#i spend 2 seconds adding glasses and a sword to a guy not for the approval of strangers

[flufflecat]

gojo looked different in the new chapter

[thedumbguywithaheart43]

Boomlord's weird adventure

Chapter 14 a salty experience

The chamber was large and circular all of the shelves were covered in bookshelves filled to the brim with books. At the very center of the room stood a ice pedestal with a jet black Crystal hovering just above it. Finn and Dash went off circling around the room with weapons drawn. The two of them carefully made sure there were no hidden golems in the room."okay Twilight this is why we needed you well other than the whole fire thing. None of us can actually grab the crystal if we do we will die fairly quickly as it drains the heat from our bodies."Twilight looked up at him dumb strucked."And how exactly do you expect me to grab it?"she gestured over to the crystal with one hand. Boom shrugged"well I don't actually expect you to grab it I want you to use your magic you know levitate it like you did me."Twilight rolled her eyes at the statement."And how am I supposed to use my magic without my horn because in case you didn't know I'm not exactly a unicorn anymore."boom looked at her like she had just said something absolutely ridiculous although she had a point she wasn't in her normal form."you may be in different shape but you're still a unicorn at heart the portals don't change who you are. If you could use magic back home then I guarantee you can use it here. Oh and in case if you're wondering how to do it I would recommend looking down at your side."Twilight raised a brow before doing as he said looking down at the purple blade at her side 'wait a second both me and rarity were unicorns well I was an alicorn but that's besides the point. Since we were the only two who could use magic and that means...' she reached down grasping the hilt of the blade and pulling it up from her side. She then pointed the blade at the Crystal focusing on it. A purple aura formed around the blade and the Crystal.

2 the crystal began to shake violently as the aura surrounded."I-it's really in there."Twilight pulled the sword towards her slowly as she could feel the pull of the crystal fighting back. The crystal kept shaking as the pedestal under it began to crack. Finn and dash looked over at the scene watching im awe that's Twilight uses her new sword to pull the crystal. However the amazement was cut short by the cracking of the walls the ice itself starting to melt and drip away."boom I'm pretty sure that Crystal was the only thing keeping this place together without the ice King!"Finn called out to boom. Upon hearing this boom started reaching to his satchel pulling out a small glass eye. That I was emerald green with a lighter green pupil and a black slit Iris. "Everyone get close to me!"he pointed his gun up towards the ceiling with his other hand after pulling it out from his side. He unleashed six total shots at a single point on the ceiling from which a ray of sunlight emerged. The shots nearly broke twilight's concentration as she is never witnessed the weapon before but recognized it as the sound from earlier sending another wave of dread through her system. Even with the feeling of dread in her she refused to break concentration as the crystal started to pull towards her and away from the pedestal which was now falling into pieces. With one last mighty Pull of her weapon the crystal flung at her stopping only a few inches from her hovering around the edges of her blade. Upon fully leaving its position the pedestal crumbled into snow and water as large sections of the ceiling started crashing down around them."okay everyone this is going to be unpleasant."Finn acted first grabbing boom shoulder and rainbow Dash his leg startling her while boom wrapped his arm around Twilight with his gun hand and tossed the small glass eye high into the air through the small Gap.

3 A shearing headache wrecked its way through twilight's head and she suddenly found herself no longer trapped in a chamber but rather on top of shards of ice and snow. A arm still draped around her quickly calmed her as she realized she was safe."sorry about that ender magic can be a real pain but it's most convenient teleportation I could summon at the time."he wiped the sweat from his brow looking down at a quite funny scene. The sudden migraine from the teleportation caused rainbow Dash to fall out of the air and land on finn. And their position was rather humorous as they were on top of each other and in opposite directions."I think you two need to get a room."boom smirked as both Finn and rainbow Dash felt their cheeks get red separating from each other. Twilight herself couldn't help but chuckle at boom's joke 'Well they were teasing us the entire time so I think boom deserved this one.'the smirk on boom his face quickly went away as he focused on the hovering Crystal."can't believe this was the only thing keeping ice kings place from falling apart."Twilight blushed a bit noticing the focus look on his face.'crap that look looks cute.'"Hey who even is this ice King."rainbow Dash blurted out grabbing booms attention."oh hes Marceline's friend Simon but it was during a time when he couldn't remember who he was because he had a magical crown that cursed him it's kind of a long story but quite cinematic and well told."This only added to rainbow Dash's confusion ."don't worry about it. We should be getting back to the Candy Kingdom preferably before a random candy citizen bumps into a candy crazed Pinky."the group sure the light chuckle as they began making their way back home.... however unaware to them a danger loomed close waiting for the perfect chance to reveal itself or should I say herself.

(hope you guys enjoyed this chapter I do apologize if over the next few days if my stories post schedules are inconsistent as someone close to me is getting out of the hospital tomorrow and I will be spending time with them most likely so might take away from my postings but I'll try to make sure a chapter goes up every night the best I can like normal)

(also I am now aware that I got ender pearls and ender eyes mixed up . pearls are the ones that make you teleport but in my defense it could have been from a world where the rules are reversed but mostly it stems from the fact that I had not played Minecraft in quite some time)

[tradeway2]

Session 2 17 Jul 2021

Ed and Matthew are being haylords (literally - they are baling hay), so we start a little late. Also Sophie is away, so someone else will be taking Hilda for her.

Mina has been building Gundams…

We make Nature checks to see if anyone of us remember what we are. Hilda does not make a check as she is still at 0HP. Ren, Marcus and Milo remember that ‘zombies’ are made with weird food; but we can’t be zombies because we know our names. We’re amnesiacs; we’re like characters from Neighbours. Not zombies. Pshhh.

Matthew has bestowed upon us some XP for the last fight, plus some extra for entertaining him so beautifully.

Cora thinks we should try to find a way to preserve our food a bit longer. From the feet up from now on?

We make Investigation checks. Milo notices that although the surrounding area contains weapons and spoiled food (mostly what we made), etc., there isn’t much in the way of bodies. He wants to know what size the food is; he thinks they must be from the same litter. They’re all about the same size; medium. (It goes: small, regular, large, goliath, god.) He looks at his friends; we look wounded, but there are no organs or anything hanging out. Some bandages wouldn’t hurt.

After the fight, we discovered our food was carrying some money. Between us, we scrabbled together 13 gp. We remember that money is useful, so we keep it. (Ren decides to invest his in cryptocurrency.) Hilda is the strongest, so we pile to money on her still unconscious form. We also find 7 gems, and 5 bottles, and a sphere.

Bingo asks if we mind him hanging around; he gets very excited when we tell him he’s welcome to chill with us. He’s excited to get to the horde as well. “Everyone’s friends there, it’s brilliant!” Cora decides it’s a bit like Burning Man. Leslie looks us all over; he does that old people thing when they nod along with the young folk. Let young folk be young folk.

Ed joins us, yay!

It turns out that Leslie has never been to Burning Man. Or the horde. I think? He doesn’t like being around big crowds; he prefers to spend time alone. Somewhere a bit greener. Does he mean over there? (Pointing). No, it turns out he arrived by boat. Hmm. Pilfer gets a sense of salt on the air, and the movement of a ship - for a fraction of a second, and then disappeared. He burps something disgusting; this is not strange to any of us.

Leslie comes from a place what is different to the place what we are standin’ on. ‘E’d love to go ‘ome. (For the sake of argument, and the fact that he can’t keep the accent straight from one week to the next, it’s decided that Leslie doesn’t keep his own accent but takes the one from whatever body he’s inhabiting. He’s gone from West Country to Brizzle. Or it might be the Chezzy Massive.)

This sphere that we found has a smooth surface, and weighs about a pound. Ren rolls a 17 Investigation. (Matthew asks me to roll a d4; “No reason.” Uh oh. I roll a 4. That’s either really good or really bad.) The sphere is made of glass.

Pilfer: “It’s a snow globe!”

DM: “… It’s opaque.”

Pilfer: “It’s not a snow globe!”

Ren blurts out, ‘Driftglobe!” It will light up as if the Daylight spell is cast. He can speak the command word in Friends and it will light up. It works once per day and recharges at dawn. It can also float.

Milo hears some food shout, a sort of sad, whiny sound, but then it’s gone.

What’s in the bottles? They’re glass, reasonably ornate, long necked, with a rich red fluid in them. Not sauce. Ren opens one and gives it a sniff. It smells like the best food in the world. Leslie advises against drinking it, however. Marcus asks him if he knows what it is; it’s a healing potion. Two seem to be in fancier bottles than the rest. We decide to give Hilda one of the fancy ones. (We now have two remaining RHPs.)

We distribute and take various potions, and then set about deciding what to do. Bingo panics when he realises he doesn’t actually know how to find the horde; Cora manages to calm him down, and earns herself Inspiration.

Leslie seems to have more of an idea of what to do and where he’s going, so we decide to go with him and work in a visit to the horde as and when we can. Bingo thinks we might be starting our own horde. Trendsetters!

Matthew does a sound effect and drowns himself out. “Who’s playing Metallica?” “You are!”

We carry on: The battlefield scenery continues for the better portion of the day. Does it bother us that we’re walking on a carpet of the dead? Well - that’s the thing. There’s not many bodies. Sometimes flying food comes and pecks at it, but when we grab at it, it nips out the way real quick. (We know what birds are, but we are aware that these aren’t birds. These are flying food. There’s a difference.) There are weapons on the ground, but not whole corpses. There are bits, sure, and we can hear friends shouting in the distance.

“I’m Bingo!”

“Can I be Bingo too?”

“Sure!”

(Interesting note - they are all Bingo, but they are all aware which Bingo is which.)

The sky begins to clear. The carnage appears to be thinning. There are fewer weapons, less spoiled food. We snack on what bits of food are still dragging themselves along the ground. Ren: “Mmm, trail mix.”

Cora asks Pilfer if he needs his parasol - he belatedly fumbles around for it. (Also DM has added a sketch book to Ren’s inventory for his lyrics and drawings. He knows it’s his, but he doesn’t know why he’s done all those hieroglyph, squiggly weirdness in between the pictures.)

Something hoves into view as the scenery improves:

Bingo: “I know why they do it - it’s for the freshness!”

Pilfer: “Has anyone got a tin opener?”

Ren: “It’s got its own tin opener strapped to the back of it, look.”

We see the canned food shake its head and draw its can opener as it approaches us. And we roll initiative…

The food goes first; it steps forward and prepares itself to be opened. (It holds an action.)

Milo goes next. He moves forward and tries the first of his two can openers, for a dirty 20 with his javelin. Yeah! He pierces the protective container; we will have to eat this meal today, it won’t keep now. The food pulls Milo's opener out of itself, and there is sauce on the end of it. Milo is delighted.

Cora moves forward, and holds an action, as do Hilda and Marcus. (Marcus makes an INT check to see if he’s noticed he has a quarterstaff yet; he has not.) Ren shambles forward as well, and does the same, holding up his second spear. "Kebab."

Pilfer hucks some cutlery at the food, once he’s within range. 19 to hit with his dagger-spoon. Spork? Ed: “I reckon you could do some serious damage with a spork.”

Leslie shambles up and holds back for now, but Bingo can’t contain himself. He uses all of his movement to get right up to the food, and its tin opener. This is not going to go well for Bingo, as he’s now the only one in range of the food. The food now attacks Bingo.

Ren: “Poor Bingo.”

Cora: “Bingo is about to get a lot shorter.”

Matthew finds the right button and hits Bingo with a 21 and a 22, for 11 slashing damage.

Pilfer: “… Bye, Bingo.”

Luckily the food misses its second attack, and Bingo is still up. He’s only cleaved a bit in twain; he’ll probably walk it off.

Cora has a go at tenderising the suit. She swings her mace, but misses. Milo moves up and uses another can opener - but 15 misses. “This food is tricksy.”

Hilda flings her hand axe but it bounces off the can. Marcus runs up and does a Slam but misses. Ren walks up to the food for an attack as well; he pokes it with his spear, two handed. 15 misses.

You know, food can sometimes be quite dangerous. We should have a rule where we can horde up and all attack together (as in, we can flank for advantage.)

Pilfer, having run out of cutlery, hucks a ‘smol hammer’ at the food as an improvised weapon. 21 hits! Right in the noggin! 1 point of damage, awww.

Leslie stays on the outskirts a bit, but he’s making his way round. Bingo’ll have a go. “He’s so excited!” 9 misses, though. He paws ineffectually at the can, frustrated. The food has a go back, but misses Bingo. The second one hits for 7 damage.

Matthew, clicking buttons: “ Poor… old… Bingo.”

We hear Bingo say, “Ow!” He looks poorly now.

Cora is up. Open this can! She has a try at grappling the food to the floor; she makes a STR check for 14. She does not grapple the food. Milo moves up to flank it with Marcus, and does a bite by making a Slam attack with his teeth. 4 Bludgeoning damage!

Hilda moves up but can’t get near the food, so she elbows Marcus and Ren in the back of the knees. Marcus attacks, now that he’s flanking with Milo, and manages a Slam for 6 bludgeoning damage. Yeah!

Ren shuffles around so he’s flanking with Cora, and has a stabby at the unprotected side - but sadly, even with advantage, he misses. His spear skitters across the surface of the can. Pilfer wishes to Slam him. “Slam to your heart’s content.” Sadly he’s so excited he slams the floor instead.

This is standard Friend tactics - surround and overwhelm - we don’t need to change a thing. Leslie has a go as well now. He misses.

Stuff is leaking from Bingo, but he’s still up and for the first time in his career with this new horde, he scores a 20 to hit for 2 bludgeoning damage. We all cheer.

Canned food does some sword work at Bingo, hits him, and Bingo goes down.

“NO BINGO NO!!!!!”

Bingo is not dead, because he’s significant enough to have a name, we are assured. Hooray! The food takes aim at Milo, but only rolls a nine. Phew!

It’s Cora’s turn. The canned food smells worried. She has another go at grappling it, but rolls a 7 - she uses her Inspiration and grapples it.

Milo has a dim memory of catching something like this that had pinchers, so he pokes between the plates with his javelin to get at the good stuff - and gets a Critical Poke! DM: “I’m not gonna lie to you guys, you needed that.”

Does Milo get any nice chewy bits out? He’s pushed his javelin right through the knee joint; he’s separated the bones in there, and it’s all just connected by meat now. If the food survives this, it will never be knight again. He now has a long career as a meme to look forward to.

This food is now much closer to being prepared now. Milo even gets Inspiration for such a wonderfully timed Nat 20. Hilda takes aim at his other knee, cackling all the while, and hits with a 24 for 6 bludgeoning.

Marcus aims a Slam at its head with 23 to hit for 7 damage; canned food is struggling but not down. The only thing holding it up is Cora’s grapple and the fact that we’re standing all around it. (Like when you pass out at a gig.)

Ren remembers food on a stick (hazy memories) and has another poke - and misses. He realises he’s been using the wrong end of his spear, so he turns it around for next time. DM, through tears of laughter, awards Inspiration.

Pilfer takes a swing and a miss.

Duncan, OOC: “Don’t stop me now…”

Ren realises he’s humming under his breath.

This food is smelling pretty ready now. Not perfect! But close. Bingo makes an Undeath save. a 19! Canned food struggles against Cora’s grapple, but fails. DM: “It is weary, and ready for eats.” Cora wants to start sucking the juice out of the eye holes. She makes an attack but a 14 misses; she used her Inspiration last round.

Milo takes aim at the armpit. DM: “Horrible little man! I love it!” He rolls two 8s, sadly.

Hilda has been cackling since last round, and takes aim at the same spot as last time. 21 hits, for 4 bludgeoning damage and with that the meal cracks open. Underneath the can is lots and lots of lovely freshly prepared food!

Pilfer retrieves his hammer and knife, and Hilda picks up her axe. Marcus stops shovelling food into his mouth for long enough to give Bingo a potion.

Milo wants to bend some metal into a sort of cup shape, and try saving some of the food for later. He can add “Some food in home made can” to his character sheet. Matthew adds that he must note: “Not airtight.”

We all get some treats! 116XP! As we consume our meal we find 8 more gp, some more gems. Marcus asks to keep the can's can opener, as he doesn’t have a weapon; Leslie nudges him and says he might have something on his back. Marcus turns around.

We also find two more RHPs, some fancy boots. We don’t know what they are, but Leslie suggests they might be worth taking along. Pilfer claims them, and the food’s hat. The head falls out; Ren starts digging around behind the jaw for the good bits. We also find a fancy stick! Milo knows what it is - and now he has Proficiency in Investigation rolls. He and Ren both know it’s a magic stick. Not just a stick, either - a staff. It’s got a snake’s head on it. He doesn’t know the exact nature of it, due to his own nature. Marcus picks up the tin opener/greatsword.

We have a nice sit down meal. Bingo is so delighted with us and our micro-horde, he’s starting to forget about looking for the main one.

We decide to devote another week to this, as we started late. We finish with a dream for Cora:

She knows she’s asleep. She is in a pretty setting of rolling meadows; she feels at peace. She knows that she knows more now, but can’t grasp what exactly that is. It is the height of summer. A bright red comet races across the sky, and it starts to rain. The sky grows dark, and she feels a sense of melancholy. The rain grows heavier. At a table in the middle of the meadow is an old man, gorging himself on food from silver plates. His eyes turn black, and he smiles. (A midget talks backwards and is gone.) The old man becomes a figure holding a sword and speaking gibberish. A mountain crumbles to dust. The figure advances. It grasps Cora by the throat -

And she wakes up.

[thejacketandthehook]

The Art of Pretending 5/?

Title: The Art of Pretending 5/?

Author: thejacketandthehook (aka everystareverywhere)

Summary:  Killian Jones needs a family and needs one now. In order to impress his boss, Killian hires a single mother and her son to pretend to be his wife and son for the weekend. Nothing can go wrong, right?

Rating: Teen (for language)

Words:  16,587

Author’s Notes: Hello all! Here is my submission for the @captainswanmoviemarathon! This is based off of the Lifetime movie, “Borrowed Hearts,” starring Eric McCormack and Roma Downey. The movie came out in 1997, and I consider it to be one of the first made-for-tv Christmas movies.

A couple of years ago I was watching it and thought this would be a fantastic scenario for our favorite Captain and Savior. I wrote it and then stopped, and then started it again, only to stop again. When I saw this movie marathon, I knew instantly this was the movie I wanted to do and I wanted to make sure that I finished it this time.

I hope you enjoy it!

A30

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

And because she asked, @kmomof4. I’m so glad you’re enjoying this! 

“So it has come to our attention that perhaps a dinner between the three of you would be a good idea.”

Emma looked over at Killian who was looking up at Regina, like an obedient student following the teacher’s instructions. She then looked over at Henry, who was playing with his napkin. Okay, maybe he wasn’t playing with it as much as he was trying to get it to lay smoothly across his lap.

“Great idea,” Emma replied looking up at Regina. And it was a great idea, honestly, when David first brought it up to her. This way they can take care of all the details. All the small things that form when people spend a lot of time together, hashing out the particulars.

And the fact that they were eating hamburgers at Killian’s fancy ass dining room table made the whole juxtaposition that much funnier to Emma for some reason.

“I agree,” Killian piped up, taking the napkin off the table and placing it across his lap before reaching for the mustard bottle. “This way we can—”

“You like mustard on your hamburger?” Emma asked, probably more forcibly than she should have.

Killian looked at her before he finally grabbed onto the bottle. Opening it up with one hand, he replied, “Aye. Is that a deal breaker?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course not. I just don’t think…I’ve ever met anyone who prefers mustard on their burger as opposed to ketchup.”

“I don’t like ketchup.”

Emma was squeezing the bottle itself when he made that declaration, and she almost squirted it all over herself. “How can you not like ketchup?”

“I just don’t.”

“I thought that we could discuss other kinds of details about ourselves,” Regina sighed, “then what condiments you liked on your food.”

“Right. Okay,” Emma replied placing the bottle back on the table before putting the top bun on top. She passed the bottle to Henry, who took it gladly. “So. What kind of questions?”

“How long have you two been married?”

“Ten years,” Killian replied at the same time Emma replied, “Twelve years.”

Regina raised an eyebrow. “These are the kind of details I’m talking about, Ms. Swan.”

“Mrs. Jones,” David piped up, his mouth full of burger.

“What?” Killian asked, leaning forward.

“You’re not going to be ‘Ms. Swan,’ for the weekend, you’re going to be ‘Mrs. Jones.’”

“Oh,” Emma took her glass of soda and quickly took a sip. Why the idea of losing her last name (even temporarily) was something that made her want to blush was not something that she wanted to think about too deeply. “‘Course, yeah. Right.”

“Is this a problem, Mrs. Jones?” Regina asked pointedly.

“Nope. No problem at all,” she weakly responded.

“Do I have to change my name?” Henry piped up.

“Only for the weekend,” Regina said a nicer tone. At least Regina was nice to her kid, Emma thought. She had that going for her. “For that one weekend, you’re going to be Henry Jones. Is that alright?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, sounds good.” He then took a bite of his burger, the ketchup falling out of the other side. “What else do we need to know?”

“Okay,” Regina looked at Henry before giving an almost warm smile. “Henry, where was your favorite vacation?”

“Disney World!” he replied happily, bouncing in his seat. “I met Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan and Cinderella!” He then jumped up out of his chair and held out his arm, like he was holding a sword at the end. “Peter Pan was standing in front of the sign—”

“Adventureland sign,” Emma added, giving a small smile to Regina and Killian, who, she couldn’t help but notice, was intrigued with her son’s story and was actually looking at him when he spoke.

“Right, that sign. Anyway, we were walking along, and Peter Pan came out and said to me ‘Any pirates come this way?’ And I—” He looked at his mother, not sure on how to continue. “Mom? What did I say?”

“You cried, Henry,” she said with a chuckle. She looked at the adults at the table and informed them of the details Henry was leaving out. “Henry was like three at the time, and Peter Pan came out of nowhere. He got scared.”

“Oh, right. I got scared.” Henry sat back down before picking up his burger. “Anyway, I liked Disney World.”

“Okay,” Regina smiled before looking at a notepad next to her plate. She was using a knife and fork to eat. Figures. “Let’s see. Now, you should know some details about each other. Just in case.”

Just in case. Emma has heard those words so many times over the course of the week she’s ready to scream. “Like what?”

“Family.”

Emma gestures to Henry. “You’re looking at it.”

“She means more than that, love,” Killian piped up, before sipping on his rum.

“I’m not your love,” she replied more harshly than she should have. “And that’s it. Just Henry.”

Killian looked at her, his eyes wide before asking in almost a dumbfounded way, “You don’t have anyone else?”

“Mommy’s an—” Henry starts to say before Emma cuts him off.

Emma, herself, however, looked down at her plate and asked, “Do we really need to get into all of this? I thought this Mr. Woodman guy was only staying for forty-eight hours. I don’t think he needs to know my life story.”

“Normally, I would say you were right, Emma,” David says as he wipes his mouth with the cloth napkin. “But we want to make sure that we’ve covered every spot. That includes,” he pauses before looking at her, “backstories.”

“No.” Emma puts her napkin next to her plate. That’s all she says before she pushes back her chair and gets up from the table, walking towards…well, she’s not really sure until she feels the cold air biting at her cheeks and realizes that her thin long sleeve shirt is not appropriate for the outdoors in December.

But she can’t do this. She can’t have a virtual stranger know her story. No way. Yes, she’s attracted to Killian, she won’t deny that. But one kiss in the badly lit hallway does not mean that he gets to know her story. That he gets to know her. Besides, after the weekend is over, Henry and Emma will walk out of Killian’s life, and this Mr. Woodman guy will never see either of them again. So why does everyone need to know her story for one lousy weekend?

“My father abandoned my brother and I.”

Emma quickly turned around and saw Killian leaning against one of the pillars leading up to his front door. He was so casual about it, she was sure that she misheard him, because there was no way that he just—

“What?”

He looks up at her before straightening himself and walking closer to her. “My father abandoned my brother and I. I was seven years old when I woke one morning and he was gone.”

Her mind is racing from the conversation inside and now this one, that she shakes her head because she just can’t keep up with these conversations. “That’s, um –”

Because what do you say in reply to that?

“I’m telling you this,” he says, taking a step closer, though remaining a distance away from her, “because I want you to know that you don’t need to share your story if you’re not comfortable. I get it. I had a horrible childhood, but I don’t think Mr. Woodman is going to quiz us about it.” He pauses for a moment before saying, “I just want you to be comfortable.”

“Killian—”

“I know that I’m asking a lot, but knowing your backstory…that’s obviously private, and I don’t need to know it for this weekend. So,” he shrugs, “we make something up. If you want.”

“Make up my backstory?”

He nods. “Yeah. In case Marco asks. I don’t think he will, but you know. Something for us. Just in case.”

She huffs. “I’m so sick of those three words.”

He chuckles. “I know. Me too.” He looks at her for a second, and Emma thinks about that night, two years ago. It was clear that they made a connection, even if it was just lust. But it seems that they’re making another one right now. “I can’t do this without you. And I know you’re getting paid, and I know you don’t feel right about it—”

“Oh, I’m definitely taking your money. There’s no way that I’m not.”

He shakes his head with a small smile. “Of course. But you need to be comfortable about this.”

“Just like you need to be comfortable with your furniture being moved around,” she retorts.

He stills for a moment, asking, “How did you…” He sighs. “David.”

She nods. “Yeah, he and his wife are not great at keeping secrets. FYI.”

“I hope they can keep one for a weekend,” he mutters.

Emma crosses her arms, rubbing them as she says, “I’m sure they can.”

He looks at her for saying, “Bloody hell, you must be freezing.” Before she can say anything in response, he takes off his zipped up sweater and stepping closer, places it against her shoulders.

“You don’t have to—You’re going to be cold.”

He takes a step back. “Ah, the cold doesn’t bother me.”

She shakes her head before replying, “Okay, Elsa.”

He grins. “That’s my sister-in-law’s name.”

She smiles now, like she can’t believe it. “Get out. I didn’t think there was anyone actually named Elsa.”

“Oh yeah. When they met, my brother asked her if she wanted to let it go.”

She starts laughing before saying, “Oh God, no! He didn’t!”

“He did!” he laughs along with her. “She almost punched him! I was dying.”

“And she married him?”

He smirks. “Well, the Jones Brothers have a way with the ladies.”

She snorts as she shakes her head. “I think you just think you have a way with the ladies.”

He takes a step closer and gives a wicked grin. “I have a memory from two years ago that disputes that, love.”

Emma looks to side and scoffs, hoping that he thinks the redness in her cheeks is nothing more than the wind. Clearing her throat (and her mind from the memories from that night), instead she replies, “Listen, I’ll help you out. ‘Cause I’m nice like that,” she gives a big smile and he grins back. “But my private life is that. Private.”

“Duly noted, love. If he asks, and he won’t, but if he does, just make something up.”

She agrees, muttering a “Yeah,” under her breath. She looks back at the house and sees Henry looking out the window. She gives him a small wave, and he waves back before she turns to Killian. “Thanks. For coming out and for…” She clears her throat. “I’m sorry. About your dad. That…that sucks.”

He breaths out heavily before looking away, putting his thumbs through the loopholes of his belt. “Thanks.”

He holds his elbow out for her to take and leads them to the door as he says, “Oh, by the way, my favorite color is blue. Just in case.”

Emma chuckles and for the first time this began thinks that maybe everything will be alright in the end.

~*~

Marco Woodman was due to arrive by Friday, December 20 at 6:00pm local time. Killian kept looking at the calendar. It was Thursday, December 19, 9:00 am local time and Killian has already panicked. This was going to end in disaster. He just knew it. Not because of Emma or Henry, no. Of that he was certain. He has spent the equivalent of six hours with them (more than that if he counts how much he and Emma have messaged each other), and he knows that he has nothing to worry about when it comes to either of them. Henry’s a great kid and Emma…

No, he’s not worried about them. He’s worried about himself. Killian may be a lot of things, but he does not like to lie or be deceitful. What you see is what you get, that’s Killian’s motto. He may have some skeletons in his closet, to be sure, but nothing that would be deemed absolutely horrible. Mostly bad mistakes and things he wishes he could have done differently.

But this whole situation with Emma and Marco…He doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like lying. He’s sure that he will be the one to mess up; he’s so sure that he’ll say or do the wrong thing and blow his chances of ever getting to run the corporation in London.

33 hours. But you know, who’s counting? :p

Killian smiles at the text from Emma. Ever since her minor…well, panic attack basically, she’s gotten a tiny bit more open with him. And he likes it. She’s funny, and incredibly intelligent, and….

Well, it’s nice having someone in the same boat as him. True that she doesn’t have the same outcome as him, but she’s also pretending here. Anyway, it’s just nice having someone in his corner.

He types back. Aye. Not like anything big is happening, right?

I think the Mets are playing

Love, I don’t follow baseball, and even I know they don’t play in the winter.

Argh! I was trying to go for a joke

Anyway, Henry and I will arrive tomorrow at your place at ETA 4:00

You can’t get there earlier??

Dude I have work and he has school. You’re lucky it’s 4:00 and not later

Please don’t be late.

I’m going to ignore that because we haven’t been late once

How come you end every sentence with a period? You know you’re not writing a paper right?

Because I like it.

Period.

Weirdo

He laughs before putting his phone back on his desk. His secretary, a young man named Arthur who, while good at his job, needs to learn the meaning of the word ‘humble,’ pops his head in. “David is here for you,” he says.

Killian waves him in and Arthur closes to door behind David. He looks back to make sure the door is closed before asking, “You ready for tomorrow?”

He nods. “Aye. I believe so. I’m so bloody nervous, though.”

David laughs before sitting in the seat opposite Killian. “Why?”

“Oh, it’s just my future on the line, nothing more.”

“Killian, they’re going to be fine.”

“I know.”

“And so are you.”

He pauses. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

Killian releases a breath before looking at his watch. “32 and a half hours to go.”

“Stop worrying. It’s like a damn rocking chair.”

Killian raised an eyebrow. “Mate, you’re going to need to explain that one.”

“Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but you’re not going anywhere.”

Shaking his head, Killian gets up from his desk and walks over to the filing cabinet. “Well, thank you so much for that bit of fortune cookie wisdom.”

“Sure.” He’s quiet for a second as Killian gets out the file he needs. “You know I’ll be there every step of the way. Regina too.”

“Regina better be there. She’s the reason I’m in this mess.” He turns back around and walks over to his desk.

“She meant well.”

“I know.”

David sighs before asking, “33 hours?”

“33 hours.”

~*~

Killian looks at his watch. It’s ten past 6 on Friday, December 20, and David messaged that they were on their way back from the airport, but just got stuck in traffic.

The house currently smells like cooked meat and spices, and while that smell usually makes his mouth water, right now it’s just making his stomach turn.

He’s barely gotten a second to talk to Emma or Henry, since they were both taken immediately by a team that Regina hired to “spruce up their imagine,” whatever the hell that meant. They were currently upstairs in her guest room, doing God knows what, and all Killian can think about is that Emma and Henry both looked fine the other night.

When Regina comes down the stairs, she looking at her phone and how she doesn’t trip is something that is beyond him. “What’s going on up there?”

“Just making them look like they are a family that has money,” Regina replies nonchalantly without looking up.

“They were fine the other night.”

That makes her look up at him. “Killian, I hate to break it to you, but you have money. Your “wife” is supposed to look like she shares that money. Rich wives don’t weather red leather jackets they found at Goodwill.”

“I like the red leather jacket,” he mutters.

“And when it’s Sunday night, by all means, you can tell her. But for right now, she needs to look a tad more elegant.”

“And Henry?”

She shrugs. “He wants to talk to his mother about something.”

“Does he look elegant?” he asks, stressing elegant like it’s a word associated with horrible bodily functions.

“He looks like an eight-year-old boy. He’s fine.” Her phone beeps and she immediately looks down at it. His phone beeps too. His stomach sinks and his heart pounds. His head is rushing from the amount of bloody pumping into it (maybe? He’s not sure.)

She clears her throat before lifting her head. “He’s here.”

Killian nods and tries to remember how to breath. This was such a stupid idea.

Regina walks towards the door.

He never should have agreed to this. He should have told the truth from the beginning.

“Wait!” he shouts, just as she’s about to put her hand on the doorknob.

“What?” she hisses at him.

“The ring!”

Regina’s hand drops towards the pocket of her pantsuit. “Shit, I have it somewhere,” she mutters before pulling out a silver circle. She walks back over to him and grabs his hand roughly and tries to get it on, but he mutters, “Wrong finger, wrong finger, wrong finger!”

“God!” she huffs before shoving the ring in his hand. “You do it!”

“Thanks,” he mutters as the doorbell rings. He quickly put it on the correct finger and fixes his suit (Regina insisted) before he walks over to the door. “Show time,” he mutters before he throws open the door.

“Mr. Woodman! Welcome!”

[bemybestoy]

Genesis of me

Genesis: becoming me! Hello bitches and kink lovers,This blog shall be an open letter to guide and smooth out  our relationship as I am sick and tired of how a dominatrix and a sub's role are misunderstood. Let me introduce myself, I am Krisztina, a pro domme, in my 30's and I am embracing this role for around 8 years. Meaning I am highly experienced and I tried it all, expect the practices that reach out my limit. Such as permanent damage, I would never put the life and health of a slave of mine in jeopardy not thru my instructions or even just widness(you cannot even imagine thru years how many times I was asked if we can perform a c2c castration  precedure, stabbing with knifes or swords for any amount I can posibly think of asking. I repeate it was about c2c so not bulshit as I would watch all along). When I refused such life threatning session I was offered same only to watch, not to instruct. Answer is still NO everytime. BDSM is not abuse, it is not guided endangerment, it must be sane, sane, consensual and have very clear boundaries of safety. To rewind i started to explore this world in my early 20s ofc and suprise , suprise in real life. Even if i am mostly an online fetish chathost and online domme, I did not know such sections of BDSM exist in camming world, till after a few years i have done dominance in real life. Let me explain! So I had a mid managemnt job after my university in a multinational company, which was and still is top 3 globally in its field and shall always be. There is not even a child all across this world that does not know what company is about when hearing it's name (do not be cretin enough to ask me the name, I will tell NO to your face. Or ask you what info you wish next home adress, Id identification number, blood group or home keys along with an open window in case you do not manage to use the keys:)) ). So i was there around 1 years and half and had a long distance relationship with often travelling . We all know those never lastunless one of the two moves abroad. So I hapilly informed my family and work collegues I wish to move to a different country to move in with my bf/ soon to be fiancee. The question in everyone's head right now was you bf your was Ds relationship? the honest answer is hell no! my bf was alike me a real alpha, one of the strongest man psysical and mental both and definetly would not take attitude from no woman (not even the love of his life, unless he was dick and she was right. To understand you need to picture a man at height 1,95 cm and around 100 kilos all fibers and muscles as he had been a kickboxer and when i met him a trainer for kickboxers at European level. A true montain of a man who yet never felt his manhood threaten if he discussed his feeling with me, his desires, his sensibilities, things i would do or say to hurt his feeling even involuntary a I was busy all the time and moving fast etc). So not only that he was not the submissive type, but even if we were in harmony from time to time he would give me 'attitude'. Now even if I am pleased and happy, even if I amm not the nagging type, no matter who you are and how much I love you, if you cross me I will whoop your ass. After a fe episodes, as chasing him thru the apartment every room with the moop tail pointed a him to kick his ass until he ran out, threating to stab his hand with a fork when he tried to touch my steak after leavig him without one as he made clearly to me he was not a pussy to carry grocery bagsand hence to help and many as suchhe decided I should meet one of his best friend from high school, a lady leaving in a city close. He said we would get along perfectly and the lady and I would get along perfectly. Who would knew I was in for such a big suprise.....(cheshire cat as i recall and type). So I did not know much about her ad what she does for a living when we were instruduced. We had  lovely conversation, then she invited me some day when i am off work to visit her house, met her husband also and spend some more lady time together(I was a manager in one of my bf business a gran coffee shop/ bar it was quite big and had 2 floors one was coffe shop and bar all white with blue lighting surrounding th wide bar and lower floor  couches and tables and ring dance for party rentals such as festivity, anniversieries etc. I done so many things in there: not only i would cash in all the money that being my main, but i would help the other emplyees by making cocktails- I made a course for that- , even cleaning or washing glasses, once out there i was the only personal managing or website, of course PR as even t planning as I was the one who organised every detail of our rental and someone even DJ, a lower floor had DJ booth with pro equipment which i manage to completely fuck up as I had no idea what I was doing and the booked DJ announced last minute he was so coming so my bf said as i am the most modern and tech savvy to give a try to see if i can work it. not only I was not able , but i fucked it up so bad we had to call a tehnician to fix it and he taught me basically how to use it on a minimal level to work it for the party which turned out great. Still cracks me out when i think of my face when i was sure i fucked it up lol. it was a dexter labority moment and his blonde sister deedee: i was like many if i press this and that i will fix it )  I was like well i cannot make it worse :))) Then I decided I need some female eergy without the 'guys' going everyday at my bf gym to do my box training, my krav maga and I gave a call to this lady ask her if I can indeed visit and when It is appropriate to come and suits her schedule.My employees and bf replacing me could manage a day without and i needed a getaway. She invited me in couple or days, my bf drove me to her house and then left to actually replace me. we had an amazing luncheon, laughed, make jokes, just getting to know each other mostly me and her, but also her husband. Then she informed me she had some work to do soon but i can wait with her husband. Unlike I want to come with her. I was like ok I want to come, ut i am not sure whether i disturb you and invite me just to be polite or if it is really ok. i mean i got the best manners you could witnes both on and out of my job. She said she would actually like to share what she does with me as she likes me and she is quite sure having such a strong and open personality  would not make me freak out. I was within my mind ' what should i freak out about?!'. but still acted al casual as i liked her myslf, it only made me very curious. I have a feline personality so curiosity is in my nature, though it is pure and observatory, not the gossip, lame and weak as usual women are. So..... she said she will be busy with work for around 2 hours and if i wanted to stay aside as she cannot pay attention to me. i was like ok... She then invited me at the basement where she said she would met at her 'office' a person whom she expects, as her work space has direct access from garage. Then we would both go downstairs. Well probably telling all cluess made you suspect or realise it was a full dungeon downstairs. a pro dungeon.you should have seen my face when i noticedall the tools, device,suspension systems and the rest of the toys. She looked at me patient and confident, without a care in her mind that i might judge or something.... let me soak it all in... then she asked: You still want to stay or do you want to go upstairs with my husband to keep him company thru soccer game was on tv? " . She was so calm as if she shown me a bush of pants in her garder:)) Then my first outspoken reaction to her it was one of a morron: my first words after what i have seen, my first question asked was if her husband knew about all these(as they do not share a house for more then 10 years). She said yes, but he does not interfer with her work, comes down sometimes, but participates rare and very dismissive toward whom she works with. So I gotten more curious. I obviously suspected what will happen soon, but never withness something alike.Well I done so many sessions and you remember even if having a perfect memory the big lines of the majority. The first one I had only as a peeper I remember in smallest little details. Bitch parked and had a hoody on. he knoecked and when was invited, he went down on his knees down on all stairs. He looked like a maggot or miriapod with his head down to do not cascade over stairs as he was not standing. She then informed her she had a guest which will attend, but will not participate. Not giving a fuck of his reaction. I;ve seen chain suspection bondage, over all punishment and esp cbt along with huge strapon penetration. Shge is quite tall1.80 and she really was at perfect level as he bitch even if him hanging from the ceiling without touch the floor or be close to it even. i was amazed and intrigued. So as soon everything was done and he left ofc i asked so many questions. She answered all with patience even if i must have been annoying like a child and not  take the time to put together the smarters questions. After i while I was blablabla in a hyper manner about what she does as a professional domina I was like wait! does my bf know about this? She smilled and said ofc. He sometimes rarely when visiting me participates even as a master helping mewith pain or bootlicking or stuff. He joins more then my husbnd who when bored and coming down to see when i finish at most lets his shoes licked by my slaves then goes upstairs. I found all these fascinaint and so alternative so ofc I wanted to see more.So often I would visit her as watch her sessions with her slaves. After several mouth a slave of hers made her after session a big financial tribute offer that i participate too and i can second her domining. She asked me if it is something I consider. I did want it, but felt like I would be clueless as per what to do. Even if you watch many times that does not mean you feel suddly like you can replicate that certainty in action. She said not to worry as bitch knows it is my first time and this and following her lead is exactly what it is excites him. So i mus not overthink, just try to have some fun. And damn! It was so much fun! the hormones, the excitment, the laughter from humiliation talk, the driven crazy look on the bitches' face, the overall experience. it was like wow! it is hard to paint it in words, with all lexicon richness or ability to play with words. it is pure extasy! :D:DAfter he felt she made sure he had a chit chat with a glass of wine, making sure i am good with all, she said how great i was as she does not like other lady dommes in general. What was the goodbye part when my bf arrved to pick me up in car she actually did give me my own tribute. how much money! like lots! Then she invited me often to participate in the session in which slave got excited about 2 lady dommes. I accepted that one per week as i was busy with my own line of work. I had so much fun more then a year. Seen lots, done lots.Then a night I was speaking to him in our bed, holding hands, after2-3 rounds of sex and many orgasms. My realtionships are very intimate and I always go for an open man, who is super smart so besides sex and comfy routine I would have a late night conversation till 4-5 am even if we had to bed up and work in couple hours. there is just something that it is most meaninful ina relationship, to communicate ina deep way and to enjoy it lots both of you. and get into each other soul, emotions and deepest needs.So I did ask him : what made you think she would like me and would like her? what made you believe i would enjoy all these as you know we do not do anything as such? He then said he met thru his life many type of women: brainy, prude, whores, dommes, swingerseven submissive lil fmale toys. And he said a true dominant is never made into one. Ofc you can be good if you copy and get exposured to it or at least satisfactory to a slave. But the best dominant are born, not made. It is in their nature and personalities. They give out clues all the time, no matter the random they do.It made me wonder lots. After a couple moment of silence with my head on his chest, lips against his neck and hand holded all thru our talk, just enjoying the thinking of each, the meaninful silence, i asked if he does not feel bothered about that facti enjoy myself playing with slaves when not only he do not do anything alike, but he is not playing with others either. I mean it is a vast emoions i fell which exclude him fully. he said ofc not, as our love life is something i need more then my alternative fun, thta he knows i can live without that experience, but i would be heartbroken if i was without us (you need to understand jealousy cannot be an issue here. Real pro dommes in dungeon do facesitting all dressed up thru latex or leather and it has got a suffocating breath control purpose. i will explain you why: first of all a n evelated domme cares about personal hygiene and she know there are many scat lovers visiting dommes. so to have one licking your pussy it is not quite sanitary. also ass worship is done thru leggings. the most expensive, best dommes will never allow a slave licking. that is just some vanilla crap made up buy hookers selling sex and bdsm aswell. a well respected professional odoes not indulge in that. I am not saing to use a slave for self sexual satisfaction makes you a bad, poorly skilled mistress. But you do that as a lifestyle domme.Meaning you have a domestic relatinship with your slave who is your life patner. Never in a pro dungeon relationship oral for a slave would be allowed or accepted). Drinking champagne straight from mistress soource yes, but without wiping after. You may have it fromshort distance her controlling her debit makeing her slave do not miss anything unless they agree before on a facial champagne game. But when you go to a pro domme you cannot expect her to enjoy licking pussy and ass. Not to mention licks or even nudity just because it arrouses you. so my bf knew my sex life involved only him, in vanilla terms we all know.And he was ok with my alternative fun. We were even if a modern couple a very faithful one. So our orgasms were only and strictly dedicated to one another, exclusively.He wasgreat in bed so i would have every single day more then ten orgams within couple of hours(we had wakeup sex, luch break sex and couple turns before bed, many squirty orgams, clit or vaginal without squirt). The most sexual gesture i seenin the pro domme who introduced me to this world is just around 3 times within one year to milk cock with latex gloves, but with ruin orgasm. she took hand of when she felt he would come load was shoot without touching he would lick after she pull gloved off and glove was washed after. More often she would make the bitch wank himself while she instructs him closeby. her husband accepted her line as he accepted and love everything about her, but he was like my ex fiancee: hear pussy, ass, breast, orgams, real sexual intimacy are for your pratner. Not for everyone. That is a hooker thing to do. To gave all that just just random everyones. One after the other.That is not what a real dmme is made off. Her strenght and charm comes out because he in full intimacy is hard to get if not impossible. And by all means a slave shoould be use till u reach full sexual satisfaction. But only for your chosen one or ones. I fyou are a lifestyle domme and have a slave as life partner or few slaves as toys as open relationship is ok. But you cannot expect same from a real pro domme! That is something builtand leveled up!PS Hmmm now to breath a lil as I poured everything  so fast. deep inhales and exhales. light a cigg after and build this disclaimer. my spelling is awful as you know me i type like a motherfucker in full speed. Ignore all errors and consider the essence of my phrases. I do not believe in going back to spellcheck unless you publich a book or something editorial. I did that during university in an non paid internship, both as corrector and publisher. But it was a publication spread and shippd on a national evel. And in both roles i learned that the first message and thought till publishing as you go back several times are worlds apart. So much changes. And since I do not publish something wanting to be of intellectual value I wish a very spontaneous, fast writing. It is the most sincere, no filters and even if shifting thoughts without a bridge causing some lack of coherency now and then it is more powerful as the first reactions are.  So yes a blog! why a blog? i do not do social media. it is lame, tacky and became brainless. i miss books or blogs at least. and i do not like at all media unless i do exposure over it from bitches craving for begging and tribute me for it. These reasons and that I cannot stand screens after 8-10 hours of online being available to sessions. I like to look in eyes of someone I talk to and they looking back at me. Instead of both or all dinner participants looking non stop at phone while we pretend to be together. Meanwhile no one is present as they focused on media and other stuffs over their phone .That is not only lame and un natural  , but also impolite. Themost important ask from people around me is manners first of all. One lack of manners become my refusal to have this creature close to me even silent, simply unacceptable.  In addition, if i must have my eyes after work on something i prefer a good movie or a book. Actual human contact is important to me as little as we have it nowadays with global situation. so NO, unless i will have video call activated which i will seldom have I do NOT exist until i am online the next day I feel the need to have people at my feet :) I am literary out of this world. I do not exist for anyone online. And enjoy it every minute !

[supernaturaltfwmeme]

12 Days of Dean Winchester. -Part 4

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

December 16th

“Sam, I think I know what you’re hunting.”  

That made you sit bolt right up. Dean too

“what is it?” you asked climbing out of bed and going to join Sam at the table.

“Not a what, a who.” Charlie explained.

“Care to elaborate” It was Dean who spoke, approaching the table rubbing his eyes before leaning on the back of your chair.

“I think it someone called Hans Trapp.”

“Never heard of him.” You muttered.

“He’s and anti-Santa figure kind of like Krampus.”  

“Oh great, as if he wasn’t bad enough to try and kill” Dean rolled his eyes.

“You guys killed Krampus? How has this never come up? I mean it’s Christmas for Dad sake, it should of come up.” you couldn’t help but chuckled at Gabriel's outburst.

“It was years ago Gabe.” you told him.

“But still.”

“Anyway Charlie, how do we kill him?”

“I’m not entirely sure.” She admitted.

“Why not?” Dean asked.

“Well the lore I can find says he was a wealthy man, but he was greedy and just down right evil. It doesn’t say why but he was exiled by the catholic church, so sold his soul.”

“Great demon deal, this is getting more complicated by the minute.” You complained.

“It says here that he was basically ran out of town and ended up living in a nearby forest. So, to take revenge I guess on the townspeople he started disguising himself as a scarecrow by stuffing his clothes with straw and kidnapping children to well eat them.”

“That explains the human bite marks in the clothes.” Dean added.

“So, what happened after that.” Sam asked.

“Well it says that god got sick of his evil ways and basically struck him down with a bolt of lightning.”

“How are we supposed to get him to get hit by lightning?” you were just thinking out loud at this point.

“Here’s where it stops making sense though. It says here that like Krampus he teamed up with good old St. Nicholas. Except where Krampus punished bad children, Hans Trapp tried to convince them to change their ways so they wouldn’t end up like him.”

“Well that just doesn’t make sense. Why would he start killing if he wanted children to change their ways?” Sam asked.

“Maybe were dealing with a ghost, you know the longer they hang on the angrier they get, who knows maybe this’ll just be a simple salt and burn.” Dean said hopefully. Maybe his plans to give you the perfect Christmas wouldn’t be completely derailed after all.

“Well that still leads to another problem.” Charlie added. Damn it could never just be simple could it.

“What is it Charlie?” Sam asked

“The legend of Hans Trapp is based on a real guy; Hans von Troth. He was a knight back in the 15th century. In Germany. And he died in a fire. There isn’t a body.”

“How the hell does a German knight who lived 600 years ago end up haunting a small town in Kansas?” Dean asked dropping his head into his hands.

“I think I can help with that.” It was Cas who spoke this time, making Charlie jump a little as he appeared behind her.

“Based on Charlie’s research, I did a google? Is that how you say it?” you all couldn’t help a little at Cas.

“After a while of searching it turns out the town you are in has a Christmas display at a museum, featuring the origins of Christmas legends. They might have something that belongs to this Hans von Troth.”

“that would make sense he could be haunting an object and that’s why there were no murders until a few days ago.” You added.

“Thanks for your help guys.” Sam said before hanging up the phone.

“Guess we better check out that museum then.”

You all got ready and headed out to the museum. When you got there, there was barely anybody inside, the exhibit clearly wasn’t that popular. You and the boys walked around until you found the section on Hans Trapp. Looking over it there was barely anything in it, mainly just the lore Charlie had told you about earlier. However, inside a nearby glass case there was one item that supposedly belonged to Hans von Troth, an old sword.

“Damn she’s a beauty.” You said admiring the sword.

“She shore is, shame we have to burn her.” Dean whisper coming up behind you.

“You guys do realise you're referring to a sword as she” Sam rolled his eyes. Before you could reply you hear a bit of a commotion behind you. It was one of the staff members arguing with a little boy.

“Iv’e already told you no Children without a parent or Guardian” she snapped. Who speak to a kid that way. The boy spoke up in a small voice

“But I am here with an adult.” he lied.

“Really?” The woman sneered. “Then where are they?” She clearly didn’t believe him. You weren’t going to listen to this.

“I'm right here.” You said stepping towards the little boy. “And don’t speak to my brother like that.” you snapped. The woman just glared at you before saying “Well don’t let him touch anything, children just get everything dirty.” She screwed her face up before walking away.

“Are you ok?” you asked the little boy.

“Yeah I'm fine.” He replied “I’m Ollie” he said putting his hand out to you making you smile.

“Well hi Ollie I'm y/n, it’s very nice to meet you.” You said shaking his hand. “What was that all about?”  

“she doesn’t like children.”

“Well I gathered that. But do you know why?”

“No but she doesn’t let us in the museum without adult supervision, but my parents are at work and I wanted to see the exhibit.”

“How old are you Ollie?”

“9” you smiled at him. The kid was smart he reminded you a lot of a younger Sam.  

“Would you like to meet my friends?”  

“OK” Ollie followed after you.

“Ollie this is Sam and this is Dean. Boys this is Ollie.” You introduced them.  

“Hi Ollie” Sam said. Dean just waved.

“The bitch who works here won’t let kids in without and adult so if anyone asks, he’s my brother.” You explained. Ollie smiling and running to look at the Krampus display. Dean couldn’t help but smile at that. He walked over to Ollie looking over the Krampus display with him.

“So kid, what you doing spending winter break in a museum?”

“I like myths and legends.” he said simply moving to a different display. “I like y/n, she’s pretty” Ollie added innocently.

“Yeh she is.” Dean said glancing back over to you as you were talking to Sam.

“Is she your girlfriend?” Ollie asked finally looking up at Dean.

“Err no she’s not.” Dean felt his cheeks flush a little. Awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

“Why not, She’s pretty and nice. Don’t you want her to be your girlfriend?”  

“jez kid you ask a lot of questions.” Dean tried to avoid the subject. Being an inquisitive kid though Ollie didn’t give up that easily.  

“My mom said if you like somebody you should tell them because you never know if they like you back.” Dean couldn’t help but wonder if he really was that obvious about his feeling that even a kid he had just met could tell.

“Your mom sounds like a smart lady.” Dean commented before turning his attention back to you. You stayed in the museum until Ollie was done, using the time to stake out the security for later. When you were leaving you turned to Ollie and asked “Are you going to be able to get home ok?”

“Yeah I live just there.” He told you pointing at a house across the street.  

“OK well see you later kiddo.”

“Bye y/n, bye Dean, bye Sam.” Ollie called cheerily as he walked away. You watched him until he was inside before climbing into the impala. You leaned forward in your seat and asked the boys “SO what the plan?”

“all the victims have died at some point after 8pm so Come back as soon as it’s dark and they’re closed, they have a pretty simple security system, just a few cameras and an alarms system. It's a duel code system though, one code to disable the door alarms another to disable the display case alarms.” Dean explained

“You know Dean in another life you would have made a great thief.” You laughed.  

“Yeah, the only problem is I only got one of the codes, watched her put the door code in 5639. Hopefully the other code is on the computer somewhere, maybe Charlie could find it.”  

“Gotta say Dean I'm a little impressed.”  

“I’m gonna hang back and try and get into their camera system to disable them while you two break in.”

“Sounds like a plan”

Later that night

You were dressing in all black so was Sam and Dean you parked a little away from the museum as not to draw attention to yourself, and walked over. Sam staying in the car. Before going inside, you walked up to a metal box on the side of the museum, plugging a small device Charlie had built from an old flash drive into the internal paneling. That gave Sam access to the cameras. Dean had a Bluetooth device in his ear to talk to Sam.

“Right Dean I'm not great at this and Charlie will be busy getting into the computer so move when I say.”

“Ok Sammy.”  you started to pick the lock since you were quicker at this than Dean. Within a few seconds you felt the lock click and slowly turned the knob.

“Sam we’ve got the lock you ready with that first camera?” you heard Dean ask after a couple of seconds he gave you the nod to open the door. Dean rushed to the alarm panel and typed in the code before the alarm could go off. You went to walk towards the computer when you felt Dean Grab your hand and tug you back. You turned towards him he nodded towards the next camera. You saw the light was still on. A few seconds later it went off and you moved quickly to the computer.

Sitting down in the chair you powered on the computer and started looking around in the draws before pulling out a post it note and typing int the password. Dean raiser and eyebrow at you.

“What?” you whispered.

“How’d you know the password would be in there?” He asked  

“The man who owns the place is in a photo by the entrance he has expensive clothes but a cheap security system. It's not because of cost but ease. He's terrible with technology, so it was a safe bet he would of wrote the password down and kept it nearby.” you explained. The corner of Deans lips turning up a little.

“I’m impressed Singer.” He said sitting on the edge of the desk.  

“You’re not the only one who’d make a good thief.” you smirked. You pulled out your phone dialing Charlies number.

“You at the computer?” She asked as soon as she answered.  

“Yeah what do I do know?”

“Open up the email and give me the email address.” You did as she said.  

“Ok you should get an email any second from an untraceable account, it’ll contain a link click it. It’s a virus it’ll allow me to hack into the computer and download the virus to find the alarm code.” After a few seconds you saw an email pop up. You almost died when you saw the email address Charlie had picked. your face went bright red and you coughed a little, taking Charlie off speakerphone.  

“Really That’s what you picked?” Dean gave you a weird look but didn’t question it.

“What?” Charlie acted innocent but let out a laugh, you were going to kill her. The first part of the email address was y0u25h0uldk155. Or you 2 should kiss. You were really glad Dean was sat on the other side of the computer. You clicked the link and Charlie downloaded the files. After 30 seconds she half yelled in your ear “ok y/n I've got it. The code is 1309.”

“Dean 1309. Charlie I'll see you later.” you hang up as Dean waits for the camera at the alarm panel to go off before walking back over and typing in the code.

“Sam said we have 90 seconds before the alarm resets.” you wait for the camera pointing at the sword to shut down before walking over and picking the lock. When you’re done Dean carefully removes the sword and shuts the case just as the alarm resets.  

“Let's get out of here.” You said powering down the computer and following dean outside. You grab Charlies device from the camera system as Dean heads towards the car you quickly catch up. Climbing into the car, Sam shuts down his laptop. Dean chucks you the sword and starts the car driving off. You pull up behind your motel in a secluded area. You throw the sword on the ground covering it in salt as Sam pours Something flammable over it. When your done Dean Sparks his lighter throwing it on the sword the thing burning better than you expected. You glace at your phone. 19:59. You'd mad it just in time.

After you’d all got something to eat, Sam decides to call it a night. You were sitting on the other bed when Dean walks over carrying Sam’s laptop.

“What’s that for?” You ask as he sits down.

“Well the case is officially over so, I figured we can actually celebrate Christmas.” He smiled putting on a Christmas movie. It was your favourite. That’s why he had picked it. He moved so he was lying down with the computer in his lap. And pulled you closer so your head was on his chest, Dean playing with your hair. And that’s how you fell asleep.

December 17th

You woke up the next morning to the sound of the door slamming as Sam left to go for a run. You groaned and turned over burying your face in Deans chest. “It’s too damn early.” You muttered annoyed, making Dean chuckle. He just wrapped his arm around you tighter. “go back to sleep then.” That’s exactly what you did.

An hour and a half later you woke up to the sound of the door slamming again.  

“Jesus Sam, can’t you shut the door like a normal person.”

“Guys we have a problem.” his tone instantly waking you and Dean up.

“What is it?” Dean asked.

“Another kid was killed last night.”

“So, we didn’t burn the word early enough.” You said sadly.

“No y/n, the kid was last seen around 20:40. 40 minutes after we burned the sword.”

Part 5

[julia-highstorms]

She Trips In The Woods: Open Wound

This is an absolutely hilarious fanfic my great friends @kennaxval @sawyeroakleyscowboyhat @begging-for-kamilah @strangerofbraidwood @stopforamoment @tornbetween2loves wrote for my birthday!!!!!!!!!!! I cried laughing while reading this and words aren't enough to describe how thankful I am for all of you who found the time in your schedules to rite this masterpiece!! To the people who don;t know this already, I've working together on this super project, @choicecrossover​, for the past months with all these geniuses!!! It's been a blast getting to know all of these phenomenal writers and I'll be forever grateful for this opportunity <3

The woods around Julia were dark and oppressive,  a stark contrast to her own bubbly and upbeat personality. Her various woodland creature companions all faithfully gathered around her in a posse of fur and claws, all speaking the language of their own species as they gallivanted through the trees like a literal Disney princess. 

A large shadow flew in front of her, causing her to shriek loudly in surprise. She stumbled backwards, her ankle catching a fallen tree limb and twisting painfully as she fell onto the hard forest floor. 

“You aren’t a woodland creature!” she shouted after the mysterious shadow as it disappeared behind the trees, a strange laughter coming from the mischievous apparition. She rubbed her ankle painfully, cursing her ill luck.

“Curse my ill luck!” she shouted. 

One of her furry companions approached her tentatively, bopping her with his cold nose. She stared into the canines eyes, feeling an understanding pass between them and knowing what she must do. 

“I know what I must do!” she said happily, looking into the dog’s eyes. 

“Run like the wind, go forth and find me help!”

The dog stared into her eyes, an understanding passing between animal and master. He sniffed Julia carefully, making sure she was alright. Then he lifted his leg and peed on her stomach, marking her. Making sure she would be safe until he got back. Julia was HIS bitch and no one else’s.

The dog streaked through the woods, dodging rocks and scooting under low branches. Suddenly he stopped, ears pricked. He heard footsteps. The dog eased forward cautiously, but not cautiously enough. The clumsy human tripped over him, face planting into the ground.

Jesus Fucking H. Bi-peds were the most useless creatures. The dog began to nudge the human, whimpering and licking his face.

“Easy boy, it’s ok, I’m fine I just tripped,” Bryce said as he stood up and brushed the dirt from his butt. The dog barked at him, then turned to head further into the woods, stopping and barking again when he realized he wasn’t being followed. 

Bryce laughed and shook his head. “What is it boy? Did Timmy fall down the well?” He cracked up laughing at his own joke as he jogged after the dog. He followed the dog through the woods, becoming a little more hesitant as the woods became thicker and darker. 

He was just about to turn back when he saw her. And smelled her. Whew! Sprawled out at the base of a huge tree with gnarly, thick roots was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. He stood up straight and rushed to her side, kneeling beside her. He asked her name as he assessed her situation. Her voice was meek and soft. 

“I’m Julia.” He flashed her a megawatt smile. “I’m Bryce and I’m going to help you Julia. Do you think you can walk?”

“I... I’m just too weak”, she sighed dramatically, placing the back of her hand across her forehead like a damsel in distress. 

“Well don’t you worry about that ma’am, I’m going to get you all the help you need.” 

Bryce lifted Julia into his strong, muscular arms, careful not to hurt any potential injuries. 

“Wow, you’re so strong”, she gasped as he carried her through the woods with ease. 

“Oh no, not really”, he chuckled as he flexed his muscles. He then decided to show Julia just how strong he really was. He held her in one arm, then decided to pick his dog up with his other arm. 

Julia’s eyes widened in awe. 

“Oh no, this is nothing”, he smiled. 

Before she could respond, they had arrived at the hospital despite having been in the woods just sentences ago. The dog was also somehow safe at home now since he probably wasn’t allowed in the hospital itself. 

All of a sudden, everything became a rush. As soon as Bruce stepped through the hospital’s double doors, it was as if he were a new person. 

“QUICKLY, WE MUST GET THIS POOR WOMAN A BED IMMEDIATELY!” 

“But Bryce, I’m fine, it’s only a twisted ankle. Nothing is even bro-“

“Shhhhhh. It’s alright. You’re delirious but you’ll survive.” 

Within moments, Bryce laid Julia down into a hospital bed tenderly. 

“I’m going to hand you over to the care of an intern now Julia. She’s very capable. You’ll like Jackie.”

At that moment, a beautiful young lady came in with a very cheeky smile.

“So, you’re the woman causing the entire hospital to fall into chaos”, Jackie smirked. 

“I guess... but I don’t really know why. I was in the woods when I-“

“Fell from heaven?” 

“Errrr...”

“I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t flirt with a patient. Especially one in such critical condition.”

“Critical condition? I’m not even bleeding!” 

“Bryce warned me that you were delirious. It’ll be alright Julia. I’m going to wheel your bed onto a ward now, to prep you for surgery.”

“SURGERY?!”

But it was too late. Before Jackie had even heard Julia, she was already on a ward full of patients. 

On the bed next to hers lay a young sweet man, drinking a strange milky red substance. He turned to face her and was immediately taken aback.

“Oh... I hope you don’t mind me saying but... you’re extraordinarily beautiful. I’m Tom, by the way.”

Without warning, a screen popped in front of Julia that read “Say ‘hi’ to Tom for 30 diamonds or tell him you don’t like talking to people for free.”

Julia wanted to say “hi.” Tom seemed a friendly enough guy, but she knew she had to be careful with her diamonds and reluctantly told him she doesn’t like talking to people. 

Instead of a dejected face, which Julia expected, Tom seemed eerily ok with the exchange and a nurse quickly came to wheel his bed out into another room.

Just as Tom was brought out, two more bed were pushed in to either side of Julia. She waited a moment, curious to see if talking to her new companions represented another diamond choice before looking to her left to see a beautiful woman clothed in white silk with blood red eyes and dark skin and hair.

“Excuse me, I don’t know if this is allowed but…”

“Oh, it’s allowed. You may talk to me as much as you please, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up about us doing anything more if I were you. I’m Priya, and I can tell you that even if you spend every single diamond you have, I’ll never be your love interest. Sure, there will be options for us to flirt, but don’t get too excited or else, Adrian or some other forced male will swoop in to stop you from being able to make your own choices. You’d have better luck with your neighbor to the right.”

Julia turned away, discouraged. But even more, once she saw the man next to her. He appeared to sweat grease out of his pores, had a reddish hue to his face, but more of an “I’m constantly angry” red as opposed to an “I get a lot of sun” look. He had a badge on his chest that read “Walsh.” Julia turned back to Priya.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

The vampire shrugged. “I don’t make the rules, I just follow them. Do you really think I’d be attracted to the likes of Gaius Augustine?” Priya gagged. “All I can say is that I’m glad fic writers exist or else I’d never get any proper action.”

Julia watched Priya carefully, a feeling of confusion washing over her.

"What on earth is going on?"

Before anyone could answer, Julia found herself sat in the hospital canteen. On one side of her sat the man from earlier, Tom, sipping away at his strange tomato milkshake. On the other side of her sat a pensive looking man with a hat on. 

Opposite the trio sat two more people- a handsome man holding a large sword (where the hell was security in this place?!) and a stunning young woman with purple hair and glasses.

"So... can I speak without paying diamonds or...?"

Tom chuckled. 

"Sure you can. Well, to some of us at least. By the way, this is my buddy Noah", he said, giving a nod to the quiet man on the other side of her. 

"And this guy here is Jax. He likes to cook and slash things with his sword."

Jax gave an eye roll. 

"You can talk to any of us for free. But next to Jax is Lily. It'll be 17 diamonds upfront if you want to converse with her."

Julia exhaled in frustration. 

"But I only have 21, and you can't do anything with 3 diamonds!"

Tom shrugged.

"I don't make the rules." 

"Okay, fine. I'll pay the diamonds. Where do I pay exactly?"

Without warning, a screen above Julia's head appeared and subtracted the 17 diamonds. 

"Hey girl, I'm Lily", the woman opposite her smiled. 

"Okay cool. So, now that I can talk to all of you, I wanted to ask what the hell is going on?!"

"What do you mean?", Tom asked, sipping away at his thick, red milkshake. He slid a bottle of the goop over to Julia, which she took hold of absentmindedly without drinking. 

"Well, I was just in the woods, then I tripped. And this surgeon Bryce found me. But he got all weird and dramatic, and said I needed surgery. But I'm not even that hurt! What's happening?!"

All of a sudden, the entire canteen froze in place. A white screen popped up above Julia's head. It read: "What could Bryce possibly want with you? Find out in the next chapter of "She Trips In The Woods: Open Wound." 

Julia reached up to the white screen and touched the tick. She was immediately rewarded with 2 diamonds, before another screen popped up. It read: "Watch ad to gain reward". 

"Might as well", Julia thought with a shrug as she ticked the box. 

For the next 45 seconds, Julia sat and watched an extremely boring advert for Homescapes. She drummed her fingers atop the canteen table waiting eagerly for it to end. When it was finally over, she reached up and pressed the "tick". 

"Sorry. Reward could not be collected. Try again later."

With an irritable groan, Julia found herself taken to another screen. This time, her own story popped up before her. 

"The next chapter", she gasped with excitement. She hit to play the next instalment, only for ANOTHER screen to pop up. (Seriously, what the hell is up with all these screens?!)

It read: "To buy a key, pay $1.99 or wait 1hr 58m for your next key."

"Oh my god, what the fu-"

***

Julia sat up and looked around. She was safe and sound in her bed. She glanced at her phone and it was only 3am. She sighed with relief before chuckling to herself. 

"What a weird ass dream", she smiled before rolling over onto her side and drifting off to sleep, clearly not noticing the bottle of tomato milkshake down by the side of her bed...

[deathandrenegades]

Royal Burns - Part 2

Summary: Royalty AU, you’re predestined to marry Dean Winchester, but is he even the right guy for you? Will he take his place as husband and king, or will his brother rise to the occasion?

Word Count: 2096

A/N: nonnne, inbox me for requests & feedback

Part 1

Soon enough we were back in front of my door, the map to the castle tucked under my arm.

“Thank you for your kindness today Sam.” I bowed my head. He grinned and rolled his eyes at my formalities.

“Anything for you, princess.” He whispered and leaned in, lightly pressing a kiss to my cheek. I felt a brush rise, slipping away into my bedroom and softly shutting the door beside me.

The next morning I decided to explore the castle more, the parts that Sam didn't get a chance to show me mostly. On the second floor I entered an enormous library, every book I had ever even thought about reading was here. I know it's lame, but I couldn't hide the smile on my face as my fingers trailed over the spines of the books.

I entered the west side of the house next, where it appeared to be just empty bedrooms. This part of the castle was certainly less well lit, the dust on the walls illuminated by a flame. I turned a corner and nearly screamed as I knocked into something.

“Hey-Princess?!” A gruff, startled voice spoke. I held up my candle higher to see the face in front of me, none other than my future husband stood there.

“Oh, Dean. What're you doing in this part of the castle?” I questioned. His brow furrowed at me.

“I could be asking the same to you.” He countered.

“I hadn't got a chance to see this side of the castle.” I began to explain.

“There's nothing to see here.” He spoke abruptly, stiffening up his shoulders.

I pursed my lips and nodded, following him out of the west side.

“If you want, I suppose I could take you to the village.” He spoke emotionless, his green eyes pinned to the floor in front of him as we walked.

I could tell he only said that out of obligation, which i hated. Before I could respond, Sam came around the corner, a bright smile growing on his face as his eyes landed on me.

“Sam, so good to see you!” I breathed, hugging him briefly as he held out his arms. He was so warm and made me feel so comfortable and safe, it was a shame he wasn't the one I could marry. I quickly tucked that thought away, not wanting to depress myself even more.

“What're you doing today princess? Hello brother.” He added curtly. Dean nodded and turned on heel without another word. I frowned, wondering if he'll always be cold like that. I shook my head, giving my attention back to Sam.

“I think a fencing lesson would be fun, wouldn't it?” He grinned.

We met in the garden, fully suited. The day itself seemed to smell like roses and mouth watering tulips. The sky was painted the lightest shade of blue, not a cloud in the sky to give my body any sort of relief for what's to come.

Sam instructed me several moves, fencing had always been something that I had wanted to learn, especially given my title.

The footing was hard, and I couldn't grasp matching up my footwork to my arms, often stumbling over my own feet.

Sam erupted in laughter as I nearly fell again, I took of my face mask and pouted.

“This sport just isn't for me, this kingdom will have to find another princess that can fence!” I huffed, throwing my sword on the ground and sitting on the brick edge of one of the fountains. Sam laughed more and sat beside me, my hair sticking to my face.

“It's only your first day, princess. Give it time.”

“Maybe you're just a crappy tutor.” I retorted.

“Maybe so.” A husky voice interjected. Dean stood in front of us, his green eyes striking against his white suit, helmet tucked under his arm.

“Dean.” I breathed, taken aback by him showing up here. Sams jaw clenched beside me, looking almost defeated.

“Why don't you let me show you some moves, Princess?” He asked coyly. I scoffed.

“I don't think that's necessary.” No way was I going to let him show me up to a sport I know I'm bad at.

“Sounds like someone's a little scared.” He grinned, trying to provoke me. It worked. I huffed and stood, picking up my sword and putting my helmet on.

“Fine, but I am no good.”

He started by showing me some quick steps and swipes to follow, and then letting me mimic his actions.

“Good,” he praised, I grinned behind my helmet. “But the best way to learn is hands on.” He lowered into a lunge, holding his sword up. I gulped, lowering into a pose as well. He lunged and I blocked, taking several steps back and trying to keep my footwork clean. He spun and lunged again, and I stepped out of the way, ducking and seeing an opening to drive the tip of my sword into. I grinned again.

“See, you are learning already.” He praised again through huffs. I smiled, glad that he's finally seeming like he wants to spend time with me. He lowered his body once more, and I reluctantly complied even though my body ached. “One last duel?” I could practically see his grin underneath his mask, betting on beating me before we were done.

He lunged again and I twisted out of the way, swinging my sword and blocking him. He stepped and dipped, I got confused trying to watch his feet and tripped, as he moved to catch me I took him down with me, our bodies crashing to the floor with his weight on top of me. Even with his mask and suit on I could smell him, my mouth watered at his apples and honey scent, reminding me of the perfect fall day.

“Jesus, your feet will be the death of you.” He scolded, cutting off my train of thought. I was going to protest but then I erupted in laughter, causing him to join in too. He got up off of me and helped me to stand, taking his helmet off still smiling. I took mine off too, out of breath. It was so nice to see that he was capable of emotion, maybe I'd grow fond of him after all. His mood had shifted dramatically since the first couple of times I had been around him, I wondered which was the real prince.

“Great match.” I smiled. “Thank you for the lesson.” He grinned and bowed in response, then turned on heel and headed back into the castle. I expecting Sam to be waiting but he was long gone. I headed back to my room to take a nice warm shower.

I got out, drying off and slipping into a silk pajama set. Helga rapped on the door with tea, and I sat on my bed.

“Next time you need to bring some for yourself so I don't feel so awkward.” I mumbled. She smiled and nodded.

“Next week all your formalities begin. Your lessons and meeting with other countries, all will be accompanied by the King of course. You will be there more to observe.” She commented. I nodded, sipping my tea. “So how is everything going with Dean, if I may be so bold.” She spoke carefully. I smiled, patting her hand.

“You can ask me anything. I don't know, sometimes it's good and sometimes I feel like he has no emotions at all.” My thoughts trailed to Sam, who was always sweet to me. I chewed on my lip, wondering why he disappeared today when his brother showed up.

“That Sam is a fine man.” She commented with a cocked eyebrow, reading my face. I blushed looking at my tea.

“He is not the prince for me.” I sighed.

“Dean is a different soul. He's burdened by a title he doesn't see fit for himself, but he must bear it all the more. He just needs time.”

I sat there shocked at what Helga had just revealed to me, Dean doesn't want to be king? Well, doesn't see himself fit for the role? But his father insists he is…

“Why doesn't Dean think he's fit for the role?” I whispered. She shrugged.

“Who knows what goes on in that mans mind.” She waved her hand. I pursed my lips, trying not to care.

The next morning my muscles were sore from fencing, I groaned as I got out of bed.

“Are you okay?” Helga asked worriedly, her forehead pressed together. I laughed bitterly and nodded, tightening my robe around me.

“I just need a nice bath or something, I'm so sore from yesterday. Dean pushed me to my limits.” I sulked, feeling miserable. She helped me into a bath filled with lavender oils and rosewater, candles lit amongst the counter. The day shone brightly through the window, the faint roll of the waves pouring in through the window. I chatted with Helga as she washed my hair, about her sons and their ambitions, how she hopes for grandchildren.

It was the perfect day to sit in the green house and read, quiet and secluded, with no one to pop up and bother me. Or so I had hoped.

I sat on a bench, my legs crossed in front of me with my back pressed against the glass. I opened up The Road, and got lost for awhile.

I heard a pot knock over and snapped my eyes

over to where it came from, my eyes narrowed at the pair staring back at me.

“Can I help you?” I said sarcastically. He gave an apologetic smile as he stepped closer. Dressed in very casual civilian wear, his grey shirt seemed to make his hazel eyes popped out more.

“I was debating on whether to disturb you or not, but it looks like that choice was made for me. What're you reading?” Sam asked as he sat on the far end of the bench, pushing his hair out of his face. I held the book up for him to see the title. “Ahh, I've read that a couple times.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “A couple?” He chuckled.

“Well when you're not heir to the throne, there's not much to do around here.” He smiled, but it didn't meet his eyes in the slightest.

“You want the crown.” I muttered, it wasn't a question. His eyes burned into the ground and he clenched his jaw.

“I suppose it would be more fitting to give it to someone that actually appreciates it.” He muttered bitterly.

“Why doesn't Dean want the title?” I pressed, closing my book in my lap.

“I'm sure you'll find out one day.” He spoke flatly. I stifled an argument brewing on the tip of my tongue. I opened my book back up, annoyed that I couldn't get an answer from anyone to explain why he wouldn't want this.

“Have you went to the library?” He prodded gently. I nodded, refusing to give away much. It was peculiar why Sam seemed to be so keen on talking to me and spending time with me.

“Have I upset you, princess?”

I sighed, closing my book once more.

“No, of course not Sam.” He looked into my eyes, I felt the compulsion to reach out to him but I swallowed it. “I just wish Dean wouldn't put up a wall when he was with me. I wish I could see more of him like when we were fencing.” I bit my lip. Maybe I should just go to him directly and ask what the hell his problem was.

“Why don't we go get some lunch? Outside of the castle.” He smiled, standing and outstretching his hand. I hesitated, but I took it.

We pulled into an Italian style restaurant, the paparazzi swarmed our car. The squat owner of the restaurant came out, batting them away with a loaf of bread making both Sam and I fall into a fit of laughter as we entered the restaurant.

“Thank you so much, Louis.” Sam smiled gently taking the owners hand. He beamed back at Sam and sat us in a secluded booth. I smiled thoughtfully at how kind Sam was to everyone.

“What shall I get?” I murmured, smiling down at the menu. There was so much to choose from.

“Everything here is wonderful.” Sam sighed, unable to choose himself. He finally settled for mushroom ravioli, to which I decided to have as well.

We ate rather carelessly, relaxed from the pressure of the castle.

[minijenn]

Universe Falls, Chapter 30, Part 1

Woo boy kids here we go! Dreamscaperers is finally here! I honestly had such a blast writing this one, even if it felt like it took forever. But I’m so glad its finally finished and I can share it with you all! So, enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/157063740644/universe-falls-chapter-29

Chapter 30, Part 1: Dreamscaperers

19-1-23 8-9-19 15-23-14 4-9-13-5-14-19-9-15-14 2-21-18-14 13-9-19-19-5-19 8-15-13-5 1-14-4 3-1-14'20 18-5-20-21-18-14 19-1-25-19 8-5'19 8-1-16-16-25, 8-5'19 1 12-9-1-18 2-12-1-13-5 20-8-5 1-18-19-15-14 6-15-18 20-8-5 6-9-18-5

It was an unusually gloomy day in Gravity Falls, with the skies hanging dull and overcast and covered in clouds that were more than likely saturated in oncoming rain. A few sparse showers had already fallen that morning, dampening everything just enough that so much as trying to walk outside would result in a rather muddy mess. It was for this reason that Dipper, Mabel, and Steven had taken to the shack’s attic to hang out for the afternoon. Seeing as how the Gems were gone for the day on a mission and the shack was bereft of business, the kids had relatively no obligations, which meant they were free to do whatever they pleased to occupy their time. Including engaging in a rousing, albeit a bit one-sided game of picture charades.  

“Ok! It’s done!” Mabel exclaimed, grinning widely as she presented her drawing to the boys. They both looked over it quietly, taking in her rather sloppy and haphazard jumble of images in for a moment before Dipper finally shook his head in defeat.

“Mabel, I have no idea what any of that is,” he admitted with a frown.

“Aw, come on! Just guess something!” Mabel encouraged, tapping her pencil against the page.

“Hm…” Steven mused thoughtfully, looking to the drawings once more. “Is it… a calculator!”

Mabel gasped in excitement, nodding vigorously as she glanced at her own rough sketch of a cow, a cue tip, and a person waving. “Yeah it is! Good job, Steven!”

“Eh, it was kinda obvious,” the young Gem shrugged with a grin.

“Ok, seriously?” Dipper asked with slight disbelief. “How are you guys beating me so badly at this?”

“Oh don’t feel bad, Dipper,” Mabel reassured with a smirk. “Me and Steven just have the same kind of special ‘art sensibilities’, right?”

“Right,” Steven nodded. “I mean, Mabel was able to guess that my drawing was a laptop, so that must mean something!” He held up his own sketch, which was of waves crashing onto the shore and a blouse.

Dipper simply looked between the two of them with slight confusion before reaching an apt conclusion. “I… don’t think either of you guys are really playing this right…”

Before Steven or Mabel could argue their case, their game was suddenly interrupted as Stan called up to them from downstairs. “Kids! Come quick!” Curious to see what the fuss was about, the trio hurried downstairs Stan sitting before the TV wearing only his boxers and an undershirt and a wide grin of amusement. “I need you to laugh at this with me!” he chuckled, nodding to the ad playing on screen, which just so happened to be for the Tent of Telepathy.

“Who’s cute as a button, and always you friend?” Gideon sang in his usual schmaltzy way, putting on a charming smile and a folksy dance. “Lil’ G-I-D to the E-O-N! Wink!” he exclaimed, giving a sly wink to the viewing audience as a voiceover from Bud cheerfully repeated his son’s name: “Lil’ Gideon!”

“Ugh, Gideon,” Dipper groaned in annoyance, rolling his eyes.

“Remember when I wouldn’t date him and he tried to destroy us?” Mabel asked with equal disdain.

“Or the time he forced all my Watermelon Stevens to try and destroy the Gems?” Steven asked with a frown that quickly turned tearful as he recalled the experience. “Oh, Baby Melon, may you rest in peace—er, pieces.”

“He’s always trying to trick me into losing the Mystery Shack,” Stan scowled. “Not to mention how he nearly got me and Amethyst arrested the other night.”

“Uh, actually, I think you and Amethyst nearly got yourselves arrested,” Dipper pointed out.

“Don’t change the subject!” Stan snapped. “That doesn’t change the fact that Gideon’s still a creepy little punk.”

“Seriously though,” Wendy agreed as she stepped into the room with Soos. “One time I caught him stealing my moisturizer.”

“And yet, our mutual hatred for him bonds us together,” the handyman concluded, eliciting agreeing nods from almost everybody. Their collective attention was caught by the television once again, as Gideon’s ad came to an end.

“Come on down to Lil’ Gideon’s Tent of Telepathy!” Bud’s voiceover exclaimed. “Opening soon at this location.” The shot suddenly changed to the Mystery Shack, strangely enough, though it only remained for a second before the Tent of Telepathy fell smack on top of it, crushing the shack completely. Likewise a wrecking ball smashed into the Gem temple in the background, ramming into its face and crumbling it apart instantly.

“Oh my gosh!” Steven gasped in alarmed horror. “The temple! And the Mystery Shack! Oh this is terrible! How did Gideon do that while we were all standing in here?!”

“He didn’t, Steven, it was just an effect,” Dipper deadpanned. “Still… should we be worried about that?”

“Please,” Stan said with an unconcerned wave of his hand. “The only way Gideon’s taking over the shack is by breaking in and stealing my deed.”

The abrupt sound of shattering glass instantly startled the entire group the moment they heard it, even if it came from the other room. “You mean like, right now?” Wendy asked in reference to what Stan had just said.

And certainly and timely enough, Gideon had indeed busted into Stan’s office and was already hard at work trying to decipher the combination to the conman’s tightly locked safe. “38? 41?” the child psychic muttered as he frantically turned the lock. “Oh, heavens to betsy!”

“Gideon!” Stan shouted gruffly, standing in the doorframe of the office with his arms crossed sullenly. The kids, Wendy, and Soos were all piled behind him, eager to watch the confrontation that was about to unfold.

“Well, well, Stanford, my arch-nemesis” Gideon smirked deviously as he stood and faced the conman.  “Just like the other night, it seems as though we have entered a dangerous game of cat and mouse. But the question remains: who is the cat and who is the-”

“Soos, broom,” Stan said dryly as the conman handed him a broom.

“Oh no, not the broom!” Gideon cried in alarm, especially as the conman charged at him with it. Of course, this soon turned into a rather comical circular chase, as Stan pursued the child psychic with his broom and got a few good whacks in. Gideon attempt to show his dominance by pausing and letting out a harsh hiss, only for Stan to retaliate with two rough swings of his broom, which was finally enough to force him out of the room. The conman quickly managed to chase Gideon out of the shack altogether, making sure to keep his broom on hand as he stood guard at the door to keep him from sneaking back in.

“And stay out, you chump!” Stan exclaimed harshly.

“You mark my words, Stanford!” Gideon began, his hands curled into tight fists as he glared fiercely at his rival. “One day I’m gonna get that combination! Nobody can stop me! Not you, not those bothersome Crystal Gems, not anyone! And once I get that deed, you’ll never see the Mystery Shack again!”

Stan simply rolled his eyes, not taking the petulant child psychic’s threats seriously. “Good luck, bucko,” he remarked sarcastically before slamming the door, leaving Gideon to seethe out in the lightly-falling rain.

Still, Stan did make sure to go back to his safe and check to make sure Gideon hadn’t tampered with the shack’s deed. And, after checking it seeing that it was safe and sound, the conman secured in back inside the safe once more, making sure it was locked tight and far out of the child psychic’s reach. “Heh,” Stan chuckled to himself as he finished up. “The combo to this safe is in the one place he’ll never find it: my brain.”

With a broad grin of satisfaction, the conman left the room to continue lounging, not even noticing the figure still lurking right outside the window. Gideon’s fury had dissolved into a sinister resolve, for despite how crafty Stan might have thought himself to be, the child psychic had a plan. He always did. “Your brain isn’t as safe as you might think, Stanford Pines!” Gideon exclaimed, his dark smirk growing wider as he pulled the second journal out of his suit. “This is the last straw! It’s time to unlock the journal’s greatest secret…”

Gideon’s smile grew practically manic as he found the page he was looking for. For there, nestled amidst countless codes and cryptograms on the rain splattered parchment, was a wheel, demarcated with ten symbols around it, all of them different: from a tree, to a star, to a sword, to gemstones of several varying cuts and still others. But the wheel itself was not what captivated the child psychic’s interest. Rather, it was the mysterious being inside of the wheel, who, according to the journal at least, supposedly possessed power and knowledge all at once.

Only time would tell if that promise carried any weight.

While Gideon’s break in earlier had been something of an eventful distraction, the quiet, dull pace of the day was quick to return, leaving everyone to spend the rest of the gloomy afternoon congregated around the TV downstairs. While Dipper and Wendy reclined boredly on the floor and lazily fired off Nyarf guns at each other, Steven and Mabel sat together on the other side of Stan’s chair and laughed over the funny videos they were watching on the young Gem’s phone. It didn’t take too long for their noisy merriment to start getting on the conman’s nerves as he tried to watch TV over them, to little avail.

“Ugh, that’s it!” Stan exclaimed, glaring at the pair in frustration and immediately silencing their laughter. “Kid, when the heck are you gonna go home?” he asked Steven impatiently. “You’ve been here all day! Normally I don’t care since you runts usually go running around outside, but being cooped up in here and having to put up with both you and Mabel is more than any sane person can take!”

“Aw, but Mr. Pines, the Gems are on a really dangerous mission today,” Steven began to explain. “And Pearl told me to come spend the day down here instead of being all alone at the temple. She said that you owe her and Garnet for what happened with the cops the other night.”

“Oh what, and Amethyst doesn’t?” the conman deadpanned. “She was part of that just as much as much as-” Stan quickly cut himself off however, as he remembered how he had gone to such great lengths to cover for the purple Gem in the first place. “Uh, I mean… never mind. As for you, kid, I guess you can hang out here for a while. But only until the Gems get back and only as long as you both stop trying to give me a headache.”

“Don’t worry, Grunkle Stan,” Mabel reassured brightly. “We’ll be super quiet.” Of course, only a second after she promised this, her hand slipped, resulting in her accidently hitting the play button on Steven’s phone. The loud song that blared over the speaker was enough to rouse Dipper and Wendy from their relative listlessness as well as prompt Stan to confiscate the phone entirely.

“Hey, my phone!” Steven protested, reaching for it even as Stan held it away from him.

“Obviously you two can’t handle the responsibility of- ” the conman paused as he looked over the phone with a confused frown, unfamiliar with the trending technology. “Whatever this weird noise box is. So until you can, I’ll just hold onto it.” Stan’s bewilderment with the phone soon turned to frustration as he kept slamming his finger against it in a futile attempt to get the blaring music to stop. Eventually though, he gave up and handed the phone back to Steven, but only for a moment. “Just as soon as you turn that racket off, first.”

“Well, Grunkle Stan, if we aren’t allowed to watch TubeTube videos, then can we at least watch a movie that we’ll all enjoy instead of… that?” Mabel asked, nodding to the TV as it played a lackluster old western.

“He put the old in ‘old west’.” The TV advertised. “They call him ‘Grandpa the Kid!’”

“I’m tired during the day,” the elderly cowboy on screen grumbled.

“Hey, I’ll have you know I can relate to this!” Stan argued crossly.

“Mr. Pines, Mabel’s right,” Wendy said dryly. “That old junk is boring.”

“It sure is! Which is why I have the perfect suggestion for what we should watch instead!” Mabel grinned widely, holding up a very colorful VHS tape. “Dream Boy High! ‘Where love is on your permanent record’.”

Of course, the others all booed at such a gaudy, pandering suggestion, save for Steven who looked to the cover of Mabel’s tape with his usual fascination. “I don’t know what you guys are booing about,” the young Gem said with a smile. “This movie looks like it’ll be great! Just look at how cool and colorful these guys are!” He exclaimed, pointing to the two young men on the cover, both decked out in the most flashy neon clothes imaginable.

No one really had a chance to argue against this however, as a sudden crash sounded from the kitchen, with Soos scrambling into the room seconds later with a fearful cry. “Dude, there’s a bat in the kitchen! It tried to touch me with its little bat fingers!”

“Don’t worry, I got this under control,” Stan reassured before casually reclining back into his armchair and shirking the task off. “Dipper, take care of it.”

While Mabel chuckled triumphantly over how she didn’t have to handle this unsavory responsibility, Dipper let out a disgruntled scoff, shooting a disbelieving glance at the conman for it. “What? Why can’t Mabel do it?” he asked petulantly.

“Cause life ain’t fair,” Stan shrugged unsympathetically. “Now go fight a bat so we can watch TV.”

“No way, Grunkle Stan!” Dipper protested firmly as he stood between Stan and the TV. “You’re always making me do dumb chores and I’m tired of it! I’m putting my foot down this time!” To emphasize his point, he slammed his foot down on the carpet, hoping that it would show the conman that he meant business.

“Ooooo!” Mabel, Steven, Soos, and Wendy all gasped, intrigued by turn of events. Stan however, was far less amused.

“I said do it, kid,” he ordered harshly. “Now!”

Despite this severe command, Dipper was still adamant, especially as he crossed his arms and stared Stan down, undaunted. Of course, the conman stared right back, and the others all watched the palpable tension steadily build up between the two of them as the scowls they were trading became progressively more irate. However, Stan won out in the end, as Dipper wasn’t able to hold out under his fierce, almost threatening glare for too very long.

“Ok, I’ll do it!” he finally, very begrudgingly agreed, heaving a defeated sigh as he began to head for the kitchen. Steven and Mabel followed after him, curious to see how this would turn out. “Ugh, stupid chores…” Dipper muttered petulantly as he grabbed a saucepan and spoon lying near the kitchen entry.

“You totally got this, Dipper!” Steven encouraged brightly. “The good thing about bats is that they’re really small, but then again… they can fly… which means they might be kinda hard to catch…”

“Just remember,” Mabel cut in with what she believed was much better advice. “Bats are more afraid of you than you are of them.” Dipper didn’t really take either of their well-intentioned, yet misguided help to heart as he simply took in a deep, resolved breath and charged into the kitchen with pan and spoon in hand. “Or maybe I’m thinking of ducklings…” Mabel mused a moment after her brother left.

This correction came too late of course, for before either Steven or Mabel could even peek in and see how Dipper was faring, they quickly were able to glean that from the abrupt clatter in the kitchen. Aside from the noisy explosion of breaking plates, bat screeches, and Dipper’s own frightened cries, a barrage of kitchenware flew out of the room as the pair outside simply stood by, unsure of what to really do.

“Ducklings are so adorable!” Steven obliviously quipped as though nothing had even happened.

“I know, right?” Mabel readily agreed, playfully mimicking one, much to the young Gem’s amusement. “Quack, quack, quack!”

Of course, as soon as the clamor in the kitchen did calm down a bit, Steven and Mabel did head in to check up on Dipper, who had somehow managed to chase the bat outside though not without getting mildly injured in the process. He assured the pair that it was only a few small cuts and bruises, but it was enough to worry both Steven and Mabel enough to get Soos involved. And so, after rounding up what little first aid supplies Stan had on hand in the shack, the three of them got to work on tending to Dipper’s wounds the best they could, much to his chagrin.

“Ow, ow!” Dipper hissed in pain as Soos dabbed disinfectant over the cut on his arm while blithely humming a song he made up about it.

“You know, Dipper, this would be way faster and easier with my healing spit,” Steven pointed out before giving his hand a generous lick. “This stuff will fix you right up!”

“Uh, n-no thanks, Steven…” Dipper quickly rejected, blocking his hurt arm off with a rather uncomfortable frown. “I’m pretty sure I’ll recover just fine without it.”

“Well, ok,” Steven shrugged, not entirely convinced. “But the offer’s still on the table for if you ever have to chase off another bat or something!”

“Uh… right…” Dipper said, glancing away as Mabel finished bandaging the cut on his forehead. “I just don’t get it though. Why does Grunkle Stan always pick on me? Think about it! The more painful or difficult the chore is, the more likely it is I’ll have to do it! Why doesn’t he pick on you guys like that?”

“Pfft, what are you even talking about, bro-bro?” Mabel shook her head. “Stan’s not hard on you, silly! He just likes showing tough love sometimes!”

“Yeah, like when he tells me and the Gems that we’re ‘annoying’ and that we’re ‘the worst neighbors ever’,” Steven remarked innocently. “Amethyst says that’s just Mr. Pines’ way of joking around with us! Which means he must love joking around with us because he says that sort of stuff so much!”

Dipper gave the young Gem a rather puzzled look upon hearing this, knowing that was most certainly not what it meant but not bothering to try and argue against his stilted logic. “Sure, Steven,” he said somewhat sarcastically. “That’s what it means.”

“Dipper, Stan’s personality is just one of life’s great mysteries,” Soos spoke up. “Like whether or not it’s possible to lick your own elbow.”

“I bet you can’t!” Mabel challenged daringly.

“I bet I can!” Soos exclaimed boldly, already trying to do so, much to Steven and Mabel’s shared amusement.

“Lick it! Lick it! Lick it!” they chanted excitedly, following Soos out of the room and leaving Dipper behind. He let out a frustrated sigh, especially as he happened to glance over at Stan’s picture hanging on the nearby wall. Regardless of what Steven and Mabel had said, Dipper was still convinced that the conman had a generally low opinion of him, though for what reason, he really didn’t understand. Then again, he supposed it did make some sense. Especially seeing as how even from the very beginning of the summer, Dipper had never really hit it off with Stan in the way Mabel had. But then again, was that really any excuse for the conman to treat him with such blatant disrespect?”

“The sink’s clogged!” Stan yelled from the other room. “Dipper! Get in here and fix it!”

Of course, this stoic command only managed to aggravate Dipper even more, as well as give him even more tangible evidence for Stan’s clear contempt for him. Which was why, out of sheer vexation, he grabbed the Nyraf gun lying on the nearby table and fired a suction-cup projectile at the conman’s portrait, watching with muted satisfaction as it struck him right between the eyes.

Somewhere in the middle of the woods, a nearly identical photo of Stan sat, defaced with a red ‘x’ over his eyes and a ring of glowing candles around it. Gideon smirked cunningly as he put his match out, journal 2 resting in his free hand and turned open to the exact page he needed for his treacherous plans.

“You think that combination’s safe in your mind, Stanford?” the child psychic asked rhetorically, running a hand over the summoning spell on the open page. “We’ll see what my new minion has to say about that!” Still using the journal as a guide, Gideon stood before the circle of candles as he began reciting the spell word for word. “Triangulum, entangulum. Vene foris dominus mentum. Vene foris videntis omnium!”

While Gideon believed he would go relatively unnoticed in carrying out his scheme, what he hadn’t counted on was that Mabel, Steven, and Soos had taken to the front lawn of the shack. The kids took immense enjoyment out of watching the handyman’s continued albeit fruitless attempts to lick his elbow, yet despite that, they still cheered him on all the while.

“Lick that elbow! Lick that elbow!” Mabel and Steven cheered in pumped unison, only for Soos to finally sigh in defeat as he stopped straining to reach.

“Like the infinite horizon, it eludes my grasp,” he admitted with a frown as Steven and Mabel simply chuckled. However, the levity was soon cut short as a very familiar laugh sounded from the forest nearby.

“What was that?” Steven asked, looking to the woods curiously.

“Wait…” Mabel paused as the devious chuckle continued. “Is that who I think it is?”

After exchanging an inquisitive glance, the trio decided to go investigate, only to find the source of the laughter in a clearing not too far away. They stayed at the fringe of the clearing however, tucking behind the bushes just out of sight of the child psychic at the center of it. “Ugh, Gideon?” Mabel asked with apt disgust. “What’s he still doing here?”

“Whoa, dudes, looks like something’s up with him,” Soos noted, referring to how the child psychic was doubled over and trembling as he let out a load groan.

“Maybe we should go see if he’s ok?” Steven suggested with his usual stain of empathy.

Mabel was more than prepared to shoot that idea down, but the group was surprised into silence as Gideon collapsed to his knees and let out an indecipherable, admittedly unnerving chant. “Egassem sdrawkcab. egassem sdrawkcab. Egassem sdrawkcab! Egassem sdrawkcab! Egassem sdrawkcab!” With each nonsense word, the child psychic’s voice grew louder, his eyes enveloped in a bright blue glow that completely hid his pupils. In a sudden flash, the entire world seemed to drain of all color, resorting to a dull, grayscale pallet. The clouds in the sky overhead seemed to be flying by at an alarming rate while the rest of the world just seemed to freeze, save for Gideon and the trio eavesdropping on him. All three of them continued watching what was unfolding with unshakable fear, even if they had no idea what they were supposed to really be afraid of.

Out of nowhere, another bright flash dotted the sky before the child psychic and out of it, a triangular shape began to emerge. As it scaled to a medium size, it turned dark with what seemed like a starry spacescape, only for an outline of flames to burst around it seconds later. As a large, singular eye appeared in the center of the triangle, it began to, of all things, laugh. It was a strange, nasally laugh that was somehow both annoying and intimidating all at once, and carried the faintest hint of sadism in it for good measure. Frightened and bewildered by the appearance of this strange new entity, Mabel, Steven, and Soos all made sure to tuck down behind the bush just so they could remain out of its singular-eyed sight. Even Gideon backed up a bit, suddenly unsettled by the creature he had managed to summon based on just its laughter alone. But soon enough, the triangular being made his full appearance known as the flames around him died out and more physical details emerged, including thin black arms and legs, a tall, narrow top hat, and a petite bowtie just below his eye. A deceptively simple and unassuming appearance for a creature that was supposed to be “all knowing”.

“Oh, Gravity Falls! It is good to be back!” the being exclaimed in his pitchy, somewhat echoey voice as he glanced around. “Haven’t seen this old place since that night I shook those four space rocks up years ago! But I’ll spare you the boring details on all that. Spoilers, ya know.” With his hands casually placed on his hips—or rather, his edges, he glided down to float directly before Gideon, who could only gape at him, dumbfounded. “Name’s Bill Cipher,” he introduced himself.  “And I take it you’re some kind of living ventriloquist dummy. Ha! Just kidding! I know who you are, Gideon!”

“W-what are you?!” the child psychic asked with apt nervousness. “And h-how did you know my name?”

“Oh, I know lots of things!” Bill exclaimed brightly, though his tone quickly turned dark and deep as a plethora of cryptic images flashed on his otherwise bright yellow form, all of which went by too quickly to make anything of. “LOTS OF THINGS… Hey, look what I can do!” he quipped, his body returning to its normal color as he held his hand out towards a deer that was grazing at the edge of the forest nearby. With a mere flick of his wrist, the doe’s teeth were all seamlessly ripped out of its mouth as they flew towards the demon’s open hand without delay. “Deer teeth!” he handed the collection of teeth to Gideon with a twisted laugh. “For you, kid!”

“Augh!” Gideon cried in disgust, dropping the teeth immediately. “You’re insane!”

“Sure I am, what’s your point?” Bill shrugged, returning the deer’s teeth to its mouth with a simple wave of his hand. “I never did understand why you fleshbags get so worked up about that little tidbit. Then again, you’d hardly be the first.”

As unnerved as Gideon was, his fear was turning more into frustration over Bill’s impudent, rather callous attitude, which seemed to far exceed even his own. Still, as flustered as he was, the child psychic regained his composure and take up a firm stance as he voiced his demands. “Listen to me, demon! I have a job for you,” he said, glaring boldly at Bill all the while. “I need you to enter the mind of Stanford Pines and steal the code to his safe!”

Upon hearing exactly what Gideon’s intentions for summoning this bizarre demon were, Mabel, Soos, and Steven all gasped in shocked unison. After all, if the child psychic had gone to such great lengths, then clearly, he was done playing around. This time, he meant business.

Once again, Bill simply laughed mockingly, clearly not taking Gideon too seriously. “Yeah, sure, I-” he abruptly cut himself off however, his eye reverting to a cold glare as he turned away from the child psychic briefly. “Wait… Stan Pines…” he mused, his form flashing with an image of the conman himself, followed by an unknown, glowing red symbol. His eye went wide with realization before he quickly turned back to Gideon, maintaining his usual casual manner. “You know what, kid? You’ve convinced me. I’m sold! I’ll help you with this, and in return you can help me with something I’ve been working on! Nothing too big, just a… a pet project, ya know? We’ll work out the details later.”

“Deal!” Gideon exclaimed without hesitating, knowing that whatever Bill wanted from him in return from this would be more than worth it to get his hands on the Mystery Shack.

As the child psychic held out his hand to solidify the deal, the demon’s own hand erupted in a bright blue flame, though it oddly didn’t burn Gideon as the two shook on their plans, much to the amazement and slight horror of the trio still watching the exchange from afar.

“Well, time to invade Stan’s mind! This should be fun!” Bill exclaimed with undaunted glee. “Remember: Realityisanillusiontheuniverseisahologramtheclusteriscomingbuygold bye!”

After imparting this fast-spoken, bewildering message, Bill suddenly disappeared in blinding blue flash, similar to the one he had first appeared in. As the light cleared and color returned to the black and white world, Gideon let out a sharp gasp as he opened his eyes, clearing them as if he had just awakened from a dream. But what had just happened was far from just a mere dream, as Mabel, Steven, and Soos could all attest to as they also opened their eyes, completely shocked at what they had just witnessed.

“It worked!” Gideon let out a maniacal laugh as he realized all of his sinister plans were coming together. However, the trio in the bushes all knew they had a serious problem on their hands with this development, which was why they were quick to retreat so they could discuss it out of the child psychic’s earshot.

“Guys, this is really bad,” Mabel said with apt concern. “We can’t let that triangle guy get inside Stan’s mind. Who knows what’ll happen if he does?”

“Dudes, that guy was crazy bonkers creepy!” Soos exclaimed fretfully. “Did you see what he did with those deer teeth? I totally thought I was gonna puke!”

“And the way he just… laughed about it, like it was actually funny,” Steven shuddered with an anxious frown. “It was scary. Even if his little top hat and bow tie were kinda cute. But what can we do to stop him?”

“Oh! Oh! I know!” Mabel exclaimed, her expression alight with a newfound idea. “Who better to call to get rid of crazy evil things like that then the three coolest Gems in Gravity Falls? Well, the only three Gems in Gravity Falls, but still! I’m sure they’d be able to get rid of that triangle guy, no problem!”

“Yeah!” Steven exclaimed with zeal before his smile quickly faded. “Oh, but wait… they’re gone for the day and I don’t know when they’ll be back. And I don’t think we really have a lot of time to wait for them…”

“Dang it!” Mabel exclaimed with a frustrated snap of her fingers. “Well then I guess we’re gonna have to do this ourselves. To the Mystery Shack!”

“To the Mystery Shack!” Soos and Steven repeated boldly after her, before the handyman quickly interjected.

“Uh, actually, can we maybe stop off for snacks first? You can’t fight a crazy triangle demon on an empty stomach, dudes.”

Mabel and Steven looked to each other for a moment upon hearing this request, but in the end, this delay easily won them both over. After all, they certainly had enough time to grab a quick snack before stopping Gideon’s twisted ambitions, right?  “To the Big Donut!” the young Gem proclaimed just as vigorously as before.

“To the Big Donut!”

Seeing as how he had been the only one around for the past hour, Dipper had found himself stuck with even more chores to add onto the already lengthy list Stan had rattled off to him. His current task of sweeping up the living room put him rather close proximity to the conman, who was fast asleep on his recliner in front of the TV. Dipper paused, giving Stan a suspicious glance as he mumbled a rather incoherent apology in his sleep.

“What is going on in that guy’s head?” Dipper wondered to himself incredulously as he prepared to leave the room. However, before he could, Mabel, Steven, and Soos burst in in a rather noticeable panic, even despite the snacks they were all toting.

“Dipper! We gotta help Stan!” Mabel cried loudly, though somehow she still didn’t end up waking the snoozing conman.

“Wait, what?” Dipper asked, aptly confused at this sudden plea.

“This evil triangle guy said he’s gonna break into Stan’s mind and steal the combination to his safe!” Soos exclaimed, his mouth full of Burrito Bites. “Also we stopped for snacks on the way here.”

“We watched Gideon summon him or something out in the woods,” Steven explained much more earnestly. “They made like, some kind of deal, I think? It was pretty confusing…”

“Wait,” Dipper interrupted, trying to make sense of everything they were saying. “Triangle guy? Deal? I felt like I’ve seen something like this before in the journal…” he mused, pulling said book out of his vest and tentatively flipping through it before finding the right page. It was by far one of the most ominous ones in the entire journal, transcribed in panicked scribbles as opposed to the author’s usual clean script and marred with what seemed to be several blood splatters. And of course, its content was even more disturbing, as they all quickly gleaned from Dipper reading it aloud. “Beware Bill! The most powerful and dangerous creature I’ve ever encountered. This nightmare in disguise will seduce you with never ending flattery until he gets what he wants. Whatever you do, never let him into your mind. There is no telling what damage Bill might no. Do not summon at all costs.”

This reading was abruptly interrupted as Stan started tossing and turning about in his sleep, a pained expression washing over his face. “Grunkle Stan!” Mabel cried worriedly as the others gasped with equal concern. For before anyone could do anything, the ominous triangular shadow of Bill Cipher himself draped itself upon the wall behind Stan, before sinking down slowly, no doubt into the conman’s mind. In the wake of this, Stan’s movements became even more jerky and erratic as his eyes shot open, though it was clear he was anything but really awake. Rather, his eyes were glowing bright blue as he let out a series of struggling cries.

“Oh no! We’re too late!” Steven exclaimed in dismay. “What do we do?”

Mabel was quick to get the answer to this question as she grabbed the journal from Dipper and read an excerpt from the next page aloud: “It is possible to follow the demon into a person’s mind and prevent his chaos. One must simply recite this incantation.”

“Ugh, this is just great,” Dipper remarked bitterly. “I spend all day cleaning sinks and fighting bats for Stan and now I have to save him from some crazy brain demon?”

“But we gotta help Mr. Pines, Dipper!” Steven urged pleadingly. “If we don’t do something, then who knows what might happen?”

“Gideon might steal the shack!” Mabel exclaimed fretfully. “Or worse!”

The conversation was interrupted once more as Stan let out another scream amidst his restless thrashing, his eyes still blank and glowing. And if that wasn’t enough to prompt the kids into action, then nothing was.

“Fine,” Dipper sighed relentingly, not too fond of putting himself in what would be certain danger for Stan like this. Still, he knew that if he refused, Mabel and Steven would never let him hear the end of it. “Get ready, guys. We’re about to journey into the most horrifying, disturbing place any of us have ever been: our uncle’s mind.”

Despite the determination the kids had for this daring mission, Soos was quick to break through it with an inquisitive, though somewhat unrelated question. “You think I can take these Burrito Bites into Stan’s brain?” he asked, holding the back of snacks up. “Thumbs up? Thumbs down?” The handyman paused for a moment, gaging the kids’ reactions to this proposal, or rather, lack thereof before letting out a small laugh. “You know what, I’m just gonna bring ‘em.”

It took a while to get everything in order, but with the journal to guide them, the kids eventually managed to construct the setup they would need to perform the ritual that would hopefully grant them access into Stan’s mind. The group had constructed a circle of candles surrounding the conman in the living room, one that was admittedly quite similar to the one Gideon had used to summon Bill in the first place. With the lights turned off and the candles burning dimly, the four of them stood around the still-slumbering conman, preparing themselves for the daunting task ahead.

“Ok, guys,” Dipper said with resolve, still holding the journal open to the incantation. “In order to save Stan, we’re gonna have to follow that dream demon into his mind.”

“I wonder what it’ll be like in there…” Steven mused curiously. “Oh! Wouldn’t it be awesome and adorable if there was a tiny version of Mr. Pines in there who will take us on a tour? It’d be just like it is here at the shack!”

“Oh my gosh, that would be the cutest thing ever,” Mabel gushed with a delighted smile. “Especially if tiny Stan sang and danced, just like I’ve always wanted the real Stan to do but he never does because he says its ‘cheesy’!”

“Guys, come on,” Dipper said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Stop messing around. The sooner we get in there, the sooner we can get out and be done with this whole thing. ”

“I wonder what Stan is thinking right now,” Soos cut in thoughtfully. With a small grin, the handyman pulled the conman’s jaw up and down and comically threw his voice to put words in his boss’ mouth. “‘I love Soos like a son!’”

“Soos! This is serious!” Dipper scolded impatiently.

“‘Sorry!’” Soos exclaimed, still briefly pretending to speak through Stan before exchanging a high five with Mabel out of amusement.

“So if we’re finally done wasting time,” Dipper began pointedly, shooting the others a disapproving glance. “Let’s do this.” As soon as everyone had placed a hand on the conman’s forehead as a point of contact, Dipper began to recite the intended incantation straight from the journal itself. “Videntis Omnium. Magister Mentium. Magnesium Ad Hominem. Magnum Opus. Habeus Corous.” As the spell went on, all of their eyes, and even the gemstone on Steven’s stomach, started to glow the same bright blue as Stan’s, though none of them could really pay too much mind to that as the incantation neared its completion. “Inceptus Nolanus Overratus. Magister Mentium. Magister Mentium! Magister Mantium!”

A very bright, very quick flash illuminated the room, all of the candles abruptly going out in the process. And then, as the light faded as quickly as it had appeared, Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Steven were all but gone.

And instead, they opened their eyes to find themselves in what seemed like another world entirely.

All four of the kids let out muted gasps of awe as they got their first glimpse at the grayscale landscape all around them. Not a speck of tangible color existed and the very atmosphere itself was still and lifeless, though it did flicker briefly every now and then. The most presently noticeable feature was the large duplicate of the Mystery Shack before them, which seemed to float amidst nothingness. Its façade was even more dilapidated and worn down than the real-life version of the building, with pieces crumbling apart and hovering scattered around it and its very structure hewn and stitched together without any form or order. Curious, the gang got up and slowly began to approach it, taking care in their initial steps lest this ethereal world fall apart around them at any slight provocation.

“Whoa… is this really Stan’s mind?” Mabel asked, glancing around with wide eyes.

“I figured there would be more hot old ladies,” Soos remarked.

“And I guess there’s no tiny Mr. Pines in here after all…” Steven said with a disappointed frown that turned to one of confusion as he happened to look to his left and see one of the several battered facets surrounding the mind shack. It was a simple swing set, obviously rusted and bent as vines clung to it and one of its two seats was hanging broken from it, while the other lone seat slowly swayed to a nonexistent breeze. For reasons the young Gem couldn’t quite place, a wave of sudden regret and sympathy washed over him as he looked at the old abandoned swing set, though he was quickly broken out of it as the others moved on without him. Before anyone could really notice he wasn’t keeping up, Steven hurried to catch up with the rest of them as they came to stand before the mind shack.

“Remember everyone,” Mabel said, her tone plucky and serious. “We’ve gotta look out for the triangle guy.”

“Yeah, look out for the triangle guy!” Bill himself quipped as he made his arrival, rising up from the porch of the mind shack.

“It’s him!” Soos exclaimed as the others gasped in surprise. “It’s the guy!”

“You leave our uncle’s brain alone, you isosceles monster!” Mabel warned, her boldness getting the better of her as she charged towards the dream demon in the hopes of catching him. Of course, Bill was more than prepared for such an attack, which was why he allowed Mabel to leap right into him, hardly even caring as she disappeared into his triangular form. The dream demon pulled a stopwatch out of nowhere, and after using it to wait a few seconds, he sent the girl tumbling out of him in the same way she had came. “Gotcha!” Mabel exclaimed triumphantly, only to find that hadn’t caught anything. “Wait, what?”

“Ah, Stan’s family. We meet at last,” Bill remarked casually. “Question Mark, Shooting Star, Pine Tree, I had a hunch I might bump into you!” With an amused look, the dream demon pointed at the group, a laser blasting from his finger in a sudden burst. The blast ended up striking Dipper straight in the chest, startling him a great deal as he let out a horrified scream. However, as the initial panic wore off, he realized that the attack hadn’t really hurt him, though what was quite alarming was the large, gaping round hole that had been cleanly shot through his chest.

“Boop!” Mabel exclaimed with a joking smirk as she stuck her hand through the new hole in her brother’s body just for fun.

“Mabel!” Dipper scolded, pushing her hand away.

“And look who else is joined this party!” Bill exclaimed, disappearing and immediately rematerializing right behind Steven. “Hey there, Rosebud! How are you and those Crystal Chumps doing?”

“You mean… the Gems?” Steven asked uneasily, suddenly perplexed by how the dream demon seemed to know about them. Then again, he had said so himself: he knew lots of things.

“Well, duh!” Bill rolled his eye. “I’d ask how ol’ Quartzy is, but that would be pretty redundant, if you catch my drift.”

“Wait, Quarzty? As in… Rose Quartz?” the young Gem asked, confused by all the nicknames. The dream demon simply “nodded” as he continued to spin his black cane casually. “You… you knew my mom?”

“Sure did! Me and your dear old mom go waaaaay back. She sure was something else, let me tell you!” Bill exclaimed with a small laugh. “Speaking of quartzes, mind if I take a quick peek at that rock on your gut, kid?”

“Oh, my gem?” Steven frowned, tentatively lifting up his shirt to reveal it.

“That’s the one!” the dream demon quipped cheerfully, snapping his fingers. The second he did so, however, the gemstone on Steven’s stomach suddenly disappeared completely, only to reappear over Bill’s open palm a second later.

“Hey! My gem!” the young Gem cried fretfully, looking down to the now empty spot on his stomach, where only an indentation where his gem had once been remained. Likewise, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos all gasped with apt concern, all of them quickly growing tired of the crafty demon’s demented games.

“Relax, Rosebud,” Bill reassured, making sure to keep the pink stone out of anyone’s reach. “I’m just borrowing it for a while. After all, Gems like this are pretty hard to come by anymore. And besides, you won’t even remember its gone after a while!” With a mere flick of his wrist, the gemstone disappeared into thin air, and much to Steven’s dismay, did not make a reappearance in its rightful place on his stomach. “But anyway, enough talking about who knows who and crying over rocks,” the dream demon shrugged, gliding back over the mind. “Instead, let’s chat about how you kids are gonna leave and let me go about my business, hm?”

“Not a chance!” Dipper protested firmly. “What do you want with our uncle’s mind anyway?”

“Oh, just the code to the old man’s safe!” Bill remarked, just as informal as ever. “Inside the shack is a maze of a thousand doors representing your uncle’s memories. Behind one of them is a memory of him inputting the code. I just need to find it and Gideon will pay me handsomely!”

“Not if we stop you!” Mabel challenged.

“Ha! Fat chance!” the dream demon scoffed. “I’m the master of the mind. I even know what you’re thinking about right now!”

“That’s impossible!” Mabel proclaimed confidently. “No one can guess what I’m thinking!”

She was quickly proven wrong, however as Bill snapped his fingers once more, resulting in a very colorful blast of light. When it cleared, two tall young men, both clad in the gaudy neon fashions of the 90s, had appeared among the group, much to Mabel’s absolute delight.

“Ahhhhh!” she squealed with sheer joy as she looked up at the two boys excitedly. “Xyler and Craz from Dream Boy High?! You two are even dreamier in person, if that’s even possible!”

“Whoa, where are we, bro?” Xyler asked, bewildered as he looked around.

“We must be in heaven, cause I just saw an angel!” Craz declared pointing at Mabel with a smile.

Of course, Mabel let out another happy scream as she hugged Craz’s leg tightly. “I’m never letting go of your leg!”

“You’re out of your league, kids,” Bill cut in, satisfied that he had demonstrated just a bit of his power. “Turn around before you see something you might regret. Later, suckers!” With another mocking laugh, the dream demon abruptly crashed through the wall of the mind shack, leaving a triangle hole behind as he hurried inside to begin his treacherous work.

“We’re going in!” Dipper exclaimed, knowing that Bill already had a head start on them. “Uh, Mabel? Can we leave those guys out here?” he nodded to the dream boys. “Looking at them… hurts my eyes.”

“No way!” Mabel protested adamantly, still holding onto Craz’s leg. “They can help us!”

“I think they’re pretty cool,” Steven interjected, smiling at the boys.

“Thanks, bro!” Xyler exclaimed, exchanging a high five with the young Gem.

“Whoa, neat! I’m a bro!” Steven grinned brightly. “Still… I kinda wish I still had my gem… I dunno, I’d just feel a lot… better with it…” he frowned, glancing down to the vacant spot on his stomach.

“Don’t worry, Steven. We can get it back when we stop Bill!” Mabel reassured daringly.

“Alright!” Xyler and Craz cheered in supporting unison. “Arm throne!” Both boys bent down and linked their arms together, creating something of a seat that Mabel was more than happy to leap into, chuckling brightly as she allowed the boys to carry her inside the mind shack.

“Dude! Arm throne!” Soos copied them, holding his own arms out to Dipper. Of course, he turned this offer down seeing as he was still somewhat sullen and self conscious about the gaping hole in his chest, but Steven on the other hand was more than willing to comply.

“Yay! Arm throne!” he exclaimed, hopping into the handyman’s arms. They both laughed as they headed into the mind shack after Mabel and the boys, with Dipper following much more petulantly behind them.

Much like the outside, the interior of the mind shack itself was drained of all colors, as well as disjointed and scrambled in almost every way possible. Floating staircases were everywhere, leading to doors in seemingly every single direction imaginable. Several of the doors were clearly marked, from one that was tightly bolted shut labeled “fears” and another one afar in the distance that had a soft white glow to it entitled “hopes” and still several others. As discombobulating and strange as it all was, no one could deny that this expansive labyrinth was perhaps more than any of them had bargained for.

Yet even so, if there was anyone heedless of the daunting challenged ahead, it was the (admittedly dense) dream boys. “Radical!” Craz exclaimed with a wide grin.

“I also think its radical!” Xyler agreed with just as much zeal.

“This place is so huge!” Steven exclaimed, glancing around in awe. “Where do we even start looking?”

“Our best bet would probably-” Dipper began, though he was abruptly cut off as a bat with, oddly enough, Stan’s face flew past, barking “no refunds” repeatedly. Already quite irritated with this mission and the conman as a whole, Dipper let out a frustrated sigh before he continued. “Like I was saying… our best bet would probably be that door down there that says ‘memories’.” He nodded to the door at the bottom of the nearest set of stairs.

“Oh, good idea, dude!” Soos agreed with a smile. “Though in retrospect, I guess it was sorta obvious.”

Intrepid in their mission, the group headed through the door into a seemingly endless hall of the conman’s memories, all of which were playing out simultaneously in the open doorways lining it. Most of the memories immediately on display were quite recent, ranging from Stan taking on the pterodactyl to rescue Waddles, to Stan giving Soos a task at the shack, to Stan arguing with Pearl over the rocket ship project and still countless more. And somewhere among this plethora of memories, was no doubt the combination for the safe that both all of them and Bill were searching for.

“Whoa, look! All of Stan’s memories!” Soos remarked, amazed.

“Cool! Each one of them is kinda like a little mini-movie!” Steven chuckled, glancing at a door containing the memory of Stan and Amethyst scaring off Summerween trick or treaters. “Or should I say, mini-memory-movies!”

“Great, I’m sure there’s plenty of memories of Stan bossing me around,” Dipper said dryly, crossing his arms. “Can’t wait to see more of that.”

“Come on, Dipper! We gotta find that code before Bill does!” Mabel urged resolutely.

“Mabel is talking!” Craz exclaimed, duly impressed.

“So rad!” Xyler gushed just as enthusiastically.

“Let’s get searching!” Soos declared, prompting the group into action. The hall was indeed as Bill had described it: a maze. But the gang stuck together as they ran through it, keeping an eye out for anything that looked like it could be the memory of the code they were looking for. Since not all of the doors were hanging wide open, they realized they would have to open some of them for themselves, which was a trend Dipper started as he opened up a random door.

The memory inside the door showed a much younger version of Stan, clad in an orange jumpsuit as he sat in a prison cell alongside two very rugged cellmates. “Jorge, Rico,” Stan began with a wide smile, wrapping an arm around each of them. “You’re the best Colombian prison friends a fella could make.”

“Espero que muera,” Rico said to Jorge with clear disdain for the oblivious conman.

“Si,” Jorge agreed simply.

“Nope!” Dipper said, concluding the memory to be useless in their search as he shut the door.

Meanwhile, Soos opened up another nearby door, to find another memory of a young Stan, who was attempting to sell vacuums as a door to door salesman. “Sir, would you like to buy a Stan-Vac vacuum?” he began his pitch with a flashy grin. “Stan-Vac: It sucks more than anything.” Of course, upon hearing this faulty slogan, the customer was quick to slam the door right in the conman’s face. “Gotta work on that…”

“Nope,” Soos shook his head, closing the door.

“Whoa, this one has Amethyst in it!” Steven pointed to the door he had opened. The scene inside of it depicted Stan and Amethyst one of their infamous Revenge Trips, embroiled in what appeared to be a high-speed car chase with the police.

“I thought you said nobody saw you steal those tires!” the conman exclaimed, alarmed as the cops’ sirens blared behind them.

“Hey, how was I supposed to know that place had a security camera!?” the purple retorted casually, clearly unconcerned. “Just do what you always do when the heat shows up. Floor it!”

“I can do better than that,” Stan smirked, shifting his car into gear, pushing it much faster than before. The pair both let out a precocious laugh as they easily outgunned the cops, all while the conman peeked his head out the window and taunted them triumphantly. “Try and catch us now, suckers!”

“Aw, those two always have so much fun together,” Steven said with a warm smile as he closed the door.

“Oh look! It’s Stan on a date!” Mabel cooed curiously, pulling a smaller door open. And indeed, the conman sat across from Lazy Susan on a dinner date, one that clearly wasn’t going well, based on the stilted, awkward conversation they were having.

“So, uh… your eye is weird,” Stan began, his tone uncertain. “Let’s… let’s talk about that.” Lazy Susan merely let out a loud laugh at this, one that the conman joined in much more anxiously as his thoughts narrated over the memory. “Ugh, this is going terrible. I can’t think of anything to say and she… she looks weird up close. Think of a way out!” Of course, Stan’s “way out” was appropriately unorthodox and sudden as he abruptly stood from the table and cried: “Non-specific excuse!” before shoving everything off of the table and running for his car outside.

“Yeesh,” Mabel closed the door, cringing at the awkward display.

As the group forged on ahead to continue their hunt, they happened to pass by a door leading to another hallway simply labeled “Dipper Memories”, which of course, was quick to catch Dipper’s attention. “Look, guys! Memories about me!” he exclaimed, grabbing the doorknob tentatively.

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea, dude,” Soos noted with a frown, nodding to the “keep out” sign on the door.

“Yeah, I doubt we’ll find the combination to the safe in there,” Steven said. “Unless Mr. Pines told it to you, Dipper. But then… I guess we wouldn’t really need to be here if he did, so…”

“Listen, I just wanna know what the old guy really thinks of me,” Dipper said, pulling the door open a little more.

“We already know how Stan feels about us!” Mabel quipped confidently as she began to walk off. “He loves us! We’re great.”

“Yeah, let’s just keep moving,” Soos agreed as him and Steven headed onward with Mabel and her dream boys.

“More moving?” Xyler asked excitedly.

“Yes! I love motion!” Craz quipped brightly.

Dipper started to follow the rest of the group as well for a moment, though as soon as he was sure no one was noticing, he quickly turned and rushed back to the door. True, it didn’t really have much to do with their overall objective, but still. He needed to know the truth for himself.

“Ok, just a quick peek…” he muttered, slowly opening the door and heading inside. Expectedly, this hallway was much more narrow than the main one, and seemingly a bit darker too, as Dipper noted while exploring it. As he walked down it, he could clearly hear Stan bark orders at him from all of the countless open doors, all of which were instances that Dipper also remembered, none of which very fondly. Deciding that any of them would probably do to prove his point, he chose a random door to open, revealing a memory that, to his own recollection, had only happened about a week or so ago.

“No buts!” Stan exclaimed harshly, his tone stern as he pointed to the pile of wood in the lawn. “Now go and chop that firewood already!” As a way of asserting his authority, the conman knocked his nephew on the head with the newspaper he was holding, much to his chagrin. With an aggravated sigh, Dipper turned and headed off to start chopping the wood while Stan took a supervising role as he sat upon the couch on the porch alongside Soos and Amethyst.

“Dude, Stan, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Soos began with a concerned frown. “Why are you so hard on Dipper all the time?”

“Yeah, seriously,” Amethyst agreed casually, munching on an empty soda can. “I mean, yeah the kid’s a nerd, but that’s really no reason to pick on him that much. Even if it is kinda funny.”

Outside of the memory, Dipper simply rolled his eyes upon hearing this, more than used to Amethyst’s callous remarks by now. But even so, he listened intently as Stan began to explain. “Listen, you two. I’m gonna let you in on something.”

“What, about how you wet the bed until you were like, thirteen?” Amethyst asked with a joking smirk. “Because you already let that one slide to me, Stan.”

“N-no! And I never said anything about that!” Stan exclaimed, clearly flustered. “Just… ugh, look. You really wanna know what I think?”

From there, the conman’s voice dropped into a low whisper as he talked to Soos and Amethyst, prompting Dipper to lean in a bit closer to the door so he could make out what Stan was saying. And when he was able to hear what Stan was saying, Dipper just as soon wished he hadn’t. “The kid’s a loser. He’s weak! He’s an utter embarrassment! I just wanna get rid of him.”

Dipper didn’t really need to hear anything else after all this, which was why he slowly shut the door before Stan could say any more hurtful things about him. He let out a dejected sigh as he turned away from it, his head hung as he stared down to the ground in disappointment. Dipper hadn’t really been sure of what he expected to find here, but a small part of him had hoped that it wouldn’t have been something like this. Indeed, his suspicions about Stan’s apparent disdain for him had been all but proven by the conman himself. Still, that hardly prevented the revelation from hurting as much as it did. If anything, hearing it come from Stan only made it hurt even worse. Before, Dipper had merely speculated that the conman simply found him as an easy target for his teasing and orders out of apathy alone and little else. But now he knew that there was much more to it than that. There was ire, contempt, and scorn, all things that, in retrospect, Stan had never hesitated to show towards him before. Which was why Dipper realized that instead of futilely trying to gain the conman’s fickle favor, he might as well show those very things towards the conman in full force.

After all, it was only fair.

None of the others had really noticed Dipper’s absence yet as they continued searching through the maze of doors for the code, though with relatively little luck so far.

“Hello? Code to Stan’s safe?” Mabel called. “Where are you?”

“Opening and closing doors is fun!” Xyler proclaimed, randomly opening and shutting the same door over and over again.

“I can do it also!” Craz quipped with a huge smile, doing the exact same thing.

“Oh, maybe it’s in this one…” Steven mused, opening up a nearby door curiously. While he didn’t find the code, what he did find though peaked his interest quite a bit. “Whoa, look you guys! It’s my dad when he used to work for Mr. Pines!”

The others all gathered around the door inquisitively as they observed a scene in the gift shop play out. Greg sat behind the counter, organizing merchandise as Stan casually leaned against it, rattling off a lengthy list of complaints about only one thing: the Gems.

“And you know what else irks me about those four?” the conman asked, crossing his arms. “Every time they have some sort of disaster or monster up at that temple of theirs’, it always manages to wind up down here somehow. I’m still trying to regrow the grass that fire monster they fought last week burnt up.”

“Aw, come on, Mr. Pines,” Greg said with a small smile. “The Gems really aren’t that bad once you get to know them.”

“Sure, Greg,” Stan deadpanned. “Of course, you’re only saying that because you’re head over heels for one of them.”

“Heh, well I am a little guilty of that…” the former rock star grinned bashfully. “But who knows? I’m sure if you just gave the Gems a chance then maybe you guys could actually get along!”

“Ha! Yeah right! The day I make nice with any of those broads is the day pigs fly.”

“Well, given how weird this town can sometimes be, I wouldn’t say that’s totally impossible…” Greg chuckled, finally eliciting an amused smirk from Stan as well.

“Well what do you know?” Steven said, closing the door and exchanging a smile with Mabel. “Looks like my dad was right after all.”

“Yeah! About both things, kinda,” Mabel shrugged with a laugh.

As they moved on, Soos opened up another door, this one containing a memory of Stan pressing several buttons on the gift shop’s vending machine late at night. Neither of the kids were there with the handyman to see the machine swing aside and reveal that there was a secret staircase hidden behind it.

“If only people knew the truth…” Stan said mysteriously, glancing out from behind the vending machine as he prepared to go down. “That hidden behind this vending machine, I secretly have a-”

“Boring!” Soos exclaimed, carelessly slamming the door shut before the conman could finish.

“Alright, guys,” Mabel said, standing before a small door labeled ‘top secret’. “I have a good feeling about this one.”

She readily swung it open, uncovering a memory not of the safe combination, but rather of Stan in the bathroom, bereft of a shirt as he used his stomach as something of a puppet for his own amusement. “Hey, Mr. Tummy!” he greeted, grinning down at his gut. “‘Hey Mr. Stan,” the conman threw his voice as he made his stomach essentially “talk”. “Are you hungry? ‘Yes!’ Then eat your crackers!”

The group observing this memory all cringed in relative disgust over it, especially as Stan started “feeding” his stomach crackers. “Sweet Sally!” Mabel exclaimed, repulsed as she quickly shut the door.

“Ugh, we’ve been searching forever!” Steven exclaimed, exasperated. “And there are still a ton of doors we haven’t even checked yet! What if Bill finds the memory before we do?”

“Guys, we got this,” Mabel reassured. “If we wanna find Stan’s memory, then we gotta think like Stan. He’s always hiding stuff, right?”

“Yeah!” Soos agreed. “Like how he’s always hiding his arrest warrants under that rug in the gift shop?”

“Soos, that’s it!” Mabel exclaimed brightly. “Look!” She pointed to a rug lying on the ground just a few feet away, one that was nearly identical to the one Stan kept in the gift shop. And sure enough, upon pulling the rug away, the group found one more door hiding underneath it. The gang all exchanged wide smiles of anticipation, all of them hoping that this was at last the elusive memory they had been seeking. And as Mabel opened the door, they were instantly overjoyed to find that it indeed was.

Inside the memory, Stan kissed the precious deed to the Mystery Shack before putting it safely inside the safe. “There ya go,” he said, shutting the door. “And now to input the code. 13, 44, and finally-”

Soos closed the door before Stan could finish but even so, the entire group was immensely relieved and excited to have finally come across it. “Dude! We found it!” the handyman exclaimed cheerfully.

“Yeah!” Steven and Mabel cheered, exchanging a high five.

“But what do we do now?” Xyler and Craz asked in tandem. “Jinx!”

“Um… hm…” Mabel mused, trying to come up with a suitable solution. “Oh! I know! Let’s destroy the memory before Bill can find it!”

“But… if we destroy the memory, then wouldn’t Mr. Pines not be able to remember the code at all?” Steven asked with a frown as Mabel grabbed the ax from a nearby statue of armor.

“Well, yeah, I guess,” Mabel shrugged, struggling to tote the heavy ax over to the door. “But still, anything’s better than Gideon getting ahold of it and stealing the deed!”

“Wait!” Soos suddenly stopped Mabel before she could bring the ax down on the door. “Maybe I should do it! My big fat arms are great at destroying stuff!”

“Oh, okay,” Mabel grinned, seeing no harm in this plan.

However, instead of outright destroying the door using force, the handyman simply reached his hand out towards it silently, focusing on it intently. Mabel and Steven exchanged a confused glance at this, though their bewilderment soon turned to surprise as a blue glow started to surround the door as Soos managed to lift it from the floor without even touching it.

“Whoa… How are you doing that, Soos?” Steven asked in apt amazement as the door hovered beside the handyman.

However, before Soos could answer, oddly enough, another Soos happened to wander onto the scene at that exact moment. “Hey, guys!” the new handyman greeted a bit obliviously. “I just saw a memory of Stan roller skating and wearing short-shorts! Didn’t… didn’t look that bad!” An awkward pause permeated the group, during which Soos finally happened to notice the presence of his doppelganger. “Hey, something weird is goin’ on here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…”

The other Soos simply laughed as his cover was blown, though it was far from the handyman’s laugh. Instead, it was the telltale mocking, borderline insane laughter of Bill Cipher himself, which made more sense as the dream demon seamlessly shifted from his perfect disguise into his usual triangular form. “Boy, you kids sure are gullible!” he exclaimed, holding onto the door as the group all gaped at him in apt surprise. “I knew you’d lead me straight to the code! It’s funny how dumb you are!”

“Hey, no fair!” Steven exclaimed, dismayed. “You tricked us!”

“Wow, you sure are slow to the punch, kid,” Bill remarked teasingly. “Of course I tricked you! And it was even easier than I thought it would be! Then again, I never thought it would be that hard since you all are a bunch of half-wit mini-meatskins in the first place.”

“Oh yeah? Well, y-you’re… you’re a… a stink face!” Mabel retorted challengingly.

“Awesome comeback, Mabel!” Xyler congratulated with a thumbs up.

“Don’t treat me like a child, Xyler!” Mabel quickly scolded, frustrated.

“Well, as fun as holding my victory right over your heads is, I have a deal to make good on,” Bill said, lifting the door with the code inside up higher. “Later, suckers!” With another triumphant laugh, the dream demon raced off, flying away before any of the kids could hope to stop him.

“Oh no! The code!” Steven gasped in alarm.

“Come on!” Mabel urged, more than ready to chase after the demon for it. “We gotta save Stan!”

“What’s the point?” The other members of the group were all somewhat surprised to hear this question come from Dipper as he finally rejoined them, his expression quite sullen and his hands shoved into the pockets of his vest. “Why should I save him, huh? I work for Stan night and day, and all he does in return is say he wants to get rid of me.”

“Dipper, you know that’s not true,” Mabel was quick to argue.

“Why would Mr. Pines ever say anything like that?” Steven asked, concerned. “You’re his family, Dipper. He loves you!”

“No he doesn’t!” Dipper retorted harshly. “I saw it with my own eyes, you guys. He’s always picked on me and now I know why: Stan hates me!”

The others all gasped at this claim, none of them really able to believe it. “B-but… that can’t be right,” Steven tried to reason, even if Dipper wasn’t having it. “Maybe you just misheard him or something.”

“Or maybe it’s the truth and you guys are just in denial!” Dipper protested bitterly. “Look, if you need proof, then why don’t we all just go back to the door so you can hear what Stan-”

“Dipper, there’s no time!” Mabel interrupted, frustrated that he was even insisting upon something so ridiculous. “It doesn’t matter what you saw or what you heard. If we don’t stop Bill, we’ll lose the shack!”

“No!” Dipper refused, irresolute in his position. “You know what? Not this time. For once this is one of Stan’s problems I’m not gonna fix. If you guys wanna go put yourselves in the line of fire for him, that’s fine. But count me out.”

“W-what?!” Steven asked, quite surprised and dismayed at this turn of events. “But Dipper, we-”

“Fine!” Mabel retorted just as harshly, sending her brother a disapproving glare. “Go ahead and be a selfish old stick in the mud! Come on, you guys. We’ll save Stan ourselves.” Without sparing another word, she promptly headed off to finish this mission, regardless if Dipper came along or not.

“Let’s go, Xyler,” Craz said, eagerly following behind Mabel.

“All right, Craz!”

“Those are our names!”

“Totally righteous!”

“Dipper, you’re a cool dude but… this isn’t cool, dude,” Soos said with a disappointed frown as he also moved on. But even so, Dipper refused to change his stance on the matter, even as Steven lingered behind for a moment.

“Let me guess, Steven,” Dipper began, crossing his arms as he let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re gonna try and convince me that I should help you guys save Stan, right?”

“Uh… well, yeah, actually,” Steven admitted with a shrug. “But only because it’s the right thing to do!”

“Well, forget it,” Dipper shook his head, firm in his resolve. “It doesn’t matter if its right or not. Nothing you can say will make me change my mind about this. Besides, you can’t honestly tell me that Stan saying he wants nothing to do with me is ‘right’ either, can you?”

“Well, no… I can’t…” the young Gem frowned, not really sure of what to say. “And… I guess I can’t really convince you to help us either… But you should at least think twice about this, Dipper. I mean, this is kind of a big deal, in case you haven’t noticed…”

“Oh, believe me, Steven, I’ve thought about it plenty,” Dipper said, glaring away bitterly. “You might as well go join the others. I’ll see you on the outside.”

“But…” Steven started to protest before realizing that this was a losing battle. “Ok… but… you know where to find us if you change your mind.”

“Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen,” Dipper remarked sardonically as the two of them headed their separate ways.

Steven frowned in disappointment as he started off in the direction that Mabel and Soos had went, rather upset that he hadn’t been able to really change Dipper’s mind as he had hoped. However, his dejection soon turned to surprise as he heard a startlingly familiar voice ring out from one of the memories down a nearby hall.

“I can’t—I wont’t let you do this,” the feminine voice said, her tone hardened and firm. Steven’s jaw dropped as he heard it, knowing that he had heard this very same voice for the first time ever in the video tape he had watched just a few days ago. But still… what place would she have here in Stan’s memories?

“So what? You’re gonna try and stop me, pinky? Is that how this is gonna be?!” Stan asked in angry response. Steven’s curiosity raised even more upon hearing this, especially as he realized that whatever this encounter was, it was likely quite confrontational.

“Yes. I am,” the pink Gem’s voice was solid, the determination in it clear. The young Gem took in an anxious breath as he stood in the threshold of the hall, still unable to see the memory for himself, even if he could clearly hear it. “I’ll do whatever I have must to keep you from reopening it. No matter what the cost.”

“Steven!” Mabel’s call abruptly broke the young Gem out of his intrigue. “Are you coming?”

“Uh, be there in a second!” Steven exclaimed in response, briefly turning back towards the source of the memory. He had missed whatever Stan had said, but he could tell the tension was still very high as Rose spoke again.

“Don’t you understand?! This thing is far too dangerous!” she exclaimed, a hint of remorse and desperation in her tone. “It was a mistake to build it in the first place. We should have never-”

“Steven!?” Mabel called once more, starkly reminding the young Gem of the urgency of the situation. He couldn’t afford to waste time investigating unrelated leads like this. Bill already had the code to the safe, and if they didn’t hurry, then it would be in Gideon’s hands before they knew it.

“Coming!” Steven assured, forcing himself to disregard the memory he had overheard. But even still, as he turned and started to continue on after the others, he couldn’t help but still pick up on bits and pieces of the argument until it was finally out of his earshot. “Gone… machine… not fair… Gems… disaster… your fault…” and finally “portal…” were all the young Gem was really able to make out, leaving him with far more questions than any answers. Despite that, Steven knew that he couldn’t really focus on any of those questions right now, not at such a high-stakes moment as this.

Still, that didn’t stop him from wanting to ask them.

Bill sped through the long hall of memories at a remarkable speed as every door he flew past flung open almost instantly. With the memory of the code in tow, the dream demon was assured in his victory and twistedly excited for what he would get in return from Gideon upon the fulfillment of their deal. And that fulfillment was at hand as Bill’s form suddenly rang like a phone, prompting him to answer the call with a tap of his bowtie.

“Y’ello?” the dream demon greeted casually as Gideon appeared on the screen that formed below his tie.

“Bill! Did you find the memory with the combination yet?” the child psychic asked eagerly.

“Relax, short stack. I got it right here,” Bill assured, pulling the door out of nothing.

“Perfect!” Gideon exclaimed with a triumphant laugh. “Now, give it to me and we’ll finish our bargain.”

“Finally! Its—you got a pen there? It’s 13, 44…” Before the dream demon could list off the last number, the door was suddenly struck with a suction cup projectile, cleanly knocking it out of his hand. “Ah! No, wait!” he cried, scrambling after the memory as it went flying towards another open door. The memory inside of it was Stan presenting the bottomless pit from several weeks ago as he stood before it.

“…and none are more bottomless than the bottomless pit! Which as you can see here is bottomless,” the conman concluded, though he did pause and watch in confusion as the code door happened to fly into the memory before quickly falling into the endless abyss. “Whoo!” Stan exclaimed, looking into the pit. “Whatever that was, its gone forever!”

As the door slammed shut, Mabel let out a victorious laugh as she lowered her Nyarf gun, Soos and the dream boys cheering over her perfect aim. “Ha! Boom!” she remarked, sending the shocked dream demon a coy smirk. “Your move, Bill.”

“Mabel did it!” Xyler and Craz exclaimed, completely stoked.

“H-hey, guys!” Steven greeted breathlessly as he caught up to everyone. “What did I miss?”

“We did it, dude!” Soos grinned widely. “The shack is safe!”

“The deal’s off!” Gideon shouted at Bill, completely infuriated over this turn of events.

“W-wait!” Bill exclaimed in a sudden panic. “No! Wait!”

“I should’ve known this wasn’t gonna work! I’m switchin’ to plan b!” the child psychic growled hotly. At this, the screen instantly turned off and the dream demon’s body began to crumble to pieces like broken glass, much to his alarm. However, it didn’t remain broken for long as it quickly reformed, only this time, it was not its usual bright yellow but instead a deep, warning shade of red.

“YOU!” Bill growled, enraged as he glared at the kids, his eye turning black as his pupil went white. “You can’t even imagine what you just cost me! Do you have any idea what I’m like… WHEN I’M MAD?!” The group was quite taken aback as several cryptic symbols passed through the furious demon’s eye, especially as the ground beneath them started to violently shake. Before any of them could even think of retreating, they found themselves all being lifted up on what was a large, round, stone surface that, oddly enough, was the top of a bust of Stan’s head. The newly-erected “arena” steadily rose high into the air, the black and white scenery of the mind shack disappearing into dark, unnerving, star-speckled space. Yet as startled as the kids all were at this, their relative fear only increased as Bill stared scaling up in size, until he towered over all of them easily.

“So I guess he gets really mad when he gets mad,” Soos remarked as they all cowered together, none of them having any idea about to do to protect themselves from the oncoming onslaught.

“EAT NIGHTMARES!” Bill shouted, his voice low and powerful as lightning crashed all around him, much to the group’s ever growing horror.

Seeing as how he had no reason to linger inside of Stan’s mind any longer, Dipper had taken to looking for a way out, though given how impossibly expansive the mind shack was, he wasn’t really having much luck. “Ugh, how do I get out of this place?” he muttered to himself, becoming increasingly frustrated with each dead-end hall he came across. “Exit? Hello?” he called, trying several doors as he came across them, none of them revealing any sort of reprieve. However, as he opened up another random door, he was met with a familiar sight: the same memory from before of Stan forcing him to chop wood. “Aw, this again?” Dipper asked with an annoyed frown, especially as the conman said his piece again.

“He’s a loser. He’s weak. I just wanna get rid of him,” Stan said just as callously as before, reminding Dipper once again of how little the conman supposedly cared about him. And since he didn’t really want or need such a reminder, he began to close the door to the memory again, only to hear in integral piece of information he hadn’t the first time. “Heh, yeah. Those were all things people said about me when I was a boy.”

“Huh?” Dipper’s attention was immediately caught at this as he opened the door again, confused but interested to hear more.

“It was terrible,” Stan went on, still addressing Soos and Amethyst. “I was the biggest wimp on the playground!”

As if in response to this, another door suddenly opened behind Dipper, revealing Stan as a child, clearly being bullied by his peers as they roughly hit him in the face with a ball. Clearly injured and embarrassed, he ran off in tears, much to the amusement of his bullies.

“So one summer, my pop signs me up for boxing lessons,” Stan continued in the first memory as yet another door opened up. In this one, a still young version of Stan was taking said boxing lessons and clearly losing as his father stoically watched on. “It was even worse than the school yard!” the older conman exclaimed as his younger self tried and failed to land a left hook on his opponent. “Y’know, at the time I thought my pop was trying to torture me.”

Another door soon opened, showing Stan as a teenager waiting in line for the movies. “But wouldn’t you know it? The old man was doing me a favor all along!” In the line right in behind Stan, a shady man walked up to a young woman and started trying to snatch her purse.

“Gimme that bag!” the man exclaimed, attempting to pull it away from her.

“Help! My purse! Help!” the girl cried fearfully, prompting the teenage Stan into action with the lessons he had learned in boxing class years ago.

“Left hook!” he shouted fearlessly, spinning around and landing a brutal uppercut to the thief, knocking him out cold. The surrounding crowd all cheered over his easy triumph while the girl graciously embraced him and gave him a kiss on the cheek as a reward, much to his delight.

“Geez, Stan,” Amethyst remarked with a laugh in the first memory. “You sounded like you were a major loser back in the day. Like, even more than you are now, if that’s even possible.”

The conman shot the purple Gem a quick disapproving glare before shaking her usual teasing off. “Yeah, well that’s exactly why I’m so hard on Dipper,” Stan concluded. “I don’t want him being a loser like I was. I’m trying to toughen him up. So when the world fights, he fights back.”

“Do you think its working?” Soos asked curiously.

Stan simply grinned in response to this and pointed to Dipper, who finally managed to chop the block of wood he had been working on for quite some time now in half. “I-I did it!” he exclaimed with a small, triumphant grin. “Yes!”

“He’s really comin’ along!” Stan remarked in apt satisfaction. “When push comes to shove, I’m actually proud of him. Just don’t ever tell him I said that. His head is big enough as it is.”

“Pfft, you got that right,” Amethyst smirked as her and Soos laughed along with the conman.

Outside of the memory, Dipper couldn’t help but smile warmly upon hearing all of this, his perceptions about Stan and his relationship with him completely shattered in the best of ways. While he had thought the conman’s harsh treatment of him had been out of disdain and abhorrence, it instead came from a place of rare affection and care. It was certainly surprising to learn, but Dipper couldn’t have been any more grateful for the revelation, especially after hearing Stan admit to being proud of him after all. And yet, at the same time, it also made him feel quite guilty for his earlier impudent behavior. A part of him wished he could offer Stan an apology then and there, but since he was in fact inside the conman’s mind, simply placing a hand against the now treasured memory would have to suffice.

However, what Dipper hadn’t counted on were for the walls between the memories and the hall to be so thin. Before he could catch his footing, he stumbled right into the memory itself, and since the door was right beside where Stan, Soos, and Amethyst were sitting, they were all quick to immediately notice his arrival.

“Whoa, kid, what are you doin’ here?” Stan asked, looking between him and the other Dipper inside the memory, who was still in the middle of chopping firewood. “Nice hole in your chest by the way. Let’s fix that up.” By merely pointing his finger at the still-gaping hole in Dipper’s chest, somehow managed to seal it up instantly, much to the boy’s absolute amazement.

“W-what the-?” he asked, checking himself over to see that hole was indeed completely closed, as if Bill had never shot it through him at all. “How did you do that?”

“Word to the wise, kid,” Stan grinned. “We’re in the mind! You can do whatever you can imagine in here!” As a demonstration, the conman held out his hand as a can of Pitt Cola instantaneously materialized in it, one that he cracked open and took a sip out of.

“Huh. Well how about that?” Dipper smiled, knowing just how helpful such advice could be. And it seemed as though the time to use it was very much at hand, especially as several loud booms crashed from the hallway right outside the memory, followed by screams from Soos, Mabel, and Steven. “Oh my gosh, what am I doing!?” Dipper exclaimed, alarmed. “I gotta stop Bill!”

Knowing there was no time to loose, he hurried out of the memory, not bothering to bid Stan farewell seeing as how they would see each other again soon enough. After all, the others would need his help against the dream demon, and armed with his newfound knowledge of the dreamscape, he would certainly have an edge that Bill hopefully wouldn’t be expecting.

“Huh,” Stan noted with an openly proud grin as he watched his nephew run off towards the fray, undaunted by whatever challenges he was about to face. “Fighting back.”

“One nightmare, coming up!” Bill shouted, still hovering high, huge and intimidating over the kids. None of them had the faintest idea of what to do to escape from him or fight back, which was why all they could really do was hope that they could figure out some way out of this incredibly dangerous situation, as impossible as one seemed.

“Nightmare?” Soos frowned. “Hope its not that British dog man I’m always dreaming about…” No sooner had the handyman said this than the very same large British dog man he feared appeared right next to him, much to his absolute horror.

“‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello! Who’s crike for a stick in the pudding?” the dog man asked in a very thick cockney accent, poking and prodding at Soos with his cane.

“Ah!” the handyman screamed, trying to shield himself from his nightmare. “It’s everything I’ve ever feared!”

“You!” Bill pointed at Mabel next, firing a round of his nightmare-creating power at her. The effect was immediate as her skin turned an unflattering shade of green and her head became large and malformed.

“My cuteness!” she cried, her voice also deepening and slowing down to match her new rather grotesque appearance. “What did you do to my cuteness?!”

“Mabel!” Steven gasped with apt concern, though he had no time to help either her or Soos as the dream demon moved onto him next.

“Your turn, Rosebud, and boy, do I have a doozy of a nightmare for you!” Bill exclaimed with a hint of sadistic glee in his otherwise angry tone as he snapped his fingers. The young Gem gasped once more as the Gems appeared standing behind him.

“You guys!” Steven grinned in relief as he turned to his guardians. “I’m so glad you’re here! We could really use your… help?” His excited smile faded into confusion as he noticed the hardened, disapproving glances all three of the Gems were giving him. “Guys? What’s-”

“We’re very disappointed in you, Steven,” Garnet interrupted, her already stoic tone even icier than usual.

“W-what?”

“You lost your gem!” Pearl exclaimed with an appalled scoff. “Do you honestly think you can be one of us, a Crystal Gem, without it?”

“W-wha—but wait! I didn’t lose it!” Steven protested, lifting up his shirt to show them. “It was stolen! I-”

“You really think that’s an excuse?” Amethyst asked, crossing her arms. “Face it, Steven. Even if you still had your gem, you still wouldn’t be good enough to be one of us.”

The young Gem’s breath caught at this, tears already welling up in his eyes upon hearing such harsh words from his beloved guardians. “B-but… but I-”

“You’ll never be anywhere near as strong or as brave as your mother was,” Pearl remarked, her tone full of disdain as she glared down at Steven. “She’d be so ashamed of you.”

“Guys…” Steven practically sobbed, crumbling to his knees under the weight of their unrelenting words. Indeed, his greatest fear was coming true right in front of him: the fear that the Gems wanted nothing to do with him. And it was fear that he had no idea how to handle. “P-please… I just… I… ”

“Steven,” Garnet spoke up, standing tall right in front of the doubled over young Gem. Slowly and hesitantly, Steven glanced up at her, tears streaming down his cheeks as he desperately hoped she had at least one kind word for him. But what she did have for him, was anything but kind. “You will never be a true Crystal Gem.”

Steven could no longer hold the rest of his tears back upon hearing this, loud sobs of misery escaping him as he hung his head, ashamed to even make eye contact with any of the Gems as they continued berating him relentlessly. The others were two wrapped up in dealing with their own respective nightmares to help him, which was why Bill was free to laugh at the young Gem’s clear suffering before moving onto the final two members of the group.

“You’re next!” the demon proclaimed, pointing at Xyler and Craz.

“Cool! We’re next!” Craz grinned obliviously as him and Xyler began to dance to an unheard beat. Their partying was short lived, however, as they were both hit by a blast from Bill, knocking them off the platform and causing them both to burn up and dissipate into nothingness.

“My dream boys!” Mabel cried upon seeing this, her voice still low and unpleasant.

“And now to finish you all off!” Bill declared, more than ready to flux his power and wipe them all out easily.

The trio cowered together fearfully at this, knowing of nothing else they could do to save themselves from this certain doom. Steven tearfully looked to the Gems standing behind him, silently pleading for their help, help they refused to give as they merely glared away from him stubbornly. However, while the Gems wouldn’t save them from Bill’s wrath, someone else miraculously came to their rescue instead.

“Hey, Bill!” Dipper shouted fearlessly as he flew in from below, already utilizing the advice Stan had given him earlier. The trio all gasped in shock over his sudden arrival, but no one was more surprised than the demon himself.

“WHAT?!” Bill shouted, startled at the return of the missing member of the group.

“Nice bowtie!” Dipper taunted before enacting what he knew was nothing less than poetic justice. In much of the same way as Bill had done to him, he fired a laser blast from his eyes, shooting a hole cleaning through the dream demon, much to his alarm as he let out an appalled scream. “Just thought I’d return the favor!” Dipper said with a triumphant smirk.

“Dipper!” Steven, Mabel, and Soos all exclaimed with relieved smiles, both of them overjoyed to see that he had changed his mind about helping after all.

“Guys, I just learned you can conjure whatever you can conceive in Grunkle Stan’s mindscape!” Dipper informed them with an excited smile as he glided down to them.

“Huh?” Mabel frowned in confusion as Soos and Steven also looked to him in apt confusion.

“Just think of cool fighting stuff and it’ll happen,” Dipper elaborated more simply. “Like this!” With little effort at all, he fired another laser at the British dog man that had been terrorizing Soos, getting rid of him instantly.

“Heh, he’s dead now,” the handyman grinned with a relived laugh.

“What?!” Bill asked in a heated panic, knowing he was quickly losing his advantage. “Who told you that?! Don’t listen to him!”

“We can do anything?” Mabel grinned, using this new ability to easily return both her appearance and her voice back to normal. “Like have kittens for fists?” At this very suggestion, her fists turned into fluffy pink kitten heads, which she was more than happy to shoot Bill’s way. “P-pow! P-pow!” The dream demon let out another frustrated scream as the kitten fists stuck to him, biting and gnawing violently. Mabel chuckled at this, especially as the kittens still on her fists gave her loving licks on the cheeks. “Well hello, friends!”

“Anything huh?” Soos wondered, lifting his shirt up. “Soos love stomach beam stare!” At this prompt, a rainbow question mark beam fired from the handyman’s stomach, one that was powerful enough to knock Bill right off the platform.

“Oh! I wanna try!” Steven exclaimed, pulling his own shirt up and concentrating for a moment. An excited gasp escaped him as his gem returned to its rightful spot on his stomach, though he had little time to celebrate as he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

“Steven,” Garnet said, a soft, warm smile on her face. Steven frowned anxiously however as he turned to her and the other Gems, unsure of what they might say to him this time. But instead of voicing any form of disapproval or disdain, the Gem leader merely lowered herself to his level and folded him into a gentle embrace. “Wonderful job.”

“Yes! Well done, Steven!” Pearl exclaimed, clasping her hands together in delight. “We’re so proud of you!”

“Yeah, and sorry about all that junk from before,” Amethyst smirked, rustling his hair affectionately. “You know we’re crazy about you, dude! You’re one of us through and through!”

“R-really?” Steven asked with a hopeful grin.

“Of course,” Garnet affirmed, though her smile soon faded as Bill returned to his spot on the platform. “Don’t worry,” the Gem leader said, summoning her gauntlets as she looked to all of the kids. “We’ll handle him.”

The group exchanged wide, excited smiles as the Gems summoned their weapons and leapt into action, racing for the dream demon. “Whoa! Are you making them do that, Steven?” Mabel asked, impressed.

“Uh, yeah, I think so,” Steven shrugged with a smile as he watched the Gems jump at Bill, their weapons raised. However, as valiant as their attempt was, the dream demon was quick to shoot it down, quite literally.

“Oh, I don’t think so, Crystal Chumps!” Bill exclaimed harshly, thoroughly enraged as he fired off a laser at the trio. The kids gasped in horrified shock as the Gems were vaporized almost instantly from it, not a trace of them remaining. Of course, they hadn’t been the real Crystal Gems, but seeing such a frightening sight was more than enough to catch them all off guard. “And as for all of you! Enough games!” the dream demon growled as he began shooting another powerful laser blast at them all.

“Wait guys!” Steven exclaimed, thinking quickly. “I got this one!” Throwing his arms open wide, the young Gem imagined his shield appearing, large and sturdy, and sure enough, there it was. He had never been able to summon it before so easily in reality, but calling upon it in the dreamscape was more than sufficient, especially as it both blocked the laser blast and reflected it right back at Bill.

“Ah! My eye!” the dream demon cried as the blast hit him squarely in his eye, blinding him momentarily. “Darn it! I hate that stupid shield!”

“Nice one, Steven!” Dipper congratulated with a grin.

“Thanks!” Steven chuckled, bringing his shield down. “I’ve always wanted to make it that big!”

Before Bill could recover and try and counterattack, Mabel was quick to come up with the next strike. “Rise, Xyler! Rise, Craz!” she proclaimed, bringing her arms up. As she did, both dream boys rose from behind the platform, fully revived and jamming out a synth drum and keytar happily.

“No!” Bill shouted, horrified. “Synthesized music! It hurts!”

“And now to imagine your worst nightmare!” Dipper proclaimed boldly. “A portal out of Stan’s mind!”

“Out of Stan’s mi-ind!” Mabel sang to the synth music Xyler and Craz were playing.

“Mabel!” Dipper scolded, knowing this was a serious moment. “Everyone, together!”

The entire group immediately started concentrating their collective efforts in imagining the same exact thing. And soon enough, a large, gaping, swirling vortex appeared right below Bill, one that quickly began sucking him down into it. “No, no, no!” the dream demon cried, struggling against its pull before ending it altogether. “ENOUGH!” All at once, the world turned completely white and still, the portal disappeared, and the kids were startled at how fast it all changed. “You know, I’m impressed with you guys,” Bill remarked, his color returning to its usual yellow as he readjusted his hat. “You’re more clever than you look. Especially the fat one.”

“He’s talking about you,” Soos whispered to Mabel, aside.

“So I’m gonna let you kids off the hook. For now,” Bill said, crossing his arms. “You might come in handy later. In fact, I know at least a few of you definitely will… BUT KNOW THIS.” As the dream demon held his arms up, a glowing blue symbol of a six-fingered hand appeared above him, the very same one that was on the journal. “A darkness approaches. A day will come in the future when everything you care about will change. And when it does, I won’t be the only one you’ll have to worry about…” As he said this, the hand symbol shifted into four diamonds organized together, the bottom-most one crumbling apart a bit. “Until then, I’ll be watching you! I’LL BE WATCHING YOU…” Bill’s voice turned low and ominous as two wheels surrounded him, both of them containing a wide array of various symbols, some familiar, some not, each one lighting up faster and faster until, in a burst of blinding light, the dream demon disappeared.

But hardly for the last time.

“He’s gone!” Dipper exclaimed in apt relief after making sure Bill was nowhere in sight. “We did it!”

The group cheered at this victory, one that had been hard earned. Squaring up against an all-powerful dream demon was certainly one of the greatest challenges they had faced yet, but even so, they had overcome it, much to their shared elation. However, it was short lived as all four of the kids suddenly started to fade out.

“Whoa…” Steven mused, looking over his hand as it grew fainter and fainter. “What’s going on? We’re getting all fade-y.”

“Stan must be waking up,” Dipper concluded, rationalizing that they couldn’t very well remain in the conman’s mind if he was awake.

“Will I ever see you guys again?” Mabel asked with a sad frown as she turned to her dream boys.

“In your dreams,” Craz said with a smooth grin.

“Good one, bro,” Xyler nodded, his tone somewhat solemn over this parting. “Good one.”

The group only had time enough to wave farewell to the dream boys before they faded out from the mindscape completely. When the four of them simultaneously awakened, they found themselves back in the shack’s living room, save and sound and back in reality once more.

“Woo!” Mabel cheered, hugging both Steven and Dipper in celebration. “We did it!”

“W-what?” Stan asked groggily, sitting up in his chair as he fully awakened. “Did what? What are you all doing here? And why was I dreaming of two brightly colored and radical young men?”

“Grunkle Stan, you’re ok!” Dipper exclaimed with apt relief, running over to the conman and embracing him. After all, it was the least he could do after hearing Stan’s surprisingly touching genuine thoughts on him.

“What is this?” Stan asked in confusion, knowing that Dipper usually didn’t indulge in such open affection. “A hug?”

“Nope! It’s a choke hold!” Dipper smirked, playfully pulling Stan into said choke hold loosely. Mabel, Steven, and Soos all laughed in amusement as this went on for a moment or two before Dipper relinquished his hold.

“Heh, not bad, kid,” Stan chuckled, jokingly pulling Dipper’s hat down over his eyes as payback. “Not bad.”

“Aw, this is so nice,” Steven interjected with a warm smile. “Everyone’s happy and getting along! I love it when everything turns out great in the end like this! Just like it always does.”

“I’m just glad Gideon didn’t get into the safe,” Mabel said, also grinning. “I really love this old shack.”

“Group hug!” Soos exclaimed, holding his arms out wide, even though no one else did. “No? I never know the right time!”

All of this levity was soon interrupted however, as a small tremor suddenly shook the entire building, one that everyone could clearly feel nonetheless. “Hey, did you guys hear-” Dipper’s question was left unfinished as a large, abrupt explosion tore through the nearby wall. Everyone was sent flying from it, and while Steven tried his best to shield them all from it with a bubble, it quickly burst as soon as they all landed, scattered across the broken remains of the den.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Pines family,” Gideon smirked as he walked in through the gaping, still-smoking hole in the wall. “Did I wake you?”

“But… but we defeated Bill!” Dipper protested, surprised that the child psychic could still somehow claim success after all that.

“Bill failed me!” Gideon snapped harshly. “So I resorted to plan b: dynamite!”

“What? Bill?” Stan cut in, quite confused. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Spoiler alert, Stanford: I got the deed!” Gideon grinned in twisted triumph as he held the deed up. “The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So get out of my property!” The child psychic didn’t spare another word on any of them as he turned and headed out, speaking over his walkie-talkie as he did so. “Daddy? Bring it around front.”

“Uh… so I wasn’t the only one who didn’t see any of that coming, right?” Steven asked with a bewildered frown.

“D-don’t worry, guys!” Dipper reassured rather anxiously. “It’s just part of the dream! We’re gonna wake up any second now, right? Right?!”

Of course, this hopeful optimism proved pointless as they all glanced out the front door to see Bud steadily driving a large bulldozer straight for the shack. No one wasted time running outside for their own safety at this, especially as the wrecking ball abruptly smashed right into the shack’s sign, much to everyone’s shared panic.

“Someone pinch me, dude…” Soos said fretfully as the sudden violence on the Mystery Shack unfolded right before their very eyes.

None of it felt real for any of them, however, until the shack’s iconic sign came crashing down right in front of them, solidifying that this was far from a dream.

It was a nightmare.

To be continued…

Next: 

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Oculus Quest review: VR freedom comes at a cost

if the oculus Go was an appetizer for truly wireless VR which is entirely self-contained and doesn't rely on PC the quest is closer to main course it's not as immersive as desktop virtual reality but it's currently the easiest way to show off the potential for this new medium you don't have to setup any sensors just throw on the headset pick up the motion controllers and you can jump into a complex virtual world anywhere you can think of the 399 oculus quest is a massively upgrade version of the go it's powered by 4 gigabytes of RAM and the snapdragon 835 a two-year-old processor that's far beefier than the meager 821 the NGO used it's OLED lenses each have a 1440 by 1600 resolution sharper than the ghost fast switching LCD most importantly it supports oculus insight system which relies on 4 sensors on the headset to keep track of the room and controllers that's even better than the oculus rift which requires setting up external sensors for room scale tracking unlike the go you're not stuck with a single remote the quest comes with oculus is revamped motion controllers which have triggers grip buttons analog sticks and two face buttons they'll let you play the same sorts of games that desktop VR headsets like the rift can in fact the new rift s comes with the same controllers they're a bit smaller than the original versions which I genuinely loved and they have tracking rings above your fingers instead of below oculus tells us this helps a quest keep a better eye on the controller's the headset resembles the rift except there aren't any distracting wires hanging around there are four tracking sensors up front along the USBC charging port and power button along the sides a redesigned adjustable head strap dominates the rear it's more flexible than the rifts but more rigid than the ghost stretchy straps while the quest has built-in speakers you can plug in headphones either 3.5 millimeter port along the sides of the headset and if you're wondering why it has two that's because oculus has custom ear buds that lorelei on both ports so you won't have to worry about maneuvering cables around your head the quest easily fit over my glasses and they only took around 5 seconds to get the head strap in the right spot it felt secure but I noticed very quickly that the headset is a bit front-loaded at 1.2 pounds its own point two pounds heavier than the go in the rift but I easily felt that added weight along my face especially around my eyes and nose it's not a deal breaker but I definitely had to rest more often than I did with other oculus headsets when I put the quest on I saw a ref black-and-white view of my surroundings from there I had to set up the Guardian system to avoid bumping into anything obviously you'll want to use the headset in a clutter-free area I marked the floor level by placing a controller down then I use it to map a boundary around my play space if you're just sitting or standing one spot you can skip that step afterwards I saw blue walls as I edged closer to the boundaries that's similar to the rift but the quest goes a step further when I peek through the boundary I got a monochrome view of the real world again with other headsets I've had to remove them entirely to safely navigate my office well the Guardian system works well overall I often had to remap my play space whenever I put the headset down for a few minutes which got to be pretty annoying hopefully oculus will figure out a way to better remember those boundaries based on its specs alone I expected the quest to deliver far more satisfying VR experiences in the go and it didn't disappoint superhot looked sharper than I did on the rift thanks to those additional pixels and it played just as smoothly it wasn't long before I was grabbing pistols in midair dodging bullets and knocking out bad guys with the motion controllers and speaking of which the new controllers feel great even though I prefer the slightly larger grips of the earlier models another plus they only need a single double-a battery instead of two thumper which was a huge hit in the PlayStation VR a few years ago is spectacularly immersive it's a fast-paced rhythm action game that has you've racing down psychedelic roadways fighting giant creatures and simply a blast on the quest the graphical fidelity is a noticeable step down from what the PlayStation 4 and my PC put out there are fewer particle effects and visual flourishes but it's still impressive for souped-up mobile VR most importantly thumper always felt as fast as it did on those platforms beat Sabre another VR mainstay works flawlessly in the quest it's also a great way to test motion tracking since the game is all about hitting directional blocks quickly the headset had no trouble keeping up with my wild swings even when I tried to trick it by turning my head away I only wish the game had a bigger selection of songs to play but if you're looking for a good VR demo for newcomers this is it I was surprised that the quest built-in speakers delivered clear and thumping sound with all these rhythm games I never felt the need to plug in headphones just be aware the speakers are open so other people will definitely hear you're embarrassing beat saber tracks for some slightly slower paced gameplay I try that journey of the gods a new Zelda style adventure game I enjoy swinging the sword around and taking down monsters with the crossbow but I was more hooked on the sense of immersion I've yet to find the perfect VR RPG but this comes close I enjoyed simply wandering around the serene world and exploring every nook and cranny watching 360 degree content on the oculus video app worked well but that's relatively simple stuff that even the go can do without a struggle the quest sharper resolution helped somewhat but that weight issue made it uncomfortable for longer viewing sessions other apps like Netflix weren't available to test unfortunately to help think we are more of a communal experience oculus also added chromecast streaming to the quest for the chromecast Ultra third generation devices in the Nvidia shield it works surprisingly well in my testing though the video quality can be hit or miss still it's nice to have a way to share your virtual adventures on the big screen oculus claims the quest gets around two to three hours of battery life and that fits with my experience after some heavy gaming for an hour it typically got down to around 50% it'll also charge over USB see in around 2 hours if you really want to spend the chunk of time in VR you can also use it well to being charged but that sort of defeats the purpose of having a truly wireless headset the quest starts at 399 with 64 gigabytes of storage and you can also bump up to 128 gigabytes for 499 games typically clock in under 500 Meg's though a few massive titles like face your fears too can surpass 2 gigabytes at this point though I think you'll have a hard time filling up 128 gigabyte headset the quests biggest competition at the moment are oculus as other headsets the $200 goes still a great option if you want a more inexpensive taste of mobile VR and the 399 rift s will get you better quality VR if you have a powerful computer and unlike a few years ago there are plenty of your already laptops around today Lenovo's mirage daydream which is $400 is technically a competitor since it's an all-in-one headset but we didn't like it too much in our review as for the PlayStation VR which you can find for around $230 now it's a solid platform for ps4 owners with tons of games but it's cumbersome setup might be a turn-off the oculus quest is so close to being my ideal Wireless VR headset it's more powerful in the go has some great motion controllers and there aren't any sensors to set up I just wish it were more comfortable and at 400 dollars it's not something average consumers will jump on immediately especially when the 200 go is still around but if you're looking for a great way to play some trendy VR games easily without the hassles of PC or console it's your best bet that's pretty much it for the oculus quest but if you're looking for more VR headset reviews subscribe to us on YouTube and check out our website and gadget

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