#(i'm writing way more ford pov than i expected

[scoobydoodean]

One thing that bugs me about after school special is that the dude they casted for "teen" Dean is literally a decade older than young Sam. He was closer in age to Jensen than to Colin. Normally I wouldn’t gaf (none of the younger Dean actors ever hit the mark for me so it is what it is), but combined with the episode’s complete lack of empathy for his situation as a parentified child, it feels more insidious. It frames him as way older than he really is, and in a way normalizes his parentification. If they had casted an actual 16 year old, their dynamic would look a lot more honest to what it truly was.

You know I'm don't think I've even fully worked out my frustrations about After School Special yet. I had to stop thinking about it last night because it was 3AM and I had to go to bed (also for more context, see posts I reblogged from Leyla last night jshdbfjhsbdfh).

This episode is just so... messy. It tries to say too many things, it says some absolutely stupid things and some okay things, and in other places, the narrative isn't clear (or maybe Dabb and Loflin are at war with one another on the subject of Dean—who knows). I find some of my frustrations and why I have those frustrations... difficult to explain in words.

That is a good point about the casting of Brock. Mind you—I have nothing against the actor here. I actually have always thought Brock did a great job copying Dean's mannerisms and way of speaking (I assume Jensen worked with him during the episode) and I think he does his best with what he's given and the role he's expected to play. The writing itself isn't his fault, of course.

From a height perspective, they wanted to intentionally contrast Dean with Sam all episode, who's being mocked by Dirk (who's paralleled with Dean and is literally our only window into sympathy toward parentified children which... isn't much at all) for being shorter than him, and I think that's part of why they chose someone much older and taller than Collin Ford.

I also don't think we're necessarily meant to dismiss the knowledge that Sam is much taller than Dean as an adult, but the thing is, if they wanted me to buy into the idea that everyone in After School Special is a bully (except maybe Barry), they did a terrible job. Sam hardly comes off as a bully—all he does is defend himself from someone who used their pain as an excuse to make his and other people's lives miserable (we get better evidence of bully!sam in their previous episode—"Yellow Fever"—actually). Is that what Dabb and/or Loflin think of Dean? That he's made Sam miserable? How? By *looks at notes* not obeying his every whim and following him around like an obedient dog, or perhaps by being dead? Hm. Except Dean doesn't even make Sam miserable in this episode (unless making jokes Sam doesn't find funny counts). Sam even picked the case they're on—Dean doesn't actually really want to go to their old school. Young Dean is reiterating that he'll look out for young Sam the entire episode.

I do think people are right when they say Dean's height (and much older appearance) are meant to reflect how Sam perceived him (After School Special is nearly fully from Sam's POV—Dean is more of a plot device than anything). Young Dean is immediately popular in school. He's handsome and makes the other kids his age laugh from the moment he enters the classroom. He immediately catches the eye of popular girls, and Barry and Sam have an exchange about it.

BARRY That's your brother with Amanda Heckerling? He's cool. YOUNG SAM Yeah. He thinks so.

Sam's paper about their werewolf hunt is, by the teacher's recounting, one where Dean shines the brightest—not Sam. He's the first thing that catches Wyatt's attention. What catches his attention second is John dragging them everywhere. Sam doesn't really factor in at all.

MR. WYATT I'm not flunking you. I'm giving you an "A." Now, aside from the werewolf, is that really how you'd describe your family? YOUNG SAM Yeah. MR. WYATT Well, your brother is quite a character. And your father -- he seems, uh, driven.

This also isn't a bad nugget about Sam, in an episode that comes right after 4.12 which is also to an extent about the desire for fame and attention and the old school versus the new school (where Sam represents the hot, new, popular magic that embraces demonic forces and is pushing out the old ways of doing things). I said 4.13 is also about envy—many of the murders are driven by projections on others. Dirk perceived Sam and Dean as "Jocks... you popular kids... you always thought you were better than everybody else." When that wasn't them at all. I've said that Sam is jealous of Dean (his bravery in combat despite zero powers, in previous seasons—his intelligence and way with people, his title as "the righteous man" while Sam is "the boy with the demon blood"). Dirk was projecting his resentments onto people they didn't apply to as a function of resentment and jealousy from the superiority he himself ultimately perceived them to possess, and that's much more reminiscent of Sam this season (we're about to see him project his insecurities on Dean and become the Big Bad Bully in the next episode—4.14):

OK, fine. You know why I didn't tell you about Ruby, and how we're hunting down Lilith? Because you're too weak to go after her, Dean. You're holding me back. I'm a better hunter than you are. Stronger, smarter. I can take out demons you're too scared to go near. [...] You're too busy sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. Whining about all the souls you tortured in hell. Boo hoo.

For Sam, After School Special isn't a terrible episode. It's just that it almost fully treats Dean as a cartoonish plot device and the neckbeard-type loathing for him almost seeps off the page even with all the nods to performing Dean you could ever want. In After School Special, Dean seems more unlike himself than any episode ever in the history of Supernatural up to this point. I do actually kind of think Dabb took one look at Dean when he came in in season 4 and decided he's a bully because he's popular based on nothing—however much he pretends he's only saying something else... and honestly I don't think he ever really got over it.

[anistarrose]

Some Sunny Day - Ch. 5: Block Out All the Bad (Gravity Falls Same Coin Theory)

Summary: In which two brothers both struggle to handle everything that’s going on around them, and tell each other two very different lies.

Warnings: Panic attacks, excessively negative views of oneself, and unsafe driving that results in a near miss

Previous / Next

The Beginning

(The Same Coin Theory is by @dubsdeedubs and @renmorris!)

Ford had once written that he was okay with being a hero’s brother, and at the time, it had been true. But now Stan was the one who needed saving, and Ford was doing a downright pathetic job at returning the favor.

I shouldn’t have snapped at him. I just made things worse.

He didn’t believe me when I told him he was worth something. Has he always hated himself this much? Have I really never noticed?

“We’re heading to the mansion to run the scan,” Ford called to Dipper, somehow choking out some semblance of a calm and collected voice. He couldn’t bring himself to forbid the rest of the family from coming along. “You and Mabel can follow with Soos in another car.”

Dipper looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite get it out. Stan stayed quiet too, staring down at his feet as Ford guided him out of the shack.

Ford braced himself for the worst as they exited the unicorn hair barrier, but Stan didn’t say a thing about it — just shook his head and blinked a few times as they crossed the boundary. Then he slipped into the back seat of the Stanmobile, passenger-side, and started nervously drumming his fingers against the window.

Ford probably would have been more comfortable with Stan riding next to him up front, but given how Stan seemed to have deliberately chosen the farthest seat away from him, he didn’t think that suggestion would go over well. Instead, he just adjusted his rearview mirror until Stan’s face was visible, and then began to drive.

The road was infuriatingly indirect. He couldn’t believe that he’d never noticed how poorly designed it was. It took switchbacks up a series of hills that weren’t even that steep, and wound through patches of trees that would each block the sun for a second at a time before it reappeared, made even more intense on the eyes by the constant alternation with shadow.

Gripping the wheel more tightly than he should have, Ford lowered his foot on the accelerator —

“STOP!” Stan suddenly shouted, and Ford slammed on the brakes on instinct, not giving a single thought to whether he could even trust his brother’s voice at the moment.

From around the bend, a deer leapt out and bounded across the road. Ford couldn’t be sure, but if he’d kept on driving at that same speed, he probably would’ve hit it.

What he could be sure of was that Stan shouldn’t have been able to know it was coming, not from where he was sitting in the car. There was absolutely no way he could have seen around that turn, not when Ford himself hadn’t been able to see from the driver’s seat.

He heard Soos’s truck come to a halt behind them, and then the sound of a door opening. “Mr. Pines-es? Are — are you guys okay?”

Stan made a small, sad noise of distress. It could have been because of the worry in Soos’s voice, or because Stan realized how impossible the thing he’d just done was, or both. But no matter the reason, it made Ford’s heart sink and his stomach churn.

He tried to roll down the window, bit back a swear after finding it was jammed, and just swung the door open.

“There was a deer in the road,” he replied as calmly as he could. “I stopped to avoid hitting it, and it’s gone now. That’s all.”

Soos was looking at him with a concerned frown, and Dipper and Mabel probably were too from inside the truck, but Ford turned around before any of them could say anything. He didn’t want to keep them in the dark, but he would have more time to explain later on; for now he had to focus on getting Stan safely to —

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a birch tree looming amongst the pines at the corner of the bend, and for a moment he could have sworn the rips in its bark were giving off a faint golden light.

He ducked inside the car and started driving without looking back. The only times he took his eyes off the road were to check on Stan in the rearview mirror, and each time, it got harder and harder for Ford to convince himself he’d only imagined that hint of yellow reflecting off his brother’s glasses.

***

“Ya see, I’ve made some more upgrades to this fella since ya left on yer sailin’ adventure,” McGucket explained to Ford as he fit the helmet over Stan’s head. “Should only take seven minutes to complete a scan now, give or take.”

“But it still works off the same algorithm we used last time, correct?”

“Correct indeed.”

Ford turned to Dipper, Mabel, and Soos, who were waiting awkwardly on the other side of Fiddleford’s lab — once a ballroom, now a mad scientist’s lair with countless vaguely steampunk-looking inventions and almost as many banjos scattered across the floor. “After you kids left last summer, I asked Fiddleford to revamp my old invention, Project Mentem, just to… well, to give us some peace of mind.”

He let that sentence hang in the air for a second, painfully aware of the irony and unsure of how to continue.

“It no longer scans individual thoughts, but examines them as a group to detect how many distinct minds or consciousnesses are present. Last year, it… well, I suppose you can infer — it told us that no one was in Stan’s mind except him. There was nothing out of the ordinary that it detected. But Fiddleford has upped the sensitivity since then, I believe…”

McGucket nodded to confirm.

“...as well as streamlined the overall process of the scan to make it faster. We believe that Bill has been directly interacting with Stan’s thoughts and dreams recently, meaning that he should be easy to identify, and once we’ve gotten a handle on what he’s currently doing and what else he’s capable of, we can go about forming a plan to… remove him.”

He turned back to Stan. “Are you ready?”

“I don’t have to fall asleep for this, do I?” Stan asked. His voice was steady, if a little quiet, but his hands were trembling slightly on the arms of the chair.

Ford shook his head. “No. It works whether you’re awake or asleep.”

“Okay. Start it up, I guess.”

For over a minute, no one spoke as the machine whirred to life and flashed a progress bar on the screen. Ford berated himself for not bringing anything to write on, to use to jot down notes.

(Not so much for the sake of keeping a record — there wasn’t a single thing Stan had done or said that day that wasn’t painfully burned into Ford’s memory, he was sure — but to organize his thoughts, to calm him down, to give him something to do.)

“We told Wendy and Melody what was going on before we left,” Dipper finally said. “They went to go get unicorn hair, so we could Bill-proof part of the mansion too. I mean, assuming that doesn’t mess up the scanning machine or anything.”

It took Ford longer than it should have to process the statement. “That’s… oh, that’s great. I’m not sure if I have any moonstones on hand, but those shouldn’t be too hard to get a hold of anyways… That’s very helpful of them.”

And then everyone was quiet again, and Ford suddenly felt very useless.

Melody and Wendy barely even know what’s going on and they’re doing more for Stan than I am right now. Why can’t I think of any way to help?

“Does Stan want us to get him anything?” Mabel asked quietly, as if reading Ford’s mind.

“Nuh-uh.” For the first time in a while (far too long), Stan looked directly at his niblings. “Tried to drink somethin’ earlier. Didn’t go down too well.”

He’s talking to the kids again. Thank goodness. Stan had a worried frown on his face and his words were spoken quietly and quickly, but it was improvement.

“Okay. But you’ll tell us if there ever is anything, right?”

“‘Course, Shoo— ‘course, sweetie. Don’t worry about that.”

And then there was the inevitable slip — so subtle and quickly corrected that Ford almost missed it, would have missed it if Stan hadn’t briefly shuddered at his own words before putting back on a neutral expression.

Sixer, Pine Tree, Shooting Star…

It seems the kids hadn’t noticed, though, and Ford didn’t want to bring it up to them, not after what had happened after returning to the Shack that morning. Instead, he waited until they turned away and started to talk to each other, then whispered to Stan: “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, well, I guess I’m not any worse, huh?” Stan answered, and Ford doubted many other people would have noticed, but his words sounded slightly forced, his tone just a bit too optimistic.

Like a lie.

“Do you… do you feel alright talking to the kids?” Ford asked cautiously.

“Yeah, pretty much. I — I think I still need them to give me some space, but…”

There was the genuine Stan again, the Stan being honest about how scared he was.

“But yeah, I can talk to them. Like, I just did, and that went fine, right?”

Ford felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

But it wasn’t fine, Stan. A moment ago you were horrified of what you almost said. What just changed? You couldn’t have forgotten, or…

Oh no.

Stan’s pupils weren’t slit at the moment, but his eyes had never shown the signs of possession, had they? Not when calling Dipper Pine Tree, not when his hands caught fire, not a single time. What if Bill was somehow the one in control, the one speaking to Ford at this very moment, pretending nothing was wrong, waiting for Ford to let his guard down — or maybe Bill wasn’t fully in control, but deleting memories from Stan’s mind and manipulating his thoughts until he truly believed it was fine —

A soft ding chimed in the background, and Ford didn’t register what it was until Fiddleford announced: “We’re done. I’m guessin’ you’ll wanna take a look here, Ford.”

Ford hurried over to the machine just in time to watch with Fiddleford as the results loaded, and for the sinking feeling in his stomach to grow a thousand times worse.

“That — that can’t be all there is! The end must be cut off!”

“No,” McGucket replied, his voice stunned and monotone — it sounded so wrong to hear Fiddleford of all people speak so flatly. “Ya can see the times labeled on the x-axis. That’s all there is…”

“Fuck,” Ford whispered.

He was drowned out by Dipper asking: “What’s wrong? What’s all there is?”

Ford found himself speaking slowly and clearly, like saying the words out loud would make them false, would prompt someone to correct him. “There isn’t a single sign of possession here. Nothing at all.”

“It’s gotta be my fault,” Fiddleford muttered. “I musta messed it all up with the upgrades —”

Ford shook his head. “No, Fiddleford. Stop.”

He pointed to the screen, where a graph was displayed. It was almost entirely one flat line, except for three parts: almost exactly a year ago, where it briefly quintupled in height, ten months ago where it briefly doubled in height, and a slightly longer period immediately afterwards where it made small oscillations up and down from the original line.

“All this data aligns perfectly with what we know — here’s where Dipper, Mabel, and Soos followed Bill into Stanley’s mind last summer. Counting Stan, that’s five separate people, just as the graph shows…”

He moved his finger along the line, from left to right. “Here’s where Stan tricked Bill into entering his mind during Weirdmaggedon — two people, just as we see here. And here’s where the memory gun caused minor interference. That’s all just as it should be.”

He finally pointed at the time labeled Present, where the line was flat again. “It’s just this part… we know Bill is here, but… we can’t detect him now, for some reason…”

Ford realized that he hadn’t heard Stan say anything since the results had arrived, and glanced in his brother’s direction. The look Stan returned to him might have seemed completely neutral and indifferent to any other person, but Ford could tell there were other emotions behind it — fear, and something else.

Shame?

“Um,” Soos said, “I don’t know very much about this stuff, but maybe you could try turning it off and back on? And then doing the scan thing again?”

“That’s a good idea, Soos,” Ford replied, quickly and maybe a little louder than he meant to. “We might try that — unless Fiddleford has something else he’d like to troubleshoot?”

“There’s a more detailed scan setting I can use, but I’ll turn it off and on again first, if ya want. The other scan’ll take more time, though. ‘Bout twice as long.”

“That’s fine,” Ford immediately assured him, even though it wasn’t.

Seven minutes had already been too much. He couldn’t handle another fourteen. He had to get out of this room, out of this poorly-lit ballroom-turned lab with no windows and not enough chairs and nothing to write on and far too much empty space.

But no, he had to stay, he had to do something, anything to help Stan — yet he couldn’t, couldn’t do anything, couldn’t hold it all together for much longer.

He was a horrible brother, wasn’t he.

“Stanley, would you be comfortable on your own for a short amount of time? I need — I’d like to head to the bathroom.”

He just needed two or three minutes alone to pull himself together. He’d come back to Stan as soon as he could, he just needed a moment alone. He just needed to sort through all his thoughts and paranoia, and then he could stop being so helpless…

“Sure, I guess…” Stan told him, frowning.

“Alright. Thank you,” Ford replied as he hurried out of the room, failing to notice the worried looks that Dipper and Mabel exchanged behind him.

Is this why I always tried so hard to convince myself that being a hero meant being alone? Because of how useless I always become when I try to help my friends and family?

***

It was actually in the dining room that Mabel found him, and it wasn’t two or three minutes later, but more than four.

“Grunkle Ford, you’re not in Sweater Town, are you?”

He didn’t get up from the corner he was sitting in, but he looked up to Mabel, trying to be reassuring but probably failing. “Am I really so bad of an actor? That you felt the need to come after me?”

“Well… we were a little worried before you even left, but then McGucket told that none of the mansion’s eight bathrooms were in the direction you went. So… that made us more worried.”

She sat down next to him, waited a moment, and then leaned against his side.

“I want to try help you feel better,” she admitted, “but I’m really afraid, too.”

“I want to tell you that you shouldn’t be,” Ford replied, “but I don’t think I’d convince either of us.”

He put his arm around Mabel’s shoulders, and all the thoughts that he’d been holding in ever since finding Stan in that clearing began to pour out.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to tell Bill and Stan apart at some moment when I desperately need to. That Bill somehow buried himself so deep in Stan’s mind that the scan won’t even pick him up no matter how many times we run it, and that I don’t even know my own brother well enough to find a way to separate what’s him and what’s that demon. I’m afraid that Bill’s already influencing what he says and thinks, and that it’s only going to get worse, and that I won’t even notice when it does.

“Back in the Shack, Stan… he talked in his sleep and quoted a whole conversation I had with Bill decades ago, and I didn’t even recognize it at first. It just… he called me Sixer, and I didn’t catch every word at first but the words I did understand sounded… just so natural in Stan’s voice, until… until he started telling me to lie until I couldn’t remember what was true, to lie until I wasn’t lying anymore.

“Now I’m afraid that Bill’s lying to me through Stan, messing with Stan’s head and controlling what he tells me. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to tell for sure until it’s too late. I… I should be with him! I should be watching him. Them. But I — I just can’t bring myself to…”

Mabel scooted closer and hugged him.

“I’m just so useless to Stan, to all of you. I don’t know how to handle any of this. I should be back there by now, but… I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how I can be the one leading everyone through… all of this.”

He hung his head. “I’m so sorry, Mabel. I shouldn’t have burdened you with this…”

“But did it help?” Mabel asked him. “To talk about it?”

Ford had to consider it for a moment. “Maybe a little bit, I think.”

“Then I’m glad you said it, Grunkle Ford.”

Ford had never been much of a crier, but at that moment, tears were starting to well up in his eyes. “Thank you, Mabel.”

“I don’t know what I could say that could help you any more,” she went on. “I’m really scared too. Especially for Stan.” She rubbed her eyes.

“But I’m not scared about being able to tell him and Bill apart — about you, or me, or anyone else being able to, ‘cause Stan loves us way more than Bill will ever understand. You know that, right?”

Despite everything, Ford felt a sense of pride. “You’re right. He does love us, so much more. I do know that.”

“One time,” Mabel went on, “Bill asked me some question, like ‘who would sacrifice everything they’d worked for just for their dumb sibling?’ He didn’t get how any of us could care about our family so much. Stan’s the opposite of that. He worked for thirty years to save you! Even if Bill was your brother, he never would have done that!

“You know Stan better than anyone, and you know how different he is from Bill. You know so much about everything! If anyone can figure out a way to seperate them, it’s you, Grunkle Ford!”

“That was very well said, Mabel. Thank you. I needed that.”

They sat silently together for a few more seconds, until Mabel said: “I guess you kind of were in Sweater Town, weren’t you.”

“I — I don’t believe I know what that means.”

“Well, when I go to Sweater Town, I pull my sweater over my head. Like this.”

She demonstrated. “But I guess it’s doesn’t always have to be a sweater, exactly. It can be whatever you do to get away and block out all the bad stuff going on.”

She pulled her sweater back down. “Sometimes you need to go to Sweater Town for a little while, and it really helps. Sometimes it’s bad instead, because you’re tempted to hide there forever and pretend all the stuff going on around you isn’t happening. Sometimes it’s both.”

“I see.” Ford took a deep breath. “You’re right, I think I was in Sweater Town for a while. But I’m ready to go back now, if you are too.”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

As Ford got to his feet, the dusty chandelier hanging from the ceiling caught his eye.

Right. That was something he could do, a step he could take to prepare in advance in case the next scan turned out the same.

“Actually, Mabel, before we head back… do you think you could help me find some candles?”

***

They left the candles outside the door before they entered the lab again. No one asked what had taken so long, just acknowledged them with a nod, but Ford could see the relief on their faces — especially Stan’s.

Before he had a chance to ask Stan how he was feeling, the machine dinged again, and on the screen, the exact same graph was displayed. Ford reminded himself that he’d been expecting that result, that he had a plan, that he knew what to do next.

Even though Stan would never approve of his plan, which was why he was about to lie.

You have to do it, Ford. If Stan’s still afraid of even being near the kids, he’ll never allow this if you tell him the truth.

From his pocket, he pulled a wallet-sized black case that contained several medications, including painkillers and antibiotics, but most importantly a sedative.

“Stan, I know sleep has been… unpleasant for you lately, but while we work out what to do next, it’ll be safest for us to sedate you, so we can minimize the risk of Bill taking control over these next few hours. Would you be alright with —”

Stan shuddered. “Won’t it be easier for him to possess me if I’m asleep?”

“Not if the drugs put you to sleep artificially. If he’s in your mind at this very moment, they’ll affect him too.”

“Oh, then of course I’m fine with it.” He held out his palm to accept the pills. “What are you waitin’ for?”

Ford was the only one close enough to notice, but Stan’s hand was trembling slightly. He was still terrified of being visited by nightmares again, Ford realized, even without the risk of Bill taking over — he was just pretending that fear wasn’t there, for Ford’s sake.

Feeling even worse about his lie, Ford pressed several buttons on the case, and it dispensed two pills.

It’s still all to stop Bill, just like I told him, he reminded himself. I’m only lying about the details because otherwise he’d be too worried about our safety to let us try.

“They work faster than the ones that are standard in this dimension,” he explained, “but you don’t swallow them — just let them dissolve in your mouth, and they should kick in within a minute or two.”

Stan did as he was told, and leaned back in his chair. Fiddleford procured a pillow from… somewhere in the lab, but Stan shook his head.

He just isn’t allowing himself to care about his own physical and emotional comfort anymore, Ford thought. And I’m exploiting that.

He stared at his watch until about ninety seconds had passed and Stan’s eyes had closed, then said: “Mabel, would you get those candles?”

“Why do you want —” Dipper started to ask, before it clicked together. “Wait, you’re going into his mind, aren’t you?”

Ford nodded. “Yes. Strictly speaking, the candles aren’t necessary, but I’ve found that a number of rituals work slightly better when they’re present. And, well, you can tell why I wouldn’t want to turn down any potential advantage we might have access to here.”

“Ah, now there’s the Ford I know,” Fiddleford chimed in. “You’ll find a way to get everyone out of this safe and sound, I’m sure of it.”

“Thank you, Fiddleford,” Ford replied. “I’ll do everything I can.”

No one asked him why he’d lied to Stan, which should have been a relief, but Ford almost felt like he deserved to have his choices questioned.

I will save Stan just like he saved me. I won’t let him down. I’ll make this lie worth it.

Mabel returned with the candles, and Ford began placing them in a circle around Stan’s chair. In the middle of the process, he stepped away from the circle for a moment to place the pillow behind Stan’s neck.

“Are you letting us come with you?” Dipper asked. There was a determination in his eyes that reminded Ford of Stan — well, of Stan when he’d conned Bill, of Stan when he’d punched krakens and dove overboard to pull Ford out of freezing water, of Stan on any other day but today.

A lot had changed in just this one bright summer morning, hadn’t it?

Ford sighed. “I wouldn’t be able to stop you from following me if I tried, would I?”

Dipper shook his head. “Probably not,” he admitted guiltily.

“Don’t be ashamed of what you would have done,” Ford quickly added. “I know I would’ve done the same. Besides, since the three of you have been in Stan’s mind before, you may end up being able to spot Bill’s influence even better than I can. I’ll admit I’m worried about your safety, but I know you’ll worry about me too, and letting you come is the best choice for all of us. It’s not like you’ll be a hindrance.”

He turned to McGucket. “Though that’ll leave you alone, Fiddleford. Are you alright with that?”

“Don’t worry ‘bout me, Tate’ll be back ‘ere in an hour or so, and I guess the girls are gonna come by to drop off that unicorn hair, too. You go do what ya need to do to save yer brother.”

Ford nodded and set to work lighting the candles. For one horrifying moment, he feared that they might burn blue themselves, but they were a warm, natural orange. They reassured him somewhat— a sign that normalcy still remained in this world where everything he’d taken for granted for the past ten months was turning out to be false.

“Alright,” he announced, “everyone gather round.”

The four of them placed their hands on Stan’s head, and Ford began to recite the incantation. He’d had it memorized ever since Bill had betrayed him.

As he began, everyone’s eyes began to glow light blue, shining brighter and brighter as he recited the chant.

On the third to last Magister Mentium of the incantation, the flames of the candles were snuffed out, their energy pulled towards the site of entry to the mindscape. On the second to last, the world began to dissolve around them, everything turning into blurs of blue and gray.

And then, as he spoke the final words, Ford could have sworn he heard… piano music?

But before he could be sure, everything went dark and cold.

***

Vrrq hqrxjk, Irug, brx'oo vhh wkdw brxu eurwkhu'v lq Vzhdwhu Wrzq wrr.

Thanks for reading, feedback is appreciated as always!

(Edit: Fixed a code typo, Ford is shaking his head at me right now.)

[yeniayofnymeria]

Arya Stark's Green Fork scene and Daenerys' Dream

Selam, hello!

I hadn't written for a while. I wanted to come back with a good topic. Actually, this was something that came to my mind a few years ago, but I had never thought before that there was a parallel with Dany's dream. I have recently started interpreting asoiaf dreams and prophecies, at which time I realized that these two subjects are similar.

(Sorry for my bad grammar.)

Dany's Dream

The dream takes place in a Storm of Swords 3rd Daenerys POV (I don't know if it's coincidence or intentional to see such a dream in the 3rd pov, of course, but it seemed like one of the triple loops to me for Dany).

That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent. Some small part of her knew that she was dreaming, but another part exulted. This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened.

Dany was often compared to her older brother Rhaegar, if you remember... Naturally, she dreams of herself as Rhaegar, who went to the Trident river to triumph over the Rebels; this is her subconscious dream way of saying "I'm not like Viserys, I'm like Rhaegar, they say I am". So obviously Dany accept it by now. Of course, she goes to war on a dragon, not on a horse. As such, it is highly likely to be a dragon dream.

Now, the most common interpretation of this dream is as a sign of Dany's future war with the Others in the region of this river because of "ice armors". I thought the same when I first read it, but let's see what Martin said: “Prophecies come true unexpectedly... those prophecies that you see as spoilers aren't always what they seem... the prophecies should not be too obvious... ' words echo in my head. Despite these words, when people saw the “ice armors” depiction, Dany commented that she was fighting the Others. This is what even writes as an interpretation of this dream on the ASOIAF Wiki.

It's pretty obvious, don't you think? This came to mind first, and no other alternative thought was even suggested. In fact, we've read that the characters often interpret the prophecies they hear as they first come to mind, making inferences wrong. For example, when Cersei heard the prophecy, she believed that the valonqar was Tyrion; it will probably be Jaime, or maybe someone else too… When Dany saw the prophecies of betrayal, she quickly accepted Mirri and Jorah as two of the three betrayals, but the past actions of both do not fall under these three reported betrayals.

So I'm going to make another comment, going beyond the obvious. Now, assuming that the war we see will take place in the future, if Dany arrives in the Riverlands, on the Trident; there's a good chance she'll fight on the Green Fork side because Rhaegar was killed in an area connected to this place, and it was named Ruby Ford because of rubies spilling from his armor... Near here is Crossroads Inn. Since the river is shallow here, you can cross the river, the armies gathered and fought here. Naturally, the army that Dany sees is coming from the north to fight Dany. Green color is unlucky for Dany; The fact that Rhaegar was killed here, and the "ice-armoured" armies coming from the north... moreover, these are the "rebel armies(Starks)" for Dany...

I think there is a strong possibility that these armies are indeed the armies of the northerners. The armies of the north belong to the House Stark, representing the "ice" side in the pact of ice and fire. Even the name of the famous family heirloom sword was “ice”. In the fifth book Jon; We read that in one of his dreams he wore "ice armor". We see that the Others are not the only ones wearing ice armor in this series. In particular, seeing another pov character wearing the ice armor seen in the dream, in his dream, gives us the opportunity to interpret this dream differently than the Others. In a nutshell, it's likely Daenerys is fighting the northern army here, led by the Starks. So she will fight in the future... Dany sees here that she is burning them with fire, melting them and this rebel army overflowing the river against the water... Remember this part.

Arya and Sandor Scene

Now, when Sandor kidnaps Arya, he wants to take her across the river, but Arya doesn't know where she is. Just as Tyrion thought Jorah was taking him to Cersei, Arya thought Sandor was taking him to Cersei, and she thought the river she saw was the BLACK - WATER river, although she wasn't sure... of course there is a nice Arya-Tyrion parallel here too we have seen it... if we continue, when he saw the river, the sky was cloudy and it was raining; This, of course, made the river go wild. I will now interpret the chapter by quoting it bit by bit; of course, remember the dream that Dany had and look at what happened here.

When they reached the top of the ridge and saw the river, Sandor Clegane reined up hard and cursed.

The rain was falling from a black iron sky, pricking the green and brown torrent with ten thousand swords. It must be a mile across, Arya thought. The tops of half a hundred trees poked up out the swirling waters, their limbs clutching for the sky like the arms of drowning men. Thick mats of sodden leaves choked the shoreline, and farther out in the channel she glimpsed something pale and swollen, a deer or perhaps a dead horse, moving swiftly downstream. There was a sound too, a low rumble at the edge of hearing, like the sound a dog makes just before he growls.

The first thing that draws attention is the iron blackness of the sky... The fact that Arya thinks this place is BLACK water twice, both in this scene and later in the chapter, may be noteworthy as the emphasis on "black" because this is the green fork, the only thing that has anything to do with black is the sky... the pouring rain pierces the GREEN and BROWN stream with 10,000 swords... There are trees in the river too, their branches reaching to the sky look like the arms of drowning men, and mats of leaves choked the shoreline... Everyone knows that the leaves are green. We understand that the river is green fork with the "green" description, and the information that the town of Harroway is nearby is also given in the section, exactly on the green fork sides, even near Ruby Ford, like Crossroads Inn. So Sandor and Arya are trying to cross the Ruby Ford, just as Dany saw in her dream. As such, both the dream and this scene are happening same place; Green Fork, Ruby Ford.

The fact that the sky is black iron reminds us of Drogon, that the bones of dragons are black because of iron, and we can attribute the expression of the sky to the flying of dragons and attacking from the sky ( I might pushed this part too much). Therefore, the iron black sky becomes a somewhat meaningful description. From this sky comes 10,000 swords too... In this book, Dany had just bought 10,000 Unsullied. Aegon also has 10,000 men in the last book; Golden Company. In other words, an army of at least 10 thousand soldiers led by Dany comes here with her dragon and attacks Starks, northerens.

These 10,000 swords pierce this green river... ominous for the green dany; green symbolizes Dany's enemies... or, to be more precise, it's green side in Dance 2... You know that in the first Dance, the main parties were divided into greens and blacks; These colors were named as names because of the dresses the two queens wore in a tournament. Undoubtedly, what will happen in the 2nd dance will never, never happen same exacly, but they will be similar, a few common points; will be reflected. One of them is probably the separation of the sides into greens and blacks. Naturally, only the colors of the dragons can decide this; Since the black dragon is Dany's, Dany symbolizes the "black" side, which in this story coincides with the queen of the first dance anyway; We can think that Jon, who is expected to ride the green dragon, will also symbolize the green side. Remember my thread Jorah; Even Tyrion's eyes are black and green; a sign that he will switch sides. Of course, Aegon will probably take his side in this Dance 2 issue, I think it could be between 3 people, not two people, and there are signs about it (Like Tyrion's dream and Moqorro's Tyrion prophice)

The trees look like drowning men. Maybe it was a bit of a force, but I will make such a comment anyway. You know the connection between the beliefs of the Nords and the trees, the trees represent their beliefs. Green is already the symbol of the “nature” side; Remember my THREE HEADS thread... So it's only natural for Jon to represent the greens as the "balance" side(in battle of dawn).

Thus, the analogy of the treemen drowning in the river seems to fit almost exactly with the description of Dany's dream of coming from the sky with a dragon, setting the men in ice armor on fire, melting them into the river, and overflowing into the river, in other words, drowning. Already the river has overflowed and raged in Arya's scene, the waters have risen and even the town of Harroway has been submerged. So the river runs parallel to the scene, as Dany saw in her dream (Remember, a symbolic expression like the river's current was made by the author before the Red Wedding, I think he's doing the same thing).

Naturally, mats of sodden leaves choked the shoreline and appearing like a mats may be a situation that depicts these dying-drowning northern soldiers. Looks like Dany is dealing a heavy blow to the northerners so far. Or perhaps the opposite statement that these leaves “choke” the shoreline; it may be explaining that the northerners were crowded and perhaps they were superior to the enemy soldiers. I'm just trying to interpret it from every angle as possible, I'm not saying that this interpretation is final. There are dead deer or horses floating in the sea; Arya isn't sure which one it is. When I think of horse, Dothrak comes to mind, and when I say deer, naturally I think of Baratheon, the soldiers of the Stormlands. Maybe Dany and Aegon's forces have come together and an army of 10,000 has arrived, or rather will come, and will have Dothraki and Storm armies in it... You know that in book 6, Aegon took the Storm Castle, which is equivalent to same thing take all Stormlands.

These drowning animals inevitably give the impression that Dany's army will lose. Or at worst, both sides will suffer heavy losses. It is also true that, as I said before, Rhaegar had died here, and Dany saw herself as Rhaegar. Naturally, this dream of Dany and the possible foreshadowing narration in this scene of Arya; In fact, it may be Dany's last battle, we may have seen the moment she went to her death. Martin's assistants, I don't know why, think that Dany will be killed by Jon before the fight with the Others is over. On the other hand, I think that Dany will die with Jon and Arya act together. Continue the quote.

The oarsmen were rowing more vigorously now, fighting the rage of the river. Leaves and broken branches swirled past as fast as if they'd been fired from a scorpion.

There is a formal depiction of war here; anyway, the scene that tells about Arya and Sandor crossing to the north of the river is a battle scene in itself, you can see it very easily even when you read it yourself. The river is angry; leaves and broken branches seem to be “thrown by a scorpion”... The tree-green leaf depiction here and the rage of the river seem to symbolize the "northerns" because they were the ones who were drowned and died by the attack in the first place; This was the case in Dany's dream as well, and the river overflows with anger and attacks the enemy with all its might...

The word scorpion is also notable, this is the weapon you need to hunt a dragon. The leaves and tree branches symbolizing the northerners seem to have been thrown by the scorpion... So they are trying to kill the dragon. Remember that it was a scorpion that killed Meraxes.

But a sudden shout snapped her head about before she could leap. The ferrymen were rushing forward, poles in hand. For a moment she did not understand what was happening. Then she saw it: an uprooted tree, huge and dark, coming straight at them. A tangle of roots and limbs poked up out of the water as it came, like the reaching arms of a great kraken. The oarsmen were backing water frantically, trying to avoid a collision that could capsize them or stove their hull in. The old man had wrenched the rudder about, and the horse at the prow was swinging downstream, but too slowly. Glistening brown and black, the tree rushed toward them like a battering ram. It could not have been more than ten feet from their prow when two of the boatmen somehow caught it with their long poles. One snapped, and the long splintering craaaack made it sound as if the ferry were breaking up beneath them. But the second man managed to give the trunk a hard shove, just enough to deflect it away from them. The tree swept past the ferry with inches to spare, its branches scrabbling like claws against the horsehead. Only just when it seemed as if they were clear, one of the monster's upper limbs dealt them a glancing thump. The ferry seemed to shudder, and Arya slipped, landing painfully on one knee. The man with the broken pole was not so lucky. She heard him shout as he stumbled over the side. Then the raging brown water closed over him, and he was gone in the time it took Arya to climb back to her feet. One of the other boatmen snatched up a coil of rope, but there was no one to throw it to.

Yes, I think we just saw Euron Greyjoy's ship. Our sea monster called the Great kraken and the black-brown ship... although Euron's ship is dark red in hull but has black sails and a picture of a sea monster, he later started to use his own special crest. So it seems that Euron's naval power is also involved in the war. Remember; The Lord of White Harbor had also built at least 30-40 warships... Martin doesn't have those ships built as decorations. In summary; As I mentioned in Euron Ice or Fire, the King of the Iron Islands seems to have taken sides with Dany. The Valerions, who were already sea power in Dance 1, were on the side of the black queen, while the now powerful sea power is the Greyjoys, which belongs to Euron. They were already on the black side in the first Dance.

So in conclusion, with both Dany's dream and Arya's Green Fork "Ruby Ford" scene, the author told us about the Stark - Targaryen collision that will take place in the 7th book.

What are you thinking?