Kevin, Helping Aaron Get Ready For His Trial: I Would Like To Represent My Client’s Internet Search

It’s incredibly important to me that the anime decided to include this scene that wasn’t in the manga. In the manga, Maomao does pass out in Jinshi’s lap after saving him from what was obviously an assassination attempt.

HOWEVER, the manga cuts off at this point, keeping strictly in Maomao’s perspective, and cuts straight to when she regains consciousness in bed after being treated for her injuries. The manga doesn’t show how she got back. They SAY how, and she briefly mentions, “wow that must have been embarrassing; he carried me back,” but we don’t SEE it. We don’t get to feel the true impact of what that means. But the anime DID show us, and holy shit.

They SHOW us how taboo this is. They show Jinshi carrying her out of the temple, after a public attempt on his life.

They show us the shock and horror on Lakan’s face as Jinshi silently walks past him. Horror at the state his daughter is in, horror at another man—a man with a status he could never dare to question—staking such a public claim over his child, horror at the fact that he could never have this level of closeness with her (as Maomao would never allow it).

Everyone hides their gazes, as is their custom when someone of his rank passes by, but the air is different this time. Jinshi is furious, he’s terrified, and he could not give a single shit about how inappropriate it looks to these palace officials.

The shot that slowly follows her trail of blood—even though it’s a small detail—that in particular leaves such a intense impression of how poignant this is for him.

Maomao talked about this scene in the manga like it was nothing to her. She did what she set out to do: she saved the person who was targeted by the attack. She didn’t even know the target would be someone she knew. But she has no idea that this happened afterwards as a result of her bravery. To her, it likely wasn’t even an act of bravery at all. She acted on impulse; she did what she knew was the right thing to do.

The anime didn’t need to include this, because the manga didn’t show it. But damn, I’m so glad they did.

https://ashes-and-ashes-dust-and-dust.tumblr.com/post/183716349959/so-i-just-reread-the-entire-percy-jackson-series

Ugh because I like torturing myself, let’s keep going on this tangent.

Imagine afterwards. The magical campfire, the one that amplifies all positive emotions suddenly goes out. For the first time in almost 300 years, it just…extinguishes.

Nico is the first to leave. How can he explain it to the others, what Jason meant to him? How can he explain Cupid and the running and the hiding? He’s never been good with feelings, never been good with others, and so he just turns on his heel and leaves. Walks straight into the forest, not even bothering to bring any protection with him. Will follows him a moment after, because he known Nico and he knows that if he didn’t go with him, Nico might not come back out.

Frank is the one who has to make the call to Reyna. He stands in the stall, feeds the Drachma through and waits. Everything is still so horribly clear, burning through his head, and it takes less then a minute before the call is patched through.

It hurts. Reyna seems so much happier now, an easy smile on her face as she sits down. “Any news from the Greeks?” she asks. “Oh, that reminds me, I need you to verify these temple plans that Jason sent over…”

She trails off as she sees the look on Frank’s face. “Is everything alright…?”

Frank closes his eyes. Opens his mouth. Tells her everything.

When he’s down, Reyna is motionless. Her face has turned to stone, perfectly still as she sits on purple couch. It’s one of the things Frank always admired about her, the way she was able to shut down her emotions, create that mask of marble that nothing can penetrate.

There’s a silence, echoing and haunting, Reyna so, so still. She tilts her head, closed her eyes, then with a sudden movement, hurls a dagger into the wall. It sticks cleanly, quivering through the wood, and she’s stalked out of the tent before Frank can say anything else.

He ends the call, grimacing, the pain in his chest growing as he stares at the wooden wall in front of him.

Piper lies on her bed and screams.

She’s been screaming for hours, days even, because it’s so goddamn unfair. She’s saved the world, out the Earth Mother to sleep, risked her life and her family’s life, done everything she fucking could go protect everyone, and the fucking Gods couldn’t even give her Jason.

So she lies there, and she screams and screams and screams, and when she finally stops, Drew Tanaka comes over and purses her lips. “Well,” she says. “He was a hero. Heroes die young.”

And Piper snaps.

It takes the whole Aphrodite cabin plus half of the Ares cabin to pull her off of Drew. She’s clawing and biting, throwing punches and roaring and Lacey is holding her back and Drew is unconscious on the ground and there is blood everywhere. Someone is stroking her, holding her back and she can dimly hear someone say, “Yeah, she was one of the 7 heroes.”

The words burn, deep inside of her, and Piper is falling as she screams with all the rage and anger and magic inside of her “I DON’T WANT TO BE A HERO. I NEVER FUCKING WANTED TO BE ONE.”

She can hear gasps, feels something getting stuck into her arm, but Piper is beyond caring as she lets herself fade into the darkness.

Annabeth makes the call to Thalia.

She sits, crossed legged on the ground, cradling the phone in her lap. Hazel sits next to her, face still blank with shock, and they listen to the dial tone ring.

When Thalia picks up, Annabeth closes her eyes. Tells her that her little brother is dead.

There’s a pause, an absolute silence. Annabeth closes her eyes, because she knows Thalia, knows the rage sorrow that surely was flowing through her now -

Thalia howls.

An echoing, agonized scream, the sound of someone who was the only one left. A wordless cry because how can you explain loss like that? How can you keep on taking, keep on stealing, keep on ripping everything away and not expect someone to fall apart? Hazel bursts into tears at that, and Thalia is stil screaming and all Annabeth can do is close her eyes and cry.

Leo sits on the beach.

He’s curled into a ball, buried into the sand and he keeps expecting Jason to come, keeps expecting him to soar through the stars and land.

Because he can’t be dead, can he? He couldn’t be dead, not after all they went through.

Leo squeezes the sand, lets it seep through his fingers. He spent his whole life building, sacrificed his life to stop Gaia, sacrificed his life so that the others didn’t have to do the same and no it was all meaningless.

They all had paid. Over and over again, they had paid and it still wasn’t enough.

The flames erupt now, fast and sudden, so hot that Leo can feel the skin on his hand start to blister and burn. He can’t do anything about the flames though, just lets it burn and burn and burn until everything turns to glass.

When he opens his eyes, the glass in his hand has solidified, turned to an opaque sphere. Leo just stands, and shatters it on the rocks.

Will finds Nico kneeling in the forest.

It’s difficult. He’s never really known the Son of Jupiter, beyond the occasional hellos and goodbyes. He can’t even remember the last time they talked - something about Apollo and Prophecies and Delphi.

But he knows. Nico told him once, when the nightmares were bad, about ruins and Jason and the god of love. Will’s never felt like that, brittle and thin and stretched to the breaking point, but he understands his boyfriend’s pain.

He comes up behind Nico, wraps his arms around him. He’s trembling, deathly cold, and Will closes his eyes.

When the bones erupt around him, Will stiffens, but doesn’t let go. He jut holds Nico tighter, lets his tears fall onto the ground, and lets the skeletons form a dome around them.

Hazel sits next to Frank.

They are both numb. Both in shock. They can’t do anything but sit next to each other, weapons clinking funky against the log. They had both grown up with the stories, of Jason, the Hero, the Praetor of New Rome.

He had become that, again. Nothing more then a story now, someone who only lived inside of them.

Hazel hated it.

What was the point of being a hero, if you couldn’t even save the people you loved? What was the point of trying, when everything was ripped away.

She thought they were safe. She had never been more wrong.

Percy was furious.

He slams his sword into the monster over and over again, until his fists are bruised and bleeding. He’s covered in dust, enough to turn his skin white and his hair lighter, so that if he turns quickly enough the glimpse in the mirror almost looks like him.

He didn’t know how many monsters he killed - 50, 60, 70. Enough that he was choking on it, choking on air, choking on the hate that was welling up inside of him and refused to disappear.

He always used to wonder who the strongest hero was. Always used to wonder if they would ever find out, him and Jason, if there would ever be a war where they would be on opposite sides. He supposed he’d never know now.

And then he’s screaming, his sword clutched in his hand and he knows, he knows that nothing will bring Jason back but he can damn well try, and Percy thinks that he’d do it, he’d rip down the world and drown it, he’d fight the gods themselves if it meant that his friends could live in peace.

Percy wipes his sword, the blood soaking through the orange of his shirt and heads off to find more to kill.

Final Frontier

[all the Star Wars characters, sitting in a waiting room]  [a clock ticks]  Poe: [leaning forward in his seat, holding his head in his hands] …any idea how much longer they’re gonna make us wait? Leia: [looking at her phone] Not too much longer.  Rey: …anybody get their hands on any spoilers?  [all murmur that they haven’t]  Hux: [listlessly leafing through Fascism Fashion Weekly] I didn’t want to ruin the ending for myself.  Anakin: I tried to read spoilers but Obi-Wan wouldn’t let me.  Obi-Wan: Patience, Anakin. We’ll know everything soon enough.  Ahsoka: [reassuringly] I’m sure everything will be fine, Master.  [silence for a couple of minutes]  Luke: …so anyone got any guesses? Leia: [waving her hand, distracted by a game on her phone] Light side wins, Rebellion victorious, blahblahblah. Same old song and dance. Also my son gets some damn sense knocked into him, probably.  Kylo: [staring at her from his seat, scowling]  Han: They better not call me in there. All I’m saying. I’ve had enough of you people.   Sidious: [so very tired] I said the same thing myself. And now look at me. And all because you fools couldn’t find yourselves a compelling villain to replace me! It’s pathetic. I’m an old man; I should be enjoying my retirement and making the occasional earlier-era appearance in the EU, not resurrecting myself just to teach some fallen Skywalker a lesson about compassion or whatever treacly nonsense again…[takes a sip from a Starbucks cup and sighs] Luke: Hey don’t blame us, we didn’t write any of it! I saw you go down into that reactor, OK? I definitely thought you were dead!  Anakin: Oh, this sucks! [points at Sidious] You were my villain! You ruined my life! You compelled me to aid you in murdering my friends and family, and tormented me for years! And I killed you! [starts crying] It was my redemption arc, Obi-Wan! [wails and buries his face in Obi-Wan’s shirt]  Obi-Wan: I know, I know, there there. It’s still a very good redemption arc, Anakin.  Anakin: [sniffling, face still buried in Obi-Wan’s shirt] Is it better than anybody else’s? In any stories ever? Obi-Wan: I… [rolls his eyes and pats Anakin’s back] Sure, yes, it’s better than anybody else’s. Anakin: [continues crying]    Poe: [annoyed, standing up and gesturing at Finn] Look, all I need to know is, am I gonna get to make out with this man or not?!  Finn: [looks up from his magazine, eyes widening]  Rey: I just don’t know if they’ll let it happen, honestly.  Anakin: [bitterly, sitting in Obi-Wan’s lap with his arms around his neck] Oh, they never make good on the subtext. No matter how much you want them to. Or how hot both of you are. [waves a stack of papers] Or how much people on the internet have already written about it.  Obi-Wan: [raises eyebrows and turns red] [under his breath, warning] Anakin, please. Padme: [not looking up from an iPad she and Luke are huddled over, online shopping] Oh please, Obi-Wan, everyone knows. [to Luke] Yes, those boots for sure. [taps the screen]  Poe: [scoffs] Well, that’s some bullshit! [to Finn] We’re making out in the supplementary materials then, OK? Finn: [opens his mouth to answer] I– Administrative Assistant: [walking in] They’re ready for you. We’ll call in the rest of you if and when needed. [smiles and leads the core ST cast through a door] Rey: [taking a deep breath] All right, everyone. Here goes nothing. [they walk in]  Luke: [yelling after them] Hey, everyone watch your step in there! There’s no railings anywhere in that place!

Harley Quinn who recently kidnapped Bruce Wayne and texted Scarecrow to meet her: “Alright Brucie Boy, you’re probably wondering why I kidnapped you, and don’t worry! It’s not for anything "villainous” or the like. You might not remember it but I remember me and you being in med school together along with Crane and I thought we could form a club since we never got to start one in school since you dipped in the middle of the year!“

Scarecrow who just walked in: "That’s seriously why we’re here? I thought you needed my help. You said it was urgent.”

Harley holding up a tote bag: “It is urgent! I made t-shirts and I need to know if they fit!”

Bruce who honestly just wanted a nap: “Let’s just see the shirts Quinzel.”

Scarecrow: You’re actually going along with this!?“

Bruce raising a brow and looking down at the rooes that are binding him to a chair: "I don’t have much of a choice…”

Scarecrow: “…Fair point. Okay Harley show us the shirts.”

Harley pulls out a crop top shirt proudly, it’s half red, half black that has ‘OFFICIAL FUCK FREUD CLUB’ on the chest: “I got em personalized! Bruce gets a black turtleneck because he was the soft goth boy in med school and he’s still a little goth baby. John you get a flannel that has the sayin’ on the back! Aren’t they cute?”

Bruce remembering how much he hated Freud and having to listen to his methods and ideas in school, and how he, Harley, and John would shit talk him in their study group: “Okay I actually love this idea and the shirts.”

Scarecrow trying to hide how touched he is: “You got me flannel?”

Star Wars: The Clone Wars | “Gungan General”

I just browsed through the Jedi section of the Star Wars fandom and here seems to be the general consensus on stuff:

Literally everyone breaks the code and gets attached to everyone but Mace Windu pretends he doesn’t.

Almost everyone is close with their clones whether it be as bffs, lovers, or brothers in arms.

Aayla Secura and Commander Bly were totally in love.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is tired of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano’s shit but always gets himself into shit.

Quinlan Vos is Aayla’s fake brother I think?

Plo Koon is everyone’s dad.

Depa Billaba is Caleb/Kanan’s mom.

Anakin is pretty of face and dumb of ass but Ahsoka is too so it’s okay.

Actually speaking of Anakin and Ahsoka, Anakin is a Proud Dad but has no idea what he’s doing.

Pretty much everyone knew about Anidala.

Obi-Wan was in love at some point. Whether it was with Cody or Satine or both is up for debate.

Kit Fisto was with Aayla at some point but whether he still is or not has very little consensus.

Luminara Unduli is pretty strict but not a bad person.

Shaak Ti is everyone’s mom.

Katooni survived Order 66 and crashed with Hondo until she got older. Some people think her friends did too and some don’t.

Ki Adi Mundi would have been cool with Anidala.

Mace Windu is a party pooper on love.

Yoda is everyone’s weirdass grandpa.

What are you talking about? Revenge of the Sith and Order 66 never happened?

criminal minds, s14: ep12

“what’s that abrasion on his forehead?”

“apparently he gave lewis a shove, and reid went a little cell block d on him.”

Listen Captain Jack Harkness doesn’t forget a bitch and u know he heard Rose and Nine talking about Platform 1 and the end of Earth and u know the Face of Boe made his attendants take him not to see the world end but for Drama of it all he rolled in there in his tank like “sup bitches the Face of Boe is here to watch my boyfriend and girlfriend from five billion years ago fuck shit up bc I missed this adventure the first time round and you better believe I’m not missing it again” because Jack Harkness doesn’t forget bitch even in five billion years

TWILIGHT: but it’s just 3 chaotic (probably gay) best friends...

group pic

Edward

Bella

Jacob

my new ideal prequels fix-it goes like this

depa billaba, woman of many talents but most especially the ability to find and locate Baby, is canonically put into a coma because of her injuries sustained in a separatist attack that killed almost all of her troops. mace windu, man of many talents but most especially the ability to still be swindled by his former padawan who he DEFINITELY cherishes i will not back down from that point, waits intently by her side while she recovers. refuses to leave her for anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. yoda is almost about to tell him to leave it be, all things pass in time, but he can’t bring himself to say it to his own former padawan that he’s worked with so closely all these years, and instead just kind of turns a blind eye to it. meanwhile, depa is having a Force Vision, and learning three things. 1) baby kanan is extremely, exquisitely baby, and 2) caleb is destined to be HER baby, and 3) maybe instead of fearing the passion of love the jedi should accept the passion of true, powerful love. mace is reckoning with his clear attachment to his padawan and his guilt for what she’s going through.

obi-wan has managed to get himself injured, like a dunce, and is stuck in the medbay while he heals, and is conveniently stuck close to depa’s bacta tank, and therefore close to a brooding mace. obi-wan is watching this display like he’s never seen mace before, because while mace is and has always been compassionate, the kind of gentleness and quiet dedication - the love that would compel someone to set aside everything and wait - is something obi-wan’s only ever experienced as a deeply private and internal thing. this was the way he’d loved qui-gon, this is the way he loves anakin. mace and obi-wan have intense conversations where they talk about love while dancing around the word; the pain that loving a master that always seemed to have higher priorities than you, the pain of loving a padawan so much and still feeling like you do nothing but fail them, the expectations mace is under at the second highest rank in all the order and yoda’s own former padawan, and the expectations obi-wan was under as a freshly knighted padawan grieving a major loss and then being the only person in the order personally responsible for The Chosen One. rational thoughts are had, which is punctuated by anakin stalking into the medbay periodically like a human hurricane to be strange at obi-wan.

this sets the stage for depa to come out of her coma and immediately be like THE FORCE TOLD ME TO GO FIND MY NEW SON HIS NAME’S CALEB I LOVE HIM ALREADY and her conviction, because the force has quite literally told her this, in something mace and obi-wan had only been willing to poke at startles them both. depa’s a little bit, uh, not in the quite most normal mindset considering she just launched full-speed out of a coma, so please imagine she puts on her jedi drama cloak and then takes off through the temple to the initiates’ levels and barges around until she can find caleb. mace and obi-wan (not his problem, but he’s invested in this now) chase after her, and this is where sha koon enters the picture, because since she lost her own padawan she’s been funneling her grief into working with the initiates because she refuses to return to the front. sha, for everyone not as deep in some bullshit lore as i am, is plo koon’s niece, and her padawan did actually die, for the most part i’m not actually making any of this up. just, elastic-ing canon. but sha helps depa track down caleb, and then obi-wan and mace catch up just in time for all of them to be subject to depa’s declaration that caleb will be her new padawan and she CHERISHES him, actually. caleb (baby) is elated. they’re also there for depa declaring loudly that the force has revealed to her that the power of a master-padawan bond is inviolable and it should be loving, even passionate love, because love is a sacrosanct power, actually.

depa is the only person who can do heresy literally directly in front of mace and mace will just be like okay……. okay………….. okay…………… this is fine………… and because depa has practically always had mace wrapped around her finger, mace is roped into depa’s new inclination to heresy. sha koon, who is currently wading through the grief she’s feeling because she loved her padawan, and currently leaning way more on her bond with her uncle plo in a way that smacks of love and all the passion that comes with it, is like hell yeah, i don’t talk to literally any of you, but heresy rules. she also has a telepathic bond with plo that means our favorite squid uncle can just come running down the corridor like HELLO SHA I KNOW THAT YOU ARE FEELING STRONGLY because he’s been hovering over his grieving niece out of worry. obi-wan is just kind of there.

hence, a gaggle of jedi masters and one (1) knight in sha koon and one (1) padawan in sweet baby caleb end up at space dunkin donuts at 1am aggressively trying to reconcile the doctrine that passion is of the sith with the idea that love - an emotion of passion - can and should be utilized by the jedi, even for close interpersonal bonds. caleb falls asleep on depa’s shoulder and everyone has to argue philosophy in a whisper, because depa’s had this kid for, like, six hours, but she won’t let anyone disturb his baby slumber. obi-wan lets slip that mace hardly left depa’s side for her entire recovery, and depa hugs her jedi dad. this is a requirement, a demand, and also a necessity.

plo koon banging on the table, because he’s the only one here who really has always been a fan of sappy soap operas: A BEAUTIFUL DISPLAY, MACE 

mace windu, man who is about to start a fight in the dunkin that plo koon will lose because not many people can challenge mace: avert your eyes, menace

and so the most unlikely people to commit heresy start meeting regularly to discuss the specifics of heresy, and how to implement this revolutionary new way to interact with the force. because the jedi forbade attachment for a reason, and it’s because the emotions of a jedi are amplified and condensed and turned into an energy that can physically affect the world around them in dangerous ways - the sith utilize the power of emotion, and in order to avoid causing danger and sliding into a fall, the jedi carved out all passion, including love. because being caught up in the throes of emotion can do damage, when your feelings can and do affect the world around you immensely. but living a loveless life also does catastrophic damage, so the question remains how to implement such a major change and how it has affected their relationship to the force and what it might change if they kept going. so, our intrepid heroes discuss heresy and philosophy at the space dunkin. but anakin gets suspicious of all of obi-wan’s disappearances and tracks them to a space dunkin.

obi-wan’s like oh, i’ve been meaning to discuss this with you, anakin, i just wanted our discussions to be further along before i told you that some of us were reconsidering the attachment clause. he knows that anakin is weird about attachment, what he does not know is that anakin is insane about attachment. anakin proceeds to fucking lose it, spectacularly, at 4am in the space dunkin, in front of five other jedi (caleb is at the temple, snoozing his baby snoozes) because anakin tried so hard to Not Do attachment his mom died because of it, and the idea that after he’s tried and failed for over a decade to live with this one thing and now people are seemingly arbitrarily deciding to remove it sends him spiraling. he shouts some very hinged things and storms out to go be very definitely hinged elsewhere, i don’t have the capacity to type out a full rant but please imagine anakin shouting I WATCHED MY MOTHER DIE A HUNDRED TIMES AND I WASN’T SUPPOSED TO CARE, I DIDN’T FREE MY MOTHER BECAUSE I WASN’T SUPPOSED TO CARE AND SOMEONE ELSE HAD TO DO IT, AND IT DOESN’T MATTER - IT DOESN’T MATTER THAT I’VE ALREADY BURNED or something. then the five of them are sitting there in completely shocked silence attempting to process the loud display of maladjustment they all just witnessed. plo koon tentatively suggests that they’ve been so focused on what will happen if they do change the way they live, that they haven’t really thought about what the way they already live has done to them, which causes another shocked silence in which everyone considers they may have emotional damage.

anakin joins the heresy party, obviously, but on his first meeting it’s quite clear that he’s created entire, complex arguments on this very subject, and then obi-wan’s like “i didn’t know you thought about this so much.” anakin looks like a deer caught in a pair of headlights before he blurts out IT’S BECAUSE I’M MARRIED

now everyone gets to argue MORE, because the familial bond of master and padawan is WAY different from the romantic love of husband and wife, and that’s a whole new set of logistics to debate. but, on the plus side, they get to debate this in padme’s apartment now instead of the space dunkin, and padme has really great taste in wine. also, she stocks space excedrin, which mace cannot get enough of. cue the hilarious moment where bail organa drops by unexpectedly and padme shoves six jedi in the pantry in her kitchen, where they’re all stuck together, invading personal space awkwardly.

sha heals vicariously through watching depa and caleb be the cutest, and also heals because she can just show up at padme’s apartment and drink padme’s excellent wine (assuming kel dor can have wine, lol) and be upset. padme’s apartment has accidentally become the halfway house of Emotionally Damaged Jedi Heretics, padme has alternating moments with literally everyone where she reassures them using normal human emotions. even mace has a moment where he’s struggling beneath his guilt for what depa went through, and padme’s like [sympathetic hand on shoulder] it wasn’t your fault, master jedi.

how has this become padme’s life

when everyone goes back to war they all have to do this shit on fucking space zoom

anakin announces that they really have to tell yoda about this heresy thing very very soon because his secret wife is secret pregnant at the Emotionally Damaged Jedi Heretics meeting following the whole invisible hand thing. obi-wan screeches like a horrified demon, immediately accuses padme of corrupting his padawan, plo is saying something loudly about the force in family lineages and how lovely it is and how exciting this all is, depa’s completely unsure how she had one (1) force vision and now she’s attending padme amidala’s kind of baby shower, caleb’s actually here this time and he’s like WOW senator amidala congratulations!!! like a sweet baby angel. sha is planning how she’ll have to outmaneuver her uncle plo to secure babysitting rights. mace has invited himself to the liquor cabinet because the prospect of more skywalkers makes him want to fall over. but don’t worry, mace’s grumpy exterior conceals a mushy inside that, while still wrestling the instinct to screech ATTACHMENT!!!! is kind of elated at the prospect of….. jedi families, that can be families. fight me he always thought of depa, deep deep inside where he could never tell anyone, as his daughter. when the skywalker baby turns out to be twins, one of which being leia, mace sits anakin down for Raising A Daughter advice, which amounts to “you’re probably never going to tell her no”

mace is very right

unfortunately mace also can’t tell leia no

unfortunately no one can tell leia no