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rachelbethhines · 4 years ago

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Tangled Salt Marathon - You're Kidding Me

So we’ve finally come to the last of season two’s filler episodes. Let’s see if we can knock this one out real quick.

Summary: The front door of the mysterious seashell estate vanishes, trapping the group. They try to find another way out but find a spinning top whose magic regresses Cassandra and Lance into toddlers and Shorty into a baby. They’ve only have an hour to find the top and reverse the effects or the changes become permanent. Unfortunately neither of Rapunzel’s or Eugene’s parenting methods keep their now childish friends on task.

So Why Did No One Stand Watch Last Night?

They were all sleeping right next to the entrance, and after the run in with the mirror monsters, you would think that they would have taken turns standing watch.

But nope, the front door vanishes when no one was looking cause they don't have any foresight.

A Low Budget Doesn’t Excuse Filler

Like most of season two, this is yet another episode that adds very little to the overall story. It’s slightly better than the Return of Quaid or Curses, but not by much. I put it on the same level as The Forest of No Return, as I do like the mains’ development, but there’s really no reason why such episodes exist to begin with.

The meta reason for staying in certain places for three episodes, instead of only one or two, is because of budgetary reasons. The crew have to build new sets and models for every new location or person the cast comes across. This costs money to make, so the higher ups wanted to reuse assets. Which is understandable, but not an excuse for utilizing them poorly.

If you need to stay in one area or have characters reappear, then you need to give story reasons for that. Ones that tie back to the overall narrative and/or the mains’ character arcs.

The shell house and Matthews should be more important than what they are as they both have connections to the ultimate big bad of the series.Adria shouldn’t be wasted for a whole episode when she’s the only one driving the plot in season two and has limited appearances. Vardaros and its people shouldn’t be a one and done thing if you’re going to spend so much time setting them up. And there’s still one off episodes, locations, and characters who aren’t brought back and add nothing

Not only does this make for a weaker story, it also undermines the cost saving measures that you tried to implement to begin with.

This Isn’t Representation!

Get it?!

She’s a top!

She’s totally gay, but like not really, cause this can also be interpreted as a dominatrix joke, and there’s no other real indication of her orientation outside her like smiling at her best friend/crush/sister sometimes and keeping that rose her creepy ex-boyfriend gave her.

And don't give me any bullshit excuses about Disney not letting the crew make Cassandra canonly gay/bi.

The Owl House aired just this year, the same year as Tangled’s final season. Also Globby and Carl from Big Hero Six were both confirmed to be a couple on screen a month after this episode came out. Both shows would have been in development at the same time as Tangled was. Both would have been subject to the same regulations and restrictions while writing their stories.

It isn’t “Disney” that stopped the storyboard artists from having Cass be a confirmed lesbian, it’s Chris and Ben, the head writers themselves, who failed to write it into the story properly, if at all.

Chris is the one who made Raps and Cass “sisters”. Chris is the one who wouldn’t tell the crew about his ‘twists’. Chris is the one who had Cass crush on Andrew, even after he tried to kill her. Chris is the one who made Cassandra ‘straight’ and has since used gay baiting to keep her fanbase in his pocket.

Like I am really damn sick and tired of Casspunzel stans defending Chris on twitter, when he’s the very one who sunk thier ship to begin with. I’m also really fed up with certain fans trying to bully others for not accepting their “Cass is a lesbian” headcanons as fact because what the storyboarders say on twitter after the show is over with isn’t gospel and isn’t real rep.

I don’t care if you ship Cass with Raps or headcanon her as being gay. Ships and headcanons are great and can be a lot of fun. But fuck you if you ever try to shame people for not sharing your ships/headcanons. Not only is it biophobic and acephobic to insist that there’s only ever a binary option when it comes to orientation and shipping, but it also reinforces harmful stereotypes and tropes about people in the queer community.

Like, yes, I personally may be an introverted angry bitch who’s an LBGTQA member and activist, but that doesn’t mean that every introverted bitchy woman in media is a lesbian. What kind of message does that send people when that’s the only character archetype that’s given representation or is loudly proclaimed as ‘gay’ by the wider audience? Fuck that noise!

I Know Humor is Subjective but...WHY?

Why did we give the baby a beard? How does that logically work? Did anyone outside of the crew actually find this funny?

TTS has like this one out of touch dude throwing out jokes that don’t really land with the target audience. Fans have called it ‘boomer humor’ but it’s actually ‘Gen-X’ humor. Not only because Chris and Ben are Gen Xers but because this is the type of crap my older brother would find hilarious.

Gen Xers are between Boomers and Millennials and so their humor is this weird blend of gross out shock humor, ironic nihilism, and out of date stereotypes that are only mildly better than those of the previous generation before them. They’re the generation who gave us Beavis and Butthead, South Park, and Clerks.

That’s not a criticism of Gen X as a generation, but rather just an acknowledgment that they’re worlds away from the neo-dada absurdism, more socially conscious, and globalized humor of Gen Z.

So Why Is the Bad Guy Telling the Heroes How to Foil His Plans?

Like he not only tells them how to fix their problem and how long they got in order to do so, but he also informs them how it happened in the first place. This goes directly against his plans. Had he simply said nothing and stayed out sight, then Raps and Eugene would have been lost for the full hour and most likely not have saved everyone on time.

I like to headcanon that Mathews is just “that asshole” that loves to taunt and tease but in a that manner that gives him plausible deniability. He also may just be bored, since he’s a ghost trapped in one place all the time. Yet that still doesn’t change the fact that he shot himself in the foot here.

Raps and Young Cass’s Relationship Is the Same as Raps and Adult Cass’s, and That Is a Problem.

Condescending, manipulative, hypocritical, and bossy is the way Rapunzel treats everyone. She doesn’t understand the actual difference between a child and an adult. She only understands who she who she can and can’t boss around. And those people that she can’t place under her thumb are labeled antagonists by the show.

Nor does she actually care about what either kid Lance or kid Cass has to say. She’s just being proformative, and young Cass can see through that BS, which why her methods do not work. It’s not because she’s not ‘strict’ enough; it’s because she’s not being honest.

Meanwhile Child Cassandra is just as combative, rude, bullying, and entitled as Adult Cassandra. In season three she regresses even further and becomes more violent than before.

Unlike Rapunzel, Cassandra wasn’t trapped in a tower for 18 years with zero human contact outside of her abuser. She escaped that fate and was raised in a loving home. That doesn’t mean that there won't be scars, but I still expect her to be more mature than her seven year old self. Just because she’s whining about not being special enough at 24 instead of screaming about the floor being lava doesn’t mean that she’s still not throwing a temper tantrum.

Like I should not be seeing a replay/foreshadowing of their main conflict here. They aren’t children. They’re dynamic isn’t that of a mother and child. It’s not even a big sister looking out for a little sister type relationship. Its two immature women dragging innocent victims into their bitchy cat fight for dominance over the other.

If you want me to take their issues seriously then give them real stakes to disagree over, mature behavior that I can root for, and a resolvement that doesn’t reverse any potential development that they could have had.

Matthews Plan Makes Zero Sense

For starters, half the group being kids isn’t enough of a reason for Rapunzel to stay at the shell house. Even if the effects of the time top became permanent, then Raps and Eugene could just leave and take the kids with them. Either to finish the road trip, or go straight back to Corona. Not that there’s any real reason to get the Dark Kingdom anyways, nor is there a ticking clock stopping Raps from trying again later if she chose to.

Rapunzel also is not obligated to become anyone’s mother. If she took them back to Corona than Cap would undoubtedly raise Cassandra all over again, and Lance and Shorty could be adopted by someone else. Any of the pub thugs might take them or even perhaps the King and Queen since they missed out on raising their actual daughter. Though for my money I’d get Monty or Xavier to take them in. They seem the most mature and both are shown to be good with kids.

Then again Rapunzel has been shown twice now to not give a damn about abandoning orphans, so even the ‘dump them at an orphanage’ or ‘leave them alone in the woods to fend for themselves’ isn’t entirely off the table either. I wish I was joking, but I’m not. Sadly, only Eugene’s love for Lance might be the one thing to stop her from doing just so, and even that’s iffy.

As for the missing door from earlier, if that was all that was stopping them from leaving then the time top shenanigans were fully unnecessary altogether.

I Actually Like Eugene and Rapunzel’s Conflict Here; I Just Wish It Was In a Better Episode.

Each of their viewpoints stem from their upbringing.

Rapunzel is unique in that she was simultaneously emotionally abused and neglected while being physically spoiled. Especially once she found out that she was princess, where she was then handed nearly anything and everything she wanted. She doesn’t recognize that getting your every possible whim come true can be damaging. Nor does she have any comprehension of what living in poverty is like and how this many toys is wasteful to someone like Eugene who had so very little and stole to survive.

She does however associate limits, boundaries, and orders with abusive behavior because she’s been denied autonomy and respect her whole life. She’s never seen what healthy parenting looks like and how rules can be applied correctly.

To Rapunzel no orders is ‘freeing’ and ‘validation’ is all that is needed to get a child to listen to you. Which doesn’t work for her because she doesn’t understand that real communication is more than just giving a compliment now and then.

Meanwhile Eugene lacked any sort of anchor at all. He was left to his own devices at a young age and had no one to rely on for emotional needs and, after leaving the orphanage, no one to provide physical needs either.

It’s telling that he and Lance latched onto Quaid as the only authority figure in their life, despite Quaid never out right adopting them. He was the only sense of stability that they had who they could trust wouldn’t hurt them, despite being strict with them.

And now that Eugene has gotten older and is reformed, he can probably understand why Quaid was so harsh on him and Lance. Quaid probably did more to try and help them turn from a life crime than even Rapunzel did. Like meeting Rapunzel was the inciting incident that inspired Eugene to make that leap, but the groundwork was already laid out for him to do so elsewhere. Things like his good communication skills, respect and empathy of others, and understanding of boundaries had to be learned from somewhere, and if not from the Sheriff of Vardaros than who?

What I’m getting at is that, while Rapunzel rejects her parents methods but then fails to break her learned habits from them anyways, Eugene is the reverse. He’s come to embrace his mentor’s teachings, but he fails to implement them correctly because he’s not Quaid. Being authoritative isn’t his strong suit. It goes against his usual nature as the easy going person that he is and so any attempts to come across as forceful fail as they’re hollow.

Kids know authenticity and genuineness when they see it. The children reject Rapunzel because she’s not being real with them, yet they also reject Eugene cause he’s not being honest with himself.

It’s a complex and mature conflict. Neither person is fully right nor wrong, and only by learning from each other and adopting both methods can they achieve their goal.

TTS can be deep when it wants to be. There’s a good foundation here for mature themes and complex characterization. It’s just the series doesn’t ever commit to it.

Whatever personal drama going on here about two young adults trying to cope with their past traumas and how that affects their current life and future goals is completely lost in the magical goofy antics and low stakes situation. Even the stuff about Eugene and his relationship with Quaid is reduced to nothing but a one off joke rather than being genuinely explored as a point of development.

Imagine how much more powerful things would have been if Angry and Red were brought along on the trip. If this argument was over them and whether or not they should adopt the two girls themselves or consider other options. That would be something with real weight. Something with a choice that had actual consequences attached to it. Something that would permanently affect all involved parties. Something that wouldn’t make the two leads look like outright dicks for abandoning two children for a second damn time in a row.

You Have 70 Feet of Magical, Indestructible Hair! Why Are You Afraid of a Bunch of Dogs!?

You’ve fought off giant monsters, killer robots, and supernatural beings with magical powers. What do you mean you can’t hold off a pack of guard dogs while busting down a stuck door? Why is Eugene the shield for everyone and not the actual unbreakable hair that you use as a shield all the damn time? And Why did we have to rely on Shorty again to be the deus ex machina of the episode?

At this point the writers should have just made him Demantius instead of the monkey.

What Happened To This New Dream? Where Did It Go In Season Three?

Most fans who do enjoy season two happen to be big New Dream fans as this is by far and away the best season for them. I’ll admit that the series, up to this point, had me actively liking them together, despite being originally lukewarm to the pairing in the movie.

Their conflicts were for the the most part mature and real. They learned from one another equally and had open communication when it didn't involve ‘marriage is a trap’ BS. Things, like compromising on differentiating future goals, honesty and communication, and making time for one another and extending effort into a relationship while being true to yourself are all relatable issues.

Even today's episode featured the topic of having kids and parenting. Which is a discussion you absolutely need to have with your prospective spouse before entering into any long term commitments and signing any legal contracts. For real, I’ve seen marriages fall apart because they didn’t agree on whether or not they wanted children.

I don’t know what went down between writing season two and season three, but things quickly took a sharp turn away from this dynamic and nosedived into a pit of uncomfortable bullying and gross sexist implications here after.

Matthews Plan Goes Against Zhan Tiri’s Plan

Yeah so Matthews is one of Zhan Tiri’s disciples, but he apparently doesn’t know of her goals/plans, cause she needs Rapunzel and company to reach the moonstone, not stay stuck here.

The meta reason for this that the Zhan Tiri’s story was altered at the last minute and the writers failed to make sure there was any sort of consistency between what they already set up and where they actually wound to actually taking the plot.

The in universe reason is that Zhan Tiri is an impotent moron, but that’s not what the writers were going for so it’s a fail.

Conclusion

I like the New Dream stuff, and Matthews is at least entertaining despite being incompetent. Everything else about the episode is ‘meh’ tho.

#tangled #rapunzel's tangled adventure #tangled the series #anti-tangled #anti-rapunzel #anti-cassandra #eugene

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inspirationdivine · 4 years ago

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End of the Line || Kaden, Agatha, Ariana, Chloe, Kelly, Todd

Timing: Current Parties: @chasseurdeloup, @letsbenditlikebennett @detective-keen @itsyaboytodd Summary: Pain. Warnings: Significant discussion of domestic abuse, emotional abuse, drug manipulation (leanan-sidhe kiss), vomit

There was no waiting anymore. No avoiding the inevitable. When Kaden mentioned that Lydia should be leaving town, Ariana knew this was the only chance they had to get the humans she’d taken hostage out of there. How many humans Lydia currently had living in her basement was unknown, but they needed to be out. They needed to get their life back. She hadn’t been able to do it for Ace, but she could help these people. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had the worry she felt for Athena shoved away. She was capable and she had people on her side helping her against Lydia. She would be okay. She had to keep telling herself as much. Being on separate sides of this mission did little to squash her worries, but this was bigger than that. These people needed them, so she’d step up and went over everything Athena told her about fae promises in her head over and over. She’d only seen Agatha once before, so she turned to Kaden and asked, “You’re sure she’ll be out?”

Kaden had been grazed with a fucking bullet earlier tonight. He shouldn’t even be out here but he couldn’t sit back and let this lie. Not when he had a shot at actually making this right. For once. “Positive,” he told her. What he failed to mention was why he knew that. What he’d failed to do. What it might have cost. This was his mistake. He should have waited for the fucking plan. He took a deep breath, steeled himself, readied himself to push past the pain. It wasn’t like it was anything new. “Keen was a last ditch effort. She’s banking on her promises,” he assured them. Not to mention the ones he bound her to himself. Part of him hoped she’d be there waiting and she’d see him again and feel a fraction of the pain she caused others over the years, selfish as that hope was. Reality set in. This wasn’t about him. Or even Lydia. This was about protecting humanity, always came down to that. He peaked around at the entrance to the house in question. The garden was trashed, glass everywhere, the windows were either gone or covered with tarp. Regan’s work if he ever saw it. “It looks like security’s gone. Maybe.” He shut his eyes a moment, tried to listen harder, make sure. “I can’t tell one way or another. We should be careful,” he said, looking back at both Ari and Keen before reaching down to unholster his gun. Better safe than sorry.

Agatha stood beside the pair. Staring into the void, she recalled what had happened over at Kaden’s flat. She still couldn’t make any sense of what had happened to her, but if what she had understood was real, as nonsensical as it seemed, then there were people being kept inside Lydia’s house, against their will, just like she had shot Kaden against her own. The mention of her name managed to draw her out of this day dreaming. She gave her co-worker a glance, worried, and feeling as if she would never forgive herself for what she’d done. She had shot an innocent, and it felt like the right thing to do. How. How. All she wanted now was to get in there, and make sure that Lydia would not harm anyone ever again. But first, they had to get her captives out. Kaden seemed sure of himself when he claimed that she was not here, and wouldn’t be here in a while, still Agatha worried of what would happen if the woman came home early. She had put on her bullet vest, and prepared herself for what she understood would not be a piece of cake. Following after Kaden, she glanced at the kid with a frown of disapproval. Perhaps Ariana was capable, but what was she doing here? This was going to be intense, dangerous perhaps, and she did not want to babysit while she was working.

Somehow even though Lydia wasn’t home, the house seemed daunting. Ariana wasn’t sure she was ready to see the conditions Sammy lived in. Where he had spent his final days before Lydia had done the unspeakable. She bit back the wave of emotion that threatened to spill over. She could be sad later. Right now, the other people in Lydia’s home still needed their help. There was only one way to go from here. She closed her eyes momentarily and concentrated on what she could hear and smell in the home. There were only a few people in there, tops, and they smelled vaguely familiar. Outside the door, it was still too difficult to tell. “I don’t think security is here. There are a few people from what I can smell.” She had no idea what Agatha knew about all of this, but it was too serious a situation for her to mince her words and not communicate clearly with Kaden. Let the detective think she was weird for all she cared. She turned to Kaden and asked, “You up for breaking down the door with me?” She waited a moment for confirmation before charging the door. A few sturdy slams and it busted open revealing the lavish mansion that Lydia called home. Something about it sent a chill through her. It was nicely decorated and there was art there, but knowing where the art likely came from only served to make her stomach turn. She took a few sniffs and pointed, “We should start upstairs, I think.”

Couldn’t smell them? Kaden’s face scrunched a moment, trying to push away any discomfort trying to burrow its way inside him. He wasn’t exactly used to working with a werewolf. Funny enough. Still, he trusted Ariana. He had to remember that. Still, he paused and shut his eyes a second, listening for any heart beats. He heard his, Agatha’s was pounding, and so was Ariana’s. He didn’t hear anyone immediately nearby. Didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone inside; even combined their senses were only so good. “Breaking down the door?” He didn’t see any reason why not to. It’s not like the house was in good condition right now. Maybe they’d get lucky and the previous banshee destruction would work in their favor. With a quick nod, he turned and threw himself into the door right alongside her. Putain. He forgot how much he still hurt, how recent his fight was. His face contorted and he took a deep inhale before slamming into the door with her a second time. Shit. He was going to regret that. Hell, he already regretted that, cradling his arm in his hand a moment as he winced. At least the door broke down relatively easily. No doubt Lydia wasn’t here considering how simple that was. That and the fact that there were no security guards waiting for them on the other side. The house was strangely normal. He wasn’t sure what he expected, honestly. Something darker, maybe? Danker. More like the prison and torture chamber that it was. He waited and listened some more. There were traces of something, but it was hard to pinpoint. “Sure, might as well.” It was a big place, it would take a while to comb through. His hand still gripped his knife as they climbed the stairs, shoes occasionally crunching on shards of glass. There were plenty of doors. Even with the destruction, the house was bright, clean and almost inviting. It sent a chill down his spine, knowing what he did. “Should we split up? Or stick together? This place is big.”

The ache of Lydia’s absence was beginning to sting in Chloe’s chest. She worked quietly, occasionally tapping a rhythm against the table to test how the words of her lyrics would flow. Todd and Kelly had calmed down enough, although she couldn’t help but occasionally glance over at them whenever they were in the same room. Lydia had left them with lots of carefully prepared meals in the kitchen, as she always did when she planned to spend some time in fairy rings. It was better when she didn’t come back for a few days, even when it hurt. Chloe was jarred out of her reverie when the door downstairs banged and clattered. She glanced at Todd, in the music room with her, but Kelly was elsewhere. Swallowing, she gestured for him to hide, walking silently over to the door of their room and turning the lock. You won’t ever let any guest of mine know you’re here. She retreated a little further back, remembering the red eyes of the last man who had broken into this hellscape sanctuary. She looked around cautiously, but Lydia’s upstairs office was the only place she could creep to with another lock on it, so she backed into it, locked that door too, and sank down against the wall, cradling her knees against her chest as the promise gnawed at her skin.

Kelly panicked, the moment she heard people smashing through the door. She looked around wildly, before scuttling into the one place Lydia didn’t take most of her guests - her bedroom. It was only once she was in there that Kelly realised that Lydia had several guests she did bring in here. Oh god, could she maybe hide in the bathroom? With a squeak, Kelly locked herself in Lydia’s bathroom, and clambered into the warm towel cabinet, pulling it closed behind her.

The days that had turned into weeks since Todd first found himself trapped in Lydia’s home, they’d passed by in a daze of confusion, longing, and pain. Pain, because he didn’t understand what Chloe and Kelly tried to tell him. He couldn’t make sense of the words that bound him to this place, didn’t understand any of it. Magic? It was magic? But, magic wasn’t supposed to do things like this, right? He had been in the sound studio when he’d first heard the door being knocked down, the impact shaking the otherwise still house. And, for an instant, he’d wanted to scream. But, the sound died in his throat, the promise that bound him to Lydia searing his vocal cords shut with a sharp lance of pain. Clutching his throat, Todd felt his body move, seemingly on its own, looking for a place to hide. Because that was one of the many promises he’d made-- he would hide, he would stay out of sight, and he would remain quiet. Rising from his chair, Todd locked the door of the room, the pain easing slightly as he did so. He tip-toed across the floor before squeezing himself in the gap between the wall and the desk. His hands pressed against his face, teeth biting into his fingers to keep from shouting. He had to keep quiet. He had to obey.

There was something eerie about Lydia’s home even though she knew the woman wasn’t home. Maybe it was because she knew all too well what happened here, but on the surface, it looked like just an ordinary home. Like Lydia was just an ordinary albeit wealthy person. The art that hung on the walls was a bit pretentious, but homey in its own way. How someplace could look so welcoming and yet be so dark was a lot to digest. Ariana knew better than to get too caught up in any of the small things lying around. Getting these people out alive was their priority here today. She closed her eyes and focused on the smells around her. There were two that smelled familiar, but one pulled at the heels of her feet. “Wait,” she said as she reoriented herself to follow what she was smelling when realization hit, “That bitch.” There was venom in her voice as she could smell Todd. That was why he had been taking time to work on projects and not perform. She felt her fists ball up at her side as she stomped forward toward an office. “Someone’s this way. I-- Kaden, I know who it is.” It only pushed her forward further only to push right into a locked door. “Fuck,” she grumbled as she grabbed a bobby pin out of her hair. “Don’t worry, I got this one,” she told Kaden and Agatha. She pressed her ear against the door and fiddled with the pin until she heard the click of a lock. She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and softly said, “Todd? I know you’re in here, it’s okay, we’re not guests.” She hoped that statement somewhat helped work around Lydia’s promises.

Please just go away, please just go away, Todd thought to himself as his body continued to contort in pain, filling his bones. What had he done wrong? He was hiding, he was doing what he should, he was doing what Lydia wanted-- as he tried to figure it out, the doorknob rattled and he heard a voice. A… familiar voice. Megan? No, her name was Ariana, wasn’t it? No, no, no, no, no, please, he wanted to say. But, he still had his hand pressed firmly against his mouth, trying not to make a sound. If he kept quiet, if he kept quiet, the pain would stop, wouldn’t it? When she said his name, when she specified they weren’t guests, the awful feeling lessened and he let out a breath. “Y-you can’t be here. You shouldn’t be here. Sh--” His throat closed as he tried to say Lydia’s name, the promise that had originally gotten him into this mess reminding him of its presence. Gasping, he shook his head. “No, no, no, no.”

Kaden’s mouth pulled into a thin line as Ari went off by herself. Something about this house, he didn’t like the idea of leaving her behind. What if Lydia had added layers of words binding the humans since Sammy was killed? What if there was something horrible waiting for them in each of these rooms? No, there wasn’t time for that. He didn’t think. And either way, he had to trust Ariana could handle herself. She’d proven that much. “Okay. I, uh… Left it is,” he said with a shrug and went towards the door across the way. He tried the knob and it opened easily enough. It almost unsettled him more to know he was entering somewhere that wasn’t off limits. He gulped back the uneasiness that had settled in since stepping through the threshold of this place and walked into the room. “Woah.” The words left his lips without a second thought. The room was huge. Possibly bigger than his apartment. And this was just the master bedroom?

Kaden shook off the awe. This was nothing to be jealous of. And it wasn’t why they were here. He wandered in, quietly and carefully. There weren’t any signs of movement, not yet. He couldn’t hear any new heartbeats just yet but he kept moving through the room. It felt like a home. Normal, almost. Queasiness dropped into his stomach. Still, he found his feet moving towards the dresser in the corner, practically drawn there by something, like there was a string pulling him along. There were pictures of smiling faces, Lydia with what had to be friends and family. She looked so normal, so much like any other human. His eyes drifted down to the bones sitting on the dresser, arranged lovingly even if in the corner. His fingers ran over them, feeling the smooth, cold surface. Banshee gifts if he ever saw them. Were they from Deirdre? Regan? Maybe both. He clenched his jaw against the tears pricking at his eyes. This was too complicated. It couldn’t be. This couldn’t be about Regan or even Lydia. He shut his eyes and concentrated, pushed past the barriers he put up around his senses and listened. A new set of thudding pounded in his ear. He tried to the right, quieter, then the left, louder and louder as he went. “Hello?” he said tepidly, opening his eyes as he walked slowly towards what looked like the bathroom. “I’m not here to hurt you. And I already know you’re here so it’s not breaking any promises to answer.” He didn’t know if that was true, but it didn’t hurt to try. He tried the knob. Locked. “I won’t hurt you. At least-- I’m not a friend of Lydia’s. Please. Let me in.” He tried the handle again. Nothing. He waited for a response, anything. If nothing changed in a few seconds, Kaden had no issues wrenching the handle open himself.

Kelly pressed her hand over her mouth, trying to suffocate her whimpers and hummingbird fast breathing. She heard Lydia’s bedroom door open, and imagined some creeping, monstrous shadow of a creature creeping through the room, like the Mindflayer in Stranger Things. Hello, it called, and the image in her head shifted. It was something bipedal, its limbs distorted and a voice like an angel only to disguise a maw full of teeth. Lydia wanted her to stay hidden. She whimpered as the closet door whimpered, the promise burning her lungs. She was going to stay quiet. She would be good.

As the two others decided to stick together, Agatha chose to go the other way. Just like them, she climbed up the stairs, but when they turned left, she went to the right. Alone now, she had gotten her weapon out, ready to fight back should she be there, somewhere, waiting to get them one by one. She arrived in one of the most spacious living room she had ever seen. She moved around grazing the walls, checking on every door. Some of them were closed, while others were not. Although, upon inspection, she had found, aside from a large amount of beds in one room, not found anything shocking. She noticed that there was not a single computer in sight, nor was there a phone, or anything that could have facilitated communication with the outside world. Will there was an obvious and expected lack here, there were none as far as the bookshelves were concerned. She couldn’t help but gaze for a short moment at the book spines, wondering what those were about. Her eyes were drawn toward some of the names. “The Eyes to the sky?” Her brows furrowed as she picked up one of the books that bore Lydia’s name. Wait, she was that Lydia Griffin? Under her breath, the detective muttered one particularly surprised what the fuck as a photograph of the woman on the other side confirmed it. “Well now you gotta tell me what face cream you use,” she commented, dropping the book back on its shelf. Now perhaps was a good time to see what all these doors were hiding. One of them was a recording studio, kicking the second door open, she did not expect to get so lucky on her second try. In there, hiding in a corner, there was someone. Remembering what the other two had said, she put her hands up and calmly, she explained: “I’m not a guest, I’m... “ Well the badge certainly helped get her point through. Damn, this room was busy, she thought to herself, for a split second turning her attention toward the rest of the office. “It’s going to be okay, I’m just going to talk with you, alright? As a not guest.”

Police officer. Chloe stared at the badge, trembling. Hives were beginning to raise along her skin as the blonde woman stared at her. No one ever came up here, not without Lydia. Remmy hadn’t come in here in the months they’d been here. It was only ever business associates. But she’d heard the wood of the oak door splinter downstairs. The door in front of her had been kicked open. Something had changed. Something was changing. As a not guest. The emphasis was weird, strangely knowing. Chloe felt a horrible ache in her chest. If there were police here, Lydia wouldn’t come back. She’d never knowingly betray herself. Chloe had known for years that Chloe needed Lydia more than Lydia needed Chloe. That was the way her brand of intoxication worked. Fuck. “Why are you here?” She asked hoarsely, pushing herself onto her feet, pressing herself against the back wall as hard as she could. “Who are you?”

Seeing Todd’s pained expression sent a fresh wave of rage through her body. While it stood she didn’t have it in her to deal the final blow, Ariana could only hope Luce and Athena made it painful for all she’d done to these poor people. Her heart sank realizing she hadn’t even known Todd would be here. She should have been a better friend, reached out and checked in on him more. She’d been so caught up in her own shit, that Lydia managed to get yet another one of her friends. “Hey, shhh,” she assured him as she reached out a hand for him, “It’s going to be okay. I should be here, you’re not doing anything wrong.” It was hard to gauge what his promises were, but he was in pain and she could only hope Lydia would be dead sooner rather than later. “I’m going to make sure you’re safe, I promise.” She looked to him with pleading eyes using a word she had promised herself to never use again, but she planned on delivering. There wasn’t another option. She refused to let Lydia take another friend from her. “Lydia’s not here. I’m not a guest, friend, or company-- Well, I’m your friend but-- Please come out, Todd. The pain should fade soon, but don’t push too hard.”

As Ariana came into view, a wave of relief rushed over Todd as he saw a friendly, familiar face. Well, friendly wasn’t quite how he’d describe how she looked at him. Worried, more like. Really, really worried. And, he was too. As she kept talking, he could feel the sharp edges of the promise start to dull, the pain lessening. She wasn’t a guest, she wasn’t a friend of Lydia’s. There was wiggle room with the magic, like the silence between notes of music. And that was what he could use to-- Swallowing, he didn’t dare let himself think about that, knowing full well what the promise would do to him. “How are you here?” He managed to say, his hands shaking with fear and dread as he stared at his friend with wild eyes. “I-- I’m trying. I’m trying.” He repeated as he managed to pull himself from the corner he’d shoved himself into. Ariana wasn’t a friend of Lydia’s, she wasn’t a guest, this wasn’t covered by the promise, which meant it was okay. The mental gymnastics of the magic were hard, but they were all that allowed him to stand upright and take a shaky step forward. “Kelly. And Chloe. They’re here too.”

Shit. There was no response. Kaden knocked again just to see. Alright, guess there was no other choice. He yanked the door knob and forced it open, breaking the handle and pushed the door open. Shit, the bathroom was huge, too. He peaked around the corner and saw the huge jacuzzi tub and vanity. Right. He approached and… no one there. He looked in the actual bathroom. Nothing there. Not in the shower, either. “I know this is probably terrifying but I’m not going to hurt you. I pr--” Shit. That word. That stupid fucking word. Whoever was here had heard enough of that word. “I know you’re probably bound a million different ways but I’m going to help. I’m… I’m with the WCPD.” Kaden wasn’t sure if that was going to help or make things worse. There was only one place left to look, though. One door. He opened up the door to the linen closet and saw a terrified, shaking girl. Shit. Shit. His heart shattered and he wanted nothing more than to haul her out of there and make a break for it out of this fucking house. Instead, he took a deep breath and held up his hands in surrender. “See, not going to hurt you. Can you speak to me? Are you able?”

Kelly screamed as light flooded into her cupboard, jerking back so ferociously she banged her head against a warm pipe, and tried to pull a towel over herself to hide. The promise was broken, it was already too late, Every muscle felt like she’d pulled it without warming up, but she still tried to hide. “I don’t know. Please- please go away!” Kelly scrambled forward, reaching for the cupboard door, and tried to pull it shut to hide her back in the dark.

She had to be careful about what she would tell that woman. Since Agatha did not fully understand the extent of the manipulation, she felt like she was a tightrope walker, 30 feet above the ground. Her hands still up, she lowered them to place the gun back in its holster. At least that woman allowed herself to speak with the detective, she realized, relief making her shoulders loosen down just a little. This was good news, although it did not look like she saw Agatha as her savior, or like she wanted to leave the place. While having never encountered this in the past, it reminded her of those articles she read on Stockholm’s syndrome. All she hoped was that this was not bad to the point of attacking the people who were here to save her.

She did not move closer to the other woman immediately. That woman was terrified, and nothing good would come from forcing her out of the room. This was Agatha’s ultimate resort, and one she did not intend to use. Lowering her voice, her tone was a bit calmer, soothing like a caress. “Do you mind if I have a look around?” She asked. An excuse to get closer, as well as an excuse to talk to her. “I’m Agatha, it’s nice meeting you,” she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, doing her best to appear as friendly and welcoming. Slowly, she moved toward the desk. Each and every drawer and cabinet was closed. Great. Her eyebrows raised and she glanced at the woman. “Do you know how I can open it? I really don’t want to damage anything,” everything in here was evidence, and she was sorry in advance for ruining the room for forensics. “Do you think you could help me perhaps?” Agatha had had a promise in her head for just a few hours, and it had been hell, she could not imagine how that woman felt, and she wondered for how long she had been there.

“You’ll get us in more trouble,” Chloe replied, still hard against the wall. She didn’t match Agatha’s gentle demeanour, but mouthed the name back at herself. Agatha. Agatha, the cop, rummaging through Lydia’s home. Something prickled in Chloe’s chest. “I don’t think I should help you. She’s coming back. She’ll come back. You can’t- She would want me to stop you.” But Lydia had never said anything about a police officer rummaging through her things. “Under the books. Nineteen forty nine.” There was a keypad. Chloe looked away, her insides churning. Just as quickly, she added, “We chose to be here. We want to be here. She’s going to come back, you know, and that- that’s good.” Two sides, always struggling. Lydia was going to be so upset when she came home to all this damage. The other two didn’t know better yet, but Chloe- Chloe watched Agatha and felt a tiny match in the darkness of her despair. She couldn’t think like that. “It really would be best if you just left, or talked to Lydia when she’s back. It’s not what you think, whatever you think it is.”

Something akin to relief washed over Ariana as he stepped out from his hiding space. Working within the bounds of everything Lydia made them promise wasn’t easy, but she so desperately wanted to get them out of here alive. It wasn’t a guarantee, but hopefully once Lydia was dead some of these promises would be released. She knew better than to ride on that though. She did her best to hide the nervous energy that was pulsing through her. Unlike her, he didn’t have the advantage of supernatural hearing and probably couldn’t even tell that her heart was practically racing. How she was here was a loaded question and there was hardly enough time to explain. “It’s a long story. Lydia had another one of my friends hostage before, I got help. She won’t be keeping you or anyone else like this anymore.” Her eyes nearly dared to plead with him, but she kept herself confident. Todd needed to believe her. He needed to think he wasn’t breaking any promises to find that small space between them. He needed to believe he could go back to his normal life. The certain brightness and enthusiasm he had possessed before seemed so diminished now and it only served to further her hatred for Lydia. Then he said the name Kelly and she felt herself turn queasy. Not her too. That absolute bitch. “Kelly? Singer who is about my age- she- what?” It had only been a few weeks since she last watched her open mic night. How had she forgotten to check back in? “Okay, okay. I didn’t come here alone. We’ll help Kelly and Chloe, too. We just have to find the others.”

He could walk, he could follow her, Todd thought to himself, willing himself to take step after step behind Ariana. It hurt, all of this hurt. It would just be so much easier to stay here. He could hide himself away, tuck himself back in the corner and wait for Lydia to return. It would be better than this pain, wouldn’t it? Swallowing, he stared at Ariana as she talked to him. She knew someone else who’d been here? Someone else who’d been trapped in this house? “I-- Okay. Okay. Chloe, she, she was here with me before, but I don’t know where she went now. Maybe the office? But I want to,” His body contorting in on itself as he let out a wince of pain as he forced himself not to think about leaving, not even dare to hope for it. “I’ll follow you.” He said shakily, the words just enough of a loophole for the magical pain to stop clawing at him. Would this work? Would any of it work? He just wanted to be free.

Shit. She hit her head and Kaden’s first instinct was to reach out and help her, apply pressure, check the wound. But he had a feeling that would only make this worse, cause more pain than he already was. “Sorry, I’m--” Putain, how could he help? He had to-- “What did you promise? We’ll-- Is it that I can’t see you? I’ll shut my eyes or, or-- If you have to hide, we’ll-- put a towel over you and you’re hidden. Right? I-- Just please. Please, I’m going to help. I just want to get you out of here.” He put his hand out for her to take, wedging himself between her and the door, wishing it was enough. She looked so young and so broken already. And he didn’t know what to do. But he had to try. “I know it hurts. It’ll be over, soon. Please. Let me help.”

Kelly just shrank even more deeply into herself. “No, no! You’re lying!” Some part of her knew, deep down, that Josh wouldn’t want her to be like this. Her brother would want her to reach out and take his hand. She knew, god, she knew that leaving was the right choice. Everyone had explained so much, but it still didn’t seem real. Was it really wrong to want the stability and warmth that Lydia offered? As long as she did the right thing, it would be okay. It would be awesome, the music she’d already written in the last couple weeks would more than catch the attention of a crowd bigger than the local bar. But she didn’t know this man, and if she did the wrong thing… well, Chloe’s scars told a story of their own, didn’t they? “I’m being good. Please go away.”

Agatha, her heart heavy in her chest, looked Chloe in the eyes and with all the assertiveness she could muster, assured her that Lydia was not coming back. Never. She made sure not to promise anything, but rather spoke just as calmly, explaining everything she was doing as she moved across the office. 1949. Agatha repeated the number in her head and searching through the books, found a concealed safe. The code provided opened it, and within it, Agatha found what she was looking for. “Thank you,” she gave her a warm smile and sat down at the desk, opening the cabinets one by one. “Do you have any free will left?” She glanced up from the drawer she inspected, once again searching for a hint of anything in the other woman’s eyes. “I do not think anything. I find evidence, and then I draw conclusions,” and what she was seeing was not comforting. In a box, within the drawer, she found a stack of identity papers, some expired, some dating back to a few decades ago. All of those belonged to different faces, and Agatha had to take a deep breath to stop her head from spinning. What the fuck had happened here. Who the fuck was Lydia? Well, at least now she knew who the other woman was. “Chloe, you’re Chloe,” she had a small sigh of relief and a sunny smile for her. “It’s good to meet you Chloe.”

Agatha’s words hit Chloe like a waterfall, crushing her. She didn’t believe it, not at first, but the whiplash sting of Lydia’s biggest rejection hit her right in the chest. She wouldn’t have. She couldn’t have. Chloe hadn’t always behaved, but Lydia wouldn’t lie about going to a fairy ring, would she? Why wouldn’t she- Chloe covered her mouth and stifled an unwelcome sob, determined not to fall apart here, not under the force of toxins she had no control over. That didn’t make it any less real now, her brain could not separate the ache as clearly as it could the intent. “How do you know?” She breathed, scratching at the hives on her neck as Agatha began digging through Lydia’s desk. Finally, she summoned the courage to step away from the wall, staring at the box Agatha pulled out. “That’s a loaded question. I’m still me. It’s- it’s not like I’m just a puppet.” The instinct to protect Lydia even now left an acrid taste in Chloe’s mouth. As Agatha opened the box, her mouth ran dry. Right on the top was Todd’s and Kelly’s drivers licenses, but as Agatha began to sort through, there were more faces than Chloe could begin to recognise. Some, she did. One was a very young Anneliese, who had been taken seven years before her death, barely twenty at the time. Sammy, who looked almost the same, except there was a sparkle in his features in the dull photobooth photograph that she hadn’t seen in his real smile for months. Owen, too, and then there she was. Four years ago. The face there was almost unrecognisable. Agatha smiled warmly, and Chloe could barely force a half smile on her lips. “I guess I’ll find out if it’s good to meet you, Agatha.” There were voices coming from beyond, catching her attention. “Who else is here? More police?”

The pain so clearly etched on Todd’s face only furthered her desire to see Lydia dead. Well, perhaps not actually see her, but at least know she was stopped. Everything in Ariana wanted to grab him and just run out of here. She couldn’t be that reckless though. A broken promise could do more harm than good and she had to get him out of here. Everything about Todd had always been so genuine and sweet from the moment she’d met him. He was the absolute last person who deserved to be trapped here. She should have noticed something sooner. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and assured, “You don’t have to say anything else. I know it hurts. Kaden and Agatha will find the others.” She couldn’t shake the sick feeling in her stomach as she wondered if Kelly was her Kelly. If her decision to not trade her to Lydia to free Sammy or break her promise had been all for nothing. She put on a brave face anyway. Todd needed to believe in her right now even if she didn’t quite believe in herself. He agreed to follow her so she led him out of the room, not daring to leave his side.

Ariana took her time with him and listened for the others until they walked by a room with an open door. Curiosity compelled her to peek inside and she felt her breath hitch in her throat. “I-- we need to go in here first.” The room had a decent stock of pottery along the shelves and she knew they had to be Sammy’s. Her fingers ran along some of the vases as if touching the same clay he once touched would connect her to him again somehow. Her hand stopped on one that had some motifs of the moon decorating it and a sad smile crossed her face. Sammy had to have made it. Without thinking about whether she should, she grabbed it off the shelf and looked back to Todd with strengthened resolve. “Okay, let’s get to the others. Are you-- How are you feeling? We can go slow, just tell me if it hurts too much and we can stop. Figure out a way around it.”

Todd trailed behind Ariana in mute silence, because if he did not talk, he couldn’t lie. He just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, keeping pace with the girl. If he didn’t think about what he was doing, he couldn’t break his promise. If he could just keep his mind clear and just let it happen, the nightmare would end, right? He would be free. Shoulders hunched over, he thought about all the things he would do when he got back. He’d call his parents. Call his siblings. Let them know how much he missed them. Tell them he was sorry for not talking to them more, for not listening to them. He’d call Winston and Ricky and tell them that he hadn’t wanted to lose them. He’d tell them that he hadn’t wanted to cut them off. He’d tell them the truth, that magic was real and that he wanted nothing to do with it anymore. He just wanted to be free. When Ariana turned to look at him, he realized she’d asked him something. Rubbing his arms nervously, he nodded, “I’m… It’s okay. It’s okay right now.” He said. It wasn’t true. He’d been thinking of what would come after all this, and with the thinking, the pain had returned. “We should-- do this. It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay.”

“I’m not. I know it must-- But I’m not lying. Please. Let me help.” Kaden’s hand stayed there, outstretched and untaken. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but he hadn’t prepared for this. Not in the slightest. He was used to dealing with tough scenarios between police and hunting work, sure, but there was a reason he preferred animal control to standard jobs. Dealing with people was hard. Especially when they were going against their best interests so painfully. He knew he must look like a monster, coming in and dragging her out of what was, unfortunately, her home. He couldn’t even imagine how he appeared to her, his face beaten and worn, half of him bandaged and certainly worse for wear. “I’m sorry,” he said before he reached in and pulled her out of the closet, trying to sling her across his back in a fireman's carry. Kaden winced, the pain of everything that came before settling into his bones as he did. It didn’t matter. He pushed it away, he could hurt later. For now, he was sure she was going to resist and fight him tooth and nail. He was going to get her out of here. She could thank him later. “I’m sorry. She’s not coming back. We have to get you out of here.”

Kelly screamed, her voice hoarse from all the singing she’d already been doing the past few hours. She tried to grab the inside of the cupboard, but no matter how hard she pulled it didn’t even slow him down. Terrified of him and terrified of breaking the promise, she trashed her legs and squirmed, but he wasn’t letting go. “Stop it! Let me GO!” She screamed. “YOU’RE HURTING ME! TODD! CHLOE! HELP!”

“That’s my job, dear,” she had a hint of confidence in a smile as she glanced at Chloe, one that matched the light in her eyes. Knowing things was something Agatha had always done quite well, and she did not care for those who called her a Know it all. As if it were an insult. Better a know it all, than a know nothing at all, she had always told herself. Still the look on Chloe’s face took its toll on the police woman’s morale, and she approached Chloe carefully, putting her hands on her arms, and looking her in the eyes. Truth was, the detective was not feeling too great herself. She had just shot a coworker, found out that some people could make you do things, put you in some sort of trance, and now, she had to deal with a case that was getting more horrific the more she found out things. And yet, she kept her chin up, no matter how heavy her heart felt in her chest, no matter how much she wanted to cry and scream as she remembered how scared and helpless she had been back at Kaden’s. She kept her chin up, and she looked at Chloe with a look on her face that said everything is going to be okay, you’re under good care. With Chloe by her side, she had looked at the different IDs and would have kept doing so, had it not been for the screaming. “I’m with another police officer, and a …” She frowned. “Someone who’s great at finding missing people,” well that covered it. “Let’s go have a look, alright? Stay behind me,” she closed the drawer, locked it and took the keys with her as she went out of the office.

“That not an answer,” Chloe replied, squaring her jaw, as if she could make herself immune to Agatha’s gentle demeanor. She didn’t- couldn’t believe it. Lydia had made herself the center of their universes, the sun and stars set at her beck and call. It wasn’t that Chloe missed her, it was that a world without her was impossible to imagine. It was impossible not to want to sob about the pain they’d caused Lydia just by being caught. Chloe was about to ask more about the police officer and the person find her when Kelly began to scream. “Wh-” As soon as they were through the door, when Chloe saw Kelly being hauled around, she didn’t stay behind Agatha at all, running over to Kelly. She almost lost her balance at the last second, staggering slightly as she got close to Todd. It wasn’t a fae promise to Lydia that propelled her forward, but a promise to herself. It had admittedly been about not letting the two kids absorb any of Lydia’s wrath if she could avoid it, but considering Kelly was currently slung over a stranger’s shoulders- she swallowed, grabbing a pencil from a nearby table, as if it could serve against any kind of weapon. “Please… please put her down! You’re hurting her, she doesn’t understand!” Chloe’s head whipped around, looking at Todd, and the girl standing next to him, away, and then blinked. It couldn’t be. Sammy wasn’t that good of a sketch artist.

Okay was such a relative term for Todd to use here when it stood that absolutely none of this was okay. He never should have been here. Ariana should have noticed he was gone. Should have checked in on Kelly more. “Good, just keep pushing forward. Everything is going to be okay,” she assured while placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Was it to steady herself or reassure him? She couldn’t really tell anymore. The vase Sammy made was clutched tightly in her other arm though she nearly dropped it when she heard a scream echo through the hallway. It confirmed it was in fact her Kelly. The very Kelly she decided to keep away from all of this and yet here she was anyway. Fucking bitch. She hoped Athena got a nice stab in for her though immediately chided herself for that thought. “Don’t worry, Todd, she’s just scared. I know all of this is hard and scary, but I’m going to make sure everyone gets out of this, okay?” She desperately hoped she could live up to that statement. They quickly approached Kaden who had Kelly slung over his shoulder. She raced up to comfort Kelly and let her know a familiar face was here. “Hey,” she said softly, getting a good look in Kelly’s eyes, “It’s okay, it’s me, Ari. This is Kaden, he’s not going to hurt you. We’re going to get you out of here, alright? You’re not safe here.”

Even though Todd was doing his best to keep himself together, it felt like his brain was going to explode as he tried to keep himself calm. And then, he heard Kelly screaming, heard her yelling, heard her begging for his help. Then a man, who was carrying her. Terrified, Todd felt the pull of the magic begin to curl in the back of his throat, choking him until he reminded himself that they weren’t friends, that they weren’t guests, they weren’t invited. Which didn’t count, it didn’t count, this was a loophole. Even so, he’d heard the fear in Kelly’s voice. He hoped that Ariana was right, that he wouldn’t hurt them. But, what choice did he have? He knew he couldn’t stay here, even though every inch of his body wanted to curl up and hide and wait for Lydia to return. He had to do this. The very thought sent another sharp wave of pain stabbing through his side and Todd staggered a bit, leaning against the wall. “We… We’re not safe here.” He repeated, because it was true and it wasn’t bound in magic. “Hurry. Hurry.” He urged the others. This nightmare, this hell? He just wanted it to end.

Chloe looked from Agatha to their other rescuers, to Todd, his face scrunched in concentration. Her stomach churned, her insides turned inside out at the thought of how disappointed Lydia would be, at the promises that she was so close to breaking with every breath. “We’re not going anywhere special, okay? We’re going to go look at the Magritte. If you lied to me-” Chloe turned to Agatha, her voice trembling, “If you lied, you could be killing us. But, we’re not doing anything special right now this second. We’re just going to get some inspiration from the Magritte painting. Without Lydia around- Without Lydia around we can just get some second hand inspiration from one of her ancestors.” The painting downstairs, near the front door. She looked back at the blue haired girl, and thought about the glaze Sammy had ordered in just that shade of blue. Could it be?

Kaden was used to screams in his ears. And she wasn’t even a banshee. Not that it stopped her from trying to rival them, that was for sure. He winced under the weight of her kicking and thrashing against his back. If he clenched his jaw, maybe he wouldn’t feel the pain shooting through his arm, maybe he could just ignore it. As he entered into the foyer, he saw Ari and Keen along with two others. They must be the other hostages. His brow furrowed as the woman begged him to put Kelly down. Guilt seeped deeper into him as he did as he was told, placing her down gently as he could and taking a step back. “Sorry, I-- I’m-- She wouldn’t leave the closet and I didn’t know what else to--” Before he could apologize any further, he felt the pain flashing through his arm again and rubbed the wound. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I--” As Ari said his name, it occurred to him that he never introduced himself, either. Why the fuck was he even here? He certainly wasn’t fucking helping, was he? “That’s right. I’m Kaden. Officer Langley. And this is Detective Keen. And we’re--” His face scrunched up in confusion again when Chloe explained even further. “Just…. here to… admire the, uh, the art.” Was that right? Was that what she was suggesting? There must have been layers upon layers of word binding and fae magic at work. And certainly she’d know how to work around it better than him. “So let’s all head downstairs and make sure we get a good look.” He held out his hand and gestured for them to go ahead of him. He’d make sure they made it down the stairs one way or another. As much as he didn’t want to have to carry on as he had been.

Kelly almost bolted the second she was set down, and would have if Ariana hadn’t been right there, alongside Todd. “I don’t understand. Ariana? Are you here too? Did she get you too?” She looked from Ariana to Todd to Chloe, who was slowly lowering her pencil. She looked at Todd, then Chloe, her face wrinkling. “I-... I don’t want to go. We should be staying here, for Lydia.” She looked at Kaden Langley, who was apparently a police officer, which meant… which meant… “Just… Just looking at the art, right. Um, okay.” She agreed, and cautiously walked down the stairs, to look at the Magritte.

Shit. She rushed after Chloe, and stopped in the foyer, where the rest of them were. So there were two other hostages then. At least two, she corrected herself, observing what was going on. She almost said something about Kaden’s way of handling the issue, but decided against it. Agatha refused to demolish his authority in a situation as unstable as this one, even if she did not like this. “Well now she’s out of the closet,” this was not intended as a joke, and she kept her upper lip stiff. “Alright, yes. We were going to go downstairs to look at the Magritte,” wait they had a Magritte in here? What the fuck. Her face remained neutral, but the cogs in her heads were starting to hurt, as it seemed that she was hopping from surprise to surprise in this house. As one of the people in the room mentioned that Lydia could come back, she looked over at Chloe and shook her head, to remind her that no, Lydia was gone. Apparently the person Kaden had been carrying was not ready for that, and it was probably best to persuade her out of here through other means. She approached her coworker and, her eyebrow raised, she commented: “this is even worse than we imagined, isn’t it?”

Magritte? Who was that? Todd wasn’t sure what they were talking about; hadn’t Ariana told him they were going to get-- A fresh spike of pain had him leaning heavily against the hallway, grasping at his side. No, no, no, no. No, they were just going to see Magritte or whatever and they were… he was being good. He was listening, he was keeping his promise. He wasn’t disobeying. He was here, he was here, he was here. “Uh huh. Uh huh.” He nodded, trying to keep his mind as clear of this as he could. But, it was getting harder and harder to not think of the circumstances when he realized that the two not-guests Ariana had were police officers. “Let’s go look at the art.” He nodded in agreement.

The inclination to run was evident on Kelly’s face and she couldn’t ignore the guilt churning in her stomach. Ariana should have figured out a way to warn her, she did know she was perfect prey for Lydia. She reached out to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “It’s me,” she said softly, “She didn’t get me. I figured out what was going on here.” The other woman had to be Chloe. Sammy had mentioned her and she had hoped she’d still be here. That she hadn’t been too late. There was something akin to relief running through her, but they weren’t out of the clear just yet. She nodded, “Chloe’s right. We should all get some inspiration from Magritte.” Whoever the hell that was. It hardly mattered if it helped them out of here. It was only a matter of time before Lydia was dead if she wasn’t already. Kelly didn’t seem ready to face that news so they’d focus on one thing at a time.

Magritte was a painter Lydia liked to show off several times a year, because his bizarre art style was often popular, even in the less expensive and famous pieces that she owned. Had owned, if she had abandoned it all here. Chloe paused the group in front of the painting, her hand curled in a tight fist to distract from the pain of thinking about this. “She’s not coming back,” Chloe said softly to the other two, taking Kelly’s hand in her own. Sickeningly, it reminded her of how Lydia comforted them from time to time, so she dropped that hand just as quickly. “It’s going to hurt more the longer we wait.” Chloe had been here too long. Her bones felt stiff, her body weary. She couldn’t frighten them off, especially Kelly, who was struggling to understand so much. “You’re going to have to break a promise. These-” Chloe looked at Kaden, who Lydia had once described as the most monstrous french creature in town, with frightening strength, and then to Ariana, who was a werewolf, that Sammy had waxed lyrical about. “These people can help, but it’s going to hurt, okay? But you’re going to go first, both of you, and it’s going to be -ah,” Chloe curled in on herself as the promise against lies pulled a stitch in her side. “We’ll figure it out. She’s not coming back, leaving isn’t disappointing her.”

“And it’s not over yet,” Kaden said quietly to Keen. He lingered behind in the foyer, let everyone go down ahead of him, hand hovering by his pistol, just in case. He knew there was no one else here, but something about this place made him worry that anything could jump out at them at any time. That it couldn’t be as simple as walking right out the front door. When they got down there by what he assumed was the Magritte, he turned the door handle and pushed. It was nearly silent, and yet the sound of the door swinging open on its hinges echoed around them. He took a step past the threshold of the house like it was simple. For him, it was. “She’s right,” he said after Chloe spoke. “This isn’t going to be easy. Even if Lydia’s gone and never coming back.” There was no guarantee this would work, that the promises wouldn’t hold post death. As far as he knew, they did. That’s what the fae all said, at least. Words were more powerful than mortality. “Is there, uh, any more inspiration outside? On the grounds, maybe?” he asked tentatively, trying to catch Chloe’s eye for some confirmation that he was on the right track. There wasn’t much left in the garden that wasn’t destroyed, not now. But that wasn’t the point. “Kelly? Are you okay to find out? Maybe take a look?” he asked, shifting his focus to her and tentatively holding out his hand.

The moment of truth was upon them. They were coming up on the door and this was where things would get difficult. Ariana took in a deep breath to keep herself steady as she spoke. “That could work, I know the promises are varied,” she said in a hushed tone mostly meant for Kaden and Agatha to hear. She stood closer to Agatha, but she hoped Kaden’s handy dandy hunter hearing would come into play here. “She usually makes them promise not to leave her home. Not to make any sounds when guests are present, they can’t even sneeze. She’ll turn anything they say that she can into a promise. I’m not sure what our work around should be.”

Agatha still didn’t understand how this worked, it was most likely hypnosis, but there was a way to go around those, as she’d found out earlier, as she shot Kaden without causing too much harm to him. As Ariana mentioned Lydia’s home, the detective had a small, and yet malicious smile. There might have been a way for them all to get out of here, and no one getting hurt, she thought to herself. She felt her heart lifting in her chest as she took a deep breath. “This is not her home anymore,” she glanced at Ariana, then at her coworker and added. “She left, and this is a crime scene. This place is now under custody of the police department,” her smile brightened and she gave Chloe a look full of hope, nodding at her.

Kelly stared at Kaden’s hand, as he offered it, and took it cautiously. She was pretty sure it didn’t work like that, and one look at Chloe’s face suggested it wasn’t very convincing. But Ariana… Ariana just knew, apparently, she knew things about Lydia that Kelly hadn’t until it was way too late. Finally, she looked to Agatha. “It’s- A crime scene? But, I want.” Chloe swallowed. “She left. It’s not her home. I- okay.” She turned back to Kaden, grit her teeth, and tried to move. Her joints locked up, freezing her in the doorway. “Help,” she breathed, her muscles beginning to burn as if she’d run a marathon rather than just walked down the stairs. Everything in her strained to stay inside the house, to drop his hand, to return to their bedroom and curl away from the world. It felt like it was breaking a promise, it felt wrong, even if this wasn’t Lydia’s home. She didn’t even know if her hesitation was psychological or the promise itself. It was embarrassing, all these people watching her. But suddenly her muscles moved and Kaden pulled and she had to put her foot down just so she wouldn’t fall on her face, and… she was outside. Kelly stared up at Kaden with the biggest look of confusion, then back through the door. “I’m… okay? I’m okay!”

This all sounded way too easy. Kaden wasn’t sure if they could just walk out the door and be perfectly okay. Would Keen’s idea even work? He held his breath and waited, watching Kelly take tepid steps towards the door. It felt like she stood there forever. Maybe she couldn’t do it on her own. And when she asked for help, it was clear that she couldn’t. Help. He was trying, but he didn’t know if he was doing the right thing. That didn’t stop him from trying. He reached out and pulled her across the threshold. He braced himself for her to collapse into pain or try to run back, something, anything. “You’re okay?” he repeated. The tension held in his chest dissipated as relief started to wash over him. One down. This would work. They’d be okay. They could save them. “You’re going to be okay,” he assured her with a smile before looking back to see who was next.

A tiny ball dissolved in Chloe’s chest as Kelly’s eyes lit up properly in the outside floodlights. Kelly looked from the door to Kaden and the outside again. It would start to ache soon enough, she knew. Not the promise, perhaps, but biochemical need to be with Lydia. Chloe just didn’t point that out. She also didn’t point out that Kelly and Todd only had a couple dozen promises between them, far fewer things to trip over than Chloe’s hundreds of promises. She looked at Agatha briefly, and tried to match that smile with one of her own. Maybe Lydia being gone meant Lydia being dead. Chloe swallowed, and tried to smile even more brightly for Todd. “You next, tough guy.” She gave him a quick hug, just in case she didn’t make it to the other side with them.

Thankfully, Agatha seemed to say the right thing and with a little push, Kelly was over the threshold. Ariana felt like she could breathe a little easier. This could work. They were going to get everyone out of here. She wasn’t going to fail all of them the same way she failed Sammy. She just needed to keep herself steady and confident to give the other two the push they needed to get out of here. They were relying on her so she did her best to hide her shock. “You’re okay,” she said with a soft smile before turning to Todd. Chloe had given him a quick hug and she stood beside him. Ariana placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You got this, we’re almost there,” she explained and offered up her hand if he wanted to take it.

Listening intently to the others, Todd tried to reassure himself that they were right. This wasn’t Lydia’s home anymore, it wasn’t hers. It was a crime scene. And he’d be able to leave a crime scene, right? She didn’t live here, it wasn’t her property, it wasn’t hers anymore. She didn’t own this place and she didn’t own him. He watched, with bated breath, as Kelly stepped over the threshold and out into the yard. And, for a long moment, all eyes were glued on her. But, if the punishment was going to come, wouldn’t it have happened already? A rush of relief washed over him as Kelly celebrated. Swallowing, he nodded at the others around him. “I got this,” He mumbled, cheek pressed against Chloe’s head as she hugged her tightly. “I got this. We’re getting out of here. We’re getting out of here.” He said and looked at Ariana with a nod.

Todd took a deep breath, steadying himself. This wasn’t her home, it was a crime scene. It was a crime scene. Those were the words he kept repeating to himself as he leaped forward, forcing himself to push through the pain that threatened to bring him to his knees. It wasn’t hers, he wasn’t hers. He was going to be free, just like Kelly and then Chloe would join them and they’d all be free. He’d be able to tell his parents how sorry he was, he’d apologize to Winston, he’d tell them everything about what had happened, he’d make it up to Ariana for having to rescue him from this. He’d do so much, once he was free. And, as he staggered upright in the front yard, he looked around with wide eyes.

But that’s not how Fae promises work.

Excruciating pain stabbed through his chest, starting in his heart and exploding outwards. It felt like someone had injected liquid metal into his body, boiling hot, and burning him from the inside out. A choking scream escaped his lips as Todd’s knees buckled underneath him, unable to keep him upright. He collapsed onto his stomach, body shaking with tremors as his hands reached up to grip his skull. His head felt as though it was imploding, like someone had stuck his brain in a vacuum, like it was going to collapse in on itself. His fingers clawed at his chest, his forehead, scraping at the flesh in an attempt to relieve the pain. He scrabbled against the earth, screaming, weeping, bleeding as he tried to crawl back to the house. But, he’d broken his promise.

With a shuddering gasp, Todd’s eyes rolled to the back of his head. A final violent tremor ran through his body and then, the DJ was no more.

“You totally got this,” Ariana assured as he prepared himself to step outside of Lydia’s home. Kelly making it over the threshold had given her confidence that Todd would be okay. That he’d leave here and she could tell Winston they’d need to look after him from here on out. She’d be a better friend. She’d check in on him more and make sure no more vile women like Lydia went near him ever again. If she hadn’t completely erased the word from her vocabulary, she would have promised him as much. She stood just outside the doorway now, ready to give him a hand if needed. There was a momentary proud look on her face as he began to step out of the house that was quickly replaced with one of horror.

“No,” Ariana whispered to herself, “No.” She quickly knelt down to try and hold Todd up, but the way he was clawing at his own chest made it impossible to do so. The pain on his face and in his screams was enough to make her feel sick. She reached out unsure of what to do. “Todd, no, breathe.” Come on, just breathe. Please don’t. “You’re over, it’s over, you’ll-” Her voice was strained and her hands felt useless trying to find a way to keep him upright. There had to be something she could do, but she was paralyzed by trying to find the answer, hands still extended hoping he’d reach for them and find a way to steady himself. Grip to her through the pain, she could take it. What she couldn’t take was what happened instead.

Defeat was evident in the way her features contorted on her face. Ariana dropped down to the ground beside Todd, hoping against all better judgment that this wasn’t it. That he just needed to be carried out of here. Her ears felt as if they were about to pop with the pressure that was building up as she bit back tears. Still, she listened for any sign of a heartbeat, but there was none to be found. Shaky hands reached down to feel for Todd’s pulse even though she knew better. She knew she failed Todd just like she had failed Sammy. “I’m so sorry,” she breathed out soft enough that no one with ordinary hearing would be able to hear. She was frozen in place, staring down at the damage as if she could will it to change. Will Todd to move again, to stand up and say this was all some sort of joke. She wanted to move, wanted to remember that Kelly and Chloe still needed her, but she couldn’t find it in her to stand back up. They were better off with Kaden and Agatha anyhow. All she seemed to do is make this whole thing worse.

Kelly watched Todd with wide eyes as Todd stepped over the door, her own smile cautiously watching him. For a second, when his foot touched the pavement, he was fine, and Kelly was about to be ready to celebrate with him when he contorted. She jumped back as he screamed, her hand flying over her mouth as he clutched at his head. “Do something!” She cried out, but stood frozen on the ground as Todd collapsed to the ground. “Do something!” He tried to crawl back, but it was too late. He shook, once, twice, as Kelly leant against

Kaden and wept, but the silence after his last scream was so much worse. Watching Ariana, Kelly found the courage to move forward too, cracking her knees against the pavement as she knelt over him. “TODD!” Kelly shook his shoulders, and then did the only thing she could think of, a move half remembered from a training video she’d watched years ago. Pounding on his chest, Kelly begged him to come back, or anything.

For all the misery in Kelly’s scream, the sound Chloe made was even more wretched. She choked and gagged after trying to scream herself, silent tears spilling down her face. “Don’t ever scream again,” Lydia had once told her, and Chloe had promised without hesitation, Sammy’s blood still soaking her clothes. Her tongue swelled up as if stung by a bee. Chloe clutched her chest until the coughing subsided, but when she looked up, Todd was already dead. “No,” Chloe breathed, sagging against the wall. Surrender was so much easier. “No, no.” She could clean it up. She could fix the door and sweep up the glass and make everything fine, so Lydia wouldn’t be upset. Todd wouldn’t have to bear the weight of Lydia’s wrath if Chloe was- She swallowed. Todd was dead. It was too late.

Kaden stood and watched as Todd started to walk forward. He knew he shouldn’t be as hopeful as he felt, and yet, he was sure this would work. Up until the kid collapsed. Part of him wanted to reach out, but Ari was already there, so he held Kelly back instead for the moment. The last thing they needed was for her to go back into that place. And Ari had it. Didn’t she? He would be-- But he wasn’t fine. He seized and Kelly and Chloe screamed. Kaden wasn’t sure what he did because the world seemed to stop and stand still. His grip on Kelly fell and all he could do was watch as she and Ari tried to bring Todd back to life. The sounds finally hit his ears and the world was turning again. He didn’t need to feel his pulse, he saw Ari check it and he could hear that his heart was no longer beating. There was no more hope left for Todd. He thought about pulling Kelly away, Ari, too. But he thought better of it. There was nothing more he could do there and they were okay as they could be. But Chloe. What was going to happen to Chloe? His pulse spiked as he looked over at her. “Hey,” he said trying to catch her attention from the other side of the doorway. “Chloe, I know-- Don’t give up. Not yet. Don’t--” He wasn’t sure he was any help. His eyes darted to Agatha, hoping she might have an answer. Forcing Chloe out of the house seemed so much more dangerous now. But she couldn’t stay, could she? Putain. What did they do?

All she could do was watch, watch Todd drop to the ground, Kelly beg, Chloe turn back to the state she found her in back in the office. She’d never been one to stand and watch as things happened before her, and yet, here she was completely speechless as she tried to make sense of what had happened here. Elation had given room to death and despair much too soon. If her heart once again felt heavy in her chest, she put it aside, refusing this desperate situation to take control of them all. If Kelly had managed to get out, then maybe Chloe would be fine, or maybe Agatha would regret this. Sourly. Gathering all the softness that she could muster, the detective squatted down, sitting just a little lower than Chloe, and with hope in her eyes, she looked straight into Chloe’s and reached for her hands, slowly. She would have usually gone straight to the other side of the door, see if she could do anything to help save Todd, but there was something inevitable, almost prophetic about the way he had died. Brutal, ruthless, with no chance of survival. Yet, Agatha believed. She looked at Chloe as someone who believed, and when she spoke, if it felt like walking on a line high above the ground, she made sure not to look down. “We’re going to try. You and I, we’re going to try, because we know she’s gone for good, and I know there’s a lot for you out there, so much more than in here. Think of all the places you’ll go, and see. The beauty,” there was a quiver in her voice the more she spoke, but she did not break. “Let’s try, please.”

“I gave up years ago,” Chloe snapped at Kaden, instantly regretting her words as Kelly whimpered. She rubbed her face, trying to get the tears against her face. She pulled a face that she hoped looked like an apology to Kaden, but her gaze slid back to Todd, dead on the floor. Like Sammy, trying to escape in his own way. Sammy had meant to come back, but it hadn’t made any difference. Chloe had cleaned his brain off the wall because of it, and she had thought then that she was proud of him having tried to escape. Maybe a quick death was better than what Anneliese had had in the end. Taking Agatha’s hand, she stood up shakily. Every atom in her wanted to split itself into two: the part that needed to stay, and the part that had seen Lydia for the viper she had been from the start. She didn’t listen to Agatha’s pretty words. Pretty words held lies and half truths. Everyone was looking at Todd’s dead body, and wondering how hers would survive if his hadn’t. They all used different words, which to fae made all the difference, but Chloe could barely remember what words she’d used before this. Hell, a single tense could kill her or save her. She just… couldn’t say that. She couldn’t tell them that she’d resigned herself to dying in this dragon’s lair years ago. She couldn’t extinguish the hopes on her rescuers’ faces before trying.

“Look away,” Chloe said to Kelly, and didn’t even try until Kelly had. She took a deep breath, nearly throwing up with the effort of pushing her muscles over the edge. It was like trying to get through tar. Maybe it wasn’t worth the fight at all. She could live here comfortably until her natural death, which was what Lydia would want. She could avoid the pain of breaking this promise. She grit her teeth. Life in a gilded cage was still caged. Then, like an elastic band snapping, she was over the threshold and felt nothing trying to pull her back in. Chloe inhaled the chilly, winter air, and thought maybe she should have grabbed a coat before all this. Then lightning tore through her mind, blood spilled on her face from her nose, and Chloe went the same way Todd had, right to the ground.

Everything around her kept moving, but Ariana remained frozen for a moment, staring at Todd’s lifeless body. If she stared at it long enough, maybe it would distort back to how it was supposed to be. Kelly and Chloe’s screams barely even registered in her ears until Kelly was beside her beating on Todd’s chest. Kelly. She’d wanted so badly for her to never know this kind of pain, so much so she put herself through more just to avoid it, but it had all been for not. Hadn’t they lost enough? Seeing Kelly’s panic awoke something in her and she took a shaky breath. She could be strong for right now. She could be strong for Kelly who needed someone to be strong for her. Kaden and Agatha were already with Chloe. After her failed attempt with Todd, it only seemed right to leave that to them. This, she could do. She placed her hand gently on Kelly’s shoulder and softly said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but he’s gone. We need to keep moving and help Chloe now, okay?”

“Well I haven’t,” Kaden replied, not combatively but with no room to argue. He knew hope hurt like hell. He didn’t know how long she’d been there or how she got there, but he could only imagine that trying to hold onto any spark of hope in the situation she found herself in would have torn her apart. He was getting used to holding onto hope for someone else, carrying it for them when they couldn’t bear to conceive of it. He’d do it for her now if he could. And thankfully, so would Keen. He was grateful she was there, keeping them level and together, standing beside Chloe. He nodded and waited on the other side of the door, just in case anything went wrong. Now that there was no doubt just how possible that was.

He watched her closely, monitored each step she took. He saw the struggle on her face, but there was a brief pause where she looked like she was just fine, like she would face the same fate as Kelly. And then the blood poured from her nose. “No. No, no,” he started and she tumbled down towards the ground. Kaden lunged out for her, catching her before she toppled to the ground, stumbling down to his knees as he did. “Chloe! Chloe, no,” he shouted, giving her one shake to try and revive her. She couldn't die. She couldn’t. They were going to fix this, they were supposed to save them. Losing Todd was horrible enough this-- “Chloe, please, don’t--” He could feel his own breaths get shallow and then remembered to check her pulse. Her heart had slowed, but it was still beating. “I think she’s alive. She should be--” Please wake up, please. These people deserved so much better and Lydia didn’t deserve a single victory, even in death.

For a short moment, Agatha had wondered whether Chloe would step over that threshold or not. Perhaps she should have, she thought to herself. No, no, absolutely not. A life spent in this house was not a life, and the detective was both proud and full of sorrow as she reflected on Chloe’s last action. No, this could not be her last. No, no, no, no. The detective repeated the word under her breath, exiting the house last to rush to Chloe’s side. “I’m calling an ambulance,” she declared, glancing at everyone around her as she dialled the number. She would call for backup next, but for now they had to save Chloe while they still could. “Put her on her side,” she commanded, standing up and walking aside to speak to the

Operator.

“No,” Kelly said, tear tracks on her face. She looked over to Ariana. “No, I can’t- I don’t understand. I don’t understand what happened. He- he was fine. Chloe- Chloe, don’t!” She stared at Chloe before nodding and squeezing her eyes shut. She whimpered as she heard Kaden yell, her eyes flashing open to look at Ari. It wasn’t until Agatha said she was calling an ambulance that she dared look back okay. “Is it over?”

There were warm arms around her. A chilly breeze tickled her cheeks. Grey winter light streamed through her eyelids. There was more pain than Chloe had felt in months, but there was more than that too. She blinked open her eyes, and tried to sit up. That- that was a bad idea. “I think- I think I’m going to stay down here,” Chloe murmured. She squinted up at the three of them, Agatha walking away with her phone, Kaden holding her and Ariana holding Kelly. That blue hair... “You’re the one who tried to save Sammy, aren’t you?” She asked Ariana softly, her voice croaking. Her eyes drifted back over to Todd, his eyes shuttered. No one home. She moved just enough to take his hand. There was so much pain. There was also something else.

Ariana couldn’t refrain from outwardly cringing when she saw the struggle Chloe went through upon exiting the home. Prison. Whatever someone would call it. This couldn't be happening. Lydia couldn’t be having this much of a victory. Not in death. Her stomach turned as she was unable to take her eyes off the scene in front of her. A comforting hand remained on Kelly’s shoulder though at some point she had to wonder which one of them she was even supporting. The blur of sounds around her stopped mattering as she remained hyperfocused on the sound of Chloe’s heartbeat that wasn’t quitting. She was still there. Still fighting. Hope wasn’t lost yet though the fear of it being crushed yet again was far from gone. An ambulance was on the way and Kaden was supporting Chloe, keeping her on her side. The storm had died down and she calmly said, “It’s over.” As much as it could be over. She knew better than to believe they wouldn’t be living with the scars long after this. “You’re free,” she assured Kelly as she still stared at Chloe. Her voice sounded strained, but Sammy’s name rang out in her mind. She nodded slowly and said, “I-- That’s me. I’m sorry I didn’t. But you’re getting out of here and she’ll never do this to anyone again.” She knew Athena would make sure of that. Everything still felt like hell and she could hear the sirens approaching in the distance, but it was over. This was finally over.

Kaden tried to get Chloe on her side before she pulled herself up. “Hey, wait, don’t--” Thankfully she figured it out before he had to pull her back down. He nodded at Keen as she went over to call 911. “We have to call in the death,” he added. It was meant to be nothing more than matter of fact, procedure. It hit him harder than he expected. They were supposed to save them. All of them. He wasn’t even sure if Chloe would remain okay. If she had broken free from all of the promises. But she was here. And breathing. And out of that prison of a house. He looked up at it, most of the windows broken or covered. It was shattered, just like the illusion of who Lydia was. Forever. He wanted to burn the place down, be rid of it and her once and for all. But they needed the evidence still left there. They’d make sure that no trace left of Lydia Griffin would be praised or lauded ever again. And make sure that Kelly and Chloe got justice they deserved, some compensation or retribution for this. And that meant leaving that awful place intact. “It’s over,” he repeated. “You’re safe,” he said, looking from Kelly back to Chloe. He hoped that was finally true.

Returning to Chloe’s side, Agatha assured her that an ambulance would come soon, and that she would be taken good care of. Her eyes then drifted toward Kaden’s arm, then to him. A silent nod answering his demand, the detective once again stepped away from the rest of the group, this time calling the morgue. She looked away, the group fussing around Chloe, responding mechanically to the operator's injunctions on the other end of the line. A tear came to burn her cheek, then another. With an audible sniff, she turned her back to the others, and walked away a little further. Behind his back, she heard Kaden repeat: You're safe, and although she was often optimistic this time, the idea that this nightmare was over did not seem to satisfy. Not that she thought all was well that ended well, but because it was hard to believe until Chloe got out of the woods.

#para #chatzy #agatha #humans #ariana #kaden #chloe #kelly #todd #emotional abuse tw #domestic abuse tw #vomit tw #drug manipulation tw #message if you need summary

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that-shamrock-vibe · 5 years ago

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TV Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Spoilers)

Part Two: Batwoman

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day after the episode airs in the U.S. so if you haven’t yet seen the episode or are waiting to watch the crossover all in on, don’t read on until you have.

Overview:

I was right, and I’m so annoyed they couldn’t keep the high momentum of the first episode here. Where Part One felt like an epic and grand high-stakes crossover opener, Part Two feels more like the typical and somewhat formulaic Arrowverse episode. The problem with that is, it’s supposed to be both! I don’t quite get how the episode that had the most elements I was looking forward to fizzled this much.

But now with the true enemy finally revealing himself, and the promise of more Paragons to find, can Crisis save itself while it destroys the Multiverse?

Avenging the Fallen:

So the episode opens with the three main women of the Arrowverse, Kara, Sara and Kate, drinking in memory of Oliver. I have to say, I know this is a Batwoman episode and these three women in particular do often preach girl power and all that, but the fact Ray isn’t there at least does just make it seem like they wanted this girl power moment, and as Kate said, the Multiverse is still in danger.

As I mentioned when talking about Batwoman in my Elseworlds review, there were problems that fortunately have been fixed by Batwoman the TV series mostly, I still don’t like the fact she’s not a red head, I still don’t like how similar Ruby Rose and Erin Richards look because it’s distracting to me. Even a choppy bob style as Kate has in the comics would differentiate the two more for me.

That being said, Ruby Rose sold the dry cynical humour here as she does in her own series. I loved how she left the drink here but later wished she hadn’t, in that same scene when the Monitor reveals Batman’s secret identity how she demands discretion from the team was funny, Kara finding Earth-99 Luke Fox attractive and Kate finding it weird I thought was hilarious and Ruby Rose sold that very well for me.

Also, for all Kara’s mourning about her lost planet, there was no confirmation on where Alex, Brainy, J’onn, Nia, Kelly or Lena were after the climax of Part One. I know Brainy and I think J’onn are in future parts of this crossover but it would have been good for a side comment saying where they are.

Speaking of mourning, my god Mia goes hard here. It’s funny because in last week’s episode of Arrow, Oliver was all for Diggle finding a way to get Mia and William back to 2040, yet Mia is still around and making understandably emotion-driven but drastic decisions and both Barry and Sara, who are supposed to be older, wiser and more level-headed particularly in this area, are going along with it.

Barry especially, I believe, feels that if he can help Oliver cheat his fate then maybe he can as well considering that Iris has now got the idea that with The Monitor being wrong about how Oliver died maybe Barry won’t die either, that’s just stupid to give someone who has already accepted his fate and has been known to make the stupidest decisions going (Flashpoint) when he feels he can change it.

Mia decides to use a Lazarus Pit to resurrect Oliver and, like I said, both Barry and Sara agree. Sara does need some convincing I grant you and Caity Lotz does sell that she is never fully on-board with the idea, and why would she be because she knows first hand what the pits do.

I did appreciate the Nyssa mention, I just wish she had been their guide to the pit on Earth-18, instead we get a mini-fight between Mia, Sara and an unaltered Jonah Hex.

I did kind of guess Hex would appear as soon as the location was revealed as North Dakota, and to be fair I didn’t really see where Jonah Hex would fit into this crossover, so I am glad they found a space for him.

I also like that Constantine has something to do finally, because I am tired of just seeing Sara and Ray, as much as I love Sara and tolerate Ray, it’s called Legends of Tomorrow and currently I think has the biggest main cast out of these shows...so why am I being drip-fed Legends with now the addition of Constantine and Mick...again I do enjoy both of them but give me the god damn team.

Barry and Constantine bring Oliver to the Lazarus Pit and, as expected, Oliver emerges as an out of control rage monster that Stephen Amell does not sell quite as well as Caity Lotz or Willa Holland previously have.

I guessed Oliver would somehow be brought back, because while the Arrowverse execs try to say “We killed him off in part one to show no one is safe”, it was an eye-roll for me because you’re not going to kill the original main star of the Arrowverse in the first part.

My only issue with it is it happened so quickly, there was no time really to miss him because he was dead at the end of part one and suddenly they’re talking about bringing him back.

Sara had an entire season between death and resurrection and Thea’s resurrection came with great sacrifice on Oliver’s part joining the League of Assassins. Here, we had Constantine saying that the antimatter was making him lose his magic so he couldn’t bring back Oliver’s soul like he did for Sara, which only makes me wonder why they’re wasting time trying to bring someone back rather than stopping existence from dying.

Paragon Pursuit - Bat of the Future:

Okay so, apparently The Monitor has recently discovered seven Paragons across the Multiverse that can come together to defeat the Anti-Monitor. He knows this from retrieving the Book of Destiny from the timeline which was the McGuffin in Elseworlds last year.

Fortunately four of these paragons are known to The Monitor, the Paragon of Hope is Kara Zor-El and the Paragon of Destiny is Sara Lance. I got why this worked because Supergirl’s main brand is all about hope and she’s from a parallel world while Sara is of Earth-1 tying into the fact these seven Paragons are spread across the multiverse.

The Monitor tells the team that two more Paragons are to be found on different Earths, the first is the Bat of the Future on Earth-99 which Mar-Novu name drops as Bruce Wayne, much to Ray’s surprise and Kate’s annoyance.

Again I am actually enjoying Brandon Routh in this crossover, and cannot understand why he isn’t at this level on his own show.

Kate and Kara go to Earth-99 where they come across a dilapidated Wayne Manor, which looks more dishevelled than the one from the DCEU, and meet Earth-99 Luke Fox...who I had to double-take to ensure it was in fact Camrus Johnson partly because of how different he looks not geeked up and also because he is the only other main character of Batwoman to appear in this Batwoman episode.

Now I get that none of the other supporting players are vigilantes at this point, but not even Earth-1 Luke Fox making an appearance is slightly unfair, and you could argue that during Invasion! None of Supergirl’s supporting players were involved, but Supergirl still had an episode in that week which featured its main cast.

Again also Kate’s reaction to Kara finding this Luke attractive was probably my favourite moment in the episode.

Once forcing their way inside, Kate and Kara meet Earth-99 Batman, Mr. Kevin Conroy. I was so looking forward to seeing this veteran Batman voice actor in live-action and when you don’t see him talking, he sounds a lot like Batman of the DCAU, the only problem is I was promised Kingdom Come Batman and didn’t really get that.

I don’t know Kingdom Come that well but I thought Batman was supposed to be the main force of good left in the world, yet not only is he killing his rogues as displayed in his trophy case, including a Riddler cane which I also own, but he also killed Superman.

It’s at this point that Kate and Kara realise that this Batman is not the Paragon of Courage they were sent to retrieve and at that point Batman turns on Supergirl apparently hating Kryptonians.

Now this is where it gets interesting because before this, there is actually some good character moments for Bruce and Kate where Bruce tries to make Kate see that where he is in his mindset is where she should be, not trusting anyone, not believing in anything, just becoming the night basically.

It echoes similarly to what Lex Luthor tried to install in Lena last season which eventually worked as we know and it apparently maybe worked here because, even though Kate saved Kara from her doppleganger cousin, she still kept that Kryptonite wrist strap of his...what does she plan on doing?

Anyway before the Kryptonite reveal, we see Kate and Kara return to base where they tell The Monitor they failed retrieving the Paragon, but The Monitor reveals that the Bat of the Future and the Paragon of Courage is in fact Kate herself.

I don’t know how to feel about this, I love the fact Batwoman is being spotlighted even though she is the new girl, however, it does seem like the only reason she is the Paragon is because this is her show.

Also to have two Paragons from the same Earth? Not exactly far spread out.

Paragon Pursuit - Reign of the Supermen:

While Kate and Kara are on Earth-99, Earth 38′s Clark and Lois, and Iris for some reason, scourer the Multiverse for the Paragon of Truth, which is revealed to be a Superman...but which Superman.

Well just before they head off a spanner is thrown into the works in the form of Earth-38s Lex Luthor. We knew Jon Cryer would be back, I thought he would have returned in the Supergirl episode but we also see at least three other versions of Superman here so why not.

Anyway Lex steals the Book of Destiny because the Monitor apparently brought him back to be duped by the supervillain, shocker, and Lex travels the Multiverse killing off Supermen.

Clark, Lois and Iris first arrive on Earth-75 where they are too late because Earth-38 Lex has already killed this version of Superman who lies dead on the big screen with his Lois mourning the loss.

Their second attempt sees them arrive on Earth-167, which is the vaguest Easter-Egg reference going as it refers to Smallville co-producer Al Gough’s year of birth 1967...

When Tom Welling said he and Erica Durance were only in one scene they weren’t kidding, however I loved it. I am a massive Smallville fan, it was my proper Superman introduction, these versions of Clark and Lois are my Clark and Lois and that’s not going to change.

The decision for Clark not to have powers here is a weird one because they highlighted the fact that the Smallville Comics which followed the TV series would count as canon, yet aside from returning to the Kent Farm nothing we learn about Clark and Lois here was mentioned in the comics.

Also Clark and Lois have daughters, I’m not sure who they’re supposed to be but I’ve only ever known them to have a son...Jonathan...and since when did all the Supermen need to be Superdaddies anyway?

Anyway Earth-38 Lex shows up and Clark has the great confusion of wondering why Jon Cryer doesn’t look like Michael Rosenbaum, it is again sad that Rosenbaum didn’t reprise the role, but to have a Lex Luthor going up against multiple Supermen was still quite cool.

When Clark reveals he gave up his powers, most likely to be a father and family man, it did just seem like a cheat way for the writers to say “Yeah we have Smallville’s Clark Kent, but he won’t be part of the action”. Which as a Smallville fan is painful because I wanted to see Tom Welling in the tights, flights and action!

Also once Lex and the heroes disappear, Smallville’s Lois arrives and I have to say, she looks exactly the same as she did back in 2011 but different to how she looks as Alura Zor-El. Maybe it’s the choice of farm clothes as opposed to regal dresses but this is Lois Lane I had through my teen years, everything from the fashion to the hair, to the voice. I wasn’t crazy about the laugh because it seemed a bit forced, but she called him Smallville straight after and spoke in her high-energised way so I was happy.

The final stop was on Earth-96 which is a reference to the year the Kingdom Come storyline came out, it was confirmed that Brandon Routh would be Kingdom Come Superman but also the version of Superman from 2006 Superman Returns which Routh starred in.

We meet, or are reacquainted with,Routh’s version of Clark Kent. I have to admit I never much cared for Superman Returns, possibly because Smallville was on at the time and that version had already won me over. But I do know that Brandon Routh drew a lot of inspiration from Christopher Reeves and his portrayal of the character and you can clearly see that in both his fashion and acting.

I want to say it’s sad to see that pretty much all of Superman’s supporting staff at the Daily Planet are dead, Sam Huntington in my opinion was a decent Jimmy Olsen, but if this was Smallville’s Daily Planet staff all killed I’d be distraught.

Again I am comparing a lot but they are literally scenes apart from each other here.

Anyway, just as it’s confirmed that Brandon Routh’s Superman is the Paragon of Truth, Lex Luthor appears and decides he’s fed up with killing Supermen...we’ve only seen him kill one but there you go, and decides to turn Kingdom Come Superman against Earth-38 Superman in order for his now puppet to kill the other one.

I have to say, this was another weak battle sequence, I know it’s really CGI with two Supermen flying around, but neither Brandon Routh or Tyler Hoechlin have really sold flying as Superman to me that well anyway.

Lois finally does something and knocks Lex unconscious while she and Iris, who I cannot understand why she even came along at all, try to use the Book of Destiny to fix Kingdom Come Superman.

Eventually Lois gets through to KCS by appealing to his love for humanity and for his lost Lois. This breaks him free of the book’s control just in time before he snaps Earth-38 Superman’s neck.

With Lex detained, the heroes all return to base where they set up a machine to search for the rest of the Paragons.

Harbinger’s Headache:

This sounds stupid but genuinely is what happens, since the start of the episode when Mar-Novu reveals the Book of Destiny, Harbinger starts to get headaches, this does alert her to the fact Lex Luthor is stealing the book but also puts her in the pathway of the Anti-Monitor.

Yes we finally see the big bad of the crossover in all his...glory? He looks ridiculous! His concept artwork does make him look like Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse but the actual thing we get just looks ugly.

I will give a minor positive and say it is better to see him in the show than he looks on the promotional images because I get the feeling lighting is not this guy’s friend and we meet him in what looks like the hallway of S.T.A.R. Labs.

Mick Rory, Baby Whisperer:

Again, this sounds stupid, but I wanted to highlight this for a couple of reasons and to spotlight Legends of Tomorrow because it doesn’t look like this crossover is doing that.

Firstly, this Mick Rory isn’t our Mick Rory, this is in fact the Mick Rory of Earth-74...why is it called Earth-74? I don’t know because originally there were only supposed to be 52 Earths, then Earth-X came about and now we have Earth-167 so I’m making my peace with them making it up as they go along.

Anyway, Dominic Purcell has grown on me since he was first introduced on The Flash. I think once you accept the fact that DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is essentially a piss-take because that is what it’s become then you accept why the characters do what they do, and not only turning a Flash rogue into a hero/legend is understood but also having him be a writer, have a rat as a pet and be good with babies is also understood.

We see that Earth-74 has a Waverider and did have its own version of the Legends before they all disbanded, Mick has taken command of the Waverider as seemingly his home where he is a struggling writer and his only companion is the Waverider’s A.I. Leonard...Wentworth Miller is back! As a disembodied voice, I would have liked to have at least seen his floating blue head but no we get the voice which is fine by me to be honest.

Once Harbinger commandeers the Waverider ad brings it to Earth-1 with Mick on board, he seemingly becomes the only person on board who Jonathan won’t cry for...not his mum, not his dad, not his aunt...a gun wielding alcoholic hot-head...great choice kid.

It is the lowest form of comedy side-story going but it is still nice to see them at least attempt to include the Legends and particularly Wentworth Miller in some form.

Easter-Eggs:

Superman III:

Alright so this is a clever throwback as this version of Superman Brandon Routh is portraying may be repackaged as Kingdom Come Superman, but he is also the same Superman Routh portrayed in 2006′s Superman Returns, who in turn is the same Superman Christopher Reeve played during the 80s, one movie Reeves was in was Superman III where Superman’s human and Kryptonian sides physically fought each other.

This plot point has also been done in Smallville briefly during the opening episode of Season 4 but not to the same degree as here or Superman III.

Smallville:

So many Smallville Easter-Eggs in one small scene, the first was the mention of Smallville’s Lex Luthor being the President of the United States of America. In a vision of the future Lex Luthor was indeed president and during the flashforward epilogue of the Smallville finalé he was running for president.

I also appreciated the time joke that Lois made when she said that it’s taken about a decade for Clark to “make a funny”. In real-time it has been almost a decade since Smallville finished as it was 2011, whereas now it is 2019.

Captain Cold:

Some things never change and whether he’s a doppleganger of the original or an A.I. version of the man, Wentworth Miller’s charm oozes out.

When Harbinger arrives on the Earth-47 Waverider, she notes that she is aware of who the A.I. is and he responds with his classic line “Always pleased to meet a fan”, this he has said a couple of times firstly in Season 1 of The Flash and then again with the Legends.

This was a great episode on reflection but in terms of ramping up the drama and grandeur of the crossover it did need work. Hopefully it’s only a minor bump before tonight’s third part, which promises a sizeable cliffhanger before the Christmas break.

So that’s my review of Crisis on Infinite Earths: Batwoman, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more DC TV Reviews as well as other TV Reviews and posts.

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fandomboy15 · 6 years ago

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Shiro and Keith are parallels of Aang and Katara

I’ve never done anything like this before but this popped in my head and thought it would be fun to write. Okay so for a long time now we’ve seen people comment on their ships and how they parallel other shows, the most common that i’ve seen is The Legend of Korra. However Voltron creators Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery also worked on Avatar the Last Airbender, with JDS joining in season 2 and LM in season 3. After seeing screenshots and watching season 7 episode 1 it made me think as a whole how the relationship of Shiro and Keith parallels close to that of Aang and Katara. This is just my own idea and people can disagree if they want to but this is my own personal interpretation. Also would like to add that people can ship whatever ship they want as all ships are valid in fanon, and again this is my own idea of what could happen in canon. So let’s start by analysing Aang and Kataras relationship and how it then parallels Shiros and Keiths.

1) The brother complex: One of the biggest things people use to discredit Sheith is the use of the brother line. People often use this to call Sheith an incestuous ship and that it means nothing else. I feel like i have to say that it’s obvious that they’re not actually brothers due to multiple reasons, such as season 7 episode 1 showed them meeting for the first time as well as confirmation that Shiro never knew Keiths dad and Krolia upon meeting Shiro never referred to him as her son. Instead the brother line in my opinion is more used to confirm either one of two things. One tumblr blog called ‘Arahir’ mentioned that Keith uses the brother line as a way to ignore his feelings as he saw Shiros relationship with Adam and didn’t want to get in the way of Shiros happiness. Or alternatively the brother line is more Keith mistaking his own feelings as in season 6 episode 5 he also says I Love You, confirming that Keith does love Shiro which shows how deeply they’re connected.

In ATLA Katara once referred to Aang like a little brother and in another episode as a good friend. This automatically doesn't mean that these two characters are related or their friendship discredits them ever being in a relationship, its shows that their is a bond between them with a mutual level of respect and care for one another. As well as the fact that feelings develop and change over time as Katara learned to stop viewing Aang as a brother and started to develop real feelings for him which eventually them to be in a relationship at the end of the series. This is what I see happening with Sheith which I will go into more detail later that it is a slow build, it’s not going to happen until the end as their feelings are still developing and growing in that Shiro and Keith are learning to realise their true feelings for one another go deeper than that of a friendship.

2) The Mentor / mentee relationship

In ATLA we can see this with Aang and Katara. When these two first met Katara was fascinated by Aang and the fact that he could help her learn Waterbending. Katara soon becomes a master and eventually becomes Aangs Waterbending master to help him reach his full potential as the Avatar.

This can be seen with Keith and Shiro, as Shiro became Keiths mentor and helped him get into the Galaxy Garrison as Shiro believes that Keith has a lot of potential and wants to help him reach it. In both of these ships I feel like it signifies the the mutual level of wanting to help one another and support and lift each other up to do the best they can, which we know was a problem that Shiro had in his relationship with Adam. (also I feel bad but i’m not trying to hate on Adam at all but based on what the creators of the show said and what happened in the episode with him it does portray him in not the best light but I think he’ll be an interesting character to know).

Also would like to add in this part the age difference. With the introduction of Adam it makes sense that Shiro would not have had feelings for Keith pre-series for a couple reasons. Number one is that it would be pedophila which is not okay at all and also is something that people use to discredit them since its not true nothing romantic happened between them before the series began. Number two is that Shiro and Adam before they broke up, which people are seeming to ignore, where in a loving relationship and Shiro doesn't seem like the kind of guy to be eyeing some-other guy, especially one that is about seven years younger than him in the pre series. Also by the start of the series we know Keith is 18 and with the two years on the space whale and the fact that a year has passed since they’ve been in space it puts his age at 21 and Shiros age to 25-26 which is not that big of a difference and it further help show that they are two consenting adults.

Also on another note to signify their closeness and support of one another is the parallels of dealing with responsibility and how the mentor helps the mentee. With Aang he never wanted to be the avatar he just wanted to be a normal kid, but Katara is the one who helps him realise the responsibility he needs to take on in order to save the world which she does by supporting him and eventually helping him master waterbending. This parallels Sheith as Keith had to deal with the responsibility of becoming the future leader of Voltron and it was Shiro who helped him realise his potential to be the leader that Voltron needed.

3) You saved me:

“You Saved Me”

“You saved me”

“We saved each other”

This is another parallel i found interesting is how both they are saving one another. The first image was Aang realising Katara saved his life after he was shot by Azula, and the second image was Shiro grateful for Keith rescuing him. That ones interesting since it was more Allura saving Shiro by being a magical USB haha, but it shows that Shiro thought more of Keith saving him. Also it was so cute how Keith never once let go of Shiros pod because he could never leave him.

Also holding the other in their arms there was a parallel for this as well.

Katara holding Aang after she revives him.

Keith holding Shiro after he wakes up.

Not even reaching they are literally holding each other the exact same way, if that ain’t a parallel then I don’t know what is. One cradling the other in their arms after being hurt really bad.

“You’re Okay”

“You Found Me”

Fuck my heart hurts i love them all so much. We stan two people holding each other and in love aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

4) Its a slow build relationship: With Aang and Katara their relationship was a slow build between them falling in love with each other. You can see how Aang obviously has a crush on Katara but it eventually turns into love and Katara slowly falling in love with Aang as the series progresses. They didn’t immediately become a couple even though they kissed three times before the end of the series they still needed to grow as characters and eventually fall in love.

As for Voltron many of the cast and crew have also talked the show being a slow build. It’s the reason why characters like Lance haven’t had a pivotal arc yet because it takes time to properly set up these characters and how it affects the story. With Keith and Shiro their relationship has also been a slow build that I feel like with Kataang won’t happen until the very end of the series. But yeah this was kind of short but also I just feel like we need to be patient cause it yields focus, get it haha. So yeah just based on everything that has happened between these two I can just see it slowly growing more and more from friends to eventually boyfriends and then husbands cause if Shiro almost got engaged once so he’s gonna do it again. I feel like since Shiro and Adam broke up he probably needed the time to find himself and wheres a better place to do that in space, and eventually Shiro is slowly growing more and more in love with Keith, and as for Keith he also needed to find himself and I think him spending those two years with his mom really helped him grow and become the leader that Voltron needs him to be and now he can focus on other things... like Shiro.

5) Other characters to ship them with:

It’s not really a secret that a part of the Voltron fandom has been about shipping and a lot of times it has turned toxic which is stupid because people should be allowed to ship whatever they want. This also happened in the avatar fandom with the ship war of Aang and Katara vs Zuko and Katara. This was a really big deal and there was a lot of people who shipped Zutara and were not happy when they didn’t end up together .

In all honesty since I think that Sheith parallels Kataang then I believe that Klance parallels Zutara. Again I am not hating on Klance this is jut my opinion (it’s funny i act like people will actually read this) but with Klance and Zutara they are similar in that they're opposites you know the whole red/blue contrast, fire and water, ones cool headed and the others hot headed. To me thats how Klance is they started off not really fond of each other but they have had moments which has led to a friendship and trust between the two similar to that of Zuko and Katara. But also with Sheith like i’ve said in this whole post is that its slowly building up to a romantic relationship just like Aang and Katara and even JDS mentioned and its on the official Voltron twitter that Shiro will have a stronger relationship with Keith, i mean like seriously the only place that they're relationship could possibly be stronger is if they start dating, in my opinion thats the only way it can become stronger with them both admitting how much they love each other, but again I don’t think this will happen until the very end because once again its a slow burn and it takes time to build up even more.

Also another parallel that I can imagine is comparing Shiro and Adam to to Katara and Jet. Obviously Shiro and Adams relationship was more serious than Jet and Katara, but I do see a parallel in their relationships. Katara wanted Jet because she thought he was this amazing person but of course his true intentions were shown and he tries to convince Katara that he is right and that her opinion is wrong. This is similar to Adam in that I don’t think he is a bad guy just that he doens’t truly have what Shiro wants at heart and I feel like when we meet him in season 7 it will be similar to when Jet returned in season 2 of ATLA where it was awkward but eventually they’ll make up but won’t get back not because Adam will die like Jet, but because Adam just isn’t the one and Shiro has found someone who truly supports and accepts every part of him, *cough Keith cough*.

6) Earthly attachment:

Okay so we in ATLA there was an arc for Aang where we could learn to control the avatar state. However in order to do so he would have had to let go of his love for Katara as she is what bounds him to the earth. However Aang is like nah fam i love her and then leaves. Eventually he gets his avatar state powers back but basically this shows how to Aang, Katara is his entire world.

Now while there hasn’t been any spirity parallels between Sheith I can see the parallel of them being the one that ties the other to the earth. The first comes from Haggar in season 6 where she says that Keith and Shiros bond runs deeper than any of the other paladins showing how much they mean to one another and that literally their fucking connected on a spiritual level. The second example comes from another blog which you can find here:

http://acekeith.tumblr.com/post/176132479409/a-little-vent-post-about-whats-been-bothering-m

Basically they talk about how in season one when the paladins focus on their important memories, and in it Shiro doesn’t think of Adam because they broke up and Shiro doesn’t see him as being him home anymore, instead Shiro thinks of the Kerberos mission and the rocket which is where he took Keith to say goodbye to him showing how Keith and his dreams of being in space is what is most important to Shiro.

Also on Keith’s side we can see how important Shiro is to him back in season 2 i think when Keith was fighting the blade of mamora. in this episode we learn that Keiths greatest fear is Shiro leaving or abandoning him. I feel like this says that Keith can literally not live without Shiro as he is the only person in his life that he truly cares for and feels love for.

Also speaking of spirit magic i do have a headcanon that something like this could happen, cause of how they said the white lion isn’t done with Shiro so what if Shiro tries to gain cool powers from the white lion but he’d have to let go of Keith but he can’t do that, my heart would burst but this is just a headcanon though I would love it if that were real.

7) Flustering mess: I saw this and thought it was a funny parallel that i wanted to include.

Aang literally becoming a mess at the sight of Katara wearing a different necklace.

Shiros gay panic when Keith came back older and hotter. They are both actual messes when they see their baes looking good.

So maybe this is a really interesting theory or maybe i’m just crazy. But honestly i loved making this I thought it was really fun to see the parallels between two of my favourite shows ever and two of my favourite couples ever. If people can think of anymore parallels then let me know. Also again please don’t hate me on this just wanted to share my own opinion of this and am not trying to invalidate any other ships as people can ship whatever they want. But yeah I just really love Sheith and pray to god everyday it becomes canon haha.

#sheith #voltron #voltron legendary defender #shiro #keith #vld #aang #katara #avatar #avatar the last airbender

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bleusarcellewrites · 7 years ago

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Thinking 'Bout You

Guess who gota chance to write a collab with one of her fave WRITERS

@queerklancing THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS FIC SO MUCH FUN, IT WAS AMAZING AND WE MADE SMITTEN BOYS FALL DEEPER IN LOVE <3

Soulmate AU with smitten boys, get ready all!! <3

Enjoy!

Keith wakes up to singing.

His mind can’t really wrap itself around the fact, still heavy with sleep, and it only makes him more annoyed when the singing grows louder. It’s probably around the fifth verse when he finally snaps.

‘Ugh, you’ve got to be kidding me,’ he thinks, face still pressed against his pillow in a weak attempt to block the singing echoing around him, ‘Imma murder someone, I swear.’

The singing stops abruptly, making him wince at the sudden sharp tug it took inside his mind at the action.

Silence is back around his light dimmed room and Keith honestly couldn’t care less about the weird experience. Weirder things have happened before in life than annoying singing stopping out of nowhere, honestly.

Keith’s just glad it’s gone, and he’s able to go back to sleep –

‘Um, hello?’

Keith pauses, his limbs tensing and his breath hitching when a sudden unfamiliar voice makes itself present. He takes two seconds before he leaps out of bed, the knife he keeps under his pillow held up high in front of him in defense.

He stands tall and firm, trying to look intimidating and dangerous even though he’s missing a sock and his boxers are hanging a little too low around his hips.

Wide dark blue eyes narrow themselves as they search every corner of his room for any kind of intruder. His room is not that big, barely able to hold a bed, a dresser and a small desk next to the window, basically bare and transparent.

Keith lowers his knife slowly, eyebrows furrowed together in confusion when nothing looks out of the ordinary.

“Fair enough, that was weird,” Keith hums out loud, easing his shoulders and relaxing his stand as he takes one last look around him and drops his knife on his bed.

‘Maybe I’m going crazy.’

A shiver runs down his spine when the voice appears once again, but this time, Keith can easily pinpoint the place it's coming from, or more like, where it shouldn’t come from.

He takes a pause, hands up in the air as if he was trying to calm himself down, before he takes a deep breath.

‘That was not my thought,’ he thinks, panic and confusion filling his chest, ‘That was not my thought, what the fu –‘

‘Dude,’ the unfamiliar voice cuts him off sharply, but Keith can hear the edge of fear lingering on its tone, ‘Dude, what the fuck –‘

‘No, no, you what the fuck.’ Keith thinks angrily, scowling as his eyes go up, as if he could meet the stranger’s face in the ceiling.

‘Me? You what the fuck.’ The voice replies, panic and fear still on the back but being covered by annoyance, ‘Get out.’

‘It’s my head, you get out.’

‘No, it’s mine.’

Keith purses his lips and pokes his temple and then his cheek, nodding once he confirms what he was looking for.

‘No, pretty sure it’s my body, my mind, and you’re a weird thing invading it.’

‘Maybe I’m your conscious?’

‘What the fuck is a conscious? Did you mean ‘conscience’ ?’

‘No, no. Conscious.’

‘Well, then, whatever. Fuck off, Conscious.’

‘Are you my conscious?’

‘You just said that you were mine?’

‘But I know I’m me, how can I be your conscious?’

‘I don’t kno– Get out.’

‘How the fuck –‘

“Hey, Keith, you awake?”

The extra voice puts Keith in alert. He dives for his knife, pointing it high to the person behind him only to meet his brother’s arched eyebrow.

“I thought you had grown over your necessity of sleeping with your knife.” Shiro deadpans before frowning in confusion when he notices the tense shoulders and worried frown in his brother’s features. “Uh...you okay?”

“Uh, yeah,” Keith replies quickly.

Shiro only spares him another concern glance before he shrugs. “If you say so, bro. Get ready, though, because we leave in ten and the pancakes I made may disappear by that time.”

“Oh, God, let’s hope so,” Keith mutters quietly, throwing his knife back to his bed and ignoring the way Shiro flips him off with a mocking glare.

The door closes behind his brother and Keith waits exactly three seconds before he comes to a decision.

‘Hello? Weird voice in my head?’ He thinks, trying to be careful on how to form his words, ‘Alo? No? Nothing?’

Five seconds pass, maybe ten just to be sure, and it’s then when Keith sighs, relief dripping from his shoulders like water.

‘This never happened,’ he tells himself inside his head.

He ignores the uneasy feeling inside of him when he can’t even convince himself.

Lance takes a long sip from his iced coffee as he watches the crowd pass by.

He’s taking a well-deserved break after a long day of shopping at the mall. Hunk was supposed to accompany him, but canceled last minute because he had to fill in at his part-time job.

Lance sighs. It’s been a few days since the weird encounter he had under the shower. At first, he played it off as a hallucination, or blamed it on his tiredness. But then Lance had a thought. What if ... that was his soulmate link.

He knows almost everything there is to know about soulmates. Lance has been obsessed with it ever since he was a child. But there are so many different kind of soul links that it’s hard to get a grasp of all the possibilities. There’s the classic red string of fate that connects people. That’s how his mom and dad met. There are some soulmates who can share whatever they paint on their skin; some share their injuries, others see some kind of trail in the air leading them to their soulmate.

Some of these are obvious others are more… unique. Like that one woman who had the same song stuck in her head for years until she met her soulmate who heard the same song. And then there are these unfortunate souls who don’t have a soulmate.

Lance is one of them.

At least that’s what he thought until now. Ever since he heard that voice in his head, he had the tiny spark of hope that maybe … maybe there is someone out there for him after all.

Lance sighs as he puckers his lips to take another sip from his straw. Well, he didn’t hear the voice again so maybe it was just his imagination.

‘Shit, he’s hot.’

Lance chokes and sputters as he spits out his coffee. “What the fuck?!” he wheezes and rubs his mouth with his sleeve. The girls on the table next to him raise their eyebrows in question and giggle when he smiles awkwardly.

Okay, alright, okay. That was definitely in his head.

‘Test. Test. Hello?’ he thinks, trying not to feel stupid.

‘What the shit?!’

Lance probably shouldn’t be so thrilled to hear a stranger’s voice in his head, but his heart jumps nervously in his chest.

‘That’s what I wanted to say as well.’

‘Oh nonononono, this is not happening again!’

‘Um. Sorry to disappoint you buddy, but it is.’

‘Who are you? How do you do that?!’

Lance leans back and frowns.

‘Wait hold up, I’m not the one doing this!’

‘Well neither am I!’

‘So we both don’t have a clue what’s going on,’ Lance concludes and crosses his arms. It should be weird to talk to someone in his head, but he’s getting the hang of this pretty quickly. Maybe it is his soulmate after all.

‘This is so fucked up,’ the voice groans and Lance can hear the distress radiating from him. Well, it seems like the guy on the other hand isn’t as excited as Lance about this.

‘I’m Lance.’

‘Huh?’

‘My name is Lance.’

‘Why are you telling me this?!’

‘I don’t know. I thought maybe you’d feel better if the voice in your head wasn’t a complete stranger.’

There’s silence in his head. Lance unfolds his arms and panic bubbles in his chest when he doesn’t get an answer. He’s about to voice his concerns when his thoughts get interrupted.

‘I’m Keith.’

A relieved smile spreads on Lance’s lips, and he can’t help the chuckle leaving him.

‘Well, hello Keith. Nice to meet you.’

‘Yeah,’ the stranger - Keith - scoffs.

Lance snorts and grimaces when the girls at the table next to him send him another funny look.

‘So,’ he starts. ‘Who is hot?’

‘Huh?’

‘You thought about someone - a guy - being hot earlier,’ Lance adds, and he hides the grin behind his hands as he leans forward.

‘Fuck,’ Keith curses. ‘There goes my privacy.’

READ THE REST IN AO3

#bleu writes #bleu collabs #queerklancing #klance #laith #klance fic #laith fic #vld lance #vld keith #vld #vld fic #soulmate klance #lance mcclain #keith kogane #klance fluff

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ick25 · 7 years ago

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Rockman.EXE Episode 16 Review.

Is this foreshadowing?

Hallelujah!

We start the episode with Netto walking around, completely blindfolded.

Looks like something spontaneus because not even Rockman Knows why is he doing this.

We get a flashback of last episode where Enzan and Blues perform the Program Advance back when Count Elec did his static trick.

Back to Netto’s blindfolded walk, Rockman tries to help him but it only results in this funny scene.

And that is why Rockman is the Navi and not the operator, also, I have to point out the lazy animation, right at the start I can tell the animation for this episode is gonna be low quality.

After Netto falls on his back like a turtle, Rockman reminds him that Meiru and Tohru’s battle is about to start, which was mention in the last episode. The match begins and we see Tohru’s un-official plug-in secuense.

And we get a stand off between Roll and Iceman, who will win?

The first two of many mistakes we will find in this episode.

After the title card appears, we get a description of both challengers. I am loving Roll’s picture.

Followed by.. Tohru’s sad picture.

Again, Tohru?! Does your father hit you or something? Because that’s what everybody’s gonna think when they see your picture!

Mariko-sensei wishes both of them good luck, Masa takes out his special flag, Yaito and Dekao start talking about who will win, and Netto manages to arrive just in time.

Now we start the battle with Roll moving first.

EAT CANDY HEARTS! I dont remember this part from the dub, though.

Iceman avoids her hearts and shoots a snow crystal at her, which she evades gracefully.

Meiru decides to send the Aqua tower battle chip with the same beautiful animation for Roll from episode 8, and Iceman tries to counter it by summoning his ice pillars from episode 6.

This is what happens when two recycled animations collide.

Tohru decides to send the Ice cube or Ice block (Im not sure anymore) and Meiru sends the triple lance chip, which results in a draw.

As everyone is focused on the battle, Netto doesn’t seem too invested for he is busy practicing the Program Advance with Rockman. Hey, his mullet is back! XD

That’s mistake number three.

After this, we cut to the training room where two Net Navis are practicing for their next battles.

The Navis talk about how they are gonna defeat their opponents who are... Bombman and Stoneman? Poor guys.

However, they wont have the chance to even fight them since said Navis suddently appear to take them out.

Let’s cut back to the epic battle that is Roll vs Iceman.

They seem evenly matched and everybody talks about how the battle might end on a tie. They both get up again, as Tohru tells Iceman to prepare to use his Blizzard attack, Meiru sends, what I imagine is another rare chip Yaito gave her, the Cyclone chip.

Which makes Roll start spinning for some reason.

The Cyclone is a variation of the Typhoon virus we saw in the last episode, which might confirm my theory of Virus chips and Battle chips having the same name.

It’s a face off between Iceman’s Blizzard and Roll’s Cyclone!

This literally stops time with everybody, who cares about this match, waiting in suspense.

How will physics play out in this battle?

Like this, the Cyclone returns the blizzard to Iceman who freezes, resulting on the emo looking Tohru losing the battle. Iceman has been ICED!

The battle ends and Tohru congratulates Meiru for her victory. Oh look, Enzan was watching the battle too, does he have anything to say about it?

Or he can just ignore it and focus on these mysterious looking giants on the hallway. To be honest, after seeing Enzan’s giant bodyguards, I don’t find their hight weird at all, maybe that means they’re either Americans or Europeons.

We cut to mistake number four with Roll’s hair gone, as everybody praises Meiru and Tohru for their battle.

Except for Netto who is still doing the Program Advance air training.

Midorikawa announces the next two battles with the two strange operators, one in the main “flower” dome and the other in the “micro” sub dome, for what I can see from these layouts, the crowd is either really tiny or none existing!

Their Navis happen to be Bombman and Stoneman! We get full shots of both Navis resulting on consistant mistake number five, Bombman’s eyes are purple when they are suppoused to be red.

I say consistant since this happens a lot throughout the episode, so I better count this as one.

Midorikawa tells the audience that Bombman and Stoneman’s opponents have not appear yet, resulting in both Navis winning by default.

Its Drill Mach! Not Drillman! There is already a Drillman. EXE

Now that I think about it, how does one trademark their Navi’s Name? Does the internet tell you when a certain name is taken?

Anyway, Bombman and Stoneman win by default and Midorikawa says that they remain unbeaten, this not only confuses Netto, but Mahajarama tells the other World Three operators that they are probably the new Navis sent by Dr.Wily.

After commercials, we see the WWW operators having lunch outside the dome, complaning about these new operators whom they know nothing about. And I’m just focused on the weird hairdo of the little girl running in the background.

Wouldn’t it be akward if Netto just suddenly appear and see them all together like this and accusing them to be the World Three in front of everyone? But Netto is in the training room practicing the program advance with Rockman while blindfolded, however, something seems wrong because after the official animation for the program advance (in a completely different background BTW) Rockman falls backwards.

I’m gonna count that background fail as mistake number six.

Rockman tells Netto that there isn’t enough room, but Netto says that he is just too distracted by Bombman and Stoneman being unbeaten.

I found mistake number seven!

Netto tells Rockman that Higure-san said that all of Bombman and Stoneman’s opponents were attacked before their matches, making both of them very suspicious.

Dekao comes in to tell Netto that the pairings for the upcoming tagged matches are going to be announced. Meanwhile, Higure is trying to get an interview from the huge operators, but they end up destroying his mic leaving him terrified.

Netto and Dekao happend to see this and decide to follow the mysterious netops, who attemp to murder them by throwing them off the second floor.

Okay, there is water below, but turns out Dekao doesn’t know how to swim, and Netto does the mistake of trying to help him from the front.

Which is kind of weird because fat people are suppose to float easily, but it looks like he was just exaggerating since they stop splashing after Saloma appears to help them out.

FYI, when trying to help somebody who is drowning, never aproach from the front! Always grab them from behind or else they will take you down too.

Anyway, Saloma tells them that she is paired up with Dekao and, by the power of super plot conviniense, are gonna fight against Bombman and Stoneman.

Its Bombman, not Bomberman!

I didn’t even now he was in the tournament.

We start the first match of the tag team battles with Saloma’s first plug-in sequence.

Now its time for the mystery operators to plug-in.

HOLY COW, THEY CAN TALK!

We start the battle with Saloma telling Dekao that Woodman will fight Stoneman, so Gutsman charges at Bombman and starts punching him. Woodman uses some vines to inmobilized Stoneman, something I had no idea he could do.

Dekao then sends a Battle Chip to Gutsman which he calls by the wrong name.

This doesn’t do anything to Bombman, and Stoneman frees himself from Woodman’s vines. The two Navis tell their opponents that they will never be able to move them, making Meiru cheer for Dekao for once.

I don’t ship them but this is cute.

Dekao sends the same exact battle chip from before but this time with the right name, so I’m gonna count the scene from before as mistake number eight.

Gutsman uses the Guts Hammer but Bombman blocks it with a barrier, and Woodman summons wood towers only for Stoneman to break them as easy as breaking a toothpick.

During this, Netto tells Yaito that there is something strange going on with the mystery operators since they haven’t move since the battle started, which Miyuki, Enzan and Mahajarama noticed as well.

In fact, Mahajarama uses an insane Alakazam psychic move to prove his theory to the other World Three members.

Mahajarama is a POKEMON! That’s why he can use Teleport! O0O

How can you see that from up there?!

Higure tells her that they are not plugging out and Enzan figures out the truth.

Who said that? Did Netto hear Enzan say that just now? HOW?!

Stoneman and Bombman, with another shot of Bombman’s purple eyes, reveal the identity of the operators before the whole audience.

They are Robots! What is even happening right now?!

Turns out Stoneman and Bombman are completely independant Net Navis, which means that they don’t need operators to battle or plug them in. Which raises the question of how they even manage to enter the tournament in the first place. Maybe the staff is even more incompetant than I thought.

Gutsman and Woodman decide to attack again, but Bombman and Stoneman are just too much for them and end up beating them easily.

Still counting the purple eyes as one.

Gutsman and Woodman are forced to log out, and Bombman and Stoneman declare that Sharkman and Rockman won’t stand a chance, spoiler alert!

The next tag battle is Netto teaming up with Commander Beef, who suddenly appears next to him.

This is followed by Yaito’s remark of the Commander feeling familiar.

Huh, he helped you get rid of the fire viruses back in episode 13, remember?

So Netto ends the episode staring at his future opponents, determined to beat them.

My thoughts?

This episode would feel like a huge filler if it wasn’t because it introduced Bombman and Stoneman, although we already saw them back in episode 14, their names were still a mystery. Anyone who played the game know that Bombman and Stoneman were World Three Navis, but there was no mention of them having operators, so the anime kept it that way by making them the first independant Navis.

The animation for this episode was very low quality since it featured a lot of miscolors and mistakes, shots were reused and others were added, and I’m not talking about the dub, this is to save money in the animation.

If you follow me on Deviantart you would know that I call the art style for this episode “Simple”, because it is usually found in episodes that don’t require a lot of movement and the action sequenses are kinda slow.

An example of this style being used was in episode nine, which also featured some minor animation mistakes.

For the dub version, Roll throwing her hearts at Iceman was cutted for some reason, and for the dialogue change, the scene where Yaito talks about the Commander feeling familiar was changed to her noticing that Masa was gone, which makes more sense since he was sitting above them.

#Rockman.exe #MegaMan NT Warrior #megaman battle network #anime #dub vs sub #my reviews

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whattheklance · 6 years ago

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The rest of my season 6 thoughts

OHMYGOSH

what a season

WHAT a season

the next chunk of writing, right below here, was from when i was on the episodes I was talking about before I finished them all

KEITH IS TALLER THAN LANCE after two years

ALSO that means Keith is 21 now, even if no time has passed for everyone else.

man. i think the only reason Lance was "oh look keith's back" was mostly his bitterness over lotor and allura. it's like that bitterness revived his original behavior around Keith from the beginning. even if keith is acting different.

I wouldn't have even thought or noticed Keith was bigger or had grown if fucking LANCE hadn't pointed it out. of course lance is the first and only one to notice. not even in person but via a screen

i also forgot about the cliffhanger already that keith and krolia had found an altean. that d&d episode kinda wiped it from my brain.

and lotor had me fooled too.

though before i started watching i had read someone's post who pointed out how much lotor always told the truth but would lie through omission. not sharing any details that would paint him in a negative light.

is the tenderness he's expressed with allura also part of the lie?? cuz that seemed so genuine.

OHHHHH MYGOSH OHMYGOSH

one of my theories was RIGHT. that the shiro who returned to earth was ALSO a clone!!!

when keith first walked into that room with pods, my FIRST thought was "are all of those Shiros????"

AND OHMYGOSH they were.

when i saw the title of this episode was "the black paladins" my first thought was "does this mean not only keith and shiro, but MULTIPLE shiros will be in this episode???" AND YES. ugh yes.

i don't care that i was right. cuz this was like one of HALF A DOZEN theories i came up with.

i think original shiro NEVER returned to earth

which possibly means that haggar let the blades release A shiro because 1) it wasn't the real one and 2)she might have always intended him to be a paladin.

but i am REALLY attached to the clone shiro we got to know and love and I PRAY that we get to see him again.

and i jumped to a conclusion too quick up there. though a theory of mine was STILL RIGHT, a slight variation on what i just said. I know I have an old post where I theorized that Shiro disappeared because he BECAME ONE WITH THE BLACK LION

AND OHMYGOSH THATS WHAT HAPPENED

it's funny. there was a huge theory going around that something like that could happen to lance and the blue lion, even though there weren't really any solid grounds to think that would happen. But that's what happened to Shiro.

After Keith talked to Shiro and truly bonded with the Black Lion thanks to him. I thought we'd have to say goodbye to Shiro it REALLY felt like he wouldn't be coming back. Like we'd lost him already back in season 2.

and then them having to sacrifice the castle of lions, their home away from home. was even more loss on top of that.

so when we got Allura putting Shiro's spirit from the Black Lion into the clone's body. My heart was swelling. I was so relieved. And I like that it turned his hair all the way white. kinda like when Gandalf the Grey "came back from the dead" as Gandalf the White.

There were SO MANY wonderful beats in this season. Lots of signs of REALLY great storytelling

But I can't help but feel like someone took the great story the team wanted to tell and condensed it way too much. You can still see the elements of what they planned, but lots of important parts felt too rushed

We already know that netflix or dreamworks mandate forced them to bring shiro back a whole season sooner than the creators wanted to. I can't help but wonder what other mandates happened that limited their plans.

The WHOLE Shiro story was a thrilling concept and had some good beats in it. But it also happened a little too fast. Like, Lance's interactions with Shiro in season 5, I felt like that should have led somewhere instead of being dismissed. Even if they wanted the betrayal to seemingly come out of nowhere and surprise the team the way it did, they could've had Lance travel a little ways towards the truth, but have something happen that causes him to dismiss it. It also would’ve amplified his grief upon the betrayal happening, like he could’ve prevented it.

hell even clone shiro. Gonna call him Kuro from now on. He suspected something was wrong. That’s why I thought we were going to get SOME kind of investigation/test, even if it was limited to one episode ANYTHING. i would’ve taken ANYTHING of that nature.

I really wanted Kuro to have some sort of agency beyond his programming. For him to possibly get redeemed or something. I mean, he resisted. He wanted to resist before Haggar forced control. But in the end he was just a device for conflict, and a deus ex machina to resurrect real Shiro. kinda bummed we didn’t get any other clone shiros beyond the sleeping ones in the pods. I liked the idea of a shiro army, good or evil. But maybe they were just empty husks to be used by haggar when one breaks.

It'd be awesome if this wasn't the end of their story, and Shiro in the new body actually had Kuro's voice in his head or something, kinda like 80's Rogue in the x-men with Ms.Marvel's voice in her head. But sadly, it kinda of feels like this is the end of the Shiro Clone Saga.

More on the whole rushing good plot points. The whole reveal of Lotor's true nature with Keith returning. It felt very abrupt, and it didn't help having the D&D episode separating the cliffhanger of Keith and Krolia finding an Altean and the reveal.

Still, even though it all happened faster than I wished, all the beats with the Keith vs Shiro, and Keith discovering real Shiro and unlocking the Black Lion, and even his two year time gap, experience with the Blade and with his mother, crafted him into a confidant fighter who could finally take the lead in voltron, vastly opposite of his pre-blade self. I feel like this character arc, even though it was still too brief init of itself, makes up for some of the lost development from when Shiro should've been gone longer. We wanted to see the new team develop more than we got to. So it was really satisfying seeing them come together now, and feeling like we really saw Keith transform since he last piloted the Black Lion. Even though we had a long keith shortage with seasons 4 and 5, they still managed to have key episodes that developed his arc that led him to who he became in the finale.

though i'm relieved we got original shiro back, i feel like his being brought back was rushed too. Like, I get how that type of scene feels right for a season finale, especially with the fight and losing the castle of lions, but I wish there was more time and development between Keith's discovery of him and his actual return at the end.

KEITH GOT THE GALRA mark from his straining to hold onto his life and Kuro's. I almost was expecting him to fully transform into a galra form of his own. Maybe that's in his future, cuz I think everyone wants to see something like that. I hope the gang comments on his mark in the next episode (did anybody get Star Trek (2009) reboot vibes in that scene?? i feel like there was a scene with Kirk and Sulu that was very similar action-wise with the whole collapsing planet-to-space structure)

Man, so this season Lance had to deal with his Allura feelings and losing her to Lotor. Then Allura had to deal with having her heart broken from falling for Lotor then learning how she was used. Ever since Lance faced his feelings he hasn't been the flirt towards Allura anymore. I hope it stays that way. I love Lance and I love Allura, but I really hope the writers don't take us a romantic route. Like if they did start to do something like that, I'd keep my fingers crossed that its purpose would be to show one or both of them that they aren't right for each other. Like, try to get together only to hilariously fail and decide against it. like Rachel and Joey in friends.

They didn't do anything with Allura presumably learning Lance's feelings from the mice. i’m surprised. i was a little worried when that happened. again, i feel like that not becoming anything could also be a sign of omitted story points.

THEY'RE FUCKING GOING HOME

and i can't help but think how we have seen neither hide nor hair of Sendak's coalition since the episode they fought and ran. They're fully functioning. a huge danger. And I remember reading a meta post after last season talking about how sendak understands better than anyone that to beat voltron is to threaten innocents lives, and to ultimately defeat voltron he'd threaten their home planet. A planet incapable of defending itself against galra tech. He even re-demonstrated those tactics AGAIN this season with the galra shield base. As if to remind us he does that...for next season. where the gang goes home only to find sendak's taken earth or something. or at least has a blockade to threaten it.

this season seriously delivered. Razor's Edge, I stand by as being the best episode of the series thus far. But man The Black Paladins episode was on par with Keith's Blade of Marmora reveal episode in season 2, which I put in the top 5.

Good season, despite the fact that possible executive mandates possibly limiting the writing all around felt VERY visible. Even if it's never confirmed for the things I felt were rushed. I feel like I can see that it’s there. I feel like I can see the story they want to tell, and then everywhere I feel was rushed was like an artificial constraint that forced them to cut something out of the story they want to tell.

Cuz it feels like, from the sheer quality of beats within the characters' arcs, anyone, who could craft what we've already seen, would understand the appropriate amount of story needed to properly depict it, and do it justice, but it's like someone who doesn't have the same understanding has told them to make it shorter, cuz reasons. And that’s how we got the end result

PS. i wonder if Kuro’s sheer blandness as Shiro playing D&D was a reflection of his programming. He couldn’t be inventive or imaginative, and his sole purpose was to be a paladin, to infiltrate, so that’s what he chose every time, constantly the same character. Cuz I feel like real Shiro wouldn’t play the same way. Of course it was funnier having that kind of character, but I really think that might’ve been for that purpose.

#vld season 6 #Voltron legendary defender #project kuron #keith kogane #takashi shirogane #tag commentary #tag commentary has spoilers #my only hope for klance are the paralleling themes of romance in razor's edge #and lance being the only one to notice and comment on Keith being bigger upon seeing him for one second on a screen #now what's going to be the paladin dynamic??#for some reason shiro's transformation makes me think he might not return as a paladin #one last note on klance. lance pays more attention to keith than ANY OTHER CHARACTER #even allura who he crushed hard for #if they're going back to earth #they better fucking give lance a cuban last name and end that fandom shite once and for all #kill the name mcclain with fire #they can't possibly have them meet whole families and not have last names #come on #if lance is introducing his friends to his family and either stutters and/or pauses when introducing keith 'he's my...'#i will be a happy gal #hunk should also get a last name. cement that samoan heritage #krolia and keith can visit dad's grave together. GIVE HIM A FREAKING NAME #my commentary

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avidbeader · 7 years ago

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OH MY GOD FINALLY!

Husband had to work. I had to wait for husband to get home. I can’t remember the last time I used so much willpower to stay off Twitter and Tumblr to avoid untagged spoilers...

Some initial, chaotic impressions under the cut:

(1) I love what the writing staff has done with Lotor and I hate it because I don’t want my babies having to fight competent and smart villains. Love A.J. Locascio’s work as the voice actor.

(2) On the plus side, more actual infighting within the Galra Empire is a good thing.

(3) I don’t like how the Blade of Marmora faded into mentions after the first episode, but keep reminding myself that this was originally the first half of a longer series. Similarly, we didn’t see Keith’s Marmora blade *once* that I recall in my flying first watch.

(4) And at first I thought it was cool to have shorter episodes more often, but having been through it, now I think I’d rather have the full 13 episodes even if it does mean a longer wait.

(5) The callbacks both amused and slightly annoyed me. Some were very subtle unless you are familiar with GoLion, such as the original names for Haggar and the Galra homeworld. I think I could have done without Sven, but if they had to do it, it was amusing and did not drag on for too long. (Tangent question: that WAS poor Josh Keaton trying to do a Norwegian accent, wasn’t it?)

(6) While I’m still not thrilled with musical lions--it really does feel like following the old show too much to me--at least they tried to justify why and how the changes could happen given stated canon and made a lot of drama about it. (Keith’s “Please, no.” is never not going to hurt.) I also like the confirmation that Alfor piloted the Red Lion, for the selfish reason that I guessed right in one of my fanfics.

(7) On the other hand, sorting out the team dynamic, and then resorting it was good drama with some emotional and some funny moments. I am both pleased with Allura’s development into a strong team member, even as I’m stamping my feet that she didn’t need a freaking lion to be important to the story and what about her pink sparkly magic?

(8) I have a nasty, suspicious mind. I am really, really not certain about this Shiro being our Shiro, despite the moments shared with the others, especially Keith. There’s this “Operation Kuron” thing. The fact that they did a subtle redesign of the character post-haircut just makes me think that original-design Shiro is still out there somewhere and this one is Not The One. The fact that Black wouldn’t fly for him might support that idea. I also genuinely wasn’t expecting Shiro’s absence to be resolved until close to the end of the season

(9) I like that the writers are showing Keith’s growth as a leader as a process, not a guaranteed result. I’m generally pleased with his interactions with Lance evolving, I guess (still don’t ship them, never will). I’m less pleased with the emphasis on Pidge demanding “plans with specifics now please”. Yes, its in her nature but I feel like the writers put too much emphasis on it.

(10) The idea of the Galra Girl Generals squad is excellent. Lotor’s embrace of hybrids (assuming that the impression is correct and he is Zarkon and Haggar’s son and therefore a hybrid himself) is a good thing and sets up Interesting Possibilities down the road when he and Keith come face to face. However, the characters themselves feel awfully one-note so far: the one that shoots first without asking questions, the chirpy one, the mysterious one (although the fact that she’s blind is a cool representational thing), and the competent/loyal one.

(11) I’m all for the throw-it-all-against-the-wall method for finales, like “Best Laid Plans/Blackout”. I’m not quite so sure about mid-arc. Lotor seems to have so many things going (propaganda war, solidifying his position, teladuv piece, comet...) that I feel like I’m losing track even with only 7 episodes.

(12) I don’t know if it’s an effect of the split season or what, but there were points where I felt the story genuinely dragged. I never felt that in Seasons 1-2; even if there were plot points that interested me less, I never felt that the story was dragging before.

(13) Case in point - I’m not sure we needed nearly a full episode to delve into Zarkon and Alfor’s background. I feel like a lot of that story could have been tightened up in favor of moving the general arc along a little more or giving fans some of the stuff we hope to see like flashbacks to the Garrison/more about Matt. If we had the full 13 episodes at once, it might not have stuck out so much.

I have a bit of shippy stuff to say, but I’ll save it for another post, possibly after a rewatch. Short version would be I am generally pleased except for the lurking suspicion of #7 above.

And NOW I get to wade through an entire day’s stuff on Tumblr...see you on the other side.

#voltron #vld spoilers #voltron s3 spoilers #vld s3 spoilers #voltron spoilers

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ganymedesclock · 8 years ago

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Character Analysis: Coran

[ Shiro ] [ Lance ] [ Hunk ] [ Pidge ] [ Keith ] [ Allura ]

What kind of blogger would I be if I forgot about our man Coran? I’ll tell you, a bad one. Last but certainly not least in the metas on Team Voltron, it’s time for a post on everyone’s favorite redheaded spaceman-of-all-trades.

Coran is a bit of a frustrating case to overlook because for someone as open and sociable as he is, we know very little of his history- and he also happens to have a lot more history than anyone else on the team... by something of a long shot.

In an offhanded mention, Coran states that the Castle is actually 10,600 years old, because it was built by his grandfather. He later, in a different conversation, reminisces that he remembers his grandfather taking him to a Balmera... while said grandfather was building the Castle.

Thus confirming that Coran is over six hundred years old, not counting his time spent in cryostasis. And yet, at the same time- Coran doesn’t really look or act what we’d consider elderly- if anything, he’s more than a little aghast at the idea of contacting an “old people disease”- insecurity, I think, of someone in later middle ages who’s just starting to confront the idea they’re getting old.

This might well cast some aspersions on Allura’s age as well- she might be a teenager or young adult by Altean standards but we don’t know quite what those standards are.

But for Coran, he’s had certainly what our human sensibilities would consider a very long life, and has spent much of that life, seemingly, in service of the royal family. Said service is something that’s run in his own family line at least as far back as his grandfather, and Coran carries himself with the decorum of high society. He’s no mere servant- much more likely, an aristocrat himself, or possibly a member of the extended royal family considering the very personal way he relates to Alfor and Allura. His official title of Royal Advisor would suggest Alfor turned to him for counsel- but in regards to what specific topics, we aren’t sure. It’s certainly part of the role he plays to Allura.

And in practice- this is someone Alfor entrusted, seemingly alone, with the safety of his daughter and the Black Lion. As Allura was placed in stasis when the castle was still on Altea and Alfor still on the castle, this would tell us that Coran was the one to launch the castle and get it away from Zarkon’s fleet while Alfor, seemingly, held them off- it was Coran who landed the castle on Arus before entering suspension on his own.

We do not know much of Coran’s personal life- besides that seemingly, he’s been a fixture in Allura’s for a very long time, and that he was a very close friend and attendant of the late king. We see very few scenes of Alfor that do not feature Coran in some magnitude. This makes sense- because again, at the end of his life, Alfor trusted Coran with functionally the fate of the entire universe. Especially close on the heels of Zarkon’s betrayal, this tells us that Alfor trusted Coran absolutely.

Out of the spotlight

Coran virtually never takes center stage. This is the main reason he’s so much of an enigma despite being an incredibly open person and intensely prone to sharing stories at the slightest provocation. Coran is support in the purest sense- to the point that out of the team, he is the only one not paired to a unique vehicle that’s his and only his. For Allura, even the castle is uniquely connected to her power in many regards- Coran can’t use much of its higher functions.

And we do not feel like this is an uncomfortable position for Coran in the slightest. Rather, this seems to be the area he takes to and in fact thrives in, entirely of his own choice. It’s rare for Coran to command a scene- and the few times he does tend to be very memorable, and marked by something close to fury- his indignant “You do not yell at the princess!” in s1e2 and in the season 1 finale, Coran piloting the castle alone to assail entire fleets.

Coran is support- one who assists and facilitates- but he’s not passive in his role at all. His whole title of advisor can only possibly work if he’s someone who makes his thoughts and opinions heard, and he lives up to that. He will criticize, or even argue rather strongly with- anyone, including Allura, if pushed to it. And even without much impetus at all, he’s shown to kibitz on situations in a very honest- even unflattering manner- even on people that he cares about a lot.

Basically, Coran takes a backseat, but not remotely out of lack of confidence or devaluing himself. He’s an attendant but an incredibly outspoken one, and one with a sense of his own importance as well- reinforcing his quite possible noble background. We’ve even seen that Coran can be a touch condescending- consider his cheerful patronizing of Pidge’s “primitive synapses firing away in their little brain-cage.”

And really, Coran’s ostensibly passive position combined with his own certainty of self creates a truly terrifying combination, one that very rarely flexes itself. Simply, Coran is always the accompaniment to someone more interesting or important- King Alfor in the past, Allura and the Paladins at present. He’s set up perfectly in a blind spot, and his affable prattling makes him even more likely to overlook.

When Coran attacks Zarkon’s fleet, he states that he’s been waiting ten thousand years for this. While we can guess he’d hold a grudge against Zarkon- for Altea, for Alfor, for everything he and Allura have suffered- this is literally the first time we’ve had any implication whatsoever it was there.

Coran, quite simply, took something very close to a murderous rage, folded it neatly, and tucked it up his sleeve until he had the opportunity to take his shot.

People have pointed out the downright brutal efficiency with which Coran intercepts an attack aimed at Allura and retaliates in a way that hits all five paladins, in a single movement- and how very seriously he does his, even if it’s a simple food fight. In particular, a comment I’ve heard on that scene that’s stuck with me a long time in regards to Coran: “Imagine how many times he’s done that for something that wasn’t food.”

Coran is an advisor, but he is not remotely a noncombatant. I would not be surprised at all, in fact, if this is our window of what an archetypal Altean soldier looks and acts like- someone whose first line of defense is not necessarily a suit of armor and a sword, but by convincing you first to not think they’re an opponent. Sure, it’s funny that Coran is completely ineffective at defeating Lance and they immediately engage in some kind of trash talking- but let’s not forget unlike Allura, who was mostly baffled by Lance and only turned aggressive when he didn’t answer her questions, Coran’s first response when confronted with foreign parties was to leap to the attack and his first line of dialogue besides identifying that there were intruders in the castle boiled down to “if I hadn’t just spent an incredible amount of time unconscious in suspended animation, I would’ve put you in a chokehold and knocked you out in a matter of seconds.”

Coran, to a degree, lives in the shadows of brighter people- but he does so voluntarily and intentionally- because as soon as someone tries to make a bid for those brighter people, Coran, already overlooked, is en route to intercept.

That said, while he has that angle, he doesn’t always act on it- his role as an observer means that he’s often quite willing to just see where this situation is going. He’s not nearly as proactive as, say, Shiro- who needs to feel in control of the situation. Coran is triggered to action or inaction by his personal assessment if the situation has, or will, turn immediately dangerous- and if he doesn’t feel like it’s dangerous, or that there’s a meaningful way to engage with it, he will in fact be alarmingly blase in the face of mortal peril- the embodiment of a stiff upper lip.

Another angle of his tendency to mask intense emotions if he doesn’t feel like they have a proper use at this point.

A man of a breathtaking number of hats

So Coran is an advisor, a helmsman, and the main person we see doing maintenance on the castle- and on top of all of that, he may well be some manner of bodyguard. It’s safe to say that Coran is one hell of a busybody, and lesser people would probably have just plain dropped under the weight of his workload and the number of disparate skills this requires.

At the same time, this is probably the biggest source of Coran’s goofy space dad vibe- he has so much varied life experience and skill sets that practically anything for Coran is fair game. History and nostalgia are very big things for him, and, overwhelmingly, what we learn about Coran and from Coran is anecdotal and sentimental in nature. Certainly, he’s quite smart, and likes to explain things, but how much he knows, and quite possibly to a degree just his personality itself, makes him spacey and a bit of a scatterbrain.

“Finger counting is more of an art than a science”- or, rather, sophisticated mental math (he was trying to crunch how long it would take a spaceship to reach them considering its speed, that is not elementary level addition) is very difficult if your brain goes in a lot of directions and you have a lot of places to lose stray decimals in.

Coran relates much more easily to things intuitively and emotionally than he does trying to attend to precise variables- though that gap is not as large as one would expect because he’s had a lot of time to practice. In general, Coran’s skill set is much more rounded and stable than any of the rest of the team’s- a testament, again, to how much time he’s had to pick things up. Regardless, he does show a pretty good aptitude for working with people, when not held back by heavily outdated information as he was in Space Mall.

When he is, though, he may be slow to admit his initial judgment call was wrong- as mentioned, Coran is rather prideful. He’s quite certain of himself and other people need to impress him- and even in season 2, he has no problems verbally tearing the paladins to shreds if he doesn’t think they’re living up to expectations. Cheerfully.

High energy

You’d think someone past his six hundredth birthday would slow down a little, even if that might be the Altean equivalent of late fifties. You would think wrong in Coran’s case. Probably why this guy has so many odd jobs, aptitudes, and experiences is that he can be almost restless in his energy levels. “Restless” is not how he comes across- but mostly because, as a mature character who’s had a lot of his development already, Coran knows himself and his inclinations.

As a result, he will often seem quiet- but if you’re paying attention, Coran is virtually always doing something, and usually multitasking as he does. While this could well be a stress-inducing byproduct of being effectively the sole staff of a castle probably designed for a lot more people than that, I think to a degree, Coran is simply someone who does not keep idle very easily at all. When his workload is lightened or alleviated, he’s more inclined to engage in whimsy and curiosity instead.

Another product of this is Coran does very little in half measures, if he’s committed to it.

Theatrics and their absence

Coran certainly has some very dramatic reactions, but it’s almost more noteworthy when he doesn’t. I’ve mentioned that Coran has a major case of stiff upper lip in the face of sometimes even mortal peril- but that’s basically it. Coran’s spectrum of emotional expression oscillates from “politely interested or indifferent” to the melodramatic screaming he put on in s1e2.

In general, Coran’s more mellow expressions of emotion tend to be positive. Frustration is a quick way to get him to more dramatic expressions, and even that varies. It isn’t even a simple game of how intensely Coran feels something, either- some of his most scathing lines are delivered quietly. If anything, it would seem that Coran is more expressive and ebullient in times of levity- if the situation feels serious, then even shouting, there’s a composed sternness to him.

He can also flip between the two multiple times within the course of a single scene and practically at the drop of a hat. In this sense, it would suggest that Coran never really has wild or uncontrolled emotions- simply, he can, and tends to be, fairly lenient in their expression.

This seems to be the product of a lot of work throughout Coran’s life by our glimpses of his younger selves. From a very moody teenage Coran who claims he can only express himself through music to his wildly over-dramatic ebullient young adult self- Coran has pretty much always had a lot of feelings, and it’s only as he’s gotten older that he’s mellowed to a degree and successfully established a certain layer of calm that can exist either over or under them.

And it’s very notable that just because Coran emotes a lot doesn’t mean he’s incapable of duplicity. Because Coran is carrying some emotional giants, and they’re simply things that you do not see at all unless something prompts him to mention them.

His quiet mention that he can’t lose Allura is basically the only admission he has made, at all in the seasons, that much like Allura herself, Coran is nearly alone in the universe- one of a trace handful of surviving Alteans. And after that, his comment that he’s been waiting for a shot at Zarkon acknowledges that possibly even more than Allura, Coran has a driving grudge- one that he buries just as quickly as he acknowledges it to tell Keith to step back and preserve himself rather than engage Zarkon.

Supportive

I’ve mentioned that Coran tends to be a part of someone else’s backdrop, but I think it’s worth noticing- especially as he can be sometimes condescending or flippant with the team- that there is a very affectionate and warm side of Coran. While he is unflinchingly observant of formal titles, it’s also very clear his relationship with Alfor and Allura has been deeply personal and rather familial- and this is much of how he takes to the paladins. Coran is never really so formal with people as to really feel stiff- his proper courtly manners juxtapose with a very flippant and sincere attitude.

A lot of people joke about Shiro being team dad, but honestly- I stand by, Shiro is the perfectionist oldest child that everyone jokes acts like another parent. Coran, though- even when the objective goal was to drive the paladins as hard as possible and make them unite against a single goal, Coran was still giving them breaks and telling them not to push it too hard. (And his praise of Allura’s methods after the fact is incredibly backhanded, almost certainly on purpose)

In Summary

Coran is a person very motivated by memories and sentimentality, but also, for all of his bouncy high-energy persona, there is a really impressive amount of emotional control under his surface, to the point that he can easily hide very powerful sentiments indeed.

Multi-talented and very inclined to working behind the scenes to support others, but also somewhat haughty, and both genuinely deeply fond of the rest of his team and utterly unafraid to take them all down a peg if he feels that’s appropriate.

#voltron legendary defender #vld #Coran #Voltron character study #readmore

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sapphicvevo · 7 years ago

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Hi, so I'm just wondering, Ik ur username is so u can have the cute in the username, but where are u on the name discourse? (Like the give lance a cuban last name stuff). Idk daddyroboarm and some other accounts where bigger advocates for this, because they were against whitewashing him, but Idk I keep seeing ur username and wonder what u think. Obvs u don't have to respond sometimes the discourse can get ugly.

ahh i was actually just talking about this with one of my mutuals today, so its super funny you asked this lol! but you asked really nicely, so i don’t really mind answering it.

under a read more bc i can’t shut up about anything regarding lance ever and it got long lol

tbh i’m actually… pretty neutral about the name discourse as of right now? like if they give lance a cuban last name, i’d still be stoked, and i’d obviously change my url because it’d be obsolete and insensitive to lance’s actual canon name.

but as of right now, where we only have lance’s first name that is canon? i don’t have a strong opinion other than that like automatically having a white sounding last name doesn’t automatically mean you’re white washing. my grandma, who was born and raised in mexico, full blooded mexican with no white people in her parentage, has a white sounding last name due to her own reasons, and she’s not anymore white than i am for having a white sounding first AND last name lol. i just feel like if you hc him from cuba and being directly from cuba and use mcclain, you need to consider a valid reason for why he’d have that last name. (for example, i use my grandma’s reason for changing her name for why i use mcclain rn. she married a man with a non latinx last name, and i hc the same for lance’s mom after she divorced lance’s biological dad, hence mcclain. it really is just me self projecting my family onto lance’s lol. my nina who’s cuban has a white last name because of marriage also, but she and her children are still cuban.)

which considering all of this, opens up a lot of interesting ideas for lance and his family’s backstory, while remaining true to the fact that he is a boy from cuba, with cuban roots, and a cuban heritage that isn’t erased by someone’s name.

HOWEVER, i see where the other side is coming from because us latinxs tie very heavily with our names and are very proud of where we come from. our names are a part of our culture, just like our language is, and just like any other tradition we have. it’d be ignorant of me to say that names don’t matter, because while it doesn’t apply to me personally (my first name is ashley… the whitest name ever… lol. so i dont consider myself being white washed, bc im still half mexican regardless), i know that isn’t the case for other latinxs and it’s important to respect that.

i just think when hc-ing lance with a last name, it’s important to really think about the why’s and how come’s of it. i trust latinxs who use mcclain more than los gringxs based on mere principal alone, because i know their intentions aren’t malicious. it’s also important that if you want to hc lance with a cuban last name that it IS an actual cuban last name and not one from the many other beautiful countries of latinxamerica, because our cultures aren’t interchangeable, and neither are our names. (i.e. stop using ‘sanchez’ as a last name in fics now. it’s 2017. he’s confirmed cuban. sanchez is not a popular name for cubans, but for mexicans. please stop nothing makes me exit out of a fic faster than seeing this.)

but again, i’m not cuban/from cuba, i’m from the states, and i’m not speaking for the whole voice of the latinx community when i type this. i’m just putting my own and my grandma’s experience with having white sounding names and how it affects us and how it doesn’t take away from our heritage or where we come from, because that is a lot of what i’ve seen/taken from this discourse that honestly does sting a bit, but i’m just one voice.

tldr; i think right now, since nothing is canon, it’s all about being respectful to lance’s cuban heritage, not erasing that, and trying to be respectful to latinxs who want lance to have a cuban last name and latinxs who are alright with mcclain. if lance is confirmed with a cuban last name, then this discourse is automatically over, and we use that. but for now, it’s about being respectful and open minded to latinxs who have different experiences.

#this is... REALLY long #i really am neutral i just #have a lot of opinions and see both sides of this issue #latinx tag #long post /#answered #Anonymous #discourse /

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ciathyzareposts · 6 years ago

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Star Control II: Age of Ultron

No, it’s not a sentient, malicious robot. It’s the galactic equivalent of a Lance Armstrong bracelet.

Lots of stuff to talk about, so I’m just going to pick up where I left off.

Running out of items on my “to do” list, I next went to where Admiral Zex wanted a life form on a yellow sun world. I poked around several planets in the Lyncis constellation, taking longer than most players because a lot of colors look like they could be “yellow” to me. Eventually, I found what I was sure was the correct world when this big devil’s head started attacking my lander. He killed all but three crewmembers before I hit him enough time to stun him and bring him back to the ship.

A close-up of the monster that my team hoped to bag and tag for Admiral Zex.

The crew reported:

We had only a few seconds to get it into the magnetic restrainor before it started thrashing around again. Even as I make this report, that damn monster is shrieking like a steam engine and trying to tear its way free. I hope we know what we’re doing, bringing that thing aboard.

Back in VUX space, Zex gratefully took the alien demon off my hands, but then immediately announced he wouldn’t be honoring his side of the bargain (to give us the Shofixti females). Instead, he said that his menagerie would never be complete without humans. But as he ordered his underlings to attack us, a fun vignette played out (entirely by text) in which the demonic alien escaped its bonds and slaughtered everyone in the complex, including Zex.

Undone by his own perversions.

When it was over, a trip to the planet allowed us to recover the cryogenically-frozen forms of the Shofixti females. We brought them back to Tanaka, the lone Shofixti male, who gratefully set himself to the job of repopulating the race.

I’ll bet you do.

Out of ideas at this point, I returned to the Melnorme and turned in a bunch of life forms and the locations of two Rainbow Worlds for over 1,000 credits, which I proceeded to spend on technological upgrades (including the ability to double the carrying capacity of my lander) and information.

Among the information was a bunch of stuff I already knew, like the origin of the probes and the location of the Slylandro home planet. But then the Melnorme started talking about some races I’d never heard of, including an extinct race called the Burvixese, a terminally-depressed race called the Utwig, and trading race called the Druuge who “care for nothing but profit and personal gain through unfair mercantile exchanges”. I learned that the Utwig have repeatedly talked of ending it all by exploding a Precursor super-weapon. The Druuge tried to obtain the weapon from the Utwig by selling them a worthless “personal magnifier” called the “Ultron,” but the Utwig refused to give up the weapon. Later, the Utwig broke the “Ultron” and got even more depressed. The Melnorme gave me three locations where I could find parts to fix the Ultron. I already had one of them–a “clear spindle” from the Pkunk.

The Melnorme are not happy about the existence of another trading race.

The Burvixese, meanwhile, had been destroyed by the Kor-Ah. The Burvixese had learned that the Kor-Ah find other races by scanning for HyperWave transmissions. They were kind enough to warn the Druuge of this, and the Druuge repaid them by building a HyperWave caster on a Burvixese moon, ensuring that the Kor-Ah would attack the Burvixese instead of the Druuge.

I decided to head first for the old Burvixese homeworld, where I found the HyperWave Caster on the moon. When I used it, oddly enough it seemed to summon the Melnorme, so I guess that could be handy, although not what I was expecting. I next went to Utwig space, hoping to see about that bomb. They were indeed a terribly morose species, like the Dweenle of Starflight II. They refused to trade me the bomb, but the visit was useful because their system (Zeta Hyades) had three treasure worlds.

For some reason, this was the only shot I took of the Utwig.

While I was in this corner of space, I decided to explore the most remote system, Groombridge. It turned out to feature just one star and one planet, but it was a Rainbow World.

Looking to assemble the components to fix the Ultron, I next headed for Zeta Perseide and the Druuge, a weird primate species that hangs from chains. They somehow knew I had the eggshell fragments from Syreen, the portal spawner, and the HyperWave Caster, and they offered to buy all of them, although what they offered for the latter two (fuel and ships) wasn’t very tempting. I needed from them the “Rosy Sphere,” which they offered to sell for 100 crewmembers or the Mycon eggshell fragments. I didn’t like either option, frankly, but I wasn’t about to sell my crew into slavery (I barely had enough anyway). The eggshell hadn’t gotten me anywhere with the Syreen, so I reluctantly let it go and took the sphere.

So few altruistic organizations have the word “crimson” in their names.

The Thraddash supposedly had the final Ultron piece, the “Aqua Helix.” I’d been unsuccessful finding them before, but after some searching, I finally met them–huge, rhinoceros-looking beings–in the Draconis system. I tried to adopt a threatening, blustery posture with them, but it didn’t work out. I found myself in combat regardless of what I did, in fact.

The “hostile” option did not cow them.

Despite their supposed ferocity in battle, I found the Thraddash relatively easy. They have a smoke screen that draws in homing missiles, but their ships are small and die within a couple of shots of a fusion cannon, so I just destroyed them with my flagship. The problem wasn’t difficulty but quantity. Once hostilities developed, they just swarmed me with squadron after squadron, and I got sick of all the fighting, which didn’t seem to be drawing me any closer to the Aqua Helix.

Note how few hit points the Thraddash ship has.

I headed back to Earth to consider my next moves. When I arrived, Commander Hayes told me that the Spathi had abruptly departed, taking their commanders and ships with them, but the Shofixti had joined us. I sold a Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger to make way for a Shofixti Scout.

Apparently, the Shofixti reproduce so fast that finding crewmembers won’t be a problem. Not that it ever was. Maybe I should have sold them to the Druuge after all.

The starmap showed me that the Pkunk were in the process of moving back towards Yehat territory again. I decided to visit the Yehat with my Shofixti commander and ship and see what they had to say about the return of their “ward” race. It was pretty extreme.

Our children have returned from oblivion!! But now we are faced with the cruelest truth! We who have sacrificed our honor! We who have lain with our enemy! WE ARE NOT WORTHY! WE ARE NOTHING! We are less than nothing. But wait! We are not Spathi. We are Yehat . . . OF THE SHARSHIP CLANS! We will NOT live this lie any longer! Listen as I speak these words! If our Queen makes the dishonorable command, then it is THE QUEEN WHO HAS NO HONOR! And a dishonorable Queen is NO QUEEN AT ALL!

And at that, the Yehat were at civil war.

Well, good luck with that.

I next headed to Ilwrath space, hoping that I could impersonate their gods with the HyperWave Caster. But there must be something about the Umgah version that makes that possible because this one did nothing except summon the Melnorme again. The Melnorme did happen to mention that the Caster could penetrate a planetary shield, so I took it to Procyon to see if I could talk with the Chenjesu or the Mmrnmhrm. It worked. They related that they decided to accept fallow slavery because of the Ur-Quan doomsday weapon, the sa-matra. They figured they’d bide their time and create a stronger hybrid race before emerging from the shield and attacking the Ur-Quan once again. They said if I could find a powerful enough energy source, it could speed up the process.

My old allies weren’t much help.

I felt it was time to deal with the Spathi and their repudiation of our alliance. When I arrived at the Spathi homeworld, I found it covered in a red shield–but not one of Ur-Quan origin. Apparently, the Spathi had used their time on the alliance starbase to study Earth’s shield and then reverse-engineer it, thus sealing themselves off from hostile races forever. They didn’t respond to my use of the Burvixese HyperWave Caster.

An unwelcome sight as we approach the Spathi homeworld.

On the moon, they had left behind the Umgah HyperWave Caster. I can’t remember exactly how it came into Spathi hands, but at last I had what I wanted. I returned to Ilwrath homeworld and hit them with the HyperWave Caster. As with the Umgah, they believed that we were their gods. There were some funny options where I could tell them to change the name of their own species or replace common words with nonsense words.

The Dill-rats take immediately to their new name.

But the most important option was to tell them to leave Pkunk space and “seek new prey.” They mulled it over and decided to vent their fury against the Thraddash. Over the next few months, I watched on the starmap as the Ilwrath circle migrated across the galaxy to the Thraddash circle. Then slowly, both circles got smaller and smaller. It was pretty cool.

Coming up on only one year before Earth was due to be destroyed, I wasted a couple of months collecting more life specimens for the Melnorme only to find out things I already knew. Eventually, they told us about the Mycon “deep children” and how the Mycon sent these eggs into the crusts of other planets which expanded and essentially cracked open the planets, making them more suitable for fungal life forms. The Mycon had already told me this, but now having double-confirmation, I returned to the Syreen commander to see if she’d react. She did–but, unfortunately, she wanted proof, and I’d sold that proof to the Druuge. I knew that would come back to haunt me.

I began to wonder if I could find another eggshell on one of the many “Shattered Worlds” within Mycon space. I spent a while trying, but after having no luck on three or four planets, and getting sick of trying to fight the Mycon ships (which I hate), I confess I looked up a spoiler–just to see if I was on the right track, or if I had to restart from before selling the eggshell. Well, it turned out that I was on the right track and that there was a single alternate eggshell on Gamma Brahe I. I would have found it eventually. With evidence in hand, I returned to the Syreen. The commander vowed vengeance against the Mycon and told me to leave.

That’s what I like to hear, but aren’t you trapped on this planet?

Meanwhile, the Ilwrath had reduced the Thraddash so much that I could freely explore the former Thraddash space for the “Aqua Helix.” It took forever–Draconis, Apodis, and Antilae are all huge constellations–but I persevered (reloading when a visit turned out to be a complete waste of time) and finally found the thing on Zeta Draconis I.

With the three parts in hand, I returned to the Utwig, who told me that they gave the broken Ultron to their friends, the Supox. The Supox turned out to be another alien species–this one plant-based–in a nearby system. Long story short, they gave me the broken Ultron, I fixed it, I returned it to the joyful Utwig.

My current list of devices.

At this point, I was hailed by a Druuge cruiser. The Druuge had got wind of our impending exchange and had zipped over to Utwig space, hoping to seize the weapon they’d tried to acquire in the original Ultron exchange. All dialogue options–except letting them have the weapon–led to combat.

The combat was difficult in several ways. First, the Druuge ship is capable of killing almost every ship in my fleet, except the flagship, in a single shot. Second, it has some kind of “turbo boost” that sends it zooming away just as I’m aiming at it. Third, I had to defeat like 10 of the damned things. They weren’t very well-armored, and I could defeat them in a few shots if they sat still long enough for me to hit them, but the sheer number of battles meant that the encounter ended with about a third of my fleet destroyed.

I lose my Earth Cruiser to the Druuge ship.

In the end, I got the Precursor weapon, which the game calls an “Utwig Bomb.” I’m not sure how to use it. If I try to use it from within my ship (as you do other devices), it just blows up my ship.

My crew finds the weapon on the planet.

As I close, I’m back at starbase, replenishing my fleet. It is the beginning of April 2158, or only about 10 months to go before the originally-prophesied destruction of Earth. On the map, the Thraddash have disappeared and the Ilwrath territory has shrunk to the size of a pea. Yehat territory has also grown alarmingly small.

Rebuilding my fleet. The Utwig Jugger is now an option.

And I’m out of ideas. I have nothing left on my “to do” list, and I’ve bought all the information that the Melnorme have to offer. The only thing I can think to do is re-visit each species and see if anything new comes up in dialogue. I’ll probably save-scum a bit during this process, as I cannot afford the wasted time if the visits offer nothing.

The state of the galaxy.

I’m still enjoying myself and the unfolding story, but I also wouldn’t mind if it was heading into its final chapter.

Time so far: 38 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/star-control-ii-age-of-ultron/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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mypralaya · 6 years ago

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(I really like Force of Nature and wanted to do something with them, and since they became “superheroes” in Civil War, sending them after a “bad guy” seemed like an easy way to write about ‘em. Aqueduct is my fave so he got the most spotlight, he’s a loser villain who isn’t too bright and who is really smug and gloating when he thinks he’s one, super down on himself when he’s lost. Kind of a bipolar Fabian without the creep factor, I guess There's no story, it's just kinda a "ok, if Haven survived the birth of the Adversary, presumably she'd still be wanted by the government for the crimes she did while posessed, so they'd probably keep sending super-powered peoples after her like they before with X-Factor, and I really like this government super-group so I'll send them” but there’s really nothing interesting. I guess you could read it as commentary on the deeply problematic way in which “brown lady with a funny religion is a terrorist because the government says so thus it’s okay to open fire on her when she’s not doing anything and doesn’t have any powers as far as we know yet” was handled in the comics canon, but I wasn’t actually thinking that deep when I wrote it.) With the passing of the Superhuman Registration Act, the “normal” population had believed that criminals with superpowers would be better regulated. Instead, many of the supervillains that had signed up had not only been pardoned for their crimes, but hired by the US government as their own state-sanctioned superheroes. One such squad was Force of Nature, a quartet of mercenaries, each possessed of powers focused around one of the four elements. They had been assigned to the state of Oregon—each of the fifty states now had its own assigned team of so-called “protectors”–but selected to make a special trip to Mumbai. There was a long-overdue warrant for the apprehension of one Radha Dastoor. It had gone ignored because she had not been an active threat for years, and given how many VERY active superhuman threats there were, the government hadn’t wanted to waste their limited resources on someone who wasn’t causing mass destruction at just this particular moment. They only had so many people who could deal with superhumans, after all. At least, that had been the case. Once.

Now they had a lot of them, and it was time to catch up on all those pesky “forgotten” cases while they still could. It would be good publicity, show the public that these former “bad guys” truly could be trusted to get the current criminals. Of course, it might be tough to sell anyone on Radha Dastoor aka “Haven” being a criminal. Though her terrorist crimes had been great, she’d not only concealed them successfully from the public, but been known as an incredibly kind and charitable philanthropist. Heck, her very name came from a children’s hospital she had rebuilt! So, in this case, the arrest would be kept under wraps, not displayed proudly for the masses. It would be not for PR, but for the fact that, inactive or not, X-Factor had reported incredible powers from her…powers that either needed to be contained, or put to service. She’d sure make them look good as a superhero…a sweet philanthropist, who had willingly signed up with the registration act despite not even being a US citizen, she just supported it that much. That’d be the story, anyway. What really happened was Aireo, aka Skybreaker, the wind representative on their team, blowing apart the little wooden shrine they had tracked her to near a mangrove swamp. There was no one around save for a flock of flamingos, now startled away into flight, so they didn’t need to worry about controlling collateral damage…or protecting their image in how they went about this. Standing among the remains of the shrine was a shocked woman shielding herself from the debris with her arms. Her huge mane of hair meant she was likely their target, and her face peering out at her attackers confirmed it “Radha Dastoor alias Haven!” hollered Peter Van Zante, aka Aqueduct, the water-controlling member of the squad, “By order of the US government, you are under arrest!” The woman started to move, to put her hands up, but the gesture was sadly misinterpreted as being about to do something hostile. “Don’t even try!” snarled Sunstreak, alia Andrea Rourke, who had a form of living flame. She supplemented her verbal warning by shooting one of her solar lances. Hotter than the heart of a volcano, such a thing would be deadly to a human, but given what Sunstreak had read about this lady on her case file, it was probably nothing she wouldn’t be able to shrug off. But rather than some grand display of reality-warping, the woman called Haven anticlimactically fell to the side into the rubble, having thrown herself to the ground to avoid the fire. Pushing herself up on arms, she called something up to her attackers, but her voice unheard beneath the din of the winds that Skybreaker had summoned. “Can you fly, Radha Dastoor?” he taunted, “Your records say you can do just about everything else—here, let me help you!” And with his winds, he lifted her, not a gentle levitation but a violent seizing, like a rodent being snatched up skyward by a hawk. “Alright guys, we’ve got her!” crowed Aqueduct, sounding proud despite having done nothing thus far. “We’ve only overwhelmed her”, replied Skybreaker, “Thanks mainly to me. But that’s just because we surprised her—now that we’ve lost that element, we’ve got to rely on our other four to keep her subdued. Best thing to do—knock her out!” And with that he slammed her bodily into the ground. She indeed seemed unconscious now, but just in case, the earth elemental known only as Terraformer wrapped her in a cocoon of vines. “That won’t do any good if she teleports!” said Aqueduct, remembering that Haven was supposed to be able to do that, according to X-Factor’s reports, “She could vanish inside there and we wouldn’t know!” In reply, Terraformer retracted the vines around Haven’s head, so that her face was visible and they could keep an eye on her. Since Skybreaker and Sunstreak were still in the air, it was Aqueduct who strode towards the captive Haven to examine her to be sure she wasn’t faking it. And because he wanted to contribute something to a big capture like this, after all. He’d been apprehensive when he’d read about her powers, but after her not putting up any fight, and him now surely having the upper hand, he was suddenly quite confident. Heck, now he actually HOPED she’d wake up and try something! So he could heroically foil her! It looked like he might get his wish, too–her face twitched a bit, she was clearly coming to. “Do not try to resist, Ms. Dastoor”, he said, in his most authoritative voice as she stirred, even though that was what he wanted, “We’d prefer to take you alive, but we’re authorized to use deadly force.” Haven’s dark, dewy eyes opened halfway, and she weakly replied, “Yes…I noticed.” “Don’t get smart now!” he commanded as Terraformer continued to hold her fast. “I was not making a joke,” said Haven, not sounding much stronger, let alone at all threatening. “Please, this is unnecessary. I am not resisting.” “Of course you’re not now–you’re all tied up!” Aqueduct thought he was making a pretty good joke with that, but it was really just more of a general observation. He’d never been good at the whole banter bit. “I will not resist if I am not tied up,” Haven promised, “I cannot. There is nothing I can do to fight you.” Aqueduct’s chest swelled, thinking she was saying that even her great powers were no match for him. Sunstreak and Skybreaker had landed and were approaching now. “That’s exactly what you would say to get us to let you loose,” scoffed Skybreaker, hearing Haven’s last sentence. “If I had my powers, I would not need you to do so in order for me to escape,” said Haven. There was no bite in her tone; it was simply factual, even submissive. Force of Nature all looked at each other. She didn’t have her powers? That…did explain a lot… Aqueduct looked back at Haven, and he suddenly realized how helpless she seemed. Especially with those big brown eyes and their long cow-like lashes, looking so harmless and imploring and beaten down. His proud feeling started seeping away. “Terraformer”, Aqueduct’s authoritative tone had returned, “You may loosen the restraints on the captive.” Terraformer looked at him very funny, not because of the order but the tone and the choice of words. He may? His wooded brows lifted. “You’re not the leader!” Sunstreak ejected hotly, no pun intended, “Terraformer, you keep her held fast! Of course, Sunstreak was not the leader either, they didn’t have one, and actually she didn’t think that Haven seemed that threatening either, she just didn’t like stupid Aqueduct giving orders. Him and Aireo were both way too full of themselves…which they always would have said about her. Appropriately, it was really only Terraformer who was down to earth on this team. And as for Terraformer, he kept hold of the woman, because they were supposed to capture her after all, but he didn’t do anything else. Aqueduct, meanwhile, huffy at not being obeyed, decided to draw this out just to spite the others, knowing that Skybreaker and Sunstreak were impatient to wrap things up. He addressed Haven again, “And how did you lose your powers, ma’am? Was it M-day?” She shook her head as much as she could while still within Terraformer’s grasp, and replied, “My abilities were not…mutant in nature. I’d rather not talk about it. Not like this.” Aqueduct found that he felt bad for her. Not because of her loss of powers, but because a beautiful woman looking helpless and pathetic has a certain effect on a lot of men. Aqueduct was one of those men, and the fact he was the one here with power over her made him want to use it to look heroic to her instead. The additional fact that his teammates obviously didn’t feel the same way just made him feel more so, like he was the sole good guy keeping her safe from a squad of black hats, the hero rescuing the damsel. “Very well then, I won’t force you,” he said, and was about to continue when he was interrupted. “It’s not our concern anyway!” Skybreaker practically shouted, “Our concern is taking her in! Let’s do it already and get out of here, the pollution is KILLING me!” As an Inhuman, Aireo/Skybreaker had a weaker immune system than the rest of them, making him extremely sensitive to things like that. Mumbai was the fourth most polluted megacity on the planet, so he probably was not exaggerating by much. Aqueduct supposed pissing the guy off more wasn’t worth him losing a lung. Skybreaker was a jerk, but he was a teammate. And besides, he’d find a way to pay Aqueduct back for it. “Alright Terraformer, load her up,” he said, but then added, “But be gentle–remember, she’s not resisting.”

#fic #writing

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ultralifehackerguru-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://www.lifehacker.guru/were-those-cheerios-seeds-really-so-bad-an-investigation/

Were Those Cheerios Seeds Really So Bad? An Investigation

Last month, we told you not to plant the wildflower seeds that Cheerios is giving away to help “bring back the bees,” because they seemed to include invasive species that could harm your local environment. Soon afterward, I received some emails about those seeds that pulled me into a much deeper story.

In short, the problem with the Cheerios seed mix is that, no matter where you are, some of the flowers in the mix will be less than ideal for your area. The California poppy, for example, is great in California, but a noxious weed in the southeast. One of the plants, listed as forget-me-not, appeared to be a species that is banned in two states. If you’re going to ask people to plant flowers to help the environment, why wouldn’t you send them flowers that are friendly to their local environment?

It turns out I had one fact wrong in my post. I learned about the error through an email from Lance Bentley of the Bentley Seed Company. “My company is the packager of this promotion,” he said, and he claimed they did not include any of the invasive forget-me-not.

It turns out there were several seed companies involved in putting together this promotional seed packet. Cheerios advertised that they were partnering with Vesey’s, another large seed distributor, but Vesey’s got the packets from Bentley’s, and Bentley’s used another company’s seeds to fill their packets. Lance Bentley wrote that he had a confidentiality agreement with the seed supplier whose name he could not reveal, but that they were “the most reputable wildflower seed grower in the United States.” The mix was formulated there, he said, by “a woman with an advanced degree in ecology” and he assured me that neither Bentley’s nor the mystery supplier would ever knowingly send out a harmful species.

So how had forget-me-not gotten onto the list of wildflowers on Cheerios’ website in the first place? That list, above, included both the (relatively harmless) Chinese forget-me-not, and then the regular forget-me-not further down on the list. At first, Bentley thought I had confused the Chinese with the other species, but then I pointed out that both were listed. A few emails later, he said he had confirmed that the addition of the second forget-me-not was “a typo” on his supplier’s end. But no, he could not tell me who that supplier was.

I posted a correction to my article, stating that I’d been informed forget-me-nots were not, in fact, in the packet, and got back in touch with Kathryn Turner, the invasive plant expert who had explained the problems with the seed mix when I was first writing the piece. This time I asked her if the mix was still problematic even without the invasive forget-me-not. Here’s what she said:

I still think it’s not a great thing to send non-native seeds all around the country. True forget-me-not was the worst [on the list], for sure, but there are still non-natives and California poppy is weedy in the southeast. To be honest, it’s probably impossible to come up with a single set of plants that would even do well themselves all across the US, even if they were all from somewhere in North America. So why not have 5 or so region-specific ones? Xerces.org already does that.

The funny thing is, Cheerios was working with Xerces, a wildlife conservation nonprofit, on another project—to plant native wildflowers near their oat farms. Why not use Xerces’ preferred flowers for the seed packet promotion? I had called a Cheerios spokesperson when I was doing my original research for the piece, but he declined to tell me anything about the species they were including or why they chose this particular mix.

But maybe he could help me understand how the wrong forget-me-not appeared on Cheerios’ list. I wrote back to him, and in three emails that day he said he was “looking into this,” was “still gathering information,” and that he would get back to me the next day. Call it a hunch, but I think Cheerios didn’t know about the error until I told them. In the end, the spokesperson didn’t have an explanation for me. He just wrote that they would update the website, because they had “inadvertently listed Forget-Me-Nots twice.”

What Was Cheerios Thinking?

My article about Cheerios’ wildflower seed project got 2.7 million page views, more than anything I’d ever written. The day it was published was Lifehacker’s highest traffic day ever. I got an email from our CEO congratulating me on it.

After a few days, articles started popping up around the internet about the “backlash” against Cheerios. The articles all cited my post, and many reached out to Cheerios for comment. So I don’t think I’m out of line in suggesting that maybe, just maybe, this issue was on Cheerios’ radar.

And yet they never contacted me about it. Lance Bentley, the seed packager, cared about correcting the record and wanted to protect his reputation and that of his supplier. Cheerios seemed not to care.

I peeked at Cheerios’ Facebook page and looked at the replies to their promoted tweets about the wildflower giveaway. Plenty of folks were pointing out that the seeds were non-native and possibly invasive. A lot of them linked my article. And some poor intern must have been given the job of copy-pasting the same boring response to all of them. It was, in fact, the same response I had gotten when I initially asked Cheerios about their seed mix. And it was not helpful at all.

While I was rolling my eyes at Cheerios’ tone deaf response, public relations news site PR Daily was praising it. Alex Slater, himself a director of a PR firm, wrote:

“In response to mounting pressure from both digital outlets and individuals on social media, General Mills focused its response on Facebook and Twitter audiences. The company developed a set of three slight variations of reactive messages designed to address concerns and discourage further interrogation.”

It is “needless escalation,” he says, to try to work with reporters to clear up misinformation. Better to work up a statement that “blend[s] technical language with sympathetic concern” without addressing the article’s substance, and paste it again and again until the whole thing blows over.

Somebody Cares

Not everybody took this approach, though. Diane Wilson sure didn’t.

I don’t know who Diane really is, although I have a guess. She emailed me shortly after Lance Bentley did, and demanded a correction (even though I had just made one) for saying that the seed mix included invasive forget-me-nots. “It is with considerable alarm that I have seen the damage you have done with the posting about the bee mix Cheerios is giving out,” she wrote. Of the forget-me-not she stated plainly: “That species was not the one in the mix.”

How could she know? I wondered if she worked for the nameless seed company. I tried googling, but even if that was her real name, there are 1,692 Diane Wilsons in the US. Her name turned up on a seed company website, but there was no way to be sure I had the right person. I wrote back and asked her if she had more information to share with me.

She dodged the question. “My point was, too many people make assumptions about common plant names. You need to get the scientific name to know for sure what you have…I’m a botanist, and so this is an important point to make.”

I asked her point blank: were you involved in making the seed mix? She dodged again: “When I see a red flag, I research it. It’s a simple deduction.”

I tried one last time: “To be totally clear, are you saying you were not involved with this particular seed mix?”

I never heard from her again.

I even wrote back offering to let her talk on background, guessing that she might not want her employer to know she was reaching out to me. I gave her my cell number. I offered to talk privately on Whatsapp or Signal. No dice.

Meanwhile, a few other, familiar sounding messages trickled in. Some anonymous comments on my article included talking points similar to Diane’s. So did an email that my source Kathryn Turner received, signed “A Concerned Citizen.” Cheerios may not have cared about bad press, but somebody—or several somebodies—did.

It seemed I was at a dead end. Cheerios wouldn’t tell me why they sent out these seeds rather than natives, and they either couldn’t explain, or didn’t care, why forget-me-not snuck onto the list. Diane didn’t look like she was going to call me, and I had no way to confirm who the upstream seed supplier was. I could call Vesey’s, the seed company whose name was on Cheerios’ promotional seed packets, but I now knew they were just a middleman. There was only one other player in this drama who might talk to me: Xerces.

Behind the Scenes With Cheerios and Xerces

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has a sterling reputation. The ecologists and entomologists I spoke to praised the work Xerces does for bees and butterflies, helping everyone from mega-corporate farms to backyard gardeners to do their part to conserve this tiny type of wildlife. They advocate for threatened species, publish conservation guides for gardeners and farmers, and coordinate citizen science programs.

Cheerios quotes Xerces experts and touts their contributions to Xerces on their webpage explaining why “we need the bees,” so I had questions. Were the people at Xerces okay with the seed mix, or did Cheerios do the seed promotion without asking their advice?

“This [should be] a learning moment for Cheerios and General Mills,” Scott Black, executive director of Xerces, told me on the phone. Unlike Cheerios or Diane Wilson, Black was happy to talk at length. We had a pleasant, meandering chat—did you know the largest known pollinator is a lemur in Madagascar that gets pollen on its face when it licks the nectar out of flowers?

Xerces had been working with Cheerios’ parent company for years before the ill-fated seed giveaway. “General Mills was quite an early adopter in thinking about pollinator conservation in their supply chain,” Black said. The company approached Xerces in 2010 asking how they could do a better job, and ended up giving the nonprofit millions of dollars: some to fund research on pollinators, and some to create pollinator habitat on the farms that supply produce to their organic brands Muir Glen and Cascadian Farm. The fields that supply oats for Cheerios will soon employ these responsible farming practices as well.

The farmers’ participation is voluntary, so Xerces approaches them and offers to plant wildflowers near their fields—native ones, of course. They also help the farmers find ways to reduce their pesticide use. That’s because the chemicals that kill insects on crops can also be toxic to bees and butterflies, especially if they are the persistent, systemic types like neonicotinoids. These get into every part of the plant, including the nectar and pollen, and they can persist in the environment for years. They don’t just enter the environment from farms, either, but from gardens and backyards and parks as well.

When Cheerios mentioned that they were thinking of doing a seed giveaway, the folks at Xerces gave them an idea. “We recommended—well, recommend is a strong word. In a conversation some months ago, we suggested organic sunflower seeds,” Black said. Aveda, maker of beauty products, had taken this advice and used sunflowers for a similar promotion in the past.

The beauty of sunflowers, Black said, is that they are easy to grow and stand out in the garden. Wildflower mixes, native or not, often take weeks to sprout and people don’t always plant them properly; they tend to scatter the seeds and hope for the best. With a sunflower, though, you can help your kid poke a big seed into a bit of warm dirt in the garden. It will sprout shortly afterward, and tower over the child by the end of the summer.

“You don’t have to be a gardener to get [sunflowers] to establish. They’re big, they’re exciting for kids.” And they definitely feed pollinators. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sunflower in bloom without bees and butterflies visiting.”

Sunflowers only bloom during one part of the summer, so they don’t provide a year-round buffet for the bees like a wildflower mix would. Black echoed the same thing I kept hearing from ecologists and entomologists: if you want to create a truly effective, eco-friendly habitat for bees, it’s best to plant natives. That said, he understood that gardens and backyards are “somewhat of a human construct.” He has roses and tomatoes in his own yard, for example. If you choose your plants with care, it’s not like non-natives are a terrible thing; but a company giving away “wildflowers” can certainly do better.

Even if Cheerios’ seed giveaway was a tone-deaf PR stunt, Xerces is happy to use it as a conversation starter. “People are asking us about it,” he said. “This story has allowed Xerces to talk about what’s really important.” That includes planting native flowers that bloom at different times during the season, and reconsidering how you use pesticides in your yard. And he emphasizes that people can help at any level: you can plant a garden in your postage stamp city yard, or you can write to whoever manages your nearest park and ask them to use less of the most toxic pesticides.

A Shot in the Dark Reopens a Cold Case

At this point, I was ready to file my story, and only a little disappointed. I had found out what Xerces really recommended to Cheerios: the opposite of what they did. And I had heard both sides’ arguments on whether a wildflower seed packet, minus forget-me-nots, could really be harmful. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the mysterious seed supplier. Why had they listed an invasive weed on their packaging?

I went back to Lance Bentley’s emails, one of which had a photo of what he called a “published” description of the mix. It was called “Bee Feed Mixture”, product code “BEEF.” Googling those words pulls up a bunch of seed sellers, all advertising more or less the same mix. Some list forget-me-not, others don’t. One of those sellers is Colorado-based Applewood Seed Company. I had become a little bit obsessed with Applewood, actually, because one of their employees shares a first and last name with my now-missing pal Diane.

This was all circumstantial evidence, and it was totally possible that Applewood was not the seed supplier I was looking for. But even if they weren’t, they still might be able to help me understand how seed mixes like this are formulated. I carefully composed an email to their sales team, trying to sound innocent:

Hi,

I noticed that there is a “forget-me-not” listed in the Bee Feed Mixture on this page (in addition to the “Chinese forget-me-not”). Is this the invasive true forget-me-not, or a different species?

I’ve seen similar mixtures elsewhere that don’t include the forget-me-not, so I’m just curious. Was this mixture developed at Applewood or somewhere else?

Thanks,

Beth

The response arrived swiftly. It was signed Norm Poppe, general manager, and it began: “I recognize your name from emails that have been circulating around the flower seed industry in regard to your misrepresentation of Forget Me Not in the seed trade as Myosotis scorp[i]oides.”

A Case of Mistaken Identity

HOLY CRAP. I had a live one. I was jumping with joy because a few sentences down, the email answered the forget-me-not conundrum. But I was also trembling with nervousness, because I might be able to get more information out of this guy if I was careful with my next move. So, in total, sort of vibrating with excitement.

Rather than blow my move on another email, I took a deep breath and picked up the phone. “Can I speak with Norm Poppe, please? We’ve been emailing and I just want to clarify something.” Soon I was on the line with the disgruntled manager himself. I said that I still had some questions and ultimately just wanted to get the story right.

“The story should be that there is no story,” he snapped. “Everything that’s been represented is overblown or isn’t true in the first place.”

He had been hearing about the Cheerios seeds not just all over the internet, but “three or four times” on his local news, and he had just heard that the story made it to the London Times. He objected to the assertion that the mix contained invasive species, an idea he called “completely ridiculous.”

He was thinking, specifically, of that forget-me-not. As Diane and her camp had reminded me, over 20 plants share that name. Using the scientific name was the only way to be sure you knew which one you were talking about. Out of all those plants, Norm Poppe asked me, why did I pick the one that was the most problematic?

When Kathryn Turner, the invasive plant expert, had seen the name without an adjective, she figured the seed was probably Myosotis scorpioides, the infamously invasive “true forget-me-not.” That seemed like a reasonable assumption to me, since the rest tended to have adjectives in front, like “broadleaf forget-me-not” or “Asian forget-me-not.” Remember, I had asked Cheerios about the species but they didn’t give me a useful answer.

Perhaps I should have pressed them harder. Poppe felt that failing to confirm the scientific name was “not very good journalism.”

In the seed trade, he told me, “forget-me-not” with no modifier indicates a different species, Myosotis sylvatica. (This one appears in the USDA’s database as “woodland forget-me-not.”) It’s not recognized as noxious or invasive. Applewood designed the mix to include it, but it didn’t end up in the Cheerios packets. “We do reserve the right to change mix formulations due to consequences of seed shortages and other unforeseen circumstances,” he had written in the email. Forget-me-nots had been unavailable for the last few months. Someone at Cheerios must have seen the list of what was intended to go in, but didn’t know—or didn’t care—that the seeds in the packet were something different.

What Happens When You Get Your Hands Dirty?

I got another email from Norm the next day. He had been thinking about my question, about what the real story is here. He thought I should write about whether a seed packet can change the world.

What can a packet of flower seed accomplish? Well, it might get a family involved in home gardening so that the parents could teach their children or in some cases grandchildren about the relationships between plants and insects and the food that we eat. It would certainly get the children outside so they could gain some understanding that you need to plant the seeds carefully, water them, and take care of them so they will grow. When the insects arrive to seek the nectar or pollen that will be present, there could be a discussion about how insects are a very important part of a natural ecosystem and without honey bees and other insects, most of the food that we like to eat would not be available.

Hmm, that’s the same thing the Xerces director said about planting sunflowers. I had also asked bee researcher Jeremy Hemberger what he thought of Cheerios’ intentions. “There are really no downsides to convincing people to get their hands dirty,” he said, but anybody who is trying to raise awareness should give people “the best information and resources possible” to pick the right plants and to avoid the most harmful pesticides. (He also threw in a plug for Bumble Bee Watch, where you can upload pictures of bees from your garden. Experts will tell you exactly what kind of bee you’ve found, and then include it in their studies of bee populations.)

This story took weeks to unfold, and during that time, spring happened. My four-year-old son noticed the dandelions in our yard, and since he’s now big enough to unlock the door by himself, he likes to run outside and pick the “pretty flowers” for me. I had never thought much about dandelions before, but now I was curious how they fit into our local ecosystem. It turns out dandelions aren’t native to our area, but they’re here to stay and they’re an important source of nectar for pollinators in the early spring.

What else had I learned over these past few weeks? Well, I learned that Cheerios didn’t include the infamous true forget-me-not in its seed mix—although they probably didn’t know that until I pointed it out. From my perspective, it seems they were more concerned with keeping their #bringbackthebees hashtag trending than with correcting the record.

I also learned that it’s even more important than I realized to get the scientific name right, because common names can mean different things in different specialties. Norm Poppe said he had never heard of Myosotis scorpioides until just now; it’s just not a thing in the seed industry. Meanwhile, it’s infamous to people who study invasive plants.

We never did learn who Diane was. “I’m a little disappointed she didn’t meet you at a highway rest stop in a trench coat and fedora,” my editor said.

And all along, everybody had the same goal, more or less: to get people to think about bees, and to learn how a few backyard flowers can connect us to the planet we all share. While Cheerios was rolling out their promotion, the rusty-patched bumble bee became just the eighth of our several thousand species of native bees to be recognized on the endangered species list. It used to live in my area, but according to recent research I would have to drive hundreds of miles if I wanted to see one. The decline is due to a combination of habitat loss, pesticide use, competition from honey bees, and climate change.

I’m cynical about corporate ad campaigns, and Cheerios certainly could have executed this more thoughtfully. But they did get people thinking about pollinators, and if the people who requested seed packets manage to get their seeds to sprout, the resulting flowers will feed bees without ruining the environment too much.

And maybe some of those folks will do a little further reading, and consider planting something else instead. I took my son to the garden store the other day, and they had a big display of wildflower seeds. I read the species list and said no thanks. Meanwhile, an ad for Seedles “seed bombs” popped up in my browser recently, and it turns out their wildflowers come in six different region-appropriate mixes of native species. I ended up buying my son a packet of organic sunflower seeds—which happen to be a domestic variety of a plant that is native to our area. He can’t wait until the weather gets warm enough to plant them.

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