#(so we're back to where we started on that point)

[chronicsyd]

I'm gonna be so serious, y'all are remembering POWDER and Ekko and not JINX and Ekko when screaming about how much you "wanted Timebomb endgame over Caitvi"

shoving JINX in a relationship with her current mental state is not a good writing choice whatsoever, because Ekko literally had to keep rewinding time because she kept trying to kill herself. If Anything, That relationship would be rushed and fanservice because they would have jumped the gun in 2 episodes vs the 2 seasons it took for Caitvi and showing their ups and downs throughout their whole relationship.

The alternate universe works because Powder doesn't become Jinx and the two don't separate, unlike this universe where the two have been at odds for 7 years and almost kill each other back in Ep 7 of S1.

"But Cait never said sorry!" she didn't really have to, because Vi never stopped being in love with the girl that she Knows Cait is at heart, the Cocktail Molotov scene in Act 2 makes that VERY apparent. Cait saying that she was waiting for Vi to recover to address Jinx is the start of it because Act 1 Cait wouldn't have even Considered doing that, because she was so gung-ho about putting a bullet into Jinx that she Demanded Vi move out of the way for her to do so. She holds herself accountable with the mistakes she's made ("We can't erase our mistakes. None of us." that wasn't just a line targeted at Jinx to prove a point, there's deeper meaning behind it), and moving the guards out of the cell proving that she trusts Vi and her judgment on Jinx is that apology, Caitlyn has always been an "acts of service" kinda person over being a "verbal" kinda person; it's all over the place in S1 but Especially here in S2. But even after she takes Vi's shirt off, you could tell by her eyes and body language that she was most likely going to stop herself again to apologize for hitting her because the wound was in the same spot she initially hit, which was part of the lead up for This wound to even happen, but Vi's the one that just pulls her back in instead.

I'm also gonna add on that Vi thinks she made the wrong choice in trusting Jinx and thinking Jinx's changed because Jinx locked her in the cell and ran away again. So why in the Hell would Vi go chasing after her Again to be met with the same result time and time again? Vi isn't responsible for Jinx's mental health and y'all saying that are just weird. And I think it's apparent that Stillwater probably wasn't even in the top 10 things in her head being with Caitlyn, she was just running wild on emotions that she hasn't allowed herself to feel like-- Ever. And even if it Was Vi probably would have said she wasn't comfortable being in a jail cell of all places.

What was I talking about? Oh right, Timebomb.

Like Yes, it's shitty that Ekko doesn't get a happy ending considering he's the most unproblematic in the entire show. But people tend to forget that at the end of the day, Arcane is a TRADGEDY. It's not She-ra, it's not The Owl House, it wasn't going to be wrapped up in a neat little bow where everyone gets to smile and walk into the sunset with their loved ones, especially considering the fact that this season's being used as build ups to other stories, it's relatively clear that this isn't the last we're going to see of a lot of these characters. When they come back into play? well... who's to say?

But also, let's address that a lot of the Caitvi hate is just straight up homophobia at this point because a lot of people can understand Mel's admission to manipulating Jayce as an apology but Cait's actions we're suddenly braindead and need shit completely spelled out. like good lord I'm so tired of this. Y'all would NEVER have survived Catradora let me tell ya...

(My next post is gonna be a long winded rant about Maddie so stay tuned for that...)

[beanarie]

i never wanted water once part 3

tommy is also breakup baking, prompted by my dear @sanguinarysanguinity

tw: mention of parent death, mention of child abuse

part 1

part 2

~

Gutierrez eyes him on his way out of the locker room. "Feel like no one ever sees you anymore. You coming back to the pickup game or what?"

"Oh." Tommy gives his damp hair one last rub from the towel. "I wasn't planning on it, to be honest. Too awkward."

Gutierrez frowns. "Why?"

"You know," Tommy says, wishing he didn't have to, "Eddie Diaz. I broke up with his best friend."

"Diaz hasn't shown in weeks. Probably got injured. You know how that crew is."

And that. Well. He and Eddie were friends. They became tight very quickly in a way Tommy hasn't experienced with many people. He shouldn't have thrown a connection like that away without at least trying to salvage it.

He sends a text, a polite, generic one asking about his welfare. Worst thing that can happen is Eddie tells him to fuck off and he's back where he started. He fully expects to be left on read.

He does not expect Eddie to tell him he's moving back to Texas because he's given up on his son deciding to come home. Eddie invites him to a pre-going away dinner at a bar and grill before he goes down South for a few days to scout out homes. And, no, absolutely not. But Tommy proposes getting a drink, just the two of them. Eddie very validly explains that he can't spare the time, since he's already started packing up his life and he's working overtime to save up for a down payment. Tommy gets it. He does.

The day after the dinner, Eddie calls him. "Hey, man. I know we're like two ships passing in the night, but I didn't want to leave without a proper goodbye. I still got some more shifts before I move for good, but the time will go by quick. We'll just stay on the line, okay? Keep me company while I go through my kitchen cabinets."

"It's good to hear from you," Tommy says honestly.

"So yeah." Eddie hums. "Why'd you do it?"

"Text you?" Tommy says. "I heard that-"

"Kinard," Eddie says, unamused.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"You just didn't seem the type to flee."

None of you know me as well as you thought you did, Tommy doesn't say. That's not fair to any of them. "I wasn't, in the past. Well, I tried not being that. A couple times. It didn't work out."

"Oh," Eddie says. "There it is."

"There what is?"

"You've got shit."

"Haven't we all?"

"Hey, I am not denying that." Eddie chuckles. "Do you plan on dealing with it, or letting it blow up every good thing you find until you die?"

"Jesus, Eddie."

"What's the point in mincing words? You did something dumb and destructive. What kinda friend would I be if I let that go without saying anything?"

"So what's the weather even like in El Paso? Does it ever get below 100?"

After a groan, Eddie lets Tommy talk about his shit, about Texas, parenthood, and chess clubs, for the rest of the call. Tommy can't say that he'll miss him. He missed him already and now he gets to continue doing so. All of this sucks.

Tommy tries his hand at gnocchi made with ricotta, lemon, and pepper that subsequently almost causes a fistfight during B shift.

Demetra favors him with a warm smile, taking in the large box in his hands. "Tom, right? Welcome! What's all this?"

"Tommy," he says easily, impressed she remembered his name at all. He hasn't been to this slightly dusty community center in five or six years. "Uh, this is garlic knots and mini calzones."

"Well, hey. You're even more welcome than before. Come take a seat."

December is a stupid time to rejoin group, many of the participants close to the edge from a cocktail of seasonal depression, missing dead loved ones, and generalized loneliness. Tommy knew it would be like this going in. He counted on it. Everyone will have so much to say that there likely won't be any time for him to open his mouth. He's not ready to spill. It will help to just soak in the atmosphere of unashamed honesty for a while.

At his third meeting, Cal, a slender guy in his mid twenties with a curly mohawk, keeps bringing up his mother. "She never wanted me to enlist," he says, "and now that I'm back home and struggling, she can't stop being all 'I told you so' morning, noon, and night. She never says it, but she is thinking it."

"Is she?" Tommy finds himself asking. "Or are you putting something on her that isn't there?"

"Maybe so." Cal pops one of Tommy's fried ravioli in his mouth and chews thoughtfully. "I don't know, I should probably give her a chance, think first about what she's actually saying before I react. But it's hard in the moment, you know?"

"Tommy?" Demetra says a minute later, making him feel like a kid being called on by the teacher. "How's your relationship with your mom?"

"Nonexistent. She died when I was fifteen." He crosses his ankles. "Fell asleep in the car on our way back from an away game and we couldn't wake her up. Heart attack."

Demetra frowns sympathetically. "That must've been hard for a kid to witness."

"I've seen so much worse since then. People shot in the head by machine guns, people covered in burns over most of their bodies..."

Demetra shakes her head slightly. "They weren't your mom."

He ducks his head, pressing his lips together. "True. It's just- That's not- It's not trauma. I don't fear falling asleep and not waking up."

"What do you fear?" Cal asks.

Being left, being hurt, being validated in his belief that no one will ever see him for all he is and choose to stick around. "Standard stuff, really. Clowns, taxes, drivers on the freeway."

He gets a pity laugh, a groan or two, and one outright glare. "Okay, okay." He exhales loudly. "Ending up alone by someone else's choice rather than mine."

"So you're cool with being on your own, as long as you're the one keeping everyone away," Cal says.

God, that sounds idiotic. "Yes?"

"You prefer it like this?" asks a woman about his own age wearing a green bomber jacket.

He shrugs. "It's not ideal, but as far as worst case scenarios go, it's okay. It's fine."

"It's spineless," says a gray-haired man with a Desert Storm hat.

Tommy doesn't flinch. "Yeah, that's kind of an inherent character trait. I keep thinking I got it licked, then it shows up wearing another face. Scared of my dad, so I joined the army and became someone he couldn't hurt anymore. Scared of people knowing I was gay, so I waited to come out until I was surrounded by brand new people. Scared of my boyfriend leaving, so." He pushes at the skin above his knees, kneading it. "So I left him first."

"You fall back," says Bomber Jacket. Her name is Annie or Angie. She has conflicted feelings about dating a man with kids. "It's easy to stop being scared when the thing that scared you is far away."

He hears Eddie. You just didn't seem the type to flee.

Demetra holds up a hand. Tommy's face must be doing something concerning. "No one here faults you for what you did to survive. Is it still serving you, is the question, or is that just what you're used to?"

He doesn't bake when he gets home. He drinks half the beers in his fridge and does a shockingly efficient job of cleaning his house, while drafting and deleting twenty-seven different texts. He then wakes up the next day, and goes to the pickup game.

Gutierrez scores four rebounds on him and doesn't shut up about it for the rest of their next shift. Tommy grumbles, and talks shit, and promises he won't have much to brag about next time.

[portalhan]

⠀ꔫ˚　༝　◌ ⌒⌒ three strikes !

↳ jeongin swears on his life that he's seen something odd between you and felix... exactly three times, in fact, but he needs more concrete proof...

PAIRING: felix lee x gn!reader

FORMAT: one shot

GENRE: college au, friends to lovers, fluff, jeongin third wheeling...

WARNINGS: brief mentions of food and being sick (just the flu bug nothing huge)

WORD COUNT: 2.8k

FAE'S NOTES: this is just a little bit half-assed... idk if i have much faith in this and i believe i can do better than this but i'm gonna post it anyway for you guys! please let me know if you have any feedback, my writing muscles have basically atrophied and i need to find my rhythm again TT

jeongin doesn't usually second-guess his closest friends like this, but something has changed. he knows you and felix well enough to know at least that.

you have always been hard to read. you're an independent, reliable sort of person, not outwardly emotional nor needlessly arrogant either—you tend to show your love for your friends through small, quiet gestures. felix, on the other hand, is someone who wears his heart on his sleeve—almost to a fault. always baking extra brownies to gift people, always going the extra mile, always looking on the bright side, even in the darkest of situations. he is as fragile as he is affectionate.

yes, affectionate. that's the word he's been looking for to describe the changes in your friendship with felix. you've been more affectionate. jeongin has always chalked it up to felix's own proclivities rubbing off on you given the sheer amount of time you spend together, but now... he's not so sure it's that simple. there have been three strikes jeongin has kept score of so far.

STRIKE #1

jeongin remembers it was a tuesday, because that's the only day of the week where all three of you shared classes. you would always sit in a row near the back of the class. he has made it a point to memorise both yours and felix's timetables this semester—as do the both of you with him—so he knows you don't usually have prior arrangements before coming to campus. you've always had a tradition of meeting in the lobby before walking to class together as a result.

so, when his phone pings with a message from you saying 'sorry innie, we're gonna be a bit late! pls go to class first, just save us seats', he is immediately struck with confusion. what did you mean, "we"? felix, uncharacteristically, hasn't said a word and it's already 5 minutes shy from when class starts. he always arrives at least 10 minutes before. how strange, jeongin thinks to himself as he trudges up the stairs to class, incredibly unfamiliar with the circumstance of having to do so on his own for the first time. he just brushes the nagging suspicion off, telling himself it was probably because of some public transport situation that's delayed you both—not something entirely uncommon.

it's about 15 minutes into the class before he sees you. the second he spots felix and you stumbling through the doors, profusely apologising to the professor for your tardiness, though, is when the same sensation of suspicion comes back. as you and felix shuffle to make their way to the seats jeongin saved for you, he can't help but notice your attire. you're wearing an oversized black shirt with some graphic of an anime printed on. jeongin's eyes squint as he stares at it, assuming it must have been a new purchase of yours. but he swears he's seen it before.

when you and felix take your seats and the professors picks up where she left off, felix turns to jeongin and apologises for being late. "we're really sorry jeongin, we owe you one," he quips, before he fishes his laptop out of his bag. the younger boy just shrugs it off as no big deal. plus, he had something else on his mind to worry about than harp on the two of you being late to class.

the dots quickly connect a few moments later in jeongin's head. felix has a shirt just like the one you're wearing. he swears he's seen him wearing it before, just last week when the three of you had gone out for dinner. it's been a shirt of his for years now, so worn down by so many uses that it has bleach stains on the sleeves, despite how much care felix puts into his clothing.

jeongin leans back in his chair and slowly, subtly pushes it back. he steals a glance at your side profile, thankfully without either you or felix noticing. there they were: bleach stains on the sleeves. upon further inspection, the shirt you were wearing looks way too worn out to be a new shirt—he concludes it must be felix's. but why would you wear felix's dank shirt to begin with? it would be weird to ask if that's his shirt you were wearing, so he decides to keep his silence for now.

STRIKE #2

this time, it was jeongin's turn to be late. the three of you had planned a picnic to celebrate the end of the gruelling semester—an idea felix suggested. he wanted it to be a potluck, so the each of you planned to bring something of your own making along.

jeongin wanted to go all out with his: he wanted to bake cupcakes, something felix had recently taught him how to. he wanted to show you his latest endeavours, baked fresh, but he didn't expect it to go sideways so last minute. he ended up showing up almost half an hour late, hair sticking to his forehead from all the sweat and cupcake frosting smeared all over the tupperware he placed them in out of haste.

when he finally spots the two of you amid the grass field at the park, he notices something... odd. he stops in his tracks to catch his breath and squints his eyes to get a better look. if he didn't know any better, he'd have thought you two were... holding hands? the sun was glaring directly in his face, obscuring his vision, so jeongin couldn't be 100% sure. but what he does know is that your figures were so close to each other they were practically shoulder-to-shoulder. this isn't exactly beyond felix, who is notorious for his habits of physical affection. but it is most certainly out of character for you, as someone who prefers to keep most people at an arm's length.

jeongin shrugs it off. he guesses felix nor he would be considered "most people". perhaps it was a trick of the light. he also doesn't have good enough reason to find it entirely strange—perhaps felix had gotten through to you in that regard. he had bigger things to worry about: your dinner getting cold.

STRIKE #3

the legitimacy of the third time is still up for debate, jeongin surmises. this time it wasn't your behaviour around each other, instead more so about how felix in particular reacted.

this happened over summer break. he remembers the sun being more unrelenting than ever—40 degrees celsius to be exact, he saw on the news—so you three had just decided to hang out in your bedroom, where the air conditioning is the coolest and crispiest (according to you). jeongin vividly recalls you lying on your stomach atop your bed, while the two boys were sprawled on the floor. that is, the carpet that laid over the spot where they would usually sprawl on the floor.

it was one of those 'parallel play' days, as you liked to call them. not necessarily doing things together, but doing separate things in the presence of each other, you said one time. felix was busy on his switch playing some pokemon game, you were scrolling on your phone and jeongin was just seconds away from drifting off to sleep on felix's lap.

it's been silent for, what, almost two hours now? but you end up breaking it first. "woah," you suddenly exclaimed, brows furrowing as you read something on your screen. "do you guys remember seungmin? from calculus?"

jeongin does not move an inch aside from nodding his head, and felix just lets out a little "yeah?" though his eyes were never once peeled from the console screen.

"i think he just asked me out," you tell them, bewildered.

this, of course, elicits reactions of surprise from jeongin and felix. the former lifts himself and sits up to ask details, while the other just turns the switch off—did he even save his progress on the game?—and sits there in silence as he silently watches you and jeongin discuss your classmate's... proposition. jeongin makes a playful jab at how you could have given him the wrong idea by flirting with him, which you immediately shut down. "i've never done anything suggestive to him, i swear!" you exclaimed in full defense.

seungmin has only ever made conversation with you once or twice in class, jeongin recalls. you also never really put in the effort to get to know your other classmates if jeongin and felix were in the same classes. jeongin makes a passing comment about how seungmin could pass as your type (if you squint hard enough), but it falls on deaf ears when you and felix meet each other's gazes.

"you're gonna tell him no, right?" felix suddenly chimes in after moments of prolonged silence, raspy voice cracking just a little. jeongin snaps his head to turn and look at his friend, head tilted and brow lifted. you give felix a look jeongin cannot quite describe, and chuckle with a soft smile as you nod. "of course i'm gonna say no," you assure him. he lets out a very heavy sigh of relief, but none of this goes unnoticed by jeongin.

this is very weird, jeongin remembers thinking. you have always been receptive to potential love interests, even if they weren't necessarily people you'd normally be into. so why are you so sure now that you'd reject seungmin without even giving him a chance?

on that note, what's it to felix who asks you out? why does he have a say? plus, he could've sworn he detected some semblance of... jealousy in his question. but he supposes that could be normal considering all three of you are so used to spending time with each other. jeongin does admit to himself that he'd feel lonely if you were to be whisked away by some stranger out of nowhere. it wouldn't be the same.

jeongin has theories, maybe even concepts of a theory, but no concrete enough proof for confrontation—so far. it looks like he has to wait till he does before he can address the massive elephant in the room.

FINAL STRIKE

it finally happens when he decides to stop by your apartment with take-out. you had told your friends about falling sick the night before—alas, you have caught the flu bug. they were just textbook symptoms like a low-grade fever, sore throat and a runny nose, nothing to worry about in particular, you told them. but jeongin just so happens to pass by your neighbourhood on his usual route home from work, so he decides to drop in with some chicken soup for you as a small surprise. you had already been texting the group chat the entire day about how exhausted you were to make yourself a half-decent dinner, so jeongin thought this would be a nice way to take care of his friend.

he knocks on your door multiple times to no response. maybe you're sleeping? he looks around the potted plants sitting outside your door and lifts the snake plant up, grabbing the rusted spare key tucked away from prying eyes just underneath. he quickly and quietly unlocks the front door and lets himself in. i'll just go in, check on y/n and put this soup on the table, he tells himself as he enters. maybe text you to let you know he got you dinner.

that is, until a warm aroma of what he believes to be fresh bolognese wafts to where he is at the front door. he hears the distant clanging of pots and pans coming from the kitchen, and—strangest of all—he hears... conversation? he can definitely hear you talking and even giggling, but he can't quite make out who the other person was. he's about 99% sure there was someone else in here, but could it be just a phone call? he sneaks down the hallway to the kitchen, the noises getting clearer as he inches closer. when he sticks his head out from a blind corner to peek into the kitchen, he sees it: felix plating a fresh bowl of spaghetti while you're sitting on the dining table engaged in idle chatter. a lump catches in his throat—what is felix doing here? and most importantly, why didn't he know of this? he felt momentarily betrayed.

jeongin just stands there in silence, unsure of how to confront you, while you and felix continue chatting. it's only when felix sets down two plates of pasta and goes in to plant a peck on your cheek does jeongin yelp in shock, which frightens all three of you.

felix squints his eyes, which widen in utter disbelief when he recognises the familiar facade lurking by the corridor. "jeong...in?" he asks, voice trembling a little from disbelief. when he says jeongin's name, you shoot him a similar look, but this one is more panicked and afraid. jeongin awkwardly steps out within view, but he puts a hand up to cover his mouth to prevent himself from screaming. he raises the other arm to point an accusatory finger at the both of you. you swear you just heard felix gulp next to you.

"i..." jeongin sputters. "i knew it! i knew something was going on between you two idiots!"

the verbalisation of his revelation is what completely opens the floodgates, causing the entire place to erupt in complete and utter chaos. jeongin paces back and forth with the chicken soup still dangling from his fingers as he rants about how he's caught you doing "weird stuff" a couple of times but couldn't have known, about how he's been feeling a little left out recently, how you have been looking at felix funny sometimes. meanwhile, felix just begins to talk over him with near-equal (if not more) amounts of sheer panic and distress, reaching out to him to get him to calm down while explaining that this wasn't how they had intended for him to find out.

you, crippled by the shock from jeongin's unexpected appearance, just sit there, unable to do much of anything what with your flu, just silently watching felix and jeongin form a panic attack circle jerk in your own house.

"enough!" jeongin raises his voice, which immediately shuts felix up. jeong has never raised his voice. you shoot felix a nervous look.

"i thought we were best friends," jeongin utters, the slightest hint of melancholy lacing his voice. he looks offended. you've never seen him look this offended, not even when he was accused of academic misconduct that one time. "i'm happy for you, ecstatic even! i swear i am, but really? why would you keep this for me for so long?"

you decide you should talk to him—felix is very clearly out of his depth when it comes to handling intense situations like this and he's only making jeongin feel worse with all the jabbering. you stand up from your seat on the table and walk over to him, taking your hands in his.

"i'm sorry, jeongin. we... we weren't entirely sure of how we were gonna do this," you tell him, almost in a whisper.

felix scratches the back of his neck, avoiding any and all eye contact with either of you. "we wanted to keep it quiet," he admits. "at first, at least."

you nod in agreement, and turn back to look at jeongin. "you were going to be the first person we would break the news to. not even our own parents, i swear," you divulge, while you spot felix in the corner of your eye making a silent crossed hearts gesture to double down on his sincerity. jeongin's once-tense features start to ease up a bit, but not entirely. "you are our best friend. we never want you to feel like this. we're sorry," you assure him, before pulling him into a bear hug. you feel felix join from behind you to make it a group hug.

"i don't care what you guys have going on, but don't keep any more secrets from me. got it?" your friend huffs after you all pull back, feigning some sort of authority. felix chuckles at how ridiculous he sounds—being the youngest of the three, the tone just sounds alien when it comes from him. "we would never," felix tells him, reaching out to give jeongin a firm pat on the back. "i think y/n might like you more than me anyway, they're always going, 'we should call jeongin! we should send him a photo! we should—"

your palm slaps against the lower half of your boyfriend's face in protest. "we might be dating but you're on thin ice," you glare at him, before he raises both hands to surrender.

jeongin jovially chimes in to break the tension: "can i just say, i've always felt like you'd get along. aren't you glad i introduced you to each other? you wouldn't be a thing if it weren't for me, ya know." felix and you just huff in response—he can have this.

[thriftyshark530]

For writers that like hurting their characters

(you know who you are)

Any semi serious injury to the arms or legs can be fatal. If an artery is struck the person can bleed out in 2-5 minutes. If an artery is struck then blood will be violently spraying out of the body, as opposed to regular bleeding where the blood just leaks.

A way to stop severe bleeding is with a tourniquet. A proper tourniquet that you would expect to find in any trauma response kit, as using a shirt or anything in your environment as a tourniquet won't be very effective. The tourniquet should be placed a few inches above the wound, and tightened. The tightening process is going to be extremely painful, as it's clamping down hard enough to cut off the blood circulation. Important to note that a limb won't be at risk of being amputated unless the tourniquet has been applied for hours.

Another way to stop severe bleeding is wound packing. This is where you take gauze and fill up a wound with it. The point is to cover the area that's bleeding, so that you can apply pressure to the specific part of the body that's bleeding heavily. Applying pressure directly on top of where the blood is coming from should get it to stop, however this will again be painful for the victim.

Losing blood makes it harder to regulate your body temperature, so it's extremely dangerous to be losing blood in a cold environment. However, a victim can still get cold in warm areas from blood loss, so most trauma response kits will have specific blankets that will help the victim regulate their temperature.

Any wound that punctures the chest area is extremely dangerous. Air will begin filling into the chest cavity, which will leave the lungs with less room to expand. Eventually the lung or lungs will collapse from the lack of room, this is extremely painful. And this will all be even worse if the attack pierced a lung, which will be filling with blood. All of this will make it extremely hard to breathe. There are pads in a trauma response kit that you place over a chest wound, and they're designed to vent air out of the chest cavity while not letting any more air in. However lungs filling up with body fluids is not something you can treat on the field, and will require proper medical attention.

Getting clapped on the ears hurts and can disorient you.

Any impact to the nose will make the sinuses flare up and the eyes water, making a fight more difficult.

Any impact to the back of the skull can be fatal, or cause severe brain damage.

It's extremely easy to rip off a human ear.

The liver is located on the lower right side of the rib cage, it would be on your left side if you were looking at someone else's liver. Any impact there can put any person on the ground, as it's extremely painful to be hit there. Punches to the liver drop many professional boxers.

Kidneys are mostly the same, except they aren't protected by anything at all. Located in the lower back, the kidneys are completely unprotected from any attack. Any impact here can drop someone just like a liver punch. (I was in the gym one time and hit my kidney pretty hard on a bar and almost collapsed from the pain)

A proper punch is thrown in a way to where the knuckles are the only thing that make contact. This is so that all the force is being spread out across a much smaller area, increasing the damage to the victim.

Any impact to the neck can be fatal, and will make a person immediately start choking, making them completely open in a fight.

Removing anything that's impaled into a person will only make them bleed out faster.

Your body will force you to inhale right before drowning, which we all know it burns like hell to have water in your lungs. Plenty of people that have almost drowned have said that their body forced them to take a breath, even if there was no air to breathe.

The brain inhibits your full strength, as we're strong enough to completely rip our muscles. In times of need, the brain will let go of this limitation, basically granting you super strength. There's plenty of cases where someone was able to lift something off of someone, such as a lawn mower or car, but wasn't able to move it at all later on.

While you can live without water for a few days, maybe even longer than 3 depending on a bunch of factors, that is specifically "living". You can expect to see severe side effects of dehydration long before the person dies. Extreme kidney pain, headaches, hallucinations, dry skin, some organ failure ect.

paradoxical sensation is where you're so cold that you actually feel hot. Plenty of people have been in extremely cold environments and started removing their clothes, as they were so cold that they felt like they were burning.

The body will begin to eat itself if it's gone long enough with no food.

You have an extreme lack of depth perception with only 1 eye. You can test this out by walking around and doing tasks with only 1 eye open.

When blood and dirt and anything else gets in the hair, untangling the hair and straightening it out is extremely painful. It may even result in pulling some hair out, it might be better to shave it off if it's bad enough.

Any recent wounds sting when exposed to water, which makes taking a shower a nightmare when you have multiple of these on your body at once.

As popular as the trope is, consciousness has no effect on your survival. The "don't go to sleep" while a character is bleeding out doesn't really help, meaning you can let your character pass out or fall asleep while they're dying. This can lead to a character thinking they won't wake up while they're fighting off sleep, only to wake up in a hospital bed.

[mllemaenad]

Huh. Well, now I'm very annoyed. Bioware couldn't be arsed to keep track of the world state changes anymore, so they're just torching everything. And the thing is, this is exactly what those world state imports are for.

You can certainly critique Mass Effect 3, but I've always felt it used its save import well. The world is very literally ending in that game and any reasonable player is immediately going to ask: where are my friends? Your companions foremost, obviously, but also NPCs you've helped or who helped you, or even just random people you encountered. You start doing a head count day one. Some characters made actual appearances, but there were also emails and ambient dialogue. Sometimes you found out that a character was fine – and that was a delightful relief. Sometimes you found out that they weren't – and that hurt. The point is, it made it feel as though your world was ending. Not just a world.

This is the moment where every change you've saved across the previous three games comes into play.

I'm certainly not saying this must be the last Dragon Age game. But it does feel like the end of an arc. We're answering all the big questions first posed in Origins: where did the Blight come from; what became of Arlathan, why are the dwarves in a constant apocalyptic state? Any new game will be about something else.

And here, as in Mass Effect 3, we are facing the end of the world.

The thing is. The thing is. I did not explicitly prep for this scenario. But bloody hell am I prepped for this scenario.

The King of Ferelden and the White Divine are both veterans of the Fifth Blight. The Hero of Ferelden is alive and well (since they have not told me otherwise) and well prepared at Amaranthine – and her sister is queen in Orzammar. She also has Awakened darkspawn allies to call on. The Grey Wardens were not expelled from the south, so should be on hand to face the crisis. And hey – the leader of the newly freed College of Enchanters is herself a former Warden. We are as Blight ready as it's possible to be!

I want to hear about how the king worked out that Denerim was beyond saving in time to evacuate the civilians because he could sense the oncoming horde well before anyone else could.

I want to hear how Warden-Commander Brosca, flanked by Nathaniel Howe and Sigrun, came out to lead the refugees to safety.

I want to hear that Prince Endrin led the Orzammar reinforcements that saved Redcliffe, and his aunt beamed with pride.

I want to hear that the Divine herself took command of the defence of Val Royeaux, and that the mages came out in force to assist the woman who backed their fight for freedom.

I want to hear that the Champion of Kirkwall returned with her Warden lover in the city's darkest hour, defending the people as they fled, and that with Merrill's assistance the alienage elves made it onto the last ship to escape the harbour.

If we're going to bloody Starkhaven, of all places, I want an acknowledgement that the Blight has forced a reconciliation – because last I heard Sebastian was getting his arse handed to him by Aveline.

I want to hear that the Grey Wardens are everywhere, because they never left.

I want to hear about intelligence gathered from Awakened darkspawn, and their bewildered frustration that these new invaders are different.

I'm not going to work out who lives and who dies right now, because this is new information and I'm still processing it. And in any case, it's not my point.

If they're destroying the world, I want it to be my Thedas, not a Thedas. I want these stories to have mattered.

[amxrany]

!! CHAPTER 7 / DIASOMNIA ARC SPOILERS !!

I'm excited with how much this one will hurt me (Ruggie's Dream):

We are now in Afterglow Savannah, and the group (Grim, Sebek, Idia and Ortho) is teaching Jack how to use "Dream Form Change" and bro's too hesitant to say it 😭, he evens mention that it's just like the shows his sister watches. But the group continues to egg him on until he actually said it and everyone's just excited for it (except for Silver and Azul).

So in the background, we see a statue of the birth of Simba scene from the Lion King, it's said that this scene is often referenced in children's books.

The group then brought up one detail: why aren't there any statues of hyenas bowing? That's when Jack mentions an old theory, that the statue was made during the time the hyenas weren't serving the King of The Beasts and Afterglow Savannah yet. Because people believed that the hyenas lived in the "Land of Shadows" (or the "Outlands") and had their own rules.

It's also believed that lions have been kings for a long time. But despite beastfolk being scattered all across Twisted Wonderland now, their origins can be traced back to Afterglow Savannah. Jack also tell us that his family are immigrants who moved to the Land of Pyroxene.

We actually go into a bit of real-world issues here as the group talks about how Afterglow Savannah values of the co-existence of their people with nature despite urban development plans. That's when Idia brought up Leona's choice of joining a mining and energy research institue for his internship and how it highlights a current issue of his country. Ortho then tells us that mining can help a country prosper but it clashes with the traditional life of the residents, which is why the issue is seen as controversial.

The issue of excessive mining is also brought up, because if that happens people can be forced out of their homes. But with Leona joining the institute to learn about its programs and possible plans to understand the issue from the other side, shows that he really does care about his people 🥹

THEN THE OWNER OF THE DREAM APPEARS AND HE'S RUNNING LATE TO CLASS (very school girl behavior if you ask me)

This actually makes me sad because as we're passing through the market, we can see that Ruggie's dream is just life treating him better. Because his father comes home with a great fortune (they really pulling the father comes home with the milk route on him huh 😭), everyone and everything in the community is thriving with vendors handing food to Ruggie because he slept late and not because he missed a meal, and Ruggie's worries being about an exam he might miss and not how to survive to see the next day. Once again, we get hit with the reality that all of this is just Ruggie's imagination.

We end up in a school called "Ivorycliff Academy" where most students are hyena beastfolk. It also has a statue of the hyenas we see in the Lion King as well. The academy actually holds hyenas with high regard, seeing them as important figures for fighting alongside the King of The Beasts for their rights.

The academy also has an abundance of fruit trees to the point you can just pluck a fruit off the tree and eat it (had those in my old school but we were never allowed to eat the fruit smh 😒). Because of this Grim couldn't hold himself back and proceeds to eat the fruit from the trees, which causes some chaos because he's seen by students and Ruggie nearly called security on them but luckily Azul comes in with a save, telling Ruggie that Grim belongs to them and that they're exchange students.

Sebek berates Grim for causing trouble because he got hungry, but he's no better because his stomach starts growling too 😭 but Ruggie told them to feel free to eat with them since hyenas share the spirit of solidarity. He relates this to his own experience that he can't ignore other people when they're hungry.

Ruggie brings the group to a donut stall and shows us his favorite combo - a plain donut with chocolate sauce, topped with sliced fruits, custard, fresh cream, and lastly some berry jam - The Ruggie Special if you would. He gives the donut to Sebek, who eats it all in one bite. He also prepared a mountain of donuts for the group and Azul's just concerned with the amount of calories 😭

We also learn from the vendor of the donut stall that Leona was the one who established the academy. In this dream, Ruggie doesn't know Leona personally but he really looks up to him here; because Leona used his knowledge from studying abroad to build schools just like Ruggie's. He's even more popular than Farena amongst the country's youth. But then the bell rings and Ruggie leaves the group to go to class.

But then the vendor of the donut stall suddenly turns into the darkness and attacks the group, Ortho warns the group that Malleus' presence is strong so they must wake Ruggie FAST

Jack says that he doesn't want to wake Ruggie up because he's so happy in his dream. But Azul tells him that in reality, Ruggie isn't always happy and that they should wake him up for the sake of his body, because he's receiving zero calories and his real grandma is alone and probably worried sick about him.

We then remembered what happened during Book 4 where Ruggie brought food for the people in his community during winter break and they come to the realization that he wouldn't want to be stuck in the dream world when the people he cares for are still suffering in the real world. This is where Azul proposes his plan.

So Ruggie's with a group of people going to the cinema to see a movie when Azul suddenly drops a coin in the ground, 1 thaumark/madol to be exact. Ruggie stops when he hears the noise and suddenly doesn't understand what's happening to him, like something calling him.

Azul increases the amount slowly from 1 thaumark/madol to 5 thaumarks/madols, this caused Ruggie to slowly lose his mind and separate from his group to look for the source. That's when Azul pulls out 100 thaumarks/madols.

Everyone's wondering why he's dropping money all over the place, that's when Azul mentions that when Ruggie sometimes takes shifts in Mostro Lounge, he can immediately the amount of money someone dropped based on the noise (like a coin buff if you think about it). Because there was one time someone dropped money by accident and he managed to guess the exact amount of 753 thaumarks/madols. He also manages to find the location just by the noise (wish my coin buff was like that fr 😔)

Anyways look at Ruggie in the Octavinelle uniform, so cute

Everyone's surprised about this discovery, even Idia said that it's like a buff you get in an RPG.

But anyways, Ruggie manages to find the money and wonders why he suddenly feels happy about it; this causes the dream to start distorting. Azul strikes in a moment of weakness and shows Ruggie 500 thaumarks/madols.

That's when Azul throws the money into the fountain and Ruggie jumps in immediately to look for it (I think that part explains Ruggie's groovy? Correct me if I'm wrong tho). Then Azul just laughs at him (what an asshole 😭 but Yuu gets mad at him for it)

This actually wakes Ruggie up and the group of people he was with approaches him and the first thing he does when he's back on his senses is to complain about the color of their uniform 💀 and that he doesn't give a damn if it gets dirty, preferring the NRC black colored uniform better.

The group tells him not to be behave that way because they're meant to be affiliated with the king. But Ruggie's like "King? I'll choose which King I'll serve." which turns them into shadows.

Once the shadows are defeated, Ortho explains to Ruggie that everything was just a dream; which causes him to breakdown completely.

He cries about how all the food was fake, and when he goes home his dad isn't there and his grandma won't get a new car. Idia isn't helping with the situation either because when Ruggie asks if Malleus was a heartless person, he proceeded to responded "erm actually he's a fae 🤓" (would've killed him just saying 🤷‍♀️)

Ruggie calms down and suggests we go find Leona because if there's anyone who wants to fight Malleus, it's most definitely him. Jack agrees, saying that Ruggie is the best person to wake him up knowing that he does that every morning.

The update ends with Ruggie joining the gang as we go to Leona's dream.

And that's it for the first part of the Savanaclaw update! Keep in mind the second part covering Leona's dream will be released on November 29, so stay tuned then!

Previous: Jack's Dream Next: Leona's Dream

(Note: This post is a summarized version of the update, info and pics comes from @/LBucchie and @/WitchDrug on x/twt, give them some support if you can)

[beef-brisket]

Angel looked around the room: Me? Uh... I drank Huskers favorite whiskey last week. And I drank it from the bottle.

Husk: What?!

Angel: And I didn't wipe the rim.

Husk: The fuck Angel!?

Angel: It was a rough day at work, okay!?

Charlie: Thank you, Angel. Husk? How about you?

Husk: I ain't part of this shit!

Adam: Says the fucker in the circle.

Husk spins around and glares at Adam: I got pulled in. Ass hat.

Adam smirked: I thought kitties were meant to be sweet and cuddly~?

Angel: Pft. Not this one.

Husk glares at Angel: Fine. One night, you pissed me off, so I used your toothbrush to clean under the bar.

Angel: What!?

Adam snickered. He loved this shit.

Charlie: Okay! We're going good! I'll go next. Dad, I brake onto your room when you're not here.

Lucifer: Huh? Why?

Charlie: I uh... s-sleep on your bed. It makes me feel closer to you, like you're next to me.

Adam eyed Lucifer: See how much you fucked her up?

Lucifer glares at him before looking back at Charlie. He stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

Lucifer: Oh- Char, that's-.

He yelled as he was pushed from behind.

Adam: Comfort your daughter, you prick.

Lucifer quickly went over to Charlie and pulled her into a hug. He had no idea Charlie was going into his room, but his heart broke at the visual of her lying on his bed.

Lucifer: I'm here, sweetie, and I'm not going anywhere. You can come to my room whenever you want. Okay, hun?

Charlie says nothing and only nods. Her arms wrapped tightly around her father, and her head buried I to his neck.

After a few minutes, they let go, and Lucifer wiped Charlie's tears.

Lucifer: I love you, sweetheart.

Charlie: I love you to, dad.

She smiled as Lucifer made his way back to the couch: O-Okay! Sorry about that. Who's next? Pentious?

Sir Pentious perked up and smiled: Of corssse! I've made a new group of egg boiz, and I usssed DNA from everyone in this hotel to make them!

Everyone looks disgusted, and stared at him.

Angel: How the fuck did you get my DNA!?

Sir Pentious: Do you really want me to answer that?

Adam watched as everyone started arguing with the snake guy. He had a feeling they guy with two dicks was a freak. He starred laughing when Angel pulled out a hun and pointed at Sir Pentious.

Vaggie: Why the fuck are we fighting!? This was Adam's idea- and he's sitting over there, enjoying this shit!

Asam: Yeah, duh. But don't you all feel closer to eachother~?

Vaggie growled as there was a gunshot. She stormed over to Adam and stood in front of him.

Vaggie: What's your fucking game, huh!?

Adam: No game, bitch. Just enjoying the show~.

Vaggie: Maybe it should be your turn to confess something!

Adam: Oh, I would love to. Expect I'm not working towards redemption, I'm already in Heaven, bitch.

Adam lent back and smiled up at Vaggie.

Adam: What about you? Vagatha. Anything you'd like to confess? I can think of one~.

Adam gestured to his wings and smirked at how pissed off Vaggie looked. It wasn't until she glared at him for a few seconds that she realized it was quiet. She glanced around the room and saw everyone was watching her.

Vaggie: ...I don't know what you're talking about.

Adam: Don't you? That's weird... I could have sworn I knew you from somewhere...

Vaggie: Shut the fuck up, Adam.

Adam: Or what? You're going to pull out your little spear? I'm surprised no one's asked where you got it.

Charlie: Vaggie? What is he talking about?

Adam: And you weren't the best on my team, there's no way your bitch ass could take me on. Isn't that right, Vagina?

Vaggie: I-It's nothing, Charlie!

Lucifer glared at Adam: What are you talking about?

Adam: Ask her, not me.

What about an au where Adam goes to Hell for night trips, wher ehe just parties and fucks. He has a disguise (it's just a slightly different looking helmet).

Lucifer joins his daughter and her friends at a bar, where he sees "Adam". He instantly knows it's him, but he's curious as to what he's doing.

So Lucifer spends hours flitting with him and buying him drinks to get him drunk. But Lucifer actually finds himself having a great time.

Long story short- they fuck, Adam doesn't let Lucifer know he's Adam. He goes back to Heaven and after a few months, he finds out he's pregnant.

Which is fucking weird cause he's definitely a dude, and he's very dead. But Lucifer's the Devil 🤷.

He basically has to play it off as him getting fat. It's working until the next meeting with Lucifer happens during his ninth month, and he's goes into labor right in front of Lucifer.

Lucifer: Why didn't you tell me your were fucking pregnant!?

Adam: Because you didn't know it was me!!

Lucifer: Yes I did! You have the same face!

Adam: ..... Oh..

[brian-in-finance]

🧵Outlander_Starz: Outlander is back and so is "Inside Outlander," your scoop on the behind-the-scenes magic that brings this magical series to life! ✨ Let's dive into the emotional premiere, "Unfinished Business," shall we?"

Returning to Lallybroch and the location of Midhope Castle where Outlander films wasn't just magical for the fans but for the cast as well. Sam Heughan says this was his favourite location from this second half of the season.

Going back to Lallybroch was a really big moment, for Jamie but also for Outlander. It's where we started. I have a lot of memories working there. One of my first days shooting in Season 1 was at Midhope at Lallybroch... so it was quite a special moment.

Actually, I'd never been in the actual castle because it's derelict. We were using the doorway. So, I actually got to go in this time and have a look inside, which was very special. — SAM HEUGHAN, JAMIE FRASER

🧵Outlander_Starz: Showrunner and Executive Producer Matthew B. Roberts said, "Bringing one of our main characters back into the show... Scotland... she's such a beauty.

You miss her when you're not there. I love when we can play Scotland for Scotland at any point. And that iconic driveway going up to Lallybroch, it always makes your heart beat a little faster."

🧵Outlander_Starz: Set Decorator Stuart Bryce, who has been on Outlander since the beginning, was nostalgic at recreating this set across decades: "New touches, like Mike Gunn's murals, were a great addition, but essentially we didn't have to change too much. We kept it as true as we could to the original Lallybroch.

The tapestries in the dining room had been in storage, and there were a few pieces missing, so finding the original plans and having to recreate them was a challenge."

🧵Outlander_Starz: For Production Designer Mike Gunn, now that we're seeing Lallybroch in 1739 as well as the 1770s and 1980s, it was important to instantly recognize Roger was in a different time. He came up with the idea that behind the incredible tapestries from Season 1, there were murals created in the time of Brian Fraser, hidden after Culloden, then discovered by Bree and Roger in the 80s.

Read more about how Mike used these murals to plant Easter Eggs about Jamie and the story of Outlander itself!

I developed this backstory that the murals depicted the Jacobite rising and fight for Scottish independence. By the time the 1770s came and the Jacobites had lost Culloden, that's when the tapestries were hidden... In the 1980s, the tapestries were taken off. That was the starting point.

Then I decided to weave in the story of Outlander...

The unicorn, which I decided to depict in all of the four images, was Jamie. And of course, Claire is going to come into that journey. The central mural above the fireplace with the unicorn and horse, that's the two of them in love. But the unicorn is depicted as having his struggles throughout. He's depicted fighting a mythical beast that you could say is Black Jack. — MIKE GUNN, PRODUCTION DESIGNER

🧵Outlander_Starz: Fans will be delighted to see Jamie and Claire staying in the Laird's bedroom again with the iconic blue wallpaper. Set Decorator Stuart Bryce says of this room: "There is something about that blue that makes people's skin look amazing and enhanced those early romantic scenes of Jamie and Claire.

When we came to put the room back together, though it was exactly the way it should have been, by some mystery, the room was bigger...something spooky happened there!"

Inside Unfinished Business • 1 of 1

Threads 🧵

Remember… you miss her when you're not there. I love when we can play Scotland for Scotland at any point. And that iconic driveway going up to Lallybroch, it always makes your heart beat a little faster. — Matthew B Roberts

[roseyswords]

An analysis of Mastermind (the Song)

Now this is gonna focus primarily on Stolas's perspective throughout this whole song. Not that I think Blitzø or Satan's parts are less interesting they're just more straightforward than the rest of it and I don't think I can expound on them that much.

So first we have Stolas using societies already baked in prejudices against imps to immediately square away the idea that Blitzø could be to blame for the whole thing. And you'll notice that when he's doing this he's putting on the same persona that he used in Circus when he got Blitzø out of trouble with his security guards. The act of a haughty Prince that is taking responsibility for an imp. It's a bit of a go to for him.

Then he starts building up the idea of a Mastermind whose actually behind it all that just using Blitzø for nefarious purposes. I also want to point out the look on Ozzie's face here because it is expressing exactly what I was thinking when I first watched this which was " what the fuck are you going on about Stolas?"

But if you notice something that I'll talk about a bit more later he's not saying he's the Mastermind at this point. He's just talking about a vague Boogeyman esque mastermind here.

Then he goes on to detail what killing Blitzø like this would mean in Hell. First he's doubling down on how lowly he is, meaning he couldn't possibly have done it and that he is clearly just a scapegoat. Basically telling them that doing so won't solve anything. But then next he says that it would "light a fire in the hearts of his race" which as we see afterwards, it did. This whole song stoked massive support for Blitzø and if we remember resulted in the first time in history where an imp sentenced with death got away and survived.

Fuck it! I am the Mastermind. There is the briefest moment here where Stolas closes his eyes and thinks. Right before he says Fuck It. I don't think Stolas had fully cemented on the idea of taking the blame himself until this point. I think this is the point where he realized he can't back down from this, he can't just make up a Mastermind he has to be the Mastermind. I think he has this sort of as the plan the whole time but that he was also giving himself a bit of an out before by being vague. He could have said he was the Mastermind the entire song but this was the moment he started taking full ownership of the title.

I have no regrets/ I have regrets. Publically Stolas is saying that he has no regrets about the whole scheme that he used Blitzø for. But then we immediately go into private mode where Stolas is having some regrets and second thoughts about doing this. He says " why am I throwing my life away for this idiot?" He doesn't like doing this but he's going to anyway.

And he decides to do it because the alternative is Blitzø dying. And that is too horrible of a fate for him to bear. Stolas probably also feels actual responsibility for the whole situation because he made the deal to let Blitzø use the book knowing it was illegal. So if he can do anything to let Blitzø live, this is it and he's gotta do it. So then we get to

I am the Mastermind, the master of my faith. No looking back, we're doubling down. Full on. So much of Stolas arc as a character is culminating in this moment. For so long he has just been a puppet in other peoples plans. He has never been in charge of his own life but now he is the master behind his own decisions and steering his own fate. Even if it's at his own detriment. He sings about how much he loves Blitzø and death itself is the only thing that can break them. He is resolved to this fate and he's taking it head on.

There are so many fucking layers to this episode, it's a gift that keeps on giving. It's my favorite episode containing my favorite Helluva Boss song. I hope you enjoyed this attempt at a breakdown I did.

[thelunarfairy]

Heya!!!

So about chapter 120 that shattered all of us...

I couldn't help but wonder that when Nene called out for Hanako to help her and it snapped him out of what he was doing, do you think that means somewhere deep down Amane remembers? I'd like to think he does, but then when they were just talking before shit went down Amane's memories weren't jogged when Nene was first talking to him and calling him Hanako-kun. It didn't jog his memory when Nene was crying.

But it did when he almost killed her.

I don't know what to think honestly. And I'm forcing myself to focus on something else besides kou dying.

Oh, and also, why are people so mad when people are comparing teru & kou's situation to amane and Tsukasa's? Like AidaIro was clearly drawing a parallel here. And I'm fed up with the Fandom attacking itself yk?

Anyway happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate, and have a great day/night !!

Yes, Amane seems to be lost in his own memories, even when he was still Hanako, but it doesn't seem to be something definitive.

You can see that he remembers that something happened but doesn't know exactly what or why, so yes, it's as if his memory is on a threshold.

You know when you have that dream and when you wake up you forget what you dreamed but know that you dreamed about something? It's similar.

Hanako will probably need something very strong to make him remember, and of course, it will be problematic, after all, the entity will get in the way of the process.

Oh, don't worry about Kou, he'll come back.

It's like that with most of the JSHK arcs, it starts off happy, then comes the big drama, then a tragedy, then the resolution and in the end everything goes back to the way it was before.

It was like that with PP arc and the number six arc. Aidairo still needs Kou for a lot of things, not even Mitsuba who collects deaths has gone away, he always comes back.

It's a character development arc. So, it's going to take a while for Aidairo to start creating definitive deaths. This is the number one arc, so I would be worried if it was the twins arc, but that hasn't started and we don't know when it will.

Remember, at the end of this arc, number one will lose his Yorishiro, this arc is about him. We're seeing all this now because Aidairo wants to convince us that this reality is bad (and she's succeeding).

So don't worry about Kou now, he himself said he'll come back.

About the fandom, the Minamoto brothers and the Yugi brothers, well, yes, it's a kind of parallel.

Hanako killed Tsukasa because he became a supernatural (theoretically).

Teru exorcised Kou because he became a supernatural.

One thing we have to keep in mind is that Aidairo likes to work by making the characters deal with traumatic but necessary experiences for them to develop.

Teru is closed off, he hates supernaturals, even those he knows are not that dangerous or not completely supernatural. He even treats Akane with a certain contempt.

This is rooted in him for reasons we do not know yet. Teru's development follows a path that Kou himself decreed from the beginning, "if Teru could deal with the fact that someone he loves could become a supernatural".

He did not like the idea.

But this is where the good things are born.

This is the point of Teru's development, he is dealing with it firsthand. Feeling what it is like to have someone he loves as a supernatural and how his instincts made him exorcise Kou without thinking twice.

He is dealing with the pain of having exorcised his younger brother.

Just like Hanako had to deal with the murder he committed, he has not accepted it yet.

So, here's where Teru can develop in two ways: either he becomes more flexible about supernatural beings (like Kou wanted) or he will get more hatred for them.

No matter which side he chooses, it will still be a development.

How will Teru deal with his actions?

That's the question.

Seeing that Teru judged Hanako so much and did something similar, the parallel that Aidairo created so that Teru could understand Hanako a little, because he would never understand if he didn't go through it.

So we shouldn't create a war about this, it's just a necessary phase for Teru's development (and Kou's too).

For the character to develop, he needs to suffer, he needs to make mistakes, he needs to feel pain. The two brothers are dealing with this dilemma, while the older one hates supernaturals and says that the younger one is weak, Kou deals with the desire to become a supernatural because he got too attached to one of them and realized that not everything Teru says is true.

Still, Kou is really weak and he will probably realize that Teru was right in this, even though Kou's lack of training happened because Teru wanted to protect him.

An older brother who hates supernaturals And a younger brother who likes them to the point of wanting to become one.

Teru is dealing with this possibility in this reality Just like Kou is too. He is discovering that being a supernatural is dangerous, as Hanako said.

And maybe this is the fuel for Kou to have the courage to exorcise Mitsuba, when he understands that it is the best for him and he is suffering because Kou does not want to let him go - Just like Hanako does not want to allow Tsukasa to be freed.

The parallel here again?

See the importance of this moment, of Teru having exorcised Kou, see how many paths this action can take both of them.

Because one day Hanako said he was anxious for Kou to exorcise him, when he was ready.

And he probably will one day.

Kou needs to be strong to understand that there is no salvation for Mitsuba other than freeing him.

JSHK talks about this, about how love is giving freedom, and suffering for it.

So, everything that happened is for their development. Just like Teru almost died to protect Kou, and Kou had enough willpower to face and defeat number six, now it's Teru's turn to deal with it.

But in the end, they'll be fine.

That's how it ends.

At least for now.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish the same for you!!!

[emmersonisdesperate]

Ranting about Romantic Prongsfoot or Prongsfoot in general??

I saw someone post saying romantic Prongsfoot is basically incest. I sighed then scrolled. Was that so hard? Seeing an opinion you don't like, and then just moving on? Because that's exactly what romantic Prongsfoot is, an opinion.

The fandom analyzed canon Sirius's behavior, actions and dialogue when it involved James and we all pretty much came to the conclusion that Sirius's entire world revolved around James. Like a dog, a man's best friend, he was incredibly loyal and devoted to James.

Then, some of us decided to take a step further and made them soulmates in a platonic sense. Not best friends, brothers, but soulmates. Like we're talking Viktor and Jayce level.

That's like the one thing wolfstar, Jegulus and Prongsfoot shippers have in common; James and Sirius are soulmates. Or even something deeper if you want to take a step further. All the famous fanfics have this, where James and Sirius have Something between them, even if it's a Jegulus or wolfstar fanfic.

That's why some of you feel like romantic Prongsfoot is incest. Because most fanfics have written them as brothers, you're reading two characters that are portrayed as brothers so often, you start to perceive them as brothers. You think they're brothers.

And you're allowed to! No like, you're very allowed to. Can I emphasize again, how often fanfics portray them as brothers? Like genuinely, no one's stopping you.

But you have to understand, that's your perspective, your view, your opinion. It's not a fact because they are not brothers. They are close as brothers yes, but not actually.

They don't have a ragbros situation. Sirius wasn't adopted into the Potter family at 8 or something and then raised by them after. That's probably incest. I have an adopted brother, I do know.

He was adopted into the family at 16. You're considered an adult at 18 in the wizarding world. He had inheritance from his uncle Alphard. It's said he moved out on his own later.

All this implies Sirius didn't live that long with Potters. I'm not saying Sirius didn't develop a familial bond with the Potters because he was too old during the adoption. He probably did see Euphimia and Monty as his parents at some point.

But he was James' best friend so much longer than their son. A couple of limited years with the Potters is nothing compared to the 5+ years he spent being James' best friend. I say limited because he keeps being that best friend even after he moved out.

That bond, if you want, can be solidified into something sibling-level after the adoption. You can have your headcanons, fantasies and fanfics where Sirius runs away to a healthier, welcoming family!!

But I don't think their bond could just change like that?? Again, around 5+ years of having this special connection, where they are used to living together, sharing the same space, being glued to each other, why would being adopted into the family change anything between them?? Besides like, getting yelled at together by James' parents, their routine would have stayed the same.

And you're telling me I CANT romanticize that?? Because YOU see them as brothers??? When they're so much deeper than that???

Would it not have solidified it more?? Would it not have gotten deeper?? Especially when they have privacy now.

Like you can't tell me they weren't having conversations where they bared their souls to each other, diving in and revealing the ugliest parts to each other, deepest fears, insecurities, quite literally breaking themselves down into pieces because it's just them there and then putting those pieces back together, glued with loving words and gentle touches because it's them. Or fucking. Up to y'all idk.

I'm going off the rails. The point is, you can dislike, like, hate, love ships for whatever reasons, I genuinely don't care. But if you're hating on a ship because you FEEL like it's incest, please just keep it to yourself. No one wants to be told their favorite ship reminds you of incest.

Again, tagging filters exist, I don't consider prongsfoot a rarepair but it's true people rarely write them. You literally cannot accidentally stumble upon prongsfoot fanfics and literally no one's forcing you to read them??

Prongsfoot is like the least problematic thing in this fandom?? And its barely problematic!! People ship ACTUAL incest!! Like starcest!! (...good for them but also like...)

calling prongsfoot incest when actual incest ships exists is insane.

[misc-obeyme]

Tbh I feel so defeated, I barely started to form part of the fandom and got to know about obey me 5 months ago at my lowest point. I started using tumblr more also because as an artist the obey me fandom started having my back and I felt so good on a fandom for the first time in forever even when we are few

I am neurodivergent and change is scary, I had alredy got used to the comfort of whatever wrong thing and traumatic stuff I’m living rn happens it was okay because at least I had OM to comfort me. But now I feel a little too lost. I never even got to the latest lessons :( it just feels off. I want to believe their word when they say this isn’t them putting an end altogether but the wording is even more off “this isn’t the last of the devildom” could open up to spin offs??? But how about the main story? The Simeon arc? Everything BKDHKDHD 😞

I totally understand how you feel, anon. While I don't think this came out of nowhere, it feels like it did. And I've always felt that our fandom has such a nice and welcoming community. Sure there are some toxic peeps, those exist in every fandom. But I've encountered far more kind people here. And people get excited when a new artist or writer joins the fandom because we're happy to see more content of our faves!

I know it's scary, but I don't think the fan content part of things will change any time soon. All I've seen is people saying they plan to continue creating for the characters and story they love. They aren't shutting down the app immediately, so you can still play the lessons you haven't gotten through, too.

I wish I could say I knew more about where they're headed next, but the way they said it was vague enough that I just have no idea. Some people are speculating that a third app is in the future. I've seen people talking about an anime, too. It's hard to say what will come next.

However, I will say there is still quite a lot of fan content out here. The apps have been around since 2019 and there is a lot of fan art and fics that are from the last four-five years. I know I'm always finding stuff from 2020 and 2021 that I never saw because I didn't join right at the start. Fandoms often last much longer than their source material.

[umlewis]

lewis hamilton, p2, is interviewed in parc ferme after the race, las vegas - november 23, 2024 (transcript under the cut)

Terry Crews: "Wow…" Jenson Button: "I'll jump in." Crews: "Go ahead!" Button: "So, Lewis, obviously yesterday it was a tough one to swallow, I'm guessing. You've been quick all weekend. But then starting P10, chasing down George at the end, it was fun. We were biting our nails. There was some action out there." Lewis: "Yeah, that was great. Well, firstly, I've got to say a big congratulations to Max, winning the championship still with several races to go. And no, yeah, if I'd done my job yesterday it would have been a breeze today. But it's okay. I had fun coming from the back, coming from tenth, and the team did a fantastic job. We don't know why we were so quick this weekend, but that's the best the car's ever felt, so I'm grateful to have been a part of getting it to that point." Crews: "I do want to ask, though, in regards to the climate in Las Vegas, did that make a difference in your preparation for what you were going to do here?" Lewis: "The climate doesn't… It's not the… It's just that the race is so late, so you're going to bed at five, six AM, waking up and starting your day much later, which is quite difficult. So you don't get a lot of sun during the day, so that really messes with your rhythm. But otherwise, it's cold, yeah." Crews: "Yeah." Lewis: "And maybe the reason that we did so well is 'cause it's cold. If we're in a hot climate, that's where we struggle the most." Button: "Qatar? Night race?" Lewis: "Yeah. I mean, if the car drives like that in the next couple races then I think we'll be in a good spot to challenge the guys up front. And the championship's done, so now it's just all-out, fight for the best positions possible." Button: "Enjoy your last two races. It was ten years to the day, yesterday, that you won your first championship with Mercedes." Lewis: "We both looked a lot younger then, didn't we?" [laughs] [to Crews] Anyways, big fan of yours, dude." Crews: "Oh, man, big fan! Awesome! Thank you."

[transformers-nerd-13]

And here it is; the final part in my analysis of the first three episodes of season one of G1! The analyses of the first two episodes can be found on my page so go check those out if you're so inclined (I'm still learning tumblr so I don't know how to link posts yet lol). This post will be a bit long, so be warned of that. With that out of the way, let's get into it!

We start with a recap of what happened in the last two episodes to remind the viewer of the events that have taken place.

We're right where we left off with Optimus dramatically rolling down the cliff in awkward slow motion. Once he finally stops rolling, the other Autobots help him up onto his wheels. Optimus isn't worried about himself however; he's more worried about Roller who, incidentally, shows no sign of having been involved in an explosion. Prime struggles to transform back into his bot mode for a few seconds but eventually gets there with some encouragement from his fellow bots. After he transforms, he seems entirely fine, so we're not gonna talk about the blast he took seconds prior. Ratchet comments that "That was some blast you took", reminding Optimus that Bee and Sparkplug are still in the remains of the mines.

After a bit of digging, Jazz finds the two and gets them out with the help of Prowl.

(can we talk about how cute the above screenshots are??) Optimus congratulates Bee and Sparkplug on burying the Decepticons for good. Oh hey, guess what?

The cons are completely fine, their energon cubes are still functional, and they fly out of the mines unscathed. Good job guys.

Ironhide gets (understandably) frustrated and goes after the cons because the Autobots could still fly at this point. Bluestreak goes after Ironhide to stop him, but when Ironhide makes it clear that he's not backing down, Bluestreak joins him in his fight.

Ironhide fires on Skywarp (whether he actually hit him or not I have no clue) and Skywarp teleports behind Ironhide and Bluestreak, firing a missile at them but missing. Bluestreak says "It's like fighting a shadow!" I feel like this is an easily fixable problem--y'all can hover midair; we've seen you do this; you could just turn around and fire back at him??

Skywarp fires and he misses, he fires and he misses, this goes on for several minutes (if anyone gets the reference put it in the comments) until he finally manages to hit Ironhide, who falls from the sky into a conveniently located lake.

Bluestreak goes to rescue Ironhide and all of the other Autobots appear from the void to gawk at the rescue from the shore. Jazz uses his grappling hook like a rescue line once again to reel Bluestreak and Ironhide to shore. Ironhide says that he can't move, but Optimus points out "At least you can still talk old buddy." Despite saying that he can't move, Ironhide moves his arm just fine to emphasize his words while he's telling Ratchet what got damaged on his body. Ratchet transforms into his ambulance mode and Bluestreak and Jazz put Ironhide in the back of Ratchet's alt mode.

Ironhide and Ratchet are the same height with virtually the same alt mode; their toys were just recolors of each other; so how the heck did he fit back there?? Ironhide starts to tell an old war story, but Optimus tells him to "Save the war stories hot shot. Just remember that there's a thin line between being a hero, and being a memory." Which is just a great line. Jazz jokes that maybe Ironhide is ready for a cushy office job (idk how he would even obtain an office job in the middle of a war, let alone on Earth, I doubt he'd even fit in an office building) but Ironhide says he'll be back in action after Ratchet fixes him up. The bots start driving (presumably back to the ark) before we cut to Spike writing in his diary again, this time about how Optimus Prime would make a neat president and honestly? I agree.

Awkward cut to Hound sort of teasing Ravage by holding the key to his cage just out of Ravage's reach. Hound comments that he doesn't think Ravage likes being a prisoner; Mirage says that he can't blame him and that he's surprised that the cons haven't come to rescue him. Hound isn't surprised; the cons don't care about anyone; not even their own. He makes a hologram of Megatron, but it just seems to piss Ravage off. Mirage asks Hound to make him a hologram of a big house with a four car garage when they get back to Cybertron; the holograms look so real that nobody'll know the difference. Mirage. You turn into an F1 racing car. Why do you need a 4 car garage?? Are you going to host a lot of sleepovers when you get back to Cybertron?? And yeah nobody'll know the difference until they try to open a door or go upstairs and their body phases through the hologram.

This gives Hound an idea however; to make a big hologram of a rocket fuel base to trick the cons into coming to the bots on their terms. He shares the idea with autobot high command (aka Prime, Prowl and Jazz) who all agree to it. Hound goes back to tell Mirage about a (fake) secret stash of rocket fuel 140 kilometers due west, telling him that there's enough rocket fuel at that base to make four trips to Cybertron. The two go to tell Ironhide about the base to make him feel better. The two leave but Hound drops the keys to Ravage's cage. Ravage gets ahold of the key, unlocks his cage, and escapes. Hound, Mirage, Prowl and Jazz who were hiding behind a rock (for some reason) see Ravage getting away at the speed of ZOOM. The four go after Ravage but he ends up escaping. The four go back to just outside the Ark where Optimus and Cliffjumper are standing for some reason.

The four tell Optimus that Ravage got away and all look like the shocked Pikachu meme.

It's kind of unclear if they wanted Ravage to escape to trick the cons or not, it's kind of like the writers didn't know either and just never went back to clear it up.

Cut to the cons where Ravage reports back to Megatron about the rocket base Hound was talking about earlier. And we never hear Ravage speak again. Megatron commends Ravage for a job well done. Starscream and Megatron get into it again about Starscream wanting to be leader of the cons. Starscream says that "Now is the time for action, not words! I am the leader of the future!"

Megatron isn't using words though; so far he's only been using action, so this line doesn't make much sense.

Megatron insults Starscream's nonexistent leadership skills and Starscream takes that personally. He tries to shoot Megatron, but Soundwave (who's also there btw) calls out to his leader. Megatron uses a shield that we never see again to block the shot and somehow that one shot made Starscream run out of ammo (I guess he forgot to reload after the fight with the bots??). Megatron threatens to shoot Starscream while Starscream begs Megatron not to shoot him. Megatron shoots him anyway before declaring that the Decepticons would attack the base at sunrise. What is it with the Decepticons and attacking places at sunrise??

Cut to the next day at sunrise when Hound makes the hologram of the rocket base (how he knows what a human rocket base looks like I will never know) and the Decepticons show up immediately after the hologram is made (did they not see him make the hologram??)

The cons attack the hologram rocket base where the Autobots have appeared from the void during the commercial break all wearing lab coats which they quickly ditch to better fight the cons (where did they find such big lab coats and why??).

Not long into the fight, the bots realize that the cons they're fighting are decoys made by the cons out of scrap metal and junk (impressive engineering I guess but how did that work??) and the real Megatron reveals that he was onto the autobot's scheme from the beginning (how. Just how) and that the real cons have been at the real rocket base gathering fuel to make Energon cubes.

But in the next shot we see the cons just arriving at the rocket base. (I guess Megatron overestimated the speed of his soldiers). The humans at the base try to defend themselves but their weapons are completely useless against the cons. The cons get the energon they need and Megatron tells the cons to prepare for blast off.

Cut to the Autobots who have decided to attack the cons directly. Optimus asks for volunteers for the battle ahead and literally every Autobot steps forward; even Spike and Sparkplug volunteer. The bots transform and roll out.

Quick cut to the cons where Megatron talks about how close they are to conquest.

Cut back to the bots who encircle the con's base as the cons board their space cruiser. Before the cons can board, the bots make their presence known and the bots and cons duke it out once again.

Somewhere in the fight, Spike throws a rock at Starscream's blaster hard enough to knock the blaster off his arm (how did he do that??) and Prowl runs over Starscream's blaster rendering it useless. The cons gain a temporary victory over the bots and board the space cruiser while the bots shoot at them but miss horribly because once again everyone in this show has the aim of an absolute Stormtrooper. The cons take off in their new space cruiser. Jazz tells Prime that it's over; they've lost, but Prime says that it's not over yet. He borrows Sideswipe's rocket pack (that we never see again) to go after the con's ship.

Cut to the cons where Megatron says that they've seen the last of the Autobots and Optimus Prime, but Starscream says "Not yet we haven't" as he spots Optimus flying after their ship.

The cons fire on Optimus and actually manage to hit him, sending the Autobot leader plummeting back to earth. He hits the ground pretty hard but claims that he's alright when Prowl and Jazz help him up. The bots then notice that Mirage is missing and seem pretty calm about his not being there.

Cut to the cons where Starscream is trying once again to usurp Megatron (oh hey his blaster is back), who warns Starscream that once he becomes the leader, there will always be someone trying to take leadership from him, which makes me think Megatron is speaking from personal experience here; that’d be interesting. Maybe Megatron was once like Starscream, but he actually succeeded in taking leadership of the cons and regrets it on some level because now there’s a constant target on his back. It's revealed that Mirage snuck aboard the space cruiser and shoots the computers, causing the space cruiser to crash into the ocean. Mirage escapes before it crashes. He makes it back to the bots who congratulate him on defeating the cons.

Optimus commends Mirage for a job well done and Jazz says that they'd better get back to the ship since it still needs repairing. Spike (unprompted) asks Optimus if he can go to Cybertron with the bots when they go back. Optimus basically says "ask your dad" and Sparkplug says that Spike can go so long as he can go too. (Responsible parenting 101. Also how do they know that they’d survive on Cybertron?? Or is NASA getting involved and giving them space suits and food??) The bots transform and roll out.

Cut to later where Spike tells us while he's once again writing in his diary that since the Autobots prevented the Decepticons from stealing earth's resources (did they though? Cause it seems to me the cons got away with that), the governments of the world agreed to give the bots the energy they need to revitalize Cybertron, and that it was probably the first time that all the governments agreed on anything. (Since this was 1984, this was true. The only time--that I'm aware of--that all of the governments of the world ever actually agreed on anything in real life was in 1987; the Montreal Protocol; three years later, so at least that's accurate.)

Optimus tells Spike that they're ready to launch and Spike tells him that he'll be right there. Spike adds one more note in his diary that he's glad they don't have to worry about the cons anymore.

Cut to a shot of the ocean which fades into an underwater shot, showing us the Decepticon space cruiser that shows no sign of having crashed at the bottom of the ocean, as well as Megatron who leaves the cruiser and heads for the surface, leaving us with another cliffhanger.

Spike, you jinxed it.

And that was part three of Transformers; More than Meets the Eye. Just like the other two parts of More than Meets the Eye, it crams a lot into one episode, and a lot of it doesn't really make sense, but it's still a very fun watch. I feel like that's just the way it is when it comes to 80's cartoons.

Anyways, I hope this was enjoyable! My analysis of Fire in the Sky will probably be posted some time in the next few days, so stay tuned!

[lvnleah]

zoo days.

find the masterlist here! forgot to post this one 🙈

March 29th 2029 | 5 years old & 10 months. 

“Are you excited to see all of the animals, bubba?” Leah asked as she helped Finley zip up his coat. 

Finley bounced on the tip of his toes, “Yeah! I can’t wait to see all of the animals. Will there be tigers?”

“Oh of course there will!” Leah nodded, “Are you excited Ellie bee?” Leah cooed, turning to Ellie who you were currently strapping into her pram. 

Ellie reached up and grabbed Leah’s nose, giggling as Leah blew a playful raspberry on the palm of her hand. You smiled to yourself as you put the nappy bug under the pram. 

It was the weekend before Leah and Finley’s birthday so you had planned a little family day at the zoo. Finley was turning five and Leah was turning 33, something she wasn’t too pleased about. 

As you secured the nappy bag under the pram, you glanced up to catch Leah playfully rolling her eyes as Ellie continued to giggle at her. “33’s not so bad if it means you get a zoo day,” you teased, giving her a quick wink.

Leah shot you a look that said, don’t even start, before turning her attention back to Finley. “Alright, bud, let’s go see those tigers!” she said with a grin. 

“Stay close to me and Mumma please!” You reminded Finley as he started to run ahead. 

Ellie, now strapped in and ready to go, made a soft babbling sound as she pointed in the direction Finley had run. “Dah!” she squealed as if urging everyone to hurry along.

"Alright, alright, little miss," you said, giving the pram a little push. "We’re going now!”

“Mumma, can we see the tigers first?” Finley asked Leah, looking up as he held her hand, “Pleaseee!”

Leah smiled, “Let’s see where they are on the map, and we’ll make sure we get there.”

When you entered the zoo, Ellie was sitting up in her pram, her little hands waving excitedly as she spotted some flamingos nearby. Finley dashed ahead a few feet, bouncing up and down as he scanned the map you’d handed him.

"Okay, where to first, tour guide?" you asked, catching up to him.

Finley’s face lit up. “The tigers are this way!” He pointed dramatically, ready to lead the charge.

Leah shot you a grin, shaking her head as you both followed his enthusiastic steps. "Well, looks like we’re on tiger duty."

As you made your way toward the tiger enclosure, Finley kept turning around every few seconds to make sure you and Leah were still following him. 

"Come on, we're going to miss them!" he called out, bouncing with excitement.

Leah chuckled, "Don't worry, Finn, the tigers aren't going anywhere."

Ellie was mesmerised by everything around her. Every time a bird flew overhead or she saw something new, her eyes widened and she let out an enthusiastic “Oooh!” You could already tell she was just as taken back by the zoo as Finley was.

When you reached the tiger exhibit, Finley pressed his face up against the glass, searching for any sign of movement among the tall grass and rocks. 

“Where are they?” he asked, his voice tinged with impatience.

“They’re probably hiding, bubs,” you said, standing next to him. “Sometimes they like to blend in.”

Leah crouched beside Finley, scanning the enclosure as well. “Look over there,” she pointed out a stripey patch moving in the distance. “See that tail? I think one of them is coming closer.”

Finley gasped, his eyes widening as the tiger slowly emerged from the shade and into view. "Woah…"

Ellie, catching sight of the large cat, pointed and squealed. 

Leah moved over beside the pram, tickling Ellie’s stomach, “Do you like them, Els?”

The tiger made his way into Finley’s sight, making him gasp, "Mumma, look how big it is!" he whispered loudly.

Leah smiled, her arm wrapping around Finley’s waist. “Yeah, he’s pretty big, huh?”

As Finley stared in awe at the tiger, completely captivated, Leah exchanged a glance with you, a soft smile spreading across her face. “Remember when he was scared of cats?” she whispered with a laugh.

You giggled quietly, nodding your head. For some reason when Finley was around a year and a half, he wouldn’t go near any cats, instead, he’d cry at them. “Now look at him. Ready to make friends with a tiger.”

Ellie, not wanting to be left out, stretched her arms out toward the glass, her tiny fingers tapping it as she babbled something incomprehensible but clearly very important to her. “Ba-ba-ba!”

Finley turned to her and grinned. “Ellie, that tiger goes roar!” He said before making a roaring noise. 

Ellie tried to copy her big brother's noise, “Grrr!”

Leah laughed. “Close enough, Els. You’re a great big brother, you know that bubba?”

Finley smiled at her praise, then turned his attention back to the tiger, still completely fascinated by its every move.

After a while, the tiger wandered back into the shadows, disappearing from sight. Finley sighed dramatically, “I wish we could stay and watch them forever.”

You ruffled his hair, “There’s still a lot more animals to see, bubba. How about we go check out the giraffes next?”

“Okay!” Finley agreed, bouncing on the balls of his feet again. “But can we see the monkeys after?”

“Absolutely,” Leah said. “Giraffes, then monkeys. Deal?”

“Deal!” Finley said, already eager to lead the way once again.

Ellie babbled in agreement, and Leah leaned over to give her a quick kiss on the forehead before you all started making your way to the next exhibit. 

“Well, that’s one animal down,” you said with a grin as Leah took your hand into hers. 

As you walked hand in hand, Finley skipped ahead, constantly looking back to make sure you were following his lead. Ellie continued her excited babbling, eyes wide as she took in the new surroundings. 

Leah glanced at you with a content smile. “He’s so full of energy today.”

You chuckled. “It’s not every day you turn five and get a whole day at the zoo.”

Leah nodded. “I know. I can’t believe he’s five already.” She sighed, “And I’m bloody thirty-three!”

“Alright, oldie! We get it, you’re turning thirty-three and think you're a granny.” You laughed, “No but seriously, where did the five years go?”

Leah rolled her eyes before glancing down at Ellie, who was now chewing on her fingers and smiled. “We’ve got two little ones growing up too fast.”

When you arrived at the giraffe enclosure, Finley pressed himself against the railing. "Look how tall they are, Mummy!"

You crouched down beside him. "Wow, bubs! They’re massive, so cool aren’t they?”

Finley nodded excitedly, staring at the giraffes as they moved about. "Do you think they can reach the sky?" he asked. 

Leah laughed softly and crouched beside you. "They can reach pretty high, but not quite that high, buddy."

Ellie, fascinated by the movement, pointed toward one of the giraffes, making her own little noise of wonder. "Oooo!"

Leah smiled at Ellie. "Do you like them too, Ellie bee? They’re so big, aren’t they?"

Ellie clapped her hands in response, her little face lighting up as she watched the giraffes.

Finley turned to Leah, "Mumma, what do giraffes eat?"

Leah pointed to the trees where one of the giraffes was munching on some leaves. "See that tree? They eat mostly leaves, and sometimes fruits. See how they use their long tongues to grab the leaves?"

Finley watched in fascination as the giraffe’s tongue curled around the branches. "Woah! That’s so cool. Can we have a giraffe at home?!”

Leah laughed, ruffling his hair. "I think they should stay here in the zoo, bubba.”

As the giraffes continued to move about, you glanced at Leah and smiled. "This was a good idea, huh?"

She nodded, her eyes soft as she looked at you. "Yeah, it’s perfect."

You continued to walk around the zoo and saw all the different animals from Zebras to Hippos, you saw it all. Just as you were leaving the butterfly house, Finley’s little legs grew tired and Ellie was already asleep in her pram. 

“Mumma, up please?” Finley asked Leah, holding his arms up to her. 

Leah smiled before picking Finley up who immediately cuddled into the crook neck, “Wanna go get some lunch, pretty girl?” 

You nodded in agreement, “Yeah I’m hungry, I think the bubbas are too.”

As you made your way toward the zoo café, you kept glancing at Leah holding Finley, who was half-asleep on her shoulder. His wild energy from earlier had completely worn off, and now he was snuggled into her, his little fingers gripping her jacket. 

Ellie, still sound asleep in her pram, had her tiny fists curled up near her face, her breathing soft and steady. 

"Poor thing, he's wiped out," Leah whispered with a smile, gently brushing some of Finley's hair out of his eyes.

You leaned over to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Guess running around a zoo will do that to you. Good thing we’ve got lunch as a pit stop."

As you reached the café, you found a table inside and settled down. Leah carefully transferred Finley onto her lap, and he stayed asleep, his head resting against her chest. You parked Ellie’s pram nearby and sat down beside Leah.

"Think they'll wake up for food?" you asked, grinning.

Leah laughed softly. "Knowing Finley, he’ll wake up the second the food is here.”

The two of you ordered lunch, keeping it simple with sandwiches and some chips for the kids. Sure enough, as soon as the food arrived, Finley stirred and began to wake up. 

"Mumma, what's that?" he mumbled sleepily, blinking his eyes open.

"Just some lunch, buddy," Leah said, stroking his back. "You hungry?"

Finley nodded, rubbing his eyes. "Can I have some chips?"

"Of course," you said, sliding the plate closer to him. "Here you go, bubba."

Finley perked up almost immediately, sitting up and grabbing a chip. Leah chuckled, watching him munch away, her free hand gently rocking Ellie’s pram.

"I think the monkeys are next on the list," Leah said between bites, glancing at Finley, who nodded enthusiastically.

“And then maybe the penguins,” you suggested, knowing how much Ellie would love seeing them.

Leah smiled softly, glancing down at Ellie in the pram, her little face peaceful in sleep. “Yeah, Els will love that if she’s awake.”

Finley finished his last chip and bounced in his seat, “Can we go now?”

You laughed, “Alright, alright, just let me and Mumma finish our food.”

Finley grinned and started talking excitedly about the monkeys he wanted to see, while Leah took another bite of her sandwich. 

As you and Leah enjoyed the last bites of your lunch, Ellie started to stir in her pram. Her tiny eyes fluttered open, and she let out a soft yawn, stretching her little arms above her head.

“Looks like someone’s waking up just in time,” you said with a smile, leaning over to tickle Ellie’s belly. 

Leah smiled warmly, “Hu, sleepy girl. Ready to see some more animals?”

Ellie blinked up at Leah, the classic ‘Leah frown’ on her face, she reached her arms out to be picked up. You gently lifted her out of the pram, and she snuggled into your shoulder, still waking up.

“Ellie, we’re going to see the monkeys next!” Finley announced with excitement, leaning over to peek at his little sister. “You’ll love them, they’re funny.”

As you finished your sandwiches, Ellie, now fully awake, wiggled on your lap and made a sound that was unmistakably her hungry noise—an insistent, “Mmmm, mmmm,” as she reached toward the table.

“Looks like someone’s ready for lunch too,” Leah chuckled, leaning over to unbuckle Ellie from the pram.

You took out Ellie’s little lunchbox from the bag. Inside were some cut-up pieces of soft fruit, a few crackers, and a small sandwich. It was stuff packed from home because she was a little fussy eater just like Leah. Ellie’s eyes lit up when she saw the food, and she clapped her hands excitedly. 

“Here you go, Els,” you said, handing her a little piece of banana. She grabbed it eagerly with her tiny fingers, stuffing it into her mouth with a satisfied hum. 

Finley watched with a grin as Ellie ate. “Ellie loves bananas!” he exclaimed, finishing the last of the chips that he’d stolen from Leah’s plate. “She’s like a monkey!”

“She sure does,” Leah said, watching Ellie with a smile as she moved on to munching a cracker.

You offered Ellie another small piece of her sandwich, which she looked at for a moment before taking a bite. She chewed slowly, looking around the café, taking in the new surroundings between bites.

“Is it yummy, Ellie bee?” you asked, brushing a crumb off her cheek.

Ellie babbled in response, too focused on her lunch to do anything else. She reached for more food, her little fingers moving between bites of her sandwich and the soft fruits.

“She’s a good eater today,” Leah remarked, handing Ellie a bit more fruit. Ellie eagerly grabbed it and gave Leah a big smile in return.

“Alright, she’s done,” you said, wiping Ellie’s hands and face with a napkin as she began to throw the food around. “Ready for more animals, bubba?”

Ellie grinned and clapped her hands again. “Let’s get going, then,” Leah said, finishing the last of her drink. She stood up and took Finley’s hand while you settled Ellie back into the pram.

With the zoo map in hand, Finley took the lead, pointing in the direction of the monkey exhibit. You and Leah exchanged a quick smile, watching him bounce ahead with renewed energy.

As you followed, Ellie babbled happily in the pram. Finley kept talking about the different animals you still needed to see. You were happy seeing your kids and wife happy. 

Leah took your hand into hers and squeezed it gently as you walked. "I’m glad we did this today," she said softly. 

You nodded, glancing over at her with a smile. "Me too. It’s been a perfect day."

[theborgqueen2]

anyway s7 epsiode idea where it starts with janeway in her cabin slowly getting dressed. we see her pull on her dress uniform, adding her pips one by one, her badge. then one long assessing look into the mirror and a deep sigh. she puts on a smile and then leaves her cabin. cut to the mess hall where people are already waiting. they turn as she arrives and they give her encouraging smiles but somehow janeway cant meet anyones eyes, her smile strained, as she positions herself behind a beautifully decorated table and waits anxiously. then the doors woosh open, harry starts a rendition of the wedding march on his flute and chakotay and seven enter. they stop before janeway who now looks like she's either going to puke or going to scream.

"We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony", she starts and the camera pans around the room showing everyone smiling. then back on janeways tortured face. fade to black. theme song cue and the whole audience goes "What the fuck"

the rest of the episode is the whole crew slowly realising that no one knows how they ended up like this - it starts at the reception, them trying to retell the epic of chakotay and seven and everyone notices that they didn't even know they're a couple before this. seven and chakotay remember stuff like their first date or who proposed but seven is quick to point out the dates overlapp with several other incidents on board and therefore couldn't have happened. so they start to investigate but every time someone gets too far or says something along the lines of "Hey isnt it weird that chakotay would marry-" they get reset and we're back with janeway getting dressed.

needless to say that chakotay and seven dont share scenes after the wedding and chakotay follows janeway around clearly trying to figure out if he's going to sleep on the couch for the next weeks.

it ends with some weird alien species who were watching them for weeks and were intriguied by the concept of relationships and wanted to simulate some scenarios on them - getting revealed and after janeway decks them, reset the timeline, their memories and all.

last scene its chakotay and janeway in her cabin and there is a distinct "i know im technically not allowed to feel angry about something you were forced to do but that won't stop me from putting too much salt into your food" vibe but at least they have their dinner date like always. fade to black. end credits.