#plus she did know Ray and Maya a bit since they all worked together in the Serpentine War

[swampythesweetsketch]

I'm gonna be controversial and say it now-

Misako should've had a bigger role in S7 Hands of Time.

I know she got brushed to the side to take care of Wu, but she'd been a much more interesting character if she got a active support role for Kai and Nya when the plot of their parents came in.

Like you got a mom that purposely left their child behind with the futile hope of changing the fate her child ultimately fell into- With a pair of kids whose parents legit vanished into thin air one day and they never found anything to answer the questions why and where did they go?

Just give Wu babysitting duty to one of the Ninja for a hour or something, let Misako get her time.

[askaceattorney]

Dear askrikkaiandhyotei,

The...entire cast!?

Well, Turnabout Time Traveler happens to be favorite case anyway, so why not?

Our first guest is the crooked head servant, Mr. Dumas Gloomsbury.  (Might as well get him out of the way first.)

Of course he isn’t.  He’s just a disgruntled servant of the Sprocket family who secretly hates them all for what they’ve done to his reputation, even to the point of being willing to murder someone who would become the newest addition to the family, as well as destroying a prized possession designed by her groom-to-be.

So..........yeah.  Very likable guy.  Thankfully, he’s only on the scene for a brief moment before the titular “time travel” occurs.

That brings us to our next guest, Ms. Ellen Wyatt, soon to be Mrs. Ellen Sprocket, except for the fact that she’s been accused of murder.  Like most defendants, she doesn’t seem like the type to kill someone -- she’s calm, mild-mannered, and well put together.  Well...usually.

You didn’t expect 100% normalcy in a new character, did you?  Heck, we’re lucky to get 50% in this series.  Thankfully, the emotional Ms. Wyatt knows how to pull herself together in an instant.

Quite the enviable skill to have, isn’t it?

This beautiful bride-to-be wants nothing more than to be proven innocent so that she can be married to the one and only Sorin Sprocket of Sprocket Aviation.  Instead of seeking help from the Wright Anything Agency on her own, however, she’s brought to them by someone else.

That brings us to an unexpected guest from yesteryear (and an uninvited one):

Before getting to know Ellen, we’re abruptly introduced to a brand new Larry Butz with a brand new look!  ...And the same old smell, unfortunately.

He introduces “Elly” as his brand new fiance, much to Phoenix’s surprise (and everyone in the known universe’s), but it turns out to be another one of his usual romantic escapades.  What is true is that he helped his beloved Elly escape the room she was confined in, and even shook off the police for her.  Some might call this heroic...if they don’t know the Butz.  As someone who does know him, Phoenix delivers a line from his former mentor:

On the plus side, Larry’s been doing more than chasing women since we last saw him -- he held onto the name he borrowed from his late mentor and became a picture book author.

Not exactly what I’d expect someone in that field to look like, but progress is progress, I guess.

Moving back to “Elly,” she claims to be as clean and pure as her pure-white dress, as well as something else -- something that’s a bit harder to believe.

Like I said, normalcy doesn’t seem to come naturally to new Ace Attorney characters, but her explanation of how she was almost killed, traveled back in time, and saw history rewritten takes the abnormal cake, especially coming from someone as sound-minded as Ellen.  Or is she really as sound-minded as she looks?

We can only hope.

I love how she keeps everything she needs for housekeeping in one place, by the way, almost Mary Poppins-style.

Fast forwarding (no pun intended) through some re-introductions to Maya as our co-council and Edgeworth as the case’s prosecutor (something us long-time Ace Attorney fans can’t help but love), we’re eventually introduced to the master himself, Mr. Sorin Sprocket, who has his own personality quirks...or rather, a severe lack of personality.

Like many genius inventors, he isn’t very social (his preferred method of communication being the paper airplane message), and always seems to be lost in his thoughts until someone pulls him back into reality.  Even stranger than that, he doesn’t seem the least bit worried about his fiance’s trial.  In Phoenix’s his words, he isn’t the easiest guy to wrap your head around.

On top of that, he has his own thing to say about time travel:

He and Ellen apparently both believe in time travel, but apart from that, they don’t seem to have much in common.  In fact, having met the two of them, one might think they’re polar opposites of each other, and...well, they’d be right, but as we learn later on, there’s more to Sorin’s silence than just an obsession with his work.

And speaking of obsession...

Our next guest, while also quite abnormal, is a bit more level-headed than the previous new characters.  He’s well-mannered, detail-oriented, shrewd, and takes the utmost care of Sorin.  Not to mention he's tech-savvy enough to fix a broken radio in a matter of seconds.

I’m surprised Phoenix and Maya didn’t consider the possibility of him being a machine himself, like they did with Lisa Basil.

He happens to have one of my favorite pun names, by the way.  Besides being clever and describing him perfectly, it almost sounds like it could be a real person’s name.

While Mr. Nichody does a good job of being the least interesting character thus far, it turns out that he and his “expensive good luck charm” play one of the most important roles in this case.  Not to mention he gives the biggest piece of foreshadowing in the episode:

Funny he should say that when there’s a spirit medium right in front of him, but I guess he doesn’t have time for unimportant details like that.

As the story goes on and the revelations start pouring in, we learn about Sorin’s older sister Selena, who was originally going to be the next president of Sprocket Aviation.  This, unfortunately, was not to be...

The sudden loss of his sister provides an explanation for his closed-off attitude and interest in time machines, but the mysteries surrounding that tragic day are only beginning.

We also learn that Mr. Nichody believes Ellen is guilty of her alleged crime, and for that reason, he’s strongly opposed to letting her marry Sorin.  Could he be right in doubting her, or is there something else behind is disapproval?  Ellen doesn’t seem that bad, after all.  Just a little...what’s the term?

There you go.

Then comes one of the bigger twists -- it turns out Sorin and his in-laws were responsible for Ellen’s supposed trip through time, which turned out to be an elaborate scheme to make her believe her near-death experience with Gloomsbury was only a dream.  Or so says Nichody, at least.

But once again, this is only the beginning.

Even with the possibility of time travel ruled out, Ellen’s guilt hasn’t been disproved just yet.  The only hope Phoenix has is the person she claims she saw attacking Gloombury before losing consciousness.  Unfortunately, the only suspect he can come up with so far is her fiance, thus introducing the possibility of him having to take her place in prison.

Considering every case up until now has had some form of happy ending, it’d be quite the unusual turn of events for this happy couple to have to be separated whether we win or lose the case...but is it impossible?

As tragic as that possibility might be, it sets up a scene that happens to be one of my favorite kinds -- one where someone is compelled to give up something, even if it’s his or her own life, purely out of love for someone else.

Her words are touching, but soon after saying them, she’s forced to prove just how steadfast her love is for Sorin, even in a cruel twist of fate -- namely, his pointing the blame for Gloomsbury’s death in her direction.

That face alone is enough to break anyone’s heart, but thankfully, that’s where the plot twists just begin.  The first one reveals that Sorin went to rescue his bride-to-be in the most bizarre way possible.

Then it turns out he really didn’t, or so he says.  Then it turns out he was attacked by Gloomsbury along with Ellen.  Then comes one that turns everything he’s said so far upside-down:

It turns out time travel is possible, but not in the way everyone was hoping, or in a way anyone would want -- due to his anterograde amnesia, Sorin “goes back in time” whenever he goes to sleep.  This revelation sheds a lot of light on his personality, his compulsive note-taking, and his feelings toward Ellen.  Not to mention, it turns out (sheesh, I keep saying that) he was responsible for the car crash that took his sister’s life.  But luckily, that's not all his condition reveals.

Someone decided to take advantage of Sorin’s memory being dependent on what he writes in his notebook in order to paint him as Gloomsbury’s murder.  Who might that someone be?  Well, for anyone who’s read the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (or enough murder mysteries involving rich families), it should be pretty obvious -- the butler did it!

But what motive could a close friend and servant have for manipulating Sorin’s memories?  Well, like many an Ace Attorney culprit, he’s not as level-headed as he appears to be.

The rogue butler in this case turns out to be the once-fiance of Sorin’s sister, as well as the one who operated on her after the car accident occurred...or, rather, who almost did.

After some impromptu x-rays and the testimony that wasn’t there, we finally learn the whole truth about Nichody, Gloomsbury, and the plot to exact their revenge on Sorin and his bride.  It turns out Sorin wasn’t the only one stuck in the past.

In a beautiful yet tragic symbolism, Selena’s pocket watch stopped ticking on the same day her heart stopped beating, which, for Nichody, was the day time stopped.

This brings us to our final guest, one who could only be here in spirit -- Ms. Selena Sprocket.  In Ellen’s words, Selena would’ve said, “Leave this ill will behind.  Your time is yours to live.”  To an inconsolable time traveler, these words hold no meaning, but just then...

Whether it’s a coincidence or a message from Selena from beyond (which might actually be believable in the Ace Attorney universe), Pierce is reminded that, sooner or later, time moves on.

And on that note, Ellen and Sorin are finally able to move on from this rough patch in their lives and experience their “First Startup of Love.”

Speaking of the happy couple, the one thing that stuck with me about this episode more than Nichody’s epiphany is how devoted Ellen is to Sorin from beginning to end.

With the knowledge that he might forget everything about her, himself, their wedding, and any other experiences they might share together, her devotion to him is ultimately proven to be the real deal.  His willingness to risk his life for her also proves that this devotion goes both ways.  In the end, there’s nothing, past, present, or future, that can keep them apart.  Why, you ask?

And hey, even Larry found it in himself to move on!  How about that?

Thus ends a beautiful story, a beautiful reunion of the original characters, and a beautiful finale(?) to the Ace Attorney series.  Sure, there was tragedy along the way, but after an ending like that, I’d like to see each of these characters, new and old, take a bow.

Just...don’t throw them any flowers.

-The Co-Mod

[parachutingkitten]

Dear Ninjago: Stop It With The Twists Already

An essay by Parachutingkitten

JK! This isn’t that formal. But I do have some lengthy points for you under the cut :)

Ninjago started out with a twist. The whole first season is built around the green ninja twist and the second season kinda subverted the expectation we had built up of Lloyd fighting his dad. This is the last time we had a twist framed as a sort of “big reveal” to both the audience and characters that really served the story in a productive and meaningful way. Let’s look the highlights over the seasons, shall we?

Season 4: Skylor is a villain. This one gets revealed to the audience before the ninja so it’s not really a big reveal twist, more of a suspense thing.

Season 5: Nya is the water ninja, revealed at the beginning of the season and serves more as a development than a twist.

Season 7: Ray and Maya are alive (and aren’t evil... I guess?)! This is our first real stupid twist. And pointless twist. They stick around for the season and then disappear from the show again. This was the first time Ninjago had a twist for twist’s sake. This is the beginning of the problem. 

Season 8: Pixal is Samurai X! Wu is a baby! Harumi is the Quiet One! (I know this one isn’t cannon, but they were troublingly close to including it) Mr. E is Echo! Now, most of these are okay. Just not handled well. This is where the problem becomes evident.

Season 11: Zane is the Ice Emperor. The stupidest twist of them all, and by far handled the poorest.

Now. Why do some of these more recent twists not work? Well, let’s break it down. 

Sometimes the problem is the twist itself. The twist is convoluted, and retcons information we’ve known from before, or has underlying implications that make everything more complicated. Ray and Maya are a perfect example of this. It’s been established since the pilot episode that these two are dead. Kai and Nya grew up on their own. Wu had so much trust in Ray that he gave him the map to the golden weapons. Trying to make us think he was evil was just stupid. Ray and Maya also don’t do that much in the season, besides the whole drama and reveal aspect of the story. You easily could have had them be dead and still get everything done that you needed to plot wise. Maybe have even more time for Nya and Kai to bond as siblings. It just brings up so many questions. Or rather, the one main one of where have they been? Were they really enslaved for ALL THAT TIME?! That’s darker than them just being dead! And to add insult to injury, they don’t show up in the show ever again after this. This twist left no impact on the franchise. It was a complete waste.

Season 8 has a lot of twists, and this introduces the problem of execution. Baby Wu is the one reveal that works. It has proper build up, it makes sense in the narrative, they find out mid season, they piece it together in a pretty mundane scene, and while it is a large reveal moment, the writers assumed you’ve picked up the clues before the ninja have. Compare this to the Pixal reveal. Very similar set up. It ties up a mystery from last season at a similar point in the current season. But the difference is in how they treat it. Pixal has to confess to being Samurai X. No one figures it out. Everyone is shocked and surprised and it culminates in a big dramatic “how could you?! *gasp emoji*” fight scene. I’m sure most everyone knew Pixal was Samurai X even back in season 7. She disappears right as Samurai X enters the picture, it’s really not that hard to piece together. This should have been handled differently. The audience should have been told Pixal was Samurai X ahead of time. We should have gotten a few shots from her perspective. It should have been handled like, oh, idk, Nya’s reveal in season 1. The problem is that they kept it a secret to go for shock value even though it was an easy guess. It would have been much more character enriching if they just handled it like they did baby Wu. Harumi is a little more complicated. Technically, you could argue that her arc goes through season 9, and hence we did get the reveal mid story, even if not mid season. My problem is that before the reveal she’s just such a blah-bland character that you don’t really care about that much, so when the reveal happens, that’s the point where she gets interesting. Why waste the majority of a season carrying around this dead weight that you feel obligated to give screen time to while waiting for her to get interesting? So yeah, it could have been handled a lot better, but it’s nothing compared to the mind bending twist that almost happened.

Mr. E is Echo makes no sense. It just doesn’t. It’s a character from 2 seasons prior who was physically distant to the main cast, had no connection to the villains, was established as a character as being extremely sweet, pure, and kinda ineffective, and probably worst of all, doesn’t have memories of the main cast, and most of them don’t have memories of him. There is just SO MUCH they would have had to explain away. SO MUCH that doesn’t add up. SO MUCH the main cast would have to relearn that it really doesn’t make ANY sense. And what scared me when the season first came out was that it almost made it in to the season. It doesn’t make sense on ANY logical level, so the only reason you would have done this twist is because you thought it was clever and unexpected, and you wanted the shock value. Shock value is the wrong reason to do a twist. 

But they did it again in season 11. They combined all of the problems with all of the previous twists, and mushed them together into the Zane is the Ice Emperor twist. Now, I would like to address @coleisunderrated‘s post about season 11 kinda killing Zane. It’s a good post, and another good lengthy rant to check out after this one if you’re in the mood. But a lot of the claims they made I think kinda missed the point about why this move didn’t work. They said Zane commit genocide (which I guess technically he kinda did, and even the people who were frozen were frozen for years. That's definitely not nothing) and that Zane still had some level of free will, so Vex can’t be an 100% scapegoat.  So because Zane did this horrible thing, there is no chance for him to be redeemed. (Which I kinda see your point, but also, crazy staff that pretty much makes you evil, plus merciless manipulation. Cut him some slack. If Garmadon can be redeemed, so can Zane. Devourer venom and forbidden spinjitzu staff seem to have similar corrupting powers) And though I’d agree that as it stands in the show it feels like they’re ignoring all the awful things Zane’s done and that makes him a kind of a uncomfortable character at the moment- all the set up and what he did is not the problem. The problem is what he didn’t do, and what we didn’t see.

This twist starts at the beginning of the chapter, and finally resolves itself at the very end. The writers obviously thought that Zane being the villain, while having this weird unexplainable time skip made a solid, clever twist. Again, you can tell they were going for shock value and that *gasp emoji* “It’s YOU?!” moment. Problem with that relatively simple set up to keep your twist a secret, is that you now have 20 years of time to account for. Years of people suffering and time skips that are addressed, but are straight up never explained and don’t make any sense when you sit down to think about them for more than a second. These weird ripple effects ringing a bell? They’re the same sorts of retcon problems as the Ray and Maya twist. But that’s not all. It’s also frustratingly predictable. Even if you weren’t sure of your theory the first few episodes, it becomes increasingly clear as the season progresses. The audience doesn’t find out until the characters do, even thought it’s pretty predictable, missing out on a bunch of opportunities for better storytelling- just like the Samurai X reveal. The ice emperor is also kind of a boring character until the reveal, just like Harumi. And, maybe worst of all, it just seems like a clever shock value twist that raises a bunch of questions, doesn’t make sense in character, and needs a ton of explaining, just like the Mr. E scenario. This twist has every single problem I’ve ever had with any twist in this series. 

But it even adds one more.

Even with all the random nonsensical twists in the series, at least all of them had time to resolve. To be explained. For characters to grapple with them. As random and poorly thought out as this ice emperor twist is, it would have been okay if it hadn’t been so very VERY rushed after the reveal. We needed to see his reaction after breaking free. That’s all we needed. 

Imagine this, Zane breaks out of his evil daze, you can keep the kinda cop out reason, it’s a kid’s show, whatever. He looks down at himself and is horrified. He drops to his knees, mutters some line like “what have I done?” or something along those lines. Then, in anger, he looks back up at Vex, and then insert fight scene where he saves the day. Afterwards Zane tosses the staff away, and is in this weird daze as his friends welcome him back. The episode ends with the camera zooming in on Zane’s blank expression. But wait, there’s another episode afterwards where Zane can right his wrongs in the realm, talk with the people, and tie up all the other loose ends while finding himself again. The next season (and they might still be doing this in season 12, but without that initial reaction and remorse, this part rings kinda hollow) Zane is visibly a bit shaken by intense violence and has a talk with someone about the lasting effects of his 20 year rule. The end of the season sees him getting past this fear of hurting people in order to protect those he needs to. This all sounds very deep written out like this, but you could make the dilemma pretty surface level, and it would still be effective.

You see, the real problem with these half length episodes is that ALL of your plot lines have to reach their head, your big final battle has to take place, and your resolution has to happen, all in the last 10 minutes of the season. And you can really tell that season 11 skimped the resolution part. Because Zane only becomes Zane half way through the last episode, there’s no time to explore his feelings about the matter. Even just making the last episode 20 minutes, I feel, would have done wonders for this twist because everything would have had time to breath. This wouldn’t have been too much of a problem if this had carried over directly into season 12 (kind of like the season 8-9 thing) but that clearly isn’t the case, at least from the episodes we have so far. This emperor thing should affect Zane as much as becoming a ghost affected Cole. Things like this just need time to process. It wasn’t that making Zane the ice emperor made him unlikable, it was that ignoring that Zane was the ice emperor made him unlikable.

And all of these things, I can almost guarantee, happened because the writers just thought it would be a clever twist. It’s not like the writers can’t do twists! Skylor being evil was perfectly fine! Mistake being an Oni was even okay. But they had ideas for what to do with those bits of information after the reveal. They’ve got to stop with these reveals that are just there to be the *gasp emoji* moment. They’re not all bad ideas necessarily! But if you come up with the idea, just because it would be a cool reveal, and that’s it, then it’s likely not a good idea. For example, as nonsensical as the Echo thing is, if he had become a main stay of the series, and a reoccurring villain with backstory and motive that got explained, it might not have been the absolute worst. But if they did what they did in the show and just killed him off a few episodes later, it would have been pointless, because the twist would have made no impact, changed nothing, and had no point. The green ninja reveal was good, not because it was a reveal, but because it allowed Lloyd to be the green ninja in the episodes afterwards. It served as a progression for the story and characters while also happening to subvert this notion set up from episode 1 that one of the four would be the green ninja. Zane being the ice emperor is a bad twist because it affects absolutely nothing in the plot that follows. Zane is back to his happy quirky robot self in season 12, the status quo is restored, and nothing has changed. 

The whole point of a twist is to switch your perspective of something, an action that instinctively insists change. A change in the world. A change in the situation. A change in character. Something. If a twist doesn’t insight change in your story, you’re doing your twist wrong.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to agree/disagree with me in the comments. I get that not everyone is going to agree that Zane could be redeemed no matter how they played it. Again, I think the almost mind control staff, matched with the manipulation, mind wipe, and fact that it’s a kid’s show, and they obviously didn’t mean for it to read that way, is enough for me to kinda ignore it cuz I love Zane, and Ninjago, and I’m not going to let one misstep kill my enjoyment of the show. But, I get it if you can’t get past it.

ttfn!

[immortalarchives]

2. MR HOLLYWOOD

THE LINE TO CHECK INTO OUR HOTEL looked extremely long which seemed absolutely ridiculous to me. It was a rather large hotel but it still seemed absurd that it could hold that many people in line plus the people already staying. The wait, though, went fast. It felt like a blur, almost. Like one second we were at the end of the line and the next we were getting settled in our hotel rooms. (Yes, three rooms one for our grandparents, one for our parents and one for us, now having to share with Pandora and Elizzy).

"Anyone want tea?" Pandora offered the second we entered our hotel room.

It was just the six of us. The siblings. Pandora. Elizzy.

"Is this your way of fulfilling your british stereotype?" Nikko asked the rather harsh question but in a lighthearted tone. Regardless, I still shot him a dirty look which he shot one back without hesitation.

Pandora ignored our exchange as she sat her luggage down. " You could say that. Also, simply trying to give thanks for allowing us to stay with you for a couple nights."

Maya was still eyeing the pair with suspicion but didn't say anything, although I could tell she wanted to.

"What tea do we have?" Chloe inquired to be nice.

She began to head over to the little coffee/tea set up that was complimentary from the hotel but was interrupted by Pandora. "No, my dear, I brought tea."

"Ah. 'Course you did," I blurted, sounding much more harsh than I intended to. Pandora didn't flinch though.

"But I have Earl Grey, orange, peppermint, Chai, ginger, green and vanilla," she responded, pulling out the boxes from her bag as if she was fucking Mary Poppins.

"Do you just carry tea everywhere?" Maya asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hm. I was going across the world to bloody America. I might as well bring my tea," she declared. "Now what will everyone have."

We all passed with the exception of Chloe and Elizzy which seemed to leave Pandora rather disappointed in not being able to flex her skills in tea making. But anyways, nothing happened much else that day. The whole group got together in one room to have dinner together, the adults conversating with Pandora with no problem at all while the four of us stayed rather wary of her.

She was, however, still a stranger with the chance of being a serial killer.

The next morning, I wake up before everyone with the exception of Pandora who was up making tea. I contemplated going back to sleep or waking one of my siblings up to avoid having to endure an awkward conversation with this girl. But before I had the chance to do so, Pandora asked, "Would you like some tea, Kacey?" Without even glancing at me and saying my name with an edge that I didn't like.

It was confirmed then and there, that she had eyes on the back of her head. Or more realistically that I had been rustling too loudly, letting her know I was awake. Damn her.

"I'm going to have to pass on that offer," I replied, assuming she was putting poision into the tea.

"Your loss," Pandora declared with quite the disappointed shrug of her shoulder. She really wanted to show off her tea-making skills for some fucking reason.

I was rather tired so I decided it was an excellent time to put on my detective's hat and ask Pandora questions to determine who the actual hell she was. Because yes, I'm as good as Sherlock Holmes, himself.

"So... how did you and Elizzy meet?" I asked, trying to sound completely intrested while my voice was painfully groggy from sleep.

Pandora turned a bit to pour sugar into a cup of tea, allowing me to see her lips quirk up at the question. In the way that an adult's mouth would when a child asking a rather naive or adorable question. She really was testing me, wasn't she.

"Ah," she finally exclaimed. "Yes. We met in London, you see. I was orphaned and I knew her through a family friend so I decided to contact her. To my surprise and delight, she was in fact in London at the time, not too far from where I was living. I met up with her and we had quite a lovely discussion on whether or not she should adopt me. She doesn't have much going for her except waitressing at some sad little town near Los Angeles. Her modeling and singing career have unfortunately not been successful so she thought she could handle adopting a child. You know, to keep herself from being bored. And luckily, I not only fend for myself, she doesn't have to make her own coffee or tea in the morning."

I looked at her, not really knowing what to say, unfortunately not having a witty saying on hand. So she decided to take that to her advantage by turning to me with this smug-looking smile, holding her tea cup elegantly with one hand. That action, of course, only made me dislike her even more.

"I know you don't like me and whether or not your reason is justifiable for that, I don't care. I just want you to know that I don't intend to hurt you. Ever. I would never do such a thing. When I say I know your mother, I really do," she declared and took a sip from her tea before glancing at me through her glasses.

I think I disliked her even more after hearing that. I was definitly a year or more older than her and she was regarding me like I was a baby. I wished my siblings would wake up- or at least Elizzy- because I had enough of this dumb one to one talk with Pandora.

"Ah," I responded then tucked myself back in bed, deciding it would be better to pretend sleep. "Yes. Through a family friend."

I knew she looked at me like I was dumb or like an enfant but I didn't care. She was using some technique on me to get under my skin. I wondered why but I also did not want to be around her much longer to find out.

We all decided to be the tourists we were and headed down to the pool, later that very day. It was rather large, made up of four different pools and swarming with tipsy adults. Chloe, of course, was busy complaining about how disgusting it all was via FaceTime the whole way down. I was surprised when no one told her to shut up, especially mom.

Once down there, we headed towards the lazy river since there were less people there than other pools. Still, there had to be at least a hundred people making their way through it.

We rented a few inner tubes that were set at an unreasonable fee and got in with the exception of our grandparents and parents.

The six remaining of us were rather split up. Elizzy and Pandora sat on two inner tubes close to one another (A note: Elizzy was looking close to perfection with her glamorous sunglasses and brightly colored cocktail in hand). My siblings and I decided to race since there was not much to do. However, the race automatically just turned into a rivalry between Nikko and I once Chloe and Maya got bored.

We were shouting insults at each other and splashing and pushing each other out of the way to get ahead. I can't imagine all the glares we must've earned from those drunk, probably stoned people. We were 16 but we insisted that we acted like annoying eight-year-olds. Don't blame you if you don't like us.

"All right! All right!" I eventually said, not realizing how out of breath I was. "Time out!"

Nikko gave me a disgusted look and kept swimming forward. "No way!"

I gave him a look. "Nikko. I need to take a piss and unless you want me to pee all over you in this pool –"

"Ew gross, just go," Nico declared, wrinkling his nose in pure disgust.

I gave him a satisfied grin and in return, he flips me off. We love a functional wholesome sibling relationship, don't we?

So I got out of the pool and headed towards where this big sign said 'Restrooms'. I was halfway there when quite literally somebody bumped into me, nearly causing me to fall. I managed to steady myself but the other person's sunglasses flew off their head and skittered to the ground.

Almost like a reflex I bent down to grab the sunglasses before the owner did and said, "Sorry." Then thought I had no reason to be. I didn't bump into them.

But as I handed back the Ray Bans, I realized who I was looking at looked quite familiar. And then it clicked.

"Hey – Are you... Owen Greene?" I asked.

To this, he snatched the sunglasses out of my hands and quite aggressively shoved them on. Owen Greene was a famous child star in Hollywood when he was about five or six. His fame kind of died not too long after. But even as a post-puberty 16-year-old boy, standing in front of me, I had difficulty understanding why Hollywood didn't want to cast them. It's gross saying this because there is more to people than their physical attributes, but he was pretty attractive and looked to fit play a dashing Prince in one of those fantasy movies I don't care much for.

But standing in front of me, he gave me a once over work like he was scanning me. I frowned at that.

"What?"

He barely moved.

"No cameras. No autograph. No story" he snapped. "Do you work for a magazine or a media outlet of any form?"

I blinked in shock both at his harsh tone and the words he was spitting at me. "Not that I know of."

"How about a crazy obnoxious fan?" He ordered even further.

"A fan? You were popular about 10 years ago and at the time, I was much more into Dora," I replied.

My comment made him laugh at first but almost immediately he stopped himself. That was enough to make me laugh.

"Is everything all right?" I asked him, not used to so much paranoia.

"I've just –" he started then stopped himself. "You've got no idea how lucky you are."

I snorted at that. He was a gorgeous Hollywood star who may not be as famous as he once was but was probably a millionaire. His whole life was basically granted to him on a silver platter. "Really? How so?"

Owen made a face. Like he scrunched up into a crumpled jumble as he thought up a response to that. Then he hesitated.

"Because you're normal. I doubt you've ever had to run away from stupid people who only use you to get money," he sputtered out with disdain – not towards me but most likely, Hollywood.

I didn't blame him. From what I've heard in the past, fame sounds pretty shitty. Stories like Princess Diana's have always caused me to steer clear from the spotlight and aspire for a less popular domain.

"At least you're rich," I pointed out.

"Fine. You win on that," he said with a sigh. "But it's not like I touch most of the money I've earned."

"So you're a Hollywood runaway, huh?" I asked and began to eye what he probably thought was a disguise to hide from whatever it was he was running from.

I will say, it was a pretty bad disguise. I mean he did still look like Prince Charming even if he was trying to go for an ugly, tourist hobo look. His fair fell to his shoulders, he wore a hideous Hawaiian shirt and swim trunks and God, even worse- a bucket hat.

"Yes," he said then his eyes noticeably widened from behind his sunglasses. "But I swear to God, if you send me back to Hollywood, that wretched place, I will ruin your fam-"

"No you won't," I interrupted with an amused smile.

He then pouted like an oversized baby. "I can and I will."

"Ah, I see," I said then held out my pinky. "I pinky promise I won't tell anybody about this."

He looked down at my pinky like I was crazy. "What- are you like eight?"

I laughed at that. Jesus Christ, he had a stick up his ass but for some reason, I found him so much easier to talk to, compared to most people. It was jus easy to sass him despite all of the glares he gave.

"'Course I am, Greene," I declared then with a sigh, he wrapped his pinky around mine.

Then we stood there for a rather awkward moment not saying anything. I was someone who had pretty shit social anxiety so of course, this awkward silence was nothing new to me at all. Then, God bless him, Owen broke the silence "What now?"

"I suggest changing your disguise," I blurted, not really mean it.

He glared at me. "What? What's wrong with it?"

I couldn't help but giggle at him and held my hand up to cover my mouth.

"What!?" He demanded.

"You just-  you just look like a hobo tourist. Or tourist hobo... It's just not-" and the look he gave me, only made me laugh even more.

"Fine! Then what do you suggest my disguise should be!" He said with the anger forced into his voice.

I looked him over once again and just cringed at it, allowing myself to express it for you know, emphasis.

"First of all, cut your hair. It's terrible. And maybe not dress like... Like you're a fucking homeless man whose trying to sightsee and fit in," I teased further.

He rolled his eyes then grabbed a hold of my wrist for a moment as if a motion to get me to walk with him. I panicked a bit at first but he was gentle and let go of me, almost instantaneously

"Where we going?" I asked him.

"Getting my haircut and a change of clothes, apparently," he grumped.

I crossed my arms. "And what? You need me to supervise you?"

He gave me another lovely pissed off glance – he was extremely good at those, I recalled.

"Yes because you apparently know how to give me a better disguise," he snapped.

I had my phone on me – if things went wrong, I could easily consult my family. I also thought it was about time Kacey Maxwell had a chance to run off with a boy. Even though, I had no feelings for him whatsoever, of course, I just enjoyed the excitement of it all. So I let him take me inside the hotel where he moped into the hotels very own salon. (It's Vegas, of course they had a hair salon) while he forced me to be his shopping servant, handing me 100 bucks for me to buy him something.

About 15 minutes in and I was looking for shirts for Owen Greene, himself, I got a call from Chloe.

"Hey? Everything all right?" She asked when I picked up. "You've been gone for a bit."

Okay. How the hell do you explain to your sister that you decided to give a former Hollywood star a makeover? I wrinkled my nose.

"Yeah. Just headed back to the room-  forgot sunscreen," I explained on the spot.

Quite honestly, I think she would've believed me more if I just had straight up told her I had runoff with Owen Greene.

"You... Went back to the room... All by yourself... In a hotel... infested with crazed, probably drunk gamblers... With a chance there's rapists around-"

"You would go to the room without a problem," I defended, not wondering whether that would be true or not.

"I most certainly would have a problem with it. And I'm less anxious than you are."

I rolled my eyes at that and picked out a shirt on a rack that I thought would look nicely on Owen.

"I'm more independent," I pointed out. "I know how to handle things on my own more than you."

She sighed dramatically and I could just picture her sunbathing, sprawled on one of those hotel chairs. Jesus Christ, Chloe Maxwell was the most extra person I had ever met.

"Fine. If that's where you say you are, I guess I must believe it," she declared. "Just call me if you accidentally run into a rapist."

I picked out a pair of shorts, hoping it would look fine on Owen (I wasn't an expert in men's fashion, unfortunately) and headed to the cashier to pay.

"Will do," I promised Chloe. "Look, gotta go. Be out soon."

Before she could respond, I hung up on her then headed to the cashier. I paid for everything with Owen's money then left the shop to meet up with Owen. The salon was only a short walk from the store and I decided to wait outside for them.

Slumped on the bench, wearing my swimsuit cover-up and flip-flops I played candy crush because I swear to God, I had the mental age of both a seven-year-old and 82-year-old.

About four rounds later, Owen walked out, looking around, probably for me. With a sigh, I got up and handed him the bag of clothes.

"How do I look?" He asked.

I looked him over with an unamused glance. "Less like a hobo tourist."

"That's a huge improvement," he declared, then allowed himself to chuckle. "Wanna go back to the pool?"

The second he suggested it, I began to turn my way towards the exit to the pool. He followed suit, still wearing his ugly Hawaiian shirt and put his disgusting bucket hat back on over his hair.

"How long are you going to be here in Vegas?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, a week."

"Unfortunately?"

"Yes, unfortunately. This place is full of gross ass, drunk, kinky people," I replied.

"Oh," he said. "I like Vegas."

I smirked and quirked an eyebrow at that. "Really? Are you gross and kinky, yourself?"

He shot me a dirty look (a glance, not anything sexual, Jesus Christ). "Shut up, er... wait, I don't even know your name."

He was probably used to that. People knowing his name and him knowing nobody's.

"Kacey," I replied.

"Kacey," he repeated it. "I like that. It's pretty."

I wrinkled my nose. "Don't you dare start with that shit."

He chuckled then rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly. Fuck, I also hated this. "Can I... can I hang out with you today?"

The way he asked it was almost childish. As if he was some insecure asking an older kid to hang out. I let out a sigh.

"Yes but I would like you to know I'm traveling with my siblings- two of which I like, one of whom I hate- my parents and my grandparents," I warned him. "Let's hope they won't mind me bringing them a fucking runaway Hollywood Star."

[senseiwu]

Wu and Faith for the ask thing?

Bless you anon

[This is gonna be set in my canon divergent AU, where Wu starts aging normally once reaching adulthood instead of going straight back to old again at the end of S9, and Faith came back with them. I started this AU before MOTO started airing so I’m gonna need to tweak some things maybe, but just so you’re not confused ^-^” Also this AU has several of my OCs in it]

- Who hogs the duvet?Definitely Faith.

- Who texts/rings to check how their day is going?If they weren’t in the same place (unlikely, at least at first, since Faith isn’t used to Ninjago) probably Wu. But Faith takes a while to understand this ‘phone’ device.

- Who’s the most creative when it comes to gifts?Wu. He’s a thoughtful dude, and likes putting together things he knows people would like. Especially someone close to him.

- Who gets up first in the morning?I feel like this one would kind of be a tie. Wu would be used to getting up early for training, and probably meditation, and Faith would probably be used to getting up early to be ready for Iron Baron’s tasks, and dragon hunting. She probably begins sleeping in a little later when she gets used to this new life.

- Who suggests new things in bed?Faith suggests they get MORE SOFT PILLOWS BECAUSE HOLY FSM THEY DIDN’T HAVE SUCH SOFT PILLOWS IN THE REALM OF ONI AND DRAGONS

- Who cries at movies?Faith is too tough to cry. She totally cries.

- Who gives unprompted massages?Wu. He knows tension points or whatever, and he can tell when Faith is stressed. She finds it really relaxing. She never realised how touch starved she was.

- Who fusses over the other when they’re sick?Wu. All the tea. Bed rest. Did you just get out of bed???! Get back there, it’ll help you get better if you don’t put stress on your body.Faith has a more kinda ‘get over it’ attitude. She cares, but she comes from a place where they were always on their toes, practically. No time to worry too much about being sick.

- Who gets jealous easiest?If either of them do, it’s probably Faith. Wu’s pretty chill. She wouldn’t get too jealous though. She knows he’s completely ‘faith’ful (sorry I had to once I realised what I typed). And anyway, if any girls tried to make a move on him, she could kick their butts in a second.

- Who has the most embarrassing taste in music?Probably Faith. She’s suddenly exposed to a whole new world - and a whole new world of music too. Wu doesn’t care too much about the music she enjoys, but don’t let Cole hear it because he will cry out of secondhand embarrassment. Faith doesn’t give a damn.

- Who collects something unusual?Faith. She collects random things she finds in Ninjago, mostly in the city. Could range from anything, to different types of bird feathers she picked up in the park to interesting rocks. It’s like a blend of how amazing this new world is, and things that remind her of her old home.

- Who takes the longest to get ready?They both don’t really do much to get ready, but... Wu’s freaking hairdo? I’ve tried doing that in real life and GODDAMN. It’s hard. Plus he probably has a more elaborate outfit than Faith.

- Who is the most tidy and organised?Wu. Faith is a chaotic mess. 

- Who gets most excited about the holidays?Faith. She’s like the Ninja when it comes to holidays, like Day of the Departed. Looking forward to the more fun side of things. I don’t think they really would have had holidays in the First Realm. Wu sticks to the more traditional roots of the holidays.

- Who is the big spoon/little spoon?Okay. So. I headcanon Faith to be taller than Wu. Faith is the big spoon. 

- Who gets most competitive when playing games and/or sports?Faith 100%.

- Who starts the most arguments?Again, Faith. But they resolve them quickly and don’t tend to be big ones. She can just have a bit of a temper sometimes.

- Who suggests that they buy a pet?Faith. I imagine she sees like an adorable cat one day and she keeps pestering Wu about it and he brings her one as a surprise. And teaches her to take care of it. She loves it to pieces and really lets out her soft side with it. Wu has seen this soft side of course, but the Ninja once see it and are just like ‘what the HELL’

- What couple traditions do they have?Morning meditation, on the mountain just outside the monastery. They watch the sunrise and meditate (which Wu taught Faith how to do, and she’s slowly getting better at it).Dragon riding. I don’t know what the show has done with the Elemental Dragons, but frick it. They ride around Ninjago on Wu’s dragon, above the clouds. Faith freaking loves it.Restaurant night. Each week they’ll try a new restaurant in Ninjago City, and then explore the area. Faith loves it and is astounded by the technology and architecture of the place. Wu loves the look of amazement and wonder in her eyes he totally hasn’t walked headfirst into a pole or anything because he was lost in that look of hers

- What TV shows do they watch together?Wu isn’t too big on TV, and tbh I don’t see Faith being too interested in it either. He’d probably watch nature and history shows with her, and they might join the Ninja in watching whatever they were watching on TV if they had nothing else to do.Faith found out about the TV show Jay used to host and often taunts him by quoting dumb things he said on it.

- What other couple do they hang out with?They’d probably hang out with Misako and Sensei G if he were still around. Ray is disturbed by the fact that Wu is young again, but they probably hang out with him and Maya when things in Ninjago are chill. I could see Faith and Maya getting along.They probably also hang out with Cyrus and my OC Estelle. Estelle becomes like Faith’s best friend in the AU. 

- How do they spend time together as a couple?Probably lots of long talks over cups of tea; Wu being too nervous to make a move of any kind and him constantly introducing new things to Faith because holy crap her fascination with things makes him smile. Faith enjoys learning Spinjitzu from him and sparring with him, and punches him when he lets her win. 

- Who made the first move?Faith. I headcanon Wu puts the ‘hopeless’ in ‘hopeless romantic’. He doesn’t know what the frick to do. I imagine it took him forever to get the nerve to write that letter to Misako all those years ago, and it would take a lot more nerve with someone as intense as Faith. She could tell he liked her as soon as he realised it himself. I don’t know what that first move would have been though kaldjfaidok

- Who brings flowers home?Whenever he comes back from buying tea from Mystaké, Wu makes sure to pick up some flowers for Faith. She loves flowers, they’re bright and colourful and smell lovely. Better than the barren wastelands of the First Realm.

- Who is the best cook?Wu. He’s got yeeeeeeeears of practice. With a variety of ingredients, too. I doubt they had much to work with in the First Realm.

[Thank you!!! dkafjdkljf  I’m sorry I don’t know if this is OOC or not, I’m bad at putting my thoughts into words says the writer]