#this is really long oh my gosh

[0perfectimperfections0]

Reunited Pt. 1

Me and my friend @natalie-the-writer made a deal that if I wrote THIS, she would finish the AU she's been working on..

ALSO, I'm posting this as well because she's amazing and a genius and did so great on her test.

PROUD OF YOU BESTIE!!!! YOU'RE AMAZING!

Some of this also belongs to her, as we passed around this story ideas. Lots of credit to her as well!

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"He needs to be taken back for repair."

"You're not touchin' him." Ox held the blonde doll closer to his chest. Yeah, he knew Lou hated him at the moment. At least, he thought he did. The millions of letters and files that arrived this morning at his office from Lou himself on how to run the Institute properly-- five months after his dethroning and the letters addressed to him (and everyone else)-- on Lou's living room table begged to differ. The limp form in his arms couldn't exactly respond to all the questions Ox had, his head in the green doll's lap and eyes shut for who knew how long. He was completely unresponsive to his or anyone else's calls.

They found him collapsed on his bedroom floor after not seeing him for days. The only thing that spurred everyone to come and not just him was the mountain of letters that arrived, apparently held back in the post by other dolls due to Lou's current outcast status. Letters written with care and files for months filled out. His skin was burning. Something in his neck was sparking from a rip in his seam. Nothing could rouse him. "For all we know, you'll take him to recycling. Wherever he goes, I'm taking him." Ox finished, running a hand across the doll's forehead in hopes he

would stir. Nothing.

"We'll all come." Moxy said, surprising him. When they met eyes, she tried for a smile. "Its clear something else is going on and you'll need back up. You and Lou."

The robots eyes flashed once. Twice. "You all may follow."

Ox easily hoisted Lou up into his arms. It'd been years since he carried the doll around while he was asleep (never in this coma-like state where he had to check and make sure Lou was breathing every few seconds), but his body never forgot. Lou's head rested easily against his shoulder. Mandy's hand came into view, gently pressing down and closing the rip. The sparks didn't affect them. Only Lou, who jerked a little every minute when a particularly harsh shock went through his body. "Lead the way."

It turned quickly and began its route. The Uglies exchange glances before following behind. Ox looked down at the limp form in his arms. Another shock made his back arch slightly in the midst of his coma. "Don't worry, buddy. We're gonna get you some help." It could have been a shock of smaller proportions, but Lou's hand twitched slightly. Fingers clenched onto Ox's short fur before going lax again.

"Where are we going?" Nolan asked the robot, wringing his hands together nervously as he looked at Lou.

The response was monotone, and even more so vague. "To the creator."

They were led through a pipe at the far end of the Institute. Ox had never traveled this far in his earlier years of founding Uglyville. The only pipe he remembered -- and that was now blocked off -- was the one that led to recycling. Nevertheless, he trusted this robot knew what it was doing. Most likely it was following a protocol of some sort anyhow, so there wouldn't be much room for error. Ox stayed at the front just behind the robot. It lit the dark recesses of the pipe with its eyes. Babo supported the back of the group with a flashlight of his own.

Mandy squinted through the darkness. Something was reverberating through the pipe. The further they walked, the more the source of the motion could be deciphered. Voices. Two distinct baritone voices were heard somewhere farther down. The robot suddenly stopped and Ox barely managed to not run into the back of it. There was a metal door in front of them. From where they were now, the voices were much louder. The robot placed its hand on the surface, eyes shining red for a moment before turning blue. The sound of air being suctioned out and the door clicking became the secondary sound within the pipe. Ox cautiously followed the robot into the open.

Before much of anything could be registered, the voices from earlier spoke up again. The words were much clearer now. "He's fine!"

The dolls collectively flinched at the tone and sheer volume of it. It wasn't much of a surprise when they found its owner to be a human man standing rigidly in the center of the office they had wound up in. His jet-black hair was combed back neatly and reflected the condition of his grey suit as well. His face wasn't nearly as becoming. Blue eyes glared brightly at another man -- presumably much older if the silver hair was any indication. This man's voice was softer, yet there was plenty of emotion behind his dim blue eyes. "He's clearly not if you won't let me see him! I have left him in your care for years, not questioning when you said he was 'thriving,' and then I come to see him for myself!" His voice rose as all the accusations seemed to dawn on him as he said them aloud.

"Don't you have a company to watch?"

"I have a doll to protect, Greyson. My Louis is hurting."

All the dolls gaped at that. So Lou had been their topic of conversation. That changed the importance of what they were saying. Any other time, Ox would have been quick to disregard the argument. But this changed things. Were one of these men the creator? Ox hoped it was the older man. He looked nicer and would be much more pleasant to talk to about this dire situation.

The younger man spoke up again, exasperated that the conversation was going on for this long. "He is perfectly fine, Father. I have watched him for years. He's fine. Safe and working." The dolls quickly maneuvered to the side of the desk as the man walked to lean against the bookshelf. Another jolt came from Lou. How could they safely get these men's attention?

"Then why did I look at his emotional stability and see that he's been suicidal and depressed?!" The man slammed his fist against the desk, overlapping the sound of their gasps. Ox's arms trembled as he pulled Lou closer to him, looking down at his brother's face.

Suicidal and depressed.

That…That wasn't because of him was it?

And how long had he been that way? Ox felt a wave of guilt crash over him. All these months and Ox had been none the wiser about what Lou was going through. The others looked surprised too, casting distraught looks to the blonde.

Goodness, brother…What have I done?

"He's just going through something!"

"That report on him was from months ago." He leaned forward on the mahogany desk. "I will say this one last time: bring me back my Louis. If you don't, you'll be fired."

Greyson stilled, eyebrows coming together. "You wouldn't dare."

"I will if you don't give me my doll."

Greyson spluttered for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Father, he's just a prototype! Why do you care about him so much? He's literally worthless on the market, you know. Worthless to this company, especially now that those other dolls have ruined everything."

"Those 'other dolls' are a success. That's at least something right that's been going on in that Institute. Whatever you've been doing to my Louis, however, is disgraceful. His emotional state has been declining for years now, long before the UglyDolls came into the picture. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It didn't matter--it still doesn't! You're wasting your time with that prototype. He's made to expire after a while. If my memory serves me right, it should only be a few more days. I guess those Uglies are good for something, as fast as they're selling. Maybe we won't need another prototype."

The unnamed man, Greyson's father, looked ready to scream at the other man. Possibly punch him. It was the robot flying up that broke the fight before it could start. The younger man's face went pale with fear while his father stared coldly at the robot. A small brow rose in little curiosity as the robot spoke. "Mr. Everett. Mr. Everett, Sir." It waved a claw through the air hurriedly. "The Model 12 Prototype needs repair."

The silver-haired man immediately spun to look at them. His eyes flew wide and he practically slid across the floor to get to them. To Lou. Soft hands reach out gently, "Oh, my boy." Ox allowed him to take Lou from his hold. If the argument was anything to go by, Ox could reasonably assume that this man could be trusted with the precious cargo. "Son, what have you done to him?" The man demanded.

Greyson leaned back in the desk chair, face schooled. "Well, look at that. I guess his expiration date came up sooner than expected."

The man's eyes hardened quickly, gaze never straying from the unconscious doll in his hands. "Get out."

"Excuse me?" Greyson sounded affronted.

"I said get out." The man stood now, shoulders squared. "I'll deal with you later. Right now, I need to take care of Louis." He was cradling the doll like a mother would a newborn baby. His eyes on the doll held the same love as well. It did little to assuage the anger burning through his tone, "Greyson, get out."

Greyson's tongue rolled in his mouth, a fiery retort poised on it. Thinking better of it, he clenched his jaw instead and stood up from the chair. The wheels slid harshly against the wooden floor, "Fine." He waved a dismissive hand behind him and slammed the door shut on his way out.

The older man walked over to the desk, replacing the chair's occupant with a more welcoming countenance. The Uglies scrambled their way up the desk, seemingly forgotten by the man. "E-Excuse me," Ox pushed himself over the edge of the desk. Dull, blue eyes landed on him, seemingly just now acknowledging their presence.

Before Ox could get another sentence out, the man profusely apologized. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Forgive me, I saw Louis's state and--"

"No, no, we understand," Ox was quick to assuage the man. "That's why we brought 'im here. The robots said he needed repair."

Nolan looked up at the human with wide eyes, "Are you his creator?"

A fond smile played on his lips, "I wish. No, my son takes that credit, unfortunately. It wasn't an issue until he started neglecting the poor boy." Relinquishing one hand to extend to the dolls, "The name's Henry Everett."

Nolan shied away from the greeting at first, but gingerly grasped one of the man's fingers to shake. "N-Nolan."

"Ox," the bunny answered next when the hand came his way. They each gave their greetings. This man was, in fact, nicer. The second he drew his attention back to Lou, quick work had been initiated. They watched him roll the desk drawer out and retrieve an elongated rod with something awfully sharp at the end. Once the dots connected at to where that object was headed, Ox bristled and rushed over to the man, "W-Wait! Don't hurt 'im!" The man had seemed so nice. Why did it look as if he was about to cut the blonde open?

Henry blinked down at the doll and gave a soft smile. "It won't hurt him at the moment. He's unconscious. I have to remove the chip, though, in order for any progress to be made." Ox still looked skeptical. He took a step back, warily glancing between the man and his brother, lips pressed in a fine line. Henry gently pushed the scalpel down on Lou's neck, "Trust me, this isn't the first time I've done this."

"This has happened before?" Mandy stepped up beside Ox, arms wrapped around herself. It was a…a very existential moment to see a doll like herself in the hands of a human. It made her realize how vulnerable they really were around such giants. Around the very people that made them -- well, made the machines that made them. Her eyes stayed glued to the scalpel as it carefully tore into the side of Lou's neck. Her stomach clenched at the sound.

There was a controlled nod from the man, not wanting to jostle the precious doll in his hand. "Not with Louis, no, but with the other prototypes."

"There's more?" Ox's ears perked up. Maybe Lou wasn't alone after all.

A heavy countenance fell over Henry. He barely spared them a glance, focusing primarily on Lou. "There…were more. I created the first two prototypes for the company. The first one had a few issues, as is expected with anything you do for the first time. Poor guy…I still hate myself for not finding other solutions. His chip had malfunctioned terribly. We didn't have the technology back then like we do now and so there was no for-sure way I could fix it. The uh…The chip ended up combusting inside him." Mandy's stomach dropped so hard she nearly fell. Nolan sheepishly moved behind her, squeamish from the mental image. "The second prototype was given a new chip. After my first mistake, I made sure modifications were made. She did well for a few years…and…," Henry sniffed, blowing out a sigh with a mirthless laugh, "Sorry."

"Something bad?" Moxy was almost scared to ask.

Henry nodded, blinking away the tears so he could focus on getting the chip out. "Awful. She…she was everything this company needed, honestly. We had figured out how to refine the emotions processor in the chip which made her the closest thing to AI before Louis came along. It sounds robotic and terribly dehumanizing, I know, but we don't have a more fitting term for it."

"Special," Ox offered, eye trained on his brother with a fond sadness.

A smile finally graced Henry's features, "I like that a lot better, yes. She was special. Incredibly smart and so in tune with her emotions that she easily related to the dolls. But…after a few years…her emotional stability started going south. I don't know what happened. The computers weren't set back then to give us specifics on the problem, only general reports. I had brought her in to ask her one day and she completely broke down in front of me. She was alone and scared. She felt abandoned and terribly isolated from all the dolls that kept leaving. It was miserable for her. I gave her what solace I could and encouraged her to keeping pushing on. That was a big mistake on my part. Barely a week later…the robots came back to report she had thrown herself into the recycling."

"Oh my gosh!" Mandy put a hand to her mouth. Ox swayed, doing good to not fall from the thought that overcame him. They said Lou had been depressed and suicidal. Would…Would he have gotten to that point to? Would he have thrown himself--

Ox took a few steps back, half certain he would be sick.

You monster.

You drove him to that point.

You left him.

You almost killed him.

That last thought was what had him tugging harshly on his ears. He spun on his heel, pleading to the man, "Please tell me you can fix this! M-Make 'im happy o-or somethin'! Make 'im forget the past!"

Henry looked offended, "Make him forget everything he's learned? Everything that's made him who he is today? Bunny, I don't think you know what that would mean for him."

"It would mean life!" Ox flung his arms out desperately. "It's my fault that all this happened! I…I left him! I told 'im I'd always be there for 'im and I left him!"

Brows cinched. Henry softened his gaze at the bunny, "You didn't do anything. Greyson ordered the robots to destroy you. I saw it in the computer system. When I asked about it, he said Louis ended up taking care of it. You didn't leave him, bunny…he let you go."

Ox looked down to the unconscious form. "He did?"

"Greyson was livid when he found out a few months ago that Louis didn't actually get rid of you. Not in the way he wanted, anyway." Henry set the scalpel down and grabbed a pair of tweezers. Some of them had to look away as he dug for the chip. "By the time Louis was made, though, the computer systems had been updated to show specific readings from the chip. Only this is, after Grace -- the second prototype -- ended…well, the way she did, Greyson and I came to the decision to prohibit emotional understanding. So, our IT team manufactured a new chip that wouldn't allow emotions to be processed or learned. We didn't want to risk another incident like that happening. And thus," Henry held up a small green square in between the tips to the tweezers, "Louis was born."

They stared with wide eyes at the chip. Henry delicately lowered it down, "If you would hold this for me please. I need to get him situated." Mandy glanced at the others, but they stepped back. Even Ox looked wary to hold it. She held her hands out and it was placed gently. "Don't worry. As long as you don't hurl it across the room it won't break." His attempt at humor was lost as Mandy gawked at the chip. Blue dots of light streamed through the individual wires inside. It was oddly beautiful.

"So…this is…," she looked up at Henry through her lashes.

"That is Louis, my dear. Everything he's ever learned, been programmed with, felt, and every memory he's every made is all contained inside that tiny little chip."

She looked back down at the chip. "Wow," she whispered breathlessly. The others gathered enough courage to look at it as well.

"Do we have chips, too?" Moxy asked.

"No, the chips are only needed for prototypes. They are what we base the rest of you on. Think of it like…a folder. All the information we intend to put in you is first stored in a prototype's chip, or folder. This gives us an idea as to how much information one of you could handle without risking a malfunction. The folder isn't necessary in order for the information to get to you all, however, only for the prototype so we know how much you can handle. Once we have an estimate, that data is automatically transferred into your microfibers and spread out inside of you. Those little lights you see in the chip? You have lights like those -- barely visible to the naked eye -- coursing through the microfibers of your stuffing. The difference between Louis's chip and you all, is that we reserved the extra space for you all to have emotions. Since your purpose would be better served with them."

Nolan watched, mesmerized by the lights coursing through the small wires. That was in them? The revelation would take time to truly settle in their minds, but it was a fascinating thought to contemplate. Gingerly, he traced a finger along the course of one of the blue lights. It traveled quickly, but his intention wasn't to race it. "Why weren't we made with chips? Wouldn't that be easier?"

Henry lolled his head side-to-side, as if weighing the idea, "It would, in a way. There are consequences to consider, though. Microchips are fragile. If a child were to throw a doll with one, it could possible damage or entirely break it. By distributing the same data in your microfibers, we essentially cushion it to where we eliminate that issue."

"So, if this were to break…?" Nolan traced another light curiously.

"Louis would be -- in laymen terms -- dead."

With wide eyes, Nolan withdrew his hand quickly, as if his actions alone posed a risk for Lou's safety. Mandy swallowed thickly and held the microchip to her chest. She carefully sat down, legs crossed. The less distance between the chip and the desk, the better. Nolan sat down beside her. She traced a finger along the surface. Such a precious and fragile part of Lou. It was Lou, in a way. As difficult as it was to comprehend. Lou's body was in Henry's hand, yet the very bane of his existence laid in hers. Despite everything that had transpired between her and the blonde within the last few months, an overwhelming sense of protectiveness filled her. It made more sense why he had kept his nature a secret. If she harbored a delicate -- yet vitally important -- piece of herself, she would be careful as to who found out about it.

That day at the Gauntlet…when the burst of the portal had flung Lou and Ox back, the impact could have killed him if he landed wrong.

If that baby had thrown him…

Mandy shivered. That was why he had reacted so brashly. What was a natural circumstance for the rest of them had been a life-or-death moment for Lou.

Her eyes shrunk in fear at the next thought--

"W-What," she couldn't fight the slight quiver to her voice, "What would happen if he were put in the wash?"

Henry hummed, as if the thought pained him, face scrunching, "No. That's another reason why he isn't made for the real world. If water were to seep through his felt and reach his chip, it would electrocute him before dying."

"Oh my doll!" Nolan whispered frantically. He looked at Mandy, tears beginning to roll down his face. "Mandy, I could have killed him!"

"But you didn't--"

"But I almost did!" Nolan dug his hands into his hair, "I-I almost killed him a-and he would've d-died and been…been electrocuted! Mandy, oh m-my gosh, what the heck was I thinking?!"

"None of us knew, Nolan," Mandy tried assuring him. "We…w-we all had a part to play in that. Oh my gosh," she had to hold the microchip out carefully when she realized she was crying too. Her tears could do damage to it as well. Her mind suddenly flashed through all the moments leading up to his demise that they could have accidentally killed him. The dog. The washer. The baby. All the times that perturbed dolls would take the water bucket and dump it over Lou's head just out of spite. That proposed another question. "Does he know?" She looked up at Henry as he got out something else from the drawer. "Does Lou know about how fragile the chip is?"

"Oh, of course, yes. We explained it to him from the beginning and it's in the rule book." Henry set a small chair down on the desk. One fit for a doll.

So, that fear in his eyes when Nolan had suggested the wash as an apt punishment. That wasn't about the suit at all.

And yet, Lou still never told them anything. He never told them about the chip. Never told them about the risks. Even as they continued throwing him in the wash…he kept silent. Even as dolls mocked him by throwing the water on his head, he said nothing. It made her wonder if he was attempting to do exactly what Grace had done, just by different means.

Mandy let out a shaky breath, rubbing a thumb across the chip. "I'm sorry, Lou," she whispered. A green light trailed in the place of a blue one this time, catching her attention. It followed along the wires before disappearing. Blue was all that appeared afterward. Sniffing, she looked back up at Henry, "What does a green light mean?"

He was hooking up the chair to something under the desk. "Green? That means new information has been collected and stored." Mandy looked back down at the chip, perplexed. "Alright, there we go." Henry announced. He gingerly placed Lou into the chair and snapped his wrists and ankles into place by metal cuffs attached to the chair. It didn't give off a very comely appearance.

"W-What is that?" Nolan didn't seem to like the look of it either.

"The cuffs are for precaution. I'd have one of you hold him down, but I feel like that may be a bit emotionally disturbing for some of you." He gave a sympathetic look to them, noticing the many tears on their faces. Mandy looked over and found Moxy at her other side. The pink doll quickly wiped at her eyes, looking away. Wage tried to sniff quietly, crossing her arms and faking a stoic look. "I'll have the new chip connected to the computer to transfer the existing data from that one."

"What about this one?" Mandy asked.

"It will still be running. A duplicate, essentially. It's broken and nearing its end, so it won't remain that way. But for now it will serve as a backup conscious for Lou if he rejects the new chip. If he accepts the new one, that one can be destroyed."

Mandy bit her lip, looking back down at the chip. "Could…we keep it?" That made Henry pause to watch her curiously. She spoke in a nervous rush, "I-It's just that…I mean this is Lou. A-And no matter how the other chip works out for him…i-it just…it feels wrong to destroy it. W-We've already hurt him so much…This is almost like killing him too, isn't it?"

"It will die eventually," he said.

"Yeah, right, of course," she wiped at the tears on her cheek. "Please? I just don't feel right destroying it intentionally."

Henry smiled, eyes downcasting, "Of course, dear. Bless your heart, Louis is lucky to have friends like you all." The group exchanged remorseful glances. Only Ox could truly say he had been Lou's friend at one point. Not so much now, but at one time. They each made a silent promise within themselves to change that.

Moxy shyly sauntered over to the chair, "You said something about Lou accepting the chip. What if he doesn't accept it?"

"Well," Henry sighed, "the memories and information we'll be transferring won't be pleasant for him. Trauma will be the bulk of it, honestly. He might reject the information because of that. If he does…then the old chip will be our only option."

"But you said it will die," Mandy stated. Henry pursed his lips, silent.

Moxy frowned at the unconscious prototype. His head was limp against the back of the chair, tilted on his shoulder, hair falling in loose waves around his face. She shuddered at the thought of him staying that way. Unmoving. Unresponsive. But he was connected to the chip. He was the chip. She walked over to Mandy, reaching out, "Can I try something?" she nodded to the device in her hands. With visible hesitation, Mandy slid the microchip into pink hands and watched the doll carry it back over to the chair. Moxy glanced between the device and the prototype, "Lou?" Blue lights continued circulating. "I know it's gonna hurt…b-but we need you to accept the new chip, okay? We need you back. You gotta wake up for us. C-Can…Can you do that?" After a heartbeat, a green orb of light birthed within the circuits and followed its course in the circuits before vanishing. Something new had been stored. Moxy gave a watery smile at the device, "I think he can hear us," her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Moxy you're a genius!" Ox hurried up to her. "If Lou don't want the bad memories, we'll give 'im somethin' good to outweigh 'em."

"That just might work," Henry hummed. "While you dolls do that, I'll get the new chip from fabrication."

"How long does it take to make one?" Nolan asked.

"About 4 months." The group startled. "But, maybe there will be a pre-made chip. One that will at least by us time until a permanent one can be made." He stepped out of the office, making sure to lock the door behind him. The dolls joined Moxy and Ox around the prototype. Ox sat on the arm of the chair, combing the stray hairs from Lou's face.

"What should we tell him?" Moxy looked at the device with new vigor as she sat on Lou's lap.

"Let him know we're here for him. Henry said Grace had felt isolated. Lou needs to know he's not alone." Mandy suggested. She gingerly hovered her hand over the incision made on Lou's neck. Wincing, she placed her hand on it in an attempt to aid any phantom pain the blonde might be in. He probably couldn't feel it, but the thought disheartened her.

Moxy reclined back against the blonde, holding the microchip in her lap. "Hey Lou, it's Moxy," she smiled. She might as well have been on a normal phone call. The mental image humored them. Ox smiled and watched her elevate the chip so Lou could "see" her better. They didn't completely understand how it worked, but they knew it was a precious device. Moxy adored precious things. She gave a toothy grin to the lights streaming across its surface, "We're all here with you. There's Nolan--say hi, Nolan!" She turned the device to face the brunette.

He quirked his mouth, peering at her from around the chip, "I don't think he can see us from it."

"Party pooper," she stuck her tongue out. "We don't know that. Just say something to him!"

"Um," Nolan looked at the ground in thought. "I'm sorry about the washer…I swear I wouldn't have done that i-if I'd known what could happen." Another green light trailed across the surface. Nolan smiled hopefully, "And when you wake up I want you to sing again. I miss hearing you sing." Another green light.

"Aww," Moxy turned it back toward her. "I miss hearing you sing, too. We'll just have to find some better songs for you. Oh my doll! I know just the song--"

"Hold on, girlie," Wage interrupted her, leaning over the chair to look at the device, "let me say somethin' before you go ramblin' on." Moxy rolled her eyes but obliged, handing the device to Wage. The orange doll pointed a stern finger down at it, "Listen blondie, you better wake up so I can get this weight off my chest. We're gonna be friends whether you like it or not."

"Very sweet, Wage," Ox rolled his eyes.

She huffed and scratched the back of her neck, "And…I guess I miss you too. Don't die on us, got it?" Another green light showed she had been heard.

UglyDog hopped up on the arm of the chair, leaning two paws against the orange doll, "I can hook ya up with some music! We'll have a party when you wake up!"

"Guys, don’t overwhelm him," Mandy shook her head fondly. It was her turn with the microchip now. "Take your time, okay? We'll have a party later," she sent a look to the two. "You just focus on waking up. We'll be right here waiting for you when you do." She held his hand, giving a gentle squeeze. A green light.

Babo smiled and poked his head in beside her, "And don't worry about the files. We'll figure those out too." Green light.

"We'll try, anyway," LuckyBat added. "And I've got some techniques for handling trauma. We'll work through it together." Another green light.

The chip was handed to Ox. He grasped for words, staring down at the blue lights as they danced in coordination with one another. "I'm sorry," he swallowed through the tightness in his throat, "f-for everything that happened 'tween us. Please…Please wake up so I can tell ya how sorry I am. Wake up so I can tell ya how much I love ya." It took a second, but a green light glowed and trailed delicately down the chip, parallel to Ox's tears. He smiled shakily and soon handed it back to Moxy.

"We all care, Lou," she slowly traced her gaze to the unconscious doll. "We're sorry, but please…wake up so we can have the chance to make it up to you. We aren't leaving until you do."

The office door opened and Henry walked in with a small box. Ox's ears perked up, "Ya found one?"

"Greyson already had a chip made, apparently, specifically one for the Model 12 Prototype's." His voice didn't sound enthusiastic. "The lead fabricator told me Greyson ordered for one to be made months ago for when Louis quit working."

"For when he died," Mandy's eyes burned. "He was just going to do that? Let Lou die?"

"I guess he thought it wouldn't be a problem. The robots have a protocol set up for when a prototype…dies. Louis would've been blissfully unaware when the time came." The computer was set up and the thinner lines printed onto the microchip in Moxy's hands glowed blue. "I've got the data. Now he just needs the new chip." Tweezers gently picked up the new device. It was a dull chromatic color, not yet activated with the beautiful light show that Lou's current chip adorned. Mandy cupped one side of Lou's face while helping Henry guide the chip into his neck. She tried to ignore the muffled shifting of the stuffing as the hallowed spot was again filled. Nolan took her place a second later when he noticed Henry leaning forward with a needle and thread in hand. He aided in gently sewing the gap. Taking a step back, he looked…almost back to normal. Still incredibly dormant for their liking. Too…still.

"I advise you all to stand back a good distance. Um…," he hesitated, giving them his full attention. "This part isn't for the faint of heart. He'll be in a great deal of pain during this process and will be activated, so he'll be reacting to the pain. You all can wait in the other room--"

"We'll stay," Ox set his mouth in a fine line. "I will, anyway. Ya'll can go. I ain't forcin' ya'll to do anything."

No one moved.

Henry gave a curt nod and pressed a button on the computer. In an instant, the chip in Moxy's hand glowed green and a faint light of blue could be seen from Lou's neck. A scream broke through the silence in that very moment. Lou's back arched on reflex in the chair and his fingers dug into the wood. His head tilted up, pressed as far back into the head of the chair as it would allow, throat tightened as he screamed. Mandy squeezed her eyes shut, praying. Ox forced himself to watch the pain he still believed to have been his fault. To engrave this memory into the fiber of his being so he wouldn't hurt Lou again. Moxy closed her eyes tightly, mouth pressed close to the chip that glowed in her hands as she whispered. "C'mon, you can do it. Please. I know you can do this. Please accept it." Nolan wasn't as strong as he attempted to be for the first few seconds. It wasn't long before the screams got to him and Mandy pulled him to her, letting his head rest on her shoulder so he wouldn't have to watch.

The memories were vicious. They came with a new kind of pain that Lou had never been conscientious of before. It was as if he had lived with blinders on his whole life, never knowing the full extent of the emotions he felt. As if they had been muted. Images flashed through his mind.

Lou screamed and jolted quickly away from the portal. The rippled continued their course along the surface before dying out. A shock had been the source of his pain and the reason for htis scream. The second his hand had made contact, an electrical current had wound its way through his stuffing at such a high voltage. Lou panted, sitting up on the ground as he stared at the portal with wide eyes. A robot rolled forward, scanning him. "Model 12 Prototype. Greyson Everett has ordered you to not touch the portal. This has been your third warning. Pracautions will be implemented. With that, two metal walls slid over the portal. The sound echoed across the empty Institute once they connected. That was the last time the portal had been open all the time.

"Stop!" He pulled against the arm of the robot. Its eyes glowed red down at him. "Y-You can't do this!"

"The defective doll must be recycled." It was talking about Ox. "Greyson does not tolerate imperfection in his Institute."

In a rush of panic, Lou put his life on the line. "I-I'll do it! Tell Mr. Everett I'll take of the doll!"

"Failure to complete the task will result in harsh punishment."

"I understand," Lou panted through the rush of his speeding heart. "I-I understand the consequences. Please, tell Mr. Everett I'll take care of it."

He stared into the dark void of the pipe. As brightly colored as that bunny was, he was now lost to the darkness. Lou grit his teeth, fingers digging into the palms of his hands. He swallowed down a sob as the robots rolled up behind him. "Greyson Everett is requesting an update on the whereabouts of the deformed doll. Has the issue been resolved properly?"

Lou's eyes fluttered, unable to fully blink lest the tears find their freedom upon his face. "Yes…Tell Mr. Everett the doll is gone." Metal wheels rolled away. Lou didn't have the strength to turn around, only to see that he was once again alone in this prison.

Tears he didn't know were there pooled from his eyes. The body's natural response to this kind of torture. He didn't want this. He didn't want the pain. With a mental force, he pushed against the memories. Against the emotions. Against it all. His head snapped quickly to the side, arms tugging against the restraints. Henry watched the coding file onto the system, "He's rejecting it."

"No," Mandy whispered. She kneeled down beside Moxy, gingerly cupping pink hands to guide the chip toward herself, "Lou, please, don't fight it!" she cried over the screams. "You're okay! You're safe! They can't hurt you if you don't let them!"

Whispers echoed around him. Lou furrowed his brow at the pipe. That wasn't Ox speaking.

"I'm sorry, Lou" a feminine voice whispered. Lou whirled around, eyes darting in every direction. Why did is sound familiar?

"Lou?" Another female voice spoke up, this one higher pitched than the other. The blonde startled and spun around again. Nothing. "I know it's gonna hurt," he frowned at that part. What was going to hurt? "B-But we need you to accept the new chip, okay?" Lou touched the spot on his neck. How did this voice know about his chip? "We need you back," the voice sounded close to tears. "You gotta wake up for us. C-Can… Can you do that?"

Lou stared down at the ground, brows cinched, "How?" He touched the spot on his neck again. Wake up…Wake up from what? He finally focused his eyes on the distance. There was nothing but a vast landscape of metal and houses that had been copied and pasted into rows. It was barren. Empty. He was alone. What was there to wake up from?

"Hey, Lou. It's Moxy." He startled again. Moxy…that sounded familiar. "We're all here for you. There's Nolan-- say hi, Nolan!"

A curious smile crept onto Lou's face as he listened to the peppy voice. A deeper one followed hers. Male. "Um…I'm sorry about the washer." Lou blinked at the ground, confused.

In a flash, the world around him changed. He was somewhere dark. What little light there was to offer came from a glass door in front of him. Lou's breathing began to pick up speed. He was in the washing machine. Something cold reached his feet and he saw water beginning to rise as it poured down from the top of the machine. He scrambled to his feet, nearly falling as the cylinder began to sway from his movements. He banged and pushed on the glass door, but it wouldn't budge.

The voice spoke up again, "I swear I wouldn't have done that i-if I'd known what could happen." The water reached his knees and Lou screamed as his fists pounded against the glass. "And when you wake up, I want you to sing again. I miss hearing you sing." Lou looked at his reflection in the glass, tears streaming down his face. This voice was talking about waking up, too. Wake up from what?!

Lou cried, pounding the glass again, "I don't understand!" More voices echoed around him. All different. Ones he didn't recognize. The water reached just below his chest now and he rammed a shoulder into the door to try and open it. Nothing worked. "Please! Help! Someone get me out! I don't wanna be here! I don't wanna die!"

"I'm sorry." Lou froze. Ox. "f-for everything that happened 'tween us. Please…Please wake up so I can tell ya how sorry I am. Wake up so I can tell ya how much I love ya." Lou looked around frantically for the green bunny.

"Ox? Ox! Please, help me!" The bunny wasn't anywhere. "Ox, please! Where are you?!" The water felt cold to his neck as it reached under his chin. Lou struggled to stay above the water. His chip would get wet. He had to keep it dry.

"We all care, Lou." That bright voice spoke up again, the female. "We're sorry, but please…wake up so we can have the chance to make it up to you. We aren't leaving until you do."

"I don't know how! Please, tell me how!" Lou sobbed. He choked as the water entered his mouth. Something hit the top of his head and his dropped to his stomach when he realized he was at the top of the washer. There was no more room to go. The water kept rising. He thrashed and struggled to keep his mouth above the water for air. He was going to die. No one was going to help him--

"Lou!" One of the voices screamed. "Lou, please, don't fight it!" He spluttered and the water reached the top. Hands shoved relentlessly against the top before he tried swimming to the glass door again. Nothing budged. He screamed through the water.

Despite its density, the voice spoke as clearly as it had before, panicked. "You're okay! You're safe! They can't hurt you if you don't let them!"

There wasn't anything he could do. He stared at his reflection again, warped now by the water around him.

They can't hurt you…

Lou shut his eyes tightly, fingers pressing against the glass before he let himself drift away from the door. He was okay. Whoever those other voices belonged to, they were with Ox. He could trust Ox. His brother. His heart raced wildly. Tilting his head down and forcing his eyes shut tighter, he let out what air was left in him. The water rushed around him at a slower rate than it had before he was submerged. Funny…everything was calmer underneath the rising water. He was safe. Everything was okay. Ox was somewhere….waiting for him. Waiting for him to wake up from whatever nightmare this was.

They watched with baited breaths. The blonde had stilled, tousled hair stuck to his forehead and chest heaving. His face was still scrunched up a little, almost in concentration. After a moment, a small ding came from the computer. "He accepted it," Henry smiled. The restraints were unlatched and the group instantly hurried over to make sure everything was as it should be.

"Lou?" Ox hopped up onto the arm of the chair again. He brushed the damp bangs behind the blonde's ear. "Bubba? Can ya hear me?"

Fingers twitched. Nose wrinkled for a second. Before long, sapphire eyes peaked open, "Ox?" His voice was raw from screaming.

The bunny faltered on a sob, wrapping the other in a hug, "Yeah, I'm here, Bud. I've always been here." Lou's head fell limply on his shoulder and he brought a paw up to the back of his head. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry, Lou. I love ya."

"L-…," the blonde murmured, "-ve…too." Ox smiled. He understood.

"He'll be very out of it for the next week or two," Henry came over to the other side of the desk. Ox moved as Lou was gingerly scooped into the man's hand. "Hey, kiddo. You still with us?" Lou could only muster a hum in response. Henry gently turned the doll's head. The chip wasn't doing anything weird. "Everything looks fine. The computer is reading normal. He won't be able to do much of anything for two weeks. I can always keep him here if you all don't have the time."

"We've got it," Mandy assured even before Ox could say anything. The bunny tilted his head at her, receiving a genuine smile. Her arms were stretched out, and she carefully let Henry slide the doll into her arms, letting his head lean against her shoulder. "Don't let him exert himself. Plenty of rest. Anything else we should know?"

"Keep an eye on that chip. Make sure it doesn't do anything out of the ordinary. The robots will be alerted as an extra measure if the computer gives off some bad readings. It should work fine, but I don't want to take chances."

"You have our word," Ox nodded. 

[cloudshocks]

New S3 owl house episode, new owl house fanart. You know the drill!

I imagine they like listening to each other ramble about stuff, mainly bc they get to see the other person talking animatedly about something that makes them happy.

[kanasmusings]

[English Subs DL] Banana Fish Stage Play Part 1 & Part 2

Hello, friends~! I come to you this time with English subs for the Banana Fish stage plays~! Thank you to @emerald-trashart for requesting me to do both plays! I had such a blast working on it even though it got a bit overwhelming and heavy at times (because Banana Fish (╥_╥))

The stage play is just so amazing, and beautifully made...! I went into this not knowing what to expect, and I came out of it just mesmerized. If you're familiar with Banana Fish, of course it will be as heavy as its source material, but I think that you would enjoy it! The production did a really great job respecting and staying true to the events of its source, and I think long-time fans would love it ^^

The actors, too...! They were so great at their roles, and gosh the emotions and intensity they portrayed were really convincing. Mizue Kenta and Okamiya Kurumu were so perfect as Ash and Eiji, and their chemistry was just beautiful T^T>

Alright, enough rambling! I'll let the stage play speak for itself! (￣▽￣)

For those who are interested in getting the Blu-rays for themselves, I’ll provide links below~ BD Purchase Links: (From Animate JP) BANANA FISH PART 1 | BANANA FISH PART 2 * Purchase links would require proxy since the BDs are sold-out on CDJapan and were requested through proxy either way. I couldn't find them on Animate International either ^^;

Notes, disclaimers, trigger warnings, and link under the cut, enjoy~! (Long post ahead ^^;)

NOTES:

※ THE FILE IS SUBTITLES ONLY, VIDEO IS NOT INCLUDED!

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Heavy mentions/depictions of drugs/drug abuse, sexual abuse (rape, pedophilia, child prostitution/pornography, among others), mental disorders/illnesses, gun violence, racism, general gang violence, suicide, death.

Above themes are rampant in both stages, so please watch with caution. If you start feeling uncomfortable or anxious, please take a step back and stop watching until you feel better.

For those who want to start watching the anime after getting into it from the stage play, please refer to these guides for trigger warnings: Twitter | IMDb

MISC. NOTES:

From what I remember, the stage play follows the manga more than the anime (since the anime changed some stuff). So if something from the stage was not in the anime, you can check the manga for them ^^

RULES:

[MOST IMPORTANT] Please DO NOT re-post the subs and the link outside of Tumblr! If you want to share outside, please, please DM me about it and link my blog to your post. That’s all I ask.

Please DO NOT remove my credits.

Please DO NOT re-translate without permission.

SUBS DL LINK: PART 1 | PART 2

※ Please only DM me if there is a problem with the subtitles. I cannot help you if it’s related to the videos. ※ If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a coffee here, if you can. It’ll really help me out a lot.(o^▽^o) Thank you!!

[yukipri]

I saw somewhere someone says it wasn't the Jedi fault what happened at Galidraan, they were there to arrest and investigate, not to kill, and it was the mando who attack first. Is that true ? I didn't read it

Ahh fandom misunderstandings about Galidraan continue.

Understandable, given it's from a relatively obscure base media but the event comes up a lot in fan works. I'll do my best to break it down.

All you need to know about the Massacre on Galidraan

The following info is all from the Legends comic Jango Fett: Open Seasons, specifically focussing on the 3rd installment, Winter. Here's a photo of my physical copy I have open as I type this, so you know I'm not pulling this info out of my ass.

First, some crucial facts:

1: Galidraan was not a Mandos vs Jedi conflict.

It may appear that way at first glance, and likely seemed that way to many outsiders across the Galaxy who only read about the massacre in a heavily censored news article. But while the battle was the True Mandalorians fighting against the Jedi and ultimately all dying except for Jango, that is not what the conflict was about.

2: There were 4 factions involved in Galidraan.

People oftentimes boil it down to Mandos vs Jedi, but that isn't accurate, because there were 4 parties involved:

The True Mandalorians (Haat Mando'ade; Jango's people)

The Jedi

Death Watch (led by Tor Vizsla, who killed Jaster, Jango's mentor)

The Governor of Galidraan

I have no idea why some fandom takes on Galidraan forget to mention the last two, when they are why the massacre took place at all.

3: The party responsible for the conflict on Galidraan was DEATH WATCH, with the Governor of Galidraan as their accomplice.

&

The Jedi were used, and the True Mandalorians were victims.

You can endlessly debate whether or not the Jedi or the True Mandalorians could have taken different actions to have possibly prevented the massacre. And it's true, it might have been possible! There were certainly other actions that both sides could have taken.

HOWEVER. That discussion can ONLY take place after understanding that both sides were very intentionally, and very MALICIOUSLY manipulated by a third party.

This was not a normal Jedi vs Mandos clash. Neither the Jedi nor the True Mandalorians would have fought (would have even been on the planet in the first place!) without these manipulations, so to ask which of the two was to blame without first understanding that Death Watch set them up is failing to get Galidraan at all.

Here's what happened at the Massacre of Galidraan:

Jango and the True Mandalorians took a job from the Governor of Galidraan to kill his political opponents. The True Mandalorians are mercenaries, and this was just a job for them. It's also implied that Jango knew in advance that the Governor of Galidraan had been harboring Tor Vizsla and funding Death Watch*, and he intentionally took the job in order to get the Governor to owe him and pay him with information on them.

Jango and the True Mandalorians killed the Governor's political opponents, just as they were hired to do, and upheld their agreement. When Jango goes to collect payment, it was a trap—Tor Vizsla and Death Watch were waiting for him, and attempted to kill him.

Jango escapes, but his jetpack is damaged, as are his comms (or perhaps more likely, his comms were intentionally blocked). This is important because Jango now knows explicitly that they were set up: that the Governor of Galidraan was always working with Death Watch, and that he and his people being called to this planet was a trap in order to kill them. He tries to warn the True Mandalorians (Myles, his second, to be exact) to evacuate, but is unable to reach them because of his comms connection.

Back with Death Watch and the Governor, after Vizsla fails to kill Jango, they watch as the Jedi land on planet. The Governor states: "Yes, as you [Tor Vizsla] instructed, I begged for [the Jedi/the Republic's] help. Informed them that the Mandalorians were slaughtering political activists, which is basically true."

So, let's get this straight: the Governor of Galidraan, who personally HIRED the True Mandalorians to get rid of his political opponents, is now calling the Jedi to say "Oh no the Mandalorians are killing political activists!" And he did so under the explicit orders of Tor Vizsla. He explicitly backstabbed the True Mandalorians.

Should note that the True Mandalorians do follow a code, and only killed the specific people considered a threat (aka combatants). The True Mandalorians did not touch civilians, but as you can see from frames above, Death Watch goes ahead and kills them to make false evidence against the True Mandalorians and therefore justify their slaughter.

Again: Death Watch/Tor Vizsla and the Governor of Galidraan EXPLICITLY set up the True Mandalorians/Jango.

Next: Jango gets back to the True Mandalorians' camp as soon as he can, and arrives just as a large group of Jedi arrive, led by Dooku. Their lightsabers are already drawn.

Dooku says to them: "You stand accused of murder. Surrender now and we will ensure that you are fairly treated."

The girl next to Dooku, presumably young Komari Vosa, adds, "But fight us, and we will bring swift justice!"

Jango's response: "Mandalorians, open fire! And shoot the loudmouth first!"

And so the battle begins.

Without any of the previous context, sure, it might be easy to say "Jango's responsible, he fired first." But take a moment to think about what led up to this moment.

Jango knows, explicitly, that Death Watch and the Governor are working together.

He knows that Death Watch just wants him dead, and in fact very literally just escaped being killed.

He knows that he and his people are caught in a trap, and that Death Watch and the Governor want them all dead.

He probably isn't sure how they're going to be killed—until he arrives back at camp, and sees a shitton of Jedi with their lightsabers drawn, who are accusing them of a crime they did not commit. And he must have thought, ah, that would do it.

This isn't a normal encounter with the Jedi. It's true that Mandalorians have reasons to dislike Jedi as a whole, but Jango didn't shoot first because of that.

Jango shot first because he recognized that the Jedi were the weapon that Death Watch and the Governor chose for the execution of himself and his people. And he wasn't wrong.

Could Jango have maybe stopped to have a gentlemanly chat with Dooku and say "Good sir, we did not commit any murder, you were told false information and are being manipulated and we the True Mandalorians have been set up. Please put away your lightsabers so we can talk"? I mean. He could have. But.

With all of the context above, his decision to raise arms also makes sense.

After the battle, all fo the True Mandalorians present have been killed except Jango, as well as roughly half of the Jedi. Many of those Jedi were killed by Jango himself, with nothing but his bare hands—this is how he gains his infamous reputation as a "Jedi Killer." But to him, he was acting in self-defense.

The Jedi—or rather, at least Dooku—realize that they have been used only after the fact, and that they've done something horribly wrong and have killed innocents. Surrounded by the bodies of Jedi and True Mandalorians, and having just watched Jango strangle one last Jedi, Dooku says:

"What have we done...?"

In the "present" of the comic (pre-clone deal), Dooku also tells Sidious about Galidraan, "It was a misguided mission from the start. And not the first of the Council's many...poor decisions."

So what happened afterwards?

Jango alone was captured alive, and for some darn reason the Jedi turned him over to the Governor of Galidraan*. The Governor sold Jango to slavers and he was forced to work on a spice transport, until an opportunity arose to escape.

After escaping, did Jango seek out the Jedi?

No.

He beelined straight back to Galidraan, where the Governor, who had sold him and worked with Death Watch, had taken his armor (Jaster's armor) as some sort of twisted war trophy. He recovered his armor, and threatened the governor to get info on Tor Vizsla's location.

After that, did he go on a revenge campaign against the Jedi?

No.

He went straight for Tor Vizsla, who was PERSONALLY responsible for the deaths of the True Mandalorians at Galidraan. And he fought him. And killed him.

(or more specifically, injured him then let dire-cats eat him alive. Looks like Fetts have always had good luck with animals)

So that's the facts about Galidraan.

After Thoughts:

I hope this breakdown of the events makes it explicitly clear that Death Watch and the Governor were at fault for Galidraan, and that it was never a Mandos vs Jedi conflict. The same thing would have happened had Death Watch chosen a different executioner—though to be fair, not much can kill a trained group of Mandalorian mercenaries like the True Mandalorians.

Could both the True Mandalorians and Jedi have taken different actions that could have averted tragedy? Possibly. But just as likely, had Jango tried to talk, word would have reached the Jedi's ears that oh no, more Mandalorians are slaughtering the Galidraan women and children! (what Death Watch was doing while the True Mandos and Jedi were fighting) and then one of the more hot headed Jedi like Vosa probably would have been like "These negotiations are a distraction! Even now you're killing innocents—we fight!" And the True Mandos would have been killed anyway.

Again, they were set up. The True Mandalorians to be killed, the Jedi to be used as their ignorant executioner. They were not the only parties involved, and any attempt to peacefully negotiate their way out of it would have been hindered by the true aggressors, who already had contingency plans at the ready. And also, both parties were already expecting certain things of the other: Jango knew the Jedi had been sent to kill them (though not why the Jedi believed they should), and the Jedi thought they were a bunch of murderers, not a professional group simply hired for a job.

This is just my personal take, but while I don't think either Jango nor Dooku acted unreasonably at the time of the battle, there were two points where I think they could have made better decisions (marked with * above):

1) When Jango decided to take a job on Galidraan in the first place, knowing in advance that the Governor was friendly with Tor Vizsla and Death Watch. Admittedly, the comic doesn't provide much context for this, and perhaps the intel Jango had suggested a more distant connection, or something else to imply the Governor would be willing to rat out Death Watch. It seems almost cute that Jango goes ok, well I don't want to just randomly bust this guy's door down to threaten him for info on my arch nemesis, so I'm going to do a job for him and get him to owe me, and then we'll talk.

If there is one not so intelligent move Jango made, it seems like this one, though again there's not much context so perhaps it does make more sense.

2) When the Jedi give Jango to the Governor of Galidraan. I don't know about the rest of the Jedi, but Dooku at least seemed to sense that something had gone horribly wrong with the mission immediately after the battle, before they took Jango into custody. But despite KNOWING this, they didn't take the time to thoroughly investigate (better late than never) before handing Jango to his enemies on a silver platter. I would say that the Jedi ARE pretty responsible for this part, especially since they had reason to know better.

This action of the Jedi handing Jango over also implies that even if Jango had complied and he and all of the True Mandalorians had surrendered to the Jedi in hopes of talks, the Jedi would have handed them all over to the Governor (and Death Watch) to either be turned into slaves or executed. So no, I don't think that would have worked out well at all.

(I'm going to give at least Dooku the benefit of doubt, since the comic shows that at least he (and possibly he alone of the Jedi present) recognized that something was wrong. I'd hope that as the leader and presumably most senior member of the group of Jedi, he'd have some sort of authority, but then again, this is the Senate. He might have tried to at least delay Jango being handed over to the Governor until an investigation was conducted, but was perhaps held back by too much legal tape, and had to watch as someone he was sure was a victim was handed over to a suspicious party. Maybe he personally did an investigation afterwards and found that his bad feelings were correct, but when he tried to bring it up with the Council/Senate, he was told to forget about it. That would certainly shatter what remaining faith he had in the Republic and the Jedi, and possibly also lead him to search out Jango specifically as a candidate for the clone project—but again, this is purely speculation. Either way, Galidraan forms a potentially very fascinating connection between Dooku and Jango that predates Sidious.)

On the Jedi:

While the Galidraan conflict isn't about the Jedi, and they were simply used, I think internally, it does reveal some deep flaws in the Jedi Order as a whole, and that Dooku's criticisms of how they acted are fair. Dooku tells Jango, "[Galidraan] was the last of my foolish errands for the Senate. And the Jedi."

The Jedi are supposed to be peacekeepers, are supposed to understand and help people across the Galaxy, which their connection to the Force is supposed to help with. But by becoming an entity controlled by a political power that responds to mission requests through that chain, the Jedi are at risk of being used for various political agendas, sometimes to terrible consequences—like at Galidraan.

The quote above shows that the orders for the Jedi came from the Senate, who got them from the Governor of Galidraan. The fact is that the Jedi are a completely external force with zero familiarity with Galidraan or its current happenings, who were summoned by a government to do their bidding. If there was any investigation done, it clearly wasn't enough, and the Jedi were essentially turned into super deadly government attack dogs.

Galidraan laid bare the great danger that the Jedi can be, when their power is given to the wrong hands. Again, the Jedi were used—but that they could be used, that they likely have been used in the past and will be used in the future so long as they are beholden to a Republic whose orders they must follow—that's something to think about.

Again, it's not about Jedi vs Mandos. Sure, the fact that the Jedi have bad history with Mandos may have affected the lack of depth in their investigation. But it could have just as easily been "Group of X people are murdering innocents!" and the very same thing could have happened. This conflict revealed far less, "wow the Jedi really hate Mandos!" and more, "the Jedi and the Republic have a flawed relationship, and obeying government orders does not necessarily a peacekeeper make."

Given that the Jedi decided to give Jango to the Governor, I think it's very likely that no deep investigation was ever done into Galidraan, and if it was, it was covered up. After all, it's against the Republic's interests to show that they passed manipulated info to the Jedi, because they can't have the Jedi wanting to question future orders or worse, refuse to obey! And in a way, it's against the Order's interests to show that they not only fucked up by going to the mission at all, but further fucked up by handing the last surviving victim to the enemy after the fact. Add to that the fact that Death Watch was on site actively manipulating evidence and muddling the truth, and Jango no longer has anyone left alive to vouch for him so it's only his word, it's very likely that the truth really never got out of the small circle of those personally involved.

Perhaps the Jedi taught about Galidraan internally as a cautionary tale about being careful about the orders they're given. But given the above, I think that's incredibly generous and frankly unlikely.

On Jango Fett

This leads me to a final point: I disagree that Jango passionately hates and wants revenge on the Jedi.

At least, based on this story, as well as his depiction in the Bounty Hunters video game (which is supposed to be a sequel to this comic, even though its depiction of the start of the cloning contract isn't mutually compatible with the version in this comic) Jango doesn't actually really appear to care all that much about the Jedi at all.

You can say what you will about his actions, but he always has a very clear target for who his enemy is, and he goes straight for them. Immediately post Galidraan, it was the Governor of Galidraan and then Tor Vizsla specifically—not even the rest of Death Watch!

And while there isn't all that much official info on what Jango did after he killed Vizsla until he was pulled into the cloning project, I see zero evidence that he was consumed by revenge, or that he attempted to hunt down the rest of Death Watch or kill any Jedi despite the harm they have done to him in the past.

In fact, from his depiction at the start of the Bounty Hunters game, which I think is the best source of this period of his life that I can think of, it looks like Jango just kind of threw himself into bounty hunting work. After all, one does not have the reputation as "best bounty hunter in the galaxy" overriding "former Mand'alor, leader of the True Mandalorians" unless he did, well, a lot of bounty hunting.

He was a loner who didn't have any friends, which implies he didn't go looking for any surviving True Mandalorians—and there must have been, not everyone could have been in that battle. I suspect it's out of guilt, but that's a separate discussion. He didn't go hunting Jedi specifically, because presumably not many Jedi (who still identify as Jedi) have bounties on them, and "Jedi Killer" would certainly be a reputation louder than bounty hunter if that was his main focus.

But no. He was just a sad, lost dude who's really good at killing people so continues the Honorable Mercenary traditions of his people who are now gone, all by himself. Even the contest that lead to him being chosen as the Prime clone was originally just another job, and he just happened to meet Montross in the process, but he didn't really go out of his way to hunt him down either, despite how he was personally responsible for Jaster's death.

However—if you don't know that about Jango, and again don't have a full understanding of what happened at Galidraan (which again, I doubt many people do), I think it would be very easy to go oh! The Jedi killed all his people! So of course he hates Jedi!

(Which then provides a reason for why the Sith would think he would want to work with them to hurt Jedi—but does NOT explain why the Jedi would not think it suspicious that he's the Prime clone for an army supposedly made to help them. But that too is a separate exploration.)

All of this makes Jango a very fascinating character for me, and I could go on to explore his motivations and actions so much more—and in fact I do!!! All of those explorations of Jango and his motives and past are included as a large part of my fic, The Prime Override! So I won't go into it more here, this post is long enough, but you can check out my thoughts there! (LMAO sudden self-promo)

But anyway!!! I hope this whole thing was interesting for you, and that it helped you understand what happened at Galidraan better!

Again, the comic is Jango Fett: Open Seasons, written by Hayden Blackman, art by Ramon Bachs, Raul Fernandez, and Brad Anderson, published by Dark Horse Comics in 2002.

While I believe the standalone comic is out of print (I had to hunt down my copy on ebay), it's all included in Marvel Unlimited's digital comic library. It's also in the Star Wars Omnibus: Emissaries & Assassins collection, which might be cheaper because it's more recent.

As tragic as Jango's past is, it's one of my favorite Legends stories and I recommend reading the story for yourself if you can!

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

[peapodsplace]

Hey Baba, it seems like you've been seeing a lot of yucky stuff online right now. A lot of people who aren't remembering their manners and are forgetting that there's people behind a screen. I know you like your screen time but please remember that the world isn't all like that okay? Some people are different online and forget their values and let's remember that these days, algorithms perpously show you things that'll make you upset. Yes, yes it's not very fair, is it sweetheart. Please remember to take some breaks and that the world isn't really like that. It's so important to protect yourself. Yes, silly even if you think you don't deserve it; because you do.

[wayhaught-observations]

[whack-patty]

So guess who completely forgot that chocolate milk and strawberry milk is such a big internet thing and made a poll in the heat of the moment and now my inbox is full of T H E funniest tags but also now i can't find any of the non chocolate/strawberry milk debate stuff in the chocolate/strawberry milk flood i am drowning in

GOOD GOLLY

[bangcakes]

.

[moregraceful]

KASPER THOSE TAGS. THE IMPACT THIS SCHOLARSHIP CAN HAVE ON THE GUNNAR HENDERSON BLEEDING LOVE CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

GHBLCU!!! I can’t even look at the tags I wrote my own self without blacking out bc rhi’s scholarship captures SUCH a specific and visceral mood that yeets me violently back to high school and college, but it also captures the vibes around certain men so so well. Like yeah!! If I was Gunnar Henderson having to be around chosen one Adley Rutschmann who is so kind and so big and so goofy and so disinterested in me romantically but loves me wonderfully like a brother, if I was Gunnar sitting on the couch watching The Dark Knight with Adley, both of us sprawled out and kinda paying attention but also not really because neither of us actually wanted to watch the Dark Knight, Adley wanted to watch Casablanca and Gunnar wanted to watch V for Vendetta and they just ended up on The Dark Knight rather than re-litigate an argument about how many times you can watch Casablanca without Humphrey Bogart becoming Your Thing, if I was Gunnar and I was kinda bored and I knew Adley was kinda bored and I could see him shifting restlessly on the couch like he wants to start that argument again anyway, then, yeah, I would be feeling some things. If I was Gunnar, I would kinda wish Adley would feel me up on the couch!!! A lot!!!!

[hollowsart]

Weird girl Mary Jane Watson who is the school's sports mascot actor. She gets nervous and shy around Peter and tries hard to talk to him, but she is too scared to take off the costume to speak to him normally. Peter is very confused why the mascot keeps trying to talk to him occasionally. It's very awkward for everyone. She is trying her best. She is trying so hard cuz she really likes him.

MJ has always been the weirdest girl in school. Usually she keeps to herself and is always seen doing weird and crazy things. Things that both the boys and girls of the school find odd. She isn't necessarily seen as the most attractive girl at school, she hangs around the theater room outside looking as though she wishes she could join the class some year.

Homecoming/Prom is when she finally has a chance to properly speak with Peter for once. Outside of the costume and looking her best. She went alone and he got stood up by his supposed date, it was a cruel joke on him. They spoke together on the back wall, sitting in some chairs alone together. it was awkward, but different from all the other times they spoke together when she was wearing the mascot suit. The two become good friends after that night.

MJ frequents the Coffee Bean and various stores that are rather unconventional. ie comic book stores, movie rentals, etc. Her life growing up obviously wasn't the best, but Peter was the best thing to happen to her since she was accepted as the role of the school's mascot

imagine she does eventually get to join the theater class and gets pretty good at it. gets to be a part of some school plays. and eventually even gets to become an actress..... who plays the costumed roles of monsters and she couldn't be happier about it.

[internetgiraffekid1673]

I Had Miraculous Ladybug Thoughts, Specifically the Chloe Lila Alliance Situation, and I'm Making It Your Problem! I am So Sorry!

Just. Read the title of this post. I am the most biased person you could have on this topic. You've been warned.

Okay, so. Chloe. If you are in the ML fandom, first off, my condolences, we shall suffer together. Second off, you know that Chloe is incredibly divisive. On the one hand, she's an absolute a**hole to everyone around her at any point in the series that is not season 2 and parts of season 3. On the other hand, it is clear that she has no adults teaching her how to not be an a**hole or regulating her behavior because the only people who have the necessary authority should not have ever been parents.

And then you have that whole thing in season 2 where they started to explain her awfulness and gave her the bee miraculous and she started getting better and developing a support structure, and then she stopped being allowed to have the bee miraculous and dove headfirst off the deep end. This frustrates pretty much the entire fandom. On the Chloe hate side, you wonder why they were wasting time with this. On the Chloe love side, you just got baited, and you're annoyed as heck, and you also are wondering why they wasted your time with this.

But fine, okay, it's dumb, but whatever, the fanfiction can work with this. What the fanfiction has a MUCH harder time working with is Chloe and Lila forming an unholy alliance over their mutual hatred of Marinette and Ladybug. Because the problem here is, it's redundant, it doesn't make sense, and makes Lila even more of a Mary Sue.

Tangent warning: YEAH I SAID IT! I think Lila is a Mary Sue. You don't have to think that. My definition of a Mary Sue is "a character that warps the fabric of the story around them without it making any sense because the author likes/hates/pities/has other strong emotion about this character/ too much to care about a coherent narrative." Not everybody defines a Mary Sue this way, but by this definition, Lila is a Mary Sue. Everyone immediately loses their brain cells around her despite being compassionate and sometimes intelligent individuals who will kill for Marinette in most other scenarios. Nonsensical story warping just because the author said so. Tangent aside:

What this alliance does is it gives you two manipulative lying b*tches who willingly get akumatized to further their petty schemes and are out to destroy Marinette and Ladybug and are weirdly possessive of but don't actually seem to care for Adrien. There's really no point in having two. They occupy the same narrative niche and it is awkward and stupid and I DO NOT LIKE IT. Neither does most of the fandom it seems, because this alliance rarely appears in fanfiction.

There are a couple default solutions in fanfiction:

1. Redeem Chloe. I like this solution. I like Chloe, I think she's entertaining, and I think her interactions with other characters as a good guy are especially entertaining, I think she brings a lot of valuable skills and perspective to the cast as a good guy, I think she has a lot of reasons for being an a**hole that should be properly addressed, and I think the reasons her redemptipn arc got aborted were stupid. Most fanfiction goes the route of having redeemed Chloe viscerally hate Lila too, because Chloe goes after enemies with passion and her whole heart. This is a clean solution, but not great if you don't like Chloe all that much or are trying to make it canon compliant (best of luck to you, canon is all over the place).

2. Only focus on one as a villain and yeet the other out of the story. If Chloe is the villain, set the story during the time that Lila was off being Cerise or wandering around Paris or whatever, or before she showed up. If Lila is the villain, give Chloe an unrelated reason to decide she's not dealing with that today, thank you very much. Usually used in salt fics to dunk on whichever character grinds your gears more without unwanted interruptions. I like salt fics, and this is also a good clean solution. Having both of them is redundant, so just remove one. For Lila, it makes sense because she's a Mary Sue and writing her is annoying, so pretending she never existed is a great fix to that. For Chloe, it makes sense because "lying manipulative ladybug hating b*tch" only really starts being her archetype after the writers screwed up her character with a million inconsistincies. Before that, she was more of a "comically loud, bossy, really obssessive fangirl b*tch," so Lila just works better for certain plots. Downside is that you can't focus on Chloe-Lila interactions, and you sometimes have to do a bit of finagling to figure out how to remove them from a situation they would ordinarily be VERY invested in.

3. Make them hate each other. This is one of my favorite solutions because I have a weakness for villain rivalries that are equal parts comedic and dramatic, but bias aside, this absolutely works. They both want Adrien's sole, undivided attention, and, prior to aforementioned screwing over of Chloe's character, Chloe is the world's biggest Ladybug stan, and Lila is her number 1 hater. They also both have a weird power over the adults in the story that two 14 year old girls really shouldn't have. All these factors make it very easy to guess they would clash. Watch as they try to destroy each other! This plays into the "they both suck, but it's different flavors of suck," and makes those flavors mix BADLY together. The one downside is that it is hard to not make this the central focus of the story, because both of them are so over the top that they're absolutely going to drown out most other going ons, and this is technically supposed to be about Marinette and Adrien. It also erases some of the storylines you can get from an actually thought out alliance.

4. Redeem Lila. I have only seen this in one place, but it is a prominent place and that's more places than my suggestion on this whole ordeal. The prominent place being the Scarlet Lady AU by the very talented and lovely ZoeOneesame. Her take on it was basically:

"Chloe in this AU has the ladybug miraculous, and Chloe sucks at her job, so Lila's ladybug hatred is justified. Marinette is in love with Chat and isn't involved in the ladybug drama, so Lila has no reason to hate her. Adrien is both much smarter and much more active in this AU, so he wouldn't deal with Lila in the same hands-off way. Everybody else is also smarter in this AU and would probably know Lila was lying and also not care because they are forgiving and compassionate. So Lila's lies would most likely get called out, she would have the freedom and desire to figure out who she is beneath the lies, and she would have a justified hatred of Scarlet Lady matched by other characters in the AU, and would probably band together with them."

And thus, no filter, vindictive good guy Lila was born! Again, I have only seen this in Scarlet Lady, but it is amazing over there, so I had to talk about it. Redeeming Lila is an unconventional choice for sure, but I think if you arrange for circumstances where Lila would rather ally with the heroes than the villains, then you can get a lot of mileage out of her people-reading/manipulation skills helping out the heroes while possibly scaring the crap out of them at the same time. This has basically all the same downsides as the Chloe redemption though. It's not fun to do if you're here for Lila salt, and it's ABSOLUTELY not canon compliant.

Now. You may have noticed that nobody who writes fanfiction for this show does the canon Chloe-Lila alliance. This is for a myriad of aforementioned reasons: it's redundant, it continues the confusion of Chloe's character arc, and Lila is a Mary Sue, so anything that involves her tends to be frustrating. But, I think there is a way to make it work, so I'm writing about it.

First of all, don't do what canon did where 6 just have Lila teach Chloe how to lie. Take full advantage of the fact that they are two very different types of a**hole. They can ally for the same reasons: they both are super possesive of Adrien and are raging about him getting together with Marinette. And while I don't like the arc of Marinette being a trash and controlling guardian who shows inordinate favoritism to Alya and Zoe and literally nobody else because she's gay for them, you can still do that and have them both hate Ladybug too. I don't like that plot beat, mostly because it's never really addressed that Marinette is in fact a bad guardian outside of some light sulking from Chat, but it can work. She's a 14 year old girl in way over her head with no adults left to help (except the kwamis, but they don't really count because they are very unhelpful). It makes sense that she wouldn't do a good job at first. But whatever their reasons for teaming up, lean into the fact that Lila is a two-faced secretively awful person while Chloe is an in-your-face publicly awful person. From there, it depends on the tone you're going for.

Chloe is a great villain for humor because she's so loud and dramatic. She can get away with saying and doing really insane and rude stuff on the grounds that she's insane and rude (and also rich and powerful). People don't have any expectations for Chloe to be nice or rational, so she can do stuff like try and write a Queen Banana character into the class film and be met with annoyance and frustration rather than outrage and shock. So if you're going a lighthearted route, let Chloe be the one who does all the public legwork for their schemes, and let her be absolutely over the top about it.

On the other hand, Chloe can also be threatening in a far more tangible way than Lila. Lila can make people think you're a bit of a jerk, but it takes a lot of work for her to come close to getting Marinette expelled, even with all her Mary Sueness to help. Chloe can just look at the principal and say "My dad will fire you and remove all school funding if you don't expel her." Chloe won't make people dislike Marinette because nobody likes her, but she can physically hurt Marinette in ways that Lila can't. So if you're going for drama, you can lean into that. Chloe is in a completely different social class than everyone else and has actual power.

Either way, let Chloe be a complete drama queen who is publicly out to get Marinette, because there isn't anything anyone can do about it.

Meanwhile, let Lila work in the background. Lila has never been a comedic villain, only getting introduced after the show had taken a turn for the more dramatic, so don't bother. Leave that to Chloe's antics. Let Lila be the actual threat who is driving their plans. A lot of the reason Chloe was manageable while Lila never was is because Chloe's rage tends to be directionless and impulsive. She has a short temper that can easily be triggered, but also easily soothed, and she doesn't have any thought out plans or long form schemes. She just does whatever she thinks will make her happy in the moment. Have Lila be the one who convinces her to think in the long-term, and who comes up with an overarching plot to get rid of Marinette, adding a sense of real tension to the situation. Sure, before Chloe could have you expelled on a whim, but she also would have stopped bothering the second Adrien paid attention to her. Lila will help Chloe drop that boundary.

Lila also has the advantage of people actually liking her and being willing to do things for her without threatening or bribing them. Lila can do things like make it so Marinette doesn't have any of her friends around to help in an emergency. She can make it so people believe Chloe might actually be justified in her crusade against Marinette this time. She can plant seeds of doubt and distrust and she can socially isolate Marinette in ways Chloe can't. Make people love and believe in her instead, slowly destroy Marinette's support system, and so on. It not only is really dramatic and upsetting, it basically leaves Mari with just Adrien and Chat to rely on, which is FANTASTIC ship fuel if that's your jam. This can also let you have some other prominent characters come to the fore. Have some Kagami focus. Have some Luka focus. Bring in Socqueline and Felix and see how that changes things.

Point is, between these two, you could have a genuine, non-redundant threat that you can get emotional mileage out of. Lila is on one side turning all of Mari's friends against her and scheming to destroy her in the long term. Chloe is on the other side threatening Marinette's lifestyle---her bakery, her school, her fashion career, her public image, her existence in Paris---anything that can be damaged by the Mayor and the Style Queen is under attack. And then you have Hawkmoth on the other end, throwing akumas in her face and forcing her to make impossible choices. I would imagine Lila also gets akumatized on purpose whenever she needs a little extra help, while Chloe just gets egged on and pushed off the deep end by Lila whenever Lila thinks it'd be advantageous. So that trifecta is super genuinely threatening. But you can also have Chloe being a really stupid drama queen whose fits of rage can still be silly and poorly thought out, even with Lila helping her. And you can have some really heartwarming stuff as the people left in Marinette's support system band together and become even closer to get rid of these two once and for all. I just think this plot beat has a lot of untapped potential if the writers didn't make then fulfill the same narrative role, and I haven't really seen it explored yet.

Feel free to use this idea in fanfic, tell me that it sucks and would be bad, or ignore me, I mostly just needed to write this down!

If the mood strikes me or multiple people express interest (yeah right), I will make a (probably much shorter) post explaining how you can redeem both of them effectively and also why I think that would be bad in most circumstances.

Congratulations if you read this whole rant, now please go to sleep. Please. So much please.

[onlyzhuyilong]

Behind The Scenes : Only The River Flows

[akai-anna]

So I already asked this before, but here I am asking you to do it again cause I honestly really enjoy reading about how you view each of the relationships in decto. So if it's not too much to ask will you do a part 3 just rambling about other relationships in decto. Also I'm glad my last ask made you that happy, and don't worry take as long as you like there's no rush to make them.

Anon-san. Dear. Darling. You are truly a blessing, a pure source of joy, a beauty in this measly existence we call a life. I would have never thought you'd come back for more rambling. Just. Thank you. So much.

And I'm happy you enjoyed my previous ramblings, and I hope you will enjoy this one too.

Notes, as always:

as in the previous asks relating to the ship opinion bingo, i interpret relationships in the broadest possible sense

i check everything that makes sense to me, even if they seem contradictory; i view them applied to different situations/universes/possibilities

*rolls up sleeves* Ok, now buckle up.

I. Akai Shuuichi/Okiya Subaru - Kudou Shinichi/Edogawa Conan (and The Kudous)

The Silver Bullet Duo (and the Parents Partners In Crime)

They just... have such a fascinating dynamic.

Akai, first learning about this lil kiddo through investigating Vermouth (Cool Guy) and as they started interacting, treating this boy as an equal despite him (seemingly) being a child. The fact he is openly impressed by Conan/Shinichi ("You always amaze us, boy."); I cannot put into words how important it is to me that Akai respects this gremlin child. (ONE OF thE BESt INVEstigAtoRS IN JAPAN HE SAID!!!!) Shinichi Being all sus of the guy at first, only to find a great mind in him, an amazing scheming partner, someone he can trust to protect his friend. They are not only on the the same wavelength (not even being in the same place) but make a very effective as a team; the sheer compatibility.

But also their actual first meeting BEING: SHINICHI BASICALLY CALLING AKAI SHUUICHI A CLOWN. INCREDIBLE.

And also, Akai being one of the precious few who knows about this lil gremlins identity. It's so important to me; as someone who dearly wants and aches for Shinichi to share his identity with at least a few other people, I cherish all individuals who are aware of his true identity. Not to mention, that the identity reveal to Akai was one of the most hilarious things I have ever witnessed. (Shinichi literally outing himself because he is too comfortable, too at ease in his own home and around these people, and distracted by Ran and solving the mystery, he forgets to be cautious. THIS FCKIN CHILD I LOVE HIM.)

And Akai constantly hinting at his real identity gets me so bad too. They are so precious to me.

And then there is the whole Akai-Yukiko & Yuusaku dynamic too. He literally became part of this oddball of a family? (YUKIKO tAUGHt HIM to COOK I CANNOt???) FITTING IN WITH THEM SO EFFORTLESSLY. I LOVE THEM.

⊱✿⊰

II. Agasa Hiroshi - Kudou Shinichi/Edogawa Conan - Miyano Shiho/Haibara Ai (- Detective Boys Trio)

Found Family: "Sometimes a family is 1 middle-aged man, 2 fake and 3 real elementary students" as I like to say.

Not many scenes to share here (tho I will definitely collect them in my newest reread session) because I don't have the energy to look for them. BUT.

Agasa Hiroshi is a Good Man. He doesn't have to invent all that stuff for Shinichi BUT HE DOES. He doesn't have to help this lil gremlin out BUT HE STILL DOES. All the times he just drove him around, all the times he allowed himself to be used (with no advance notice which he keeps ASKING SHINICHI FOR, TO JUST LET HIM KNOW) as a way to solve a crime; EVERYTHING HE DOES, DESPITE KNOWING HOW DANGEROUS IT IS. The way he only helped Yukiko and Yuusaku with the mad plan (because IT IS MAD; ODDBALLS) of "kidnapping Edogawa Conan" because he thought it would help drive the point home, of how dangerous this whole business is. Agasa Hiroshi just wants what might be best and safest for Shinichi. Just being there for him, and if he cannot he lets others, who can, know (Yuusaku and Yukiko in the above scene, Heiji in desperate revival, and so on). He cares.

On the other side, Shinichi might seem like, he doesn't appreciate Prof Agasa much at first glance (his constant comments about Agasa creating junk, says the one who uses his inventions, HYPOCRITE), but god, he goes BALLISTIC WHEN IT COUNTS. (Kidnapping case, just to mention one off the top of my head.) Shinichi literally grew up with this weird adult figure around, he is like family to him, and he cares. Tons. He trusts Agasa Hiroshi, literally, with his life.

Moving on: another point of Prof being a really good man. The way he is with the kids. He literally goes out of his way, to take them out to places, spend time with them. Be it camping, or eating out, or invent stuff for them, cooking for them, or just getting a cake to eat together... He got attached to these kids (just like Shinichi himself) as they spent more and more time together, and cares a great deal about them. And the kids grew fond of him too, despite all the little comments and teasing. (Or as I see it: he is an adult figure to them that they are comfortable around, and are not afraid to say what they think.)

As for Ai. Exhibit C of Agasa Hiroshi being a really good, kind-hearted person.

Agasa Hiroshi picked up a girl that brings even more danger with her mere presence, and at this point she is not trustworthy. Who knows what she might do? But he took her in anyways. (Without talking to Shinichi too, which led to some Emotions and Yelling.) And as time went on, this girl, who constantly lives in fear of being discovered (fearing so much, that she even tries to let herself die, and considers leaving everyone behind to protect them), slowly crawls out of her shell, to just be a person. Ai and Agasa come to care about each other too, so deeply; there is no blood-relation between them, yet there is such a strong familial bond between the two. (People mistaking them as father and daughter!)

They are a weird lil family unit, your honour, and I care about them so. So. SO MUCH.

⊱✿⊰

III. Mouri Kogorou - Kudou Shinichi/Edogawa Conan - Mouri Ran

The Mouri Family Unit

I just love them. God. I do.

I love how Shinichi got integrated into Kogorou and Ran's everyday life (be it cleaning, or just checking he's there and didn't run off again LOL). I love the rare moments of Kogorou actually being parental, be it to the lil gremlin or Ran. (HE LOVES BOTH OF THEM YOUR HONOUR!!!

I adore the fact that they watch stuff together, and discuss it, I find it really sweet (and funny). Also the fact that they eat together. Eating together with loved ones is a very important point in my own life, and it's a really... "intimate" is not quite the word I'm looking for but... I guess a bonding thing. Something meaningful. And these 3 definitely do it most days. The way they are so comfortable around each other, and everyone has their own lil space at the table. I really adore the thought of Shinichi getting so used to the lil routines and bustle of the Mouri Household, that after he turns back, he'll miss it. Especially, how he was living alone for years before the Conanification, without his parents; the Mouris are such a strong contrast against that. (Post-Conan Shinichi, that moves back to the Kudou House, and finds it too big and quiet and lonely, just going over to Agasa's and the Mouris' all the time to be around his loved ones. Him spending most of his time at their places, so much, his stuff is slowly moved into both places. And No One says a thing about it, it just happens, and they all let it happen. Please. I'm WEAK.)

I also love to see them in various combinations: Ran-Shinichi teaming up against Occhan, but also Ran and Kogorou constantly being "WHERE IS THE CHILD" in their own ways, and Shinichi and Kogorou team up too (like the time they tailed Ran, or when Ran told them Araide will be in the play too, HAHA). Each is so very delightful for their own reasons.

Thank you so much for asking me (AGAIN!!!!) to talk about relationships, it means a lot tome, and I truly hope you enjoyed reading these! May you have a blessed day, darling.

[kcloveslegos]

I'm remodeling Star just a little bit and I hope you all love this!

[tvrningout-a]

i should've switched to writing original stuff ages ago bc i could've been overcoming writer's block if i did :' )

[aimer-arts]

What’s your drawing process like? everything’s so cute, id love to see how you put everything tgt

AH thank you <3 My drawing process really isn't anything special, but I can try to give a brief explanation on it!

Basically, my process can be summed up in a few steps, the first step being a sketch. This step is VERY messy and not supposed to be perfect!! It’s basically just laying out the groundwork for what I want the drawing to look like.

And after I have a basic sketch that I’m satisfied with, I clean up the sketch and make it neater! I make the lines look sharper and erase any unneeded sketch lines while also adding some extra details (lineart is very tedious and stressful so I skip it lol). I often use a soft textured brush for this step!

Next I add flat colors to each character (there’s not much else to say about this step- but sometimes I add a texture to the flat colors to make it look softer)

And then I usually add some sort of shading (I use the regular ‘Brush’ tool on Sai with a Multiply layer and often play around with the colors until I like the way it looks. Sometimes I smooth out parts of the shading with the ‘Airbrush’ tool to make it look even softer)! I often add some subtle highlights to the characters in this step as well by using a ‘Shine’ layer

...And last is the final touches (I add the background, tweak any mistakes, etc.) I usually add overlay layers on top to make the colors pop more and turn up the saturation to make it look brighter! Sai also has some really nice filters to make it look extra soft :D

So yeah, that’s basically the gist of it!! Sometimes I do steps a bit differently but this is almost always how it goes (I use Sai for basically all of my art because I like the textures and filters it has and plus I’m too used to it to switch to anything else at this point)

(and here’s an example of slightly softer shading! Not the best example, but hopefully it still makes sense) ^^