#ugh there's so much detail put into the new backgrounds TT

[vynegar]

luke 3rd birthday card, part one

happy (early) birthday, luke! this translation will be my way of celebrating this year :’) there are some really cute and touching moments in this card, and we get to see a lot of long-awaited sprites, so I hope you enjoy this card too!

disclaimer: this is a fan translation and i am not fluent in chinese, so keep in mind that there will be mistakes. feel free to let me know if you have questions, concerns, or comments.

do not repost without explicit permission. if you want to quote this or reference small parts of the translation, credit and link back to me.

check my masterlist for more translations.

timestamps go along with the card video here. it’s not mine, please support the uploader Axr by liking/commenting/subscribing.

Title: Heartwarming Memories (旧忆灼心)

[PART ONE]

[00:01] Luke’s House

The early morning sunlight was as thin as cicada wings as it passed through the gauze curtains, making the spotless kitchen counter shine dazzlingly bright. The television airing the morning news gave the warm morning a sense of everydayness. As I perused new styles of birthday cakes on my phone, I considered how to give Luke an unforgettable birthday.

MC: (After all, this is the first birthday after our relationship has changed. It needs to be special.)

Just as I was daydreaming, Luke put a piece of toast already slathered with jam on my plate in front of me.

Luke: What’s got you so lost in thought?

MC: I’m thinking about how we should celebrate, since it’s almost your birthday.

Luke’s face was the picture of surprise at my words.

Luke: Huh? It’s my birthday again already?

MC: Yup. Does the great detective Pearce have any ideas?

Luke: Having you at my side for my birthday is enough for me.

Luke spoke without even stopping to think, which actually made me realize some details I hadn’t noticed before. He would eagerly look forward to what birthday surprises I prepared for him, but he himself didn’t care all that much about it. It was as if for him, it wasn’t a day to celebrate his arrival to the world, but rather just a commemorative day to spend with me. Even Aaron, who usually cared about the most trivial things concerning Luke, would rarely offer to celebrate his birthday.

MC: Luke…

Luke: What?

MC: I want to know… What do you think about the day you were born?

Luke: Huh? Why are you asking that all of a sudden?

I couldn’t explain either why I was asking that, but I just had a sense  that deep down inside, Luke seemed to be deliberately avoiding that day.

MC: It’s nothing, I was just curious.

Right after I spoke, a news story interrupted our conversation.

Newscaster: According to reports, the suspect responsible for the recent series of burglaries in the Jia’nan District was finally arrested this morning. The suspect has confessed to committing over thirty burglaries over the past two weeks, typically selecting uninhabited houses to steal from…

The area mentioned in the new report just happened to be where my parents’ house was located, the home that Luke and I used to live in. My gaze was drawn toward the picture on the screen. The park that was being shown was one that Luke and I had often played at when we were kids.

MC: Isn’t that where we often used to go when we were kids?

Luke: Yeah. The thief seems to be targeting that area.

MC: We haven’t gone back in a while, and Mom and Dad’s house has been empty this whole time. Do you think…

It may have been the influence of the news, but I couldn’t help but start to worry about my parents’ house.

Luke: Don’t worry about it for now. I’ll go check over there later and change the locks while I’m at it, to put our minds at ease.

MC: Okay, be careful then.

Luke nodded, then my phone suddenly vibrated from where it was lying face-down on the counter.

MC: It’s Captain Morgan. He usually doesn’t call so late.

Luke: Go see what he has to say.

MC: Okay.

[phone call with private number]

MC: Captain Morgan, did something happen?

Darius seemed to be outside. From the other end of the call, I could hear the clamor of crowds and footsteps.

Darius: Lawyer MC, are you aware of the multiple burglary cases in Stellis these past two weeks?

MC: Yes, we saw it on the news just now. Apparently the suspect has been caught.

Darius: Right. According to his confession, your parents’ house in Jia’nan District was stolen from too.

MC: !!!

Darius: If you’re available, could you come right now and assess the damages? I’m currently at your parents’ house.

MC: Okay, we’ll head over.

Darius: Great, then I’ll see you soon.

[3:04] Parents’ House

An hour later, Luke and I had squeezed our way into the house with some difficulty, as quite a few onlookers were standing in the hallway. Darius greeted us when he saw us arrive and instructed his subordinates to disperse the crowd.

Darius: Go check inside, that guy searched through pretty much every place possible. It’s a bit messy in there. My colleagues have already collected evidence, so you guys just need to go in and check if anything’s missing.

I nodded and stepped past Darius into the house. Everywhere I looked was in a state of disarray after being searched through. Previously when I had moved, I had already stored all of our home’s valuables in a safe deposit box at the bank. The thief probably realized that too, and out of frustration had intentionally destroyed places that couldn’t have had anything stored in them.

Luke: Captain Morgan, how much do you know about the thief?

Darius: We currently think he’s a repeat offender who specifically targets houses that people haven’t lived in for a long time. Right now he’s being questioned at the station, but he’s pretty crafty with his words. He could be hiding something. So that’s why I asked you guys to come here to assess the damages – the quicker you find if anything’s stolen, the easier we can get it back.

Luke: Understood.

Luke glanced at the room that had been thrown into disorder, then turned to look back at Darius.

Luke: It’s too messy here. We’ll need to organize everything before we can check what’s missing.

Darius: I understand. I’ll leave with my team for now, and you guys organize and check everything as soon as you can. If you find anything missing, contact me immediately.

MC: Okay. Thank you, Captain Morgan.

Darius nodded at me then left with his subordinates. We closed the door and the house immediately quieted down. The only ones left were me and Luke, and the chaos all around us. Scattered across the floor were things that we had already forgotten about, such as our report cards and awards and even our baby teeth – things that were precious to us, but useless to the thief.

Luke: Let’s start organizing.

Luke rolled up his sleeves as he spoke, picking up a chair that was on the ground and bending down to pick up the “precious memories” scattered on the floor. Infected by his enthusiasm, I collected my thoughts as well and began to help him.

--

Time passed slowly. After who knows how long, Luke and I finally finished an inventory of everything.

MC: Whew! We’re finally done organizing.

Luke: Nice work. I don’t think anything’s missing, the thief was just searching blindly.

I nodded in agreement, but before I could relax, I suddenly remembered that we hadn’t checked the attic.

MC: Luke, we haven’t checked the attic yet, have we?

Luke: I don’t think so… let’s go up there right now.

MC: No need. We still need you to put these things from downstairs back where they were, so I’ll go check up there first.

Luke: That works. Call me if you need any help.

MC: Okay.

[5:25] Parents’ House Attic

Just as I expected, the attic hadn’t escaped the thief’s clutches either. Although it hadn’t been destroyed like downstairs had, the boxes that were originally in the storage room had all been searched through. Inside were practically all things from Luke and my time as students: toys, trading cards, notebooks… There was only one stood out among them. Unlike the other storage boxes that had paper labels, this one had Luke’s name written directly onto the box.

MC: This storage box…

As I gently ran my hand over the box, the memories came to me – this storage box was filled with things left behind by Luke’s parents. I recalled that when Luke had learned of his parents’ death, for a while his state of mind wasn’t that great. In order for him to adjust better, my parents had decided to follow a child psychiatrist’s suggestion to temporarily put away his parents’ things. However, back then I had felt that my parents had gone too far by putting them away, and gone to Luke about my indignation…

[flashback]

[6:01] Luke’s Bedroom

I quietly opened the door to Luke’s room.

MC: Luke, are you there?

Luke: You… why are you here?

Seeing that I was here, Luke hurriedly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

MC: I heard what Mom and Dad said to you. They don’t have the right to put away the things your parents left for you.

Luke: You…

Luke’s eyes were wide. He hadn’t expected me to eavesdrop on their conversation.

MC: Don’t be sad. I’ll help you get them back.

I was ready to go argue it out with my parents right there, but I was stopped by Luke.

MC: What’s wrong?

Luke: There’s no need. I think Dr. Li was right.

Dr. Li was the child psychiatrist who was treating Luke.

MC: Huh? But how? They took away your most important things…

Luke’s expression had been gloomy, but seeing my indignation, Luke couldn’t help but smile.

Luke: I’m already in a new family, so I should say goodbye to Mom and Dad for now and focus on my life in the present. If I stay stuck in the past, it wouldn’t be good for me, or for you and your parents.

MC: Luke…

Maybe because he could feel my concern, Luke deliberately gave a bright smile.

Luke: It’s fine! I know you’re doing this for my sake, I’m happy. You don’t need to worry about those things anymore. Your parents promised to give them to me when I’m an adult. I’m just looking at them a bit later. Besides, some of those things I wouldn’t even understand at this age.

MC: But do you really not want to look at all?

I saw Luke’s stubbornness, and I asked again in dissatisfaction.

Luke: Nope, I don’t want to look right now.

Luke answered resolutely, as if he were trying to convince himself along with me.

Luke: It’s really late. We should sleep, or else your parents will get worried.

MC: Yeah…

[end flashback]

[7:52]

We had grown up in the blink of an eye, and now I could probably understand Luke’s feelings back then. It wasn’t that he didn’t miss his own parents, he was just too responsible, too considerate of others…

Luke: MC, whatcha thinking about?

Luke’s voice woke me from my memories.

MC: Nothing. Is everything tidied up downstairs?

Luke: Yup, everything’s back where it’s supposed to be. How are things here?

MC: It’s alright, he just searched through all the storage boxes.

As I spoke, I pushed the box with Luke’s name written on it towards him, carefully observing his expression.

MC: Do you still remember this box?

Luke looked down at the box with his name written on it, pain flashing in his eyes. Then he nodded as if nothing had happened.

Luke: Of course I remember. Back then, your parents were worried that I’d wallow in grief over my parents’ death, so they put away everything that had to do with them. They promised to give them back to me once I was an adult. Unfortunately, I went to the capitol later and never had the chance.

Luke downplayed what had happened those years as if he was already completely at ease about it, but there was no way that pain in his eyes was just my imagination. I patted the storage box and looked at Luke.

MC: Then this is the perfect chance. Do you want to open it up now?

Luke hand stopped as it was stroking the box, the smile fading from his expression.

Luke: There’s no need. It’s not necessary anymore.

[END PART ONE]

[PART TWO]

[bestworstcase]

farran rereads lost lagoon: chapters 16-17

back at it.

re: romance novel: “I saw a patch of red flowers, and I thought they would be striking against Cass’s dark hair. She wasn’t exactly a flower wearer, but maybe she’d let me pin one on her dress? The color would set off her fair skin so perfectly. And she could at least keep some in a vase by her bed. I refused to believe there was a person alive who didn’t feel better with freshly cut flowers in her room.” that’s gay rapunzel

i do admittedly have some ambivalent feelings about this passage. on the one hand it’s - yes, very gay. but also it feels to me like such a clear illustration of the difficulty rapunzel has with empathy and listening to other people when their experiences or expectations or needs diverge from hers; she acknowledges that cass isn’t into flowers, but follows it up with “but maybe i can get her to wear some anyway,” and of course there’s the whole refusing to believe anyone could feel differently about having flowers in their room than she does. and it also has this weird undercurrent of - god, i don’t know how to phrase it in a succinct way.

this specific passage was on my mind when i wrote this bit in moonless air chapter 4: 

Still. She plucks at the stitches of her jack-of-plate, self-conscious.

It’s the nicest thing she owns. Soft green velvet sewn over sturdy layers of canvas and steel. Armor. She’d saved up for more than a year to buy it for herself on the anniversary of her adoption two years ago, and at the time it had been nothing but a frivolous luxury. Stupid, really. She’d never had real reason to wear it in Herzingen, not for anything besides teaching herself how to move with its weight and entertaining ridiculous fantasies—but last night, Moira had intimated that their destination in Vardaros is fancy as well as dangerous. So the jack seemed… appropriate.

Sharp. She twitches.

Clothing—fashion isn’t– Cassandra’s always hated dresses. It’s a trait that demands a certain amount of indifference to what other people think of her appearance.

And she can do indifference. Cassandra has indifference in spades. But nobody’s ever paid her a compliment quite like that before: baldly appreciative. Straightforward. Not like all the times Rapunzel coaxed her into tolerating crowns of late-summer flowers because the colors look so nice with your complexion! and not like the Commander’s gruff praise for how grown-up she looked in the hideous pastel gowns that had come with the lady-in-waiting gig.

because – like, cass is butch, and “not a flower wearer,” and here in lost lagoon we have this passage where rapunzel expresses this pretty straightforward attraction to cassandra but in the context of imagining cassandra presenting in a much more feminine way than she is comfortable with - in a dress with flowers in her hair etc - and it just... rubs me the wrong way a little bit. and this is not to say like cass can’t be butch and put a flower in her hair but when it’s paired with rapunzel specifically acknowledging that cass doesn’t WANT to wear flowers then it - yeah i feel weird about this passage. 

and that translated into cass having a whole little crisis over being complimented for her appearance without implicit pressure to be more feminine for the first time ever

anyways

i still can’t get over the name monsieur lefleur 

rapunzel summarizes hervanian culture as “brash but can be funny; distrustful but not mean-spirited” so, basically, they are americans

she is feeling very Prepared to meet with them, in contrast to every other time she’s met with foreign dignitaries or nobility before this. eugene tries to warn her that cass is PISSED with her and she just brushes him off, as one does, by saying that cass is “not all bubbles and moonbeams” but that she is “a softy” inside. 

of course this leads up to cass blowing up and going off while rapunzel tries to calm her down and just - groan this line. 

“People don’t change! You told a criminal a detail that puts my entire future at risk!”

how many times have i said “cass doesn’t act this way in tts” i feel like it’s a constant drumbeat. but i have to say, again, that cass doesn’t act this way in tts. i don’t think it’s unrealistic for her to think like this, given that her father is essentially corona’s chief of police and she idolizes him, but i feel the need to reiterate that there is zero sign of cass having this mindset in tts proper. and it does sort of bother me when people read this into cass’s character because it undermines and delegitimizes her dislike of eugene in early s1. 

which like. tts itself sort of frames their mutual dislike as a mutual problem, but it’s... really not? and imo the best illustration of this is in this exchange from cassandra vs eugene: 

CASSANDRA: Unbelievable. Did you eat all the cookies?

EUGENE: I’m not a pig, Cassandra. I ate all of your cookies; I’m saving mine for later.

CASSANDRA: Ugh– you are nothing but a self-serving, inconsiderate, arrogant freeloader!

EUGENE: [scoffing] You know, I can rattle off insulting adjectives describing your personality, too, but to do so would imply that you actually have a personality, and I just wouldn’t feel right about doing that!

this is the dynamic every time they squabble in early s1. 

1 - eugene does something selfish or thoughtless - in this case taking all the cookies and milk for himself. 

2 - cassandra calls him out for it, and he doubles down, often taking a potshot at her in the process. 

3 - cassandra gets mad and calls his behavior what it is (self-serving, inconsiderate, arrogant)

4 - eugene gets defensive and insults her as a person, typically with variations on calling her icy / unfeeling / humorless / joyless. 

which is to say, their fights are initiated by eugene’s poor behavior, and cassandra attacks his behavior but eugene attacks cassandra herself. like, eugene is the dude who insults you and then goes “pfft why can’t you take a joke” when you get upset with him. that’s what this is. 

moreover, when eugene’s, for lack of a better term, residual flynn rider-ness starts to taper off, cassandra’s criticism of his behavior also tapers off, AND she gets much gentler about how she phrases this criticism once he starts to actually take it on board. but there’s no accompanying shift in the way eugene speaks to and about her - the jibes about her being humorless or cranky or soulless literally never stop and at no point does he ever seem to consider that cass might not appreciate them as much as he thinks she does. 

(to be clear, i don’t think they bother cass very much if at all - but they do create and reinforce a perception on eugene’s end that cass Doesn’t Have Feelings and the background radiation of that contributes to the toxicity that develops in season 2.)

like again, pulling from cassandra vs eugene here, eugene is extremely insulting towards cassandra even when he’s ostensibly coming to her defense: 

RANDOM THUG: Look at that, Fancy-Boots has got something to say!

EUGENE: Name-calling? Come on, we’re better than that, aren’t we? Sure, we could sit here and make fun of each other—tease Cassandra for her chronic joylessness, or me for my uncommonly good looks, or you for your poor dental hygiene, tragic fashion sense, robust body odor, and what are clearly woefully misguided decision making skills, but do you really want to go down that road?

ALL OF WHICH IS TO SAY - besides demonstrating an obvious willingness to give eugene another chance once he starts doing the bare minimum to not be a dick to her, cassandra doesn’t like eugene because eugene is an asshole to her and takes the enormous privileges he is given completely for granted. 

saying “well she doesn’t like him because he was a criminal and she doesn’t believe criminals ever change” erases that completely and reframes the conflict as cassandra treats eugene unfairly because of bigotry that she needs to unlearn. lost lagoon takes this even one step further in that lost lagoon eugene is genuinely trying to be responsible, he is taking his new lot in life seriously. he doesn’t need cass to tell him off for acting like an ass because he doesn’t act like an ass. he shows actual interest in getting to know cass and makes an effort to break through her hostility in order to get along. unlike his tts counterpart, lagoon eugene really doesn’t do anything wrong, and that makes cassandra’s intense hatred of him on the grounds that he was a thief look completely irrational and, like i said, bigoted. 

it’s just very frustrating to me.

anyways

rapunzel tries very hard to persuade cass that it’s actually totally fine that she told eugene the secret because she just can’t keep secrets from eugene (except the lagoon which she has arbitrarily decided is totes fine to keep secret and i am pretty sure this contradiction never gets pointed out) - and cass is having none of it, and of course arianna interrupts before anything can get resolved. 

they rush out and monsieur lefleur interrupts them, asking questions about the lost lagoon. he reveals that he heard an ~elegant cloaked person~ inquiring about it in the library. he asks for the book. they say no. the red herring smells to high heavens, and the chapter ends with rapunzel subtly telling cass to hide the book ~for the safety of the kingdom~ and oh my god i just can’t handle the low stakes. 

seventeen picks up from there with cassandra’s point of view; she’s suspicious of lefleur and angsts a lot about how she has no time to train and she needs to get out of corona yada yada. her plan is literally to just walk until she finds someone to hire her on as a guard which. lol. this kid.

i feel like this is the strongest passage in the whole book: 

She said there couldn’t be any secrets between Eugene and her. But why—especially when it meant sacrificing my future and everything I held dear? I’d read about romantic love in poems, and it seemed to me like a spell. Sounded great for the lovebirds, but what about the other people.

Did I just not matter in the face of this love, even though I had been the one to risk everything to show Rapunzel the world? Was I just supposed to fall on my sword because Eugene was uncomfortable that he didn’t have every last piece of information about Rapunzel?

she has a brief argument with owl, who is a pretty obvious stand-in for her own doubts / feeling that she truly belongs in corona and doesn’t actually want to leave. but she has no choice! but it’s stormy, so she can’t leave! oh no!

(i think if tts really strongly felt she had no choice but to free corona, a measly thunderstorm would not be enough to stop her.)