#plus the start of the event had those two talking about how good timmie is at the game

[shadowed-dancer]

With this current tcg event I’m calling it now: Cyno is going to win the Sumeru region, then the other regional champions will battle it out and Timmie will be crowned the ultimate winner

[kinsey3furry300]

A very confused Star Wars Fan desperately tries to justify their belief that “Caravan of Courage” shows the way forward for the franchise. No, really.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved Star Wars. And I mean, all of it. The books, the games, the Lego, the spin-offs: I even enjoy the Holiday Special in a The Room so-bad-you-just-need-to-see-it sort of way.  But particularly the films. But here is when we run into the big problem: I’m just the wrong age. The original trilogy launched before I was born, the prequel trilogy hit cinemas when I was already a teen and while I went and saw them and enjoyed them, I was at that age where I was self-conscious about seeing a “kids” film, and hyper-aware of how silly and cringy those films were in parts. So my indoctrination, my inoculation with the Star Wars bug didn’t happen in the cinema, and it didn’t happen with any of the main franchise works. It happened on home video, on a skiing trip in the French Alps in the early 90’s. I’d have been about 6, and this was the first time I’d ever been abroad other than to see relatives in Ireland.  And I loved it: to this day I love skiing, but more than that, I have very, very fond childhood memories of this trip. This was shortly before I lost my biological mother to cancer, she’d have received her diagnosis just after we got back from the trip. This was when my younger sister stopped being an annoying screaming thing and became and became an actual person I could talk and play and share ideas with, this was before the combination my mothers long illness and my father having just launched his own IT start up meant I didn’t see him or her any more, despite the fact they were in the same house as me. This was this wonderful, nostalgic child-hood bubble when my family was intact, and nothing could ever go wrong. I skied all day with mum and dad, and would come back to the chalet in the evening. It was an English speaking chalet, I met my first real-life American there, and having grown up in the 90’s in the UK nothing was cooler than making friends with an actual American my own age. He had a hulk Hogan action figure with springs in the legs so if you put him on a hard surface and punched his head down, when you let go he’d jump really high in the air. We used to play with it together in the bath, back in that weird 90’s time-bubble when it was possible to convince two sets of parents that this kid you’d just met was you best friend in the world and of course shared bath time was, somehow, normal and appropriate. And fresh from bath time, tired from the day, the parents would give us some hot coco, dump us kids in front of the tv and grab the first shitty low-budget VHS they could find to keep us distracted while they went to the bar. In this particular time, in this particular place, that shitty low budget cartoon was the  complete set of the 1985 Lucasfilm/ABC Ewoks cartoon, plus the two spin off movies, and to this day that cheap, kitschy, kind of bad series has a special warm and cosy place in my heart. I remember being enthralled by the world, in love with the characters, applied by the bad guys and the injustice they caused (to this day I’m still irate about that time Wicket lost his set of beads documenting his progress towards becoming a full warrior and the older Ewoks basically said, tough, you need to re-earn all those merit badges from scratch. This struck me as exactly the sort of bullshit an adult would pull, and pissed me off) and on tenterhooks about what would happen to the characters.

It was also, by a coincidence, the first ever Star Wars media I was exposed to, and the above combination of events probably explains a lot about me.

So I was surprised, the other day, when scrolling Disney+, to find they’d added Caravan of Courage AND Battle for Endor to the roster in my region. Surely Disney wouldn’t want their slick, cool brand associated with this old trash? Surely there could be no place for this in the post-Mandalorian Star Wars cannon? Surely this is a horrible mistake some intern made, right?

Unless…. What if I’ve miss-remembered? What if it’s not just rose-tinted nostalgia goggles, and it’s, in fact, secretly really, really good?

I rushed to my comfy chair, got a blanket, dimmed the lights, made some coco (with rum in it, because why the hell not?) and sat down to re-examine this lost gem.

And wow: it’s every bit as shit as you’d expect.

It has aged exactly as poorly as you’d expect a cheap, mid 80’s direct to video spin-off to age. Caravan of Courage? More like Caravan of Garbage, am I right?

And yet… I still enjoyed every moment.

And it was sitting there, in my pyjamas, watching a cheaply made direct to video cash-grab from just before I was born, seeing it again for the first time in nearly 30 years, and I realised something.

It doesn’t really matter if this film is bad, so long as I enjoy it. And if it doesn’t really mater if this is bad, then I, like many Star Wars fans, wasted a huge amount of time and emotional effort on being butthurt about stuff I didn’t like about the Rise of Skywalker and it’s ilk. Because somewhere, right now, a tired and frustrated parent is putting Disney+ on to keep their kids quiet for two hours. And they won’t think too hard about what they put on, so long as it keeps little Timmy busy for a bit. Somewhere, right now, a kid is watching Rise of Skywalker, and it’s the first Star Wars media they’ve ever seen.

And that’s okay. Because we don’t know what that kids home life is like. We don’t know if it’s good or bad. Maybe it’s great, maybe it’s about to take a dramatic plunge like mine did, and this moment here will be the cosy, warm memory they look back on in 30 years time, and that’s beautiful.  They’re getting introduced to a fun, wonderful fantasy world that could be with them all their lives, through good times and bad, and as fans we should be happy about that.

Star Wars will never, die: it’s too darn profitable, Disney will never let it. And while I hope they learn from their mistakes and make sure every future Star Wars is a timeless gem of story-telling, statistically, if you keep making enough films, some of them will be bad. And while I’d like them all to be great, it’s still okay if they’re bad.

Because nothing can take away my memories of that week in that chalet. Nothing can take-away my memories of when they put the original trilogy on in cinemas for the special edition and I had my jaw hit the floor with how good it was on the big screen, not knowing or caring who shot first. Nothing can take away you memories of the Original Trilogy, the Prequels, or the Clone Wars. Nothing can tarnish the bits of the sequil trilogy that you like, and there are good bits in there.

But wait, what about continuity? What about the sacred, perfect written time-line that used to exist?

Well, what about it? Have you seen any other big, epic fantasy universe before? They’re all a mess. A work of fiction, particularly fantasy, can be extensive, or tightly written, but not both. Harry Potter is only seven books, and the last two feel, tonally, like they’re from an entirely different series. I love them, but the grim-dark kicked in so fast you’ll get whiplash. The Hobbit is a perfect written self-contained novel, and LOTR is *The* big boy high-fantasy trilogy: fast forward 50 years, and Christopher Tolkien is desperately squeezing every last drop of money out of his father’s corpse by finishing and publishing every unfinished note JRR ever wrote right down to his shopping lists. Even Dune goes of the rails with sequels. I can only think of four fantasy works that are both extensive and consistently tightly written, Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time, Malazan: Book of the Fallen and Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. And even then, the prequels and spin-offs mess with the timelines: the Dunk and Egg novella’s change some character’s canonical ages and timelines, Wheel of Time was going slowly off the rails even before the Jordan died, Forge of Darkness made what was a good metaphor for the creation of it’s world into a literal war deep in the past, and Sanderson’s first Novel Elantris got a re-write to bring it more in line with the rest of the shared universe. The MCU, oft held up as the modern example of tightly planned, well thought out ongoing storytelling, is a lie: it was never as pre-planned out as Disney wants us to think; the first Iron Man, apparently, barely had a script, with Downey ad-lib-ing most of his scenes. None of the MCU films are direct sequels to each-other other than Infinity war and Endgame. There are three Iron Man films, and Three Thor films, and none continue an ongoing story line across multiple films, and the Cap films barely continue an arc, but only where Cap’s relationship with Natasha and Bucky is involved.  Much like these, Star War’s cannon is a complete, nightmarish, confusing, tangled, illogical mess. And it has been since 1984, as Caravan of Courage proves. It was never consistent and well planned.

And that’s okay.

I used to care about plot holes. I used to care about which works were cannon in Star Wars lore. I’m over that now. I’m happy to imagine the books, films and games not as a blow-by-blow historical account of a galaxy far far away, but as campfire stories from within this fun, imaginative world that we’re all invited to listen to. Stories that are in-universe myth and folklore, that we can all snuggle up and listen to while drinking highly alcoholic rum and remembering better times, knowing that wherever the future throws at us, no matter how the world goes to hell around us, we’ll still have the memories, and the ability to make our own new stories in the wonderful Star Wars world we all share.

And that’s okay. No, more than that: that’s beautiful.

Also Star Wars is completely unambiguous on the fact we’re allowed to kill fascists no matter how many times they keep coming back with a new logo, so that’s timely I guess.

So, there’s my hot take two-years after everyone else stopped caring about this stuff, as per bloody usual. Tell me why I’m wrong below, and does anyone else have any truly awful spin-off shows that they kind of have a nostalgic soft spot for?

[anothertimdrakestan]

Forever And Always  -  Tim Drake x Reader

Words: 1.9k

Requested? Yes! From a lovely anon!

“Greetings! May I please request 3. and 12? Go crazy with it.” (3. so is saving me like a weekly thing? 12. alcohol does not solve all your proble-)

LINK TO PROMPTS  -> REQUESTS ARE STILL OPEN!

You said go crazy with it and I took that as “make my heart melt with fluff” and I really went there. I shaped this w/ different memories as shown by news titles cuz it can span over a longer time thus giving us more fluff! I hope you enjoyyy also I think this is going up for Timmy day and that makes me beyond happy : ) Thank you for the wonderful req!

GOTHAM PRESS: Y/N L/N MEETS TIM DRAKE-WAYNE! FOR BUSINESS OR PLEASURE?

“Glad you could make it! And good to see you officially!” you and Tim had been chatting online for weeks, in what started a place to arrange a meeting the two of you had bonded and as the news speculated, business turned into a kinship, and you wanted to spend more time in his presence. Timothy Drake was fascinating, he was young and ambitious but grounded and even slightly insecure, where most CEO’s were jaded and over confident he was humble, it was enticing. “Absolutely, the pleasure is all mine!” Tim led you to a large meeting room, your people sat down with his and began negotiating but you were more focused on Tim. Stolen glances turned into winks and even divulged into texting each other from across the room. When the meeting ended you had to leave, but not before Tim could invite you to the next Wayne Gala, an invitation you had to accept.

GC NEWS: TIM DRAKE FLIES IN Y/N L/N FOR ANNUAL WAYNE GALA! 

Your first gala was pretty boring. Everyone wanted to talk to you and you couldn’t find time to talk to Tim, the only interaction you had was exchanging apologetic glances. As the gala was close to ending you decided to gather your confidence, walking up to Tim who was mid conversation with board members who looked as old as dirt. “Hi! Sorry to interrupt but can I borrow Mr. Drake?” instinctively you grabbed Tim’s hand, pulling him away. “Thank you for saving me from those zombies” Tim looked excited to talk to you, his eyes cast down to where your hand still held his. Realizing this your quickly let go, blushing profusely. “Yeah, uh, I just wanted to get to see you, you did invite me here after all!” you tried to make small talk, but decided you wanted more. “Care to dance Mr. Wayne?” Tim looked a little shocked, but agreed. “Anything for my savior” he joked, whisking you on to the dance floor, the two of you talked quietly through songs until the gala ended. You promised to return to Tim soon.

GOTHAM WEEKLY: TIM DRAKE-WAYNE SPOTTED MATCHING Y/N L/N AT HOLIDAY GALA!

“Hey Y/N you look really good, I like the red!” you grinned at Tim, “you don’t look so bad yourself, how’d ya know to match my dress?” Tim shrugged, lightly blushing “a little rumor I guess” the two of you wore matching shades of red, you knew Tim had asked around, it was just the kind of flirting he knew you loved, his thoughtfulness was one of your favorite qualities about him. “Well since we’re matching already care to dance?” you asked, wanted to show off your gown to everyone at the gala. “For you I suppose I can spare a dance” you rolled your eyes, Tim sure had the ‘will they won’t they’ thing down to the point where you didn’t even know what you were, but whatever you were was fun and exciting. Swaying together you rested your head on his chest and you heard him whisper “happy holidays y/n” making your heart flutter, why couldn’t galas last forever?

METROPOLIS NEWS: HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT Y/N L/N MOVING TO GOTHAM FOR A YEAR TO WORK WITH WAYNE ENT???

“Is it really true?” as soon as you signed with W.E. you got a call from Tim. “Yup! I got a penthouse close to the main building. Hope you’re okay with seeing more of me” you joked. This was a move for your mental health, Metropolis was too picture perfect and boring, it was time to expand. And there was a certain someone drawing you to Gotham, so you listened to your gut and made the move. Just a year, then you could reevaluate. 

GOTHAM CELEB WATCH: LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS OF Y/N AND TIM DRAKE-WAYNE LEAVING THE CHARITY GALA TOGETHER!

Another gala another Tim rescue mission. You could see him visibly uncomfortable as a Gotham billionaire’s daughter draped herself all over him. You called it a rescue mission because it was better than admitting you wanted to be the only girl flirting with Tim. Plastering a grin on your face you made your way up to Tim, placing your hand on his cheek “there you are Timmy! I can’t believe you’d leave your girlfriend all alone” you winked at him as the other girl slithered off of him. “I - um - yeah. girlfriend. y/n yeah” Tim stuttered. You grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the back of the party. “C’mon Tim I had to rescue you! What are friends for!” Tim nodded, still blushing. “So is saving me gonna become a weekly thing now?” he joked as you ruffled his hair. “Only if you need me to Timmy. Can we get out of here? This is boring even for a charity event” Tim agreed, as the two of you had almost made it to Tim’s car the paparazzi found you. Tim tried to cover your face as you got into the car, all the shouting and flashing lights were a lot. “Shit that’s gonna be everywhere tomorrow” you groaned. “Let them say what they want who cares. We’ve been in the news before.” Tim reassured you. As Tim directed the driver back to your place you rested your head on his shoulder, nodding off. You could feel Tim lightly shaking you, you could almost swear he said “y/n love, are you awake?” and before you could answer he scooped you up, carrying you inside. What a night for the books, in his arms you realized you really liked Tim, and after seeing that girl at the party you knew it was time to get a move on.

G.C. COUPLE ALERT: Y/N AND TIM SPOTTED AT THE BEACH! IS IT A DATE?

“You want me to take a day off?” Tim questioned as you talked excitedly over the phone. “Yes! You’re the damn CEO you deserve a day with mwah! Plus it’ll be fun! Have ever even seen a beach before city boy?” Tim snorted, this was coming from a Metropolis girl after all. “Fine only for the rescue the other day, I’ll pick you up in 20″ He hung up and you celebrated. All you had to do was flirt all day and he’d totally get the message. On the ride over the two of you got to really talking, not the small talk at a gala, really talking. You told him about your childhood and why you needed to leave Metropolis and he opened up about his parents. It was truly a moment when you felt your souls bonding. After a few hours of flirting and trying to get the message across Tim had avoided all of it. You even tried looking at his lips to try to get the two of you to move faster, but he never got the message. It started to seem like a hopeless endeavor so you gave up early, just enjoying his presence. That didn’t mean you weren’t discouraged.

GOTHAM CITY DRAMA ALERT: TIM DRAKE AND Y/N L/N KISS CAUGHT ON CAMERA

“Yeah I want another fucking drink. Why? Cuz I said so!” you chided the bartender at a charity auction. It was an open bar and after watching Tim busy all night you needed another drink. After a little persuasion you grabbed the drink and headed outside, wanting some fresh air. “Hey, I haven’t seen you. What if I needed saving!” you turned around to see Tim, he approached, sitting down next to you. “What’s up” he nudged your shoulder, noticing the alcohol on your breath. “You want honestly Tim?” you questioned, and he nodded. “Well maybe you can give me some advice. There’s this guy I really like. And we hangout all the time and I like really really like him. But I don’t know how he feels and I’m scared I’ll ruin everything” you poured your heart out, and Tim’s eyes softened. “Well I can’t believe you haven’t told me about the lucky guy, but if it were me I’d say I’m pretty oblivious so maybe you could make the first move and he’s slow at emotions like me. Plus you can’t just tell me you really really like a guy and not tell me who he is!” Tim teased you, but you took the advice seriously. “You really think I’ve just gotta go for it?” you stared into his eyes. With a shrug he replied “well yeah I think so. I mean maybe not tonight because you’re a little drunk and you can’t let alcohol solve all your pro- Mmhph!” you didn’t need more than that, crashing your lips on to Tim’s. Your heart soared when he kissed you back, his hand caressed your cheek pulling you closer in. You heard a few camera clicks in the distance but you were too focused on the feeling of Tim’s lips on yours. Pulling apart you and Tim were grinning. “So I’m the lucky guy huh?” he said sheepishly while you nodded and blushed. “I feel really dumb right now” he admitted as you mumbled “yeah kinda but we’re here now” and you leaned in to kiss him again.

GOTHAM TONIGHT: Y/N L/N SOON TO BE Y/N DRAKE-WAYNE?

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” you shrieked as Tim got on one knee. He’d convinced you to take a day off, saying the two of you deserved a day at the beach. You should’ve known something was up, Tim never took days off. As you questioned him about who was covering patrol and texted Damian saying you’d have to reschedule your cheese viking tournament Tim shushed you, saying it was time for a day at the beach. The two of you reminisced on how he missed all the signs you dropped in the car and at the beach, it all seemed so full circle. He’d taken you up to a lighthouse, you loved watching the waves crash on the rocks. The two of you spent a while just talking, truly feeling on top of the world. When the tide grew stronger around sunset you got up to look out on the ocean, and when you turned around you saw Tim fumbling with something in his pocket. “Y/N I never thought I’d find my person, but not only did I find my soulmate, I found my best friend and savior. You’ve saved me from everything from boring galas to my own life after some of the roughest nights ever, you’ve stood with me through it all, you stayed with me when you learned about my identity, you’ve been my rock and I need you in my life forever. So what do you say? You’ve always like Y/N Drake Wayne so can it be official?” you watched him get on one knee, pulling out the ring and you fell into his arms. Coming down the cliff you saw he’d gathered your family and his, they cheered and celebrated as you held Tim’s hand, never wanting to let go. 

GOTHAM NEWS HOUR: TIM AND Y/N DRAKE-WAYNE TIE THE KNOT!

“Do you, Tim Drake-Wayne promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, for as long as you both shall live?

“I do, forever and always”

“And do you, Y/N L/N promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health

“I do, I do with every fiber of my being”

“Then I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride”

“Here’s to forever babe”

“Forever and always Timmy”

[adragonhoardingstories]

Of Blood and Bonds- Chapter 5

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Tag list for this is closed!

On that note, this book will contain swearing, mentions of rape and torture. I will try not be explicit but that's really relative. Read at your own risk. There will be warning before if I make a explicit scene so that you can skip it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy and don't hunt me down for this.

Happy New Year

---------------------------------------------

Another day she had needed to spend with the idiots in her class. Once again, she felt like cursing her parents. 

Marinette was by all means done with Lycée, she was following University courses but after Tom and Sabine had disowned her in all but name, it's not like they knew that. Most of her old relations had no idea what she was up to and it suited her not seeing them ever again. 

But despite everything, the Dupain-Chengs she didn't consider herself one anymore did to her, they still didn't want her to dishonour their family even more so they made an arrangement with her and her Lycée.

She had to at least show up for the exams and any school functions and they would leave her alone to do as she pleased instead of sending her to a boarding school and well with all her responsibilities, she never really had a choice. 

Which brought her here - on the Gotham Field Trip. She really didn't know why they had even sent her here, they were only wasting their money and Sabine must have known that the chances of her meeting Bruce were high, especially since their activities were centered around Wayne Enterprises.

Today they were going to be assigned to one person they had to shadow all day - it was supposed to help them get some actual job experience. 

Marinette was chosen to shadow the CEO - how surprising - and it just so happened that today was one of the rare days Bruce Wayne was in the company so she would have the pleasure of helping both him and Tim depending on who needed her most - yay her. 

She was willing bet her future fashion empire that Bruce had orchestrated this in an attempt to get a chance to talk to her. 

However she had to admire that one good thing come out of this - Lila Rossi got served. 

Like she had mentioned it before, she didn't have anything to do with her past classmates except the bare minimum but it seemed even now the liar still felt threatened by her every time they met. And honestly, she couldn't care less except that wench was the reason her parents had turned against her and of course how could we forget the worse thing of all? That Lila Rossi was willingly working with Hawkmoth - a known terrorist. 

So the jobs had been announced and Lila has started her usual act and name dropping and oh there must have been a mistake, Timothy told me that I would be chosen to work with him since I'm already used to helping him. That had received a sharp look from the one delegating and a simple comment about Miss Rossi you are to report to our legal team, they have something prepared especially for you. Seeing Lie-La pale and shut up so yeah that had been the highlight of her day. 

But now, now she was most certainly going to be forced to speak to her father and she kind of wished that Lila had succeeded for once. 

Just as the lady she had grown to like was about to show her the way, her father magically appeared not really, she had seen him hiding in the shadows for the last five minutes and offered to guide her himself. 

As she predicted, he said nothing else, until they were in his office but once the doors were closed… 

"Mari-" He started to speak but then the doors banged open and a haggard looking Tim Drake stumbled in. 

"Nette, I heard I got you today. Thank fuck I didn't get one of the brats." He stumbled in on the couch, paying Bruce no mind and grinned at her. "Plus, I get sister bonding time so win-win for me."

Marinette looked from him to Bruce. "You have impeccable timing." She informed him. "So I'm going to make you coffee."

"You are an angel." He declared. "An absolute angel. Now I understand why Damian likes you so much."

Marinette laughed it off. "Damian likes me because I don't call him Demon Spawn Timbers."

"In my defense." He groaned. "He was a brat back then and now, well it's basically a nickname. Call it brother's privilege if you want. And he knows it."

Marinette smiled gently at him as she placed a cup of coffee in front of him and Bruce, and sat down drinking her own cup. "Does he know that?"

Tim blinked at her, a thoughtful expression taking place on his face. 

It lasted until he tasted the coffee, then it was replaced by awe. 

"This is so good, how is this so good, it's literally the same thing I drink everyday? Can you work for me permanently?"

She was amused and this conversation seemed to shock her father so it was a plus. "But Timmy, if I change my career how are you going to get your special MDC suits?"

That strangely made him go serious. 

"About that, I needed to talk to you." 

Marinette raised an eyebrow, this should be good. 

"What would you think if Wayne Enterprises becomes the main sponsor for MDC?" 

She leant back in her seat crossing her feet and took a long sip of her drink. 

"Now why would I agree to that?"

Tim looked surprised while she was careful to keep her own face carefully blank but he recovered quick enough and seemed to thrive on the challenge. 

Marinette could pinpoint the exact moment when he changed to his game face. "Why wouldn't you? This in the long term will benefit you especially when you decide to release your line or officially start your company."

"Who said anything about releasing a line? Right now I'm on a clientele only basis and the greatest thing about MDC right now is my anonymity. My business is flourishing and I'm on high demand, especially among celebrities so you can imagine the price I get for each of my works. Why would I want to change that?"

"While that is true, the novelty will eventually wash off. Your designs may be good enough for you to get some loyal customers but you won't be as you put it in high demand anymore. And I may have known you for only a while, but I doubt you haven't planned for the future."

Marinette could admit, she was a little impressed. "Also true, but I'm currently a millionaire and have more than enough money to launch a line by myself."

Tim opened his mouth to interrupt but she continues before he could.

"And yes, I do understand how accepting your offer will benefit me more but signing with you also means that will represent my brand and how can I - bearing my own interests in mind - accept knowing is publicly involved with Wayne Enterprises?"

He looked completely lost and Marinette was probably having more fun that she should with this. "I'm not sure I follow?"

"I mean that even if people don't outright state it, everyone knows that the Wayne finances and outfits the Gotham vigilantes."

"And your point is?" The poor boy was going to make her say it. 

"Your costumes are a fashion disaster Timmy, an eyesore if not a horror?" 

"They're not that bad!"

"Do not get me started on the first Robin's costume. Were you not in your right mind when you allowed it?" For the first time in the day, she spoke to Bruce. 

"Wait, you know?" She shot Tim a questioning look. Why hadn't told him, she figured it out? The boy just shrugged and she sighed. 

"It's not that difficult to figure out Bats. You and Mom literally met while you training in extreme martial arts and the way she described you doesn't match up with the idea the media has of you so I was already suspicious and then I met them and I saw them in costume, they have the same build and everything and their alibi was frankly terrible. Also the rate at which you take in kids matches with the appearance of each new Robin."

"When was the last time you got your IQ tested?" He demanded. 

Marinette elected to ignore that comment in favour of finishing her conversation with Tim. "So?"

"So if I get everyone to agree to a costume redesign by you, you'll sign?"

"I get to re-design and remake all of your costumes as well as become the go to for the family for all your events."

"That's a lot of conditions."

She shrugged, a smile playing on her lips. "Those are my terms but if you'd like, you can consider the part about your costumes a favor to you sister so that she doesn't get a heart attack everytime she sees you suited up."

"I'll agree as long as you admit you're exaggerating."

Marinette gave him a deadpan look. "Have you ever seen the Red Hood helmet. I have nightmares about it."

He considered it. "Yeah okay that's fair. So should I start working on the papers?"

Marinette shook her head. "I'm going to rebrand once and for all once I'm 18 along with my face reveal."

"Rebrand, why?"

"Like you rightly pointed out two nights ago MDC stands for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Well I don't want to be a Dupain-Cheng for longer than I have to. I'll be changing my name hence the rebranding."

"Would you consider Wayne?" Bruce asked softly. Marinette paused. She had been considering taking Master Fu's name actually. "I don't know B."

"I'll leave you two to talk." Tim said slowly getting up and she would have protested but she could not run from this forever and the Kwami pressing against her leg seemed to agree. 

"Yeah just…" She took out her phone and send him a contact. "That's my lawyer, you can send her the papers to review. I'll talk to her about it."

Tim checked his phone and went slack jawed. "Elle Woods. Elle Woods is your lawyer." He threw his hands up in defeat. "I don't know why I'm still surprised at this point but I'm gonna ask, how did you get her to work for you?"

"She's one of my regulars. "

"Of course she is." Tim muttered. Marinette watched silently as he went to refill his cup of coffee but ended up taking the whole coffee machine with him and walked out of the door. 

Marinette turned to Bruce. She was not looking forward to this but she sighed and got up. "I'm supposed to be working so give me something to do."

"I thought you agreed we need to talk Marinette."

"I never agreed to anything." She reminded him. "But yes we'll talk." She pointed a finger at him. "While I work. So, give me something to do."

"You need this to be on your terms." He noted. 

"I know you've researched what happened. After having been stripped from my senses and having my will taken away from me, yes I do enjoy being in control." She dared him to say something. "So. Give. Me. Something. To. Do."

"You can arrange the paper on the desk. According to the project names, put it in alphabetical order with A being on top."

Marinette set to work without another word. Bruce took that as his cue to start speaking. 

"You know about Batman. The year I stopped talking to you was when when I was assumed dead-"

"Then why?" She cut in sharply. "Did Alfred not even deign inform me that my father was dead? Or what about after you came back?"

He stayed silent. 

"The truth B is that even before that you were speaking to me less and less. Your phone calls, rare as they were, were always so short I was never able to tell you what i wanted." She gave out a humorless laugh. "You know I used to be scared that you didn't want me. I mean why else would you keep me a secret from your other children? So I didn't complain because I didn't want to stop having the little time you even gave to me. Guess, I was right in the end."

"No." He stood up and came to stand in front of her. "Marinette sweetie, please believe me. I fell in love with you from the moment I saw you. I've never not wanted you but my lifestyle was always very dangerous but I never realised how much it really was until Jason died and then shortly after I returned Damian died. Every child of mine has been traumatized in some way by my enemies. I didn't want the same to happen to you. There are villains out there who know who I am. I got scared Marinette, distancing myself from you was me trying to protect you. I know - I know it doesn't excuse me not being there for you but you need to know I am so so sorry. Please let me make it up to you. "

Marinette felt the kwamis on her person press against her, offering their silent support. 

"I'm willing to try." She said at last, finishing arranging the last of the documents. She looked up at him and could basically read the hope in his expression. "But you need to give me space. I'm not coming to live in Gotham nor am I going to defer to you. I've built my own life, you're not going to interfere with in. You can be in it but you don't get to try and change things."

"Okay, okay I can work with that."

"Then you've got yourself a deal." Marinette offered him her hand to shake and he did shake it but right after, he pulled her in a hug. 

Bruce realized his mistake when Marinette stiffened up but she relaxed in his arms and she slowly, almost hesitantly clutched his shirt, like a small child holding their dad's shirt, trying to hide in his arms. 

And a father's heart broke all over again.

[miss-choco-chips]

Young Just us college au

Rent a room, Dick said. It’ll be a nice experience. Don’t just buy a flat, that’s boring and lonely.

Tim had tried to tell his brother that maybe he prefered lonely to crazy, but Dick had insisted. And everyone knew just how difficult dealing with that could be, so he knew better than to resist.

At least, he had tried to comfort himself, he knew the people he’d be rooming with. They were all his friends, an odd assortment of assholes he’d picked up on school, summer camps, vacation trips, scientific events, even comic cons, and just… fell platonically in love with them.

Maybe, as Dick said, it would be fine.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

No, it wasn’t fine.

-Jay -he whispered into the phone, hoping he wouldn't be heard by the others on the other side of the door- Jay, they are crazy. I need extraction asap. We could fake my death and I can go to University somewhere else.

The older man laughed in the other end of the receiver, the sound of pages rustling indicating Tim had caught him during his daily grading paper sesion. That was the sound of crying students dying over carefully demolished arguments.

-They are all your friends, Timbo. If you fake your death, you’ll need to start over again and meet new people.

Tim hissed.

-Exactly, babybird. Also, this is day one of sharing a house, how bad can it possibly be?

-Jay, they left the kitchen lights on. It’s daytime! Why the hell do they need the lights on? Aren’t they aware of how big the bill is gonna be if they are like this?

-...Timmy, you… you are a billionaire. I think that should be the last of your concerns.

-That’s not the only thing. It’s so noisy, Jay. I choose the attic room hoping it’ll be nice and quiet. It’s not. I can hear everything. What do I do if some of them pair up? I’ll be stuck here listening to them having sex forever!

-...I don’t know where to begin.

-You can start by contacting B for me. He was right when he said it wasn’t a good idea for me to live with other people. But I can’t call him to help me out of this, because I think Dick blocked my number in his phone, and my emails don’t seem to be reaching him.

-He said it because you are the purest of his children, and he knew college was corruptive enough without adding dorm sharing to it; that was his version of helicopter parenting. But Timbo, it’s moving day. You’ve been there for less than five hours. And you already emailed B?

-The first thing Slobo did when he came in was to fart. In the middle of the living room. I can’t live with them, they are animals!

-They are your best friends, you’ve known them forever.

-But I never had to deal with them in a closed space for an unlimited amount of time!!! I’m trapped here.

-...

-...!

-...Are you hiding in a closet?

-...no. That would be stupid, in a three story house where I have my own/

-You are, ain’tcha?

-I am. Please help me?

Long sigh- I’ll meet you for coffee on the place near the Economics building so you have an excuse to be out for the evening while the others finish their moving. You’re done with your part, right?

-Yes! Thank you!

-You owe me.

-Next time Dick wants bonding time, I’ll sacrifice myself volunteering so you can run.

-And this is why you’re my favorite. Be there in ten.

-.-.-.-.-.-

-Tim? Tim! Here you are!

Blinking was a thing Tim suddenly remembered he needed to do, and he did it a few times as his eyes were dragged away from his book by a pair of hands on his cheeks.

-Kon? What are you doing in the library?

The other boy was panting slightly, flushed from what Tim guessed was a desperate run there.

-I was looking for you! You never came back after classes were done for the day, and you didn’t pick up your phone. We were very worried, dude. 

-I was just studying, chill.

-It’s almost midnight.

No, it couldn’t be.

-No, it isn’t.  I haven’t been here that long.

Serious and slightly worried, Conner thrusted his own phone in Tim’s face and… uh. Look at that. It was nearly midnight.

-Oh. Got distracted with research, sorry.

-It’s been barely two weeks, how much can you possibly need to study?

Unprompted, Kon started to help him pack his books and papers. He seemed utterly amazed by the almost illegible graphs and charts.

-No, this isn’t homework. I’m working on a thing for WE…

The rest of the way home was spent with Tim talking Conner’s ear off about shit he had absolutely no idea about, but didn’t complain, just holding Tim’s backpack with one hand while steering his sleep deprived friend back home with the other.

-.-.-.-.-.

-Bart? -Tim yawned, getting into the kitchen and raising a confused eyebrow at his friend- It’s… three am. What are you doing awake?

-Stress baking -the smaller boy replied, never stopping stirring the bowl- You?

-Papers and presentations.

-Classes or WE?

-Bit of both. What are you making?

-Cupcakes. Want some?

-They’ll go great with coffee, thanks.

They spent the next half hour waiting for the oven to do its magic talking about video games, classes and evil teachers.

-Your brother is the worst. TA. Ever. He always grades my papers and he’s a bitch about them.

-He relishes in the pain. It’s what keeps him young. I swear he never grew  past fifteen.

-It’s scary, and honestly so annoying. Like, I get pointing out mistakes, but he doesn’t need to be a passive aggressive ass about it.

-I’ll let him know what you think.

-Please don’t. I’m afraid of him, and the power he holds in his hands. The power to make me fail Creative Writing.

-Why are you even taking that class? Actually, what even is your major?

A shrug, and before Bart could open his mouth to reply, the timer let them know the cupcakes where done.

-You can have one before bedtime, dude. The circles under your eyes look like make up at this point. 

-You are one to talk, mister Stress Baking at Three in the Morning.

-But unlike you, I don’t have to be up at the ass of dawn. C’mon, have one of these and back up you go.

-Bite me.

-I’d rather bite this peanut butter miracle, but if you insist…

-No! Bart, get away from me!

-Then go to bed!

-Go to hell!

-I AM in hell! I have Jason Fucking Todd as my TA!

-IF YOU DON’T GO BACK TO BED RIGHT NOW, I’LL KICK YOU BOTH ALL THE WAY THERE! -Cassie’s voice echoed in the walls, and they both blanched at the reminder that her room was, in fact, in ground floor.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A part of college Tim had never considered, let alone readied himself for, was the… party bit. 

-What do you mean, of course you’re coming -laughed Anita, clutches firm on Tim’s sleeve as she dragged him into hers and Cassie’s room.

-No, I have to study for…

-You don’t have any midterm or final this week. I know, because I checked. No papers due either. This is literally the perfect time for you to party. 

-I can’t, I…

-Suck at socializing? Yeah, cher, I’m aware. That’s why awesome me is taking you as my plus one for this party. No need to thank me, glad to be your social buffer whenever you need me.

Tim started to resist in earnest when they got into the room and he caught a glimpse of the clothing Anita had apparently chosen for him.

-There’s no way I’m fitting into those pants! Let me go!

-I’ve seen you squeezing your butt into the vent that one time when Kon threw the key to the coffee maker cabinet inside it. If you could get in there, these pants are a piece of cake.

-No!

-Don’t make me hurt you, Drake.

-Anita…!

-Ugh! -she stopped, dropping Tim on her bed and crossing her arms. She averted her eyes- My ex is gonna be at the party. I might have been exaggerating a bit when I said I was over him, but I already promised my friends I was gonna be there. I… could really use your help here. I know it’s not your scene, but Kon and Bart have midterms, Slobo would straight up punch my ex with his astounding lack of subtlety, Miguel is away dealing with family stuff, and the girls are awesome but not really what I need right now.

A pause.

-Okay, but I’m absolutely not putting on that crop top. And we better not end up wasted, I have a reputation to uphold.

Spoiler alert: he did put on the crop top. And they had to call Conner to walk them home after the third time Tim walked into a lamp post and Anita fell into the campus’ pond.

-.-.-.-.-

They were walking back home late on a Friday when they were approached by a group of stupid, drunk dudebros. Tim was already dreading the moments to come before they even spoke, just by the way they kept eyeing Cassie’s legs and Anita’s rack. Cissie herself was wearing loose pants and a sweater, so she was safe from their disgusting examination. Not that it kept her from crossing her arms and looking down at the assholes.

-Heyyyyy, ladies. Wanna go clubbing with us?

Tim shrugged- He’s talking to you, girls. I’m out. Have fun.

Cassie caught him by his hoodie before he could take a single step. He heard her warning clear as day and sighed, defeated.

-Yess, you can go -slurred Dudebro number two, waving him away- There’ three of us, and three of those pretty things. You can get lost. 

-See, Cass? Hear the gentlemen. You don’t need me here.

Anita kicked him in the shin.

-No. We just got our nails done. You either solve this peacefully, or take care of it if it turns dirty. Why do you even walk us home if not to protect us from creepers like these?

A loud ‘hey’ came from the dudebros, but Tim ignored them. Silently, he pointed at Cassie’s legs (he had seen her crushing a watermelon between them once), Cissie’s arms (a thing of beauty that made multiple lesbians all around campus cry) and Anita’s katana (that she wasn’t supposed to keep on her person around other students, but who was gonna enforce any rules on the girl with the giant knife?).

-Excuse me? You three should be protecting me. I’m a rich, sheltered boy.

Apparently done being ignored, the three idiots decided this was a good time to throw the first punch. Which Tim dodged, without breaking eye contact with Cassie. She raised her eyebrow, not moving an inch. Cissie was examining her nails. Anita’s eyes promised hell.

He sighed, turned around, caught the second coming punch, and used the hand under his palm to force the dudebro to his knees. A knee to the face and then he turned to the other two. 

Next time, Slobo was walking with them.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Flip side:  the attic room had its own bathroom. Significantly smaller than the ones on the other two floors, but hey, no sharing. 

The downside: apparently, the bathroom vents all connected with one another, and because of their aligning schedules, he often took showers at the same time Miguel did.

Flip side: Miguel had the singing voice of an angel, and the acoustic was fantastic. Showers were rarely boring now.

Downside again: Tim often forgot himself and sang along, but his voice… wasn’t as pretty.

Flip side again: at least, judging by Miguel’s smile, he found it adorable rather than pathetic.

Downside number three: Greta and Cissie’s room, by some unsolved mystery, also had connecting vents to the bathroom, and the archer girl was… less charitable about Tim’s inability to sing.

Flip side: Greta liked him better than most of their house mates, and she had more than enough dirt on Cissie to keep her from sharing the secret of Tim’s awful voice. 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

-Hey, baby bird. Sorry I’m calling just now, it’s been a while.

-Hey Jay. Don’t worry, you’re busy grading papers.

-How do you know?

-Bart was crying in the tub this morning. Completely clothed and eating nachos with whipped cream, I might add.

-What is that boy even studying? I know he has Chem classes, Roy is his TA, and Kory saw him in the designer’s building. 

-That is an unsolved mystery for the ages. 

-Hey, speaking of your housemates, how’s it going?

Tim stopped on his way out of the kitchen, eyes growing fond as he examined the group on the living room. They were fighting over that night’s movie choice. He didn’t know why they tried, Greta was gonna win. Nobody could resist her and Miguel’s puppy eyes. 

-It’s… it’s been great, actually.

-Uh huh.

-But don’t tell Dick. He’ll be unbearably smug.

-Of course I won’t. You still have that time I crashed B’s favorite car on me.

-Oh, Oh fuck! -came Slobo’s voice- TIM, BRING THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER!

A loud crash. Tim winced, eyes leaving his friend in favor of the wall. If he didn’t see it, it wasn’t happening.

-TIM, BUD, WE NEED SOME HELP HERE!

-...what was that, Timbo?

-Nothing.

-TIM, TIM, THE TV IS ON FIRE!!! COME QUICKLY BEFORE IT REACHES THE XBOX OR SO HELP ME GOD I’M MURDERING EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM!

-...Tim?

-Don’t tell B.

-Gotcha. Going to save their lives?

-More like hiding in my room until they sort themselves out or die. Good luck on those papers.

-Good luck on surviving.

[drops-of-moonlights]

WINX REDUX AU SUMMARIZED: INTERLUDE 4 (Season 4.5)

Or, in which I give the basics of what I’ve changed about the story for the AU. It was originally way more descriptive but if I kept it in that style I would have finished in 2039 and I ain’t got time for that. Here we cover the events that occur between Season 4 and Season 5! ... It’s TECHNICALLY World of Winx but it’s honestly an original story that takes elements from it. IT’S ALSO THE LONGEST THING I’VE MADE SO FAR, so hopefully you can read it well!

WINX REDUX AU INTERLUDE 4 - The Weavers of Nightmares

It’s been a week since everyone came back from Earth, and after starting to establish new ties with the planet (as best as they could, anyway) everyone is taking a break for a bit before going back to help Roxy and the rest with reintroducing magic and the politics and all that stuff.

After the first dinner with her family since coming back (and getting exasperated at all the political stuff she’s gonna have to work on in the next few months), Bloom and everyone goes to sleep, planning on calling Roxy in the morning.

On Andros, in the Hospital of Magically-Induced Conditions, Nabu is resting, with his condition being analyzed in full. The guys and Aisha are in the waiting room, hoping for results.

The doctors come out and elaborate on what they already know - Nabu is in a magic-induced coma after his feat back on Tir Nan Og, but his timely achieving of Enchantix should help him recover faster - he should wake up in around 5 weeks, and he will be taken care of in the meantime.

With their minds slightly calmer now everyone leaves for their realms for most of them - Aisha has to oversee some stuff regarding her cousin’s trial from 6 years ago, Helia has to prepare for the gallery that accepted some of his paintings, Nex and Timmy are gonna spend some time with Nex’s family to improve on his flexibility (and also to get more human interaction), Riven’s gonna visit his mom and start planning for something, and Sky and Brandon have royal duties to attend to.

On that night, a woman in a dark cloak and a mirror in hand stumbles in the woods covering the Eraklyon-Domino border. Two villages can be seen on the distance, familiar to her. Her mirror rumbled.

Everyone at Sparxis Palace is fast asleep. Everyone except Daphne.

A nightmare seems to be plaguing her, showcasing a fairy, a witch, a pixie, and two towns. The place is encased in dark vines and crystal, the pixie seems to be telling her something, and the fairy and witch are laughing.

Daphne wakes up with a notorious headache, a tingling fear developing, and really just thirsty as all fuck. She keeps the dream on the back of her mind for a while.

Two days later, a message from the Order of Mana comes to her requesting her assistance alongside Thoren (and the Winx, because the Order knows they’re gonna get in the middle regardless so might as well just save everyone the paperwork), and Daphne drops her phone.

They are requesting for help in the border towns of Nevere and Zeisterna, as communication with them has been suddenly cut off and there are weird magical readings on the area.

Daphne’s nightmare comes back to her memory and she realizes the place in it were those two towns, and her first mission as a Nymph comes back to her.

After meeting with Thoren (him acting somewhat flustered around Daphne, which she picks up on but doesn’t comment on it), and on their way, Bloom asks Daphne about her reaction, and she elaborates:

A year after being appointed Nymph, she and her friend Politea were tasked with resolving an issue on those same towns - a witch named Venomya and a fairy named Campana had hijacked their government and wanted to conquer other bordering towns - they were displeased with how Erendor and Marion governed and tried to become an independent state. They had used their powers as Onyrix magi to subtly manipulate the population, as well as good ol’ magic threatening (as neither town had many magic users, and those they had were young or inexperienced). Daphne herself admits the only reason they beat them was thanks to her Sirenix powers going well with her Water Source and Politea’s handy poison streams, which weakened them enough. (You can also learn more about them here and here!)

Thoren seems to react at the name Campana and goes silent, and Daphne is too busy sadly reminiscing on Politea to notice.

After Stella’s Teleportia and a short walk, everyone arrives at both towns - while technically separate, they are close enough to be considered two sides of the same community.

First checking up on Zeisterna, as it’s on Domino’s side, and then on Nevere, both towns are in the same state - there doesn’t seem to be anyone anywhere, even the characteristic wind of Eraklyon missing.

However, once they try to access their jointed city hall, the whole town goes dark despite being noon - a magical dome falling on the area. All the girls transform and Thoren summons his armor, and try to rush to the ends of the place but are completely trapped.

After trying every single attack and convergence spell on their arsenal, everyone ends up detransforming and start thinking of ways to escape or contact people outside. Daphne and Thoren try to contact the Order of Mana but fail, all communication cut off thanks to magical interference. Everyone decides to start scouting the town, but are promptly separated  - Bloom with Musa, Stella with Flora, Aisha with Tecna, and Daphne with Thoren.

Back on Andros, a doctor is checking up on Nabu when he notices his magic level reacting weirdly, and sees signs of struggle on his resting face.

Nabu is in a dark ballroom, wearing a stuffy suit and with a doll-looking Aisha on his side. He feels something on his wrists and ankles.

Several life-sized dolls in similar clothing pop up around him, and he suddenly starts to dance alongside the Aisha doll - the things around his joints was string, being moved like a puppet. New strings appeared around his neck and started to get tighter, getting more and more suffocated, and he could see his limbs starting to turn into the same as the other dolls.

He manages to look up and sees a dark shadow controlling the strings, which slowly morphs to look like him. His clothes seemed mismatched but reminiscent of a modified tuxedo, and his hair was in four braids with hooks at the end - the strings holding him coming from there.

The shadow calls himself Maestro, “his worst nightmare given form”. He starts to tighten all the strings, but after a bit Nabu manages to transform himself and turns free.

Outside the dream, Nabu is also transformed, and the doctor starts calling for help, the readings starting to get out of control and sensing something messing with his head.

Still in the nightmare, Nabu starts fighting with Maestro, trying to disrupt his form with his own powers - he’s made of shadows, after all. He proves resistant to his magic, and starts to taunt him about how he’s not really a person - he’s only in the world to marry Aisha, and that fell through, didn’t it.

Nabu does get affected by those words but keeps fighting back, not letting up even if he starts to fly lower and lower. Maestro keeps dodging and goes on, commenting on how he’s nothing but a fallen set piece in a royal game, his family having disowned him after the engagement got axed. Now he has nothing left on this world so why bother? Might as well remain in this nightmare.

Nabu tries to ignore his comments but it’s proving more and more difficult, and his legs are starting to turn doll-like again.

The memories of Helia and Aisha flash back on his mind, however, and starts to talk back - even if his family’s not there for him anymore, he still has friends.

More memories with Helia and Aisha resurface, then memories with everyone else, and how he could feel their worry after his crazy act on Earth. His resolve starts to surge again and the entire place starts to collapse. After a few more attacks, Nabu finally manages to unravel Maestro back into shadows, and starts to disrupt his form.

Before being completely undone, however, Maestro’s voice changes from Nabu’s to a different voice - warning him that his friends are in danger, and to ask “the place of the Nymphs” for help.

The shadow has been erased, and Nabu can feel a surge of magic on him. This lets him wake up at last, earning Onyrix as soon as he wakes up.

The doctors around him are dumbfounded, and so is Nabu being in such an unfamiliar place, but he manages to come back to his senses and asks for a phone.

The Winx plus the Paladins, now separated, start to explore the now labyrinthine town, covered in weird crystals and vines and seemingly warping around everywhere.

Bloom and Musa are suddenly attacked by the vines, and take refuge on a nearby building, finding more of the crystal formations on different places. They find themselves tired after using so much magic, and slowly fall asleep - first Bloom, then Musa.

Stella and Flora took a detour down an alleyway and were faced with a lot of crystals suddenly launching themselves at them, forcing them to dodge and scatter. They end up resting in a nearby park, and Stella starts to feel tired. Flora realizes they’ve prickled themselves on the vines as they avoided the crystals and have been poisoned, but can’t fight the effects fast enough and falls asleep herself.

Aisha and Tecna have spent the last few minutes destroying all the crystals and vines they’ve been finding, and find shelter in a nearby store. They end up laying near some crystals to rest behind the counter to remain hidden, and while Tecna can tell the crystals are emitting a weird magic, they can’t fight it and fall asleep as well.

Daphne and Thoren have managed to reach the central plaza that housed an ornate bridge connecting both towns, and it being seemingly devoid of anything they chose to rest there for a bit. Daphne feels extremely tired, and lightly cuts her finger on a vine when settling down. She does fix it with a small healing spell but the poison has set in, and thinking herself just tired, starts to fall asleep, not before telling Thoren to keep an eye out.

A fairy and a witch (Campana and Venomya) overlook the happenings from their place, thinking the nightmares will keep them down long enough for them to hold them hostage to ensure their conquest goes smoothly. Venomya feels weird looking at the mirror she was once trapped in, and elaborates to Campana how she got there - while the fairy was simply thrown to Dominian jail, Venomya was a local and as such her punishment was harsher. Now free, however, she’s looking forward to what will happen now, and summons shadow nightmares for all 7 fairies. They hope the nightmares do defeat the girls, as “harvesting” their powers could prove useful.

Bloom finds herself in a dark cave, seemingly surrounded by water, if her hair and clothes’s movement is any indication. There are rock formations everywhere, and it all feels eerily familiar to her.

The rock formations start to move around and slowly form into the shapes of her friends, all featuring crude anguished faces. Bloom tries to reach out to one but her hand suddenly freezes, her legs getting covered in rock.

As she tries to struggle out of her hold, she sees a lot of fire starting to light up the place, all the sudden harsh shadows starting to coalesce and form her shape similar to Bloom’s - her hair was longer and her outfit was too similar to her Glamourix, but in blue tones and a dark sheer cape.

The shadow introduced herself as Vertigo, “the living proof of your mistakes”, and started to control the water around the room, surrounding Bloom’s hand. She forms a water blade in front of Bloom’s forced palm, and with a “woosh!” she sends it flying to the Flora-like rock, slicing it in half.

Vertigo starts to taunt her about everything she did as Shadow Bloom, as she forces her hand to slice more and more of the rocks. She goes on on how easily she gave her trust and how that harmed her loved ones, and how it was her fault for falling so easily.

Bloom is on the verge of tears as everything goes down, and once the only rocks left are Stella, Diaspro and Daphne she simply screams. She manages to transform and free herself, and while constantly stopped by Vertigo’s water, she manages to drive her back.

She starts to counter everything Vertigo has said to her - she was manipulated, she was brainwashed, and they took advantage of her, and SHE’S the one at fault? She hurt her friends, her loved ones, and almost caused major destruction, but the only thing left is to move on.

She fires off a last big attack, all the water evaporating and Vertigo turned to steam as well.

Bloom wakes up from the nightmare and earns Onyrix, and with her new powers she can see deeper in the place around them - the crystals and vines house the residents, trapped in stasis in probably similar nightmares.

Musa finds herself in a weird shed on the floor, darkness all around her except for the door, which is open.

She goes outside but the darkness persists - the sky is pitch black, and the shed seems to be on a floating island. As she walks out, however, bright lights come all around her, suddenly on a stage inside the floating island. Her friends and family are all over the audience, multiple copies of them filling the place.

From her shadow a being rises, looking like her but with shorter hair and a dark green dress. She calls herself Banshee, “your failures personified” in a particularly powerful voice, and at her command a guitar appears on Musa’s arms.

She can feel magic forcing her hands to play horribly, and everyone in the audience starts to boo her, calling her many things and pointing out all her flaws - her short temper, her need to do everything herself, her inability to communicate, her failures in class, in magic, in life, in everything, as she keeps playing more and more badly before the music is just noise.

Her hands keep moving faster and faster and she feels the pain starting to form, finally breaking down and transforming, tossing the guitar to the ground and starting to fight Banshee.

She keeps repeating everything the audience said as they clap for her, and Musa’s resolve starts to diminish. Banshee makes one mistake, however: “only Aisha is gullible enough to appreciate you.”

This angers Musa and knocks her out of her funk, her resolve coming back so fast the stage starts to crumble. She screams back at that, of how Aisha has helped her for so much these last years, listening to her complains and her anger and offering her only a hearing ear and support, even when she was going through harsh times, her true strength shining through. Her girlfriend has done nothing but be a wonderful person, and she will not stand for that.

She starts attacking back with full force, bringing up the good side of each of her flaws, the audience starting to disappear and Banshee’s powerful voice becoming softer and weaker.

With a final attack, Musa defeats Banshee turning her back to shadows, and manages to wake up from the nightmare getting Onyrix.

Now awake she stumbles around and meets with Bloom, somehow having gotten separated after falling asleep. Their powers make them immune to the vines’s and crystal’s effects on them, and decide to move onward to meet with the rest.

Venomya and Campana see from their hideout that not only Bloom and Musa broke out of the spell, they also earnt the one form that would undo their whole plan. They briefly curse themselves due to not foreseeing the obvious, but keep going regardless - they’re this deep already, no turning back. Venomya looks at what Stella and Flora’s main fears are, and gleefully takes over the making of their nightmares, being an expert in the field of reliving memories.

Stella finds herself in a dark, very small place, and starts to bang all around her to break free. She does after 2 minutes of this, falling from inside a locker face first.

She looks around and realizes she’s in a classroom - a very familiar classroom. Uneasiness starts to creep up on her but approaches the door regardless and opens it, seeing if there’s a hallway. Instead, the door leads to her elementary school’s courtyard, and the harsh light of the sun blinds her for a second, accustomed to the darkness of the classroom.

From her shadow seems to rise a being, and suddenly the door behind her disappears, now being in the center of the courtyard.

Shadow copies of all her childhood bullies start to surround her, and her shadow becomes a clone of her, wearing a dark cloak with a minidress underneath. Calling herself Obscura, “your worst memories personified”, she snaps her fingers.

At her command, everyone around her starts to repeat every single insult they ever slung at her, from her appearance to her voice to her glasses to her things to her very being. Stella started to counteract as many insults as she could, but the insults started to come faster and faster, her starting to falter.

The shadows start to morph into her Alfea classmates, her teachers, her parents, her friends. They start to cut her with deeper words and Stella can’t keep up, she’s starting to be drowned in noise, old wounds opening up again.

Obscura mocks her, telling her this is what everyone truly thinks of her, and on the verge of losing it, Stella simply yells for her to shut up and leave her alone.

At this, everything around her disappears completely, except for Obscura. “If that’s what you want, enjoy being alone!” she mocks. Stella is shocked, and starts asking for everyone to come back. The shadow clone asks her if she’s that desperate to not be alone that she will take all insults, but Stella doesn’t listen to her, begging and screaming for everyone to come back, to not leave her alone. She finally breaks and starts crying, and Obscura smirks.

Campana and Venomya are content with this development, and start to prepare some sort of ritual now that they believe Stella can’t escape from the nightmare.

However, as they start to set up, they notice a sudden silence.

Stella slowly manages to calm herself down, and suddenly she feels something behind her.

She’s shocked to see herself (or at least, how she looked as a kid), and she starts to reassure her that she’s loved, that she has people that love her, and that she’s not alone.

Obscura tries to attack the young Stella but the magic doesn’t seem to work, and she keeps talking, telling her to remember her friend’s voices.

Stella closes her eyes and thinks back, her parent’s encouragement even after she was forced to retake the first year, her teachers congratulating her on her sudden progress, watching the soaps with Tecna, talking fashion with Musa, knitting with Flora, talking about royal life with Aisha, Sky and Diaspro, helping Bloom with her magic, Brandon’s loyalty and profound love, Riven consoling her when her parents divorced.

The tears of sadness turn into ones of joy, and she manages to rise to her feet. Obscura tries to attack her but Stella transforms, and slowly rises to the now visible sky, the younger Stella vanishing.

Claiming that she’s never alone, her friend’s feelings and memories always with her, and with herself on her side to remind her of those feelings, she has nothing to fear for. She fires a single wave of light and dispels Obscura completely, waking up from her nightmare and earning Onyrix.

With her new powers she starts to destroy all the crystals and vines that started to come close to her, and goes check up on Flora.

Flora wakes up on a mountain road, confused, before getting up and looking around. It seems to be night time, as everything is dark outside.

She starts to walk along the road and see if she can find out where she is, but she’s distracted by a shadow moving ahead. She feels it familiar somehow and runs after it.

The shadow starts to get more definition and Flora can see that it’s Miele (though oddly as a kid, instead of the teen she is currently), and starts to get desperate, wondering what she is doing in a place like this so late.

As she keeps running, she doesn’t notice her shadow slowly detach itself from her, and finally finds Miele near the edge of a cliff, not a single plant in sight.

Flora immediately transforms and rushes to Miele, fearing that she might fall, but her sister suddenly screams at her to leave her alone and turns into a rock formation. Her detached shadow fuses with the rock and forms into a clone of herself, wearing sand-colored clothes and rock décor.

Calling herself Sahara, “your reminder of your sins”, she starts to attack Flora head on. The Fairy handles herself well in battle, trying to fight her physically and getting as close as possible, but Sahara forces her back more and more twisting the terrain into sand and loose rock, forcing her back.

The fight goes on for a few more minutes until Flora finds an opening, too into the battle to notice Sahara’s smirks. She jumps and tries to slice her with her fan, but Sahara suddenly turns into baby Miele again and Flora freezes.

The shadow takes the chance and hits Flora hard still with Miele’s disguise, and finally starts taunting her.

She recalls an event of almost 12 years ago, in a cliff much like this. Of Flora exasperated with her little sister, from a time where she almost openly hated her, yelling at her to go back and leave her alone. Of her still unstable magic reacting and causing a slide. Of Miele’s screams of terror. Of Flora’s horrified expression at her sister’s (thankfully unharmed) unconscious form.

Flora tries to counteract with how that was an accident, of how her magic was still young, but Sahara (still as Miele) counters that with how she felt about Miele up until that point. The unwanted sister, the attention-hogger, the oh-so-adorable-child.

Sahara keeps forcing Flora back as she tries to process her memories and feelings, and of how that incident still haunts her, of the whys she took up physical fighting instead of properly tempering her magic, how suppressed her powers are beyond healing.

Sahara stops with the attacks and suddenly traps Flora in a whirlwind of sand and rock, starting to drag her into the earth as if a drill. She keeps mocking her on how her own sins won’t let her free herself, and Flora starts to panic.

She tries different techniques of support magic but nothing’s working, and Flora realizes she has to use her magic in full if she wants to be free.

Pushing past her fears, and knowing that she’s a different person from who she was as a kid, she forces dried roots to attack Sahara, disrupting her spell and letting the fairy free.

Flora then starts to attack in full, summoning trees, plants, vines, petals alongside her fans to cut, tear and hit Sahara as much as she can. Sahara tries to turn back to Miele to dissuade her, but Flora closes her eyes and keeps on. With a final piercing branch of thorns, and an explosion of sharp petals, She destroys Sahara, waking up from her dream and earning Onyrix.

She looks around her, the vines somehow having retreated, and meets up with Stella, who was coming to her from the other side of the park. Noting their new powers, they decide to use a convergence spell and manage to completely rid the park of Venomya and Campana’s magic, the shield above them even slightly affected.

They, on their part, are livid - not only more of their hostages earnt Onyrix, but their powers are perfectly geared to countering their own. Campana decides to start summoning shadow creatures to try and delay them further while awake, while Venomya focuses her power on making nightmares for the remaining magi.

On Magix, Nabu manages to contact the Order and asks where Daphne’s team has gone to, and if they’ve gotten any updates. After getting the location then Nabu formally requests reinforcements to the area as he can feel everyone there in a far bigger danger than anticipated, before teleporting himself to the place.

Aisha wakes up in her room back in Andros, looking around, not finding anything odd yet outside of it being dark at night. She leaves the room to look for the reason why she’s there, but instead of a hallway, she’s suddenly in the balcony overseeing the capital.

Below it’s the city’s population, expecting and waiting for her to talk. She realizes she’s in her royal clothes, but also wearing her father’s crown. She is the Queen now.

Everyone starts to make demands and pleas, starts to beg and scream, for her to be their Queen, to give them to greatness, to do better, to be better.

The population rises and rises, and the lights of cameras start to flash her. She covers her eyes, and from the harsh lights her shadow starts to morph into her clone.

Aisha tries to escape but the doors have disappeared, and more and more royal advisors appear from thin air, demanding for her to act like a Queen.

Aisha starts to be overwhelmed by the requests, and transforms to fly away and escape the madness. The palace and the people rise up with her, however, and suddenly gusts of wind start to force her down.

She looks up and sees her shadow clone, calling herself Soffocara, wearing a fancy, stuff dress. Introducing herself as “your dark future”, she starts to trap Aisha in a whirlwind, while everyone else keeps demanding for her to act as queen.

Aisha starts to choke as she tries to fight everything - Soffocara, the people -, screaming that she doesn’t want to be Queen. She doesn’t want this, this life of restrictions. Her people are only louder and the wind harsher.

The wind starts to diminish around her, as Soffocara redirects part of it to the population, taking them off the ground and starting to suffocate them as well. Aisha tries to stop her but she’s still trapped herself, and seeing her people suffer because of her inaction is making her more desperate. After a bit, however, she manages to calm down, and decides to pretend that she has fallen unconscious.

Soffocara drops the wind around her letting her fall to the ground, and Aisha takes the chance and attacks her. Soffocara’s surprised and Aisha elaborates - even if she’s terrified of being Queen, even if she doesn’t want to rule, there are people that will be affected by her. People that will suffer because of her inaction. And she can’t accept that.

With uncharacteristic precision she manages to free her people with her water, disrupting the air and redirecting the spirals back to Soffocara. The shadow tries to disrupt them further but Aisha simply re-accumulates the water, forcing her back until she manages to encase her in a harsh whirlpool of her own. Aisha immediately half-freezes the globe and pulls it apart, undoing Soffocara and waking up from the nightmare, earning Onyrix.

Aisha looks around, and after trying out her magic undoing the vines starting to creep closer, she starts to look for Tecna.

Tecna wakes up in a weird room, reminding herself of those old-fashioned VR machines Bloom showed her while on Earth. She tries to see if she can influence the area and suddenly starts to make a small grove with a river.

She starts to make some flowers and grass and bushes, lost in the sudden place, but no matter how hard she tries she can’t change the time of day, a perpetual nighttime around her. She tries to see if she can undo the changes she made, but somehow can’t anymore.

A sudden spark of light comes too close to her, a lightning bolt coming from the still clear sky. The harsh light contrast gives her a full shadow, and from that shadow forms her clone, covered in cybernetics and with long blue hair. Calling herself Virus, “Your base fears”, and starts to disrupt and glitch everything around her.

The trees and bushes suddenly lunge for Tecna, whose first instinct is to run away from them. She tries to transform but some roots make her trip, cutting her hand on a bush’s thorns in the fall. She tries again but can’t, suddenly not remembering how to transform.

She then tries to cast magic, but it comes out erratic and weak thanks to her panic and Virus easily avoids her attempts at attacks. Tecna panics more and more at this, starting to feel cornered and without ideas. She tries to think of her classes, or her practice, but can’t remember anything at all and it’s starting to send her into a panic attack.

Virus takes the chance and properly corners her, mocking her poor memory and how she can’t see the obvious way out. Tecna just simply screams, and tries to think harder and harder on what to do.

It’s at this time that she realizes she’s bleeding from her hand, and can feel a faint trace of magic on the cut. Trying to stop the bleeding she starts to calm herself down, and notices how one of the bushes starting to close in on her disappeared for a split second, remembering the glitch. She initially starts to think of all the ways she could try to escape with magic if she remembered how to use it, but slowly realizes that’s not the answer.

The trees and bushes keep coming closer and Virus believes she’s won, until Tecna suddenly launches herself at one of the bushes, taking advantage of the clipping frames and escaping. She then grabs a nearby branch and launches herself to Virus, trying to hit her physically.

Virus tries her best to dodge and protect herself but Tecna’s relentless, even if she feels herself tiring her arms due to not having a framework for close fighting. Virus lacks it as well, to her advantage, and starts to retake the magic she used on the room to prepare a desperation attack.

The callback of all magic makes everything in the room disappear, as well as undoing the “hack” she placed on Tecna, recovering her memories and being able to transform again.

Virus tries to attack her with the energy collected but Tecna launches herself to her again, tackling her, and holding her while casting a spell of her own. High voltage electricity suddenly flows through Virus all at once, dissolving immediately and letting Tecna earn Onyrix.

Now awake, Tecna meets up with Aisha soon, having just been a few meters apart, and now being able to properly fight the place they go out to look for everyone else.

After a few fights the Winx manage to get together again, and after sharing their experiences they start to look for Daphne and Thoren, using their powers to start undoing the curse on the place as they go.

They start to notice how the bigger crystals and vines don’t seem to try to do anything, and Flora tries to connect with the vines - and almost falls to the floor in surprise. The vine has someone inside it.

Everyone is equally shocked and Aisha and Stella look into the crystals, realizing there’s a faint outline of a person inside. Everyone starts to wonder what they can do and Tecna has an idea - if they can mix Flora’s, Aisha’s and Stella’s healing powers, their new Onyrix abilities, and their Essence Dust, they can undo the curse more effectively and free everyone with minor issues.

They try the weird convergence idea, and the larger crystals and vines slowly disappear, leaving the people behind. Everyone goes to check on them to see if they’re okay, and it seems they’re just sleeping, still affected by that part of the curse. The Winx carry on, hoping that removing all of the influence will wake them up.

Campana and Venomya are even more furious, knowing that 6 of the 7 girls have gotten Onyrix and are starting to undo their work. Venomya makes more shadow nightmares and starts to send them to the Winx, while Campana oversees Daphne’s own nightmare personally.

Daphne wakes up on the entrance to Sparxis City, already in ruins. The princess is at first confused and disoriented but realizes what this is - and promptly transforms, rushing into the capital worried. 

Around her she can see the familiar destruction of 21 years ago, people screaming and running as a wave of frost starts to cover the place. She can see people disappearing into the air, and speeds up her flight, not noticing those she left behind turn into shadows, following her.

She arrives at the palace, but it’s not the palace - thousands of mirrors are covering every inch, reflecting her form in distorted ways. Her current Sirenix form, her Enchantix, her old princess gown, her look when she was a student at Alfea, and many other look at her, a manic expression contrasting her own confusion.

Most of the mirrors shatter, and seemingly fuse with her shadow, forming her clone.

Wearing a purple mermaid-cut dress, mirror shards all over her, and calling herself Miroir, “your deepest regrets”, she starts attacking, using the leftover shards plus waves of energy. Daphne dodges most of the attacks almost effortlessly, but ends up too close to a mirror.

Her reflection grabs her by the shoulder, and starts to whisper in her ear of how because she trusted in Politea, Domino fell.

Daphne does manage to struggle free but she bumps into another mirror, her Enchantix form telling her of how she used Bloom for the sole purpose of getting free and try to reclaim her country, even if she was her sister. More of her reflections start to mock her and insult her, of all of her missteps in life, of how she has only been successful thanks to the Dragon Aura and nothing else, that without her extra magic she would be worthless.

Daphne keeps fighting her reflections and tries to ignore their thoughts, but as they dig deeper it starts to get harder to do. She’s so distracted that she doesn’t notice Miroir slowly collect the shards she’s been making as she breaks the mirrors, and fuses it into a sword.

She lunges at Daphne to try and stab her, but the Fairy manages to react fast enough and uses one of the mirrors to shield herself.

Getting her confidence back thanks to a rush of adrenaline, she starts to agree with the mirrors that yes, she fucked up, she caused a lot of pain thanks to her actions and has been incredibly selfish the past few years. But so what? She can be better, she can learn from this, and at the end of the day she can’t control what other people do. Politea betrayed her of her own accord, and while tears do fall from her eyes at this realization, she finally starts fighting back in full.

Miroir keeps trying to stab Daphne but she manages to dodge faster and faster, and after tiring the clone out she finally attacks, mixing her knowledge of Light magic with her Water source and undoing Miroir’s form entirely, waking up and earning Onyrix.

Campana is even angrier, every magi now with Onyrix and more chances to undo her plans. It’s then that she notices the man Daphne’s with, and realizing who he is she devises a plan, a cruel smirk on her face.

Daphne comes to her senses to an increasingly scared Thoren, who doesn’t even notice the new transformation and just hugs her in relief, Daphne subtly blushing at the sudden closeness.

After a few long seconds Thoren lets her go (wiping a few tears away) and asks her what happened to her, she was sleeping for a very long time and she had suddenly transformed mid-sleep, grunting in pain. He tried to wake her up but it was almost impossible, her Aura hurting him any time he got close. Daphne explains what happened and Thoren sighs, saying “of course.”

Daphne’s confused at this and asks him what’s going on, she noticed his weird eye shifts and worried looks all the trip and she knows it’s not just mission nervousness. Thoren sighs once more and finally comes clean - he’s Campana’s son.

The fairy is left dumbfounded and even more confused, and the Paladin elaborates - Campana married his father under the pretense of genuine love to slowly gain power in Eraklian grounds, as Conway was assigned Marquess of Nevere during that time as training to become king before both towns became a single community. She had him with Conway as a way to “prove” the marriage was real after suspicions arose around the fairy, but she never really cared for him either, focused on her quest for power.

Daphne is surprised and feels sorry for Thoren, but quickly shakes the thought to voice said feelings as that would make it worse. She then asks her why he took the offer to work on this situation, and he admits it was mainly to finally confront her mother on what she has done. Saying this, they both get up, and realizing the place around them is starting to change, they decide to start looking for the rest.

They’re suddenly attacked by a bunch of shadow creatures, all of them resembling some sort of monster. They manage to fend them off decently well and their numbers steadily diminish, until a wave of darkness suddenly consumes all of the shadows. They look ahead and notice that Nabu is standing there, also with Onyrix, and see a small hole in the barrier up in the sky slowly healing.

He meets up with them and explains he woke up thanks to earning the new transformation, and says there are reinforcements on their way to help with the barrier. More shadow monsters arise around them, but are defeated this time by a wave of heat and light.

The Winx, also in Onyrix, rush to meet them, and Aisha almost without thinking jumps to hug Nabu once she realizes he’s there and also not in a coma earlier than expected. The Winx explain what they learnt about the citizens being inside all the bigger crystals and vines around the town, and how they can free them with their new powers.

With the 8 Onyrix fairies plus Thoren’s knowledge of healing, everyone slowly but surely starts to undo the curse on the towns, defeating all the shadow creatures on the way.

Venomya and Campana start to panic, and in a bout of confidence and desperation Campana suggests to fight them head on, as a last chance to maintain the curse. Venomya’s doubtful but agrees, running out of options.

The Winx plus the others have managed to undo the curse on most of both towns, and can see the barrier above slowly falling apart. They arrive at the Town Hall, where they believe Campana and Venomya are hiding, and are promptly attacked by the duo.

A fight ensues, and with the help of the shadow creates, it’s a somewhat balanced fight, but after a while Stella and Nabu make quick work of all the shadows and everyone rushes to attack the fairy and witch properly.

Thoren confronts Campana at last on how she treated him when she was around, on how she barely cared for him and how she used him to gain even more power. Campana tries to counteract this and tells him that she did indeed love him, that she did think of him when she was trapped, and that she was worried he would be treated horribly by Erendor as the “true heir” of Eraklyon.

Thoren is shaken by this and hesitates, and Venomya takes the chance to try and poison him from the back while distracted. She’s stopped by Daphne, however, which attacks her hard enough to knock her to the wall and Campana unleashes an attack on Daphne, angry that her plans to harvest Thoren’s armor’s energy failed.

Thoren is enraged by this and dives in to attack her, taking her by surprise and almost stabbing her with his sword.

The battle turns for the worse for Campana and Venomya, and channeling all their magic undoing the barrier they use a Teleportia spell, leaving the town.

Everyone realizes the barrier is down and that it’s night time, and do cheer at the fact they won, but Thoren is still worried that they’re out there somewhere, and while everyone else thinks of start leaving he stops them, telling them his concerns.

The Winx do agree that it might be dangerous to leave them be and Tecna uses a locating spell tracing the last vestiges of their magic around, realizing they’re somewhere in the forest nearby. She also realizes there is a Tree of Life in that forest, and fearing the worst, everyone goes after them.

After a few hours of traveling and the shadow creatures coming back, proving Campana and Venomya are nearby, they find the Tree of Life, and notice its state - it’s a very old, very big tree, and it’s somehow faded, as if no Pixie had been born or lived there in a long time.

They find Campana and Venomya there as well, and promptly realize what they’re doing - they’re absorbing the last of the magic in the Tree, making it wilt incredibly fast, and high on magic, they attack the group with renewed confidence.

Battle ensues but despite not using the shadow creatures the group starts to lose, finding it harder to avoid the waves of noise and poison now that they’re bigger, and it only gets harder when metal shards and fire join their array.

The fight starts to get harder until one of Venomya’s attacks sets the Tree of Life on fire, which creates a strong magic reaction, stopping everyone in their tracks as a Pixie with unusually large wings appear in front of them.

Her expression is one filled with fury and the group slowly backs away, but Venomya and Campana, still high on magic, try to attack the Pixie.

In an instant, she easily knocks them to the ground and tells everyone to start fighting back, before suddenly vanishing. The magic around their eyes starts to diminish as the Tree starts to heal, and the group takes the chance to retaliate.

The duo starts to summon more shadow creatures to fend them off, but when that proves a failure they start to cast a convergence spell.

The Winx, plus Daphne and Nabu, start to cast one of their own, and both attacks are launched at the same time, colliding into each other. Both teams try to hold it as long as they can, and the more magic the duo puts into their side the more healthy the tree starts to look.

The Pixie appears once more, her look remaining, and suddenly attacks Venomya and Campana from the back, breaking their concentration and undoing their convergence, the group’s own overpowering them completely, a bright explosion of magic ensuing.

Once the magic fade the 8 fairies descend and reunite with Thoren, and realize after a few seconds that both Campana and Venomya are dead.

The Pixie descends to their level and finally introduces herself - she is Somna, the Pixie of Dreams and Nightmares, and is the one in charge of granting Onyrix. She explains that when they attempted their first coup, both Fairy and Witch absorbed the magic of the Tree as well as the energy of the Pixies that lived there, killing them in their quest for power. She has no control over who gets her form and as such was forced to grant them Onyrix several years ago once they met the criteria, but she has been waiting for her chance at revenge and is pleased that she’s finally got it.

Nabu recognizes her voice and asks her if she was the one that contacted him when he got Onyrix, and she affirms, finding his powers useful for the cause as well as his tangential relation to the people that were assigned the mission. She also elaborates that she helped Stella with her fight against Obscura as well, manifesting her inner child to avoid losing another useful ally to her cause - her light powers proving great for the situation.

After a while, Daphne asks her why she’s not allowed to grant the form directly like Ninfea or Omnia do with their forms, and she explains that as part-Ethereal, she cannot directly interact with sapientkind unless they meet the requirements for her form or they show up at her Tree. The first time Venomya and Campana appeared she was not present, and was not able to stop them then as she was requested to an audience by the Council of Mana. She also adds that she’s the one that sent Daphne the recurring nightmares, hoping that she will come to her aid.

Everyone is surprised at her “part-Ethereal” comment and elaborates that she’s one of the very first Pixies to exist, and that her Tree is the oldest in all of Solenei. Pixies, as well as the other purely-magical species, are direct creations of Ethereals but have slowly become more mundane.

The team then thanks her for her help as well as for granting them Onyrix, and slowly leave, until they’re sure a reasonable distance away. Then they run like hell in silence at the fact they were near an Ethereal.

A week has passed since the incident, and Nevere and Zeisterna are slowly healing. All of the population has been rescued and thankfully the Winx’s actions have made clean-up a non-issue, but the Order fears the population might have their Auras affected.

Daphne meets with Thoren, and asks him how he’s dealing with everything, now that the incident has repeated itself and that his mother is dead.

He feels conflicted and hurt, but also relieved that everything is finally done. He hasn’t told his father yet, but he hopes this doesn’t hurt him too much - he genuinely loved Campana and has just now started to move on.

Daphne comforts him and thanks him for his support during the trip, his presence having her calmed her down when she would have freaked out as well as properly thanking him for when he helped her in Havram.

Thoren thanks her as well too, as she has helped him regain his confidence over the time they’ve met and that he’s happy he met her.

After a few seconds of genuine smiles and incredibly uncomfortable silence, Daphne finally breaks the ice and asks him if he would like to go out with her someday - not as a mission, but as friends, and hopefully more than that.

Thoren is immediately flustered and after stammering a bit he accepts, and talking about when they’ll do it, they can hear the town gain it’s sound back.

Nabu has met with his family again after so long, and while his mother still refuses to interact with him, his father hugs him, happy he’s well again, and apologizing for his own inaction.

Nabu returns the hug for a second but pulls back, and does tell his father that if he truly wants to, they can rekindle their relationship on their own time and on Nabu’s terms. His dad agrees, and start to plan a way to work this well.

The Winx get a very annoyed call from Roxy and Ogron, on the fact they were supposed to come help a week ago and haven’t even attempted to contact them. The Winx tell them of what happened and say that they had to stay back for a few extra days to help with clean-up and rebuilding, and that after that they just wanted a few days to properly unwind.

Both Fairy and Sorcerer sigh and wonder out loud how the Winx keep getting into these situations, but are happy they’re all okay and tell them everything is ready for them to go to Earth.

The call ends and Stella pulls out her Staff, and with a Teleportia spell, they go back to Earth, to help with reintroducing magic as well as simply enjoy their summer...

[dubsism]

Today’s Movie: The Bad News Bears

Year of Release: 1976

Stars: Walter Matthau, Tatum O’Neal, Vic Morrow

Director: Michael Ritchie

This movie is on my list of essential films.

NOTE: This installment of Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies is not being done as part of a blog-a-thon.  Instead, this is a monthly event hosted by MovieRob called Genre Grandeur.  The way it works is every month MovieRob chooses a film blogger to pick a topic and a movie to write about, then also picks a movie for MovieRob to review.  At the end of the month, MovieRob posts the reviews of all the participants. For January 2020, the honor of being the “guest picker” went to Sally of 18 Cinema Lane. The topic is “Youth-Led Movies.” Not does my choice fit the theme, but it is a reminder that Spring Training is right around the corner…pitchers and catchers report in less than three weeks.

The Story:

The Bad News Bears exists as a a team because a city councilman and attorney named Bob Whitewood (played by Ben Piazza) who filed a lawsuit against an ultra-competitive Southern California Youth Baseball League which excluded the least skilled athletes. In order to settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team, the Bears.  Being composed of the worst players, Whitewood can’t get anybody to manage the team until he pays Morris Buttermaker (played by Walter Matthau) to do it.

Buttermaker is less than an inspiring leader; he’s a drunk and a boor, but he knows baseball as he was a minor-league pitcher.  He’s also a perfect match for this team of misfits, featuring a nearly-blind brainiac pitcher named Stein (played by David Pollock), a pugnacious, foul-mouthed shortstop with a Napoleon complex named Tanner (played by Chris Barnes), an outfielder who dreams of emulating his idol Hank Aaron named Ahmad (played by Erin Blunt), a bullied sad sack Timmy Lupus (played by Quinn Smith), and a portly catcher named Engelberg (played by Gary Lee Cavagnaro) who is arguably the best player on the team.   The Bears are so bad that in their opening game, they don’t even record an out; they give up 26 runs before Buttermaker threw in the towel.

Since he knows the team is hopeless, Buttermaker recruits the sharp-tongued Amanda Whurlizer (played by Tatum O’Neal), the 11-year-old daughter of Buttermaker’s ex-girlfriend who previously he trained as a pitcher. At first, she tries to convince Buttermaker that she has given up baseball, but he knows that’s bullshit. Buttermaker then recruits  the “best athlete in the area,” a cigarette-smoking, loan-sharking, motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent named Kelly Leak (played by Jackie Earle Haley).

Behind Amanda’s arm and Leak’s bat, the Bears start winning games. Eventually, they make it to the league championship game where they face the best team in the league, appropriately named the Yankees. Coached by the aggressive, competitive Roy Turner (played by Vic Morrow). As the game progresses, tensions are ratcheted up as Buttermaker and Turner engage in shouting matches, directing their players to become increasingly more ruthless, going as far as fighting, spiking on the slide, or batters deliberately being hit with pitches.

The turning point of the game comes after a heated exchange between Turner’s son (and Yankees pitcher) Joey and the Bears catcher Engelberg. Turner orders his son to walk Engelberg, the only Bears hitter he cannot overcome.  Joey doesn’t want to walk him, so he throws the next pitch directly at Engelberg’s head. He missed, but an enraged Turner goes to the mound and slaps Joey. On the next pitch, Engelberg hits a routine ground ball back to Joey who exacts revenge against his father by holding the ball until Engelberg rounded the bases. Joey then leaves the game, dropping the ball at his father’s feet.

At this point, Buttermaker realizes he’s forgotten what Little League baseball is all about, and has a genuine, albeit slightly misguided way of showing his team his appreciation. After they lose the championship to the Yankees, Buttermaker starts handing out beers from his cooler, and The Bad News Bears start spraying beer all over each other as if they had won.

The Hidden Sports Analogy:

The hardest part about doing a series called “Sports Analogies Hidden in Classic Movies” comes when the film being discussed actually centers on sports.  That’s because the analogies sometimes aren’t really hidden.

Trust me, as a guy who has coached youth baseball, the beauty of this movie is the Bad News Bears really exist. Understanding this requires a working knowledge of how Little League baseball actually works. Most of us really only know Little League from the annual World Series every August. Those teams you see in Williamsport, Pennsylvania are “all-star” teams comprised of the best players and coaches from an entire league. The Bad News News Bears represent the other end of the spectrum. Little League is all about participation, which means for every team of all-stars, there’s a team of Bad News Bears.

Likewise, you can find every kid from that movie on almost every Little League team in America. Start with “Amanda,” the girl who can out-pitch everybody…she’s rare, but she exists. On the other hand, you can find a “Tanner”almost anywhere…a little “Billy Martin” waiting to happen who is willing fight anybody anybody at the drop of a hat. There’s usually an “always talking, only backs it up sometimes”-type like Ahmad, much as there’s always the brainy “Stein” kid. As for the heart and soul of “participation,” there’s always a nose-picking little nerd-burger like “Lupus.” Finally, lots of teams have an “Engelbert,” a chunky catcher who can rip the cover off the ball. To lead them all, there’s the beer-guzzling, pool-cleaning coach Morris Buttermaker.

Granted, since this movie is forty-plus years old, the “Buttermaker” model of a manager had been largely replaces by the suburban, golf-shirt wearing “Dad” types.  But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed. I will tell you from first-hand experience that the sun around which every Little League revolves is Kelly Leak. That’s the kid you see every year in Williamsport, the kid who looks like he drove the team bus, smokes, and may already have two kids of his own. He’s got papers that say he’s 12 years old, and he keeps them right next to ones he uses when he buys beer. Your eyes go right to that kid because he’s taller than the coach and has more razor-stubble.

Your eyes also go right to that kid because nine times out of ten, he’s the best player on the diamond. In between his dirt bike and his Marlboros, he’ll put on the spikes, track down every ball in the outfield, and smack two or three out of the park. That’s the essential Kelly Leak; the kid who made the Bad News Bears respectable because not only was he the star, he added a major dose of “bad-ass.”

That’s because Leak was the definition of “man amongst boys.” He can lung a Marlboro, ride a motorcycle, and fire a strike to 3rd base from beyond the left field wall. This all begs a question. Usually in Little League, the best athletes do the pitching, so why the hell wasn’t Leak on the mound after Amanda has elbow trouble that probably got her a “Tommy John” surgery?

Instead, Buttermaker leaves Leak in LEFT FUCKING FIELD! He doesn’t even have him in center field where you would normally have your best outfielder and puts power-nerd Stein on the mound to lose the game. This never made any sense to me…and that’s coming from a guy who once upon a time may have been Engelbert, then may have grown up to be Buttermaker.

So, grab a beer kids…

Now, for a completely unsolicited, but quasi-related plug. When I’m not being the most interesting independent sports blogger on the web, Mrs. J-Dub and I enjoy traveling and staying in unique hotels. Well, there’s really no better use of the term “unique” than the City Hall Grand Hotel in the world’s capital of Little League Baseball, Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

J-Dub doing his Buttermaker impression in one of his favorite hotels.

If you ever find yourself in Williamsport, do yourself a favor and check out the City Hall Grand Hotel. It’s a very different experience, but it you’re willing to try something you’re not used to, you’re in for a reward. It’s called the City Hall Grand for a reason.  It’s in Williamsport’s 19th-century City Hall building.  At one point, when Williamsport was the logging capitol of the world, there were more millionaire’s per capita in his town than anywhere else on earth. This building is an example of that era.

Not only that, but it’s still also a functioning office building.  Yes that’s sounds strange at first, and it is.  There’s also no traditional front desk. Yes, that’s strange too.  But the experience outweighs the oddity; in fact it turns out to one of it’s greatest charms.  The rooms are tucked away in spots away from the offices, but you will encounter them on your travels through the building.  Bumping into somebody in a suit on their way to work (most of the office tenants are lawyers) is not uncommon, especially on the way to the common lounge to get some coffee.

But now that Williamsport is now known as the home of Little League baseball, the people are are terribly proud of their town and extremely friendly to tourists.  They want you to enjoy their town, and people staying at the City Hall will immediately notice that.  They will all ask you how your enjoying stay, tell you good places to eat and attractions to see beyond the baseball complex.

So, if you’re ever in the Williamsport area, do your self a favor and give this definition of unique a look.  Then go check out the Little League complex, then go up the hill and visit Clyde Peeling’s Reptile Land, During your stay, be sure to have breakfast at The Buttery Biscuit, dinner at Johnson’s Cafe, and take in some craft micro-brew at the The Bullfrog Brewery.

In the meantime, here’s some selected sights from Mrs. J-Dub’s and my most recent trip to Williamsport.

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The Moral of The Story:

Whether it’s having a juvenile delinquent as your left-fielder, or staying in a hotel made from a 19th-century American castle, getting outside the box has it’s rewards.

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Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies – Volume 65: “The Bad News Bears” Today's Movie: The Bad News Bears Year of Release: 1976 Stars: Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow…

[sorayahigashikata]

Chapter 13: "Death is coming!"