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whatshername-please · 4 years

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Out of the Water - Chapter V

Synopsis: You were very proud to be a mermaid, thank you very much. You didn’t want to be where the people were. Actually, you’d rather avoid it. Defending the merfolk was the biggest goal in your life… well, it was until you meet a certain pirate… it seems that your family really had a thing for humans, after all. Not that you’d ever admit it…

Pairing: Harry x reader

Word count: 4514

Part 5 of ?

Warnings: none? Possibly grammar mistakes? Also, some cuss words

A/N: English isn’t my first language, so I’ll probably mess up some tenses, grammar and stuff. Go easy on me, please. Feedback is always appreciated.

The sun was fading away in the horizon and soon it would be dark and, as you walked, you wondered why everything in this damned kingdom had to be so far away? Didn't they have magic carpets or something like that? Besides, since it was getting darker by the second, the sense of urgency was growing too. You had the feeling that Audrey was just playing with you - she obviously knew where you were, so why she didn't make a move yet? It was like a cat and mouse game and you were the mice heading towards a trap. Also, Mal having the Amber did not put your mind at ease since you didn't have the advantage.

You were literally entering to the lion's lair willingly.

"What happened between you and Hook?" You raised an eyebrow and Evie, who had come to talk to you, explained. "We heard the screaming. I know he can be difficult to deal with, but soon we'll all be in Auradon together".

Evie was way too good for this world, wasn't she? You didn't have the heart to contradict her or tell the atrocity the pirate had done to you.

"I know, sweetie. Don't worry, I'll try to be civil, even if the person in question is an utterly jerk who deserves a punch".

She sighed, looking almost disappointed. Obviously, you didn't give the answer she was hoping for but honestly, what was she expecting from you? Moreover, your response was nice enough, considering Harry was annoying and a water thief.

"That's a beginning, I suppose. But I think we can work on the aggressive attitude, though" she said with a shrug.

Oh, maybe you should have skipped the punching part... If she thought that was violent, you hoped she never found out that you almost chopped Harry's finger off, then.

As the time passed you grew impatient, it was already night and no one was in a chatty mood anymore. As for you, you've never wished for a day to end so fast and, on top of that, something else was bothering you and it was not the perspective of facing Psycho Audrey. Maybe it was the fact that once everything was over, Mal would let the kids off the Isle (it was what she had promised, after all). However, as much as you want to believe her, you had your doubts. Either way, nothing would ever be the same.

Finally, you arrived at Fairy Cottage and crossed the garden very quietly, trying not to draw attention to yourselves. When you finally got at the building, Ben burst the door open.

Great way to go unnoticed.

However, in the end, it didn't matter because Audrey wasn't there and your little journey had been a waste of time, thereby she was still on the loose and you had no one idea where she could be or what she was planning to do (but whatever it was, it would be unpleasant). Suddenly, the sound of a bustling knock filled the air startling everybody. Ben followed the source of the disturbence and discovered a very scared Chad locked in the pantry.

The poor thing looked completely distressed and hysterical and, soon after, he mumbled some nonsense and rushed off without a second thought.

"Well, at least he is pretty" you said out loud. How Cinderela could have had such a foolish son was beyond your comprehension, but his golden locks made up for the lack of discernment.

Harry laughed and the clumsy encounter with Chad lifted everyone's spirit and, when you left the Cottage, there weren't Mal's gang or Uma's crew anymore, just friends trying to save the world. Even if you were all doomed; at least you'd end up things in good terms.

Yeah, that's what you naively thought.

Evie told Ben about Mal's promise and apparently Mal had had other plans that she didn't bother sharing with anyone: she was going to close the barrier for good. No more in, no more out.

Nothing serious or extreme.

No reason to freak out...

Holly shit!

You felt like a fool!

Just to think that you gave your word to Harry and Gil that Ben wouldn't do that! You were so mad that you couldn't even talk and it never happened before! Also, you didn't have the heart to face Uma, not after you said to her things were changing for the better. You knew how Uma pretended to be tough, but right now her spirit had been shattered...

Harry confronted Ben about the lie and you thought he'd lose his shit and gut someone, but he just looked completely broken, like someone had taken away his will to fight. Even though Harry and Uma knew pain and betrayal, they didn't expect this. They trusted the people of Auradon were different and they were let down.

Things weren't suppose to go this way! You wanted to do something! Anything! But what?

It was then that Celia took the amber from Mal's hand and threw it into the water. Well, if you were screwed before, now you were hopeless. At least it was for a good cause, if people in Auradon thought their lives were worthier than the life of the inhabitants of the Isle, let them rot. You couldn't even be mad at Uma for leaving since that was what you wanted to do too, but you knew there was nothing you could do to help her in this moment. Actually, you knew Uma well enough to know that going after her would only bother her.

The words Harry said to you earlier about Auradon's privilege echoed in your mind and you couldn't stay put anymore.

"I know this is not my place to say something. I mean, most of the time I'm not even here, I'm not a VK and closing the barrier doesn't affect my life... but it does. It does because there are people there, good people destined to live a dreadful life just because they were born on that Isle! People in Auradon have been living their perfect little lives where everything is pretty and colorful while we claim to be the good guys, but what we have done to the villains and their kids is atrocious! There will always be good and evil, that's how life works and we can't run away from it. Deciding which path to follow is what defines someone's true self, but in order to make this decision we need to have a chance. Mal, you of all people should know that, you had a chance and now that your life is good you want to deny those children the same opportunity? From this day on, every time you play 'happily ever after' with your prince charming, know that you are doing it at the expense of a child on that Isle"

You wish you had heard Mal's reply, but as soon as you finished talking, the world froze.

_______

Legend says that you were indeed the hottest stone statue in Auradon, but it didn't soothe you a bit. To say you were pissed was not nearly enough to express what you were feeling right now. If Audrey weren't already dying, you would have gladly killed her yourself. The only reason why you were still in the awful human world was Uma... this, and also because becoming stone had consumed all your energies and right now you were way too busy drinking a huge bottle of salted water to not die of dehydration.

Your grandfather would have to choose another diplomat because you were never ever setting foot on land again.

Maybe, if you weren't so angry, you would have choked on your drink when Mal told Hades was her father.

It explained a lot about her, though.

So, Hades, Mal's father, was the only one who could save Audrey and they were going to fetch him on the Isle to help the dying girl. Oh! The double standard! When a kid from Auradon curses everybody is "a mistake", but if someone from the Isle does that is "they are too dangerous, let's lock them up forever". Is it fair? No. Does anyone care? Also no.

You thought it couldn't get any worse, but boy, you were wrong. Uma just said she was going back to the Isle, which was pretty understandable and expected, but you had one itty-bitty tiny hope that she would stay.

Oh, on top of that, everyone accepted Mal and Ben's selfish decision to close the barrier. You scoffed under your breath, salted water wasn't enough to deal with all this, you needed something stronger, like vodka. The good thing was, since everyone was leaving and your cousins were safe, you had no more business in the human world and you took your cue from the VKs to announce your own departure too.

You waited for the limo alongside Uma, Harry, Gil and Celia, the atmosphere was tense, and you had seen happier people at funerals.

"I thought you were going back to Atlantica" the teal haired girl said, breaking the overwhelming silence.

"I'll go with you... until we reach the barrier, at least" your voice was more hoarse than you expected it to.

"Yeah, don't want to risk getting trapped, right?" If this was supposed to be a mean comment, Harry had failed; he just sounded sad, like everyone else. The pirate wasn't expecting an answer but you gave him one, anyway.

"I wouldn't mind going to the Isle, but there is no magic there and no magic means no legs for me, so you would be stuck with a mermaid... unless you don't care to carry me around..." you half-joked.

The car finally arrived and you got into it. It was nice that Ben sent the limo to pick up the VKs, and the guard's vehicle was going ahead, probably to go find Hades. There was all sorts of food in the limo, but no one touched them because all of you were way too lost in your own minds to be hungry. As you were approaching the Isle the unsettling feeling in your stomach grew worst and there was definitely something wrong with your eyes. Just before the car crossed the barrier, you asked the driver to stop. For one second, it seemed he would argue against it, but you gave him a warning look, since you weren't in the mood for more useless fights.

"Uma, can we talk outside for one second, please?" you asked.

You two got out of the car and, as soon as Uma closed the door, you hugged her.

"I'm sorry, Uma. I'm so sorry" the only thing you could do was to repeat how sorry you were, but you knew your apologies didn't change anything.

"I know" she reassured you, looking in your eyes "It's not your fault, you shouldn't be apologizing".

"Someone has to" you said, your felt so tight in your chest that hurt. Then, Uma smiled and hold your hand.

"Thanks for everything you've done for me. I don't know how I would have gone through the past months without you"

"You'd have done just fine, you're a fighter" it was now or never, you lowered your voice so even if someone in the car was paying attention to the conversation, they wouldn't hear you "You can still change your mind, let's go back to Atlantica and, before you interrupt me, Harry and Gil can come too. I have no idea how this is going to work but we'll figure it out" you offered her - you had to try.

"You know I can't abandon the Isle, speacially now" her eyes were full of sorrow, she knew exactly what meant to go back "Maybe you can swim near the barrier so we can see each other from time to time".

You knew she would say that, but it didn't mean it hurt any less.

"Definitely!" you tried to sound cheerful, but the words that left your mouth were robotic and fake "We'll see each other again".

This was a lie, even if you saw each other it would never be the same. The realization hit you hard and that weird feeling that you had in the car, finally made sense when streams of salt water started falling from your eyes.

"I'm leaking!" you freaked out "What is that?! I'm leaking!"

"You're crying, you idiot" she laughed, her eyes watering too.

"Nonsense, mermaids don..." before you could complete the sentence, Uma hugged you again, which made you start crying even harder.

No, not crying, leaking.

"I promise, Uma. I'll not stop fighting for the Isle. I'll talk to Mal, Ben or whoever I must to! They will change their minds, even if, in order to do so, I have to summon up the wrath of the ocean upon them".

You didn't know how long you two stayed crying in each others arms but a voice with a thick accent called both of you after a while.

"Are you ladies alright?" Harry asked. The pirate and Gil were standing there next to both of you. The dark haired boy had a hint of curiosity on his face but he knew better than to tease his captain.

You two pulled away from the hug, Uma looked slightly embarassed to get caught in such an emotional moment.

"I can't believe I'm leaking" you said while trying to wipe away the tears from your eyes; however, they insisted on falling down.

This was so awkward.

"You're not leaking, you're crying" Gil's brow furrowed "Don't you know what crying is?"

"Yes, I do... it's just I've never cried before..." you said between sobs.

"Wow, life in Auradon must be really perfect if people don't even cry here" for the firts time since you met him, he sounded sad. The boy was probably thinking about all the opportunities he would never have in Auradon because he was destined to live on the Isle forever.

They took away Gil's bright smile and you could not forgive that.

"It's not that... I live in the sea, tears don't fall when you are under water" you explained, finally calming down.

"Maybe the ocean is just a big pool of mermaid's tears." Gil said absently, eyeing the vast blue ocean in front of him and you couldn't help but hug the blonde boy too.

The Sea Bitch was such a softie.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Gil. I wish we had more time to know each other better, but I know for sure that you're loyal, brave and gentle. I hope you are very happy. You deserve it".

You broke apart short after and Gil seemed very touched by your words.

"Thanks... that was one of nicest things that someone ever said to me" he offered you a shy smile "I wish you the same".

You looked at Harry, who looked back right into your eyes. You stared at each other until you hold out your hand, which he accepted. It was weird, Harry Hook has gotten on your nerves since the very first moment you met. He was smug, annoying and a little crazy, but at the same time he was very funny and fearless, qualities that you admired. You wanted to say something, but before you could open your mouth he let go of your hand.

That was it, then.

You also said goodbye to Celia and wished her the best. Then, the VKs got into the car again and, since Harry was the last one standing outside, you took the chance to ask him a favor.

"Please, take care of Uma"

His face broke into small smile and he nodded slightly.

You watched with a shattered heart the limo cross the barrier, taking away your friends from you forever.

There was nothing else you could do, so you jumped into the ocean and disappeared between the waves.

Not an hour ago all you wanted was to be back home, but now everything seemed pointless. For the last months Uma lived in Atlantica and going back without her gave you a knot in the stomach, things wouldn't be the same anymore without your friend there. The two of you used to spend hours plotting ways to get everyone off the Isle, finding a hole in the barrier or just talking about the future... and now you had nothing but crushed hopes. Of course you wouldn't give up, but you felt like you had moved backwards 10 spaces in the game, you fought for the merfolk on the Isle for so long and when it finally seemed that everything was going to be fine, it was a lie.

You were so absorbed in your thoughts that you didn't pay attention to where you were heading, which caused you to bump into your mother and younger brother.

"Where have you been"? Attina asked, her voice was somewhere between angry and concerned, but it was impossible to miss the vein popping out on her forehead "I was worried sick about you!"

"Sorry mom, I was in Auradon" you told her, knowing very well that this answer would only upset her more because there was no way she hadn't hear about Audrey and her little mishap.

"Auradon?!" The look of horror on her face made clear that she knew about what happened and wasn't happy about it. If humans thought you were hardcore, it was because they never talked to your mother "Do you know what Sleeping Beauty's daughter did?"

If you knew? You lived and survived it.

"I heard even Uma was there! Your grandfather was almost sending guards to look for you and your cousins! What happened?"

"Did you finally meet Uma, then?" your brother, Nereus, joined the conversation. He didn't know anything about Uma or that you two were friends. Also, he had no idea that he had talked to her many times when she was under the charm spell.

Then, your mother called by your full name, which never meant something good.

"You weren't there in hopes to befriend Ursula's daughter and bring all the merfolk from the Isle to Atlatica, were you?" Your mother knew you so well... and she wasn't happy.

"Of course not, mom..." I'm already friends with Uma, you added mentally.

Before she started complaining, you explained everything that happened that day (ok, almost everything, you definitely skipped some parts). Her disapproval face grew to the point her vein was ready to explode, while your brother gasped and cheered at the most exciting parts, as you told the story. Under other circumstances you would have narrated the events in a dramatic and majestic way, not sparing any single detail; however, it was way too painful to remember that was your first and last adventure with Uma and her crew.

"Will they close the barrier forever for real?" Nereus asked and, when you nodded, he offered you a sympathetic smile. He knew how much you fought for the merpeople on the Isle.

Your mother, on the other hand, had other things bothering her.

"So, you tell me that they let a bunch of kids fight against a delusional girl who held one of the most dangerous tools of dark magic in the kingdom? Where were Fairy Godmother, the Blue Fairy, the 3 Good Fairies? You can't trust fairies, that's what I always say to your grandfather! Where were Belle and the Beast? Any adults?!" as she talked, her voice got more and more high-pitched, until she was practically shouting.

"They were probably under Audrey's spell" you enlightned her, even knowing that it would not ease her mind one bit.

"That's an absurd! How can we trust our kids to go to Auradon Prep if they can't keep the security system of a museum working properly?!"

You and your brother exchanged looks. Although your mother had a valid point, you didn't want to hear any of it, which was odd, because you never missed the opportunity to roast the human world.

Claiming to be tired, you excused yourself and swam to your room and, as soon as you got there, you glanced at the spot where Uma would used to stay, knowing that you'd probably never talk to her again. You felt like someone was crushing your heart and if you weren't under the sea, tears would be rolling down your face. You lay on the bed, trying to stop thinking about Uma, the Isle and everything. It was a good thing that you were exhausted, so you soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

You weren't sure how much time had passed, but, suddenly, you were woken by someone knocking on your door. You cursed under your breath, who, in the seven seas, was disturbing you right now? Not even bothering to look up, you invited whoever was at your door to come in, you heard them entering and closing the door and, after a moment, you felt the weight of someone sitting on your bed.

They coughed and you recognized the deep voice that belonged to none other than your grandfather, King Triton.

"Grandpa!" you sat up quickly and hugged him.

"Hello, my dear" everyone feared your grandfather for he had quite a dauntless reputation (even you had to admit that he was frightening sometimes), also, his temper was known in all Auradon. However, when he looked at you with those gentle eyes, you forgot he was the King of the ocean, in these moments he was just your grandfather and you fell protected and loved near him.

"Oh grandpa, it was dreadful and I'm misarable" you hugged him again, hiding your face on his neck.

"Your mother told me what happened and that King Ben wants to close the barrier" his voice was so calm that it was difficult to imagine that when he was angry he could create storms and tsunamis.

"That's horrible. I feel so powerless and guilty! I know most of people think everyone in the Isle is evil but that's not true! They are kind and loyal and they don't deserve to be doomed to perish in that place! You should have seem their faces when Mal told them the program had been shut down" your grandfather wasn't know for his love for villains, everytime someone brought Ursula up he got riled up and changed the subject quickly, but you needed to speak out.

"And who are 'they' that you're talking about?" he asked, stroking you hair softly to confort you.

"You know... Celia, Gil, Harry... and Uma" you were nervous to talk about Uma with him. Actually, despite him knowing that you were in charge for her "search party" you have never discussed that you wanted to bring her to Atlantica, even more that you had brought her to the palace clandestinely and that she lived under his roof for months.

"Uma?" his voice was stern when he said your friend's name.

"Grandpa" you straightned up and looked him in the eye "I know it must be hard for you because Ursula caused great pain to our family but Uma has nothing to do with it, she is brave, smart and care so much about other people. She had the chance to stay in Auradon but she came back to the Isle because she couldn't abandon them! She might has taken some questionable decisions, but who hasn't? She was fighting for what she believed was right! Isn't it what you taught me?"

King Triton furrowed his brows; the wrinkles in his forehead were visible which could only mean he was deliberating something.

"You do seem to know a lot about her" he said after a while, his voice and face were severe and you swallowed... this conversation was taking a dangerous path.

"Well... I..."

Before you could finish the sentence, your grandfather cut you off.

"I know what you did"

You froze, he couldn't possibly be talking about Uma living in Atlantica. There was no way he knew that, if he had had any suspicion of what you did, he would have been beyond furious, so you tried to play cool.

"What are you talking about, grandpa?"

He raised an eyebrow and sighed.

"I know you brought Uma to live here in Atlantica"

And then you died.

The end.

Oh wait.

You weren't dead... but you were sure your grandfather just told you that he knew about Uma... Something was terribly wrong. He probably noticed your bulging eyes and horrified expression because he elucidated soon after.

"I raised seven daughters, my darling. I don't need my trident to see through a charm spell and a lie" it was weird, his voice was strangely serene and he looked slightly amused.

"But... how... like... why... Aren't you angry?" there weren't enough words to describe your shock right now.

"I learned to trust the people I love a long time ago, even when we don't agree on the subject." his tone was solemn and wise and it made you feel so small and pathetic because you knew you had disappointed him.

"I'm sorry, grandpa.... I'm sorry that I lied to you and that I disappointed you, but I'm not sorry for what I did" you didn't have the courage to look him in the eyes, but he lifted up your face and smiled.

"You didn't disappoint me. I trusted you enough to let you do what you thought was right, that was what I taught you. And considering everything I saw in the last months, I believe Uma is a good girl and I'm glad you're friends"

You returned his smile, not in your wildest dreams you thought your grandfather would understand this and it made you so glad how supportive and understanding he was about everything.

"I'm sorry for lying to you! I won't do it again" you promised him.

"You're young, you will" he laughed it off "But trust me when I say that I'll be by your side no matter what"

Everything should be perfect; however, there were a bitter feeling in your mouth and a knot in the pit of your stomach that you couldn't get rid of. In the end, it didn't matter if your grandfather trusted Uma or not, because she would be trapped on the Isle forever.

"So… I think I need your help" you bit your lip, uncertain of how to say it "We can't let them close the barrier for good, but I don't know what to do!"

"Don't worry, I promised I'll talk to King Ben about this. They can't just close the barrier like this without measuring the consequences" he reassured you "Now, rest, my darling. You had a long day"

He got up and swan towards your door, but before leaving he turned his head and said.

"Otherwise, you have my permission to summon up the wrath of the ocean upon them" he winked at you and left.

"Wait" you whispered to yourself "How does he even know?"

And then it hit you.

"SEBASTIAN!"

#harry hook x reader #harry hook #harry hook x you #harry hook imagine #descendants #descendants imagine #descendants x reader #uma daughter of ursula #descedants fanfiction #out of the water

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ushioink · 3 years

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(Part 1 of Careful,)

The world’s a little quiet today, or maybe she thinks this way because the AC is on full mode. Her earphones are pressed on her ears, and her fingers are running over the laptop keyboard in light speed. Everything she’s doing is an example of tranquility. She’s trapped in this sphere of solitude, and she loves it. The library is entirely empty, too, considering it’s early in the morning for torture. But whatever, she likes when things are clear and monotonous.

Of course, every good thing is bound to the burden of decomposition, and so her quiet is disturbed. At first, it’s just a body that’s hovering over her table. A large body. Enough to darken her desk and wide enough to block the cool air of the AC gushing over her. She’s intending to ignore it, but she’s not exactly good at that. So she takes off her earphone and pauses her monstrous clicking. She looks up, glare taking place over the dead shapes of her bitch face, ready to confront the person stripping her of her cocoon. Only, she doesn’t see a stranger.

It’s a man, and she’s not familiar with men - usually she’s just a virgin in all aspects of the opposite sex - but he’s not a face well forgotten. He’s one of the dudes that people whispered about in the hallways, and even her, an antisocial not-give-a-shit girl has heard about him. She’s a bit mortified about his sudden station over her table, but she forgets about her curiosity to resume her glaring. He winces a little because of her harsh glaring, especially when she pulls her earphones so she can hear the sound of her eyes going absolutely still in the dangerous motion. Besides him stands another man, a taller one, and he, too, sparks recognition in her well-organized mind. But she doesn’t give this other man attention; she only looks at the shorter guy.

“I have a proposition.” He says, trying to keep his voice steady. She’s a little - a lot - annoyed about his demanding tone, as if he’s used to dropping requests that take no for an answer. So, she scoffs.

“No.”

His eyes, which were narrowed down in a way to intimidate her (as if) widen a little, and he splutter. “You didn’t even hear what I have to say!”

“Don’t care, still no.” She returns back to her speedy typing, just to have something to do and to irritate the guy. God knows how well-versed she is in the effects of ignorance. She hopes he too, is immensely annoyed by it.

His narrowed eyes go a little wide, before he narrows them again. He looks down at the unoccupied chair across her chair, then at her, who’s still pretending to be immersed in her ridiculous writing, before pulling the chair out from under the table and plopping his pretty little butt over it. She doesn’t give him the attention he desires, not even when he releases a big sigh of relief. She keeps on clicking on her keyboard, completely unbothered. This makes him annoyed for some reason. No other female has ignored him like that when he graced them with his pretty, dark presence, and no other person has taken it so far to pretend he doesn’t exist, either. He’s damn well-aware of what he does to people, both genders, whatnot with his beautiful kohl-ridden eyes, his thin, pink lips that perfectly curl into a pout that’s deadly, and his killer body. What’s wrong with this woman? He actually came here by the stupid, stupid convincing tactics of his friend to beg for help, and he’s being swiped off like dirt? Ridiculous!

He curls a fist over his mouth like a fake posh man and clears his throat, making her look at him with her deadly, iridescent eyes. “What if I offered you ten thousand dollars for catching a mice trap in the Dark Dungeons?”

The Dark Dungeons is a place in the university’s library where everyone just pretends doesn’t exist for some reason - probably because of all the boring past researchers of the graduated students stacked there - and ultimately ended up being deserted. A lot of students are scared to venter there alone, recapping fake tales about pale ghosts and demons that are there to hunt them. She’s not afraid of such stupidity.

“Okay,” she shrugs casually, pausing in her rapid typing and closing her laptop. The student blinks at the quick gesture. “Pay it in cash?”

He’s dumbfounded; of course he is. He hadn’t anticipated his dumb proposition (which isn’t even real) to be met with such ease. He continues to blink, “But you just said no.”

She shrugs again, crossing her fingers over her laptop like a CEO waiting for a colleague’s destruction. The fist he’s holding against his mouth is put down on the desk. He wipes his expression clear of his flabbergast. She doesn’t allow him to say anything, though. “It depends on the proposition, really, and my capabilities in doing it. I can catch a mice trap in the presumptuous Dark Dungeons, and I will agree on it for ten thousand dollars. This is, knowing you, the only good offer you’ll be willing to give. I don’t want to hear the rest, because I know the rest, and I refuse the rest beforehand.”

“So you know who I am?” He sounds delightfully surprised. It’s the only thing he caught from her monologue, the fact she knows who he is despite only discovering about her recently.

She gives him a look as if he’s an idiot. Then, she returns to her work and opens the laptop. His cheeks flush at that look, still surprised that she’s not even remotely affected by him. He finally gives his companion, a tall guy who casually slipped on the seat beside him and practically occupying the entire space with his large body, a helpless look; and his friend merely shrugs disinterestedly.

“Hey,” he changes tactics by knocking on her desk with his knuckles, his eyebrows slightly growing narrowed as he frowns.

The man’s a little bit upturned by the mischievous twinkle that goes on like a bell on her eyes as she ignores him, a spark that would have gone unnoticed if he hadn’t been sitting close to her. But it’s strange nevertheless to see her, a woman so poised, a woman full of confidence and empathy, show such molecular emotion. Mind blowing

“Look at me. Hey!”

She looks up at him, the twinkle shifting into deep, rooted annoyance. “Yes? Is there anything of significance that you want to tell aside offering a proposition to a complete stranger?”

He’s dumbfounded yet again. “Is that a way to talk to someone? What a potty mouth you have! Do you use it to kiss people?”

She’s the one dumbfounded now, fooled at her own game of ignorance. “Excu.. excuse me! Potty mouth! Me? I’m a polite person, thank you very much. I’m just in tune with reciprocation at the moment.”

He sounds extremely frustrated when he says, “What the fuck does that even mean?”

The companion of the rotten boy clears his throat before she can retaliate, and she gives him her attention for the first time since he sat himself next to his friend. His face is long and droopy, lazy, and his eyes are squinted as if he’s trying to make sense of her tiny figure sitting across. When he speaks, his voice is husky. “Yah, don’t yell. We’re in a library.”

They glare at him, their eyes holding icicles. He huffs. “The last time I’ve been here, the librarian kicked me out for knocking one of his shelves. If he knows that I’m here again, which he will by your loud voices, I’m going to be staked. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve seen a lot of vampire movies. Staking seems really hurtful.”

They shoot him disbelieved eyes. He puts a hand over his chest. “I have a sensitive heart. A wooden stake will make my delicate organ scar. That’s not good on my resumé.”

The first guy gapes at his friend, whereas she shakes her head in disappointment of being a part of this conversation. She goes back to her work while poking her tongue on the insides of her cheek, trying to restrain her growing fury.

“What?” The tall companion looks at his friend weirdly, “You haven’t seen the resumés I’ve seen online. They have applications out of this world. What if my beautifully intricate heart is required? Don’t want it marred!”

“Why the fuck would anyone ask for an image of your heart, Yeol? What job even requires the internal lookout of your organs?” His friend rebuts.

“How’d I know? I’m not logged in to alljobs.com!”

“Maybe you should, so you’ll be prepared to have a reasonable answer to your dumb shenanigans!”

“Will you both just shut up!” She snaps, smashing her laptop closed (again). They turn to her, blinking. “Why the fuck you’d even sit in front of a person you don’t know and have this conversation while they’re listening?”

They look scorned, cheeks going red. They regretfully look down at their laps, fiddling with their fingers.

“Now,” she exhales from her nose angrily, resembling a red-faced dragon (she doesn’t actually blush, but the running fury that’s gobbling her up leaves her face looking like a swollen tomato). “What the fuck do you want?”

The smaller man opens his mouth to say his demands once again, but she rudely raises an open palm up, squinting. “Speak gently. And slowly. And politely.”

He glares but complies. “I have something to ask of you, a proposition. Actually, you’re not a stranger, at least not as if now. I know who you are.”

She quirks a sharp eyebrow up, unrelentingly and very judgmentally. She’s not the type of person to be swayed over anything, definitely not over this man, too.

He rolls his eyes. “You’re one of the smartest students in our batch, and I kinda have been going through a lot with one of my assignments, so this idiot here told me to ask you for help.” He points to his companion, who salutes mockingly using two of his fingers. “It’s about the aftermath of war, and the effects it leaves on the intermingled classes of eighteenth century China. I’m very bad at writing shit. I confuse my statements; I fail at rearranging my paragraphs; I suck at choosing intellectual perspectives; and I most definitely can’t be on the neutral side to the point of sounding extremely radical. Would you help me write my research? It’s worth a bit of my marks considering I didn’t take the midterm for, ahem, certain reasons,” there’s a soft hue of red that glows in his cheeks, and feeling his blush, he scratches them with his long nails awkwardly.

“No.” The cute color doesn’t deter her at all, and she begins to collect her laptop and books to leave. Or, pretending to. She does not have any thought about leaving, not even when there’s a handsome stranger trying to invade her tranquil space. But, regardless of her wants, such gesture made the man nervous. He snaps his head up, eyes wide, and pushes himself to his feet quickly to stop her from leaving.

“Why not?” He begins to be angry. “Is this because you know who I am? Does my... Does our reputation precedes us?”

She gives him a cooly leveled look. “I only give favors to friends. You’re not a friend. Very simply. I couldn’t care less about your reputation, which does in fact precedes you. People tend to talk about things they don’t understand. The juiciest the gossip, the more people want to talk about it.” She pauses a little, confusedly staring at them. “Don’t you guys know that? When you wear these clothes, pierce all parts of your body, flash all of your tattoos, and walk around intimidating people, they will talk badly about you. Huh, I thought you guys are smart enough to discover this much about the nature of people.”

Whereas he looks startled out of his way with the sincerity in her words, It’s the companion who takes the time to speak. He asks her, his eyebrow raised. “Why’d you think we’re smart?”

She smirks at him, and he’s surprised that it’s actually playful, not malicious. “It’s only those that rebel the constant demands of society that have their heads teetered towards either intelligence, or insanity.” She slings her bag on her shoulder, her face going back to its previous expressionless slate. “Bye now.”

She doesn’t leave. She merely just stands and watches them watching her. It takes the two university boys a second to understand the implications behind her words, and when they do, they groan. They stand up, albeit slowly, and the shorter one dares to shoot her a grumpy, malicious glare, before walking away. The taller one simply tilts his head downwards in a respectable nod before following his friend.

Once they leave, she smiles, and the curl of her lips makes her face radiant, a whole lot flowery than the actual blanket of monochromatic nothingness that usually sticks on her all the time. She sits back down on her seat, opens her laptop, and begins to type again.

Oh the long road. Oh the long road. She sighs in her head, her legs heavy and unbalanced, almost sending her to the ground with how weak they feel. After almost six hours in university, with three classes and breaks in between, she’s finally done with all the nonsense that she, daily, has to face. Actually, university hasn’t been on her mind before in high school when she was in her senior year for this exact reason. She is too lazy for something overloaded like university. But, if she is being honest with herself, she doesn’t see herself in any place besides university, especially if she wants to have a ‘decent’ job. So, she tries to succumb to the voice compelling her to move forward, and ignoring the one that tells her to fuck everything and flop on the ground, dead.

A sound calling her name stops her in her long, angry strides, and she turns to the back to see her friend, Sami, waving for her, smiling so preciously that actual stars appear on her eyes. She’s not oblivious to the crowd gathering behind Sami, all males (and some females) staring at her with eyes twinkling with hearts. She reluctantly wave back, and Sami comes running towards her, beaming once she’s standing in front of her.

“You’re heading home?” Her friend asks.

She hums without a verbal consent. Her friend beams again.

“Great!” Sami loops their arms together. “Lets go together, and while we’re on the way, buy me a cocktail.”

“Alcohol this early? And why should I buy you one?” She raises an eyebrow up in ridicule, even though she already knows the answer to her rather dumb question.

Sami rolls her eyes. “No, an actual cocktail, with fruits and all. And you should buy me one because I’m your humble friend who asks nothing of you at all.”

“You ask for things all the time,” she narrows her eyes, and points at Sami’s earrings. “I bought you those earrings,” she points at her bag. “And I bought you this bag. And those shoes. I might as well buy you a house to live in if I’m already this much husband material.”

Sami grins, beaming, and her grip over her arm tightens. “It’d be so great if my future husband actually pays for all of my things. I’ll be a pretty, studious, working housewife that do things for him and accommodate all of his precious needs. Aw, I miss him already.”

“You should be careful not to say this in front of another woman that isn’t me.”

Sami blinks cluelessly. “Why? I didn’t say anything infuriating, did I?”

She pats her head sympathetically, her hand calloused despite the gentle, sardonic gesture. “Not at all. Not at all.”

They walk out of the university’s large grounds with Sami the one doing most of the talking, the bouncing, and the gleeful intervals; her grip tight around her arm, and her soft laughter surrounding them whole. She wouldn’t say that she was entirely comfortable about the concept of having a friend, but it has been two years now since she knew Sami, and she began to understand that in order to enjoy something beautiful, you have to watch it burn first, which’s why she, despite not liking it, disposed herself of her antisocial behavior, and stuck around with Sami.

Upon the huge gates of the university, she catches sight of the two students who had interrupted her morning study with their obnoxious presence. They’re standing in front, one of them - the tall one - is leaning against the large beige wall beside the gates, and the nuisance - the one requesting - is crouching on the floor right beside him, a fake cigar made of paper in between his fingers. They’re already staring at her, anticipating her exit. When her eyes meet the dark ones of the crouching guy, he smirks, his pink lips thin and inviting. He puts the fake paper in his mouth, pretending to inhale, and then pulls it off to exhale loudly, his eyes suddenly half lidded. He’s staring at her. She stares back, then she narrows her eyes, ticking her chin to the side in a silent request for him to look away. His smirk widens, and he doesn’t look away; his eyes invading her soul to the point she feels something scratch at the surface of her skin, begging to be released.

She scoffs. And almost as if he’s hearing her, he waggles his eyebrows teasingly. She blanches, disgusted, and her facial expression catches Sami’s attention.

“Who’re you looking at?” Sami turns to follow her friend’s eyes before she can look away, furrowing her eyes upon seeing the two boys. She turns to her friend curiously; nervously. “Do you... do you know them?”

She’s quick to shake her head, “Nah, I don’t know them outside the rumors that I heard circulating about them. I think one of their names starts with a B? Or an H? Anyhow, I don’t know who they are.”

“Why are they looking at you?”

She shrugs. “Beats me. Probably think I’m a visible, touchable time loop or something. That’d be cool. Have you ever seen Doctor Strange?”

Sami stares at her as if she’s an alien. “What on earth are you talking about?”

She shakes her head. “Never mind. Let’s quicken our pace. Maybe we’ll lose them in the crowd.”

As if hearing their words, the two boys jump to their feet (the one standing merely bouncing around) and they follow after them like two little creeps. They don’t say anything for a while, like announce their already large presence, and she ticks her head backwards with raised eyebrows, meeting their amused - yet frustrated - faces. She tilts her head, silently asking them about what the fuck they’re doing, and the shorter one of the two shrugs, the taller one smirking a little, the cigarette roll that was wrapped around the other’s mouth now in his. She looks away.

Sami notices her friend’s head going forward and backward, and turn around to give them a funny look, a little nervous for some reason. She looks back at her friend and pulls at her sleeve, a frozen smile on her face. “They’re following us.”

“If there’s an ice cube, large enough to have legs and is following me, and the world is so flabbergasted by it’s appearance, but you’re only concerned about taking your way home without interruptions. Would something happen if I gave it attention? No, you know why?“ she leans closer to Sami and with her big, wide eyes, she whispers. “Because it’ll melt away.”

Sami shakes her head in exasperation. Even after two years of being friends with her; she’s never getting used to her random thought processes. Either-way, Sami doesn’t feel entitled enough to say anything against that, and although she releases a little grumble from her chest in irritation at the skin contact, she doesn’t remove her arm away. Smiling, she leans her head on her shoulder.

“Yah. You can’t just pretend we don’t exist.” The shorter one says, or yells really.

His friend scoffs, and it’s strangely shudder-inducing because of his low grating voice. “We’ll follow you home if destiny calls.”

Sami lifts her head to peek at them, then quickly looks at her calm, astute friend. “Are you not going to answer?”

“A bird could constantly peck on my window and I wouldn’t shoo it away. I’m too lazy.”

Sami’s eyes mellow down, and her lips smile. “But that’s exactly what you do, sweetie. You can’t handle disturbances, especially when it affects your general surroundings.”

“You’re right. I’m going to kick their ass.” She stops in her gait, turns around, and glares; Sami stopping next to her. The two university boys pause in their strides, blinking.

“Question, exactly why was I chosen among the high grades receiving bastards in our class?” She raises her eyebrows up. “Is it because you think I’m easy? Or I’m a woman? Is it because you think I’m nice?” She says nice as if it’s a heinous word created for her personal offense.

The boys share a confused look. Then, the tall one clears his throat, readying himself for the paragraph he’s about to spout. “I’ve never once thought you’re easy, and neither have Baekhyun. We’ve seen the way you talked back to the teachers, and man, do you have a temper. I’m actually a bit shaky right now because I’m asking this favor of you. I’m not a misogynist, man. Why’d you make me something I’m not. love women. I love all wonen. Perhaps a little too much,” Baekhyun, the short guy beside him, is nodding his head sadly, “I’d have told Baekhyun to choose Dahyeon if I thought she was as responsible as you are. But the girl’s a klutz. She ruined a paper of mine once. Won’t let her do it again,” he then tilts his head, his confused face getting graver. “I’m sure as fuck you’re not kind, or nice. I wouldn’t have already been going through emotional trauma just by the thought of approaching you, yet, here we are.”

“Here we are.” Baekhyun spreads his arm with a surrendering look flashing on his handsome face.

Sami turns to her friend and analyzes the stone cold expression on her face. She hesitates, for a second, before she says. “They do have a point. You’ve traumatized half of the population in this university.”

“We still have two more years for you to traumatize the rest.” Baekhyun comments cheekily. When she shoots him a glare, he winks. She’s a little surprised. She hadn’t met anyone who winked at her deadly stare-offs. People are terrified of her, not amused of her.

“How many pages do you want your assignment to be? Mine’s going to be a minimum of eight, considering it’s only a meager homework, so I’ll try to shove your own pages between my breaks to save time.”

Their eyes go wide. Baekhyun actually gulps, unprepared for the challenge. “You write eight pages for an assignment worth ten marks?”

She raises her eyebrows. “You’re here begging for help for this stupid assignment, so I guess we’re both pulling up our shits, right?”

He shuts up.

It’s the tall one that answers. “Any page number is fine. Take your pick.”

She nods, “You’ll have five pages, then. I take breaks in between my classes. I have two-to-three classes for five days aside Saturdays and Tuesdays, so we’ll write two pages every week until its due date in three weeks’ time,” she takes her phone and shoves it in the chest of the short guy. “Give me your number so I text you the hours I’m free on. I don’t give a shit if our schedules overlap. When I tell you to come, you come, with your laptop and all of your writing necessities with you. One mistake and you’re out, get it?”

Baekhyun sweats, especially since her expression is deadly serious and her hand, which is still clutching her phone on his chest is cold, deadly so. He gulps anyway and nods. “Thank you, really. Appreciate it. Is there anything I can do for you to repay the favor?”

She smirks, and pulls her hand off of his chest after he accepts the phone. “A bad boy who knows how to say thank you? That’s a new one. And keep the favor until after you deliver your assignment. I’m not sure you’ll wanna give me any favors after I’m done with you. Say, are you willing to pay money?”

He pales. “I’m poor as fuck, ma’am, expected of a university student, right? Please say yes.”

She smirks again, amused of the panic in his eyes. “Relax, idiot. Just wanna check something.” She turns to the tall one. He’s staring right back at her, eyes wide and brown hair fluffy. For a bit, she’s taken aback by the actual fact of how gorgeous he is. Wide, almond eyes, soft hair, tall girth like a skyscraper, and she fucking loves skyscrapers, the taller, the better. He’s wearing a weird mesh of jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket, but he’s also wearing a sweater on top. He must be sweating in there. His wide eyes turn a little confused when she merely gapes at him, and she notices. She clears her throat, and rolls her eyes so the spectators don’t notice she’s a weird bitch.

“What’s your name?” She asks coldly. There’s a strange warmth circulating her body, but of course, she ignores that.

“Sorry?” He splutters.

She lifts a sleek eyebrow up, holding herself from smirking widely. “Your name,” she points at Baekhyun, who’s blinking down at her phone like it’s a foreign industrial scam. “This moron’s Baekhyun. Kinda noticed you mention his name. What’s your name? I’m a bit curious to know about the chaperone’s name, considering they’re always so ignored and unappreciated in movies.”

He looks a bit flustered, as if he hasn’t noticed he has been a chaperone all this time. He wipes the slight vulnerability that flashed earlier, twirls the paper stick in his mouth, and gives her a mock salute. “Chanyeol, ma’am, but don’t bother memorizing it. We wouldn’t be seeing each other enough for the need of that.”

She doesn’t comment on his words even though she’s curious. She merely tells herself he’s as weird as she is, probably a little arrogant, but of course not as her. No one’s as arrogant as her. She sits on the throne of arrogance. Her parents once thought she had narcissistic syndrome, those assholes, but dismissed it later on when she gave them enough evidence she wasn’t. She pays attention to Baekhyun, coughing to alert him of the actual fact he has been taking too much time typing gibberish on her phone, and not his phone number. She swears to God he probably failed to reach her contacts. He looked like a dumb loser up close like that, but she didn’t want to judge him so severely. A guy who winks at her instead of shit his pants must be a dumbass, but again, she doesn’t want to judge.

Baekhyun looks up from her phone upon her cough, smirks his annoyingly attractive smirk, and juggle the phone towards her (after locking it, for some reason) she tries catching her phone, and thankfully she succeeds. She glares, about to scold him about the degrading act of her precious gadget, when he all but announces.

“We’ll go see our own way now. Thank you for such precious moment. Perhaps we’ll be able to create more while avoiding chopped heads, from your part, of course. May the grounds open up to present you with a fortunate gift,” he does a whole theatrics of bowing, while simultaneously taking a step back, bumping into an unamused Chanyeol. “Adios, my lady.”

He turns around to Chanyeol, who whispers something to him. They begin to walk away, and Baekhyun says something to the taller guy, in retaliation, which earns him an eye roll. Not taking this lightly, Baekhyun jumps - to reach the tall giant - so he can wrap his arm around his neck, and pulls him into a headlock. Chanyeol doesn’t fight. He lets himself be dragged like a deadweight doll, like he’s used to such abuse, and she shakes her head. Chanyeol seemed cool with his indifference, but perhaps he isn’t the one in total control here.

Sami calls her softly, and forgetting her only friend for a bit - the two boys have extremely large presence - she turns to her. She offers a small smile, showing a dimple to her left side, and Sami beams.

“I’m not even going to ask what the heck just happened,” she offers her a hand, Sami; and she looks at it weirdly. “Ready to go home?”

Sighing, she accepts the hand, and agrees to be dragged home. Sami looks down at their hands; and thinks a little, her brows going all intersected. She shrugs, cooly intertwining their fingers together. She doesn’t even blink at the gesture, having been used to it. Out of character, the only thing on her mind at the moment is those two, strange university men.

Author Note:

So?

We haven’t got anything grounded yet. We still have a lot to cover! The personality of ChanBaek is beautiful, stick to see our dumb yet gorgeous boys.

Also, if you haven’t noticed already, our OC is freaking DANGEROUS! Chanbaek are in for a ride!

#chanyeolxreader #chanbaekxoc #chanyeolxoc #baekhyunxoc #baekhyunxreader #baekhyun #chanyeol #exo #fluff #comedy #romance #love #passion #poly #polyandry #reverseharem #fluuuuuufffff

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wildlittlefoxsworld · 4 years

Text

Can time heal everything? | The Old Guard | Booker x Fem!reader

ONE

Summary: Booker confesses his plan with Copley about how they all could be mortal again to his wife, the reader. Booker doesn't want to hurt his family and doesn't know how to stop Copley and Merrick before it's too late. The reader is heart-broken that her husband wanted to leave her to make his wish come true of being mortal again. Will they could stop Copley? Will the team trust Booker again? Will the reader and Booker find back to each other?

***

Booker tried for the third time to tell you about the plan that Copley presented him, but he couldn't, you would hate him. But it was too late. The whole team were preparing for an unknown mission in South Sudan. But the mission was a camouflage for something that would put all of you in danger.

Could he really betray you?

No, he didn't want to. He saw this as an oppurtunity to find a way to have a mortal life with you and you could have children of your own. You told him you would know how much he loved you, but would you still love him if he betrayed you.

You wouldn't forgive him and he would lose you like he had lost his first family.

He knew it was wrong what he did, but was there still chance to stop all of this?

He needed to tell you to find it out.

“Y/N!” he shouted and you came in the bathroom a few seconds later.

“Everything okay?” you asked worried when you saw his sad face.

“I am sorry… I don't know what to say… I was wrong… please, Y/N…,” he stuttered and his eyes shimmered with tears.

“Why are you sorry? What happened?”

You were confused about your husband's behaviour and took his hands in yours. He looked pained and you thought for a moment that he will confess you he cheated on you or something, but this would be ridiculous. You were married for over hundred years. But you prepared yourself for the worst.

“I did something horrible. There is… there is no mission,” he answered quietly.

“What? I don't understand. What do you mean that there is no mission?” you responded shocked.

“It's fake. All of it. Copley doesn't work for the CIA anymore. He works for a man named Merrick…”

“Seb, what did you do?” you asked in a low voice. All emotion was gone and he dared to look at you, wide eyes and your lips pressed together in a thin line. “Talk,” you spoke loud and he flinched.

“Copley said he could find a way with Merrick's help to make us mortal.”

“Mortal? How and who is this Merrick?” you hustled him to tell you more.

“Merrick is the CEO of pharmacy company. He has scientists who would take tests with us to…”

Tests? That wasn't good. Your mind was racing and you couldn't understand what was really going on, but you understood that you and your family were in danger and you will do what was neccesary to save all of you.

“Give me your laptop. We need every information you have about Copley.”

Booker gulped when he heard your cold and demanding voice. He could see in your eyes that you were upset. What did he expect? He was sure that you will never forgive him that all of you nearly went in a trap. With slumbed shoulders he walked in the bedroom and gave you his laptop after he opened the file where he save all about his interactions with Copley.

“What is all about this fake mission?” you asked him furiously.

“Copley needs a proof that we are immortal. Otherwise the man, Merrick, wouldn't work together with him,” he explained with a broken voice.

“Sebastien, he won't help us to be mortal again. He want our immortality for his interests… Copley has no intentions to help us…,” you shouted at him and shook your head in disbelief. Your husband wanted to sell all of you to a man who would put you through a bunch of tests like you were some laboratory mice.

“I know it now…”

“I can't believe that you wanted this. That you even agreed to anything that Copley told you.”

“I did it for us. So we can have a family and grow old together,” Booker tried to excuse his behaviour.

“We are a family. We all five.”

“I'm sorry, please, I made a mistake. I realized that I don't want this. I know it was wrong.”

“Pray that your insight wasn't too late,” you said in a worried voice.

“I don't want anyone to get hurt,” he mumbled desperately. “Copled discovered our secret on his own and he contacted me with the offer that he could help to figure out what caused the immortality and how to be mortal again. I believed him, but he never said that it would involve all of us and I didn't realize until now.”

“Why didn't you tell me earlier?” you asked him offended.

“I was afraid and it was part of the deal that I won't tell anyone.”

You nodded with a tense jaw and tears stinged in your eyes. You looked at your husband and all you saw was the same broken man you met when you became immortal. You never chose this life, no one of your family did. It was destiny and you accepted your faith. Booker didn't. You knew about his wish of a normal life, but you never thought he would do such things like consider to betray his family. Actually he hadn't betrayed you yet, but he planned it and you couldn't decide what was the worst.

“Don't tell me you did this for us. You can't decide or speak for me. I'm disappointed. I thought you would tell me when you aren't happy with what we have. But we're married, we love each other and we promised us something back then.”

“Yes, I do love you,” he cried out. “And I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Please, believe me. We won't do the mission or even meet with Copley in person. Everything sounded good and Copley promised that no one would be hurt. But when he came up with this fake mission, I was unable to cope and I panicked. He wants all of us now and I don't how we can get out of this.”

Now you were confused again. His explanation revealed details that you didn't consider in your rage and now you got nervous that you understood his words wrong.

“Let me get this right now. You thought Copley would only involve you in his plan. He never mentioned the rest of us before until he told you about the condition with this fake mission?”

Booker nodded furiously.

“You never wanted to betray us?”

“Never, Y/N, I swear. I would never do this to you or Andy or Nicky and Joe. I just saw an oppurtunity that I could be human again. I trusted him. He told me about the fake mission first. He need a footage as a proof for the immortality and I agreed, because I thought he only would take me for the tests and all kind of this stuff. But two days ago he send me an email that he wants all of us and now I don't know what to do. I thought about so many things to get out of this, but I can't do this alone. He has too many informations about us, I'm sure he could find us everywhere if he wants to.”

You gulped at his words. You were relieved that he didn't plan to hand his family over to Copley, otherwise he gave informations about you away. You will have to deal with this later, because you needed to warn Andy, Nicky and Joe, so that they won't arrive in South Sudan and arrange to meet somewhere else to plan any further steps.

“You're an idiot, Sebastien. I have to say this and I won't apologize. All of Copley's plan is dangerous and if you would have really trusted him… well, I don't know what could happen, but you would be very stupid if you let these scientists make any tests with you. None of us will cooperate with Copley or this Merrick man.”

“I know I was an idiot. I… I hope we will find a way out of the misery I caused.”

“There's only one way, Sebastien. We need to find Copley before he finds us,” you simply responded and your eyes were back on the laptop.

Plans changed. We meet at our honeymoon house. Tomorrow. 8 p.m.

You send the messages to the others. You sighed frustrated and looked up at Booker. He seemed anxious and nervous. He tore at his hair and rubbed over his face. Yes, he really fucked up. But you tried to understand his reasons and why he handled like he did. Copley offered him a solution and he saw a chance to change his life. But this wasn't the right way and you knew your husband well enough that you could see he understood he made a mistake and regret his decision.

You were sad that he couldn't arrange himself with his immortality. When you and the others found him in 1813, all he wanted was to stay with his wife and children and you had been so kind to let him. You hadn't have the power to make him to come with you, but you thought it was the mistake he made. He craved for the mortal life of them and his family craved the gift of being immortal. They couldn't have what their hearts desired. Still on the present day Booker had this one wish and you knew it since the day you met him.

The love you shared helped him to get over the lost of his wife and you the both of you were happy, most of the time. The memories of his children, the hatred they felt for him after he wasn't capable of sharing the magic with them. Despite he fell in love with you, his broken heart never healed completely.

“I hope someday you can forgive me,” he whispered and turned his back on you.

“You trusted the wrong person and we have one last chance to stop before it ends worse for us than Copley already planned,” you spoke in a sad tone.

“Your decisions and actions… were selfish. I feel like I'm not enough for you. You intended to leave me. Making your wish come true and assuming I would want the same as you. I love you a billion times to the moon and back and I like the thought to spend an eternity with you. But to learn you want just a handful of years and than closing your eyes forever… that feels like ripping my heart out. You want me to forgive you? You told Copley our secret, you planned a future without me knowing anything about your plan, you revealed informations about us and you believed he wouldn't go after all of us. If you wouldn't have said anything now then the blood would have been on your hands. That would be a lot to forgive, but I know that you didn't plan to hurt anyone of us and this fact is a step in the right direction. It will take time, but I want to forgive you.”

“I don't expect forgiveness. I don't… I can't lose you…”

You were overwhelmed by your feelings just like him. You were upset and scared, you didn't know what the next days would bring and how the others will react what your husband did. But you will stand by his side, even if he broke your trust when he didn't tell everything from the beginning and it will take time to regain the trust. You won't know if he wouldn't do anything like that again.

“I'm your wife and I'll stay with you. But you need to choose… do you want me and our love, a happy life together? Or do you want to live in the past? You're always in the past, but there you can't find me. I know that life wasn't fair to you, but stop blaming yourself that your children couldn't understand you… after all it wasn't your fault that destiny picked you. I can only speak for me, but I don't know what Andy, Nicky and Joe will say.”

Sebastien's eyes met you and the pain you saw in them made your heart aching. “I don't deserve you.”

You closed your eyes for a moment and tried to hold back tears.

“I am sorry.”

You had known that the day would come when he couldn't bear it anymore, but you wasn't prepared it would hurt so much.

“Pack our things and I will book us flight tickets to Greece.”

***

#the old guard #the old guard fanfic #the old guard x reader #sebastien le livre #sebastien le livre x reader

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lavenderek · 4 years

Note

Why do you hate Ian?? When i was a kid I LOVED What A Girl Wants. I had such a crush on Ian :(

i am happy to go off thank you for this opportunity, long post under the cut

in case somebody wants to read this but doesn’t know what “what a girl wants” is, it’s a movie from the early 2000′s starring amanda bynes as Daphne.

she grew up in new york with a single mom, Libby. she has an estranged father played by colin firth, Henry, who doesn’t know daphne exists. libby is a singer who works weddings a lot.

libby and henry were star-crossed lovers, basically. henry is an english aristocrat with political aspirations, and his family believed marrying libby, who is living her stevie nicks fantasy, would damage his career; so they got her alone and convinced her henry changed his mind and didn’t want her. libby left, not yet knowing she was pregnant, and then spent 17 years pining for him.

daphne has spent her whole life romanticizing the idea of her father coming to get her, so after she graduates high school she chooses to fly out to england and surprise him. when she gets there she is disappointed to find that he is engaged to a woman who has a daughter about daphne’s age, but tries to make it work anyway.

daphne is clumsy and very casual, so hijinks ensue. henry’s fiancee and future stepdaughter are evil and conniving.

daphne is rejected and bullied by the fiancee and stepdaughter and she struggles trying to fit in with aristocratic society, so ultimately she leaves. henry is upset about this because he learned to love her, and subsequently he discovers she was being mistreated. he breaks up with the fiancee and flies out to america to surprise daphne. daphne gets into oxford u somehow and they all live happily ever after.

the first person daphne meets and gets to know in the movie is a local musician named Ian, who tells her she was born to stand out. he has minimal effect on the plot, like, i could write him out in two minutes, but god forbid we have a teen movie without a romance in it. they’re immediately attracted to each other and he proceeds to be a very bad boyfriend that the audience is supposed to find morally upstanding and charming.

this post is about how it did not work and i don’t like him.

The Superficial Shit: I’m Not About It

i’m immune to motorcycle boys. motorcycles are impractical and loud. get a muffler. i think if you buy a motorcycle you have to sign a contract promising to idle on your motorcycle for ten minutes every morning at 6:30 so that everyone in the neighborhood knows you have a motorcycle. so i don’t care that ian is A Bad Boy.

i’m also immune to english accents. it’s just like, an accent. it’s fine. i’m supposed to find everything he does inherently charming because he has an accent and he sings, but i don’t, so, try a little harder.

like, i’m also not impressed by sporty types, but i still accepted “a cinderella story” because austin had a character progression and i could see why sam found him attractive.

ian has no character progression. he starts out confident and independent and he ends up confident and independent. he remains happily working class with a more or less successful band the entire movie. nothing daphne does affects him negatively except that one time she fucks up and blows off a concert he wanted to go to.

so as a result i’m not invested in anything he does. the only interesting thing he does is first building up daphne’s confidence and then getting mad and tearing it back down when she’s doing something he doesn’t personally find important, which is the next thing.

The Worst Boyfriend: Why Am I Not The Center Of Your Universe?

here are the first three pieces of information ian learns about daphne:

her mom is a musician

she is american

she is here to find and get to know her politician father, Lord Dashwood

he’s very supportive of this endeavor, right up until it gets difficult. he’s like, “you came all this way, he’s your dad, you should definitely meet him.”

she publicly fucks up a couple major society events and then is like, “hey, i’m putting my dad’s career in jeopardy, so in order to stay and get to know him this summer i’m gonna prioritize these events a little more.”

and ian is immediately like, “you’ve changed,” and dumps her lmfao

her lifelong drive to find and get to know her dad is one of the first things he learns about her. why does he think it’s so stupid? why am i supposed to care about his opinion?

daphne, probably: this thing is important to me. ian, probably: ok, that’s fine. daphne, probably: woof, in order to keep up with this thing i have to try a little harder. ian, probably: hm. actually, this is unimportant. daphne, probably: i’m going to do it anyway. ian, probably: what? didn’t you hear me? i just said it was unimportant. why aren’t you quitting immediately? my opinion should be your primary concern. you know what? i’m done.

i had the same problem with nate from “the devil wears prada.” i will never understand the idea of seeing someone you apparently care deeply about very stressed out trying to accomplish a goal, and being mad that they’re not super fun and interesting right then. sometimes a person you care about is going through something. let her vent and buy her some ice cream.

if your partner stops being supportive and understanding the second your life gets stressful or complicated, that’s kind of a red flag. the real test of a relationship is when you have to support each other and maintain your bond even when you’re trying to get something done, or even when you’re having a rough time and you’re in a bad mood.

ian fails this test because he’s weirdly judgmental about it all.

Attitude Stinks

before the change ian hates, daphne is late to things, she dresses casually for formal events, she gets into a screaming physical altercation with someone at a party, and because she was acting out a lot at a ball she’s blamed for the destruction of a prized, historical piece of architecture. all of these cause scandals that embarrass henry and make him look bad in tabloids. he is in the middle of a campaign for a political position, so this is bad.

after the change, daphne reaches out to her debutante grandmother for guidance and starts wearing socially acceptable clothing, goes to events where she is expected, and is quiet and respectful at an event where she’s supposed to meet the queen of england. this is all very successful for henry. people go up to him and tell him daphne’s great, and she somehow ends up in a tabloid that talks about how great she is lmfao.

all of this takes a lot of effort from daphne, though. she’s stressed out. while this works out for henry, it isn’t working for daphne. she’s doing all this so that she can be accepted by her father’s family, but the fiancee and stepdaughter don’t want her around, and henry is passive throughout all this. he doesn’t know she’s actively being bullied, but he’s also letting his fiancee direct him away from daphne. so daphne ultimately leaves.

here’s where ian comes in. ian tells her a story toward the beginning of the movie about how his mother was also an aristocrat. he tells her she was rejected by society because of classism towards ian’s father. this is framed as a demonstration of ian’s values. the fact that his mother rejected being a debutante is a source of pride for ian.

but the problem is that this is just because ian likes the choice she made. he’s not proud that his mother took control of her life and made her own decision. he’s proud that his mother rebelled. you know this because he sums up the story with this line -

daphne: what happened to your parents? ian: they’re as poor as church mice and the happiest people i know.

- and because his entire conflict in the movie is that daphne makes a different decision.

ian’s mom chose her husband over her parents and the life they wanted for her. daphne is choosing the family she’s been wanting her whole life over a guy she’s known for like, a month. ian is the biggest whiner about it. he storms out on her. she runs into him at an event and asks to talk to him, and he tells her no. he only forgives her when she quits and goes back to america.

there are a lot of dudes like this out there. he loves a strong, unique woman, as long as she fits seamlessly into his life and makes decisions he tells her to. yawn.

Makes No Sense: Why Are You Here?

ian is somehow ubiquitous in debutante society. he and his little band are hired to play at every ball daphne goes to. why??

a huge plot point is a moment where daphne attends a terribly boring coming out ball for a pair of very meek, shy twins. daphne delights the twins by going out of her way to liven up the party. she convinces ian to play loud rock music and encourages everyone at the ball to dance. the bass is too loud, though, and somehow causes an antique chandelier to fall. this is a big scandal.

the whole thing that’s emphasized during this scene is that daphne is shaking up the scene and that this music is unorthodox and unwanted at these high society type functions.

which all begs the question of why these people keep hiring a local rock band for these events. he’s playing at at least one other ball later on in the movie. the music they play doesn’t really fit in with the tone of the events, which are the kind of affairs you’d wear a tiara to. these are very formal events. why are we hiring ian and his band, and where did you guys even find him??

in the scene where daphne gets into a fight with somebody, she’s at a fancy outdoor event, the kind of place you’d wear a tea length dress and a big hat. ian is also there, working in the parking lot as a parking lot guy.

daphne’s thrilled, but she does ask why he’s there. he’s basically like, “i have lots of jobs.” for somebody who hates deb society so much, he does take a lot of jobs at deb events. why don’t you work in a restaurant or something? does that offend your punk rock whiner sensibilities?

also, he’s boring and i think daphne should go for somebody who makes her laugh.

Has Spiked Hair

lots of gel, no other info needed. wash your hair. very sculpted hair makes people seem less down to earth. it’s not relatable.

I Will Fix It

so ian doesn’t help with the plot at all. the only time he helps daphne is in the chandelier scene. the rest of the time he’s just there to date her and talk to her a lot about how cool it is to stand out and not fit in.

his role in the movie is to cause more tension and place more pressure on daphne. he behaves like she’s making a moral choice, when really she’s making a behavioral choice.

i think using him to vocalize her conflict is a mistake because it’s framed as Stand Out vs. Assimilate, when that has nothing to do with daphne’s motivation.

daphne’s Want is to be with her dad, and her Need is to be accepted and wanted. as a result, ian rejecting her because he doesn’t like the choices she’s making comes across as entitled and cruel lmao. it’s directly antithetical to daphne’s journey. she never once says anything about loving standing out.

here are the ways i think this could be fixed:

if you want it to be a moral thing, make it a moral thing.

give ian a best friend who is gay, and after daphne decides to fit in with society, she won’t be seen with the gay friend anymore. or after daphne decides to fit in, have her be super judgmental of people who aren’t succeeding as much as she is. then when she decides she’s fed up, have her stand up for them.

that would make ian being mad about her “changing” make sense. and we, the audience, would be like, “yeah, this is misguided and goes against what daphne believes.”

not breaking things or yelling at a royal event isn’t a moral stance. why are you so pressed. get a hobby

if you want her thing to be standing out, make it standing out.

standing out isn’t a conflict in the whole movie. henry’s flaw is being passive. daphne’s flaw is being embarrassing at parties because she’s clumsy and she likes to meet new people and dance and stuff. libby has no flaw except that she was a victim of classism.

the twins at the party are dowdy and shy, and daphne gives them a makeover off screen lmao. ian is single, and daphne dates him.

so make standing out the recurring issue. make daphne super obsessed with fitting in. in the very beginning, she runs into a girl she knows at a wedding. the girl is kind of privileged and successful, and daphne reveals that she’s a free spirit who doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. instead, make her hedge and hem and haw and try to make herself seem more successful to the girl. make her Want to be fancy and part of her dad’s high society life, but her Need to “be herself.”

maybe the twins are secretly super weird and quirky, and they’re depressed trying to fit in; and their big moment revealing being cool now at the garden party is them wearing loud patterns and dancing when the music starts playing. maybe ian is super funny and goofy and the parties suck until he and daphne trick the singer into leaving the stage, and ian jumps onstage and plays a fun song.

make libby have been rejected because she always started talking politics at henry’s parties and she’s kind of radical.

maybe daphne: hey, i’m sorry, but you can’t come with me to the party next week anymore. maybe ian: what? how come, i rented a tux for this. maybe daphne: sorry. i’m trying to behave. maybe ian: haha what does that mean? you’re not trying to fit in with all those stuffy losers, are you? maybe daphne: no, i’m trying not to ruin things for my dad. it was a big deal when you were super messy at the garden party. maybe ian: wow. i seem to recall you being “messy” right along with me. sorry for embarrassing you. maybe daphne: ian, don’t take it personally. we can still hang out sometimes, i just can’t go places with you. maybe ian: no, thanks.

i don’t prefer this, because i’m an introvert and people who think someone they don’t personally find interesting are fundamentally worse, are boring and annoying. i wouldn’t find this story relatable or compelling at all. i’m 9000 years old and i’m like, “what if you guys respected each other and participated in society, though?” i wouldn’t enjoy this story. but at least it would make sense why ian’s bothered by daphne not “standing out.”

i think the entire reason this movie was made is that trailer moment from the boat scene where ian’s like, “i don’t understand why you want to fit in, when you were born to stand out!” so that’s how you can keep that dumbass line.

make ian have an arc himself.

in the movie, ian is initially helpful and gives some backstory, and then partway through the movie he gets mad at her and breaks up with her. he forgives her at the same time as henry realizes daphne’s unhappy, right at the end.

instead, make ian become helpful as the movie progresses.

so first of all, take the scene toward the beginning where he’s in the boat allegedly showing her how to practice being poised, and he tells her about his mom being a disowned deb. move this scene to the beginning of the third act.

next, make it so that ian was rejected by his grandparents. maybe ian at some point also defied his mom to seek out estranged family; but where daphne’s dad let her stay, ian’s grandparents insulted him and told him they didn’t want him around. they called him illegitimate and a mistake. so when daphne chooses to try to conform, ian is reacting to those feelings rather than projecting his own feelings of personal superiority.

and finally, make daphne try to fit in much sooner, but make her super bad at it. my roommates and i watched this movie the other night and one of them made the very good point that daphne’s grandmother and father sit her down and are like, “there is a certain way you’re supposed to behave,” but they don’t tell her how to do that.

so let’s actually keep that part. maybe daphne overcorrects. she knows she’s fucking up, so she believes she shouldn’t be doing anything fun or interesting or making conversation with anyone. this isn’t great. her charm is in how friendly, fun-loving, and proactive she is. she does what she wants and people find it refreshing. make people start to be like, “wow, lord dashwood’s daughter is kind of weird and stiff. it’s clear she isn’t used to places like this, what a rube.”

now we get to the third act, and the boat scene. in the boat, ian tells her about his family, and apologizes and offers to try and help her, if this is what she wants. now ian is playing more of an active role, and he’s contributing to her life in a positive way.

because as it is, he does nothing that i couldn’t get rid of very easily. so...

get rid of ian.

here are the effects ian currently has on the plot:

daphne riding away on the back of a motorcycle makes henry worry about her, and he realizes he’s developing paternal feelings toward her. he calls libby and libby affirms and empathizes with those feelings.

ian is in the band at the party where the chandelier is destroyed.

ian talks a lot about how daphne’s supposed to stand out.

ian stresses daphne out, which sort of artificially raises the stakes.

ian shows up right at the end to reward daphne for existing.

especially because ian’s criticisms are so disconnected from daphne’s motivations, nothing he does is particularly helpful to the plot in a way that he couldn’t be replaced.

daphne has a tattoo in the movie, and when henry sees it, he’s sort of like, wow, she’s kind of a wild child, she reminds me of me when i was young. instead of a motorcycle boyfriend, make daphne get the tattoo in london. henry calls libby like, “she just got a tattoo!” and libby is like, “i remember you holding my hand while i got my first tattoo.”

maybe the live band takes a break, and daphne sneaks up and hooks up the speakers to her ipod or something, and she plays super loud music herself.

i already talked about how pointless this is. also, we don’t need a greek chorus telling us what’s going on. show, don’t tell.

daphne is already stressed. those motivations can come from inside daphne.

why would henry seek out daphne’s ex-boyfriend and fly him out to new york to impose on daphne and her mom? this is so weird. go home.

ian is replaceable. to the left, to the left.

#long post #haters #who is this even #Anonymous #talking out of my ass

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witchesoz · 3 years

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After Oz: Journey back to Oz

Journey Back to Oz is a 1974 animated movie, "meant to be the official sequel of 1939 The Wizard of Oz" and "very, very loosely based off The Marvelous Land of Oz". Talking about this movie is weird... It may be because I watched it on Youtube, and on Youtube there are several parts missing but here's what I can say...

The first thing I noticed was that the animation is off. The animation of this movie is quite strange and weird at some moments. Once you get into Oz and you have witches and talking animals and the like you actually forget about this bad animation, but in the beginning, when you only have humans around, it is hard not to notice how... weirdly the characters move and talk. Especially Dorothy. Another big flaw of this movie for me is an overdose of song. Oh by heavens, there are songs everywhere in this movie! Every time a character is introduced it will have a song - EVEN A BLOODY SIGNPOST THAT APPEARS FOR JUST ONE SCENE AND HAS NO INFLUENCE ON THE STORY WHATSOEVER!

I think this overdose of song is explained by another flaw of this movie... It tries too hard to be a Disney movie. It doesn't feel like an Oz movie honestly. When Dorothy arrives in Oz, the movie becomes eerily similar to Alice in Wonderland. The long dreaming/hallucination sequences with music reminds one of the Pink Elephants of Dumbo, or of the many early Disney animated shorts. And a lot of the backgrounds look a lot like they would fit in Sleeping Beauty. But as a result it feels more like a Disney movie-rip off than an Ozian adaptation. Especially given that, for exemple the main villain here, Mombi, looks like your typical, traditional fairy-tale witch, (and they also completely changed Glinda's design, for whatever reason). As I said earlier it is basically The Marvelous Land of Oz, but without Tip/Ozma and without Jinjur, just Mombi and Pumpkinhead (that is now Mombi's servant, kind of replacing Tip). Also no Wogglebug, and the Sawhorse is now a merry-go-round horse lost in Oz (according to my research this was due to having the Sawhorse being mixed up with a character from "Merry-go-Round in Oz", the last of the Famous Forty. As a result the story feels a bit too simplistic at time, and the movie too long - they padded it with songs and dreaming sequences and flashbacks a bit too much.

But this movie has some good things to it, I will admit. Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse for exemple are really good sidekick characters, lovable and funny (not like Dorothy, who's just as blend). The other big plus of this movie is Mombi. On one side, yes, she disappoints a bit as a villain - she is your traditional fairy-tale witch (and even said to be the "cousin" of the Wicked Witch of the West, to reinforce the idea of witches being one big family), she has a pet talking crow that never reappears, her design isn't inventive at all, and she lives in a house that can't be more cliché... And yet. And yet she manages to be a very entertaining villain: the scene where she thinks of all the things she could inflict to the travelers, walls of fire and floods, is fascinating, for example. She is well "played" if I may say, but even more than that, it is her master plan that really makes this movie. Because you see, Mombi's plan is to attack Oz with an army of green elephants created by magic. And it works, it works very well. It feels strongly Ozian (elephants are quite common in Oz), and it allows for many wonderful pictures - Mombi riding the elephant at the head of the stampede, for exemple ; or my favorite picture, Mombi "cooking" the elephants in a pot from which wriggle all the elephants trunk like tentacles or snakes, in fact Dorothy thinks they are snakes and the crow adds mischievously "They're not quite cooked up yet"... These are the kind of fantastic picutres and imagery an Oz movie need. It also allows to reuse one of the most troublesome plot points of the Land of Oz: in the book, the heroes use mices to defeat the army occupying the Emerald City because they are a bunch of *girls* and *girls* are of course afraid of mices... Long debate opened here. But in this movie, the mices logically make the elephants afraid, since everyone knows elephants are afraid of mice. It is a brilliant re-using of the original book!

In fact, it seems in this movie that everyone fears the Green Elephants - when Dorothy goes to her friends Tin Man and Lion, they are all the more ready to help her, but at the mention of magical green elephants invoked by and controlled by a Witch they start having hallucination sequences and refuse to help Dorothy... almost as if the green elephants were Ozian boogeymen or fabulous monsters dreaded in all the land, and I absolutely love this idea. And yes, in this movie the Tin Man and the Lion both refuse to help Dorothy in the end, and prefer to stay in their own kingdoms, safe. I was expecting that to simply prepare their final arrival at the end, triumphant, here to vanquish Mombi... but no. They never come. In this movie, they now become cowards ready to let their friend the Scarecrow die by the hands of Mombi. Some like it, others don't... I'll let you judge. (But at the same time it allows more ground to help develop Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse).

*spoiler part* This movie also introduces an interesting idea - when a witch die, all of her magic dies with her. Which means of course that the death of Mombi (because the rose trick Mombi used in the book is reused here, for dreadful effects), all of her curses and her army of elephants disappear. But it also means that Pumpkinhead, who was born out of her magic, also "dies" - and I love this idea, I loved this scene where they discovered that Pumpkinhead couldn't survive past Mombi. It was a really clever and almost *realistic* take on the magic and the rules of Oz. Of course, it all got ruined in the end by Dorothy's tears magically awaking Pumpkinhead, because apparently "faith" is stronger than magic... Which has some fair ground, but should be developped in another way.

Anyway so as a result... I am mixed. As an adaptation of Oz, it isn't faithful to the Oz books and it feels too far away from the original aesthetics, with too many cliches. As a movie, it is not a great one - animation off, padding problems, too many damn songs. But it has a good voice acting, a very good one - and it is logical given that a lot of the voice actors are actually famous stars. It has some striking imagery, as well as some good and interesting ideas - and a good villain. So yeah, it can be worth watching, but it can be tiresome to watch, so if you do, hang in there.

#oz #after oz #review #journey back to oz #movie #animated movie

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thebrownssociety · 4 years

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More Toons Headcanons

1. The toons go abroad quite frequently either to film, get them acquainted with another country so they can act like they live their more convincingly, or simply to holiday. However one country that refuses to have them is Australia. This is because the first time the toons went to Australia - which was one of the first places they went to when flying became more common - the boarder control people didn't like the fact they had anvils and guns [looking at you Elmer and Sam] and even things like crème pies and Granny’s purse were treated as suspicious.

Thankfully someone from WB had gone with them - mainly to keep them out of trouble - and managed to argue that the toons couldn't be held to the same standard as normal humans and they should be let through. Australia did eventually let them through on the condition they left the stuff behind. They did so - reluctantly - and that’s when it was discovered that if toons props and objects are left away from the toons for longer than a couple of hours they will either fade away or - as was the case with Sam’s and Elmer’s guns and Granny’s purse - return themselves to their owners. Funnily enough. Australia’s boarder control people didn't like that and - when it was finally discovered what had actually happened - banned them from ever entering the country again and sent a letter to WB saying words to that effect.

2. Most of the toons were disappointed about this, but one that wasn't was Sylvester because what does Australia have? Kangaroo's! They visited a park hoping to see said Kangaroo’s and they did. But Sylvester upon seeing them immediately yelled “Look Junior! Giant Mice!” And proceeded to try and chase them while Junior helpfully donned a bag over his head and said “Oh Father, why must you embarrass me so?” Meanwhile Bugs and Daffy chased after Sly while behind them the WB escort shrieked. “CATCH THAT CAT!” at them. Eventually Speedy ran around Sylvester creating a dust cloud that confused the cat long enough for Daffy to slam him to the ground while yelling. “I GOT HIM!” at the top of his lungs. You should have seen the looks they were getting of passers by. It's a story that is told even now and post 21st century everyone has said the exact same thing: “You’re lucky social media wasn't a thing back then.

2. Not that all travel is bad for the toons. They’re allowed into a lot of countries and most of the characters that are designed to have come from different countries have been there at least once. So Pepe [and Penelope] have been to France. Speedy to Mexico and Wile.E and the Goofy Gophers have all been to England.

3. Although after their first experience flying Speedy decided he didn't really want to risk going on a plane again and decided it would be much simpler for him to run across the sea to the Mexico. So he did. And he had a nice time at least until he got back and a horrified Porky pointed out “B-but you were t-there I-il-ill - you were trespassing!” So now Speedy gets a Visa, buys a ticket to Mexico, and then runs across the sea.

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pluto-art · 5 years

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- PINKY AND THE BRAIN - EXPERIMENTS -

Below the cut is a personal project on the much more morbid side. Animal lab experimentation is always something I’ve found equal parts horrible and fascinating. Once in a blue moon, I’ll do research on the subject out of curiosity and/or for storytelling purposes. Even as a kid, I found this of interest, and when watching Pinky and the Brain I was always a bit disappointed that we never saw more of what the characters actually went through in the lab during the day. Granted, there’s a reason as to why this was never shown, as a child audience had to be kept in mind, yet still I pondered about it....

Over the last few days, I’ve been churning out compositions based on internet findings -- old and new experiments that rats and mice are put through, many of them humane, some of them very much not. It was an eye-opening journey for me artistically and otherwise, discovering what I’m comfortable drawing and what I never want to sketch again, as well as learning more about this realm of the scientific world.

WARNING: SOME GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW THE CUT. If needles, patients dealing with the effects of cancer, and general portrayals of pain bother you, I wouldn’t bother venturing onward. I not only drew out experiments that the characters might have gone through, but also describe all of my findings in detail and provide video footage to go along with it. While I didn’t go full-on vivisection or anything, some of this might still be disturbing, so I’m taking extra precaution.

All of the images below are “color-coded” and graded. The experiments start out fairly tame, then get worse... and worse... and worse. The backgrounds reflect this, going from fairly light to quite dark.

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Experiment #1 - Tail Flick Test

A fairly harmless experiment. The subject is mostly restrained, leaving only their tail exposed. An intense light beam is projected onto the exposed appendage, with the animal flicking their tail when the pain/heat becomes too much. This test is utilized in basic pain research and to measure analgesic effectiveness.

I wanted Brain to wear an expression of deep apathy -- he’s done this a million times and will probably do it a million times more. At this point, he doesn’t even care anymore.

For the background, I simply copied an environment in one of the videos I found.

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzrA1tDTfkQ

Experiment #2 - Rotarod Performance Test

Another experiment that’s generally harmless. One or multiple subjects are placed on elevated rotating rods so as to measure such things as endurance, balance, grip strength, and more.

I imagine Pinky would enjoy this test, as he’s familiar with running on a wheel and actually enjoys more strenuous activities. Brain, on the other hand, would only participate via sheer force. He’d also be more prone to fall after a shorter period of time, getting tired faster than his cage mate.

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v56MtrmWAs0

Experiment #3 - Shot (General)

Nothing special. Just Brain about to get shot.

This is all highly exaggerated, of course. A mouse would simply be held firmly, not strapped down, for a simple injection. Also, I can’t imagine why they’d be shot in the face, although Meg told me that scientists tend to draw blood samples from a mouse’s cheek. Need to look that up. I wasn’t at all going for accuracy here, but rather how it might feel -- how scary it would be.

Experiment #4 - Sciatic Nerve Constriction

An experiment in chronic neuropathic pain, due to the central or peripheral nervous system sustaining damage. Under anesthesia, the animal’s sciatic nerve is exposed via skin incision. The connective tissue between the biceps femoris muscles and the gluteus superficialis is cut. The nerve is then loosely tied with four chrome gut ligatures so to occlude, but not arrest, blood flow. The wound is sutured, the animal is given 24 hours to recover, and then both hindpaws are tested for pain sensitivity. Sounds terrible, but it’s certainly not the worst of the experiments I researched.

I have no idea what’s going on with the coloring in this. Again, going for feel more than accuracy, but the hues are way too calm.

Information link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22433911

Experiment #5 - Writhing Test

Particularly cruel test in which acetic acid is introduced into the system, inducing severe internal pain. The typical response includes writhing, abdominal retraction, and stretching of the hind limbs. Despite the test being withdrawn in 2004 for unethical reasons, it is still employed by some.

This was my favorite one to draw. Although the lighting and shading are not the greatest, it made for an interesting experiment. I did not intend for the lines to be so bold, but it kind of turned into an almost comic-style illustration. I ended up playing around with it a bit and like the result enough to post it.

I would not watch the video below if you are squeamish. It is difficult to swallow. On another note, you may find the “Empathetic Behavior: Emotional Contagion in Mice” section in the second link of interest. For cage mates in particular, if one or both mice were injected with the same acid, and allowed to observe one another, an injected mouse would writhe more if its partner was also in pain. I can’t help but imagine Brain and Pinky in this type of situation....

Information link #1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543562/

Information link #2: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/writhing-test

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib63O4F856w

Experiment #6 - Transgenic K5ras Mouse / Nude Mouse (Combination)

Experiment in which cancer is induced in the system. Nude mice are bred for a number of tests, and are used for this one, as well.

My least favorite to draw, but my favorite to color. One particular experiment I found showed a tumor in every follicle on a mouse’s muzzle. Was trying to go for this look, albeit exacerbated.

Information link #1: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(98)70203-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982298702039%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Information link #2: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/weirdest-lab-mice/

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Bonus:

This is based on a test that I found absolutely hilarious. There’s a certain chemical, called W-18, that’s been on the drug market for... some years. The potency of it is supposedly insanely high, although this has never been proven. It’s basically a research chemical (created at a university in the 80s) with analgesic properties that were shown to be “painkillers or blockers of the painkilling effect of morphine in mice”. Mice, not humans. To quote a specific article:

“... when they first injected some of these chemicals into the animals at a dose similar to aspirin, the mice stood up for about a minute and fell over unconscious. They remained unconscious – for five days. But they weren’t dead. They were still breathing. And when they woke, they seemed fine, other than being really hungry and thirsty.”

They literally keeled over from the supposed potency of it. From what I recall, they don’t even know exactly what it was doing to their system, other than the fact that it knocked them out. I just find it funny that they were completely fine after awakening days later.

Although the pure smell of it wouldn’t cause such a reaction, I liked the idea of it in picture form and so depicted Brain simply taking a whiff before passing out.

Information link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2016/04/30/w-18-the-high-potency-research-chemical-making-news-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt/#2c45a5dd4757

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Experiments researched, but not implemented:

- Tail dipped in ice cold water (mentioned here: cold water) - Morris water maze - Porton Down nerve agent test(s) (the worst; not even sure how I’d depict this)

The Porton Down tests sounded so indescribably cruel that I simply couldn’t bear to put Brain or Pinky through either of those, much less draw them out. It was the most horrific of the experiments I found, second only to a story about a French physiologist in the 1700s/1800s who performed, I believe, vivisection on live, six-week-old puppies. There’s a limit and that’s my limit. Even the cancer-based composition above was difficult to create. I legit felt dirty drawing it.

Researching these subjects was incredibly interesting, and I came across a few articles that touched on animal experimentation and the question of whether or not it’s ethical. Should such practices continue? It’s more complicated than a simple “yes” or no” answer. Some tests are fairly harmless, whilst others border on the inhumane, and some are downright cruel. Some people say that, without testing, there would be a lot less medicine on the shelves to assist in relieving and curing our ailments, whilst others argue that 90+% of the time the testing done is unnecessary, the results yielded by the subjects dissimilar to those that would be shown by humans and, henceforth, stating that the inaccuracies are numerous. This particular article offered up what I thought was a pretty genuine and interesting debate on the matter:

Pain in Lab Animals: How Much is Too Much?

In an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, a neuroscientist, he mentions that:

“You have complete control over everything in mice. Within limits, you can do whatever you want as long as you minimize pain and suffering of the subjects.“

Full interview: https://www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/latest_podcast/sex-differences-in-pain-and-pain-inhibition-with-dr-jeffrey-mogil/

While many establishments do follow the Animal Welfare Act, other laboratories still implement unethical practices. Also, the rules for what constitutes as acceptable in regards to tests that can only be performed without painkillers or anesthesia administered is... nebulous.

Thankfully, there is a number of lab testing equipment on the market specifically designed to be more humane and less stress-inducing to its subjects. These restrainers, for example, allow the animal to “walk in” without having to be physically forced backwards into a container:

Restrainers

Here is another example of testing that is relatively pain-free:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4401362/

It’s simple and inexpensive while still allowing scientists to perform tests.

Below is a video showing how a type of rotarod works, one that doesn’t place the rods too high and provides a cushion underneath in case the subjects fall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T38fDS2i13k

This tail flick analgesia meter comes installed with a cut off timer to avoid damage to the animal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgaStZt143o

So there are options. How often are such options utilized in the field? I have no idea, although there are laws that should be followed and, from the sound of it, generally are adhered to. Not everyone in this business is cruel. Though you do have your occasional psychopath who performs very morally questionable operations behind closed doors, I believe that this is a great exception to the rule, and that there are a lot of laboratory workers who genuinely want to inflict as little pain as possible upon the animal. Just an opinion. I don’t have tons of evidence, but it seems like most people are sane. Lol.

Most of the experiments I inflicted upon Brain because, I think, Pinky is so pure that I have a hard time imagining him sustaining any kind of extreme pain that would genuinely hurt him. Also, he borders on being freakin’ masochistic, finding pleasure in a lot of painful situations, whereas Brain does not. Brain has been through a lot, mentally and physically. It seemed more... “appropriate” to put him in these situations, as terrible as that sounds.

All of that having been said, I never want to do this kind of exercise again. While a lot of it was interesting, and some of it even fun, parts of it were legitimately painful. The cancer one.... I felt horrible....

#pinky and the brain #tw:pain #tw:experimentation #tw:needle #tw:needles #tw:cancer #fan art

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pergimelaut · 4 years

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Books I read in 2020.

I was once platonically attracted to a friend. Not only did he tell me the name of the person he liked (not me, of course), but also the reasons why. I could’ve mentioned two or three, but one reason sank me in was, “Because she likes to learn.” He didn’t say that to offend me since that night was one of those meetings in which he is the spotlight of our conversations, yet I couldn’t help but feel offended. I thought, “That certainly can’t be me. I don’t like to learn.” I never did, actually.

It was a wake up call that, all this time, I had been stuck in the peak of Mountain Stupid, one of the stages of Dunning-Kruger effect—a phase where you were filled with nothing but arrogance and overconfidence, before the realization “you didn’t know anything at all” hit you like a bucket of cold water.

Well I didn’t change myself after that, though. But in my defense, I decided to read 70-something books in the third year of my student press organization’s membership (which I later failed) long before I had had the conversation with him. I had had my own reason at first, but whatever it was, it was slowly but surely shifted with an ultimate goal created due to that very night, “I want to like to learn.”

Long story short, I was able to read 33 books in 2020.

It’s nowhere near an achievement to be proud of, so I cancelled my plan to write about it and upload it on a platform where I could gain a higher chance he would read it. I know, I know, I shouldn’t seek validation from another person besides myself—after all 33 books were quite impressive for someone like me who don’t really like books, so I shouldn’t be embarrassed about it nor should I be disappointed with the fact that the plan must be cancelled as I was miserably failing, but, welp, so. Okay. In this post, I would like to tell you the books I read in 2020, sort by chronological order.

Yeah, I uploaded it on my personal blog instead, what a dramatic turn of events.

Manifesto Flora was the first book I read, finished it on 2 January 2020. I believe I started to read it on the last couple days of 2019, so it was kinda cheating. It’s a compilation of short stories. All of them were amazing but there was a short story that I really enjoyed titled “Bekas Teman Baikku”. The author had written a short story for a yearly student magazine organized by a student press organization I later joined.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez was an amazing novel it earned 5 stars on my Goodreads account. My teacher had been telling us about it as he taught magical realism in Creative Writing class. I finished it in three days—I remember those days where I didn’t do anything besides reading; I woke up in the morning and started to read. That was the only thing I did all day. It almost felt like reading was my hobby. (Spoiler alert: It’s not.)

Hidup di Luar Tempurung was the third book I read. I wasn’t in the best mood to read at that time, but I pushed myself, ended up finishing it but also regretting it since I knew that this book deserved to be treated well. After that I read Bagaimana Tuhan Menciptakan Cahaya by Raka Ibrahim and O: Tentang Seekor Monyet yang Ingin Menikah dengan Kaisar Dangdut by Eka Kurniawan, ended up disliking both by simply because I didn’t enjoy them, I gave them 2 stars.

Then, well. Global pandemic left me shell-shocked as everyone else, really.

One month nearly passed but thankfully I managed to finish the first e-book titled Filosofi Teras by the end of March. I liked the book at first, even for a short period of time I felt like I could rely on the book as I was trying to cope with anxiety, but turned out it’s a false hope since I simply couldn’t become that rational LOL. But topics about stoicism still got my attention though—perhaps it’d remain as something I could admire. Pulang by Leila S. Chudori was a really good book, another one with 5 stars. Later I learned that having 1965-ish as a setting for novels is mainstream, but since I hadn’t known that, it left me in awe.

Then I got tired.

I wasn’t in the mood to read any books, so I turned into Japanese books—my admittedly guilty pleasure. I read Naruto Secret Chronicles: Shikamaru’s Story: A Cloud Drifting in Silent Darkness, a light novel from Naruto based on Shikamaru’s perspective. Although I wouldn’t mention it as one of the books I read in 2020, it was surprisingly a good book. It taught me about Naruto’s universe beyond what I knew, such as politics and government involved. It helped set the mood, so I continued with Ichigo Doumei, another Japanese novel. It was a book mentioned in Your Lie in April, one of my anime recommendations. It’s a good, simple wholesome story that taught us to treasure the life we had. I disliked the female lead character, though—I still do.

I read Kubah by Ahmad Tohari, a novel my teacher once mentioned, which I dislike, and much hate later on, since it gave people wrong assumptions about PKI and what’s surrounding the 1965 tragedy. After that I fell into Kagerou Daze fandom where I spent a lot amount of time consuming the songs, manga, anime, and also light novels—making me successfully adding Kagerou Daze Vol. 3: The Children Reason, Kagerou Daze Vol. 4: The Missing Children, and Kagerou Daze Vol. 5: The Deceiving to my Goodreads’ bookshelf. The latter was my favourite among them. As I hyped with Japanese authors, I thought it was best to finish Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a Japanese novel I found from a post about, well, Japanese novel recommendations. It’s a fun experience; an enjoyable story with a heart-warming ending.

Four Japanese novels in a row brought me to cursed loop as I realized I had not “learned” enough. Whereas I did learn something with each Japanese novel I read, it wasn’t “learning” that I’d planned in the first place.

August was a month where I thought, “Eh, maybe I like books,” because I read 8 books in one month. I read Setan van Oyot by Djokolelono, a book published by Marjin Kiri. The novel was well-constructed from the start to the middle part, but unfortunately NOT until the end. Another note: it didn’t bother giving us the translation of both the local and foreign languages used in the story, which is good! I also had the energy to consume Of Mice and Men, a classic book mentioned in Pulang.

I had spent days in library and bookstore when I finished Hidup Begitu Indah dan Hanya Itu yang Kita Punya—it made me aspire to achieve the ability to write articles like Dea Anugerah, the author. I also read Ketakberhinggaan di Telapak Tangannya by Gioconda Belli which easily became one of my favourite books of the year.

I read The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, another book with a writing style I would aspire to achieve. It’s a good social-realism novel covering racism towards black people, the life of a curious little girl, a perspective from a blind-deaf man, and the socialist guy—everything was set around the 1930s, written by a brilliant 23-year-old woman. It has some translation issues, unfortunately. Then I continued with Kekerasan Budaya Pasca 1965: Bagaimana Orde Baru Melegitimasi Anti-Komunisme Melalui Sastra dan Film. I’ve been wanting to be able to convey my thoughts in a well-constructed thesis like what the book did.

Tango & Sadimin by Ramayda Akmal was the next, and it was enjoyable even though not satisfying—at least it helped me discover my tendency towards social-realism novels. Then I read Xenoglosofilia: Kenapa Harus Nginggris? by Ivan Lanin—it didn’t help me that much despite its educational contents, but perhaps I just didn’t find what I was looking for.

September was a shameful month as I didn’t read any books AT ALL. I planned to read at least one book per month, that’s why I set 12 books in my Goodreads. My goal wasn’t to read books, but to like them, so what I set up was simply the habit. Looking back at what I did—finishing One Hundred Years of Solitude—I could read book all day if I want to. But I want to become someone who, even if for a few pages, read books every day. And I considered myself failing when September passed without any finished books added to the list.

November came and I read El hablador by Mario Vargas Llosa, a book I had been desperately looking for that my friend finally lent to me. I gave them 5 stars because it greatly helped me in understanding indigenous people and how important it is to support their rights.

Then I desperately turned back to another Japanese novel, this time The Kudravka Sequence by Honobu Yonezawa. It successfully made me fall in love with one specific character because I feel represented, then I looked up Wikia and the synopsis of the next novels, and ended up disappointed LOL. I got tired again and read Sebuah Pertanyaan untuk Cinta by Seno Gumira Ajidarma, a book which I couldn’t believe had written by the Seno Gumira Ajidarma LOL(2). Then in order to set up the mood, I bought my friend’s self-published short stories, Dongeng Sebelum Tidur: Kumpulan Cerita Pendek. It was the first time I added a book to Goodreads. I told her that I uploaded a review and gave her 5 stars. She was really happy and I too was happy because of it.

December approached as well as final exams. So many papers with short deadlines, and despite that, I read books instead on working with my papers—procrastinator as its finest, you see. I read two Agatha Christie’s books, The ABC Murders and Five Little Pigs, two novels I had really wanted to read in years. After exams passed, I somehow gained my energy back. I read Kisah Seekor Camar dan Kucing yang Mengajarinya Terbang by Luis Sepulveda, an enjoyable novella reminding us to take care of animals and protecting the environment from pollution. I wrapped up 2020 with two classic books, No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

Yup, that’s it!

Now that I’ve just tracked back all the books I read, I realize that my reading experience has its ups and downs. I ain’t good at keeping my mood stable to do the same activities for a long period of time, and I earned the energy back by—apparently—switching into Japanese novels or light-themed books.

Long story cut short, I failed to read 70-something books. But I also recovered from the heartbreak I guess (LOL), and that’s good news! (Although maybe I forced myself to move on, since the goal was the indicator whether I’m worth it or not, and I failed.) (I shouldn’t have done that to myself, but I had no chance at all in the first place, though. That’s why if I could move on by setting an impossible goal, failed in the process, and helplessly gave up, so be it!)

Thank you for reading.

(And thanks to Anggy who beta read the post! <3)

#english #tentang saya

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tomeandflickcorner · 4 years

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Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: Cry Uncle

Alright, we get another relative this episode. Fun times.

We begin on what appears to be a quiet winter day in the city. At least, I’m guessing it’s winter as we briefly see a mother exiting a store with a child dressed in one of those bulky winter coats that I remember wearing myself as a kid. Out of nowhere, the quiet of the day is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a bunch of random ghosts. So of course, the Ghostbusters quickly appear to deal with the issue. (With Egon emerging from beneath a manhole cover. Why he chose to be in the sewer to begin with is anyone’s guess.) Once the ghosts are captured, Ray takes a moment to celebrate the fact that they’ve managed to catch a good number of ghosts that day. However, they quickly notice Egon seems to be otherwise occupied, as he’s making some calculations on a handheld calculator. It’s soon revealed that he’s determining the estimated time of arrival of his uncle, Cyrus, who is apparently flying into the city to pay Egon a visit. And Egon determines Uncle Cyrus’ plane should be landing at the airport in about 20 minutes and 57 seconds. Ray assures Egon that they’ll make it to the airport to pick Uncle Cyrus up in plenty of time. But first, they still have a few more ghosts to catch. Something Ray is clearly jumping into with great excitement. (Again, someone please put Ray in Ghostbustholic Anonymous.)

An undetermined amount of time later, we see Janine is at the Firehouse, eating a burger while reading a book. And I’m pretty sure we get a bit of product placement as well, as the soda cup sitting in front of her looks very much like those old cinema-style Coke cups. Unfortunately for Janine, her lunch is interrupted when Slimer dive-bombs her, snatching up her burger. She proceeds to yell at him, prompting Slimer to float away chastised, taking refuge inside the nearby water dispenser. At that precise moment, a bespectacled man walks into the Firehouse. It becomes clear very quickly that this is Uncle Cyrus, and he doesn’t seem to think much of the state of the Firehouse, particularly when he questions Janine if his nephew really does work in ‘this garage.’ Janine confirms that Egon does indeed work there, but points out that it’s not a garage but a ghostbusting and containment facility. Uncle Cyrus, however, clearly doesn’t believe in ghosts, and tells Janine not to insult his intelligence. He then proceeds to walk over to the water dispenser in order to clean his glasses, but Janine quickly movies in front of him while offering to clean his glasses for him. She’s clearly doing this so Uncle Cyrus won’t see Slimer, who is still inside the transparent water jug, but I’m not exactly sure why Janine is trying to prevent Uncle Cyrus from seeing him. Because wouldn’t seeing Slimer be the proof Uncle Cyrus needs that ghosts do exist?

In any event, that’s when the Ghostbusters return to the Firehouse after a long but successful series of busts. Upon seeing Uncle Cyrus, Egon is instantly apologetic, having realized that he’d completely forgotten about picking him up at the airport on account of how busy they were on their most recent job. Ray proceeds to show Uncle Cyrus the handful of loaded Ghost Traps they brought home, in what I imagine was meant to help show off to Uncle Cyrus the great work Egon’s been doing. But Uncle Cyrus once again dismisses this, as he doesn’t buy any of this ‘ghostbusting nonsense.’ He then announces that Egon is far too brilliant a scientist to be working in a place like this, and that he should be working in a clean, neat and scientific environment, not running around in costumes after something that doesn’t even exist. (And doesn’t Egon get a say in this, Uncle Cyrus?) At that moment, the phone starts to ring, and Janine informs the Ghostbusters that they’re needed in the garment district. Winston suggests Uncle Cyrus come with them, stating that he didn’t believe in ghosts before joining the team. And perhaps if Uncle Cyrus sees them in action, then perhaps he’ll start believing in ghosts, too. (Again, why not just let him see Slimer?)

So off they go to the garment district. Unfortunately, when they arrive on the scene, they just find a bunch of women viciously fighting over clothing that’s on sale for 50% off. So it appears as if this was a false alarm/prank call. And Uncle Cyrus is clearly not impressed. But it’s quickly revealed this was just a fake-out when Egon’s PKE Meter activates, indicating there is a ghost present after all. The Ghostbusters immediately jump into action. But as luck would have it, Uncle Cyrus’ glasses get knocked off his face, with Ray accidently stepping on them. So, because Uncle Cyrus is virtually blind without his glasses, he is unable to actually witness Egon and the others facing off against the prankish ghosts.

That evening, Uncle Cyrus approaches Egon to speak with him in private. He reminds Egon of a promise he’d once made, in which Egon had vowed that he’d help Uncle Cyrus if he ever needed it. Uncle Cyrus proceeds to tell Egon that he wants him to come help him now, by assisting him in his new research lab, which is located in the mid-western US. Possibly somewhere in South Dakota, since Egon will later state the lab is over 1500 miles away from New York. Egon tries to tell Uncle Cyrus that he can’t come work with him now, but Uncle Cyrus cuts him off, stating that Egon has never broken his promises before, and it would disappoint him if he broke his promise now. Effectively guilt-tripped, Egon ends up agreeing to start working in Uncle Cyrus’ lab. Though he appears to leave the city without actually saying goodbye to the others. Sure, he does have the decency to at least leave a note for them, which a deeply-upset Janine discovers the following morning. But still, he couldn’t be bothered to tell his friends that he was leaving face-to-face? Not your finest moment, Egon.

Regardless, Ray, Peter and Winston try their best to continue on without Egon. Though it’s clear that things aren’t the same without him. And nobody is taking it harder than poor Janine, who is simply miserable with Egon gone. (Though props to her for still doing her best in continuing doing her job as the Ghostbusters’ secretary.) When the remaining three Ghostbusters head off to Central Park to try to deal with a poltergeist, things don’t really go well for them, and they’re forced to retreat without capturing the poltergeist. Because without Egon, they’re missing a vital component to their team dynamic. In a lot of ways, Egon really was the brains of the group, and without him, they can’t function as well. They realize that they need Egon back, but at the same time, they know that Egon will never break his promise to Uncle Cyrus. However, it seems that Peter might have a plan.

Peter’s plan leads to them all traveling to Uncle Cyrus’ lab, where they find Egon in the middle of feeding laboratory rats and mice. It’s abundantly clear that Egon is not very happy with this new arrangement. And who could blame him, really? Despite what Uncle Cyrus might claim about how there are no small jobs in research, running rats through mazes is undoubtedly a serious downgrade from catching and occasionally studying actual ghosts. When Peter, Ray, Winston and Janine arrive at the lab, they all tell Egon that they desperately need him to come back. But Egon reminds them that he made a promise, and that he can’t go back on his word to Uncle Cyrus. Peter assures him that he’s got it all figured out. He figures that if Uncle Cyrus actually got the chance to see what Egon had been doing back in New York, then he would release him from his promise. (Yeah, like that worked so well before.) Egon voices his doubt that Uncle Cyrus would agree to go back out there with the Ghostbusters again, but Peter isn’t swayed, stating that they’ll just tell him that they need Egon’s help to solve their final case. However, while they all do return to New York, Uncle Cyrus clearly hasn’t forgotten the last time he’d accompanied the Ghostbusters on a mission and adamantly refuses to do so again. So Peter’s plan doesn’t appear to be working after all.

In spite of that, Egon still is able to head back out to Central Park to help capture the poltergeist that’s still at large. With his help, the Ghostbusters are able to successfully capture the poltergeist by utilizing special polarized lenses that Egon put together. These lenses enable them to actually see the poltergeists, which are otherwise invisible, so they have very little trouble this time around. However, even though it was a successful bust, Egon knows that nothing has changed, and he still has to go back to Uncle Cyrus’ lab.

Back at the Firehouse, though, Uncle Cyrus has apparently followed Janine down to the basement, where the Containment Unit is. He questions Janine on what the Containment Unit is, but he dismisses her explanation as he still doesn’t believe in ghosts. And, for some reason, he decides to randomly push the buttons attached to the front of the Containment Unit. Which was an incredibly stupid move. Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, why would you push a series of buttons on such a large piece of machinery? Especially when you don’t know what the machine even does? And this guy is supposed to be a scientist!? I guess it just goes to show you. Being intelligent does not automatically make you wise. Anyway, because of Uncle Cyrus’ stupid meddling, alarms start blaring, which is clearly meant to indicate the protection grid got switched off. (Hey, wasn’t there supposed to be a failsafe on the Containment Unit? Back in Mrs. Roger’s Neighborhood, it was stated that the Containment Unit’s protection grid was secured by an electronic voice recognition lock and a handprint scanner. Did the production team for this episode forget that detail?) In any event, with the protection grid deactivated, it allows a ghost to escape. Namely Mr. Stay Puft.

Hang on. Wasn’t Mr. Stay Puft supposed to be a simple manifestation of Gozer? Not only that, but the Ghostbusters never actually caught that particular ghost. It just sorta exploded into a wave of melted marshmallow goo. That’s what they established in the movie, at least. I guess it’s possible things played out a bit differently in the animated universe, but the fact that we clearly saw the Ghostbusters drenched with marshmallow goo in the Citizen Ghost flashback suggests it didn’t. Continuity error?

Anyway, Janine manages to signal the Ghostbusters from a special button attached to the wall, which alerts them to the trouble from the Ecto-1. So they book it back to the Firehouse, just in time to see Mr. Stay Puft begin stomping down the street. They quickly take note that Mr. Stay Puft seems to be even bigger than the last time they faced him, and that he’s now too big for any Ghost Trap they have on hand. Though Winston has an idea. This idea involves setting up an improvised trip-wire to force Mr. Stay Puft to fall over and opening up a series of Ghost Traps simultaneously, so each Ghost Trap can catch a portion of Mr. Stay Puft. (Guess it’s a good thing that Mr. Stay Puft is made of marshmallow, or this would potentially become a bit too gruesome for a kids show.) The plan ultimately works, and Mr. Stay Puft is able to be returned to the Containment Unit.

With the crisis averted, Egon is prepared to return to Uncle Cyrus’ lab. But now that Uncle Cyrus has seen first-hand proof that ghosts are real, he now understands that Egon really is doing something worthwhile with the Ghostbusters. As such, he announces that he is releasing Egon from his promise, giving him his blessing to remain in New York. And then he fills a glass from the water dispenser to make a toast, only to get spooked when Slimer inexplicitly emerges from his drinking glass, even though we didn’t see him hiding in the water jug this time. (No, seriously, I’m asking. Why did they not want Uncle Cyrus to see Slimer from the get-go? They could have proved the existence of ghosts to him right then and there!)

Pretty good episode for an Egon centric, as it gave us good insights to his overall character. Sure, he can be a bit thoughtless at times (considering he did up and leave without actually telling his friends), but the episode does show that he’s a man of his word. Plus, it does give us a small hint on what his family life was like. He clearly had a close bond with Uncle Cyrus, considering he made such a promise to him in the first place. Though it’s never actually stated how old Egon had been when he made that promise. Did he make this promise during his college years, or was it a promise he’d made in his youth? I suppose it’s not that important, but knowing that detail could potentially paint the situation in a different light. In addition, the fact that Uncle Cyrus is also a brilliant scientist gives us our first hint at something future episodes will build on- that Egon comes from a family full of scientific-minded people. Pursuing a career as a scientist is something of a tradition in Egon’s family. That fact alone is an interesting development, but future episodes do start to suggest that this might not be a good thing. Of course, that’s a matter for another time.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

#the real ghostbusters #rgb episode review #ghostbusters franchise

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mizmahlia · 5 years

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you still doing the au's? if so, office prank war au with young justice

I admit, this one was random, but I had a good time with it! Thanks!!

Just picture the team working in a place like Dunder Mifflin or Initech (the movie Office Space).

1. Bart would absolutely put an air horn under Tim’s chair. But when Tim comes into his cubicle the next morning and sits down, he’s so focused on a project he needs to finish, he doesn’t even flinch. But in a neighboring cubicle, Brion startles and spills coffee all over his computer. Bart laughed.

Tim, who works in IT, was not happy.

2. Bart brings in a box of Brion’s favorite donuts as a peace offering, leaving it in the break room with a note. But Jaime gets to it first and is incredibly disappointed to find the box full of sliced vegetables and dip, with a note from Bart bragging that he ate them all.

3. Jaime wanted in on the fun and teamed up with Bart. They covered Tim’s workstation in brightly-colored sticky notes, re-arranged everything on Artemis’s desk so it’s the exact opposite of what it normally was, Jaime wedged pennies between Conner’s office door and its frame so the door was stuck shut, and Bart taped a photo of a surprised Nicholas Cage underneath every toilet seat.

4. As a result, Tim took one look at his desk and took an impromptu personal day. And when the network went down, it took four and a half hours to fix it. Conner ripped his door off the hinges when he pulled just a little too hard, and several doors to the stalls in the bathrooms were broken when staff ran into them in their hurry to get away from the horrifying photos of Nicholas Cage.

5. Management had a meeting and came down hard on everyone, though it was later discovered the meeting was just a cover. Bruce had Barry pay back Bart, Jaime and Brion by filling their cubicles with packing peanuts, swapping the keys on their keyboards, covering the sensors on computer mice, and replacing their desktop wallpapers with Pennywise the Clown.

5 Facts AU Game

#This is a shitpost if I ever made one and I'm proud of it!#5 Facts AU Game #Young Justice Outsiders #Bart Allen #Jaime Reyes #Tim Drake #Artemis Crock #Office prank war AU

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lord-explosion-baku · 6 years

Text

Pairing: Villain!Iida x hero!reader

Warnings: violence, blood, non con

A/n: I got carried away. The reader gets carried away as well. You know how like you just write a little too much sometimes? I did that. Huzzah.

The world knew that Mr. Tenya Iida was a villain. He was corrupt, he was trouble, but he was also impeccably smart. He never left a trail when he did his crimes and even if he had, that trail always lead to someone else. He was also a man of business. He also had money. That always seemed to help him cover up any tricky detail that might help the law show him face. The man was untouchable.

It was August 22nd and that meant there was going to be a giant celebration at his estate. That was a giant opportunity for the hero agency you worked with to send in two individuals to acquire documents/intel/any sort of dirt you could get on the engine villain. Since you were better at hiding from the media, the agency had selected you and your partner, Itona, to attend this party undercover. You had been given an invite; a woman who used to be connected with Iida had sent her own invite to the agency in hopes of helping. Itona was to go disguised as the help.

You made your way up the stone path that lead to the entrance of his mansion, dreading the heels you were wearing. You had to be formal to blend in. You had gotten nervous checking yourself in the mirror. Surely, anywhere else what you were wearing would get the attention of others but apparently at one of Tenya Iida’s celebrations everyone was always looking their best. Itona was already inside probably growling at guests and reluctantly feeding people hors d’oeuvres. You would do anything to switch places with him. Your colleagues had joked around when they say you all dressed up. “Itona is the retriever of this operation and L/N is the legs,” one coworker said, earning a swat to the back of the head from you. Just because you were wearing a dress didn’t mean you couldn’t kick ass if it came down to it.

A large bulky man checked your invitation before allowing you inside. He barely looked at you when he handed it back, making you confident that you could move throughout the party going unnoticed. Once inside, you were offered a glass of champagne from a platter which you gladly took. Something to calm the nerves. You hardly got two steps and a different platter filled with quiche was thrown in your face.

“Here’s some food for thought,” Itona growled, “maybe we don’t drink on the job?”

You eyeballed the quiche. “Would it be so bad if I’m threatened to have a good time?” you asked picking up a quiche bite and plopping it in your mouth. “Besides,” you chewed, “it would be suspicious if I didn’t.” Itona huffed and moved the platter away from you before you could grab another one. You bit out, “good quiche but the service sucks.”

You weaved yourself through a strum of people, telling yourself you were looking out for anything that could point you to something that could you on your mission, telling yourself that you weren’t a little overstimulated by being by so many new faces, telling yourself you wouldn’t rather be staring at the beautiful artwork on the walls. Wait- was that Renoir?

You hurried to the wall. Away from the crowd and carefully inspected a painting in the wall. It was the ‘Lakeside Landscape,’ not one of Renoir’s best work, still you were mesmerized by the fact you were seeing it up close. It was definitely the original work. It was known to be in The National Gallery in London but somehow it made its way into Tenya Iida’s wall. That could be something for you to report back on. You opened your purse to pull out your phone when a voice interrupted your excitement.

“The act of capturing a feeling, rather than portraying accuracy... it’s fairly amusing,” you didn’t turn your head to the voice. You already knew who it was. “Is there a facade to the beauty of the painting? Or is the act of Renoir portraying displaying his emotions more honest than what he actually saw? I can’t help but obsess.”

You took a deep breath. Stay cool, you told yourself. “I don’t think Renoir was trying to trick the viewer. To all we know, this was supposed to be for himself. His paintings were his journals and this was how he was feeling on that day. Though it may be easy to trick oneself, artistic mediums speak louder than words sometimes.”

“Interesting,” he mused. You turned towards the voice. He was... built. Even through his white dress shirt you could tell that he was very muscular, his blue vest fit tightly onto his torso. A suit jacket hung over his brawny shoulder while a black gloves hand was rubbing his chin, deep in thought. Photos didn’t do the man justice, he was handsome. He smiled at your gawking expression. “I’m glad I’m not the only impressionist fan in the building.”

“Surrealism is my favorite genre but Impressionism has a special place is my heart.”

“Well,” he said wrapping an arm around your waste, a large hand fitting right above the curve of your side, “Do I have something to show you.”

For hours you conversed with Tenya Iida about European artwork. How it made the two of you feel, what your favorites were, where you would go or who you would visit if you had the opportunity to go back in time. You would almost actually be enjoying yourself if you weren’t worried that at any moment your cover would be blown. But it wasn’t you who had been discovered.

“Sir, a moment?” a mean looking man interrupted your deep conversation. Iida politely excused himself to took to the man to the side. You could see feet thrashing about in the shadows. Another man held Itona in a tight lock. “We found this server trying to break into the office. He says he was just trying to find the bathroom but we found this on him.” You couldn’t see what he was showing Iida but you were sure it was a flash drive, maybe some lock-picks. “Should we kill him?” Kill him?!

Iida sighed. “Don’t kill him yet,” he said while shaking hands with a new guest that had arrived. Even under the pressure of something like, that he remained calm, cool, and collected. “Take him to the basement. He couldn’t have come here alone. Someone else here is trying to play hero.”

You sipped your champagne and tried not to watch as the two droogs dragged Itona out of the room. You had to stay poised in this room full of power hungry villainous people. When you could get the chance you would request backup.

There was a hand on your shoulder. “My most humble apologies,” you turned and smiled sweetly to the villain that just had your partner dragged away to most likely have information beaten out of him. You wondered how long Itona would last before outing you. “It’s not everyday, I throw a party but when I do there’s always a rapscallion or two that crashes it.” You gulped knowing full well that you were rapscallion number two. “Now where were we?”

“Uh, pointillism, I think.” You knew that wasn’t correct but you could hardly think. You were on edge and now you knew that Even though he kept a calm physique, Iida would be suspicious of anyone in this room. The person he should be most suspicious of, was sweating right in front of him.

He blinked and suddenly the charming look on his face became dark. A sinister smile crawled across his face. “You know, I have an exquisite Paul Signac in my lounge. Do you mind if I show you?”

You avoided his gaze and brushed a hair out of your face, “I actually think that I need to- um...”

He grabbed your wrist, causing you to drop your champagne glass. “I insist.”

His hold was strong as he nearly dragged you down the hall. He pushed the mahogany doors open revealing a couple chatting on a brown leather couch. “Out,” he commanded and the couple hurried away and out the other door. That was plan A: fleeing.

He pulled you in and you lost your footing, falling to the couch. The room spelled like books. You took note of an ice sculpture in the shape of a swan- you could work with that. Not to your surprise, there actually was a Paul Signac piece.

As his back was turned to you, you used your quirk, checking to see how much water had already melted from the sculpture. Just a few milliliters. That’d have to be plan C.

Glasses clinked and then pouring. “All this talk of beauty and the secrets of artists,” he turned to you swirling a glass of scotch in his hand, “and I had this beautiful facade right in front of me.” He held his glass out to you, “did you want some?” You shook your head, slowly standing. “So, tell me, did you plan on... spending the night with me or did this all happen to be fate?”

You weren’t sure you were actually going to be seeing him. It was a big party. You were there to collect information and that was it. “Fate often puts all the material for happiness and prosperity into a man’s hands just to see how miserable he can make himself with them.”

“On the contrary, Marquis,” he sipped his scotch, “as of right now, I’m far from miserable.” He paced around the ice sculpture and you did the same. “I hate parties.”

“As do I.”

“But business is business. I should have been making deals, growing my empire and whatnot, but then I found you. All alone. Admiring my collection. I wanted to know you, know your mind. Your intellect did not disappoint me, however, the matters of what being you here do. But no, miserable, again, I’m far from it.”

You pushed the swan over to him knocking him back and ran for the door. He was already there. Right, the engine villain. You turned sprinting towards the other door, locked. He pushed you up against the door, his gloved hand on your neck. You grasped at his strong arm, trying to pull him off but it was no use. You snarled at him.

He clicked his tongue. “Testy,” he said, “and here I was thinking you were sweet and shy. But even the most scared little mice don’t like being trapped, do they?”

You relaxed, no longer struggling against his hold. Plan B: seduction. After all, you were the “legs” of the operation. You brought your heel to the back of the door, allowing your dress to ride up your thigh. “So now that you have me all alone, what do you plan on doing with me?” You purred, caressing his arm.

He chuckled, “we’re getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?” Still, his free hand ran up your thigh and behind your leg. The material on his gloves felt good in your ass.

You pulled him into a kiss, tasting the scotch on his breath. He nearly pulled away until you slipped your tongue in and he was lost. While he was distracted you reached for your foot, where you hid a blade between the heel and the sole. Still kissing him, you brought the knife up to his neck and pressed it in against his jugular. His eyes widened at the realization. “Back off,” you told, using your body to push him away. You held the knife up offensively. “Open the door,” you commanded.

“That’s not happening,” he smiled. You swiped through the air, missing him. Swipe! Swipe! He evaded your attacks too easily. Swipe! Slice! Blood spilled from his face. You had managed to cut him down his forehead to his cheek. He knocked the knife out of your hand and pushed you on to the couch. “I’m no longer amused,” he growled, pinning your wrists down. You struggled against his weight but he was too strong.

Something hard pressed against your pelvic bone. Your eyes widened, realizing what it was. He gave you a knowing cocky smile and kissed you roughly down your neck, no doubt, leaving a trail of his own blood.

You breathed wistfully as he devoured you, eyeing the shattered swan. Plan C: Fight with your quirk.

Tendrils of of water came from the floor. Focusing on manipulating it and not what he was doing to your body, you made a rope, thin, since you didn’t have so much of it, still you got it to wrap around the villain’s neck and force him off of you.

You bolted it up as Iida was fighting off your quirk. You ran to the door that bursted open as soon as you got there, knocking you back. You looked up to see your partner held up in the air by the tentacles that came out of his head.

“We gotta go, L/N. NOW!!!”

Itona picked you up with one of his tentacles -gross- and had you both running through the throng of panicking party guests. You were sure Iida could’ve caught up to you guys if he tried.

As you ran down the stone path, you looked back seeing Iida standing in the doorway, waving politely as you disappeared off of his property.

You and Itona got into his car and sped away. “How’d you get away from the basement?”

“Fought ‘em off with my quirk, dude.” He looked at you and saw the blood on your neck, “L/n, you really do need to having too much fun on these missions.”

“I got him?” You said.

“What?”

“He has so many stolen paintings, Itona! I’ve got pictures!” Your hand shuffled around in your clutch. You were dismayed. “Oh no...”

“...what?”

Iida was laying in his lounge chair with ice over his bandaged eye, scrolling through your phone, finding any information he could have on you. “Y/n L/n...” he said to himself. He was looking at a pretty scandalous picture you had taken of yourself. “My pretty pet, you’ve just made a very powerful enemy...”

PART 2

Tags for EVERYTHING: @yandere-inamorata @doriichii i @miitaart @dessiedawnwritesfanfiction @ask-mekakushi-dan-kido @wickedlewicked @chickennuggetsarequestionable @nevermorelanore @kpanime @ayeputita @captain-sin-allmight-queen @diisasterbii @iceformer @meganofmars @colagirl5 @colorbookshd @grimmjadeskye @sm0kingcrack @sarcastictextstuck @zellllyyyy @psionicsnow @mynahx3 @andie-in-tumblland @iamthe-leaf @midnightfeline666 @bungou-stray-alies-tales-of-aly @rubyred-28 @kattariapenn @heypartypeps @quirktaker @thecryingsombra @smbody-stole-mycar-radio

^^^ @thecryingsombra idk why you don’t tag sometimes lol

#bnha x reader #bnha imagine #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha reader insert #mha #my hero academia #reader insert #reader inset #tenya iida x reader #iida x reader #villain!iida #villain!iida x reader #villain iida x reader #mha x reader

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

Text

RWBY Musings #73: Happily Ever After. A Squiggle Meister’s Views on the fates of Cinder Fall and Neopolitan for the Future of RWBY

yellow-eyed-green-crocodile asked “Do you think Cinder would be the equivalent of General Jinjur? Not only does it rhyme, but they are also somewhat similar, in a way. Jinjur used both violence and charm to gain what she wanted, just like Cinder uses both force and temptation. Also, Jinjur had a catchphrase, which was "there's not an ugly face in my entire Army", which would parallel Cinder's disfigured body. One interesting thing to note is that Jinjur's army got defeated by mice and she was too cowardly to face them.

I wonder if this could hint at a possible backstory for Cinder. Maybe she used to live in a village when she was little, and that village got overrun by a plague caused by mice. Since she was one of the very few that didn't contact the disease, she wad tasked with taking care of the patients, but the plague was so bad that they had to resort to killing all of them. Among the pacients, there were also Cinder's parents.

Cinder dreaded the villagers who killed her parents and felt like a weakling for not only not being able to stop them, but also for not being able to enact revenge. Unless maybe this is how she discovered her Semblace. Because of these events, Cinder wanted more power, enough to snuff out that of others. The power never felt enough, so she eventually met Salem, who groomed her into becoming what she is now. And the rest is history. I'm sorry that the ask got so long, but what do you think? ”

Squiggles Answers:

@yellow-eyed-green-crocodile Hey there Yellow. Sorry this answer took so long. I decided to answer your question as a new musing because while thinking up my response, I did my own research on General Jinjur and in doing so you made me come to a very interesting realization that I think you might like.

Cinder and Mombi

I think you are definitely onto something with Cinder possibly inheriting some traits from General Jinjur. I like this concept because it would provide Cinder with a connection to Oscar considering that General Jinjur made her first appearance in the Marvellous Land of Oz sequel story where Princess Ozma was also first featured.

I can definitely see the charm part and I can also see Cinder building herself an army and using it to overthrow or antagonize General Ironwood. Isn’t that what Jinjur did? According to Wikipedia, she was the self-appointed general leading the Army of Revolt---an all-woman force seeking to end the reign of the Scarecrow and take over the Emerald City.

Perhaps…we might get something similar to this for the Atlas Arc. What if…Cinder follows in Salem’s footsteps back in Ancient Remnant where Salem manipulated mankind into forming an army which she then led to take down the Gods but failed.

Oh! Perhaps this will be Cinder’s role in the Crimes of the SDC storyline of the Atlas Arc. Imagine if…Cinder ends up gathering and leading a revolt formed of all the oppressed and abused Faunus under the SDC in an attempt to overthrow the Atlas Council including General Ironwood. Either that or perhaps Jinjur will be an original character inspired by her fairy-tale counterpart from Oz that Cinder ends up manipulating into doing her bidding.

One thing I’ve been curious about is how the CRWBY Writers are going to handle the Crimes of the SDC and the oppression of the Faunus in Atlas without Adam Taurus. If you’d allow me to deviate here for a second, I’d like to voice this point. I’m not one of the Adam fans who were heavily disappointed or should I say, firmly disgusted by this death in V6.

On the contrary, I actually found Adam’s death to be fitting. Adam went out exactly like how I pictured he would---defeated by Yang and Blake working together to take him down while paying homage to the Beauty and the Beast.

In the Beauty and the Beast, the Beast was stabbed in the back by the villainous Gaston before Gaston fell to his death below Beast’s Castle. I thought that was a nice detail that RWBY had Adam more or less go out in a similar fashion considering that he was a fusion of the Beast and Gaston.

My one gripe with Adam’s death is Yang and Blake killing him in cold blood while suffering no further emotional/psychological repercussions from the experience---something that I’ve voiced before. It’s not the fact that the two killed Adam that’s disappointing. It’s the fact that here we have an example of two hero character slaying a villain and it’s treated as nothing beyond a victory for the Bumblebee relationship by both the series and its shipping community. Don’t get me wrong, conquering Adam was a triumph but it was one that came with a price.

I understand that people wish to take the positive away from this moment where Yang and Blake together overcame the man that caused them both so much strife for the past few seasons. That’s fine. However, it’s hard for me to focus on just the positive aspect of what transpired when it’s not as black or white as people believe it to be.

This victory is stained. At the end of the day, Blake and Yang killed another person. Let that sink in. They took another character’s life. Nevermind that it was done in self-defence. A kill is still a kill. Not to take the joy away from the folks who love Bumblebee as a romantic pairing and took this triumph as the signal fire for their beloved ship becoming canon, but this squiggle meister, on the other hand, didn’t see that. I didn’t see two girls professing their love for one another. I saw two friends who claimed to have failed each other in the past rise up and take down the personification of their turmoil but at a price. The price being that now Yang and Blake share Adam’s blood on their hands. They both killed him and…afterwards, the series acted like it didn’t matter. I’d like to believe that Adam was a first time for kill for both Yang and Blake.

That kind of thing could be detrimental to someone especially if it’s their first in a lifetime of being the hero and using your skills to save lives; not end them. But Yang and Blake appeared fine after the fight and what was worse was that their comrades accepted their nonchalance with their own. I understand that they were all mostly relieved to see their friends safe following what went down with Adam but nonetheless, Blake and Yang killing Adam could’ve been something the heroes could’ve discussed with how far they are all willing to go to protect themselves and defeat the forces of evil as huntsmen. No one questioned the morality of what transpired. Didn’t even give it a second thought. It just happened and the story moved on.

Again, not an Adam fan but I still found that bit bothersome in a way because it highlights that the heroes could simply kill off villains and feel nothing. When the villains killed off heroes, we got to see the aftermath of how it affected their psyche. Following Pyrhha’s death, we got to see how it affected the rest of her teammates and the same can be said for Ruby with how she’s still being plagued by flashbacks of the moments she failed to save both Pyrhha and Penny.

But when we have our first villain being slain by a hero, it’s handled with as much expressive feedback as when the heroes take out the Grimm. I know we got Blake completely breaking down after stabbing Adam with Yang comforting her to the best of her ability. I thought this would have jumpstarted something else that Blake now had to overcome giving Yang something to help Blake work through.

When Blake ran away after Adam took down Yang, Sun was there to help her through her turmoil. Imagine if…Blake hadn’t meant to legit kill Adam and only did it as a last resort as a means of protecting Yang. Imagine if…the fight hadn’t ended with Adam being overpowered by Yang but was the complete opposite where Adam blindsides Yang and subdues her after she thought she’d won; similar to how Gaston double crossed the Beast in the animated film. Imagine if…Adam had once again placed Yang in a vulnerable position like before, despite her training forcing Blake no choice but to do what she failed to do before for Yang in V3.

Imagine if…Blake was left completely traumatized by dropping to Adam’s level, using violence to take the life of another---his life in the sheer attempt of desperation to protect the friend she promised she would protect. Imagine if…Adam’s death at Blake’s hand left her just as emotionally scarred as the aftermath of their encounter after V3.

Imagine if…Adam’s death had left Blake with another chapter of guilt and pain that this time Yang would be present to help her work through. And from that interaction, their bond could’ve blossomed, rekindling the closeness they shared from previous seasons, which could’ve ultimately led to Blake genuinely falling in love with Yang from this interaction. It is for this reason why I haven’t bought into the notion of Bumblebee being officially canon.

Even though I’m a BlackSun shipper, I neither hold any animosity towards the Bumblebee pair and its shippers nor would I get butt-hurt if the CRWBY Writers chose to steer Yang and Blake’s relationship in that direction. My issue is not the pairing itself but the execution and handling of it (and at times the attitude of its shippers).

My personal justification for thinking Bumblebee isn’t canon (yet) is because regardless of how many Yang and Blake moments the CRWBY attempted to spoon into V6, I didn’t see it as romantic at all. There actually weren’t that much Bee scenes when you think about it to be honest. At least not in the sense where it felt they were trying to set them up as lovers apart from the glaringly obvious ones like for example, Yang grabbing Blake’s hand and running off with her alone during the terrifying moment with the Apathy back on Brunswick Farm, while leaving Ruby alone to pick up Uncle Qrow with Weiss.

As appetizing as those small moments might’ve been for the Bees, it doesn’t excuse the fact that Yang and Blake have only just reunited with each other after going two full seasons of zero interaction. If anything, I would consider the development of Bumblebee from friends to lovers after V6 incredibly forced if true since personally, I think their relationship could benefit from at least one or two more seasons of focus and growth before making the leap into romantic status.

They could’ve spent V6 re-establishing the comradery between Team RWBY before delving back into the issues that caused the rifts between them before while going hard to build up the Bees’ recovery post Adam. At the moment, in all honesty, I don’t know what to make of Bumblebee. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Writers do wish to make them officially canon as a couple and that’s perfectly fine. I just don’t think they’re there as yet. But…y’know, that’s just me. Please don’t bite my head off if you’re a Bee shipper that happens to be reading this post.

Anywhozzits, that’s not really what I’m here to discuss. Let’s get back on track. My main issue with Adam’s death is that I think the CRWBY missed a real golden opportunity to use him for the Atlas Arc. Adam Taurus would’ve been the ideal antagonist to lead the audience into the Crimes of the SDC storyline that’s coming up.

His scar reveal clearly highlighted that he had an unknown history with the SDC. We’ve known about the White Fang’s war with the SDC since Weiss’ brief mention of it back in V1. As a matter a fact, I believe her words were that the White Fang has been in war with the Schnee Family for generations and this war actually featured bloodshed. We discovered this information yet we never received any more info to suggest anything further. Now fast forward five seasons later and we got a sense of why the White Fang targeted the SDC.

Adam’s scar hints at the possibility of Faunus abuse at the hands of the SDC. This is a sign that the SDC don’t just treat their Faunus labour as employees but as property. Who’s to say that Adam was the first Faunus to be branded? Of course Adam must’ve been scarred this way as punishment for an action we’ll never know more about but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his scar is a brand. This must be a common thing or at least that’s the theory.

That being said, the Writers could’ve used Adam as a third accomplice to Neo and Cinder going toward Atlas. We know that the Faunus in Mistral had fallen out of Adam’s reign after learning of his actions at Haven Academy. But what of the Faunus in Atlas? With the CCT still not functioning, there’s no way the Faunus of Atlas could’ve gotten wind of the news of Mistral. So even if Adam found himself without an army in Mistral, he could have easily built himself a new one in Atlas especially given his clear connection to the SDC.

Adam could’ve lead a Faunus revolution in Atlas and use that as the cover fire to instigate Neo and Cinder’s act of revenge against Ruby and the other heroes. Adam could’ve been the General Jinjur in this sense, appointing himself as leader to the new regime that led the Faunus of Atlas to rise up against the SDC and their oppressors. And it would have fit in with his story since as we learned in V6, Adam has an untold past with the SDC. If the Writers desired to keep Adam in the story, they could’ve had this be his final curtain call. They could’ve still had him die in battle against the Bees but they could’ve used the Crimes of the SDC subplot as the much better build up to his inevitable climax.

After V5, the CRWBY Writers could’ve had Adam decide to go full rogue---going on a personal vendetta to enact revenge on all who wronged him in the past. Not just Blake. Not just Yang but everyone starting with the people who cast the first stone to send him spiralling into becoming the bloodthirsty revolutionist he was striving to be.

They could’ve had Adam return to the place where his trauma all began. He could’ve returned to Atlas to start his revolution over there, using the wayward Faunus employed under the SDC to enact his revenge on the people who wronged him.

And along the way, Adam could’ve met up with Neo and Cinder and the three could’ve formed the Trinity of Vengeance whose actions would pave the first chapter of the Atlas Trilogy. Adam Taurus may not have been one of my favourite RWBY characters but I’d be lying if I said his fans weren’t wrong about him being a missed opportunity.

As I’ll repeat, Atlas would’ve been the perfect setting to end Adam’s story. It would’ve been the right place. Adam magically showing up in Argus after going episodes without knowing anything of what he had been up to since his first appearance in the first episode of V6 was admittedly not the right place to have his final showdown with Blake and Yang. Not only could it have provided a chance for the audience to uncover more about Adam’s past but the Writers could’ve killed two birds with one stone by tying Adam’s story to Weiss’ story through the SDC. Adam revealing his scar would’ve tied him to Weiss.

Imagine if…Weiss had been present to see Adam’s scar. That could have set off some things. Or…imagine if… Blake never saw Adam’s face in the entirety of their relationship so when the reveal happened, she is genuinely shocked to learn that it was the Schnee Dust Company---the company that one of her dearest friends is connected to that was partially responsible for the creation of Adam Taurus.

There are ways the Writers could’ve kept using Adam in the plot particularly for Atlas but…they didn’t. Not going to lie, Adam was the epitome of a missed opportunity.

But… it’s not to say that his potential involvement for the Atlas Arc couldn’t be handed over to another character. Since the Adam fans claimed that Ilia took Adam’s characterization following V3, I guess you can see this as a sign that another current or new character could gain the remains of his potential role for Atlas Arc, right?

With Adam gone, this could provide Cinder the chance to take his place with the Crimes of the SDC subplot. It wouldn’t have the same impact as it would’ve had with Adam however it can still work. Cinder has proven herself to be a master manipulator. She’s no different than Salem back in her younger years. I guess this could explain why she was more or less made to be Salem’s faithful apprentice.

Salem must’ve seen much of her old self in the young girl and wished to nurture it. Jinn did comment once that the hearts of man are easily swayed. This is inclusive of the Faunus as well. So maybe Cinder will be like Jinjur in this sense where she forges her army or… at least, she’d play a key catalyst to the potential Faunus Revolution for the Atlas Arc.

But get this, I actually think Cinder has way more in common with the Oz character of Mombi as opposed to Jinjur. It was said that in the Marvellous Land of Oz story, Jinjur summoned the witch Mombi to aid her in keeping her kingdom in check after she gained control. Perhaps this can play into Cinder’s story for Atlas in V7.

What if…RWBY’s incarnate of Jinjur would be an oppressed Atlesian Faunus employed under the SDC who gets manipulated by Cinder. It was also stated that Jinjur secretly feared Mombi. Perhaps this is how Cinder will get Jinjur or the Faunus of Atlas to listen to her. By flexing her Maiden magic which would force them to view her as some kind of sovereign that can aid them to their freedom or worst a witch who can smite them if they cross her.

Similar to how Jinjur called upon Mombi in Oz, what if…Cinder helps Jinjur start and maintain her Faunus Revolution in exchange for aiding her in luring out the target she most desires: Ruby Rose. Jinjur the Faunus will have great reason for working with Cinder since Cinder’s target is Ruby. Ruby is friends with Weiss Schnee and who is Weiss Schnee connected to?

Imagine if…Jinjur agrees to work with Cinder on the grounds of the two using each other to get what they want. Jinjur wants Weiss Schnee to use her as collateral to bribe the SDC into fulfilling the Faunus Revolution’s demands (not to mention that it would provide Jacques Schnee with an interesting opportunity to show his true colours with who he cares about the most---his company or the safety of his own child). And Cinder of course wants Ruby. If Cinder helps Jinjur get Weiss then chances are this will lead to Ruby showing up to rescue her friend.

This could paint a great way for Cinder Fall to have an involvement in the Crimes of the SDC plotline which would lead her to her eventual reunion with the heroes and confrontation with Ruby. That could be an intriguing storyline.

As you can see, in this case, Cinder would be the Mombi in the story. While she may share some traits with Jinjur, I see more Mombi. I feel like Cinder is more an antagonistic hybrid of Cinderella and Mombi. But unlike Cinderella, who had a happy ending at the end of her story, I highly doubt Cinder will for hers.

Obviously, Cinder is going to be killed off soon. I’m calling it now…Cinder Fall will be defeated for the Atlas Arc and following her demise, her maiden magic will return to Oscar since he is Ozma’s current incarnate and from there, Oscar’s own magical abilities will finally be awakened. That is my theory.

I’m definitely banking on the idea of Cinder being the Mombi to Oscar’s Princess Ozma based solely on her obsession with gaining more power. Mombi was obsessed with magic as well. So Cinder previously trying to steal Raven’s Spring Maiden magic only fuels my hunch that she might try to pilfer the little remainder of Ozma’s magic from Oscar as soon as she learns that the powers originally came from his predecessor; granted that she doesn’t know this already.

Perhaps this moment might even lead into my new Pinehead headcanon for Oscar’s semblance---the ability to take back Ozma’s magic from the Maidens. Picture…Cinder with Oscar pinned underneath her with her Grimm hand piercing into his body in a similar manner to how she killed Vernal. She tries to absorb Ozma’s magic from Oscar while simultaneously forcing him to watch Neo attempt to finish off killing an unconscious and very defenceless Ruby.

I’m with every Rosegardening Pinehead who believes that Oscar will awaken his semblance to save Ruby. And what better way to do that by making Oscar wipe the smug overconfident smile off Cinder’s face when he unlocks his semblance and starts absorbing magic back from her.

Now that could be an awesome semblance reveal. But as always, these are just my theories. So yeah, in this sense, Cinder is definitely more Mombi than Jinjur. However do you know who I think might surprisingly share better equivalence to Jinjur: Neopolitan.

Neo and Jinjur

And here is the real meat of my musing. My theory is that Neo will be the Jinjur to Cinder’s Mombi based purely on her potential to be redeemed. I don’t see Neo being killed off. If the Writers decide to kill Neo after bringing her back a whole two seasons later out of the blue in V6, that would be quite frankly a foolish move that they wrote themselves into. I don’t even see it being a case where Neo gets defeated and ends up being locked away in jail for her crimes, either.

If anything, my theory for Neo is that she is going to have a fairy-tale endgame. Her very own happily ever after. And part of that is due to my assumption that Neo will have some essence of General Jinjur added to her character inspiration.

Here’s something interesting: I think both Cinder and Neo will be the two sides of the same coin, in the sense that Neo will be the version of Cinder Fall who gets the good ending. In the Marvellous Land of Oz series, Jinjur was described as ‘not evil, just misguided’ and I think the same description applies to Neo. I don’t think Neo is entirely a bad person at heart. She’s just fallen into this archetype based on the people who she has followed in her life. If what us RWBY theorists have speculated about Neo being the little girl who survived the Fall of Brunswick Farms turns out to be true then Neo came from a reasonably good and happy upbringing that sadly turned tragic.

Following that experience, she and Roman, as the two possible lone survivors, turned to life a crime as a means of survival. But despite their nefarious background, Neo and Roman still maintained their love and comradery from when they were kids. Roman seemed to care a lot for Neo and Neo in turn cared a lot for Roman. I wouldn’t be surprised if Neo was, at some point, in love with Roman. Whether or not he felt the same way, we’ll never know.

But Neo has always been good. Destined for good things because naturally she had a good heart. I’d like to think that at some point in their past, before he became the big crime boss that we knew him to be, Roman possibly approached Neo with the intention of convincing her to cut her ties with him. Imagine if…Roman personally didn’t want Neo to be pulled into the immoral lifestyle along with him because he didn’t wish to tarnish the one good thing he still had in his life, y’know what I mean.

However Neo stubbornly stayed at Roman’s side since she in turn possessed a strong desire to stay by his side. She wanted to be there for him. That was the extent of their bond. I’m looking forward to listening to the full version of Neo’s theme from V6. I feel like there could be more potential clues to shed light on her relationship and past with Roman that the series never will get the chance to delve into. Not unless we get a unforeseen Neopolitan Character Short for V7.

I’d imagine that Roman and Neo were the ultimate ride or die pair. But picture there being a underline twist where deep down, in his heart of hearts, Roman always wanted Neo out of the crime lifestyle. He appreciated her loyalty and didn’t argue when she became his accomplice but deep down, it’s not what he wanted for her. It’s not what he thought she deserved not like he ever admitted that to her face. Or at least that’s how I’m starting to look at it now.

So here pegs the question. If Neo is to be redeemed, how can the Writers redeem her character? Well here’s this squiggle meister’s take one that. I think part of her redemption arc might involve an unexpected romance that causes her to become very conflicted and to rethink her choice of lifestyle.

Yes. I’m not pulling your leg. My idea for a redemption arc of Neopolitan is a love story. Allow me to justify why.

One Neopolitan headcanon that I wanted to toy with is the idea of Neo unintentionally finding love in Atlas; meeting the person who would ultimately cause her to drop her criminal ways and turn a new leaf. I never shared this theory before so this musing post provides the chance to do so.

The hunch I had was Neo falling in love with someone---her own Prince Charming whose allure and confidence reminded her a lot of what infatuated her about Roman and it is this person who would force to Neo to become very torn between her loyalty to Cinder and their revenge plan against Ruby Rose and her chance at a possible new life with this new love interest.

This is where I think Neo will share commonality with General Jinjur. At the end of her story, despite her previous escapades Jinjur ultimately settled down and lived a contented happy life with her husband. Here’s what I’m thinking. While this may be a very big stretch, what if…and this is a huge ‘if’…Neo’s Prince Charming will be none other than Henry Marigold.

Yeah that’s right, him again. Bear with me on this one alright. I don’t know how it could be done but…I have this idea of Neo using her shaft-shifting abilities to impersonate Weiss stuck in my head for the longest time.

In terms of following the plot, there is no real reason I can think of for Neo to mimic Weiss. Unless it’s in the form of her using it to infiltrate Schnee Manor to commence the Faunus Revolution against the SDC or something like that.

But beyond that I don’t see the possibility of Neo shapeshifting into Weiss becoming something canonically possible. But in spite of this, me being me, I’m still going to toy around with this concept because like many hunches I tend to hold on to, I kind of like it a lot. I like the idea of Neo using Weiss’ form especially if it leads into her charming Henry.

For Neo to be paired off with Henry as her intended prince, it would surprisingly fit and I’ll tell you why. Neopolitan is a play on Neapolitan which is a type of ice-cream. Ice cream is a dairy product. Coincidentally, Marigold is a real life brand of dairy products. In the Marvellous Land of Oz, General Jinjur’s future husband was a dairy farmer. You see where I’m going with this, right?

And since Henry was introduced as part of Weiss’ story from V4, I still think he’s going to be brought back for her arc in Atlas. For whatever reason, what if…Neo bumps into Henry on coincidence and falls for him. However since Henry showed an interest in Weiss, for whatever reason, Neo uses Weiss’ likeness to charm Henry.

I can’t help but sort of like this theory because I’m seeing both a bit of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella III in this. In The Little Mermaid, after she gave up her voice to Ursula the Sea Witch to become human, Ariel was tasked with making her love interest---Prince Eric fall in love with in a few days otherwise she’d turn back into a mermaid.

Ariel had to woo Eric without the use of her voice which was what Eric remembered most about her after she saved him from drowning. I found this titbit kind of cool. Weiss, as we know, has a tremendous singing voice and the first time she and Henry met was right after her concert hosted by the SDC back in V4.

Back in V4, Henry Marigold showed an interest in Weiss. Perhaps Neo will impersonate Weiss on a scheme for Cinder but ends up meeting Henry Marigold who recognizes Weiss. From there, Neo secretly starts using Weiss’ form whenever she’s with Henry. Neo falls for Henry and Henry himself falls deeply for Neo but doesn’t know that it's really Neo and not Weiss.

And in the end, Neo is afraid to tell Henry the truth. That she isn’t the person he thought she was and she believes Henry to be in love with Weiss. But in actuality Henry fell in love with Neo for her. I just really love the idea of Henry and Neo going through a similar scenario from Cinderella III.

I know not a lot of Disney fans tend to enjoy the sequels to their classic films but in the case of Cinderella, I actually really enjoyed both Cinderella II and III. I loved Cinderella II because it completely changed my perception of the evil stepsister, Anastasia.

Her love story with the baker was my favourite side story from Cinderella II. I just wished that Disney had given the same opportunity for development with Drizella, the other stepsister. My one gripe with Cinderella III is how they missed a chance to develop Drizella too. I know III takes place right after the original Cinderella but before Cinderella II in terms of storyline. Nevertheless, I feel like they shouldn’t have made Anastasia the focus sister again---they could have done it for Drizella to have both former evil stepsisters be redeemed. But I guess since Anastasia was made likeable by Cinderella II, they decided to roll with her for the third movie again.

Anyways, in Cinderella III, there is a part where Cinderella is supposed to marry the Prince but the Evil Stepmother, still determined to get Anastasia to marry the Prince instead uses the magic of the wand to turn Anastasia into Cinderella.

In the end, it takes Ana stepping up for herself and Cinderella to foil her mother’s plan. I enjoyed Cinderella III because I liked the take away lesson of what the King taught Anastasia about love because there is a moment where the King has a heartfelt chat with Ana and tells her about the day he fell in love with the Prince’s mother---the Queen. I know it was a small scene in a sequel that probably shouldn’t have existed but dagnabbit, the hopeless romantic in me just couldn’t help but gush at the whole idea of the Prince knowing he loved Cinderella from just holding her hand. Even when Ana was temporarily turned into Cinderella, the Prince instantly recognized that she wasn’t his Cinderella because of how she made him feel.

Something as simple as a touch of a hand is used as an expression of love and I dig that.

Strangely enough, I can see something like that being done for RWBY in the form of Neo impersonating Weiss and Henry falling in love with Neo as Weiss. But when he meets the real Weiss, he becomes conflicted, not because she doesn’t reciprocate his feeling as Neo did under her guise but purely because she doesn’t feel like the woman he fell in love with. Real Weiss doesn’t make Henry feel the same way Neo did when she was using her face. So in the end, Henry doesn’t care what Neo looks like. It’s how she made him feel that matters. He fell in love with her for her. Her loves her for her and she did it without needing a voice.

Every bit of joy Henry experienced with Neo was done through touch and gestures. Not through words making it genuine and pure. That sounds like an interesting dynamic. I feel like that’s an essence from the Cinderella story that could be translated into RWBY, if that is the Writers’ intention.

It's funny. When we first met Henry, he was portrayed like all the other guys who pursued Weiss. Appearing to only be interested in her at face value. But I think this was mostly a misunderstanding on Weiss’ part since I didn’t think Henry wasn’t that big of a jerk despite Weiss’ reaction to his remarks about Vale and her charity painting.

While I don’t think Henry is necessarily a bad guy, I feel like he will make a return for Atlas. Whether or not, he will somehow play a part in Neo's story, seems extremely unlikely right now. Nonetheless, I’m going to roll with it; canon or not. Thus I shall christen this tiny sail boat of mine as Milky Way---the unofficial pairing of Neopolitan and Henry Marigold.

I know romantic subplots is pretty much tertiary in RWBY to the point that some FNDM fans even complain when the show takes its time to drop romantic hints of their favoured pairs. My one gripe with the romance in RWBY is that I wouldn’t mind if the CRWBY Writers were more assertive with it. I don’t necessarily need a full episode of characters dating or snogging. However I am hoping for the series to handle its love stories in the same manner as A:TLA did. Avatar found an exceptional way to balance its romantic subplots with the rest of the story to the point where it felt natural.

I’m not a viewer who believes that romance should be omitted from a story just because its key genre is action/adventure and/or fantasy. Relationships are a part of life and when a story takes its time to develop the bonds between its characters, romance is a natural expectation. It doesn’t need to be the focal point of a story especially if you’re looking at a single standalone piece of media like a film.

However in the case of a series that is ongoing and has an overarching plot where its cast of characters are likely to grow and progress to fit the narrative outlined by the writers then…romance between characters should neither be omitted nor do I think it can be avoided nor …should be if that makes a lick of sense. Because romance is a type of relationship. Relationships can be either romantic, platonic, family-orientated and so forth and as I’ll say again, relationships are a part of life so it happens.

That being said, this is why I genuinely don’t understand when people complain when RWBY takes a chance to develop the relationships between its characters, particularly if its romantic. These kids are teenagers of mixed genders, ages and sexual orientations.

Naturally I would expect a romance to blossom among some of them. I actually think RWBY could benefit from taking some time off from all the action to focus on the bonds between its characters from time to time. But as always, this is just my opinion.

Neo and Oscar

Another interesting thing about Jinjur’s character is her connection to Princess Ozma, next to Mombi. After Emerald City was liberated, Jinjur was captured but on promise of good behaviour, she was sent home to her mother like all the girls in her army.

General Jinjur swore her loyalty to Princess Ozma and became an ally, promising her that she would behave herself.

Now some Pineheads have asked me before about the possibility of Neo and Oscar becoming friends and I think having Neo share inspiration from General Jinjur would be a nice way to tie her to Oscar.

Neo could be Oscar’s General Jinjur. From what I read on the Marvellous Land of Oz, Jinjur’s interactions with Ozma seemed rather friendly for the most part, even when she was still Tip, her male persona.

Perhaps…Neo will unintentionally befriend Oscar but neither will know each other’s true identities until their final confrontation. A part of me strongly believes that Oscar will definitely be most present during Ruby’s rematch against Neo. If Ruby is going to fight Neo again then surely Oscar should fight Cinder again. I mean, Cinder is the one who murdered Ozpin so imagine the two clashing on those terms.

After all, as I said in this answer post right here, Oscar has the remaining 10% of Ozma’s magic and if Cinder is the megalomaniac that she’s been painted as then picture her challenging Oscar to a duel in an attempt to try to steal the rest of Ozma’s magic from him.

Imagine…Cinder and Neo kidnapping Oscar to get to Ruby. Or…imagine if this leads into Ruby and Oscar possibly tag teaming against Cinder and Neo. That could be a cool way to satisfy us Rosegardeners hungry for our Rosebuds fighting side by side on the battlefield.

Even though Cinder and Neo agreed to allow Neo deal the final blow to Ruby, my hunch is that when Neo overpowers Ruby and goes to kill her, Oscar will stand bravely in front of Ruby to protect her. Picture Neo raising her weapon to Ruby and Oscar cradling Ruby’s unconscious body pleading with Neo to not kill her.

Imagine if…it’s Oscar’s desire to protect Ruby that results in Neo turning on Cinder. Because Oscar sees Ruby as someone very important to him. Someone he cares about deeply and wishes to protect, this sentiment could remind Neo of Roman. The good version of him anyways.

What if… as children, Roman used to protect Neo and seeing Oscar protecting Ruby reminds Neo of that. And so, Neo decides to spare Ruby and turn her weapon on Cinder instead. An alliance between Neo and Oscar is another alternative way to her possible redemption especially if it ties into my hunch of Neo drawing inspiration from Jinjur.

Another trait of General Jinjur that reminds me of Neo is that Jinjur was a native Munchkin girl. Munchkins are a race of short people in Oz and right now, Neo is physically one of the shortest characters in RWBY so far. She’s even shorter than Oscar I believe. If you put her next to Jinjur, I think it could fit.

So in conclusion…

I hope this answers your question Yellow. I know I went off topic on certain parts, again (as usual) but for the most part, I hope there was a sprinkle of an appropriate response to your curious inquiry among all my jibber jab. Let me know your thoughts on my thoughts if you can. To reiterate and summarize, I do see an equivalence to Jinjur in Cinder. But I see it more in Neo.

In terms of Oz characters, Cinder’s motivations screams more Mombi to me more than Jinjur. This is why I think Neo is a good candidate to take influence from her character. At the moment, Neo is a blank slate. She is the one RWBY character in the current main cast for Atlas who doesn’t have a fairy-tale counterpart to draw inspiration from.

From what I know about her, she was originally meant to only be a female counterpart of Roman Torchwick. That’s what I was told that one time I made a comparison to Neo being like Tinkerbelle in reference to her bond with Roman who I saw as being the Peter Pan in her story.

I still would like to stick with my idea of Neo being inspired by Tinkerbelle. Her illusion semblance is the closest thing to pixie dust I’ve ever seen and when she transformed the Mistralian airship into the guise of an Atlesian airship, it reminded me of how Captain Hook used pixie dust to make his ship fly.

Beyond that, Neo has no true fairy-tale equivalent which is why I’m fancying the idea of Jinjur being hers instead of Cinder’s. I’m also starting to love the idea of Neo and Cinder sharing influence from Cinderella only with Neo gaining what Cinder will never have---a happy ending.

We know Cinder desires power and revenge against Ruby; but what does Neo want? I know right now she shares Cinder’s hatred for Ruby Rose and aspiration to kill her. But beyond that, what else does Neo want for herself? After she kills Ruby, what’s she going to do next? Based on her theme, Roman apparently was her life. She lived for him.

After he died, she returned to Mistral to do who knows what with herself but didn’t miss an opportunity to get her revenge on Cinder, believing her to be the reason Roman fell. Cinder, of course convinced her that Ruby is to blame and now that has become Neo’s drive. But once that deed is done, what’s next? What is going to be Neo’s story? What’s she going to do after avenging Roman?

I ask these questions because this is something I want a character in the series to ask Neo herself. If Neo dedicated her entire life to Roman then she needs to create a new one for herself now that he’s gone. A better life.

This is why I’m loving the idea of her gaining Jinjur’s happy ending and settling down with a man who will love her unconditionally and vice versa. This is why I’m loving the idea of Neo meeting Henry Marigold with him becoming her prince. The man she will marry and settle down to start a new life with in Atlas. I’m fully on-board for this Milky Way ship especially if it goes in accordance to everything I just shared in this theory.

It’d be nice if Neo gets her happily ever after. Especially since Cinder surely ain’t gonna get that luxury. She’s too far-gone. But Neo still has a chance. A chance for change and redemption. A chance to learn to behave herself.

Plus I like the idea of Neo promising Oscar to ‘behave herself’ in a similar fashion to Jinjur’s promise to Princess Ozma. I don’t know what the CRWBY Writers’ future plans for Neo will be. But for the most part, I hope it’s satisfying especially to her hardcore fans who were pining for her return.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#yellow-eyed-green-crocodile #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #cinder fall #neopolitan #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby atlas arc #rwby musings #rwby rosegarden #ruby and oscar #oscar and neo #cinder and oscar

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kuiperblog · 5 years

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My childhood fascination with stories about mice

I’ve always had a certain affection for cartoons about anthropomorphic mice -- when pre-preschool age, The Rescuers Down Under was my favorite movie for a good long while, and my parents got a lot of mileage out of that VHS tape -- any time they needed to keep me preoccupied for an hour, they could pop it in and I would be reliably enchanted by the TV enough to not bother them.

I probably haven’t seen that movie since around age 6, but there are many scenes which I can recall in vivid detail. Among these is a scene featuring a meal in a fancy restaurant -- a fancy restaurant for mouse-proportioned creatures which exists beneath a fancy restaurant for humans. A cricket procures a single pea from the floor of the restaurant, which is enough for them to prepare pea soup. I loved that particular scene -- the procurement, the fact that a single pea was enough to prepare dinner for the mice, and the way that the little folk seem to have their own hidden society.

Another entry in the “stories about mice” category was the Christopher Church Mouse series of books, which my parents frequently brought home from the library of the church we attended. Beverly Cleary’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle (and its sequels) were also favorites during my childhood. And when I was old enough to read, I stayed up late many nights reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (and the somewhat disappointing sequels that were written by the daughter of the original author after his death).

Perhaps inspired by my love for The Rescuers Down Under, my parents thought that I would enjoy An American Tail, which also features a mouse as protagonist. The movie hit me at a particularly unfortunate time: I was just old enough to comprehend the fear of being a child separated from one’s family in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and not old enough to know how to deal with that fear. A good portion of the movie involves protagonist Fievel being separated from his family, and I couldn’t make it to the end of the movie. However, I found the sequel Fievel Goes West to be much more to my liking, partly because the early parts of the movie had Fievel demonstrating enough autonomy and competence for it to not be so troubling for him to be separated from his family, and partly because it featured the old west as a milieu: as a wee lad, I had a great affection for the “cowboy” aesthetic, whereas I had never been a fan of “urban east coast cities” as a kid (leaving me pretty cold on a lot of stories set in New York). Fievel Goes West, on paper, should have been a perfect movie for me as a child, but I don’t think I watched it more than twice (which, for my household, was a very low view tally for an animated movie). I enjoyed the funny parts, but it didn’t stick with me. I wasn’t taken by it the same way I was with The Rescuers Down Under.

I finally got around to seeing Pixar’s Ratatouille, which reminded me of my childhood love for The Rescuers Down Under, particularly the restaurant scene. And I think I’ve come to realize what it is that I like about this genre of “mice movies.” (And yes, I know many rodent enthusiasts will probably be peeved that I’m lumping a movie about rats into the “mice” category.)

The great thing that The Rescuers Down Under and Ratatouille have going on is that the mice co-exist with humans in a universe where most humans seem to have the same attitudes toward mice that we do: “eek! A pest! Exterminate it!” This leads to the existence of secret societies, colonies of rodent hidden behind a veil of secrecy.

That, I think, is what I like about these certain kinds of “mice movies.” I couldn’t stand Stewart Little -- he’s a mouse, but he might as well be a short human kid for how the humans treat him. Likewise, the problem with An American Tail is that there’s nothing secret about animal society. Humans do exist, but they seem completely unperturbed by the way that animals walk the streets on two legs, fully clothed and engaging in commerce. An American Tail feels much less like a story about animals and more like a story about people who were designed to look like animals because animals are cute. You can predict with perfect accuracy whether my young self enjoyed or dismissed a “story about mice” by looking at whether the story is fundamentally about a secret society of mice trying to remain hidden from humans. (Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH in particular was a real favorite because it was about lab rats who had escaped a health testing facility, giving the whole thing the air of a 1970′s government conspiracy story.)

In fact, mice are not an essential part of the equation. Among my favorite video games is Zelda: The Minish Cap, a game where Link has a magical cap that allows him to shrink down to tiny proportions and discover the Minish, a race of tiny creatures that live amongst the people of Hyrule. The tiny Minish of this game are styled after rodents, but this was kind of lost on my the first time I played the game, since with its 32-bit graphics presented on a 3-inch Game Boy screen, the sprites didn’t really read as “mousy” to me -- my brain latched onto the giant read hats more than the mouse-like features that kind of poked out from under them, so the Minish read to me more like gnomes. But it had that critical ingredient of being a story about a society of tiny folks who lived in the nooks and crannies of human society, and I loved it.

Why did I never latch onto the genre of urban fantasy that was specifically about secret societies? Well, to a certain extent, I did -- during my high school years I got into White Wolf’s World of Darkness, more specifically the part that is literally about The Masquerade (featuring Vampires). But there’s something about vampires that’s very different from mice: vampires always trying to blend in, whereas mice never really tried to infiltrate human society. They just want to coexist, which in most cases required staying hidden. And there’s something about their size that makes it plausible that maybe, there might be a thriving society of sapient creatures with hundreds of members living beneath the floorboards of your own house.

Just that thought is enough to send the imagination of a young child spinning -- and I have little doubt that this is what kept me coming back to those stories as a child.

#mrs frisby and the rats of nihm #ratatouille #movies #books

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wisccamping-blog · 5 years

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How Bear Canisters Fail

At any rate more often than not, hard-sided canisters, similar to the BearVault BV500, shield nourishment in the backwoods from bears and "smaller than normal bears" (mice, squirrels, dark jays, and other little searching creatures). Be that as it may, for reasons unknown, they're not 100 percent bear-or idiotproof.

As of late, I glanced through a spreadsheet consented by the National Park Service that recorded 199 nourishment related bear occurrences with explorers in Yosemite between July 2012 and July 2017. The genuine number of occurrences in Yosemite and the bigger High Sierra is likely more prominent (perhaps a lot more prominent), in light of the fact that numerous episodes are not detailed and in light of the fact that mountain bears occupy most corners of this world-class wild.

The sheet depicts contextual investigations on different disappointments of canisters (from organizations like Bearikade, BearVault, Garcia, and Lighter1 in addition to the Ursack bear sack) that were expected overwhelmingly to human blunder just as plan or auxiliary blemishes. It additionally gives narrative help to Yosemite's nourishment stockpiling guidelines—for each bear-canister disappointment there are a few instances of bears acquiring nourishment or scented things that were hung in a tree, covered, or left unprotected medium-term . These capacity "systems" may work somewhere else however not in Yosemite, which is home to ostensibly the best-prepared camp burglars in North America. I dove into the information and concocted these takeaways.

Land Concentration

One striking example in the spreadsheet was the land centralization of the occurrences. Of the 199 reports, 142 (or 71 percent) occurred in only four spots:

Snow Creek

Little Yosemite Valley

John Muir Trail

Lyell Canyon

While it's sensible to expect more episodes in high-use backwoods territories, the recurrence still appears to be lopsided—I question that on some random night, seventy five percent of all hikers in Yosemite are stayed outdoors in simply these four areas.

These focal points present a solid defense for choosing campgrounds all the more purposely and staying away from high-use spots and passages. Like a berry fix in August, bears have discovered that a few destinations are dependable wellsprings of calories.

It's additionally worth referencing that these four regions will in general pull in numerous tenderfoot explorers, who by and large won't be as taught in boondocks matters like appropriate nourishment stockpiling and bear conduct.

Disappointments

Bear canisters are more defenseless against disappointment than I suspected, however for the most part because of human mistake. A more critical take a gander at the episodes uncovers that disappointments fall into five containers:

#1. Flood

Case #5 (July 31, 2012): "Troop of boy troopers couldn't fit all their nourishment into their 14 bear canisters, so they hung two stuff sacks with nourishment from a tree. The bear climbed the tree and hauled the nourishment down and ate it. There was roughly 5 to 10 pounds of nourishment. Troop pioneer got an obligatory appearance reference."

For a canister to carry out its responsibility, all nourishment and scented things (like toothpaste and sunscreen) must be put away inside. This can be a test toward the beginning of long excursions, in light of the fact that the commonplace limit of a full-size canister is around six days of nourishment, contingent upon your day by day consumption and the measure of room those calories take up (i.e., bagels versus Snickers, canned soup versus dried soup blend).

In any case, justifiably, you might be hesitant to convey two canisters and twofold the weight and unwieldiness. All things considered, what are your choices? Until the majority of your nourishment and scented things can fit in one canister, consider:

Remaining in set up boondocks campgrounds with perpetual nourishment storage spaces. In Yosemite, discover them in Little Yosemite Valley and at High Sierra campgrounds like Glen Aulin. In Sequoia-Kings, allude to this guide.

Outdoors in zones where noncanister stockpiling strategies (e.g., a hanging Ursack Major) are allowed. Canisters are required all through Yosemite however just in the most elevated use regions of Sequoia-Kings and the national timberlands (e.g., Mt. Whitney Zone in Inyo). In lower-use territories, there will in general be less bear movement.

#2. Opened

Case #3 (July 20, 2012): "A bear came into the campground and broke into an inappropriately shut carbon fiber canister. The bear had the option to eat a pack of trail blend before it was frightened off. Beginning verbal shouts and shakes didn't stage the bear. In the wake of shouting uproariously the bear fled. The guest was reached and unveiled that just one of three fastens on the canister were hooked appropriately. The bear pried the top off and sheared the single shut fasten to acquire the nourishment. The canister was not crushed."

Case #61 (July 25, 2013): "The bear canister was in a bad way shut however not past the locks on the cover. The canister was opened however not broken. The bear tore through plastic sacks and got nourishment. Nourishment eaten incorporates hotcake blend, salami, control bars, Gu gel, saltines, and nuts."

This would appear to be an undeniable one, however there were in any event ten instances of bears getting into opened canisters. Bears are brilliant and constant and have astoundingly solid and handy hooks. Due to past victories, they will endeavor to contort off the highest points of BearVaults and pry off the highest points of Bearikades and Garcias.

The answer for opened canisters is simple: lock them! Set up the twofold checking of canisters as a component of your daily practice. In certain gatherings, it might merit doling out a canister csar who regulates this duty.

#3. Open

Case #157 (August 29, 2015): "2 bear jars in camp, one was shut the other was open. Explorers were cooking soup. Bear strolled up behind a log and stood up on its rear legs to peer at the climbers cooking soup. Explorers hollered and stood up and got posts to blast together. Explorers wound up frightened and thought the bear was getting to be forceful so they moved in an opposite direction from their open canister. Bear moved toward canister, snatched it by its opening, and left. Canister was unrecovered. Bear got trail blend, bars, and drugs from a medical aid unit."

A few bears in Yosemite show amazingly audacious conduct, since they've discovered that it regularly brings about nourishment. Once in a while they get shot with elastic projectiles by officers or hit by shake tossing hikers when they get excessively close, however they additionally experience frightened people and gatherings who penance their canister for individual security.

That response is justifiable, yet it doesn't support the explorer or the bear. In the event that your canister is open, never be in excess of a stage away from it. Furthermore, on the off chance that a bear enters camp, promptly lock your canisters and afterward start tossing things at its body. (Rocks, sticks, pine cones will all do.) In bear language, this protective conduct says, "Leave. There are simpler calories somewhere else."

#4. Rolled Away

Case #122 (June 2, 2015): "Campers at Snow Creek scaffold had bear canister taken. Second time in 2 years at a similar territory. Couldn't discover canister in encompassing territory. No proof of bear. Model of holder is Bear Vault 450."

Case #123 (June 5, 2015): "Two bear canisters were folded into Snow Creek medium-term. Indeed, even in the wake of playing it safe. Additionally the bear bit on some outdoors rigging like our table material and plastic pack presumably because of modest measures of nourishment buildup."

In any event 30 canisters went "missing" after a bear moved it away in the center of the night. This was outstandingly basic along Snow Creek—canisters get folded into the brook (which has enough volume in pre-summer and late-spring to divert a canister) or off the close by bluffs. NPS never again allows outdoors at the highest point of the bends because of the bear movement. The NPS disclosed to me that the Snow Creek occurrences were "brought about by one especially brilliant bear that has taken in this conduct just at this particular area."

The recreation center suggests putting away canisters outside camp for security reasons. In any case, pick the spot carefully. Actually, I keep my canister around 20 feet away and leave my (perfect) cook pot on top, so I will be woken up by the upheaval.

#5. Basic Failure

Case #21 (August 3, 2012): "Bear got nourishment from IGBC affirmed 'Lighter1.com' brand canister by breaking the equipment that keeps the top on. The guest revealed the bear at 2300 and depicted it as being 'dark.' The bear got the total substance of the compartment including: 2.5 sacks of blended nuts, a large portion of a salami, 2 packs of triscuits, 6 'Zoneperfect' bars, a large portion of a pack of vita-light squeeze blend."

Case #57 (July 18, 2013): "Bear removed rental Garcia canister from a spot in the shrubs around 1:40am. I got out and pursued the bear away. I put the canister more profound in the hedges. We were wakeful for one more hour-90 minutes. We didn't hear it once more, however in the first part of the day it was no more. On our climb out we found the unfilled and broken canister without top mostly down the [Snow Creek Trail] bends."

Case #114 (August 10, 2014): "Bear shuffled and tossed bear canister until it popped open. Bear devoured all substance: oats, rice, shot squares, precipice bars."

At the point when utilized appropriately, just a couple of canisters level out fizzled. Much of the time, they were crushed open in the wake of being moved off a precipice, for the most part along—you got it—Snow Creek.

From what I can accumulate, when utilized appropriately, there were no announced instances of broken Bearikades or the Ursack Major (once in the past S.29 AllWhite), and only one BearVault. The Garcia canister flopped frequently, yet you'd expect that since they are the most widely recognized rental canister. Without a doubt the NPS verified that "rental Garcia compartments were not being appropriately kept up, thus the covers were free." For more in-depth information I highly recommend bear bag cord.

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