#and this pic from his story appeared on his story as well but cropped

[kindahoping4forever]

AshtonIrwin: Some absolutely legendary people worked on the shoot for break up ♥️ @ mrjmachanson @ ryanfleming @ obc77 my gatinha @ perolanavarro ♥️

[madockisser]

Could you do a analysis on Jude and Taryn’s human beauty compared to the fae beauty

faerie beauty standard, human/faerie attraction, jude and taryns beauty, and short faerie breeding analysis!!

hi, gladly!! this is another long one bc to fully understand, i threw in some faerie facts lol! hope u don’t mind!

let’s start w what we know,

holly says (at a washington convention !!) that faeries and their beauty is very alien like. they can be beautiful in many ways, beautiful in a way that is not sexually attractive. she compares faeries with the alien man in the movie “shape of water” (this was all found on a tumblr post by a deactivated acc!!! i attached a cropped pic below of the extent of what holly said!)!!

above that pic however, is a letter from holly black herself, explaining faerie beauty standards and if humans would find jude or nicasia more beautiful, to which she says that humans would find jude more beautiful, bc humans have different beauty standards as well.

she also says that beauty is suggestive, which it is. what i am attracted to in a person differs from what YOU are attracted to in a person. this is the same for faeries.

their standards of beauty are ofc centered around faeries and not humans. but that does not mean that they do not find humans to be beautiful, bc they can and many do!

but to them, it’s just a different sort of beauty that they are familiar with, humans do not look like falling stars, they do not have translucent teeth that only shows when they catch the light. they do not have fangs or webbed fingers or green skin.

another thing abt humans and faeries is that faeries can be very skinny and lanky, and jude says that her fingers are rounded like her cheeks and ears, while the opposite is true for faeries, they have cutthroat jawlines and cheekbones, and pointy ears.

every faerie sees humans differently, and every human sees faeries differently. ESPECIALLY since faeries have advanced eyesight, and can see in the darkness, makes me wonder if they can see shadows very well, (like if jude’s eyes always look amber, like the sunlight is shining in them, which is what cardan implies in htkoelths when he says that her amber eyes are alight, despite them flying at nighttime.)

anyway, to make it simple, you can compare it with human traits, hair color, eye shape, hair cut, lip shape, smile, teeth, etc etc! what YOU find attractive or pretty in a person is yours and yours alone, no one will have the EXACT same attraction as you (ever heard someone say “i don’t see the appeal”??)

anyway, take for example, eva duarte and madoc. madoc is a big green guy w tons of sharp teeth that poke from his bottom lip and two cat eyes. YOU may find that scary or ugly, but to eva, she is attracted to him. whether she finds him handsome is another story, bc attraction and good looks don’t always go hand in hand-yk how ppl are attracted to funny but unattractive ppl, it can be like that.

now let’s compare how cardan sees jude. cardan is attracted to jude, lusts for her and desires her despite not liking her, because he’s attracted to her. he later on reveals that to him, her beauty is overwhelming, distressing, alarming, etc.

BUT he also says, “some of you may swear jude is unlovely” bc that is the faerie way, jude does not conform to the faerie beauty standards of being this sunrise eyed, blue haired, skinny to death sort of beauty, like faeries do.

now onto jude’s overall appearance:

we know jude is of average height; abt 5’4, she has the wavy red-brown hair of a willow tree, and she has amber eyes. she is described by kaye, as someone who is comfortable in her body, someone that has the body of an acrobat, or a soldier. jude says that she is musclier than taryn, and only when she rises from the undersea does she look sickly and pale. (just mentioning that i don’t think she is pale skinned, i imagine her w warm brown skin) and lastly, she has freckles across her body.

i also wanna add that another things faeries and humans do not have in common aren’t just their looks, but the shape of their bodies. jude’s hips and breasts are heavier than that of a faeries, mainly because faeries are so unfortunate in fertility, that their bodies do not grow to suit childbearing, because few of them have any children at all if ever.

i suppose that trait is something that could’ve been passed down through natural selection(or they just simply were never built for childbearing), as faeries started using human midwives and human women to help care for babies had, and to help strengthen the bloodline. (bless it w the fertility that comes w being a human)

and since faeries breed true (if a human bears a faerie child or if a faerie bears a child w a human, the child will still be very fae, more than it will be human) human characteristics (like heavy breasts and wide hips) are not passed onto those children, and instead they acquire glamour, curse breaking, magic weaving etc.

now onto jude:

one thing abt hollys writing that differs from many other authors is that she does not consistently remind the reader of the main characters looks.

but, fortunately for us, jude’s looks are described a few times by a few faeries.

in book one, immediately, valerian comments that jude and taryn are recognizable in any crowd, and that there is no head more plain.

which i actually find funny. since he was attracted to her.

nicasia in the first scene that she has any lines, speaks down on jude’s appearance, comparing jude’s looks to that of a faeries beauty, “did you think [this hair pin] would make you as we are?”

nicasia says that jude is not pretty like faeries and merfolk are, bc she isn’t, which jude finds disheartening bc the fae are painfully gorg if they aren’t frighteningly disgusting.

now me personally, the way that ONLY nicasia mentioned jude’s looks out of the whole group makes me think she’s sorta insecure bc she knows that locke is seeing one of the twins, and she’s not outright dumb, she prob also sees that val and cardan look at the twins in such a heated sort of manner.

but again later on, nicasia actually ends up calling her a “pretty thing” so, pretty contradictory but she just means that jude will never look the way a faerie does, but she admits that jude’s still pretty in her own way.

later on, jude visits the mortal world, where “milo” the human boy, circles jude at the mall before approaching her, hitting on her, and asking for her number, promptly before jude clocks his shit for grabbing her. (as she should queen, what was he grabbing at her for 🙄)

time passes and locke tells jude how beautiful she is (twice, like a “winter night”), yaddah yaddah yaddah, in book two, balekin says jude has a pretty face, and ofc smooches on her, and val moren calls jude pretty. in book 3 grima mog calls jude pretty, and later grimsen takes a liking to jude since he likes pretty things (pretty sure he said something to her abt that along those lines, or oriana did, too lazy to get my books)

as for taryn, jude often says how pretty she is, like a princess out of a story book, soft and beautiful, how impossible it seems that they share the same face. taryn also encounters a faerie that describes her beauty as “divine”

i mention all these things bc faeries cannot lie, so jude is beautiful, atleast in those faeries eyes.

lastly, i wanna add; that of course there is human-faerie sexual attraction, bc cardan feels it for jude, as does valerian. jude feels that way for cardan, and once even locke (? tbh she didn’t long for his touch like she did cardan so) but there is also eva and madoc, val moren and eldred, whom val moren was willing to burn his life away just to feel eldred touching him again, there is val and ravus, and hazel and jack. and more.!

so moral of the story, while jude’s and taryns beauty do not fit the faerie beauty standard, they are still seen as beautiful and desired by many faeries, just not all of them, since they all have their own attractions.

i hope this made sense, and thank you for the ask! feel free to add on in the cmmts!

[kneelingshadowsalome]

OK, I know you just re-opened ur asks (but please take a break if you need it!!) But the thought of Girl dad König has plagued my mind ever since that one post.

He's super protective. He's one of those "you're not dating until you're 35" or "I know how boys are like. They only want you for one thing," dads 🙄.

Any boy his daughter manages to bring around will only be threatened. König will accidentally drop one of the largest knives from his collection right in front of her boyfriend and be like "oops🙂".

Speaking of knives, all of his weapons will be stored away once his daughter is born. He doesn't want to risk her finding them and hurting herself.

Gosh. Girl dad!König is every fuckboy’s nightmare!

Manages to chase away even the good guys, every boy his daughter braves to bring home is a no-go for him. A bunch of losers and wankers, all of them, and after his pretty girl! Psh.

You could be kinder than Tom Hiddleston and you still wouldn’t be considered worthy of dating König’s daughter. Every candidate is sent home with their tail between their legs after an awkward, cold family dinner and a bunch of questions that feel like an interview. Or an interrogation... You desperately try to treat these boys with some level of respect, curiosity and warmth – to be honest they appear far more gentle and emotionally available than, ahem, certain someone you dated back in the day when he was not yet a Colonel.

And the father-daughter relationship is fucked up in more ways than one, because König tries to fix his emotional issues and the fact that he’s away most of the time by getting his daughter anything she needs. She wants to try ballet when she’s six? She gets the cutest pink princess tutu skirt and pointe shoes money can buy. Oh, now she’s into horseback riding? Suddenly she has private lessons with the best teacher in town, dons 500 e leather boots, a nice little riding crop and a test winner helmet + gets anything else she can dream of when tending to the horses. (You had to actively stop König from buying her a horse when she was 10)

Cello classes, gaming PC’s, downhill ski equipment, expensive yoga retreats – daddy's girl gets it all because König has to spoil her to bits. Not that he actively tries to carve out a brat of her by this princess treatment: he just wants his girl to have access to anything she wants. His Vögelchen is so talented in everything she picks up!

König shows pics of his daughter to his colleagues: look, she learned to swim when they were on vacation in Maldives! And look, here she won the local stable’s jumping competition, isn't she amazing? Now she’s into archery, and has her own recurve bow, but lately she’s started to get interested in boys, and you know what that means… Curfews, screen time and more chores! And NO BOYS.

She’s “only” 19, and comes home drunk once, brought by some young clown who, in König’s mind, tries to evade responsibility by giving him a sob story about how he only wanted to bring his daughter home because he was worried about her and well, actually, he’s in love with her… She’s a good girl and he wants to take care of her, he really appreciates her and blablabla, König is not impressed. That boy gets himself an earful as a reward, he's lucky König doesn’t slam a knife on the hood of that car.

(....No one has the courage to tell dad König that her daughter likes to smoke weed with the bad boys and dates some older biker guy from big city :”)

[wanderingaldecaldo]

WIP Whenever on a Wednesday

I am terrible at keeping up with tags in general but I am aghast to see my oldest WIP Whenever tag was from nearly 8 weeks ago. I completed a couple of things since my last one, namely the sock garters and the boots, and added quite a few more projects to the list than I scratched off. 😩

Tagged by (and tagging back) @fly-amanitaa @streetkid-named-desire @ouroboros-hideout @aggravateddurian @luvwich

@ghostoffuturespast. Also tagging with the usual zero pressure @olath124 @dustymagpie @medtech-mara @corpo-cunt-couture

@merge-conflict @blackrevell @fereldanwench and YOU reading this! Share and tag me!

Modding

Shocking that it's still my main focus 🙄 but the first one is in support of a couple of VP project:

Presidential Props which include a variety of flags and the NUSA medal with box. The flags are part of the VP set below, though I didn't actually show them here.

Featuring: five different flag varieties with five appearances each; medal box in multiple states, plus the medal itself; and the presidential coin, scalable and with multiple appearances.

SlutWear, a new line of clothing that will tell NC just how slutty your V is. It will be gender and (smaller) size inclusive. 😊

Does Val really heart NC?

An update of my tee framework for dynamic AXL just in time for Pride, though there are no interesting pics to share. Sorry!

However, in support of the previous two items, a modder's tool: a CodePen to generate instances for the yaml. Both the SlutWear shirt(s) and the custom logo tees will require a lot of instances to get all of the color and logo combinations that are possible through dynamic AXL. There's still a little work to do, but it's already been of great use to me, as it wrote 220 lines of code for me. Let's not discuss how many lines of code I wrote to save those 220. 😂

Me using the tool to generate instances for the custom tees yaml. This will remove the limit on colors available to the user, so they can have any color with any of the logos!

VP (and Writing)

A glimpse at a set I took last week for inspo in the presidential PWP that's been stalled out at 5.7k words. More on it in a minute...

Even though the pics are cropped, they're still on the risque side, so I'm sticking them and the rest about the PWP behind the cut.

Not shown: Johnny both rolling his eyes at V and enjoying the show

I've been working on a PWP that was unrelated to the President's Merc AU for months now, but have been stuck because, well, I don't know how to wrap it up. I posted about it a little ways back and someone helpfully suggested that I just have to keep going until one of them passes out. Which, is what does happen, but I don't have that kind of patience to write it out and nearly 6k words is already well longer than my usual PWP, so I went in game to set the scene and possible prompt some ideas for a potenial ... climax to the scene.

It worked! I have a plan, and I think it won't take more than 500 words to reach the end, plus a few more touch-ups to help set up everything, then a rewrite or two for cleaning and polishing.

In the meantime, as I've been working through this version of Val and how she responds to Rosalind, it's the perfect prologue to The Tower story that I've been writing longhand. Val is going to leave this encounter fully loyal to Rosalind and will turn So Mi over with only a moment's hesitation. She doesn't have any attachments in this universe other than Misty and Vik, and after she wakes up to what Night City has become, it's easy for her to walk away from it forever. Especially when it puts her closer to Rosalind.

What about you? What are you working on? 👀

[razzmothazz]

I can't, I wanted to finish coloring everyone first, but. I just can't NOT yap about at least one of them. So um. Matsu. He's my favorite I think?

(his necklace and nail polish are the colors of the unit members! I haven't come up with a unit name yet tho,,)

On the left there is Toshiro's (they/he) hand (they're the unit's leader) and on the right is Fumi (she/they) (who's kinda Matsu's friend from middle school)

I love him soooooo much, I may have projected onto him a little with the whole sea autism thing but uhm. I'm not going to give any of them canon labels (except for pronouns) (I want it to be kinda like pjsk itself, but I also just want to be able to play around with ships and their identities), but!!! More about Matsu. Despite not REALLY giving him any labels, he's very much intended to be autistic. He's insane abt marine life (the projecting part lmao) and especially sharks and ESPECIALLY thresher sharks (which is the shark I doodled there beside him with uh other stuff!). Currently he's geberally pretty cheerful and excitable, actually never shuts up, he starts talking and then it's just. Forever. (Not neg I love him so so so so much). He used to kinda get bullied in middle school and Fumi was a very timid child back then and was afraid she'd also get bullied, so she just coudknr bring herself to help, and she kinda blames herself for that right now, she grew to be very confrontational and a bit overprotective of Matsu, and I have like a whole part of the story planned about them coming to terms with everything and learning to not treat Matsu almost as a child as they kinda tenda to do, and I just love these two so much. Am I making sense? Idk this is just a stream of whatever I have going on). By the way!!! The fourth character Seina (she/her) who's completely out of frame in this cropped pic usually keeps Fumi's confrontational and slightly aggressive nature in check, she's overall very caring BUT of course I put some sad story there ue ue whatever (not whatever, I'm insane about her, but I'll talk about Seina more when I finish her part of the reference).

I haven't thought THAT much about these guys' relationships with canon characters, but since we're on the topic of Matsu (are we?? idk at this pojnt), I think at some point he met Emu and they got along pretty well! Maybe even became friends!!! I think they match each other's energy pretty well, even if with all his excitableness (is that a word in english idk) Matsu is still calmer than her, they definitely have some autism to autism comunication going on. Oh!!! Also. I started thinking about the characters' habits and quirks, and I think Matsu would make EXCESSIVE eye contact. This is partially from the impact left not only by ppl bullying him, but just yknow ppl around him as he was growing up. He's learning to be comfortable with not restricting himself around his friends, but *because* he learned that it's pretty much one of the only ways to at least somewhat fit in growing up, it's hard for him. But they care about each other so so so much and I love them. I just started talking about everyone somewhere along the uhh this whole ramble, so Toshiro!!! I haven't said much about them yet. They're actually partially inspired by my super cool and awesome aunt in some aspects of appearance and behavior, but I still piled a bunch of my own stuff to not just copy a real person,,,, anyways. He's the group leader, he pretty much brought everyone together? They all kinda had some sort of connection to each other previously to forming the unit, but uh. I haven't come up with exactly *how* they're gonna end up as a. Group? Band? Ehatever they are. I think I focused way more on their personalities so far, woops. But I'll get there eventually. Anyways. Right, Toshiro. I haven't developed them as much YET, but geneeal appearance stuff: they have vitiligo, pink-ish hair? Overall mostly a pink colorscheme (they're all color-coded yay). He's pretty into crystals and spirituality in general, also has some physical stuff going on (but I haven't exactly figured out what yet), he can't do a lot of physical activity, has kinda weak bones (Seina helps him out a lot when he needs it!!!), Toshiro is overall pretty energetic and tries his best in everything, tho tends to overwork himself a lot bc he's dead set on getting better at everything and making people around him proud and just being reliable. I also plan on expanding on this in the later story, I think so far the themes I put in their unit have a lot to do with letting go of the past (they ALL have that in common), not letting others' expectations ruin you, accepting yourself, all that. I was kinda worried they were walking too close to N25 at first, but I think it's all good actually, esp when I later expand on their story,,,, oh right also Seina. I think she's my second favorite, she's. I love her. ik I said I'm bot giving them any canon labels, but Seina and Fumi are so lesbians and so I love to me. And also I get arospec vibes from Seina BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I SHOUDL BE TALKING ABOUT. She's kinds the mom friend of the group, always taking care of everyone. As i mentioned, she helps Toshiro with physical tasks when he needs it, keeps Funi out of trouble and also helps Matsu in socially overwhelming situations MY CAT JUST FELL OH MY GOD ok ok she's okay, anyways. But Seina had "failed" to helo a friend in the past, so now she's a bit obsessed with being helpful to everyone as much as she possibly could, or else she feels useless and worthless. And guess what I also plan a whole arc expanding on it and eventually the other members comfort her and they all work on it and the others try to also take care of her, and of course it takes a lot of time, but I like the idea of her uhh healing? Development idk, THIS bring shown slowly and over time. Okay. I think I finished yapping *for now*

I haven't come up with their virtual singers, name of the unit, sekai and A LOOOOTT of other stuff yet, but uhm. I have so many ideas oh god

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE RAMBLE OH MY GOD THEY ALL SOUND SO CUTE SJDJHDNDNDNBFN I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!! this ask feels like were on a voicechat or smthn KSHDNDJD GLAD UR CAT IS OKAY IM

wow thats a lot and you thought abt their stories way more than i did for mine so far like even future developments and stuffs KSHDHDJDKCNFNNF but I LOVE THEIR DYNAMICS!!!!! Matsu has simiar vibes to my 1st pjsk oc Yuno!! theyre both energetic and full of autism so i think they would get along skdjdhbrnf IM ALREADY THINKING ABT MAKING THEM ALL FRIENDS SORRY- SJDNJCNFJD this just makes me so happy i love hearing about others ocs UR MIND!! U MADE THEM ALL SO !!!!

and id LOVE to see all of their designs when youre done with them and THE COLOR CODING!!! I LOVE COLOR CODING SJDHHFJD this is just. awesome i dont even have words just pure excitement at this point

OH ALSO BTW!!! if u wanna do relationships with canon characters i found this chart that might be helpful :3

i have no idea who originally made it cause its been reposted like a shit ton of times but!! its great and helpful in figuring stuff out :3

[notafunkiller]

I think this is what bothers...she is quite arrogant saying all this, it is perceived as if she thinks she is the best actress and that she is important in that world (I feel those things she says in interviews as arrogance like when she said about the kiss with Tom, the best day of his life, just for kissing her??). And I understand PB was very successful and that's why almost everyone knows her, even she knows it because she uploads pictures from the official account (I think because she hasn't been called to participate in the movie).

I saw some of the movies where she appears (before being related to Sebastian) and I really didn't like her performance, she's not like those actors that make you get into the character's situation.

My personal "problem" with her is that I don't like that she uses relevant topics of society to make herself relevant (some topics are delicate and she doesn't take them that way, not checking the spelling in serious topics means that you don't even care to see if you wrote well, drawing attention to her in Sebastian's personal achievements as well).

I don't have any problem with any of Sebastian's partners I don't get "jealous" but she seems to me to do strange behaviors we know which ones (stalking her exes, fan and non-fan accounts, liking DM's pictures, etc). Plus you have a "relationship" and everyone can upload pics of him and with him and you can't? You only do it with his work (that's weird), we only see them together in paparazzi photos but in places where celebrities meet often there are no photos, they are always in a group.

Why not just upload a photo of you holding hands with him (a nice photo, not just voice, shoes, shadows, cropped hands, etc.)?

And I'm not saying he's obligated to be with her, maybe it's PR maybe not, but I would certainly be disappointed in what he says about SM, etc,etc. Because she is the complete opposite of what he says and Sebastian is different now (And no a man doesn't change overnight because he "matured").

It might be their longest relationship but to me it all says it all with him body language and the fact that Anastasia doesn't even follow her (when she even puts the products in the stories and doesn't repost them) and that Anastasia always follows a lot of people she meets just at events.

Now thank you for putting up with my very long post and thank you for being a blog that shares your opinion, is respectful and defends a person you don't like on issues that DO matter 🌷🌷

This is such a nice summary. You included things that bother me as well.

Thank YOU for being kind and writing this so on point and respectfully.

I'm really glad you're here🌼

[rickie-the-storyteller]

Behind Closed Doors: Part 1

Intro:

How's this for a cover picture? It's AI generated lol - I asked ChatGPT for ideas for what sorts of things could be included for a cover picture that gives of the vibe that suits the story (I was originally going to make a cover by myself using some pics off of Pinterest or something), and it generated a mockup image of the Renaud Records building. I had no idea it could even do that! I'm not even paying to use the plus version... I didn't do much... just cropped it a little, and did some colour grading on it. I think it looks alright!

Anyways, I was going to wait a little while before embarking on this new adventure, but I've been feeling like I've been putting stuff off for a while, and I don't know that is a positive thing for me anymore. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's necessary to take breaks, but there's a difference between that and stalling because of fear or uncertainty. I don't want to do the latter, so here I am!

It's so cool to be able to do this again with a new writing project. I really hope you guys enjoy it! I love these new characters with all my heart, and I hope their journeys throughout the story entertain, inspire and move you as much as they have with me. Here is where it all begins...

The Gala

(Setting: A lavish charity gala in late September. The venue is an upscale hotel ballroom decorated with crystal chandeliers and elaborate floral arrangements. Elena Crewe, wearing a simple black dress, nervously adjusts her name tag while scanning the crowd of wealthy attendees.)

Angie: (approaching Elena with two glasses of champagne) Hey, girl. You look like you could use this.

Elena: Oh gosh, yes. Thanks. (takes a glass) I feel so out of place here.

Angie: You'll be fine! Just remember - you're here for a good cause. Besides, most of these people are way less intimidating than they look.

Elena: Easy for you to say. You work with them.

Angie: Well, I don't work one-on-one with them or anything... not really. But I see them all the time where I work. Trust me, once you get past all the designer labels and fake smiles, you realise that at the end of the day, they're just people. (notices someone across the room) Oh! Speaking of people... Vincent Renaud just walked in with his brother Lewis and his wife. I forget her name. But I know it begins with an "S." Sarah, perhaps? Wait, that's not right...

Elena: Where?

Angie: By the entrance. Tall guy in the navy suit, talking to that other tall guy in grey who's holding hands with that blonde woman in red. Ugh, what is her name again? Susan?

Elena: (nervous laugh) Oh wow. He's... not what I expected.

Angie: What did you expect?

Elena: I don't know. Someone older? More... corporate looking? He looks like he belongs in a magazine or something.

Angie: Yeah, the Renauds won the genetic lottery AND the money lottery. Life's not fair sometimes. (checking her phone) Shoot, I need to go handle something. You gonna be okay by yourself for a while?

Elena: (shifts nervously, but nods) Yeah, I think so. Thanks again, girl. Wish me luck!

Angie: (smiles) Go get 'em, tiger. And remember - they're all just people.

(Angie leaves. Elena takes a deep breath and makes her way toward Vincent, who is now alone checking his phone.)

Elena: Uh, hey! Hey, Sir. Can I talk to you for a sec?

Vincent: (looking up from his phone, slight surprise in his expression) Yes?

(Elena is briefly taken aback for a moment. He is a lot more striking in appearance in person than he is online and in pictures. His piercing blue eyes are particularly striking, and leave her momentarily in a bit of a stupor that she brushes off once she realises that they've been standing in silence looking at each other for a little too long)

Elena: You're Mr. Renaud of Renaud Records, aren't you?

Vincent: (locks his phone and puts it away) Yes, I am. How can I help you?

Elena: Oh, I'm Elena Crewe. I work in New Horizons, and I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time? I don't know if you know anything about it... it's a non-profit organisation that helps at-risk young people.

Vincent: New Horizons... the one with the youth outreach program?

Elena: You've heard of us?

Vincent: (small smile) I make it my business to know about interesting local initiatives.

Elena: Cool! So, you are familiar with some of our work, then. That's really great to hear. And it makes things a little easier for me.

Vincent: Well, I think it's just really good to keep yourself informed on things. Especially things that show a lot of promise. Is there anything specific you wanted to discuss about New Horizons?

Elena: Uh... (gets a bit nervous again upon becoming aware of the intense eye contact between them at this point. Tries her best to push through the conversation) I was wondering if I could talk to you about all the other things we do to support kids in need, and their families as well. It would be great to get some extra support, especially from someone like you.

Vincent: Someone like me?

Elena: Y-yeah. You know…

Vincent: Or me?

Elena: Well, I mean I'm here talking to you, aren't I?

(Something like intrigue or amusement flashes in Vincent's eyes for a moment, but when he talks again, it is in the same polite but detached business-like tone as before)

Vincent: (looks around the increasingly busy room) You know what? I think we should go somewhere a little more quiet. Come with me, Miss Crewe.

(They make their way to the more private terrace outside, away from the loud crowds of people in the venue. There, they continue their conversation)

Elena: So, how much do you know about what we do?

Vincent: (leaning against the wall) Enlighten me.

Elena: (gaining confidence) Well, we work with at-risk youth, providing everything from after-school programs to career counselling. Last year alone, we helped over five hundred kids stay in school and off the streets.

Vincent: Wow...

Elena: (smiles) Yeah! It's great to be able to make such a difference.

Vincent: May I ask why you're here?

Elena: (smile falters slightly) What?

Vincent: What are you looking for, exactly?

Elena: Support. Financial support, specifically. But also potentially partnerships. Your influence could-

Vincent: (interrupting) My influence?

Elena: (standing her ground) Yes, your influence. The Renaud name carries weight in this city. Having you publicly support our cause could make a real impact.

Vincent: (smiles, amused) You're very direct, Miss Crewe.

Elena: (shrugs, trying to push past her nerves) Is that a problem?

Vincent: No, no. (chuckling) Actually, it's refreshing. I'm used to most people spending twenty minutes kissing up before getting to the point.

Elena: Well, I figured your time is valuable. And honestly, so is mine.

Vincent: (raising an eyebrow) Is that so?

Elena: Yeah. Every minute I waste on social niceties is a minute I could be doing my actual job. Protecting and supporting those in need of my help.

Vincent: Huh.

Elena: What?

Vincent: (incredulous) You actually enjoy working?

Elena: (laughs) Yeah, I do. Weird, right?

(Both of them laugh a bit at this)

Vincent: Alright, alright. Let's focus on the matter at hand... tell me more about your little project.

Elena: Okay. With all due respect, Mr. Renaud, this is so much more than just a "little project." We're changing lives at New Horizons... I mean, the decrease in gang activity alone this past year has been incredible.

Vincent: Really?

Elena: Yeah. And we've supported so many people through complex family issues and seemingly impossible situations. Last year, I worked with a seventeen-year-old named Mateo. It was his last year of high school and he was on the verge of dropping out, caught up in the wrong crowd and falling behind on his schoolwork. But through our mentorship program, he not only was able to stay in school but also landed a scholarship to study engineering.

Vincent: (nodding slowly) Impressive.

Elena: Yeah... he's on track to getting his dream job. He's so excited about that. Oh, and there's Layla...

Vincent: Who's that?

Elena: Layla Young. A young single mother who was struggling to make ends meet. She took one of our vocational training courses, and now she’s running her own small but successful catering business. She recently got engaged, I believe. She's doing really well right now.

Vincent: That's amazing.

Elena: Yep! And that's just two out of hundreds of cases. What we’re doing really works. But to keep it going, we need support. That's why I'm here.

Vincent: (studying her with newfound interest) You really believe in this, don't you?

Elena: I do. Because I've seen the difference it makes. These aren't just statistics, Mr. Renaud. These are real kids with real potential.

Vincent: Hmm. Well, this is a lot of interesting information. And it is clear that you care a lot about your cause, which is great. Why should Renaud Entertainment care, though?

Elena: Because helping those in need is a good thing.

Vincent: Uh-huh…

Elena: What? That's not good enough of a reason for you?

Vincent: Miss Crewe, you're trying to negotiate with me here. Correct?

Elena: I guess.

Vincent: You should really get the other party interested in what you have to offer. That's the whole point of negotiating. Give me a compelling business case.

Elena: ...Fine. I have other reasons why you should care, too. Aside from the obvious moral imperative, I believe partnering with New Horizons would be good for your company's image and reputation. Consumers often value brands that give back to the community. This could be excellent PR for the company. So this partnership would be mutually beneficial as a whole.

Vincent: (nods slowly, taking it in) Okay...

Elena: (gaining confidence upon realising that he seems genuinely interested) And think about it - these kids are the future. The next generation of writers, producers, singers, actors… the very backbone of your industry. Your future talent pool. By supporting them now, you're investing in the future of your business. You need to help them so that they can help you. You know?

Vincent: Mhm.

Elena: Young people are your biggest audience, too. Investing in them now isn't just charity - it's smart. Business-wise. And well, considering your company profits largely from youth culture and entertainment, wouldn't it make sense to invest in the next generation?

Vincent: You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?

Elena: Yeah. (pauses) Wait, what's that supposed to mean?

Vincent: (chuckles) Nothing, Miss Crewe. It was just an observation. But this has been a really interesting talk. You've certainly given me a lot to think about.

(Vincent's phone chimes in his pocket. He takes it out and looks at the notification before looking up to face Elena again)

Vincent: Unfortunately, I can't stay much longer. Family commitments, you know how it is.

Elena: (tries to hide the disappointment in her voice) Oh. Is everything alright?

Vincent: (nods, puts his phone away again) Yeah, yeah. That was just my brother. He's taking Sable home early because she was feeling under the weather. But he also reminded me to meet up at Cam's for our weekly dinner get-together. Can't miss it.

Elena: I understand. Thank you for your time, anyways.

Vincent: Tell you what, though... I don't mind continuing this conversation. We can arrange a meeting for next week and finish things up then?

(Vincent hands her his business card)

Elena: (eyes widening) Oh!

Vincent: Yeah. Call this number, my assistant will work something out for you. This conversation has been fun. I'm looking forward to continuing it.

Elena: (taking the card, a smile spreading across her face) Oh, me too! Thank you so much for this.

Vincent: Of course. (turns to leave, then pauses) Oh, and one more piece of advice - next time, you might want to consider dressing a bit more... appropriately for these kinds of events.

Elena: (looks down at her dress. It was a hand-me-down from her mother, and the nicest, most expensive thing she owned) O-oh. Ok.

(With a final chuckle, Vincent departs, leaving Elena momentarily flustered and unsure how to feel about his parting comment. She stands alone on the terrace, staring at the card in her hand. Her emotions are a swirl—part excitement, part indignation, part something else she doesn't want to closely focus on. She exhales sharply, trying to shake off his final remark)

Angie: (pops up from behind her) Hey! There you are.

Elena: Oh, gosh. Where were you?

Angie: It's a long story... to give you the CliffsNotes version, my boyfriend's band has finally booked a gig. All thanks to moi.

Elena: Ah, that's awesome! Tell him I said congrats.

Angie: Will do. Also, I bumped into some fans of the pod.

Elena: That's cool. But speaking of the pod, have you finished editing the latest episode?

Angie: ...I'm getting to that.

Elena: Angie! We're already two weeks behind schedule!

Angie: I know, I know. It'll be done by the end of the week, I swear. How has the networking been going for you?

Elena: Uh... good. Better than I thought it would go, anyways.

Angie: Yeah?

Elena: I got somebody's business card.

Angie: Really? That's great!

Elena: Do I look okay?

Angie: ...What?

Elena: My dress. Somebody said it was inappropriate.

Angie: Who?

Elena: It doesn't matter, Ang. He's already left.

Angie: It was Vincent, wasn't it?

Elena: Uh... yeah. How'd you know?

Angie: I don't see him anywhere. Or Lewis. Or his wife. Whatever her name is... Stacie? Sophie?

Elena: ...Sable?

Angie: (gasps) THAT'S IT! I knew it was an "S" name...

Elena: (chuckles) Yeah, he made a comment about the fit. Didn't appreciate that... but talking to him wasn't all bad. He and I had a long and interesting conversation.

Angie: Ugh, the nerve of him. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be all that surprised...

Elena: What do you mean?

Angie: He's just like that sometimes, you know. Cold, stern business guy. It's easy to find him intimidating.

Elena: Gosh, yeah. I was freaking out the whole time I was talking to him. I tried not to make that too obvious.

Angie: Still, I thought he'd actually be decent. Especially since this is a charity gala and you are a complete stranger he's meeting for the very first time. Like, it's different from people he works with on a regular basis.

Elena: (shrugs, her tone resigned) It's fine. He probably didn’t mean anything by it. I mean, look at everyone here—they’re all dripping in designer labels. I guess I stood out.

Angie: (crossing her arms) Yeah, well, standing out isn’t a bad thing, Elena. You’re not like them, and that’s why you’re here — to shake things up. You're good at that.

Elena: (smiling faintly) Thanks, Angie.

Angie: Come on. (extends her hand) Let's go celebrate our evening of success with some more champagne.

Elena: Great idea. (takes her hand. The two friends head back inside together and have fun for the rest of the night. On her way home after the event was finished, Elena’s mind lingers on Vincent’s words and the way he looked at her during their conversation — sharp, assessing, but not unkind. She promises herself to focus on making sure she is well prepared for the next time she meets Vincent Renaud. She is determined to impress him and secure this deal with him)

Outro:

That's it for part 1. More or less how the story starts.

I have fully outlined this story, but I have no idea how many parts I will end up splitting these dialogue plans into... we'll see how it goes, I guess.

BTW, about Angie... she is meant to be Elena's closest friend in the story. And in past posts, I have called her "Angel." I like that name a lot (especially for a character that is a close and loyal friend or protector... makes me think of guardian angels), but I decided to change that here. Partially because I've already got a character named Angel in another story lol (not that these two stories can't be connected, but still). I decided to call this specific character "Angelina" because it is a pretty name (as well as one of my favourite Lizzy McAlpine songs haha), and it also happens to have the word "angel" in it. And I have the characters of this story refer to her as "Angie" for short.

Anyways, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the very first part of this brand new story. Let me know your thoughts.

[feltpool]

Chekov’s Gun

“a dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Elements should not appear to make "false promises" by never coming into play.

It is derived from the idea that if a gun is placed in a scene it must at some point be used.”

And this is the element I’m looking at in today’s episode of ‘looking at the Bad Batch’s in far more detail than is probably good for me’:

Which does actually feature a gun (well, 2 specific guns, but more on that later)

Spectrewren on twitter posted this slightly cropped, forward facing version of the image from the frame Omega finds in Hunter’s trunk sometime in early September but I’ve been busy and am only just getting around to taking a really good look at it.

Everyone watching the show has looked at this pic, noted that Tech isn’t wearing goggles, noted that Echo is in the pic so it can’t be that old, and moved on.

But I have questions...

The first of which being - is this even a photograph, or is it a video on pause?

Because those fine, light, horizontal lines look a lot like the interference you’d often get onscreen in the days of VHS when you paused the tape.

The scene doesn’t linger on the frame. Omega only holds it long enough for us to see the boys image on the screen before cutting to her smiling slightly. Not really long enough for us to wonder if it was a picture frame or a media player.

But it being a low quality recording on pause could also account for some of the visual distortion in the image, maybe not all of it, but enough to obscure many of the details.

.

There’s nothing immediately remarkable about Wrecker or Hunter in the pic. They’re both standing in poses we’ve seen them adopt before. Wrecker with his hands together, Hunter in his ‘hands on hips, but make it manly’ pose.

But the others are a different matter entirely.

Why no Goggles, Tech?

We have no evidence that Tech records anything visually, let alone using his goggles to do so, so why no goggles in the image?

It’s possible that he could use his helmet visor to take a picture.

But if he used his helmet then where are his goggles?

And if he's using his goggles where is his helmet?

.

For that matter, where are all of their helmets?

Usually when we see them take them off they tuck them under their arms, they keep them close. So why don’t they have them here?

That clearly isn't Kamino, but wherever they are they must have felt pretty damn confident that it was safe to walk around without their helmets on because we don’t often see them take their helmets off outside of the Marauder or a building of some sort.

.

Yet there they are. Standing about with full and clear views of all of their faces.

But is there more to it than that? Because the other options here are that they didn’t take the picture/video themselves. That they didn’t have any choice in it.

That they didn’t know they were being recorded.

.

At a glance they all look posed. But look again and you can see that no one is smiling. Not so unusual for Crosshair and Hunter, maybe. But Wrecker? Would he not smile if he was posing for a picture? His face looks pretty grim when you really look at him. Frankly, none of them look at all like they’re happy to be there.

And the posing is off too.

.

Tech never takes centre stage, that’s Hunter’s position. Tech’s always lurking at the back of the group. So why is he crouching in the middle of the group here looking like someone kicked his tooka?

Because when you come to look at it more fully they don’t look like a group of people posing for a photograph, they look like a group of people who just realised there’s a camera there that they didn’t spot previously.

And Tech has pushed his way forwards to take a closer look.

.

The only time I can recall seeing Wrecker standing with his hands like that is when he’s preparing for violence. It’s his threatening stance. So why? What is it that they’re looking at which is in turn recording them?

Does that image come from a helmet recording, a bodycam? Whatever it is it’s pretty low down for Tech to have to crouch like that to be on an even level with it.

BUT, if they didn’t record this, how come Hunter has a copy?

Where did it come from? How did he get it? Was it waiting for him when they returned to Kamino? Do the others know he has it?

And, importantly, when do we get to see either the rest of the video, or a flashback to the events leading up to this image being recorded?

.

Ok, let’s look at the other details

Echo is with the team and wearing his Bad Batch armour, not the armour he was wearing on Anaxes at the end of the Clone Wars arc. So the image had to have been captured at some point between him leaving with the Batch and TBB Ep 1.

Echo looks shorter than Hunter here, but we know that he isn’t. So he’s standing far enough back that it makes him look like he is. Why is that?

Is he just walking up to where the rest of the group are standing? Approaching from behind?

And what’s with the scomp?

Because if you look at him carefully it looks like his flesh arm is hanging by his side, but his scomp arm is clearly sticking out and disappearing behind Wrecker.

So he’s either touching Wrecker’s butt with his scomp, or it’s resting on something behind Wrecker.

Some sort of upright object that we can’t see because it’s hidden behind Wrecker’s meaty leg and bulky armour.

It's a very odd pose to adopt if that arm isn't resting on something, and I doubt the answer actually is Wrecker's butt, so what's happening there?

What about Crosshair?

He’s the only one not looking at the camera.

He’s looking to the right of the image and at a more upwards angle than anyone else, keeping watch as always.

Everyone else is looking at the camera, heads angled downwards, but Crosshair is turned away from the group, rifle in hand. Looking ready to go at the first sign of trouble, but not in a way that suggests any imminent threat.

That pic can't be that old because it has Echo in it.

So why is it in an old and shitty display frame?

Or is it? At first glance the poor image quality invites the assumption that it is, but maybe it’s just that the recording itself is of poor quality.

Because when we see look at the frame in Omega’s hands it looks to be in good condition. Possibly even brand new. And is that a camera on the top right edge?

(I lightened the image to show the frame better, yes I am aware of how awful it makes the ‘photo’ look)

We see Omega fire it up and the image breaks up a little before clearing again.

But the interference could simply be a little static from the startup process. At no point does the image breaking up affect the placement of the ‘pause’ lines across the image, it only interrupts our view of them for a moment. They never move about.

It’s only implied that it’s a crappy old picture because of the breaking up and overall low quality of the picture.

But why?

Is there any reason for it other than we, the audience, aren’t supposed to want to look too closely at the picture, or to consider that something might be off about it before they’re ready to make a big reveal about it on the show.

And a nice clear image would give far too much away?

But what can we see?

It looks like they're standing on grass under a blue sky with clouds.

But that isn’t right. Grass, probably, but the sky is far too dark in the centre for it to be daytime. And the brightness of the light in the background looks (to me) a lot like floodlights shining out in a cloudy, or smoke filled, night sky.

There's something light coloured and low slung which looks like it’s probably a speeder in the background visible between Cross and Wrecker. Big enough to be their transport in and out of there.

Is that a building in the background to the right of Hunter, and if so are we looking at housing or some sort of warehouse or storage facility?

It's deliberately distorted and unclear.

.

Crosshair has two 773 Firepuncher rifles (see, I said I’d get to the actual guns.)

One is broken down and is attached to his pack in the same way we saw it in Ep 16 when Hunter takes it with him.

We can see the two barrel sections sticking up behind his head and the modified stock hanging down from his pack in the space between the base of the pack and the curve of his butt/hip holster.

The other is the one he’s holding, which possibly has the drum attachment we saw him use in Ep 1 to join the Separatist tanks together on it. It could be something else, it’s really hard to tell since it’s in the shadow his body throws from the backlighting.

.

So… just how many custom rifles does he have, and where’s that second one now?

Is it in the gun kit box on board the Marauder, or does he have it stashed away somewhere else?

Some secondary location he could still retrieve it from.

A very literal Chekov's gun. Because you can’t tell me the writer’s wouldn’t totally and absolutely sneak a peek of a 2nd rifle into the opening episode precisely so they can highlight this specific writing principle and have it stashed away to refer to later.

Anyway, what else?

To the left of Crosshair is what looks like a wing tip of some sort of ship.

Which, when we see the image on the show is conveniently obscured by Omega’s thumb. And in Spectrewren’s full on picture is mostly cropped out because that image isn’t as wide as the screen Omega is looking at.

However, it looks like it could be a wing tip with what looks like an anti-collision light on the end of it.

It’s the wrong sort of angle to be the Marauder, so who’s ship is it?

Who else was there?

.

And the very badly outlined item in the pink box.

Is that a foot?

Is there a corpse lingering on the edge of the shot here?

The distortion makes it hard to make out, but is that the body of someone either getting out of, or trying to get into that ship, when they were taken down? A contact who was intercepted as they disembarked?

Is this picture/video blackmail?

Is that why Hunter has it? Because it was sent to him to make sure he knows that someone else knows what happened at that time and place?

It’d be damn hard to deny when you can see their faces so very clearly.

A 'I have proof that you were here when this thing happened and I'll use it to have you decommissioned if you try anything. Understand?' sort of thing.

Have they been set up, or are they living up to the Bad in their self given name?

.

And maybe Hunter thinks they're safe from that now. That now they're no longer bound by the GAR, or by the Republic or the Kaminoans, that they can go off and do whatever they want to.

But Cid knows something. She keeps hinting about just how good at keeping their secrets she can be.

As long as they’re good little boys.

And she only ever says this in front of Hunter, only ever in the back room where it’s just him and her. So… what is she holding over him? And is it anything to do with this?

And I say him, and not them, because not only is he team leader, but is it just me, or does Hunter have blood on him here?

There's a couple of marks which look like they could just be blips in the image, the marks around the top and bottom curving edges of the light section of his chestplate.

But the highlighted marks on the right look a lot like he has blood smeared on his armour.

(Obviously it could be oil or dirt or something else. But it might not be. It does appear to have a reddish tone)

We've seen him shoot people before, but we've never seen him using that knife on anyone (6+ age rating). Only on droids. But it doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t, or hasn’t previously

And if he did do that here we have no clue if it’d have been in defense or attack.

And we won't find out WTF is going on there until we get a flashback to the time when that image was taken, or when someone finds the frame and presses play.

So where is the frame now?

Did Crosshair have it in his backpack? Was it found when their barracks was being cleared out by the shock troopers and it’s currently safe in Rampart’s office? Is it at the bottom of the Kaminoan oceans?

Is there only the one copy?

Only time will tell.

[legend-collection]

Samodiva

Samodivas are commonly depicted as ethereal maidens with long, loose hair, and in some cases, wings. They are typically dressed in free-flowing, feathered white gowns, which give them the power of flight. Samodivas are often described as blonde, tall, slender women with pale, glowing skin and fiery eyes.

According to folklore, Samodivas can live inside trees or abandoned shacks or dark caves, or near rivers, ponds and wells. Mountains linked to the Samodivas include Vitosha, Belasitsa, Pirin, Rila, the Rhodopes, the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria and Rudina mountains. However, mountain Pirin is their traditional favorite. Samodivas enter the human world during the spring, staying until autumn. During the winter, they live in the mythical village of Zmajkovo.

In Macedonian folklore they were also said to inhabit trees like oak, willows and that they live in a far off village called Patelevo.

Pic by Bartolomeo Giuliano

Samodivas are believed to be very beautiful women with an affinity for fire. They have the power to bring about drought, burn a farmer's crops, or make cattle die of high fever. It is said that, when angered, a Samodiva can change her appearance and turn into a monstrous bird, capable of throwing fire at her enemies. This, with the power of their seductive voices, makes them somewhat similar to Harpies and Sirens in Greek mythology. Their vindictive nature also complements this notion.

They are usually hostile and dangerous to people. Men who gaze upon a Samodiva fall instantly in love (or at least in lust), and women take their own lives at the sight of such beauty. Sometimes a Samodiva would seduce a man, commonly a shepherd or a trespasser in her forest, and take him for her lover. However, in doing so, she would take all of his life energy. The man would then become obsessed with the Samodiva and chase her relentlessly, unable to think of anything else. The Samodiva, fueled by the energy stolen from her admirer, would then proceed to torture the man until he died of exhaustion.

Another important aspect of the myths surrounding Samodivas is their dance. Beginning at midnight and finishing at dawn, their dance symbolized the raw energy of both nature and the supernatural world. Accompanied and following only the rhythm of the wind and their own singing, their dance was said to have been often witnessed by lost or late travelers, some of them choosing to join it, seduced by the beauty of their song and visage, only to die of exhaustion at dawn, when the Samodivas finally disappeared.

Much like the Vila in Slavic folklore, a Samodiva's power is believed to come mostly from her long (usually blond) hair. A Samodiva would sometimes give a small portion of it to her lover to strengthen her control over him via its magical effects. However, if her hair is damaged in some way, she will either disappear entirely or be stripped of her powers and beauty.

In Bulgarian folklore, a Samodiva's close connection to the forest makes her knowledgeable about magical herbs and cures for all illnesses. It is said that if a person managed to eavesdrop on a gathering of Samodivas he could also gain knowledge of these remedies. In many stories, this is exactly what the hero is forced to do to save a loved one, as a Samodiva would never share her secrets willingly.  

In Macedonian folklore, Samovila's are often seen that they have the ability to hurt people or to heal them. There is a way to kill a Samovila, and that is by making her prick herself on thorn bushes and evaporates. It is also known that they could enter the hearts of men and stay there for 5 years. Their goal was to join with the man's soul and after go to heaven together. They usually gave the man magical powers and knowledge of healing plants. In North Macedonia, there are tales speaking of Samovilski Weddings, and if a random person was found walking by, they would offer him wine and in return he would give a golden coin to the bride. The wedding would then last all night until dawn.  

It is also known that they can be seen by dogs with four eyes and mixed Samovilski children.  

Their voices were hypnotic and could drive a man to go crazy. The Macedonian people feared of calling them by their name Vili, so sometimes they would speak of them as Mayki, Yudi, They.  

Balkan mythology holds that Samodivas were the daughters of Lamia. This, combined with their mostly nocturnal nature, leads to them being considered negative, or at best neutral in their nature.

[wizkiddx]

ruining the plan isn't always so bad

you can tell whenever I have really important things to be doing in my life - bcos instead I will spend hours writing for no apparent reason ah kmn ;///

tomhollandxreader - pure fluffffff

Summary: tried to base off when Dom and Sam surprised Tom shooting a couple of years back- but this time they got Y/n with them too

(I don't own the pic nor claim to ...idk how to do this crediting bit sorry :/)

The plan was in place. Tom was really struggling with homesickness on set of his newest film. No real reason why; just long hours, living out of a hotel room, half the world away from ‘home’. Harry was always flying out to join Tom as his ‘assistant’ however after a pretty heart-wrenching phone call Tom had made to Y/n, while she was hanging around with Haz and Harry at the Holland’s house... the plans had changed somewhat. He just seemed so distant and run down, when Nikki got her turn on the  phone she instantly knew that they had to do something. Naturally then, putting her superior organising skills to good use she arranged for Dom, Sam and Y/n to accompany Harry to Atlanta; and surprise Tom there. 

The way the last minute booking happened meant that Harry, Sam and Dom were all flying out on the same flight (though Harry was in first class, while the surprise guests were in economy). Y/n, because of her university timetable, couldn’t leave till a bit later, so was on a plane 2 hours after the Hollands - it wouldn’t make that much difference and if anything would prolong the joy of the excitement for Tom. They, meaning Harry who was oddly invested in the intracacies and details, had been brainstorming different ways to do the reveal- not sure whether to just do it in the hotel when Harry would be meeting Tom anyway, or waiting and surprising him when they were out for dinner or in a bar. Eventually they’d decided it would just be easier to have Harry, Dom and Sam just meet him at the hotel- then take him out to dinner, allowing time for Y/n’s later expected time of arrival, where she would then appear at the restaurant. 

Ever since Harry had let Tom know that he’d landed (if half an hour late), Tom had been excitedly texting him back constantly. The pair had agreed that Tom would simply meet him in Harrys hotel room when he got back from set. Yet when the time came, Sam and Dom were hiding just further down the corridor- waiting in the corridor. From their hideaway a couple of metres down the way from Tom and Harry, the obvious exctiement they could hear when Tom arrived and the two reunited warmed Dom’s heart. He just loved his sons all being so close- it was perhaps what  he was most proud of as a parent. Especially after witnessing both Harrison and Y/n loose a parent, he knew if god forbid anything happened to him and Nikki - they had each others backs completely. Sam was excitedly shifting from foot to foot hearing his brothers - Dom just subtly shook his head at the endearing nervous energy, clearly Sam was impatient for his turn. The idea was Sam would knock first then Dom, so after allowing a short time of just Tom and Harry reuniting, Sam pranced down the hallway and knocked. Yet it wasn’t Tom who flung the door open to Sam as per the scheme, instead his fuzzy haired twin.

“Harry what the fuck” Sam mouthed, daring to glance over his shoulder to attempt to spot Tom - annoyed at his brother for getting in the way.

“He’s on the shitter, change of plan bring Dad in.” Harry whisper-explained, making Sam roll his eyes at Tom unintentionally ruining his own surprise, before retreating to the hallway and beckoning his dad in. Dom pulled an equally bemused face until Harry filled him and he chuckled - earning him a harsh shush from both boys as they sat on the bed, facing the toilet door.

“So why did it take you so long to get here?” Tom asked through the thin loo wall, while Harry pushed his dad to sit further over on the bed.

“Oh ermm….they had some mix up with the luggage so we” Immediately getting slapped on the leg by his twin with a piercing glare,  Harry corrected himself “I mean -I had to wait for like an hour and a half to get my suitcase. Then I think I had the worst taxi driver in the world like down country roads and all.”

“Yeh like that drive should take like 40 minutes I thought? But when you texted me saying just left” He paused as the sound of the toilet flushing and the sink turning on flooded through the room ”that must’ve been at least an hour ago”

“I guess” Harry replied, hearing the tap turn off while Sam ran his fingers through his hair yet again - an excited or nervous tick.

“So how is everyone? I tried to call Dad and Y/n today but-“ The door opened, the stream of light flooding into the main room. Tom stopped dead in his tracks, voice cutting off but mouth hanging agape, still clutching onto the doorhandle. 

“Hello son” 

Dom spoke softly as he stood up from his choreographed position on the bed. Only at his words did Tom believe this was actually reality and literally sunk to his knees at the boundary between the ensuite and bedroom. He was awash with pure emotion, mainly relief - this was the exact thing he really needed right now. His dad soon pulled him up and hugged him, Sam following close behind. Tom’s reaction was priceless, the few tears being more than enough of a tell to his family how much he had needed this. 

It was an emotional reunion, there was a hell of a lot of hugs and suddenly the 14 hour journey was so worth it to Dom and Sam. Afterwards, they just all sat together on the bed and caught up on each others lives, Tom not really wanting to speak about himself - much preferring to hear all their stories from home about his mum and grandparents and the family that live down the road. He loved the normalcy of it. 

That was until a voice grabbed the attention of the whole room and Harry inwardly and silently cursed himself - in all the excitement he’d left his phone on silent in his jacket pocket, which was hanging on the coat rack so he hadn’t even heard it vibrate.

“Harry pick up your phone!” An exasperated voice exclaiming from the hallway half caught the Hollands’ attention, their heads all spinning in unison to the wooden hotel room door. It started to jerk open as Y/n wrestled with her suitcase ”You’ve left your hotel room open you div.Anyway I’m just dropping my case in your room so please text me where to go because - ugh- because right now you could all be anywhere in Atlanta and I-” 

The conversation within the room had died- all of them watching the petite brunette fight her way past the door with a silver suitcase that seemed ridiculously large and heavy for a weeks holiday. She had pressed her phone to her ear using her right shoulder and was wearing beige tracksuits a white crop top and a black leather jacket - as she grunted in frustration at the case, yanking it unceremoniously over the threshold. Subtly, Sam looked up at Tom, seeing his brothers eyes widen in shock, whole body turned completely rigid and Sam had to smile smugly - it was actually quite cute, even if he would never admit it to their faces. Y/n only stopped speaking into the receiver when her eyes finally darted into the room - noticing she had an audience. 

“Oh.” 

She stopped herself, pressing the end call button and pocketing her phone, whilst moving into the centre of  the room. She shot an apologetic smile to Harry, knowing she’d technically ‘ruined’ his plan - though to be fair it wasn’t her fault he didn’t answer the phone; or that his flight had been delayed meaning he didn’t get Tom to the resturaunt at the agreed time. Actually she could blame it all on Harry. He just rolled his eyes back at her whilst she looked past him and onto the shellshocked face of her boyfriend. 

Not being able to hide her grin, she halted at the foot of the bed, meanwhile Tom leant forward from the headboard - his eyes not leaving her. “You gonna say hi or am I just gonna stand here?” Y/n smirked, Tom still not moving from his shellshocked stance. Slowly her smirk morphed to a concerned look, eyebrows drawn inwards, as her look darted between Dom and Tom. 

“Tom are you okay?” she tried speaking gently, but before she could push anymore he launched himself off the sofa and into her arms, Y/n barely staying upright. Then Tom started spinning her round and round all the while squeezing her as tightly as possible. Y/n squealed an ‘I love you’  into his ear , already knowing Tom wasn’t ready to talk yet- instead just pressing his face closer into her neck. After a short while Tom lowered her to the ground and pulled away enough for Y/n to see the smudged tears around his eyes. She cupped his cheeks in her hands and looked deep into his mahogany brown eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“I am now” he nodded jerkily, all the while inching his lips closer to hers. Both consciously aware of half the Hollands just viewing them, their kiss was fleeting and light - but made Tom’s heart want to burst. 

“God I’ve missed your stupid face” She laughed, now her eyes filled with tears too. He let out a breathy chuckle in reply and used his thumb to wipe away a single droplet that escaped her eye.

“Missed yours more” her smile lit up the entirety of her face, such a natural glow across her face Tom shook his head slightly marvelling at her. 

“Ohhkkkayyy well I don’t really want to witness the making of nieces and nephews”

“Harry” Dom warned in a disapproving tone, even if he did have to fight back the laughter. To be quite honest he’d really enjoyed seeing his son and almost adopted daughter reunite. Both him and Nikki absolutely loved their relationship, they just went together oh so well, whilst slightly reminding them both of their younger carefree days. Harry rolled his eyes at his dad before continuing. 

“But shall we get dinner and then you can be alone all night” His eyebrows wiggled in such a manner Y/n swore she felt a little nauseous witnessing it. 

“Harry stop!” Sam interjected, elbowing Harry harshly in the side, earning him a  playful slap in return.

“Someone remind me why I’m paying the wrong twin to be my assistant?” Tom still hadn’t looked away from Y/n as he quipped a response at Harry, while Y/n was gently stroking up and down his cheeks with such a soft look in her eyes. 

“Because I rejected it” Sam smirked, making Harry yell out in anguish-

“I was second choice?!?!”

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

“Honestly just go play golf with your them! I have to do uni work anyway and-“

“But I don’t want to leave you! You’ve flown here too and I missed you.” Tom moaned, pressing a kiss into her hair from her position lying on his shoulder. Having slept uninterrupted for the first time in ages, Tom wasn’t even sure he wanted to venture away from Y/n and the bed at any point that day- even if it was for golf. 

“Your dad and Sam are only staying for the weekend so make the most of it! Me and my uni work are happy here-“ Tom’s eyes once again bugged out his face, as he caught on to her slip up.

“How long are you staying?” Shit. That was another thing she’d spoiled - getting a reputation to be as bad as Tom. Harry was for sure going to kill her.

“Oh fuck sake… that was my second surprise ruined… I’ve booked a week and a half off from uni so I can look after my little baby boy”

“Y/n don’t joke with me please.” Tom sat up, forcing Y/n to too which she huffed a little at, disrupting her comfort. It had her sitting up straight so she could look him in the eye and resting her hand on his exposed abdomen, asserting her authority on him. 

“I promise! My flights home next tuesday, but I’m missing uni so I have to be boring and keep up so it’s not a real holiday but-“ 

“I love you” 

Tom smiled for Y/n could never not surprise him. University was so important to her - she was really dedicating her life to it, especially financially. So her managing to put it on hold to look after him in a time of need was testament to just how kind and caring she truly was. 

“But you need to promise to look after yourself Tom. I haven’t seen bags under your eyes quite as impressive as this before. Think of your poor make up artists!” And she was back to being her usual sarky self. 

“I feel like I should be offended?”

“Or you can learn. Now go get showered before they leave without you.” Finally ralling off his side, then pushing him forcefully so he half rolled off the side of the bed. 

“Only if you shower with me.” The biggest smirk on his face, eyes wide and gleaming with mischief - which Y/n wanted to punch off so badly. On the other hand though, his idea didn’t sound half bad- letting him drag her up too. 

5 or so hours later, Y/n had written her assignment due in for next week and had submitted it online- making her feel pretty darn put together. She knew the boys had got back from the golf, and from the WhatsApp group Tom wasn’t very happy about his performance, so he was going to be moody. After closing her laptop triumphantly she chucked it in her bag and grabbed the spare key card and roamed the corridors of the hotel to find Sam and Dom’s room - where they all where. Tom had messaged her to let her know they were filming Dom’s podcast, so she had to be stealthy in her entrance - since to the public they were still just good friends. The secret still wasn’t ‘out’ so to speak. 

They’d left the door on the latch, allowing Y/n carefully pushing it open without making any noise. Immediately the golf-related bickering met her ears, while she peeked her head round the corner of the door. The four had set up armchairs by the window, with the camera balanced on top of a table and a stack of suitcases - in order for Harry to get the ‘perfect’ shot. Silently chuckling at the precarious arrangement, Y/n slid in through the door, turning round to gently close it shut again without noise. 

As soon as Tom had seen the door opening he had jumped out of his chair, walking up to Y/n and wrapping his arms round her- pulling her back into his chest off camera. Whispering a silently ‘I love you’ he grinned at the girl who was now arching to look into his eyes. She mirrored his sentiments, placing a bottle of water in his hand while pushing him back into frame. 

In reality, the whole of this podcast Tom had been attempting to summon energy in his body that was just not present. Don’t be mistaken, he had thoroughly enjoyed the time with his dad and brothers- but simply he only had today and tomorrow off filming for another 2 weeks, and the plan had been to stay as close to his bed as possible before the surprise happened. In all honestly, he caught his eyes drooping numerous times while they were filming the podcast- feeling safe in the surrounding of his family, the exhaustion was finally catching up to him. 

Y/n spent the rest of their podcast hidden behind the camera, doing some extra research on Sam’s double bed - yet sometimes having to stifle a chuckle at the boys filming. It was perhaps another 25/ 30 minutes before they finished, during which there was a hell of a lot of spoilers that they only realised too late could not be included. She really really did try to focus on her work, yet instead she found her eyes being drawn to her boyfriend. He still looked shattered. All she really wanted to do was wrap him in a thick duvet and cuddle into his side. She even promised herself to only find his occasional snores endearing tonight, which was something she often struggled with normally.

So when the camera was clicked off, Y/n spent a short amount of time chatting with all the Hollands, before suggesting they went to their own respective rooms before dinner. Unconsciously, when Y/n had suggested it, out of pure relief, Tom leaned almost all his weight against her side - anchored by the strong clasp on her hand. Of course, Y/n noticed and practically pulled Tom down the hallway without saying a word. Only when she let go of the door of their room, allowing it to close with a small slam, did she speak her mind.

“You shower, I’m getting room service then movies in bed… no arguments Holland.” He stared at her ,mouth agape, a little taken aback by her assertiveness, typically the opposite of Y/n. 

“I feel like you’ve just been inside all day, let me-“

“Nope. Nope. My holiday this is what I want… now shoo” She smirked, pushing him toward the ensuite door. Tom knew he did not have a choice in the matter, and even if he could possibly have some sort of influence- he was way too tired to argue.

Barely 15 minutes later, the two were wrapped cosily in the crisp white bedsheets, Tom with a small glass of a negroni cocktail and Y/n with her lime soda. Both were semi-reclined in a mound of pillows, yet Tom felt the need to also lean on her chest slightly. The familiarity of Y/n’s favourite movie ‘sunshine on leith’ playing on the screen, meant that within the first 10 minutes Tom was no longer alert. The smell of her perfume and the warmth of the duvet lulled him into a much needed slumber, making Y/n have to save the half-drunk negroni from spilling across the bedsheets as his grip relaxed. She just nestled in to the pillows further, a satisfied small grin dancing on her lips as she looked ahead at the TV, reducing the volume a little.

“Tom?…..Y/n?… Is anyone home?” A familiar voice sucked Y/n out from the next film ‘the greatest showman’, making her jump a little. Recognising it to be Dom instantly, Y/n had a mini argument in her head - whether to risk disturbing Tom by wriggling out from under him; or to call out instead, granting Dom independent entrance to the hotel room. It was possibly a bit of a weird position for her unofficial father-in-law to see his son and his girlfriend in, but she cared more right now about Tom resting than Dom’s opinions. 

“Dom…. come in… it’s open I think.” Desperately trying to get the volume right - enough so Dom could hear, but not so much as to wake Tom she called out, craning her neck toward the door. Luckily almost immediately Dom let himself in, and quizzically walked in seeing Y/n in bed.

“Sorry… it’s just I didn’t want to disturb him” Nodding in understanding, Dom inspected the state of his grown up, yet childlike son, asleep on her shoulder. 

“No no… he needs it. He always works himself raw for jobs but this…”

“It’s impressive even for him.” Y/n agreed, Dom noticing her unconscious stroking of his sons arm, soothing Tom as he slept. 

“Well me and the boys were trying to phone you both because we are going for dinner-“

“Ah sorry my phones in my bag”

“No no it’s fine… just it looks like Tom could do with an extra hour or so.” Dom motioned again to the slumbering figure with his trademark small grin, finding the whole situation entirely heartwarming.

“I was planning on waking him up so we could all go to the pub this evening… but yeh skipping the dinner might be a plan. I know it’s your last night and all but-“

“-Don’t apologise Y/n. I’m glad you’re looking after the kid.”  Y/n just smiled slightly, a small blush glowing from her cheeks. “I’ll um….leave you in peace… so maybe 9 o’clock? That gives you both 3 and a bit hours.”

“Sounds good!”Still speaking softly, Y/n freed one of her hands from the duvet and gave Dom a little wave as he exited the room giving a nod to her as the door closed. 

It was a sign of the times. Dom used to be Tom’s go to whenever he was tires, frazzled or fed up. But now he had been superseded by a far superior option. A kind, beautiful, intellectual choice - that Dom would graciously accept defeat to. 

He was awfully glad Tom had Y/n in his corner. And he was awfully glad he had found a surrogate  daughter in Y/n too. 

[scotianostra]

Dates are a wee bit iffy on this, but January 8th in the year  678 is the most likely day St Nachlan, also known as Nathalan or Nauchlan, died.

Nachlan/ Nathalan/ Nauchlan  was a native of Deeside and as some would have it he was of noble birth from within one of the local Pictish tribes. It is thought he is almost certainly the same as Nechtan Neir, found in Irish calendars and in the Annals of Ulster. He appears in the Aberdeen Breviary on January 8th (same date as Nechtan in the Irish calendars), but he is on January 12th in the Martyrology of Aberdeen. Two churches one at(Tullich another at Bethelnie and one in Cowie have Nathalan as patron. In the Scottish calendars, unlike the Irish, he is consistently a bishop.St Nathalan or St Nachlan, is reputed to have built the first small chapel at Cowie on this windswept clifftop sometime during the 7th century. Legends abound regarding this Scottish saint, who also built churches at Coull and Tullich on Deeside.

In addition to preaching the gospil, St Nathalan taught his people to cultivate the land and grow crops. He died around 678 AD and is believed to have been buried at Tullich. There is a tradition that he owned great treasure which was wrapped in a bull’s hide, tied with a ropeand buried in the area now occupied by the extension of the kirkyard. A well known Cowie rhyme tell us: “Between the kirk and the kirk ford, there lies Saint Nachlan’s hoard.”

St Nathalan Roman Catholic Church, Ballater is named for him.  One of the stained glass windows in the baptistery of the Church of St. James the Great in Stonehaven honours St Nathalan.  Ballater's Masonic Lodge, founded in May 1815, is named "The Lodge of St Nathalan of Tullich-in-Mar"  St. Nathalan is one of the saints depicted in the Millennium Murals at St. Mary's Cathedral, Aberdeen

The pic is Cowie old kirk, originally dedicated to St. Nachlan.

Check out the following link, it has great stories of  Four Saints of Aberdeenshire https://orthochristian.com/99531.html

[twistedtranslations]

Cater Diamond - H-Huh?

You can unlock this story by getting Cater’s SR Lab coat

Translation under the cut

General TN

Cater refers to himself a lot as Cay(-kun), aka in third person, which is pretty important to know. I’ve only translated the line when he uses “Cay” to refer to himself once in the last paragraph for emphasis.

Laboratory

Cater: Damn, our break's already over. Hm, gotta find an empty seat… Ah, if it isn’t Vil and Lilia! I’m butting in and taking this seat~

Lilia: Oh, Cater. For you to be in the same elective as us.

Vil: It’s quite surprising that you chose poison refinement as your elective.

Cater: You think so? The other class sounded really boring.

Vil: Are you talking about "The transition and comparison of abbreviating incantations in ancient and modern times?"

Cater: That one! I've heard that it's the kind of class where you only make chronological tables and write reports. I'll definitely get fed up with something as boring as that. It's not like poison refinement is flashy either, but it has a dangerous vibe~…

Lilia: So when you weighed them against each other, you find this more preferable? I too chose this class for the same reason.

Cater: Really~? You and I, as fellow members of the light music club, really get along~

Crewel: Stop your yapping mongrels. Class is starting.

Everyone: Yes!

Crewel: Our first topic is cultivating mandrakes. If you bestow magic upon the seedling, it will grow faster. Be careful when you concentrate your magic, because how you raise it will affect the effectiveness of the poison. Then, godspeed, cultivate the seedlings you have at hand until they're a suitable size. Start the experiment!

Cater: Okay, let's put in some magic… Wow, the leaves and roots are steadily growing, nice~ If this keeps on, I'll have some healthy crops!

Lilia: … Oho? Cater, your mandrake has bigger leaves than mine.

Cater: You're right. Vil's mandrake… its leaves and roots look really glossy~

Lilia: Now that you say so… When I traveled in the past, I happened upon a soil of mandrakes and their shape and nature all differed.

Vil: The color of a crop can depend on the farmer, especially when it comes to vegetables.

Cater: So you mean to say that mandrakes raised by humans will reflect the character of the person whose magic it absorbed? Isn't that interesting! If we pour our magic in with all our power, we can make some distinctive mandrakes! Don't you think we'll trend on MagiCam if we manage to make some with funny poses and vegetable shapes?

Vil: That doesn't sound bad. I don't really care about the mandrakes trending though.

Cater: Really?! I mean, I proposed the idea, but I thought you, of all people, would find it stupid.

Vil: Now that I think about it, it's about imbuing your own hues in the mandrakes. Isn't that the perfect job for the elegant me? I am interested.

Lilia: I too will take part. I am most looking forward to the result.

Cater: Yay! Then, when we're done cultivating our mandrakes, we should come together and show 'em to each other! I look forward to seeing what mandrakes you'd make!

-

Vil: Here it is. What do you think about my mandrake?

Cater: Wow! This mandrake has an outstanding spine and build. And its roots are so crisp, it looks like a supermodel! Even more, it's moving rhythmically in cool poses. Glorious!

Vil: He's performing as if he's working. It must have been the influence of yesterday's magazine photoshoot.

Cater: As expected of you, Vil. Your amazing self awareness reflects in the individuality of your mandrake!

Lilia: Fufufu, mine is complete as well.

Cater: Huh, your mandrake is energetically dancing?!

Vil: The way it's moving its arms,is this a pop dance? What an awfully cheerful mandrake.

Cater: When you pull out a mandrake, it desperately cries with, resolved to its grim fate, but… Lilia’s mandrake looks completely different from what I expected. It's nice that it's having fun.

Lilia: Kufufu, I am glad I satisfied you. Raising a mandrake like this is very pleasant.

Cater: I won't lose to you two either. I'll make some real interesting guys! Okay, concentrate. While you're pouring your magic in, you should form an image of the mandrake you want to cultivate… There!

Chapter 2

Cater: Okay, concentrate. While you're pouring your magic in, you should form an image of the mandrake you want to cultivate… There!

Lilia: Oho, this is… a mandrake with cute, round, pink eyes.

Vil: Cater, you are unexpectedly girlish.

Cater: No, no, that's not it at all! I have two sisters after all… The Diamond family rates everything on its cuteness~ From drawing, to doing crafts and even when it came to the sweets I bought, I'd get criticized daily if it "weren't cute"…! That's why I got something cute on my first try. Well, I'll show you. The next one will be way cooler!… There!

Vil: Huh, the deep crimson body has a trump card pattern over it… What a bold design.

Lilia: Hoho, it lookes as if it is holding a guitar. It is very handsome indeed. This is the workmanship fitting of one who belongs to the light music club.

Cater: Thanks, you two! Now that I've got the hang of it, I can make other glamorous guys like this in a flash! If I concentrate once more… let's go!

Vil: This mandrake… this one is sitting on his knees as if he's prepared for gym class.

Lilia: Quite pessimistic, this one.

Cater: H-Huh?

Vil: ... Hey, Lilia. You said that the appearance of a cultivated mandrake depends on the personality of the human whose magic it was imbued with, right?

Lilia: Yes. It might be that the usual cheerful Cater hides a very downer side of himself.

Cater: Huuh?! No way, you guys are just overthinking! I sucked at imbuing this one with my magic!

Lilia: Cater, why are you so flustered? So your real essence might be~

Cater: There's no such thing as that~! Lilia, you're just playing with me, right? Come on… From now on, I'll show what I can really do!

-

Vil: Heh… I managed to cultivate three mandrakes.

Lilia: Me too. This amount of ingredients should suffice for refining the poison. How is Cater doing…?

Cater: Tada! These are my mandrakes!

Lilia: Oho, you also have three! A skipping one, a rainbow colored flashy one… and one who is holding his belly while laughing. They all seem fun from their appearance!

Cater: Right!

Vil: Hm, only three? I thought I saw you make more.

Cater: Hah! Don't joke around like that, Vil. These three are all of them.

Vil: Hmpf, if you say so, I won't pry any further.

Cater: A-Anyways, since I went through the trouble of making them, I should take some pics for MagiCam!

*shutter sounds*

Cater: Phew~ Be good, little mandrakes~ I'll keep on shooting 'til I get the perfect shot!

Lilia/Vil: …Ah.

Cater: Hey, which picture do you guys think is the best?

Crewel: Cater Diamond.

Cater: !

Crewel: What do you think that happens to fussing mongrels that do not stop barking.

Cater: A, Ahaha~ my apologies. But it's not like I was the only one…

Vil: It's like Mr. Crewel said. You should take this seriously, Cater.

Lilia: Neglecting the basic principles of being a student, namely the pursuit of knowledge, is deplorable.

Cater: Hey, don’t play dumb, that’s so unfair! Now I'm the only one getting in trouble! You're mistaken, Mr. I just got really excited about the study of this experiment… Here, please look! I put so much effort into the experiment that I grew six mandrakes. This is enough for the poison, right?

Crewel: So you weren't simply fooling around… But you know what happens if you howl any longer than this… right?

Cater: Yes, I'll watch out!… Vil, Lilia! How cruel could you be, abandoning me like that?

Vil: You were the one who started this.

Lilia: Agreed. It is of utmost importance to know when to pull back from entertainment.

Cater: That's not what I agreed to~~!~

-

*humming*

Cater: *sigh* Finally the class is over. Time to pull myself together with some shooting time~ Which mandrake will Cater finally upload to his MagiCam? Yep, the stylish and cheerful guys are great, but this one… I’d better pick this one. Oh. Maybe this mandrake that's always cackling. Cay should always be excited and happy after all~ Okay, mandrake, please look over here~ Stay still for a while. Okay, cheese!

*shutter noise*

[tabloidtoc]

Star, May 3

You can buy a brand new copy of this issue without the mailing label for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Shiloh Jolie-Pitt

Page 1: Christina Aguilera at 40 -- she talks about child stardom, learning to love her body, and what she wants her daughter Summer to know

Page 2: Contents, Renee Zellweger, Phoebe Dynevor and James McAvoy at the BAFTAs in London

Page 3: Mariska Hargitay and Law & Order: SVU co-star Ice-T take a selfie during a break from shooting the cop drama in NYC, Heather Graham at the beach in Mexico, stepping into the America's Got Talent studio Sofia Vergara elevated her casual cropped jeans with strappy platform sandals in L.A., Jason Momoa cutting a rug with an unidentified partner ahead of filming a scene for his upcoming fantasy film Slumberland in Toronto

Page 4: Colton Underwood comes out -- saying he's the happiest and healthiest he's ever been, the former Bachelor clarifies his orientation

Page 5: Lena Dunham is no stranger to controversy, so it comes as no surprise that her foray into fashion design has also come under fire as she partnered with a plus-size label to create the capsule collection 11 Honore x Lena Dunham, but the kicky line quickly came under fire as critics are calling it tone-deaf, mediocre and not inclusive at all since its largest size is a 26 and some are even going so far to call Lena a grifter who gained weight in order to make money off the plus-size community but Lena, who underwent a hysterectomy at 31, has pointed to early menopause as the cause of her straight-up gut -- while Lena refuses to be intimidated by bullies, she is listening to the complaints about sizes and is planning to address it

* Once a cautionary tale of the perils of child stardom, at age 40 Macaulay Culkin is a father himself as he and girlfriend Brenda Song welcomed a son, Dakota -- he's finally overcome his demons and Brenda has been a huge influence on his life and helped him get back on the straight and narrow and he's even pursuing acting again, shooting season 10 of American Horror Story; his life has taken such a positive turn

* A year after announcing her split from Jay Cutler, Kristin Cavallari is seeing the upside of divorce, saying it's made her a better mom in some ways because she has her kids half the time now so when she has them for her week, she is so incredibly present with her kids Camden, Jaxon and Saylor and she is not distracted by her phone or anything else; she is with them -- Jay and Kristin each have the kids 182.5 days a year and court papers also revealed that her ex is allowed two phone calls and two FaceTime or Skype calls a week and vice versa so now every moment is precious and if someone is having a temper tantrum or something, she remains calm because she knows that she is losing them in a few days

Page 6: Gwen Stefani is widely thought to have had some help in the nips and tucks department, and as her wedding to Blake Shelton approaches, he is starting to object to her constant tweaking of her face -- she's always messing with it by getting more fillers and Botox and Blake is afraid of what he'll see at the altar and he's freaking out at Gwen's increasingly extreme beauty routine which is becoming increasingly over-the-top; Gwen can barely move her face to smile at him anymore and it looks weird -- while he frets, he's trying to reassure his wife-to-be because Blake thinks she's beautiful just the way she is

* As an executive producer on the long-running Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay has tasked the writers to come up with more storylines featuring one of her favorite characters: defense attorney Trevor Langan, played by none other than her husband Peter Hermann -- Mariska and Peter originally met and fell in love when Peter guest-starred on the show and she loves to keep that magic alive by bringing him back to play Trevor but the trouble is he is busy with his own gigs as a series regular on Younger and his recurring role on Blue Bloods and Peter loves working with his wife, but he has his own acting career apart from Mariska -- still, he may soon have his day in court because Peter understands how Mariska feels and is trying to work his schedule to allow him some guest spots in the near future

Page 8: Star Shots -- Lenny Kravitz with a guitar flaunted his well-sculpted midsection during a stroll on the beach, Suki Waterhouse with her on-the-go grub on the set in Liverpool

Page 9: Louisa Jacobson and Taissa Farmiga and Denee Benton on the set of The Gilded Age in NYC, Conan O'Brien sipped on a soda at lunch in L.A., Katy Perry in the American Idol bathroom

Page 10: Kate Hudson with mom Goldie Hawn and kids Ryder and Rani, Kate Hudson twirled solo modeling in a pal's swimwear collection, Jude Law's daughter Iris Law who will make her acting debut in Danny Boyle's upcoming Sex Pistols biopic makes a call in London

Page 12: Kelly Osbourne handed out items at a food distribution event as the Islamic Center for Southern California, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the gym, despite a no-social warning a cheeky Nicole Kidman shared a pic from the set of Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos in which she portrays Lucille Ball

Page 13: Anabella Sciorra and Donnie Wahlberg gloved up for a Blue Bloods scene in NYC, Heidi Klum and husband Tom Kaulitz started their morning during a walk on the beach in L.A.

Page 14: Travis Barker showed off his body art stepping off a Hollywood tour bus shirtless after filming a music video, a cheerful Britney Spears gave a fun look into her wardrobe in a pink floral frock, Scott Disick and Amelia Hamlin color-coordinated for a walk near the beach in Miami

Page 16: Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter put up their dukes to promote their Celebrity Boxing Match in Philadelphia, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and husband Nick Jonas at the BAFTAs in London, Ellen DeGeneres on the phone during a stroll in her main hood of Montecito

Page 18: Normal or Not? A denim-on-denim clad Jay Leno scratched an itch while filming a project in Los Angeles -- not normal, dressed in a Siggi sweatshirt Katie Holmes picked up some seasonal blooms on Manhattan's Upper East Side -- normal, Kate Beckinsale multitasked during a car ride by applying undereye patches -- not normal

Page 19: Gavin Rossdale appeared to be pleased with his Kitson purchase by doing a little dance after leaving the popular L.A. store -- not normal

Page 20: Fashion -- stars wow in statement-making capes -- Gisele Bundchen, Charlize Theron, Zoey Deutch

Page 21: Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning

Page 24: Justin Bieber: How Love Saved Me -- the formerly troubled pop singer gives praise for wife Hailey Bieber

Page 25: Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles' romance has already cooled and the pair are giving each other space -- turns out Olivia and Harry don't actually have much in common -- the two jetted to London after wrapping Don't Worry Darling, but they were soon waylaid by their respective responsibilities as Olivia has been spending time with her kids Otis and Daisy while her ex Jason Sudeikis shoots Ted Lasso while Harry, who was spooked by how quickly intense things got, is gearing up for his role in My Policeman -- for now, the two have decided to reassess things when they're back in L.A., which leaves the window open for Jason, whose strategy was to let her and Harry fizzle out, then see where she is at, and it's going according to plan

* Jennifer Lopez calls off her relationship with Alex Rodriguez

* Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher are better than ever after overcoming a rough patch, one that had their inner circle convinced they were headed for divorce -- Mike had a serious roving eye that made Carrie anxious and she would treat him like he was Mr. Underwood and tensions between the two were at an all-time high when the pandemic hit, forcing the two into extra one-on-one time, but as it turns out, their new routine is just what they needed because they set boundaries, divided up tasks and put time aside for fun things and they prioritized romance, which has made all the difference -- Carrie and Mike are re-committed to their marriage and they've been through so much so much and neither wants to throw it away

Page 26: Cover Story -- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's model kid -- Shiloh Jolie-Pitt the gorgeous teen is ready for her close up, but Brad and Angie are at odds about Shiloh's new passion -- Shiloh's been experimenting with girlier styles lately, including growing out her hair and she's at the age where she's starting to change things up -- Brad isn't thrilled about Shiloh's modeling dreams and idea of her walking into the lion's den gives him cause for concern -- Angelina began modeling at 16, just one year older than Shiloh and Shiloh knows that's what set her mom on her path to fame and Shiloh is constantly asking Angie about the pros and cons of the modeling world

Page 29: Model Kids -- these celeb offspring also know how to strike a pose -- Hailey Bieber, Sofia Richie, Amelia Hamlin, Lily-Rose Depp, Brooklyn Beckham, Paris Jackson, Kendall Jenner, Corinne Foxx, Ireland Baldwin, Margaret Qualley, Kaia Gerber, Leni Klum, Patrick Schwarzenegger

Page 30: Prince William and Prince Harry: Behind Closed Doors -- the estranged princes are forced to reckon with their rift as the royal family gathers for Prince Philip's funeral

Page 32: High Anxiety -- it's not so simple for celebs who struggle with panic attacks -- Emma Stone, Stephen Colbert, Amanda Seyfried

Page 33: Hugh Grant, Ryan Reynolds, Ariana Grande

Page 36: Beauty -- nail it -- self-care essentials to score the perfect at-home manicure and pedicure -- Kaley Cuoco

Page 38: Style -- cute cases -- step up your tech, and fashion, game this season with a trendy cellphone cover -- Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Page 40: Entertainment

Page 48: Parting Shot -- Corey Feldman embraced wife Courtney Anne Mitchell as the two ventured out for a romantic outing in L.A.

[shigarakis-fifth-hand]

Bakugo x Reader; Catch Ya Later

Bakugo is suspicious of Reader, who seems to be perfect in every way. He is obsessed with finding her dirty secret, or could he be obsessed for another reason?

Enjoy the series! <3 one two three

Bakugo was sitting at his desk, waiting for the teacher to arrive when you walk in. He only looks at you for a second or two before you are crowded around by students. “Huh, what’s the big deal?” Bakugo asks himself, not meaning for Mineta to turn around and pull out magazines with your photos on it.

“She’s a model, see?! She models for Peace & Positivity! It’s a hero agency that trains people to disarm villains in the least violent way possible! She had a nature quirk, see? Look at that pic of her in a bikini! See how to fish are drawn to her? Oh, and here she’s wearing a crop top and the parrots land on her head!”

Bakugo takes the magazine, looking at it. Sure, he can’t help but look at you from time to time, but mostly he reads the Meet the Model. You say that you’re the shy type, have a thing for bad boys, and you want to become a hero. You have long h/c hair and beautiful, bright e/c eyes with long eye lashes. You always wear a vine on your wrist that’s connected to your body for your hero use.

You’re short, almost an entire foot below Katsuki. Bakugo puts the magazine in his backpack, knowing that he will learn your deal before tomorrow. You cannot be the perfect, innocent girl you appear to be. Katsuki wants to find your secrets.

Over the next day, Bakugo watches you from a far. You are beyond the most popular girl in the school, becoming quick friends with everyone in the class and even the older years, especially the Big Three who you already have plans with. Bakugo notices how Nejire looks up and down at you and your body. It makes him angry for some reason.

When Bakugo is done with his research, he can’t find a single bad thing about you. You’re beautiful, sweet, kind, friendly, funny, and very single. Were you secretly a villain? Bakugo had to put you to the test.

Bakugo walks up to you during the morning, pounding his fists on your desk when Mina and few of your other friends surround you. “Um, hi?” You ask, not really knowing who he is. He looks like the annoying Pomeranian named Lady that your aunt has, and his glowing red eyes give you a devil feel.

“Listen Miss Little Perfect, what the hell are you doing in the hero course?! You’re a peaceful little girl with a nature quirk, and honestly, I don’t see how a nature quirk can help you be a hero.” Everyone looks at Bakugo with bug-eyes. How could he say that about you?!

“Dude, she was recommended into UA. I don’t think you understand what that-” Bakugo smacks Denki in the head multiple times. “Hey! Stop it!” You defend him, the vine shooting from your wrist and wrapping around Bakugo’s arm to push him away.

“Don’t hurt Kaminari like that!” You yell as Bakugo walks up to you, small explosions coming from his palms. “Oh now you want to tell me what to do?! Oh you, better wait because I-” The explosions stop as Aizawa walks into the room, shutting you up.

“We’re doing training. Everyone will have a partner. We’re doing heroes vs villains. Now everyone draw a number and go change into your hero costumes.” Everyone went to get a number, and then went to change. You went with Ochako, Momo, Asui, and Mina.

“What was that all about?”, “I think he likes you!”, “He was so rude.”, and “You put him in his place for sure!” filled your ears as you got changed. Heading out, you looked at your slip of paper. You got a blue slip, and was 1#. “Huh, what does that mean?” You asked yourself as All Might stepped out to talk.

“Now, if you are blue, you are trying to get the bomb. If you got a red slip, you are playing to protect it at all costs. Now, can we have 1 come up here. We will use them as our first examples. And don’t worry, all of this is completely safe. We will step in if you get close to being hurt.” He smiled brightly as you stood up.

“Now, Deku and Todoroki will be the heroes! You two will be protecting the bomb!” He explained to the class what the heroes were doing, which was pretty simple.

“Wonderful! Young Y/n is our first villain, along with Bakugo!” WHAT. You turned to see the angry Bakugo walking towards you, looking furious. “Now here’s what you will be doing!” As he went on the explain, you didn’t really listen. All you knew was that you and Bakugo would be working together to get your hands on a large item in the building, while Deku and Todoroki would trying to stop you with a time limit of ten minutes.

The entire time he talked, Bakugo’s angry red eyes stared into your soul, piercing into your brain and thoughts. Scary stuff right there.

“Wonderful! Now get in place!” All Might let you go, setting up the cameras for the class to watch as you and Bakugo walked to the edge of building. “Okay, so I’m thinking that you can blow up the ground and make it hard to walk around, and then we can use my vines to get by.” Bakugo scoffed at your plan, waving you away. “Just stay out of my way, I don’t need you.” You looked at Bakugo intensely.

“Bakugo! I’m not failing this because you don’t like me! Now stop being a child!” You scolded him as he turned to you, a smirk on his face. “I’ll stop being a child when you stop thinking you’re the best thing in the world even though you’re just a weak slut who models for all the perverts in the world to stare at while you think you can become a hero because you’re pretty. Just watch, I’m a lot more powerful than you. Everyone in this class is.” 

As the countdown started, Bakugo turned away from you, not seeing your eyes fill with tears. When the countdown was over, Bakugo sprinted into the hallway, exploding every wall in his path. “God, doesn’t he know we need to be quiet?” You asked yourself, before using the vine on your wrist to life you to the ceiling to transport you. 

The ceilings were high and people didn’t look up often, so you could spring down on unsuspecting competitors. Up and down the hallway, you listened to the sounds that surrounded you before you heard Bakugo screaming. Without hesitating, you dropped to the ground and began running as fast as you could, only stopping when you saw Bakugo fighting Deku, Deku getting ready to hit Bakugo with his full strength.

“Bakugo! Watch out!” You slammed your body into Bakugo, pushing him away. In seconds, you were able to use the vine on your wrist to grow and wrap around Deku’s leg before the vine sprouted a single flower. “What the-” Bakugo began to speak before you handed him a piece of cloth that was detachable from your hero suit.

“Hold this to your mouth! If you breathe it in, you fall asleep!” You yelled, shoving another cloth over your own mouth, letting the flower release a pink midnight. “Y-you’re like Midnight.” Bakugo couldn’t help but smile as Deku slowly drifted off to sleep. “Eh, I have higher standards. Now let’s go!” You joked, before running to the nearest wall. 

“Katsuki, give me your hand!” You yelled, gripping his hand without an answer and using the vine to propel you two through the hole in the ceiling. Once you got up there, you had a full view of the object. “Get it!” Bakugo yelled, helping to push you forward towards the bomb.

Then, out of nowhere, Todoroki jumped out, using his fire to blast you into the window. The next few seconds was a full blur. Glass shattered, your skin was on fire, and you were screaming. Bakugo and Todoroki ran to your side, seeing that your skin was bleeding and burnt. “Y/n, I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize you were so close, I thought you were down the hallway!” Todoroki yelled as you pushed Bakugo away. 

“Get… the… thing Bakugo! You wanted to win!” You screamed in pain, tears streaming down your face as the alarms went off in the building. “What? No, Y/n. This is over.” He was right. As you grinded your teeth in pain, Bakugo was able to carry you bridal style to where to teachers were waiting. 

“Oh my god, Y/n!” Aizawa and All Might ran towards you, Aizawa prying you from Bakugo’s arms. “No! You said she would be okay! You said you’d watch to make sure nobody got hurt! You lied!” Bakugo yelled angrily, sobbing at All Might as everyone watched Aizawa run you to Recovery Girl, him holding an unconscious you in his arms.

“And you! You burned her! You sent her flying to glass!” Bakugo ran at Todoroki, many students having to hold him back. “You pushed her asshole!” Todoroki ran pack, All Might having to pick him up to keep him from charging each other.

The rest of the day was cancelled, and everyone was sent back to class where Present Mic tried to cheer everyone up with dad jokes and funny stories about Aizawa during his high school days. Everyone couldn’t get the view of you, your entire back burnt up in 3rd degree burns and your arms and neck cut up by the window glass.

Bakugo especially… You had been in so much pain after he had told you to run for it. It was his fault really. And on top of everything, he had said such terrible things to you.

“Sensei!” Bakugo held his hand up, getting his attention. “I… need to go check up on Y/n. Please.” He quietly begged, trying not to draw attention as Present Mic sighed and nodded, letting Bakugo run out.

He ran as fast as he could, turning the corner to see you laying on the bed, your entire chest and back wrapped in bandages, your arms as well. “Shh, I just got her to sleep. Gave her the strongest sleep medication I got. You’re that Katsuki one, the one she was talking about, right?” Recover Girl asked, sitting at her desk. “Y-yes mam. I was just… checking on her.” Bakugo sat down next to your head, running his hands through your hair.

“Don’t lie to me boy. You feel bad, don’t you? That Todoroki came by earlier too. Y/n is a sweet girl, I’m not surprised she has as many boys as she does visiting her. You think she’s pretty?” Recovery Girl asked, walking over to Y/n and pressing her hand on her back. Bakugo blushed, choosing not to answer the question.

It did anger him that Todoroki had gotten to talk to her while she was awake. “Anyways, I doubt she’ll be up until later. You won’t see her until this evening in the dorms, I’m sorry.” She walked back to her desk, chewing on a piece of taffy.

“Um, what time do you think?” Bakugo asked, eager to wait for her. “Oh, you want to walk her to the dorms? How cute. Todoroki asked me the same thing. I’ll have her out by the end of school. Just make sure she rests tonight, okay? Those burns will be okay by tomorrow. Now shoo.” Recovery Girl sent him out of the room as Bakugo smiled.

Now that he thought about it, Y/n was very pretty.

[katukutataka]

KH Theory: Kairi’s Grandparents

So last night Square Enix released the 4 new characters for Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road and everyone is flipping out. So am I since we’re all waiting for Dark Road to come out as well as other Kingdom Hearts games.

There’s already people throwing their theories and ideas that I thought I should tell mine as well before June 10, when we’ll be given a little more information. 

Based on the title of this post, I won’t be just talking about Kairi’s grandmother. 

Since the release of the photos and names of the new characters in the photograph, a lot of people are speculating that Kairi’s Grandmother could be Vor

[image provided by the Dark Road Twitter page]]

Now, Vor appears to be the youngest of the group in the photo. I say “appear” because if anime has taught me one thing, it’s that the seemingly young looking person is actually the oldest...But for this case, it could that Vor really is the youngest. 

Let’s just go with the latter for now. 

A lot of people on Twitter, Tumbr, Reddit, kh13.com and Youtube are theorizing that Vor could be Kairi’s grandmother. 

YouTuber HMK, ProdigyxCD, SHARKTANK, VTNVIVI, and others also agree with that theory, or at least point it out from their observations. Specifically because of the Norse meaning of Vor’s name.

[Name Information provided by Leamax on kh13.com]

So that would make sense as to how Kairi’s Grandma knew about the story of Light and Darkness that’s mention three times throughout the franchise:

1) Birth by Sleep: Kairi asked her grandmother to retell the story of Light and Darkness

2)Kingdom Hearts: Sora witnesses a flashback to Kairi and her grandma sitting in the Radiant Garden Library

3)Kingdom Hearts Unchained X: when you first download the game, a pop-up book version of Radiant Garden appears. Kairi and her grandmother are shown while the story of Light and Darkness appears in white text above.

If Nomura intends to use the meanings of the Norse names literally, then Vor has vast knowledge of not only Darkness, but also about Light. Maybe more so than Master Xehanort? 

“The gift of Providence” is interesting to me as the latter means “the protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power”, “God or nature as providing protective or spiritual care”, “timely preparation for future eventualities” [Google Dictionary]. 

Could it be that Vor was preparing for what was to come around 75 to 85 years into the future? Could it be that she was going to prepare Kairi for the events that took place before KH1? 

Another thing that people are using as “evidence” is the similarity of Vor’s face to Kairi’s grandmother. More so about the smile and the eyes. 

People are saying that the smile between the two are very similar.

(i’m sorry about the small image. Literally just cropped it from the image provided by Dark Road Twitter page. Pic of Kairi’s grandma found on Google Images)

I suppose the smiles do look very alike, but it could be a trick of the eye and the inner desire of wanting this to somehow work is affecting us. 

The other thing that people are saying are similar are the eye colors:

On Vor’s image, her eyes are more green while Kairi’s grandmother is more blue. Indigo,if you’re picky. 

Now I know that sometimes the color of one’s eyes may “change” colors depending on how light hits it. For example, dark brown eyes can appear light brown in direct light or black in the shade. Green eyes tend to have to accent colors like a light brown, which is hazel-green eyes. Sometimes people will have a blue tint in them, blue-green eyes. Yellow is also seen in the mix. Sometimes when a baby has either green or blue eyes, it changes colors as they get older. It’s rare in those cases but still can happen. And yes, there are people with completely green eyes only even in adulthood. 

Given that this Tetsuya Nomura’s concept as well as the meaning of eye colors, the affiliation of Light and Darkness present in one’s heart can change their eye colors (and hair).

The main example of this is Young Xehanort, where he had silver eyes. But because of the Darkness, his eyes became more amber yellow. This has become a trend for fans to distinguish who are “good” and “bad”.

I will add in that that’s not the best way to tell if a person is good or bad as there are characters who have amber, yellow, light brown eyes.

So let’s break down the possibilities of the eyes between the 2 characters:

1) Vor’s eyes are green from a young age. However, if her eyes changed as she grew up, they became more blue, indigo colored, which is what Kairi’s grandmother has. 

2) If Light and Darkness are affiliated to the change of eye colors, then it’s possible that Vor’s eyes changed to more blue-indigo colored because of the abundance of Light (assuming).

3) It’s very possible that Vor and Kairi’s grandmother are TWO DIFFERENT women. Therefore, the color of the eyes mean nothing for the relation. 

The 3rd possibility would lead to “Master Ava is Kairi’s Grandmother Theory” and/or one of the many “Dandelions is Kairi’s Grandmother Theory”. 

Like, there’s so much that we don’t know about Kairi’s family and their backstory that many people, myself included, created fan-theories that relate to the Foretellers or the Dandelions somehow. Especially since the grandmother knows the story of Light and Darkness. 

I have an idea that I’m not sure if anyone else has spoken about on a media platform. If there are people out there that has a similar idea, please let me know so I can give credit! 

My idea banks off of Kairi’s GRANDFATHER. 

I know. A real stretch, but it could still be possible. Let me humor you. 

Let’s say the 3rd possibility is true: Vor and the grandmother are two different women. So, what of the grandfather? Who was he? Where was he? Did he pass of age or after The Fall of Radiant Garden? Who knows. Maybe Nomura didn’t think that far for Kairi or anyone’s family background...or did he? 

Anyway, if the grandfather is one of the Dandelions who avoided the war or is a disciple of the Dandelions, then he met the grandmother at some point, fell in love, married, had kids, then had a grandchild. During all that, it’s likely that the grandfather told the grandmother the story of Light and Darkness as a legend that will be passed down through the generations. 

Perhaps some of you thought of another person who’s also featured in the photograph:

Yup. I went there. I’m putting my idea that Bragi is potentially Kairi’s grandfather. 

I mean, his Norse meaning of the name is:

[Name definition provided by Leamax on kh13.com]

His name means “Poet”. Creative with his words with the knowledge of poems and songs, it’s likely he told told of the story of Light and Darkness the same way that Kairi’s grandmother told before. 

[Kairi’s grandmother story dialogue provided by u/blackdragoon747 on a reddit thread, “Kairi’s grandmother story (KH3 Theory) [Discussion]]

The story is told in a vague yet meaningful way. Something easy to tell the generations to come of what happened. Yes, I realize it ‘s not a poem so the relation between this and Bragi is small. But what if Bragi told the grandmother this version of the story because of how it was told to him by his Keyblade Master? Possibly the same Master who taught all 6 of them? 

I will admit that the Bragi’s orange hair is giving some “evidence” that he’s related to Kairi. It’s a stretch since the grandparents don’t have to have red hair to be related to Kairi. It’s likely that one of the Kairi’s birth parents had the same red hair color as her. I just wanted to throw that idea out there. 

I remember seeing an idea with art by laizy-boy (one of my favorite KH fanartist) where what if Xehanort was Kairi’s grandfather? Laizy-boy created Masako, an O.C. portrayed as Kairi’s grandmother, where she met Xehanort and Eraques when they were young. It’s hinted that Young(er) Xehanort had a crush on Masako in Laizy-boy’s artwork. If that was the case, then Master Xehanort was a fucked up grandfather to do what he did to Kairi in KH3. 

(I’m still salty that happened even if Kairi got her sweet revenge in Re:Mind!)

I wanted to mention that because I just remembered that and thought that if some people thought the possibility that Xehanort was Kairi’s grandfather, what about Bragi if not the former? 

There is notion that Hermod could also be a candidate, but I personally don’t think so? if you do, let me know! I’m always happy to hear what others think otherwise! 

There may be people who think that Urd is Kairi’s grandmother too, but I’m not sure. 

Anyways! This post is rather long as it is so i’ll end it here. Let me know what you all think! Send me your questions and I might make another post tomorrow after getting more info. 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Water Symbols and Ties Between Grady and Terminus: “A” Rewatch by @wdway

This is another re-watch from @wdway. She totally saves my butt on busy weeks when I don’t have time to write new theories, lol.

Here are her observations:

Hi ladies! I hope you're both doing well. I did a rewatch of s4e16 A, series number 51. I think it's important to mention that this episode was co-written by Scott Gimple and Angela Kang.

It starts out with a flashback of the prison and then we have Rick, Carl's and Michonne talking about how hungry they are. Later, they catch a rabbit in a snare. I thought about how much rabbits were featured in this back half of s4. It emphasized the size when Rick says, "A small one." Later, Michonne mentions again it was a small rabbit. This made me think of Lennie talking about the little ones.

I'll skip over the Claimers, other than the car scene where Daryl and Rick were talking. Daryl brings Rick a bottle of water. There's no label. It's just clear. It's actually a good size bottle and he sets it down in front of them. He brought water = Beth into that scene. They brought Beth into the Terminus part of the episode with the use of symbols that we were totally unaware of at the time. We gradually realized them as the seasons went on, the water being a huge symbol.

This is right after they jumped the Terminus fence and found this door propped open. Notice it says that it's a fire door, a way to escape. I think this can be considered a water symbol, just as a fire pull or ceiling sprinkler would be. I cropped this shot so that you could read the sign on the door a little easier. I do want to mention that Daryl is next to Rick and they are the only two in the shot.

Rick and co come out into a common area or plaza and are about to get a plate full of meat when Rick notices objects from people from the prison. He takes a guy to use as a shield against the sharpshooters.

I just mentioned how the door was the symbol of water, even though it was a door. Well, this is similar. That red object against the wall is a fire hose holder. I know this because I noticed it at the end of Us when Maggie and her group first came into Terminus. I noticed how it said fire hose. You can also see the fire hydrant next to it and if you look closely at the base, it's just a prop. There's a bottom section that should be buried or would be connected to some type of piping if it was real, so these are not objects that were already at this location. That means they're symbols.

Notice how this little corner is visible during the majority of this scene. We see it to the side or behind Rick almost the entire time. So, we have a fire hose and a fire hydrant. Both Beth symbols because they = water.

Look straight above the fire hose stand. There are 2 diamonds at the top of the building. I don't think they’re original to the building because of the shadowing around them. They appear to simply be tacked up, serving no particular purpose other than being diamond shaped, which = Beth.

Now look at the corner next to the hose and hydrant. There is a sign on the brick wall that I believe refers to the hose or hydron. It reads, “emergency water key, replace when used.” Just in case we didn't know this was a water reference, they wanted to make sure that they let us know, but I really like the fact that it's a water key.

I just needed to point out Daryl's Poncho which, ironically, he didn't notice, but Rick did. 

The three small pictures underneath it are original sketches of the Native Americans’ Thunderbird.

Our little group starts to run for their lives. We follow them as they run past a boneyard, turn different corners, and then all of a sudden we see this shot.

Notice the fire hose stand, a tire, the yellow objects, the abandoned car with a shattered windshield and these stacked train cars. During this shot, we hear a female voice calling for help. Here's the funny thing: we never see our group running through or past this, so this is staged simply to show us symbols. In one of the five flashbacks was of Rick coming into the prison with Beth/Judith sitting on the steps, Patrick was sitting on the floor in front of Beth's cell, making something out of Legos. Carl is cleaning his gun. Rick stops to talk to Patrick and Patrick thanks Rick for picking up the Legos and he makes a comment about that they are for ages 4 through 12. I've always thought that was somewhat odd.

I just want to throw out an idea to you. This might actually be a comment about the story arc lasting from season 4 through season 12. I'm not talking about the series ending at 12, I'm simply thinking that this storyline, Rick, Beth, Daryl and Carol will continue through season 12.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Love it all! I especially liked the fire and water stuff you pointed out at Terminus and how they brought Beth into it. The combination of water and key is especially interesting. You did spark one idea from me.

And I know I sound like a broken record on this point, but could Terminus have foreshadowed the helicopter group? (Yes, I know I’m saying this WAY too often, and all the things I point to and consider probably do NOT directly equate to the helicopter group, but think of it as a mindset shift on my part. I’m kind of considering all things in light of the helicopter group.)

I was thinking that Terminus was where all the train tracks met, right? And we’ve seen more than one representation of the train tracks representing character paths. So, it would have made more sense if all the characters had met up at Terminus. And most of them did. Beth was the exception. But if this was a foreshadow of all character paths converging at some future point, then that would make sense. Because Beth is the one that’s been gone for a long time, but since then, others, such as Heath and Rick, have also disappeared.

So, all paths need to converge at some point, and we believe that will happen in some way via the helicopter group. See why I’m thinking this? I think what you’ve found here backs this up.

Another insight? Remember in 5x09, we see some train tracks with the camera moving forward along them, and the tracks disappear into the woods up ahead. Maybe those tracks represent Beth’s path, and the fact that it’s going to disappear for a while. But it will reappear and meet up with other character paths at some future point.

Which also reminds me of a kind of famous passage in the book of Revelation about a woman who gives birth to a child but then goes into hiding in the woods. Most scholars interpret it (a total analogy) as that the true gospel Christ taught would go into hiding for a while (Dark Ages) but re-emerge later. I don’t know if this is what they were going for or even considering, but it’s what I thought of. Might be a similar template. Anyway, great rewatch. You always have eagle eyes.

@wdway:

I cannot tell you how much I agree with you. I definitely think Terminus was tied to the helicopter people or, more precisely, that Terminus is connected to Grady and it is Grady who had a connection with the helicopter or what the helicopter group was at the beginning of the turn. I believe it's around a year-and-a-half into the turn when Beth was brought there, and I believe they have evolved over the 10 years.

Dawn pretty well confirmed that there was a group coming soon, so it makes total sense that it could be a military-type organization. I'm going to show you some shots that will totally bring back what I've been obsessing about all the seasons.

Top one is Hansen, Dawn's Superior until he went crazy. I know the second shot is really dark. This is the best I can do with trying to lighten it. Do you remember this at the end of No Sanctuary, where they give a bit of a backstory of Terminus being taken over by this big guy who terrorized them? I believe this guy is Hanson.

Isn't it strange that they tell a backstory about a group that TF has taken down and that they go to a lot of effort to make this person hard to see?

That's right. I think the crazy guy from the train box car is none other than Hanson. If you look at Slabtown and Coda, this person is discussed several times. An awful lot of screen time is taken up with a story of how Hanson went rogue. What's the need of that when Grady is about to be left behind and, more importantly, why do we repeatedly see a picture of him?

The first picture I showed above has his badge next to it. Another question of why do we need to see that? I'm going to throw out a crazy idea. Why not, haha. In the very dark picture below, the guy seems to be wearing some kind of large belt buckle. I think it might be a gun or something stuck in the front of his pants, but I think there's a badge there.

I guess there's a definite yes to me, believing that all of this relates to the helicopter people. More importantly, the new series The World Beyond apparently did not want to start until after we see episode 16. I've said this before. I think at some point, not necessarily the first episode, but I think somewhere within it we will see Grady, pre-Beth.

@frangipanilove

I love you take on Hanson. I totally agree that they alluded to something that we haven’t quite seen yet, and I would love to see Grady tied to the helicopter ppl somehow. I have wondered a lot about the tattoo guy from Terminus and what the deal was with him, and your pics show a remarkable resemblance between Hanson and the crazy terminus dude.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

It would explain the defunct cop cars at Terminus, if Hansen left Grady and arrived in them. And as you’ve said, the weirdness of some of this that hasn’t yet been explained.

That’s it for today. Anybody have any thoughts on these insights?