#i just like the idea of them fighting over donald before they got together okay
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glowyjellyfish · 1 year ago
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Okay, my brain latched onto this concept and spit out an entire plot outline for some sort of cursed magical musical episode and/or fic. It’s far from complete—I’m just throwing these ideas out there for anybody who wants to run with them.
1. Family is on an adventure, get cursed somehow with Musical Oversharing Curse that Spreads
2. First, Dewey and Webby sing a song about adventuring! This isn’t that strange, right?
3. Next morning, Scrooge sings a song about the money bin, visiting a number of employees and spreading the curse to them unknowingly. The curse resists being noticed, but Scrooge has definitely realized something is up by the end of his song.
4. Meanwhile, the kids had their own song or three, no ideas yet
5. Gyro was just cursed by Scrooge, continues to work normally and then his whole team starts singing as they try to figure something out. Manny is percussion. They all quickly piece together that Scrooge was singing earlier, it’s clearly some kind of magical effect, maybe they should all go home and wait for the magic to go away?
6. it doesn’t
7. Fenton totally believes he’s well away from the effect of whatever magical musical artifact, and goes to fight crime for a bit, and finds himself breaking out into some kind of heroic power ballad with a rap break. After, he’s like “…huh,” and figures it might be a thing that needs to be dealt with. Possibly he goes to the mansion directly? First of all, he’s concerned he’s gonna belt out his identity or stuff he’s going through or science secrets while fighting bad guys, giving them an opening; secondly he insists he can’t even sing normally so this is super weird. He pretends he’s more concerned about singing all his secrets, but really he’s more distraught over the latter.
8. Donald has been singing about every annoyance and feeling all day. Beakley sings about the headache his singing has given her.
9. The kids and Della and Scrooge sing something resembling I’ve Got A Theory while they work to figure this out
10. Meanwhile, Launchpad has just been singing rambling usually happy rock songs to himself while he does his thing, and unfortunately does not realize there is a problem, nor does anyone catch him before he goes off to St. Canard for his crime fighting family time
11. This is bad, because team adventure has figured out that the curse is contagious, and must be reversed on each cursed individual in a specific way. If Launchpad inadvertently spreads the curse to another city, it could become impossible to contain and reverse! (I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make it be a pandemic, this just happened)
12. Funny background event: Glomgold attempting to kill Scrooge and singing about it
13. Drake sings an extremely extra musical number as he goes to fight crime for the night
14. Probably Our Heroes just barely manage to contain Launchpad and Drake and Team Darkwing, probably with the swift assistance of Gizmoduck who can’t stop singing about it and is still creeped out—only for Funny Background Glomgold to strike again and breach containment dramatically because nobody was paying any attention to his antics.
15. So then it becomes clear that reversing the curse the way it’s supposed to go is not going to work on hundreds of random people, so there’s a collaboration of teams adventure, science, and magic to figure out how to stop this thing for good (partly to bring in all the rest of the major characters!). There’s probably a complex layered song with each team contributing to a piece of the whole as they sing what they’re working on.
…that’s it, that’s all I got. Feel free to play with, use, or disregard however you want.
Just saying buffy had it right, musical episode, cursed object makes everyone around them have to sing the things they don’t want to say to incredible comedic effect
Musical episode. Early s3. Come on.
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maxwell-grant · 3 years ago
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Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions once said :"If you can imagine your Batman comforting a shared child, then congratulations, you're righting Batman. If not, you're just writing the Punisher in a funny hat". This got me wondering: could the Shadow comfort a scared child?
Could he? You forget who was there to lift young Bruce to his feet at his first brush with death (sadly far from his last).
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But it's an interesting question to pose still, because children were straight up not in the pulps, not in any I've read, and I can't recall any episodes of the radio show that feature them much (there's gotta be at least a few, because they had everything in that show). The most interaction I think The Shadow's ever had with children (from comics that I can discuss here, because Marshall Rogers' "Harold Goes to Washington" is way, way too much for me to go into right now, and the less I talk about some other DC comics, the better) is in the Street & Smith comics.
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There's Jerry from the Devil Kyoti arc, a kid who was traumatized by an encounter with the villain who Sayre's looking after and who ends up having some kind of hidden power that allows him to see The Shadow and defeat the villain. There was a blonde Jerry who showed up later in the Monstradamus arc, but he isn't a kid so much as he's diet Jimmy Olsen or a replacement for Harry, but he had weird eyesight-based powers and a familiarity with The Shadow, so I assume it's the same character.
There was also Donald Jordan - Shadow Jr, and okay, I may have to talk more about this weird little failed experiment some other time, but the basic gist of it is that The Shadow had a friend in Tibet named Harry Jordan (and someday I'm also gonna write about the weird prevalence and significance of the name "Harry" in The Shadow's mythos in and out of universe) who was murdered, leaving his son orphaned and with nowhere to go. And, I'll admit that I have a real weakness for The Shadow calling people "son", which he does a lot in this story.
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And as you can expect, it then turns out that the kid's also learned how to cloud minds and has basically the same powers The Shadow has in these comics, and they solve the mystery of his dad's murder together, and yeah, you can absolutely tell that they are setting up this kid to be The Shadow's Robin. Although, interestingly, they don't have The Shadow actually recruit the kid, instead it's Jordan who asks The Shadow if he can go with him and join his mission, and Cranston even states he's going to have to "earn" his way
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"Must I stay here, sir? It will always remind me of dad - I'd like to devote my life to your fight against evil and evil doers!
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Now, "Shadow Jr's" career was incredibly short-lived, it only lasted for about two other issues, and I have no idea what happened in his final appearence called "Snake Eyes" in Shadow Comics #77, I cannot find that issue anywhere and I really want to. But the one other solo story of his I've read was...well, I think it kinda illustrates why the idea of The Shadow having a Robin was doomed from the start.
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...Yeah. Even The Shadow at his most sanitized and family friendly is still The Shadow, and there's no room for children in his network, obviously he shouldn't and wouldn't have children be in those positions or make decisions expected from grown-ups who have already had encounters with death and danger, why would anyone do that-
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The only instance I can think of The Shadow interacting with a child in the pulps was during The Prince of Evil, when he has to rescue a young boy from Stark's thugs.
Cranston, dazed, tried to stagger to his feet. Before he could do so, the thug had picked up the limp figure of the boy and was darting out into the street. There was a scream of horror from pedestrians.
A heavy truck was racing at top speed along the avenue. Straight into the path of the truck, the thug threw the senseless boy!
The driver of the truck jammed on the brakes. But it was too late to halt the heavy vehicle. The broad-tired wheels rolled toward the limp head of the lad on the pavement.
An instant before it could crush out his life, Lamont Cranston dived headlong into the path of destruction. His shoulder struck the boy, rolling him toward the curb. A quick wriggle, and Cranston swerved aside from the grinding death that loomed over him.
He picked up the boy. One glance and he knew there was no time to lose. The attempted killer had leaped into a waiting sedan and had already made his escape.
The boy was all Cranston could see or think about. Brass knuckles had fractured his skull. He had suffered a concussion of the brain. A glance at his bluish lips and the fixed glaze of his staring eyes told Cranston that unless the boy was operated on immediately, he would die.
A leap, Cranston was in his car. He laid the boy gently on the seat beside him, then headed the car toward the nearest hospital. Traffic lights were ignored.
The boy was taken to an emergency operating room and a skilled surgeon went to work. When it was over, Cranston asked only one question: "Will the child live?"
"Hard to say. We'll do our best."
"Spare no expense. Put him in a private room. Engage day and night nurses."
Cranston's face was pale. He knew that he himself was indirectly responsible for the boy's attack. A supercriminal had made a prompt answer to Cranston's message over Jackson's telephone. That telephone must have been tapped. The attempt to kill the boy was a vicious warning for Lamont Cranston to mind his own business about the Harmon family. It was a follow-up of the attack on Jackson's dog.
Cranston felt a surge of hot anger. He kept it under control while he answered routine police questions. He told all he knew - which was nothing.
He had only one angry thought. He intended to drive straight to the office of David Chester. He'd get the truth out of the sleek Chester, if he had to batter him with vengeful fists!
Cranston was actually halfway to Chester's office before common sense returned to him. He realized he had lost his sense of balance. He was behaving exactly as the crooks wanted. He was playing their game, not his!
He parked, and the hot rage drained slowly from him. He stopped thinking about the limp figure of a young lad on a white operating table.
This is definitely because Tinsley writes the character differently than Gibson, but I actually cannot think of another occasion where we got to read about The Shadow actively wanting to hit someone with his fists. It's very, very rare to read about The Shadow actually getting mad in the first place in such an undignified way. And I think with this passage, you'll start to notice a pattern.
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The problem isn't that The Shadow cannot interact with kids or that he can't comfort them, he does it to his agents and adults he wants to help just fine, he knows how to address people in their language, or any language. The problem is, The Shadow is constantly surrounded by danger everywhere he goes, because he is The Shadow. He can be any number of things at any number of occasions, but usually, when The Shadow shows up, it's usually because people are going to die, and people are going to kill, and it's his job to address that and work the scales.
Children should not be anywhere near this, and if The Shadow's interacting with a child, it usually means that some grave danger or tragedy fell upon them, and he's here to either prevent greater tragedy or address the fall-out, and he'd be the first to agree that neither of these options should be happening at all. It doesn't mean he's not gonna do what's right and give life and limb to protect them, but, it shouldn't be up to the Boogeyman to look after them in the first place. Maybe it shouldn't be up to the Boogeyman to protect us.
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But then again, as I mentioned when I talked about my own reasons for liking The Shadow so much, there are many kids who would like nothing more than to have the Boogeyman by their side to protect them. There's comfort in knowing that the scariest man in the room is unconditionally there to protect you, and that is the comfort that The Shadow gives best. Not as Cranston, not under a friendly face, but as what he is.
Due to a lack of scenes from the pulps or satisfying scenes from elsewhere, I will instead be pulling one from a fan story written by Kimberly-Murphy Smith, editor and writer of The Hot Cornerm where The Shadow rescues a child who was kidnapped for blackmail. I couldn't care less that it's fanfic, and if you do, come back in 20 or so years after The Shadow's been made public domain and it's gonna be just as official as anything licensed (on my “to write about” list: how fickle the separation between “official” and “fanfic” is, and the many times it plainly didn’t exist). There’s aspects of her writing I don’t care for, but I really like this scene and I do think The Shadow’s more gentle interactions with people are necessary to getting the character.
Annabelle.
She stopped crying for a minute. "Who's there?" she said, her voice choked.
A friend. Your mommy and daddy sent me to pick you up.
"Mommy? Mommy's here?"
Sh-h-h. Annabelle felt a gloved hand gently stroking her hair. She's waiting for you at home. So, we need to hurry up and leave.
"'kay." She looked around. "Where are you?"
It's kind of hard to see me. It's dark in here, plus you've been crying so much your eyes probably hurt.
"Yeah."
Don't be afraid. I'm here to help.
"'kay."
The implicit trust of children was simply amazing at times. Adults trembled in fear of The Shadow's wrath, but children somehow seemed to understand that he was there to help them, even if they couldn't see him.
Sit up, Annabelle. I'm going to pick you up. Be very quiet.
One hand took each of her arms and guided them around a neck she could not see. "Why are you wearin' a blanket?" she asked as the fabric of his cloak brushed against her shoulders.
Sometimes I get cold at night.
"Even in the summer?"
Even in the summer. He gently stroked her cheek and wiped away her tears. Now, you need to be very quiet so those bad men in the next room don't hear us. I'll bet you're tired.
She nodded.
He rocked her on his arms, projecting a very gentle hypnotic relaxation into her with his powers as he did. You probably didn't get your nap, either. Poor thing. Lean on my shoulder and go to sleep. And when you wake up, you'll be back with Mommy and Daddy.
She yawned, then snuggled against his shoulder and went to sleep.
The Shadow sighed with relief. Now to get past the men out front. He gently pulled the pistol out of its holster under his left arm and slipped it into the belted waist of his overcoat within easy reach, then secured his grip on Annabelle and draped his cloak over her.
She clutched the edge of his cloak in her hand like a security blanket and snuggled against his shoulder again.
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(Art by Jill Thompson)
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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago
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One Year Anniversary: Top 12 Ducktales Episodes!
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Happy anniversary all you happy people! Yes it was one year ago today I started reviewing animation and it’s been a ride to be sure. I’d always WANTED to be a reviewer: I love going on and on about stuff I love, really digging into it and picking it apart... but I could never get started. I tried youtube but I didn’t have the money for the equipment nor a proper shooting space to record, so my efforts.. were not great. And while I TRIED text reviews, my own looming pile of self hatred meant every attempt I made was shot down when it got hard as me not being good enough. 
But one year ago I finally got past that. I’d already been reviewing a bit, doing invididual issues of comics... but got way in over my head trying to do the current line of X-Men comics as it came out, and wisely bowed out of that. But that left a gap: I had nothing to cover week to week and with a demanding new job, I drifted into just doing in charcter chats, little fan fictions script styles. Not bad work, I should do some more at some point and I even got a comissoin once in a while, but nothing I could really live on and not what I wanted to do with my life. 
Enter Ducktales. I’d always WANTED to review the show.. and when the double premire happened, I decided fuck it, and put up my thoughts. And then decided.. hey maybe I can do this every week.. and slowly.. my work evolved, getting better and better, getting more and more likes. I picked up Amphibia when that came by week to week.
And eventually.. this went from a hobby, if one I was passionate about to a career. Not a largely paying one, as only one person was really intrested in paying me for it, friend of the blog and our fincial backer @weirdkev27, but .. it’s money and i’m now making about 30 dollars a month due to a comination of comissions and patreon. Other contributers are always welcome mind you, my patreon is here if your curious and comissions are 5 dollars an episode, but i’ts just nice to have money coming in. To have gone from simply WANTING to review things and make a living off it.. to simply doing it. 
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And it’s been one hell of a year.. and not just because 2020 felt like hell or 2021 began with a full on insurrection. I feel like i’ve acomplished a lot in the year i’ve been doing this: I finished what I started with Ducktales season 3, getting better and better as I went. And I didn’t stop there with ducks: I started covering what brought me to Ducks in the first place, the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and while that retrospective has slid a bit on the schedule, I intend to get it back on track this month. I reviewed a bunch of Darkwing Duck episodes leading up to the Just Us Justice Ducks.. chronologically anyway. The actual airing order reads like someone took 50 issues of a comic, made it rain with them, then just started reading whatever ones they picked up randomly. I also covered some of Duck Master Carl Barks work with the classics Night on Bear Mountain, A Christmas for Shacktown and Back to the Klondike, with more to come. 
And the Duck didn’t stop at just reviews I did on my own: Kev comissioned two MASSIVE retrospectives from me: My first for him was Ride of the Three Caballleros where in just a few short months I covered the boys entire televisied careers together from the movie, to house of mouse, to mickey and the roadster racers, to ducktales (again) and finishing with the wonderful Legend of the Three Caballeros. It has probably the worst Daisy imaginable, but otherwise is really excellent and i’m glad I finally watched it. I also covered Don Rosa’s two stories with the boys as part of it. It was a fun ride and I enjoyed every minute of it... okay most of them again Three Cabs Daisy is the worst. And once that finished Kev started up another idea: Shadow Into Light: a look at Lena’s character arc from start to finish that has gone on to be my most popular series on this blog, and that finishes next week. And there’s more to come as after that there’s a short breather with a look at Lilo and Stitch’s crossover episodes.. folllowed by me looking at all three of season 2′s ducktales arcs. And I fully intend to have covered every episode of the series by this time next year, so stay tuned. 
Outside of ducks though I didn’t slow down. I restarted my Tom Lucitor retrospective, covering what i feel to be one of Star Vs’ two best characters, tied with eclipsa, and my personal faviorite as he redeemeed himself, found love and I bitched a lot about the horrible directions the series took and probabably will more as that’s still not done yet. I did what I always wanted to do and started looks at some of my faviorite comics ever, starting with Life and Times and adding in New X-Men and Scott PIlgrim. I also threw in the awesome comic Blacksad. I did pride month for the first time and not only came out publicly, but also did two whole arcs i’m proud of with The Saluna episodes of Loud house and the rednid episodes of OK KO, and generally just had myself a good old fashioned time as an out bi man reviewing childrens cartoons. 
I started Season 2 of amphibia with it’s lows of an endlesss road trip and highs of adding Marcy to the cast and giving us more of the silky voiced keith david. And finally Patreon wise Kev’s taken me on a hell o fa journey: In addition to the restrospectives i’ve covered some additional darkwing duck, and a simpsons homage to the duck comics... but also got a bit weird and obscure with detours like the lost animnaics sucessor Histeria, the apocalyptic comedy where Santa dosen’t know how doors work Whoops! and the adventures of Santa’s bratty teen daughter jingle belle. In short.. it’s been a long year but damn has it been fun and there’s more to come. I’d like to thank all of you for reading, thank my Patreons Kev and Emma for supporting me, and thank my family for doing the same.  So with that out of the way, I figured the best way to celebrate was to do something i’ve been wanting to do for a long time, something honoring the show that gave me this calling in the first place. And with Season 3 sadly being the last, and enough weeks having passed for me to digest it between the finale and today, I could think of nothing better than my top 12 episodes of Ducktales.
Ducktales is one of the best cartoons of the 2010′s. Brilliantly taking EVERYTHING that had come before, the comics, the original cartoon and every bit of duck media period to craft a masterful, unique and wonderful reboot. It was funny, it was insane, and it had damn good character arcs. By the end every member of the main cast along with major supporting cast members like Fenton, Drake and especially Lena, had changed and signifigantly at that. The show was everything I could’ve dreamed of and more and I miss it terribly, hoping DIsney will do a revivial movie at some point. For now though, Frank and Matt’s run on ducktales, as they called it and I do too since i’m a massive comic book nerd, it’s time to look back on my favorite tales of ducks. So grab your sharks, your number one dimes and your friendship cakes with clear gay undertones and join me under the cut as I celebrate one of my faviorite shows and my anniversary in the best way possible. 
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12. House of the Lucky Gander! 
 So as i’ve gone on about before and no doubt will again, Donald kinda got the short end of the stick in season 1. While Frank and Matt had good story intentions, keeping Donald away from adventure since he had no interest in it, in practice it meant a beloved Disney Icon who they and disney HEAVILY promoted as part of the series and whose being here this go round was a big draw for fans of the comics.... was only in a quarter of the season and only got TWO plots centered around him in 23 episodes, with only one being the main plot of the episode. The PIlot and Finale both centered around the family more as a whole if your curious how I counted those so while he got plenty of focus in both, it’s still not a day in the limelight sort of thing. 
But unusually for Donald, he lucked out as his one big starring role for Season 1 was both one of my faviorites and one of Season 1′s most inventive outings.  A lot of the episodes enegy comes from a one two punch of a great guest star and one of the series best settings. The guest star is of course everyone’s faviorite overly lucky himbo Gladstone Gander. The show adapted the prick perfectly: The original Gladstone from the comics.. was the worst asshole imaginable, utterly insufferable. And for a villian, and Donald’s rival, that’s all well and good.. but his super luck meant he RARELY , if ever, suffered any consequences for being just...
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The 87 series simply made him nicer, while Going Quackers simply removed his luck. No adaptation really got how to make this fucker work.. until this one. Here Frank split the diffrence: Gladstone is still smug.. but he’s no longer actively malicious. While he is an insensitive prick to Donald in this one, unlike the comics he’s not constantly bragging about his luck or how great he is or actively BAITING Donald to fight with him or trying to ruin his relationship or a million other reasons he sucks and I hate him.
This version by contrast... is generous. He’s not the most empathetic, because he doesn’t get how life works, but he does share the riches of the casnio with everyone and in a cameo appearance in “Treasure of the Found Lamp” gladly offers his nephews some diamonds. He’s got a nice surface level charm to him that makes you understand why people like him.. but it’s also clear ther’es nothing UNDER that of value, making you equally understand why Scrooge and Donald hate him. Gladstone in this reboot is a perfect example of why we need reboots or new adaptations in the first place: Because sometimes the original got something wrong or something can be done much better by the new writers. 
He’s perfectly paired with the setting: The House of Lucky Fortune, a mystical casino with an East Asian astatic based in the country of Macaw and provides two great plots. Donald’s really highlights his character: His understandable jealousy at gladstone earning the boys love through nothing while he struggles to make a living for them, and how he feels like a looser and like Gladstone is simply showing that off instead of just not knowing what empathy is. Having Louie be the one to bond with Gladstone was also just pitch pefefct, as is showing some depth for the boy by having himr ealize his hero is an asshole and be the one to help donald in the end. 
The other plot is just pure joy though and is where the setting REALLY shines: Scrooge and the rest of the kids try to leave.. but can’t find the exit. This is where the creative part comes in: The Casino simply morphs to keep people trapped, and caters to them, giving them whatever they want to keep them trapped. In the cases of the kids it’s all hilarious and adorably in character: Huey becomes entranced by a fancy water show, in one of his best bits of the season, Dewey gets a pet tiger who sadly did not come home with him and Webby gets to live the dream we’ve all had of stuffing her face directly in a choclate fountain. Scrooge’s escape is likewise clever: He simply prepares to get a room.. then books it as the check in desk is ALWAYS near the front. 
We then find out Gladston’es trapped get the whole mystical contest with absolutely gorgeous animation, i’ll talk about it in full some time but this episode is just a treat to watch, has a great arc for donald and had some memorable gags. I can’t help but smile when I watch it. 
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11. The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!  As I mentioned before i’m a superhero nerd so naturally Fenton was one of my faviorite parts of the show. Frank and Matt were just damn good at crafting superhero stories, and like gladstone improved fenton turning him from an awkward donald stand in to an awkward peter parker-esque science nerd who just wants to be a good person and the best hero he can be. He got into science not just because he thinks it’s neat, but because he honestly wants to help people and you can’t help but foot for him whenever he pops up. Lin Manuel Miranda is a large reason for that, bringing his incomparable a-game to the character. While we sadly didn’t get a ton of gizmoduck focused episodes, the fatct we got AS MANY as we did and that Lin didn’t drop out for a minute even with his busy schedule was a miracle and I’m acknowledging that. 
As for why this one, I feel it builds brilliantly on the previous Fentoncentric episode Who Is Gizmoduck?! which just BARELY didn’t make this list and uses the fact we haven’t seen fenton in a while as both a plot point and to move some things forward without having to spend screentime they clearly didn’t have. By having Fenton be just burnt out on superheroics it finds a way to both explain where he’s been, he’s been busy with his new job, and give us an interesting angle to the old “superhero is tired of the life” thing. He never once complains about saving people or stuff... it’s just like any job it gets tiring after a while. As someone who has his dream job but has struggled with it from time to time, I vastly relate. 
Though while I love my boy and Lin is game as always, the episodes real MVP is my other boy Huey. The episode has moved Huey up from being simply Fenton’s fanboy to being his best friend, and adorable as hell relationship. The two clearly respect and appricate each other and Huey is looking out for his buddy the whole episode. His love of love is also just really cute. Added in the mix is Webby, who in one of my faviorite gags of the series, finds out Fenton is  Gizmoduck because Huey is incredibly and insanely blatant with his unecessary coverup. But she of course is game to help while Fenton is trying to play it casual. We also just get a waterfall of great gags as everyone overdoes it wingmanning for fenton: Huey sets up an itallian bistro and tries to purposfully create a lady and the tramp situation, and sings opera (With Manny on acordian), the wonderfully 80′s suit from Fenton’s dad his mom gives him to wear, and Launchpad, who gives us a tremendous list of his exes, and plays my favorite song of the series: It’s a Date, a micheal mcdonnel riff. 
This episode also wisely ups Mark’s Beaks game as Fenton’s arch enemy, still keeping him hilaroius, with the guy acting like a bored teenager and guzzling so much nanite jucie he turns into a hulk, as well as said hulk mode leading to a ton of great gags from kidnapping the children (”I got your kids.. are they your kids? I don’t know how this family works), to “take that coach dad” to eating a pie with tins and all and wondering about said tins. But he’s an actual threat now, taking on fenton in one hell of a fight, and having an utterly transcendent scene where he hacks his way past gyro’s security while dancing.. and dabbing because of course he does. It’s a fun, well done character piece that’s mostly here for i’ts laugh but Fenton’s struggle with Gizmo overtaking his life, and finding out someone he truly hit it off iwth only wanted him for that.. it’s really good stuff and Lin’s delivery after Fenton finds out, the pure pain and betryal in his voice, is just excellent. Also that opera scene is poetry. 
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10. Quack Pack!
One of the episodes that started my career naturally landed here. Not for that reason though: Quack Pack is a fun riff on sitcoms, specifically the tgif ones of the 90′s that Disney Afternoon Kids no doubt also watched, the kinds Disney Channel still makes today, and most importanly the kind the Disney Afternoon itself made like Goof Troop and well... Quack Pack. 
Riffs on sitcoms are nothing new and the last year has been FULL of them. 2020 gave us this episode, Beef House and the wonderful “The Perfect House” episode of Close Enough, and this year gave us WandaVision, my second favorite MCU project so far, right behind Black Panther, which used the sitcom deconstruction to create one hell of a character study. 
So you’d think with a year having passed and this concept happening as an entire mini series would dull this one.. but no. it’s still damn funny, having fun at the cliches while, again like WandaVision, having one of the main cast be responsible by accident but go along with it. The episode pivots from glorious affectionate parody of cheesy sitcoms, to that plus horrifying “Humans”, and a character piece for Donald. This brings Donald’s hatred and fed up ness with adventure to a head revealing his fondest wish is just to have a normal life and not loose anyone again. 
It takes one of his best friends to snap him out of it. Look Goofy is my second faviorite of the sensational seven, an episode with him was already an easy sell for me.. but the episode uses him really well. First for laughs as he’s gentically dispositioned to be a perfect sitcom neighbor.. but also for heart. With his family preoccupied and a bit hurt, i’ts Goofy who cuts to the heart of the issue, pointing out NO ONE is normal and even his normal domestic life raising Max, who we see go to prom with roxanne eeeeee, has all sorts of chaos. Normal is what you make of it and pining for some ideal that will never happen was just tearing donald apart piece by piece and by letting go of that.. he finally begins to grow as a person throughout the season. It’s also a great thematic tie in to the season’s overall plot with Bradford and what Makes donald, despite also disliking the chaos his family gets into, different. Donald accepted it and grew as a person.. Bradford clung to his hate and it ate him alive. Or turned him into a non-sapient kind of vulture. Before I close this part out Jaleel White is also excellent and I wish eh’d get back into voice acting. He’s so freaking good at it. Seriously man i’d love to see him and ben in a sonic property together as a mythology gag. Same with Jims cummings and carey. Just think about it whoever owns the sonic movies.. think about it. 
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9. The Last Adventure!
Look I knew this was coming, you knew this was coming. But it had to be on here. The Last Adventure is not perfect: The lack of a build up episode like the previous two finales had really hurt this one: even at about 70 minutes, it still feels rushed in places and Huey, one of hte main characters of the season, dosen’t feel like he has a full payoff to his character like Dewey and Louie got. 
But despite those flaws.. this episode is just a damn good ending. Almost everyone gets a big moment paying off their character arc, everyone in the party that comes to rescue webby and huey, along with the two themselves, gets a moment to show off, and everything comes together to give us one last epic sendoff. There’s just moment stacked on moment stacked on moment from Launchpads heroic second wind and donning of the gizmoduck armor, to Webby’s tearful confrontation with Beakley, to Huey using the greatest adventure of all line to foil bradford in one of the most deligfhully nuts moments of the series, I could go on for days with just how triumphant this finale felt. While it left a lot of doors open.. that feels like part of the design. It’s the end of the fight with FOWL.. but our heroes will never stop adventuring, never stop going and never stop being in our hearts and the curtain call at the end is now my faviorite bit of end credits ever, perfectly giving the main cast and friends one last chance to take a bow in their own unique ways. I will always miss this show but I will never be disapointed by the note it went out on. 
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8. The 87 Cent Solution!
Look some episodes are show stoppers, some are heartfelt tearjerkers, some are all this and more.. and some episodes are just clever and hilarious. The 87 Solution is the second funniest episode of Ducktales with me and my go to episode when watching the show. It’s just pure fun and with a clever premise: Scrooge notices 87 cents have gone missing, and already coming down with a cold, goes mad with paranoia as the kids slowly don face masks, something that has become even eeerier given everything, one by one realizing he needs to stop. 
While David Tennant is an EXCELLENT dramatic actor, his comedy timing is really something that shoudln’t be ignored and i’ts on full display here as his performance gets more and more deranged, to thep oint he thinks an 8th dimensional imp is repsonsible. He nicely balances the disturbing side of Scrooge’s paranoia, his distancing from his family, with plenty of great gags about it too, the standout being when he offers 2 million dollars to whoever took the money like he’s publicly appeasing kidnappers. It’s fucking brilliant. 
But while David is awesome as ever what really, truly makes the episode is my boy, one of my faviorite characters on the show if not my single faviriote FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Keith Ferguson is ALWAYS a dream as the character but this is his best performance by far. Part of this is the addition of Zan Owlson, Kev who I mentioned earlier’s faviorite Ducktales character. She’s not only throughly likeable in her own right, but provides the one thing Flinty was missing; a straight man.. or woman in this case. Scrooge wasn’t TERRIBLE in the roll, but can easily step away from his shit or foil it. Owlson has to put up with Glomgold’s nonsense while desperatly trying to stop him from undoing all her hard work with sheer force of jackass. The two jut play off each other brilliantly, Glomgold not getting sh’es not his employee but his equal and Owlson constnatly snarking at him. 
And of course both things hit their peak in the climax with the family staging a fake funeral (Though no one told donald it was fake), and we get the funniest scene in the entire fucking show as Glomgold burts in in a white suit, money shades and full dance number to “All I Do Is Win’, which when first watching this I was convinced the song was somehow accidnetly on in the background but nope. They got it after using it in the test phase and the scene is better for it. Glomgold twerking on Scrooge’s casket, trying to get on it to dance, and having to be placated like ac hild is the icing on this very rich cake
And the reveal scene is also gold as Glomgold gets into a YEARLONG staring contest with a baby, fails to steal more than the 87 cents and, in my faviorite touch, put on an imp costume just to make scrooge seem crazier... then keeps the damn thing on the rest of the time for no explicable reason. The episode is the show at it’s comedic peak while giving Glomgold a chance to be a genuine threat and that’s Glomgood. 
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7. Let’s Get Dangerous!
Frank’s Rebooted Version of Darkwing Duck is probably his greatest achivment with the show. While this show is a team effort, something I slowly realized as I reviewed the show, it’s very clear from the way he talks, how well he knows the show and how much effort was put into porting Darkwing into the reboot that this was his baby. While redefining ducktales for the 2010′s was clearly a huge dream of his... doing the same for the master of suprise was an even bigger goal. And as a huge fan of superheroes i’ve seen my fair share of half assed takes on laired and complex characters. The XCU alone is one giant grab bag of missed opportunities for me. 
So i’ts no exageration when I tell you Frank.. nailed it. In one of the most brilliant moves i’ve seen for a superhero work Frank worked his love of the show into the reboot.. by having Darkwing have been a show, one Launchpad loved.. and so did Drake, who was inspried by the show to become an inspriation himself and while his attempt to do that through a zack snydery reboot failed, Launchpad encouraged him to do it for real. Drake was still himself, but the meta aspect and the toning down of some of darkwing’s more obnoxious traits that didn’t work in a universe that, while patently rediciulous still took it’s characters seriously, he made a BETTER version of the character.
This is where all that comes to it’s peak, and hoppefully convinced Disney to let Frank , and possibly matt, run the reboot. And no, even if Point Grey is producing that dosen’t stop that: Thanks to Invincible i’ve now realized that Seth and his friend Evan producing the show dosen’t mean it’ll be RAN by them, nor unrelated to this. It just means their helping make it and if anything given how lush and gorgeous invincible’s animation is, it’s a VERY good sign their helping out with it if it’s true. 
But wether this versoin continues or not, Frank gave it his best shot. Part of his diffrent angle is having Drake as a rookie here and as such here we see him truly struggle: he’s had his origin, he ahs the cape, he has the gadgets (in a brilliant turn thanks to fenton, who he actually likes... but is so far the ONLY person to not get he’s Gizmoduck), and the city.. but no crime to fight and no real idea how to go about his lifelong dream. The events of the episode slowly shape him: WHile he already had the spirit for darkwing, never giving up, looking good in a cape etc, this episode gives him the heart the same way it gave his original it: With Gosalyn. Dimantopolis and Beatriz just play off each other perfectly, as the two go from neimies to slowly bonding as Drake realizes this kid needs him and that he needs to fight for more than just filing the ohle inside, and goes to hell and back to help her get her grandpa back, with one of the best moments of the episode to me being when Launchpad helps her realize how hard he’s been working at it, an exausted drake refusing to acccept that he can’t get her grandpa back because he promised. He grows from simply trying to live the dream.. to surpassing the original. We also see more from Launchpad, who grows into his new family and helps push his boyfriend and newa dopted daughter in the right directions. The episode really evolves these characters from the simple disney afternoon versions, who while awesome were made into fully fleshed out characters. Gosalyn still has her edge but now has a hard lesson to learn about doing the right thing, forced to give up someone she loves for the greater good but finding a new family in the process. 
Part of what makes the episode work though as while it is funcitonally one big darkwing duck reboot pilot that’s awesome, heartrending and a joy to watch... it’s still a ducktales episode in parts without either part hurting each other. Huey plays a vital role, figuring the ramrod is too good to be true.. and discovering just how it is, then when captured, slowly unravling why Bradford’s there and being at least in part responsible for outing him as a FOWL agent. While this is largely Drakes story the rest of the cast is still vital to it: Scrooge trusting in huey, Louie serving as his logical counter and Dewey meanwhile bonding with team darkwing and helping Gosalyn, knowing exactly where she’s been and providing a nice foil. The episode is just one long and impressive love letter to the original show while creating it’s own thing and that’s really this reboot in a nutshell. It also has some of the best fights of the series, with the first fight between darkwing and bulba, where our hero, unlike his original counterpart, easily troucnes bulba using his speed and skill, is the standout. 
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6. Woo-Ooo!
I covered this one recently so I won’t go on for too long.. but I will say I hold this one up as the gold standard for first episodes. In one hour, hell even in jus the first half we get a sense of the whole cast, the tone of the show, and the world we’ve been thrust into. It gets all the table setting out of the way by weaving it into a compelling story of Scrooge getting back in the game, finding a reason to get back to what he does best in those he loves most and setting up the season long arc effortlessly in the process. The worst I can say about the episode is it sets the bar a bit high for Season 1 and a lot of the first half really struggled to reach these heights. This episode is a masterwork and the perfect showcase for what the series would be at it’s height. 
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5. Moonvasion!
Speaking of Golden Standards, Moonvasion is one of the best season finale’s i’ve seen. it’s not THE best.. but that’s a really high bar to clear and that spots currently taken in my heart by “The Crossroads of Destiny” from Avatar the Last Airbender. But while not the best of it’s kind, it’s sitll the best the series put out and is an utterly satisfying epic that ties up season 2. 
While I love the Last Adventure, it had a LOT to tie up and was really hampered by having to do all of that with no direct lead in. Moonvasion by contrast hits the ground running with the Moonlanders arriving on earth and all hell breaking loose, and the episode itself breaking into two stellar plots. Scrooge leading an army of every ally he has against the invaders, and Della seemingly going for reinforcements.. but really just trying to keep the kids safe from it, to their anger once they find out. 
Both sides end up going badly: Scrooge looses most of his army as Lunaris was one step ahead of him and is left iwth Beakly and Launchpad, while Della ends up marooned.. and finds Donald. The reunion between the two is the highlight of the special, as the two argue as you’d expect (And Dewey cutting in seemingly to stop it.. only to rant at Donald for costing him “ten years of turbo” is the best gag of the episode), before embracing. 
Our heroes naturally find ways to bounce back though. Louie, capping off his growth for the season, convinces his mom they can’t just hide.. and in the second best scene of the episode sings the lullabye she wrote.. one Donald sung them every night
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And no sooner than Della gets her step back and realizes that dangerous or not she and her newly reunited family have to get back in there, do the cousins show up on Fethry’s giant shrimp/girlfriend Mitzi, and our heroes head back. 
Scrooge’s plot hits i’ts peak though as he’s forced to accept the help of an unlikely and unwelcome ally: Glomgold, who turns out to be exactly what they need: While his plan is as stupid, short sighted and insane as you’d expect, complete with forcing Scrooge to dress up as santa just to piss him off and dressing his sharks in parkas (”I call them sharkas”), the sheer lonacy throws Lunaris off as he dosen’t know how to deal with this and Glomgold not only gets the better of him but gets his company back as part of his scheme.  “You were prepared for our best but not our dumbest!” “And i’m the dumbest theirs ever been! Muahahahaha! Wait...”
And of course our other heroes arrive just in time to save things.. and the episode still manages to pull off what many works struggle to, something tha’ts very hard to: a SECOND climax. Lunaris decides to just say fuck it and blow up the earth and i’ts up to our core family to kick his ass in space. Epic space battles, Della’s girlfriend meeting the family and more insues and an emotoinal, action packed and fully satisfying finale is had by all... and it’s all topped with one of the best sequel hooks i’ve ever seen as FOWL makes themselves known to us.. and prepares to strike. 
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4. How Santa Stole Christmas! This one will also be short as i’ve talked about this one.. a lottttt. The initial review, my best christmas specials list and my best of 2020 list. I stand by all of that: this is a unique and wonderful christmas special, i’ll be watching it every year, and i’ts full of charm, humor and gay subtext. In short it’s this series but on christmas footing. 
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3. Last Crash of the Sunchaser! 
Another one I covered very recently, this episode is a master piece of suspense, slowly building tension as our heroes get closer and closer to the truth about Della.. and to death, the simple but deadly stakes making this an absolute nailbiter from start to finish. This is some of the series best pacing bar none... but what seals it is the ending: the masterful flashback finally explaning whatever happened to Della duck, our heroes lashing out at each other.. all cumilating in the best Scene of the show. I said it might be in the review but no I can confirm: Scrooge bitterly ruminating over things while we find out just how much he’s lost... ending with him tearfully and angrily sitting once again alone in one hell of a powerful shot echoing Scrooge’s first apperance. Damn fine stuff. 
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2. Escape from The Impossbin Only one episode not only matches Last Crash in mounting tension and atmosphere but suprasses it. With FOWL and Bradford’s true nature now out in the wind, this episode uses that to create tension and rattles it’s two most unshakable characters: SCrooge’s normal boundless confidence is shot, not sure he can win this time against an opponent who knows him as well as he knows himself while Beakly slowly unravels, pitting Webby against the boys.. and pitting herself against Webby when Webby sees her terroizing them is only dividing them. Both plots start out funny enough but slowly escalate in tension and stakes until by the end your on the edge of your seat. The Beakly plot is the standout of the two, giving Bentina the starring role she badly needed, having gotten even better in light of the finale. Everyone is at the top of their game and everything builds up to one hell of a twist ending and one hell of a badass boast from our heroes: Their down.. but their far from out and this is far from over. 
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1. Nightmare On Kimotor Hill!
I”ll be reviewing this episode in full later this week as part of my Lena retrospective, but I stand by putting it up top. This episode is ducktales in it’s purest form and focuses on it’s best original character as Lena grapples with her self hatred and her past. That core helps anchor an amazing concept: going into the Kid’s dreams and finding out their greatest desires. The results.. are all gloriously rediclous and are easily the best gags of hte series as a whole: Dewey’s high school musical santa claus is going ot high school nonsense from getting a’s in Dewology to running away from the abstract concept of a love intrest, to not getting the sybolism of himself crying a moon made of his own tears. Louie quite literally becoming garfield, and my faviorite scene of the show: Huey, wanting to be the tall older brother..g iving himself horrifcly long leg. While everyone else is just understandably baffled, what makes the scene is the banter between Dewey and Huey, with Schwartz and Pudi at their best as Dewey first freaks out and then asks what the hell man, while Huey defends his weird decision (”I”m not good at imagination stuff okay!”), and then tries to get a jar of pickles. Each dream is just so oddly and wonderfully specific to each kid and each one of the triplests dreams, as well as violets being color coded down tot he backgrounds is a very nice touch. The visuals here are just peak ducktales, using the setting for all it’s worth and the climax is utterly emotoinal and heartbreaking... and Lena’s break from her abuser, finally realizing she has the power now is not only a wonderful metaphor... but also just so damn cathartic. And that’s why this one’s the best to me personally: it just packs so much into 20 minutes: some of the series best and most creative jokes, a gripping emtoinal arc, and so much more. It’s just that damn good and tha’ts why it’s the best... that and starting Huelet for me. Seriously that LIbrary scene is so fucking cute. 
Thank you all for reading. If you liked this artcle, join my patreon and help me get to my stretch goal for monthly darkwing duck reviews, a review of super ducktales and more after! Until the next rainbow... it’s been a pleasure. 
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vivithefolle · 4 years ago
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Vivs, I came across this from a "Ron's a jealous slacker" fan, please use your expertness to contradict this stupid statement. Y do ron stans refuse to accept that he just wanted attention without actually doing any hardwork! Didn't he just desire being a headboy & a quidditch captain? He would have achieved it if he would stop being a self piting, lazy person & actually study or practice to achieve his dreams! he doesn't deserve any sympathy we live in actual world where hardwork matters only.
The funniest thing about this is that they’re actually talking about Harry.
Harry actually never did put in effort to achieve things. Except this once when he mastered the Patronus at 13, we’ll give him that. But Quidditch? Oh he just hops on a broom and woah suddenly he’s flying so well he’s in the Quidditch team and gets a great broom and is totally the bestest and a total fucking Mary Sue! Fighting against Voldemort? Well thank god for Loveus Ex Machina that always saves your ass without ever making you lift a finger ever! And how he defeated Voldemort too? With a spell he learned in second year and he only won that fight because ~surprise~ Voldemort’s wand wasn’t okay with killing Harry for bullshit plot reasons. Amazing. Wonderful. Inspiring. Our hero, everyone, never actually worked for anything a day in his life, ever.
Meanwhile Ron? Actually worked hard to get on the Quidditch team, which was something he dreamed of. Actually moved his ass to learn to fight and didn’t have the luxury of ~lurrrrve~ to excuse him out of fights.  Ron actually did MORE than Harry ever did, but of course, protagonist-centred favouritism paired with mindless Harmonian propaganda won’t let you realize that because it’s just so much easier to imagine yourself as ~the special one :))~.
...
Ron is lazy you say.
Did he really believe he was better than Ron? No, said the small voice defiantly. Was that true? Harry wondered, anxiously probing his own feelings. I’m better at Quidditch, said the voice. But I’m not better at anything else. That was definitely true, Harry thought; he was no better than Ron in lessons. But what about outside lessons? What about those adventures he, Ron, and Hermione had had together since they had started at Hogwarts, often risking much worse than expulsion? Well, Ron and Hermione were with me most of the time, said the voice in Harry’s head. - Order of the Phoenix, chapter 9
Harry must be lazy too then.
Ah, but Harry’s word isn’t enough, since, after all, he does say himself that Hermione is like his sister, yet there’s a bunch of irreducible folks who insist on disregarding their hero’s agency whenever it is convenient for them. Therefore let’s go grab quotes that will settle the matter once and for all:
Ron had taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal. When he wasn't doing his own work, he was poring over enormously thick volumes with names like The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality. He was so absorbed, he even forgot to be horrible to Crookshanks. - Prisoner of Azkaban, chapter 15
Doing his own work AND working on something that won’t give him extra credit once Hermione finally swallowed her pride and apologized (for the first and last time in the books). But yeah totally lazy blah blah blah.
“But what have you got your broom for, you haven’t been flying, have you?” Harry asked. “I — well — well, okay, I’ll tell you, but don’t laugh, all right?” Ron said defensively, turning redder with every second. “I-I thought I��d try out for Gryffindor Keeper now I’ve got a decent broom. There. Go on. Laugh.” ‘“I’m not laughing,” said Harry. Ron blinked. “It’s a brilliant idea! It’d be really cool if you got on the team! I’ve never seen you play Keeper, are you good?” “I’m not bad,” said Ron, who looked immensely relieved at Harry’s reaction. “Charlie, Fred, and George always made me Keep for them when they were training during the holidays.” “So you’ve been practicing tonight?” “Every evening since Tuesday... just on my own, though, I’ve been trying to bewitch Quaffles to fly at me, but it hasn’t been easy and I don’t know how much use it’ll be.” Ron looked nervous and anxious. “Fred and George are going to laugh themselves stupid when I turn up for the tryouts. They haven’t stopped taking the mickey out of me since I got made a prefect.” - Order of the Phoenix, chapter 13
……………. Well damn. Remember how hard Harry had to train to get the Seeker position?
Oh that’s right, I forgot: HE DIDN’T! Because Chosen One Boy-Who-Lived poor orphan protagonist blah blah.
Ron though? Ron WORKED to get his position. Ron practiced, Ron worked out a way to practice alone by enchanting stuff to fly to him. When did Harry do that? Ah yes, he didn’t, because he had Oliver coaching him so he never had to figure out how to train by himself.
Meanwhile Ron was reading two years of Charms notes with his fingers in his ears, his lips moving soundlessly; Seamus was lying flat on his back on the floor, reciting the definition of a Substantive Charm, while Dean checked it against The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5; and Parvati and Lavender, who were practicing basic loco-motion charms, were making their pencil cases race each other around the edge of the table. Dinner was a subdued affair that night. Harry and Ron did not talk much, but ate with gusto, having studied hard all day. Hermione, on the other hand, kept putting down her knife and fork and diving under the table for her bag, from which she would seize a book to check some fact or figure. Ron was just telling her that she ought to eat a decent meal or she would not sleep that night, when her fork slid from her limp fingers and landed with a loud tinkle on her plate. - Order of the Phoenix, chapter 31
Another one for “EW FOOD HOW DARE THESE TEENAGERS EAT, DISGUSTING”, and also oh, surprise, Ron actually worked. Incredible. Can you believe. Isn’t he supposed to be lazy. Woah. I totally and utterly did not expect this at all.
Of course I must bring up something else -
“How many hours d’you think you’re doing a day?” he demanded of Harry and Ron as they queued outside Herbology, a manic gleam in his eyes. “I dunno,” said Ron. “A few...” “More or less than eight?” “Less, I s’pose,” said Ron, looking slightly alarmed. “I’m doing eight,” said Ernie, puffing out his chest. “Eight or nine. ‘I’m getting an hour in before breakfast every day. Eight’s my average. I can do ten on a good weekend day. I did nine and a half on Monday. Not so good on Tuesday — only seven and a quarter. Then on Wednesday —” - Order of the Phoenix, chapter 31
Okay first off - Ron estimates his study time to be “a few [hours]”. That’s more than I ever did for my own exams and wouldn’t you know it, I passed them.
Second off: THIS CONVERSATION IS CLEARLY MEANT TO BE HUMOROUS AND YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE THE SAME REACTION AS RON.
As in “holy shit this guy is insane”.
To top it off, here’s also Harry’s reaction in case some people still care about their hero’s agency:
Harry was deeply thankful that Professor Sprout ushered them into greenhouse three at that point, forcing Ernie to abandon his recital.
Harry isn’t impressed. Harry isn’t awed. Harry isn’t filled with sudden godly inspiration to “ditch Ron and join a study group and become the smartestest in the school!!!”
No, Harry doesn’t care for studying and spending hours bending over a book. Harry would like to pass his exams and then never think about them again.
But the only thing Harry felt he was really good at was Quidditch. In the end, he chose the same new subjects as Ron, feeling that if he was lousy at them, at least he’d have someone friendly to help him. - Chamber of Secrets
Harry wouldn’t have expected Ron to help him had Ron never helped him before. So we can extrapolate that not only does Ron does his homework, but he will also take time and effort to help Harry out if need be.
But of course Harry doesn’t need or care for Ron totally absolutely of course yes. (Another one for the “Harry picks Ron over Hermione” guys!!! Canon is on our side, sorry not sorry!)
...
Also, let it be said:
we live in actual world where hardwork matters only
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.
Look at Kim Kardashian, at Donald Trump, at basically any billionaire. Did they really do any hard work, or did they build their whole career out of exploitation, cheap scandals and their parents’ already-existing fortune?
In our world, Harry would be rich because Mummy and Daddy left him a trust fund, Hermione would have Mummy and Daddy’s money to help her get by until she can find some dead-end job she hates because the job market is shit, and poor Ron would be stuck in poverty because he was poor to begin with and getting out of poverty is much, much harder than getting rich.
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thebrownssociety · 4 years ago
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i noticed that in a past post you had mentioned daffy was in the front lines of world war 2. how was that like? how did toons particularly handle war?
Not particularly well. Toons are not designed for war, they're designed to make people laugh. Added to that that most of the toons were very young [under 15] when they were sent to the front and the story gets sadder.
Warnings: Mention of War and descriptions of PTSD [I have done research, but this is Toon version, so it's not going to tally exactly with humans]
Disclaimer - this is a headcanon. I have mentioned the companies here and Walt Disney [briefly] stating the obvious, it's all made-up.
All of the companies involved did there best to help/protect the toons as best they could. None of the female or children toons were allowed to go and there was a limit on how old the 'adult' toons had to be before they could go. That ended up being 5. The companies wanted 10, the Military wanted three, five was a compromise - although the companies had to fight hard to get that. In the end it boiled down to 'Either five, or they don't go at all'. The companies also re-negotiated the initial year the toons would be away down to 6 consecutive months. The companies wanted three months, so it was another compromise.
Stating the obvious, none of the toons enjoyed it much. Even the ones who thought they would thrive [Like Donald, Yosamite Sam and other 'tough' toons] found it difficult. Not to say they don't remember some bits of it fondly, mainly the comradeship they found, but for the most part it was hell on earth. After the first lot of Toons who's gone in the first month [about 30, mainly background toons, Prince Florian and Sylvester] came back from the front they looked so pale and ghostlike [visually, a shell of there former selves] that none of the others wanted to go and the companies tried to pull them out of it. [This being near the end of 1943] But they weren't allowed to, so the toons had to go.
The time the toons were fighting was 'only' Jan 1943 - end of war, Sep 1945, and the toons were only there for 6 months, but it was a long, terrifying 6 months.
The weird thing was that after the first initial couple of months while there coulor came back and they looked more life-like again, they seemed okay. Really! They could still act - and act well - they joked with each other in a normal manner and they talked to people. Sure, there were a few of them showing more difficulties adjusting - like Daffy who was acting paranoid and was constantly on the edge and Donald who's already-existing anger issues went through the roof, not to mention Elmer who was mute for a few months after coming back and Pete [Disney] who locked himself away and wouldn't come out, not to mention the at least 30 of background toons who were all showing extreme level of difficultly, but, hey, that was only a couple of toons, right? In the grand scheme of things. The rest of them were fine.
They were not fine.
It took a good couple of years [between 5-10] But eventually the cracks started showing. The Toons who had fought in the war started reacting weirdly to loud noise. Jumping onto the ceiling and refusing to come down, hiding under things and in things [like jugs and cups and cracks in the wall] whenever they thought they were under attack. They were having frequent, intense nightmares and a lot of the toon were displaying mental health issues like paranoia and splitting themselves in two [literally. It depended on the toon as to what exactly the personalities looked like, but as a general guide they'd be one 'young' one from around the time they were first created and another one that was closer to there normal age, but looked and acted completely different. Doctor Scratchesniff theorised it's what the toons worse fears about themselves are, visualised and brought to life.]
The toons were also having flashbacks to the war, which is bad enough on its own, but because they're toons the flashbacks literally engulfed them and whoever was near, drawing them into a world that they hadn't been in for about five-ten years. This, as you can probably imagine, was quite a major problem so the three major studios - Disney, Warner Bros's and Hanna-Barbera - put there heads together and came up with a solution, and that solution came in the form of Doctor Scratchensniff. [I do have a separate headcanon on him, covered in my 'Mental-Health' headcanon] The idea was that D.S. would work across all three studios and have enhanced toon powers.
While it's well known that a lot of Toons have been affected by the war, I'll go through a few of the toons that [I headcanon] have had the most noticeable difficulties after the war.
Daffy - He now goes back and forth between his 40's characterisation [screwball, Clampett version] and his greedy-jerkass characterisation in later years. The way it works is he will be the 'sensible' persona of the Greedy Daffy for most of the year [who, for all his faults, does care about his friends/family and can take care of Plucky easily], then he will suddenly switch back to his 40's persona. [Who, although he does still care for his friends/family, he can't express it as well and he has NO IDEA who Plucky is.]
After a bit of help and counselling from D.S. he has identified his major triggers [and Daffy has informed the rest of the LT's so they're aware of them]. For example, flying a plane will instantly put him back in the 40's mindset. For a time it was flying in general that put him in the mindset [which was fun when the LT's went to Australia] but now Daffy's okay with it and can manage small journeys easily. Longer journeys he struggled with, but he simply doesn't go on long plane journeys.
He also doesn't like Toons taller than himself getting in his face, [much taller, I mean. Bugs is alright.] He'll go into 'Fight' mode and try to attack them. Non-expected loud sounds like a car backfiring or fireworks can also remind him of war. Daffy's reaction when he hears something that he's not sure of what it is, it to try and find it and attack it. Either that or he would teleport away to a small space [like a jug, under a staircase or a crack in the wall] and not come out until Avery/Elmer/Porky calmed him down. [Bugs does try, but Daffy tends to get more wound up whenever Bugs tries anything, so the rabbit had to stop.]
Donald - I'm not going to spend long on Donald, mainly because his issues have [I'm fairly certain] been touched on in canon? His triggers are a lot like Daffy's except that Donald is MUCH more likely to try and attack anything he thinks is a threat rather than run away from it. He has inadvertently hurt [both physically and mentally] people he cares about by doing this, but they understand the reason why. Doesn't necessary make it easier, but they understand.
The main difference between him and Daffy though is that Donald has always wanted help. Ever since he realised he was hurting the people he loved, he wanted help. He had time off from work, Scrooge stepped in and insisted Donald and the boys move in with him so he didn't have to worry about a roof over his head and getting food and stuff. [Unfortunately this genuine well-meant, kind act only added to Donald's general feeling of uselessness]
The good news was that not only did Donald have extended family support, but he was best friends with Mickey and Goofy. Mickey was able to lean in Walts ears and convince him to treat Donald more leniently than he might have other toons, he also did his best to help Donald come to terms with what had happened to him during the war. Goofy could - in theory - do a lot less than Mickey, but he WAS more available and completely willing to take the boys off him for a couple of hours/days/weeks if needed. Goofy can cook - and cook well - so he'd bring food over for Donald so that if [as happened often] he didn't feel like cooking he'd have something ready to heat up/put in the oven.
Elmer - Some of the toons when they were put in charge of there units got on quite well, in that they had men who were willing to listen to them, and treated them kindly. Elmer's troop wasn't like that. He was very young when he was sent there [8] and was still more like Egghead. A bit silly, a bit hyper and not as hard as he needed to be. He cried the first time he went into battle and had a lot of trouble trying to gain the respect of his men. This has had a knock-on effect in that he thought everyone around him hated him and didn't like him. Even when he went back to Toontown, he just thought all his friends/family were being nice to him because they had to, not because they genuinely liked him.
Over many years Elmer has come to accept this isn't true and has been in therapy with D.S. in order to discuss it further. On a different note the main immediately noticeable difference upon coming back from war [aside from the fact he was mute for about two months] was that he started sleepwalking. His sleep had never been great at the best of times, but the war gave him such bad nightmares that he hardly ever slept. When he did eventually get to sleep, he started sleepwalking. Elmer being Elmer somehow didn't notice this at first? He thought it was completely normal [?] to start the night in your bed and wake up in Toon-World Australia having somehow swam his way across the ocean and hacked his way through the Australian outbacks to the middle off Australia, while asleep. He then had to spend several days trying to get back to Looney-Tune Street. With this in mind, it was really only a matter of time until it was noticed by the others.
They do there best to look out for him, if one of the LT's see Elmer sleepwalking, they will follow him/go with him and try to look after him. It should be noted though that despite the fact Fudd is clearly asleep, he is somehow aware of his surroundings and should someone attack him he will fight back and, most times, win.
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tiifalockhart · 4 years ago
Text
Memory
Anonymous asked: May I get a Sora x female reader oneshot? One where the reader forgets about what they’ve done and their adventures. This hurts Sora because he loves the reader so much.
Pairing: Sora x Reader
Word count: 1k
Warnings: amnesia, mentions of anxiety, extreme measures, mentions manipulation
A/N: hellooo here’s another KH one shot for you!! I hope you enjoy reading it hehe 
Ao3 || Masterlist
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It had been so long since you lost your memory.
It’s hard to watch someone you loved become a stranger from something out of your control. It was unexplainable, it seems like one day you just woke up without a single memory of what’s happened so far. After everything you’ve been through, after everything you all have been through, you couldn’t remember a single thing. It was... Devastating for some, it completely destroyed Sora though. 
The two of you went through everything together basically. You were his shoulder to cry on, and he was your shoulder to cry on. You both fought endlessly for this... This freedom, but you would never know how bittersweet it all was. Sora found himself wondering where it all went wrong. What happened to you? How did you lose your memories? The only person he could think to consult was Naminé, but she was still being restored in the labs of Radiant Garden. 
No one could really come up with an explanation for what happened. Even Ienzo and Ansem were at a loss. No one could wrap their mind around it. How did you suddenly lose all of your memories? 
Sora remembered the first instance when you seemed off. He, Donald and Goofy were joking around per usual. They were in the middle of musing about a past joke they came up with in the Toy Box when Sora turned to you. “You remember that, right?” He asked between joyous chatter and laughs. Your face remained blank for the most part, besides an awkward chuckle leaving your lips. 
“Oh... Yeah, I think so.” You replied, seeming to not find it as humorous as them. Sora grew concerned quickly. Had he done something to upset you? Maybe the joke wasn’t that funny... Ah, but you would at least try to laugh, right?
Since that day, Sora noticed how you became more and more like a stranger. It was hard to watch. Each memory mentioned around you was completely lost. He couldn’t bring himself to mention it anymore. Surely, he could just replace those old, lost memories into new ones, right?
In order for that to be possible, though, Sora had to be more than just a stranger. Unfortunately for the both of you, you hardly knew who Sora was. The last thing you remembered of him was meeting him for the first time, but in your mind, that was simply a small conversation. Your mind went blank after that.��
Sora found it hard to relate to you at all. There were no more inside jokes, there were no more mutual friends, there were no more mutual feelings. He missed the days where the two of you would lay together in endless fields of flowers, giggling and talking. He missed those days where you would share snacks from every kind of world, how you would wipe the crumbs off of his face. He missed fighting alongside you, no matter how scary the enemy was, you seemed completely fearless. 
He missed you. The old you. 
It nearly brought him to tears every night. He remembered everything. From when the two of you first met on the main island in Destiny Islands, to the life-threatening battle against the thirteen darknesses. Sora would do anything to bring you back, he was prepared to go anywhere to fix this, no matter what it took. 
Sora was at a loss, though. There was nothing he could think of that would help you. He tried showing you familiar objects to see if that would job your memory, but it was no dice. Everyone got in on it. They would all try showing you things, or talking about adventures or events, they would even take you to different worlds. Nothing seemed to have an effect on you. 
Eventually, a lot of them gave up with the idea of bringing back your old self, and simply decided to make new memories with you instead. Sora refused to give up, though. 
The moment Naminé’s restoration was complete, he fell on his knees before her and begged her to bring back your memories. If it was humiliating, Sora didn’t care. He’d do anything to bring you back. 
Naminé was reluctant at first. She didn’t necessarily enjoy forcefully manipulating memories. It made her feel guilty, it reminded her of what the Organization made her do... But Sora was so distressed. Had she not stepped up to do it, Sora could have gone even more extreme measures. Once she agreed, Sora could feel some of his anxiety become relieved. 
He waited patiently as the procedure was done. He paced back and forth outside of the room. Surely, this had to work. Why wouldn’t it? He knew Naminé could do it, she’s done it so many times now. When the door to the white room opened, he turned quickly and prepared for anything. 
“She’ll be alright. Just a little bit of rest, and her memories should be back in no time.” She explained softly, causing Sora to finally sigh in relief. Immediately, when he ran into the room, he saw you laying there, a peaceful expression on your features. He quietly took a seat next to you, prepared to wait as long as needed for you to wake up. 
It felt like days had passed since then. Sora ate and slept by your side, only leaving occasionally to stretch his legs a little bit. He refused to leave you until you woke up. 
When your eyes suddenly fluttered open, Sora’s heart began to pound in his chest. It was beating so hard, he could hear it in his ears. A shaky sigh left his lips as he reached out to take your hand. “H-Hey... Can you...?” His voice trailed off as he stared down at you, patiently waiting for some kind of reaction. 
Your expression held the same blank stare for what felt like the longest time. He felt himself growing more anxious as the second ticked by. A shaky sigh left his lips as he hesitantly reached out to take your hand. Once your hands touched, your eyes widened as if you were finally snapped out of a daze. You took in a sharp breath and sat up rather quickly, your breathing labored. As you looked over at him, you were overwhelmed by the emotions and memories flowing back into your mind. You grabbed onto him and embraced him, almost as if you were afraid to let go in case you would lose them again. “S-Sora... I’m so sorry.” You whispered between your sobs, causing a confused expression to form on Sora’s features.
“Sorry? For what?” He asked, his arms wrapping around you protectively. “There’s nothing to be sorry about... I missed you so much.” Sora whispered as he gently pressed a kiss to his forehead. A shaky sigh left your lips as you nodded quietly. 
“I... I don’t know what happened. I was afraid, I felt trapped inside myself.” You explained, your voice shaking as you tried to calm yourself. “I thought I was never going to come back.” You murmured, taking his hands gently. 
Sora allowed a weak smile to tug at his lips. “But you’re here now, right? Come on, I’m sure everyone misses you!” He cheered, pulling you along eagerly. You raised your brows in surprise as you followed him, trying to keep up. 
On the inside, deep down, Sora knew everything was going to be okay. He had to stay positive, and he did. You were back, everything was fine. It was perfect. You were perfect. He was glad to have you back. 
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harlequinmoss · 4 years ago
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How would you rewrite season 3 so it would be more coherent? I'm not talking about a full on rewrite of the entire episodes, I just mean how to make the plot lines and development flow better or changing them to be satisfying for all the characters.
Okay this is a really good question. I was going to say to make it more centered on FOWL but going back and reading the episode titles, it already kinda is. Like there's not that many episodes that don't tie into the finale in some way. I do have tweaks here and there that would help with plot and character development throughout the season. This ended up being a lot longer than I thought so here's a page break lol
Going in a linear format, Steelbeak should have made himself smart in Double-O-Duck instead of making the ray to make everyone else dumb. He'd be a more competent villain and more in line with his character in the original DWD. Maybe he could have even played a roll in LGD. It also would have avoided both him and Launchpad being mostly comic relief characters. I think there's too many jokes at Launchpad's expense about him being dumb. If he went back to his "normal" level of intelligence at the end, he could have told the family about FOWL without jeprodizing the search for the rest of the season. All they'll know is that FOWL is trying to take down the family and where the secret headquarters is. There's still the search for the leader and why FOWL is doing what they're doing. This makes it so that Huey has more to do and accomplish in what is supposed to be his season.
Next, The Rumble For Ragnorok. I'm just going off of memory here. I don't think that this episode did very much in the way of developing characters. Or at all. It was a forgettable filler episode where Dewey learned a lesson about humility or something and then it didn't come into play ever again. This episode could have been removed entirely to make room for an episode after LGD to give the Mallard-McQuack family more screen time and development. A general plot of this episode could be: Huey is helping Fenton and the other adults search the other realities for Gosalyn's missing grandpa. They end up finding him but he's either dead/a totally different person with different memories that doesn't remember Gosalyn at all. This event causes Gosalyn to give up the search and accept that her family is gone. Dewey has an emotional moment with her aside where he comforts her and relates the situation back to his mom and talks about found family while looking back at Launchpad and Drake. (Not really integrating this into any of my other points but if Della died on the moon in season 2 and the kids knew about this, it would make the interaction more impactful) At the end of the episode, its shown that Gosalyn has her own room, either in the lair or in a house similar to the original DWD, and Drake tucks her in while singing her lullaby.
The Phantom and the Sorceress. Oh God, what a mess. There's way too much wrong with this episode. Soup-Du-Silence had a good idea on how to fix it from Lena's perspective, which you can read about here. As for Gladstone, he could have still lost his powers and come to the mansion for help. But instead of him asking literal children, its Della and Donald (and maybe Fethry is there too) and then its a cousins adventure! Donald revels in Gladstone being unlucky but still wants to help. Gladstone doesn't seem so pathetic and played for comic relief. They track down the Blot together after Lena and her family fight him out of the Saberwing house, or they're about to find him when the Blot's gauntlet breaks and Gladstone magically gets his luck back for seemingly no reason, much to Donald's dismay. It might have to be two different episodes because cutting back and forth between the two plot lines would detract time from each and make the episode harder to follow. Idk but there's so many things they could have done that would have made the episode actually good and coherent
Let's Get Dangerous. It was good but it felt rushed. It needed to be longer. The timeline was hard to follow. Instead of the cheap shot at the end were Heron picks Bradford up in a FOWL helicopter, have the triplets being suspicious of him and figuring it out for themselves. Maybe they're all wary for different reasons and talking about it in a group huddle and Huey connects the dots in a dramatic reveal. They confront Bradford who does an evil villain slow clap congratulating them on figuring it out, but before anything else can happen, he's able to escape.
How Santa Stole Christmas. I don't think we needed this backstory. Instead, give us the opportunity to see bonding between characters. Its Della and Donald's first Christmas back together. Let us see that. Give us an interaction about the sweater. "You still have that sweater?" "Of course, wear it every year." And then they hug or something. That's literally all they had to do. Instead of following a Santa storyline that ends in Scrooge leaving an impoverished child alone in a house with nothing but a lump of coal when he could have given a tiny portion of his wealth to help her, let Scrooge learn the true meaning of Christmas through his family. Or even better yet, let him throw a party, inviting over recurring characters, and have it double as a brain storming session on how to defeat FOWL. Show them coming up with the plan for Webby's birthday party. Give us interactions with characters who haven't been there all season. Penumbra can help. Where has she been? She was building a ship back to the moon before, right? Give a conclusion to that. If she's decided to stay on Earth like it seemed in the end of her episode, all we really need is a short two second clip of her hanging out with the other Moonlanders, having their own form of Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever else.
As for the last few episodes leading up to the finale, I get what they were going for. Give each of the triplets one last centric episode. However, I think that the messages fell short in the Dewey and Louie episodes. I think they should have taken more of a Beaks in the Shell approach where the selected triplet still gets to shine, while also setting up high stakes for the finale. Don't be adding new characters so late in the game, be wrapping up storylines with already established ones. There wasn't really a point in adding Kit or Poe, other than the writers wanting to make reference to as many characters as possible. Same with April May and June.
Now for the finale. My main thing: don't make Webby a clone. It messes too much with all the dynamics in the show and ruins the found family message they've had this entire time. It would have been a lot better if Webby's parents were FOWL agents who had a change of heart after having their child and got killed by Bradford or Heron when trying to leave the organization. That's ample reason for Beakley not wanting Webby to know. I think the finale did a pretty good job of wrapping things up outside of that, honestly. Again, there wasn't really enough time to give all the characters a proper ending, like Gene who just disappeared once he was saved, never to be seen again, but if time was managed better in the episodes leading up to the finale, it would have made it so that more characters could have accomplished what they needed to. And what was with Bradford getting turned into a real buzzard at the end? You really going to just undomesticate him like that? Give him some poetic justice, push him into the void that makes people cease to exist.
That's about all I can think of at the moment. Thanks for the ask! It was fun to go through everything and think about what could have been done better
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lettheladylead · 4 years ago
Text
a quick visit
characters/ships: goldie, scrooge, beakley, scrooge/goldie, (slight) webby/lena word count: ~3500 summary: Goldie stops by the mansion shortly after The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!  ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27023359
Bentina had a bad feeling.
She often did when Scrooge took all four kids by himself and it was just adults in the mansion. Well, adults and Launchpad, who came by twice already - having forgotten that Scrooge wasn’t around.
It didn’t help that she hadn’t gotten Webbigail her own cell phone yet, so there were no updates coming from a trusted source. Scrooge didn’t know how to send a proper text and the boys just sent weird pictures and emojis so she was stuck in the dark until they returned.
Fortunately, the trip ended early, and as the family burst through the door only two days after leaving, the first thing Webbigail did was throw herself into her grandmother’s arms. “GRANNY! You won’t believe what happened in Florida!”
“Something tells me I will.”
Before Webby could open her mouth, Scrooge loudly cleared his throat. “Ahem, um...Webbigail, perhaps you should let me talk to her first. If you wouldnae mind.”
Webby considered that for a moment before doing a backflip and landing gracefully on her feet. “Okay! I’m gonna call Lena and Violet!” And then she rushed upstairs.
The boys were chatting amongst themselves, clearly interested in what Scrooge was going to say to Beakley but knowing they wouldn’t be allowed to stick around for the conversation. Louie in particular was excited to see steam come out of their housekeeper’s ears.
Beakley’s eye twitched as Scrooge grumbled a bit and motioned for her to follow him into the kitchen. Huey and Dewey decided to go find their mom or Uncle Donald, while Louie stuck with his original plan and held his head against the kitchen door to listen in.
“What kind of danger did you put my granddaughter in this time?”
Louie almost snickered.
“So listen, Twenty-Two, I need to start by pointin’ out that it could’ve been much worse! She was far away from the real danger!”
No response. Louie worried he was missing something and leaned in a little further, but it seemed Beakley was just waiting for more information.
“...Goldie was there.”
“Don’t tell me you let her anywhere near Webbigail!” was Beakley’s very quick response. Louie knew the housekeeper hated Goldie, but she didn’t hesitate for even a second.
“Ah...well. Webby spoke to Goldie just as you would’ve wanted her to,” Scrooge said with a chuckle.
“Then what happened?”
“Ehh...Goldie ‘n I drank some youth water, got a bit rambunctious in our young bodies, and left Webbigail by herself in the middle of the woods.”
Louie waited. No sound yet. Maybe Beakley just killed him quickly and quietly and got it over with?
“Is that it? She’s well equipped for a few hours by herself. Better than spending anymore time with your thieving ex-girlfriend.”
What a disappointment. Louie scoffed and got up, walking towards the back of the mansion where he saw his brothers go earlier.
Beakley looked over at the door where one of the kids had been obviously spying, and then poked a finger in Scrooge’s chest. “If Webbigail goes on adventures with you, I expect you to be responsible for her. No running off with your girlfriend, no leaving her alone. Am I understood?”
He looked sheepish, but nodded. “I’m sorry, Twenty-Two. It was...I wasnae myself.”
“Oh, you were completely yourself. Just younger and stupider.”
“Quite right.”
There was a moment of silence before Beakley couldn’t help her curiosity. “So what did she take from you this time?”
He blushed a bit and smiled - a reaction she was definitely not prepared for - and started tapping his fingers against the top of his cane. “Ah...nothin’.”
“...really now.”
Scrooge had a look on his face that Bentina barely recognized - he looked lovestruck and downright silly - and it was making her eye twitch again.
“She took Isabella’s journal, but...then she gave it back. A lot happened yesterday. We...talked.”
“Goldie O’Gilt...talked. To you.” Beakley leaned against the counter and didn’t pretend to hide her disbelief.
Scrooge picked up his cane and swung it around briefly. “Oh, she talked, alright! Let’s just say, I havenae lost my touch when it comes to women.”
Now that was the least believable thing she’d heard so far. But Beakley bit her tongue on that remark. “...did you two sleep together?”
His blush deepened and his smile formed into a smirk. Pushing his hat up an inch with his cane, Scrooge just shrugged and said, “I would never kiss and tell.”
“That’s historically untrue,” she commented with an eyeroll. “Are you going to tell me you two are on good terms now? Or something equally terrifying?”
Scrooge shrugged again. “Hard to say…”
He started to hobble out of the kitchen, considering whether or not to leave Beakley with that non-answer, but chose to turn around at the door and expand. “...she’ll be visiting the mansion soon.”
And she felt a headache coming on as he waltzed out of the kitchen, leaving her alone to decide how many traps she needed to set up and how many items she needed to hide. Not that anything she could try would stop O’Gilt, who always seemed to be one frustrating step ahead of her.
This was a terrible turn of events. Not to mention unexpected. But, Beakley surmised, this was likely a long con that Scrooge hadn’t caught onto in his lovestruck stupor. She’d have to talk to Webbigail and get more details about what happened. She’d have an easier time figuring out what Goldie’s game was.
x
Webby was using her laptop to video call with her friends, going over the trials and tribulations of her recent trip.
“I still can’t believe Scrooge has a girlfriend,” Lena commented dryly.
Webby just laughed. “Yeah, it’s super weird. They just have...so much history together. But I thought it’d be cute! Or fun! Instead, it was just…” She couldn’t think of the right word.
Violet flicked at her hair. “Uncomfortable? Not only are they ridiculously old, but she’s betrayed him a number of times. I can’t imagine watching them interact was pleasant.”
“Exactly!” Webby waved her hands around. “And when we left the hotel they were all gushy and hand holding, but...I don’t know! Love after betrayal doesn’t really seem like a good idea.”
Violet nodded to that, but quickly noticed Lena’s awkward silence and turned towards her sister.
Webby, despite herself, also noticed Lena’s lack of response, and after replaying her sentence in her head, she immediately started to shake her head and laugh. “Ha, ha, well, I mean, you know, who knows!! It’s...I shouldn’t make assumptions! It was probably just weird because they’re so old! I don’t know the details, I should do some research! But maybe not too much research! Ha, ha, ha!”
Lena seemed comforted by that and just chuckled and shook her head. “You’re a riot, Pink.”
“I know,” Webby said with a smile, and she could tell Violet was going to comment on what just happened but was interrupted by a knock on Webby’s door.
“Webbigail, can we talk?”
“Oh, sure, Granny!” she yelled at the door. “Sorry guys, Granny wants to talk! See you later?”
The Sabrewings nodded and said their goodbyes as Webby shut the laptop in sync with Beakley climbing up the ladder.
“Scrooge tells me you were alone for quite some time,” Beakley said as she finished her climb and sat next to Webby on her bed. “How did you fare?”
“It was crazy!” Webby said enthusiastically. “I had hurt my back and mosquitos stung my eye and then suddenly I was alone with who-knows-what lurking around! But I used my quick wits and geographical knowledge to make my way back to the hotel in record time!”
Beakley responded with a few small claps. “I’m very proud of you.”
“It’s too bad I missed the fight, though!”
“Oh?” Now that made more sense. “So Scrooge and Goldie did fight, then?”
“Oh, no, I mean. Sort of, but that’s not what I’m talking about!” Webby proceeded to explain the situation with Ponce de Leon to her grandmother, not leaving out any details of what the boys and Scrooge had told her. 
“Well...I supposed that explains his good mood.” Beakley put a hand against her beak in thought. “I can’t immediately tell what O’Gilt’s angle is, but I don’t trust this. If she tries to talk to you again, don’t give her any information she doesn’t already have.”
“Okay! Oh, and did you know she’s friends with Louie?” Webby added suddenly. “I mean, I guess friends might be a strong word. But they talked for a while and I was really surprised! Scrooge didn’t seem as surprised, but also...not. You know what I mean?”
Beakley let out a long hmmm in response. “...that’s interesting.”
“I was talking to Lena and Violet…” Webby tapped her fingers on her legs. “I don’t trust Goldie any farther than I could throw her, but...I don’t know, she and Scrooge seemed to be really happy together all last night and this morning.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And it’s not like you can’t have a good normal relationship even if there was once a lot of lies and betrayal!” Webby started to play with her skirt. “I’m trying to keep an open mind!”
Beakley’s face scrunched up in thought and her eyes widened in realization. “Ah...Dear, if you’re projecting onto this, I can assure you that your relationship with Lena is nothing like that of the infamous McDuck-O’Gilt rivalry.”
“Oh.”
“Goldie O’Gilt is proof that some people can never change,” Bentina said forcefully. “And no matter what she says or how she acts or even if she chooses not to steal anything one time, that’s no reason to trust her. She’s going to break Scrooge’s heart again, one way or another.”
“...oh.” Webby frowned and looked down at her knees. “You’re probably right, Granny. Maybe I just...want her to be better.”
“I understand.” Beakley stood up and brushed invisible dust off her skirt. “I do, too. But it’s safer to stay alert than to try and expect anything good from her.”
She nodded. “Uncle Scrooge invited her here.”
“He mentioned as much.”
“But she said no.”
“Really?”
Webby played with her fingers while she spoke. “She said, and I promise I wasn’t eavesdropping! But she told him that ‘meeting the family is too domestic,’ which I think is weird because she’s already met all of us so what difference does it make?”
Beakley wondered why Scrooge seemed so sure that Goldie would be coming over despite her rejection. This was already starting not to bode well. “I need to speak to Scrooge again. Why don’t you go find the boys?”
“Okay!” Webby shouted and did a front flip off her bed, launching down the ladder and heading towards the pool.
Beakley grumbled and followed after, determined to figure out why Scrooge had lied or what was going on. She needed to be prepared if Goldie O’Gilt was coming to visit, and prepared for Scrooge’s inevitably whiny heartbreak. You’d think he’d be used to it after so many years.
She found him in his room, staring at the inside of some ancient-looking box. As soon as he noticed her, he slammed the box shut and tossed it back into the locked desk drawer he came from. Curious as that made her, Beakley didn’t have the energy to comment.
“Goldie said she wasn’t interested in coming here.”
Scrooge flushed and shrugged. “I mean...technically, yes, but you had to see the look in her eyes, Bentina! I know she’s coming.”
“I think you’re likely misinterpreting.”
“I know for a fact she wants to see Della, at least,” Scrooge said with his two pointer fingers up in front of him. “We talked about her for a while and she hasn’t seen her since her return, so…”
“I stand by what I said.”
Scrooge stood up and stretched his limbs. “I understand your negativity, Twenty-Two, but I feel good about this! I feel like -”
Both parties stopped talking and turned to look at the window, which was slowly being opened from the outside. Scrooge smiled brightly and Beakley’s frown deepened.
“Hey, Hun, how about we……..oh.” Goldie hadn’t noticed Beakley at first, and wrinkled her nose as soon as they made eye contact. “Great.”
Before the man of the house could let his lady inside, Beakley stormed to the window and grabbed it. “How about you use the front door like a proper guest!?” She slammed the window shut and Goldie didn’t move for a moment, then smacked the closed window before disappearing again. Beakley made her way to the foyer in angry anticipation.
Scrooge didn’t even know how to react to that and quickly rushed to the window to see what was happening. Goldie had gone back down to the lawn and she looked up to shoot him a quick wink before continuing towards the door. He almost didn’t believe what he was seeing, but hurried after his housekeeper anyway.
The doorbell ringing was a surprise to everyone, and Scrooge was double surprised to see all four kids running towards the front door even after they saw Beakley reach for the handle. Maybe they liked Goldie more than she did. That wouldn’t be saying much at all.
The door opened and Goldie groaned loudly. “Is this what it’s like to wait for someone to let you into a building? It’s awful. Scroogey, don’t make me do that again.”
Beakley rolled her eyes and moved to the side so Goldie could enter, and Scrooge just smiled at her instead of moving to give her a proper hello. She put a hand on her hip and looked at the small army of ducks who’d come to greet her for whatever reason.
“I thought you said you weren’t coming!” Webby said suddenly.
“Yes, well…” Goldie rolled her hand around by her head, trying to think of what to say. “Here I am anyway.”
“Here you are,” Beakley said harshly as she shut the door. “And what’s your plan for this visit, O’Gilt?”
Goldie gave the housekeeper a sultry look. “Oh, Bentina, always so suspicious of me. Scrooge asked me to stop by on my way back to D…”
Everyone leaned forward slightly, looking very interested in the next thing she was going to say. Goldie took note of that.
“...doing my own thing.”
The resounding disappointment was palpable. Clearly no one knew where she currently hung her hat, and Goldie preferred it that way.
“So he did. Apparently you’re here to ‘meet the family,’ but of course,” Beakley walked past Goldie and stood next to her granddaughter. “You already know everyone here.”
Scrooge raised an eyebrow, not sure if he should interrupt or let this play out. Goldie didn’t seem put off at all.
“Are you testing me?” Goldie asked with a smirk. “Of course I know you, Bentina. Or would you rather I call you Twenty-Two?”
Everyone looked up at Beakley, who scowled. “Bentina is fine.”
Goldie took a look at all four kids, who were currently lined up in front of her. Their...names? She knew their names. But that didn’t really matter and she didn’t want them to get too attached.
“Well, obviously I know Sharpie,” she said, motioning to Louie, who just shrugged in response.
Next came the red one. “...based on your clipboard, I’m gonna assume you’re the Smartie.”
“Not technically my name, but observant nonetheless!” Huey tapped his hat with his pencil.
“And you…” She looked at the blue one, who seemed overly excited at her presence and was pumping his knees up and down. “Well I’m not about to call you Toughie when you look like this.”
“You can call me…” Dewey pulled out his phone and pressed a button, playing a short track of loud electronic music. “TURBOOOO!!!” he shouted as he dabbed dramatically and the music ended.
Goldie just stared. “...ah, you’re just a mini-Della, aren’t you?”
Dewey spun around and snapped some finger guns at her. “Compliment received and appreciated! That’s how we Dew it!”
“Right. So. Sharpie, Smartie, Mini-Della.” She pointed to each of them as she spoke. “And lastly we’ve got Old Lady Vanderquack.”
Webby looked up at her grandma and gave a sheepish smile to Beakley’s irritated expression.
“I suppose I can’t very well call you that when the real old lady is right there,” Goldie said with a smirk. “I’ll just call you Pink.”
That elicited a small gasp from the little duck. “You can’t call me that! That’s what Lena calls me!”
“Oh? She’s got a claim on that name?” Goldie crouched down and leaned her arms on her knees (which were feeling much better than the day before, thank God). “Well I’m sure your Uncle has told you that I’m quite the claim jumper.”
Scrooge chuckled at that while Webby just squinted and tapped on her beak. “I guess, in a way, you kind of remind me of Lena.”
“Since I don’t know who that is, I’m going to assume that’s a compliment.”
“It is!” Webby clapped her hands together excitedly. “She’s my-”
“Webbigail,” Beakley interrupted. “Remember what I said about limiting the information you give to thieves?”
“Oh, right!” Webby stood tall and did a motion of zippering her mouth shut.
Goldie smirked and stood back up. “The less I know the better, I suppose.” She looked around the room. “Well I don’t see Donald or Della, but as far as I know, that covers everyone who lives here, right?”
Beakley rolled her eyes, but couldn’t say anything before Dewey jumped up. “Oh! I bet Mom would be super excited to see you! I’ll go grab her!” He rushed off to the pool.
“What, no fun nicknames for them, too?” Louie said sarcastically. “How boring.”
Goldie crossed her arms. “That’s not something anyone’s ever called me before.”
“First time for everything.”
Huey glanced between Louie and Goldie, sensing an unexpected tension that he didn’t know anything about. Clearly he’d be grilling Louie about it later.
Scrooge sighed and felt a familiar warmth in his chest. All he wanted was for Goldie to be a part of his family, and for the first time...it felt like it might happen. Despite Beakley’s objections, of course. He shuffled over and grabbed one of Goldie’s hands.
“Are you staying long?” he asked hopefully, but trying not to sound too desperate.
She glanced at him and sighed. “No, I don’t think so.” She pulled her hand away from his and placed it against his cheek instead. “Meet the family, you said. Not have dinner with the family or move in with you, right?” She gave him a few little pats.
Scrooge smiled even though he would’ve loved for her to stay longer. “Right. Whatever you’re comfortable with, Dear.”
The little domestic nickname made her heart flutter, and Goldie had to look away from him to avoid blushing. Fortunately, it was at that moment that Dewey was dragging the twins into the foyer behind him.
“What’s so impor-....oh!” Della paused as she looked up, Donald stepping up next to her a moment later.
They both looked at each other and then back at their guest. “Hi Aunt Goldie,” they said in unison.
“Donnie. Fly Girl,” Goldie responded, giving them each a curt nod. “Glad to see you’re both in one piece.”
Della elbowed Donald in the chest. “How come you didn’t tell me this was still a thing?”
He coughed and put a hand over his injured sternum. “I didn’t think you cared?”
“I dunno, I’m kind of mixed on it,” Della said with a shrug. “But I like to stay updated!”
They bickered for a minute and Goldie felt a bit awkward - she didn’t know Donald or Della very well and could barely understand a single thing Donald said. She assumed everyone else could understand him perfectly and didn’t want to be the odd one out, so she opted to look back at Scrooge again.
He was staring at her. This whole visit he’d just been staring at her. She did what he asked! She stopped by! She spoke to his whole family! Why did he still look like he wanted something?
Finally he looked away from her, seeing that most of the rest of the family was talking to Della about adventures they knew about involving Goldie. He looked back at her and smiled.
“...Scroogey, just ask me what you want to ask me.” She swiped a hand through her ponytail and sighed. “I’ll die of old age if I’m stuck waiting for you to spit it out.”
He took a deep breath and reached out to grab both of her hands this time.
“I want you...to meet my parents.”
Bentina had a bad feeling.
She often did when Scrooge took all four kids by himself and it was just adults in the mansion. Well, adults and Launchpad, who came by twice already - having forgotten that Scrooge wasn’t around.
It didn’t help that she hadn’t gotten Webbigail her own cell phone yet, so there were no updates coming from a trusted source. Scrooge didn’t know how to send a proper text and the boys just sent weird pictures and emojis so she was stuck in the dark until they returned.
Fortunately, the trip ended early, and as the family burst through the door only two days after leaving, the first thing Webbigail did was throw herself into her grandmother’s arms. “GRANNY! You won’t believe what happened in Florida!”
“Something tells me I will.”
Before Webby could open her mouth, Scrooge loudly cleared his throat. “Ahem, um...Webbigail, perhaps you should let me talk to her first. If you wouldnae mind.”
Webby considered that for a moment before doing a backflip and landing gracefully on her feet. “Okay! I’m gonna call Lena and Violet!” And then she rushed upstairs.
The boys were chatting amongst themselves, clearly interested in what Scrooge was going to say to Beakley but knowing they wouldn’t be allowed to stick around for the conversation. Louie in particular was excited to see steam come out of their housekeeper’s ears.
Beakley’s eye twitched as Scrooge grumbled a bit and motioned for her to follow him into the kitchen. Huey and Dewey decided to go find their mom or Uncle Donald, while Louie stuck with his original plan and held his head against the kitchen door to listen in.
“What kind of danger did you put my granddaughter in this time?”
Louie almost snickered.
“So listen, Twenty-Two, I need to start by pointin’ out that it could’ve been much worse! She was far away from the real danger!”
No response. Louie worried he was missing something and leaned in a little further, but it seemed Beakley was just waiting for more information.
“...Goldie was there.”
“Don’t tell me you let her anywhere near Webbigail!” was Beakley’s very quick response. Louie knew the housekeeper hated Goldie, but she didn’t hesitate for even a second.
“Ah...well. Webby spoke to Goldie just as you would’ve wanted her to,” Scrooge said with a chuckle.
“Then what happened?”
“Ehh...Goldie ‘n I drank some youth water, got a bit rambunctious in our young bodies, and left Webbigail by herself in the middle of the woods.”
Louie waited. No sound yet. Maybe Beakley just killed him quickly and quietly and got it over with?
“Is that it? She’s well equipped for a few hours by herself. Better than spending anymore time with your thieving ex-girlfriend.”
What a disappointment. Louie scoffed and got up, walking towards the back of the mansion where he saw his brothers go earlier.
Beakley looked over at the door where one of the kids had been obviously spying, and then poked a finger in Scrooge’s chest. “If Webbigail goes on adventures with you, I expect you to be responsible for her. No running off with your girlfriend, no leaving her alone. Am I understood?”
He looked sheepish, but nodded. “I’m sorry, Twenty-Two. It was...I wasnae myself.”
“Oh, you were completely yourself. Just younger and stupider.”
“Quite right.”
There was a moment of silence before Beakley couldn’t help her curiosity. “So what did she take from you this time?”
He blushed a bit and smiled - a reaction she was definitely not prepared for - and started tapping his fingers against the top of his cane. “Ah...nothin’.”
“...really now.”
Scrooge had a look on his face that Bentina barely recognized - he looked lovestruck and downright silly - and it was making her eye twitch again.
“She took Isabella’s journal, but...then she gave it back. A lot happened yesterday. We...talked.”
“Goldie O’Gilt...talked. To you.” Beakley leaned against the counter and didn’t pretend to hide her disbelief.
Scrooge picked up his cane and swung it around briefly. “Oh, she talked, alright! Let’s just say, I havenae lost my touch when it comes to women.”
Now that was the least believable thing she’d heard so far. But Beakley bit her tongue on that remark. “...did you two sleep together?”
His blush deepened and his smile formed into a smirk. Pushing his hat up an inch with his cane, Scrooge just shrugged and said, “I would never kiss and tell.”
“That’s historically untrue,” she commented with an eyeroll. “Are you going to tell me you two are on good terms now? Or something equally terrifying?”
Scrooge shrugged again. “Hard to say…”
He started to hobble out of the kitchen, considering whether or not to leave Beakley with that non-answer, but chose to turn around at the door and expand. “...she’ll be visiting the mansion soon.”
And she felt a headache coming on as he waltzed out of the kitchen, leaving her alone to decide how many traps she needed to set up and how many items she needed to hide. Not that anything she could try would stop O’Gilt, who always seemed to be one frustrating step ahead of her.
This was a terrible turn of events. Not to mention unexpected. But, Beakley surmised, this was likely a long con that Scrooge hadn’t caught onto in his lovestruck stupor. She’d have to talk to Webbigail and get more details about what happened. She’d have an easier time figuring out what Goldie’s game was.
x
Webby was using her laptop to video call with her friends, going over the trials and tribulations of her recent trip.
“I still can’t believe Scrooge has a girlfriend,” Lena commented dryly.
Webby just laughed. “Yeah, it’s super weird. They just have...so much history together. But I thought it’d be cute! Or fun! Instead, it was just…” She couldn’t think of the right word.
Violet flicked at her hair. “Uncomfortable? Not only are they ridiculously old, but she’s betrayed him a number of times. I can’t imagine watching them interact was pleasant.”
“Exactly!” Webby waved her hands around. “And when we left the hotel they were all gushy and hand holding, but...I don’t know! Love after betrayal doesn’t really seem like a good idea.”
Violet nodded to that, but quickly noticed Lena’s awkward silence and turned towards her sister.
Webby, despite herself, also noticed Lena’s lack of response, and after replaying her sentence in her head, she immediately started to shake her head and laugh. “Ha, ha, well, I mean, you know, who knows!! It’s...I shouldn’t make assumptions! It was probably just weird because they’re so old! I don’t know the details, I should do some research! But maybe not too much research! Ha, ha, ha!”
Lena seemed comforted by that and just chuckled and shook her head. “You’re a riot, Pink.”
“I know,” Webby said with a smile, and she could tell Violet was going to comment on what just happened but was interrupted by a knock on Webby’s door.
“Webbigail, can we talk?”
“Oh, sure, Granny!” she yelled at the door. “Sorry guys, Granny wants to talk! See you later?”
The Sabrewings nodded and said their goodbyes as Webby shut the laptop in sync with Beakley climbing up the ladder.
“Scrooge tells me you were alone for quite some time,” Beakley said as she finished her climb and sat next to Webby on her bed. “How did you fare?”
“It was crazy!” Webby said enthusiastically. “I had hurt my back and mosquitos stung my eye and then suddenly I was alone with who-knows-what lurking around! But I used my quick wits and geographical knowledge to make my way back to the hotel in record time!”
Beakley responded with a few small claps. “I’m very proud of you.”
“It’s too bad I missed the fight, though!”
“Oh?” Now that made more sense. “So Scrooge and Goldie did fight, then?”
“Oh, no, I mean. Sort of, but that’s not what I’m talking about!” Webby proceeded to explain the situation with Ponce de Leon to her grandmother, not leaving out any details of what the boys and Scrooge had told her. 
“Well...I supposed that explains his good mood.” Beakley put a hand against her beak in thought. “I can’t immediately tell what O’Gilt’s angle is, but I don’t trust this. If she tries to talk to you again, don’t give her any information she doesn’t already have.”
“Okay! Oh, and did you know she’s friends with Louie?” Webby added suddenly. “I mean, I guess friends might be a strong word. But they talked for a while and I was really surprised! Scrooge didn’t seem as surprised, but also...not. You know what I mean?”
Beakley let out a long hmmm in response. “...that’s interesting.”
“I was talking to Lena and Violet…” Webby tapped her fingers on her legs. “I don’t trust Goldie any farther than I could throw her, but...I don’t know, she and Scrooge seemed to be really happy together all last night and this morning.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And it’s not like you can’t have a good normal relationship even if there was once a lot of lies and betrayal!” Webby started to play with her skirt. “I’m trying to keep an open mind!”
Beakley’s face scrunched up in thought and her eyes widened in realization. “Ah...Dear, if you’re projecting onto this, I can assure you that your relationship with Lena is nothing like that of the infamous McDuck-O’Gilt rivalry.”
“Oh.”
“Goldie O’Gilt is proof that some people can never change,” Bentina said forcefully. “And no matter what she says or how she acts or even if she chooses not to steal anything one time, that’s no reason to trust her. She’s going to break Scrooge’s heart again, one way or another.”
“...oh.” Webby frowned and looked down at her knees. “You’re probably right, Granny. Maybe I just...want her to be better.”
“I understand.” Beakley stood up and brushed invisible dust off her skirt. “I do, too. But it’s safer to stay alert than to try and expect anything good from her.”
She nodded. “Uncle Scrooge invited her here.”
“He mentioned as much.”
“But she said no.”
“Really?”
Webby played with her fingers while she spoke. “She said, and I promise I wasn’t eavesdropping! But she told him that ‘meeting the family is too domestic,’ which I think is weird because she’s already met all of us so what difference does it make?”
Beakley wondered why Scrooge seemed so sure that Goldie would be coming over despite her rejection. This was already starting not to bode well. “I need to speak to Scrooge again. Why don’t you go find the boys?”
“Okay!” Webby shouted and did a front flip off her bed, launching down the ladder and heading towards the pool.
Beakley grumbled and followed after, determined to figure out why Scrooge had lied or what was going on. She needed to be prepared if Goldie O’Gilt was coming to visit, and prepared for Scrooge’s inevitably whiny heartbreak. You’d think he’d be used to it after so many years.
She found him in his room, staring at the inside of some ancient-looking box. As soon as he noticed her, he slammed the box shut and tossed it back into the locked desk drawer he came from. Curious as that made her, Beakley didn’t have the energy to comment.
“Goldie said she wasn’t interested in coming here.”
Scrooge flushed and shrugged. “I mean...technically, yes, but you had to see the look in her eyes, Bentina! I know she’s coming.”
“I think you’re likely misinterpreting.”
“I know for a fact she wants to see Della, at least,” Scrooge said with his two pointer fingers up in front of him. “We talked about her for a while and she hasn’t seen her since her return, so…”
“I stand by what I said.”
Scrooge stood up and stretched his limbs. “I understand your negativity, Twenty-Two, but I feel good about this! I feel like -”
Both parties stopped talking and turned to look at the window, which was slowly being opened from the outside. Scrooge smiled brightly and Beakley’s frown deepened.
“Hey, Hun, how about we……..oh.” Goldie hadn’t noticed Beakley at first, and wrinkled her nose as soon as they made eye contact. “Great.”
Before the man of the house could let his lady inside, Beakley stormed to the window and grabbed it. “How about you use the front door like a proper guest!?” She slammed the window shut and Goldie didn’t move for a moment, then smacked the closed window before disappearing again. Beakley made her way to the foyer in angry anticipation.
Scrooge didn’t even know how to react to that and quickly rushed to the window to see what was happening. Goldie had gone back down to the lawn and she looked up to shoot him a quick wink before continuing towards the door. He almost didn’t believe what he was seeing, but hurried after his housekeeper anyway.
The doorbell ringing was a surprise to everyone, and Scrooge was double surprised to see all four kids running towards the front door even after they saw Beakley reach for the handle. Maybe they liked Goldie more than she did. That wouldn’t be saying much at all.
The door opened and Goldie groaned loudly. “Is this what it’s like to wait for someone to let you into a building? It’s awful. Scroogey, don’t make me do that again.”
Beakley rolled her eyes and moved to the side so Goldie could enter, and Scrooge just smiled at her instead of moving to give her a proper hello. She put a hand on her hip and looked at the small army of ducks who’d come to greet her for whatever reason.
“I thought you said you weren’t coming!” Webby said suddenly.
“Yes, well…” Goldie rolled her hand around by her head, trying to think of what to say. “Here I am anyway.”
“Here you are,” Beakley said harshly as she shut the door. “And what’s your plan for this visit, O’Gilt?”
Goldie gave the housekeeper a sultry look. “Oh, Bentina, always so suspicious of me. Scrooge asked me to stop by on my way back to D…”
Everyone leaned forward slightly, looking very interested in the next thing she was going to say. Goldie took note of that.
“...doing my own thing.”
The resounding disappointment was palpable. Clearly no one knew where she currently hung her hat, and Goldie preferred it that way.
“So he did. Apparently you’re here to ‘meet the family,’ but of course,” Beakley walked past Goldie and stood next to her granddaughter. “You already know everyone here.”
Scrooge raised an eyebrow, not sure if he should interrupt or let this play out. Goldie didn’t seem put off at all.
“Are you testing me?” Goldie asked with a smirk. “Of course I know you, Bentina. Or would you rather I call you Twenty-Two?”
Everyone looked up at Beakley, who scowled. “Bentina is fine.”
Goldie took a look at all four kids, who were currently lined up in front of her. Their...names? She knew their names. But that didn’t really matter and she didn’t want them to get too attached.
“Well, obviously I know Sharpie,” she said, motioning to Louie, who just shrugged in response.
Next came the red one. “...based on your clipboard, I’m gonna assume you’re the Smartie.”
“Not technically my name, but observant nonetheless!” Huey tapped his hat with his pencil.
“And you…” She looked at the blue one, who seemed overly excited at her presence and was pumping his knees up and down. “Well I’m not about to call you Toughie when you look like this.”
“You can call me…” Dewey pulled out his phone and pressed a button, playing a short track of loud electronic music. “TURBOOOO!!!” he shouted as he dabbed dramatically and the music ended.
Goldie just stared. “...ah, you’re just a mini-Della, aren’t you?”
Dewey spun around and snapped some finger guns at her. “Compliment received and appreciated! That’s how we Dew it!”
“Right. So. Sharpie, Smartie, Mini-Della.” She pointed to each of them as she spoke. “And lastly we’ve got Old Lady Vanderquack.”
Webby looked up at her grandma and gave a sheepish smile to Beakley’s irritated expression.
“I suppose I can’t very well call you that when the real old lady is right there,” Goldie said with a smirk. “I’ll just call you Pink.”
That elicited a small gasp from the little duck. “You can’t call me that! That’s what Lena calls me!”
“Oh? She’s got a claim on that name?” Goldie crouched down and leaned her arms on her knees (which were feeling much better than the day before, thank God). “Well I’m sure your Uncle has told you that I’m quite the claim jumper.”
Scrooge chuckled at that while Webby just squinted and tapped on her beak. “I guess, in a way, you kind of remind me of Lena.”
“Since I don’t know who that is, I’m going to assume that’s a compliment.”
“It is!” Webby clapped her hands together excitedly. “She’s my-”
“Webbigail,” Beakley interrupted. “Remember what I said about limiting the information you give to thieves?”
“Oh, right!” Webby stood tall and did a motion of zippering her mouth shut.
Goldie smirked and stood back up. “The less I know the better, I suppose.” She looked around the room. “Well I don’t see Donald or Della here, but as far as I know, that covers everyone who lives here, right?”
Beakley rolled her eyes, but couldn’t say anything before Dewey jumped up. “Oh! I bet Mom would be super excited to see you! I’ll go grab her!” He rushed off to the pool.
“What, no fun nicknames for them, too?” Louie said sarcastically. “How boring.”
Goldie crossed her arms. “That’s not something anyone’s ever called me before.”
“First time for everything.”
Huey glanced between Louie and Goldie, sensing an unexpected tension that he didn’t know anything about. Clearly he’d be grilling Louie about it later.
Scrooge sighed and felt a familiar warmth in his chest. All he wanted was for Goldie to be a part of his family, and for the first time...it felt like it might happen. Despite Beakley’s objections, of course. He shuffled over and grabbed one of Goldie’s hands.
“Are you staying long?” he asked hopefully, but trying not to sound too desperate.
She glanced at him and sighed. “No, I don’t think so.” She pulled her hand away from his and placed it against his cheek instead. “Meet the family, you said. Not have dinner with the family or move in with you, right?” She gave him a few little pats.
Scrooge smiled even though he would’ve loved for her to stay longer. “Right. Whatever you’re comfortable with, Dear.”
The little domestic nickname made her heart flutter, and Goldie had to look away from him to avoid blushing. Fortunately, it was at that moment that Dewey was dragging the twins into the foyer behind him.
“What’s so impor-....oh!” Della paused as she looked up, Donald stepping up next to her a moment later.
They both looked at each other and then back at their guest. “Hi Aunt Goldie,” they said in unison.
“Donnie. Fly Girl,” Goldie responded, giving them each a curt nod. “Glad to see you’re both in one piece.”
Della elbowed Donald in the chest. “How come you didn’t tell me this was still a thing?”
He coughed and put a hand over his injured sternum. “I didn’t think you cared?”
“I dunno, I’m kind of mixed on it,” Della said with a shrug. “But I like to stay updated!”
They bickered for a minute and Goldie felt a bit awkward - she didn’t know Donald or Della very well and couldn’t understand a single thing Donald said. She assumed everyone else could understand him perfectly and didn’t want to be the odd one out, so she opted to look back at Scrooge again.
He was staring at her. This whole visit he’d just been staring at her. She did what he asked! She stopped by! She spoke to his whole family! Why did he still look like he wanted something?
Finally he looked away from her, seeing that most of the rest of the family was talking to Della about adventures they knew about involving Goldie. He looked back at her and smiled.
“...Scroogey, just ask me what you want to ask me.” She swiped a hand through her ponytail and sighed. “I’ll die of old age if I’m stuck waiting for you to spit it out.”
He took a deep breath and reached out to grab both of her hands this time.
“I want you...to meet my parents.”
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maddrmatt · 3 years ago
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A Beautiful Future: A Premonition or a Punishment?
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New to this fanfic? Click here to properly begin!
Greetings, readers and fellow SoKai fans!
Time to bring this story to an end and finally learn the truth behind the dream!
I’m so glad I was able to complete it in time.  Next year, I’ll try to have my story done before the week even gets here because the pressure was immense!
This one also contains a few more headcanons and speculations.
Enjoy!
________________________________________________________________
Epilogue: Rehearsal
Destiny Islands
As he watched the sunset from his usual spot on the paopu tree, a smile of contentment came to Sora’s face.  ‘It’s been two weeks since I came home and yet it feels like nothing’s changed.’
But after glancing to his right at his now official girlfriend, he knew that thought couldn’t be further from the truth.  And as Kairi gave him a smile, he knew he wouldn’t have it any other way.
‘I still can’t believe how beautiful she is in the setting sun’s light.  Why am I not taking her into my arms and holding her close right now?’
“Just can’t keep your eyes off each other, can you?” asked a male voice from Sora’s right snapping him out of his thoughts.
‘Oh.  That’s why,’ Sora realized as Kairi started to giggle.
As tempting as it was, the two of them tended to keep their closer moments for times when they weren’t in the company of others.  Although they weren’t too shy about showing their love for each other and no one ever really had any problems with it, it just meant more to them that way.  
But it was sometimes easier said than done.  As hard as they tried, there were moments when, even in the midst of their friends, their boundless affections just kept slipping out because it had just become such a natural state for them.
“Riku, was that really necessary?” asked a female voice from Kairi’s right.
“Someone’s got to keep these two on their toes, Naminè, and that job usually falls to me,” said Riku.
“He does have a point, Naminè.  If it weren’t for Riku, Sora would never get any work done at all,” said Kairi causing Sora to fold his arms and pout.
“Oh, you’re one to talk, Kairi.  There were times when you were just as lazy as he was,” said Riku.
“He’s got you there, Kai,” said Sora with a laugh.
Kairi pouted.  But it wasn’t long before her smile returned.
Now that the mirthful moment had passed, the four friends now resumed watching the sunset.  In an effort to avoid further ribbing from Riku, Sora tried to focus on other aspects no matter how hard it was to avoid his heart’s favorite view.
He looked past Kairi to Naminè, who was sitting next to her.  Though it wasn’t the first time she had joined them for the sunset, he knew that she enjoyed it every time because she was finally a true part of their circle of friends.
‘The memories may have been fake at first. But I’m glad we were able to make them a reality.  Naminè deserves it.  She deserves to have friends.’
Sora then looked to his right where his oldest friend was in his usual position of leaning against the tree instead of sitting on it.  He remembered how, in the past, Riku would have an air of boredom and resentment when watching the sunset.  Now there was no trace of that at all.
‘He wanted to escape the Islands so much and see the worlds.  Glad to see he’s grown to appreciate our home.’
Kairi let out a contented sigh.  “Another good day come and gone.”
“You’ve said that everyday, Kairi,” observed Naminè.
“Can’t help it.  Every day that we’re finally all together is definitely a good one. Right, boys?” asked Kairi to which Sora and Riku nodded in agreement.
“Well, we’re certainly lucky to have these good days now.  Especially after everything that went down in Quadratum.  That world is something else entirely,” said Riku.
Sora nodded.  “Tell me about it.  And I still have a hard time believing that the first time I saw that world and Yozora was in a video game in the toys’ world.  And it’s got me wondering.”
“About what, Sora?” asked Kairi.
“Well, think about it.  If Yozora and Quadratum are fictional in our reality, then maybe we could be fictional in some other reality.  Like we could be video game characters ourselves,” said Sora.
Naminè tapped her chin in thought.  “It might be possible, Sora.  All those worlds out there with their various stories and characters could exist in books or even films somewhere else.”
Kairi chuckled.  “Mickey, Donald and Goofy would make great cartoon characters.”
“You know, if we were having this conversation long ago before our adventures started, I would’ve thought that idea was absolutely crazy.  But stranger things have happened,” said Riku.
“As odd as it was knowing it was real in another reality, that video game was pretty useful for learning all we could about Quadratum,” said Naminè.
“Yes.  When Fairy Godmother and I went back to the Final World to talk to that girl, she told us about Yozora.  And when we told everyone else, Donald and Goofy remembered the game.  That’s when they headed to the Toy Box and acquired it along with everything related to it that they could find.  So, when we weren’t training with our Keyblades, we were playing through the game for research,” said Kairi.
“I never would have thought that preparation for a rescue mission would involve playing video games,” said Riku.
“Like you said, Riku, stranger things have happened,” said Sora.
Naminè sighed.  “But that game certainly wasn’t easy to play.  Even with the game guides we had, there were enemies and bosses that we struggled to get past. Donald and Axel nearly smashed or burned the controllers in frustration.”
“And the thought that the two of you might have been facing them for real was very worrying to me.  It really made me wish that you thought twice about running off alone to a realm that you knew nothing about,” Kairi said to Riku.
Riku gave a little chuckle.  “What can I say?  Sora’s been a bit of a bad influence on me when it comes to leaping before looking.”
“Hey!” exclaimed Sora.
Riku sighed.  “But you are right, Kairi.  It really wasn’t my best call and I’m grateful to you and the others for coming after us. It’s just that after the three of us not being together for so long and seeing everyone else reunited, I was just so desperate to put our group back together.”
“I know, Riku and I can’t blame you for feeling that way,” said Kairi.  ‘That year I was asleep, and Sora was gone must’ve been so tough for him.’
Riku then looked at both Sora and Kairi with a smile. “Besides, you two had something special that was long overdue for a proper beginning,” he said causing both Sora and Kairi to turn red.
“Riku!” Naminè admonished the Keyblade Master as he laughed.
But despite Riku’s teasing, Sora and Kairi couldn’t help but smile.  Ever since their relationship truly started, Riku had been nothing but the most supportive friend either of them could ask for.
‘As amusing as it was watching them compete over my attention back then, I was dreading what the three of us would lose if I ever did choose one of them.  Especially since, contrary to what everyone believed, Sora already won my heart even if I didn’t know it at the time.  It feels so good to see that I was worried for nothing and the fact that Sora and I are a couple hasn’t affected our friendship with Riku one bit.’
“Still, Sora, I’d say you were pretty lucky to have survived in Quadratum long enough for us to find you.  The enemies we saw in the video game made the Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed look like pushovers by comparison,” said Kairi.
“I hear you.  It was quite a fight nearly every moment.  But I managed to hold on.  All I had to do was keep focusing on my home and everyone who I was trying to get back to,” said Sora as he gazed at Kairi lovingly.  ‘Though I will admit, there was someone I was trying to get back to more than anyone else.’
“Having that dream helped a lot too,” said Sora more to himself than the others.
“A dream?  What about?” asked Naminè.
Sora’s eyes widened.  “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”
Riku chuckled.  “Yes, you did.  And now you have to tell us.  So, out with it.”
Sora’s cheeks flushed red.  “Well, I er, I really don’t know if I should.  It’s kind of personal.’
“Oh, come on, Sora.  You can’t just leave us hanging like that.  Tell us what it was about.  Please,” said Kairi pleadingly.
Sora sighed.  ‘Kairi, I love you.  But I can never tell just how much you know about the power you have over me because I just can’t say no to you.’
“Okay.  I will. But, please guys.  Don’t tease me after you hear it,” said Sora to which his friends nodded although he didn’t fully believe that they weren’t going to.
“All right.  The dream was about…a wedding,” said Sora a little reluctantly causing his friends’ eyes to open wide in surprise.
“Sora, was it…?” Kairi asked.
“Yes.  It was our wedding.  And it was absolutely incredible,” said Sora with a look of elation on his face.
Riku chuckled.  “Your future wedding.  Man, Sora, you’ve really got it bad for her if that’s what you’re dreaming about.”
“You said you weren’t going to tease me about it, Riku,” said Sora.
Riku held up his hands in defense.  “Easy, Sora.  I wasn’t teasing.  In fact, I think it’s really great.  If there was anything to help keep you going until we found you, I can’t think of anything better.”
As the boys continued to converse among themselves, Kairi and Naminè were exchanging surprised looks.  Clearly, the same notion was running through their minds.
“Kairi, do you think it was…?” Naminè asked quietly so the boys wouldn’t hear.
“Maybe it was.  But I won’t know for sure unless I can get more details from Sora,” Kairi whispered back.
“Then allow me to get you both some privacy so you can do that,” said Naminè as she hopped off the tree and stretched her arms.  “Well, guys, I think it’s time for me to go. Riku, would you care to accompany me home?”
“Huh?  Oh. Uh, sure, Naminè,” said Riku who was a little surprised by Naminè’s strange request.
“You two don’t have to leave yet,” said Sora.
“Actually, we do, Sora.  Let’s go, Riku,” said Naminè as she walked around the tree and headed for the bridge.
Riku was still confused.  He immediately ran around the tree and caught up to Kairi’s former Nobody just when she was at the midpoint of the bridge.
“Naminè, why is it so important we leave right now?” he asked her in a hushed tone.
“Because there’s something that Sora and Kairi need to talk about and it’s best that they do it alone,” she responded before giving a smile.  “Especially considering what’s likely going to happen after they talk.”
Riku blinked in confusion.  But then a look of realization came to his face, and he smiled.
“Oh, I get it.  Good call, Naminè.  But just one thing before we go,” said Riku as he turned back toward the paopu tree. “Sora?”
Sora turned around.  “Yes, Riku?”
“I have one question about that wedding dream.”
“Oh.  And that is?”
“I was the best man, right?” asked Riku.
Sora gave a look of surprise before giving a smile to his oldest friend.  “Yes. Yes, you were.”
“Good.  Because if it had been anybody else, I would have considered siding with the darkness again,” Riku said with a dash of teasing in his tone.
Sora’s eyes widened.  “Now don’t you think that’s a little petty, Riku?  Besides, it was just a dream.  I have no control over the details.”
Riku shook his head.  “Doesn’t matter.  I don’t know if I could ever forgive you if you snubbed me out of my rightful place in your wedding party,” he said causing Kairi and Naminè to giggle.
“Oh, come on, Riku.  You know that if I was getting married for real, I wouldn’t have chosen anyone else for that position.”
“Yes.  I do know that.  Don’t get so bent out of shape about it, Sora.  I never really had any doubt about it,” said Riku with a chuckle as he turned around and began to leave.
Naminè shook her head in amusement as she walked away while calling back to the couple, “See you both later.”
“Bye,” said Kairi before turning her attention to her boyfriend who had his arms crossed and was huffing in annoyance.
“He always does this.  He always knows how to get to me like that,” Sora grumbled.
Kairi giggled.  “Well, can you blame him?  You do make it so easy.  And you two are practically brothers and good-natured teasing is what brothers do,” she pointed out.
Sora’s smile returned.  “That’s true.  He’s my brother in all but blood.  And that’s why he would be the best man at our wedding.”
He then turned to his girlfriend.  “So, why do you think Naminè felt like she and Riku had to leave so suddenly?”
Kairi smiled.  “Because there’s something I want you to tell me, Sora.
“Of course, Kai.  What is it?”
Kairi took Sora’s hands into her own.  “I’d like you tell me more about that dream.  Please.  I want to hear all you can remember about it.”
“Well, like I said, it was incredible.  It was in this gigantic chapel that I think was in Radiant Garden.  And seeing how many guests there were, it’s no surprise we needed such a big space.  Everyone was there: our families, our friends and pretty much everyone I ever met from around the worlds.  There was even a bunch I hadn’t even met yet,” said Sora excitedly.
Kairi chuckled.  “Now that’s certainly goes against the World Order.”
Sora laughed himself.  “Yeah.  Donald would probably go quackers about it if he saw such a blatant violation!”
“Now, besides Riku as best man, who else was in our wedding party?” Kairi asked.
“Well, Donald, Goofy, Roxas and Ven were my groomsmen and Naminè, Aqua, Xion and Olette were your bridesmaids.  Selphie was the maid of honor,” answered Sora.
“She’ll be glad to hear that.  We did promise each other long ago that we would be the other’s maid of honor at our respective weddings,” said Kairi.
“Other than that, Mickey presided over the ceremony.  Pluto and Jiminy brought the rings, the paopu fruits, and a pair of flower crowns that apparently were a wedding tradition from Radiant Garden,” said Sora.
“Well, even though it’s been a long time since I considered Radiant Garden my home, I certainly would have liked to honor my heritage like that,” stated Kairi.
“I’m sure your birth parents and grandmother would love to hear that. Finally, Chirithy was our Flower Spirit,” said Sora.
Kairi giggled.  “I wonder if that’s the kind of role all the Chirithy played when Keyblade wielders got married in the Age of Fairy Tales.
“It’s a possibility.  We’ll have to ask about it,” said Sora before gazing into Kairi’s eyes lovingly.
“And, Kai, you looked absolutely beautiful in your wedding dress.  It was white with all these golden designs stitched into it like a heart shape on the chest. And you were also wearing this tiara with seven heart shaped jewels which probably represented the Seven Pure Lights.  I wonder if Fairy Godmother or the Three Good Fairies had a hand in making the dress and tiara because you definitely looked like a real princess about to get married,” he said causing his girlfriend to blush and giggle.
“And you certainly never looked more princely and handsome in that white and gold suit,” said Kairi.
“Yes.  I guess I did,” said Sora absently before he realized what Kairi had just told him.  “Wait!  Kairi, how did you…?”
“Know that?  Sora, it just so happens that I had the very same dream!”
Sora’s jaw dropped.  “You did?!”
Kairi nodded.  “Yes.  Everything you just told me happened in my dream too!”
Sora was completely shocked.  “I-I can’t believe it!  I mean, having the very same dream.  It shouldn’t even be possible.”
Kairi shrugged.  “Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve pulled off something impossible, Sora.  Like me keeping you alive when the Demon Tide wiped us out or you protecting me from that memory of Xehanort even though we were a reality apart.”
“Guess sharing that paopu fruit unlocked all sorts of amazing things for us, didn’t it, Kairi?” asked Sora.
Kairi tapped her finger against her chin.  “You know, Sora, I have been thinking about this for a while and well, maybe it wasn’t the paopu fruit at all.  After all, I was able to change you back when you turned into a Heartless and we hadn’t shared it then.  What if all these miraculous things that you and I were able to do were just…us?”
“But that can’t be true, Kairi.  You’re one of the Seven Pure Lights.  My heart’s nothing special,” said Sora.
Kairi frowned.  “Watch it, Sora.  I don’t tolerate anybody speaking ill of the boy I love especially if it is said boy. Don’t tell me your heart’s not special. After all, you had just been born and you ended up saving Ven.  So, don’t ever think that about yourself.  My heart may carry one of seven of the purest lights.  But you have the biggest heart in all the worlds.”
Sora looked thoughtful.  “Yeah.  Maybe I do.”
Sora then put his arm around his girlfriend.  Kairi leaned into him to rest her head underneath his chin.  They interlaced their hands and sighed contently.
“It was such a beautiful dream,” said Kairi.
“Yes, it was.  Do you think it may have been a vision of our future?” Sora asked.
“Who knows?  There were a lot of elements in it that made it seem like one.  But it was a little strange to dream about our wedding when we hadn’t even kissed yet,” said Kairi.
Sora chuckled.  “You got that right.  There was that and a few more other things that need to happen in our relationship before a wedding.”
“And in all honesty, as beautiful as the dream was, I actually kind of hope our real wedding doesn’t happen exactly like it,” said Kairi.
“Why is that?” asked Sora.
“Well, it does sort of spoil things knowing how exactly one of the most important days of your life plays out before it even happens. When we get married for real one day, I wish for it to be a mix of what we saw in the dream and some good surprises.”
“I’d like that too,” said Sora before he frowned.  
“Kairi, I have a bit of a confession to make.  I actually ended up thinking the dream may have been sent to me as a punishment.  You know, for breaking all those nature taboos I had no idea existed,” Sora said with a hint of shame.
Kairi sighed.  “Well, you’re not alone in thinking that way, Sora.  I thought it was punishing me for all the times I wasn’t strong enough in the fight against Xehanort.”
Then the Princess of Heart turned Sora’s head, so they were face-to-face.  “But we can’t keep beating ourselves up about what we did or didn’t do in the past, Sora.”
“I know.  And as I mentioned earlier, the dream inspired me to keep on going and fighting on while I was stuck in Quadratum.  That’s how I chose to use it,” said Sora.
“Guess great minds think alike, Sora, because I chose to use it to drive myself to get stronger and become the best Keyblade wielder I could be.  And I think my training with Aqua really improved after that,” said Kairi.
“I guess, in the end, it really doesn’t matter what the dream’s actual purpose was.  What matters is how we used it to push ourselves toward our inevitable reunion,” said Sora.
“And now that we are together again, we can use for a different purpose now.  We can use that dream as a reminder of the kind of future we both wish to have.  Because, unfortunately, our adventures and fights are still not finished,” said Kairi grimly.
Sora nodded.  “Yes.  He’s still out there.  The Master of Masters.  I still can’t get the last thing he said to us out of my mind before he left Quadratum. About how all he wanted us to do was to keep doing what we do best because the next phase was about to begin. It gives me the chills.”
“And it’s maddening not knowing exactly what his game is. At least with Xehanort, we knew it was trouble.  But with the Master?  I can’t really tell,” said Kairi.
“At least we have a new ally in Yozora.  We may have gotten off on the wrong foot.  But once he learned how the Master had tricked him into trying to ‘save’ me, he was all too willing to help us fight him,” said Sora.
“And we also promised to help that girl for him. She’s probably as important to him as I am to you.  Not to mention that we never would’ve have gotten you back without her help,” said Kairi.
“We’ll help them.  And then maybe we can invite them to our real wedding someday,” said Sora.
Kairi laughed.  “Of course, we will.”
“We will get there one day, Kairi.  We’ll deal with the Master and other enemy that comes our way, help anyone else who needs it and someday, we’ll live happily ever after just like in the dream,” said Sora.
“I couldn’t agree more, my future groom,” said Kairi.
Sora smiled.  ‘Future groom.  I definitely like the sound of that.’
The two of them watched the sunset in silence for a few minutes.  Then Sora piped up again.
“There is one more thing I do need to say about the dream though,” he said.
“What’s that, Sora?”
“There was actually one thing I didn’t like about it.”
Kairi looked confused.  “Really?  What was it?”
“The fact that I woke up at what would’ve been the best part of the wedding.”
Kairi gave her boyfriend a smile.  “Would that happen to be our first kiss as a married couple?”
Sora’s eyes widened in surprise.  “Yes.  How did you…wait a minute.  Did you miss that part as well?” he asked Kairi who gave a nod.
Sora became even more flabbergasted.  “Wow!  Sharing a dream is amazing enough.  But waking up at the exact same moment?  I…I can’t even find a word for it.”
“Me neither.  Although, I guess we can count ourselves lucky because there are so many worse ways for a dream to end,” said Kairi.
“Like maybe the wedding getting crashed by one of our old enemies.  That would have been a really bad note to end it on,” said Sora.
“Yes, it would.  But given how many heroes who were there, any villains who would dare to crash that wedding would have to be really dumb,” said Kairi.
“So, Pete maybe?” asked Sora with a laugh.
“Yeah.  He probably would,” said Kairi as she joined her boyfriend in his laughter.
Once their laughter died down, the two young lovers sighed in contentment as they held each other closer.  The evening certainly had been plentiful of pleasant revelations.
Sora sighed.  “Still, I really wish we both could’ve seen that kiss.”
“Look at it this way, Sora.  It’ll be something to look forward to when it happens for real someday,” said Kairi.
“Yeah.  I know,” said Sora who still had a little disappointment in his voice.
Fortunately, Kairi knew how to cure that as she turned to him with her signature cheeky smile.  “But, you know, even if it is a long way away, we could do a little rehearsal right now if don’t mind.”
A brief look of surprise came to Sora’s face before he caught on with a smile.  “Not at all.”
“Well, in that case, you may kiss your future bride,” said Kairi as the two of them leaned in.
Against the backdrop of the setting sun on their favorite tree, the happy couple’s lips found their destined target.  As the Hero of the Keyblade and the Princess of Heart savored every second of this precious moment, the two of them reflected on their wedding dream.
They still had no idea if it had truly a premonition of definite future events.  But if it’s real purpose was meant to torment them for breaking the taboos of nature or for shortcomings as a Keyblade wielder, then it had epically failed.
Instead, the dream had only increased their desire to come back to each other.  And now that they had been reunited, it would now serve a new purpose.
No matter what kind of darkness they would face in the future, the dream would serve as a guiding light that they would always fight to reach together.
________________________________________________________________
Traverse Town, The Realm of Sleep
Elsewhere, in the sleeping version of Traverse Town, Meow Wow scampered along the streets.  Nearby, Komory Bat fluttered alongside it.  The two Spirit Dream Eaters were currently patrolling the town for any Nightmares.
As if on cue, as they crossed into the First District, a pack of Nightmares materialized.  It was a tough bunch composed of four Kooma Pandas, two Thunderaffes and one Zolephant.
But in spite of being outnumbered and outsized, Meow Wow and Komory Bat were not afraid.  They leapt right into the fray with the Nightmares.
It may have seemed foolish.  But with the way they and their fellow Spirits had succeeded in so many ways recently, they felt like they could take on the toughest Nightmares.  Not even really powerful ones like the Hockomonkey or the Spellican could bring them down with the morale they had right now.
________________________________________________________________
When Sora had vanished, Meow Wow and the other Spirits had sensed his disappearance and were very saddened.  Having grown very attached to the young Keyblade wielder during his journey through the Realm of Sleep, they had launched their own attempt to find some clue to his whereabouts.
During the year he was missing, the various Spirits had combed the near infinite reaches of the Realm of Sleep searching for any sign of Sora’s dreams. If they could find them and any of them happened to contain a hint to his location, they could send it to the honorary member of their pack, Riku, who hopefully would know what to do next.
Much to their joy, they did indeed locate a multitude of undreamt dreams that belonged to their friend.  Due to how many there were to search through, it was clear that the place he currently was allowed little time for sleeping much less dreaming.
Fortunately, they managed to find a dream they thought would help the most.  Once they had sent it to Riku, it set off a chain of events that would hopefully lead to Sora being found.
But after Riku had left for that mysterious city known as Quadratum, the Spirits were faced with another problem: Kairi.
All the Spirits from the proud Necho Cat to the mischievous Jestabocky to the noble Pegaslick to the fierce Tyranto Rex knew how much the Princess of Heart meant to Sora given how she was a recurring element in his happiest dreams.  They also knew how disappointed she felt for having to stay behind from the mission to rescue him and how much she blamed herself for his disappearance.
Their next mission was clear: keep Kairi’s hopes alive and her spirits raised.  Sora would have definitely wanted them to help one so precious to him. So, in order to do that, they would need to find a very special dream to bestow upon her.
Dreams had many origins all tied to the heart.  Some were created from the heart’s precious memories while others formed from its greatest wishes.  And on occasion, due to the heart’s ability to traverse time, dreams could often show someone’s potential future.
After an exhaustive search through Kairi’s dreams, they ended up finding one that depicted a wonderful future for both her and Sora.  Though it was only a possible future for them, the dream would serve the Spirits’ purpose well.
Their plan was a success.  Although they were surprised and confused that Kairi thought their gift had been sent to torment her at first, they were pleased when it ended up inspiring her to get better with her Keyblade.
But, to their surprise, after Sora had been rescued, the Spirits learned that something had happened that they had not anticipated.
It seemed that when they gave the dream to Kairi, Sora had been able to experience it as well.  Through the connection between their hearts, the Spirits’ gift ended up being shared between them.  And Sora was given the drive he needed to keep going until he had been found by his friends.
Even if the Spirits’ gift of the dream was only of a potential future for Sora and Kairi, it was one that reflected a great wish that they both shared.  Often, that was exactly what a dream was: a wish made by the heart.
________________________________________________________________
Notes from the Mad Doctor:
So, it wasn’t a punishment at all.  But it also wasn’t a true premonition either.  What it was, was a push!  And as push for Sora and Kairi, it succeeded beautifully.
Hope you all enjoyed this story.  
I hope that little Secret Ending about the Spirit Dream Eaters didn’t turn you off.  I just loved the idea of them playing a part in bringing Sora home and also being SoKai shippers.
I did take a few creative liberties when describing the nature of dreams.  I love the games but trying to explain anything from Dream Drop Distance is next to impossible and can give one big headache.
Hope many of you got that little Disney nod in the final lines!
Now for some words of thanks.
I give my thanks to whoever reads this chapter.
I also give my special thanks to @fandomchanger​ and @renatogpadilla​  for their likes on the previous chapters, @sokaiweek​, @sokaieternal​, and @phoenix-downer, for reblogging the previous chapters as well as @flynn-science for their like, replies and reblogs of the previous chapters.
I also give a big thank you to the artists and writers whose work I had the pleasure of witnessing this year.  You all did a great job and I really enjoyed your work.
And an especially big thank you to the moderators of the SoKai Week Tumblr for enabling us to be part of a great collection.
Happy SoKai Week and stay tuned for more from the Mad Doctor in the future!
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queen-of-my-goofball-army · 3 years ago
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I Think There's Something You Should Know DuckTales Fic~
A double post?! In what kind of fresh hell world is this?! All joking aside, this is a fic that my best friend @i-want-a-donut DM about via my recent discord account making! She want a soft fic with Sabrina and Ludwig so that is what I'm here to bestow upon all of you!
I paced around the bedroom that I had recently been given at McDuck manor. I knew that this day had to come but I hadn’t expected for it to be so soon. It was the deadline for something that I had promised myself that I would do.
“It’s just uncle Ludwig, has he ever hated you?” I muttered to myself just not wanting to get this done. This was not something that I had ever wanted to do.
“You can’t help this. It’s not like when you were born somebody bestowed the gay upon you. It’s something that you have to discover for yourself. Whether or not he accepts that is not up to you. He’ll still love me. Through everything he’s been the one person that has ever stood by my side and vouched for my decision making. He would never, ever reject me for being who I truly am inside. Right Ji?” I asked my cat who was sitting on the floor looking up at me with his big green eyes as if to convey human I have no idea what you just said to me.
“I know, you’re just a cat. You’re lucky, these kinds of things can’t bother you because the only thing that matters to you is pets, cuddles and food. You’ll still love me right Jiji?” He meowed softly at me and I couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at him.
“Of course you will. I’m the human that looks after you so you’ll have to always care about me. I’ve pushed this out already way longer than it needs to be. Everyone else in the family already knows and still loves me. But if he doesn’t… if he can’t accept me this way…” I chocked on the sob that threatened to leave me just trying to calm down and think about this rationally. My phone buzzed next to me and I hesitantly picked it up.
Gosalyn <3: Love, I know you’re nervous about this but this is kooky uncle Ludwig that you’re going to tell. This is the person that you’ve always wanted to be. This is the same person that taught you the colors of the spectrum through freaking song, you’ll be fine babe. I believe in you!! Through Gosalyn’s encouraging words I took severally deep breaths.
“Thanks Gos, you always know just what to say to make me feel better.” I laughed a little bit when she sent me a picture of her skating on her Darkwing Duck board.
Me: Thanks gorgeous, I’m just panicking that’s all. Sure, my family accepts me but there’s no opinion in this whole world that I value more than uncle Ludwig even if he is kooky. I sighed adjusting my ponytail for what felt like the millionth time that day.
“Sabrina?” I heard my uncle Donald knock lightly on my bedroom door and I sighed a little bit playing with the ends of my hair.
“It’s time to go and meet uncle Ludwig for your weekly lessons.” I sighed a little bit looking over at the calendar and seeing that it was the day that I thought it was. I had to do it today if I wanted to treat myself to that trip to St. Canard for my birthday at the end of next month.
“Sabrina, just because you set a deadline for something doesn’t mean that it has to be done that specific day. You make these promises to yourself that if you can’t do this one specific thing by this one day that you’ll panic if you haven’t done it yet. Whatever you have to tell us I’m sure that it’s not as bad as you think it is inside your head.” He reminded me patiently and I nodded my head looking down at my webbed feet.
“You can do it Brina. I know that you can. It might seem difficult at first especially because your uncle is your biggest hero in the whole world but you’ll see. Everything will work itself out in the end.” My mom got down so that she could easier talk to me.
“But what if you all hate me? I couldn’t live with myself if all of you hated me…” My mom just thumbed my tears away from my eye.
“Oh honey, we could never ever hate you. No matter what it is that you feel that you need to tell us, we’ll understand. We’ll listen and we’ll be here for you no matter what happens. I know that your brain has probably been running around in circles these last few weeks trying to tell us something. I want you to tell us when you come back with uncle Ludwig for dinner.” My mom reasoned and I hugged her tightly. I took a couple of deep breaths knowing that she made, as usual, a decent argument.
“You’ve been hiding things from us too sis so I know that whatever you’ve got going on in your personal life that you’re scared to admit it. It’s okay to keep shit to yourself. But it’s also okay to talk about whatever you’re afraid of as well.” Louie reminded me and I looked over at my green hoodie wearing brother.
“I think what Lou is trying to tell you is that we have your back Brina. Everyone in this family sticks together no matter what it is that we’re struggling with. Whatever is going on in your life we’ll be there for that as well.” Huey reminded me and I looked over at my brother with tears in my eyes and he just wound his arms around my neck in a tight hug.
“I’ve always got your back sis. No matter what that secret is that you’ve been keeping I’ll always fight with you. You’re not alone in your battle. You have so many people out there backing you up.” He encouraged me and I smiled softly at my brother knowing that he was already in my corner. He’d probably already figured out what I was going to tell them all over dinner tonight. I was planning on telling uncle Ludwig before I told the rest of the family anyways.
“Sabrina, it’s time to go.” I nodded my head retracting from my brother’s hug and ruffling Louie’s tuft on his head.
“I’ll see you later Lou, send me cute Animal Crossing pics.” I picked up my over the shoulder bag checking to make sure that my laptop and my homework from the last week was inside of it.
“You’ve got it, if I see Dora in my village I’ll send you cute screenshots.” I saw my brother instantly log onto his switch and flip upside down so that he could play the cute game that he had gotten me into in the first place. I buckled my seatbelt and spent the rest of the car ride over in silence my brain still running laps around itself trying to figure out the best way to possibly tell my favorite family member that I was a lesbian.
“Have a good lesson okay Brina?” I nodded my head kissing my uncle’s cheek with a small smile on my face that instantly relaxed when I saw my uncle Ludwig at the front of his stoop.
“Mien starchen!! So happy to see you, are you ready to get ze learning on?” I nodded my head with a bright smile on my face.
“I’m always ready to get my learn on Uncle Ludwig. Bye uncle Donald!” I waved to my uncle who was driving the old family car back to the manor.
“How have you been this last week? Ze homework wasn’t too difficult for you was it?” I shook my head with a small smile on my face.
“I could figure everything out! I had an amazing teacher after all and you’ve alway made sure that everything was crystal clear before you sent me off on my own. I did have to ask Lou for help with calculous but math has never been my best subject other than algebra.” I explained the homework that I had struggled with and he just lightly patted my head.
“You’ll understand ze calculus eventually it’ll be like chemistry where at first it just looks like a bunch of gobbly gook until you understand ze mechanics.” He reasoned and I smiled softly as I saw that my uncle was wearing one of the vests that I had knitted for him. Uncle Ludwig had always been encouraging of my passions and my interests and always wore the designs that I made for him.
“I know uncle. Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule.” He looked at me his eyes soft but at the same time sad.
“Oh hush ze sad thoughts, this is ze highlight of my week. You know zis.” Ludwig’s eyes were filled with the varying emotions and I just looked down at my webbed feet.
“I’m sorry uncle Ludwig… I’m so sorry…” I chocked on a sob and he just took my hands in his running comforting circles into them.
“What ever are you sorry for mein starchen? What is up with ze crocodile tears all of the ze sudden?” He thumbed away as many as he could and I just shook my head.
“I’ll tell you once I can be calm enough. I’m telling the-the rest of the family at dinner tonight.” I chocked out and he just smiled sadly at me.
“Oh starchen come here my little one…” He hugged me tightly to his body nearly lifting me off the ground but I couldn’t help but cling to him just as hard.
“It’ll be okay, whatever it is that you have to tell I will promise you right now that there is no reason to be sorry. You could never do anything that would make me hate you Sabrina. There is nothing wrong with you whether it be ze mental or ze emotional. You just need help to understand things sometimes and zere is nothing with asking for ze help every now and again. I wanted to sign you two new books for today anyways. Shall we talk zis talk to ze library where you can be comfortable? I’ll get you a cup of hot chocolate from ze machine and some breakfast while I am at it.” His soothing voice brought me out of my own head and I found myself slowly melting into the warmth of the affection of it. There was so much there that I could get lost in. I found his library easily because that was where most of our lessons were held. I looked around me at all the huge stacks of bookshelves seeing two that were in front of his desk. Brave New World and Slaughterhouse Five.
“Oh you have found them already!! Those will be your next book reports zat I want by ze end of ze month. Both of ze books I would highly recommend for somebody like you. They are very unique and I think zat you will love zem both.” He encouraged me and I nodded my head with a small smile on my face picking up one of them.
“I have heard of both of them, isn’t this where you took your If you had a bad day, take a soma. If you want to forget that you even had that day, take two poster from that’s in your office?” He nodded his head coming to sit next to me. He took my hand in his and I wrapped one of them around the hot chocolate. I saw the toasted breakfast sandwich in front of me as well.
“What has been bothering you as of late mien starchen? You have been pulling away from me and it is very troublesome.” I sighed a little bit knowing that it was now or never. I couldn’t keep living like this, where I was hiding who I truly was inside of me.
“Uncle Ludwig, I think there’s something you should know about me… I’m gay. Gosalyn is my girlfriend. We’ve been dating for the past month and a half.” He slowly set down his cup of cocoa that he had made for himself and turned to me.
“Zat’s what all ze crocodile tears were for? Oh starchen I already knew that. Why else do you think I have been giving you so much reading material based upon things that aren’t straight laced? I wanted you to tell me on your own terms and you did. I am so proud of you, my little shining star…” He praised and I looked up at him with my eyes full of tears.
“You aren’t angry with me?” He shook his head fervently putting my cup down for me so I could bury my head into his shoulder.
“Sabrina I have never once in my entire life been angry with you. Zat’s just not humanly possible. You are far too lovable for me to ever hate you. I first picked out Fun Home because I thought zat you would find it to be interesting. I knew when I read your report on that book how true to you it really was.” He reminded me of the graphic novel that he had given me earlier on in the year. That was before Gosalyn and I had even officially started dating. I had known that I was very much gay for her but had no way of knowing if she actually felt the same way about me or not.
“You knew even then? That was when I had just figured out that my brother’s teasing me about Gos being my girlfriend hit a little bit too close to home for me. I thought that you’d be angry with me. You were always encouraging me to find myself but I was just so scared that I’d lose you for good.” I chocked back a sob and he just thumbed along my cheek with a small smile on his face.
“I’ve never not told you to be anything other than yourself. That’s ze reason that you continued to amaze me starchen. I’ve been calling you my star since you were a newly hatched egg. You were always uniquely your own person. Somebody zat continued to amaze me every day that she spent with me.” He nuzzled his beak against mine in a loving gesture. His eyes full of determination to make me believe that he was telling me what he truly felt.
“Th-Thank you uncle Ludwig, for always being there for me…” He laughed softly, that same laugh that always sent warmth and happiness down to my bones.
“I should be the one thanking you starchen. What’s about we go shopping a little bit later? I’m supposed to pick up ze dessert for tonight and I have an idea.” He told me and I blinked in confusion as he got out his computer and pulled up the local bakery.
“Ze colors of the lesbian flag are dark purple, a lighter shade of purple, an even lighter shade of purple, white, light orange, orange, and red correct?” I nodded my head as he plugged in all the numbers into the bakery website and I saw the beautiful cake that he had inside of his head.
“Uncle Ludwig…” I trailed off and he just smiled softly at me squeezing my hand with a small smile on his face.
“It is ze least that I could do for my amazing niece. I am so proud of you for coming to me about this starchen. I know how scary and how nerve-racking that must have been for you.” He encouraged me and I melted into the affectionate touch of his warm and soothing presence. This library always felt like my second home. I picked up my two books that were on his desk and read the descriptions on the back of them.
“Slaughterhouse Five? What’s that mean? Wasn’t Vonngeunt a prisoner in WWII?” Uncle Ludwig nodded his head since I had remembered that from last week’s lecture that he had given to me about the author.
“Zat’s what inspired zat novel. He was trying to make sense of humanity.” My heart broke for the poor man that had been through so much.
“Now I remember you telling me about that when I asked about the other poster in your room.” I nodded my head at the memory and he just smiled softly at me taking the books from me.
“How about we have ze free day of ze month today?” Every month he would give me one free day to either research something that I was interested in or we would just spend it together.
“But that’s supposed to be next week…” He just laughed at me, that laugh that I loved so much for how open and unique it was.
“It might be next week officially on your calendar but I would much rather do something fun with you today. If you want to do something productive with your day with me then I do have an assignment for you to research for next week. I want you to make me a powerpoint.” He went over to the front of the room and struggled to pull down his projector.
“Do you need help?” I asked him through my giggles but he just gave one final pull that left him flat on his face and his glasses askew.
“If it means anything I asked.” I joked and he just sighed heavily at me as he adjusted his glasses and I looked at the projector seeing a powerpoint about Marie Curie.
“I want you to make me a presentation about your hero. I know zat you have many like I do but I decided eventually to just go with the one that I knew the most about so Marie Curie was the one I chose.” I looked up at him and his powerpoint about the woman that discovered radiation.
“It doesn’t have to be a woman but I would prefer for it to be. It also doesn’t need to be science related but I was trying to find one for my special interest.” I listened to the criteria that my uncle was looking for when I made this powerpoint. Every month he would have me do one on a topic that he was interested in.
“Ursula K Le Guin…” I trailed off and he just smiled softly at me kissing my forehead with a small smile on his face.
“Of course you would pick the author of your favorite books. I would prefer it if you did it based off of things that you already know about her so that you won’t have to waste too much time on zis. I just thought that it would make you happy because you’ve been so stressed and anxious lately.” He encouraged me and I looked at his powerpoint going through the slides.
“I’ve got it! Thank you for this uncle, this means a lot to me. I’ll make an amazing powerpoint.” He laughed at me taking his cup of coco.
“I know you will starchen you always do. Here you go, these are also going to be your assignments for the rest of the week. There is extra calculous but I know zat you’ll also do the ze best you can.” Uncle Ludwig sat down next to me and clinked his cup with mine.
“I’ll have Hue help me if I need it. I need help with math usually it’s just a struggle for me most of the time. I prefer algebra because that’s more like doing a puzzle.” I reasoned and he stood up going over to his puzzle shelf.
“I recently got a new puzzle and I wanted to do it with you.” He stood up on his ladder getting what he was looking for and he waved his new puzzle around.
“Oh that sounds like fun! I’d love to make that one with you.” I smiled softly at my uncle as he dragged a clean table over and I took my sandwich. I looked over at the front of the box and smiled softly when I realized that it was an outdoor one with a waterfall. I always preferred the outdoor puzzles as opposed to ones that were themed to indoors.
“Hold on, let me get some music.” He went over to his old fashioned record player as I looked at the front cover of the puzzle box and set it up so that I could easily look back up at the object.
“Zat’s better now we can have some background noise. Good job getting it all set up starchen!!” He encouraged me and I smiled softly at him shaking my head.
“I just did what you would have done and what you taught me to do when dealing with puzzles.” He leaned his head against my shoulder and I just sighed a little bit. No matter how exhausting he could be I still loved my uncle more than anything in the entire world.
“I think zat we should glue this one and zen hang it up.” I nodded my head. It looked like it would be a really beautiful picture when it was all finished so I knew that he made a good point.
“I’ll help you to find the perfect place for it. This library is getting really busy with lots of things going on.” I teased him lightly as I found the perfect spot for the puzzle piece in front of me pressing it lightly into the square next to it.
“Excuse you, zis library is perfectly organized.” I quirked an eyebrow up at him gesturing with my wings to the room around me.
“What part of this is organized? I just helped you organize this chaos last month during free day how is it already like this?” My uncle just laughed a little bit to himself and I sighed. He would continue to have his library be an organized disaster where nobody knew where anything was but him. I was amazed that he still remembered where things were half of the time.
“I know it’s a problem starchen but I like my library the way that it is. Even if it’s messy and unorganized it feels more lived in this way.” He reasoned and I sighed a little bit knowing that there was no way that I’d make him feel any different.
“Zis one goes here I think…” My uncle pressed the piece against the one where he thought that it fit and it slid perfectly into place.
“I started another anime with Lou. It’s a science show, it’s really, really good.” I mentioned off handedly to my uncle. He was always interested in what I was watching and we had watched FullMetal Alchemist together in German something that was actually a lot of fun.
“What’s it called?” I could tell that he was genuinely excited, as he always was when the idea of science was brought up.
“It’s called Dr Stone. The story is about how one day the entire world turned to stone. 30,000 years into the future the main character Senku unfroze and he’s trying to get the world back to where it was in the modern society. He finds this village of people that are already living there and dubs that his kingdom of science and that’s how he gets society back onto it’s feet.” I explained the plot of the show and he listened to me intrigued.
“Zat sounds extremely interesting!! I will have to give it a watch and see if it can apply to what we are learning together.” My heart melted at the idea that he wanted to make some of the science that we did based on the show that had recently captured my interest. We had studied alchemy for months for fun after I had finished FullMetal and he got me all the volumes of the manga for my birthday.
“Thank you uncle Ludwig. That sounds like fun. There are experiments that Senku makes and explains how he does on the show so we’ll have to see if they work in the real world.” I melted into the warmth of the atmosphere that I was in at the moment.
“What else have you been doing with your siblings?” He asked me curiously and I got out my phone showing me the latest science project that I had helped Dewey make.
“Dew is going out for basketball again this year he’s getting really genuinely good at it. I love practicing with him he’s been teaching me how to play and everything. It’s a lot of fun! Plus you’re always going on about how I need to exercise more and that’s a fun way to do it. Hue is working to be a camp counselor this year for the Junior Woodchucks. Louie and I have been mostly playing Animal Crossing together.” Uncle Ludwig put his arm around my shoulders with a small smile on his face. He listened to me and paid attention to everything that was going on in my life.
“Animal Crossing is ze cute one right?” I nodded my head with a small smile on my face showing him a screen shot of my favorite villager.
“This is Dora. My brother and I both got lucky enough to have her on our islands. She’s a bookworm but is adorable. Every one of the characters has a little catchphrase that they use, her’s is squeaky.” I tried to explain to him but he just blinked at me in confusion.
“Hold on, I’ll show you! I already logged on this morning.” I turned on my yellow switch with a small smile on my face doing the familiar three taps and running around my island.
“Your island is called Magnolia?” I nodded my head with a small laugh rubbing the back of my neck a little bit.
“It’s a guilty pleasure show that my brother watches with me sometimes, it’s a fantasy magic anime called Fairy Tail. I thought that the name of the town was just adorable so I took it for the name of my island.” I kicked my webbed feet back and forth and found Dora.
“This is Dora, she’s a dorm mouse. She’s not the serious social type but she loves reading books and other things like that.” I went over to her and she did her catchphrase and I saw the realization go off on his face.
“Oh zat is quite adorable!! I can see why your brother and you have been so bonkers over this game.” I laughed a little bit because that was a way of describing things that only my uncle could do.
“Alright sorry for that little distraction let’s get back to work.” I cheered and he just smiled softly at me when I leaned against his side.
“We shall have to go out to ze mall later zis afternoon because I want to pick up a little something for you. A little surprise.” My heart started to beat more rapidly as I texted Gosalyn to let her know that everything had gone according to my plan that I made.
“What is it? What is it? What is it?” I asked him rapidly and he just laughed at me. He shook his head pressing a wing to his beck.
“That is for me to be knowing and for you to find out in a few hours. I still want to spend time with you in my own home.” He reminded me lightly squeezing my arm lightly where his was linked through. I pressed another piece of the puzzle into it’s rightful spot.
“Good job starchen!! You truly are a master of puzzles and thinking things through. I used to really struggle with zis when I was your age. They annoyed me because they took too much of my time.” I laughed a little bit at the idea of my uncle’s frustration. He used to be annoyed by a lot of things when he was younger before thankfully mellowing out as the years went on.
“I like things that help my brain to work. It’s why I love algebra, puzzles, and knitting so much. It’s busywork for my brain and it appreciates being used the way that it was intended.” I leaned a little bit further into his side just enjoying the quieter moments between us.
“Can I ask you a question starchen?” I made a soft sound that I was listening to him as I put another piece into it’s spot.
“Did you always feel zis way about Gosalyn? Or was it recent?” So, we were going to talk about the massive elephant in the room.
“It wasn’t the second I met her if that’s what you’re wondering. It was more of something that happened over time. If I had to put a specific time on my feelings for her I’d say New Years. Something changed around the holiday when I went to go and visit her with Launchpad. There was always just something about her that was different for me. I realized after that trip it was that she was just beautiful. There was no other rhyme or reason about it she just was. I feel like I can be myself around her and she won’t judge me for it or anything like that. I love her uncle…” My uncle looked at me with tears in his eyes and he wiped them away.
“Look at me, getting all emotional over my niece’s first brush with ze feelings. I knew zat there was something between ze two of you from the first second you told me about her. Your eyes just sort of went all soft and sparkly.” I handed him a handkerchief and he just smiled gratefully at me drying his eyes with the object.
“Zis is what I’ve always wanted for you. For you to feel comfortable enough to be with somebody else and to be happy.” He reminded me lightly and I looked up at him with a surprised expression on my face. I put my arm supportively around his shoulders.
“I didn’t think that it would ever happen to me if I’m being entirely honest. I have never felt this way about anyone else before. Not man, not woman, just Gosalyn. I know that I’m a lesbian because boys have just never done it for me. All of my fictional crushes have been on the same gender. Ever since I was little so there was always that little thing about me that was different. I just want to make her happy uncle. She’s everything that I’ve ever wanted.” He lightly kissed my forehead in understanding. I drank the rest of my hot chocolate that was in front of me.
“Do you want ze refill?” I nodded my head knowing that it would be too much sugar for me but I still wanted the extra pep anyways. I checked my phone seeing the encouraging response from Gosalyn that she was proud of me and that she loved me.
“There’s the happy smile that I was talking about. It lights up ze room. That’s how I had a feeling of what you were keeping from me.” I smiled a little bit sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck. The feeling of comfort and family always remained when I was here. It never failed to bring me back to my childhood since I spent so much of it sitting in these chairs, doing puzzles, drinking homemade hot chocolate, and just learning all that I could from my uncle in these chairs. I had spent my whole childhood coming here on the weekends and reading with him.
“I think that my brothers already know as well. They know me a bit too well, especially Louie. He’s definitely onto me and my attitude changes as of late. They’ve always called Gosalyn my girlfriend anyways as a joke.” My uncle thumbed a finger around my shoulder with an understanding smile on his face.
“But to you, zis is not a joking matter. You’re afraid zat they will make jokes about it.” I nodded my head and he just smiled at me.
“They won’t. Your brothers care about you more than anything in ze whole world. They do try and make jokes but they will see how important this is to you.” He reasoned and I smiled softly at my uncle who had only ever tried to encourage me to be myself.
“Thanks uncle, for helping me. That means more than you can ever know. You’ve always been so patient with me whenever my brain was running a million miles an hour.” I thanked him and he just kissed my forehead understandingly.
“You’ll always have me by your side starchen I promise. Nothing could ever tear me from it. Especially not a silly little nothing like what sexuality you would prefer to date. This is just another part of you that makes you wonderful. Zere is nothing wrong with it. You are perfectly normal.” Uncle Ludwig reminded me lightly pressing another piece into the puzzle as tears filled my eyes.
“You have no idea how much I needed to hear those words from you… to hear that you still accepted me even as this person that I am.” He just thumbed my tears away lightly making sure that there wasn’t anything that was wrong with me.
“Oh starchen don’t you start ze crying. Because if you start crying zen I’m going to start crying and then we’ll just have one big old mess.” I laughed watery at my uncle as I shook my head and just tried to stop the tears that badly wanted to flow like rain water.
“What other series have you been watching with Louie?” He asked me and I pressed another piece of the puzzle together.
“That’s really about it lately, it’s just been a lot of Dr Stone. I’m rewatching FullMetal for what feels like the trillionth time though. That’s been helping me out a lot through this whole process. I want to show it to Gosalyn.” I mentioned off handedly and my uncle nodded his head in understanding at the mention of my favorite show.
“Zat show is a big part of who you are. I recommend zat you do it because it’ll make her happy. Your sharing that part of your life with her.” I smiled softly thinking about how my girlfriend would react to me wanting to show her my favorite show.
“I think that she’d enjoy it. I’m still trying to get her through the whole Miyazaki library.” I laughed rubbing the back of my ponytail.
“Understandable, zos are some of your favorite movies. How many has she seen so far?” He asked me and I got out my phone to show him my list of movies.
“She’s gotten all the way through Howl’s Moving Castle. The next one that I want to show her is Ponyo. It’s okay, you took me to see that one remember? It was his rendition of The Little Mermaid.” I reminded him lightly of the fairy tale that he had taken me to see.
“I remember zat one… zat was a weird one.” I laughed a little bit at him as he pressed another into it’s rightful spot.
“It was a little bit strange but I don’t know. I still enjoyed it and thought that it was really cute. The first brush with love between the two younger main characters made it easier for me to swallow and less weird.” I reasoned since I would always have a soft spot for anything that he made. His movies had this ability to take me into another world and the older that I got the more I found myself getting lost in it.
“Your favorite is still ze Moving Castle yes?” I nodded my head getting out my sketchbook and showing him the latest painting that I had made.
“Oh starchen… it’s the most beautiful thing zat I have ever seen. You painted this all from your own memory?” I nodded my head playing with the hem of my ponytail ribbon a little bit nervously. I always got self conscious when I was showing something that I made, especially when that something was artwork.
“I figured that I’ve seen the movie enough times that I should know it like the back of my hand by now. I’ve always loved Howl’s secret garden and there was something about that always called out to me. I decided to paint it a few days ago and I just finished it last night.” My uncle carefully tore the page out of my sketchbook and scurried around his library.
“Where is zat empty frame…” He muttered to himself and he found the offending object that was hiding from his line of sight.
“I shall help you hang this when we go to McDuck manor for dinner tonight. This is something that you should be very proud of Sabrina. It is obvious that you worked extremely hard on it and long hours as well. I love it.” He praised and I just smiled softly at him looking at the frame. For the first time in a long time I thought proud of something that I had accomplished.
“I do too. It was fun for the first time in a while I enjoyed the painting process. It’s also one of the largest paintings that I’ve probably ever made as well.” He held it up in front of him and he just lightly thumbed over my shoulder.
“Then zat is progress!! I know zis is not something that you are very good at, taking ze praise. I’m often too good at it and my head gets too big.” I smiled softly adjusting my uncle’s spectacles on his face with a small smile.
“You do but that’s just a part of your lovable charm uncle. I know that you’ve worked on getting your ego trimmed down to size these last few years and I’m proud of you.” I reminded him for all the hard work that I knew he had done in order to get everything squared away.
“I think the last few inventions going slightly off the rails have rather helped to trim down my ego.” I smiled sadly at him squeezing his hand.
“You’re getting a little bit older and that’s okay. You have enough money to live comfortably. It doesn’t matter that the instant bandaid dispenser bit you in the ass metaphorically speaking. The apple peeler and hot chocolate maker still work!” I pushed a little bit further trying to hear that ho-ho-ho laugh that I loved so dearly. When I heard I instantly felt better.
“You are right starchen everything that I’ve made that worked these last few years has been something for you.” I settled against the back of the couch putting my cup of finished hot chocolate onto his table and taking the small side of fruit that was next to my sandwich.
“I put some nectarines into zat, it should be good. I got zem from ze farmers market ze other day. I also got you ze kettle corn. You can have it when I drop you off back at the manor.” I cheered at the mention of my favorite sweet/salty treat that I always shared with Dewey for our movie nights.
“Thanks uncle Ludwig, your contribution for me and Dew’s movie nights will be greatly appreciated.” I teased lightly and he just huffed a small sigh.
“Have you two been getting along better still?” I nodded my head getting out my phone and showing him the picture that Huey had taken of me asleep on my brother’s shoulder from yesterday’s movie night.
“We meet up once a week for movie nights still. They’re going rather well we switch off weeks so he just went yesterday. I get to go next week to have my movies that I want to watch. I still have no idea what I want to watch.” I shrugged my shoulders and my uncle just listened to me talk about the further development with the brother that had given me the most grief growing up.
“I’m glad zat you two seem to have worked out your issues as you got older. I told you zat he just needed to grow up and into himself before he realized what a mistake zat he was making.” I leaned against the couch kicking my legs back and forth.
“It’s the little things that he does that surprise me. Things like remembering my drink preference, my snack preference, and things like that. He used to not care about me at all so the little signs that he does now, they make me happy.” My relationship with my blue clad brother had come a long way from where it started.
“I am proud of you for working so hard to fix things with your brother. I know zat he hasn’t always made things easier for you to deal with. Zat’s why I’m proud of him for working so hard to mend what was broken.” My uncle reasoned with an understanding smile on his face and I looked over at him with a small question in my gaze.
“Now we’re talking about you and uncle Scrooge. I know that you two have had your disagreements and that he can be awful a lot of the time but deep down he cares about everyone in his life. Including you.” I reminded him lightly nudging his shoulder with a small smile on my face.
“You are right starchen I was referring to your other uncle. We’ve disagreed a lot over the course of my marriage to his sister but through it all he’s at least tried to be there for me since you came into his life.” I listened to him talk about my other uncle that was sitting back at home in his mansion.
“He’s been trying to get to know me a little bit better over these last years. I’m happy living with him I really am. Adventure is always right around the corner for me and that’s part of the fun of the thing for me. I love adventure and I’ve always wanted to have my own. When I was younger I was satisfied with just reading fantasy novels but then I wanted to have my own.” I leaned my head against his side lightly as I talked about the dream that I had when I was younger.
“I know zat was your ultimate goal in life was ago lead your own adventure. I’m just happy zat you were able to achieve it.” He encouraged me the same way that he always had but with that kindhearted edge that he did everything else.
“I think that I’ve learned a lot underneath uncle Scrooge. About how to handle myself and get myself out of a bad situation. I admired that a lot about Webby at first.” My uncle got up from the sofa taking the plates downstairs and came back checking his pocket watch.
“We shall need to go in a little while to hit everything that we want to. The bakery said zat the cake wouldn’t take too long actually. Zey have done that sort of thing before I presume.” I couldn’t help the tears in my eyes as I quickly dried them away.
“Thank you again uncle Ludwig, for the cake and for everything else that you’ve done for me.” I thanked him and he just lightly ruffled my hair with a small smile.
“It is no need for ze thanking. Not if I wanted to do it and if I wanted to see your little face light up with happiness.” He reasoned with a small smile on his face as he sat down next to me and I put one last piece into the puzzle.
“So where exactly are we going on this extravaganza?” I asked him and he just smiled softly at me gathering his own satchel that matched my own.
“Just to ze mall. Zere are some things that I want to pick out for you.” I cocked my head to the side but shrugged it off just wanting to see where this day would get me.
“I’ll take these books with me as well. I’ll probably start reading one of them in the car.” I saw my uncle smile softly at me kissing my forehead.
“Don’t give yourself ze migraine. Zat will not help you out in ze future. You need to be on your best health for dinner tonight.” I sighed a little bit knowing my uncle was right but not wanting to admit defeat. I didn’t want to have this talk with my other uncles, Daisy, or my brothers. What if they didn’t like what they saw or what they heard?
“I know zat you are nervous about it. But sometimes ze things that we are most nervous about are ze things that we need to ze most. You can do zis. I know zat you can.” He encouraged me with an understanding smile on his face. He squeezed my hand softly and I just sighed.
“Okay you’re right as usual.” He laughed at me in his typical fashion that lit me up inside. I grabbed my yellow satchel that had everything that I needed inside of it.
“You forget starchen I’m right all the time. It’s just zat you and I think about things in a different way than everybody else.” I laughed a little bit at him taking the books anyways and finding them a safe spot inside of my backpack.
“Yeah, yeah I know. I’ll remind you of that the next time that you wear those crazy goggles.” I teased a little bit and he just stuck his tongue childishly at me.
“Zey protect me from ze sparks we’ve talked about zis.” I laughed openly at him as he held the door to the library for me.
“I know I’m just messing with you uncle. Come on, it’s already nearly afternoon and the mall is kinda far from here.” I reminded him lightly knowing not knowing where in the world he had planned on taking the two of us yet.
“It’s just a few errands some things for tonight that I can help you hang up in your bedroom.” I got into his old car that smelled like so many afternoons spent together. I remembered when I was younger and he would take me to the aquarium and teach me about all the fish that were out there in the world.
“I haven’t taken you on an outing in a really long time. Not since you started your lessons with me.” He carefully pulled out of the driveway and I still wondered where in the world we were going and why it was to the mall.
“I missed our old outings. I remember when you used to take me to the aquarium and taught me about all the different kinds of fish that they have there.” I laughed a little bit at the memory since it was of something that seemed so simple.
“You were so cute when you were zat age. Not that you aren’t adorable now but it was different when you were younger. You used to look at everything with little stars in your eyes.” I smiled softly at my best friend and the uncle that had been there for me when I was younger. He was always there for me whenever I needed for him to be.
“I love you uncle Ludwig…” He smiled softly at me running a hand through the fringe that was at the front of my ponytail.
“I love you too so very much mein starchen.” He reminded me lightly as the red light turned green and I watched the rest of the world go by outside my car door. When I saw our large mall and I quickly was led behind him to a store that I had only ever seen before when I looked around with my brother’s.
“Uncle Ludwig… this is…” Pride store was written in bright booming colors at the top. I saw all the colors that were on the flags.
“Come on Sabrina, let’s get you some things for your bedroom.” He put his arm around my shoulders encouragingly.
“Hi! How can I help you both?” I heard the familiar sounds of Freedom ’90 instantly playing inside of the store.
“Hello ‘dere this is my great niece. She just came out to me and I wanted to get her some zings for her bedroom.” My uncle explained to her and I saw the worker’s eyes fill with tears as she looked away from me and a man sighed.
“Forgive my girlfriend, she can be a lot and very emotional. What exactly were you both looking for?” I saw a trans pin on his jacket and I instantly took a deep breath.
“I have a girlfriend in St. Canard. I’m a lesbian and I just came out to him earlier today. I’m doing the rest of my family over dinner tonight. He’s my great uncle and has been my teacher since I was younger.” I mentioned my relation to my uncle who was already looking at everything that he could.
“Is he, a lot?” I nodded my head with a small laugh just looking around my surroundings. The first thing that stood out to me was a lesbian pride flag that I could hang above my bed.
“Oh that’s a really popular pride flag! We make all our pride flags here in house if you wanted something unique written on it I can sew it on or my girlfriend can.” He told me with a small understanding smile getting the material down for me as I looked at it.
“It’s beautiful…” I trailed off but the worker got down another flag with a small smile on his face as he unwoven it in front of me.
“This one is for the feminine presenting lesbians out there. People like my girlfriend, it’s called femme. You look to be the type that puts a lot of care into your appearance so that’s why I think that this one suits you best.” He reasoned and I nodded my head feeling the texture of the flag. Even though I knew that nobody would know what this flag meant, I would. I’d have to explain it a lot more but I’d like that. I wanted to be open about my sexuality and the way that it made me feel personally.
“What’s that you zere?” My uncle asked me and I showed him the two flags that I had found for my bedroom.
“That’s the stereotypical lesbian flag right there and that’s the femme flag sir. What that means is that’s what my girlfriend identifies as. It’s the lesbians that put a lot of care and love into their appearance. She can’t leave the house and come to the store if she’s not looking her absolute best.” The woman in question put her hands on her hips.
“I see how it is, you’re just going to trash talk me. Well I’m not falling for it mister. Come here sweetie, let’s see if we can’t find some other things that you’ll enjoy.” The woman took my hand while my uncle looked at the flags before nodding his head.
“You’re very lucky, to have somebody who loves you that much. He’s willing to work to understand somebody that he’s not even that closely related to. He’s your great uncle?” I nodded my head with a small smile on my face.
“I know zat I’m lucky to have him. He’s taught me so much about understanding others and he’s always tried to understand me as well. He works really hard, he’s an inventor even if he’s way past his prime.” I explained about what he did for a living and she just listened to me.
“I think that’s amazing that he cares so much about his great niece. A lot of older people don’t really take the time to understand us youngsters and our orientations. I wanted to show you this! If I know a good femme when I see one you love stuffed animals right?” I nodded my head enthusiastically and she brought down a rainbow bear and a lesbian colored one.
“We also have really soft sweaters and long sleeved shirts for all the sexualities.” I looked at the lesbian one picking it up off the rack.
“I want this one, it’s really pretty.” The worker just smiled at me as I picked up that one and the femme bear that was soft to the touch.
“I think that your great uncle is getting both of those flags for you.” My heart melted seeing him at the cash register waving his hands around as he told eccentric stories.
“He can pretty much talk to anyone for three minutes and they’ll be friends. It’s one of the things that I’ve always admired about him.” I went over to him and he just lightly picked up the two things that I had found not even batting an eye as he paid for everything.
“Now zat’s out of ze way, let’s go to ze bakery and zen to ze manor.” I smiled softly at him as we went back to the car.
“You didn’t have to get me both of those flags uncle Ludwig…” I trailed off and he just smiled at me brightly.
“I did too, zey made you happy and what makes my niece happy I have to purchase. Zat’s the motto for today.” I smiled softly at him as we drove down to the bakery. The smell of sugar cookies, brownies and baked goods instantly hit my nose as I took a picture of the flag cookie to send to Gosalyn. I told myself that I would need to stop her before my flight next month to St. Conard so that me and her could try some.
“Starchen? I got ze goods, come along. It is time to meet up at the manor. Ze sun is nearly setting, time really does fly when you’re having fun.” I took the cake from him lightly carrying it out to the car where all the rest of the items were.
“Well we did spend most of the day shopping at the mall and doing that puzzle. We didn’t even come close to getting the puzzle a quarter of the way done. More for next time?” I offered and he nodded his head getting the car door for me.
“We will definitely do more of ze puzzle next time. I think zat you need a little bit of a break. We don’t want to tire your poor little brain out.” I chuckled lightly at him blowing the fringe out of my eyes. The drive to the manor was spent mostly in companionable silence. I saw Dewey practicing his basketball on the front driveway again.
“Hey Dew!” I waved to my younger brother and I watched as the ball went into the basket when my brother turned around.
“Hey!! How was your day, learn anything cool?” He asked me enthusiastically and I smiled softly at him. Recently his favorite thing had been me second hand teaching him things that would help him on his own homework.
“Sorry to say zat today was one of her free days where I don’t teach her anything. We have zem once a month so zat she can get a break and not overwork herself.” Dewey took the cake from my hands and tried to open it when I glared at him.
“No peaking at the dessert I see you. Stop that right now, the dessert is a surprise.” I warned him lightly taking it from him knowing that the curiosity would only make him want to look more.
“What could be so secret about cake?” I sighed a little bit playing with the hem of my dress skirt and he just put his arm around my shoulders.
“Want to tell me what’s been going on with you? You’re doing it again, closing yourself up into your own little shell. I thought that you weren’t going to do that again?” He reminded me and I just sighed heavily nodding my head.
“I’ll tell you once we’ve all seated for dinner. I want to tell this to everyone at one time. Uncle Ludwig already knows since I spent the day with him. The cake has something to do with that since I couldn’t stop him from buying it.” Dewey nodded his head in understanding lightly shoving my shoulder with a small smile.
“I think I already have a decent idea of what it is and I’m totally fine with it. If she makes you happy then that’s great. You deserve somebody that could make you happy. I’ve been questioning lately myself which sex I prefer as well. You might not be the only queer sibling.” He joked a little bit and I blinked at my brother as we went inside the manor. I saw uncle Ludwig get everything out of the car and discreetly carry it up to my bedroom.
“He bought you a bunch of things didn’t he?” I nodded my head with a small laugh rubbing the back of my neck with a small smile.
“Yeah that’s pretty much what happened. We spent hours at the mall today and he pretty much bought me an entire store. He spoils me a lot more than I deserve.” Dewey just laughed a little bit at me helping me to carry the cake into the kitchen.
“Hey Lou! I’m back you lazy bum, have you even moved today?” I teased lightly and he just flipped me off from the couch.
“How was your day?” I sat down next to him and I put my feet over his lap with a small smile on my face.
“It was good! I spent the day with uncle Ludwig and we did a lot of fun things together. Are you hungry yet?” He nodded his head putting up his switch for the day and stretching his arms with a small sigh as the joints popped.
“Dinner is ready family.” Uncle Donald called from the dining room and I just sighed a little bit. It was better to just do it now and get it over with. Ripping it off like a bandaid and then having their ridicule and judgement for the rest of my life if that’s what happened.
“Sabrina are you hungry?” Mrs. Beckley asked me and I nodded my head with a small smile on my my face.
“Yes I am! I haven’t eaten truly since breakfast today.” She led all of us into the dining room where my uncle Scrooge was sitting at the front of the table. I kissed his cheek with a small smile on my face.
“Hello lass, how was your day?” I nodded my head just sitting at the his right side with uncle Ludwig next to me.
“Do you want to hold my hand starchen?” My uncle murmured with a small smile in his face. I leaned my head against his shoulder with a small smile back.
“I know that a lot of you have been worried about me for the last month or so. I just want to let you know that there isn’t anything wrong with me living here. That’s not the problem. It has nothing to do with any of you. Family, I’m a lesbian. I’ve been dating Gosalyn for the last month and a half.” I admitted the thing that I had been hiding from everyone and I saw Dewey make a small fist bump.
“That’s it? That’s all that you wanted to tell us? Lass, we already figured that you had more than friendship feelings for your best friend. At least I did. What about you Donald?” My uncle Donald swept me into a big hug.
“Sabrina I’ve always loved you just the way that you were. The you that would hide herself away and read her books, the you that would play her violin only in the privacy of her own room, and the you that looked at Gosalyn like she hung you the moon stars. She makes you happy. I am so proud of you for telling me.” He encouraged me thumbing away the tears and my mom just wrapped her arms around the two of us tightly.
“I love you, so much Sabrina. There isn’t a thing wrong with you for feeling the way that you do about Gosalyn. Everyone in the world has someone that can match them. I genuinely think that she is yours.” My heart warmed into my chest and I looked over at Louie who had an understanding look in his eyes.
“I get why you kept it from us. You were scared that you would be rejected.” I nodded my head and Huey just ran to give me a tight hug.
“You’re still my favorite sibling sis, I’ll always think that you are. This is just another thing that I can add to the list of things about you that are amazing!” Huey had always been the brother that was closest to me and I watched Dewey bite his lower lip.
“She’s not the only one that’s not straight. I’m still trying to figure my sexuality out but I know that it isn’t just girls that I like.” Webby just squeezed my hand with a small smile. I knew that this was the happiest that I would ever be. Everyone in my family had accepted me the way that I wanted to be and the way that I was. And what in the world could have been better than that?
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devious-kat · 4 years ago
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LEGITAMATELY WISH I HAD SOMEONE TO GRAB AND SHAKE AND SCREAM ABOUT DUCKTALES WITH.
I don’t usually do this. Reason I am is because I can’t do the title above.
Thoughts during the finale. Spoilers.
Title comes up and Webby says “Woo-oo!” - I’m not ready TT_TT
Webby gets “water” - she’s learned! our baby is growing up!
Scrooge paid FULL PRICE. FULL. AND ISN’T COMPLAINING OR MICROMANAGING TO SAVE EXTRA COSTS. THAT’S HOW SCROOGE SAYS ‘I LOVE YOU’ OKAY (plan or no plan)
Huey putting emPHASIS on words made me SUSPICIOUS.
the kids taking charge reminded me that Frank said they were focusing on the future generation. Leaving things to the kids and such.
Darkwing showboating made me roll my eyes. oh, DW.
I enjoyed that Dewey kicked the door and subsequently Beakley did too XD
I got a bit spoiled about May and June. So not surprised. BUT suspicious right away. If FOWL was so ahead of the game that no one was around by the time they got there, why forget the two? They had a plan, NO WAY these two weren’t part of it.
And another thing - in comic universe May and June are Daisy’s nieces - to Donald’s nephews. And they were triplets. So again, right away I was like “something’s going on here....”
Scrooge is gentler and more aware of how sensitive this is for Beakley, and I’m just adoring it.
Juice is brought back - Me: GUMMY BEEEARS BOUNCING HERE AND THERE AND EVERYWHEREEEEEE
I was trying to absorb as much information from Webby’s board as I could. I love how it went from McDuck family tree to Webby’s FAMILY board <3
DONT YOU CUT THOSE STRINGS YOU CLONE! OOOH THEMS FIGHTIN ACTIONS
I was a bit surprised Donald was preparing to go on a trip. Surprised only because it does feel like he could make up for lost time with Della for a while before going. I love him and Daisy together though, they’re super sweet.
Beakley told Webby some truths. And some lies. 
Scrooge made tea. SCROOGE made tea.
OUR family. they’re killing me you guys.
Huey surprised me by going after Webby. He’s usually the one who wants to think things through, but then again, there wasn’t time.
Also was surprised Webby was disguised as June! at first I thought June stole her bracelet.
Throwing Scrooge on the car made me laugh.
Della on top of Donald hitting him in the head made me laugh too. How quick they are to fight each other XD
“It’s WEBBY.” that was actually super sweet.
Also another sign the kids are taking over.
Scrooge knows Dewey and Louie (and Huey) well by now. And he believes in them. I love it.
“The original three!” omg I was so excited. Honestly I’d watch a show of the three of them.
MANNY?!?!
huh that voice is familiar......
“age reversal”? that’s...interesting...
Project 87?? I SEE YOU.
Ahhh, April. There it is.
I believed Bradford was Finch’s grandson, but NOT that he was a woodchuck for some reason.
LUDWIG?!?! HOLY CRAP!
Pogo-Cane returns!
Della’s leg can be an axe?? frickin sweet!
“you abandoned me!” aw Scrooge...
“How do we Dewey it?” I said it as the same time as Louie. saw that one coming XD
She went straight to Scrooge after, I just can’t ok
I kept waiting for the harp to say something while Bradford was talking....
SHABOOIE!
I...KNOW THAT MUSIC...NOW I REMEMBER WHERE I KNOW THAT VOICE FROM. DUCKTALES WRITERS YOU CADS. FREAKIN GARGOYLES MAN!!! FUCK! YES!!!
Poor Launchpad is just taking a beating :(
I freakin love Ludwig in this XD
“a veritable troop of Goofs” AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
......did Bradford KILL Duckworth?????
the way Flintheart just jumps out and says his own name convinces me he wakes up every morning and screams his own name too. no matter the situation. knocked out? wakes up, screams “FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD!”
Scrooge takes a huge beating in this too! like, a lot. oof.
I’ll be honest, with the contract, I figured this was the writer’s way of letting the kids take over. If Scrooge can’t adventure, they can. And I was really upset.
FRICKIN LUDWIG. “you fellas knew that, right?...or you didn’t. I’m gonna give you a moment to adjust everything.” I love Ludwig.
also, did NOT see that coming. the “age reversal” part of cloning makes sense now though...
Launchpad. deserved. this. (not the beating, though)
him not saying the phrase right was freaking fantastic XD
It’s interesting that Scrooge doesn’t hesitate, but Donald tries to tell him not to. like, NO DONALD. HE WON’T RISK YOUR LIFE. NOT FOR THIS.
Things were tense for a bit here! I had no idea how they could get Scrooge out of the contract.
“Donald Duck.” “Uncle Scrooge.” WHAT A CALLBACK FRICKIN LOVE IT
“Dad..?” “...dad.” I’m dying
ok ok I know it’s probably weird but I love the idea of a Beakley+Webby+Scrooge family dynamic. I want to read every fic ever. gimme. that little moment they shared, I can’t stop watching it.
also yeah, animation was peak this episode. so smooooooth.
END CREDITS. BEAUTIFUL TT_TT
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westofessos · 4 years ago
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What I’ve Watched During Quarantine (so far):
TV Shows:
The Last Kingdom - holy shit I love this show and I cannot wait for a new season. Æthelflaed is a badass bitch. But I miss Alfred.
After Life - the most heartbreaking show in the world, with Ricky Gervais being funny between making me cry.
Community - maybe my favourite sitcom. I fucking love this show. I’m containing myself because if I don’t, I’ll go on forever.
Hunters - I love love love love love this weird-ass, terrifying, mind-bending, incredible show. What a ride. Sister Harriet is my favourite even though I don’t trust her.
Tiger King - Yes, along with everyone else I watched this fuckery. What is there to say? I was entertained, that’s it.
Making a Murderer - I was on a roll after Tiger King and wanted something crazy, and I got it. What a bunch of fucked up shit. I can’t believe this is real. Also Kathleen Zellner is a badass bitch and I love her.
Good Omens - I broke down and watched it. And this was the weirdest shit I’ve ever seen but I loved it. Crowley and Aziraphale are a delight. And my history nerd heart couldn’t handle it.
The Boys - wow this was the most disturbing, wonderful show. Truly terrifying but great. Billy Butcher is incredible.
Peaky Blinders - when I say I am in love with Thomas Shelby. Wow. What a fantastic show. I didn’t expect to like it, but I finished all five seasons in less than a week because I’m absolutely addicted. Damn you Thomas Shelby and your pretty eyes.
The Umbrella Academy (S2) - wow wow wow wow what an amazing season. I don’t want to spoil anything but it was absolutely fantastic.
Rewatches:
Lost - my favourite show of all time, and my favourite series finale of all time. Fuck what people say, Lost is brilliant and I would die for this beautiful show.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - what an all around great time. I just love it so much.
Roseanne - ah, old school Roseanne. My actual favourite sitcom. Y’know, the one that was my entire childhood, basically made me who I am today, only for me to find out that the actress that played my actual idol was a racist. Yeah, that one. It was nice to ignore that though and love my favourite show regardless.
Scrubs - I just watched it for the first time just before quarantine, and decided to watch it again during. What a brilliant show. It means so much to me. Also, Perry Cox is one of the greatest, most complex characters to ever exist. And Carla Espinosa is an underrated queen. I’m also listening to Fake Doctors, Real Friends, which is Zach Braff and Donald Faison’s Scrubs rewatch podcast, and it’s great.
Friends - I missed this show, really. It’s still so great. Chandler Bing is amazing and I forgot how adorable he and Monica are.
Movies:
The Philadelphia Story - again, Cary Grant is lovely. Also, Katherine Hepburn is incredible and I love her.
Rocky 1-4 (haven’t gotten hold of 5 yet) - oh, yes, yes, yes. These movies. I love love love these movies. Rocky and Adrian are the couple.
Cocktail - this one wasn’t bad, considering I hate Tom Cruise. I’d watch it again.
Anastasia - I’ve been wanting to watch this one for a while, and it was awesome. I love Meg Ryan so much.
Rebel Without a Cause - this is such a great teen movie. I was surprised about how much I related to it. Also, as if everyone didn’t already know, James Dean is gorgeous.
Thelma & Louise - what a beautiful story about friendship and badass ladies. This is exactly my shit. Yes.
Steel Magnolias - this was such a lovely, sad movie. Oh, I love it.
The Wedding Planner - this one set me on a JLo kick, because this was such an adorable movie. Her and McConaughey were adorable.
Maid in Manhattan - ah, JLo, you did it again. I loved this one so much. Loved it.
Save the Last Dance - I hadn’t heard of this one, but I saw Julia Stiles and immediately clicked. That was the right choice. This movie was so cute, oh, I loved it.
All the President’s Men - me geeking out over journalism, politics, and history for two hours? Yes please. Also Robert Redford is gorgeous and I never found him that attractive before.
Terms of Endearment - oh, break my goddamn heart why don’t you. Fuck, this was so heartbreaking. I loved it.
Taxi Driver - a garbage movie for garbage people. Imagine if Fight Club just like, wasn’t a good movie. That was the vibe of this one. God, don’t waste your time.
Singin’ in the Rain - what a lovely, fun movie. All three main characters were great, the songs were awesome, the relationships were fun, what more can I say? Oh yeah, Gene Kelly? Damn.
His Girl Friday - overall an okay movie, but it was pretty funny, and Cary Grant. Dear god, I love me some Cary Grant.
Good Will Hunting - oh, fuck me, this movie. How dare you make me feel such things, Matt Damon. What an incredible movie. It made me, a person who hates Ben Affleck, not hate Ben Affleck for two whole hours. It made me cry, of course. Robin Williams, dammit. Wow. And Matt fucking Damon was so brilliant, and so was Minnie Driver, and they were so good together, and I could gush about this movie for days.
Set it Up - as of now, I’ve watched this movie, oh, nine thousand times?? How perfect is this movie? All of the actors are great, and I’d watch two hours of just Charlie looking at Harper. Ugh. The way he looks at her gets me every time.
The Old Guard - I’m not usually a fan of action movies but this one was so good !! I loved the plot and just the idea in general, and all of the characters were so awesome. It was a really great movie.
Rewatches:
Tombstone - I could watch this movie every single day. Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday might be my favourite performance ever. I can quote almost this entire movie, and I don’t even like westerns.
Gladiator - I hadn’t watched this in a long time, and I knew it was good, but it was so, so, so good. Wow.
Memento - maybe my favourite movie ever. Definitely my favourite mind-fuck movie. So cool, and just. . . god, it’s such a good movie. Hats off to you, Chris Nolan.
The Usual Suspects - this is one of my favourite movies of all time. Everyone is so good in it and that ending is incredible. I could gush about this movie forever. Dean Keaton deserved better.
This is the End - such a funny movie, wow. Anything with Seth Rogen and James Franco is good. Jay Baruchel, wow. I adore Jay Baruchel.
You’ve Got Mail - in my books, the best romantic movie ever. I watch this shit constantly. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are so adorable together. Add in Dave Chappelle, and it’s perfect.
Unbreakable, Split, and Glass - M. Night Shyamalan is always good and I’ll fight anyone on that. These three expecially. He’s the absolute master.
Back to the Future 1-3 - if I’m being honest, they’re not the greatest movies, but fuck, aren’t they, though? They’re cheesy as hell, but absolutely iconic and I still love the hell out of them.
The Neverending Story - this is the weirdest goddamn movie I’ve ever seen but the nostalgia hit me harddd. This movie was my whole childhood and even though it’s absolutely disturbing, it’s still great.
Talk to me about any of these!! I’m desperate to rant about my favourite movies and tv shows, and if you are too, feel free to reply to this post or message me privately! I’m always ready to talk and gush about things I love.
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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago
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Top 12 Three Caballeros Moments: Ride of the Three Caballeros Epilogue!
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Salduos Amigos...and Adios, as this is the FINAL part of my 20 part look at those happy amigos, those snappy chappies in matching serapes, those birds of the feather, THE THREE CABALLEROS, THE RIDE OF THE THREE CABALLEROS! Yes after 19 other articles, all paid for by megafan and patron of the blog @weirdkev27​, it’s time to bid our boys a fond farewell.  And what a ride i’ts been... we’ve had trips to Bahia, animaton sequences requiring a LOT of 1940′s cocaine ,Jose reinacting the plot of “Come a LIttle Bit Closer” by jay and the americans but ironcially not in the Badman Jose roll,, a less happy reunion where Donald went full vanilla ice for a few moments, Panchito giving us his long and storied family history in song form, Donald needing a vacation after his girlfriend punched him in the face and instead getting eaten by a giant snake, FLAMENCO MASTER HORACE HORSECOLLAR, Soccer with super cars, and our heroes having a warm and fun reunion and having to admit their lives didn’t turn out so good while Dewey jacaksses around in the subplot.
 And all of this lead into their very own series where our heroes met a goddess and wayne knight all in the same day, defeated THE MIGHTY MINOTAUR, got into a giant robot fight on the fucking moon, meeting the roman gods who live on and tend to the norse world tree for some reason, preventing a stupidly started lava apocalypse, going to goblin jail via song, meeting some literal dead presidents, chasing a bear around a fancy rich people town, getting into the ch-ch-chalk zone, fighting a wrestling match against the respresntive of the god of death, dying and coming back to life as a result of said wrestling match, going to camelot to train with king arthrus’ self helf book, going to a yeti spa and finally returning for one last battle with an evil wizard, his pet monkeybatdonkeyrat, and wayne knight, and have to put up with Donald’s shrill abusive ex girlfriend through about half of it. All in all good stuff and i’ll always be greatful for kevn funding this and giving me the chance to both finally watch legend and in general cover these wonderful characters. While i’m sure Panchito and Jose wil lbe back for the big finale of Ducktales, I’m gonna miss these guys and hope they get another shot at the big time one day. 
But Kevin had a great idea, one I decided to do for free since this thing cost 100 dollars together as it was a movie, and 20 episodes of television, so it was a LOT to do.  Fun but a lot of work. A top 12 list of the best moments from across the works covered for this retrospective. From the movie to the series, these are the best of the best moments of the best boys around. So without further adeu join me under the cut as I throw one hell of an after party for one hell of a ride.
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12. The Cold Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros (Movie) )
This one is low because it doesn’t exactly involve the boys at all as this was a short in their movie. But what can I say, I love penguins, especially Opus.
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And the charming tale of a pengy named Pablo who has trouble with the cold and wants to head off for warmer climates just never ceases to entertain me. It’s adorable, pretty funny and just a nice little start to the film every time I watch it. Especially his friends with the sleepy, depressed eyebrows. Really relate to them, especially the tall one with a ponch, aka me as a penguin.  Not much else to say hence why it’s so low, but I really enjoyed this short and can’t help but put Pablo on the list.. and wish he’d gotten a nod in Legend, but then again given we weren’t given a second season they were probably just saving him. 
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11. Charon’s Fabulous Cruise (Legend of the Three Caballeros) Another Cabs free entry but I Just love this concept: Charon, ferryman of the river sticks.. deciding since he’s not getting as many customers to turn it into a cruise ship complete with add. IT’s low both because it dosen’t involve the boys and it dosen’t take up much of it’s episode.. but damn if it ain’t funny. And Jim Cummings just brings his all to it.. granted HE always does, the man’s a legend for a reason, but dosne’t make his performance any less lovely. WIsh we got a second season just so we could see this guy again among other reasons. 
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10. You Don’t Get a Vacation You Take it (Legend of the Three Caballeros)  Wayne Knight as Sheldgoose.. was easily one of the best parts of Legend of the Three Caballeros. While the show itself was fairly high quality it’s other main villain Feldrake eventually fell into just calling Sheldgoose a moron and hitting him as his only character. IN contrast while at first apperance Sheldgoose was just a rich asshole with hair that looks like a bad toupe but apparently is his actual hair and what he choose to go with and a hell of a moustache.. and while that’s all true, he’s also cunning and manipultive, often making Feldrake’s plans work simply by using clever manipulations. He’s funny, enaging and the sadest part of no second season is not getting more of this guy. Hopefully he’ll show up in another.. even the comics using him without Wayne Knight’s Dulect Tones would be nice. He’s a good villian and would fit just as well in the classic comics being either a snooty nuisance to donald in some way, or being a rival fro scrooge, also being rich but his family having earned it by stealing from others.  But for now what we got ain’t bad and hte best example of just what sheldgoose is capable of is also his first bit of contirbuting more than as a set of hands for feldrake, phrasing. His vilian song. Yes Wayne Knight FINALLY gets a villian song. Your very welcome. 
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The song is just fun, a Luau type song with a sinster undercurrent and wayne knight just having a hell of a time, alternating between speaking and singing> It’s low on this list because i’ts an OKAY song, i’ve seen better villian songs, I just really liked this one, and because it dosen’t exactly involved the boys, but I still hold to my convictions in putting this one on here.
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9. Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González (House of Mouse) Only House of Mouse entry, and suprisingly it’s not Donald squeaking “And i’m donald duck!” , which has been burned into my brain for a few decades. No it’s the groups OTHER song in there second apperance on the show Not So Goofy, sung by the incomprable Rob Pauslen. While I sitll think he was easily the worst Jose of the bunch, and that the roll never should’ve been given to a white man to begin with, credit where it’s do: he wasn’t a have bad panchito. He only voiced everyone’s faviorite rooster, suck it Foghorn Leghorn, once, for a song, likely to capatalize on the fact Paulsen was famed for Yakko’s World and other songs where he sang a lot at once, but boy did he make a meal of it. Observe.
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The song is lightly hampered by the fact it also uses his version of Jose which is probably the worst work i’ve heard from Rob. And given it’s the only roll i’ve heard of his that wasn’t very good and he’s still VERY CLEARLY trying his best, that says a lot to the guy’s quality. And im not saying all this to avoid backlash, I stand by what I say and how I say it.. i’m saying it because I truly love and respect the guy this just was not his best work. This song however is Rob on full blast, using his ablitlity to talk fast no matter the voice to give us one heck of a lively performance and name for Panchito, one that was reused for Ride of the Three Cabs though sadly minus the song, as I would’ve LOVED to hear Jamie Camill belt this one out. But the lively animation and liveleir performance earn this one a spot.
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8. Baia, Donald (The Three Caballeros) For this one i’m squishing three different but related parts of the movie together: The “Have you been to Baia, Donald” song, the train trip there and the awesome musical number at the end. But all three flow together as one great sequence with the frist two serviing as a fun prelude for a fun sequence as Donald and Jose try to woo a lady named Yaya, played by Aurora Miranda, and get into a big and fun dance number that for the time is AMAZINGLY blended with the live action work. The song is an utter ear worm, the seqeunce is fun and it lacks some of the creepiness Donald’s later session of flirting had and the colors are vibrant as hell. Wonderful, beautiful stuff. It’s really hard to talk about as not a lot happens in it other than a fun bit of song and dance.. but sometimes tha’ts just waht you need: a bunch of actors, two of which were animated, moving and groving to a heckuva beat. 
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7. I Love You Guys (Legend of the Three Caballeros)  This was just a very sweet moment but one I treasure. The Cabs beat a giant horrifying rage beast.. by genuinely apoologizing to donald, telling him they love him then having a group hug. After a full episode before this of them just kinda ignoring what he cared about, Xandra and the boys genuine apologies and Donald genuinely telling them “I love you guys” and realizing for the first time in his life he’s genuinely loved and appricated. It just feels so fucking nice. Shame they didn’t you know.. end the Daisy plot with him realizing he dind’t need or or that he wasn’t angsiting over a selfish goldigger in the first place but hey, you take what you can get sometimes and the getting is good here. 
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6. The Cabs Song .. in Comic Form! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again!) 
Another fairly quick one to talk about but one’s that damn impressive. The Three Cabs ride again is a wonderful story that reunites our birds of a feather for an adventure in mexico.. and one of it’s two best moments, the other one way further up from Don Rosa’s classic, seriously check it out it’s good, is when the boys, to distract their enemy for the story, play their classic song.  Musical numbers.. are hard to pull off in comics. As Linkara, comic critic and one of my inspirations check him out on youtube he’s really fantastic, has mentioned quite a bit not having the sound to go with it is an uphill battle. But i’m not as against this as he is.. as long as you can convey the ENERGY of said song and perofrmance in the page. As long as you got that, you can pull it off and boy oh boy oh boy did Rosa ever. While it’s only about a page and a half long it’s just a fun, wonderful litlte sequence, from the crowd that has no reaction til lthe end when our big bad clubs them with the guitar, to our heroes swipining tablecoths to seve as serape to Donald falling outside, it’s one of the highlights of an alreayd impressive story. 
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5. Jam Session (Ducktales, The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!) 
Only one Ducktales moment but it’s a keeper to be sure and now I HAVE seen Legend... I can say as I did there Jamie Camil REALLY shoudlv’e been kept as Panchito but “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice”.. really was still ag reat version of the characters and still kept them true. It wasn’t AS good as the Legend versions.. but honestly that’s fine. Not every version HAS to be good as the others and they were still wella cted, wonderfully animated and the story was great. And the moment that shows it off best is the boys quite moment after lunch, where they remincse, have fun, think about old times.. then hear a radio and slowly but surely have a fun dance number together, playing like old times. It’s this moment that makes me REALLY question why people hated this so much, as this one tiny moment captures the cabs chemistry and comrander in just two short minutes, Donald getting angry, Jose defusing int with a dance then him joining in, the three just jamming iwth whatever’s on hand and jose magically playing the fluit with his umbrella. I’ts all just so charming I love it. The end version of the three cabs IS really awesome, it just didn’t make the cut. Still liked it though.. but this.. this is better. Sometimes less is more you know?
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4. The Three Cablleros Song (The Three Caballeros (Movie) ) Look you knew this was coming, I knew this was coming, we all knew this was coming. But the song is no less awesome, with fluid animation, wonderful vocals and lyrics, and an unberably catchy tune. It’s iconic to the characters, having popped up in four different renditions during this retrsopective, all of them pretty damn good, but no one tops the original.  Even the two more dated bits, some latin baby and Panchito having a gun solo, somehow don’t hamper what’s otherwise an iconic moment. It’s fun, it’s fancy free, and it establishes the boys dynamic perfectly, one that as we’ve seen would last a few lifetimes and probably will last forever. 
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3. We Say So! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again) While Ride again is a VERY good story, it’s best moment is ironiclaly it’s end despite leaving you wanting more and more. After a fun adventure and a laugh over it being for nothing really, our friends return to Jose’s job at a night club, which his manager, who understandably has issues with Jose choosing wooing ladies over actually doing his job sometimes, only gives him back because it’s a big night but needs a big act. The first touching moment here is the fact the boys pitch in without being asked because hteir friend needs them. But the real moment is what happens after: The Triplets return from the hotel, still bemoaning as they did ealrier in the story that Donald has no friends and assume when they see him on stage and see him crash off it that he incited a riot.. only for his friends to assure him he’s a very fine fellow and they say so.. and in an instnat the boys realize donald DOES have friends.. and the best friends a duck can ask for. And after a lifetime of being spat on and barely winning.. Donald gets an unquestioned victory, stnading proudly with his friends for a packed house who still want more while his nephews look on proudly. I say so.. and what I say is that this moment is one of Rosa’s finest and one of the most touching thigns the man’s ever written. 
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2. This is Just Where I Came In (The Legend of the Three Caballeros) The Legend of the Three Cabs was excellent and it ended on one hell of a high. After a heck of a fight via callbacks that barely didnt’ make the list, our heroes rush in to stop Feldrake. their sorcerer nemisis,  from reviving.. only for it to be too late. He’s back in full and soon warps reality around him leaving the boys hometown of the New Quackmore insitute as a series of rubble, buildings and people clinging desperatly to both floating in a hell of a starry backdrop, the only chance to stop this from happenign to the world resting in our heroes. And it’s so we catch up with where the seires began: our three heros decked out in truly awesome armor, though why Panchtio’s is roman I have no idea, fighting a giant and mosnterious felldrake and while his deisgn in that form is eh, his threat is palpable and the fight is goregous and pitch perfect.. and only gets better when we catch up, as Xandra swoops in to save htem from the cliffhanger the series started with. It only isn’t up top because of tow reasons; I like the first moment better.. and the boys do fall in a magic pool of amulet juice and emerge with powers due to a character we just meet when they do so. It’s a bit of a cop out.. but even with it being a cop out and a dues ex machina of the HIGHEST order.. it dosen’t stop it form being awesome when our heroes emerge merged with thier amulets energies, in their signutre colors and whoop felldrakes ass with a revivied Xandra’s help and then nearly reseal feldrake before his being resealed, but in Sheldgoose, resotres everything and our heroes get a WELL earned bout of praise from the town and a fancy mansion and in donald’s case a new job. A specatuclar, tense and gorgeous finale to a wonderful series. 
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1. Ride Em, Vaquero! (The Magificent 7 (Minus 4) Caballeros)  Look I know it sounds like a bit of a downgrade to go from a battle for the fate of the world to our heroes fighting a spoiled prince and a giant anaconda just to make it out alive.. but frankly this battle is more tense, has all boys showing off even better, and has a climax so awesome even saving the unvierse with suddenly gained magic powers can’t top it.  For the setting our heroes end up trapped in a lost city with the bad guy of the comic, Don Rosa’s second to last and his second of only two cabs stories, prepared to get away. But then Donald snaps, spurred on bya ll the shit he had to put up with back home,and TACKLES the fucking guy in his boat getting into one hell of a scrap. And if that wasn’t enough, what brings this to true glory is a giant Anaconda who shoed up earlier, popping up.. leading to Donald fighting our big bad.. WHILE BEING TANGLED UP IN A FUCKING PYTHON. 
What truly clinches this as the best of the best for me though is Jose and Panchito’s actions, with Jose fighting the guy off off donlad, and actually having his umbrella WORK this time, and while the bad guy gets the raft from our heroes.. he falls off a cliff. So how do our heroes escape.. simple .. PANCHITO LASSOS THE FLEEING SNAKE AND THEY RIDE IT OUT AS SEEN ABOVE THROUGH A POND FULL OF DANGEROUS CREATURES WHO ALL STARE IN AWE AT THE SIGHT OR FLEE.  You.. you just can’t top that. The awesomness, the teamwork, the sheer balls on panchito..i t’s all just so beauitful and sums up what the boys are about: Deft teamwork, camradire.. and doing utterly insane shit as only best friends can. 
So with that.. this ride has come to an end. As I said before and will say again, it’s been fun, easily the biggest project i’ve done so far, and easily one of my faviorites. I love these guys and geninely hope we see them again real soon. So before I go, i’d like to say some thank yous. I”d like to thank ALL of the talented people involved in the making of the original film, as there are way too many to mention as it was a package movie but without you lovely and mostly deceased people we’d never have these wonderful guys. I’d like to thank Don Rosa for bringing the boys back and better than ever and beautifully so AND returning to them again. I’d like to thank Henry Gilroy and Phil Walsh, who wrote the first and second house of mouse cabs episodes for bringing the boys back to the screen, as well as series creators Robert Gainway and Tony Craig and the MASSIVE pile of storyboarders for both episode.  I’d like to thank the people behind mickey and the roadster racers, while your episodes were not very good I am glad the boys got more screentime, i’d like thank Frank Angrones and Matt Youngberg for their wonderful versions of the boys and total respect to their legacy, and i’d REALLY like to thank Matt Danner for giving us a wonderful series and finally giving the boys a starring roll again. 
I’d also like to thank the MANY voice actors who voiced these wonderful characters, your beautiful all of you. To Donald’s voice actors for this retrospective i’d like to thank Clarence Nash, you absolute legend may you rest in peace, Tony Anselmo, may you keep on living please god we’ve lost a lot of good people lately don’t be one of them, and even Daniel Ross, who might not be the best Donald but he’s one of only five and you can’t take that way from him. 
For Jose i’d like to thank Jose Olivara, without you I don’t think we would’ve even gotten to the Cablleros as a group, Rob Paulsen, you tried your best and your still a winner in my heart, Eric Bauza, you genuinely were the best, and Bernardo Del Paula, who gave Bauza a run for his money and I hope returns in the role in the future. 
And finally for Panchito we have Joaquin Grey, again wouldn’t of had the rest without you man nice job, Carlos Alarzqaui, did the job and did it well, Rob Paulsen, gave us one hell of a song, Jamie Camill, the best around no one’s ever going to keep him down, Arturo Del Purto who while I prefer jamie.. still was excellent and I wouldn’t be mad if he returned again. 
And last but not least I’d like to sincerly thank @weirdkev27​. These reviews have GENUINELY helped me finacially since i’ts hard for me to find a job since I cannot drive and have a disablity, and thanks to htem i’ve been able to live comfortably and thanks to you in general i’ve been able to do what I love and get paid for it. You got me to do this wonderful restrospective, have been a genine support to the blog and a treasure to work with. Thanks man, your the best.  So with that, it’s time to ride off into the sunset. If the cabs get another apperance outside of ducktales, I will pick this up again... and wether it’s in a year or ten you bet your bottom peso they’ll be back. Who says so? I says so. 
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atomic-taco-muffin · 4 years ago
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Part Of My World part 8 (Finale)
I’m back baby! Whoo! Tests are finally over! 
Warnings: same as last part
Part Of My World Masterlist
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Previously in Part Of My World: 
“Sora! Wake up! It’s your last chance to kiss (Y/N)! Come on! Wake up! Wake up!”
“Good morning, my angel.” the imposter said as he hugged you.
“Hi, Vanitas.” you said hugging back.
“Well, this is certainly surprising. But I’m glad you found someone to become your king. Welcome to the family, Vanitas.” Sora was heartbroken. His one true love fell for another man.
“(Y/N) got engaged to another man and he’s heartbroken about it.” Roxas explained.
“WHAT?!” Xion and Axel exclaimed. Sora looked down, not wanting anyone to see his tears.
“Hey.” Axel put his hand on Sora’s shoulder. Sora looked up at Axel with tears falling down his face. “We’ll get her back to you.” Sora smiled at Axel.
“Vanitas? Who’s Vanitas?” Sora wrote down who Vanitas was and who he was and where he and Vanitas came from and why Vanitas is here.
“You’re a merman?! Dude, that is awesome!” Axel said.
Just then, the door opened to reveal Vanitas.
“Who are you?” He sneered.
“I’m Lady Xion. These are my friends. Lord Roxas, Lord Axel, and…” Right before Xion said Sora’s name, Sora made a cutting motion with his hand.
“And Lord Ventus.” Xion lied.
“Uh-huh.” Vanitas knew it was Sora, but he played along.
“May we know who you are?”
���Fine. The name’s Vanitas. (Y/N)’s future husband and future king. And if must know, (Y/N) told me to explore the castle so I get used to it when I move in here.” Vanitas then left. Sora let out a breath he been holding for a long time.
~~~~
Donald flew as fast as he can to find Goofy. He found him on his island napping. 
“Goofy! It’s an emergency!” Goofy woke up slowly, not fully understanding what was happening. 
“What?” he asked groggily. 
“Were you not listening? Sora’s in trouble!” 
“Sora’s in trouble?! What should we do?!” 
“We need to warn the king and the queen.” 
“On it!” Goofy left the island to go warn the king and the queen. He swam as fast as he can to the Destiny Kingdom. 
“Your Majesties! It’s an emergency!” 
“Great. Just what we needed. Another emergency.” the king said. The queen elbowed him. 
“What is it, Goofy?” she asked Goofy. 
“It’s about, Sora.” 
“Sora! Where is he? Is he okay? Tell me what happened!” the king shouted. 
“Sora is with the princess, but he’s in danger. We must head over to the kingdom before it’s too late!” Goofy said. 
“Riku!” the queen called. 
“Yes, Your Majesty.” 
“Round up all of the guards. We’re gonna save my son.” Riku bowed and went to go round up the guards. 
“We’re coming, honey. Just be strong for us.” the queen whispered. She went to her jewelry box and pulled out a magic pendant and gave it to Goofy. 
“Make sure that Sora gets this.” Goofy nodded and swam back to Donald. 
~~~~
“Okay. I just found out from a maid, that there’s gonna be a ball tonight to celebrate the so-called engagement between (Y/N) and Vanitas. Then tomorrow there’s gonna be the wedding. So we need to break Vanitas’ spell before sun down.” Xion said. 
“Okay. Mr. Talking-Bird here said that Sora’s parents are on their way with support and gave Sora a magic pendant.” Axel said. 
“I have a name here and it’s Donald!” 
“Okay. Sorry. No need to get all feisty with me.” Donald was about to peck the shit out of Axel but Sora stopped him from doing so. 
“How are you holding up, Sora?” Roxas asked. Sora wrote down that he was okay but scared of what might happen.
“Don’t worry, Sora. We’ll get her back.” Xion said, putting her hand on his shoulder. 
“I should go see if the king and the queen have arrived.” Donald said. He then flew off to go find Sora’s parents. 
“While Donald is doing that, we need to prepare for tonight. Also, what does that pendant to?” Xion said. Sora shrugged. He then put in on and felt a rush of magic go through him. 
“Are you okay, Sora?” Roxas asked. 
“Y-Yeah. I feel good.” 
“YOUR VOICE! It came back!” Xion said. 
“Yeah. Thank you, mom. I’ll come home soon. Let’s do this.” They left the library, and went to go get ready for the ball tonight.
~Time Skip~
Sora, Xion, Axel, and Roxas entered the ballroom to be greeted by a bunch of people they didn’t know. 
“Great. How are we gonna find (Y/N) and Vanitas when there’s all these people in the way?” Axel complained. Sora looked through the sea of people and then found you and Vanitas by the staircase. 
“Guys. I found her! Let’s go!” Sora said. They split up so they wouldn’t make it obvious. Xion went to the right, while the boys went to the left. 
“Hey, (Y/N)! You look beautiful!” Xion said. 
“Thanks, Xion! You look pretty too!” you replied. 
“So, I hear you’re getting married tomorrow. Mind if I see the dress?” 
“Of course! I’ll be right back, Bubby.” (I’m sorry! That nickname makes me soft! I love it so much!) Vanitas nodded in response. You and Xion went to go look at the dress, while the boys went to go confront Vanitas. Sora snuck with Xion to try and talk to you.
“Ugh. What do you want?” Vanitas said. 
“We know what your plan is, Vanitas.” Roxas said. 
“Do you now? And what do think my plan is?” 
“Your plan is to summon a creepy crusty wizard that will take over this kingdom and many others while having Sora as a prisoner.” Axel said. 
“Seems like you caught me. But you’re kind of too late.” 
“What the hell do you mean by that?” Roxas asked. 
“(Y/N) puts all of her trust into me. And Sora is not gonna be able to anything about it.” Vanitas smirked. 
“You son of a-”
~~~~
“Okay. You wait here while I’ll go get the dress.” you said. 
“Okay.” Xion smiled. You went into your closet to pull out the wedding dress. It was passed down through your family. 
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Xion made sure that you were in the closet before she let Sora in. Your maid helped you put the dress on and made sure it was on securely. You stepped out of the closet to be greeted by Sora. 
“Oh, hey. What are you doing here?” you asked surprised to see Sora standing there instead of Xion. 
“I came to see you.” he said. 
“Your voice came back!” 
“Yeah. But that’s not why I’m here.”
“Well, why are you here?” 
“Come with me.”You followed Sora down to the docks and stood there as he explained what has been going on these past couple of hours. 
“Wait, you have to leave tonight?” Sora nodded in response. 
“I-I wish I got to spend more time with you.”
“Me too.” Sora got an idea 
 “Do you trust me?” he asked. 
“Of course I trust you!” Sora pulled you close and started to dance with you. Just as he was about to kiss you, Vanitas pushed him into the water. 
“You just make it too easy don’t you, Sora?” 
“Wait, Sora?!” Sora got out of the water and saw that Vanitas was holding the necklace that Sora gave you. Vanitas then pulled you close to him and placed a rough kiss on your lips. You tried to push him away but he was too strong. 
“NO!” It was too late. The sun had setted and Sora was turned back into a merman. Vanitas finally let you go and you ran to Sora. 
“Oh my god, Sora! I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize it was you this entire time.” you said. 
“At least I got to dance with you.” 
“Ugh. Barf! All this lovey-dovey shit makes me want to kill someone. And I think I know the perfect target.” Vanitas took the last missing piece of the X-Blade and summoned the rest of it. He placed the missing piece into its rightful spot and a surge of dark magic flowed through him. He then pointed the X-Blade right at Sora. You stood in front of Sora with your arms out to protect him. 
“Seriously? Just give up, angel. It’s not worth the trouble.” 
“No. I lost the two most important people in my life. I’m not losing Sora.” 
“So be it.” Vanitas raised the X-Blade in the air and summoned Xehanort. (kind of like what happened during the keyblade war). 
“Hah, feels good to be back in my original body.” Xehanort said. You gasped. You felt like this was your fault. You helped summon Xehanort. Sora looked at Xehanort in disbelief. This isn’t happening. He wished that this was a dream. But it wasn’t. This is real. 
“XEHANORT!” a voice boomed. Wait that sounded familiar. It was 
“DAD!” Sora exclaimed. He saw his parents riding a gigantic wave. He dove into the water to be reunited with his family. Sora’s mother was the first one to hug him. 
“Oh thank goodness! You’re okay.” 
“Well, if it isn’t Your Majesty, the king. So nice of you to join us. We’re just about to get started with the ceremony” Xehanort said. 
“What ceremony?” you asked. 
“Why the wedding, of course.” Vanitas said. This couldn’t be happening. Xehanort grabbed your arm and pushed you towards Vanitas. 
“Now, are we ready to begin?” Xehanort asked. 
“NO! Let me go!” You tried to fight against Vanitas but he was too strong. 
“Dad, we have to help her.” 
“We will, son. Don’t worry.” Sora’s dad waved his trident and shot it at Xehanort and Vanitas trying to be careful of you. The two of them flew into the water and got turned into mermen. Sora swam to you as fast as he can but got pulled by Vanitas. Sora fought against his grip the best as he could. He broke free but the pendant that he had snapped and broke. At that point he didn’t care, all he cared about was making sure you were okay. He made it to the docks and pulled himself up. 
“Sora! Oh my god! I’m so scared. What’s gonna happen?” Sora tried to talk but realized he couldn’t because he didn’t have the pendant. Sora’s mother saw this and gave Sora a magic weapon that will help defeat Vanitas and Xehanort. You hugged Sora and ran back into the castle so that you wouldn’t get hurt. 
~Time skip b/c I don’t want to write a fight scene~
Sora and his family won. They defeated Vanitas and Xehanort together. They were able to break the X-Blade and Sora got his voice back. He was about to swim back to you but remembered that he didn’t have his legs anymore. His mother took notice of this and used her magic to summon one of the last Paopu fruits that existed. She handed him the fruit and told him to go to you. He swam towards the docks again and pulled himself up. You walked out to the docks to see if it was safe. You then ran to Sora and tackled him into a giant hug. 
“What’s this?” you asked as you pulled away from the hug. 
“It’s called a Paopu fruit. It’s said to have a person’s destiny intertwined with another’s. I’m not sure if it will work with us, but I want to give it a try.” he said.
“Okay. Let’s try it.” You and Sora broke off a piece and ate it. Just then, Sora felt his legs come back. The two of you smiled and kissed. 
BONUS: 
It was two years after you got married and became king and queen. You weren’t feeling like yourself. You kept throwing up every five minutes and sometimes passing out. You and Sora thought that it might be food poisoning, but when the doctor came, it was the exact opposite. 
“Y-You’re pregnant?” Sora said. 
“Yep! That’s what the doctor said.” Sora felt tears starting to form and hugged you. You hugged back, feeling your own tears forming. But it brought up a question. Was the baby going to be a merperson or a human. When your baby was born, the two of you discovered that it was a hybrid meaning that the baby could change into a merperson whenever they wanted to. The three of you then lived a happy life in the kingdom and went on crazy adventures together knowing that nothing can stop true love. 
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cutegirlmayra · 4 years ago
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Kairi Prompt
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* !!!SPOILERS FOR MELODY OF MEMORY WARNING!!! *
This happens during Kairi’s exam, where Aqua was trying to prepare her but suddenly, a new enemy began to threaten some uncharted worlds.
Worried this could mean something bad is happening with darkness again, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus go to investigate through the door to darkness, while Roxas, Axel, and Xion state they’ll try looking around in the world of light.
Kairi wants to journey too, but wonders if she should go alone...
Thinking this may be from the data world, Mickey can’t abandon his research, and Goofy and Donald are sent there.
Kairi... is once again alone.
She hadn’t really snuck onto the gummi ship, she just wandered into it and no one seemed to notice.
She wondered if she should talk to Master Yen Sid... but something told her she already knew what to do.
She continued to walk over to the main chair of the ship... in the middle and in front of the other two.
She placed a loosely-bundled fist up to her chest, looking down a moment. “Why... am I here?”
She could feel something... calling... and closed her eyes.
“Sora... you’re with me, right? Hehe, I should have known.” She smiled and lowered her hand down, looking more determinedly towards the windows of the gummi ship. “If you heard what was going on, you wouldn’t just sit back and wait... for someone else to direct your course... would you?”
She tilted her head, under the impression that maybe if his voice couldn’t reach her where he was... that her voice still could.
“Right, let’s do this! Together!” She summoned her keyblade, pointing it out as it began to glow at it’s tip, and the gummi ship began to activate.
“Ohh!” Startled by the sudden wind, Queen Minnie and Daisy turned to see it floating up and a lighted beam shoot out from it. “Could it be..?” Minnie had to wonder a moment, “No, it’s Kairi! Kairi..!” She waved, joyfully wishing her off.
“Your majesty!” Daisy reached up and dropped her hand, “Should you really be so relaxed right now? She’s going off on her own!”
“I know,” Minnie smiled to her, then gently placed her hand on Daisy’s which had lowered her arm from sending Kairi off on her way. “Isn’t it exciting?”
Daisy looked amazed, her beak opening to say something, before shaking her head and smiling politely to her. She let her arms drop and remain poised in the front of her, down and over one another, “You’re right... It is...” She looked up with hope in her eyes and faith that Kairi was ready, and that she may find something the others couldn’t.
“Besides,” Minnie began, still watching the gummi ship take off in a large burst that rippled the wind back and made the two girls brace themselves. “Hmhm, she’s never alone.” Minnie placed her hands together, as though saying a silent prayer, and then with a touch of magic, her fingertips started glowing and gathering light around them.
“Ah! Your highness!” Daisy seemed to recognize this power. “A-are you sure!?”
“I’m very certain... Kairi may not need it, but I’d feel awfully worried if I didn’t at least give her a... oh, a pick-me-up! That’s a fun thing to call it!” she giggled once more in her glee and raised one hand away from the other, shooting a star up into the sky that trailed after Kairi.
“A royal blessing...” Daisy commented, and lowered her head in respects. “Ohh... without that blessing though, who’s going to guard you?”
She seemed to be hinting at the magic being somewhat a shield of somekind, but it wasn’t certain.
Minnie turned around and winked to her, and stated, “I’ll be alright! I’ve got Mickey home at last. Though he’s hard at work, I don’t want to seem like I’m slacking either.” and again, her eyes turned back to where the gummi ship was far out of sight now... the shooting-star’s trial of stardust was all that twinkled to show which way it had headed. “It’s up to Kairi and the lingering spirit of Sora’s presence in her heart to carry out the rest.” She nodded with certainty. “And if anyone can teach Kairi what she needs before taking the mark of mastery, it’s definitely going to be from a journey with Sora.” She amused over the idea, “What a lovely date they’ll have!” She covered her mouth and closed her eyes, realizing she was being a bit nosy, and turned around to think her mischievously charming thoughts to herself. “Come along now, Daisy. Let’s tell Mickey what we’ve done...”
“Y-yes, your majesty.” Daisy sighed, walking after her, “Oh bother... Do we have to take the stairs?”
Kairi went to many Disney worlds that Sora and the gang haven’t ventured to before, previously. However, many of the characters seemed to know Sora, or at least, friends of Sora by some degree.
Kairi also came back to other worlds he had visited, finding that their stories were far from over, and there was--in fact--something influencing darkness and evil in the worlds... it strengthened their foes or new ones...
For example, Kairi learned from Merida that one decides their own fate, whether it’s by their hand or some magic, you always can choose your fate... if you’re brave enough to seize it.
“This time...” She watched the ghostly wisps beckoning her to where the bears were fighting. She summoned her keyblade, gripping it strongly as though with an iron fist, “I’ll decide where my fate starts.” she took off, ready to help Merida and her mother.
In Dumbo, Kairi realized that it wasn’t her keyblade, her own personal strength, or even her friends that necessarily gave her all the power she ever needed. It was also faith in herself, what she already had, that would bring her the greatest powers yet to come.
“And you gave him that faith to fly, didn’t you?” She looked at the little mouse as it took off it’s ring-master hat and bowed to her. “And Dumbo...” She giggled, “It was never the feather that you wielded. It’s power was always your own... I think I understand now.” She looked over at her keyblade, “All my strength... or at least, the strength that I’ve always had... I’ve just yet to realize it.” She smiled, finding some confidence in herself. “I bet that’s how Sora and Riku once felt... I thought, if I could be a Keyblade Master, maybe... I don’t know,” She lowered the keyblade, looking back to the little elephant and it’s mouse friend. “I still gain so much strength from their faith in me... but I see now that I need faith in myself, my own abilities, to really succeed at being my own kind of keyblade wielder... Thank you for that, both of you.” Dumbo wiggled his ears, elated to have helped as she had also helped them so much. “Now, let’s make sure your mother’s okay.” Dumbo jumped around in a cycle, full of glee at that idea, and took off as the little mouse gripped it’s hat, ran in the air a moment, before darting after him.
“Heheh... Well, I be done seen about everything.” She laughed to herself, and for a second, her heart took her to a moment long ago lived... where Sora and Riku were laughing beside her on the dock back in Destiny Island. Riku swung a hand into Sora’s face and he tried to fight back, causing the two to tumble into the sea...
“Sora... Riku...” She gripped her heart again, “...I will join you, once I’m ready. You don’t have to worry about this world anymore... I’ve got it covered.” She nodded with a sincere wish that they could trust her with this task, and continued her journey to find the mysterious force causing so much problems.
In Lady and the Tramp, she followed a puppy with a dog muzzle on it’s mouth. Later, she helped a stray into the zoo to help follow the other dog, and watched as the two seemed to have gotten separated by the dark-influencer. They seemed to be asking her to help them escape the dog-catcher, and did so.
“These... interesting dogs... are mine, sir!” she stood between him and the two, what appeared to be in love, dogs as the dog-catcher waddled his way up to her in a goofy manner. She stood her ground though, as he commented back, “Their be laws in this fine city, Miss! Put a collar and leash’em! Or they’re heading straight to the pound!” He wiggled his finger up above her, but Kairi just sweetly nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
“Hmph!” He stomped away, and Kairi narrowed her eyes and turned to whisper back at the dogs.
“I’ve faced scarier things than him!” She joked, as the dogs yipped in thanks. “Now, you two should get out of here... I don’t know if you belong to anyone... but I can see now that you belong with each other.”
They both snuggled up in their iconic hug, and looked back to Kairi. “What a fine lady you have there.” Kairi smiled, remembering how she had offered Kairi her paw in greeting.
Lady barked with approval. “Oh? Is that... That’s your name, right?” She nodded, “I could feel it... in my heart.” She looked to the other dog. “Keep her out of trouble... ya here?”
Tramp also barked in agreement.
“...Take care of each other...” As they took off, Kairi couldn’t help but think of Sora. “...I’ll keep you safe... Sora.” She decided this world still had a mystery to solve, and continued on.
Later, She found that a Lion knew Sora, and that his daughter had gone missing. Stopping some feuding prides, she learned a valuable lesson about not judging by one’s past... She may had been sent to Destiny Island against her will, used for a terrible fate in summoning the true Kingdom Hearts, “But love find’s a way!” She knew that to be true, “And I’ll find my way!” She prepared to fight the Lioness of the Shadow lands, and finally met the misty dark presence...
“Who are you? Why are you causing so much chaos in these worlds?” She demanded to know, but it took off, and she hurriedly followed it in the gummi ship.
Pocahontas had the last key she needed to fully unlock her true potential. The dark influencer was giving strength to the fear in both people’s hearts, and while Pocahontas raced to save the man she loved, Kairi returned to grandmother willow, asking sincerely how to help.
“Listen... with your heart... you will understand~” Grandmother Willow sang, but Kairi couldn’t just sit and mediate.
“There’s a war, Grandmother Willow! And I don’t have a compass to point my way like Pocahontas does! Please, I’m begging you, why can’t I summon my keyblade here? I must help them!”
“Let it break... upon you like... the waves upon the sand~” She kept singing, as Kairi was panting from her long journey through the woods filled with the dark-influencers presence and creations, having their contentions manifest as new dark creatures she had never seen before.
“My... heart... waves... sand?” She spoke through her heavy breathing, and taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, she looked within...
Her heart seemed to open up, and she was standing before Sora... upon the stainglass of her story.
“I don’t understand,” She admitted, gesturing to him while his face looked sorrowful at her plight. “I know you can’t answer me... but you can hear me, right?” she was holding back tears, and then... withdrew her hand to crunch her torso in and shake her angered fist. “I don’t know how I lost the power to summon my keyblade... I don’t understand why! In such a critical moment where I’m needed... it’s never been this bad in the other worlds, I’ve always found some sort of solution, but the settlers won’t listen to me! I don’t have Kiara to help me reason with them, and faith in myself isn’t going to help John Smith escape execution! They’re all too afraid of each other for me to get through to them over bravery alone! I don’t know... I don’t know what to do!” She gripped her head, still struggling to not cry.
“Sora... how have you been able to go through so many worlds... face so many challenges that a keyblade can’t always solve? I don’t understand... I’ve tried everything within my power, but a man’s going to die and I can’t just sit by and watch it play out!” she fell to her knees, “Sora! Sora, just take over! I don’t know what to do anymore! They need you! Not me... I’m still too weak! I... I can’t pass my training...”
As she shook her head, she revealed the true fear that had lingered in her heart.
“I... Don’t know if I can live up to the expectations you and Riku gave to these people... to their worlds... I... I’m just me.”
Feeling a bit hopeless, she finally saw Sora’s form move.
It advanced towards her before he dropped to a knee and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“So... you’ll help me?” She looked up into his eyes.
He squinted his eyes slightly, looking into each one of hers.
“...Listen... with your heart...” she scrunched her face up to avoid crying, and placed her hand by her heart again. “And you will understand...”
The setting suddenly changed to Destiny Island, and Sora was a child...
She had gotten Riku and Sora out of the water, and began actively teasing them about not fighting so much, “If you’re real friends, you should treat each other with a lot less rough-housing! Though, it was pretty funny.”
“Give us a break, Kairi...” Sora scratched his head, looking apologetic.
“It’s a boy thing.” Riku hooked his arm around Sora’s head, and pulled him over to him as Sora struggled.
“R-right... hey, Riku!”
Kairi giggled, “I guess... if you really fought, I’d have to pull you out before you drowned yourself.” She knew they had a rivalry, but put her hands behind her back. “Alright, that does it!”
The two boys looked to her new declaration, seeing as her voice had pepped up quite a bit.
“From now on, I’ll make sure you two don’t fight..! Or bicker behind my back...” She grinned then, “Cause you’re not gonna leave my sights!”
“H-hey!” The two didn’t really complain, but they refused to rough-house since she would intersect herself, saying that if they were gonna fight, they’d have to contend with her too.
“...I’m...” Kairi opened her eyes, looking up at Grandmother Willow. “I’ve always been a mediator... I’m not meant to just be a fighter!”
“Go, my child! Your course is set, and the compass of your heart spins and guides you!” The wind rustled by fiercely and Kairi felt a surge of power come upon her.
She turned as the large sails of the mistaken clouds of the sky lightly glided behind her.
“You know your path, now, Kairi! Take it!” Leaves of differing color spun around Kairi as her hair beat against the wind, the light sparkles suddenly trailed down her arm with the leaves and Kairi summoned a different keyblade...
She raced through the forest, and as Pocahontas cried out, “Stop!” She threw her keyblade up to the chief’s staff.
He was a powerful man, and for a moment, Kairi saw in her mind’s eye the glitching reality of Xenanort, then back to the chief.
She continued to strain, letting Pocahontas speak, and hearing for the first time... the words that no one uttered, but that were meant by their hearts.
She spoke them after her, and from what she learned at Pride Rock, taught the same lessons. “We are one... all of us!”
She knew what Simba had meant when he sang to Kiara now... and what Kiara learned after her journey. “Can I also... trust in my own heart?” She felt Sora’s light, and knew that she could.
“Can you trust yours?” Kairi lowered her keyblade... and the chief looked settled. “We don’t need to fight.”
However, she did finally confront the Dark-Influencer, realizing he was the lingering will of the dark-side of Kingdom Hearts...
“You... You just aren’t completed. But your hatred... all the loathing of the heart, it’s insecurities that we all felt during that battle at the keyblade graveyard...” she took a deep breath, “Now, I will set free those awful feelings... and the last of the lingering feelings we’ve had then... will finally come to an end!”
She fought with everything she had, as it morphed and changed into many of the silhouettes of her friends, their fear that she thought Sora had defeated... but it was exactly Sora’s lingering heart within her that had guided her to the Dark-Influencer.
As she fought it, it would shift at intervals between her friends and allies, even the foes and their lingering spites or sorrows... but then...
After defeating the dark silhouette of Master Aqua, the dark silhouette transformed into a figure looking like Sora...
It staggered, before regaining slowly itself into a powerful stance.
It swiped out the kingdom blade and began powering up.
“Sora... this is it, isn’t it?” She saw a light begin to shine from her heart. “You trust me and only me to defeat the last of your fear from this world... the last thing holding everyone back from living at peace again, right?”
She also threw her new keyblade up to the sky, then slowly lowered it to have a crown appear below her.
“Sora... if I can... please... lend me your strength!” she felt a surge of power, light shining from the crown as the shooting star spiraled down to the crown and filled it with magnificent power, granting a keyhole to appear.
“Ah..!” not sure what it was, but knowing it was going to temporarily grant her some help, she trusted that if she unlocked this... Sora might be given a second chance to aid her. She stepped back, flying slightly in an arch before unlocking it, having the shooting-star’s dust fly out and glitter against a new form...
A light-figure of Sora slowly arose from a kneeling position... the same that he had when she was in her heart... he reached up and grabbed her hand to help her glide back down safely...
“Sora..?” She held his hand a moment... and it squeezed it.
She nodded to it, not knowing quite how this magic worked, but knowing she could fight with him against this powerful foe just like beforehand... when he had gathered the petals of her crystal lotus heart and they fought the greatest evil together.
This... was truly like before, but the foe was now their own emotions... having gathered under Kingdom Hearts... and having the last of it’s power leak life into them...
She looked to the dark figure, “You’re no longer a part of us!” she swiped her hand out, as the Lighted Sora silhouette got into battle position, letting go of her hand as a one-sided wing appeared on both their shoulders, matching the other.
“I will act as the light from my friends! This is where Kingdom Hearts ends, for good!”
With their hearts as one... they beated the lighted wings once behind them to propel them forward, holding their keyblades back to attack the last of the darkness that still plagued this world...
Like the fight between the nobodies, darkness, and her friends, the light... she would not let this end... with savage emotions.
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sourcherrybomb · 4 years ago
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SoKai Week 2020 - Day 1 - Paopu Surprise!
Synopsis: Sora and Kairi decide to take a breather and share a Paopu Fruit with each other. However, Sora finds himself in for an unwelcome surprise when he finally bites into one... 
Sneak Peek: Sora could only imagine the dumb look on his face. This was not going the way he imagined it. Kairi had seriously beaten him to the punch?
Tags: Romance, Comedy, All Ages, F/M
Prompt for the Day: One Heart / Paopu Fruit
Words: 1.4k
Fanart By: asgardianartist (Fiverr / Instagram)
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Native to the Destiny Islands is a particularly peculiar fruit in the shape of a star. Trinkets made in its image are seen as good luck charms and are even known to people who have never stepped foot on the world. But to the residents of the Destiny Islands, the paopu fruit means so much more than just simple ‘good luck’.
If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They’ll remain a part of each other’s lives no matter what.
All that time ago, before their adventures and misadventures, these were the words Riku told Sora. At the time, he got flustered when his friend teased him at the idea of sharing one with Kairi. However, it’s not as though Sora had completely dismissed the idea; the day right after in their secret place, in between the space of a rough drawing of he and Kairi, Sora secretly drew a hand giving her the fruit.
It wasn’t until Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeated Ansem the Seeker of Darkness that Kairi would find out. 
Not long after the Destiny Islands were restored, Kairi found herself in the secret place. Reminiscing while looking at the myriad drawings of various quality, she stumbled upon Sora’s addition to the drawing of them. After letting a tear fall out of her eye, Kairi herself adds to the sketch her own arm extended towards Sora, paopu fruit in hand.
It’s been more than a year since those events first transpired. Sora, Kairi, and Riku are now back home on the islands before their ultimate battle. 
Sora and Kairi, bathed in the twilight of the setting sun, sit on a paopu tree while passing the time away. Riku rests himself directly on the beach below them.
Sora, noticing his friend, asks Kairi, “Hey, why’s Riku all alone?”
“He said he needed time to himself,” she notes. “Let’s let him be.”
As Sora sits distracted by his silver-haired friend staring into the sunset-lit ocean, Kairi silently strengthens her resolve. She was going to share this paopu fruit with Sora, and nothing, not even the looming thought of Riku teasing them without end after the fact. And plus, it’s not as though Sora would be against sharing it with her. There’s that drawing of them, the race he and Riku did, as well as all the things he did for her during their first adventure together. With a battle to the death at their doorstep, now would be the best time to share any thoughts or emotions that have been lingering around…
But what if Sora is just being nice?
No! Kairi thinks to herself. She knows that Sora is basically a paragon of kindness who can be a bit of a dolt sometimes… Okay, many times, but even he should be aware of what repeated acts of kindness and/or heroism do to a person!
Before Kairi goes through an entire internal debate in the span of seconds, her arm subconsciously moves towards a paopu fruit she may have secretly left there when no one was looking. Although now that she thinks about it, Riku did stop by here before heading down to the beach. He did have this smug grin on his face as he passed by the two of them...
As more and more thoughts rush through her mind, Kairi’s hand has already brought the paopu fruit in front of Sora. 
“Here!” she says. 
“Huh?” 
Sora could only imagine the dumb look on his face. This was not going the way he imagined it. Kairi had seriously beaten him to the punch? The whole reason he wanted to bring her here was so he could be the one to hand her the fruit! Now his whole plan has basically gone up into flames and can’t even bring out any words besides a simple “Huh?"
As Sora mentally reprimands himself, Kairi silently chides herself for basically shoving the fruit in his face and not coming up with a smoother way of handing it to him. 
“Tomorrow’s fight will be our toughest yet,” Kairi says as she softly smiles. “I want to be a part of your life no matter what. That’s all.”
Sora, who at this moment currently is still in panic mode due to his botched plan, can only take the paopu fruit in hand.
Wait, Sora thinks as he looks up and smiles at Kairi. I might be able to salvage this.
“Kairi, I’ll keep you safe,” he tells her.
Not to be outdone, Kairi shakes her head. “Let me keep you safe.”
Raising the fruits to each other's mouths, Sora and Kairi each take a bite from the paopu fruits. 
If only this moment could last forever, Kairi thinks as she stares into Sora’s eyes.
Oh my gosh, this tastes horrible, Sora thinks as he does his best to hide his disgust. 
The young man has never tried the fruit before today, but he expected it to taste way better than the overly saccharine mouthful he got. To Sora, it tasted like someone had used a shovel to feed him a mouthful of sugar, or maybe like drowning in Pooh’s coveted honey! As much as he wanted to swallow the fruit and get it over with, the taste was preventing him letting it pass through his mouth.
Just power through it, pretty sure the legend only says I need to take a bit out of it, not eat the whole thing, Sora continues to think to himself. Ohhhh man, I really hope Kairi doesn’t make me eat more of this.
So are we supposed to eat more of this? Kairi thinks to herself. Honestly, the legend is pretty vague. Like, are we supposed to share one or feed each other one… Legends need to be worded better. 
As she goes for another bite of the fruit, Kairi can’t help but notice Sora’s face. Is it… twitching?
“Hey Sora, you okay?” she asks. “Can’t help but notice you haven’t gone for another bite…”
Oh crud.
“Yeah, totally!” Sora says, his mouth muffled by the sickeningly sweet fruit. “Just sav-ughh… Savoring the taste!”
“Hmmm…” Kairi raises an eyebrow. “Sora, would you mind swallowing what’s in your mouth right now?”
A look of terror flashes in Sora’s eyes.
“Sorrystillchewingonthisbite,” he says in a rush. 
Covering her mouth, Kairi mischievously grins. “Oh, is that so? Well, with the way you’re talking, I think I notice room for one… more… BITE!”
Before Sora could even react, Kairi shoves her paopu fruit into his mouth faster than one could say “Sora, Donald, and Goofy.” Sora, disoriented by the vicious sneak attack, falls over and swallows the excess fruit in his mouth alongside the chewed up slop that was being kept in his cheeks. As he writhes around on the ground, not from choking, but rather the fruit’s taste, Kairi begins to laugh harder and harder until she falls from the tree they were sitting on as well.
Down on the beach, Riku and his Replica nod at each other as they silently judge Sora and Kairi making a fool of themselves, casually forgetting the small audience just a couple yards away from them.
As Sora spits out the Paopu Fruit from his mouth, Kairi somehow begins to laugh even harder at the ironically sour face on his mug.
“Oh ha ha, very funny!” Sora complains. “Next thing we know, we wouldn’t have an issue rescuing Roxas since I would’ve bitten the dust anyways!”
“And I suppose me... dying of laughter would have… woulda brought back Namine in the process as well, huh?” Kairi asks in between heavy breaths.
Soon enough, Sora stops pouting, Kairi’s breathing becomes more relaxed, and the two of them start to quietly giggle.
As the fiery sunset fades away into a cool starlit night, Riku quietly leaves the island, leaving Sora and Kairi to their own devices.
The two continued to lie on the ground, staring into the night sky, stargazing like the two would always do when they were younger. Normally, Sora would be telling Kairi stories about the stars and various constellations. However, tonight the only sounds a person could hear would be the ocean waves washing up onto the shore.
Occasionally they would turn their heads and lock eyes with each other. Both had so many things to say to one another, but it was like no amount of words in the world could be used to convey their feelings and emotions.
However, neither person saw this as a problem. Whenever Sora or Kairi had something to say, but didn’t have the words, they would just tighten their grip on the other’s hand.
---
Hello there, the name’s SourCherryBomb and this little oneshot is the start of a return to form for me. I’ve written under a different name years before, but I’ve decided to wipe the slate clean. It’s for many reasons, the main one being that I cringe when I look at my old works. That’s just growth, I guess.
Shoutout to the Sokai: Destined Oath Discord server for introducing me to the SoKai Week 2020 Event and an even louder one to @paintedwithapalette​ for being my Beta Reader! Check her out, you’ll love her fics.
Thanks for Reading!
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