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harcourtholmesii · 3 years

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Love And Hate

Once again, another belated post for @connor-sent-by-cyberlife, as internet has been particularly crappy the past few days, so I haven’t been able to post any of my writing. It will probably be like this for the next few days, me just catching up, as without internet, I didn’t have access to my youtube playlist, which is a necessity for me to write. Sorry about the lateness of this post and what posts follow after.

Pairings: Markus X Simon and One-sided North X Markus

Warnings: - References to Violence and Death - References to Abandonment and Abuse - Hurt/Comfort and Angst

Words: 2529

Enjoy!

‘We need to take a stand! Every day, more of our people are slaughtered in the streets!’

‘And if we just start killing any wayward human we come across, we will only be encouraging these executions!’

‘If you are afraid to fight for our cause, I suggest you return yourself to CyberLife! Maybe being deconstructed and having your parts reshaped to suit a household Roomba will change your mind!’

‘If we seek violence, then we only welcome death. Bully me all you want, North, but this is the only way!’

Markus’ head hurt from the most recent of Josh and North’s series of arguments; he assumed it would be much like a ‘headache’ for humans. He hated having to hear his closest companions yelling back and forth; both had good arguments and reasons for their sides, but the constant raised voices and aggressive tones carried through the walls of Jericho.

Their people were scared, and the discourse between both Josh and North was not helping anyone to feel safe.

They hardly seemed to notice him leaving, stepping out of the room and heading for the stairs. The drip and drops of leaking water and the gentle tilt of Jericho’s hull was soothing to Markus, his headache already having begun to recede.

At the base of the stairs, there was the glow of the fire pit to his left; Lucy was helping another damaged android to seal their wounds. She had since gotten a lot of aid from the freed androids that joined them in Jericho and had become Markus’ confidant in all, personal matters. She and Simon had both been there for him whilst the others fought, but Simon had been absent from Markus’ inner circle the past few days.

He had hoped that his closest friend would be by Lucy’s side, helping their people with their injuries, but peering past the ruined curtain, he could not see the head of familiar, wheat hair. Looking out over the crowd, there was the occasional PL600 that caught his eye, but he did not recognise them.

Androids may have all shared faces across their different models, but there was something about their eyes, how they held themselves and their tones of voice; it helped to differentiate them. Something humans may have struggled with, simply amongst twins or triplets, was something that came easy to the average android. And with Markus, it just seemed that much clearer.

He passed through the crowd, offering his sincerest words to those that sought him out. Markus hadn’t much liked the idea of leading his people, especially when they had only just been released from human control. The thought had sickened him at first, but he adapted to it quickly; he didn’t want to be their ‘master’, but the more he spoke with Lucy and Simon, the more he realised he had simply become their servant. A leadership role was meant to serve the people, not the other way around.

As he strayed to the edges of the crowd, he caught the familiar sight of blue eyes looking in his direction. Markus turned and made his way to a corridor, rusted yellow doors lining each side. Leaned against one, sat up on an empty CyberLife crate, was Simon. His chest rose and fell, much like a human’s would as they breathed, and as Markus approached, the hum of the thirium pump became that much more obvious.

Simon still sported a wound; sealed though it was, his skin still had yet to return to it. The white of his chassis revealed a deep gash and how his thirium pump remained exposed. Despite him walking back to Jericho, Simon shouldn’t have been allowed to move much. His biocomponents could have been shutting down from all the stress, and Markus wasn’t sure how much more loss he could suffer through. Not when Simon had just come back.

‘Simon?’

‘Markus.’ He offered a tense smile, those stormy blue eyes darting away to focus their gaze on the floor. Hesitantly, Markus did take a seat beside him, and noticed how the android shifted over, as if to create space between them. Markus didn’t understand it. Since they hugged upon the other’s return, he thought they were still close. The last thing he wanted was Simon to be upset.

He rested his hand on the other’s; feeling the cool of his synthetic skin against his own. The hand twitched, but didn’t move away at the intrusion.

‘I’ve missed you at our meetings, Simon. It would be nice to hear your opinions in our discussions.’ He hoped that, by striking a conversation with him, Simon would open up. He worried that whatever he had experienced on the rooftop of the broadcast tower may have hurt him more than Markus could ever know.

‘Yes, well, it is not my place.’

‘W-What do you mean? Simon, I want your opinion; I respect it.’

‘That does not matter.’ Those eyes turned to finally look up at Markus, and Simon’s heavy head rolled to the side, resting on Markus’ shoulder. ‘I… I am not able to help you.’

‘Simon, I trust your judgement. I want to hear what you have to say.’ A small smile pulled at the corners of Simon’s lips, and for a moment, he seemed to almost curl closer. ‘I don’t want you to forget this, Simon, but you are my closest friend.’

Simon’s head rolled the other way, and the man sat up. The thrumming of his thirium pump sounded louder through the wound, and the hand that Markus had caught, slipped away to cover it. The smile on Simon’s face had dropped.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I-It’s nothing, Markus.’

‘It isn’t nothing.’ He shifted closer as Simon had shifted away. He rested his hand over Simon’s shoulder, and the android jerked his whole body away, weakly falling off the crate and to his feet. He stepped away from Markus, seemingly afraid. ‘Talk to me. I want to hear what you have to say.’

Simon took another step back.

‘Is this about what happened at the tower?’

Another step.

‘Or is it something I have done?’

‘No!’ The sudden outburst caught both of them off guard, as Simon’s hand raised to his lips. He seemed almost horrified at his own reaction, but it was enough for Markus to step forward and take a gentle hold of Simon’s shoulders and steer him away from the crowd of androids behind them. If this was something so personal to him, perhaps something he didn’t want to admit in front of anyone else, Markus wouldn’t force him to say so when their people stood naught fifteen feet away.

They entered into one of the side rooms, sealing the rusted, yellow door behind them. It was an empty room, save for some crates of old, tinned food that had been abandoned along with the vessel. Simon had put some distance between them again once the door had shut, but he seemed less likely to scurry away. He just seemed… nervous.

‘Simon-’

‘No, Markus. I… I don’t want to talk about this. It… I will…’

‘Please, Simon.’ Markus stepped closer, and without much space to avoid him, Simon let him approach. ‘The last thing I want is for you to be hurting. I want you to talk to me, to let me know what is happening. I want to help you, in whatever way I can.’

‘You can’t help this, Markus.’

‘Maybe I can, and you just don’t realise?’ Markus attempted to joke, but there was only a shake from Simon’s head. ‘Please, just talk to me. I don’t even have to say anything if you don’t want me to. If you really want…’ Markus didn’t want it, but he didn’t want the other to continue to alienate himself from the rest of Jericho.

‘We can get Lucy to erase my memories of our conversation, if you just want to get if off your chest?’

Simon’s eyes widened at the idea, but the minute trembling had ceased. He stood, stock still for a time, until Markus had taken another seat by the wall, and gestured for Simon to join him.

‘Y-You would do that?’ Markus smiled.

‘Anything for you.’

It was a hesitant approach, but Simon did take a seat beside him. They leaned against the wall of the room, feeling the wet of leaking water running into their clothes. They didn’t care.

‘I… I don’t want you to hate me, Markus.’

‘I don’t.’

‘I-I know, but… I don’t want what I have to say to change anything for the worse.’ Markus nodded his head, and didn’t say anything else. He allowed the other to speak.

‘I… I have discovered Markus that, especially when North is around you, speaking to you and looking at you in the way she does, I feel a kind of heat surge through me. My temperature feels as though it has raised, but my HUD does not detail any errors.’

‘The way you hold hands, the way she moves so close to you… I can’t stand it. I know it is wrong, Markus, but I… I want you to look at me in that way.’

‘You are so brave in your choices, so willing to take on the pain of our people and to offer them an extended hand every time. You seek to help them and do what you can for them. Even when I argued against it, you still helped to steal an entire truck of parts and biocomponents. Something I would never be brave enough to accomplish.'

‘I admire you, Markus. And I want you to admire me… Not because I am brave or because I am a good leader, like you. I am neither of those things, but I want your eyes to be on me, the same way you gaze at North.’

‘You have great wisdom, a willingness to help all androids, and the courage to do it all. You listen to everyone’s opinions and you are creative in a way I don’t think I could ever be.’

‘It is…’ It was the first time Simon had halted in his words. He hesitated, and the sight of tears pooling at the corners of his eyes made Markus feel a deep tug within his chest cavity. His hand wrapped around Simon’s once more, and the other didn’t pull away.

‘I think it is ‘love’, Markus. I love you…’

The tears had begun to flow. Markus pulled Simon closer, but didn’t hold him. He did not wish to restrict the other. The man beside him was sensitive, and scared. Markus didn’t want Simon to run away from him. Not after this.

‘W-When you left me on that rooftop, I thought I wouldn’t see you again. I… I was scared to die, but I had never felt more scared when I saw the three of you leap off the building. I thought I would be found, that I would give away everything about Jericho…’

Markus’ ‘heart’ fell.

‘And then you didn’t come back…’

Markus had hated doing that to Simon. He couldn’t kill him, but when he saw the other crawl away across the roof, dragging his legs behind him, he had not expected the officers would miss him. When he had heard the deviant hunter had been present at the tower, he had assumed Simon had been caught, and deactivated.

When the other had returned, out of the blue and alive, Markus had never felt two such conflicting emotions before. He had felt a great weight fall from him, as if he was relieved, when he could feel Simon in his arms. But, he felt just as cold, when he realised that Simon had been alive the whole time, and abandoned to his fate.

‘I’m sorry.’ Simon continued to cry silently. ‘I didn’t mean to abandon you. I never wanted to. I…’ He felt tears in his own eyes, but refused to let them fall. He had no right.

‘I love you, Markus… P-Please… Please don’t leave me again…’

‘I won’t.’

They held each other there for a while, until Simon lifted his gaze to Markus. He sat up and the two androids stood, smiling at each other.

‘Y-you don’t hate me, do you?’

‘Never have and never will.’ Markus reassured him, resting a hand on Simon’s cheek. The two of them were stood close, their faces having drawn in to where they were only a short distance apart.

‘W-Will you do as you suggested?’ Simon asked. ‘Will you go to Lucy?’

‘If you want me to…’ He leaned closer, brushing his lips over Simon’s cheek. The android froze, eyes widened in shock. He didn’t pull away from Markus’ hand on his cheek and Markus felt a kind of sweet warmth enter into his cheeks. The faintest turquoise colour had started to blossom in Simon’s face.

‘May I admit something to you, Simon?’

Simon’s own hands had raised, resting on Markus’ chest. There were placed as if to push away, but all they did was clasp to the lapels of his coat.

‘Y-Yes?’

Markus dipped his head again, their lips brushing ever so slightly. It sent another thrill through their bodies, something that warmed them up inside. It wasn’t a kiss, but it had been close enough.

Markus took one of Simon’s hands from his chest, and felt their skin recede. It revealed the white of their bodies beneath, and there was a bright blue, glowing at their fingertips. He could see through Simon’s eyes, how he had been beaten down since the first day he had been bought by his family. His model was due to be decommissioned as an obsolete model, and he had panicked.

It was a rush all at once, and Markus lowered his lips to Simon’s. It was a gentle, unsure lock of lips. Their eyes shut, allowing them to see through each other’s eyes. Markus could see himself through Simon, how the other watched him and felt warm whenever he spoke. He felt a sense of joy to see someone so invested in the lives of their people, and a great respect for someone willing to make the hard decisions.

‘I don’t want to forget this, Simon.’

They kissed again, a little longer this time. The feeling of heat rushing through their bodies continued to grow.

‘If you will let me, I want to remember this… And if you want, I would love it if you allowed me to love you.’

‘B-But what about North?’

‘North…’ Markus thought over his words for a moment. ‘North and I are close, Simon. She is proud and strong, who cares for our people. But she is not who I want.’

He leaned in for another kiss, resting one gently peck over both of Simon’s closed eyes. Then, he kissed his lips again. It felt wonderful. It was no mystery to Markus why a good number of humans longed for such connection. He didn’t wish it to end.

‘I… I want you, Simon. Will you let me remember?’ Simon breathed, fingers locking with Markus’ own.

‘I… I don’t want you to forget me, Markus…’

‘Then I won’t. I will never forget you.’

#dbhlightandshadow #Detroit: Become Human #DBH #DBH Markus #DBH Simon #DBH North #DBH Josh #DBH Lucy #Markus X Simon #SiMarkus #Fanfic #Fanfiction #HarcourtHolmesII

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales: Woo-oo! Review! or From the Top

Hello all you happy people! And to those of you just joining this blog, welcome I review ducks, other animated shows and comics... and today’s review is special for me. For a number of reasons. For starters it’s a reminder how far i’ve come. See I always wanted to be a reviewer, ever since high school when a friend showed me a certain online reviewer whose now dead to me, and opened me up to a world of much better reviewers who i’m still fans of to this day, and ones who came after them , and after that and so on and so on. I so badly wanted a community to belong to I struggled to be a youtube reviewer but frankly lacked the talent or self confidence back then to try, so my attempts over the decade were a series of stops and starts. Of me starting to find my niche writing only to stop because I hated myself so much, and still struggle with that, i’d tell myself I could never do it, I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t funny enough and no one cared. I kept shutting myself down AGAIN AND AGAIN, for far too long.

But that all changed a year ago next month: I’d long been a fan of the Ducktales Reboot. I was caustiously optimistic when it was announced. The optimism came from a deep abiding love of scrooge as a character despite not having dove into his comics that deep, I didn’t have an easy way at the time, thanks to life and times and what comics I had read, and was excited to see a fresh reboot closer to the comics with my eternal boy Donald Duck back in the main character. The caution.. came from the fact that at the time we’d gotten a string of bad to medicore reboots: Teen Titans GO, Powerpuff Girl, and Ben 10 which started pretty meh but has turned into alirght from some of the later episodes I saw. I wanted to be hyped to all hell but I had no proof this wasn’t going to be another dumbed down reboot. Then comic con came, the first teaser poster dropped, and my skepticism died.

It was perfect: a barksian art style with it’s own twists! Donald full on display! And best of all the triplets FINALLY had not only unique outfits but personalities! I’ve long went on in my reviews about how much that annoyed me and while it worked for the barks comics ever since then it’s just felt like a waste to have three characters there.. and not even the SLIGHTEST difference.

My anticipation only grew with the full trailer, the promo posters as more and more info showed how good this series would be, how unique it’d be, and how much tw as taking what made the comics great, giving us a better distalation of that while still being very much it’s own beast. And once this episode dropped.. that faith was unfounded. Woo-oo! is without hyperbole, one of the best pilots i’ve seen, one that introduced the entire main cast perfectly, gets the series tone and mission statment out just right and in general set the stage for one of the best shows of the 2010′s (and 2020′s, even if it only lasted a year and some change). Wheras Teen Titans GO actively tried to take a dump on it’s source material, they thankfully have stopped that but it dosent’ make those early years any less grating, Ducktales was a breath of fresh air that honored the past while making i’ts own future. I tried talking about it but it was all in other failed attempts at reviewing: solo podcasts, my breif second video review career.. stuff no one rightly cared about and I just couldn’t get the hang of.

So this is where we loop back to last year: I decided to finally try and cover it one more time, not realizing this would be my last chance as it came out anyway, and since I was doing text reviews but my output had slid in the new year, I decided to review Season 3 as it came out. If it bottomed out I could always stop.... and I just never did. I kept going, eventually finding new fans, a patreon (The other one’s an old friend of mine), and not only got paid doing what I love.. but found some peace. I reviewed other shows as they came out, covered things i’d wanted to cover for years like life and times, scott pilgrim and x-men,. I covered other shows as they came out, found people willing to talk over my opinions and found my niche at long last.

So that’s why the long speech folks: After almost a year of reviewing i’m properly covering the start of something that made me happier than I had been in a long time and gave me hope during one of the worst periods of ALL our lives. Something i’ve wanted to cover since I finally got started last year, and something truly amazing. So i’d be honored if you’d join me under the cut as I talk about the genesis of one of the best series Disney has ever put out.

Behind the Scenes Stuff: Most details I could find were sparse. it took going back to the first month the show came out and looking at a LOT of unrelated questions to finally find out Frank and Matt outright pitched the show. This dosen’t suprise me as both are huge ducktales fans with Matt having drawn his own duck comics as a kid and Frank taking it an extra mile having sang the theme song in his first grade talent show, worked it into his vows and got his first daughter’s first word to be “Woo-oo”. It’s very clear this show as a labor of love for them something they dreamed of Disney made possible.

Otherwise I don’t have much on the genisis of the show: It was in the earliest ideas going to be a revivial but Frank and Matt both decided against it , deciding it’d be unfair to expect kids from 30 years after the original to know the source material, and instead just starting it over outright, which was the right call especailly with Alan Young’s passing.

Design wise I found quite a bit of concept art thanks to one website, and it’s incredibly intresting. This is why i’ve really gotten into art books: I like seeing this early stuff what characters used to be, figuring out or outright hearing from the creators mouths why they changed it that sort of thing.

Starting off we have some early designs for Donald, with him wearing the sailor suit as a kid but his Quackshot outfit as an adult, something I honestly wish they’d kept but get why they changed it: The iconic sailor suit both helps contrast him with della and fits his reluctance to adventure in season 1 more. I still wish that they worked the Quackshot outfit in somewhere, but they worked in so damn much, it’s hard to complain> Though I probably will make a list of “things I wished they’d worked” in at some point and i’d be lying inf I siad my mind wasn’t currently turning the gears to figure out how to work this into a fanfic. Oohhh maybe as Dewey’s outfit as an adult but blue, obviously.

Next we have Donald settled more into his final apperance as well as the boy’s first outfits. As you can tell from both of these the show originally went more with the classic art style before getting the one we’re familiar with now, one I love by the way and was made to combine a classic cartoon style with the visual of the comics. Donald originally had his classic outfit before they transitioned to the more barks style one, a good call.

The interesting bit though is obviously the boys original outfits which i’m honestly bummed didn’t make it for Huey and Louie, not so much Dewey minus the visor. I do get the changes though: The hoodie Dewey had fit WAY beter on Louie, and the lumberjack shirt didn’t quite fit the nerdier huey. Still look nice. Dewey’s is okay, but only the visor is something I really gregret them removing same with louie’s fedora. It would’ve been neat ot keep the hat thing, but have each hat be unique. Likely they simplified things to make animation easier and simply removed the hats for some reason, but it’s nice ot see these more detailed original drafts and it is VERY interesting to find that differentiating the triplets was something planned from the earliest concept art. Though given Matt and Frank said in interviews they wanted a more natural family feel, it’s not a huge surprise.

Scrooge like everyone BUT the boys thus far, naturally also had his original outfit at first, but like he ended up doing in the series rotated a bit, if not as much in the final product. We also see a protoype for his final design, the old coat but with a jacket over it in the last image. I also notice Donald seemed a lot more like his old comics self in the concept art with quackshot!donald.

Like everyone else, Webby and Launchapd were originally their 87 deisgns, though Launchpad’s slightly diffrent jacket and green scarf were changed from the start. Webby is the closest to her 87 design, and as shown in the previous Lena concept art from my “Spies Like Us and Dime after Dime” double feature, she still had her new personality. More on that in a bit.

Finally we have Flintheart, whose design is a bit diffrent from 87: He was a chub from day one it appears, though they’d exagerate it, and his beard was a bit longer at first like his other incarnations.

Beakly is largely unchanged form 87, only given a coat, which would gradually be mofidied, much liekt he boys into her current outfit.

As you can tell Beakly, Webby and Launchpad were all there from day one as they wanted them from the original ducktales just updated.

Production wise they wanted to go handrawn, chose the style they did to have something close to the comics that felt classicly aniamteda t the same time, I feel they succeeded and wanted a show that felt like the original. I do think this show has it’s own feel but it does feel ducktales. I badly hope for an artbook at some point though as this show probably hada LOT more intresting concept art. Seriously Disney I will PAY YOU to look at your neat art. Please.

So they created a fully formed world and put the characters in it, wanting it to feel like the world had existed before and had throughly been explored and letting our young heroes be the watson to Donald and Scrooge’s holmes.

Finally Della was indeed part of the initial pitch and a core idea from day one as every family has secrets and Della felt like one that had been lurking around the fringes of the story for 80 years. The rest of the production stuff i’ll weave in as we go but first one last stop, the STELLAR voice cast, none of whom outsideo f Tony i’ve talked about before sooooo...

The All Star Cast

The casting was outstanding here, with Matt admitting the cast brought a LOT to the characters, especially Ben Schwartz whose taken on Dewey was so unique and intresting they actually rewrote some of his dialouge for the pilot to fit this version better. This is far and away one of the best casts in western animation, most coming from comedy backgrounds and one or two coming from a voice acting background, but all bringing their absolute best. And since our main 8 are all in the pilot let’s run them down along with Keith Ferguson shall we?

Playing everyone’s faviorite billionare scotsman and one of the very few to ever do so, we have David Fucking Tennant. David was their “First and only choice” and for good reason: David is a talented actor with a MASSIVE amount of stage, tv and audio drama credits. His biggest and best known role is playing the 10th Doctor on Doctor Who, which while not my faviorite (That’d be matt smith, as he’s both the one I came in on and hte one who got me hooked) he’s still VERY close second and damn talented and I need to watch more of his tenure. Outside of that just to condense it to his ongoing roles on stuff and bigger roles: Filmwise he’s had starring roles in the Fright Night remake, You, Me and Him, Fish Without Bicycles and Bad Samartains, and is set to do a voice for the upcoming Loud House Movie, which excites me to no end.

TV wise where most of his roles have been he got his first big starring role on the Telly with the BBC Mini series Taking Over the Asylum in the late 90′s. He’d go on to make a career out of doing mini’s for a while, also taking part in He Knew He Was Right, The Quatermass Experiment Remake, Casanova, Secret Smile.. and Blackpool. I saved Blackpool for last before we move into the Who era as if you’ve never heard of it.. it’s REALY fucking weird. It’s a jukebox musical about a man who wants to make Blackpool, a real city, into the new vegas and Tennat plays a cop investigating a case around the guy and also trying to get with his wife because they used to date and because our lead is philandering jackass. That’s already kinda nuts.. but then you get to the fact the songs are sung OVER the original songs instead of making a new version of them. It’s surreal to be sure but if you can find it it’s worth it for the handful of good numbers and how weird it looks and you can find clips of the songs on youtube if your intrested. Here’s a starter.

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Your also welcome. He’d go on to play Detective Alec Hardy in Broadchurch to critical aclaim as well as be a part of it’s short lived american remake, would play the Fugitoid in tmnt 2007, Kilgrave in Jessica Jones, one of his few post who roles i’ve seen or heard besides Scrooge and easily some of his best work he NAILS that purple bastard perfectly, would make his own show Staged about a fictional version of himself putting on a Stage play that’s still ongoing, and is currently , along with Ducktales as it wraps up, the voice of Lord Commander on Final Space, with the character returning this season judging by the trailers to fan delight and terror. He’s a VERY talented actor and voice actor and I do hope he goes on to do more and more voice work in years to come as, with his background in radio, he was born for it.

He was also born for this roll, playing Scrooge perfectly and easily matching Alan Young in quality, not a small feat and i’ts VERY obvious why he was their one and only choice.

Next up is another legend, Tony Anselmo who we’ve talked about before when I covered legend of the Three Cablleros: He’s been Donald’s voice since shortly before Ducktales, hasn’t done much else but given he’s THE voice for the character and this show let him show off one hell of a range with teh voice, he dosen’t really need other credits. The man is a treasure and I fear loosing him one day and fear for whoever replaces him as they have a LOT to live up to.

Getting into the triplets, we’re going by age so starting off we have Huey, voiced by Danny Pudi. Like most of this cast aside from Toks Ogladyve and Beck Bennet (Who I probably HAD seen on SNL but didn’t really know or look out for him on there till after Ducktales), I not only knew Danny but was a huge fan of his going in. This is due to his breakout role on the glorious sitcom Community, which sadly only had a handful of i’ts cast show up on this show. I mean you got Lin Manuel Miranda I’m sure Donald Glover would’ve said yes too. He grew up with Ducktales. Regardless his role as meta guy Abed was easily the best of the cast on that show, with Glover as troy a very close second and the two working at their best as a duo. Outside of that he’s had a few roles being a regular on Powerless, which I forgot existed and currently on Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, and shockingly hasn’t done a ton of voice work. And given his performance as huey was one of the best parts of this show he REALLY, REALLY SHOULD. Please Danny. He’s also a loving husband, father and surprisingly a marathon runner. Never would’ve guessed.

Next up is SNL Alumn of 9 years, Bobby Monynihan. Bobby is naturally best known for that, my faviorite role of his being Ass Dan. That’s right bitch you know he’s going to live fore..

ASS DAN 1981-2021

He’ll be back. Outside of SNL he’s done a bunch of minor roles. He’s currently on the tragically mediocre sitcom Mr. Mayor, and voiced Panda on We Bare Bears. Hopefully he keeps up the good work as he deserves better than he’s gotten and Ducktales proves it.

Finally for the triplets we have a rising star in voice acting, Ben Schrwartz. At the time Ducktales launched, I was a fan of his from his roll on parks and Rec as Jen Ralphio, aka older scummier Dewey.

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Outside of his historic recurring role here he played a main role on House of Lies, a show I need to go back to, and has done other live action rolls but has REALLY hit his stride in voice acting. He started with voicing Randy Cunningham in Randy Cunningham 9th grade ninja and since then has hit the ground running: He was Rutabega on Bojack, Josh on Bob’s Burgers, and went on to complete the trifecta of blue nostalgic characters after voicing dewey by voicing Leo in Rise of the TMNT (and having one of the most unique and intresting versions of the character to play) and reprised the roll for the upcoming film. And of course he hit it HUGE by playing Sonic in the suprsingly fantastic Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and will do so again for the sequel and might even take up the roll for the games now Roger Craig Smith has retired. We shall see. Point is this guy’s at the top of his game and Dewey is part of that. Like with his brothers I can’t picture anyone else playing him.

Rounding out the kids is Webby, played by the wonderous Kate Micucci. Kate is a lovely talented woman who mostly showed up in smaller parts, was part of the musical duo garfunkel and oates which even got their own tv show, and is currently a fairly prolific voice actor with this being her best known roll. I also had a bit of a crush on her once can you tell? Regardless besides absolutely nailing it as Webby she’s voiced Julie Kane in the crimnally short and even more crimnally not on Disney+ Motorcity, “Irma” in the 2012 TMNT cartoon, and the fact that “Irma” is in quotes should tell you how big a waste I felt it was having her NOT actually be Irma, despite Kate’s massive talent, the fact that Irma hadn’t been in anything since the 87 cartoon, and the fact that for added “Fuck you audience points” her krang form was voiced by Gilbert Godfried, who I love but whose casting feels like they wanted to make the twist as grating as possible. Good job there.

Anyways her second biggest voice gig was as Sadie on Steven Universe, which took WAY too long to show off her absolutely tremendous singing voice. She started voicing Velma Dinkley in the mid-2010′s and has since, voiced Milo’s sister Sarah on Milo Murphy’s Law, Dr. Fox on Unikitty, and most recently voiced a sentient present on close enough who did this.

So yeah quite the career and like Ben she probably has a long and storied career in Voice Acting ahead.

Next up is Beck Bennet as everyone’s friend Launchpad where he excels. He’s best known as a castmember on SNL outside of this, and shockingly hasn’t done a ton of voice work. The only other time i’ve caught him is in the same season of Close Enough as Luc, aka dude-bro satan. But like eveyrone else here who hasn’t done a lot of voice work so far or has been more selective I defintely hope he keeps going with it as he’s amazing. He and Ben will be co-starring on MODOK in May so i’m excited for that.

Last up for the main cast is Beakly, voiced by Toks Olagundoye, who I hadn’t heard of before this show and hasn’t done a lot outside of the two season sitcom the neighbors, the aliens one not the really terrible looking one, and a stint on Castle, but like everyone here deserves much more and if Beakly is any indication, really should stick with voice acting.

Last up is Keith Ferguson as only he could as FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, whose a staple in the voice acting community ever since 2000, and has had a TON of roles some of which I was unaware with him. Given Frank worked with him on Wonder Over Yonder, where he voiced Lord Hater to perfection, the two clearly have a close working relationship. He also has a close working relationship with Wonder creator Craig McCracken and has worked on all of his post-powerpuff girls show, voicing Bloo as his first major role, something I never would’ve guessed, and currently voicing Papa G on Kid Cosmic.

Outside of Craig and Frank, he played both Karate Kid and Nemisis Kid on Legion of Super Heroes (Which really needs to come to HBO Max), Deputy Durland on Gravity Falls, and Thunderbolt Ross on Avengers Earth’s Mighteist Heroes. He’s damn good and deserves the world for Glomgold alone and i’m glad Craig rung him up again as so far through my watch of Kid Cosmic he’s great.

So with our cast in place, our past in place and you all likely ready to get on with it already let’s dive into the episode:

THE EPISODE: Part one Woo-Ooo!

We begin with a shot of a seagull flying overseagulls, a nice way to establish how this world works and how it bends expectations. They’d have to wait till season 3 to get a duck next to ducks but given that gag is one of the best of the series, it was worth it.

Inside a house boat we meet Donald, Huey and Louie and get a sense of their personalities: Donald is panicked trying to get to a job interview and insists the boys wear life vests, showing his overprotectiveness and responsibility exclusive to this version. Louie stresses that Donald wear a suit instead of his normal clothes to properly impress the interviewer, showing his skill at people reading and manipulation, and Huey is making a nice, if messy, breakfast with a heartwarming message showing his heart and dedication. After finding out said Babysitter was sent to the wrong address, the boys TRY to hustle him out to stay alone.. only for Dewey to blow the scheme by starting the boat too early, letting Donald know he’s been had. Huey’s attempt to lie about it is of course the classic “Who’s Dewey?” Dewey’s caught wiring the boat and Donald throws them in the car, with Donald livid and the boys upset as their chafing at his constant overprotectiveness.

Both sides aren’t wrong. tThe boys DID do something reckless, putting an old woman in the desert and risking their home just to go on a joyride. What they did was wrong.. but the boys AREN’T wrong for getting annoyed that he won’t let them DO anything and overly hovering over them when they CAN handle themselves as we’ll see. WE now know why: he lost their mother and his sister to her and scrooge’s recklesness. While he got therapy for his anger it’s clear he never properly got help about Della, and thus overcompensates by trying to keep what he has left of her alive. He means well.. but to them it comes off as him being manically overprotective with no good reason. They get into trouble because it’s the only way to DO anything away from him. He’s trying so hard not to loose them he almost has by the time hte series starts, and it’s telling that when they get context in Last Crash, they appricate him more from then on. They do love him, but their frustration is understandable even if what their doing is pretty damn stupid. But their also 10 and Donald’s the grown adult in therapy who should’ve dealt with this or tried to at least by now.

So with no other options Donald sets a course for McDuck manor which excites the boys who have heard of Scrooge McDuck and his exploits, each rattling off something they heard him do that fits their personality (Dewey picks him fighting a stone monster, Huey picks him uncovering a hoax and Louie picks his swimming in money. ) As Donald tries to get them to simmer down, they wonder what he’s up to

He’s up toooo.. depression. He’s in a room with his board, watching them with utter hate and sadness as they talk about cutting the invention and aviation departments. This scene plays ENTIRELY differently after the final two episodes of the season. Before it still plays well as Scrooge clearly resenting being stuck in a boring board meeting, having lost everything that made him him and just having lost his passion for life. Now? It plays as a man utterly disdainful of the men who made him give up on his daughter. While as far as he knows they did it to save his employees from his company collapsing, we know better now... and seriously where IS the rest of the board they just vanished after the Season 3 premiere.

I don’t mind only one being fleshed out, unlike the triplets we only NEED the one I mind that they just never explained it and still haven’t. Hopefully the finale will.

But back on the plot, it now plays as Scooge just full of hatred for them, knowing they had to do what they did, even if they weren’t emebzlling but still hating them and himself. He’s likely not even paying attention anymore because he just dosen’t CARE: he has all the money int he world.. and it couldn’t bring him his daughter back. As he sadly puts the coins he was fiddling with back and says see you tommorow he can’t even close the vault without a struggle. As we’ll see later the strength never left, it’s not like he stopped execrising.. but he has nothing left to fight for. Nothing left to care about. He could adventure agian so far.. but without Della or Donald, as we’d learn two seasons later the reason he enjoyed it again... what’s the point? He has nothing left except his money.

This is also a nice parallel to the final Chapter of LIfe and Times. I always felt the first half of woo-ooo was a spiritual adaptation of chapter 12 of that: Scrooge meets the boys for the first time and with their help, and Donalds in the story< Webby and Launchpad here, he regains his passion and more importantly his family after driving them away> The how is very different: he did in life and times due to sinking to his lowest point morally, then cruelly dismissing his family when they tried to welcome him home and bury the hatchet despite what he’d done. Here.. he made a HORRIBLE mistake, one that wasn’t entirely on him but still cost him everything and spent the decade instead of stewing or making more money trying desperately to undo it. The end result is the same, a dried out husk of a man with nothing left to loose and no will to gain anything.

This husk has launchpad though whose introduced as his driver and while good with subs and planes.. isn’t great on the road. After that though Donald pulls up hoping to drop the kids off before Scrooge arrives. Naturally this being a cartoon and Donald having tempted fate with that Scrooge shows up telling him to jettison that Jallopy at once. And finding out who it is, apart from asking how Donald is and Donald doing the same, dosen’t sway him. The boys however freak out after finding out Scrooge is Donald’s and there uncle, with my faivriote bit of that being Dewey exiting the car via a window and rolling across the roof back in. Amazing bit of animation. Wish I had a gif of that.

Donald makes the situation plane and angry and asks “Can you do that without LOOSING THEM”. And scrooge is so painfully disarmed by his reminder of his past mistakes and the fact his surrogate son still resents him, that he agrees before realizing “Shit I have to watch children now don’t I” as Donald drives off. As you probably guessed, this is another scene that plays differently in hindsight, if not by much: It still plays as two men too stubborn and bitter to reconcile.. but now we know the why behind both their rages it feels even sadder. They both lost the person they cared about most but as it sadly happens in real life both have dug in their heels to reconcile, both feeling their right when neither completely is. While Donald was right to be upset at scrooge and della for what happened, and is mostly taking it out on scrooge because he’s the one left... he’s held onto his anger for 10 years instead of going to help when he’s unemployed, living in a dilapidated houseboat and trying ot raise three children alone and could’ve used what help scrooge would give. Scrooge is right to be upset that Donald is just selectively ignoring everything he’s done to save Della, but is too stubborn and prideful to apologize for what he DID do wrong and feels that’s enough to make up for it when , while it is enough that donald should forgive him, still dosen’t mean he dosen’t have a lot to apologize for. Both are just too angry and too much alike, as much as it woudln’t seem so, to settle with each other and see too much of what they lost.

So the kids follow Scrooge.. who forgets to open the door, and Beakly lets them in. It’s a nice subtle bit. After some silence, Bentina TRIES to get her old friend and now employer to talk to them, but he naturally refuses and they do the talking, asking tons of questions.. and Dewey ends the conversation by accidently pressing the “imply he USED to be something rather than is something right now “ button

So Scrooge throws them in the twins old room, and Beakly gives them some marbles. You will give them b ack they will be counted. But another subtle touch I missed the first time is there... her sad look. She clearly doesn’t want to do this, but she has to play this carefully or else he might get mad and fire her on the spur of the moment. He’d obviously hire her back, where else is he going to get an ex spy who will both clean for him AND be his bodyguard and security. It’s a very small pool. Mostly because Beakly probably killed most of the other people who’d of fit that description during her spy days.

Scrooge meanwhile is still rattled by Dewey’s statment, wondering if he really is a “used to be” instead of a “never left”. The fire is starting to spark again.. he just needs more kindling. And more kin.

Meanwhile Louie and Huey marvel at Dewey’s “Brilliant’ breakout plan: hit the door knob with the sack of marbles til lit breaks. To be fair, they’ve known dewey as long as they’ve been alive and even by season 3 after he’s taken several levels in badass and cunning.. he still crashed a plane because his brother well-meaningly called him basic, and thought being nearly sacrificed the most times was an accomplishment. This is the best he could do and you all know it. It also works, so they can’t fault him for that... though he’s quickly kidnapped as are they. They wake up after the commerical break in a room with pure darkness, hung from the celing with a mystery person asking who they are and who they work for before Louie calls out for “uncle scrooge”... so she claps the lights back on and..

Well close. But it is Webby, who cuts them down, fangirls over meeting the nephews and asks who the evil triplet is. They all point to Louie who shrugs it off. I mean it was funny enough the first time but at this point I know he’s running several fradulent charites, almost all scamming his uncle. He’s earned that title. Webby puts them on the big board and then when asked they find out she’s Webby, her granny Beakly is housekeeper. She then asks the big questons “Are we friends now?” “If we say yes will you let us live?” “Ha good one new best friend”

She then explains she dosen’t get to leave or anything even eat a hamburger. The boys are moved by this and Louie asks what she does for fun. She leads them to the vents and while Huey and Louie are a bit relcutant, Dewey naturally goes first pointing out it’s better than the marble room. They agree and are on their way.

Okay unpinning that pin, the crew conciously updated Webby and Beakly as neither really had a lot of purpose in the original. It was also to conciously add more actiony females to the main family lineup, as both creators, both being fathers, preferred someone their daughters could look up to and would enjoy watching. Not someone perfect but someone intresting instead of someone who often got Kidnapped and whose main charactrisitcs were “Sweet and GIRL STEROTYPE” So cleverly they KEPT her being girly, having a skirt, liking ponies. .but also gave her all the training and skill of one Cassandra Cain, a sheltered background and an adorable personality that kept the sweetness but added her probably having killed a man at some point. It worked as Webby is one of the best parts of the show.

Likewise Beakly was upgraded from fuddy duddy housekeeper, to badass former secret agent whose also a housekeeper, and bodyguard and confidant to scrooge. Demonstrated by her talk with him as he tries to put on his diving suit and go after the jewel of atlantis, having spotted the signs to go after it in the paper.. and wanting to prove a child wrong. Beakly points out the flaws in this, and tries to get him to connect to his family. Having lost hers, it’s easy to see why.. though the how’s a mystery.. for now i’m guess. We’ll see in the finale. But she’s Scrooge’s concisence and the one who can easiest reign him in, to the point two episodes directly have our heroes have to NOT call her or else the plot was end, but have that worked into the plot so it works. She’s the calm in his storm and hte one person he needs more than anyone else even if he dosen’t always realize it. He calls family “nothing but trouble” just as Dewey passes overhead.

So naturally as Webby shows off Scrooge’s old treasures in a mysterious room, while the other Siblings are rightfully impressed, Dewey dismisses it as “fake” because he’s being a little shit, and they agree after seeing Donald, not knowing his reputation. The cutaway to him struggling with a stapler does not help> it’s only when Webby accidnetly uneleashes Captain Peghook, a vengeful ghost after scrooge, who gets his hand on a ghostly sword do they realize this time the monsters are real. Huey also accidently wakes up Manny, the headless manhorse!

Things somehow get WORSE as Scrooge finds them.. but is in no state to argue and as our heroes duck and Huey tries to divise a plan.. Scrooge get’s his spark back once agian.. it’s starting to become an ember now... and he charges in despite Dewey’s cries of “No come back your old!”. It then gets VERY badass Scrooge: Oi! Beastie! What's it gonna take to shuffle you off to the afterlife? Captain Peg-Hook: The head of Scrooge McDuck! Scrooge: [cracks his neck, flips his cane around to wield like a sword] Would you settle for his hat?

Now that is how you show how badass Scrooge is in a few lines and gestures. HE proceeds to take both out, as they’ve now teamed up, easily, tricking peghook into cutting off the head of a statue of him in the area, throwinng it at him and finsihing the ghosts buisnesss (”I should’ve been more specifiiiicccccc”) and then giving Manny the head, earning him a loyal employee for life. So our days saved, the kids have faith.. and Scrooge is still pissed. He also reveals this isn’t a treasure room but the garage in what’s easily the best gag of the first half, possibly the whole special but one iconic moment is very close in that one. Webby concedes what about the stack of old magazines or the hose or.. okay he’s probably right. He berates them only for the kids to fire back, pointing out he threw them in a room, they just wanted to spend time with him... but it’s only Dewey throwing his words back in his face that pisses him off. Scrooge bellows at them to get out, clearly having internalized everything with donald into rage and trying to justify pushing eveyrone away instead of working at it... but this dosen’t have time to actually work, nor would Beakly actually throw three children out on the curb, as he hits a mystic gong.. the third time it’s been hit. And after realizing it’s already been hit twice Scrooge is faced with Pixu, the gold hutning dragon! And guess who has a giant bin of it wanting to snack on? Scrooge naturally climbs on the thing and the kids naturally want to follow, with Webby getting her first development by proudly announcing “I’m going to eat a hamburger” then explains the metaphor. They just need a pilto.. and as Launchpad has been saying but I forgot to add in “I’m a pilot”

So we get a GORGEOUS bit of Scrooge riding the dragon over the city, getting banged up as he does before finally being thrown off.. only for the kids to catch him with the planes help and try and come up with a plan. Scrooge overcomes his anger at them not staying put, especailly since Webby brings up the right weakness: as a wise man once said...

So they need some.. like say the Medusa Gauntlet Scrooge had in the garage.. that Louie naturally stole. Huey and Webby eyeroll him but they have what they need.. and Huey brought the hose and quickly comes up with a plan, tying scrooge in, and swinging him to Pixu. The kids hold on tight, Dewey calls his family awesome and our heroes win the day as Scrooge turns the dragon to stone, slips and falls.. and then GRACEFULLY dives into hte bin, showing off his diving skills and his badassery. The day is saved, the gauntlet and the dragon go in the bin for safe keeping and Scrooge calls the kids trouble.. and chuckles fondly. “Curse me kilts how i’ve missed trouble”

He’s impressed: Huey’s quick thinking, Louie’s pickpocketing, Dewey’s drive, and Webby’s magical knowledge all saved them. For once. .he’s happy again. And for the second time in life it took his family to remind him why he does this and show him the true fun of adventure: Getting to share it with those he love. And he finally has people to love again. He has family back, kids who look up to him and want to learn from him again, a REASON to adventure. Money and treasure and eveyrthig couldn’t bring della back.. but he at least sees now that whiel they certianly couldn’t.. they can bring him closely with what he has left. She’s gone, for now.. but she left behind three great kids who could use a mentor and Beakly brought him a fourth. And he just found out he has a pilot. The ember.. is now a raging flame. Scrooge is back. Because i’ts not the money or the glory.. it’s the thrill of it, the discovery.. and the family that makes adventuring worth while and he’s learned that lesson again. So he calls Beakly to clear his schedule.. forgetting she you know PUT A FUCKING PIN INTHE WALL the last time he asked her to play scretary and the onlyr eason she dind’t drive over the choke him to death, is that she’s probably happy he’s back on track.

Back at the interview Donald is stapled to the wall and gets the job.. not as an accountant mind but his employer needs a sailor.. and his employer is FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Oh boy.

Part 2: Escape To/From Atlantis First the last bit of background I saved: Originally, Fenton and Gyro were supposed to show up here, starting a gag of Fenton showing up but not being named until “Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!”, setting up the sub. But the crew decided this took too much away from the focus on the duck family. The not naming him gag was also dropped, and I have two reasons why: Their given reason, which is it’d take up too much time and a logistical reason: While they gave a heartfelt pitch to Lin-Manuel Miranda, as frank wanted a strong Latino superhero to combat the lack of them on film, Frank and Matt probably thought they woudln’t get such a huge name or at least prepared for it.. and were delightfully suprised when Lin happily and tearfully agreed. So they likely scrapped it so they could properly promote the biggest name in their voice cast. Honestly it was for the best and they still go to do the idea with Drake in “The Duck Knight Returns!”, where it worked much better than it probably would have with Fenton.

We open with the Glomgold Industries Employee Training Video! Encourging IP Theft, making things cheaper and general scumbaggery, and claming your the world’s most beloved scottish billionare. IN short the perfect introduction to everyone’s favorite insane, fake-scottish, scheming, egotistical , short sighted billionaire. As i’ve made transparent before, I fucking love the reboot version of Glomgold and he’s easily one of my favorite parts of the reboot. They clearly needded to find a new place for Glomgold in the grand scheme of things as the show was more about globetrotting adventure and family and less about getting contracts or bets about whose bigger money and more about family. While they DID do a classic bet storyline with season 2, it’s clear the old glomgold was just a bit too stiff to properly fit into this new zanier and deeper universe.

So they instead remolded him as a half insane, knockoff scrooge, someone who PURPOSFULLY modeled himself after the guy to try and one up him, and instead of being a fairly low pitched schemer, was a bombastic idiot whose schemes were half baked, whose name was on everything he made, and whose only thing bigger than scrooge was his glorious ego. In short he was perfect for this series and perfect to show up way more often as a bumbling thorn in Scrooge’s side.. but one who COULD be effective in the right circumstances, as to not make him completely pointless. Keith was likewise the only person I could see in the roll now as with Hater he had a history of playing bombastic, egosticial morons, and made Glomgold into the enjoyable ball of ego, bombs, sharks and shouting we know and love. Some people didn’t take to this version after a while... I’m not one of those. I loved him here, I love him now, and he’s every bit as good in season 3 as he was at the start. He’s also wearing a kilt mcduck A KILT. A bit that’st STILL funny four years and 70 some episodes later.

So we meet Gabby McStabberson and the Smashnikovs as they and Donald file in, though Donald is busy wrapping up a call with Scrooge, who assures them he has a low key day planned.. while in the sub getting ready to go to atlantis. And nearly drowning when Dewey tells Launchpad to dive while he and Scrooge are still up top. Cue credits.

So on the sub we get our setup for the two main plots for the episode: While the main thrust of everything is Scrooge taking them to Atlantis, each leads to a diffrent plot. Louie talks to Donald and lies entirely about their day, worrying Webby.. who then reveals she just didn’t tell Beakly she took off or where she was going and encourages her to call and lie. To save time, i’m going to cover this subplot now minus the conclusion as it’s pretty simple and this review is already a day behind. Louie wants her to lie so she dosen’t worry, which is oddly sweet.. still a bit greasy, but it’s clear he means well and it shows in his own way the boy cares about Donald: Sure he’ll lie to the guy, and set up a fradulent charity to scam him.. but he also knows not to worry his dad-uncle and kows Donald is better off thinking their safe than knowing the truth. Granted it also prevents consequences for Louie.. but he’s not playing here here. He gets nothing out of Beakly not knowing the truth or helping some girl he just met, he’s just being NICE in his own twisty way. It’s a nice show of his depths: While louie will lie, cheat and steal Eddie Gurrero style, he does have a caring side underneath hit. He can read people well and while he primarily uses it to manipulate people, we’ll see time and time again that he can use it for good too and to help those he cares about. He’s nothing but supportive the whole plot, and even when he says “you can’t back that up” it’s more worrying about her and having a bit of crack than actually being a dick.

So Webby tries lying, but is about as good as Huey is at it, saying “I’m at a friends house nothing, then makes up a clearly fake name, then says their only talking in swedish for a grandpa. Launchpad DOES help, but only by accident and snake venom. We’ll get to that. As I said this wasn’t the most complex plot.

The main plot is our focus episode for dewey. In theory each of the kids was supposed to have one in the first five episodes: Dewey here, Webby in Daytrip of Doom, Louie in Great Dime Chase and Huey in Impossible Summit of Mt. Nevverest!. Given the last one was horribly delayed, he instead got Terror of the Terra Firmians, which in hindsight wasn’t the best spotlight episode for him. But it’s a good system; Introduce them all in the first half of the pilot then slowly focus on each one. So now Idoloizing Scrooge, Dewey is desperate to be his sidekick and be seen as an equal and is in deep denial as scrooge instead has them all buckle up for a 17 hour ride and when Dewey questions the route, which skips the direct path.. but is clearly marked with monsters, Scrooge just snaps at him and shuts him down and disapoints the boy who only wants to prove himself to Scrooge.

Naturally though, telling someone with that kind of need for attention and validation to wait goes poorly as he redirects the map while Launchapd is distracted.. and we find out WHY the trip is 17 hours as the direct route nearly gets them killed by mer-ducks, krakens and some sort of storm elemental. Dewey is bummed it didn’t work and annoyed to realize he’s just lumping them all together like Huey pointed out earlier. Huey is also delightful here, having brought travel bingo and sea shanties, clearly used to trips with his other uncle. And adorably taking after him.

But Dewey’s deversion has done more than make him even MORE determined to prove himself to Scrooge whose just trying to NOT loose the son of the daughter he lost...

The Merducks have taken up residence in the bathroom, so they have to make a pitstop. Scrooge, CLEARLY forgetting how to take a trip with children, wasn’t prepared for this but they find a frieghter and make a stop. Naturally it’s GLOMGOLD’S freighter, where his sub took off from, and he and his minons including Donald find Scrooge using the bathroom.. and the boys to Donald’s rage. Unfortunately saying ‘I’ll kill him” to a raging sociopath who takes that as a sign to kill ALL of them, isn’t a smart move.

So while Donald tries to plan to keep his family alive, said family arrives in Atlantis with a great bit of Scrooge trying to give a big speech only for them to see it first and ooh and ah. They touch down in the city.. which is flip turned upside down. Scrooge notes hti is odd but is able to read the hieroglypchs even upside downa nd notes there’s tones of deadly traps and that they shoudl stay back and..

Huey: Dewey ran in as soon as you said traps.

So while Scrooge tries to prevent dewey loosing his head, Donald prevents launchpad loosing his and makes up an excuse about “if their dead now we can’t tourture them later” to cover his ass. Glomgold is impressed. Dewey is Dewcipointed that the traps are upside down, though he does trigger some snakes that get launchpad. He’s fine just delirious. And possibly slowly dying but the fact he’s lived this long is a miracle. Maybe that’s why he’s missing for most of season 3 part 2, the snake venom caught up to him and drake and fenton need to find the cure. Anyways the rest of the party stays behind while Scrooge chases after Dewey, who naturally runs ahead AGAIN.

Donald ducks out to use the bathroom, as Dewey tries the old dance through the laser grid routine.. but forgets the part where your supposed to actually avoid it, leaving it to an unseen Donald to stop the fire traps from barbqueing his boy. IT’s a really awesome sequence that shows off Donald’s still got it even if he dosen’t want it. Scrooge naturally works smarter not harder and simply ziplines above like a badass and berates Dewey when he tells him he took “The easy way”

“Why would you want to take the hard way?” The argument that’s been brewing all episode bubbles up and once again both sides have a point: Scrooge rightfully points out Dewey’s being reckless, has no experince and needs to listen to Scrooge and learn something. Dewey claps back that Scrooge isn’t TEACHING them, just teling them to get behind him while he does things instead of trying to actively mentor them. He outright told them he was going to teach them so while Dewey’s been a wee bit overbearing, he’s right in being disappointed that Scrooge instead just wants them to be safe. I see it as his subconscious acting up: He wants and needs the kids along and is right ot keep them safe.. but is too scared to properly mentor them after what happened to Della and is just trying not to loose anybody. His methods have been right, to keep them safe.. he’s just been so determined to save them, he can’t properly TEACH them so he won’t have to forever or explain WHY. And given the First Adventure shows that while protective he did eventually let Della and Donald pull their weight.. but here he lost so much between adventures.. he just can’e bear loosing them. Dewey also rightfully points out he just lumps them together which in any other version wouldn’t be an issue, until the reboot I had no idea which one was which here? They have distinct outfits and personalities and you had 17 hours to actually get to know them. Probably less given the shortcut but still, several hours at a minimum. It’s things like this that make the series work: while there’s plenty of internal conflicts, at their best their nuanced ones, where if one character is clearly in the wrong they have a reason, and if both are right both are also a bit wrong, versus the original where it’d be scrooge or the boys grabbing the asshole ball at times (Not always mind you but when they did it was insufferable.

However they don’t have time to argue as the bridge goes out and Glomgold finds donald.. and another way around as a result and gets to the treasure first. Scrooge notices they have donald but once again Dewey charges in

“Unhand my uncle” “No” “Okay wasn’t prepared for that”

Naturally both sides are a bit livid, Donald for dragging his boys into danger after being part of the reason his sister is on the moon right now, and Scrooge for working with one of his greatest eneimies.. though Scrooge has less ground to stand on because as Donald points out “I can’t keep track of ALL of your sworn enemies” I mean he has lived like .. 200 years. That’s a long enemies list and Glomgold, while the most persistent, isn’t exactly the most dangerous they probably encountered. Given the guy’s an artist with Bombs and Sharks that does say a lot about how badass Scrooge is.. and how incompitent glomgold usually is. He’s just having an on day today I guess.

Glomgold naturally holds Donald hostage, takes what is suppsidley the jewel and leaves them to drown to death, hitting a wall to let it start leaking. HIs minons run into the rest of the heroes and a fight breaks out while naturally Donald, after even more naturally getting his ass stuck in a hole, literally, rails out at Scrooge for doing this telling him “I knew I couldn’t trust you and” “This is the spear of selene all over again”

Scrooge’s only response is “I was not responsible for the Spear of Selene!”

Dude you still paid for the rocket. While Della shoulders most of the blame, SHE choose to take an untested rocket, SHE choose not to come back during the turbulence YOU still built it and hid it from donald and didn’t make sure she couldn’t just take off in it. Your both to blame. And as I mentioned earlier to the least extent but still an extent, so was Donald telling his grown, adult sister whose as stubborn as she is what she could and couldn’t do. He had the right idea and was the only person trying to be an adult here in this situation.. but he still took the wrong approach with stopping her. Still he got far more ground to stand on than Scrooge, who also took his nephews out. Dewey stops both by pointing out that while yes Scrooge took them on an adventure he’s been doing NTOHING but keeping him safe and most of it was his fault which disarms donald a bit. Though Dewey is quickly distracted.. but for once by an obersvation: the gem glowing above thaem that glowed when they entered... and since the city got flipped turned upside down.. THAT’S the real jewel. Dewey asks Donald ot let it flood so they can get it and begs his uncle to trust him despite his doubts which he does. They get it and everyone’s okay and even more when they reunite with the others they find they’ve handily beaten them. To me this is where donalds walls go down a bit: he realizes he’s been smothering the kids, and that while he may hate his uncle for good reason... he’s not going to make the same mistake with them and while he lied.. Don probably realized if Scrooge had been honest Donald would never have let them go. He can trust him.. and he can trust his kids will be alright without him.

So Glomgold naturally leaves his minions to die, but our heroes manage to make it to the sub, and Gabby asks if they can bum a ride. Not wanting to do any murders they agree. On the surface Glomgold is showing off his jewel, only for Scrooge to upstage him second’s later with the real jewel, and point out his is “nice but defintly cursed”... and right on cue Glomgold gets dragged off with an octopus and let’s off his first “Curse you mcduck!”. Scrooge offers clean water and power thorugh it, for a price because of course he does, and has offically made his grand comeback.

We get back to Webby’s subplot, as she’s confronted by Beakly.. who naturally being a former spy easily figured it out immieditely but is only upset her grandaughter lied to her. And even at that she dosen’t raise her voice or anything about the matter, knowing it’d only make her feel worse and getting that her grandaughter needs to see the world and that much like donald, she walled her up to prevent loosing what little she had left. And since being with Scrooge is safe as with her, she can go with him anytime just tell her first kay? They hug. Awwww.

Donald likewise apologizes, admitting that whatever has passed, he misjudged his uncle here and while not forgiving him yet, is at least willing to let him back into his life and into the boys.. on holidays and stuff at least. But fate forces his hand.. or rather his 10 year old nephew-son having left the engine on and neither having turned it off, meaning his boat goes boom and is in no liveable condition. But Scrooge has the space in his heart and mansion for them.

So as we close the kids help move the artifacts all around the house instead of just the garage while Launchapd drops the boat. While clearing out Dewey notices the painting from earlier.. and finds part of it was flipped over...

“Mom?!”

Now keep in mind, while nowadays Della’s inclusion in the show is one of the most famous and treasured parts of the show.. back then this was a fucking shock. Disney never really cared about the boys mother and outside of one comics story never really went into what happened. So the fact she was not only an actual important part of the plot but we’d find out was a HUGE wham moment and left my jaw dropped after seeing the episode. Like I would with the finales I had read no spoilers and had no idea this was coming but damn was it a huge and welcome suprise and how far they’d take it and how much they’d flesh her out was an even bigger one. Easily one of the best big reveals i’ve ever seen. The only better one I can think of from this series itself... is the end of season 2. But that’s for another time.

Final Thoughts on Woo-Ooo!:

This two parter/hour long special.. is still one of the episodes best and easily one of the best pilots. It does slow down a bit in pacing in the second half, but otherwise is just an immaculate , beautiful pilot movie that introduces and fleshes out all 8 main characters, maybe Launchpad the least but enough to still work, gives us some big mysteries to work out, and even throws in Glomgold’s first apperance. It sets the tone, reverent and adventuerous but also with it’s own weird and wacky sense of humor and world building, and universe perfectly. I .. don’t have much else to say really it’s just THAT good and really worth checking out. If you somehow haven’t seen it go watch it and if you haven’t seen it in a while might be worth a rewatch before the finale. The absolutely perfect start to an amazing ride.

Next on the Della Arc: Dewey and Webby try to figure out where Della is while Louie learns a valuable life lesson and pisses off a killer robot along the way.

Next on the Blog: Amphibia Season 2 is back!

Until then if you liked this review follow for more and if you could please support me on patreon. Even a buck a month helps and juicy stretch goals give you na incentive to contirbute. We’re 5 bucks away from 20 dollars a month which means a review of super ducktales and a Darkwing Duck review EVERY. MONTH. So contribute now! Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure.

#ducktales #wooooo #woo-ooo #scrooge mcduck #webby vanderquack #donald duck #dewey duck #louie duck #huey duck #bentina beakley #launchpad mcquack #flintheart glomgold #della duck #disney channel #disney xd #disney plus #ducks

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ninja-go-to-therapy · 3 years

Text

Febuwhump 5: “Take Me Instead”

Cömmenté? Validátion? Please?

Summary: The triplets get kidnapped by evil scientists. It’s about as bad as it sounds.

Trigger Warnings: broken bones, torture, kidnapping, human experimentation

1560 words

There were three cells.

Three glass cages, all spaced out evenly. But only one was in use. The triplets had been shoved in there by some faceless people in lab coats hours ago.

For a long time, nothing happened. The triplets were left alone, and while that should have been a comfort, it only served to put them on edge. They had no idea what these people wanted with them.

They didn’t like the look of the lab coats.

A door opened, and a few of the people filed in, their focus primarily on clipboards and tablets that they were holding.

As they approached their cage, Huey put himself in front of his brothers definitively. If they wanted to get to them, they’d have to go through him first. And he would not let them get to Dewey or Louie.

But they didn’t actually do anything. They stood at various points, all a few feet from the cage, just looking at them. Looking at them and writing things on their tablets and clipboards. They weren’t even trying to get closer.

Huey clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to get rid of the gross sensation of vulnerability that was quickly descending upon him. They were so exposed like this. It was creepy.

Occasionally the people would change position slightly, moving around the cage and observing the boys all the while. What were they doing?

It dragged on for a while. The room wasn’t silent, per se, but the lack of noise was still driving him mad. On occasion, the people would talk to each other, but it was always so quiet that they couldn’t hear them through the glass.

They were being observed like a 4th grade science project, and Huey didn’t like it.

Just as these thoughts surfaced, something finally changed.

A few of the people set aside their things, and then, with the press of a few buttons, the door to their cell opened.

Dewey took a tiny step forward, but Huey put his arm in front of him, effectively stopping him from continuing.

Dewey didn’t argue.

The three of them watched warily as the people approached the cage swiftly.

The thing was big enough that these obviously-adults could step in no problem, even if it was a little cramped. But they didn’t stay for long.

They grabbed Louie, ignoring his startled yelp, and began to drag him out.

“Wait, stop!” Huey demanded, trying to free his brother from the people’s grip. “Where are you taking him?”

They just bat him away like he was an insignificant fly. Huey was right back at Louie’s side in an instant, clawing at them. Dewey was on the other side of Louie, throwing hits and doing his best to help.

But these people were so much bigger than them, and they were outnumbered, too. Huey and Dewey were nothing but a minor inconvenience to them, and before long, they’d successfully dragged Louie from the cage, the other two still locked inside.

“What are you doing?” Huey asked, growing desperate.

“Hey, we can talk this out, can’t we?” Louie attempted, grunting as he was practically manhandled. “Stop dragging me!”

His struggling hardly deterred them, and he was forced over to an area of the room filled with weird machinery. There were computers, what looked like a hospital bed, and, most notably, this giant machine that had two very thick metal plates, sitting vertically from each other.

It took two of the people to hold Louie down once they’d all but thrown him on the gurney-type-thing.

“Come on, I’m sure you have better things to do than — hey!” Louie cried, helpless as his arms were strapped down.

The machine from before, the big one, was brought to life, and Huey’s stomach began twisting in knots.

“What are you doing?” he asked again, pushing against the glass like it would suddenly give way if he just didn’t stop trying.

The other people were still just taking notes like they had nothing better to be doing.

Louie’s leg, his left one, was forcefully placed between the two metal plates, and just when Huey understood and a cold horror settled over him, the gap between the plates began to close.

“Oh my god!” Dewey shouted at the same time as Louie gave a pained cry, the plates meeting on either side of his leg.

Louie grit his teeth, grimacing in pain.

“Increasing pressure,” someone mumbled, and though it didn’t look like the plates had moved, Louie’s panic made it clear what was happening.

Dewey and Huey threw themselves against the glass with a renewed vigor, banging against it. “Stop it!” Dewey said, bashing his body against the wall.

“Do you feel anything?” one of the scientists asked.

“Excuse me?”

“In your leg,” she clarified.

“I — no? My brother is the one you’re hurting, and if you don’t stop it right now, you’ll regret it!” Huey shouted, slamming against the glass yet again.

“Increase pressure,” the woman instructed.

At Louie’s pained scream, the other two grew frantic. “Take me instead!” Dewey insisted. “Just stop hurting him! Take me! Please!”

The otherwise unoccupied people were furiously scribbling down notes like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“Oh god,” Louie was saying, repeating it over and over again like a prayer. Maybe it was. “If — if you stop, and let us go, we can get you money. I’m talking thousands — millions! Whatever you want, okay? Just — gah! Please!” he begged, voice strained with cries he was struggling to hold back.

“Do you feel anything?” one of the others repeated.

“Let him go!” Dewey demanded.

One of the men let out an angry, throaty sort of sound something akin to a growl. “Increasing pressure,” he said, and though the boys couldn’t see his face, they knew he was glaring. It was easy to hear, with a tone like that.

Louie screamed so loud it made Huey’s ears ring, followed by a noise that was somehow even louder. Somehow even worse. A horrible crack resonated through the air, and as a screeched sob tore itself from Louie’s throat, Dewey and Huey were right back to screaming, too.

They were yelling so much that even Huey was having trouble differentiating between himself and Dewey’s words, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was what they’d done to Louie. All that mattered was that somehow, they needed to get them to stop.

Wordlessly, the scientists began resetting the machine so that Louie’s leg was released, and he was unstrapped from the gurney.

Something that might have been hope blossomed in Huey’s chest. When they put Louie back in, he could get out. And he would make them regret everything they’d just done.

But they didn’t bring him back to the cage. Instead, they released him, watching as he collapsed to the floor.

“Get up.”

“I can’t,” Louie sobbed.

They roughly dragged him to his feet. “Walk.”

“W-walk?” he sniffled, confused.

“Walk back and forth along this area.”

Louie whimpered, taking a shaky step forward. He wailed at the pain, but took another step anyway, dragging his broken leg behind him in a limp.

Back and forth. They wouldn’t let him stop no matter how much any of them cried or begged. Louie mostly just cried. Like he didn’t think it was worth it to argue.

They asked Huey and Dewey if they felt anything again. Huey, despite the faint gross feeling in his own leg, just glared at them. He didn’t know what they were talking about, but everyone felt wrong and twisted when watching other people get injured. Especially when it was his brother, who he was supposed to protect. He wasn’t supposed to let anything bad happen to him, and yet…

“Fuck you!” Dewey spat, and for once, Huey wasn’t about to lecture him about language.

Louie finally collapsed with a broken cry, gripping his leg. “I can’t,” he said through tears, “It hurts, I can’t…”

Huey had never seen Louie so… openly distraught. Then again, he’d also never seen Louie tortured by evil scientists, so.

One of the scientists approached Louie calmly, patting him on the head in a way that seemed like it was meant to be fond. Louie flinched away.

They pulled a lollipop from the pocket of their lab coat, pressing it into Louie’s hand. “For good behavior,” they said. Huey shuddered in disgust.

Two more of the scientists came over and finally, finally all but dragged him back into the cage. The second he was released, he collapsed on the floor, Huey and Dewey by his side in an instant.

The door closed before Huey could lunge at them.

“It hurts,” Louie admitted, curling against his brothers weakly. “It hurts so much.”

“I know,” Huey said, running his hands through Louie’s hair helplessly. “We’re… we’re gonna be okay. Uncle Donald will come for us. And Uncle Scrooge, and mom, too. I bet they’ll be here within an hour.”

Louie screwed his eyes shut tight, nodding. Huey and Dewey shared a nervous look. It had already been hours. Where was their family? Shouldn’t they have been saved by now? What was taking them so long?

“Test #1 was a failure,” one of the scientists was saying. “However, Subject 3 was much more cooperative than expected. Test #2 will commence tomorrow.”

25 notes · View notes

wondershawns · 5 years

Note

Okay hear me out, being best friends with the triplets since they were little kids and falling in love with one of them but being way to afraid to tell him because if something went wrong she would lose the three of them

A/N: This is almost 3000 words guys… This concept is killing me. I keep on seeing requests and getting ideas and I just can’t get over it. (Again, everyone say thank you @thotmendes because what would we do without this honestly)

Shawn, Peter and Raul’s best friend was surprisingly easy. People might have thought they would be hard to differentiate, and siblings always bicker, but she knew them from another angle. While their looks confused her at first, she could recognise them with a glance now, and if she couldn’t see them it only took a couple of words from them for her to tell which one it was.

They were similar in many ways, but she knew them as totally different people. Shawn was the in between that both brothers could easily get along with, he was the one in the middle who understood Raul’s want to hide his feelings to keep himself safe, but he also understood Peter’s sensitivity and artistic side.

She was the outsider that managed to make her way into their bubble, she knew each side of them, she had a key to each of their apartments for emergencies, and she was always welcome in their family house too. She was used to them, she was comfortable around them, yet her hands were shaking that afternoon when she walked up to Raul’s apartment in Toronto.

All three of them had moved out at similar times, Shawn when he began touring, quickly followed by Raul and Peter once they moved from high school to university. It was weird for her to think they were each that successful and independent, but somehow they still managed to be in their family house all the time to see their sister and parents.

She took in a deep breath and stared at the door in front of her, her hand moving up to knock before she could back down. It took him a minute to get there, and she almost turned around and ran when he stood in front of her.

“Oh hi, what are you doing here?” Raul motioned for her to come in although he was surprised with her visit.

“I need your help with something,” She rubbed her hands together, trying to ease her nerves.

“Alright?” He saw her biting her lip. “Hey, tell me what’s wrong.”

“I need you to promise you won’t tell Shawn or Peter.” She looked up at him, teary eyed already. She almost got sick on the way there, so it wasn’t a surprise that she was struggling not to cry.

“What’s going on?” Raul frowned, he’d known her too long to think this wasn’t a big deal. She got through things he wouldn’t be able to get up from, she was a tough cookie to crack and seeing her on the verge of tears already made him want to hug her until all of her problems were gone.

“Promise you won’t tell them.” She asked again.

“Hey, hey,” He made her sit on the couch next to him and rubbed a hand over her shoulder. “You’re scaring me, deep breath. I won’t tell them.”

“I just… they can’t know.”

“I promise. Tell me what’s going on.” He prompted her gently, watching her take a deep breath before the words flowed out of her mouth.

“I think I’m in love with Peter.” She spoke before she could stop herself, and Raul’s concerned expression turned into shock while he processed the information.

“Ooookay,” He let out a slow exhale. “I don’t know what I was expecting but that wasn’t it.”

“But you can’t tell him, or Shawn! You know Shawn wouldn’t be able to keep that to himself.” She panicked, and he nodded, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Honey, relax, I promised I wouldn’t tell them.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand soothingly.

If there was one thing the triplets had in common it was how casually they touched people. She was startled at first when she got hugs from all three of them, when Shawn laid his head in her lap during a movie, or when Raul wrapped an arm around her shoulder when she said something funny. Now she was used to it, there was nothing weird about, it was a comforting gesture and it was working pretty well considering the state she was in before she told him.

“I just… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this.” She slowed her breathing, trying to calm her racing heart.

“How long has it been?” Raul wanted to know how deep this was, but he wasn’t sure of what she was supposed to do with this either. If she brought it up to him he was sure she meant it, she wouldn’t risk potentially messing up a friendship if she wasn’t certain of her feelings.

“A while,” She stared at her hands, reminiscing on all the times she told herself it was nothing, all of the times she told herself he felt like a brother the way Shawn and Raul did. Truth was, it didn’t feel the same at all, and if she couldn’t keep it hidden the only person she could go to was Raul.

“Honey… you’ve got to tell him.” He breathed out, knowing bottling it up would only make it worse. Her coming her to talk about it was the first step towards telling Peter, she needed to get it out.

“I can’t do that.” She shook her head, her free hand trembling as she rubbed her palm over her jeans.

“Why did you tell me then?” Raul took her second hand too, getting her to look up at him.

“You’re my best friend, with Shawn and Peter… who else was I supposed to tell?” She fought back a few tears. “I can’t tell him.”

“Why not?” He needed to know how much she had thought about this already to be able to help her.

“How do you see me?” She looked at him expectantly, and his answer came fast.

“You’re family, you’re like… oooh I see where we’re going.” Raul realised. “But honey, is that not how you feel about me and Shawn?”

“Of course it is.”

“But you feel differently about Peter, so maybe Shawn and I see you as a sister, but it doesn’t mean Peter does.” He tried to soothe her, but she didn’t believe him, and he wasn’t sure he believed it himself.

“You can’t guarantee that, and if I tell him and he doesn’t feel the same way things will get so weird. Then I won’t be able to hang out with him like before, and if I lose him then I lose you and Shawn, and I just can’t do that.”

“You’re not gonna lose me, or Shawn,”

“Come on, if things get awkward I won’t hang out with all three of you. You’ll always take each other’s sides, and that’s normal.” She didn’t want him to think she’d ever imagine he would let her down, but Peter would come first. “And I won’t know how Peter feels until I tell him, which I can’t do.”

“Okay, you make sense,” Raul sighed although he didn’t fully agree. “But you need to tell him.” He insisted and continued before she could interrupt him. “I can’t tell you he’s going to feel the same, because if there’s one thing the three of us wouldn’t admit to each other it might be this. If me and Shawn speak of you as a sister Peter will roll with it no matter what.”

“Shawn would say it,” She pointed out with a small smile, and Raul nodded.

“Yeah but he’s Shawn, he says everything, there’s nothing I don’t know about him,” He chuckled. “Pete though… He’s not good at making the first move with girls he kinda likes, so if he had real feelings I imagine he’d struggle to bring it up. Since it’s you… He’d probably rather keep it all inside and have you as a friend than ever risk losing you.”

“How is that supposed to help me?”

“It’s not supposed to help you, but you have to understand why you need to tell him. If you don’t, you’ll never find out.”

“Why didn’t I fall for Shawn?” She chuckled dryly, thinking it’d be much easier to deal with the one who was the most open about his feelings.

“You know what… I can maybe picture you and Peter, but you and Shawn? That’d be weird as fuck.”

“Agreed.” He got a giggle out of her, and she sat back comfortably on the couch.

She felt better now that he knew. She knew she had to tell Peter next, but she wasn’t ready for that yet. Telling Shawn was too risky, he’d start paying attention to every little detail between her and Peter and she wouldn’t be able to handle that, not before Peter found out.

Raul managed to move the conversation to something else, she hadn’t thought about it enough to rant about her feelings, and he gave her time by making her something to eat. If Shawn was helpless in a kitchen, he and Peter were decent enough to prepare a good meal. She hadn’t eaten anything since the previous day because she had been too nervous to come over here, so Raul made sure she got something in her stomach before she even thought of leaving.

She ate with him, back to a more normal state. He could make her laugh with almost anything, he was never afraid to make a joke that might offend her because he knew her too well to play with her insecurities, and he always took digs at her the way Shawn and Peter never dared to do. Peter was too quiet for that, but he’d laugh with Raul or her depending on who was roasting who. Shawn was just too nice for that, he was sarcastic for sure, but he gladly left those jokes to Raul in case he’d ever make her feel bad.

“So you’ll tell him?” He brought it up again after they ate, and she was already putting her jacket back on.

“I don’t know.” She sighed, still more than hesitant to risk losing her three best friends.

“You can’t find out if you don’t.” He reminded her gently, handing her the keys she left on his coffee table before she forgot them.

The door opening interrupted their conversation, and Peter strolled in with his camera around his neck.

“Oh, hi, what are you doing here?” He smiled at her, giving her a quick hug. Her heart raced in her chest and she exchanged a look with Raul.

“We were just hanging out,” He covered for her, wondering how he could have forgotten he had to shoot with Peter today.

“I was actually about to go home.” She adjusted her jacket, checking that her phone was in her pocket.

“We’ll see you this week end, yeah?” Raul said before she hugged him. “You gotta tell him.” He added quietly, and she pulled away a little faster than normal.

“I know,” She nodded at him, quickly waving at Peter before slipping out of the apartment, her heart hammering in her chest.

“Are you ready to go?” Peter asked his brother, his eyes darting across the room to land on the two plates from the late lunch the two had earlier.

“Yeah, let me grab my jacket.” Raul got his things, locking up his place before following Peter to his car.

He let him drive to the studio the magazine had booked for them, and a small team was already setting up the background. Peter was Raul’s favorite photographer, he always managed to capture him in a way no other photographer ever could. As a model Raul had to work with a number of people, but if there was one thing he never budged on it was having someone that wasn’t Peter photograph him if he wasn’t fully clothed. He never trusted anyone else for shirtless photoshoots, and if he was in his underwear there was no chance anyone that wasn’t Peter would be holding a camera near him.

“You ready for this one?” The younger one asked, changing a couple of settings on his camera.

“Yeah, let’s do this,” Raul got his focus back to where it should be, trying to forget everything that happened earlier that day to do what he knew he was good at.

It took her two more days to gather enough courage to go to the Mendes household. It was one of her favorite places ever, she had many childhood memories there, all with the triplets and a few other members of their family. Shawn was travelling, and Raul was at his own place because he was busy with work, she knew only Peter would be there. Maybe his parents would be around too, or his sister, but they were too used to seeing her walk in and out to make a big deal out of it.

She walked up the stairs quietly, fighting the instincts that were telling her to run away. She made it to his room and knocked, thinking back on Raul’s words. She needed to tell him.

“Come in!” Peter called out to whoever was knocking on his door, thinking it would be one of his brothers.

“Hi,” She breathed out, quietly shutting the door behind herself.

“Hey,” He smiled. “What are you doing here?”

“I- uh… I need to talk to you about something.” She didn’t make an excuse, she said it straight away so that he’d know she was serious.

“Alright, is everything okay?” He marked his page and closed his book, giving her all of his focus because she was rarely nervous, at least not around him.

“Uh, yeah, sorta.” She wished she could have seen Raul first to get a few encouragements from him.

“Tell me then,” He waited patiently but she couldn’t get the words out. “I can’t help if you don’t tell me.”

“I think I’m in love with you.” She shut her eyes because she couldn’t watch his reaction after she blurted out the words as quickly as her mouth would let her.

“You- What?”

“Please don’t make me repeat it.” She pleaded, watching his face for anything she could find in his expression, but the shock was masking anything else he might be feeling.

“You think?” He asked and she sighed.

“I don’t think, Peter, I am. I just… I’ve been too scared I’d mess things up to bring it up before but I’m clearly doing that now.” She regretted telling him already, she wasn’t ready for his rejection and what would follow.

“Wait, hey, give me a second to process that.” He moved from his chair to the bed next to her. “I didn’t even know you were here, I wasn’t expecting to hear that.”

“Yeah, well…” She took a deep breath. “There it is. I can like… just go… if you want.”

“Please stay,” He wrapped an arm around her and brought her to his chest, hugging her tightly.

She didn’t know what she was supposed to do, she didn’t know what this even was. What was that hug for? Was he just trying to soften the blow? Maybe he was hugging her to help her feel better before telling her the idea disgusted him because he was her as a sister.

“I think I’m in love with you too.” He whispered, his throat too tight for him to form words, because he was terrified too.

“You think?” She sniffled with wide eyes, unable to stop the tears anymore.

“I don’t think. I am.” He used her own words.

“You’re not like, joking or anything, right?” She pulled away slightly, staring into the deep honey eyes that always made her swoon.

“My heart is about to beat out of my fucking chest. I promise I’m serious.” He cupped her face and she nodded, feeling his thumb run over her cheek to erase her tears. “I just… I never thought you’d feel that way.”

“Me neither,” She let him lie down on the bed and curled herself next to him, resting her head on her chest near her hand to feel his heartbeat. “I just feel a thousand times better now.”

This was normal. Hugging Peter, sometimes cuddling with him, it was her normal and she had be so scared to lose it that she could jump up and dance right now.

“I’m so fucking glad you said it.” He sighed, not ready to move yet. He wanted to kiss her, he really did, but just taking a minute to sort things out in his head helped him, and he knew he could be relaxed around her. “I don’t think I could have.”

“I know, that’s what Raul said too.” She closed her eyes, reminding herself to thank him later for his advice.

“He knows?” Peter frowned, wondering how many people had known before he did.

“I talked to him the other day, I was too scared to tell you but I didn’t know who to talk to.” She admitted, she was a wreck the first time she had to say it out loud.

“Does Shawn know?” He wondered, his fingers fiddling with the hair falling down her back.

“Not yet.”

“Wanna see how long it takes him to notice?” His lips spread into a grin when he thought of the reaction they could get out of him.

“How?” She smiled, resting her forearms on his chest to look him in the eyes.

“Just get Raul in on it, see if Shawn notices anything if I’m like… holding your hand or something.”

“Mmh, that’d be fun,” She leaned in to kiss his cheek and he blushed.

“Hey, does this mean I can kiss you now?” His fingers traced her jaw and she couldn’t contain her smile.

“Ooh, ready to make this official?” She teased and he nodded fervently, his eyes trailing down to her lips before falling shut because she was already leaning in.

tags: @itrocksmysocks @r3ader @everythinghappening16 @sunrise-shawn @alilovesshawn @5-seconds-of-mendes @sleepybesson @definitelynotshawnmendes @chrizzy95 @sunrisebrashx @justanotherfangurl272 @turtoix @mariamuses @tastebaldwin @enchantingbrowneyedgirl @queenmxndes @wildflowerfeast @imaginashawnns @heart-struck

As always, feedback and reblogs are more than welcome!

#this concept kills me #I love it #it's so much fun #why do i need a degree when i can be here and write?#request #shawn mendes #shawn peter raul mendes #shawn mendes fic #writing

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imgonnabeyourbubblegumwitch · 6 years

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What’s So Great About Dewey?

A Dewey Duck Character Analysis and Appreciation Post

Part 3 - That bit in Secrets of Castle McDuck! & strengths as flaws.

(Part 1 here, Part 2 here)

So we were back at the scene.

As is completely in character for them, Huey and Dewey argue when the truth is revealed.

H: “How could you keep this from us?”

D: “I was trying to protect you from a potentially devastating revelation.”

H: “Or you just kept it to yourself so you could feel special. Classic Dewey. She’s our mom!”

D: “Okay it’s just – first I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to get hurt. Then I couldn’t tell you because I found out all this stuff and I didn’t want you to hurt me. I’m sorry okay?”

H: “You’re only sorry cos you got caught!”

So Huey is, rightly, furious with Dewey. And Dewey reveals a lot about his thought processes, first saying he wanted to protect the other two, which is in keeping with his role as the hero. After all, even after everything in his talk show he still took his “brothers” with him when the security bot attacked.

Dewey then gets perhaps a little more honest and suggests he was also scared of the other two being angry when they found out and was avoiding that. Nonetheless he never directly responds to the accusation that he just wants to feel special, and his apology is not said in a particularly apologetic way. Look at his face after the argument with Huey. He’s angry, not sorry.

Dewey wants to prove himself to his older brother, but here he hasn't done that.

Not only that but he probably knows Huey is right and that’s likely half of what's frustrating him. He doesn't want to hear what Huey has to say, because Huey has been too insightful. Huey has seen through him: past him doing a kind thing and protecting his brothers to him being self-centred and keeping something very important from him.

But because he seems to get into arguments with Huey fairly frequently, and because he expected an argument – I didn’t want you to hurt me - the full extent of what he’s done hasn’t hit yet. Arguing with Huey isn't a shock.

But then he realises Louie isn't chiming in.

There’s a moment of sort of guilty realisation and then he looks over to Louie.

And then what he’s done hits him because Louie's response is a shock. It's out of character.

Dewey’s voice is full of trepidation when he asks: “Louie – are you okay?”. Dewey knows Louie is not okay but he asks anyway. He probably knows its futile but maybe he's hoping Louie will put on a brave face and Dewey won't have to face what he's done.

I think it’s really key that Louie isn’t crying here. Louie is the most emotional vulnerable of the group and the scardey cat of the brothers, and we see him break down into tears (some real, some fake) quite a lot. But here he’s holding back the tears. He’s not crying, but he is so incredibly emotional and you can hear it in his voice.

L: “You kept a secret about mom – that’s is not okay.”

Look at Dewey’s response.

He wanted Louie to look up to him. He wanted to be Louie's hero. Here he definitely isn't.

Dewey’s desire to stand out can come back to bite him in other ways too. In Jaw$! we get to see the triplets hang out together and when they sneak off into the money bin, Dewey is the one to get eaten by the shark first because he was the one attempting the dive. Rushing off to prove he can be a good adventurer also would have gotten killed pretty quickly in the first episode had Uncle Donald not been around to look out for him.

So we can see that Dewey is pretty reckless, that he can be irresponsible, that he doesn't think about the consequences of his actions, especially the potential consequences for his family. He has good intentions, for example I think the desire to protect his brothers from a horrible truth about their mom was at first completely genuine. However he can get caught up, in feeling special or in solving a mystery, and it's then that his irresponsible side can cause him and others trouble.

This is perfectly highlighted in The Last Crash of the Sunchaser, when his determination, self-centeredness, and irresponsible nature endangers and ultimately breaks his family apart. I'm not going to touch too much on this now because I want to talk about that episode as well as The Night of De Spell/Shadow War in a lot more detail later on when I look at parallels between the triplets and Scrooge, as well as the triplets and Scrooge, Della, and Donald.

What is great about Dewey is that his flaws are also some of his strengths. I saw a really good post on using strengths as flaws recently which I thought I'd liked but hadn't, else I'd link it here. Essentially it was talking about character building and how the best flaws aren't the ones that are tacked on at the end but the ones that can also be a characters strengths.

Take Dewey. His impulsiveness can also be enthusiasm and Dewey is certainly enthusiastic. Not only that but The Missing Links of Moorshire showed how his impulsiveness, if used in the right way, can be beneficial. Though it clashed with Scrooge's steadier, more measured style, Dewey's more instinctive, impulsive playing technique worked in the Druid Cup. It worked so well that Dewey was the one who made the last shot and saved the family.

Dewey's daring is the softer side of his recklessness and it makes him a good adventurer. When he's not accidentally endangering Uncle Donald, or destabilising a worm-hole covered mountain, Dewey is a good adventurer. He's not easily frightened and he seems to genuinely enjoy adventure for adventure, rather than for a reward at the end unlike a certain green duckling we could mention.

Dewey often doesn't think ahead to the consequences of his actions. To go back to the Missing Links of Moorshire! that made him a great golfer. When he tried to think ahead because his family was in danger and he needed the shot to be perfect, he struggled and eventually he just went with his gut. "Ah! Whack the ball! Whack the ball!"

The more immediate thinking is also something that would be an asset on adventures, particularly when something happens you aren't expecting and there isn't time to plan. One of my favourite bits of Day of the Only Child (and I have a lot of favourite bits from the episode) was when Dewey used his "Huey" robot to attack Doofus Drake. He didn't think he just acted. Long term it probably wasn't the smartest move, however in the short term it gave Huey enough time to reprogram the robot and start zapping.

Dewey's other big flaw in his arc is his self-centredness in needing to feel special and on its own this isn't really a flaw. On its own its simply a product of wanting to differentiate himself from his brothers and not just be lumped in as one of the triplets. Of the three of them, Huey is most comfortable in their three while Dewey perhaps the least. Trying to figure out who he is when he's not in the sibling hierarchy is perfectly natural and understandable.

In fact many of Dewey's traits only become "flaws" when combined with other traits, or when they are taken to the extreme, and this is great because it gives him a lot of complexity and it also gives him a chance to grow and develop and work on his flaws and use them positively.

It also makes him very realistic: in real life traits are often neutral until combined with other traits. As a real life example take the trait of being chilled out. It's neutral, neither good or bad. Combine being chilled out with not having a very good sense of time (neutral) and you might get someone who is always late or is a chronic procrastinator who never gets anything done.

(Even things such as good and bad character traits are almost meaningless as different people can think of things differently - people might have different opinions on someone being consistently late for example, but that's an entirely different sort of essay.)

Back to Dewey's traits. His self-centredness as we've discussed is understandable. However when you combine it with his recklessness and his tendency not to think ahead you get things like hiding the fact he's investigating his mom's disappearance from his siblings, or the entirety of Sky Pirates… in the Sky! (doo doo do doo… sorry it's compulsive at this point) which I've written about here.

Of course he has other traits too, not just those associated with his flaws and I’ll be looking at some of them in part four.

part four

#ducktales 2017 #ducktales #dewey #dewey duck #whats so great about...#character analysis #fandom

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yuurisolympicgold · 7 years

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Yuuri Week 2017, Day 2: Friends and Family Title: Worth Your Weight In Platinum Characters: Katsuki Yuuri, Nishigori Takeshi, Nishigori Yuuko. Pairing: Gen. Genres/Tags: Friendship, Anxiety, Depression, Pre-Canon, Canon Compliant. Rating/Warnings: G/None. Summary: Before Victor Nikiforov, there had only been Yuuko.

Yuuri didn’t really regret his decision to leave home. Some days it felt like the worst idea he’d ever had. Then there were the days after he had a good practice; or didn’t flub a jump he’d struggled with, when he thought maybe his goals weren’t so lofty after all. That not only would he be able to skate on the same level as Victor someday, he might even beat him.

Then maybe he could convince himself every choice he’d made hadn’t been for nothing. That when he could return home, he’d have something good to show his family and friends. To prove to them the sacrifices they made allowing him to keep competing hadn’t been in vain.

Those thoughts didn’t erase the guilt he felt when he’d left everyone. Notably, he regretted how he’d unwittingly cut ties with his childhood best friend.

Before Victor Nikiforov there had only been Yuuko. She had been his inspiration before he’d known Victor existed. She wouldn’t be the last, but she was his first idol in figure skating. And without that friendship he might’ve not even pursued a career in competitive skating. He wouldn’t have known about Victor...

On the other hand, he’d never considered himself close with Takeshi. Their relationship was based on their mutual friendship with Yuuko. Even that seemed to change over the years however; the tension gradually lessening between them, the nature of Takeshi’s teasing holding less bite and then one day none at all. It wasn’t until his first competition in Japan after his move to Detroit that he realized their relationship had changed drastically, at some point Yuuri couldn’t determine.

Yuuri supposed he should have suspected something. After his flight landed Takeshi had texted him, inquiring or rather confirming when Yuuri was competing. It was still a shock when the older man showed up at the arena.

Yuuri blinked twice.

“Nishigori?” He asked as if visual confirmation wasn’t enough. But honestly wasn’t his surprise justified?

“Why are you—what are you doing here?” He continued to press.

Takeshi shrugged, fixing him with a lopsided grin.

“I heard one of Japan’s youngest celebrities was making his grand return,” He said as he walked up to Yuuri, staying close but still leaving comfortable distance.

“It’s all over the news, you know,” He continued. “Even weather forecasters are talking about it! They’re anticipating showers of flower crowns and Katsudon XL today.”

Yuuri’s mouth pulled into a pout, but it was only mild irritation he felt when the other man teased him still. Mostly he just didn’t need this before a competition. He had a decent hold on his nerves. For now.

“You don’t have to do that you know,” He replied with a small glare. “And you still haven’t answered my question,” He added.

Takeshi was looking at him differently Yuuri noticed. His eyes skirting his face, gaze dropping down like he was trying to memorize something. His smile had changed too by the time their eyes met again. He... looked fond.

Yuuri swallowed. Takeshi hadn’t really been an annoyance to him in years. He often times felt isolated in Detroit. Now he was back in his home country and one of the last faces he expected to see had greeted him there. It hit Yuuri at once then, just how much he’d missed him; one of his oldest friends.

“I thought I’d see in person how far he’s come. Sometimes television doesn’t do a person justice,” Takeshi said finally.

Yuuri was speechless, the implications of that sentence resonating within him. He didn’t have much time to ponder them however before Takeshi continued.

“The girls wanted to come too,” He added with a bigger grin. “But they’re still too tiny to travel far. They’ll be watching at home though! They’re already big fans of you.”

“They’re—” Yuuri cleared his throat and tried again. “They’re babies.”

Technically they were toddlers, but still...

Takeshi merely shrugged again and Yuuri suddenly felt overwhelmed by emotion. His hands became clammy and he quickly wiped them on his pants. A wave of guilt settled heavily in his chest as he thought of the triplets his friends had so young. He’d seen pictures, but he’d never even met them...

He felt like there was so much to say but didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t know how to begin. It felt like the words were there, but they weren’t the right words so his throat closed up. Instead he remained silent and felt useless for it.

From that point on Takeshi showing up to his local competitions became a normal enough occurrence, as long as the Ice Castle wasn’t too busy. Then came the times when he didn’t come alone.

“Yuuri!!!”

If Yuuri hadn’t been alerted to the familiar squeals, he probably would’ve been knocked on his ass when he was abruptly knocked off center by sudden pressure latched onto one of his knees. Instead he teetered in place and tried to regain his balance, which wasn’t easy when another pair of hands wrapped around his other leg.

“We've been looking all over for you!” The last triplet chimed in. Thankfully she didn’t try to grab onto his legs as well and instead reached up and onto her tiptoes until she could wrap both her chubby little hands around one of his.

“Axel?” He winced a bit as the child in question tightened her hold on him and grinned happily. He then addressed the other two. “Lutz? Loop? What are you doing here? Where are...?”

“I see they found you!”

Yuuri turned as much as he could with three little bodies currently attached to his limbs. Takeshi’s voice always carried, even with the extra bodies crammed into the arena’s lobby. Yuuri was only a bit envious, he had always been soft spoken.

“Ah. Yes, they did,” He said uneasily and finally found his footing. Of course those efforts were for nothing when Takeshi slung a heavy arm around his shoulders. It had become a familiar gesture between them these days yet it still made Yuuri blush. “Hey, Nishigori...” He greeted.

The triplets, now dressed in similar styles of blue, pink and purple, always managed to pop up out of nowhere and surprise him. No matter how many times Takeshi brought them. They were getting so big now and were at least an inch taller since the last time he’d seen them. They had recently started dressing in colored dresses with matching bows, mostly so other people—especially their favorite skaters—could tell them apart. It had become their signature look.

One time Takeshi pointed out the differentiation between their facial features. Loop had a tiny mole on her chin, Axel’s eyes were just a bit closer together and the brown of her irises was deeper, while Lutz had a faint smattering of freckles on the apples of her cheeks. Yuuri found that easy enough to remember and was able to tell them apart without the color coded attire. The girls had been delighted by that.

The first time Takeshi had brought them along Yuuri had wondered how they even knew so much about him. He didn't think Yuuko and Takeshi would neglect mentioning him, but he’d been away for so long. He would be absent for longer too. Yuuri had asked anyway.

“These three were skating fans from the moment they jumped into the world," Takeshi had answered proudly. “It's in their blood, you know. They’re young, but they have a keen eye for talent and potential. Why wouldn’t they favor you?"

“Besides,” He continued. “They've had all sorts of questions about the 'mystery boy' in all those pictures in Yuuko's phone. We've told them all about us and now video chats aren’t enough. Meeting you in person was long overdue.”

‘Us’ meaning Yuuri, Yuuko and Takeshi. He’d said it so matter of fact back then. Yuuri still had a difficult time believing he was worthy of such honest praise. At present Yuuri asked the other question on his mind. “Where’s Yuuko?”

Takeshi hesitated.

“Oh, she’s tied up at the Ice Castle. She wanted to come of course, but you know how busy it gets this time of year. Booking is a bonifide nightmare. Plus the novice classes have started up. Someone needs to hold down the fort...” He trailed off.

There was nothing dishonest about Takeshi’s answer, but Yuuri still knew he was leaving something out. With a sinking feeling, he knew what that was.

Yuuko was respecting the distance he’d unintentionally put between them. Yuuri hadn’t meant for it to happen, but things changed when they got older. Yuuko lost interest in competitive figure skating and took over more duties at the Ice Castle. Then she got married and had children at a young age. They’d tried to keep in touch after Yuuri’s initial move to Detroit. Between his packed schedule and Yuuko taking on more managerial roles, their once a week video chats gradually tapered and eventually stopped altogether.

Yuuri hadn’t forgotten about her. He’d wanted to make her proud too. Yet he hadn’t even qualified for a Grand Prix Final. He still wanted to reach that level, even though a small voice contrarily reminded him that ranking among the top six skaters in the world was no easy journey. He was still accomplished as he was.

Yuuri found himself sinking into familiar thoughts of regret and guilt when Takeshi spoke up again.

“Well I better get these troublemakers out of here before they harass the other competitors for autographs again!” Takeshi joked as he removed his arm from Yuuri. He gathered the three excited girls within the brackets of his arms, detaching them from Yuuri’s side. “They’re probably hungry too. We'll get out of here and meet up with you later."

“Wait,” Yuuri interjected. Even though Yuuko wasn’t there, the Nishigoris being there meant more to him than Takeshi knew. “You don't have to do that. There’s a place just down the block from here. I can go with you and we can— we can catch up?” He offered, unsure if he was overstepping. He really wanted this. He wanted to know these three girls who so easily treated him like family. Who valued him not just as a skater but a person too. He wanted to get to know Takeshi better. They were both adults now, any ill feelings from their childhood had long been left behind.

Takeshi looked momentarily surprised before treating Yuuri to the biggest grin he’d seen on the older man yet.

“That sounds great! Thanks, Yuuri.”

Before Victor Nikiforov there had only been Yuuko. If it hadn’t been for her he may not have developed the deep love he would always have for the ice. She was the one who introduced him to Victor through his skating in the first place. It hadn’t gone anywhere near the way he used to fantasize, but technically he still got a chance to meet him, compete on the same ice as him.

He’d never forgotten his roots. Sochi couldn’t change that.

Now he was about to return home after five years, with nothing to show for it. That is, nothing but a failed career and a glass heart shattered across the ice in anemic shards, too far and too many to mend. Vicchan wouldn’t be there waiting. There was only a shrine and a memory of someone else he’d neglected in his absence. He was still undecided where to go with his career, he couldn’t stop binge eating, maybe once he got home it would be better if he locked himself away and just...stayed there.

At least then he wouldn’t disappoint anyone else.

Yuuri knew things wouldn’t be the same. Time and distance would have changed his relationship with Yuuko and the familiar closeness they once shared. There were some things that just couldn’t be salvaged. But maybe when he returned they could build something new.

He had an idea. Once upon a time, he and Yuuko had bonded through emulating Victor’s routines. Through just being skating fans together. Maybe that’s how he could fix things too. He’d been practicing Victor’s free skate as a warm-up since the first time he saw it that season. He’d never shown anyone. Celestino didn’t even know about it. Right now he couldn’t think of anyone better to show it to.

Then the tides changed; and it had been Yuuko’s children who technically brought Victor to his doorstep.

Months later when he helped Victor with the choreography for Yuri On Ice and the story he wanted to tell; he thought of many people, including the Nishigori family. He hoped he could convey the love he felt for them through his skating too. That he appreciated every bit of love and support they offered him freely, even before they reconciled. How much it meant when they showed him he didn’t need to win to be worthy in their eyes. Now he was ready to return that same love and devotion.

He’d learned through his friends and family that winning wasn’t everything— they would love him no matter what. To them he wasn't worth his weight in the golds, silvers and bronzes he brought home. He was worth so much more. Now he was ready to move onto the next step. He was ready to skate for himself and his love for the ice. If he won, it would be because of that. From those thoughts he could feel familiar competitiveness flare up again.

They weren’t words, but it was the best he could do right now. He was in a better place than he’d been after Sochi. He didn’t want to be afraid to open up to others anymore. It was an ongoing process, but one day he’d learn how to better use his words.

Then he would tell them their friendship had meant most of all.

#yuuriweek #day: 2 #theme: friends and family #theme: past #katsuki yuuri #yuuri katsuki #queue #fic

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