#THE MUSIC VIDEO ANIMATION OH MY GOD
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why is jt music's new fnaf song actually amazing help me I CANNOT STOP LISTENING TO IT
SAVE ME PLS
#well duh it's jt music ofc it's gonna be good BUT OH MY GOD I AM ACTUALLY OBSESSED WITH THIS#HELP#“a springtrap song!!” and it's the fuvking mimic#THE MUSIC VIDEO ANIMATION OH MY GOD#EVERYTHING. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.#JT music#fnaf#brutus rambles#NEW ART SOON BTW IM JUST HAVING A MOMENT WITH THIS SONG
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I Always believed that Gengar was a matchmaker 👁️👁️🫵💕 /lh /lh (Taken from the newest music video from YOASOBI - 'Biri-Biri')
#me being insane and imagining it as sacredship with Morty's GengarSJNDFHUSDJFNKAJSDHSND#BUT FR THIS WHOLE ANIMATION WAS SO CUTE AND PEAK OH MY GOD....................................#seeing the SV graphics being given the lighting/rendering integrity it deserves gives me Life#I swear pokemon fans and animation enthusiasts have been absolutely Feasting this entire year like -#Horizons? Paldean Winds? All these different music videos? Absolutely BREATHTAKING 😩💐💖💖💖#pokemon#pokemon scarvio#pokemon scarlet and violet#trainer juliana#juliana pokemon#rival nemona#nemona pokemon#pokemon music#yoasobi#gengar
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Now that I can reliably edit high quality videos, here’s my favorite scene in the whole show (thus far)
#like girl 3x10 The Samhadi fire has it ALL#Hero VS Warrior motif#Hand/Reaching Motif#The culmination of Sun Wukong's lack of communication#Macaque choosing to leave#Mei Samhadi fire pay off#Mei and MK's arcs colliding at FULL SPEED#The music the animation the colors#3x10 is the love of my life#lmk#lego monkie kid#monkie kid#lmk mk#lmk mei#Oh and the voice acting here? GOD.#G O D#like. this right here is a 15 out of 10 and 4x01 is already at an 11#I'm SCARED#my videos
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sonically judas is a 10/10 but i feel like john wayne was the pinnacle of that same thesis statement from a lyrical pov. get me ??
#also my god the idea in the judas vid of society stoning a woman to death for falling in with a bad man....damn ok gaga . that hits#this is just me thinking about ocelot again because#and i cannot stress this enough#revolver ocelot is the personification of the john wayne music video. watch it Now!!!!!!! if you haven't already#txt#gaga#THIS IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. ocelot stuck in his permanent joanne era#WARNING FOR EYESTRAIN AND FLASHING BTW#oh shit and animal death. this post is a mess
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Yasuyuki Okamura in the Space Dandy Opening
Song: 岡村靖幸 – どぉなっちゃってんだよ
#I don’t even watch anime but he looks so cool here#the music video is so cool#I need to finish space dandy oh my god#岡村靖幸#yasuyuki okamura#space dandy#viva namida
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song: what you won't do for love (bobby caldwell)
instagram: smacmccreanor
#other#videos#music#oh my god#birds#animals#YES!!!#interesting#the look back#the slides and shuffles#i love this
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the thing that is unfortunately overtaking my mind right now is the biz×ZERA Love music video series
#i love panda's animations oh my god#people misinterpreting loveit are making me mad and that music video came out a whole year ago#just read the character sheets pleaseeeeeee panda literally provided translationssssssss#love cat and love kitty are misinterpreted too but at least SOME people get it right#i have not seen a SINGLE person get the characterizations right for loveit#i mean. in the english comments. i can't read the japanese comments and i'm not translating all that#but stillllllll
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I Love It - MV1
Pairing: Max Verstappen x driver!reader
Word Count: 900+
Warning: named your pet dog, bear. Tempted to name the dog after my dog.
Twelve Fics of Christmas - Secret Santa
A/N: zhou FINALLY got a good gift this year!
F1 Masterlist / Masterlist
It was time for the annual paddock Secret Santa the F1 social team did with all the drivers. Honestly, you loved it. For the past few years, you got people you know pretty well so it was always easy to get gifts. You were one of the drivers who opted for meaningful and useful gifts instead of the silly ones, Zhou has gotten one too many Valtteri Bottas calendars.
This year you pulled Max. Despite being so close, with you getting him a gift for Christmas every year anyway, you never pulled his name. You went back and forth if you should finally do a silly gift and save his real present for Christmas day. Your heart wouldn't allow you to do that and opted for both gifts to be sentimental.
Max on the other hand pulled your name and to say he was freaking out was an understatement. He was also one to get you a present every year. It was always simple with a new purse or perfume, but he knew he couldn't pull that off for this silly video. He wanted to make this one special.
As the weeks crept up you thought of the perfect gift, a neon sign with his cats' names on it so he could set it up by his streaming set-up. Sassy's name was red while Jimmy's name was blue, red bull colors of course. It was perfect and you happily handed it to the social media manager to give to him, excited to see his reaction when the video came out.
Max was still freaking out. They would be exchanging gifts next week and he was still empty-handed. He was never good at gift-giving, opting for universally agreed upon "good presents." He needed to bring in reinforcement which was in the form of Daniel.
"What am I supposed to get her?!"
"I don't know why you are so stressed about this." That was a lie. Danny knew why he was stressed, he just wanted to see if Max wouldn't admit his crush.
"I want to actually give a good gift, not just some expensive thing."
"Because you like her!" Daniel said with the goofiest smile on his face. He knew his best buddy had been crushing on you for years, but this was the first time he was freaking out about something so trivial. It was just an annual video the F1 media team did. He could get you a mug and you would love it.
"Daniel don't start." He couldn't help the sigh that came out. If he liked you or not he still wanted to get a decent gift. Maybe he was stressing too much, but he couldn't help it.
"Okay okay. What does she like?"
"Music, sports, movies, animal-" As Max went on Daniel couldn't help but roll his eyes. Maybe that wasn't the right question to ask. He should've known to be more specific or the Dutchman would talk his ears off about you for hours.
"I'm going to stop you right there. Let me ask again. What does she love most in this world."
"Her dog," Max said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Okay get her something relating to her dog."
A huge grin slowly made its way onto Max's face, "I got it! thanks, Daniel!" Before Daniel could respond the facetime call ended.
When it was Max's turn to hand in his present he couldn't help but do it with a smile. Since he was stressing so much he didn't have much time to get it ready, but nothing a little money to rush the order couldn't help. Just like you, he can't wait for the reaction to be posted.
"Okay, here you go." the media personnel said handing you the gift as the camera was rolling.
"I can't wait." You excitedly said tearing open the wrapping paper.
As you tore open the gift you couldn't help the smile that broke out on your face, as you slapped a hand over your mouth in shock. "oh my god!"
"What is it?"
"It's a painting of my dog, bear! He's sitting in my car!" You happily flipped the painting to show the camera. "Max pulled my name?" You asked which shocked the people behind the camera at how fast you guessed.
"How did you know?"
"I just know." You said with the biggest smile running your hands all over the picture. "Did you give him his gift yet?"
"Yeah, we did him before you."
"I need to go find him." You rushed out before they needed anything else from you.
"Max!" You called out his name. Before he could process who called him you tackled him in a hug almost making him trip.
"Woah, what's all of this for." He chuckled wrapping his arm around you to brace the both of you.
Slowly you pulled away from him holding the painting up with glee, "I love my gift, it's the best thing I ever got."
At this, he couldn't help but smile as he could feel heat rush right to his cheeks. You loved the gift. He swears your smile was bigger over the gift than your first win. Or maybe he was tricking himself into thinking that. Either way, you loved your gift and that's the reaction he was hoping for.
"Looks like you're not the only good gift giver on the grid." He nudged your shoulder earning a giggle.
"How did you even think to get this?"
Now it was your turn for your cheeks to heat up. "Well some of the best gifts I ever got are based around my cats so I took a page out of your book."
"Well I love it, thank you." Again you pulled him into a hug not knowing what else to say besides thank you. If Secret Santa earned him this type of hug, he hoped to pull your name every year.
"Anytime Schatje."
#max verstappen x reader#max verstappen imagine#max verstappen#f1 imagine#f1 x reader#f1#formula 1 x reader#formula 1 imagine#formula 1
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song: (google translated from above text) the magic of love
Making a glass rabbit
[eng by me]
#other#videos#oh my god#SCREAM#what the fuck#interesting#rabbits#animals#music#crafts#funny#ha#i love this#i'm dying#THE ABS#THE SARAN WRAP
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𝗳𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗹 | 𝘯𝘩13 ♔
➪ summary: in which y/n has a huge crush on nico and lets it slip during a couple of interviews or 2 interviews where y/n talked about nico and 1 interview where he spoke about her
➪ warnings: gross foods, gagging/throwing up
➪ word count: 2.4k
➪ file type: fic
➪ sunny's notes: the first ever nhl fic i posted on tumblr. this holds a special place in my heart <3 thank you for everyone who has been here from the beginning (editing this was rough)
© cupidbedsy (sunflower-lilac42) ; do not copy, repost, or translate my work and designs on any other website or here
nh13 masterlist || nhl masterlist || taglist || navigation
⟹ Interview One: Jimmy Fallon - Mad Libs Theater -> reference video: mgk mad libs
“Welcome back, I’m hanging out with y/n y/l/n! Her new album is streaming everywhere, Apple Music, Spotify, you name it. Uh, y/n I want to do something fun with you and act out a dramatic scene, but first, we have to fill in the blanks. It is time for Mad Lib Theater.”
The intro of Mad Lib Theater plays and y/n readjusts herself on the seat to look at Jimmy, “Alright. So here’s how this works. I’m going to ask you for some silly words - nouns, verbs, adjectives, et cetera - and they’ll all be written onto our cue cards here, as we’re doing this. And then we’re gonna act out a dramatic Mad Libs scene. Are you ready for this?”
“Thank god I went to fourth grade.”
Jimmy laughs along with the audience and uncaps the marker, “Okay. Here we go. I want a noun that starts with a C.”
“Candle.”
“Candle’s good. Adjective.”
“Sweaty.”
“Type of bug.”
“Mosquito.”
“Animal.”
“Elephant.”
“A chain restaurant.”
“Chipotle. I used to work there.”
“Chipotle?”
“Yeah.”
Jimmy continues, “Noun.”
“Jersey.”
“Like New Jersey or a sports Jersey?”
“Oh, uh New Jersey.”
“A kitchen appliance.”
“Spatula.”
“A plural noun.”
“Buildings.”
“Sophisticated.”
“I know right.”
“Another animal.”
“A yack.”
“One of the Seven Dwarfs.”
“Dopey.” She looks into the audience and winks.
“Celebrity name.”
“Sabrina Carpenter.”
“Name me a number,”
“13.”
“Just 13, 13-”
“1386.”
“Type of profession.”
“Hockey player.”
“Hockey player? Okay.”
“Wow! Speed round. Here we go. Another plural noun.”
“Mooses?.”
“Uh, okay. Body part. Watch it.”
“Elbow.”
“Phrase that you would say if you bumped into Leonardo DiCaprio on the street.”
The audience starts yelling, lots of fans of y/n knowing how much she loves this movie as it takes her no time to come up with an answer, “Why did you let go, Jack? You should have stayed on the door. You should’ve got on the door.”
“Why did you let go, Jack? There was room for you on the door.” Y/n repeats herself for the man as he writes down her answer.
“Another noun.” Y/n’s flustered, “You do this one.”
“Burrito.”
“Burrito, okay.”
“Type of drink.”
“Bloody Mary.”
“Another celebrity.”
“Elizabeth Olsen.”
“Verb ending in i-n-g.”
“Slaying.”
Jimmy busts out laughing, “Slaying. This is fun doing Mad Libs with you.”
“What would you shout if you sat down in a wet seat?”
“Fudge that’s wet.”
“‘Fudge that’s wet?’ I love you.”
“First concert you ever attended.”
“Madonna.”
“Wow. Madonna. You know what, that makes sense.”
“A professional athlete.”
Without any hesitation, y/n blurts out, “Nico Hischier.”
“What?”
Y/n hides her increasingly growing red cheeks, “He’s my favorite hockey player. He’s the captain of the New Jersey Devils.”
There were some hockey or Devils fans in the crowd and they let out a couple of cheers. Jimmy wiggles his eyebrows at the girl before continuing, “Another verb ending in I-N-G.”
“Blushing.”
“Yes, very good. You’re blushing right now.”
Y/n laughs, “Two words that rhyme.”
“Swiss. Kiss.”
“A long, silly word.”
“Iridocyclitis!” A man shouts from the audience.
“What?!
“Is that a disease? Is that an actual-”
“Yeah, what is that?”
Jimmy attempts to spell out a word.
“Iridocyclitis. Yeah, of course. Alright, now, we’ve filled out the words for our scene. Good look to our cue card. So sorry, Roman. Are you ready to perform our scene?”
“I don’t know now.”
“Let’s go, let's do this.”
『••✎••』
Jimmy and y/n stand on the building after coming out in superhero costumes, “Am I green?”
“No, yeah, you’re green. Yeah, you’re green. I’m red.”
“Candle girl! What are you doing here?!”
“Oh, hello, Captain Stinky.”
“Please call me by my nickname, Mr. Mosquito.”
“I’m here for the same reason you are here - to rescue the elephant stuck on the roof of this Chipotle.”
“I knew there was trouble tonight when I saw my signal in the sky- a light projected in the shape of… New Jersey.”
“Well, using our powers this rescue should be simple. I’m faster than a speeding spatula, and everything I touch turns to buildings.” Y/n says before Jimmy responds, “I have the agility of a yak. And when I get really dopey, I turn into Sabrina Carpenter.”
Y/n starts laughing, unable to control herself, “Wow. I must tell you, my back story is complicated. When I was 1386 years old, I was… I was once bitten by a hockey player.”
She then spits out more laughter and doubles over to hold her stomach, “Oh my- Oh my god. And ever since, I’ve been able to emanate mooses from my elbow.”
“Why did you let go, Jack?” Jimmy holds his hand out before y/n places her own on his shoulder, “I know. It’s amazing, but with great power comes great burrito.” Both of the two laugh before controlling themselves and continuing the scene.
“Your story reminds me of my own. I became a superhero after I fell into a tub of radioactive bloody Mary. But listen. We must complete this rescue. In the trapped elephant’s collar, there’s a USB drive that contains images of Elizabeth Olsen slaying.”
Y/n snorts and covers her mouth quickly before laughing, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I thought it’d be much worse.”
“And as a warning, I do have one weakness.”
“What is it?”
“Madonna.”
“That’s okay. Just remember what Professor Nico Hischier told us. He said if we’re ever in a situation like this,” Jimmy pulls out a gold button, “You press this button, and we will both immediately start blushing. Here we go.”
Y/n laughs and the two start slapping their cheeks for them to redden, “Our blushing is causing the elephant to be saved.”
She looks at Jimmy and then the cue cards and shakes her head, “Swiss kiss! We did it!”
“Yes, let’s high-five and say the secret superhero catchphrase on ‘three’. One, two, three.”
They both squint in an attempt to read the word, “Iri-dira-calaptus.”
“Dude!”
“Yeah!”
“And scene!”
The two laugh as the scene ends and Jimmy tries to get his words out, “My thanks to y/n y/l/n.”
❛ ━━・❪ ❁ ❫ ・━━ ❜
⟹ Interview Two: James Corden - Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts -> reference video: sygofyg w/ ewan mcgregor and niall horan
The theme music plays as the camera cuts to James, Ewan, Niall, and y/n sitting at a table with a rotating top and a bunch of food laid on it.
“Okay. so let’s take a look at the food that we have here.” James proceeds to spin the top of the table to showcase the food, “We have a salmon smoothie. A beef tongue.”
Ewan sticks his tongue out and makes a noise causing y/n to laugh as she holds her napkin up to her face, “This is disgusting.”
“Bird saliva.” The audience yells in disgust and Niall makes a whiffing motion with his hands, “The smell just gets stronger and stronger.”
“A scorpion. Fish head. Hot sauce. “
“Is that safe to do hot sauce?” Ewan asks as he looks towards James, “We’re gonna find out.”
“And finally, bull penis.”
“Yay!” Y/n claps.
“So here’s how this works. Ewan and I will be asking questions to Niall and y/n. Now if someone on your team chooses not to answer their question, you both will have to eat the disgusting food. Have we got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, Niall-” y/n cuts in quickly, “I’m already mad.”
“You’re up first. Niall, I am going to give you-”
Niall points to one of the foods, “Please don’t do that. My acid reflux will freak out.”
“Please don’t. Not the scorpion.”
“The salmon smoothie.” Y/n squeals.
“Here is your question, So if you answer the question you don’t have to eat, if you don’t answer the question, you both have to have a big glug of the salmon smoothie.” Niall laughs, “I don’t know what I’m more nervous about, the question or the smoothie.”
“Well, I’ve just seen the question and I think it might be the question. Niall, who is your least favorite member or One Direction?”
Niall swears but the bleep covers it as he goes to clink smoothies with y/n. Y/n looks at him, “I think you should drink, I am not your publicist, but I don’t know that you should.”
“I think I might just take the daily mail hit tomorrow, and throw out a crap answer. I’m trying to help y/n.” The said girl laughs and hits him, “If it’ll help you out, I’ll drink it.”
“Don’t think of your teammate, think of your life.”
“What do you think, Niall are you going to go salmon-”
Y/n places the napkin around Niall’s neck to make a bib, “Yeah for future life, yeah, I think I will go with this.” The two pick up smoothies and drink them, well attempting to drink them.
James hands them spoons and they both put them in their mouths. Y/n immediately gags and goes to spit it in the trash, getting some in her hair. James and Ewan immediately burst into laughter as they watched the two.
Ewan looks at y/n, “Are you alright?”
“It is not so much the taste, it’s the texture. It's like having salmon yogurt.” James looks at y/n, “Oh and there is some in the hair to keep for later. Right, so now y/n, you will ask your question to me.”
“Oh well, well, well.”
“Which would you like me and Ewan to have?”
“Have a look at the question first.” Niall leans over to help y/n, it was honestly like having a brother and sister team up against someone.
“Oh, wow. Getting tactical.”
“Oh, he is going to eat. I know– Scorpion.” Y/n turns the table so the scorpion sits in front of the two men on the other side.
“Scorpion. I think that is the easiest one.”
“Well, yeah, you say that until it is in your face.”
“Your question is, James, name one artist who you have turned down for carpool karaoke.” The crowd lets out a bunch of oos, “How long have you got?”
“Cheers mate,” James cheers with Ewan, and they eat the scorpions, seemingly without any problem.
“What is y/n going to eat?”
“I think I’m going for the tongue.”
“And it’s one each. You have to eat the whole tongue.” Y/n looks at him in disbelief and he just shakes his head, “I’m just kidding.”
“Oh, this is quite a cute one. Y/n you once said you had a favorite hockey player, Nico Hischier, is it true you might have a crush on the Swiss man?”
Y/n immediately blushes and places her head in her hands as everyone laughs, “Oh come on, this is an easy one.”
“Oh shit.” The bleep censors the word as y/n looks at the tongue, “Yes, it’s true. I do have a crush on Nico Hischier.”
The whole crowd goes wild and Niall playfully hits her on the arm, “Niall what would you like to give Ewan?”
“Ewan you’re up. Truthfully, all I’ve been thinking about is that saliva. Surely the question gets better.”
“It does. Sorry, boys.”
“Jeez, again, back to the bird saliva.”
Y/n looks at the boys, “How do they get it?” James and Ewan playfully try to mimic what they think happened.
Niall pulls out the card and y/n reads it, immediately bursting into laughter, “This is the greatest question ever.”
The Irish man looks up at Ewan with a grin on his face, “Ewan, have you ever shit your pants?”
Everyone laughs uncontrollably for at least 30 seconds, “The show is only an hour, Ewan.”
“I mean I could lie, there is only one or two people that would know.”
“I am really enjoying this.”
“Well, I guess, yeah.”
“Hang on, wait how old were you?”
“Well, I was very young at the time.”
“No, no there didn’t have any age in there, did it?” Ewan defends.
“Well, we’ve all technically shit our pants as babies.” Y/n looks at the man.
“That is all I was referring to. I might have shit my pants in the 90s one time.”
“Ewan McGregor. Spilling it.”
“Okay, Niall I am going to give you guys.”
“Please not the hot sauce.”
“Some beef tongue, are you ready? Okay.”
“I’m going to have to eat this, aren’t I?”
“Niall, you have dated both Selena Gomez and Ellie Goulding. It is your last night on Earth, who would you rather spend it with?”
“Just it doesn’t hurt anyone.” Y/n says, “Y/n’s going ‘it doesn’t hurt anyone’.”
Niall places his arm on the girl’s chair, “I’m afraid it does, love.”
“The trouble is, it’s not really your last night so someone’s gonna be upset tomorrow.”
“Okay, I would, 'cause it’s the last night on Earth, Ellie is a big fan of Planet Earth by David Attenborough so I would sit and watch that with her, and for that reason, Ellie Goulding.”
“Y/n it is your turn, you now will ask me a question and select a food.”
“You know what, you guys seem so keen on the beef tongue, giving it to us time and time again, so we will get revenge. James, you are definitely going to eat that, so have you got your knife ready.”
“Yup.”
“Which Late Night Host do you prefer, Kimmel or Fallon?”
“That’s tricky. Oh, dear are we eating this?” The two bite into the tongue and y/n gags as she watches them.
“That was Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts. Big thanks to Y/n Y/l/n, Niall Horan, and Ewan McGregor, we’ll be right back, everybody!”
❛ ━━・❪ ❁ ❫ ・━━ ❜
⟹ Interview Three: Nico Hischier - Postgame Interview
“So Nico, I hate to ask you about this but there have been these videos floating around about y/n y/l/n talking about you, have you heard about this?”
Nico nods his head as he looks at the interviewer, “Yeah, actually I have. Jack actually showed me this video and let me tell you, that was the last thing I was expecting.”
“Everyone is dying to know after she came out and explicitly stated that she liked you, do you like her, or at least have a tiny crush on her?”
“Yeah, well you know, I haven’t actually met her so I can’t say I like her but I do think she’s cute and that’s all I’m going to say about this.”
The interviewer nods, “Thanks Nico.”
#nhl#hockey#nhl hockey#nhl imagine#hockey imagine#nico hischier fic#nico hischier#nh13#nico hischier x reader#: ̗̀➛ sunny’s writing 📓 !
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song: good luck, babe
The lil art in the corner is mine >:]
Love this silly guy (pepe and sylvester are my favs)
#other#videos#music#oh my god#SCREAM#cartoons#looney toons#sylvester#pepe le pew#pitu le pew#skunks#cats#animals#LGBTQA#not gonna lie#sylvester x either le pew is hella fuckin cute
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Chapter 31 of human Bill grudgingly enduring being the Pines' prisoner because the Henchmaniacs won't take his call: Summerween night! Everyone gets ridiculous costumes!
The Summerween Trickster's buddies are attempting to resurrect him. Robbie's making a music video. Bill's attempting to woo Ford back into friendship, to terrify Dipper with cursed knowledge, and to recover his dignity from THE most gentle chastising imaginable, and he only succeeds in 1 out of 3 of these endeavors:
It's not this one. He's just gotta process these emotions while wearing that stupid wig.
####
Soos was putting the final touches on his cosplay (the suave and mysterious Masked Guy In A Suit, love interest of the heroine from the classic anime Teenage Planetary Soldier Girls) when he heard the phone ring in the office. "Hold on, I'll get it!" He hurried downstairs, ducked under a construction paper chain Mabel had strung over the door, picked up the phone, and said, "Hello?"
A mysterious voice droned, "The sun sets a deep blood red."
"Oh, no thanks, we don't want any." Soos hung up, sighed happily, and said, "Ah, Summerween. Always brings out the weirdos."
"Hey Soos!" Mabel ducked into the doorway. "Where's the candy bowl?"
"Oh, hey Hambone. It's in my bedroom." He put on a stage whisper. "I put it in there so Bill couldn't steal it."
"Thanks Soos!" She ran upstairs.
Dipper and Bill waited downstairs, the tension thick between them (on Dipper's side, anyway; Bill—watching a black-and-white horror movie, sipping at a can of cider, and brooding over going to voicemail—didn't notice). Dipper was waiting by the door in a folding chair; but he kept glancing toward Bill in the living room. When the silence got too much to bear, he asked, "Okay, what are you dressed as?"
Bill was wearing a brown bedsheet toga (the most historically-accurate part of his costume); a cheap wig of a teased mullet that had ended up mostly red with yellow streaks, forming a plume of hair right over his head and then a long straight tail he'd draped over his shoulder; and a bunch of paper faux-Greek homes taped all around the hem of his toga, forming a ring around his calves.
"And are those my sandals?" Dipper asked.
"Take it up with Mabel, she loaned them on your behalf," Bill said. "I'm not telling my costume. You have to guess it."
"Seriously?" Dipper sighed. It had to be a god, gods towered over their mortals' temples. What god would wear brown? "I don't know—Demeter?"
"What? No. Do I seem like the Demeter type? Pathetic." Bill waved off his guess. As Mabel ran downstairs, Bill said, "Hey, Shooting Star, you haven't made your official guess yet."
Without hesitation, Mabel said, "A time-traveling hair metal singer touring the Roman Empire and trying to find a way home before his hair dye runs out."
"Wrong, but I would love to live in the world you've dreamed up." He meandered into the entryway to join Mabel as she plopped down in the second chair by the door.
Dipper screwed up his face. "Are you helping us answer the door?"
"No, you're helping me answer the door. I'm cursed, remember?" Bill leaned over Mabel's shoulder, dug into the candy bowl, and popped a lollipop in his mouth. "But you're not getting rid of me, if that's what you're asking."
Soos headed to the door, cape billowing dramatically behind him. "Hey dudes. Hey Bill." He paused in the door, studying Bill. "Hey! Is that a Bobo the Uncouth Berserker cosplay?"
Bill blinked. "Who?"
"Bobo the Uncouth Berserker! You've gotta read Bobo. He's this primitive hero descended from lost Lemuria who goes on daring adventures through the lush impenetrable jungles of Central Europe. He's got this comic that was so popular it spawned an anime, which got an American movie adaptation, which formed the basis of a second comic continuity that isn't as critically acclaimed as the original but has drawn in a lot of new fans... and..." Soos petered out. "You're not Bobo, are you."
Bill shook his head. "Thanks for playing."
"Aw." Soos's shoulders slumped. "Anyway—me and Melody are gonna be at the cosplay contest at the theater. I'll keep my phone on in case of monsters."
"We'll be fine!" Mabel said. "Go have fun!"
"You too!" With a dramatic flourish of his cape, Soos disappeared into the night.
Bill watched Soos go enviously. He could have been given a human body that looked that good in a suit and top hat, but was he? No. It wasn't fair. And Soos didn't even wear the right hat size.
Dipper glanced sideways at Bill. "Hey. Is... Lemuria real?"
"Not anymore." Bill perked up as Stan passed by, dressed like Frankenstein's monster. "Hey, Stanley! You haven't guessed yet. What am I?"
Stan surveyed him. "White columned buildings, Statue of Liberty dress, and a red clown wig. I dunno, the American government?"
Bill squawked in laughter. "That's my favorite wrong answer so far. I like you, Stanley." He fished a chocolate bar out of the bowl and held it out.
Stan grunted in disapproval, but accepted the candy. "If any of you need me, I'm gonna be up on the roof, terrifying kids." He held up a boombox and a cassette that said "Spooky Sound Effects of Halloween". "If you hear screaming children, don't worry: that means I'm winning."
"Where's your brother?" Bill asked.
"Avoiding you." Stan passed through the living room and left.
Bill's shoulders slumped; but he just dug into the candy bowl for more chocolate. Then the first trick-or-treater knocked on the door, and Dipper jumped up in relief to answer it.
The shack didn't attract quite as many trick-or-treaters as the houses closer to the center of town, but they got a steady stream of children, and more than they'd gotten the year before. Between visitors, Bill dug into their candy stock, gleefully ignoring Dipper's complaints. After the fourth or fifth visitor, Dipper and Mabel realized that Bill was covering up the amount of candy he'd pilfered by meticulously re-folding the empty wrappers and putting them back in the bowl.
"It's fair play," Bill said. He untwisted one end of a Twisty Roll tube, squeezed out the candy, blew into the wrapper to re-inflate it, and twisted the end shut again. "The kids are trick-or-treating, right? Sometimes they get treats and sometimes they get tricks."
"Come on, seriously?" Dipper said. "Even for you this is low. You're literally taking candy from babies."
"The babies are trying to take candy from us. I have no sympathy." With the precision of an origami master, Bill refolded a paper fruit chew wrapper into a box and dropped it back into the bowl.
"They're supposed to take candy from us, that's how the holiday works." Dipper looked at Mabel for support.
But she was holding up an empty 3 Fencers wrapper and squeezing it lightly between her fingers. "Wow. How did you make the wrapper puffy again? It's so convincing."
Bill shot Dipper a nasty smile, then turned to Mabel and said magnanimously, "I'll teach you everything I know." He twirled a glue stick between his fingers.
Another trick-or-treater knocked, and Dipper answered.
"Trick or treat! Please give us the worst candy you have."
Mabel blinked, leaning around Dipper to see who was outside. "Wait, what?"
Outside stood a purple-furred monster with a dozen limbs from a dozen different creatures. He gasped in surprise. "Ohhh, twin costumes! That's so cute! What are you two, haunted dolls?"
Dipper took a surprised step back. "Limby Jimmy?"
The monster was silent a moment, taken aback. He took off a bear mask he'd made out of a paper plate. "Is it that obvious?"
Mabel asked, "Have we...?"
Dipper said, "Oh! Sorry—Mabel, this is Limby Jimmy, I ran into him last year in the Crawlspace under town when I was trying to get your face back—"
Helpfully, Bill threw in, "He's Gravity Falls' most accomplished arms dealer. And legs dealer, and tails dealer, and ears dealer..."
"Limby, this is my sister Mabel. Actually, I don't know if I ever introduced myself—"
Limby Jimmy cut in, "Ohhh, yeah, I remember you! You're Troll Boy, right?"
Dipper winced. "It's—it's Dipper, actually." He paused. "Wow. We meet a lot of weird people."
"Nice to meet you, Jimmy!" Mabel held out a hand. After a moment of thought, Jimmy elected to shake it with a tentacle and a dog's paw.
"What are you doing up here?" Dipper asked. "Is Summerween the one night of the year that Gravity Falls' monsters can walk among humans without fear?"
"Oh no, I'm terrified. I wouldn't be out here if I wasn't collecting donations," Jimmy said.
"Donations?"
Jimmy hesitated, then lowered his voice. "You've been in the Crawlspace, so, you and your sister are cool, but is the lady...?" He wiggled a hoof toward Bill.
Coolly, Bill said, "I'm actually an ancient interdimensional energy being cursed to wear a human form."
Dipper and Mabel flinched in alarm and rounded on Bill, hissing, "Bill!" "Shhh!"
Ignoring them, Bill said, "So, continue."
"Oh," Jimmy said brightly. "That's all right then, yuk yuk." He wiggled his multitude of right arms. "I don't know if you humans have heard yet, but the Summerween Trickster got eaten to death last summer! It's really sad!"
Dipper and Mabel, who had watched as he was eaten to death, stayed quiet.
"But probably happy for him?" Jimmy mused. "Since I think that's what he wanted? But it's sad for the rest of his poker group, we all miss him! So I'm out here with Doug—"
"Who?" Dipper asked, looking around the porch for a second monster.
"Oh, he's back there." Jimmy pointed toward a tree at the edge of the clearing around the Mystery Shack. The tree chittered unnervingly. "We're going around collecting donations to resurrect the Trickster! Or... re-summon him? Or however this works. We never really asked him how he came to exist, it seemed rude."
"Naturally," Bill said. "You can't just ask a freak what made him so freaky. It's a sensitive topic."
"Right! You understand," Jimmy said. "Anyway, we need a lot of crappy candy!" He looked at their bowl. "Which pieces have the kids been ignoring this year?"
Mabel had started bouncing on the balls of her dusty Victorian ghost shoes; and the moment she had a turn to speak, she squealed in excitement. "You're the Summerween Trickster's friend! That's perfect! Stay here, I'll be right back!" She shoved the candy bowl into Bill's arms and zoomed up the stairs. "I've got some stuff for him!"
Bill looked at the bowl, looked at the stairs, shoved the candy in Dipper's arms, and followed Mabel. "Hey, Shooting Star? What are you doing?"
Her voice drifted down the stairs: "Getting a donation! I'll be just a minute!"
"Hold on, you're actually helping that guy?" Bill laughed. "Why?" He climbed high enough to poke his head above the attic floor and lowered his voice so Jimmy couldn't hear. "I wasn't paying that much attention last Summerween, but I got the impression from your little costume store brawl that the Trickster was trying to kill you kids. Am I missing something?"
"I mean, yeah, he was—but he was in a really bad place back then, that doesn't mean he deserves to be dead for it. And now he knows someone out there wants to eat him, so maybe he'll be less insecure and evil." Mabel laughed, "Anyway, the Trickster isn't that bad! He didn't try to kill me half as hard as you did!"
Bill froze a couple of steps from the top of the stairs. He didn't move for a few seconds; and then wordlessly, he slunk back downstairs.
Dipper watched as Bill, face beet red, trudged into the living room. "Hey. What's Mabel...?"
"How should I know." Bill curled up on the couch, picked up the can of cider he'd been drinking earlier, shotgunned it, and glowered at the horror movie on TV.
Dipper considered Bill—all alone in the living room and not doing anything important—and considered Mabel, upstairs; and said, "Hey, Jimmy. Do you mind waiting out here until Mabel gets back."
"Sure! I don't have any plans." Jimmy rocked back on his many heels.
"Cool. Thanks." Dipper shut the door.
He sidled oh so very casually into the living room and leaned against the TV. "Guess it's just the two of us right now."
Bill's gaze didn't waver from the TV. "Terrific counting skills, Troll Boy." He popped open another cider can.
Dipper grit his teeth. Let it go. "Sooo! You're from the second dimension, huh? What's that like?" (His voice cracked embarrassingly on "that.") "Just—just curious. Making friendly conversation. Caaasual conversation." He flashed a pair of finger guns at Bill, to underscore just how casual he was. "Yyyep." Witness the junior paranormal investigator in action.
Bill turned the cold, empty eyes of a killer on Dipper. He took a long, slow sip from his cider. And he asked himself: what can I say that will make this stupid boy regret ever daring to speak to me?
Bill smiled. "Yeah. Sure. Okay," he said. "You wanna know what it's like? Have you ever read the Allegory of the Cave?"
Dipper hesitated. "By... Plato?"
"That one. You know—ignorance is like being a prisoner chained in a cave, watching shadow puppets being cast on a wall, and thinking they're reality; and having knowledge is like being outside the cave in the sunlight, seeing the real shapes that are casting the shadows—"
"I have read it, actually," Dipper said, a tad defensively. "It was for extra credit in—"
"English class, I know."
Dipper frowned; but he soldiered on. "So... living in the second dimension is like being chained in a cave, staring at the shadows on the wall, and thinking that's reality? Bleak."
Bill laughed so loudly that Dipper started. "Wow, you're so dumb! Use your brain, kid: it's the second dimension. You're not the prisoner: you're the shadow on the wall." Bill's lip curled in a sneer, "An illusion in somebody else's allegory. And the only one who can see the cave's exit... is you. That's what the second dimension is like!" He laughed again. It sounded forced.
"Oh," Dipper mumbled. He tried to wrap his head around the idea of being a living metaphor for ignorance. "Sounds... pretty bad?"
"Awful," Bill agreed. "Doesn't hold a candle to what your dimension has going on, though."
"Wh... why, what's going on in the third dimension?"
Bill gave him a malicious smile, and Dipper had the sinking feeling he'd just walked into an obvious trap. "You idiot, you still think you're in the third dimension? Really?"
Was that a trick question? What answer was Bill looking for? What could this be if not the third dimension? "Nnooo?"
"Wow. I can really see why you're a straight-A's honors student," Bill said. "You're so good at figuring out what answer the test wants and regurgitating it—even if you don't actually understand it at all." He heaved himself back to his feet; and Dipper was sure there was something threatening in the movement—something that reminded Dipper that he was talking to a dangerously unstable extinction level event precariously packed into an unsteady human body. "Although copying the year of the Louisiana Purchase off of Brandon's test in fifth grade probably didn't hurt, did it."
Dipper's stomach dropped. The secret shame buried beneath the foundation of his honors roll-worthy record. Pull that out and his entire academic career came toppling down. He'd get kicked out of the honors classes. He'd go to jail. Was cheating against the law? "H... how did—?"
"What year was the Louisiana Purchase?"
Dipper's brain immediately went blank. He was silent, trapped in the paralyzing intensity of Bill's gaze. After several terrifying seconds, he croaked, "1803?" and hoped he was right.
"Attaboy. Too bad you couldn't have learned that a little sooner, isn't it?" As he spoke, Bill had closed in on Dipper until he'd backed him into the corner behind the TV set, filling Dipper's exit route with one hand on the TV and the other on the wall. "But we were talking about dimensions, weren't we! Whaddaya like to read, kid," Bill asked too casually, "do you like cosmic horror? Do you know what real 'cosmic horror' is?"
Dipper regretted this conversation completely.
"It's having an eyeball on the inside of your body, and seeing another dimension through it. And ohoho, I think you'd be amazed at the things I can see from here—"
Dipper got the distinct impression that if he didn't get out of this conversation, he would only hear things he'd be telling his therapist about for months. "Cool! Good talk, man. Hey Mabel?" (That was an absolutely humiliating voice crack.) "How's it going?"
A pause. "I think I need help!"
"Coming!" Dipper ran behind the TV to escape Bill and gratefully bolted upstairs.
The kid had caved so fast. And Bill had only just been getting started. He smirked, sat, and turned back to the movie.
A moment later, Mabel and Dipper came back downstairs, carrying four bulging plastic grocery bags. Mabel set one by her feet, opened the door, and shoved the first bag into Jimmy's arms. "Here! You can give these to the Trickster!" She shoved over the second bag.
Jimmy stumbled back under the weight. "Whoa there! What is this?"
"Candy chalk-hearts! I completely bought out the leftovers after Valentine's Day," Mabel said. "I wanted to make sure that if we met the Trickster again, I could let him know he's loved and appreciated as the terrifying avatar of spooky holiday spirit that he is! And that I also respect that he's made out of gross candy nobody likes to eat." She picked up a chalk-heart box and waved it in Jimmy's face. "So here's a gross candy that expresses love! See, the little hearts say things like 'You smell nice' and 'I heart ur face,' but they taste like if dehydration was a flavor."
Dipper handed his bags to Jimmy. "Wait—Mabel, that's why you got all these? You've been planning to help the Trickster since February? I thought you were gonna build a chalk-heart house or something."
"Oooh, that's such a good idea. I should do that next year!" To Jimmy, she said, "I was gonna give these to him personally, but if he's still dead, I guess you can add it to his candy sacrifice pile or whatever? And make sure he gets this!" She handed Jimmy a store bought Shimmery Twinkleheart Valentine's card. It read, "I BELIEVE in our friendship! Happy Valentine's Day!" Mabel had scratched out "Valentine's" and written "Summerween".
Choked up, Jimmy said, "Oh—wow. That's the nicest thing anyone's done for us all night. I'm sure the Trickster will really appreciate it when he's not dead anymore."
Dipper was a little more vengeful. Dipper didn't want to do anything for one of the many guys that had tried to kill them last year. But, on the other hand, Mabel had just gone all in on this, and Jimmy seemed nice enough, so... Dipper sighed. Whatever, it was Summerween and this was a trick-or-treater. "Hey," he picked up the candy bowl. "There's really only one bag of good candy in here. The bottom of the bowl is filled with after-dinner mints our great uncle's been stealing from restaurants for the last six months. The Trickster would probably love that, right?"
"Aww—thanks so much, you guys! We'll have the poker group back together in no time!" Jimmy dug past the good candy and started scooping mints into his bag. "Oh—since I'm here, can I ask about our other poker buddy? Do either of you know Mr. What's-His-Face? He disappeared around the time you were visiting the Crawlspace, maybe one of you saw something? Any information would be helpful." Jimmy looked at them with weird, plus-shaped, but very hopeful eyes. "Between the Trickster's death and Whatsis disappearing, the local paranormal community's been hit hard. Especially us guys in their friend group. I'm—I'm not gonna lie," Jimmy heaved a sigh, "It's been a really hard year."
Dipper and Mabel, who were directly and personally at fault for Mr. What's-His-Face's disappearance and knew he was frozen in stasis in Ford's bunker at that very moment, exchanged a look and came to a silent agreement.
"Nope, don't know anything," Mabel said.
"Sorry, buddy," Dipper said.
Like the Summerween Trickster, Mr. What's-His-Face was a weird faceless shapeshifty monster that had tried to kill them. But they felt like that was where the similarities ended.
By the time of the Trickster's death, Mabel and Dipper had realized that his deepest inner longing was to be called good enough to eat. Mr. What's-His-Face's deepest inner longing was to steal innocent people's faces. If Mabel and Dipper helped resurrect the Trickster, he'd probably go back to ensuring everyone displayed sufficient holiday spirit, while hopefully mellowing out about eating people now that he'd been consumed once. On the other hand, if Mabel and Dipper helped free Mr. What's-His-Face, he'd probably just keep stealing faces.
And on top of all that, they could help resurrect the Trickster without admitting they knew the guy who ate him. They couldn't really lead Jimmy to Mr. What's-His-Face without admitting their great uncle was keeping him captive. And that would be a problem for the whole family.
"Oh," Jimmy said. "Okay, that's fine. Thanks for all your help. You know where to reach us if you hear anything."
Mabel shook her head. Dipper nodded. "Yeah, we'll let you know."
Jimmy hopped off the porch, shouted, "Hey Doug, can you help me carry these?" and chucked a couple of bags of chalk-hearts toward the tree line. Dipper and Mabel stared. Nothing emerged to pick the bags up.
They shut the door.
"Man," Dipper said. "We kinda devastated the paranormal poker group last summer, didn't we?"
"Yeah." Mabel sucked in a breath between her teeth. "Wow. Feels... kinda bad."
Dipper offered her the candy bowl. "Drown our feelings in chocolate?"
"Please."
They grabbed a piece of candy each, tore open the wrappers—and frowned. Mabel stomped a foot. "Dang it—Bill!"
"Hm?"
"How many of these wrappers are empty?!"
Bill poked his head out of the living room and said, smugly, "Like candy from a baby!"
####
A knock, and Dipper opened the door. "Wendy! Hey! Good timing—"
"Hey." Wendy lowered her voice. "Quick question—this is super important—is Goldie here?"
"Uh—yeah, why—?"
"Yello?" Bill carefully wove his way out of the living room, already less steady on his feet than when he'd sat down. "I heard my name, who's summoning me?"
Wendy pointed over the twins at Bill and turned to shout into the dark, "Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you! Live and in person... Toga Lady!"
A half dozen teenagers immediately went bananas. Hooting and hollering and cheering and whistling: "To-ga! To-ga! To-ga!"
Bill's entire face lit up. Without missing a beat, he pushed past the baffled twins out onto the porch and spread his arms wide, basking in the cheering. "That's right, keep it coming! Worship me! I'm the greatest!"
"Yes!" Robbie pumped a fist in the air. "The legends were true!" Nate immediately added, "The prophecy! The prophecy!" Tambry snapped photos of Toga Lady's fresh look as fast as her phone could save them, muttering, "Everyone's gonna flip when they find out you're still in town."
Wendy waited, grinning, until her friends' faux hysterics had died down. "Okay—okay, after getting you hyped up, I should probably say that Toga Lady is actually Toga Guy." She glanced questioningly at Bill. "I think?"
"Eh, I'm not picky."
"Anyway this is Goldie, he was stuck in another dimension for thirty years, it's crazy, and now he's like my illegal backup cashier. He actually... doesn't usually wear togas?"
Bill laughed. "If you can't wear a bedsheet on Summerween, when can you?"
Lee said, "Thompson wore a bedsheet to homecoming."
"Hey."
Bill pointed at Thompson. "A man of impeccable fashion! I like it!" Thompson gave him a look of eternal gratitude.
"And Goldie, this is the gang! That's Thompson, he's the guy with the van; Robbie and Tambry, they're like, gender-swapped versions of each other, they even share their hair dye..."
As Wendy did introductions, Mabel whispered to Dipper, "Did you know she was gonna introduce Goldie to everyone?"
"No! This is bad, I told her not to trust him..."
Bill was responding to a question, "No, no, you've gotta guess, I'm making everyone guess!"
The teens considered the question. Robbie offered first, "Punk caveman?"
"Nope!"
Hesitantly, Thompson tried, "Nero fiddling over the burning of Rome?" He winced when Lee laughed.
"I like where your head's at, but no! I can't fiddle."
"The gremlin king from Huge Maze?" Tambry said.
Mabel piped up, "No, but the wig came from a gremlin king costume and I appreciate you for recognizing that!" Tambry nodded in cool approval.
Bill dispensed of Lee, Nate, and Wendy's guesses—Greek Christmas tree, that one guy who keeps painting burning banks, and hair metal Hades—before Robbie loudly cleared his throat to cut in. "Anyway, would love to stay and chat, but we've gotta move if we wanna be in position before sunset. Dipper, Mabel, you ready?"
"Ready to ghost it up!" Mabel said, squeezing around Bill with Dipper onto the porch.
Robbie surveyed their makeup—deathly white skin, ashen grey lips, and dark circles around their eye sockets. "Yeah, that's pretty good. Could use a little color, maybe. Like bloody tears?" He turned toward Tambry.
She said, "I think I've got some red eyeliner."
"'In position'?" Bill asked, giving Dipper and Mabel a questioning look.
Wendy said, "We're helping Robbie film this music video tonight."
"We're the creepy ghost twins!" Mabel announced proudly. "We get to sing the chorus."
Robbie said, "Yeah, the song's about childhood and growing up, but like, with ghosts? Because once you've grown up, your childhood is all dead? It's metal, but introspective. I'm calling the genre 'intrometal.'" He flipped his bangs dramatically. "It's a super deep song. Metaphorical layers."
"Oh yeah?" Bill stared Robbie down. "Sing some of it."
Robbie blinked. "Oh. Yeah, okay uh, I haven't warmed up my voice but, the hook is like—" He pantomimed playing a guitar and whisper-screamed, "'BABY DOLLS! BASKET BALLS! BASKET CASE! HUMAN RACE!' Like that."
Bill nodded slowly, face expressionless. "Ah, yeah, I see. Really deep stuff. Makes you think."
"Thanks." Robbie looked at Dipper and Mabel. "Anyway, if we're gonna get any footage in the graveyard before the jack-o'-melons start burning out, we've gotta move. Let's go, Creepy Ghost Twins."
"Wait, you're going out?" Bill asked Mabel. "Like out-out? Leaving me here? By myself? On Summerween?"
"Wh—yeah, we're only handing out candy for half the night," Mabel said. "I told you that."
"No you didn't!"
"Yes I did!"
"When?"
Mabel thought. "No I didn't," she admitted. "Sorry!"
Wendy punched Bill's arm. "Sorry to steal them. We'll be back in a couple of hours," she said. "Or you could come help—?"
"No!" Dipper and Mabel both shoved Bill back into the house before he could accept. Dipper said, "You've gotta—guard the house." Mabel added, "And hand out candy!"
"Right," Bill said flatly. "Yes. That. Ha."
"See you later!" Mabel said, and then shut the door in his face.
The last thing he heard was Wendy explaining to her friends, "He's on house arrest for, like, academic plagiarism and war crimes or something..." and then they were gone.
Bill's shoulders slumped. Well, now what? He couldn't celebrate a holiday by himself. What was the point of wearing a costume if no one sees you in it. He picked up a piece of candy, discovered it was one of his decoys, and picked up another.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Yeah, yeah," Bill sighed. He picked up the candy bowl, turned toward the door, and paused. Ah. Right. What was he supposed to do with this impenetrable portal-blocking slab of wood.
Who was left in the house? Stan on the roof, Ford in the basement, Abuelita probably already in bed... were any of them worth harassing to help him answer the door? Maybe Stan, he'd gotten all dressed up, he liked the holiday even if he didn't like Bill—
The trick-or-treater knocked more insistently.
Or. Or.
He could pick up the bowl, peer out the small window in the door, and make direct eye contact with the children outside while he ate candy.
As a piece of mid-tier chocolate melted on his tongue, he saw three trick-or-treaters' faces fall as their faith in a kind, caring universe died. He grinned at them and ate another chocolate.
Oh yeah. He grabbed the rest of his cider from the living room and set up post next to the door. This would keep him entertained the rest of the night.
####
He made seven small children cry.
####
Stan watched from his post on the roof as yet another sobbing kid ran away from the shack. "HA! Gottem! Sucker!" He affectionately patted his boombox. "Creepy ghoulish laughter, you never disappoint! Terrifying moochers since 1989!" He paused the cassette and rewound it a few seconds to replay the best part.
He heard a scraping sound above him, and looked up just in time to see Ford sliding down the roof to join him. "Oh, hey! I didn't think we'd see you again tonight."
"Mabel made me promise to celebrate Summerween a little."
"Good for her!"
Stan had already claimed the sun lounger, so Ford brushed some dust and leaves off the roof's cooler and sat. "So, what are we doing? Scaring trick-or-treaters?"
"Yep. This year I'm taking a more atmospheric approach." He gestured at his boombox, which by now was playing haunting organ music. "Nothing like screaming zombies and rattling chains from nowhere to freak out the kids."
Ford nodded. "Psychological torment. I approve."
"Not quite as good as getting to see the terror in their eyes, but." Stan shrugged. "Bill was hanging out with the kids. I didn't want to put up with him."
"Mm. There's a reason I was spending the holiday in the basement."
"Heh. Well, there's always Halloween."
They were silent for a moment, listening as the cassette moved on from organ music to werewolf howls. Stan asked, "Think we'll be rid of him by then? I know we were hoping to be done with him before the Fourth of July—but since I haven't heard anything lately, I figure you hit a roadblock."
Ford winced. "Guilty as charged." He was still relearning how to keep other people in the loop. Even Stan. "You're right. I have a weapon that can destroy him, but I can't find a fuel source without restarting the portal. I'm hoping Fiddleford will come up with a solution I haven't."
Stan nodded. Ford had told him he was getting Fiddleford involved; even as reluctant as Ford was to admit how little progress he'd made, he wasn't going to tell someone outside the family about Bill without letting Stan know. "Any breakthroughs on his end?"
####
During the credits between episodes of the retired samurai period drama (most recently, the samurai had been asked to use his sword to help cut flowers for a bouquet), Fiddleford leaned over and whispered to Ford, "So I've been a-lookin' at those blueprints you left me."
"And...?"
"And I've constructicated a power adaptor. Just jimmy out the fuel tank, swap it for the adaptor's cord, and you can power that weapon by pluggin' it into the wall! It'll just drain all the power from the town for a few seconds, that's all."
"Fiddleford, that's amazing—"
"Now, hold on. There's bad news," Fiddleford said. "Try as I might, I can't quite get it to draw enough power to activate those energy-destroying features what you'd need to disintegrate Bill. It'll work like a powerful laser, but nothin' else."
Ford sighed. "It's a starting point, I suppose."
"I'll send you home with the adaptor anyway. Never know when you'll need a big laser."
"Very true. Do you have any promising leads on other alternative fuels?"
Fiddleford shook his head. "It's the NowUSeeitNowUDontium or nothing. But I've got a hunch we could synthesize it under lab conditions. I'll letcha know in a few days."
And then the next episode started, and they dropped the conversation.
####
Ford let out a heavy sigh. "He's only had a partial success so far. But I'm hopeful he's on the right track."
"So, if he's working on this weapon, what are you doing?"
"Waiting, mostly. I don't know what else I can do."
Stan frowned. "What—that's it? You've been downstairs all day every day—if you're not figuring out how to destroy him, what are you doing?"
"Passing time somewhere I can be on call if he gets up to something—but I don't have to look at him," Ford said wryly. "And—as long as I'm waiting to hear back from Fiddleford, I've been... picking apart that list of spells Bill gave me. To see if any of them are tricks or traps."
Stan couldn't say he was surprised. That was his workaholic brother. A pamphlet of demon magic was like catnip to him. If anything, Stan was almost glad Ford had that letter to distract him. Over the past year...
Well, Ford was fine on land—when he temporarily had a mystery to solve, an adventure to pursue, an anomaly to study, a distraction to fill his time—but at sea, when his mind was unoccupied, he was listless. He had books he didn't read, field notes he didn't enter into his journal, games he didn't play. He fed himself and exercised and did chores around the ship like a robot programmed to take care of itself, and he stared out at the sea.
Last summer, Ford hadn't seemed happy but he'd seemed alive. Tired and angry, but alive. But after Weirdmageddon, a light in his eyes went out. Stan didn't know if it was the end of summer, or guilt over the memory gun, or the gap between finishing a thirty-year-long quest and discovering the next one. All Stan knew was the light hadn't come back on until the moment Bill Cipher, clad in a new body and a purple cartoon bedsheet, tried to cave Ford's skull in.
Ever since they were children, Ford had had a tendency to develop obsessions. It was somehow simultaneously both what made him most interesting and what made him boring. Depended on the obsession. But these all-consuming interests had always tended to last a few months, at most a year; and he'd never seemed to be without one, much less for nine months. Stan had no idea what carrying a single obsession for three decades might have done to Ford's mind.
Stan was glad something had woken Ford back up, and he worried that losing that focal point again might leave Ford permanently adrift. But another part of him worried that, this time, Ford wouldn't let the object of his obsession go. He tended to collect things related to his obsessions.
But then, he usually tended to like his obsessions. He hadn't seemed bothered to burn the contents of his creepy Bill shrine last summer. Ford wouldn't do anything stupid, Stan told himself. Ford hated Bill. "So? Were any of the spells traps?"
"Not... so far, no." Ford sounded irritated by this.
Stan shrugged. "Makes sense. He's trying to butter us up. If that idiot thinks being nice to us for a week or two is gonna make up for the years of grief he's given us—"
A loud rattle-clattering below made them both start. Stan sat bolt upright. "What the—?"
Ford inched to the edge of the dormer roof, knelt down, and leaned over the edge just far enough to see the window.
Bill's face was pressed to the glass, eye rolled up toward the roofline. He grinned in surprised delight and shouted through the glass, "HEY, STANFORD! What are you doing up here?! I thought you were downstairs!"
"Ugh." Ford turned to grimace at Stan. "Speak of the devil."
Bill pounded on the glass again. "Hey, Sixer! SIXER! Open the window!"
"Why?"
"I wanna talk!"
"No."
"Come ooon, the kids ditched me and I'm bored! There's no one in the house to talk to! The old lady's asleep and Stanley's on the roof, so—" He abruptly fell silent, squinting with deep suspicion at Ford-who-should-be-in-the-basement kneeling on the-roof-where-Stan-should-be, and said, "Wait. Are you Stanley right now? Show me your hand."
Ford did not. "Go away, Bill." He left the edge of the roof for his cooler seat.
"Get back here!" The pounding redoubled. "I don't care which Stan you are! If you don't wanna talk, I can always go wake up Dolores!"
Ford looked at Stan. "Mrs. Ramirez's name is Dolores?" He had gotten used to everyone calling her Abuelita.
Stan stomped on the roof, "Shaddup!"
Bill did not shaddup. "Come ooon!"
Stan sighed in defeat and heaved himself to his feet. "If he keeps that racket up he's gonna break that window, never mind that hex you put on him." When they'd taken out the original Bill-shaped window, Stan had replaced it with the cheapest window he could find. He didn't think it was very durable. "How much trouble can he get in with one open window twenty feet above the ground and both of us watching him?"
Ford Frowned.
"Don't gimme that look. Do you want to pay for a broken window?" Stan flipped through his keys for his key-shaped emergency lock pick, leaned over the edge of the roof, and wedged the pick into the window frame. The latch popped open. Lucky this window was so cheap, that wouldn't have worked on one with deluxe features like "airtight weatherstripping" or "a properly-fitting frame." Stan swung open the window. "Okay, you have our attention. Now what's the fastest way we can get rid of you?"
Bill clumsily climbed out to sit on the windowsill with his legs in the shack, and leaned back so he could see up onto the roof. "Hiya Fo—" He lost his balance, flailed, and yelped as he toppled backwards.
Stan and Ford lunged forward to seize an arm each. Stan snapped, "What are you doing, you maniac?!"
Bill stared up at them both in wide-eyed amazement. "You do like me."
Stan made a noise of disgust, let go, and wiped his hands on his pants like Bill had cooties.
Ford said, "We like you trapped in that body and not free to cause the apocalypse."
"I heard 'we like you'!"
"Shut up." Ford managed to haul Bill back upright. (Touching Bill felt wrong—all soft flesh and skin and the suggestion of bones underneath. Even when looking right at Bill's human body, Ford still expected him to feel like heavy shadows and heatless flames.) From this close, Bill reeked of cider. "Just how much have you had to drink?"
"Not so much I won't remember whatever you say in the morning, so be nice to me!" Bill laughed. He leaned back, this time hanging by one hand off the window frame to precariously maintain his balance, and grinned up at Ford. "So! The least fun person in the house has finally emerged from his lair? And you didn't even come into the house to join in the Summerween festivities! 'All work and no play'..."
Ford had to crouch at the edge of the roof, hovering nearby in case Bill lost his balance again. "I wanted to participate in Summerween, actually. It just so happens that the last person I'd ever spend a holiday with is in the house."
"Listen, Stanford. I know you're holing up in your study for days on end just to hurt me. But let's be honest, you're hurting yourself more! When's the last time you saw the sunlight! Look at how pale you're getting, you look like a vampire."
Stiffly, Ford said, "It's costume makeup. That's my vampire costume." Stan laughed.
"It what." Bill flipped up his eyepatch and squinted blearily at Ford's face.
Wordlessly, Ford bared his teeth to show off his plastic vampire teeth.
"Oh." Somewhat deflated, Bill said, "Nice work, it's convincing."
"Thanks," Ford said grudgingly. Giving in to his curiosity, he gestured toward Bill's (somewhat disheveled) reddish-yellow wig. "What are you."
"Oh!" Bill perked back up. "You've got to see the whole thing. Hold on—" He turned around in the window, ignoring how Ford half reached for him in case he needed steadying, until he got his legs outside to dangle on the roof. "What do you think!"
Ford looked over the brown toga flared out like a cone, the eruption of red hair, the small paper city below, and said, "Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii? Very clever."
Bill's face lit up. "Finally! You're the first person all day to get it!" He smoothed out the skirt proudly, his jerky gestures just a bit more exaggerated than usual. "Do you know how long I've wanted to go to a costume party as Vesuvius? But nobody off Earth would get it! And now that I'm finally here, I can't go to parties and I'm shaped more like a mandrake than a volcano." He flung up his hands, wobbled, and caught himself before Ford had to intervene. "But at least you got it. I knew I could count on you, IQ."
He sounded so sincerely grateful. Ford regretted calling the costume clever. It was, but Bill didn't need the ego boost.
"Oh! By the by—I didn't think you'd emerge before the day was over, so I saved this." Bill fished around in his toga until he retrieved a mini pack of jelly beans. "Here!"
Ford eyed the pack. "Why is it open?"
"Because you only like the weird-shaped jelly beans, so I ate all the normal beans and saved the weird ones in one bag."
"I don't want this. You touched every one of the beans, that would be disgusting even if they weren't coming from you," Ford said. "Anyway, this is a patently transparent attempt to buy your way into my good favor—"
"It sure is, Ford, and if you don't accept it I'll get to be annoying about your ingratitude for weeks! Is that what you want? You know I'll do it. Everyone will be on my side—"
Ford sighed, but snatched the bag from Bill's hand. "Fine. Now drop it."
"That's more like it!" Bill favored Ford with an approving smile. "Anyway, it's just about the only candy left in the house, I ate everything else—hey, have you ever been cross faded on cider and a sugar rush?"
Ford was still trying to decide whether he wanted to engage in this one-sided conversation enough to ask Bill what "cross faded" meant when Bill moved on without him: "It's—not that interesting, actually. 6 out of 10. Anyway, all that's left in the bowl is mints and wrappers. And Mabel even managed to give most of the mints away—hey, she's so nice, did you know she's helping to resurrect the Summerween Trickster?"
She was doing what? "No. Why?"
"She's so nice."
"You just said that."
"What is she so nice for. What's she getting out of it," Bill asked, more to the universe at large than to Ford. "If more humans were half as nice to freaks as she is, your rotten planet wouldn't need people like you and me to save it."
Ford didn't even know where to begin with that. He looked to Stan for help.
Stan was sitting straddling his lounger, elbow on one knee and chin in his hand, watching this exchange like he was watching a weird bug on the wall try to navigate around a picture frame. At Ford's glance, he rolled his eyes and pantomimed sipping from a drink.
He could say that again. Ford cleared his throat. "Bill, maybe you should..."
"Hey," Bill said. "Great talk, we really should catch up more sometime. And pull your weight next time, I always have to do all the talking. But right now, I'm..." He gestured vaguely off to the side. "I'm gonna lie down and try not to throw up. Ciao!" He swayed as he tried to get back in the window, tumbled backward into the shack, and thudded heavily on the floor. "Ow."
Ford gingerly shut the window.
Stan turned up the boombox. "Chatty drunk, isn't he."
"He's chatty sober, too." But in front of the kids? Neither of them saw Bill as a role model, but they still didn't need to be exposed to that kind of behavior. Especially when the responsible adults were outside or asleep... "Did we really leave Bill alone in the house with the kids?"
"W—I—" Stan shrugged defensively. "They were all right! They can take him! They're doing karate or whatever! You didn't see how Mabel flipped him at the mall! It was like David wrestling Goliath."
"David and Goliath didn't wrestle."
"You know what I mean."
Ford supposed he didn't think Bill was any threat to the children. At least, not right now, and not physically. He felt like he'd know if Bill was about to try anything.
He looked at his open bag of gross felt-up jelly beans. Speaking of trying to butter them up... Ford wound up and chucked the bag as hard as he could.
He stared into the dark after it.
A small part of him was beginning to wonder whether this wasn't all just an attempt to get Ford's guard down. The gifts, sure, that was as clear-cut a case of bribery as you could get. Nothing ambiguous there.
But the endless chatter... Back when Ford had called Bill his Muse, this was exactly how he'd wanted Bill to talk to him. Not in the flighty half-distracted way of a friendly businessman catching up on a work project's progress before hurrying on to the next meeting; but just talking for talking's sake, talking for the company.
Getting what he once had longed for made his skin crawl. And he couldn't even tell if Bill was acting.
The boombox let out a ghastly banshee shriek. Ford and Stan both jumped, then laughed awkwardly.
Ford sat on the cooler again. "Is it just me, or... did Bill completely ignore you as soon as he realized I was up here."
"Well. I wasn't gonna mention it. I didn't wanna sound jealous of the attention. But yeah—he's been doing that since he got here. If you're in the room, he tunes everyone else out."
"I thought it was in my head." And he hadn't wanted to sound like he wanted to imagine Bill was favoring him.
"And you do the same thing around him," Stan said, and laughed at Ford's flinch of alarm. "It's—it's fine, I get it. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? You've got some kind of superhero-supervillain nemesis thing."
Ford got the distinct impression that Stan was offering him a convenient excuse for the tunnel vision. He took it. "I suppose that's true." The way his jaw clenched and his shoulders tensed around Bill certainly felt like a "nemesis" reaction.
But if Stan thought Ford was a bit too preoccupied by Bill... well, maybe he was right. Once Ford had gotten over his initial wave of fear, of despair, of outrage at the injustice, at finding Bill was still alive—there was a part of him that was almost relieved. A part of him that had been on guard against nothing for the past year, twisting around looking for an absent threat. Now that it knew where the threat was, that part of him could finally settle down and watch Bill with steady, certain eyes. Having nothing to worry about made him more anxious than having one thing to always worry about.
(Maybe Shermie's kid had been on to something when he suggested Ford might benefit from therapy.)
Knowing Bill was back didn't put the old starlight and awe back in that hole Bill had left in Ford's chest. But dread could fill a hole all the same.
Ford tried to push Bill out of his mind and the conversation. "You think I'm like a superhero?"
"You run around fighting monsters with a space laser. What else would you be?"
"Huh." Well. That made his night.
"Just as long as you don't pull that 'hero spares the villain to show how good he is' shtick."
"Never." Ford laughed ruefully. "I think I left 'good' behind a few felonies back." He'd probably left "good" behind the night he accepted the portal blueprints.
"Couple stragglers," Stan said, nodding out into the dark. It took Ford a moment to spot the costumed kids and remember it was Summerween. "I recognize those costumes, I scared them off an hour ago. What are they doing back?"
Ford squinted at them. "Are those toilet paper rolls?"
"Wh—Hey! What are you little runts— Hey!" Stan leaped to his feet, shaking his fist at the kids below. "Get away from my car! Stop that! I'll have you know that's a classic— No, not the eggs!"
Ford slid out his freeze ray, turned down the power, and offered it to Stan. "Here. At this power and distance, it'll feel like getting pelted with invisible snowballs."
Stan snatched up the weapon. "Eat this, twerps!"
The Summerween night air was filled with the screams of terrified children and the evil laughter of an old man.
####
Wow. It sure sounded like everybody was having fun. Outside. Without him.
Bill was nauseous.
He stared at the spinning ceiling, flat on his back, one leg on a cushion and the rest of him on the floor.
Bill was nauseous and alone. The loneliness tore at his throat. Even Mabel had ditched him. Of course she did—he'd tried to kill her. He'd barely even remembered he'd tried to kill her until she brought it up. Had he tried to kill her? No, surely not—he liked the kid, he'd always liked her—he'd been faking to force Ford's hand, he never would have gone through with it. He would've teleported her into another room and pretended he'd disintegrated her. She didn't know he hadn't meant it. She was just mad he'd scared her. She couldn't take a joke.
But, Ford talked to him. Ford even liked his costume. It wasn't much, but it would get Bill through the night.
When he saw Kryptos again—when, not if—he was slicing him into a jigsaw puzzle for not taking Bill's call. The nerve of that guy, hanging up on a human without even waiting a few words to see if they had anything interesting to say.
(What if it hadn't been an accident, he wondered? What if Kryptos had realized it was Bill and still hung up?)
(No. Of course it was an accident.)
He shut his eyes. He was probably too drunk to dream tonight. Well, he could try again tomorrow. His little lucid dreaming guide was currently teaching him to influence the next night's dream by focusing on a topic before sleep. Maybe tomorrow he could dream about the Nightmare Realm.
He missed home.
####
(Congratulations to the approximately 50% of respondents who correctly figured out Bill's costume when I posted the art on Halloween, you're officially smarter than everybody in Gravity Falls except Ford. This is one of those chapters with a whole lot going on so if you enjoyed, I'd love to hear your comments!!)
#(tbh that's the best Mabel & Dipper I've ever drawn)#bill cipher#human bill cipher#mabel pines#dipper pines#(for both the art & fic)#grunkle ford#grunkle stan#(for just the fic)#gravity falls#gravity falls fanart#gravity falls fic#my writing#my art#fanart#bill goldilocks cipher
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atta boy show
i wanted to share my experience meeting lewis and the gang. the night was an absolute dream. it’s lengthy so it’s under a read more.
first of all the show was phenomenal. the opener, me like bees, was fantastic and i’ve been listening to them nonstop since last night. plus atta boy’s set was so good, of course. when they walked off at the end everyone started chanting for one more song so they came back to play another one (i will post the video later) and as they were getting ready to play lewis was snapping pics of eden and freddy with his film camera, very endearing lol.
so leading up to the show i decided i was going to make coasters for all of the band members. so i made one for each with their names on them, the date of the show, and my city's skyline. first i gave aubrey hers. she loved it. and she is darling! such a kind, sweet, beautiful girl! i told her how much i loved how she played and that she was beautiful, and she was just so touched.
then i gave dashel his. he got so animated about it and he asked me all the details about how i made it. he is truly so wonderful and kind, like his energy is just infectious and he's so lovely. and very attentive! a few people had fainting issues in the crowd and if they were close by he made sure to check on them, and offer help if needed. genuinely angelic human.
then of course miss eden! i didn't get to talk to her as long as i wanted to because they were packing up and i didn't wanna interrupt, but i gave her the coaster and she was so excited. plus i also put together a bag full of snacks and goodies for the gang to share on the road home and she loved it, she kept thanking me and ugh she's just so darling! like i mentioned above a few people fainted in the crowd and she stopped the show each time to make sure they were taken care of, and made sure to be encouraging and keep everyone calm.
i also wanna shout out luke shaefer, the lead singer of me like bees. he jumped right into action every time someone needed help. after their set a girl near me was having an asthma attack and he gave her water and had her sit down on the stage. and then he ran to the aid of someone who fainted. truly the most genuine, kind person. i got to talk to him for like 15 minutes straight after the show, and just vibe with him. he is AMAZING. and their music is so fucking good. their set was so loud my ears were still ringing, but so worth the ear pain lol. i will def be listening to them all the time now!
then of course freddy. i also didn't get to talk to him as much as i wanted because they were packing up but i stopped him to give him his coaster. he LIT UP and said "this is the sweetest gift i've ever been given." and then asked me if i was okay with a hug (of course i was). he was just so kind and gracious and energetic. god i love him. he is so cute to watch on stage too. he's got such a good aura about him.
and without further adieu, that brings me to our beloved lew magoo 😉
i thought for sure i'd be nervous and awkward but i am proud to say i stared him down just as hard as he was staring me down lol. also i was really extra and went a bit overboard with my presents for him. i touched his arm and was like "so i have a lot of presents for you...i am so sorry" and he was like "oh let's go over here where there's more space!" and led me over to the stage. then i went on my spiel. i of course gave him his coaster. he loved it, and at first he was like "omg is this a cookie?" (i packaged them in little goodie bags) and i was like sir! that is a coaster, please do not eat it. and he just thought it was so cool and asked how i made it. and he was like “this is the beginning of my coaster collection!” let me tell you, all the painstaking work i did on those coasters made that moment all worth it.
then, i got him a set of pens that look like drumsticks. he was so excited and was like "oh i've been looking for new pens! these are insanely cool!" but it didn't end there. the last thing i got him was a brand new mack hat. i told him i heard that his old one bit the dust (he was wearing it as we spoke, it just didn't have the patch) and that i went looking for a new one. and i presented it to him and his FACE. he was like 😱 and no joke, he started tearing up. and then he immediately put it on. i asked him if i could take a picture of him wearing it so he happily posed for me, and then he insisted i take another picture of him pointing at the hat (i may share the pics on my blog. i may not. we shall see. they are so special to me. mooties will definitely get to see the pics, i promise) and he was just ecstatic. i think he gave me a hug? but i honestly do not remember lol, i blacked out at the end. i did get pics with him though, which he took himself. and he went "the mack is back!" 😭
he is just as kind and gracious as everyone says he is. meeting him was unreal. i'm so glad i had the opportunity and i wouldn't trade it for the world. the show was such a surreal and beautiful experience. i met several new friends as well as a few tumblr girlies and we just all vibed and had such a great time. i hope atta boy tours again soon and that more people get a chance to interact with these incredible people. they deserve all the love and success and i hope they have a long and prosperous career together as a band, and that they're able to flourish in their own personal ventures as well.
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Why Midori is such a breath of fresh air or how to actually write a Villain.
So the awaited essay, the winner of the FrenchGremlin polls of laziness finally has come! It took some time but it’s finally over. If your choice didn’t get chosen that’s okay! I’ll repost a new poll with old and newer options. Please reblog this one i put a lot of time in it, it's like, five pages long over a silly goose. Also sorry for the grammar i sucks and i'm not native. So let’s begin:
(also here is the link to the video format)
So first let’s make things clear, What IS a villain?
“A villain is a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.” That is why I do want to make a difference between a villain and an antagonist, an antagonist is a character who are a plot devices that creates obstruction to the protagonist. That means that a villain is forced to be an antagonist while an antagonist is not forced to be a villain. For example shin is an antagonist but not a villain, he is driven by selfish desires which are themselves fueled by fear anger and loss, he is the protagonist of his own story and is a sympathetic character despite it all, and Midori is just a bitch. Midori falls under multiple stereotypes of villains. Such as “the mastermind”, “evil incarnate” (lmao),”related to the protagonist” etc. Midori is evil, there is no denying in this, he is purely evil, and he doesn’t have a sad weepy backstory, he doesn’t feel empathy towards other, he is a despicable piece of shit who ruined so many lives. I won’t list everything but here is a list of his crimes, murder, assault, domestic abuse, grooming, verbal abuse, and torture, crimes against humanity lmao, stalking, violent crimes, and participation in a cult. And his worst crime is being a pussy bitch of course. So now that we have put the bases up let’s really begin.
Hollywood has a hate boner against villains and I hate them for that.
Recently Hollywood decided that pure evil bad guys is actually a bad thing, so now they decided to do stupid side story with them, to give them ”””depth””” since I guess how could we like those villains since they are bad. A great example of this is the Disney remakes which I loathe so much oh god I hate them. So first they did a maleficient it was okay honestly, then they did a freaking cruella movie where her mom gets killed by Dalmatians, that’s not a joke, in the peter and wendy movie that nobody saw they decided to have made the captain hook be a lost boy who was abandoned by the lost boys and peter, oh also they decided that PETER CUT HIS HANDS OFF AND LEFT HIM TO DIE BECAUSE HOOK WANTED TO SEE HIS FAMILY. They are going to do a freaking mufasa movie, in no time I can’t wait to have a Ursula movie where it’s discovered that ariel killed all of her family in cold blood or something’s. So you might say what’s the problem? I mean isn’t that supposed to make the story more interesting. No, no it doesn’t, because first they take all of the character personality traits and throw them in the bin, second they are supposed to be the vilain in a musical animated movies, I am not against complex villain, I love them, but by doing this, the original character doesn’t exist anymore. Just create original content with new interesting characters instead of doing stuff like this. Also it’s kind of funny than in all of those interpretation they take all the fun and sucks it out, what do I mean by fun, the gayness, Disney vilain are fun because they are camp, they are fabulous extravagant extra in all the ways possible, and that’s the reason we liked them. Not every character needs something super deep, like “my family was burned down at the stake and my dog was eaten by my ex”, sometimes we just like bad fun people, they are the story, and Hollywood hating them so bad just bothers me a lot. Also now the new thing is to not have a villain at all which can works in some narrative but not all of them, it gets boring after a while. In the past people were angry that villains are bland, but now I kind of miss it. While I will critique villains who have no purpose outside of being evil that’s dumb, like for example Voldemort is bland like white bread because his only motivation is being evil, but evil people do exist compared to what some Hollywood writers think, they should know. So that’s why I will put a difference between evil villains and villains whose only purpose is being evil; we loved Disney villains but they still had motivations, goals, reasons that to them a least were worth everything. World domination isn’t enough, why do you want world domination, what is the true reason deep in your heart, is it an inferiority complex, is it a savior complex fuelled by xenophobic beliefs.
That is how to write a pure evil villain, evil people exist all over the world, but I have never seen one who doesn’t have they own reasons to be so bad, it doesn’t excuse their actions nor really explains them. We do not want justifications we want explanations. If you are justifying evil behavior then do it, but don’t claim that it is a pure evil character. A pure evil character can be fun, can be interesting, he can be deep, it’s all about balancing all of their traits to truly make them greats. Which is why midori succeeds while current villains fail. Current stupid remake/spin off try to justify the behavior because they feel like this is what the audience wants, but it’s not what we need. So I will defend to the grave evil villains.
Creating an evil villain doesn’t make them boring guys.
Why the heck does big budget movies have either the blandest protagonist or the blandest villains sometimes both, like I said evil people do exist but comically evil character only works in satire not in a serious multiple millions of dollar movie. Example that boring ass avatar movie, the one with blue people, none of the characters are interesting the villain is one note. The lords of the rings also suffers from that, but I don’t care because the protagonist are so awesome that sauron being personality less doesn’t matter. Also sauron is more of a force of nature villains so it’s not the same. The recent kingsman movie has a bland one note villain, there is nothing entertaining, funny, about him he’s just evil, borrrrring. Every Disney remakes depiction of the characters are boring. I just feel bored out of my mind. Atla one of my favorite shows of all time has a main villain that’s kinda one note, Ozai, but he is actually intimidating guy, azula is the superior character, but I wouldn’t consider her a villain she is an antagonist though. I honestly don’t get why Hollywood thinks that just creating a character with no personality and whose only goals is to be evil is good.
So back to midori for a second, here is my question, when midori was on screen did you ever feel bored? Never right! Because despite midori being an evil character he has an actual personality, he’s fun, you want to punch him in the balls. Because midori has other personality traits than evil, midori is petty, childish, extremely intelligent, controlling, a natural manipulator, he is a trickster, he doesn’t seem to get some social norms, he is narcissistic, easily angry, and fears death etc See how I counted a lot of traits, traits that in other character would works, midori has positive traits, and I think that is the best thing nankidai could have ever done, midori has traits that a regular person could have. Which is why if I put midori in any settings his character would work.
Example, instead of a death game the cast is under the sea to discover the insane wildlife and supernatural stuff happening, what would midori do in this situation? Well he would very passionate about finding all of what’s happening, he’ll do anything to find out, even sometime sacrificing others, not only will he try to find what’s happening, but he is also going to try to find a way to make this discovery favour him in the end. Or let’s imagine it’s a vampire situation, where a vampire attacks the city, midori would try to stop it, not because he cares, but to experiment on them to get their biology and finds the real secret of immortality since he fears death.
Here is my second advice, after creating your character try to imagine them in another completely different situation, like normal life, or a fantasy world, ask yourself the question what would they do in that environment? If you can find a real complete explanation of their actions then yes your character has multiples dimensions if not try thinking about it again. Some example of questions I do want to point out are some like “if my character had all the power in the world what would they do first or”, “if my character had only a day left to live what would they do”
Why is Current media incapable of creating good threats like bruhhhh.
Okay so first of all let’s talk about stakes in a story, let’s say you are watching a slasher movie, slowly the cast gets slimmed down and people die in horrible ways, that should set stakes right ? Well if the villain is an absolute buffoon who makes the stupidest actions and decisions in the world, you wouldn’t feel intimidated at all because despite what the filmmaker might try to say the plot armor will NEVER make a character intimidating. It’s just like a detective character who just seems to know everything without a thought, well you won’t really fear the character failing. Worse is the the final girl, who is for some reason always escaping the slasher guy by pure luck every time, she is shown as incompetent but still she survives, which make the villain seem completely incapable so now you feel nothing.
To avoid this filmmaker often use techniques such has unpredictability, I mean good I mean good ones, for example instead of immediately seeing whose going to survive because the black guys always dies first and the virgin white woman is the last survivor, change the status quo, make us think that this character is obviously safe while they actually aren’t at all. Or actually make them menacing by SHOWING to the audience how horrible dangerous they can be. Which is why SHOW DON’T TELL is so important, telling us how dangerous someone can be only to see them get beaten to death at the end of the movie makes us feel nothing.
Midori felt like a impossible person to beat, he is smart, had twenty plans in advance, even in situation where the cast felt like they might have a chance he was always armed, just like the gun he promised to use or the rocket punch. When they felt like they were finally advancing, he put obstacle in their ways, such as the collar game or the moment he put the collar on explode mode for ranmaru. The entire point in the murder game was to make time pass, it took a long time for the cast top realize that this whole time they were losing precious time not realizing that the dummies were the real problem. The characters that made you feel the most hopeless were the dummies, if you won by killing midori they would die, but if you lost you might lose people you love (keiji or gin). It felt hopeless because they were no solutions in the end. That creates tension so that creates stakes. If we were told how dangerous unpredictable sou was then it wouldn’t hit the same, we are shown that he is that terrible. There is a scene ingame where bbg shin ai tells us that midori tortured and like to destroy people. That’s exposition so TELL, but do you why it works, because we are SHOWN before his behavior. Midori felt unbeatable, so the fact that we were shown his weakness such has his petty behavior, hatred of minors, and fear of death, for the first time it feels like there is a chance that we might survive this. And still after he isn’t shown has an incompetent buffoon, he is one, but the narrative doesn’t show us that he is.
What is also consider is good to make the audience feel actual stakes is to first really develop well the main characters, how can we feel worry for a character if we don’t know them, the audience need to feels emotional connection to the main cast to actually care. You can use things such has moments where there is nothing special happening just character talking getting to know them. Make us feel why we need to care about them possibly losing, instead of being indifferent. Or I don’t know maybe make an entire spin off game where we get to have the cast talk to each other and seeing dynamics between character that died early to get them a chance to shine and make their death even more tragic, or even make mini episodes of characters who only got a single chapter to show off their characteristic, to get us to know them better? But that’s just a silly idea of course, wink, and wink.
My favorite thing about Midori is that he is actually pathetic, like really pathetic, but weirdly realistic?
Midori is the most pathetic character in the cast, yes more than shin, shin is leagues less pathetic. No I’m not saying that midori is not intimidating or scary, I would piss myself if I saw him. He’s a scary guy. But if you look at him more closely you can see that he is a baby brat in a big boy suit.
So let’s start by something clear, Sou Hiyori clearly displays antisocial behavior, or in common terms he is a psychopath/sociopath, this illness is very badly seen in medias, I am not saying that people who lacks empathy like him are inherently bad, he is, a lot of people with antisocial behavior actually suffers a lot and have a difficult life. Sou real issues is not his antisocial behavior, it’s his narcissism and god complex. Sou feels the need to HAVE CONTROL over others, he like the feeling of being in power, he sees the rest of the world has beneath him, toys for his pleasure. He says that he “really like humans” because despite it all he seems to put himself in a different categories than regular people, they are beneath him. When he loses control his calm and cool behavior disappears and we see his true face, a grown man who has throws a tantrum like a baby. One of the best representation of this is midori views on the cast:
Midori hates kanna, like no jokes he has beef with her, a fourteen years old, actually he has beef with a lot of people in the cast. Midori views emotional people has weak, people who are loving optimistic as beneath him and useless. He preferred when sara was cruel and horrible, that’s what he loved about her, he liked seeing her scary emotionless side. But Kanna, kanna is everything he hates. A crybaby who not only puts the group in harmony, is a source of hope in general, is the reason he near got to have closure with shin (killing him), he views kanna as “not fun shin”. We have many proofs for this, if you type the word kanna kizuchi he says this: “Poor Kanna'd weep! I think a more worthless name would be better for someone like me” He mocks her, but also himself (I’lll come back on this later), he calls her worthless. Also in the electric charge minigame, when he can choose who to shocks he chooses two people in particular, kanna who he hates and hinako who ruined his fun by giving the cast a chance in saving ranmaru. But he does also says mean spirited stuff to other people, qtaro and gin. He also says some sarcastic comments about nao and joe, saying that it’s such a shame that they died so young. But you might say why kanna especially? Because he is a petty baby who is jealous of kanna, Yes jealous, of kanna, a fourteen years old. Because he feels like she stole his hubby wubby shin away from him…. God I hate him. And you know what that make him a pathetic idiot, after the scene where kanna beats his ass, he’s all mad and like “uhh I’m going to pout I wanted you to cry like a lot, now I’m gonna cry”. An that’s actually god, because it humanize him, he wants need thoughts, he isn’t one note, and that’s the most important!
Sou is a villain but before that he is a character, a fully developed character, and THAT’S WHAT MAKE HIM GREAT, Sou works because he works realistically, I mean if you forget the robot part, it’s easy to imagine a narcissist man child who needs to feel in power towards other, so his main prey are young vulnerable people.Which leads me to my next point:
Sou is a failure like really, and we aren’t sad for him.
Sou failed everything he worked on, he failed to get the paper from alice, he failed whith shin since he had to leave earlier than he thought he would leave, because of his mistake he lost his position in the death game, then he failed to kill gin or keiji, and then he died like an idiot losing his cool and acting like a toddler. And he knows it that why he is a bit self-hating (he should be). And yet none of us feel any sympathy towards him, why? Because sou is one of the most despicable guy in existence. He is a disgusting pervert, sadistic asshole, and abusive narcissistic cunt who thinks he is better than everyone. From the bottom of my heart I hate him sooooo much he is literally the character I hate the most in existence. He abused shin, ruined keiji’s life, traumatized the entire cast, literally assaulted sara like he physically assaulted her. He mocked nao and joe and kugie life as useless. He is an obsessive jerk AND I HATE HIM. And you know what…… It’s good. Like I actually feel a lot of emotions when I think about him, he fuels me with anger and disgust, and if your characters can make me feel that much rage then you did it, you created an actual perfect character. Hiyori is such a shit person that I think about him a lot, writers shouldn’t be scared to make a character such hittable assholes, example bojack horseman in bojack horseman is the vilest man on earth and I love it, because I genuinely hate him. Just like I genuinely love kanna, like really I really love her, I in the same time despise midori so bad. We hate him because he is horrible to good people that WE KNOW AND CARE ABOUT, not random npcs. There is a lot of… disgusting implications in his story with shin that I will not talk about it makes me really uncomfortable right now. SO HERE IS A VERY TACKY TRANSITION TO TALK ABOUT WHY I HATE JUNKO FROM DANGANRONPA.
Junko is boring, that’s it, she is boring, not funny not interesting, she is a fetish, she is the biggest Mary sue on earth, she is a gross character made to make fun of people with disabilities and queer people. Her only traits is being crazy, that’s it. I wouldn’t call midori that crazy actually, he’s methodical calculated, and precise. Crazyness is a term for people who aren’t in control of their actions and delusional about reality, sou is not crazy, he knows what he is doing, he is in full control, while characters like shin should actually be consider crazy, like shin is actually crazy but sou isn’t.
Conclusion:
Sou is a breath of fresh air, because nankidai had the balls to write an actually interesting deep and threatening character AND make him a villain. He didn’t fall into the trap of making him have a sad backstory or good motives, sou is just selfish, that’s all he is. He make him a fun entertaining guy who you absolutely hates, he made him threatening and at the same time a complete doofus. He made him humane and pathetic.
But the thing that make me love nankidai the most is this
The fact that he actually killed him that takes courage as a writer to just end a character THAT WAY, which is why midori will never come back alive he is forever dead. And that take a lot of talents as a writer to just take one of the most important characters and just get him drilled to death in the anus, like dammn nankidai you are a savage. That fact alone makes him one of the best characters in game, I hate him as a person, but has a character he is a masterpiece.
Though Kanna could solo him
this was posted as a video on my blog this is mainly so people who don't want to stay there reading a 24 minute video of my stuttering can have a bit of quiet
#yttd#your turn to die#kimi ga shine#shin tsukimi#kanna kizuchi#sou hiyori#midori yttd#cna you tell i have no life#i spend a part of my short existence writing about fucking midori#yttd analysis#frenchgremlim polls of laziness
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THANK YOU FRIENDS ALL OF YOU WERE SO NICE i wrote 420 words (blaze it) (minimum was 350) my arguments were immaculate. Irrefutable. The likes of which no one has ever seen. AND i got to bring up frankenstein because i love bringing up frankenstein in anything apparently. and i only invented a weird sentence structure ONCE ! We’re making it out of the hole this time
everyone hope for your tumblr fave to pass his exam or i’ll blow us all up
#AND AS A TREAT I GOT ME A MILKSHAKE AND LISTENED TO THE NEW CRANE WIVES SONG#FUUUCK ITmS SO GOOD IT’S ACTUALLY MAKING ME SICK IN THE STOMACHC#WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THE WALL BY THE CRANE WIVES WITH ME . IT IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL SONG I CANT#I CAN TELL IM GONNA BE PLAYING IT ON LOOP FOR THE NEXT FORSEEABLE YEAR#oh my god i canttt#emilee petersmark you are everything to me#AND SHE ALSO DID THE ANIMATION FOR THE MUSIC VIDEO IT’S SO FUCKING PRETTY???#EMILEE WE SHALL HAVE A SUMMER WEDDING
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Unlisted Fandoms Challenge
While we pull together the post on the various types of fan labor being offered so far, here's a quick update on the *hundreds* of write-in fandoms we've received ...
At the top of the list we have Jeff Satur holding onto the lead with 7 entries, but Zhen Hun/Guardian is right on his heels with 6. And then there's a three-way tie for third place with 5 write-ins each for BBC Ghosts, Control (Remedy Game), and Dungeon Meshi / Delicious In Dungeon. Schitt's Creek claims fourth place with 4 entries, and in fifth there's a 14-way tie:
Alien Stage Cabin Pressure Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast) Fire Emblem Awakening Fire Emblem Fates Iron Widow Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Roswell New Mexico Stand By Me/The Body by Stephen King The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison Transformers Voltron: Legendary Defender White Collar Zhen Hun / Guardian (drama) RPF
All it would take to upset the apple cart and reset the leader board is one signup. Manage two and it's a whole new ball game. Yes, we're mixing metaphors. And we're not done yet!
Below the cut are the 133 fandoms that have so far received only ONE signup. Want to really shake things up? Get two more signups for any of these and watch them leap into the fray on the leader board ...
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Among Us Arctic Monkeys/The Last shadow Puppets Around the World in 80 Days (TV 2021) Baseball RPF BBC’s Musketeers Bendy and the Ink Machine Beyond Evil Black Doves Boygenius (Band)(RPF) Brokeback Mountain Bullet train Canji Baojun De Zhangxin Yu Chong (The disabled tyrant's pet palm fish) Cassette Beasts Castle Challengers Charmed (1998) Danger Force (TV) Dark Deception Dark Rise Dead by Daylight Descendants Destiny 2 Dimension 20 Downton Abbey Dr. Stone Dragonball Dragonlance Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Due South Dune (Villeneuve) Emma - Jane Austen Etta Invincible Fangs of Fortune Farscape Fields of Mistria Finder no Hyouteki / Finder Series Flight Rising Formula 2/3 RPF Frieren Fruits Basket Gangsta (Anime & Manga) Giselle Grantchester (TV) Grimm Hatoful Boyfriend Haven (TV) Helluva Boss Henry Danger (TV) High School Musical (Movies) Hikaru no Go HLVRAI - Half-life VR But the AI is Self-Aware House MD In Other Lands In Stars And Time IndyCar RPF It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Jeeves and Wooster Jet Lag The Game RPF Jurassic Park (Extended Universe) Kamen Rider Gotchard Kane and Feels Kraven the Hunter Kuroko no Basuke / Kuroko's Basketball Law & Order Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Lays of the Hearth-Fire Series - Victoria Goddard Lies of P Live A Live Lord Seventh/Qi Ye Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3 Mononoke (2007 series and 2024 movie) MotoGP RPF My Time at Sandrock Mystic Messenger NBA RPF Nerdy Prudes Must Die Norah Grant Bruce's Billabong books Oh No! Here Comes Trouble Once Upon A Time Order of the Stick Outlast games Over the Garden Wall Pacific Rim Pathologic Peaky Blinders Persuasion - Jane Austen Phandom Pirates of the Caribbean Power Rangers (2017 movie) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen Prodigal Son Puella Magi Madoka Magica Quantum Break Ranma 1/2 Resident Alien Resident Evil Rise of the Guardians S.C.I Mystery S.W.A.T. (2017 show) Saint Seiya Saw franchise Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated (2010) She-Ra Netflix Shipwrecked Comedy Sonic the Hedgehog (Games) South Park Spinning Silver (Novik) Spirited Squid Game Starkid Musicals (no hp) Stephen King's It Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical Super Sentai That 70s Show The A Team (either the 2010 movie or the 1980s series) The Coffin of Andy and Leyley The OC The Pairing - Casey McQuiston The Paradise of Thorns The Radiant Emperor The Silt Verses The Umbrella Academy the vampire diaries universe The Venture Maidens The Walking Dead The West Wing Thousand Autumns Tokusatsu Tron Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Turning Universal Century Gundam video games by Arkane Studios Wander Over Yonder Warriors / Warrior Cats Watcher Entertainment/BuzzFeed Unsolved RPF Wind Breaker Wonka Word of Honor Yellowjackets Young Wizards (Diane Duane) บ้านหลอน ON SALE / Peaceful Property (TV)
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