#anyways stan Nevada

[iheartsunset]

I finally finished my Nevada drawing after 2 years!

I am failing AP macro

(remember the good ol’ days where I was failing AP bio? Time flies by so fast)

[phoenix-art-official]

Stan did things to survive he wasn't proud of. Just now, he was using his teeth to break off the locking mechanism of the car trunk he was tied up in. He felt cracks and jolts of pain, and he kept having to swallow blood, and every moment that passed was another that he had to think about everything that had lead him here.

Betrayal, mostly. Cruelty, definitely. Stupidity, sadly.

Stan knew he was stupid. He thought he had wised up over the years, but it turned out he was just as gullible and hopeful as he had ever been. Even now some small part of him was planning on finding the closest payphone as soon as he got out of here, so he could waste a couple of quarters calling a man who he hadn't spoken to in years and who hadn't cared about him in even longer.

He'd made friends on the road. Or he thought so, anyway, but it turned out those "friends" were actually "enemies," and those "girlfriends" and "wives" were also "enemies." Go figure.

His shoulder cracked from where it lay on the floor and he groaned through his teeth. He thought for sure he'd popped the damn thing back in its socket. Oh well. He liked to brag about being able to pick any lock with his hands tied behind his back and blindfolded, but so far that didn't seem to extend to field medicine. Or maybe that was just because he had already wriggled out of the blindfold.

He was maybe panicking a bit. Which was good, he needed the adrenaline. It helped him keep yanking and tugging and cracking against that stupid latch, no matter how often he had to pause because he felt enamel crunch between his jaws instead of metal. That familiar beating in his chest, in his head, in his soul.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Sur-vive. Sur-vive. Sur-vive.

Eventually, the trunk popped open. Eventually, a haggard, sweaty man covered in blood wriggled out and flopped onto the sand. Eventually, he pulled his hands down around his feet and in front of himself, popped his shoulder into its socket again, and broke the zip ties around his wrists and ankles. Eventually, he levered himself upright and shivered in the cold Nevada night air, looking at the miles of stars above and desolate nothing below. Eventually, he saw the light pollution down the road and began stumbling towards it.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Well, he hadn't died this time. That was good. And what was more, he currently had a grand total of a dirty dress shirt, some jeans, some loafers, a fleece hoodie, and... oh yeah, absolutely fuck-all else. He was also beat to hell, probably concussed, thirsty, hungry, cold, and...

Huh. How did he feel?

The physical, bodily complaints were always loud and easy to pinpoint. But emotionally, where he expected a white-hot boiling furnace of rage in his chest, he felt instead something icey cold, heavy, and leaden.

Hm.

He made it to a gas station. There was a payphone under flickering sodium lights, a single car being filled with gas- Stan still couldn't say he missed not being able to siphon gas, everyone pumping it themselves made it so much easier- and a young woman doing the filling. He started towards the payphone, not even really thinking about what he would do when he got there, and then someone screamed.

It was the woman. She stared at him. He stared back. The light flickered over her wide eyes. A long moment passed where Stan didn't really know how to fix that.

He lifted a hand to wave reassuringly at her, spin some tall tale, maybe ask for a bit of change.

"Stay back!" she shouted. Then she took off a shoe, screamed, "Scram," threw it at him, and got into her car, driving off into town.

The shoe hit him in the face.

It didn't hurt that much. It was just a shoe. Everything else hurt way more. Especially his jaw.

So why did he feel like he was dying?

Maybe because it was always like this. People shouting at him, throwing things, telling him to "Get off my lawn," or "Stay away from me," or "Keep your mouth shut."

"Stay in line." "Get back in your cage." "Sit down." "Don't ask stupid questions." "Don't come back until you've made millions."

"Go." "Sit." "Stay." "Shut up."

People sucked.

Stan looked off in the direction the woman had driven in.

People were after him. Sooner or later, they'd find out he was still alive, and try to correct that mistake. There were no people who would try to keep him alive. Just him. Always him. Stanley Pines against the world. Alone.

He looked up. The stars looked dimmer from here.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Just until the heat died down. Just until it was safe. Just until he could stomach the looks he was going to get. The hate. The disgust. The disappointment.

Stan crept toward the back of the gas station and hid.

[fairy-princette]

i gave your name as my emergency phone call

AO3 link | 1 2 (you are here) 3 4 5 6

Stan receives a postcard from his twin brother - who he's not seen in a decade - asking for his help. But like with everything else in his life, he runs into some trouble on his way there

2. in the name of someone i no longer know

“Pines!”

Stanley tilted his head up from where he was lying on the metal bench - not the best place he’d slept but certainly not the worst. A uniformed officer was glaring at him through the holding cell bars.

“It’s your lucky day - you’ve made bail.” He pulled out a ring of keys, unlocking the cell door and stepping away for Stan to walk in front of him. They headed to the front desk where he was given his personal items along with a stack of paperwork, including the details of his court date and chit for the Stanmobile stating it was to remain in the - in Stan’s opinion - questionable care of the Nevada state police department.

“If you’re keeping my car how am I meant to get anywhere? We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Guess you’re going to have to ask your pal. He’s the one that paid your bail.” The officer jerked his chin to the lone figure in the waiting area, a man in a plaid shirt and round glasses, who was very pointedly not looking at them.

Stan clicked his tongue and hoisted his duffle over his shoulder, heading towards the stranger.

The man looked up as he approached and stood, offering his hand. “Well hi there, I’m Fiddleford, Fiddleford McGucket, I’m a friend of Ford’s. And you must be Stanley. Y’all really are a pair of peas in a pod, ain’t ya.”

Stan shook the hand, which has a surprising amount of strength behind it considering the man looked like he was made of uncooked spaghetti.

“Folks just call me Stan. It’s good to meet you Fiddleford - thanks for the bail.”

“Ah well, it’s Ford you should be thanking, it’s his grant money. Said he’d be claiming it on expenses anyway. I’m sorry it took so long to get here - I ain’t used to driving so far and had to stop for a kip at a motel, but now there’s the two of us we can be taking turns. Speaking of, better skedaddle on back before Ford manages to pull out his hair from the stress.”

———

Fiddleford glanced over at the man sitting across from him in the truck’s cab. The early-afternoon Nevada sun beat down on them through the windows as they drove down the highway and quiet music crackled from the radio, filling the silence. Stanley was sat with his arms across his chest, looking like he was trying to take up as little space as possible in the truck.

“There’s some tapes in that there glove compartment if you want to have a nosey - might be better than the radio with the reception we’ve got here.”

Stan gave a nod of acknowledgment before digging through the glove compartment, making quiet humming noises as he read their titles.

Fiddleford went back to focusing on the road until he heard the riffling noises stop. He glanced over again and saw Stan holding a piece of paper.

“This your kid?”

“That’s- yeah, that’s my son Tate.” Fiddleford didn’t even need to look to know what the photo was. It had been taken at Tate’s fifth birthday last year. He was grinning up at the camera with chocolate smeared around his mouth, which was missing a front tooth, and was wearing a party hat that had slipped down to cover his eyes. He’d taken a full week off from his work with Ford to spend time with Tate. The party had been filled with screaming children and balloons and Emma-May had a whole stack of photos from the day.

“He’s a cute kid.”“Yeah, he is. He’d shot up like a weed the last time I saw him, and lost two more teeth. Though one of them was from falling over a branch when he was out exploring the duck pond at the park.”

“Sounds like me and Ford when we were kids, out exploring and getting into mischief.” Fiddleford caught the man’s wistful smile out of the corner of his eye. “He doesn’t stay with you at Gravity Falls?”

“No, no. He lives with his mum out in California. We’re, um, we’re actually in the middle of a divorce right now. I was away too much working with Ford, and then when I did visit I wasn’t there mentally, y’know? Still just planning the stages of my experiments rather than being there for my family. It wasn’t fair on Tate, and it wasn’t fair on Emma-May, leaving her to raise him on her own, especially when she has her own research to do.” Fiddleford shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m telling you all this, you’re basically a complete stranger.”

“I have been told I’m a good listener. And sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger - doesn’t matter what a stranger thinks about you. They don’t know you, so they can’t really judge I guess.”

“Now ain’t that the truth. Those’re some wise words you’ve got there.”“Ah, probably just something I heard somewhere. I’m not really one for all that smart stuff.”

“Now don’t be talkin’ ‘bout yourself like that - there’s more’n one way to be smart and it’s not all in books. Look at Stanford - that man knows everything there is to know about quantum physics and anomalous evolution, but trying to get him to read a room or play an instrument? He couldn’t be more lost. Sometimes I think he ain’t got the good sense God gave a rock.”

Stanley gave a noncommittal grunt. “Well either way, I’m sorry about your wife. It’s not easy losing family.”

They continued driving on in silence for a few more miles as Stan continued to rootle through the glove compartment as the radio reception faded out to static.

“Speaking of opening up to strangers,” Fiddle ford broke the silence again, “Now I know this ain’t none of my business, but what was it you were in jail for? Stanford only said it was for speeding, but last time I checked that wasn’t worth a court order.”

“You drove ten hours here to get and paid for my bail - even if wasn’t your money. I reckon if it was going to be anyone’s business it’d be your’s. The speeding’s just what I got pulled over for. Turns out cops aren’t too happy about folks driving about with fake plates on their car or a fake name on their license. Technically counts as driving without a license apparently. Guess I’m lucky they didn’t find all my outstanding warrants or they probably wouldn’t have let you bail me out.”

By the end of Stanley’s explanation Fiddleford had given up on even pretending to watch the road, almost completely turned in his seat to gape at his passenger. Eventually Stan paused in his tape search and smirked over at Fiddleford. “Take it from someone who just got done for reckless driving - you really should keep your eye on the road.”

The engineer flushed and spun his head back towards the windshield. “Those uh, those outstanding warrants. Anything I should be concerned about?”

“Nah, not unless you got some secret riches I can con you out of.”

———

The afternoon sun began to lower in the sky and the Nevada scrubland grew greener as they reached Oregon. After hours on the road Stan had insisted he take over driving, and Fiddleford was now sat on his opposite side in the passenger street, a road map folded out in front of him.

“Any ideas what we’re driving into when we get there? Ford’s postcard was pretty bare bones.” ‘Bare bones’ was putting it pretty lightly - just the phrase ‘please come’ followed by an address and phone number.

Fiddleford took off his glasses, wiping them on the edge of his shirt before placing them back on his face. “It’s a bit… complicated. How familiar are you with Ford’s work?”

“Considering this is the first time he’s contacted me in ten years, let’s got with ‘not at all’.”

“To cut a very long story short, Ford was out in Gravity Falls researching the anomalies, tryin’ to work out what was attracting them. He met this… person who said they could help in with his research-”

“And let me guess, he wasn’t totally on the straight and narrow?”“Ain’t that the half of it. This guy, Bill, gave him blueprints for making a portal between universes-”

“You’re kidding, right? What is this, some kind of comic book plot? You’re all mad scientists working in some secret underground lab?” Fiddleford’s silence spoke volumes to him. “Sure, of course, Ford’s built himself a secret underground lab to build a portal to another dimension. Why not. Does it have a secret door? I bet it’s got a secret door.”

“A secret door to a secret elevator with a secret code. At that point I’m pretty sure it was just for the drama. Anyway, that’s when Ford called me in to help on the engineering side, got it up in no time. Things went wrong with the portal, I left the project, and I told Ford if he had even a lick of sense he’d destroy the thing. That was a few weeks back and seems he’s come around - he wants it destroyed and for it never to be rebuilt. I’m thinking this is where you come into it. The plans for how to build it are in his journals and Ford-”

“Ford would never destroy his own work,” Stan sighed, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “So he, what, wants me to destroy it instead? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No. He said that you travel a lot. He wants you to take his journal as far away from Gravity Falls as you can.”

Stan slammed on the breaks.

“Ten years and he- No. He can’t- I can’t-”

He tugged at his seatbelt, frantically clawing at the release button and swinging the door open, walking out into the sparse trees surrounding the road. He was vaguely aware of the sound of the other man turning off the truck and clambering out after him, but little penetrated through the noise of static filling his head. Ten years. Ten years. And the only reason Ford had deigned to contact him - not even with a phone call, but a bloody postcard no less - wasn’t just to ask a favour but to make sure he was as far away from him as possible for the rest of forever.

He marched through the trees, small branches catching at him, creating scratches across his arms, but he paid them no mind.

“Stanley! Stanley, where are you going?” “I don’t know!”

“Stanley, please at least come back to the truck! You can’t just walk off into the forest, it’s not safe!”

Stanley felt a hand on his shoulder and he whipped around to catch the arm, grabbing the other man’s wrist.

“Did he ever tell you why we don’t speak?”“What?”

“Stanford. Did he ever tell you why he’s not spoken to me in a decade?”

“No. I’m sorry Stanley, before yesterday I didn’t even know you existed.”

Stan let out a barking laugh. “Of course, typical Sixer. Why deal with your problems when you can ignore them instead.” Stanley dropped Fiddleford’s arm, the fight draining out of him, and slumped against a nearby tree. “We were seventeen, in high school. He’d made this fancy machine and some folks from this fancy university were coming to see it. We always said it was the two of us against the world and here he was planning to abandon me. I was upset and scared so I went to the school in the night to see what all the fuss was about. There it was, spinning away like nothing was wrong, and I just-” He let out a sigh. “I punched the table. Not the machine or nothing, I wasn’t trying to break it, I just slammed my hand on the table and a screw fell out. I put it back in and the thing was still spinning away so I thought it was fine.

“Turns out it wasn’t fine and that one little screw falling out had broke the whole thing. The university folks weren’t interested in him anymore and it was all my fault.” Stan slid down the trunk of the tree to sit in a pile of dead pine needles, his arms curled around his legs. “Nobody would believe it was an accident, especially not Ford. Of course I had to be jealous, of course I had to have been sabotaging it, of course I had to screw it up, just like I do with everything else.” Fiddleford sat down quietly next to him.

“Pa kicked me out that same night. Ford might think I ruined his life but from where I’m sat he’s doing pretty great. He still went to college, he’s still doing his research, he’s got his own home with his own secret base. He still has a family. What’ve I got? Not even a high school diploma, a list of states I’m blacklisted from, more failed businesses than I can shake a stick at, and a twenty year old El Diablo that I have to fucking live in. Except I don’t even have that anymore because I was trying to get to Ford so bad that it’s impounded. And now, the first time he talks to me in ten years and it’s only because he wants a favour and then for me to get the hell out of his life good. Because what? I owe him? I’ve not paid enough for one mistake I made as a kid ten years ago?” Stan wiped the back of his arm across his face, wiping off the tears staining his face.

“Here.” Fiddleford produced a handkerchief from a pocket, proferring it to him.

“Nerd.” He rubbed his eyes with the cloth. “Thanks.”

“Your pa better hope I never meet him or I’m punching him the face.”

Stanley let out a wet laugh. “Ol’ Filbrick’s built like, well a brick shit house, I’d like to see you try.”

“Hey, I might not look much but I grew up on a farm. I’ve wrestled pigs before, you know.”

“Yeah, and how much of that you been doing since college.”

“I concede your point. I’ll build a robot to punch him in the face for me. That way I won’t even have to meet him.”

“Now that I really would like to see.”

They sat in silence as dusk began to fall.

“Thanks for listening to me. I don’t have a whole lot of folks to talk to, living on the road and all.”

“I’m happy to. You know, a wise man once told me it’s a lot easier to talk to strangers anyway. Although, with how much soul-bearing we’ve been doing today I reckon we’ve got to at least be acquaintances by now, whaddya think?”

Stan let out a thin laugh. “I could have space for an acquaintance, yeah.”

Stanley watched as Fiddleford picked at the pine needles on the ground, similar to how he’d been with his glasses earlier.

“I know it doesn’t excuse what he’s done, but Ford’s not in his right mind right now. That guy, Bill? He’s not really a guy so much as a demon from a nightmare realm that possesses Ford every time he goes to sleep. Last time I saw him he looked like he’d barely slept in a week, and hadn’t showered in longer. When he made that postcard plan of this, he probably wasn’t all there. Now I’m not saying he don’t at least owe you an apology, but maybe take his behaviour with a pinch of salt.”

Stan sat staring up at the stars through the tree branches for a moment. “I should probably be more surprised at the whole ‘demon’ thing, but if anyone was going to accidentally make a deal with a demon it would be Ford. He really is the most stupid genius sometimes. And the very least I’m going to do is say that to his face. Come on.”

Stanley groaned as he stood, offering his hand to Fiddleford and pulling him. “Thanks. I’m driving the rest of the way though. You must be tired and I know the roads here better.”

———

Fiddleford drove them along the highway as Stan got comfortable in the passenger seat, his jacket thrown over him like as blanket. Just as he was starting to dose off Fiddleford heard him mumble “Don’t see why you need to hide the book anyway. Just rip out the pages with the plans. Stupid genius.”

[jinx-blackout-84]

I don't know if people understand that there's a difference between the characters mcyts play and the mcyts.

Like you can't make sexual edits of Wilbur and say you're not sexualizing Wilbur, but making ship art of the characters is different to me?? Idk I think of it like this.

These guys? ⬆️ they should not kiss. They should live their own lives and fall in love with people who are not each other. They can be, and are, friends, and that is amazing for them, but they should not be in love.

Thes guys, however, should kiss. I think it would fix them and help them grow and change, and would help them overcome some trauma that they both have over L'manburg and Las Nevadas.

Idk it's just irritating for me to see people get mad at mcyt fans for "shipping real people" when they're not. Like 9 times out of 10 I don't even know or care to know what the youtuber actually looks like, because I just like the character and the different character arcs they explore.

However, some people have been very strange about shipping the actual ccs, (think dnf stans back before dream was the worst) and have been very parasocial about their ccs.

Anyways. Just your friendly reminder, if ship art is the characters and not the ccs, it's probably not shipping real people.

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Instant Regret Driving Through Gang Territory in This Hood. (Intense)" on YouTube

So I'm watching this video and I see him pull this M16 out of his pants that's why I laughed my ass off that's all my nephew laughing his ass off he said that's not a dog like that's a wolf leg and these guys heard that too and I'm at the end of the Street no that's not me I didn't tell you something he said I don't think I'd feel massively comfortable in that neighborhood. So they don't really feel comfortable with him in there anyways but really those kinds of things just people off you can't show these white folks that crap anymore we don't have the power and the clones are instigated it and it's getting us pushed out again

Garth

Who the hell is writing this stuff he is and he's saying I don't think I can hang out there it's funny too because he can get along with them but not setting it would not work and I guess he said he couldn't hang out downtown at the police station either and they started laughing criminals of the cops and he can't do it it made sense. So we talked to that guy from Utah and he said this don't talk about getting up on me all the time answer clothes and you're constantly saying it you're a little spazzes he wrote this list of stuff to do it illegal here at the end of it was all the stuff with you and I said that's ridiculous we got to get these people out of here so now here we double our efforts now and I'll tell you what I'm tired of this lawless s*** and they're doing it down here and some other places I want to live like crap that can go to the islands and crap all over each other

Mac

It's really what it turns into and the clones want it and we can't handle them anymore and what's what we said we're doing it for and it is and these idiots are continuing it and you think they'd stop you think they'd see they need stuff but they don't we're going to lunch an attack shortly and get them out of California and Nevada and Arizona everywhere and the middle west and upper Midwest they can leave go to the stupid Island they were having a war down there anyways they always calling for people and they have to get out of here they suck so bad I've never heard of so many people being jackasses to our son in my life I don't think that I've ever seen him so angry I want anything he said that surrounded me and I have like no options they just like this idiot piece of cardboard sitting here waiting to die and I have to sit here with them as thier contemplating how they're going to croak. We're going to move in there and pull them out they have no right to be here at all is there enemy combatants

Thor Freya

We're going to start using the language and get in the hell out I've never seen behavior like this from these guys but they have to leave cuz they're doing it

Mac and my kids are not demented and normal kids and I pulled them out and you people getting f*** off you're so stupid okay a lot of them are kind of demented and they're getting eliminated because of it it's because of you guys riding on them that's why

We're moving out too and we have to come down there this is a disaster it is just repeating

Macs

It's true though it's almost nobody down here that we can turn to and you turn to people that you know are normal or that help and they get swamped and you need my knowledge

Mac

We do see your point he knows you know stuff and had it all and this is terrible.

Macs

And in space the McDonald's are attacking the stone chips and they're down to like 2 million and they're pretty big ships now mostly are fives and above and they don't have ships inside the mostly and the black chips are down to about 20,000 and I'm hearing no it's 10,000 and they're hammering on them but the McDonald's lost 90% of their fleet and the warlock fleet was half the size no no it was the third the size but they lost about 75% of it and Stan lost 95%. The rest of it is Big stuff and everybody's over trying to take it the more lock and the McDonald's it's his group kind of so he's used to it but he hates them for what they're doing now this is going to end a little odd these people are the same group dissolving themselves theydon't care for outsiders interfering little like I said being here but they're forcing it so they don't do anything we can't let them harass him like they can continue to do. And we have harassment suits on them real ones not the court type and they don't get it at all so those individuals will be gone and that's how our proceeding by targeting people who are out of control. This morning we have 500 of those due after and we are going to terminate them last night and 20 households went to the line and all of them are dead and the idiots they called leaving 80 households and yeah it's getting down there. Today is Monday it's a work day Nintendo firing half of what's left of the cops and private workers and they intend I'm taking a chunk out of the head guys in Charlotte county and judges and attorneys and attorney generals and that will spread to Florida and they want people out they're tired of the fake news they're tired of Tommy f grilling everybody to raise our Army this is what they're doing. And it is intense I mean these people are intense assholes if you've ever seen anybody be an a****** these people are assholes all the time their argumentative about just about everything they consider you backing off a little then winning the argument my son does it all the time because when I back off the argument you're probably just about to die I'm saying to your idiot Friends and the other idiots so they're saying this he's saying stuff that gets his mad then when you get mad I'm probably just about to kill you. What they said is you're a giant that's what you do instead of doing it to you cuz you won't back off me you're an imp and you're not supposed to do it to me but you think you're going to get something over your next guy or the other guy is real simple to get you to get rid of each other and you're pretty much going to be gone all your armies are fighting each other and hardly anybody else has to do anything I need you out of my face you in particular so they started give her your money and then they said we're horrendous and then they said we're all dying and he's saying he's doing it instead of course I'm doing it everybody else wouldn't hit a ride you and try and use it would they and you people are a disaster I think it like start fighting them like I'm giving you an order. You're looking around bewildered saying what is he saying then they figured out there all dying fighting Tommy and dying fighting each other. They said this too we're going to die all of us will take him with us and they pass it around and then they said this we're almost out of here so we're going to start watching them closer and they weren't and we said this we're going to have to take you all down and we will. And her son and daughter were right their suicidal f*** and their lives and their lousy at this and don't care it just want to fight and have a good time so we're going to kill them all

Really huge program going here and it's starting today and the sun says we should start doing construction projects and get them the hell off me and you said yeah we probably should do that so you don't have the great to do it but we do most the time these people are a little a****** babies yelling shouting clapping their bony arms around your phone in the car and drive off it's absolutely true so probably going to end up doing that guys in disguise

Thor Freya

I'm putting the orders in now as this is so ridiculous you're going to get me hurt and for no reason except for not listening. It really pays to have in charge we need them and it works and he's doesn't management work most times and that's what it is he's trying to I'm putting forward to Olympus that we don't want to lose him and these people are fiercely coming out of and I'm doing it now

[eric-the-bmo]

hi. ur getting some line-of-consciousness ramblings about it under the read more

Since plants frost over and wither whenever he's near do you think people can feel the chill around him. It doesn't seem like he's affected by his own flaw, if his outfit choices imply anything, but at the same time he's also in Nevada iirc, so?? waugh idk. I want to say that he might hate cold weather though, because would that make him feel colder than he normally is? Or would he be unfazed? Would he still take "damage," so to speak, in extreme cold?? Do other people feel unnaturally warm to him? (Note: would his breath be visible??) How does this flaw affect his perspective of temperature, I suppose is what I wonder about a lot.

(I have also latched onto him having fake plants. It is Fun to me)

Anyway I don't think the flaw's affecting Stan's circulation, because this is a Supernatural flaw- it's not going to follow the exact laws of science. (but. perhaps i can give him frostbite imagery at times. for fun) And the flaw seems to be a constant thing obviously, and idk, despite its fun uses of keeping drinks cold and making bad jokes about it, there's Obvious drawbacks besides plants withering around him. Like maybe it would be Super unnerving to touch him, especially if one is unaware of this flaw of his, and oh hey would it be possible to inflict physical harm upon someone else with this flaw, perhaps, or would the mechanics of the game not allow it? Especially since the Touch of Frost seems to be more of a roleplay flaw than anything that could be seen as semi-useful in whatever kind of combat or interrogation scenario one could conjure up.

But anyway. how would it affect his whole relationship with physical touch? I can think about that later, for possible angst purposes about possible lack of physical connection, but also the idea of him warning people like "yo, just letting you know that i have really cold hands, dude" is a little funny. (also, to counter the angst potential: listen. im sure there are people who are into that kind of temperature play. sorry moving on-)

That being said I'm retconning a bit and I think if Nameless ever asks Stan if he would fuck his clone he'd say yes, with one of the reasons being "we'd both be the same temperature so it would, like, cancel out"

I love overthinking about Stanley's Touch of Frost flaw

[hopalongfairywren]

i stg if c!techno ends up being the one to destroy las nevadas i’m manifesting myself into this story and killing someone

ANYONE but him. Also it would be nice if it also wasn’t c!Dream (because tbh narratively) it doesn’t make for a satisfying ending to las nevadas). 

But on the bright side c!quackity healing arc may be incoming. Because I doubt he’s gonna get a totally awful unhappy ending.

[ccwastaken]

In my hcs, I see Okalani and Kahuna as not being related to Nevada, Utah, Gremmie, or Alberto, but since the sisters and Gremmie have family problems (Alberto is just there his family’s fine), Kahuna and Okalani are basically their parental figures in life (Nevada practically raised Utah, Gremmie, and Alberto too she is a queen stan Nevada)

Okalani looked at these lost children and went "mine now" huh

[watsername]

either way i think drantis are way worse than the reputation they’ve built for dream fans despite how much they preach political correctness and moral superiority . i’ve been watching dream for just over two years now and here’s a list of my interactions with antis

March 2021 - Somi Malek

a 16 year old girl from new york made a total of 8 tumblr accounts to

-harass me

- send me fanfiction about mutiliation rape incest and animal abuse

- write a fanfiction in my asks about me being raped by both dream and sapnap (separate asks)

- sent me suicide bait, death threats, rape threats

- downloaded and sent mw pictures of myself from my private social media accounts and threatened to post them online on body rating sites .

i almost had to get the police involved because tumblr wasn’t responding to my harassment reports

this was because i posted under #dreamwastaken

The First Las Nevadas Stream (also march 2021)

i made a post saying it made me uncomfortable that people were saying dream deserved to be tortured under the cc!dream tag

antis used this an excuse to tell me

- i deserved to be tortured ‘just like that f****t streamer*

- i needed to be raped with a rusty pipe (i’ll never forget that one)

- i got sent suicide bait for a week straight

there was some overlap with the somi incident here

October 2022-

anti commented under my post about how ugly dream is and whatnot post face reveal stuff u know anyway i told them it was unnecessary and to get some friends and make their own post and they

- called me a slut

- tried to imply i was a child predator for telling a minor to stop fighting with them under my post (i have the word slut in my url which means all my interactions have a sexual undertone apparently)

- tried multiple times to trick me into saying i hated poly people

- when i shut down the conversation they forged screenshots of me saying i hate poly people and they aren’t valid and threatened to send it to people

this was for saying idc if dream isn’t your type tell him he’s pretty which most people would know is lighthearted stan behaviour

those are the biggest issues thatve stuck with me but there’s been so many incidents where i’ve had to shut my ask box or close anon asks or take a whole break from tumblr because people stalk the dream smp tag to see who they can target

i get hate asks on a near daily basis and here’s what they come to

- sapnap would sexually assault me

- i deserved my sa (happened after i opened up about it for the first time and when i said i hates what minx said about the recent situation)

- general death threats

- slut shaming

- dream is a bad person (the reason varies) and he would commit a violent crime on me (also varies sometimes he wants me dead sometimes he wants to rape me depends on what the antis are thinking about)

- sui bait (expected)

- sui baiting dream in my inbox

- dream is going to rape george

- sapnap is going to beat george to death for being gay

amongst other things this is only the things i can think of that happened to ME and i know that there’s so many people who revive so much violent hate for just existing on their blog and posting about their interests from people who take a personal offence to people being a fan of someome they don’t like . and they have the gall to say that WE are the aggressors in the situation when they’ve been telling us to kill ourselves for years now

dream fans have a reputation from the way SOME people acted on twitter, but antis are using the facade of moral righteousness to disguise the fact that they are displaying all the violent behaviours they project into us

[iheartsunset]

I started this two years ago

I was looking through my sketchbook, and I decided to finish this drawing of Nevada!

[bistaxx]

i hope you don’t mind me rambling in your inbox!! no pressure to respond <3 but your c!q manberg takes are so true…. im an avid manberg-era lover almost Exclusively because of big q because. he just cares so much. he proved again and again that he put manberg first in his mind but he tried his best to keep the people he loved too and i really do think he wanted schlatt to work out up until the white house!! he just doesn’t give up on anything easily you know

he wasn’t there for l’manberg’s establishment he didn’t experience any of the highs and lows of the war or develop bonds during it but he still Cared :( he tried to protect tubbo from schlatt even though he was just as scared of what schlatt might do as everyone else (if not more), he stuck by wilbur in pogtopia even though he knew wilbur was just getting worse, n he stuck by schlatt up until the white house where schlatt proved irrefutably that he really didn’t care abt what quackity wanted at all, and even worse, he didn’t care about what was best for manberg, and that was just the straw that broke the camels back, u know

like. he’s not stupid. quackity even before the butcher army could be scathing and analytical and he is at heart a politician in the same way wilbur is (which is smth wilbur actively acknowledges), he knew what schlatt was doing was fucked but he also tried to hold onto the hope that he could maybe fix it. and when he realised that it wasn’t going to happen— that he truly didn’t marry the man he thought he did— he took immediate action. a naive person’s first course of action upon being disillusioned isn’t Murder— that’s the sort of thing only someone who’s angry and bitter and Sick Of This Shit does!!

like. hope is not something that comes easy to quackity because there’s no reason for him to have it! hope is a thing he claws his way to with bloodied and bandaged hands and no safety net beneath him and it’s never worth it, not really. and he hopes less, now, but you can still see it, in how he fosters his relationships with tommy and slime and keeps the wedding chapel in las nevadas even though there’s no one around to use it. and yet still, hope, always and despite and because.

anyways stan c!quackity i guess *holds him gently like burger*

No feel free to ramble- you get it so much!!! I love his character so much and I feel Manberg showcases so many of his traits so well- He's keen and driven but he's also an emotional- at times even reactionary fellow who cares a lot and it's so clear in so many of his actions good and bad- it makes what happens to him in Manberg hurt so much more, he wanted to make it work so much... Like he wasn't super naïve but he just wanted to be a part of L'manburg, genuinely, he loved that place! And he wanted to be a part of it, to call it home! But all he got was empty promises, a figure-head title that meant nothing, and a fucked up damaged sense of self-esteem curtesy of the man he thought he was gonna have a future with- he tried to bear it and keep on pushing forward but eventually he just couldn't take it anymore, because Schlatt did not feel the same as him and that could not be changed as much as he wished otherwise.

Post-Manberg c!Q survived with a lot of his traits still mostly in tact, he's still a very clever politician type, still very active and always moving and spends as much time doing as he does planning and thinking, and as much as he tries to pretend otherwise he is still very much a man who cares about so much especially those close to him! But despite these consistencies there is something about c!Q in New L'manberg that is just different then the c!Q during Manberg, colder.

There was a bright optimistic spark that died with Manberg I feel, died in that White House perhaps... you don't survive what he went through without losing that, and that spark will never come back. I think he can heal, and I believe he will get a happy ending of some sort where he's able to be successful and happy with himself and a home- but he's never gonna be who he was before Manberg. Maybe c!Quackity views that as a lesson, but I think it's more of a tragedy...

But like you said though, while that optimism may be gone it's that love in him that seems to be unable to be snuffed out, he tells himself 'Las Nevadas' has no place for emotions' and yet we see how much he still cares for Tommy and Slime and Tubbo- It's just so intrinsic to who he is! Even when the world's against him he's still gonna fight- because he cares and that's all that matters! It's gotten him hurt before and lead him down the wrong path at times, but it's also his biggest redeeming and most important quality and makes his other traits shine so much more- Hope can be a scary thing but he still cares too much to just give in easily-

Yeag... He's jsut- my little patito 💛💛💛💛!

[everybodyscupoftea]

haven’t been able to stop thinking about how ben shapiro, when reacting to hasan’s income, implied that marxists and socialists shouldn’t be living in society but in the woods like some sort of transcendentalists.

anyway by that logic c!dream is the most based person on the smp. he even paid punz for his labor!!! take that people calling him a republican.

i will also consider george to be incredibly based. he built a house away from society on stream while a war was going on. we stan. but he didn’t pay callahan for the help so that knocks him back a little. no workers rights :(

tommy is pretty based too and he talks about a lot about communism. but he also doesn’t care about workers rights :(

purpled and fundy lost points when they gave up their based ways to live a life of capitalism in las nevadas. and sam supports a corrupt prison system :(

finally, i believe that jack manifold is maybe on his way to being the most based. i’ll keep an eye on developments. but if he opens a business and makes money. nope.

note: i know you may be thinking hey what about technoblade, he lives absolutely in the middle of nowhere and he’s literally an anarchist. consider that because he worked for quackity at one point, a raging capitalist, that automatically puts him behind c!dream just a little bit

[jonathanrook]

🎬📺share ten different favorite characters from ten different pieces of media in no particular order🎮🃏 Then send this to 10 (anon or not, your choice)

fun fact! much like my eighteen page long fanfic rec list, i have a seven page long list of my favorite characters with extensive annotations. i picked ten of them and just copy pasted their entire description. i know this is just a silly ask game and no one really cares but. unfortunately you came to my house w this so you have to deal with the consequences. also here's the emoji key:

bill cipher (gravity falls)😈👹😳💲 i can and will fuck the triangle what are you gonna fucking do about it. i am not immune to tumblr sexyman or goth girls. look, at least i’m not trying to literally humanize him; take the evil bastard triangle or take nothing at all!!! i blame the scene where he steals the teeth from the deer and then puts them back. i also blame alex for being such a good voice actor. regardless i’m walking out into the nevada desert as we speak.

dorian gray (penny dreadful)🏳‍🌈💕😈👹😳👀💲 yea i watch penny dreadful for the plot *fast forwards through scenes dorian isn’t in* anyway every lesbian is legally allowed one real man to be unapologetically attracted to before the government takes notice and begins to tax them and reeve carney is my freebie. also idk if he counts as a monster but i’m saying close enough bc this is my list and i can do whatever i want.

guillermo (wwdits)🏳‍🌈💕😈👀 this man is too fucking pretty that’s illegal. i can’t believe harvey guillen invented gender good for him.

the handler (the umbrella academy)😈😳 mommy? sorry. like, the milf of all time. yea i watch the umbrella academy for the plot *fast forwards through scenes the handler isn't in*

red x (teen titans)💅😈😳💲 this man is transmasc and there’s nothing you can do about it. the sexiest line delivery in the entire show is in x when robin catches him trying to steal the xenothium and locks him in a cage and he goes, “c’mon kid. you don’t really think this little play pen can hold me?” anyway sir my highest score on the bdsm test is brat tam– *i’m taken out back and you hear a single muffled gunshot*

richie (it)🏳‍🌈🧠💕🧸👀🐺💲 absolute definition of character of all time. and you KNOW he can’t go back to childhood what the fuck!!! i would die for this man but ig eddie beat me to it yikes. the first time i watched ch2 i cried about it for twelve hours straight. i think i have grounds to sue muschietti for this unlicensed use of my image ngl.

scene (mymusic)💅🧠💕🧸💲 MY LITERAL BIOLOGICAL DAUGHTER! sometimes i forget she’s not actually gay in canon bc it makes sense!! indie and jeff are comphet and flowchart is a creep! open your eyes sheeple!! conversely i think she’s the only character on this list who’s neurodivergent canonically by name so that’s dope! we stan a dyslexic queen whose disability doesn’t weigh her down!!

topher (dollhouse)🧠😈😳 every lesbian is legally allowed one real man to be unapologetically attracted to before the government takes notice and begins to tax them and fran kranz is the reason i have to pay. in this house we ignore the season finales. my boy is alive and there’s nothing you can do about it! this man is my poor little meow meow.

vampire willow (btvs)🏳‍🌈😈👹😳💲 yes she’s her own character. probably my actual gay awakening whoops. the wish?? hello?? you want a puppy miss i can bark. also unsure whether to mark her as real gay or fake gay but willow calls her “evil, skanky, and a little gay” which is a) gender and b) canon enough for me.

will (stranger things)🏳‍🌈🧠💕🧸🐺💲 look my mans is relatable for several reasons but the snow ball scene at the end of s2 was designed specifically to kill me in particular. i believe in will the wise supremacy. he just wanted to play dnd! we’ve all been there! oh god have i been there!!! i cried so hard after s3ep3 that my mom asked me if i’m gay whoops. sexy bitches don’t come out they just talk about how much they like richie tozier and will byers until the people around them take notice.

edit:

[harpersplay]

Genuine non-troll white woman here - you wrote "So I already knew that Good Girls was a white feminism phantasmagoria...But, jesus fucking christ, y'all are just showing your true colours lately. The way you talk about a MOC in relation to a white woman is disgusting." Not asking you to call out specific people or posts or start any kind of flame war but what would be a general example of what you are talking about? I follow a good chunk of people and I'm not seeing this maybe b/c I'm not following the same people, maybe out of willful blindness, maybe I'm not recognizing it - again, b/c of ignorance, etc. Just trying to understand what you mean - and not do it obviously, if I am doing it.

I apologise for taking a longish time to answer this. Honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted to get into it. Anyway, I'd first like to say that this is all my opinion. What bothers me might not bother someone else. BIPOC are not a monolith. Even subsections aren't. Not all Mexican trans men are a monolith. Neither are all Japanese lesbians. You get the idea. And that's not even including people like Ben Carson or Caitlyn Jenner—people who support and work for policies that actively harm the marginalised group of which they are a part. Secondly, I know this isn't your intention, but asking POC to tell you what is ok to do and what is not is a slippery slope to "my [blank] friend said this was ok." Finally, the fandom is quite small so it is pretty hard to give general examples. I don't know if it's more trouble to quote specific posts or not, because some will think it is about them anyway. Anything I'm going to mention I've seen on Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit and/or Twitter. But there are definitely popular Tumblr blogs that all push the same narrative. Oh, and one last thing, I haven't seen any of what I'm referring to from people I follow.

Ok, let's go. For a very long time, mainly WOC have pointed out the racial problems within the show and the extremely dismissive attitude about those problems from mainly white women. And while these same women have written thousands (even tens of thousands) or words about Beth (it's always Beth) and her struggles and the amazingness of such a complex female character (ymmv), they brush aside commentary about racism as either nitpicking, not understanding the show is about the 3 women (tell that to all the white men with fleshed-out storylines), or misogyny. The last is especially hostile because they are often talking over Black women and misogynoir is a very real fucking thing that couples the fun of being hated for being a woman with the delight of good old-fashioned racism. They espouse the idea that people having a problem with Beth are all covert & overt misogynists. But talk out the other side of their mouths that they can't possibly be racist even when they support racism in the show or ignore concerns brought up by fans of colour. And that is just the absolute height of hypocrisy. Because by the former they acknowledge that people in a marginalised group (women) can still be anti- that group (a phenomenon with which I agree). But in the latter, suddenly they don't understand that concept.

Specific to the post you are responding to, fans that purport to like Brio write about the relationship in ways that reveal how much of their enjoyment comes from Rio being inferior to Beth. It's all about what he can do for her, how he acts against his best interests for her, how he literally denies himself sexual pleasure for her. Those are all meant to show how in love he is with her. But the show never bothers to tell us why. And, no, this is not because the show is so deep. Other romantic relationships they have scenes that are explicit about the characters' feelings. But Rio, after being shot, after being betrayed, after being mocked, is just so in love with Beth....because. (MYSTERIOUS!) And the Beth stans are more than fine with this because they think everyone should be as obsessed with Beth as they are. But it's bad storytelling. And, in this particular case, it gets into very dicey racist tropes. A white women treating her Latino lover like an afterthought is not the same as a white women treating her white lover like an afterthought. It just isn't. And if some of these fans are as smart as they pretend to be, they know that. They just don't care. Much like the showrunners.

There was so much talk defending the drawn-out Boland marriage because why can't we understand how hard it is for Beth—who is, at various times, claimed to be emotionally abused by Dean or staying with him because it is safe and comfortable—and we don't appreciate how difficult it is for her (I may be one of the few divorced people talking about this show on Tumblr, so this has always made me laugh). Yet there was nothing but glee when Rio flipped on his brousin (who was written as both abusive and safe) for Beth. Where was the empathy for Rio and how hard it was for him? Especially because, unlike Beth, he didn't even have one parent? Hadn't the Beth stans used her very tragical history™️ to explain away her every shitty act? idk, not having any parents and going to jail (as a minor?) and being betrayed by your family seems pretty tragic. But I didn't see them all of a sudden excusing Rio's bad behaviour. Because, feminism or something?

What about Beth's feelings? Last season she spent trying to have him killed. This season she spent looking annoyed by him. Throughout both she talked down to him in a specific white woman way that every BIPOC has experienced, even if some of them are cool with it. There were multiple opportunites for Beth to talk about her feelings with Ruby and/or Annie, but the writers made the deliberate choice to always make it about sex (and god, the immature way they had these three grown women talk was fucking obnoxious). She spent the last 2 seasons also wanting him out of her life to the point that a majority of her actions in S4 were motivated by getting to Nevada with her husband and kids. Beth doesn't care about Rio but Rio needs to put Beth above everything because he's just so in love like he's never been before (which is blatant Marcus & Rhea erasure). And anyone who doesn't think Beth would have just as happily been sitting on that bench plotting how to "run the city" (hahahahaha!) with Nick if the situation worked out differently hasn't been paying attention.

So, what do we have? A white woman who is constantly excused (by the loudest portion of the fandom) for all her ill treatment to her Black BFF & her Black husband, her Asian coworker, her Latina "friend," and Rio (among others) because her life is hard and who is not required to even be nice to her supposed "endgame". And a MOC who is expected to accept being treated poorly by the white woman because he loves her.

And, a last thing, this attitude grossly crossed over into talk about real people when the fans—who self-righteously claimed to be above anon sources or talking about the actors—latched on to the narrative and enjoyed blaming the MOC actor for the cancellation of the show, even dragging his insignificant (in terms of influence) Black wife into it. All while conveniently ignoring that the creator/showrunner is a white woman. The star & producer is a white woman. The people making the decisions at NBCU & Netflix were white women. All white women with so much more power than the Latino actor.

Shit, did I answer your question? I know this is a lot. But I could honestly make mulitple posts on each issue I touched on here. Basically, white people ain't slick, be they content creators or fans. We see how & what y'all talk about. We see that Rio not having a last name is not a big deal to you and we know why that is. So we're fucking tired. And we're over a show that had so much potential crapping all over their POC characters to prop up a white woman. And we're repulsed by the white women in the fandom who use their tears to seem oppressed and who toss around the word misogynist because POC dare call a Karen a Karen.

[bourbon-ontherocks]

(Previously, on Season 4 (re)watch...)

Actually this was probably this season’s episode that I’ve found the most interesting so far? (although don’t get me wrong, the bar was abysmally low 😂)

I'm sorry but in what Universe "we haven't actually met" is a good opener to someone you did meet??? Dave is a lunatic

While writing a crime tutorial isn't exactly convincing proof that you did it, "I'm a mom" isn't either a convincing argument, Beth...

Whoopsie, forgot, but DRINK UP!!! I'm barely three minutes in, I can feel that my liver won't recover from that episode...

It's true that so far the show had forgotten to dumb down Stan... It's now crossed off the to-do list! But to be fair, no character on this show would think about looking for the key taped on the side first. Also what kind of errand is this??? I'm very confused.

And RIP Rio's favourite envelopes store... HOW DARE YOU INFLICT THIS ON MY BOY??????

Ugh, it's the whole "your husband won't like it" joke all over again... I mean, I found it funny the first time, now it's just old and previsible and boring...

I mean no offense to any Nevadan, but like, you have the opportunity to start over literally anywhere and you choose HENDERSON, NEVADA???? Beth, what is wrong with you?

"Just don't give up on me, okay?" I just -- WHY? Why does this show keep trying to sell us Dean while everyone's made it pretty clear that we're not interested??

All things aside, isn't that weird to wish to get buried in your parent's house?? Like !!???

Aaaaaand another pseudo-misunderstanding where the other shoe drops a few minutes later and OH MY GOD I DIDN'T SEE IT COMING THAT IT REALLY WAS ABOUT GARDENING WHAT A SURPRISE!!!!!! Seriously, this shows really needs to stop recycling its jokes.

Also, why do Beth and Annie have to make this ridiculous guessing games about the bomb? They're gonna do the purchase anyway, couldn't they wait ONE MINUTE to be back in the car and tell Ruby?

Pffffffft, well MAYBE IT'S TIME TO LEARN ABOUT THE METRIC SYSTEM HUH??????

I really like the idea that tournaments in Kalamazoo apparently last for weeks and everybody is okay with this...

WHY IS STAN RETRIEVING A PYTHON????? I NEED ANSWERS!

I mean, I do hope for Rio's sake that Beth is not his only side dish... Otherwise our boy has only fucked twice in one year (according to this! delirious! timeline!), and man, that's rough!

The way Americans pronounce cul-de-sac is properly hilarious

"I thought you were special" *giant shrug emoji/Pikachu face* "I'm a mom" DRINK UP!!! I legit giggled at this line, it makes no fucking sense

Rio's LOUD and weary sigh as he settles in his stool is such an allegory of how I feel about Beth myself, it's beyond psychic

Ooooh, Rio's back on this weird kink of his to speak only in unknown nursery rhymes, huh?? Can somebody explain to me what "minue in the sack never take it back" means??????

Okay, I'm actually lost. Beth has made it very clear in season 2 that she DID find her suburban mom life excruciating. But here she's manipulating Rio into believing she's on his side? So that she can go back to this life? So does she like it or not?

Oh wait, I actually know the answer to this one: SHE'S A MOM! BAZINGA!

Man, Rio's cockiness to the idea that he's enough of a big criminal to see his associate get full witness protection package is hilarious. Rio x his ego is the biggest OTP in this show

HIS HAND LINGERED ON HER ARM AND I COMBUSTED AND EVAPORATED

Also, how does this bar make ANY money if Rio offers bottles around like that?

WHY DID SHE KILL THE BUTTERFLY????? I MEAN I GET THE METAPHOR BUT POOR POOR BUTTERFLY...

So Jane tried to turn the TV on during all the time Fitz took to eat his apple while Rio was in the bar convincing some dude to impersonate him???? Jesus, this show really does not get the concept of time, hahaha!!! Or possibly I don’t get the concept of montage lol!

I'm really concerned about the Boland kids, though, between Dean's lazy permissiveness and Beth blatantly lashing out at them, I just... ugh, these kids are NOT starting well in life. And Jesus, Dean really SUCKS at parenting!

So you want to make me believe that Rio didn't run even a BASIC background check on Fitzpatrick and just blindly followed Beth's directions? While she's been notoriously untrustworthy??

Oh wait. If he knew that the guy was trying to murder him, he probably also knew that he wasn't Dave. Calling him that right before killing him was probably a test. Or maybe he’s just an idiot.

So I guess little Emma/Jane will start taking cello lessons soon huh?? Because that's what Beth does when she kills a parent, right? Hanging out with their kids?

Oh snap, I forgot. Fitzpatrick can't die. He's a parent™.

Why aren't the girls trying to find a state where they can move altogether? They're way too codependant to go separately, I won't buy it.

I'm sorry did I miss an episode? Why did they need new plates? What happened to Lucy's ones?

I love how Beth's incredulous "Really?" echoes the "I am?" from ep 1 or 2, like she's so used to Rio playing cold it always comes out as a surprise when he doesn't, haha!

See?? Even cellmates don't want to be with Dean! Poor guy's really hated lol!

Oh wait before I forget: WHERE THE FUCK IS MICK??????

Bonus: Either Fitzpatrick has a very big gun at his waistband, either... well, honestly I don't know what's happening here 😂

Bonus 2: Obviously I won’t leave you smurfless for another week and a half! Have this footage of smurf!Rio about to kill Smurfpatrick. With Au-Jus because why not.

[imagining-supernatural]

The MET Date

Part 20 of Seventy Percent

Series Summary: When you left on your trip to Vegas, you’d planned on letting loose for one last weekend before heading back to reality and getting your affairs in order so your best friend wouldn’t be left cleaning up your mess when your cancer finally ended your life. What you hadn’t counted on was waking up married to a celebrity who has a knight-in-shining-armor complex, connections with an oncologist, and amazing insurance…

Chapter Summary:  You and Seb have a date. Like a date-date!!

Word Count: 2,258

“I’ve lived here for over a month, you know,” you pointed out on Saturday morning.

Sean pulled to a stop at a red light and tossed you a confused look in the rear view window. “Yeah. I’ve been driving you for over a month.”

“And you’ve been living in my apartment,” Seb pointed out. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“It means,” you said, “That I know New York pretty well.”

“Ah.” Sebastian settled back into the seat. “You think you know where we’re going.”

From the front seat, Sean laughed, making you glare at him. “You never pay attention to where we are. I could kidnap you and you wouldn’t know until we passed a Welcome to New Jersey sign.”

“So if you kidnap me, you’ll head towards Jersey. Seb, take notes so you can tell the police where to look if I go missing.”

“Noted. Anyway. Back to the original conversation. You think you know where we’re going?”

Sebastian turned in his seat to face you and waited for your answer with an amused look.

“We’re… well, we’re headed towards the hospital.” That much you knew. But you were sure Seb’s date idea didn’t include the building where you spent most of your time. In the last month or so, you’d only been to the hospital, the apartment, the diner, and Broadway that one time.

Of course you had no idea where you were going. But it annoyed you that you neither man would tell you where you were going.

Surprises were never high on your list of things you liked.

“You’re not wrong about that,” Seb said. “But that’s not where we’re going.”

Alright. So you’re headed to Washington Heights… What things were near the hospital that you’d seen? There was a BBQ place you’d been wanting to try. But Seb said there would be walking…

“Oh god. You’re not taking me to Planet Fitness, are you?” Laughter from both men filled the car and you got defensive. “What? You’ve threatened to make me go to a gym someday.”

“Yeah, once you’ve recovered from a successful surgery. Babe, you can barely walk up two flights of stairs.”

You were not about to tell him that you were winded after two flights of stairs before you found out you had cancer. “Okay, so if the walking we’re doing today isn’t at a gym, where is it? Central Park? If this is your way of telling me I’m a shut-in who needs Vitamin-D, I can talk to Dr. Chowdhury and have him suggest a multi-vitamin or something. I mean, I definitely wanna see Central Park, but it’s huge. Like, if you have a plan to, like, have one of those bike carriages or something for us, I can see that. But—”

“Hey, hey, hey. You’re blabbing like you were doing when we woke up in Vegas.”

“Blabbing? Excuse me, Mr. Stan. I am sharing my opinion.”

“Well, Mrs. Stan, you sure are doing it in a blabbing way.”

“I—” am being way too defensive. Sebastian didn’t know about everything in your past. He didn’t know why you hated surprises. He was doing something nice for you and it was time you started getting past your hangups. “Sorry. Yeah. I am. I just don’t like surprises. I like to know things, you know?”

“So you know how to protect them. I know, Y/N.” Sebastian took your hand and gave you a soft smile that damn near sent you into cardiac arrest. “Why don’t you just trust that I know enough and can protect you today? You’ve leaned on me for dealing with the press. Lean on me for today, okay?”

You let out a deep breath, trying to relax. “If we’re doing enough walking today, I don’t think I’ll have much of a choice but to lean on you. You might even have to carry me.”

“I give a hell of a piggy back ride.”

This time it was your laughter filling the car. “I’m definitely going to have to take you up on that.”

The car pulled to a stop and you jerked out of the tunnel-vision conversation you’d been having with Seb to look out the window.

“This is the Met,” you stated, trying to think of how Sebastian would know that this was your number one place you wanted to visit. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

“Yeah,” Seb had that stupidly soft smile on his face as he took in your reaction.

“I… Wait. I told you the first day we were here I-I-I wanted to come. Like, in passing. How the hell did you remember?”

Rather than answer your question, he asked one of his own. “Think you can handle walking here?”

“Uh, yeah. Definitely.”

He grinned and squeezed your hand once before letting go. “I know you’re all independent and shit, but you’re going to sit in this car and wait for me to come around and open your door, okay?”

“Oh wait,” you pretended to be shocked. “Is this, like, a date-date?”

“Oh, shut up.” He playfully shoved your shoulder before getting out of the car. Before shutting his door, he leaned down. “You stay put.”

He waited until you held your hands up to prove you weren’t going to move before shutting the door and heading around the car.

Sean slung his arm over the back of his seat and looked at you with a smirk. “Wasn’t it just last week you were trying to convince me that Sebastian wasn’t really your man? Huh, Mrs. Stan?”

“You,” you said bluntly, “Shut your damn mouth.”

He chuckled and raised his hands in surrender. “I’m, just saying… babe.”

“I don’t pay you for this abuse.”

“Your man is the one who pays me.”

Your door opened and you shot Sean one last warning look before taking Seb’s hand and climbing out of the car.

“Have fun you crazy kids!” Sean yelled just before Sebastian closed the door.

As Sean pulled away from the curb, Sebastian gripped your hand tight in his and started walking towards the impressive building.

For the first time since you woke up next to Seb back in Nevada, you weren’t worried about being out in public with him. For the first time, you were looking forward to spending a day out of the apartment with him.

“You know, I saw that interview you did,” you said hours later as you wandered the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas exhibit. “The one where you’d told your mom that you were in Black Panther, but she left before the end credits scene where you actually were.”

“Yeah?”

“I like that story. These masks just reminded me of the scene where Killmonger steals the African mask. Also, I’m blaming you that I can’t think of a Marvel movie without thinking of some sort of connection to you. Even the movies you technically weren’t in.”

His arm tightened around your waist and he kissed your head. “Risks of being married to me.”

“It’s a pretty good risk if you ask me.” You tilted your head up to look at him. “And the perks are pretty good too. I mean, I’m standing in the Met. Something I’ve always wanted to do. Because of you.”

His lips pressed to your forehead. Against your skin, he murmured, “My pleasure. Now let’s go find somewhere to sit down for a bit.”

“Please.” You hated to admit it, but you were almost ready to pack it up and head back home. You hadn’t even seen a quarter of the museum yet.

You decided to lunch at the café in the European Sculpture section, which gave you enough energy to tackle the Modern and Contemporary Art corner.

Half an hour later, you came out of your ‘Sebastian Bubble’ enough to notice some girls whispering a few exhibits away. They kept glancing your way. In such a good mood, you elbowed Seb and nodded towards them. “Looks like some of your fans are here.”

“They’ve been following us for the last ten minutes. Are you just noticing them now?”

“Hey. I’m focused on the art. One-track mind. You know me. Anyway, they probably want a picture with you or something.”

He nodded, considering. “You cool with that? I mean, today’s supposed to be you and me.”

“Yeah, it’s cool. I’ll take the picture. You know those girls will be kicking themselves for weeks if they pass up this chance to meet you. I was once a young teenage girl in love with the Jonas Brothers.”

“Jonas Brothers?” Sebastian gripped his hand over his heart dramatically, groaning. “Geez, woman, you keep saying things that make me feel so old.”

“C’mon, Old Man. Let’s go make those girls’ day.”

As soon as the girls realized you were walking their way, they started tittering excitedly. Their excitement turned to apologies for interrupting your day, but you quickly brushed aside their concerns.

“Hey, don’t apologize. Trust me, if we ran into Kelly Clarkson, it’d be Seb taking my picture with her.”

Between their excitement, random questions, and small talk, you spent a good five minutes with the girls before parting ways. Fully aware that they were still watching you as you walked away, you felt slightly self-conscious when Sebastian pulled you into his side, but you were fast to ignore that feeling. Their attention wasn’t vicious, like the press’s attention was.

“You know they’re going to post those pictures all over their Twitter accounts and stuff, right?”

With a shrug, you replied. “Yeah. But it’s fine. They just want to share. They’re not looking for a paycheck. They’re just excited. It’s different.”

“It’ll probably entice the media to start up again.”

“We’ll deal with it. Did you see how happy those girls were? I don’t see much of that in the hospital. It felt good.”

“Mmm, maybe you do need some of that Vitamin-D, you ol’ shut-in.”

It had been a long time since you’d woken up hearing Jasmin’s voice. For a moment, you just laid there, curled up with Sebastian and wondered if you were dreaming. It took you a few seconds to open your eyes, and when you did, you were even more confused.

“Why are you Skyping on my phone?”

“She’s awake!” Jasmin sang, grinning at you as you blinked, trying to wake up.

Seb pulled the phone back enough to capture both of you in the frame. “She was calling and I figured why not.”

“Mmm, I wish I could have seen your face when Seb popped up on your screen instead of me.”

He laughed. “It was pretty great.”

“Look, when I was calling to see if you knew about the tweets, I was not expecting Sebastian Fucking Stan to answer.”

“Not my middle name,” he mumbled teasingly, earning him a nudge from your leg to his.

You were feeling awake enough to finally sit up, so the two of you took a minute to re-situate and you ignored the bright look in Jasmin’s eyes. She and Sean were the worst. Sure, napping together and teasing each other like you and Seb did definitely cross the lines of just friendship, but those two were so damn into teasing you about it.

So you herded off any comments by taking charge of the conversation. “What tweets? Oh! Did those girls post something?”

“Yeah,” Seb started clicking around on your phone, but you quickly took over since he seemed intent on keeping one arm around you and he was definitely not the best at one-handed phone usage. “She texted a screenshot to you.”

“Because both of you are living in the stone age and don’t have Twitter accounts. Seriously, you guys.”

You could only see her in a corner of your phone, now that you were out of the Skype app, so you didn’t really see her reaction when you stuck your tongue out at her.

“Here we go,” you muttered under your breath, waiting for your phone to load the picture.

It finally pulled up the post. Of the few pictures you’d taken, the girl had chosen her favorite and posted it with the caption:

Met Sebastian Stan at the Met today! DREAM COME TRUE! #stillfangirling

“See?” you said to Seb, turning to him with a smile. “You made her damn day.”

He nodded toward your phone. “Look at the first picture Jaz sent.”

“Is it a post from the other girl?” you wondered aloud as you clicked back.

“No. Actually, the girls found me again while you were in the bathroom and asked if they could post this one.”

Your brow furled. Why would they have to ask permission to post a fan picture? You’d taken those pictures for them.

Then you saw it and understood.

It was a picture the same girl had posted on Instagram of you and Seb, taken from a few feet away. You were facing away from the camera, looking at an exhibit. His arm was securely around your waist with his head turned just enough to be kissing your hair. Without the caption, it could have been anyone in the picture.

11-2-2019 Sebastian Stan and Y/N Y/L/N at the Met. They are both so unbelievably nice and thoughtful. Shandra and I weren’t expecting them to come over to say hi and take pictures with us. Between Sebastian filming and Y/N’s cancer treatment, I’m sure they don’t have much time together, but she made sure we got our pictures anyway! All those articles twisting around her past to make her into some sort of monster can go screw themselves! Unless you’re Kelly Clarkson, you can leave her alone! #shesafan #saidsoherself #cancersucks #prayingforY/N

You hadn’t expected the girls to say anything about you. Beside Sebastian, you were practically invisible, which was always fine with you.

But reading those words brought a smile to your face.

All that fluff!! And an actual date!! Can things get any better than this??

CHAPTER 21: THE FOURTH CHECK-IN