#But that's the fun of theories and predictions

[no-thanks-im-stuffed]

I have a Gravity Falls Theory I've been meaning to write down for a WHILE so here goes:

Stanford Pines is no genius and I'm gonna pick apart every single one of "Ford's" scientific inventions/accomplishments to prove it.

Grab a beverage, this is gonna be a long one

[Gravity Falls spoilers, a little bit of The Book of Bill]

Contents:

Ford's "Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness"

Codes and Secrets

Inventions

Ford's Tragic Backstory

McGucket

Why Would He Do This??

After Weirdmageddon

TLDR

1. Ford's "Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness"

I can support most of my claims with the help of Journal 3. Unless Ford had actual, scientific research papers, this is the only research we have from him and it's... not scientific in the slightest. Ford treats his "research notes" like a personal diary. I get that they had to design the Journal to be entertaining to kids, but from a scientific lense (which is what he wants to be perceived through), most of Ford's discoveries are very surface level and sometimes (especially later on) border on paranoid conspiracy theorist rambling.

His Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness is the reason he came to Gravity Falls in the first place. His goal is clear:

but, on the very next page, the ramblings start.

It gets worse once he finds the invisible ink.

"The pyramids were built to appease Bill!" sure, buddy.

(And yes, Bill confirms most of these ramblings about his history in The Book of Bill, but a) he too could be lying about this and b) I don't think he had a nice chat with Ford about who he tricked and tormented to build his portal. It wouldn't really fit into the timeline.)

The one bit of "science" I found him doing was his experimentation with the Bottomless Pit. He threw objects in the hole and only saw some stuff coming back while other stuff went missing. Ford hypothesizes it might be a "Möbius Pit" and even spends enough time experimenting on it that he found out "nothing ever seems to get lost on Friday the Thirteenth". Credit where credit is due.

Anyway, he's documenting all kinds of fantastical creatures in the Journal - adding his whimsical commentary and making random assumptions about stuff without any scientific basis. As he admits himself later on, this is getting him nowhere to actually start his Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness, let alone finish it. It's been SIX YEARS.

BUDDY WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

It took a spark of "divine intervention" to even start doing any meaningful research and it was just Bill telling him "hey there's a weirdness dimension btw".

Ford even admits that he didn't come up with it himself. The next pages are the first actually scientific looking ones so far, but more on that in the Inventions section.

He doesn't really advance on his Weirdness Theory for a while (see McGucket chapter for more), but later in the Journal, Ford has a little adventure with Dipper, talking about "The True Theory of Weirdness". He drops a "weird" jelly bean on the floor and watches it roll uphill towards Gravity Falls. He then states that Gravity Falls is a "Weirdness Magnet" and every oddity is eventually drawn to this place. Which is not a theory scientifically speaking, more like an unproven hypothesis. He didn't develop a model to, let's say, predict which oddity will find its way to Gravity Falls next or when it will happen.

"I explained that I felt in my bones that my arrival at this town, and perhaps Dipper's, too, was not an accident. That we were part of some greater fate the town had in store for us." Very scientific.

2. Codes and Secrets

The Journal has several hidden messages from a good handful of characters, some more encoded than others.

We all know about the Map leading to the secrets of Nathaniel Northwest's fraud from the show. Ford found it somewhere in the library.

It just needed to be folded. Layton ass puzzle. A 12 year old figured it out. Ford couldn't do it. Even Mabel is poking fun at him.

Now on to the ciphers.

One of them is a letter from Blendin, encrypted with the Vigenère cipher. To this, Stanford "aced cryptology" Pines says the following:

He was given the key and still couldn't make sense of it. Of course a cool puzzle for people reading the Journal, but not really helping Ford with upholding his image of being an undeniable genius.

Ford himself mainly uses the Atbash and Caesar ciphers, both being a) literally thousands of years old, b) incredibly simple and c) not his own invention.

Bill uses two symbol substition ciphers.

Now I don't know about you, but if a divine being chose me as the genius of the century to inspire me and said being left tiny hidden messages in my diary, I would stop at nothing to try and decipher what they're trying to tell me. For some reason, Ford did not do this. The first message Bill leaves says "I'VE BEEN INSIDE YOUR MIND SIXER, I KNOW YOUR SECRETS". He could have seen all of this coming wayyy earlier (or just had yet another red flag to ignore).

Anyway, I accidentally solved the code before finishing the Journal just to discover that Bill is literally handing him the solution on a silver platter towards the end.

Girl, what do you mean "???" ??

Now, I know Ford at this point is incredibly sleep deprived, paranoid and traumatized. But come on. If I can solve it 6 coffees in while dissociating, our genius can find the solution to Bill's alphabet using the A1Z26 cipher that he put in the journal himself. Plus, as mentioned, he could have deciphered his alphabet way before The Betrayal when his mind was still sound.

So again, not a good look for Ford in the whole genius department.

3. Inventions

Now let's take a look a the inventions which are most commonly associated with Stanford:

The Portal

The Bunker

The Magnet Gun

The Quantum Destabilizer

The Perpetual Motion Machine

The Portal is not one of Ford's inventions, that much is pretty clear. He "comes up with the idea" after Bill told him about some kind of "weirdness dimension".

Now maybe Ford built the portal. Or McGucket built it (which I find more likely due to his tendency to build large scale metal structures) and Ford helped him. We can't really say for sure.

What we CAN say for sure is that McGucket left the day before the big test, which means the portal was basically finished at that point. So if there was still any work left to be done, it would have been minimal and "even Stanley" could figure it out without help, so Ford probably could have, too.

The Bunker. Designed and built by McGucket (and possibly the lumberjacks before zapping them with the Memory Gun), including the death trap of a security system.

Notice the wording. McGucket insisted he could do it on HIS own. But then went out of his way to ask the lumberjacks and not Ford to help excavate the whole thing.

Why? Why not include Ford? Maybe because McGucket could tell Ford was overworked. Maybe because he thought even with Ford's help, they wouldn't have been able to do it in a timely manner and he didn't want to memory zap more people than neccessary, I'm not sure.

Anyway, the Bunker consists of the Bunker itself, a Security Room, an Observation Room and a Storage Room. On top of that, a Temperature Control Apparatus, a Cooling System and a Cryogenic Tube.

Again with the phrasing. "HIS skill for construction". "telephone HE built". "my assistant really topped HIMSELF with the security precautions". "once F starts inventing, HE can't stop".

A man like Ford wouldn't pass up on an opportunity to tell the world about his own accomplishments, yet they are strangely missing in these pages. However, the sketches documenting McGucket's work have become more technical than they've ever been. They even have small annotations that seem as if Ford asked McGucket what he was currently building.

"F has explained" implies McGucket was once again doing this on his own. Why else would he need to explain anything to Ford if they were doing this together? Plus, again, surely Ford would have mentioned something, anything, if he had participated in any way.

The things he DID mention is that he found a mole man skeleton and "Shifty", the shapeshifting creature. And he saved McGucket once Shifty broke out of their cage (Remember this for later, it'll come in handy). And he conducts tests on Shifty (remember this as well).

On to the Magnet Gun.

Again, passive form. If Ford had modified the gun himself, he would have told us. Chances are it was once again McGucket. Or it was just taken from Crash Site Omega as Ford says in the show that he and McGucket came down there often to loot the UFO for tech.

Lastly: The Quantum Destabilizer.

He actually admits he worked on it. However, he spent 30 years between dimensions. In these 30 years he couldn't find anyone (including himself) to get the Destabilizer working. The Other McGucket, however, was able to do it in less than a week.

Ford claims he was missing a suitable power source which The Other McGucket found, but there's no way of knowing if there was more to those "minor adjustments" to Ford's blaster than Ford would like to admit.

The only invention left is the Perpetual Motion Machine which I will save for the "Tragic Backstory" section.

Honorable mentions:

The Hyperdrive needed to power the portal:

"F's mechanical know-how" vs. "my keen intuition." implying Ford merely found the Hyperdrive, but McGucket extracted it safely.

So the Hyperdrive was looted from Crash Site Omega. Plus, McGucket was the one to realize it was even needed in the first place.

While between dimensions, he was given a Dimensional Translator. Also not his own invention.

The metal plate in his head? Not his invention. Not even his idea. The Oracle did that for him.

The Book of Bill has another example that Ford can't invent for shit: He found the blueprint of Abigale Blackwing's Anti-Bill-Suit in the library (once again, not even his own invention) and drafted a more modern blueprint. And either he completely failed to build it or it didn't work because we never hear from it again. Instead, he installs a retina scanner to keep Bill out of the lab. Which he (probably) ALSO didn't build himself.

In summary:

Portal: blueprint by Bill, (probably) built by McGucket.

Bunker: designed and built by McGucket (probably with the help of the lumberjacks).

Magnet Gun: likely looted from Crash Site Omega.

Quantum Destabilizer: a mess before McGucket fixed it overnight

Perpetual Motion Machine: see below.

Dimensional Translator: Not Ford's invention.

Metal Plate: thought of and installed by The Oracle.

Anti-Bill-Suit: invented by Abigale Blackwing.

In fact, he mostly doesn't even say that he did any of this. He openly admits whenever he took something or McGucket built stuff, and barely calls any of the inventions his own. We just assumed that he can (on account of him being a genius), so we assumed he did.

4. Ford's Tragic Backstory

would only make sense if he ACTUALLY couldn't get the Perpetual Motion Machine to work. We already know Ford is an unreliable narrator and I'm probably not the first one to point out that it doesn't make sense that Stan supposedly cost Ford his entire scholarship by breaking his Perpetual Motion Machine (accident or not).

Think about it from a college's point of view: You hear about a young man who apparently built a machine that violates the laws of thermodynamics. You don't just pass up on something like that just because it didn't work the ONE TIME you came to visit. That would be an exceedingly stupid thing to do. I think they would have given him that scholarship if he even got close to achieving such a feat.

Now let's briefly assume Ford IS a genius whose invention got sabotaged. Ford could have easily fixed it and asked for a second appointment with the judges. This did not happen. And even if he didn't get into his dream school, he could have used this perpetual motion machine for the good of humanity. He didn't do that. If the Machine had ever worked, it would have made international news. It didn't. He would have been world famous. He isn't.

What does that tell us?

Does he even have 12 PHDs as he keeps claiming? In what? For what reason? Wouldn't he get a scholarship for his dream school at some point given his seemingly endless potential? It all seems like overcompensation to me. Reminds me of Tommy Tallarico and his ever-increasing number of Guinness World Records.

However, there is a reason Ford is like this. It is connected to his tragic backstory, but I will include this in the final chapter for narrative reasons.

Also note how even in A Better World, he did not go do his dream college. The science center was built around the Shack that he went to later in life:

And even there, he only manages to make a name of himself with McGucket's cooperation. We already established he couldn't build the portal on his own. My guess that McGucket once again did the heavy lifting and didn't mind Ford taking the credit (as you will see in the McGucket chapter).

5. McGucket

At this point we've already gone over how McGucket built (probably) most of the Portal, the Bunker and everything in it, and got the Quantum Stabilizer to work. We also know that in his free time, he loves to tinker. He canonically built a laptop (with extra keys for Fords fingers), a cellphone, the Memory Gun, several killer robots, the Shack-O-Tron and started an entire ass cult along the way.

And that's just what I picked up on from skimming the Journal.

We only see McGucket make stuff on screen. All this time he's welding together contraptions, piloting giant killer robots, having a blast.

We never see Ford tinkering ONCE. Still, he constantly praises McGucket for his "brilliant mind", "mechanical knowledge" and "skill in construction".

I think Ford was McGucket's assistant. He didn't get ANYTHING done before he called McGucket over for help. In the bunker, all he did was find a skeleton and conduct "experiments" on Shifty (by showing them pictures of creatures and documenting what happens). He led McGucket to the UFO crash site, McGucket was the one to actually extract the Hyperdrive. All of the stuff Ford does sounds more like an assistant's job to me.

I'm also pretty sure McGucket knows that Ford isn't the genius he claims to be. Upon seeing Bill's blueprints, he immediately gets suspicious:

Why would he say this to a fellow genius?

And he's the one who recognizes something is wrong with the portal earlier than anyone else.

The day before the test, he meets Ford at the diner to warn him cause he knows something is deeply wrong - and offers him a thesis paper.

Now here is where things get interesting.

Ford gets angry. But instead of saying something like "How dare you insult my scientific integrity / intelligence", he thinks McGucket wants the Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness to himself, which obviously couldn't be further from the truth. But Ford is too insecure about his intelligence and too curious about the portal to care.

This makes me wonder if McGucket had done this before. They went to college together. What if McGucket wrote Ford's final assignment as well? What if he'd seen him have a meltdown over the introduction and whipped up a fantastic final thesis in an afternoon?

We know McGucket cares deeply for Ford, and we can tell his intentions at the diner were sincere. He doesn't really want or need any credit - meanwhile Ford is starved for it. This is probably also why he's fine being "Ford's assistant" even though he's the one putting in most of the work.

6. Why Would He Do This??

Before we talk about Ford's plans after Weirdmageddon, I have to mention that there's a good reason Ford is pretending to be a genius. This is pretty speculative territory, but I think it makes sense given what we know about the Pines family.

When you're a twin, at least in the Stan Bro's case, you're constantly being compared to one another. Once it has been established that Ford is the "smarter" of the two (true or not), their father latches onto that and soon Ford's intelligence becomes his entire identity. I think just like Stan was looked down upon and neglected for being the "stupid" twin, Ford was burdened with expectations for being the "smart" twin. "You're gonna go far, kid. You're gonna make us so much money, you're gonna get us out of this dump." An INSANE thing to burden a child with.

This goes well for a while - Ford gets straight As and is the pride of the family. His ego inflates. But then something strange happens which I'm sure many "gifted kids" can relate to - he hits a wall. At some point he can no longer brute force things with his intelligence and he has trouble keeping up with his family's expectations. His massive ego gets damaged beyond repair.

Soon, he starts questioning everything. "If I'm not the smart guy, who am I? What's left?" He's been living like this his entire life. It's way too late to turn back so he moves forward. And if intelligence can't get him there, at least he can use the smarts he does have to make sure nobody else ever finds out. It's not unlikely for him to develop this attitude and it's the same kind of mindset he brings to taking the Hyperdrive from Crash Site Omega:

In a way, this makes him a con artist like Stanley. Which, after everything that's happened between the two, must feel like such an insult to Ford that he'd rather live in denial than face reality. The reality being that he is about as intelligent as Stanley, too. This doesn't mean that Stan is dumb (he managed to get the portal to work with barely any help, after all) - just that Ford is not as intelligent as he (and everyone else) thought / expected of him. AND that Stanley isn't as dumb as everyone always told him he was.

I think while yes, Stan broke the Machine, Ford couldn't fix it. Or it was never even a Perpetual Motion Machine to begin with. Yes, Ford couldn't go to his "dream college", but was that really his dream? Or his father's? Remember when McGucket offered him the Weirdness Thesis on a silver platter, saying with this he can finally "get his life back", and Ford still refused it? Maybe he didn't want his old life back. Because his old life SUCKED without Stanley in it.

7. After Weirdmageddon

Now that we established what Ford's dad wanted him to be, let's explore what Ford actually likes doing.

Obviously journaling and sketching what he sees, but what else?

Ford loves exploring. He goes on hikes, climbs mountains, visits caves, goes ham on Crash Site Omega. In the Bunker he looks around and discovers a mole man skeleton and Shifty while McGucket did the inventing/building.

He's also great at action hero stuff. He saves McGucket from the Gremloblin, and later from Shifty, he's jumping around the UFO with a magnet gun as if it's the only thing he's ever done, and saving Dipper from the security system, just to name a few.

He even says this in the episode: "I need to train an apprentice to help me fight monsters, solve mysteries, and protect this town." This doesn't really sound like science stuff to me.

So yeah I think Ford lied about being a genius to compensate for his (self perceived) lack of other qualities, he lied about his 12 PHDs, his scientific accomplishments, maybe even some inventions. He sucks at decoding things despite claiming to have "aced cryptology". Instead, he spends most of his time exploring, fighting monsters, stealing shit and getting in all kinds of dangerous situations. Truth is, he is much more similar to Stan than he'd like anyone to find out.

He also doesn't even WANT to do science. He likes the idea of science, like in Sci Fi movies, but not the actual labor that comes with it. Ford has been travelling between dimensions for 30 years. He probably is the only human to ever have done that in his dimension. Surely he spent these 30 years on research? Well...

There's only a single line mentioned in the Journal about doing anything scientific and he didn't even dedicate the entire sentence to it.

He "compared notes with scholars". That's it.

But surely he has so many papers and theories he can finally publish to fulfil his initial goal to "join the ranks of Newton, Tesla, & Einstein in the pantheon of science"?

Nope. He goes treasure hunting with Stanley. Ford seems to have forgotten all about his research. And I think that's not just because he wants to make up for lost time, but also because this is what he truly wanted to do in the first place, before he was forced into the "genius" mold.

To go adventuring, to be creative, to spend time with the family that matters.

8. TLDR

Ford didn't manage to write his Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness.

His Journal is entertaining, but ultimately full of unscientific ramblings.

He didn't build the portal, bunker, magnet gun, quantum destabilizer, or any other invention I could find.

All of his accomplishments can be traced back to either Bill, the town library, or McGucket.

He didn't write his own codes, he couldn't decipher any of the codes or secrets he found, including the ones he was given a solution to.

The Journal makes it look like Ford is McGucket's assistant and not the other way round.

McGucket is amazing and needs to be protected at all costs.

The tragicness of Ford's backstory makes no sense if he actually WAS a genius.

He needed to keep up the genius act because that's what his family expected of him and now he's con-artist level good at it.

He spent 30 years between dimensions committing crimes and preparing for revenge instead of doing science.

he seems to not even LIKE doing science. he prefers exploring, drawing, and getting into dangerous situations.

Once back in his home dimension, instead of doing anything science related, he goes adventuring with his brother.

Disclaimer: I have nothing against Ford, if anything this adds to his character cause I haven't seen anyone even so much as question his status as a genius yet. I just needed to get this out of my system cause this has been brewing in my brain since JULY.

This took me 10 hours to write. Thank you so much for making it this far, this post was brought to you by Autism™

[thehandmaidenofcreativity]

Sneaking Around With SKZ ✧ Part IV

Rating: Explicit/18+

WC: 4.7k

Comments: This a continuation of this anon requested fic. The reader ends her night peacefully with Chan. Come Monday, she gets to know a new side of Jisung.

Taglist: @velvetmoonlght / @chuuyaobsessed / @joyofbebbanburg / @skybluelixie

⋆⭒˚｡⋆｡✧･ﾟ

Chan takes your hand and leads you back into the living room. The snacks have been replenished, the sequel to the movie is queued up on the screen. and the members have switched up their seats around the room. Unsurprisingly, Seungmin and Hyunjin are cozied up together, the former playing with the latter’s hair as he talks to Jeongin on his other side. With his top half partially laid on Seungmin, Hyunjin’s got his legs over Jisung’s lap and propped up on the arm of the couch. Jisung seems to be animatedly explaining a theory about the next film while Hyunjin and Minho, on the floor in front of them, nod along. He catches your eye and shoots you a wink without skipping a beat. 

As Chan brings you over to the loveseat, pulling you so that you’re sitting next to him with your legs over his, your mind stays on Jisung. He and Jeongin are the only ones you haven’t hooked up with yet. Based on how things have gone so far, you wonder if you should expect to experience them together. Your first and second encounters were clearly planned to involve two members at a time, but you think you would’ve had Changbin on his own if Felix hadn’t offered his room. It’s been incredibly fun and satisfying so far, so it’s hard to decide if you’d rather have another threesome or not. 

Chan has yet to let go of your hand, and his other hand gently massaging your thigh. There’ll be time to focus on the others later, so you turn your attention to him. “Have you seen this one?”

“Not yet! Have you?”

When you shake your head ‘no’ he launches into his own theories on what comes next while you wait for Changbin and Felix to come rejoin the party. This eventually leads to a heated argument between Seungmin and Minho as everyone gets involved in the predictions, effectively ending when Seungmin gets up and just starts the movie. 

Without a “mission” you settle in and actually pay attention this time. When Changbin joined you on the couch, you moved your legs so he could sit comfortably; so now you’re just tucked into Chan’s side, legs tucked up so that your knees rest against his thigh, and his arm slung around your shoulder. He kisses your head or brings your hand up to press it to his lips every now and then, but it doesn’t go beyond that. 

When the movie ends, Minho immediately starts gloating and taunting Seungmin, but after a minute Jeongin finally pipes up to admit that he and Minho watched the movie together a few weeks prior. Obviously this results in a ton more yelling, and you can’t help but get involved. You’re again struck by how easy it’s been to integrate yourself into this group of men that you really hadn’t even expected to like. 

Following agreeing to a penalty of cleaning up after movie night (as if this had been a bet or something rather than just talking before a movie) and assurances that no one has seen any others in the series, predictions for the third film begin. All the while, Chan has scooped you back into his lap, just holding you while you all talk. During that time, you text your mom to let her know you won’t be home tonight. 

When the third movie finishes, it becomes a debate about whether you might as well watch the fourth and final of the series tonight or if you should just pick it up in the morning. The night owls of the group think they have the most convincing argument considering you, as if it would be a hardship for you to come back for a third time this weekend, on a Sunday no less. It’s silly. But as a night owl yourself, and considering how lively the early birds still seem to be, you opt for not clueing the whole group into your plans yet.

You lean close to whisper in Chan’s ear. “Should I tell them all that I’m taking you up on your offer to spend the night?”

Sweet leader that he is, Chan looks conflicted. “Would you rather watch now or tomorrow?” 

“I mean it’s not that late.” You glance at your phone to actually check the time. It’s really not that bad.

“Then let’s pretend you haven’t decided yet.” Chan grins conspiratorially.

This time you speak to the group. “Can’t we watch tonight? That way I can definitely see it with you?”

There’s a couple sighs, but it’s decided. You get a mix of high fives, thumbs ups, and kisses from the night owls depending on their proximities to you. This round of predictions is much shorter. When the movie ends, those who’d wanted to go to bed have no issue staying up for the next 45 minutes talking about the film then other things. Finally you all decide to call it a night. 

You’ve been attached to Chan since you left Felix’s room, and figure you might as well stay that way for the rest of the night. You give each of the Cuties a hug and kiss goodnight before heading back to the 3Retcha dorm with him. You can’t help but let your kiss with Seungmin linger a bit longer than the others. With Felix the hug is extended while he whispers in your ear about how much he enjoyed his time with you tonight and you feel a rush of heat to your cheeks. Minho, of course, doesn’t give you the chance to linger one way or the other, popping you on the butt and pushing you off to Jeongin. You feel weirdly shy with him, so with a quick peck on the cheek, you’re on your way, trailing behind Chan with your hand in his again. 

Back at the other dorm, you all sit around the living room a bit longer chatting while everyone goes to do parts of their night routines in turn. Chan actually leaves the dorm for a bit, causing you to reevaluate your sleep plan. Your goodnight to Changbin is much like your goodbye to Felix with a few more kisses. You sit in his lap while the other two are in other rooms. He only chastises you a little for riling him up so much in front of the others. 

When Hyunjin returns with a bottle of water for you, Changbin plants a kiss on your forehead and says he’s out for the night. Hyunjin switches things up, plopping down into your lap. You wrap your arms around his waist as he laughs. “I can’t believe Seungminnie’s plan actually worked.”

You laugh. “I think you’re the one who got us there, though. What did you whisper to him?”

Hyunjin gives you a sly smile and boops you on the nose. “That’s a secret.”

You both jump a little when you suddenly hear Jisung say, “Secrets secrets are no fun, Jinnie.” 

Hyunjin sticks his tongue out at him, and they start bickering. It’s cute. In the meantime, Chan has returned, but he heads straight towards the bedrooms. Since he was the one to offer to let you spend the night, you assumed you’d stay with him, but maybe not. Should I ask Hyunjin if I can sleep in his bed tonight? 

Just as you’re about to ask, a freshly showered Seungmin sweeps through the door. He plants a kiss on the top of your head while he pats Jisung on his. He makes his way toward Hyunjin’s room, hand extended behind him. “Let’s go, Jinnie, I’m tired.”

Hyunjin pops off your lap and nearly skips to catch up, grabbing Seungmin’s hand and blowing a kiss back over his shoulder. “Night!”

“They’re so cute, right?” Jisung sounds a little sarcastic, but the smile on his face as he watches them go is genuine.

“They really are.” You take the moment to study Jisung. His smile is so nice. His lips are pouty and look soft. You realize you haven’t really gotten to kiss him yet. Before you can follow that thought too far, Chan reappears, looking a little shy. 

“Night, Sung.” He holds out a hand to you. “Follow me?”

You lean over to kiss Jisung on the cheek, then place your hand in Chan’s and let him pull you off the couch. He brings you to the bathroom he shares with Changbin, immediately picking up a brand new toothbrush from the sink to offer to you. Now it makes sense that he’d left while you all were talking. How thoughtful. As you take in the space, you realize that it’s more than that. A bubble bath is standing by, and when you look back to Chan, he’s looking at his feet, a blush coloring his cheeks and ears. 

“I thought you might appreciate a soak after today.” He meets your eyes with a shy smile. “I’ve always found baths relaxing, though I don’t actually take them much.”

“You’re so sweet, Chan.” You pull him close. “Does that mean you’re getting in with me?”

As you pull back to look at him, you see his ears have gone from pink to red. “Uh, if you want me to? I, yeah. I, uh, I’d love to.”

It’s crazy that this man who was so assertive and in control this morning seems so unsure of himself, especially considering how wonderful he’s being. “You sure? You don’t have to.”

“No, I do want to. I just wasn’t sure if you’d want me to.”

“Of course I do.” You give him your best smile and start pulling the hem of his shirt up. His smile matches as he takes over and pulls it over his head.

You both undress and he gets in first before helping you in. You settle between his legs, turning back for a nice, slow kiss. Chan wraps his arms around you for a beat before letting his hands wander, caressing your arms, stomach, chest, everywhere he can reach. After a few minutes, he encourages you to face forward while he brings his hands up to your shoulders. As he massages, you realize this is the second time you’ve bathed with Chan today. He has such a calming presence; you feel inexplicably comfortable with him. You’ve loved the adventurous experiences you’ve had so far with these men, but you’re starting to treasure the sweet, soft moments with them as well. 

After your bath, and subsequent shower, Chan leaves you to finish your nighttime routine to the best of your ability - using his hair brush and products along with the toothbrush he’d bought for you. When you head into Chan’s room, you’re confused as you nearly walk into each other, as Chan is trying to leave with a pillow and blanket. 

“Where are you going?” With the way he squeezes them a bit tighter to his chest, you can tell he’s feeling a little embarrassed. 

“Oh, you know,” Chan’s ears are burning red as he smiles at the ground. “Just heading out to the couch. I, uh, left a water bottle by the bed for you. Is there anything else you need before I go?” 

You remember that he offered to give up his bed when he asked if you’d want to spend the night, but you didn’t think he’d seriously think you’d want that. Especially after you’d just taken a bubble bath together. You put a hand on his shoulder. “That’s very nice of you, Chan, but I was kind of hoping for a cuddle buddy. Plus, I really don’t want to kick you out of your bed. If you’re uncomfortable sleeping with me, I could go ask Chang-” 

“No, no.” Chan cuts in. “I’d love to share the bed with you. I just didn’t want to, like, pressure you or anything.” You pull him back over to the bed, and when he puts his stuff down, you realize he’s dressed only in his boxers. You’re not even a little subtle as you check out his very impressive physique. His blush spreads up his chest to his cheeks and ears again. “Sorry, I should put some clothes on.” 

Chan starts for his dresser, but you put a hand on his chest to stop him. “You shouldn’t. At least, not on my account.” 

You see that he’d left a shirt and shorts for you on the bed, but you simply toss your towel over the back of his desk chair. “I don’t usually like to sleep with clothes on, if I can help it.” 

It’s crazy how shy this man is considering that just this morning he’d been so assertive and in control. For a second, you wonder if the move was too aggressive and now you were making him uncomfortable.

“Yeah, alright.” He basically squeaks out. Adorable. “If you’re sure you’re good like this.” You smile and slide into the bed, pulling him to join you. After a moment’s hesitation, he slips his boxers off. You settle with him on his back, your head on his chest with your leg thrown over his. When you tilt your head up with a smile to say goodnight, he meets you with one of his own before pressing a sweet kiss to your lips. At first you worry that it’ll take a while to fall asleep, but the day must catch up to you and you drift off within the minute.

-

When you wake, it’s clear you’ve shifted in your sleep. You’re on your side now, Chan’s muscular arm draped over your middle. You turn back to look at him; he looks so peaceful in his sleep. You wouldn’t mind staying like this all day, but you’d also much rather be minty fresh when he wakes up. You grab the shirt Chan had originally gotten out for you to sleep in and slip out the door.

On your way back from the bathroom, you see Jisung making his way back to his own room. He shoots you a smile and beckons for you to come over. 

“Sleep well?” He wraps an arm around your waist, turning and leading you into the kitchen.

“Very.” You watch as he grabs ice, filling two cups to the brims before approaching the nearly full pot of coffee. “How about you?”

You catch him grimacing as he turns his back to you to pour the coffee. “I got to sleep okay, but woke up early and haven’t been able to get back to it. So I gave up and made coffee.”

Now that he’s said so, you can see it in his face when he turns back to face you again. He looks beat. Rather than setting a cup in front of you, he jerks his head toward the living room. He puts the drinks on the coffee table, grabs the remote, and flops back onto the couch. You consider his arm stretched over the back of the couch and sit directly beside him, tucking your legs up so that your knees rest on his thigh. His arm comes down to rest around your shoulders; he gestures to the tv. “Music or a show?” 

“Hmm.” You wonder what could help him to relax most. “You were talking about how much you like Studio Ghibli yesterday; can you put on your favorite movie?”

Jisung gives you a ray of sunshine in the form of a smile. He queues it up, telling you about what makes it his favorite. After you sit up for a sip of coffee, you ask to reposition, to lay down to watch. Han is spooning you, his head resting against yours. He runs his hand down your side before wrapping his arm around to hold your hand close to yours close to your chest. He presses a couple kisses to the back of your neck and shoulder, but doesn’t try to do anything beyond that.

You ask him questions every now and then, even though you’ve already seen the film. With each answer, his voice sounds closer and closer to sleep. When the movie is about three quarters of the way through, you can tell by his steady breathing that he’s fallen asleep. You finally let yourself start to drift off as well, hoping you’ll both be able to get in at least a couple more hours. 

When you do wake, you notice that Jisung has rolled back toward the couch, making it easy enough to slip off the couch without disturbing him. You barely try to resist the urge to kiss his forehead before tip toe back to Chan’s room. He’s sitting at his desk, headphones on. You tap his arm lightly, and he turns with a slight start. 

He hits a couple buttons and slides the headphones off. “Hey, you’re up. Did you sleep okay? I hope I didn’t make you feel like you needed to move to the couch.”

“Oh, I slept just fine in here.” You want to assure him, especially when you think of how he seemed nervous to make you uncomfortable the night before. “I just ran into Jisung on my way back from the bathroom. He’d been having trouble sleeping, and I figured a movie and cuddling might help him relax.”

“Looks like you were right.” Chan’s smile is nearly as blinding as Jisung’s. “You guys looked so cute out there. I’m sure he really appreciated you helping him out. We all struggle a bit with sleep in this dorm.”

“I hope he does.” You chuckle a little along with him. You move to grab your clothes from yesterday. “He’s still sleeping out there. I’d wait to talk to him, but I probably should head home. We have dinner with my uncle tonight and I’m sure my mom wants me to help prepare everything.”

“Oh, I hope that’ll be fun. If you give me a few minutes, I’ll walk you home.”

“Sounds good. And take your time.” You pull a small touch up kit out of your bag. “It’ll take me a few minutes to cover these hickies.”

Chan blushes. “Sorry about that.”

You push at his shoulder playfully. “You don’t need to apologize; yours are hidden. Plus, even if it’s a pain, I liked getting them.” 

You’re sure you wear a matching blush with that, and you head to the bathroom. The walk home is great. Like last night, you’re struck by how easy it is to spend time with Chan, and the rest of the group. You figured after last night that you’d at least mostly be compatible sexually, but it goes beyond that. They’re all so genuine and easy to be around.

-

That night, you get a message from an unknown number. It seems to be from Jisung, thanking her for helping him that morning. You change a few messages back and forth, after confirming with Chan that it is in fact Jisung messaging you (can’t be too careful). The conversation is innocuous enough, so when you get a voice note, you raise your brow.

You hit play. “You know, I was a little disappointed that we didn’t end up having any alone time last night. But I hear you follow orders well.”

Another comes in. “You wanna try following my orders, jagiya?”

You would be embarrassed at the size of your smile if anyone were around to see it. You immediately type out a ‘yes, please.’

You can almost hear the smile in his voice in his next voice note. “I need to hear you say it.”

You decide to take it up a notch. “Yes, sir.”

“Good girl.” A shot of anticipation goes through you when you listen to his next message. “Let’s start with something simple. Wear a dress tomorrow, and only a dress. Nothing underneath it.”

You shiver at the thought. You do have one that’s professional enough but also holds you up well enough that you should be able to get away with not wearing a bra. So you send him another “yes sir.”

-

The next day starts like any other, almost as if you didn’t spend the majority of the weekend getting railed by most of the men sitting around preparing to record. When you arrived, Han handed you a coffee with a raised eyebrow, eyeing your dress. You give him a small nod, earning a cocky smirk. A few minutes later, you feel the buzz of your phone and a message simply reading ‘good girl.’

Nearly halfway through the day, you get a text to meet Jisung in the studio during lunch. When the time comes, you arrive to an empty room. On the couch sits a piece of paper, an eye mask, and a set of headphones. The note reads: Put these on. Make sure the headphones’ noise canceling function is on. Sit still and wait for me. HJ

You follow the directions and try not to get too antsy. You can’t decide if you’re more nervous or excited. What if someone else comes in and finds me like this? He’d make sure that wouldn’t happen, right? You shift, tucking your fingers under your thighs.

Suddenly, you feel hands run up your thighs. You gasp in a breath and resist the urge to tear off your blindfold. Jisung’s hands bunch your dress up as far as it can go before shifting his hands between your thighs and gently pushing them apart. Like this, you know he can see that you did as he asked - there are no panties there to block his view of you. He pulls his hands away. 

For a moment, his thumb rests against your bottom lip, dragging it down before it’s gone as well. You feel your pulse hammering. Not being able to see or hear him has you on edge in the best way. You have no idea what he’s going to do next. 

After a minute, you wonder if he’s left you alone again. You shift, pulling your hands from under your legs and start fiddling with your ring. Jisung grips your wrists almost immediately; he positions them so that you are reaching behind you, holding onto the back of the couch. He lets his hands drift down the back of your arms to cupping and squeezing your breasts through your dress. His fingers leave a trail of fire in their wake, his every touch searing into you. 

Soon Jisung’s hands continue their path down your body, and he’s pulling your hips forward so that you’re perched on the end of your seat. He takes hold of each of your legs, positioning them so that you’re spread open and waiting for him. You feel his weight sink into the cushion next to you before dropping a kiss on your lips. His hair tickles your face as he dips down to lip up the side of your neck. Then he’s gone again.

It can’t be more than 30 seconds before he touches you again, but the anticipation makes it feel like forever. You jump when fingers begin spreading your lips and don’t have time to collect yourself before he drags his flattened tongue through your folds. After hearing him rap and sing, you know how talented Jisung is with his mouth, but this is a whole other level. He licks, laves, and sucks expertly, drawing a slew of soft sounds from your lips. 

“Fuck,” you groan out, hoping you don’t sound as desperate as you feel. You itch to touch him, but you’re sure he’ll stop if you move without permission. Still, you can’t help but grind your hips up with your next moan, chasing that friction. In the next second, Jisung is pulling away with a light slap to your thigh. You whimper, not because it hurts, but because you’d been hurtling toward your peak which came to an abrupt halt. 

Jisung adds insult to injury when hands on your knees bring your legs back together. You pout and catch the tail end of his laugh as he removes the headphones from your ears. “Don’t worry, baby. You were so good; I’m gonna take care of you now.”

“Please,” you whisper. You pull your bottom teeth between your lips but realize you forgot something. Not wanting him to change his mind, you tack on “sir.”

You can hear the smile in his voice. “Let’s get you into a better position.” He takes your hands and pulls you off the couch. He leads you around to the arm of the couch and gently pushes you so that you end up leaned over it. You can hear the sound of a condom opening and are surprised at the jolt of disappointment that goes through you. It makes more sense to use one in this setting, but you can’t help but think about how there’s been nothing between you and any of the other members; you don’t want things to be different with Jisung, not in this way. 

You’re startled out of your thoughts when a hand lands on your ass with a resounding smack. You let out a little ‘ah,’ and he rubs over the spot soothingly. “That wasn’t too much for you, was it, baby?”

You shake your head before he even finishes the question. “No, sir. I liked it.”

“Good girl. Now I kinda wish you’d misbehaved so I could punish you.”

You wiggle your ass back and forth a little. “Maybe I will next time, but right now I need you inside me, please… sir. Please sir.”

With a quick slap to the other cheek, Jisung kicks your legs further apart and lines his tip up with your entrance. Between his earlier teasing and the lube on the condom, the slide is easy, and good thing - he starts slow but once he feels the lack of resistance, he thrusts in to the hilt. You moan in tandem. 

His hands are on your hips in a punishing grip as he pumps into you, lifting your hips to meet each of his thrusts. He works a steady rhythm, murmuring praise and curses alike. The angle is driving you wild, he’s hitting you in just the right spot. You clutch at the cushion above you, mouth open and panting, just taking what he’s giving you. You drift higher and higher, your moans blending together until they seem to be one drawn out expression of pleasure. 

“That’s right, baby.” Jisung ups his pace, and you feel one of his hands leave your hip to grab onto your hair; he pulls, causing your body to arch, and you almost can’t take anymore. When you manage to get his name out between moans, he finally relents. “Come for me, baby. Show me how good you look falling apart on my cock.”

His permission is like unlocking a door. You cry out, his name on your lips, tightening and trembling as he pounds into you. Not long after, he falls over the edge himself, slumping over your back. Once you both come back to yourselves, he pulls out. After disposing of the condom, he shimmies your dress back down into place and helps you into a standing position. He finally removes your blindfold and the sight of him sated with that cocky grin on his face, you nearly swoon. He’s so hot. 

Jisung sits you both on the couch, his thumb rubbing small circles on the inside of your wrist. He kisses you softly. Finally, you can touch him without restriction. You wrap your arms around his neck and slide your legs across his lap at his urging. He keeps one arm around your waist and a hand on your upper thigh. Despite all that just happened, this moment feels more intimate.

Jisung pulls back, but just barely, keeping his forehead on yours, looking into your eyes. His voice is just above a whisper. “I hope that was good for you.”

“More than good, Sungie.” You beam at him then giggle. “I wish it wasn’t the middle of the day so we could do it again.”

He laughs. “I guess next weekend I’ll have to claim you early on so we can spend plenty of time together. For now, we have a little time left; wanna go grab some lunch?”

He makes sure everything in the room is cleaned up and in order, making sure all evidence of your time together is tucked away in his backpack before you head to the cafeteria.

⋆⭒˚｡⋆｡✧･ﾟ

To be continued...

[thingsmysplattershotjrtoldme]

DLC - Battle of the Bands Prediction

Since there might be a direct any day now, I decided now would be a good time to post my idea, unfortunately didn't have the time to draw anything but I think I can write it out well enough

The Battle of the Bands prediction is just that, a literal battle of the bands. What with OTF getting new members (and heavily implied to be important to the DLC), Harmony appearing in game and the wall outside of Hotlantis being covered in band member signatures, I feel that the bands of Splatoon are getting a lot more important to the actual story.

My prediction is that the DLC will be based on a big music festival, similar to the Deep Sea Rave. Everyone's there, frome old Splatoon 1 bands to the new kids on the block, C-Side. Ink Theory and Bottom Feeder's are of course at each other's throats and the tension between Front Roe and Disspair is thick enough to cut with a knife. Despite the egos and diva tendencies being on display, the event seems to be going rather smoothly.

Until a brand new band debuting at the festival arrives. It's all boy band, and everyone seems immediately enamored with them and their sound, even though to us the player it seems a bit...generic? It gets to the point that the new band is getting more attention than anyone else, even completely commandeering other bands sets for their own. Something is very wrong.

We play as ethier a groupie for an already established band or maybe a member of a small up and coming band that got their set stolen by the new band and it's our job to get to the bottom of this, as only we notice that these boys seem...off.

As you go through the DLC, you start fighting the boys of the band one by one, even having a few fights with older bands as well. You notice that which ever boy from the new band fights you, they're back on stage not a second later.

You get deeper, behind the food stalls and the the band vans and the venue organizers and find a pretty large lab hidden deep in the streets of Splatsville. You enter, and anyone who's seen the end levels of Octo Expansion definitely feels like their experiencing a bit of deja vu. You start to find rows and rows of clones of the members of the new boy band, as well as evidence that maybe Tartar had completed that ultimate lifeform after all. There's also evidence implying that maybe the Marigolds are also in on this cloning scheme.

These machines seem to be running off of power eggs, and the machines the boys used to fight you dropped golden eggs after you defeated them. All signs point to Grizzco being behind this, but Mr. Grizzco was defeated, so who...

Y'all know who...

That's as far as I've gotten with this prediction. The reasoning for cloning the boys or using Grizzco assets to make the band? All part of the little clone's to somehow overthrow the true Judd. The exact reason still escapes me, but knowing Splatoon, it's certainly gonna be very very wacky.

And I wouldn't have it any other way

[knownoshamc]

louis: I'm sorry, Daniel, there was something else I haven't told you. After I recovered in the 70s, I tried looking for Lestat.

daniel: *deadpan vc* how surprising. *to armand* and where were you in the rest of the 70s, mending your broken heart?

armand:

[egophiliac]

the lovers, reversed

(aka I'm still freaking out about Jou)

[jel-jel-jel]

So no Marina?!?!

[raayllum]

I thought I'd made a post about it in the past (and it's probably buried somewhere in a deeper meta) but the 4x07 foreshadowing already made me feel Fucking Insane because they really had a scene explicitly in dialogue to link/associate Rayla with the Moon opal ("Moon ones are the prettiest" + S6 affirming this further with Rayla's kindness emotionally and her moon opal literally healing Esmeray's broken heart) only to immediately afterwards have Callum lose the moon opal (Rayla) on the Bridge of Darkness ("what if I'm on a path of darkness?") and then him picking it up causes the goddamn Key to light up and put their lives in danger and it felt like both such tangible foreshadowing and simultaneously such a reach for the structure of

Callum (almost) loses Rayla amid darkness

Saving / reuniting her causes the Aaravos' key to come into play

This action puts everyone's lives in danger

and yet??

losing my mind truly

[unordinary-diary]

Arlo’s Ability Potential

Arlo could actually be so fucking OP and I’m not kidding.

In my last entry, I mentioned that Arlo could do so much more with his ability: things ranging from very unlikely to happen in the story, to things that are foreshadowed enough that I genuinely think he’ll be getting a powerup soon.

I’m gonna start with the most reasonable stuff and then wander out into speculation.

First of all: Disks. Do y’all remember Lennon from episode 196-ish?

^ this fucker.

Currently, Arlo’s fighting style is to put up a strong barrier around himself, and watch his enemies hurt themselves with their own recoil damage. His only offensive technique is to put his enemy in a barrier and make it smaller. Now, this has changed in recent chapters, with him developing that softer kind of barrier that he hits people with like a shockwave, but ultimately, his offensive power isn’t very diverse.

However, Lennon up there^ uses his disks in many ways.

He throws them, they’re very sharp, he can use them to fly, and therefore attack from the air. Blyke had a LOT of trouble against this guy.

How is this relevant? Because Arlo can make these disks too.

When Sera, Leilah and Arlo are fighting Spectre agents under the dampener, Arlo conjures one of these disks as a substitute for his usual barrier.

Not only do we know that he can make these, we know that they are significantly easier for him to make and maintain. So, in theory, Arlo should be able to do all of the things Lennon can and more.

With him currently being able to make three regular barriers at once, how many disks could he make? And how many disks could he make while having a full barrier up? I imagine that the future holds lots of fights against large groups of people, so Arlo learning these techniques would be extremely convenient and very well-timed. Especially since being able to attack from the air is super effective against opponents who can’t fly (which is most of them let’s be real) since they usually can’t hit back.

But there’s more things that I think these disks can do.

Imagine him practicing with a ball—

Pick it up, bounce it up and down.

Add another disk, make it ping-pong.

but he could also just put the ball in a regular barrier and just... move it around. Move that sucker to a different location.

he could pick the ball up, carry it really high, then drop it.

Now imagine the ball is a person.

... yeah.

but there’s more that he could do.

say that someone is coming at him with enough strength to break his barrier

If aimed right, the opponent shouldn’t hit the third barrier head on, but rather at an angle. The angle should be enough to prevent the barrier breaking, but still cause significant recoil damage. In this particular scenario, the recoil damage will go straight to the head and neck, using all their force against them. Depending on how much force is coming at him, the third barrier could still break, but it isn’t his main line of defense at least. With practice, Arlo should be able to use disks to divert attacks, and control where his opponent aims. The only person this wouldn’t work against is probably Seraphina bc Arlo can’t react in time.

Another thing to consider is: how small can he make the disks? Could he make little shurikens? If so, would making them very small allow him to make more? Could he stand behind his full barrier, while sending out a flurry of tiny chakrams? And if so, wouldn’t that be dope as fuck? Especially against a large crowd.

And since, in theory, he should be able to fly, he should also be able to make other people fly. Imagine all of them flying on top of a disk with Blyke and Isen loudly singing I Can Show You the World. I see zero reasons why this can’t happen.

Moving away from disks, Arlo should start filling his barrier with stuff. Now, we rarely see characters weaponizing things that aren’t abilities or their bare hands, but it does happen. This is where the idea of water balloons comes in. Fill that sucker in the sink, throw it, then pop it whenever he wants to.

But it’s not just water, he could put anything in there. He could put a shit ton of glitter. He could put sewing needles, caltrops, a big rock, anything. He could probably even put a barrier over his stove, gather steam, compress that shit and make smoke bombs!

But enough with that bitch baby shit.

What about chemicals?

Make water balloons but instead of water it’s hydroflouric acid. Or fill that shit with liquid nitrogen. Make smoke bombs but instead of steam it’s mustard gas— he and his friends will be protected inside a full barrier. There is any number of chemical weapons he could use, and some gases could even be made at home by mixing the wrong cleaning materials.

But what about insects? Go to the woods, find a beehive and yoink that shit.

The main problem with the “putting things in barriers” idea is that he’d have to prepare ahead of time, and keep those barriers up and his ability active until he uses them. That means it isn’t useful unless he knows the fight is gonna happen, and has enough time to prepare before it, but not so much time that he loses energy keeping them up. It’s also not useful if he wants to be non threatening at first, because his ability will need to be active. And also, unlike other weapons, A lot of these can’t be stored. He has to use all of them before the end of the fight— especially since gases can’t be released without using them. So, not very convenient or practical most of the time, but it would be super cool and effective in certain circumstances.

The next unlikely technique for Arlo to develop is vacuums. Arlo could make a really tiny, spherical barrier. Airtight. EXPAND that sucker. Make it real big- a near vacuum inside. Then make a tiny hole in it. Depending the size, that could create some insane suction. Suction is something so versatile that it could actually be a whole ability in its own right. That’s a whole ass mid tier added to Arlo’s already dope skill set. Possibly more.

Seriously, just think about suction for a second. You could bring anything close to you— Arlo actually has an easier method of telekinesis as we’ve gone over, but still— you could probably break and bend things with enough force, divert an attack by sucking it, or your opponent’s body in a different direction, you could cause some severe damage by sucking directly on someone’s skin. (I’m trying so fucking hard not to make a sex joke oh my god)

Here’s where Arlo’s capabilities get… gruesome.

My brother suggested that he could suck someone’s brain out through their skull. I was incredulous, but with enough force and with the tiny suction hole placed on an eye or nose, he definitely could.

But there’s an easier method of killing right there: put the vacuum over someone’s head. It doesn’t have to be an intense enough vacuum to explode their head (it could be though), just enough to suffocate them. Even without killing, suffocation could be used for intimidation or to knock them out.

But if we ARE killing… Arlo could put someone’s whole body in a vacuum and have the same effect as throwing them into space. They explode, their blood boils, it’s fuckin freaky what happens when a person depressurizes.

Even without a vacuum, (or any of these, really) it’s a good thing Arlo isn’t willing to kill because there are about a million ways he easily could.

The question that inspired the whole idea of a vacuum to begin with is: could Arlo make a barrier inside of someone, then expand it? The answer? Probably yes.

This gruesome shit is the reason I imagine Arlo at his full potential to be like… a villain au. Also because having an OP villain doesn’t have the same narrative pitfalls as an OP protagonist.

What’s Arlo’s range like? Could he expand his range with practice? How far out could he shoot a disk? Could he puncture the hull of an empire class battle ship leaving thousands to drown at sea? You know, because it’s so sharp?

Seriously though, could he take down airplanes?

Making barriers bigger or smaller doesn’t seem to affect his energy at all, considering that he never has to shrink it to save energy even when it would make sense (like with the dampener— Arlo just warned that he couldn’t keep it up, then took it down and switched straight to a disk even though there was plenty room to shrink it). So if the size of it doesn’t matter, then how big could he make it? Could he make Atlantis? Pick up a city and put it underwater with a barrier as an air dome? Could he make a dome around the earth and block meteors? Could he crush the core of the earth and blow up the planet if he wanted to??

Sadly, the answer to all of those questions is “probably not”.

Arlo is already super OP, they don’t call it a god tier for nothing. But he could be so much more godlike. I know I got really crazy at the end there, but back up just a little bit and he could realistically be a god among gods with just a little creativity. Especially at the top where the images are. Most of this stuff would not be hard.

[buddiebitch]

WHY are BT shippers so vehemently against actually analyzing the symbolism and choices made for this show?

i mean i saw multiple people saying we were overthinking the vertigo poster. they were saying that it was weird to assume that Buck would fill the pining best friend role that Midge did in the original movie??? (haven’t seen the movie, i just read a few synopses)

i’m sorry, so you agree that he put Ryan Guzman in the main character and Devin Kelley as the love interest because they’ll fill those roles in the storyline, but we’re overthinking when we point out what role he put Oliver Stark in?

or when i bring up the possible symbolism of Tommy always calling him Evan, the only response i get from BT stans is “well he would tell him if he didn’t like it” or “i think it’s because he was introduced that way and that’s why” or even “i think he probably likes that Tommy calls him Evan” (all real responses i saw) and it’s like, yeah that’s cool, those are great headcanons for you, but that actually isn’t what i was talking about. nothing wrong with having a headcanon, but it doesn’t explain anything about the show or answer any of my questions.

i mean in s4 he corrected his PARENTS and told them his name was Buck, and in s6 it was used to emphasize the strangeness of his coma dream, how everyone was calling him Evan, the whole show him being called Evan has almost always been used to emphasize that someone doesn’t know him very well, how are y’all convinced that it’ll mean something different this time? i get that some people think it’s supposed to be growth, that he’s cool with being called his first name, but if that’s the goal it definitely isn’t reading that way to me.

like i wish i could see things through the same lens as these people so it could make sense to me, i just don’t get how you can willfully ignore SO many hints just so you can ship what you want.

no hate to the ship or the shippers obviously, i’m just baffled by the lengths they’ll go to in order to convince themselves that plot device man is endgame for Buck.

[wikitpowers]

Five things you desperately want to happen in TWP?

just five?!??? okay let's fucking go buckle up, buddy

kit and ty's first kiss to be angsty and passionate af (and i need ty to be the initiator so freaking badly u don't understand) - also their love declaration to be freaking mind-blowing !

dru and ash to be an absolute power couple. like i need them fucking some demons up like proper badasses individually and then getting together and giving us that awesome enemies-to-lovers plot we're all waiting for ugh

i want lucifer to be fucking t e r r i f y i n g (like shitting myself when he comes up type vibes) <- but i also want him to be a bit of a crackhead who occasionally cracks jokes bc that would be hilarious and i love me a funny villain

thule!kit to pop up at some point! i'm so interested in where he's at - like is he even alive? and if he is, is he good? or evil? is he living with thule!johnny? and maybe thule!rosemary is alive? and what would that mean for him? there are just so many possibilities, i simply need him to make an appearance (but istg if he like sacrifices himself or something i will CRY :'()

NO TMI GANG DEATHS -> ik cassie has been messing with us recently but just nope nope nope. the series is gonna end with a clace wedding and everyone comes out unharmed tyvm <3

aaaaand [rest]

[talesofdecorum]

Breaking down the Ballad of the Witches song

I heard that the Lopezes purposefully put in clues and hidden meaning about the show in the lyrics and so I decided to try to interpret them based off of what we know so far

... I know... I'm genuinely obsessed with this show but here ya go. There was a character limit, which is why these are screenshots

Phew, that took a while. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and predict the titles for the next few episodes. I doubt Alice will be the main character again in the last 4 eps, so I’m just using the lyrics of the sacred chant version.

Episode 6: If Sun Be Gone We Carry On Spirit as Our Guide

I initially thought it’d be Lillia’s trial but noticed the daggers in the poster for the 7th ep, which we see in the Wicked Witch castle that Lillia’s trial will be held at. So instead, I think we’ll get the backstory of Teen and how he found Agatha in Westview in flashback. In real time, I assume Agatha is going to climb out of the mud along with Jen and Lillia and 'guide' them to the next trial

Episode 7: Burn and Brew with Coven True

Agatha will be proven wrong. It’s not two but true because they will realise in Lillia’s trial where half their coven is gone, that they need all their members to pass the trial. This is why Lillia will sacrifice herself.

Episode 8: I hold Death’s Hand in Mine

We’re going to get the backstory of Agatha and Rio

Episode 9: To Glory at the End

Finale of how all of these storylines tie together

What do you guys think?

[accirax]

Revisiting My Original DRDT Death Predictions

If you haven't been following what's going on over at @av-multifangan, Venus and I have been posting one of our fangans, Danganronpa: One Shot. Hooray! But, more relevantly to this post, we also posted the rules to a game that we've been playing for a long time-- a game through which you can score your performance at guessing how a fangan's kill order will go after viewing only its prologue.

Said old game was also invoked when we began watching DRDT, so I thought it would be a fun trip down memory lane to see what my genuine initial predictions for the entire killing game were after viewing just a little over an hour of Despair Time content.

While all of us non-cast-and-crew members obviously don't know the entire kill order at this point, I can rest assured that these predictions, well... ain't it. But, that's part of the point! To prove that even the creators of this predictions game can be terrible at it, and that there's no shame in making a guess and then changing your mind!

... Oh boy.

SPOILERS for DRDT through the end of Chapter 2, and IMPLIED SPOILERS for SDR2 and v3!

Well, no use in dilly-dallying. Here's my predictions sheet:

(god damn why is the quality so bad--)

If you haven't read the rules of our game, I'll quickly summarize them here. You have to predict the killing game using the most standard formula: one Chapter 1 victim and killer, one Chapter 2 victim and killer, double kill in Chapter 3 with one killer, one Chapter 4 victim and killer, one Chapter 5 victim and killer, and four survivors with a "surviving" (until Chapter 6) mastermind. These roles are listed out in rainbow order (Chapter 1 death = red, Chapter 6 = purple), and victims are marked with an X while killers are circled. The survivors are circled in purple, with a cyan star on the suspected mastermind.

At the end of the game, you gain points based on how far off you were, such that a low score is good. It's +2 points for getting the role wrong (victim vs killer/mastermind vs survivor), with an additional +1 point per chapter for how far you are off from the characters' last.

Although the quality is low, hopefully you can figure out what I predicted using those instructions-- or the image ID, if it's still too tricky. And, of course, I'm going to go through all of my choices below, starting with

XANDER in the role of CHAPTER 1 VICTIM

"Accirax," you may ask. "Why are you acting so doomed about your predictions when you literally got 1/4 of the confirmed deaths correct?" Unfortunately, my friend, I was already spoiled about Xander's death before I started watching DRDT. I'm very grateful that I had no idea about the circumstances of Xander's death (AKA, him stabbing Teruko) going in. But, I think I'd seen some thumbnail somewhere of Xander's BDA and knew he was a goner.

Hence, this was a free 0 pointer for me. I'm not that cool.

ARTURO in the role of CHAPTER 1 KILLER

Now, why I thought Arturo of all people would be the one to kill Xander is beyond me. I think my rationale was that, at the time, Arturo was giving me early death vibes, and this was the only spot I could put him in?*

This is one of the predictions that I know is wrong, because the Chapter 1 killer spot has already elapsed. The best I could do now points-wise is if Arturo is the Chapter 3 killer (I'd get +2 points for being two chapters off), which is definitely still feasible! Still, I wonder now if Arturo's vibe is too obvious for being a killer, and if he would ever be willing to put ~Julia Rosales'~ life in jeopardy by attempting to escape. J certainly isn't doing herself any favors with that Felicity reveal, at least.

ROSE in the role of CHAPTER 2 VICTIM

*This is where things get... a little complicated. As I already said, I had been spoiled to the fact that Xander was the Chapter 1 victim. However... I also thought I had been spoiled to the "fact" that Rose was the Chapter 2 victim?

I really don't know how this happened. I have a distinct memory of seeing a Tumblr post containing something that sort of looked like what I imagine an Ultimate Art Forger Lab could look like(?) talking about how the characters needed to investigate to figure out who killed the Ultimate it belonged to. I thought I remembered seeing Rose's face, but this was before I had ever watched any DRDT content. So, it's possible I had the wrong fangan, or accidentally stumbled into someone's AU.

It was pretty funny looking back on my Chapter 2 viewing experience, though. When Teruko got Rose's secret, I was like, "oh, it totally makes sense that DRDTdev would give Teruko Rose's secret as a natural way to hear about Rose's backstory before she dies. Clever." And then we got to the day of the motive reveal, and Rose is there, and David says that Arei of all people is missing, and my jaw dropped. "Spoilers," indeed.

It sucked for me at the time of making this sheet, though, because Rose was, like, the only woman I got survivor vibes from (other than Teruko). But, I thought I couldn't mark her as such! Of course, Rose could be a Chapter 3 victim for all I know, meaning that being "forced" to put her in this spot could actually be good for my predictions. However, scoring 0 points on Rose is fully off the table now, which is a bummer.

DAVID in the role of CHAPTER 2 KILLER

"Why couldn't you have put Arturo as Chapter 2 killer--" I also thought I had been spoiled that David was the Chapter 2 killer. If I didn't make Arturo the first killer, the earliest I could have put him would be Chapter 3 victim, which is hardly early at all. And yes, I thought I'd been spoiled on three out of "four" of the canonical deaths when I originally watched the series. That's just my life (/lh).

At least this one is obvious to figure out why I thought it was the case. I started watching DRDT in May of 2023, about a month and a half after 2-11 dropped. Hence, I knew DRDT was on hiatus, but I was under the impression that it was a hiatus after Chapter 2 had finished. I'd also seen 2-11's thumbnail, recognized it as David, and (along with having spoilers about David's "true personality") concluded that David must be the Chapter 2 killer.

Live footage of me watching 2-11 for the first time:

"Ah, there he goes... Man, we're gonna have to wrap this murder up quick, huh? I guess that's why he's admitting to it... Haha, 'Teruko, we fucked up'... WAIT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S A HIATUS ON AN UNSOLVED MURDER?!"

I decided quickly afterwards that I no longer believed that David would be the Chapter 2 killer.

Finally, we're done with roles that already happened/that I had "spoilers" for! You'd think that would automatically make them better (because most of them, at least, have not been disproven), but there are still plenty of things that contradict what I believe will happen now, at least.

LEVI and HU in the role of CHAPTER 3 VICTIMS

Relatively, though, this one isn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, these two aren't my leading candidates for Chapter 3 victims, but I'm not actively opposed to this happening.

The idea of Levi nearly evading dying at the end of Chapter 2 only to actually become a victim in Chapter 3 is a little puzzling, but still narratively on the table, imo. So much happens in a DRDT Chapter's worth of daily life that Levi could definitely still serve enough of a narrative purpose to justify his continued survival/eventual victimhood in that Chapter. Especially if that purpose had something to do with the fact that he was injured-- for instance, if it's important for an Arturo arc of learning that he actually enjoys taking care of others, or if the killer has to exploit Levi's injuries in order to have the strength necessary to take him out.

Meanwhile, I've long held the opinion that Hu will be a big character in the Chapter 3 Daily Life by virtue of not having done a whole lot in the Chapter 1 or 2 Daily Lives-- she definitely has content, but the majority of the important stuff occurs in the Chapter 2 Trial. Currently, I'm of the opinion that that spike of content wouldn't result in a same-Chapter death, but following in the footsteps of Xander and Arei, it definitely could. Same with Levi if he's a Chapter 3 focus, honestly.

J in the role of CHAPTER 3 KILLER

I really still want to believe that J will be a killer. Why? It's because, in my opinion, Ultimate Effects Artist is a talent that is totally optimized for being a blackened, whether it actually happens or not. You know why the idea of J and Arei swapping places was so popular? Because Ultimate Effects Artist is the kind of talent you give someone if you want to pull a trick like that off!

However, all of that "murder is despicable" talk is really cramping my style. Why would J ever become a blackened after opposing the idea of murder so openly?

(It'd be pretty funny if it was all an act so that people would use that as an argument to her credit down the road.)

It's possible she could have a crisis of faith/breaking point that would change her mind, but I doubt that would occur as quickly as Chapter 3. Or result in her killing two people. Sigh.

AREI in the role of CHAPTER 4 VICTIM and EDEN in the role of CHAPTER 4 KILLER

OKAY HEAR ME OUT BEFORE YOU ACCUSE ME OF CALLING EDEN EVIL--

Chapter 4 is, oftentimes, the sacrifice chapter, right? It's a killer that makes everybody cry, because they'd never normally do something like this, but ultimately decided to kill in order to spare their friends and take the bullet themselves. I'm, like, 99% sure that's what I was imagining for Eden. Whatever the motive may be, Eden would be the small and scrawny sacrifice killer in sort of a reversal of the buff curse...

... taking out the mean bully girl that everybody hated as the victim, if she had to choose someone.

I'M SORRY I'M SORRY STOP HITTING ME WITH ROCKS-- (/j)

But yeah, I definitely remember predicting that part of the surprise of the case was that the small nerdy girl was able to take out the Ultimate athlete mean girl. I don't know how I managed to deduce that Eden and Arei would have an important relationship with one another after the prologue (in which they don't really talk at all, to my memory), yet managed to get it so horribly wrong. Predicting that Eden would kill Arei was just in my DNA, I guess, even if I originally envisioned it for a different chapter.

In the light of Ace being declared the Chapter 2 killer, this one is just embarrassingly wrong. Evidently, Eden would never stoop as low as to kill Arei. The good news for me, I suppose, is that Arei will only net me +2 points, as the role was correct (V=V) while the chapter was 2 off (4->2).

As for Eden being the Chapter 4 killer, that's not one of my top spots for her. If I had to pick, I'd probably guess either Chapter 3 victim (especially if paired with Charles Ch3 Victim, this could really knock the wind out of Teruko's sails if needed), Chapter 5 victim (allows her a long period in the story that isn't a survivor nor a killer), or just a survivor (and/or mastermind). If she were to be a killer, then maybe I'd predict Chapter 4 along the sacrifice angle? Not with Arei, though.

MIN in the role of CHAPTER 5 VICTIM

+6 points (5->1) (V->K) on Min is... not the greatest score. In fact, it's only one fewer than the general max possible character score of 7, reserved for Chapter 1 deaths mistaken as Survivors and vice versa.

I think my original prediction for Min was that she would not necessarily be Teruko's support character emotionally, but that she would be a useful aide when it came to solving the mysteries of the Class Trial. Then in Chapter 5, to force Teruko/the other innocent students to solve the high-stakes Trial on their own, she would have to disappear.

Looking back on it, I really enjoy how Teruko is far and away the best at solving the Class Trials in DRDT-- she would have already earned the title through her connections to, like, literally every character and theme in the story, but making her the principal mystery solver really hammers the idea that she should be the protagonist home. Having Min be on Team Spotless for even one Trial might have diminished that effect, so it makes sense that she became the first blackened. Girl was too powerful to live, smh.

WHIT in the role of CHAPTER 5 KILLER

Personally, I've always gotten the vibe that Whit is one of DRDTdev's Special Little Guys. Perhaps it was the way that he showed up in three character introductions-- Charles', Hu's, and his own-- that made me think he had Favorite Character Privileges. As such, even when (get ready for a truth bomb) I didn't really like Whit after watching the Prologue for the first time, I always thought he had late game energy.

(I don't know how much it really comes across from my blog, but I'm actually fairly critical of new series when I pick them up for the first time, unless I've heard many positive recommendations from friends/online personalities I admire. Other than the spoilers, I hadn't heard too much about DRDT before I started watching it, so, unaware of DRDTdev's writing skills, I was worried that Whit would essentially be a poor man's Kokichi. As someone who really likes Kokichi, that biased me against Whit. Then, of course, I actually watched the series and Whit won me over very quickly. And the rest is history :) )

I’m not really sure why I went killer over victim, other than the possible “I’m making Min the victim and therefore Whit has to be the killer.” Maybe it was that Kokichi-ness that made me think that he'd be the man behind the slaughter? ... Even if Kokichi wasn't actually the blackened in that case? It might've also been an effect of wanting him to be just that much closer to surviving, to fully break the hearts of everyone who was rooting for this Special Little Guy to survive.

Like, uh... me. Um. Well, I do genuinely currently think Whit will survive right now, so... I'm willing to take a +3 if that's true!

TERUKO in the role of MASTERMIND

Yeah, I predicted that Teruko would be the mastermind because I'm a basic bitch (/aff). Uh, I'm not being affectionate towards myself, to be clear. I'm only being affectionate to those who still hold the (fairly, I think) popular opinion that Teruko will be the mastermind of DRDT. She's a popular choice because there's a lot going for her! I still ranked her as third most likely back in my mastermind analysis!

Everyone who plays Venus' and my game is forced into the same default formula (to make comparative scoring easier), and that formula locks in the protagonist as a Chapter 6-er, because of how frequently that is the case. Even so, I feel fairly confident now that Teruko will survive until Chapter 6 anyways. The more times she says "I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student and I can't die" and then doesn't die, the weirder it would be if she suddenly did drop dead in, like, Chapter 4.

As for whether she actually is the mastermind... dude, I have no idea. Back at the time I wrote that post, I named J and Rose as my most likely candidates, but now J has gone on a whole anti-murder bend and I'm growing increasingly worried that Rose is going to be the Chapter 3 killer (probably unfounded, but still). That would leave Teruko as the most likely option, but Teruko's behavior at the end of Chapter 2 felt anti-mastermind coded to me, too, even if she forgot about it...!

We are not reviewing my mastermind theories here and now. Next!

CHARLES in the role of SURVIVOR

If you're a giant fucking nerd (/j), you might have noticed that I said I made my DRDT predictions after viewing "just a little bit over an hour of Despair Time content." However, the Prologue is under an hour. What gives?

Well, I... broke the rules of our game, actually. You're supposed to make your predictions sheet after viewing the Prologue only, but I went straight from watching the Prologue into Chapter 1 on the same day, and I forgot to make my sheet until watching Chapter 1 Episode 1. Sue me.

At any rate, I'm sure you can figure out how watching 1-1 would make me think that Charles would survive. Obviously, I knew that other characters beyond Charles would get focus in later episodes, but that still doesn't change the fact that DRDTdev chose to highlight Charles and Teruko's relationship as the first thing we saw in the first chapter of their story. Even without that extra content, though, he's also very reminiscent of Danganronpa's "Jerk" archetype, which survived in every canon DR game.

All that said... obviously, I don't think he's going to survive anymore.

I've been saying that Charles is a Chapter 3 victim-- at least since that analysis I just linked, even-- and I will probably continue to say it until proven false by the story itself. He is simply arcing too fast, and Whit needs to be confronted with that grief he prefers to ignore, no matter what his eventual placement is. We got one real Trial with Charles to prove what a smarty-pants he is, but now that he's pulled that "out of your element" card, he's off to break down into two or more simpler substances. AKA, decompose.

If he's not a Chapter 3 victim, though, Survivor is at least back on the table.

ACE in the role of SURVIVOR

Here we have it! Proof positive that I (falsely) believed that Ace would be a survivor all on my own, without taking into account anyone else's opinions! My incorrectness is mine and mine alone!!! (/j)

So, yeah. Funny coward man go brrrr and character arc into survival, except then he didn't. I have to imagine that's the basic premise behind why so many people believed that Ace would survive. I don't really have much to say about this choice beyond that.

I don't like that I'm already tanking another +6 points (S->K) (6->2) from Ace, though. Save me Xander-zero-point spoilers, you're my only hope.

VERONIKA in the role of SURVIVOR

Whaaaaaaaat was I cooking here?

I guess I kind of remember. I think I was imagining Veronika along the lines of a poor man's Sonia (like I said, critical) due to her more apologetic attitude towards rambling and presenting others with horror concepts in the Prologue. With my prediction that Whit would die in Chapter 5, I guess I might've also been thinking that Veronika could then fill in that "comic relief" void in his absence? I also had Ace there, though. Moot point; every DRDT character has the capacity to be hilarious.

There are a lot of places I could see Veronika landing in this killing game, but survivor really isn't one of them. I could see Veronika as a Chapter 3 victim or killer for The Vibes, Chapter 5 victim or killer if she takes on more of a main antagonist role, or Mastermind also for The Vibes. But survivor is just... odd. At least from this point in the story, what business does the "fangirling over acevi dying" girl have taking up one of those coveted survivor slots? Surely either someone would think to kill her or she would decide to kill before four more chapters elapse!

That being said, locking in Veronika as a late game character isn't terrible in my eyes. Being "barred" from making Rose a survivor, I remember that Veronika was the girl who I initially got the second most late game energy from. Those Chapter 5 or Mastermind scenarios won't score terribly here if they come to pass.

NICO in the role of SURVIVOR

I want to mention here that, despite my other spoilers, I did not know that Nico was nonbinary going into Despair Time. Therefore, I didn't make Nico a survivor under the premise of "I'll have two girls, two boys, and one enby survive!" I don't really remember why I did make Nico a survivor, though.

My best guess is that I put them there for cast composition purposes. From the Prologue, all of Charles, Ace, and Veronika are pretty over-the-top in their own ways: Charles is overly condescending, Ace is really loud, and Veronika is an exaggerated fangirl. Adding in a quieter character like Nico would have been a nice way balance to the others... or at least, so I thought with only the Prologue to go off of. Now I know that Ace and Nico surviving together was incredibly unlikely to be the case.

Speaking of Ace, now that he's dead (and therefore can't be a survivor), my opinions of whether Nico could survive have definitely gone up. However, I still don't think that Nico surviving is particularly likely.

There's definitely potential for redemptive survivors in DRDT with the "fighting your fate" theme they seem to be setting up. But, I think that's more likely to play out with someone who might have committed murder before the killing game (like Levi) or someone who did terrible things, but never went so far as to physically attempt another student's murder (like David), than someone who actually attacked someone else and nearly succeeded. For media in general, I think it's much easier for audiences to forgive something that happened off-screen and/or to characters that barely exist than something that we saw visible evidence of on a character who many people adore. Nico's attempted murder just seems like a big hurdle to overcome on their path to survival, dude.

That being said, I've written before that for both in-universe and meta reasons, I don't think we'll ever see Nico as a blackened, which already eliminates, like, half of my options moving forward. Logically, that would conclude that if I don't think that Nico will become a victim, then they're likely to survive. I do (currently) think that Nico will probably be a victim sometime in the future, even if I'm not certain in which chapter. For the sake of my score on Nico specifically, I guess I'm rooting for Chapter 5. I already know that they wouldn't be robbing Min of a perfect zero, at least.

And that's my tally so far, a total of 14 points out of a possible... well, I actually don't know what the highest possible score is, both because math is hard and because I don't know what bonus rules, if any, will come into play in DRDT's future. It's 14 points across 4 characters, which comes out to an average of 3.5 points per character.

Comparatively, most of our game sheets have come out somewhere in the high-30 to mid-40 points range (predicting is hard). Across 16 characters, means that it's usually an average of, like, 3 points per character. So, I'm doing worse than usual, but not by a whole lot...!

But, how well I do isn't what matters. The important thing is that I had fun while making it, and got to think about what patterns and possibilities can arise when you look at the basic facts of a character's simplified personality and talent in time with their role in the story!

So if you want to have fun making a predictions sheet like this of your own, you should totally go read Danganronpa: One Shot's Prologue (before Chapter 1 starts airing on Friday) over at @av-multifangan and fill out that game's prediction sheet. That would mean that this shameful shameless attempt at cross-promotion would have succeeded at one of its desired effects! Or, if that's not your cup of tea, you could also fill out a predictions sheet for DRDT moving forward, and just acknowledge that Xander, Min, Arei, and Ace were placed after the fact. Who knows, maybe I'll make a sheet like that too, so we can compare.

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me, and I hope to be back with more DRDT content soon!

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

been thinking about god and free will. their hand-in-hand existences. godswill like spacetime. distance as time. been reading about iterative bifurcation. things split in two over and over to fit pseudo-infinite distance into finite spaces. we have 48.000 miles of capillaries in our bodies. this takes up 3% of our body volume. tardis voice: so much bigger on the inside. the doctor was adam and the master was eve, but the master was the older (greater) so he was cain and the doctor was abel. who came first, god or time?

[leletha-jann]

Le'letha's Grand Unified* Theory of Timestop Creatures

*sorry, neither

Before canon catches up to us, let's fill in the blank:

This creature 

is ​​​​​​​​​​_____________...

1) ​an aspect of Lucrezia

Narratively this makes sense. Lucrezia's the main villain and we really only know the edges of her story yet. But what we do know does not even slightly rule out her being an angry interdimensional timestop creature at some point. We know that the entity originally known as Lucrezia is time-lost and stranded - and I'll take as another data point that she's somewhere without cake! (Does that creature look like it hails from a dimension with cake?) 

We know that a lot of time has elapsed for her and, while I can't find the quote at this exact moment, possibly at different angles - something the Castle describes this creature as traversing. We know that she has been changed by this, and appears throughout the known timeline in different aspects, appearances, and identities. 

And today's page has the Dreen telling us that "a monster must grow! Develop! Mature! ...to achieve its full fearsome potential...worthy of attention."

That sounds an awful lot like whatever Lucrezia has become. 

In fact, one of the very first things Lucrezia told us was "it's been so long since I was really human" (and even at the time, Tarvek went "um wait what", and then sensibly decided not to push.)

It's also distinctly ambiguous if the creature is reaching for the device as the source of the time distortion, or for Klaus. And while it doesn't mean much that I think it's going for Klaus, Gil thought it was. Gil's talent for intuitive leaps is the subject of a different post (I really must write it...), but he's very good at them. When Gil first saw the timestop creature, he didn't say "it's going for the device" or even for "it's going for the device my father used" (which would have moved the dialogue along as needed), he specifically said "it's heading for my father​." I trust Gil's intuition. Here, and in general.

I think the timestop creature is an aspect of Lucrezia. And she is, as far as we know (see option 5), the Big Bad of the series, so "This is probably Lucrezia's fault somehow" is a solid guess.

2) an aspect of Vapnoople

This has been clearly foreshadowed and it's definitely something that's going to come back to bite at some point. This could be that point, absolutely! Not that I didn't enjoy the storylines in the Society dome (I enjoy that phase of the story a lot!), but every storyline is here to do something and it could 100% be the origin story of the timestop creature we'd already seen, because time is not, and has never been, linear in this story! Right from the very beginning! (Yes, this is the infamous Page Four, of course.)

Vapnoople said he'd be back, and once we could talk to Kjarl, we learned that Vapnoople would probably appear very differently and be quite insane. 

Continuing with the idea that the creature is going for Klaus specifically, and not the device, it's possible Klaus cooperatively pinned himself to a board like a specimen and Vapnoople's taking the opportunity to get payback for, y'know, being lobotomized and turned into an object of scorn and pity. That being said, does a warped-by-the-monster-dimension Vapnoople care about that? And is Vapnoople a big enough presence to be the endpoint of the Second Journey? Is this his time to reappear in the story? Besides, he seemed quite happy to be heading off into the monster dimension. I don't think he'd be in a hurry to come back. 

But time is not linear between here and there (or any number of "there"s). So this is a workable second option, and I know it's one in favor with many readers.

3) a totally unconnected genuine interdimensional creature

A pleasingly random option, but one with precedent - we saw the Queen's Society do this earlier and Agatha clearly thought it was relevant to Mechanicsburg. 

One of the fantastic things about Girl Genius is that the world keeps happening. Not everything around us is about us. When you leave food on the floor, the ants that show up are probably not plotting against you. They're just doing ant things. 

(...probably. Although in a world of mad science, who knows?)

4) an aspect of Euphrosnia Heterodyne

An out-there option and the one most likely to elicit screaming from the fandom. (An argument in its favor, I'm sure.)

The mystery surrounding Euphrosnia has been building up in the background for years, a little bit at a time. She was the last female Heterodyne before Agatha. Her story parallels Agatha's, has shaped Agatha's, and keeps being mentioned. She vanished in strange circumstances. How did that happen? Where did she go? Is she coming back? She has too much of a narrative presence not to - there's something going on there. Agatha is returning to Mechanicsburg. Is Euphrosnia? Carson von Mekkhan did say that the Heterodynes always come home in the end...

(See, I'm looking for the ramp-up, the twist I can't see coming, like the two-and-a-half-year time skip was in the first place. I keep thinking recently, we've all been thinking recently, everything's going so well...and I had that feeling before, at the end of the siege...right before everything changed... What's coming for us this time? What evil, evil twist do the Foglios have planned?)

And it would be a heck of a ramp-up to have one of the old Heterodynes, and the legendary princess no less, take the field and change everything.

5) something else

Look. It's not my job to outguess the Foglios. (And if you think it's yours, you're wrong.) I look forward to being surprised!

And probably screaming. A lot.

[somethingoranother7]

The WOE.BEGONE discord yesterday, trying to figure out the identity of the shadow person

[random-dragon-exe]

So because Hazel's friends and brother join her at the end scene of the finale on their bikes, I predict that they'll appear in the season 2 intro in the bike section.

If it's not all of them, then it'll probably just be her 2 friends, Winn and Jasmine.