#Tucker had already been hacking as many places as he can to find him once the news aired

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

I Just Realized Gaster’s Family Name Might Be Wingdings Instead of Gaster

it just hit me while I was drawing,

that Gaster’s family name, the one that most fans

would have both him and his sons or brothers (depend how you see Gaster)  be called Gaster at the end of their names,

might not really be the real last/family name of them.

but now I have the headcanon theory,

that not only is Gaster, isn’t his family name.

you know how in some places, the family name comes first

before the given name to the son/daughter/child...?

if this theory is true,

that means that Papyrus and Sans,

they are Wingdings Sans and Wingdings Papyrus.

 well I do see the brother version of Gaster,

being separate from the father version,

and the two versions just being father and son,

and the brother Gaster, “Gaster Jr.”

being the elder brother of Sans and Papyrus.

I kind of want to call the brother version "Agrest"

which is like a Anagram of Gaster.

so Wingdings Gaster Sr. goes by “Gaster”

while Wingdings Gaster Jr. goes by “Agrest”

Gaster being the father of the three skelebros,

while the brother version of Gaster, who is called “Agrest” by one fan so far,

will be the son of the Dadster and also the elder brother of the other two.

I’m not sure how many other fans would agree to “Gaster Jr./The Gaster-Brother” version, going by the fan name Agrest.

it is pronounced just like Adrian’s Family Name,

from Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir. 

it is just spelled without the extra ‘e’ in it.

 we all get different fan theories, and not all of them have to be a correct.

  maybe I will talk about this theory more at  another time.

I also wanted to try to get around to throwing some of that salt on my pendulum tonight, but I think I will wait until tomorrow to do so.

also I think I want to draw a second Tuckrif  ship drawing,

maybe either tomorrow or whenever I’m able to get around to it.

also if there are others who uses a pendulum,

and are still a bit new to it and haven’t done it very long.

make sure not to believe the replies it gives you all the time,

even if you can believe some of it, there are chances it will be hacked by negative energy, and it will end up either pranking you or just full out lying to you just to be mean instead of playful.

well that is how I view it.

I will sign back on in a few hours, or in other words, tomorrow.

but not right away, I mean it might not be a few hours when I sign back in.

I just want to go back to relaxing and try to go back to watching a movie.

I also want to say, that I might of been unsuccessful in trying to find a place that is better than Youtube, where no one will get hurt by the negative side of who ever is running Youtube.

even if Youtube is still good, and it still has it’s good side.

there is still some problems with it, that I hope someday will be fixed.

this video -->  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTGufMkHfZI

it’s important to keep children safe,

but do NOT blame the content, blame the parents.

before you check out the link, I want to say that know from experience.

like seeing a movie I was not old enough to see,

wasn’t even a teenager yet at all or some other family movies,

that had hinted “snu-snu.”

 there should be a child lock app that keeps little kids from seeing content they are not suppose to.

another problem about the blaming the content,

is that when you let your baby who started talking,

and you let them watch a show or movie, with a bad word in it,

and they will repeat it, which is just what I did when I was a baby.

Vimeo and PeerTube, I’m not sure if those two will be the best alternative.

Vimeo seems still a little good, but it doesn’t seem what I’m truly looking for.

I could still check it out once in a while I guess.

at least show creators who trust Youtube,

do put info at the start of the video, that it isn’t for kids.

when Youtubers do make it clear that their channel isn’t for Kids,

then he parents should make sure that you try to keep a eye on your kids.

you can’t just blame on the mature content that isn’t for them in the first place.

I can admit that my Mom made some mistakes,

like letting me be in a room where a show or movie was on,

and I was just a baby, maybe around a toddler at the time,

and I repeated the “B” word.

not knowing any better.

if we want to keep everyone safe, there needs to be improvement on Youtube,

where they don’t hurt anyone or let false reports happen,

where a video that has been up way longer, ends up being taken done because of what some other Youtuber reported.

until Youtube can try to do better and improve itself,

and stop hurting so many Youtubers,

there needs to be a true Alternative place to go to other than Youtube,

that you can post amv, original show work, music videos,

but only YOUR original work, unless you get REAL permission to sub or dub a Game Music Video or Animated Music Video,

or get real permission to dub or sub the pilot of Viviziepop’s original

work, like Hazbin Hotel, as well as their pilot and episodes of Helluva Boss.

or if you take Hazbin Hotel Pilot, and breaking into parts,

one person from Youtube has done this, and I know trying to get through to them is not possible, I haven’t talked to them.

but from what I can see, they and those that follow them, wont listen to reason or understand the feelings of others.

there is called fair use, like when you use some art or clips

to make a music video, but you need to make sure to give credit to the original owners, and also make sure if you write in the description,

that anything related to the original owner, is visible

and not make it not visible at all, and you can only see it

when you press the “show more button”

too many Youtubers get hurt, and it’s not fair.

even if there is still some good on Youtube,

it is still slightly corrupted, and it needs to be healed.

plus you will have to worry about other people

stealing Comic Dubs, that belong to the original people who dub it,

who most, had got permission from the original artist.

but with how some comics are, it isn’t possible to get the permission,

the best you can do is try to put the info at the start of the video,

and make sure there is no misunderstandings.

I still like Youtube, but I just don’t like how it ends up hurting others.

and I don’t like that it took me until now,

to know the problem isn’t the content, but the parents.

mine being one of them, but I don’t think my mom would of let me watch the really REALLY mature stuff when I was little.

but the point is, I was still exposed to it, even if it was just a mild stuff.

I can watch some mature stuff now.

but I now have the knowledge to know that the parents are to blame,

they don’t keep a better watch of their kids,

and even if they do let their kids watch stuff or play video games,

that AREN’T FOR THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.

the parents will just turn it around and place the blame on the content

instead of themselves.

if I could make a Royal Decree, it would be that all parents,

should get a child lock on their child’s computer,

make sure there is a password place,

 that hides really mature content, even working on Youtube so any Mature stuff on there, can not be seen.

I have little trust in Youtube, because of the stuff that has been happening on it.

it makes me worried about some of the channels I had been watching so far.

like besides Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss.

I worry about any fan animation that can either do with Undertale,

or Invader Zim.

and I think there are others that I might not be able to name.

but the point is, that if Youtube and whoever is running it,

wants to try not to break anymore hearts.

then there needs to be a app that is a child lock

that the browser will be linked to, and will have a password,

where it will make it impossible for little kids to watch mature stuff by accident.

and if you need to write the password on paper,

because not being able to remember all passwords, cause I know that feeling.

then make sure to keep the child lock password in a very secret place,

maybe where your child can’t find it.

that way they wont be able to use it.

if I ever become a parent someday, I’m gonna make sure to NEVER make the same mistake my Mom or those who were watching me did.

or the mistakes that some parents make now.

placing the full blame on the content, instead of themselves.

I’m going to try to keep hoping, that Youtube will improve.

and it will stop hurting other Youtubers.

I think after I watch the Hotel Transylvania 3 Movie I’m watching,

I will go watch Camp Camp over on Rooster Teeth Site.

anyway, I hope to talk more about the whole “Wingdings” is Gaster’s family name, at another time.

I still hope to draw Tuckrif (Red Vs Blue: Tucker x Grif)

when I can.

and I hope some of you can respect my feelings about what is going on,

and how the ones who should take responsibility

is the parents, who need to try to find a way to make that child lock,

that can keep a child safe, if they have their own computer or if they don’t,

get your child their own computer and then place the child lock in it,

and make sure it has a password that only you know or have wrote down and keep in a very secret place that they have no idea about.

if we want to improve the internet safety, then that is one of the first steps.

so no one will get emotionally hurt because parents don’t realize,

that we saw that content because of you, and you should of tried to keep us from it until we were the proper age.

my mom being one of them, I still love my mom,

but even I know now that her letting me see stuff I was not ready for.

was still irresponsible, and all parents should acknowledge this.

I even had to stop my little cousin from trying to play my Deadpool Game once,

lucky they didn’t get very far, but still...no one even bothered to stop them or make sure they didn’t try to play it.

I even had to start to hide some of my mature games and even movies when they came over.

anyway if you haven’t already, please check out the link.

and maybe someday the type of child lock I mentioned,

will be made someday, and maybe someone will make a petition for such a lock,

that way no more people get hurt, and parents will take more responsibility.

and maybe even listen more to their son or daughter.

and whatever the gender neutral form for son/daughter is

(I will need to look it up), when they try to tell them something is wrong,

and they know something isn’t right.

or if your child doesn’t want to get on the bus because the school and their teacher’s had traumatize them and that is why they are shaking from being upset.

anyway like I said, please check out the link to that youtube video that talks about the serious stuff going on.

maybe by next year, youtube will become better and have the child lock on and keep those who are under age of 15, off of the mature stuff.

I can only hope so...I mean I want to hope that Season 15 of Red Vs Blue DVD gets on Amazon.

and SVTFOE and Wander Over Yonder get full DVDS

and stop being just “Prime Only”

and whoever made the complete series of the original Powerpuff Girls,

impossible to get right away, unless you save like a LOT of money.

well I’m gonna hope they lower the price someday.

not everyone can get the really high price that is past 100 and more,

I’m gonna just go and try to go back to watching that movie,

and hope things get better.

this was only suppose to be about the whole Wingdings is Gaster’s Family Name Theory, but then I remembered about wanting to show that link again.

see ya later and stay safe everyone, and try not to make the same mistake as your parents if you were exposed too early to mature content, and the parents place the full blame on the content instead of themselves.

but if you are one of the ones who were lucky not to end up that way,

I hope you can still be able to understand and be supportive about the real problem, which isn’t the content, but the parents who need to improve themselves and maybe be told by other parents who never made the same mistake as them, that the content isn’t the problem.                               

[kinglazrus]

You Can Smile

@coralyart I hope the wait was worth it, sorry again for the lateness! Here’s your Christmas Truce gift! I had a lot of fun writing it.

You Can Smile - Christmas Truce 2019

Danny's heart leapt into his throat as the floor gave way without warning. Tucker and Sam, on either side of him, shrieked in surprise. Danny didn't have the energy to cry out, at least until they hit the ground, and he landed hard on his right side, and a raging fire tore through his body so hot and fast he blacked out for a moment.

He came to on his back, Sam and Tucker hovering over him, concern filling their gazes. They were scraped and bruised, but otherwise fine. He, on the other hand, was so far from fine. His entire right side felt like it was on fire, hot embers scorching his insides.

"Walker... sucks." Danny wheezed, gently probing his side. He found the spot that hurt the most, just below his rib cage, and grimaced at the blood he felt.

"Pretty sure one of the goons got you, actually. Sorry, man," Tucker said.

"Nobody tells Skulker, I'll never live it down," Danny said.

Sam peeled up the torn edges of the jumpsuit, peering at Danny's wound. She frowned. "This is a bad one, Danny. How are you feeling?"

"A little damp, but that might just be the blood," Danny said. Sam and Tucker rolled their eyes. "Hey, wait. Actually, please tell Skulker. Maybe he'll think the ghost that wounded the great, rare halfa, would be more worth his time."

"I'll do that next time I see him," Sam said dryly. "Let me clean you up, you heal faster when I do."

Danny didn't protest. He had no idea what Walker's goon managed to hit him with, but dear god it hurt. He lay back, staring up at the ceiling as Tucker passed Sam a water bottle and a couple clean rags he kept in his pockets during their ghostly adventures.

They had fallen into a cavern. Black stone surrounded them, oddly smooth, barely a blemish in sight. The walls curved up and in, possibly into a dome, but the stone was so dark Danny couldn't tell if the ceiling rose high out of sight, shrouded in shadows, or if it was only a dozen yards above him.

Crystals jutted out from the floor. They all carried the same hexagonal shape, with a pointed top, but they varied in size. Some stood alone, others in clusters. Some were taller than Danny's dad, others wouldn't even pass Danny's ankle if he stood. They emitted soft light for him to see by, blue, pink, and purple. The light felt nice on his skin, warm where he was cold, cool where he was hot.

One of the largest crystals loomed behind Danny's head. Unlike the others, this crystal was dark, almost as black as the floor.

He reached up, flinching when his side burned anew, hissing in pain.

Inside the crystal, a light pulsed.

"Don't move," Sam told him, drawing his attention. Her hands pressed against his side, putting pressure on the wound.

At this point, it was standard procedure. Whenever Danny got an injury they couldn’t just slap a band-aid over, Sam or Tucker would help him clean it up, stop the bleeding, then let his natural healing take over. One of the perks of being a halfa, his body could take a lot more damage, and heal a lot faster. Good thing, too, or else he'd have to deal with questions he wasn't prepared to answer.

"Hey," Tucker said, drawing Danny and Sam's attention. He tilted his head back, peering up at the ceiling. "Where's the hole?"

"We only fell for a few seconds," Sam said, following Tucker's gaze. "The ceiling shouldn't be that high."

"Is it?" Tucker squinted.

"It doesn't matter," Danny said. "Give me half an hour, I'll be good to go, and I can find a way out of here."

"As long as Walker doesn't find us first," Sam muttered.

Danny closed his eyes, sighing. They got lucky, stumbling across this place. After taking the hit from Walker's goon, Danny thought they were done for. The Speeder, totalled. His strength fading by the second. Walker closing in. They took a gamble, diving into the nearest door, a mad scramble from portal to portal, gateway to gateway, their only goal to get as far from Walker as possible. And then, suddenly, they were falling.

The longer he stared up at the ceiling, the surer Danny was the hole had closed behind them. The fall had been rather short. His hip throbbed from the rough landing, amongst his other aches and pains. But they were safe. Trapped, but safe.

He scanned the walls, looking for a doorway, a tunnel, any marking at all that showed there was more to this place. He found nothing. Just smooth stone and colourful crystals.

He was about to turn away when something shifted in the corner of his eye. His focus snapped to a cluster of crystals halfway between him and the wall. Squinting hard, he sought out the source of the movement. He couldn't see anything. The longer he stared, the more everything started to blur together.

Danny blinked and rubbed his eyes, clearing his vision. It didn't help much. He felt odd. Dazed. Confused. His side still burned, but his fingers and toes were numb. He felt light-headed.

Something about this place seemed familiar, but not the normal way. Not in the way that he’d been here before. More like he had heard someone talk for hours about a place like this, going on and on for so long and in such detail that it felt like an intimate, known place he was returning to after many years of absence, his second-hand memories of it hazy and half-formed, but still strong enough to niggle at his brain.

It takes him much longer than it should have to remember.

"Ghost graveyard," Danny said.

Tucker and Sam stilled, their eyes snapping down to him.

"What?" Tucker asked.

"It's a ghost graveyard," Danny repeated.

Tucker raised an eyebrow and looked around, the soft lights glinting off his glasses. "But ghosts are already dead."

"Tucker! Don't be insensitive!" Sam berated him, her words accompanied by a sharp glare. Until confusion flickered across her face and she frowned. "But you've got a point. How can ghosts have a graveyard?"

"Clockwork told me," Danny started, laying his head back. "Sometimes, ghosts fade. For a lot of reasons. Their dead ectoplasm... or, um, double dead? Just. Yeah, dead. Their dead ectoplasm can't be reabsorbed by the Ghost Zone, except in stuff like this."

Danny pointed to the crystal behind him. A small green light shone inside it, one that wasn’t there before.

"That's... cool. I guess," Tucker said, looking wary. "There can't be ghosts of ghosts, right?"

"Very cool," Danny murmured, entranced by the light. It was beautiful, and daunting. Like Sam at her most macabre, wearing her darkest clothes, her sharpest makeup, her soft shadow eating up all the harsh light in the world. Danny loved it when she looked like that.

Or like Tucker, any time he went on a techno rampage, hacking away at firewalls and online defenses with a devilish grin, the blue computer light washing over his face in a sulfuric glow.

Danny smiled, thinking of those moments, when his girlfriend and boyfriend looked ready to take on the world. Call him sappy, but he just loved something about someone who would burn the world for you. He'd do the same for them.

The pressure on his side alleviated. Sam's breath hitched. Danny lifted his head, looking up at her. Her hands were soaked in blood.

"It's not stopping," she said.

Tucker paled, his shadow falling over Danny as he leaned over to inspect the wound. He reached out, maybe to touch Danny's side, or peel back the bloody jumpsuit, or maybe grab Sam's hand and comfort her. Danny would never find out which one, because Tucker's hand stilled the moment Danny was seized by a harsh coughing fit.

Brutal, hacking coughs ripped through his body, a jagged knife driven deep into his wounds, twisted sharply. They tore at his dry throat, Danny's head thumping back against the ground. He raised a hand to cup his mouth, but aborted the movement halfway, instead clutching his side.

Shit. Everything hurt.

When the coughing stopped, Danny groaned, a hoarse wheeze. His lips felt wet. Licking them, he tasted blood. A few speckles stained Tucker's glasses, who had shuffled up to Danny's shoulder, his hand under Danny's head to keep it off the hard ground.

Huh. When did that happen?

"Oh," Danny said. It came out as a croak rather than the breathy sigh he meant it to be. It hurt. Breathing hurt. Thinking hurt. "Sam, I think my lungs are bleeding. Ow."

"No, they aren't," she said, her voice wavering. She tore off her backpack, tossing it to Tucker. She didn't even look up to see if he caught it, pressing her hands against Danny's side once more. "You've had worse than this. We'll just... we'll patch you up, and you'll be fine. Tucker–"

"I know," Tucker said, upending Sam's backpack and shaking it until a red canvas bag fell out. He snatched up the bag and tore it open, gauze pads, medical tape, and disinfectant spray bursting out, scattering across the floor.

"Okay," Danny said tonelessly. It wasn't that Danny didn't believe her. Somehow, he knew she was right. He would be fine. But a little itch in the back of his head told him they had two very different versions of fine.

He didn't watch Sam and Tucker work, a practiced routine of Tucker handing Sam what she needed, when she needed it, while Danny tried not to move too much. He went back to observing the cave. There were only so many times he could look it over—admittedly, once was more than enough—but he had nothing else to do. He was hurt. He was tired. He was so damn bored.

His head flopped to the side. Two little pink eyes stared at him from amidst the crystals. Danny froze. The eyes—ghost—blinked. He blinked back. Neither moved.

The impromptu staring contest broke when Sam dabbed a wad of gauze soaked in disinfectant against Danny's side. He hissed, jerking away from her hand, squeezing his eyes shut. When he opened them, it was to the sight of Tucker's cargo pants, inches from his nose.

Shuffling over, he pressed his cheek against Tucker's leg, his laboured breaths filling the cavern. A moment later, he felt Tucker's fingers running through his hair and leaned into the touch, closing his eyes again. Tucker's hand slipped under Danny's head and raised it up. The sound of scraping and shuffling echoed for a second, and then Tucker lowered Danny's head onto his lap.

If Danny were a little less hurt, a little more lucid, he might have been embarrassed about what he did next, snuggling against Tucker's legs.

"S-sorry about your glasses," Danny said, thinking of the flecks of blood that still dotted the lenses.

"Shut up, don't be stupid," Tucker said.

"I'm not stupid, you're stu—art."

Tucker snorted, his hands stilling. Danny whined and he resumed petting. "I'm Stuart?"

Danny groaned. "No. You're not stupid. You're smart. Stupid smart."

"He's something," Sam said. She tried to smile, but her voice was strained.

Tucker rolled his eyes. "As if you don't love me."

Sam stuck out her tongue.

Danny chuckled, but quickly broke off into another round of coughs. This time, he managed to cover his mouth, preventing more of his blood from splattering against Tucker.

"Sorry," he mumbled between coughs. Tucker didn't respond, but Danny felt his fingers tense, the petting pausing for a moment, before it resumed. Danny ducked his head, nuzzling Tucker's knee, and wiping his hand on the front of his jumpsuit once the coughing stopped.

All he wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep. Tucker's hand running through his hair definitely didn't help. The steady rhythm was so relaxing. He didn't even notice Sam stopped working until she touched his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Sorry, Danny. Can you roll onto your side?" she asked.

He groaned, prompting another soft apology from Sam, and complied, holding his weight on his elbow and knees, raising his hips off the floor so she could loop the bandages around his waist. Once, twice, three times, holding the gauze pads in place.

Danny's toes curled and he clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as Sam yanked on the bandages, make sure they were tight. Something warm and fuzzy—not soft, but like TV static—brushed against his fingers. Danny gasped, his eyes flying open, and zeroed in on the small, glowing form wriggling its way between his fingers, forcing his fist open.

Small, round, no bigger than a baseball, a pale blue ghost with bright pink eyes flopped onto his palm.

"Hola!" the ghost chirped.

"Son of a–!" Tucker jerked at the sudden noise, nearly dislodging Danny as he twisted around, searching for the source.

The ghost tittered.

"Holy shit that scared me," he said.

"Really? I didn't notice," Sam drawled. She tapped Danny's shoulder, signalling she was done.

Danny, panting from that little effort, slumped. He probed the bandage, picking at the edges with his nails. When he pressed down, he could feel the dampness of the blood. Moving carefully, he draped his arm over the bandage, hoping Sam and Tucker wouldn't notice.

"So, uh. Who's this little guy?" Tucker asked.

"Me llamo Luz!"

"What?"

"Oh my god. Tucker, I know you failed Spanish, but how can't you know what that means?" Sam rolled her eyes, reaching over Danny to dig her knuckles into Tucker's shoulder.

"We don't have Spanish class! You don't know Spanish!"

"But I know what that means."

"So, what if–"

"Her name is Luz," Danny interrupted. He didn't feel like listening to Sam and Tucker argue, not right now. He was sleepy, and exhausted, and he just wanted this to be over with, one way or another. He closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Wait, no, dude, don't." Panic filled Tucker's voice. "Don't fall asleep, that's bad."

But it felt nice.

"Stay awake."

He didn't want to.

"Tell us more about the graveyard," Sam said. She squeezed Danny's shoulder again, jostling him a little. She didn't stop until Danny slowly, reluctantly, opened his eyes. Everything was blurry, Sam and her dark attire melting into the black stone around them, Tucker's bright colours blending with the crystals.

"Apparently, ghosts sort of just find their way here when they start to fade? At least that's what Clockwork told me," Danny said. He couldn't remember most of that conversation. Whether that was because he didn't pay attention, or he just didn't have the energy to recall, he wasn't sure. Maybe both. He didn't pay attention to a lot of stuff.

He was kind of regretting that now.

"Sometimes they don't even realize it. But I think there's supposed to be a guardian or something?" Danny's thumb strokes Luz's back, making her purr. "They keep intruders out. This place is kind of sacred, so..."

Tucker chuckled. "I guess they aren't doing that good a job since we're here."

"Guess not." Danny held Luz close, staring into those button eyes. They looked a little vast for something so small. It was freaking him out a little. But at the same time, Luz's eyes held nothing but warmth.

"Clockwork didn't happen to mention how someone who gets stuck here can get out, did he?" Sam asked. She crawled forward, sitting beside Tucker at Danny's head, and took over ruffling Danny's hair. "I don't really want to wait for some dying ghost to come here so the door can open back up."

"I'm sorry," Danny said, ducking his head.

"It's okay if you can't remember," Sam assured him.

That wasn't what he apologized for, but he didn't bother correcting her.

-

Tucker watched the crystal behind slowly grow brighter. He didn’t notice at first, more concerned with Danny and their situation, but worrying so much got exhausting and tedious after so long.

Although, he had no idea how much time had passed. It was impossible to tell, but it felt like hours. Tucker's PDA was long dead. The Ghost Zone always drained the battery faster, and the clock never worked right in here anyway. All the ectoplasm and the weird twistiness of time and space inside the ghostly realm.

All he knew was that, at some point, the crystal behind them changed from black to pale green, the glow spreading from deep within.

Tucker ran his thumb back and forth across Danny's knuckles, who still lay curled on his uninjured side. Danny had taken to softly muttering in Spanish, having a quiet conversation with Luz. Tucker wished he knew what they were saying, but, ultimately, it didn't matter. As long as Danny was talking, he was awake. As long as he was awake, he was alive.

Tucker tried not to look at Danny's injury. Every time he did, he couldn't help but feel dread, like poison, seep through him. His stupid, idiot, well-meaning but very much the self-sacrificing jerk of a boyfriend was trying to hide it under the crook of his elbow, but Tucker could see.

The bandages were tinged pink. Soon enough, they'd be red. After that... Tucker didn't want to think about it.

Danny's muttering was the only thing putting Tucker at ease. Whenever Danny stopped, waiting for Luz to respond, Tucker's breath caught in his throat. Danny had a bad habit of holding himself perfectly still when he wasn't doing anything, looking almost like a statue. Sometimes, it was unnerving. Right now?

Right now, it made Tucker think that each time Danny stopped talking, he'd never talk again. He hated it. He hated this place. He hated Walker, and his goons, and that stupid, lucky shot, and Danny's frustrating inability to dodge at crucial moments.

Tucker shook his head. He wasn't mad at Danny. He just wanted Danny to be okay.

Sam was curled up against Tucker's side, holding Danny's free hand, her head on Tucker's shoulder. He glanced at her every once in a while, checking to see if she had fallen asleep. She hadn't. Although her eyes were closed, tension furrowed her brow and pinched her lips, her breathing uneven.

He tucked a strand of hair, slowly falling down her cheek, back behind her ear.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Tucker thought this was nice. His girlfriend cuddled against him, his boyfriend's head in his lap. He laughed softly, careful not to disturb either of them. The day they started dating stood fresh in his mind.

Danny asked Tucker and Sam out separately, to the same date, without telling either one about the other. When Tucker got to the movie theatre and saw Sam there, his heart nearly broke. He thought, for a moment, that he had misunderstood Danny's intentions. That Danny didn't feel the same way Tucker did.

When he noticed them holding hands, he nearly shattered into pieces. But then Danny saw him, beamed as brightly as the stars he loved to rave about, and held out his other hand for Tucker to take.

"Jazz told me to be spontaneous. So, uh... I kind of love you both and would you like to go out with me? Us? The three of us I mean. Together. Dating," Danny had said, his face burning red, gaze nervously darting from Sam to Tucker and back again.

As it turned out, Danny wasn't quite the clueless dweeb everyone thought he was. He just couldn't decide which best friend he wanted to date. So, he decided to date both of them.

Tucker was nervous at first. Scared he might ruin things. He wasn't sure he could love Sam the same way he loved Danny. He had always liked her, but love?

Sam suddenly wrinkled her nose, snuggled further against Tucker's side, tucking her arms between them and sighing softly. Tucker smiled. Yeah, he loved her, and Danny. They were everything to him.

"What time is it?" Sam asked, cracking one eye open.

Tucker shook his head. "No idea. PDA's dead. But probably late enough our parents are wondering where we are."

"Are you kidding? My mom probably doesn't even know I'm gone. I bet Danny's parents think we're sleeping over at your place. And your parents..." Sam trailed off. "Yeah, okay. Your parents would notice."

She paused, taking a deep breath. "We'll be okay."

Tucker nodded. "We'll be okay."

"You'll be okay," Danny said.

Tucker paused, frowning. He opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "What?"

"It's going to be okay," Danny said, turning slightly to look up at them.

Tucker didn't miss the careful wording, but decided not to comment on it. If he did... It was like thinking some great, big horror was lurking behind a closed door. And as long as Tucker didn't open the door, he could pretend there was nothing behind it at all.

He didn't want to open the door.

"Let me check if the bleeding's stopped," Sam said, pulling away from Tucker's. He immediately missed her warmth.

On her knees, one hand out to catch herself should she fall, fingertips brushing the hard stone, Sam leaned over Danny, brushing his arm aside. Her hair fell over her shoulder as she inched forward, blocking Tucker's view.

Apparently, he didn't need to see it. He could hear the wetness of the bandages as Sam peeled them back. The noise, not quite a squelch, but almost like a tearing sound, echoed throughout the cavern.

Tucker worriedly gnawed his lip. He shifted to the side, so he could see Danny's face better. His eyes looked glazed, his breathing short and ragged, sweat dotting his forehead. Blood speckled his lips. He looked faint, and gray, like all the colour was slowly seeping out of him.

His lips barely moved as he spoke, Luz sitting in his cupped hand, raised to his face. Tucker squinted. He could have sworn Luz was a lighter blue before, like ice. Now she was the colour of a cloudless sky.

"Sam?" Tucker looked up, desperate for some good news.

Sam shook her head.

"Hey, guys," Danny said. His voice was so weak, barely more than a whisper. Tucker wondered if it hurt too much to talk any louder. "Luz gave me some good news."

He laughed, weakly, breaking off into a groan and a grimace, one hand drifting to his wound.

Luz squeaked, a string of rapid, concerned words spilling from her mouth. Danny tapped Luz on the head and whispered something back. Tucker only recognized one word, "bien," which meant “okay.”

He didn't think this was okay.

"She told me something cool about this place," Danny continued, switching back to English. He jerked his head, motioning to the ceiling. "Apparently, ghosts are super private about fading, so the guardian closes the cavern to give them privacy. They're apparently super into keeping the ghost happy as they fade, go figure."

Nobody laughed.

"But the door's gonna open pretty soon, and Luz can fly out and get some help."

Relief washed over Tucker. They were getting out. Luz could find Frostbite, or Clockwork, or any semi-friendly ghost that didn't always want to capture, kill, or maim Danny, and they could get him some real help.

He'd need a hospital, probably. There would be questions, and maybe a threat to Danny's secret, but that didn't matter at the moment. The only thing that mattered was Danny would be fine.

Tucker turned to Sam, beaming. His smile froze when he saw her frightened expression. "Sam?"

Her gaze, hard, but tear-filled, didn't waver. She asked, "Why. Why will the door open?"

-

Of course, Sam asked the important questions, she always did. Fierce, headstrong, and smart. Danny expected nothing less of her. And Tucker. Tucker was the hopeful one, the optimist. He saw the bright side in everything and never gave up. Those were the reasons Danny fell in love with them in the first place.

Danny could have told them what Luz told him, about how not all ghosts faded alone. How sometimes, the guardian made exceptions, let others be there for them, so they wouldn't pass surrounded only by soft light and solitude.

He could have told them. Maybe he should have. He didn't.

Instead, Danny reached out, taking Tucker and Sam's hands, and gave them a reassuring squeeze. He didn't say anything, just smiled. He couldn't give them the reassurances they needed. Nor could he bring himself to tell the truth. But he could smile. He could at least do that.

[madscientistjournal]

Our Stories Are Full of Voids: What Time Travel Points Out

Guest Post by Tucker Lieberman

Time travel can be a challenge for novelists to handle, but it also delivers rewards. Three novels by Charles Yu, Kate Mascarenhas, and Lindsey Drager are great examples of how time travel can be used to explore important themes. In these stories, the technology is a way of exploring a character’s longing for a missing part of their own history, patching gaps in their knowledge of what happened, and allowing the beginning, middle, and end of a big story to be told out of order.

Reconciling with one’s past

Charles Yu’s novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (2010), is the internal narrative of a network technician for time travel machines. He tries to reconcile with his parents, from whom he has been separated. The time machines are limited: they only take people back, not forward, and only as nostalgia tourists, not as change agents. Since the past cannot be changed, time travelers tend to trap themselves in loops. They keep going back, and their story is always the same.

Yu’s character sees no real reason to jump forward. What could you do in the future, he asks, “that would be so different from all the days that came before?”

He finds a physical copy of “the magical book that you somehow read and write and it transcribes what you say and think and read all at the same time,” a book with the same title and author as this novel itself. It’s a comment on his process of making fiction. The imaginary book exists to solve problems: “How to determine which events occur in what order? How to organize the data of the world into a sequence that appeals to your intuitions about causality? How to order the thin slices of your life so that they appear to mean something?”

Mining ourselves for insight is a common driver for novelists, but we will never know everything we contain. First of all, “we break ourselves up into parts. To lie to ourselves, to hide things from ourselves.” And despite all that compartmentalization, “You are bigger than you think. More complicated than you think … There are a million versions of you, half a trillion. One for every particle, every quantum coin flip. Imagine this uncountable number of yous.” To the time traveler, this infinity becomes more visible.

Figuring out what happened

In Kate Mascarenhas’ novel The Psychology of Time Travel (2019), a group of women who pioneer time travel discover it is not possible to change the past. This leads to the perceived obsolescence of the entire field of psychology, now that “internal states and environmental influences” no longer seem relevant explanations as to why people behave as they do. A person might still want to go back in time to learn more historical facts about which they are unaware, and, in this respect, there are similarities to the premise of Yu’s novel.

One of Mascarenhas’ fictional time travelers goes into the future to view a completed artwork and then travels repeatedly back in time, bit by bit, “to undertake the preceding brush strokes…until finally the canvas was blank, and she had to paint the first line. She made this first line with a fresh, directly experienced memory of how the painting would look. At no point in the process did she feel the image was of her choosing; she was always responding to what was already on the canvas, or what she had seen in the future.”

“Every time traveler,” it is said, possesses a book in their native language—but nevertheless often incomprehensible to them—that is sent back in time to the younger self. Also, manufactured objects (coins, erasers, pill boxes, forks) sometimes pop up mysteriously, called “’genies’—because they appear out of nowhere.” These, like the books from the future, are “acausal matter.” On some timeline, they were created by someone, but the cause is no longer apparent.

In this situation, many people adopt a deterministic worldview. Those who seek spiritual meaning create “maps of people’s life events, and searched for patterns computationally.”

Experiencing everything all at once

Lindsey Drager’s novel The Archive of Alternate Endings (2019) is a story told as a series of snapshots taken in human history every three-quarters of a century. (Specifically, during the sightings from Earth of Halley’s Comet.) It’s an illustration of the idea that, “to record a tale, something must always be lost,” which makes storytelling a question of “where and how to leave the voids.”

Some stories “start in the center of the maze. The first question the beast inside the labyrinth asks is, ‘Why are you here?’” This should sound familiar. Stories often begin in medias res, at least for the entertainment value that provides. And are we ever anywhere else except the center of wherever we are right now?

The question “Why are you here?” is followed by a practical question: How will you exit the labyrinth? A person obeying a certain poetic logic may already have dropped breadcrumbs along the exit path to form “a set of clues that are only helpful for one who knows how to look.” In the fable of Hansel and Gretel, this tactic falls apart, however, because wild birds eat the dropped breadcrumbs before the lost children are ready to follow them home again. We cannot remember the path and our footsteps have been erased. We remain at the center of the maze.

Wherever we are now is the center. The gaps are the places to which we can’t return. If some of our story threads are in the gaps, those are threads of which we must let go.

In fiction, time travel is not only a technological device, but a way of exploring the significance of memory and our assumptions about free will. It is a way of allowing ourselves the experience of everything happening all at once. Maybe this sensation is not just an illusory side effect of nostalgia and regret, but the actual structure of time. Maybe, through the intensity of our desires, we have finally hacked it.

Tucker Lieberman wrote the memoir Bad Fire and the literary criticism Painting Dragons. His short fiction is in I Didn’t Break the Lamp and several other anthologies. He typically travels at one second per second. If you don’t see him, something happened. www.tuckerlieberman.com

Our Stories Are Full of Voids: What Time Travel Points Out was originally published on Mad Scientist Journal

[ladylynse]

So, I wrote more in my Dystopian AU [FF | AO3].... Y’know, the competent Guys in White one.

He had to go in, but knowing that didn't make it any easier--or take away the risks.

“You have to go in,” Danny said. “Please. Jazz is smart, but she doesn’t know half this stuff. You do. We need you on the inside.”

Tucker bit his lip. “Dude, this isn’t cool. They know we’re friends. They’re gonna know I was working with you. They aren’t going to expect me to stop.”

“Then we give them a fight,” Sam suggested. “Something big. Showy. Convince them of your loyalties that way.”

Tucker pulled a face. “We can’t risk not convincing them, though. If they don’t think I’m legit, they’ll just wash me. Wipe away any pesky sympathies and whatever else.” He wasn’t sure what the Guys in White were doing to brainwash people, but he knew it was effective. They all did.

His words sobered the other two. It was only the three of them in this meeting, huddled in an old outpost of what had once been the lobby of Val’s apartment building in Elmerton. It wasn’t Amity Park, but the ghosts had never made much of a distinction between the two, and they knew its streets from fights long past. From Before.

It was familiar ground, but it wasn’t something the Guys in White expected them to know as well as they did. They weren’t safe here, exactly—the GiW even knew Danny was Phantom—but this was safer than other places. Besides, the Box Ghost had said he’d cause a distraction, and Pandora had let him borrow her box. It would buy them time, if only because the GiW wouldn’t—shouldn’t—be expecting a hydra to turn up.

“Then we convince them you’re a traitor to our side,” Sam said.

Tucker and Danny stared at her. “What?” they asked in unison.

“We can’t risk them washing you. We can’t lose you. But they won’t wash you if they think you have valuable information that might be lost in the process.”

“No, they’ll just torture me! Newsflash, Sam. That’s not better.” Anyone the GiW washed white was ‘freed’ from their past loyalties. The cleansing washed away all their dirty little secrets that helped them hold onto the promise of fixing this mess of a world, but it could also affect memories associated with those loyalties. He wasn’t too sure whether it destroyed them completely or just made them too unreliable to count on when it came to information extraction, but if he was labelled a sympathiser, a rebel, it wouldn’t matter. They had no qualms about torturing someone until they saw the error of their ways and then begged to be cleansed by them, washed and returned to society. It was sickening but effective. Most people didn’t realize their methods, and since they’d begun hammering areas where the information got out, those in the rebellion weren’t keen on spreading it around, either, unless they were already on the move.

It was hindering the whole recruiting process, exactly as the Guys in White wanted.

Sam punched him in the arm. “They won’t need to torture you if you give up the information willingly.”

“What?” he repeated. That sounded entirely too much like actually being a traitor, and the rebellion was too small to afford that. Sure, Danny had made a truce with most of the ghosts easily enough; most of them didn’t want to leave Earth, and of those that remained behind, few thought so much of themselves that they believed they could defeat the Guys in White alone. At least, few did after rumours got out about how the first ones had been torn apart, and almost none had tried it since the release of that footage. But the ghosts were more of a hindrance than a help in populated areas, where citizens had been issued basic ghost hunting tech that included the equivalent of Fenton Finders meant to ferret them all out, and it took flesh and blood humans to break through ghost shields and convince others to join their cause.

Just last week, he’d come across a pair of kids not much younger than he was, scavenging for food. He wasn’t sure how they’d ended up outside the cities, but he hadn’t been about to ask at the time. Instead, he’d told them that they didn’t have to live like this, that it didn’t have to be this way, that they could change things if they just fought back—

The older one had pegged him as a rebel right away. Threatened to report him and reap the reward. Made it clear he wasn’t afraid to fight if it would get him some proof that the report wasn’t a false one, that it was an actual lead on the location of the rebels, if not a captured rebel himself.

It was the younger brother who’d asked questions. Who’d given Tucker a chance to explain the truth. Who’d convinced his brother to join the rebel cause, for a place to belong if nothing else. Walker had vetted and approved both of them at the way station. They hadn’t been threats, just kids who’d needed help to survive, who’d been willing to do anything for it. He’d helped give them a purpose.

He…he didn’t want to throw all that away.

“Tell them something they don’t know,” Sam said slowly. “Something real. Just something small to start. Let them check it out and confirm it. And then give them something else. And then, when they demand something bigger, give them that, too. It’ll hurt us, but we’ll be stronger in the end. They won’t be surprised that your information is less reliable after the third attack—they have to know we’ll be adjusting our plans—but they won’t be willing to wash you, either. You might know something they don’t realize is valuable, that you don’t realize is valuable, and they won’t want to lose that.”

Tucker shook his head. “They’ll want names.”

“They have most of our names,” Danny pointed out. “Between the death registration and the last census—”

“Then they’ll want locations!”

“Yeah, they will, and you’ll have to give some of them up.” Sam crossed her arms. “I said this’ll hurt us. It’s not believable if it doesn’t hurt us. But you can’t chicken out, either. If you lie, it won’t work, and they’ll wash you white, and then this will have been for nothing. Your knowledge is your leverage, Tuck. Make sure they know what you’re bringing to the table, and they’ll be too greedy to let you go to waste.”

Tucker let out a slow breath. “Even if you’re right, even if they let me in without washing me, doesn’t mean I’ll be put in a position where I can help. Jazz won’t be able to help me. It would raise too many flags and blow her cover. And with the number of people watching me, I’d blow my own cover if I so much as hacked my own computer to disable to spyware.”

“That’s why you need to earn their trust,” Sam said bluntly.

Tucker groaned and looked at Danny. “Technus and I can keep hacking into their servers from here, man. We don’t need to risk this. Seriously.”

Danny glanced away. “I’m not sure that’s true,” he mumbled.

“What? They didn’t actually catch Technus, did they?”

Danny looked back at him and shook his head. “No, but he’s running into more blocks every day. Jazz can’t make him a back door. You can. And…and the more we can find out, the better. We need more than one person on the inside, and you could establish a reliable communication link for us. Please, Tuck.”

Tucker swallowed. “If it doesn’t work,” he croaked, “if they wash me, I’ll…. It wouldn’t just be an act anymore. I’d be ready to destroy you.”

Danny smirked. “I’m used to the feeling.”

It was a lie, or at least the nonchalance behind it was. Tucker knew that. Lying was what Danny did, even now.

“Just feed us what you can,” said Sam, ever the practical one. “We won’t act on everything, and we’ll double check what we can before we do act. We don’t want them thinking they’ve got a mole and feeding out false information to catch them.”

Tucker’s mouth twisted. “They wouldn’t bother with that. They’d just wash everyone for good measure. No skin off their noses. They’re too indoctrinated themselves to know the difference.”

“Information,” reminded Sam.

“That information’s gonna have an expiry date,” Tucker muttered. “It wouldn’t save me forever.”

“It doesn’t need to be forever. It just needs to be for long enough.”

“But what if it’s not?” Fine. He was scared. He could admit it. He was terrified. Danny and Sam wanted him to waltz into the lion’s den and play double agent. If he wasn’t washed, he could be tortured. Or just plain shot.

Or the Guys in White might realize what he was up to and use him to lead his friends into a trap. That was by far the worst option, but it was also the most likely, whether they washed him in the end or not. What if they extracted what information from him that they could, washed him, and fed him that information back? He’d happily use it against his friends then, and it’s not like he’d wind up in close enough contact with Jazz for her to tell.

And even if she could, there’s no guarantee she’d find a way to send a message. Her communications with them were spotty at best. His going in wouldn’t improve that, not when he had to keep his distance from her to maintain both their covers. Come to that, they wouldn’t even be able to assure her that he wasn’t a traitor, and he wouldn’t blame her for thinking he might be once his information proved to be good. And—

And he was thinking about this as if it were already a done deal, risks and all.

Sam reached over and squeezed his hand, which was a big deal, considering she wasn’t big on the showing her feelings like that after so many years of hiding what she felt for Danny. He would have taken more comfort in it if he didn’t know it was a futile attempt to balance out her not-so-comforting words. “We’ll do what we can and make the best of whatever happens.”

Danny didn’t say anything. He just waited for Tucker to make his choice known. Danny wouldn’t make him go in, not even with everything that was at stake. Sam would try, but Danny would let him make his own decision, even if ‘making his own decision’ included a few dozen guilt trips and pleas before it was actually decision time.

Like it was now.

To say going in was risky was a major understatement, but they couldn’t afford him not going in, either. Danny was right: they needed more than one person on the inside, and not just in case Jazz got compromised. They were short allies and needed more information. Anything he could do would help them…until they caught him.

Tucker sighed and looked at Sam. “Maybe you should take a harder swing at me, just to help sell the whole traitor thing.”

Sam grinned and cracked her knuckles. “I’ll just pretend you’re Agent W,” she said, and she was on her feet and a fist was flying towards his face before he could change his mind.

He woke up in the ruins of the Nasty Burger with some pickpocket wannabe rifling through his jacket. He could still feel the hard lump of the flash drive sewn into his collar, so he hissed a warning at her and let her get away with her appropriated beef jerky. It was the best he could do for her now. Besides, if they believed him, they’d feed him at HQ, and if they didn’t, a lack of food was going to be the least of his problems.

(next)

[calliecat93]

RvB17 Episode 8 Review: Finally

Well guys, after so many years, Donut finally gave the Reds and Blues a piece of his mind. While I felt that last week had the weakest episode so far, I can forgive it because it gave us Donut telling everyone off. It’s a week later and I still get so much satisfaction from that scene alone. With Wash sending everyone to apologize, and Huggins in Season 1 with Caboose, what’s going to happen now? Well, lets lake a looksie shall we?

The Reds and Blues have caught up to Donut and apologize, but he's not willing to accept it since... well saying your sorry and showing it are two different things. Considering that Donut went through all of time and space to fix what he did and make it right... yeah, point. Carolina asks if they can prove it by fixing the timeline, which he agrees with. So... that was resolved quickly. Everyone naturally has questions about the time travel, Doc's being about what's going on with Caboose right now. Donut explains that while their Caboose is somewhere else, the one with them is a different timeline Caboose, aka Season 5 Caboose. When Simmons questions how reliving their history is going to correct anything, Donut decides to jump them all ahead ten minutes. Since they'll lose Wash and Carolina, he instructs them to meet up and for Wash to give Carolina the explanation.

Donut jumps them all back ten minutes, where he's still crushed by Sister's ship and Tucker is recovering from childbirth. Church is understandably confused, but at this point, Caboose has returned and he sends Church to take a nap. But Caboose did not come alone. Huggins arrives, much to Grif's glee. Like... he sounds happier than I think he ever has. He's so happy and missed Huggins so much that her still being angry at him, to the point that she goes red, doesn't even phase him. Donut proceeds to explain about how they have to stop Genkins from creating paradoxes... but since they don't know where he's going to be, they have to relive their lives and make sure it goes exactly as it happens.

Huggins, however, points out that there's another way... just as Lopez has already jumped. Whoops. Anyways, since Huggins is made of light, she can go forward on her own, find alternate timelines, report back, and the guys can jump ahead to that point and make the event go as it's meant to. Sarge things that's too convoluted and will take too long... but Huggins proves it by going to and from the moon in a blink, plus she already did it with meeting with Caboose and it sounds like they already did it once. Grif is outright tearful that this means less bullshit before apologizing to her for fucking time up. Huggins... doesn't forgive him, but she can't stay mad at him right now due to time being fucked up. She therefore just tells him to fix reality before going off to get her scouting underway. Ouch.

Simmons repeats his question about exactly why they need to relive their lives to begin with. Caboose, therefore, proposes this analogy to explain it. You know how you can sometimes get a gap in your zipper? Apparently, it happened to Simmons in 6th Grade during Debate Class, but to the point. To fix the gap, the zipper has to go all the way down and then zipped back up to fix it. So that's what they have to do, go back through their lives to undo the gap and fix it again. Even Donut admits that the analogy makes things clearer. Yeah, the two former rookies are the ones figuring out how to fix shit. Who knew? Tucker is questioning if this will even work, to which Donut replies that the only way that they'll be able to find out all depends on them.

From there, we get a montage of the guys going back to events where Genkins is trying to strike. Sarge ends up at the day that they deleted the Blues, aka the best day of his life. When Genkins tries to interfere by hacking the computer, Simmons simply reboots it to get rid of him. Which keep in mind that isn't present!Simmons, that's Season Six Simmons doing it nonchalantly. Anyways, Sarge proceeds to relive the moment several times to make sure that ti worked... aka to relive the moment cause he can. We also get to see the end of Season 5, where Andy blows up the ship, which is where Grif ends up. Genkins tries to prevent the explosion and reveal the truth to Church, so Grif simply goes off, gets a rocket launcher, and does the job himself. He also makes it clear that this is him getting payback on Tex for the beatdown his balls got in Season 8. Hopefully, he jumped out after, since Church is understandably angry and ready to give Grif a beatdown.  

Our episode ends at one more moment. Tucker arrives at Crash Site Bravo in Season 11, the day where they lost and half their forces were captured... and when Felix was still faking being an ally. Well, shit.

Review

This was better than last week, but still not the best. Not to say I didn't like it though. As I kinda said in the overview, it felt like Donut... kinda forgave them all far too easily. I mean I guess something can come up later, but after how much last week's moment was built up and the payoff being amazing, this kinda felt like we were sweeping it back under the rug. Though to their credit, they listen to him... kinda hard when he's under a Pelican, but hey they're listening. And to his credit, Donut's not letting the emotions control his decision making, which really displays a lot of emotional maturity on his part. I really like that about him. I feel it's always been there, but now we can actually let it be on display. Bless Jason Weight for making Donut a character. Bless him so much.

So... let's do something a little different. We're gonna talk about Grif, and consequently how he's... kinda gotten the shaft, sadly. So last season and even S15, Grif got a lot of character development and focus. He realized he needed his friends, began to commit himself more, confronted his issues with the constant adventures, started to focus more to the point that he confronted Genkins and gave up on wanting the pizza he wanted the whole time to try and prevent the paradox. He failed, but the fact that he tried and that he became a more focused, more mature person was great... and that has been ignored so far. Mind you he spent half the season with his memory wiped and so far not a lot of time to show that development and I'll give them credit when I get to the positive side, but it still really feels like all the build-up and development that Grif got last time is just... gone. I mean you'd think he'd be more angry about Genkins considering, especially since Genkins outright told him everything right to his face just because he could, and that hasn't come up at all. It's just frustrating to a huge Grif fan like me. Is this how Tucker fans felt last season?

But with that said... I'm gonna be fair here. I think the reason why we can't do a lot with Grif, and probably others who could use development, is the 12 episode count. While the count is good for advancing the plot at a good pace and has a main focus to work on (in this case Donut, Wash, and the time travel) it sadly means a LOT of character opportunities get wasted or shafted as a result. Since those things need the focus for this story, those have to gain the focus and everything else falls by the wayside. Kinda like how in S12, Tucker got the majority of focus while others aside from the Freelancers and Church didn't get much. And that season had the standard 19 episodes, but the plot needed to advance so there just wasn't really time to do other things that I myself would have liked, like more focus on Grif, Simmons, and Caboose as Captains and not just Tucker. But that's a discussion for another day, but the point is the plot, as it is now, sadly means that Grif doesn't get the focus that I feel he should be getting. Which Simmons, Tucker, and even kinda Carolina are getting the short end of the stick too. Lopez is getting it really bad in comparison so... yeah. Production can suck sometimes.

Even with me feeling that Grif's focus is lacking after the build-up, I don't at all feel like his development is being outright forgotten though. Sure he's confused about what's going on and the time travel... but honestly I am too because GDI I don't understand time travel. So I can't get mad at something I don't get either and have kinda just resigned myself to. His reaction to seeing Huggins again was really, really cute. I don't think he's ever sounded that happy at any other point in the show. Sure Huggins is still angry at him, and it's not hard to fault her, but the fact that Grif was so happy that he wasn't even phased by it until near the end... it was really sweet especially compared to how volatile he was to her at first last season. And then once Grif understood, he committed to it, figured out rather quickly how to take Genkins down in S5, and blew them up with a rocket launcher with zero hesitation. The fact that after nine seasons he finally got payback on Tex for the brutal beat down was also satisfying as Hell. Sorry Tex, but Grif earned this moment. And even during the mindwipe, he was the only one who even considered believing DOnut and was weirdly motivated, even in places he normally wouldn't have been like during S13. So yeah, I wish that more was done after all the build-up prior, and I hope the next story arc will allow it, but I'm still enjoying Grif. I just wish we had more.

I'm not sure what else I can say really. Some funny moments, like Sarge's utter glee at reliving deleting the Blues. Part of me feels like he should be past this by now... but hey, it was still funny. Also, the link that appears on the Delete Blues screen? Type it in. Trust me, you will NOT regret it... or you will and cry, but do it anyways. The fact that Donut could give a coherent explanation while being crushed under a ship is impressive... although shouldn't he have landed in the cavers by then? Meh, maybe he's just really good at throwing his voice. Simmons just rebooting the computer to get rid of Genkins, which again it wasn't present!Simmons who did it was an underrated badass moment imo. And of course, the ending. Tucker is with Felix again, back when he was still pretending to be an ally. And Tucker has to let the event go as it's supposed to, so not only does he have to deal with Genkins... but he's got to keep his own feelings in check. Because if he can't and tries to kill Felix here... that may very well be the kick that Chrovos needs to be set free.

Final Thoughts

Good episode. Nothing major happened, and I'm starting to see some cracks in the structure, but I still enjoyed it. We have a clear directive for now and we have a pretty damn promising lead-in for next week. With four episodes left, there's a lot to still do and not a lot of time left. How will it play out? Not sure, but it's gonna leave one Hell of an impression. In that, I have little doubt.