#i kind of forgot. as well as interests shifting but i still like td i guess so

[wetterfishguts]

Owen and Courtney and Izzy in clown costumes for a request

i mean i guess

[shadowofthelamp]

Actually, y’know what? I’m gonna do that thing with the first 10 chapters of aip. They’re pretty short but I’m sure I’ll be able to find one bit for each. Commentary in parenthesis.

1- “You’re not cheating on me, are you?”

“Who else would put up with him?” The computer chimed in.

(My characterization of the Computer- and the little confetti comment- comes a lot from In Short Supply, I think. I like him as just, like.... a guy who can’t quit his job because it’s his only function and also he has no body outside of it, but is still going to gripe and make jokes about it. Also Zim’s complete denial for TWO DAYS that he was pregnant and just imagining the Computer getting more and more tired of trying to tell him is great. I do see why people saw this and decided they wanted to hop on and follow for more.)

2- Zim dragged himself up by tugging at Dib’s arms in one fluid motion, before gripping the collar of his shirt in an iron fist and staring down at him, feet planted firmly on top of Dib’s thighs. “You! You did this!”

”It sounds like you did it to yourself,” Dib said, shoving Zim off him on instinct, but that just tightened the irken's grip, nearly clunking their heads together as Dib was tugged forward by his own force. “I didn’t know you could even do that!”

(Trying to convey the show’s physical comedy style in text is really, really hard, but I did my best- both in AIP and in TD. Zim making excuses when he does in fact want the kid is also pretty damn cute.)

3- “I’m starting a log, so we can keep track of progress.” He turned the camera up to show Zim better, and Zim smacked it into Dib’s lap, the phone turning off.

“You will not use your record-y thing to show anyone my true form!” Dib grabbed the phone and held it protectively against his chest.

“Relax, I’m not going to show anyone. This is for my personal notes. Besides, if it’s like an experiment, you’re going to want records, right? Half the city has seen you out of disguise by now anyways.” Zim glared at him, and Dib threw up his arms. “Okay, go grab your disguise, happy?”

(I’m glad that I showed that while they WERE dating, they still had a bit to go when it came to trusting each other, it allowed a bit more development later on.)

4-  “If you’re telling me you actually screwed Zim, I’d rather carve my ears out than hear about it, so I’m going to stop you right there.”

(Yeah, this one’s just funny, no smart commentary here.)

5- The elevator started its descent, and Zim tapped his chin. “This shouldn’t be too bad. I’m an elite soldier, some discomfort for a while is manageable, and I’ll have a new squishy servant to help around the house. Which is more than anyone else around here does!” He called up. “Except for Minimoose. Minimoose is good.”

“I can stop this elevator right now and you can crawl the rest of the way down.”

(More fun Computer dialogue. This one also has Zim totally brushing off the risks, great job Zim.)

6-  “This is insane. I knocked up an alien who forgot how to count.” Dib raked a hand through his bedhead.

(This is one of my favorite lines in the whole fic lmao. I debated so, so hard over including the aging thing for fear of being Canceled or whatever. Even though Dib says they need to go back to it, they never did, oops. AIP Zim is roughly in the 17-22ish range in irken years since I do think they send out smeets while they’re still in the human 13-ish range, so while he’s an adult it’s hard to shift it over to Earth years.)

7-  Gir nodded, eyes flashing red for a moment. “Understood!” He went back to normal, nuzzling his cheek against Zim’s chest. “We’re a big happy family, like those ones on tv where they all yell at each other but hug it out after twen’y minutes!”

(Writing Gir is really fun, he’s got some good lines in this one. You SHOULD be able to roughly trace almost everything he says in my fics to a sort of Gir-logic, filtered through his brain. Also this was the first one to get chapter art, besides the cover!)

8-  If there was an opening on the board, he’d take it in a heartbeat. Hopefully they wouldn’t hold ‘dating the alien he spent years trying to destroy’ against him. No one knew besides Tunaghost anyways, and he’d like to keep it that way. (Tunaghost was herself dating a werewolf and had admitted it to him first, thank you very much, he hasn’t just blurted it out and now they had blackmail on each other like reasonable people)

(I probably should have done something with this, but oh well. It’s a good line. I think it really feels kinda in the... style of the show’s humor I guess? If not directly than in the spirit, at least. Also pregnant Zim with blowtorch was one of the first images I had while brainstorming.)

9- “You’re going to be fine. Trust me, if seven years of living on Earth haven’t killed you yet, especially with about four of them with me actively trying to finish the job, nothing will.”

“You’re just terrible at it.” Zim was grinning again, though, and Dib smiled back. 

“Good thing too. I’d much rather have you here than hanging up on somebody’s wall right now.”

“Ugh, that’s what you had planned?”

“Look, I knew up to the autopsy, everything after that was just details,” Dib said. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“I’d deserve a tank and a spotlight!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dib nudged him. “What would you have done with me?”

“Hmm… made you into a zombie slave.”

“That’s… actually kind of cool,” Dib admitted.

“The offer is still on the table if you’re interested.”

“I’ll pass,” Dib said.

(This is some fun banter to lighten the mood up a little after Zim got sick.)

10- “Aw, don’t be mean! It’s cute, you’s a big dolly.” Gir had a wide grin as Dib cautiously set Zim down. “No, Gir. Not cute. I am an invader!”

“I mean, he’s got a point. You are kind of adorable.” Dib said, holding down a hand for Gir to high-five, something the robot eagerly did.

The moment was a bit spoiled, however, by the fact that Zim took the distraction of the high-five to kick Dib right in the shin.

(I appreciate it when I nail the comic timing- like I mentioned above, it’s difficult to do in writing.)

______________

Aaaaaand... yeah, there’s definitely a lot that feels sloppy now, but there’s a lot of cute or funny little moments in here too that I didn’t even copy over. I really was putting my all into it, and I feel a little better about it now, after looking for the positives instead of dwelling on the stuff I don’t like as much anymore.