#it looks like at least for now they'll be doing one of the earlier arcs though

[yumedoca]

Alright, my fellow UY folks!! Since the new trailer has dropped, why don't we unpack everything they've shown us so far?

Or more specifically, what all chapters are getting adapted in the third cour (only third since they won't reveal footage for the fourth one till the third is over.)!!

Also, ignore the stupid quality since I took the pictures on my phone..

First up is the Kurama - Ran - Rei two-parter!! Nice to see Kurama again since I was worried she would be a one time character since she didn't appear in the eye catches. However, I'm pretty sure this is going to be her last appearance since it's her final appearance in the manga (not counting cameos). It's one of the funnier Kurama chapters, so this will be great fun!!

Next up is the 'Fantasy bubblegum' chapter!! Another one I didn't think which would be adapted since we see Ten order the key item in this chapter in the post credits of the love-love crystal ball episode. Maybe the order was delayed? Or Ten didn't use it till now? Who knows. Anyways, this is a pretty funny chapter and I'm excited to see how it turns out (Also BenOyu yuri, Let's goo!!!)

AtaLum fans, Let's rejoice, because it looks like they're adapting "Love knows no barriers" aka the chapter where Lum gets hit with the rice cooker!!! This one is my favorite singular chapter in the series and I absolutely hated the original anime's version of this one so I hope the remake does this one justice!! I'm not sure whether the first one is from this chapter since Ataru's wearing his school uniform instead of his casuals, but maybe it's because of a few changes here and there. DavidPro, you better not disappoint me considering what the original did.

Looks like we're going to get the chapter which introduces the Ryuunosuke's mom (Masako) saga. I'm not sure whether they'll adapt everything under this saga, but the first one seems to be there. I really like this chapter because we get a wholesome relationship between Ryu and Ataru's mom.

THE BODYSWAP CHAPTER!!! This one comes a bit earlier from what I remember and not to mention, it's pretty hilarious (literally any chapter where Sakura has to deal with Ataru's BS is an A+ for me) so I'm super excited!!

ASUKA, MY CHILD!! IT'S HER!! Finally one of my UY Blorbo's gets animated!! And considering the shot of her and Ton- chan, yes guys, they're keeping the incest. I've never understood why there were some who said they wouldn't adapt it but like, it's one of Asuka's main character points and the incest is clearly portrayed as wrong and unacceptable, similar to Ataru's lecherous behavior (They might still tone it down though). Anyways, I'm so excited for Asuka, I can't wait!!!

And finally, two very beloved and very important arcs!! First, I can't believe we're getting three AtaLum stories in this cour, I mean we deserve it after being fed with only one last cour. And second, I'm pretty sure both these arcs are going to be at least a whole episode long considering how big these two are. And I have to admit, the door realm looks so pretty.. and I'm so excited for Shingo, Inaba and their arcs, can't January come already???

And that's all for it!! Other than these, there were two to three shots I couldn't exactly place which chapter they belong to, so sorry about that. And I wanted to point out that the animation looks quite fluid in some scenes as well, so it looks like DavidPro is doing great work as expected. Anyways, UY is coming back once again on January 11th and I am so ready!! THE HYPE IS REAL!!!

#cant wait already.. #my brain is so uy clouded today... #urusei yatsura #うる星やつら #lum #ataru moroboshi #ten #ryunosuke fujinami #inaba #shingo #benten #oyuki #ran #rei #shinobu miyake #asuka mizunokoji #kurama #kotatsu neko #urusei yatsura 2022 #god i love them sm #HYPE HYPE HYPE

[hawkinsunderground]

every time i start to feel like i'm deluding myself about byler happening, i give myself a reality check using the classic 'if they were all straight' scenario, and then i stop doubting. if everything remained the same--same relationships, same dynamics with friends--with the only difference in the show being that Will was a girl, it's almost painfully obvious. And because all a m/f couple has to do is be in the vicinity of each other to get shipped, byler probably would have been more popular even in the earlier seasons.

Mike spending an entire season right by his girl best friend's side, desperate to help and fighting to stay near her as she slowly gets possessed. Then at the end of it all he gives her a whole speech crying and saying that choosing to be friends with her was the best thing he's ever done? I guarantee you even with milkvan developing a bunch of people would have jumped on the byler train, and more others would be thinking that Mike and Willow or whatever would eventually get together later on, with warring opinions on who the better ship is.

Mike neglecting his girl best friend who is now hinted to have a crush on him in s3 while trying to get over being kidnapped and everything she went through? Spending all his time with Eleven even though byler had just been so close the season prior. There's no way at least some ppl wouldn't be thinking romance. The whole 'Mike's probably repressing his feelings and pushing Will away because he's scared' idea that a lot of bylers believe suddenly wouldn't be a reach anymore if it was a straight pairing.

Sectioning the two of them off to have their little cali romance all the while hinting at serious relationship troubles and conflicting character arcs for Mike and Eleven. Meanwhile the shrouded love confession from 'Willow', the obvious flirting. You can't look me in the eyes and tell me that people wouldn't be losing their shit during the entire apology scene if Will was a girl. The flirty smiles, the "I didn't say it." "You didn't have to.", the intimacy of his apology to 'Willow' in comparison to the apology from Mike to Lucas in s1. Along with all of the other scenes where Mike is clearly different with 'Willow' compared to the rest of his friends, he's always near her, etc.

Atp I feel like the general consensus would be that they're setting up a Melvin breakup and Byler endgame. Mike putting his hand on Willow's shoulder and promising they'll get through this together while literally showing Midleven crashing and burning in the same scene? In one of the final scenes? You're gonna tell me that people wouldn't be thinking along the lines of romance, with the love triangle pointing in byler's favor?

Mike's 'love' confession would come across as the lie that it was and a lot of people would probably be saying that Mike is not confronting his true feelings. They would be drawing the same comaprisons we are--that it didn't even work and the gates opened, that his (girl) best friend had to tell him and guide him to confess to Eleven, with them finally as close as they were around s2 again and Melvin not even really getting back together, with clear issues still present in the finale. The direction they are going to take things in s5 would become obvious without the straight goggles blinding people to some of the most obvious character and relationship arcs that have been done a million times.

The only difference would be the lack of struggle due to homophobia and would probably be more centered on Mike's inability to confront his feelings due to a fear of messing things up between himself and Will, along with losing el because he doesn't love her the way she wants him to, keeping to the core of his character in either scenario

You're gonna tell me that if people saw this and it was mike's girl best friend sitting next to him, they wouldn't be jumping at a romance arc between the two of them?

or his reaction to them being friends again, a smile and voice we've never seen used with any other character, noticably different?

the physical proximity, the fact that they seem equally flirtatious and affected by the other despite Will being the only one with confirmed feelings atp it's too obvious--if it were a girl sitting next to mike people would definitely be drawing some conclusions Anyway, byler endgame

#byler #will byers #mike wheeler #byler analysis #byler brainrot #stranger things #I mean they even set the stage with all the emotional buld-up and explanation so that next season when everything is fast paced #There will be enough exposition from s4 that they will have enough time for a byler confession without it feeling rushed #these new crumbs have seriously refreshed my byler/stranger things obsession i swear lol

[hannahmanderr]

A fight with Spectra leaves both Fenton and Phantom hurting in more ways than one.

They'll make it up to each other. They always do. (Pitch Pearl)

Rated: Teen

For @scarletsaphire and @duchi-nesten

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

“Wow, Spectra.” Phantom grunted as he dodged a swipe from the shadow ghost. “I never would’ve pegged you for the swimming type. Last time I took a shadow like you for a dip, they got the one way ticket to the Amity sewer system.”

Spectra tutted. “A girl’s allowed to have fun every now and then, Danny!” 

“And by fun, you mean trying to stage a little ‘accident’ for the first gym class of the morning?”

“See, you get it! A little tampering here and there is all it takes to give a couple of kids a shocker of a morning wake-up call!” She dissolved into a dark mist as Phantom made a dive for her, reforming after he passed through her harmlessly.

But he’d been expecting that. He doubled over backwards, arching his back into the flip, and snapped into a quick roll to make another pass at her.

Apparently, she had been expecting that too. She bared her claws and swung them in a wide arc, forcing him to twist out of the way to try to avoid them. The claws thankfully missed his chest, but she managed to snag his arm and rip four jagged cuts into his arm, almost like mini versions of the gash she’d managed to give him earlier.

“Gah!” Phantom clapped a hand to the torn jumpsuit. “Jeez, have you ever heard of nail clippers?”

Spectra grinned wickedly and made another lunge for him. “Ha! I’ve spent hours making sure my manicure is… on point.”

He barely had time to pull his hand away and throw up a green shield, deflecting her blow. Ectoplasm dripped from his glove to the tile and left tiny little glowing pinpricks on the dark floor. Kind of like stars.

Focus. Not the time to be thinking about that.

“Hey, the puns are my thing, alright? At least let me have that.” Flames of cold green energy burst to life around his hand, and he shot off a quick succession of blasts, hoping at least one would hit. 

He’d have taken the time to aim if he hadn’t already gotten his head smashed into the wall twice during this fight. Either that, or his slightly fuzzy vision indicated he was having a sudden need of contact lenses, but the throbbing at the back of his skull seemed to say otherwise. 

So maybe he had a tiny little baby concussion. No big deal. 

Only one of the blasts hit true, but it did little to deter Spectra. She snarled and called up her own purple ecto-energy. “And why should I let you?”A flick of her wrist warped the energy into a lasso. “You already have so much, don’t you?”

The lasso came flying at him. He darted to the left only to be met by the wall of bleachers, sitting halfway folded up. Figured. The janitor must’ve gotten lazy after the swim meet earlier.

Either way, it added a tally to his growing count of blows to the head today. He gripped his head tightly and tried to funnel ice energy into his hands to try and numb the pain a little, maybe even help put a block to any swelling, but all it did was open a window for the lasso to close around his ankle. A yelp escaped his throat as Spectra yanked him towards her.

“I mean think about it! You’ve got the powers, the looks, the personality…” Each word was punctuated by a sharp tug on the rope. “What more does a boy need, hmm?” She paused in fake contemplation. “Oh, wait! I might know!”

“Not! Listening!” He pulled fruitlessly at his leg to try and free it before giving up and shooting at the rope with an ecto-blast. His energy wasn’t quite strong enough to break hers. Of course it wasn’t. Just his luck. When had her energy gotten so strong anyway?

“How about a family who loves him? I don’t think you have one of those now, do you?”

“I said I’m not listening!” he shouted, though the weight of her parasitic words settling into his chest seemed to indicate otherwise. 

Ice. Surely ice would work. Phantom barely needed a thought to call it into his hands and coat the energy rope with a thick layer. He snapped it like a toothpick and immediately whirled around to fire off two blasts of ice as soon as his leg was free. They both missed, instead catching some of the swimmer’s blocks along the edge of the pool.

“Poor little Danny,” she cooed condescendingly, apparently unfazed by his escape. She shot off a couple of blasts of her own before disappearing in a whirl of shadow

Before he could figure out where she’d gone, she dug her claws into his shoulders. A whimper of pain squeezed past his lips as the fabric of his suit tore again, exposing his bare skin to her razor sharp claws.

“Maybe I should feel sorry for you after all! You’ve got the adoration of all these humans, yet you’ll never truly fit in with them. Of course, you could just stick to the Ghost Zone, but you’ve managed to turn everyone there against you! Well now, that really is a sticky predicament! Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to let you have your precious puns after all.”

The toxicity in her words began to make him dizzy and lethargic, especially now that she had a physical hold on him. Her claws dug deeper and deeper into his shoulders. Why were her words getting to him this easy? It’s not like he didn’t know how to handle himself around her.

He shook his head and jerked half-heartedly, but that only succeeded in cutting himself open on her claws even more. Her venom wasn’t physical, sure, but it didn’t stop it from hurting as it penetrated him down to his very core.

“Stop it,” he panted, “I’m… you can’t get to me like that.”

Except she absolutely could, and she knew it just as well as he did.

“I want to help you, Danny, I really do.” She leaned her head down close enough that he could feel her lips graze his ear. He recoiled from the touch. “All you have to do is let me. I can take it all away, you just have to let me get in you to take it out. So simple… and then you won’t feel a thing. I promise.”

His struggles weakened as the words drove themselves into his core. 

She was right. It would be so much easier, wouldn’t it? To just give in?

No.

Just a little moment of selfishness. That’s all it would take. No more pain. No more heartbreak.

Fight it.

The town wouldn’t be completely unprotected. Valerie could handle it. And who knew? Maybe the ghosts wouldn’t attack it so much without him.

Fight it!

And if the ghosts quit attacking, then that would just solve the problem. A win-win. Everyone wouldn’t have to deal with the ghosts, and he wouldn’t have to deal with everything.

Fight it, Phantom!

The familiar voice echoed in his ears, trying to be heard over the static of Spectra’s spell. 

If he focused, it was as though he could hear it right beside him. 

A single ray of light, breaking through the heavy gloom of his own desolation and guilt.

Phantom!

So close…

Something jostled his shoulders.

“Godda- oh my God, please don’t…”

Strange. That voice really did sound close.

“I swear, Phantom, if you don’t snap out of it in the next ten seconds, I’ll… I’ll… oh, damn it…” 

Slowly, Phantom peeled his eyes open. When had he closed them?

His core throbbed painfully. Like someone had taken a dagger to it. A dagger made of misery-inducing lies, anyway.

“Oh my God, finally!” Warm hands moved from their position on either side of his head to clasp onto his shoulders. “Don’t you dare do that again, you - you… Oh my God…”

“Wha…?” He groaned and brought a hand up to his head, ignoring the sting of his wounds rubbing up against the hands. As his vision cleared, a dark head of hair and bright blue eyes came into focus. Off to the side, he could see a shadowy, glowing heap lying a few yards away, smoke drifting up from it. 

He struggled to sit up. “Jeez, Fenton, did you really shoot her?”

“Wow, okay, you don’t have to sound so surprised. What was I supposed to do, just stand there and let her waste you?”

“You… you shouldn’t be here.” If the pool could stop spinning at a million miles an hour, that would be nice. “I had it handled.”

Fenton scoffed, though his breath still shook. “Sure. Keep telling yourself that. Being pinned down by a literal soul-sucking she-demon is definitely what most people would consider having it ‘handled’.”

Phantom took the opportunity to take gauge of his surroundings. He had no clue when he’d ended up on the floor of the pool room, but the soreness in his back definitely gave him the impression that he’d been dropped. Fenton must have dragged him here to prop him up against the bleachers. Ice still covered the swimmer’s blocks and some of the walls were singed from wayward ecto-blasts.

And then there, squatting in front of him, red-faced and panting for breath, was Fenton. He kept his arms placed on either side of Phantom’s head and leaned in oh so close, close enough that his warm breath tickled Phantom’s nose and chin and made him swallow thickly.

It took every ounce of self-control he could muster to push past that train of thought. Not the time for that. “I was just, you know… letting her think she had the upper hand.”

Fenton rolled his eyes. A little more of the tension relaxed from his shoulders. “Keep telling yourself that, ghost boy. Whatever floats your boat. But let it be known that today, I had to save your sorry butt for once.”

“I refuse to feed your fantasies about being my knight in shining armor any more than I already have.”

That made Fenton fall back onto his bottom with a thud and the red blush creep up to the tips of his ears. “Well maybe if you quit running into things alone for once, I wouldn't ha-”

A flash of movement caught Phantom’s eye.

It was the only warning he got. There was not a second to spare to alert Fenton; he simply threw his body into the human’s and tackled him to the ground. 

“Ow! What the fu-”

Spectra went whizzing over their heads, missing the top of Phantom’s head by inches.

It was a scramble of limbs as the two boys struggled to untangle themselves from one another. Phantom barely managed to pull his bleeding arm in to miss a blast of purple ectoplasm. Still with half-blurred vision, he threw out his good hand, and a shield cascaded over the two of them.

“Why didn’t you get her in the Thermos, you idiot?” Phantom demanded as he crawled over to where Fenton laid. 

Fenton rolled onto his back with a groan. “Excuse me for wanting to make sure you weren’t stuck in whatever the hell funk she was trying to put you into!”

Spectra’s energy slammed into the shield like a brick wall, nearly sending Phantom toppling again. His core still panged with the ache of the aftereffects of Spectra’s influence, and it fluttered weakly in his chest. A second strong blast struck him right down to the core and shattered the shield.

Fenton cursed again and began to search blindly for his weapon as Phantom took to the air again, ignoring the way his core and arm and shoulders throbbed. He fired off a quick succession of blasts himself and made a beeline for the shadow demon.

Much to his dismay (but not his surprise), she twirled around the attacks, and they sailed right by her as she cackled in delight. “Aw, looks like I really caught you boys off your game tonight!”

“I’m working with a concussion here,” Phantom growled, “cut me some slack.” He made a lunge for her as she still had her focus turned on Fenton, but this time he pulled up and out of the dive at the last second and allowed his tail to reform into legs. His foot connected with the underside of her jaw, sending her crashing into the ceiling.

“You have a concussion?” Fenton shouted from the ground. He’d found the blaster and was attempting to shove the cartridge back into it. “And you’re still at this?”

“Not to sound repetitive, but excuse me for making sure she doesn’t electrify the pool to kill a couple kids in the morning!”

Fenton glanced up to where Spectra was pressed against the ceiling, rubbing the spot where Phantom had kicked her. “Really? Electrifying the pool? That’s the best you can come up with?”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” she said. She zipped downwards, but to Phantom’s surprise, she diverted away from the two of them and made a mad dash for the live wires she’d been tampering with, lying towards one corner of the pool.

He wasn’t sure what she was up to, but he chased after her anyway. “I’m getting real tired of this game, you know!” he said as his core gave another painful pang. He didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to hold out. Her spell had really done a number on him this time.

Fenton finally managed to fit the cartridge back into his blaster, and he wasted no time raising it to take aim at Spectra. He fired one, two, three back-to-back shots, and Phantom prayed to the Ancients that the human’s aim would hold truer than his own.

Two of the blasts clipped her tail, but it was enough to make her falter and hiss. Phantom plowed into her at full speed and tackled her into the floor.

“Now how does that feel?” he asked with an impish grin.

“It’ll feel better when I’m pounding your skull in with an anvil,” she said with a snarl. “But don’t worry, I’m just warming up.”

It was his turn to falter (had she really just punned at him again?), and though he tried to recover quickly, it was long enough time for Spectra to take back the advantage. Too late, he realized the floor around them had begun to steam and the shadowy flesh (mist? Goo? It was kind of hard to tell with shadow ghosts) grew burning hot under his hands. It surprised him enough to cause him to yelp and push himself off of her, his core instinctively generating more of his cold energy to counteract the effects.

She took advantage of the opportunity to fly off again, Fenton’s blaster shots following right behind. Phantom shook his head - big mistake apparently, what with the state of his head at the moment - and took off after her again as well. Tag was really starting to wear him out.

This time, she managed to reach the wires before he reached her, and she wasted no time dragging them into the water. “Ah ha! See? Even with two of you around, I still get what I want!”

“You do realize we’ll just take them out once we get you back inside the Zone, right?” Fenton asked. He squeezed the trigger of his blaster again, but this time, only a few sad sparks puttered out the end.

“Oh my God, do not tell me you brought a dead gun to a fight!” Phantom shouted. He swiped at the wires, trying to pick them up off of the floor, but Spectra, in her madness, grabbed at him furiously in an attempt to get him to stop. Her claws dug deep across the backs of his shoulder blades as he tried to evade her.

That was definitely enough to elicit a curse out of the young ghost. Reflex caused him to try and put a hand up to the injury, but he couldn’t twist his arms or his torso right to reach it well enough.

Spectra didn’t waste any time before lobbing an enormous ball of her ecto-energy at him, and in his distraction, he didn’t notice it until it was too late. Once again, he was sent sprawling into the general direction of the bleachers.

“Phantom!” The shout came from Fenton’s general direction, but his head was swimming too much to be able to see him properly. With a groan, he pressed his hands to his temples again, trying to feed as much cold energy into them as possible. Anything to stop the throbbing and the spinning at this point.

A strangled sort of yelp snapped him out of it, and he looked up to see Spectra charging at Fenton, who’d begun to try and swing the strap of the Thermos off of his shoulder to use it. Phantom didn’t even have the chance to react before she swiped a hand up Fenton’s chest, raking into his skin and leaving four glistening red stripes, visible underneath the ribbons of his t-shirt.

Fenton’s cry of pain stabbed Phantom right in the core, and as he staggered to his feet to rush to his aid, Spectra fastened her hand around the collar of Fenton’s shirt and pulled him up into the air. She dragged him like a rag doll, only stopping to hover some 15 feet above the surface of the pool, near the ceiling.

Ecto-energy was already pooling in his hands in spite of the ache in his core and head, but she waggled a finger from her free hand at him. “Ah, ah, ah! I wouldn’t shoot if I were you! You wouldn’t want me to lose my grip on your little human now, would you?”

“Don’t listen to her!” Fenton shouted, struggling in her grasp even as Phantom froze in place, remembering the wires still live and still dangling in the water of the pool.

His mind raced, working desperately against the agony of his rapidly accumulating head injuries. He could just try and fly right at her, but she’d still probably drop Fenton, and he didn’t think he could bank fast enough to try and catch him before he hit the water. Maybe he could try and freeze the pool over, but again, she’d drop him the minute he made a move, and with his core sputtering like it was, he didn’t know if he could get a thick enough layer on fast enough to keep Fenton from crashing through and plummeting into the water anyway.

“Okay, okay,” he said, holding his hands behind his back. Show her he wasn’t about to try anything funny. He couldn’t think straight enough to do much else. “You… you win, just - just put him down, safely, alright?”

“Are you nuts?” Fenton screeched. “What the hell are you thinking? She’ll just drop me anyway!”

“You know, Danny, he does have a point,” she said, stroking her chin. “After all, your misery is just delectable. Why not sweeten it a little more by making sure your precious boy toy has a little accident of his own?”

The tips of Phantom’s ears burned cold. Any other day, he would’ve shot back with some clever quip that no, Fenton was not his “boy toy,” but the threat to Fenton like that…

“Please…” he whispered. He knew how pathetic he must’ve looked. If anyone else in the Zone saw him they’d have a field day. Probably end up on the cover of that stupid underground tabloid allegedly run by Kitty. “I won’t - I’ll… I’ll do whatev-”

“Just take the damn shot, Phantom!” Fenton yelled. His shirt began to tear even more where Spectra had her grip on it.

“Yes, Danny, take the shot,” Spectra purred. “There’s really no way out of this, you know. Either way, I get what I want. At least if you shoot me, you can say you went down swinging instead of lying down and taking it like a worthless dog.”

The words bit into his ears and embedded themselves in his core. No, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t, but as much as he fought, he couldn’t deny that she had a point… If his head would just stop spinning he’d think his way through this, he’d come up with an idea to save Fenton, but he could barely focus on keeping his lunch in his stomach.

On the edge of a full-out panic attack, he didn’t even think as he looked up and found Fenton’s fierce blue eyes. Their gazes met, and even from the distance…

Phantom wasn’t quite sure how it happened, or even why it happened. Maybe it was a spontaneous ghost power. Maybe he was just imagining it. Maybe he still remembered how his soul once twined together with Fenton’s, before they split, and maybe even after they split, a little piece of each of their souls stayed with the other and bound them closer than they had ever been, even when they had been one person.

Whatever it was, he didn’t know, but the moment he met Fenton’s eyes, he could see. 

Fenton trusted him. With every fiber of his being and every beat of his wholly human heart, he trusted him.

Do it.

So he did.

In one motion, he brought his hands back out in front of him and shot a single beam of ecto-energy at Spectra. Without waiting to see if it hit or how long it took her to drop Fenton, he darted forward, flying out over the electrified pool.

He caught a glimpse of Fenton’s free fall just ahead of him, and he poured on the speed. Just…

… a little…

… closer…

Phantom grunted and faltered as Fenton landed in his outstretched arms, nearly dragging them both into the pool. He kept his forward movement and held onto the human for dear life (quite literally, apparently) as Fenton fumbled with the strap of the Thermos.

Above them, Spectra screamed furiously. Phantom could feel the intense heat of her anger flare bright and start speeding towards the two of them. 

But Fenton was already on it. He twisted in Phantom’s arms and aimed the Thermos at her, and in a matter of seconds, she had been secured inside.

It was only after Spectra had been caught and they were safely above dry ground that Phantom slowed his flight. Only then did he notice just how fast his core was vibrating and the adrenaline pulsing through his body that he could only attribute to his ghostliness. The whole thing had taken mere seconds, but to him, each second had felt like an eternity.

Fenton had one arm wrapped in a death grip around his shoulders and the other folding the Thermos in between their stomachs. In this position, Phantom could feel the flutter of Fenton’s heart and just how shallow his breaths were. Black hair brushed against his jaw, but he couldn’t be bothered to move it out of the way.

He just wanted to hold him tight to him and never let him go.

Fenton turned his head to look up at Phantom, the hairs tickling his skin as they dragged across his chin. That smarmy little jerk had the gall to grin up at him, still breathless, and say, “Thanks for letting me drop by on such short notice.”

Phantom groaned and shook his head, which just made Fenton burst out laughing.

He flew them over to where the wires had been put into the pool. Carefully, making sure to mind the human still clinging to him, he grabbed them at the dry bits and lifted them out of the water. A little bit of intangibility made sure they were free and clear of any dripping.

“I, uh, don’t suppose you know how we turn these off?” he asked. Now that the fight had ended, his voice echoed throughout the large room, just reemphasizing how eerily quiet it had become.

Fenton shrugged. “Fuse box? Where’d she even get them anyway?”

“I don’t know.” He opted to lay them out on the tile, away from the water and away from the metal bleachers. He could figure it out in a bit. For right now…

A warmth on his stomach drew his attention. “Ancients, Fenton, what were you thinking?”

Fenton looked down at his tattered shirt and the blood seeping onto it and Phantom’s jumpsuit. “Tis but a flesh wound,” he said with a little laugh.

“Spectra rips into you like wet toilet paper and all you can do is quote Monty Python at me?”

“It’s not like you’re doing much better!” Blue eyes trailed to the green-stained tears in his jumpsuit. 

Phantom bit his lip. The urge to scold the human and fuss over him was nearly overwhelming, but he knew Fenton would throw a fit if he ignored his own injuries. “Okay, okay here.”

He touched down beside the pool and set Fenton down as gently as he could. Fenton sprawled out over the tile with a sigh. A whine stirred in Phantom’s chest as the familiar weight and warmth left him, and it took every ounce of his self-restraint to choke it back and keep himself from latching on to him.

Instead, with a swallow, he knelt beside the human and carefully pushed the ribbons of t-shirt fabric out of the way. The cuts in Fenton’s chest weren’t horribly deep, but they continued to ooze blood and stain the shirt.

The hand he placed next to the wounds was feather-light. “I can’t believe she got you like that…”

Fenton laughed hollowly. “And I can’t believe she ruined this shirt. Sam will never buy me another concert t-shirt ever again if I keep getting them ruined.”

The joke fell on deaf ears. An idea was blooming in Phantom’s head, he just didn’t know…

“May I?” he asked, pointing to the cuts.

“... You don’t have to ask permission. It’s not anywhere your hands haven’t already been, you know?”

Oh, Ancients. His cheeks burned bright enough green to cast the barest hint of a glow on Fenton’s face. The human snickered at his reaction. “Wow. I guess you can say I really know how to turn you on, huh?”

If possible, the glow brightened. “Just shut up and let me try this,” he muttered grumpily.

He set his jaw and placed a gentle hand over the bleeding wounds. Fenton let out a quiet hiss as the glove made contact with the open flesh, and Phantom couldn’t hide his own wince upon hearing it. 

It’s okay. Focus. He breathed in deeply - a habit leftover from when they had been one what seemed like forever ago - and drew cold energy from his core. Lessons from Frostbite echoed in his ears as he zeroed in on the energy, trying to carefully twist it just so…

Fenton gasped when the hand began to glow a pale blue, radiating a pleasantly cool energy. Phantom felt him lean into the touch ever so slightly.

“That’s nice,” the human whispered. He closed his eyes and let his head tip backwards.

Phantom ignored him solely out of a need to concentrate. It was a constant, precise work, drawing up the energy, carefully reshaping it, channeling it up and out of his arm, not too slow but not too fast, either.

The two of them sat there in comfortable silence, their faces lit only by the glow of Phantom’s hand, the underwater lamps lighting up the pool, and the two lone emergency fluorescents hanging overhead. Fenton’s even breaths and the hum of the pool filter were the only audible sounds.

It was nearly ten minutes before Phantom pulled his hand away abruptly and fell to the side, barely managing to catch himself before his head smacked into the floor yet again. 

Fenton’s eyes flew open at the sudden disappearance of the ghost’s cool touch. “What hap- oh.” He looked down at himself, where newly mended skin replaced the wounds. The only indication that there had been an injury in the first place was the pinkish shade of scabbing skin, almost like a sunburn.

A grin blossomed on Fenton’s face. “No way, you can do that? That’s so cool! How long - whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, what happened? Are you okay?”

If the unbearable pounding of his head and core and everything weren’t enough to prove that. “Jus’ a little tired,” Phantom mumbled. “Probably… used too much energy at once…”

“No shit you did! Like seriously? You take that big of a blow from Spectra and then try and heal me? What the hell are you thinking?”

“I’m fine.” He grunted as he pushed himself up a little more. “I jus’... need a sec. Just a sec…”

Except he overcompensated while trying to prop himself up. A new wave of dizziness washed over him, and he began to topple the other way.

Fenton cursed again as he scrambled to grab Phantom and shove himself in between the ghost and the tile. “You’re such an idiot,” he said even as he shifted their bodies so Phantom’s back leaned against his arm. “And don’t you dare say anything about being my idiot or whatever.”

“Wasn’t going to.” Phantom sighed and slumped even further against Fenton. The cuts on his back screamed at the friction, and he knew he was probably just staining Fenton’s shirt even more, but he couldn’t be bothered to care.

Screw the circumstances. This was nice. Just existing together like this.

After a moment, he felt Fenton let his head lean against the top of his own. “Seriously though,” he said, wrapping his pinky around Phantom’s. “Why would you do that? It could have waited, it wasn’t even that bad.”

Phantom exhaled. If Fenton was seriously expecting to have this conversation right now, he was about to be sorely disappointed. “I was just making sure.” The words sounded flimsy even to him.

“Yeah, sure. Definitely not you being an overprotective neurotic like you are.”

The frustration behind Fenton’s words surprised him. It… definitely hadn’t been the response he’d been expecting. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What do you think it’s supposed to mean?” Fenton huffed. “You always do this! Act like some sort of martyr or something when it’s totally unnecessary. All you’re gonna do is end up screwing yourself over!”

Okay. Apparently this conversation really was happening now. “Is it so wrong to try and help? Because I know you’d do the exact same thing if you could. And you still try anyway.”

“Did I say it was wrong to try and help? You know I’m not gonna stop you from helping out, especially ‘cause duh, I want to help out too, but no, I’m talking about stuff like this.” Phantom craned his neck around to see Fenton gesturing at his torso. “The extra stuff that’s more than just helping.”

Ancients, how could he explain this without getting himself into hot water? “I just… get worried…”

Fenton scoffed. “Worried? About a few little cuts? You know for a fact we - I’ve taken harder stuff than that. So why freak out when clearly you’re the one that needs the healing?”

“It’s not the cuts!” Phantom said before thinking. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid, this sort of argument, especially when he knew his mouth was going to get ahead of himself and make him regret it. The exact kind of conversation he should be avoiding while nursing a weakened core and a concussion. “I just… it’s complicated, okay? Look, can we… can we maybe just, not do this right now?”

A silence fell over the two, only broken when Fenton lifted his head and leaned forward to get a better look at Phantom’s face. “Do you… are you, like… hiding something?” he asked quietly.

The hesitation and tension in the question was palpable in more ways than one, at least to Phantom. It left a slightly spicy taste in his mouth and made his own core seize up. “N- why would I be hiding something?”

Fenton fingered a rip in his jeans. “I dunno, you just seem… more nervous, I guess? And I just - I don’t know, I’m just worried, like… do you… trust me?”

“What?” That sent a jolt through Phantom’s core. He sat straight up, ignoring the surge of pain that accompanied it, and turned to face Fenton head on. “Why wouldn’t I trust you?”

“You don’t have to tell me it’s dumb, alright? I already know it.” Fenton refused to meet his eyes, instead pointedly fixating on that little rip. “I’m just - argh, you’re gonna think it’s so stupid!”

Phantom hesitated before gently grabbing the human’s fretting hand. “Look, I promise, I trust you, okay? I didn’t realize… I’m sorry if I did something to make you think…”

“Ugh, that’s the problem, you didn’t do anything!” Fenton shouted in exasperation. He hugged his knees into his chest, but allowed Phantom to keep holding his hand. “It’s just me being stupid, alright? Just… forget I said anything.”

Another silence fell between them. Phantom watched him closely. The emotions coming from Fenton were growing increasingly complex and frustrated, and it didn’t help matters that Phantom grew frustrated that he couldn’t properly read them. Whatever was going through Fenton’s mind, it ran deep.

He took in a shaky breath, as unnecessary as it was. They were clearly both holding back from each other, and they were clearly both nervous about how the other would react. If Jazz were here, she’d be scolding them for repressing such strong emotions, especially from one another. She’d go on a whole girly tirade about the importance of openness and honesty in relationships.

To be fair, she generally knew what she was talking about when it came to this stuff.

So maybe he should try and listen.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he blurted, “I was scared, alright?”

There. The proverbial olive branch. 

One of them would’ve had to bite the bullet eventually.

Fenton jerked his head up. Clearly he hadn’t been expecting that. “Scared of what? The cuts?”

“No, not - not that.” Now it was his turn to avoid the other’s eyes. “I… seeing her grab you like that, and then if she’d dropped you, you would’ve fallen in and…”

“But you caught me. It worked out okay.”

“And what if it didn’t?” His core began to pound harder. “What if she’d let you go and - and you fell, and I didn’t get there in time?”

Their gazes met. Phantom found himself wanting both to rip his eyes away and lose himself in Fenton’s pretty blue eyes at the same time.

He hated the feeling.

Finally, Fenton sighed. “... You wouldn’t have let that happen.”

“Okay, maybe you thought that, but not me! I couldn’t even think straight because of this stupid concussion and I didn’t know what to do, so what do you expect? Am I not supposed to be scared?”

“Oh my God, no one said you couldn’t be scared, alright?” Fenton uncurled himself and swung his knees underneath him to sit on his heels. “Like duh! Of course you’re gonna be scared, but that’s not a reason to pop off and try and get yourself hurt just to save me a couple of scratches!”

Phantom sat up straight. “You never know if those ‘scratches’ are gonna be the tipping point! If you’re hurt and I can do something about it, then why shouldn’t I?”

“Because like it or not, you can’t!” Fenton shouted. The words hit Phantom harder than any hit he’d taken from Spectra.

And Fenton wasn’t done either. “You’re not perfect, alright? You’re just… you’re not gonna be! You can try to do everything you can and bend over backwards to make things perfectly okay for everyone else, but at some point, it’s not gonna work! And then what? How - how is you getting yourself hurt making everything okay?”

“I don’t care if I get myself hurt!” Phantom snapped. The words were getting ahead of him again, and as much as he knew he would regret it, he couldn’t bring it upon himself to try and contain them. “Do you know how hurt I would be if I lost you?”

“Of course I do, you idiot, I lo-” Fenton cut himself off as his entire face flushed red.

The pounding of Phantom’s core echoed in his ears, and a strange thrill ran through him. 

Say it. 

Please, I need to hear you say it.

Fenton’s eyes squeezed shut. “I… I care about you… a lot, okay? Like, more than I’ve ever really cared about most people. You… you talk so much about being scared for me, and not knowing what you would do if you lost me, but… haven’t you thought about what I would do if I lost you?”

Phantom froze. The thought had always been there, of course, somewhere in the back of his mind, but…

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I should’ve… I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

Fenton didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You don’t have to apologize, I…” He sighed heavily. “I know you’re just trying to look out for me, and I swear, I appreciate it. It’s… It feels nice, having someone care about me that much, but at the same time, it’s like I hate it, ‘cause - ‘cause it hurts me to see you always throwing yourself into these sorts of situations and just getting yourself more hurt when you don’t need to be and all that stuff.”

Phantom didn’t know how to respond to that.

He sat and watched the refracted light from the pool dance across Fenton’s face as the human stared somewhere across to the other side of the pool. That sort of an outburst… that wasn’t like him. Granted, neither of them ever really enjoyed talking about feelings-with-an-F, but still.

Fenton’s sudden movement caught his attention. “Where are you going?”

The human stood and brushed off his jeans. “You’re still bleeding,” he said, as if that explained everything. “If you get to patch me up, then I get to patch you up.” Without waiting for Phantom to respond, he walked over to the boys’ locker room door and disappeared behind it.

Phantom watched the door swing shut in silence. A certain brusqueness lingered in the air, making his nose itch. 

That could’ve gone better.

But what was he supposed to say? His own feelings were… complicated at best. On one hand, it made his core sing hearing Fenton talk about how much he liked having him worry about him like he did.

Yet on the other, it shattered him to hear the pain and anxiety behind Fenton’s words.

He shifted to let his feet dangle off the edge of the pool and began stirring the water absently with the toe of his boot. At least I made sure the water’s fine, he thought to himself with a grim sort of smile.

Wish I could say the same for him.

Fenton returned a minute later with the first aid kit from his locker in hand, wearing his gym shirt. He wasted no time in kneeling beside Phantom and popping open the lid to grab the antiseptic wipes and gauze.

“What did you do with the old shirt?” the ghost asked quietly.

Fenton shrugged. “Tossed it. What else would I have done?”

“I don’t know. I figured you’d be worried about someone seeing it.”

“Nah. No one ever looks in the trash in that bathroom. That’s like, asking to be scarred for life. Unzip your suit for me, will you?”

Phantom obliged and shrugged his arms out enough for Fenton to wipe at the claw marks. He hissed at the sting, and he didn’t miss how the human’s movements faltered just the slightest bit. Still, he pressed on, gently cleaning away the ectoplasm.

Phantom tried to temper his blush. He was never this tender when taking care of his own wounds.

The tension in the silence began to rub at him. “You… how long have you been wanting to say that?” he whispered, not even bothering to refer to what “that” was.

The breath from Fenton’s long sigh warmed his bare skin. “It’s not exactly like… something I’ve been planning on saying or whatever, it just… came out.”

There was some sort of joke in there somewhere, but now probably wasn’t the best time.

Instead, Phantom cleared his throat. “You know I’ve never meant to hurt you, right?”

“Of course I know that.” Fenton tore open a packet of gauze and pressed it against the cuts on his arm. “Look, this… we’re not in some sitcom, alright? You don’t have to get all sappy on me or whatever. Just… let me take care of your stupid butt.”

Holding back one joke had been hard enough, but holding back a second was impossible. “Says the guy who couldn’t keep his hands off my ‘stupid butt’ a few nights ago.”

Fenton made an odd sort of choking sound, and Phantom couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “I take it all back,” the human grumbled as he taped down the gauze. “You’re the biggest jerk of them all.”

“Only for you.”

Another packet of gauze was torn open and taped to his shoulder before either of them spoke again. “Alright look, I promise I won’t get super sappy on you okay?” Phantom said. He scratched absently at the drain ringing around the pool. “But like… I also don’t want to go on hurting you.”

Fenton sighed again. “Seriously, you don’t ne-”

“No, I do. Even if it’s just for me.” He exhaled shakily. “You… you know I can’t just like, stop jumping in to help and stuff, and you’re right, maybe I do overreact a bit -”

“A bit?” Fenton asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Whatever. I overreact, okay? Happy?”

“Well… it’s at least nice to hear it come out of your own mouth,” Fenton admitted as he pressed a third gauze pad to his other shoulder. “But go on. Since you’re so determined to say this, apparently.”

Phantom closed his eyes as his chest tensed. “I was just gonna say I… I can try and be better about it. Like I can’t promise I won’t get in too far over my head, but… I can try. For you. So you don’t have to worry so much.”

Only the gash on his back remained open. Fenton trailed a gentle finger around the torn skin, leaving the barest traces of warmth in his wake. Phantom swallowed as he realized just how desperately he wanted to feel the full weight of the human’s warmth around him.

Finally, Fenton grabbed one last gauze pad. “You realize that means you can’t flip out on me if I get a papercut, right?”

“What? When have I ever done that?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other boy’s lips tick upward. “Kidding,” Fenton said with the tiniest laugh. “Just giving you a hard time.” He smoothed the last piece of tape in place and helped work the suit back around Phantom’s shoulders.

“Right,” Phantom grumbled as he zipped the suit back up. “Pick on the guy with a concussion. Hilarious.”

“Eh, consider it payback for being so stupid in the first place.”

“What, like having my pride ruined isn’t punishment enough?”

A lump formed in Phantom’s throat as Fenton leaned in close, the black and white of their bangs intermingling with each other. If he needed to breathe, surely he’d be so dizzy from how quickly and how shallow his breaths had become and how violently his stomach and core fluttered. The heat from Fenton’s breath warmed his flushed cheeks.

Ancients, this wasn’t anything new. They’d been this close - or even closer - too many times to count at this point. 

So why did he feel like a kid about to try to kiss their crush behind the school playground?

Right when he didn’t think he could hold out any longer before grabbing Fenton and closing the distance between them, the human broke out into a wide, devilish grin.

“Nope. Not enough.”

Phantom blinked as Fenton laughed and stood up, practically skipping away in glee.

Of course he would. That asshole.

Fenton’s giddy laugh echoed throughout the room as Phantom glared after him with a frown. A shimmer caught his eye, and he turned to look at the rippling surface of the pool. 

A wicked grin - the perfect mirror of Fenton’s - grew on his face.

Two could play at that game.

The throbbing pain of his head was a thing of the past as he lifted into the air and dashed after the human. Fenton was too lost in his amusement to even notice Phantom until it was too late and he had been plucked into the air.

“Not fair! Let me go!” he shouted, kicking at the ghost in protest.

Now it was Phantom’s turn to laugh. He dragged Fenton out over the pool. “Let you go? Are you sure you want me to do that?”

Fenton must not have noticed their position. “I swear, if you don’t let me go…”

Phantom shrugged. “Alright, suit yourself,” he said before dropping Fenton unceremoniously into the pool with an enormous splash.

He couldn’t contain his laughter as he watched Fenton sputter and flail to try and right himself. “Hey, look! You’ve just fallen in, and I’m not freaking out trying to rescue you or anything! I’d call that a solid developmeeeent!”

Fenton had apparently reoriented himself enough to latch a hand around Phantom’s ankle and yank him straight down into the water. A swarm of tiny little bubbles engulfed him as he sank down from the force of Fenton’s pull. 

Ectoplasm was far less dense than water, so by all accounts, he should’ve bobbed right back up. A little bit of flight worked wonders to keep himself underwater. Still grinning, he found Fenton easily and surged at him in a tackle.

Splashing and rushing water filled their ears as the two boys tussled with one another, grabbing and kicking and punching wherever they could, not caring that Phantom was still technically injured. In one moment, Phantom had Fenton pinned down underwater kicking furiously, and in the next, Fenton had shoved Phantom into the pool wall.

Phantom phased himself out from in between Fenton and the wall only to be pulled under again by the human. As they both sank deeper, hair swirling around their heads and ripped clothes fluttering in the current, Phantom turned his head and instantly locked into Fenton’s blue gaze.

If he’d had breath, it would’ve caught in his throat. The sight of the human - his human - with clothes and hair floating weightlessly in the water, framed by the soft golden light of the lamp behind him, absolutely mesmerized him.

The urge was too powerful to fight this time. Before he could think, he took Fenton’s flushed face in his hands and brought their lips together with a hunger that made his head turn into static for an entirely different reason than a concussion.

Their mouths fit perfectly together. Like they had been made for each other.

Fenton responded just as earnestly, wrapping his arms around Phantom’s neck and tangling his fingers in the flowing white hair. He pulled the ghost in closer and pressed into his mouth greedily. 

A thrill ran down Phantom’s spine as the heat from Fenton’s lips burned pleasantly against his chilly skin and sent a spike of warmth straight into his core. He brushed a thumb across his human’s cheekbone and smiled into the kiss when he heard Fenton’s watery sigh from his throat.

He could've stayed there for eternity, kissing his human in the light of the pool lamp. Just the two of them drinking each other in with a thirst that could only be satisfied by the other. 

All too soon for Phantom’s liking though, Fenton was humming insistently and pulling up on his hair. Stupid humans and their stupid need to breathe.

He sighed and broke off the kiss, wrapping his arms around Fenton’s waist as he kicked upward. They both gasped for breath when they emerged on the surface - Phantom more so out of old reflex than anything.

He shook dripping wet hair out of his face. “Wow,” he whispered breathlessly. “That was -”

He was cut off as Fenton used his hold on Phantom’s head to pull him fervently back into the kiss with a nibble at his ghost’s lower lip. Phantom’s eyes flew wide open in surprise before allowing himself to relax into his hold. His hands slid into their familiar spot on Fenton’s hips as the warmth washed over him like a tidal wave.

Fenton bit down harder on his ghost’s lip, eliciting a moan from Phantom and giving him deeper access to the other boy’s mouth. He slipped his tongue in between Phantom’s lips and swept it through his mouth with a longing that he could physically taste on his human. 

Ancients, he could get drunk off that taste.

He let himself get lost in the haze of pleasure as Fenton’s tongue freely explored his mouth, darting in and out and tracing the underside of his own. It wasn't often that Fenton took initiative like this, but he’d be damned if he wasn’t exhilarated by his human’s ability to take charge and absolutely ravish him. Something about it - losing himself to Fenton’s affection, the desperate need to pull himself even closer to him, his other half, his perfect match - lit a cold fire in his core that intertwined with the warmth that burned through his body.

Absently, he moved his hands up Fenton’s stomach, taking the time to ghost his fingers around the outline of his ab muscles. That earned him a gasp from his human, and warm fingers knotted themselves even further into his hair, as if he still wasn’t close enough.

A split second grin was the only warning before Phantom recaptured Fenton’s mouth. He swiped his tongue against the other boy’s impossibly smooth, heated lips and shivered in sync with the hum that issued from his human’s throat and reverberated into his own mouth. 

So maybe he still liked to take charge himself. He blamed it on a ghost thing.

His hands continued to trail up Fenton’s chest to where he had managed to heal him of the claw marks. The fact that he could sense his cold energy still lingering where the wounds had been sent his core into a rollercoaster of thrill and nearly insatiable attraction.

Fenton took advantage of the momentary distraction to angle his head deeper into the kiss and run the fingernails of one hand down the back of Phantom’s neck and spine, sending a whole new slew of nerves alight in his ghost. Phantom’s head swam, not from his concussion but from the electrifying realization that Fenton was not about to surrender in this fight to make the other melt to nothing in their arms.

The thought nearly sent him right then and there.

They were so close. Impossibly close. Their chests aligned perfectly, his core mirroring Fenton’s racing heart. Another stroke from his human’s tongue only filled him further with a buzzing heat that stole every coherent thought from his mind. Nothing else mattered except them and this moment. Spectra could’ve broken out and he wouldn’t care.

And yet he still wanted more.

So did Fenton, it seemed. As Phantom’s hands flew back down his human’s body and hooked themselves into the belt loops on his jeans, Fenton’s free hand pawed desperately at the zipper on his jumpsuit, pulling it down further and - 

BANG!

“- told you I’ll be there, alright? You should be thankful I can even take my lunch period to come get you! You know how many lunch detention shifts I had to take to convince Lancer to cover mine today?”

Both boys froze in horror as Coach Tetslaff’s voice echoed throughout the pool room. Phantom caught a flash of red and white rounding the corner, and in a panic, he flashed into invisibility, snatched Fenton’s waist, and pulled them straight up out of the water and all the way to the ceiling.

Fenton’s heart beat impossibly fast against his own chest as Tetslaff walked into the main area of the room, holding a cell phone up to her ear. “I wasn’t sayin’ it to make you feel guilty!” she huffed. “I was just - wait, hang on a sec.”

Phantom’s core seized as he watched her look at the still-rippling water with a mix of suspicion and exasperation. “Alright,” she shouted, lowering the phone just slightly. “Who’s here? Don’t think I don’t know about that skinny dippin’ dare goin’ round!”

If he hadn’t just narrowly avoided being seen making out with Fenton at 5:30 in the morning in the very much off-limits pool, he would’ve laughed at the idea of a skinny dipping dare. A town full of kids with jacked-up senses of risk thanks to ghosts, and that’s the best they can come up with?

As funny as he found it, he didn’t dare move a muscle. Judging by the tension he could feel in Fenton’s body, he must’ve had the same train of thought. 

Slowly, still watching the pool carefully, Tetslaff brought the phone back up to her ear. “What? Naw, sorry, just some dumb kids screwin’ around and askin’ to get suspended!” she said, directing the last part out towards the room as a whole. 

Phantom clutched at Fenton tighter when she suddenly looked up, straight at them. He realized in horror that though they were still invisible, they were both still dripping wet, emphasis on the dripping. Drops of water slid off their bodies and plinked into the pool below. Of course she would notice something like that.

For an agonizing, long few seconds, they floated there, not even daring to breathe as she squinted up at them. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she shook her head. “Damn leaky roof,” she muttered. “My team gets first at state for four years runnin’ and they can’t even give me a decent roof.”

She stalked off towards the locker room doors, apparently still determined to find her ‘skinny dippers.’ “Whaddaya mean they’re givin’ me a woof? Roof, I said roof.” She pushed open the girls’ locker room door. “I swear I’m gettin’ you hearin’ aids for Christmas.”

Her voice faded away as the door shut behind her. Only when he couldn’t hear it any longer did Phantom let up on the invisibility. Adrenaline hit him like a wave and made his head hurt all over again.

Fenton, however, grinned in exhilaration. “Holy shit,” he whispered with a nervous giggle. “I didn’t even know she got here this early!”

Phantom didn’t tear his eyes away from the locker room door. Ancients help him if he let up his guard and ended up getting themselves caught. He shuddered to think of the scandal. And trying to explain the whole thing to their family. Why Fenton found the whole thing funny, he had no idea.

Speaking of the human, the hairs on the back of Phantom’s neck prickled as he felt his eyes on him. He looked to see Fenton wearing a stupid grin with an eyebrow raised. “What’s that look for?”

Fenton’s smile broadened. “Wanna pick up where we left off?” he asked with a playful lilt.

“Seriously? After that? When you know she’ll be coming back here?”

“Not here, you idiot,” Fenton said with a roll of his eyes. “There’s still plenty of time before school starts. More than enough to go back home and finish what you started.” He tapped a finger against Phantom’s lips.

Phantom only frowned. “You seriously can’t still be turned on right now,” he said around the human’s finger.

Fenton shrugged. “What can I say?” His pupils dilated as he traced a finger down the little sliver of Phantom’s exposed chest. “Something about the thrill of it.”

Phantom swallowed thickly, trying to ignore the tingle left in the wake of the human’s finger. “I wouldn’t exactly call us nearly getting caught thrilling. And will you stop that?”

“Aw, come on! Live a little!” Fenton’s goofy grin returned, still with half-lidded eyes, and he planted a peck on the ghost’s cheek.

“I’m a ghost. By definition, I don’t live.”

“... You’re no fun.”

“Hmm.” Phantom’s lips quirked up into a smile, and he leaned in to place a tender, feather-light kiss on his human’s lips. “Too bad you’re stuck with me then.”

Despite the kiss, Fenton still pouted. “You know if we don’t go back home, you might as well just leave me here. And then you won’t get to see me till after school. Or later. Maybe I’ll get detention on purpose just to mess with you.”

“... Alright, alright, we’re going.”

#danny phantom #pitch pearl #danny phantom pitch pearl #danny fenton #hannah writes #danny phantom fanfic #this uhhhh grew way longer than i was expecting #mildly suggestive

[raayllum]

What are your biggest predictions for season 5 and onwards? Plus, I love your page and have been a follower from the start!

Aww thank you so much!! It has been a very long, enjoyable journey together then! (5 years and counting <3) I always love seeing you in my notes and ask box, so thank you so much for sending this in!

See what makes TDP tricky is that they love to store things in earlier seasons that may come back like, the next season, or may only come back literally seasons later, and it's hard to tell when that'll happen. Right now I'm hoping that we can some development on the possession plot line and Aaravos' release in S5, and while I do think it's more likely Aaravos will get out in S5 still, I could see the merit in pushing that and the possession stuff into S6 for thematic stuff (destiny and stars and all that).

So I'll break it down into S5 specific plot lines / stuff maybe, versus just general S5-S6 predictions in general? AKA things that have leeway for mileage or impact to carry over for later

S5:

S5 specific episode outline estimates

Janai losing her kingdom either to her brother or to dark forces (monsters, Aaravos, etc). Mostly because of Karim's short story, Kim'Dael entering in S5 and presumably being interwoven

Terry having some doubts and Claudia becoming more desperate

More answers on where and what was happening to Rayla while she was gone, although not everything (like reserving her backstory with Stella for book 6 stars, maybe)

Viren and Claudia splintering off, with Viren and Soren beginning to not like, reconcile, but they'll be working together to try and bring Claudia home

Rayla and Callum patching things up further, with Rayla hopefully making some head way on her self worth / leaving vs staying arc (but I could see that being in S6 too, especially if her parents are getting out this season)

Soren continuing to step into a primary protector position for Ezran

Rayllum getting to have some more big talks

Zym and/or Callum destroying the pirate ship with lightning, as depicted in the 2nd promo picture

Rayla looking into how to free her fam from the coins (and possibly doing so), even if I think it'll take a big sacrifice of some kind (either needing Viren's staff and a dark magic spell, or something else we haven't quite seen before)

Aaravos gets out for his hot girl summer

Theme wise: more light-dark, drowning-water-shame motif(s), Rayla becoming more like Runaan (derogatory) and Claudia and Callum becoming more like Viren (happily & derogatory), Viren continues to parallel Callum and Soren (affectionate)

S5 / S6

Callum's being re-possessed for a second / final time and Rayla breaking him free of it

Callum connecting to the moon arcanum and/or essence of magic

Ezran tying to rally the other human kingdoms to help fight against Aaravos, either as a preventative measure before he's out, or once he is released, bringing in the new rulers of the Pentarchy as well as old ones like Ahling and Aanya

We Finally learn what the freaking cube is used for (and CHET accordingly in some manner, whether it's to free Aaravos or some kind of power-up tradeoff or whatever) so my suffering can end

Proper Leola lore drop / Aaravos (+ Orphan Queen?) backstory

Callum playing into Aaravos' hands regardless of what he does to try and stop it (bc we love a Greek Tragedy king)

Most of the other specific S5 predictions I have (Rayllum going on a solo trip to the Sunfire elves + Callum doing startouch research; Claudia's hair going nearly full white; crimson orchids relating to Janai and Amaya) are either things that have already confirmed or we'll simply just have to flat out wait and see.

Like S5 could do a lot of interesting things if certain stuff is shuffled, i.e. moon fam getting out but not quite Aaravos could work (esp given Runaan's lotus is underwater, etc) leaving more stuff for S6 - or they could all get out, and it'd still work; if the possession plot line doesn't come back in S5 (or at least not to the point of being resolved, it could easily be a cliffhanger type of thing) and we learn Rayla did kill someone during the timeskip (hence her change in attitude) or she kills someone now, thus setting up that she could very well take Callum up on his request in S6? I think it'd all really, really work. Just depends on how much setup and pay off and dread / dramatic irony they wanna do with things before we get resolutions or to next stages, the ordering of stuff, etc.

Either way it's going to be an absolutely wild ride and I cannot wait to cry

#predictions #tdp #the dragon prince #pranu-b #requests #s5 speculation #thanks for asking #tdp spoilers #s5 spoilers #s6 speculation

[mejomonster]

Started reading In The Dark, first chapter Nightmares:

Interesting vibes. Before anything else, I love the descriptions in this. I've been losing my own ability to spit out what the fuck Im trying to describe when writing lately, and the slightly poetic imagery but also to the point present tense of how this is written... it's really helping inspire me. (And of course, seeing quick examples of describing characters and buildings quickly without clumsiness but also still with some emotion is helpful)

Expectedly, the leads appear to be "two hot men" as is the bl usual ToT it is what it is. I'm partial to modu's babes still, but I'll get used to a new novel again lmao (what can I say? No character in a Long While is gonna top the fucking Captain China descriptions, the personality of priests characters screaming out so much that its ultimately the feeling of the character so unique and bizarre that you remember more than actual looks).

I am hoping, somehow, this novel's gonna be written as intelligently (as in intense themes, parallels, symbolism, points to make) as a priest novel. Im spoiled cause all the other chinese bl novels ive finished reading? Fucking excellent. I think my hopes are justified, tbh. If for no other reason than this writer doing some of my favorite shit: they name dropped a japanese murder author Ive read (and mentioned a plot of it im intrigued by), and they've left a TON of potential foreshadowing threads.

Said threads: opening, character dreams of a bloody woman? Could be a Fei Du (ish) situation where he did awful stuff and blacked it out. Could be a darker situation, where he's actually the bad guy/antihero/dangerous and we get a story from THAT point of view in some regard (which is a fascinating potential).

Character meets guy who clearly matches him, was at the theater for him, stalking him? At some prior point, started watching him first? Oh you know me. I like a slow burn. I like a long history (as long as its not childhood friends anything but that), i like rivals, its giving L X Light, Beyond Evil guys energy.

The movie playing: the stranger says he doesnt like roses. And the earlier quote from the murder novel, the Xie Lanshan remebering the quote that "even a demon essentially Id still love you." My prediction: one of them believes even cruel they'll love the other, but the other believes they'd stop loving and fight each other. This of course also implies: one will go darkside/be cruel/lose themselves/already is lost, and either that same one Or the other will not be loving the other when love is whats expected. Sort of the whole "youre a monster, but you wont hurt me" then the monster DOES hurt you. Or "even though youre a monster, ill still be here with you" (which is luo wenzhou 100 percent) but with the monster going "well that was a fucking mistake cause i am killing/betraying you now." If this novel likes foreshadowing, which i like, itll play with this AT LEAST in some case long arc. And ideally itll play out between the leading lovers. Which if so, is a story Id be interested in reading

And yes, i did go into this totally blind except knowing its (probably) a dark detective bl story. So we'll see how the predicting goes lol

For real though, i do really enjoy its writing style and the way its snappy but lingers just enough on painting images emotionally.

#in the dark #lb

[whichuniverseisthis]

Very early post because today I'll be out the full day again and I don't want to risk posting tomorrow. Beware of spoilers!

First - Vs Starly

Previous - Vs Dialga & Palkia II

Next - Vs Dialga & Palkia IV

Last - Vs Dialga & Palkia VI

Chapter 76 / Chapter 413

I know I'm pointing out the obvious, but Ice is not exactly supereffective because they're Water and Steel type too. But I get that in context they don't really know them, so if they "look like Dragon types", it must mean they're at least partially weak to Ice.

To me, this is one of the coolest shots of this final fight. You can literally see Palkia cutting through space, it's amazing.

And Dialga turning back the time to heal itself and using the power used to hit was super smart.

I love how the manga doesn't give a shit about the legendaries who can't be captured because they must "keep the balance". And I also love how confident Dia and Pearl sound as they decide they'll either defeat or capture them.

Action moment. Props because I can understand what's happening at all time. Also, is Diglett using Stone Edge??

Love that after she sees the hurt gym leaders, her first thought is that Dia and Pearl could get like that too. They love each other so much.

This is maybe the only thing I never fully liked about this arc. Gym leaders giving free Pokémon to Platinum for no apparent reason. I can still get over Candice and Volkner, but what bond does Gardenia have with her to decide to do it?

Oh wow, I never noticed how ready to fight Palkia Platinum was after it hurt her new Pokémon. It's so funny.

And this is why everyone in the trio was necessary for this final fight. As I said earlier, Dia and Pearl right now are fighting solely with intuition, but with Platinum's help they can gain actual knowledge to find the weak spots and defeat Dialga and Palkia.

Yeah, I hadn't realized it, but he disappeared halfway through the previous chapter, when the trio gets to Spear Pillar. Also, I love the distorted columns leaning on them.

#dp commentary #pokespe #trainer diamond #pokespe diamond #trainer pearl #pokespe pearl #trainer platinum #pokespe platinum #platinum berlitz

[tangledbea]

yeah episodic shows are definitely not a new thing, i’d say serialized shows are newer! disney definitely favors episodic stuff. one of my favorite disney shows was originally supposed to be completely serialized, but disney made them do a more episodic first season before slightly moving towards a season-long arc and then it was cancelled before they could go even more story-oriented like they’d planned in s3. disney’s probably very happy with more episodic shows

Precisely my point. Like I mentioned in the original post, their first animated series didn't come out until the 80s, and even then, they were pretty episodic until, I want to say, Darkwing Duck in 1991. (This is me, not bothering to look up if I'm right or not, so don't get mad if there was an earlier series that had more of an ongoing plot.) And while that show was still pretty episodic, there was at least continuity. I think their first non-episodic animated series, which relied upon continuity, was Gargoyles in 1994.

Disney has always been comfortable with shorts and cartoons that are episodic in nature. This isn't new for them, it's not a change. And while I really enjoy serialized animation, I'm not surprised that they're drifting away from that, for now. After all, streaming is all the rage, and it's easier to crank out a bunch of binge-worthy, short, episodic stuff than it is to make a serialized story. I'm sure they'll swing around again.

Though now I'm curious what show you're referring to!

#Answered #Links

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 150.2

So the new look didn't last long. This has ruined my week. I'm devastated. Why the hell did they dye their hair and cut it if they were going to go right back to normal. What was the point. I thought we were in this for the long run but I guess Fushi's commitment issues shot them in the foot once again.

If the turtle pregnancy incident has taught me one thing, it's that the seemingly random stuff will be important later, so a part of me is still expecting to find out that there was another reason why Fushi had to change their hair. The only thing I can think of is maybe they wanted to get around without any knockers noticing? But since they're not hiding the change, and presumably there's at least one knocker keeping an eye on them at school, that would make no sense.

The only thing keeping me from going over the edge and strangling someone (there were many times I was tempted today, dear reader, but I persevered) was March and Hanna's interaction. The look on March's face when Hanna says "they're delicious..." I am happy.

March's dumplings were the mud balls that Mimori and Fushi were making, by the way, and you can see them making one for themselves in an earlier panel. Mizuha rejected Fushi's offer for friendship but Hanna accepted it in a roundabout way and I think that's neat. Also how March is treating Hanna in exactly the same way she would treat Parona, like how Fushi did with Mizuha. I may or may not be thinking about how she's also on the outside manipulating dolls on volume 14's cover, you know, the one I love to reference when I talk about all of Fushi's issues.

Curious as to why Messar is talking about Mizuha even though he's probably only heard about her secondhand from Yuuki and Kai/Hylo, who are going to have two vastly different takes on her. Please don't laugh, but I have this theory that Messar is a knocker right now. At first only because it looked like he was leaving at night during Chapter 147.2, he has his coat over his shoulder so he has to be going somewhere, and we know the knockers have nightly meetings.

The comparison between when he got gifts for the adults and girls the last time he struck big but shunned Gugu and Hylo, but now just so happened to have found presents for them could also be more evidence that a knocker's improving the relationships that are harder for him to maintain, though I'd prefer to see that as Messar actually caring about the two of them and trying not to show it. I also thought these two lines were kind of similar:

I don't know. Something's definitely going on with him, but it might not be a knocker's doing. I just think it would be kind of fucked if the person who's been giving Fushi good advice and pushing them to make certain decisions this arc turned out to be a knocker.

Obligatory comparison of these two lines:

Just... remember that when Fushi says shit's fine it's not.

I have a huge confirmation bias with this series but even I'm struggling to make Fushi look bad. They seem a little sad in some parts, yeah, but also so genuinely happy in the last panel? They said goodbye to Gugu, but it's not as bad as they thought it would be. They can visit anytime, and they're still connected.

Ooima plans this shit out very thoroughly in advance, is what I'm saying.

In case you missed it (because I did the first three times I read the chapter) Gugu has decided to be immortal, which is why Fushi is so happy at the end. I don't know whether the rest of their friends will decide to go or stay, but they'll be able to handle it.

#fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #to you the immortal #fnae #tye #fnae manga #fnae spoilers #fnae anime spoilers #fnae manga spoilers #present era #independence #chapter 150.2 #fushi #immo #messar #messar robin bastar #march #hanna #original post #meta

[theangrypokemaniac]

I've been on Tumblr ten months now, and this blog has existed for nine of them. During that time I have noticed something.

The majority of the posts I've come across have been by and for the S&M scene, as is to be expected.

The second-most frequent are Indigo League, which I don't think is bad going considering it was broadcast before most Tumblerries were born.

Third-most popular I would say is Sinnoh, probably for being the introduction for many here.

After that I've seen bits on Johto, a smattering of Orange League (unsurprising given it's briefness) and maybe a single item on Hoenn.

No one likes that then? Is it Max? Go on, it is.

What I find odd is that, in all that period, I haven't seen anything on Unova or Kalos. No fan art, no screen shots, nothing.

I'm sure someone can point to a bounty of pieces I've overlooked, all done within the last year, but if so, they're well-hidden, as none of the people I follow have shown any interest in re-blogging them.

If you have done any, you must admit the amount has depleted considerably.

Why is this? Is it of no interest anymore?

This in itself validates my own opinion. Had I been here when Unova and Kalos were broadcast, I presume over half of the posts I'd see would've been devoted to them. If I then spoke harshly of either, that would not have been well-received.

However, if dropped, both by the audience and writers as soon as the latest generation arrives, wasn't I right to not be impressed?

If cast aside by those who claimed to worship them, were they really of any worth at all?

Well the same fate has now befallen Alola. I make no secret of how much I despise it, and can not grasp its appeal for anyone.

I don't know how Pokémon even has a fanbase anymore, given that it's ugly, boring and repetitive.

Prior to the arrival of the S.S., I suspected that Alola material would drop, vanishing altogether once a year's worth came to a close, and so it has proved to be.

It's gone from making up roughly 60% - 70% of dashboard posts to about 10% - 20%, in only a few months. Is it that bad then?

It can't be explained as excitement for the new, not with the amount of coverage Kanto gets, and even that isn't motivated by reminiscence, given the average age of the current viewer.

Why are you still posting about something that old? It reminds me of my wasted youth, but what's your excuse?

Why, when the writers want to wallow in nostalgia, do they hark back to Kanto, which no modern fan can remember?

Is no one looking with misty-eyed fondness at Iris and Cilan? Why not?

Or is that an admission that it was so appallingly bad even the writers recognised it, that's why it's been so hastily forgotten?

You could watch Pokémon from the beginning to the close Sinnoh, skip the next two eras, starting again with Alola, and you would never know there'd been a between.

Unova is described as a 'soft reset', with regards to its inverted nature. The arrogance of those writers is staggering:

• Trying to erase all that'd gone before, supplanted by their half-arsed efforts.

• Redesigning everyone with Fish Eye and flat profiles.

• Resetting Ash as not even knowing the basics.

• Warping Team Rocket's established personalities into disgusting, soulless lizard people robbed of all charm and charisma.

• Only new Pokémon existing.

• Catches kept with Juniper not Professor Oak etc.

The irony is that Unova Pokémon are copies of the first 151, so whilst deliberately ignoring the past, they can't resist imitating it, thanks to their own woeful inadequacy. I suppose they hoped if they didn't notice, we wouldn't either.

They then undermined their own decision by stuffing everything available into the third run, as a blatant effort to win back the crowd, including:

• Reverting to Team Rocket's actual motto, not that embarrassingly pretentious codswallop.

Too bloody lazy to make it rhyme now!

Notice they opted not for the Sinnoh one, although more recent. It was straight back to the beginning.

• Look at these hundreds of Pokémon we suddenly remembered!

Just before Giovanni's mid-life crisis, Ash spotted a Rattata, but it having been so isolated from the outside world, his brain fell to mush at the concept, and pronounced it 'retarda'.

Idiots are so easy to please!

• Charizard! Genwunners love Charizard! Give 'em Charizard and they'll forget everything else we've done! Let's condense his entire story arc into one episode of meaningless retelling!

So, Charizard was there to bait the first wave, and yet we had the plot we know repeated to us anyway?

Don't refer to the past and everyone will think it's brand-new!

It makes no sense. How could this be done with the hope of drawing in old fans, and yet filling up an episode with it as plotline isn't an issue, when the intended targets know it's been done before?

• Butterfree! Genwunners loved Butterfree leaving! Let's condense his entire story arc into one episode of meaningless rehash!

Why would they remain when finding the same thing again, absent of feeling and subtlety, not to mention upon discovering the damage done elsewhere?

Recent incomers, who might assume it's a fresh idea, have no emotional connection with Butterfree, so who is it meant to please?

Why is Mewtwo a woman?

• Mewtwo! Genwunners love Mewtwo! Let's copy its background for Genesect rather than be creative! Look, it's Mewtwo! Watch it!!!

Erm... It's not the same Mewtwo...

It's not the same Mewtwo?

You believe the way to an original fan's heart is to lie to them, and in the process smash a fundamental principle of canon that there can only be one Mewtwo?

The writers get a deserved excoriation round these parts, because someone has to, as what part of that film suggested the current crop give the tiniest toss about what matters to you and me?

I'm glad Unova is labelled 'the Dork Age' as every series since its dawn has been atrocious.

Hoenn and Sinnoh held massive flaws, but they're masterpieces compared to what followed. At least they felt like Pokémon, albeit a watery interpretation.

Unova has to be truly lowly for the dunces responsible to recognise it, and neither Kalos or Alola have been as cut off from their predecessors.

I don't believe that's a sign of contrition, more a matter of necessity. Thanks to the same personal limitations there just weren't enough new Pokémon in either era to make such insularity possible. Even between the two it'd be a scrape.

Except whilst previously invented Pokémon designs may be involved, there's no sign of actual familiar characters.

Ash took his original team to Johto, and even in Hoenn and Sinnoh, where local catches took precedent, older Pokémon were still referenced and came back for the League, but that stopped with Unova.

It's evil influence strikes again!

Despite flimsy nods to the past, which can't be avoided, each generation is now a world unto itself, to the point that individual episodes live by their own canon, a feeble web of strands unrelated to anything else.

Why is it considered 'retro' enough to say, have Forms of Kanto Pokémon, for which we're expected to be so grateful, when there's no mention of Ash's earlier squad?

Remember Tauros? And Kingler? And Muk?

Remember Bayleef? And Noctowl? And Heracross?

Remember Corphish? And Torkoal? And Swellow?

Remember Buizel? And Gible? And Torterra?

They don't. As far as I can tell none of them exist anymore, and maybe aren't meant to ever have done.

Same as Gary, Cassidy and Butch, Jessibelle, Tracey, and so on. Until they do, and don't again. Whatever is convenient to today's storyline.

My typical attitude is that the first series is the best thing ever, and it's all been downhill from there, with Unova and all that came after reaching incredible depths of tedium. I don't suppose you like that, but the ephemeral tendencies displayed on Tumblr hardly help change my opinion.

At some low ebb I'll get round to watching Galar, which I'm confident I'll hate as much as the last few generations, based on what I've already seen and heard.

There's little point doing otherwise. Why bother getting involved with the 'plot' or characters if, when it's over, they'll never be spoken of again?

What incentive is there for me to even force myself to like Galar when, once the ninth generation (Pokémon Keenan and Kel) emerges on the distant horizon, those who've sung its praises for three or four years and scoffed at criticism, will drop it without a backwards glance?

Yet talk about the Indigo League is ever present, somewhat proving its superiority. Attachment to it is a subconscious acknowledgement of the dearth of quality in the modern mentality, but which no one can bring themselves to admit.

#Pokémon #Unova #Iris #Cilan #Charizard #Butterfree #Mewtwo #Tumblr

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

I just watched the GoT series finale and I feel something that I can only describe as a mix of anger, frustration, boredom and numbness. I really hope that the petition to remake season 8 makes HBO at least consider releasing the alternative/fake scenes that were shot, but sadly I don't think they'll give us even that little. I'll be positively surprised if they do. D&D really made a huge, pretty much impossible to clean mess.

I was just at a point in the finale where I just didn’tcare. Admittedly, I’d already seen the leaks, I already knew the main thingsthat were going to happen in this episode and since I’d already gone through mymoments of frustration and irritation earlier this weekend after seeing theleaks (I knew the leaks were legit because all of the other leaks from previousepisodes had been legit as well), so the finale left nothing more for me to feelwhile watching.

The finale ultimately was disappointing, unearned, and quitefrankly boring. After I saw the leaks and even as I was watching the finale, Iwas just like, “really? This is the note you want to leave this show on?” I’m notnecessarily too terribly angry about how the show ended (it’s a little blandbut I saw it coming even before the leaks started) but my biggest problem withthe finale is that it was unearned. While there’s an argument to be made aboutplenty of foreshadowing being done to get to this ending, the characters intheir progression in their arcs leading up to this point was not believable. Andthat’s what I’ve found that a lot of people who liked how Season 8 turned outkeep on saying, that everything that happened was fore-shadowed and that it wasalways going to work out this way. And whereas that might be true to a certainextent, the mantra that I’ve heard recently and I think this holds a lot of truthis “foreshadowing is not character development”. You can foreshadow until thecows come home but if you don’t develop the character, if you don’t startconstruction on the road that character is going to walk on, if you don’t pavethat road leading up to that character’s endgame, it’s just a dirt road, it’snot pleasing to look at and the character arrives at the endgame with muddyboots. Foreshadowing means nothing if you don’t do a good job at showing how acharacter reached that endgame. One of the great things about Game of Thronesis the “cause and effect” the series has when dealing with it’s characters and how that relates to the plot. Acharacter makes a decision (the cause) which in turn creates an effect (whetherit be a consequence or reward, but most times it’s a consequence) and that’swhat pushes the story forward, that’s what creates a character arc, that’s whatcauses character development. Seasons 1-7, for the most part, were all aboutthe characters and the cause/effect relationship they have with the story.However, the problem with Season 8 was that there was no cause in the characterand plot dynamic. It was only effect. It was just the plot happening around thecharacters and the characters needing to behave in a certain way to make thatplot happen and it’s just very lazy story-telling. While I’m not necessarilyhappy with the overall endgame, I can see how this would be a potential endgamefor this show. But the problem is that it wasn’t earned and that’s what I’mmost disappointed with. I always knew we weren’t going to get a “happy ending”with Game of Thrones. At best, maybe we would get a “bittersweet” ending but Ialso know how the entertainment industry works. They love their edgy,depressing endings where no one is really truly happy at the end.  But I still maintain that if the showabsolutely had to go for an edgy, depressing ending, then I would’ve preferredthey killed off every character we’d been introduced to over the course of 8seasons. Doesn’t matter if you’re a Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, Wildling,whoever. You all die by the end. And it now leaves the common folk, the peoplewho we weren’t introduced to, the people who have been the largest victims inthis game, to pick up the pieces of what’s left of their society and begin anew “game of thrones”. Thus showcasing the mantra of “all men must die” andalso sending a theme that as long as humans exist, the “game of thrones” willnever be truly over. The game just starts over again because this is the nature if humans -- hell, this is the nature of animals, really. The problem with theending we got in the finale beyond it just not being earned is that it alsodevalues a lot of what happened in seasons 1-7. About 90% of the things thathappen mean absolutely nothing by the time we get to the finale. However, if wego with an ending where everyone dies, that gives this show a narrativemeaning, it gives it a theme, so at least this way, the story ends in a depressingway, but at least there’s a point in the ending which the current finale just did nothave.

Even if HBO were to release those scenes, I stillfeel like it would be really disingenuous. Even though we don’t like it, thisis the ending they officially chose and this ending will forever muddy  this show. I’ll still re-visit the show andmarvel at the things I love but there’s always going to be this bitteraftertaste in my mouth knowing that such an epic show ended in such anunsatisfying way. But alas, that’s the risk you take with tv shows. They can beawesome, perfectly executed every step of the way, but if you don’t stick thatlanding in the finale, while I won’t write-off the show (I’m still super intoloving what you love even if it eventually does something you hate) there’salways this bitter disappointment when you go back to the show. But hey, atleast we have an ending now, right? I mean, that’s something the books mightnever get. Silver lining…I guess?

#got #game of thrones #got season 8 #game of thrones season 8 #got spoilers #game of thrones spoilers #foreshadowing is not character development

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 146.2

This chapter was a turning point for Fushi. They examined their priorities and realized that going home was most important. However, their reasoning is shit. I cannot stress enough how bad their reasoning is. Everything in this chapter is geared towards Fushi's decision at the end, so let's just go through it in order.

First they get hooked by another way to help Mizuha make friends. I'd like to note that they ask Mimori to teach them to make mud balls specifically because they want to show one to Mizuha later.

Mud balls themselves are another sort of trophy, just like the feather hair-ties. Fushi likes trophies a lot themselves; the clearest example is the doll they replicated in Chapter 69 because they wanted to show it to March. When they finally give it to her in Chapter 134.1, it comes as an unempathetic response to March's grief over Parona's death. When Fushi shows up after going missing for what I estimate as at least a week, March won't give them the enthusiastic response they're hoping for.

Since their conversation with Satoru, Fushi's been reassessing whether they can actually stay away from their friends for centuries all over again, especially since they know that their friends have assumed that after they die in the present era, they'll be free to pass on. They took a break from fighting knockers for one day to initiate their plan with Funa's body, but it's still weighing heavily on their mind. Mimori's arc works as a sort of thesis for the present era; on some level Fushi recognizes this and uses her as an example of what they should do. So her telling them directly that she's glad the knockers took her body is another crack in their resolve. They won't listen to Mizuha when she tells them to let the left hand stayed because it's proved that it can control her whenever it wants, but when Mimori, who is knocker-free, essentially tells them to wait and see how it plays out, they can't refute her.

It also helps that she revealed that removing her knocker didn't actually fix anything. Her life is the same as it always was, the only thing that's changed is her determination to enjoy it. This is meant to show the reader that although Fushi and the others failed to solve all of Mimori's problems, she'll be fine. But Fushi takes this as "you failed so there's no point anyways."

Fushi also just doesn't want to deal with Mizuha right now. They're bad at handling her, everything they do just makes things worse. Although they haven't acknowledged it, they know that she isn't like Kahaku at all, so they've lost a good part of their motivation, but they also don't want to throw her to the wolves. It would be a great time to back off like they think Mimori implied, but Fushi still has this obsession with being the good guy. Everything's lined up so that they can leave in the easiest way possible, but they haven't quite tipped over the edge yet. What pushes them to return to March is this:

Fushi made something specifically for Mizuha because they thought she would appreciate it and their effort would be rewarded. Not only does it not work, she outright rejects it and Fushi's response is along these lines: "March would never do this to me. I'm going to go back to my friends, because they appreciate me." Satoru told them that even if they eradicate the knockers, they won't be able to see their friends again, so they've decided to go for instant gratification instead. Like I said earlier, this will not go over well on their friends' side.

I doubt they're going to give up on the knockers entirely, but for now, they just want to be with the people they love. They may even go back to school routinely, as evidenced when they tell Mizuha they'll see her tomorrow. But the way their whole fantasy of seeing March again is framed—like she's Mizuha's replacement right now. Like she's their proof that everything is fine (their reward for doing a good job? Their TROPHY if you will???)—makes them look unwell. Which they are.

This analysis is focused mainly on Fushi, but I think I should touch on Mizuha's behavior in this chapter. She's gone right back to her reliance on Fushi, making it look even more like her attempt to control them was something the left hand encouraged and assisted. When it potentially ruined her relationship with Hanna, she doubled back and returned to them because when it comes down to it, she still trusts them by default. Like we saw at the start of Chapter 145.2, her newfound control was an act. I'm including the panels I'm referencing because it's just a really pretty sequence, you know?

Fushi, similarly to how Mizuha tried to give Hanna a feather hair-tie, used a mud ball to communicate their feelings to her. But Mizuha finds a trophy is meaningless in this situation, and like how Hanna threw her hair-tie away, she drops the mud ball on the ground. Fushi doing what she wants and asking for instructions doesn't make her happy anymore. I'd say based on her desperation, her fear right now is that she exposed too much of her weaknesses to Hanna, and Hanna didn't like what she saw. She still has the mud ball at the end of the chapter and Fushi knows that she and Hanna got into a fight. Whether or not they'll try to intercede or leave things entirely to Mizuha will be affected by how March and the others react to their return.

#fushi's reaction to mizuha smashing the mud ball is so melodramatic. calm down #fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #to you the immortal #fnae #fnae manga #fnae spoilers #fnae anime spoilers #fnae manga spoilers #present era #new world arc #chapter 146.2 #fushi #immo #mimori #mizuha #march #original post