the best for several categories in relation to anime from 2023, and share why they were chosen. This doesn't necessarily mean I'll be picking my favorites from the year, but what I think is the best of the best, so there'll be a few interesting choices made (but I think that makes it more fun). Enough preamble though, I should just get to sharing my list.

Best Show - Heavenly Delusion

I don't think this one is much of a surprise. Heavenly Delusion, by and large, is an outstanding show (and adaptation) in all meanings of the word.

I think the best way to explain what constitutes a "best show" is by asking the question: how much of the medium does this series make use of?

With Heavenly Delusion? The answer is effectively everything. Visual storytelling, auditory cues, leading the viewer visually, incredible foreshadowing, expressive and detailed character acting, apt humor, incredible visual effects. The list goes on and on. Frieren was a great show, Skip and Loaf was a great show, The Witch From Mercury was a great show. But the best can't fall short in nearly any category, and Heavenly Delusion successfully evades that pitfall at every twist and turn within its twelve episodes.

Personally speaking, it was a show for the ages. Sure, we have Frieren pushing the boundaries in terms of visual quality in a seasonal anime, but I think the difference in terms of experience between Frieren and Heavenly Delusion is night and day- an entirely incomparable experience.

Best Movie - The Boy and The Heron

I mean, is there really another choice? The Black Clover movie was good, the Kaguya movie was good. Suzume, The First Slam Dunk, Blue Giant. There are quite a few good movies out there, but let's be real- you just can't win if you're against Miyazaki.

Best Episode - Heavenly Delusion Episode 10

Yeah yeah, sue me, I picked something a lot of people have also picked. But just know in the deepest parts of my heart that this would always be my pick. Junichi's character arc and its expression through this episode is sublime. Ikarashi's insane Trigger style meshing with Hirotaka's more voyeuristic appeal is sublime. The panic of Kiruko as she runs with the baby, the goofy and excessive humor that opens the episode, all the various examples of symbolism. The art shifting art styles, the different approaches to animation. The list quite honestly does not end. While some might argue for Frieren's dragon episode as the entry for best of the year, I think the frame of reference for that argument is far too narrow. The perspective of animation and visuals above all else completely fails in the face of holy trinity of Masakazu Ishiguro, Mori Hirotaka, and Kai Ikarashi. You just cannot beat it, and you can't argue it in any way.

Best Opening - Magical Destroyers

It was a toss up between this and Heavenly Delusion, but I just can't get rid of this opening in my head. It's like a plague that's taken me over. Incredible visuals, incredible boards and animation work, and just an incredible testament to Jun Inagawa's art. Heavenly Delusion's OP is very good, but in a way can, oddly enough, feel too literal in comparison to the comparatively indecipherable story that the OP of Magical Destroyers tells. Really, just wonderful work all around that I desperately wish could have extended to the anime itself.

Best Ending - Magical Destroyers

This was always a one person race. Would it be Taiki Konno's Magical Destroyers ending, or would it be Taiki Konno's Undead Unluck ending?

Personally, I don't think there was much of a contest between the two purely because of the story told with the Magical Destroyers ending. I think that giving Konno a static ending also helped a great deal as they were able to explore their vision in much greater detail than having to animate directly.

But that's also the beauty of Inagawa's appeal, really. Konno and Inagawa got along like a house on fire with this ending, and adding The 13th Tailor's music overtop just brought it to a totally different level. Still a massive massive favorite of mine.

Best Animation Designs - Trigun Stampede

Now, just hear me out. 3D animation's sore spot has always been expressiveness, and bringing anime original designs to such an intensely beloved and cult classic series is an insane challenge.

Orange, of course, was totally up to the challenge and brought what I'd argue has become a modern icon of Vash the Stampede. The facial expressions, reactions, and interactions were impeccable. The larger movements were incredibly fluid and full of life and feeling. The cloth and other materials were amazing to experience.

The designs feel almost effortless in the context of 3D animation, and I really have to stress that that is a huge challenge. Look at how other characters look in 3D vs how these ones look. Really, really impressive work in my books.

Best Aesthetic - Bleach Thousand Year Blood War: The Separation

Bleach has, and always will be, a very aesthetically pleasing series. There's plenty of moments to pull from, but I think the second cour of TYBW presents the pinnacle of Bleach in anime form.

The lighting, the backgrounds and environments, the insane levels of composition: TYBW The Separation is the highest reaches of style Bleach has mustered to this date.

And really, there's not anything else to it. The iconic red and blue palette, the crazy details in highlights and shadows, the incredible color schemes and storyboards. It's simply Number 1.

And that's as far as the list goes. Pretty simple, but a pretty fun exercise in looking back on the year in terms of more specific aspects. Does highlight the gulf between good and great though, as there's many series that can qualify as "good", but very very few that can really be reasonably considered for accolades such as these.

2024 seems keen on changing that up though, so I'm really looking forward to what all we get for this year!

[cdd-system-help]

alter names relating to bugs, nature, outside, and colours/colouring ⚘️🐛

requested by anon

masculine

Buck, Cedar, Bear, Lark, Bramble, Saffron, Heron, Robin, Nile, Maki, Kai, Orson, Gecko, Pincher, Viceroy, Alder, Attacus, Mantis, Cade, Cricket, Carabus, Ivory, Azure, Hyacinth, Evette, Bruno, Leo, Mydas, Apalone, Hawkbill

feminine

Aurora, Blossom, Daisy, Flora, Dawn, Doe, Ivy, Acacia, Azalea, Daphne, Dove, Marigold, Myrtle, Maybelle, Lavender, Adalia, Kaira, Nephila, Andrea, Clementine, Jade, Ruby, Mabel, Equine, Wisteria, Peach

androgynous or other

Citrus, Blue, Aspen, Brook/Brooke, Ash, Autumn, Coral, Hazel, Fawn, Cub, Briar, Juniper, Basil, Fox, Iris, Pepper, Wren, Rowan, Kestrel, Mint, Fern, Sterling, Reed, Paloma, Nieve, Cielo, Harvest, October, Raine, Dimitri, Panda, Bambi, Beetle, Tyria, River, Lysander, Malka, Bee, Amber, Auburn, Sienna, Raven, Vaiva, Scribble, Equinox, Tawny, Willow, Garnet, Mouse, Crow

[overgrown-ruins]

Forget Eco-Modernism

Recent years have seen renewed debate on climate strategy on the left. Here, Kai Heron responds to the arguments of the proponents of a left ecomodernism, and argues that it risks reactionary political consequences.

Kai Heron 2 April 2024

[beguines]

Instead of seeing capital's abolition as the unfettering of productive forces, it is better to view it as freeing the world’s producers to choose from a richer and more diverse array of technologies and socio-ecological relations than capitalist industrialization can offer. Of course, it would be unwise to reject contemporary medical advances, green steel production or lithium batteries; but we might want to avoid nuclear in a world destined for water shortages, unpredictable weather events and geopolitical instability. And instead of using 'green hydrogen' to produce synthetic fertilizer, we might consider supporting and expanding agroecological farming systems, which already provide between 50% and 70% of food calories consumed globally, with fewer high energy off-farm inputs, and greater biodiversity and climate resilience than industrialized agriculture.

The question, then, is not about whether one is for or against technology—as if this were possible. It is about adopting appropriate technologies and collectively managing energy and food systems at relevant scales. A promising alternative to Huber's vision lies in an anti-imperialist eco-communism that understands how relations of dependency and uneven ecological exchange devastate ecologies and exploit workers in both core and periphery. Such a politics must do the difficult work of developing strategies of struggle and ecological transition that meet the needs of the exploited and oppressed in the Global North in ways that are compatible with demands for colonial reparations, technology transfers, food sovereignty, land back, the lifting of sanctions, the end of occupations and the atmospheric space to develop freely and independently. This knotty problem can neither be wished away nor delayed until the US working class has won a Green New Deal. Huber is right that capital's pursuit of profit is a fetter on our collective liberation. What he misses is that eco-modernism similarly fetters a world of flourishing for all.

Kai Heron, "The Great Unfettering"

[miqotepotatoe]

Okay so basis of this Ninjago Amphibia crossover swap AU, the plot loosly follows the plot of Amphibia but with the Dumbass Trio in the place of the Calamity Girls. The Calamity Box was a relic in the Explorer's Club that a theif tried to steal before the Ninja stopped them. Lloyd told everyone not to touch the box but Jay got really curious, convincing Kai and Cole to take a look with him in the dead of night. No malicious intentions, just idiotic curiousity.

Cole replaces Anne, he gets zapped to Frog Valley and is taken in by the Plantars, quickly gains Wartwood's trust by defending them against the tax collector toads. He spends most of his time there aiding the townsfolk fighting off beasts while trying to figure out how to make the Calamity Box work again. The overprotective big brother to Sprig and Polly, still gets dragged into their hyjinks. Has accidently called Hop-Pop "gramps" a few times.

Kai replaces Sasha, gets zapped to Toad Tower, puts up a fight against the toads but is quickly overwhelmed and taken prisoner. Grime recognises that Kai is a powerful fighter and offers a deal, aid the toads and Grime will help Kai find his friends. Kai reluctently accepts the deal, just wanting to find Cole and Jay and return to Ninjago. He's more of a common footsoldier then a lieutenant.

Jay replaces Marcy, gets zapped to Newtopia, panics cuz he's no longer in Ninjago (causing him to fall down a flight of stairs and breaking his leg), meets Lady Olivia and Andrias and joins the Night Guard so he can venture out to find Cole and Kai. He has fun going out on adventures, but he can't help but worry about his friends and the others still in Ninjago. He vents out his worries and insecurities to Andrias over a game of Flipwart (Jay lost, but Andrias got blackmail materiel on the boy to use for emotional manipulation, sadly it still doesn't change what the Core has in store for him).

Season 1

- Plays out pretty much the same, Cole and the Plantars have various wacky adventures as he tries to find Kai and Jay and figure out how to get home.

- Kai is released earlier due to the deal he and Grime made, the herons that attack Toad Tower are scared away imedietly by Kai's fire. Grime is impressed, but both are using each other as a means to an end. Grime wants to use Kai to keep the frogs under check, Kai wants to find Cole and Jay and go home.

- Toad Tax happens. Cole imedietly notices the toad tax collectors are simply just stealing from the frogs so he fights them back. His eyes also flash blue for a moment. The tax collectors flee to Toad Tower and inform Grime of the situation. Grime plans on sending the entire army at the tower to Wartwood to teach the frogs a lesson, but Kai overhears and volunteirs to give the frogs a warning message.

- Cole and Kai reunite. Kai warns Cole about Grime and the Toads and the boys stage a plan to teach the toads a lesson on why you don't mess with the ninja. Kai returns to Toad Tower and tells Grime of a plan to "execute" Hop-Pop as his recent campaign against Toadstool has begun inspiring frogs to rise up, and executing the face of frog revolution will teach them a lesson.

- The events of Reunion stay mostly the same. The toads invite all of Wartwood to Toad Tower for a "peaceful celebration" to exectute Hop-Pop, meanwhile the boys begin to put their plan into motion. Kai stops Grime from exectuting Hop-Pop (ELEMENT OF SURPRISE!), and the big final fight is Cole & Kai vs Grime.

- The boys have Grime cornered, but just as he's about to admit defeat Toad Tower begins to explode and crumble due to Wally planting boom-shrooms. One explosion knocks Kai over the edge, Cole tries to pull him up but the ground beneath him is crumbling. Kai lets go of Cole's hand in an attempt to sacrifice himself so his friend can survive and find Jay, but Grime catches Kai midfall. The toads retreat into the woods, Kai once again their prisoner.

Season 2

- Cole and the Plantars leave to Newtopia to see if the newts know anything on how to get Cole home to Ninjago. When they arrive at the capitol city, they are attacked by barbariants, but are saved by Jay. They have an emotional reunion, drive out the barbariants and Jay takes them into Newtopia. Cole tells Jay about how he found Kai but the toads took him away so who knows where he is. Jay is releived to learn Kai is alright.

- The next day Jay introduces Cole and the Plantars to King Andrias. They talk the music box, Andrias suggests that Cole and the Plantars explore the city while he and Jay do some reaserch on the Calamity Box.

- Cole and Sprig bond over dead moms.

- Durring his research, Jay discovers some stuff about overworldy creatures and the prophecy surrounding the stones in the box. He decides to keep this to himself, thinking it to be seemingly unimportant. Little does he know, the Core is watching.

- Meanwhile Kai is being an absolute menace to Grime, and has driven away almost the entriety of the Toad Tower troops. Yunan eventually tracks them down as Grime is wanted by Newtopia due to what happened at Toad Tower. Kai initially uses this oppertunity to escape, but goes back to save Grime cuz ninja honor. Reveling in the victory, Grime begins to build a new toad army to take over Newtopia, Kai only helping so he can find away back to Ninjago.

- Andrias and Jay learn about how to recharge the stones using the three temples. The Plantars decide to return to Wartwood to get the music box from Hop-Pop's "scholarly contact," but Cole decides to go with them. While Jay is upset he understands the fondness his friend has for his frog found family and allows it.

- Durring his preperations for the temple quests, Jay discovers some more stuff about the box, what it does and what the ancient newts did. Jay is horrified at the aspect that Ninjago could be invaded if they charged the box. The Core threatens Andrias to deal with Jay before he learns too much, so Andrias lies to Jay saying that the newts have moved on from their conqureing lifestyle. Jay is willing to trust Andrias as he's been nothing but honest and kind to him, but he still has a little cautious suspision.

- The temple arc plays out the same, Jay charges the green stone of Wit, Cole partially charges the blue stone of Heart, Kai reunites with the boys and charges the pink stone of Strength.

- After the boys spend some time together, they head to Newtopia to return home. But then the toad rebellion happens and everyone tries to stop it, except Jay. Jay tries to stop Cole from closing the gates, trying to warn his friend about what the ancient newts did and his fears that Andrias might try to invade Ninjago, but Cole insists that Jay is just being paranoid and panicy as he usually is. This results in a fight that Cole wins.

- Andrias reveals his true colours and his plans to invade and conqure Ninjago. The three ninja fight him off and his frobots, but he drops Sprig out to his supposed death which causes Cole to fully resonate with the blue stone and unlock his Cole-amity Powers (I'm sorry for the awful pun), mixed in with his earth element abilities and Andrias gets destroyed, but Cole passes out. Jay manages to save Sprig and opens a portal back to Ninjago, Kai and Grime try to hold Andrias back, Cole and the Plantars make it to the portal, but Jay is impailed by Andiras's giant flaming sword. Everything is white and Cole finds himself in the monastery's courtyard with the Plantars, but no Calamity Box, no Kai or Jay

Season 3

- Lloyd, Zane, Nya, Wu and Pixal have an emotional reunion with Cole, and ask questions about what happened, where are Kai and Jay, who're the giant talking frogs? Cole tells them everything, about Amphibia, Andrias, the strange powers, what happened to Jay. After hearing his story, everyone at the monastery is determinded to figure out a way back to Amphiba so they can stop Andrias, get Kai and Jay back and return the Plantars home. Until then the frog family stays at the monastery.

- Back in Amphibia, Kai and Grime managed to escape Newtopia and flee to Wartwood. They unite together the people of the valley into a resistance, using Wartwood as a base.

- Jay is placed in a rejuvination tank to recover from his wound. Andrias sends out a cloakbot to hunt down Cole, but it was extremly unprepared for the full might of the ninja. Olivia and Yunan try to rescue Jay, but fail. The Core reveals itself and intends to make Jay it's host. While it would've prefered someone who could beat Andrias at flipwart, Jay was good enough to do. And thus "Day" is born (a stupid name but it's just like how Darcy was named, being a combo of "Dark Jay")

- After a lot of time and effort, the ninja make a portal back to Amphibia using a mix of highly potent Traveller's Tea and Cole's Calamity Powers. Nya insists on joining Cole and the Plantars back to Amphibia because she isn't going to stand by while her brother and boyfriend are still stuck in this world while a giant newt is preparing to conqure Ninjago. And so Cole, Nya and the Plantars return to Amphibia while Lloyd, Zane, Pixal and Wu make preparations to defend Ninjago for when Andrias invades.

- Emotional Smith sibling reunion, Kai introduces them to the Resistance and inform them that Jay is alive but taken prisoner. The Resistance increase their numbers while the ninja and Plantars go to learn of the stone's prophecy from Mother Olm (Nya is a little jelous that the boys get cool anime powers).

- Final battle time. Pt1, Begining of the End. Basing their plan on a Fritz Donigan movie, the Resistance fight off the frobot army and Andrias while Cole, Kai, Nya, the Plantars and Grime sneak into the castle to get the Calamity Box and rescue Jay. One Lava vs Yulivia dance fight later and they make it to the box, but it's a trap and everyone is captured by Day. Day calls the ninja out on how they've treated Jay; calling him expendable, the least valuble ninja, not taking his fears and worries seriously. Once the Resistance flees upon seeing their leaders captured the invasion of Ninjago begins.

- Pt2, All In. Lloyd has gathered an army of friends and foes to defend Ninjago from the overworldy invading forces. The Amphibia team manage to escape the castle, regroup with the rest of the ninja and make a plan to stop the invasion. Kai, Nya and Grime disable the sheild surrounding the castle while everyone else fights off the frobots. Andrias challenges Cole to a fight to decide the fate of Ninjago, while Kai and Nya fight Day (Grime distracting some frobots). Durring the fight, Nya protects Kai from a lethal blow, resulting in her getting "dis-armed." The two fights play off the same as normal, Cole being reinvigorated with rock instead of k-pop, Sprig bringing Andrias to his senses with Leif's letter, Day getting distracted by controlling Andrias allowing Kai to free Jay from the hivemind by cutting the helmet's cord.

- Speaking of Jay, the Core tries to lull him into staying with a world akin to Prime Empire and fake versions of the ninja. Eventually Jay sees through the Core's lies and stands up to it. He is able to be saved before the Core could fully assimilate him. Emotional reunion between the dumbass trio.

- Pt3, The Hardest Thing. The boys return to Amphibia to finish some little things, Nya stays in Ninjago to get her wound checked out. The moon then begins to fall and the boys unlock their true Calamity Forms as they fight off the Core with their calamity and elemental powers, but Kai and Jay quickly begin to tire out as this is they're not used to the powers unlike Cole. Having no other choice, Cole calls upon the powers of all three stones, destroying the Core but dying in the process. He then meets the stones creator who offers him a chance to become guardian of the multiverse, which he declines. The guardian brings Cole back to life and the boys say their goodbyes to Amphibia, returning to Ninjago at long last.

- All six ninja finally reunite. Jay builds Nya a cool robo prostetic, feeling guilty about being the one to cause her to loose an arm but Nya reassures him it wasn't his fault, it was Core. Cole talks to Lloyd about the whole dying and meeting the stones creators and them offering him the oppertunity to become guardian of the multiverse, to which Lloyd gets some de ja vu from the time he died after stopping the oni, meeting the FSM and getting offered a chance to join him. Zane makes records on Amphibia based on the stores Kai Jay and Cole have told everyone. Things quickly go back to some form of peacful normal, until another villain decides to attack the city. Just another day in Ninjago as they say

[speedyz3]

I wanted to thank everyone who reached out to me yesterday. Your love and kind words will help carry me through this next journey in my life. Cancer is a serious disease and early detection can save your life. I’m usually a pretty private person and keep to myself so sharing this is difficult for me. Get the scans, talk to your doctor and get the treatments. Life is short, don’t let cancer take it away from you.

[brotherbandchronicles]

Edvin Week: Day 2: Clean

@brotherbandarchive

It’s Ulf who finds him by the stream. It feels like he left their camp to wash his hands a couple of minutes ago, but the cold that crept into his fingers and Ulf’s concerned look suggest otherwise. Edvin doesn’t know how long he’s been there, but he knows that Hal’s blood was on his hands. And they still don’t feel clean enough.

He forces himself to stop his hands from moving – he rationally knows that all the blood is long gone – and bows his head down, closing his eyes. He can feel Ulf kneeling down beside him, reaching out to raise his hands from the water.

“Ed,” he breathes quietly, probably noticing how ice-cold they are. Edvin lets out a shaky breath.

Ulf keeps holding his hands. Edvin thinks if he didn’t, he would probably shove them back into the water. He finally opens his eyes to meet his gaze. Ulf’s eyes are sad, filled with worry. Edvin is not sure wheter the worry is for Hal or him or Stig, who had to be led away by Stefan, while Edvin was working on the wound in Hal’s chest.

Ulf is one of the two three Herons, who know what it’s like to be on both sides. He knows what’s like to be under Edvin’s careful but unforgiving hands. They might all be warriors, but their healer is the one who bargains with death for their lives.

“Let’s get you to the camp, 'kay?”