#nine lives au

[deusvervewrites]

Nine Lives AU: Kota meeting Eri is what gets him to properly understand why heroes exist.

If the summer camp didn't do it that sure as hell would

[zara-gozas-blog]

Siberian Health

Two paternal brothers, but different health

[doodledrawsthings]

The Last Words of A Shooting Star. ___

Sort of a soft reintroduction to my Nine Sols Don't Worry About It AU. I wanted to depict the divergence from the canon True Ending that leads into the AU. After Eigong infects the Fusang Core at the pinnacle of New Kunlun, Yi barely has anytime to react before the roots reach out and drag him into them. When he comes to in the Limitless Realm, he uses the the Rhizomatic Arrow to finally put an end to everything... or so he thought.

[tinfoil-jones]

Gravity Falls: What Did You Do? Ch. 1

Summary: “Nine Lives Lee”, a rare Stanley Pines who ended up on the other side of the portal instead of his brother, literally falls into the “Better World” that one dimension that most of the alternate versions of Stanford Pines tend to be jealous of and hold over Lee’s head as ‘proof’ that everyone would have been better off if he’d just done what his brother asked him. The Ford of this dimension, however, isn’t quite what he seems. And neither is his version of Stanley.

Rating: T+

Warnings:  Language, violence, medical related gore, and mentions of graphic violence. Cross-Posted on AO3 Here.

Disclaimer: Reverse Portal Stan "Nine Lives Lee" is owned by @urdadsceilingfan

This version of the Better World AU is owned by @mother-ofthe-universedraws

Next

Ch.1

This isn’t the first time Lee’s stood at the ledge on the roof of a tall building, looking down, and contemplating his life and what it’s worth. How he got here. What he’s done so far. What his next move is. 

“Halt! You’re at the end of the line, old man.”

This isn’t the first time he’s been cornered by cops of a different dimension, either. He never bothered to learn what this particular organization liked to call themselves. Eventually, all of the acronyms and titles ran together, and it’d still be some echelon of police at the end of the day. After all, if it sounds like a pig, walks like a pig, and rolls around in shit like a pig, it’s a pig. Especially since some of the cops in this world were literal humanoid pigs; this version of Earth was half populated by regular humans, and the other half populated by anthropomorphic animals. 

At least they spoke his first language, English. He’s gotten better at learning languages over the years, having a sharper echoic memory than anyone would assume just by looking at him, but it was still annoying when he would go long stretches not able to understand anything because he didn’t know the local language. He really should get a universal translator one of these days. 

“Hands where we can see them!” He heard a multitude and clicks and the distinctive bzzt of electricity. Lee knew they were pulling out weapons on him, most likely handguns, tasers, and good ol’ fashioned nightsticks. He was pretty familiar with all of those, having been at the sending and receiving ends of them all. This version of Earth wasn’t advanced enough for energy based weaponry.

Lee slipped his portal gun into his jacket quickly and quietly, turning around as he did so. He slowly put his hands up in front of himself, in a defensive, if somewhat relaxed, guard.

“Up in the air, dirtbag!” The cop barked at him - quite literally, this particular officer is some humanoid dog. He noticed some of them had their eyes drawn to his right arm; his robotic one. He couldn’t blame them for being distracted, considering the tech here couldn’t have been advanced enough for a prosthetic like his.

Slowly Lee started to raise his hands.

And then he flipped them around with his middle fingers up, and did a free-fall backwards off of the ledge.

This isn’t the first time Lee’s known the view from halfway down.

But they didn’t call him Nine Lives Lee for nothing; because this also isn’t the first time Lee had opened a portal without the cops noticing until he’d already jumped.

“GET BACK HERE LEE!” One of the cops shouted at him as soon as they were able to sprint over to the ledge and look down at him, expecting a suicide attempt, only to be baffled by a swirling electric-blue vortex floating there, right in the path of Lee’s descent.

“See ya later sucker!” He called back, still keeping both middle fingers up even as bullets whizzed right past him but failed to quite make the mark. One lucky shot got him in in his robotic arm, but like most parallel Earth bullets, it just clinked right off.

The portal swallowed him up, and collapsed in on itself, winking right out of existence from Dimension-BoJ6

---

Lee had complicated feelings for Rick Sanchez. They were friends, rivals,  begrudging allies, enemies, lovers - sometimes all of those things at once. It’s a long story, a few decades of a long story in fact. But he never underestimated Rick’s brilliance. At one point in his travels, Rick had approached him; he needed some parts from a heavily guarded facility, and told Lee if he could get them without dying he would build him his own portal gun. Rift-Hunting was long and exhausting and he could go months to years stuck in a dimension before finding one, so of course Lee took the job. He’d had his trusty portal gun ever since.

However, for all of Rick’s undeniable genius, for the life of him Lee could not figure out why that dumbass never made portals that you could clearly see through. The guy had an entire civilization of alternate versions of himself, there was no way they couldn’t have cobbled their big brains and even bigger egos together and figured it out. Lee was still convinced they were just that dedicated to their sci-fi aesthetic.

Most of the time, both sides of the portal created by the gun were oriented the same - if you generated a portal two feet off of the ground and vertically upright, it’d be the same when you went through it. If you made a portal into the ground, usually you would fall through a floor and/or ceiling. This wasn’t always the case, however.

By making a portal horizontal, and mid-air up forty floors, Lee had expected to continue to free fall; he would still have plenty of time between falling through the portal and hitting the ground to get himself properly oriented and get his emergency landing gear in time.

This time, the ground was less than five feet below him.

“Ough!” Lee grunted, the wind knocked out of him as he landed on his back onto a concrete floor, he also felt a sharp burst of pain in the back of his head when that also smacked against the dusty concrete, the blow slightly softened by his beanie. “...Ouch.”

Sweet Moses, he knew he was up there in years but did he really need to get humbled by a lower back pain flare? The impact has caused the muscles there to start spasming, and he knew it’d take hours to stop on its own if he didn’t do something about it.

Lee grimaced as he sat up, and took in his darkened surroundings as he reached down to his utility belt, feeling around for the right compartment. Appeared to be some kind of basement, with abandoned shelves, desks, and tables. It was dusty down here, but not a thick blanket, so it was not abandoned, just seldom visited. It looked like the room was slightly in ruins, because there were loose pieces of the concrete wall and floor scattered around. There was a peculiar structure behind him, where his portal had spat him out; some inverted triangle with a hole in the center-.

Lee's entire body froze for a split second; it wasn’t like him to let himself get caught off guard, but he knew exactly what he was looking at. After all, it was the very same structure he’d been sucked into almost thirty years ago, jettisoning him from his original dimension, and his twin brother who he’d just been fighting with-.

All of these years later and the sizzle from the structure he’d kicked Ford into, and the horrific, pained scream from his brother that followed still haunted him when he thought about it.

Rising slowly due to his flaring pain, Lee’s flesh hand pulled a syringe from his medical pouch, and his prosthetic hand brought his portal gun close to his face so he could read the console home screen for the information it’d gathered as soon as he fell into this dimension:

[€ΔŘŦĦ ¥€ΔŘ: 2010

₣Ř€Ω ΜΔŦĆĦ: Ň€ǤΔŦƗV€

Đ€ŞƗǤŇΔŦƗØŇ: Ǥβ-1100

₣Ř€€ ŴƗ₣Ɨ? ŇØ]

Damn. The negative frequency match told him what didn’t surprise him, but still disappointed him; this wasn’t his dimension. Well, you could only get so lucky when you set the destination to ‘random’ and ‘habitable atmosphere’. Although, hasn’t he heard of Dimension BG-1100 before? He had an inkling he’d at least heard that designation before.

Lee rose fully to his feet, grimacing as the sharp pain shooting up from his lower back, he uncapped his syringe and, clenched in fist, he brought it under his coat and shifted his belt line low enough to expose the skin underneath, and using that same fist as a landmark to measure below his hip. He didn’t bother to count down this time, he just gave himself the injection.

“⋔⍜⏁⊑⟒⍀⎎⎍☊☍⟒⍀!” Lee hissed harshly under his breath; he even didn’t remember exactly what that language was called, because he’d learned it five or so dimensions ago, but he was very familiar with that specific phrase because of how frequently he’d used it when he was frustrated, angry, in pain, or really didn’t like the person he was talking to. As soon as the syringe was completely out of the cocktail of ketorolac and cyclobenzaprine, the needle automatically retracted, and he sighed in relief as his pain started to dissipate. He put the spent syringe into a different pouch; he used to not be opposed to just tossing these where he was, until some people started using those to get his DNA to track him.

Speaking of tracking-

There was a glowing red dot in the corner of the massive room. Lee halted all movement, and strained to see what the source was, which wasn’t easy given the room being dark. Whether it was a camera, a drone, or some other kind of sci-fi security device, he knew when something was recording him. 

The sci-fi adventuring badass in him wanted to destroy it with his blaster, quick and easy. But Lee wouldn’t have gotten this far if he wasn’t practical; his blaster had limited charges, and he didn’t need to run out mid-fight just because he’d decided to be extra. There wasn’t just one type of quick and easy, after all.

He did a precursory scan of his surroundings and- aha! He knelt over and picked up a loose chunk of concrete- good thing this place didn’t seem to ever get cleaned or fixed up. Straining slightly, he held the chunk in his robotic hand, focused on the red dot in the corner, and chucked the piece of concrete at it as hard as his prosthetic arm would let him - which was a lot harder than his flesh arm could manage.

The red dot went out as the chunk made contact, and the piece of technology that emitted it in the corner fell to the ground in pieces. Quick and easy, and he didn’t have to use any of his stuff. Still, he’d already been recorded, he needed to make himself scarce before trouble came looking for him.

He slid his gaze to the side and up when he heard the distinct sound of locks and chains being messed with. 

Great.

He looked around for something to crouch behind.

From upstairs, he could hear the rusty squeak from a door opening, and sliding across the floor, followed by semi-sharp footsteps descending down the stairs, picking up in sound enough Lee could assess what he was hearing.

‘Dress shoes’ He deduced - not boots or sneakers, so whoever this was at a disadvantage for running and fighting. So fight and flight were both still on the table. Good, he liked having options.

The distinct shape of a human took the last step from the stairs into the basement, and for a moment just stood there. Lee could see that their gaze was fixed onto the inverted triangle of the portal.

Tall. Thin- a variant of McGucket, perhaps? If this was his brothers basement on another parallel Earth, Fiddleford McGucket was a constant in his life. Most of the time he was batshit crazy, but in some dimensions he’d retained his sanity. 

But every time he was a genius, and every time he had some gadget on him with the word ‘Death’ in it and there were only so many chances Lee was willing to take.

The figures back was turned to him as they walked forward and felt around the walls, likely looking for a lightswitch. They had still, jerky movements; joint pain. Yeah, if this was McGucket he’d be getting up there in years just like him.

Lee slid along the opposite side of the room, slinking around the shadows and willing his steps to be as silent as possible.

He’d made it all the way to the base of the stairs when he’d misjudged a turn and his prosthetic arm smacked clanked against the metal banister of the stairs. He inwardly cursed; on if the things they don’t tell you about prosthetics is that is can sometimes mess up your spacial awareness, something you’d really need in the dark

“Who’s there?” The figure asked and Lee didn’t have time to take in the details of their voice because he saw them point something long and cylindrical at him-

Like a shotgun.

In an instant he’d run over and tackled the figure, and they both tumbled to the floor, knocking the rifle out of the figure's hand, while the other hand flipped on the switch on the wall during the initial tackle.

The lights in the basement flicked in slowly, but that was enough time for Lee to straddle the figure and reach for his-

“St-.... Stanley?” The voice below him quivered, like a choked up whisper of surprise and awe, making Lee freeze up right before his hand could grasp his knife. 

That was a name he never used anymore.

And that was a voice he’d heard before, it was rusty and heavy but-

Lee dares to look up from his side - and he saw that the object he’d knocked out of the mans hand was not a rifle but a cane - and to the face of the man he’d knocked down. A prominent nose and cleft chin, gray hair streaked in silver, and, most importantly, it was almost exactly the same as his own face.

He’d met many variants of this man throughout the multiverse, and it was never a warm reception; there was always hostility and resentment from the other end. But this man looked at him like he was seeing something that amazed but terrified him.

“Ford?”

To be continued…

---

NOTES

-“View From Halfway Down” is a reference to Bojack Horseman. And yes, the world Lee was in initially was the Bojack Horseman universe. The name of the dimension, BoJ6 comes from “BoJack”, and 6 from the number of seasons.

-The scene where Lee escapes is a direct reference to this art of him

-The Portal Guns text is from the Delta font from https://pixelied.com/font-generator/discord if you have trouble reading it, here’s what it said:

[Earth Year: 2010

FREQ MATCH: NEGATIVE

Designation: GB1100

Free WiFi? No]

-Dimension-GB1100 is the designation for the “Better World” AU because in Caesar Cipher with shift 5, GB = BW or "Better World". "1100" is for "IIOO" or the initials in "International Institute of Oddology".

-The language used by Lee in the beginning is from Alien Speech Translator

-Ketorolac is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce inflammation and pain and often used for acute back pain, and Cyclobenzaprine is a muscle relaxer that can treat pain and muscle spasms. Stan probably carries like a dozen vials of a personalized mix that he acquires through stealing various means.

-I thought it’d be interesting if compared to Stanford’s photographic memory (having a highly detailed memory of things you see), Lee had echoic memory (highly detailed memory of things you hear), which is what helped him learn to pick up languages easily, and take in his surroundings when his vision was impaired (and considering he went through the portal without glasses, he needed that skill). It’s also ironic, considering that canon Stan uses a hearing aid.

[darkfluffydragon]

Here are some sketches I drew of Phantasmagoria Corrupted Burning Spice (Change) and Mystic Flour (Volition) :D

Just a fun lil thing while I debate to myself over whether to focus on the world-building or the story. Also Change as a cowboy..just for fun :')

[bluejulius]

is it too late have I missed the bandwagon??

feat. Eretlout nextgen oc Kari by @fanaticdragonrider

[a-gil-rebel]

I honestly forgot I finished this sometime in November?? But this is a DTIYS for @urdadsceilingfan - please go check their art out its amazing and warm

Link to the original!

This is just a ramble about little details I added.

I wanted to make Ford's glass eye more noticeable, though in retrospect maybe I would've liked it more if it was one Mabel had made for him. I made Lee's hair more visibly longer, and took that damn scarf thats hiding his chest hair. Im also p proud of the abstract trees in the bg but literally only one is visible lol.

I love their AU and hope they like this gift!

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 52

So I’ve seen several catboy Danny prompts, but hear me out: All of Amity becoming so ecto-contaminated that everyone becomes something akin to a mythological creature. And Danny? He becomes a Nekomata- a two-tailed cat that was said to be able to shapeshift into humans for mischief, including straight up haunting people and stealing corpses. Vlad ends up a kitsune- which is already associated with taking on human forms to seduce people and with things such as foxfire and possession. Tucker ends up a sphinx sort of creature- “It’s not fair you guys can just float around while I have to figure out how to use these stupid wings when I could be coding!”- and Sam ends up a dryad of some sort, they aren’t entirely sure what but that’s what they joke it is so…

The people sent to investigate this city are more than slightly freaking out.

[inevitablemoment]

A little incorrect quote set after the courtroom bust. Ray is very much the Boyle to Egon and Cathleen's Peraltiago.

For reference, Cathleen is 34 weeks pregnant with Marie.

Thank you again to @lilysketchingsth for this beautiful work of art! Forever grateful that I came across your blog.

[journey-to-the-attic]

au where this was how ik and diavolo met for the first time when she was like seven

[deusvervewrites]

AU where due to tragic circumstances the newest holder of OFA is the freshly quirkless Ragdoll

All Might never found a successor. We can presume that Togata turned it down resulting in All Might teaching the First Years since the Camp Attack happened, but beyond that the details aren't that important. We also know that the main motivation All Might had to survive his fight with All For One was having to teach Midoriya. Without a relationship like that, All Might was fatally wounded in this final clash, though All For One was still defeated and arrested. Before succumbing to his injuries, All Might, with help from Gran Torino, passed One For All to the unconscious Ragdoll. (It's not like he had options here.)

Gran Torino makes sure to visit Shiretoko in the hospital and fill her and the rest of the Pussycats in on what happened and why. Learning that her Quirk, a part of her, had been ripped away and replaced with the power of the recently deceased World's Strongest Man was a lot to process, but she had the team to support her at least.

Gran trains her as best he can, so Shiretoko doesn't really have to worry about hurting herself as she gets to grips with the Quirk. Strangely, there's a part of it that feels familiar--not Search, but similar. This is Danger Sense coming in, and she has subconsciously shifted its use to resemble Search, detecting not only threats to herself, but to others around her.

Naturally, the rest of the Wild WIld Pussycats aren't just sitting on their laurels and letting her do all the work. They're training hard too, to make sure that even when she's back in the field with a brand new Quirk, they'll be able to operate with their trademark sparkling gazes and flawless teamwork.

All For One is actually an extremely convenient cover story for Ragdoll's new powers and even why she would be surprised when the other Quirks start manifesting.

[zara-gozas-blog]

All Eyes On Me!

Very lazy art, but cool

Coralie local bitch bitch

[cupidbedsy]

ꨄ 𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 ; 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 ꨄ

➪ summary: aubrey goes to alex's first home detroit game and when she meets one of his teammates, she realizes that he's going to be different then all the rest

➪ warnings: none? i think

➪ word count: 1.8k

➪ file type: au (once in nine lives) fic

➪ sunny's notes: i am so so so excited for this au, so send in thoughts whenever you please. the biggest help is @slutforseider so if the idea isn't mine it is probably hers tbh. but like i said, i'm very excited for this au so hopefully it'll show with my writing

au masterlist || nhl masterlist || navigation

It wouldn’t be Aubrey’s first hockey game she’s been to, not even her first Red Wings game she’s been to, but it would be the first time seeing her brother play on the team and meeting the team. Alex was her number one supporter and she was his, so when she got the news that her brother would be living practically thirty minutes away from where she went to school, she was more than thrilled. 

She wore her new Alex DeBrincat jersey, loving her name plastered on the back of it. She always wanted to get a jersey for every team her brother played for and sharing their last name saved her money. She met up with Lyndsey two hours prior to when they had wanted to leave there and Archie ran into her arms as soon as he laid his eyes on her, “Hey little man.”

“Auntie Aubrey!”

“You excited to watch daddy play today?” Archie nodded his head ecstatically. 

She looked at the two of them in the mirror, fiddling with his jersey, “And look, we match!”

He grinned up at her, content with staying in her arms for the rest of the night. She talked with Lyndsey until it was time for them to go, both of them getting into their respective cars and making their way to Little Caesars Arena. As they got out of their cars, Archie begged his mom to hold his aunt’s hand on the way in and she agreed, grateful for the moments her sister-in-law was around.

Aubrey talked to Archie excitedly about the game tonight and about Alex playing as they made their way to where Alex had said to meet them. As Archie continued to walk, he grew tired and asked Aubrey to be picked up, which she did without question. Alex stood talking with some of his teammates as the three of them arrived, immediately stopping their conversation to walk over to them.

“Hi!”

Lyndsey kissed him before turning her attention to her son and his aunt, both of them giggling at each other. Alex walked closer to them, poking Archie in the side to gain his attention, “Daddy!”

Aubrey handed him over to her brother, smiling slightly at the interaction, “Hey bud. You excited for tonight?”

“Yeah, me and Auntie Aubrey are going to make fun of you the whole time.” 

She let out a nervous chuckle, “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her brother raised an eyebrow before setting his son down to hug her, “Nice to see you, Aubs.”

“You too, Lex. How’s the team doing?”

“Good, good. I think we got a shot this year.”

She smiled at him, “Good, you deserve it.”

“Come on, let me introduce you to them.”

The three of them followed after him, passing by a few of his teammates along the way before stopping where a large chunk of them were. Alex gained their attention and he looked between his family and his team, “Guys this is my wife Lyndsey and my son Archie. And this is my little sister, Aubrey.”

His eyes darkened before looking at the younger ones of the bunch, “No dating her, no touching her, don’t even smile at her.”

“Lex…” Alex held his hands up in defense before continuing, “And, this is our captain, Dylan Larkin, Ben Chariot, Lucas Raymond, Jake Walman, Simon Edvinsson, and Moritz Seider.”

The three of them nodded and waved, Aubrey trying to keep her emotions in check. But her mind didn’t stop her as she started spitting out random facts at them, “Oh yeah, Lark had a 13.1 shooting percentage, Ben you had 19 points, and Lucas had a 29.4% face off win percentage, Jake had 47 hits, Simon had 13 shot attempts and 5 shots, and Mo had 40 penalty minutes-”

She looked at all of their faces, “I did it again, didn’t I?” Alex nodded, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, “It’s fine. I guess I would like them to know you’re nerd now rather than later.”

“Uh hi, I go to Michigan and I’m studying sports management. That isn’t usual, actually yes it is. I tend to blurt out facts when I’m nervous or I’m meeting new people, it just-” She took a deep breath, “Sorry.”

The boys stared at her in awe and Alex wasn’t having it, “Okay pretty and smart, we know. Time to go, you three.”

Aubrey didn’t have to be told twice and immediately rushed out of there with Archie and Lyndsey in tow. The whole game Aubrey felt embarrassed by what had happened, if it was anyone else she would’ve been fine with it, but her brother’s teammates? Her brother’s cute teammates? She felt like she could cry. 

It wasn’t often that she found her brother’s teammates cute, and it was often that the attraction that she felt for them was this strong. Sure she would find the occasional teammate cute, Lukas Reichel, Alex Vlasic, Brandon Hagel, Kirby Dach. But it wasn’t like she was attracted to them, mostly because she knew she wouldn’t be allowed to date them. 

However, this time around, she couldn’t help but find one of them attractive, nor could she help the feelings that she might’ve already had for him. She shook her head as she continued to watch the game and make comments about her brother with Archie, she was not going to let herself fall for one of his teammates, it was forbidden. She couldn’t break the one promise she had made Alex, the one promise she was determined to keep. 

After the game, the three of them met up with Alex once more, Archie taking his post-game nap on Aubrey’s shoulder. Archie truly loved Aubrey, he would always be by her side when she would come over, always asking to hold her hand when they went out, always asking her to do stuff with them. Since he was born, the two were attached at the hip, and everyone knew it wouldn’t change. 

She kept her grip on her nephew firm, not wanting to startle him by any sudden movement. Some of the players came out a little too loud and she immediately shushed them, she wasn’t going to let anyone wake Archie up, if she knew them or not. The players who had passed them apologized softly before moving on, some of them even patting his head gently as they walked out. 

Alex walked out and she cursed mentally when she saw him walking beside her brother. Of course this would happen to her, one little slip up and the Universe was trying to make her pay for it. She smiled at Mo and her brother, still keeping her grip on the boy, “Nice game, guys.”

“Thanks Aubs, how long has he been asleep for.”

“Probably like five minutes before we got here.” She handed him over to him, watching as he and Lyndsey walked out of the arena.

The two stood there awkwardly, none of them sure if they should start a conversation or just wave goodbye and leave. And just as Aubrey was about to do the latter, he spoke up, his German accent making its way to her ears, “So Michigan, huh?”

She nodded, “Yeah, they had a really good sports management program and it was close to a hockey city, so it was kind of fate.”

Mo stuck his hands in his pockets, “I’m assuming you like hockey then?”

“Yeah, both of my brothers played it but I could never. So when I figured out I liked math and that sports had a lot of statistics, I fell in love with it.”

“Math? I’ve never understood it.”

She chuckled, “A lot of people don’t but that’s also kind of what I love about it. It’s like I know something that people don’t in a weird way.”

The two started walking, both of them not wanting their conversation to end despite how awkward it was. Aubrey thought back to earlier and blushed, “I’m sorry about earlier. Or not sorry to you but to myself.”

“It’s okay. It’s really impressive actually. You said I had 40 penalty minutes last year?”

“Yeah.” She took her hands out of her pockets to fiddle with them, trying to focus on something other than her small nerd outburst from before. 

“That’s cool. So what other things do you know about me?”

Her eyes widened and looked up at him, “What?”

“I figured if you knew my penalty minutes from last year there must be some other things you know about me, hm?” He smirked, stopping and looking down at her. 

“Oh, uh.” The blood rushed into her cheeks, turning them a color close to maroon. 

“C’mon, you can tell me.”

“You had 5 goals and 37 assists, a total of 42 points. 3 of them were on even strength, one was a power play goal, and one was a short handed goal. You had 187 shots and 355 total shot attempts, leaving you with a 3.7 shooting percentage which was less from the year before.”

“Hmm, cute.” She looked down and waited for him to move, and once he did she followed him. 

He walked her to her car, leaning against the back driver side door, watching as she fiddled with her keys, “So…”

“So… what?”

“Can I have your number?”

“Bold aren’t you?” She finally unlocked her door, pulling it open and throwing her bag on the passenger seat, “Also I thought my brother said no dating.”

“Who said anything about dating? I can’t befriend a pretty girl?”

“Oh, um. Okay then.” She honestly thought it was embarrassing how easily it was for him to make her flustered. It only took him to call her pretty or for his hand to flex and her cheeks were flushed. 

He handed her his phone, watching her carefully as she typed her number into the new contact she had made. When she handed him his phone back, he grinned slightly and patted her head, “I’ll text you when I get home.”

And then he walked off, leaving her a stumbling and blushing mess. She got in her car and sat staring out into the practically empty parking lot of the arena. Driving back to her dorm room she listened to anything to get her mind off of the interaction she just had but she couldn’t. Everything she listened to reminded her of the way he dressed, the way he smiled, the way his eyes twinkled. God, what was she turning into?

She got back to her dorm and changed into her pajamas. She flopped onto her bed, talking a little bit with her roommate and then scrolled aimlessly on her phone. Just as she was going to put her phone down she got a notification from an unknown number, “ I hope you didn’t give me a fake number, pretty girl. Because I was really looking forward to texting you."

Yeah, she was fucked.

[doodledrawsthings]

I was watching another playthrough of nine sols and after the fengs fight with Nuwa hugging her brother, yi could’ve saved her from getting impaled if he pulled her away fast enough. Which is my proposal of how she could live to see the light of day in the dwabi au.

I think Nuwa is a very fascinating character and I like her and I love other AUs that save her, but I’m quite satisfied with the cast I have, currently. For the sake of the stuff I’m trying to explore, right now, I will be leaving it at Yi, Kuafu, Goumang, and the maybe less than 100 surviving solarians they were able to salvage from the empyrean district.

If you’re looking for an au where Nuwa sticks around, may I suggest @/gensational’s corruption of the innovator au? @/shentheauthor is also working on a swap au between Nuwa and Yi.

[tinfoil-jones]

Gravity Falls: What Did You Do? Ch. 2

Summary: "Sixer... what did you do?"

“Nine Lives Lee”, a rare Stanley Pines who ended up on the other side of the portal instead of his brother, literally falls into “The Better World”, the dimension that many versions of Stanford Pines tend to be jealous of and hold over Lee’s head as ‘proof’ that everyone would have been better off if he’d just done what his brother asked him.

The Ford of this dimension, however, isn’t quite what he seems. And neither is his version of Stanley.

Rating: T+  

Warnings:  Language, violence, medical related gore, and mentions of graphic violence. Cross-Posted on AO3 Here.

Disclaimer: Reverse Portal Stan "Nine Lives Lee" is owned by @urdadsceilingfan  

This version of the Better World AU is owned by @mother-ofthe-universedraws  

First - Next

Ch.2

Dimension-GB1100.

Yes, Lee had heard about it 

It was known more commonly as “The Better World.”

Throughout the decades, Lee had met several versions of his brother, but fewer versions of himself. In most cases, it seemed, Stanford Pines was the one who ended up pushed through the portal, not Stanley Pines.

These meetings with alternate versions of his brother usually didn’t go well. The first ten years of separation in his own dimension had taught Lee that his twin could hold onto a grudge, and the following near-thirty years in the multiverse taught him that it was impossible for his twin to let go of a grudge. 

Almost every version of Ford that he’s met projects their own feelings of frustration, anger, and resentment onto Lee himself, despite only being a variant of their Stanley, and not their original twin. They also conveniently looked past the fact that Lee was pushed through the portal by his Ford, underhandedly muttering under their breath that that must have been Lee’s fault too since he’s the Stanley of his dimension. 

Lee was not above frustration or resentment himself - the first decade or so in particular was difficult as hope that his brother would do something to bring him back was dissipating and Lee had to come to the grim conclusion that he was on his own (not that it was a new concept to him, but nonetheless a painful pill to swallow). But it’s almost been three decades, he isn’t mad at his brother anymore. He just wants to see him again! His real brother, not bitter multiverse-weary versions of him.

“Name.” Dr. McGucket, the Fiddleford of Dimension-GB1100, asked him from across the table, taking Lee out of his thoughts. A sane McGucket this time, and he held a clipboard in hand as he questioned Lee.

Ford stood in the corner, leaning on his cane with his other hand hooked over his elbow. He was pretending to look away, but sneaking glances over at Lee every now and then, in an anxious way, almost like Lee might disappear or become uncooperative if he looks away for too long.

It was strange that Ford would be here for this interview, according to the other versions of Ford who’d come to this dimension “Dr. Pines” wasn’t one to give his dimensional variants the time of day.

“Lee.” He replied dryly

“Full name?” McGucket looked up from his clipboard. 

“Lee.” He repeated, with emphasis. Whether it was the streets on Earth in his home dimension, or the streets amongst the vast multiverse, using your real, full name was dangerous. It was asking for trouble it was asking for-

“You…” Ford spoke up in the corner, his voice still rusty and seeming to sound older than they actually were “you used to go by ‘Stan’.”

-asking for vulnerability. You can’t be vulnerable and survive, you didn’t have that luxury anymore. Lee hasn’t had that luxury since he was seventeen years old.

Lee squinted his eyes slightly at him past his cracked, blocky glasses “Things change.” He replied, feeling the flickering embers of resentment and despair in his gut. He stomped those embers out quickly; this wasn’t his brother, he reminded himself. “I changed.”

Lee hadn’t gone by Stan in a long time, not since he came to the multiverse. Something about Ford - his Ford - telling him to leave with his journal and be as far away as possible from him, and then pushing him through a portal that did just that, something about that had snapped something in Lee all those years ago.

He wouldn’t let himself be defined by that shared suffix ever again, Ford already made it clear he wanted nothing to do with him, he could keep it.

“What’s your Dimension’s name?” Dr. McGucket interrupted the short exchange between the other two men.

“Dimension-CF9L.” Lee replied.

“Your designation is St– Lee-CF9L?” McGucket deduced, quickly correcting himself. At least he respected his preferences, and didn’t deadname him the same way so many versions of Stanford did.

“Ya got it.” Lee nodded half-heartedly.

Each dimension vibrated at their own frequency - and anything from that dimension, be it an object or a person, vibrated at that same frequency. No matter what dimension you were currently in, or how long you’d been away fron your dimension of origin, you were always going to be permanently set to that frequency.

That’s how universes were named, and designations for multiversal vagabonds like him were made. How Lee knew that his dimension was Dimension-CF9L even though he hadn’t stepped foot in it since half of his life ago.

Knowing the frequency of your dimension wasn’t enough to find home, though. Of course it wasn’t, it’s never that easy. You need to know the frequency, and the grid position. And grid positions on a multi-dimensional scale weren’t as simple as latitude and longitude like it was when he was on Earth (his own Earth); there were four ‘major’ coordinates, and two ‘minor’ coordinates. You couldn’t chart a course on a flat map when it came to dimensional travel, you needed an interactive 3D map.

Lee was fairly good at navigating dimensional grid coordinates– much better than he ever did with flat map grids; it was surprising, considering a lifetime ago when he dreamed of sailing the seas, he’d struggled with reading maps, but he had someone who was willing to to navigate those maps and charts. Or, he thought he had someone.

“Are you trying to imprison me?” Lee asked McGucket, while also glancing at Ford, who was the big boss of this institute according to, quite smugly, other Fords. “Ya definitely lookin’ at me like I’m about to jump ship.”

“You’re not a prisoner, Lee.” McGucket replied flatly. Even the rare sane versions of Fiddleford McGucket were anxious, so seeing one so collected was throwing Lee for a bit of a loop when it came to reading this one. “This is a necessary interview and quarantine.”

“Quarantine, huh? I don’t remember being sick, or agreein’ to stay here.”

“I can tell just by looking at it that your portal gun is low on charges. You’ll be needing more portal fluid soon, or you’ll be trapped where you are two jumps from now.” McGucket challenged, and quirked a white eyebrow at him. 

Well damn, engineering genius got him there.

Ford spoke up, his words coming out surprisingly quick “We’d be happy to help you, Stanley, if you’d just-.”

“Lee.” He practically spat his reaffirment that time. He hated how Fords did that. They always disregarded what he said, especially when it came to his preferred name. And none of them ever bothered to-.

“Lee, we’d be happy to help you get the necessary resources for your portal gun.” Ford continued, and Lee blinked in surprise at him.

This was certainly new, most versions of his brother stubbornly refused to call him anything aside from what they wished. This was the first time one had actually listened to him.

Lee would almost find it sentimental if he wasn’t too busy finding it suspicious as Hell.

Ford had paused to see if Lee would respond, and continued to speak when he did not. “If you give us a list of materials we should be able to retrieve them for you, I only ask that you stay in quarantine while we do so.”

“Mhmm…” Lee replied, narrowing his eyes at this alternate version of his twin. 

Most versions of Ford were on the thinner side compared to him, but it’d always been that way with Lee and his original twin so that wasn’t surprising, but this Ford was skinny. That was why in the dark he’d initially assumed he was McGucket.

Compared to all of these dimension hopping variants Lee had met, with their straight backed posture and confidence that bordered on smugness, this Ford looked very much frail. He even seemed a bit older with how little he weighed, with the way he was slightly hunched over his cane, and the eyebags that had eyebags. 

This Ford was… hollow. It was hard to explain, but it was unsettling to Lee, and woke up something protective within him, something he hadn’t felt since he was a teenager and felt the need to protect his own brother. Is this what his real brother was like now, back in their original dimension? Older than his years, faded and weary?

“If you’ll wait here, we’ll get the necessary preparations.” McGucket picked up where his co worker left off, he also pulled a piece of paper and a pen from his clipboard and slid both items over to the other side of the interrogation table with Lee. “Write down the components of your portal fluid. We’ll be back with you shortly, if you’ll just stay patient.”

Lee kept his arms crossed and didn’t say anything, he just nodded quickly. They’d already confiscated most of his gear, including his weapons, so he wasn’t in a position to negotiate.

McGucket nodded back and walked towards the door, using his lanyard keycard on a scanner to open it. The door - which was made of some kind of interactive, projected hardlight, turned from red to blue, and McGucket was able to walk right through it.

Ford lingered for a bit before following, noticeably slower than his fellow researcher. Lee didn’t need to turn his head to know that he kept glancing at him, though.

“Take a picture, Stanford.” Lee said flatly, boredly. “It’ll last longer.” Ford didn’t respond, he only somehow deflated even further, before scanning his own lanyard ID and leaving the interrogation room.

---

“‘Back with you shortly’- my ass.” Lee muttered to himself out loud. After having been waiting there for at least two hours. Hard to tell when they swiped his watch.

He weighed his options. He could just keep waiting here, but the antsiness and anxiety was only making him more paranoid the longer he waited.

He knew that this was par for the course - other Fords had explained that they had been held here too, to avoid contact with their alternative self. It was a known phenomenom that if you make physical contact with an parallel version of yourself while either of you is in your home dimension, that dimension will collapse.

Rick had confirmed this to him, and explained further that he and his many alternate selves didn’t have to worry about this phenomenon because of an after effect of their own portal fluid ‘distorted’ enough of their dimensional frequency to prevent a ‘crash-out’. Stan’s portal gun utilized a different fluid though, and it didn’t have the same effect on him.

The way Lee came so close to collapsing that swamp dimension when he almost got into a physical altercation with the frog version of himself, ‘Mr. Ponds’...

But, he’d heard about this dimension enough times to know its vague history. The Ford of this dimension had sent his twin brother away with his first journal decades ago. That was the kicker of this dimension, and what every Ford variant who had been here liked to hold over Lee’s head like a noose.

Everything would have been better for everyone if you would have just listened to me, Stanley. 

I'm giving you a chance to do the first worthwhile thing in your life and you won't even listen!

They never brought up Lee’s parallel self from this dimension, but knowing Ford they either didn’t ask because they assumed he was fine (they always assumed that about their own twin, after all), or he just wasn’t in Ford’s life at all and they never saw him.

Gambling man Lee was, he was betting on the latter. Ford didn’t have his twin in his life and he was going to use that to his advantage. He didn’t have a dimensional collapse to worry about.

Thankfully, when the nerds and their goons had confiscated his gear, they did leave him with something they’d assumed wasn’t important.

He had a thin gold chain around his neck and on that chain was a very old-fashioned looking key, looking like it was made of iron and thick enough to think it was just a decoration or, if being generous, it could open a lock the size of a softball.

But looks were often deceiving.

Guards did their arounds around this cell, doing a rough square around this wing of the building every fifteen minutes. Lee couldn’t see them, because the hard light door was opaque, but it wasn’t an effective barrier to sound, and judging from the footstep pattern Lee had been mentally keeping track of, there were only ever two guards together at one time. Two guards he could deal with, but if he got his timing just right, he could avoid the guards entirely.

He heard the steps fade in, then come close to the door, and then begin fading, and he made his move.

Taking the key off of his chain, Lee walked up to the hardlight door and pressed the large, pronged key to the scanner box.

There was a confirmation sound from the box, and the door turned from red to blue, allowing Lee to slip out finally.

The key may have looked like it was archaic and medieval, but it was one of Lee’s most sophisticated pieces of tech; The Space President’s Key. It opened any advanced sci-fi lock, the only drawback being that it didn’t work on traditional locks. He’d won it in a poker game a few years back in Dimension-HG42; it turned out that his opponent, Something Beeblebrox something, was the president of that galaxy.

Slipping the key back onto his chain, Lee followed the direction that the guards were going, matching his steps to their cadence to avoid detection. If they were guarding him, it stood to reason they also guarding his gear.

Rounding a corner, he found a door labelled ‘Misc Storage’. His Space Presidents Key couldn’t help him here, because it was a traditional lock that needed a traditional key. But this was no problem for Lee either.

Pushing the hand on his prosthetic all of the way back, he opened up the compartment space where he kept many small tools; these were mostly to maintain his prosthetic, but also his weapons, and even a small repair kit for his glasses frame (can’t do anything about the crack down the left lens, though).

A pick and a small screwdriver were all he needed to get through the locked door, which he silently closed behind himself.

The walls were lined with built-in drawers, reminding him of a post office. He could at least narrow down his search to the ones that would be big enough to hold his gear.

Many of these were civered in dust, so confiscation wasn’t something they did too often. There was one large cubby drawer however, that looked as though someone had tried to brush the dust off of it, but half-assed it leaving large, obvious hand trails.

Bingo.

Lee had echoic memory. He could remember things he heard, he could take the things he heard and make realistic and accurate deductions based on what he heard, but that didn’t mean his hearing was sensitive. Lee was still an old man who had to get one of his eardrums replaced with a sci-fi implant last year to avoid having to use a hearing aid. 

But it was still strange when he didn’t hear the door open, and the footsteps that approached him so silently.

“Hello?”

Lee whipped around in an instant and pointed his blaster at the offending source of the words; only to almost drop it at what he was seeing.

A kid, no older than fifteen, yelped in surprise at the sight of a gun pointed in his direction and stumbled backwards with his hands up. Or, shoulders up, really; he was on elbow crutches.

How had he managed to move so silently with those?

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” The kid stammered with a strong, familiar, Jersey accent. Lee instantly put his blaster back into it’s proper holster.

“I won’t- yeesh, kid, ya trying to give me a heart attack or somethin’?” Lee chided, and the kid had a still worried, but sheepish look on his face. How had he managed to move so silently? Especially with crutches. Was Lee just losing his touch?

A kid being there wasn’t the thing that was making Lee feel like his brain had tilted. It was how he looked. With his braces, top heavy build, glasses, acne, and greaser-style slicked back hair, it was like looking into a window to the past.

“I know I’m not supposed to meet you guys but I just had to at least once!” The kid prattled, and even his voice was like hearing himself from that age. 

Lee felt his heart both twist and flutter - the Ford of this dimension must have had a kid. It was reasonable the kid could look like him, since they were identical twins. 

Did his own brother, back in their dimension, become a father in Lee’s absense? Like their older brother Sherman? God, it’d been so long Sherman’s son could be a father himself now too.

“You should get back to your dad, kiddo.” Lee told him, trying to keep his voice soft. It wasn’t a tone he was used to using, he wasn’t usually around kids.

“My pa? He’s…” The kid shifted uncomfortably “Well, you’re one of the other versions of Sixer, right? You’re him from a different world? I didn’t think ol’ poindexter could look this cool!”

Did he really think that Lee was - well, he supposed that looking past his prosthetic arm and the difference in weight, he was still mostly identical to Ford. Even if they were from different dimensions, they were still twins.

…Who called their dad by a nickname like that? Was this not Ford’s kid? Was he another son or even a grandson of Shermies? 

Or… could this even be his own son? As in, the son of his alternate of this dimension? Was his parallel self still close enough with Ford to let his kid stay with him?

“That’s a really cool arm!” The kid continued, not picking up the confusion or the thoughtful look on Lee’s face that he’s sure he was poorly concealing. “Does it shoot out rocket fists or-?”

“STANLEY!” They both bristled as they heard Ford’s deep, rusty voice shouting down the hallway, a distinctive series of clicks from his cane and his soles indicating that he was rushing over.

The man slammed the door opened and his eyes trained onto the two figures in front of him, as if he couldn’t decide who to berate.

“Stanley, get away from him this instant!”

Lee was about to retort that he wasn’t going to or planning on hurting the kid when-

“M’ sorry Sixer… I was just curious, ya know?” The kid answered, just as sheepisj as earlier, as he bunched his shoulders up closer to his head and walked over to Ford, who swifly grabbed at both sides of his arms right under his crutches and pulled him back until he was behind him. And now Ford stood between Lee and the kid, as if shielding him from something.

From Lee?

Lee blinked, eyebrows furled together as he tried to put all of these pieces together, until he asked “Ford, who is that?”

Ford hesitated for a moment, and it looked like the kid behind him was about to answer for him, but a pointed look from the man in front of him shut him up. 

“...This is Stanley, my brother.” He explained, slightly strained.

…Huh? 

“What?” Lee asked out loud, looking between the kid and Ford “There’s no way he’s your twin!”

“He is!” Ford insisted, still shuffling in a way to prevent Lee from getting a closer look at ‘Stanley’ “When we were very young, he was… injured, very gravely. And put into suspended animation. It was only a few short years ago we were able to take him out of it.”

Lee has met alternate versions of himself before.

Both inside and outside of dimensions.

It’s hard to explain what it’s like to meet at alternate - but it does make the ‘frequency crash out’ that Rick was talking about, the thing that made entire dimensions collapse, make sense.

Even though it takes physical contact to initiate the collapse, just being within a certain distance of an alternate caused you to feel a certain way.

Like there’s a static on your skin thay was always there, and you’re only just now starting to feel it because it’s trying to pull you closer to a very similar static that isn’t exactly the same but too similar to ignore.

Lee looked at Stanley, and there wasn’t that crawling, static pull. And even as Ford continued with his explanation, Lee only had one thought.

‘That isn’t me.’

To be continued…

---

NOTES

Dimension-CF9L (RP Stan's dimension). That’s because this version of reverse portal Stan “Nine Lives Lee” is (or at least heavily inspired by) the Reverse!Portal AU from tumblr user urdadsceilingfan or Ceiling Fan “Ceil”, with 9L referring to Lee’s nickname, he learned his dimensions name and that’s at least part of how he got his infamous nickname. At least in this fanfic.

Lee’s description how the position if a dimension is measured by four major coordinates and two minor coordinates, it’s a reference to how the Milky Way Galaxy allegedly has four major spiral arms, and two less spiral arms or ‘spurs’. This is basically just me BSing how a persons Dimensions name could be known but they still wouldn’t be able to find it.

When Lee internally narrates that he was very skilled with the interactive 3D maps needed for dimensional travel, when he’d struggled with flat paper maps when he was younger, this is a hint towards Lee having a different way of learning and different learning needs. A lot of people have theorized that Stan might have had some sort of learning problem, like ADHD or dyslexia. Lee here is hinting that he struggles reading and learning things that are second dimensional and non-interactive, while having a talent for understanding things when presented to him in a three dimensional format. He was always smart, he just had different learning needs that the education system did not or could not accommodate for. This is also another parallel with Bill Cipher, who was a two dimensional being in the second dimension, but did not fit in because he could see into and interact with the third.

“Faded and weary” is a term pulled from the song “Into the Nothing” by Breaking Benjamin.

Mr. Ponds is a one-off character from Amphibia who is a clear nod to / reference to Grunkle Stan.

The Space Presidents Key is a direct parallel to The Presidents Key from canon.

President Beeblebrox refers to Zaphod Beeblebrox from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The dimension, HG42, gets the letters of its name from “Hitchhikers Guide”, while 42 is “the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything” in the story.

[lil-gae-disaster]

Freddie and his Sister Isabell (Isabell-Josefine) :D

Frederick is around 19, before he moved to England, and Isabell (also calles Isa or Bella) 9

Frederick learned how to braid hair because his dad found it beneath him to braid his daughter's hair, but Isa oftentimes got her hait tangled up while she was playing with her friends (the "weird" / "wild" girl group)

So, Freddie made it a habit to braid his sister's hair.

And he enjoyed it very much.

So much that he, in fact, offers to braid the hair of his friends with longer hair (like Hamilton) in the camp every morning (and also because he misses his sister)

A small addition:

Freddie got his mother's blond hair and blue eyes and his few freckles are from his dad

Isa got her hair as a combo of her father's flaming red hair and mom's blond hair.

But she got her dad's green eyes and full freckle package :D

@unicornsaures @hamalicious-soup