#graphite ghostwriter

[biolizardboils]

Behold—The Grievance of the Graphite Ghostwriter and The Woeful Watercolor Heartache of the Weeping Wet Hairbrush!

notes and a sort-of plot under the cut!

My recipe for these was (Kid + Nuclear Waste + Favorite Creative Utensil) x Personality Trait That Could Realistically Boil Over. George’s trait is his sense of justice, Harold’s is trying to downplay his sadness with jokes

They’re foils to each other in a few ways: Writing vs. Drawing, of course, but also Dry Dust vs. Wet Puddles and Only Eyes vs. Only A Mouth

Their surroundings in the second pic is intentional too. George is attacking the cool-colored Downtown Piqua, where cold-hearted businessmen exploit their workers; Harold attacks the warm-colored suburbs, tearing open nuclear households to feel the warmth inside

They get two forms because Booger Boy and Sir Stinks-A-Lot did too and also I’m indecisive lol. Think of their first form as Mega Evolution and the second as Gigantamax. Introducing Pilkeymon Graphite and Pilkeymon Acrylic

The Sort-Of Plot

First off this takes place in an unholy mashup of all three canons, because again I’m indecisive. Anyway:

One day The Boys realize their comics tend to come true and try to game the system lol. They make one about them getting Writer/Artist Powers and fixing all of Piqua’s problems with them! ...But nothing happens, and it upsets them more than they want to admit

Later they go on separate field trips to opposite ends of town (they’re in different classes like in the Movie I guess). They miss each other and sneak away to self-soothe by writing/drawing

But someone comes to bother them—a teacher scolds George harshly for wandering off, and a mean older kid picks on Harold knowing The Tie won’t stop him. They try to get away and fall into the sewers, where their frustration (and nuclear waste) catalyzes their transformation

At first they use their new powers for good: George “rewrites” the teacher to stop misusing his authority, and Harold “repaints” the mean kid into a literal class clown. But they don’t feel better, so they try harder: bad businessmen give away their riches, and the gas station from Book 9 becomes a candy store. They still don’t feel better, and soon their well-meaning “fixing” turns everyone into either single-minded zombies or forcibly smiling blobs

Melvin was in the downtown field trip and Knows About Captain like in Book 8 or whenever it was, so he finds Krupp, snaps, and sics him on George. Then he goes to the suburbs and “tells” on both Boys to their families. “Hey your sons have been leading dangerous monster-fighting double lives and now they’re monsters and you should be mad at them about it!”

Meanwhile, Captain is horrified that one of his sidekicks has fallen to evil!! He doesn’t want to hurt George and tries to talk him down while dodging his Pencil-Tie. George yells that he could never understand what he’s going through and takes on his Tornado form, blowing Captain all the way to the suburbs. There Captain sees Harold, gets horrified again, and tries the same talk on him—cue his giant Dolphin form. And since he’s spewing wet paint everywhere, Krupp wakes up in front of Melvin and the families. (What Captain didn’t get is that the Boys aren’t evil now—they’re having literal nuclear meltdowns due to past hurt and current stress)

So now there’s two giant monsters wrecking different parts of the city, Captain is down for the count, and the Boys’ families know Everything. Someone says, “Well, at least it can’t get any worse!” Cue the Boys seeing each other in the distance, not recognizing each other, and meeting in City Center for a KAIJU FIGHT (in Flip-O-Rama of course)

Melvin calculates their weaknesses and everyone splits up to gather the necessary supplies. But by the time they meet back up, the Boys have already neutralized each other (Harold bites down on George’s tie, and George sucks the water out of Harold’s hair). So instead the parents just talk to them and hope they’re listening from somewhere inside the dust clouds and dried hair. They tell them that they know what they’ve been going through now, that they get why they didn’t tell them, but that they shouldn’t have to bear so much responsibility alone. Maybe they even get Krupp to apologize for the part he's played in their constant stress (as if I haven’t derailed canon enough already lol).

The Boys emerge, human and crying, and run into their parents’ arms. Everyone helps clean up the city and cure its citizens with the supplies they’d gotten earlier. The sort-of plot ends with everyone going home, making popcorn, and watching the Kaiju Fight on the news. They might’ve caused millions in property damage but hey, at least it looked awesome

The outcome: Now the Boys don’t have to keep as many secrets, and Krupp is a bit more mindful of how he treats his students. (And maybe he knows about Captain now too, I haven’t decided yet)