#continuing my

[corrisks]

“Introducing Baron Prompto Besithia, Your Majesty”

[mightyoctopus]

Jet thinks Zuko has been kidnapped Au

The ferry ride and train station scene happen like in canon. Jet sees Iroh heat his tea and assumes he’s a fire bender.

But unlike canon, he thinks Li is either a non-bender or an earth bender who is being coerced/kidnapped. Instead of going to the authorities, he tries to help Li personally. He wants to be there for him. Be supportive. Help him get away. So he keeps up a pleasant relationship and often stops by the tea shop. Occasionally, he and Zuko even go to friendly outings together.

Today is such a day.

Jet has already tested the waters a bit, but made no outright accusations. Zuko knows that Jet is suspicious, be he doesn’t know anything more than that.

But slowly, Jet is starting to loose his patience. He has shown Li that he can be trusted. He has shown Li that he can get him safely away from his abuser. Why does he keep evading his questions? Why won’t he admit the truth?

Finally, he snaps.

“Your uncle is hurting you! You don’t need to lie to me.”

Jet spits the word “uncle” like it’s an insult. Zuko is caught of guard, it’s not what he expected. He denies it, of course, angrily. His uncle is a great man! How dare Jet say something like that?!

It escalates from there. Yelling ensures.

In the end, Jet demands that Li look him in the eye and say with full honesty that “his uncle” wouldn’t hurt anyone. That his uncle would never do something like that (pointing at Zuko’s scar) and never has in the past. 

And Zuko... Zuko can’t.

Because at this point he has realized the things his uncle did during the war. That he has killed. That he has torn families apart.

So he stays silent and looks away.

He is again caught of guard when Jet hugs him gently and whispers in his ear, “You don’t have to stay with him. This city is a save haven. Please trust me.”

And Zuko is terrified of being found out and overwhelmed and doesn’t know what to do. For a moment, he nearly wishes that Jet was right, wishes that he could just say “yes” and Jet would fix everything for him. But that wasn’t the situation, that wasn’t what was going on, so he decided to be truthful -- to a degree. He has always been an awful liar.

Still engulfed in Jet’s arms, he whispers, “It wasn’t Uncle. I wasn’t lying about that.”

Jet waits for him to continue.

“It was my father. It... he was a bad man. He hurt me. But Uncle isn’t like that! Not anymore. He changed. We just want a new live here in Ba Sing Se.”

That last part isn’t even a lie anymore. Zuko had come to, not quite enjoy, but at least accept his new live. Uncle was thriving. It was good. Not perfect, but good.

And for the first time in a long time, Zuko was guilt free. Not only had he come to reject his father’s impossible expectations, he had also realized the devastation the Fire Nation caused all across the world and was no longer participating in it.

“Your uncle... He is your real uncle? You don’t just call him that?” Jet’s voice was shaking slightly when he asked the question.

Zuko nodded.

“And you are... I mean, do you... are you... You aren’t a fire bender, are you?”

Jet sounded so unsure. Previously, he has been full of confidence and reassurances. But that only made sense, in retrospect, Zuko realized. This whole time, he thought he had to save Li and be there for him, but now the situation was turning on its head and his world was getting shattered.

Instead of replying, Zuko looked away.

“Okay... okay, I think I need a moment,” Jet said after taking a few deep breaths.

He sat down on the ground and buried his head in his hands. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. This wasn’t how it was supposed to turn out.

All he wanted was to get Li away from his fire bending pretend-uncle, but now Li was a fire bender himself? A few month ago, Jet would have seen that as the only important piece of information. All fire benders were bad. But that wasn’t true, was it?

Li had been hurt. His mother, too, most likely.

He took a few more breaths before getting up and asking, “You said your uncle isn’t like that anymore. Does he pose any danger currently? To anyone?”

“No,” Zuko was quick to reply. Maybe a bit too quick, but he had full trust in his uncle. “We just want to start a new live here. Same as you.”

Jet still had trouble wrapping his mind around that, but Li was his friend. He was on the run from the Fire Nation, too, even if he was a fire bender. And Li was right, Jet wanted to start a new live. In order to do that, he had to let go of his old biases.

Taking another deep breath, he said, “I trust you. Please don’t make me reget that.”

[landgraabsims]

Cassandra is ready to start a family of her own, but can she tame the town Cassanova? And can Mortimer bounce back after the disappearance of his wife Bella?

So here’s my makeover of the Goth family. In my head, Mortimer (pleasure/knowledge) had a midlife crisis after Bella’s abduction, in which he switched aspirations, joined a rock band, dated Dina Caliente (briefly), and got an absolute shitload of tattoos. 

Bella (knowledge/family) is now a retired college professor who gives lectures in her free time at SSU. Don’t let the fact she was abducted by aliens fool you- she still has a mean left hook.

Cassandra (knowledge/family) is a dentist. I don’t know why. It just felt right. She’s best friends with both Don (her fiance) and Mary-Sue, but is only in love with one of them.

Alexander knows nothing of the drama swirling around the rest of his family. He just wants to make new friends.

[theetherealpride]

Thinking about Pony Town is like thinking of an ex your still madly in love with. TAKE ME BACK PLEASE PLEASE PLEAS PLEASE TAKE ME BACKKK

[deadsince1973]

Love is stored in the Our Dining Table.

[mostcursedofpastas]

Je Tu Il Elle

I watched it yesterday morning and I’m still thinking about it, which is what was supposed to happen (I guess).  This film is more inscrutable than Last Year at Marienbad, which is quite a feat.

What I knew going into the film:

The director is a woman

It came out in the 70s

It is Belgian-French

What I knew exiting the film:

It is incredibly feral

The main character spends the first chunk of the film hanging out naked on a bare mattress in her tiny apartment (she had furniture and bedding at the beginning but decided she didn’t want it anymore and put it out in the hall), writing and rewriting letters fulled only by spoonfuls of sugar eaten straight from the bag. 

Eventually she runs out of sugar and hitchhikes to visit another woman.  The woman initially tells her that she doesn’t want her to stay there, but when the visitor says she’s hungry the woman takes her to the dining room and feeds her sandwiches.  Calling them sandwiches might be stretching it a bit.  She takes a piece of bread, puts it directly on the tablecloth, smears it with a huge chunk of butter, smears it with another chunk of nutella, cuts the bread in half and folds it over, then wipes the dirty knife on the top of the sandwich.  The visitor sits and watches her make these half-assed sandwiches, then makes a move.  The woman tells the visitor that she has to leave the next morning

They have sex.  The visitor wakes up the next morning, picks up her clothes, and leaves.

The end!!

Was the depressive, sugar-fulled letter writing spree a reaction to breaking up with her girlfriend, and the ex-girlfriend agreeing to see her one last time was what gave her the motivation to leave the apartment?  Maybe, but also maybe not!  The movie doesn’t tell us and we’ll literally never know!!!

[mightyoctopus]

Jet sees Iroh heat his tea and immediately makes the connection -- he’s a firebender.

His eyes flit to Li, is he a firebender, too? But then his eyes get caught on the scar. He can’t be, can he? Why would a firebender have a scar like that?

Suddenly everything falls into place.

Li is being kidnapped, coerced. Jet doesn’t know why, but he will find out.

He will find out, and he will put a stop to it! A firebender has smuggled his way into Ba Sing Se, the city hailed as a sacred refuge from the war, and he did it accompanied by a scared Earth Kingdom boy whom he brutalized.

Jet wouldn’t let him get away with it.

[shadowetienne]

F.cuz - "Wanna Be Your Love" MV While I like "Midnight Sun" better from an artistic standpoint, "Wanna Be Your Love" is far and away my favorite of the MVs from F.cuz as four era. It's the last MV they had with LeeU in the group, and it is the most adorable ridiculous happy thing ever. The clothes are horrible but in an adorable sort of way (like letting a five year old select their own clothes). The song bubbly and happy and never fails to make me smile. So a little bit on the clothes... I have a theory of the magically rotated pants wardrobe issue. Basically, if you look at the tops of their outfits versus the bottoms of their outfits, you can find the match for each on a different member. Jinon's denim vest goes with LeeU's denim overall things. LeeU's white shirt with stuff on the front (which you should really pause and read because it's got some gems) goes with Kan's too short baggy capri things. Kan's hilarious winter sweater and amazingly bad hat go with Yejun's red plaid pants. And Yejun's silly print poncho thing goes with Jinon's very tight jeans. Clearly this all makes sense. Also, the MV clearly really should have ended with a cuddle pile... The dance was already halfway there. I can just choose to imagine it happened off screen.