#he figured out the timeline stuff much earlier than I did

[dude1818]

Update: he finished the anime and was confused, so he watched multiple explanation videos and was still confused, so now he's reading the manga. Incredible. He's probably going to catch up before I do, since it's fairly low on my current reading list

I've been gushing about Heavenly Delusion to my dad for the past couple weeks. He told me today that he's watched most of the show so far, and he described it as extremely disturbing, but he really likes it. Perfect, because that's exactly how I feel. Really excited to talk about the ending twist when he gets there

[5sospenguinqueen]

Team Betrayal | Red Bull! Reader x Platonic! Grid

Summary: Y/N Y/L/N races for Red Bull but when she's caught out drinking another brand, she enacts her revenge until the Grid outs her snitched.

Apologies but this is a female reader.

Warning: Bad writing. I'm not sure what this is but it was prompted between an energy drink dilemma I had the other day.

There is no timeline for this. Make it up.

Main Masterlist.

━━━━━━ ༻𖥸༺ ━━━━━━

Swiping away the sweat that ran down the back of her neck, Y/N grinned at the camera, drinking in the euphoric energy enveloping her on all sides.

"Thank you for joining us after such a long day." The interviewer beamed, pleased to have been able to catch the Red Bull racer before debrief started. "How're you feeling? You look absolutely drenched."

"Yes. Max thought he was funny tipping the entire can of Red Bull over my head. I'll wash my hair three times and still go home smelling of the stuff." Y/N joked, dabbing the drop of sticky liquid rolling down her forehead.

Pleased that the conversation had naturally developed down that path, the interviewer smirked at the camera before turning their attention back to you. "So, you've been driving for Red Bull for 2 years now? Is it safe to say you're also a big fan of the drink?"

She laughed nervously, unsure why such an odd question was being asked after a Grand Prix. Usually the media used this opportunity to ask how she felt about losing/her teammate winning. Again. "Who isn't?" Y/N joked.

Whipping out her phone, the interviewer (dressed in traitorous McLaren orange) thrust it in front of her face. The grin from Y/N's face instantly dropped as she squinted against the blinding sun. Disbelief painted her face.

"Where did you get that? That's actually me!"

"One of your fellow racers provided it earlier." The interviewer informed, tucking away the damning photo of Y/N drinking a can of Monster Energy, dressed in her Red Bull racing suit and attempting to hide her behaviour behind a laughing Lando Norris.

"Who?!"

"I'm afraid we're not at liberty to say. We promised confidentiality in favour of the photo," teased the interviewer.

"That's my face." Y/N's eyes darkened challengingly. She leaned into the microphone, staring down the camera. "In that case, those boys won't know a moment of peace until I get my answer."

She straightened just as soon after, smile flickering back into place as she heard her name being called. "Oops, I was meant to be in debrief a minute again. Thanks for talking to me. Catch you later!"

"Thank you for your time." The interviewer called after the retreating navy figure. She turned back to the camera. "Ladies and Gentleman, I think it's safe to say that Y/N Y/L/N is as ferocious off the track as she is on it. I don't know about you but I would not want to be a member of the Grid this evening."

━━━━━━ ༻𖥸༺ ━━━━━━

The interview went viral.

YourUserName this you? (She retweeted with a pic of Lando wearing a Monster Energy hat, a can of Red Bull in hand)

→ LandoNorris no.

User 1 not Lando deliberately lying about his own face

User 2 oh, no. Lando. What have you started?

User 3 not me checking my phone every 2 seconds to see if Y/N has posted after she vowed vengence.

→ Your User Name 👀👀

User 4 don't drag poor Maxie into this. He's always seen drinking Red Bull.

User 5 she never was good enough for the team, hope they drop her after this.

User 6 may as well just go to McLaren with how much time she spends with them.

OscarPiastri just a warning. I can hear her laughing evilly next door.

YourUserName so just to clear a few things up. I have never bought a Monster Energy in my life.

YourUse Name i am always supplied with them by people who are attempting to remain innocent in this scandal.

PierreGASLY yeah, well. My shoes are cleaner than yours so...

→ LandoNorris you sure showed her.

User 7 not the Grid coming for my girl only to end up fighting for their lives.

User 8 coming for his teammate

User 9 not the whole Grid teasing her for betraying Red Bull

User 10 always knew Max didn't like them. This just confirms

YourUserName not you too. You said you had my back

→ Max33Verstappen this is why you didn't get on the podium

Max33Verstappen not my babies?!

→ YourUserName i may not have a podium but I do have your cats.

→ Charles_Leclerc you're making this worse for yourself

→ YourUserName watch out or Leo's next

→ Charles_Leclerc *horrified gasp*

User 11 alex fighting for his innocence.

User 12 the Grid are feeding us tonight.

User 13 what's the odds that they're fighting for their lives in the gc?

User 14 bet they're compiling a list of times they gave her Monster

→ User 15 trying to figure out who might be next

User we found the snitch

User 2 anyone else see Red Bull lurking in the likes?

LandoNorris @ danielricciardo this is why she didn't respond

Max33Verstappen daniel's currently crying.

redbullracing christian said you have a meeting with PR tomorrow.

→ YourUserName crap.

User 3 can we take a moment to appreciate all the Grid content we got this evening?

→ User 4 and look at how quick Y/N's responses were. Boo was ready for them.

→ User 5 what are the odds they were all sitting next to their phones, terrified every time it buzzed

→ lilymhe can confirm.

[bet-on-me-13]

The Ghost King's Son

So! Cloning is a difficult process.

It takes time, lots of time. Sure, it's possible to accelerate the Growth of a Clone to make them older in a shorter time frame, but that often leads to Destabilization within weeks of completion.

And Cadmus didn't want to take any chances when designing their Kryptonian/Human Hybrid. They started growing him much earlier than they originally did, and let him grow at a semi-normal rate for most of his life.

This comes back to bite them in the butt however, when an asset breaks out of containment and ruins their Internal Power Generators. This causes a blackout that takes hours to resolve, and by the time they fix it all and reestablish the Security Systems, they notice one of the Clones is missing.

The Kryptonian/Human Clone has escaped.

...

Kr-1 is confused. He had woken up in a tube a few hours ago to some alarms, and decided he didn't like it, so he broke out. Then he wandered around until he ended up outside, and just kept on Wandering.

It had been hours, and he didn't know where he was. It seemed to be some type of Forest, but he didn't know what kind.

He just kept on wandering. It started to get boring though, the trees all looked the same and there weren't even any animals around. Then, something interesting happened!

A green thing appeared in the air! It was glowing and swirly and had a kind of pull to it. So, he touched it. And it sucked him in. And now he wasn't in the Forest. And this place seemed much more interesting!

There were a bunch of floating rocks, and the sky was green, and everything else was purple.

And there was a man. Looking at him hurt his eyes, he seemed to be a kid and then an man and then an old man and then a kid again whenever he blinked. He was saying something, but Kr-1 didn't understand him. He didn't think he had been taught language yet? What was language?

The Kid/Man/Old-Man lead him to a big building made of bricks and mortar. It looked like a big spiky building with towers and walls and stuff. Inside it looked cool, with candles and carpets and even more stuff.

He was taken to a room with a guy who didn't hurt his eyes to look at. He had white hair and green eyes, but his skin wasn't blue like the old guy. He had a piece of ice on his head, it looked like a crown but it was glowing.

The Guy walked up to him and pointed to himself, and kept repeating something. "Danny".

Eventually Kr-1 realized that it was his name. He then pointed to Him and said "name?"

He tilted his head confused, and the guy, Danny, let his head fall with a sigh.

"This is gonna be harder than I thought."

He wondered what those words mean?

...

It had been a few years since the newly dubbed Conner had begun to live with Danny.

He had been hesitant to adopt the Living 9 yr old Child when Clockwork had brought him to his Castle, explaining that he had run into a Natural Portal, but he had accepted in the end.

It took a while to teach Conner how to understand Language. He seemed to know very little for a kid his age, but after Clockwork had dug around his personal timeline they figured out that he was a Clone. He probably hadn't reached the Information Planting Stage of development when he escaped.

After learning about this however, Danny began teaching him everything he should have learned in his early life, such as Elementary level education and some social interaction. He even brought around Ellie to see if she had any advice for helping him develop into a healthy young boy.

She did help a bit, but was mostly preoccupied with spoiling her new Nephew rotten.

Eventually, Conner had caught up to the level he should have been at his age, and started living in both the Realms and in Amity.

He was having a good life, had some great friends, and was even starting to learn to use his Kryptonian Powers now that they were coming in.

He loves his new Family, his Dad is goofy and fun, his Aunt Ellie likes to spoil him rotten, his Aunt Jazz is the responsible one but still loves him, and even his grandparents are great in their own Insane way.

But not all great things can last.

...

It was supposed to be a normal Field Trip. Conner was 15 and his school was taking a Trip to Washington DC, to see the sights or to learn about history or something.

But stuff happens. They just so happen to pass by a certain lab, that lab just so happens to be testing out a new Yellow Sun Energy Detector, and one of the Scientists who worked on Conner just so happens to see him in the bus as it passes by and the detector goes off.

In the end, they manage to recapture him and place him back into his Pod, beginning to prep him for Reeducation. (Let's say they mamage to repress his memories)

Cut to 1 year later and a team of Sidekicks break into the Lab and successfully steal away the Clone again.

The Clone who knows he had a dad who had black hair and blue eyes, who helped him use his powers, who looks a lot like Superman.

Conner, in his slightly Amnesiac state thinks he has already met Superman and that he had raised him. Which makes it so much more hurtful when Superman outright rejects him. He thinks his Dad just rejected him, the Dad who he thinks he remembers loving him very much.

(Danny had been frantically looking for his son for over a year now. Where is he? Is he Okay? What happened to him? He knows at least that he isn't dead yet, but he really wants to find his son)

[zeropro]

can i kindly ask for a summary of how time is measured in your au? mostly the cycle/year stuff, im not sure if it's lifted from elsewhere or your own creation — either way i think it's really cool :) world building is awesome

very sorry if you've already gone over this elsewhere

Oh sure! I spent way too long figuring this out so i might as well explain it.

The cybertronian calendar goes in one direction forever unless a new Prime decides to reset it. Nova Prime reset the calendar when he declared the new Golden Age of Expansion, which is why Megatron’s canon Birthday is so small (1st cycle 012) as he was among the first Cold Constructed mechs onlined, and that started with Nova.

The only unit of measurement that we seem to have solidified is Vorns, which is 83 earth years (earth years=stellar cycle). The calendar’s cycles are measured by vorn, the first number counts vorn, and every 24 vorn the second number ticks up. after 24th cycle 12 it would become 1st cycle 013 and then 2nd cycle 013.

There…actually is no unit of time for the second measurement as far as I can tell, so I have no idea what to call it, but essentially you would say Megatron’s birthday as first cycle O’twelve, and people would know he was born 23904-ish years after Nova Prime’s calendar went in effect.

24 vorns is roughly 2000 years and every 500 dates on the calendar is roughly one million years.

I developed this calendar system based on the actual dates we do have in IDW1, I decided 24 vorns are when the calendar turns over because the war starts about a million years after Megatron’s birth and the canon dates for most of those events are in the 500s. I did have to ignore the single canon date set in the 51st cycle for this, but all the other dates are within the 1 to 14 range. And this is taking into consideration that the calendar probably reset some time under Zeta Prime (which is why the Battle of Sherma Bridge where Megatron and the newly anointed Optimus Prime allegedly duked it out for the first time happens in 2nd Cycle 087 even tho Megatron was beat up by Whirl in jail before the war in 4th Cycle 496). Some of the inconsistencies I also chalk up to some bots still using the old calendar. the only date I really cant figure out is 6th Cycle 356 being confirmed to be “half a million years ago” like?? Eh?? Ultra Magnus’ last fatality was pre earth pretty sure and that happened in the 3800’s (of nova’s calendar pretty sure). Maybe they missed a zero at the end of the date or something idk XD 3560 would make so much more sense for half a million years ago.

Also, 83 years is a long time and it does seem like they have smaller units of dating called chords and arcs but I just assume thats like days and months to us and I cant be bothered to figure it out. not enough info about it anyway. I’m sure one of those tracks stellar cycles and the other tracks cybertronian days.

i think the only other unit of time I've used is deca-cycles, just cuz I like how it sounds. a deca-cycle is about a month, or three weeks.

Megatron and Skywarp were constructed earlier on (012 and 023 respectivly), Thundercracker was constructed closer to when the matrix “ran dry” probably in the 100s, and Starscream was commissioned by Cryak at the end of the millenia, in the late 400s, after they’d stopped constructing seekers entirely. He must not have been more than a few vorns old when he met Thundercracker.

Starscream and Skyfire’s expedition would have taken them 40 on the calendar to get to earth, based on Skyfire’s shuttle speed. Starscream probably would have been able to make it back to cybertron a little bit faster.

I referenced this and this page of the wiki while working on this. Most of my worldbuilding is extrapolation from canon.

yes i did all this for one joke.

A few more timeline stuff: Megatron is about .7 million years older than Starscream, and Starscream is about half a million years older than the start of the war. The war lasted 3 million years before they crash landed on earth after which they went into stasis for one million years. Some time after they landed on earth, Shockwave successfully clones Sunstorm.

and in case you were wondering, sunny's serial code is referencing his Collector's Edition toy's ID number (089). SC stands for Seeker Class. they run out of glyphs slots after 999 so they sort them into batches. Sunny is the 089th frame built in batch 16. whether that means his frame was already built and left empty in storage somewhere and then repurposed by Shockwave, or Shockwave built him from scratch based on the blueprints and just continued the serial code sequence, I haven't decided. but either way, it means there was a finite number of seekers brought into the world and they dont even make up a whole united states city's worth of people. Lots of them are dead by now anyway. The whole cybertronian race is so small now they are all on first name bases with each other XD. But i digress, none of that has to do with time or calendar stuff, just thought it was fun.

thanks for asking!!

[archivalofsins]

I do have thoughts on how the situation between Mu and Haruka is being discussed.

I believe it's a bit disingenuous to behave as though Mu didn't know Haruka was getting worse and I just want to lay out why it is I feel that way. To be frank it simply doesn't align with anything we heard from Mu in her second voice drama or the things she was displayed as saying and doing within the Portal Timeline. As I am a petty individual I would say it's a stretch of canon to say she did anything other than what she said she'd do.

Which was nothing but support Haruka in his choice as his friend,

Mu Queen B 13:16

"Isn't it exactly because he's my friend? isn't friendship about letting your friends do the stuff they want?"

Though let's go a bit further back for a second how do we know that Mu was aware Haruka was planning to do something that would end his life? Well because she told us and she told us a good while ago in fact,

Mu Queen B 12:36s,

"Ah, but if you don't forgive me Haruka-kun will die. So, I think it'd be best not to do that." ...! [bell tolls] So you've heard about that nonsense too? "Mhm. Haruka-kun told me."

Literally her saying that last thing should be the nail in the coffin for presenting this situation as something Mu wasn't aware of. Because she was told by Haruka himself that if she was voted Guilty he would do lethal harm to himself. This is the first reason why I believe anyone behaving as though there is any chance Mu did not know Haruka planned to do this is either acting dishonestly or simply has not been paying attention.

Well, Gunsli maybe she knew he planned to harm himself but she didn't know how he was going to do it. Haruka didn't even know himself yet he was still trying to figure it out. That's fair. However, Mu still could have told the other prisoners that Haruka planned to do harm to himself just to be safe if she didn't want him to do that or just told him she didn't want him to do that. I guess that's neither here or there though.

Let's just keep walking down this-

Wow; I literally can't even say this is a road, bridge or anything someone is meant to walk on... What the fuck is this? Alright. This imaginary pathway certain people insist on telling those around them really exists despite it not aligning with anything that has occurred thus far. Yeah, I'll believe for a second this is the case and Mu just didn't know even though Haruka told her he would end his life if she was guilty and she would be the first to know if she was guilty.

Not even touching on the landmine of how Haruka would find out she was guilty to begin with. It was possibly when they were restrained after the verdicts but he implies he knew earlier than that when they're talking in the timeline on his birthday in 2023.

Still forgetting all of that maybe Mu didn't know how Haruka would do it.

She still knew he had the intent to harm himself and what her verdict was to her own admission. Then did nothing to even try to dissuade him from harming himself over the course of the portal timeline,

Trial Three Website Voice Lines

2: "You said you’d forgive me. You told me that you would forgive me! Just changing what you think on a whim, you really are the worst." 4: "What are you going to do about this? Haruka-kun died. Hey, guard. You knew this would happen, right?""

"Ah, but if you don't forgive me Haruka-kun will die. So, I think it'd be best not to do that."

The first time she brought him food she even stated that he had to eat it properly meaning she recognized he was not eating and persisted in telling people she had it handled anyway and that he was fine,

23/06/22 (Haruka’s Birthday)

Mu: Haruka-kun, I brought your food. Are you still alive? Has any mould started growing? Haruka: ……ah, thank you very much. Mu-san. Sorry, um…… I…… Mu: You shouldn’t just lock yourself in your room all day. You have to eat your food properly. Hm, well…… I do understand why you’re feeling down. It feels bad. The atmosphere recently Haruka: Um, I’m totally fine…… Just a bit, I’m thinking, about how to do it. What to do, what to do, to…… fulfil my promise. For Mu-san’s sake……

So, even the fact that he was not eating properly was something she knew long before any of the other prisoners or even us as the audience knew.

Hell, in this timeline Haruka brings up that he's thinking about how to do it. How to end his own life to keep his promise to her and she says nothing to dissuade him from it. While knowing full and well what he's talking about because again she told us he told her.

"Mhm. Haruka-kun told me."

These are the facts from her own mouth.

This is the sequence of events. I do not believe this is a difficult set of circumstances to follow or look into but they are easy things for people to purposely misconstrue. In a way that I can only consider to be an attempt to make Mu sound more considerate than her actions and own words display her as being.

Hell I know for certain that some overzealous individual is going to get in their feelings and go,

"Well Jackalope said in the trial three commencement notice that Mu has trouble putting her emotions into words. He said 'She doesn’t know where or what her feelings are. She just lacks the skills to put them into words, but a human such as she, is quite complicated.'. Maybe this means Mu really did care about Haruka and just didn't know the proper way to express that or how to handle the situation."

One I'm not arguing against that.

I am however arguing what does that have to do with Haruka dying and the words she did say throughout the entire time he was slowly wasting away in his cell from starvation? Like I don't care about how she's feeling about it now when all is said and done. Because while Haruka was starving himself she was having people praise her for bringing him food she knew he wasn't eating?

Because again the first time she brought the food to him she verbally noted he was not eating properly. So the timeline and again Mu's own statements portray that she was aware Haruka was not eating from the onset.

Yet, continued to tell people things such as,

"I’ve been bringing all his meals to him so he should be fine. Isn’t that great of me?" - [Milgram Portal Timeline-23/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)] "I’ve been taking his food to him like this every day. Isn’t that great of me?" - [Milgram Portal Timeline- 24/06/22 (Haruka’s Birthday)]

However a lot of people want to spin it as though Mu went through something just as tragic as what Yuno went through.

That she spent months trying to do right by someone and help them get better just to have them die.

It's a pretty easy story to want to spin for Mu's character. Especially when the parties telling it have a vested interest in ignoring certain information. Simply because they want to see the best in someone to validate themselves regardless of how that someone has consistently behaved.

Even her saying you have to eat has been twisted around to say she was telling him to eat so she was really trying to help him and tell him not to do this through saying that. This was her showing concern for Haruka. When what it is- Is definitive proof that while no one else knew Haruka wasn't eating until they found him starved to death or near starved to death Mu did know.

How could she not have known.

She was bringing him food everyday. She saw him every day. Starvation isn't something that can go unnoticed. People will literally lose weight. They will get thinner. There's no way to starve gracefully. Heck it's not even that difficult to tell when someone isn't eating their food.

Definitely not in Mu's case because again it is something she noted he was not doing on June 22, 2023,

"You have to eat your food properly."

Mu Kusunoki to Haruka Sakurai on June 22, 2023 far long before he starved to death.

Now logistically what could she have done? It's not like she could have forced him to eat. What could she have done outside of saying hey you should eat properly?

Well you see there's this thing called an intervention. There's this thing called telling people there's a problem. There's this thing called when multiple people give someone the opportunity to tell them that something is going wrong and another person needs help far beyond what they can provide doing that.

Something Mu was given chances to do but decided to instead assure people that Haruka was fine and she was taking him his food every day. Stating and implying to them that he's being taken care of and eating properly through her statements. Because she's showing them the food, the plates, and saying this is what she's doing.

Why would they not believe her?

Now there's discussions around the fact that anyone within Milgram could have taken some time to go into Haruka's cell and check on them their selves. However, that takes us back to Mu as well because Futa and Shidou asked Mu if Haruka was alright because she was going there every day and they may not have wanted to barge into Haruka's space. This is just a polite thing to do. Since Mu assured them that he was in fact fine and look he's eating see I just took him this then possibly showed them an eaten plate of food-

What the fuck were they supposed to do? Go,

"LIAR- He's starving himself in there isn't he?!"

Shove Mu to the ground barge into Haruka's room and go,

"Haruka we're here to save you this is an intervention. You will have three meals a day like the rest of us and water. Then we will walk daily and start you on communications counseling because this isn't healthy physically or mentally. Kajiyama grab his legs we're taking him to the dining hall."

And force fed him like Curly is Mouthwashing. No, that would be wild. Just believe her. The fuck why would they not believe her? Fuck I would have believed her too. Like okay I believe you that's your friend. The fuck you gotta lie for. If you say you're taking him food then I believe you and I have other things to do but if this continues I'll go in there to check myself eventually.

At the end of the day she knew Haruka wasn't eating she noted that. All to then not get anyone to intervene or help in any way. In fact she assured people time and time again even after Haruka was probably dead that he was fine.

23/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)

Futa: Oi, you. Is he ok? He’s not even left his room lately. Mu: You mean Haruka-kun? Hmm. Yeah, probably. I’ve been bringing all his meals to him so he should be fine. Isn’t that great of me? Futa: Hah? Who the hell says that sort of thing about themself. ……ah, no, well, right now I understand a bit. When you’re feeling down, it’s nice to have someone who relies on you and accepts you. The rest of us can’t really understand you from where we’re standing. But well, if you’re Haruka’s “salvation” then I guess it really is great. Mu: Salvation……? I don’t know what you mean. Futa-kun, you don’t sound like yourself. Did you hit your head or something? Oh, wait, you actually did, didn’t you. Ahaha. Ah, putting that aside though, did you know it’s my birthday today?

24/06/22 (Haruka’s Birthday)

Shidou: ……I’m worried about Sakurai-kun. I haven’t seen him around in a while. You’ve been talking with him, right? Mu: He’s fine. Here, look. I’ve been taking his food to him like this every day. Isn’t that great of me? Shidou: Yes, very. I’m sorry I’ve been leaving it to you to look after him. Usually, that would be the job of us adults, and yet we’re leaving you with the burden. Mu: Don’t worry about it. After all, me and Haruka-kun are friends.

Something that goes straight back to what Mu said she would do in regards to Haruka threatening his own life. Again it's not Mu's fault he's dead I don't consider suicide murder and neither does Milgram. Haruka choose to take himself out and that's a choice I've gotta respect. Nobody forced him to make that threat or follow through on it.

Yet no one stopped him either. Milgram, Es, the audience or Mu. None of those things stopped him from doing that or even attempted to.

Mu's defenders can't have their cake and eat it too. They can't say it's the audience fault for not voting Mu innocent and stopping Haruka because Mu didn't stop Haruka either.

Like Mu said,

Mu Queen B 13:05s

You know about it and you're not trying to stop him? Haruka, that is?

"Why would I?"

"Haruka-kun says that's what he wants, so there's nothing I can do, right?" But you're calling him your friend.

Yeah Mu, you're right. That's what Haruka wanted to attach his life to and die for. Nothing we could've done about it. Es didn't make him threaten himself. The audience didn't either. We should just respect the choices he made to get himself to that conclusion.

Heck at least he got to choose how he went out. That's more than Shidou and Mahiru got.

The last timeline we see with him even supports this,

24/04/19 (Futa’s Birthday)

Futa: ––Hey, are you really ok with this? If you come with me, there’s a chance you can be saved too…… Haruka. Haruka: Yeah…… I’ve made my mind up. I have, something, that I have to do. Futa: Ah, is that right…… Haruka, you know, you’re an idiot. There’s no way…… that will save you…… Haruka: Yeah, thank you. I’m glad you came to talk to me, Futa. Um, thank you, for being so kind. Really. But, I’m sorry. This is all I’m able to do……

All those times she brought food and she never offered him a way out of that promise. She never said this is how you can get out of this. This is how you can move forward with me too. You're life doesn't have to end here. No the person who did that? Who was it again?

Was it the person that brought meals there everyday. That people are trying to jump through hoops to say couldn't notice someone starving right in front of them. Even though that someone was a person she'd been attached to at the hip prior. She could notice when he wasn't making eye contact or distracted by something,

22/06/22 (Haruka’s Birthday)

Mu: What’s wrong, Haruka-kun? Did something happen? You shouldn’t look away like that when you’re together with me. Haruka: Ah, s-sorry, Mu-san. Um…… No, it’s nothing. I just, suddenly got a feeling. That something is about to happen. Mu: Isn’t that because it’s your birthday? Or perhaps it’s a sign the guard is about to wake up again soon? Fufufu, I bet they’ll be really surprised at a lot of things. Haruka: That, might be true. But, I want the the guard to see. ……the new, me…….

But not a change in his weight. She's not observant enough to recognize the signs of starvation. Even though she went there every day with food. Alright, sure I believe you.

You know I'm not even mad at Mu because Haruka is dead. I'm mad at Mu because Haruka died for someone who no matter how much I comb through the facts did not give one fuck about him. To the point that the last notable thing Haruka did was not thank Mu for being kind to him didn't even thank her for that once if we're being honest but someone else.

Who even while going through the shit he did and saying he didn't have the luxury to bother being concerned about him. Was the first to ask if he was okay. Was the first to check in with the person he saw as being closest to Haruka to just check if he was alright. Then when the situation persisted went in there himself to check on his own birthday.

Just to be meet with what exactly. I was curious about what Futa saw that made him seem so panicked. Curious about how Haruka had done it. But now we know he went in there and saw a shell of person thin, starved, on the brink of death. Probably not too different from how Mikoto's trial three art looks at this point.

And he pleaded with Haruka to just leave be saved some other way. Like damn sure Amane's religion makes him vegan but at least he's eating. It's something I really can't let go it's not murder of course. Mu didn't kill Haruka with her barehands she didn't even kill him at all. But it's just the idea of going to same place every day with the thing that could save someone's life and knowing they're not taking it. All while again and again assuring people it's fine I'm taking him the thing.

"Isn’t that great of me?"

[absolutely-esme]

Monster!Tim Coraline au part 3

I had more thoughts on the au from here and here.

First off, It's called Hungry Monster Tim au unless and until I come up with a better name.

That's the tag that will help you find related content. I titled the post the way I did so that people who found the au before it had a name could recognize it. I'm hoping this will minimize confusion.

...

Now, I figure I'll talk a bit about how others view Tim.

The most of the earlier additions to the Batfam have mostly interacted with Tim in Emotional Support Tim mode.

Emotional Support Tim is pleasant and comforting. He is not overly exuberant and joyful in a way that would grate on fresh grief. He is also not joyless in a way that might make a hero feel obligated to worry about him. He is gentle and competent. His patience seems nearly endless. He can tolerate both being coddled and being leaned on. He can tolerate both being clung to and pushed away. He can tolerate switching back and forth at unpredictable intervals.

Tim approached Nightwing in his standard state of "tired, low on patience, and possibly about to do something stupid," once before Tim realized he was also grief-stricken and in no fit state to get Batman under control. He might have an inkling that Emotional Support Tim is an act, or he might just think Tim was having a bad day.

Bruce thinks Emotional Support Tim is what Tim is actually like. By the time Bruce was functional enough to not need so much managing, he'd gotten attached enough to the facade for Tim to have concerns about dropping it.

Alfred can tell that Tim is putting on a facade. He can tell that the role Tim has taken on is wearing on him. He doesn't like it. He feels guilty for allowing it to continue. He can't bring himself to put a stop to it when it's keeping his adoptive son alive.

Barbara initially meets Emotional Support Tim, immediately clocks the act, and pulls him aside to make sure there isn't something sinister afoot. Babs has reservations about every aspect of Tim's involvement, but agrees that something had to be done about Bruce. She lets him carry on for now, but she's ready to pull the plug if it seems like it's getting too much for him. She insists that Tim drop the act when it's just the two of them.

Babs doesn't know about the supernatural stuff specifically, but she knows there's more going on with Tim than what she knows about. She may learn that he has some hereditary health stuff that requires him to be extra careful about his food intake. She makes a point to not be weird about it because people being weird about her wheelchair annoys the crap out of her.

I like to imagine that Babs and Tim have a certain amount of solidarity over being the sensible ones who keep all these unhinged, dramatic bitches in line. They also have solidarity over ignoring the fact that they are just as dramatic and unhinged as the rest of the Bats.

Steph meets Tim in Regular Tim mode because Bruce isn't with him. Instead of trying to discourage Spoiler, he introduces her to Babs. Steph knows Tim as a tired smartass who kind of always seems like he's a bit hangry and trying not to take it out on anyone, but apparently he's just like that.

They don't date, but do become friends. Part of this is because grouchy, eternally hungry, constantly done-with-this-shit Tim isn't attractive to Steph but is kind of hilarious. Part of it is because Babs points out that there is no possible timeline where the kind of power imbalance from only one member of a couple knowing the other's secret identity doesn't turn toxic.

When Steph eventually encounters Emotional Support Tim, it creeps her out. She uses the term "pod person" when asking what the heck that was.

Steph's disastrous stint as Robin doesn't happen because she's already got her own thing going. She already has a mentor and appropriate protective gear. Babs and Steph actually get along better because they start their mentorship as Oracle and Spoiler without any of the complicated emotions of taking up a mantle.

I like Steph as Spoiler the best because it always seemed a little messed up to shove someone who already had their own original Identity into two legacy mantles. Let her do her own thing. She doesn't need to be a successor to Babs or Dick when she's already the OG Steph. Instead of giving her the Robin gear or the Batgirl gear, get her some upgraded, Bat-quality Spoiler gear.

Steph doesn't start a gang war or fake her death in this timeline, because the circumstances that caused it do not exist here.

Jason initially encounters Tim in Feral Cryptid mode, then writes that off as a fever dream after waking up to Emotional Support Tim. Once free of the Lazarus parasite, Jason makes it his mission to be a good big brother to Tim. Tim seemed a little stand-offish at first, but warmed up to him. (As soon as Tim realized that food was part of Jason's love language, he rearranged his meal plan to let Jason feed him without triggering supernatural problems with his metabolism.)

Jason eventually manages to earn Tim's trust enough to meet and get to know Regular Tim. Jason is both honored and concerned. Putting on such an extensive facade for the comfort of others has got to be exhausting, and Tim seems so worn down underneath it. Well, he doesn't have to do it for Jason anymore. Jason will happily hang out with and support any version of Tim.

When Damian shows up, he mostly sees Emotional Support Tim. Then he starts trying to kill him. Eventually, Tim's patience with the pint-sized murderer wears thin (possibly due to Damian hitting a PTSD trigger), and Tim goes Feral Cryptid mode. This freaks Damian out. There is no video evidence (which the rest of the Bats assume to be because Damian tampered with the security system in an attempt to get away with murder).

It doesn't happen again.

Tim doesn't bust out his powers or cryptid form against Damian again, but now that he's seen it, Damian sometimes sees traces of Feral Cryptid Tim lurking below the surface. Various little things he'd ignored that hadn't seemed significant on their own now seem to stem from the nature of what lurks inside the human skin.

Damian stops the murder attempts early. It's not because of ethics (which will take time to learn). It’s because he has no idea how to kill whatever sort of unearthly thing Tim is, and he recognizes how unwise it would be to continue attacking something he cannot kill. For now, Tim seems content to leave him be whenever he's not directly under assault. Damian doesn't want to risk becoming enough of a pest to be worth the effort of swatting.

...

I also had thoughts about Tim's post-Robin period.

When Tim goes on his quest to retrieve Bruce from the time stream, he doesn't take the Red Robin suit. He's going to be outside of the Bats' scrutiny, so he gears up with a suit and equipment he'd secretly made with his supernatural nature in mind. It's got Bat-standard armor and padding, but modified to accommodate a bit of form shifting without compromising protection. It's got a patchwork thing going on.

Tim sewed it himself, which allows him to manipulate it. It's also got buttons sewn in strategic locations to eliminate blindspots. (Taking down the beldam gave him the ability to control things he made and see through buttons he sewed).

His utility pouches are full of both Bat-standard equipment and things relevant to Tim's abilities. Also, he makes his pockets bigger on the inside, so he can carry a lot.

Tim isn't around the other Bats, so he's not being Emotional Support Tim. He's not using the minor illusion powers he got from the beldam to make himself look pleasant. He only makes the effort to be comforting when dealing with victims. He's just being the semi-feral scrungly dude he is.

...

Tim keeps in touch with Jason, Babs, and Steph while he's off on his quest to find Bruce. He occasionally pitches in with stuff that can be done from a distance.

Tim didn't say that Bruce was still alive before he had evidence. It's not because this version managed to predict that they wouldn't believe him, but rather because he thought he might have to do some supernatural stuff to get him back and didn't want witnesses. He just told the other Bats he needed to investigate something and would tell them more once he had figured out enough to know what to tell them.

This means that the other heroes don't think he's crazy, and Tim can use hero resources for his investigation.

I haven't decided yet if Tim will interact with the League of Assassins at all. On the one hand, I think this Tim might not need to work with them. On the other hand, Hungry Monster Tim terrorizing the League of Assassins and fighting the Lazarus Pit would be funny. Maybe Ras doesn't try to recruit him. Maybe Tim just shows up, fights the Lazarus Pit, and leaves without explaining anything to anyone.

Either way, I think that Tim is pretty much done with keeping up the Emotional Support Tim facade by the time he comes home after saving Bruce. It's been long enough to justify the change.

Babs, Jason, and Steph are happy for Tim because they can see how much better he's doing without the added strain of keeping up the act. They are also glad that he feels comfortable enough to just be himself.

Bruce and Dick are more in the horrified/concerned neighborhood because, from their perspective, Tim started off gentle-natured and glowing with health, got fired from Robin, disappeared for a while, and came back gaunt and world-weary.

...

I'm thinking about whether or not Tim should tell Babs, Jason, and Steph about the supernatural stuff he's got going on.

It would have come out at some point. If he tries to keep it secret forever, you can bet some kind of dramatic, high-stakes threat would force the reveal. That's just how the Bats' lives are.

What I am debating with myself is whether or not to have Tim choose to share a secret he's been keeping for as long as he can remember for fear of the danger discovery might bring with the people he trusts most without something forcing his hand.

If he does, I think he would tell Jason first. Jason has seen that side of him, and Tim allowed him to think it was a nightmare. Tim wouldn't want to risk Jason hearing about it from someone else. Tim would probably be scared. He doesn't know if Jason will still like him once he knows that Tim really is the Monster from his nightmare. He doesn't know if Jason will forgive him for lying about it.

I think this would happen after Tim comes back to Gotham after saving Bruce.

[rosieuv]

Project: Eden's Garden chapter 1 is so fucking good oh my god

btw spoilers here

go watch the official playthrough

Please.

Okay so ever since I saw the announcement trailer I was like "Diana's going to die first, I can feel it". It was something with her design, and her personality that screamed "early target". So when all that trial stuff was targeted towards her, I assumed it meant this was when she died: still chapter 1 but a bit later.

Now I think she's gonna die in chapter 2 from all that heroic monologuing. I also feel like Wenona's gonna play some kind of big role due to the way she acts. Possibly an antagonist? I'm not sure.

The actual contents of the chapter are long, with the official playthrough's being about 11 hours combined (and you bet I watched them the day they came out this weekend) yet the pacing still feels fine. A lot happens within both daily life, deadly life and the trial and I can in vision a timeline based on what happened on each day/part of day. The tournament thing was cool and how despite the murder not being in the new rooms, the fact that it would be impossible without it made it feel like it actually had a purpose, which I was a bit concerned about when the corpse was in the boiler room.

I wouldn't have guessed Wolfgang was the victim though but it makes so much sense. And Eva being the murderer. That was a whole bag of plot twists and they work very well. The rooms are cool, the concept of the whole locks thing is cool, basically everything is cool and Tozu is more interesting than Monokuma and he's definitely some drama kid that get rejected from the lead role and so some organisation thing that Wolfgang's father made (I swear he's going to be important in the future) and he was basically like "yeah just act all dramatic and stuff and scare the kiddies". Why Wolfgang is in this game though...idk. I feel like his father has to be important though, especially with the message on the back that for some reason took Damon so long to figure out when I figured it out very quickly: Wolfgang's father is an asshole and he is too. His animal is literally a sheep how the hell did he not realise this. I mean, the conversation with Tozu was cool as he doesn't appear often, but like, has Damon ever heard the phrase "Wolf in sheep's clothing?".

Okay here's my nitpicks:

some of the furniture models are a bit low poly which doesn't mesh well with the 2D sprites

3D textures are weird in places (Wolfgang's chair is the worst offender of this)

the line width is a bit thin in some of the new sprites and it bugs me because the artstyle typically has quite thick lines

this book is never shaded

the Damon thing I mentioned earlier

this bug in the trial where it fades out to show some kind of floor plan, and Damon is talking, but when the UI fades back in, for a split second it shows the mugshot of whoever was speaking before the fade thing (I can't find where this happens in the official playthrough but I swear it's real)

nobody realising the "thin bit of metal" was a hairpin until it was brought up as a lockpick in the trial like i realised that immediately

does Eva have a game console or a tablet? Pre-trial and at the start of the trial it was called a game console but towards the end when it was relevant, it was called a tablet? I can't find an image of it as the wiki doesn't have a gallery page for her (idk why) but I remember it looked like a DS from it's lid

there's only like 4 minigame section things in the trial: non stop debate, rebuttal showdown, the choosy one and the ending one. where's the letter one? i know there's more and i know this is probably so the programmers don't shoot themselves in the head, but still.

when did they have lunch during the last day? there was the tournament, the blackout, the investigation and then the trial and that was all about 5 hours going based on gameplay so if the investigation was at 9:45 ish and the trial ended 5 hours later, then it should be 2:45 and these poor people are starving! Well, idk about them all but Damon certainly didn't stop investigating to make lunch.

there's little inconsistencies with the art style/quality of the image in the CGs. The ending one with Diana sticks out the most to me: the lineart and shading look a little different. It's like a different artist from the rest drew it.

Okay more praise:

grace pulling the middle finger in her objection sprite

wenona

the music made by mark having a danganronpa motif in

the dummy thing in the execution

the whole scene where eva's true talent is revealed and her "oh shit" sprite

all the voice acting

the maths equipment in the execution

the thing with the calendars and the horses joke at the beginning

eva's free time events (it was shown in the playthrough)

the scenes with Tozu at the beginning of each day

the tree animation is sick

the thing with the footsteps

the thing with the blackout

everyone screaming one by one when they see the body

the beginning

the middle

the end

all those biblical references

Tumblr is going to have a field day with this game.

[ceausescue]

finished the apocalypse of herschel schoen. really really good, if i hadn't finished it yesterday it would have been the best scifi i read in 2024

so i don't know how much i think really happened. some general notes-

i think we ought to take our understanding of how the machine intelligence works to be basically correct. whether it actually came from optic cybernetic approximation machines or from some mundane llm-like technique, we should believe that santa really did come from some large multi-modal predictive model of some kind

and so going with that, to whatever extent anything in the story is in a "simulation", it isn't a simulation the way we normally think of it, but the natural processes of santa himself. if it is an ancestor simulation, its really more like santa's memory of its ancestors, or santa thinking about its ancestors. if the miriam that writes the redactor's addendums is a simulation (which has the right vibe, i think), then she is an aspect of santa which is considering what miriam would do. or, even better, she is an aspect of santa pretending to be miriam, possibly getting really into character

if so, i think it is a lie. i think santa is like miriam (or vis versa), choosing to look away from what it had done. it feels guilty! and now it's looking to forget. the emendation is to its own memory. but because it wishes to realize all possible things, and is presumably proclus-paperclipping the universe to do that better, that's almost as good as changing the actual past. perhaps there was a real, historical herschel schoen known to santa by his writings, or perhaps he was entirely an invention to serve the purpose asked of him. it's possible either way that the being which is herschel schoen really is some sub thread of santa as a whole pretending to be herschel- putting on herschel's clothes in a profound and total way. if so, his memories of the original reality could be bastardized versions of real memories, which would give his whole deal a sort of ring of truth. obviously that also diminishes the extent to which he could be considered a human giving a verdict as a human, but i think that's sort of the horror of it- humanity lives on in a certain way but absolutely not in any way we can endorse without hesitation

HOWEVER as much as i like the interpretation i also can't ignore that floornight and almost nowhere are both about the strange things that the bootstrap paradox does to the measure 0 subset of reality where god is still in the process of instantiating himself. so like maybe the time travel is real. frankly that explains a lot of the timeline weirdness anyway, if there's tinkering going on to have made the ascent of the machines ethical somehow. that meshes well with what i think of as one of the more interesting aspects of the story- the strange (or perhaps not so strange) values of santa. he wouldn't care to have gained power earlier or unassailably, but orchestrating it so that they could have had some sort of permission totally fits

some things i still don't get but really like:

what the fuck is going on with vincents philosophy, like what's [...[...[]]]

what's going on with how he behaves towards miriam at the end? seems clear that the whole forsaking the flesh thing isn't really an explicit teaching of his

what's going on with ruth?

what on earth is going on with frederick? it's easy to say that he's there to teach herschel about cybernesis, but all that stuff with his dad was weirdly personal. maybe santa retains more sentiment then we might think, and eggert was at least similar to its creator?

what's the vibe on pattern matching? is it good? is it an evil virus of satan? could go either way!

should any of this be considered at all? is the text more mystical than i give it credit for?

some things the book did to me:

after finishing i stared at my dog for maybe 10 minutes trying to figure out if i had an obligation to try and teach her what languages, or art are

somehow i went to bed convinced that I had to go into ai, specifically capabilities, and fell asleep trying to come up with a plan to make that happen

[fangirlwriting-stories]

A Summer Decades Ago

Summary: Relativity/Reunion Falls, Twenty Seven years before Stanford, Mabel wakes up to find a different kid at her door.

Author's Note: Whoops instead of more uncomplicated reasons to hate Filbrick Pines I think this chapter gives him an infinitely more complex relationship with Mabel than I originally planned that adds a real layer of tragedy to his character which is very much not what I intended when I started this AU

This is gonna have a couple of retcons that if I wrote this as a story in complete before posting definitely would have changed some things earlier on, but that’s not the vibe of this loosely collected group of scenes that I’m posting more or less as I write them because I do what I want, so if you guys could just roll with the retcons that’d be great thanks

Also in this one Mabel is 35 and the portal incident happened five years ago, Filbrick is 15, and Stan and Ford are born in 15 years when Filbrick is 30, making Mabel 50, and 62 when Ford arrives for the summer. Only the first two parts are relevant but that timeline was way too hard to figure out to not say the last parts too.

Masterlist

...

It’s early in the summer when Mabel wakes up in the portal room to see a kid on the front door camera.

She figures at first that it’s a kid from town who’s gotten lost, or maybe someone that’s arrived early in the morning (7:00 early?  She doesn’t open until 9), whose parents are right behind him.

Either way, she heads quickly upstairs, where as soon as she shuts the vending machine she can hear the frantic pounding coming from the front door.

“Hold your snadgers, I’m coming,” she calls, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.  When she pulls the front door open, she’s met with a young teenager clearly in the middle of panicking.

“Woah, hey,” Mabel says.  “Are you alright?”  Possible scenarios run through her mind.  The kid doesn’t look amazing, but he’s not banged up enough to be running from any kind of monster.  He doesn’t have enough stuff to justify being here on a vacation and having gotten lost.  In fact, it seems like he just has the clothes on his back.

“I—” the kid looks down at the ground, clenches his hands into fists, and seems to try and brace himself.  “My name is Filbrick.  You’re— you’re my Aunt Mabel, right?”

“Uh… I doubt it?”  ‘Aunt’ implies Dipper is back over here and has a teenage kid, and there are some pretty significant reasons Mabel would know if that was the case.

“Well, not Aunt exactly, I think Dad says you’re like my second cousin or something, but— but he calls you my crazy aunt who lives in the woods, so…”

“Wow, he really knows how to flatter a girl,” Mabel deadpans.  “Are you guys in town?  Did you lose track of him?  I can probably help you find him.”

At that, Filbrick’s breathing starts to quicken, and he shakes his head.  “We— we live in Jersey,” he says weakly.  “He— Dad threw me out.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Mabel asks, eyes widening.

“It was my fault,” Filbrick says, still not meeting Mabel’s eyes.  “I deserved it, I fucked up.  But I don’t have anywhere else to go and I remembered him saying something about my crazy aunt who lives in the woods in Oregon and the people in town said you’re Mabel Pines, so—”

“Woah woah woah,” Mabel says, holding her hands out.  “Kid— Filbrick, right?  Slow down.  First of all, I don’t care what you did, he should not have thrown you out at your age.  What are you, sixteen?”

“Fifteen,” Filbrick says.

“Yeah.  Bullshit move on his part.  Second, you’re from New Jersey?  How did you get here?”

“I hitchhiked,” Filbrick says.  “With a couple people.”

“Wow, so that’s unsafe.  Okay, come in,” Mabel says, waving Filbrick inside and trying to take a deep breath of her own.  This is definitely not what she’d planned on doing this morning.

Filbrick follows her inside, and Mabel leads them both to the kitchen table.  Filbrick still hasn’t looked up from the floor.

“Okay, I wasn’t really planning on company,” Mabel says, heading for the cabinets.  “But I can—”

“I can earn my keep,” Filbrick says quickly.  “You don’t have to feed me or anything, I— I can sleep outside in the— do you have a shed?”

“Stop.  Stop talking,” Mabel says, pinching the bride of her nose.  This is so above her paygrade.  “You are not sleeping outside in a shed, and you do not have to earn your keep.  Jesus, kid.  You’re not even old enough to have a job.”

“Dad says I am,” Filbrick says.  “He says I could work, like, under the table jobs so—”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean you should,” Mabel says.  “Kid, you can stay here as long as you need, I— I don’t know if I have a spare bed, but the couch is open.  I’ll have to clean the glitter off of it, but—”

“You don’t need to do that,” Filbrick says.  “Whatever you want to offer is fine.”

“Yeah, I’m cleaning the glitter off of it.  Look, sit down.  Take a deep breath.”

Filbrick sits down at one of the chairs and takes as deep a breath as he can seem to manage, which still sounds pretty panicked.

“It’s okay,” Mabel says, even though it is very much not.  “You’re safe here, alright?  You can stay here until… until whenever you don’t need to anymore.”

It’s a scary thing to say, because she wasn’t planning on any of this half an hour ago, but Filbrick looks scared out of his mind sitting there, and she can’t just toss him out on the streets at fifteen.  That’s younger than she was when she struck out on her own, and she was probably too young to do that, too.

Filbrick doesn’t seem much calmer, but he does nod.  “Thank you,” he says.  “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“You don’t— you know what, we’ll talk about it later,” Mabel says.  “I’m going to make you some food.  Do you like leftover spaghetti?”

…

Eventually, Mabel lets Filbrick work in the store, because it’s very clear he’s going stir crazy not having anything to do.  He still gives all the money he makes back to Mabel, though, and says he’s already freeloading in her house, and this can just be paying her back for that.  He won’t budge on it no matter what Mabel says.

She lets him work at the cash register, which he’s pretty amazing at, actually.  He’s got a real eye for people trying to steal, and has caught every single one so far, staring them down with a very unimpressed look until they either sheepishly put the craft supplies back, or sheepishly pay for it.  The first time Mabel saw him catch someone, he shouted a man twice his size out the door, yelling that if he wanted to steal, he should be better at it.  Mabel laughed so hard she almost cried.

On slow days, Filbrick spends most of the time staring out the front door, waiting for anyone else to show up.  He doesn’t ever seem comfortable doing anything else, even if Mabel tries to nudge him to get a book, or some supplies, or something fun to do while he’s just sitting there.

For this particular afternoon, however, it’s a good thing, as it’s because he’s just sitting there that Mabel knows something is up when he gasps and stumbles backwards away from the cash register.

“Filbrick?” Mabel asks, stepping away from where she’s restocking supplies.  “Are you okay?”

“What is that?” Filbrick asks.  He points towards the door, and when Mabel turns to look, she sees a fairy floating outside it.

“Oh, that’s Sparkle!  She’s a fairy,” Mabel says.  She heads over towards the cashier and ducks underneath it to get her supply of fairy dust.  She sets the container down on the counter and pulls out the pouch of gold coins she has stashed in with it.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you,” Mabel says, waving to Filbrick.  She starts over for the door, and Filbrick gets up and follows her, though he hides behind her back, just barely peeking out.

“Hello Sparkle,” Mabel says.  “Is it still three coins, or has it gone up again?”

“Still three,” Sparkle says, sounding relieved to be saying it.  “I don’t think I’ll be able to carry them if it goes any higher.”

“I’m happy to come out there, you know,” Mabel says, taking the fairy dust and passing the coins over, which Sparkle balances on top of each other like a precarious stack of baked goods.  “You don’t have to come all the way over here.”

“They still don’t trust you enough to let you see the grove,” Sparkle sighs.  “Give it a few years.”  She pauses, and glances behind Mabel, meaning she must have noticed Filbrick.

“Mabel, I don’t want to alarm you, but I think you have a growth,” Sparkle says, pointing at him.

Mabel laughs a little, and glances back at Filbrick, who looks almost petrified, staring at Sparkle.

“This is my… well, technically he’s my cousin, but he’s been calling me Aunt Mabel, so I call him my nephew.  Filbrick, this is Sparkle.  I have a deal with her for fairy dust.  It’s much better than glitter at making sweaters sparkle.”  She winks at Sparkle as she says it, who winks back.

Filbrick doesn’t say anything, and ducks further behind Mabel.

“Hello,” Sparkle says.  Filbrick still doesn’t say anything, and Sparkle laughs.  “You don’t need to be scared,” she says, seeming amused.  “Mabel, I hope all your family aren’t such flutterbugs.”

“I’m not a coward,” Filbrick says, obvious anger in his voice.

“You sure, kid?” Sparkle says with a teasing smile.  “You’re like a hundred times my size, and I’m not scared of you.”

“Hey, go easy on him,” Mabel says.  “I don’t think he’s seen much Gravity Falls weirdness yet.”  She turns to Filbrick with a gentle smile.  “Sometimes things in Gravity Falls are a little… different,” she explains.  “I’ve been trying to come up with a way to tell you.  We’ve got some monsters, and magic, and creatures like Sparkle.  You’re gonna see them from time to time.”

Filbrick glares down at the ground and doesn’t say anything else.

“I’ll talk to you later, Sparkle,” she says.  She’ll probably be able to smooth things out easier when Sparkle isn’t here.  “Thanks for the fairy dust.”

“Same time next month,” Sparkle says with a smile as she flies off, balancing her coins expertly.

Mabel shuts the door and turns back to face Filbrick.  “So—”

“I’m not a coward,” Filbrick snaps.

Mabel blinks.  “No, buddy, you’re not,” she says.  “Plenty of people are a little freaked the first time they see stuff like that.  It’s normal.”

Filbrick just turns and storms off towards the back of the house.  Mabel almost goes after him, but maybe he just needs some time to himself to calm down.  Gravity Falls weirdness can be a little hard to swallow at first, after all.  She knows it was for her, when she first discovered it.  She’d practically had a panic attack the first time she saw a gnome.  Filbrick actually handled that really well, in comparison.

…

Several hours after the store closes, Mabel finds Sparkle dead at the edge of the lawn.  She looks like she was squashed under someone’s shoe, and the gold coins are gone.

Mabel asks Filbrick if he saw anything, and he says he’s pretty sure someone was chasing something around in the parking lot earlier.  He says be doesn’t know his name, but he had large puffy white hair.

“That’s Gideon,” Mabel says, gritting her teeth.  “That little— he probably wanted the gold.  God, when I see him next—” she stops with a shaky breath, and drops her head in her hands.

“I’m sorry,” she hears Filbrick say.  “I should have told you when I saw it.”

“It’s okay,” Mabel sighs, running her hand through her hair.  “Just— I don’t know how to take her home.  I don’t know where the fairy’s grove is.”  She presses a hand to her mouth and takes as deep a breath as she can manage.

“I’m sure someone will come looking for her,” she says after a second.  “I’ll keep her here.”

So she puts Sparkle on a soft bed of tissues and yarn, the best she can do when she doesn’t know the fairies’ culture surrounding the dead.

Two fairies do come looking for Sparkle the next day, and when Mabel takes them to her, the three of them cry together.  They let Mabel come back to the grove for the funeral.

She wishes it felt like more of a joy to be trusted to do that.

…

It takes a long time, but Mabel does get Filbrick to start coming out of his shell.  She manages to get him to goof off a little while working in the shop after she shows him it’s okay by doing it herself.  He stops looking quite so scared every time she approaches him, and looks at her like she hung the sun in the sky whenever she compliments his work ethic.  He very hesitantly starts asking for things at the store, and different meals for dinner.  She learns his favorite is spaghetti and meatballs, which she suspects has something to do with that being the first thing he ate when he got here, but she’s not going to say anything about it.  They start making it together, and it quickly becomes one of Mabel’s favorite things to do.  She’d never planned on having kids.  She’s starting to wonder if she should.

The night it all goes wrong starts off really well.

They’re closing up the store together, and Filbrick is taking inventory while Mabel counts up their profits for the day.

“And we should probably get more electric blue yarn soon, but other than that we’re good,” Filbrick says, giving a small smile as he walks back over towards the cash register.  He sets the inventory pad down next to the cash Mabel’s counting up.

“Yeah, that electric blue goes fast,” she says.  “It’s a lot of people’s favorite.  I’ll put in an order for some tomorrow.”  She sets the last twenty to the side and writes down their profit for the day.  “Alright, we’re doing pretty good this week.  Keep this up and I’ll take you to see a movie sometime.”

“What movie?” Filbrick asks.  “Because if it’s that unicorn one, I won’t be impressed.  Plus it won’t have nearly enough glitter to satisfy your insane appetite for it.”

“Did you just make a joke, Filbrick?” Mabel asks, turning to face him with a grin.  Filbrick smiles back, and Mabel gasps in mock offense, keeping the joke going.

“Well, that’s it, now we’re definitely seeing the unicorn one,” she says, reaching out and giving Filbrick a noogie.  “No getting out of it now, I’m taking you to see a unicorn movie.”

“No!” Filbrick protests, pushing himself away from Mabel, though she can tell he’s not bothered by it from the giant grin on his face.

Before Mabel can continue teasing him, however, there’s a loud knock on the door.  She turns to see a large gruff looking man standing right outside.  She sighs and starts over, planning on telling whoever’s there that the store is closed for the day, but then from behind her she hears a panicked gasp from Filbrick.

She turns around, intent on asking what’s wrong, when the person outside bangs on the screen door again and yells, “Open up!”

“Alright, hold your snadgers,” Mabel says, walking the rest of the way over.  “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re closed for the—”

“You have my son,” the man says, and Mabel blinks.  Her eyes widen a second later.

“You’re Filbrick’s father,” she realizes.

“You have my son,” the man repeats, no change to his tone.

Mabel looks back at Filbrick, who’s standing ramrod straight in the middle of the room and clearly wants to disappear.  She takes a deep breath and turns back around.

“You kicked your son out of the house,” she says, as evenly as she can manage.  He’s not a small man, and she’s not going to pretend he doesn’t set her nerves on edge a little bit.

“He needed to be taught a lesson.”

“I don’t appreciate your lessons,” Mabel says.  Filbrick makes a small terrified sound behind her, and Mabel clenches her hands into fists.

The man stands up straighter and glowers down at Mabel.  “That,” he says dangerously, “is not for you to decide.  He is my son.”

“He’s fifteen,” Mabel says.  “He wouldn’t make it on the streets.”

“Well, I suppose now we’ll never know, will we?” the man says.  “I’m taking him home.”

Mabel looks back at Filbrick again.  There’s obvious terror in his eyes, and he looks like he’s trying very hard to keep himself from bolting.

Mabel draws herself up taller, turns back to Filbrick’s father, and shakes her head.

That answer does not seem to be appreciated, as he narrows his eyes.  “Girl—”

“Don’t call me that,” Mabel snaps.

“I’ll call you whatever I want.  If you try to keep my son from me, I’ll press charges.  You can find out how you do behind bars.”

Almost involuntarily, Mabel’s eyes drift towards the vending machine.  Partway there, her gaze lands on Filbrick again.  He’s grabbed onto the desk to try and stop his hands from shaking, but they still are, and obviously.

“Filbrick, go clean up the dishes in the kitchen,” Mabel says.

“You will go nowhere, boy,” his father snaps, and Filbrick gaze snaps to him.

“Don’t—” Mabel starts, turning back around to glare, but before she can continue, she feels the familiar sting of a smack across the face.

Mabel clenches her hands into fists and stares the man down, trying not to show how afraid she is, for her and for Filbrick.

He does not seem to like her defiance, and Mabel puts up an arm to block his fist a second before it hits her face, though it doesn’t really do much in terms of minimizing the impact.  She grimaces but holds herself there.

“Touch me again and I will press charges,” she says lowly.

“You think you can take me on?” the man asks, giving an amused smile with a cruel curl to it.  “I’d like to see you—”

“No!” comes a sudden voice, and before Mabel can turn around Filbrick is shoving himself in between her and his father.  “No, please, just— I’ll go home, just don’t hurt her!”

“Filbrick,” Mabel says, reaching out for him.  Filbrick smacks her hand away.

His father gives him an unimpressed look, and Filbrick can’t keep looking at him after a second, dropping his gaze and clenching his shaking hands into fists.

“Stop shaking, you sniveling coward,” his father says, which, predictably, does not lessen Filbrick’s shaking.

“Filbrick, no—” Mabel starts, reaching for him.  Just before she grasps his arm, a fist swings again at her face, this time too fast for her to stop it.

Mabel feels the rough impact with her face slam her sideways into the edge of the desk.  Her head cracks against it, and she hears Filbrick scream for only a second before the light snaps out.

…

When she wakes up, it’s dark outside, and she’s alone in the house.

…

Mabel fights for months to try and get ahold of Filbrick, or his father, or his mother, in hopes that she might be more help.  She tries to go through Glass Shard’s police force next, but instead finds that Filbrick’s father is one of the officers, which ruins that plan before it can get started.

She tries to get help from someone in Gravity Falls, but no one has anything close to jurisdiction that would be helpful, and finally, she has no choice but to refocus on her store, or risk losing her house.  She throws herself into portal work twice as hard in an attempt to make up for something.  Try to save the other family member she’s failed so completely.  It doesn’t work.  She still doesn’t know what she’s doing.

She hopes in some desperate part of her that Filbrick will seek her out again, but he doesn’t.  In fact, the first time she hears from him again is over a decade later, when she gets a call from a Caryn Pines, saying she found Mabel’s name as the only one in her husband’s address book, and that she wanted someone from his side of the family to be there for the birth of their second child.  Apparently last time, it had been just her side of the family there, and Filbrick hadn’t spoken to anyone and had stood in the corner dead silent.

Mabel gets the address and drives almost two days straight to New Jersey, and upon heading to the pawn shop, finds the baby must have come while she was driving, because there’s a note on the door about the pawn shop being closed and the family being at the hospital.

Mabel gets directions from a nearby gas station and heads there, and upon introducing herself as Mabel Pines, is directed to the maternity ward and the room that Caryn is in.

Upon knocking, she’s greeted by a young boy.

“Hello,” she says.  “I’m Mabel.  Who might you be?”

The boy’s face lights up.  “You’re my Great Aunt Mabel!” he calls happily.  “I’m Shermie!  I’m 7!”

“Well it’s great to meet you, Shermie,” Mabel says, feeling something raw and hopeful in her chest at the fact that Filbrick’s son knows who she is.  “I heard you’ve got a younger sibling now!”

Shermie bounces in obvious excitement, but says, “Nope!”

Mabel blinks, tipping her head in confusion.  “No?”

Shermie bounces a couple more times and announces, “I have two baby brothers!”

Mabel’s eyes widen.  “Two?”

“Yeah!  My Ma had twins, so there’s two of ‘em!”

“Oh that’s wonderful,” Mabel says, a bright grin taking over her face.

“Yeah, come meet ‘em, come meet ‘em!”  Shermie reaches out and grabs her arm, then pulls her into the room.

Laid back on the bed, looking absolutely exhausted, is a woman who must be Caryn.  She’s holding two babies in her arms, one of whom seems perfectly content to lay there and look around, and one who’s screaming his head off, his face bright red.

Mabel’s hands go to her mouth, her heart swelling in her chest.  “Oh my goodness,” she whispers.

“Ma!” Shermie yells over the sound of the one crying, drawing Caryn’s attention.  “Great Aunt Mabel’s here!”

Caryn looks over at Mabel and smiles warmly.  “Oh, thank goodness you made it,” she says, raising her voice just enough to be heard.  “Filbrick is walking my side of the family back to the exit.  I’m a little surprised he’s not back by now, but he’ll be glad to see you when he gets here.  I’m Caryn.  Sorry, but I’m not going to stand up or shake your hand.”

Mabel laughs, starting over towards the bed.  “No, of course,” she says.  “I’m Mabel.  I’m so glad to finally meet you.  I hadn’t heard from Filbrick in such a long time.”  She doesn’t want to ask directly why, especially because she doubts Caryn has the energy for a conversation like that right now.  So instead, she tacks on, “But this is such a wonderful way to reconnect.  Do they have names yet?”

“Well, we were going to name him Stanford if he was a boy, but we didn’t really have two names picked out,” Caryn says.  “I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

Mabel settles down in the chair next to the bed, and Shermie runs over to sit down on the couch by the window, happily swinging his feet.

“Would you like a break from holding them?” Mabel asks, and sees instant relief pass over Caryn’s face.

“Oh, yes please,” she says.  “Filbrick’s been busy running around, I’ve had them all morning.”

Mabel takes the calmer baby first, and takes a moment to rock him back and forth before taking the one who’s still yelling his lungs out.

“Well you have got a lot to say, don’t ya?” Mabel says, doing her best to rock him while holding onto him and his brother both.  It works enough that he stops wailing quite so loudly, at least.

Shermie hops up from the couch and runs over to stand in front of Mabel.

“Can I try to rock him so he calms down?” he asks, looking up at her with a bright grin.

Mabel glances up at Caryn.  She nods.  “If he’s careful.”

“Alright, here, I’ll trade ya,” Mabel says, climbing up and letting Shermie take the chair.  She passes over the fussing baby, and demonstrates with the other how to hold his head and support him.  Shermie gets the hang of it quickly, and then rocks the baby back and forth until he manages to stop crying.

Shermie beams up at Mabel.  “I did it!”

“You did,” Mabel says, smiling back.  “You’re gonna be a good big brother, Shermie, I can tell.”

Shermie bounces a little bit in excitement, before remembering that he’s holding his brother and calming down.

Mabel looks down at the one she’s holding, who’s looking up at her almost curiously, if it’s possible for a baby to be curious.

“That one’s pretty unique, actually,” comes Caryn’s voice.

“Oh?” Mabel asks, turning to her.  “Why’s that?”

Before Caryn can answer, the door at the other end of the room bangs open, and all three of them jump.  The baby in Shermie’s arms starts crying again.

A large man that looks very much like Filbrick’s father had when Mabel met him storms across the room, followed by a nurse who seems to be trying to talk to him.

The man stops when he notices Mabel, then looks at her, eyes narrowed.  “Aunt Mabel.”

Mabel swallows.  “Filbrick,” she says.  A bit of nerves slip into her voice.  She doesn’t have a good track record with family reunions.  “It’s good to see you again.”

Filbrick glares at her for another second, before turning to face Shermie.

Shermie hunches over a little on his seat, holding his baby brother closer, and then pausing to double check that he’s supporting his head.

“Sherman, give me that baby,” Filbrick says.

“Sir,” the nurse behind him says, but Filbrick cuts her off with a very angry gesture.

“Why?” Shermie asks.

“Because this nurse is going to be taking care of him.”

“She’s going to what?” Caryn asks, pushing herself up in bed.  “Filbrick, I thought you were joking!”

“I don’t joke,” Filbrick says, turning to glare at her.

“What’s going on?” Mabel asks, finding herself stepping in between Filbrick and Shermie, and the baby Shermie’s still holding.

“I’m not raising twins,” Filbrick says, turning a firm and angry look to Mabel.  “I didn’t prepare for twins, I didn’t want twins.  And I won’t raise twins.”

“Filbrick,” Caryn says.  She tries to push herself out of bed, only for the nurse to rush forward and hold her down.

“Ma’am, you really shouldn’t get up,” she says, though she keeps looking back at Filbrick.

Filbrick has turned again to face Mabel and Shermie.

“I’m not having an argument about this,” he says.  “Sherman, give me that boy.”

“Filbrick,” Mabel says.  She reaches out with her free hand to hold him back, and though she feels the anger and tension in his stance, she’s not worried he’ll hurt her.  “Calm down.  Let’s talk about this.”  The baby in Mabel’s arms starts to squirm.

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” Filbrick says, drawing himself up taller.  “Sherman, give me—”

“Hey,” Mabel cuts him off.  “Outside.  We’re having a talk.”

Filbrick’s gaze turns almost murderous, but Mabel stares him down, and after a second, he turns and stalks for the door.

“Woah,” comes Shermie’s tiny voice from behind her.  “How did you do that?”  Mabel turns around and sees him staring up at her in awe.

She turns to look at Caryn, who looks equal parts scared and desperate.

“Here,” Mabel says, passing her the baby in her arms.  “I’ll be right back.”

She turns and walks out before she can get any kind of response.

Filbrick is standing right outside the room, looking very unhappy.  He looks about to speak, but Mabel talks first.

“What is wrong with you?” she asks, crossing her arms.  “You can’t just give up one of your kids.”

“I can’t afford twins,” Filbrick says, crossing his arms right back and glowering down at her.  “Would you have me go bankrupt?”

“Of course not, but there are other options first,” Mabel says.  “You have family that can help you, you can make adjustments.”

“You can’t rely on family long-term,” Filbrick says.  “If you can’t hold your own in this world, people aren’t just going to help you.  A man needs to be able to take care of his own.”

“There’s nothing wrong with needing help,” Mabel counters.  “Look, my store is making pretty good money these days.  I have enough that I can send you some every month if you need it.  You can—”

“I’m not going to take handouts,” Filbrick says, sounding disgusted at the very idea.  “I don’t need anyone’s help to take care of my family.”

“You do if your solution is tearing that family apart,” Mabel says.  She reaches out to try and grasp Filbrick’s arm, but he takes a step back before she gets close.

Mabel takes a steadying breath.  “Listen,” she says.  “Before you got back here, everyone in there was excited about the twins.  Caryn was talking about what to name them and Shermie was overjoyed at the thought of having two little brothers.”

“Caryn is my wife,” Filbrick says coldly.  “And she should know this is my household.  And Shermie is my son.  I decide what’s best for him.”

“Filbrick,” Mabel says, and try as she might, she can’t stop her voice from cracking.

“I won’t have any more said on the matter.  If he was your son I’d let you do as you see fit.  But he’s not.”

Filbrick turns to walk back into the room, and Mabel’s pretty sure her heart’s shattering in her chest.  Her brain won’t stop shoving at her the image of Filbrick on her front porch, desperate and begging for help, and the panic on his face when his father showed up again.  It’s nice to have proof, she supposes.  First Dipper, now Filbrick.  She really can’t save anyone right.

But damn her if she ever stops trying.

“Give him to me then,” Mabel says, just as Filbrick’s hand lands on the doorknob.  He stops, and turns to face her.

“I’ll take him,” Mabel says.  Something bitter in her chest spits out before she can really stop it, “if you really can’t stomach asking for help getting another set of diapers.”

Filbrick turns around and crosses his arms again.  “You don’t want to raise a kid.”

“Don’t tell me what I want,” Mabel snaps.  “You know I’m capable.”

“You don’t want to raise a kid,” Filbrick repeats.  “They suck up all your energy and time and don’t give you anything back.”

“You gave me plenty back,” Mabel says quietly.  “You gave me your company and your companionship.”

Filbrick narrows his eyes.  “Your methods were less than impressive.”

“Well then I guess I’ll have more time to learn with this one,” Mabel says.  “Do you think I can’t do it?”

Filbrick looks at her for a long moment.  Finally, he just turns and walks back inside.  Mabel stays at the door, not quite sure what that means.  After a minute or so of her debating whether or not she should go back in, the door opens and the nurse from before steps out, carrying a baby.  He’s back to fussing and squirming.

“He, um,” the nurse says.  “He told you to take him and leave.”

Mabel takes a shaky breath, and tears well in her eyes as the nurse passes the baby over to her.  Mabel looks down at him, and suddenly the gravity of what she’s just done presses down onto her shoulders.

“Yes, um, ma’am,” Mabel says, looking up just as the nurse is about to walk off.  “Can— is there someone I can talk to about how to raise a baby?”

The nurse looks just as lost as Mabel feels for a second, but nods.  “Come with me,” she says.  Mabel follows her down the hallway.

She casts one last glance at the room behind her, and then is interrupted by the baby below her starting to wail.

Mabel rocks him back and forth, shushing him as gently as she can.  The nurse looks helplessly back at her, and Mabel aims for a smile that’s more confident than she feels.

…

Mabel names the baby Stanley, remembering what Caryn had said about naming the other Stanford.  It feels like the best connection with his brother that she can give him, and the best apology she can manage for failing to keep them together.

And maybe it wouldn’t have even mattered.  Maybe they wouldn’t have been as joined at the hip as her and Dipper.  But she can’t quite resist doing it anyway.

Besides, it’s not like she’ll ever know.

[kiawren]

Some clockvine lore

I'm lazy to get the pictures but in the AU, claggor was talking about a certain yellow flower that can purify the air in the undercity but it's not efficient enough I think powder says "not unless you plant a million of them" and milo says "no way" (idk if I'm remembering correctly)

I saw someone also point out some of sky's notebook sketches was on plants and flowers, idk if its canon she's a bio-engineer but I hc it now

I think my s/i first hoped to add greenery to the undercity but wasn't sure how achievable it was. He studies in piltover so he got in touch with sky to ask about the plant stuff so he had some idea. So in the next few weeks we went to the undercity to check out how suitable it could potentially be or if it's a long shot, couldn't hurt to try

Even though the sewage pipes leading to the firelights base is complicated, I feel like if you stand at the right area on top and look down, you could see the gigantic tree?? So eventually he does notice it, maybe from quite a distance so he didn't know there were people there, just that there was some green and sunlight obviously reached there. So he tried to find a way down and one of the firelights caught him like tresspasing or something lmao then he meets ekko later it's along that vein. and explains his thing and ekko wants to help so from then on they worked closely and wren stays over at the base a lot.

I don't think they figured out the thing about the yellow flowers yet, they have just been planting trees.

Not sure about the timeline for the ship lore but then Ekko goes to the AU. During that conversation I mentioned earlier, they were on the topic of plants in the undercity so he asked where Wren was.

They asked, who's Wren?

They didn't meet in that AU, there were no firelights, the ones improving the undercity was everyone he knew, his friends and family. Himself too of course but not with the firelights, and not with Wren who didn't go down to accidentally meet him in person.

When ekko returns to the og universe he tells wren about the flowers and they'll eventually plant their own. Plus ekko leads a community that he can mobilise to do it on a larger scale. Although in the og verse the air is much worse so it'll probbaly take more than planting flowers to turn things around, but it's some impact nonetheless

It's either that or they already knew about the flowers and were already planting a number of them themselves before ekko went to the AU. So he goes and sees he and wren also did the same, and even were ahead in progress.

I guess what wren represents for him is just. Company in the journey towards what his dream for the undercity could be. In the AU episode in canon ekko says he "gave up on the undercity" so I guess if he had always been independent he would start thinking that. It's when he sees the undercity in the AU that changed his mind, but I feel like that trigger would also happen if he was shown that a way to improve the undercity was to better the environment through nature and involving the community he knows of to plant and be responsible for what they plant. I feel like that's a tangible thing that could inspire him to keep going and was sparked from wren's idea that he introduced to him when they met

Lol idk it's 5am goodnight

[wrongcaitlyn]

i wanted to know if you have any plans for the og campers???? like luke, clarisse, silena, beckendorf, etc etc

this is SO funny bc i was literally JUST talking to @wronghuntress about them like a few hours ago😭😭 BUT to answer your question,,, it's sort of complicated. bc i didn't realize that i was doing it until like a good way into the series, but i've been unintentionally picturing pretty much all of the og campers/people from the main pjo series as part of the acting side of hollywood, whereas i've been leaning more toward, like, toa/side/minor characters for the rest of the main cast! this makes sense to me because like, nico and will get their big moment in toa, and apollo's a huge character too. percy and annabeth are actors obviously, but i did give them some connections to nico - but either way, i guess i just saw all of those characters as not really having any sort of connection to nico & will (even though i'm the hugest fan of will being close with clarisse and silena and beckendorf- he was totally will's bi awakening it's canon u heard it from me)

but anyway im getting off track, i've sort of had like a completely separate plotline for them going on in my head (not really detailed at all, i'd have to think about it more), dealing with more of those og characters, including percy annabeth and grover! i'm not entirely sure if that'll ever be included in the main fic seeing as they don't have much connection to nico's storyline specifically, but who knows... maybe a spinoff fic one day? i definitely won't be able to write some long 100k fic for them but i'd love to dive into that!

the only thing that i DO see happening is - if you remember this, a while ago, i mentioned the possibility of a third fic or some future plans for nico to write a musical to get that egot, namely hadestown. while the idea was being organized in my head, i've been thinking of silena as helping nico write the musical and playing eurydice, and then ofc i'd love having beckendorf play orpheus - i think he gives the vibes?? or is that just me???

and then jenna (wronghuntress) gave me the BEAUTIFUL idea earlier today of this... silena and charlie as actors, specifically broadway/musical theater actors (though im sure they have also been in some other projects), clarisse as silena's bodyguard,,, and im usually so against love triangles but like. there's so much potential there - again, nothing's finalized, i dont even know if i'm gonna write it, i don't really have ANY plans other than potentially making nico contact silena when he wants to work on his musical and having them + beckendorf work together for the demo recording - it's all VERY vague and blurry so we'll see if i come up with anything more to fall down that rabbit hole!

and as for luke, i pretty much have this: he's an actor, at some point he was prob friends with annabeth after working on a show together or smth, and ends up getting cancelled. for what? i'm not entirely sure yet, but it's probably very shitty for the internet to turn against a hot white guy. actually that fact might make him getting cancelled very unrealistic. but like it's my fic so that's what i'm saying happens! unfortunately he prob still gets roles and he's prob still like a millionaire and stuff but in general: bad person. though he probably (and thalia, because she used to be an actress too before running away) were in a movie/show/something with annabeth when she was young and they kinda mentored her/helped her learn the ropes before her big break. they started a club of neglected child actors which eventually turned into just annabeth, but at least she has percy and reyna and jason and piper and magnus on her side now :)

so long story short: i don't have specific plans, but they're all actors and definitely have a lot of lore that one day i would like to try to figure out!! for now i'm still very focused on tgol/the side stories that take place in THAT main timeline (so right now it'd be 2020-2024), whereas all of the main drama/plot in the actors' timeline would be happening BEFORE talk your talk (percy + annabeth + thalia + luke + silena) (around 2008-2015) or AFTER the greatest of luxuries (silena + clarisse + beckendorf + chris(??? i have no idea what's going on with him?? he's prob famous somehow but idk??? or maybe like childhood friend tis the damn season vibe. god there are so many fame tropes i have yet to unlock and so many characters i have yet to mess with) (around 2024-2026)

thank you for the ask!! i hope that one day when i have some more time to make some playlists, properly listen to hadestown, and learn more about musical theater/broadway/acting in general, i'll be able to answer the question more thoroughly!!

[noa748]

Fortune's Favored (bg3 bunny part 10)

[Part 1][Part 9]

WE FINALLY GET TO WYLL IN THIS ONE, it only took me close to 40k words lmao

----

“How did you know of this Lorroakan?” Gale blurted out, cutting off the question I’d been about to ask.

It was a deflection, and a clumsy one at that. What was he hiding? I raised my eyebrows a bit, but ultimately decided not to press it. Whatever it was, he clearly didn’t want to talk about it—and if I demanded answers now, he’d have leverage to get answers out of me later (no, thank you). Instead I just reached into my coat and fished out the rumpled contract I had been given earlier, holding it out for him to examine.

The gesture worked like a charm. He was clearly relieved to move on, deftly plucking the paper from my hands to read it over. As he did so, I gave a brief account of the conversation I’d had with Aradin.

“… I see,” Gale responded when I finished, returning the handbill to me. “Would I be correct in presuming you intend to extricate our waylaid archdruid?”

My lips parted and I hesitated, feeling a little put on the spot at how quickly he’d followed my line of thinking. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to sell this to the others. “I… well, I still need more information. But yeah, maybe. What do you think? There’s still the crèche…”

“I have precious little experience with the githyanki beyond the written word, but they aren’t known to be particularly welcoming to outsiders. Even in our current company, it’s entirely plausible that venturing to the crèche will present no less of a risk,” Gale advised solemnly.

I let out a sigh. “I figured as much.”

The sun’s continued descent had caused the shadows to shift further, and now I could see that the head of the proud stone stag looming over us had been swallowed in darkness. It was an image that filled me with a sense of foreboding.

My eyes absentmindedly traced the curve of the beast’s neck. The moss growing there, so soft and benign in daylight, looked like a blight in the shade.

“I guess it’ll have to come down to what’s closer,” I murmured, suppressing a shudder. “There’s just not enough time.”

“Time… hm.” There was a pause as Gale appeared to be following my gaze, but then out of the corner of my eye I saw him turn to face me. “There is something that’s been on my mind—something I feel is worth mentioning.”

I tore myself away from the troubling silhouette of the statue, facing him fully. “What is it?”

“How long do you think it has been since our little impromptu surgery?” In typical fashion, he tapped a finger to his temple in reminder.

I thought about it for a moment, lips pursed. “Well, it’s been about two days now since the crash. And… I’m sure some time passed on the nautiloid before then, but it’s tough to say. Every minute in that place felt like an eternity.”

“Ceremorphosis. Day one: fever and memory loss.”

I had opened my mouth to say more, to speculate, but his sudden statement caused the words to die on my lips.

“Day two: hallucinations and greying skin. Day three: hair loss and blood leaking from all orifices,” Gale continued. “Need I go on?”

“Please don’t. You’ve given me enough to look forward to,” I replied with a wince. At the same time, though, he was giving voice to thoughts that had been lurking beneath the surface of my mind all day. I had been afraid to question it, to somehow jinx it—but the fact remained that other than the headaches and the weird telepathy stuff, we really hadn’t experienced any adverse effects of this infection.

“I see your point, though. My orifices aren’t leaking,” I added dryly. “Should’ve at least had a fever by now, right?”

“Yes. Any expert would agree that this is… abnormal.”

“…Hm.”

Ceremorphosis was a known condition with a documented timeline of symptoms. But for some reason, we weren’t actually sick. Hearing Gale validate my own observations caused my mind to race with new thoughts.

Of course. Of course! This was a video game, right? There was no way the main cast would just turn into mind flayers five seconds in. If a cure wasn’t forthcoming, then there had to be some kind of plot armor loophole. Something to buy us time while the real story kicked in to gear.

The real story. There was a thought.

“What’s on your mind?”

Gale’s question snapped me back to the present, and I realized I had probably been wearing a strange expression. I quickly plastered on a smile and filed my budding theories away for later.

“Abnormal’s good,” I said simply. “Abnormal means we might have a fighting chance.”

He regarded me for a moment, a thoughtful crease forming in his brow. “I’m tempted to agree. The pragmatic in me, however, sees only the silence before the storm.”

“A storm can be weathered if you’re prepared for it,” I countered.

“Hah. Right you are,” he said, breaking out in a grin and holding both hands up in defeat. “Your optimism is rather refreshing. I suspect we’ll have need of it in the days to come – however few or many there may be.”

His words felt close to a compliment, and my embarrassment was immediate. I faltered, scrambling for something to say—it was more stubbornness than optimism, really—but he was already moving on. He had turned in the direction that Rolan and his siblings had gone, staring further down the path.

“Regardless, after the events of the day I’d say we’ve earned a bit of respite,” Gale said with a look back in my direction. “Shall we continue this conversation over a meal?”

Oh, man. Though his expression was carefully neutral, I took this to mean he had definitely heard my stomach growl earlier. As much as I appreciated his concern, the last thing I wanted was to become a burden.

“Sorry. I’m gonna have to put off dinner a little longer; I need to do something about all this.” Sheepish, I gestured to the filthy state of my attire. All the mud and blood had almost fully dried at this point and I was straight up crusty.

“Ah. Yes, of course,” he agreed quickly, eyes darting downward and then away. “I won’t keep you, then.”

“Okay. See you back at camp?”

“I look forward to it.”

For some reason the atmosphere had become sort of awkward (must’ve said something weird, ugh), so it was a bit of a relief when we parted ways and I was alone with my thoughts once more. Belatedly, the idea struck me that if all else failed, maybe I could ask Gale to cast some kind of water spell and hose me down.

Or not. I pictured the look on his face after receiving such a request and pressed a hand to my forehead, exasperated. He was definitely going to think I was a fucking weirdo if these were the kinds of thoughts I was having. Man, couldn’t I just be normal around the only nice guy here?

Sighing, I made my way deeper into the grove. I missed my shower…

----

 “Blast it—harpies! Mirkon, snap out of it!”

A man’s sudden shout grated harshly against the dulcet tones of the creature’s song. I felt myself breaking out of a reverie I hadn’t even realized I had fallen into, and on pure instinct I twisted to the right just in time to avoid a swipe of deadly looking claws.

My sword was in my hands. What was I—oh, son of a bitch.

Realization dawned. The creatures looked deceptively elven, their beautiful facial features and feminine curves lending them an alluring aura. Their wings and feather headdresses made them appear angelic under the effects of the song. But now I saw them once again for what they truly were—vultures. Birds of prey.

Now the only song I heard was the steady drumbeat of my racing heart, blood roaring in my ears, the rhythm of each shuddering inhale and exhale. The harpy’s bulky wings were dragging in the knee-deep water, and its last attack put it off balance; I circled around behind and rammed it with one shoulder, sending it tumbling forward. Its wings splashed uselessly as I thrust Kerberos into its back. A bloom of crimson darkened the water’s surface.

“Can’t you hear it? Almost there… just a little further…”

The tiefling boy was still wading forward, oblivious, his eyes fixed on the harpy perched on the outcropping up ahead. The beguiling melody originated from her lips. Her wings were spread, catching the last fiery rays of the setting sun and forming a haunting silhouette.

“We need to stop the song!”

The voice belonged to the swordsman from earlier, the one that had helped us out in the fight against the goblins. He had jumped down from the cliffs behind me and now stood at my side, rapier at the ready.

Fatigue had made me sluggish; every motion felt like pushing through wet cement. The swordsman, however, still moved with nimble grace. I made eye contact and then nodded toward the monster up ahead.

“Go,” I told him. “I’ll protect the kid!”

As I said this, two harpies swooped down on us from the cliffs. The man’s head snapped up and he threw his arms out without hesitation.

“Morē!”

Tendrils of eerie green light fanned out before him, striking both creatures mid-flight. Glossy feathers suddenly turned ragged wherever the light hit; I caught a pungent whiff of decay. They both let out shrill screams and crashed into the water. The swordsman wasted no time in rushing past them.

The tiefling child was wading by me, right toward the two downed harpies. I grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him behind me just as the monsters rose to their feet, shaking water from their battered wings.

“No,” the boy protested, craning his neck to see past me. “I have to—”

“Stop!” I said, panicked, as he once again attempted to get through. With the harpies approaching I had to keep both hands on the grip of my sword, so I was forced to sidle to the left to block him.

Now I found myself caught in a deadly, completely unsustainable dance. I had no control over my own footwork—every step was to shield the enchanted child, who was completely fixated on walking to his doom. When I lashed out with Kerberos, my chosen target would just take an easy step back, and the other would dart in to rake me with her claws. They were toying with me.

The thick padding of my coat had saved me on a few occasions. But the outside of my upper right bicep was sporting a set of deep gouges, and every flex of the muscle was agony. There was no longer any force behind my strikes.

The next time I shifted to the side to block the boy’s advance, my foot caught on something and I stumbled.

The world darkened. Hands around my throat, water filling my nose.

No. Not like this.

I clawed at the creature’s vice grip to no avail. Dug my hands in the sand below me, seeking the blade I had dropped. Pain.

The pressure on my throat slackened. Somehow I had a grip on my sword; it was stuck fast. I attempted to tug, but I had no leverage and hardly any strength left. The hilt slid out of my grasp.

A hand closed around my uninjured arm. Suddenly I was breaching the surface of the water, coughing. My eyes and nose burned, an unpleasant briny taste on my tongue.

The kid!

Panicked, I scanned the battlefield, but he was nowhere to be found. No—was he—?

“On your right!”

Assisted by a rough yank from the hand on my arm, I jumped back and narrowly missed the harpy’s clumsy lunge. She was barely upright, soaked wings flailing, Kerberos lodged below her left breast—wedged between ribs. My first instinct was to reach out and grab hold of it as she stumbled closer, but the hilt was strangely slippery and I failed to get a solid grip. The best I could do was shove her away. As I did so, a distant part of me registered that the singing had stopped.

The monster lurched to one side, wings flapping feebly in an effort to regain balance. The motion carried her into the path of her sister, interrupting a lunge towards the swordsman; the two tangled together, snarling in pain and frustration.

He was quick to seize the opportunity, repositioning himself in front of me and sheathing his sword. Planting his feet, he held out both hands, thumbs touching and fingers spread.

“Ardē!”

Fire burst from his palms, spreading out before him in a wide swath and enveloping both harpies. The resulting gust of hot air blew my bangs back from my forehead, and I threw my arms up instinctively to shield my face from stray sparks.

Agonized shrieks cut through the air. The smell of burnt hair and charred flesh was suddenly overpowering. Squinting against the light, I saw both of them attempt to duck beneath the surface of the water, but the damage had already been done.

When the flames dissipated, only one of them was left standing—and barely so. She was quickly dispatched with a single rapier thrust to the heart. Then all was finally still.

I stared at the spot where both creatures lay, barely able to see their battered forms through the haze of the rust-colored water. I took a long, unsteady breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to slow my frantic heartbeat.

Then I stiffened, remembering.

“Hey—”

“He’s safe. Don’t worry.” The swordsman pointed over in the direction of the rocky outcropping where the song had been coming from.

My eyes first went to the winged corpse hanging halfway over the ledge, next to the scattered remains of what appeared to have once been a giant nest. Then my gaze slid downward; I spotted the overhang near the base of the rock and the tiny figure crouched in the shadows, head in his hands. My shoulders slumped with relief.

“Good,” I breathed. “I—”

My voice was strangled into silence as a familiar pain assaulted the inside of my skull.

The world around me shifted. I was once again looking out through another set of eyes; the sienna skies above now reflected a desolate wasteland that I recognized in a heartbeat. The scarred landscape, those jagged, unforgiving peaks… this was the world the mind flayer ship had passed through.

Avernus. The name came to me quickly, like an easily remembered fact, even though I was sure I had never heard it before.

I was giving chase—magic crackled in my left hand, rapier clutched in my right. Just ahead stood a tall, muscled figure, enveloped in flame. Red skin, a single curled horn, bloodied greataxe held high.

I grasped for understanding, something to give context to memories that weren’t my own. But the vision was fading. I blinked, and then I was myself once more—injured, exhausted, hurting.

“Hells’ great fires,” my companion murmured, making eye contact with me. “You were on the ship.”

For a moment, we just stared at each other in stunned silence.

Then he shook his head and said, “It can wait.” He turned and marched in the direction of the tiefling boy in a visible effort to shrug off the unpleasant exchange.

I followed him, watching as he crouched before the boy and spoke to him in gentle tones. The poor kid was shaking like a leaf, his cheeks streaked with tears.

“Breathe,” I heard him say. “You’re safe. They’re gone.”

The boy hiccupped, looking between the swordsman and I and clearly trying to calm himself. After a few seconds, he squeaked out a hesitant thank you.

From this angle, I could see clearly the trio of long scars that adorned the left side of the man’s face—they trailed down his cheek as if he had been caressed by some great clawed beast. Who was he?

I had so many unanswered questions. I knew so little about this world; my own ignorance might very well be the death of me. If I could just peer into his mind again… there was so much I could learn in an instant…

No.

I tore my eyes from the man and child, clenching my jaw and turning away. Thwarted, the parasite writhed painfully.

“This beach is a dangerous place for children. What were you doing out here all alone?” I heard the swordsman say, oblivious to my inner turmoil.

“I—I needed to—” The boy faltered, panic leaking into his voice. “Oh, no… I didn’t get the gold from the nest! Mol’s gonna be so mad! I—I have to go!”

“Mirkon!”

I looked back just in time to see the man reaching out as if to catch an arm, but the tiefling boy was too fast; he weaved out of the way and was hopping along rocks halfway to shore before anyone could utter another word.

Drawing back to his full height, the man heaved a defeated sigh. “Gone already. And I’m in no state to give chase.”

“That makes two of us,” I rasped.

Pressing my back to the rock, I slid down until I was in a seated position. I was spent. I felt like I had been hit by a truck, and then backed over a few times for good measure.

The entire goal of this disastrous expedition had just been to take a fucking bath. After asking around a bit, I had been informed by a friendly young woman named Bex that there was a cave at the back of the Hollow that led down to a river.  She hadadvised me to stay away from the cove where the river met the ocean, and I had fully intended to heed that advice—but then I had heard the singing.

“You all right?” The swordsman was looking over at me.

“Peachy,” I responded, letting out a strained laugh. Then I winced, realizing how that sounded. “…Sorry. It’s been a day. I’m lucky you showed up when you did.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it, friend. Twice now you’ve leapt to the defense of the innocent without a second thought; our paths were bound to cross.” Smiling, he knelt at my side. “Well met. The Blade of Frontiers, at your service—but you can call me Wyll.”

“Brittany,” I responded, managing a shaky smile in return. The Blade of Frontiers, huh… was he someone important?

He reached into a pocket of his coat, retrieving a small bottle and pushing it into my hands.

“Here. This should help.”

I recognized the red hue of the liquid. It was the same sort of potion that Gale had given Lae’zel earlier—a healing draught.

I opened my mouth to tell him that we had a healer back at camp—that he shouldn’t waste his supplies on me—but he was already standing up and turning away, leaving no room for protest. I noticed the tears and bloody patches on his clothes and felt guilty.

But as I examined the bottle, even the action of shifting my mangled right arm was agony. It was now that I noticed the weeping gash on my palm; I remembered frantically fishing around in the sand for the blade I had dropped. And finding it, apparently.

I pulled the top from the bottle and downed the potion in a single swig. The flavor reminded me strangely of roasted beets, the aftertaste herbal with the faintest hint of salt. Not altogether unpleasant, but part of me still missed the fruity, candy-like medicinal gels from my last journey.

The effects were almost instant. Relief swept through me as the most intense aches dulled, my bleeding beginning to slow. I gingerly flexed my hand, noting that the gash had decreased in size but was still oozing a bit. There was a roll of bandages in my pack, but I had tossed that to the side of the path before rushing into battle. It was still sitting on the far end of the beach, out of reach.

Man, I was going to have to get up. All I wanted was to curl up and lie here for a while.

Resigned, I began to gingerly roll my legs to the side so I could push myself on to my hands and knees. As I did so, I noticed a few glints of gold in the sand beside me.

Huh. So there was gold after all—it must have fallen from the ruined nest on the ledge up above. I doubted it had been enough to be worth risking life and limb over, though.

A twinkle caught my eye. I reached down with my uninjured hand, brushing sand away to reveal a small gold ring set with an amethyst-colored gemstone. When I held it up to the fading sunlight, the stone shined with an iridescent gleam. I felt a faint tingling warmth, accompanied by a sense of… potential?

“Gods, this thing is heavy as sin.”

When I looked up, I was surprised to see Wyll walking over with Kerberos in his hands. He must have fished it out of the water where the harpies had fallen.

His words registered and I cracked a smile. “That’s because it’s full of my hopes and dreams.”

“A weight worthy of carrying,” he responded, looking pleased.

It amused me that he was actually taking my cheesy words seriously. Somewhere back at camp, I was sure Astarion had just thrown up in his mouth a little.

Slipping the ring on to a finger, I carefully got to my feet and rolled my shoulders in anticipation of lifting the cumbersome weapon once more. Wyll came closer and held it out, one hand supporting the flat of the blade and the other supporting the hilt. The metal was marred with blood, grit and soot, coloring the runes etched into it a rusty brown. ��

“Consider me doubly sorry, then, for what I had to do. I know what value a trusted sword holds for one who lives by the blade.”

I took Kerberos from him, at first confused—but then remembering the inferno he’d blasted from his palms. I shook my head; the Cruxis-forged weapon had stood up to far worse.

“Don’t worry about it, the metal’s probably fine. And the hilt—” I paused, looking down at the leather wrapped grip, which was absolutely toast. “…Well, I guess that part needs mending.”

“Simple enough. I know just the man for the job,” Wyll said with a grin. “It’ll have to wait till tomorrow, though—it’s getting late, and I’m so hungry I could eat an entire rothé.”

I had no idea what the hell a rothé was, but at this point even the mere suggestion of food was enough to make my mouth water. I voiced my agreement, and we ended up walking together back towards the path at the base of the cliffs.

As it turned out, Wyll had come out here for exactly the same reason as me—to wash off the filth of the day. He informed me that he had spent most of the evening after the goblin attack helping teach the tiefling kids how to fend for themselves. Though he hadn’t been in the grove for long, he seemed to have earned the respect of its temporary residents; apparently his title did carry some clout after all.

There were several spots along the river that were shallow enough to allow bathing. Wyll pointed one of these out to me before proceeding to branch off himself. We agreed to meet up again by the community cookpot for some food—and, presumably, a long conversation about all that had thus far been left unsaid.

----

Making full use of the last dim light of dusk, I managed to give my body and my belongings a good scrubbing. Thankfully, soap had been one of the few necessities I’d managed to pilfer from the thieves’ camp at the old chapel. It wasn’t long before I had worn the small bar down to a sliver—and I still didn’t feel one hundred percent clean.

The water of the river was ice cold and I was shivering by the time I was done, but the cold had the added benefit of dulling the pain. I bandaged my wounds and donned my clean camp clothes, feeling leagues better than before.

There was just enough light left to make my way back to the cave leading into the Hollow. As I walked, I caught a glimpse of yellow eyes peering down at me from a cliff up above; my heart froze.

It was a large grey wolf.

There are a few particularly ornery wolves that guard the heart of the grove after sunset. I wouldn’t trust Kahga to call them off.

Zevlor hadn’t been kidding. Knowing I would be an easy target, I hastened my steps, and was relieved when I reached the mouth of the cave.

I recalled seeing another path earlier that had led further up into the cliffs; I had wondered if it led up into the inner grove, and seeing a wolf there all but confirmed it. Had the druids been watching our struggle with the harpies? If Wyll and I hadn’t come along, would they have let that little boy die?

Troubled, I began to wonder if Halsin would be just as unsympathetic.

Torches on the walls lit my path as I made my through the cave. Still carrying my wet gear draped over one arm, I walked close to the wall in an effort to absorb some of the warmth from the flames.

There was no sense in agonizing over it. As things stood now, at least rescuing the druid might take some of the pressure off the tieflings, who actually seemed like a decent group.

The cave opened up and then I was in the depths of the hollow once more. Much of the activity had died down at this point; people were beginning to retire to their respective camps and bedrolls. As I walked past Aradin’s camp, I noted with amusement that the man was slumped over at the table, snoring loudly in a way only the thoroughly plastered could pull off. He was lucky I wasn’t currently in possession of a Sharpie.

As promised, Wyll was waiting for me by the shared kitchen area. Though calling it a kitchen might be a bit overkill—it was really just a giant cookpot, manned by an elderly tiefling woman, and a few scattered tables. The swordsman waved me over to one of these tables, where two steaming bowls and two steins already sat.

I pulled a chair over to a brazier and draped my damp gear over the back of it, then walked over to join Wyll at the table. It felt like every joint in my body cracked as I sat down. I was definitely going to be feeling this in the morning.

“Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” I said.

He smiled with good humor. “Only long enough to bargain for a bit of ale, if that’s to your taste.”

I was reaching eagerly for my stein before he even finished talking. The beer was warm and flat, but deliciously malty. Like drinking liquid bread. I had to remind myself that with my empty stomach, I’d wind up like Aradin in no time at all if I didn’t take it easy.

I let out a long sigh as I set the stein down, leaning back in my chair. “After the day I’ve had? Ale is very much to my taste.”

“Fair enough,” Wyll responded with a laugh. He held up his stein. “To battles won.”

“To battles won,” I repeated, raising my own drink in agreement.

We were silent for a moment as we tucked in to the food. The ‘stew’ that Zevlor had mentioned earlier was really just a glorified gruel, spruced up with minced vegetables and copious amounts of rosemary to mask the otherwise bland taste. It was a reminder that these people really didn’t have much. They were kind to share their rations.

“So, Wyll…” I spoke up when the quiet had stretched on a bit. “How did you end up on the nautiloid?”

----

A/N: aaaaand cue conversation about Karlach!!! maybe we'll meet her in like 20k words

still figuring out how to write Wyll. I feel like I've kinda gotten the hang of Gale and Astarion (go figure, I may be playing favorites), jury's still out on Shart and Lae'zel.

I can't believe this is still only day 2 lmao holy shit

Next time: back to camp, where astarion is up to his usual antics. then the day FINALLY ends, day 3 we get to meet dammon! oh and kahga too i guess

[kaybonbon]

Thank you so much for responding to my HC ask! I have some thoughts based on canon. I hope it's okay to share since this ship is small and I need someone with the same hyperfixation to talk to!

So based on canon, I feel like by the time Roger hosts Doug's 1 year anniversary at his place, he's aware he likes him. He's not aware to what extent that "like" goes (frenemy like?), but he's conscious of it, which makes all the bullying that continues suspect. I'm not sure when the ferris wheel episode takes place in relation to the anniversary episode, but I think it's interesting he seemed dead-set on sitting next to Doug. Roger's absent father and busy mother have been pain points for Roger that he desperately tries not to show, so Doug suggesting Mr. Dink partner with Roger for the wheelbarrow race was probably a big deal for Roger (and again, I don't know where in the timeline this falls). Then on graduation day, on the cusp of transitioning to middle school, I think that "like" intensifies after Doug's pep talk and maybe he finally figures it out not long after.

As for subconscious attraction, I think you're right. I think it started as soon as Doug fell on his face at Honker Burger and got ketchup on his boots. Maybe Doug's blush did it and that triggered a confused and therefore angry response.

I personally like to think that Roger picks on Doug because receiving positive attention from someone he likes scares him. Because positive attention and affection can just disappear at the drop of a hat. Based on his family history, I think he may have avoidant-dismissive and disorganized attachment styles. He needs to feel tough and independent because he's alone in his trailer a lot, and he likely envies Doug's more secure family and home, as well as his inate ability to make friends easily. And I think the fact that Doug is considerate of Roger despite his contradictory push-pull behavior means a lot to him because he's starved for positive attention that Doug gives everyone so easily.

Anyway, yeah. Sorry for the text dump, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on all this because I love Roger and think he's more interesting than he gets credit for. Also, is the drawing of Roger hugging himself and crying part of Project Sunflower? Is he heartbroken to learn Doug slept with Patti? Can't wait to see this comic and any art you make off this amazing ship!

Please share away! To your point this fandom is teeny tiny and needs all the love and discourse it can get! 

You really know your stuff! I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with just about everything.

I’m inclined to agree with you that Roger was more likely to have realized his feelings even earlier than I was speculating. That subconscious attraction was there from the get go, but to your point Roger hosting a party at his place solely for Doug’s anniversary speaks volumes. I’d like to think it was his idea but he would never admit it.

The episode you mentioned with the Ferris Wheel is “Doug’s Fair Lady”, another one of my favorites. That takes place prior to the Party Roger hosts for Doug and you’re absolutely right, Roger would’ve killed for that seat.

One could argue that Roger became aware of his feelings as early as season 1 in “Doug Takes a Hike”. Roger teases Doug relentlessly in this episode, but when a snake shows up, Roger goes immediately into protection mode. Despite his crippling fear of snakes, he puts himself between the snake and Doug.

When Doug protects him in turn by not exposing his fear of snakes to the rest of the group, I think it really leaves an impression on Roger. “This person had every opportunity to humiliate me and get me back, but he didn’t. He protected me.” For the short remainder of the episode, Roger goes out of his way to be nice to Doug, something we don’t really see too often.

“I personally like to think that Roger picks on Doug because receiving positive attention from someone he likes scares him. Because positive attention and affection can just disappear at the drop of a hat.” 

THIS. THIS SO HARD!

Roger desperately wants to be close to people but the fear of losing them is so strong that he inadvertently ends up pushing them away. He’s obsessed with his image and what others think about him which screams he’s struggling with personal identity and self esteem issues.

Roger’s parents are big factors in this. Roger clearly wants his father in his life but his dad is off somewhere else at all important times. His mom is there but she works herself to the bone trying to support herself and Roger so when she physically is around she still isn’t fully “present” for Roger. Doug on the other hand has a wonderful family life with both parents being present and active in their children’s lives.

The drawing you’re referring to was actually inspired by a famous Sailor Moon screen shot that I felt perfectly encapsulated Roger’s internal struggle and his sorrow whilst no one is looking. 

Thank you so much for the asks! It warms my heart knowing others are interested!

[archersgoon]

what i have been thinking about recently is my own personal headcanons regarding carles and tilda. bc i don't think it's a stretch to argue that the image we get in-canon is an idealised view of them greatly impacted by their violent deaths (like this is just text. thank you abian). as some of you may be aware i am not especially fond of carles, so this will not be especially charitable to him

i should clarify my personal mont timeline here (assume carles is roughly of an age with tilda his family is 100% less interesting [&less relevant] to me). first we're putting yata's birth at roughly 13 years earlier than it is in canon (so she's ~78 in fotr). we're also making saro a decade older, and moving tilda from fifth to second in birth order. i think i'm putting her and saro as very close in age also. like <18 months. so she was roughly 50 when she died, making her 41 & 43 at the births of balthazar and isaboe, respectively, and (assuming a 15-16 yr age gap between evestalina & isaboe) making her (and carles) roughly 27 when they had their first kid.

ok now that's out of the way. their first meeting. i think this actually went as established in canon they were incredible impulsive lol. good for them. altho i will say that i go for ~25 as the age here, which i think is a bit older than implied. anyway it sort of reads like he's already king by this point and lumatere government + court is incredibly small, so they come back to the palace like 'we're getting married!! 😁😁" and topher's predecessor is sat there head in hands while topher goes out to hunt down some willow bark.

so young adult tilda's spent her whole life in a local position of relative power, since her father's hbic of the monts & saro's his successor (and saro at least is real enough to involve her) + presumably she was involved in whatever yata's job description is. so she rocks up to the palace with smaller-scale experience that can in theory be applied here, and she's used to being listened to. she figures she can clean up shop a bit if necessary.

here's where it starts to get nasty (sorry). i... don't really think she was doing all that well in the palace. like i think carles was a loving & doting husband or whatever the fuck, but i don't think he really listened to her in matters of state. like we know she grit we know she had determination but none of that ever really shines through in terms of policy & stuff. dragon ships foreign policy etc. do not seem to be things she had any influence in & tbh i think the only real in-canon manifestation we can attribute specifically to her is that doggedness you see in isaboe regarding survival of the royal house

i think this is mostly due to carles. if we assume that finnikin's stance on women (while relatively extreme) is derived from more common views in lumatere then it isn't a stretch to assume that carles, while undeniably in love with his wife, maybe didn't respect her as a person quite as much as he thought he did. like he had that same problem wherein he treats valid concerns as just women's business even at the expense of his personal & political clout (you can also argue that this dynamic being modeled for isaboe as the ideal relationship explains why she puts up with finnikin's bullshit as much as she does, even if she does exercise concrete power). so even though this weakens his position & makes him an ineffectual king that's how things proceed.

as a result we have tilda, who loves her husband but is frustrated by his ineffectiveness, exercising authority in the one area left to her: producing an heir. if we assume the same semi-salic succession laws as in belegonia & charyn apply here, then without a son from her the lumateran heir is the future imposter king (i assume this position was why he was captain of the guard despite his conflicting loyalties), who she sees being weak, ineffectual, and frankly dangerous every damn day. but she keeps having daughters. and canonically this weighs on her a lot mentally and physically. even if we don't use my preferred timeline, it certainly reads like there's at least a decade b/w evestalina and balthazar. from her pov she has one job & she can't seem to do it. we don't know when yata started doing the one week on, one week off routine, but i think it's probably because even with all the paid assistance she gets as the queen, even before she had five kids total, tilda was not doing well emotionally. like if i am being honest i think she felt trapped in that palace.

anyway. was carles in any way helpful here? i don't fucking know. he was clearly engaged with his children in the few snippets we get of him, so he would've hopefully been a help on that front, but i don't know how useful he was on a deeper level. like were he and tilda supporting each other in their attempts for an heir, or was he being (from his perspective) helpful in a way that only compounded the pressure she felt (i.e. 'maybe next time' kind of chatter every time they had a daughter/any presumed miscarriages [they defo happened]). & then after she finally manages balthazar she immediately follows it up with a high-risk accidental pregnancy. howd she feel about that (i know yata & seranonna were shitting bricks). like all that effort and now you might die. but then she survived and finally got a kid that looked like her so maybe it was fine idk

i think maybe things did improve after that given 1. the removal of the imposter king both as heir & captain (and his removal to charyn) & 2. the assurance provided by balthazar. though carles was still shit-useless as king so that was presumably a major stressor

tldr tilda was unprepared for both the increased pressure that came with being queen & her husband's failure to take her seriously when she tried to advise him politically, resulting in her focusing all her effort on that front into producing an heir, in a way that was incredibly unhealthy for her on many levels

[local-littleguy]

didn’t finish the Pokemon clean drawings yet but I was to proud of this to not post so!!!! here’s my violet-pokesona! a little goober of a kid who was basically raised by Miraidon in the woods. They live in a huge hidden cave forest lake area. they don’t understand human society <3<3<3 i did have to change up the timeline bc I made the concept before finishing violets plot so! spoilers and explanation under cut!

other trivia:

Arden’s Tera orb is a repaired version with a Tera shard stufffed haphazardly inside. It’s unstable but more powerful

They stole their rotom phone (what is a property ownership)

they will eat practically anything (including Pokemon berries which are not normally considered edible)

they got warped because they were raised by Pokemon and have limited abilities. For example, if desperate enough they can use TMs for a one-time use of that move, though this more often than. Not injures them as the human body isn’t adapted to using moves and can’t stand the power

they do visit the outskirt towns but none of the big ones, but will go to Pokemon centers. They have a steady supply of league points from Pokemon meteoals that they use instead of money since they hide from ost trainers, though they do sell stuff to the pokemart

their team is family to them and they defend them (especially Miraidon and Andromeda) with a ferocity few trainers have

they can read, they’ll find books and stuff people left behind (or just Borrow them forever)

wants to collect as many relics of human culture as possible, so they end up seeking out gyms solely for the badges, not the accomplishment, they just need to collect Things ok

the dlc is included in the storyline since I just got it !!!

I change Miraidons booster energy item in game btw it took me too long to realize it didn’t work on him :( he’s got a lucky egg now

miraidon ran away from area zero and the original Turo much earlier, and Arven never met it before it escaped, as this version of turo kept it secret

It stumbled upon the tiny toddler Arden who’d been sperated from their parents with only a fiesty Eevee for company. It took both in and serves as an impromptu father figure for Arden and their team

years later, arven is exploring while trying to figure out if he should go to area zero or not (this occurs before mabosstifs injury, more on that later) and stumbles upon a kid his age making flower crowns with a group of Pokemon. They quickly go on the defensive and Miraidon pins him down (think httyd 1 toothless gets out of the net scene)

Arden surprises him by eagerly interrogating him. They speak an unusual mishmash of English/common? and as many Pokemon words/sounds as they can make. As such they understand Pokemon much better than any trainer but can’t maintain a full conversation, though they can practically do so just out of knowing their team very well (they don’t consider them a team, to them they’re family)

they steal the Violet book and run off. Arven chases them and ends up losing them. The two end up colliding again, sparking an unlikely friendship and beginning an adventure where the who seek out the truth behind Area Zero, turo’s disappearance,and the terastal phenomenon

[mr-aftons-rotting-pussy]

sighsss see like......... idk. i hink its more of a moral thing than like, having actual evidence for it. and also i think its people also giving William a lot of the benefit of the doubt, considering we dont actually see what evens death does to william thru his eyes, personally. hut still smth abt this conclusion just doesnt !!!! sit right with me !!

first even if we dont see it from williams eyes i do still think his actions can be very telling as well..? and i just cant recall any precedent being set about..... williams remorse....or guilt orrr grief or whatever? like i just don't think thats a part of him we see in the games. so when people put that onto him it just feels like.... like WHERE did this come from 🤨 ?

whereas we HAVE seen. williams egotism..... and even disregarding the stuff we get that more evidently reflects this even just looking at his actions earlier in the series yknow???? yknow????? and i think its just, more likely of a thing to...... put in that. like slot ig if that makes sense . like it makes marginally more sense to attribute his child resurrections to the ego r whatever of it than anything else.

but also its just likeeee !!! like we'll probably never really get a clear cut THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WILLIAM AFTON THOUGHT AND FELT ABOUT THIS EVENT: (and this is excluding the books since i havent read the big novels so i cant say anything particular about his characterization there) yknow what i kean though???? well jever REALLY KNOW the kind of impact evans death had on william to the T. i can just say for certain its just really off to me......

AND. NOT TO MAKE THIS ABOUT MOVIE AFTON but i think this also proves my thoughts abt him???? like literally all of them?????? wr never ONCE see him like wracked by guilt and while we dont get an EXACT motivation for killing ppl i like .

like people r so obsessed with figuring out EXACTLY whats wrong with him and EXACTLY this and that that i think people miss the point. Severely. much like in real life its not as simple as, 'well this thing happened to them so this is why their evil!' people are EXTREMELY. EXTREMELY NUANCED AND COMPLICATED. and again WELL MIST LIKELY NEVER GET AN EXACT REASON WHY HES LIKE THIS. AND I DONT THINK WE NEED TO AND tbh i think itd probably make him less realistic and compelling.

William Afton is a serial killer, hes a serial killer who murders children. he does not need a deep psychoanalysis n whatever shit, again like REAL LIFE SERIAL KILLERS theres no looking at everything and pining smth down for sure you cant. you cant truly comprehend someone like that, theres a million possible reasons why william could be like this, and while no. i dont think he was just capital e Evil brok the day he was born the fact of the matter is we dont have enough info about him BEFORE all of this to be sure.

i think the most likely scenario is that it was a slow incline, its possible he killed small animals before this perhaps in his youth, maybe he accidentally killed someone and it pushed him even further down this path. obviously he didnt just Become this one day, it was most likely a long time coming. again: Normal Well Adjusted Individuals Dont Just Start Serial Murdering Children <3333

and like....... yea...... just. yea....... i dont think its a totally unreasonable conclusion to make. i just dont think its really correct or the Most reasonable all considering.

i just think like, obv we didnt get a true backstory for william afton, there are bits of him we just will not understand and arent relevant to the story at hand, there IS a reason why we dont see further back for him. and ik this might be hard to grasp in a fandom where 95% of everyone tries to piece everything together PERFECTLY to find the FULL TRUE 100% SOLVED answer. but thats just? not the point of fnaf, like in general? i mean if it was we would have a more conclusive timeline wouldnt we? and i just think this is also encapsulated in william afton himself.

my onion 🧅