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sergeantsporks · 2 years

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Writing request: Hunter and Darius digging graves for the Golden guards. Hunter contemplating that he could have been one of those skulls, Hunter asking Darius and Flapjack to tell him about his predecessor and his ortet respectivelly, to get to know his family, other stuff we mentioned.

Hmmmmmm using this for Dadrius week :)

Chapter 5: In Loving Memory of

Hunter eyed Darius as he picked up plates, the eggs long gone. Darius could feel his stare burning into his back. “What is it?”

“You look… nice,” Hunter said skeptically.

“Thank you.”

“You said you wouldn’t wear something like that in the house. So you’re going out today?”

“Very astute.”

“Where are you going?”

“Out,” Darius replied vaguely, rinsing the plates off in the sink.

“Hm.”

Oh, he’s just going to tail me from the moment I leave the house.

“King found…” Darius pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did he tell you what he found?”

Hunter shook his head.

“Ah. No, I suppose he wouldn’t. He found a… graveyard, of sorts. A mass pit grave, more accurately.”

Hunter shuddered. “And you’re going to go try and figure out who’s dead? Contact family?”

“We-ell,” Darius said slowly, “We… already know who’s dead.”

“Good start. Just condolences, then? That explains the outfit.”

Enough stalling. Rip the bandage off, Darius.

“It’s where Belos put his previous golden guards.”

Hunter’s mouth opened and closed like a fish for a few moments. “Oh,” he said finally in a very strangled voice, “I see.”

Darius dropped back into his seat. “I suppose you technically would be next of kin,” he tried to joke, “so here I am, contacting you.” His shoulders dropped, and he put his head in his hands. “Titan. That was bad. I didn’t… Hunter, I didn’t want to upset you, I know this is…”

“Yeah,” Hunter said softly, “Yeah, it’s… So, what are you doing?”

“Burying them properly,” Darius replied shakily, “Eber and I are… we thought they deserved that. Well, Eber thinks I should chew on my mentor’s bones for a bit to cope with the loss, but I believe a proper funeral will suffice.”

Hunter nodded, then traipsed up the stairs, disappearing into his room. Darius watched him go, then tugged on his shoes. “Come on, Eber. We’d better get a move on, there’s a lot of graves to—”

Hunter’s door opened, and he came back down, now dressed in one of the nicer outfits that Darius had bought for him, a collared yellow button up and a floor-length brown skirt. He’d brushed his hair, too. Hunter slipped his feet into his boots. “Ready.”

“You… want… to come?”

Hunter lifted his chin. “Like you said, I’m their next of kin.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to. Darius—” Hunter’s voice hitched, “—please.”

Darius held his hands up. “Alright! Alright. Let’s go.”

Abomination fluid swept around the three of them, and then they were standing at the head—or at least what was left of it. Hunter’s footsteps tapped neatly on the bridge. “I haven’t been here since…”

Darius stood behind him. “I know.”

Hunter took a deep breath. “Okay. Where…”

Darius steered him down a set of stairs, keeping himself on the side with the sharp drop and Hunter closer to the wall.

Crunch.

Darius’s head whipped around to see Hunter’s face, ghostly white and twisted up like he might be sick. Hunter slowly lifted his foot off of a skeletal hand, crumbling under his boot. “Sorry,” he whispered, his voice echoing around the empty chamber.

“Just… watch your step down here.”

The cave was nothing like King had described it—the jumbles of bones had been laid out in full skeletons, matched with a golden mask per skeleton. Despite the grimness of it all, Darius felt a smile twitch across his face.

“Raine,” he whispered, “They knew I was planning to come down here.”

“Do we just… bury them here?” Hunter asked. He rubbed his arms. “Feels kind of…”

“Horrible? Distasteful? A mockery of their sacrifice?” Darius suggested.

“I was going to say lonely.”

“Ah.” Darius shook his head. “Where do you think they should go?”

“Outside.”

“Sure.”

Darius picked the closest skeleton, warping it, Eberwolf, and Hunter outdoors. “I suppose we should get started?” He created an abomination with shovel hands, and created another shovel for Hunter. Eberwolf was already four paws deep in earth, the dirty flying away at his touch.

The work was slow, one skeleton at a time. Darius supposed he could warp multiple at a time, but he could tell in the way that the bones matched each other and the way the masks matched up to the general shape and size of the school that Raine had deliberately arranged each one as accurately as they could, and he didn’t want to muddle them up in the warp.

One more.

Xxx

Hunter planted each mask over the grave after he and Eber covered up the skeleton. Maybe Gus could get his construction friend to come out here and create a proper gravestone, with the mask set in it instead of a name. That would be nice. Or they could hire a professional, but Hunter didn’t even want to think about how much money fifty gravestones would cost.

Fifty graves.

I was almost one more

Why was I the only one who survived?

Hunter’s legs wobbled in a way that had nothing to do with the steady physical labor. Eberwolf hopped up out of the nearest hole, nestling against his side.

“There were so many of them,” Hunter whispered, “They all—they all must have been good at fighting, why… how was he able to kill them, but not me?”

Eber shrugged, crawling into his lap and bumping him with the top of his head. He signed something, and Hunter shook his head helplessly. All he recognized was “want.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Darius reappeared, cradling one more skeleton in his arms, fluid to keep the bones in shape. He slowly came to the last hole, but he didn’t lower it down. “It’s him,” he said quietly. Hunter looked up and saw tears glimmering in his eyes. “This is…”

Hunter jumped up, his hand hovering just over Darius’ arm. “How can you…?”

“I put a chip in his mask in training. The abomination got stuck in the crack and turned it purple. He got a new one, but he kept the broken one. As a memento.”

“If that’s the one that was down there, then…”

Darius sniffed. “It was what he was wearing when he faced Belos,” he muttered thickly. He knelt down, letting the skeleton into the hole. He scooped up a handful of dirt, throwing it on the grave. Eber lifted his head, and howled, loud and long.

Hunter helped Darius cover the grave, planting the broken mask in the dirt. “…Tell me about him?”

Darius rubbed his arms. “He was… strict. But in a funny kind of way. He’d sentence me to dish duty on days when I acted up, but he’d be right there next to me. Mask and all, doing the dishes. He was…” the coven head barked a laugh. “Titan, he was weird. He’d learn about some new abomination technique, or some weird creature, and he’d show up at the window at all hours of the night, completely unfazed by how late it was, just excited to share his new knowledge. He was strange. Endearing, but strange.”

“Was he…” Hunter struggled to form his next words, trying to think of the right way to say it. “You don’t have to just tell me the good parts. I want to know everything.”

“He hid things from me. There was so much he never told me, never trusted me with.” Darius’ hands clenched and unclenched helplessly. “I don’t know if it was because he thought I was too young, or if he didn’t want to put me in danger, or if—if he just thought I would betray him if I knew. And I’ll never know the answer, because…”

Hunter’s hand hovered over Darius’ arm again, but this time, he connected, circling his arms around his huge trunk of an arm. Darius’ free hand came up and covered Hunter’s hands.

“Sometimes you remind me of him. Not… exactly. You’re so different in so many ways. It’s just the way that you get excited about things, and talk the ear off of anyone who will listen.”

Hunter shrank away. “Sorry if I bug—”

Darius’ hand tightened on his. “No, I just said it was endearing, Hunter.”

“You also said it was strange.”

“It is. But in a good way.”

“Hm.” Hunter sighed, looking out over the graves. “You really think I’m making them proud?”

Darius shrugged. “I think they’d be happy you survived.”

Why?

Why, when they all died?

“I think… they’d be happy you got the better of the man who killed them.”

But I didn’t.

He’s still there in my head.

Darius nudged him. “And… I think they’d want you to go home and change clothes. You are filthy.”

Hunter brushed dirt off of his skirt. “Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t have worn the nice clothes to dig graves.”

“Hindsight’s 20/20. C’mon. Let’s go home. This is enough for one day.”

#long post #toh #dadrius week 2022 #day 5: in loving memory of #dadrius #toh hunter #darius deamonne #asks #writing requests

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originalwinnercheesecake · 2 years

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What needs to happen in season 3 of the owl house part A

The owl house is entering its third and final season. Season 3 will consist of three 44 minute specials (I think. I heard a rumor that fan outrage forced Disney to lengthen the specials to 55minutes). Season 2 ended with the characters kinda spilt into three groups. Luz and her friends henceforth called "The Hexside gang" are trapped in the human realm. The adult CATTs members are back home on the boiling isles out of one apocalypse and straight into another, and King is trapped as the collectors playmate in what ever "owl house" he has made. I am imagining that each special will follow one of these three groups adventures as they all try to reunite.

Here is what I need to see happen with the Hexside gang.

Confirmation that their palismans came to the human realm with them. These kids have lost way to much already, give them their pets.

Give them all cute new human realm outfits

Make some pancakes

More of Camila and Luz interacting now that Luz is back with her original mom.

Do that kind of like how Amphibia did. Anne's parents came around to the Planters and Amphibia because going there helped Anne learn to be more outspoken, and more responsible in her actions. This show started with Camila being concerned with how overly impulsive Luz can act, and how she had no friends as a result. She has gotten a lot more focused and improved her social skills tremendously on the BI. That is probably what could make Camila see it as a good place.

Luz and Vee interacting together now that they are basically sisters. With Luz back will Vee change her human form much or will she and Luz go with the "yeah this is my twin" take?

Camila and Amity interacting and bonding. Preferably Camila bonding with all of Luz's friends, but if we are in a time crunch then at least her girlfriend.

Hunter and Flapjack discovering Caleb’s statue in Gravesfeild.

Confirmation on if Gus saw into Belos memories of Caleb and if he now knows Hunter is a grimwalker clone. It doesn’t have to be a big reveal. Just like have Gus be a bit more shaky and cling to Hunter a little bit more, so he can be sure Hunter is not going to disappear

Bonus points if Hunter at some point tells Gus that he does not mind him staying close to him if that’s what Gus needs, but to please not try and grab/hold his hand or anything because Hunter has a thing about people doing that. Really he seems to hate that so far in the show and while i do not need that explained (If he doesn’t like it, then he just does not like it). I would like it confirmed/acknowledged.

Take these kids to the Zoo

Let Gus see a giraffe. Tell me why giraffes where banished from the demon realm.... What are your powers Giraffes?

Give me Luz and Amity sharing a big stick of cotton candy

have Willow and Hunter looking at some human flowers there when a lady bug comes out of one and fly’s towards Willow, which scares her and causes her to run into Hunter. Hunter (pleased) makes a big show of scaring it off for her.

show everyone being scared for there families back on the Boiling Isles (they don’t even know if they are alive or not) and desperate to go back and rescue them.

I want Gus to see a reporter on the T.V. who reminds him of his dad. Willow to be learning some human dish with Camila then sadly remark how back home she always helped her dads with dinner. Have Hunter either fix up their ripped cloths or searching the web for clues on how to get back, then he remembers Darius teaching him how to sew and use penstagram. Give me Amity trying to pick out a pair of gloves, spotting two teens acting goofy near by, and trying not to break down with worry for her dad and siblings.

As for Luz we know she has pictures/video’s of Eda and King, and probably Lilith too, on her phone. I want her to treat those like she treated pictures of Camila. have look at the pictures as she lays down, talks to the pictures about how she is okay, that she misses them, and to hang on because she is coming back to help them.

We do need Luz’s egg to hatch.

I cannot decide if I want whatever is left of Phillip/Belos to be revealed and beaten in this special or kept a secret until the final when they are all back together.

have Camila and Vee step onto the isles at least temporary (have them move there with Luz) to reunite the witch kids with their families and say good byes (never say good bye).

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confuzzled-crow77 · 1 year

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For 👏🏼 The 👏🏼 Future

Okay, first of all, a good friend of mine recommended (and by that I mean bugged me until I caved) to watch the Owl House, and I half wished that they hadn’t. I now have a constant feeling of frustration and hatred toward Disney for canceling the show. Anyway…

Well, I’m here so might as well make the best of it. Random voice-acting bits that I ADORED: At the very beginning when King said, “goodbye” after the door exploded, and right after that when the Collector said, “I’m free, I’m free! I haven’t felt this good in forever and ever! It’s like the whole world is singing!” It’s just *chef’s kiss*

Also when Camila screamed after sitting down on the ground-eyeballs. It sounded so authentic and throat-ripping! (Should I be happy about that?)

Obviously there’s a lot more than that but I don’t feel like typing it out. Okay, but one more thing: I first watched it when I had by earbuds in, and I almost threw up when I heard Belos slooching and slawching around. It was disgusting and amazing.

I didn’t know that Huntlow was kind of a love-or-hate kind of thing in the fandom. I personally…llliiiiikkkeeeeee it. I get that Willow was one of the first people to show Hunter kindness and I love both of their characters but I just can’t get into it. Of course all characters and relationships are going to be rushed but at least Lumity had some semblance of development. Ugh, not their fault.

Eda and Lilith’s new hairstyles = yes. Raine’s new mullet = yes even though Belos is now currently eating away at their flesh.

I would feel bad that Odalia is a servant to the Collector but…it’s Odalia. Come now, let’s be real here.

Okay, I’ve seen numerous fanarts of how Flapjack’s powers could manifest in Hunter, and I love his teleportation ability but…red wings. RED WINGS PEOPLE!! *cough* anyway

Let’s address the elephant in the room. No, not Liz’s palisman. No, not Willow’s emotional scenes. No, not the Collector being a lonely, abandoned little guy. *deep intake of breath* MATT THOLOMULE PEOPLE WHAT THE SHI-

I will never spell it “Mat Tholomule.” Never. Steve is one of my favorite characters (he’s like my…sixth favorite), and I really want some scenes with him and Matty since they’re half-brothers and we were robbed of their backstory but it’s probably not important enough to include in the last episode. Steve Tholomule…

I adore Luz’s palisman, though I like the egg’s color scheme more. Hey, I’m not complaining though. I just have one problem…Stringbean brings up bad memories of expired baked beans that had been left in the sun too long. No hate, duh. Her lil’ kitten ears are so cute!

Boscha is a simp for Amity…

Kikimora isn’t dead…

My predictions for the last episode (*distant sobbing*): Raine is going to die, but the Collector is going to revive them. The dude has Belos eating away at them, and they doesn’t have a Flapjack. (…is that grammar?)

Owlbert, Lilith’s palisman, and the Bat Queen are going to fight for the Boiling Isles!! They’re nowhere to be seen, and they’re way too important to leave out.

The Collector and King are going to team up against Belos in a fight of Gods!! And the only way for the good guys to prevail will be the Owl Crew!

Caleb will talk and his voice will be Hunter’s. Maybe if/when Belos dies all the Golden Guards of the past and Caleb will come to thank Hunter or Caleb talks to Belos as he’s dying.

Belos will go berserk against Eda since with her new hairstyle, she’s the spitting image of Evelyn.

There will be a lot of crying involved, both for the characters and the audience.

My hopes and dreams:

Steve and Matt scene! (Highly unlikely)

Stringbean being OP as crap and using her snakeshifting ability in battle by stinging as a scorpion, blowing flames as a dragon, and flying as a bat. (Pretty likely)

A “some years in the future” scene/ a flash forward scene. (Dear GOD I HOPE SO)

okay thats it *owl house voice* byeeeeeeeeeeee

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bird-in-a-scarf · 1 year

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!Thread! Spoilers?

TOH S3 theories

So what if King told the collector, that the owl house game has to be be played when everyone hasn’t got a sigil on their wrist. So that means that Eda would no longer have the bard sigil… therefore be able to use all magic and so could all the other witches. So all the witches could theoretically team up and destroy the collector, by using the creators magic to get their powers back to being completely wild and not controlled by the coven system. Or King could have said that in the correct playing of the game Eda doesn’t have a curse, so the collector would get rid of her curse? We know that Eda is a very powerful witch and this would help in the fight against the collector.

After-all, Someone was able to lock the collector away before, so that means that someone must be able to do it again, and that could be a grim Walker, like Hunter , who now may have magic. Thanks to flapjack (RIP)... But also when emperor Belos saw flapjack with Hunter when he was in his cursed state, he called Hunter ‘Caleb’ , his brother who had flapjack and therefore magic? Caleb could have been the one that locked the collector away with said magic. Possibly why emperor Bellows was so obsessed with the creator because his brother locked it away? But also if a human (Caleb) and a witch did have a child as hinted by ‘the photo’ we all know. We could assume the child might be more magically capable and could also posses the ability to shut down the collector?

#the owl house #toh season 3 #toh season three #toh #toh flapjack #toh hunter #the owl house season 3 #the owl house season three spoilers #the collector #collector toh

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knackeredforever · 1 year

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SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE OWL HOUSE FINALE

Soooooooooo yeah watching and dreaming was amazing and I am probably never gonna recover from the ending of this show that means so much to me.

First thing the episode almost immediately cuts too luz’s belos dream sequence as the collector is shown to have captured and defeated the entire hexsquad just after for the future. Then luz panics wondering what the hell is going on and runs across the whole of belos’s castle where she runs into the hexsquad members one by one as they all get mad at luz and play into her worst fears. My favourite were Gus and hunter because hunters line about why do you get a new palisman and I lose flapjack while theirs a giant statue of flapjack in the background is really good and gus’s speech is great and I genuinely don’t think we have seen Gus this pissed looking in the entire show. As for eda and king’s nightmare sequences eda is treated like a monster by her family with Lilith looking like her S1 appearance but with short hair and eda’s father having his other eye ripped out and bleeding. And king’s nightmare is him about to be executed by bill next to the corpses of his siblings you know just wholesome stuff for a kids show. However luz then has to fight the entire hexsquad however only realises she’s in a dream when amity says witch’s battle instead of witch’s duel which is a cool callback to previous early episodes which happens a lot in watching and dreaming. Anyway this leads to luz escaping the dream sequence and then freeing eda and king. I was surprised how short the dream sequence was considering how heavily it featured in the trailer but the scenes we got were still really cool either way. Anyway we also get a shot of the collector talking to belos possessed raine and the collector talking about how he this nightmare plan which is implied to be belos’s idea which makes sense as considering how fucked up the whole thing is it would make sense to come from belos. That’s when the collector tells belos that king is a Titan which is really funny when belos refers to king as the dog like this guy genuinely had no fucking clue that king was a Titan and then he also finds out the heart he has been sitting under for probably decades is the titans heart which leads to belos completely abandoned his assumed original plan of possessing the collector and starts heading towards the castle to possess the heart.

Back with luz, eda and king they all reunite with one another and it’s really sweet. And then they play a series of games with the collector Pac-Man, marbles and Jenga and they keep beating him in a montage sequence that definitely would have been it’s own episode if the show hadn’t been shortened. Then we get the scene where the luz , eda and king realise that the collector literally has no concept of death or mortality. Leading to a very calm before the storm style sequence where the all of them go back throughout the isles and reminisce of the events up to this point we also get more of the collectors backstory where we find out the collectors older siblings the “archivists” are who told the collector to go and play with the Titans which he did however the archivists feared the titans power so they one by one through the use of the Titan trappers killed the titans one by one until the only one left was kings dad and their baby egg and they blamed the collector and so imprisoned them and hid king away. It’s interesting cause most people assumed the other collectors were also dead just like the titans but no the genocidal space gods are very much alive soooooo yeah that’s alot.

Anyway while this is going on Raine is fighting for their fucking life against belos after belos uses a Kirby warp star to get to the castle raine also becomes unpuppetified which is interesting the fight scene between them is really good and the fact that belos is only just barely able to possess the heart but then gloats to Raine as if belos beat them easily shows just how full of himself belos actually is the animation on the scene where he is on the heart is also great and his dialogue where he reveals that there are multiple Titan hearts finally answers why the heart in the castle is so small compared to the size of the Titan. So after possessing the heart Belos’s infection starts to spread massively across the isles however one thing I found super interesting when watching the episode is how Belos’s infection is designed first of all it’s basically green malice from Zelda botw but for some reason they decided to make Belos’s infection look like a coral reef with coral projections coming out of it some in separate colours from the rest of the belos goop which to me is so interesting because of course coral reefs are a positively good thing which makes it so interesting to me they decided to base Belos’s infection off a coral reef maybe because when the infection is petrified it looks like a bleached coral reef either way the design of it looks spectacular and the belos infection taking over the isles is one of the coolest and most visually interesting parts of the whole show in my opinion.

So after luz eda and king finish teaching the collector the power of friendship the collector here’s the isles breathing so and then belos just like when his mask was shattered in season 1 turns the entire Titan into sans undertale. They then rush towards the core of the infinite where belos has formed not really Titan belos because it’s own a really big belos goop form that’s attached to the titan sort of like a malignant growth on the Titan but it’s design is sort of a combination of the Titan with a dragon sooooooooooooo whatever. However the collector in their infinite wisdom decide to try to use the lessons they’ve learned to try to give belos kindness and forgiveness through THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP TM leading to the collector almost getting blasted to death by the massive death laser however is saved by luz however she is hit by the belos infection and is consumed by it and turned into light balls the collector literally does not understand the concept of death so trying to see them struggle to bring luz back even someone like me who doesn’t care that much for the collector found this scene quite sad. Then we see Luz’s light travel through the isles which several characters witness also reaching the archives where the hexsquad and camilla are, and camilla cry’s when she sees the light implying she knows luz is dead this light helps to awake the rest of the hexsquad who have to use glyph magic to save everyone which it’s interesting that their temporary loss of magic is entirely down too them simply being tired out instead of any of the insane belos stuff going on. Then theirs eda and king who eda tells the collector that she can’t think she can control herself anymore as both king and eda go into their what I’m gonna call rage forms as that makes the most sense.

So going into the in between world we finally find out who the fuck the glowing figure in for the future was its kings dad and he is such a cool character first of all the bad girl coven t-shirt and baggy glyph pajamas the glorious dad bod the Hooty in her eye which sort of confirms that Hooty is related to the Titan in some form perhaps Hooty is indeed a tapeworm in the Titan. He is canonically bi-gender which is awesome considering they are the boiling isles (BI) see its all connected. We then find out that kings dad has been watching the entirety of the events of the show within the in between world and that she did indeed show luz the glyphs on purpose due to Luz’s kindness towards king and everyone else on the isles unlike Phillip who he personally his the glyphs from because Phillip is an asshole. So luz asks papa Titan if she’s just as bad as belos and he says that no Belos is crazy and needs to go down. So papa Titan then tells luz that dying is straight and brings her back to life with new Titan powers while before she dies for real we see the Titan in all his glory as she sinks to the bottom of the in between realm.

Luzs new furry oc form is awesome for several reasons because first it incorporates elements of both eda’s harpy form and king into its design because it’s full of both bones and feathers. Another awesome thing is how Luz’s Titan design looks typically very evil looking dark black bones all over and Luz’s new dark black eyes. However Titan luz is the ultimate force of good which is contrasted by the emperor’s coven which always wore white and gold typically associated with good and righteousness which is used to hide the vile nature of the emperor’s coven. And I’m so happy that Luz’s final super form to take down belos looks conveniently evil. Considering belos always saw the residents of the BI as evil monsters so he’s destroyed by the manifestation of that idea but as a force for good the only thing that would be more fitting is if he was destroyed by giant pride flag coloured laser beams.

Anyway when they get to Belos’s castle and see Belos attached to the heart like one of those necromorphs you find attached to the walls in dead space (I don’t know their name) we get another epic action scene ending in luz screaming the iconic NOW EAT THIS SUCKA and ripping Belos off the heart and slamming him in the ground.

We then get my favourite scene in the episode which I could genuinely talk about how good it is for hours with luz looking down at Phillip in the same way Caleb’s ghost did as Phillip till the very fucking end tries to manipulate his way out of the situation at hand claiming it was his “curse” that caused him to do such evil things despite eda also being cursed (which only happened due to belos’s propaganda he instilled within Lilith) and eda never turned into a genocidal dictator. While belos insists he’s human just like luz while the rain melts off his skin like he’s the motherfucking wicked witch of the west. He then tries to tell luz that she’d be just as bad as him if she lets him die which we all know is bullshit so she simply stands their as the boiling rain doesn’t affect her as practically a religious figure in the BI while the man who put his bigoted beliefs before everyone else is melted into a fucking puddle and then king Raine and eda coke to finish the job and stomp on him to death GOOD RIDDANCE. All the main characters then lay in the grass exhausted which damn it they deserve it.

At this point we have the cry because the shows almost over section of the episode where all the characters reunite with their families including hunter getting adopted by Darius and Eber (rip hunter noceda) and odalia being ignored by the rest of her family and is never seen again good bye you abusive asshole. As well as the rest of the characters reuniting. Then we get the time skip that I was dreading and it was amazing as I thought it would be and yes made me tear up alot love the little bait and switch of thinking luz went to a human college only for camilla to say you met them last week and then we get to see everyone’s new designs and yes half of them look like pirates now it’s great. The time skip is implied to be about 3 to 4 years as luz is now 18 and certain parts of note are harpy Lilith pog , hunters new palisman waffles , sky pirate amity is awesome , the university of wild magic being made of a palistrom tree is amazing and eda being headmaster as well as looking like mother fucking Captain Hook is great. Raines fox palismen that’s either their old palisman or a new one is also cool and a lot of people have pointed out how Raine is seemingly the new leader of the boiling isles with having the Titan badge with a ribbon on it and always showing up to important events on the BI.

Then we have alador finding a way to remove coven sigils which is something I wanted to happen in a time skip setting so that’s great also aladarius hints YES. Finally we have luzs big king ceneria which is beautiful including one last lumity kiss for the show. And also older now around 12 year old king which is cool we see the collector in the sky making stars and then as the ultimate ending we see every character in the show saying the iconic BYYYEEEEE and then the show just ends god that was amazing.

So yeah I personally loved watching and dreaming I’ve seen some people online have some problems with it the only one I really agree with is that it was a crime that we never saw amity get to see Titan luz. But yeah I’ve also heard some say that they didn’t like how the collector was handled which I can’t really give my opinion on because I don’t have many opinions on the collector myself and I think their probably my least favourite out of all the important characters to the story but I liked many moments with them throughout the episodes they were in I just think they were a strange character for the story overall. I’ve also heard some criticism of belos’s death scene which I personally loved but I see where people are coming from with it as we don’t see Caleb or Evelyn or any of the golden guards but they were probably not included cause they were shown throughout for the future instead anyway I love this series and I’m probably never gonna stop talking about it cause it’s amazing and I hope we get more content based off it in the future.

#the owl house #toh #toh s3 #toh watching and dreaming #don’t cry because it’s over smile because it happened #toh spoilers

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55cdfc-f7a8b8-ffffff-f7a8b8-55cd · 1 year

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reverse unpopular opinion game for the owl house?

Ok easy one first. Eda mom. Eda mommy also. I love her so so much and the Owl Beast is SO cool I was DELIGHTED the entire reveal episode for it.

Hunter the fan favorite. Hunter one of MY favorites because. Duh!!! Stupid edgy snarky boy with the literal and metaphorical mask who is actually just a silly nerd with Extreme baggage. Whether or not we find out more about the whole Caleb thing it's SUCH a cool thing Dana did with the grimmwalker plotline. Rip Flapjack you had the best name.

Camila CARRIES season 3 full stop. I had complicated feelings about her through season one (something something personal mommy issues skewing how I read her character you know how it is) but I've seen the light and now I know. Now I know. She's been through so much and she still stays strong and tries to fix her mistakes from when her own trauma was used against her and through it all she NEVER stopped loving and supporting Luz. She took in Vee and Luz's demon friends without a second thought. And she's a Star Trek fan. Literally what more could you ask for.

The Collector is like my FAVORITE genre of villain I live for fucked up little children with the power of god. It's always so entertaining and so, so horrifying. It's so interesting to see how the Collector tried to break a cycle set by their predessecors but in such a surface level and. Well. Childish way. He's a little confused but he got the spirit you know? SO excited for episode three to see this little jerk (affectionate) go OFF.

Raine. Where do I even start. Of course you have green hair and pronouns. The revolutionary with a violin. They're SO cool. I am legitimately in love with them Eda move over make room for one more.

Luz is just so. !!!!!!! I can never describe in words how much this character means to me I think. I'll leave it at Best Girl before I write an essay and start crying. (String Bean supremacy)

Everybody I didn't mention: Gus, Willow, Amity, Lilith, King, Hooty... I adore them all every character in this series is SO fun and charming. Even the baddies like Belos, Kikimora, Boscha are written so nicely and are all so intriguing! They aren't written hatefully just to be hated they all have their own character and motivations and reasons for being Like That. Characters are always my favorite part of a show so seeing such purpose and meaning crammed into every spare inch of these guys really butters my eggrolls.

And that's just the characters!!!! The world is so beautiful and full of life and the themes... the THEMES man... everything moves and breathes and works together so well. This show is incredible in every sense of the word.

#The owl house #Mds top hits #Mine #Ask #Thanks for the ask btw I didnt think I would get any!! Was rlly fun to write

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chatmeow9 · 1 year

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Liveblogging The Owl House finale!

(I'll put a break here, this gets pretty long)

Immediately picking up from the previous episode, everyone gets abducted by ribbons (puppet strings? The Collector does has an affinity for puppets)

King's Dad?!?!

Luz is wearing Belos' Season 2 attire. The palace is similar but instead of a gold/black colour scheme, it's white/silver.

What's up with the giant heart in the throne room? Was that ever explained? Is it the Titan's heart, despite the rest of him being skeletal??

THAT'S NOT AMITY!

Back-to-back nightmare sequences (presumably) Can the Collector manipulate dreams?

Bill's completely blacked-out eyes are kinda freaking me out.

Witch's Battle! We've come full circle baby!

So they did get collected, and it is a nightmare. Also, weirdly, Hunter didn't have any strings around him like the other three until they all got yoinked away again.

"Get over here you witch." They knew exactly what they were doing with that line

Belos didn't know King is a Titan. I guess there was no way/reason for him to know.

Yep that smile definitely doesn't look completely unhinged.

OOOO psychic battle between Raine and Belos

The puppets! They're alive!!

Pac-man, marbles, and Jenga. how would the Collector know about these very human games? They don't have the excuse of being an extra-dimensional entity, they've been trapped in a disc for thousands of years

Aw, they are trying! In their own sort of twisted way of course.

The Collector's backstory is actually kinda sad. They really are just a child. I feel like if the series hadn't gotten chopped The Archivists could've been a bigger bad than Belos

... what vessel? That's concerning

It IS the Titan's/island's heart! Despite Raine's best efforts Belos barely got through, AGAIN.

Light Glyph. Light Glyph. Light Glyph. Light Glyph. The most pivotal Glyph Luz learned

Collector continues to be unhinged in the most terrifying and hilarious way.

Belos has officially gone full Kaijuu. The spread is different than his usual green goop with eyes it's more... radioactive mutated vegetation?

if the very evil ""man"" could be defeated with the power of fwendship I think that would've happened by now.

Oof. That question about Collector not knowing/understanding mortality comes back huh.

Some of the lights in boxes we've seen in the in-between were people's souls, then?

King's Dad! Also the figure we saw at the beginning of the last episode! A bathrobe, Bad Girl Coven tee (lmao), and pj pants with the glyphs on them

Luz now literally has the blessing of the Titan.

Like mother, like daughter lol

Is Belos pulling a Toffee and draining/corrupting all magic in the realm?

Twinkly magical girl Luz!

I guess not, since glyphs still work

The Collector doing ONE good thing after tormenting the denizens of the Boiling Isles for months

Raine's still alive. I partly would've figured they've gotten grown/gooped over

She couldn't think of anything to say upon her return but monologs as she's ripping Belos out of the heart

She's not buying your shit Phillip

I was kinda hoping Hunter would've got the final blow, catharsis and all that

Bread puns run in King's family

I just noticed that Titan!Luz had a fang on the opposite side as Eda

The Archives kinda look like a crown on top of the Titan's skull

Aww everyone gets their families back, but... Hunter doesn't have a family unless he's adopted by Darius or Eda or someone (It's Darius)

Of COURSE those three would want the throne

Time skip Luz is going to the BI for college (how would that work if she has no magic and glyphs don't work anymore?)

"Luz, you saw them last week" lmao

Vee's still living with Camilla even though it technically is safe for her to return?

Ah, the kid's hideout has been made into a permanent portal

Awww they made a grave marker for Flapjack!

Marthamule has an actual mustache now

Lilith has control of her curse and can do a harpy thing like Eda

Amity's got a pirate look going on now

They removed the Coven sigils! Darius is both super excited and also trying to play it cool

Oh, that's what Raine's palasman is, I don't think we've seen it before.

University of Wild Magic and Eda's headmistress

It's wholesome in it's own Boiling Isles way

King can do glyphs!

Last minute forth wall break?

(I accidentally placed a poll here so I'm just rolling with it)

#live blogging #the owl house #The Owl House finale #toh spoilers

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alternautxyz · 2 years

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so thems owl house huh

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

so that happened and i feel like talking about random stuff again

also spoilers

damn dude just like true colours

ok but seriously

in general this episode was really great, but i can’t help but feel like it was rushed and that multiple sections were supposed to be whole eps. its not a bad thing in the ep and i don’t even think i really hurts the viewing experience, but there were multiple parts that were kinda glossed over like the big fight and what happened between the king concussion. i can’t blame any of this on the crew but disney for making a dumb mistake, and seeing the potential for a season 3 at the end, i can only feel bad for what disney missed out on. and even then dana and the crew did a great job for what they had.

ok back to random stuff that last goodbye between the adult squad is very (crying noises)

also why did eda’s sigil thing not apear until raine touched it

illusion guy who really cares about appearance shows up to one of the most important moments of his life like he just got out of bed. hilarious

yknow for something that happened within a plot of a kids show, the whole eda gambit worked out surprisingly well for the first few minutes until eda’s arm is very visibly cursed

note to self: the collector is very naive when it comes to trusting people. like even after being betrayed by belos he still took kings words seriously one he pinky swore

also belos likes screwing people over. yes we already know this. like i get why he didn’t want to let out a destructive god of chaos, but like still mean you just lied and with a smile on your face

so luz just straight up almost died with the petrification thing. good thing she noticed the glove in the corner and went specifically for that as she was being petrified. smart move kill the guy

or was it before idk

ok so the draining happened and since the only two drivers have sigils, the ship just straight up crashed and presumable cracked king’s head and now they had to leave alador behind to keep of the abomatons hope he’s fine

then they showed up at the altar thing and have to look at everyone dying. guess they really know their plan failed

and now they’re going to luz how did king sleep through all that lol

also how is hunter more fine than everyone else with sigils

ok so after that illusion spell gus might just actually know all of belos’ backstory good for him i guess we’ll need that later

belos was being nice to hunter and idk if that was an act or not. either way he went insane the second he saw flapjack so i guess it was caleb’s palisman

belos specifically put all the golden guards into one specific hole. damn dude just like hollow knight

also the collectors in the hole of failures massive L for him

also kiki knows about all of this

and the titan locked the collector away so thats cool

and king’s collar hides him from the collector so thats cool too. since it was on all of the walls where he was born those symbols were probably to protect him from the danger of the collector

also what was the collector doing at the end if they didn’t even know how to play owl house were you just destroying the place to be dramatic

damn raine just ripped off eda’s arm just like amp

ok so the whole arm chopping thing protected her from the draining spell, but that was going to be fixed anyways. it could have also helped from the curse if that wouldn’t have been stopped by the spell stopping. and it means she can still do wild magic if she ever can again so thats cool too

where did luz get the eyebrow scar tho we just never see it happen

and yeah the collector’s cool and the luz possession theories and now deemed outdated and funny

they just turn the tone of the scene from intense to “wtf is happening is this actually happening did they just do that” and its honestly great

“i play it every day” “i play it every hour” (pain noises)

(everyone dying) “boop”

i really like the type of villain that is just not fazed by anything and treats everything like its no big deal. like the collector treats everything like a game and just casually destroys the big bad of the series in like a second with no fanfare. then they just. move the moon. like with an ipad. no fanfare. it’s great

also belos probably isn’t gone forever so

he then proceeded to destroy the whole world for an owl house

and now they’re going to the human realm that would have made a great few seasons huh disney

they put a lot of emphasis on the belos blobs dripping onto hunter so that might be something or they may just be dramatic

also luz is just very down with sacrificing herself so i guess the protagonist role is really getting to her

so king pushes them into the portal and now the main trio is separated and one of them with their magical friends ins stuck in the human realm

just like amphibia

truly is the true colours of the owl house

also speaking of amphibia ANNE BOONCHUY ANNE BOONCHUY IT’S ANNE BOONCHUY SHE’S ANNE BOONCHUY THIS IS HOW THE CROSSOVER CAN STILL HAPPEN

ok so like theres a headline about anne being in a frog land and it being a hoax. so like amphibia happened in the same universe as this and probably happened a while ago and people are already questioning the legitimacy of it damn. now i’m already questioning when in the amphibia timeline this happens like is it during 3A, after frogvasion, a few years after that. must be wild to hear this happening while your daughter’s also claiming to be stuck in another world

anyways that last scene was really good and captured the right emotions for me but my brain still reeling from amphibia just made me think of that.

so yeah now we wait for the specials and im curious as to how the story will continue. idk how they’ll follow up on the collector, how they’ll get back, what they’ll focus on, and how this story will end, but i’m sure that whatever happens will be a fun ride. or a painful one. that works too

#the owl house #the owl house spoilers #toh #damn tho just like true co- *gets shot*#but yeah pretty cool #alttalks

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the-sunshine-dims · 1 year

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I posted 3,597 times in 2022

That's 2 more posts than 2021!

193 posts created (5%)

3,404 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@emphasis-on-the-oopsie

@stillebesat

@theatresweetheart

@djpurple3

@spinaroos-47

I tagged 544 of my posts in 2022

#fin speaks - 147 posts

#toh spoilers - 121 posts

#toh - 53 posts

#thanks to them spoilers - 40 posts

#the owl house - 34 posts

#the worm house - 30 posts

#jwcc spoilers - 26 posts

#fin liveblogs - 23 posts

#self reblog - 20 posts

#jwcc season 5 - 19 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#even if people have the oportunity to see my past fandom sins (*cough cough* south park *cough cough*) i just dont like moving all my stuff

My Top Posts in 2022:

three seconds

After months of inactivity i present you a fic for a different fandom becuase it emotionally wrecked me

ao3

Words: 1355

Summary: Hunter runs from the owl house

Contents and Warnings: hollow mind spoilers, hunter angst, ambiguous/open ending, implied/referenced child abuse,

_____

It took exactly three seconds for everything to crash down onto Hunter.

Every horror, every emotion.

And the terrifying realization that his unc- Belos, wanted to kill him.

Three seconds and he couldn’t breathe. trying desperately to get air in his lungs but it just didn’t work , he felt like was choking and he ripped his cape off- the cape he had held beloved only mere hours earlier- and just stared at it in abstract horror, the sudden taste of bile mixed with dirt overwhelming his senses.

He needs to run.

He needs to hide .

See the full post

48 notes - Posted June 2, 2022

i grief ordered a flapjack plush right after thanks to them aired from the mystery shack and its so funny because

man looks like everyone did, we all coping dhdh

51 notes - Posted October 20, 2022

ah yes, the episodes after kings tide, their actually my favorite <3

85 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

what kind of monster

Ao3

Words: 5.8k

Summary: “Sometimes people just aren’t good”

Hunter, knew that,

But what did that mean for him, who even after everything, still missed belos?

(or: Hunter, after thinking about it for a while, asked Eda a question, and then promptly internalized the answer. but eventually, it all comes to a head, and he gets comfort and some more answers that he may not know what to do with, but will help him cope in the future)

Contents and Warnings: minor injury, hunter angst, lots of mentioned child abuse and manipulation, panic attacks, abuse mindset, hurt/comfort, happy ending, post-season two finale, minor character death (belos),

______

“Sometimes people just aren’t good”

That answer had repeated in Hunter's brain on loop for days.

He still didn’t know how to feel about it.

See the full post

91 notes - Posted August 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i’m never ganna stop crying about the fact that becuase eda never taught king to call her mom litterally everytime he just calls her her name it has the same meaning, like at least at first he probably learned her name through other people calling her it, and then her calling herself that, so little baby king was just like “:] yeah that’s eda” with the same weight as “:] yeah that’s my mom” becuase thats how kids work, to him eda is just interchangable with mom, becuase eda is his mom, and his mom’s name is eda.

and that is what she is to him, she raised him, she always looked out for him, she always protected him, she even managed to get a human to help her out when king lost his burgerqueen crown, becuase it mattered to king, so she did everything she could to get it back.

she is his mom, she just doesnt call herself it, so king never calls her it. also even once he realizes ‘yes he once had a biological parent’ he only even considers his dad, he doesnt even acknowledge that he probably had a mom too, becuase in his mind, that role’s taken already.

like shes literally just his mom, she raised him since he was a hatchling, she always took care of him, she even had one of those ‘becuase i said so’ moments in season 1 with him acting like a son would, groaning and pouting before going along with it anyways also i know this is already probably pretty well known becuase he literally changed his name to king clawthorn which from the scene has the weight of adoption.

but still, everytime he calls eda ‘eda’ its the same as him calling her ‘mom’ and that is making me emotional.

104 notes - Posted May 10, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #false #fin speaks #it is halarious to me that i have posted exactly twice more then last year

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toh-tagteam-au · 3 years

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Frequently Asked Questions

*This post will be updated and subject to change if the need arises*

Questions begin below the cut:

––0–0–0––

Technical, Non-Universe Questions:

What do you use to draw?

Firealpaca and my Wacom tablet! Here’s a post that includes more specific specs.

Can I make fanart/recolor panels/write fanfic/make an au based on yours/etc?

Yes! Just credit me accordingly. Same goes for using my art as pfps, but just make sure that if it’s one of the recolors that someone has submitted as fan art that you ask them permission as well. (Also send me the stuff you make I WANNA SEE IT)

––0–0–0––

Meta Questions:

Will [insert event/spoiler/anything to do with Flapjack, Vee, Camila, Luz’s Palisman, the Collector, etc] happen in the comic?

You’ll have to wait and see! Tag Team is an ongoing comic as much as it is an AU, so I won’t be skipping forward to show specific moments that will appear in future comic updates like other AUs out there.

Can we suggest events and situations for the comic?

Tentative/flexible no. I already have most of it scripted out, so most “can this happen?” requests will not be honored. Small things like non-plot details or events/situations that happen before the events of canon (check out the pre-comic timeline here) might slide, but don’t get your hopes up.

Will Lumity happen?

Yes! It’ll take a while, but yes.

Will Hunter be shipped with anyone?

Sort of! Tag Team Hunter is aromantic, but he will go through a sort of pseudo-romance arc with someone to showcase that aro aspect. There isn’t an endgame romantic ship for him.

––0–0–0––

Story Questions:

How did Luz get to the demon realm, and how did Belos find her?

Luz slips into the demon realm at age 7 by falling into a lake near her house that was infused with titan’s blood. She ends up in a forest near the Emperor’s castle and is found by Hunter who secretly sneaks her food. She’s eventually found by coven scouts, mistaken for an escaped basilisk, and brought to Belos. (Post with more elaboration here).

Why does Belos take Luz in?

(This answer has changed with the revelations of Hollow Mind and King’s Tide)

Belos takes Luz in because 1) she’s human and he wants to “keep her safe” from the demon realm, and 2) as a sort of experiment to see if he could replicate the relationship he had with his brother through Hunter and Luz. It initially starts with the intention of making it so Hunter would be less likely to betray him (encouraging them to be codependent, making it so Luz has to be watched over since shes “defenseless”, etc), but it eventually evolves into Belos heavily projecting onto Luz because of their similarities. He gets creepily emotionally attached to what Luz represents.

What is Hunter’s reaction to having a new sibling?

He HATES it at first. He doesn’t like dragging around a terribly-behaved, fragile human that keeps getting into trouble. In the timeline, it takes around a year for them to stop bickering and start getting along. (More elaboration here).

Why keep Luz’s humanity a secret? Who knows?

(This answer has changed with the revelations of Hollow Mind and King’s Tide)

It’s a manipulation tactic on Belos’s part to make Luz wary of witches and demons - he is the one to insist on how important it is that it’s kept secret, because “who knows what a witch will do when they find out you’re a defenseless human. They’ll rip you apart. You’re not like them. I’m the only one you can trust because I know who you really are and I’m kind to you,” etc.

No one knows but Belos, Hunter, and (unknowingly to the others) Kikimora through her snooping.

What’s the deal with the Guildersnake?

Luz’s Guildersnake, also known as Backup, was a gift from Eberwolf early on in Luz’s stay in the castle. (Elaboration here).

What is the Azura Incident?

The Azura Incident was an Azura bookclub meeting gone wrong, resulting in a month-long shipping war within the coven where the two sides were fighting over who Azura should be in a relationship with. There was a real threat that the Emperor could be overthrown in the chaos. Luz led one faction with Hunter as her second-in-command. Steve “led” the other faction with Lilith as the real mastermind. The chronological tag is HERE. The short fanfic of the incident is HERE.

Why doesn’t Luz have a staff?

(This answer has changed with the revelations of Hollow Mind and King’s Tide)

To encourage Luz and Hunter’s codependency, and also the “us/them” mentality between humans and Witches that Belos is trying to foster in Luz (which… doesn’t really work). Hunter is responsible for Luz’s wellbeing, and since she can’t do magic or any way to defend herself (that Belos knows of), he has to stay by her side pretty much all the time. Hunter lets her borrow the staff outside the castle sometimes, though, and they of course have the glyphs.

Why does Warden Wrath call Luz “sir”?

Luz and Hunter are difficult to tell apart while fully masked, at least until they start speaking, so everyone calls them both “sir” out of convenience! Luz is pretty gender-nonconforming in canon, so she’s fine with it.

Does Luz remember how to speak Spanish/has Luz taught Hunter any Spanish?

Yes to both! Luz is still fluent, although it’s difficult to stay in practice since no one in the Boiling Isles can speak it. She has taught some to Hunter, but he doesn’t know much. He picks up certain phrases that he mutters to himself, though. (Elaboration here, here and here).

#toh tagteam au #not comic #faq

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fanficparker · 3 years

Text

A GAME OF DIAMONDS AND HEARTS // H.O.

>> CHAPTER THREE

"The Gates of hell are open night and day, smooth the descent, and easy is the way..." - Aeneid, Virgil

(Frenemies to Lovers! Mob AU! ) Harrison Osterfield x Fem!OC

Word count: 2.17k words

Warning: Swearing, gun violence, car chase, full on action, cool dudes, anxiety and fluff in case you forget to blink ;)

Synopsis: After the sudden death of his uncle and the eccentric multi-millionaire mafia king Lufian Clarke, Harrison Osterfield’s almost decent life is mostly devastated especially when half of what should be rightfully his fortune is transferred to their immediate rival for reasons he doesn’t know. What’s remaining is him trying to figure out how to deal with this collaboration of two rival corporations that don’t belong together and work on the side of the woman he never knew would ever be referred to as his partner in crime while they are dragged into a mess bigger than what they were trained to handle.

A/N: The amount of time I waste on making these moodboards-- (I literally coloured the black and white pictures 💀 )

<< TWO [ MASTERLIST ] FOUR >>

A moment passed.

A shallow gust of wind tickled Harrison's left ear, making him squirm. He leaned back, pulling his rolled up sleeves down and buttoning them at his wrist followed by pressing the creases on his shirt—a habit of his, a ritual he can't seem to put away even when there was a sniper aimed at his head.

Worse. All this could be a trick.

Worst. It wasn't.

All in all, time wasn't the currency, Harrison had at his disposal. Yet, he found himself shoving a penny straight into the slot machine.

He cleared his throat in a failed attempt at clearing his foggy mind, "Don't you think, you shouldn't have let go of Tom?"

The more men, the better chances of survival. It worked this way, right?

Sandhya sighed, exasperated, the flicker of the candle animating a dance on her face was seemingly more lively than her at the moment.

"We suspect, at least one of your men were involved in Clarke's murder. Also," She paused, chuckling nervously, "I won't lie, I was expecting something like this to happen but not today, not right now." She referred to the rifle aimed at them.

"I am seriously...uh... ugh..." Harrison didn't know if there were proper words in the vernacular to reply to this. All he could do was grit his teeth.

How long will this day go, anyway? What was it? The solstice? Do solstice last this long?

In his prognosis, if he had one more revelation this day, especially if it had something or anything to do with the dead man, his brain would melt and leak out of his ears. On the non-fictitious scale: He would rip off his hair or empty a loaded .44 magnum into the head of the person closest to him.

But there were his men involved in Clarke's murder? His men?

And their respectable leader, Harrison Osterfield was trapped in a life and death situation, waiting for a can of smoke to allow him to escape? And on top of that, he was taking orders from one of their enemies?

What if it was her plan? What if she killed the old man? She had inherited his fortune— it was enough of evidence for Harrison to draw that conclusion even in its scant or flimsy state. He won't be surprised if she wanted him dead as much as he wanted her to be. Or that the sniper was one of her men. Or everything happening was a part of her bigger plan.

He had a pistol tucked away in his sock, maybe he could catch her at gunpoint?

The instant he glanced at the mirror of her flapjack, she had placed between them, he discarded the idea. No avail. The sniper could easily target him.

He was fucked up.

He could hear his life ticking away.

A click of tin hitting the floor ignited the dying flame in his heart. He felt Sandhya's hand slip over his, delicate fingers tapping against the back of his hand, gliding over his square signet ring that was sitting on his middle finger for ages now, moving further away to feel his rough, wounded knuckles, he never seemed to care about.

She appeared as afraid as him. Or maybe it was part of her plan. Harrison wasn't sure if it was the mutual fear they felt or the gesture, the little ministrations she drew over the back of his hand that had managed to ease his nerves, at least for the time being. His eyes swerved up, locking with hers again, her lips forming the words he was waiting to hear.

"Now!" She screamed on the top of her voice, retracting her hand as the smoke leaked out of the can, suspending itself into the air.

Harrison leapt on cue, ducking below the table. A single shot hits the wood of the chair, he was previously sitting on.

He tried to make the best use of the blindness that the grey smoke offered, pulling the table cloth in a swift motion. The wine and the lit candles fell over the fabric, igniting a fire. The flames and the smoke rose quickly, fanned by the stiff breeze, consuming the Pinterest worthy setting in a matter of seconds as he watched Sandhya's shadowy figure hopping off from the other side of the balcony, her red heels discarded by the decorated flower pots.

In a heartbeat, the fire alarm goes off followed by another shot. The people eating in the restaurant shrieked almost simultaneously as the second shot is wasted, their screams never subsiding as they run around, knocking over things, trying to get the hell out of the building.

Amidst the mist, Harrison grabbed the railing of the balcony, hopping off it, climbing down as promptly as he could, hearing more bullets fire on the place he just abandoned.

His planned smooth landing on the freshly mowed grass goes awry as he stumbles, falling over his knee in an attempt at dodging a shot that went over right his head, almost touching his hair.

There were more gunmen. His expressions were that of horror.

He quickly rose to his feet, pulling the pistol tucked in his sock out, looking around and over his shoulder before squeezing the trigger twice.

A man dressed in the waiter's attire fell from the first floor along with his rifle, hitting the ground, crumbling next to Harrison's feet, presumably dead.

Harrison didn't check. He was sure.

Aim. He was good at it. Way too good.

He paced his way with the pistol pointed downrange, pulling the slide back with his thumb and forefinger to the street full of chaos with people running in all directions, fire alarms blaring in the background. A maroon sedan stopped abruptly in front of him, a quarter of an inch away from hitting him and transporting him directly to hell.

He opened his mouth to swear but the driver was the first to flung the door open. He had red-brown shaggy hair, probably a result of the wind and was dressed in a grey trench coat with the belt undone. His eyes were hidden behind black wraparound mirror shades, hiding most of his face.

The only thing that sparked Harrison's interest was the shotgun poorly concealed inside his coat.

"Get in." Two words, another order. The driver was definitely way older than him, he could tell by his deep, rusty voice. The driver pushed the long barrelled gun in his direction.

Harrison groaned, shoving himself into the passenger seat, accepting the new weapon, discarding the smaller gun and shutting the door behind him.

"Where is she? Where is Sandhya?" Harrison demanded, looking over at the back seat, his frown deepening into a scowl but the driver popped the car into reverse and stormed the accelerator, hard, sending him flying backwards, his back hitting against the backrest.

"She'll meet us halfway." The driver replied, his eyes never leaving the road. Harrison settled himself on the polyester seat, taking a breath before the car took a sharp turn, almost knocking his head against the window.

"Watch out!" The driver warned and Harrison peeked at the rear view mirror.

A black Escalade SUV lunged towards them at a speed higher than theirs. At least four passengers were sitting in it, two of them pushed their heads out of the windows, hands holding shotguns, aiming a shot at the vehicle he was sitting in.

They ducked down, both Harrison and the driver evading the bullets fired at them. The rear windshield blew out with a boom and a crash, spraying glass over the unoccupied backseat.

Enough.

Harrison slid his window down, ducking again when more bullets were shot at them, before aiming straight to the front tire.

He fired one— two— three shots, one followed by the other. The third one successfully hits the wheel. He watched with a triumphant grin pasted over his face as the attacker's car tumbled, crashing against the telephone pole, now motionless.

But his grin didn't last long when they crossed the intersection. Two more cars emerged from the two sides, the same model as the one he had just shot down.

The panic was real this time. He could even hear police sirens.

What the actual fuck?

"We need to hurry!" Harrison instructed, restless in his seat, watching the black SUVs and the white police cruisers, red sirens blazing on their head, racing behind them.

It was a real chase.

They zoomed through the street, feeling alternately light and heavy as they shifted in their seats, leaning right and left as the roads forked as they sailed through the busy traffic, ignoring the honking cars, even honking themselves. The buildings, streets and the traffic began to blur as they raced down, veering frantically to avoid their pursuers.

A ray of hope: Another intersection. The signal was three seconds into turning red.

Perfect.

"You can do this..." Harrison whispered like a prayer, eyes glimmering with hope, focusing more on the road than the man operating the steering he knew nothing about, except for his remarkable prowess as a getaway driver.

You can do this!

The driver panted, breathing with his mouth as he puts the car into the sixth gear, pressing the accelerator as hard as he could, flooring the sedan through the blinking signal, it turning red the exact moment they tear through it.

The pedestrian cars came to a halt upon the red signal, breaking hard, forming a chain, successfully blocking the way of both the attackers and the cops.

The driver barked out a laugh, the type falling more into the category of a chortle than an actual laugh (not that Harrison cared), taking off his shades, shoving them inside his coat, a proud smile plastered on his face as he weaves from lane to lane, disappearing under a bridge, finally stepping on to the much calmer highway.

"Kevin." The driver muttered.

"Huh?" Harrison responded with a questioning look. The guy was at least fifty-five years old, Harrison could tell now. His natural grey hair stood in contrast with his dyed copper ones, adding to his overall charm. His adventurous demeanour has previously mistaken him for being any younger.

Stretching a left hand, "My name is Kevin," the driver clarified, his light brown eyes meeting momentarily with Harrison's blue ones.

Harrison nodded, putting away his gun, wiping the sweat on his palm over his pants, before taking his hand for a brief shake.

"Harrison," He offered his own name.

"I know," Kevin replied nonchalantly, shifting his focus back to the road.

The blond turned to the other side, head leading against the headrest, glancing out of the window, watching the scenery move backwards, carefree as a lark for once, until the driver slowed the vehicle down, parking at the side, near a divergence where a 91' Accord waited for them.

He leapt out of the car. Harrison followed suit.

Taking the back seat of the switch car, alongside a woman that wasn't Sandhya, Kevin slumped into the cushions, stretching his hands over his head, shutting his eyes, probably tired (of course), taking the much needed break. The woman, on the other hand, was busy typing away on her laptop, wired headphones tucked into her ears.

Another man emerged from the passenger seat, passing Harrison on the way, his face invisible in the dim highway lights, taking the maroon sedan. Harrison replaced him, getting into the switch car, sitting on the front, the only seat that was left unoccupied.

"Welcome back." The voice on the driver's seat greeted him.

Sandhya.

Harrison snorted, choosing not to turn his neck to meet her face and rather settling on passing a mere glance at her with a side eye.

She was back to wearing her coat, raven hair whipped by the wind, loose strands sticking over her face, her makeup no longer intact and slightly greasy, except for her bold red lipstick, sitting over her smiling mouth, complimenting her smooth dusky skin.

She pulled the gear, pressing on the pedal, putting the car in motion, its engine roaring for a full minute, her right hand on the wheel, left hand ceaselessly turning the dial of the radio back and forth, till Blinding Lights echoed from the speakers. She kept the volume low, possibly because of the other woman busy on her laptop, definitely because of the man dozing off, sitting behind them. But that didn't stop her from mouthing the lyrics or sway her body with the tunes.

Harrison looked away, outside the window, head slightly out, chin pressed against one of his hands he had kept over the window edge, feeling the cold air hit his face harder when she shifted the gear, speeding off the vehicle.

A ghost of a smile flickered over his lips, the upbeat music filling his ears.

He had different plans...

____________________

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…TO BE CONTINUED…

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Jake Reviewcaps Stuff: Amphibia: Truck Stop Polly/A Caravan Named Desire

A day two days late but no dollars short, we reach the middle of the Plantar family vacation. Polly super runs away from home after feeling negelcted and gets a neat trucker hat while Hop Pop is forced to choose between his love of theater and aiding and abetting, Sprig tries to fit in with the cool kids and Anne tries to just finish her damn Koala puzzle already. The show must go on under the cut

Okay first why this was late... I had a LOTTT of cleaning to do for a vistor coming to the house, so while I did get the episode watched I didn’t have time to write about it till today.. ironically hours before my sister from another mister is having her wedding, a small one in her backyard with all the food pre-packaged, but still it’s obviously a lot .. and yes this has been going through my head.

youtube

Point is life’s been busy, this isn’t the first thing to get delayed, but I do want to try to get these out on saturday at least. Second.. these eps faced an uphill battle.. see like the Lost Harp of Mirvana during my ducktales coverage earlier this year, this is what seems like an average ep from the summaries given out by disney.. right before a stream of far more important and intresting ones. For this one it’s two fairly standard eps.. right before another fairly standard one.. that then leads into finding out both what Sasha’s doing and presumibly, why she’s still on the bad guy side like the intro suggests or if the intro is just lying. We won’t know till next week. And to make matters worse after that we have Kermit the frog’s episode.. as in kermit doing voice work not whoever his voice actor is now just doing a diffrent voice. And i’m so glad disney is continuing this beautifully insane idea that started when Fozzy voiced a character on Big City Greens. See this is good quality use of your muppets. Hopefully muppets now will keep this up later this week. Anyways paired with Kermit is the long awaited gravity falls homage “Wax Museum” with Alex Hirsch himself doing both stan stand in, a stan-in if you will, teh curator and frog soos. Which is the greatest name in Disney history since Sharkbomb. Oh and THEN, we finally get to newtopia and finally meet marcie.. and if that weren’t enough, the newt king is voiced by keith motherfucking david, disney royalty as voice of Goliath in Gargoyles (Which I really need to get off my ass and watch already, I have no excuse for taking this long. At least with Darkwing Duck the absolutley baffling airing order that isn’t disney plus’ fault for once but they scould still fix is a mild one.. if not enough of one) and Dr. Facilier in “The Princess and the Frog”, in which he sang one of the best villian songs in the disney canon. Never fails to kill me. He also should’ve been sexist man alive by now but fuck if I know why he hasn’t been.. even at 64 he’s still in the running and I will not back away from that sentence. That man can get it and his wife is a very lucky woman. SO yeah, Sasha, Kermit, Frog Soos, and then a one two punch of Marcy and keith fucking david, followed by i’m assuming a good helping of world building in newtopia and i’m not assuming thanks to the episode summaries including guest voices even MORE Keith David. So yeah like Mervana proceding Fenton and Boyd and then Daisy! an episode i’d been waiting for since last year’s comiccon, and was not disapointed by, this episode is before a giant pile of stuff i’ve been waiting for plus a thing I had no idea was coming with Keith David. And this show isn’t alone: next week’s owl house is another king episode about him making a big style wish that goes wacky.. right before we get Willow and Amity’s backstory, then the episode where hopefully the gays will win. This isn’t a new thing and will doubtfully occur again but like with Mirvana I gave these eps a fair shake. How did they shake out with the added pressure? let’s find out.

Truck Stop Polly

We start in the Wagon, or Fwagon as the family calls it but i’m not because no. Just no. Plus there isn’t a catchy song for caulking your Fwagon sung by the talented, and recently engaged congradulations Joey and Lauren now that was the kind of news I needed this week, Joey Richter.

But no Bessie isn’t being caulked down for glue, Sprig and Anne are driving the wagon, Hop Pop is asleep, as he probably hasn’t slept and Polly.. isn’t doing so good. She’s clearly missing home seeing Miss Croaker.. onlyt o find a rock.. and then because this is Amphibia some kind of nightmare that reminds me of a baby xenomorph. Anyways the reason Polly ain’t doing so good is well she’s like.. 5, on a scary trail with no one to comfort her, and none of the old comforts of home to help her forget her very likely death before she’s even big enough to rip a man’s heart out with her bear hands. I mean that’s been in her 7th birthday plans for like, forever. She TRIES to replicate old things, first trying for story time.. which fails because while Hop Pop tries, he can’t stay awake because he apparently, as the episode will prove out, hasin’t heard of caffine, while trying to get her older siblings to read to her just gets them and her in trouble when she gets bessie ran into something and Polly’s attempt at bath time afterword just floods everyone out. Thankfully while the episode does go with the “Character tries things multiple times and is destined to fail” thing, something i’ve seen a lottt in animation and as i’ve made clear in my handful of loud hosue reviews i’m not a big fan of it... but it works well here. It takes up only a portion of the episode and is used well. Nuff said. But it’s with the aftermath where things really start to shine and we really get why this episode works: Polly messed up bad yes.. but she’s also , again 5. Her family just sorta forgot that 5 year olds need a lot of attention because this is one who probably has ripped a man’s heart out... the bear hands thing is more just because it’s cooler that way. But Polly isn’t really thinking about anyone else but herself and this episode reveals a problem polly has: She puts up such a tough front she has trouble opening up.. which makes sense. Polly wants to be taken seriously, as seen with the inn episode last season, and likely feels acting her age will just get them to stop doing that.. but as we saw there while she’s utterly capable in a crisis.. she’s still a small child, it’s still scary and she needs what all little kids need as much as she needs a freshly ripped out heart with breakfast. But what really makes the scene is, as Polly hides, Hop Pop loudly and crushingly for the poor tadpole, outright wonders if they should’ve just left her with Ms. Croaker. And yeah this is a .. hard thing to hear. That her only parental figure regrets bringing her and feels he woudl’ve been better leaving her away from her family for what’s at the very least a month and will defintely be longer.. and not just because of future episode synopisis. And if they succeed with anne.. one of them wouldn’t be coming back. She’d miss telling her big sister good bye and that’s a LOT to take away from her and probably explains,besides Polly being badass, why they still took her: She may never see Anne again. And if Anne can’t get home, she wouldn’t of b een there for her. Polly tears up and it’s a ROUGH scene. But what really makes this scene already amazing work.. is the immdite followup. Sprig and Anne are both shocked by this and Anne , in typical “the character only heard the bad part” fashion, and as Della has proven even full grown adults aren’t immune to this so don’t feel too bad polly, asks if he really meant that. And he didn’t. It’s what makes the scene work so hopping good: it’s realistic. We’ve all had moments where a parent, a friend, or even ourselves has just said something, something hurtful, or yelled or screamed or what have you at osmeone without meaning it.. and sometimes you can’t take that back. But we’ve all been pushed to the limit, stressed or tired or upset and just.. snapped and said something terrible. And it’s this realness that really makes it worse. Hop Pop explains he’s just exausted.. which makes sense. He has trouble deligating, being utterly terrified of Anne and Sprig taking up watch duty, and has probably been driving without sleep for a week at the LEAST given the trip’s been said to have gone on longer than planned. So he’s not in any good shape, and Anne and Sprig do consider she had her reasons. Anne does give Hop Pop coffee for the first time, which perks him right up. Polly however is still hurting and decides to use 5 year old logic and leave a fake, a convient purple ball she find sthat she dresses up with a sleep mask and her bow, and figures once they find out she’s not there, they’ll feel bad and come back. it’s a short sighted plan but we’ve all probably thought of something like this at her age. I once ran away from home carrying among things i’ve forgotten by cyclops helpmet from the x-men.. must’ve been from the 80′s as by the 90′s he let his hair out. Wish I still had that thing or at least a cyclops visor. Love that guy. This naturally backfires as while Sprig and Anne try talking to polly, Sprig thinks she’s alseep and warns anne never to wake her.. never... how.. how many stabbings did she give you before that sunk in man? Are you okay sprig? Polly naturally freaks the fuck out upon thinking her family abandoned her, but vows to start a new life.. with flapjacks and more story times. She dosen’t know anybody.. cue swampy joe from last season. A welcome return, horay! Anyways Swampy naturally not leaving a child to die because this is amphibia and not an average night in Monkey D Luffy’s childhood, and also gets her a sweet trucker hat off screen. I assume she put it on exactly like this. Polly gripes about the situation.. but in a refreshing and suprising, to both me and polly, change of pace we don’t get them agreeing or her getting a new life: The Truckers point out the main issue: She’s homesick, and she’s trying desperatley to seek comfort in old rituals without adapting to the fact that some simply don’t work as well in their new situation or taking the fact her family is busy and this is stressful for them too into account. It’s also a nice moral for thes quarantine times; sometimes you can’t get normal back easily, and have to adapt and you have to consider others feelings as hard as it might be. They also peg her being so hardned on the outsdie she dosen’t let things in and again while this is new.. it does track. We’ve rarely seen polly upset, or vunerable or any of that.. so this simply makes it a character trait.. that part of why she rarely acts like the 5 year old she is is she’s scared of letting people in and loosing what ground she’s gained with Hop Pop. As for why their so wise it’s because when your alone driving for miles on the open road you have nothing but self improvment.. and in a great bit the lone female trucker among them got her PhD, and celebrates with her friend with a high tounge. Of course bigger problems arrive. Turns out taking some random object you found without checking for a zany scheme isn’t wise as a man comes in wondering where his roc’s egg went.. roc’s bein ga type of bird.. a giant bird. That kills the first frog it sees upon hatching, like imprinting only more horrifying.. so like the twilight version of imprinting then. And yes i’m aware i’m bashing twilight still, and while I largely don’t care, having an 18 year old man romantically imprint on a baby, rapid aging or no, is fucking creepy and not a good ending for the character. And yes that actually happened. Polly gets Soggy Joe, now speedy joe complete with hat and yes you need to call him that Polly finds out, to give her a lift back home. Meanwhile back home, Anne decides to read to polly anyway. I mean she just watched her sorta girlfriend sacrifice herself and then get carted off by the scary asshole who wanted to presumibly put her grandpa’s head on a spike outside his tower as a warning. Polly stabbing her a few times dosen’t really stack up. But she discovers she’s not there and gives out a code purple.. which ges the rest of the family right on time. Polly and Joe catch up with them and find the roc emerging out of the caravan and everyone fighting. Thankfully polly static clings on Joe’s fringe seats, which Joe grumbles about, and builds up the static before having him fast ball special her into the bird, which beats it. Polly takes credit for about five seconds.. before Hop Pop uses her full name as he’s pissed.. not about the giant death bird, a giant bird trying to murder you seconds after birth is just an average tuesday on this hell planet.. though i’d still trade it for our hell planet if they could get streaming down. No like any good parent he’s upset she ran away.. and devistated when Polly tears up and reveals she heard his whole thing earlier, with Hop Pop gently apologizing and explaning he took just how grown up she is for granted, with the Anne and Sprig naturally agreeing and the four hug. I do wish Polly apologized.. but it still works anyway as she’s still 5, she does feel bad about it, and she did just save their lives. The episode would’ve been slightly better with it but works fine. Soggy Joe offers to tow them, because he’s a class act, and Hop Pop decides to have storytime with everyone.. Anne points out she’s 13 but eh why not. Also I did like getting conformation how old she is as before it was just conjecture by me that she was 13 or 14. For the record as you can tell I peg polly as five, Sprig as 9 or 10, and Hop Pop as me shrugging. Also Polly’s normal story is a gritty noir story about a man trying to murder his wife’s killer.. which is funny enough and explains a lot about polly enough.. until we get a POP UP BOOK POP UP OF A HAND HOLDING A KNIFE. Just.. (Chef’s kiss) my god. Of course Anne loves it.

Final Thoughts for this Episode: A really good one, that has a lot of intresting dynamics and remembered Polly’s age without overwriting her character.. it still felt in character and was a nice reminder she’s still a young child, just one that can Volt Tackle large birds and who likes noir revenge quests as her bed time story. It added some more depth to Polly and it was something she really needed, giving her a vunerable side again and expanding on that. The first third does drag a bit.. but once the episode gets going it gets really fucking excellent.. while “child feels neglected and runs away” isn’t a new story, it works here both due to it’s realism, giant muder bird, or birderer if you will, non-withstanding, and due to being rooted in the Plantar’s characters. It’s damn good and like Mirvana was a nice suprise of an episode.

A Caravan Named Desire Suprisie a wedding is exausting and not only did I have to abandon finishing this review to get ready for it, but was too tired to actually finish this when I got home. Aw well. Let’s keep it going.

We open as our heroes are about to enter the thirsty swamp, another desert region, but this time more deserty. Anne scoffs at needing hydration.. before a cut to her utterly dehydrated and pouring the canteen on herself.. which she pulled up including sprig who gives out a whee. As adorable as it is chuckle worthy. Hop Pop is worried because as his faviorite plays says the area is full of terrible monsters and bandits.. and the kids groan because he’s clealry talked about this play a lot. As it turned out Hop Pop always wanted to be an actor, but gave it up.. and this is where I feel the episode missed some good character stuff: We never find out a lot about Hop Pop at that age: why he wanted to buck tradiition when why by present day he’s nothing but tradition, or why he gave up after one failed audition.. it’s not a bad episode, but I feel we missed out on an opprutnity to learn more about Hop Pop’s past, an area the show really hasn’t dug into apart from “He and sylvia were into each other once and he has a rvial and now he’s dating Sylvia for real this time so yay”. And speaking of which it is weird he hasn’t brought her up.. I mean he dosen’t have to miss his girlfriend every 5 minutes, that’d get fucking annoying , and the silver age fantastic four comics where Johnny storm would constantly pine for a girl he met for all of 5 minutes, carried over to the 90′s cartoon but toned down, are proof that’d be annoying. But it’s still just.. weird it hasn’t come up once so far.. we have a full season for it too, but it just feels like the show abrubtly left most of it’s supporting cast behind without asking how any of htem felt about Anne and the plantars leaving after spending a full season having them go from mildly tolerated to beloved by the town, especially Anne. Anyways before Hop Pop can bring up his one time as Tony in the wartwood production of west side story, they have worm sign and soon a sandworm is chasing them because of course Amphibia has sand worms. Their thankfully saved by a mysterious woman and her caravan, Renee Frodgers, the writer of the play Hop Pop won’t shut up about and no one else cares about.. kind of like me with.. everything. Pretty much everything. But with auditions going on Hop Pop gladly follows Renee back into her office, while a nearbye actor kid offers to take the Plantar kids to the kids car. Sprig and Polly are entirely on board, but Anne’s answer?

Turns out when Anne was widdle, somewhere from 4 to 6, she was in a school play about dental hyginee as a tooth tripped.. and everything caught fire. “4 out of 5 detinsts say I was traumatized.”, a great line. So Anne’s noping out of this one and decides to instead work on her Kola’s of Passion jigsaw puzzle.. which if that’s for an animatied ripoff of titanic but with Kolas I will give all my money to see that.. well no I need that but I do have an unopened can of pringles on my desk and a penguins of madagascar dvd I got for free at a garage sale. Will that work? Please? So we have our two main plots and running gag: Sprig trying to fit in with the kids, hop pop living out his dreams and anne trying to finish a puzzle. And since the plots really don’t intersect till the last moment apart from one scene with Anne, i’ll be covering both seperatley. Sprig’s plot is very simple: He wants the theater kids to like him, the lead actor treats him like crap, Polly gets accepted but is just sorta there htis episode outside of one great gag that we’ll get to in a moment, and eventually sprig just gets fed up and tells the guy off. It’s not all that enjoyable as I relate a bit too much to desperatley wanting to be liked in high school by people who were utter dicks.. and breifly in college online, so it brings back too many bad memories but hte punchline of sprig jumping back into frame in cosutme the minute he gets acceptance for telling the pissant off is priceless. Now with that out of the way, back a few minutes ago Hop Pop tries auditioning but tries to hard and fails, and dosen’t get the part, in part because he has no experince but later storms back in and tells Renee off.. and that honest passion gets him the lead. And .. turns out Hop Pop is a master actor getting love from the masses and living out his dream. Again it’s where I wish we got more drive, more of his past. I don’t know why other than “I want to act” why Hop Pop wants this so bad or why it means so much. I know what he wants, paul, but not WHY he wants it. I do get time constraints.. but if that was the case.. why keep the sprig subplot? He could just be an extra or stage crew or making a puzzle with anne or some other shenanigan that required less screentime. I do REALLY like spirg, this season if nothing else has made me realize how good the character is, I just feel for this episode the other minutes could’ve gone better to set up Hop Pop’s love of acting and past better and give us more of how Hopidah went from a wannabe actor ready to leave tradition behind to someone who clings to it like something clingy. This episode isn’t bad but there’s more it could’ve done. Anyways the good times, and the tour and if your curious the wagon is being stored somewhere on the caravan since they can’t safetly travel alone, end when Hop Pop walks in on Renee planning a heist. Now granted instead of the obvious of “oh their just theives’ the troop are legit actors, directors etc... the heists are because, much like on earth, no one supports the arts and they need money to keep going and keep putting on shows, hence Renee and her two goons rob the towns they visit during the more powerful moments of Hop Pop’s performance. And this is something like. While “Character wants to do something and ends up getting recruited by shady people for a scheme to do it” isn’t at all new, here it’s intresting because instead of being bad at it or the scheme being related to the heist or the normal twists.. Hop Pop is legit good, we even see a bit of his performance later and loved, instead of just being so bad it’s useful, and the theives aren’t just after money but keeping their art alive. So Hop Pop is conflicted and turns to Anne.. and ruins her puzzle because of course he does, but while Anne tells him the obvious: Stealing is bad even to support our badly unfunded arts, otherwise modern artists would be pulling daring heists all the time.. seriously that should be a show, Hop Pop decides he’s such a godo actor he can convince himself nothing’s going on. Sprig comes in for his subplot and annoys anne further and also dosen’t listen to her and Polly.. just tells Anne she loves her with Anne screaming it back. It’s a great punchline to the scene and also really sweet. Aww. So Hop Pop tries to get used to aiding and abetting but realizes during his big scene he just.. can’t turn his concsen off, outs renee then gets into a chase with her, with renee making hte mistake of detaching the front car to escape.. only to end up Worm food. She’ll make good spice at least.. I guess? I don’t know how Dune works. She’s arrested, and Hop Pop and family book it after the kids accidently spill he knew about the crime ahead of time and did nothing. The end.

#amphibia #a caravan named desire #truck stop polly #anne boonchuy #hopidiah plantar #sprig plantar #polly plantar #soggy joe #disney channel #reviews #reviewcaps #team starkid #the trail to oregon #frogs

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caramelohaechan · 5 years

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Pumpkin King (S. Mingi)

YES this is based off of the world in The Nightmare Before Christmas, yes Mingi is still a human, and yes, the reader is supposed to be like sally but it’s gender neutral, so don’t worry! I am personally very proud of this and i love it very much

Fandom: Ateez

Genre: fluff

Warning(s): gender neutral! Reader // the nightmare before christmas! au // fluffy fluff

The October night is cold from what you can tell. The trees are dancing, arms waving and leaves shaking, the wind is singing, blowing gently against your hair, and chimneys are pumping smokey clouds high into the black sky, masking the glowing full moon.

Enjoying the night requires the ability to feel. To be able to know if the wind caressing your hair and whistling through the town is hot or cold requires feeling, and while you have a lot of things, feeling is one of the only things you lack.

You have a skin sewn of cloth and a heart made of stuffing. You’ve also got a brain made of rubber and a belly of plastic.

You just don’t have feelings.

At least, that’s what Dr. Finkelstein says.

You think differently. Sure, you can’t feel if the wind is hot or cold, if the stone beneath you is sharp enough to split your skin, but you’re sure that something happens to you when you see the Pumpkin King.

You don’t know if it’s all in that rubber brain of yours or not, but when it comes to Song Mingi, you feel something in that stuffing heart of yours. Sometimes you swear it beats when you see him. Everything changes when he’s around. Something happens to your cheeks and your plastic stomach starts to shake like there’s some sort of storm brewing in there.

All because of him.

Which is why you’re out on this probably cold night, walking on these probably cold stone steps that are probably ripping through the heels of your feet, walking to Town Square to see him. No matter what happens to you when you set eyes on him, you always like it, and always go back for more.

It’s pitch black and goblins screech at you from under the bridge as you cross over, deflating when they realize that it’s just you. Half of the town doesn’t even bother trying to scare you anymore after they found out you’re an emotionless rag doll. You never flinch, scream, or die from fright, which disappoints every single one of them. The more persistent ones still try, which makes you laugh sometimes. Dr. Finkelstein sometimes does this laughing when you ask if you can leave your tower politely. It’s just him, heaving and breathing really weirdly. You’ve gotten quite good at mimicking him. Sometimes, after you poison him to escape, you like to laugh at him like he does at you.

Town Square is full of vampires and ghosts, and even a fair share of closet monsters preparing last minute items for Halloween, which is in a month. It’s so close you can almost taste the tears, blood, and fear. Everyone’s bustling to and fro, but your eyes scan the crowd for the Mayor. You’d learned a long time ago where the Mayor was, Mingi was also. The mayor did like to follow after him like a lost puppy most of the time, but you knew as kind as Mingi was, he’d never tell the guy to get off his tail.

A vampire bumps your shoulder as he passes, and you turn with your brows furrowed. Kang Yeosang smiles bashfully, fangs pushing at his lips. “Sorry, Y/N. Busy night. Only 30 days left until Halloween! It’s so close!”

You smile at him in return and he shuffles away quickly. Ah, the vampires are always so awkward. Dr. Finkelstein had taught you every kind of emotion there was to feel, and while you had soaked in the information well, it never changed the fact that you just couldn’t feel the emotions you were learning about. If you could feel, you decide, you’d feel pity for the vampires. They always worked so hard, but since they were so shy they hardly get half the scares they want on Halloween night. Most of them come back to their coffins more dead than before.

You finally spot the Mayor near the old well, where witches are brewing an XXL pot of poison. You have to remind yourself to slip some for Finkelstein later. He’s getting quite suspicious of the frogs breath you always slip him, and witches poison is undetectable.

Of course the witches are fawning over Mingi, as he stands in all of his tall, thin, glory. He’s wearing his iconic suit and is oblivious to their advances as they place their wart covered hands all over the fine material. You decide you want to feel disgust just then.

You surge forwards anyway, knowing that there are things far scarier and disgusting than desperate witches. For some reason you start to fiddle with the new stitches on your cheek. You had made Finkelstein feel quite a bit of anger the other day and he doesn’t like anger, apparently, so he had taken a dagger and stabbed you straight through the cheek. The new stitches ran all the way from the bottom of your eye to the edge of your chin. You also had some in the back of your head, but he had felt bad and sewed more locks of hair to your scalp to cover them.

You know you have a lot of stitches, as you get torn apart quite frequently, but for some reason you don’t want Mingi to see them. You want new, untouched cloth skin without patches and stitches. You want Mingi to think you’re... nice looking.

If this is a feeling, you think, you don’t know what it is.

The Mayor’s happy, and he’s talking very loudly when you near, hands waving in the air. “-one of the best Halloween’s of this century, Mingi, I swear it!”

Mingi nods, a look on his face that may mean he’s proud or happy. Finkelstein said it’s possible to feel two things at once. You think that Mingi is great enough to do an amazing thing like feeling two emotions at once.

“Well, the whole town did their best to contribute this year, Mayor. I won’t be surprised if mortals die from fear this year!” He replies.

Then his eyes land on you. A smile lifts the corners of his lips and his cheeks make his eyes curve like waning crescents. He looks almost happy to see you.

Something happens with your stuffing heart again. The fluff moves inside of your chest so rapidly it causes a rhythm to beat against your skin, and when you press your fingers to your wrist you can feel it. Thump thump!

You’re sure that your little heart is beating, but Dr. Finkelstein has told you that this is impossible. Your organs are all there for decoration. To make you feel like a normal human, but they don’t work. He likes to remind you everyday that you’re his creation, and if he made you, he can unmake you. His favorite thing to say of all time, though, is that you’ll never be normal. You’ll always be an emotionless, bloodless, sack of dead leaves and patches.

You’ve told this to Mingi before. That your creator doesn’t really like you, which is completely confusing, and likes to slash you when he’s angry. Mingi had told you immediately after that nothing he said was true. That you were one of the biggest assets of Halloween Town. You never had reason to believe him, as, though ironic, Halloween wasn’t really your thing. But that night when the two of you were walking through the cemetery to wake the dead, it was the first time you had felt the bundle of stuffing in your chest begin to thump thump thump.

Your own smile grows as you finally park yourself beside the well. “Hello.”

The Mayor’s face swivels around to worry. “Oh, Y/N! You mustn’t poison Dr. Finkelstein anymore! He’s one of the best doctors this towns got, and I’m afraid his brain won’t be of much use to us if he dies. Zombies, ghosts, and skeletons don’t have reliable brains, I’m afraid.”

You tilt you head. “Oh, don’t you worry about it, Mayor. This time we got into a fight and I zapped him with his own electric rod. He’s got a few minor injuries, but I’m sure his skull is thick enough to keep his brain from damaging too much.”

Mingi laughs at this, a good, genuine laugh. The witches back away, beady eyes focusing on you as he does. The Mayor manages a chuckle, but his face is still blue and his frown has not turned upside down.

“I came to see if you need any help with last minute preparations, Pumpkin King.” You say, which has Mingi going a soft shade of pink. “I was simply dying of boredom in that tower.”

Mingi nods, stepping away from the well and bidding farewell to the witches, who try their best to make him stay by insisting his presence helps the brew become extra deadly. As he shakes them off you manage to sneak a vial of poison from beside the well.

Mingi finally slips away and grabs your elbow, leading you to the other side of Town Square. “I do actually have something I need your help with. There’s a batch of pumpkins I need to be carved into the scariest faces you can think of. I had the goblins assigned to this, but since they spend most of their time being the ugly, frightening things, they don’t really know what to carve. Some of them are so massive they carved a dozen pumpkins with stacks of moldy flapjacks. They’re always hungry, you know.”

You manage a laugh, one that’s softer and not as brutal as the one you use around Dr. Finkelstein. It’s almost delicate.

He turns to you with a bright smile. “Was that a giggle I heard from you? I thought you didn’t feel anything. Laughing is a side effect of the emotion called joy. We don’t use it much around here.”

You lean your head to the side. “What’s a giggle?”

He smiles down at you. “What you just did. It’s a laugh, but softer. I’ve seen it a few times in the other worlds. Mostly in Valentines Day world. People usually giggle when they’re happy and are being told a joke by person they really adore and love.”

That weird thing happens to your cheeks again, and it’s familiar. One time, when cooking, you had placed your hand inside of bubbling cauldron to retrieve a fallen spoon, and most of your hand had shriveled. Are your cheeks bubbling with heat right now?

“I don’t have feelings, remember?” You say finally, pushing a lock of hair away from your face. “I’m just a sack of dead leaves.”

Mingi takes a step closer, and reaches a hand out. His fingers brush your cheek. “I don’t think that’s true. I think Dr. Finkelstein knew what he was doing when he made you. Nothing went wrong. You have feelings and emotions. You just needed something to trigger them inside of you.”

Where his fingers touch your cloth skin something happens. It’s like the time you had been put on the lab table and struck with a bolt of electricity. Except it’s being ignited with his fingers as they trail over your cheekbone and your ear. The plastic jug that’s your stomach starts to rattle, as if little a flock of crows is flying in circles inside of it. The fluttering wings brush against the interior and your heels lift a little so you’re on your tippy toes. Your paper lungs are filling with air that makes you shiver, which means it’s cold air. The night is cold. Your rubber brain is vibrating with the buzzing wings of a million little bees. And your stuffing heart is beating so loudly it’s echoing throughout the entire Town Square.

You’re feeling everything. You remember being taught this emotion briefly, but it’s clear as day what it is.

Mingi is smiling down at you, fondly, you realize. You reach for the hand that’s cupping your cheek and, to your surprise, you can feel the faint thump of his heart in his fingers. It’s beating almost at the same pace yours is.

You look into his eyes and they’re waning crescent moons and his cheeks are puffed up because he’s smiling. His teeth are almost as white as the ghosts roaming around behind him.

“How—” You mange to stutter.

“Y/N, I have been feeling emotions since the dawn of time. I’ve been around for centuries. My heart — it’s never beat like this for anything or anyone else. Your smile, it makes my palms sweaty and my stomach twist like I’m scared for my life. I feel anxiety, and yet I also feel joy when you’re around. I’ve never felt so confused, yet so sure about something before. I’ve done as much research as I can, and I’ve concluded that I’m in love with you.”

Suddenly, the sound of ripping cloth fills the air and your chest bursts open and your heart made of cotton stuffing wrapped in dead leaves, is falling into Mingi’s outstretched hands. He giggles as it lands perfectly in his palms, beating so mightily it’s making the ground vibrate.

Mingi peers at you through his eyelashes. “And I think this means you love me too.”

You feel something travel down your cheek and Mingi is surprised as he moves your heart to one hand and catches your paperclip tear in the other. “Oh no, have I mistaken your sadness for love?”

You finally shake your head. “No, Mingi. I’ve studied certain emotions very well. I’m — I’m happy. I’m in love.”

He grins, tossing your paperclip tear away and clutching your cheek in one hand and your heart in the other. “I am very happy too. I haven’t been this happy for thousands of years.”

He leans forward. “Can I try something I also saw in Valentines Day World?”

You nod, as he not only holds your heart, but all of your trust as well. He leans his head forward and tilts your chin back, his face pushing closer to yours. It makes your whole body flame up, and you’re sure if he gets any closer you’ll spontaneously burst into flames. Then his soft lips touch yours and envelop them in his own. You don’t know how you know, but you do the same, as if your body was made to do this one thing with this one pumpkin king.

Eventually, you feel your paper lungs crumble and he pulls away, taking a breath of air. His cheeks are the color of blood. He’s smiling. He looks down at the heart in his hands and offers it back to you. “I think this is yours.”

You giggle again, and this time it comes naturally. You take your heart and try to push it back into its cavity, but it slips from your fingers and back into Mingi’s palms. You try again, but your heart jumps away before you can touch it and disappears into his pocket.

“I guess my heart is yours now, Pumpkin King.” You say, looking up at Mingi. It’s impossible to wipe the smile from your face, despite your disloyal heart. “Please don’t destroy it.”

He pats his pocket, and your heart wiggles happily. He chuckles and looks back to you. “I’d never dream of it.”

Did you love this as much as I do?

#mingi fluff #mingi imagines #ateez imagines #kpop imagines #mingi smut #kpop fluff #🍀’s Halloween Special

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esandcasg · 3 years

Text

Chapter Thirteen – Overly Suspicious Mechanical Man

I opened my eyes. The dull, far-off thumping sound I’d heard in my dreams continued as I slowly awoke, a slow, rhythmic sound from nowhere close. As my eyes got used to the low light I began to focus on my surroundings. I was in a featureless cell; a mid-sized blank room with roughly hewn stone walls. I lay on a thin bare mattress on the floor. A bucket stood in the corner opposite me. Near the end of my bed was a doorway with an iron gate, bolted shut, behind which was a corridor leading away, curving round to the left.

There was nothing else in the room. I didn’t know where I was or how I’d got here, but I could tell from the cold and the damp I was somewhere in the middle of a mountain. The room looked similar to the passages I’d walked through with Ifan inside the remains of Kangleong.

The thumping sound continued. I held my hands to my head. There was another sound now, accompanied by pain, a loud, scratching, squeaking sound, like the voices of a thousand unborn chicks calling for food.

“Please,” I said, murmuring quietly. “Please could you stop the noise?”

I lay back down from my half sitting position, my hands on my head, trying to get some rest. I could blot out the thumping from deep in the mountain but not the noises inside my own head.

I couldn’t remember anything other than standing with Ifan and Adam on The Sill. I knew that something had happened to me, knew that I had been taken, but aside from the knowledge of an event, I had no recollection of it. But there was pain. The pain was everywhere, coursing through my body, pounding inside my limbs.

I tried sitting up again, opening my eyes. The room had not changed. I had no idea how long I’d been here for. Hours? Months? There was no sense of how much time had passed since the last clear memory I had. I looked down at myself; I was still dressed in the same clothes I remembered, although my belay jacket was tattered and torn, synthetic fibres spilling out from prominent rips in the outer membrane.

What was that?

There was something, some movement somewhere. I looked at the gate but no-one was there. The room had not changed. The sound was still thudding. I was still in pain. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

But there had been something, I was sure. I lay back down.

Images swam through my thoughts. I was on The Sill, with Adam and Ifan, but I couldn’t tell when. Memories of ten years ago intertwined with the present day. They were talking, but it was muffled, out of focus, and I couldn’t hear them properly. Then a grey fog covered the image and I remembered searing pain.

I opened my eyes. I might be paranoid, but I wasn’t going to lie there like some compliant robot waiting to be told what to do.

Gingerly I sat up again. It felt like my whole body groaned. I tasted dried blood on my lips. I drew my legs around so the soles of my double boots (plastic outer, foam-lined inner) rested on the cold hard rock floor. I waited until the dizziness subsided. Again, I felt – rather than saw – a movement, something changing, not too far but not too close.

What was that?

I may be paranoid, I thought again, but look where I am. Holding my hand steady against the wall I stood. My legs screamed with pain.

There was something moving underneath the gate. Like stage smoke, it crept slowly into the room, filling the space, blocking everything out until it was all that was there. A grey fog, covering all. It seemed to take a form, but that of no earthly shape. I could see it out of the corner of my eye, but every time I turned to look the shape vanished.

When it spoke, the voice reverberated all through the room, and, I felt, through me. It filled my mind. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, other than that it was coming from everywhere. It was everything.

“You will not find the sixth tunnel,” it said. “I will prevent you, as I have prevented all that have come before you. The tunnel will remain secret forever, known only to me, and me alone.”

“What about everyone else that uses it?”

There was a pause.

“Them too.”

I sat in a small crumpled heap, hugging my knees close to my chest.

“I was invited here”, I said.

“It is my mountain. It has been mine for centuries.”

“Mountains don’t belong to individuals. Certainly not to smugglers.”

Craven laughed. A deep, booming laugh which filled the room with darkness.

“Smuggling! Is that the limit of your vision? There are things that happen here beyond your comprehension. You cannot find something you do not understand. Go now, and I will give you safe passage from my land.”

I stood up, giving a mocking bow to the shape I knew now I shouldn’t look at directly.

“I have heard your warning, majesty. But my fate is bound to Kangleong. It is my path to follow.”

“Go now,” Craven said again, “Or face destruction.”

“No,” I said in response. “I am of the light. You cannot destroy me.”

“It will not differ greatly from destruction,” he said, the voice softer, more sibilant. “Come now, Old One. You know this. I have more power than you can possibly imagine. As you yourself acknowledged, I am King here.”

I laughed, mustering up as much bravado as I could, despite the pain coursing through my body.

“It’s not who you are that counts. It’s what you do that defines you. And when I am king, you can guarantee you’ll be first against the wall.”

“You will never escape—“

“I don’t care what your opinion is,” I interrupted, growing in confidence. “It doesn’t matter to me. It’s of no consequence. At all.” I knew this was not Craven, not really. This was simply a projection of him. There would be no way he would risk exposure in this way, so direct a confrontation.

Something caught my eye again. What was that? I had assumed that what I’d seen before was the approach of this spectral form, but there was something else. Some other movement, almost imperceptible. What was it?

Then I saw. The gate was swinging very slightly. It was open. When Craven’s fog had seeped into the room he’d forgotten to lock it behind him. Here was my chance.

“Look, an Eddie Stobart lorry!”

Craven’s ghostly form turned and I ran for it.

The gate slammed into the rock wall as I pushed it in front of me; I was dimly aware of a cry of rage and a small fart behind me as I ran headlong down the tunnel, ignoring the pain that I might have mentioned once or twice in this chapter already. I had no idea where I was going, but knew I needed to put as much distance between myself and what had been my prison as I could. Finally, after a few minutes exertion, I stopped, leaning against the wall and breathing hard. I looked behind me at the tunnel leading back to that room. Nothing.

The thudding sound I’d heard before was louder now. It was as if I was closer to the heart of the mountain. I edged forward cautiously. I knew I had had to escape that room but that didn’t mean I was somehow safe. I had no idea where I was; presumably somewhere inside a mountain, but which one?

In a sense it didn’t matter. I didn’t know these tunnels, hadn’t spent the time mapping them out like Adam and Ifan had, so there was no point my trying to rely on some sort of memory to find my way. Instead I had to rely on my instinct; to find water and head for higher ground. I had to find a way up. The further up I went, the narrower the mountain would become, and the easier in theory it would be to find a way out.

I headed up the first escalator I found, a renewed sense of determination and a toffee flapjack providing fresh energy in my tired legs. I had hope, and a certain smugness having fooled old Craven with the classic Eddie Stobart trick.

Then the elevator doors opened.

I caught a flash of a reflective surface and saw myself, haggard, standing in the doorway, before mist rolled into the lift and I knew any illusion of escape had gone. The ambition of my plan had made me look, if I was being honest, pretty ugly.

The fog enveloped me. Soon I could see nothing but grey. It bound my arms and legs, gripping tighter until I was trussed like a pig. I kicked out, screaming, but to no avail, despite the flexibility of my premium mountain warehouse outfit (not Gucci, but fashionable and practical). I couldn’t move. The fog made me lose all sense of direction. A low voice, a whisper, reverberated in my head, wordless but cold.

***

I was awake.

I didn’t know how long I had been lying there, half-buried by the snow. I raised my head, ice crystals falling from my Jublo Montebianco sunglasses that I’d decided I needed due to all the extensive mountaineering I was obviously doing. I was lying on a wide ice field, somewhere high up on a mountain. Above me, behind the rise to the summit, the sky was thick with ominously grey clouds. Heavy flakes on snow fell lazily all around me.

A hand shook my shoulder.

“You okay?”

I looked up. It was Ifan, standing in full mountaineering gear, a prominent rip across the chest of his downsuit and dried blood on his left cheek.

“What happened?” I said.

“You don’t remember?”

I shook my head.

“You don’t remember.” It was a statement rather than a question the second time around. Ifan looked up to the sky. “Storm is coming. We need to get down.”

“Where’s Adam?”

Ifan ignored my question. He was scanning the icefield, looking for something.

“Come on,” he said, “get up.”

I rose unsteadily to my feet. It felt as if I had dumped on the mountainside. I had no sense of how I got there. As I stood I noticed rips in my own down suit. Had there been an avalanche? Or a fall of some sort? And if so, where was the debris? The icefield was serene and flat.

I followed Ifan across the icefield, through the deep snow. We made slow progress, Ifan breaking trail whilst I struggled to keep up. All around us the snow began to fall heavier. The cloud had moved downward, enveloping the top of the mountain, pursuing us as we walked.

Ifan stopped at the edge of the icefield. Three routes led away from us, three prominent ridges. I could only see ten or so feet down each ridge before the route was obscured by cloud. Ifan took off his pack and took out a thirty metre length of rope. Wordlessly he hammered in an ice screw to anchor the rope at the point where the three ridges met. He then threw the other end down the central ridge.

I waited. Ifan looked down, as if he was expecting movement, then turned and headed back across the icefield.

“Where are you going?”

He didn’t respond. The wind had picked up and the snow was making it difficult to see. I followed him, moving as quickly as I could. Ahead of me he had reached the centre of the icefield and stopped.

“What’s going on?” I was yelling now.

“I can’t find it,” he replied.

“Find what?”

Ifan shook his head. “Our camp. It should be here.”

I looked around. It was difficult to see anything, but there was no sign of any camp.

“Why don’t you remember my name?”

“What?”

Ifan looked down at the ground and then back up at me.

“Adam’s on the west ridge. Somewhere. He radioed me two hours ago. I don’t have enough rope to get down to him. He need o’s. And water. I had spare canisters in the tent but the tent has gone.”

“Can we not downclimb to him?”

Ifan shook his head. “I can’t. I’m going snowblind. I need to find dig a snow cave and wait.”

“But…”

“Find the camp,” he said. “And find it quickly.” Then he turned and started digging in the snow.

Find the camp. But where? Where to even start? I took a few steps away, and when I turned I could no longer see Ifan. In truth, I could no longer see anything. We were caught in a whiteout. The snow was so thick it had become impossible to know where I was. Three more steps forward. Two more. I could have been heading in any direction.

Suddenly the ground lurched and I was falling. I lashed out with my ice axe, trying desperately to catch onto anything, but I only hit thing air. I fell for what felt like seconds before I could see an outcrop of rock next to me. I swung my axe again and it caught, but I knew that the hold was precarious. Quickly I slammed home a piton into a crack and tied on my emergency rope. The weight held, but my ice axe didn’t and soon I was falling again before the rope caught my weight with a painful lurch.

I hung there in space, catching my breath as the snow fell all around me.

Gradually it cleared, and I found myself in a location that ties me in nicely with the prologue. I won’t repeat myself here, despite the temptation to fill the word count for the chapter, but basically I flailed about a bit before one of my crampons getting purchase on the rock face.

The crampon held. I breathed out slowly, trying to lower my heart rate and keep myself calm. Keeping the crampon points on the rock I pushed my weight back on the rope then swung forward again, this time reaching out with my ice axe towards a tiny crack I had seen in the rock face. The very tip of the axe bit, tenuously holding firm. Delicately I reached out and slid in a knifeblade piton pushing it as far as I could into the crack and trusting the rock was stable enough to take another belay point. I tied my rope in; finally I was standing against the rock face.

As I prepared to climb however far it was back up to the icefield I was suddenly, furiously angry with Ifan. What wasn’t he telling me? What had happened up there? I’d take his head off, I thought. Off with his head, man. Off with his head man, I chanted to myself as I inched my way upwards, my hands holding on to small cracks in the smooth rock. What had he been talking about. ‘Why don’t you remember my name’ he’d said. What was that all about? Does he even know what he was talking about?

I guess he does I thought.

Slowly I clawed my way up the rock face. It had stopped snowing now but the air was still heavy with thick cloud that blotted everything else out. It was almost as if a mist had decended; everything was still and quiet. All I could hear was my own breathing and the sound of metal scraping against rock.

Abruptly the rock face ended. I could see the top of the icefield ahead of me and the broken remains of the serac I had unwittingly walked onto that had disintegrated beneath my feet. I hauled myself up onto the icefield and crawled a few metres until I was off the serac.

I stared up at the clouds before getting back up on my feet. There was no sign of Ifan. The icefield lay flat and empty ahead of me, untouched as if I was the first person ever to venture there. I looked back up at the sky and wished, madly, that it would rain, a rain to wash the snow off the mountain and reveal the way home.

“Rain down,” I said. “Rain down. Come on! Rain down on me!”

And something did come down. From a great height there was a rumble of thunder, or what sounded like an explosion. I looked up at the summit of the mountain, a black pyramid of rock. From a great height an avalanche burst slowly out of the clouds, rumbling down the mountainside. I stood still, arms outstretched, waiting for the wave of snow and ice to englulf me. As the cloud hit me, a flash of images and sounds swept before me as a voice told me this was it; that I was leaving now. I heard the crackle of pig’s skin, saw the dust of the mountain and heard far off screaming. As the avalanche swept me down the mountainside I passed a collection of small subsidiary peaks, rock and ice, black and white, looking like yuppies networking. A wave of panic coursed through me, knowing this was the end. I tasted vomit in my mouth. Never mind, I thought. Never mind.

It would soon be over, I thought. I’d be somewhere better. God loves his children.

God loves his children.

Yeah.

***

From the mountainside, Ifan took his eye away from the telescope.

“He’s there,” he said. “He’s trapped in some sort of room. Rolling around on the floor wearing a VR headset. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else there. But I can only see into the room.”

Adam nodded. “Let’s go.”

#Vertical Summit 2

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