#how do i write him to be silly but not one-dimensional

[sophieinwonderland]

The Plurality of... Bill Cipher (The Book of Bill)

Spoiler Warning for Gravity Falls, The Book of Bill, and the nature of reality as you know it

Hello dear reader.

I recently found in my possession a strange book with no explanation as to how it got there. A bizarre tome known only as The Book of Bill.

I recognized the name and imagery from someone else's memories. Bill Cipher, a character from Alex Hirsch's hit series Gravity Falls.

It honestly seemed too perfect. I've been doing this "Plurality of..." series where I look at plurality in media. And an important part of Bill's shtick was possession.

It seemed simple enough. I can read the book, learn a bit about Bill and his possession, and then write an article about his plurality. But the reality was anything by simple, with far more than I bargained for.

And by the end of this post, this book will have driven me to break a fundamental rule I've held sacred through my "Plurality Of..." series.

What is Plurality?

Before we begin, I should explain what plurality is for anyone new here. Plurality is a term for being multiple in one body in some way.

We call the body's occupants "headmates". These can be anything from alters in dissociative disorders to spirit guides bound to a mortal, to... yes... even literal demonic possession.

Yeah, even being possessed by a demonic triangle from a 2-dimensional universe is a type of plurality. If there are multiple self-conscious agents of some kind there, it's plural!

Time To Get Weird!

(Art by magentasnail)

Let's catch you up on the basics real quick. Again, there will be huge Gravity Falls spoilers.

In Gravity Falls, Bill Cipher is a yellow a 2-dimensional triangle demon bent on causing chaos.

Through the series, Bill makes deals with multiple characters to possess their bodies. This includes both gaining full control over the body of protagonist Dipper Pines for an episode, and more interestingly, sharing control over the body of Stanford Pines for an extended period of time.

Bill's possession of Dipper left Dipper outside his body like a ghost. But his deal with Stanford is much more plural in nature, where they shared control, with Bill only controlling the body in his sleep.

Obviously real plural systems don't have headmates controlling their body while they sleep like this, but the experience can be seen as analogous to dissociative identity disorder, where it's common to experience blackouts and "wake up" in situations unsure how you got there.

That's all you really need to know about Bill for the time being.

With that out of the way, it's time get weird and dive straight into the Book of Bill!

The Book of Bills

As I begin reading the Book of Bill, I'm given a warning from Stanford Pines that the book will rewrite itself based on the mind of the reader. This seems silly, and I of course dismiss the idea out of hand. Surely there's no way a book could change itself based on who's reading it.

As I venture further into this tome, I find the occasional point of interest. References to Bill living in people's brain, him being an idea, etc.

I stop briefly to ponder that. Why does Bill refer to himself as an idea? Isn't he canonically a being from a physical 2-dimensional world? Him being described as an idea is peculiar, but something I tuck away for the future.

The first thing I find that really piques my interest in regards to plurality is the multiple times that it's just referenced that there are multiple Bills in Bill's head. Such as when Bill refers to "the voices in his head" teaming up.

In the plural community, there's a concept known as median system.

A median system is typically a system which has separate parts that are less distinct from each other. There's a pretty solid case that Bill, having a bunch of Bills in his head, could be considered a median system on his own.

In fact, the book itself actually depicts communication between multiple Bills, in the form of an interview.

And throughout the interview, there are times where the Prime Bill seemingly gets annoyed at the interviewer's questions. As if they are actually different people. While this could be Bill simply duplicating himself and pretending for comedic effect, it could just as easily be that both Bills are headmates in Bill's system.

Bill being a median system is a pretty interesting direction.

As I read on though, the book dragged me down yet another rabbit hole, and raised an important question.

Does Bill Have A Dissociative Disorder???

Let's talk about dissociative identity disorder. There are two main criteria for DID. Criterion A is the presence of two or more distinct personality states. You know, like those Bills in Bill's head.

The second is memory loss.

Recurrent gaps in the recall of everyday events, important personal information, and/or traumatic events.

This is what was on my mind when Bill was describing how he was uniquely gifted with the ability to see into the third dimension, and wanted to teach others this same skill.

But when he tries to recount it... this happened...

To me, this sounds exactly what was described in criterion B. This is also called dissociative amnesia.

And it's not just this one-off example. Bill actually references later that he dissociates (his words) and "wakes up" later after a conquest.

With everything we know, it seems incredibly likely that Bill has DID, or at least a related disorder.

Bill is what he eats

Okay... wait...

So Bill can ALSO imprison the souls of those he eats inside himself, and they can apparently take over Bill's body too???

What actually is going on here? Is this one of Bill's powers? He can just eat entire universes and then whatever he consumes becomes a part of him? Or maybe it's something else...

Maybe if we looked at this less literally and consider the previous hints of Bill having a dissociative disorder then perhaps what is going on is that Bill is introjecting these people.

Maybe whenever he enters somebody's mind, some piece of them remains...

I would love to speculate more on this... But this is the only mention of it in the entire book!

At this point, I begin to reflect on the words at the beginning. Maybe it was true that the book was changing itself to give me what I wanted. Little hints of plurality to keep me reading, to ensnare me in its vicious trap and ultimately drive me to madness.

And the worst part was, I was falling into it anyway. Because I had to know, even if this was a trap, I was in it to the very end. My thirst for knowledge and understanding unquenchable.

Even if I knew I should stop here, there was no going back.

Stanford Pines, Bill's Perfect Host

At last, beyond all of the misdirects that were put in my way, I arrived at the reason that I started on this journey.

Stanford Pines.

I need to say that when I started this journey, planning to delve into what the plurality of Bill and Ford might be like, I never imagined that it would be handled so... Beautifully.

I mean that genuinely!

I love the relationship of these two characters in the book!

They are both very out of place in their own ways. Both are aware of things in their world that are denied by others, leaving them ridiculed and ostracized for it. They manage to form a genuine friendship. Even if Bill was using Stanford the whole time to achieve his Weirdmageddon.

The two compliment each other surprisingly well. Bill provides Stanford with a friend who can get him out of his comfort zone, which is something that I think Stanford really needed.

There's a really fun part of the book where Bill just gets Stanford mind-drunk, which is apparently something he can do.

Bill fills a role in Stanford's life that nobody had since he lost contact with his brother. While Stanford had friend in with Fiddleford, his lab partner, and we do get to see parts of that friendship in the book, they are more like work acquaintances.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Because in the end, Bill is still an evil demon who was bent on bringing about the Weirdmageddon and was manipulating Ford the whole time.

And when Stanford found out, he tried to shut Bill out. This led to Bill trying to communicate through sticky notes to get Ford to stop ignoring him. He would front in the body at night while Ford slept, and they carried on a conversation through these sticky notes.

Wait... Sticky notes?

This is such an interesting choice for the character! Especially after so many hints of Bill Cipher having some sort of dissociative disorder.

Why?

Because sticky notes are an actual method that real DID systems use to communicate with their alters, as seen in this post from the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) website.

It's fascinating how, if you were to try to depict how headmates with strong dissociative barriers might communicate, this is one of the ways you would want to do that!

Is this coincidental? Maybe. But the talk of dissociation earlier suggests the author also has at least some basic knowledge of dissociation and how it works. And, perhaps, plurality as well?

Overall, this whole section with Bill and Ford was fantastic, and it was well-worth the read for that on its own.

The End?

I suppose this is the end. I found what I wanted. I got the content I was after. A cool plural story of a guy and his headmate from another dimension who wants to take over the world.

Through all the strange distractions and hints of Bill himself having headmates that seemingly went nowhere, I got more plurality in the book than I expected.

And yet, as I turn the final page of the book, I feel unsatisfied. Unsettled.

"Is that it?" I think to myself.

This is Gravity Falls, a show built on mysteries, and looking deeper than the surface. Surely there has to be more. Right?

What if... all the plurality in this book, is obscuring something deeper? Or maybe hinting at something deeper...

And then... I see it!

After the final page, I come to the About the Author section.

Which means it's time to talk about...

The Plurality of... Bill Cipher Alex Hirsch

Yes, I am going there!

In the beginning, I promised that this post will require me to break a rule I've held sacred through these posts.

That rule... is to never speculate on the plurality of the author.

But, Alex Hirsch, at least in a fictional sense, hasn't exactly shied away from the idea of being "possessed" by Bill. This dates back at least a decade, with him making Tweets like this one.

"Bill Cipher" even did an AMA on Reddit through Alex, playing it off as Bill possessing Hirsch while he slept.

It's a pretty open secret in the Gravity Falls community that Alex Hirsch is "possessed" by Bill. At least in some meta-fiction way that may not be canon to Gravity Falls but isn't quite real either.

And were my analysis to stop here, I wouldn't really be saying anything new or valuable. A lot of this was covered by MatPat on Film Theory.

But there's something I want to go back to that confuses me in this book.

That Bill Cipher... is an idea?

Let's bring this full circle, back to the beginning of the book where Bill mentions that he's imaginary and describes himself as an idea.

These are such weird lines because Bill didn't seem to have originated from people's minds within the narrative of Gravity Falls.

His story is of being a being from a literal flat world. So why then, does he describe himself as an idea? Why does he describe himself as imaginary???

Bill Cipher as Alex Hirsch's Tulpa

While Bill being an idea doesn't make sense if he's speaking as a being from a 2-dimensional world that's real to him, it does make sense if we consider that the Bill talking to us, who wrote the Book of Bill, is a tulpa sharing the body of its creator.

Before going on though, we need to answer an important question. What is a tulpa? The r/tulpas subreddit gives its own answer to this in its FAQ.

The simplest way to describe a tulpa is simply another person who was created intentionally/unintentionally through repeated interaction and shares a body and mind with their creator. A more complicated definition can go as follows: A tulpa is believed to be an autonomous consciousness coinhabiting a brain with their creator, often with a form of their creator's initial choice and design. A tulpa is entirely sentient and in control of their opinions, feelings, form and movement. They are willingly created via a number of techniques to act as companions, muses, and advisers. Tulpa forms can either be visualized in the mind's eye, or, with practice, seen as a hallucinatory figure using a technique called imposition.

And let's stop there on the line about being created as muses, because this is something that's found repeated throughout both The Book of Bill and Journal 3, with Stanford referring to Bill as his "muse."

It's a curious term that doesn't appear in the show, but was added to the lore in these two supplemental books.

The FAQ goes on to explain that while tulpas are often considered to be intentionally created, there are also accidental tulpas that can arise through imaginary friends or from writing characters.

Is it possible to accidentally make a tulpa? Yes - many people join the community after realizing they have had tulpas all their lives, but without knowing what they were called. These "accidental" tulpas often arise from imaginary friends and writing/roleplay characters.

On the point of roleplay characters, something I also haven't mentioned yet is that Alex Hirsch didn't just write the character of Bill Cipher. He WAS Bill Cipher. In the show, Bill is one of the characters Hirsch voices along with Grunkle Stan and Soos.

Writing tulpas and how they come about are discussed a bit more below:

Is this a new phenomena? No, it's a practice that goes back in recorded history at least as far as the Greek philosophers. The present name of the phenomenon is derived from the word used by Tibetan monks in the early 20th century. There's also evidence to suggest dedicated prayer can lead to the development of 'religious tulpas' in the minds of the particularly devout, and on the secular end, writing techniques similar to tulpa development techniques can and have resulted in writers creating accidental tulpas from their characters. Having a tulpa is nothing new, although it's gone by many names throughout the course of history and does so even today. However, we believe we are one of the first groups to address this practice as a psychological phenomena rather than a magical, occult or divine experience.

Tulpamancy and Attention

There was another passage from the book that I found noteworthy.

At the end, Stanford describes what truly sustains Bill isn't power, but attention, which Stanford describes as Bill's "lifeblood."

It's even underlined for emphasis.

Why is this important? Well first, this line goes back to the weird lines earlier suggesting Bill is an idea.

But more importantly, feeding on attention is something which is actually a pretty popular philosophy in tulpamancy. That tulpas feed on and are sustained by the attention of their hosts.

How do I give my tulpa energy? Tulpas are sustained by attention, and energy is a convenient metaphor for this. So, you can give your tulpa energy by interacting with them. It is also possible, through no shortage of work and time on the part of host and tulpa alike, for a tulpa to grow beyond this need and to learn how to sustain themselves.

How much attention/energy/interaction does my tulpa need? During the creation process you should aim to interact with your tulpa daily, anywhere from a few minutes up to a few hours, and narrating to them as and when you can. After they're fully vocal and active, the bare minimum is just acknowledging their existence, but spending time talking to them and interacting with them is very much the point of bringing them into existence. Just don't ignore them, and you'll both be fine.

On Parallels in Writing

Adding another layer, it's likely that Stanford Pines is at least partially based on Alex Hirsch himself.

One point of trivia is that Alex Hirsch has a twin sister, and Gravity Falls was inspired by vacations they would take as children. Dipper and Mabel being based on Alex and his sister is pretty well-known. But towards the end of season 2, it's revealed that their Grunkle Stan is a twin himself, with his brother being Stanford Pines, the author of the journals.

During this part of the story, it starts creating a parallel between the relationships of the younger and older twins, with Dipper (who is based on Alex) bonding with Stanford over how much they have in common. Both are nerds who are into writing and science and uncovering the mysteries of the world. Both are a bit socially awkward as well.

And while not much attention is drawn to this particular connection, both had experiences of making deals with Bill that let Bill takeover their bodies at different points.

Based on the parallels between Dipper and Stanford, one might speculate that Alex based Dipper on his younger self, while Stanford was loosely based on himself as an adult.

The personalities of these two characters are also the most likely to create a tulpa based on the psychological profiles of most tulpamancers.

In 2016, Dr. Samuel Veissiere, a psychiatry professor at McGill University, found the following in his study of tulpamancers:

From coding of qualitative interviews collected in large surveys, the most common tulpamancer profile to emerge is one of a highly cerebral, imaginative, highly articulate, upper-middle class, formally educated person with many consistently pursued interests, talents, and hobbies, but limited channels of physical social interaction. Typical tulpamancers are confident about their talents, but are quite modest and socially shy. They possess – or have cultivated – a high propensity for concentration, absorption, hypnotisability, and non-psychotic sensory hallucinations.

The psychological profile of tulpamancers fits both Dipper and Stanford to a t. And many of these same traits could just as easily be true for Alex Hirsch if these characters were meant to be stand-ins for himself.

Is Alex Hirsch trying to tell us that he's plural?

In the end, this is just a theory. And it's one that I feel nervous making because plurality is so deep and personal. That's why I've avoided speculating on the plurality authors in the past. Even when the writing feels so true to the plural experience that it's hard to imagine that someone who isn't plural wrote it.

So why am I making an exception with this one?

Well, in this particular case, I think that the breadcrumbs are being left intentionally, and if he is plural, then he expects somebody to follow them. I'm not worried that I would be outing somebody who didn't want others to find out.

With Alex Hirsch's love of codes and clues and mysteries, if he were plural, I have to imagine that the hints weren't accidental and he would be wondering if anybody would follow them.

And if I am completely off base and he's not plural, I think that he would still appreciate the theorizing anyway. 🤷‍♀️

But if these are intentional clues that were left behind to hint at a real life plurality, one might ask why.

Why would he want people to know about it, and hint at it in this way?

Well, I think the Book of Bill might have an answer to that too.

Shame is a powerful emotion. But it grows in the dark. The more I've tried to hide my past with Bill, the more hold it's had over me.

Perhaps this line is meant to reflect Alex Hirsch's own feelings. Because many plural systems have felt this same way about their plurality, having hide their relationships to their headmates.

The actual end now

Finally, we come to the real ending of this.

This is, again, just a theory. I don't want anyone taking it as fact. I admit that I could be completely wrong about everything that I've said here.

But if nothing else, it's at least fun to imagine that Alex Hirsch does have a Bill Cipher tulpa in his head that has been acting as his muse this whole time. And it would give a new meaning to the gag of the Weirdmageddon intro saying Gravity Falls was "created by Bill Cipher" all those years ago.

Thanks for reading, and if you have your own muse that you think might be more than a simple muse, be sure to read my guide on how to know if your imaginary friend is sentient.

And if you like this post and want to see more like it, you may want to check out The Plurality of… Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Plurality of… IF

[crabsnpersimmons]

Last Line Challenge

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or however many as you like).

Tagged by @thatmooncake ! Thank you!

Here's my last line:

No sooner had you plugged in the USB did Clip start rotating his faceplate like a loading wheel.

And here's my last little doodle, since it's also Clip:

Been exploring Clip a lot recently! He's just a silly little guy.

18 words so 18 friends! No pressure of course, this is just for fun:

@starriegalaxy @vacantfields @lunarmoves @spadillelicious @restinsodaroni @mulatto-macchiato @cacaocheri @ren-054 @craykaycee @betweenblackberrybranches @thecourtjester12 @crystalmagpie447 @paggylyn @sinnabee @wenchfry @haruka-636 @ramblingsofacotlfangirl @ohno-the-sun

+ and anyone else who wants to share!

[torchstelechos]

I love that Isabeau is the one to bring up the "what do we do if you die" conversation cause its a very good insight to his character at the very start of the game. Isabeau is practical, smart, and loves everyone dearly and wants to know how to help them when shit goes sideways. He's the one to ask about Bonnie too, which is a delightful read on how he thinks because everyone else shuts that down instantly as a "That wont happen and cant happen" but we see later in the game it can happen which is such a startling thing for a game to do but justifies the foreshadowing of Bonnie can die what do we do if that happens? Isabeau, despite everything, is also the one who gets to the heart of the matter even if its not something must people are willing to talk about. All without it being part of his friendquest, thats just him naturally. Which! Says so much about him and how he is! His character when its not about his relationship with Siffrin is a very intriguing thing because it feels like a very classic hard intellectual stance that's been softened after many years of learning to better communicate healthily with others. A reflection, if you will, of Odile but in a very drastic direction. I find him fascinating and I also want to scoop his brains out and study them under a microscope to see all his little brain thoughts.

[jellybeanium124]

Don’t hate yourself for liking someone’s works. Something to remember is that Neil Gaiman wrote his stories to target young, vulnerable people. He was writing his stories to attract fans, and interacted with the fans to entice and groom them. Some of his victims met at book signings. All were fans of his books.

The stories were written with your admiration in mind. It’s not your fault he wants to hold the admiration of people of your demographic.

First, I don't.

Second, I think you are making up a story here bro. I think once upon a time there was a teenager in england who worked in journalism but wanted to write books, and then he was the one-in-a-million lucky soul who wrote his books and they became wildly famous and successful. and then after he accrued power and fame he started exploiting it. I'm not saying people who abuse power don't tend to try and get themselves into positions of power, but "famous author" is a pretty difficult career path and one likely to fail.

with this narrative you've concocted, you've removed his humanity from him, as well as any sort of genuine love of storytelling or creation he definitely has. like he's just as human as the rest of us, and I simply do not believe that he is a monster who only cares about attracting 20-something women and does this by crafting beautiful stories for the page and screen.

there's a concept I've talked about before, the Fetishist. as someone with a widely hated fetish, I've thought a lot about how people think people with my fetish are not humans but Fetishists, monsters who look human but only care about fulfilling their fetish, and see all other people as Objects They Can Use or Nothing. you've turned gaiman into the Predator, which is the same thing just a bit broader. the Predator is a monster shaped like a human, but unlike a human who cares about a myriad of things and has a three-dimensional personality, the Predator only cares about Preying On [usually young women or children], and every human being is, to them, either a Target To Prey On or Nothing. neil gaiman is not the Predator because the Predator doesn't exist. I don't think he had a long term plan. I don't think 19yo neil gaiman was going "hehehehe I can't wait until I become world famous so I can use that to coerce women into sleeping with me!"

turning ng into something evil is easy. because then you don't have to think about the good he's done. then you don't have to think about how he's been a supporter of queer people since the 90s. then you don't have to think about how he's supported refugees or ukraine. you don't have to think about his works of tzedakah or tikkun olam, and you don't have to think about the beautiful art he's made (and while we're here, let's think before dehumanizing a jewish man, hm?). it also handily makes it so you never have to worry about your own behaviors. because you're a three-dimensional person! so of course you could never be the Predator. or the Abuser. or the Fetishist. or the Narcissist.

until I see proof debunking this, I am going to continue believing he made the art he wanted to see in the world out of a genuine wish to be an author, and not primarily to put himself in a position of power to abuse women. maybe he always had tendencies towards manipulation. maybe part of him always knew that if he became famous then there would undoubtedly be women falling over themselves for him. because we all know that. we all know that if we became famous there would be people who we could exploit for sex. that's not a secret. part of me would like to be famous. I wanna work in the film industry. I have silly dreams, of course. but I'm not pursuing this difficult line of work in order to someday abuse people, I'm pursuing it because of a genuine love of making movies. neil gaiman was a guy who wanted to become a writer, and then he did, and then he abused that position, repeatedly. we have three examples now. I wouldn't be surprised if more women started coming out about their experience, because three is absolutely a pattern, and because claire did the brave thing of being the second one to speak out (since scarlett and the other one whose pseudonym I can't remember atm came out at the same time). and now that there's been two exposés, two podcasts, three stories total, more are going to come. I'd be more surprised if they didn't. but that doesn't make neil gaiman the Predator. it makes him a man who did shitty things repeatedly.

[mossy-chaos]

These are all of the codes I could find in the Book of Bill!

The order is decoded message-page-type of cipher

Spoilers under the cut (for those of you who decode yourselves):

Black and white-back of the cover jacket-authors cipher

Even his lies are lies-inside the front cover-theraprism cipher

Praise the fallen angle-first actual page-Cipheric (this is the only time Cipheric is used for some reason)

Olaf was here-same-rune (not sure what this is a reference to)

Remember us-same-Bill's cipher

Let him in and break the seal between what's fiction and what's real-books new master-Bill's cipher

The Axolotl thinks he's won but Ciphers games have just begun-handprint page-color cipher

Irregular-fake covers(very top)-color cipher

The one who writes the codes-about me-Caeser cipher

Glotto/slotheny-Magazine cover(7 new sins)-Bill's cipher (I love the new sins lol)

Not a phase-Stanford pines here(on the goth moth)-Authors cipher-love the jack skellington reference (if thats what that is lol)

Warning/Folding this card may/result in crossovers-the universe is a hollogram-rune (Maybe that's how we finally get an owl house/gravity falls crossover)

My optometrist never saw it coming-What is a human-Theraprism

Paper is book skin/Shave your grandma-Skin-Bill's cipher

Love pain-Bill's tattoo knuckles-Same

Lies-How to trick everyone into loving you-same

Regrowing limbs is Axy's art/but can he regrow a ripped out heart-How to cheat death-Bill's cipher (he must really be mad at the Axolotl)

Eye doctor of a different kind/who wants to make his patient blind-silly straws-caesar

The doctor says/three sips a day/will make the visions/go away-Same

Fussy eater/baby Billy/wouldn't drink/unless it's silly-same (love how this implies that he only drank out of silly straws)

Mason-Embarrassing memories-Bill's cipher (love seeing Dipper's real name again)

Booberry-the meaning of life(popsicle stick)-Bill's cipher

One eyed king-the early years-theraprism

Suck it-The good times(liscense plate)-Caesar

Can warp narrativity/protect fourth walls-Alert from time baby-A1Z26

Lone survivor of the Euclidean massacre-Rune (I wonder what happened during that event and what that event actually is)

Tantrum-Bill's Cipher

Which henchmaniac ratted me out-The shaman-Theraprism (I find this one funny)

Titans blood-the dark ages(Wizards hat)-Rune (Love the owl house reference here)

Suck it Merlin-Never trust a wizard-Rune

Daryll-Cipherstitions(lobster lord of the deep)-Theraprism (love how that's his name)

Curse Wittebane-Witchcraft-Rune

It's all made up-America(the dollar)-Caesar

Countries aren't-Bill's cipher

Rubberhose-Animation-A1Z26

Bill cipher-top secret file-Same

Six fingered freak-Lost in the woods-authors cipher

Stanley would have made her laugh-same (he just rolled better charisma dude)

If lost return to Bill-my muse and me-Theraprism (love how he said this means wise one and also more billford hehe)

Forget the past-A voice from the past page 2-Bill's cipher (this implies that Bill wants Ford to forget Stanley so he won't get in the way)

Hopefully F's gloves will hide what Cipher has done to my hands-I was wrong about everything page 2-Author's Cipher (I love this one <3)

Ouroboros-Wakey wakey here's a snakey (on the snake)-Bill's Cipher (I guess this is the snakes name?)

Miss you-try to forget (on window)-bro's secret code

Have I been too harsh all along?-Should I contact S-Bro's secret code

Hotxolotl-Dimensional authority call transcript (on the sauce packet)-Bill's cipher

I can write codes too it's not that hard!-Dipper's page-Bill's cipher (he do be flexing his intelligence there)

(What a buncha) Love ya bro-Stanley's letter-Bro's secret code (love how this shows that they both still remember the code they made up as kids)

Just fit in (repeated)-SSSSTANNNNLEEEYY-Rune

Holy mackerel-color cipher

AXOLOTLLOTAXOLOTLLOTLAXLOTLAXLOTLAXOLOTLLOTLAXLOTLAXLOTLAXOLOTLLOTLAXLOTLAXLO-Theraprism

Wellwellwellbeing-message from the theraprism-A1Z26

Spheremonger, Eternalor, Bill cipher, The Logicube, Paingorious, Jessica, Shadorg, Mr Silly, The beast-recent inpatient names-Theraprism (the hallucination dog is still creepy lol)

Justice for Scrimbles/Remember Grembley-inside Back cover-Theraprism/Rune (JUSTICE FOR SCRIMBLES!!!!)

Those are all of the codes that are in this book! (Or at least that I could find lol)

[mysterycitrus]

i know you've been talking about jason lately so i'll ask about smth different... robin jason (sorry)

idk idk lately i've been wanting to take a peek at his robin comics for the sake of writing fic (ofc...) but i'd like to hear what u think before that, a summary of sorts if u may (i also wanna contrast what u say with what i get out of it so yeah)

i feel like his robin days are so muddled by his identity as red hood later on, and even before that it was his death. u had people constantly blaming jason for dying in text (or else they'd have to admit bruce can make mistakes and everyone in dc is allergic to doing that) and painting him like someone reckless and violent (classist editorial u need to DIE), and then people in fanon painting him like a sweet fella who would do nothing wrong and as well as being bruce's Only Actual Son etc etc for the sake of making the situation around him all the more sadder (yeah yeah pathetic meow meow we've all seen it)

and i'm just curious bc i rlly wonder what the actual comics say about him, most likely something in the middle of this? exams are killing me but my god i'll come back to life after im done just to read jason robin's days... have a good day !!!

the difficulty with reading about jason as robin is that there are three primary periods that all differ fairly dramatically from each other — pre-crisis jason todd is a strawberry blond acrobat who’s almost adopted by dick grayson before becoming robin; post-crisis jason todd is a kid from crime alley who steals the wheels off the batmobile before becoming robin; and post-crisis, post-utrh jason todd is a very angry, very violent kid who becomes a cautionary tale after he gets himself killed (something he is often blamed for).

we can walk the line here. pre-crisis jason isn’t particularly relevant because so much of robin!jason’s stories depend on his reinvention after the reboot. all the crucial factors leading up to death in the family — growing up in the alley, both his mothers, his relationship with the robin mantle, his developing relationship with dick grayson, his slow schism from bruce, his relative isolation from other superheroes — are all crucial to who he is, especially after his death.

fanon about jason is annoying because there are valid criticisms that can be made about how he’s written with regressive, classist stereotypes, but as always it pivots way too far in one direction. jason wasn’t the “happy” or “angry” robin in the same way that dick wasn’t the happy or angry robin — they’re both characters that possess more than a single emotion. it’s true that jason was later written to be more explicitly violent (to contrast him with dick) but also like… they’re both pretty similar characters that differ in interesting ways. dick created robin to be a symbol of hope and joy. jason carried that on when he took up the mantle. they can both be angry at stuff without the world falling apart. it’s not that serious.

the dialogue about dick being a child soldier but jason being the true son makes me want to tear my hair out. jason became robin because bruce missed dick and was afraid of being alone. they’re both his gd kids. acting as though bruce wayne doesn’t love dick grayson so much that extra-dimensional beings can clock it is so fucking stupid. it once again ties into fanon’s obsession with each character only getting to be “one” thing. tim is smart, which means he’s the smartest. jason said robin made him magic, which means he’s happy all the time. dick chased after zucco in a grief spiral, which means he’s the violently angry one, with no other character traits. dick can’t have been nice to jason because he’s nice to tim, etc. seems a little silly, no?

i think i’ve only read jason’s brief run as robin once, though ive gone through a death in the family + a lonely place of dying a bunch of times, so ig my advice for reading him is to keep in mind the context in which he was created. dc comics was reeling from losing dick grayson as robin, and were really throwing anything at the wall to get something to stick. many, many negative tropes are baked into his introduction, and thanks to writers like jeph loeb and scott lobdell they have compounded over time. jason’s updated backstory is, with actual critical intent by the writer, a really good examination of how poverty and class will affect how someone views the world. his death was not his fault — and removing sheila haywood from that warehouse purposely makes his story less tragic. he was a good kid! and he was angry for a good reason. if jason had lived, i believe he would’ve carried on the robin tradition and left bruce behind once their differences became insurmountable.

[okaystoptellingmetomakeanaccount]

Guys. Scrooge McDuck already traveled the multiverse in 1995

Hey look, it’s the doors from doctor strange

-my dad

This year will mark a historical moment in Disney comics history. The first Marvel-made Scrooge McDuck comic. Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime coming up in June will have Scrooge travel through the multiverse to defeat an evil AU version of himself.

To some unfamiliar with Disney comics, this might sound like a lame idea in the trend of many multiverse stories that we are seeing in the cinemas today.

To some familiar with Disney comics, this sounded exactly like the plot of Zio Paperone e il predone dimensionale.

Truth is, the multiverse has always been a part of… just comic books. It’s now starting to slip into other mediums because of the many, many comic book adaptations just getting to that point of the lore, but the comic books themselves have had it for a long time now. Including Disney comics.

Though for Disney it’s less a case of: we wanted to explain continuity errors and then went a bit too far, and more a case of: if you have comics coming out literally every single day of the week then at some point you just get to the multiverse.

There are many of these to be found in Disney comics, which we might talk about later if someone is interested or I feel like it, but today we are going to go over the one most similar in premise to the upcoming Marvel release.

Because I just think it’s really funny how similar they are. Like at this point I would call it a reboot.

Oh oh, Scrooge and multiverse, look at this. I’m pretty sure the Loki tv series just copied their time doors from this comic.

Federico Povoleri wrote a pretty simple story. Someone is stealing from Scrooge again, and this time, the culprit turns out to be… himself!

‘Our’ Scrooge is signified by the red coat (and later the multiverse hopping suit). All the alternates will be clad in blue. DT87 Scrooge is just another AU that no one cares about confirmed

This stealing Scrooge is our ‘Scrooge above all’. He wants to be richer than all his other variants and steals from them for that or something. I don’t remember very well but why he does it doesn’t matter. It’s evil Scrooge and he steals that’s all we need to know.

As we have seen already, he escapes with an universe hopping door. As he always does within these kinds of situations, Scrooge calls Gyro who finds some kind of dimensional energy lingering around where the door used to be. He does the usual explain the multiverse bit.

Then Gyro does in a few hours/days/wedontactuallyknow what Red Raider has been trying for years. There’s a reason they kicked him out of PKNA he would be too overpowered.

Yeah altronave my nose.

Scrooge arrives in the bin of another him, and explains as well as he can. This repeats a few times and I would love to show it but there is a 10 image limit on tumblr mobile for some reason.

Finally he arrives at the bin of the Scrooge who steals and they have a little typical multiverse discussion (I am the real one. No bitch I am. But which one are you. A real me would never do this. That kind of stuff)

But he gets defeated by bad Scrooge. Oh no the only one who could defeat Scrooge has defeated him. What will happen now?

Exactly what you think happens. prime!Scrooge never closed the AU doors and so everyone he visited could just hop through and arrive at Scrooge above all’s office. Yay.

It is not a bad comic. It has the single idea, it sticks to it, it executes it well. The interactions with AU Scrooge’s are just plain fun. At the time of writing the story has place 6020 on inducks which is pretty dang high for such a silly comic.

It’s very much a multiverse story in a classic Disney comics way. It’s not used to bring multiple continuities together. No storia e gloria Scrooge VS life and times Scrooge. Nothing dramatic happening or high stakes. Just Scrooge going on another adventure, and for being one of the first multiverse comics involving Scrooge that didn’t pull random bullshit, it’s considered good by most of the fandom it seems. That the Comicup artists was pretty decent helped as well.

But now, what can we expect from what is totally gonna be a remake of this?

Infinity Dime is Marvel. It’s gonna take a Marvel approach. Assuming it’s not gonna be parody (which i kind of really hope it isn’t), then what will it be? Are we gonna see something similar to this, where Scrooge will just meet different versions of himself or will we see established AU’s? Both Ducktales and all his other animated counterparts (i heard the americans like christmas carol scrooge) seem like easy picks. Will they fight? Will it be Secret Wars? Or will they work together like in this comic?

Marvel has still given out zero information about the story (hell, they haven’t even made clear which artists aside from a few are drawing. “celebrated Scrooge artists” does NOT narrow it down) except for that super vague premise. So the best we can do is imagine this story but with the Marvel flavor. Not that I have read enough Marvel comics to properly understand what that means but ive seen some movies okay.

We can probably imagine there will be more ‘evil’ Scrooges. Some Scroogehenchmen. And they will fight. We gotta have action scenes. Which I trust will look good because Mangiatordi I believe his connection to the project alone will secure that the art department will be amazing. His existence is enough.

I’m also expecting DT17 Scrooge to at least cameo. He’s the perfect character for this type of story, fits way better than any other non comic variant. DT87 Scrooge could work as maybe a younger version? Who is not sure what he got caught up in. But then we would need emotional scenes between Scrooge and Scrooge and that’s probably asking too much from Jason Aaron.

Oh hmm actually. I can see when good Scrooge fights bad Scrooge in the climax he will do a big speech that will last a good 4 pages and will teach bad Scrooge what it takes to be a real Scrooge. That sounds stupid enough to be a Marvel thing but not so stupid as to become completely ridiculous.

I’m not expecting actual references to other established comic Scrooge AU’s. We will probably have Barks and Rosa references and that’s it. I’m not even expecting a Van Horn reference tbh. It’s all Barks and Rosa we gotta keep it beginner friendly. It might even just be Rosa. Which indirectly will result in a Barks reference because every Rosa reference is just a Barks reference but with extra steps.

I’m trying to make predictions okay? So I can go I SAID SO when it comes out. It’ll be really funny for me and annoying for you guys. You don’t even have to read this (yet). This is just for in the future so I can look like a wizard.

The scene where Gyro explains the multiverse might just get copied one on one. Maybe Gyro will be replaced by Ludwig? At least I don’t think they will have Scrooge just go: oh yeah ive seen this before. Maybe another Scrooge will explain it to him/secretly the reader. It WILL involve a big cosmic looking image that will represent the multiverse. It just has to. Even if just to show the Marvel audience how good these Italian Scrooge artists are.

I don’t think Donald or the nephews are gonna play a big role. Maybe at the beginning and end, maybe they will somehow stay in contact with Scrooge or he thinks about them a few times to remind us of hey this is Donald Duck. But I think most is gonna be a solo Scrooge adventure just like we have already seen.

Idk. I really want to talk more about Infinity Dime because it’s the most exciting US made Disney comic in ages. Idk why no one else seems to be hyped. Where is all the rambling and speculation guys?? Not about the covers, but about the actual story!

Anyways now we get to the most important question: do i think it will feature Magica?

Maybe. (Definitely not gonna play a big role if she even appears. Maybe a cameo when at some point there will be a dramatic flashback… Or she could show up in one of the AU’s. Maybe just a short scene in the beginning showing his usual life but that sounds lame. Probably not gonna have a role in the story at least, and I kinda hope it won’t have any Magica at all because I’m scared that they will go of off Rosa’s characterization lol.)

Ok Remember to infinity your dimes and uncle your scrooges gby

[whynotjohnlock]

Hey, would you mind to (maybe if you have time) write some headcanons or a small fic about how the tenth doctor would react if the reader had a panic attack or an anxiety attack? No pressure though, it’s fine if you don’t want to:) thank you in advance and have a great day

*awkwardly walks away, tripping over their own feet*

look at this man. Look at this silly little time lord who wants nothing more than for you to be and happy.

A/N: I have Anxiety around people too anon, no need to walk away. Also, I tryed to just do a reaction, but I may have gone a bit overboard.

Hedcanons:

At first, he's probably oblivious. He's ranting about the slightest differences in coffee on different countries around Earth and Avantiam 5, and the ways they are worse than tea because apparently the time lords invented that too.

When he turns his head toward you during an adventure and he sees you hyperventilating and anxious hands flailing or just any nervous stimms you have he stops and forgets what he was ranting about immediately.

Whenever you're in a panic, he will walk up to you very slowly to show he means you no harm.

Then he man will ask if you're ok to be held. If you've said yes he will give you a nice hug. "Hey, just listen to my heartbeats, ok?"

If not, he understands and regardless of your answer, is most definitely giving his dark oncoming storm eyes to anything or any anyone that made you feel this stressed. "You don't need to do anything other than breath." "Let's get you to the TARDIS."

If it's a person ridiculeing you for any reason, like weirdness, weight, neurodivergence, height, beliefs, or not raseing your eyebrows correctly on a planet that talks only with facial expressions, he is here for you.

Will definitely use his sonic to scan for embarrassing secrets about the person insulting you. "Looks like someone busted their netocrosis pathalovain tube!" (What that means only the doctor knows, but apparently that was enough to make the Alien back off.)

Sonic won't work for whatever reason? He'll just use psychic paper. "How dare you insult the grand leader of the Draconia-Morphious-Nebula! I could have you filed for high treason!"

If all else fails he is not above being all like, "I am a 900+ year old time lord an you will respect my friend or you will never have the ability to disrespect anyone else."

Once you get away from the thing causing you to have a panic attack, and he's stoped whatever everyday universe ending phonominon was happening that day, he's driving the TARDIS to stationary floating in space to ensure that you're alright.

Is a full blown Mother Hen™ and will get you snacks and blankets so you can snuggle up with warmth. "Are you sure you're ok to go to the next adventure already?" "Doctor, we've been here for like three days!" "I know but humans- I don't want to traumatize every companion I have."

The TARDIS is an infinite dimensional spaceship and you have full access to billions of shows or videogames or VR. Literally, all you have to do is be nice, and you have a world of comfort and distractions to get your mind off of any troubles.

If you're alright with it, he's totally down with cuddles to calm any remaining nerves. When you hold each other, he can rest knowing he's not alone and live in a wonderful moment of contentment.

As you fall asleep in his arms or not, he takes a moment to reflect before going back to tinkering on the TARDIS.

You have stood with the doctor facing down Galactic Empires and Gods, and he is never ashamed of you for having panic attacks. He thinks of you, as he does of his previous companions. Humans only have one life of usually no more than 100 years, and yet they are brave, far braver than most time lords who can live millennia with around 12 lives.

He almost feels silly for being afraid of life ending threats just thinking about it. Him, the doctor, afraid.

The Doctor is amazed. He is in awe of you.

[pong03]

Towa analysis

Towa, fan fave and a personal favorite of mine. Lets get started: I think we all know that Towa has powers beyond his stigma or maybe his stigma consists of multiple powers. Regardless, Towa is extremely powerful and quite possibly the most powerful ghoul at darkwick currently, given Ed's state and how he alludes to his possible looming demise. With all this power though it makes me quite curious about the Zenji and Towa scene from chapter three and if Towa is actually capable of perceiving Zenji, whether or not if he can see Zenji the marks of his "wins" are visible to Towa, he is the one who marks them down. In the photo cut scene Zenji is visible but that doesn't mean Towa sees anything more than the biwa. The dates, I'm assuming they're dates, he writes could just be the days the biwa visits the cave, and Towa is unable to see or hear Zenji, given the disjointed nature of the conversation. I feel like it is up to the viewer's interpretation as of now even with the knowledge of chapter five, given his ability to talk to plants I would not be surprised if he could see Zenji. I feel though it could truly go either way. The disjointed nature of the scene is a foreshadowing to Zenji's lack of presence, or foreshadowing to there being much more to Towa than we gather from even chapter 3. I think if we just left off from the reveal in hotarubi's chapter it would be logical to assume Towa is just responding to the biwa, but there is a point to the scene in chapter 6 that Towa has additional powers allowing him to hear things others do not. Along with a bit more about Towa's personality, although he is silly, I think Towa's major flaw is the fact he is selfish. I think every ghoul has their flaws and that is what makes the characters so real. I don't think of Towa as being particularly malignant he just little concerns himself with the needs of others. This wouldn't be so bad if the people who surrounded Towa weren't so stubborn to ask for help. Haru works and works without much of a break as we have seen, and Towa can often be harmful to these efforts. Although I think if Haru asks for help Towa would frequently oblige, it's just when things don't go Towa's way he can become explosive and Haru seems aware of that and would rather not risk it. over all I think of the characters Towa is a flawed character where people ignore incorporating flaws he has into his characters making him seem flat and one dimensional in fan fiction. This guy is impatient if anything and quite careless and you can do a lot with them if you included those features into your work and it would make him seem less out of character for those who struggle with writing him. He is sweet when people are direct but doesn't care to look deeper than what people give to him on the surface, that doesn't negate from his sillyness, it kind of adds because it makes his character more disjointed from the surrounding characters, especially MC and Haru.

[mdhwrites]

Gravity Falls Versus The Owl House: How Did It Write It's Women; A Flawed Comparison

If you compare a wlw story and an mlm story and ask which story used women better, 9/10 you're going to to get the answer you expect. One story prioritizes a gender over the other and so they are going to utilize that gender better, just how like some genres will inherently be in a better place to use certain elements better. Would you compare a shounen show and a slice of life show for which one has better action? No, because that would be an unfair comparison.

That is what this blog is actually about. It's about rhetorical devices we use in our debates and arguments. Because why do people even ask this question? Dipper is the main character of Gravity Falls, above all others. Luz is the main character of TOH, above all others. His core supporting cast is mostly guys with one who is a girl, Mabel, who is used as a comedic balance to him and then one more beyond that with Wendy. Luz has a primarily female cast around her with the exceptions of one core member, King, who is used as a comedic balance to her, and Gus beyond that. Both shows include both genders but by all means, they do not use them in the same way. Their priorities are different. Gravity Falls is a very male centric story. TOH is a very female centric story. So... What's the better comparison?

Does The Owl House write male characters better than Gravity Falls writes its female characters? I can't give an answer to that because I haven't watched Gravity Falls but so long as you take in the legwork to make comparable comparisons, fair comparisons, I would say the core issue people have with how the secondary gender is used in each work is valid.

From what I have heard, the problem people have with the female characters in Gravity Falls is that they're underutilized and that their plots focus around romance. Now, romance is not a negative thing in and of itself so we need to properly analyze this complaint. The problem with the focus being on romance is that the homogeny of it across characters flattens them, made worse by using something that is seen as such a stereotypical, basic plot for the gender. Is there a counter to that amongst guys? Yeah. Machismo. If you write a dude character, inadequacy, proving himself and flexing his toxic masculinity is essentially the number one most basic plot because that's what testosterone does to someone.

We all remember that S1 King is literally just toxic masculinity incarnate, right? Like literally every episode is just about him using others in order to make himself look better before learning to treat people better but then not actually doing so. It's really shitty, one dimensional and oh right, that's also what Gus is doing in his two episodes (both of them include lying to make himself look better) and also Hunter's entire life in the EC is about proving himself better than others, even at the cost of others which is the closest this element comes to actually being addressed. So... Yeah, I would say that they are 2 dimensional, homogeneous characters who are all just some amount of stereotype of 'dude'. The loud dude, the silly dude and the tragic dude. And yes, we can argue that these change but Gus loses his entire character, Hunter just becomes tragedy and Gus goes with most common plot B for both genders: Daddy issues. It's like trying to say because Mabel also likes girly things, she's some nuanced character. A second stereotypical trait does not a stereotype fix.

So, once again, why do we ask which show wrote women better? Well, there's two cynical answers and one I find more interesting but sadly the least likely. The first is that Gravity Falls still has more clout than Amphibia, TOH and many other cartoons with female focus coming out right now. As such, being able to get an easy, cheap win makes the show you like more look better. It's explicitly using the unfair comparison maliciously, even if not consciously maliciously.

Two: For a lot of extremely valid and good reasons, we analyze how women are written and kind of just ignore writing the male gender. Like when was the last time you saw something, outside of I guess the times I've talked about how TOH is fucking awful at writing guys, analyzing male writing that wasn't just whining about not putting a female lead into the work they want. To make it clear, that's not what this is. Even now, I do have to include that I don't think TOH's writers were being misandrists or the like. No, this comparison explicitly showcases how the show recycled how other shows handle their secondary gender and thus recreated all of its problems. It's not malicious but it is something that happens when you aren't being actually smart about your storytelling .

Three: TOH never really even attempts to pretend like its male characters are anything but jokes. Like... Literally ever. The closest is trauma child Hunter and the point of him is "Look how miserable this fucker is." Otherwise, they rarely come up in plotlines, especially plotlines the fandom remembers, and are the constant butt of jokes. Episode one of TOH has King be mocked for the things he will be mocked for for the entire season and his one moment of real pathos being how childish he is and that being a bit charming. Compare that to episode one of Gravity Falls where even as early as that, the push and pull of priorities between the twins is creating conflict between them but also strength between them. The first time a male character is given ANYTHING like that is Hunter, who shows up in S2 and Hunter is not complex. People want him to be, which is why people talk about JUST Hunter, but in general, he isn't. He's just a worse Amity because he is simplified to just trauma and the need to prove himself and little more.

Quick note: Yes I'm focusing on the guys on the good side but the Collector and Belos are still both examples of toxic masculinity, just, you know, very explicitly and in very awful ways when related to the modern day. Also, neither get much screen time really. They're both absentee villains, leading to stuff like how The Collector is an entirely inconsistent character and Belos doesn't get things like a backstory.

All of this though, the lack of attention, importance, etc. like that creates the fact that... Why would you want to talk about the guys? Why would you consider them to be a similar grouping to the girls in Gravity Falls? It is genuinely a fair blind spot. I mean, who fucking remembers the fact that King has three plus B plots in S1 where the whole premise is "King gets a minion and learns that using people is a bad thing?" Those parts of the show are boring, bland and repetitive so just dump them and move on.

People compare the girls in Gravity Falls to other shows because they care about them. That's WAY better than you can say about the guys in TOH. That doesn't make the comparison fair though so if you really wanna do some proper analysis, maybe think a little broader next time? Otherwise, you might forget to take a whole gender of people seriously, just like both of these shows. See you next tale.

======+++++======

Small note: Just like how a romance plot for a female character is not inherently a bad idea, neither is one about incompetence and machismo for a male one. It's the stereotypical story for that gender for a reason because boy are we some stupid dumbasses out to prove ourselves.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[amphiptere-art]

I've been on vacation and I don't know if I've shared any of these ideas. I think they've mostly stuck to discord conversations. So I'm going to post them out here.

Number one thing. Blue Moon will exist in arcade in a more... Standard fashion. Arcade Eclipse. While technically looking exactly like Blue Moon and supposed to be blue moon. Isn't really Blue Moon. They are blue moons origin. They are what Blue Moon was supposed to be. Blue Moon evolved far past that. So I'm going to be making a new Blue Moon in Arcade! As cannibalistic and teenager/child-esk as possible. Now of course dimensional travel does not exist in arcade. Magic does though. And so can shitty parents. I'm still working on this version. So I'm not sure what the new sporadic danger will be. But this is going to be based on after story Blue Moon a little bit. Where they are totally with crimple, and old lunar is a much bigger force.

Onward to objective number two. Which is something I've actually been holding on to for the Stardust arcade storyline. But vapor will be existing. Vapor still has a tragic ass backstory and suffers from abandonment issues. But they will exist. Hopefully I will get to the part where I explain their story at some point. As they will be fading out of Stardust arcade once I introduced them. But the basic is. Vapors smoke still does stuff. But it's more out of a magic-y panic. Vapor wasn't forgotten because of some star juice magic. But instead just because the company was being an ass and told everybody he was dead when he wasn't. Wondering around thinking is abandoned until the Stardust storyline catches up to him.

Another thing! Again to be introduced in Stardust. Sundown, Sköll, Leiðr, code Moon, are all existing. They will be introduced in Sundown for a small scene. Sundowns entire little town is also coming with. And also. For those of you who were really confused about that one post where I talked about how relationships are going by my own arcade rules now. Sundown and Sköll are a thing.

Also! The sulky star cluster. They are also being moved over because I fucking love them. Stories are remaining mostly the same except doled down, and singular worlds are just establishments. I still haven't quite settled on the biker gang concept. But they are leaning that direction. Where they are basically a gang of delinquents that wander around and just kind of do shit. They have a Hangout spot at Sundowns. Also to be introduced in Stardust.

Another thing. I have been calling this thing the Neptune pack. But it is essentially a pack of blood moons run by a leader. They are going to be a bunch of hyenas. Might play a part with vapor. But either way they are going to be a group of aggressive fighting robots. Only held together by what I can only describe as a gang leader. It's an interesting concept and it will be coming soon.

Another thing. I have been thinking of honey and cider. I'm currently caught between doing a similar thing that happened in sulky star cluster. Or trying to figure out what happened to their singular establishment that would lead to the same results as cannon. Might do a bit of both. But they will be coming. Although I think they will also be separated like it's tough to be a god AU. As their interactions have been quite sparse.

Last thing that is not related to arcade. I have come up with this concept of a clockwork sun, and shipwrecked moon. I have been listing off little scenarios in a discord. And I will definitely make a separate post for them. I'm just not going to post the whole idea here because this is mostly around arcade. But this little silly scenario is currently in the works.

Anyways I think that's everything I thought about over the vacation. Have a nice fun time reading this because I'm not actually going to write a shortened version until I have these figured out all the way. Toodles.

[courtney-deserved-better]

i wrote down all my thoughts episode by episode when i watched the new season. here they are. enjoy!

episode one

just from her intro priya is giving me courtney vibes

i love zee’s voice

ripper’s voice jumpscared me

LAUREN??? why does she have a baby voice

okay WHAT is going on between emma and chase

i love mk’s voice

wayne and raj are already annoying me

this cast is so bi

NICHELLE I LOVE YOU

julia’s intro is so fucking funny

wait its been 15 years and chris and chef look the exact same??

this is actually pretty funny/witty

MURDER HORNETS?? FROM THE EARLY PANDEMIC ERA??

millie is so fucking funny just writing down everyone being dumb though i do wonder if ppl are gonna find her reserach and turn on her like courtney’s list [prediction: correct]

okay wayne is still annoying but wearing a cup on total drama is the smartest move anyone has ever made

“straight couples amiright?” to “straight couples are messed up” 10/10 gay writing for bowie right there

bowie!! finally a smart elimination!! sorry caleb

episode two

emma bowie friendship is everything

SCARY GIRL UNDER THE STAIRS

axel you are everything to me

MK YOU ABSOLUTE GENIUS LISTENING TO PEOPLES CONFESSIONALS!!!!!

YES AXEL KICK HIM IN THE FACE

that’s probably gonna get her eliminated though [prediction: correct]

this pirate music is so fun

are priya’s parents friends with sierra’s mom or something

chris drew a shark on his hand to remember to release the sharks (but fr that doesn’t seem like og chris he wouldn’t have forgotten. its the old age)

scary girl vs the frogs of death… scary girl is gonna win. idk how but she will

ZEE IS GONNA WIN ON HIS OWN. PLEASE

nooooooooo

now zee or axel are gonna go home and i like them both :(

okay wayne and raj are getting less annoying and more endearing. surfer dudes vibes. also its cute how wayne calls raj rajy

okay that was kind of an awesome amputee reveal

sdlkfghjfdghjkfdls zee exploiting his disability to stay on the show. king.

NOOOOOOOO HOW DARE YOU CHOOSE RIPPER OVER AXEL. literally my least fav and my fav

yes!! bite him!!

episode three

nichelle as a flight attendant so cute!!

priya i love you. new favorite. millie as well their friendship is so cute

zee just out here lying. love that

raj bowie relationship??

wait nevermind

WAIT CANCEL THE NEVERMIND. MIND.

actually that’s so cute. wayne is just gonna be oblivious isn’t he [prediction: incorrect. extremely incorrect]

freckled intern is so cute

damien you are so smart and so dumb i love you

ripper really said sexism huh

scary girl is so one dimensional but so silly

there are bears living in the climbing wall????

chref married moment

mk i love you

new predicition priya is gonna prove herself to the team and do awesome but still not win and ripper is eliminated [prediction: incorrect]

mk you are so smart i love you

i love emma’s vengeance

raj you are having a gay awakening and i am HERE for it

new new prediction, damien will get himself voted out so he can leave

well he pretty much confirmed that as soon as i hit play again [prediction: correct?]

ZEE WORM MOMENT

i gotta say i do appreciate the openly gay character not to be the pining one

oof yeah i kinda saw this coming with nichelle

“cringe” okay fair bowie

WHAT IS SHE DOING WITH THAT BEAR

nichelle is having a fucking. existential crisis

goodbye nichelle :(

episode four

sdlkhgfjklsghfkdjs the arrow signs

chase is here to be awful huh

do they all have hydroflasks

millie and priya are so cute i love them

priya training millie is gonna be the death of this friendship, however [prediction: kinda correct?]

THE WAY SHE TURNED HER HEAD

zee you are so dumb i love you

THIS IS A CAPTURE THE FLAG EPISODE??? LIKE IN ICE ICE BABY?? FUCK YES

new prediction, scary girl is getting voted out for being scary [prediction: correct]

also why did chris announce her as lauren and then everyone’s called her scary girl

new prediction, mk is gonna win bc she’s good at stealing [prediction: kinda correct?]

since when is chef responsible

never mind he’s not

chref moment

okay wayne and raj have officially gone from annoying to endearing. i love them now

SHES DOING THAT THING WITH HER NECK AGAIN

mk scarlett moment lmao

RAJ AND BOWIE REALLY DID THAT HUH

yeah this is for sure raj’s gay awakening

ripper’s voice actor sounds so familiar i gotta look him up

YOURE TELLING ME WAYNE FIGURED IT OUT BEFORE RAJ??? WAYNE??? I THOUGHT HED BE OBLIVIOUS THIS WHOLE TIME??? but fr that was so cute im actually impressed with how theyre writing this whole thing because yknow. its total drama

ripper. please leave.

PRIYAS FACE. AUGH

nooooo scary girl. that was a great exit though. but millie why didn’t you vote with priya?? i know something’s up

“she took the skull?” “she took the skull” LMFAO

episode five

okay this priya millie thing is becoming a commando zoey arc [prediction: kinda correct?]

i love millie’s hair

damien is really campaigning against himself lmao. what if he wins that would be so fucking funny [prediction: incorrect]

nooooooo not the farting episode

animatronic raptors, im calling it [prediction: incorrect??]

what the FUCK is chase’s ass doing. horrifying

extreme bi zee moment

CHASE HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ZEE LIKE THIS

zee you are a genius i love you

wayne is so ready to be supportive this is so cute (im also shocked that they differentiated between gay and bi on fucking. total drama.)

them skating is so cute

AWWWW EMMA BOWIE HUG

mk’s tell all about the confessionals is gonna be shown as footage to make ppl maaaaaaaad [prediction: kinda correct?]

ITS THE FUCKING KITCHEN RAPTOR SCENE

julia is a dawnkota baby

MK YOU ABSOLUTE GENIUS

noooo justice for that raptor

holy shit damien. im actually starting to think you might win now [prediction: incorrect]

WHAT IS THIS BEACH SUNSET ROMANCE SCENE

new prediction: bowie and raj are gonna have a thing and keep it a secret and mk is gonna find out and air it like with julia’s video and then wayne is gonna be upset raj never got the chance to tell him [prediction: incorrect]

VOTE RIPPERS ASS OUT NOW HES BEEN ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK TOO MANY TIMES TO NOT LOSE NOW

WHAT NOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOU GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME I WANT RIPPER GONE. GONE!!!

so are they straight up not gonna explain the dinosaurs

episode six

sklhgjfkdshgfdjklshgjkflds chris yelling at the fans and chef reigning him in

millie and priya are gonna be the top wlw ship for this cast, they’ve gotta be

JULIA VILLAIN ARC

ripper sucks but “you cant slap a man with his own burrito” was fucking funny

THE LUCKY BEARDS WHAT

why is the hairball thing more funny than gross

mk you are becoming icarus babygirl [prediction: kinda correct?]

emma. destroy this man.

priya. destroy this man.

millie and priya are SO FLIPPIN CUTE

when would chef ever say safety first on og total drama. this is dramarama chef in the total drama universe

get wrecked chase

BIG CRAB BIG CRAB BIG CRAB

THE PUDDING SHARKS

bowie you are an icon i love you im so glad they didnt make you a pathetic guy

“its like im—“ like you’re what chris?? what?? 

WHAT WHAT KISS WHAT

WAYNE LMFAO

EVEN THE SHARKS SHIP IT

also its so cute how wayne is waiting for raj to tell him on his own terms even though he knows????

prediction: zee doesn’t make it to the 10k bc his leg falls off and messes with priya’s calculations [prediction: mostly incorrect]

zee is out here lyingggggg i love him

PREDICTION CANCELLED THE LEG HELPED HIM I LOVE YOU ZEE

“thats not how the laws of physics work” millie i love you

what the fuck is zee actually high

this episode is sooooooooo bowie/raj millie/priya

good fucking bye julia

nooooooo mk don’t let this happen i love her

bowie really said YEET

as he should that was smart

YES MK YOU GENIUS YOU CAN DO THIS

nooooooooooooo

anyway bowie’s little “i got kissed” thing was very cute

wait… mk is an alenoah baby

episode seven

priya/millie gives me bridgney vibes tbh

wayne you are such a sweet ally i love you

its merge time!

is this foreshadowing for an emma/priya finale? that would slap and we’ve never had an f/f finale before. i feel like there’s too much setup for them to get voted off before then though [prediction: half correct, half incorrect]

ripper you are so dumb how did you make the merge. fuck you man

chase and emma are getting stuck together aren’t they. sigh. [prediction: incorrect]

this is skave all over again. julia get chase outta here

oh thank god i thought there was gonna be bowie/raj/wayne trouble over partners but that was easy. friendship babey!!

wayne trying to be so hard to be supportive is actually the best drawn out plot line this show has ever had because its so dang wholesome

julia’s voice sounds familiar too gotta look her up

the zee & ripper cassowary scene is giving major noah & owen komodo dragon scene vibes

OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FREAKING CUTE??? AND HEALTHY??? RAJ TALKING ABOUT CONSENT AND BOWIE BEING REALISTIC ABOUT THE GAME I CANT

emma’s dance is so cringe but i appreciate the enthusiasm

jesus christ emma and chase CANNOT get back together

julia when the fuck did you get smart

did she just stare in horror at her hand having 5 fingers instead of four. what.

wait fuck why didn’t i see it before. priya is a zoerra baby

DID THEY JUST FUCKING. REPLICATE THE COURTNEY DEER RESCUE SCENE. WHAT.

they’re so gay i love them

THIS IS THE NOWEN KOMODO DRAGON SCENE

ripper you better fucking not who are you heather with all the times youve escaped immunity?? watching you go down is gonna be SWEET

what is this the rapa phooey episode

also GET FUCKED RIPPER

oh millie…

this is the fucking stepbrothers getting wrecked by that kangaroo

okay i wish that confession was better but it was very sweet

oh zee. what is happening

NOOOOOO DONT GET BACK WITH THAT DICK EMMA

NOOOOOOOOO

WAIT THE HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE LEAVING?? NOOOO

and not even a goodbye with bowie :(

them singing was pretty funny though

episode eight

zee you’re so silly i love you

bowie you’re so gay i love you. also the mouthguard gift was incredibly geoff of raj

why is the food rainbow and what was that cooking sequence

julia is having a real heather moment huh

bowie you are so right to diss chase

this is really just brunch of disgustingness isn’t it

damn millie really just dipped

…that’s why the food was rainbow

at least its less disgusting than actual puke colors

bummed bowie’s out already though

zee is gonna win this he’s gotta [prediction: incorrect :( ]

julia don’t do my boy zee like this

HA YOU CAN’T

are they having this wheel spin in the order of the rainbow

ZEE YOU ARE AN ICON

chase and emma. stop.

oh thank fucking god they did.

noooooo priya you trained for this

zee what do you mean you’ve never drank milk. zee. what.

noooooooo my boy

but actually its funny that MILK is the thing zee gets grossed out by because he knows nothing about it

HE JUST RAN OUT THE WALL

…THEY HAVE TO  EAT. A FUCKING T A P E W O R M ???????????????

that is not chef. chef would not tell chris to not serve the tapeworm

WHY DOES THE TAPEWORM GET A CONFESSIONAL

fucking. lady and the tramp moment. get wrecked ripper

why did we have to end with THAT

if millie gets out and not ripper. i will SCREAM

THANK FUCKING GOD GET FUCKED RIPPER

episode nine

wait this alliance is awesome actually

zee my beloved

double alliance zee moment. please let this be what makes him win and not what gets him booted

no this is soooooo foreshadowing for zee getting booted [prediction: correct]

this is so fucking dramarama chef he’s got the unicorn drink and everything

FISH SLAP THAT MOTHERFUCKER

the bears digging a grave lmaooooo

how many waterfall jumpscares can this show have

“why are you like this” best chef line

since when does chef care about the kids. what.

CHASE CRASHING INTO THE CONFESSIONAL LMAO

another fucking volcano. of course

leave his ass emma

and julia better not get immunity i stg

another bisexual zee moment. but buddy you are getting voted off for this :(

god damn it julia

chef chiding bowie was so funny

bowie why are you gunning for priya??

GET CHRIS’ ASS ZEE!! SERIOUS GAMECHANGER SURVIVOR EPISODE MOMENT

oh zee. buddy :(

slkjhfgdkjhgfdjksghfdkjslk zee pointing out the confessional nonsense

episode ten

priya with a bun!! so cute!!

MILLIE WITH A PONYTAIL

carry me?? puppy eyes?? girlfriends. girlfriends.

okay im vibing with this challenge

everyone saying no to switching poles with chase is so funny he’s so lame

i love watching everyone slowly lose it

why is everyone so obsessed with letting priya read millie’s notebook. poor writing methinks

“skewer the children”

i would win this challenge. btw.

bowie’s gonna stir up drama isn’t he

THE PHONE please be usable

please dont let this be the end of priya and millie

emma punching everyone lmao

awww we still get raj/bowie

noooo priya

julia if you win immunity 3 times in a row. well that’s just poor writing

chase you are god awful

YOW CHASE

aww dancing emma

chase gets eliminated this episode bc everyone know how much he sucks calling it [prediction: correct]

what the fuck was that dive

GIRL NO

PRIYA AND MILLIE AWWW

nooo bowies gonna get millie out [prediction: technically correct? but much later on?]

i love chef chastising everyone 

why are there only 4 marshmallows 

THANK GOD GET FUCKED CHASE

noooooooooooooo emma why

they really said the final five is for the girls and gays 

episode eleven

PRIYA MILLIE GIRLFRIENDS this is such s5 gwourtney energy

evil julia behind the door lmao

bowie is right to be annoyed emma wtf

bowie does NOT get out like this. if its him or emma emma’s gotta go [prediction: correct]

okay i know its a selfie challenge but this is creative and fun i like it

elimination prediction: emma/millie, julia, priya v bowie finale [prediction: mostly correct]

smart move emma. also chris sending ppl stuff in a group chat for a challenge is so funny to me

emma don’t betray my boy bowie like this for your garbage bf

priya and millie ragging on julia we love to see it

wait numbers wise there’s gotta be a double elim. and if its priya and millie ill cry

emma please get eliminated now

emma you suck

please don’t let that pic of priya disqualify her

nooooooo priya and millie :( bowies gotta win this

julia just waltzing through the challenge lmao

GET HER ASS RAPTOR

noooooo bowie 

god dammit julia

wait nvm good on you for turning it against emma

only three marshmallows??

FUCK YES BOWIE

wait the immune person doesn’t get a marshmallow nvm

girl you are delusional 

episode twelve

millie is adorable

aww priyas pjs

shut julia downnnnn

bowies plan is actually so good 

julia bun!! cute!!

chef talking ab the monster lol

love all these two person confessionals

priya you absolute girlboss

stop throwing millie tokens!!

ooooooo bowie blowup

julia do NOT win this

awwwwwww millie

everything about this priya millie plot line is incredible 

GET FUCKED JULIA

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

HA GET FUCKED JULIA

uh oh that gift is the notebook

bowie you ICON

episode thirteen

awwwww millie

priya having a courtney moment

THEYRE BACK!! CUTE RAJ/BOWIE MOMENT and eww emma chase

damien good choice

ripper rippppppppp

nooooooo axel. julia is unfortunate 

girl brought a CONTRACT

why is ripper lowkey helpful

NICHELLES FACE axel i love you

damien you’re so supportive i love you

LAVA LAKE WHAT

bowie i love you

the popcorn lmao love the commentary 

awwww raj 

love the angry betrayed priya energy she’s like the new courtney

MY FINAL TWO PREDICTION WAS RIGHT

bowie that was COLD

THAT APOLOGY WAS BEAUTIFUL 

wayne and raj crying awww

this really is season 3 finale 

what is this spongebob music while bowie talks about eating goat

new chef is just og chef

these milk drinking shots are horrible 

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSA FIRST EVER TIME MY FAV WON

awww raj and bowie

i legit think this is my favorite season of total drama ever :’)

[marley-manson]

Out of curiosity, how would you describe ways people are misogynistic about female characters they like? I can probably guess, ("she's a perfect angel", "she's two dimensional now because everything she does is excusable", "she's the mother", etc.) but I would like to hear your take on it

Yeah that's definitely one of the categories of commentary I was thinking of. Reducing her down to a badass lady with the sole braincell, ignoring flaws and complexities and completely smoothing out her personality, mom friend lol, you nailed that. Also the classic awesome lady and her silly boys style threesome stuff, or the canon love interest in m/m who is totally understanding and supportive and steps aside or welcomes an open relationship happily. It's super annoying and tbqh I'd by far rather see people completely ignore a fictional woman's existence than frame her like that. Honestly, I'd rather see genuine character bashing of a love interest lol, because at least in those fics she usually has a personality, and sometimes even gets to do interesting things.

On the het fan side of things I'd also include a loooooooot of the ways people write and talk about het romance. I see a lot of female character fans, usually the kind who are resentful of m/m and call gay shippers misogynist a lot, who act like their favourite fictional woman can only attain personal fulfillment if she gets together with the dude they ship her with and see anyone who doesn't ship her with a dude (often including f/f fans) as like, maliciously depriving her of happiness lol.

But also all those little heteronormative things that add up - the woman is 'spunky' or 'sassy' (because the man has the power), she falls very neatly into the small weak feminine category to contrast with the manly dude with rough calloused hands (no matter how effeminate the dude actually is lol), she's nurturing and comforting and reads the dude's mind to provide him exactly what he needs and is tolerant and indulgent of his shittiness, her good looks are pointed out a lot, she's a great mom no matter what her canon personality is, etc etc.

And then there's the ship wars lol. Being a fan of a fictional woman absolutely does not mean you love all fictional women, and a lot of the absolute nastiest most misogynist statements I've seen in fandom have come from rival hetshippers wanking. You want to see a woman called a screeching harpy or a fugly slut or a manipulative whore or whatever else lol dive into a fandom with rival het ship wars. My favourite woman is practically perfect in every way and deserves the dude, your favourite woman is a wanton hussy.

This also holds true for the very few f/f fandoms that have rival f/f ships ime. Even Xena fandom regularly had plenty of misogynist things to say about any woman who makes eyes at Gabrielle who isn't Xena lol.

Also I would argue that wider f/f fandom's really fucking annoying compulsion to smooth away all relationship and character flaws and write two perfect women braiding each others' hair and maybe delicately finger-fucking at best in fear of problematic dynamics and kinks is also misogynist at its core, at least as an inescapable trend if not on an individual basis. Though, on that individual basis, the rhetoric around policing problematic f/f is absolutely misogynist (and homophobic). Good women don't get off on power and abuse, we can only like totally egalitarian sex, you're probably a predator if you're into dark fiction, that kind of shit.

And of course that also goes for the rhetoric around fic in general and how much misogyny is aimed at women writing kinky shit or m/m etc, but that's a bit of a digression since it's aimed at real women rather than fictional characters, so I'll stop there.

Thanks for asking and giving me a chance to complain more lol <3

[maddys-nerd-blog]

Hello again!!

Things have been… not so great lately, but I’m slowly picking myself up again, and writing my silly AU has been a great comfort! I’m actually happy with this one!!

For context, this is how the second story to the trilogy ends— after Fugitoid sacrifices himself and after the death of Zeno, Grace is captured by Baron Draxum and he makes his move to harness the power of the dimensional portals, at the risk of using Grace as a battery.

WARNING! Katie swears A TON in this one, just be aware 🤣🤣 also A LOT OF ANGST AND WHUMP. AND this is a pretty long read 🤣

Hope you enjoy!!! 😁

Familia: Through Space and Time

“You should have reconsidered my offer when you had the chance… human.” Draxum’s hand extended towards her, bringing forth more vines that shook the ground beneath their feet. Before anyone could truly react to this unexpected turnaround Katie’s eyes snapped back up towards the empty chamber pods, lacking occupants for their sinister purpose.

Her heart dropped into her stomach upon putting the pieces together.

“DON’T TOUCH MY KIDS, YOU B—“ Katie was struck from behind by a tendril, launching her through the air as if she were a baseball. She barely had the chance to use the prosthetic arm to take the brunt of her crash landing into the nearby pillar.

“MOM!” Mondo shouted in alarm, going to rush to her aid, darts drawn into his fingers. But the gecko never had the chance to reach her as the floor split under his feet to widen significantly to create a massive gap between them, separating him from the detective entirely. “NO!” He went to attempt the leap but Raph grabbed his arm, holding him back and preventing him from what would have been a swift plunge to his untimely demise. “Mom, jump! We gotta go!”

“Run…!” Katie slurred, pushing herself up to stand on unsteady feet. “Jason, run!”

“Not without you!” Mondo cried.

“You have to!” Katie pleaded— she could feel her arm crack under the shoulder blade, the balljoint of her elbow pivoting to click back into place from being dislodged. “You gotta go home! The crystal will shatter if you don’t get a move on now! Forget about me and restart your life! Get out of here!”

Mondo’s eyes widened, orbs turning glossy. His hands clenched the darts tighter, trembling fists unwilling to relax, looking ready to break. “Not without you,” he croaked.

“You gotta,” Katie begged. Tears pricked her gaze. “Jason. Mijo. Please… think of me as a bad memory. I only brought pain into your life. Find your own path. Show the world how great you are. Live your life and be happy for me.” A grin filled with remorse took root, her resolve falling apart. “Do what I couldn’t, and prove them wrong.”

Mondo shook his head pleadingly. He repeated in a hoarse voice, “Not without you.”

“Oh, how touching,” Draxum crooned, a malicious chuckle shaking his shoulders. “Family loyalty. You’re too predictable!” With a flick of his hand more vines rose around him, thick tendrils of violet swarming within the gap that kept Katie from her boys. “I thought you wanted to go back home to see your dear friends?”

Mondo teeth his grit, incensed. Turning to face the yōkai he drew himself to stand straight, readying his darts in his hands to throw them. For one so small the fierce expression he wore now spoke volumes to how far he’d come. “I’m not leaving without my mom,” he snarled.

Draxum, relishing the way the poor boy’s hands began to quake subtlety in silent terror, merely scoffed. “She isn’t even your real mother! You’d really lay yourself down for this,” he motioned to Katie as if she were garbage. “Human?!”

“She’s more of a mom to me than my actual mom was!” Mondo shot back furiously. “And if any bozo thinks he can push my family around,” he pointed a dart at Draxum threateningly. “You got another thing coming!”

Katie’s mouth dropped open, words lost to her. Her hand started shaking, the useless robotic limb hanging at her side twitching as it fought to regain function. It was as though she were staring through a mirror; three years ago where she’d been put in a similarly defenseless position, cornered, outmanned, only for the equally unprepared Mondo to step in, so much smaller than he was now, brandishing a broken skateboard as his means of defense… he’d nearly been beaten to a pulp that night.

But the gecko wasn’t thirteen anymore. He had grown. He’d learned. He’d fought hard. And here he stood— unafraid and refusing to cower before this behemoth of a yōkai even if it meant certain death.

Pride bloomed within her chest, but alongside it a clawing panic set in. She stared at him with teary eyes, unable to help from afar, knowing if he so chose Draxum could easily rip her boy apart without an ounce of remorse.

“Oh?” The mad scientist hummed in bemusement. “You, a mere leopard gecko, are going to stand up to me?”

“Not just him,” Raph’s gruff voice broke through against the strain, stepping beside the shorter of the group with his sai drawn, twirling them in his hands before taking a defensive stance. Brown eyes were razor sharp, his canines bared as though he were going to bite back. “Yer gonna have t’ go through me too.”

“What am I, chopped turtle?” Drawing his twin katana, Leo proudly took a spot at Raph’s side, blades glinting brilliantly in the light, electric blue magic dancing up and down his fingertips. “I wanna take a swing at this guy. I’ve been dying to get some payback.”

Draxum frowned with disapproval. “I thought you feared me?”

“Here’s the thing, Drax-Dumbass,” Leo’s eyes flashed dangerously with hatred. “I’m not scared of you anymore.”

“Neither am I!” Donnie fired back, pushing his glasses further up his snout. “You may be bigger and stronger than us, but you’re just like Cynthia and Superfly! You’re a bully who punches down on people who can’t fight back!”

“And nothing scares Casey Jones!” The vigilante added with a cocky smirk, grabbing his hockey stick and pointing it at the taller being standing before them. “I’ve fought alien dinosaurs, bro! What do you got that makes you so special?”

Draxum— eerily— shook his head, a thin set of lips crawling upwards to curve into this strange, sinister smirk that held hidden intent. Tilting his head towards the teens he raised one hand, fingers curled. “This.”

Snap.

The ground tumbled violently below their feet; without a word of warning thicker, bulkier vines exploded out of the ground to swarm the five. Katie’s heart stopped as they grew in size, swiping the kids off their feet in mere moments to catch them by surprise. Gravity took hold of the vigilantes for a few seconds before the vines ensnared their limbs, tearing weapons from struggling hands, choking the thin throats of their captives momentarily as they were all thrown into a newly formed cage made of the same grotesque vines.

“BOYS!” Katie screamed. Arm be damned she unclipped her pistol from her holster and started racing forward, gun raised, her adrenaline pounding so hard and heavy she could hear her frantic heartbeat. Her fury overthrew the fear as she fired a few shots, the sounds piercing her eardrums. “PUT MY KIDS DOWN YOU MOTHERF—“

SHINK!

Katie’s body lurched backward. A powerful force seized her by the throat. Something got her prosthetic, and suddenly the right side of her body was ripped into an awkward angle.

The titanium screeched. Metal scraped on top of metal. The wires snapped and blood sprayed. She went flying.

All Katie could see in that instant was violet. Red. White.

WHAM! Her back struck the wall with a telltale crackling of her spine— her arm was suddenly holding up all her body weight, keeping her from outright fainting and buckling. The arm ceased to function.

Katie’s hearing went spotty— bits and pieces of her boys screaming, someone throwing death threats. The room tilted on its axis, making her nauseated. There was a creaking groan next to her ear as the tension in her shoulder tightened around the muscle tissue it had been fused with. The skin began to tear.

It only took a minute for her to realize that Draxum had skewered her arm into the wall, pinning her in place as though she were a butterfly within a display case. The robotic appendage fizzled and short circuited, three bolts missing from her wrist, some panels torn wide open to expose the sensitive wiring to the elements, her ring finger missing.

Fuck…

“Not so bold without your toy to help you,” Draxum lowered himself to the ground as if he were a godly entity; higher than thou, wickedly elegant in his body mannerisms. “Humans are so quick to use petty weapons in a last ditch effort to prevent the inevitable.”

The cage rattled with a violent clang as Raph began to wail on the bars, throwing his entire body weight against its walls, shaking it from floor to ceiling. “STEP AWAY FROM OUR MA, YA CREEP!”

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” Donnie shook the bars in his hands to pry them apart, unfortunately he was too weak to attempt such a powerful feat, straining his arms, groaning under the pressure he put them through.

Casey and Leo were ramming and beating the walls with a fiery vengeance; neither one of them would be able to break their prison apart, but they fought like hellfire to escape. “Pick on someone your own size!” The punk cried out.

“Case, he IS Katie’s size.” Leo bluntly retorted through gritted teeth, throwing his shoulder into the bars.

“NOT helping, dude!”

No one fought harder than Mondo. The shorter of the bunch scaled the bars and ceiling, punching and kicking, slashing with short nails at the veins in an effort to do damage. When that failed he leapt from one side to the next, clawing and biting, screaming in such a tone that left Katie astounded to hear such anger coming from such a small creature. “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY MOTHER YOU OVERGROWN SACK OF GARBAGE!”

Despite their cries Draxum pretended they weren’t there. He approached Katie, slow and methodical, a creepy aura to his frame. “And here I thought you would fight harder than this to try and get my mutagen. Or the formula.” He snatched her by the chin and yanked her head up to meet the eyes of the psychotic scientist. “Are you really this worthless, or am I catching you on a bad day?”

“Fuck yourself, you cuck!” Katie spat blood in his face, writhing against him. “You’re a cheater! You don’t fight fair! Why don’t you take me down and I’ll show you how New Yorkers deal with bastards who try and fuck with this city!”

The yōkai madman shook his head, unmoved by the fury that claimed the woman, swiping the crimson off of his cheek with a claw. “And just how do you intend to stop me now? You don’t seem to understand the gravity of your situation!”

“I understand it plenty.” Katie ripped her face out of his hand, leveling a deadly glare at the man. “And I’ll do anything it takes to get my kids back home… even if I gotta sell my soul to the Devil himself.”

“You’re so sure of that.”

“I am.”

“Do you fear losing your chance at seeing your loved ones?”

“I don’t give a damn! The portals to my dimension were broken! I know I’m not going back!”

“What would you do if I broke the portals that would allow your dear ‘sons’ to go home?”

That threat caught deep in her chest, her heart stopping. Her face twisted into a blank stare of rage, fire burning in her eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

“I could. It will be so easy! One little swing of my vines and they’ll be destroyed.”

Katie’s body tremored, furious, breaths heaving through bared teeth. “You wouldn’t dare you ugly fuck.”

“Oh, but I COULD.” Draxum’s voice dipped deep into malice. “I’d relish in watching your mutants despair over losing their loved ones.” He sank his claws into her cheeks, punching through skin to draw droplets of blood. “And it would be glorious.”

“So you’re a sicko who likes watching people suffer? Make kids cry? Turning children into orphans?” Katie hissed. “You’re a pathetic piece of shit.”

“No. I’m a scientist. And my observations over you and your family is… telling.”

“AND you’re a stalker? Woooooow, you ARE unhinged!”

“You’re a classic case of depression. An alcoholic waste who hides behind a badge in the face of her constant failures. And your sons? They’re all mistakes! Take a gander at your ‘children’!” He dramatically gestured to her trapped sons with a flourish of his arm. “A mentally unstable hothead with an unstoppable temper, who can’t protect anyone even though he’s the most capable fighter! A weakling human who pretends he’s Robin Hood but in reality he’s compensating for the fact he’s nothing but a burden! A four eyed imbecile that needs to be protected because he knows he’s not special! My own creation; a traitor to my cause, a waste of valuable mutagen, a narcissist with a bigger ego than his father who doesn’t pay him the time of day, so he thinks comedy will allow him to stand out and be unique! And the gecko? He’s the worst of them! He can’t fight! Can’t battle! Can’t match up to his comrades in terms of dexterity, strength, speed or intellect! An unwanted runaway whose own parents threw him out because they knew their child would amount to nothing, even after he was mutated! Face it, ‘Officer’; you’ve collected a family of worthless vermin!”

CRACK!

For a brief moment there was a rush of movement.

Draxum yelled in astonishment. The wall holding Katie groaned. There was a sickly tearing noise before it stopped.

The yōkai staggered back, looking back at the woman, realizing he’d been unmasked. And he stared down at the human woman with bewilderment, noticing she’d almost torn her prosthetic arm off just to take a swing at him.

The shoulder’s balljoint popped halfway out of Katie’s socket. Katie’s body surged partially against the vines staking her limb to the wall, her one free hand slashing her fingernails across Draxum’s face hard enough to rip his mask off, the accessory clattering to the ground. Draxum blinked, a hand coming to touch his face— she’d actually cut the bridge of his nose and the bottom of his cheek.

Katie’s face was painted with bloodlust and murder. “DON’T TALK ABOUT MY KIDS LIKE THAT, YOU DEPLORABLE FUCKING CUNT!” She bellowed. If someone didn’t know any better they’d think she was half dragon— she looked as if she were breathing flames, ready to burn him alive for the sickening words that came from him. Red in the face she continued, “YOU DON’T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT MY KIDS! MY LIFE! OR ME! YEAH I FUCK UP A LOT, BUT AT LEAST I’M WOMAN ENOUGH TO ADMIT IT! YOU THINK THAT JUST CUZ YOU’RE A YŌKAI THAT IMMEDIATELY PUTS YOU ON A HIGHER PEDESTAL THAN THE REST OF US, BUT IN REALITY YOU’RE STILL PISSY THAT THE GUY YOU KIDNAPPED WON’T HELP YOU MAKE MORE KILLING MACHINES! DON’T GO MOCKING MY BOYS WHEN YOU’RE TOO MUCH OF A PANSY BITCH TO MAKE COMMENTS, YOU DUMB FUCK!”

In the cage the boy’s went dead silent with shock, jaws hitting the floor. “Whooooooa,” Casey and Leo awed.

“Did Mom just—“

“She totally tore him a new one.”

“Holy SHIT, I didn’t think she could swear so much.”

“SILENCE!” Draxum finally exclaimed. He conjured a vine from the earth, pointed end aimed right for her jugular, leaning in close for his breath to brush against her skin. Katie nearly retched. “I should slaughter you all right now, but I have use of you. Where did you put the Goro Crystal?!”

So that’s what this is about, Katie thought. “Like I would tell you.”

“Tell me or I will spear your esophagus!”

“Guess you’ll have to kill me, cuz I’m not saying shit.”

The tip of the vine gingerly pressed against her throat. Overhead the boys started creating more of an urgent ruckus, crashing and clanging the cage. “Tell me. Or you’ll experience a new kind of pain that you’ve never suffered.”

Katie’s death-like glare held firm. She wasn’t bending.

Draxum remained there, hovering, the vine perched and ready to strike if she so much as blinked. His fingers twisted— it pushed deeper, this time drawing blood, but not far enough to puncture the skin all the way. She was unfazed.

“Go ahead.” She challenged. “My boys will be safe if you never get that crystal.”

Draxum’s eyes flickered. It was as if he remembered something.

And an insidious expression crossed his face. Stepping back, the vine at her throat fell limp at her feet. The yōkai swiped his mask from the floor, straightening his posture as he put it back on. “Oh, wait!” He said. “I nearly forgot! We have a guest!”

Drawing his arm outward, one of his violet plant growths slithered towards him, toting the boys’ weapons. Deft fingers plucked one of Leo’s katana from the pile and he slashed at the air, creating a portal that sparked and whizzed with potent mystic energy. Tossing the sword aside he stuck an arm inside, latching on to something as he dragged it out into the open for all to see—

…

Katie’s heart exploded in her chest.

“DANNY!”

Draxum hauled the rat yōkai out of wherever he’d stashed him, hoisting him aloft by the back of his collar like a scolded dog. He looked like hell; patches of fur stained in dark red spots from where slashes had been inflicted. He had a black right eye, swollen halfway shut. His nose was gushing with blood. His mostly-black attire was in tatters and shredded, stained in dirt and grime. His feet were scraped and gashed at the heels— as if he’d been dragged across concrete. He was bound in vines, trussed up like a worm on a hook struggling just as fiercely. Danny’s arms were pinned against his chest, wrists ensnared just beneath his chin. His snout was covered with a thicker vine to muzzle him— but it didn’t stop the hustler from screaming muffled obscenities, wriggling and fighting like a madman.

But their eyes met through the initial crazed confusion. His voice grew louder, his struggles turning violent, almost rabid, as he screamed out what Katie could vaguely translate under the gag as ‘You fucking swine.’

“I found this,” Draxum snatched Danny by the face, claws squishing his cheeks, tilting his head towards her to force him to meet Katie’s gaze. “Vermin, trying to dismantle my mutation chambers. He nearly ignited the dynamite to set my research in flames! I guess the old saying is true— cornered mice are so much easier to trap.”

“YOU FUCK—“ Katie started wailing on her arm, smashing a fist into the severing wires and broken bits and chunks of metal intertwined with the wall, desperate to break free. Skin around her fingers and knuckles spliced from the exposed tears in the replacement appendage. “GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HIM!”

“Why should I?” Draxum scoffed, jerking Danny’s head forward to better get a grasp on his face. “He’s nothing but a criminal! I’ve seen his wanted posters. I know that his former employer will be eager to tear her fangs into him for making a fool out of her,” he smirked. “Or better yet, why waste his potential when I could transform him into a superior yōkai?”

“NO!” Katie cried, growing increasingly erratic. “YOU CAN’T!”

“I can,” Draxum snatched Danny by his hair, moving his head up and down to make the rat ‘nod.’ “See? Even the rodent is enthused!”

Katie fought harder to pry herself free— the prosthetic still stubbornly clung to her body like a leech draining her veins of blood. “I’LL RIP YOUR FUCKIN FACE OFF, YOU EVIL WRETCH—!”

“Or better yet!” Draxum let Danny’s hair go— without a second glance he swept his hand over his shoulder that sent his vines flying, taking Danny with them as they tossed the rat into a previously empty mutation pod that slammed shut, causing Danny to use his bound fists to beat at the glass door that kept him separated from Katie, muffled screams turning rampant and urgent. “How about I use one of your sons?”

The cage suddenly came to life once more; the floor and ceiling morphed and swayed the prison, vines seizing one of the five as the bars opened briefly to allow the tendrils to carry out their load. All at once the boys started screaming once that gap snapped shut.

“MONDO!” “JASON!” Came the cries of the others in unison, their struggles in the cage turning feverish.

The leopard gecko was helplessly carried through the air, completely wrapped in dark purple vines that held him in a death grip that seemed to tighten around his small frame just to spite Katie. He wheezed, trying to free his arms, but found it impossible.

“What do you think, ‘Kathrine’?” Draxum asked aloud for all present to hear. “Should I mutate your petty lover? Or your weakest link?”

Katie’s heart felt ready to burst. “Please stop…”

“I will if you give me the Goro Crystal!”

“Please stop…!”

“Mom, don’t give him anything! He’s bluffing!”

“I could turn this useless lizard into a grand, bloodthirsty killer who could lay waste to your precious city in hours! It’s your choice!”

“Please STOP!”

“Mom I’ll be okay—!”

“Silence, child.”

“DON’T!”

“What’s your choice?! Your son?! Your lover?! Or your city?!”

“TAKE ME INSTEAD!”

The roar that deafened those in the laboratory was staggering.

Katie’s face was wrought with pleading. Tears had finally pierced her gaze, her body language deflated. But there was concern radiating from her being, eyes darting everywhere from the trapped Danny, to Mondo, to the cage. It was clear as day she was doing anything in her power to keep them out of harms way.

Draxum easily towered over her, eyeing the woman with an arched brow. “You? You would take their place?”

“Yes!” Out of breath from the mounting terror, Katie nodded. “Yes, please, I’ll take whatever experiment you throw at me! I’ll be the test hamster! Just let them go!”

“Why?” Draxum tilted his head. “Why risk your life for the sake of these failures? For this felon?”

“Stop calling them that!” Katie shouted. “They’re not failures! They’re not useless! They’re not wasted potential!”

“Then what are they to you?”

“They’re my SONS!” Katie exclaimed. “They’re my babies! I don’t care what people try to tell me, those boys are my entire reason to be! You think they’re useless and failures but that’s not true! They’re brilliant! They’re clever and adventurous and wild and crazy and everything that a parent would be proud of!”

“You’re foolish! They’re mere creatures! The human is pathetic! They’re nothing!”

“THE ONLY CREATURE I SEE IS YOU!” Katie bellowed. “You, Bishop, Mozar, Karai, you’re all the same kind of bigoted bastards. My boys just wanted to be normal. They never hurt anyone, never bothered anybody. They only wanted to do the right thing when nobody else would. Have you even taken the time to realize you were trying to kill children?! Do you know what they’re like?!”

“Leonardo is a gifted comedian! He’ll go out of his way to make his brothers laugh! He’s a prankster but he’s also so kind. Considerate. He takes care of Donnie. He’s a loudmouth, he’s crazy, he’s a sports fanatic and comic book fan, he’s all that in a blue mask and a hellish sense of humor! He’s a brilliant thinker and quick on his feet in bad situations! I’m so proud of him for overcoming his demons and being the best version of himself despite everything he’s seen!”

“Donatello is a wizard in tech and games! He can make so many amazing gadgets in seconds, he’s a sweetheart, his brain is bigger than Tesla’s! He can kick ass with his bō and in Mario Kart! No matter what he’s doing he takes the time to pitch in and lend a hand to people because the only other thing bigger than his intelligence is his heart and capacity to help! He gets straight A’s, he loves Nintendo and anime and the Kpop stuff! He’s such a kind soul who just wants to be normal!”

“Raphael might look fierce but under all that he’s a giant teddy bear! He can knock someone out faster than lightening! He’s a massive pushover if you get under his shell! He’s so so supportive, he’s so brilliant and smart and he’ll do anything to protect us! He’s not unstable— he’s just got a really big heart and loves his brothers!” The more she rambled the faster she became hysterical.

“Casey’s a fantastic hockey jock! He might look like an ordinary punk but he’s just a kid looking for someone to understand him and take him in! He’s brave, he’s fearless, he’s got enough endurance to make Hercules jealous! But above all else that boy is a Jack of all trades who will do anything to be there for his family!”

“Mondo’s the sweetest kid you’ll ever know! He’s only sixteen but he just wants friends so fuckin’ badly! That boy is literally the embodiment of sunshine! All he wants to do is skateboard and go to Florida someday! He’s so friendly, he’s so giving! He might be wasted potential to you but he’s my boy and he makes me proud every single day!” She looked to Mondo— who had started sobbing in silence— and she smiled weakly. “I’m honored you’re my son.”

“Mmm…” he whimpered around the vines covering his face.

“And Danny…” tears started spilling down her face, going unnoticed by the callous mad scientist. “He’s charming. Debonair. A smart aleck. Generous. Forgiving.” She swallowed a sob, teeth chattering as her barriers broke down to a boiling point. “There’s nobody else I wanna take this crazy ride of life with. I am eternally grateful that fate put him in my path. I’d do anything for him. I…” she breathed slowly, steadying herself, eyes falling to find him through the glass of the chamber pod. “Él es mi corazón y mi alma.” With a quivering lip, Katie confessed. “Me encanta.”

Danny’s face was unreadable. His eyes widened, understanding what she’d said. His hands, pressed against the glass door, clenched into fists. Tears moistened his golden orbs, his expression turning resolved. Raising one fist, his fingers uncurled, moving, twisting around. It took a moment for Katie to realize he was signing:

‘I love you too.’

Katie’s heart swelled, her determination returning. “In your eyes these kids are nothing. You couldn’t be more wrong! They’re all unique and amazing in their own ways! I’m a washed out detective who gave up on herself years ago… but these kids, that man, they see past all of it and made me realize what I really wanted out of life. I wanted a family, and I found it in them.” She cracked a genuine smile, speaking with true conviction. “They’re my family from now until the day I die.”

Above in the cage neither one of the others were left unaffected by the woman’s words. Donnie dropped to his knees still gripping the bars, weeping so badly he found it difficult to take a breath. Raph turned his face away, hiding his eyes in his hand as he, for the first time, started weeping, strong shoulders shaking to conceal his sobs. Leo’s cheeks were slick with thin tears that stained his mask, expression filled with grief. Not even the boisterous Casey could stop crying, clutching his chest as though he were fighting a heart attack.

“I don’t care what kind of monster you turn me into… I don’t care what you do to me. Just leave my kids and Danny out of it.” Katie wept. “They’ve been through enough. I just want them to go home.”

It took eons for Draxum to move, let alone respond. The yōkai held his stoic expression of cruel neutrality, uncaring for the woman or the people he was harming. Methodically, he reached his hand into the depths of his robes, fishing free a slim, glowing vile of bright neon green ooze. Unconsciously behind him the glass door holding Danny swished open, causing the rat yōkai to drop onto the ground with a hard thud, unsupported by the standing chamber.

“All these years I thought you were better than this,” Draxum mocked. “The rumors certainly don’t precede you. What a farce you are! So naive! So stupid! I’m still baffled that you pushed this far ahead just for the sake of these pests! Pests who will learn to outgrow you and leave you in the dust the first chance they get! When it comes to gathering ‘family members’, you chose the runts of their litter.” Picking her head up by the chin with his thumb and index finger he hissed, “Now: Where is the Goro Crystal?”

“D-Don’t… give it to him!” A new voice burst into the room. It caused Katie to jump slightly, taken by surprise.

Her eyes fell to the floor just a little ways off, to where Danny lay. Danny, who had managed to wrench the muzzle of vines off his mouth. Danny, who had managed to pull himself to his knees. Danny, who was out of breath, gasping, trying to control his breathing but still remained upright as his chest heaved with thick gulps of air.

Danny, who still had that same vengeful look in his eye despite being bound. “Don’t… give him anything!” He panted. “He ain’t gonna keep his word! If ya play into his hand you’re as good as dead!”

“She’ll be dead anyway!” Draxum scoffed. “As if you’re in any position to argue!”

Danny’s eyes went narrowed, ferocious. “Untie me, ya shit-faced prick. I’ll show ya how a real man fights.”

For a moment, Draxum just chuckled. “You?” He toyed with the vial in his hand, flipping it up and down in the air, catching it easily like this was a trick he did often. “Please. You’re worth none of my time, and you’ve already tested my patience. Your blood isn’t enough to stain the bottom of my heel.”

“And ya ain’t worth spitting on, but at least I ruined yer stupid cape.” Danny smugly retorted, a twisted grin taking shape. “How quick that bold facade went down when I did.”

“And how bold will you be…” Draxum flicked the vial into his palm, clutching it firm. Until he reared his arm back. “WHEN I TURN YOU INTO A BEAST?!”

Time slowed.

Her heart exploded.

All noise fell into a clear ringing.

The vial and it’s contents— ominous and evil— flew straight towards Danny, who shut his eyes and head his breath as if to prepare himself for his impending doom.

An awful truth set into her gut.

He wasn’t going to spare the kids no matter what she chose. He wasn’t going to let Danny go— he was a witness.

He was willing to do whatever he wanted to ruin her.

And that tiny voice in the back of her mind screamed:

Move

Move

Move

Move move move move move move move move

MOVE!

A second wind surged throughout her body.

The prosthetic was ripped from her arm entirely as an inhuman strength allowed her to free herself.

She sprinted.

She pushed her body over the limit.

There was no time to think.

No time to hesitate.

No time for failure.

Only a moment to react.

Throwing herself forward Katie covered Danny with her body, back facing the incoming vial, shielding the yōkai with her entire being, ignoring his urgent screams, shutting her eyes tight as she prayed this death would be swift—

CRASH!

“KATHRINE!”

Glass shattered into her spine.

Sickly ooze splashed against vulnerable skin.

…

…

…

One moment the form of Katie McAndrews was standing like a solid wall in front of Danny, creating a barrier.

The next, ooze was seeping into her flesh. And it wasn’t long before she began to shriek.

The laboratory was filled with the anguished noises of the woman as her body jerked and shook, staggering away from Danny to steer the worst of the mutagen out of his vicinity, falling to her hands and knees, when her body started to change.

Unholy sounds echoed throughout the chamber. Bones snapping. Tendons popping. Ligaments twisting. Muscle tissue morphing. Body bending unnaturally to fit the new shape. Her spinal cord stretched. Her skin sprouted more hair— thicker, finer… like fur.

Her fingernails screeched into the floor and sang a song of misery, extending and growing to turn into claws.

Her jaw, still open as terrible screams dragged themselves out, dislocated. It stretched. It unhinged itself to form into a stronger, square shape. Her teeth grew. Her canines became bigger. Sharper. Blood pooled into her mouth and flowed to the floor.

Her face rearranged itself. A maw formed. A black nose followed. Hair grew shaggier. It hung low in a messy curtain, hiding her head.

Arm and legs popped and clicked as though she were a toy being put back together. Her limbs were forced to grow an extra few inches. Round ears popped out on the top of her skull. Her chest heaved, ribcage expanding, making room for more organs that rooted within the inside and grew like weeds.

But the worse of the change came when a new appendage— a brand new limb— grew out of her missing arm.

She would never know how, when her body took on a mind of its own, those watching would never get the sight out of their minds.

In the cage, Donnie’s hands clapped over his mouth, eyes bigger than cereal bowls. Immediately Leo seized the younger, clutching the turtle close to prevent him from watching the grotesque display, although the slider looked ready to faint. Raph turned the latter to look the other way, gritting through clenched teeth, “Ya don’t wanna see this.” Casey promptly expelled the contents of his stomach in the corner.

Danny was as still as the dead. There was nothing he could do but watch on helplessly as the woman he loved suffered a fate worse than death. Mondo screamed until his throat turned raw. He kicked the air and thrashed wildly, voice cracking under the strain.

An entirely new arm grew out of the shoulder joint like a lizard regrowing its tail. The skin knitted itself back together. Muscles, veins, they regained blood. Bone reattached to her socket piece by piece. Soon an upper arm… then a forearm… a wrist… a hand. She writhed and jerked, convulsed, choked on blood and screams as her body turned against her to transform into something it wasn’t meant to be. Unfamiliar bone structure reshaped the woman into an abomination. Curling in on herself as though she were a bomb ready to explode, Katie gave one final bellowing screech that rattled the walls, vibrated the cage, made the fur on Danny’s neck stand straight up.

Then… silence.

Silence.

A pregnant pause…

Boots clicked across the floor as Draxum approached. He studied the woman, curled tight into a ball to hide herself, blood and claw marks ravishing the ground around her body. A coy smile. His teeth showing with sadistic pride. He poked her in the side with the toe of his boot. “There,” he spoke with the faux comfort that he’d used previously. “Now… you’re perfect.”

Without the watchful eye of the scientist, the vines holding Mondo loosened enough for the boy to wriggle himself free. He dropped to the floor, staring at the form of his mother, unable to fully comprehend what had been done. The gecko, wide eyed, pushing himself up to stand, couldn’t stop trembling.

Mom…?

Mondo’s heart couldn’t stop pounding. He found it hard to breathe.

He was partially aware of his friends overhead screaming.

Mom…!

He was very aware of Danny’s horror-stricken face. Of the daunting scene he’d just bore witness to.

Like watching such a thing had broken a part of him he couldn’t get back.

Momma…!

He tried to think of happier memories— ones where his mother wasn’t in constant agony, where she was beaming warm and welcoming, holding him tight to comfort him during rain storms. Where they were at the beach, everyone chasing the shoreline, waves lapping at their feet, throwing caution to the wind. Where everyone was gathered on the couch watching movies, trading jokes and laughter with each other.

But all he could see was his mom, twitching and convulsing on the floor surrounded in left over neon green muck and dark crimson blood.

The man responsible simply loomed over his mother with prideful glory. He stooped low enough to start reaching for her— like he was about to pet her back—

And Mondo’s anger finally overwhelmed him.

“GET AWAY FROM MY MOTHER!” He drew his darts. He sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him. Throwing his arm out into an arch he chucked the deadly weapons at the yōkai, trying to run for his parent—

A vine seized him by the throat. He scrambled, clutching at it with frantic hands to pry it off, fighting for air.

Snapping out of his horrified stupor Danny started roaring, writhing in his bonds. “DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE HURT HIM YOU SONOVA—“ before another tendril grabbed him by the throat as well, cutting him off.

Properly incensed by this transgression, Draxum glared at the two as they choked and wheezed. “As if I didn’t have enough to worry about,” he hissed. “The both of you aren’t even good enough candidates for my experiments. At least I’ll be able to salvage the rest of your lot,” he leveled a pointed spear-like arrowhead at the tip of Danny’s forehead. “You’ve outlived your usefulness, rodent.”

A jolt.

A flash of motion, too fast for either party to see.

A swipe of an arm, fast and deadly, striking Draxum across the neck, catching him off guard. He was sent flying backwards, skidding across the linoleum tiles, leaving a slippery trail of bright crimson in his path.

Hand clutching at his neck— grazed, not sliced, missing the corroded artery but hard enough to finally draw a sizable amount of blood— Draxum lifted his head towards the ball that used to be the human detective…

A fiery set of dark emerald irises stared back at him with thin slits where pupils used to be.

But instead of fury… there was more.

Hunger.

Rising to kneel, she slashed the vines still gripping the throats of Mondo and Danny— feeling the rat man in the process of his bindings. As he pushed himself off the floor, Danny stared at the woman before him, his heart dropping. “Kathrine…?”

No longer the woman he knew, this creature lowered herself into a crouch, the fur on her spine rising with the rage, growling so loud it caused Danny’s ears to fall flat against his skull. Spotted with raven black accents to her mangy hair that hung in wisps around her snout and brow. What was left of her clothes hung in tatters around a sturdier physique. Muscles were more rigid, wound too tight like a spring coil ready to leap into the air, toned thicker beneath a thick mane of grungy mustard colored fur.

Mondo gasped, his mouth dropping open in despair. “Mom…!”

Sharp ears shot up. The fur raised on her body, spots almost traveling up the curves of her back, the ridges of her spine. But no motion to acknowledge him was made. Instead, the jaguar mutant opened her mouth and with a graveling voice unlike the detective, she roared.

And like lightening striking from the heavens, Katie leapt; claws outstretched towards Draxum, mouth gaping open mid flight. Just before she could land on him, Draxum rolled out of the way to the side, blood dripping in messy splotches across the floor in his stead.

She hit the ground heavy— claws sinking deep into the tile, digging deep, ripping through granite and grout and cement. Drawing her arm back she threw punched a hole the size of a basketball into the space where he’d been. Emerald eyes darted around, mania enveloping every fiber of her face until she spotted him.

She tore her newly grown fist out of the hole she’d buried it into. A guttural snarl hissed through bared fangs. The jaguar woman roared again, shoulder muscles tensing from the strain of her swinging arms. Grabbing broken chunks of tile she started hurling them at Draxum with the powerful strength of a baseball pitcher, the tiles flying too fast for anyone to see with a naked eye. The moment the debris went flying Danny sprinted towards Mondo, scooping him up and ducking out of range. “Get down!”

Draxum brought a barrier up between himself and the debris, bristling as fragmented pieces rained over his head. He thrust an arm out, sending a flurry of violet tendrils towards the mutated woman to pin her down. But even then, her claws spliced and cut through the toughened exterior of the vines, some of their sharp edges ripping through her hands in the process. She twisted herself out of the tangled mess of concentrated chaos to start running on all fours atop them, as if riding the wave straight back to its source.

Draxum’s eyes widened. Gritting his teeth he cast another set of vines upwards, trying to push her away, but she cut them down. Ever the cunning manipulator he grabbed the forgotten katana, cutting the air at his open side. Just as Katie neared and jumped over the top of the barrier he’d created, reaching a hand towards his face as if to rip it off—

A petrified Casey was suddenly in Draxum’s place, a blue vortex having spit him out to act as a living shield— cowardice behind this tactic. Her claws were centimeters from his skin.

Cat-like eyes turned horrified. At the last moment, she threw her arms around the stocky teen, taking the both of them to the ground with a hard slam. The portal still hummed with life as Draxum reached within again to find another one of the boys to use as a hostage—

Which was his mistake as Raph came barreling out with a shout, wrapping his arms around the bigger man’s chest and tackled him, throwing all his weight into a series of deadly punches. Leo and Donnie came running out next, the slider effortlessly snatching his fallen sword to brandish it and race after Raph to aid him.

The jaguar didn’t move from where she lay on the floor in the middle of the chaos, body stiff with tension, but the teen she had enveloped in a protective hold started to tremble in her arms. Casey started shivering to the point where his teeth chattered aloud. “K-Kat…!”

Her eyes snapped open. She looked at him, too sharp fangs brought together to a painful grit. Sitting the boy upright, the woman whimpered, frantic orbs scamming him for any visible sign of injury or lethal wounds. Casey’s form was littered with dark greenish-purple blotches that scattered haphazardly across his face, his knuckles were shredded open— from bashing his fists into the cage to break free. He looked…

Frightened.

“Momma…?”

Katie’s head shot up, claws raised defensively. Her gaze landed onto the newly scared Mondo— who had approached unnoticed, holding something tight in his fist. Bulbous eyes were thick with glossy tears, though he was holding his fear at bay for the sake of those he held dear. Slowly he took a cautious step forward. “Mom?”

Katie glared. Uncertain. Blinded by anger to fully recognize him.

Mondo swallowed. Shuffling the slightest inch he dared to come closer. “Mom?”

Danny tried to stop the teen, putting a hand on his shoulder, murmuring with urgency, “What th’ hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Helping my mom!” Mondo snapped back. “She needs us!”

“Ya don’t think I don’t know that?” Danny’s voice cracked— remorse hung thick in his words. “I dunno what Draxum put in his new ooze batches but she ain’t all there. She don’t recognize any of us. If she lashes out on ya and hurts you…”

“She won’t!”

“How can you be sure?!”

“… I don’t.” Mondo pulled himself free. “But I gotta try.”

She snarled in warning. In the background Raph didn’t sound any different from the jaguar in terms of the visceral rage in his tone while he screamed.

The gecko gulped, wilting under her intense gaze. “Mom…!” He pleaded. “It’s me! Jason! Your son!”

Again she dropped her stance into a crouch, snarling louder. Her fur raised high upon her arms and neck, bristling with a festering anger.

“Mom please! Look at me!” Mondo held up the item clutched in his fist. The golden metal of her police badge glistened under the faded fluorescent bulbs of the massive underground laboratory. Untouched by the brutality around them, the insidious reflection of the monster looked back…

But those eyes weren’t the same.

“This isn’t you!” Mondo cried. “You’re still in there! I know you are! You aren’t a beast or a failure! You’re a detective! You help people! You’ve saved us a dozen times and you never gave up on us!” Lips quivering he choked on words. “You never… gave up on me either… even when I dragged you down all the time. I can’t lose you… I don’t wanna be alone anymore! I don’t wanna go back home knowing you won’t be there! I can’t give up on you when you need us now more than ever!”

Katie started creeping towards him. Casey gasped with distress, eyeing both her and Mondo rapidly, hands slowly creeping towards a fallen taser glove… just in case.

Backing up, Mondo continued. “Remember what you said to me?! Back when you first took me in?! No matter what happens, even if there’s nothing left in the universe, I’ll still be around to look out for you! Cuz that’s what family is for! I’ll never go away! I won’t go home without you! You don’t deserve to be alone!” His back hit the forsaken mutation pods; trapped with nowhere else to escape. “And… if it takes forever… even if I never go home again… I’ll stay. There’s nothing for me back there if you’re not around to see it. I-I wanna win skateboarding contests and show you my awards. I wanna go to school and bring you my test grades so you can be proud of me…” tears freely fell down his cheeks this time. “I wanna graduate high school and see you in the crowd when I get my diploma! I wanna watch cowboy movies with you on the couch and throw popcorn at the TV when commercials come on! I wanna keep learning Spanish even though I’m not good at it!”

Katie’s ferocious eyes sharpened in anticipation, claws raking into the tile to screech, causing Mondo to cringe at the sound. The jaguar hissed, airy and devilish, waiting got any chance to strike.

“I never had that with my folks before you took care of me! I never had a chance to be a kid after I got mutated! I never got to be happy! I only wanted friends! I just…” Mondo’s sobs turned sorrowful. Eyes turned upward to meet hers despite the terror that wrapped around his heart. “I want my Mom.”

Then, without hesitation…

He threw himself into her, hugging the jaguar woman.

Danny hopped to his feet, ready to intervene should things escalate. Casey’s taser glove buzzed with electricity, his arm shaking with worry. In the background, Raph was thrown ten feet in the air. Leo dashed after him to catch the turtle. Donnie was shouting something but it was muffled from the chaos.

Katie’s body nearly recoiled from the embrace, her snarls turning to growls, claws poised and ready to start tearing into the fragile flesh of the gecko as primal instincts kicked into gear—

“H… hu…”

Claws fought for control. They seemed to battle themselves, retracting, releasing, over and over again. Her eye twitched. Her muscles tensed. The veins in her neck stuck out from beneath strained skin, her jaw snapping shut to prevent herself from doing anything to Mondo. One hand grabbed her face, clawing her head as she writhed and kicked, fighting for dominance over what little of her sanity was left. Even straining through the pain the woman punched her head with powerful blows, like she was attempting to knock whatever it was inside her brain out. “N-NOOOOOO…! H-HURT!”

“Mom!” Mondo cried. “Mom, you can fight through this! Come back to us!”

“Stay back!” Danny pulled the gecko away, his eyes worried as he observed the terrible scene. “Casey! Take yer pal and keep your distance!”

Without hesitation the teen leapt to his feet, grabbing Mondo by the arm to pull him back. “What’re you gonna do?!”

Danny frowned. “… I honestly don’t have a clue.” He lowered himself to her level, narrowly ducking out of the way of Katie’s incoming fist. Spastic, she cracked her fist into the floor with a crash. A guttural scream came through as she tossed and turned, clawing her head desperately.

Danny moved seamlessly; his hands latched around her wrists, prying them away from her head to stop the beating she gave herself, lest it lead to a concussion. As he fought to maintain his hold on her, the yōkai cried out. “I dunno if you can hear me in there or if you can understand what I’m about t’ tell ya, but you’re worth every broken bone I got in my ribs. I wouldn’t trade ya for nothing.” When she tried to pull away again, he tugged her body close, pressing his brow to her own and whispering.

“Yer sister needs you. These kids need you. I need you. Please… just come back to me.”

***********

EEEEEE SUSPENSE 🤣

Hope you like this one!

@queen-with-the-quill @tending-the-hearth @wasted-and-ready @figuringitoutasigoalong

[desultory-novice]

(Warning, inadverdently long ask) On characters being represented, do you think that the fanbase downplays Magolor's redemption too much? Like don't get me wrong, Magolor being treated as completely innocent is also an issue, and he still has his vices, but I feel like the other extreme is a problem too. Maybe it's just a vocal minority, but I've seen people say that Magolor is outright faking being redeemed both before and after the release of the Magolor Epilogue (though Star Allies did not help).

Especially regarding the "Old Friend" mask. Its a minor thing, but I die a little on the inside whenever someone brings that up as one of Magolor's "sins" or even proof that he has not changed. Or when people claim that it's a major slap in the face to Taranza, even though we don't even get Taranza's opinion on the matter! As far as we know, it could easily be a innocuous tribute to Taranza's late friend (of course, I like to think the mask might even be Taranza's own idea). It doesn't help that Taranza is also portrayed in a one-dimensional manner regarding the loss of Joronia/Sectonia (again canon does not help), and his character has even become the subject of mockery among the fans over their own collective take of the character.

Fun coincidence- I almost brought the Joronia mask thing up when writing my Blorbo post!! I think it is something that, like the Star Allies skit with Susie and Meta Knight, some people are judging it from outside the actual perspective it is being presented to us.

(And I'll never like when bringing in outside context is being used to claim a character is a horrendous bastard. >_> It's KIRBY. View it through a different lens if it helps you creatively but don't twist it into something it's not and then talk like you're preaching canon.)

Now, I'm not sure I've necessarily run into the people who are downplaying his redemption (or maybe I'm mistaking them for people just having a little laugh at Magolor's expense. But like you said with Taranza, it can get tiresome when characters are played for the saaaaaame joke over and over again) but I think it would be silly to do so with ANY serious intent at this point.

He's definitely not innocent of all misdeeds - he lied to Kirby and the others long before the crown literally sunk its talons into him(1) - but he is a victim. And to say that he would fake his redemption after DX is just plain false. We have evidence he regretted the Master Crown incident and wanted to be free of it and despite feeling like he didn't deserve rescue, Kirby RESCUED him and in the process made him realize how important their friendship truly was. That's all canon.

-

(1) I will say if you buy into the wild but not without evidence HC that the crown already had Magolor fairly well brainwashed by the time he landed on Halcandra, you can view him as slightly more innocent. Course, at a certain point, you have to decide how much you're going to exonerate him for doing/saying under his own right mind and if you do that too much, then you're basically admitting his entire personality in RtDL was just the Master Crown talking through him.

-

Back to the mask, to say that the very SIGHT of the Joronia mask or the Max mask would traumatize Taranza or Susie is... kinda silly, also. Do these people think that after someone dies, you just throw away everything that reminds you of them or shout angrily at someone who shows you a picture or a memento of the deceased? Grief comes in lots of different forms, yeah but...

I'm going to get personal for a moment but after my father died, my mother was grateful whenever an old friend dug out or recovered a photo or recording of dad, or posted their memories of him.

Let's just make this clear:

The mask is a tribute

That's what Merry Magoland IS! The whole park! It is decorated to look like Magolor but under the surface, the whole thing is a tribute to Kirby, Kirby's friends, and all they've been through!

...I sometimes worry with the "Ooh, Magolor did the mask to prank Taranza and now he's crying!" "Ooh, DMK corrupted Sectonia and now Taranza is crying or wants to kill him!" that maybe...I dunno... It's hard to explain but it doesn't make me feel great that Taranza always gets caught up in this kind of thing... It just feels kinda...

We do have to fill in the blanks about how the characters would respond to these things because the game doesn't tell us, but like I said up top, it feels very out of bounds for the tone laid out in Kirby the game series to assume that this act of Magolor's was done to harm Taranza or that Taranza would feel harmed by it.

Let's get Doylian for a second! 

All the masks were included by HAL Labs as a purposeful celebration and a fun form of fanservice so the players could see their favorite characters, including characters they hadn't seen in a long time or never got a clear look at! Their creation was entirely positive!

...Does it now make sense to say that in universe, these masks would TRAUMATIZE a character who saw them? That the character responsible for making these masks was intentionally being a sneaky little bastard by doing so? If it does, I encourage you to carefully re-read the above paragraph. Thanks!

[thatoneguyletoturnedintoafrog]

just finished season three of The Magnus Archives and I am Losing My Mind 💚

some thoughts:

-So Much Happened this season ??????? like we start with Jon living with Georgie and everyone else trying to solve Leitner's murder and we end with The Unknowing and an explosion

-Jon got kidnapped twice, set on fire, choked multiple times, almost shot ? and more my man is STRUGGLING

-TIIIIMMMMMMMMMMMMMM AAUUUUUAGGAHSHHAH 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

-in all seriousness. I am glad that Tim went out in a way that was fitting to his character- he made an unfunny joke and then got to destroy the circus in the most dramatic way possible. and I'm glad that Tim and Jon got a bit of closure, even if it wasn't complete or neat. but that's life, I suppose- oftentimes we don't get the closure we truly desire. but still, I'm really going to miss Tim, and I'm especially going to miss his season 1 self :(

-now I see why people say they miss the season one cast... My sillies are dying at an alarming rate

-Martin is Not Doing Well and i have a very strong feeling that this is going to continue

-the fact that Basira and Melanie's gossiping about Jon recorded and Jon listened to it later 😭 I could SEE him turning red when he mentioned "office gossip" in MAG 117

-ALSO! Canon ace Jon !!!! YIPPEEE

-Elias... got arrested ? ? I think it's cool that Martin was able to surprise him mainly because Elias had taken to underestimating him

-um hi Peter Lukas ? I love how he not-so-subtly tells Martin to find a therapist

-I absoluteu love how the women in this podcast are written!! a lot of times in media I feel like people don't really know how to write their women characters as People and instead try to make a one-dimensional "girlboss" that ends up just being a female James Bond without any personality or likability. but! TMA is definitely an exception here. the recurring women (Basira, Daisy, Melanie, and also Georgie, though she's less focused on) are flawed, generally realistic people who are all powerful and also a bit insane in their own ways and it's so refreshing!!!

-BASIRA AND DAISY!!!!!!! I love the snippets that we've gotten of their relationship, and I love how completely they trust each other!

-so. so what happened with Daisy in MAG 119 guys. I don't think that was a normal Murder and Subsequent Disappearance on her part. yk with the. uh the hound sounds and the coffin

-I like how we got more Melanie moments this season!!!

Sigh. this podcast has altered my brain chemistry