#he and simon petrikov would have some stuff to talk about but they both have the same voice

[tehcherrya]

I cannot be stopped

The total of 7 people and a mousetrap on Tumblr who are part of the Two Brains fanbase seems to be a real big fan of how I draw him-- So if this post is for anyone, it's that very specific audience.

Thank you for all the love as of recent by the way, it makes me absolutely estatic <3

[planet-poptropica]

⋆ So....I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and I saw one those fav character charts, and I thought it would be fun to make my own! ⋆

⋆ Poptropica mutuals, tell me about your favs, not just your main favs, your side favs! I will include the transparent version below, and my explanation to my choices down below if you are interested! I'm interested to see your choices. ⋆

⋆ Tada! Have fun! ⋆

⋆ Now, an explanation to my choices: ⋆

⋆ Your Favorite: Director D ⋆

I think it's no surprise to ANYONE that knows me that Director D has always been my favorite, since day 1. There was a moment where he was almost replaced by Binary Bard, but he is a close second. Director D is my favorite because he is associated to my nostalgia of a time when I was obsessed with being a spy or ninja when I was a kid. (Spy kids may have played a BIG role in that.) Playing as an agent in that island was so exciting for me, but I do remember having trouble with certain parts like the decoder. (In hindsight I probably would be horrible spy XD.) Now that I'm older, his island is still one of my favs for that reason, but it's not my number one. I wish we could have gotten a bit more backstory for him, but, what can you do. (But create a backstory for him and I have.)

⋆ You Relate To: Black Widow ⋆

Black widow is a character I don't really talk about or draw like....ever, which is crazy because she's probably the character I relate to the most, just like many other artist do too I'm sure. I relate to her in the way of being jealous of other people's art success, and the constantly comparing yourself to others. They say you are your worst critic after all. I don't so much anymore. I'm actually proud of where I am in my art journey, but I used to do that a lot when I was younger, especially when I just started doing digital art.

You won't catch me stealing or ruining other people's art though... girl what-

⋆ Your Favorite Design: Ringmaster Raven ⋆

Look at him, 'nuff said. His design is amazing. I love the color palette, the mask used to cover his true look, the raven theme with the wings and mask, the hat with eyes, everything. His design is the best because it matches with the overall theme of the island, it being a MONSTER CARNIVAL, and he is the Ringmaster. I remember how hipped I was when his island trailer released. One of the best islands for sure.

⋆ Is Underrated: Count Bram⋆

Yeah, remember when I was constantly drawing him for a short period of time? It's for a reason. I love my vampire peepaw who's confused about everything. I'm curious, do people consider him a villain? I kind of don't for the reason that he kidnapped Katya because he thought she was Anabelle, and once he was cured and was bought back to reality, he apologized for it because he didn't know. You want to talk about villain? Christopher is the real villain, you can't change my mind. Anyway, I was looking at the old art I drew of him, and he looked familiar to me. Then it all came together. You know who he reminds of? Exactly? Simon Petrikov, you know, Ice King from Adventure Time? Not only do they have the same hair style and would have the same personality, but they were both humans at some point with a partner, and once they became what they became, all they thought about was their partner, aka Anabelle and Betty.

Poof, mind blown. Vampire peepaw deserves more love.

⋆ You'd get along with IRL: Amelia ⋆

Amelia is another character I don't really talk about or draw, mainly because I associate her with the new era of Poptropica. But, I don't think that's fair. Amelia is actually a very sweet character that I think little me would have appreciated if she came to the game sooner. I would probably get along with her really well, considering how silly, and nice she is. Not to mention, her love for cute stuff. Imagine her unicorn bedroom but replaced with bunnies. That's my room right now. I think that even traveling with her would be really fun. She would have gotten under the "you relate to" category too but I didn't want Amelia on here twice. XD

⋆ And finally...Your Favorite Side Character: Dr. Spyglass ⋆

I... do not know how to explain this one. Dr. Spyglass only gets a few words of dialog, and we know nothing about him in canon, besides him working for HQ, and being an eye doctor. I won't lie, I actually had a crush on this guy years ago, hence why I shipped him with Muddy. (I cringe at that ship now. XD) Probably because...he looks like Director D...with a lab coat. >_> Look at both of them and TELL ME they are not related, I dare you. My version of them are. I love the idea of this silly scientist being hired by his brother after failing the entry agent exam, not because he pitted him, but because he understood how incredibly smart he was and is. Constantly being compared to his brother and what he could have been. So, you can say I like MY version of him... a lot.

I should dedicate a post to him some day, eh?

[chinchillamajor]

Hey, all. It's the Actually Older Simon cosplayer, here in the # simon petrikov mpreg tag again, with a question, this time.

See, I've been really enjoying my time seeing all the comics and drawings folks have been making, especially the ones with their own continuity. Absolutely gorgeous stuff.

And yet, I'd be lying if I claimed that browsing this part of the F&C fandom hasn't been. Bittersweet. In a way that's been really hard to describe.

But I'm wondering if anyone might be willing to draw a commission I have in mind.

Details under the cut, but heed the content warning before the jump: tw for pregnancy complications and miscarriage talk.

Let's have a little storytime, first.

I'll start off by admitting, I didn't even know I could do that.

My body is, and always has been, a wonderland of medical maladies. And as a trans man from the 2000s until people settled on the word "nonbinary" for folks like me, I'd been taking regular birth control shots that disappeared my period for decades now. I have a very scattered memory, but I always made and kept my shot appointments on time.

Until that one time I didn't.

It was an offhand comment from a friend that got me thinking. "I've been craving frosted animal cookies like whoa lately," I'd said, and she replied, "Maybe you're pregnant."

We both paused. Then cackled to each other for a moment, at the very thought.

And then I remembered how nauseated I'd been getting out of nowhere, lately.

I *did* remember to get my Depo shot last time, didn't I? I must've.

Nope, said the two bars on the test stick, later that night. You didn't.

My head was spinning. I gagged and coughed around the idea; it was too big for me to swallow. I was over 40, for crying out loud. How could it be that I'd get pregnant for the first time, NOW?

I waited to see my doctor. Waited a *while.* Because I honestly didn't know what to do. Previous versions of me would've been mortified, and hustled off to get an abortion immediately.

And yet. And *yet.*

The more I thought of this unlikely kiddo, the more I started wanting to fight for it. If it wanted to be a human THAT BADLY as to hole up in *my* body... shouldn't I give it a little credit?

I told basically nobody, the whole time.

And then, one day, there I was, sitting in my doctor's office, and she was telling me my body was already starting to lose it.

Well. If the kiddo changed their mind about wanting to stay, I thought, I'm not going to hold that against them.

I remember laughing. Covering my face with my hands, and breathing in. Like I'd just been shown the camera filming some wretched prank happening.

I'd just nicknamed it the day before, I told her. My little dandelion. And now...

I won't go into the process itself, in the days that followed. Some things, words just can't describe very well. (I will say, the auto-generated targeted ads that started showing me baby supplies, a few months later? THAT. Was just RUDE.)

Time passed, as it does. I hit my head, that January. Got brain damage. Slowly got better. Slowly.

When it was over, I shoved the whole experience aside. Went to my mortician classes. Never brought it up, because that would mean I'd have to think about it.

Everything's fine, I'd say, if folks said I seemed a bit off. Like Simon said at the bar. Same old, same old.

Just last month, I found a new favorite show. All my friends were talking about how one of the characters happened to look eerily like me.

I'd never seen Adventure Time in my life, before Fionna & Cake, but it made me so happy to cosplay older Simon. I was trying to learn a lot of the same lessons he was, after all.

And then, I started seeing my fictional doppelganger in some fanart where he was heavily pregnant.

My mouth hung open for a while, stunned by the hit of pure joy juice that'd just erupted in my brain.

*Simon* got to know what that felt like.

I hit Follow on the tag, and never looked back.

And after taking the time to sit and feel The Hard Feelings, I'm honestly feeling more okay with everything now. Even if it's mostly because I know there's a version of this fictional character I resemble who got to experience what I didn't. The ups, the downs. Everything in between.

I finally opened up to my therapist about it all, this week. She'd known about the miscarriage, but was glad I was ready to talk about it, almost a year later.

I'm so many flavors of grateful to get to see it. Even from a distance.

---

So. That's my take on Simon mpreg.

And I have a commission I'd like to place, at some point.

A very pregnant Simon, getting a visit from a Simon from another dimension, where his kiddo changed their mind.

This other Simon’s not glad it happened, but he's not sad, either. He just wants to give the expecting Simon a big hug, wish him the best of luck, and to tell him to treasure every moment he has with his kiddo.

That he should always know, somewhere, someone's rooting for him. For both of them.

And then the non-pregnant Simon’s back in the Time Cube, thanking Prismo for granting his wish.

You gonna be okay? Prismo asks.

Yeah, Simon says, looking up at the stars and smiling. I think we're both gonna be all right.

If there are any in-fandom artists who feel up to this? Feel free to message me about it. I'll be asking about your rates.

And if you read all that, just... thanks. For listening. I really do appreciate it.

[boypussydilf]

ok folks let’s keep it going

why is fionna the only alternate finn who doesnt lose an arm 💔 fern didnt either i guess but. you know. Give that woman a disability NOW

for the love of god, don’t act like simon wasn’t Equally Insane About Betty, or was pretty much completely at fault for everything wrong with their relationship. lets zoom out from this 1 specific part of it and look at the whole picture! framing that more clearly expresses No One Is To Blame instead of making it murky by kind of acting like someone is. simon put her on a pedestal too. yes betty sacrificed everything because she thought simon was so amazing and wonderful that she would do whatever he wanted to do and whatever helped him. and simon didn’t notice that, for a reason. because simon thought betty was so amazing and wonderful and bold and proactive that she would do whatever she wanted to do. she would always make the first move and he always took this as just: she’s doing the things she wants to do. both of them unaware that there could be more to it than that, that just because she does want to do this and she is happy doesn’t mean it’s the right choice.

so we get Simon Petrikov And A Series Of Emotional Revelations many of which are completely unconnected from each other and just make his feelings more complicated, but we also get 1. him actually seeing and noticing the effect he has on other people, not JUST how he unintentionally contributed to the toxic dynamic w betty but how he has Made People’s Lives Better And Has People Who Care About Him. again!! something or other with marceline!!!! And 2. the thing they seemingly kind of considered in writing but didn’t really talk about in the show. that simon feels guilty about bettys sacrifice to become golb for him. that he feels like this is something he didn’t deserve! something he can’t pay back!

im getting tired so imight start making less sense here but i want to keep going

theeeeeeere’s definitely somewhere to go with that and expressing to simon that like… betty did make a choice and he does not need to beat himself up and agonize for a million years over a decision she made of her own free will and he does not need to earn the right to be alive

Let’s talk about the golbetty situation i want to talk about the golbetty situation. We NEED to know how SHE FEELS. about anything really

Because honestly? To some extent i think maybe this would be awesome for her. she’s always been fascinated with all this weird freaky magical stuff. now she IS weird freaky magical stuff and now she can see so much. she can understand things her human mind would have been literally incapable of grasping! she has a brand new perspective on everything! EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT!!!!!! and it’s FASCINATING!!!!!! SHE SEES THE WORLD ANEW AND IT IS FULL OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CONCEPTS THAT WOULD TWIST THE MORTAL MIND

but there r downsides too. Betty Was Always Proactive!!!! we see how much betty likes GOING and DOING. she makes choices and she takes actions and now. now she has this fascinating new mind and nothing to do with it except OBSERVE! she can’t go anywhere because her own existence is dangerous.

i think that betty “i’m not sure if there’s even any ‘me’ left” grof needs a second chance at life and she needs an opportunity to rebuild her own sense of self and figure out again who she is independent of simon - something she probably cannot do being alone in a void forever with no one to talk to. i think that betty going somewhere simon can’t follow and continuing her life as a god is a perfectly fine way to do this, if they had a bit more actual, proper closure.

however, consider my extremely biased and extremely emotional opinion: what if they did get to exist in the same space and ever see each other again huh!!!!!!!!!!!

my judgement is clouded by emotion so its hard for me to work out if this really would be a better way to end it or if i just Like It, but i do like it so let’s talk about it. i absolutely do not think betty should ever just be human again. her status is irreversible - but does it have to be unchangeable? idk i basically just like seeing halfway-point monstergirl bettys and i think surely there has to be some theoretical way where through the power of Weird Adventure Time Magic Stuff there is a climactic story about like. betty bridging the gap between the part of herself that is now an unknowable extremely powerful chaos goddess and the part of herself that is a 20th century human woman who had, for a while, an ordinary life. and she can both be a character we can see and understand and who can live her life in a new way. explore the world. find herself again. and also like. be a god who does whatever a superpowerful god of chaos even does. idk betty goes and hangs out at the deities club where everyone is shaking in a corner because she is golb and shes just like so do you guys play cards

feel like im losing the thread but you get me.

Anyway, again. Theoretically i like the idea of fionnaworld becoming a fully fledged proper universe because of the people in it, but it’s not like. Tied In to any story about them being real people in their own rights? Again, the means to do that should’ve happened because of a choice fionna and cake made, not just because simon didn’t want to make the choice. Also prismo should’ve gotten to do a little more than just dropping some people into fionnaworld to help fight. Idk what but there’s probably some weird way to tie everything together and have some wild magic shit he does also affect betty? but ofc help his creations that he cares abt so much. The scarabs whole deal also feels like it shouldve tied in more directly w thematic stuff and emotional resolution but idk what to do with that and its not a super big deal so let’s ignore that

where are the consequences. Where are the consequences. Of anything

ok so simongets it shown to him that he has a positive effect and there are people who care about him and he does not need to earn a right to live by doing something special betty gave him a new lease on life and hed better fucking use it damnit and he goes aw shit fine i guess i will try to be alive a while longer and check out this whole “””””being honest about your feelings””””” thing. probably more connecting parts in between to get him to even that point but i dont really have all the pieces i need to work with i have to invent new pieces and right now im tired

but he goes back to ooo and EITHER things with golbetty go the same as in the show where she’s leaving to go Do Something Else but in a way where its more clear than in the show that she has new things to do with herself and is making a choice which is good for her. OR we go to my perfect fantasyland where something either Has Already Happened or Will Happen to allow betty to be……. a little demystified, yes, but she has some method to Exist Inside A Universe without killing everything and she and simon aren’t going to just Never Ever See Each Other Again but they do have to go be independent people. separate them just not so harshly

BUT ANYHOW, THE CONSEQUENCES. shit should be going down. marceline wanted to talk to him but couldn’t find him, for days, so PB’s got a giant search mission going on for her sake and finn is. finn is doing something idk i just wanted to mention him and simon realizes How This Looks For Everyone Else and he sees marceline again and marceline is all torn between a bunch of different thoughts and feelings and between shaking him and yelling at him and gesturing at everything in his house and going what the FUCK simon what the fuck were you doing, and just being so happy he’s okay, and crying and hugging him and throwing him. however that goes rhey ACTUALLY FUCKING TALK. simon is not at all, like, All Good Now he’s just somewhere along the line been inspired to actually put in extra effort to communicate with her bc she isn’t just…. completely fine without him and now that she doesnt need him to survive it doesnt matter if hes there or not. like he thought. and she gets it across to him that she WANTS to hear about his problems she HAS to its not gonna be more than she can handle and he DOES and she GETS IT because SHE HAS HAD A FUCKED UP LIFE AND TRAUMA AND DEPRESSION TOO.

i thimk this might conclude the specific thoughts i have. ending where simon has not necessarily stopped. kind of wanting to not be alive. but has been convinced to go back and Actually Try,. and fionna and cake…… sssssssomething? im very tired i dont kmow. i love them and their ending is mostly good but could have used some different execution and stuff. and betty gets to actually express her own thoughts and perspective and. have agency. yeah. done now i guess

once i have slept and my brain works and makes sense again i am so making a list of all the things the finale couldve done better and stuff i think wouldve worked better narratively. and turn it into a post. if we’re really lucky ill make a banger alternate ending fix it fic but either way. i need a different ending i can imagine happened bc that one. i dont think it worked.

[feedbackest]

list of everything adventure time does right and wrong. for fun

bad (comprehensive)

The King of Ooo - he’s just lame. he’s kinda supposed to be a goofball antagonist but the show has enough other characters who are much better at that, he gets outshone hard and he probably should’ve been confined to Apple Wedding

LSP as a central character - i think LSP makes a good supporting character, but i also think she struggles hard to move beyond that. the creators try a handful of times to give her a lead role and it almost always just makes for a bad experience. thankfully they figured out how to make her work with a more important role for Elements

S5E30 Frost & Fire - it’s just... bad. aside from this one episode Finn and Flame Princess are very well written together, but this feels like a temporary butchering of Finn’s character. he’d been the main character for 5 and a half season at this point, so it’s virtually impossible to write him making obviously incorrect and unsympathetic mistakes and still have it be engaging. this is just frustrating and hard to watch. the show has its moments of teaching pretty obvious moral platitudes as a result of being a kids’ show, and it has its moments of delving into much more mature emotional processes and relationship dynamics, this episode is like a weird uncanny valley melding of the two. both Finn and FP had very good character arcs as a direct result and the dynamic they had as exes was probably their best, so maybe it’s worth it, but that doesn’t make this episode itself any better

S7E13 Stakes, Part 8: The Dark Cloud - i do not like that Marceline was turned back into a vampire. otherwise Stakes, including this episode, is a very good series, especially for PB and Marcy, but Marcy being vamp’d again at the end felt like the only real instance of the show deciding the status quo is god over a major development. i get that the point of that Everything Stays song is that the change is still there, but getting her vampirism removed was a nice capstone to the rest of her character development to that point, and undoing that feels pretty :/

sometimes filler is boring - it feels weird to call anything “filler” in what was, at its foundation, a children’s anthological adventure-comedy, but sometimes the inconsequential one-off episodes are just kinda meh. most of them are good though

that's pretty much it. note that all of these are either rectified in the show in some way or are inconsequential

good (non-comprehensive)

worldbuilding - perhaps the most obvious thing the show does right, the world and history surrounding Ooo is rich in both concept and execution. the show strikes the perfect level of balance between explanation and mystery to achieve what it’s going for in the lore. compare the handling of the Great Mushroom War to one of its more obvious counterparts, the day the bombs dropped in Fallout, and i think AT does a better job at setting up a world-defining catastrophe that is relevant to the immediate plot without being over-centralizing in the tone or atmosphere. it’s just a very interesting and rewarding world to learn about as the show goes on all round

Finn - while i would call Finn probably the best character in the show overall, i’m not sure what all i can say about him. as the main character in a show which compromises something like 4 years of his teenage and is therefore pretty much running his own coming-of-age subplot throughout the entire series, i don’t think it’s any surprise that he has the most fulfilling character arc in the entire series. it’s great to watch him grow over 10 seasons and he’s a wonderfully enjoyable protagonist (aside from the one instance mentioned above)

Bonnibel Bubblegum - before Islands, i was very prepared to just call her the best character in the show. for about the first half of the show, she’s very good, and from go i think it’s hard to not make her one of the best characters just from her initial concept: a lowkey badass princess who obviously cares for her subjects and can find  solution for pretty much anything? she’s impossible to not like. and then in season 6 the show stops taking how cool she is for granted. it hinted at some friction with her first interactions with Flame Princess in season 5, and then in The Cooler, FP, and broadly the whole show, opens up a critical question: is Princess Bubblegum actually a good guy? then the show launches a pretty deep investigation into her character and how the way she runs business affects others beyond her own perspective, for pretty much the rest of the show, and lands on the answer “she can be.” it not only gives Bubblegum an arc, but one of the best ones on the show, when, as mentioned before, she was already a really good character without one

Bubblegum and Marceline - in my opinion, the best written pair of characters in the show, although i could see arguments for some others. while Finn has the best singular character arc, the relationship arc between Peebs and Marcy is the best of its kind on the show. they were engaging as exes, great when they were starting to be friends again and then eventually rekindling, to the point where when the creators were finally able to bring everything out of subtext in the finale, it was quite possibly the best single moment of the show. the dynamic between these two is so great throughout the show that, again, i’m just not even quite sure what all i can really say about it beyond that

Simon Petrikov - the most tragic character on the show. i don’t think anyone else on the show is as liable to bring me close to crying, basically and flashback involving Simon and Marceline, or Simon and Betty, or any frustrated, one-sided interaction between either pair can and will make my eyes water. maybe i’m just a sucker for the losing-someone-to-mental-degredation type grief stories

Marceline - i’m putting her this late because i’ve kinda already talked about most of what makes her great. she’s a good enough character in her own right, but most of what makes her really come together is a direct result of her history and dynamics with other characters

exes - i’ve alluded to it twice already, but the show writes ex dynamics between its primary and secondary characters, and whenever it does it handles them in a way that is both mature and gives both characters involved very rewarding character arcs. it’s sort of emblematic of the sorts of stuff the creators would write into the show that would go almost completely over the original primary audience’s heads but lends the show a real sense of depth that pushes it over the edge

everything else - like everything else i haven’t discussed here is good to great. the stuff i remembered from when the show was first airing back when i was in middle school holds up better than i would have expected and the material beyond that goes similarly well above my expectations. it’s pretty dang good

[siodymph]

Fiddauthor “Crushing”

Wow I actually got a prompt done on its actual day! (Just barely lol) I had a lot of fun with this one, gave me a good excuse to insert some of my favorite crossover characters and give Ford and Fidds the full nerd-herd they deserve lol

And just a reminder I’m taking fiddauthor requests till August 4th so send any stories you’d like to see my way!

You cand read this story under the cut or over on my AO3!

word count: 1383

Every Wednesday when he had the time, Fiddleford always met up with a few of his friends in the campus library to go over their physics work. Their own unofficial study group of sorts. Though if Fiddleford was honest, most of the time they usually got side-tracked and goofed-off, especially when Rick Sanchez high-jacked the conversation. But today it was Fiddleford’s own head keeping him distracted. He caught sight of his lab partner in Organic Chemistry walking through aisles searching for books. His friend’s argument began to fall on deaf ears as he kept looking longingly at his lab partner.

“I don’t get what you see in him, the guy’s a total dick.”

Fiddleford immediately turned around, he could already feel his face burn up. “You shut your mouth right now Rick!”

Rick just shrugged. “I’m just saying. He’s super weird too. You ever have a real conversation with him?”

“Of course, we’re in the same laboratory for three hours straight!” Fiddleford snapped back. Usually he and Rick got along fine, but whenever he got all antagonistic like this Fiddleford couldn’t help but feel testy.

“Jesus, I don’t know how you do it, man.” Rick said groaning. “Like, I was his lab partner all last semester and I wanted to beat the shit out of him. He never let me do anything!”

“That’s probably because you never actually do the lab assignments.” Betty Grof piped in from across the table. “I’ve seen you dude, you just mess around with stuff and bs the lab reports. I have no idea how you pass any of your classes.”

He smirked, kicking his legs up. “Me neither. I’m pretty sure ever professor here hates my guts-“

As the two kept talking Fiddleford felt himself drawn back towards Stanford. He had this adorably determined look on his face and he kept looking between the list in his hand and the shelves of books surrounding him. Fiddleford couldn’t help but notice his lab partner had a really nice face. Especially whenever he looked up, all Fidleford could focus on was that jawline and the way his eyes sparked. And when he’d look back down at his list his hair would bounce a little.

He got so wrapped up in the sight he jumped when he felt a hand jostle his shoulder. It was Simon. He looking at him curiously. “How long have you known this guy? I don’t think I even heard about him till Rick started complaining about him.”

“Since the beginning of spring semester.” Fiddleford explained, sounding wistful. “That’s when we were in the same lab. He said he was late signing up for school and had all evening classes. That’s why we never saw him anywhere in fall. He’s also pretty shy so he never went out much.”

“Oh that’s a shame. So what’s he like? Cause Rick didn’t paint the most flattering picture.” Simon asked.

Fiddleford wasn’t quite sure where to begin. There was a lot about Stanford he had noticed in the short time they had been living together. Some of it might be too much even. “Well… He’s a pretty sweet fella. Shy like I said, real quiet. But once you get to know him you find out he’s pretty nice. And as much as he’ll try to deny it, you can tell he’s really excited to be here. Has a lot of passion for science and just… just discovering new things. Just a really sweet guy.”

“Hmmm, seems like it.” Simon said. “We should invite him over!”

“What? No! No no no. I barely talk to him outside of class. I never even see him normally! And he’s pretty shy! Uh- um plus Stanford and Rick don’t have the best… impression on each other.” Fiddleford said rushed. He had no idea what would happen if Stanford joined their circle. He hated to think it might ruin things between him and Ford.

Simon frowned at him. “You sure? He sounds like he would fit right in. Plus if he doesn’t have many friends like you said…”

“I wouldn’t want to put him on the spot though! Please Simon, things are alright where they are. So let’s just keep things… normal.” Fiddleford said, slouching down and giving Stanford one more longing look.

It was nice having him as a lab partner and a friend. Even if they weren’t the closest they appreciated what they had. But Fiddleford knew how he felt inside. The way he’d never dare say in front of his family back home, yet said so freely in front of Rick, Simon and Betty. The three of them might understand him, but who could say Stanford would be as understanding? And… and he really didn’t want to risk destroying what he had right now…

But much to his dismay, Simon wasn’t giving up. “Well what if Stanford doesn’t want to keep things ‘normal’ either?”

“What? I don’t-“

“Cause he’s been looking back here this whole time too.”

“What!?” Unable to stop himself, Fiddleford snapped his head around. He caught Stanford burying his head into a random textbook as fast as he could.

Dag’nabit… They both knew the other was here. Why did things have to be so awkward? Simon gave him an expectant look, to go up and say hi to him but Fiddleford felt frozen in his spot. Why did he always have to be so weird?

Then all at once, Simon got up from their table. “Alright, that’s it! I’m inviting him over!”

“Simon Petrikov, don’t you dare-”

But he was already walking away. Directly over to Stanford. And began animatedly talking to him and gesturing back to their table. Fiddleford’s face felt like a furnace.

And when Simon came back to their table with Stanford in tow Fiddleford wanted to curl up and die.

Stanford came to the table curious, but when he saw Rick there his smile quickly fell.

“Rick.”

“Stan.” Rick said back smugly.

Stanford obviously hated the nickname but decided not to say anything about it. When he looked around the table and saw Fiddleford, he started smiling again. Almost beaming. “Oh Fiddleford! Hi! I uh- I didn’t see you there.”

Fiddleford, who had sunk half-way off his chair and under the table awkwardly pulled himself back up. “Hi’ya.” He said sheepishly.

“Your friend Simon here, invited me to join your study group.” Ford said, gesturing to Simon as he spoke. Simon in part offered him a chair and Ford seemed to need a few seconds to fully process what was happening and sat down. Right next to Fiddleford. “So, you’re all studying physics.”

As he and Betty began talking, and Rick kept interrupting them and instigating Stanford, Fiddleford took a moment to glare daggers at Simon. Mentally screaming ‘Simon Petrikov I cannot believe you! If we weren’t friends you’d be a dead man!’ But Simon just gave him a cheeky smile.

Fiddleford couldn’t decide whether he want to thank Simon or beat him, or if he wanted to run away from the table or stay. He’d felt so distracted seeing Stanford on the other side of the library, but now that he was sitting directly next to him he could barely think straight.

And then Stanford just had to turn around and smile at him. And Fiddleford couldn’t stop himself from seeing that slight blush on his nose and cheeks too. He always managed to look so cute. And despite what he said about being terrible at making new friends he seemed to warm up quickly to Simon and Betty. And even while he’d glower at Rick he still respected him enough to listen to what the other man said. Maybe this could work. It could be nice having a fifth member on their team. And it would give him a way to see Stanford more often. Maybe they could become better friends? And if he was reading the looks Stanford kept giving him-

Crap! He’d just asked him something while Fiddleford wasn’t listening. He was pointing down to a series of equations he’d scribbled out. Fiddleford tried to mentally slap himself back into reality and focus on the equations in front of him. But even as he worked through the problem, he was still hyper-aware of how close Stanford was sitting to him.