#what have i done to ee to be treated this way this year | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theosmommy1966 · 2 years

Text

OK so thank you too @kaverichauhan for giving me the idea to post this in two parts! So here is part 1 of the Epilogue.

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4

Pronunciations before we start

Macaria - m-aa-k-aa-r-EE-aa

Asteria- uh·stee·ree·uh

Leonis- Lee-Oh-Nis

“COME ON! We are going to be late! Draco and Ron will already be there!!” A 13 year old boy by the name of Harry Potter yelled at his three dads.

It was the first time his mother Lily had trusted them to take him to an event and Harry was already aware that it would be a disaster. While they all three loved the boy very much and gave him whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it, they weren't the most put together.

“Right.. Whose birthday is it again? One of the Weasleys?” James asked looking around for the present he knew his ex had sat somewhere.

Remus was normally the one who always wrangled them together. He did the cooking when the house elves were gone, and kept a rather loose hold of Harry's schedule. James and Sirius were more the friend type of fathers.

Bought him a broom when he was a year old, painted their faces when they went to quidditch matches. Told Remus not to worry about helping the boy with his homework, instead encouraged him to pull more pranks with the Weasley Twins.

“NOO DAD! Owen Malfoy!! He's Draco's cousin! He's turning 14 and our whole class is going to be there!” Harry whined as he watched his father finally find the gift.

When the Trio of men and their messy haired son finally appeared in front of a giant manor, it was a half an hour after the invite said to arrive. Harry hurriedly knocked on the door and smiled up at the tall blond man who answered. “ Hi! Thanks for coming, excited right?”

Harry nodded quickly as he peaked around the man looking for kids his own age.

Draven chuckled, swinging the door open without looking up at the men. “Backyards that way, try to be quiet through the house though the twins are still sleeping.” When he finally swung his head back towards the men his breath caught. It had been sixteen years since he had seen them, and they clearly didn't remember him at all.

“Right.. So Mr. Black, Potter and Lupin, all you have to do is sign here and prick your finger. There's an X for your name and your blood goes in the box below it.”

Remus stepped forward offering his hand as he stared up at the blond Adonis. “Remus, I'll spare you the lengthy last name. Thank you for inviting Harry, as you can see he is very excited.”

“Finally I'm so happy to be done with all of this..” Sirius had said, signing his name and pricking his finger so quickly he almost missed the box.

Draven snapped out of his stupor and shook his hand, “No trouble at all.. Honestly my wife loves doing things like this, even if it takes a while considering we have six children.” None of the men missed the smile that came across his face at the mention of his wife. It only grew when he spoke of his many kids.

“We appreciate this.. Even though we would never come back on Y/n.” Remus had said softly as he signed his paper.

Sirius scoffed as they all took turns shaking hands, “Six kids? God we can barely handle Harry.” The four men started making their way through the house, being mindful of the sleeping twins Draven had mentioned. When they walked through the large french doors at the back of the house they were met with so many children that it looked like Hogwarts.

“Yeah well I bet she never expected you to leave her and treat her the way you did ethier.. So better safe than sorry.” Regulus had scoffed, speaking for the first time since they had shown up.

Dravens eyes quickly started looking for the group he had grown so close to over the years. He couldnt find them but noticed his oldest son walking towards him. He wanted to tell him to go the other way but didn't when he noticed the annoyed look on his face. “What's wrong, Leo?”

Leonis shook his head and scoffed, waving his arms around dramatically “There are so many children here.. I despise children..” He crossed his arms, and between his stance and the look on his face Remus, James and Sirius thought he looked alot like Regulus Black.

Draven went to speak, but was interpreted by his two oldest daughters coming up from behind them. The blond man really wanted his wife, not only did the three teens have no clue who the three men were. But the three men had no clue who the three teens were.

The men had no idea that standing in front of them were the three teens that they helped create so many years ago. Four blood lines all magically mixed in the belly of his wife, sixteen years before this. It was pretty clear though, if you looked at all the other Malfoy children to tell that Draven was not their biological father.

Two girls and one boy.

Macaria Hope Malfoy, unruly brown hair that was almost the same color as Remus Lupins. Light gray colored eyes that had small bursts of blue much like Sirius Black. Soft baby face that clearly belonged to the Potter family. She perfectly fit her Durmstrang house, Terpsichora, who are artistic, incredibly creative and loyal. (Hufflepuff)

Asteria Mia Malfoy, wavy hair much like James but was the same color as her sisters. Bright hazel eyes like James, with sharp facial features that resembled her Uncle Regulus. She belongs to the Liberalis House whose members are sharp, graded excellent, curious and interesting people. (Ravenclaw)

Leonis Arcturus Malfoy, wavy hair like his sister but this time a dark shiny black. Sharp features that he shared with his sister and uncle. But his eyes were a vivid green, like the forest, like Remus. He belongs to Atticus, members are supposed to be cunning, bold, and have more nerve than sense. (Slytherin)

The three adults all stared at the three teens, who frankly did not spare them a passing glance as they came up to their father.

“I don't know why you're complaining, Leonis, we have more people at our parties.” Asteria said matter of factly. She wasn't all that happy with the amount of screaming preteens ethier, but she loved her siblings more than anything, so she put up with it a little quieter.

Leo rolled his eyes and looked down at his younger sister “Aria, aren't you going to say how I should be thankful that our little brother has so many friends?”

Macaria shrugged her shoulders and smiled “Nope, you clearly read my mind. Which I will be telling mother about but not before I go and find Uncle Reggie.”

The four adults watched the triplets walk off together all talking amongst themselves. Remus was the first to speak, “No offense, but you seem a little young to have children that age. I also don't remember seeing them at Hogwarts. Which school do they go to?”

Again before Draven could speak, someone else did. “My nieces and nephew go to Durmstrang. Should've sent Draco there if I do say so myself.. Shouldn't have let Cissy talk your wife into sending Owen to Hogwarts.. Shit school if you ask me.” The snide voice of Lucius Malfoy said as he walked up next to his brother.

The four men turned to see the group that Draven had been looking for. Regulus and Evan Rosier, Ted and Andromeda Tonks, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Lucius Malfoy.

“My wife went to help yours get the twins dressed and downstairs. Draco and Owen are somewhere off with their little group of troublemakers.” Lucius said as they all looked ethier nervously or snidely at the three Gryffindors.

James was busy looking for the person he knew finished up the group. But he didnt know he was looking for another Malfoy and not an Avery. Remus was looking at Sirius who was looking at his brother, who looked rather smug. “I'm assuming if your whole little group is here.. Y/n is here too..” Sirius said, rolling his eyes, something that did not go unnoticed by Draven.

“Oh she's around here somewhere” Regulus said as he sipped his drink, he couldn't wait until you made your way downstairs. He and Evan had made bets on what would happen when the little trio of lions found out. Regulus wanted nothing more than for them to realize what they had lost.

“She will be sooo excited to see you all..” Bellatrix cackled as she cut into an apple with a small knife. Bringing the slice up to her mouth that was curled into a small smile as she stared at the three men. They shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.

“Why don't we all move to the yard, instead of standing in the doorway” Draven said as his eyes kept searching what he could see of his house. He wanted to step away and warn you, he didn't know how you would react to them being here. The last thing he ever wanted was you to be upset.

Thankfully the three outcast men smiled and made their way over to a group of parents they knew. The Weasleys, The Longbottoms and one of the two Lovegoods. Pandora was making her way towards Draven who she had noticed was shifting his weight around nervously.

She pecked Reggie on the cheek before linking her arm with Dravens. Pandora had a way of making everyone calm, she always knew what to say or do to fix things when they went astray. “What's wrong Drav?” Her light whimsical voice said as the group looked at him.

He looked away from the doors to his friends before sighing and running a hand through his hair. “I'm just nervous for Y/n.. As far as I know she hasn't seen any of them since the Potters funeral and now they are here with a kid?? How do you think that's going to make her feel? And a child the same age as Owen? I just don't want her to be upset.”

Pandora, Bella and Andromeda all smiled at the man.

“Draven.. I've known Y/n for a long long time.. She loves you so much. You spent her entire first pregnancy as well as the next two doting on her left and right. You have spent the last sixteen years making her realize how amazing she is. Sure it might upset her that they have a child, but she will be upset for the children.” Andromeda said.

“But even if she is upset for them, she knows they have a father here. One who has been there since day one. A father who wanted them from the beginning. Those fools don't even know who the triplets are, or that there were even triplets.” Bellatrix continued.

“When the triplets got chicken pox, who helped her bathe the kids in oatmeal and apply cream to their poxs?” Evan asked as Draven said himself.

“And when Y/n got pregnant with Owen and had a panic attack, who handled it.. On their own I might add.” Bella asked as Draven again answered himself.

“When Potter's parents died, and Y/n fell into Perinatal Depression, who cared for her? Forced her to eat when needed, bought her favorite lavender tea? Who painted the nursery on his own, decorated it on his own just to make her smile? Yeah mate.. You..”

Regulus smiled as he kept on “So what those three idiots have Harry.. I've seen him running around Hogwarts, constantly getting himself into trouble. He barely squeaks by in his classes, he's a nice kid but the three of them can barely deal with him. If it wasn't for his mother, who left James by the way, the kid wouldn't have survived.”

Draven smiled and sat his cheek down on Pandora's head, thankful for the group of friends. “She won't be sad, or upset or anything but happy. I dont think Ive seen her unhappy since we met you Draven.” Pandora patted his arm before pulling away and making her way back to her husband who was helping their daughter Luna place flowers in her hair.

~~~~

“So.. I saw some….” Narcissa paused, unsure of the word to use “Old friends of ours downstairs with Drav.”

You peaked up at her as you sorted through the twins closet, a smile on your face as you could hear the low rumbling of many kids playing. “Is that right? Wanna enlighten me?” You had an idea of who it was, Owen had told you about his friend Harry. Whos last name was Potter, when asked you learned that James was his father and Lily was his mother.

You had seen and talked to Lily on a few occasions. She was a lovely person, you wouldn't exactly say you were friends but you liked her. The two of you could connect on the basis of failed relationships with James Potter.

You learned that the two had briefly been together before Mia and Monty got sick and passed. That she was pregnant when it happened, and he pulled away from her and back to the Marauders. She was sad, but you heard she had recently settled down with a widowed Amos Diggory. (Picturing Max Irons)

“The Marauders.. I'm sorry I'll have the guys tell them to leave if you want.” Cissy rushed as she took Abraxas’ clothes from you. She was just as worried as she assumed Draven was. You had been so happy over the years and she didn't want that to go away.

Laughing you pulled the little baby romper onto your baby girl before finding a brush to run through the twins’ hair. “Why would I want them to leave? Their son is here, he's friends with Owen, it's Owen's party.” Looking up you realized that your friend was really very worried.

“Oh Cissy.. Really I'm fine!” You smiled and looked down at your twins. “Come on, you'll see everything will be fine.” You meant your words, nothing could ruin your son's birthday party for you. Not seeing your exs at least. You knew Narcissa meant well, that she was worried because they were taking care of a child when they had written yours off.

But you couldn't care less.

When you met Draven it was like your entire life fell together. He had started staying at Malfoy Manor instead of his flat in London to ‘help around the house’. He quickly learned the things you did and didn't like, buying your favorite teas and cookies while having the house elves memorize the list of things that made your stomach turn.

He took it upon himself to make sure that your potions from Monty were always picked up on time. Your prenatal and the morning sickness potions always brought up with whichever flavor breakfast you were craving. Your favorite lavender tea steeping as he walked up the stairs to the library where you were every morning.

When Draven started courting you, you didn't even notice. His daily morning tea with you would slowly start including flowers or new types of tea he found. You didn't know when he talked to not only Monty but to your older brother. No clue was given to you when he was given permission to court you not caring that you were pregnant with triplets.

Small gifts started being left here and there when he didn't hand them to you directly.

Treats from places you knew were not in London. Books you had mentioned you hadn't read or wanted to reread that weren't in the library. Many bouquets of flowers, your favorite being the large sunflowers you could tell he had picked himself from the field down the road. You had begged Narcissa to press and frame them, they now hung over the fireplace in your library.

Then he started taking you places and going places with you. When you wanted to shop and the girls were busy, it was Draven that went with you. When Regulus or Evan were unable to go to baby yoga or lamaze class, it was the Blond god that offered to go.

He planned picnics and small dates, knowing that you weren't up for much when you were the size of a house with six little feet kicking you constantly. Everything he did was perfectly planned and went off without problems. It was clear that Draven was made for you from the start.

Around 25 weeks was when things started to get real. When you would wake up at night drenched in sweat and aching in a way that you couldn't satisfy yourself. When Draven found you holding yourself on the side of the pool trying to cool down he knew what was wrong. He had been reading book after book to keep up with what was going on.

So for weeks the man satisfied you with his fingers or mouth but never let things go too far. Never allowing you to return the favor, even after he went down on you with the vigor of a dying man. He just kept telling you that he was going to show you that he was the man for you.

Let's just say he did.. Many times..

When the triplets were born and Bonnie asked what their last name would be, Malfoy was an easy choice. You had fallen in love quickly, and while you were terrified it was a choice you never once regretted.

Draven bought your first manor before you ever started to complain about living with Lucius and Narcissa. Asked you to marry him one morning while you watched the triplets run around the garden. While it wasn't the way he had planned it, the moment felt right.

Every moment of every day with Draven felt like a dream. You couldn't remember when you stopped waiting to wake up, you couldn't point out the day that you realized he was real. You probably wouldn't even if you could though.

~~~~~~

“Do you know who those men are?” Macaria said as she watched the tall scarred man laugh with the other two. “I feel like we should know who they are.” She could feel a tug in her chest towards them, similar to the one she felt with her mother and father. But more so she could feel the pain the tallest one was in, being an empath she could feel that he needed something. But she didn't know what.

Asteria already knew who they were. She was the strongest with legilimency and occlumency, and in her true fathers panic his mental walls were down. She knew that the three men in front of her were their biological fathers, and she was not happy about it.

The triplets had always known their bloodline was an unconventional one. But moments before Asteria had learned just how messy the whole thing was. She was arguing with herself about telling her siblings, none of them had ever kept things from the others before. And she could feel Leo's eyes on her as he tried to break through her mental walls.

“They are mothers, ex boyfriends and our biological fathers. Remus Lupin is the tall broken one. James Potter, Harry's biological father, the one with glasses. And Last and definitely least, Sirius Black. According to fathers memories Mother was with James and was also involved with the other two. When she became pregnant things fell apart, they left her because they didn't want kids. Black never liked our mother from the flashes I got. He was pretty happy about Mother leaving, I guess. Seems like he was quite rude to her. ” Asteria said without looking at her sister or brother.

“Black.. As in Uncle Regulus..” Leo said while turning to look at Sirius. He could see the resemblance now that he really looked. People had always said he looked like his uncle, and now he knew why. Unfortunately he also had his uncle and one of his fathers temperament. “Well then.. Maybe we should introduce ourselves..”

Before the girls could stop him Leonis was stomping gracefully towards the group. Pandora's eyes grew wide as she watched the two girls stumble after their brother. She went to step forward but it was far too late, she could see the anger in the boy's eyes. So instead she gripped her husband's arm in preparation for what was to come.

“Ah Excuse me for interrupting. I just wanted to introduce myself.” Leo said as he turned to the tall man who he had been told was Sirius and stuck his hand out. “Leonis Arcturus Malfoy. These are my sisters, Macaria Hope Malfoy and Asteria Mia Malfoy.”

The trio was slightly caught off guard noticing the teens' middle names all had something to do with their own families. Sirius shook his hand with a confused look on his face “Sirius Black-Lupin-Potter, nice to meet you?” He said it more like a question than a statement as he looked at Pandora who was looking over trying to catch Regulus or Evans' gaze.

The girls took their turn shaking the men's hands, Macaria holding Remus’ hand a little longer than the rest. He felt a weird calm fall over him as she pulled away her cheeks slightly pink from focusing on his energy so hard. Leo stood slightly in front of his sisters with a taunting look on his face.

“So.. You guys have any… Children?” Leo said his lip curling slightly towards the end of the question. He heard one of his sisters say his name trying to discourage him from confronting them but he had already made up his mind. He wasn't one to think when he was angry, action before thought and all that.

Remus looked between the girl's worried looks and then back to Leo. “James has a son, Harry, he's here somewhere. I'm guessing he is friends with your younger brother Owen.” Leonis’ sneer only grew as Remus spoke, which prompted him to stop speaking. He could see the boy's hands clenching and unclenching, a motion he was far too familiar with.

“Ah.. No other children then? Say around the age of sixteen.. Born to a woman abandoned by three little boys?” Leonis said, clasping his hands behind his back, his eyes bouncing between the three men. Even though in his opinion they were not men, but still little boys. He watched as the color drained from James and Remus’ faces. But what really caught his attention was the fact that Sirius scoffed and took a swig of whatever he was drinking.

“I thought that lawyer said that we would be at no fault? Didn't he say that once we signed we were done.. If you are that witch's children you shouldn't even know that one of us is your sperm donor..” Sirius scoffed again before finishing off his drink.

Xenophilius looked down at his wife, who was still eyeing their other group of friends. He didn't particularly want to be part of this conversation but knew Dora wouldn't walk away. So he spoke softly trying to defuse the situation “Children.. Maybe this is a conversation you should have with your mother.. Best save it for later.”

Pandora was staring hard at Regulus, trying to make him feel her gaze on him. They were too far away for her to casually get his attention with her voice. Near the mouth of hedges that lead to the gardens, somewhat tucked away from the others. But when she heard the disgust that Sirius used when he spoke of you her gaze ripped back to those in front of her.

“Sirius, watch how you speak of Y/n. These are her children and we are her friends. Be respectful please.” Pandora spoke not knowing that her words would only escalate the situation. Sirius tilted his head towards her, a bored look on his face as his hair fell slightly out of place.

“Dora.. I hated her in school, useless little thing she was. I still hate her, I'm not being rude. Just speaking my truth, isn't that what the universe would want?”

Before any of them could try to speak again, two hands were wrapping around the collar of Sirius’ shirt. Shoving him back past the hedges they were so conveniently standing by. Further and further into the garden and away from the party. Leonis could hear his sisters and his aunt saying his name repeatedly, but he couldn't care less.

The man in front of him had disrespected his mother, one of the very few things he wouldn't put up with. His mother, his father and his siblings were off limits to anyone and everyone. Thankfully his body was very toned from quidditch, so forcing the man around was easy.

“How DARE you speak of my mother like that.. From where I am standing YOU and YOUR FRIENDS are the useless ones!” He yelled his hand unconsciously finding his wand which was now digging into the underside of Sirius’ jaw. One hand was still wrapped up in the man's shirt as Leo watched a single drop of blood trickle down his wand.

Everyone else stood shocked and silent.

The girls and the Lovegoods knew that Leonis didn't have a good hold on his anger, but this was far from his normal character. The girls held different opinions on what was happening. Macaria hated any act of violence, blood made her queasy. So it went slightly unnoticed when she pulled back from the group and ran.

Asteria though.. She could read Sirius’ mind, and the horrible things he was thinking only made her angry. So she decided to escalate the situation, “Brother.. You should hear the things he is thinking in his head.. Should I speak them outloud?”

Sirius’ head snapped to the side, watching the girl who was clearly mentally stronger than himself. He didn't even realize someone was in his mind. Legilimency and occlumency were both a gift that all Blacks held, and she was clearly very strong with both. She had shielded her presence while effortlessly walking past his defenses.

“At the moment he is shocked at how strong I am, but just before he was thinking disgustingly crude things.. Sexually about our mother.. I belive his exact words to her were ‘Your a good fuck, but I only tolerate you for Jamie.’” Asteria watched her brother's face get darker and knew he was just as upset as she was. She didn't even try to look into the other men's minds, solely focused on the one who hated her angel of a mother.

But that also meant she wasn't hearing any of the other voices around them. So she did not hear the group of younger teens as they walked up behind them. Owen watched as his brother held Sirius at wingtip. Harry and Owen both learning that the men had fathered the triplets. And all of their friends silently sitting back and watching the family drama unfold.

“He taunted her and practically slut shamed her for not knowing who our father was. Even though they were all sleeping with her normally in the same night. Ironic that our bloodline is a mixture of all four of our biological parents then isnt it?”

Leonis could feel his body heating up with anger every time his sister spoke. Anger that turned his vision splotchy and disconnected his heart from his mind. It was blinding, in any other situation it would have scared him. But he felt weirdly under control, all until his sister spoke again.

“Now he's thinking that you remind him of his father. Orion, you know the abusive piece of garbage that Uncle Regulus told us about.”

~~~~~~~

You meanwhile had made your way out to the party carrying Phoebe while Abraxas held your finger and walked next to you. The moment he found a familiar head of hair he toddler ran towards his father “Dadadada” falling from his little mouth.

Draven turned at the sound and effortlessly scooped up his youngest son, pressing a kiss into his messy blond hair. “Hey little guy.. Where's your Mama?” He said as he turned fully eyes finding your figure, cheeks heating up as he took in your outfit.

Tight navy skinny jeans with small rips in the knees, a white slightly oversized shirt tucked in. A long burnt orange colored cardigan over it. The Malfoy family crest hanging around your neck, your 8.75 carat pear shaped Morganite ring on your right hand, a gift from the triplets. While your 15 carat emerald cut engagement ring was wrapped around your ring finger, along with multiple bands. The ring had been plucked from one of the many Malfoy family vaults when he decided to marry you.

While you thought it was a bit much, you soon learned that all the family jewelry was. You pressed your lips against Dravens in greeting, feeling the tell tale sparks that were present every time the two of you touched. He smiled down at you brightly before turning back to Lucius who was complaining about Dumbledore letting the Marauders teach at Hogwarts.

You took this moment to look around for them but they were nowhere to be seen. Regulus’ voice pulled you attention as he spoke “You alright Sunflower?” The group fell silent as they all turned to look at you. But they were met with a smile and a nod “Of course I was just looking for them. I wanted to thank them for coming. I think it's important that our past transgressions are not forced on our children. Owen enjoys Harry's company, I would like it to stay that way.”

Draven felt all his insecurities and worries melt away as you spoke. It reminded him of yet another reason he was irrevocably in love with you. He leaned forward squishing the twins between you slightly as he kissed your temple. It was a small gesture but it was those tiny things that he always did that showed his utter devotion to you and your happiness.

“You're a bigger woman than I am Y/n.. I would've scalped them the moment they stepped foot in my home.” Bellatrix said, causing everyone to laugh and shake their heads. It shouldn't be funny since it was true.. Yet it was.

A small amount of conversation picked up before a small blond preteen came skipping in your direction. One of your teddy bear sunflowers in her hands as she studied the bee that for some reason had stayed despite the skipping. “Auntie… I heard something while I was roaming the garden! Leo told some man that he was going to kill him. Mother and Father are there, as well as Harry, Owen and Draco.”

Luna spoke in the same whimsical but nonchalant tone that her mother often spoke in. While she seemed completely unfazed by her words, the rest of the group went rigid. The twins were sat in a playpen that would be watched by Cissy as you and Draven took off for the gardens. The rest just a few steps off your heels as you took the twists and turns to where you thought your son would be. Macaria found the group on the way, small tears running down her face as she ran to Regulus who wrapped her in a tight hug.

“SPEAK ILL OF HER AGAIN, BLACK! AND IT WILL BE THE LAST THING YOU SAY!”

The anger in Leo's normally sweet voice almost made you stop. You practically skidded around the corner as you took in the scene in front of you. Pandora and Xenophilius both had their hands on one child. Pandora was holding Asteria who had her wand raised at Remus and James whose hands were held up in surrender.

Xenophilius had his hand on Leo's shoulder, speaking softly to him as he pointed his wand towards Sirius. The dark haired man was sitting on the ground, hand held up to his lip that was busted and bleeding.

Leo was taking visibly harsh breaths, his hand shaking in anger as he stared down at the man he had just jinxed. You went to step forward, unsure of which child to go to, but a firm hand on your wrist stopped you.

You turned back to see Draven staring at Leonis, anger and concern written across his face. He gently but firmly steered you towards your daughter. The moment you were in front of her, Asterias hand dropped and tears formed in her eyes. She dropped her wand and rushed towards you, her arms wrapping around your waist as she buried her head in your neck.

You immediately hugged her back, one arm around her back rubbing gently as you whispered that it would be ok. The other hand carding through her hair as you turned your bodies to see what was happening with your husband and son.

Dravens face was red with anger, an anger that you hadn't seen since his father tried to force him to leave you. “Leonis, I understand that you are upset, trust me I am too. But this is NOT how we handle things.” Draven took a deep breath and placed both his hands on Leo's face, forcing him to look away from Sirius and at him before he spoke again.

“That man's opinion of your mother means nothing. Your opinion of her.. Your sisters and brothers and our friends, those are the opinions that matter. And while I am so so proud of you for defending your mum's honor, this isn't how she wants you to act. You should've come to us, and let an adult handle it.”

Bellatrix, Lucius and the Lovegoods decided that they needed to force the ever growing group of preteens back to the party. So they lead them away, Bella wiping the small tears from Owens eyes as she joked about how she should have hexed them years ago. Thanking the gods when the young blond boy laughed slightly before running to catch up with his friends.

Remus and James were astounded at the way Draven was handling Leo. The boy's hand had slowly lowered as he listened to his father speak. It was silent and tense, everyone waiting for the next move. Sirius for once was very smartly quiet.

Remus was watching you, as you stood holding one of his daughters. The girl's shoulders shook slightly as she cried over the horrible things and words she had seen and heard in Sirius’ head. He watched your hands treating Asteria the same way you had held him after hard transformations. He knew at that moment that you probably brought her tea, or read books to your children the same way you had with him.

James was staring down at his boyfriend. His childhood best friend. The one who had convinced him that you were not good enough for him. That a life with you wasn't good enough for him. The same friend who had pulled him from Lily after Harry's birth. He couldn't believe that he had just witnessed Sirius speak so horrible about someone to their children.

It was like all at once all of the emotional manipulation Sirius had pulled over the years was slapping James in the face. All the times he had made it seem like you or Lily started a fight when it was really him. All the harsh words that the two of you cried over, that Sirius had said was just ‘tough love’, James could now see the hate behind them.

Regret washed over him as he stared down at Sirius who was sneering at a child.

That is.. Until Evan snatched him off the ground. His fist flying into Sirius’ nose, a satisfying crunch coming from it before blood. “That's for all the times Y/n stopped me from finding you and tearing you apart. How disgusting of a person are you that you, an adult, think it's acceptable to speak in such a way to a child!”

Regulus pulled himself far enough away from his goddaughter to speak just after his husband. “And how shameful that you would compare Leonis to our father! Leo is not bullying you for your beliefs or beating you into submission! He is defending his family's honor! Something you know nothing about!”

Draven turned his son towards you, doing everything he could to hold himself together in front of his children. “Why don't you take your mother and your sisters back to the house. Get cleaned up so we can do the dances before we do Owens cake.” He locked eyes with you, his normally bright gray eyes a few shades darker as he nodded to you. He was silently telling you this was a moment he didn't want you to see.

Leo walked his head down in shame towards you, sniffing silently with despair as he thought you were disappointed. But you let go of Asteria with one hand, and laid it on his cheek causing him to look up. His heart squeezed with relief as you smiled at him before nodding your head towards the path out.

Macaria moved from Regulus’ arms and into her brothers as he walked by. Leo whispered small apologies for frightening her as he led her out of the hedge maze. Asteria released herself from your hold, wiping her eyes as she pulled herself together quickly. She walked over, hugged her father and whispered something to him before leaving herself.

When you stayed planted to your spot, Draven sighed and walked towards you completely aware of the three extra sets of eyes on him. He held your face between his hands and gently tilted your head, forcing you to look up at him. You could feel the slight shake to his hands as his thumbs brushed over your cheek bones.

“I have never told you what you could or could not do before.. Sixteen years we have been together and I have never once demanded something of you. So forgive me for doing so now. Go back to the party, check on our children. All of OUR children. Get the kids set with their dance partners, the rest of us will be out in a few minutes. Block off the entrance on your way out.”

His words were true. Never in the sixteen years of being together had he ever demanded something from any of you. He asked and the few times the answer was no, he would reason with you until a solution was found. So even though you wanted to stop him from doing something he may regret, you nodded.

You could see the relief on his face when he realized you werent going to argue with him. He leaned down and planted his lips solidly against yours, he felt like he just needed a moment of grounding before he let you walk away. So he kept kissing you, his hands still slightly shaking and his breath uneven in anger.

Just the warmth of your lips against his cool ones settled him slightly. The addicting smell of the different flowers and herbs that always clung to you now as a potion maker calmed him. The way your body knew exactly when his lips would open slightly to deepen the kiss. The way you knew when to tilt your head and in which direction so the kiss didn't stop in awkward pause.

The feeling of your hands connected him to the moment as one held the back of his neck and the other lay over his heart. The heart that was completely owned and held by you and his kids. The muscle that contained the half of his soul that perfectly fit yours. Your fingers felt his rapid heartbeat slowing as you pulled back, remembering the company that was held at the moment.

“Je t'aime complètement, ma chérie” Draven whispered before kissing your forehead and releasing you. He watched as you and Regulus squeezed hands before you disappeared from his line of sight. The hedges closing behind you as you made your way out.

Regulus and Evan stood watching their blond friend as he tilted his head back, eyes closed and released a sigh. They had never seen him angry, Lucius sure.. Draven never. But the shake in his hands and the color in his cheeks and neck betrayed the coolness of his features as he turned back to the three now standing men.

“Not only..” Draven started but paused as soon as the words were out of his mouth. His eyes had landed on James, who was staring at the now closed bush with a slightly confused look on his face. His cheeks were also pink as his brow furrowed and it was clear he wasn't hearing Draven at all.

Shaking it off he looked at Sirius, the one of the three that he really disliked. “Not only did you disrespect the mother of my children.. To my children.. But you disrespected my wife.”

Sirius scoffed before looking at Draven “Are you seriously about to try and intimidate us? Ill admit you are..” He held his hand up and waved it in front of Draven with a smirk on his face “Like a greek god or something, I mean honestly 10 out of 10. But I don't think your the typ–”

His words were cut off by yet another fist to the face. He staggered back from the impact, this time feeling more than hearing the rebreaking of his nose. The one that had barely been broken before was definitely shattered now.

Draven wanted to hit him again.. And again.. And maybe one more time after that.. Four times for the four hearts he had broken. Because he was rational enough to understand that the anger the triplets were feeling was because they learned that these three men had easily and willingly written them off before birth.

So he wanted to punch each of the three of them at least four times. But he settled for the one, extremely satisfying nose breaking hit he landed on Sirius. He took a few shaky breaths before he turned to look at Remus, recognizing him once again as the ‘leader’ of the group.

“When this party is over, the three of you are no longer welcome here.” He spoke matter of factly, but heard his wife's previous words before adding, “Harry is welcome though, he can be dropped off by you or James. Or brought by Lily and Amos since Cedric comes often as well. But Sirius Black is banned from any and all of the Malfoy family properties.”

Draven readjusted his leather jacket, took a deep breath and turned back to the two friends who were left. “Let's get back to the party.. I'm sure the triplets are going to want to talk before we move on..”

Okay... SO I was super nervous about posting this so let me know your opionions. The next part is going to be the kids (The triplets and Owen) asking questions. And the Marauders seeing the love between the reader and Draven. Then a sweet little ending.. (Hopefully little)

What questions do you want them to ask?

As always my requests are open. Drink some water! Get some sun! I Love you all <3

@ambria

@almostjollypizza

@snekssss

@anise-d-castle6

@kaverichauhan

#Marauders #the marauders #james potter #remus lupin #marauders #james potter x y/n #james potter x oc #marauders era #sirius black #malfoyfamily

62 notes · View notes

ladydimitrescuspet · 3 years

Text

I'll Protect You

the imagine that inspired this! warning: alcina's forehead scar mentioned, getting shot mentioned, and getting tortured mentioned but the last two are briefly! here's the ao3 link, enjoy!

***

Alcina never allowed you to watch her dress. It was always dark when the two of you were intimate. You knew why that was. You knew it was because of her scars, her insecurities. You caught small glimpses of the ones on her hands when her gloves would slide off slightly. She'd pull it back up without a glance at her hand or at you, so you never said anything about them. You knew that Alcina would tell you when she was ready, when she trusted you enough to tell you about them and you respected that.

You had never really questioned why Alcina always wore a hat, mostly because you'd just gotten used to it being a part of her daily wardrobe. It was until you were at dinner with Alcina and her daughter's and noticed the faint outline of a scar on her forehead when she leaned her head back further than usual to laugh at something Elise had just said. Your laughter calmed down a bit and you opened your mouth to question it, figuring that she'd gotten it the same way her daughters had, but stopped when you saw the look in Daniela's eyes and noticed the slight shake of her head. You closed your mouth and gave her a curt nod. You didn't know if Alcina or the other two daughters had noticed the exchange, but if they did, they didn't mention it.

Alcina looked over at you and gave you a small smile that you reciprocated. She excused the two of you from the table and the two of you made your way up to her chambers. The short journey was quiet and you didn't mind that, it gave you time to think. You sat on Alcina's bed while she made her way over to her vanity to remove her makeup like she always did after dinner. It was the only part of her morning and night routine that she allowed you to be in the room for.

You could feel Alcina's eyes on yours as you played with your hands. "Are you feeling alright, draga mea? You've been awfully quiet tonight." Alcina said as she removed her jewelry. You cast a quick glance up at her before letting out a small sigh and standing up to walk over to her. The sudden movement caused Alcina's eyebrows to knit in confusion. "Y/N, dear, is something wrong?"

You looked into Alcina eyes and gave her a small smile to reassure her. You climbed into her lap, your legs on either side of her body. You could feel her breath become a little quicker as she wrapped an arm around your waist. You ran your thumb over Alcina's bottom lip before giving her a kiss. "Te iubesc atat de mult." You said against her lips softly. You reached past her to grab her makeup remover. "May I, Alci?" You could see Alcina's eyes widen slightly, but she nodded her head nonetheless. You lifted Alcina's chin up slightly, the two of you not breaking eye contact until your other hand came up to cup her cheek and she closed her eyes.

You started by first removing her lipstick, kissing them lightly when you were done removing her lipstick, kissing them lightly when you were done removing it. You then moved over to carefully wiping the makeup off of her cheeks, uncovering one that stretched down her right cheek. You could feel Alcina flinch slightly when you traced the length of the scar before peppering kisses down the length of it. You noted that Alcina's eyes were still closed, but her breathing quickened a bit when you pulled your hands from her face.

"Alci." You said softly. She opened her eyes. "Do you trust me?" You asked her and she nodded her head slightly in reply. You reached your hands up to remove her hat, but she caught your wrists, you hadn't even seen her raise her hands. "Alci, I won't hurt you, I promise." You said. You gave her another kiss and she let go of your wrists. The two of you sat in silence before Alcina gave you a small nod indicating that you could remove her hat. You carefully took her hat off and place it on the vanity.

"Y/N," Alcina started but her voice cracked a bit. You stood up from your spot on Alcina's lap. You cupped your lover's face in both of your hands, studying her ees. There were red from her straining against the tears that were trying to break free. You closed your eyes and brought Alcina's forehead down to your lips and kissed the place where her scar was. Your lips lingered there for a few seconds before you pulled away only for Alcina to pull you closer to her so she could bury her face into your stomach. It took you a while to realise that Alcina was sobbing into you, she was so quiet when displaying the emotion.

You ran your fingers through her hair and just listened to her cry for a while before helping her get ready for bed. You did most of the work getting her nightgown on and helping her unpin her hair. The two of you laid in Alcina's bed, her head resting on your chest. You place little kisses along her hairline and her forehead, the feeling making Alcina's heart flutter.

Alcina sniffled and placed a small kiss to your stomach, covered by the fabric of your own nightgown. "I could, would you..." Alcina trailed off, not knowing what words she wanted to say. You continued to run your fingers through her hair, knowing that it helped calm her down. Alcina let out a small deep breath. "I want to tell you." She said softly.

Your eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Tell me what?" You asked.

"The scar. The one on my forehead." Alcina replied. You let out a soft gasp before humming in reply and kissing her forehead again. "It happened a long time, actually, but it still hurts. Not physically, but mentally and emotionally." You could see Alcina frown at the thought of how the scar came about. "I'd rather not say their name, but it was someone I trusted deeply. Someone that I allowed into my castle and, unfortunately, into my heart." Alcina's eyes welled up with tears again and you could feel your eyes starting to do the same.

"Take your time, Alci. You don't have to tell me if it's too much for you." You said softly, placing another kiss to the top of Alcina's head. You could feel her snuggle deeper into you and exhale.

Alcina closed her eyes before continuing. "The gained my trust. They gained the trust of my daughters. They even had that foolish brother of mine wrapped around their finger." Alcina said, you could hear the disdain in her voice. "Five years. They spent five years learning everything they could about the fours houses, Mother Miranda, and anything else they could retain information about. They went to the village every two weeks, I paid no attention to why at the time, but I wish I had." Alcina picked at the fabric of your nightgown, figuring out where she was heading with the rest of her story.

"Did they have family in the village?" You asked. You stifled a small yawn and readjusted your position on the bed a bit. Alcina shook her head. "Then why? Were they... They were planning something, weren't they?" You asked. Alcina nodded her head. You tightened your grip on her, pulling her closer into your body as you possibly could. "I'm so sorry, Alci." You were starting to understand where Alcina's trust issues came from and we're glad that she'd trusted you enough to share that horrible story with you.

"They, they, Y/N, they shot me." Alcina said, it was barely audible, but you heard it. You couldn't help but let the tears fall down from your eyes at her words. "I hadn't been taken advantage of like that since I was gullible little kid, but they, they got me to let my guard down. They wanted to go for a picnic, it was the perfect time of year for one, so I didn't have the heart to say no. But it was a trick, just a ploy to lure me into a part of the woods where they had the numbers. It felt like I was being tortured for days on end instead of a few hours. If the girls hadn't been concerned and called their uncle, I'd hate to think of what could've been, my dear." Alcina voice had gotten firmer by the time she was done.

You were silent as you took in Alcina's words, your heart hurt just imagining how she must've felt. Someone she trusted betrayed her. Someone she loved but didn't love her back the way they pretended to. Your hand stopped running through Alcina's hair. You tilted Alcina's head up so that you could look into her eyes before you pressed our lips to hers. You put all of your love for her into that kiss and the tiny kisses you gave her after you pulled away.

"I promise I won't ever hurt you like that, Alcina. I'll protect you any and every way that I can even if I can't go the distance that you can go to protect me. I'm not like you, I'm not immortal, but I won't let that stop me from protecting with everything that I have." You said into her ear before kissing the side of her face. "Do you understand that, Alci? I'll never let anybody hurt you like that again, I promise." Alcina gave you a bright smile before pulling you in for another kiss.

"I know, Y/N. You treat me far better than most, floarea mea mica." Alcina whispered against your lips. "I know that that was a lot, but thank you for listening and loving me." You nodded your head, not trusting yourself to form words. Alcina repositioned the two of you, your head now laying in the crook of her neck. "Get some sleep, Iubirea mea." Alcina said before she kissed the top of your head. You pressed a small kiss to her neck before drifting off to sleep. You really hoped that Alcina knew that you'd go to hell and back just to protect her just like you knew that she would.

#lady dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu x reader #resident evil #resident evil 8 #resident evil village #this is really sad #sorry

339 notes · View notes

liam-93-productions · 3 years

Link

This weekend it’s the UK’s biggest event on the entertainment calendar, with the 74th EE British Academy of Film and Television Awards taking place at the Albert Hall with guests and nominees attending virtually for the first time, thanks to Covid-19. And while the awards promise to be as exciting as possible in these unprecedented times, on Sunday night we will also be treated to another exciting world-first in the form of Liam Payne being beamed into houses up and down the country while performing for the opening of the ceremony.

Yup, if you’ve ever fancied the former One Direction crooner serenading you at the end of your bed, on Sunday you can make your dreams a reality – or augmented reality – as Liam has joined forces with the EE network to create a 3D avatar hologram of himself that can be beamed through the app ‘The Round’ (available on any mobile device) as he performs at the Albert Hall. Super fans can also get to experience the avatar in their homes, or on-the-go, ahead of the performance, if they tune in via the app at 6.45pm, 15 minutes before the hologram joins real Liam on stage to perform.

GLAMOUR caught up with Liam to discuss this sci-fi sounding excitement as well as hear how the past year has treated him. In a wide-ranging chat with the ever-charming Liam, we covered all things from the struggles of lockdown and coping with his mental health to his former bandmates, burgeoning acting career, new music (...).

Is the fact that you're performing at the BAFTAs a sign that your acting career is on the rise?

I've done a lot of auditions, a lot of tapes. The thing about acting somebody told me, it’s very much like: are you right for the part and is the part right for you? I think it takes a lot of talent, luck and judgment going into acting to actually get into a job. I mean, hat's off to anybody who does it because it's a long process. I seem to get through to like the final five or final three people for every role and then not quite get it. Which is frustrating but, you know, that’s how it goes. I've had a fair few auditions and I was lucky enough to get into the final five again for one audition that I got to meet Steven Spielberg [a couple of years ago] on my 25th birthday which was quite amazing. But it's been fairly slow through the pandemic obviously.

And what about music? Have you been writing anything, or even been in the studio?

I'm going to the studio later on today actually, to record something for the first time in a while. Which is quite weird to be traveling back into London to go into work. I've been doing some stuff from home as well, which has been quite interesting. Zoom sessions don't really work out all that well, it's very difficult. I'm sure a lot of musicians will agree. So, it's been kind of hard to work properly during this half of the pandemic. The other first half of the pandemic, I just did these live shows, which was really amazing to play live and do them online, which was kind of strange... It's been difficult in terms of the creative process for me.

The past year has been challenging for absolutely everyone, no matter their circumstances. How has it affected you on a personal and a professional level?

In the first half of it, I was so busy that I didn't really notice it as much, except for having to do a lot of stuff myself without crew and learning to do hair and makeup was kind of a weird experience. But then this second half, I stopped working and I had a full, proper month off [and that was] really hard. And it was all a bit dark for me for a little bit and I'm sure many people experienced it. Just not being able to go anywhere, not be able to do anything. It really, really hit home. And I just found myself sat in the same place day in, day out. And I was like, okay, I really do not know what to do with myself.

You’ve bravely spoken about struggling with your mental health in the past, and you say now that you did go into a bit of a dark place recently, how have you coped with that?

I think it's an ongoing experience. For me, learning to relax has always been quite a hard thing to do because I feel like if I'm not moving forward, then I must be going backwards. And I think that's something that I've always struggled with. So, in a way it's kind of a blessing in disguise, as this has all kind of taught me to relax a little bit more. And to not be so worried about that, like the world is not going to fall over if I don't do something today. So, it's been nice in that respect. But I think for a lot of people it's difficult, and I definitely took for granted how much I miss my family. I'm used to being away from home, I'm used to being abroad and not seeing very much of them. But I'd always see them at a show or at something once a year. And then now that that's all been taken away, it's been a lot to not see my family and realise how much they actually ground me.

So, what have you found helpful or supportive during the past year? Have you turned to anything to get you through these dark times?

Friends that are there for you... [talking to] one of my managers that I'm quite close with. I think a lot of guys struggle to talk about what the hell is going on a lot of the time. And for me and him, actually we're quite heart on our sleeves sort of people, so we talk a lot about different things. But I think if I didn't have that, someone to share that with, I think I would have struggled a hell of a lot more.

Like a mental health mate?

I mean, we literally talk about everything. We're probably too honest with each other! But I think it's important that everybody has that person. I'll be honest, at the start of this, drinking definitely became a lot more of a thing because there just didn't seem to be any boundaries. I wouldn't say I drank too much, I'd say I drank too often. Just through the boredom, I guess. A lot of people were going through that though I think - there was so many funny, great memes about it I saw friends of mine put up. But it can be quite dark at times. I think the only thing that's really helped me through that is just learning to work out again and learning to put boundaries in for myself in terms of what food I'm eating. As a pop star, I think you're always quite weight conscious. My job has always been about having to work out, doing underwear modelling and all that sort of thing, it makes you quite body conscious at times. It was nice to be able to just sit and eat pizza and chocolate, I really enjoyed that. But getting myself back into the habit of working out and then having a cheat day put in place, so that there was more boundaries in line, I think has definitely helped me.

I'm quite fortunate that I don't put a stack of weight on, although I have gone up rather a lot in size over this time. But I think it was more about routine for me than anything. And I always say, having a small victory before you get into bed at night time. Or life just gets depressing. Whether that small victory is making sure you've spoken to a family member, you've worked out, or whether you did learn to do something today, just something small. There's one task that you literally can't be arsed with, you should get done just on the day, so that you feel good about yourself when you get into bed.

That's so important. So, do you almost have a checklist before you go to bed?

I think as long as I make the gym and I've done that bit and I've taken care of my needs, just cooked some nice food. That's mainly it for me, really. And then I feel good about it. (...)

(...)

Moving on to social media, you've obviously got such a massively positive fan base, but how do you cope with the negative side of social media and the impact that can have on your mental health?

I struggled with it for a long time. I argued with people. I was aggressive on their points trying to fight my own side. And I think for some people you are talking to a brick wall, you will not win and there's no point trying. And also, the more you talk about it, the worse it gets. So, I just shut up and put up a lot of the time. I think it's the Queen that says, "never complain or never explain." And that's something I think myself I do live by because it's just like, with some people it gets worse having the argument and trying to explain yourself. But all of it, it's like five minutes of your life for somebody who doesn't know you, it's just a bit pointless.

You have so much intense public scrutiny on you all the time, how do you navigate keeping something back for yourself, and how have you managed to maintain that sense of privacy over the years?

I think this has been one of my biggest struggles this whole time. Because, I'm very much a heart on the sleeve sort of person. I didn't actually realize this for a long time, but I often give a little bit too much away…But it's definitely a difficult one to flick the two people apart. So that you're on stage, you're a certain type of person, and at home you're a certain type of person. That's always something I've really struggled with.

And you've been famous since the age of 16. How did you manage growing up in that sort of public glare?

Never did! [laughs] My friend was [recently] talking about how he’s got a teenage son that he was really struggling with at the moment. And I was thinking, "oh my God, imagine how much people would have struggled having five teenagers, rowdy boys in a band. It must've been terrible, there's no getting through to them!" And for a while, it probably was. I think we all go through that awkward teen phase where you're finding yourself. And most of us, we get to get away with it. And they're funny family photos for later on; here was your emo phase or whatever you went through! And for us, we never got away with being awkward or annoying at points. It was kind of out there for everyone to see; the awful haircuts and we’re talking terrible clothes, it was all out there.

What has your career taught you about the idea of success and the idea of failure?

I think it's taught me lots about how you would measure success. I came from a family that weren't very well off. We didn't have a lot. My dad was in debt actually when I started. So, success for me always meant a monetary thing to start off with. But then as I got older, I realized I don't really buy all that much. I don't really spend a hell of a lot of money. So, it can't be about a money sort of thing. And it's more now become more about happiness and experiences. And the one thing I always say about my job, no matter what, and everybody gets annoyed at their job sometimes, it is what it is. But for me, at least I get to put a smile on someone's face.

Yes, you do! And what has it taught you about failure?

That's a really good question. It’s taught me I think that perseverance will always prevail in that sense. Because it doesn't always go exactly to plan. We were really lucky when we came up, we absolutely skyrocketed. And then, it's been hard to follow that ever since. But you know, measuring a failure as well. What is a failure? And people will look at this and, for us sometimes getting a 100,000,000 streams isn't quite what we aim for, but it's still 100,000,000 streams….you have to kind of get a hold of yourself. Everything is about perspective at the end of the day, isn't it? That was something I struggled with for a long time, because of how well it went [for the band.]

So you had such high expectations for everything?

Yeah. And it's like, time to give that a break really. And Louis from my band has always been quite great to sit with me and talk with me about stuff. And if I'm feeling a certain way. We've been quite good with each other, actually in that respect and helping each other out, which has been nice.

And finally, if you could sit down with the Liam who was starting out in One Direction in 2010, what advice would you have for him?

I think just have more fun and relax a little bit. I think I was a very serious child, one of those man-childs, I was a man in a child's body pretty early on. And I think I would have avoided that stage, to be honest with you. To enter One Direction as that difficult, because it just meant that I got completely a different job to everybody else.

You were the grown up one?

That was it. And it was boring. I should have just larked around and thrown plates out the window and stuff!

More rock and roll?

Well, I mean at the start, and then later on a bit less rock and roll [laughing.]

Well, thank you so much, Liam. And we look forward to seeing your performance on Sunday at the BAFTAs.

I'll see you wherever you want me in your house, I guess.

Liam Payne is performing an exclusive EE BAFTA AR real-time music performance, ahead of his 5G-powered opening show at the 2021 EE BAFTA Film Awards. Download ‘The Round’ app to enjoy the live AR experience through your mobile phone, wherever you are, this Sunday 11th April 2021 at 18:45pm BST.

#liam payne #liam's interviews #glamour uk #ee baftas #07.04.2021

143 notes · View notes

pyrrhiccomedy · 3 years

Text

the People have requested my book report on The Library at Mt. Char so this is now a Mt Char book club.

if you have not read The Library at Mt Char there is no reason to keep reading. I hope you're having a nice day, stay safe and don't do drugs.

So Mt Char has a couple of problems, but in my opinion only one grave problem.

Not a grave problem:

Erwin doesn't need to be in this book. An astonishing amount of ink is spilled on giving us Erwin's POV and I am at a loss in regards to what that's supposed to bring to the story. I mean, it's kind of neat to see Carolyn's "trick shot" from the POV of one of the people being manipulated, but that perspective could have just been provided by Steve. Everything Erwin does of any plot significance could have been done by Steve, a character who actually matters.

Please note that I don't hate Erwin, he's perfectly fine as characters go, he just contributes nothing, and it is baffling that he and Carolyn get the last scene in the book (instead of just ending on her reunion with Michael, a scene that was emotionally affecting and felt like a natural end point to her story). We are taking no questions, Erwin needed to be cut.

Also not a grave problem in my opinion, but I am sure others feel differently and I understand why they would:

Yo, the scope of what the catalogs cover is mad vague. I mean, I get that that's the point: when you have a character whose magic powers are "anything that has to do with death or murder," that's a broad license, and I'm fine with that. These are supposed to be demi-gods. I don't require a rigorously explicated magic system.

But then like...why can't Jennifer, the healer, also heal minds? That seems weird. Or like, it's implied that she kinda can, maybe, but none of the kids talk about their therapy sessions with Jennifer: they explicitly call out that she heals their bodies. But then she talks about how Margaret and David are sick (meaning mentally) in a way she can "no longer help?" Aren't you supposed to be the God Of Healing? Why can't you help anymore? And were you actually trying to help them before - or anyone else? That's never shown. You could have just said you only healed bodies, not minds, but then it's repeatedly implied that she CAN diagnose mental and emotional problems (and therefore should probably be able to do something about them).

So that's weird.

Or like, why is there Alicia, who "sees the future," and Rachel, who "sees possible futures?" That, uh, just sounds like the author was running out of ideas. Also, if Alicia could see the future, she probably shouldn't have been in that house when the SWAT team hit, yeah?

Stuff like that. The magic the kids can do is very "they have the powers the author needs them to have when the author needs them to have them, and they can't do anything the author would find inconvenient for them to do" but that's not a deal breaker for me because overall the vibe being put off by their various magical specialties works for me. Still, there were ways of getting us where we needed to go without begging quite so many questions.

Also not a grave problem, although more of a problem than the other stuff:

You know that anime trope where a super-genius character is having an entire conversation with another super-genius character through a screen, and it's revealed that the whole conversation was a distraction and pre-recorded so that Character 2 could Complete His Scheme against Character 1? And used his super-genius brain to predict every single thing Character 1 would say? And your suspension of disbelief staggers bloodied into the alleyway and collapses because you're really trying to hang in there, Code Geass, but that's fucking stupid, you're asking for me to believe that this character's intelligence is flat-out supernatural now and you've given me no reason why that should be?

That's how I feel about Carolyn, by the time she takes over the Library. Like, okay. The kids canonically have not even been at the Library long enough for any of them to master their catalogues except for Jennifer. None of them but Jennifer are masters of even their own subject.

Carolyn has been studying in secret from multiple catalogues - which is cool! I like how she slowly reveals over the course of the latter half of the book that she has powers from other people's specialties.

...But like...

She seems close to mastering her own catalogue. She is a competent healer and can raise the dead (Jennifer's catalogue). She can block attempts to read her mind, beats David in a fight, and understands how to kill Father (David's catalogue). She speaks lion and controls the dogs that surround the Library (Michael's catalogue). She could make the mathy "Denial That Rends" thing that kicks off the whole plot, and she can make a new sun and correct orbital rotations around it (Peter's catalogue). She can predict the future with such specificity that she knows how to cause Steve to drop a clip of bullets while he's being attacked by dogs exactly where Erwin will need to pick it up later (Rachel's catalogue, also this one is stupid, she could have just given Erwin an extra clip or something, but whatever).

That's half the catalogues. Carolyn doesn't seem prodigiously more intelligent than the other kids. She's smart, sure, but they're all weird demi-gods with a genius for their specialties. The rest of them haven't even mastered their own catalogue, and I'm supposed to swallow that Carolyn has attained 'competent or better' status in six? When she has to research five of them in secret? Without falling behind in her own studies?

It would be fine if they had all been masters of their own catalogues for years and years; that would mean they would begin to stagnate, while Carolyn kept learning. But that's not the case. By the end I wasn't impressed anymore at Carolyn's resourcefulness, it just felt like she could do anything and everything, shh, don't ask questions, she's the Chosen One so she just can.

The reason this isn't a grave problem to me is because Carolyn's journey isn't about becoming more powerful: it's about her emotional journey, which isn't affected by her being stupidly OP for no reason by the end of the book. She still sucked at the things that mattered, like "feelings" and "relationships" and "not being a shitty person." But I do think it hurt the story. I should be cheering on my protagonist when her wild schemes come together, not rolling my eyes.

Anyway. All that was the aperitif. Let's talk about

THE GRAVE AND GLARING PROBLEM AT THE CENTER OF MT CHAR.

So everything that happens in the book stems from Carolyn's thoroughly justified hatred of Father (and David, but David was made that way by Father). Father treated her, and all of the other kids, with extravagant cruelty. If you haven't read the book in a while, here's a sample of the kinds of things Father did to the kids, or, if David did them, that Father did nothing to prevent:

- Cooked David alive over 2 full days in a giant bronze bull (and made the rest of the kids bring the fuel)

- Put Michael's eyes out with a hot poker every night for 2 weeks (and made the rest of the kids watch)

- Murdered Margaret every few days, often in drawn-out and painful ways

- Made Rachel repeatedly give birth, raise the babies to about 9 months, then murder them with her own hands

- Allowed David to rape all 11 of the other kids (except Jennifer, probably because she was the healer and he wanted to stay on her good side)

- Allowed David to crucify, brutalize and rape Carolyn and Peter

- Gave Carolyn a loving new family for a year when she was nine years old (those two deer), then had David murder them in front of her and blame it on her for not remembering her homework well enough, then served the two deer at a feast to 'celebrate' her returning to the family

- Whippings, skinnings, and bone-breakings as standard disciplinary actions

Whoo-ee! Okay! We are talking about mythological cruelty. I am fine with this! The story takes place on a mythological scale. As outlandish as all of that is, the cruelty feels proportionate in a story about killing and replacing god. Father is cruel, indifferent, controlling, and alien. I have no questions, Carolyn please proceed with your revenge. We seemed on track for a tale in which Carolyn defeats Father, but in doing so she runs the risk of becoming him. Will she step back from the brink and retain her humanity after all of the trauma and brutality she's endured? Let's find out!

And then

and then.

Oh boy.

And then.

...It turns out, Father is a good guy after all.

And let me be clear: THIS IS NOT, IN AND OF ITSELF, A PROBLEM.

By the time you learn that Father is actually benevolent, and loved those kids, and cares about being a responsible steward to the world, and tried to leave the universe a better place than he found it, and genuinely regretted the suffering he inflicted on them when they were growing up, it feels kind of...natural? Like, I was surprised, but also not, because there were 90 pages of book left and Carolyn had already become god. This seemed like a thematically meaningful place to take the rest of the story.

It turns out Father was training Carolyn to replace him the entire time. He had to make her hate David because it was important that she "defeat a monster" on her path to becoming god. (It's not explained why she had to defeat a monster, but sure, okay; it's the kind of mythic feat that fits with the story we're in.)

Why did he choose Carolyn to be his successor? Well, originally he chose David, but David wasn't strong enough: every time Carolyn was the monster in David's story, she defeated him, and went on to rule the universe as an unspeakable tyrant. Since Carolyn always won, Father swapped their roles. He knew he had made the right choice when he put David into the bronze bull, and heard David begging for mercy: because when Carolyn had been the fated monster, she had never begged.

...Okay, so...hang on.

Hang on.

The only rule that we've established on "how to become god" is "you have to defeat a monster," right? I'll even grant you for free that it has to be a monster who is personally meaningful to you, although that part is never stated. Overcoming a great evil which has cast you down and abused you many times before, sure, okay.

...Why the FUCK did all that other awful shit have to happen??

I did not have this question when Father was just evil! That was a good enough explanation! But now that he's not evil, you HAVE TO EXPLAIN why he treated all of the kids so brutally!

Like dude you're GOD. If you need a monster for Carolyn, I'm sure you can make that happen without TORTURING CHILDREN FOR DECADES.

There didn't even need to be any other children! You could have two kids: the languages-kid, who is the chosen one (the chosen one has to be the languages-kid so they can read the Onyx Codex or whatever it was called at the end, the one written by Original God), and the war-and-murder kid, who is the monster. They could have just been forbidden to read the other codices, if it's important to you that your chosen one still prove her resourcefulness or whatever.

Why include all of the other kids??? It wasn't to give your chosen one a sense of family: Carolyn didn't feel close to any of them except for Michael (who I liked, but whose contribution to the plot was negligible).

Or keep the kids! But then why make them, and Carolyn, hate you?? You could just say, "Hey Carolyn, I am raising you to be my successor, you have to figure it out yourself because part of proving your worthiness is this kind of abstract, big-picture thinking, but I love you and whatever you end up deciding to do, just believe in yourself." And meanwhile you're off torturing the fated monster in order to get him piping hot and ready to be served.

Was the idea that Carolyn had to endure so much horror in order to prove she was 'tough enough' to be god?? Because that's not how trauma works! Kids who have been brutally traumatized are usually not made tougher by the experience! A fact that even the book understands, because 10 of the 12 kids are completely destroyed by their upbringing (I'm giving marginal exceptions to Michael and Carolyn herself).

And like

if Father doesn't have a good reason for having treated them so badly, the whole book falls apart!

Because getting revenge for that cruelty is Carolyn's whole motivation!

We are clearly supposed to feel okay about Father going to make a new universe at the end of the book: he's going with his cool tiger friend and that little girl with the connection to the elemental plane of joy who used to be the sun, he's happy to see Carolyn embracing compassion and kindness, which means he cares about compassion and kindness. He invented light and pleasure. Carolyn does nothing to try to stop him from going. He seems like a pretty good candidate for god. And I do feel okay with him leaving! I was convinced! Father is not evil after all!

But then you have! to explain! the abuse!!

It can be a throwaway line!! "Carolyn realized that everything she and her siblings went through had to happen the way it did, because [X]," embedded in the middle of a paragraph! That would have been enough! But I need an explanation!

"They were raised the way Father was raised himself" WHY? He was raised by the Emperor, an on-the-record awful fucking dude! Father proceeded to rule the universe in a far more benevolent way than the Emperor did, why would he feel like he had to raise his kids the way the Emperor raised him?

"Carolyn needed to overcome challenges on her path to godhood" how is TRAUMATIZING HER SO BADLY SHE ALMOST BECOMES INHUMAN - SOMETHING YOU WERE OSTENSIBLY TRYING TO PREVENT, see Steve being preserved as something that could give her hope, etc - A "CHALLENGE??"

Again, none of this is a problem if Father is just evil! YOU CHOSE to make him not evil! And that's fine!! I think it's a good choice for the story actually!! But then you have to, you have to, HAVE TO explain why all of that bad shit happened!

Because all of that bad shit is the reason Carolyn made there be a story.

And it turns out it doesn't make sense.

#the library at mount char

50 notes · View notes

scrapyardboyfriends · 2 years

Note

Those spoilers make my head hurt. Not a single decent storyline in so very, very long. Yet audience's are choosing to kill EE instead of fleeing ED and giving us the hope of a new producer. I hate this time line. 🥺

I mean…is Eastenders any better? All I hear is how terrible that is too.

I was thinking about the run down of all of the stories and how I feel about them. Mostly they’re all just empty.

We have Faith’s terminal cancer story which is just depressing because it means we’re losing a character I do actually like. But it also feels silly that we were just here a year ago with her arthritis story when she was lying to everyone and Brenda and Eric were covering. I kind of liked that better even if I have enjoyed the Moira and Faith scenes for the most part. I liked all of the older characters being friends. I want a bit of that back before she goes. Give me that Mary/Faith friendship I deserve. But the real problem with this story is of course her monster children who have become so unlikeable at this point that I don’t blame Faith in the least for not telling them and I dread them finding out because I’m sure they’ll still be extra annoying but in new ways. So that part of the story makes it really hard to care.

The Noah story is…okay? But obviously I don’t care about Chloe as an actual character. While I hate everyone yelling that Kerry and Amy are hypocrites for wanting Noah to get what he deserves, they’re not totally wrong. It would be better if they were more self aware at least. I don’t completely hate Mack’s involvement but I hate how Charity keeps getting mad at him and their relationship is terrible and I want them to break up. I do also think it’s weird that Vanessa hasn’t even so much as commented on all of this considering she was essentially Noah’s step mom for a few years. I mean I think this story would be a perfect way to bring Vanity back together a bit because it would make sense for Vanessa to weigh in but they’re too busy isolating her with Suzy is way more there for Leyla’s story. And lastly, I still just want to know if this Noah stuff is going to drop off after the sentencing or just escalate.

The whole Jamie saga is infuriating because if Alex Lincoln isn’t coming back then what is the goddamn point? Even if he does come back for a cameo or more, like who cares? His exit wasn’t really all that interesting except for that one shot of him with Millie in the end. Just let him win and leave him be. He’s not an interesting character. And all this being tied into Kim and Will’s relationship? Ugh. I still do not buy them as a couple. At all. So I don’t care. Kim needs someone to really thaw her and sweep her off her feet or really challenge her and she still mostly treats Will like a business deal.

Leyla’s coke addiction story isn’t bad as a concept and I think Roxy is doing well with what she has to work with. I just think it all could have been executed better. I mean I understand that she’s experienced a lot of trauma recently, with Leanna’s death and dealing with Liam’s grief and then the miscarriage and not really being able to grieve that. And then getting shot by Meena. I can see how she might turn to drugs, I just wish we saw it. I’d rather have seen her trying to manage a wedding and losing it and Suzy being there because she was working the event with her and being like “I have something to take the edge off” and then going from there. You still could have had the reveal of her dating Vanessa to Leyla and everything after that would have been the same. It’s just that the viewers would have known longer but it all would have felt less random.

The Suzy/Moira/Holly of it all is still just odd. I mean yes it can give Moira closure but Moira has so much else going on with Faith and Cain’s inevitable anger that I don’t know that she needed this too. And do I really care about Suzy’s guilt? No.

Amelia’s story isn’t bad but I still feel like they haven’t done enough with the teens as a group to really establish proper friendships and dynamics between them. They’ve all mostly had a story or two to know them a bit as individuals but they were all pretty isolating stories so we really never see them interact so it’s harder to care now. Leyla snapping at Priya due to the drugs feels more impactful because of their years of friendship that we’ve seen compared to Amelia snapping at Cathy who five minutes ago was an internet bully herself.

Mary being a lesbian I saw coming the moment she told that story about her neighbor friend that died. I get why they waited till Pride month to do it and honestly, it’ll probably be at least better than the sad and terrible pride episode last year because at least there will be focus on an actual lgbt character. So there’s that. But we’ll have to wait and see. Not thrilled with Rhona outing her. Side note: can Mary and Kim have a thing because I’d rather that than Kim and Will. Haha.

Marcus and Ethan continue to move at light speed for seemingly no reason which just leaves us waiting for the other Pierce shaped shoe to drop. They’re cute all now but there’s no depth and the vague ominous possibilities looming in the future make it hard to invest. Also the whole racist attack story seemed to only exist to give them a reason to move in together and that’s…a choice.

This Nicola attack story in a vacuum is not the worst idea even if it is incredibly random. But the one article I read said it’s going to be more focused on the aftermath and how she feels/ptsd etc. And my issue there is twofold. One, she’s not like Seth in the classic episodes, getting mugged by a couple of teen girls and then not wanting to tell people or leave the house. She’s Nicola King, she’s tougher than that. Two, we just had this Billy attack and then the Ethan attack and neither one of them are getting a ptsd story. We’re just moving on and forgetting it even happened. And then you have Priya and Leyla still having ptsd effects from the Meena stuff so they’re sort of already telling those kinds of stories. Do we need one more that’s so random? Which I suppose brings me to a third point, back to the Seth example, that was a rare occurrence. Now everyone is getting attacked that it hardly feels like a major thing. It is just Tuesday in Emmerdale and then we move on. It feels empty and like they just lack the imagination to come up with something different.

There’s David’s money problems that have come out of absolutely nowhere and to what end? They already did the covid slump story with the pub. If they’re not going to actually give me a new shop owner or something to shake things up the way they didn’t with the pub, then tell me why I should care? And the David/Vic relationship stuff really is dead in the water and they should give it up. So if this story does that, then fine but I doubt it will.

The Marlon story I still think is doing well at least. That has had better pacing than everything else for me at least. He hasn’t been miraculously healed in two days but he’s making enough progress each time we see him to keep the story moving along and to show that some people do come back from this. And the Mary/Marlon scenes have been nice and it’s given April a bit to do too, far away from Cathy.

There’s the idiotic caravan story with Sam and Lydia, which I recognize half my hatred for comes from just not liking Sam due to my dislike of James Hooten and his politics. But aside from that…I do think it’s good to have small stakes comedy stories. I just think my threshold for Dingle hi jinx has long since been passed. But also it feels like something that should be like a one to two week comedy subplot, not something that’s going to span the summer. Like who cares?! And where did Lydia’s sudden caravan obsession come from? Also, I feel like Lydia and Sam don’t work as well as they used to. When they first got together, she was much kookier and fit with him better but now that she’s been transferred into more of the Lisa roll of the Dingle Clan, it feels more like she’s just managing a child and…blech. We have enough of that with Chaddy and Charity and Mack.

Then there’s still the Cain and Al feud lying dormant that I hear is going to stretch till October somehow and wow do I not care or want to see it.

So yeah…new producers when?

#emmerdale complaints corner

6 notes · View notes

impossiblelibrary · 3 years

Text

Today's rant brought to you by: Queer Eye Japan, can we all just try to be as kind as they try to be?

After watching the Queer Eye Japan super short season, I wanted to google to see the overall reaction to the show, make sure that my western eyes were correct in seeing the care that was given to the culture. Were cultural taboos, other than being outwardly gay, crossed? So I find this article in the top results and other than the perspective, why tho? Tokyoesque.com had an article with a higher reading level, with surface level appreciation but at least better written.

I can't get over this hate article though. Unfounded, dumb, wrong and incorrect. Do not go forward unless you like that blistering kind of anger from me.

But the reasons just get weaker as the article extends: "Hurts the country it set out to save?" Looking for white savior much? They did not go to save Japan, they gave some free shit to like 4-5 people, think smaller.

Their culture guide wasn't gay enough.

You want to suggest any lgbt insta models or celebrities, use your platform to raises some up?

"There is a growing sexless culture in Japan for married and unmarried people, and it is perilous watching Queer Eye present this without any context behind what is driving this behavior."

Sexiness is what the fab 5 embrace, unfortunately and it was probably discussed behind the scenes of how much talking about sex was allowed or polite and the conversation of not having sex is closer to the tip of the tongue rather than the feeling of sexiness. The West is not the ones blasting that information. It is across multiple Japanese printed newspapers and online stories by now and the "context" is still being discussed and debated amongst Japanese. So I don't think any outsiders should be weighing in or "explaining" this phenomenon. We can repeat what we have been told but guessing at the reasons is not our place. The reasons illustrated by the author of the article seem lacking, a take but not the only one, but who am I to speak on that being in a sexual relationship with someone who pulls from that culture?

Kiko begins to lecture Yoko-san on how she “threw away her womanhood” (referring to a Japanese idiom, onna wo suteru) by going makeup-free and wearing drab, shapeless clothes.

The mistranslation by the subtitles fixed by this author was necessary information. But Kiko didn't lecture her on it, it was brought up by Yoko before any of them arrived, that was her theme, that was what she had decided to focus on. Meanwhile, if you watched Jonathan, he understood there was no time to spend on makeup and skincare so provided her a one instrument, 3 points of color on the skin to feel prettier. That and the entire episode being the 5 treating her like a woman on a date, not trying to hook her up, which is what they did in American eps.

"In teaching a Japanese woman, who already struggles to find time for herself, how to make an English recipe, Antoni is making great TV and nothing more."

So Antoni shouldn't have taught her apple pie because it's too exotic for a Japanese woman. (Can you smell the sexism?)

He didn't make an apple pie, altho Yoko did mention her mother made that for her when she was a kid. He made an apple tartine after going to a Japanese bakery who makes that all the time. Then highlighted the apples came from Fuji in true Japanese media fashion. Honey, American television doesn't usually highlight where the ingredients come from. A Japanese producer told him to do that. So all worries handled within the same ep. She got Japanese ingredients, had the recipe shown to her and then made it for her friends in her own house. Did the author actually watch this show or nah?

"beaten over the head with his western self-help logic. “You have to live for yourself,” he says."

The style of build up the 5 went for was confrontational but in a "I'm fighting for you" way. It's hard to describe, but the best I can say is, a person has multiple voices in their head, from parents, siblings, society, and maybe themselves. By being loud and obnoxious, American staples right there, they are adding one more voice. You deserve this, you are amazing, you are worth it. I know this is against most Japanese cultural modesty, but maybe it shouldn't be.

Sarcasm lies ahead:

Apparently: mispronunciation is microaggressions, not just someone who had a sucky school system. Yea okay, They're laughing at the language not at how stumbling these monolinguals are with visiting another country. Mmhm. Japanese don't say I love you and don't touch and that should stay that way instead of maybe, once in awhile, feeling like they can hug. Yeah, let's just ignore Yoko's break down that she had never hugged her lifelong friend after hugging strangers multiple times. Maid cafes are never sexualized in Japan ever, just don't go down that one street in Akihabara where the men are led off by the hand sheepishly blushing. Gag me. And Japanese men love to cry in front of their wives and would never break down once the wife leaves. I have never seen a Japanese movie showcase that move. Grr.

"I identify as many cultures."

So you're a Japanese man when it's convenient for you to get an article published? Are you nationally Japanese or just ethnically or culturally?

Homeland is an inherently racist word?

"After the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a Republican consultant and speechwriter Peggy Noonan urged, “the name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably. Homeland isn’t really an American word, it’s not something we used to say or say now.”

Yes, let's use a Washington Post article rather than a etymology professor. Yes, the google search results increased after 2001 Homeland Security was used but the word has been around since the 1660s and I've read multiple turn of the century lit on white people returning to their homeland, i.e. the town off the coast they were born in.

"But" is not disagreeing. I think the repeated offender for the author is the not acknowledging the makeover-ees feelings. But, that is how LGBT have decided to deal with the inner voices that invade from society. They are just that, not our own, they are the influence of society, and we can choose, we have to choose, to be influenced by someone, anyone else.

Karamo can't speak about being black when an Asian is speaking about being Asian, even though the Asian gay man was feeling alone. It's called relating bitches, and I'm done with people saying that is redirecting the conversation, it's extending the conversation. That's how we talk, the spotlight is shared, especially when someone's about to cry and doesn't want to be seen as crying, time to turn the spotlight.

The gay monk wasn't good enough, you should have invited the gay politician.

Yeah, causes I'm sure a politician has all the time in the world for a quick stint and cry. They picked a Japanese monk who travels to NY because they had a guest who travels to the West too. Did you want him to stop traveling back and forth? Did you want a pure, ethnic and cultural Japanese gay man who has no ties to the west to talk to this Western educated young man? Seriously?

This is just not how it works in Japan.

Being in a multi-cultural marriage between two rebels, discussions on facets of culture are plenty in my household. Culture should be respected enough to be considered but not held on a pedestal like we should never adjust or throw some things out. LGBT being quiet and private for instance. "Being seen" was Jonathan's advice, and a good one especially for a Japanese gay man that was called feminine since he was a kid. Some gay men can hide, but as Jonathan said, he couldn't hide what he was, he couldn't hide this. So fuck it. Don't hide. It's actually more dangerous for a feminine man to come off as anxious rather than gay and proud. It makes you more of a target if they think you won't fight back. Proud means, Imma throw hands too, bitch.

This is also from the civil rights playbook going back to Black America: never hold a protest or a fight without the cameras, without being seen. LGBT have found the more seen they are, in media, in the streets, the better off we are. When LGBT Americans were being "private" about our lifestyles, we died, a la 1980s. They won't care if you start dying off if they never saw you to begin with.

And hence why I think the author's real anger is from these 5 being seen dancing flamboyantly in Shibuya, in Harajuku, afforded the privilege of doing this safely because of their tourist status, cameras and very low violence rate in Tokyo, loud and obnoxiously. Honestly, they wouldn't have been invited or nominated if they didn't want that brash American-ness coming into their home, just for a taste, at least.

Here's my real anger, my own jealousy: Japan's queer community currently does not have marriage or adoption rights. US does, so we have progressed further. But we are also not that many years from being tied to cow fences with barbed wire, beaten with baseball bats and left for dead overnight. If things are so bad over there, maybe take a few pages from the civil right playbook we took so much time to perfect and produced by the Black Americans who fought first. But so far, I only hear loss of jobs and marriages, which we still have here too. Stop trying to divide us, we are one community, LGBT around the world and we are here to try to help. Take it or leave it, it's not like we're going to go organize your own Pride parade for you.

Rant over? I guess. Is this important enough to be put in the google results along with his. Hell no, anyone with half a mind can see he's reaching more than half the time. And any argument about: this wasn't covered! There are a shit ton of conversations that are not covered in the 45 min they have. They are not a civil rights show, it's a makeover show, doing their best in that direction anyway. Know what it is.

Next blog post, what research I would guess was happening behind the scenes for each of the 5? I'm pretty sure I saw Jonathan doing Japanese style makeup there...

#queer eye #Queer eye Japan #original #rant

38 notes · View notes

honorable-wanderings · 3 years

Text

Word of Honor - Episode 3 Part 1 - Someone finally eats their damn food

FUCKING FINALLY OMG

------------

Why is the rum always gone?

It’s because you’re an alcoholic, Dear.

Lucky for you I’m an enabler

----------

Why y’all gotta drag me into your gross flirting? Disgusting

Ah don’t worry! I’ll help! I’ll help with anything! Let me be helpful! Please I beg of you!

------------

I like you. You like me?

No.

How bout now?

-------------------------

Don’t you fuckin’ touch me.

-------------

I don’t know why but like in just about any context someone smelling their fingers is just a tiny bit gross.

-----------------------

A beautiful person is beautiful regardless of what life and the world has done to them. An woman made homely by long suffering is no less beautiful than a princess whose hands were made to touch nothing harder than water.

Learn some respect.

That being said it ain’t life that made you ugly. Take off the damn mask! Let me sneak a peek! ;)

You couldn’t fucking handle it.

Oh yeah? Fucking prove it.

--------------

So what’d y’all do to piss off the Ghost Valley? Asking for a friend and I definitely don’t know the answer. I don’t even know who they are. Ghost Valley? That sounds made up.

But what did you do to piss them off?

I don’t know and honestly I don’t give a FUCK. About anything. Except wine. And sleep. Let me get drunk and go to bed. Please. Rest. I crave rest.

---------

There’s a weird children’s rhyme floating around *ahem*

RING AROUND THE ROSIE

--------------

A bunch of sects got their sacred texts stolen and shoved into a cave somewhere 20 years ago and supposedly the knowledge gathered can make you invincible.

Also apparently none of these sects had thought to like... i don’t know... write down a second copy? Or like have a master that actually knows the stuff so they can teach it and pass it down? I guess? I mean I don’t feel like this needed to be so big of a problem.

That being said Zhou ZiShu’s “the fuq” head tilt when Wen KeXing says that it makes people invincible just does it for me. lol Mr Sass Man Like “Press X to Doubt”

----------------

Everyone’s always trying to kill each other over some mystical mcguffin or another.

Get this thing and you’ll live forever. Get that thing and it’ll cure any ailment. Get the other thing and you can destroy all your foes. Blah Blah Blah

Y’all can miss me with that shit.

------------

Wen KeXing, your mirthless laugh is kinda giving up the ghost on your disguise as it were.

------------------------

Ignorant people create their own troubles. And drag innocent others into the squall.

And I ain’t down for that shit.

-------------------

Wait I get it! People who suck try to cheat!

And they’re dumb!

I’m so smrt.

---------

Stop asking my boy questions you know he doesn’t want to answer.

I love how much Zhou ZiShu tries to protect ChengLing’s boundaries. Like no. He doesn’t want you to treat his wound. He doesn’t want to answer that question. Then by god he’s not going to. He’s old enough to know if he needs help and to make his own decisions so I’m gonna let him. And if you try again I will cut you.

----------

Unfortunate.

--------

You can always tell when someone’s a shit manager when they order you to do something you’re already doing as if you hadn’t thought to do it and then pretend that it was their idea all along.

“Cover the bodies” do you see all these fucking sheets? Do yous ee my hands already covering his ass? Do you see? You cover the fucking bodies you damn layabout!

-------------

And then there’s this guy! What happened? Fuckin ghost assassins came in and killed everyone! What the fuck do you think happened?

---------------------

It’s sad that y’all lost your sworn brother or something. Like it is. And y’all are making me believe that you’re in pain! And his two kids that really sucks too!

But like...

I don’t know who ANY of y’all are. Like Sucks and all but like... who are you? I’m not emotionally invested in you at ALL. Which makes it real hard to hit that sympathy card in any substantial way right out the gate.

But Idk. Maybe I’m not supposed to care all that deep? Like maybe you’re just supposed to be all like

That being said, this guy’s selling it though. He’s really goin for it.

------------------

Hahahahahahahha your friends died and you couldn’t save them. Ha ha. We’re watermelons. :D

-------------------

ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVOKE ME ON PURPOSE?

Well fucking duh!

-------------

Hold your blade! For I too am old and here to start shit!

That being said if y’all could stop antagonizing literally everyone you meet for 5 minutes that would be fantastic.

----------

What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the East

And A-Xu is the sun!

------------

Are you still staring? BLINK MOTHER FUCKER!!

I know you hot as fuck you can’t hide from me

----------------------

*Poke*

What the fuck dude???

-----------------

AACCKKK MY HEARTTTTTTTTT

-------------------

Whelp I’m out. Still gonna stalk me?

Oh absolutely

Eh. Guess it could be worse.

-----------------------

Heyyyyyyyyyy stop walking away when I’m trying to flirt with you!!! ride my damn boat! i have a boat! Please just get on my damn boatttttttttt

Denied

Alright fine. Play hard to get. I know you like me ;)

----------------

Um if you could wrap up the stupid love-struck staring and let us get a move on that would be greaaaaaaaat.

------------

That ass will be mine.

#word of honor #Shanhe Ling #Wen Kexing #zhou zishu #zhang chengling #Gu Xiang #writing woh #spoilers #episode 3

32 notes · View notes

fangirlyah · 4 years

Text

✦ the future ahead - Edmund Pevensie x Reader

summary: where you both think about the future but neither says anything. without communication anything can go wrong

warnings: none

word count: 1,784

even though you saw the birds fly and the scent of freshly baked bread wafting from the bakeries around you, on that winter afternoon, nothing compared to narnia. a feeling of nostalgia hit your thoughts and almost threw you off track. even though you were with edmund and lucy, the need to return to the great kingdom would come from time to time.

they had said goodbye to narnia a year ago and the kingdom had not yet requested you three, so edmund and lucy were still stranded at their uncles' house. you visited them almost every weekend and this was no exception.

“we are going to look for the vegetables, y/n. edmund, you go for the dairy” the pevensie’s aunt had been more than clear on what they should buy in the village store, so they couldn't go wrong. edmund went to look for the products while you and lucy went looking for the rest.

while you finished parking the bike, you waited for edmund's kiss on your cheek, as he always did before going somewhere without you, but it never came. he just turned around and went on his way.

"ed is been acting so weird" you and the youngest of the pevensies walked side by side until you reached the queue of people outside the grocery store, your topic of conversation was your boyfriend.

"I have noticed, since the other night he is distant" his sister said looking at you sideways. you didn't know what had gone wrong that night, because according to your memory it had been a common friday night dinner with his uncles. it was not the first time you had eaten with his uncles and his cousin, who he despised so much, and he had never behaved like this before.

"I want to think that spending so much time with eustace has affected him, because as far as I remember nothing went wrong at dinner" while you took out the list of vegetables that should be bought from your coat, you saw lucy's look and you knew that she knew something else.

"it's edmund, you know that expressing his feelings is not his strong suit"

"I know but ... we have been together for three years, I believed that hidden feelings were something of the past" it was hard not to grieve. your boyfriend had been ignoring you for two days and you couldn't find the reason inside your head.

you did the shopping almost automatically while you were thinking of thousands of things, one of them being the fact that, perhaps, edmund wanted to end your relationship. when you became aware that edmund was likely to want to break up with you, instead of going back to the bikes with the commander, you wanted to run away and cry in your bed. you thought what could you have done wrong?

"where is edmund?" lucy looked around for her brother, stopping only to observe a couple in the distance. they looked in love and lucy thought what she should do to have a boy so in love with her, as she saw her brother with you or the unknown boy from the warehouse.

a long line of men came out of a room; you knew that inside the place, there wasn't anyone selling the dairy products that he had been asked for, so it was rare that he was there. but his sister and you decided to look, just in case.

your suspicions were correct because when you two entered the venue, edmund was first in line, talking to a man sitting behind a table. at first you didn't understand what he was doing there, but when you saw the poster hanging on the table, you understood.

‘military enlistment row. no studies required '

ed had never mentioned he wanted to enlist and that worried your heart a little more than before. since when did he hide so much from you?

"edmund! you should be helping out with the groceries! " lucy called him from the entrance making your boyfriend turn angrily looking for the voice. there he saw you with a pained face and, for a moment, his stress and worry disappeared. he knew that he should give some explanations later, which would mean talking to you and facing seeing you in the face.

without whispering a word, the three left the room in search of the bicycles, ignoring the jeers of the other men trying to enlist, who were old enough.

"since when have you been interested in the army, edmund?" his sister spoke questioning him. even though he hadn't spoken to you, when he left the place he was waiting to hear your voice scolding him, that way he would know that you still cared. instead, lucy accused him while being distracted by the previous couple.

“I have fought battles and wars in narnia, I am the best sword fighter in all the kingdom! I need that adrenaline again” you didn't even look at him, rather you were making sure that all the food ordered was already bought and well placed on the bike to avoid accidents.

"ee are no longer in narnia, ed!"

the return was silent. a silence that everyone needed before reaching the house and being attacked by eustace even for breathing. the pevensie’s cousin was not mean to you, on the contrary he treated you better than his relatives but, as time passed, he began to gain confidence and now he made some acid remarks against you that were stopped by edmund.

the house was silent, so you assumed that the family had gone out for their monday walk and you thanked for the moment of calm.

"someone at home?!" the kitchen was empty, as well as the living room; so they gently turned on the radio and began to sort the newly bought groceries into the cupboards and refrigerator. edmund had not managed to buy everything that had been asked, so lucy had to go looking for them, insulting her brother on the way to the front door. edmund had probably seen the poster and immediately went to sign up, although the fact that he had a false identification meant that he had already thought about it before; long enough to come up with a plan and steal his aunt’s papers.

"why didn't you tell me you wanted to join the english army?" you turned around from where you were standing, with your back to the counter, watching your boyfriend take food out of paper bags. he did not look at you nor did he answer you, he only raised his shoulders as a sign that he did not know or did not care “do you really want to get out of here? I know you want to go back to narnia and everything, but...the army is dangerous, you would be years out of the country and no magical lion will come to your rescue if they throw a bomb on you"

"there is nothing here that stops me from going" edmund was being cold on purpose, he wanted to hurt you like you had hurt him a few nights ago.

"are you talking seriously?" your voice dropped noticeably and your eyes watered, especially when you saw how he raised his shoulders again. “can you at least tell me what I did wrong? because you have treated me like garbage since the other night and I have kept awake trying to understand where I screwed up but... believe me I can't figure it out” you were hurt and edmund hated being the cause of that pain.

his voice never left his throat, leaving you standing in front of him like a fool. when two minutes had passed and he was still looking at the bag in front of him without a word, you put down the can of tuna that you were holding and went to the stairs. you wanted to hide in the bedroom you shared with lucy during your stay and cry, he didn't want you there so when you could calm down, you would pack your suitcase and go back to finchley.

when you were stepping on the last step before reaching the second floor a voice distracted you.

"you said you didn't want to marry me!" you turned your body and saw him on the first step looking at you with tears in his eyes.

"what?" your mind presented you with a vague memory and you understood where the question was coming from.

"you were in the kitchen with my aunt, helping her with the dirty dishes ... and ... and you said you didn't want to marry me!" your feet went down two steps, getting closer but still very far.

"I never said that" you two had never talked about marriage, but the fact that you had been together for three years and you were close to reaching adulthood; marriage wasn't a crazy thought anymore

"yes you did, don't lie to me!" you went down two more steps.

"I said ... I wasn't thinking of getting married now" a silence filled the room for a few seconds while your boyfriend lowered his head

"so ... do you think about marriage? ... I mean our marriage? ... for the future of course!" you finished going down the steps that remained reaching his height, to gently take his cheeks and raise his eyes to you.

"edmund ... you are the love of life, don't you think I think of a future for us?" you said sweetly as your eyes watered and you wiped away his tears.

"you do?" his arms wrapped around you leaving your faces even closer.

"I don't know what's ahead, but ... I know I want, whatever it is, to face it with you ... it's just that we're seventeen years old, ed...we have a lot of time to find out where the wedding will be” your last sentence caused a giggle from him.

"sorry for ignoring you, it's just that ... I got scared, because... I always think about a future with you and I thought ... maybe, you don't"

“in a few years when you put a ring on my finger, you will remember this weekend and think: I was a little fool"

with that phrase you sealed your lips in a sweet kiss, that moved to the beat of the radio song that sounded far away.

and as you said, it was. because seven years later, when edmund saw you running through the park with your child, he looked at your left hand adorned with the ring that had cost him so much to buy and smiled. you were right.

#edmund pevensie #edmund pevensie x reader #edmund pevensie fanfic #edmund pevensie x y/n #fanfic #fanfiction #one shots #imagine #the cronicles of narnia #the voyage of the dawn treader #lucy pevensie

79 notes · View notes

freckledoriya · 4 years

Text

“stakeout” (izuku midoriya x reader)

PAIRING: izuku midoriya x reader WARNINGS: slight self-deprecating angst, but really just fluff! WORD COUNT: 1.6k

LINKS: ao3 | masterlist | requests are OPEN!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: this is my entry for @bnhabookclub’s “celebrating deku” event! it’s also my third fic for bingo (see my bingo masterlist here). and a big thanks to @shoutosteakettle who helped me with this!

You had accepted your place at the pro-hero agency: a second-rate sidekick destined for nothing more than low-risk missions, paired with heroes that were far better than you could ever hope to be. It wasn’t that you didn’t try hard or didn’t want it enough; ever since you were little you longed to be the kind hero you grew up watching on TV: noble, brave, courageous… you’d like to think you encompassed those traits, but you never seemed to capture the public’s attention. You were more of a background person, someone who would choke up when the camera and microphones were pointed at you. You didn’t speak in heroic soundbites or have the kind of smile that sells magazines, so you had to make your name as the reliable sidekick in low publicity cases.

You honestly had accepted the reality of it all. Besides, if being a notable pro-hero meant all the public scrutiny of an A-list celebrity, you were happy to pass. Still, it always stung watching new recruits to the agency getting assigned cases you were, on paper, much more qualified for. You were expecting the same kind of stinging feeling during this weeks’ morning assignment meeting, waiting for a lower-rank hero to pick you up as a side-kick for some kind of petty theft crime. Which is what made it all that more surprising when your name was called by the number one hero, Deku, requesting you as his sidekick for his recently appointed mission.

“S-Sure,” you reply, caught off guard. Your response earns a few scoffs from the other side of the room from some popular heroes.

Izuku Midoriya smiles as he locks eyes with you, before blushing and quickly looking to the side. “Let’s meet today at lunch and sync up about the villain.”

Deku was the kind of hero you wanted so badly to hate. You wanted to hate his heroic power, the way he seemed to encompass everything a hero should be. You wanted to hate how magazines and news reporters adored him, how every word out of his mouth could be a headline of how a perfect hero should act. Most of all, you wanted to hate him for his smile, the way it printed perfectly on newspapers and made your heart skip a beat whenever you saw it. Yes, you wanted to hate him. But of course, you couldn’t. Instead, your heart chose to fall for him. You would often catch yourself staring at him during agency meetings, envying his popularity yet loving him for how humble he was.

You spend the rest of the morning racking your brain for an answer why. Why would the number one hero choose you? He had previously never spoken a word to you, just polite nods at the water cooler. Maybe someone had dared him to go on a mission with you? Was he actually much crueler than you thought, and he was just doing this as some kind of joke? You consider these possibilities as you sit down at the table for lunch, chewing your lip nervously.

“Hey!” Izuku says as he pulls out the chair across from you to sit down. “This shouldn’t be long. It’s a fairly simple assignment.”

Simple. Is that why he chose you? You nod and gesture for him to keep talking.

“There’s a famous crime syndicate that’s taken up residence in the city. You’ve probably heard about their signature bank robberies”

“Of course,” you say. “They’ve been able to evade capture for years now. I figured the city gave up on trying to catch them.”

“The city did, but I didn’t.” he responds.

There he goes, with that heroic soundbite, you think.

He swallows nervously before continuing. “I think I found out where their headquarters are, but I need some kind of confirmation before any infiltration.”

“What did you have in mind?” you ask, curious to see what the hero has planned for the two of you.

“Just a stakeout. Should only take the afternoon.”

You inadvertently make a face at this, and Midoriya immediately starts apologizing.

“I’m so sorry to have asked you for such a boring mission but, you see, the agency wouldn’t let me do this by myself so they asked me to choose someone to watch my back during it and I just figured you’d be okay with helping out-”

“Of course!” you quickly say. “I was just surprised, is all. I’m not exactly known for doing stakeouts.”

“It'll be fine,” he assures. “I wouldn’t have picked you if I didn’t think you could do it.”

You feel your face heat up at the compliment, finding yourself at a loss for words. The fact that Deku thinks highly enough of you to choose you out of everyone else sends your mind into a whirlwind.

The two of you make plans to meet up that afternoon to start the stakeout. You find yourself constantly fidgeting with your hero costume, nervous for what the mission will bring.

Izuku isn’t doing much better, spending the rest of his day on patrol, muttering to himself about how the night might go. He’s never been one to be nervous for assignments, but he knew this was no ordinary mission.

Midoriya has had his eyes set on you for some time now, settling in on longing gazes and daily daydreams where he has the confidence to go up to you and ask you out. He’s always looked to you as one of the few people at the agency that really seem to grasp the purpose of being a hero; someone capable of so much if they were just given the chance. He liked to think that that was the one reason why he chose to team up with you on this stakeout. After all, he never would have picked you if he didn’t think you were right for the job. No matter how cute he thinks you are.

But you were right for the job. So he swallowed his fear and chose you.

You two leave the office that afternoon in an undercover van and ride to the suspected location in silence, both of you stuck in your own heads about what to say and how to say it. The conversations revolve only around the task at hand as you both settle in for the night, until-

“Why did you choose me?” the words spill out of your mouth suddenly, catching both of you off guard. “I mean, there are plenty of other heroes and sidekicks much more qualified for this than me. And anyone at the agency would kill to be assigned to something alongside you.”

Izuku lets out a quiet laugh. “They wouldn’t be very good heroes then, would they?”

You roll your eyes. “You know what I mean. I’m not very popular at the agency and I know that. I don’t make headlines and never seem to say the right things to reporters... Not like you.”

He sighs before turning completely to look at you. “I chose you because I can tell that you understand what’s important about being a hero. You know, so many people think that being a hero is about a popularity contest. But never you. Everything you’re ever given, even things way below your pay grade, you give 100%. That’s something that I really… admire.”

Izuku clears his throat and blushes before turning back to the house. You open your mouth to respond, but your mind isn’t working properly-- it’s too busy trying to process the kind words from the number one hero. Your breath is caught in your throat and it feels as if your heart is going to burst out your chest.

“Thank you,” are the only words that end up leaving your lips.

He glances back at you and flashes that picture perfect smile of his that sells magazines, but more importantly at this moment, makes your stomach do flips. “Of course.”

A beat passes before he speaks up again. “Besides, I definitely don’t always say the right things to the press. They really freak me out sometimes.”

“You? Freaked out by the press?” you question. You never would have guessed that the number one hero could be freaked out by anything.

“You’ve seen how flustered I get during meetings, let alone talk shows and interviews.”

“Well, I think you’ve done a pretty stellar job,” you reply.

“Fake it ‘til you make it,” he says with a slight smile and shrug.

You sigh. “I feel like I’ve been faking it for a long time and I’m still not making it.”

Midoriya looks at you knowingly. He’s seen how you’ve been treated at the agency. He’s seen your potential go unnoticed. But the look he gives you stirs something inside of you, something you’ve been feeling since you were tasked with this stakeout. You finally put your finger on it:

“But… you make me feel like I can make it.”

Izuku looks like he could cry at your words. And he probably would have, if the sound of a slamming door didn’t catch both of your guys’ attention.

“Gotchya,” you say, snapping pictures of the villain entering the building.

Midoriya grins. “Nice job.”

“We should do this more often,” you say with a wink.

He blushes and fumbles over his word. “I-I promise to take you somewhere better than a stakeout van.”

TAG LIST: @gallickingun @prismaroyal @wesparklebitch @bnha-violetnote @sunflower-kami-boi @shoutosteakettle @strwbrry-lia @ee-blue @shoutodoki @sadistiks @knifeewifee @viceofaladriel @saltie @khemz1312 @frenchspeakingfilipina @tessaisalbright @katsumi-kaminari @pixxiesdust

#midoriya izuku x reader #izuku midoriya x reader #deku x reader #bnha x reader #bnha

183 notes · View notes

likelightningafterthethunder · 3 years

Text

Like Lightning After the Thunder: Chapter One: Damned Smile

Fic Summary:

His breath wavered as he stared into Katsuki’s eyes. He knew he could get out if he tried. He could knock Katsuki out, hope that no one else would find them, and run back into the shadows where he belonged. Katsuki may have had him pinned down but he was in Denki’s range now and it would take little effort to send a charge through Katsuki to paralyze him temporarily.

It would take barely any additional effort to kill Katsuki.

As the sparks began to charge, lighting up the air around him, Katsuki refused to back down.

–

Katsuki always knew he was destined for great things.

He didn’t think he’d have to turn his back on all he’s ever known to get there.

Rating: T

Warnings: Eventual major character death, implied/referenced child abuse, psychological trauma

Other Tags: Bakugou Katsuki/Kaminari Denki, slow burn, alternate universe - canon divergence

Read on Ao3 (links to corresponding chapter) or read below

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Fic navigation to read the fic on tumblr

Even years later, that damn smile haunted his dreams.

There was absolutely no reason for him to still think about the event. Everything had been taken care of when it had happened― injuries were treated, authorities alerted, information secured, and a press conference to tie it all up in a big red bow. There were no loose ends, no surprise second coming, no physical reminders of what happened lingering in his daily life. Katsuki would have labeled it as done, dealt with, and no longer relevant, shoving it aside in his memory so he could focus on actual important shit.

Except his mind had different plans.

When he was lucky, he could completely forget about the event for months. Other times, his dreams would be filled with nothing but that damn smile, taunting him with its silence. He could usually predict when the dreams would come― the anniversary of the event for example― but other times, it seemed like anything could trigger the memory. He once saw a bright yellow balloon and for the rest of the day, every time he closed his eyes he saw that damned smile, never wavering despite the curses and insults Katsuki spewed.

He wanted to forget it. He wanted so desperately to forget it. For the image to erase itself from his mind, for it to take the feelings away with it. He could deal with the anger, he could always deal with the anger, but when his memory reminded him of the wave of hurt and betrayal that nearly blinded him…

When his alarm jolted him from his sleep and freed him from the smile, he couldn’t get out of bed fast enough. He woke up drenched in a cold sweat, sheets singed and smoking lightly as he unclenched his hands, and Katsuki was, for once, very relieved that not all of his sweat was explosive. He slapped the singes a few times to ensure that all of the embers were put out before heading for the bathroom, cursing under his breath as he flinched at his own reflection in the mirror.

There was nothing particularly wrong with his appearance, if you didn’t count the dark circles under his eyes from a fitful night’s sleep or his clammy skin, but after being plagued by the smile, Katsuki could barely look at himself. His reaction to the smile made him feel weak, like he couldn’t handle himself and that there was something wrong with him. It was just a smile after all. There was no reason for him to react to it like a nightmare, no reason for him to lose sleep over it or to feel overwhelmed by emotions at the thought of it.

Yet when he saw the smile and saw how the corners of his mouth were tugged a bit too tight, how his eyes were open a bit too wide, how the only shine in his eyes were the reflections of light on tears that refused to fall…

Katsuki cursed.

The icy cold shower did little to help distract him from the memory, nor did his morning run nor the steaming shower he took after. He wasn’t supposed to head into the agency today, so he didn’t have any planned beatdowns for today, and yes he probably shouldn’t be hoping for it, but part of him hoped for a sudden emergency villain so he could distract himself by focusing on beating some villain’s ass into next week.

A few hours later when his phone refused to stop buzzing, Katsuki wondered if throwing his phone across the room until it stopped would be close enough to beating villain ass to work. He reluctantly decided that talking to people so they’d leave him alone was probably less hassle to deal with than having to replace his phone and distribute his new number (even if it would give him an excuse to ghost some of these damn extras).

A few individual texts and a group text were the cause of the buzzing. As the group text’s new message count continued to rise, he figured it would be easier to respond to the individual texts first. Just in case he changed his mind about destroying the phone.

Four Eyes (Rocket Legs): Hello Bakugou, this is a reminder about the upcoming Class A reunion. As the head of the reunion committee, it is my duty to ensure an accurate headcount for the event, and I have yet to receive your response about your attendance. Please ensure to respond via the following link by this Friday at 11:59PM. [Class A 10 Year Reunion RSVP]

Four Eyes (Rocket Legs): In case you missed the previous messages regarding the reunion, the event is March 28th starting at 7PM at the Shinjuku Hotel in Musutafu. If you need to rent a room for the night or the weekend, please alert the Shinjuku Hotel staff that you are part of the Class A reunion party by next Wednesday for an event discount.

Katsuki frowned. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to the possibility of being surrounded by all of his former classmates and even less at the idea of being socially obligated to spend the entire evening with them. At least when he met up with his friends elsewhere, he could always claim needing to leave early so he could make the last train or that work needed him to come in early the next day.

He closed out of the conversation, figuring he still had a few more days to decide if he really wanted to deal with his classmates for an entire evening.

Midoriya: Hey Katsugou! I was wondering if you’re going to go to the reunion? Tenya said the deadline to RSVP is coming soon and we haven’t heard from you, so I just thought I’d check in!

Katsuki: The fuck is Katsugou?

Midoriya: Oh sorry!! Typo!!

Midoriya: Anyway, are you coming?

Katsuki closed out of the conversation and moved on to the next one.

Shitty Hair: Katsuki! Are you coming to the reunion or not dude????

Katsuki: Fuck off.

Shitty Hair: Aww dude that’s no way to talk to your best friend, you know you love me!!

Katsuki: I’m blocking you.

He did not, in fact, block him. But he did close out of Eijirou’s texts.

Save for the newest text sent directly from Eijirou, all that was left was the backlog of texts in the group text. It had kept going off while he was reading the other conversations, so Katsuki figured it meant that everyone was either off for the day or on their lunch break.

Raccoon Eyes: guys!!!!! the reunion is COMING UPPPPPP!!!!

Raccoon Eyes: i cant wait to s

Raccoon Eyes: ee all of u guys again!!

Tape Face: lmao you saw us last week

Raccoon Eyes: yes

Raccoon Eyes: an eteRNITY ago

Raccoon Eyes: and like

Raccoon Eyes: kats left early so we didnt have everyone

Raccoon Eyes: so it doesnt count

Shitty Hair: Yeah Katsuki don’t leave early next time!!

Raccoon Eyes: we just have to hold him hostage next time

Raccoon Eyes: or like

Raccoon Eyes: AMBUSH him

Tape Face: i can always tape him up

Raccoon Eyes: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

Raccoon Eyes: tape him to the wall

Raccoon Eyes: and then like

Raccoon Eyes: steal his wallet

Raccoon Eyes: cant get on transit w no moneys

Raccoon Eyes: ei and han hold him down

Raccoon Eyes: i run to hide his wallet where he cant fi

Raccoon Eyes: nd it

Raccoon Eyes: probs keeps kats tapped to the wall all night

Raccoon Eyes: free up his arms so he can have a drink????

Tape Face: explosion palms dude

Raccoon Eyes: oh u right

Raccoon Eyes: he can just have a cup w like

Raccoon Eyes: a REALLY REALLY long straw

Raccoon Eyes: make sure u tape him up w his hands behind his back

Tape Face: you got it

Shitty Hair: He’s in this chat guys he’s going to see the plan

Raccoon Eyes: whatevs we can still totally blindside him

Raccoon Eyes: ANYWAYS

Raccoon Eyes: ure all going right?????

Tape Face: ya I rsvpd a while back

Shitty Hair: Yep!! Wouldn’t miss it for the world!

Raccoon Eyes: what about u kats

Raccoon Eyes: kats???

Raccoon Eyes: KAAAAAAAAAAAAATS

Raccoon Eyes: k

Raccoon Eyes: a

Shitty Hair: I’ll text him separately

Raccoon Eyes: t

Tape Face: he probably has this muted lmao

Raccoon Eyes: s

Raccoon Eyes: !!!!!!

Raccoon Eyes: how dare u ignore us

Raccoon Eyes: after everything weve done for u!!!!

Raccoon Eyes: thought we were ur ride or die hoes

Raccoon Eyes: dont tell me ur not going!!!!!

Raccoon Eyes: im so offended

Raccoon Eyes: how could u do this to us kats

Shitty Hair: Maybe he’s at work today?

Raccoon Eyes: boo

Raccoon Eyes: how dare he prioritize wo

Raccoon Eyes: rk over us

Raccoon Eyes: his best friends

Raccoon Eyes: the suns of his life

Raccoon Eyes: the bit of happiness in the cold

Raccoon Eyes: cold

Tape Face: coooooooooold

Raccoon Eyes: COOOOOOOOLD

Raccoon Eyes: thing he calls a heart

Shitty Hair: Lmao

Tape Face: its got a bit of warmth

Tape Face: most of it is his temper

Raccoon Eyes: boom boom POW

Raccoon Eyes: well while we wait for kats

Raccoon Eyes: help me pick some photos for the slideshow!!

Tape Face: are you doing only UA pics or some stuff since then

Tape Face: somehow iida managed to not specify lmao

Shitty Hair: The info email was like ten pages, how did he miss it

Tape Face: idk

Raccoon Eyes: ive got plenty for both!!

Raccoon Eyes: momo said pref UA pics but some new stuff is good too

Raccoon Eyes: show how far weve come n all that

Tape Face: oh cool let me get some opinions then too

Shitty Hair: Anyone have any pics of the camping trip from second year?

Raccoon Eyes: before or after todoroki and kats’ fight turned it into a icy hot springs

Shitty Hair: Both lmao but probably before it went to hell

Raccoon Eyes: image.png

Raccoon Eyes: ofc ive got us chillin in the springs

Raccoon Eyes: well most of us

Raccoon Eyes: kats u never get in the water w us :C

Raccoon Eyes: lets go to the beach next time!!

Tape Face: hed prob boil the water w you in it if you dragged him in lmao

Tape Face: spicy acid time

Raccoon Eyes: id like to see him TRY

Shitty Hair: Don’t tempt him lmao

Raccoon Eyes: image.png

Raccoon Eyes: i got like a shit ton more

Raccoon Eyes: should i send some of THE FIGHT

Shitty Hair: Maybe not

Tape Face: yes

Tape Face: well

Tape Face: depends on how many pissed off katsuki pics youre putting in lmao

Raccoon Eyes: OH

Raccoon Eyes: OHHHH

Raccoon Eyes: OHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Tape Face: ?

Raccoon Eyes: dude

Raccoon Eyes: do u have the POMERANIAN pic

Tape Face: o shit

Tape Face: image.png

Shitty Hair: I still think Katsuki should’ve taken that pup home

Shitty Hair: They’re matching!

Tape Face: image.png

Tape Face: i also have this one

Tape Face: when she tried to bite his nose off lmao

Raccoon Eyes: kats couldve named her king explosion murder

Raccoon Eyes: or just murder

Raccoon Eyes: p sure she wouldve tried to murder kats at least o

Raccoon Eyes: nce

Tape Face: lmao she basically tried when he found her

Shitty Hair: Maybe it’s for the best that he didn’t keep the pup

Tape Face: look what i found

Tape Face: image.png

Raccoon Eyes: AWWWW YES

Raccoon Eyes: LOOK AT USSSSS

Raccoon Eyes: we look FABBBB

Shitty Hair: Is that from the dance?

Tape Face: ye

Raccoon Eyes: guys what if we recreate that pic at the reunion

Raccoon Eyes: the fits?

Raccoon Eyes: immaculate

Raccoon Eyes: the pose?

Raccoon Eyes: perfection

Tape Face: hotel?

Tape Face: trivago

Shitty Hair: I’m down for recreating some pics!

Raccoon Eyes: yessssss

Raccoon Eyes: u have no choice either kats u gotta do it

Raccoon Eyes: wherever u are

Shitty Hair: Oh he replied!!

Raccoon Eyes: SWEET

Raccoon Eyes: what he say

Shitty Hair: He said fuck off

Tape Face: as expected

Shitty Hair: Lmao he threatened to block me again

Tape Face: thought he said he was blocking you last week

Shitty Hair: Yea exactly

Raccoon Eyes: HOW RUDE

Raccoon Eyes: as punishment for not paying attention to us

Raccoon Eyes: im gonna send this

Raccoon Eyes: image.png

Tape Face: LMAO whend you make that

Shitty Hair: Is that Katsuki with a cat face and ears

Shitty Hair: Dude I don’t know if he’s going to kill you for that or for the pink hair first lmao

Raccoon Eyes: lmao made it just now

Raccoon Eyes: well MAYBE if he ANSWERED us

Katsuki: Delete it.

Tape Face: O SHIT

Tape Face: you summoned him

Raccoon Eyes: NO I WILL NOT

Katsuki: Delete it Raccoon Eyes or else I’m coming for you.

Tape Face: are you coming for the left shoes and shittin in them

Raccoon Eyes: NOOOOOOO not my shoes!!!!!!!!

Tape Face: its just the left shoes tho

Raccoon Eyes: BUT THATS MY FAVE SIDE

Katsuki: What the fuck are you two going on about?

Raccoon Eyes: DONT COME FOR M

Raccoon Eyes: Y LEFT SHOES KATS IM SORRY

Katsuki: I’m not coming for your fucking left shoes. Or any of your shoes.

Katsuki: I will be coming for you if you don’t delete that picture, though.

Raccoon Eyes: FORGIVENESS

Raccoon Eyes: I BEG

Raccoon Eyes: PLSSSSS

Katsuki: Delete the picture.

Raccoon Eyes: ugh fiiiiiiiiiine

Raccoon Eyes: its deleted

Raccoon Eyes: i wont send it to momo for the slide show

Katsuki: Good.

Raccoon Eyes: IF U COME TO THE REUNION

Katsuki: Fuck off.

Shitty Hair: C’mon Katsuki!! It’ll be fun!!

Tape Face: ya it wouldnt do if we didnt have our exploding star

Raccoon Eyes: ill send momo WORSE if u dont come

Raccoon Eyes: nd u wont know WHAT til AFTER

Raccoon Eyes: so PLSSSSSSSSSS

Raccoon Eyes: PRETTY PLSSSSSSS

Raccoon Eyes: PLS COME TO THE REUNION

Raccoon Eyes: ill spam u a lot worse if u dont show us proof of rsvp

Raccoon Eyes: pls kaaaaaaaaats

Raccoon Eyes: kaaaaaaaaats

Raccoon Eyes: k

Raccoon Eyes: a

Katsuki: Ugh fucking fine, I’ll do the RSVP now then.

Raccoon Eyes: t

Raccoon Eyes: YAY

Four Eyes (Rocket Legs): Good afternoon, Bakugou! I just wanted to confirm with you that I have received your RSVP for the Class A reunion. As a reminder, if you need to rent a room for the night or the weekend, please alert the Shinjuku Hotel staff that you are part of the Class A reunion party by next Wednesday for an event discount.

Katsuki: image.png

Katsuki: Four Eyes is watching the RSVP form like a fucking hawk apparently.

Raccoon Eyes: YAAAAAY URE RSVPD!!!

Shitty Hair: You know him, always dedicated to his work

Tape Face: sweet

Raccoon Eyes: are u guys getting rooms

Tape Face: yea musutafus too far for a round trip

Tape Face: esp since itll prob end late

Shitty Hair: I got one for the weekend!

Tape Face: wbu mina

Raccoon Eyes: booked a room already!!

Raccoon Eyes: kaaaaats wbu

Raccoon Eyes: u should

Raccoon Eyes: we could have a brunch or lunch or s/t thats just us

Raccoon Eyes: plsssssss kats

Katsuki: I’ll think about it.

Tape Face: better than a no lmao

Shitty Hair: If they run out of space or if you decide last second, you can room with me dude

Raccoon Eyes: awww why not a yes

Katsuki: I haven’t asked the other Four Eyes for the time off yet.

Tape Face: is this four eyes no4 or no15

Raccoon Eyes: four eyes no69

Raccoon Eyes: no wait

Raccoon Eyes: no420

Tape Face: haha blaze it

Raccoon Eyes: BLAZE IT

Shitty Hair: It’s number 7

Katsuki: Fuck you, I don’t have that many Four Eyes saved in my phone.

Shitty Hair: I’d be surprised if you had 420 contacts period dude

Raccoon Eyes: would b hilarious tho

Katsuki: Yes, it’s Four Eyes number 7.

Shitty Hair: I was right!!

Katsuki: Why would I ask any of the other Four Eyes for time off? They’re not my fucking bosses.

Tape Face: dunno

Raccoon Eyes: idk maybe ure secretly dating one a

Raccoon Eyes: nd have to confirm that its ok

Raccoon Eyes: ARE U SECRETLY DATING A FOUR EYES

Raccoon Eyes: U HAVE TO TELL US IF U ARE

Raccoon Eyes: URE LEGALLY OBLIGATED

Tape Face: o shit

Tape Face: scandalous

Katsuki: Shut the fuck up, I’m not dating anyone, secret or not.

Raccoon Eyes: thats what they all say

Katsuki: Whatever. I’m not dating anyone.

Raccoon Eyes: kats n four eyes no420 sittin in a tree

Raccoon Eyes: k

Raccoon Eyes: i

Raccoon Eyes: s

Raccoon Eyes: i

Katsuki: I’ll blow up all of your left shoes when you’re not home.

Raccoon Eyes: n

Raccoon Eyes: NO

Raccoon Eyes: IM STOPPING DONT DO IT

Shitty Hair: Hey what do you guys think of this photo

Shitty Hair: image.png

Tape Face: dude yes

Raccoon Eyes: AWWWW OUR FIRST BILLBOARDS AS PROS

Katsuki: Do we really need to send them pictures? It’s not like we fucking forgot this stuff already.

Tape Face: you can be a killjoy if you want lmao

Tape Face: im sure mina will send more than enough to cover for you

Raccoon Eyes: U BETCHA

Raccoon Eyes: image.png

Tape Face: lmao why do you have a pic of katsuki throwing ei

Shitty Hair: I still can’t believe you did that bro

Shitty Hair: WITHOUT WARNING TOO

Katsuki: I gave you plenty of fucking warning.

Shitty Hair: Saying “I’m throwing you” AS YOU’RE THROWING ME is NOT PLENTY OF WARNING DUDE

Raccoon Eyes: im always ready to document golden moments

Katsuki: Shut the fuck up. We won the training exercise so what’s it fucking matter?

Shitty Hair: YOU THREW ME!!

Katsuki: Tape Face caught you before you could get hurt.

Shitty Hair: YOU /THREW/ ME!!!!!!

Tape Face: barely caught

Katsuki: Whatever.

Raccoon Eyes: im still impressed by how eASY u made that look

Katsuki: What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?

Raccoon Eyes: o look conveniently timed distraction photo spam

Katsuki sighed as he continued the conversation, commenting here and there on the photos his friends sent for judgement. In retrospect, he probably should have tried to talk to Shion first, since there was a chance she would have denied the time off for the reunion. Although, knowing her, she would have accepted just to force Katsuki into socializing. He opened up a new text message, figuring that if Shion did decide to deny the time off, he would at least have a screenshot to send to his friends explaining the sudden change in plans.

Katsuki: I need March 28th and 29th off.

Four Eyes (Shitty Shion): Do my eyes deceive me? The great Katsuki Bakugou, asking for time off?

Four Eyes (Shitty Shion): I’m amazed! Usually I have to ask you to take the day off!

Four Eyes (Shitty Shion): Nay, not ask, but force!

Katsuki: Are you going to give it to me or not?

Four Eyes (Shitty Shion): Depends! What do you need the time off for?

Katsuki: Class reunion.

Four Eyes (Shitty Shion): Oh those are fun!

Four Eyes (Shitty Shion): Fill out the proper time off paperwork and have it on my desk by Monday. I’ll approve the time off.

Four Eyes (Shitty Shion): Just keep your phone on you in case we need you to come in for an emergency, but I’ll try not to ruin your reunion with work.

Katsuki: Thanks.

Well, so much for an easy way out.

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose when he noticed that his phone had already accumulated another thirty texts in the past few minutes, no doubt primarily from Mina. He scrolled through the backlog, sending a few mostly empty threats when he saw photos he did not want projected for the entire class to see, freezing when his gaze met a pair of familiar amber eyes.

Shit.

In his scramble to close out of the photo, to escape the genuine smile that somehow was more haunting than the one in his dreams, he left the group text completely. He briefly thanked his past self; he’d impulse or rage quit the group text plenty of times before that this wasn’t unusual behavior. If he was lucky, his friends wouldn’t have noticed the timing of his departure and would assume he was just fed up with the notifications or the conversation.

Shitty Hair: You okay, Katsuki?

A weak laugh escaped Katsuki’s lips as he read the newest notification. Of course Eijirou noticed.

Katsuki: I’m fine.

Shitty Hair: Okay

Shitty Hair: We don’t have to talk about it

Shitty Hair: But if you want to, I’m here dude

Shitty Hair: I’ll tell the others that you left so your phone would shut up and not to add you back yet

Katsuki: Thanks. Really.

Shitty Hair: No problem dude

Katsuki put his phone down, silently praying for the smile to leave him alone.

When he finally laid down for bed that night, he repeated the short prayer, for a peaceful night’s rest free of the smile, of the hurt, of the pain, of the guilt.

But as always, the smile came.

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bakugou katsuki #kaminari denki #bakukami #kamibaku #katsuki bakugou #denki kaminari #bnha fanfic #mha fanfic #story #from the creator

8 notes · View notes

fly-pow-bye · 4 years

Text

DuckTales 2017 - “The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow, Tanner Johnson

Written by: Colleen Evanson & Tanner Johnson

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Kristen Gish, Victoria Harris, Ben Holm

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

Spin it!

Before doing research when Don Karnage first came to the series, my knowledge of TaleSpin began and ended with me having that awful Genesis game as a kid. I do know that the show took place long before the modern day, which is when DuckTales 2017 takes place, and it appears that the events of TaleSpin in this universe still goes with that. Why do I know this? Because this episode does not start with Baloo piloting the Sea Duck...

...but a grown-up version of his surrogate son, Kit Cloudkicker, who is now running Higher for Hire by himself. However, while things have definitely changed for Higher for Hire since Baloo's apparent retirement, mostly for the worse, some things remained the same. Namely, he is still being tormented by the nefarious Sky Pirate of the Skies, the corsair of the air, Don Karnage. Or Dan, as he calls him much to Karnage's annoyance. The good news is that Kit is now an ace pilot who can easily fight off sky pirates like he did back in the glory days. The bad news is that he can still do what he did as a kid with a giant cargo plane. He even says it, and with most of his dialogue in this cold opening suggests this is going to make him look foolish.

Even worse news for the business is that the fragile box addressed to F.O.W.L. is just sitting in the center of the cargo bay with no security whatsoever aside from a caged chicken and a goat. After rocking back and forth due to Kit fending off against Don Karnage, the box breaks to reveal a rock with a blue lion carved into it, and when that aforementioned chicken and goat touch it, they both turn into some sort of chicken-goat hybrid that Kit has to fight. How is able to fight this goat-chicken while piloting the plane? Simple: he puts a crowbar in the steering wheel, just like Baloo did in the original. Here, the idea is played as silly as it would be to someone who had never heard of TaleSpin. It is doubly sad when one considers Kit treats this crowbar like his only crewmate, because it is.

I do like that this first scene introduces this show's version of Kit very well. He's obviously an incompetent pilot, and not one that is lovably incompetent like Launchpad, and this incompetence is pretty well known among his customers judging by this line:

Kit Cloudkicker: Who's the terrible pilot now, everyone?

He's surprisingly cheerful about that, which, again, makes him look foolish. Despite all of this foolishness, he does appear to still be competent at coming up with plans to defeat his enemies, whether they be sky pirates or mutated goat-chickens, even if those plans end up putting the cargo he was supposed to deliver into the water. This includes that lion stone. He looks onto this and says "my bad" in a way that shows that his business is definitely going to be in the red in a few years.

A few years later, we see that Della is taking Huey, Dewey, and nobody else to Cape Suzette, and she's even allowing Dewey to fly the plane along with her. It is easy to see why Huey is extra prepared even if Dewey is doing surprisingly well, as Huey is not only using extra seatbelts, but having a Safety Boy helmet as well. Huey's also prepared with the knowledge of that Lion Stone we saw go into the ocean in the previous scene, which, you guessed it, is a Missing Mystery of Isabella Finch. Specifically, it's the Stone Of What Was, which was described with the mysterious phrase "what was once two becomes a-new." Huey does not seem to figure that one out. The good news is that it was found, but the bad news was that it was found by F.O.W.L, but the better news is that they lost it, but the worse news was that the stone was made of potassium benzoate. Okay, that last one was made up. There's a few throwaway lines to fill in how Huey even knows F.O.W.L. had the stone in other scenes, and those plot holes are really not that important.

After nearing their destination, which we learn was based on a clue from an intercepted F.O.W.L. transmission from a throwaway line from Huey slightly later in the episode, Della has the bright idea to let Dewey land the plane. Letting a little kid fly a plane? Not a good idea. Letting a little kid land a plane? Also not a good idea. Telling that little kid that there's nothing wrong with a basic landing? May be a good idea in the off chance it could even come up, but definitely not a good idea when it comes to Dewey. To Della's credit, at least it was Huey that did that last one.

After the crash landing, and not a Launchpad-type one, they arrive at Higher for Hire, which shows an advertisement showing its legacy playing on a television screen with plenty of TaleSpin references. This includes one shot of Baloo and another shot of a younger Kit and Molly Cunningham riding on an airfoil done in the style of the original show. This is great for people who were not aware of TaleSpin, which the target audience for this show may not have seen unless they have Disney Plus. Kit, still shown to be the sole employee years later, assumes anyone knocking at his door is the bank demanding payments, but he's delighted to see one of his former classmates at pilot school. He constantly has to tell Della that he is an ace pilot now. Most likely, he's telling that to himself too, as we'll see in the next scene. He at least has reason to believe he's a better pilot than his former classmate, as it doesn't look like her plane is in good shape. Della could have explained that this state was because she let one of her less competent sons fly the plane...and that would have probably made her case about a thousand times worse.

That television commercial also inspires a sort of B-plot that also ties into Kit's character arc, as seeing young Kit cloudkicking makes him want to do it, too. Despite his failure at even mimicking it, Kit is happy to see a fellow cloudkicker and would be glad to teach him the ropes. Della is not too excited by this prospect, but ends up allowing it, because she doesn't want to be the mother that does not support her kid. They aboard the plane, which ends up being a very bumpy ride, and Della goes to investigate, only to find that Kit was in the bathroom, letting his only other employee, the crowbar, be his substitute.

Kit tries to stop what he calls "mutiny" by saying that he's the only one who knows where the cargo could be, only for the crowbar to slip and reveal that he's been keeping a map in the glove compartment. The map actually has some Xs and a circle on it, which suggests that Kit may have been trying to correct his previous mistake, but either never getting the motivation to go through with it, or, more likely, he isn't competent enough to deal with whatever is on that island he circled. Maybe I am thinking about this too hard, but I would say it would be fitting.

Kit decides to distract everyone from him getting kicked out of the pilot's chair by giving Dewey his airfoil and the cloudkicking rope for him to hold onto, and a shot of Dewey's excitement instantly cuts to Dewey screaming for his life, holding on for dear life as he can't seem to. The parallel between a former cloudkicking guy who isn't really a good pilot, and a kid who can actually fly a plane who isn't really a good cloudkicker is easy to notice, and the episode plays around with this. For starters, similar to Kit and his not-so-ace piloting skills, Dewey also tries his hardest to hide how terrified he is at the cool new thing he wanted to do. Of course, it is very possible that Kit is acting the way he does because he's in a certain someone's shadow. Dewey just does it because that's how he is.

Despite that difference, this parallel is enhanced even more when they get attacked by the Sky Pirates, and Kit has to intervene and show that he, at the very least, can get Dewey out of the danger that Kit himself has caused. And yes, Don Karnage's Sky Pirates are now working for the very organization that they indirectly harmed years before by attacking that cargo plane and making them lose that precious stone. That does not come up at all, not even as a throwaway line. What does come up is that Don Karnage is delighted that one of the people after the Stone of What Was is his new arch-nemesis, Dewey. It's a long story that started all the way back in Don's debut in Season 1. It's neat to see these old references. After they all make a landing on the circled island, some more safe than others, they get to meet the wildlife of the island. Let's say there's a good reason why this island was circled, and why Kit could not handle it by himself.

It's a rhino and a gorilla crossed together, either a rhinosorilla or a gorillanoceros depending on whether one likes Dewey's word for it or Kit's. Clearly, this is the result of the Stone of What Was...what was...Wuz...Wuzzles! Admittedly, the Wuzzle was also not a show I grew up with, though that could be because it lasted only a season. In fact, I just now notice the lion carved into the Stone of What Was happens to have bumblebee wings. These animals are a little more realistic here, as they don't talk, and they're not cute or fuzzy like the original Wuzzles were. In fact, the character this gorillanoceros was based on was actually a monkey-rhino. There is a difference, even if they are very similar species genetically!

They eventually get to the stone, only to see that Don Karnage and his crewmates have found the stone first. Hiding, they see Don Karnage command Hardtack Hattie, his strongest crewmember, to lift it up. Unfortunately, she happened to lift it as a bunch of ants were crawling on it, turning her into an ant centaur to her and Don's horror. Despite that horror, and fitting for someone who just wants to finish his mission, he tries to get some of the other crew members to lift it...

...leading to these freaks of nature, which is what Don Karnage actually calls them. DuckTales 2017 isn't too afraid to show the horrifying nature of some of these fusions, continuing with the theme of how they portray the Wuzzles as these monstrous beasts. I would not call it nightmare fuel, but I would not be surprised if it already has an entry on TV Tropes. What makes these even worse is that there is no way for these guys to revert back to their normal forms. There's no "if the stone feels like it, it'll separate you" clause here, that snail-dog is permanently a snail-dog, and that pirate will have to live with a hand for his head for the rest of his days. These guys just end up getting forgotten.

Della tries to sneak by climbing around this horrific scene, only to be caught on some sort of sticky rock. Dewey decides to try to save her with his airfoil-riding skills, much to Huey's disagreement. Dewey's got to Dewey it! Oh yeah, I forgot, Dewey ends up doing "Dewey" puns for most of the episode. It's not funny, but I have a feeling it wasn't meant to be funny, and it's certainly not funny when he ends up falling down near the pirates. Face to face with someone who considers him his arch-nemesis, he tries to save face when he notices Kit stole Don Karnage's plane...which he immediately crashes into a rock.

As for the rock that Della was stuck on, it turns out it wasn't a rock. Nor was it a rock lobster, either!

It hatches into another classic Wuzzle character: the Butterbear, or the Bear-terfly as Don Karnage calls it. They never quite match the original Wuzzle names, and it is not like they would know them. There is one part of this where Kit and the Bear-terfly cross paths, and it almost seems like they're going to bond because they happen to be a similar race. Then, it instantly cuts to Kit running away from a rampaging Bear-terfly. How are they going to continue from this? Have the Bear-terfly get caught in some rope, and have it run in a way that ties up the stone, and have it fly away with Della still on its back. It is a bit convoluted, but it works in the end as it is a way for the stone to travel without it mutating even more people. Whether any of these fusions can use the stone to combine into other fusions is left unanswered, which is for the best.

One may notice I didn't talk a whole lot about what Huey did, and that's because he really didn't do much for most of the episode. He delivered the exposition, he tries to stop Dewey from "Deweying it", and that's about it. However, he does have a major part in the episode: he gets to take part in the scene where the two bumbling fools realize what they have been doing was foolish. Namely, they needed to realize that they should do what they were good at: Kit should cloudkick and Dewey should fly the plane. It is a good lesson that had some good buildup. Sure, they were pretty much failing throughout the episode, but there were scenes where they were surprisingly competent, like the scene where Kit rescued Dewey with his Cloudkicking skills, and Dewey managing to fly the plane in the beginning before he decided to "Dewey it" and crash it. It does not come out of nowhere. Speaking of which...

Dewey: Okay, let's do it.

What would be an unremarkable line actually works really well here, mainly because he decided not to make a pun on his own name, which he did way too much. It does show development, as if this fun-loving showboater is actually learning his lesson throughout the episode. I expect this from DuckTales 2017, and there are certainly cartoons where I don't.

Fittingly for a TaleSpin episode, this all ends with a flight chase scene. No, not the usual DuckTales 2017 fight scene, though there are some fights here and there, especially with Kit and Don Karnage, armed with that crow bar and sword, respectively. The scene actually manages to make Dewey keeping the plane steady an action packed scene, as he has to save his Mom while trying not to let the stone fall into the ocean and make an octopus-fish-squid hybrid that would rival the Eldritch horrors. Again, whether any of these fusions can use the stone to combine into other fusions is left unanswered, which is for the best.

It's not really a spoiler to say the good guys win, but I will say the TaleSpin part of the plot is very much all tied up in the end. If Kit only makes a minor appearance in the finale, and I'd actually be surprised if he didn't appear considering how packed the clips were, it would be completely understandable. Also, there's a cliffhanger and we finally get to hear Don Karnage sing another song, if a very short one. It seemed like he just couldn't do it in his other appearances.

How does it stack up?

With the genius way of using not just one Disney show's legacy, but another Disney show as well, there's a lot to love about this episode, though I wouldn't say it's among the absolute best. Four Scrooges.

Next, Scrooge gets indicted.

← Beaks In The Shell! 🦆 The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck! →

#fpb dt 2017 #ducktales 2017 #ducktales #disney #fpb reviews

12 notes · View notes