blue skies and sunshine guaranteed

BREE OF MALDONIA AND AURORIA. I may be the daughter of King Harry and Queen Ariana, and the princess of two kingdoms, but my favorite place in the entire world is the Bayou de Orleans. Right now I'm just an eighth grader, but I'm already counting down the days until I can go to History Island University to study marine science and aquatic environments.

[bayoubree]

ziratohero:

Mom always says that ghosts are stuck on this plane because this have unfinished business. It’s usually not like a punishment, it’s more of like a “they’ve only made 86% progress through their lives and need to finish up the 14% before going to the good place or the bad place” kind of things, but when they don’t know their purpose, sometimes that’s when they get angry. There’s lots of different ghost lore! Ghost Whisperer, Ghost Writer, the movie Teen Spirit which I absolutely love….it’s everywhere! Oh Beast, guests at a seance are always welcome as long as you follow the rules - and no phones means no pics of me without a phone, so I’d be all for it! I’m glad you’ll get to be in the school with the good labs soon, we need more smart people in the world, honestly and most of the smart people I know aren’t as nice as you, which makes you the best. Our parents got together in high school, exactly! It was when they got to know each other the most, got to see each other so often and like know what they were into because of clubs and stuff, but once you leave high school? You have to do all that bonding and investigating on your own, which is where an app would come in handy - and since people are waiting longer to date, according to BeastFeed, maybe some of us will need apps instead of high school sweethearts! It’s weird to think about when most of our parents are hashtaggable cuties who dated since they were not much older than us but times are changing! And YES, people tweet about the kings and queens a lot, actually! Not usually in like “couple goals!” kind of ways, but sometimes! Kay, so long as we get to the app before I graduate Auradon Prep, I’m cool with waiting.

But how can they finish if they’re not in corporeal bodies anymore? That doesn’t seem like it would be very conducive to finishing a mission, unless their life’s work was to guide someone else to actualization, which seems dumb -- that should be part of someone else’s completion then, not the dead person’s. Is it no technology at all, or is this rule phone specific? I’m sorry other smart people aren’t as nice; the one’s on TV always seem to think they’re better than each other but I think a lot of smart people just get distracted, caught up in their own heads. I doubt anyone’s trying to ignore you or be rude, they probably just are afraid of losing the next brilliant idea if they’re interrupted at the wrong time. Not really -- I mean, there’s college first of all, so that’s another level of school to meet. But there are all kinds of teams and organizations for adults these days, too; life doesn’t just end when you graduate. Not that meeting people on an app is bad, I just don’t want you to give up hope or whatever it is you’re doing. What kind of stuff do they tweet about them, then? Is it better or worse than #couplegoals?

[bayoubree]

dorkprinceeli:

Thankfully, I’ve avoided the cruel fate of middle school kissing games long enough to make it to high school unscathed, yes, but Eugene is more than making it up for us, it appears, so I’m good. Are you on that list, too, or am I alone here? That’s a fair enough point, though; especially now that we’re all so mixed together, the descendants of a perpetrator seem like less and less of a factor in the crimes. I could leave a video note for your child, who, if you ask me, is very lucky to have you as the giant who’s shoulders she steps on in her discovering - science is a game of building upon buildings, of course, and we all do our part in the next step.

Those poor girls. Or guys, I don’t know what they do in the tourney locker room. Oh, no, I’m also on that list -- I mean, I kissed a frog as a kid on a dare, because Auntie Charlotte said that everyone’s so afraid of them and I wanted to prove I wasn’t. She was right, it wasn’t as gross as you’d think it would be, but I hardly count it as my first liplock. Like the never ending pyramids; I’m one of the lowest blocks, paving the way for other people to make it to the top eventually. Let’s just hope I don’t raise a line of Icaruses; I don’t need them meeting me in heaven because they got too close to the sun and met their demise.

[bayoubree]

[bayoubree]

ziratohero:

I believe in ghosts, 100%! Your mom obviously hung out with my mom during a sceance, otherwise she’d be a total believer - they’re awesome, except that I’m not allowed to use electric devices during because the electric waves can mess with spirits, but I mean, if I can talk to a dead person, it’s kind of hard to believe that they were recycled into someone else living now, right? Ghosts and past lives feel like two different school of thoughts in my book, but um, I don’t spend that much time thinking about it! Right, right, sometimes I forget you’re still a middle schooler; good luck getting out of it, because frog dissecting is seriously icky even if it wasn’t your parents going through that whole thing. Eh, high school is kind of like a live dating app, if you ask me - it’s afterwards that you start, when all the eligible people aren’t forced to be around you for 8 hours a day, but I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that I won’t make it through single. A compatibility survey? Oh, that sounds super app-ish! I can help you make the survey if you want! I’ve read tons of compatibility quizzes on online magazines and stuff.

I don’t think I spend that much time thinking about it, but I don’t know. Sometimes I can’t exactly control where my brain goes. You’re right, though; if someone’s reincarnated then they wouldn’t be trapped in a ghost body, they’d be in a new body. The ghosts must just be stuck for some reason, but why? I wonder what they did in their life to not be able to just go onto the next one. You’re making me want to go to a seance, though, I have to see you without a phone to believe it. I do come use the high school labs after school a lot, it’s an easy mistake to make. Really? Didn’t most of our parents get together in high school? Not that I want to follow exactly in their footsteps, but I’m not ruling it out since it worked so well for #Hariana. Do people ever tweet about my parents? Is that a thing? Elias could do the coding, apparently, but uh, we can put that project on the backburner until I’m at least a sophomore, okay?

[bayoubree]

dorkprinceeli:

I couldn’t agree more, but then again, there’s a reason not everyone in the kingdom is referred to as “the smart one” by their peers. Kisses are pretty thrown around nowadays, but they’re easy enough to avoid if you, you know, duck out of parties early or don’t go at all. The incorporation of villain ancestors to our land is a pretty fair indicator that even if someone had the capacity to trap you as an amphibian, they wouldn’t for moral reasons, which is comforting. I suppose you’re right, though - one hundred years is a long time, I might have to ask for someone’s child to be the one to keep me up to date, which is wholly depressing in and of itself. I don’t, no - you do? I don’t see the point in Googling about abbreviations, honestly. The only random assortment of letters that I need to be able to understand to be happy is coding.

Of course there’s a reason; the word one implies that there’s, you know, only one of them. Are you currently on Auradon’s never been kissed list, then? Your twin seems like he’d kiss enough people for the both of you anyway. I’m personally of the belief that if someone’s going to mess up my life, it’ll probably be somebody with no villain lineage at all, actually. Sometimes people are driven to do bad things by other factors, you can’t predict those just based on who their parents are. And you can’t even ask my kid, since she’s not born yet! That’s even more depressing, I bet I’ll have a kid someday that’s even more interested in science than me. I guess, but coding means you’re on the internet, and internet means abbrevs, and well, it’s sort of a vicious circle, right?

[bayoubree]

ziratohero:

You could be the giant who’s shoulders you’re working on now, oooh, that’d be so cool! I don’t know if I believe in past lives, but it’s fun to think about, right? I hope that in a past life I was someone who died ta a young age so I wouldn’t have had to suffer through an Internetless lifetime. Two sides of the same coin, I like that! It means that the world needs people like both of us, yay! I love being needed! Oh, wow, yeah, I didn’t even think of that - did you just not do that day in class, then? Because I don’t think anyone could blame you for not taking part in the #froggenocide. Oh, I wish, but it feels like our generation still counts on organic meetings and true love - I’m worried it’ll be our kids who get the dating app experience instead of us! I think I’d trust an app to know my true love more than I’d trust any gut feeling but maybe that’s just me. I’m sure you can find one of those, though! A kindred spirit or a like mind, I mean. Your mind is pretty special so it might be kind of hard but I have #faithforbree.

Really? I thought of all the people in the kingdom, you’d be the one who did believe. Isn’t your mom super into that? Mine always said she was weird, but then again I heard my mom wasn’t the nicest all the time so who knows. I hope you didn’t suffer without the internet either, though. You deserve to have your constant knowledge flow at your fingertips, I can’t imagine you without it. I think we do that next year, right? It’s a ninth grade thing? But I’m so getting a note from my parents to get me out of it, believe me. I think you can try using a dating app now if you want. I mean, it might not be what everyone’s doing -- and it might be a little early to start -- but there’s nothing wrong with doing what feels right to you. I mean, I might give my future person some kind of compatibility survey, to each their own. 

[bayoubree]

dorkprinceeli:

That’s the only way to live, really, by asking follow up questions. It might get tiresome to others at times, but it’s always better safe than sorry, yes? After all, as you pointed out, not asking questions or reading the fine print is how you end up stuck as a frog, or taking a bite out of a poison apple, or worse. “Finding love” is so…non-tangible as well as out-dated. What does “love” really qualify as? “True love’s kiss”? How does a kiss know if it’s true love or not? I think a love of your research and the pursuit of knowledge is more lasting and easier to trust in than a love between two people, but I’m biased. The year difference in our education won’t matter that much if I’m idle for a century, exactly. I suspect Pandora will be Queen Pandora of Auradon by the time I reanimate, I would hate to ask too much of her time. And besides, I feel like you would have the most most similar point of view on news through the years to mine. I could also probably rely on Zira’s tweets…if I could decipher them, anyway.

If it’s tiresome to them, then they need to give better instructions. I mean, if I’m going to be submitting scientific proposals to major companies someday, they’re not going to want to have to ask questions to get all the knowledge, they’re going to want it all right there in front of them in my report, which means I have to know what I’m talking about ahead of time. Which means me, asking myself a million questions. I don’t know, kisses seem to be a dime a dozen if the fact that even eighth graders seem to be playing spin the bottle now is any indication. Let’s just hope I never get a froggy task like that, how does that sound? There’ll be a lot of developments in math and science especially, though, and that’s enough time for English class to get new classes to read and everything. She might have already come and gone depending how long you’re asleep for! You don’t understand her tweets? It’s pretty easy to Google what all the abbrevs mean. Some are even deciphered by reputable sources like the dictionary.

[bayoubree]

ziratohero:

Oh my Beast, no, no I haven’t, but I googled it right now and I cannot believe! Once upon a time books were sups rare and now we can have any we want online in a second at the edge of our fingertips, isn’t it amazing? I’m consistently amazed at human ingenuity. I mean, I like what it does sociologically more than I care about the science of it all, but that’s important too, so I’m glad someone’s interested in it. It’s a little..icky for me. Like, dissecting frogs? Hard pass, hard pass. You don’t think it’ll be in our lifetimes? Darn, I was hoping for some time in the next three years before I’m out of high school, honestly, oh well. Oh, well, like, newsfeeds are important too, but the dating aspect is waaay cooler if you ask me. You’re a smart girl! Wouldn’t the dating app newsfeed in brain thing help you find someone to love without distracting you from your experiments too much? It seems like a win win to me.

I think if I was ever alive in a previous life, I must have been pretty bored there. Either that, or hopefully I was on the forefront of scientific discovery, learning the kind of stuff that makes life today so worth living. You and I are two sides of the same coin, I guess. The sociological impacts are cool too, but I’m more happy to help actually learn about it and find a way to make it happen. I don’t like dissecting frogs, either, though -- it’s too much like cutting open a friend, since I grew up playing with them in the bayou, and since my grandma and grandpa were frogs once. I’m sure you’ll be able to get to know a person on some dating app and find your true love that way, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I think I’d like to just meet somebody who I can work on my experiments with, like a kindred spirit or a like mind.

[bayoubree]

dorkprinceeli:

Fair assessment! It would be entirely mismatched, but it’s something to think about - often the phrasing of the questions is meant to be taken as literally as a genie answering wishes, when no further explanation is given, at least. What would you assume your task would be to return to a human state? Marry royalty, like your grandparents? Kiss a prince or princess? After all, that’s the precedent in the research, isn’t it? Transformations linked to romantic progress? It means that I’m pretty sure I’d rather literally die than become a frog at all. I would gross myself out way too much. Think you can take notes for me while I’m gone for a hundred years? I wouldn’t trust anyone else’s notes anyway.

Then I’ll be sure to ask a lot of follow up questions before I commit to anything. I mean, Grandpa Naveen had some kind of deal with Dr. Facilier that resulted in him being a frog from not reading the fine print, hopefully I won’t make his same mistakes. I don’t know, I think maybe my task would be more like grandma Tiana’s -- remember to find time for love, and not just stay focused on my goals of bettering the bayou and researching and whatever else I’m working on at that moment. It’s so outdated that they think a woman needs to be in love to be happy, or anyone, I guess. I love science, isn’t that enough? I’m a grade behind you! But I guess by the time you woke up I’d be done with all the classes you still needed to take. As far as news goes, though, Pandora’s on the newspaper, you might have better luck asking her.

[bayoubree]

FMK: Janelle, Hurricane, Aiden

F: @janelleofthejungle, she’s so pretty!M: Aiden.K: @atlanticashurricane, I feel like he’d always want to distract me from my research, or he’d pull a prank that disturbed the ecosystem. 

[bayoubree]

ziratohero:

You’re right, you’re right, I know, but it’s just so interesting! We’re growing at such a fast rate when it comes to technology, so much faster than it took to grow with agriculture or industrialization, according to BeastFeed articles, that it’s, like, seriously amazing.  I like the idea of encyclopedias a lot more than the actual things, they don’t have nearly enough info about the Internet to make it worth my while, but you probably use it for, like, sciencey stuff, right? Brain chips? Do you really think that’ll happen? Oh, Beast, I can’t wait for that day. Like, all you’d have to do was look at a guy to know what kind of content he looks up and what his relationship status was and what he was into, it would make life so much easier.

Omb, and have you heard about how long it used to take to distribute books using the printing press? Like, they were soooo expensive because it was so hard to make even just one, and now there’s an infinite supply available to everyone in the whole world thanks to ebooks Incredible! Yeah, sciencey stuff is exactly what I use it for, the internet isn’t always as accurate about that, it’s not a good idea to just look on any random Google site. Scientifically verified information is necessary for the start of any experiment! I don’t know, it might be a little bit creepy, but if it does happen I don’t know that it’ll be in our lifetimes anyway. We probably do’t need to worry about it. I wasn’t thinking about using it for dating, though, more like having a constant newsfeed in my brain.

[bayoubree]

dorkprinceeli:

I mean, that reading makes sense too, but even were it ‘asleep for 100 years’ or ‘turned into a frog’, your justification allows for the fallacious assumption that you would have a specific task assigned to you that would allow you to turn back. After all, nowhere in the question did it say you’d be able to turn human again. The sleep at least has a clear endpoint, regardless of where your soul goes, though I’d have to assume that you would have to remain you, somehow, for the question to make any sense, otherwise it’d be moot. I haven’t been working on any brand of magic, frog or otherwise, and I didn’t send the question. I just wanted to understand your reasoning, I guess. I’m also a lot less scientific about my answer than I pretend to be, I’d really just hate to be stuck outside.

I guess intuitively, I assumed that if I could return from my sleeping state, I could return from my frog state, too. Why give two choices if once’s a temporary status change and the other one’s permanent? It just seems mismatched and lame. Besides, if I’m doing all this research as a frog, I’m sure I’d have some time to research reversals for the magic that made me one in the first place; I’d  be awake and able to look into changing my fate, unlike if I were Sleeping Beauty 2.0. So does that mean I’ll have to miss you while you’re taking your hundred year nap? You don’t seem too peachy keen about being an amphibian yourself.

[bayoubree]

ziratohero:

Oh, I know, right? I actually had to search online for what encyclopedias even were, isn’t that wild? We really lucked out being born now. And here, actually, since my moms would’ve been lucky to even have encyclopedias back when they were kids. I can only imagine what the next step is, you know? Maybe one day there’ll be some database that makes Wiki look weak, can you imagine?!

Seriously, Zira? I know you’re all about the latest technology but don’t leave us too far behind, you’ll miss out on important stuff. Plus the school gives us free access to online Encyclopedias, why would you let that go to waste? There’s so much to learn, it’s just easy to search. Maybe someday we’ll have brain chips where all we have to do is think about something and information just floods our brains.

[bayoubree]

@dorkprinceeli:

If I may, I think your reasoning ignores one very important fact - you’re not guaranteed survival for those 100 years either way. If you’re turned into a frog, though, you’re exposed to much more danger on the daily, including but not limited to bad health, fierce predators, and so on and so forth. However, if you merely sleep for a hundred years, nice and protected in a castle, your odds at being alive at the end of the century are way higher, and thus that’s the superior choice. Also, the question made no note of whether you’d be a human trapped in a frog’s body as your grandmother was, or if you would literally become a frog, and if it’s the latter, your ability to conduct and remember research and take notes on it and have it make an impact becomes nonexistent. Rebuttal?

I read that as ‘asleep for 100 years’ or ‘turned into a frog’, not ‘asleep for a hundred years’ or ‘turned into a frog for a hundred years’. Maybe that was a flaw on my part, but I was imagining a much shorter amphibian stint. For my grandmother, she just had to become a princess to shake off the frog spell; I could focus on whatever my task was, and be back to human as soon as I had all my research done. I don’t think my soul would just go away; if I’m transforming, I assume that my human spirit’s still hanging out in the body, otherwise is that really even a choice at all? I can’t just be lost in the atmosphere, they said it was still me, or at least implied it. Are you the one who sent me this question? Have you been so cold up in Arendelle that you’ve been working on illegal frog magic?

[ziratohero]

Even though you were born in Auradon, do you ever feel like you're at a disadvantage because of who your parents are?

People totally aren’t as nice about it as they pretend to be to your face, if that’s what you mean (and don’t even bother denying it, I’m the queen of decoding vague tweets), but that’s okay. I have some good friends, and an awesome sister. It’s not like I ever feel alone or like I’m missing out on something. I mean, we have so much more than what our moms had, it would be incredibly selfish to complain. Starbucks, WiFi, credit cards, WiFi, loving parents, WiFi…. with all those things, anyone can do anything. 

[bayoubree]

Wifi! There are so many things I wouldn’t know if I couldn’t search for them online, can you imagine like actually having to read Encyclopedias?

[bayoubree]

would you rather be turned into a frog or sleep for a 100 years?

A frog, absolutely! If I’m just asleep for 100 years, I can’t do anything, time’s just passing around me and I’m missing out on how exciting the world is. If I’m a frog, though, think of the unique and up close look I’d get at the bayou. I’d have amazing research to present to the marine science institutions around Auradon when I’m back in human form.