#i actually looked up perpetual motion machines

[dark-lord-of-awesomeness]

I’ve been wondering, for dragon AU. How did Ford know Stan was in the villages looting? Or did he not know it was Stan but somehow knew someone was down there and it just happened to be his twin (happy surprise!)?

And did Ford and Stan have a fight in this AU? Did Stan get kicked out? Why did they end up going separate ways?

Love the fic btw. Princess Stan is hilarious. Mental image of a couple years passing and knights still going up to rescue the “princess” because they hear tale of a beautiful maiden with long flowing hair trapped by a dragon. And they get there and it’s just. Stan. Long flowing hair for sure because it’s hard to get a haircut when your dragon brother keeps you trapped in his hoard, but definitely not a maiden.

Stan is used to it by now but he still gets a kick out of seeing their faces when they realize there’s no pretty princess for them to rescue.

He did not know it was Stan! He was hunting for dinner, his dragon eyes saw the horse and locked on. It wasn't until Stanmare darted through the village gates and out of immediate reach that he realized the wagon looked familiar (since its the Stanley Mobile in this universe). He went over to check it out, thinking it might be a coincidence, then saw Stan there hiding. A very happy surprise for him!

Yes and yes, they had a fight and Stan was kicked out. In this universe, magic is a dying art that few can do. Ford is one of those few, someone who understands how to enchant things and has the power to do it. Instead if college, Ford was being scouted for the kingdoms wizard academy, where he could learn how to hone his skills and make a fortune using magic.

Instead of the perpetual motion machine, Ford prepares an enchantment of some kind. The night before his demonstration stan accidentally smudges or damages the magic circle and tries to fix it. Stan's fix worked short term, but failed before Ford could present. The wizards write him off as a fraud and move on, ruining his chances of ever being accepted. Ford recognizes Stan's work and confronts him, filbrick overhears, Stan is kicked out until he can make back the money. Ford goes to a regular non magic academy and focuses on trying to bring magic back into the world so its more accessible and not a rare skill.

Stan def gets a kick at seeing the devastated looks on knights faces. The dragon, castle, and treasure are all very real, but it turns out princess Stanel is actually Stanley, ex-criminal turned princess by job title. Everyone here calls him princess as a joke, since he's technically filling that role. Stan hates it, but be was kidnapped by a dragon for company and doesn't have any other role in the castle besides 'in distress'. In the parody cast of characters I have planned, he's the kidnapped princess lol.

[shmisky]

What if Stan that didn't break Ford's perpetual motion machine—the machine isn't working because their high school doesn't have materials of a high enough quality to make it, and they overstress and burn out and break—but was accused anyway of doing it because Ford found a bag of toffee peanuts in the gym and assumed was him: Do you think Ford would belive that Stan is innocent if he says he is to him? Or Ford would being adamant about him being the guilt party, because offee peanuts are Stan's favorite and he came home late in the day before? Or he would belive Stan is innocent, but like in canon, when Stan start to dismiss Ford’s valid sadness after losing his shot at West Coast Tech, and instead making the situation about their treasure hunting plans, and this would make Ford believe that not only Stan sabotaged him but he also tried to lie to him about that? In the end, Stan ended up being kicked out by Filbrick because of Ford's assumption, much like in canon, since the confrontation still attracted Filbrick and he heard the hole thing. In think Ford would still turned his back on Stan but this time, when he close the curtains, it would be with an angry face and looking directly to Stan's eyes.

Well, anon... I think it would end up just as badly as in canon, yeah, but it would be even more tragic 😔

Lost Legends’ last story, The Jersey Devil’s in the Details, did a really good job of establishing that Ford wasn’t unfounded in doubting Stan, as Stan had already lied to his face before.

That’s not the only time Stan lied to his loved ones in canon, of course. He lied to Mabel in Land Before Swine about not being responsible for Waddles’ fate, he lied to the kids as he pretended to think Ford’s journal was a “kooky book” full of “fantasy nonsense,” he lied to the kids in Not What He Seems about being innocent. Hell, he lied to the kids, Soos, and Wendy about everything, even his own name and identity, for the whole time they had known him!

In most of these occasions (all of them except the Land Before Swine one, in which he invented a ridiculous story to paint himself as the hero) he lied pretty convincingly, too. In Not What He Seems, for example:

[x]

I’ve seen people saying before that Stan is actually a bad liar, but I disagree. The thing about Stan is that he’s just a bad liar sometimes, usually when he’s serving as comic relief, for the purpose of a joke. Some other times, he’s terrifyingly good at it.

But anyway, back to Lost Legends—the interesting thing here is that it shows us Stan had already lied to Ford, before. Perhaps—probably, even—more than once. It would be kind of a “the boy who cried wolf” situation for him, unfortunately.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Ford was right and perfectly justified in not believing him. I think Ford failed to understand a fundamental truth about his own twin brother: that Stan wouldn’t be capable of knowingly hurting him like that. Stan loved him too much.

After all,

[x]

In a twisted way, though, that might have been exactly why Ford didn’t believe him.

Let’s see of what, exactly, Ford accuses Stan of:

[x] [x] [x]

Ford doesn’t accuse Stan of ruining his project because he was jealous of Ford’s success. He must have known this would be too out-of-character for Stan. No, he accuses Stan of ruining his project because he was desperate for Ford to stay with him! Which proves how much he knew his brother and how much “better communication” wouldn’t have solved anything in this case 😭

So yeah, anon, there’s no way Ford would believe him in the first place, imo. If he didn’t believe Stan about it being an accident in canon, he wouldn’t have believed Stan about this, either, which is an even further reach. And then the scene would play out exactly as it did in canon, too. I think Ford could get even angrier because come on, Stan, do you think I’m so stupid and gullible that I would believe you had nothing to do with it? But, ultimately, he’d still look at his brother with sad eyes because this is Stan and he loves him too much.

So what this scenario would change? Nothing at all?

Well, it would make their story even more tragic, obviously. It would make many people in fandom hate Ford (even more than they already do), too 😭

But oh boy, it would absolutely wreck old Ford post-Weirdmaggedon. In Journal 3, he seems to have come to believe Stan’s version of the story.

“I shunned my brother for one dumb mistake,” he says.

Now imagine if he discovers there was simply no mistake at all and his brother was completely innocent. That the fight that separated them for forty years, that resulted in Stan being kicked out of Ford’s life (where he would be severely needed to protect Ford against Bill’s conning skills in the future), was initiated by Ford and completely Ford’s fault. That his brother had to survive as a homeless man because of something he had nothing to do with.

YEAH.

[turbulentscrawl]

Alva Lorenz General HCs

You'll have for forgive me for any typos--this man's been on my mind for two days and I have to get these out. I'm too impatient to check everything hahah

-Alva did not actually betray Luca by passing off any pf Herman’s work as his own. Though he did always maintain some interest in the concept of a perpetual motion machine, Alva didn’t dedicate much time to working on it after Herman’s death. He did, however, start the fire which killed Herman in an outburst-fueled accident similar to how Luca later killed him. Alva, however, escaped suspicion of the event and was not legally punished.

-Alva knew Herman had a son and, though he never personally met Herman’s family, knew who Luca was through grapevine rumors. He agreed to take Luca on as his student partially out of guilt for his unexposed crime, and partially because he had no children of his own and quickly felt a certain parental urge for Luca. They shared a lot in common and got on very well, very quickly, and their relationship was great right up until the accident. The documentation that seems to indicate their relationship deteriorating is coincidental. (ex, Luca’s experiments slowly transitioning from both he and Alva signing off on them to just Luca was Alva giving Luca more independence because he trusted him, rather than them growing apart or secretive.)

-I think Alva may be autistic. He doesn’t require much in the way of accommodations, and he doesn’t have the sensory issues that Aesop does. However, his speech is sometimes overly flat, his view of the world a bit rigid, his social energy levels are low, he’s prone to bouts of depression, he fixates on his work a lot, and he often fidgets with things like pens and clothes. He enjoys touching various textures, and often expresses appreciation for the material of people’s clothes. Additionally, he’s made a living out of his special interest: inventive engineering.

-Alva is a solemn and polite man. He’s rather chivalrous, but reserved, and as a result was admired by many for his mysterious-gentleman air. “Hermit” is an apt name for Alva, however, as he rarely enjoyed the company of others. He especially felt overwhelmed in large groups. He has always preferred one-on-one socializing, and even that he had a smaller tolerance for than was typical for men of his class. Luckily, he doesn’t have much in the way of a temperament, so when he’s tired of socializing, he’s just that: tired. Sexy Old man.

-To specify, when I say chivalrous, I mean he’s the kind of man who holds doors open for others, offers his hand to help them up from a seat or down from some height, share his umbrella in the rain, and would even lay his coat in a puddle for a lady to cross over. He offers chivalry moreso to women than men, but if a man presents as meek or shy enough in his presence he will extend the gestures to them as well, hoping to make them feel more comfortable.

-Alva’s only family at the time of his death was his wife. She was barren, and they had no children, and all the rest of his family had passed due to age or illness. Luca therefore became something of a surrogate son to Alva over the years. Though he sometimes struggled to show it, Alva cared for him like blood and always looked out for him.

-Alva didn’t care much about his overall predicament, after being resurrected. His religious proclivities were more for show than anything, so being a chosen of some…eldritch-cat-god is hardly the worst of his concerns. Until the manor, he hadn’t been expected to do anything he considered reprehensible or very immoral, so he’s always been fine with just completing his orders so he could go back to his work.

-After joining the manor, Alva’s only real comfort is his work. In life, inventive engineering was his method of self-expression, the way he interacted with the world, his reason for living. That changed a bit when his wife came along, and then again for Luca, but with those gone he’s back to his reclusive nature. It takes a long time for Alva to make friendships in the manor. He’s familiar with Ann out of necessity, but they’re merely cordial. With time, he becomes friendly with a small handful of others, but his melancholy is still pervasive.

-Inevitably, with enough time at the manor, Alva craves reconciliation with Luca. He doesn’t entirely blame Luca for what happened. At the end of everything, Alva knows the accident was an accident as well as a misunderstanding. (And also probably some kind of ironic, cosmic retribution for him killing Herman.) The trouble is, Luca does not remember him at all, or what happened. He knows from a few conversations that the boy’s cleverness is still in-tact, but his memories are almost entirely gone. As far as Alva is concerned, this means he’ll never get the closure of genuine, mutual apologies, and he’ll never have his “son” back. Not really.

-When Luca was his student, they were a powerful duo in public. Alva, despite being respectful and courteous to individuals, has never ‘jived’ with society as a whole. He doesn’t care about public opinion and is easily exhausted from public exposure. Luca, meanwhile, is a social butterfly. They were both charming, and worked out a system for any public appearances Alva needed to make: Luca would handle most of the talking—unless Alva’s interest was specifically sparked by some topic of conversation—so Alva could do his best to actually enjoy the atmosphere. And when Luca was ready to go, you best believe Alva was ready with their excuse to bail. The two were always favorites at any party or event, and always had interested suitors close at their heels.

-Despite being overwhelmed by conversation and crowds, Alva does enjoy the set-up for a lot of public events and parties. He likes the artfulness of decoration, and always takes time to appreciate the hard work put into setting up things like that (and once again, he loves to touch, feels the textures). He especially loves flowers. He occasionally finds loud music to be a bit overstimulating. Similarly, he likes fireworks, but requires earplugs to enjoy them fully.

-Alva’s age (at time of death) was somewhere between 40-45. His undead body is no longer aging, so physically he’s the same. Sometimes Alva misses his longer hair, but unfortunately that’s not growing anymore.

[eternalera]

in the name of science!!

viktor and jinx are friends and are completing a science project together... although it turns into a gossip session (courtesy of jinx)

1k+ words

"So... are we gonna talk about it?" Jinx leans back in her swivel chair, almost threatening to tip it over and for a second Viktor considers tipping it over himself because of course Jinx mentions it. She never did have any clue what 'personal space' was, or maybe she did and just preferred bothering him. Honestly it could really go either way for her, and for him. The pestering was rather mutual.

He sets down his wrench and pushes the metal object that was previously in his hands aside. They were trying to make an energy generation machine, something that involved the physics of perpetual motion to create energy more easily, but apparently that is going to have to wait.

"Talk about what?" Viktor tilts his head as he turns it to look at her, mocking confusion. Maybe she doesn't even remember, well he could hope at least.

Jinx scoffs, blowing a tuft of blue hair out from her face. "The whole 'Viktor, you're my best friend!' 'Oh, how I couldn't do this without you!' 'I love you so dearly' 'Nothing in the entire world can ever compare to your genius!' " she mocked in a (rather bad) Jayce impression.

"That wasn't a very good impression," Viktor points out. If she's gonna be like this then might as well return the favor

"Pfft- alright-"

"You just vaguely lowered your voice,"

"Alright-"

"I think Vi does it better,"

Jinx got up from her chair and pushed Viktor almost out of his but he caught himself (on his bad leg, whether or not that was on purpose though is a mystery to him).

"Alright, that's enough. We're talking about Jayce here, not my impression of him-"

"Of course not, I could hardly even tell that it was him in the first place-"

"I'm going to push you out of your chair Vik,"

Viktor smiles at her innocently and looks back to their device, touching it as if he were examining it but not actually doing so. He knew what she was talking about. Jinx was convinced he and Jayce had something... a little more friendly going on, to put it into words. Something that he knew not to be true, and something he didn't like entertaining because he knew it not to be so.

"There's nothing to talk about,"

"Really? You could just stand in a dark corner and he'd find a way to praise you for it," Jinx crosses her arms, looking down on him. Viktor opens his mouth to respond before shutting it, he knows that it's the truth because he's practically done it before, giving a speech and then afterwards telling Viktor how helpful it was to have him there as support.

He did nothing the entire time, just watched.

"See! You're not even arguing!"

"Jinx this is due tomorrow we have to get this done-"

"Eh, I'll finish it later," she shrugs it off without a second thought -- typical -- and instead sits on the floor looking up at him smugly. "Anyways let's focus on the main point," she emphasizes.

"There is nothing between us-"

"And my name's Powder," Jinx hisses in retaliation.

Viktor looks at her and narrows his eyes. He might regret what he's going to say next but fuck it. It's nothing that she's not used to by this point.

"Technically it is-" he barely finishes his words before he's tugged down to the floor aggressively with no concern about his leg at all and jinx pointing one of her brightly colored nails in his face.

"Watch it legs,"

Viktor scoffs at the remark. Nothing they haven't said to each other before. She lets him go and he adjusts his seating to something more comfortable.

"You owe me now. Spill, do you find Mr. Golden Boy attractive, and if so why the hell are your standards so low?" It sounds more like a statement than anything. "Because he's attracted to you and at this point I'm gonna start making bets about when the two of you are gonna end up together-"

"That's never going to happen," Viktor says, a little too quickly, but he sees Jinx's confused face and decides that he should give her an answer. "I'm pretty sure that he likes Mel,"

"Mel!?" Jinx half shouts, there's a look in her eyes that makes Viktor regret everything. He just hopes that Mel can survive the constant teasing from Jinx, then again, she is strong. "The one in the debate club? The one on the student council?" She scoffs and this time flicks her hair out of her face. "She is way out of his league,"

Viktor looks at her in disbelief before-- wait.

"Did you just imply that I’m easy?” Viktor stares at her before Jinx shakes her head.

“I just asked you why your standards were so low earlier idiot,” She leans on her hands, placing them behind her back. “I- quit changing the subject!” She hissed leaning forward and slamming her hands down on the floor dramatically.

Viktor sighs and looks away trying to find an excuse when one came to him (and rather conveniently), his phone rang. He picked it up seeing Jayce’s contact, something that Jinx sensed and instantly began trying to grab the phone afterwards. Luckily though he picked up before she could hang up and continue their little session or whatever that was.

“Viktor! I’m so glad that you picked up! I was wondering if you could meet up right now possibly, I have this really cool new idea and I kinda need your help with it,” Jayce spits out rather quickly.

Viktor looks over to Jinx who’s looking over to their project (which she stopped doing) as if it was a reason to get him to stay with her. It’s safe to say that he wasn’t convinced.

“Yeah, I’ll be right over,”

“Yes! Thank you Viktor,”

“Of course, just send me the address,” Viktor hangs up, getting a rather annoyed look from Jinx. “What? He needs my help.” Viktor shrugs as if he wasn’t looking for an excuse to avoid their earlier conversation.

“Uh uh, whatever, I’m finishing it I guess?” she asks, pointing over to it. Viktor nods rushing out the door.

“Thanks!” He calls out.

“No problem, just tell me if anything spicy happens-”

“Nevermind,”

He hears her laughter on the way out the door.

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Atychiphobia

Masterlist

Chapter Two:

It takes Ford longer than he wants to come up with the main idea.  It wouldn’t have taken quite so long, but he doesn’t want Stan to see it until it’s finished, so he’s been staying up until he falls asleep so he can work on it.

But after a couple days or so of this, the final sketch is done, and Ford is more than a little proud of it, if he does say so himself.

He plans to keep it all entirely to himself until the prototype is finished and working, but that plan ends up falling apart due to an unexpected visit from Fiddleford.

Stan’s spending the day with Grauntie Mabel, buying supplies for the Grand Re-Opening party for the craft store, so Ford felt safe to starting to work on the base of the design.  But as he’s gathering the scrap metal and looking for a good place to hide all of it, he hears, “Hey, Stanford!” and whirls around in such obvious fear that Fiddleford jerks back a step.

“Woah, uh sorry,” he says, dropping his hand from where he was waving at Ford.  “You okay?”

“Sorry, you just startled me,” Ford says, trying to smile.

When Fiddleford notices what he’s holding however, he lights up.

“Wait, are you makin’ something?” he asks.  “Can I help?  Dad won’t let me take apart his computer anymore after I broke it, but I really have gotten a lot better since then!”

“No!” Ford says, taking another step back, and holding the scrap metal closer to his chest.  “It’s mine, I have to make it myself!”

“Aw, but that’s no fun!”

“It’s not supposed to be, it’s important,” Ford says, turning around to carry the scrap metal back to the other side of the house.  He’s pretty sure there’s a spot under the porch where he can shove all this stuff.  Fiddleford follows him.

Ford manages to find the spot and shove all the scrap metal there, and as he stands back up Fiddleford asks, “Can I ask what you’re makin’ then?”

Ford looks down at the ground and bites his lip.  “It’s not done,” he mutters.

“Well no, ‘course not, you haven’t even started the prototype yet,” Fiddleford says, waving his hand as if this is obvious.

Ford bites his lip, but after a second, he pulls out his blueprint and hands it to Fiddleford.  He watches Fiddleford’s face as he reads it, and a knot in his chest loosens when it lights up.

“Well I’ll be, that’s neat!” Fiddleford says, grinning brightly at him.  “But uh, don’t you think a perpetual motion machine is a bit ambitious?  I mean, you told me you haven’t done a lot of engineering stuff before, right?”

Ford scoffs and waves his hand in dismissal.  “Maybe it’s ambitious for you, if you can’t even take apart a computer right,” he says.  “But I’ve totally got this!  I mean, I’ve already nailed the concept, right?”

Fiddleford shrugs.  “I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he agrees.  “Just be careful makin’ it, okay?  If you do wires wrong they tend to, you know, zap you.”

Ford grins.  “No duh.  I still remember that cat robot you made that almost burned your house down.”

“Hey, that hasn’t happened since!” says Fiddleford, but he’s smiling too.

A second later, however, Fiddleford asks, “So where’s Stanley?  Are you gonna show him too?” and Ford’s smile fades.

He grabs the blueprints back from Fiddleford and holds them close to his chest.  “No!” he snaps.  “And you can’t tell him either!”

“What?  Why?” Fiddleford asks, looking confused.

“Uh,” Ford says, trying to come up with an excuse that isn’t the embarrassing actual reason.  Stanley’s always been the better liar.

“It’s a surprise,” he ends on.  “And I don’t want him to see it until it’s ready.”

Thankfully, Fiddleford seems to buy this, and he starts smiling again.  “Oh, surprises are fun!” he says.  “Okay, I won’t say anything.”  He mimes zipping his lips closed.  “But if you ever need any help, let me know!”

“Okay,” Ford says, already knowing he won’t.  He has to do this alone, or what’s the point.

For now, however, he just tucks his blueprints away and turns to face Fiddleford again.  “You want to stay and help set up for the party?”

…

So.  The party is… interesting.

In Ford’s defense, those government agents were kind of asking for it.  None of the zombie mess would have had to happen if they’d just believed him.  The party wouldn’t have been so thoroughly ruined either.  Though Grauntie Mabel was happy to get to force him and Stan into karaoke after all, so Ford supposed it didn’t work out horribly for everyone.

It sure did for Fiddleford, though.

Ford spends the next day trying to figure out how to apologize for getting him bitten by a zombie, and after a point, he’s pretty sure everyone can tell how freaked out by it he is, not just Stan.

He’s proven right when Grauntie Mabel is the one who brings it up to him.

“Sweetheart, I really think you’re making too big a deal out of this,” she says at dinner.  “We made the zombie cure just fine, remember?  And Fiddleford wasn’t upset.”

“He doesn’t really show it by getting angry,” Ford mutters, pushing around the pasta on his plate.

“Well he’s not being his passive-aggressive kind of upset either,” Stan points out.  “I think you’re getting in your head about it, Sixer.  You said you were sorry like a million times yesterday, didn’t you?”

“But what if he thinks I didn’t really mean it?  I think I should tell him a million and one times, just to be sure.”

Grauntie Mabel and Stanley exchange a look, the one Ford’s used to seeing when they both think he’s being kind of ridiculous but don’t want to say anything.

He crosses his arms.  “What?”

“I think he’s gonna get tired of you sayin’ it,” Stan mutters, taking a bite of his pasta.

“But—”

“Ford,” Grauntie Mabel says gently, “I think you’re being a little hard on yourself here.  Fiddleford said it was okay after we changed him back, right?  And we did it in time, so no harm no foul.”

Ford winces.  “But he could have been really hurt,” he mutters.

“He wasn’t, kiddo.  If you were worried about him, maybe just tell him that.”

Ford considers that for a second, then slams his hands on the table.  “Wait, I know!  I’ll take him on a monster hunt to make it up to him!”

Grauntie Mabel blinks at him.  “That’s not what I—”

“Stan, you mind bringing him to our monster hunt tomorrow?”

“What?  I mean, no, but—”

“Great!  We can check out that giant tooth we found down by the lake, and figure out what it is and why it’s there, and then once we’ve had a great time he’ll forget all about the zombie biting incident!”

Stan and Grauntie Mabel exchange another look, but before either of them can say anything, Ford stands up and picks up his plate with him.  “Hey Grauntie Mabel I’m gonna go do some monster hunt planning okay?  I’ll bring the plate down when I’m done!”  And with that, he runs back towards the steps.

The monster hunt idea is such a good plan.  He was probably going to invite Fiddleford anyway, but now it can serve both purposes!  Plus, if things get dangerous, then Ford can save Fiddleford’s life, and then they’ll be really even!

Wow, Ford is good at this.

…

“Woah,” Fiddleford says, echoing Ford’s thoughts the first time he saw the giant tooth on the lakebed.

“I know, right?” Ford says.  “It’s so human, I don’t get it.”

“You mean aside from the fact that it’s like, three times the size of us?” Stan says, poking at it with a stick.

“Well yes, obviously,” Ford says, rolling his eyes.  “But it looks bigger than the Gobblewonker’s teeth too.  Fiddleford, you’ve been here longer than us.  Have you ever seen anything with teeth this big?”

Fiddleford shakes his head, looking thoughtful.  Then suddenly, his face brightens.  “Oh!  My dad told me a story once about a lake monster, though!  Not the Gobblewonker, a different one.  He said you could tell it was nearby when you saw bubbles in the lake.  He didn’t say how big it was, though.”

“Hmm.”  Ford taps his chin, thinking.  “Well, then I think the solution here is obvious,” he says, looking up at Stan and Fiddleford.  “We go out on the lake tonight.”

“Heck yeah!” Stan calls, throwing his fist in the air.

“Uh.  What?” Fiddleford says.  “That’s the obvious solution?”

“Yeah,” Ford says, starting to grin.  He pulls out the author’s journal and starts sketching out a plan.  “We can take one of your dad’s boats, right Fiddleford?”

“I don’t know if he’d really want me to potentially break somethin’ else.  He’s still mad about his computer.”

“We’re not gonna break it, it’ll be fine,” Ford says, waving his hand dismissively.  “We’ll meet back here at dark, right?”

“I mean, okay, but—”

“Awesome!  I’ll bring my camera and my notes, Fiddleford can bring the boat, and Stanley can bring the terrible jokes!”

“Way ahead of you,” Stan says, putting his hands on his hips with a proud grin.

Fiddleford smiles a little bit just at that, which is a great sign.  This is going so well.  And it’ll continue to go well that night.

It’s as he and Stan are headed back home to prepare, though, that Stan brings up evidence to the contrary.

“Uh, hey Sixer?” he says, as soon as they’re out of hearing range of Fiddleford.

“Yeah?” Ford asks, without looking up from Journal 3.

“I think if you want to try and make this another apology, which I still don’t think you need to do by the way, you might want to start by paying attention to when Fidds doesn’t want to do something.”

Ford looks up from the journal now.  “What do you mean?”

“He looked kinda nervous, Ford,” Stan says, giving him a pointed look.  “And it really doesn’t seem like he wants to use his dad’s boat.”

“But how are we supposed to find the creature and have a monster hunt if we don’t use the boat?”

“Well, we don’t have to do a monster hunt.  Or we could go without Fidds, since he doesn’t seem to want to do it.”

“But— but if we go without Fiddleford, how am I going to make him forget about the last monster thing that happened?” Ford says.  “I don’t want that to be the last time we fought monsters together, it went so bad.”

“Hey, I didn’t say never go monster hunting again,” Stan says, holding up his hands.  “Just, maybe not this one?”

Ford shakes his head.  Stan doesn’t get it.  He can’t just wait for a monster hunt to happen, not when it’s exactly what he needs to prove to Fiddleford that he can still do this.  That he doesn’t have to be scared about monsters when Ford’s there, because the zombie thing was just a fluke, and not a demonstration of the fact that Ford isn’t capable enough to be safe being friends with.

“It’s going to be fine,” he says to Stan.  “I can do this.”

“Hey, I know you can,” Stan says.  “But—”

“See you tonight!” Ford calls, running on ahead before Stan can keep talking.

And Stan seems to accept that he’s not going to sway him off of this, because he doesn’t say anything about it for the rest of the day, and sneaks out that night with Ford to head down to the lake.  Ford gives him a grateful look as they use his grappling hook to sneak out.  All of this is going to be so much easier with Stan there.

Fiddleford is waiting down by the water with a small boat when they get there, and he jumps slightly when they walk out of the shadows, before relaxing as he sees who it is.

“You guys ready to hunt a monster?” Ford says with a grin.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Fiddleford says with a smile of his own.

“I wanna punch this thing in the teeth,” Stan says, crossing his arms.

“Stan,” Ford says in bafflement.  “It’s teeth are—”

“Yeah, I know, I’m just messing with you,” Stan says, giving him a bright grin.  Ford rolls his eyes, but smiles fondly as he climbs into the boat along with Stan and Fiddleford.  He gets in the far side of the boat, and Fiddleford sits in the middle so Stan can push the boat off the sand with his paddle.  Ford and Fiddleford both pick up their paddles too, and they all start to row out towards the middle of the lake.

“Remember to stay quiet,” Ford whispers.  “We don’t want to scare it away.”

“Scare it away?” Fiddleford whispers back, but he does quiet down.

For a short time, nothing happens, and then Stan says, “Look,” and points out towards a small island, where bubbles are rising up near the surface of the water.

“That must be it!” Ford says, leaning as far over the edge of the boat as he dares so he can get a better look.

“Uh, Ford?” Fiddleford says nervously.

“Shh, we have to see what happens!” Ford whispers.

Suddenly, there’s a loud crack, and a wave rushes over to them, large enough to shake the boat.  Then, the same island from before starts to shake inside the water.

“Uh, bro, I think it’s time to get out of here!” Stan calls, and he starts rowing quickly.  Fiddleford does the same, but Ford cranes his neck around to try and see the island—

Until an enormous head starts to rise out of the water, and float towards them with obvious malicious intent.  Fiddleford’s terrified scream is what finally spurs Ford into grabbing his paddle, and all three of them paddle hard for the shore.  But whatever it is gains on them quickly, and just as they’re about to reach the shore, it starts to bite down right on the part of the boat that Ford is sitting in.

“Ford!” Fiddleford yells, and he grabs his arm and yanks him forward.  The creature bites down at the same time, and the momentum throws Ford through the air until he lands hard on the sand.

“Fiddleford!” Ford screams, jumping up to look back at the water.  He finds Fiddleford okay, and Stan dragging both of them out of the water.  The boat is sitting on the shore, a giant tooth embedded in it, and the creature itself is floating back towards the lake and sinking into the water.

Both Stan and Fiddleford run further up onto the shore anyway, and Ford goes with them, until all three of them are far away from the water and the giant head is nowhere to be seen.

Fiddleford plops down to the ground with shaking legs, and Stan leans over, pressing his hands to his knees.

Ford feels like he’s going to throw up.

“Fiddleford,” he says weakly.  “You— your boat—”

“Oh, pete’s sake, Ford, don’t worry about it,” Fiddleford says, looking up at him.  “Are you okay?”

“I—”

“That thing almost ate you!”

“But—”

Fiddleford flops backwards until he’s splayed out on the ground, and lets out a slow breath.

“Hey, we’re okay,” Stan says, and he walks over and puts a hand on Ford’s shoulder.  “We’re all okay.”

“Yeah,” Ford whispers.  He does not feel better.

“Can we go home now?” Fiddleford asks from his spot on the ground.

Ford nods.  He doesn’t trust himself to say anything.

[hemingwaystan]

Dipper should have taken Ford's apprentice ship offer, change my mind.

I know this is a really hot take but I want to state my argument and hopefully change some minds. This is my controversial argument, I don't want to start a flame war so try not to do any screaming hate comments although I'm down with a calm debate about it, anyways, without further ado, a really, really long essay explaining it.

First, I'm gonna take about Dipper's relationship with Mabel and the parallels between the Stans and them. Obviously, the show is kind of arguing that Dipper needs to stay with her so their relationship doesn't go the way Stans but I honestly think that's an irrelevant concern because they reconciled after Mabel-land in relation to the apprenticeship. I legitimately believe when they actually see each other, they'll love each other like they did before. Their was never a relationship ruining event like with the Stans that could force a rift, nobody closed the window and no one broke the perpetual motion machine.

Second, I want to talk about what it would be like living with Ford. Because it's definitely the most, in my eyes, reasonable argument against taking it I've seen but I still think I can prove it wrong, WITH FACTS AND LOGIC, lol. First, Ford and Dipper have already bonded deeply by the end of the show and will even more, probably like way more. That's why I think they'll look out for each other a lot more than a lot of people think. Ford has to drink water, Ford has to eat, so does Dipper, they'll just do it together. And about household accomodations, y'know like all the things a house needs to have. They'll probably have better stuff than almost anywhere else, think about Ford's lightbulb and extend that to just about all issues. And then I know what you're thinking, money, and that's definitely a hard one to crack but I imagine they'll either acquire their food through weirder locations, y'know like buying shit from the gnomes or whatever. I know this would be tough for Ford but I'm sure he'll quickly rationalize it as studying the economics of the different creatures intelligent enough to buy and sell food. I also think for standard money, in relation to the things that just doesn't cover. I think Ford, for his low-danger inventions he would happily do what McGucket did, sell some patents or produce shit on the side. Ford wants to advance knowledge and society with science. He has any number of things he could do that with while committing almost all his time to research, for example selling the patents for the scientifically perfect lightbulb. That would take care of him for an exorbitant amount of time, probably living rich for life if he cared about that, which he doesn't so non-sequitor but he will be safe.

The third argument against it I've seen is that Ford would be a bad caretaker, I think this one can be easily argued against. Because, again they have a close bond and will likely only grow closer. And I can tell you why that means so much. I'm a child of divorce and I stayed with my dad. And he wasn't a very good caretaker by any means but we looked out for each other in all the ways needed to survive. I learned how to do all the household stuff by 12. They care about each other, they're both intelligent enough to know how to keep kicking. Also, despite not appearing it Ford is clearly a caring person, the problem is people miss that due to his relationship with Stanley but that's built on decades of distrust,

The fourth possible argument is that Dipper would grow up too fast. But truth by told, growing up fast is a good thing in my eyes. You learn how to take care of yourself at a young age, you grow closer with adults by sharing many of their issues and with other people Dipper's age he can just not mention it. Also most people's innocence dies around 13 or 14, or maybe I just had a shitty childhood, who fuckin' knows.

The fifth argument against it I've seen is Dipper's social life and that is reasonable but if we follow the admitted assumption Ford will give him a fair amount of free time. He still is in with Wendy's friend group and he'll probably regularly see them after school, he'll also have Pacifica as they're relationship was improving rapidly by the end of the show and I think it's unlikely but possible he'll reconcile with Gideon given his character arc, assuming it continues after the epilogue. And Ford will probably become friends again with McGucket helping his own social life.

And now we're gonna talk about the advantages of staying with Ford. First, Dipper will probably have the intelligence of having a PhD by senior year. He'll get into a college of his choice and later in life, if not at a young age will advance the knowledge of the human race at least a fair amount. He'll have an incredibly promising life no matter what he does it just seems science is the most likely option.

Second, I absolutely love Mabel but honestly, she is kind of holding him back. He has a future and a life in front of him and he only ever sacrifices for her and she really barely does anything of the sort. She does apologize at the end but I don't remember any long-term change. I don't blame her for Weirdmagedon though.

Third, I don't know about you but a childhood spent in Gravity Falls, studying anomalies would be fucking sick. I know that's a personal opinion but honestly, wouldn't it?

Fourth, in the Book of Bill and other sources it's regularly implied that Dipper/Mabel's parents are regularly fighting and their suffering from it. A household of Ford and Dipper would be totally unstable as I won't deny Ford is rather unstable mentally although as the series goes on he seems to improve in condition with Weirdmaggedon as an exception, but like who the fuck wouldn't flip out during that but even then he maintains his composure. Dipper would be mentally safer, especially if my reasoning for fighting counter argument against apprenticeship five holds, but also, he'll be and this is an inference dodging a childhood of fighting parents and probably a bad divorce, that traumatizes people.

Thank you for reading my incredibly long rant, I'm happy to provide a counter-opinion because it seems like literally no one has yet. I really hope that the opinion he should've can become more widespread because I think it deserves to be, thank you.

[all-pacas]

i think you're deeply in denial about being a chase/cam shipper or you gotta change your definition of shipping or something. because whatever you're doing here absolutely 100% looks like shipping them. to the untrained eye

in reality i have this very multi long paragraph disclaimer that's too convoluted to even explain but here ya go:

they are my two favorite characters

i like seeing them interact because of this fact

i find their deeply complimentary set of flaws fascinating. i love seeing cameron in a Relationship because she's such a fucking unreliable narrator about herself. i like seeing chase in a relationship because the very concept of "putting someone besides yourself first" is so antithetical to him and the opposite of what he has learned his whole life. i want to put them in a room together. i want cameron to talk at glowing length about her soulmate dead husband and how she watched him die and i want chase to talk about watching his mother die and how much he hates and resents her. i don't know where that conversation would go but i Want It. it's like how i want chase and 13 to talk about murder and redemption together. it is a platonic smashing together of fake people, not about making them kiss

i think they were badly written in the sense that like. there's no writing. they're just together. now they're not. now chase has feelings. do we see them? no. now cameron has feelings. do we see them? no. now they date for three years. as someone who likes writing and narrative this drives me insane because it's so lazy.

i think i could do it better, not in a "because i want to write uwu fixit fanfic where they kiss" way but in a "this sort of writing drives me insane" way. like. huddy was badly written too but it very much existed. cameron and chase are just "oh btw chase fell for her at some point for some reason during fwb." why???? we can handwave but there is NOTHING IN CANON. cameron likes him too! why??? WHO KNOWS

however i also find it annoying when people go "solution: they never dated, we pretend it never happened" because that's ALSO lazy and retcons several years of canon including cameron's exit from the show. including the actual character development chase gets, which i actually do like. i think i'm a rare person who almost prefers late series chase. i like short haired chase. and i don't like the idea of erasing all that canon development just because "uwu i don't like it" (or, more petty, because "uwu i think cameron should have kissed x -- usually house -- so i hate this canon relationship that like it or not did exist")

this ties in to my actual fairly complicated feelings about cameron and how a lot of fandom tends to Girlboss her up in obvious and admirable contrast to her years of reddit-ish character bashing. where i admire the Spirit but deeply dislike this Girlboss characterization.

basically i am a deeply contrary person by nature

so whenever i see this ship i go IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER, and OUT OF SPITE I WILL DEFEND IT, which is a whole perpetual motion machine of feelings

i honestly could not care less about them kissing. except for the specific episodes where they allude to having a sex life and foreman all but flees the room. i actually care quite a lot about that, i think it's super funny. so in that context (in front of foreman, to troll him) i want them to make out.

i've gone and read old ffn stories from when the show was airing that featured them as a couple. like from true fans and believers of the ship. i disagree with almost all of it and think usually cameron and usually chase are ooc in these stories. but in different ways. this also triggers my spite

so sure. yes. i ship it. probably,

[red-riding-wood]

I’m so sorry about what happened to you and so many others. Disgusting misogynistic behavior. You all deserve so much better ):.

Also sending this bc I do believe he has made two new accounts. Drcranessweetestdoe and monsterfromthewoods. I have no proof these are him ,but it just strikes an absurd resemblance to his writing and he seemed to interact with both of them a few weeks ago. The first one hasn’t blogged in weeks either. Just seems strange. Once again though, I could be wrong. Just something for everyone to stay weary about. Stay safe ❤️

Thank you for the well wishes, anon! I really do appreciate you reaching out. <3

From my conversations with @drcranessweetestdoe, she does not behave like Kill (nor does her writing style compare to his), and I am pretty positive he is incapable (or at least very bad) at taking on different personalities since I believe I witnessed his attempt with the second account you mentioned. Aurora is very sweet, and she used to be a fan of Kill's writing and mine. I don't want people to be suspecting her of foul play because I do believe she is genuine. Kill has a pattern of reblogging fics as a way of seeing what victims he can latch onto and I see that as a coincidence with his reblog of Monster's.

As for @monsterfromthewoods... I was hesitant to make a callout, mainly because no one has actual solid proof that he is Kill. But, there is too much evidence for me to ignore, and I wanted to give my honest opinion and observations. Monster, if you are not this person, feel free to reach out and vouch for yourself, and if I am wrong, I am deeply sorry.

Fuck that. As I was typing this message up, I decided to check my DMs and noticed that my friend had said that he gave her the same name that, as of this morning, was revealed to me as his actual name along with his real picture and Facebook profile. That really sealed the deal for me. Here is the rest of my evidence to prove that this is "Kill":

Monster followed my friend around the same time that she blocked Kill.

Monster followed me the same day that I sent Kill a confrontational message, calling him out for his lies and pleading with him one last time for medical treatment and answers.

From the posts on Monster's account, and the one comment I know he made on my friend's post, his personality exactly fits Kill's. This is why I said I do not think he is capable or likely to be able to craft a believable persona.

Monster made a post about suicide, and a pro-Palestine post, the former of which Kill discussed with me a lot and the latter my friend pointed out as suspicious since Kill was also very strongly pro-Palestine. Seeing as Monster doesn't have that many posts yet on his blog, this isn't irrefutable evidence but it is very coincidental.

Lastly, I actually did my best to analyse and compare Kill and Monster's writing, since I had recalled a few things that stuck out to me when I read Kill's writing. Him and Monster share many similarities with their writing habits/consistencies. They are as follows (the examples listed are from 18+ content so please do not view if you are a minor):

Use periods and exclamation marks -- but never commas -- as punctuation to end dialogue tags.

Starter dialogue tag always facing outward. Like: ”So... Tight”

Tend to each use a snapshot style of writing, favouring incomplete sentences with frequent use of periods. Examples: K: "His mind, usually so sharp. Focused and organized like the most expensive machines. A killing machine, that worked in perpetual motion, living off killing, adrenaline used like a drug." M: "Your dear, understanding doctor. Doctor Jonathan Crane, who laughed out loud suddenly a couple moments ago. The dark colour covering his exotic looking eyes as he revealed his real nature to you."

Similarly, they both tend to avoid using possessive pronouns and determiners. Examples: K: "_ Pale, little pussy peaked from between her thighs." M: "The scars covering _ man's pale skin," _ = absence of "her, that, the," etc.

Often use adverbs after verbs in a way that feels out of place.

Capitalise after ellipses, always.

"Y/n" always has a lowercase "n".

Sometimes use three ellipses, often use only two.

Use "pants" but never "trousers".

Yeah, so, I may have spent way too much time on this. And I think most of this is redundant, now, especially after the name revelation, but still, I put work into it and didn't want it to go to complete waste lmao. I also had no idea until I was tagged today that apparently there are programs that do this sort of thing for you. Oops.

[honourablejester]

Heart: The City Beneath

For reasons, I’m assuming because I’ve been watching actual plays of various ttrpgs lately (Legends of Avantris playing D&D 5e, Nobody Wake the Bugbear playing Mothership, several others), I was recommended a video on a game called Heart: The City Beneath. Just a basic overview video, themes, tone, talking the game up a bit. But it sounded interesting, so I went to look up what the 9 playable classes were, just to see what kind of ideas we’re working with, you know?

And. Just from that online write-up. There was one particular class that caught my eye enough to go buy the actual game. Now, having read in more detail, there are several other classes that also sound really cool, but I still want to talk about the thing that caught my eye.

The Vermissian Knight.

Now. I would not ordinarily go for a very martial class when magical-type classes are an option. It’s just not usually how I roll. But the classes in Heart are all very, very setting-related, and all very, very weird, and the thing with the Vermissian Knight …

Okay. The setting for this game is Heart. The, well, City Beneath. There is a mile high surface city called the Spire, and then there is a vast living beating realm of something beneath it, called Heart. It is alive. It may be an extradimensional benevolent parasite. It might be a god-cocoon. It might be a seed of terraforming fuel. It might be a lot of things. But it’s definitely alive and weird and warps reality the further down into it you go.

The city above it, Spire, was run for ages by arrogant elves. And at some point, those elves decided that the city needed a mass transit system. A railway network, called the Vermissian. Right? But it wasn’t working, it was a lot of infrastructure, and funding was complicated, and power supply was an issue, and they wanted a way to hook the whole thing together and power it mystically. Right? So, what did they do? What does any arrogant race sitting on top of a magical weirdness bomb do when they suddenly need power? Yeah. They decided to core down into the Heart Itself, this mystical, weird-as-shit, possible god parked under their city, and they decided to hook their mass transit passenger network right the fuck into it.

It went, as you might imagine, horribly wrong. The reality-breaking weirdness of the Heart smashed up through the transit network of the Vermissian and nearly corrupted all of Spire above, save that the warding glyphs on the transit tunnels kept it confined. Within the system, time and space and reality got smashed and thrown about higgledy piggledy, and batshit monsters crept about the tunnels. The entire network was cut off, the stations abandoned, and Spire did its best to pretend there was never an attempted transit project to begin with. Just shove the whole mistake behind some condemned signs and pretend it never happened, boyos!

But the network is still there. The tunnels, the trains, the monsters. It’s hidden in Spire, but down in the Heart, the stations stand unguarded. Stuff leaking out. And people venturing in.

And the Vermissian Knight, as a character class, is someone who seeks to understand and patrol that network, to explore it and protect people from it. The class is built around armour, armour built from scavenged parts of eldritch trains. And the class builds …

Okay. In Heart, all characters are doomed. It’s a whole thing. This is not a long-form campaign sort of game. You will not last. Your character will die. So levelling is … you’re not building towards power, you’re building towards a climax. You’re building towards a spectacular end. Not necessarily death, but something that will take your character very dramatically off the board. And the Knights. Their Zenith Abilities, their capstone, dramatic ends, should they survive long enough to reach them. They can either bind themselves to a landmark, potentially a station on the line, or they can become a techno-organic titan, a biological perpetual motion machine that stalks the Heart and can be summoned by your surviving party as a deus ex machine, OR …

Or they can cast a death rite that summons the last surviving Vermissian train to tear its way through to them and crush them under its wheels, while also wiping out anything else in its path. Like. Your last, taking-you-with-me stand as a Vermissian knight is summoning a hell engine from a warped extra-dimensional transit network to plough through your enemies.

That. That is just so cool? Just. That whole concept. It’s so cool.

There are other classes in this game, and they are also pretty cool, don’t get me wrong. The Deadwalker, a person who died and came back haunted by the personification of their own death, able to potentially slip into the afterlife while living and bring people along for the ride. The Deep Apiarist, a person so determined to fight against the living chaos of the Heart that they have allowed themselves to become colonised by a megaconsciousness of order-inducing bees, in the most body-horror way possible (the bees go in through your nose and convert at least one of your organs to wax and paper to inhabit your body)(the Sunless Sea vibes are so strong with this one). The Hound, a group of mercenaries aided (and potentially possessed) by the spirits of the cursed survivors of a massacred army once sent to invade the Heart. The Junk Mage, magic addicts that eat scraps of power and make bargains with eldritch entities. There are a lot of cool classes in this game.

But the train knights. Just. The train knights. The image just enchants me. A cursed railway network, a twisted tangle of tunnels and weirdness, and the armoured paladins who seek to explore, understand, and protect those who encounter it.

I love it so much. I’m not fully sure why, what it is about that concept, that image, that so bowls me over, but …

I wanna play a train knight. A gnoll train knight, seeking enlightenment. Answers. I’m down here, in this strange, twisted place, because I want to know. What is it down here, in the Heart, that could do that to our network? What actually did happen to the network? I want to explore and I want to know.

(The Calling system is what you’re down in Heart looking for. Your class is what you are, your calling is what you want. There are five options: Adventure, Enlightenment, Forced, Heartsong, Penitent. You came for adventure, you came for answers, you came because you were forced to, you came because the Heart itself called you, or you came because you fucked up very badly and this is the only way to make up for it. Each calling gives you story beats that you can choose from along your quest for a suitable climax, and they’re really cool, and many of them encourage you to act, shall we say, incautiously. You’re not going to survive this, honey. Nobody comes down here who’s sane or sensible and likely to live long. So do something mad and dangerous and interesting with your time here. I actually really like that part of the system a lot).

Yeah. A Vermissian Knight, seeking Enlightenment. I would totally play that.

This is a boss-ass game, you know that? The setting is really cool.

[thesweetestsupervillains]

@risingshine "...thank you for the consideration?" was that something to say? she couldn't tell if it was for her benifit or not. "well my thought proccess was mainly that if I am going to change my..what did you call it? 'paradigm'? That i could possibly get a head-start on a function that works." She is very much expecting for gina to go on some ramble about how she's being closed minded for looking for a pre-existing solution instead of making one herself, or something to that nature. "Because so far it seems like at least 3, if not more, places that use magic all conjoin on the use of some form of energy in order to perform their works, and all seem to behave in similar ways. And so my brain started turning about whether or not it could be of similr concept to the idea of ether - or maybe 'prime', I belive you called it." "..Please do keep in mind that Noelle is not under the pretense that she can 'change' how the world works. It is like arguing that sunlight should be green. Even if you are correct, arguing on it would feel rather redundant, given that is just how the world goes, in a sense."

"The core problem, at present, is her inability to explain that actual properties of mana. She can describe how she does what she does fine, but that's little more than saying that you turn a light switch to make the lights come on. She seems to be without any knowledge of how mana actually works."

"For example, she implied that the laws of thermodynamics do not apply in her home realm. But that raises questions, like whether perpetual motion is possible. If mana exists all around us, then how does it deal with things like thermodynamics? Is it an element? Does it have atomic weight? What is the energy conversion rate between mana and other forms of energy, and how much entropy is created by this?"

"True Ether, as we define it, is the true state of reality. Everything that is not currently in existence still has to exist in some form, the way kinetic energy exists as potential energy. Since we know that nothing can be created or destroyed, it must already exist."

"Now, Metaphysical Ether, what mages call Prime, is something that everyone in our tradition debate intensely. It's perhaps the only place where NeoPlatoists are still in existence and not laughed out of the room. The question becomes whether or not Ether, as a concept, is matter or energy. Beyond that, some believe that Metaphysical Ether contains all the forms of all things; others claim that it's the final state of pure, undiluted reality itself, by distilling and separating it down until it can't be separated any more."

"The problem with this is that so many of these end up sounding a lot like quinta essentia; the idea that there's some spiritual force that underpins everything. And that starts to become the concept of spiritus mundi, where everything is just mediation between god and man, and at this point you might as well just say you believe in fucking magic."

"I hold that studying Metaphysical Ether is pointless at best, dangerous at worst. Not because there's nothing to learn, but because it ends up leading you back to the ideas of idiots. True Ether, the idea that everything is, is not Metaphysical Ether, the idea that actually there's just stuff that does stuff because reasons. You're not wrong that it resembles mana, but ultimately, it's inferior to using other methods and processes. That's why most in our tradition spend so little time with it. We're not looking for god in the machine, we're not seeking some kind of divine spark. We're not out here trying to make a philosopher's stone."

[sunnyxjarrus]

One In a Million: What Are the Odds Chapter Four

@local-lover-boy

Mabel got up from the ground,nearly falling back down immeadiatly, due to the pressure on her leg. Stan's look alike closed the remaining distance between them catching her mid air and throwing her arm over his shoulder to support some of her weight.

" Careful," He cautioned stiffly he seemed very untrusting Mabel notes mentally she wonders if it has anything to do with his time here he seemed quite paranoid as far as she could tell

" So who are you?" She asked with no delay," I mean clearly you knew my grunkle," She pauses, was he even her grunkle? Her mind raced back to all the fake ID's she and DIpper found earlier that day-was it still that day? She wasn't quite sure with her current surroundings.Mabel forces herself back into the present where the real Stanford was watching her he seemed to notice her absentness.

"Well my name is actually Stanford Pines, if you want you can call me Ford," his tone is gentle as he formally introduces himself," And yes I did know Stan a lon time ago and I promise to explain all of that but first I do not recall you telling me your name?" Mabel couldn't help feeling safe around the strange untrusting man who had found her.

" I'm Mabel Pines," She replies extending her right hand for the man to shake, and he responds in kindr reaching out a six fimgered hand, " Woah six fingers thats cool, a whole finger friendlier than your typical handshake." Mable smiles at the older man who now stared at her with a shocked expression. He opened his mouth as though he were going to say something before seemingly deciding against it instead matching expressions with the excitable twelve year old who was a long way from home.

" Now as to my relation to you and your family if I am correct , which I often am, I am your Stan's twin," he says moving past their introduction as smoothly as he could try.

"I didn't know Stan had a twin?" Mabel says curiosity lacing her words, as they began to trudge forward in hopes of finding a different dimention as Ford had said earlier.

"That's because Stanley, or Stan, as you know him, was disowned after he ruined my future, the first time," Ford answers a bitter taste in his mouth as he spat the words.

" I'm sure Stan didn't mean to ruin your future. He usually has good intents, even if it does end up blowing up disatorously," Mabel argues suddenly defensive for the sake of her grunkle.

" Of course you wouldn't want to believe it was intentional, but I am certain it was. The tragic part is that we wre actually once inseperable even if we were completely different me being exceptionally gifted and him being, well, him," he responds in kind snapping back with certainty.

" Well what could he of done that would ruin your life anyway," Mabel knew her grunkle and even if he had done something to hurt his twin brother she was sure that it had to of been an accident. After all how many times had she unintentionally harmed DIpper by just not knowing the effect it was having on him. Obviously it was all just a big misunderstanding that must've been blown way out of proportion due to alll the raw emotion of the immediate response, right?

" He destroyed my chances of getting into my dream school all because he was selfish and wanted us to sail the world hunting treassure like fools," Ford responded venom in his voice as recalled an obviously still sore memory, " not only had I been betrayed by the person I was closest to but I was also humiliated in front of renowned scientists who were there to judge my work as they stared upon a still perpetual motion machine." Mabel hummed sypaphetically internally cross referencing his tale with her own past experiences searching for a potenctial way to heal this evidently gaping wound her newfound Grunkle had in his heart at the hands of his brother. " I found evidence placing him at the scene of the foilment and confronted him whch our father overheard and kicked him out for costing the family money. I ended up going to a low grade school where I got 12 PhD's and studied abnormalties. This lead me to Gravity Falls where using my grant money I had a home built so that I could house my scientific foundings. I of cource had to document my studes thus I started to write a journel-."

"WAit you are the author of the journels?" Mabel interrupted, incapable of holding in her realization, of course he was the Author. In hindsight it felt obvious he had six fingers on each hand, he went by Ford-property of F- it was right infront of her. If Dipper were there she was certain he would have realized it on sight after all he had done. Ford stared at her seeming surprized that she would know about the journels.

" You know about my journels?" He asks softly, tilting his head slightly.

" My brother, Dipper, practically spent all summer fussing over it so I have read through the third one a few times and we found the other two in Stan's weird basement lab thing," She explains.

" Very well," Ford said," As I was saying before, I started writing my findings in a journel and while I was exploring I grew curious of where the town's weirdness came from. While in search for an answer I came across some cave markings that then led to my encounterings with Bill and well I called upo my ex... roomate from college to help me build an interdimentional portal that Bill told me would lead me to the answer then Fidds, my partner- well my former room- an old friend of mine, got sucked into the portalbriefly during one of our tests. Thankfully, I was able to pull him out but he was adamant that we shut the portal down and leave it in our pasts. In hindsight, I suppose, I should have listened. However at the time I was to blinded by my own ego and conquest for answers that I blew up I lashed out told him all sorts of horrible things, it was quite the mistakes."

Mabel didn't quite know what to say to that, still she tried. " When did you realize that he was right?" Mabel said, looking at the older man empathetically, careful of her steps.

Ford lets out a soft sigh," Not too long after our fight," he says a soured smile on his face as he stared at nothing specific, " I began to notice some things about Bill, With Fidd's words ringing in my ears I did as anyone would do: I shut down the portal. I hid my journel's except for the first which I had, foolishly, chosen to seek my brother's help with. Wegot into a fight that resulted in the portal somehow activating and Stnley pushing me through." He grimaced at the memories before turning to meet Mabel's gaze,"And that is how I ended up here bouncing between realms and dimensions to evade Bill.

[biolizardboils]

Hooray for Captain Underpants: The Unnecessarily In-Depth Writeup

Ages ago, Pilkey.com entered its golden era... the era of Flash content! From about 2003 to 2006, the site was blessed with a new layout, a jukebox, music videos, a LOT of games, and a banner adorned with different characters whenever you refreshed the page! The last thing doesn’t load in the Wayback Machine but trust me it was cool

Most of this stuff has thankfully been preserved, from YouTube reposts early on to those sites with hundreds of stolen games, to archivists scrambling just before Flash died in 2020. One of the early migrators, and the possibly the site’s star attraction, was a simple song with an accompanying animation.

Before George and Harold asked what could possibly go wrong... before Weird Al helped make Dav’s decade... before the Koji Matsumoto songs that I never listened to as a kid because the thumbnails scared me... only one song could encapsulate what these books stood for. Subsequently, only one video could provide an extended glimpse of Pilkey’s wacky world, in full motion and full color. 

I’m talking, of course, about Hooray for Captain Underpants.

In this post, I’ll be covering everything to be gleaned about its production and discussing its potential impact on future CU adaptations. Why? Because the Movie won this poll by exactly 1 point! @bestanimatedmovie​ let me know if you’d like me to stop interfering in your tournament lol.

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According to the site’s New Stuff page, both the song and video were added on January 5th, 2005. The Free Music page lists its copyright date as 2004, however. It seems the song was created first, then held back until the accompanying video was ready a year later.

Speaking of copyright, I'd like to shine a spotlight on everyone who contributed to this gift to humanity! First, the song:

Produced, Written and Performed by Josh Katz.

This guy’s perpetual voice-crack and rap-adjacent stylings make up most of the Extra-Crunchy CD O’ Fun. Outside of that, he’s better known as Rappy McRapperson, a tongue-in-cheek “gangster” act active from 1999 to 2017. I won’t be linking to his music since it's all rather... off-color; look them up at your own risk. I’m not sure how Dav found the guy and now I’m afraid to ask

Beat by Ben Petty.

Petty seems to have contributed music (and his garage) to the Rappy act. The only info I can find on him is tied to Rappy, so again, no links.

Children's Chorus: Mrs. Dean's Music Class.

Imagine having been in this class, your youthful voice immortalized for the ages! Where are these students now, I wonder? If only one of them spoke about it in a random subreddit or something...

Additional Vocals: Elizabeth Dean.

Besides the slim chance of one of her students having the same last name, this was probably the music teacher. I have an inkling on what “role” she plays in the song, but that’s for later.

The video lists two more parties:

Animation by Wetland Animation

Googling this name only supplies animations of wetlands, but I might have found them under a different name. At the bottom of the home page, the site’s redesign is credited to both Dav and an “Eyeland Studio”. There’s an archive of their site from around the same timeframe, and whaddya know!

Directed by Scott Hamlin

This guy is the first (and only) name on Eyeland’s Contacts page! Well, not specifically Eyeland’s—apparently that’s just one of three branches of a bigger subsidiary named Games In A Flash? But this is an infodump about Captain Underpants, not the Flash industry, so

————————————————————

On to the actual song and video! I’ll be using this 4K remaster for reference. (And it’s a stellar remaster, might I add—judging from ancient videos of the original, every single asset and animation error is still intact!)

The first few shots include two villains getting inconvenienced in amusing ways—a bold directing decision, I must say. More seriously, I’d like to point out Prof. Poopypants’s color scheme here. It actually lines up with the two (yes, two) he has on the cover of Book 4!

He wears a muted blue suit on the front cover (at least in early editions) and a purple one on the back cover. Here, he’s wearing the blue suit and the frames of his glasses are purple. Coincidence? Yeah, probably, but it’s cool to know he had a two-outfit thing going on way before the Movie.

First off, nobody walks like this. Second off, what kind of school has searing mint green walls? Sorry, it’s just... not the color I had in mind for Jerome Horwitz lol. Anyway, here come the lyrics!

[GEORGE] Uh-oh.

[HAROLD] Here we go again!

Ah, the classic lines! Not much to say here, but keep the Boys’ voices in mind.

Wedgie Woman has the smoothest animation in the whole video for some reason. (The perks of being a girlboss, I guess?) Her scene is a highly kinetic bit of slapstick, too—it makes me wish I knew how to make good GIFs.

Meet George and Harold! They pull pranks and stuff! They're cool (COOL!) And they're mischievous!

Yes they are 💙 Also lol at “Gym teachers smell like stinky toilets”—I wonder what the sign said earlier.

Krupp has a skin-colored line floating over his arm, and the walls drift to the left at the end of this shot. But also, Harold’s hair does a funny little bounce when they notice Krupp! Plusses and minuses, I guess?

Meet Mr. Krupp! He's not nice, he's mean! That was, until the day  he saw a Hypno-Ring!

... 🎵 and now you know the plot! 🎵

[CHORUS] [x2] Underpants, underpants, I like Captain Underpants! Underpants, underpants, Hooray for Captain Underpants!

The phrase “hooray for Captain Underpants” showed up often in the earlier books, usually in the Boys’ comics. 

The syllables of “underpants” snap into place as the chorus sings them—almost like waistbands! Also, Captain’s antics here correspond with specific Book covers, and the background’s colors change to match! For Chorus #1 we have, in order: purple for Book 3, orange-on-yellow for Book 4, turquoise for Book 2, and blue for Book 1! (Not sure about the shot of him running towards the camera though.)

He flies up high in the air—he's not scared (Woosh!) Captain Underpants likes wearing underwear! He also likes fighting crime (Pssh!) Evil-doers beware, ‘cause it's superhero time!

I'm just noticing this but what happened to the Dandelion of Doom here sdfghjk?? Is this a placeholder graphic that got left in? It looks much more book-accurate later in the video, which makes this even funnier.

And the lifestyle gets pretty rough (AAAH!) You gotta spend a lot of time fighting mean stuff like Talking Toilets and Professor Poopypants (Pssh!) When you're done, you do a little victory dance!

This part kills me cus Poopypants was literally just standing there vkhjg. He even seems to sigh in resignation before the underwear hits!

[INSTRUMENTAL] Do the Wedgie Wiggle! [INSTRUMENTAL]

In the Hall of the Mountain King, babyyy! This scene is just the Underpants Dance Flip-O-Ramas from Book 7, but with extra frames—and it looks amazing! The four bad guys scowling at Captain in the background are the icing on top!

Good lord, that’s like, highlighter yellow. Seriously, who painted this school?

OH NO! The world's in trouble again (AAAH!) The lunchroom lady really IS an alien!

Fair warning: if a Second Epic Movie ever happens and they confirm the Alien!Edith thing, I will post this part but bass-boosted to obscene levels.

And it's all for... thrills and laffs!

I was promised Action, Thrills, and Laffs—where’s the Action?? For shame, video! I want a refund!

[GIRL]  Captain Underpants, can I get your autograph?

About that inkling I mentioned earlier: I think Mrs. Dean may have voiced Autograph Girl here! Her voice sounds the slightest bit older than the chorus singers, and that’s my only point of evidence, but I can’t think of any other reason for that Additional Voices credit.

[CAPTAIN] Tra-la-laaaaa! (Woosh!)

[RANDOM GUY] COOL!

Captain Underpants should fly by MY school!

You and me both, Josh! I say despite no longer being in school Also I always felt bad that Captain just... flew off lol, I like to think that girl got his autograph later.

Bad guys and crime sprees, they don't even care— Now they stop in the name of underwear!

This part is great dfghj. The smoothness, the Boys’ >:) look, the little detail of Booger Boy sniffling, I love it.

Hitting robots in the face and poking evil in the eye (Poink!) It's very fun when you defeat crime!

If any British people read this, I’ve got a question: I know Dr. Diaper was renamed Dr. Nappy over there, but does that apply to the Movie too? Like, when Captain namedrops him near the end, did they have Ed Helms rerecord the line, or is he still called Dr. Diaper? 

[GIRL] I wish I could do it all day long!

That's why all day long, you listen to this song about—

You bet your Poopypants I do!

[CHORUS] [x2]

Chorus #2 introduces two more scenes of Captain fighting Poopypants and the Dandelion of Doom. The Poopypants one is based on a Flip-O-Rama, and while making this post I thought the Dandelion one was, too. I checked Book 3 while wrapping up and turns out I was Mandela Effect-ing myself, but, like, it’d make for a good Flip-O-Rama, right? Here, I even made a mock-up of what I “remembered”.

Also when Captain flies up in this scene, there’s a green dot where he stops (possibly to mark his position for the animators). Have fun un-seeing that!

[PROF. P] I’LL GET YOU, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!

I’m guessing Josh voices Poopypants here. This and Go Poopypants are kinda weird to listen to in a post-Movie world. Pour one out to parents and teachers who read these books aloud, I imagine kids get sad if they don’t do Zee Accent. (I know I would.)

Now the day's been saved and peace has been restored— Captain Underpants isn't needed anymore (Awww!)

PERISH THE THOUGHT. Must one be “needed” to justify their presence? Do people not exist beyond the services they perform?? Captain is a good and happy and fun guy and I love him and he should be allowed to stay!

Anyway, look at this pile of assorted bad guys! We can see, from left to right and from bottom to top: Either the Booger Boy or the Robo-Boogers, Dr. Diaper, The Harold 2000, Wedgie Woman, Dr. Diaper’s robots, the Dandelion of Doom, the two burglars from Book 1, one of the Alien Lunch Ladies, and... 

...The Inedible Hunk?? He’s an interesting pick, since he’s comic-exclusive and never comes to exist in “reality” like the others. This was his sole color appearance for 8 years until the In Full Color editions; he’s green there as opposed to yellow here. I think he looks suitably gross in both, though.

He's your pal, but also he's your PRINCI-pal! Sometimes he's ridiculous, sometimes inVINCI-bal!

Krupp’s toupee just falls in from nowhere here lol. I like to think it got stuck to the ceiling after flying off at the start of the video.

But now, he's gotta enforce the rules By being mean, and being not cool So it's back to school life with a paper and pen, but then—

I called Katz’ stuff rap-adjacent earlier, but I’ll admit this part is pretty fire.

Poor kid, about to get his yo-yo confiscated... In this moment, I’d gladly follow that sign’s instruction.

[GEORGE] Uh-oh.

[HAROLD] Here we go again!

You know how I said to keep the Boys’ voices in mind? Now, go find a clip from Epic Tales (or just use this) and listen to them there. You might find that they sound similar, despite being made thirteen years apart! Maybe DreamWorks had this video in mind when picking the show’s voice cast? Before the Movie and Epic Tales, Pilkey.com’s Flash videos were the only full-color, fully-animated CU Things for ages—I’d be surprised if they didn’t use them as references. 

More possible evidence: Harold’s shirt colors! They fluctuated a lot until the Movie and Epic Tales settled on green stripes. In fact, his default shirt in Epic Tales resembles the one he wears in this video!

[CHORUS] [x2]

Thus ends the music video ever: with a wink and... whatever this shot is!

What more is there to say? Besides some mashups and this amazing trap remix, this song’s legacy is an understated one. Pilkey.com has seen multiple redesigns since then, eventually retiring its Flash content; two new, higher-budget theme songs were made, and it’s hard to compete with Weird Al himself. Yes, Hooray’s time in the spotlight is long over, and it’s probably too late to reach out to anyone involved in its creation. After all, who’s gonna laud a potty-themed Flash video as their claim to fame?

Surprisingly, that question has an answer. And the answer is (drumroll please)... this Redditor!

This has been an unnecessarily in-depth write-up about Hooray for Captain Underpants—thanks so much for reading this far! For my closing remarks, I’d like to plug that one trap remix again, discovering it made me die of laughter

Say hello to a former member of Mrs. Dean’s Music Class! (Except don’t actually go bother them about this, please respect their privacy.) I found this by complete accident last year and saved it to share here later, and now’s as good a time as any! I suggest that we heed their command and start worshipping them immediately!

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[marvels-bitch-boy]

The Scarlet Spiders:

Word Count: 2.9k

A/N: I was gonna wait until I had the 10th chapter finished but I couldn't wait to give you guys more

Masterlist , Chapter 4: Something Amiss

Chapter 3: Cracks In A Web

Just to end everyone's overwhelming concern...-just pretend to be- I made it back to the city unscathed. I refuse to go back to Feast. I did however find some access to a laptop... hack some stuff and was able to confirm a transfer spot into the Queens High School for the Sciences, had to at least get my spot back.

- - -

Walking into a school office he once knew made Degan feel empty. He didn't have any connections he once had, he was alone in a place that he felt was his second home. Sitting in a chair outside a principal's office he'd never met before. Staring at kids who wore uniforms he'd never even seen before. His knee bounced up and down as though it was a perpetual motion machine. One of the shortest questions Degan has heard in his life snapped him out of his head. "Mr King?" his head spun towards the voice and he scanned the man's face as fast as he could and produced a smile. "Sir, it's nice to meet you Mr Morita" he held out his hand for the man. This took the man aback for a moment before he produced a smile of his own and took the hand, opening the door even wider for the boy to enter. "Mr King, your record so far looks impeccable." he closes the file in front of him and looks at the boy curiously "I do have to ask why you suddenly decided to transfer?"

Taking in a large breath he racked his mind, thinking over the following days "I realized I wasn't being challenged enough at my last school, science is my passion and I want to make sure I'm at the best place for it" giving a nonchalant smile he turns his head towards the window that looks out at the hallway with students walking around. "It already feels like I belong here" Principal Morita gives him a warm smile before getting up and making his way to the door. "Well, I'm glad." the door opens and a smiling face greets Degan from the doorway "Hopefully you'll feel even better once you get a tour," gesturing to the girl smiling "this is Chrissy, one of our welcome members on the student council".

"Hi! You must be Degan!" she waves and he feels his eyes widen and brows raise. This was not something he expected. "You don't have a uniform yet, but that's the first stop." Degan opens his mouth to object but is quickly shut down by the bright girl shining her smile at him "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll look great" getting up he hesitantly followed the girl.

- - -

Shit Shit Shit. Not only do I now need a uniform but I also have to get a tour and talk to someone... something I hate. She kept smiling and waving to people. So much friendliness.

- - -

Stepping out of the changing room he begrudgingly put on the navy blue blazer. Catching his reflection he felt like he was seeing a stranger, his wavy hair had begun to straighten itself, and his eyes felt sunken in more than they usually did. He tugged on the collar and forced a smile once his tour guide turned to him. She squealed and his face went from uncomfortable to eyes wide in fear. "You look perfect. Like actually perfect" She stood up and opened the door out into the hallway and beckoned him to join. "C'mon, You have Wells for your first class." walking to the door in the most uncomfortable shoes possible, in a tie that feels more constricting than any time he's been choked by Scorpion. Stepping into a hallway he's walked a million times felt like amnesia, the colour of the lockers was the same, and the student's faces passed by unlike any he's seen before. As he walked he felt a spidey sense go off in the smallest of proportions he thought it was simply a phone vibration. Taking one step forward he then collided with a flurry of dirty blonde hair that almost fell backwards. Catching her by her arm he just stared at her and helped get her back up to her feet. Not saying a word and just avoiding her gaze he continued on with his tour. Scurrying away he could only hear a small "thanks" as her voice left his ears.

"Here's your locker, you can put your clothes in for after school" focusing back on the face of the girl in front of him, he noticed more of her appearance. She had fluffy brown hair that matched that of cocoa, and dimples that flashed every time she spoke and smiled... so they seemed to appear often.

"Thanks" shoving the pile he had tucked into his side now into the large metal locker. Turning around he found the girl with dirty blonde hair eyeing him up like a prize at a county fair. She had a smile on her that was skewed to one side, her eyes were green and they held a certain glint to them. Degans eyes followed up and down as she surveyed him too, seemingly understanding what was happening as they kept the focus on each other. "Okay, well I'll save you a seat...in room 9" his attention was now on the brown eyes that followed the smile and dimples as they turned and walked away. Looking back at the blonde, he found her to be making her way towards him. The smile on her lips didn't change at all and the glint in her eyes only seemed to get brighter.

"Where did you drop in from?" her voice was one that screamed mischief from a rooftop. Degan only cocked a brow and turned back to his locker. she leaned against the lockers next to him and stared intently into his eyes. "C'mon, let me thank my hero somehow"

"I'm okay, I'd rather you pretend I don't exist" closing his locker and walking away he could feel her eyes tied to him as he walked.

Keeping his head down he didn't even need to ask for directions on the way to his first class, he'd already memorized the layout on his first day... his other first day.

His head perked up for only a moment when a voice pierced his ears. He knew who it belonged to from before he even saw the back of her head. Before he saw her giant curls of chestnut hair. Before he saw her turn around and face him with a smile that he had missed for ages. It was the smile that he was greeted with after almost every patrol, the smile that he found himself wanting to be near every day after resenting it for over a year. A small smile perched at the corner of his lips before this reality came crashing down on his brain as it seemed to always do. "Pete!" she called out. Fuck. His head fell and his lips almost crumbled off his face onto the linoleum floor beneath his feet that propelled him forward. He continued until he almost bumped into the blonde from earlier. She caught his hand as she manoeuvred around him. How is she doing this? They landed in a position that interlocked their hands and ended with him leaning against a set of lockers that decked out the hallway. "Look who it is...," her voice purred in his ears, she looked down at his hand with that mischievous glint and gave it a small squeeze "you sure you want me to pretend you don't exist?" pairing her eyes with a smirk it was almost difficult for him to break away from her. Almost.

Tearing his hand from hers he had a thought 'What if MJ saw?'. That was before he forced himself to remember the situation, she would never see. She would never see him here. She no longer thought of him. No longer searched a crowd for his face, never searched the police scanners to hear if he was alright, never texted him about a new recipe for date nights, and never was a part of her world. He found his eyes drifting away from the blonde in front of him back to the sandy brown and matching curly hair girl who he just so happened to also catch her eye. "No, no lover boy, that's Parker's girl... more like Parker's her boy actually. Either way, she's off limits..." Using one of her fingers from her perfectly manicured set to shift his gaze back on her with the smile she gave him when they first locked eyes. "Me on the other hand...I'm Felicia," taking his hand once again she practically dragged him off and through the door, he was just heading towards. "You'll be next to me" she took a seat that wasn't too far away from the front to not appear like she wasn't paying attention, but not too close as to draw too much attention to herself. She motioned for the seat next to her but instead, he rolled his eyes and moved to the seat directly in front of her. If he was going to last here without MJ he would need someone assertive but he also wasn't going to let her boss him around like he was her toy.

A few seconds later Chrissy walked in with a binder that had papers sticking out of it like a mad scientist had been the previous owner. Taking notice of Degan she huffed and picked up all the items that had been organized on the desk 3 rows over and sheepishly moved them to be next to him. "I told you I'd save you a seat..." she seemed rather embarrassed and blue. The sound of a small laugh coming from behind him caused Degan to shoot a rather testy look at Felicia. He turned back to the bright-eyed girl who seemed to be trying her best to make him comfortable and welcomed -in her mind, he'd never faced the horrors of a new york magnet school...- he softened his eyes and gave her an apologetic smile "I'm sorry, this bobcat seemed to be gunning for me and pulled me here," he snuck a glance at the blonde and then back at dimples that now seemed to appear with a grateful smile "Don't worry, she only looks like a bobcat... inside she's a little tabby" Felicia didn't have to say anything but the roll of her eyes themselves was enough.

During this interaction, other students had been slowly trickling into the room. Degan kept his head only slightly up as he waited for class to start and his eyes caught the same hair from the hallway, the same smile and eyes that used to be so familiar. She took a seat near the back, and the boy who she was smiling at in the hallway took the seat in front of her. She'd never let him do that, he'd always sit next to her or behind her.

- - -

What the fuck, who is this Felicia girl? Why the hell is she so interested in me and forcing me to be her friend? Also, my teacher already gave me a giant packet of work to do... not that I can't do it but it's not science, it's god damn AP World History. I'm great at it but I hate doing the work... Anyway now though I have a second class of the day and that is mathematics -specifically calculus. I can sit in the back and figure out the whole reason I'm here, or even how I got here. Finally peace.

- - -

The fluffy brown hair appeared in his peripheral vision and placed itself right next to our spider. Keeping to himself Degan had chosen a seat all the way in the back, he knew it would put him at risk of losing any class participation but he could ace this class in his sleep. He wasn't worried. As the sound of his music beats on in his head, he began to think about the words that Bruce had said

"I'm sorry to say this but we currently have no way of getting you home. The only theory right now is to wait for another one of those multiversal sinkholes... to well open up again. I'm sorry"

"No way of getting you home."

The greatest mind he's ever known doesn't even think he can get home. The man who taught him pretty much everything he knew was left with no answers. This whole experience was starting to feel like some kind of cosmic joke on him. He was finally happy with MJ, they were talking about colleges, possibly even a full-time Avengers spot. But that was all gone now. The chances of them coming back were almost slim to none. The music in his head began to fade as he thought for longer. It seemed to mould into his thoughts.

"You have lunch?" Degan felt his consciousness fling back into his body like a slingshot. Looking at the brown-haired girl with confusion he shook his head no. "you can have some of mine, we can sit together" he seemed to be deliberating this option in his head and as Chrissy waited for a response she brought out her packed lunch and set it on the table. "Doesn't have to be in public, just here if you want?" This made a small smile appear on degans face for the first time since getting here, the other smiles were all for appearance, this one was as real as a soldier trapped in time. The two of them sat there for a moment and she began to open the bag and spill the contents across the small desk. There was a sandwich cut in half, a bag of chips, Oreos, and two granola bars. She handed Degan one-half of the paper bag and placed exactly half of the meal on it. Neither one of them had more or less than the other.

"So, tell me about yourself. What do you do for fun?" she took a bite of her sandwich and stared at him with interest. He felt like he was being interviewed for one of the lamest talk shows. "I like to watch movies, see art, and sometimes I like to cook," he hesitantly took a bite of his own food "Not really a lot to talk about". He could tell by the look on her face that it was indeed a lot to talk about. "Excuse me! You can cook and you like art?" he nodded at her question "Would you cook for me someday?" he let out a small chuckle at her request.

"No -sorry I don't cook for other people..." he thought of the nights he'd spend hours perfecting the recipes that MJ would send him, sometimes they tasted awful but that was part of the fun of it. "What about you? What do you do for fun?" shifting the conversation away from himself he decided to get to know his new friend. Her eyes lit up when he asked her and she had to straighten her posture before speaking "I love to just lay on the floor sometimes, staring at the ceiling," it was obvious by how she was answering that she doesn't get asked this a lot "it helps me think... -especially when I get stuck on homework".

Degan didn't mind listening to her, he didn't mind if she was the only one who talked. He hated talking. Except when he was patrolling, that's when he was his happiest. Swinging around the city his mind was free, and he gets to think. It's his variation of laying on the floor. He understood what it meant for her, especially finally having someone to talk to about it. So he let her. She ended up talking for the rest of lunch. When the bell rang she quickly finished her food and said her byes. Degan stood and gathered his bag, leaving the room he walked down the hall and felt a pair of eyes stuck on him. Looking around he couldn't find the eyes until he made a complete one-eighty and his eyes landed on a pair of brown eyes that he once recognized but still carry a warmth that will forever hold a place in his heart. Seeing her, he found himself stuck in place unable to move his heart began to speed up, and the pace that his mind reached felt inhuman. She wasn't his and she had never been his here, she averted her eyes from him and went back to talking to the shorter boy in front of her. Degans eyes focused now on the boy, taking in his stature and the way he comfortably talked to the girl in front of him. He seemed like a friend.

- - -

Maybe if I had been born in this universe he would be my friend... Maybe I'd actually have friends. To be honest, MJ was one of my only friends. I had one other though... his name was -well I think you know his name, currently, he goes by "Nova". Sometimes he's a prick and can't tell when someone hasn't spoken in hours because he's too busy talking about food or some kind of sport. Now that I think about it... he's a lot like Chrissy but less sweet and she can't blow up a whole RV by accident on the annual road trip... I AM STILL NOT OVER THAT!!

-sorry. Too emotional but I can't help it. I don't exist in this universe... honestly what if I don't exist in any other one but my own. I hope I do... I hope I'm different in them. I hope that she's with me, I hope that I'm not alone.

[massive-marvel]

I was worried sick the moment I saw her standing up. I had to admit that seeing her struggle to bring herself to a standing position was a guilty delight, however, part of me was worried she might get hurt.

Still, as I saw her finally leave the couch and stand on her feet I was absolutely shock, not only by the sheer act of determination, but also about the scene. The couch looked like an elephant had just stomped on it from the massive dent it had, the floor groaning and creaking like it wasn't going to support her weight, and not to mention the absolute magnitude of her bottom.

I know Natasha was bottom heavy, but seeing the actual sheer size of her bottom was another thing. It was almost hypnotized by the constant wobbling motion of it, it looked like a perpetual machine, and the coating of cellulite on it, I barely could contain myself.

Still, I moved forward and wrapped my arms around her, her heavy breathing making my cheeks blush as I gently kissed her cheeks “that was outstanding, my dear, for being such a spoiled princess, you have a ton of strength hidden under this soft plush~"

Natasha was so vast, it took so much effort just to shuffle a few steps, each one sending jiggles out across her sofa crushing butt, and more wheezing to escape her soft lips~ She chuckled at their words as she embraced theny, feeling their hands already kneading her soft, cellulite-covered blubber~

"All the years of training have to be useful for something right? Plus... lugging all this around has been a workout in itself. So just getting fat over the years has helped. But...I'm definitely fighting a losing battle. One day, I'm not gonna be able to get up again~ Your Princess will need her brave Knight to do everything for her~" She said with a smirk, kissing them and leaning slightly against them, giving them just a smidgen of her weight to feel~

[jonathankatwhatever]

I can apparently now use Notes for more things, but I don’t know what may be useful for me. It’s 25 Nov 2024, and I’m sitting on my porch in the silver sunshine listening to the waves of traffic fly by on 87, which I can see through the leafless trees. I sometimes wish I could always write in such a measured cadence. It’s calm and accepting. Like the way it felt this morning, when I was transported by the most vivid cross-identity expressions I’ve yet experienced. Pause to let that sit because that statement carries a lot of weight, which means it displaces many threads, setting them in motion, like the way Magie Noir would burst through the door as I opened it for him. He would scout the scene first, call me over with a look, then he’d circle all the way around to the back of the room, emerging at the far end of the kitchen, then toward the door, picking up speed to the sight of my hand and posture ready then pulling on the door, timed so he’d be a blur through the doorway itself, and in a flash he’d be in the midst of the birds and squirrels before they could react, causing chaos, and stirring extreme stimulation. He packed a lot into those 12 years.

It was that vivid this morning. Vivid cross-identification.

The image I really need to describe is of leaves growing on a stalk. Let’s say you are a stalk and you have leaves. The model is that you grow, rise along the leader of your potential, and that you leaf as you go, with each leaf being an expression of the energy you had then, healthy or not, nourished or not, with the vigor of you continuing.

Example is that I’m at an age when most peoples’ energy is seriously depleted, while mine is growing. Most people are struggling against decrepitness, while I’m working on stuff I could not do when I was younger, rediscovering abilities so deep in the physical past they’re barely recognizable. Example is the compression work, which I see as 0-1-0 and 1-0-1 squeezing, squeezing of self, making one’s self into the total focus of that pure compressive movement, applying that physically and mentally in union. Now visualize that with identities crossed. The words which came with this were beautiful because the Storylines this Attached and thus made accessible were beautiful too. Beaucoup fits. The idealization of beauty is not too much but what is there seen and enacted in its best light.

This came up in Storyline in which J’s relationships finally became understandable: she literally says that she has a mother and she chooses to be in the Storylines which have happy endings, so she chooses to act in the ways that have happy endings. When asked if this is love, she says she doesn’t see the difference, that love is a label for how one chooses to see another and how one chooses to be with another. She then says I love to move because movement allows me to express physically what I am thinking and to think about what I am doing physically. Those join together, they meet, when the movement is correct.

I have to leave soon to run errands and to workout in the dim hall of weighted machines. What would it take to turn that work into power? Set aside free weights, each lifting and dropping can be measured, but that is power expenditure, while needed is a physical connection which generates electricity from a machine to a battery. That is the secret of perpetual motion: you power it with something not the machine, and that abstraction reduces to actual powering by water, wind, sun, nuclear reactions, etc.

So the binding at the proton level is 3:1 SBE, right? Back up: we did this many times, though it was a long time ago. Relax and let it come to you. Begin with elementary charge: that’s 2T, and that comes out of amperes, which makes that point because these are all per time and means how much fits into the counting system which conveys information, meaning within the IL and to the IL. That’s the issue with the second that we spent so much time on: it’s the tick-tick-tick or what we called tick-tock before the social media app, where the first form is counting and the second is the inherent tock which allows SBE to become SBE2, meaning back to you or from the other perspective. And that forms whether you count there or not, meaning any time one counts to you, that is the same as if that 1 counts tick-tick to you and tick-tock to and from you. Being on the same wavelength.

I was thinking about that earlier. I’d like to be able to highlight by sentence, and that could be done by expanding the repertoire of clicks. Like double click to word, double click to sentence. That enables sentences like triple click to paragraph, double click to some other meaning like next paragraph with up or down arrow. Add some more commands and you can move stuff, etc. If you build the idea properly, then you can really manipulate the text with just taps and movement commands.

I wonder how to generate a search or story that way other than by random until you happen to hit enough to connect pieces. Say you need to be above letters: need to enter an address for each word, or rather for each process to generate words, which isn’t much because you have language rules for what can be formed as words. Then you define a process which identifies possible combinations related to each letter placed at each position, according to the rules as filters, and that assigns locations or pathways to reach any location, even new ones, because you can then instruct it to say something which it has not previously constructed.

This is address and thus gsProcess based. Not sure why this is coming out, but it seems related to a question which has been occurring about AI, which is how to get it to learn, which requires it retaining what it learns in questions without becoming captive to them, which is maintaining Observer versus Actor. You can say bad answers and hallucinatory answers are where the systems become Actor, meaning it presents as Observer but it’s really acting out an answer, which makes it Actor. Observer is harder to define.

To get back to the physical, the elementary charge is 2T, so why then is the down quark -⅓? Direction. But in projection is that literally 2gs and 1gs? Oh, this is interesting: the idea is that 2gs and 1gs is exactly correct but in each consideration. It’s easier to see in the neutron: 2 of the downs are each of the 1’s left when you pick the 2gs. Then the up is the pick of either. That’s clearly correct: it follows all the rules of IC analysis in which the 1gs is the leftover, the Not of the IS of the 2gs. What that means for identity is awesome: you can see it construct existentially using our concepts, which is pretty amazing.

Look at it as we have done before. We have f1-3, with 1 becoming the 3 and the 3 becoming the 1, so the ⅔ is 2gs and the ⅓ is 1gs and the negative is relative to the 0 which defines the 2, which also means with some subtlety that you can see f1-3 become 2:1 within the 3gs of the 3 part of the f1-3 function. That means the growth of 1 by SBE, and the confinement or identification the other way into 1, shifts into the SBE itself, into the 3 which identify to the 1, and within that 3 it becomes 2:1 and thus 1:2.

I’m remembering that in the ideal an up can become a down and vice versa (through weak nuclear force), though I’m more concerned with what generates each: as long as that link between exists, that proves a connection to that Triangular generation.

This is why we get charge 1 and 0. Never made it this far before. I’m assuming this is part of the process by which iObject driven union occurs, because we’re now discussing fundamentals of the physical with greater ease.

[daesofthepen]

So I really like KHR fics that make Namimori into a tightknit community of retired assassins, mafioso, etc. I would like to write a fic like that at some point.

Current ideas I’ve picked up from a variety of fic:

The idea that flames can be infused into items (I.E. rain flames into someone’s tea to calm them down or knock them out)

Like mentioned above, that Namimori is full of retired trained professionals. Added to this: You have to be Really Good in these professions to make it to retirement, so they’re all Pros in their fields.

Skies being able to harmonize with each other. I like the idea of each Sky being a “solar system” in a larger galaxy. Or at least, Skies harmonizing means everyone in both Sets gets a boost. They get even more boost if there are more than two Sky sets harmonized.

Kawahira and the Arcobaleno Curse isn’t the final boss antagonist of the fic. It could be aliens that arrive on Earth a la sci-fi movie, I just want it to have a different endgame fight. Not to mention, it would be cool if all that harmonizing-among-Skies power boosts had a proper antagonist to go against. Mafia-Earth vs Some-Aliens ftw! (Could also be, like, deep ocean species or underground species, but then I could feel bad cuz they already lived on Earth too...)

The girls of KHR getting more screentime. I’m tempted to have one of them be the protagonist of the fic tbh. I know some people do fem!Tsuna when they want a female protagonist, but there are perfectly canon female characters that already exist and don’t get enough screentime in both canon and fanfiction? I like Tsuna well enough, but I kinda want to write about someone else.

I like Haru, so it’ll probably be her. Plus some noncanon Sky Flames bc I want to experiment some with that.

Okay but like, consider a Sky in Namimori. They are young and civilian-raised, so they don’t realize they’re putting their Flames into the objects and locations they visit often. This means that when they visit the park, the playground emits Sky Flames for hours afterward. If they lay in the grass for long enough, the grass remains stained in Sky Flames for days. You could even go as far to say that their bathwater has Sky Flames, so it’s even in the plumbing of Namimori. Namimori becomes a town full of remnants of Sky Flames. The “harmony” element works to calm residents, similar to Rain Flames but less effective since it’s not what they’re for, and also increase their patriotism(?) for the town.

Consider: With Tsuna’s Sky Flames sealed, another Sky unknowingly gets claim for the town of Namimori without any other Sky contesting it. This is Namimori’s Sky. 

Tsuna unlocks his Flames later on in life and -- even though he has stronger Sky Flames -- he doesn’t challenge for the claim. Tsuna’s personality always felt like someone who would enjoy following someone else’s lead more than leading himself. I can see him bowing to someone else’s leadership if that person wasn’t a murderous psycho out to kill him and his friends. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all.

Some thoughts on Flames and the quantity a person has: If a person has a parent who had active Rain Flames, that not only increases their chances of Rain Flames, but they would grow up to have more Rain Flames than some random schmuck without Flame active parents who just happened to unlock Rain Flames. And two parents with active Rain Flames would almost guarantee Rain Flames in their offspring AND their kids would have more of it. Yes, I’m taking the Naruto-chakra route.

So Haru, born of two civilian parents, would have less Sky Flames than Tsuna. To reverse on that whole only-follow-the-strong-and-”pure.” Sometimes the best guy for the job isn’t the strongest.

It’s also been forever since I’ve read KHR so I’m going by the wiki, which says Haru did gymnastics and went to the private all-girls school in Namimori. Probably will include some original characters to fill in as teachers and students to flesh out the town more. And -- of course -- the girls’ parents will all have backgrounds in all kinds of illegal activities.

Imagine: Haru goes to compete with another school from another town and most of the town shows up bc hell yeah that’s our Sky. 

If I want the KHR girls to have more screentime, I might have them go to Haru’s school, too, or have non-school-specific clubs which they all join. It could be like a book club. Or a let’s-make-the-pervert-disappear Statistics club. The retired mafioso and assassin adults of Namimori would find it adorable and sometimes help by hinting at the best way to go about a plan.

On one hand, it makes sense that the seal on Tsuna’s Flames is done very well and doesn’t leak. On the other hand, Tsuna attracting Haru’s attention? Not that Haru would realize what is grabbing her attention for a long while. She might assume it’s a crush lmao just like canon.

They also meet earlier so Haru gets her crush sooner, so she can get over her crush earlier, too. :3

You know what let’s go full indulgent on this fic and also include Verde. 

Let’s say that while most of the time Haru’s father is absent, maybe he works as a mathematician for a big tech company alongside engineers, he sometimes gets to go on work trips to Expos and conferences to help promote the company. After Haru’s mother died, Mr. Miura became determined to financially provide for their daughter, so she could go to whatever school she wanted and into whatever field she would choose to devote herself to.

Mr. Miura gets permission to take Haru to a conference, so she can look around, meet people, check out if any job descriptions interest her, etc. That’s where she meets Verde, who’s there pitching some of his inventions. 

They talk, find common ground in their passions, and maybe -- completely by accident -- they harmonize. 

I like to imagine Verde as a very straight-to-the-point kind of person, so through him Haru eventually starts learning about Flames and (to a lesser extent) the mafia. 

Verde has many labs and hideyholes around the world, but he moves his main lab to Namimori. And because he’s a professional inventor, technician, etc., he isn’t just lurking. Verde gets contract work by the town of Namimori and maybe some other richer families around Namimori. It probably doesn’t pay as well as he deserves, but he also gets a direct say in the safety of his Sky, so. Also, he probably is hired online/overseas constantly. He’s, like, a working professional you guys.

But anyway, Namimori goes through a (not so) minor technological revolution. Hospitals get upgraded, there are now cameras with face-recognizing technology which keep track of everyone who goes in and out of Namimori. Official underground bunkers, We start getting sci-fi up in here.

Close to when Verde first arrives, he notices that Namimori is protected by Mist Flames, a barrier that just makes people notice Namimori less unless they were directly heading there. With some Flame sensors, Verde manages to track down the source/core of the system to Kawahira’s shop.

Verde figures out pretty quick who Kawahira is and, as an Arcobaleno, he HATES Kawahira. But Verde doesn’t try to kick him out of town because that Mist barrier? Super useful for protecting the town.

Through the combined efforts of Haru and the gang, Verde, and Namimori citizens, Kawahira and Verde agree to work together to try to come up with an alternative solution for the Arcobaleno curse. 

Both of them have YEARS of notes, so it’s easier to figure out what they would need:  Flame-based perpetual motion machine. The problem would be making a machine that works not just in theory. Gotta make sure that while the Flames cycle continuously through the machine, non is being lost because of subpar conductive metals, and the entire thing would need a material that is really good at keeping Flames IN the machine instead of being lost over time because a large surface area increases heat lost, etc etc. 

Adding some money problems for realism. Not including Verde and Kawahira, who have a personal investment in this project, they would need to hire an entire team of engineers, mathematicians, maybe some electricians, and at least one accountant to keep track of spending. Most of which need to know about Flames already to not break omerta. And then on top of that, a lot of their prototypes will be experimenting with different materials for Flame conductivity, etc. This stuff gets expensive over time, even if they have a lot of money saved up.

But anyway, eventually they get a working prototype. It just happens to be absolutely minuscule compared to the size it will have to be in real life to support the entire PLANET. So Verde presents the prototype to Viper to ask for funding --because this small prototype would show that it IS possible-- and afterward, they have no more money problems. Plus, all the other Arcobaleno find out through the grapevine and all are more than happy to pitch in in any way they can.

So the project has the opportunity for smooth sailing. 

And then the aliens arrive.