#did the hijack thing for editing

[pagetorn]

@butscrewmefirst

When he looks back up, she's closer and part of him is unnerved by it. Another part wonders when the last time he talked to someone his parents age and felt comfortable. ❝ Muh-My parents... ❞ Thinking about them causes an ache in his chest and the boy finds himself sniffling slightly. He's not a crier, he tells himself. Heel of his palm reaches up to rub one eye to keep himself from crying. ❝ They're suh-sleeping... I think. Juh-jet lag. ❞ He knows his mother is lying in bed staring at the wall and his father focuses on the television set. Neither of them wished to join him.

She lowers herself to his level and something about her doing that affects him more than he wants to admit, more than his little emotions can handle. He starts to cry. ❝ Y-Yes puh-please... I.. I'm sorry. ❞ This isn't what he wanted, to cry in front of a stranger. Sometimes he forgets he's just a kid.

his reaction is like many others before him, so the countess merely ignores and hardly notices it.     “ billy? that’s a lovely name. ”     she responds with ease, expression warm and inviting as she takes a few more steps towards him as he looks down at his own feet.

    “ do your parents letyou run around hotels alone? ”     concern is set in her brow, features almost sad before she lowers herself to be closer to his eye level, one knee holding her weight as she balances.     “ i can go with you, if you’d like. show you the brochures and even tell you about the places you and your family should go. ”

[avaantares]

Yet another AO3 bot situation - please spread the word!

Hi, it's me again, the person who wrote that viral post about fanfiction plagiarism! Today I'm here to warn you about abuse perpetrated by bots who have stolen AO3 usernames.

There's currently an epidemic of bots going around leaving (apparently random) horrible, hateful comments on people's fics. This isn't the first time bots have invaded AO3, but the big problem with this wave is that they're using real AO3 usernames to do it.

I learned about this when another writer contacted me after receiving the following comment on their story:

Now, while that is my username, I DEFINITELY did not leave this comment (and anyone who would leave something like that on a fic should be slapped! What an awful thing to post). This fic is in a completely unrelated fandom that I have never participated in, nor has that author participated in any of my fandoms, so the probability of it being some intentional fandom drama thing to make me look bad is also low.

The writer whose fic the comment was left on enlisted the aid of some friends and tracked down other guest comments with unrelated usernames attached, which is pretty strong evidence that they are being left by bots at random.

The TL;DR: If you receive a cruel comment from a (Guest) with an actual AO3 username attached, it's most likely from a bot. Please do not lash out at or dogpile the AO3 user who owns that name, and who in all likelihood has no idea that their name has been hijacked for evil.

If finding this kind of comment on a fic, even left by a bot, is likely to upset you, I would recommend changing your comment settings so that only users who are logged in can leave comments. To do this, edit your story settings, and under "Privacy," select the radio button that says "Only registered users can comment," as shown below.

Please spread the word to other AO3 users! And if you see mean guest comments on other fics, maybe let the author know that it's probably from a bot and not a real person who thinks their writing is bad.

[currentfandomkick]

Back-ish.

Took a bit to finish this as Work Hell and exhaustion (and editing for format ReasonsTM)

Enjoy, and let me know if there’s anything in particular you want explored next, and i’ll see if i can add it to the list for the drabbles (the characters hijack everything so no guarantees)

Masterpost Here

Contrary to popular belief, Skulker is good at his job.

He knows how to craft a perfect trap, how to hunt virtually every type of ghost, and has succeeded every time with enough persistence. The halfa was proving an excellent challenge and reminder that hunting took time and planning.

The issue was he also knew his prey was being hunted by another, and this one’s motives were unknown. This ectopus made it clear that it intends to drown the whelp in either form, and that. That annoyed Skulker.

He followed the rules of hunting. Do not go after pregnant entities, or those capable of during their respective spawning season(s). Only hunt what is permitted. Always release your prey if they are endangered, but you may take something to commemorate the event.

Skulker’s choice was the halfa’s first pelt. He’d grow a new one in a year or so, and it would give the halfa time to acclimate to the zone rather than guarding the portal and the whole of Amity so viciously.

But this Ectopus ignored the rules of engaging with the halfa—only treat Phantom and Fenton as the same person when the “ghost hunting”parents were not around. No need to put the child at risk long term.

Halfas were extinct in the realms far longer than most were certain of, a few reigns before Pariah at least. And Skulker was well aware most of the ghosts and Neverborn he interacted with were born well into the Age of Anarchy as Ghost Writer and the record keepers were so fond of calling it.

And it was only after Pariah’s ‘sleep’ began that the liminal population declined on the Living’s side. Apparently species like Sampson’s took quite the hit, most no longer existing. Sampson was one of two Purpler Back Gorillas alive.

Understandably, the liminal gorilla was frustrated. Non-liminals failed to comprehend ghost speak, their culture was almost dead due lack of population and they were treated more like a lab rat than a person.

That was before encountering the first liminal—admittedly halfas pushed the limits of liminality—she’d found existed besides herself. The whelp’s understanding of the language was basic, but he hasn’t had his first shedding yet nor did he seem to interact with other liminals often either.

Skulker was not idiotic enough to ignore the Whelp’s need for his ghost parent’s protection. It was the issue of getting Sampson around Amity to protect the whelp from this “Taco” ectopus that was an issue.

He made sure to bring a fruit basket from the Realms, and included a shedding from a birdlike entity.

Sampson snarled until he left the offering.

“I have news about your son. He is ill,” Skulker began.

Sampson growled ill???Howexplain

“Likely the overhunting from Taco the Ectopus, as the whelp calls them, but there may be other causes. He’s rather old now to not have undergone his first shedding—don’t look at me like that we both know he is—and is experiencing soul form regression. there are those in the Realms who can help.”

Sampson beat her chest. yesHelphow?

“We need to bring him to Realm’s doctors. He may need to reside in his haunt, or require treatment of a number of things. I am not certain, but this Taco may require independent capture and containment. The doctors will know better,” Skulker admitted.

goNOW

“… yes we can go once we have the whelp—does his core have a particular sensation attached to it?”

ColdbigHugemoving

“I’ll let the doctors know when we arrive. Do you want to bring him in his small form, or one of his usual two?”

smallEasycarry

“He should be headed to the aquarium tonight, shall I set up the blob ghost perimeter?” It was the easiest way to monitor one’s prey and lire away competition… and confirm whether or not this “Taco” is targeting the whelp personally or as an ecto source.

He’s hoping the latter, but has a sinking feeling it will be the former. And he will have to hide the stupid finned brat in his prosthetic…

He should see if his girlfriend or her friends don’t mind helping him distract the intruder from the whelp.

Johnny and Kitty are rather fond of their ex. And Ember is insistent on setting up more playdates between her frightmate Youngblood and the whelp. Something about them being ‘same font different hat’ that he didn’t quite get. Oh well, if it didn’t involve animals, weapons, tactics or hunting he rarely gave it much thought in life, let alone his afterlife.

With Sampson’s (terrifying) blessing, Skulker got to work.

Masterpost Here

Tags: @skulld3mort-1fan @theizzyof3malec3 @brattysleepyreader @sebas-nights @elidaweirdotaku0520 @bianca-hooks123 @the-autistic-spider @laurcad123 @just-lurking-here-dont-mind-meh @atinygracie @stars-obsession-pit @wanderwithwings @aibhilin-atibeka

[kates-dump]

My experience with Analog Horror/ARGs and why you should check them out

Marble Hornets: the classic, and a big favorite of mine for obvious reasons. I cannot stress enough how good and spooky that series is, and the ToTheArk videos gave me nightmares, love it! <3

If you're into Slenderman stories, you should definitely check it out. The acting is very well done and the story is awesome overall :)

The Sun Vanished: the ARG that started my interest for ARGs, and especially enigmas/internet puzzles. Unfortunately I was not smart enough to figure the stuff out by myself, so I just watched explanations on it. Highly recommended if you like post-apocalyptic settings and subtle horror.

The Mandela Catalogue: possibly the series that brought back my interest for these things. I have only watched the first two seasons of it, as I sadly lost interest after a while, but from what I have watched, I would recommend it to those of you who like horror with religious themes (which is a big thing for me) and most importantly, trust issues. Do keep in mind this series deals with more serious and dark topics, though you have probably heard it already.

Local58: the analog horror of all analog horrors, Local58 barged in before TMC took the spotlight. There is so much going on and all of it is very interesting and scary. America's pride leads to its doom, the moon can control electronic devices, and weird creatures spread through the world. If you like stories that leave you not understanding what the hell just happened but loving it anyway, you will love Local58.

Rocket Archives: A single-video series that has unfortunately been taken down for reasons I am not certain of. But if you're curious what it was about, the video presented a reality where us humans were forced to leave Earth with how hot it was getting, and moved to contained bubbles in space. Suddenly, uh oh! The sun's getting closer! Outer Wilds moment! Everything is melting! Humans are gone and the sun is... alive???

Analog Archives: made by the creator of Rocket Archives, has also been taken down but can still be found re-uploaded. The series is slightly similar to Local58, as in it also focuses on broadcast hijacking used for ending off humans. The series also includes a few religious topics that can get very dark. I love it. "Nature Show" makes me tear up with fear every time.

Gemini Home Entertainment: ALL-TIME FAVORITE MOMENT!!! I don't think I need to explain why I love this one so much. GHE leaves a lot to your imagination/speculation, while also twisting your head directly into the direction of the threat and forcing you to look at it while you squirm in fear. GHE is subtle in the most obvious way, obvious in the most subtle way, and most importantly, IT'S COSMIC HORROR, BABY!!! THERE IS A PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM THAT GOT HERE UNINVITED AND NOW IT WANTS TO EAT US!!! UGHHHH I can't put in words why I think it's so good, it just is. Watch it. The Gardeners are cute, I swear. There's even a plush of them.

Monument Mythos: something something alternate realities, something something time loops. I have not watched all of it, barely even half, but I deemed it a little bit too confusing for my brain. BUT! If you're into things that boogle your mind, you might really like this series! I mean, world monuments are alive, what could be scarier?

Vita Carnis: EW. (affectionate)

But, seriously, if you like gross, you are certainly going to like this series. It's meat, and it's alive. Although, I did stop watching it because it got a tad too graphic and violent for my taste, but if that doesn't bother you, then I recommend it a lot! The editing is soooo good, and some of the creatures are very likable and cute ^v^ (the others are gross and I do not want them near me I do not WANT FUCK OFF)

Don't Look at the Moon: Minecraft spooky. Do I need to say more?

[captainofthedauntless]

hii i really like your writing!! <33 i was wondering if we could get something for y/n asking their turt to be their valentine? i was gonna ask for bayverse but i saw your rules said you were most confident with writing 2003 so whatever you like best! take as much time as you need!! <333333 p.s. heres a cookie *cookie*

Hi lovely! We're all cool pretending it's still Valentine's, right? Awesome.

I chose Bayverse for now, but plan to do the 03 guys soon! I took the friends-to-lovers route here, I hope you enjoy.

(As always, set post-movies!)

So you want to ask a turtle out.

Don's an observant guy, so it's not that he's completely shocked that you like him. But to have that suspicion, quiet and dangerous in the back of his mind, confirmed? To have you ask him directly? He's mystified. It's one thing to think he might have a chance, but it's another thing altogether to have a chance handed to him on a silver platter.

So when you catch him in between tasks and offer him a box of chocolates- a brand April had brought down one time and he had mentioned really enjoying and you had somehow remembered, because apparently he wasn't the only observant one here- and smile at him, warm and fond and visibly nervous, he's left blinking at you. Then, apparently taking his pause as a lack of understanding- or just trying to fill the silence, he couldn't be sure- you speak.

"Would you be my Valentine?"

And he's gone. Don.EXE has stopped working, would you like to restart? It's like static in his mind for a beat, two, and suddenly he's nodding quickly and a smile is growing on his face and "Yeah! Yeah, of course- yes. I'd love to."

He shares the chocolate with you, and on his, like, seventh piece, he finally works up the nerve to ask you if you meant "Valentine" like romantically, and your laugh is good-natured enough that he can't even bother to be embarrassed.

"Like romantically, yeah."

"Cool, cool. I thought so, but it's not actually an exclusively romantic term and- interestingly enough there seems to be a rise in platonic usage, I was just reading an article about it the other day-"

He goes on for several minutes. You listen patiently, and right as he's about to apologize for the tangent you ask him a question and he's grinning like an idiot and launching into an answer and it's officially the best Valentine's Day ever, and he's already plotting ways to get you back for it.

Leonardo is, honestly, a little irritated. Not because you asked! No, no, he's elated- ecstatic- about that. He's so happy he doesn't know what do with it all.

But you beat him to it, and that's... it's a little frustrating. The turtle was slow, and he's not the biggest fan of the irony.

He had a plan. He had a whole plan- he finally worked up the nerve to tell you he cared for you (he wasn't willing to say the L word just yet, but he did love you, and it was getting to be too much to ignore), he'd convinced April to get him your favorite chocolate (he'd gathered intel from your "secret" stash at your place, where you kept the good stuff out of Mikey's hands. He had been very stealthy and was more than a little proud of himself and a lot in debt to April- he'd be watching her favorite awful TV shows with her for months), and he'd written you a short poem (and edited, and scrapped, and rewritten said poem) and tied it to the heart-shaped box of sweet goodness with a blue ribbon.

He'd proceeded to convince himself that was a little too much, and swapped the blue for silver.

Leo had rehearsed exactly what he'd say. He knew when he'd do it, where his brothers would be (well out of the way, with a clear unspoken threat of extra patrol and training if they went off-plan), and what he would eat for dinner beforehand so that he had the absolute smallest possible chance of his nerves hijacking his stomach.

And then you show up with forget-me-nots and gardenias tied up in blue ribbon, which. First of all, that explains why you wanted to borrow his book on flower language a few weeks back. Secondly, the message of secret love, true love, respect, and shared history, all tied up in his color? It nearly kills him.

"Leo, would you do me the honor of being my Valentine?"

"Stay right here," He says firmly, dashing off to his bed before he could process your owlish blink. He pulls the chocolate box out from underneath it and rushes back, smiling sheepishly at the way your concern immediately melts into fond amusement. "Only if you'll be mine."

"Deal," You laugh, trading him the fragrant bouquet for the heart-shaped box, and he busies himself with inspecting and smelling the flowers while you read his poem.

At the end of the day, he earns himself a hug, a kiss on the cheek, and a Valentine, so maybe you asking wasn't really the issue he thought it was.

Mikey beats you to asking.

He asks you a week ahead of time, and it's a real splashy affair- he goes all out, pestering April into helping him get all kinds of candy and a big, orange stuffed bear with a heart in its little paws and a pink basket big enough for all of it. He begs his brothers and father to give him the living room of the lair for the evening, and even agrees to do Raph's chores for a week and a half in exchange. He sets the basket up on the couch, tries out about three hundred different combinations of the million lights littering the lair to create the perfect "romantic and intimate but not too suggestive but not too dark but not too bright" ambience, and absolutely agonizes over the playlist of easy, romantic R&B.

He's the one to greet you at the metaphorical front door of the lair and guide you into the living room, and when you look at him quizzically- and hopefully, he notes with delight- he takes your hands and a deep breath.

"Angel, would you be my Valentine?"

"Dammit, Mikey..." You grumble, and if it weren't for the grin you were biting back and the way you were squeezing his hands like you never wanted to let go, he'd be pretty damn scared right about now. "I was gonna ask you. I had a whole plan."

"You can still ask me later, gorgeous," He says with a big grin of his own. "I'll totally act surprised."

"How kind."

"That's me. Now, uh, you're kinda leavin' me hangin', here."

"I'll happily be your Valentine, Mikey."

Raph was not going to ask. He did not see this coming, did not see your feelings, did not think twice about his plan to spend Valentine's Day like he always did: with extra-buttery popcorn and rom-coms.

His plan was to basically not think about how you'd probably be spending it with someone, happy and laughing and smiling.

No, you hadn't mentioned having plans. No, you'd never mentioned a significant other- or even a love interest. No, neither of those things stopped him from assuming.

So when you waltzed into his space with a knock at the entryway and a big ol' grin, he was preparing himself for a whole ooey-gooey story about whoever had swept you off your feet. Preparing himself to act like that didn't eat him alive.

And apparently the lucky bastard had gotten you flowers, which was not helping.

"Hey, Big Red," You say fondly, leaning against the wall and fiddling with a flower stem and looking like a daydream, and his heart did something funny in his chest. "You busy?"

"Why, wanna gloat about your night?" He asks, fighting to keep his tone in the realm of playful and away from anything bitter and yearning.

"Was hoping to ask you a question, actually."

He hums a question of his own, now thoroughly confused.

"Would you be my Valentine?" You ask, holding the flowers out sweetly.

He, in a brilliant moment of zero filter, says "What the fuck?" and your smile drops the smallest bit and he very seriously considers tossing himself off of the Chrysler building.

You open your mouth, and he launches himself out of bed before you can get a word out, gently pulling the flowers out of your hand.

"Why?" He asks gruffly, very clearly avoiding your gaze as he studies a delicate petal.

"...Because I... have feelings for you?" You half admit, half ask, sounding as confused as he felt and staring at him with wide eyes. "If I've read this wrong-"

"No." He forces- forces- himself to look you in the eye, which lasts all of about a second before he's counting it as a win and looking back at the flowers. "But I'm not sure it's somethin' you should read."

"I'm not sure I asked that."

And he can't argue with that, because he knows the tone in your voice, knows he'd be better off arguing with the wall. But he can question it, because.... well, for a lot of reasons.

He should ask a lot of questions. Like "why?" and "did you hit your head?" and "is this a prank or somethin'?", but all that comes out is "Me?"

It makes you smile for some reason, and you step forward a little and duck into his line of sight and meet his eyes with about three and a half times the sincerity he could handle. "Who else?" You ask simply.

He has about a dozen retorts to that, but with you holding his gaze and heart hostage, he just nods. "Okay."

[aweirdlisa]

Generation Loss thoughts/theories

Okay I had to return from the dead to post about Generation Loss because decoding the Founder’s letter is something I am still proud of (it took me about 4? hours) and it got Genloss to grab me with its claws to pull me right back in! I’ve been a big webseries and ARG fan since like 2009 so I’m happy there is still some awesome content being made to this day.

First of all, Ranboo, the founders game website is phenomenal, absolutely sick work, I’m thoroughly excited and terrified to see what is next!

Second of all I rewatched and re-read pretty much everything of Genloss since the start and I’ve got thoughts I want to spill in one place to have them all together, so here goes (thanks for reading if you do!) I will try to keep it chronological:

In “T_1”, the very first video, we are introduced vaguely to a world where history may have been tampered with through generation loss which appears to be some sort of psychology/principle/scientific method probably founded by the Founder, which is taught and used to alter or censor certain events, effectively changing the world with it

With what we know so far I believe this generation loss movement isn’t just the editing and reproducing of versions of media to the point where they’re deformed or altered, but they can actually alter the things people see like our Hero and the other people did within the Social Experiments, to the point where even extreme things like gore can be censored (Charlie on the operating table for example), people can be “brainwashed” or “hijacked” in a way, we also see a brain shape in one of the images with the Genloss logo near it

In opposition to the Genloss party, we have Red Text Person, who seems to be against the whole principle and wants to kill the Founder of this movement

The inauguration in T_2 is either for us the viewer to see how readily available we are to killing other humans through choices on a screen, or it was a procedure that the folks in the Social Experiments went through to become “worthy“ and thus ready for the show

In “Connecting…” we hear that they are looking for individuals and to call if we spot them

In “Connected” we hear about Showfall media for the first time and how they have a missing person’s hotline

In “Connected” we also see a tunnel which I believe to be the use of transportation to either other universes (“One to another”, “one of many”, “look into infinity”) aka generations or simple time travel to other generations

In “Connected” we also have another influence of Red Text Person trying to warn us that we shouldn’t watch the show

In “Announcement” we learn that the missing individuals are all caught by “It”, “everyone but me” according to Red Text Person

Red Text Person at this point seems unsure where their signal is ending up, which is with us

The Social Experiments air live, where I thought Hetch was Red Text Person, but they turned out to not be on our side, having been given a role by the Founder (however voluntarily that may have been)

Ranboo aka the Hero and the others were the “missing individuals” mentioned in the earlier videos, ending up being caught as they are needed for the experiments, perhaps because they were a threat to the founder, rebels against the Genloss movement, or simply cannon fodder to test out what is possible with “infinity” as the Founder says

In “A Message From The Founder” the Founder announces he is creating the Founder’s cut, a “perfect” version of the story

In the meantime we are introduced to Zero’s journal snippets which start surfacing on twitter, however they were written somewhere in the 1900s, despite this we somehow affect her world/time through polls, where we end up blasting happy birthday through her radio

Zero started keeping this diary as result of a treatment / therapy she started due to something that happened 8 months prior, in addition she starts tracking the wild dreams she has as per suggestion of her friend “Jay” who is into the supernatural

Her dreams consist of a field with red sky, an unnatural cave/chasm, a sky rippling like water and crashing into her, a hospital turning into a hallway with a creature chasing her and eventually seeing herself with a wreck against a tree in the same field as before, the tree has a certain symbol etched into it, presumably the Genloss symbol

The wreck could imply the incident that occurred 8 months prior

Zero notes how she hates the uncertain future and how she wishes she could just control everything

Zero works for a store fixing VCRs and helping customers among other things

All shown entries are implied to be written between July 30th - Aigist 15th 19XX (probably late 1900s due to radios and VCRs being a thing)

In “Coming_Soon” another tease of the Founder’s Cut happens, yet notably the Founder mentions that what we are about to see actually happened live, but “just not here”, implying the possibility of a multiverse rather than the time travel situation

In “Again” the Founder clarifies that they made the Founder’s cut by replaying the Social Experiments over and over again until it became a perfect, pure version

The Founder’s Cut is released on YouTube, at the end we are shown a conversation between Miss Roads, aka Zero and her presumed therapist who tells her to keep a journal which is how we learn about Zero’s name and how she started her journaling

In “From The Founder’s Desk” we are introduced to a code in the form of a substitution cipher using newly created symbols that seem to be based off of the Genloss logo, this could be one of Four keys to the Founder’s door as mentioned on twitter, though what the keys are isn’t clear yet

Once translated, the message appears to be a letter from the Founder directed at an unnamed “you”, speaking of how the Founder watched and watched until noticing “you” and how special “you” were, but how “you were not perfect” and how they can and will create something beautiful and perfect

The letter could be referring to some final goal of creating a perfect “story” as mentioned before

In “Welcome to Generation 0” the Founder tells us about being ready to see the real story, the one from his generation, Generation 0 (an alternate universe or timeline?) we only need the keys and the door to get to see it, which will be provided to us in time

In “T_3” we hear the rumblings of a machine and see a red door which we now recognise from the Founder’s Game, Red Text Person shows up again, testifying of having seen people who shouldn’t exist yet do, implying they may have been displaced from their own timeline/universe or censored through generation loss, yet Red Text Person saw them

Red Text Person also refers to an “it” and “not knowing what it is for but I have to stop it”, the it in question could refer to a machine that the Founder uses to do everything they have been doing, or to the principle of Genloss itself

Lastly Red Text Person implies something is coming, but they will try to show us what “they” have done and to who

In “The Fortune Teller” we hear a voice speak of the future being a beautiful thing and then mentioning “the door” asking us if we know what lies beyond it and if we really want to open it, so far this video stumped me as to what it really means, the short sentence of hidden code also hasn’t been decoded with a 100% certainty but we will get there !

In the meantime VHS tapes of the Founder’s cut arrived to those who ordered them, where we were led to the Founder’s Game website, the “beginning” that was planted in our generation being the password to the website

The first part of the Founder’s game has us walk through a hallway, where we encounter the person from the T_2 video before they were killed when you make the “You vs Them” choice

We also see someone vigorously watch and rewind a tape in a room, this could possibly be the founder as they’re working on the Social Experiments at the time as they had not happened yet while T_2 person is still alive

Lastly we are given the option to choose between a Laboratory and Holding Cell B, which we will found out in a week whichever was chosen

Whew this was long! To recap my thoughts a bit concisely, I believe the Founder was the one to introduce/invent the technology used to alter people’s minds using generation loss to replace memories and influence the world they live in. It’s possible that Showfall was created as a company to apply their technology to spread and control media as they liked. If used on a large enough group of people they could effectively control entire worlds. On top of that it is possible time travel or multiversal travel takes place when we see the tunnels in the videos. People are taken “from one to another”, where they were “one of millions”, and get their brains messed with until they “are worthy” to participate in one of the stories.

What could possibly be the goal? Perhaps total control of everything we know, some sadistic story that will be “perfect” to the Founder’s vision. Maybe the freedom to create as many stories as they like. He mentions that the Social Experiments were a literal test to see what is possible with infinity, and that the rabbit hole can go deep with infinite generations, infinite stories. We are shown “his” generation up next and what will be the home of the “perfect” story, so it could be that he just wants to fix his own reality to suit his wishes.

How does Zero fit into this? She experienced some sort of incident leaving her troubled, which leads to her journal entries. She experiences strange dreams and talks of wishing how she could control everything. She deals with VCRs on the regular so she could become the Red Text Person who ends up witnessing “Generation 0” and tries to stop the Founder before things go to shit even more?

That or if you want to go full tragedy, she could somehow become the Founder in an attempt to fix her reality, where she could undo the incident that caused her so much trauma, but needs to practice on other realities first?

Zero is pretty much the biggest question mark to me at the moment, but the scale of the Founder, Showfall media, and their power are getting clearer and clearer, to a terrifying degree!

The timeline is a little wonky now that we are going from “generation 1” to 0 and that we are interacting with things from the past in the Founder’s Game, but I’m sure things will fall into place once it’s all over.

Anyway I could be incredibly wrong about all of this, but I am having an incredible time with all the lore and cannot wait to see where it all leads up to!

See ya!

[fillingthescrapbook]

Let's Talk About: Fantasy High Junior Year and Rock the Boat

Who knew the opening minutes with Ally hijacking the intro would lead to Brennan quitting just before the episode ends? I guess we did. We were told. By Ally's before-the-season featurette, and by the episode description. We were told.

Almonds almost took out Brennan before Ally could. We got a little ghost with hairy feet--showing hole! And then we got the wrong graphic at the end? I think?

And now Zac's the dungeon master.

The biggest thing I learned from this episode? How dim the lights that are on Brennan have to be, just so he doesn't wash out. Like, look at Zacky in that photo. The lighting team is truly amazing at their work, just to be able to balance Brennan out with the rest of the cast.

But joke's aside--

WHAT AN EPISODE!

The Intrepid Heroes are one hundred percent some of the best players of tabletop-roleplaying in the business. And not just because they're making us laugh--it's because they're able to deliver some outstanding storytelling alongside the jokes!

Yes, a lot of kudos goes to Brennan too. For his amazing DM-ing. But the cast? A standing ovation for the lot of them. Even just Ally pointing out how Gorgug and Kristen being the first of the Bad Kids to die--and being in direct line of fire with the dragons? Accidental narrative drama! (Edited to add: It was Gorgug who remembered they died, and Kristen—looking at all the dragons surrounding then—who said it could happen again still.)

Fabian having invested so much on his popularity track pays off. Riz and Eugenia being an amazing team, Siobhan and Ally giving outstanding support, and Fig (and Emily!) finally getting over their cursed rolls--it was all so brilliant. Blimey!

Gorgug was the MVP of this fight though. Zac's rolls and Gorgug's stats truly kept the Bad Kids afloat. And Brennan asking Zac to roll for things Gorgug was concentrating on gave me the loudest laugh of the episode. Because the only thing he was concentrating on: was staying alive!

And, please, talented artists out there. Let's make a music video for Fight in the Sky by Fig and the Cig Figs. Using vulture footage taken with GoPros.

I don't have much else to say. Next week looks even more wild. And Murph is now the Expert of the Cocked Dice.

Oh, and "Shoot Grandma and gas it."

[hsr-texts]

find your cinderella

꒰‧₊˚✩彡‧꒱ ┊ ━━━━ chapter one

꒰⸝⸝₊ʚ♡ɞ ┊ streamer!reader x mystery hsr character ꒱

꒰⸝⸝₊ʚ♡ɞ ┊ otome event ꒱

꒰ ☰ WORD COUNT ┊780 ꒱

꒰ ☰ DESCRIPTION ┊ ━━ When you do an unboxing livestream for your subsribers, you find an invite to an exclusive event called the "Find Your Cinderella" masquerade gala where you are guaranteed to find your supposed true love, as a rather enthusiastic manager told you. ꒱

꒰ ☰ NOTES ┊omg sorry for the long wait!! i was taking care of my college admissions, exercising, and taking care of my aunt all at the same time!! ꒱

previously ┊masterlist

You read the livechat so far. It seemed that the majority wanted you to go.

It was understandable why. This all seemed to be so exciting for regular people who don’t get to go to these events. In your career as a streamer, most of your appeal to viewers came from how relatable you were. Of course, there was also your gaming content but most your subscribers seem to just be happy to watch you do fun stuff. And in their eyes, this event would be the most fun thing you’ll ever get to do.

Despite how strange this all seemed, it probably shouldn’t hurt to go, right? Sugo said that something good will come out of it no matter what happens. Plus, if you didn’t go, would you regret it? Would you later lie in bed late at night, thinking of what could’ve been? Would your curiosity ever stop bugging you about it?

Also 500,000 credits sounded real good for just going to a party and tolerating it.

You clasped your hands together. “Alright then! I’ll be attending the Find Your Cinderella Gala and see what it’s about!”

Your chat cheered for the decision.

You then noticed the time. 12 midnight.

“Aw man, sorry guys but it’s getting pretty late so I’ll be logging off now. I’ll see you guys next time!”

With one last farewell wave, you switched off the stream and checked the statistics. Wow, it seemed to be at an all time high. At least Sugo was right about one thing. It’d only be a matter of time until the news of this gala spread like wildfire.

You found a QR code on the back of the ticket so you scanned it with your phone. It led to a website for the FYC Gala.

You clicked the “attending” button, leaning back on your seat. Seeing the dress code, you checked the package once again and saw that the outfit came with shoes, accessories, and a mask already. Huh, they really prepared everything for you. At least you wouldn’t have to spend extra money. Getting that limited edition LumiPro package already put a slight dent in your finances, after all.

It finished loading and you read the words: “Added to the guest list”

A yawn escaped your lips.

You got off the chair and went over your nightly routine before passing out in your bed.

                                                                                                    

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep—

Click.

You pulled your hand away from your alarm and sat up, yawning. Taking a glance at your clock, you saw that it was 9am.

After a round of stretching, you got off your bed and made a beeline for the kitchen.

You decided to eat tocilog for breakfast so you started cooking rice, eggs, and tocino. A pleasant scent wafted through the kitchen as the meal was being cooked. You let out a delighted sigh, enjoying the smell of a good meal in the morning.

After the meal was finished cooking, you sat down at your dining table to eat it. You made a pleased noise as you ate, satisfied with how the meal came out.

Ding!

You checked your phone and saw that you got a message from your editor, Cori.

Huh? Your eyebrows furrowed so you sent a quick reply and did as asked, looking at online news.

“Streamer’s Unboxing Stream Gets Hijacked By LumiPro Event Organiser in Publicity Stunt”

You checked LumiTube and clips of your stream have been uploaded on there, rapidly gaining over a million views within 12 hours. Damn.

Taking a sip of your water, you leaned back with a contemplative expression on your face. What should you stream today?

With your current status as a streamer that recently became viral, you could take advantage of that and do a stream where you prepare for the FYC Gala by going to a salon and letting viewers watch you get your nails and hair done, then maybe also booking a makeup artist for before the gala, if needed.

But since there was still about two weeks until the gala, you figured there was no rush.

Besides that, you could do a gaming stream since you still need to complete Freya’s Gate 5.

As if a light bulb flickered above your head, your eyes lit up and you took your phone out, logging onto Trotter.

Tap. Tap. Taptaptap.

A series of typing noises came from your phone and you pressed post.

This way, you can let your followers choose what you'll be doing today without having to do the heavy work of making a decision, truly a predicament for someone as indecisive as yourself.

And now you just wait for the results.

[spilledstars1234]

First post! To start this blog off, i'd like to vomit a random Link Click theory that I thought of recently after finishing Season 2 a couple of weeks ago

You know, the whole “Lu Guang taking the photo in his hospital room” scene’s been on my mind a lot. Because that part was a liiiiitle strange. ‘Cause, I don’t think LG even left his phone there for CXS to find. And why? Because he doesn’t even know that CXS knows his phone passcode. My evidence? When Qiao Ling asks Cheng Xiaoshi how he knew LG’s passcode, he replies with “I just happened to see him put it in.” MEANING: LG didn’t tell it to him. Which is kind of odd, because if he left the phone specifically for CXS to find and dive into, wouldn’t he have told him his phone password beforehand in order to have gotten the plan to work smoothly? 

SO! What if he left the phone for HIMSELF to find, and dove into it after CXS’ death and after CXS transferred his ability to him, so he’d have like a backup plan-ish sort of thing just in case CXS might've died that night???

And bonus! So if that WAS him, then the whole thing with the boat would make sense! ‘Cause when it first shows the whole “Lu Guang leaping on top of CXS” scene (back when we didn’t know CXS dives into the photo), it shows LG having zoomed his way there to the docks on some random boat. So this brings me to the conclusion that this had all been pre-planned (aka LG from the future going back and saving CXS), because like, where’d he get the boat? Did he just hijack one or something? Or… did he have one prepared in advance? (see where i’m going with this??)

 And when we see CXS as Lu Guang, notice how HE didn’t take a boat there, and just ran all the way to the docks? (while risking the small matter of LG’s intestines spilling out… buuut cartoon logic!) So this brings me to thinking that the Lu Guang we saw the first time was actually Lu Guang! And that was him from another timeline and not CXS like we all thought.

And therefore, the “LG & CXS lying on top of each other scene” could’ve actually happened (so CXS wasn’t being narcissistic there, lol!), since that could have been Lu Guang the first time around (and Lu’s little smirk and the whole “Fortunately I caught up to you” thing could’ve been y’know, actually from him and not CXS just saying that to himself).

But then… there’s a loophole in this. Because the Lu Guang that is shown first starts busting out all these moves… and we all know CXS is the one who’s more adept at fighting, and we can kinda guess Lu Guang probably doesn’t get off the couch (he isn’t called an old man for nothing y’know). So, maybe that was actually CXS to begin with…

In conclusion? I genuinely don’t know! But I like to be delusional so I like to think that it was LG in another timeline (c’mon studio lan, you can’t just give us that scene and pass it off as it actually being CXS because of censorship pls). Or maybe I’m dumb and this theory’s super wrong because I completely missed something, I dunno.

(edit: HANG ON, i totally forgot about the scene where cxs gets shot and LG immediately went to beat the crap out of qian jin. So maybe all it takes for LG to fight is when he sees CXS in danger~)

[munchmemes]

glass animals lyrics, I Love You So F***ing Much edition

▸ make it burn. smile as the knife is turned. ▸ i'll begin at the beginning. ▸ and [they] kissed you, you were finished, two months in a minute. ▸ you always fall asleep just before the movie finishes. ▸ when's it gonna end? maybe when you're dead? ▸ maybe you're a fool but [they] loved you. ▸ roll those credits 'cause the sequel's gonna hurt. ▸ that's how revenge is served, make it so cold that it hurts. ▸ i guess you're right that you live and learn. ▸ all that shit i learned from you, kindness spilt like milk and juice. ▸ so blindsided by the truth, in some way i was sure you knew. ▸ those scars must really run deep. ▸ i just got thrown in the trunk of a blacked-out 1999 corolla. ▸ i'm so happy, this is just where i wanna be. ▸ true love. what a fucking beautiful shit-storm. ▸ if i survive, i'll do this again every summertime. ▸ such a night exciting hijacking. what a lovely little time we've had, really took me by surprise. ▸ what do you think about when you think about love? ▸ i'm dumbstruck when you're tender. ▸ it tears through my head, does it haunt you too? ▸ lucky, lucky you 'cause i'm fortune's fool. ▸ i don't think i realize just how much i miss you sometimes. ▸ we were young and so in love. ▸ i don't see the point in a subtle romance. ▸ i'm only really me when i'm here with you. ▸ you just want something kind. i want corruption. ▸ truth hurts when it points right at you. ▸ sit down now for some ground rules, thank you. don't talk, that's it, just one. do you think you can handle that much? ▸ been a great gun fight. you drew blood, i set myself on fire. ▸ get a few ball gags, they're on three for two. ▸ i just want something wrong. i want indulgence. i just wanna make it out alive. ▸ you got big ideas, they're as shit as you. ▸ i'd say 'burn in hell' but they'd hate you too. ▸ what is that you're wearing? oh, it's too much booze. ▸ now scuttle home, go and lick your wounds. ▸ do you want love? do you want lust? ▸ i like you, like you like your drugs. ▸ oh, too late, my love. you blew me into star dust. ▸ object disappearance, it's a true phenomenon. forget me and i'm gone. ▸ i can't give you back your innocence. ▸ freedom at last, i know you wanted it. but freedom don't last when you've got no one left. ▸ that's just one more thing about you i don't need in my life. ▸ i still wonder sometimes what would we have been like? ▸ i can't take away your bitterness. i can't give you back your tenderness. ▸ it was never good enough. we were never good enough. it was never really you. ▸ i always thought it was only the two of us. ▸ which one is you? is anything true? ▸ when you get home, who'll i get? i don't know when you'll explode. ▸ maybe it's just a strange time that i found you in your life. ▸ maybe i can learn to like all that i find terrifying. ▸ i knew it and my heart burst. you're so much more than i deserve. ▸ long ago, probably in a galaxy not far from home, i bet there's a version where we're happier. ▸ whisper me the reasons that you hate me. ▸ one day you'll move on, put me in a drawer. i'll just be a ghost in photos on your phone. ▸ i think we're formed from old lego in a bedside drawer where the stray things go. ▸ i'm a dreamer too. paint over the sad bits, i know that you do. ▸ i swear that i try just to get it all the right way. ▸ there's no fixing this. thanks for all the fish. ▸ i miss that noise you make when you sleep. ▸ i've had enough of today's emotions. why can't they just leave me alone? ▸ am i acting normal? am i being fun? ▸ did i say too little? did i say too much? i wanna scream at the top of my lungs! ▸ my monologue's out of control. ▸ i found the hole where the happiness goes. ▸ you know i'd do anything for your and now i'm here and i'm hoping for sun in the afternoon.

[thgfanfictionlibrary]

Teen and Up Rated Fics Masterlist (48)

Part 1- Part 38 / Part 39 / Part 40 / Part 41 / Part 42 / Part 43 / Part 44 / Part 45 / Part 46 / Part 47 / 

Created: March 24th, 2024

Last Checked:—-

That's How You Change the World-Geekymoviemom (ao3)  Summary: Following his flogging in the Square, Katniss tells Peeta a story to help him sleep. A short companion piece to By Your Side, set following chapter 34. This was originally published in the charity collection A Candle for the Caribbean, which raised over $4000 to benefit islands devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017. That Time We Took Over the World-Gamemakers (ao3)  Summary: Being a session guitarist pays well, but Katniss Everdeen’s always wanted a taste of the spotlight. Enter Peeta Mellark, whose boyband fame faded twenty years ago, and a not-quite-dying wish from an old friend, and she’s in for way more than she bargained for. The B Word-Xerxia (ao3)  Summary: From a Tumblr prompt 'I wish you would write a fic where ... katniss is like gordon ramsay in kitchen nightmares' (I've edited the prompt here for brevity) The First Smile-geekymoviemom (ao3)  Summary: The first smile is such a sweet moment in baby's life. Suddenly everything you do for him seems worth it. The Fog-hutchabelle (ao3)  Summary: The Capitol hijacked Peeta. Primrose Everdeen is anxious to help him recover and rediscover his love for her sister. To Prim’s surprise, Peeta doesn’t seem nearly as interested in Katniss as he does in someone else. Prompt: What if? The Interview-Xerxia (ao3)  Summary: This has all of the makings of the most uncomfortable job interview of all time. The Lightning Tree-Grace_d (ao3)  Summary: At night, I wake screaming of mutts and hot, bloody rain. After Prim reassures me it’s not real and drops back to sleep, I trace my fingers over the paper dandelion on my wall. I remind myself of the things I know are true, improbable as they seem. That I’m not concussed or crazy. That my life is about to catch fire, as sure as the arena did after I shot that arrow, but maybe this time I won’t get burnt. The Only Time We've Got-FanficAllergy, RoseFyre (ao3)  Summary: In a world remarkably similar to Damaged, Broken, and Unhinged, Darius makes a different choice. And it will make all the difference. A minimalist AU of an AU. Because every author is allowed to be self-indulgent. The Parting Glass-FanficAllergy (ao3)  Summary: Haymitch Abernathy. In memorial. The Primrose Path-hutchabelle (ao3)  Summary: This chapter was written for d12drabbles, prompt 1--An Unexpected Letter.

[diamondsunbursts-and-marblehalls]

There are so many similarities between Gale and Coriolanus.

There are a lot of things that you could draw connections with.

They're both really pretty young, around 18.

Both of them are the primary provider for their families.

Both have a pretty frightening outlook on human life, barring people they have previously formed a connection with i.e., all of snow's choices; made to protect himself, lucy grey, tigress and his grandmam, with no regard to any other lives, and gale's "how different can it be, really?" and the way he was fine with dropping bombs on kids, he's just sorry one of them was Prim.

they were both manipulated by older women in power who needed something they had, (ambition, charisma, ideas, strategy, sway) to get what they wanted.

Both loved a girl and lost her because she wasn't willing to bend her morals the way that they did, and she wasn't ready to forgive crimes they put little thought into justifying.

in the end, they're both willing to sacrifice even the people they care about to get the future they've been fighting towards.

It's interesting to think about how things would have been different had Gale been born in the capitol, or if Coriolanus had been born in 12. Would Gale have turned out the way President Snow did? Still, using his talents to fight, but this time setting traps for the rebels? Would Coriolanus have poisoned his way to freeing the districts?

**EDIT**

GUYS WAIT NO

i'm not bashing on Gale i swear. i live with a Gale stan, i would never.

Okay, really quickly, I actually really really love these comments, and I'm kind of thriving off how quickly people jumped in to defend Gale as someone who gave up so much to free the districts because I really do think he was just a kid and he wasn't a bad guy. I still think the similarities between them are really interesting. I just wanted to put in some of the things I was drawing from to make the connections on the first post.

In Mockingjay Gale and Beetee are making plans to target human compassion, (the passage is pretty long so I won't quote it) katniss finds out about them, her POV includes that they came up with the specific trap that killed Prim, that was their plan. Katniss questions it, "that seems to be crossing some kind of line," she says "so anything goes? I guess there is't a rule book for what might be acceptable to do to another human being." and Gale responds "Sure there is. Beetee and I have been following the same rulebook President Snow used when he hijacked Peeta,"

He quite literally compares his work to the work that Snow did and uses that as justification to hurt innocent people. He also rationalizes his strategies and actions in the war with the words "Sometimes killing isn't personal."

Gale paralleling Snow definitely doesn't mean Gale's a bad guy, or that he's the same as Snow, because Snow is arguably a sociopath, and Gale feels love and remorse, they have so many differences I just think the similarities are really interesting.

[far-from-fran]

What are the examples of your "cringefail x [gender]failure" ships? xD

I'm so glad you asked!!!!!!😁

@kpchrs

Ok! So! I'd probably have to start with Hijack!

Hijack

Hiccup (httyd) x Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians (great movie btw😊)) If we're going by htty1 Hiccup would be the boyfailure, and Jack would be the cringefail. But, if we're talking about httyd2, then Hiccup would be the cringefail and Jack would be the boyfailure. The shit they go through and the way I write them really fits that dynamic.

Ashnifico!

Asha x King Magnifico (Disney's Wish) King Magnifico is kind of like a cringey and underappreciated dad, it's so funny. Like, he's supposed to be this intimidating and evil-as-fuck villain, but he's just so cute. Like, look at him twirl:

"I'm glowing! :D"

This is after he's turned evil too, so. Lol

And, Asha is the girlfailure, because... she's just a mess of a character. 😂 Like, I love her, but she's a mess. All the characters kind of are, but, that's kind of why I love them.❤️

Roceit!!!!! :D

Yeeeeeeeeeesssssss! Ok!

Roman "Creativity" Sanders x Janus "Deceit" Sanders from Sanders Sides:

There's a (too) big section of the fandom that (only) sees Janus as this suave and debonair mystery man, which is definitely what Janus wants to be seen as. But, in reality, he's just a big dork! (affectionate)

Picks him up and hold him under a flashlight Look at him! LOOK AT HIM!

So, Janus is the cringefail.😂

Roman! :D Roman is the boyfailure. My mans is... Not Winning. (Which is partially his own fault) (Who said that!?👀)

He's so good, though! I love him! Like, more Roman being happy, please! Enough with the ANGST! (lighthearted... also kinda serious.😂)

I have a fic for them planned. (When don't I? Lol) Well, it's for all the Sanders sides, but it's going to feature roceit heavily. Which I said I wasn't going to do, because I wanted to feature all the sides equally, but here we are.😂 I hope I can get the first chapter out soon!😁

Hmm. I had another one I wanted to talk about, but I don't remember what it was right now.🤷

Well, anyway, here's some honorable mentions:

Hiccabela

Hiccup (httyd2) x Isabela Madrigal (Encanto)

I think calling Isabela a girlfailure is a bit of a stretch, since her whole thing is being perfect. But, she's a bit of a girlfailure in my eyes, so that's all the counts.😌💅🏾

Quick Hiccabela edit I did:

Bunnydoll

Jax x Ragatha (The Amazing Digital Circus)

I hesitate to call Ragatha a girlfailure, but, eh... she's not exactly Winning. Which isn't entirely her fault. It's, like, 90% Jax's fault.

Jax is definitely a cringefail, though. To me, at least. I guess he would technically need to fail more, but whatever. There's only two episodes out, as of writing this, but I'm pretty sure he's going to be failing a LOT more in the future.😂

Hmm. Maybe, I'll switch the roles? Jax is the boyfailure and Ragatha is the cringefail? Eh, whatever.🤷 It works either way.😂

I JUST REMEMBERED!!! I almost sent it without talking about the Cringfail x Girlfailure ship of all time.😂

GuitarSpear

Adam x Lute (Hazbin Hotel)

Adam is just... the worst, and Lute is a girlfailure, because, like, girl Raise your standardsssssssssss!!!!😭 (affectionate) I can't wait to see more of them in season two.😊

But, yeah.😂 Those are my "cringefail x [gender]failure" ships. Feel free to ask more about these or any of my other ships. I ship a lot of stuff. Oh! There's a crossover ship tournament going on, if you want to vote. No pressure. It's just for fun anyway. I put in a link to the hashtag if you're interested: Crossover ship poll tournament. It's hosted by Rapunzel Crossover Queen. They're great!😊

[glitteringcrab]

Prime Fight (4 theories)

Did both Evil Morty and Morty Prime do more than we realize? (based on the Freaky Mortys: Unmorticken Edition theory, which you should totally go read, although I no longer think any "brain control" took place, just wireless communication)

Theory 1: Evil Morty did more than we realize

Here you can see Evil Morty just barely avoiding becoming a pancake by a Diane Bot:

Here you can see that Rick C-137 becoming a pancake apparently made a big impression on Evil Morty:

At the time I thought he was thinking:

"Ooh, did this do it? Are ya dead? No? Yes? No. Crap. WAIT! If our tank is down, I have to take over--" (I mean, I doubt Evil Morty would shed a tear for Rick C-137 dying, but he definitely doesn't want to get killed himself, sooo... go go go go)

However, if the above mentioned Unmorticken Freaky Mortys theory is correct, what he's really thinking is:

"Oooh, this thing is tough enough to bring a Rick down. Should destroy them all asap..."

And soon after, we indeed see an eyepatched Morty (whoever he is) shooting the Diane Bots down, so presumably that's what Evil Morty was thinking.

However, before that happens, this happens:

Right before Eyepatched Morty shoots them down, one of the Diane Bots hits Rick Prime.

AND EXPLODES.

That's new.

(even the way they strike is new)

I mean, it's weird enough that it hit Rick Prime in the first place! He's smart, wtf. Did he get sloppy? Does he have residual regrets about killing his wife? Does he like a challenge, and finds having to avoid his own weapons entertaining? Did the Diane Bot get confused because of the C-137 leg that was in Prime's shoulder? Technically all the above are possible explanations but we aren't given a specific explanation for such a crucial moment in the fight (which is kinda suspicious) and the Diane Bots had seemed accurate up to then.

And, uh... why did it explode? Is Rick Prime himself like a bomb, set to explode if he ever gets squished?

As the next scene pans out, we see that its fingers have been cut off by the explosion, and are all yellow. Which I get in this setting means "red-hot", but it could also be a color-coded message for us viewers that Evil Morty had something to do with the malfunction of the robot.

Like this moment:

And I'd like to point out that when Rick cuts something in half with his own knif-y thing, the cuts are traced blue:

Anyway there is a suspicious pause between the last moment when we see Evil Morty fighting (using the palm canon of the sliced Primebot to save Morty Prime's life) and the next moment we see him, kneeling on the floor with his arms over his head. Did he do nothing in between that time? (obviously he wasn't able to hijack the Dianebots like they did with the flying drone because then he wouldn't have guided Morty Prime to go shoot them down, he would have kept using them... But maybe he managed to only partially hijack its arm or do something else?)

So maybe when he was staring at C-137's incapacitated body, what Evil Morty was really thinking was:

"Oooh, this thing is tough enough to bring a Rick down. I should use this on Rick Prime."

Theory 2: Morty Prime did more than we realize

This scene? With the little salute?

Yeah, I'm now convinced that's Evil Morty gesturing while telepathically telling Morty Prime "Fly up to shoot the Dianebots, I'll go help Ri-FUCK"

And Morty Prime nods in agreement.

(I mean, we use gestures when speaking normally. It wouldn't be too weird to use them when speaking via brain linkage of eyepatch, too.)

And initially I thought that Evil Morty was brain-controlling both Morty Prime and the drone, but now I realize that would be pointless, and nothing but a drain for his concentration.

We've seen instances of Evil Morty's puppeteering, and it seemed he mostly had to pause what he was doing in order to puppeteer Evil Rick, at least when it came to key fighting moments.

Note how they had to shoot one by one and didn't attack simultaneously?

But even if he got better with practice and by now can totally control more than one person's body... if Evil Morty was able to control the drone, he didn't need Morty Prime to also be riding it, getting in great heights and risking breaking his neck.

So yeah, that Morty flying up, piloting the drone via eye-patch, shooting Dianebots? That is Morty Prime being extremely cool all by himself (I think lol, all this is just speculation).

Theory 3: Evil Morty' story keeps getting sadder and sadder

I no longer think any actual temporary brain "control" took place, because:

a) I doubt that Morty Prime would ever agree to that, no matter how Evil Morty could have presented it as a perk.

b) It'd be creepy as heck for Evil Morty to just have a spare brain control eyepatch lying around in his space mansion, like, uh, that feels too much even for him. I mean, he lives all alone, he didn't expect anyone to ever visit, it'd be like he was obsessing with the idea of mind controlling Morty Prime this whole time. That's that's that's way too creepy. NOPE.

c) Evil Rick needed brain surgery to be mind controlled. Cables wired in his brain and stuff. Sounds time consuming to perform when you have to hastily prep before a big fight, even if you can pause time in your awesome space mansion with time crystals. (And Morty Prime got scanned while being a kuato, if there were cables in his skull Rick would have spotted them). I doubt Evil Morty would have been able to substitute doing a brain surgery with something as simple as wearing an eyepatch, otherwise he'd slap one on Rick Prime. The closest thing to instant brain-override on a person we've seen are those fingergun things.

But I totally think Morty Prime wearing the eyepatch allows him to wirelessly communicate with Evil Morty's brain (i.e. with Evil Morty's own implant) in real time. Which feels a lot more exposing for Evil Morty, because while Morty Prime only gets a screen before his eyes, Evil Morty would be basically linking his own freaking brain to an object gifted to a third party, which if used maliciously could probably be turned against him (*hold that thought). And therefore it is a lot friendlier, and nicer, and more likely for Morty Prime to agree to see Evil Morty's thoughts presented to him in text form than it'd be to agree to get mind-controlled. And I can totally see Evil Morty creating such a nice eyepatch for his potential companion in the same way he built a second seat in his spaceship. (Which, in turn, would mean that the little yellow robotic-brain-override cylinder that Morty Prime uses to control the drone was also equipment specifically made for Evil Morty's potential companion so that he, too, could have a mild version of Evil Morty's signature brain-related capabilities)

And yeah, because Evil Morty trusts no one, the extra eyepatch has a built-in mind-blower-like gimmick, scrambling Morty Prime's memories of what happened, so that:

(a) he cannot tell Rick C-137 details of Evil Morty's space base, and

(b) Evil Morty cannot get disappointed when Morty Prime inevitably turns his back to follow Rick C-137. The whole experience can be reduced to a single "thanks for the assist".

And maybe I'm just grabbing at straws, because Evil Morty has a very small range of casual expressions ranging from annoyed to deadpan to the one I call tired & miserable so you can never really be sure what he's thinking or feeling, but... uh...

His expression does change the moment he turns his back to Morty Prime, to the tired & miserable version.

I doubt that he informed Morty Prime of the built-in mind blower thing beforehand, but even if he did I feel like Morty Prime would understand this particular precaution.

(*did you hold that thought?)

Theory 4: A worrying scenario

We've seen Rick C-137 using a Prime drone (that he got from that time portal travelers were reset) to begin tracking Rick Prime down.

(Evil Morty's first puppet)

(Evil Morty's first eyepatch)

(freaking evidence)

(Evil Morty's awesome golden sword)

(Evil Morty's communication eyepatch and the remains of the drone he overrode, with the little golden override cylinder presumably still attached)

(Evil Morty's awesome finger gun brain-overriding bullets)

Boy, I know you're not used to people going after you, specifically, because you appear either too innocent to be dangerous, or you appear too dangerous to be worth attacking (and I know you're a clone so you're not used to someone telling you to clean your room), but please stop littering. Stop leaving remains of your tech just lying around. I don't want anyone to trace you back by studying your awesome brain tech. Please stop. Stop stop stop.

[delta-gambit-au]

I'm still itching to draw stuff but I can't until I get the PSU this coming week :cri:

I wanted to upload something related to my project even if it's old art. Here's the first sketch study I did of teh guy around January, Spamton after hijacking the body of Swatch. Would go for more iterations but one must start from something. I think this would make his birthday around January 28th, though since they both share the same body, that would make it for 3 anniversaries in a single year, Spamton's around May 3rd and Swatch's is February 19th. Lucky guys! 😅

I'm dying to draw him again... asdkljhfgdfjfkjdkj 😭 <crawls back into the beetle pit>

Edit: I forgot to mention that tomorrow I need to go to a doctor appointment to get some pachymetry done. Apparently the pressure of my eyes is 20/20 or something and they want to check if something is afoot that could end with me getting a glaucoma. I'll 🤞 that they don't find anything of import because the last thing I want is to get eye surgery to make my eyes to drain better the liquid inside them. I don't want any sharp or pointy tools getting any close to my eyes 😰

[callipraxia]

As I sat here, mercilessly butchering some time with my thoughts, a thought about The Book of Bill occurred to me: "no, but really - what, exactly, tipped Ford off that Fiddleford wasn't the crazy one and that Bill was up to no good?"

Okay, so, his best friend came back speaking in tongues and rhymes for a bit before he started ranting about how Ford needed to destroy the Portal before it could destroy everything else. This is, admittedly, a dramatic event, the kind of thing that you'd expect to shake Ford's confidence up a little...but that morning, Bill had been, in Ford's own words, "the center of my life, the sun in my galaxy" (The Book of Bill). Ford had, over the years, been manipulated to the point that he'd do almost anything Bill said with very little pushback, as we see with the Frilliam incident (notawebsitedotcom). Ford had a full-blown shrine to Bill set up in his home, in his personal space ("The Last Mabelcorn"). Even after he accepts that Bill is a bad guy, he still refers to him as a god ("he may be a god, but I am a scientist"), so it's probably not an exaggeration to say that when Ford woke up on that fateful January morning, he literally worshiped Bill - Bill's personality and tendency to mirror the speech patterns of Ford's brother and father might have taken the edge off his impressiveness enough to prevent Ford from descending into outright fanaticism, but he certainly doesn't seem to have been a casual dabbler in the little one-man religion he'd built up around his 'Muse.' In the present, he arguably goes a step beyond calling Bill a god when he instead alludes to him as something akin to an addictive substance. So when and why did he flip to the opposite extreme so quickly?

The exact timeline is difficult to reconstruct, but it would seem that the angry confrontation between Ford and Bill in the Dreamscape would be the next event chronologically, probably predating the "my Muse was a monster" (Journal 3) page of the Journal and very likely predating the "damn it all" (The Book of Bill) page. It's possible that it was not, and that the confrontation happened after Ford had already had a breakdown and then shut off the Portal, but the dialogue implies otherwise, as does Bill's jovial comment that it would be 'cute' to watch Ford try to prevent the formation of the bridge between their universes ("The Last Mabelcorn"). If we accept that this confrontation precedes the relevant Journal pages, though, then it must also only very narrowly precede the point at which Ford got the idea to install a retina scanner, after which point, it seems, Bill rapidly stopped finding his efforts 'cute' and started a campaign of outright psychological warfare. Events seem to have progressed extremely quickly between the point where Ford discovered that Bill had betrayed him and the point where he figured out something to actually start doing about it, but there probably was a time lapse - a period where Bill could have done something. I always wondered why he didn't try to talk Ford down in the Mindscape, but even if he didn't want to do that, there's still the fact that Ford was, presumably, asleep when the confrontation depicted in "The Last Mabelcorn" (or at least something similar to it, given Ford's tendency not to so much lie as just...strategically omit facts) took place. Bill could have hijacked his body right then and there and put a definitive stop to Ford's counter-plans - ie, killed him and just gone on possessing his corpse until he could break through to reality and build a body for himself, since apparently, per TBOB, Bill can possess corpses. Bill is certainly more than willing to dangle the thought of a staged suicide over Ford's head later, so why not just save himself the trouble and actually do it?

There are some pragmatic answers, of course. Perhaps he didn't figure that, even if he kept it outside in the snow whenever he wasn't using it, Ford's body would retain the necessary degree of solidity for long enough to him to get the Portal operational for long enough to create a Rift. Probably he did not seen retina scanners coming, since I didn't even know those existed in the early eighties and Bill had Ford exhausted and rattled enough that it's surprising he was able to think at all, much less to think of something that actually worked. Bill also might have still needed to go steal more nuclear waste in order to fuel the Portal for long enough to open a Rift - it seems Stan, at least, needed a lot more of the stuff at once than Ford did in the day, and it's impossible to say whether this was intrinsic to the design or if it had something to do with Stan apparently modifying the Portal to find someone instead of just...opening into chaos. If he needed more time and was caught off-guard by the retina scanner, then, that would explain how drastically his efforts to subjugate Ford escalated in a relatively short period of time. But there are also...other answers, and they might actually be more disturbing.

Something that most people in this fandom who know me probably know about me is that I...am not fond of Bill as a person. Like, I don't quite dance about going "ding, dong, the wicked witch is dead" when he's defeated out of respect to Stan, but I do tend to cheer when Ford shoots him in the back of the head in Weirdmageddon I, despite knowing perfectly well that it isn't going to accomplish much besides making everything worse for a while. Heck, I even liked the "but my aim is getting better" bit in TBOB, even though Ford blasting a possessed corpse with a shotgun only had the slightest of effects, all of them on the corpse instead of Bill himself. Not a Bill fan, me, and I'm very quick to assign the worst possible motives to him...and to assume he's smart enough to have avoided obvious pitfalls in various plans if he had just not been too arrogant/enjoying the show too much to act sensibly. This is a point of discussion sometimes between me and other people who share my general distaste for the guy: whether or not he's actually smart enough to think of a good idea and then not follow through on it for a stupid emotional reason instead of just being too far into "the dark side makes you stupid" to think of a better solution. Also sometimes segways into discussion of how if there were magic in our world, there's a...non-zero chance that I'd be a supervillain, but I digress. Point is: I couldn't help but wonder, "so if Bill isn't just stupid, what explains this behavior of his?" And I wonder...what if the point was never to keep the wool pulled over Ford's eyes until the very end of the project?

I'm venturing into thoroughly speculative waters here, but bear with me. What if the reason Ford somehow figured out Bill had betrayed him so quickly was that Bill wanted him to find out, so that he could then push him to the point where turning the Portal back on was technically something Ford did of his own free will, just as it would have technically been his free choice to shake Bill's hand during Weirdmageddon? It's implied in Weirdmageddon that Bill planned to kill Ford once he had what he needed ("even when you're about to die, you Pines twins just can't get along!"), so I remain uncertain if Bill actually meant to keep him around as a Henchmaniac during their original association, but this notion...kinda works either way, honestly. Because in either case, Bill is some kind of platonic ideal of an abusive person, which means that for him, it all boils down to power. If Ford was addicted to Bill's flattery, then Bill was addicted to having that much power over someone else. He'd want to keep the game going as long as possible, even at the expense of practicality. And if he did want to keep Ford as a follower...well, Bill knows full well how thoroughly you burn your bridges when you make the choice, for whatever reason, to facilitate the end of the world you were born in. Sure, it would have been a heavily coerced choice, but it still would have been a choice in this scenario, not something Ford was hoodwinked into doing unwittingly from first to last. He'd also have had nowhere else to go after Bill's victory and nothing, nothing and nobody, else to turn to for the validation and emotional support he's spent his whole life desperate for - ending the world is, after all, something most people would consider an unforgivable sin, so you're going to be utterly outcast afterward if you don't have some accomplices going in. To borrow words from the novelization of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, just after Anakin/Vader finds out that he's killed his wife, which in his view might as well be the galaxy:

"...in the end, you cannot touch the shadow. In the end, you do not even want to. In the end, the shadow is all you have left. Because the shadow understands you, the shadow forgives you, the shadow gathers you unto itself - " (Stover 429, Kindle edition)

So what did Bill expect when he gave Ford seventy-two hours to either restart the Portal or go through another night of Puppet Hour? It seems quite possible to me that it was exactly (well, more or less - thematically?) the outcome Palpatine got, where even though Anakin realizes finally that he's been led into a trap by someone he'd now very much like to kill, he ends up bending the knee anyway because as far as he's concerned, the rest of the world has ended and after all...Palpatine does seem to understand, just as he always did, and Palpatine forgives, at least for a certain value of the term, and Palpatine will gather him in so that he doesn't have to be alone, either literally or with what he's done. I wrote my parallel case study of the characters in Gravity Falls and Star Wars mostly in jest, but it...actually really is pretty darn close in some ways. Ford arguably even plans to go further than Vader ever did in Weirdmageddon III when he announces his intent to take the deal: Vader slaughtered almost everyone he got anywhere near for a while for a slim chance of keeping...anywhere from one to three people (Padme definitely, who he thought was having a dangerous pregnancy with one baby, which turned out to be two babies) alive, but Ford basically admits what he's about to do will make him responsible for the deaths everybody on Earth and some beyond it, sooner or later, when he notes that Bill will destroy the galaxy "or worse" once he has what he wants, but...y'know, family's family, he's got to try to save those three and never mind how unsavory everything else he has to do in service of that goal might get....

Of course, there are important factors there which help contribute to why eighties Ford didn't ultimately give up and start down the path to being the second-most feared being in the galaxy when things got sticky the way Anakin did. He may be extreme in his attachments, but not as extreme as Anakin; fan theories have proposed borderline personality disorder as an explanation for why they both are like they are, but even if they can both be classed under one label, then Anakin's case is clearly worse, along with the degree of just how unhealthy his attachments get due to the extremity of his conditions in...basically every phase of his life. Ford's really, really screwed up, but not quite "was a child slave before being taken in by sheriff-monks before going through a war and also afflicted with a clairvoyant capacity that specializes in being as unhelpful as possible" levels of screwed up. Also, the people he cared about were still alive even if they weren't speaking to him at that time, and he still had one option other than Bill left (that being Stan). And maybe Ford's just got a little more moral fiber than Anakin, who knows. But I'm...still kinda glad that nothing in the sequence of events after Bill's betrayal resulted in Ford being unable to shoot a gun, the way that the events of RotS ended with Anakin unable to draw upon enough of the Force anymore to have a hope of killing Palpatine. There are several results that could have had, and none of them are probably good.