#scheduling conflicts

[cat-cosplay]

🗓 the true evil.

[imayauu]

The universe is aligned against us seeing these men again together on screen 😭😭

[rosetta-j-stone]

When you double-book yourself for:

(i) bra shopping with your besties

(ii) putting on a gig with your OTHER besties

[sushisempai]

Aldis Hodge is to Leverage: Redemption

as

Ian de Caestecker is to Agents of SHIELD Season 7

[jhsharman]

"Double Your Pleasure", Coming to the end

I wonder if there wasn't a "one Jughead love story per issue" rule in effect, especially as they were rolling toward puncturing the whole affair. This story slides into the cover dated Jan 1990 Archie's Pals 'N Gals. A logical place where it could have gone would have been the April 1990 Jughead -- except that had regularly scheduled programming disrupted so instead they could have an issue long Batman parody from Robert Loren Fleming and Gene Colan and cash in on the dying whisps of Batmania. The two issues thereafter conclude this chapter of the cat-stroking cuddly Jughead. And in a thematic sense this one precedes the Feb 1990 Jughead romance story -- this here is the high Joani and Debbie's infatuation point, both clamoring well aware and happy to see the other one. The story in the next Jughead sees a logical follow on this relation as one of them heads off with another guy in a sort of "Hey! You just said it was great to have two lovers!" fit of polyamorous logic. And then, after that, the break ups and the end.

"Reggie!! Lay off my favorite customer!" does follow the insult that is "shy a lot of things! Mostly Brains!". It does not follow the non horrible " Go Figure!". The revision produces something of a continuity error. To be sure the original Pop Tate and Betty comment in that last panel is ham-handed, they are leaning into the audience pleaing -- "right, kids?"

Late starter. Right. 48 years, actually. Suspicious. Sure. And in an earlier installment of the altered universe, Jughead thought through the implications that Debbie and Joani kind of have crushes on him. Such that brings us here. Consider this in the context of the two universes -- the original production and the altered version ham handedly erasing Jughead and "romance".

Not going to end well.

[jacindyyy]

One of these things is not like the others. 💕🌸🍭🍬🎆

[rpeeze]

Me: Here’s my paperwork for a personal day on January 7th. That’s when I celebrate Christmas

Office: Cool! It’s approved!

Me: Hey thanks!

Admin: Hey! You’re gonna be observed on the 14th. Your pre-conference is on the 7th

Me:

(It was a simple fix and I emailed and it got shifted to the next day, but still... just irksome. Not that difficult to check if there’s a personal day in the system.)

[aclownsclownery]

My dnd group hasn't met up to play in FOREVER and by that I mean as of tomorrow it would be a 3 month pause between sessions. and i'm very upset because we ended the last session off on a HUGE lore drop for my characters backstory (amnesia based backstory) and we cut it off before we could learn the draw-backs of learning this. And frankly, I just want to roleplay this poor unstable mans reaction to this

[lastenline]

I just wanted to say I get a kick out of y’all liking and rebloging my pictures. I’m just trying to put a dent in my collection (I back another Reaper Bones Kickstarter not to mention the other miniatures that are coming with some of the other stuff I’ve backed) while also trying to find a local in-person group to play with on days I can actually play.

[krawdad]

Oh shit Thanksgiving

[faithinlouisfuture]

First show of the European leg! Expectations are high Europe, please don’t disappoint 🙏🏽

[itakelotsofpictures-blog]

Still Quiet

Lunch time post. There are a few more people here than there were the last time I posted. One other member of my group is here too but we don’t sit anywhere near each other. If we yell we can talk to each other, but we’re not being rude like that. I feel a lot more Covid-safe than I did the last two times I was here, and by no means did I feel Covid-unsafe before. Whatevs. I have vacation time…

[muffinlance]

Would you be willing to do one where the g'aang meets zuko with his dragons and is like? Wtf? Because I would appreciate the image of aang seeing thw dragons and going, can I pet em, while sokka or katara is like, can I fight dragons? No, no I cannot, and the other is going, not evil fire lord, bet. Please?

(Continued from parts one, two, and three.)

“My older brother should have had the throne, of course,” said the man Aang had come to meet. “But he was still mourning for his son, when… Well, when I think of it now, it was the beginning. My father, poisoned in his bedchambers. My wife, missing in the night. It took me years to piece together what must have happened. It was unthinkable, for a child so young to…”

Aang swallowed thickly, his hands balls on his legs. “Zuko… did all that?”

“When he was younger than you are now. There was always something wrong with that child,” former Fire Lord Ozai said, from between the ruin of his twisted lips in his scared face. Aang wasn’t sure how much farther the scaring extended, but… but he could see it creeping down under the man’s collar, emerging again on his hands. “I was not—I am not—a good man, Avatar Aang. I know that. I was like King Kuei, sheltered in my palace, unaware of the true extent of this war. A spare prince; I was never meant to rule. Neither was he. But obstacles were removed from his path, one by one, until I was the only one who stood in his way. I was not a good man, Avatar. But I would never try to kill my own father.”

“Thank you for speaking with me,” Aang said. “And… I accept your offer, Sifu Ozai.”

Sokka and Katara shifted behind him, uneasily. Long Feng gave no sign as to his opinion, beyond being the one to make this meeting with the Fire Nation’s rebel leader possible. But there were very few firebenders not under Fire Lord Zuko’s control. Aang had to learn from someone. And… at least Ozai understood, how dangerous fire could be.

* * *

Earth King Kuei had thrown out the treaty his advisors had spent so long negotiating, and slapped together his own private agreement with Fire Lord Zuko after only a few days; Ba Sing Se and the eastern part of the continent were left intact and under Kuei’s reign, while the western coast was handed off to the Fire Nation as tribute. 

The North Pole’s borders remained closed.

The South had been the first nation pressed into an end-of-war treaty, while the Fire Lord’s dragons watched on.

The Air Nomads… if there were any left, still hiding somewhere, they hadn’t come out for Aang.

* * *

Master Yagoda wasn’t a fighter, and claimed that one world journey was quite enough for her lifetime. She’d remained in the South Pole after Aang’s training there was complete, to help her new tribe.

Long Feng’s responsibilities as the Earth Kingdom’s own rebel leader made it inadvisable for him to place himself in enemy hands. The Fire Lord and King Kuei were close; if Long Feng were taken prisoner, he would be handed off to Ba Sing Se for a quick trial, and likely a quicker execution. 

Sifu Ozai’s injuries made it impossible for him to truly fight by Aang’s side, of course, even if he didn’t face an even swifter death than Long Feng should they be captured on Fire Nation soil.

But this was Aang’s job. He was the Avatar, so he had to do this. He had to give all the nations of the world a chance to grow, free from the Fire Lord’s enforced peace. 

“We’re not leaving you now,” Katara said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Her brother mirrored her, a moment later.

They’d started as his escorts, in this terrifying new world. He’d trained under the same master Katara had; learned everything there was to know about healing, from Master Yagoda, who’d used the false peace to travel south. Healing was… it was so much better, than the training Sifu Long Feng had put him through, the precise way earthbending could be used to contain or kill. Or Sifu Ozai’s lessons, hard learned, about just how much fire it took to truly stop a fellow bender. At least Ozai had been sympathetic to Aang’s concerns, to the culture only he seemed to remember. Ozai didn’t want his son dead, either. He still loved him, even after what he’d done. He just… wanted him stopped. 

Fire didn’t kill easily. But it could definitely stop someone. And then Aang could heal him, and just… keep him in jail. The Fire Lord had a little sister, kept hostage all these years, who Ozai thought might still be convinced to join them. She could be the new Fire Lord, with Ozai as her regent. And then the Earth King’s main ally would be gone, and Long Feng could go back to reclaim his home for the people, instead of the nobility who’d grown rich on war without ever stepping foot outside of their walled inner city. 

And. And Aang could travel, and relearn this world, and practice his healing more. That was what the world really needed: healing. 

But it was like Yagoda had taught him. Sometimes a break had to be reset, before it could really heal.

* * *

It was… really easy, getting into the Fire Nation palace. They rolled Appa in soot, and came in the night. Landed on a roof. Entered through an upper window on an inner courtyard, where guards wouldn’t think to stand watch. The Fire Nation had uncontested aerial supremacy, after all.

They knew where the Fire Lord’s rooms were; they were Ozai’s old ones. They were also very empty. Which they’d been warned about, because apparently the Fire Lord did his best evil planning at night when his advisors couldn’t reign him in. 

There was the flicker of candlelight under the sliding doors to his office. And… no guards. Which led to a round of is-this-the-right-place looks shared between them, but. This was where the map Ozai had given them said to go. So they had another round of looks, with resolute nods this time, and then Katara was sliding open the door as he and Sokka ran in and…

…And a very tired looking servant was standing in front of a desk, shuffling papers around like there was something he’d missed in them. His long hair was partially tied up in a frazzled bun, but mostly down his back. He blinked at them through a pair of glasses that were almost an exact match for the ones in fashion at King Kuei’s court, like he’d gotten them from the same artisan. And also there were some ink stains on his face, like maybe he’d fallen asleep on some still-drying documents. So… maybe a scribe? 

“Where’s the Fire Lord?” Sokka demanded, club raised.

“...I can see the family resemblance,” said the servant, who had turned fully to face them, and oh. He… had the Fire Lord’s scar. And there was the Fire Lord’s crown, being used as a paperweight at the edge of the desk. 

“Does Chief Hakoda know his children are here to assassinate his ally—” Fire Lord Zuko said.

“ ‘Ally’ is a little strong,” interrupted Sokka.

“—Or do the Water Tribes have their own ‘rebel leader’ now?”

“ ‘Assassinate’ is a little strong, too,” Aang said softly, shuffling his feet, his hands tight around his staff.

The Fire Lord stared at him a moment. “...Ah. So my father would prefer that you maim me, and drop me in a dark cell for the rest of my life?” 

“Umm.”

Zuko stared, and stared, and then pushed up his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. “Listen. Can we just… reschedule this?” 

“Reschedule,” Katara repeated. “This.”

“You haven’t attacked me yet, so this isn’t technically a diplomatic incident. It’s just… a scheduling conflict?”

Sokka snorted, and then looked vaguely angry at himself. Katara elbowed him. Aang kept gripping his glider, but maybe a little less tightly.

“We got news of an earthquake on Shojima not even two candlemarks ago,” the Fire Lord said, sliding his glasses back down. “Which means the tsunami is on its way to the main coast by now, if it hasn’t hit already, and I need to get these out if the relief supplies are going to be on their way by morning. So we can either have a really fast assassination attempt and then I have to add ‘explain to the world why the Fire Lord killed the Avatar and a nation’s heirs’ to my schedule sometime this week. Or we can talk first, but I don’t have time for that, so can we reschedule this to…”

And the very evil Fire Lord turned away from them to begin shuffling through his papers.

“First,” Sokka said, pointing a finger at the teenager, “Aang would be more than a quick fight, rude. Second: I’m still working on the second, but seriously, rude. And third, what do you mean you’d put our fiery-death-explanations into your schedule sometime this week?”

The Fire Lord didn’t seem to be listening. But he’d apparently found his appointment book, so that was good? Except for all the flipping.

“I can do… lunch tomorrow? If you’re okay with actually eating while we talk. I’m not allowed to skip meals, or Captain Izumi cancels my appointments ‘for national security’.”

Sokka slowly lowered down his pointing finger. 

“Talking would be good,” Aang said. “I like talking.”

And then they got to meet Captain Izumi, which was a lot scarier than meeting the Fire Lord.

And then they realized that what they’d thought was vaguely tacky dragon-print paneling along two walls was actual dragon skin and this wasn’t an office it was an open-air veranda and—

“Quick fight” might have been an accurate prediction, yes. 

More accurate than Sifu Ozai’s map.

(Read more prompts || Longer ATLA fics || Original works)

[essektheylyss]

God, I am obsessed with the implications behind Caleb waiting for and wondering about "a visit" from Essek because there's so much of an understanding in that, there's something established.

This doesn't have the feeling of pining in the sense that you're uncertain about crossing a line or whether a step further was welcomed, but instead an acknowledgement that there are many factors involved that would make such a relationship unconventional, and recognizing that what that looks like one week to another changes, and respecting how that shifts.

Perhaps there is a bit of pining involved, that for the feeling that they're not really going to get normalcy, that this is what they've been afforded; but this isn't really pining, it's just an extension of the grief and guilt they're both carrying.

But in spite of that, here is this open invitation, with perhaps some nebulous boundaries as to what that entails week to week—but it's an invitation that both seems to be well established and is also clearly accepted some of the time, given that Caleb is able to anticipate that, though it's unclear how often.

It's just very careful in a way that isn't at all hesitant, though perhaps it might look that way from the outside—it's meeting the other person where they are with grace, and knowing that, if or when it becomes necessary, they'll offer you the same grace in return.

[thestrugglesoftheamericancashier]

Bill, who only makes paper schedules kept inside the locked office that are usually a week or two ahead of schedule and has a history of changing the schedule without prior warning: *texting* Did you see the schedule? You have work today.

Sunny, who has been off for several days and was definitely NOT notified of the change to the schedule, again: *texting back* Not according to the schedule I have.

Bill: I changed the schedule on Saturday. You were working that day. You should have taken a photo of the schedule.

Sunny, who’s shift likely ended before Bill changed the schedule: Actually, I DID take another photo of the schedule on Saturday just incase it had changed. It was the same as the one I had before when I looked. *sends photo of schedule from own phone as proof*

[chirpsythismorning]

When ya'll told me I was crazy for saying s5 is gonna take up to a year to film and so I stayed quiet, but now it's low-key being confirmed: