#//need to get to that thread with wikia but he should do that

[insertpinkchiphere]

//Lambda could be a squirter. Possibly.

[rainbow-valley-furbys]

Furby Custom Idea: Crystal Furby Baby (imposter) [long post]

Hello friends! 💖❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 I’ve seen lots of lovely people here in search of a pretty rare and sometimes expensive Furby: that coveted Crystal Furby Baby (Pink with holographic tinsel fur)..(pic taken from Furby Wikia):

Well, I had a little brainstorm I wanted to share with y’all! If the hunt for one is getting to be too much, then perhaps try to make one! Now I haven’t tried this out myself, this is only a brainstorm so I won’t be able to actually say what might happen, but given that I’ve done all these steps on my other custom Furbys, I’m almost 100% positive that it’ll not only work, but it’ll look pretty damn close to the original!

WARNING: DO NOT USE THIS ART TUTORIAL TO CREATE FAKES AND SCAM PEOPLE. THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR PERSONAL USE, OR TO BE USED BY THOSE MAKING A CUSTOM FOR ANOTHER PERSON WHERE BOTH PARTIES ARE AWARE THIS FURBY IS A CUSTOM IMPOSTER.

This community is full of amazing people and I don’t mean that towards the peeps I know and trust. This warning is more for the people who may enter in this community to scam people. I remember being a part of the Tamagotchi community on Instagram a few years back and AWFUL PEOPLE would enter the community for the sole purpose to scam youngsters out of their possessions. This tutorial is for fun purposes ONLY.

Now onto the steps!

Step One: get your hands on a Snowball Furby or a Snowball Furby Baby (pics taken from Google; Furby is purple box, Furby Baby is teal box):

These Furbs are waaaay more common and easy to get your hands on! Didja snag one? Onto step two!

Step Two: Gather your materials. You’ll need a bottle of GOOD QUALITY ACRYLIC PAINT, like Apple Barrel brand, in a pink color of your choice. Apple Barrel has some delicious pink colors in their inventory. Apple Barrel is found at most if not all Walmart stores and are usually less than $2 a bottle. Pick the pink you like! (Or any color you wish cuz it’s your Furby, my dudes! This is just if you want an exact imposter.)

Next you’ll need EXTRA THIN HOLOGRAPHIC TINSEL. This may or may not be a challenge to find depending on your location. It’ll come in a spool or in individual long threads. If you can’t find extra thin holographic tinsel, then take the image below to your local craft store and have them order it for you! They will 100% do that and if they don’t, go to a different craft store, lol 💕

Next, get your hands on a bottle of Aileen’s Tacky Glue. This is my go-to craft glue for every single project where I need good glue. That’s because there’s resin in the ingredients which gives a flexibility and a strength that you just don’t get with other glues. And it’s pretty cheap! Just a couple of bucks per bottle.

OTHER MATERIALS THAT WILL HELP YOU ALONG THE WAY:

-toothpicks

-tweezers (if you have to borrow some from a family member, ask permission first!)

-a clean sock

-scrap paper

-moist paper towel for your hands

-clean paper towels to dry your hands

Step Three: read and follow the steps in the Furby Fur and Hair Dyeing Tutorial

This method will work on every fabric surface of your Furby, including the fabric on the ears and feet. Dye your Furb, let fully dry and it’s onto the next step!

Step Four:

Now this is where it will take patience. I have no photos to show these steps because like I mentioned, this is just a brainstorm and I haven’t performed this project myself. However, I am experienced with gluing objects to the fabric base of my Furbs (beads and pearls), so if that works, then this should definitely work! It just might be a bit painstakingly slow, so if you get frustrated easily, you might want to plan on doing this only about 10-15 minutes per day until you’re completely done!

Ready? Here we go!

Firstly, have a pic of a REAL Crystal Furby Baby in front of you for reference. Reference pics are your best friend!

Secondly, take your holographic tinsel and start cutting it into lengths of about TWO INCHES. (Cut the two inch tinsel pieces into a clean, shallow vessel like a clean Tupperware container, so they won’t scatter around your work space and they can be easily picked up with tweezers when you’re ready to glue).

Why cut the tinsel pieces so long at first, you ask? Because longer pieces of tinsel will be easier to handle in the gluing and application process, and they can be trimmed to a shorter length once the glue is dry.

I have no images for this process, I am sorry.

Now, take a good look at your dyed Furb and then look at your reference pic. Get a good feeling of how you wish the tinsel to look on your Furb. Do you want the tinsel to be as exact to an authentic Crystal Baby as possible? Or do you want the tinsel to be where you want it to be? This is the time to get a rough idea of how to want the tinsel glued on your Furb. It will help greatly in application and cause less frustration! 💕

Once you feel you have enough tinsel pieces, it’s time to start gluing! First, put your clean sock on your Furb. The clean sock’s function is to keep the fur out of the way when you try to glue the tinsel to the fabric base of your Furby’s skin. You know when you go to get your hair cut, and the stylist has to pin certain amounts of your hair out of the way so she/he can work in sections? The same principle applies here! It’s much easier to glue a tiny object to a hairy surface if the majority of the hair is out of the way! I personally would start gluing tinsel at the BOTTOM of my Furby and work my way up towards the ears. This way you can just pull the clean sock down over the Furb, part the fur with a toothpick down to the fabric base and tuck the parted fur up into the sock, glue tinsel, let dry, and slowly lift the sock up as you work your way up towards the ears! I hope that makes sense, because I have no pics to show ( but dang it, if I dont wanna try this myself now, lol)

Now take a piece of scrap paper and put a fingernail-sized glue blob onto it. (This is what you will dip your tinsel into). Take your tweezers and pick up a piece of tinsel from your container of cut tinsel. Dip one end of the tinsel into the glue, but not too far! Just enough to cover the end of the tinsel piece about ⅛ of an inch. You don’t want glue to slop everywhere! 💕

Now, since you have your sock over your Furby, part the fur, and tuck the parted fur up into the sock to keep the fur out of the glue zone. You should be able to see the base of the fabric fur clearly. Take the glued end of the tinsel (that you are holding with your tweezers) and press the glued end firmly into the fabric base of the fur using a toothpick. Blow gently on the glue to help it dry for a few seconds or have a fan nearby to help the glue set. Give the glue about 2-4 minutes to dry per tinsel piece before you move on to the next piece of tinsel to glue.

REPEAT THESE STEPS UNTIL YOU HAVE DESIRED TINSEL AESTHETIC! Once you are done, take a nice sharp pair of scissors and trim the tinsel pieces on your Furb down to desired length.

YOU’RE DONE!

Now this. Is. Gonna. Be. Time. Consuming. Y’all. This is going to be a challenge of patience. But I believe in you!!! If any of these steps seem confusing to you, send me an ask! I’ll be happy to help in any way that I can!

And remember, please don’t make a ton of fakes to sell for profit as authentic Crystal Babies. I know good peeps on here won’t ever dream of doing that, but if you’ve just entered the community as a fan: be vigilant and ask questions. If you’re a Buzzfeed vulture looking to scam people then just...shoo.

Happy Customization, my sweet dudes!!!

🌈🌄

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #150-151: Avengers Assemble!/At Last: The Decision!

August, 1976

That second title is kind of how I felt reading the flashback padded #150.

But lets talk about this cover. It’s okay. It’s everyone running at the screen over a big question mark. Because: who is going to be on the new roster??

Keep wondering, scrubs. Buy next month’s issue.

Yes, I agree smol Vision. That is bullshit.

Its an okay cover though. It’d make a decent poster, plus or minus the ?.

Last time: So bear with me here. I’m dropping a big synopsis all up ins. So Hawkeye ragequit the team which caused a membership opportunity filled by Swordsman and his live-in girlfriend Mantis. Mantis started trying to mack on Vision which caused a tense love rectangle between Swordsman, Mantis, Vision and Scarlet Witch.

Eventually, Mantis was revealed as the Celestial Madonna when Kang kidnapped her to try to forcibly marry her, Swordsman died, Mantis and Vision went on journeys of discovery, and then there was a double marriage between Vision/Scarlet Witch and Mantis/a tree wearing Swordsman’s corpse. Shame it wasn’t multiple trees because then you could have had a copse in a corpse.

Also, Hawkeye rejoined the team.

With Vision and Scarlet Witch on their honeymoon, Mantis on a space honeymoon, and Swordsman dead and also a tree puppet, the Avengers needed to boost their roster.

Moondragon joined from her involvement in the Celestial Madonna Stuff. Wasp and Yellowjacket came back to the team. Beast answered their membership call. Vision and Scarlet Witch came back briefly from their honeymoon and immediately got roped into drama. And Patsy Walker blackmailed her way into accidentally becoming Hellcat on purpose.

Thor and Moondragon went looking for Hawkeye in the Old West because Hawkeye had ragequit the Avengers to go recruit Black Knight in the Crusade Times. There, they watched some cowboys stop a train robbery and then Thor tanked Kang to death.

In the present times, Captain America recruited the rest of the Avengers into investigating Brand with him and discovered some weird cross-universal conspiracy by an eldritch and sapient hat to have corporations control the government. The Squadron Supreme was involved and got their keisters kicked. Also, Thor came back from the Old West and fought a whale man.

Now here we are. Finally ready to settle on that new roster. Who is going to be on it? That’s what the giant question mark wants to know.

We start with Wasp and Yellowjacket returning from their extended hospital stay to find a big ol’ crowd in front of Avengers’ mansion.

They must have heard that this is issue 150. And/or that a new Avengers roster is being decided. But not New Avengers.

As I remarked once upon a time, you wouldn’t get this kind of crowd in modern days Avengers. There’s so many teams that are constantly changing their roster to no applause. Perhaps the Marvel public is jaded at the Avengerses.

The two heroes are immediately accosted by a wild Sam Reuther who wants to know if they’re new Avengers.

Wasp: “New Avenger? We are Avengers.”

But Jarvis lets the two in so that Sam Reuther can continue baseless speculation and time filling. Insert joke about 24-hour news cycle, pause for laughter.

As Jarvis leads them to the meeting room, Wasp frets that she doesn’t know whether Yellowjacket still wants to be an Avenger. But reassures herself that he’ll stay with her.

When everyone is seated at their big table, Thor addresses the Avengers as chairman.

First things first: Iron Man got a new mask. Everyone look at Iron Man’s new mask. Notice how it doesn’t have an iron nose anymore. Stan Lee giveth and taketh away.

But there is equally important news:

Thor: “I do hereby call this meeting to order! Avengers, ‘tis a momentous decision we be called upon to make this day! We have sought out new Avengers -- and now, we must needs choose who we shall be in the days ahead! Our choice will affect our honor, our fortunes -- mayhap our very lives! And yet, to commence our deliberations... I am forced to announce my leave of absence.”

DUN DUN DUNNN

We take a break from that drama bomb to let Sam Reuther recap how the Avengers formed in issue #1. That reminds me of the time I recapped issue #1... ~flashback wiggle~

And now back to the Avengers reacting to Thor quitting the team, rage-situation ambiguous.

Wasp even protests that while she and Yellowjacket have come and gone, Thor is one of the mainstays of the team!

So Thor spells out the epiphany he recently had. About being nearly as powerful as the whole rest of the team put together. About being a ““big fish in a small pond.”” And how he suspects that he has remained on the team out of vanity, being aggrieved that the team has done fine in his absence.

He’ll be there if the Avengers need him but for now he has to do his own thing. And he asks Iron Man to stay on the team as a seasoned hand and also the interim chairman until proper elections can be held.

Hellcat, aka Patsy Walker or vice versa, is getting pretty hype despite Thor quitting. She is absolutely sure that the Avengers are going to ask her to stay on and she is DEFINITELY going to become an Avenger. Like holy shit yes. Live the dream.

Beast is less than thrilled. I think he’s slowly realized that the pity ride-along he tossed her way is going to result in someone even more fun-loving than him joining the team. THREATENING HIS ROLE AS THE FUN PERSON.

He is glum.

Now its Iron Man’s time to give a little speech.

Iron Man: “Uh... well, I guess we’ll just keep going like we were. I’ve sat in on plenty of Tony Stark’s board meetings, but this is all very unexpected! I’m sure we all respect Thor’s decision -- and, as has been said many times, ‘once an Avenger, always an Avenger.’ Still, as a friend I can’t help but wish that nobody’d put this idea in his head.”

He says, while Moondragon takes up the majority of the foreground.

Also, that sat in on board meetings thing verges on protesting too hard. And also seems like a loose thread that someone could pull if they actually cared about who Iron Man was. Like, if one of the Avengers asked anyone else in on the board meetings whether Iron Man and Tony Stark are ever in the same place at the same time.

Although that’s being a bit too pedantic, probably.

Anyway, Iron Man asks Captain America if he’ll rejoin the Avengers for official. I mean, they had such a good time teaming up recently. Right?

We don’t learn his answer this time. Because the next page Sam Reuther continues recapping, this time various points of early Avengers history such as finding Cap, Hulk quitting the team, Wonder Man betraying and then saving the team and then dying, and the change of roster that led to the Kooky Quartet.

And then, no joke, the last twelve pages of the comic are just reprinted pages from Avengers #16.

And I’m not recapping that again. Here’s the link for that post. Now you know what happens in the rest of this issue.

Not counting the cover, there are only six pages of new content in this issue. Of which, two are just recaps of previous issues. The rest of this issue is a reprint.

It’d be one thing if pages were reprinted to serve some kind of point that the recap was making. But it’s just an entire swath of a previous issue.

Which contributes to the narrative that Englehart was replaced as writer because of problems meeting his deadlines.

This is his last issue as the writer on Avengers. Afterward he gets replaced by Gerry Conway. Although I’m showing on marvel wikia that Englehart still gets writing credits until #153 so I guess ideas of his were used until Conway decided on his own direction.

So I’m not sure how much of what is to follow falls on Englehart versus Conway and Jim Shooter who also gets a writing credit on #151, implying a haphazard writer changeover.

Anyway, lets press on and find out what team we end up with!

September, 1976

America wants you! To read this dang issue.

Fine, America. FINE.

Again, a perfectly decent cover. Catches the attention, which a change-up should do.

Also Thor looks like he’s about to cry. It’s hard leaving your friends to go find yourself.

We pick back up and Sam Reuther is still recapping Avengers. And somehow getting images to appear behind him despite filming live. That’s the magic of television.

And we get Ben Grimm, in his Thing exoskeleton phase (Fantastic Four gets weird) watching the news. He dismisses the change in roster just a public relations bit.

Why, the Fantastic Four would never change its membership all the time! The very idea that for example, Medusa, Thundra, and Power Man would join the Fantastic Four is... dang.

Ben begrudgingly becomes interested in the news.

Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Cap finally answers Iron Man’s question from last time.

He’ll rejoin the team. Because dernit he’s a man drawn to his roots and his roots in this era are with the Avengers!

Iron Man then asks Vision and Scarlet Witch if they’re sticking on the team. They did cut their honeymoon short for this.

But Scarlet Witch interjects, asking whether Hawkeye will be rejoining.

And then the narrative interjects, taking us to Robert Frank, once the Whizzer, and his crappy apartment.

He’s had a tough time recently. Remember in Giant-Size Avengers #1, he learned that his son had become a rampaging nuclear monster.

And then he overhears speculation on the news that Scarlet Witch might leave the Avengers and he overreacts, yelling that she can’t leave him after he’s done so much and come so far and in the end it didn’t even matter.

Although, in fairness, Quicksilver quit the Avengers to live in a secret city. He has reason to worry, I guess.

Anyway, Sam Reuther has been narrating this whole time about how when the Kooky Quartet started, everyone was worried. Because now the Avengers were 3/4 crooks. And also less powerful than previous teams. But dern if they didn’t prove themselves just as capable and such!

Back inside the mansion, Thor explains that Hawkeye is going to be hanging around the Current West, living out his cowboy fantasies with Two-Gun Kid.

But the both of them will help out if needed. Consider it “detached service.”

With that reassurance, both Vision and Scarlet Witch happily rejoin the team.

As does Wasp, skipping ahead because eh protocol is for people who aren’t Janet Van Dyne. She’s been laid up in the hospital. She craves action as the Winsome Wasp.

And then Sam Reuther dumps on Hank Pym and Hawkeye in one smooth page o’ recap. He calls Hank Pym “the most confusing Avenger of all” due to his frequent power, costume, and codename switch-ups. Also I choose to believe he makes fun of Hawkeye’s no pants, no underwear costume.

Meanwhile, a mysterious figure rages as he watches Sam Reuther recap the Avengers on the news. Because Sam Reuther mentioned that Wasp loves Yellowjacket and SHE’LL REGRET CHOOSING HIM OVER MYSTERIOUS FIGURE OH YES MYSTERIOUS FIGURE SURE SWEARS IT!

A gritty general tells Mysterious Figure that he needs to work on his self-control and curb his ferocity. But telling an emotional person yelling at the tv to calm down has never been anything but counterproductive.

Back at the mansion, Yellowjacket decides...

NOT to rejoin the team.

He just wants to be a scientist and do scientist stuff. And maybe some superheroing on the side. Maybe he’ll join the Defenders where nobody expects anything much of you...

and he sadly walks out of the room while Sam Reuther begins to talk about all the people who didn’t become Avengers like Spider-Man, Namor, Daredevil and then about the cooler ones that did become Avengers like Hercules, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, and Vision.

And I guess Sam Reuther knows Vision’s backstory because he mentions he has the brain patterns of the dead deceased Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man.

You know too much, Sam Reuther.

And then we check in on the Champions, because Sam Reuther just mentioned two of them. And because its good to check in on the Champions sometimes, if only to remind yourself that the Champions existed and only due to the capricious whims of editorial.

Iceman and Angel get nostalgic about their time as the original X-Men and how Hank is an Avenger now.

And Hercules and Black Widow both reflect on their time with the team, coming when both were strangers in a strange land.

Black Widow’s Avengers membership at this point is extremely tentative so its weird that she has such fond memories about it. But the grass looks greener as you glance over your shoulder. Or something?

Meanwhile, Moondragon is up.

And she too turns down a position on the team. It’d be hypocritical to drive Thor off the team for slumming and then hang around herself. Plus, she wanted to learn more of Earth ways and she has come to realize that the Avengers are too constraining.

Even so, the Avengers have showed her great kindness when they weren’t fighting over her like a piece of meat and she respects them, for some reason. If they meet again, it will be as allies.

A decision that has Iron Man thinking “who the heck does she think she is?” and “thank goodness for small favors, eh?” at the same time. Thank goodness she’s not sticking around but ugh how dare she think she better than the Avengers.

But like I’ve been constantly alluding to, Iron Man would regret bringing her onto the team. I wonder how much of what she’s done is payback for Thor and Iron Man being such jerks about her.

But that brings us to Beast. And Beast immediately accepts. And flips out of his chair. Which seems to aggravate Thor. Or surprise him. Its hard to say. Thor is sometimes drawn so that the only emotion he seems to have is anger.

Wasp immediately objects. Not to Beast! He seems fine! But doesn’t the team seem like its getting crowded? I mean, you have Iron Man, Captain America, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Yellowjacket and now Beast? Why, that’s six people! That’s so many people!

Okay, yeah, she just wants to make sure that there’s still room on the team for when she convinces Hank (Pym) to change his mind. Kind of rude to Beast though, Wasp.

Anyway, Hellcat is now under consideration. And she looks THRILLED.

And now for another Sam Reuther interruption. As he recaps women in the Avengers. But he calls them ‘females.’ The legacy of Stan, maybe.

Anyway again. Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat, has only been on the one mission. And she did try to blackmail an Avenger. And her origin story is ‘oh cool a free supersuit.’ But on the other hand, she’s pretty rad. Pulled her weight during that Crisis on Other Earth.

So Iron Man definitely extends an Avengers invitation to her.

And Patsy obviously accepts. I mean, come on. What could possibly stop her?

Moondragon. Moondragon is what could possibly stop her.

Moondragon tells her that she has no training or experience (which in fairness, true) so she musn’t join the Avengers yet. Instead, she will come with Moondragon on Moondragon’s Fun Trip Exploring The World and Moondragon will train her.

No! They’ll train each other. Moondragon will teach her superhumanity and Hellcat will teach her... humanity.

Dammit Moondragon, this is why you’re the worst Avenger.

It’s only funny to me that she joined the Avengers, convinced Thor to quit, and then quit herself. And I don’t even think she was wrong not to stick around. With the benefit of a reread, there was a hells uncomfortable workplace environment going on. But she is the one element that stopped an amazing run of Patsy Walker being an Avenger.

And it would have not been super great. This was the Avengers in the 70s. Their gender politics are not great. See also: Patsy Walker dismissing the idea of being a womens libber. But Patsy Walker on the Avengers!

maybe then she wouldn’t have met Daimon Hellstrom, married him, and then later committed suicide under his demonic influence ;___;

Anyway, I say Moondragon is to blame. But really its either Englehart, Conway, Shooter or any combination thereof who just used Moondragon to keep Hellcat out of the Avengers for some unknown, dumb reason.

I do have a headcanon about it though.

Moondragon is, at this point, a closeted lesbian. Maybe she just likes Patsy, despite them interacting a grand total of almost never up until this point. Just likes her and wants to spend time teaching her to kick ass and learning how to be... human.

Although since its Moondragon and she is almost as callous as an X-Men regarding psychic powers, she almost certainly influenced Patsy to agree to give up on her dream that has been her single most powerful motivating factor in these comics.

Moondragon, that is Not Cool.

Oh. And consolation prize. Yellowjacket changed his mind. He went off-screen to sulk. Wasp didn’t go running after him so he came running back to her. Yay.

Also: Avenging is in his blood, yo. That and a strange microbe that made him almost die.

Thor suggests applying the “detached service” thinger to Yellowjacket too. Give him more labtime. Make his Avenging more flexible. And hell, lets just give “detached service” to Moondragon and Hellcat too!

Consolation prizes all around!

Moondragon prays that the Avengers never get in such dire straights that they need her power to save them. As does Iron Man. Except in a more insulting way. He’s had unkind thoughts throughout.

And Beast wishes Patsy luck and makes me miss what their dynamic could have been had she stayed. Although I imagine it would have been as a comedy duo with Beast and someone is already slated for that.

So Thor hammerwhirls himself, Moondragon, and Hellcat away. And the new team (mostly comprised of old members. Like seriously. This new roster is Iron Guy Who Is Always On The Team, Captain Frequently On The Team, Wasp, Man Of Many Names Who Is Always On The Team, Scarlet Witch Has Been On Team More Than Iron Man, robot husbando, and new challenger Beast. Was the idea to get back to basics? Plus Beast?) goes out to the waiting crowd to announce themselves.

And of course give the big: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE for the cameras.

They're so busy working the crowd that they don’t notice the giant crate that was delivered for them.

At least until it CREEAAAKKs.

And then with a CRRRASHH! Wonder Man punches his way out of the crate. And noticably shaky and slumped (like some manner of... living dead), he points at Vision.

And accuses him. Of being the one that stole his mind.

So. That’s going to be a thing.

And okay. New roster. Which isn’t very new but whatever. It has Wasp. It has Scarlet Witch and Vision. It has Beast. It could stand to have a Hellcat but the world isn’t perfect.

What did I think? Well, I’ve been pretty open about it.

I have to reiterate because of the shaky transition from Englehart to Conway, its hard to know who is responsible for what. Englehart brought Patsy Walker into the book and made her a superheroine. Did he do that only to shuffle her immediately off the book? What about Moondragon? Was her scant role on the team after the Celestial Madonna Saga solely to badger Thor until he quit the team?

Was it Conway and Shooter who decided to enforce a back to basics approach with the new roster? Was Englehart taken off the book because of a problem meeting deadlines as implied in this letters column apologia?

Englehart insists that he wasn’t late getting #150 in on time. So was it creative differences?

The way that #150 just cuts off halfway for a reprint, right before anything was decided about the new roster except Thor gone, Iron Man to remain, makes things hazy.

But whatever. Lets just say there were more interesting ways this roster could have gone. And then see where things go from here.

So Wonder Man. Back from the dead. Huh. Wonder where Conway is going with that?

Face front, true believers! You can follow this liveblog @essential-avengers.

[f-imaginings]

Didn’t think I’d have to do this but I’ve got people coming to me left and right over this nonsense, conveying threats to have my work reported and pulled down blah blah blah, so let me summarize my case publicly and let you all make up your own minds. 

I’ll start by saying truthfully that I’ve never read TNP. I don’t generally read fics with non-con in them bc of bad past experiences, but from reading the prologue when researching what i supposedly plagiarized the writing seemed really good and enjoyable, with interesting themes and references. I’m sure its a lovely fic and people who enjoy it should as it stands on its own merits. 

I also haven’t plagarised anything. There is a lot of he said she said happening over that so I’ll just present the facts I have and let people make up their own minds. So far there’s just been one side of the story very loudly being told. I’ll say my piece here and people can make up their own minds. 

So I’ve never read their story. I’ve been getting some nasty harrassment though claiming I plagarised it to write my own story, which is Knowing Me, Knowing You on ao3. It’s a Billford fic, and it’s inspired by abba lyrics, Gravity Falls the series, and Journal Number 3. 

Two days ago I got this anonymous comment on my fanfic. 

This anonymous poster spammed the comments in the fic in many chapters, and also felt the need to tell everyone who regularly comments on my fic by replying to their comment how shitty my writing is and that it’s plagarising this other fic I’ve never read. 

The link to the full comments thread is here if people want to read and do their own sleuthing. 

The comments rather spitefully tell me how my writing is terrible, how I’m scum, how unoriginal I am ect. I’ll let you all read it and make up your own minds about whether this is fair to say or not. 

I then decided to go speak to the author of this fic i had supposedly plagarised, because I thought it was a misunderstanding, or that a follower of theirs who was very zealous had took it upon themselves to go rogue and harass other writers who (these are the similarities as far as they’ve been explained to me) write Billford, and have written about a human Bill helping Stanford with the portal. 

Here is my conversation with the author of TNP, screenshotted, so you can read that and make up your own mind about it too. 

It was quite startling for me to have been spoken to like this when I went amicably to a fellow writer hoping to solve a situation that was groundless and unnecessary. I was called a liar, and passive aggressive for having approached the author directly with the situation seeking a resolution. 

In an ideal world I would like an apology for this behavior, but I won’t hold my breath, I’m just here to state my case and clear my name. 

This is my fanfiction. It’s 163243 words long as of it’s last update. I started writing it on the last day of January 2017, and since then it has inspired me boundlessly. I get a lot of joy out of writing it, which is clear to see when you look at how quickly I’ve been churning out these words in this small space of time. Three months have gone by and I’m on 18 chapters and it’s been wonderful to write, I’ve had some lovely reviews from folks, and these have been the first negative reviews I have seen for it. 

I asked people who have read both of the works, my own and TNP, what the similarities were that led the author to believe I had plagarised. 

What I heard as feedback was:

Similarities

Both Billford pairing fanfics

Both involving human Bill

To do with building the portal

Differences: 

Storyline

Plot

Character design. My human Bill is black. He’s black, with gold eyes, yellow hair, and gold binding tattoos sewn into his skin. I’ve been told their Bill is italian??? Not sure where the similarities are there. 

Dynamic between Bill and Ford (TNP apparently has Bill and Ford sharing the nicknames darling and kitten. Rest assured, through the entirety of my 160,000 word fanfic not once do my Bill or Ford ever call each other anything even remotely resembling ‘darling’ or ‘kitten’ they are more likely to call each other a pain in the ass in my fic) 

World building

Characters (mine contains plenty of Fiddleford, Wendy’s mum, who I have called Willow Oakwood bc a lumberjack falls in love with her, Lazy Susan, Keyhole and Amorphous Shape, the paradox buddies, Pyronica and Kryptos on the front lines, Argos Panoptes, Raha Diniero ect) 

Sexual content (TNP contains rape and sexual harassment, my work is a slow burn of epic proportions, they only kissed for the first time in my last chapter, and Bill is averse to being touched by Stanford at first. My work also is entirely consensual as I can’t write non-con due to personal experiences)

Key events (my story involves events such as hunting down the gobblewonker with a harpoon, nearly being devoured by the island head monster, going on a double date with lazy suzan and wendy’s mum and raising the undead, giving birth to the summerween trickster, stealing treasure from Quentin Trembley’s grave, a heist at the Cryptix Noire Warping Black Market’s, and Fiddleford’s wife Patricia telling baby Tate to stop crying) 

Writing style (My writing is more light hearted, I make lots of jokes because I want to enjoy my own story. I’m told TNP is more serious)

Direction (I do not know where TNP is going, having never read it, but I know my story is going to follow along with canon up to the betrayal, after it, following Ford through the portal, and back out for Weirdmageddon) 

Having completed four years of university studying English literature, I’m very aware of how serious plagiarism is, and how seriously allegations of plagiarism need to be taken. If someone’s poured their effort into creating a work, they deserve to be credited for that work, and if a work was created in reference to something else it’s respectful to cite your references. So here are the works I have referenced in order to create this fic. 

- Hirsch, A, 2016, Journal 3; Gravity Falls, Disney Press, LA. - Gravity Falls, complete series, 2016, DVD, Disney XD, created by Hirsch, A, et al. - Abba’s complete back catalogue. 

I’ve also referenced several Wikipedia pages; the page on black markets, on hyperpyrexia, on Leonardo Da Vinci, on stethoscopes, on Argos Panoptes in Greek Mythology, and the page listing the different planets and races in the entire Star Trek series. I’ve relied on the Gravity Falls wikia to help me maintain accuracy with character names, places, details about the Shack and so on. 

I haven’t referenced, nor have I read The Ninth Paradigm. I would have tentatively liked to from reading the synopsis, but I have decided I won’t be reading it any time soon following the conversation I had with the author of the fanfic, which has soured me somewhat from consuming their content.

I work full time, 38 hour work weeks, and run a second job on the side. Something I don’t have time for is drama. I’m quite frankly surprised I even have the time to dedicate to writing this fanfic of mine, but I do, because I love Gravity Falls, I am excited about the story I’m writing, I get to laugh at my own jokes when I’m writing, I get to entertain myself, and in posting this here, hopefully entertain others.

I’m not writing this to impress anyone with my prose or build this fic into anything more than it is, it’s just a bit of fun set to Abba lyrics, inspired by Dipper in the shower singing Disco Girl aka Dancing Queen.

If I were a younger writer, or if I were less confident in myself, this kind of harassment, both in the comments here on ao3, and the conversation I had with the author of TNP when I looked to resolve the situation, would have been incredibly damaging. If I were a younger writer, being harassed, I would find the fandom uninviting, toxic, incredibly discouraging and unhealthy.

Billford as a pairing has a small enough fandom as is, looking through the tag on tumblr, there are anti-shippers adding to that environment of harassment. Adding to that environment of harassment within the fandom can only be damaging. I believe fandoms should encourage writers and content producers, that fandom should be a community where you support one another, and the base content you all enjoyed that brought you all together.

Gravity Falls fans are smart. They followed a quirky, clever, coded show from start to finish and loved every bit of it. I’m presenting the above information here so that you can all make your own minds up about this issue. I think that’s fair.

That’s all I have to say about this issue.

[bokubutts]

LONG POST

I’m doing this because half of my break is over, and I’m doing this w/out proofreading bc I’m about to get shit-faced in a few hours. For the most part, I’m still on board with this original train of thought (see http://bokubutts.tumblr.com/post/139333690934/theory-time), but here are some more thoughts (post season 4) mostly inspired by a few Reddit threads I couldn’t help but agree with. Apologies in advance for the poor articulation, I’m thinking much faster than I can type.

There are still many unprecedented things in the world of Remnant like the magic behind the Branwen twins shapeshifting into birds or the prowess that comes with each fairytale (maidens, silver-eyed warriors, the two brothers). But what I want to focus on are the more convoluted things like whether Ruby’s semblance is speed or “bursting into rose petals,” Raven being able to rip portals through the fabric of space, and the importance of Yang’s flames which’ll bring me to my main point later.

Ruby’s semblance was originally posted as speed on the official RWBY wikia, but Qrow mentions “bursting into rose petals.” This has left a lot of people confused. My guess is that there has to be more to this semblance thing.

Qrow’s semblance of misfortune has been confirmed, but I’m sure there’s more to it than that and the animagus bonus. I’m re-raising the split-second shot in his fight vs. Winter in season 3 (which I’m so so happy I wasn’t the only one that noticed) when Winter strikes him in the face and he strikes back even harder with a glint in his eye. If you’ve read the Reddit threads, most speculate it’s his experience as a hunter, but I’m thinking it’s a Branwen thing as seen with Yang, but not (yet?) seen with Raven. Anyway, I refuse to overlook it.

Another widespread fan-theory is that Raven's semblance is being able to predict the future. She told Qrow “Beacon would fall and it did. Ozpin would fail and he has.” There are three possible limits/catches to her prophecy. 1) They come to her at random, which most people believe. But wouldn’t it be interesting if 2) they came easier to her depending on who she prioritizes. I hoped this to be true when she was willing to come out when Yang needed some serious saving, because how else would she be able to know when she’s in grave danger if she’s never present? I thought this until it was thwarted by the fact that she didn’t show that time Yang nearly got herself and Ruby killed AND when she had to go out of her way to ask Qrow if “Salem has it.” So we’re back to 1) or 3) it’s blocked out by something purposefully negating it. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m thinking of Alice from Twilight and how the wolves presence somehow interfered with her foresight. Other than that we know she can shape shift into (shocker!) a raven, and have seen her open portals on two occasions. Many are assuming that the shapeshifting and the portal thing are tribe-related, but you don’t have to necessarily disagree when I propose The Point™ later.

The least-flawed ordeal I came across in the RWBY tag is the theory that in the far (or near) future, Yang will be able to shape shift into not just any bird, but a phoenix. Given all the folklore of phoenixes, it all makes way too much sense. But pushing that aside, the main in-story selling point that makes me think it’ll come true is the fact that her mother and uncle can canonically shape shift into birds. But another significant telling that I overlooked at first which should be considered are her flames.

Keeping in mind one of RWBY’s first World of Remnant videos where “semblances are a manifestation of one’s aura,” what if most (if not all) semblances are hereditary in some way but presents differently in individual’s aura? I’m getting at the Schnee’s who use glyphs. Both Winter and Weiss were able to use them, but Weiss happened to have a harder time summoning. What if that had to do with her aura? What if her forte lies in another area of glyphs. Though this might not be fair to equate with the Branwens; I might have this all mixed up since each of them are under different conditions, but what if shapeshifting and/or “getting stronger with each hit" is a shared Branwen trait, but each of them has their own originality to it (Qrow with his misfortune, Yang with her flames, Raven with the portals/prophecy)?

If this is true what if both Ruby’s and Summer’s semblances are “bursting into rose petals,” but Ruby’s is accompanied with speed and Summer had some other insane wild card up her sleeve (don’t even get me started on this, it deserves an entire post by itself).

Other thoughts/assumptions/headcannons I’ve collected from reading the tags/randomly just thought of.

Just another reason as to why Tai threw dirty looks at Qrow: He thinks he’s manipulative which he didn’t deny when he “used Ruby as bait.” Tai found out Qrow purposefully left kid Yang a hint to finding her mother to lure Raven out which led her and Ruby to an abandoned shed and nearly had them killed. 

This is assuming he knew about Raven’s rule about her saving her once since Yang’s birth, which also leads me to believe when Qrow was hallucinating and groaning “she’s not coming back, Tai,” he was referring to Summer not Raven.

Keep in mind that Raven’s outfit is exactly the same at Beacon and when she returns to her tribe and RT said colors are important in this series. Qrow and Raven were barbaric when they were first admitted to Beacon. They get lumped together with Summer and Tai. Summer is a kind spirit who tries to warm up to a closed-off Raven, she even tries mimicking her color scheme (key=black skirt). Tai is jealous is Qrow because he naturally gives off the bad-boy vibe and draws all the ladies attention, so he tries to make him look bad by tricking him into thinking the quilt was a part of the uniform. Qrow actually thinks Tai is the cool one and wants in. Tai lets him in (both of them wear similar shirts in a similar way) under the condition that he gave him pointers on how to get at his sister. Raven wanted to/didn’t know how to respond, so she finally asks Summer for help. 

TEAM STRQ didn’t have (as much) bad blood and was totally functional at some point making them the best team Beacon’s ever had.

I brought up earlier that Ruby’s getup (red cape and crosses) is all too similar to Qrow’s but we can’t be sure if this is because she was inspired to look like her teacher or, like father-like daughter, they share the same “crummy" fashion sense.

Let’s assume EVERYTHING I’ve presented above, even with bad blood given Raven’s “faults.” She’s out and about with her tribe, completely avoidant of all the baby-daddy drama, Ruby is born but she’s willing to come through for Yang. She still low-key cares about everyone on STRQ to some extent. This is where I jump back on the second possbility that Raven sees visions based on those she "prioritizes.” She sees a vision involving Summer and makes an exception to warn her. From what we know, Summer was super mom. When we look back on the lyrics to Red like Roses parts I + II, she didn’t plan on leaving but she knew it was something she had to do. But one day, “she went on a mission and never came back.” For whatever shitstorm Raven told her was coming, Summer went on that suicide mission. I’d like to think she had a choice… or the relic for (as Qrow quoted)  “the most important gift" of choice.

The lyric “so baby please don’t do what I did” also leads me to think Summer’s major character flaw was that she thought by handling it on her own and sacrificing herself, everything would be solved. There wouldn’t be a world to save, and her daughter wouldn’t have to follow in her footsteps. And I’m afraid Ruby has huge potential to fall down that same path. She’s already been set apart from her age group when she got accepted to Beacon two years early, she was set apart from her team when Oobleck handed her the answer to what it meant to be a huntress while her teammates had to figure it out for themselves, and even though she joined JNPR, she was the only member of RWBY to remain active after the fall of Beacon. 

Angst headcannon: (an affectionate) Qrow finds out too little too late, brainlessly rushes to the scene and unintentionally kills her due to his misfortune. 

Another world of remnant video noted that people tried fusing dust with their bodies. Well what about fusing with grim? (I’m looking at the humanoid grim we know as Salem)

Someone made a video a while back somehow connecting Into the Woods to RWBY. He basically theorized that a character representing the color gold/Rumpelstiltskin would become an important key to the story, but would run away from the huge responsibility he was tasked with before Oscar was even introduced. I think that Oscar is this Rumpelstiltskin. 

I think the King of Vale and The Wizard might be the same person, but there’s a good chance he’s not.

I also think both Oscar and Jaune are somehow linked to this King/Wizard (tons of evidence on tumblr) and will both become love interests for Ruby

Pretty sure Glinda Goodwitch and James Ironwood were/are/will be romantically involved somehow

Something about Glinda and Salem are too alike. Their demeanor is similar, they’re both references to witches and important to Ozpin in some way. 

I’m a firm believer that Adam is another silver-eyed warrior. He took down that grim effortlessly and Monty did say he and Ruby were connected in some way.