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melrodrigo · 1 year ago

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Pain Relief - Mabel

Mabel Black Label x Reader

Summary: Mabel gets back from an intense day at work, and seeks comfort from her girlfriend.

Word Count: 800+

A/N: I’m back babies

Look, dating someone in the Boston crime gang was never on your bucket list. Sure, you’ve read your fair share of enemies to lovers mafia fan fiction, but you’d never expect it to actually happen.

You were always a good kid, steered away from drugs and sketchy stoners. But Mabel, Mabel.

She was the most beautiful girl you’d ever laid eyes on. Tan skin and messy hair, it was never an option not to fall in love with her.

But in your defense, Mabel was nothing like the rest of them. She was kind, the most thoughtful soul you know, and inspiring in all aspects of her life.

She was put in a tricky situation since childhood, but she always made the most out of it and always strived to get out.

You knew she could be cold. Some of her friends referred to her as “Mabel Black Label”, but her cut-throat personality disappeared whenever she was with you. It was like she turned into this nicer, more exciting, wondrous person. Or at least, that’s how she felt.

So, when she didn’t come to see you as she’d promised, you knew something was wrong.

She had mentioned earlier that she was doing a big deal that night, and that she was going to come get you for your date right after.

By the time she called you, a little after midnight that exact night, you’d practically jumped up at the sight of her name across your phone.

Anxiety stirred deep within you.

You bit your nail as you answered the phone.

“Hey babe…” Her voice exhaled, shaky like she’d just run a mile and immediately called you.

“Baby? Where have you been? Are you alright?” You breathed, question after question tumbling out before she even had the chance to answer.

“Don’t be mad…I’m at your house now.” She says, slurring her words slightly.

You’re up and striding toward your door before she can even finish her sentence, heart racing a hundred miles a minute.

“Why would I be mad? God, Mabel, I swear you had me-“ You stop abruptly, taking in the sight before you.

She’s standing somewhat bashfully, rocking on her heels, the right side of her face facing away from you. You furrow your eyebrows, sensing immediately that something’s terribly wrong.

You reach out to tilt her face so you can see all of it, and your mouth falls open at the sight. Her face is beaten. Spilt lip and everything, the bruises that look like they’ve just been formed are already turning a different color. You grab her by the wrist and immediately drag her into your home. Your annoyance disappears instantaneously as you take her in again.

It’s so purple, you can’t help but reach out to graze your fingertips against it as she winces quietly.

“Oh, baby.” You sigh, hooking a finger under her chin so she looks into your eyes. She can’t meet your gaze, eyes flitting between your couch and the lamp, things she suddenly finds very interesting.

You get up and feel her hold on your wrist tighten, signaling to not go. You reassure her you’re only going to get the first aid kit, and you’ll be back in a minute.

Mabel begrudgingly lets you go, looking so small and fragile sitting there.

“Look at me.” You tell her, sternly, when you get back. You take the cotton bud and apply some alcohol, gently dabbing it against a cut on her lip.

She hisses, unable to keep the pain at bay. You tut, telling her you’re almost done. You know she needs some tough love in moments like these- she was never the best at receiving affirmations.

“Whatever happened…” You start, biting your lip, trying to grasp the right words. Mabel looks at you intently.

“I’m sure you did your best. And it definitely wasn’t your fault.” You know the way she works, better than you know yourself, and she blames herself for this. If anything didn’t go her way, she’d always get like this. You’s always loved the perfectionist type, after all.

Mabel opens her mouth to speak for the first time in what feels like eternities.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I couldn’t- couldn’t get here on time for the date.” She blubbers, tears spilling out of her eyes.

You hold her for a while before you chuckle lightly, and watch as she looks up in surprise, eyebrows raised.

“I could care less about our date. What I care about is that you’re alive.” You tell her, cupping the side of her face that isn’t bruised. Your other hand pressed against her chest, right where her heart is.

Her eyes soften, turning into those big brown puppy-like eyes you love so much. And you can feel it before she says it.

“I love you.” She says as she takes your lips in a fierce kiss, surprising but not at all unwelcome. You happily lean in, kissing her like she might disappear tomorrow.

You lose yourself in the moment, push against her a little too hard, and she winces.

“Shit, sorry.” You mumble sheepishly. She pecks you on the lips again before whispering huskily.

“You know…I heard kisses help with pain. I think you should help me out over here.” She points to her split lip, eyes suddenly twinkling.

The twinkle in your eye doesn’t fail to match hers.

“I suppose I could help out someone unwell…it’s the right thing to do anyway.” You say with a little nod, though neither of you is listening to what you’re saying at this point.

“Right.” She grins, grabbing you by the nape of your neck and into her arms.

Even like this, bruised and bloody, you’re proud to say, that Mabel Black Label, your girlfriend, never fails to charm the pants off of you.

#mabel x reader #mabel x fem reader #mabel black label x reader #jenna ortega x reader #tara carpenter x reader #wednesday addams x reader #jenna ortega #comfort #angst

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lucisfavoritedemon · 5 months ago

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Straight to the Heart

Summary: What if Mabel put the Love potion on the wrong fries, leading her and Wendy on a quest to find Love God after the festival, some bonding between Dipper and Stan, and an unexpected love story.

Loosely based on this request from @thebestusernamepossible: Mabel adventure, with anyone, I just like Mabel and think she deserves to star in a mission. Maybe some Stan and Dipper bonding, they are my fave underrated duo.

Warnings: Fluff, unexpected romance, self-conscious thoughts, mild angst.

A/N: This took me a while to figure out what to write about, then I watched the Love God Episode and I couldn’t resist. Also this is the first time I’ve attempted writing something like this. So, I hope you enjoy 🙂

Mabel didn’t mean for it to happen, caught in the moment of trying to set up Robbie and Tambry; she didn’t pay attention to whose fries she sprinkled the love potion over. It wasn’t until the cook bagged up the order and walked over and handed them to none other than Y/n. Mabel ran to try to stop her, but Y/n was insistent that she get back to the shack.

Mabel rushed out and followed her. Mabel only hoped those fries were just for Y/n and she could keep her in her room until the potion wears off. Mabel watched from outside the window hoping and waiting.

“Stan! I’m back with your lunch!” Y/n yelled, setting the bag on the counter.

This was Mabel’s chance, but before she could try to climb through the window, Stan walked in and took the fries out of the bag, and opened them, “Ugh, did you let Mabel touch my food again?” Stan groaned out.

“Of course not, why do you ask?” Y/n walked back in after she had put her stuff away.

“My fries have glitter on them.”

“You want me to take them back?”

“No, no, it’s fine.” Stan stated and ate a fry.

He looked at Y/n and suddenly felt something new, new and exciting. She suddenly looked so beautiful, more beautiful than he already thought she was. She started working for him many years ago when she moved to Gravity Falls after dropping out of college. He thought she was the perfect business partner, but nothing further developed between them. Stan secretly always had feelings for her, but not to this extent. He didn’t know how long he had been staring, but he soon realized she was giving him a concerned look.

“Everything okay Stan? Do the fries not taste good?” Y/n voice sounded worried and concerned. He wanted to say they were delicious, but her just standing there took every word from his brain from coming out in words.

“Perfect. I go now.” Was all he could get out as he took the rest of his food and bolted to the TV room. He thought he was safe to process what was going on.

Mabel, having watched this whole scene unfold, knew she had to undo what she did. She liked the fact that her Grunkle Stan was finally acting vulnerable, but this isn’t how she wanted him to confess his feelings for Y/n. She took off and went to find Wendy to help her find Love God and get the reversal potion.

Meanwhile, as Stan sits at the Game table in the TV room, Dipper walks in hearing his Grunkle talking to himself.

“Stan, you okay?”

“Dipper!” Stan sounded caught off guard, but also relieved, “you gotta help me!”

“Woah Grunkle Stan, what’s going on?”

“Something is happening to me. I was sitting in the kitchen eating the lunch I asked Y/n to get me, and suddenly, I took a bite, and looked at her, and she was standing there looking so beautiful. You’ve been in love with someone unattainable, right? You gotta know how to help me!”

Dipper rolled his eyes at Stan’s last comment, “look Grunkle Stan, maybe you finally realized that you have feelings for Y/N? It can come on suddenly.”

“Look, okay, I have sort of always had a thing for her, but I don’t what about today made her look so different.”

“Maybe your brain is telling you that maybe it’s time for you to tell her how you feel?”

“I-I don’t know. She’s just so…perfect. There is no way someone like her could be into a guy like me.”

“You never know. Why don’t I help you? I can help you come up with a romantic way to ask her on a date.”

“Y-you’d really do that for me kiddo?”

Dipper smiles and nods. Stan smiles back ready for whatever Dipper may have in store.

Mabel and Wendy meet at Wendy’s house to try to come up with a plan to find the Love God and reverse the spell.

“Look Mabel, is it really such a bad thing that Stan and Y/n become a thing?” Wendy asked.

“No, but I had a whole plan for that. They both have true feelings about each other. This throws off my whole plan. We have to reverse it. That and Stan was the only one that got the love potion.”

“Okay, so what’s the plan?”

“We have to find Love God, get the reversal and give it to Stan before something bad happens.”

“What could possibly happen?”

“She doesn’t return his feelings, he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep. A lot of things Wendy!” Mabel yelled in panic.

“Woah, woah, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.” Wendy stated putting her hand on Mabel’s shoulder.

They devised a plan on how to get backstage to find Love God and to get his anti-love potion. Some of it fighting/punching Love God in the face knocking him unconscious, that bit being Wendy’s plan, but mostly sneaking around, and staying hidden to sneak the anti-love potion away from Love God.

“Okay Grunkle Stan, since you and Soos already planned on being at the Woodstick Festival, maybe you should ask her to go with you?” Dipper spoke to Stan as he got him changed into a nice new suit and tie.

“I-I don’t know kid. How do you know she is even interested?” Stan questioned.

“Just trust me Grunkle Stan. I’ll be there the whole time to help you if you need it. I promise.”

Stan let out a sigh and nodded, “okay kiddo, I’ll ask her, as long as you promise to step in and help me if my brain starts to do the thing it does where I just say whatever comes to it. Unless it’s a nice thing that is.”

“I promise. Now get out there and ask her on a date.” Dipper smiles and shoves his uncle out of the room to go find Y/n.

“H-hey Y/n…” Stan speaks up once he finds you in the living room watching TV.

She smiles at him, “oh hey Stan, you look nice today.” Her eyes check out his new suit and tie.

“Th-thank you. It’s new. Dipper picked it out for me,” Stan spoke nervously.

“It looks good. Kid did a very nice job. It suits you well.”

“Y/n, y-you know I was wondering if…I don’t know if you had plans tonight, but…um Soos and I are going to the Woodstick Festival…if you wanted to come with.”

She smiles fondly at him, “absolutely. I’d love to. Though, I didn’t think you liked the Woodstick Festival?”

“I don’t. Soos suggested I try to appeal to the young generation, saying I’m chasing away potential customers.”

“That’s a very good point.”

“So, you’re going with me?” Stan sort of smiled.

She smiled and nodded, “absolutely.”

“It’s a date then.” Stan chuckled then stopped once he realized what he said.

“It’s a date.” She smiled back.

After a few hours of getting ready for her date with Stan, they head off to the festival. Stan leaves Soos and Dipper to sew up the hot air balloon Stan planned, while he takes Y/n to a spot on the hill to watch the concert. He set up a little picnic for themselves and laid down a blanket. The night was looking perfect.

“I’m really happy you said yes to letting me take you on a date.” Stan stated as they sat down.

“Thank you for asking me to come. I always sort of liked you, Stan Pines. I was starting to wonder if you felt the same way about me.”

“I always have, but I never knew how to ask you. This afternoon though, it was like it was the easiest thing to realise and admit how I felt about you. Easier than anything I have ever done before.” Stan admitted.

Y/n smiles at him happily, “I’m glad it was.”

Stan smiled and pulled her close as they sat and watched the crowd below. Neither really paying attention to the music, but more paying attention to each other and the calm silence that fell between them. It was the easiest thing they had ever done was being here in the moment with one another. It was hard to focus on anything else.

Mabel and Wendy snuck into the festival. They had managed to get backstage and waited for the perfect moment to strike to steal the potion from Love God.

“Sound Check for Love God.” A stage manager came out and yelled at the van that he was in.

Love God came out and had his groupies mess his hair up before they all went backstage for the sound check. Mabel found her chance to hop in the back of the van where Love God left his belt of love potions laying around.

“Let’s see, summer love, puppy love, interspecies love, love of country music, ew. Ah ha! Anti-love, just spray on your victims and watch their heart die on the inside.” Mabel exclaimed in joy.

“Awesome, let's go find Y/n and Stan and spray them!” Wendy smiled from the side.

“Not so fast! So, you’re the person who has been stealing my potions,” Love God appeared out of nowhere, “I warned you kid, but you didn’t listen. Hey where you’d go.” He looked and realized Mabel and Wendy were running away from him.

He chased after them trying to get the potion back from them. They weaved in and out of the crowds. Love God even flew above them to try to catch them off guard, but with no luck. He finally had to do something that may throw one of them off guard, and that was visions of heartbreaks past. This affected Mabel more than Wendy, causing Mabel to give up the potion and it landing back in Love God’s hands.

“I’ll be right back toots, I’m gonna check on Soos and Dipper to see how the balloon is coming.” Stan smiled as he stood up.

Stan walked over to Soos and who were on the other side of the fence and asked how everything was going. He critiqued them on a few things, but the balloon was ready to lift into the air. Unfortunately, as the balloon lifted into the air, two letters ripped from the balloon, making the horrifying Stan balloon say ‘I EAT KIDS’ instead of ‘I HEART KIDS’.

Crowds were running and screaming from the monstrous balloon that now had caught fire. Stan, Soos, and Dipper ran off to follow where it was going. Y/n got up and ran after them, running at their heels. The balloon then settled down right on top of Love God, making him let go of the Anti-Love potion which he had finally let go of.

Once the excitement of the event settled, and the fire was put out, everyone turned and saw Stan and ran screaming and yelling, “he’s gonna eat us!” Y/n giggled at the remarks from everyone. After all the years of running away and secluding the business that could come from the festival, Stan was probably better off than trying to please the younger generation.

“Being loved by the youth is overrated, being feared, no that’s priceless.” Stan stated wrapping an arm around Y/n and patting Soos’s shoulder.

“I couldn’t agree more. You were probably better off steering clear rather than appeasing the youth anyways, but it made a pretty good first date story.” Y/n giggled, teasing him.

“F-first date? M-meaning you want more? With me?” Stan asked her in shock.

“Yeah, I’d love to go on another date with you, many more dates actually.” She smiled.

Stan couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with happiness, he had no idea how it came to be, or what possessed him to even talk to Dipper about it, and get encouraged to ask her on a date, but he was happy he did.

“Y-you know, I wanted to ask you out for a while now, but I know the chaos of everything and running the shack with me, no time was really a good time, plus I never really knew how to tell you till today. I don’t know what you did to my fries, but whatever it was,” he grabbed Y/n by the hands, “I’m glad you did it because I would never have never gained enough courage to ask you out myself.”

Y/n smiles and kisses his cheek, “whatever stars aligned in our favor today Stan, I’m glad they did. You’ve always made me feel so special, but tonight has topped everything.”

Mabel watched their exchange unfold, and looked at the bottle. She couldn’t bring herself to spray them. They were happy and that’s all that mattered. Her Grunkle Stan finally had someone who could make him happy, and she was happy that person was Y/n. She did a lot for her uncle, and couldn’t ask for him to fall in love with anyone else.

“Having second thoughts there bud?” Wendy knelt down and whispered.

“They seem so happy, yeah it didn’t happen in the way I had planned, but maybe Grukle Stan is right, he would have never gotten the courage to ask her alone. Maybe he did need a push in the right direction. I can’t mess with the fate of their love Wendy.”

Wendy nods in response.

Stan turns to Dipper, “hey kiddo, thanks for the help. Without you, I may not have gotten that extra umph I needed to really ask Y/n out. You really helped me kiddo. You’re a true man Dipper.”

Dipper smiled at his uncle's praise, “thanks Grunkle Stan.”

The rest of the night the six of them sat and watched the concert happily as can be. It was the happiest any of them had been in a long time, and they all hoped that it would last a lifetime.

#gravity falls #stanley pines #xreader #stan pines x reader #dipper #mabel #soos #wendy corduroy

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honorarysimp · 6 months ago

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Chapter 1: Bite Me

series masterlist

Mabel really, really, doesn’t want to be doing this right now.

There’s at least five other things she could be doing right now, but no, she’s doing the one thing she swore she’d never do again.

Is this rock bottom? It has to be.

Charlie, who’s sat in the passenger, has been prodding her with question after question since she told him she knows someone who might be able to help them.

It’s not that she’s dodging his questions per se, but she isn’t entirely sure how to answer them either.

They’re in deep shit right now, no thanks to her, and the predicament reminds Mabel just why she doesn’t stick her neck out for strangers anymore. Not that Charlie is exactly a stranger, she is sort of sleeping with him, and he is sort of her boyfriend.

But this? This is a bit much, even for her, which is why it puts a bitter taste in Mabel’s mouth knowing who she’s having to turn to for help.

In their defense, it’s not like the guys signed up to get a hundred thousand grand worth of heroin stolen from them. Tom had accused her of being the one who ratted them out, which wasn’t true, so she had to act fast.

Being a snitch around here can get you killed, rumors can get you killed.

There’s only one person who stood any chance to helping her put out this dumpster fire.

And when she pulls up in front of a house on the more secluded side of town, Mabel feels the ache in her chest at the familiar porch steps. That swing, the unkept bushes out front, even from where she’s parked the car on the road she can spot a few beer cans littering the wooden rail.

Seems like nothing has changed at all.

“-Mabel”.

Her eyes snap to Charlie, who’s already looking at her, he’s probably been saying her name for a good minute now based on the confused and worried expression on his face.

He let his brother trash on her at the bar, even when he said he believed her, Mabel was righteously pissed at him for not standing up for her. But, that aside, she agree to let him come with her for this.

Charlie is a good guy, a great guy even. There’s something there without a doubt, and Mabel is fairly sure she could grow to be in love with him. She could be happy even, considering all the opportunity having him around will bring.

Is it wrong? Maybe. But Mabel promised herself she’d get out of this goddamn town, away from everything tainted and poisoned.

And for what it’s worth, she actually does like Charlie.

First, unfortunately for her, she’ll have to figure out how to get them out of something that was suppose to help them.

A hand on hers makes her snap out of her thoughts again, Charlie says her name again, softly. But she instinctively pulls away, because she can’t, not when that house sits just over his shoulder out the window behind him.

“Sorry, just uh… it’s a lot” is what she says, and he nods, trying to reassure her with his softly spoken words, but Mabel tunes them out.

She can’t help it, not when her eyes keep getting drawn to that paint chipped black door, and the familiar car parked in the open garage to the left of it.

Has it really been a year?

“Let’s just get this over with” Mabel mutters, cutting the engine and pushing the drivers side door open far too aggressively.

All she can hear as she walks along the path and up the porch steps is her own heartbeat slowly increasing, fidgeting with her fingers at her sides.

She doesn’t knock, she never did before and she won’t start now. Charlie splutters behind her, glancing around with wide eyes as if expecting law enforcement to roll up, Mabel doesn’t wait for him as she makes her way through the threshold.

It almost relieves her when she doesn’t smell that distinct linger of Mary Jane in the air, but Mabel steels herself, reminds herself what happens here isn’t her problem anymore.

Finally she pushes herself forward, wooden floorboards creaking under her boots as she makes her way deeper into the house that was once the closest thing to home Mabel ever had.

It hurts, how much she misses it here. The worn leather couch, the framed movie posters lining the walls, the tv stand she knows has drawers full of CD’s with a variety of film genres. A line of conch shells along the windowsill, those same windows that always stay cracked open to allow in the sound of ocean off in the distance.

And then she reaches the study.

There you are, back to her as you seem to be reorganizing the books on the shelf you face, even then Mabel knows you heard her walk in.

You don’t turn until she wraps her knuckle against the doorframe, hesitantly stepping into the study, it’s only then when she realizes Charlie had followed her inside. Stepping up next to her, his eyes on you with a mixture of curiosity and wariness.

When you do face her, it takes everything in her not to buckle, those eyes never fail to make her chest ache.

She fucking hates it.

“Hey sunshine” you say softly, as if you cherish the long lost nickname rolling off your tongue after so long.

“Lucky” Mabel says flatly, bitterly.

You smile, widely, almost charmingly. Mabel glares, unrelenting and jaw muscle twitching as she clenches her teeth.

Your gaze then goes to Charlie, but rather than any emotion Mabel assumes you’d express, you only look amused.

“Looks like you took my advice” you say as you look back to Mabel, who only feels bile start to work its way up her throat.

“That’s not funny, nor anywhere near true” Mabel deadpans, which makes you shrug, smile only growing as you slide the book in your hand back on to the shelf before turning to face them fully.

Charlie looks between you two, once and then again, “you two close?” he tries to gauge the dynamic as he shifts his weight from one foot to the next.

Mabel’s head tilts just slightly, rolling her eyes as her thumb comes up to scratch the space between her eyebrows.

“Use to be” you answer since she doesn’t, tucking your hands into your jean pockets “back in the day”.

Mabel is silent, jaw slightly offset as she runs her tongue along her teeth in her mouth, “Charlie can you give us a minute?” she says as her gaze lingers on you before dropping to the floor. Watching him from her peripheral over her shoulder.

Charlie laughs humorlessly, mouth quirking up only to fall the moment she turns her head to shoot him a look. He looks ready to protest, eyes flickering between the two of you before deflating slightly, sneakers squeaking against the wood as he begins to walk backwards.

The moment he’s out of the room, you trail after him, pausing at the door and then slowly pushing it until only a slight crack remains between it and the frame.

“What’ve you got yourself into now?” You ask as you turn to head back across the room, your shoulder brushing against hers as you pass.

On purpose? Absolutely.

“Now’s not the time to be grilling me” Mabel says flatly, crossing her arms as you move to sit back against the desk behind you, a sight that once use make her knees weak.

You hum, fingers curled around the edge of the desk as you lean your weight back against your palms “you wouldn’t have come here otherwise, am I wrong?”

“God, you really haven’t changed at all, still thinking that you know everything”.

“I think you forget just how well I do know you”.

“You don’t know me anymore-“

“And yet here you are” you say lowly, one corner of your mouth tugging up slightly as you add “it’s good to see you”.

Those words are like blowing dust off an old record, sat on a turntable, needle being rested down as the familiar melody begins to repeat itself again. A song Mabel has tried to forget the tune to, but with you, it’s her guilty pleasure.

A lapse of silence falls between the two of you, and as much as the words taste like battery acid coming out of her mouth, Mabel says them anyways.

You are, after all, the only person she fully trusts in a hundred mile radius. Even after everything.

“I need your help”.

You tense slightly, because of course you wouldn’t tease her for this, why would you? Mabel asking for help is the equivalent of watching pigs fly.

“Fuck Mabel, what’ve you gotten yourself into?”

Mabel clenches her jaw, looking away from you, wondering exactly how she was going to not only break this to you. But also how she was going to convince you to help once you knew the extent of the current predicament.

“Listen, I was just trying to help the guys and I understand being desperate for cash, and Charlie thought-“

You push off the desk, standing up straight which has Mabel’s eyes going back to you. You’re looking at her like you already know, and she’d be more surprised if you didn’t.

“It’s Weeks” she whispers, shifting her weight nervously before forcing her head up high, feigning a collected aura.

“We owe him a hundred thousand for losing a delivery”.

And then there it is, that familiar look of irritation, “goddamn it Mabel- it’s like what I did meant nothing to you? Unfuckingbelivable-“

You walk right past her, ripping the door to your study open, wood groaning under your quick steps.

Mabel is right behind you, not even sparing Charlie a glance as you both pass where he’s stood in the living room, pretending to keep himself busy until the loud burst of voices pulls his attention.

“Don’t you fucking start with me, I never asked you to do that, and the fact you still hold it against me-“

“-that isn’t what I hold against you and you know it-“

“-you shouldn’t hold anything against me considering the bullshit YOU pulled-“

The screen door cracks against the frame as you shove through the front door of the house, Mabel catches it mid bounce and slips through after you. It smacks the frame again, Charlie not being as smooth as he tries to keep up with you both.

“For the millionth time, I was honest with you from the start, are we seriously going to have this fucking conversation now-“

“-you’re the one who caught a goddamn attitude with me, when I was trying to be reasonable-“

You laugh humorlessly, shooting her a look of disbelief over your shoulder as you opt out the stairs of the porch, slipping over the railing off to the side instead. “You? Reasonable? Get the fuck out of here with that shit.”

Mabel is quick to go around, catching up with you just as you reach the garage, rounding the vehicle just as you tug the passenger side door open “you keep fucking talk to me like that I’ll shove my foot so far up your ass-“

“Yo! Where are we going?” Charlie calls as he finally catches up, rounding the house and standing at the open of the garage, hands cupped around his mouth to get both your attention.

“Not you pretty boy-“ you point a finger at him, your other hand still gripping the top of the door of the vehicle, Mabel scoffs and smacks your arm hard before digging into her jacket pocket for her keys.

“Go to home, I’ll have Lucky drop me off after” Mabel says as she tosses the keys to Charlie, he fumbles them slightly, looking between them in his hand and the two of you just as Mabel slips into the car.

“What-“

“Not. You. Go home” you say warningly, a look in your eyes that leaves no room for argument as you give the passenger door a shove to shut it behind her.

He steps in front of you as you round the hood, eyes hard and chest puffed, he’s got a good foot on you but even then you just gaze up at him with a subtle smug expression.

“I’m not a child, and that’s my girlfriend you’re taking off with, I’m coming-“

“Your girlfriend?” You say with a laugh, which only makes the muscle in his jaw twitch as he clenches his teeth. You look through the windshield at Mabel who’s actively trying to act like she can’t see this confrontation happening.

“She’s came to me, so I can help you clean up your fucking mess, do me a favor and don’t make this worse than you already have” you say as you casually reach forward to give his chest a firm pat, pushing him out of your way as you head for the driver side door.

“Which you’re welcome for, by the way. Don’t worry yourself too much, I’ll have her home by her curfew” you say as you shoot him a wink, tugging the door open and dropping into the driver seat.

He takes a few steps back and out of the way as you start up the engine, the rumble coming from it loud from the confined space of the garage.

Mabel keeps her eyes out the passenger window, looking at nothing specific, arms crossed and stubborn grimace etched into her sharp features.

“Do you want him to come?”

A pause of silence, her shoulders tensing just slightly, “just go”.

You don’t offer another word, shifting the car into gear and slamming the gas. The tires screech as you cut the steering, pulling on to the road and fishtailing the back wheels as you speed down the road.

It’s quiet for a solid three minutes, it’s a bit strange, the both of you being back here. Where it all started.

“Fill me in so I know what I’m working with” you say as you slowly release your death grip on the wheel, the white in your knuckles easing as you flex your fingers.

Mabel takes a deep breath in, propping her elbow up on the car door and pinching the bridge of her nose.

But she does fill you in, briefly explaining to you how she’d met Charlie and then found out they needed quick cash to get their fishing vessel ‘Finestkind’ back from the coast guard, fishing illegally in Canadian waters or something.

They needed money, she put them in contact with Weeks and he gave them a job, a job that was a bust. Considering they got jumped and robbed of all the product.

“I’m surprised he didn’t tell you” Mabel says after a lapse of silence, you hum and chew the inside of your cheek.

“Yeah, well, he knows better by now not to mention anything to me involving you” you say bluntly, twisting your neck side to side and easing at the satisfying pops.

That makes her scoff, keeping her gaze out the window “committing arson to get laid definitely wasn’t your best moment”.

“Says a lot more about you for sleeping with me than it says about my pyromaniac tendencies” you say pointedly, which begins to pull a genuine laugh out of Mabel. But she’s quick to cover it, opting to shoot you a glare and swinging her arm out to hit your chest.

You bat her hand away, and then your eyes lock, the both of you clearly fighting back a smile.

“Please fucking pay attention to the road, before you get us killed” Mabel deadpans, looking between you and the windshield as she gestures towards it.

You roll your eyes, shaking your head but doing as she asks as, muttering a “bite me” under your breath.

____________________________________________

“I can’t guarantee he’ll listen”.

You push the passenger door shut as she slips out of it, both of your gazes on the familiar building ahead.

“No, but you’re the only person he’ll hear out”.

The Supreme Donut shop, for reasons you still don’t know, is his stomping ground. The donuts aren’t even that good, but who are you to speak on it.

As the two of you approach, you open the door for her and follow her in. The donut shop is a cliché, but it’s nice. Red booth chairs and white tables, wide windows for all the natural light you could ever need, tile floors and the smell of freshly brewed coffee lingering in the air. You step around Mabel just as you spot Marky and Weeks sitting across from each other eating. Their usual table, you aren’t surprised. Talking quietly to one another, but when they see you they regard you with familiarity.

“We’ve been trying to call you, where you been?” Weeks begins, but when he spots Mabel as she steps around from behind you, the sight of you two side by side pulls a laugh of disbelief from him.

“Did hell freeze over? Or did Marky slip something into my coffee” Weeks jokes, dusting the crumbs off his hands as he glances to his older brother, who’s quiet but has a gleam of amusement in his eyes.

“We came to talk to you about the shipment her people went out to grab” you say smoothly, tucking your hands into your jean pockets as you roll back on to your heels.

His eyes go from you to Mabel, a hum of acknowledgement as he leans back into his seat, rubbing the gruff of his chin before pointing at her “we was about to come have a nice chat with you, your ears must’ve been burning”.

“The crew got robbed by fake cops, Tom got his ass kicked by these guys” Mabel starts to explain, “all I’m asking is you hear them out before doing anything that could get someone hurt-“

“Of course I’ll take your word for it. After being such a help for me? But that doesn’t exempt the guys from being reckless with my product” Weeks says as he weaves his fingers together and rests him on his stomach, eyes lacking remorse as he props his feet up in the chair in front of him.

“C’mon Weeks, be fucking for real for a second” you say as you pull the chair out from under his feet, his eyes snap to you as you sit down in it.

“You of all people understand needing money to take care of your people, we all do, they can’t help it they got mugged. Give them a chance to work the shit out before you go killing people” you say quietly, holding his gaze with your own serious yet convincing one.

He stares unwaveringly at first, he and Marky exchanging a look before he takes a deep breath, chest deflating as his eyes return to yours.

“Alright, but if these jokers fuck me over, it’s your head on a platter” Weeks says as he locks his eyes with yours, without looking away he gestures to Mabel behind you.

“Hers too, and this time there is no forgiving or forgetting, no matter who you are to me or what all you’ve done for me”.

You hold your ground, neither of you looking away from each other. But then Mabel is muttering your name under her breath behind you, and your clenched jaw relaxes slightly.

“Thanks for your cooperation” you say as you give his leg a sharp pat, standing and beginning to walk away.

“I think I miss you two being together, you were always so much more tolerable when your bitch had you on a leash”.

It should’ve been expected, he always enjoys getting a rile out of you, which is why he doesn’t flinch when you spin on your heel to face him again.

“Don’t push it, Lucky”, but then Mabel is in front of you, hands on your chest and pushing you towards the door.

“Go. OUT”.

You hold his malicious gaze until she’s got you out the door, swatting her hands away as you beeline for your car.

“Hey, hey! Stop!”

“You got what you want, alright?! So don’t try and act like you give a shit” you snap as you wheel on her, but as always she’s matching you with an unwavering intensity.

Mabel steps forward, her gaze locked to yours, her entire body is tense and her face stoic.

“Stop acting so cold to me.”

“You’re one to talk” you hiss through your teeth, your gaze going back to the building you’d just walked out of, heart pounding unnecessarily fast in your chest. Not out of anger towards her, but out of something you won’t name: fear.

Mabel lets out a frustrated sigh, her shoulders visibly rising and falling, something is different about her reaction to your harsh demeanor. She’s normally snarky and cold right back but now she just seems… conflicted.

“It’s different with you and you know it, don’t try and pull that bullshit on me.”

You clench your teeth, still glaring at the building as if you have a personal vendetta with those walls rather than the individuals within you’d both just confronted.

“You don’t have the right to say that anymore” you mutter under your breath, forcing your eyes to hers, the unspoken year apart between you suddenly becomes loud.

Mabel’s body tenses once more, her jaw set and her eyes are a mixture of hurt and anger. Everything changes in the tone of her voice, going from snappy and annoyed to tired.

“Don’t make this about that. That- that was months ago.” Her voice is shaky but stern, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.

It’s not a wonder why this conversation is suddenly diverting towards digging up the past, every single one you two have always seems to lead to it.

Probably because so much of it was left unanswered and unfinished.

You cover the emotions her words bring with a hard expression, eyes sharp as you turn away from her to walk towards the car again.

“Then you’ll be fine when I drop you off at your new pretty and rich boyfriend’s place”.

Mabel’s expression falters further at your words, her body tensing even more, face falling as you turn your back to her and start walking.

“He’s not my boyfri-“ Mabel can’t even finish that sentence as she begins to speed walk next to you, trying to get you to stop as a mixture of anger and… something else start to bubble deep in her chest.

“He’s under the impression he is” you say as you grab the car door, unlocking it and pulling it open, refusing to look at her.

Mabel follows you to the car but she doesn’t get inside, she grabs the window frame to block you from doing so, trying to get you to look at her “stop acting like you care who I’m dating.”

“You know damn fucking well I do” you hiss, shoving the car door shut, yanking it free from her grasp in effect as you fully turn to face her, “and don’t pull that bullshit on me considering you came to me for help”.

“You say that but then you give me the silent treatment every time you see me around town, it’s childish” Mabel retorts, getting in your face, her breath coming out as shaky, and her teeth clenched.

“And don’t even try to pull that bullshit card. You know I couldn’t have not come to you for help”.

“Well you’re clear now, have your boy to get his fucking shit together because Weeks won’t give him weeks to make up for what he lost” you tell her sternly, chest rising and falling from your short cut breaths.

Mabel rolls her eyes, feeling like this conversation is clearly going nowhere. She steps closer, leaning into your personal space, her hands curling into tight fists at her sides.

“Stop being a prick and stop acting like you know what’s good for me. I asked for your help, what I didn’t ask for was your input on my relationship”.

“I do know what’s good for you, that’s exactly why I told you months ago that you needed a rich daddy’s boy since I’m clearly only what you need when you need it” you say lowly, eyes hard and full of unspoken emotion.

Tension fills the little space between the two of you, a chemistry you both use to bask in, but now it’s only suffocating.

Your words sting with a truth that Mabel can’t deny. And it only makes the mixture of anger and sadness bubbling in her chest all the more intense. She feels like drowning, a feeling that’s only reserved for you, or maybe she never got over it. Mabel’s jaw clenches once more and her eyes are full of fire as she stares back at you.

“You always have something to say, don’t you? You don’t get to just give me fucking financial advice and then judge my goddamn relationship months after we broke up”.

“So you are only dating him for what he’s offering” you laugh, shaking your head as you round the car, heading for the passenger side.

Mabel’s face falls, and a pang of guilt runs through her. Why is that your first thought?

Mabel scoffs, following behind you.

“No! It’s not like that, it’s more complicated than that.”

You say nothing, holding her gaze as you open the passenger door for her. So many unspoken things linger in the air, you both know each other far too well, two sides of a coin you use to say.

Too similar, too different, too hot-headed, too compatible.

Your eyes cut to the car, then back to her, indicating she get in.

Mabel stays quiet and just stares back at you for moment. She can practically see the thoughts working through your head. You two always have been a mirrored image, and Mabel hates it because it makes it easy for you both to read one another.

It’s why you worked, and why you didn’t.

Mabel wants to say something, but a voice in the back of her head tells her to just get in the car, this is a fight she won’t win today.

Not that she can blame you, it’s not like you know the full extent of the truth behind what happened back then.

For now at least, considering how bad things are looking right now, it may only be a matter of time. You are helping her after all, she isn’t sure if you’ll hate her more or less if you were to find out the truth.

Mabel finally relents, getting into the passenger seat of the car, and as always you close the door behind her.

You truly shouldn’t be doing this for her, Mabel should’ve just dealt with the consequences, this is her mess.

Somewhere, deep within the confines of her chest cavity where her heart beats under the cage of bones surrounding it, she knows the truth.

To her you were a compass, a guide and martyr, her salvation that kept her grounded.

But Jesus fucking Christ, now you’re the biggest pain in her ass.

next.

#mabel x reader #mabel x you #mabel x y/n #mabel finestkind

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inamindfarfaraway · 1 year ago

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The Morality of Mabel and Dipper Pines

Warning: Dipper Levels of Overanalysis Ahead

I’d like to make it clear at the start that I love both of these characters equally and they’re both good people, just in different ways. But I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Mabel’s flaws and less of Dipper’s, so I’d like to contribute to the discussion of their respective characters by exploring a divide between them I haven’t seen talked about much.

Mabel really wants to be a moral person. She places a lot of intrinsic worth in the concepts of ethics, like kindness and fairness and the wellbeing of others. Being a bad person could be considered her worst fear. It’s definitely up there with her other greatest fears of losing her relationship with Dipper and the inevitability of change, and those fears developed later largely in response to Ford and the baggage he brought with him.

Dipper just doesn’t care about that as much. That isn’t to say he’s a bad person! He's compassionate, selfless, brave and unquestionably heroic by the end of the show. They both are. But it sticks out to me how differently they think about ethics. For example, Dipper literally kills Wax Sherlock Holmes, while Mabel is so averse to hurting someone’s feelings that she can’t bear to break out of a false, one-sided relationship with Gideon until Dipper's life is at stake. You see what I’m getting at here? But I have more evidence! Buckle up, this is gonna get long.

Compare how they treat their rivals, Pacifica and Robbie. These are ordinary humans with no real authority over them who, age and class gaps aside, they're basically on even footing with in confrontations, so this is a good metric for how aggressive they are when upset and how much they hold grudges in mundane situations.

In “Irrational Treasure”, Mabel is deeply hurt by Pacifica’s mockery to the point of giving up her silly identity, and sets out to prove her wrong that she can be competent. But at the end, when presented with the opportunity to destroy the Northwest family’s fake prestigious legacy that they use to justify putting others down, she declares, “I’ve got nothing to prove” and lets it go. She’s secure in herself. Her motivation is satisfied. Why bother putting more pain and strife into the world? It’s Dipper, who has been only been hurt by proximity to Mabel, who insists on exposing the truth specifically to spite Pacifica and takes away that “Man, revenge is underrated. That felt awesome!” Revenge is arguably a form of justice, especially in this sense of revealing an unfair lie, but still, he takes great pleasure in bringing an enemy down for the sake of it, not to fix the damage they did.

In “Fight Fighters”, Dipper’s vindictive streak returns. He manipulates the ridiculously powerful Rumble McSkirmish into brutally beating up Robbie on the fraudulent charge of murder, threatening Robbie’s life. He didn’t realize Rumble would try to kill Robbie, but he was fine with him severely injuring him. Rumble is a fighting game character, a superpowered master martial artist. Robbie is a normal fifteen-year-old. This is not a sportsmanlike matchup. By the end Dipper learns his lesson and takes responsibility, but so does Mabel about hurting people to try to have a perfect life and people still complain about that!

In “The Golf War”, Mabel is again the twin with a bone to pick with Pacifica, but Dipper takes her rivalry more seriously than her and is more willing to be mean about it. He encourages her to cheat when she doesn’t want to, justifying it because Pacifica is “cheating at life”. Understandable, but still underhanded. While Mabel bonds and buries the hatchet with her rival by the end, outright declaring their rivalry to be stupid, Dipper holds onto it, refusing to forgive Pacifica at all. He disapproves of Mabel's offer to give her a ride home afterward, despite the pouring rain and her absent parents. He still wholeheartedly considers her “the worst” and tells her so to her face at the beginning of “Northwest Mansion Mystery”, even though he saw her and Mabel help each other in their fight against the Lilliputtians and Pacifica thank Mabel and accept her apology.

In “The Love God”, Mabel’s compassion is on full display. She makes it apparent that she wants everyone she knows to be happy, to the point of making a chart to show her friends’ feelings with stickers, and goes out of her way to help Robbie just because she doesn’t think any human being should be so lonely and sad. Dipper initially has no sympathy for Robbie’s misery and sees the twins and his old friends leaving him to rot as a good thing.

Dipper is more emotionally invested in hating people and willing to play dirty. Mabel prefers to see the best in people, forgive, deescalate conflict and turn enemies into friends whenever possible, and has more respect for honour and sportsmanship.

Compare the insecurities they highlight in "Society of the Blind Eye". These could have been their last words spoken with their memories of the summer, so they are fully candid and vulnerable.

Mabel confesses, “I only love some of my stuffed animals and the guilt is killing me!” She reprimands herself for not having sincere affection for all the people in her life… who are inanimate objects, hence this being a joke about how immature and overly sentimental she is. But she’s telling the truth! Not being honest about your feelings toward someone who loves you (as toys are assumed to love their kids) is wrong. It’s something a bad, or at least flawed, person would do. We also know that it’s something Mabel can do with real consequences - she loves Dipper unconditionally, but her frequent teasing of him instead of letting this on damages his self-esteem more than she intends and often realizes - and when she does realize as in “Little Dipper”, she’s ashamed of herself. Her guilt is that she’s failing morally, that she hurts the people around her despite her good intentions.

Dipper admits, “Sometimes I use big words and don’t actually know what they mean. I mean, I’m supposed to be the smart guy! If I’m not the smart guy, then who am I?” He primarily thinks of his worth in terms of competence. Dipper is generally not that confident, at this point in time. He has an intense drive to prove his worth. He is acutely aware of his physical and social shortcomings. But the one thing he knows that he does well is analytical, deductive and strategic thinking, and so to always have value he’s built his entire identity around being particularly intelligent. He’s the planner, the mastermind, the guy with the specialized knowledge and important big words who people have no choice but to respect and listen to, because a lifetime of loneliness besides Mabel has taught him that given a choice, they probably won’t. Except just like Mabel’s all-loving attitude, there’s an element of performance. He doesn’t know everything; he’s inherently irrational to a degree like everyone else. So he tries to seem smarter than he is. His guilt is that he’s failing intellectually and practically, that he isn’t contributing enough to be worth something.

This is where Dipper diverges. He wants to be ethically good less than he wants to be good AT things, and respected for it. But they both beat themselves up when they don’t live up to their self-assigned archetypes of All-Loving Hero and The Smart Guy, when they aren’t good enough by their own unreasonably high standards.

"The Last Mabelcorn" deconstructs Mabel’s fixation on her moral perfection. Celestabellabethabelle, who I will henceforth call C-Beth for short, manipulates it to keep her out of the unicorns’ way. She makes manifest Mabel’s fear that she isn’t good enough no matter what she does. We see Mabel push herself further and further to try to prove herself, much like Dipper in episodes like “Dipper vs Manliness”, and emotionally unravel until she’s miserable, self-loathing and openly listing her vices in a way never seen before. But this isn’t productive! Wallowing in shame doesn’t motivate her to be better! She needs to learn that although she isn’t perfect, the virtues she has are good enough to work with to both get out and kick C-Beth out of her head. She decides to stop worrying about meeting an impossible ideal of goodness and just focus on doing good, by using efficient (if violent, and therefore immoral under certain paradigms) methods to protect her family. Her plot in this episode has its detractors and I understand the criticisms that the message wasn’t handled as well as it could have been. But I think it does okay. Mabel definitely reevaluates her need to feel like a good person here. She switches from prioritizing what’s important to her, the validation of being "pure of heart", to what’s important to others and in the bigger picture, simply getting the unicorn hair to keep Bill out of the Mystery Shack.

Finally, compare the twins’ disastrous errors in judgement in “Scary-Oke” and “Dipper and Mabel vs the Future”, when they both accidentally unleash terrible forces of evil upon the town and set in motion a local apocalypse.

Dipper recites an incantation from Journal 3 that causes the dead to rise as bloodthirsty zombies, desperate to prove to the government agents before they leave that the supernatural is real and warrants their help investigating, driven by both his desire for knowledge (his tool to feel secure in himself) and more immediately his fear of being dismissed as unworthy. He is emotionally vulnerable, but still creates the dangerous situation on his own initiative. Since he doesn’t need a blacklight to read the spell and the beginning of the episode established that he’s already familiar with all Journal 3’s visible entries, he knows what the spell would do. He doesn’t realize how many zombies will appear or how dangerous they’ll be. But he is aware that there are risks. Plus, the Shack is hosting a party full of innocent civilians and Mabel has explicitly asked him not to interfere with weirdness. The one thing she told him not to do that night was raise the dead! And what does he do? Raise the dead.

Mabel is actively deceived and manipulated into giving who she believes to be Blendin Blandin, an expert in time-altering technology, what she believes to be an item of such technology, with the intention of warping time to extend the summer for the town. This is a selfish choice. But on top of how emotionally compromised she is, sobbing in despair after “the worst day of [her] life”, consider her internal logic: the end of summer is going to mean the trials and tribulations of growing up for both her and Dipper, and they won’t even have each other if he gets his way; Wendy is already going through that and has told her how awful high school is; she overheard at least some of the Stans’ conversation at the end of “A Tale of Two Stans”, meaning she might know that Stan will have to give up his home and business once the summer is over; and she and Dipper both have true friends here who they will miss and be missed by, as opposed to Piedmont where we only see them supporting and comforting each other and never hear of any friends. And it isn’t like she’s the only one having fun! Stan is happier than ever, Ford is back home, Dipper’s come into his own more than she could ever have anticipated. He’ll still get to delve into the mysteries of this town that he loves so much. But she’ll be there too. If you want more Gravity Falls, you can see where she’s coming from. She genuinely thinks that “just a little more summer” would be a positive experience for everyone, with plenty of good reason. Yes, she’s recklessly messing with powerful forces that she doesn’t understand. Yes, she isn’t nearly as suspicious of this sudden miracle solution as she should be. But she has no evidence that this would harm anyone.

Their responses after making their mistake are also noteworthy. They’re both horrified and remorseful. But Dipper expresses no concern for the agents for the rest of the episode when it looks like they’ve been killed due to his actions. He even nonchalantly remarks that he thought they were dead when he sees them again. Mabel, however, reaches to stop Bill and begs him to “wait” before he knocks her unconscious. Then she’s imprisoned in Mabelland, which is designed to make her never want to leave and based on how it only occurs to her after she renounces it that the neon colours and repetitive background music are too much even for her, may additionally have a direct, though subtle, influence on her mind. So she’s a little distracted from her guilt. But by risking her life to fix the repercussions of her actions and save the town, she shows much more responsibility for the townspeople’s lives than Dipper showed for the agents he’d tried so hard to impress. He just happily went about his business for weeks believing he had two people’s deaths on his conscience. Never even looked into whether they survived.

These differences in their personal moral philosophies add another layer to the parallels between the two generations of Pines twins. Typically, Dipper parallels Ford and Mabel parallels Stan. But less so here! Like Mabel, Ford very staunchly believes in abstract moral theory, namely that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. He holds a grudge for weeks against Stan saving him from being lost in the dimensions through the portal, because it endangered the rest of the world by creating the Rift. It was a good deed with good intentions… but it didn’t only make life better for everyone. To Ford, that means it isn’t good enough. Hmm, which younger twin has a problem with judging anything short of ‘pure good’ to not be worthwhile? Also like Mabel, Ford’s self-righteousness is often hypocritical, considering his pride, selfishness and willingness to disregard the possible negative consequences of his actions, e.g. trusting Bill and building the portal in the first place.

Like Dipper, Stan is willing and ready to use underhanded methods to win against his enemies, to lie, cheat, steal and leverage assets he doesn’t really have the right to. He’s more inclined to be aggressive, spiteful and smug. As for holding grudges, even to an unreasonable extent, he personally despised a nine-year-old child even before he knew that the child was a bad person. He would absolutely summon Rumble McSkirmish to attack a rival for him. He prides himself on his cunning, another form of intelligence, and prioritises being good at what he does best over holding the moral high ground. He is shown to have lifelong insecurities about Ford being better than him in other fields (and thus explicitly valued more by their father); so his pragmatism is his way of trying to always be useful to the people he loves, and indeed a key way he shows them his love.

#gravity falls #mabel pines #dipper pines #pines twins #gravity falls analysis

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themachineshepherd · 4 months ago

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Creatures in Heaven

RRRRIIIIING! RRRRRRRIIIING! RRRRRIIINGG!

“Ah, Fidds, could you turn that thing off!? I’m trying to sleep…” a gruff, sleep-deprived voice grumbled from across the dorm room.

“Oh my stars! I’m sorry, Ford!” Fiddleford exclaimed, rushing to the alarm clock and smacking it until it finally fell silent.

“Augh... It’s alright, sweetheart. Just had a long night with exams. How did you sleep?” Ford groaned as he slipped out of bed, clad only in boxers.

“I slept well, hun! Ohhh, look at you,” Fiddleford chuckled, “Looking good, Ford!” He crossed the room to his lover, pressing a kiss to Ford’s cheek and handing him a steaming cup of coffee.

“Oh, quiet, you.” Ford smirked, shaking his head as he took the cup. “Always flirting with me, hm?”

“I just love you, silly goose! Can’t help it that my boyfriend is the handsomest man in the galaxy!” Fiddleford beamed, turning to grab some fresh clothes. Stanford wrapped his arms around him from behind, pulling him into a warm embrace. “You don’t get to flatter me and then run off! Come here, you!” The two laughed as Ford spun Fiddleford around.

“Let me go! I have to get dressed, Ford!” Fiddleford laughed, wriggling to escape Stanford’s hold. “Alright, alright. Go ahead, honey. You’re free!” Ford released him, letting Fiddleford make a beeline for his closet.

“You just wanted me to stay half-naked, didn’t you?” Fiddleford joked, winking at the dark brunette. Ford rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide his smile.

The couple was deeply in love, having been together for about six months at the time, existing in perfect harmony.

That was 30 years ago. After college, Fiddleford’s family forced him to marry a woman, and they broke up.

Years later, Ford needed Fiddleford’s expertise to help with a portal he was building. Unfortunately, something went wrong with the portal, and Fiddleford was thrown into it, witnessing unspeakable horrors on the other side. Fiddleford begged Stanford to shut it down, but Stanford refused. Fiddleford abandoned the project, leaving Stanford and disappearing into obscurity.

As the years went by, Ford was haunted by regret. How could he have lost his first love?

As Fiddleford vanished, so did Ford, traveling across dimensions and realms. During his travels, he sought out alternate versions of Fiddleford, apologizing and expressing his love, but none were the Fiddleford he had lost.

“I’m sorry, but I ain’t your Fiddleford, Mister. I don’t understand why you did what you did, but I feel mighty sorry for him,” one alternate had told him, deepening Ford’s guilt.

One day, the portal was operational again, and Ford found himself back home. He began mending his relationship with his family, especially his brother, Stanley.

His great niece and nephew shared their paranormal adventures with him, and he listened intently, smiling as Dipper discussed his theories of the unknown.

To Ford’s surprise, Fiddleford’s name came up. The twins mentioned the robotic gobblewonker he had built earlier that summer.

“Excuse me, what did you just say?” Ford asked, his six fingers nervously tapping the table. “Fiddleford? Gobblewonker? You’ll need to be more specific, here” Mabel said, her face had confusion written all over it.

“Where is he?” Ford’s voice grew stern, laced with concern. The twins exchanged intrigued glances.

“Gravity Falls dump. Why?” Dipper asked, narrowing his eyes. “That’s not relevant… How is he?”

“Well, he’s kinda gone kookoo crazy! But Dipper and I helped him recover his memories after he lost them from getting a bit too trigger-happy with a memory gun!”

“I…” Ford’s voice faltered, “I need to be alone for a while. If you’ll excuse me.”

Ford headed downstairs to his lab, his mind racing. Fiddleford was alive, and he was at the dump. Ford had ruined this man’s life, and there was nothing he could do to make amends. He had to see him again, but when? He needed time to think and prepare.

Weeks later, a catastrophic event known as “Weirdmageddon” turned Gravity Falls into a nightmarish landscape.

Amidst the chaos, Ford decided it was time to visit Fiddleford in the dump.

Ford walked towards the dump, his heart racing with every step he took closer to his destination. Upon entering, he scanned the area, searching for Fiddleford’s makeshift “home.” “

Fiddleford?” he called out. “Fidd’s? Are you here?”

Suddenly, a loud rustling came from a small, broken shed constructed from discarded materials.

“Hm? Who’s there!? You’ll never take me alive, demons!” an elderly Fiddleford emerged from the clutter and rushed towards Stanford. He paused, eyes widening in disbelief. “H-Huh? Ford? What… what are you doing here?.. Have I finally gone mad?”

Both men’s eyes welled up with tears. The sight of his former lover, now frail and disheveled, broke Ford’s heart. “I’m here for you, Fidds. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to find you. You must hate me.” Ford began scanning the other man’s face, looking for any remnants of the once witty man.

Fiddleford tried to suppress his emotions, a bittersweet smile gracing his lips. “I’ve tried to forget, I really have. But I don’t think I realized just how much I miss you sometimes.” He chuckled softly, glancing down at the dirt beneath them. Ford’s heart ached as he saw the toll time had taken on the man he once loved.

“Oh! Sorry, got lost in thought!” Fiddleford said, breaking the heavy silence. “Come on in, have a seat! We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Ford nodded and followed the now diminutive Fiddleford inside. As he did, he took in the horrid state of Fiddleford’s living conditions.

Fiddleford gestured for Ford to sit next to the fire. “So, what brings you to my neck of the woods, hm?” he asked with a smile, though his eyes betrayed a deep reservoir of emotion from the years they had been apart.

“I needed to see you. I’ve been thinking about you since the day you left,” Ford confessed with a sigh. “I tried to find you in everything I did and everywhere I went.”

Fiddleford’s eyes softened as he felt the same aching love he had in college. “I’ve wanted to apologize for so long, to reconnect…”

Fiddleford placed his hand over Ford’s, gently rubbing his thumb in circles on the back of Ford’s hand. “I forgive you, Stanford. You don’t need to worry,” he said, his voice tender and soothing. “I still love you. I’ve always loved you.”

Ford let out a muffled sob, grasping his lovers hand tightly, “I don’t understand why, I don’t.. I ruined your life, I destroyed everything you’ve ever worked for! I made your life an unending hell, and for that, I can’t ever be forgiven.” Ford looked into Fidd’s eyes, “I hurt the only one I’ve ever loved, I’m a monster, Fiddleford..”

“No you ain’t, darlin’. Ya made some terrible decisions in yer life..but you feel remorse. You’re here now apologizin’, bein’ honest with me..” Fidds wrapped Ford in a tight embrace, “That’s more than some folks do..I forgive ya, honey.”

Ford had never held Fiddleford so closely, so tightly, in his entire life. He finally had his soulmate back, and that’s all he could have ever hoped for.

The two later moved back in together after the events of weirdmageddon, and after Ford was done traveling the world with Stanley.

Their wedding is in 2 weeks.

へ ♡ ╱|、

૮ - ՛ ) (` - 7

/ ⁻ ៸| |、⁻〵

乀 (ˍ, ل ل じしˍ,)ノ

Creatures in Heaven received the most votes! So, here’s a FIC!!! it’s definitely my most lengthy one! I’m going to also be creating an ao3 tonight and going to upload some of my fics there as well! (I will be going under banjopolishh still!!)

enjoy!

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lopsicle · 1 year ago

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Day three of tickletober and I’m already burned out (‘•w•’) I’m just kidding, I’m just tired because I have Spanish homework that makes no sense :(

Mask did you know I’m the world’s biggest Mabifica shipper?

When Stars Meet In The Northwest

Day 3: Cuddles

Fandom: Gravity Falls

Characters: Lee Pacifica, Ler Mabel.

Summary: Mabel has been begging for cuddles and Pacifica gives in, and nothing goes wrong.

Warnings: None! Though this is a tickle fic

———

‘Pacifica…Pacificaaaaaa!’

Pacifica didn’t even glance up from her book at this point, a blank expression on her face which only shifted whenever she blinked or yawned. It wasn’t like she was annoyed or anything like that, she had just gotten used to tuning out Mabel’s loud, whiny antics in favour of getting whatever she was doing at the time finished before giving her attention to her girlfriend again.

Once she finally looked up from her book, she saw Mabel sitting by her socked feet, her eyes wide and locked on Pacifica, pure adoration resting in her pupils. Wordlessly, the brunette raised her arms and made grabby hands towards Pacifica, not always being the best at verbalising her requests, even if she had been shouting for attention for the last fifteen minutes.

Pacifica smiled a little at her, grabbing Mabel by her armpits and pulling the girl into her lap, having discarded her book to the side. Mabel smiled widely, squeaking a little from happiness as she immediately nestled herself into her girlfriend’s lap.

‘You know,’ Pacifica spoke softly, wrapping one protective arm around Mabel’s shoulders, ‘you can just use your words and ask for cuddles next time.’

Mabel shook her head, giggling playfully as she rested her head on the blonde’s shoulder, keeping her arms wrapped around her neck. ‘Nope! Bothering you is so much more fun that!’

‘Mhm,’ Pacifica rested her back against a soft, fluffy pillow , finally having stopped shuffling around enough for Mabel to get fully settled onto her girlfriend’s lap. ‘I’ll give you that, if there’s one thing your better at me at, your a really great pest.’

Mabel let out a fake gasp as Pacifica stuck out her tongue at the girl, a smirk on her lips. ‘Excuse me? Excuse you? Excuse us?! I’m your girlfriend, not a pest, I’m allowed to say that about myself, you aren’t!’

Mabel huffed, staring right up at Pacifica with a serious-unserious expression plastered onto her face. Pacifica played along with her bit, raising her hands up defensively as she giggled.

‘Alright, Iahah’m saharry, your not a pest, sweetie,’ Pacifica smiled sweetly at her, though Mabel didn’t seem fully satisfied, still feeling slightly mischievous.

‘Your not really sorry, if you were you wouldn’t be laughing! Hm, how about I give you something to laugh about then?’

Before Pacifica could even process what Mabel was saying, her girlfriend’s fingers had already plunged themselves into her armpits. The girl gaped sharply, clenching up her arms and effectively trapping Mabel’s fingers against her hollows.

‘W-waihahahat, Mahahahabel!!’

It wasn’t too uncommon that Pacifica would become the victim of her girlfriend’s tickle attacks, it was practically a given seeing how much Mabel loved to tickle people all the time and I mean all the time. The girl never, ever got tired of making some squeal and laugh at just a couple pokes or scratches, and Pacifica was no exception to this rule. In fact, ever since they started dating, Pacifica had become even more of a target for Mabel’s dexterous, tickling fingers.

‘Tickle, tickle, tickle!’

Mabel grinned as she saw how red Pacifica’s face got from that, finally making the girl raise her arms up to cover her blushing, flustered face, in turn leaving those sensitive hollows totally helpless to Mabel’s fingers.

‘Dahahahahahan’t sahahahahay thahahahat wahahahaahard!!’

The Northwest squealed and wriggled and writhed against Mabel’s hands but she couldn’t really do much to get away since her girlfriend was on top of her. And she’d rather die then pull her arms down to show off her blushing, laughing face. Mabel just giggled at her antics though, tilting her head, almost like an idea sparked in her brain,

‘Can you really not handle it when someone says tickle? Poor ticklish Pacifica, can’t handle any of the tickles on her super ticklish armp-!’

‘Stahahahaahahahap thahahahahahahat!!’

Pacifica cried out as that annoying, crimson reminder of her embarrassment had crept all the way up to her ears now, making the girl wish she could just hide her face in her llama sweater. She got a lot more squirmy at this point, eager for an escape from the tickle monster that she had decided to date, the girl’s socked heels pounded down onto the bed while her waist sharply twisted about from side to side, hoping to get away from Mabel’s hands.

But since Mabel was tickling her from both sides, she just ended up adorably flinging herself into her girlfriend’s nails each time, causing her to squeal and flinch away. Mabel just smiled fondly at the sight, it want like it was rare for Pacifica to show emotion but she looked absolutely, adorable hysterical right now in a way Mabel barely ever got to see.

And truth be told, Pacifica wasn’t hating it either. The poor blonde was just never really used to being flustered at all, much less in front of her girlfriend of all people, and because of tickling (that’s still hard for her to say) of all things. Even with that, the sensations were so pleasant and tingly, it was like a massage but the Mabel way; the way that makes you scream with laughter.

Unfortunately for Pacifica though, the girl really wasn’t able to handle that much tickling given that she hadn’t experienced much of it in her childhood. She slid her arms away from her face very slowly, showing that sweet, hysterical smile of hers that distracted Mabel momentarily as she just looked adoringly at her girlfriend, who asked through giggles,

‘Nahahaha more, pleahahase,’

Mabel’s fingers almost immediately left Pacifica’s armpits as she sat next to her and, while she was still re catching her breath, scooped her up and set her down on her lap, keeping one comforting arm wrapped around her waistline while she gently flicked and messed around with her ponytail with the other.

‘You know, for someone as..twordish as you, you handled that really well!’

Pacifica smiled at her before laying her head on Mabel’s chest, cuddling up to her.

‘I am so lucky to have you, Mabel Pines.’

——-

I may have mentioned this before but I am the world’s leading connoisseur in Mabifica, I am Mabifica’s biggest supporter. If Mabifica has 100 fans, I’m one of them. If Mabifica has 10 fans, I’m one of them. If Mabifica has 1 fan, that’s me. If Mabifica has zero fans, I am dead. This is an amazing ship, anyway, I hoped you enjoyed that fic because I did not proofread any of that shi

#Mabifica world supremacy #mabifica world domination #mabifica #sfw tickling community #tickle fic #tickle content #augtickletober2023 #tickletober2023 #gravity gals tickle #ler mabel pines #ler mabel #lee pacfica northwest #lee pacfica #ticklish pacifica

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fordtato · 2 years ago

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YES. So I'm not the only one that has MANY things to say about Return to the Bunker. I was super hyped up for this this before, but then for the whole 32 minutes of watching I was like "...are you even serious? c'mon!"

This thing felt less like a Gravity Falls episode and more like a big Ford Hate Party. Wtf?! He had a few interactions with Mabel in the series, but literally ALL of them were positive, since she never talked about her issues directly to Ford (not trying to blame her, I love Mabel with all my heart). And here Ford's straight up a huge ass to her. Not wearing a sweater in the summer (HE LITERALLY DOES?!), telling her in the face he doesn't trust her, acting like spending any time with her is wasteful and a scar on his honor (?). Dudes, did we really watch the same Gravity Falls with the same characters? Ford can (and is) be dramatic and too serious sometimes, but he's also silly, fun and adventurous! And it's SHOWN in the series! And he loves the twins more than anything!

But let's get to the thing I have the biggest problem with. The way Ford's trust issues were treated. Guy's been through hell and back. Every person in his whole life that was his close friend, ended up stabbing him in the back (from his perspective). He literally spend 30 years all by himself, FORCED to trust only himself, because trusting someone else might have ended up in him being dead. Now he's barely back home, everything is new and complicated and dangerous, there's the rift, there's Bill being a huge thread, there's his relationship with Stanley, there's his house turned into a mockery of the only thing he was ever proud of, AND this guy still stays relatively calm and collected. Now you're also expecting him to suddenly forget about 30+ years of trauma he experienced and trust people he barely knows (Soos, Wendy) with his worst fear?! And you're punishing him for being jumpy, terrified and paranoid, when he has all the reasons to act such way?! And what's with the scene when he gets on his knees and in teary tone admits that just a sad, lonely boy, but now thanks to Mabel and her friends he might change? Like, sir? Are you the Ford Pines we know? Pre-weirdmageddon afraid-to-his-death prideful and emotionally withdrawn Ford Pines? And then he "learns" absolutely nothing AND ERASES THEIR MEMORIES WITH A MEMORY GUN?? WHAT THE FUCK? I barely forced myself to watch until the very end, because I wanted to scream. You think that Ford, WHO IS A VICTIM and was against the memory gun for most of his life unless absolutely crucial, who had to erase his brother's whole personality and the only reason he remained relatively sane after that was because said brother's memories were brought back, would EVER erase memories of his own twelve year old niece and her friends, RIGHT AFTER BEING ALL OPEN HEARTED and admitting he was wrong?! I can't. I'm sorry. I got all emotional.

Mabel's not really Mabel. Ford's definitely not Ford. Stan was... well, weird, but I could maybe go with that? The B plot was better anyway. The only one that remained more or less close to their canon characterisation was Soos. Even McGucket didn't really click.

ALSO. Ford's relationship with Fiddleford in this one. Wtf. Ford, who mourned what happened between him and his former best friend for years, who had a fucking "I'm sorry Fiddleford" as one of his thoughts on mind reading machine, and who, after seeing him for the first time during Weirdmageddon was all regretful and sad, in this episode is, again, an ass to him?! And their meeting, for the first time in 30 years, is not really a big deal? Ooof.

I'm angry. I didn't like it at all and I thought I'm the only one, because all of the comments are so happy and enthusiastic. I'm glad I'm not alone. It's really not good. Well, it had good moments. I laughed REALLY hard during that dating show with the shapeshifter and a few jokes had me chuckling, and, as you said, the art is really great and you can see all the time and passion that went into it. But the plot itself... I guess it's supposed to be canon complaint. It makes it even worse. The writers really hate Ford, don't they? Eh.

Sorry for the dump. I don't know what's gotten into me. I was so excited for it, a beginner's mistake, I guess.

It felt, personally, like the writers greatly misunderstood (or did not interpret from series as I did) which qualities of Ford, Mabel, McGucket and Soos made these characters loveable and made the show work.

The script of this fan project, at times, seemed specifically antagonistic to the source material, to these characters, and to the motivations these characters held.

I am not trying to shit on something people loved, but I did not enjoy the writing at all.

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g-bouchard · 23 days ago

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I'm the anon you bullied, my name is Alex.

Oh, you're sorry yeah? The way I see it not much has changed Gwend- erm. Sorry. Gwen.

Not much has changed, Gwen, you're still climbing to the top, any means necessary, and the means are always dubious.

I don't know the details, nor do I care to. Whatever the hell an OIAR is you seem to have dominated it, just like you would have back then. Whatever.

Woe is Gwen, in that mansion that could make a dutchess blush. Must have been so. Bloody. Hard for you

I first felt genuine, mortal terror the night year eight ended. I would frequently stay after school for hours after classes had ended to wait with Mabel. Do you remember her? Can you imagine her face? I can't.

Her and I were the only two bursary students in our year. We stuck together. Her mum worked two jobs and wouldn't come to pick her up till 9pm. Hours sitting in the parking lot of our academy, eating the cheapest chicken burger within walking distance next to my best friend. Never quite mattered how small you managed to make me feel, Mabel made me feel like I mattered. Didn't last couldn't last wouldn't last. The night ate her.

So there we were, final day of classes, feeling glukupikron and tired and splurging for a better quality chicken burger. It's 9, then it's 10, then it's 11 and the sun has long since sunk in the sky. Did you ever stay on campus after dark Gwen? Do you know how cold it got, even on summer nights, that far from the city? I had nothing much to go home to, in fact, I had reasons to stay on that stoop. Even were it not for the warmth Mabel made me feel, I had reasons to stay away from home in spades. Whatever drama there could've been at the bloody Bouchard estate? Whatever woe is me politics, whatever "mummy got me the wrong tea set and she doesn't love me!" arse over tit self pity? It buried that a hundred times over I'm sure. Mabel was my light in the dark.

We tried to call mum, considered bussing home. Couldn't, no fare money since we went for combo meals instead of dollar menu.

Have you ever had to ask to skip fare, Gwen? Have you ever had to PAY fare? Needless to say, all the drivers on our circuit knew me, and knew to pass the stop unless I waved a few notes in my hand to prove I could pay.

But that's the thing Gwen. There were no drivers. There was nobody. It was me and Mabel and the night sky and the chill in the air. We made light of the situation. "Alex" she turned to me and said "aren't the stars so pretty tonight?" They were. That's the worst bloody part. They were heartbreakingly beautiful.

I tried to find a constellation. Maybe I just wanted to show off to Mabel, I was such a showoff back then. No Ursa Major. No Ursa minor. No Scorpio, no Heracles. There were stars, but not the... Not the right stars. Each star was a mere pin prick cast against the unending everything of the summer sky. They danced around each other in clockwork patterns determined by gravity and space-time. They were not shooting stars, the sky moved across millennia, or time moved through her and I. It lasted a mere moment, a second of peace for a hundred thousand years. "Mabel, I'm afraid." The sky opened up. "Mabel. What's happening?" I turned her face with my hand on her cheek. They were always so warm, but she was cold as ice. We met eyes, but instead of the kind eyes I'd come to know there was a pair of starry night skies staring back at me. "I'll-". She never finished. No clue what she was going to say on account of the toothed grin of the sky above, descending, Mabel resisting as I tried to pull her with me while stammering back. The sky clamping down, and everything being thrust back to reality.

The police sat me down for hours. Some might've thought I killed her honestly. Little dyke girl and her straight best friend, the story writes itself. Nothing conclusive, though her mother never spoke to me again. What could I even say to her? I haven't gone outside at night ever since. Every time I try, I see the sky as it was in her teary eyes.

What... What the hell was that?

Don't. Don't you dare compare our situations. I had no idea what you were going through. And you have no idea what I went through either. I'm not going to sit here and compare and contrast and tally up pity points, but I'm not going to listen to you berate me for things I had no control over.

I'm sorry for your loss, I really am. That sounds... terrifying. I wish I had answers for you. But I don't. I didn't even know any of that happened. I transferred schools again after the end of year eight.

...But I don't know. I don't know what that could have been. Through all my work, I have yet to come across anything about someone being taken by the sky.

...I'm sure... I'm sure you miss her a lot. I'm sorry.

-Gwen B.

#gwen bouchard #gwendolyn bouchard #oiar #tmagp #the magnus protocol

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miiishra · 3 months ago

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Let me tell you about The Brothers’ War.

My husband and I got into Magic the Gathering during the release of The War of the Spark because we found a friend group who was extremely into Commander. Every Friday night, we would hold our own little kitchen table FNM, order pizza, our kids playing together in the next room, rotating who hosts. It was an incredible time (due to being military, however, it was short-lived because COVID happened and then we all moved away from each other).

We both knew a little bit about Magic already, and had dabbled in it years beforehand. I always loved the art of this game, and it is what really drew me in.

But it was War of the Spark that made me realize there was a story being told here. Even though I knew nothing of the lore, the cards were enough for me to piece a story together. I had a general idea of what was going on in these decks, and that fascinated me.

Fast forward to the Brothers’ War.

Although marketing says the set didn’t do so well (and I believe it, the mechanics are a bit on the weak side), this still ended up being my favorite set because of how these cards told a story. The emotions that came over me made each pull an experience even with the most common card.

Heck, even my blog is titled Mishra Did Nothing Wrong lol.

It was this set that made me hunt down the original novel. I read it in two days. And then going back and seeing the story in the cards in a broader context knocked me out of my seat.

All decks I build tell a story. And I imagine it is the same for even the most devoted Spike, whether they realize it or not. We choose a theme and then we tell a story with that theme.

My Rakdos Rowan Kenrith deck tells the story of her fall from grace and her temptation of corruption. Sultai Oko is a reflection of Celtic and Slavic folklore. I have an Esper detective deck that investigates strange hauntings and Lovecraftian horrors. I enjoy creating decks that my opponents will find exciting to play against. That to me is the core of what makes Magic the Gathering.

My point is that, even if players aren’t a Vorthos, we tell stories with our decks. Our own stories that we create in the Magic IP, with the occasional summoning of a Planeswalker to help out.

I think that’s where this sense of loss is coming from in the Magic fanbase. The addition of other IPs creates noise that interferes with our own storytelling.

I can explain how Mabel and friends accidentally ended up in the wrong side of New Capenna.

I can’t explain how Gandalf and Spiderman ended up tag-teaming against Nico Bolas.

Whenever we hear the justification for UB, it’s usually “Well, that’s how this certain person got into Magic” and… that actually doesn’t feel good. Magic the Gathering on its own couldn’t draw new players? You have to fish them using other IPs as bait? If I were a character and lore designer, I would actually be pretty damn hurt by that. As a player, I am pretty damn hurt by that.

You said that the company was focusing a lot more on the lore. Great. The Netflix series is still on the table. Excellent. So why not push on that even more? Why not create novels again? The Brothers’ War and the Wildered Quest and all those other novels written so long ago (some of them at least) are still very beloved to this day. Spend the resources to expand on these worlds. Comic books. Toys. Clothes. Etc. Sure, we have those things, but those things are very lacking compared to what other IPs have. We don’t even get to see Magic crossed over the other way around: no skins in Fortnight or WoW pets or any other mainstream medium.

But instead, we are feeling the push of UB. It’s not about players anymore. We all know it’s not. Wizards of the Coast is doing exactly what video games are doing now: trying to appeal to everyone for a quick cashgrab. And where is all this money going? Certainly not to the quality of the cards, that’s for sure. Certainly not to your QA given all the constant mistakes that are printed. Certainly not to reprint the most powerful UB cards as in-universe versions. Certainly not to make UB its own format or special set or whatever.

Here is something that bothers me and it’s bothered me a while.

You say the market says that only 7% of players don’t like UB.

I believe this is a misleading statement. Because most players DO like UB. In general.

Players don’t like UB when it starts taking over the identity of Magic.

Do you see the significant difference in this phrasing? Because I certainly do. And I guarantee that the answer would be much, much higher than 7%.

I’ve always felt the core role of this blog has been one of information. We make a lot of choices in design, and I try to use my various communications, including Blogatog, to walk the players through what we were thinking when we made key decisions.

The challenge with this approach is that it’s very logic-focused. It uses intellectual justifications to explain actions. But the problems I’m often responding to are emotional in origin. I have a good friend who’s a psychologist. He refers to this (using the words of author Robyn Gobbel) as an owl brain solution to a watchdog brain problem.

When someone is hurting, hearing about why the thing that is causing them pain is the result of intellectual decisions falls flat. That’s what has been causing some tension lately here on Blogatog.

It’s clear that for some Question Marks changes over the last few years represent the loss of something key to what makes Magic special to them. To them, the game is losing its heart.

While I can’t necessarily do anything about that, I want to better understand what you’re going through. So I’m using this post to ask players who are concerned with the recent changes to help me understand their feelings. Let me hear your stories about how your lives have been affected by these changes.

#magic the gathering #old lady yells into the abyss

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sainthelgas · 2 months ago

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Assorted Last unicorn rewatch thoyghts/ gravity falls critique

Okay i had a double feature with the gravity falls commentary track where alex hirsch trashed the last unicorn and then the last unicorn. In all fairness feom the way he described the movie I dont think he has seen it in 20+ years. But also its funny that he shit on it in the commentary track for one of the worst grabity falls episodes. The fucking last mabelcorn. They made the episode in the last liek five minutes and it shows. He calls it bad and treats it like a guilty pleaure thing but fuck you. Quality wise the last unicorn is runnint circles around this episode. It remains entertaining throughout which is more then I can say for a lot of grabity falls episodes in the later half of season 2. Saying this from my memory of watching it when I was 12 fyi. Also its kinda silly to compare an hour and a half movie to a tv show with two seasons. Like apples and oranges. But what I will say is that the last unicorn reaches higher highs.

That being said by someone who would consider the last unicorn one of her favorite movies. All of the characters are like flawed in differsnt ways byr all decently likeable. Even the king who is literally holding a whole population of creatures captive is pretty sympathetic. Or at least moreso than he might be in other films of a similar age demographic. The entire thing with the unicorn losing herself to the illusion was delightful. Its all the tropes I really love. And its funny that is what alex hirsch focused on as a major point. The whole horror of it just went over his head. I could probably make some argument yow uis misreading of the unicorn and total blindness to molly can say something for how gravity falls writes its women characters. I could also day its funny how this parallels a lot of the ways people treat mabel. Being hyper critical of a (usually girl)character due to a desire to go against the norm presented. It kinda reminds me of what happened to scrappy doo in the james gun scooby doo movie. But ya know scrappy do was actuslly annoying lets not kid ourselves. The unicorn did nothing wrong amd now theres this smear campaign against her. Funded by the disney corporation. I kid.

I do not have a gender studys major nor do I have enough knowledge to accurately say if gravity falls is a little sexist. I feel like so much of wendy's screentime is devoted to her relationship to dipper and or robbie. She never really gets to feel like a natural part of the group dynamic. She has nice interactions with other characters she just doesbt get that many plots focused on her. At least in comparrison to soos who gets full episodes about him/his backstory and like just gets more b plots. The fee b plots wendy does get are like about dippers crush on her or robbie being a shitty boyfriend or both. Remember when robbie tried to brainwash her and they never mentioned it again. Not really relevant just thought it was interesting.

Overall: is gravity falls a bad show? No, it has problems but like in comparrison to its contemporaries its pretty good. Its just a flawed show. And I cant say its like all mysoginistic because mabel is a very well written character even if it feels like the show is very often still from dippers pov. And they at least kinda subvert the mean girl archetype. I like that. Giving a character supposed to be shallow more depth is always a plus. I think the biggest drawback from wendys lack of side plots is soos kinda be overplayed a bit as "supporting young adult". Like soos is funny but also he can kinda get grating when used to much. Maybe its jurt cause my tolerance for "funny innofensive fat guy" is very low. I much prefer "rude asshole fat guy" like pete from a goofy movie.

Tldr: watch the last unicorn it changed my life

#from st. helga #also something funny about them wanting to write a wendy episode but just #failing and having to do some stupid gimick idea instead #its pretty funny tbh #i have no hate in my heart for alex hirsch as a person fyi #hiding this in the tags but shmendrick reminds me kf my childhood friend i had a crush on :)

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alittlerock02 · 1 year ago

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Stevie Nicks ~ All These Years RAL Demo

youtube

This is a demo of Stevie's from Rock A Little, it was from 1984. Stevie wrote this song in honor of her best friend, Robin Anderson who died of leukemia in 1981 just as Stevie was releasing her debut album, Bella Donna. In 1983, Stevie married Robin's husband, Kim for a few months, this song also mentions Matthew, Robin and Kim's son, whom Stevie was a brief stepmother to. Rock A Little started out as a project called Mirror, Mirror. But it was scrapped. I think this song should've been on Rock A Little as it really tells a story, a very sad story. What do you guys think? I also feel this song should be released on a 24 Karat Gold Volume 2. There were also other songs from the RAL sessions that tell stories. Songs like 'Night Gallery', 'Ooh Ooh Baby', 'Chanel, Chanel', 'I Call You Missing', 'Jimmy, Come On Back', 'Running Through the Garden', 'She Loves Him Still', 'Reconsider Me', 'Mirror, Mirror', 'Love is Like A River', 'Mabel Normand', 'What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done For You?', 'Priest of Nothing', 'Are You Mine?', 'It's Not A Dream', 'Something Exquisite', 'Gypsy Beggars', 'You Like Me'. Nicks also did a cover of Olivia Newton-John's 'Tied Up (In Promises), which she demoed for Rock A Little. 'I Call You Missing' was demoed for Nicks' 1994 fifth studio album, Street Angel, but was left off the track listing. 'Running Through the Garden' was released in 2003 on Fleetwood Mac's 'Say You Will' album. 'You Like Me' was recorded by the Williams Brothers in the late 80s, they gave Stevie 'Some Become Strangers' for her Rock A Little album. The songs, Mabel Normand and She Loves Him Still were released in 2014 on Stevie's eighth studio album '24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault'. 'Love is Like A River' was released on Nicks' Street Angel album. 'Reconsider Me' was a duet with Don Henley. It was intended for Rock A Little, but Nicks' left it off the album, it was released in 1998 on Nicks' 3-disc boxset 'Enchanted'. Mirror, Mirror was tried out again for Nicks' 1989 fourth album 'The Other Side of the Mirror', but was left off, Nicks' recorded a final version of the song in 1992, she wanted it as the b-side to her 1994 single from Street Angel, Blue Denim, her producer accidentally grabbed the wrong master tape and ended up putting the RAL demo version of song as the b-side to Blue Denim. Another song that was demoed for Rock A Little, 'Thousand Days' ended up as the b-side to Nicks' 1994 single, Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind. 'What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done For You?' was released in 2023 as a duet with Dolly Parton on her 49th album, Rockstar. An entire album of Dolly doing rock songs. It was the ninth track on the album. So what do you think, do you think these songs need to be released on a deluxe edition of Rock A Little or a 24 Karat Gold Volume 2? I hope this song especially gets released. 'All These Years' would be a great tribute to Robin, I feel it could also serve as a tribute to Christine McVie.

#stevie nicks #demos #rock a little #Youtube

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sivyera · 2 years ago

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Could you do dipper pines fluff alphabet?

Thank you for your request, I actually thought about writing this, you sent it in the right time!

Dipper Pines│Fluff Alphabet

PAIRING: Dipper Pines x reader

WARNING: bad grammar

CONTAINS: fluff

SONG: Marlboro Nights - Lonely God

gif is not mine

A = Attractive. What they find attractive on their s/o?

You smile. He loves when you smile at him. There are many smiles that are just for him, like smile that tell him 'everything's gonna be alright' or lovely smile that shows him how much you love him etc.. It always melts his heart when he see you smile. Truly smile.

B = Beauty. What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

Your hands. I think Dipper have scraped hands because he is in woods searching for mystic creatures etc. So when you hold his hand with your soft, small hand, he feels like the most powerful man in the world. Whenever he is nervous, anxious, sad or angry - you hold his hand and every his doubts disappear.

C = Cuddle. How they cuddle with they s/o?

Dipper loves bury his head into your neck or chest.

D = Dates. What are dates with them like?

Picnic and study dates are his favourite. First picnic dates; they are most in the woods where is privacy. You two can just stare in each other's eyes for hours, listening birds singing, do nothing. Or watch the clouds and say which cloud reminds you of which animal. Study dates; you two study his journal. Finding new hides messages or just reading about creatures you find there. Study dates are most in his bed.

E = Everything. You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world…)

'You are my addiction.'

F = Feelings. When did they know they were falling in love?

When you comforted him after Mabel and Stan were teasing him about he's not strong and manly. Dipper isn't one of the strongest man in the world and his muscles/manliness are touchy subject for him. So when he was in his room, little sad, little upset you knock on his door and he (of course) let you in. You sat next to him, grab his hand, draw little circles with your thump on it and ask him what's wrong. He was surprised, no one truly ask him that. He was little embarrassed about telling you, but he knew you would never make fun of him.

G = Gentle. Are they gentle with their s/o?

Yess. Dipper is really gentle with you. One time when you cut your finger with a paper, Dipper ran to you with first aid kit, panicking about that you could bleed out. He is just scared he will lose you. But being gentle with you has one important advantage - if Bill ever gets into Dipper's body again, you will immediately realize that. Trust me Bill wouldn't be gentle with you, not even in Dipper's body.

H = Honesty. Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

At first he didn't tell you everything, just for your safety. But after a few months he realized you are the one he can trust the most. So after a few months he tell you everything. Slowly and patiently, and if you don't understand something he will gladly explain it to you.

I = Impression. First impression/s?

He blushed, but that's everything. You were (and still are) beautiful but he knows he can't judge people by it's cover. So you could be beautiful but you could be a horrible person. But when he get to know you, he realized you are nothing more but perfect.

J = Jealousy. Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Dipper gets jealous pretty easily but he can hide it. He mostly staring at the person who is flirting with you. He glares at the person and has a 'dangerous' look. After a while he come to you and the person who is making him jealous. Dipper will put his arm around your waist/shoulder and stare at that person. If the person still don't get it, Dipper will walk away with you under the pretext of something important. He become very clingy when he is jealous so give him attention.

K = Kiss. How do they kiss their s/o?

Such a sweet kisser.

L = Love Confession. How would they confess to their s/o?

He would come to you (in privacy) and just straight tell you his feeling. Mabel would find out Dipper's big fat crush on you and she would tease him about it. But one time the teasing gone too far and Dipper get angry and said 'fine I'm going to tell Y/N that I love her, happy?' He stand up and go right to you. After he told you, he gets blushed and little embarrassed.

M = Marriage. Do they want to get married? How do they propose?

At first he wasn't really sure, because people could get to him by hurting you. He really cares about you. But he wants to spend the rest of his life with you and be honest his love for you is more powerful than his doubts.

N = Nicknames. What do they call their s/o?

'Darling, sweetheart.'

O = On Cloud Nine. What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others?

Awkward smiles, blushy cheeks, looking at you with love in his eyes, yes it's very obvious for others. Mabel is teasing him 24/7 about it. He is also very protective and he is not afraid jump headlong into danger to save you.

P = PDA. Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others?

He brags to Mabel cuz she lost a bet. She thought Dipper would never ask you out, because he is too shy and scared. Also he brags to Soos, because you know he's dating the perfect person in the world why wouldn't he brag, don't blame him. But PDA is holding hands, hug you or kiss your cheeks for him.

Q = Quirk. Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

His voice. His voice can calm you down and you can listen him for hours talking about nothing and everything. His voice is another proof that he is a real Dipper and not Bill or his clons. You know Bill have like 'squeaky' voice.

R = Romance. How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

He is trying but he is more cliche. Don't blame him he never dated someone before you so he is not good with relationships. Mabel helped him lots of times because she is more creative than Dipper. But you love every little thing he do for you, even when it's just picnic or cuddles or watching TV. I can say you both enjoying the time you spend together.

S = Support. Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

He believes in you more than he believes in himself. He is here for you and support you even with the smallest things. He would never make fun of you just because you are scared, because you don't believe in yourself. He is here for you waiting with love, support and patience.

T = Talking. What do they like to talk about?

His journal. In his journal is so much interesting things and he is so excited and he can talk for hours about nothing. He often lost in his words and thoughts when he is with you. He knows you would never interrupt him or don't look annoyed when he is talking. And that's makes him happy. So happy.

U = Understanding. How good do they know their partner?

He knows you like his journal. He notices the smallest thing because he knows they are important.

V = Value. How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Look, your relationship is the most intimacy thing. Someone can stole his journal or kidnap you/him, but no one and I mean NO ONE can stole his love for you. He will do anything for you and your safety. So your relationship is the most important thing to him.

W = Wild Card. A random Fluff Headcanon.

He gets very clingy when he is jealous. That means - CUDDLES. He loves having his face buried into your neck or chest, legs tangled together with yours and his arms around your waist. He sleeps on the side of the bed which is close to the door, so if anything dangerous get in he would be the first to get hurt.

X = Xylophone. What’s song describe your relationship?

Sunflower - Post Malone, Swae Lee

Y = Yearning. How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

He copy really bad. He is calling you all the time and when you can't call in the moment he is talking to Mabel telling her how amazing, strong, beautiful,... you are.

Z = Zebra. If they wanted a pet, what would they get?

A dog or a hamster.

#dipper pines #dipper pines x reader #dipper pines fluff alphabet #fluff alphabet #gravity falls fluff alphabet #gravity falls dipper #gravity falls x reader #gravity falls imagine #x reader #gravity falls dipper x reader #gravity falls dipper pines x reader #gravity falls

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vexingvorta · 2 months ago

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Im not a fan of every argument made here on either side, so first I'll get a few things out of the way;

1, that abuse victims often go on to be abusers themselves if they don't put in the work necessary to heal from their own abuse, that's what people are talking about when they refer to the CYCLE of abuse. To deny that is... Also uncomfortable. Being a victim of abuse does not make you exempt from abusing other people. 2, I wish we'd stop equating toxic with abusive because there is a difference. 3, i don't think autistic coding is really a fair defense of said toxic traits I'm gonna be real. There's nothing wrong with headcanons and projection but just to focus on what actually happened in the series without using headcanon to excuse harmful behavior. I don't know what traits are being referred to as "autistic coded" here so honestly I'm not gonna touch that with a ten foot pole and just focus on what we see;

Its hard for people to accept, but abuse does not happen on accident. Abuse is an intentional choice one makes. And over all, no, Ford isn't abusive. He, throughout the series and due to a combination of his self-centeredness and being a victim of abuse (hell, his self-centeredness was weaponized against him as part of the abuse) was absolutely toxic for most of the time we've seen him.

The argument that he abused Fiddleford is so stupid I'm not even going to acknowledge it. The thing with Stan is, he frankly wasn't around him enough to actually abuse him. A one time event is not abuse. A single fight is not abuse. Abuse is long and drawn out and, as I said earlier, intentional. And, like what was already pointed out, Ford was in a bad state. He'd reached the point of Bill going fully mask off, so to speak, and the abuse now being at it's worst. He was fully isolated and sleep deprived and it made him crazy. Yes, his unwillingness to destroy the journals was deeply selfish and another mark of how self-centered he is. It's the definition of irrational. But, once again, he wasn't in a spot where he could think rationally. (Granted, even if he was, I still don't think he would've been willing to destroy the journals because his self importance and self centeredness is one of his biggest flaws and an important part of his character)

The closest Ford ever comes to being abusive is, yes, with dipper. He starts telling him a lot of the same things we know Bill told him at the start of their partnership; you're special, we need each other, these other people are only holding you back. Nobody understands you like I do. When Dipper expresses concern for Mabel, Ford is immediately dismissive. He looks at Dipper and all he sees is himself, and all he sees in Mabel is Stan. He is the one who pushed that dichotomy, because he really couldn't think outside of himself.

His greatest flaw is that he's self centered and self obsessed. But the thing is, is that he learns his lesson. It takes literal apocalypse to get there, but he does learn and he does reflect and he does apologize and try to do better. He course corrects. Gravity falls, ultimately, is about family bonds and breaking the cycle of abuse. Ford almost continued that cycle with Dipper, but he stopped before any permanent damage could be done, both to their relationship, and to Dipper and Mabels. He fixed his relationship with Stan.

He did in fact have abusive tendencies and toxic traits but ultimately he put in the work to fix them and be better. Ford is a well written and well balanced character. He displays how someone even with good intentions can unintentionally fall back into cruel and toxic habits, and can start repeating the abuse they were put through. He also shows that you can come back from that. That starting down that path doesn't mean you have to stay there. That it's possible to heal and get better.

None of what I'm saying is an indictment of Ford's character. The opposite: he is complex and well written and imperfect, and I love him and his character arc. He could've been so easily made into an irredeemable villain, a no good bastard who's just horrible and abusive. He had all those pieces laid out. But the choice and skill to actually have him go through the motions of falling into abusive tendencies and then getting better is amazing on Alex Hirsch's part, and a testament to his ability to write deep and complex characters.

(also this is just kind of my own aside but the use of "autistic-coded" as like an excuse for how a character acts is really annoying to me for a number of reasons? For one, just off the bat, it's an attempt to make your headcanon sound more canon than it is, but by nature of being a headcanon, it's not really a fair or valid argument here. Second, there are ways to make a legitimate argument and analysis of a characters actions in canon and debate criticisms of their actions without saying "they're autism coded so actually you must hate autistic people", like it's okay, you're allowed to make a legitimate argument. Also, "character did shitty thing because they're autistic" isn't the win you think it is, because let's be real, you're either implying that they have no autonomy over their actions because of their autism, or that you think autism makes people shitty or toxic, neither of which is the win you think it is. Ironically lack of media literacy applies in both cases here, just for different reasons. Okay side rant over, just wanted to throw that out there because holy hell it's something that is used so much in fandom and it gets grating after a while.)

The tldr here is that Ford isn't an abuser. He was abused, he had toxic and abusive traits, but he put in the work to heal and better himself. He's by no means perfect and that's okay, he's a good character, and he's actually trying to be better.

Today in "I hate autistic-coded abuse victims", this shitty take.

Ford did not abuse Stan. He did not abuse Fiddleford. He did not try to drive a wedge in Dipper and Mabel's relationship (he was doing what he thought was best for Dipper and thought Mabel would be fine).

Just admit you hate autistic people and have no compassion for abuse victims. And admit you have no media literacy.

Also, calling a canonical abuse victim an abuser is...uncomfortable, to say the least. Especially with how you're just making him out to be abusive for...not handling personal interactions perfectly. You're demonizing autistic traits. And you need to research how abuse can effect people.

(Also, I know Ford's not perfect. But you don't seem to know that he's flawed but ultimately a good person. You just want a "perfect victim" when it comes to abuse victims, and it's obvious)

#sorry for the long post oop #stanford pines #ford pines #character analysis

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