#i love adam so much but we have has CRUMBS compared to this

[gauntlings]

oh my bad book 3 nate sewell I didn't understand your game was QUITE like that until the picnic scene

[w00wzerz]

~The Grayson orbit 🥺💙~

(All that matters in Titans season 3 ep 8)

I have so much to touch on in such little time! So let’s jump right into it shall we?

Kory has got it bad… and I mean bad - bad. From the very moment that her beautifully long legs strutted into the room, her eyes were locked solely on Dick and his polished ensemble. I adore how she harbors a keen eye for the little things - like when she hands her husband a napkin to wipe the crumbs from his mouth.

Dick on the other hand, is simply that - a Dick. Comparatively in this scene where he takes a bite out of his sandwich - the man wants to have his cake snd eat it too!

He is handsomely dressed down in a black suit, his hair slicked back ever so evenly as it glistens the reflection of the dimmed lights in the room. He has plans for a “date” to a gala with Barbara 🙄 but remains at home shooting his pearly white smile and puppy eyes over to an ever so smitten Koriand’r. Gosh this man makes my blood boil.

Now moving on to the next “it” couple of the season! Let me also be clear that I might just be a grand wizard for the amount of accuracy in my thesis of Kom and Conner’s sex life here.

This scene was so HOT! 🥵 I almost found myself stripping right along with them! Lmfaoo that might be a stretch however, despite how entrapped I am by these two love birds - I find it incredibly hard to root for them in the long run.

Who knows what Kom actually has in store for the Titans? And by the way she was so adamant-on her stance of “no second chances” I believe that the writers are probably foreshadowing her role in the soon to come, ultimate betrayal of the team.

Now lets shift our focus onto Dick and the interesting dynamics with Tim.

For starters, can we all appreciate how incredibly smart and persistent my baby Tim is / was in this episode! He had to let Dick know that he WILL not be gaslighted like an idiot. He even got the job done quicker than Dick did in a day 🥴

Personally I believe that once Tim requested to be the new Robin, Dick instantly felt an emotional pull to him, similar to his connection with Jason. However, that chapter has long been shut. Who would’ve thought that Jason would be the first page huh?

Can Tim replace Jason and be the better Robin? In my personal opinion based on the comics - I think so.

Once Tim is shot by Crane, the writers choose to immediately highlight the parallel between Dick and himself. Tim’s impulsiveness, persistency, and determination is the blatant exemplification of the old Dick and his strive. This theory becomes evident when Dick suddenly pictures himself in Tim’s place.

This could also be another foreshadow of Tim’s new spot within the Titans as this particular moment could evoke the parent within Dick and cause him to take Tim in - with the sole intention of keeping him safe and growing the family. Along with his other stray kids Conner, Rachel and Gar.

After Dick discusses the deal with the team that he made with Jason to have him turn in Crane and return home, he ultimately enters extremely hot waters. For many reasons, one being that he made the selfish decision without including his family AGAIN - and two because his hard headed nature just simply will not allow him to listen to anyone!

Once Dick makes a decision, there is no getting through to him. Even as Kory tries to reason with him and call out his BS, he inevitably blows her off - clearly displaying that her words went in though one ear and straight out the other.

I am also really not a fan of the route that the writers have chosen to take these two. They barely have more than 2 scenes together in an episode and they never remain in the same damn room together for more than 2 seconds! They just said screw Dickkory and ALL of their fans huh?

However in the clip Kory brings forth the ultimate one liner from Bruce “be a better batman.” She also highlights that there is a clear distinction in that term, in other words, there is a Batman who kills in cold blood and one who does not.

Kory’s breakdown of the line also properly touches base on the symbolism that ran rampant throughout the last few minutes of the episode. The eminence of fire and water, good and evil. They both cause major destruction however, one is intentional and the other is just simply erratic.

This points out that even some humans with the intention to do good, may ultimately gain an evil label. Kory using her powers to accidentally leak Crane’s gas into the water drain of every civilian in Gotham, will be the prime example of this.

The next step in the Titans future will be as rocky as ever, but with each new step also brings about new beginnings. Hopefully a Wanted title will be enough to wake them up!

But thats all I have for this week’s analysis! I have full hope that Tim will survive because he is my little baby of courseee, anyways see ya next week 💕

[very-grownup]

THE YEAR IS 2020 AND I WATCHED NEON GENESIS EVANGELION FOR THE FIRST TIME, PART 12

Episode 24.

It seems very unfair of us to watch Dorohedoro after Evangelion, because each episode of the former concludes by telling us things we've learned. I feel like all I've learned from Evangelion is "fuck the colour orange".

This is also the episode where I cursed that the episode length of Devilman Crybaby and Madoka didn't sync up with Evangelion so we never got the power trifecta of 'my first homoerotic teenage nihilist crush'.

The actual episode report under the cut.

So, so, so after last week's upsetting underground tang aquarium of Reis adventure the series remembers to check in on the super-traumatized Asuka (which is more than the adults within the series do). We get a greyscale small child Asuka running down an orange (bad) corridor. She's excitedly telling her mother about how she's been chosen to pilot a giant robot and protect humanity and it'll be with other kids and she won't be alone and won't need to depend on her father or anyone else and the excited child shots keep cutting to an ominous door. Eventually the door opens enough to show the red behind it and, knowing what we know from the Asuka episode a few weeks back, you can interpolate pretty easily and upsettingly what opening door onto solid red means.

There's a fight between Shinji and Asuka that we're catching the climax of, with thrown and shattered mugs, and Asuka calling Shinji a liar and Shinji apparently reiterating that fuckin' Kaji is gone (I can't tell if he's trying to tell her Kaji is dead or just that he’s bailed on them).

Misato's gotten notice from Seele, the obelisk council, that the Fifth Child is being sent to replace Asuka and Misato recognizes something hinky is going on and senses conspiracy which is ... pretty reasonable at this point. I'd also be seeing conspiracies everywhere. I wouldn't know what they meant or even whose conspiracies they were, but I'd definitely suspect multiple conspiracies going on if literally anything new happened.

Asuka, naked, maybe bloody? in a bathtub in a destroyed apartment with the ceiling crumbling down. Her eyes are vacant and her cheeks are hollow and she's mumbling about her sync rates falling. It's weird and haunting and the building is as destroyed and non-functional as Asuka. Someone from NERV finds her and it turns out Asuka's been missing for a fucking /week/ in this destroyed city and they've only just found her since I guess she ran away after her fight with Shinji and you know it's at least partially because they don't care about finding her. NERV barely cared about Asuka back when she could get in the robot, they absolutely don't care about her now and it's unclear who, if anyone, is responsible for her since fuckin' Kaji's death. Is there even law in Tokyo 3?

My point is, everything is falling apart in the structure of the show and the world within it and the first ball to truly get dropped and broken is the used up and now valueless teenage girl and it's heartbreaking.

Things are getting so real that Misato is /sending Penpen away/ for his own safety and I'm glad Misato cares about Penpen but I wish Misato could find it in her to care about, say, Asuka (Misato is a fuck up and trying her best, but at the end of the day she's still a fuck up). Is Misato the best adult in the series or is she actually the worst adult in the series because she recognizes how she is failing but fails to take action to correct her failures? As a viewer I can't be disappointed in Gendo because he's shit and I have no expectations of him. But I love Misato and so it hurts more when she lets me down and by this point she is letting me down HARD (but I suppose Misato disappoints herself).

Shinji is also in a bad place and he's contemplating the orange tang wreckage of the city and how the small thread of normalcy has gone now that everyone's evacuated. Shinji misses his friends who ... hoo boy.

The one Shinji last saw in the hospital after nearly killing him via giant robot and the other he last heard calling him to tell him how much he sucked for not wanting to pilot a giant robot. It's sad that those two are as close to friends as Shinji has had.

Shinji desperately wants to talk to someone right now about, you know, the /underground tang aquarium full of Reis/ which it seems to be implied is a result of forbidden science experiments combining Adam Trevor flesh with the remains of Shinji's mother? No one SAYS it but yes?

So Shinji can't talk to Rei about this because he feels weird about the whole thing. Asuka's missing. His friends, such as they were, are gone. The poor kid just needs someone to talk to, to confide in, and he asks Asuka, Misato, and his mother, in that order, for help. Are all women ultimately mother for him? Rei, Misato, and Asuka all got conflated when he was absorbed into the EVA which were all part of an ur-mother thing so ... maybe? I don't know. Probably nobody knows. Shinji certainly doesn't know.

Then Shinji's thoughts are interrupted by Akira Ishida humming "Ode to Joy" (gorgeous piece of music, loved it since I was a little girl) and Akira Ishida is here! Things are not going to get more sensical when Akira Ishida just appears in your anime.

So this is Kaworu, who is sitting on some picturesque rubble jutting out from the orange tang, and he's the replacement EVA pilot. His hobbies are having mysteriously deleted records, perching on things, knowing about Shinji, and talking deep and cryptic, but in a friendly way.

AT SOME POINT IN THIS EPISODE Gendo talks to Shinji's EVA and refers to it by his dead wife's name and is glad the spear of Longinus is on the moon, actually, because with it on the moon it can't stand in the way of their plans and Gendo has an eyeball in his palm.

The obelisk council have a meeting where they are once again berating and complaining about Gendo and it is unclear if they realize that Gendo's not there.

Misato is pretty sure Kaworu is a spy or agent of some sort sent by the obelisk council and she and the dude NERV subordinate who's always around are trying to do some side snooping to figure out what his deal is.

Hey where's Ritsuko? Sitting on a chair in a black void telling Gendo about how her cat died and she didn't think about it at all for years until her grandmother called to tell her it was dead and now she's having feelings about it and Gendo doesn't care about symbolism. Gendo wants to know why Ritsuko destroyed the dummy plugs and Ritsuko is like, I didn't destroy the dummy plugs, I destroyed Rei which ... I don't know, I don't know, are we all operating at cross-purposes here Ritsuko? Are you and Gendo even having the same conversation?

Gendo's like ... is this because I stopped having sex with you? And ... maybe that conversation went further but I think my brain strangled itself rather than contemplate Gendo viewing sex with anyone as a favour he's doing them and one Gendo finds inconvenient (and gross at that).

Rei's having a time and as is often the case with Rei it's unclear what she thinks about what she's thinking? Rei seems like she's a cypher to herself more than she is to anyone else. Rei's maybe trying to figure out what her purpose in life is or who she's alive for? She thinks about Gendo's glasses and something's different with this Rei, I guess, compared to the other Reis. I think something's breaking down, like maybe each new Rei is less and less connected to Gendo? I don't know.

At some point, Rei encounters Kaworu and he's like oh hey, you're like me, I thought so! Maybe they're at NERV or on their way to NERV? Look, the budget ball got dropped with Asuka, this shit is getting impressionistic. So maybe Kaworu doesn't have any background for Misato to dig up because, like Rei, he's a construct from some weird genetic fuckery (I think Misato even compares his lack of background to Rei at one point) anyway he's like it's episode 24 time to drop Lilith references!

Why are you doing this to me, Akira Ishida? If I had one of those murder evidence string boards it would be such a mess right now as I tried to find room for /Lilith/.

Misato's reached the point of fuck it, let's just throw all the kids into the robots for tests and Kaworu is /suspiciously good at robot numbers/.

After robots, Shinji is just sort of hanging around when Kaworu exits ... something NERV-y and Shinji is awkward and shy and doesn't want to go home and needs to take a shower and Kaworu is ... intense and suggestive and friendly. So they shower together and then bathe together and there's, like, an entire wall in the baths that's dedicated to a screensaver slideshow of NERV propaganda and Kaworu just wants to talk to Shinji and get to know him and hold hands in the bath and it's obviously weird.

Shinji is so desperate for friendship and someone to talk to and you don't want to see conspiracy or shady shit here because at this point I just want something /good/ to happen to Shinji for once in this constant tragedy train of a show. Just let him have this weird friend who wants to talk to Shinji about his intimacy issues and how his fear of being alone makes him keep to himself and causes the aloneness because chosen aloneness is better than risking connection and getting rejection. So probably the biggest red flag about Kaworu is that he's talking to Shinji about the things Shinji is concerned about without any overt robot-centric motives.

Then Kaworu invites himself over for a sleepover. Shinji takes the floor because of course he does and they talk more philosophy and fate and destiny and depression and Kaworu is intense and tells Shinji he likes him and no one has given Shinji even this crumb before.

The obelisk council has a meeting that isn't in the void but is over the tang craters of the ruined city and they're meeting with Kaworu because of course Kaworu is their construct of some sort being sent to ... something ... Gendo ... moons ... Lilith ... Adam ...

Misato is watching all of this from the highway through highspec binoculars and cursing that she can't read Kaworu's lips. She's looking at the back of his head, mind you. But I heard what Kaworu said and I don't fucking know, Misato, so don't feel bad.

Misato meets Ritsuko in the black void at some point and if I knew why in the moment I have since forgotten. I don't take notes. I just watch. Misato's angry, though and Ritsuko is just ... overcome with a sense of her own failure or maybe grief or anger at her inability to not repeat her mother's mistakes? There's definitely mom-stuff involved.

I'm aware that these reports are becoming longer and less coherent and also probably less interesting for people to read but once I decide to do a thing I do it. There's definitely a loss of narrative cohesion as the series nears its end, probably due to budget stuff.

It's an episode for people to talk to the EVAs in their giant hangers and Kaworu goes to have a chat with Asuka's robot where chat means 'starts floating and establishes some kind of mental link with the EVA and turns it on'.

In the NERV control centre everyone starts freaking out at the sudden activation of the EVA. IS IT ASUKA? they ask (no, she's shown to be barely conscious in a hospital bed, so someone's caring for her to some degree). NO PLUG, NO PILOT, JUST KAWORU'S PSYCHIC MANIPULATION.

Oh, and Kaworu's an Angel which means an Angel is now using an EVA to punch through ... NERV ... ground ... basement ... heading to where Adam Trevor is, the orange tang ocean, and that's really bad. If he/they succeed ... Third Impact?

Shinji's called in (and Misato hasn't talked to Shinji once about Kaworu even though the last time there was a new surprise EVA pilot it went ... poorly and, well, here we are now) and he's angry and sad and disbelieving (echoing Asuka's disbelief at the beginning). Shinji feels so /betrayed/ and he compares what Kaworu has done to his relationship with his father which is ... a lot to unpack. I suppose the friendship Kaworu offered is the most obvious affection Shinji has been offered by anyone. He wants affection and recognition from Gendo. But any affection, any seeing and noticing of him, must be like water in the desert to Shinji at this point, and if Gendo's greatest betrayal of Shinji's hopes was overriding his will to make Shinji nearly kill Tohji I guess Kaworu, the only character who's shown any interest in being Shinji's friend, being revealed to be an Angel, something Shinji /has/ to kill, is comparable. I'm sorry, Shinji.

Shinji fights Asuka's EVA, controlled by Kaworu, as they descend deeper and deeper into the bowels under NERV, the two EVAs locked into a very cool looking combat that Shinji doesn't want to be involved in, and Misato and her underling confirm plan SELF-DESTRUCT NERV.

"Ode to Joy" is playing throughout this. It feels very natural.

Kaworu gets to where Adam Trevor is, weird and white and bulgy, looking very pregnant and Adam Trevor is also Lilith and they are the parent of humanity while the Angels are maybe less tainted children of god and are siblings to the EVAs?

Shinji throws Asuka's destroyed EVA through the ... wall? into the orange tang ocean zone with Kaworu and Adam Trevor Lilith and since Shinji's the victor of that fight, he seizes Kaworu, who he still does not want to fight, let alone kill. Kaworu's calm about all of this, though. He's ready to die. He expects to die. He also is ready to live but he recognizes this is a situation where for one of them to survive, the other one can't, and he smiles and tells Shinji he wants Shinji to live.

There's once again a really excellent use of the budget and animation limitations the show was hitting at this point, as there's a long, still shot of Shinji's EVA holding Kaworu as "Ode to Joy" soars, the music the only sound for the static shot.

Then the screen flashes and a small shadowy shape sinks into the orange.

Gendo and Rei wear raincoats as blood is hosed off Shinji's EVA.

Shinji sits by Misato, devastated, and tries to express his feelings to her, express his grief and regret. Kaworu was a good person. Kaworu was his friend. Kaworu told Shinji he liked him and Shinji confirms that /no one has ever told him that before/. Shinji feels like he should have died instead of Kaworu. He felt awful about Tohji's near-death at his unwilling hands. Tohji wasn't even really his friend. His grief and culpability in his own loss here is ... huge. And all Misato can say is that Shinji did the right thing in killing his friend. She's the only adult who's been sometimes sympathetic to Shinji, who he's been forging a real connection with, but by this point she's had to deal with so much shit of her own that the fragile pseudo-parent-child relationship between them has shattered. Misato is just another adult who isn't hearing Shinji. He doesn't know why it's changed, he just knows she's telling him killing his friend was right. This concludes my report on Episode 24 of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Edit: I know there was a lot of discussion and criticism when Netflix released their new dub and sub, particularly with respect to the line "worthy of his grace" and we can all agree, I think, that Netflix's subtitles are sloppy, their localization flawed. But regardless of the words used, it's clear that Kaworu offers Shinji everything he isn't getting from the rest of the world: affection, understanding, intimacy, a sense of being valued, a sense of safety. Love in whatever form, every form Shinji needs and wants.

I guess I wonder how genuine this offer of love is although I suppose it doesn't matter to Shinji because the betrayal happens, the universe punishes him for risking emotional intimacy, and Kaworu's sincerity doesn't change how awful Shinji is left feeling.

[tiffinyfinniss7-blog]

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[solarmason-blog]

plant a seed || mctwins

WHO: Mason & Madison McCarthy ( @lunarmadison ) ft Sabia & Éabha  WHAT: The twins talk about Samhain, and what really happened. WHERE: Mason’s room. WHEN: Thursday, January 12, evening. WARNINGS: Nah.

Madison felt about a gajillion times better after taking a shower back at her dorm after training with Mason. Freshly scrubbed, and in clean clothes, she arrived at Mason's room upstairs with her wet hair pulled back into a ponytail, and a box of cookies that she usually saved for herself during particularly bad weeks. It seemed like they both needed it. Éabha joined her, this time, having said that she hated being cooped up in the book like that, and Madison was too happy to oblige. "Hey, it's me," she called through the door. "Are you decent?"

Mason finished scrubbing his hair dry - three showers and all the healing had him feeling a little more human. He slid a tanktop on and called over his shoulder, "Yeah, c'mon in," before he sat back on his bed and tossed his towel over Sabia's head. She let out a disgruntled huff and said something very unkind to him as she shook it off. "Ooh, you brought dessert." He grinned broadly - he was tired, but he felt better now that they'd eaten something. "What did you wanna talk about?"

Madison flopped on the bed beside Mason, Éabha fluttering down and settling at her other side. Madison opened the box of cookies and set it between them, so they could both enjoy them. "Well ... in the interest of keeping each other informed about everything that goes on in our lives, I thought I should let you know I've been talking to Adam, and Tina, and Santana." She plucked a cookie out of the box and turned it over in her hand, not biting into it just yet. "Do you remember just after Samhain, the day after the concert, when Santana was going on about smokebats and Adam said stuff about doors?"

Mason picked up one of the cookies, pulling one leg beneath him as he did. "Nope," he said simply, shrugging one shoulder. Adam, Tina and Santana? Soudned like a weird mix to him. "That was like, forever ago." Mason swallowed the cookie and looked back at her, tilting his head at her. "Why? What's going on?"

Madison munched on the cookie as she considered how best to put this. "So ... according to Adam ... there was no concert. He said that he remembers that night totally differently, and has this device that stored his memories as they happen, so ... he can play them back, but only for himself. Anyway, he says that he ... that we were all ..." She chewed her lip. It sounded ridiculous to say it out loud like this. "He says that instead of a concert, these mysterious doors showed up around the bonfire and at the parade and took people away into the forest, where we all fought a bunch of monsters. And I know, it sounds ludicrous, because ... all of us were definitely at that concert. I know where I was. But there's all this evidence to the contrary. The orb I had in my Grimoire, for example."

Mason frowned slowly, finishing the cookie and licking the crumbs off his fingers as she spoke. He remembered it vaguely, now, but he'd had so many other things on his mind he'd just figured it was a joke he either wasn't getting or wasn't a part of. "O...kay," he said slowly. "So...you believe them? Adam? What does Santana have to do with this? Did she mess around with our memories somehow or something?" He remembered the bonfire - he vividly remembered Quinn staying with him and Madison and Sebastian instead of going with Puckerman, he remembered the offerings...Sabia whined lowly next to him, but didn't say anything in his mind. She felt as confused as he did. "He says we fought monsters?"

Madison shrugged. "I'm not sure what I believe," she confessed. "Santana remembers the same things Adam does. I figured that she was up to something, just trying to mess with all of us, and probably got Adam really bad in hopes of us believing him instead of her. I figured maybe the two of them got whammied by something, so they 'know' that something else happened that night. But ... our room had one of those mistletoe stickers that makes you tell the truth, right? And it worked on Santana. So as soon as she came into my room, I asked her what happened on Samhain. So ... she believes that this is what happened, which means it's not one of her tricks." She bit off another piece of cookie, chewing thoughtfully, nodding. "Smokebats. And something that he said looked like a gummy bear. He said that he wasn't with us in the forest, but I texted Tina for help because I had to help Marley with this gummy bear thing. And that something else poisoned Ryder, and Sebastian got hurt, because there was blood on his sweater when he got back to campus after fighting monsters in the forest. And -- you know him. He doesn't fight if he can help it. And the sweater was -- he was wearing our aran that night. He hadn't worn it since. I thought it was just ... I don't know, you know, dumb relationship reasons, but he loved that sweater, and he still wore the bracelet you gave him, so ..." She shrugged, trying not to sound too much like a crazy person. "They said that the orbs also came from the doors that took people away. The doors had 'trick or treat' written on them, and would ask people, and either give them something like they did for me and Tina, or take them away. They took Blaine first, Adam said." It was so much information. Madison hadn't realized just how much until she let it all out.

Mason felt his eyes go wide; he leaned down, his elbows resting on his knees, and pressed his fingers to his temples as she kept speaking. That was a lot. That was a lot to happen and have nobody remember, but it was maybe even more for somebody to just make up. Sabia whined more insistently next to him, but he couldn't get anything from her - the images she tried to send him were garbled and more confusing, and the only thing he understood clearly was his own voice, saying her name. "Stop it," he muttered to her, sighing as her ears flicked back against her skull. "Sebastian's sweater..." he took a deep breath. "He told me he lost it, but he didn't know how." He sighed and looked back up at Madison. "He was--afraid to tell you, that you'd take it all the wrong way, and he tore the campus apart looking for it, did find-and-return spells, nothing. And he loved that sweater more than anything." Mason idly tugged at his own bracelet, frown deepening. "He...a gummybear? Are you sure Adam just didn't have too much Halloween candy, Mads? That's--that sounds..." Mason trailed off. "Did you figure out what the orbs are? What they do?"

Madison shook her head, eyes softening with sympathy for Mason; it was so much to process. "We don't know what they do, but they feel like ... I mean, I've never encountered it before, but I think they're pure Aether energy." Purity, she thought. That rang a bell, too, but one that was small and distant. Maybe it was something she'd read about for class. She pressed her lips together as she thought back to address the matter of that sweater again. "Well, if you talk to Sebastian again, just ... let him know he lost it in the woods. That he'd gotten blood on it from some monster battle, and -- Aether, I just wish I could remember. Like, for real, instead of going off of this hearsay from Adam. He didn't even ... he wasn't even there for all of it; he had to tell me what other people told him. And he has no clue what happened to you and me." She glanced to Sabia, curious, but didn't ask.

Mason nodded slowly, letting out a breath. He hadn't talked to Sebastian lately - not since he came to The Compound. Texts had gone unanswered, and nobody had been there when Mason had knocked on Sebastian's door for Monday Movie Night. He'd add that to the growing list of things to discuss with him. "Sebastian was in a monster battle," Mason repeated, raising an eyebrow. It seemed more likely that someone ​else​ had gotten hurt and Sebastian had tried to heal them...he was a pacifist, for crying out loud. Mason pressed two fingers to his temple, pursing his lips together. "Okay. I--okay. Mads. Madison," he said, looking back at her, serious and somber. "Do you think...do you ​believe​ this really happened?" Since befriending Quinn, Mason had gotten a little more particular about words like think, especially when compared to belief. "If--if it did, that's..." Mason was less concerned about the monsters and the fights of it all than he was about the massive group amnesia. He somehow doubted that they'd all banged their heads on a rock or something. "Who doesn't want us to remember? ​Why​ don't they want us to remember?"

Madison swallowed hard, steeling herself for the potential repercussion of her answer. She'd expected this, and thankfully, she had the answer ready. "The Cardines," she replied without missing a beat. "Both Adam and Santana say that they remember the Cardines taking them in these rooms afterwards and giving them false memories. Saying that there were no monsters on the NYADA campus, and if there were, the proper authorities would dispose of them properly. And that we were at the concert." She looked up, meeting Mason's eyes. "I asked Hunter about it. If the Cardines could actually do that. Because Adam would have no way of knowing what a Cardine is genuinely capable of, right? Santana ... maybe, because to wind up here, who knows what she's been through. But Adam..." She chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Adam doesn't have any reason to lie to me. I know it's a heck of a lot more likely that the two of them had something happen to them, but ... what purpose would that serve? Other than to sow dissent among us, but ... that's silly, right? But if there was a battle with monsters ... heck, they'd say that was for our own good. You know us. Our whole group is made up of people who aren't going to let go once they figure something weird is going on. We fixed that thing with the bee pollen! And the cursed microphone!"

Mason felt his eyes go wide. The ​Cardines?​ The Cardines. He waited for Madison to laugh, for a just kidding, for a 'can you imagine!', but...it didn't come. She'd done research. She'd asked Hunter, of all people. He couldn't fathom Santana and Adam working together on anything - Adam was such an innately good person and Santana was the dead opposite of that. What did the Cardines have to gain by letting those two remember--or plant false memories in them, if the concert was real? Mason's head hurt. He leaned back on his bed, using Sabia as a disgruntled pillow. He was quiet for a long time, chewing it over as he looked up at his ceiling. He knew what he remembered, and if Madison hadn't brought it up, he knew he wouldn't have ever questioned it. But he was, now, and Sabia whined beneath him. Pure Aether energy didn't just ​appear from nowhere​. "Okay." Mason finally said, softly, looking back at her. His heart beat an unsteady rhythm; he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to, except he knew that it was trouble, and that he'd had about all the trouble he could handle. Coleman's hazy figure flickered into his mind and his stomach turned over with guilt. There were things other than a battle against monsters he'd like to forget... "So...what now?"

Madison sighed, nodding. Mason was on her side. Madison still wasn't entirely sure what her side even ​was​, but it meant that there was another ally in the fight against ... whatever it was. "I don't know," she admitted. "I know it sounds ... crazy. But all this evidence ..." She waved a hand in the air, and then flopped back on the bed beside Mason. It seemed like the only possible solution right now. "Now ... we spread the word. Try to get as many people on our side as we can. Make it look like a rumor, so the Cardines can't keep tracing it back to us if they hear that something else happened. And ... do whatever we can to try and piece together the events of that night. Find out if anyone else we know remembers anything, or has a way to ... I don't know, get our memories back. There has to be some way to do to our brains what Tina does with her data, right?"

Mason sighed, picking at his fingers. Not only was it a tall task, it was a vague, unspecific task. Mason did so much better with clear instructions - but he also did okay thinking creatively, sometimes. "Okay." Mason swallowed. "We...we have to...we treat this like a reconnaissance mission. We can't fight or magic our way out of this thing we don't even--we don't even know if it ​is​, nevermind ​what​ it is." Mason chewed the edge of his lip as he thought, frowning. "I'll...talk to Marley. She'll...she'll believe me. You might have to explain it all to me again so I can--can give a sort of...timeline. I'll talk to Sebastian, too. He's gonna be so mad." Mason chuckled weakly and ran a hand over his face. "We have to see if they missed any other evidence, and we can't let them know that we're looking." Mason knew a thing or two about secrets, and more people was usually dangerous. "Does Hunter believe this?"

Madison shook her head again. "I didn't tell him the whole story. I don't ... well, I don't entirely trust him," she confessed. "I disguised it as a meeting about our futures working together, framing it as a question to see if a Cardine would be capable of erasing a witch's memories or replacing them if they happened to see something that ... maybe the Guild didn't want getting out." In that moment, she wondered if she was hitting too close to the truth. If there were monsters ... well, if there were monsters, shouldn't she and Mason be spared? Shouldn't Puckerman? It had to be more than just monsters. "They said we were probably in Saltus," she added. "So ... that might be where we have to look. Marley ... might be able to ask the trees, right? And Ryder could ask the animals if they know something. Cardines won't, or can't erase animals' memories, right?" Blinking, she looked to Sabia, curled up beneath Mason's head whether she wanted to be or not. "Does, um. Does Sabia remember anything?"

Mason sighed as Sabia growled lowly. "I think so, but..." Mason shook his head. "I can't--it's like--I can't hold onto it," Mason said, picking at the bracelets on his wrist. "I'll--I'll see if--I'll try. I know she was...there. At the bonfire. I don't...remember her at the concert..." Mason trailed off for a moment, then shook his head. "Trees and animals. I'll...I'll see what I can do. About that." Mason swallowed. His head hurt a lot and he sort of wished Madison hadn't ever told him anything about this - that it had never happened. His life was complicated enough. "And I think..." Mason sighed, sitting up some. "Hunter is...is dedicated to justice. Even in...unexpected cases." Mason swallowed, not meeting her eye. "He could...he might be able to...to do something. Or something. Maybe. I don't think he'd...if there's even a chance this could be affecting him without his knowledge..." Mason trailed off. It felt like too much, like it was a physical thing pressing onto his shoulders, onto his chest. Sabia whined again, nosing her way voluntarily beneath his arm; he curled against her automatically, still deep in thought. "What do we do when we find out, either way? Who...like...what happens ​then​? We have to...we have to tell someone. If this is real...this can't..." Even as he spoke, he began creating counterarguments. People needed to trust the Cardines. They were the basis of order in the magical world. But what if they ​shouldn't​ be trusted? Mason felt sick. "Maybe...what if they had a good reason for keeping it from us? What if we don't want to know?"

Madison set her jaw, her eyes turning serious. "If we don't want to know, then I think Adam and Santana would have told us that they gave us a choice, and we chose not to know. They wouldn't be pushing for us to figure out more. And between you and me, I don't want the happy memory of a concert that got a little rowdy when it isn't what actually happened. I don't like the idea of anyone messing with my mind or my memories, so I can't imagine it's the kind of thing I would have ​chosen.​" She huffed quietly, and drew her legs up to her chest, hugging them. "It's our job to defend and protect the world. We can't do that if we don't know what's going on -- even if we're 'just kids,' Mase. We have a right to know what's going on and what actually happened to us. I can ... talk to Hunter next, I guess, since he already knows a little bit. I could ... Quinn probably won't believe me. You, maybe. But that puts a lot of people on your plate, and not a lot on mine." She shrugged; it wasn't really her fault that she didn't have a lot of friends. "I'll talk to who I can, though. Tell them to spread the word."

Mason rested his head against Sabia, closing his eyes. Hunter, Quinn, Marley, Ryder...he realized, dully and distantly, that this was to be his job, for the rest of his life: talking to people that Madison couldn't be bothered with. "I'll talk to them." Mason answered softly. He was reminded, vaguely, of the Green Fairy, the night of the infamous MOROI party--how his choice had been robbed from him. He knew, once he finished processing, that he'd be angry about that. "I'll talk to Hunter. You just...Mads, you worry about what comes after we convince everybody this happened. Who do we tell, when we know for sure? NYADA Security doesn't exactly outrank The Cardines, and if Hunter's memory was wiped, that means his father agreed to it." Mason set his jaw. Had their parents agreed to it? "Maybe we...should tell Mother. If it's the case. If we find real, solid evidence. Maybe...maybe it's not such a good idea that...the Guild be...I don't know if Mother wants the Guild working with people like that." Mason breathed out through his nose. "You worry about that. About what the next step is. I'll worry about our friends, okay? You're the thinker between us." Mason smiled a little wryly. He felt heavier. He didn't feel much like 'just a kid' at that moment--or maybe he'd never felt moreso. "Because once we have the knowledge, we need to know how to use it. I can't bring all these people to the edge and then just--" Mason cut himself off, explaining with an overdramatic shrug. "They'll--they'll be looking to us. To you and me and Adam and Santana for a plan. And we need to have one. You need to have one. Okay? So don't...don't worry about telling people. I'll do that." Mason swallowed, briefly near-nauseated by the idea. It was staking an awful lot on his likability and trustworthiness. "People are gonna be angry. The people I'm--they're going to want...action, somehow." This he knew, for a fact. "We need to have a plan."

Madison nodded, hanging onto whatever shred of steadiness she still had left inside her. The training had worn her out physically, and this conversation was wearing her out mentally. "I'll think of one," she promised. It was her job to lead, her job to be able to decide what to do and who ought to do it. She knew better than Adam, Santana, or Tina, how to lead and guide others towards answers, and most importantly, how to delegate. "I'll talk to Mother," she added quietly. "Even if the Cardines should have talked to her about wiping our memories, if they're powerful enough to do it in the first place, they're also powerful enough to not even bother asking our families for consent. And that -- that scares the crap out of me, Mase. No one should have that much power, not even leaders. Especially not leaders." The Guild had its system of checks and balances for a reason; ostensibly the UMC had the same, but if the Cardines had access to magic that went beyond what others did, then it wouldn't be unreasonable to suspect they were pulling everyone's strings behind the curtains. And who knew, then, what they were doing? If they were controlling the UMC itself? It was a lot of weight for a couple young kids to bear, but she and Mason weren't alone anymore. "I'm sorry I pulled you into all of this, Mase. I know you didn't ask for it, or want it, but ... I can't do this without you."

Mason looked back at her, expression softening as he reached over to take her hand, threading their fingers together. "You didn't pull me anywhere. I was there that night. None of us asked for this." He tugged her closer to him, wanting the physicality, the reassurance. "You're not alone, Mads. Even if nobody else believes this. I believe--" Mason hesitated, then continued, a little steadier. "I believe ​you,​ no matter what the aetherhecking Cardines say or do. Nobody can change that." Mason smiled at her, a little tired, a little weary, but a smile nonetheless. "We're twins, and between the two of us, we will figure it out. We always do." He needed to talk to Adam, to get the story from him - as clearly as he could, get all the pieces together so he could tell other people. So they'd believe him.

Madison held on just a little tighter, a little more relieved that she could pass some of the burden on to Mason. They could share it, so that both their loads were that much lighter. "We will. I know we will. Thank you," she said, and turned to face Mason with a soft smile on her lips. "Thank you for ... everything. I love you so much." She squeezed his hand, grateful that she'd wound up with such an amazing brother. "Now, how about we eat all of these cookies and watch some ridiculous heartwarming Commons movie?" she suggested, hoping that she sounded a little brighter. "There's not much we can do right now, just -- thank you for listening to me. So. Might as well ... relax, right?"

Mason nodded, kissing the top of her head. "That sounds perfect," Mason agreed with a smile. He rearranged them on the bed and pulled his laptop to him, finding a list of 'feel-good movies'. He scrolled and scrolled, then raised an eyebrow. "Look, this one's about...a kid's music school," Mason guessed, judging by the title: School of Rock. "That rebels somehow," Mason added with a shrug, finding an online version of it as he settled back in and pulled the cookies to them - crumbs be danged. He let out a soft sigh, willing himself to focus on his sister, on his familiar, on the movie beginning in front of him - there was nothing he could do about Samhain tonight, especially not when he was already wiped. He needed to recover, and he needed to remind himself that whatever went down, he and Madison were safe and together now, and that meant everything was okay.

Madison settled in close to Mason, snuggling up against him contentedly. Tonight she wouldn't lecture Mason about crumbs in his bed. Tonight she wouldn't lecture him about anything at all. Éabha nestled against Madison's other side, and Madison was sure that they made a crowded, if comfortable picture: two twins and their familiars, all in a big cuddle pile staring at a laptop screen. She knew, though, that they'd be okay. They always would be.