#possible solution 2: tell friend 1 i don't want to go with her

[computer-boy]

me giving advice: 'honestly just say what you mean! being honest is important in relationships'

me when i have to be honest and say what i mean:

[thalialunacy]

[for the @calaisreno May Promptosaurus Rex; cw for toddler stuff, eg 💩 & 🤮]

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) 19: weather (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31)

'A-ha! We did it!' John says, possibly too chuffed as he holds up a freshly changed and dressed Rosie. 'We--'

She makes a very distinctive face, then grunts. John eyes her. 'Tell me that face doesn't mean what I think it means.'

Then he does the sniff test, and yes. Yes, it does mean that.

He lays her down yet again, fond exasperation tugging at his lips. 'Wee girl, why do you do this to me?' His mum has used the endearment on Harry their whole lives, so it's comfortable on his tongue as he reaches for wipes and a new nappy -- only to discover the stashes depleted. As in… nill.

John rolls several expletives around his teeth. But then Rosie giggle-gurgles up at him, and he swoops in to expel his breath instead on her cheek in the form of a huge raspberry. He almost doesn't hear the knock on the door.

He pauses, but then shrugs and picks her up. 'Sorry, sweetheart. Let's go see who's at the door, yeah?'

She is notably non-nonplussed. 'Livery?'

'Might be,' John replies as he reaches the building door and opens it. 'And it is!' His daughter claps and immediately reaches out for the spotty young man trying to wrestle a rather large box. 'Whoa, there.' John reins her back in; she wants to be friends with everyone, which is both endearing and alarming.

'Do I need to sign?' he says to the carrier, who, now that John's looking, isn't wearing any sort of uniform. He looks like a dishboy haphazardly and temporarily promoted.

'No, sir. I'm to bring it up to the flat.'

A seed of a thought germinates in John's head. 'That was your instruction?'

The lad nods, clearly trying not to show his impatience. John holds back a sigh, and opens the door wider to let him pass. 'By all means.'

And it's as John expected: Wipes, diaper rash cream, and nappies. They're even--though he really shouldn't be surprised--the correct size.

As soon as Rosie's changed (again), he's got his phone out.

'I trust the delivery made it in time?' Mycroft answers.

John spares them both the niceties. 'How?'

'Nothing untoward, I assure you. Sherlock texted me.'

'Right. And where is he?' They may have an… evolving relationship, but Sherlock is still Sherlock, and John can also admit he only vaguely remembers what the detective had said when he'd left earlier in the day.

'I believe the words "spleen" and "unidentified poison" are involved.'

'Excellent. Listen.' He clears his throat. 'I'll pay you back.'

'My mother would call that "vulgar," as you know.'

'And she's a lovely woman, but--'

'Discuss it with Sherlock, please. I've got work and must get back to it.'

He rings off. John stares at his phone.

Death by Holmes. That's it. That will be how his life ends.

---

Rosie has broken the laws of physics and/or cloned herself. She has. She must have done.

That's the only explanation for the sheer reach of mess he finds waiting for him after his clinic hours the next day. 'Bloody hell,' he breathes, standing in the flat's doorway and taking it in.

It's more than the usual whirlwind that happens when Sherlock's between cases and takes Rosie for the day - He claims loftily that he's putting her through intellectual paces, but really he just indulges her every whim, including her lack of enthusiasm for cleaning up. And it's not as if the flat was shining and organised to begin with.

John doesn't even have the bandwidth to log all the bits of chaos surrounding him. For heaven's sake, he hadn't even known they owned bubble solution. But, then again, they don't now, judging by the rather large soapy stain on the rug in front of the window, and the family of tipped-over empty bottles next to it.

'John!' he hears from Sherlock's bedroom. 'Come join us!'

He rolls his eyes, but goes anyway. The noises make it clear as to what they're doing, and John hangs his head before pushing open the door. He'd been hoping to at least have one nice mattress in the flat for a bit longer.

But no, currently Sherlock is holding onto an absolutely delighted toddler while, obviously, jumping up and down on the bed like he's seven. Actually, John fleetingly wonders if Sherlock even got to do such things when he was seven--

'Come on, John!'

--and the unabashed joy in Sherlock's eyes tells him his answer. With that, the resistance whooshes out of him. He toes off his shoes and joins them.

'We're testing the durability,' Sherlock explains, loudly, then swoops Rosie like an aeroplane.

John laughs, huffs of air as he jumps and watches his daughter. She seems to be enjoying herself, except-- 'I think she might--' He stops, reaches out. 'Sherlock, she's going to v--'

With a small noise of surprise, Rosie is, indeed, sick. The remnants of whatever they'd had for tea form a lovely puddle on Sherlock's expensive sheets.

The grown-ups both manage to avoid it, scrambling backwards and into each other, somehow. John, lungs tight, reaches for his daughter, not caring that she's got sick all down her front. 'My girl,' he says, going for soothing, knowing her reaction could go either way. 'Did that surprise you?'

Rosie, wide-eyed, lets out a small hiccough. Then her face crumples, and she starts to sob.

'Oh dear,' Sherlock says faintly.

John, because he's a bastard, feels laughter start to bubble up in his lungs.

Then he hears Sherlock repressing chuckles next to him, and the floodgates are open, them laughing together like errant schoolboys.

'We musn't giggle near an ill child!' Sherlock admonishes, but it works no better than it had the week they met. John bumps Sherlock's shoulder and curls Rosie into his chest, rubbing her back and putting his lips to her forehead in between breaths. She's not feverish, she just likely got swooped about like an aeroplane too soon after tea, so John relaxes and lets himself go, laughing like an idiot in dirty sheets with a dirty baby and a spotless Sherlock (somehow, the bastard).

Then there's a knock at the door. The door of the flat, not the ground floor.

He and Sherlock exchange glances, no longer laughing; even Rosie has geared down from wailing to whimpering. John shrugs.

'Come in,' Sherlock says, loudly, because of course he does; he doesn't give a toss what people think of his cleaning habits. 'We're in the master bedroom.'

A formidable grey-haired woman with a tight chignon and very no-nonsense shoes appears in the bedroom doorway. She takes in the situation, and then she tuts. Actually tuts, in a distinctly Edwardian way that John hasn't heard since his grandmother passed. 'Just as Mr Holmes suspected.'

Sherlock purses his lips. 'Mycroft sent you?'

'He certainly did. Now, out of those clothes and into the bath, please, all three of you.'

Sherlock opens his mouth to protest but the Look she gives him has him shutting it with a snap.

John would laugh if he had the fortitude. 'Beg pardon, ma'am, but he sent you because…?'

'Because you lot are a mess, a fact of which you seem to be unaware.'

John and Sherlock exchange another look. 'Fine,' Sherlock says curtly. 'But could you be so kind as to leave the room while we undress?'

'Certainly.' She gives a short nod, then turns on her heel and exits down the hall.

'Hang on,' John whispers loudly as they start to unbutton and unzip. 'Mycroft sent us a nanny?'

'I'm relatively certain she's his housekeeper, and just on loan for this evening.'

'I guess I should be surprised.'

'No, you shouldn't, as you're not entirely without wits.'

'Such flattery.'

'Dull.'

'It's almost sweet of your brother, really.'

Sherlock points a finger at him. 'Don't you dare.'

John's lips quirk. 'Don't worry, I won't send him a fruit basket or anything. I just-- I appreciate that he indulges a child he hardly knows, that's of no relation to him.'

Sherlock clears his throat. 'Yes, well, be that as it may, I say we take full advantage.' He pulls the now-naked toddler out of John's hands and heads towards the loo.

John watches them go, feeling quite swirled around by the last half an hour's events. But then he shakes his head at himself and his navel-gazing, and follows them.

---

John's phone buzzes while he's at work the next day, and he doesn't pay it much mind until he sees it's the day nursery. After he reads the message and is able to breathe again-- Jesus, being a father is not for the weak, is it-- he thumbs one to Sherlock. 

Did you get the updated pickup address from the minder? Trip to park rained out. 

He doesn't get a reply, not right away or in the next few hours. 

This could, of course, mean a few things. John firmly puts away the worst case scenario, and reckons a case has taken priority, seeing as Sherlock knew John was available for pickup if necessary. 

So, needless to say, he's surprised when he arrives at the given address. One, because Sherlock is there waiting. And two, because it's… 

John stares.

'John,' Sherlock says after a moment. 'I'm afraid my brother has outdone himself.' 

'Yes, well.' He coughs. 'I'm afraid he's turned an indoor football pitch into a Disneyland for toddlers.'

'As I said.'

'Jesus Christ.' He wonders how long Mycroft's been planning this. 'Wait-- Was this just because of the rain today?'

'Knowing Mycroft? Yes. Is that not a proportional response?'

John can hear the amusement in Sherlock's voice. 'Definitely not,' he replies, but his cheeks hurt from repressing a smile. 'Hang on,' he says. 'Why are you here? You didn't return my texts, I figured you were in the middle of a corpse or something.'

'Mycroft told me to stay put.'

John snorts. 'Didn't you think he might be using trick psychology to get you here?'

Sherlock scoffs. 'Soft science, that.'

'Sure.'

'Daddy! Sherlock!' John looks away from Sherlock at that particular mispronunciation of his flatmate's name, and is barreled into by a clumsy sparkly dervish. 

'What--' He automatically reaches down to pick her up, then does a double take at the elaborate butterfly painted onto nearly her whole face. It's basically a work of art, honestly, and he has no idea how someone got her to sit still for that long. 

'They are hired for speed,' Sherlock says to him, and he laughs, still impressed after all these years. 

'Incredible.'

Sherlock glances at him. 'Whether you mean the artwork or my deducing your question about the artist, you are correct.'

John ignores him and listens to his daughter chatter enthusiastically. The words "bouncy castle" and, somehow, "golf" filter out of it, and John chuckles.

Then he hears her say something that makes him double-take. 'Pardon? Say that once more, sweetheart.'

'Uncle Mycroft!' she repeats. Or at least, most of those letters. Enough to confirm.

John's jaw clenches. 'Did he tell you to call him that?'

She nods enthusiastically. 'He's fun!'

This jars John from his confused dismay, and he hears Sherlock snort, too. 'I suppose he can be, in his own way.'

'Don't lie to your daughter, John.'

John tries not to laugh, and nearly succeeds.

You're going to have a hard time topping this for her next birthday, he writes to Mycroft. He doesn't get a reply, but he supposes that's fair.

They get halfway through the relatively short walk home. Halfway. Before the heavens open up, changing from an aggressive mist to actual splotchy rain.

John swallows a curse, ducking under an awning and already anticipating Rosie wailing about prematurely losing her face art, about being cold and wet and out of doors. 

But when he looks at them, at Sherlock swinging his daughter down from where she'd been perched on his shoulders, he sees nothing but joy on her face.

Joy, and wet streaks of glittery violet paint. She's clinging to Sherlock's hands, and Sherlock looks -- Well, he looks really bloody happy, if John had to label it. But he hesitates in doing so, and resigns himself to just enjoying the moment.

'What,' he says once he's recovered his voice, 'Mycroft can't have a drone deliver us an umbrella?'

Sherlock chuckles, then sobers. 'He does adore her, you know.'

John looks at Sherlock, not quite hiding his surprise. 'And you're alright with that? With "Uncle Mycroft"?'

Sherlock's eyes flash with something, but John isn't quick enough to categorise it. 'A child should have a variety of influences in their life.'

'True, but--'

'And an expanded support structure they can rely on. I daresay Mycroft qualifies, don't you?'

John nods shortly, finding himself unable to form useful words.

Luckily, Sherlock does it for him. He sweeps Rosie back up into his arms and boops her nose, which makes John's eyes cross with cognitive dissonance but there it is all the same. 'Shall we continue walking and enjoying the rain?' the detective asks Rosie. 'And then have a nice bath and some tea? I'm sure your father will make up a fire, too.'

John swallows. 'Sure, yeah.'

Heart warm enough to hurt, he follows them out from under the cover and into the storm.

Time's too short, he reckons, to fuss about dreary weather.

[ <3 ]

[inspiration: Richard Shindell's 'The Weather'. Also consulted bubbleinc.co.uk, obviously.]

[wishful-seeker]

Hi! Really like you "Tips on how to avoid being unintentionally ableist" post but is it possible to make plain text version?

Am not sure what the color text says

(Plain text just means regular size + no color text + not cap lock)

Of course! Here ya go:

Tips on how to avoid being unintentionally ableist:

1. When a disabled person says they cannot do something, and you wish to offer solutions, do not make a solution that involves them powering through pain, or something thats not accessible to the disabled.

Example:

Disabled person: "washing dishes hurts too much and i cannot do it."

Abled person: "what if you did one dish at a time throughout the day?"

This statement is not respecting that this disabled person just said they "can't". Always respect that. No matter how simple the task would be for you.

Example:

Disabled person:" i think ill use plastic silverware so i don't make dishes."

Abled person: "plastic is bad for the environment!"

This statement shuts down the most accessible and disabled friendly option that this disabled person can actually do because of the abled persons personal beliefs. This is not helpful, and ableist.

Better yet, instead of offering solutions, ask them directly "is there anything you need that you do not have that would help you do this?" This allows the disabled person to think about what would work, and they will always have a better idea of what would work than you do.

To add on to this, when we say we have no more energy to solve a problem or do a task, or change our lifestyle, we mean it.

2. If you feel discomfort when a disabled person is talking about their health, good and bad, that is ableist. Your discomfort is coming from a place that deams disabled peoples very existence as a bad thing and you need to fix that.

Example:

Disabled person:" this week has been rough pain wise, ive been through a lot, felt like my body was on fire. Lucky i got new meds though and i think they're helping!"

Abled person: "can we talk about something else, this is a bummer."

Disabled people should be able to exist freely without worrying about your personal comfort. Do you really think its appropriate to tell someone in constant pain that their life is making you uncomfortable?

3. Do not treat disabled people as tragedies, do not romanticize their old life or put their current one down.

Example:

Disabled person: "yeah my life is pretty difficult sometimes, ive lost a lot but i still have happy moments."

Abled person: "it makes me so sad to see what disabled people go through :(. You used to love rock climbing and running, i would love to see you move around more again."

This statement is putting more value on the disabled persons abled past, and ignoring their life as a whole.

4. Do not avoid speaking to disabled people because it hurts to see your loved one disabled.

For example: my grandmother avoids conversations with me because it hurts her to see me in pain. While she has good intentions it leaves me being unable to be close to her. This is very isolating to the disabled.

5. Do not stop inviting your disabled friend/loved one out even if they are never well enough to attend. Unless we specifically ask you to stop asking if we can go out, good chances are we want to know you still care because again, disability is very isolating.

6. When a disabled person says certain things in their health have gotten better or worse, do not challenge this because you don't see a difference.

Example:

Disabled person: "yeah things are getting a little better"

Abled person sees disabled person using their wheelchair like usual: "i thought you said you were getting better?"

Better and worse are usually small changes only the disabled experience, its not like abled people healing from a broken arm. Better to a disabled person could mean they can stand for 10 more minutes.

7. Do not expect disabled people to ever be abled again, and again, do not put more value on an abled life.

Example:

Disabled person:"I have been using a wheelchair for 2 years."

Abled person: "oh you're young, im sure you'll be walking around in no time!"

This statement invalidates and ignores the disabled persons current life by hoping they get a more abled bodied life. Its fine to hope disabled people get better, but you don't get to decide what better looks like.

Hope this helps, stay punk.

Is this okay?

[spiciestpotatoes]

Excited for the new tummy doctor fic

Ask and you shall receive. I've been thinking of posting another part, but I hadn't had the motivation to do so until this ask.

You can check the first part of the series out here:

If you want to see more of these, feel free to send suggestions for patients who might stumble to Lily's door!

Tummy Clinic Chronicles

Patient #2

Things were still slow in Lily's clinic. While she hadn't had many patients, she was still grateful for the few that came by. It seems that more people are realizing that this is not an all-around clinic. One could be surprised how many people actually experienced tummy issues on the daily. It seemed that every patient she treated had a friend or two who also suffered from one stomach related thing or another.

As she was dusting her office, she heard what sounded like a frantic knock on her door. She quickly went to the door to see what it was and opened it to find a young girl in a hoodie and sweatpants standing outside, arms crossed firmly around her middle. As soon as the doors opened, the girl blurted. "Hi, uh, I am so sorry to interrupt, I was sent here by my friend. Anne Brown, she said to come here for any stomach issues. Is there any way you could take me in today? It doesn't have to be right now, I'm just in so much pain-". The girl seemed very flustered and nervous. Lily opened the door wider, smiling to the girl, and said calmly, "It's okay, I have no patients in right now. Come in, please."

Relief was written on the girl's face as she came into the office. She took a seat in one of the armchairs as Lily took her information. As they were talking, Lily noticed the girls tummy making all sorts of noises, the thought of feeling that storm under her hands warming something inside of her.

"Could you tell me more about how you're feeling?" Lily finally asked, finished with creating a record for Melissa, the young 20 year old sitting in front of her.

"My tummy is incredibly upset, it's bloated and really uncomfortable. It's like I can feel something moving around in there and it hurts terribly." From the sounds coming from the girl's belly, audible even from that far away and in spite of the hoodie she had on, Lily assumed this was something food related.

"Do you have these kinds of issues often?" Lily asked.

"No, only occasionally, although when it happens it's an absolute nightmare, painkillers rarely do anything."

"What have you eaten in the last 24 hours?"

"Oh uh, well, last night I went out with some friends for pizza and cheesy breadsticks. Since I woke up with my tummy already upset, I didn't want to have anything that would sit heavy, so I just had some cereal for breakfast.

Lactose intolerance. That's exactly what it sounded like based off of the food she had last consumed. As Lily pondered the possibility of this being nothing more than an upset tummy caused by a bunch of dairy, Melissa leaned forward further, her tummy letting out a loud rumble that seemed to shake her insides. Lily simply couldn't let her go without feeling the turmoil in the girl's belly.

"Alright Melissa, why don't we head into the examination room so I can take a quick look at your stomach and then we can discuss possible solutions?"

Melissa nodded and followed Lily into the examination room. As she laid on the table, Lily asked her to lift up her hoodie and as she did, Lily found that her belly was a lot more bloated than she anticipated. The band of her sweatpants was a sliver away from starting to cut into her tummy. Melissa grimaced as loud rumbles continued to erupt from her middle. "Okay Melissa, I'm just going to feel around your abdomen just to see what we're dealing with here and check for any abnormalities. " Lily explained as she was placing her hands onto Melissa's belly.

As if in response to her touch, Melissa's belly erupted with more noise than before, making Melissa shut her eyes as it was obviously causing her more pain than she was dealing with until then. It was absolutely wonderful, the sensation beneath Lily's hands was nothing short of blissful as she felt all the commotion deep inside. Each press of her fingers caused an immediate reaction beneath. The lower portion of her tummy seemed especially tender which only confirmed Lily's suspicions of lactose intolerance. "How does it feel when I press here?" Lily asked while rubbing circles over her lower tummy.

"Ahh, it's.. ugh... I can feel it cramp in response. It feels like I might need the bathroom soon..."

Even though she wanted to stand there and feel her tummy for another eternity, Lily didn't want rumours of her patient having an accident in her office to spread so she ended the examination. "Okay, I think you're most likely just lactose intolerant. From what you say that you've eaten last, which was a lot of dairy, I think that's your main issue. ", she couldn't help but comfortingly rub her tummy as it continued growling, using a bit of this time to still enjoy the chaos inside and simultaneously offer comfort to Melissa, "I recommend staying away from dairy for a while and seeing if the problems persist. If they do, contact me and we can set up an appointment to look at further causes. As for your pains right now, unfortunately there isn't much I can do for you. You should feel better once all of that food is out of your system. So just go home and try to rest."

Melissa looked grateful as she pulled her hoodie over her stomach, clutching it with her arms once again. "Thank you, doc. I was worried it might be something far worse." She smiled at Lily, and as she was headed out of her office, she stopped to ask,"Is there a bathroom near here?" embarrassment flushed her face. Lily only comfortingly smiled back. "Yes, down the hall to your right."

[akariarda]

Return of the enemy(Ninjago fan season between season4 and 5 with Sensei G.)

Episode 1-The return

Episode 2-Surprises

Our heroes encounter many surprises on their way. Not all of them are very pleasant.

"What do you think, is Wu okay?" Misako asked Garmadon as they walked along the docks.

"I hope so," Garmadon sighed.

"And are you okay?" Misako gently asked him. "All this with Chen.."

"I'll survive," Garmadon snapped at her. "Now we just need to get rid of him once and for all."

"If that's possible," Misako muttered to herself.

They walked in silence for a long time.

"I'm sorry we're not going anywhere after all," Garmadon sighed.

"Me too," Misako agreed. "Where did you want to go?"

"That's a surprise," Garmadon smiled at her.

"Oh come on," Misako encouraged him. "You know I hate surprises."

"I know you don't hate them, you're just afraid you won't react well to them."

"You know me well," Misako smiled back, though deep down she was still worried.

It was a good way for both of them to get their minds off the situation.

"And psst!" She put a finger to her lips and pointed towards the docks. "Someone is there."

"Who..." Garmadon asked but then immediately recognized the face and voice.

"Oh, isn't that Sensei Garmadon," the voice taunted. "And surely that's Misako, nice to meet you."

"Clouse!" Garmadon hissed and started to move forward as if to attack, but Misako grabbed his hand.

"You? How? I will.."

"I don't think now is the time to throw threats, Garmadon," Clouse continued in a mocking tone. "You're not in a position to do so."

"And I also think that fighting is not the best solution right now," Misako said, pulling Garmadon's hand again.

"But..." he started, then stopped when he looked around.

They were surrounded by Chen's soldiers, there were at least a dozen of them, no, more than a dozen, three dozen?

"At least they're not Anacondrai anymore," Misako offered poor consolation.

~~~With the ninja:~~~

"We need to come up with a plan," Zane said when the ninjas stopped in front of the noodle house with their vehicles.

"I agree," Cole replied. "We shouldn't underestimate Kai if we fall into a trap with him."

"But we can't just leave him," Lloyd complained.

"No one said we would abandon him."Jay patted Lloyd on the shoulder.

"I know he's your best friend, he's family to all of us, but that doesn't change the fact that we need a plan."Cole insisted

"But Chen said we have to all go," Lloyd lamented.

"Maybe I have a plan," Jay smiled.

~~~With the Kai and Skylor:~~~

"What do you want from us, father?!"

Skylor yelled as she and Kai were forcefully dragged through secret hallways by soldiers.

"And what did you mean by saying we are useful?"

"Stop!" Chen raised his hand as they halted in front of the dungeons.

"This is your new residence, fear not, there is also space for your friends when they enter my castle."

"They're not that dumb!" Kai objected. "They'll find a way to deal with you." "

They may not be dumb, but they are loyal," Chen sighed, feigning sympathy. "And that's just as good as being dumb."

"You still haven't answered me, father," Sklor interjected. "What do you want from us?"

"If you want to steal all the elemental powers again, I'm afraid it won't be so easy for you this time," Kai sneered.

"Don't worry, this time I have completely different plans," Chen looked at them, for the first time appearing serious.

"No matter what is it, you will not succeed!" Skylor shouted at him.

"We'll see about that," Chen motioned to his soldiers to take Kai and Skylor to the dungeons.

~~~With the ninja:~~~~

"No, no, and no!" Lloyd shouted. "That is out of the question."

"I agree with Lloyd, we can't put innocent people in danger,"

Cole said, pulling out his weapon. "We will fight."

"I don't like it either, but my sensors tell me we have no choice," Zane sighed.

"We won't send just anyone, but someone with the necessary skills."

"But it's still too risky," Lloyd groaned. "What if something goes wrong..."

"That's what Kai would do," Jay entered the noodle house. "So the majority wins."

"No..." Cole and Lloyd shouted at the same time, but they couldn't respond Jay from going into the Noodle House.

"Who wants to go on a ninja mission?!"

Soon, a considerable number of people gathered around them.

"Everyone, calm down," Lloyd shouted, and everyone fell silent.

"It will be very dangerous and risky. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Those who are sure and think they are capable, stand on my right side!" Jay shouted, and a few people stood on his right side, while the others dispersed.

"Hello, fellas!" Dareth stepped forward. "Going on another mission with the brown ninja?"

"Oh no," Cole groaned.

"People, you need to be aware of what's happening. We are fighting Chen."

Lloyd interrupted again. "He wants us all to come to the backyard of this building.Jay's plan is for you to pretend to be us until we find a way into Chen's tunnels."

"It will be very dangerous, can you handle it?" Cole added.

After a few mumbles, people dispersed, leaving only Dareth and one man in his thirties with a bandage on his forehead and black hair streaked with gray. He was tall and slender.

"So, the two of you go with Dareth... And sorry, who are you?" Lloyd asked.

"Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I am Sangfugol. I usually play the harp somewhere else, but I have a mission here."

"What kind of mission and where are you from?" Jay asked, confused.

"And why are you telling us this now?" Zane inquired.

"Because it concerns all of you," Sangfugol looked at Lloyd. "But enough about that, I just want to say that I am a friend."

"Alright then, I suppose we continue with the plan," Lloyd, who seemed uncomfortable, said.

"Which two will go with Dareth and Sangfugol?"

"rock, paper, clamp?"Cole suggested.

"It's not like we have any other choice," Lloyd sighed.

"No!" Jay exclaimed. "I wanted to go!"

"So, it's Cole, Dareth, Sangolfun, and me," Lloyd repeated. "Zane and Cole, you stay behind and follow us later."

"Affirmative," Zane confirmed.

"Now, who will play whom?" Jay asked, looking at Sangolfun and Dareth.

"None of them really resemble any of us..."

~~~With Misako and Garmadon:~~~

"How did you know we would be here?" Garmadon angrily asked Clouse, who was smiling in front of them.

"Everything in due time, Garmadon. It is best for you to come with us," Clouse replied.

"Never," Garmadon said.

"I believe we don't really have a choice," Misako said, pointing to more soldiers disembarking from the ship.

"Oh yes, how could I forget to mention that?" Clouse gloated. "If you cause any trouble, she gets hurt, and vice versa. Now let my soldiers escort you to our ship."

"You'll get yours, you..." Garmadon pushed away a soldier who approached him. "I'd rather die than go into your captivity."

"Such a shame," Clouse sighed. "But like I said before, you won't die. Throw her into the sea."

"No!" Garmadon shouted, and the soldiers stopped trying to pull Misako away.

"Leave her alone, coward. This is between us."

"I'm afraid this is much more than just between us, Garmadon,"

Clouse began walking towards the ship, and Garmadon and Misako were finally allowed to be taken with them.

"Furthermore, I'm afraid your wife plays a significant role in all of this."

"Which one?" Misako asked.

"I'm afraid I can't speak of it just yet," Clouse pretended to sigh. "But I am certain that my master won't spare any words when I deliver you to him."

They let themselves be tied to a pole. Garmadon could no longer feel anger, all that was left was exhaustion.

He felt Misako testing how tightly their hands were tied on the other side.

At least she didn't give up.At least they were together, even though they couldn't see each other, he could at least feel her hand and hear her breathing.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it before letting go again. More for his own comfort than hers.

She didn't know what kind of person Chen was.

"So, we're going to Chen," Misako said. "Great."

"You'll like it even less when you get there," Clouse gloated. "Especially your husband."

"You still haven't told us how you knew where to find us," Garmadon said indifferently. "And where is my brother?"

From his expression, they could conclude that Clouse failed to capture Wu. He didn't know he would be there. He only knew about them.

"Wu and the ninjas will come after you again," Misako told him just as indifferently.

"Not if your son and his friends stumble into a trap," Clouse replied.

"They'll figure it out," Garmadon responded.

"We'll see about that," Clouse's mood clearly improved. "And what about your samurai, isn't her name Mya?"

"Nya, you idiot," Garmadon told him.

"Oh, right, Nya, of course. Watch this now."

Misako and Garmadon gasped when they saw the image that appeared on the screen.

"No, I need..." Nya was speaking on the screen while talking to someone.

"How?" Misako asked in disbelief.

"I think I know," Garmadon said, recalling the empty box he received that morning.

"Anyway," Clouse interrupted the recording. "Soon our army will capture your precious little monastery and capture the samurai."

With those words, he left the room where Garmadon and Misako were standing.

"Quick!" Misako said when everyone left. "We won't be alone for long."

"You don't think we can escape, do you?" Garmadon asked in disbelief.

"No," Misako admitted. "But I think we can try to send a message to Nya to flee."

"How?"

"If we can hear her..."

"You mean she might somehow be able to hear us," Garmadon slowly began to understand.

"There must be a button..." Misako looked towards the panel.

"Maybe the one with something drawn on it?" Garmadon suggested.

"I think so, but how do I get to it?" Misako tried to free herself but without success.

"We need to throw something at it," she mumbled.

"Wait here," Garmadon said as he grabbed a nearby box with his feet.

"It's not like I'm going anywhere" Misako replied.

With a few swings, he managed to launch the box and hit the right button.

"You did it!" Misako exclaimed.

"Shh, Misako, be quiet," Garmadon said, unable to hide his smile.

"Nya, if you can hear us," Misako said, "run away from the monastery. Clouse has captured us, he's listening you."

"Go to Mystake's tea shop," Garmadon added.

"She..." he began, but stopped when he noticed someone approaching.

"What's going on here?" Clouse angrily asked, fortunately not appearing to know anything,but even they didn't know if it worked.

~~~With the Nya:~~~

"Where can I find them?" Nya talked to herself while trying to figure out a way to contact the other elemental masters.

She dialed a number, but before she could start speaking, someone interrupted her.

"This doesn't make sense." Angrily, she hung up the phone, but then heard some whispering.

"Misako?"

"....hear us," Misako said, "run away from the monastery. Clouse has captured us, he's listening to you."

"Go to Mystake's tea shop," Garmadon's voice said. "She..." he began, but stopped.

"What's going on here?" A voice. She assumed it was Clouse's.

She bent down a few times, trying to locate where the voice was coming from.

"There you are," she said and caught a mechanical spider.

"Now you're mine!" she said and turned it off. She didn't want to completely shut it down in case she might need it later.

After some hesitation, she turned the spider back on.

"Obviously, the best solution now is to go get the other ninjas," she said and turned off the spider again.

"Quickly," she told herself because she didn't know how long she would be alone.

She picked up some scrolls she had found earlier and considered them relevant to the situation.

She put on her samurai X suit and flew towards Mystake's tea shop.

"I'm here," she said and stepped inside uncertainly.

"Hello!" she shouted at the entrance. "I am Nya, and I..."

"Welcome, Nya, master of water," an older voice interrupted her. Mystake turned towards her.

"Master of what?"

"I was expecting..."

Mystake started but had to stop when she saw Nya faint.

[mynotsohealthyobsession]

Disembodied parte 5/8

Warning: Mention of death // Angst // Fluff

Pairings: Adrian Raines X MC // Nik Ryder X MC

Words: 1.313

As always, tags in the reblog!

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

As always, tags in the reblog!

"I've been searching everywhere about this and let me tell you, it wasn't easy. It is a really rare condition." Ivy pulled a huge antique black book up, setting it on the table, opening a marked page. "Apparently, when Alex was attacked and Amy turned, their full powers were activated."

"And that put us in this freaky Friday situation?" Amy asked.

"Seems like it. Your energies were so strong that, when they were liberated into the world, somehow collided and mixed up resulting in the body exchange."

"Yeah yeah, all this is very interesting Ivy but we need a solution."

"Nik! Don't be an asshole!" He blinked. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get used to Alex's words coming from Amy's body.

"Well, I've only found one possible solution." Ivy seemed a bit uncomfortable, keeping her red eyes glued to the page in front of her. "And I'm not even sure if it's going to work."

"Spill it, Ivy."

"They have to die again at the same time."

"Absolutely not!" Adrian stood, hitting the table with his palms, livid. "Amy's body is a vampire, if she dies, her body will turn into ash. There's no return from that."

"I agree with the bloodsucker." Nik added. "It is too risky." 

"Call me that again and you'll see how much of a bloodsucker I can be." Amy noticed the irritated tone in Adrian's voice. 

"I would like to see you try it." Nik responded, smugly.

"Is that so?" Adrian's eyes turned crimson as his fangs appeared above his bottom lip. 

"Adrian!" Amy called him, softly holding his hand. Instead of relaxing, like he always does with her touch, he tensed up for a moment. After all, it wasn't really her skin that was brushing his. 

"I need a moment." He said as he walked out of the conference room door. "If you’ll excuse me." And he disappeared from their sight. Amy sadly stood too, following him.

"I'm going to go talk to him." 

"Take your time." Alex said and Amy nodded.

"Adrian." She found him in the lobby, pacing around, anger and frustration twisting his handsome features. "Just ignore him."

"It's not him that troubles me, Amy." He took off his blazer, throwing it somewhere.

"No?"

"Of course not!" He loosened his tie just a bit, looking annoyed and clearly stressed. "It's that damn idea! The risk that entails it is too great!"

"I'm going to do it." Adrian froze and Amy sat on one of the couches, anxiously biting her bottom lip. 

"Amy…"

"If Alex agrees, I want to try it." Unconsciously, she looked down at her hands, noticing, once more, that they weren't her own. Instead, she fixed her stare on Adrian's back.  

"It's a terrible idea, Amy. You could die."

"I know. But keeping this up isn't an option."

"It is an option. And an excellent alternative if you avoid death." Amy stood and walked in front of him. 

"Look at me." She cupped both sides of his face, forcing his gaze at her. "This isn't me, Adrian and you know it. I feel shallow and incomplete. I can't even look at my reflection." She sadly smiled at him. "Since I came back, you haven't been able to kiss me, not once."

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just…" He hesitated.

"It feels wrong, I know. I’m not blaming you." Amy avoided his eyes, self-consciously. "But I miss it. I miss being a bloodkeeper, being with you, my job, my own face, my body." She blinked fast. "I miss the way you used to look at me. So much it hurts." Adrian pulled her into a comforting hug. "I want to experience being a vampire with you and our friends." She sniffed against his shoulder. "I miss me and my life. That's what makes the risk worth it."

"Okay." Adrian closed his eyes, threading his finger through that hair that felt so different from hers. "If that's your decision, then it's okay. I'll be there for you."

"Thank you." She whispers, her voice cracking.

***

"You didn't call me." 

"What?" Alex turned to watch Nik's serious profile. 

"When you woke up here, you didn't call me." His tone was indifferent but something similar to hurt resounded behind his words. 

"I wasn't sure you would believe me. And…" She noticed that Ivy wasn't on the screen, only the open book was on camera, probably to give them privacy and would return in a moment. "Everything that happened before Thomas' attack was too fresh. Still is."

"Alex, I–" 

"No. I said not today." She interrupted him. "You already said what you want. In-depth at that." Alex's voice hardened, getting upset. "I can't nor want to handle that talk right now." 

"Okay." Nik crossed his arms over his chest. He stood, walking over to the window that overlooked the lobby, watching Alex hugging Raines. He shook his head. Amy was hugging the bloodsucker, not Alex. Either way, the jealousy he felt was way too strong for his liking. "But at some point, we will need to talk about it." She let out an ironic little chuckle. 

"You are not going to decide that." Alex stood too, peeking through the same window. She took a second to observe the scene downstairs. Even though it was strange, to say the least, seeing herself having that intimacy with Adrian, she barely knew the guy, but she was happy for them. Adrian and the others had been very kind to her the past few weeks. "Did you notice it? That something was different?" 

"Obviously. But I just thought you were pissed off at me." 

She smirked despite herself. "I am pissed off at you." Alex watched how Amy and Adrian separated from each other. How his hand cupped her cheek and she covered it with hers, kissing his palm. How close they seemed. And how much she wanted to feel that way. Her gesture was more serious as her mind remembered the night of Mardi Gras. "You really hurt me."

"I know. I–" Before Nik could say anything else, the door opened and Adrian and Amy walked through it. 

"My apologies, are we interrupting something?"

"Nothing that can't wait." Alex went closer to the screen. "Ivy, are you there?"

"Coming!" One second later, she sat in front of the pc. 

"Are you certain that that's the only possible solution?" Adrian questioned her, standing by Amy.

"As far as I know." 

"But it's impossible." Nik crossed his arm, leaning against the window behind him. "They can't actually die." 

"But if we make it seem like they did?" Ivy said, going through another book.

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, there's a drug that will stop their vital signs, simulating that they are dead. Maybe that's enough to trigger the change." She read a page while talking. "It is still risky because it can actually kill them but a bit safer than wounding them." 

Amy looked at Alex. "I'm up to try it if you are." 

"Me too. Where can we find this drug, Ivy?" 

"It's more like a potion. You need to make it."

"Can you prepare it in your lab?" Amy questioned Adrian and he nodded.

"Yes, I rebuilt them." Ivy's curiosity perked up, looking excited at him.

"You have a lab? Like a vampire lab? You have to let me see it! I–" Adrian smiled at her enthusiasm before Nik interrupted her.

"Ivy. The potion." 

"Yeah, right." She clicked on the pc. "I'm sending you the receipt now." Nik opened it on the screen.

"Mh." Adrian read the recipe attentively. "It's complex, no doubt, but possible. I can have it done probably in one or two days." "So, it's decided," Amy said with the same determination that Adrian had seen before she stabbed Gaius. "As soon as Adrian finishes the potion, we will test the theory."

✨️

[binary-not-found]

Episode 15 season 2 😍😍

And the crowd goes wild!!! 🥳😭😍🥰 Lucy is finally back and I've never been happier.

I'm a person who lives for spoilers, so when they released this scene a few hours before the episode came out I was the happiest human on the entire continent and learned every single detail before I even watched the episode 🤭

I didn't gif it, and that's my bad, but let's talk about the first thing Kate says when she sees Lucy, before putting down the pan, before hugging her, the response to Lucy's "Hii!" is "You're home" not "you're back" not "you're finally here" not even a "Lucy!" in surprise seeing her there earlier than expected, the first thing Kate thinks when she sees her is that Lucy is back with her, at home 🥺

"You're perfect!"

"It only took three requests, two informal one formal, eight emails and one very long phone call."

Lucy could have waited 24 more hours to go back to Hawai'i, she could have let things happen as planned, but her smitten ass couldn't take being away from Kate anymore and she needed to get to her as soon as possible, and she did everything to be with her at least one day sooner. Do you realize how in love she is? Do you realize how much she missed her during those four months? Do you realize why it's important for us to know this? She was away for four months, one more day wasn't going to hurt her, but she didn't want to wait any longer, that's the kind of thing you do for love.

"It's that turning you on right now?" "Just a little bit"

Add it to the list of things that turn Kate on, Lucy fighting multiple opponents, and Lucy cutting as much red tape as she can to get to Kate one day early 🤭

The intimacy of the moment and how beautiful it is to see them loving each other that hard ❤

Just look at the way Lucy looks at Kate when she is laughing, her eyes follow her and she doesn't take them off her face for a moment, they are so in love 😭

The fear in her eyes trying to figure out what the hell they were going to do with the party and the surprise, I know Kate knew that Jesse and Kai are too dumb to be able to keep the secret around Lucy and she was right, because in the end they made her feel sad :(

Two things: One: Kate serving dinner and Lucy setting the table is something I didn't know I needed but I'm happy to know. Two: Kai texting Kate with updates on what Lucy is doing using gifs! Those two are best friends and no one can make me change my mind

"I don't get it" "I think it's because you're small but powerful."}

One brain cell share these two 😅

My poor Kate trying her best to make excuses about why the team doesn't want to hang out with Lucy, knowing that she feels hurt and left behind because they were being weird to her all day long

"Well, we're throwing you a surprise party!"

And she let it out, listen and pay attention, Kate has proven more than once that the only thing she is always looking for is to protect Lucy, make sure she is ok, feels calm and is happy. The fact that Jesse and Kai can't behave like people when trying to keep a secret made Lucy feel bad, it made her feel ignored and even hurt when she felt that her team didn't care about her return, Kate noticed this and the only solution she found was to tell the truth, what she wanted is for Lucy to know that they were not indifferent to her return, she did it out of love, to take care of her.

And boy if they are the best, but to keep a secret they all suck 😂

"You used to protect secrets for a living and you let one slip because you couldn't stand to see me upset."

Exactly what I tell you, she just didn't want her love to be sad

Nothing to say, just 😍🥺

The way Kate's look changes and softens when her smile appears after what Lucy says 🥺.

1/2 Episode 15

[erikiara80]

How do you think Mike is gonna take the news of Will's coma? What do you think it'll be his reaction when it happens, during those two years and when Will wakes up?

Ciao, anon. I'm working on my theory on S5, and Mike's arc and reaction to Will's coma is a big part of it. First of all, I think they'll resolve the whole triangle thing pretty soon. Mike and El will probably break up, and stay friends, in ep 1 or 2. Or maybe I'm wrong and it happens during the time skip (would be easier if it happens before, but we'll see!) Anyway, with the chaos in Hawkins, I doubt there'll be time for Mike and Will to really talk. Or for Mike to fully realise what he feels. Maybe he'll try, but they'll get interrupted by the most shocking event. The coma.

If Will really falls into a coma after closing the gates, Mike's first reaction will be total shock. He'll be so scared for Will, and feel lost. Even if El can see Will in the void and realises that he's reliving his memories like she did in Nevada, and tells Mike that he is strong and will wake up. It's just hard for Mike not being able to help him.

And since they couldn't film S4 and S5 back to back, they need a long time skip, so yes, the coma will probably last years. And that will deeply affect everybody. So, a solution could be a bridge episode to actually show those years. I'd say Will collapsing as a cliffhanger at the end of ep 2, and ep 3 as a bridge episode. I really hope they do that! If I'm right, we may see scenes of Mike visiting Will, talking to him, and asking him to wake up because they all miss him so much. HE misses him so much, and life is not the same without him. And maybe... he will read him a letter. Or letterS. Maybe he writes them while Will is in his coma, or they are the letters he wrote between S3 and S4 but was too insecure to send, because he didn't even know if Will cared about him anymore. Doing that, will help Mike to finally admit what he feels for his best friend.

In those years, I think we'll also see him and El becoming good friends, Byler and Lumax parallels, and Mike and Lucas supporting each other. And we'll see Mike grow, and realise that he is indeed a smart leader. The heart of the party. They're really gonna need a good leader, because closing the gates is just a way to buy time. Vecna is still alive. Spores are gonna be everywhere, possibly infecting people. Plus, Colonel Sullivan still wants El dead, and a lot of people think that Eddie and his friends are evil. With journalists talking about curses, plus the satanic panic, I think we could even see the rise of a cult in S5, that sees our heroes as the villains (this is so Stephen King). So, while Will sleeps and relives the scariest days of his life in UD Hawkins, Mike and the others will have to deal with just as a scary Hawkins in our world.

This is one more reason the van scene is so important for Mike's development . Imo, they made Will say those things also because he won't be around for a long time, and without him, Mike will think about his words, and realise that he can be what Will told him he is.

There's a little problem tho. Vecna. I 100% believe that Mike gets vecna'd in S5. Vecna knows all too well he is important to Will (and El and Nancy, too). And that he ruined his plans too many times. Killing Mike would break Will and make it easier to reclaim him. I even read a theory that Vecna waited until Mike left Hawkins in S4 to start killing the kids, but I'm not sure about that. The explanation could be that he needed to plan every move, and how to use El's power to make it impossible for her to close the gates again (he doesn't think Will can help, since his powers are blocked). And that takes time.

But I don't know when he's going to target Mike. Maybe at the beginning of the season? So that's how they realise Will is Vecna's target, that he has powers etc? Or Vecna is still too weak, so he doesn't attack Mike, or Will in his coma, and he targets them when Will wakes up, so that's when Mike realises what he feels for him? Hm. I don't know. But one thing I'm sure of is that S5 will be Mike's best season. I can't wait!

[imsailorpluto]

True Beauty - spoilers; ep 1, 2

tw: bullying, violence, suixxxcide

Our main character is Lim Ju-kyung, a girl who's been bullied for her looks ever since she was a child. Everyone's belittling her, starting with her family, to school peers, she just can't catch a break. She's trying to make her life easier by going with the flow, but nothing seems to work.

Oh girl, looks are not the single most important thing, it's all about the attitude. Her teen life would have been so much better if she at least had some support from her own family. This show has already got me screaming "protect this child at all cost" (⁠╯⁠ರ⁠ ⁠~⁠ ⁠ರ⁠)⁠╯⁠︵⁠ ⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

I'd put a large warning sign, for the first episode especially. It's a lot. I'm a grown up, and it triggered me so badly, honestly gave me so much anxiety. There are scenes of severe bullying: both harsh language and physical violence, which leads Ju-kyung to the point of wanting to end her own life by jumping off a building. Thankfully she gives up the idea in the last moment. Second episode also has a few scenes of bullying, so consider yourself warned. I'm pretty sure the whole series will be addressing this problem so it might not be for everyone, especially if you've been through something similar yourself.

If something like this ever crosses your mind, just please reach out to adult you can talk to, tell them about your problems and I promise they will help. Every reasonable adult will surely help. Just don't make the worst possible option. There is always a way out, a solution

Thankfully, everything worked out in her favour and, well, she didn't go through with it. I'm glad that dramas address bullying so seriously. Even though I am sure it brought back bad memories to lots of viewers, myself included, rasing awareness of tragedies which bullying causes is extremely important. If we ignore it, it won't magically disappear. It needs to be addressed and it needs to be prevented for real. People need to stop acting like the cave men.

Well, after that it all kind of went uphill, the drama dynamics changes, and it starts turning into a comedy. Thankfully, due to some other unfortunate events, our main ugly duckling changes her life completely. Her family is forced to move back to their old house, which is far far away from her bullies, and so she finally gets a transfer to another school. Oh and, she masters the art of make-up so well, that she becomes unrecognisable. To the point of becoming the beauty queen of her new school.

Even though my inner skin-care obsession is making me scream at the screen for her not going to a good dermatologist, because it's just her skin breaking out and that can easily be fixed and she could've live a stress-free life (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)

Anyways, seems like she made two really good friends. But bullies from the previous school left some serious scars on her. If you watched this, then the following screenshot will be more than familiar.

I almost cried at this. It literally hurts to watch this scene. Her friends are asking about food and her initial response is to rush and get them what they want. They're showing what it looks like when you've been victimised for so long by others, your responses become so f*cked up honestly. And there's so much repair you have to do afterwards. Make-up isn't enough.

Girl on the left is such a girlboss. She has her friends' back. I mean, she literally chased a perv and handed him over to the police. To help our girl. Loyalty level so high nobody can catch up... (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)

Hopefully she'll stay like that till the end. The one on the right is such a cinnamon roll. I can't imagine her doing anything bad to anyone. Hopefully they'll stick together and stay friends.

The main girlie is also actually a girlboss, she just needs to be reminded of it. Plus, she doesn't know it yet but being yourself is always the best option, no matter what. It's too bad they don't teach us that at schools.

I mean, come on, heavy metal and horrors? We'd sooo be besties in high school. Personality over looks, always!

Of course this can't go right without the main male lead, Lee Su-ho. He's the guy on that second screenshot, taken from a scene when he "rescues" our main girl. She can't see him though as her glasses got knocked off her face, but he memorises her bare face well. It becomes obvious he lost a friend to sui*ide. And as we find out later on, he is extremely smart, does martial arts and lives separately from his dad. That makes no sense at first but then we also find out his dad is the world's greatest a**hole. So, yeah, there's a lot of baggage from his side as well.

Well, soon enough things start to get complicated, as expected, Su-ho ends up being Ju-kyung's new classmate who enjoys long walks to her favourite comic store. So, now she has to do all these silly things just so he doesn't find out her true identity. You know, it happens also that she goes with no make up to the comic store but with full face to school and the poor guy has zero clue that the new girl at school and the comic girl(the girl he saved) are the same person.

I wonder how long will hiding the truth work out. Judging by our girlie's character, not too long (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠) but it's all right.

I almost forgot about the second male lead, Han Seo-jun. He's the "bad boy", but I bet he's actually the main cinnamon roll of this series. It's just ... a kdrama thing, let's say.

Of course his motorcycle helmet is now owned by our main girl, don't even ask how, just go watch this precious kdrama.

Till next time, Sailor Pluto

♡

P.s. I know many watched True Beauty because Eunwoo is starring, I didn't even know he's such a big deal in Korea, ooops, i hope you don't get mad at me for saying that. In my defence I really don't know much about Korean scene, I know maybe 5 k-pop songs from groups that probably no longer exist, and I watch kdramas because I find them more funny and relaxing than what's usually available. So. That is it. Hope you enjoyed these scribbles. If you made it till here - thank you so much, feel free to leave me a message with your suggestions and drama recommendations. xo

[aaaaiuio]

I posted 62 times in 2022

That's 62 more posts than 2021!

59 posts created (95%)

3 posts reblogged (5%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@scaplays

@heartfulselkie

@sadlampshde

I tagged 58 of my posts in 2022

Only 6% of my posts had no tags

#writing - 8 posts

#school - 7 posts

#games - 6 posts

#story - 5 posts

#oc - 5 posts

#gaming - 4 posts

#school of dragons - 4 posts

#emotinal - 3 posts

#my thoughts - 3 posts

#friend - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 27 characters

#animal crosing new horizons

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

My life in Estonia as a Ukrainian

So I am from Ukraine. And when war started I moved to Estonia because my father already lived here. And I never before in my life learned Estonian language. And I am in the school where everyone is Estonian and speaks Estonian. It would be dumb to think that I would fit in easily. And it was a month after the school started (if didn't count the 3 spring month learning Estonian) And I am not fitting in I don't know most of the words and it's hard to do my homework it's hard to communicate I still miss Ukraine, my dad often talks how everything there was broken and unfixable even if someone tries I can't handle all that pressure. And there was solutions to problems first it would be better if we moved to another country like Poland. Poland supports Ukraine and the Poland's language is very similar to Ukrainian language. Or we could go to any of the English speaking countries me and my brother learned English in school a lot so we would be able to understand something and ask for help if we need it. I personally think I would be able to understand at least half of the words teacher would say. But if we should go to Estonian I at least think I should be in Russian speaking school but my dad was heavily against this because he doesn't want me and my brother go in this school because it's Russian and I wouldn't be able to learn estonian. But I think in Russian speaking school I would actually be able to learn something and about the estonian I think I should take estonian classes or something. But already sending me to estonian school is like someone pushing me of the boat in deep, cold water and expecting me to swim when I don't know a thing about swimming.

2 notes - Posted October 1, 2022

#4

New idea

For a while I was telling stories to my younger sister (2 years old) about her being a princess. But when I was telling them I was always unprepaired. I was always making up the story as I tell it. As a result of it my stories was far from great and was far from the things I can do when I prepared. So I decided to just write a few stories and maybe later make a comic out of it. I will write you things that I already know about my story.

Setting

The story will be in middle ages but also some modern elements. Me and my family will be a royal family.

Character

My sister - main character, princess

Me - occasionally featuring in the story but not main character. also princess

My brother - occasionally featuring in the story but not main character, prince

Mom - featuring in the stories more occasionaly then me and my brother, queen

Dad - his apperances will be more rare because work, king

My aunt - featuring rarely, queen of the another kingdom

The plot

This story will not have a plot for most part. Every episode of the story will be not affected by previous events because I think it will be hard for my sister to keep track of all of them. And also the story will not explore more darker themes I will keep it as light hearted as possible.

So as I will be working on this more I will update you.

2 notes - Posted October 26, 2022

#3

World building questions

I want to make a story that follows lives of two characters Mark and Mint they are 14. And they live in world where everyone have wings and superpowers. Maybe I will tell about it more some other time. But now I just want to have fun asking myself question about this world. Like: Do they have a wider doors because of their wings? Do every artist in their world draw wings? Do corporation in their world in their artstyle include wings? Do injures with wings common? Do people in this world got sick in different way then in ours? Do when they got sick it affects their superpowers or ability to fly? Do they have on top of tall buildings special landing spaces? Do they even have planes? Do they have unique animals? What their legends and myths look like? What aditional subjects they learn in schools? Do they often just enter their home using windows? Do in their daycares and schools they have nets on windows to prevent kids from escaping? At what age do they learn to fly and control superpowers? And many more. It`s a fun chalenge trying to answer all of these questions.

3 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

#2

1000 sideblogs

Sometimes I just wish to create one thousand sideblogs. Why? Because I have so many ideas what to do and I wish I would be able to separate them and if anyone comes across my blog they will maybe be confused and also I love when stuff is nicely organized. But I am not going to do it anytime soon. I barely meneging keeping one blog active. Often having to stay up late so I can finish the post. Maybe I will soon create one or two sideblogs. But it will be only when I can normally write on my main. And for a few weeks I will test myself with writing two new posts a day instead of one. But now it`s time to discuss what sideblogs I want to create:

Zak storm sideblog I just love this show and I want it to have the bigger fanbase as it is very underated. I want to help achive this by actively rebloging other Zak Storm related posts and also creating my own content about this show.

2. My OC and writing sideblog

I like to write and I like my OCs but I think I might need another blog to keep the stories nicely put togeder. And as I post this type of content not very often I want it to shine on it`s own and not be buried under my other posts.

3. Gaming sideblog

I love playing videogames and I want to do more content related to it. I will post Sky: Children of light content also School of Dragons and Minecraft and Roblox also other videogames

And its all for now I have other ideas for sideblogs but because Im not entierly sure about them I won`t write them in this post

4 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

My School of dragons oc

Usual outfit

Haloween outfit

See the full post

4 notes - Posted October 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[lastoneout]

“He just joined up with like Starfleet Black Ops, that’s still technically the good guys, right???”

I don’t watch Star Trek media save for lower decks, but aren’t black ops SPECIFICALLY meant for shady stuff (if not utter fucking atrocities) that can’t be connected to the military/navy/etc. for fear of sullying their “respectable” reputation? That’s pretty evil (maybe I’m just paying too much attention to the evil laugh).

Also lower decks has been sending the not so subtle message of “twust the systewm uwu”, and consistently portraying star fleet (space navy? Idk) as the “good guys” which just seems like bullshit to me, but then again this is just my two cents as a non-trekkie.

Nah that's fair, I haven't really seen a whole lot of Trek that portrays Section 31 so I'm not entirely sure exactly how they operate, it's entirely possible Clone Boimler is gonna be getting up to some Morally Grey shit, it's just that when someone says "oh he's evil" my first thought was "he's a spy or traitor or not even actually a transporter clone" not that he just joined a different, less squeaky clean branch of Starfleet.

Especially since like, his story still doesn't add up?? There's no way Boimler of all people, clone or otherwise, could have made it out of that situation so quickly or like...at all? He was trapped under rubble and there were Packleds 2 seconds away from stabbing him to death plus the exit was blocked?? Lower Decks had set up the expectation that even the little details are important in the previous season, so having such an obvious plot hole just led me to believe it was on purpose and Clone Boimler was going to turn out to be evil, especially with all the "what's going on with the Packleds really is someone helping them behind the scenes" plot line set up. It's genuinely disappointing for them to just be like "yeah nah don't think about it to hard he's not evil/fake/a spy" when anyone with a brain can see that his story doesn't add up.

And the rest of season 2 kinda gave me the feeling that the writers were like, suffering under their own format's restrictions? They seemed to WANT to tell deep, intriguing stories with drama and plot twists and character conflicts that lasted more than one episode but they couldn't because they were a comedy cartoon that only gets ten twenty minute episodes per season. And sadly in this season it kinda feels like their solution has just been to more or less give up.

(And yeah in season 1 they really had set up the idea that this show was going to be about, in part, how Starfleet ISNT perfect and how they do fuck up a lot and that seemed to be an integral part of Mariner's character, like what it was like for someone who was disillusioned with Starfleet due to something in her past, but that also hasn't really gone anywhere which blegh. I liked the concept of a character like Mariner who takes issue with Starfleet fundamentally but still sticks with it, but they gave that up in favor of her just needing to rely on her friends more, which is development, but not really as interesting as what they initially teased.)

But that's just my take, yeah Section 31 is still shady so Clone Boimler def is more morally grey than Original Boimler, but the show hasn't done enough to make Starfleet seem morally grey for me to believe he's really Evil(tm). And hey overall the episodes are still enjoyable(except for the Peanut Hamper one god I hated that episode so fucking much) and so if this is the status quo I can live with that. It's just all turning Lower Decks into a show akin to Miraculous Ladybug, where I'm more in it for what it could be, not what it currently is, you know?

I just wish Clone Boimler was actually a spy or something. That would have been cool.

Edit: also not a fan of how this season it making it seem like the solution to Mariner's likely very legitimate, fundamental issues with the way Starfleet operates is that she just needs to just blindly trust authority more. Like...ehg feels kinda weird :/

[coconutcordiale]

steady pt one (all my crimes are safe, beneath my heart)

pt one | pt two | pt three | masterlist | prequel

pairing- rooster x female bartender!reader (no y/n)

synopsis-

“Bradley Bradshaw,” you repeat slowly, staring down at your eggs like they’d tell you if he was messing with you.

He nods, cheeks a little rosy. From the hangover or from the way you just said his name like it hurt coming out of your mouth, you're not sure.

“Well, I can see why you go by Rooster,” you add drily.

warnings- feels like everything I write should be 18+ no smut but there will be in future chaps. brief allusion to past infidelity (no actual cheating!) angst, heartbreak & healing ❤️‍🩹, drinking (to cope- don't do this guys), slow burn, friends to lovers, guys I wrote a happy ending I swear it’s in the last chapter. for my lovelies that only follow me for filth that’s also in the last chapter 😂

length- 4.6k

an- this is a sequel to tailspin, but definitely can be read separate! Just know the reader has a past with hangman. one thousand apologies to my lovelies that wanted ms bartender to end up with hangman in tailspin, that unfortunately is not the story i had in me this time around :(

chapter title credit to only for a moment by lola marsh

d a y 1

Due to unfortunate circumstances, you’re awake.

To add to that misfortune, you’re decidedly not home in Coronado, and you’ve just dreamt about Jake Seresin for the last eight hours.

Your clothes are sticking to your skin because, ew, Florida, and now you have to endure the agonizing realization that this is still your life.

You don’t get to wake up in a better world where you met Jake Seresin when he was younger, before he settled down with someone else, before he wrote a story with someone that wasn’t you.

You don’t get to wake up in a moment where he didn’t take every part of your soul bared to him and crush it under his boot without a second thought.

When you wake up, and this is still your life, you figure you should just go back to sleep.

So, you do.

It’s not a permanent solution, but right now it’s the only one you have.

d a y 2 2

Beth is looking up at the ceiling of your new apartment, where the walls are too white, the smell too musty, with a bewildered look on her face.

You wonder, idly, if the smell played a part in your apprehension while signing your lease. You remember your chest being tight in the leasing office, heart racing like you drank too much caffeine (probably did—somehow you still haven’t learned that energy drinks are useless when what you’re really tired of is your life), as you considered having to face this, face yourself, alone.

You signed anyways because even though Beth is quite possibly the best friend you’ve ever had, sleeping on her couch was cutting into your sobbing in the middle of the living room time. Sometimes when you’re eating cereal and you suddenly remember it’s Jake’s favorite kind, or when you accidentally catch a glimpse of a dress you wore to the beach with him that one time, you just need to lay down on the floor and sob without any sympathetic glances coming anywhere near your vicinity.

You signed because your default is being alone and even though that seems terrifying at the moment, having someone else see you, really see you, seems worse. It’s a fair assessment, considering the last person that genuinely knew you dumped ice water straight into the cavity where your heart used to be.

Plus, in your own space, the clothes with memories mostly stay buried in the back of the closet, and Jake’s favorite cereal never gets past the front door.

“What is that?” Beth is still staring, trying to figure out where the source of the noise seems to be coming from.

You manage to stop thinking about Jake long enough to roll your eyes. “My upstairs neighbors are always singing to each other, laughing, just being as romantic as possible, as loud as possible. It’s no wonder this apartment was empty—they’re nauseating.”

You’d definitely like to meet the person who thought it was a good idea to put hardwood on every floor.

Beth sends a pitying look your way which you pointedly ignore in favor of shoving your new plates into the cabinet closest to you.

Once, in a fit of heartbroken rage, you’d gone upstairs to give them a piece of your mind for being so obnoxious. Do they not realize that other people live here too?

The door was open, grocery bags forgotten on the floor, and they were swaying in the middle of the living room to the radio that must’ve been left on.

Part of you wanted to throw up, people actually do shit like this in real life? But the rest of you took one look at the mustached man’s blissfully closed eyes and knew you couldn’t begrudge them for how in love they were. It’s not their fault, after all, that you have horrible taste in men.

Beth leaves you to wallow in silence shortly after, heading to work. This is your first night off in a while, you’ve been throwing yourself into covering every available shift at the bar just for something to do.

It also has the lovely side effect of getting you out of the house when Mustache gets home and starts his musical performances. You’re usually gone well before his other half walks through the door to give his one-man band an audience, giggling at his theatrics.

Except for tonight. The only person you know in this city, probably in this state, is at the bar with strict instructions for you to not come within a two-block radius. You have no idea what to do with yourself, too shattered to consider going out anywhere alone.

So, you drink.

It’s not a good solution, but right now it’s the only one you have.

+

Beth finds you on the floor of your bathroom the next morning. The whirr of your air conditioner is far too loud, but the cold tile feels nice on your skin, so there’s that at least.

“I think I made it all up in my head. Made it more than it was.” You’re trying to sound cold, logical, even as the words cut you to the bone.  

Hangovers have a way of making you bring the insecurities you try to bury right to the surface, they always have.

“That’s not true.”

“He said—”

Beth says your name, a little forcefully, putting a hand on your shoulder, making you look up at her. “He was drunk. That’s not an excuse, because he’s still a fucking asshole for saying it. But everything he said to you that night is only a reflection of what kind of person he is. Not of you. Don’t allow him to make you doubt yourself.”

“Okay,” you whisper, knowing you’re going to anyways.

You feel annoying, droning on and on about Jake because he’s the only thing that occupies your mind. You know you’ve internally rolled your eyes at friends in the past who did exactly what you’re doing right now.

But that’s the thing about heartbreak.

No one cares until it’s happening to them.

d a y 6 3

Two months after you move to Florida, you’re starting to think you might see light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like everyone looks at you like you should be over it by now because they don’t seem to know that you’ve only just peeled yourself off your bathroom floor. But instead of resenting your coworkers, your family, your friends for not realizing you’ll never get over it, you’re starting to consider they might have a point. That this isn’t the knockout punch you thought it was.

You’re starting to think it’ll be worth it, the growth you’re pushing yourself through, to finally be bathed in sunlight again one day. No matter how far away it seems, no matter how many months of pain you’ll have to trudge through to reach it.

Two months, almost to the day, you get a call from Jake.

Your hands shake as you go to answer, pride hightailing it from your apartment the moment you see his name on the screen.

Beth told you to block his number. You told her it didn’t matter if you did because you could always go and unblock it whenever you wanted to call him.

You never, not once, considered that he might be the one dialing you.

He says your name and you suck in a sharp breath as you get proof that this isn’t a pocket dial.

It’s like someone’s scraping away the scar tissue building around your heart with a razor blade.  

“Sweetheart?” He asks when you don’t say anything. You can hear the waves crashing in the background. You try not to picture him on the beach, golden hair soft and brushing across his forehead in the wind, long fingers wrapped loosely around a beer bottle.  

“Why are you calling me?” You croak finally, fighting to keep your hands steady on the phone.

He sighs heavily before answering like he expected this greeting. Maybe he did. You don’t feel terribly original about it.

“I wanted to apologize.”

“You shouldn’t be calling me,” you say desperately, but you can’t force your traitorous hands to hang up.

“I know, just…I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

“Jake.” Your voice almost cracks on his name. “You have to—you can’t call me that.” There’s a lump forming in your throat, you can feel the telltale burning at the back of your eyes.

“I’m sorry, swee—.” He stops himself, swallowing audibly, sounding thick and your heart wrenches at the idea that he might be on the verge of crying too. “Needed to tell you I’m sorry. For what I said, the night you left.”

You already knew what he was talking about, but hearing the words plainly pulls all the air right out of your lungs. You squeeze your eyes shut tight, trying to block the memory from playing like a movie in your mind.

But in every pause, every breath he takes, all you can hear is your world crumbling around you in your car while each syllable that left his mouth pulled a brick out of the home you'd built for the two of you in your heart.

You really think I have feelings for you?

“I’m so fucking sorry. Never should’ve said that to you, can’t believe I said that to you.” You can hear Jake’s southern accent slipping out as he gets more and more upset.

The knuckles of your other hand are pressed against your sternum, pressure hoping to distract from the throbbing radiating through.

What, did you think I was gonna fall in love with you or something?

You wonder if you should pinch yourself, if that sharp pain might work better to pull your attention from the tightness beneath your shirt, the way your skin is suddenly stretched too thin across your rib cage.

It was sex, sweetheart. You always knew what you were getting yourself into.

“I didn’t mean it. You have to know that,” he continues.

You’ll be back. Begging for my cock like you always do. For me to fuck you like no one else can.

You open your eyes, figuring there’s no use in trying to keep the tears from rolling down your cheeks. It’s not like he can see you anyways. It takes you a while to find your voice, you and Jake listening to each other breathe across the line.

“I appreciate the apology,” you say finally. You want to strangle yourself for the nicety, but at least you didn’t let it’s okay, come from your tongue reflexively, so small, tiny victory.

You take a shaky breath, trying not to let the tears stop you from speaking. “But I have spent the last couple of months believing that you never wanted me. I don’t kn—I can’t begin to explain what that feels like. You can’t unsay those things, Jake. You can’t take them back.”

“You’re right. I just miss you.”

You can’t help the loud sob that escapes you next. Can’t find it in you to be embarrassed about it, either.

“I miss you too,” you whisper, and even though it’s true you still hate yourself for admitting it, for the way your chest splits in two the moment the words pass your lips.

+

This time, Beth finds you on the floor of your kitchen. You don’t know where it comes from, this hold that the floor has over your broken heart.

You don’t tell her about his call. It’s easier than it should be, but you’re used to hiding everything about you and Jake.

“Thought I was getting better,” you rasp, voice hoarse from crying.

“You are,” she insists.

Right now, it doesn’t feel like that.

Sometimes you can ignore it, the ache in your chest, the phantom touch of his hands on you when you lay in bed at night.

But other times the only way you can fall asleep is by imagining him on your shitty mattress with you, whispering witty little things that make you giggle. Wrapped in his arms and tucked into the warmth of his chest. His fingers raise goosebumps as they run up your sides, leaving trails of fire in their wake as they drift across your thighs.

Right now, it feels like all you’ve done since you left California is pretend to be a human being, going through the motions, instead of actually being a human being.

You manage a laugh, but it’s a pitiful, wet thing, as you gesture to your current state. “This doesn’t look a whole lot different than a couple of months ago.”

“It’s happening less,” Beth argues gently. “I know this is fucking cheesy, but healing isn’t linear. You get better, for longer and longer stretches. Until you’re not counting how many days you’ve held it together. Eventually, you get to count the bad days because they’re so few and far between.”

You really, really don’t know what you did to deserve Beth.

“When did you get so wise?” You ask, sad smile turning a little wry.

She just grins in response, pulling you up from your spot next to the pantry.

There’s nothing to say to Beth about the phone call. Nothing else to think. You’ve run the memory through your mind so many times, replaying it over and over again, that it doesn’t have the same jagged edges piercing your heart, smooth as a rock having been washed over by water for years and years.

You’ve thought about the things you wish you had said instead, the things you wish he had said. It’s not surprising, really, living in the moment with Jake was your exception, not your rule. You’ve always had a hard time enjoying yourself in the present. Memories and daydreams tend to live at the forefront of your mind more often than beautiful views right in front of you. You’ve often wondered if you’ll spend the rest of your life waiting for a moment that doesn’t exist.

You worry, briefly, if it’s bad to live this deep inside your own head.

d a y 7 7

Getting home from work one night to yelling upstairs instead of serenading, you pointedly do not focus on how pathetically invested you are in this deviation from their typical routine. Jake still dominates your thoughts, day in and day out, so it’s just nice to have something else to think about, you try to convince yourself. You’re not sure what they’re fighting about, but you figure you’ll have to live with some extremely loud makeup sex once they’re finished arguing.

You’re wrong, though, because an hour later the door slams and it’s blissfully silent for the first time since you moved in.

When you head to work the next day it’s much of the same, and you don’t think anything of it.

Your next night off is nearly a week later, and you tell yourself you should be thankful for the peace. That your heart absolutely does not throb in sympathy for the grief that’s sure to be filling the air of that apartment. You don’t miss the piano concerts, or the sound of feet shuffling along hardwood as she’s swept up in what you assume is a spur-of-the-moment two-step across the living room. You don’t miss his laughter, that adorable melodic sound that you would never expect to come out of the big guy it belongs to.

You see Mustache in the stairwell—apparently, you’re not the only one who doesn’t view a couple of flights of stairs as a death sentence—and you swear you see bags under his eyes.

Don't be weird, you scold yourself, you don't even know this guy. He's probably fine. Appreciate the silence while it lasts, guys that look like that don't spend very many nights alone.

+

You’re putting groceries away in the kitchen, another rare night off, when you nearly brain yourself with a carton of orange juice as someone stumbles through your front door.

“What the fuck?” You manage over your pounding heart, brandishing said orange juice as if it might help defend you, suddenly wishing you listened to Beth more when she was droning on about remembering to lock your front door.

“This isn’t my apartment,” your mustached neighbor says, looking around in a moment of pure confusion.

You’re busy thinking about how you probably should’ve picked up a knife for self-defense instead of a carton of orange juice.

“No,” you answer, suddenly biting back a giggle when you catch the perplexed expression on his rosy cheeks.

Why you’re amused, you have no idea. You should be concerned for your safety since a virtual stranger is standing in your living room.

He’s looking down at your rug with dazed wonder, eyes getting lost in the pattern beneath his feet. He must be hammered because his brain is clearly working on a toddler level.

“You live upstairs,” you inform him, instead of knocking him out with a lamp like you probably should.

You never were one for self-preservation.

He flops down on your couch. “That seems really far.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Sure, come on in, make yourself comfortable.”

“I can’t go on,” Mustache declares dramatically, throwing his arm over his eyes. “Leave me here to waste away.”

Both eyebrows are raised now, and you are definitely not looking at the way his bicep strains against his black t-shirt. Definitely not because that would be gross and creepy of you because he is very much drunk.

“How much have you had to drink tonight?” You ask, mostly to make yourself stop noticing that strip of tanned skin that’s showing between his shirt and his jeans.

“Probably more than ten but definitely less than fifty,” he slurs.

“Oookay,” you say, trying to adopt your bartender voice and slowly making your way towards him like he’s a scared animal. “I think we should get you to bed, yeah?”

“I don’t want to go back there,” he scowls, pulling his arm away from his face, gaze fixed on the ceiling. If he wasn’t so visibly upset, it’d be cute.

Your eyes briefly flit up towards the ceiling as you register his meaning.

“She left me.” Tears are streaming down his face now, and you unconsciously press your knuckles against your sternum, trying to sidetrack the aching in your chest. “I don’t want to be up there alone.”

You let out a breath, weighing your options.

He wipes the tears from his eyes. “Sorry, I’m being dramatic.” His words are even harder to understand now, heavy with alcohol and tears. “I’ll get out of your apartment now.”

“I—no, it’s okay,” you tell him, voice a little thick. “You can stay here. I’ll grab you some blankets.”

“Thank you,” he whispers, and it’s a tiny little thing, like he’s trying to make himself smaller than he is. It doesn’t work, broad, imposing man that he is, but it wrenches your heart painfully either way.

You try your hardest not to listen to him crying himself to sleep, blinking back tears of your own under the covers.

+

“Do you want some coffee?” You ask Mustache the next morning, nonchalantly like you guys are old pals who wake up in each other’s places all the time.

“What I want is to simply pass away so the sun stops hurting my face,” he whines, and you can’t help the laugh that barks out of you.

His hands are covering his eyes, but your amusement must’ve sparked some sort of recognition of the absurdity of this situation because he peeks at you between his fingers, a blush rising up his neck. “Uh, sorry I’m a little fuzzy on the details of last night and how I ended up here.”

You’re staring at him with what you’re sure is a highly amused expression.

“All right,” he admits after a couple of moments of your silent enjoyment. “I’m a lot fuzzy on the details. As in, I don’t remember anything at all.”

“You thought this was your apartment,” you offer, a smirk still playing on your lips.

His face is incredulous as he pulls his hands down fully so he can get a good look at your place, significantly more colorful than what you’ve seen of his own. “I thought this was my…wait, what? How?”

“Don’t ask me, that’s probably a question for your friend Jack Daniel.”

“Ugh,” he groans. “It’s like I’m an eighteen-year-old again who can’t hold his liquor.”

That earns another giggle. "Don't worry about it. If I had consumed as much as you did, I wouldn't remember anything either." You pause, considering it, "Well, if I drank that much, I'd probably be dead, but that’s beside the point."

He scrubs a hand across his face, clearly still in despair, but you don’t miss the smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. “Can I take you to breakfast? As a thank you, it’s the least I can do.”

“I don’t even know your name,” you admit, lips twitching upwards despite the awkwardness. You haven’t been this giggly in months.

“Rooster.”

You raise an eyebrow, hoping your face doesn’t betray the pit forming in your stomach. Weird name, plus a mustache, in Key West of all places? Odds are…

“It’s my—”

“Callsign,” you cut him off. “I figured.”

If he hadn’t already noticed your steely expression at hearing his name, you’re certain he’d have put two and two together by now.

Not exactly your best playing-it-cool moment.

“You don’t like pilots.” It’s not a question.

You shrug, trying your hand at nonchalance. “You lot are usually up to no good.”

It doesn’t really work, but he doesn’t call you on it and you’re thankful he owes you that at least.

“Have me figured out already then, got me dead to rights?” He asks, lips twitching upwards under that ridiculous pornstache.

“I could be wrong.” You manage a smirk. “I’m not, usually, but I could be.”

“We’re not all the same,” Mustache—because you’re not going to refer to him as Rooster even in your head—promises, and you wish you weren’t inclined to believe him.

You wish his stupidly handsome face didn’t seem so trustworthy, chocolate eyes so earnest. You wish you hadn’t heard heart-wrenching sobs wrack his entire body because you already know you’re going to have a soft spot for this one.

The façade on your face conveys nothing but disbelief, but he waves it away. “So, breakfast? If you come, I’ll even tell you my real name.”

“Are you sure you’re capable of standing upright, let alone sitting in a restaurant? How are you even still going right now? I’d be incapacitated right now if I were you.”

Mustache grins at that. “A skilled pilot can keep going for hours.”

+

“Bradley Bradshaw,” you repeat slowly, staring down at your eggs like they’d tell you if he was messing with you.

He nods, cheeks a little rosy. From the hangover or from the way you just said his name like it hurt coming out of your mouth, you’re not sure.

“Well, I can see why you go by Rooster,” you add drily.

Mustache—Bradley, rolls his eyes and makes a slicing motion in your direction with his fork, brandishing it like a weapon. It pulls another giggle from you and he smiles, warm eyes crinkling at the edges.

He clears his throat, and you feel the mood shift before you can even swallow another bite.

"I appreciate you letting me sleep on your couch. But I also wanted to apologize, I’m sure I was pretty annoying last night,” he says. “I talk about my ex a lot when I drink that much. In my defense, we did just break up.”

“The abrupt end of nightly serenading gave that away,” you snort, wanting to smack yourself on the forehead the minute it comes out of your mouth. “But really, you were fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ve been there.”

Why didn’t I just say, yeah you told me last night? Have I lost all my social skills in these past few months?

Bradley raises an eyebrow, and you make a face. “The floors are thin. So, I kind of guessed, with the lack of musical theater and stuff. But you did mention it, last night, so I put the pieces together.”

He nods. “We’re kind of in the same boat then, I’m guessing. So, if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here. And I’m sure I owe you, for whatever I made you listen to last night.”

Your mouth opens a little in surprise, having assumed that since you couldn’t really hear your neighbors below you, he couldn’t hear you. It doesn’t occur to you until right now, that the lack of an apartment above him obviously changes things.

He grimaces when he clocks the look on your face. “Like you said, the floors are thin. And it’s, uh, a part of my job to be observant. You seemed pretty upset when you first moved in. But lately, every time I’ve seen you in the stairwell or something, you seem better. Happier. Sorry, I’m probably coming off pretty creepy right now.”

The laugh that comes out in response is a little sarcastic, but you’re shocked you’re not more embarrassed, honestly. “No, it’s fine, I guess I’m just surprised that you noticed? Especially before, you seemed fairly…occupied.”

You cringe again at your words, feeling bad for bringing up his heartbreak so directly.

He tries to shrug, but the line of his shoulders remains a little tense. “A lot of it was habit, towards the end. I don’t know how much I said last night, but we were heading towards implosion for months. I wanted to work at it, that’s why I kept up with all the cute stuff. I thought it was a rough patch, something we’d get through with enough effort. But you can’t fix a relationship on your own, the other person has to want to do the work too.”

He’s saying stuff to himself that you’ve been having to hear from Beth, you’re a little jealous. “You’re a lot more together than I was at this stage,” you muse.

“I’m not, really. But hindsight, and all that, I can see now that she hasn’t been in love with me for a while.” He makes another face. “I probably should've known. Instead of having to have her tell me that.”

Apparently, everyone in the state of Florida is wiser than you.

There's pink gracing his cheekbones, like he’s just now realizing he exposed his defenseless underbelly to someone who is still, essentially, a stranger. “Anyways, thought I’d mention all that because it’s nice to have someone else around, who gets it.”

You’re suddenly, deeply envious of his openness, of the way he wears his heart on his sleeve. Taking a deep breath, you try to draw strength from his transparency, and follow his example, however small.

“Saying I’ve been there was kind of an understatement,” you admit slowly. “Still there is more accurate, so I would like that. I’m too broken, for hardly anything else right now.”

Bradley offers his coffee cup to yours for a cheers, a small, sad smile forming underneath the mustache. “Me too. Friends?”

You wonder, quietly, how this man has managed to pull more smiles in twelve hours than the last three months combined.

“Friends.”

Don’t get too attached, you tell yourself. He’s probably just lonely.

You’ll have to ignore that part of you that already knows it’s too late.

[sparring-spirals]

The Laudna and FCG meta made me wonder whether Laudna actively did not tell Ashton about what actually happened because Imogen and FCG (each for their own reasons) ignored the part where she was controlled or whether she omitted it because she assumed Ashton would focus on that and Laudna very much does not want to actively confront that (bc FCG might be considered the resident therapist but he is also somewhat closest to Imogen next to Laudna and has their own issues with personhood while Ashton is very solution oriented and doesn't tend to get lost in the why when it doesn't seem necessary)

(the meta in question)

Oooh.

I think this is possible. Its not precisely how I interpreted it, but I think there's a level of speculation here that's gonna come down pretty subjectively from person to person haha.

From what I see- I don't know how much of it was intentional, at least in terms of Laudna being conscious of saying it to Ashton versus the others. The confession was a bit of a "impromptu crying goop onto an awkward friends shoulder" instead of a concerted effort to ask for advice like the others, but. Also. I mean this kindly, but- I'm not sure that Laudna has, in order:

1- Processed her fears and emotions for the situation enough to detangle the issues of "agency/control/posession" vs "unlifes purpose being ensuring Imogen's happiness" vs "Imogen is unhappy with me"

2- Processed her own feelings and fears about being a puppet to Delilah and all of its implications

3- Been able to extrapolate that to how each of the others might approach her situation

And, in all fairness, that is a lot to work through! There's a lot going on! But the way that Laudna has talked about it so far- the cheery way she skips over her own fears and wellbeing and how she conflates her worries over All Of This into "I'll fix it by making Imogen not mad at me", and how she's been phrasing the situation overall- I'm not sure to what extent she's unpacked it into separate parts. Much less been able to parse what parts her friends might focus on when explaining it.

But! Its possible. I also did very much like the specifics of how Ashton handled it versus F.C.G (esp bc, both of them are so accustomed to each other), but I think that's a separate thing.

I mostly think Laudna is struggling and isn't practiced at asking for help or, picking apart/discussing her own struggles in a way that gives proper weight to her feelings or wellbeing, and god, that is heartbreaking.

[bluerosesburnblue]

I don't suppose you could explain the ending for khux for me?? i've watched it and i've been following the translated storyline for it and this ending just. does not make a ton of sense to me. i can usually figure out kh endings no problem but this time i'm just lost.

Isn't that just the state of the writing for it, where even people familiar with the series are having trouble understanding it. And, of course, the game dies as it lived: screwing over Global so we can't even compare/contrast with an official English version yet to see if it's more clear

Anyway, sure, I'll try to break it down scene by scene (Note: these aren't the actual scene titles, I just needed a way to delineate them so I made titles up)

Scene 1: The Master and Luxu

The update begins with a continuation of the past flashbacks expanding on the Case of Luxu and the Master of Masters' instructions to him. He explains that he knew that Darkness could only truly be defeated in the future, and so he made sure that Keyblade wielders would exist to fight it by recruiting many Keyblade wielders in Daybreak Town (as per the start of KHx) and then using the Dandelions to stall Darkness's takeover and give them time to make sure that the Keyblade legacy would live on. As Luxu turns to leave, though, the Master stops him with one more bit of information that he feels Luxu needs to know

He explains that back when he was younger, the being known as Darkness tried to gain the advantage in their battle by becoming incorporeal and attacking people's hearts instead of their bodies. There were 13 of these original Darkness beings, and because they lack bodies they aim to win by quantity and so created the Heartless as lesser, but more physical versions of themselves. The original 13 still haven't given up their desire to regain a physical form, however, and so they target those with strong hearts to take their bodies for themselves

The Master of Masters, knowing this and knowing that something without a physical body can't be destroyed, came up with a plan. He took in six children, his apprentices, and raised them to be a prison for Darkness. To foster light so strongly within them that Darkness couldn't possibly taint it, and then seal the strongest 7 of the 13 Darknesses within himself and his students, trapping the Darknesses inside their impenetrable hearts of light. Then, he instigated the Keyblade War. This is only my interpretation of the line, but it sounds to me like the purpose was to get the Foretellers killed in the War and the Darkness sealed inside of them along with them. How this relates to them coming back in KH3 is unclear

When Luxu asks if the War and the idea of a traitor were necessary, the Master goes on to say that the purpose of making the Foretellers believe there was a traitor was to instill negative emotions like fear and doubt in them. Darkness feeds on those emotions, and so by making sure that his students would produce them and yet not have their light tainted, he would attract Darkness into their hearts by giving it something to eat, only for it to realize that it was trapped in light that couldn't be consumed. The infighting amongst the Foretellers was bait to lock Darkness in their hearts the entire time

After that, there's only six left and so the Master chose five individuals, the Union Leaders, to be the uncorruptable lights that would house the weaker Darknesses. The final one, he would simply trap in the Data Daybreak Town

At this, Luxu flies into a rage at his master, angrily shouting that he can't possibly accept a plan that sacrifices so many people, but the Master stands up and starts talking over him. He's made it clear that he doesn't see Darkness as human, and he's seen this inhuman thing take countless lives, including people he's cared about. He doesn't believe them to be heroes, and he doesn't care. The entire purpose is just to ensure that in the end, humanity is what survives the war. He knows it's a tragedy, but for one who believes that tragedy can't be fully avoided, this is a solution that will at least save some

Luxu accepts this answer and leaves, but behind his back the Master muses on what Luxu, the traitor, needs to do. Luxu was the traitor from the lost page the entire time, given a role to take him out of the infighting so that his identity as the traitor wouldn't be discovered (or at least, that's how it seems to me considering that he needed the Foretellers to fear and doubt to attract Darkness to them)

Scene 2: Fleeing Daybreak Town

We now cut to the real Daybreak Town in the present, where Lauriam, Elrena, Ventus, and Brain have just emerged from the Data Daybreak Town into the real-world version of the lifeboat room. Daybreak Town is breaking down around them, about to be fully consumed by the aftermath of the Keyblade War which had been temporarily staved off while the Data simulation was running

Brain is attempting to enact his plan to extract all of the Dandelions from Data Daybreak Town and bring them into the real world, but he's worried that there won't be enough time to actually do it before the simulation shuts down and the real Daybreak Town is destroyed. The only thing he has time to do is get their three remaining friends (Ephemer, Skuld, and Player) out to the real world, and the only way that he can think to do this is to send Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven away to the future and to safety and then send the remaining lifeboats back into the datascape so that there's enough for the three trapped in there to use

Brain is willing to stay behind to man this operation, but he wants to ensure that at least one of the true Union Leaders (Lauriam) manages to live on in case things go wrong and save as many of them as he can, so those going to the future must be sent first. Lauriam, etching his mission to finally find Strelitzia (or even just her data) into his heart, departs with Elrena and Ven. Once they're gone, however, Brain notices someone enter the room and turns to find Luxu approaching him

Scene 3: Those Trapped in Data

We now cut to Player, Ephemer, and Skuld in the data version of the lifeboat room, contemplating how the others are doing. Just as they muse about how quiet the end of this world feels, Player turns to find that four of the remaining six Darknesses have entered the room (presumably the other two are the one sealed in Ven and the one that Luxu was fighting in the real world and who helped Maleficent, who seems to be gone by the time Brain and the others end up back in the real world)

The Darknesses, it seems, have come to politely ask the gang to open up a way out of the Data Daybreak Town for them, so that they can spread to other worlds. They don't want to fight, and obviously even if they did they'd win, so just open a gate for them to escape with already. They could always just take over Ephemer's friends and force him to watch as they rip them away until he complies

Ephemer mocks this and moves in to attack, but before he fully commits he whispers his plan to Player: he and Skuld will hold them off to buy time for Player to get into the last pod and run. To his shock, however, Player begins mimicking Darkness's speaking patterns and then goes to attack their friends. It seems that Darkness has done to Player what they did to Ven, taking them over and forcing them to act out. Player is now their bargaining chip; they'll only give Player back if Ephemer opens the gate. And since Darkness can only be defeated if it has a body, their options are to give in or destroy the possessed Player

This initiates the final boss fight against Ephemer and Skuld, Player's dearest friends who have been with them since before the war

And the duo prove no match for the Darkness-possessed Player, who taunts them about not just leaving when they had the chance. Ephemer begs his friend to stop as Player goes in to finish off Skuld, and in his desperation to protect one friend, he opens up the portal to Game Central Station and forces his fallen friend though. As it closes, Ephemer breaks down in tears, muttering apologies to the friend that he was unable to save

Scene 4: Luxu and Brain

We cut back to where we left off in Scene 2, with Luxu confronting Brain in the real lifeboat room. He introduces himself, and Brain is taken aback that one of the missing masters has finally returned. Luxu asks Brain if he's a Union Leader, and when Brain confirms that he is, Luxu then gestures to the missing pods and asks where the others are. Brain tells him that one escaped, and the other two are still trapped in the data. Luxu's confused; there should be five Union Leaders, but Brain only listed four. He asks what happened to the fifth, and Brain confirms that they were struck down

Luxu assumes that Brain is going to make his escape, but Brain denies this. They have a friend who he calls a Dandelion (even though Player did not consider themself one) who is trapped alongside the other two Union Leaders, and he intends to get all three out no matter what. Furthermore, Brain has no intention of using one of the real lifeboats. Rather, he has resigned himself to staying behind in the past and finding some way to survive the end of the world to eventually extract the rest of the Dandelions from the data as well, and wake them from their data sleep

Luxu, however, has some bad news. While normally that would be true, the Data Daybreak Town was designed to lock Darkness away. Once it's locked up, nothing will ever be able to get out of it again. If anything could get out, then Darkness would as well. It was meant to be a grave for an intangible being

Not only that, but Luxu expresses doubt that Brain has properly prepared for his friends who use the lifeboats to awaken in the future. What does Brain plan to use for mediums? Who are the memories going to come from? Brain doesn't have an answer, but he has to do this and he's willing to put his life on the line for it

This seems to earn Luxu's respect

Scene 5: The Two Who Remain

We now resume with Ephemer and Skuld in the data lifeboat room, having just sealed Player away. The two real pods that weren't used yet are digitized and sent to Ephemer and Skuld to use for their escape. Ephemer picks up the weakened Skuld and places her in a lifeboat, then looks forlornly over to the one on the other side of the room. The one meant for Player. Then he reclines back into his own pod and the two leave the Data Daybreak Town

Scene 6: "You're So Gullible"

We now join Player inside of the familiar tunnel that joined the Data Daybreak Town to Game Central Station

The four Darknesses swarm around Player, commending them for goading Ephemer into being desperate enough to open up a gateway for them, implying that Player was at least partially in control by the end of the fight. In a bizarre way, they seem to be trying to help Player as they warn them they must cast off their body if they don't want to be destroyed by the simulation shutting down

Player laughs

They ask if Darkness is always this easy to trick. After all, it can't go anywhere without a Keyblade and without a body it can't use one, either, which is why it needed one of them to open a path for it. Player turns, and locks the end of the pathway that leads to Game Central Station. And since Ephemer sealed the Data Daybreak Town end when he cast Player and the Darknesses through the portal, all five of them are now trapped in this space between worlds on the cusp of shutting down along with Data Daybreak Town. This was Player's plan all along, opening their heart up just enough for the four Darknesses to try and use them as a host and then provoking their friends into sealing them away and taking Darkness with them

Darkness flies into an anger-fueled frenzy but is unable to do anything to escape. Player collapses, and Chirithy appears. Petting them much like they did during the Keyblade War, Player apologizes for forcing Chirithy to be sealed away with them since their hearts are bound. Chirithy shakes their head, signaling that they don't hold it against Player, and the two go in for a final hug and are bathed in light

Scene 7: The Destruction of Daybreak Town

Back in the real lifeboat room again, Ephemer and Skuld emerge and are met with blaring sirens signaling that the world is at its end. The other are gone, including Brain and Luxu, and the two have no idea what happened to them (or that Luxu was involved). They simply hope that they made it out safely, and decide to check outside just to see what's going on

They're met with the destruction of Daybreak Town. Smoke is everywhere, the sky is red, and pieces of debris are being drawn into a swirling dark orb in the sky not unlike the destruction of Destiny Islands from KH1. Ephemer decides that they need to leave, now, and Skuld muses about how it takes a lot of time and effort to build something, but none at all to destroy. The two retreat back into the lifeboat room to make their exit

Scene 8: The Master's Plans

We now cut to our final continuation of the flashback of Master of Masters' talk with Darkness from before he disappeared

Darkness muses that it truly does not understand the Master of Masters at all. The Master asks if it wants to, and Darkness replies with a very clinical, "Yes, understanding your enemy is important." The Master muses if it means all of the Darknesses or just the one who is speaking, and Darkness states that it's speaking for all of them

The Master muses for a bit about how small worlds are easy to control. If this small world simply expands gradually over time, then eventually there will become parts of it that the light can't reach, but Darkness will have free reign over anywhere it pleases (much like real light can only shine so far, and anywhere it doesn't reach is filled with shadow). This skews everything in Darkness's favor when vying for control and is precisely what would happen if the world of the Age of Fairtytales continued to expand

Darkness simply notes that of course it will always be around, that's what "friends" do, but the Master says that sometimes he'd like to be left alone. And so, to get away from Darkness, he plans to flee to a world that Darkness does not know about. One where neither Darkness nor Light can be controlled. Darkness asks what this world is, and the Master says that humanity, even if their lives end, want to believe in a world that exists for them in the future. For him, this is a world of fiction and imagination. This implies that he plans to flee into the world of Quadratum, the fictional world that we learned about in Melody of Memory that exists on the other side of the "real world"

Darkness is clearly lost as it asks if he's talking about the Data World. The Master simply says that even if it started out as fiction, you can make it real. But he won't explain any more. After all, the point is that this is a world that Darkness doesn't know about. It cannot reach it, even if it tried

Of note is that he mimics what the illusory Xehanort remarks about Sora in Melody of Memory by calling this a place where neither your "eyes nor voice" can reach, much like Sora's voice could not reach Kairi in The Final World from Quadratum. His final description of it is as "a world of [symbol]." It's unclear if this is an actual term that is unpronounceable and unspeakable in-universe, or if this is simply done to censor the word for the players

Scene 9: Goodbye

We once again return to the real lifeboat room amidst the destruction of Daybreak Town. As she gets into her pod, Skuld starts sobbing and thanks Ephemer through her tears for staying with her until the end. Ephemer tells her that she can't give up until it's all over. As he goes into his pod, he flashes back to all of the time that he spent with Player, and mutters their name through his tears as their pods close and the room caves in around them

(AND THIS IS WHERE IT SHOULD'VE ENDED BECAUSE IT WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD UP TO THIS POINT BUT HERE WE GO)

Scene 10: Where Do Dream Eaters Come From?

Player and Chirithy are floating in a white void alongside all of the other Dandelions that were trapped in the Data Daybreak Town and their Chirithies. Some of them are familiar faces, like the "My friends aren't my power" kid and the squad of four kids that Player had befriended and their ex-teammate. As Player awakens, they watch these sleeping Dandelions revert to the forms of hearts that are then eaten by those Chirithies, transforming them into the Spirits seen in Dream Drop Distance

Player's Chirithy explains that because Chirithies are bonded to their Keyblade wielder's heart, they take on a state to match their wielder. If the wielder dies, so do they. And if the wielder falls into a deep sleep, they take on a stronger form to protect it

Contrary to what the fandom is saying, NO, Spirits aren't dead Keykids. Rather, the Chirithies are simply taking their sleeping hearts into their bodies and transforming into a stronger form to keep them safe. This is only my assumption, but I would assume that this is possible since they don't technically have bodies anyway, having been digitized. Therefore, their body-less hearts would otherwise have been sent directly to sleep with no protection, hence the Chirithies moving in

Now, this still doesn't make sense regarding Dream Drop Distance by overriding the lore that all Dream Eaters are simply the form that Darkness takes in Sleeping Worlds, which made sense from a metaphorical perspective of "you sleep at night which is dark, so dreams are darkness and both good and bad dreams are made of the same stuff." And also you can totally craft Spirits and have them explode if they take too much damage, all with zero indication that a keykid heart was involved in the creation process or released on destruction, but whatever, let's just move on

Player asks if this is what will happen to them and their Chirithy, and Chirithy responds that they have a choice. If Player doesn't want to go to sleep, then their heart will be broken down and reconstructed as an entirely new heart to live a new life

Smash cut to an unfamiliar town where a woman in purple with black hair and silver eyes hand over what is obviously a baby Xehanort to a hunched figure in a blue cloak, holding a cane. She sobs. Cut again to the figure in blue holding baby Xehanort standing on Destiny Islands' play island. Cut once more and Xehanort is now his teenage self from Dark Road on the beach of the play island. The figure in blue is standing on the ledge behind him, and as Xehanort stands up to walk to the shoreline, the figure collapses onto the ground. Xehanort does not notice this. Two more cuts, this time to the day that Xehanort found himself in Scala ad Caelum and a chess match with Eraqus

We return to Player, who closes their eyes peacefully and decided to move on to another life. Chirithy is confused, but goes in for a final hug as both of them dissolve into light, Player's heart flying off into the white void

The implication of all of this being that not only did Player reincarnate as Xehanort, introducing reincarnation into a series that it has never been a part of and overcomplicating the lore even worse, but that Xehanort isn't even from Destiny Islands in the first place, invalidating nearly all of his character motivation from the series

This is so bad that it deserves its own post though, so we're moving on

Credits Roll: Scenes From the Game Play Over It

Post Credits: Aftermath

We find our scene in a vast expanse of water, littered with debris. A lone lifeboat floats amongst the rubble. Some houses from Daybreak Town can be seen partially submerged, setting this after its destruction. The lifeboat comes to a stop and opens up, revealing Ephemer's silhouette. He looks around

It's unclear why Ephemer seems to have landed so far back in the past compared to the others, though some people have noted that he also doesn't appear to have lost his body, so it could be that his pod simply didn't activate (note how we only saw it close, not disappear into light like Lauriam and crew's) and that Ephemer didn't time travel at all but simply rode out the destruction of Daybreak Town inside the lifeboat

We see a rendition of the scene from KH2 where Diablo the raven brings Maleficent's cloak to the three fairies and she revives, showing that this scene was, indeed, her coming back from her time travel adventure

Lauriam wakes up in the field of flowers from Dwarf Woodlands, and looks confused and startled as a white butterfly flits about him. The flowers clearly a nod to his element among the Organization

Elrena is shown still unconscious along the cliffs that lead to Maleficent's castle in Enchanted Dominion. Much like Lauriam, her element is represented in the thunderstorm that rages around her

Ventus is shown unconscious in the Keyblade Graveyard, and a silhouette approaches him. Many believe this to be Xehanort finding him, though as of now the figure's identity is unconfirmed

We cut to a scene of Luxu dragging the black box behind him in the Keyblade Graveyard, much like a certain scene from the end of Back Cover. However, this time the scene continues and he removes his hood to reveal Brain's face. The implication here is that after Scene 4 above, Luxu took Brain's body as the first of many that he would steal to prolong his own life. This is why neither of them are seen when Ephemer and Skuld emerge from the datascape; Luxu has already taken Brain's body for his own and made his escape to survive the destruction of the world with the black box

We get a title card, but are treated to one final scene. Brain wakes up (sans hat) in the same town that we saw baby Xehanort being given away in. A hooded figure in strange garb arrives, holding Brain's hat, and asks if he is Brain. At Brain's confirmation, the figure returns the hat and introduces themself as Sigurd (a Norse mythology name much like the other Scala ad Caelum characters so far). They seem to have been waiting for Brain and report that they found him into an earpiece of sorts

Brain is understandably confused, and Sigurd explains that they know of the Brain who escaped Daybreak Town's destruction and that he would appear in this spot on this day. Brain panics, realizing that he doesn't know where any of his seven other friends are and if they made it to safety. Sigurd tells Brain that he's the only one who made it to this spot. Brain, utterly crushed that all of his friends have seemingly perished, listlessly follows Sigurd as Sigurd leads him to their headquarters

On the way there, however, something catches Brain's eye. He sprints to the fountain and looks up at something that's not in the frame in shock. Sigurd explains that this is a statue of this town, Scala ad Caelum’s founder (so Xehanort's actually from Scala...) and the first ever Keyblade Master, Master Ephemer. The camera pans up to show the statue of Ephemer as we know him holding the Master Keeper Keyblade that he got from Brain

Brain is overcome with emotions, and through his tears states that he knows exactly who that is. That's his best friend, and he's so proud of him for rebuilding

This is just my speculation, but what I believe is going on in the final scene with Brain is that when Luxu took his body, he ejected Brain's heart from it. A lifeboat wasn't used up, so Luxu must have either used time travel on his own to send Brain's heart to the future or simply left Brain's heart stranded and waiting in the ruins of Daybreak Town. This would let Luxu have his body, but Brain's stranded heart could make a new one with the proper resources in the future like the other hearts sent via the pods. That's what I think the focus on the hat is about. Luxu is shown without it after he takes Brain's body, and Sigurd has it. So my assumption would be that the hat was the medium used to bring Brain's body back like Maleficent's cloak was for her. It’s possible that Luxu set this up, but I can’t confirm. As for the memories, I couldn't say

I would also speculate that this scene takes place a decent amount of time before Dark Road, since Eraqus has been implied to be a descendant of Brain due to their similar looks. If Brain is in Scala ad Caelum in the past, then he could easily be the grandfather that Eraqus mentioned

My final bit of speculation is that the reason Sigurd and crew know who Brain is is because Ephemer, the founder of Scala ad Caelum and the inheritor of the Book of Prophecies, likely saw when Brain would emerge and set up a system to take care of him, knowing that he wouldn't survive to see him again

Apologies for the length, the ending was 40 minutes long. But, hopefully, I've made it clear which scenes are connected to which and what is actually happening. If it wasn't actually clear, there's two flashback sequences involving the Master of Masters that take place before KHx, the scenes in the data and real lifeboat rooms are running concurrently with each other (Brain and Luxu are having their conversation at the same time as Player is being possessed by the Darknesses, etc.) and everything else is roughly chronological with the exception of the scenes where Maleficent, Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven are revived after time traveling. Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven's scenes all must take place sometime before or around BBS (Lauriam and Elrena for their ages to match up, Ven because he's in BBS). Maleficent's is at the beginning of KH2

[the-badger-mole]

So there's definitely the traits about Aang you don't like. If you had the chance, how would you have gone about making sure Aang got called out??

Any other changes about other aspects of the show that you would have done??

OOHHH!!!! There is SO much I would have changed.

Starting with Aang:

Aang should have been called out about not helping Katara with the chores. One of the lessons he should have learned on Kyoshi should have been importance of not leaving one team member to do all of the work (Sokka should have been taught this lesson, too, of course, but at least he was learning other lessons about respect for women in particular). I'm not asking for Aang to face consequences for the sake of making him miserable (although...). What I really want is for him to consider people other than himself in a way that actually leaves a mark on his character and doesn't just make his superficial reputation better.

In Bato of the Water Tribe, he should have been taken more to task over his selfishness in hiding Hakoda's letter. I feel like the danger he put Hakoda's mission in with that bone-headed move gets overlooked in favor of his sadness about the possibility of his friends wanting to take a detour to see their father. Aang gets half an apology for that, but only half an apology, and not to Katara- the one he's supposed to have a romance (???) with.

He should have been called out for lying his way out of actually solving the problem in "The Great Divide". Yes, it was a tough problem, but he's going to have to solve even harder ones as the Avatar. Not even lightly chiding him for taking the easy way out doesn't bode well for how well he's going to do at his job in the future.

The fact that he was instrumental in the deaths of several Fire Nation soldiers in the Siege of the North should have been the beginning of his understanding of what he's expected to do to end this war that's been going on for a hundred years. He should feel some guilt over the war that's been going on for a hundred years. Even if ultimately he's not centrally to blame for either, neither could have happened without him making the decisions he made. I can understand it not occurring to Aang on his own that he played a part in (lets be honest) millions of deaths, but it should have dawned on him through context clues what the world- what his friends!- expected of him. He should have been looking for a non-lethal solution to the Ozai problem from the beginning of Book 2 at the latest! The way his reluctance to kill Ozai plays out in the show makes Aang look inexcusably stupid, unbelievably short-sighted, and dangerously selfish.

He should have been brought to task for how he treated his friends- especially Toph- in the desert. Yes, it's understandable that he was upset about losing Appa, but he took his anger out on his friends. That's not ok. He should have apologized. We should have seen him apologize. It wasn't Toph's fault Appa was taken. She didn't deserve that.

Katara should have had more of a voice in her relationship with Aang. He forced kisses on her twice, and aside from avoiding talking to him about feelings, Katara doesn't get to tell him how she actually feels about him, about them, about the fact that he doesn't respect her enough to talk to her about how he felt before he even thought about trying to kiss her. I hate Kataang, and there is no version of that ship that I would actually like (at it's best it's boring), HOWEVER, there is a version of Kataang that could have been less infuriating, and it's the version where Aang realizes how selfish he's been with Katara and apologizes, and then actually puts in the work to be more respectful of her. Not to get the reward of her affection for doing something he should have been doing in the first place (*ahembrykeahem*), but because he actually sees the error of his ways and his need to change for himself. Then maybe, after Aang had put in actual work on himself, maybe his "romance" with Katara could have worked, and Katara would have actually had a chance to thrive after getting with him.

The war should have had more of an impact on Aang. As the Avatar, he should have seen more people suffering under the Fire Nation's campaign of imperialism. Sure he sees refugees and even spends a couple of days getting to know a pregnant lady, but it never seems like he makes the connection between the abstract evil of the war and the real world suffering it caused. It never seems to sink in for him how bad things are. Like not even for his friends. Not even for Katara specifically, the girl he allegedly loves.

There are more things I would have changed about Aang, but this is already long, so moving on!

As for the rest of the show:

I would have spent less time on Aang and his feelings and done more with the world building. There is a ridiculously small amount of time dedicated to the Water Tribe cultures. Most of Book 1: Water is spent in the Earth kingdom! Why??? Most of the main cast is from the Southern Water Tribe! Then there's the question of the Air Nomads. A total annihilation of a people group is incredibly unlikely. Closer to impossible. It hasn't even happened in our world, and the European colonist had raised murder and genocide to an art form. You mean to tell me that not only did the Fire Nation manage to murder millions of people to complete extinction, they did it in a day? Seriously??? I'm not buying it.

Speaking of the Air Nomads, even if they decided not have any other air benders in the show (but seriously, why not?), there was no reason not to explore their culture a little more. There could have been history texts in those temples they visited. Aang could have discovered some scrolls on defensive air bending forms. Guru Pathik could have been less racist given more time to explain at least a bit of the nuance of Air Nomad culture and philosophy. Aang has a 12 year old's understanding of Air Nomad culture and philosophy. What could you tell anyone about your culture or your religious beliefs at 12? Maybe you'd absorbed a lot by then, but to be able to accurately explain either to someone who didn't already know? Well, we get the bulk of Air Nomad philosophy from Aang- the kid who couldn't even acknowledge that his own people had killed in self-defense.

Toph, Sokka, Suki, and, yes Katara should have been given more development and had more care shown to their inner workings. Aang and Zuko have way more time devoted to them (though the time spent on Zuko had more plot impact than Aang's). The other members of the Gaang deserved more shine, too. Especially Toph.

Obviously, I think Katara and Zuko should have ended up together, but I've written so much about that, so I'm going to end this here, because it's late and I still need to get ready for bed.

[opinated-user]

About Lily’s talk on toh fandom racism. I guess Lily doesn't understand the root of the problem. People like white characters more because they have more dimension not because of race. Compare Amity's and Hunter's abusive families, their constant struggles and how many viewers can relate to it, to Luz who has... nice mom? And was bullyied but kinda wasn't we've never seen it? That's it. She's generic quirky girl. Her dad's death pops out literally one time and it's never mentioned after. Gus is boring, and Willow had potential but was forgotten. There's just so little to work with. Not even gonna talk about Eda and her family issues and parallels to chronic illness. So the main question is it truly wise to blame the fandom when the creators themselves don't give POC characters interesting conflicts, backgrounds or just some screen time ? ;)

i disagree on various points with you, anon, but i'll try to keep it as brief as possible: 1. the idea that abusive families=more relatable is inherently flawed by itself. if all you see when looking at luz noceda is a "generic quirky girl", that's is your opinion, but there's more to her than that, even more that what LO gives her credit for when she just wants her to be happy sapphic with no further issues. many kids can and do relate to her struggling to fit in, being the child of immigrants, living without one of their parents, wanting to scape to another world where she wouldn't be so different, but the show takes it one step further and tells us directly that life can't be solved as easy as that, that even if life is boring, mundane and not magical we still have to live with it. i could go on about how compelling i found the arc of her reconnecting with her mom only to realize what many children have to find out the hard way sooner or later: that her actions have consequences and those consequences can hurt people, just like it hurt her mom. but if you really want more insight into luz as a character, there are plenty of videos on youtube and i'm sure posts that could explained it better than i could. the same could be said about Willow slowly finding her way to grow from the shy girl of the first season into a brave leader or gus struggling with the pressure of being a child prodigy. LO is right that both of them could have been given more of a spotlight and actually deserved it because there is a lot of potential for the both of them, but she's wrong when she doesn't blame Disney for it and instead makes it the sole fault of the creator. 2. LO's actually right that there is racism in fandom... but not because hunter exist or teenage girls likes him, but because racism exist everywhere. it's a systematic issue that everyone is exposed to and can manifest in million different and insidious ways that sometimes aren't as easy as who loves more what character. she's wrong that everyone who likes hunter must do it for racist reasons, just like she was also wrong that people only liked reylo because racism. her own friend Carrousel ships huntlow herself so i assume that she must like hunter on some capacity. but as we have discussed before on this blog, LO doesn't know how to talk about systematic issues nor cares to. what she wants is to point fingers at someone and nothing else, be it to the creator that was treated unfairly by her employer but it's still her fault somehow, to the teenage girls having a crush on a fictional boy or any other group of people/individuals that she can point as the problem, one that we just need to get rid of to have everything turn out alright. all the while never even proposing a real solution herself. more people liking gus or skara won't solve racism in fandom. she putting down hunter constantly at every opportunity she has won't solve racism in fandom. it's doubtful that fandom even can solve the problem of it's own racism at all. but we do have alternatives that BIPOC fans have been trying out for years: blacktober, race bending, challenges, zines, hashtags, give more attention to POC creators, works of POC and spread the word about any of this initatives so more people can join in. LO already talks about how she never reads fanfiction (unless it's about Sylvannas, her favourite white undead character), she doesn't care about theories and it seems she only shares fanart she just happened to come across so of course she either doesn't know about any of them or doesn't care. she barely is on fandom for anything else that enjoy underage sapphic cute couples, there is no real motivation for her there. talking about how other people should like more POC characters more than white ones will never be enough. appreciating POC characters (only black in the case of LO) without dragging a white one too could be a fine start but it's just that if you don't then procede to try to give the spotlight to the actual real POC in fandom that have been ignored, when not harassed and mistreated because of not being white.