#tada?

Thank me for sand

Therefore I am responsible for glass

Volo wants to destroy and then recreate the world. Why he wants to do this is not important to the AU, or me, so we'll skip over that.

He learns of a way to summon Giratina, a dark and vengeful Sea Serpent, with a blood ritual. But it fails. And it fails so bad that he creates a rift in the sky, causes distortions in space and time, causes the sea levels to rise, plants and animals to die, and also causes the Noble Pokemon to become enraged and dangerous. (And also causes Arceus to summon Dawn)

Lesson learned, he goes to learn what caused the ritual to fail, and Volo's blood won't work. He needs the blood of both the Land and Sea, and he has no idea what this means, so he waits. And he doesn't have to wait long. The new Survey Corps recruit Dawn shows him the shell she has, not knowing that Volo knows exactly what that shell is, what it means, and what it can do.

While she's Arceus' Chosen one, she is both of land and sea, which is exactly what Volo needs. And so he waits some more, continuing to play the friendly merchant role, waiting for Dawn's lies to crumble and for the rift to grow so bad that Dialga and Palkia awaken from their slumber to THROW HANDS

Volo quickly spirits Dawn away when she's banished from both humans and merfolk, and despite Cogitas warnings, he's easily able to convince her that they need to summon Giratina, who can solve all of their problems :)

This obviously doesn't happen. Now, with Giratina's powers, Volo becomes a powerful being, and tries to kill Dawn out of jealousy (and because she can stop him)

Okay, okay. I just finished my 6th rewatch of Young Royals (amateur numbers, I'm sure). 6 months ago, I was on my 4th, and wrote, with some other ideas in a bullet list:

this time, I'm really trying to analyze, draw connections, and find deeper meanings. I've just started season 3, and... my gosh, do I think it's my favorite season. A lot of people give it shit, but I genuinely enjoy it so much. Mainly because of the themes present.

Vincent is probably my favorite minor character. He is a total chaos gremlin, but also the embodiment of the system. He CARRIES the themes in season 3.

Now, I've returned to this draft. Let's see if I can make this make sense.

Even in season 2, Vincent is all about upholding and enforcing the hierarchy system. He sees the chaos Wille is bringing and immediately acts to rectify that. He is always the first one to bring up the rights that the third years deserve and assumes that they are exceptions to any and all rules.

Vincent is also responsible for the absolutely legendary quote that is "The problem isn't that you're gay, its that you're a socialist." If that isn't the point of the show, I don't know what is! Vincent is acknowledging the crux of nearly every issue in the show with this one line. Of course, Wilmon's relationship is influenced by many other factors, and the struggles of other characters are beyond this simple statement, but many of the inter-personal conflict stems from this idea.

Further, THE STRIKE. I feel like a lot of people cringed at this, or shared Simon's initial reaction, or didn't like it, or whatever---hell, even I did on the first watch---but upon further inspection, it is everything. This is not just a classic American teenage show trying to demonstrate and talk about "controversial" topics. This is character development and plot.

For the entirety of everything, Vincent does nothing but make fun of Simon. Especially in that episode, with the Labor Day demonstration and every comment Vincent makes towards Simon about it. But then he realizes. He pauses, demonstrates critical thinking skills for a moment, and realizes that demonstrating could actually do something. Season 3 focuses a lot on our wonderful rich kids at Hillerska learning. There is a lot of Wille and Simon learning about each other and exploring and truly understanding each other's situations. Every character is learning something in some aspect about the system and how it might not be as good as they all think it is. With the fallout of Wille's speech, the students really start to see the cracks and flaws in their delicate world.

Pivoting to other things I love and adore about season 3, I feel like many people's major grievance with season 3 is that the court case got swept under the rug. People were looking forward to August finally being properly punished, to seeing the case pan out, only for it to be resolved in the first 5 minutes. This is understandable, however, I feel as though that was the point. The system does exactly that. August would have won a public trial no matter what and Simon would have been left with nothing but probably the resurfaced trauma from the case dissecting the video in front of everyone. Not to mention the whole drug thing coming out publicly.

Linda makes great points about people being "exceptions to the law," but that is just the reality of the situation. That's not even mentioning the Royal Court being involved, who don't want any of this coming out and would have done everything in their power to influence any public trial. Long story short: the system is shit, but the court case being quick is only reality. There was no way it was going to go public, at least not realistically, in my opinion.

On a slightly happier note, in season 3, Wilmon are finally together! Officially! As boyfriends! For real! It's so crazy that they've been doing this shit for 2 seasons and are only actually together in the third one.

So yay, they're together, and have to deal with all this shit as sixteen-year-olds officially in a relationship that has already been through shit before it was even real. That's fucking crazy.

Simon is getting shit on the internet for "making Wille gay." The Royal Court want to take advantage of the relationship, but somehow fail to truly brief the boyfriend on how to PR. So that responsibility falls on Wille.

Wille has lost Simon once already and really doesn't want to fuck up this relationship, understandably. So he struggles to have an open and honest conversation with Simon about all the PR shit, afraid of how he will react. Simon doesn't understand, so Wille ends up just telling him to delete stuff. That leaves Simon thinking, "what the hell, boyfriend? what happened to being supportive?"

There is also, on both ends, a lack of communication when it comes to the severity of their struggles. They both want to preserve this relationship. It clearly means so much to them both, but they end up being so careful with it that it blows up in their many arguments. But that's okay! They can forgive and forget, yeah?

They have so many issues that they just have to work through with time. They try so hard to communicate and fail so many times.

6 months ago when I first drafted this post, I had seen a post about how the show is about cycles and breaking them. I touched on this a little before, but season 3 is all about that. It is the culmination of that, of everything.

I mentioned that every character is learning, every character is breaking their own cycles and understanding the harmfulness of it all. This is manifested literally with Hillerska being closed down.

Also, I touched on it a bit with Wilmon's relationship as a whole, but season 3 is also a lot about Simon's issues with cyber bullying, especially in the beginning. I don't think the other seasons focus on Simon and his issues specifically as much as season 3 does. Season 3 is truly this boy's turn through the ringer. Wille also struggles, but I don't think he does as much as he does in seasons 1 and 2.

lions carry their young with their teeth.

they clamp their jaws down on the delicate skin of their cub and lift them up by their scruff. i remember being eleven, with brittle teeth and tongue still tasting like chocolate, when i looked back at my mom and asked, “wouldn’t it hurt the baby?” i don’t think she really knew the answer. and yet she said, “i’m sure it’ll be careful not to.”

i remember once being told that my teeth are white, but not unnaturally so. just the right shade. i’m pretty sure i smiled. if only they had looked back at the back of those shining incisors; the tar black of my lies stick there. stubborn, those things are. no amount of mint toothpaste can wash them off.

i think my teeth were always meant to sink into people’s skin, friend and foe alike. i’ve never known where to carry all that care if not in the tip of my canines. i’m sure it’ll be careful not to, she had said, like a question. i wonder what she saw that day. i wonder if her hesitation was never hesitation. i wonder if she knew of my need to hold things that i love between my teeth all along.

now, at eighteen, with teeth too sharp (too white too crooked too much) and tongue tasting like copper, tar and mint toothpaste, i want to tell her, i don’t think i know how to hold something without snapping its neck. does that make me more animal or it more human?

dead people don't talk. but in the grave beneath my bloody throne, i hear my mother weep.

i like to think of all the ways i’ll kiss someone. soft, gentle, loving. with feather-soft touches and tender words and tingling lips. and anyone who knows me will think so, too. i’m sure they will all look at me and think i kiss with the slow, sweet press of my lips. i brush my teeth twice as hard as i did before. the tar collects on the roof of my mouth now and stays there. everyone thinks anger is an explosion. it never has been one for me. explosions are simple. explosions end. anger, to me, is like hunger.

i wash my mouth and spit my paste. it’s full of blood. i wash my mouth four more times, till the red of the water fades into a pale pink. then, i run my fingers through the hide of the beast in me. truth tastes like warm flesh and i hold it out to its welcoming jaws

the only way i’ll ever be able to kiss someone is with teeth. their lips will sting from the force of my bite and everything will taste like copper and fear and truth. that’s the only way i can love.

and the beast rumbles, satiated. it always forgets that i am human, even if i’m not. it forgets i can only tear off so much of my flesh at once.

i brush my teeth the next day. wash my mouth once and four more times. this time, all i can offer it is tar and mint toothpaste. i like to push and push and push at something till it breaks. when i look in the mirror, my canines glint. a reminder that hungry beasts never stay tame for long.

I've been so focused on making content with my friend that I've been neglecting this AU and I feel bad because I do intend to including Chris's birth parents in the story; the only difference is that they won't be relevant until Chris is older.

Basic premise is that Chris, at the age of 12, gets caught in a portal accident and gets sent to Earth (cuz I have it separate from Mobius like from Sonic X). Cue Sonic and Shadow panicking and begging Tails to fix it. It takes them a while cuz Tails needs new parts and has to redo it from scratch and when they finally get it fixed, it's been 6 months (for them. It's been 6 years for Chris cuz of time shenanigans) and they rush to get Chris.

Turns out Chris found his birth parents and has been living with them for the time being and they are.....not good people (I can delve into them in a separate post if anyone is interested). There's an altercation between Chris and Nelson causing Chris to lash out at him and he leaves with Sonic and Shadow back home.

MUITO OBRIGADO JAQUE!

so, I just got back from fieldwork for the day, so this might determine the things that make me happy:

Naps

Cool showers

when all the drawings on site fit perfectly

Juicy, fresh, sweet fruit