#mostly just for my reference as i continue w my rewrite

[tskumoyuuma]

cause tumblrs a Bitch im remaking this post on my computer so ill be able to edit it later on, but this is basically a reference for how much time passes in each warriors book, primarily based on how many gatherings r shown. will add on later

into the wild: ~3 moons. evidence: firepaw joins the clan, the next night is a gathering (gathering 0). we get a timeskip, saying it’s been “more than two moons” since firepaw joined tc. this means there have been two gatherings not shown (gathering 1 + 2). a gathering soon happens after this timeskip (gathering 3), which means that a total of 3 moons have passed. this makes firepaw ~9 moons old at the end of the book, since it’s been stated he n graypaw barely saw six moons when they first met

fire n ice: ~3 or 4 moons. book starts off where last one ended, but a timeskip happens in the middle if the first chap. we learn that a gathering is happening (gathering 4), so around a moon has passed. at this gathering, the clans agree to bring windclan back, which they do. towards the end of the book we learn that a gathering (gathering 5) was canceled because of rain. fireheart meets onewhisker again after two moons at the gathering after that (gathering 6). in the first chapter of forest of secrets, we learn the last chapter of fire n ice takes place three days before the next gathering (gathering 7). almost 3 moons have passed, but if u count the beginning of the first chap almost 4 moons pass. this makes fireheart ~13 moons old at the end of the book

forest of secrets: ~1.5 moons. first chapter starts off with a gathering (gathering 7). many things happen and towards the end we have the next gathering (gathering 8) where its revealed to the clans that thunderclan has brokentail. silverstream has her kits n dies, then cinderpaw becomes a medicine cat apprentice by going to the moonstone during the half moon. the next day tigerclaw leads the attack on thunderclan w rogues, but is caught trying to kill bluestar n is banished. this means 1.5 moons pass, making fireheart ~14.5 moons old

rising storm: ~1.5 moons. a gathering happens (gathering 9) a few chapters in. the fire happens near the end of the book, then the gathering where tigerclaw is revealed to be shadowclans new leader happens (gathering 10), ending the book. around 1.5 moons pass, making fireheart ~16 moons old

a dangerous path: ~2 moons. begins with the tigerstar gathering (gathering 10). a half moon passes as cinderpelt goes to her first medicine cat meeting by herself. snowkit is taken away by the hawk, and the next gathering happens (gathering 11). swiftpaw dies n brightpaw is injured in the fight w dogs, and another gatherings occurs (gathering 12). its now been a year since fireheart joined thunderclan. they drive the dogs out, but bluestar dies in the process. 2 moons pass, making fireheart ~18 moons old

the darkest hour: ~1 moon. fireheart becomes firestar and makes whitestorm his deputy. the next gathering takes place (gathering 13) where tigerstar asks thunderclan and windclan to join the new tigerclan. stonefur is killed, tawnypaw joins tigerstar, n gorsepaw is killed. tallstar n firestar confront tigerstar. scourge appears, kills tigerstar, n gives the clans three days to decide if they fight bloodclan or not. they decide to fight, the clans win, and graystripe becomes the new deputy. only 1 moon passed n at the end of the prophecies begin arc firestar is ~19 moons old

time skips between arcs is a little tricky...

firestar’s quest: ~2 or 5 moons. this book begins in greenleaf. going by this timeline, the end of darkest hour would be the beginning of greenleaf, when it was actually leafbare in the canon book. looking at the canon books, this means its a half year timeskip in between the canon books. if we switch the seasons (darkest hour being set in greenleaf n this book in leafbare), it would make sense regarding this timeline. a time skip of a half year would also make sense regarding ages. the book opens w bramblepaw becoming a warrior. going w my assumption that a usual apprenticeship lasts around 6 moons, a half year would fit this perfectly. this is because bramblepaw is born somewhere around (gathering 7) in forest of secrets, making him a new apprentice in the darkest hour (gathering 13). so, when the first gathering is shown at the beginning of the book, this is (gathering 19). longtails eyes get scratched, willowpelt dies, n fire n sand start their journey to remake skyclan. when they arrive at the gorge, they wait to meet ‘moony’ during the full moon (technical gathering 20, makes me wanna kno what tc did that gathering when fire coudnt show up..). lots of cats join skyclan n they have their first real gathering (gathering 21, has a rumor spread thru the forest that fire is dead ? hasnt been spotted in two moons now). skyclan fights the rats, leafstar gets her nine lives, n fire n sand finally go back to tc. epilogue where squirrel n leaf r born happens three moons after returning, so (gatherings 22 to 24) have gone by. not including the epilogue, two moons pass in this book, but including it means five moons have passed. at the end of the book firestar is ~30 moons

midnight: ~1 moon. according to the wikia which is based off of the canon seasons, 18 moons have passed from darkest hour to this book. this makes sense to me regarding the ages so I'm keeping it that way, which means this book happens 7 moons after firestars quest, making the first gathering shown (gathering 31). the chosen meet up at the half moon. they then leave for their journey. a half moon med cat meeting is held shortly after they leave. the next gathering (gathering 32) occurs after tawnypelt gets her rat bite. the chosen cats meet midnight, the forest starts getting torn down, n the book ends. around a moon passes, so brambleclaw is ~25 moons old n squirrelpaw is ~8 moons

moonrise: ~ .5 moons. many chapters in we have a half moon meeting. this is around when stormfur is held prisoner in the tribe. lots of things happen, mainly that feathertail dies, then the book ends. only like, .5 moons pass n there are no gatherings. brambleclaw = 25.5 moons, squirrelpaw = 8.5 moons

dawn: ~ .5 moons ?? its... very hard to know how much time passes in this book because the forest is destroyed so they cant hold regular gatherings. but considering that leafpaw mentions to stoneteller towards the end of the book about gatherings, it can be safe to say that a gathering (gathering 33 ?) would have occurred then. since theres no other mention of the moons phase (that I can tell from the wikia chapter summaries cause I dont have this book), only .. .5 moons pass ?? maybe. brambleclaw = 26 moons, squirrelpaw = 9 moons (this is where the bramblesquirrel love confession happens ..... yike). will prob update this when / if I reread this book for more accurate info. so far this arc has had only .. 2 moons pass maybe. first arc had 8.5 moons pass by the end of book 3 for comparison

starlight: ~.5 moons. squirrelpaw becomes a warrior, tallstar dies, clans find their own territories. leafpaw finds the moonpool in time for the half moon, where she gets her full name. mudclaw leads his rebellion against onewhisker, but loses. so.. another book w around .5 moons passing ? brambleclaw = 26.5 moons, squirrelflight -= 9.5 moons (good to kno shes following in her fathers footsteps in becoming a warrior early)

twilight: ~1 moon. finally a real gathering (gathering 34) happens. they do it on the island. a little later another half moon meeting happens. leafpool feels left out from .. basically everything, so she runs away w crowfeather, but they come back when they find out badgers are attacking tc. just a moon passes, but hey its finally more than .5 moons. brambleclaw = 27.5 moons squirrelflight = 10.5 moons

sunset: ~1 moon. a half moon meeting happens. then the next gathering (gathering 35) happens. brambleclaw is made deputy when firestar finally accepts graystripe may never come back. another half moon meeting happens and leafpool helps guide willowpaw to starclan. hawkfrost traps firestar in the fox trap, but brambleclaw refuses to kill him and kills hawkfrost instead. 1 moon passes, making brambleclaw 28.5 moons n squirrelflight 11.5 moons, thus ending the new prophecy books. only 4.5 moons pass from midnight to this book, compared to the first arcs 13 moons

leafpools wish: no real time passes, but i wanna mention this book cause it takes place after sunset n leafpool gives birth to holly lion n jay. ill say this happens a half moon after sunset ends (around gathering 36) to make their ages rounded. the trio = 0 moons old

the sight: ~1 moon. a few chapters in the trio become apprentices, meaning 6 moons (gatherings 37 - 41) have passed since being born in leafpools wish. the trios first gathering (gathering 42) happens but jaypaw doesnt go as punishment for wandering onto wc territory. graystripe shows up w millie. hollypaw n jaypaw switch their duties. half moon meeting happens. another gathering happens (gathering 43). tc hosts a ‘daylight gathering’ but it ends w lionpaw n breezepaw trapped in a badger set, which jawpaw helps free them out of. 1 moon passes n the trio are 7 moons old

dark river: ~2 moons. first chap is the trio going to their first gathering all together (gathering 44) where tigerkits birth is announced. holly n cinder find out lion n heather have been meeting in secret. jay n leaf go the moonpool. jay finds The Stick. millie keeps her kittypet name n cinder breaks her leg. lion meets tigerstar n hawkfrost for the first time after a meeting w heather. next gathering (gathering 45) happens n all of rc is on the island. holly goes to rc to see what's the matter but becomes a prisoner instead. lion breaks up w heather. wc loses kits but the trio + heather n breeze find them n bring them back before tc n wc could fight. two moons pass n the trio are ~9 moons old

outcast: ~1 moon. few chapters in jaypaw goes to a half moon meeting where mothwing is sick. talon n night of the tribe arrive at tc asking for help w rouges. the trio plus the og journey cats go (oh yea also breezepaws there). then good ol purdy joins the group just until the mountains where he heads back. most of the tribe including stoneteller is convinced they will be destroyed by the attacking rouges but r convinced to fight anyways w the clan cats training the tribe cats. the final attack is scheduled for the full moon (gathering 46). they win the fight n cause lion is only covered in other cats blood w no injuries to himself, jay has to explain the prophecy to him n holly. a moon passes n the trio = 10 moons.

eclipse: ~1 moon. the clan cats return home w stormfur n brook staying behind. half moon meeting happens n willowpaw becomes willowshine. sol appears n says the suns gonna go out. wc attacks tc w rc, holly goes to recruit sc. battle ends cause eclipse happens. the trio go find sol cause hey maybe he can help w the prophecy, he agrees to mentor them all. theyr caught by a sc patrol n sol stays in sc. next gathering happens (gathering 47) n only blackstar n sol show up claiming sc isnt going to come anymore n doesnt believe in starclan. lion holly n cinder become warriors. another one moon book w the trio being ~11 moons (so close to them being made warriors at the right age ..)

long shadows: ~1 moon. jaypaw goes to the half moon meeting alone so leafpool can take care of the sick cats at home. the trio plus tawnypelts kits help trick sc into believing starclan again n blackstar kicks sol out. jay meets fallen leaves in the tunnels n when he exits the tunnels he becomes Jay's wing. after making sure the ancients go to the mountains, he wakes up. both leafpool n jaypaw go to the moonpool n he becomes jayfeather. the fire happens n its revealed that squirrelflight isnt the trios birth mother. tc leaves for the gathering (gathering 48) n finds ashfur dead. one moon passes yet again, trio = 12 moons.

sunrise: ~1 moon. tc thinks wc killed ashfur until ashfoot says she saw sol by where his body was. a patrol goes to find sol, brings both him n purdy back. sol wont tell anything n the other clan tell tc to get rid of him before next gathering. half moon meeting happens where jay realizes leaf is the trio's birth mom. lion releases sol so he would tell them who their birth father is, but that was a waste of time n they leave him for good when he starts talking about taking over all the clans. yellowfang then tells jay crowfeather is his birth father. next gathering (gathering 49) happens n hollyleaf reveals everything. she runs away into the tunnels which collapse n jay thinks the third cat could be either dove or ivy. one moon passes Again, trio = 13 moons. only 7 moons pass in this arc, but it's at least more than second arc

the fourth apprentice: ~2 moons. six moons have passed since sunrise cause dove n ivy are becoming apprentices, making the gathering in the first chapter (gathering 55). dove n ivy become apprentices. lionblaze n jayfeather figure out doves power n thats shes the third cat. another gathering (gathering 56) occurs n the plan for going upstream to find the source of the drought is devised. the patrol consisting of cats from every clan, including dove n lion, set out. the patrol reaches the dam n fights the beavers. they fail n rippletail dies. meanwhile breezepelt theatens to kill poppyfrost cause he hates jayfeather. round 2 of destroy the dam plan works n they all head home. two moons pass, ivy n dove r 7 moons old.

fading echoes: ~1 moon. leopardstar dies n mistyfoot gets her nine lives. dove n ivy go to windclan to see sedgewhisker but r instead called intruders n punished. firestar learns about the three. a gathering (gathering 57) happens where tigerheart asks dove to trust him when she confronts him about crossing the border. ivy begins training w hawkfrost. the tree falls on thunderclan camp, killing longtail n disabling briarpaw. jay goes to the moonpool for a half moon meeting. thunderclan n shadowclan fight over territory cause ivy followed hawkfrosts orders by making up a dream. lionblaze accidentally kills russetfur, firestar loses a life, n thunderclan wins the battle. around a moon passes, dove n ivy = 8 moons

night whispers: ~1 moon. first chapter starts from where last book left off. jay finds out ivy is training in the dark forest. cinderheart finds out about lionblaze being one of the three n somehow thinks that means they cant be together. jay goes to a half moon meeting where the meddie cats r told to stand alone. ivypaw gets captured by shadowclan when she goes confront dove n tigerheart. shes eventually traded back for some herbs. gathering (gathering 58) happens where dove n tigerheart argue. ivy finds out about the three n doves powers n is basically forced to spy on the dark forest. flametail drowns in the lake n ivy is almost forced to kill his ghost in the dark forest, but tigerheart stops them. 1 moon passes again, dove ivy r 9 moons old

sign of the moon: ~1 moon. dove n ivy become warriors. jay n lion figure out holly is still alive. a gathering (gathering 59) happens. jay demands to go to the mountains n dove comes w. antpelt dies n is now a spirit in the dark forest. jay goes back to ancient times again n once his duty is done he tells rock he wants to stay, but is forced to leave. ivy n blossomfall go exploring the caves but blossom gets hurt. theyr led out of the tunnels by gasp hollyleaf but we dont kno that its her quite yet. jay names the next stoneteller n the clan cats leave. 1 moon passes yet again, dove n ivy = 10 moons old

the forgotten warrior: ~2 moons. dove is having issues w her power. tigerheart tells her that dawnpelt thinks jay killed flametail. gathering (gathering 60) happens where dove tells ivy about the whole dawnpelt thing. sol is found by lion n brought to camp. sol tries to get wc n tc to fight. hollyleaf returns, sol disappears. cinderheart remembers cinderpelt. ivy kills antpelts ghost. another gathering (gathering 61) happens where dawnpelt announces her accusation for jay. wc n tc fight in the tunnels n sol talks about his hatred to the code. holly lets him go instead of killing him. 2 moons pass, dove ivy = 12 moons old

the last hope: ~1 moon. jay goes to moonpool meeting even tho he was told not to. he n mothwing try to unite the clans. dove n tiger r meeting again. a gathering (gathering 62) happens n jay doesnt go. jay finds flametail in starclan n by telling the truth of his death, unites the meddie cats. firestar is revealed to be the fourth cat. dove turns down tiger as a mate. cinderheart chooses lionblaze n being a warrior, thus letting go of cinderpelt. dark forest begins to attack. holly dies saving ivy from hawkfrost. lots o cats fight, lots o cats die. eventual show down of firestar vs og tigerstar. firestar kills tigerstar, but then dies like a min later. brambleclaw becomes bramblestar n squirrelflight his deputy. the end. 1 moon passes, dove ivy = 13 moons. overall, 7 moons pass in this arc. 

dovewing’s silence: ~1 moon. starts right after last hope. few chapters in we have first gathering after the great battle (gathering 63). 

crowfeather’s trial: ~3 moons. the book starts seemingly a little after the great battle. it is not right after because the first gathering shown is where blackstar starts listing off all the dead, which did not happen the first gathering after the great battle since no indication of it was made. its reasonable to say that this gathering happens a moon after that one, making it (gathering 64). towards the end of the book, (gathering 65) happens. then at the end of the book is (gathering 66).

bramblestar’s storm: ~2 moons, 8 if u include the manga section. its stated at the beginning of the book that six moons have passed since the great battle, making the first gathering in the book (gathering 68). its also stated that (gathering 67) was missed, probably due to poor weather. at the end of the book, (gathering 69) happens. the manga ending is when lionblaze n cinderhearts kits, who were not yet born in the last chapter, become apprentices, which means at least 6 moons have passed since the last chapter, making the manga take place around (gathering 75). squirrelflight finds out shes pregnant in this manga section.

the apprentice’s quest: ~2 moons. the book begins w the apprentice ceremony of squirrelflight n bramblestars kits, meaning at least 6 moons have passed, tho i’ll say 7 since squirrelflight only just figured out she was pregnant at the end of bramblestars storm, making the first gathering shown (gathering 82). next gathering (gathering 83) happens where violetkit n twigkit get separated. alderpaw = 7 moons, violet twig = 5 moons

thunder n shadow: ~3 moons. first gathering of the book is (gathering 84) n a little after violet n twig become apprentices, making them 6 moons. then another gathering (gathering 85) happens. and the last gathering of the book (gathering 86) happens. alderpaw = 10 moons, violet twig = 8 moons

[inked-out-trees]

⭐ for The Keep Going Song? Thanks! :)

(anh i would die for you)

Thank you for asking! I am going to be talking about the whole thing because it's fun, and because there's not really many ~secrets~ within the text to ramble about, just little fun snippets!

I'll do it under a cut because I will definitely ramble. Woohoo!

I came across The Keep Going Song (the song) after my Lookout 3 Companion Playlist (& my spotify discovery) introduced me to the Bengsons. The effect was almost instantaneous - it's the kind of warmth I try to encompass in everything I do, and for the next few days I had it on repeat as I worked. This was around the time I was finishing my Lookout script, and I had been toying with the idea of writing a Cornleyverse fic after absolutely devouring all 10 fics in the tag. What I knew was that I wanted it to be sweet, I wanted it to pull them all together, and I wanted it to be a progression. Despite only having seen the Goes Wrong Show, jumping into the fandom made me want to dimensionalize these characters and give them a story beyond everything that had already occured.

I also watched Christmas Carol before / during the writing process, but to date I have not watched Peter Pan or the full-length TPTGW. My prior knowledge comes from Wikipedia, the delightul amateur TPTGW production on YouTube, a friend's excellent transcription of the Haversham Manor script, and tumblr meta analysis. I think I did a reasonable enough job pretending I knew what I was doing.

Let's get going!

I knew off the top that it was going to be vignettes - they would give me room to spread the story over the long period of time it takes for a group of people to grow into something resembling a family. Like I said in the original author's note, there was supposed to be more of the early, snippy days - but I got so focused on making them kinder that I found I couldn't properly write a fight. In hindsight, it probably would have been easier if I tried writing that first, but, well. Once I realized that it was too late. The alphabet idea came later, once I had them all finished: I wanted to organize them somehow, but numbers felt too open, too infinite - closing the story on an organizational endpoint was just really satisfying.

a - Every good story needs a good beginning.

c - Starting with the end of Peter Pan is my sneaky way of slipping past the fact that I haven't seen the earlier shows! The Max and Sandra storyline is just so sweet, and I wanted to let it exist a little bit in between our jump from Peter Pan to Christmas Carol. This vignette came so easily when I wrote it and I love love love the feelings and the tentativity about the whole thing.

f - This was actually the last vignette I wrote. I realized I needed some front-end padding because otherwise my angst plot came rather abruptly, and what better way? At this point, too, I was trying to bring in POVs from each one of our characters, and when deciding on Trevor's POV I thought the exasperation-excitement combination would be an excellent choice. It turns out Trevor is my favourite to write, mostly because I can find his voice a lot easier than some of the others - and probably also because I hold a lot of fondness and nostalgia for stage crew work. Also, I wrote most of this one on a long evening walk in the notes app on my phone. Fun fact.

h - I did my original idea slam in a draft tumblr post, and this one just says "birthday party but one without all the drama of christmas carol". And what do you know, that's exactly what it is! I definitely took the birthday party (in CCGW as well as in this fic) as a kind of proof that they really do like each other, if they're doing things like this and if they want to do things like this - and that theme of okay, they want to be here formed the basis for this part. I think it's exceptionally sweet that Dennis came looking for friends and ended up finding, well, something. And I popped in a little MMNI reference with "one of the Janines" - Backwards Janine? Frontwards Janine? Original Janine? Who knows! It's one of them!

l - The thing about this plot is that it's actually one of the first ideas I had when dreaming up this fic, and I couldn't quite let it go. The point was, what if I somehow split them up? How can they get on when half the society is out of commission? And the most reasonable way I could find to actually get half of them out of commission was the car accident. To be honest, this one is mostly filler - it's also the second vignette I wrote, and it found its birth in the email drafts of my work laptop.

m - Trying to map out this little plotline without overdoing it might have been the most difficult part of this fic, and I'm still not 100% sure I succeeded. This is our explanation for the unease from the vignette above, and it took me 3 rewrites before I finally found something that settled in my brain. "Dennis gets chased by a goose" might be one of my favourite lines in the fic though.

Also, putting these letters right next to each other made me feel really clever for no reason.

n - My Jonathan perspective also took a few stutter-steps in its beginning, but this one ultimately came from the promo video's reveal that Robert and Dennis live together, and me playing with the continual idea of the remaining cast members being rather unmoored in their injured castmates' absence. Robert in particular because I love his character and I love making him Feel Things(TM) (fun hint: this will also be a small theme in the new cpds fic I have in the works!) and I want to see so much from this odd relationship between him and Dennis. Obviously they have to tolerate each other if they are willingly roommates - how far can I go with that? I love how this one turned out.

o - All I have to say about this one is that I still really love the sweetness between these two, and they deserve the world. Also, at some point during writing this I was really caught up with how striking Dave's face silhouette is (don't ask) so that ended up making it in somehow.

q - Girls' Night is SO important to me. After all the work they've done to make these gals friends I needed to capture it, and a pleasant night in just made a lot of sense. This one is the home of a few of my headcanons - Annie has a chef roommate and Max does a lot of the cooking, thus the "neither of us are the usual household cooks" comments, and I also think they're at the point where they can joke about their previous failures (especially with these three together) so the nod to A Trial To Watch (my favourite gws episode) was so fun. Also, Waking Ned really is a silly pick-me-up of a movie - would recommend. Special thanks to CBC for giving us Canadians quality British TV alongside our occasionally questionable homegrown programming.

r - It wouldn't be a fic about progress and growth with this crew without a disheartening moment turned into gold. I wrote this one while barbecuing, another fun fact, and no joke the hardest part was figuring out what to name the play they were doing. I kept pace with the whole "Jonathan can't get onscreen" gag, which was personally hilarious and made me cackle as I wrote it, and the rest of it just felt good. I will always have a soft spot for comfort and reassurance in a story and getting to write it has just been an absolute delight.

t - This was one of my other unplanned vignettes. It was originally to fill out Robert's POV, but also to express a bit of how things have changed in Chris's attitude towards his cast - if there's one thing I would change from Mischief's characerisation thus far, it's this brand of almost-kindness that I consistently need to write him with. It takes the aftermath of the car accident and uses it to kind of make him understand - this is a valuable group of people and I don't want to lose it. But of course he's not the type of person to actually express that in any way, so I thought the frenetic hovering was a good way to get the point across. As well, the kind-of-bonding between Chris and Robert - the two of them are such powerhouses of insistent personality that conflict so easily but they've also got a more secret kind of friendship that deserves to be explored a little more. I really like this vignette and how it ended up portraying how they are around each other, how they really do know each other, especially when they're not fighting. Makes me soft.

w - This is the first vignette I wrote! I honestly didn't realize until writing this just how much I identify with Annie - best of both worlds re. crew and cast, a bit of tenacity regarding getting through things, overall personality - I just love her so so much. She also seems like the most sensible of the cast, so the collective "why are we really here?" moment with Trevor really spoke to me. I love their friendship, I love the kind of quiet vibe this vignette gives off - this is one of the ones I can feel most strongly, the one I can step into and exist inside. I also spent most of my old drama rehearsals and classes without shoes, so that had to make it in just by virtue of the sock brigade (me).

z - One thing I knew for sure since the inception of the fic was that it needed to end on a victory. I took the images I had of this victorious adrenaline, everyone together having a good time, kind of getting smashed, and karaoke (I really wanted the karaoke, for some reason) and went the obvious route: the wedding. Ending on Chris POV also felt so right - possibly because he's the one with the most growth in this fic - and getting to finally feel this triumph with him after all these other trials and tribulations was an absolute joy. The wedding hall, in my head, looks like the one my cousin used (it was at a zoo... my sister and I went on a night walk and heard a lot of screaming peacocks) and I definitely threw all my wistfulness, all my love for the characters I'd developed, and all my love for this fantastic fandom into this part. The incorrect lyrics that Annie sings are exactly what I think every time I hear that song, because I've never looked up the lyrics before and my brain likes to play Mad Libs with my super-questionable auditory processing. And the image of the ballroom staff getting really exasperated with them and shutting all the lights off came to me at night and is hastily scribbled on a sticky note (it's a wonder it's legible) but I still strongly believe that it's the perfect, perfect way to end. I still get the warm feelings when I reread this part, even now, after so many reads.

And, finally - our end quote is exactly what started this whole thing. What is this drama society if not a rough beginning? But the concept that we'll make it through, that we can just take a step and then another and it'll be okay because we're together... it's hard to describe just how much it means to me, to my place in the world, to the world itself. I think one of my rather consistent aims in writing, no matter what it is, is to be able to have this collective - characters that become family, people that are important to each other, this constellation to lean on - because it's all I can say for the human experience. It's probably quite a bit of wishful thinking (as I said to another friend, "I am apparently letting loose on all my repressed social feelings of the past year and shoving them into fics") and a sort of subconscious confirmation that if I write it, I can be it. So this force of understanding and kindness and ultimately good people helping each other through the world is something I can't help but include, something that means the absolute world to me.

I'm so glad to have been able to share this fic with everyone, and extra glad that it's been able to touch some people along the way. I've found such an incredible community in Mischief and coincidentally I think The Keep Going Song represents that warmth, too - the community I've been so lucky to exist inside, how we're helping each other along, step by step. What a beautiful thing to be a part of! Thank you for reading and allowing me to give you a bit of my heart. 💖💖

[weirwoodking]

hi i was wondering if you would be interested in making a meta on the differences between show!sansa and book!sansa bc i know they changed a lot of her storyline but i don't understand why everyone hates on sophie turner? it can be short or inexistent meta if you're not up to it but i would be very interested to know what you have to say

I mean, the differences between the two are pretty simple. After season 4, D&D decided to cut Sansa’s book storyline, and replaced it with their own rewrite. This affected the plots of multiple characters, particularly Show!Theon’s and Show!Jon’s, but most of all, Show!Sansa’s, obviously. George himself has spoken on how much he hated what the show did with Sansa. He said in 2014 that he had “no idea what they were doing with Sansa or where they’re taking her storyline.”

I could go episode by episode and point out everything that’s wrong or is out of character, but it’s kind of useless. The show did not adapt books 4 & 5, it’s as simple as that, everything is different and feels like it’s out of character. For the first 4 seasons, I thought that Sansa’s story was handled fine (I haven’t watched GOT seasons 1-4 in over 4 years, so my memory is a bit foggy on the specifics tho). Sophie Turner isn’t exactly how I picture Sansa to look, but her acting was fantastic, especially for someone so young and for her first television role.

I personally haven’t seen people “hating on Sophie Turner”, but I’m not involved in the GOT side of tumblr, only the ASOIAF side, so I don’t see people talk about the actors that much. I do know that there are people in fandom (not just in the GOT fandom but in fandom in general) who will conflate actors with their characters. I have seen some toxic Show!Sansa stans do this with Show!Dany and Emilia Clarke (mostly last year). It seems to be more of a problem with female characters and actresses (‘cause sexism), and I think it’s really creepy and disturbing. Sophie Turner is not Sansa, so if anyone is “hating on her” because they didn’t like how the show changed Sansa’s story, that’s really fucked up. I don’t know much about the GOT cast, actually, I rarely watched interviews or behind-the-scenes videos. I don’t know if Sophie Turner has said that she likes the show’s ending or something like that, so if that was the case I could see people being critical of her opinion. But even if she did like the ending of the show and the way the writers changed her character after season 4, I still don’t think you should hate on an actor for that. Because the actors didn’t make the show, the showrunners did. It’s not on the actors to get everything right about their characters, it’s on the writers and directors to tell them the story and guide them through their acting. I don’t blame the actors for anything about GOT (no one should), I blame the writers.

What I find is the biggest problem about post-season 4 Sansa is how little regard they had for her character, while simultaneously claiming she was their favorite. I believe their exact quote was “Sansa was the character we cared about more than anyone”. Okay… then why did you cut her storyline? I feel like their whole “she’s our favorite character” act was more to try to defend against the criticism of the cutting of her storyline. What bothers me most is how they just casually threw her into the Ramsay plotline without thinking at all about what that meant. If you’re going to have one of the main characters of the show get serially raped, you need to think about what you’re doing and how to handle that horrific situation. In the books, the Jeyne Poole storyline is handled very carefully. The acts committed by Ramsay against Jeyne and Theon are never really shown, only implied, alluded to, or very briefly described. The show, on the other hand, explicitly showed Theon’s torture scenes, and made Ramsay a much bigger character in seasons 5 & 6 than he is in the books. I feel like they just used him for shock value, because so much of Game of Thrones revolved around shock value and in-the-moment reactions. I think they just saw Ramsay as a character they could turn into Joffrey 2.0, which is why they put Sansa with him. They didn’t care to follow Sansa’s book arc, they just wanted to continue the whole “caged-bird” thing with her, for shock value.

And to deflect against criticism, that’s why they made her so smart and powerful in the final few seasons. There’s next-to-no build up, no character development, no focus on her growth, the show just tells us that Sansa is the smartest character, and the audience is expected to agree. Because D&D did not care about showing her development. There’s a line in season 7, when Sansa and Arya kill Littlefinger, where Sansa says “thank you for all of your lessons, Lord Baelish.” And that immediately stuck out to me, because that sounds like something Book!Sansa would say. The show cut out Sansa’s Vale storyline, where she spends much more time with Littlefinger, and so… what “lessons” is Show!Sansa referring to here? They didn’t spend a lot of time together in the show. I do think that Sansa will defeat Littlefinger in the books, so that line makes sense for Book!Sansa.

What they did was cut Sansa’s storyline, throw her into a horrific situation that they used for shock value, and then expected to be praised when they made her a “girlboss” later on. They basically said “hey, we know we essentially erased this character’s arc and development, but at least we did a feminism, right?” And that’s what really pisses me off. The blatant disregard for female characters, then saying “no, we do care about them! Believe us!”

Lindsay Ellis has a really good video called “Woke Disney” that touches on this. Basically, she talks about how Disney’s recent live action remakes tend to make each of the princesses a “#girlboss” in a very corporate, fake-feminist manner that is very easy to see right through. (I recommend just watching the video, she goes more in-depth into the subject.)

A similar thing occurred with GOT (the show only had one female writer after season 4, by the way, who was a staff writer for season 8. And before that, only 4 episodes were written by a woman). D&D wrote a lot of problematic, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist things. Then they tried to cover that up with (to use a line from Ms. Ellis) a coat of #girlboss paint. For example, I remember after s8e3 (when Arya killed the Night King) came out, that was when the big criticism for season 8 really started. People saw how bad the writing of that episode was, and how ridiculous and anti-climactic it all felt. However, when people criticized the manner in which the Night King was killed (i.e. saying that it would have made more narrative sense for Jon to do it instead of Arya), there was another group of people who called that criticism sexist. “That’s sexist! You’re just upset that a girl did it instead of a guy!” Which… ugh... do I need to explain how idiotic that line of reasoning is?

And that’s kind of how the HBO show tried to get away with its misogyny, not just the misogyny of Dany’s ending, but of the whole show in general. “Look, we can’t be misogynistic, we had Arya kill the Night King! Look, we can’t be misogynistic, we had Sansa become a #girlboss!” Bullshit, you’re just trying to hide your sexism and bad writing behind a facade of fake feminism.

… *sigh* ...

Anyway, nothing but love for Book!Sansa, and nothing but hate for the writers of Game of Thrones. I hate how the show turned Sansa into a very polarizing character, when she shouldn’t be. None of the child characters of ASOIAF should be polarizing, they’re children for fucks sake.

I’m very excited to see where GRRM takes Sansa’s character in TWOW, I feel like she’s got an awesome journey coming up (hopefully involving her discovering her skinchanging powers, taking down Littlefinger, and heading north for home). 

Uh, wow, this got really long… and I’m exhausted after thinking about the sh*w that much. Here, as a treat for reading all the way down to the bottom, have a Sansa WIP drawing that I haven’t finished yet:

[reddogcollar]

thinking more if my funny little rewrite thoughts so like. here's an entire run down of what I'd do with season 1 of my pride

under the cut cuz its long and like. warning for like. everything that already happens in the series anyway

starting first! with the naming conventions. so the whole naming scheme is appropriation of indigenous culture. and I'm white so take this one with a grain of salt but replacing that mess with instead the mother naming the cub after a trait after getting to know em would. probably fix it? Like naming a cub Power or Tenacious and. stuff

the names could not only be personality based but just general descriptors. Quick for someone fast, Golden for someone blonde, Cherished for someone especially loved by their mother. Names could also be based off something they want the child to be, like Fearless or Perceptive. naming a child after something they don't start as, but turn out to be instead would make everyone to regard the mother as an especially good one for knowing her child so well. Being wrong would have the opposite effect. Waiting too long would bring scorn, implying you don't spend enough time with your child to think of any name at all.

Prideless lions wouldn't be named by their parents at all, instead given the right to name themselves based on what they think. This leaves room for them to rename themselves as grow and change, something pride lions cant do. Until the cub names themselves, the mother will refer to them with affectionate nickname.

and I think that. fixes that issue. onto plot

I think episode 1 is fine left alone, though all three children would be left unnamed. though I think its weird how quick managed to rip off the skin all around nothing's eye but didn't actually damage it. Like at all. so she's half blind now too.

So they go on lion trial, power saying quick is unfit because he was bested by a cub, so there's no way he could've beat star fairly. sharp calls forth the currently unnamed fire to ask his opinion as a supposed witness. even though I'm pretty sure he ran away before star died? eh <3

despite having the chance to get rid of quick, he says it was fair and quick has earned the pride. whether or not that's true, fire is a devout believer in pride law and a pride without a mane would be worse than a pride lead by a cheating mane.

because nothing and quick each half blinded each other, they go with the law of equivalent exchange. one each gets something from the other. nothing asks for her and her brother's lives to spared, and quick asks that she always takes as little resources as possible

instead of like. skipping 2 years. it would instead actually like. show the childhood. how nothing is ignored by her on mother, and doted on by fire. specifically because he think she's weak. despite doting on her, he also generally ignores her opinions.

even as a little wounded baby she gets the least food and water, enforced by quick and even fire sometimes, rules are rules. some of the unnamed adults will try to cheat this tho and get her more food and water cuz Holy Shit? Dude?

when she's a little older and not. covered in open wounds. the adults more or less stop trying to protect her. she's on her own now, and they have cubs of their own to worry about anyways.

since time is also a resource she gets the least of that too, most notably the least time being trained in anything. hunting, fighting, tracking, she's taught the absolute least.

despite that, she always tries.to do the absolute most. first to volunteer for anything she could theoretically do, last to get picked for any minorly important task. getting ridiculed for doing things slower due to her limp, to the point where she starts trying to just power through the pain to walk normally. it only slows her down and she gets mocked more. fire generally doesn't stand up for her, just makes her lay down

eventually she starts getting out a bit. The younger cubs mock her, their parents don't stop them, her mom never speaks to her unless its to antagonize her, and quick is downright terrifying. despite being healed up, fire never leaves her alone and disregards her when she wants to be alone.

this is how she meets hover, who is now named insightful. bc I just inexplicably cant stand the name Hover for a lion. she thinks she's insightful, but she's kind of just snarky and a little mean without saying anything w real depth, probably bc they're all prepubescent

despite being snarky and a little mean, she's a breath of fresh air to nothing cuz she's yk. not ableist and calls fire out when he starts acting ableist. its a short interaction, and when they're home fire immediately goes to tell his mom there's not only a prideless lion in their territory, but a cub, implying her mother and possibly siblings are around. cuz he's a little bitch

nothing gets into an argument with him over it, she could've been their friend after all, and both fire and her mom yell at her for even thinking about disobeying pride law

not sure what else to do here, so skip to when they're 2 and fires about to be kicked out. they're both still nameless, bringing a lot of bad opinions power's way. she's also required to name at least fire before he leaves. so she sits down, rolls her eyes, and half asses the name fire. quick is about to push him out but nothing interrupts, saying she still needs a name.

power gets annoyed and demands what she could even be named after, her injury? her disregard for the law? her ability to butt in at the most annoying times? nothing sputters, shocked and unable to come up with a response for a moment. before she can, she's named nothing

she protests, and even fire thinks that's a lot. they're both shut down, by power and quick respectively. most of the present adults are shocked, some of the older ones even appalled. none step in though. fire has to go, and nothing leaves toward the watering holes so she doesn't cry in front of her mom. all that stupid shit is internalized though so she starts trying again to support her full weight on her leg no matter how much it hurts. thinking maybe it broke and healed so wrong that it can barely support her now. idk I'm no doctor

she ends up laying down by the water, feeling all bad and in pain. then she notices the crocodile and some other lion and yada yada saves her life. insightful immediately recognizes her and that stops nothing from chasing her off. they catch up a little until they hear someone coming. insightful runs off and farleap, now called jumper comes out of the grass.

she questions nothing, she heard something and she can definitely smell a stranger. nothing lies and said she just chased off a prideless. jumper doesn't seem convinced, but doesn't push it because the stranger is gone, at least. so she just gets her drink and nothing goes home. and that's the day.

next day we can be introduced to feather, now named light. he's the runt of his litter, the lightest color of his siblings, and the light of my life. his name has nothing to do with the reincarnation stuff, which ill get into later. he gets teased for being smaller than his sisters, but keeps up an over energetic, happy mood that children have. he prefers hanging out with nothing though, seeing as she's not gonna be mean to him for being short.

he refuses to leave her alone to the point of finding out when nothing starts sneaking out to see insightful. their little dates go all nice and cute until light jumps out of the bushes scaring the life out of them. nothing freaks out a little because holy fuck? quick's son just found her out? oh god oh fuck! insightful is just amused though, because children are funny.

they make light swear to keep it a secret, and he promises. as long as nothing lets him go with her whenever he wants, because its fun breaking the rules and being out at night. it's a little less fun third wheeling on your cousin's date when you're like 7 but its fine cuz insightful plays with him

everyone thinks its pretty weird how both nothing and light are getting exhausted in the middle of the day, and jumper is still on that "I don't believe that you chased that prideless off" stuff, and eventually convinces power of increasing like patrol or whatever, and everyone keeps their guard up, making it harder for nothing and insightful to meet

this spurs nothing to ask insightful to join, to which insightful asks her to leave the prides and go with her. nothing says she doesn't want insightful to just have to take care of her and it goes back and forth and its a whole thing. it turns into an argument and they part ways for the night before it can escalate further.

the next morning, insightful has shown up and is asking to join. mostly so she can spend more time trying to convince nothing to leave the prides with her.

they get convinced and she is stripped of her name immediately. either quick or power will rename her when they come with something suitable. of course she is. upset as all hell. she swallows it though, since she's never seen nothing so happy. light is ecstatic, also, cuz he thinks she is cool.

go through some time showing insightful being worn down by pride life, nothing still continuing to practically destroy her body to make herself palatable, and light being downright bullied because he's still smaller than his everyone his age. quick even starts looking down on his son cuz Why Is He Still So Small? light begins to resent his father, and pride life a little.

jumper is rude as hell, naturally. except this time insightful actually stands up for nothing by cuz holy shit? that's your girlfriend why wouldn't you help her?

we can also implement the homophobia rule here. because of course power is a homophobe. would you expect anything less??

and yeah that's the vibe until nothing is left with some unnamed lion to look after the children while everyone else is off doing things that are important. she goes off for a drink and light follows her because of course he does. yadda yadda fire is back for a visit cuz he thinks nothing is like. useless and can't survive without him. their little visit goes down light thinks its so cool to meet a bunch of prideless men yk yk

on their way back they run into quick, who is followed by power and insightful. that unnamed lion with the other children said nothing and light had been gone for a long time and quick is pissed off cuz that's his only son n she just took him off for a jaunt.

he's yelling at her and insightful is about to interject before she's stopped by power, and light interrupts his dad to tell him about fire's group. cuz hey it'll make him leave them alone so like? go off??

nothing gets pissed off at him though because he just sent his murderous father off to kill her brother. rude or not he's still important to her. she and power have their interaction, power whining about how much she "loves" her children, you know. except nothing disowns her. power gets called out and yk yk. its a whole thing and gives nothing some of the agency she lost over the years

then she goes off to find quick, insightful follows her to help, and light follows them because he feels bad.

quick is dead, proud is a dick, light is hidden away in this scene. it goes much the same except light is seeing his father's corpse for himself and insightful is there negotiating their lives alongside nothing. also threatening proud

they yet away with their lives and run as far away as possible just in case he comes after light. nothing may be annoyed but letting your small cousin be murdered isn't cool

so they go off to find fire. its important to nothing cuz ykkk he's her last living sibling and as far as she's concerned, her remaining immediate family. he treats her how he does cuz he loves her, right? right. right?

nothing lives on the stretch how she lived in the prides, taking as little as possible of everything. insightful starts trying to get her to eat more before she like. drops dead. but its hard bc yk internalized self hatred is a vibe. they stay hot on fire's trail, until they come across some bones, a lot of blood, and the eaten remains of tangle. I'm making that plot point more fucked up.

everyone is of course freaked out, and insightful immediately takes it on herself to make sure nothing and light have some skill in fighting cuz Oh My God! they each play to their strengths, and it's like typical training montage. I like to think that with nothing's bad leg opponents would naturally try to take advantage of her balance, and which point she could rear up on her hind legs and then unexpectedly just crash down onto her opponent with her full weight. idk I've never seen a lion fight.

so yeah they eventually find fire and light and insightful are like. not trusting him at all, they suspect him. nothing isn't so hasty with the blame, cannibalism is a lot to accuse your brother of. fire says that if he takes over the nearest pride, he can change her name due to her time as a prideless lion.

as discussed, light objects. he thinks she should be able to choose her own name. pride or not. fire the devout follower of pride law didn't like that

they kill that old man, fire demands the pride, moonstrike (now striker) denies him and he's like. "You cant do that. That's illegal" and striker claims he couldn't have beaten her mate in fair combat after getting his ass kicked the first time. plus he's got some random child that isn't his

he takes that as "kill the kid" and yk. goes after light. nothing's reaction time is normal now though and barrels into him before he can rip lights throat out. he's still gravely wounded though, so much so that insightful is fully occupied trying to keep him alive.

nothing and fire square off, fire is ableist, nothing challenges him. You know. except this time she kills him. she gets him on his back and cuts him open, guts everywhere. no Ghost scene.

Injured and horrified, she lays down. she's like. going to have a breakdown. she just killed her brother, light may be dead, these strangers won't quit staring at her, its not good. episode end.

cut to like next morning and nothing's injuries are being taken care of at the same time as light's. insightful is in there with em talking with striker. noticing she's up, striker asks her name. I'm still not sure what I'd want her to change it to but she does change it. perhaps Enough?

idk idk either way, she doesn't get the pride. she beat fire but it wasn't his to give. however, striker offers them all a place there, including light. boom season 1 end

[mechanicalinertia]

What’s next for Divine Patronage?

So my Ranma / Ah My Goddess! / other miscellaneous anime that take place in 1990′s Tokyo fanfic has become more popular than anything else I’ve ever written. I may have classes but this is my designated ‘leisure activity’ now for sure.

Anyway, I have a rough idea for this initial ‘arc’, and how it’ll end. Fine. Whatever. More importantly, though, I have continuing ideas about how to cross over more and more mid-90′s anime and other things into this mishmash where Urd and Ranma have to ‘problem-solve’ things. Christ I wrote like 9 possible arc setups last night; it’ll take me years to make good on them if I do at all.

That’s why I’m a-posting brief summaries of them here, so if I give up on these people can just steal em’.

1. CRIMES OF THE MISHIMA GROUP AGAINST GOOD TASTE

Sayoko Mishima and her zaibatsu god-nap Keiichi and in doing so royally piss off Belldandy. Urd has to snatch the poor kid, who is now a minor god, out from Sayoko’s clutches before Belldandy just loses it and nukes earth in silent rage. Ranma can’t beat the compound alone, though, so Urd turns to Akiko Natsume - the actual head of Mishima - and her all purpose combat android for some help. Unfortunately, the android has a cat brain. Cue Ranma struggling to confront his fears to save the world.

Crossover with: All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku, a medium-obscure OVA from the 90′s starring Megumi Hayashibara as the wacky cat-bot-girl with Saeko Shimazu (Kodachi’s voice among others) as Akiko. Good fun.

2. FATE / STRANGE; DAYS

Remember Lind, the Valkyrie from the Angel Eater Arc of AMG? Well, she back. She intervened in Fate / Zero’s Holy Grail War (assumed to take place around 1994) and contracted w/ Kiritsugu the way Urd did with Ranma. Now Kiri may have lost all his lady companions, but he gets Illya back from Germany and is raising her alongside Shirou with the help of Illya’s wacky maids. Maybe lil’ Rin and Sakura are involved, too, I dunno.

Anyway, Lind considers the Sailor Senshi a threat to the divine order (they do appear to predate human civilization) - especially since Saturn’s Glaive of Silence is believed to be the Norse Gungnir, Spear of Destiny, Odin’s superweapon that could (even in the OG myths) rewrite reality itself to render enemies nonexistent.

So Lind gets Kiritsugu, Arturia Saber, and Prisma Illya to go to Tokyo and track down Sailor Saturn with Ranma’s help. Then they end up teleporting to the distant past of the Silver Milennium, back when the Senshi’s magic rendered the other planets of the Solar System inhabitable. Cue a string of John Carter references.

Crossover with: Fate / Zero, Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya. Might even separate the Fate story from the whole Saturn / Gungnir subplot - they’re just hunting Kirei and Gil, then. Sure. Fine.

3. THE FUTURE IS HERE AND IT SUCKS

Skuld time travels into the future, only to find that almost every single timeline ends with humanity being wiped out before the 22nd century - perhaps by SM’s Great Freeze, perhaps by other factors. Unfortunately, she forgot to close her possible-future-timeline portals properly, which leads to various cyberpunk futures bouncing off one another for supremacy in 1996.

(Look I wanted to just fuckin do BGC or GITS crossover. Couldn’t decide. Why not both?)

Crossover with: BGC 2032 (Or my 2069 rebot), Ghost in the Shell, Silent Mobius (maybe)

4. GAMES OF THE GODS

The obligatory ‘gang plays an RPG’ sitcom episode, only a) it’s Cyberpunk 2020 because I’ve read that system’s books, and b) the goddesses all bring their boytoys along to be sucked into the game world as their player characters. (Urd gets Ranma, Bell gets Keiichi, Skuld is the GM, Peorth gets Ryoga, Lind gets Kiritsugu) (I guess I better do an arc where Peorth patronizes Ryoga to screw with Urd...)

5. GUNS, BOMBS, ROCK N’ ROLL

Ranma gets dragged along by Urd for a vacation, theoretically to LA. But then after getting bored of the Obligatory Beach Episode, Urd rediscovers that she has a daughter in Chicago - Rally Vincent. She and Ranma rush off to screw up the events of the manga and protect her daughter from the brainwashing of a lesbian rapist crime lord. (I wish I was making that last bit up). Maybe Priss of BGC tags along to really hammer in the WACKY KENICHI SONODA CROSSOVER thing?

Crossover with: Gunsmith Cats, Riding Bean, maybe BGC

6. HEISEI BLOSSOMS BLOOMING

The Japanese government decides to reactivate the Teikoku Kagekidan project, this time using idoru as the mecha pilots instead of the Takarazura Revue thing they had going on in the 20′s. The K-on girls audition, the Love Live girls audition, someone in the Ranma cast or something tries out as well. Mecha are now nuclear-powered instead of steam-powered (whatever that means)

Crossover with: Original Sakura Wars franchise, Tite Kubo iteration non-involved. maybe K-on and Love Live

7. RANMA’S LUDICROUS EXCURSION: STAR-DIAMOND DUST IS UNCRUSADERABLE

Ranma gets a stand. Urd thinks it’s like her angel. Yare yare daze.

Crossover with: What do you think, genius?

8. ETERNAL SUMMER

Ranma gets trapped in a temporal anomaly centered around Tomobiki Town. Now it’s August 1982, Ataru and Lum are about to get married, and unless he can stop the total breakdown of the pocket reality within the seven days before the time loop resets he’ll become part of it forever. Trippy New Wave Existentialist Bullshit - Screwball Comedy meets Body Horror. Also see: Higurashi.

Crossover with: Urusei Yatsura

9. TRICOWBOYOUTLAW BEBOPGUNSTAR: EFF YOU, SPACE COWBOY

A valiant attempt to crossover all three of the late 90′s ‘Cowboy shonen’ anime of the time in one universe. A shared universe? Nah. We’re probably just gonna transplant all the characters into 90′s Tokyo again and watch the body count pile up.

Crossover with: Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Trigun. Oh, and maybe one of those ‘robo-maid’ shows from the aughties (Hand Maid May, Mahoromatic, Steel Angel Kurimi), just to fuck with everyone.

10. COPS AND ROBOTS

Ranma gets in trouble with the police for sneaking onto the Babylon Project, forced into community service, and then ends up blackmailed into the long-running grudgematch between the SV2 Labor Squad and the Tokyo Highway Patrol.

Crossover with: You’re Under Arrest, Patlabor (original OVA mostly)

11. SUPERIOR AUTOMATRONIC DISPUTE RESOLUTION: GO NAGAI EAT YOUR HEART OUT

Skuld gets in a fight with some deities from some rival pantheons, and as a proper grudgematch resolution they all resolve to build Giant Robots and then Battle Royale them. Ranma has to pilot one.

Crossover with: NOTHING.

12. THE HOUND OF ULSTER BARKS AT MIDNIGHT

Cu Chullain, husbando of Ex-Valkyrie and turncoat Irish goddess Scathach, teams up with Ranma in Dublin to stop IRA extremists from resurrecting the Tuatha De Dannan, specifically the Morrigan. A teenage Bazett (from Fate) shows up and gets all fangirly.

13. TALES FROM THE OOPS

An abandoned particle accelerator built in the 80′s near Stockholm may or may not cause Ragnarok. Ranma and some edgy Swedish Teenagers have to deal with 90′s recession bullshit and clean the place out

Crossover with: Tales from the Loop, Things From the Flood

That’s about it, honestly. I have other things I’d like to crossover with, tbh, mostly mecha stuff. Among them:

- Cannon God Exaxxion

- Eva

- Gundam UC

- Muv-Luv

-Negmia / another Ken Akumatsu trashpile (and I mean that in the best possible way)

Shit this is fun. Imma make another one of these posts with even more ludicrious crossovers later. Peace out.

[menalez]

hi, a long time follower on rnortal here,i just got back from a very long hiatus and i wanted to catch up! ive read ur about section and im just really curious about ur current life since back when i was still following you a few years back you still identified as a bi, had a boyfriend with a (i assume) very heavy ddlg kink. (you had rules etc.) do you regret having that experience with him? are u anti-ddlg now? i hope you dont mind me asking, im just very curious /a fellow noncis nonhet dude

damn thats a long hiatus,,, i couldnt have been older than 17 based on what youve mentioned so at this point what ur referring to was like 6 years ago minimum!! but ill go into the stuff u mentioned 

during my teen years i was very lost to say the least, i could not make sense of my feelings, what had happened to me, and what i was going thru. it was like i was living this years-long nightmare where i was dissociated and hopeless consistently. at this point, most of it is a blur, like my life from 14 up until late 17 is mostly just a series of disturbing flashbacks to me. that boyfriend ur referring to was Obsessed with me like. he was into me ever since i was 11 and everyone in school knew it. i wasn’t interested and thought he was gross and annoying, and that continued to be the case until i was 14. months into being 14, i had gotten raped and that just changed my whole approach to everything. i felt like saying no to anyone made no sense anymore, bc my worth and dignity had already been taken away from me and my boundaries wont be respected and are meaningless so i might as well just say yes. after word had spread of what happened to me around school, most people turned against me and there was like, a handful of people who were still by my side. one of them was the not-yet boyfriend. people around me would also repeatedly tell me “if you don’t date him, you’re going to be making the biggest mistake, no one will love you like he does!” so like all those things coupled up together.. i just went with it basically. even though i did tell him repeatedly i didnt want to be with him, he was persistent and i had it in my head that if i said no itd be 1. pointless bc id be forced into it somehow 2. a mistake and lost opportunity and 3. saying no to the only person who will ever love me. so i just.. gave in? anyways during that relationship, i was pretty deep into self-harming, and he had a weird thing for that. he eventually confessed to me that hes sexually aroused by my age regressing (a symptom of my trauma i had no understanding of nor was i conscious to it). i just went along with it really.  

when i was about 15, there was this girl i had strong feelings for which i did not understand at all, before then i hadn’t really been conscious of my feelings? so i texted my then-boyfriend (same guy as previously mentioned, it was a long distance relationship for most of that relationship and at the point im talking about rn) and was like wow theres this new girl in my class and i feel this strong connection to her and just want to be around her etc, and i told him i have no idea what those feelings mean or how to explain them and his stupid ass said “now you understand how i feel about you” (bc i couldnt for the life of me comprehend attraction basically and kept asking him how being into someone felt). so then i was like huh and thats when i started to think, ok i must be bi bc obviously i cant possibly not be into men but im definitely into women. so i stuck with that up until i was 17. from the age of 17 tho, i started to question it bc i realised i just.. didnt find men attractive, and i felt like i owed the then-boyfriend a lot bc he stuck by me during the time i was raped but i still found him repulsive and didnt want to be with him. i came to a conclusion at 18 and told him multiple times and tried to end it multiple times but he refused to let it end the same way he refused to not be in a relationship w me but this time i knew i just couldnt stick around as i was conscious of my feelings and was tired of living a lie.

SO now to answer ur questions, i do regret a lot of it yeah and i wish i could just rewrite or erase that entire section of my life bc it was the worst part of my life and years later it still makes me feel sick to my stomach. i would do things and agree to things, and itd cause me so much pain and misery and worsen my suicidal behaviour and self harm, and id just... do it again. the people in my life knew there was something off and i wasnt happy but nothing anyone said could change my mind.

 i was anti-ddlg before i turned 18,, but he was also often on my blog so i mostly just stayed quiet on that until i was 18. i think ddlg is pretty pedophilic in a lot of ways, its often men acting out their pedophilic fantasies on women who are often traumatised and disturbed. and i think a huge portion of the ‘daddy doms’ are pedophiles, including the one i was involved with. so yes i am anti-ddlg. 

theres a lot i didnt go into here but i didnt wanna write like an entire thesis on this but. yeah those werent good years of my life and i wish i had help or guidance. i wish i just never got raped bc it led to one harmful thing after another for me and i feel like i couldve avoided all of that otherwise. the initial trauma i was subjected to made me weak and i had no hope so i just went along w whatever and it only fucked me up more. ive grown & changed a lot since then and even tho i still struggle today im no longer in the pain i was back then

[proxylynn]

Underfell: File Name not Edgy Enough #19

Chapter 19: Progress WARNING: I WANT NO RESPONSIBILITY OVER SPOILING THINGS FOR OTHERS. THAT BEING SAID, THIS IS HOW FILE NAME NOT FOUND WOULD FUNCTION IN THE AU OF UNDERFELL. BEFORE YOU READ THIS, UNLIKE THE NICE TIME OF UNDERTALE, THIS WORLD IS KILL OR BE KILLED. THIS STORY WILL BE GRAPHIC, GORY, USE SWEARS LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS, AND DEAL WITH SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTERS. FOR EXAMPLE, THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE READ THE FILE NAME RELOCATED SPOOF WILL KNOW HOW I PICTURE THIS VERSION OF LYNSIE COMING TO THE UNDERGROUND. IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING DUMB. IT IS BECAUSE SHE CHOOSES TO END HER LIFE. SO TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. I MADE IT BECAUSE I NEEDED TO LET SOME OF THIS EDGINESS OUT OF MYSELF. WHICH I GUESS MAKES UNDERFELL LYNSIE EVEN MORE TRUE TO WHO I REALLY AM. ANYWAY, ENJOY. ^_^ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Once in Sans room, I keep my word in behaving as we dine on what tastes like Papyrus's best version of lasagna to date. There is no sound during this time apart from the occasional gulp or sound of satisfaction. I let him have his peace as needed. Poor guy needs it. He puts up with so much and much of it is because of me. Some quiet time is the least I can do. "so..." He tosses his empty plate to slide across the floor. "ya got something in your pocket or are ya just happy to see me?" I suppose he's ready to chat now. I set my scraps aside and stand up with a smirk. "A little bit of both, Sansy-boy. But mostly just a surprise." I pull the bottle of mustard and shot glasses out of my pockets. He looks surprised. "heh...these types of surprises i could get used to." "I told you you'd like this." I sit down beside him and pour him a glass, making him look at me funny. "What's that look for?" "there are two glasses." "Yeah?" He snorts. "you're gonna drink with me?" I shrug. "Sure, why not. Wouldn't be the first time I've drank a condiment for the hell of it." He sniffs the glass as I pour my own. "uh...where did ya get this stuff?" "I took from one of the ones in the back of the fridge. I figured the colder the better. Why? Did it go bad?" He's still for a moment...then...he grins. "no, this is fine." He downs the glass with ease. "see? go on. try it." My prank sense is tingling but I choose to ignore it and shoot the yellow stuff down in a quick go. "Woohoo...That is tangy." "well?" "Honestly...Not bad." "how about we do a little test." "A test?" "to see if you can really handle this. how about every time i drink, you drink as well." "Dude, it's just mustard. I can handle it." He smirks as he drinks and I do the same as per his little test rule. "heh...this is gonna be a fun night." Now my foreshadow sense tingles and I put the pieces together. "This is the alcoholic mustard, isn't it?" The playful smile that teases his skull is all he needs to say. I sigh and pour us more mustard. "Well...I know I have no tolerance. But let's see if I can hold it better." He cocks his brow. "is that a challenge?" "Let's call it a test." "oh, you are so gonna regret this. there's no way in hell you can hold your own against me." "We shall see, good buddy." We clink glasses and drink. "so...was this your plan all along or did pap send ya up here?" I refill our glasses. "I came to you for many reasons. Talk is one, the drink is another, and your bro is also on the list. So what dumb thing did big mouth say this time?" He scoffs. "he was talking shit that he had no right to say, let's leave it at that." "Typical Papyrus." "yep." "Do you maybe...?" "no." "Just checking." We drink and I pour once more into our empty glasses. "so what happened with the whole mettaton calling you thing?" I swirl my glass a little. "It was awkward." "how awkward?" "Like we might need more mustard awkward." I down my drink and he shakes his head. "great. more crap to deal with." "It gets crappier." He groans and shoots his glass. "i'll be back." "More mustard?" "yep." Sans teleports and returns to his spot after a bit with armloads of mustard bottles. "is this enough to drown the awkwardness?" I blink a couple of times before smiling. "For the record, I have been told I'm a very honest drunk. So...You might get more than you bargain for." He hands me a bottle. "i think i can handle it." "No more glasses?" "get on my level, kiddo. or can you not handle it?" I glare playfully and put my glass down before taking his offered bottle. "Oh, you are so on, skele-dude. But on one condition." "what's that?" "For the rest of the night stop calling me kid or kiddo." "only if you don't call me sansy-boy." "Deal. Now...Let's drink till we don't feel feelings anymore!" "here-here!" We tap bottles together and drink. [Ten minutes later] "...So then, get this, he starts faking the call is breaking up and hangs up while saying 'see you soon'. I swear he's gonna pull some other stunt that ends with my butt in Hotland." I drink as Sans scoffs. "over my dead body." I snicker. "As a skeleton...Aren't you already a dead body?" He blanks for a moment before he stifles a chuckle. "heh...that was bad." "Whoa...Talking skeleton. You are blowing my mind." He punches my shoulder playfully. "shut up and drink, dummy." "Who are you calling dummy? I am far from being a manually articulated performative Kinesio maquette." "...i don't know if i should be impressed you can say that while drunk." "That feeling will be gone soon." "why?" "Because I think I'm tipsy enough to laugh at even the most juvenile thing." "...boner?" Mustard snorts out my nose as I was in mid-drink when he said that. "Ahhh...It burns!" He laughs his ass off as I blow the remnants onto my shirt. "Oh, you are so gonna get it now." [Twenty minutes later] "hey, mind if i try out a few bar jokes on ya? i get the feeling grillz is gonna need a distraction when he eventually sees your face." "Sure. I think we both don't want him having a meltdown." Sans chugs his third bottle a moment. "what did the bartender say after a book walked into the bar?" "I give. What did it he say?" "please, no stories." "Meh. Needs a rewrite to be a bestseller. Try again." "what did the bartender say after charles dickens ordered a martini?" "What?" "olive or twist?" I have to stop and think about that a moment. "Clever. Not sure how many would know that reference down here." "what do you get when you mix an english class with alcohol?" "Hmmm?" "tequila mockingbird." "Ah. Very nice." "then why aren't ya laughing?" "Dunno. Maybe my head is just bubbly enough that the stupid stuff makes me a giggling idiot." "so if i say the word duty...?" I snicker. "You said duty." He groans. "fine then, little miss tipsy, why don't you say some?" I shrug and drink halfway into my second bottle. "Why did Mexicans create tequila?" He eyes me a moment. "why?" "So ugly people would have a chance at having sex." He nearly chokes on his breath from that. "Too much?" "no...just...i never expect the dirty stuff from you for some reason." "But it's a good joke, right?" "yeah! tell me another one." "Oh. Okay...um...What is the difference between an alcoholic and drunk?" "what?" "A drunk drinks until they pass out. An alcoholic drinks till the house burns down with them in it." "that actually happened once down here." "Really?" "yeah. and in waterfall or all places." I giggle. "I have one more." "go for it." "Alcohol doesn't turn people into somebody they're not. It just makes them forget to hide that part of themselves." He pauses and stares at the bottle in his hand. "getting philosophical on me now?" "Maybe. Just was something that popped into my head." "meh. no biggie. they all can't be funny." "True. If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs." He looks at me funny. "are you okay?" I guzzle the remains of my bottle and drop it on the floor. "Dude, I am feeling good right now and it's awesome. Got any more jokes?" He cocks his brow and slowly hands me another bottle. "okay... a man walks into a bar and orders a shot of whiskey then looks into his pocket. he does this over and over again. finally, the bartender asks why he orders a shot of whiskey and afterward looks into his pocket. the man responded, i have a picture of my wife in there and when she starts to look good then i'll go home." The giggles leave me with ease. "That's a good one. I knew you could do it." He smiles a little. "a guy talks with his friend about his marriage. the man says, it's getting bad these days as my wife spends her evenings going around the bars of the city. the friends asks, is she an alcoholic? the man shakes his head and tells him, no she's looking for me." That got me laughing as we continue to drink. [Thirty minutes later] "what's worse than waking up at a party and finding a dick drawn on your face?" "What?" "finding out it was traced." "*giggles* Why are hurricanes normally named after women?" "heh...why?" "Because when they come they're wild and wet, but when they go they take your house and car with them." "*chuckles* how do you make a pool table laugh?" "How?" "ya tickle its balls." "*snickers* What is Moby Dick's dad's name?" "heheh...what?" "Papa Boner!" "*laughs* oh, oh, wait...i got one...what do you call a dictionary on drugs?" "*chuckling* What?" "addictionary!" We crack up like the biggest fools after six bottles each. [Forty minutes later] Ten bottles down and things are not like how this started. Not at all. "*sniffling* w-why is he such an asshole? i can't help that i have 1 HP. he doesn't have to throw it in my face." "Shhhhh...I know. He's just lashing out. He doesn't mean to hurt you." "*sniffling* then...then what is he trying to do?" I hold Sans close and rest his head on my shoulder. "I'm sure he thinks of it as a form of 'tough love'. Pushing you to do better through negativity. That, if he pushes you hard enough, you'll force yourself to do things like him. Or at least try." "but i do try! *weep* i try and i try...i try so damn hard...he has no idea what i do or what i've been going through." "Let it out, buddy. I'm here for you." He clings to me rather tightly, his claw-like fingertips digging in. Good thing I can't feel pain right now. "day after day, i work myself to the bone. for him. for all monsters. for the whole dam universe. and all i want in return is one small nod of approval or thanks. but what do i get? that's not enough, sans! work harder, sans! stop being so lazy, sans! why are you so weak, sans?! nothing i do is ever enough for anyone!" "That's not true." "yes, it is! i don't even know why i bother trying anymore. i'll never be good enough for anyone. and yet i still have this twisted hope that somehow, someday, maybe he and i will act like real brothers. but i guess that's asking for too much. because i've tried everything. no matter how many resets...i've tried to make him proud...yet i just...i can't...*sobs*" He weeps with pain and it's so pure that I can feel my own eyes water. But I do my best to fight that feeling. He needs comfort more than another sobbing mess. I pull him onto my lap and move him around to have his chest to my own, his head nestled under my own. One of my hands rubs gently along his back while the other cradles the back of his skull, my thumb rubbing small circles on the smooth bone. "Sans..." "i'm scared, lynsie!" "Of what? I know you're stronger than anyone knows. I bet all the money on Earth you can beat the likes of Asgore and Papyrus at the same time. What possibly rattles your bones?" "that's just it. i have all this power but at what price? i'm losing my mind. i see things. i have near constant nightmares. i don't even feel like a real person most days. and it terrifies me. i'm not even scared of dying anymore. i'm scared that one day i'll have taken all i can take and give up. that i'll stop caring and do something stupid. that he'll push me to my breaking point and i'll have to live with the consequences of knowing i hurt my own brother. i can't live with myself if i do that. i just can't." He's shaking like a leaf about to fall. "You won't do it." "but what if i do?" "You won't." "how do you know?!" "Because you're too nice to kill anyone. Let alone Papyrus." "i ain't nice." "Yeah, you are. Otherwise, you would've killed me in an instant when the Black Soul had me." He flinches. "I'm not saying you can't kill. Anyone can. Even small children, which I find very disturbing how easy and okay they are with doing so. But you are strong enough to NOT do it. True power is not in how you use it...but how you choose not to. That is how I know you're good and will never harm Papyrus." He's quiet now. The tears are still coming but he's dead silent. "Wow...I got mushy there. Sorry if that was weird." "..." "Sans? Come on, buddy, say something." His grip suddenly gets harsher and he sits up, sitting on my legs to look me in the eyes. "you're wrong about me." Things feel intense all of a sudden. "Oh?" "i have killed before." I tilt my head. "In the past timelines? Who?" "frisk." My thinking gears are jammed with alcoholic mustard. I got no clue where this is going. "Why?" "...they killed my brother." And just like that, my brain decides to shut down. "W-What?" "you heard me. that kid killed my brother. but not just pap. they killed everybody. even me." Trying to process this on a messed up mind hurts. "Um...b-but...They were just a kid, right? W-Why would they...?" "do ya really think i haven't asked that very question? to this day, that kid haunts me. not like you with chara. that's a whole other weird ass thing." "But..." "you said it yourself, kids are disturbingly easy with their ability to kill. is it really so hard to believe that kid could be genocidal enough to fuck up the timeline of the entire world?" "Just a little bit. But when magic is involved, it's easier to agree in the possibility than not to." "believe me. that kid...i've lost track of the number of timelines that were made and destroyed. the number of times i've had to fight that kid. the times i've killed that kid and they came back and killed me. *wearily* the times where they spared everyone and brought us to the surface...only to cruelly reset everything back to this hellhole. *sad* it wouldn't be so bad if i could forget it all like everybody else. living with all these memories. seeing the faces of people dying flash randomly before me day in and day out. never knowing if one day, any and all progress made will just be undone by the will of some fucking kid!" He's shaking so hard now, both in despair and rage. I know he hates it, but I see no other option in trying to settle him. I hug this emotional skeleton and hug him tight. I want him to feel safe. Much to my surprise, he doesn't fight this. He just goes limp against me. Feeling bad, I nuzzle his skull softly. "...what are ya doing?" "Well, I wouldn't be much of a friend if I didn't try to make you feel better." "you know i hate hugs." "Embrace the friendship, Sans. Because as long as I'm here, I'm gonna do what I can to replace those bad times with good stuff." "you're such a dork." "A dork that wants to be your best buddy. Well...second best to Grillby. I can't compete with someone so awesome." "that is true." "So? What do ya say, buddy?" He huffs into my neck. "you're only being this way because of the booze." "You know me better than to believe that. I'm just as nice without drink influence." "really?" "Okay...I'm nice to the ones I like. Better?" "...booze really does make ya honest." "Don't forget stupidly lovable." "not the words i'd used but...sure, why not." "*gasp* Really?!" "eh, you're not so bad...for a human." "Oh, Sans!" Playfully I plant a big smooch on his forehead and he snarls but it doesn't seem as threatening. "don't ruin the moment. i'm starting to actually feel better." I smile and shut my trap, returning to rubbing this back. It's really neat how he's able to fill his clothes. There is, of course, a lot of empty slack in the midsection but when you got a hollow body that's no shocker. Much like his fingertips, the ridges of his spinal bones are sharp and curve like shark fins. "mmmm...that feels nice. do ya know these bones too?" "I think I might. Just...give my head a moment to think straight." My head hurts trying to think of these things while inebriated. "Ugh...If I remember right...There are thirty-one spinal cord nerve segments." My hand starts at the very top under the base of his skull. "There should be eight cervical segments..." I count my way down each bone. "Then twelve thoracic segments..." He sighs pleasantly, almost like a coo, and I blush a bit. "Then there are five lumbar segments..." I stop following the bone trail because I don't want to kill this good time by feeling his bony ass. "What's left is five sacral segments and one coccygeal segment." He makes this odd sound that doesn't sound bad but is still weird to me before suddenly putting his arms around my neck in a tired way. "you make a good pillow." God, he's adorable like this. "lynsie..." "Yes?" "can i be honest with ya for a sec?" "Sure." He makes himself cozy. "now, this might be the booze talking or my good mood, but...i'm glad you came to the underground." Was that...genuine sentiment? The feels. It makes my eyes water and my heart hurt. I'm not used to someone showing actual care without a motive before. And in this current emotional flux going on in me, well, something doesn't quite connect properly. [Error. Lynsie.exe has suffered a crash. Please reboot to repair.] [Rebooting start...6% complete.] Mentally, my lights are off and yet I'm still fully aware of what's going on. He notices my lack of movement and looks up at me. "yo, you okay?" [Rebooting...18% complete.] Well, this is new. I've had breakdowns before. But this is just silly. "hey, come on. don't make me regret saying that. not like it matters anyway since you won't remember." [Rebooting...34% complete.] Is this what a coma is like? It's freaky. Like I'm a living doll. This feeling increases when he snaps his fingers in my face and my reaction time in blinking is extremely slow. "wait a sec...this isn't the booze, is it?" [Rebooting...52% complete.] "can you even talk?" That is a good question. All that I can manage to force out is a slight wheeze. This makes him laugh hard enough that he rolls off me and teleports for some more mustard. "now this is funny. you're so messed up you actually crashed. i haven't seen someone crashed in ages." [Rebooting...79% complete.] He returns and plops down sleepily beside me, already guzzling the bottle. "i guess this means i win our little game. because this is the last one and i ain't getting any more." [Rebooting...100% complete.] [Restarting ...now.] I blink rapidly as life returns to my brain. "Whoa...Dude...That was trippy as hell." He snickers. "just be glad it happened here and not out in town. crashing in public around the wrong people has lead to a lot of easy kills. or so i've been told." "Wait, so that's a normal thing that happens down here?" "kind of. like i said, it's been a while since i've seen it happen." "Then what causes it?" "no one knows. my guess is that it happens when something clashes with what the person is used to." Huh...Makes sense I guess. He's about to finish off that last bottle when I put my hand out. "what?" "Can I have some?" "no way. this is mine." "I just want one sip." "i said no." "Please? I'll take the remains. I just want something to wet my whistle." He snorts. "what are ya? some old-timer in a saloon?" "What do I need to do to get a sip?" He pauses for thought. "well...nah. you'd never do that." "What?" He looks at me, then the bottle, and then back to me with a smirk slowly forming. "how bad do you want some of this?" I look at him funny. "don't give me that look. i ain't no perv. i only mean to offer you a dare." "...I'm listening." That smirk of his grows. "i'll let ya have the rest of the bottle, if...you can keep from laughing at one last little joke." "...That's it?" "that's it." "Okay...What's the joke?" "heh...what do you call a skeleton with benefits?" I tilt my head and shrug. "I dunno." He motions me to lean in closer and doing so lets him whisper in my ear rather huskily. "a bone buddy~." The urge to giggle is almost stronger than the weird 'what the fuck' feeling his tone gave me or the suggestive wink he gives me when he pulls away. Just when my head comes up with something to say as a result of this, he starts to snicker and slaps his knee. "heheheh...oh man...you should see your face right now. oooooh, that was so worth it. here. it's yours." He hands me the bottle. I just look at him and then the bottle before looking back at him. "what?" "Gonna be honest here...I...I can't tell if you were really joking." He grins like a saucy Cheshire cat. "maybe i did. or maybe i didn't. the world may never know, kitten. now are ya gonna drink or not?" This is a weird moment. But a rare one. And my bubbled brain isn't sure what to do other than drink. "Don't make this weird, Sans." I take the bottle and drink. "weird? this ain't weird. wanna see something really weird?" "...You have my attention, good sir." This night is just going to get odder the longer it goes. [Many hours and lots of empty mustard bottles later] Sans's senses fought with themselves on whether or not to wake up. It has been a long time since he slept this soundly and this peacefully. The mattress wasn't lumpy. The pillow cushioned his face just right. A soothing warmth that evenly spread throughout his bones as no blanket has before. The only things that were drawing him to the waking side of the force were this sweet musky smell and a soft wheezing sound that randomly came to him that made the bed vibrate. Wait...vibrate? Come to think of it, since when did his mattress move at all? Slowly he reluctantly opens his eyes and instantly regrets doing so. He wasn't laying on his mattress and his head was definitely not on his pillow. Not only was he laying on top of the human, not only was his shirt off, not only was his face resting atop her grand tetons, but he found his soul was out and pressing into her. His skull burns bright red and he teleports halfway across the room in a cold sweat then forces his soul to return. What the fuck happened? How much did he drink last night? [BANG BANG BANG] Already on edge, the door being attacked didn't help. Though to his surprise, the human didn't wake up. "SANS! WAKE YOUR LAZY ASS UP!" "i'm up, pap!" "OH...WELL...GOOD." Papyrus walks away and Sans does his best to settle down. As uncomfortable as this was, he was grateful that she was still out. Though in the back of his mind he did wonder why. Gaster is a likely reason. She did tell him that they had this weird deal of sorts. Dumb girl has no clue what she's doing. Casting thoughts of the human aside, mostly because they were making him incredibly uncomfortable, Sans gathers his clothing for the day and heads for the bathroom. He needed a cold shower to reset himself. Damn woman is getting to him. How else could he explain how he woke up? He never would be that comfortable around her unless he was wasted. Sans is no pushover to the hard effects of booze, but even he would be susceptible to alcohol after a limit was met. It was under such influence that Drunk Bun took advantage and caused the gross amount on his tab. It's something he made Grillby promise to not let happen again. But this wasn't the bar. This was at home. And she needs to go home. Out of the shower, fully dressed, and wishing the woman in his room would vanish, Sans ventures down to get some food in him before having to sit outside for the rest of the day in the elements. "what's to eat?" Papyrus just slides a plate of lasagna on the counter without a word. "pap?" Papyrus leaves the room with his own plate and Sans is confused. Papyrus being like this is unsettling in the morning. Maybe things were still off from last night? He did leave before Papyrus could make his shitty attempt at an apology. This could be interesting. If Papyrus felt something, other than his vanity and narcissism, it might be worth letting him stew in it for the day. With how often his brother made him feel like crap, it was karma long overdue for Papyrus to feel the same. With this scheme in mind, Sans adjourns to the living room to eat and go about the day without speaking to his brother. This silence lasts long after the eating is done and they leave the house. Nothing is none the wiser to their absence from the home. Not the slumbering flower. Nor the unconscious human. For long at least. [Some hours later] Wearily I come awake from a very deep dreamless sleep. Everything feels heavy. My eyelids are like sandbags and my limbs like lead bricks. I can't recall most of last night but I know if I don't get out of bed I'll either be yelled at or some other bullshit. I roll off the mattress and groan. I have never felt so lethargic in my life. But even laziness must give way to more important things. Like calling Toriel. [RING-RING] "Good afternoon, my child. I take you are calling to apologize." This confuses me. "Apologize?" "Do not play dumb with me, young one. You have failed to maintain your phone calls to me for the last, by this hour, two days." Wait...no...no her math is right. God damn, I have fucked up. "Nanny, I am so sorry..." "Save it. Once was bad enough. You are in big trouble, young lady." "Please don't start wigging out on me right now. I have had so much happen to me that I can't deal with you getting mad." I hear that telltale cracking when she gets upset and squeezes her phone. "Are you talking back to me?" I'm digging my own grave here. But I'm too fuzzy mentally to give a shit. "Why didn't you tell me about soul maturity?" Her side of the call gets a little garbled. She might have finally ruined her phone. "The irony of it all, Nanny, is that if you had told me about it I would've stayed home. Now I'm dealing with random surges in magic, emotional flipping, and I am losing my damn mind in hormones! And I'm doing all this around guys! It's fucking humiliating! But that's fine. Phone calls are more important than making sure this doesn't make the Black Soul come out more often and make me go on a genocidal killing spree. So go ahead. Reprimand me. Be mad. Meanwhile, I have to make sure a grumpy skeleton doesn't threaten my life while his brother makes jokes about it." "*crackling* I...You don't...Young one...Come home...I..." "Your phone is breaking up, Nanny. *sigh* I'm sorry I snapped. I love you, mom. I'll talk to you later." [CLICK] This is not how I wanted my day to start. With that done, I drag my heavy body to the door. Even reaching up for the knob feels like overexertion of energy but it can't be helped since I can't just stay in Sans's room all day. I actually consider tumbling down the stair for a moment till reasoning kicks in and I childishly crawl backward down them instead. "Lynsie? Are you okay?" Flowey looks at me funny as I yawn. "Dude, what time is it?" He shrugs. "I don't have a clock. But it's been super quiet since I woke up." I sigh. "Have you eaten yet?" "No." "So...It's quiet and no one feed you? *groan* They left us." It takes a minute for that to sink in and the wicked grin to smear my face. "They left us..." "We can finally get out of this crazy place and get back to Toriel!" "Yeah! We can leave...Snowdin..." Suddenly this doesn't feel as right as it should. "What's wrong? Why do you sound uncertain? You...You're not thinking we should stay...Are you?" I pick myself off the floor with a sour face. "I'm an idiot for this, but yeah. I'm second guessing it." Flowey is not happy and flails his leaves. "Are you out of your mind?! Do you actually like being beaten?" "No, of course not." "Then why are you second guessing this? We need to go home!" "I know that!" I rub my arm, rolling up the sleeve a bit more with each stroke. "But what if this is a trap? They are posted right outside of the Ruins and Sans can teleport. If we can't make it through those doors then everything else we've been through won't compare to the punishment that will come from fleeing." "But staying here is just as bad." This is a head scratcher. I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I probably could slip past Papyrus, because those dogs are not a problem, but Sans is the real threat. If he knows I'm running he is more than capable of stopping me. Dude can stop time, summon laser skull cannons, manipulate gravity on souls, and who knows what else. I need to think this out more. "We're staying here, aren't we?" "...I didn't say that. But it's a good chance." "What about Napstablook? Are we ever going to see him?" A bad nervous habit I have when feeling stress is to claw myself. My nails dig into my skin and I drag them a couple of times. There's just so much on my mind and it makes me want to jump off the roof! "Lynsie?" I dig a little harder and one of the red welts trails a streak a crimson in its wake. "H-Hey! You're bleeding!" I don't even feel it. I just look at the blood before licking it away and fixing the sleeve, much to Flowey's disgust. "Flowey...Why do stay with me?" That threw him off a little. "Huh?" "You didn't have to come out of the Ruins with me. And you have a better opportunity to leave than me. So why? Why do you stay if you want to go so damn badly?" He's stunned slightly. "I...I can't leave you here alone." "Why not?" "Why not? What do you mean why not?" "I mean, you don't have to stick around. I'm not your problem." "But..." "The ground should connect from here to the Ruins. You should be able to make it back with no issue." "I'm not leaving you here." "Fine then. You can stay. I'm going out." I head for the door. "Wait...Where are you going?" "I need a drink" "The fridge is the other way." "It doesn't have what I need." I walk out and head for Grillby's, but I pop back in for one last thought. "I'll be back later. And maybe...I'll be brave for us both." He looks confused as I shut the door with a sigh and continue on my way to the bar. I don't intend to do any hard drinking. I think I'm still feeling it from the mustard last night. All I want is to talk with a close someone. He seems to get me even when I don't. I just hope today is a slow day and the usual guests are feeling like home is where they want to drink. The door to the pub feels heavier to me, probably due to that tired feeling from earlier, and I keep my head low as I enter. "Pussycat!" Grillby's voice has an emotion I'm not used to hearing. He has the voice of someone that's happy to see me. It makes me smile. "Where were you? When they didn't come in today I was thinking the worst happened." There are a few patrons in here, about two or four that I see. They see what I'm trying to hide before he does and he only sees it when I take my seat at the bar. But I know he's pissed by how hot it gets. "A loaded omelet and strawberry milk please." Grillby leans on the bar and grabs my chin, making me look up at him to better see the damage. His eyes narrow. "Is this what happens when you 'handle it'?" I glare weakly. "I'm not talking about this out here. But no, this was something else. Papyrus did this." Smoke escapes the sides of his mouth. "Open your mouth." I sigh through my nose. "The tooth is chipped if you thought you saw something odd." He growls low and deep. "Say the word and I'll make sure he won't touch you again." I won't lie, knowing he's willing to defend me is attractive as hell. But nothing good cones from impulsive actions. I take his hand off my face and hold it in both of mine. "You are my knight in burning armor, Sir Grillby of flame." I kiss his hand and the sudden sweetness mellows him out a bit. "Heh...Buttering me up won't change the subject, pussycat." "Not trying to. Just lowering your burner a little before you overheat." He smiles a little and calms down, his temperature getting less intense. "Thank you, Grillz." "I meant what I said, Lynsie. I'll make him stop. You don't have to put up with this." "I know. But I...*groan* It's complicated." He frowns. "Will you at least talk about it with me?" Oh, Grillby...There is so much I want to say and yet so much I can not. "Yeah. Just...let me get a little comfortable before I do." That lifts his spirits up and he kisses my forehead. "Take your time, dear. I'll be back with your breakfast." Grillby heads to the kitchen and can't help but feel lucky that I know him. If I had known someone like him was down here I would've jumped a hell of a lot sooner. The guy is kind, caring, understanding, and was willing to lay down his life to protect me...at least in that dead timeline he did. Mmmm...It doesn't hurt that he's hot too. Those glasses and that uniform of his. I don't know if these feeling started because of that dream I had but right now I'm glad to have them. Zoned in these thoughts, I fail to notice his return and nearly jump when the plate clatters on the bar. "Daydreaming, pussycat? Hope I didn't interrupt anything interesting~." I snicker to hide the small blush that threatens to show. "Maybe. I do believe it was about this really hot guy. Maybe you know him?" He smirks while he makes my drink. "Maybe I do. What does this hot guy look like?" "Look in a mirror." He chuckles with a small blush. "If I didn't know any better, pussycat, I'd think you were flirting with me." I shrug. "I could be. Or you're just wishfully thinking." He puts the finished glass down in front of me and grins. "You're in a playful mood, pussycat. Is this your way of stepping up our game?" I take my milk and sip it. "I'll let you know when I'm ready for that, Grillz." "Heh...Playing it cool? Fine by me. But just so you know..." He leans in by my ear. "I'm ready for when you want to heat things up~." He backs away smugly and moves on to doing work while I get all flustered. Damn smooth talking flirty fire hottie. Making me all goofy and dorky looking. I hope my burning cheeks offset some of these dark bruises, I doubt it though. But this game of ours, it needs some evening out, he's got more points over me and I don't like that. No...I think it's time to step up my skills. But how? I eat my omelet and think this over. There's got to be a way to mess with him. Something he wouldn't expect from me. By the time I've finished eating the few patrons that were here surprisingly left the bar. "Where'd everybody go?" "It's a mandatory thing in town that once a month the guard takes count of the population. Everyone lines up outside their home for the census. Shopkeepers can remain in their place of business but must leave their doors open." "Oh. ...Fuck." I chug the remaining milk and take my dishes as I hide behind the bar with him. This confuses him but Grillby is a smart man, he figures it out with ease. "They don't know you're here, do they?" I shake my head as the door's bell rings with someone's entrance to the bar. "*whisper* Keep still and doesn't make a sound." I nod and he walks around to meet this guardsman. "What can I do for you, Doggo?" "You know how this goes. Same thing every time." There's a click sound, a pen maybe. "All this normal crap is out of the way. Gotta love it when you can auto-fill more than half this crap without asking." "Makes things easier when nothing ever changes." "I hear that. Speaking of which...Any new additions to your current living space?" "Such as?" "You know. That girl you mess with. She moved in with you?" There's a faint crackling sound. "H-How fast do you think I move on someone?" "I don't know. The way you two go at it I was betting you managed to snag her and had that bone on locked down." "What?" "Yeah, then again, I guess it's not worth it. What with her being passed around by those skeletons." There's a deep threatening growl that's followed by a hard slam. I'm tempted to look but I know better. "*whimpering* Y-You...You hit me?" "Get the fuck out of my bar...NOW!" Grillby's voice has a searing deathly burn in it and it's not long before that bell over the door rings harshly in Doggo's retreat. There is some huffing and puffing from Grillby's calming fume. This concerns me. Dishes cast aside to a small shelf, I creep around the bar and see him standing in the center of the room, his hair billowing high in his anger. Poor guy. I move close to him and feel his heat. "Grillby?" He lets out a large puff of smoke. "Give me a minute...please." I frown in worry. "Okay. But I'm here for you." His arms are shaking. He's settling down slowly. That's good. Yet I feel like I can help. I lightly put my hand on his back and he flinches. Though he begins to relax when I rub my hand up and down along the curve of his back. "Mmmmmm...That's nice." His flames die down and he turns around to me. "Thank you, pussycat." "Thank you for defending my honor again." His face holds such softness. It's cute. "I don't punch Royal Guardsmen for anyone else." There's a warm spot in my heart and I know it's for him. He's earned a reward. "Grillby..." "Yes?" "I don't kiss anyone else." His eyes widen when I yank him by his tie and kiss him, though his surprise doesn't last long. He practically coos when I let him go. "I need to hit Doggo more often if this is what it gets me." "Silly boy." "Well, you like this silly boy." "Yeah, I do." He puts his arms around my waist and I wrap mine around his neck. "You're comfortable with this, pussycat?" "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be letting it happen, would I?" "Heh...You're cute when feisty." "Cute? With this busted face?" "All you need is some healing. Don't put yourself down." "How can I put myself down when all you do is lift me up?" He chuckles and kisses my forehead before resting against me, his breath is steamy yet enjoyable. "You make it very hard not to do more and respect this waiting when you get so damn adorable." He has a point. It's not like I don't like him. Maybe it's worth exploring this with him. As they say...You only live once. Might as well live knowing happiness. This will really surprise him. That's for sure. I lean back slightly and he looks confused as I move into his neck to leave a few kisses. This gets him blushing and his grip tightens a bit. "Mmmmmm...Now you're not playing fair, pussycat." "Who said I'm playing?" His body stiffens. "W-What?" "I told you earlier..." I look him dead in those fiery eyes of his. "I'll let you know when I'm ready for our game to level up." He blinks quickly as that sinks in. "You...You're serious?" I stroke the back of his head, letting my fingers play around in his flames. "I think you've earned it. Unless you'd rather stay in this friendly type thing?" He pulls out of our hold and steps back toward the door. "Grillby?" When he reaches the door he flips a sign, locks the door, and shuts the blinds on all the windows. This makes me feel like I just fucked up. "Why are you doing that?" "Don't freak out. I'm just closing up for a quick break. Mostly for two reasons." "And they are?" "Well for one..." He starts heading back to me. "I don't want to deal with any of the guards due to Doggo's bitching about being punched. And the second reason..." He reaches me and cups my face. "I want nothing to ruin this." If it weren't for the glow of his hands I wouldn't have any clue that he was healing my bruised as hell face, well, that and it tingles a bit. That warmth in my chest starts that getting hotter as he leans in and kisses me softly...at first. Now knowing he has the okay to do more, Grillby carefully guides me over to a table and sits me on it so I'm a bit more at level with him without breaking the kiss. This is giving me vibes similar to that of the naughty dream yet he's being less aggressive then dream Grillby was. His tenderness allows me to relax, my hands rest on his chest and enjoy the satin feel of his uniform's vest. He trails his kisses across my cheek then down my neck under the bandanna, nipping lightly at my nape and I shamefully moan when he nibbles a sensitive spot. This reaction has the both of us blushing yet he's smiling at me. "Did you just...?" "Grillz..." "Oh my god..." "Grillby, please." "That was the cutest fucking thing I have ever heard in my life." I groan which only makes him laugh. "Come on, it's nothing to be embarrassed about." "Don't tease me." "No, I liked it. In fact...I want to hear it more~." "I don't think tha-!" He cuts me off when his mouth clamps around that spot and begins to suck like a vampire for blood. This has me mewling by, what I can only guess is, his ear and he is very much pleased to hear it all. His bite is sharp yet harmless. He keeps this up a good long while as I cling to him and drag out his name randomly in those lewd sounds he enjoys so much. Eventually, he releases my neck and his smug satisfaction is suddenly alluring to me. It's probably confidence. We chicks dig a confident man. "There. Now you look even better with my mark~." I'm a bit too loopy to understand what that means. Plus the heat I'm feeling is flooding my system and he is becoming more attractive by the second. He nuzzles into my cheek with a few kisses peppered in. "I take it this is your first hickey too?" I nod with a lightheaded smile. All this heat is getting to me. Making it harder to think straight. "So cute." He graces me with a smoldering kiss that lingers long after he's pulled away. This is all too much for my soul to take and the pink heart emerges from my chest much to his shock but also interest. "Easy there, pussycat. While very flattering, I don't think you're ready for that level yet." "Can't help it. It likes you so much." He smirks while giving me a hug. His warmth making my soul feel strange, but not unpleasant. "You are way too sweet to be down here." "And you are way too attractive for your own good. Wait...Did I say that out loud?" He laughs and nuzzles that tender part of my neck as I hug him back. "You know...My offer still stands. You can stay with me and not them." I want to say yes. Everything in me is screaming to yell yes with all my might. But I can't muster the will to do so. Not when Flowey pops into my head and from him spring up all the other people I can't just forget to be with him. My silence gives it away to him. "You can't, can you?" "I want to. But there are things I still need to do. I can't forgo what I already promised. I'm sorry." He looks disappointed for a second before petting my head. "You're a good girl, Lynsie." "You're not mad?" "No. How can I be mad at you when you're honest with me? Besides, it's not like you shot me down. I can wait for when you're able to accept my offer." I sigh with relief as my soul calms down and I smile at this sweet man of flames. "Thank you, Grillby." "No thanks needed. I get it. You've probably got a lot on your plate and being a forced 'house guest' doesn't help matters much." "Yeah." "Was is it that you need to do anyway?" "Well...The whole reason I left the Ruins was to see my friend in Waterfall." That puzzles him. "Who do you know in Waterfall?" "A ghost named Napstablook. He visits the Ruins a lot and we became buddies." "Ah, makes sense now." "I just don't know how to get there without tipping off the guard. He mentioned something about a fast travel thing that would take me near his home from here, but I have no clue where that thing is or what it even is." "The Riverperson." "Huh?" "You're talking about the Riverperson. They take people from area to area on their boat." The pink in my soul starts to transition into white. "Do you know where they are?" He nods and steps back a bit. "Once out this door, you make a left into the housing area and keep going straight. There's a spot where it docks its boat. You can't miss it." Finally. Finally, something that helps me move forward. My soul turns fully white and retreats to my body. "Is that normal for you?" "What?" "Your soul. It changed colors." "Oh, that? Yeah. You get used to it." I scoot off the table. "Thank you, Grillby." "For what?" "Where to start? For defending me. For understanding. For caring. For the companionship. Just thanks for being you, you awesome sweetheart." This has the man of fire burning with a less than intimidating hue as he becomes flustered. I love it. "Awww..." "What?" "You're adorable." His flames burn brighter. "I am not." "And here I thought you liked my honesty." He turns around to get control of himself and I make it worse a little by hugging his back. "Would it help if I said you were hot as hell?" That seems to lighten his embarrassment. "It's a start." "That's the spirit." I kiss the back of his neck and he shivers. "Oh? Did I just find a secret spot of sensitivity?" "Heh...Maybe." "Good to know. Makes our game a bit more even." "And what does that mean?" "You'll have to wait and see, hot stuff." I kiss the back of his neck again and this time he shudders. "*flustered* Really making it hard for me now, pussycat." "My bad." I let him go. "It's probably for the best that we stop anyway. You need to run your bar and I have to get my bro so we can finally finish this longer than it should've been quest." "Heheh...Cute. But you make a point. If I'm closed for too long than the local drunkards will bitch like there's no tomorrow." We both head for the door. "So...You won't be in Waterfall for long, will you?" "Worried I'll get my ass kicked?" "The monster there are stronger than the ones here. Not guard level, but still stronger." "It's sweet of you to be concerned. But trust me, I don't intend to fight anyone." "I'm more worried about you running into Undyne." "The Captain? Yeah, Blooky mentioned she lived there. It's why I'm gonna use the boat to bypass running into her." "Clever girl." I pull up the blinds us as he unlocks the door then turns over the sign. Already there's a line outside of patrons wanting to enter and when they can, they head for their normal spots ready to order. "Looks like you're gonna be busy today. Heh...Sucks to be you, boss." Grillby sighs. "It's going to get less busy later. It's lady's night tonight. Not many women show up." "Horny dudes try to schmooze on the ones that show up?" "Bingo." "Called it!" I move out the door. "Later, hot dude." "Wait!" He grabs my arm at the last second. "Dude, you okay?" He stares at me hard before releasing his grip. "Do you have a phone?" Okay, that random. But not completely out there. "Yeah. Why?" "Let me give you my number. In case something happens." I give him a warm smile and my phone. He adds his number to my contact list and hands it back. "Promise you'll call at the first sign of something going wrong." I hug his neck and kiss his cheek. "I promise. I'll come back to you." He nuzzles my neck and lets me take my leave, allowing him to return to his work while I head back to the skeleton house. The path has been clear to me now. I can make to Napstablook's place. Problem is, if I do, I run the risk of setting Papyrus off. He'll think I escaped. Sans will think the same, but he'd know where to look for me. If that happens, I can hide out at Blooky's for a bit before returning and making a break for the Ruins. Maybe...Maybe if Flowey can help in case we get spotted...Argh! There are so many variables for things to go wrong! I hate it! I enter the house and plop on the couch. "So...You feeling better now? Or are you just drunk?" I look over at my flora brother and see he made something for himself to eat. I did leave in a huff, forgetting to feed him. I owe him more than what I give. "Hey! Your face looks better." "My buddy at the bar did that. He's nice." "Huh? So there are nice monsters." "I'm sorry for earlier. I was a dick. I could've fed you before leaving." "That would've been nice." "Again, I'm sorry. There's just...*sigh* A lot of stuff is on my mind and I'm dealing with a body that is going nuts. I don't mean to take it out on others, especially you. Hell, I even tore into Mom." "Are you insane?! I mean, you have to be if you did that." "I'm not even sure we can call her anymore. Her phone was breaking up really bad." "So we can't get in touch with her at all?" "It's a possibility. I'm hoping more that her battery was dying. Mine's not looking too good either what with no charger and the constant Mom calls." "So we're screwed?" "Not necessarily. The phone is still an option until proven otherwise. But other than that, you can still try going underground to inform her or Blooky could do it." "And how would you get him to do that? "I'll ask him when we get there." That makes him pause. "Are you joking?" "Do I look like I am?" "W-What about the skeletons?" "If we leave now and not stay too long, they shouldn't be none the wiser to our little 'escape'." "And if they do?" I remain silent. "Oh." "We'd have to hide out and either make it to the bar or to Ruins." "Why the bar?" "The owner likes me." Flowey shivers uncomfortably. "Don't be that way. Mom approves of the guy." Technically this is a lie but it's not like Toriel ever said she didn't like Grillby. "So...I'm guessing you have an idea of how to get there if you're suggesting we leave." "There's a boat that'll take us. I just need to know if you're okay with this." He flinches. "Why are you putting all this pressure on me?" "Because I'm sick of being the one with a noose around my neck. Now make a choice. We stay or we go?" He nervously rubs his petals. "Um...uh..." "We don't have much time. Every second wasted allows them to find us sooner." "We go!" I stand up and go over to him. "You'll help me if needed. Right, bro?" "I don't know what you expect me to do. But...sure." "Alright then." I gather my bag and don my gear before collecting Flowey then taking what could be our final leave of this place. Following the directions Grillby gave me, I head into the housing area and notice some different monsters that I didn't know lived here. Of course there are rabbits, a boy awkwardly watches a girl as she walks her little brother on a child leash. A family of slimes take part in what looks to be a parody game of gladiators with the father presiding as judge. I can only guess that this play fighting prepares them for real fights in the future. Then located a little eastward of the slime family is what looks to be a very buff wolf monster behind a gated area throwing mass-produced giant ice cubes into part of the river stream. His fur must be very warm because this hunk is naked. I'm tempted to wolf-whistle at him but I don't need the attention right now. I continue my way past the houses and end up in a small secluded spot surrounded by trees that leave enough space for something to sit by the water. "You said there was a boat. I don't see a boat." "Don't get fussy. Like any ride, we need to wait for the driver to come back." Flowey huffs with a shiver and I put him in the backpack so he's out of the chill. I just have to wait now. [Ring...ring...] Huh? That's a strange ring. And looking at this is even weirder as it's an unknown number. Eh, it's probably Mettaton calling to be creepy again. "Hello?" "Hello! Can I speak to G...Wait a second. Is this the wrong number?" Okay, definitely not Mettaton. And this voice...Why does it sound like I know it yet don't? Creepy! "Um...Yeah. I don't think you meant to call me." " Oh it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! We're very very sorry that we got it wrong! Oh it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! We're very very sorry that we got it wrong! " [Click...] Well that was random and weird as hell. "Tra la la..." I'm spooked by the sudden appearance of a fully cloaked figure in black on a wooden boat parked before me. "I am the riverman. Or am I the riverwoman...? It doesn't really matter. I love to ride in my boat. Would you care to join me?" The hell am I getting myself into here and why does this person sound like the phone weirdo? How would it even have my phone number? "Uh...yes?" "Where will we go today? Waterfall? Hotland?" "Waterfall please." "Then hop aboard and we'll be off." "How much?" It shakes its head. "No charge." Really? I can live with that. I step onto the boat and sit down before it begins to move in the water. How the boat is being controlled when the captain is not doing anything is a mystery I can't begin to think of. "Tra la la. What's inside an acorn? It's really just a mystery." I stare at this weirdo and grow in confusion. Is it just my imagination or paranoia that it also used the word mystery? "I'm pretty sure it's just a tree seed that squirrels really like. But who's to say they aren't just nuts." The pun is accidental. But it makes the figure look back at me. Nothingness. That's all there is in that hooded face. Just dark nothingness. "You need to be careful, little one." That name. That name sends chills down my spine. Only Gaster calls me that. Maybe it's just a coincidence. "Trust in the man who speaks in hands." ...Or not. "What did you say?" It nods. "Trust in the man who came from the other world." "Hold on...How do you know him?" It doesn't speak and this pisses me off. "How you know him?! How do you know about Gaster?!" My shouting stirs Flowey, who merely peeks his head out of the bag. This gets the Riverperson's attention. "Tra la la. Humans, Monsters...Flowers." I feel Flowey jerk back into hiding and I snarl. "Leave him alone. Quit being cryptic and get to your point! You obviously know things others don't." "The angel is coming..." Its voice is low with a warning and it turns away from me to face the water ahead of us. "You'd be wise to get that soul of yours under control...Tra la la." My blood runs cold. I know not what this "angel" is, but the warning of my soul is not good. This being knows more than it lets on. I don't like it. I only hope my actions haven't set up a disaster in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My head canon for Fell drinking: Fell Lynsie reverts to Original Lynsie in terms of personality, she is kind, loving, goofy, and honest. Fell Sans has a strong tolerance but when he hits his limit he becomes bold, emotional, trusting, and more likely to be comfortable around others. So if they were acting funny/familiar to you, now you know the reason why.

[driftbending]

today i wrote:

1373 words of fanfic. i rewrote what i had sketched out before and cleared up more details and shifted a few things around and it turned out really good. i really love where i’m going with this and i’m so happy that i’m able to start the next arc of the story. i’m still shifting scenes around to see what works best, and i stopped at a part where i’m like...”okay, what now?” so i hope to have that figured out by tomorrow. also, i managed to figure out all three backstories i needed for my main characters, so now it should be smooth sailing as i slowly start revealing each one and how they affect HK/HS. (i shared all three backstories with my sister, and she’s like !!! about two of them. one of them she complimented by saying that it sounds original compared to what she’s been reading in other fics which made me all !!!, and it makes a lot of sense in-canon too which is like phew, my work here succeeded! i hated that canon didn’t explain how X happened, so working backwards w/HK’s personality & asking “what may have caused him to respond to X situation in the way that he did?” managed to get me a veeeery interesting backstory for him. and the other backstory that has my sister all !!! is one she said sounded very, very kdrama-esque and considering that’s what i was going for? it makes me happy to know i gave the characters really interesting backstories. like so, so, so happy. i just hope this monster fic doesn’t give me too many problems when i rewrite it. lol)

1397 words of my original story. i can get into the heart of the story now! yay! just cool gothic horror + murder mystery vibes now. at last! i also can’t help but write J/G/C. no matter what i do i always come back to them bc i really love this triumvirate. they’re just so fun and relaxed around each other, i can’t help but just let the stories between them flow even though as i write i’m certain that i’m just going to cut off a lot of these parts. lol but now i’m starting to wonder how i’m going to do the big death scene and i still haven’t figured out which characters knows what detail about the mystery, but i do know that C, F, and W know a lot more than either of them let on and while F has a good reason for not saying/doing anything, C & W don’t. there’s just a lot left to figure out and i hope as i write it that i’m able to solve it before i have to write it.

additional observations: i really am going to have to cut back on writing indefinitely and try to settle down and write for just two hours a day. mostly because i know that i have to do other things and i don’t want to spend most of my time just writing. even though that’s all i honestly ever want to do. also, i need to keep updating my outline with what i write as soon as i write it so i won’t have my outline blank & so that it’s easier to refer back to it. also, at the rate i’m going at with these stories, i think i’m going to have to extend my project into next month bc:

even with these numbers, i’m not close to getting where i need to with either fic, especially my original story. so 60k was a good goal to have something written, but i might have to up that and continue this in july. which is both thrilling and yet terrifying.

[izzyovercoffee]

The thing is, I never read Legends, so I always saw the warrior mandalorians as imperialist. Both of the houses we see (Kryze and Viszla) are headed by white, blonde families and Clan Wren are the descendants of a people who were conquered, converted to Mandalorian ideals, and placed in a subordinate position under Viszla. Bo Katan, a traditionalist, rejects Maul as unfit to rule because he's an alien. And this was all decided before the reboot with Legends so....I'm confused.

Confusion is totally understandable! 

For the record, because this got so long, it has to go under a cut. I apologize for the length, and if my tone is off it’s not intentional. I’m, essentially, info-dumping, because there’s a lot of extraneous information that applies to the arcs I’m gonna try to address under the cut. I’m also reading your ask as if you didn’t see Satine’s New Mandalorians as imperialist, bc that seems to be what you’re implying in the ask? If I’m off, I apologize in advance.

Also even though I say “you” in this reply, I don’t mean you specifically, I’m meaning to address a general “you,” not you you.

The short answer is that even if you are not familiar with Legends material, reading only one of the two houses as imperialist kind of misses all of the subtext conveyed purely by the information presented in the arcs themselves, and oversimplifies imperialism. It is easy to miss, though, and imperialism itself is a complex subject that isn’t discussed as well as it should be.

But, ultimately, even if we were to ignore Legends and only look at canon material, we still have what boils down to this:

The New Mandalorians, an all white faction of mandalorians:

exiled people of a differing cultural philosophy

has a society not achievable through means that don’t involve steps towards ethnic cleansing 

declared pre-established nonwhite mandalorians as not mandalorian, thereby stripping any claim to that cultural identity, in the same vein as calling them the equivalent of savage

were part of a regime change backed by an outside stronger, larger military force invested in that regime change

All of these things, together, paint House Kryze and the New Mandalorians as Imperialist. Regardless of Legends material, regardless of how anyone feels about Death Watch.

And even though the writing does not really carry the kind of awareness that definitely points to a lesson on imperialism, if we entertain that as the conclusion to all of the arcs … it would have been more effective to make Sundari diverse in comparison to Death Watch, and have that diversity leverage Death Watch’s war crimes directly, rather than make Sundari the accidental genocidal Imperialist power by poor design decision.

Furthermore, as much as I would rather not bring it up as it’s always used as a straw man argument against the existence of racism, the fact is that Imperialism is not the sole purview of white people. Chinese Imperialism exists. Japanese Imperialism exists. Both are as effective analogues for Imperialism, and both are closer to actual Mandalorian history than the space!Nazi aesthetic the writers went with—not just for obvious reasons, but because the space!Nazi aesthetic implicates an altogether different type of imperialism. 

And it’s a type that completely distracts from and undermines the ultimate goals of their storytelling in those arcs. 

Moving on to that last point, though … that scene where Bo-Katan rejected Maul, can be read differently—as in, she did not reject him because he was an alien so much as she rejected Maul because he wasn’t mandalorian. Or it could be both of those things, but it’s an important distinction to make—it’s important to not forget all of the things Bo-Katan, specifically, was fighting for.

Bo-Katan fought to save the culture Satine was trying to eradicate — and in terms of cultural genocide, if Maul was to take up his position as leader of mandalorians, that is just trading one type of cultural genocide for another.

It is, under no circumstance, the same as framing it as a simple rejection of Maul because he’s an alien. Him being an alien literally does not matter in that moment, tradition or not, because Maul had no stake in it—because it’s not his culture on the precipice of extinction. To treat that scene like it was … well, was to miss the point.

The very long longer answer goes under the cut.

To warn you about what’s under the cut, as it’s, again, very, very long. I’m basically going into a detailed explanation about: 

Legends & why/how Legends applies to the Mandalore arcs

a longer diatribe on imperialism: —To Legends or Not to Legends —Why does Legends help the New Mandalorians?

how & why the New Mandalorians are Imperialist: —A Diatribe on Imperialism

and their platform is transparent and hypocritical w/o the additional context of Legends to soften the edges: —Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorian’s Transparently Hypocritical Political Platform, and more on Jango Fett

a longer explanation on Bo-Katan and Maul: —Xenophobia versus Continued Cultural Genocide

the actual events that are contextually relevant to the Mandalore arcs: —Legends: The Aftermath of the Mandalorian Wars—Legends: The Mandalorian Excision

what I mean by the Fetts were established as mandalorian before the Mandalore arcs aired: —Why the decanonization of the Fetts matters, in the context of the story and canon —An aside: Separating “Boba Fett” from “Mandalorian” after 30+ years

As I’ve said, it’s a lot. Mostly meant to be used as a reference, I guess. I apologize if I repeat myself too much. I wrote this in chunks and threw it together, so if it’s messy or even more confusing, that’s 100% on me.

[[ EDIT:: it has since come to my attention that George Lucas was the mind behind the retcon, stated once in a special featurette for TCW DVD set for Season 2. Him being known and expected to be (hopefuly for obvious reasons) incredibly racist makes it all a little less surprising, but no less fucked up. That the writers still stick with it now, after he’s out, is disappointing, and I maintain that that tweet by Hidalgo was unnecessary. Nothing else about the argument changes except on who to blame and criticize more than the others. ]]

To Legends or Not to Legends

The Imperialism implied in the show was based off of a larger context of conquer and destroy that exists in Legends, and at the time of airing took for granted that the viewer would have at least some knowledge of that mandalorian history, but would still work overall if the viewer did not know those details.

So, even if you are not familiar with Legends the show at the time took for granted at least superficial understanding of the KOTOR series and The Mandalorian Wars that occurred 4000 years prior to the events of the show. The Mandalore Arcs make multiple references to a history of galactic-scale war and conquest, but nothing was ever established even close to threatening outside of the events leading to KOTOR i & ii. The writers, themselves, also indicated familiarity and desire to canonize the KOTOR events (writing Revan, for example, into the show and having them voiced until, ultimately, Revan was cut from that episode. It doesn’t make KOTOR canon, but what it does do is build a case and point to the inspirations of where the writers were coming from). 

The Expanded Universe was still referenced even if it was obliquely—and under that knowledge, Expanded Universe / Legends material therefore matters when it comes to talking about the context of the Mandalore arcs.

I mean, obviously it wasn’t required knowledge, as anyone can watch the episodes and follow for the most part, and at this point because most of those things are now relegated to a time period that, most likely, will not be addressed or brought up in canon material from this point forward, it’s hard to gauge if it will ever “matter.”

But, regardless, the intent to reference the old republic can still be seen in there, and the Mandalore arcs make more sense, overall, politically and otherwise, when the Mandalorian Wars were / are taken into account as compared to how the arcs stand without that background.

At the time, while Legends wasn’t rebooted yet, only the highest levels of canon really “mattered,” and those were movies and TV. They both did and did not matter, because the showrunners ultimately had the final say of what they wanted to present. They could draw from the expanded universe material, even extrapolate on what was set up as a foundation—or they could do as they ultimately did and annihilate what was previously established.

To reiterate, the movies, and the shows, had the power to erase pre-established expanded universe canon, as it was canon at the time, just a “lower level” of canon. It wasn’t a clear cut line like it is today, where Legends is Legends and doesn’t “exist” in the star wars universe. Expanded Universe was canon-enough right up until the movies and the shows decided otherwise. Expanded Universe was canon right up until the show decided to outright erase some parts and rewrite it.

And that’s ultimately what happened to the mandalorians.

A Diatribe on Imperialism

So, to come back to the topic of Imperialism, Imperialism absolutely was the topic of discussion. But, again, because of the design decisions, even though they framed the New Mandalorians as the radical faction that came as a direct counterpoint to Death Watch and Mandalore’s history of war and conquest, the visual notes and hints they ultimately settled on implied a wholly different background that really … can’t conceivably be what they intended from the beginning.

Both Houses were Imperialists, and both of them carry a violent history.

I also want to reiterate: Imperialism is not the sole purview of white people. Other races, other Empires, have also expanded their respective territories, have also conquered huge territories, have forced assimilation of local peoples into their respective Empires. The Mongolians. The Chinese. The Khmer Empire. The Vikings. The Romans. The Japanese. And so on, and so forth.

Presenting imperialism = white is a very narrow, limited view of imperialism, and inaccurate (Chinese Imperialism is a real thing, Japanese Imperialism is a real thing. These things really happen today, and affect real people, and so and so forth). 

Not only white Europeans colonized huge chunks of the world, but generally white Europeans did so to such a degree that world is still fucking wrecked by it even to today. (But that doesn’t make the survivors of other imperialist conquests any less significant. It doesn’t make ethnic cleansing and intra-racial imperialism and genocide any less heinous, but I digress.)

Beyond that, though, while Imperialism and its effects absolutely is an important discussion to be had, by oversimplifying imperialist = white, and “warrior white” = imperialist, we fail to recognize the other types of imperialism in effect today (and in the star wars universe) that absolutely should be acknowledged and discussed.

Contrary to popular belief, there are other visual analogues that exist outside of centering white supremacy, even when that centering is meant to be in criticism of it.

Further, Imperialism isn’t only perpetuated through physical violence—and, in fact, in today’s world it’s more effectively perpetuated through other means, through policy. Satine Kryze’s reign is, yet again, another example of how a superficially nonviolent society can still wield imperialism through policy and not be demonized because, technically, they’re not violent like those other guys, aka Death Watch.

It’s easy to defend something terrible when the only other comparison is a group of extremists already demonized by history that are marginally more obviously terrible.

But, again, if the racism inherent in the episodes is missed, then it’s very easy to miss all of the unfortunate implications tied in with it. It’s also then easy to miss how the whitewashing comes in. And, ultimately, it’s easy to miss how that decision distracts from and completely undermines the point of those arcs. 

Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorian’s Transparently Hypocritical Political Platform, and more on Jango Fett

When the writers chose space!Germany, space!Nazis, they implicated Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians in a specific type of imperialism, and a specific type of genocide. And even though I cannot make any claims as to fully know what they intended to indicate, from what can be determined watching the arcs, the intention was not to paint Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians as having that history of genocide. She was supposed to be a symbol against those war crimes, not a symbol whose power stems from it.

To reiterate, it was not one they wanted to implicate her and their faction in—it was one they wanted to implicate only Death Watch in, alone. But because of all the things I’ve pointed out in previous posts and above, there’s no other way to interpret the visual presentation of Sundari as anything but carrying an implied violently racist society. Because you cannot achieve a population that looks like that without eugenics, without genocide.

And if you still don’t see it now, after myself and other people have explained how and why Sundari is the perfect example of what that looks like … well.

Coming back to the white = imperialism analogue, that’s where, I think, the “well, of course they’re all white / blond / blue-eyed!” analogue falls short. Because the actual comparison of space!Germans? Space!Nazis? It just doesn’t work. It does not fit. The quick and easy analogue of Imperialism that the writers chose to go with, does not match what the apparent goals of either the longer Legends-inclusive bloody history nor the Mandalore arcs were trying to convey.

And as I’ve said before: we, the viewers, were supposed to sympathize with Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians, but for anyone even remotely familiar with the concept of eugenics, anyone who knows what the extreme conclusion of a racist society looks like, looks at the New Mandalorians and Sundari and sees them as the defacto success story of space!Nazis.

To say “it’s not that deep” is to, ultimately, pick and choose when and where one cares about visual details in a visual medium—when and where one cares about how information and story is illustrated through setting—and that’s really not an effective way to learn how to improve storytelling in a visual medium, nor learn why these interpretations arise and how to avoid (or fix!) them in the future.

On top of that, it ultimately takes away from the story. It takes away from the arc. It undermines anything Satine and the New Mandalorians could have stood for, because instead of being a Pacifist society out of a willingness to change and be better than what their history says they are, they’re a Pacifist society that had a successful implementation of a eugenics and cultural genocide program and that’s how they maintain their stability. And that’s monstrous.

It made Satine into a monster, by sheer accident and oversight.

When they made that design decision, they unfortunately implicated all of the white New Mandalorians as complicit in a specific type of genocide, one that can only be associated with space!Nazis, because that was the visual shortcut they decided on using. 

We were supposed to see the monsters only in Death Watch, not in the New Mandalorians, and not in Satine. The intent was to implicate Death Watch as all massively violent criminals and murderers, not make them victims to stand on ground equally bad. Not to inadvertently make them sympathetic.

It was just not reflective of the context they were pulling from at the time, nor was it effective for the story they wanted to convey. In no way did it make Satine Kryze sympathetic, because how could it?

Their writing choice had the exact opposite effect of their intended goal.

Why the decanonization of the Fetts matters, in the context of the story and canon

Moving on from that, I, generally, would couch against oversimplifying Satine’s (and the New Mandalorian’s) position: what they were doing, in no uncertain terms, was taking a culture that was, before the Mandalore Arcs, established as a nonwhite culture and declaring them savages that needed to be colonized for their own good. Almost literally exactly how the Fetts were decanonized within the show.

That is a type of Imperialism. That, in itself, is a type of colonization that has already happened in our history in the real world, worldwide, to countless native societies and people. 

Whether Filoni and Hidalgo George Lucas and the other writers liked it or not, the Fetts were still mandalorian as of the movies’ airings, and his retcon delivered through the show didn’t come until years later. So that retcon, that declaration, cannot be separated from what was established as canon beforehand and at the time of that episode’s airing—no matter how much the writers seemed to want to erase or ignore 30+ years of the larger franchise establishing otherwise in expanded materials without conflict. 

And because it cannot be separated, that directly implicates Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians as just as Imperialist as Death Watch, except they’re less “terrorist.” But terrorism, in general, is determined by governmental and institutional power, and because the New Mandalorians wield all the power in mandalorian space, any act of obscene violence they may or may not wield on their marginalized populations will never be called terrorism—because, again, terrorism is the sole purview of people who don’t wield institutional power.

So, to reiterate, as I’ve said before, and as someone rightfully pointed out in the notes of the previous posts, by having the Fetts identified as mandalorians in canon material prior to the Mandalore arcs of the show, it was implicated that mandalorians as a cultural identity were nonwhite. 

To then introduce the New Mandalorians as all-white out of nowhere, and have them thereby declare:

the Fetts as not mandalorians, and

fighting as veneration was unconscionable

basically made the New Mandalorians echo real-world violent colonialism in the terms of the White Voice Of Reason coming to Tame The Savages and make them “reasonable and cultured.” 

So on the one hand, you have white Death Watch who is obviously Imperialist, yes, but then by doing the above the writers accidentally made it impossible to separate the New Mandalorians from a different but still clear Imperialism. I say accidentally because, generally, the writing of the early arcs didn’t seem to be all that self aware in those implications for Satine.

I mean, also consider that the Death Watch of the show also had:

a white woman in a position of power who wasn’t white supremacist pale / blond / blue-eyed, and

later established that they had nonwhite people among their ranks in respected positions

In comparison to New Mandalorians? Imperialism is still present, but the ethnic cleansing and the eugenics is not.

The impression that Clan Wren’s ancestors were subjugated by Mandalorian Expansion may not be wrong, or it may be. But consider why you want to make that assumption, if it’s necessary, and if it’s coming from a place of “well, of course they’re not naturally mandalorian, because they’re not white!” And if that perspective is being used to form a complex history and relationship with their cultural identity, or if you’re only doing it for superficial flavor that adds nothing to the story nor context. Because if it’s the latter, it’s not a decision that is made in vacuum, but rather one that can contribute to racism / racist narratives.

It’s racist in much the same sense as saying that someone cannot be British if they’re Asian. That someone cannot be American if they’re Asian. These assumptions that are being made, they’re not factual statements built from nothing but racist assumptions that don’t hold up under their own weight or logic.

Which isn’t to say that Death Watch isn’t terrible—they absolutely are.

The implied Imperialism of Death Watch is very real, yes. The problem is that I haven’t seen anything to implicate DW as subjugating the Wrens or other humans, if we’re looking at the show and canon only. 

I say that because … we only have the word of the New Mandalorians, who are speaking from a position I’ve hopefully explained in great detail as hypocritical at best, as well as the word of the Jedi Order / Republic, who both have a vested political interest in making damn sure the New Mandalorians keep their seats of power and would not want to undermine that stability (because the New Mandalorians are Republic-friendly and Death Watch is quite clearly Republic-unfriendly. Not to mention that both the Jedi Order and the Republic had a direct hand in the war to keep the New Mandalorians in power years before, when Satine rose to the duchy. And yes, this was stated in the arcs themselves, is canon and thereby not relegated to Legends information). 

None of the people pointing fingers at Death Watch are speaking from an unbiased position—and if the writers really wanted to make those accusations clearer and from an actually sympathetic POV, they would have made Sundari not all white, and gave minor airtime to a nonwhite mandalorian leveraging those crimes against Death Watch. 

But, they didn’t go down that route, so instead we have a conflict that is murky and convoluted with no right side. And as much as I detest Death Watch, the accusations towards them are not coming from a source that doesn’t benefit from villainizing everyone who contradicts them across the board.

And that’s a problem when the story arcs, themselves, expect us to just see Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians as the “obvious” correct side without any kind of deep or critical thinking.

In Legends, Death Watch has always been anti-alien, but again, because of that lazy design decision … the writers relegated the anti-alien sentiment to all of Mandalorian space as a whole, as opposed to just Death Watch. 

Like I said, it’s distracting from the points and sides they were trying to make.

We also have another canon man native to Concord Dawn to compare Jango’s status to, because the excuses that we’ve been given so far has been “he’s not a mandalorian but he’s native to Concord Dawn” as if that should be an easy distinction to make … yet we have someone else who is also native to Concord Dawn, who was never part of Death Watch, and yet he’s still considered mandalorian.

That man is Fenn Rau. 

Canon material shows us:

Fenn Rau is a mandalorian, despite being from Concord Dawn, while

Jango Fett is “not,” when he’s also a Concord Dawn native

Concord Dawn sits firmly in Mandalorian Space, and Fenn Rau was a True Mandalorian, as was Jango Fett—also known as the Journeyman Protectors. They were a different faction who ultimately sided with the New Mandalorians against Death Watch—but unlike the New Mandalorians, they always dropped everything to fight whenever DW so much as blipped once on a radar. 

We also have the now-canon information that Fenn Rau was on Kamino and trained the clones, and from what Legends tells us … Jango Fett was the one who recruited a good number of mandalorians to help train the clones. At the very least, they must have known and interacted with each other, having been of the same factions and in the same space multiple times.

Again, the things Fenn Rau and Jango Fett have in common:

natives of Concord Dawn

part of the Journeyman Protectors third faction

and the things they don’t have in common:

Fenn Rau is white

Jango Fett is not white

So. 

There is no real logic involved in these writing decisions, outside of explicitly implicating the New Mandalorians as an Imperialist force complicit in racial & ethnic cleansing. That would be the most logical leap to explain why Fenn Rau is a mandalorian, but Jango Fett is not. 

Literally none of it makes sense story-wise in canon otherwise—because that’s, literally, the shortest logical leap that can be supported by the information provided by canon without bending ass over head and making weak excuses.

And, well, even so … If you only look at it from what you see on the shows and movies, it still doesn’t make much sense. Canon as it stands alone frames Satine Kryze and the New Mandalorians as a faction that stands on a position built on transparent irredeemable violent hypocrisy. 

Xenophobia versus Continued Cultural Genocide

And once more I come back to that scene where Bo-Katan rejected Maul. 

To reiterate, I argue that him being an alien does not matter. She may have said it, it may have been implied, but identifying him as an alien in that specific scene once Pre Vizsla was killed does not automatically mean xenophobia—especially when that scene was meant to be a defining point between continued cultural genocide and survival. Whether mandalorians would be willing to crucify itself on its traditionalism and be totally extinguished by accepting Maul, or by standing true to survival and rejecting an outsider from assuming a culture with which he has no stake in.

Rejecting Imperialist cannibalism, yet again.

Allowing Maul to lead the Mandalorians after executing Pre Vizsla would have been trading one violent subjugation for another—trading Satine Kryze’s cultural genocide in the forced conversion to Pacifism for the subjugation under the violent rule of a person who wasn’t mandalorian and had zero stake in what they, as a people, had to lose (once again, their cultural identity).

And that context matters. It matters. She didn’t make that decision from a position in which she was given much choice, regardless that allegiances split on that decision. Bo-Katan was fighting for traditionalism, yes, but that traditionalism is built on a foundation of mandalorians surviving mandalorian cultural genocide at all costs — first from the New Mandalorians and the Republic, 700 years prior, then the New Mandalorians and Satine a few decades prior to the show, and finally, if you take Legends context of The Mandalorian Wars, a survival of cultural genocide as brought into play by Sith manipulations.

Pre Vizsla died because his rigid traditionalism was the sword on which he was willing to impale himself on before he was willing to change. And that kind of rigid inability to adapt would have meant the death of mandalorian culture. 

So … don’t oversimplify that scene. Context matters. Everything that leads up to that moment in the show matters. 

Legends: The Aftermath of the Mandalorian Wars

What ended The Mandalorian Wars?

The Jedi Order was, essentially, split into two: The Jedi who would fight, and the Jedi who Refused to fight. The Jedi who left to fight followed in the steps of Revan and Alek, and the Exile.

What ended the war was this:

At the Battle of Malachor, the Jedi Revan executed Mandalore the Ultimate, and 

stole the ceremonial mask needed for any Mandalorian to declare themselves Mandalore and lead the people

At the same time, The Jedi Exile, a High General, made the decision to activate the Mass Shadow Generator, which wiped out the entirety of the Mandalorian Army, and

nearly killed off all of the mandalorian people in the known galaxy in that same action

The entirety of the Mandalorian Army was, simultaneously, the entirety of the Mandalorian People. And because the majority of Mandalorians, at that time in history, served both in a civilian and a military capacity, when the Jedi Exile initiated the super weapon, she nearly wiped out the entire population of Mandalorians from the known galaxy. 

From that point forward? Mandalorians, as a people, were forced to change their philosophy in order to survive. Mandalorians, as a people became a people focused on survival instead of conquest. Fighting was, is, central to their culture, but the fight stopped being about conquering and became about survival.

But later, when they eventually recovered their numbers, different factions within the Mandalorians would pop up.

There were:

Extremists, who wanted to return to their conquering ways, irregardless of the fact that conquering directly lead to their annihilation. These people would venerate Mandalore the Ultimate for all the wrong reasons.

Isolationists, who wanted to focus only on the growth and continued survival of the mandalorian people, who wanted to continue Mandalore the Preserver’s work — and never regress to the old, conquering ways, because that’s ultimately what killed them.

From these two factions, eventually, over the millennia that followed, would continuously fight each other: because Extremists wanted to return to the toxic ‘old ways’, and Isolationists saw conquer as an invitation to the Republic (and the Jedi) to finish their path of genocide.

And the thing was: they weren’t wrong.

And this is important as historical context to know, when taking in the Mandalore Arcs of the Clone Wars, because in those arcs, it’s clear that The Republic and The Jedi Order have not only had a vested interest in Mandalorian politics—Kenobi clearly references a time when he was directly involved with keeping Satine Kryze in power.

Historical context.

Because of the sheer scale of catastrophe the Mandalorians successfully caused to the galaxy during the Mandalorian Wars, The Republic and The Jedi Order would forever remember those events and continue to act accordingly to prevent them from ever happening again, no matter the cost.

THAT is why both The Jedi Order and The Republic have such a serious and vested interest in Mandalorians remaining demilitarized and passive.

And THAT is why, ~700 years prior to the events of The Clone Wars, roughly 3300 years after the conclusion of the Mandalorian Wars, The Jedi and The Republic carpet bombed the fuck out of Mandalore without provocation. It was thenceforth referred to as the Mandalorian Excision

Legends: The Mandalorian Excision

When the arcs were written, imperialism was both a direct reference not to a recent campaign, but to a literal galaxy-wide imperialism ~4000 years before the events of the Clone Wars, as well as the one ~700 years before.

The Mandalorian Excision came after the end of the Thousand Years War in which the Jedi waged a millennia-long campaign against the Sith and wrecked the galaxy, again. The Republic, weakened by the war against the Sith, could not survive another galactic wide conflict.

But, after the rise of Tarre Vizsla ~1000 years before the events of TCW, the warring Houses of Mandalore banded together to join a united Mandalore. The constant fighting and war left Mandalorian Space very, very weak, but of the factions that arose out of that peace, half wanted to regain their power and conquer the galaxy, while the other half cautioned for pacifism and peace.

Unfortunately for all of the Mandalorians, the Republic got wind of the ancestors of Death Watch — and even though Mandalorians were undecided as how to proceed, and didn’t have any power whatsoever to follow through on those desires because they were still extremely weakened from both the galactic-wide conflict and their own inter-clan and inter-house fighting, The Jedi Order led the “preemptive strike” and glassed Mandalore.

Preemptive strike is interesting language choice, because what that ultimately means, and what actually happened, is that Mandalore did nothing to provoke that attack because they were nowhere near to threatening to anyone in power, and the Jedi and the Republic still decided to base delta zero Mandalore anyway, just to be safe. 

Because we can’t be having any repeats of The Mandalorian Wars, even though that was ~3000 years before.

And after they carpet bombed Mandalore, the Republic and the Jedi Order then invaded the planet, and installed a new government as ruled by the New Mandalorians, under the agreement that they would never move against the Republic.

The New Mandalorians then began the exile-or-die campaign, with the “help” of the Republic. Anyone who was unwilling to denounce “the old ways” would be killed or exiled.

Why does Legends help the New Mandalorians?

Because without the above context, without the very extreme, very dramatic, very real threat of genocide by the Republic to the Mandalorians, there is no motivational pressure for the New Mandalorians to act like they do — to force pacifism to such an extreme.

But when you’re in a position of be pacifist or the galaxy will crush you again, and this time they might wipe out everyone, then there’s a literal galaxy’s worth of motivation to force cultural genocide to kill the literal thing that has made you and your people a target for elimination if you so much as breathe the wrong way.

And that context, above, was the context in which the episodes were written. Because, like it was said, the Legends reboot didn’t happen yet — so all of the expanded materials attached to the Mandalore arcs lay out a very real, very clear wider view of why the New Mandalorians violently enforced radical Pacifism.

This isn’t to say that the implied ethnic & racial cleansing is forgivable, and this isn’t to say that cultural genocide is forgivable, because these things are literally unforgivable, heinous, and monstrous — but given the situation, given their position in the galaxy, given everything that was at stake … can you blame them?

I mean, obviously, duh. Yes. You can blame them. You should blame them.

But … it gives that extremism more sense, on all sides of the conflict.

An aside: Separating “Boba Fett” from “Mandalorian” after 30+ years

Yes, I’m back on this. I promise this is the last section. I just wanted to clarify whitewashing and what I meant when I said 30+ years of the franchise.

At the time of the show’s airing, by making the decision to make the second-highest level of visible canon mandalorians white (as TV came just under Film at that time in terms of validity) and in that same arc retcon the Films’ non-white Fetts from that same category, that was an act of white-washing. That is essentially the most obvious and easily pointed out example of whitewashing. 

It was literally an act of rejecting and delegitimizing nonwhite representation on-screen when that nonwhite representation had many years of worldbuilding and detail behind him/them. Boba Fett, himself, was named as a mandalorian bounty hunter as far back as the late 70s (I apparently have official trading cards from the 80s that say this, too). Since Jango Fett’s debut in Episode II: Attack of the Clones in 2002 he was written as mandalorian.

That’s 30+ years of the name Boba Fett associated with Mandalorian.

And, decades later, when it’s revealed that Boba, and Jango, are not white, it’s mysteriously retconned in a TV show that neither of them are mandalorian? After more than 30 years of the franchise establishing the exact opposite?

TCW canon erased “mandalorian” from the Fetts, redefined mandalorians as white with the introduction of the two Houses and Sundari, and then obliterated expanded universe all in the very same arc by taking what was the capital planet of Mandalore space and glassed it, then gave it Sundari as its central city. The capital planet that was, before the show, ethnically and racially diverse with different climate zones and flora and fauna.

The mess that was the mandalorian fandom trying to make sense of it all was … even now, years later, the community is still reeling from it.

The most grievous, obvious, in-your-face racism and whitewashing done in a long time in the franchise. There’s no way to argue that it isn’t.

Unintentional? Sure. Accidental? Probably. But still, it is what it is.

The thing, though, that gets me the most? Is the out-of-context tweet to confirm it, one that was entirely unnecessary and unneeded.

Why unnecessary? Because mandalorians, as I’ve said time and time again, have a history in Legends-to-Canon of fighting over identity politics, of literally starting wars over the “right” way to be mandalorian. 

To have White Mandalorians look at a Brown Mandalorian and say “THIS MAN, this man who was born in mandalorian space and taken in and raised by a mandalorian clan to become a mandalorian warrior and then elected mandalorian leader of the True Mandalorians, he is NOT A MANDALORIAN!” … is par for the course in the world of mandalorian politics in the larger context of mandalorian history. Mandalorians.

They do this shit, all the time. 

It could have been left alone, to be taken as one will—and it should have been. But instead of doing that, Pablo Hidalgo, in a tweet, “confirmed” that Jango was never mandalorian at all, thereby eradicating any of the complexity that can be inferred on the in-context declaration in the show, and supporting what is, ultimately, an act of racist writing that was as I’ve already said, unneeded and unnecessary.

After 30+ years of Boba Fett established as mandalorian, and 6+ years of Jango Fett as mandalorian, suddenly … he was not white enough to be mandalorian in a show that had higher canon validity than 30+ years of expanded material.

And if you read that section above comparing Fenn Rau and Jango Fett … well. If you can’t see why it’s messed up … I don’t know how else to better explain it.