#options 1 and 2 are both for a new Multiverse I’m making

[luminousjellyfishy]

Option 1: make more refs

Option 2: write more stuff in the lore doc

Option 3: make completely unrelated ship art (Errormare)

[ghost-runner]

He is not the only Anomaly: Pt. 1

Wrongfully bitten Spider-Man Male Reader x Gwen Stacy — Into the Spider-verse and Across the Spider-verse Male Reader insert

Information: On Earth-199999, there was a young teen around the age of 15 going by the name of Y/N Parker. Y/N Parker is the son of May Parker and is the younger cousin to one Peter Parker, also known as Spider-Man. Y/N Parker is a kid genius and the generally down-to-earth kind of guy. Y/N is a loner and does not have many friends apart from his best friend, Ned; his friend, Harry Osborne; his cousin, Peter; and Peter’s girlfriend, MJ. However unlike the many other dimensions out there, Y/N is the only one like himself out there, but like Miles Morales, Y/N ended up getting accidentally bitten by a radioactive spider that was not from his realm while on a field trip to Oscorp and he gained a lot of the powers that his cousin Peter has and some of the powers that quite a few different Spider heroes have from across the various dimensions of the Spider-Verse. This allowed him to become the Shadow Spider of Earth-199999 due to his powers allowing him to hide in plain sight and in the shadows. Peter brought his cousin before the Avengers and was made an official member after Peter, Natasha, and Tony all spoke on his behalf. When Y/N was the Shadow Spider for about 4 months, he went into some sort of portal and was teleported to Miles’s dimension after the whole Kingpin collider incident at Alchemax for the first time. While there, he met a range of different Spider-people like Gwen Stacy, Peter B. Parker, Spider-Noir, Spider-Ham, and Peni Parker as well as meeting Miles Morales. He figured out immediately about the situation involving the Spider-People and Multiverse or in this case, the Spider-Verse while everyone who wasn’t from Miles’s dimension began “glitching out” thanks to begin a kid genius. After everything went down and it was time to go home, Y/N shared a close bond between himself, Gwen, and Miles, gaining two new close friends, but they had to go home to their own dimensions. However, things have gotten intense lately when a new villain shows up in Y/N’s dimension. That villain being the Spot that appeared in Miles’s dimension.

Information on abilities and powers: All normal Spider Powers like wallcralling/running, Spider Sense, super strength, and heightened reflexes, etc; Organic webbing that comes straight from his wrist; electrical power that can be used in in both fighting and through Y/N’s webs, Venom Blast, Camouflage, Night Vision, small Healing Factor

Note: I thought of this idea while just laying around on my bed at like 2 in the morning. I liked it, but I don’t know how other people will receive this idea. Y/N will be rocking one of the three Spider-Man suits of your choice below. I’m leaving three options for a Spider-Man Stealth suit for people to choose.

#1

#2

#3

I hope these options were good for anyone reading. Personally, I would choose #2 because it seems more like something a 15 year old would be able to make on his own given enough time and effort.

— Y/N POV

I was walking home from school to my apartment that I live at with my mom and my cousin, Peter, when I saw Mysterio causing chaos around Queens. I immediately knew that I would have to cancel my plans later for joining Ned and Peter in building some Star Wars Legos. I duck down into a alleyway and swap out my hoodie, sweatpants, and sneakers for my Shadow Spider suit. As I got my Spider suit on, my suit’s AI turned on and spoke.

Suit AI: Greetings, Y/N. It’s a pleasure to see you again.

Y/N: Yeah, it’s always nice to see you too, Anna.

I had decided to call my suit’s AI “Anna” to give it a little more of a personality. Peter called his suit’s AI “Karen”

Anna: Shall I let any of the Avengers know about the current situation?

Y/N: Eh, not right now, Anna. I’m sure I can handle it.

Anna: If you say so.

Y/N: Getting snarky now, are we?

Anna: I have no idea what you mean.

Y/N in a sarcastic tone: Sure you don’t, Anna, sure you don’t.

Anna: I detect sarcasm.

I just chuckle at Anna’s remark. I then toss my backpack into the air and web it to a wall in the alleyway to ensure it doesn’t go anywhere. I started webswinging over to where Mysterio was causing mayhem when I saw my cousin webswinging over to Mysterio as well. I hit Mysterio with a web and pulled him away from harming a family that was running away.

Mysterio: Argh! What the fuck is your problem?!

Shadow Spider: Oh, sorry for stopping you from hurting innocent people, asshat!

Mysterio: Just wait until I squash you like the insect you are! You’re de—

Mysterio was cut off by Spider-Man punching him across the face.

Spider-Man: Oh save it, Mysterio.

SS: Nice to see you join the party, Spider-Man!

SM: It’s always a pleasure, Shadow Spider!

SS: Let’s beat this asshole!

After I said that, Mysterio began summoning all sorts of drones to attack the two of us.. Spider-Man and I began to destroy as many drones as we could. I saw an opening and I webbed Mysterio and pulled him towards me before sucker punching him across the face. Mysterio managed to grab me and throw me backwards into a building. I went through about three walls before I stopped. I pulled myself out of the wall that I was wedged in and I ran out and jumped through the hole I was thrown in. I webbed back to where Mysterio and Spider-Man are. Spider-Man was webbing up Mysterio and I landed on top of Mysterio, causing him to wince as I helped Spider-Man to web the villain up. After enough webbing was on Mysterio, we used the opportunity to web him to the wall and made sure that he could not move a muscle or get free from the webs. I slapped Mysterio across the face and webbed his mouth shut. I quickly stuck a note to his face after said slap with said note saying “To the Avengers and NYPD. From your your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Shadow Spider” on it. Spider-Man and I both began webslinging away from Mysterio and we got onto a secluded rooftop away from prying eyes. I take my mask off to reveal my face with my short (Y/H/C) (Y/H/C = your hair color) fade haircut and I see Peter remove his mask to show me his 18 year old face.

Peter: Nice job, cuz.

Y/N: Same to you, Peter. Go on ahead, I’ll meet you back home.

I see Peter put his mask back on and start swinging away back home. I duck back down into the same alleyway from before and grab my backpack just before I quickly change into my hoodie, sweats, and sneakers back on. However, when I finished changing, I saw a weird glitchy looking portal open up a few feet away from me. I was about to walk away from the portal and pretend that it was nothing, but I heard some screams and fighting coming from inside of the portal.

Y/N: Fuck. Well, like the saying goes: “Fortune favors the bold”. Fuck it.

I run to the portal and backflip into it. While going through the portal, I see all sorts of different dimensions that have all sorts of different Spider-people. One dimension having a Spider-Woman that ended up being my mother, May Parker; a dimension with sentient cars and a car spider-person, you get the idea with shit like that.

Y/N: What the fuck?

After a few more minutes of seeing the different dimensions, the portal spit me out in the same alleyway from before, but this one had two of those “influencers” from TikTok or Vine or whatever site they post to. The portal closed before they saw me and when they did, I just waved and pulled the hood of my hoodie over my head to keep my face concealed. Once I’m out of the alley, I look up to hears something on the news and see something I didn’t expect to see.

(What Y/N saw)

Y/N: What the hell? Peter’s dead? And he’s 26? He looks nothing like my cousin. Okay, it’s clear I’m not in my normal New York anymore. Fuck, alright. Y/N, calm down, figure out a plan.

However, I felt someone’s presence behind me and I turn to see an officer of the PDNY behind me. I see his badge says Officer Morales.

Jefferson Morales: Hey kid, you okay?

Y/N: Yeah….yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking. Hey, do you know where Brooklyn Visions Academy is by chance? I need to get there watch my cousin’s recital. I promised her I’d be there tonight.

I pray to god that my lie doesn’t make the officer suspicious of me at all. I don’t attend Visions Academy back in my dimension, but it is on the way to my high school.

Jeff: Of course I do, believe it or not, my son goes there, it’s that way. -Jeff points down the road-

Y/N: Got it, I appreciate the assistance, officer, thank you!

Jeff: No problem. Enjoy your day, kid.

I watch him walk away and I immediately start walking in the direction the guy pointed in to not make him suspicious, but I cut into a coffee shop and head into the bathroom. I lock the door and I look at myself in the mirror before taking a few deep breaths to calm down and think about what has happened. However, that was short lived by me starting to glitch.

Y/N: -lets out a few grunts of pain while glitching before he stops- Fuck! What the hell was that? I need to figure out what is going on and I need to find a way to get home. I might as well head to Visions Academy just as a cover.

I leave the coffee shop and I start making my way to the Academy when I see a kid around the age of 15 with an Afro sticking to the side of a building, looking incredibly freaked out.

Y/N: Okay, you don’t usually see that in your average New York City, but then again, when is NYC ever normal? I mean we have fucking superheroes and all sorts of different villainous bullshit going on in the universe somewhere. Fuck it, I need to find somewhere to bunker down.

I see a manhole in the street and I look around to make sure nobody is around and see that there is nobody around. I use my webs and pull the manhole out to be able to climb down to the subway tunnels beneath the city. Once I manage to make it down, I start carefully trekking through the dark, utilizing my night vision I obtained from being bitten by the spider that gave me my powers. I manage to find a small area that has a workbench, a few lockers, and a map of the underground subway system as well as a map for all of NYC. (Think of the metro tunnels fast travel location from Dead Island 2) I get to work on finding out just what the bell is going on.

Y/N: Let’s see….I know I’m not back home anymore, but just what dimension am I in.

I start looking over the map to see if there is any differences from my dimension. I see a place that catches my attention since it doesn’t exist in my dimension.

Y/N: Alchemax Chemicals….that might be a good place to start on finding out just what is happening.

I begin glitching out again like before.

Y/N: -Grunting in pain- Ahhh, GODDAMMIT!! I need to find something to help get me home. Alright, time to make my way to Alchemax.

I felt my Spider-Sense go haywire, but when I looked around, I didn’t see anything around me.

Y/N: Hmm… That was weird……I swear that there was someone around here…..Okay, something isn’t right, but I need to get to Alchemax quickly.

I quickly changed out of my clothing and put on my Shadow Spider suit before I started making my way out of the small work area and out to the subway tunnels to get to Alchemax, but I never noticed that I was being watched and followed.

— A few minutes earlier —

??? POV

I need to find a way home. I don’t know how I got here, but I’ve been trying to remain incognito ever since I landed in this version of New York. I began watching this guy that caught my attention after the incident I had encountered with Miles back at Visions Academy. I’m not sure what about him peaked my attention, but I watched him as I saw him look up, I did the same and we saw Miles sticking to wall and rolling around the wall while still sticking to it. However, I trained my attention back to the teen in front of me and I saw him look around. I quickly ducked into the alleyway near me and watched from around the corner as the guy used webs that looked like it came directly out of his wrist to lift up a manhole and throw it away.

???: So he is a Spider as well. Makes sense now that I think of why he caught my attention.

I quickly run over to the sewer entrance and climb down after the guy. I follow him until he reaches a small work area. I don’t know how he was able to navigate his way through here when it’s pitch black.

Y/N: Let’s see….I know I’m not back home anymore, but just what dimension am I in. I start looking over the map to see if there is any differences from before.

The guy checks the map.

Y/N: Alchemax Chemicals….that might be a good place to start on finding out just what is happening.

I watch as the guy starts glitching out, I don’t think I’ve seen that happen before.

Y/N: -Grunting in pain- Ahhh, GODDAMMIT!! I need to find something to help get me home. Alright, time to make my way to Alchemax.

I feel my Spider-Sense go crazy as I go closer to the teen and I see the guy has the same reaction that I did. I hide up in the rafters of the room to avoid being spotted.

Y/N: Hmm… That was weird……I swear that there was someone around here…..Okay, something isn’t right, but I need to get to Alchemax quickly.

I watch him change into his Spider-Man suit and go back out into the subway tunnels. As he left the area, I jumped down from the ceiling and took off my mask and pulled the hood of my Spider-Woman costume down. I run my hand through my blonde hair that hangs down on the left side of my head and let out a heavy breath of air. I look at a mirror that was hanging on a wall and saw my 17 year old self looking back at me. I look back to where the guy left to the tunnels.

Gwen: Looks like I’m going to be following him to Alchemax Chemicals.

— Y/N POV —

Y/N: It’s not like things can get any worse.

After heading back out to the subway tunnels, I look at the map of the subway tunnels to plan my route out of the subway. I decide on a route and I start making my way through, still having the feeling of being followed. I shrug off the feeling and continue to make my way through the tunnels. However, I soon see the last thing I wanted to see after I entered a big boiler room after going through one of the doors in the subway tunnels while being away from home. That thing or rather things is the my dimension’s goddamn villains with at least two of them. The first one being Mysterio from earlier with battling him, the bruising still evident all over his face when he took off his helmet. The second one is Vulture who should still be in prison after what happened with him trying to suit Tony Stark’s things. Fucking hell, I still remember fighting him alongside Peter on the night of Peter’s homecoming dance. To this day, that shit was just fucking bizarre, but I don’t even want to know how he managed to get his technology and suit back while being in this dimension. I activate my camouflage and start to eavesdrop on whatever the two fucks are discussing.

Vulture: Olivia wants us to meet her at Alchemax Chemicals, right?

Mysterio: That is correct, my bird themed friend.

Vulture: Don’t forget, Kingpin wants us to get those materials for the Collider.

Mysterio: Good call. I nearly did.

I watch as the two finally decide to leave the boiler room.

Y/N: Well, as it turns out, things can get worse than they already are for fuck’s sake.

I quietly followed after the villains while making sure I don’t attract more attention than necessary.

To be continued…..

That’s part 1 of this new series I’m making with the Spider-verse movies. I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I did creating this first bit. I’ll be taking time to myself for the next few days before I start in the next part.

[thespellbooksociety]

Time-Travel: Fixing the Free Will Problem (Because the Time-Turner Is Broken AF)

Okay, so we’ve established that the Time-Turner is basically the universe’s way of saying, “Ha, you thought you had control? Adorable.” But if we’re going to play around with time travel, there has to be a way to fix this, right? I mean, why bother bending the rules of time if you’re just stuck doing what you’ve already done?

Cue the Marvel multiverse strutting in like, "Hold my Infinity Gauntlet."

Because Marvel—bless their chaotic storytelling hearts—actually gives us some hope. Their approach? Multiple timelines and branching universes. None of this "closed-loop" nonsense where you’re doomed to replay your own greatest hits like a cursed remix. Nope. Over in the MCU, every time you make a new choice, bam! You create a brand-new timeline. Congratulations, you’re the proud parent of an alternate universe. 🎉

Here’s how I think we could fix the whole “no free will” issue with time travel, Marvel-style:

1. Branching Timelines: The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Fix

Instead of going back in time just to realize you’ve already done exactly what you’re about to do (thanks, Time-Turner 🙄), what if you created a new timeline every time you made a different choice? You go back to save Sirius, and suddenly you’re in a timeline where he lives and everything is different. You wouldn’t be a pawn in a cosmic rerun; you’d actually change something. A real "choose-your-own-adventure" situation, except less frustrating than those books where you always ended up dying in a swamp.

2. The Branch Pruning Dilemma

Of course, with all these new timelines popping up, things could get a bit… messy. Enter the TVA from Loki, who are like time janitors, pruning “unnecessary” timelines. Yeah, maybe we don’t need a million universes where the only difference is someone decided to eat cereal instead of toast one morning. But still, if we could prune the pointless ones and keep the meaningful branches (like, I don’t know, stopping Voldemort for real), that’d be pretty neat.

3. The Butterfly Effect, but Controlled

Okay, so maybe we don’t want infinite versions of the universe. Fair. But what if we could control the ripples? Like, time travel could be fine-tuned so the changes we make only affect certain things—like precisely what we want to fix—and don’t spiral out of control into “Oops, I accidentally destroyed reality by saving that plant.” Because I’m sure we’ve all seen how one tiny thing can turn into a full-blown catastrophe (cough Peter Parker cough).

4. Timeline Syncing

What if we could merge timelines? Say, you go back in time, make some changes, but then sync it back with your original timeline so you’re not living in some strange parallel world where Hermione becomes the new DADA teacher (although, honestly, not the worst option). This way, you get to make your changes and return to a familiar reality without messing up everyone’s lives. Best of both worlds.

5. Forget Time Travel—Let's Just Go Multiversal Hopping

Why even mess with time travel when you could just hop to another universe where things are already different? Want to see what happens if Voldemort never rose to power? Just pop over to Earth-17384 or whatever. Need to visit a universe where you made it to Divination class on time? It exists. You’d never have to worry about “oh no, I’m stuck in this deterministic loop” because each universe is doing its own thing. No need to change the past—just find a past (or future) you like better and move in.

---

But, honestly, maybe we don’t need magical time-travel plots to save people like Sirius. I mean, I love a good timeline tangle as much as the next wizard, but at some point, you’ve got to wonder if we’re overcomplicating this whole “saving someone’s life” business.

Let’s say we don’t mess with the Time-Turner or multiverse hopping. We’re all wizards here, right? Why not just… come up with a different plan that doesn’t involve bending time? What if, this time, we didn’t rely on magical plot devices to swoop in and save the day?

Like, imagine Harry actually telling someone important about the whole “Sirius is innocent” thing—before things get all dramatic in the Department of Mysteries. Get the facts out, rally some backup. Maybe even throw in a legitimate defense squad, and boom, no one needs to die for once. Simple, practical, no need to risk getting stuck in some predetermined loop where no one listens to teenagers because, well, plot reasons.

Or better yet, don’t wait until the last minute. Get creative. Use good old-fashioned wizarding ingenuity. There’s no shortage of magical creatures, spells, and sneaky maneuvers that don’t require breaking time itself. Maybe we don’t need to go back and fix everything, we just need to do better the first time around. No shiny plot-saving gadgets necessary.

So, in summary:

Sure, fixing time travel with Marvel-style multiverses is cool.

But maybe, just maybe, we could save Sirius (or anyone else) by being a bit more practical. Less magic, more planning. Maybe even a bit of common sense. 😏

I’m just saying.

[lokiondisneyplus]

Variants. Time Keepers. Apocalypses. Alligators. Jet Skis. Over the course of Season 1 of Marvel Studios’ Loki, the God of Mischief has seen and done it all across the Sacred Timeline. But now at the end of time — literally, Loki has arrived at the Citadel at the End of Time, accompanied by Sylvie — only one question remains: Has this journey changed Loki? It’s even a question He Who Remains poses, reminding the duo that they can’t reach the end until they’ve seen a change: “It needs to happen, to get us all in the right mindset to finish the quest.”

For a trickster who has always been so focused on his wants and needs, it’s safe to say that Loki’s time working for the Time Variance Authority (and then trying to take down the TVA) has certainly shaped him in ways we haven’t seen before. Gone is the Asgardian who commanded people to kneel before him; now, for the first time, we’re seeing a softer side to Loki as he realizes that his choices have consequences and he’s in charge of his own destiny — no one else. Going all the way back to the very beginning of Episode 1, as Loki stands before Judge Renslayer at the TVA, he yells that no one else will dictate how his story ends, and he’s finally doing just that.

“Loki, as a show, has introduced so many complex ideas, and themes, and conversations,” Tom Hiddleston tells Marvel.com. “One of the things I've been so pleased and thrilled to see with the show is how deeply the audience is engaged with the big ideas, the ideas of fate versus free will, agency versus determinism. Do we have the capacity to genuinely choose our path through our lives? And in those choices, where do we derive meaning? To what extent are any of us free? To what extent are these characters free to choose their route through the universe and self-realize and determine the course of their lives?”

Loki didn’t change completely on his own, though, as everyone he encounters throughout all six episodes influences him in ways he never could have predicted, from his surprising friendship with Mobius to Classic Loki reclaiming his “glorious purpose.”

“People latched onto the relationship between Loki and Mobius, and understood that there was a mirror in the two of them,” Hiddleston says. “Both Mobius and Loki had a lot to teach each other. Mobius opens up Loki’s sense of his own identity and that this might be something that's malleable. And then Sylvie opens up something in Loki about the nature of identity. And that Loki is able to then reflect back to Mobius.”

“In Episode 5, suddenly, the conversations the three of them have had [cause] an effect on the variant Lokis — on Classic Loki, on Kid Loki, on Boastful Loki. I like to think on Alligator Loki, too. Maybe he starts to think about free will.”

This all comes to a head when Loki and Sylvie have the most important conversation of all, with He Who Remains. Standing before this man behind the curtain, He Who Remains lays out his entire philosophy, the reason behind the TVA and all the smoke and mirrors. It’s to protect the Sacred Timeline from his own variants.

“This conversation between the three of them about the nature of reality, about the nature of time, about the nature of the multiverse, and the question about whether the TVA organization has any moral authority to determine reality as we see it,” Hiddleston continues. “There's an enormous amount to unpack, an enormous amount to think about, and it provokes as many questions as it provides answers.”

Loki, having gained a new perspective, wants to stop and think about what he’s just learned since it’s heavy. Sylvie, on the other hand, believes “he’s stalling for time and that it’s another manipulation. She feels is on the precipice of some catharsis,” adds Hiddleston. The two come to a disagreement where they both believe they’re the one in the right. Loki wants to weigh the options of He Who Remains’ proposal, and Sylvie just wants this puppet-master dead.

“It’s incredibly distressing for both of them that they disagree in this moment,” Hiddleston says. “It was quite an intense scene for us. We knew we had to be quite precise about the way the scene unfolded.”

Not only are they verbally arguing, but soon both have their weapons at the ready and are trading blows back and forth. (Something He Who Remains giddily watches from the sidelines.)

This finale was the last thing shot for the season, with Jonathan Majors joining the cast, as He Who Remains, for the last week they were in production. From there, it was time to dive into the trio’s conversation and how it caps off all the themes leading up to this point — identity, free will, and accepting yourself, to name a few.

“Right up to the time of the few days in which we filmed it, we were refining the dialogue between Loki and Sylvie because we needed to make sure that there was a balance,” Hiddleston recalls. “Both their positions [needed to be] articulated, and the audience could see the struggle. We worked all weekend to make sure we integrated the scene with the choreography so that it was completely seamless. The disagreement was at the center of all of it, and every word and every move.”

Unfortunately, the two just can’t see eye to eye on the situation — as He Who Remains points out, Sylvie can’t trust and Loki can’t be trusted. Hiddleston even notes, “At the center of Loki’s identity, certainly for as long as I’ve played him, is untrustworthiness. He’s unpredictable and spontaneous.”

But now, with a tearful confession to Sylvie, Loki’s newly changed outlook shines through as he takes everything he’s learned over the course of the series and tries to reason with her. But, “it’s heartbreaking pain because she’s not on the same page.”

“The confession in Episode 6 reveals how much he’s evolved. Sylvie believes Loki’s position comes from the same old motivation to sit on a throne. But it doesn’t. It comes from genuine care for another being outside of himself. It speaks to a theme that was very close to all of our hearts as filmmakers, which was about self-confrontation, and self-awareness, and self-forgiveness, and self-acceptance in some way. That the only way of moving forward is to acknowledge who you are. And then change can begin.”

Making matters worse, Sylvie isn’t the only familiar face Loki loses in the end. Though he ends up back within the halls of the TVA, this isn’t the TVA he left. The choices Loki and Sylvie made at the Citadel at the End of Time are already breeding consequences, one of which is that “his friend Mobius doesn’t recognize him and doesn’t know who he is. His destabilization in that moment is profound.”

Loki and Mobius’ friendship has been a touchstone for the series, and according to Hiddleston, as the show was being developed, their relationship was “one of the things I was drawn to.”

“I’m very moved by the idea of their friendship,” he continues. “I don’t think Loki has allowed himself to have many friends. Because to have friends, you have to be vulnerable, and you have to trust. Loki’s so defensive, vulnerability and trust, those two things don’t come easily to him. Mobius is perhaps the first figure in Loki’s life to sit across from him and reflect him back to himself without judgment, but somehow with compassion.”

“Mobius is able to contain Loki and say, ‘This is who you are. And I understand.’ That feeling of compassion or lack of judgment is new for Loki, and allows him to open up in a way that facilitates the genesis of this unique friendship. Mobius also is surprised by his affection for Loki. And then it’s Loki who teaches Mobius about life outside the TVA, life before the TVA. Maybe he had a life. Maybe he had a family. Maybe he had a jet ski. They mean a lot to each other, and they’ve done a lot for each other.”

With a new Mobius now in the mix, this means that the pair’s parting goodbye in Episode 5 was their final farewell, when “Mobius offers his hand; Loki chooses to hug him and he says, ‘Thank you, my friend.’ That’s very sincere and very meaningful.”

What’s a trickster to do when he finds himself in an unfamiliar place surrounded by people he used to know? That remains to be seen, as the season ends before those questions are answered, laying the complex groundwork for Season 2 and the lingering unanswered TVA questions.

“What’s been fascinating for me making it, and continues to be one of the most interesting questions of our story, is the moral complexity of the TVA,” Hiddleston concludes. “The idea that an organization that claims to govern the order of time with benevolence and precision is actually something much more ambiguous. And there's a question: On what authority does the TVA, or anyone who has set it up or runs it, decide who gets to live and who doesn't, who gets to participate in reality as we know it?”

[the-irken-pony]

You said to remind you about that Henry and the CCC thing...I can’t find it...

YES YOU'RE RIGHT

A lot has happened so I haven't been able to get to it for a while but THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME

So first of all, I want to emphasize the CCC's relative importance in the Henry Stickmin series.

Part 1: The CCC vs the other factions

All of the other major factions in THSC appeared in Infiltrating the Airship or later, not counting Winston Davis and Gene Fredrickson, two members of the Toppat Clan who were introduced before the Toppat Clan was formally introduced. The Government and the Toppat Clan were formally introduced in Infiltrating the Airship, and The Wall was formally introduced in Fleeing the Complex.

The Center for Chaos Containment, meanwhile, made an appearance as early as Stealing the Diamond, back when Henry was a simple thief with some bizarre abilities (which I will touch on in a bit). Since their initial introduction, the CCC has made brief yet consistent appearances in every following game, introducing at least one member who has not been seen prior (often more).

So, if they're so important, why are they so much less prominent than other factions? Simple: their job is to contain chaos from behind the scenes to try to normalize the world around them. Unless something major is going down that requires intervention, there's no reason to publicly show their face.

And honestly? It might actually be better for everyone that they don't. After all, the CCC has demonstrated power beyond what the Government or the Toppats could even dream of. Sure, the Toppats might also have giant space lasers, but they were only able to get them after major funding and numerous months--probably years--of preparation. Likewise, the Government may have access to nuclear (emphasis on "may" because this is unconfirmed), but the CCC is able to whip these out without a second thought.

Yet the CCC's power goes further. Also at the CCC's disposal are gargantuan robots (one of which is G.A.B.E.G.G., which forces the Govt to abort the Toppat raid), a calculator that can instantly vaporize the world by dividing by 0, the ability to stop time itself, and a "Dark Energy Blaster" (capable of instantly wiping out all life within a certain radius).

Sure, the Government may have Charles' helicopter which is capable of some wacky things, and the Toppat Clan and the Wall may have superpowered members, but none of it even comes close to just how far the CCC's power extends. And yet! No one! Talks about it!!

Okay, so I've talked on and on about just how strong the CCC is. How is this at all related to Henry?

Part 2: Henry Stickmin, a thief in need of cash

Before I can get into how Henry and the CCC are connected, I need to touch on who Henry Stickmin actually is, or at least how he started.

Early on in the series, before he was captured by the Govt, Henry's sole motive was getting money in order to pay for rent (and presumably other bills).

Over the course of the first two games, Breaking the Bank and Escaping the Prison, Henry learns two new things about himself:

1. Not only does he die in numerous alternate timelines, but he remembers these timelines in which he dies (or is otherwise inconvenienced) as though they were his own.

2. Some mysterious force which he had never before known (the player) has begun to provide him with various tools to help him achieve various degrees of success (or lack thereof).

The evidence for both of these are provided by one particular recurring object in the series: the Teleporter. Not only does Henry make direct eye contact to glare at the player in ItA, but the series has him show increasing reluctance to use the teleporter whenever it's provided (eventually becoming outright refusal in Completing the Mission). Additionally, the teleporter's use in Fleeing the Complex is mutually exclusive to its use in both ItA and CtM due to the teleporter appearing in an incompatible route, suggesting he's even aware of the routes that he does not take.

However, there's one more thing which points to this being the case, which is also were we can start to see a connection between Henry and the CCC.

Off to the right, we can see that Henry was brainstorming potential jobs around the start of Stealing the Diamond.

Janitor

Prison Guard

Test subject

All but one of these options have been crossed out: “test subject”, suggesting that this is the job that he’s decided to settle on. What’s especially interesting here is that the same game we see this is the same game that introduces the Center for Chaos Containment. The connections don’t end there, though.

Part 3: Henry and the CCC

As you’ve probably gathered by now, I’m making the claim that, by the beginning of Stealing the Diamond, Henry has started working for the CCC as a test subject. I mean, someone who regularly causes accidental chaos working for a faction whose job it is to contain chaos makes sense on its own, but add to that the fact that any major repercussions caused by the CCC’s reckless decisions are immediately undone with no lasting consequences? You could say it’s too good of a fit.

Plus, it would explain how they consistently appear in the same general area as Henry (even if Kyle Baxter doesn’t actually act in FtC). There are more connections between Henry and the CCC, though.

1) The CCC’s various tools directly interact with Henry at multiple points in the series, and Henry seems much less surprised by the CCC’s actions.

Meanwhile, others seem much less aware of the CCC’s influence.

2) Even with all of the major chaos incidents that Henry directly causes, Henry himself never catches the CCC’s attention.

The CCC repeatedly mentions “chaos readings” whenever chaos incidents happen in a particular area, yet either Henry himself doesn’t give off chaos readings or the CCC actively ignores him. The first option seems unlikely due to Henry’s, well... everything. Yet, if Henry gave off chaos readings and was unaffiliated with the CCC, then why wouldn’t they put more focus on containing Henry directly? Sure, they wouldn’t succeed due to Henry being able to undo their more harmful actions, but the fact that they aren’t even antagonists is... intriguing.

3) Adding on to 2, when the CCC doesn’t accidentally hurt Henry, they directly help him somehow.

While this is rarely their immediate goal, the CCC’s attempts to contain chaos often help Henry in some way or another. In Stealing the Diamond, the Tunisian diamond happens to get thrown right next to him after he escapes from the museum; in Infiltrating the Airship, Henry takes one member’s flying suit in order to make his escape with the Romanian Ruby; and in Completing the Mission, the CCC’s intervention leads the Govt to aborting the Toppat raid.

All of these are minor coincidences, but what really ties this together is the secret ending of CtM, the Multiverse Correction.

In this secret ending, the multiverse is “defragmented” and an anomaly is corrected. The way this anomaly is corrected is actually by spawning in the package seen in Escaping the Prison.

Up to now, I’ve mentioned multiple minor details that tangentially connect Henry to the CCC, but I’ve only mentioned in passing what is probably the most important part of this whole post: you, the player.

Part 4: The Player (You) and the CCC

As the various teleporter uses demonstrate, you (the player) are a separate being from Henry, and you provide Henry with different tools or make various decisions from him. However, there are very few times (if any) in which you exert full control over Henry. A major demonstration of this is with the hammer.

All identical looking options, yet depending on which of the three you select, Henry does something different with the hammer. Aside from subtle sound cues, you don’t get any clue what each option will do. All the decision making is done by Henry.

However, there are characters which you DO exert direct control over: Clyde Jenkins, Wilson Stone, and Ellias Bahtchin. All of them are members of the Center for Chaos Containment.

Every time you take control of these characters, you have a first person view of their options and, in the case of Clyde, your mouse becomes his hand.

At no other point do you control a character like this, not even with Henry. This is a trait exclusive to these three characters. And, quite frankly, it’s incredibly fascinating from a gameplay standpoint.

Is it possible that based on this, you (the player) also work for the CCC? Maybe, but it’s entirely likely that the CCC (excluding Henry) are unaware of your presence.

Conclusion:

The fact that Henry considered applying as a test subject in Stealing the Diamond as a direct result of his chaos and just so happened to keep bumping into the Center for Chaos Containment in every game since then feels like more than just coincidence.

[theravennest]

Hot Loki Take: Sylvie was Right

*Spoilers for all of Loki the series up to and including ep 6.

Sylvie was right to kill He Who Remains and free the timeline.

I’m deadass.

He Who Remains forced reality into an endless cycle between a time of Order (he rules as dictator) & a time of simulated and controlled "Chaos" (his Conqueror variants wage war). I say this “chaos” is simulated because when you think about it, it’s chaos that He Who Remains arranges himself by manipulating Lokis.

He Who Remains is so fucking sus but for some reason people are just tripping over their own feet to believe everything he says and vilify Sylvie for killing him. 

He literally tells them (and us) that his methods are deceptive and we know for a fact that he’s willing to murder trillions upon trillions of people, planets, and realities to get the outcome he wants. Yet some are still believing everything he says cuz he said maybe 4 things that were truthful, I guess, and cuz he’s cute. Some of us are so blinded by the fear/anticipation of Kang the Conqueror’s arrival, we are letting him bamboozle us.

He Who Remains perfectly and personally tailored the Ordered period of the timeline to produce this exact Sylvie and this exact Loki, had them meet/influence each other, and then had them travel to the end of time...to him.

Now Lokis by nature are agents of chaos and could suddenly swerve left, so to speak, for no reason. So let’s assume I believe that He Who Remains didn’t 100% know what they would choose once they crossed the Threshold (if the Threshold he described is even real, tbh). He also so carefully molded both of their entire lives for that moment in the Citadel. He may not have known 100% but he knew at least 90% of how they would react to everything he said and did when they were both pushed to this place/mindset.

Notice how he teed them up for the fight that ended in his death:

Manufacturing a scenario where they would meet via the TVA’s variant pursuit.

Manufacturing a scenario where they would travel to the Void and meet Alioth.

Kid Loki being in just the right place to give his sword to Loki.

Miss Minutes appearing to menacingly offer an obvious devil’s bargain.

Him slyly telling Sylvie that she can’t trust Loki, putting it into her head just before he gives them his ultimatum.

All of these thing practically gift wrapped that ending to the Loki on Sylvie fight.

Let’s elaborate.

What was even the point of Miss Minutes offering to re-insert them into the same Sacred Timeline with both getting their hearts’ desires there? 

Not more than ten minutes later He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie to their faces that he manipulated all this for the sole purpose of making them choose between taking over as rulers of the TVA or killing him and ushering in a Multiversal War. Neither of those choices would result in re-inserting Loki and Sylvie back into the timeline.

So what is the truth? Why waste precious moments with a creepy Miss Minutes menacing them in that vestibule scene?

Notice how Miss Minutes’ words pushed Loki further onto his path of no longer wanting power or a throne but desiring to change his attitude about himself and the universe. Notice how her words conversely pushed Sylvie into balking at the idea of accepting another “fictional” life after a lifetime of being manipulated and made her double down on her mission to free the timeline and get revenge.

Sylvie has the ability to see memories but interesting how he kept her distracted by condescending to her and provoking her, just stoking the fire to make her react negatively. (Interesting how he was far more focused on Sylvie’s reactions than Loki’s, most likely because he needed her to kill him for his plans to work.)

Now I don’t want to completely shift responsibility for her choices away from Sylvie. In truth, if she had held in her vengeance for let’s say an hour and trusted Loki a bit more, they could’ve sat down to talk about things and maybe found a third solution other than starting a Multiversal War or ruling the TVA that still could’ve even allowed her to get revenge. (More on the ultimatum later.)

But I can’t blame her for losing her cool, either. He Who Remains made damn sure she would burn as hot as possible because he tailor made her life to give her the personality he wanted. And any other version of her out there who might have made a different choice would’ve already been pruned.

He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie straight up that he set them on their particular life paths because he needed them to be “changed by the journey” to ensure everyone in that room was in exactly the right mindset to do what was needed to “finish the quest” and presumably “slay the dragon,” aka Him. (Notice the parallels to the speaker narration just before episode 2′s fight at the Ren Fair.)

We don’t know! Sylvie never enchanted him to read his memories because she was so filled with rage and Loki was too busy trying to stop her, he didn’t think to do it either. And we’ve already established that He Who Remains trained them that way. Nothing that happened in that office was without He Who Remains’ influence and meddling.

Another nail in the coffin that convinces me that He Who Remains is a no good dirty liar is Renslayer.

If He Who Remains’ end goal was to either have the Lokis choose to rule the TVA or destroy it and thus end up with no memory of her previous TVA judge role/life, why did he send Miss Minutes to Ravonna with files that caused her to pack her bags and search for what she calls “free will,” AKA the one in charge?

I’d bet dollars to donuts that when the next season rolls around the only people who will know what’s going on and still have their memories will be Loki, Miss Minutes, Sylvie, and Ravonna. (Maybe Kang the Conqueror will know as well but I could see it going the other way too. I’m 50-50.)

He Who Remains was planning something by pushing Ravonna the way he did. Does he want her out of the TVA so she doesn’t lose her memories when everything resets? Does he want her to go find the Conqueror version of himself? I mean, at this point, practically everyone knows who she is to Kang in the comics, so let’s not pretend that’s not an option.

Another thing to think about...it’s super suspicious that he was so eager to make them believe he’s one of the “good versions” of Kang and all these others are much worse while giving absolutely no evidence of that outside of an interactive blob powerpoint, a quirky attitude, and a couple of sad, weary faces????

Who’s to say He Who Remains isn’t playing the long game and always manipulates his variants to eventually give him the chance to seize control of the multiverse?

Who’s to say he’s not one of the Kangs that wanted to conquer too? Funny how the “pure of heart” Kang is the one who still wrested control of all reality, killed off every other timeline with a weapon of mass destruction, installed a fascist time bureaucracy, and set himself up as the dictator. Sounds an awful lot like some conqueror shit to me, just saying.

Even wilder theory: what if this really is the same Kang the Conqueror but at the end of his life? We only have hhis word that he’s a variant. He Who Remains tells Loki that this fight is for the “young and hungry.” Maybe the “young and hungry” he’s referring to is not Loki and Sylvie at all but his literal younger self. Perhaps he set up this entire cycle of chaos and order so that he can perpetually live, conqueror, rule, die, and start all over again? Reincarnation, as he says...

But let’s set that wild theory aside for a moment. Let’s circle back to the Multiversal War debate and say it really is is caused by an infinite amount of his variants.

I think it’s hella sus that He Who Remains was so insistent that Loki and Sylvie only had two choices to resolve this riddle: Multiversal War or running the TVA almost exactly the way he did while maintaining only a single timeline. Those are definitely not the only two options they had. In fact, I could probably name 1-3 other options off the top of my head right now:

Keep He Who Remains alive while learning how he manipulated time and using those skills to slowly unleash the multiverse while killing every version of Kang to prevent him from existing as either conqueror or dictator.

Kill He Who Remains, take over the TVA, and slowly change it to something not horrific or even build a brand new system for governing time.

Kill or keep He Who Remains, still take over the TVA, slow rollout the Multiverse and kill or prevent every Kang along the way.

(I’m not saying these aren’t also morally questionable options, I’m just saying they are different from the two choices He Who Remains presented.)

But let’s say these options I suggested are not feasible. I just randomly came up with them ten minutes ago so it would be fair if they were picked apart logically. 

So let’s contemplate this, instead:

Why should we assume/believe that a Multiversal War is actually a bad thing again??? Why are we assuming that He Who Remains’ Sacred Timeline really saved reality from total collapse? 

Assuming he told the truth about his motives, maybe he was just...wrong about the end of reality. Maybe he saw what he thought was the conclusion to the Multiversal War coming and erroneously believed it to be the end of everything but actually it was the multiverse sorting itself out and everything would’ve been fine after.

We (and He Who Remains too) will never know because not only did he not show any evidence to back up his claim that reality was on the brink of collapse, but he himself never allowed things to play out naturally. Whenever the end of the war comes to the brink of something, he always panics, weaponizes Alioth, and traps the universe in his cage of Order with the TVA.

Even more controversial take...maybe the collapse of timelines and the end of everything should be allowed to happen. Maybe the natural cycle of reality is to build and build, splinter and splinter timelines, until it collapses and starts all over again from the void.

Nothing is created and nothing is destroyed, all things exist in a cycle so why should the multiverse be any different?

After all in all, in all three possibilities an infinite number of timelines is destined to suffer and die. Whether it be during the Kang-controlled Order period, Kang-controlled fake Chaos period, or the unrestrained natural Chaos that collapses in on itself...an untold amount of people are dying anyway. There’s only one of those scenarios that has actual unrestrained free will where those people get to exist how they want, make choices they want (even bad ones) for as long as they can.

(Personally, I’ll take that over what the Kangs have wrestled the multiverse into.)

I’ll just take this moment to re-iterate: trust nothing He Who Remains says. He’s a known liar and manipulator, and unlike Loki he has done absolutely nothing to actionably show he’s not still lying or to show that he’s trying to change outside of some sad looks. It’s all pantomime, bruh. Like, the pageantry of it all astounds me. 

Is he maybe telling some truths? Sure. But that doesn’t mean he’s not using the truth to manipulate everything. It’s an illusion, I’m telling y’all! He was up to no fucking good.

Sylvie was far more right to kill him than to not. Loki, Sylvie, & team (prolly also the latest Avengers lineup too) now just need to find a way to break this Kang cycle.

[jadoue1999]

Wanda and the life she deserved (she’ll make sure about it) Epilogue

Summary: thank you for everyone for reading this story! Remember to read the end notes for the surprise I was talking about!

Previous parts:  chapter 1,  chapter 2 , chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, chapter 11, Epilogue

Chapter 12: Epilogue

And that was it. Everyone she cared about was gone. She stood in the foundation of her house; her grief so strong it made her numb. She pulled up the hood of her vest desperately wanting to be left alone. Monica soon joined her side.

“You did it,” she remarked, “you actually did it.”

Wanda didn’t answer, she just pressed her lips together and nodded in agreement. She had seen many movies and shows portraying people fixing their mistakes as a good thing, something that made them feel better. She couldn’t relate. She simply felt like disappearing into the unknown and never being seen again.

“You know, I don’t think I would have had the strength to do it, had it been me,” confessed Monica. “I would have done anything to get my mother back, I can only imagine what you’re going through.” The woman gently put her hand on Wanda’s shoulder, making sure to be slow enough so she wouldn’t intrude her personal space. When no protests came, she squeezed lightly. “I’m here for you if you need me.”

As they reached the town square, Wanda did her best to ignore the hateful glare of the citizens she had tortured over the last week. She wished she could tell them she didn’t know, but she was sure no apologies would be enough. Lost in her self-deprecating thoughts, she was surprised when Monica spoke once again. “So, who was the guy who played your brother? We never could identify him. Yet I can see that his family found him.”

Wanda didn’t answer as she looked up at the X-Men. Her brother was deep in conversation, probably telling them about his time in the town. She quickly changed outfits, feeling more comfortable in her newest costume. The Scarlet Witch, as Agatha called her; she liked the name. She was about to fly away when Peter suddenly appeared at her side.

“Wanda, don’t go.”

She froze in place; he didn’t seem mad at her, but she didn’t want to push her luck. Hatred came in many forms. Since she wasn’t talking, Monica spoke up.

“Hi again, I don’t know if you remember, we escaped the witch’s house together?”

Peter chuckled and nodded. “I do, that was wild.”

Wanda could feel Monica’s question, and the hesitation that came with it. “I know I’ve asked you before, but who are you?”

The silver haired man looked at the redhead, silently asking for permission. She couldn’t figure out why he’d even care about her opinion, but she nodded, nonetheless.

“I’m Peter Maximoff, I’m from a different universe.”

That certainly took the S.W.O.R.D. agent by surprise, she looked at both of them, wondering if it was a joke. She had many more questions, but she felt that the Maximoffs needed to talk. With a nod, she walked away to join an Asian man. Probably a friend of hers. That left Wanda and Peter alone, both wondering how to start the conversation.

“So,” started Peter, scratching the back of his neck. “Thanks for releasing me.”

Wanda scrunched her face in shame, why had she even thought it was a good idea? “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just wanted my brother back and you already wanted to leave, and I just couldn’t-“

“Hey, it’s alright. I mean, obviously it wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t as bad as witchy over there,” he said, pointing at Agnes who was seemingly flirting with police officers. “You wanted me there, so I wasn’t really controlled, I was just sure I was Pietro Maximoff.”

Running a hand through her hair and taking a deep breath to shake away her teary eyes, she finally looked at him in the eyes. “So, you’re not... mad?”

Peter blinked and cleared his throat, “Well, obviously I’m not pleased, but I think I would have done the same thing, had I been given a chance to see Wendy again.”

They walked over to a secluded bench that somehow hadn’t been destroyed by the battle. Wanda kept fidgeting with her fingers, the occasional glares of people mixed with the grief and guilt she felt made an interesting combination of emotions. Peter pulled her into a hug, and she held on for dear life, not wanting to be alone again. “I like the outfit by the way,” whispered Peter in her ear. “Might not believe me but it’s very similar to my dad’s. Irony of the multiverse I guess.”

She couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her lips, he soon laughed too, and let go of her. He looked around the town, taking in the situation.

“You know, it might not have been real, but our little life was good,” commented Peter. He looked at his team, “I didn’t have any superhero duty to think about or daddy issues to deal with. It was simple.”

Wanda looked at him, not sure if he was being serious, when she realized he was, she simply nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I wanted this. I’ve never had a shot at a normal life, not since I was 10 years old.”

Peter smirked in agreement, looking a little lost in thought for a moment. “Yeah, I remember, your life wasn’t easy, uh?”

The redhead suddenly widened her eyes, realizing the weight of his statement, “oh, I’m so sorry, I can remove his memories from your head if you want.” She tried to put her hands on his temple, but he shook his head.

“Nah, I’m good. I’ve had enough people messing in my mind for a century. Plus, I’m not really sure where my memories end and his starts.”

Wanda was left feeling even more guilty, how did she even think that it was a good idea to keep him? She looked at the ground once again, why could she never do things right?

“So... where will you go?” Asked Peter. “Cause I know how this usually goes, you leave in a remote place, isolate yourself and either build a new life or you get even worse than what your current low point is.” Wanda looked at him, raising an eyebrow. He chuckled as he raised his hands in front of him, “hey, you might be from another universe, but my dad basically did the same thing.”

She thought about her options, she had considered isolating herself, she had Agatha’s book after all, she wanted to study it. Before Peter stopped her from leaving, she truly wanted to be left alone. Knowing he didn’t hate her changed things. She wanted him by her side, willingly this time. After a minute or two of waiting, he spoke up, scratching his nose anxiously. “You... you could come with us, if you want.”

She turned her head towards him, eyes wide at the proposition. He gently took her hand and got to his feet. “From what I gathered here; you’re sort of a wanted person? No one knows you in my universe. Plus, powers like yours aren’t unheard of, you’d fit right in!”

He didn’t let her respond as he dragged her to his team. Anxiety was building up in her stomach, how would they react? She had, after all, kidnapped one of their members, even if accidentally. After a quick discussion with the bald man, the professor as he called himself, it was settled that she’d leave with them. The two blue people were polite, but obviously still suspicious of her. Peter’s father was, well, pissed to say the least. He didn’t talk to her and barely acknowledged her when she told them she’d create a portal to get them in their universe. She wasn’t sure how she had already mastered universe hopping, but she assumed it had to do with the scarlet witch thing Agatha had mentioned. After saying goodbye to Monica, who seemed glad Wanda had found people like her, they were off. Portal jumping wasn’t a pleasant experience, but it didn’t feel as bad as the first time she experienced her brother’s superspeed. The first thing she noticed upon arrival was the giant mansion, followed by the dozens of children freely expressing their gift.

That nearly made her breakdown right there.

She adjusted quickly, even made friend with a girl possessing similar powers named Jean Grey. It took a while for Mystique and Nightcrawler to fully trust her, but they eventually did. Erik still blamed her, but he had stopped glaring at her every time she came into a room. She had also learned to astral project herself, giving her more time to study the spell book. It had given her insight she never thought existed.

She had grown closer with Peter, who had confessed one day that his birth name truly was Pietro. They had both lost a twin and while they were both aware that it wasn’t the same; dealing with it together had helped them. Also, being the only people who truly knew Vision and the twins, they felt it was only right to grieve them together as well. Both had had their moments where they tried to talk to them, waiting for an answer, only to realize that they were speaking to shadows. It hadn’t really gotten better; Peter missed his nephews and Wanda missed her family.

Sometimes, when the mansion became too much, she preferred to keep herself in her room. In those time, she usually used it to study the Darkhold and it’s secret. That’s what she was doing, in the middle of the night, when voices pierced her concentration.

“Mom!” Screamed Billy. She gasped as she heard her son in her head. It was Tommy’s voice who followed, “mom, help us!”

Her eyes widened in shock. Her children were alive, they were somewhere. She snapped out of her trance, her mind returning to her body that was laying in her bed. She ran out of her room to join Peter who was listening to music on his Walkman. He looked at her, questions in his eyes, she smiled at him.

“Tommy and Billy, I hear them.”

In a blur, he was in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, hope gleaming in his eyes. “Really?”

Wanda nodded, barely able to contain her excitement, “really.”

In less than five seconds, Peter had packed a bag and was holding it at his side. He offered his hand to Wanda, who gladly took it. He grinned, “let’s go get the rugrats.”

***

Notes: so it’s done! I hope you guys liked it!

As for the surprise, both my father and girlfriend wanted to know more about how the X-men got to Westview so I wrote another fic of their point of view! I’m nearly finished writing it, and it should be about 30k words. Each chapter being approximately 3k words. Now, question is, when and how often should I publish it? I had thought about publishing it every Sunday, unless there’s a day where it’s easier for you guys to read.

[davidmann95]

JJ Abrams Superman Movie officially announced, with Ta-Nahisi Coates writing

Anonymous said: Just a few days after you said you were happy with DC taking a break from Superman movies and just focusing on him being on tv again, they go and announce a new Superman movie. How do you feel? Coates is an exciting choice, I think

Caught me red-handed! But to be fair a couple times I said that I left a caveat of ‘barring extraordinary circumstances’, which I’d say this qualifies as.

There’s only so much to go off of at this point, but even these tidbits open up a lot to think about.

* As out of left field as Coates feels at first blush - he’s a Marvel man! - it’s not entirely shocking that he’d be on WB’s shortlist to be their ‘how to fix Superman’ guy: he got a MacArthur Genius Grant the same year as his #1 bestselling book about what the American Way actually means, after which he got into superhero writing with a run that ended up having elements incorporated into a cultural moment in Black Panther, and then Between The World And Me was cited as the inspiration for the Watchmen show that substantially drew on Superman iconography and won 11 Emmys. People are already talking about him admittedly not being a DC or Superman guy (though in that same interview he notes his love for the DCAU, specifically including STAS), but if he’s here he’s got something to say and, y’know, probably read a decent amount of Superman stuff either since then/prior to this or to get ready for the gig, so can’t say I’m worried.

* Related note: I’m seeing folks concerned about how much control he’ll really have over the project, which is fair. But that it’s his involvement that’s being touted over JJ Abrams’ (the guy who, like him or not, rebirthed Star Wars as a going concern to the tune of over $2 billion), and that they’re formally announcing and hyping it up as TA-NEHISI COATES’ SUPERMAN MOVIE™, COMING 202X before even having a director or lead actor attached, says to me that whatever his vision is it’s one WB’s going all-in on for the time being.

* I’ve seen plenty of discussion already about the appropriateness of this potentially starring a black Superman given both the dynamics/thematics of Superman as a character, and more significantly the implications of Coates maybe only being brought onboard to do ‘the black version’. That is a conversation I have precisely zero qualifications to wade in on with my own takes, but given that he is a dude with enough options that he could probably even turn down an opportunity on this scale, and the aforementioned weight being given to his role in this, I think it’s safe to say whatever we’re going to get is something he’s onboard with.

* Also seen concerns re: his pedigree as a fiction writer - another one I’m not that qualified to weigh in on, I’ve only read the first year or so of his Black Panther and Captain America runs (though I got the rest of his BP on Comixology while it was free, gotta check it out sometime), which were solid if a bit more workmanlike than you’d hope, along with the (other category altogether) Between The World And Me some time ago, which was...considerably more than solid. I know however his fiction novel debut in The Water Dancer was well-received, his Marvel work rather than staying ‘grounded’ hasn’t shied away from the sort of outré high concepts you’d want to see in a Superman movie, and the main criticism of his runs of ‘they’re too slow’ wouldn’t likely have the space to apply in a 2-3 hour Hollywood blockbuster, so again, not too concerned.

* Perhaps time will make me eat my words, but hot take: there is a basically 0% chance this is about Calvin Ellis or Val-Zod. Yes, yes, the DC movies are reportedly embracing the multiverse an excuse to do standalone stuff, but the two examples of that thus far in Joker and The Batman are still broadly rooted in the conventional trappings of those characters even if they’re separated from the ‘main universe’. Maybe someday the options might go further afield, but right now, when Superman hasn’t had an unambiguous silver screen hit in over 40 years? They’re not going to pour a quarter-billion dollars into a movie with the premise of “last son of the doomed planet Krypton, imbued beneath Earth’s yellow sun with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men and raised with the noblest ideals of truth and justice, Some Other Guy Most Of You Don’t Know protects the world...as Superman!” Not even getting into Val-Zod being just one member of an ensemble cast from a largely overlooked book and having the baggage of being Zod’s kid, and the EVERYTHING of making a four-quadrant tentpole film about Super-Obama (when you haven’t even been able to make your regular Super work) - this is either going to be Clark, or if they do make Superman black or brown but still want some distance it’ll be a Jon movie so it’s still got the direct connection to the original and the ‘son of Superman’ pitch in its corner too.

* Abrams is an interesting partner. He’s Hollywood’s big nostalgia guy, and that’s...probably not what Coates is going to be going for here. I assume he’s basically there to keep things familiar enough for WB’s tastes, which itself raises questions about the nature of Coates’ pitch and how it was internally received even if they’re clearly very publicly committed to it.

* Michael B. Jordan probably won’t really be the guy - he apparently talked about it, reasonably concluded he didn’t want to face that inevitable scale of backlash after what he already went through just playing the Human Torch, and the tradition is to cast an unknown in the part - but I guess never say never. Heck, while I sure wouldn’t bet on it I don’t think Ryan Coogler ending up involved is out of the question either; Coates’ previous screenwriting experience was working on a project with Coogler and Jordan that evidently didn’t come to fruition (Wrong Answer, a drama about a 2006 Atlanta public school cheating scandal), and they seem to have maintained a relationship as they had a public discussion regarding The Water Dancer in 2019.

* Ok I know making fun of Snyder people is passé at this point and usually more “NO SUPERMAN MOVIES MAY BE PERMITTED UNTIL THE CIVILIZATION-REDEFINING FIVE-FILM SAGA IS COMPLETE” howling into the void is barely worth notice, and “this is solely WB retaliating against us for bending them to our will!” in response to a Superman reboot would normally be just an amusing side-note too. But trying to get #HenryCavillSuperman/#HenryCavillIsOurSuperman trending in response to the possibility of a black Superman...I mean obviously so fucking many of them are fully aware they’re just not saying the quiet part loud, but what’re the percentages here?

So that’s what I’ve got so far. How do I feel about it all? It’s odd; given that there are basically no actual details beyond a name attached I’d never thought about in this context, and that this came with no forewarning just as the prospect of Superman in movies for the next long while seemed as dead as it ever had been, it’s so ill-defined and seems so unreal that I don’t feel much of anything about it yet? Plus I’m no longer driven on a day-by-day basis by a savage, all-consuming desire to slake a thirst for quality Superman stuff long left unquenched the way I was even a couple years ago, which likely also plays its part. But objectively? This is a guy formally, nationally recognized for being smart who’s also a journalist and comics fan being given Superman, with what sure feels like a lot of leeway and presumably a blank slate, which is basically the abstract concept of a perfect pick. So yes: I formally rescind my “please no Superman movies in the 2020s” plea.

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Question on Quintessence and General Worldbuilding in VLD S8

The VLD rewatch continues. Can somebody riddle me this as well? So in season 8, Allura says this to Honerva:

Okay, genuine question here. So canon confirms mulitple times that quintessence is life-force. Meaning that all living things and even planets have it. Weblums even re-concentrate quintessence so that dying worlds can give birth to new galaxies:

Its official definition given within the show is:

Even s3 Honerva says this:

But quintessence’s specific “manifestations” as a life-giving force or a destructive one change throughout the previous 7 seasons based on the will and/or physical machinery of the user. Like...any other energy source.

So how in the world can quintessence be a “destructive force” at all, inherently, in a way that would require a physical transmutation of the energy itself to wield it for life-giving purposes?

And speaking of me scratching my head...

So this whole climax in s8 is taking place in a location that Allura calls:

Which actually, is a pretty interesting thought. But let’s ignore for a second the concept that the very space they’re standing in is the mother-brain for the entire whole of everything that existed ever. Like, I’m going to suspend my disbelief and assume that this place is not, by itself, absolutely humming with usable power and energy.

So ignoring that, at this point in time in canon, we have both the Honervian mecha and the Atlas-Voltron 2 for 1 combo meal still in existence. These mechas are on standby...somewhere within this floaty mess because Allura mentions that she can reach them here. So we’ve got just two infinite-quintessence-powered mechas, sipping on quintessence milkshakes or something while the humanoids talk.

It’s within this conversation that both Allura and Honerva express a will to use power to regenerate the multiverse. So one piece of the puzzle for how to use quintessence for good is in place. I’m on board with this, I can understand that.

But about the sacrifice it takes to regenerate said multiverse...

Shouldn’t Allura and Honerva, per their will to use the energy for life, have just been able to physically transmute Honerva’s mecha AND Voltron-Atlas (Voltas? Atron?) to be life-giving amplifiers using their infinitely available life force per the comet ore? Like, even assuming that the mechas or the Alteans would need to rest after resurrecting even one universe....If you couldn’t survive resurrecting one, then it doesn’t make sense that you’d also canonically have the power to resurrect all universes at the same time anyway, right?

And what’s this about Honerva and Allura doing all the labor just by themselves? Even if the paladins are alchemical idiots, Honerva and Allura are standing in the Mother-Brain consciousness, which is the closest that this show gets to suggesting an ultimate “god” reality of any kind, even compared to the massively limited Altean Life Givers and their baby Oriande island. Honerva and Allura somehow open the rift between the living and the dead, suggesting that consciousness and form is preserved in death. Which means....there’s so many powerful characters from the past with a sudden ability to be active and to help, it’s wild. I don’t particularly understand how s8 can justify its own sacrifices. So i have to believe that literally no one preserved in the Mother-Brain, from billions of years of life existing, could help? Even though they’re shown reaching out to Honerva happily and capable of physically reacting?

And even assuming that Honerva and Allura are the only ones who can act, it still doesn’t even make sense to me that Honerva’s mecha would be destroyed. The comet ore of both Sincline (the base for Honerva’s mecha) and Voltron is canonically supposed to be indestructible. (Although I suppose this would explain how Voltron lost its Atlas upgrades, lol.)

And speaking of questionable sacrifices, not even the emotional angst of this scene feels earned to me. So this show is telling me that Allura learned a secret transmutation trick to, I guess, “de-corrupt” quintessence thanks to Lotor getting her to Oriande...but Honerva, who also went to Oriande thanks to spying on Lotor, didn’t get the same learning curriculum? Despite the fact that we see Honerva clearly capable of some freakishly powerful alchemy just like Allura?

And Honerva’s reaction to being asked to do some basic Oriande alchemy is this?

Can anyone explain any of these details, regarding quintessence’s sudden change in inherent properties/behavior, the sudden change in inherent properties of comet-based mechas, or Honerva’s sudden inferior knowledge about alchemy? (Which honestly, her whole ploy to destroy multiverses to get to her family wouldn’t even be necessary if she just...resurrected her own family? So now, s8 is asking me to believe that Honerva had the capability inside her to literally resurrect totally destroyed multiverses, but she couldn’t even bother to try resurrecting one salty boi and a turtle man? Or even cloning them like her s6 weird Shiro army? So she thought destroying everything was her only option?)

Or can all of my questions be answered with saying that this is just another case of Inconsistent Worldbuilding for the Sake of Shiny Plot Device?

Because at a glance here, this whole ending feels like they had to pretty massively contradict previous VLD worldbuilding, from several angles. It all feels so very unearned to me.

I also might need some help explaining all of this for a fan fic. In which case, if it’s just a plot hole, then maybe I can forget about it and write my own thing entirely, lol.

[thelatetimothylawrence]

I never made a mobile-friendly post with my Verses and Rules so... just check under the cut, I guess?

I'll also pin it to be easy to access.

VERSES

Borderlands 3 - After Jackpot

The “default” verse for my roleplay, unless stated otherwise. Thanks to the help of Moxxi and the Vault Hunters, he was able to flee from that golden Jack-shaped prison and try to search a new place where he could start over and finally live his own life, even if having the voice and appearances (and also DNA) of a deceased dictator will not make it easy. To overcome all of this and the traumas he suffered, Timothy will need time…but now he finally has all the time he needs. Free. (small note: for this verse, Tim got a new hand thanks to FL4K building it like they do for their pets)

Tag: #[verse: after jackpot]

Pre-Sequel - Jimothy the Body Double

Basically, a verse that takes place in the Pre-Sequel Era after he got tricked into the surgery, whole body-double/Vault Hunter gig.

Tag: #[verse: jimothy]

Borderlands 2 - Still a Doppelganger

After the events of Pre-Sequel and before the death of Handsome Jack, a sort of AU where he didn’t get sent to the Jackpot and continues acting as a double for Jack. He was branded, dons the mask, and he’s the firts of the doubles…the other double (mostly pocket-watch doubles) consider him being the “favourite” since he’s the first one, but he suffers the same consequences - or probably worse - as the others if he stumbles upon the wrath of Jack. He doesn’t like having to continue being a double, but what other option there is for someone like him?

Tag: #[verse: still a doppelganger]

Post-TPS/early BL2 and after - Timothy the Renegade

Another sort of AU. After the events of TPS and after the branding, Timothy finally finds the courage to flee from Jack and Hyperion. Faking to being busy with some business for Jack on Concordia, he stops by Nurse Nina to get the infamous bomb out of his body and remove the clasps of the mask (the surgeries were irreversible but at least those things where fixable) - paying well to ensure that she’ll never tell that he has been there - and defects on Pandora. The best way to hide something, sometimes is in plain sight. Also, no one would notice someone that keeps his face hidden between all the masked bandits that live on that planet. There, he lives as a bounty hunter and by not staying too long on the same place.

His hair is kept long, in a low ponytail, the scarred face usually his hidden with goggles and a scarf, the voice is changed through a modulator that keeps hidden under the scarf. Tim still has the watch with his diji-jacks, he was able to alter their code so Jack couldn’t use the watch to track him down nor control it, and also made them able to mimic his disguise so they won’t out his identity. No more silly one-liners, their AI was improved after the Elpis’ events.

Tag: #[verse: renegade]

Pre-Canon - Freckled Ginger

Before the Pre-Sequel. Timothy was a simple guy - with ginger hair, freckles and glasses - attempting at completing his college studies while the loan he had to take was keeping him more than broke. But he didn’t want to go back to his family after he insisted to go to that college instead of a community one. He won’t be able to handle the shame of failing, nor having to admit that he has a big debt on his shoulders because he wanted to chase his dream to become a writer.

Tag: #[verse: freckled ginger]

RULES

Basics

I have roleplaying experience, but not on Tumblr

English is not my language, sorry in advance

I’m shit at formatting, but I’ll try my best

Even though my schedule is embarassingly open, I can’t assure to be active often or be able to reply fast because of both timezones (I’m in GMT+1) or because my mental health told me to go fuck myself to take a break for a bit.

Will be roleplaying when I’m on computer, because I hate that the phone keyboard hides almost all the text editor of Tumblr app.

Now the real rules:

I won’t be writing any sexual NSFW content: I’m not comfortable with that.

Any other thing (adult or not) found in the Borderlands universe is fine with me, just don’t make me write the hanky-panky.

As stated before, I’m not good with formatting posts

I don’t have a fixed lenght for replies, but I’ll try to adapt to the other’s style… but I can’t guarantee to be able to write sth lenghty bc of language skills barrier.

There won’t be icons in my replies because I know myself and I’ll end up forgetting to add them quite soon.

I’m not selective currently, I just want to roleplay and have fun. Probably I will not be following back non-rp blogs simply to keep dash & notifications tidy.

OC friendly! I love seeing Borderlands OCs and if you have an about page I’ll surely will be giving it a look!

Multiverse: mainly BL3 post Jackpot DLC, but I’m open to roleplay other timelines and Verses/AUs

About this, if you have any idea for a verse/au feel free to message me to discuss plots and stuff together!

Since it’s Multiverse I guess that it could also be Multiship, but I don’t really care about ship stuff. Let’s see how the plot goes naturally.

No Godmodding but this should be like the basic thing in rp.

Also!

The Timothy that I’ll roleplay will be a mix of Canon and Headcanons, so it could not fit the expecations

Mun is not the Muse: me and Timothy may have a bunch of traits in common, but we are not the same thing. Please keep them separated.

On this note, no OOC drama. I don’t want you drama, nor I care about it. Keep your drama for yourself because I have my share of drama irl: if I’m here I want to have fun and not suffer anxiety/panic attacks because of some shit internet drama.

I’m kinda shy and anxious so I can’t guarantee to be the one initiating the interactions, but I’ll try my best.

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Creature Types: Goblin

The Best, Most Handsome Goblin, by Karl Kopinski

What is a Goblin (flavorfully)?

Look, I did a whole “goblins of the multiverse” thing, so I’m actually gonna keep this short because if you want to know about goblins I already wrote pages and pages. 

Generally, goblins are short, green-skinned humanoids with reckless tendencies. Though intelligence varies wildly by plane, goblins rarely think before acting, and even their most brilliant members are prone to exploding even when their plans succeed.

What is a Goblin (mechanically)?

Goblins are and have always been the Characteristic Red race, appearing with real numbers in nearly every set since Alpha, having support in many sets, and having a variety of different subtypes and variants. About 90% of Goblins are red, with most of the exceptions being Black goblins from Lorwyn and Morningtide. Goblins are usually small, rarely exceeding 3 points in power or toughness, and usually having just 1 or 2. As the characteristic red race, they tend toward red abilities such as haste, direct damage, and sacrificing themselves or other goblins for effect. Goblins are fast, aggressive, and tend to close a game as fast as possible. Goblins also have a host of tribal rewards throughout the years, rivaled only by Elves, Zombies, and the totally cheating Slivers when it comes to synergistic abilities. 

Can I make a Goblin deck?

Hi, my name is Krenko, and I have a problem. I can’t stop making Goblin decks. I’ve made goblins in Standard some half a dozen different times. I have a Goblin Commander deck, plus three others with goblin commanders that aren’t tribal decks. I have a Goblin Modern deck. I have a Goblin Historic deck. I have a Goblin Brawl deck. The only thing keeping me from making a Goblin Legacy deck is that I don’t have a local Legacy group.

You can make a Goblin deck in ANY non-rotating format, and if you can’t make Goblins in Standard, just wait a couple sets. 

Now, if I was to go over how to make goblins in every format, I’d be here all week, but the important part here is that Goblin Warchief and Skirk Prospector offer serious mana acceleration for your goblins in many different formats, and all you want to do is fill the board with goblins, turn them sideways, and use just a bit of burn to keep your opponent’s early game creatures away or finish off their face at the end. But many of your goblins ARE burn so you can do both at the same time.

In Commander, there’s just... too many options. With two dozen Legendary goblins and more coming every year, it’d be difficult to go over them all, so let me just offer three suggestions for actual Goblin Tribal.

Krenko, Mob Boss, is a delivishly handsome classic Goblin commander for mono-red go-wide strategies. Give him haste with any of a bajillion methods and he can flood the board swiftly. Combo with Purphoros or just anything that gives all goblins a bonus to power (easy enough to find) and crush your opponent’s face. With Thornbite Staff and any sacrifice outlet (which Goblins have a lot of,) you can easily go infinite. 

Wort, Boggart Auntie, opens up a lot to goblins by adding a second color. Better draw and tutoring, as well as removal, Wort plays more defensively than Krenko does, but is harder to disrupt. Patriarch’s Bidding or Living Death can dump a graveyard full of goblins onto the board, and with Warchief or Chieftain giving them haste, that can be an immediate swing for lethal.

Zada, Hedron Grinder, is a bit of a non-standard tribal deck. Rather than playing ‘the best’ goblins, Zada’s goal is to play ‘the most’ goblins, getting out all the goblin token she possibly can. Then, as soon as she’s free to swing team, a single Titan’s Strength turns your slew of 1/1s into an overwhelming force. Or she can just cast something like Expedite to draw a full hand of cards.

Special shout out to Muxus, Goblin Grandee, who might be a great commander option, but as he’s so new I haven’t had the opportunity to see him in action yet. Still, getting free goblins at random seems nice, and a strong flip could reasonably win the game on the spot. I do worry a bit about his mana cost, though.

Is Goblin a good creature type?

Goblin is the greatest creature type in Magic: the Gathering. Though varied, the creatures in the type have a clear unified identity, and there’s a host of support throughout the history of Magic that make Goblins feel worthwhile in any set. Goblins can show up randomly, but they are also often part of some sort of specific theme. 

The closest thing to a ‘flaw’ with the goblin type is that there’s two creature types in Magic that are mythologically Goblins but don’t share the type: Orcs and Kobolds. This isn’t so much a problem for Goblins as it is a problem for Orcs and Kobolds, who could really benefit from counting as Goblinoids.

Also, by any taxonomical measure, Akki aren’t goblins. They’re hairless, covered in scales, and have a spikey carapace. I understand that they were designed to be goblins and act like goblins from a gameplay perspective, but it’s really weird to see a race of lizardfolk categorized as goblins instead of lizard or viashino.

But this is just me being nitpicky. Goblin’s got great support throughout magic, has a clear identity, and can be played in any format. It’s the best a creature type can get without becoming problematic like Human.

[cuetlaxochitl]

loki finale ask (finally)

tbf i didn’t really go in blind because i am an internet addict. parts that were already spoiled for me include:

mobius doesnt know who loki is 😭

sylvie and loki kiss (why!) & she immediately transports him back to the tva. so presumably wasn't actually that romantic, just manipulative (still bad)

the multiverse gets created

kang is the one who remains

actually watching the episode taught me that:

kang created the tva is because he’s a genius egomaniac who wanted to keep himself safe from all the other genius egomaniac versions of himself (this totally works given his comic origins, he's dealt with many versions of himself, eg. immortus, but i have a lot more questions below)

sylki kiss was definitely not romantic. she tricked him so she could kill kang. (still not a good enough excuse smh)

my interpretation of their fight: neither loki nor sylvie, if they 100% knew that kang was telling the truth about the tva, would kill kang. sylvie told loki she was doing this because she thought he was lying. (not totally true to loki's characterization imo, i'd think that both loki and sylvie would rather deal with infinite kangs than give up on free will)

new mobius doesn't know who loki is not because the tva wiped his memories, but because this is a totally different version of mobius (unmined angst potential imo)

ravonna fights mobius, lets him live, and goes out in search of "free will", and may align with kang in the future, since ravonna in the comics is kang's wife. (curious to see what they do with her. i have Thoughts on her place in the whole religious allegory of the show i will explore in my wowki fanfic)

me overthinking things

if kang knows all why would he go through all this trouble to lead loki and sylvie here? he couldn't have done this in an easier, less heartbreaking way? his plan was so contrived :/

one question i've kinda pushed aside for the show is: what kind of time travel disruption would qualify for a nexus event? because technically any variation, no matter how small, should create a branch in the timeline, because 2 contradictory things can't happen in the same timeline at the same time. but now we might have a kind of answer: if kang founded the tva to avoid other versions of kang, he doesn't need to make sure there's 1 sacred timeline, he'd just need to make sure all the variations are so small that the infinite timelines are basically the same, so there's basically infinity copies of the same timeline in existence, thus averting multiversal war between egotistical kangs.

why was there that arbitrary barrier past which kang couldn't see? yeah, ✨suspense✨ and ✨plot✨, but it's arbitrary, and it really would've made no difference if he knew what happened to him. in fact i quite like the idea of kang walking into his own death.

thoughts that don't really fit on this list

the finale was awful. not just the sylki kiss & bad narrative choices or whatever. there was so much padding and exposition, jonathan majors's performance totally took me out of it (i doubt he's a bad actor, this episode didn't give him a good opportunity to shine), the writing was super slow and bad, this ep could have been slimmed down to like 15 minutes because not a lot actually happened.

natalie holt's music — both the titles (lokius!) and the actual tracks — slap so hard. probably the best soundtrack in the mcu other than black panther. she really gets the show

production & costume design of everything related to kang was amazing, felt very vast, old, and regal

sylvie is acutally a surprisingly well-realized woman character and i'm quite proud of the show for that. (unfortunately neither her nor b-15 are fully realized until they kiss each other which has not happened as of yet)

please watch this it has brought me great comfort

HIIII so happy u saw it <3

1. YEAH :’) that broke me .

2. IKR i am Not a Fan and yeah! it was a manipulative kiss so sylvie could get what she wants but there are so many other things they could’ve went with !!!!!

3 + 4. damn it sucks that u got spoiled for those but yeah that’s what new in the em c you !!

——

1. yep! i don’t know much about his comic origins but from what i know it seems pretty in character

2. exactly!!!!!! and yeah it’s not a good enough excuse they could’ve gone with anything else !!!!

3. yeah !! i think both options (killing kang and fighting other versions of him / ruling the timeline) seemed pretty loki HJSKD but i feel like he’s gone through lots of character development through the show and i thought they would both go with killing kang but i guess not dhdjjfjd

4. yep and it hurts . so much .

5. yeah that makes sense !! and yeah i’m curious to see what they do with her, she felt kind of vague and didn’t have enough good motives to be a villain, so yeah i’m curious to see where her character goes !!!

——

1. yeah his plan kinda backfired HJSJDJD but i guess it works for plot HJSKDKD

2.

that’s a lot of thinking to do but i think ur right !!

3. yeah ! i think that ✨suspense✨ was nice for a minute but him walking in to his own death seems way more fun

——

1. yeah it was really,,,,,,, boring ? idk i wasn’t really interested yknow? there was a lot of talky talky (ha mobius reference am i cool) so yeah this ep could’ve been a Lot better but it is what it is i guess

2. YES !!! everyday i was up and think about the opening of ep 5 (was it ep 5? i think it was yeah) but anyway i could listen to the soundtrack for HOURS

3. YEAHH they made him really interesting so i’m excited to see him again !!!

4. YES i think that’s why so many people love her bc she was really well written and she didn’t turn out to be the whole “woman helps man to get what he wants” trope !!!! she actually got what she was going for in the end so yeah !!!! also so true manifesting sylvie and hunter b 15 kiss next season

5. HAAHHAHAHH i love that tysm my day is blessed

[za3k]

2020 Videogames

In 2020 I’m newly retired, so I’ve had free time. I think it’s fun to do reviews, so without further ado here’s every video game I played in 2020!

I recommend:

(4/5) Among Us – Very fun. It’s only fun with voice chat with friends, so I’ve only gotten to play once or twice. I’ve been watching it more than playing it. Also free to play for mobile gamers–I’m tired of the “everyone buys a copy” model of group gameplay.

(4/5) Brogue. Brogue is an ascii-art roguelike. It’s great, and it has a nice difficulty ramp. It’s a good “quick break” game. I play it in preference to other roguelikes partly because I haven’t done it to death yet, and partly because I don’t need a numpad?

(4/5) Cook Serve Delicious 3. One of the more fun games I played this year. You get really into it, but I had trouble relaxing and paying attention to the real world when I played too much, haha. I own but haven’t played the first two–I gather this is pretty much just a refinement.

(4/5) Green Hell. Price tag is a bit high for the number of hours I got out of it, but I haven’t finished the story. Great graphics, and the BEST map design I’ve seen in a 3D game in a long time. It feels like a real place, with reasonable geography instead of copy-pasted tiles. I love that as you walk along, you can just spot a cultivated area from the rest of the jungle–it feels more like it’s treating me like an adult than most survival games. Everything still gets highlighted if you can pick it up. I played the survival mode, which was okay but gets old quickly. I started the story mode–I think it would be fine, but it has some LONG unskippable scenes at the start, including a very hand-holdy tutorial, that I think they should have cut. I did start getting into the story and was having fun, but I stopped. I might finish the game some time.

(4/5) Hyperrogue. One of my recent favorites. The dev has made a fair number of highly experimental games, most of which are a total miss with me, but this one is fun. I do wish the early game wasn’t quite as repetitive. Failing another solution, I might actually want this not to be permadeath, or to have a save feature? I bought it on steam to support the dev and get achievements, but it’s also available a version or two behind free, which is how I tried it. Constantly getting updates and new worlds.

(4/5) Minecraft – Compact Claustrophobia modpack. Fun idea, nice variety. After one expansion felt a little samey, and it was hard to start with two people. I’d consider finishing this pack.

(4/5) Overcooked 2. Overcooked 2 is just more levels for Overcooked. The foods in the second game is more fun, and it has better controls and less bugs. If you’re considering playing Overcooked, I recommend just starting with the second game, despite very fun levels in the first. I especially appreciate that the second game didn’t just re-use foods from the first.

(4/5) Please Don’t Press Anything. A unique little game where you try to get all the endings. I had a lot of fun with this one, but it could have used some kind of built-in hints like Reventure. Also, it had a lot of red herrings. Got it for $2, which it was well worth.

(5/5) Reventure. Probably the best game new to me this year. It’s a short game where you try to get each of about 100 endings. The art and writing are cute and funny. The level design is INCREDIBLE. One thing I found interesting is the early prototype–if I had played it, I would NOT have imagined it would someday be any fun at all, let alone as amazing as it is. As a game designer I found that interesting! I did 100% complete this one–there’s a nice in-game hint system, but there were still 1-3 “huh” puzzles, especially in the post-game content, one of which I had to look up. It’s still getting updates so I’m hoping those will be swapped for something else.

(5/5) Rimworld. Dwarf fortress, but with good cute graphics, set in the Firefly universe. Only has 1-10 pawns instead of hundreds of dwarves. Basically Dwarf Fortress but with a good UI. I wish you could do a little more in Rimworld, but it’s a fantastic, relaxing game.

(5/5) Slay the Spire. Probably the game I played most this year. A deckbuilding adventure through a series of RPG fights. A bit luck-based, but relaxing and fun. I like that you can play fast or slow. Very, very well-designed UI–you can really learn how things work. My favorite part is that because it’s singleplayer, it’s really designed to let you build a game-breaking deck. That’s how it should be!

(4/5) Stationeers. I had a lot of fun with this one. It’s similar to Space Engineers but… fun. It has better UI by a mile too, even if it’s not perfect. I lost steam after playing with friends and then going back to being alone, as I often do for base-building games. Looks like you can genuinely make some complicated stuff using simple parts. Mining might not be ideal.

(5/5) Spy Party. One of my favorite games. Very fun, and an incredibly high skill ceiling. There’s finally starting to be enough people to play a game with straners sometimes. Bad support for “hot seat”–I want to play with beginners in person, and it got even harder with the introduction of an ELO equivalent and removing the manual switch to use “beginner” gameplay.

(4/5) Telling Lies. A storytelling game. The core mechanic is that you can use a search engine for any phrase, and it will show the top 5 survellance footage results for that. The game internally has transcripts of every video. I didn’t really finish the game, but I had a lot of fun with it. The game was well-made. I felt the video acting didn’t really add a huge amount, and they could have done a text version, but I understand it wouldn’t have had any popular appeal. The acting was decent. There’s some uncomfortable content, on purpose.

(4/5) Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS). Delightful. Very silly, not what you’d expect from the name. What everyone should have been doing with physics engines since they were invented. Imagine that when a caveman attacks, the club moves on its own and the caveman just gets ragdolled along, glued to it. Also the caveman and club have googley eyes. Don’t try to win or it will stop being fun. Learn how to turn on slo-mo and move the camera.

(4/5) We Were Here Together. Lots of fun. I believe the second game out of three. Still some crashes and UI issues. MUCH better puzzles and the grpahics are gorgeous. They need to fix the crashes or improve the autosave, we ended up replaying a lot of both games from crashes. It’s possible I should be recommending the third game but I haven’t played it yet.

The Rest

(3/5) 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel. More fun that it sounds. If you play to mess around and win by accident, it’s pretty good. Definitely play with a second human player, though.

(1.5/5) 7 billion humans. Better than the original, still not fun. Soulless game about a soulless, beige corporation. Just play Zachtronics instead. If you’re on a phone and want to engage your brain, play Euclidea.

(3/5) A Dark Room. Idle game.

(1/5) Amazing Cultivation Simulator. A big disappointment. Bad english voice acting which can’t be turned off, and a long, unskippable tutorial. I didn’t get to actual gameplay. I like Rimworld and cultivation novels so I had high hopes.

(3/5) ADOM (Steam version) – Fun like the original, which I would give 5/5. Developed some major issues on Linux, but I appreciate that there’s a graphical version available, one of my friends will play it now.

(4/5) agar.io – Good, but used to be better. Too difficult to get into games now. Very fun and addictive gameplay.

(3/5) Amorous – Furry dating sim. All of the hot characters are background art you can’t interact with, and the characters you can actually talk to are a bunch of sulky nerds who for some reason came to a nightclub. I think it was free, though.

(0/5) Apis. Alpha game, AFAIK I was the first player. Pretty much no fun right now (to the point of not really being a game yet), but it could potentially become fun if the author puts in work.

(4/5) Autonauts. I played a ton of Autonauts this year, almost finished it, which is rare for me. My main complaint is that it’s fundamentally supposed to be a game about programming robots, but I can’t actually make them do more than about 3 things, even as a professional programmer. Add more programming! It can be optional, that’s fine. They’re adding some kind of tower defense waves instead, which is bullshit. Not recommended because it’s not for everyone.

(3/5) A-Z Inc. Points for having the guts to have a simple game. At first this looked like just the bones of Swarm Simulator, but the more you look at the UI and the ascension system, the worse it actually is. I would regularly reset because I found out an ascension “perk” actually made me worse off.

(5/5) Beat Saber. Great game, and my favorite way to stay in shape early this year. Oculus VR only, if you have VR you already have this game so no need to recommend. Not QUITE worth getting a VR set just to play it at current prices.

(1/5) Big Tall Small. Good idea, but no fun to play. Needed better controls and level design, maybe some art.

(0.5/5) Blush Blush. Boring.

(3/5) Business Shark. I had too much fun with this simple game. All you do is just eat a bunch of office workers.

(3/5) chess.com. Turns out I like chess while I’m high?

(3/5) Circle Empires Rivals. Decent, more fun than the singleplayer original. It shouldn’t really have been a separate game from Circle Empires, and I’m annoyed I couldn’t get it DRM-free like the original.

(3/5) Cross Virus. By Dan-box. Really interesting puzzle mechanics.

(4/5) Cultist Simulator. Really fun to learn how to play–I love games that drop you in with no explanation. Great art and writing, I wish I could have gotten their tarot deck. Probably the best gameplay “ambience” I’ve seen–getting a card that’s labeled “fleeting sense of radiance” that disappears in 5 seconds? Great. Also the core stats are very well thought out for “feel” and real-life accuracy–dread (depression) conquers fascination (mania), etc. It has a few gameplay gotchas, but they’re not too big–layout issues, inability to go back to skipped text, or to put your game in an unwinnable state early on). Unfortunately it’s a “roguelike”, and it’s much too slow-paced and doesn’t have enough replay value, so it becomes a horrible, un-fun grind when you want to actually win. I probably missed the 100% ending but I won’t be going back to get it. I have no idea who would want to play this repeatedly. I’m looking forward to the next game from the same studio though! I recommend playing a friend’s copy instead of buying.

(2/5) Darkest Dungeon. It was fine but I don’t really remember it.

(2/5) Dicey Dungeons. Okay deck-building roguelike gameplay (with an inventory instead of a deck). Really frustrating, unskippably slow difficulty curve at the start. I played it some more this year and liked it better because I had a savegame. I appreciate having several character classes, but they should unlock every difficulty from the start.

(2/5) Diner Bros. Basically just a worse Overcooked. I didn’t like the controls, and it felt too repetitive with only one diner.

(2/5) Don’t Eat My Mind You Stupid Monster. Okay art and idea, the gameplay wasn’t too fun for me.

(2/5) Don’t Starve – I’ve played Don’t Stave maybe 8 different times, and it’s never really gripped me, I always put it back down. It’s slow, a bit grindy, and there’s no bigger goal–all you can do is live.

(3/5) Don’t Starve Together – Confusingly, Don’t Starve Together can be played alone. It’s Don’t Starve, plus a couple of the expansions. This really could be much more clearly explained.

(1/5) Elemental Abyss – A deck-builder, but this time it’s grid-based tactics. Really not all that fun. Just play Into the Abyss instead or something.

(1/5) Else Heart.Break() – I was excited that this might be a version of “Hack N’ Slash” from doublefine that actually delivered and let you goof around with the world. I gave it up in the first ten minutes, because the writing and characters drove me crazy, without getting to hacking the world.

(2/5) Everything is Garbage. Pretty good for a game jam game. Not a bad use of 10 minutes. I do think it’s probably possible to make the game unwinnable, and the ending is just nothing.

(1/5) Evolve. Idle game, not all that fun. I take issue with the mechanic in Sharks, Kittens, and this where buying your 15th fence takes 10^15 wood for some reason.

(4/5) Exapunks. Zachtronics has really been killing it lately, with Exapunks and Opus Magnum. WONDERFUL art and characters during story portions, and much better writing. The gameplay is a little more varied than in TIS-100 or the little I played of ShenZen I/O. My main complaint about Zachtronics games continues to be, that I don’t want to be given a series of resource-limited puzzles (do X, but without using more than 10 programming instructions). Exapunks is the first game where it becomes harder to do something /at all/, rather than with a particular amount of resources, but it’s still not there for me. Like ShenZen, they really go for a variety of hardware, too. Can’t recommend this because it’s really only for programmers.

(1/5) Exception. Programming game written by some money machine mobile games company. Awful.

(4/5) Factorio. Factorio’s great, but for me it doesn’t have that much replay value, even with mods. I do like their recent updates, which included adding blueprints from the start of the game, improving belt sorting, and adding a research queue. We changed movement speed, made things visually always day, and adding a small number of personal construction robots from the start this run. I’m sure if you’d like factorio you’ve played it already.

(3/5) Fall Guys – I got this because it was decently fun to watch. Unfortunately, it’s slightly less fun to play. Overall, there’s WAY too much matchmaking waiting considering the number of players, and the skill ceiling is very low on most of the games, some of which are essentially luck (I’m looking at you, team games).

(3/5) Forager – Decent game. A little too much guesswork in picking upgrades–was probably a bit more fun on my second play because of that. Overall, nice graphics and a cute map, but the gameplay could use a bit of work.

(3/5) Getting Over It – Funny idea, executed well. Pretty sure my friends and I have only gotten through 10% of the game, and all hit about the same wall (the first tunnel)

(3/5) Guild of Dungeoneering – Pretty decent gameplay. I feel like it’s a bit too hard for me, but that’s fine. Overall I think it could use a little more cute/fun art, I never quite felt that motivated.

(1/5) Hardspace: Shipbreakers. Okay, I seriously didn’t get to play this one, but I had GAMEBREAKING issues with my controller, which is a microsoft X-box controller for PC–THE development controller.

(2/5) Helltaker. All right art, meh gameplay. But eh, it’s free!

(3/5) Hot Lava. Decent gameplay. Somehow felt like the place that made this had sucked the souls out of all the devs first–no one cared about the story or characters. It’s a game where the floor is made out of lava, with a saturday morning cartoon open, so that was a really an issue. Admirable lack of bugs, though. I’m a completionist so I played the first world a lot to get all the medals, and didn’t try the later ones.

(3/5) House Flipper – Weird, but I had fun. I wish the gameplay was a little more unified–it felt like a bunch of glued-together minigames.

(2/5) Hydroneer. Utterly uninspiring. I couldn’t care about making progress at all, looked like a terrible grind to no benefit.

(1/5) io. Tiny game, I got it on Steam, also available on phone. Basically a free web flash game, but for money. Not good enough to pay the $1 I paid. Just a bit of a time-killer.

(3/5) Islanders – All you do is place buildings and get points. Not particularly challenging, but relaxing. Overall I liked it.

(3/5) Jackbox – I played this online with a streamer. Jackbox has always felt a little bit soulless money grab to me, but it’s still all right. I like that I can play without having a copy–we need more games using this purchase model.

(3/5) Life is Feudal – Soul-crushingly depressing and grindy, which I knew going in. I thought it was… okay, but I really want an offline play mode (Yes, I know there’s an unsupported single-player game, but it’s buggier and costs money). UI was pretty buggy, and I think hunting might literally be impossible.

(2/5) Minecraft – Antimatter Chemistry. Not particularly fun.

(3/5) Minecraft – ComputerCraft. I played a pack with just ComputerCraft and really nothing else. Was a little slow, would have been more fun with more of an audience. I love the ComputerCraft mod, I just didn’t have a great experience playing my pack I made.

(3/5) Minecraft – Foolcraft 3. Fun, a bit buggy. Honestly I can’t remember it too well.

(1/5) Minecraft – Manufactio. Looked potentially fun, but huge bugs and performance issues, couldn’t play.

(4/5) Minecraft – Tekkit. Tekkit remains one of my favorite Minecraft modpacks.

(3/5) Minecraft – Valhelsia 2. I remember this being fun, but I can’t remember details as much as I’d like. I think it was mostly based around being the latest version of minecraft?

(4/5) Minecraft – Volcano Block. Interesting, designed around some weird mods I hadn’t used. I could have used more storage management or bulk dirt/blocks early in the game–felt quite cramped. Probably got a third of the way through the pack. I got novelty value out of it, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if I had ever used the plant mod before–it’s a very fixed, linear progression.

(5/5) Minit. This is a weird, small game. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Then I 100% completed it, which was less fun but I still had a good time overall.

(3/5) Monster Box. By Dan-box. One of two Dan-box games I played a lot of. Just visually appealing, the gameplay isn’t amazing. Also, Dan-box does some great programming–this is a game written in 1990 or so, and it can render hundreds of arrows in the air smoothly in a background tab.

(3/5) Monster Train. A relatively fun deckbuilding card game. It can’t run well on my computer, which is UNACCEPTABLE–this is a card game with 2D graphics. My MICROWAVE should run this shit in 2020. Ignoring that, the gameplay style (summon monsters, MTG style) just isn’t my cup of tea.

(2/5) Moonlighter. Felt like it was missing some inspiration, just didn’t have a sense of “fun”. The art was nice. The credits list is surprisingly long.

(2/5) Muse Dash. All right, a basic rhythm game. Not enough variety to the game play, and everything was based around perfect or near-perfect gameplay, which makes things less fun for me.

(3/5) NES games – various. Dr Mario, Ice Climbers. Basically, I got some Chinese handheld “gameboy” that has all the NES games preloaded on it. Overall it was a great purchase.

(2/5) Noita. “The Powder Game” by Dan-Box, as a procedurally generated platformer with guns. Lets you design your own battle spells. Despite the description, you really still can’t screw around as much as I’d like. I also had major performance issues

(3/5) Observation. I haven’t played this one as much as I’d like, I feel like it may get better. Storytelling, 3D game from the point of view of the AI computer on a space station. I think I might have read a book it’s based on, unfortunately.

(2/5) One Step From Eden. This is a deck-building combat tactics game. I thought it was turn-based, but it’s actually realtime. I think if it was turn-based I would have liked it. The characters were a bit uninspired.

(1/5) Orbt XL. Very dull. I paid $0.50 for it, it was worth that.

(4/5) Opus Magnum. Another great game from Zachtronics, along with Exapunks they’re really ramping up. This is the third execution of the same basic concept. I’d like to see Zachtronics treading new ground more as far as gameplay–that said, it is much improved compared to the first two iterations. The art, writing, and story were stellar on the other hand.

(3/5) Out of Space. Fun idea, you clean a spaceship. It’s never that challenging, and it has mechanics such that it gets easier the more you clean, rather than harder. Good but not enough replay value. Fun with friends the first few times. The controls are a little wonky.

(1/5) Outpost (tower defense game). I hate all tower defense.

(3/5) Overcooked. Overcooked is a ton of fun.

(4/5) Powder Game – Dan-box. I played this in reaction to not liking Noita. It’s fairly old at this point. Just a fun little toy.

(1/5) Prime Mover – Very cool art, the gameplay put me to sleep immediately. A “circuit builder” game but somehow missing any challenge or consistency.

(2/5) Quest for Glory I. Older, from 1989. Didn’t really play this much, I couldn’t get into the writing, and the pseudo-photography art was a little jarring.

(4/5) Raft. I played this in beta for free on itch.io, and had a lot of fun. Not enough changed that it was really worth a replay, but it has improved, and I got to play with a second player. Not a hard game, which I think was a good thing. The late game they’ve expanded, but it doesn’t really add much. The original was fun and so was this.

(3/5) Satisfactory. I honestly don’t know how I like this one–I didn’t get too far into it.

(4/5) Scrap Mechanic. I got this on a recommendation from a player who played in creative. I only tried the survival mode–that mode is not well designed, and their focuses for survival are totally wrong. I like the core game, you can actually build stuff. If I play again, I’ll try the creative mode, I think.

(3.5/5) Shapez.io. A weird, abstracted simplification of Factorio. If I hadn’t played factorio and half a dozen copies, I imagine this would have been fun, but it’s just more of the same. Too much waiting–blueprints are too far into the game, too.

(2.5/5) Simmiland. Okay, but short. Used cards for no reason. For a paid game, I wanted more gameplay out of it?

(0.5/5) Snakeybus. The most disappointing game I remember this year. Someone made “Snake” in 3D. There are a million game modes and worlds to play in. I didn’t find anything I tried much fun.

(1/5) Soda Dungeon. A “mobile” (read: not fun) style idle game. Patterned after money-grab games, although I don’t remember if paid progress was actually an option. I think so.

(4/5) Spelunky. The only procedurally generated platformer I’ve ever seen work. Genuinely very fun.

(4/5) Spelunky 2. Fun, more of an upgrade of new content than a new game. Better multiplayer. My computer can’t run later levels at full speed.

(1/5) Stick Ranger 2. Dan-box. Not much fun.

(3/5) Superliminal. Fun game. A bit short for the pricetag.

(3/5) Tabletop Simulator – Aether’s End: Legacy. Interesting, a “campaign” (series of challenge bosses and pre-written encounters) deckbuilding RPG. I like the whole “campaign RPG boardgame” idea. This would have worked better with paper, there were some rough edges in both the game instructions and the port to Tabletop Simulator.

(4/5) Tabletop Simulator – The Captain is Dead. Very fun. I’d love to play with more than 2 people. Tabletop simulator was so-so for this one.

(2/5) Tabletop Simulator – Tiny Epic Mechs. You give your mech a list of instructions, and it does them in order. Arena fight. Fun, but I think I could whip up something at least as good.

(3/5) The Council. One of the only 3D games I finished. It’s a story game, where you investigate what’s going on and make various choices. It’s set in revolutionary france, at the Secret World Council that determines the fate of the world. It had a weak ending, with less choice elements than the rest of the game so far, which was a weird decision. Also, it has an EXCRUTIATINGLY bad opening scene, which was also weird. The middle 95% of the game I enjoyed, although the ending went on a little long. The level of background knowledge expected of the player swung wildly–they seemed to expect me to know who revolutionary French generals were with no explanation, but not Daedalus and the Minotaur. The acting was generally enjoyable–there’s a lot of lying going on in the game and it’s conveyed well. The pricetag is too high to recommend.

(0/5) The Grandma’s Recipe (Unus Annus). This game is unplayably bad–it’s just a random pixel hunt. Maybe it would be fun if you had watched the video it’s based on.

(3/5) The Room. Pretty fun! I think this is really designed for a touchscreen, but I managed to play it on my PC. Played it stoned, which I think helps with popular puzzle games–it has nice visuals but it’s a little too easy.

(3/5) This Call May Be Recorded. Goofy experimental game.

(4/5) TIS-100. Zachtronics. A programming game. I finally got done with the first set of puzzles and into the second this year. I had fun, definitely not for everyone.

(3/5) Trine. I played this 2-player. I think the difficulty was much better 2-player, but it doesn’t manage 2 players getting separated well. Sadly we skipped the story, which seemed like simple nice low-fantasy. Could have used goofier puzzles, it took itself a little too seriously and the levels were a bit same-y.

(2/5) Unrailed. Co-op railroad building game. It was okay but there wasn’t base-building. Overall not my thing. I’d say I would prefer something like Overcooked if it’s going to be timed? Graphics reminded me of autonauts.

(2/5) Vampire Night Shift. Art game. Gameplay could have used a bit of polish. Short but interesting.

(4/5) Wayward. To date, the best survival crafting system I’ve seen. You can use any pointy object and stick-like object, together with glue or twine, to make an arrow. The UI is not great, and there’s a very counter-intuitive difficulty system. You need to do a little too much tutorial reading, and it could use more goals. Overall very fun. Under constant development, so how it plays a given week is a crapshoot. The steam version finally works for me (last time I played it was worse than the free online alpha, now it’s the same or better). I recomend playing the free online version unless you want to support the author.

(1/5) We Need to Go Deeper. Multiplayer exploration game in a sub, with sidescrolling battle. Somehow incredibly unfun, together with high pricetag. Aesthetics reminded me of Don’t Starve somehow.

(2/5) We Were Here. Okay 2-player puzzle game. Crashed frequently, and there were some “huh” puzzles and UI. Free.

(3/5) Yes, your grace. Gorgeous pixel art graphics. The story is supposed to be very player-dependent, but I started getting the feeling that it wasn’t. I didn’t quite finish the game but I think I was well past halfway. Hard to resume after a save, you forget things. I got the feeling I wouldn’t replay it, which is a shame because it’s fun to see how things go differently in a second play with something like this.

These are not all new to me, and very few came out in 2020. I removed any games I don’t remember and couldn’t google (a fair number, I play a lot of game jam games) as well as any with pornographic content.

2020 Videogames was originally published on Optimal Prime

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

Why Mary Jane sucks!

The awful character has been praised and protected and given special treatment by the fans, and especially Marvel, for far, far too long. It’s time we all woke up and saw this dreadful character for who she is! As such here are just a few (of a potential 500 I assure you) reasons Mary Jane sucks!

 1.       She’s a readhead

Famously Mary Jane has red hair.

You know what else is red?

Fire.

Fire HURTS people!

What’s Marvel trying to say huh?

That kids should play with fire!

 2.       Her entire character is about drugs

Mary Jane is slang for marijuana. In presenting a sexy character called Mary Jane in the 1960s the deviants that were Stan Lee and John Romita Senior OBVIOUSLY were trying to encourage people to use weed, the most dangerous drug of all time!

 3.       She was clearly the main villain of Into the Spider-Verse

Some months ago a sharp eyed viewer put forward a daring theory.

It stated that Mary Jane betrayed Peter Parker to the Kingpin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Whilst I hold the utmost respect for that poster’s clinical film analysis skills, I have to disagree.

Mary Jane didn’t betray Peter to the Kingpin.

Because the Kingpin was clearly working for her the whole time!

Once you spot the clues it’s incredibly obvious. A subtle but really big example is the Kingpin’s body language throughout the movie. Kids and dumber viewers might not have noticed it but that’s the body language of someone in fear of his superiors, someone who is subservient in absolutely every way.

But WHO could he be working under? Who else but Mary Jane...from Peter B. Parker’s universe.

That’s what makes his ending so tragic. He rings that doorbell at the end of the movie and doesn’t realize he’s delivered himself into the hands of the true evil of the multiverse!

 4.       She made Peter quit being Spider-Man

Whenever I bring this point up people seem to presume I’m talking about the groan inducing years she was married to Spider-Man. Not true. Mary Jane’s toxic influence upon our hero predates that. She didn’t just make him quit during the Spider-Marriage but in fact EVERY time he ever quit.

Spider-Man No More? That was her?

Amazing Spider-Man #17? That was her too! I know Peter hadn’t actually met her back then but facts are facts those 5 minutes he retired were all down to her!

 5.       Marrying Spider-Man made Spider-Man comics bad for 20 years!

It’s been well documented by astute and respected creators like Joe Quesada, Dan Slott and Tom Brevoort many times before, but when Mary Jane married Spider-Man the Spider-Man books tanked big time.

In fact EVERY comic sunk to a new low. Rob Liefeld drew X-Force. Iron Man became a teenager. Superman got a mullet.

This can all be very directly traced back to Mary Jane marrying Spider-Man, a fact I blame the character for first and foremost not the writers. I mean when you have a character like that in your comic books it’s essentially inevitable that good writing isn’t an option.

Thank God for Joe Quesada’s Magmum Opus. Without it we’d have been denied all time classics like Amazing Spider-Man #553, an issue so memorable I don’t even need to reference anything from it. Y’all KNOW what I’m talking about!

 6.       She was RACIST!

Now okay TECHNICALLY Mary Jane was never really been racist.

But subtext is a thing and MJ famously hated Spidey’s black costume and his ex girlfriend Black Cat, both of which were always intended to subtextually represent the African American community.

Thus MJ’s dislike of them was unsubtle as it was bigoted.

Mary Jane hates black people.

 7.       She encourages sadomasochism

Not only is MJ’s name slang for a drug but think about what her name rhymes with?

Pain.

Through her Marvel sought to encourage impressionable readers to harm themselves through subtle subconscious rhyming. Kids aren’t dumb they’d obviously make the connection!

 8.       She ruined lingerie and other underwear

Throughout the Spider Marriage Marvel put Mary Jane in all manner of lingerie and sexy underwear to presumably titillate the readers.

But having such a repugnant character wear such clothing had the adverse effect of making readers repulsed by such items of clothing whenever they saw them.

Think of all the poor souls who read such comics and must have had what amounted to PTSD flashbacks upon walking into clothing stores. Think of the money that must’ve been lost for those businesses as a result.

Think of all the relationships that must’ve wrecked!

For. Shame!!!!!

 9.       She’s totally bland and one note

Let’s review the all time great love interests of Spider-Man’s life shall we?

Cissy Ironwood. Marcy Kane. Deb Whitman. Aprile Maye. Carlie Cooper. Liaeean Taeeang. Gwen Stacy (well once Stan got rolling on her around issue #100 or so).

All brilliant characters who need no introduction. Characters who’s names alone conjur up vivid memories of vital moments they contributed to Spider-Man history for fans far and wide.

Why is that you may ask?

Simple.

Unlike Mary Jane they had personalities!

They had character development!

I mean Marcy Kane’s progression from grad student and teaching assistant into being revealed as an alien is if we’re being honest the greatest character arc of anyone in Spider-Man history. It was so great they had to make the big reveal in the all time classic 1984 Jack of Hearts mini-series! Now you can’t say THAT about Mary Plain!

 10.   Marvel have always preferred her over Gwen Stacy

It’s no secret that the higher ups at Marvel, and this was especially true from the late 1990s onwards, have over idealized, over romanticized and engaged in outright revisionist history when it comes to Mary Jane, building her up as an unattainable level of greatness.

This is especially true of Joe Quesada but credit where credit is due, he was professional enough to divorce his personal feelings towards the character when crafting his opus One More Day and his almost as good sequel One Moment in Time.

But raising up Mary Jane was always at the expense of poor Gwen, surely the most underrated of all Spider-Man love interest, nay, Marvel characters of all time.

When was the last time you EVER saw Gwen get ANY appreciation huh?

Certainly not when they killed her off. Much like ITSV this story is a case of people missing the subtle clues as if you pay close attention, you can see Mary Jane literally pushing Gwen off the bridge and snapping her neck too.

Gwen deserved better of course but alas from then on we could only turn to the oh so occasional flashback to see her again. Because of this red headed devil we were denied such great scenes like that one time Gwen Stacy said she was in love with Peter or that time she cried to her Dad.

Instead we are subjected to garbage like this!

[minijenn]

Universe Falls, Chapter 77, Part 2

Bljahsdjasdhkads over a fucking month since the last chapter was posted and here I come with a fuckin mediocre chapter like this. Nice. Anyway here ya go. Enjoy. (please don’t read this on here formatting sucks read it on ff.net or ao3 instead to get the better experience!)

Previous: 

https://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/611433424860921856/universe-falls-chapter-77-part-1

***

Chapter 77: Adventures in the Multiverse

Part 2: Adrift in the Cosmos 

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So I embarked on a 30-year adventure--a perilous journey through the multiverse to learn what I could about Bill in the hopes of defeating him. In the process, I had many experiences that my younger self might have described as “swashbuckling” if not for the constant nausea that accompanies dimension-hopping!

Within the span of the first year of my travels alone I quickly lost count of the sheer number of different dimensions I found myself falling into. Sometimes my stay in these dimensions would be brief, long enough for me to restock on whatever basic supplies (food, weaponry, wormhole stabilizers) I needed before passing through as quickly as I arrived. Other times I would decide (or more often than not, be forced) to stay in a single dimension for weeks, even months on end, well acquainting myself with the rules and residents (be they friends or foes) of said dimension by the time I left each one. 

Still, I pride myself on how quickly I fell into the routine of steadily-paced interdimensional travel. The oddities of the multiverse, of which there are plenty, perplexed me on just about every level at first. But as I saw more and more of those oddities, many of which defied comprehension when compared to anything I was familiar with back on Earth, the less terrified, and the more fascinated I became. 

It feels as though I lived 100 different lives across all of the countless dimensions I’d been to. I traveled with bandits, learned to speak 13 languages, got in a fistight with a talking chair, and got tattoos with a tribe of octopus-armed warrior piglets. (These tattoos rank among my most serious regrets. Let’s just say I wear my usual turtleneck for a reason!) I studied ancient texts, compared notes with scholars, dined with monsters, and was briefly made king of the Finger Dimension, until a 7-fingered man showed up and I lost my status. And this was all within the first 5 years of my travels alone!

When it comes to those other 25 years, I can truthfully attest that they were just as eventful. There’s certainly never a dull moment in the multiverse! I often found my youthful curious spark returning to me whenever I ventured across a new locale, and on many occasions, yearned to have any of my familiar journals on hand to document everything that I saw (which is why I suppose it’s rather cathartic to be finally writing my journey out after all this time, I suppose). It’s certainly true that not every dimension I came across was a safe harbor; many, in fact were practically unlivable for longer than a few hours at a time. At the same time, others were rife with barbaric, hostile beings and creatures who attacked first and asked questions never. And sandwiched between those worlds were dimensions that were borderline bizarre in every sense of the word. While I did often yearn for the (relative) normalcy of my home back in Gravity Falls and the reliable company of Rose and the Gems in particular in those first few years, that yearning paled in comparison to the incredible discoveries and sights I got to experience, far beyond anything any other human has seen for sure. 

Still, it wasn’t always an exciting, explorative adventure. Survival was one of my highest priorities, lest I fall short of my main goal of stopping Bill before I could even come close. Thanks to my quick wit (and dimensional translator), I was able to talk my way into and out of food and shelter--although a number of dimensions consider me an outlaw to this day. Ironically, in the multiverse, I’m just as wanted as Stanley! But my crimes had a noble purpose: I only stole supplies to work on my Quantum Destabilizer, which proved to be one of the most difficult inventions I ever worked on. 

The Destabilizer was the product of many a sleepless nights during those first few years adrift. I knew from the start that if I was going to face off against Bill, I would need to go up against him far more prepared than I had been during my first unintentional outing in the Nightmare Realm. That preparation would come in the form of a weapon, one that would be armed with all of the knowledge I would go on to obtain about Bill through my travels in the hopes that it would be just strong enough to obliterate him once and for all. Certainly, I reasoned, something out there within the vast, endless cosmos had to possess that power; it was merely a matter of finding it first. 

So my search for parts and for information alike went into full swing as I hopped between the untold sprawl of distant worlds. To fully chronicle my adventures would take 10 volumes (at least!), but here’s a catalog of some of the most outlandish dimensions I saw… 

The M Dimension

Ugh! Writing about this place after all these years has brought back to life the extreme frustration I felt while I was trapped there! The whole reality offended my ordered and scientific mind. I mean, how does it even make sense for a vacuum to be shaped like an M??

If you think that’s dumb, try looking at their alphabet: it’s just the letter “M” 26 times! Why does a universe like this even exist! Why did I have to spend time there? Why did they keep telling me to “mave a monderful mime!”?

Even though I was feeling “muicidal” after just ten minutes there, at least they were relatively kind to me, considering how strange I must have looked to them. Not like the people in the Symbol Dimension. Those guys are @$$&@!!s!

The Do-Over Dimension

Also known as the Yo-Yo Dimension and the Go Insane Because Nothing Gets Done Dimension (the last name being the most accurate but the least poetic). This is a world where time moves both forward and backward in a seemingly random manner. So you may have a really crummy week but then get a chance to do it all over again. Or just as you complete high school, you may live backward all the way to kindergarten. 

The Do-Over dimension can move forward normally for really long spans of time or “yo-yo” back and forth several times in one day. Professional “timelineologists” are like weathermen who try to accurately predict “what the time will be like” on any given day. As the old saying goes, “one step forward, infinite steps back, then two and a half steps forward, for no discernable reason”. 

Lottocron Nine (The Gambling Dimension)

It’s like the mob took over this entire galaxy. Except there is no mob, because gambling is not only legal here, it's mandatory.

Every aspect of life is left up to chance in this dimension. Cynn City, the central governing authority of the Gambling Dimension, lands on whatever planet wins the yearly lottery to host it. Babies learn to roll dice before they can learn to walk, and no one over the age of five goes anywhere without their lucky deck of cards. Even choosing your soul mate is left up to Lady Luck. Luckily, the government is effective. The Galactic Senate meets at the track every Saturday to debate (bet) on their favorite laws. 

Stan would have loved this place, but it just made me depressed. Although I had a good run in the Gambling Dimension, the dimensional bouncers ended up kicking me out for counting cards! What are the odds? 

The Locked Door Dimension

What’s behind door number one? Who knows? Because you can’t open it. Because you don’t have the right key. 

As yet another one of the more aggravating dimensions I had the misfortune of coming across, the Locked Door Dimension is really nothing more than a winding, endless hallway with doors lining both sides. Each and every one of those doors is locked, but fear not! The moment you arrive there, a key just so happens to land right at your feet. The only problem is that key only unlocks one door out of the thousands, maybe millions this dimension is made up of! 

So with no other options, you go from door to door, trying your key out on each one of them and it works on seemingly none of them. But what happens when you finally reach the door that your key does unlock? I… honestly have no idea. My time in the Locked Door Dimension was mercifully cut short as I happened upon a wormhole just short of me losing my sanity. Part of me would have liked to have kept my key as a souvenir, but I admittedly tossed that thing out the moment I left. Still, I can’t help but wonder what would have been behind my door if I hadn’t…

The Delicious Dimension

This place is something Hansel and Gretal could only dream of. Every non-living material object here is completely edible! Now, this isn’t in the sense that everything is made of food (in fact, “food” in the traditional sense doesn’t even exist here, largely since it doesn’t need to). A clock still looks like an average clock and a candle is still very much a candle. It’s just that you can eat both the clock and the candle without needing to be rushed to the hospital right after. 

Have you ever wondered what a table tastes like? What about a car? Look no further than this dimension for the answers! I have to say I was caught off guard the first time I spotted someone here down a notepad whole. But then I got to try a few of this dimension’s delicacies for myself and I was pleasantly surprised. Who knew a pillow of all things could taste so good? 

...Actually, now that I’m writing this out, I realize just how… uncomfortably odd this dimension was in retrospect. Moving on!

 As the years drew on, my quest to defeat Bill eventually led me to a strange world that I mistakenly believed to be his birthplace… 

The Two-Dimension Dimension (Exwhylia)

A dimension that was by far different than any I had encountered this far by the mere composition of it alone. It is, as its name implies, completely two dimensional in every single way. In fact, my three dimensional body intersected perpendicular to the plane this dimension exists on, to the point that I was literally on eye-level with its rather simplistic residents. With that in mind, you might think me to be a god in their world--but not so much. 

From my ill-suited point of view, I couldn’t make out much of the world of Exwhylia. My 3-D eyes were worthless in their 2-D world! There is no sky above them and no sun to bathe them in directional light and create shadows. “Above” and “below” are directions that they know nothing about and do not exist to them whatsoever. Still, I was able to glean exactly how their strangely hierarchical society worked. Circles are at the peak of their class system, considered to be the upper crust of Exwhylian society. Far below them are the lowly triangles, sub-class citizens with hardly any rights or dignity to speak of under their rounded overlords. These shapes moved about on their flat plane littered with squarish buildings and countless other indiscernible objects I couldn’t quite make out as identical as everything in their world looked like to me. 

I believed Bill came from a similar world that was mysteriously destroyed. But how? I didn’t have much time to investigate. The Exwhylians considered me to be an “Irregular” shape, which is vulgar in their society.

I was unable to explain myself, since my mouth was stuck outside of their world, and I soon found myself under attack. Though small, the Exwhylians’ bodies are razor-sharp, and several hundred of them began slicing into my head in an assault I was powerless to put an end to. 

Luckily, I was saved just in time by one of the most extraordinary creatures I’ve ever encountered… 

Ford wasn’t sure exactly at what point he’d blacked out; likely around the time the Exwhylians had slammed their tiny two-dimensional bodies straight into his eyes for the hundredth time over. Yet as he managed to open his eyes, he found that they didn’t sting anywhere near as much as he thought they would, allowing him a starting glimpse of exactly where he was now. 

Fortunately, he seemed to be back in a fully three dimensional plain, with no aggressive Exwhylians in sight. What was in sight was a far more serene setting than the last dimension he’d found himself in. He was lying quite comfortably on a heavily cushioned bed, positioned in a well-decorated open-air room. It’s outer walls were non-existent, instead bordered by sturdy marble pillars, between which a grand view of what lay beyond them: a beautiful panorama of the sprawling natural landscape that lay down below the high mountain peak the unknown building rested on. The craggy hilltops and lush green valleys admittedly reminded Ford of Earth, and he would have even believed himself to be back in his own dimension if not for the skies that were painted in a kaleidoscope of colors that an Earthly atmosphere would have typically never known. 

Even so, the author slowly, carefully sat up, perplexed by how he’d gotten to such a strange setting in the first place. Still, he could hardly complain considering how starkly calm and peaceful this dimension was compared to Exwhylia. And yet, his guard immediately raised as he noticed the curtain covering the doorway on the far side of the room begin to sweep aside as a mysterious silhouette appeared just behind it. Far too familiar with the feeling of being cornered or trapped by now, Ford’s fight or flight instinct quickly kicked in as he searched himself for any of his weapons, only to find that they, along with the rest of his supplies, had been set aside on the opposite end of the room entirely. He nearly jumped up to retrieve them, despite how his bones and muscles alike ached from lack of recent use. That is, until he got a clear view of exactly who was emerging from behind the curtain. 

“Ah, so you’ve finally awakened…” The smooth, yet deep feminine voice addressed him as its owner properly stepped into the room. She was a tall, yet elegant figure, her otherwise humanoid appearance made a bit more alien by the pale blue pigmentation of her skin, which matched her much darker blue thick, hooded gown quite well. But what was most fascinating about her by far were her eyes, largely since there were seven of them in total, each of them a different vibrant color as they all stared at the author almost piercingly.

“W-who are you?” Ford asked, somewhat unnerved by her practically captivating gaze. 

“Fear not, Stanford Pines,” she said, raising a hand to calm him. “I mean you no harm.”

“How… how do you know who I am?” Ford asked, eyeing her warily as he stole another brief glance at his weapons. “Where are we?” 

She smiled at this, her manner still completely level compared to the author’s obvious uncertainty. “Forgive me for answering your inquiries somewhat out of order,” she said. “To start, as an oracle, it is my gift and my responsibility to know of the past, the present, and the future. My name is Jheselbraum the Unswerving and we are in the world I call home, Dimension 52.”

“...An oracle?” Ford eased up a bit, though he still raised an eyebrow at this. 

“Oh, that’s right,” Jheselbraum said as she strolled to the other end of the room. “Natives of your dimension don’t tend to take much stock in the foresight of oracles and seers anymore, do they?”

Ford couldn’t help but crack the slightest of smiles at this in spite of himself. “I don’t know if that’s entirely true. After all, an old friend of mine dabbles in glimpsing into the future herself.”

“Ah yes, one of the Crystal Gems,” Jheselbraum nodded knowingly. “The one you speak of is called Garnet, though there’s also Amethyst, Pearl, and of course… the Gem you know as… Rose Quartz, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Wait…” Ford frowned, caught off guard by such an accurate listing. “You almost make it sound as though you’ve met them…”

“After looking through your past, Stanford, I feel as though I might as well have,” Jheselbraum remarked, turning back to face him. 

“I’d… argue that could be considered a breach of privacy…” the author said dubiously. 

Surprisingly, Jheselbraum simply laughed at this, her light chuckle just as mysteriously graceful as everything else about her. “Then I apologize for the intrusion. I’ll make sure to ask you the next time I decide to pilfer through your personal timeline. How does that sound?”

“Better…?” Ford replied, still unsure of what to make of the seemingly amicable oracle. “In the meantime, do you mind telling me exactly how I wound up here in… what was it again? Dimension 51?”

“52,” Jheselbraum corrected. “And I suppose you could say I’ve been expecting your arrival here for quite some time. Of course, I did take the liberty of pulling you out of peril; those Exwhylians didn’t exactly show you the greatest hospitality, did they?”

“I’ll say…” Ford huffed as he placed a gentle hand against one of the many bandaged cuts on his cheek. 

“So I brought you here, and got to work tending to your various wounds both old and new,” the oracle continued her explanation. “In case you’re wondering, you’ve been unconscious for roughly a week.”

“A week?!” Ford balked, baffled. 

“Hm. Considering your unsteady relationship with sleep in the past, I would have thought that such a lengthy rest would be more than welcome,” Jheselbraum mused. “Even so, there’s no need to thank me for my services. After all, I must admit that I do have a rather… selfish reason for bringing you here, Stanford.”

“Oh? And what might that ‘reason’ be?” Ford asked, eyeing the oracle suspiciously once more. 

Jheselbraum’s rather light manner turned serious, almost grave at this as she took a step closer to the author. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but word of you and your story has spread far and wide across the multiverse, Stanford Pines. Many in worlds you’ve never even been to before have heard tell of your great ambition, to bring an end to the demon known as Bill Cipher. And I must tell you, that bold and noble cause, you and I are very much alike.”

Ford was completely caught off guard by this revelation, to the point that all he could do for several minutes was stare at the oracle in awe. He knew that he was a wanted man, he had been for several years now, particularly in dimensions where it was clear that Bill had some sort of influence. Likewise, in his travels, he had encountered many creatures and people who cowered in fear at the mere mention of the dream demon, his trickery and treachery extending far and wide to ruin countless lives across the multiverse. And yet, never before had he met someone who seemed intent on actually taking Bill down other than himself… until now. 

“You… want to defeat Bill too?” Ford asked quietly, incredulously. 

“I don’t necessarily want to defeat him myself for that’s not the hand that fate is destined to deal me,” Jheselbraum countered calmly. “But I do wish to see him defeated. For untold eons, Cipher has cast a pall of terror across the innocent denizens of the multiverse. I cannot even begin to tell you just how many minds he has broken, how many worlds he’s left in an upheaval of chaos. I have stood on the fringes, spending centuries watching his wickedness spread further and further across the cosmos and yet no one has ever possessed the courage or the might to face his destructive power head-on. No one… until you, I suppose.”

“Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know if I’d necessarily call my mission entirely ‘noble’,” Ford noted earnestly. “Bill tricked me; he took advantage of my foolish eagerness to succeed to get what he wanted and in the process, his deception cost me more than I could have ever imagined. This isn’t just about defeating him; it’s about forcing him to experience every bit of shame and humiliation he put me through. It’s about getting even.”

Jheselbraum’s expression was unreadable upon hearing this, though all seven of her multi-colored eyes were steadily set on Ford all the while. “Many good men have been driven to madness in the stubborn pursuit of revenge,” she cautioned simply, though decided to make no further comment as she went off on a different tangent entirely. “Even so, as you are now, you would unfortunately be… ill-equipped to face Cipher again and survive. Especially given how narrow your last escape from him proved to be.”

“Well, I can assure you my next attempt will have Bill trying to escape instead of me,” Ford finally stood, albeit somewhat unsteadily as he crossed the room to show the oracle his half-built Quantum Destabilizer. “As long as I have this on hand, then he won’t stand a chance. O-once it’s completed, of course.”

“But a weapon alone can only do so much,” Jheselbraum pointed out as she walked over to him, making Ford note just how much she towered over him. Much like Rose used to, really. “You already know well by now that Cipher strikes the fiercest at the part of a person that’s the most difficult to protect: the mind. Deceptive and cunning as he is, he’s a renowned master of the mindscape, and the damage he can inflict there is far worse than anything he or his minions can do to you physically. Which is why, above all else, if you truly wish to face him again, then you must fortify your mind at all costs.”

“Fortify my mind…” Ford repeated, open to just about any idea that could help him best Bill once and for all. “I don’t suppose you know of any special spells or ancient incantations, or heck, even just a few mental exercises that could do that in a relatively short amount of time… do you?”

“To tell the truth, magic would be of little use here,” the oracle replied. “And when I said you need to fortify your mind, I meant that in the literal sense. A metallic plate, titanium to be exact, inserted directly over the parietal lobe, would more than suffice to protect the inner workings of your mind from Cipher’s immaterial form. I’d be more than willing to perform the operation, but I must warn you that it is notoriously difficult and incredibly high-risk. If even the slightest complication arose, the chances of your survival would be-”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ford interjected by holding a hand up. “Let me get all of this straight. You want me to trust you, someone I’ve literally just met who claims she can see my entire life history, to insert a piece of metal into my skull in a surgery that could very well end up killing me… just on the off chance that it might be able to stop Bill from getting inside my head?”

“Not might, will,” Jheselbraum corrected, all seven of her eyes bearing down into Ford’s. “If this procedure is a success, then I can guarantee you, Stanford Pines, that the only place within the mindscape that Bill Cipher will be able to reach you from will be within your dreams. But any other mental attack he tries to land against you within the waking world will miss its mark absolutely. And even more than that… Cipher will never be able to possess your mind or body as his own ever again…”

Ford’s eyes widened with stunned surprise upon hearing this promise, a promise so hopeful and reassuring that it almost sounded too good to be true. In the torturous weeks efore he’d been tossed into the portal, he had lived in nearly endless fear, wondering when, not if, Bill would launch a vicious assault upon his mind and body by taking them for agonizing joy rides whenever he least expected it. Even after he’d ventured out into the multiverse, after he’d cleared the horrors of the Nightmare Realm, that nagging fear of the dream demon besetting him in the most twisted of ways always persisted in the back of his mind. But now, here was a chance, albeit a risky one, to put that fear to rest once and for all. To beat Cipher at his own game before the game even had a chance to begin. To finally, finally be strong enough to stand up to the demon who had taken so much from him, even if he could never really hope to take any of it back. 

“Yes,” he said without even thinking twice. Perhaps it was that hopeful promise, or the thin mountain air or something else entirely, but Ford was confident that this choice was the right one. As long as the procedure actually ended up working, of course. “Yes, let’s do it. Right away, as soon as possible.”

“Are you absolutely certain?” Jheselbraum asked, admittedly surprised by his easy acceptance. 

“Positive,” Ford nodded, resolved to do whatever it took to bring a long-awaited end to his sinister foe. “In fact, I’ve never been more certain of anything else in my entire life.”

A soft smile finally returned to the oracle’s face at this, one that reminded the author that her determination to see Bill stopped was every bit as strong as his was. And through all of the struggles he’d been through across the multiverse, he’d finally managed to gain an ally who could actually help him do just that. “Very well. Then let’s get started.”

Though Ford had only just regained consciousness after a week of being completely out of it, he didn’t protest to Jheselbraum putting him under again that very same day for the sake of carrying out the operation. Despite the oracle’s claims that the surgery would be an arduous process, Ford was completely out of it for the duration, and mercifully so considering just how long it actually took to finish. Still, once it was finally completed, Jheselbraum let the author rest and recover for as long as he needed to, carefully bandaging up the incision wounds and monitoring his vitals while he slept for well over a day’s time. 

When Ford did finally awaken, he was still rather bleary and unfocused, a natural side effect of an intensive skeletal surgery according to Jheselbraum, though her plethora of unique natural remedies certainly helped ease the migraines that also came along with it. By the time the author was completely coherent again, the oracle estimated that he’d still need about a week of bed rest to fully recover, which was something Ford didn’t protest too much. After all, he’d waited this long to put an end to Bill already; he could afford to wait just a little longer. 

Said wait was made all the more bearable by Jheselbraum herself. The oracle was steadfast yet mysterious, though she also had a bit of a coy, playful side to her personality that shined through her calm and collected exterior every now and again. Because of their shared goal and ambition, it didn’t take long for Ford’s fledgling trust toward the oracle to become a genuine liking, one that was clearly mutual as an earnest friendship began to blossom between the pair. In many ways, Jheselbraum fondly reminded Ford of each of the Crystal Gems as she shared Garnet’s ability in foresight, Pearl’s respectable intellect, even Amethyst’s penchant for mischief, albeit in a much more lowkey way. But above all else, her hospitality, reliability, and endless desire for justice and peace always made Ford think of Rose, almost achingly so as he realized just how much he missed his once-close friend. And while the chances of him ever seeing that friend again were low, at the very least he had managed to make a brand-new one in Jheselbraum. 

The pair discussed various things during the author’s recovery period, though the topic they typically tended to linger on was none other than Bill himself. Given her lengthy lifespan and years of research and searching through the sands of time, Jheselbraum had a vast array of knowledge concerning the dream demon. Such knowledge fascinated Ford to no end, for he had always believed that if he was ever going to truly defeat his most dangerous foe, then the most important step was to know everything there was to know about that foe. And across his many years of traversing the multiverse, he’d never come across someone who had anywhere near as an encyclopedic wealth of information about him as Jheselbraum herself did. And fortunately for Ford, she was more than willing to share all that she knew with him. 

“Cipher has existed far before the galaxy you call home even burst to life,” the oracle detailed as she filtered through her countless bookshelves and scrolls for whatever documents she had on the demon. “But the dimension he once called home remains a mystery to this very day, largely because it is long gone. All that’s known of it is that Cipher himself, in his greedy thirst for ceaseless power, destroyed his entire world in a fit of violent fury, obliterating everything and everyone he’d ever known, including his own family--whatever a ‘family’ meant for his kind.”

“Bill? Having a family?” Ford asked with a dry scoff. “I find that hard to believe. Then again, if he really did have one once, brutally destroying them is absolutely in-character for him.”

“I won’t argue with you there,” Jheselbraum shook her head as she came to sit on the other side of the table of her lofty library. She laid out a collection of scrolls and manuscripts for the author to see, each of them bearing some sort of visage or information about the dream demon. “Ever since then, Cipher has been scouring the multiverse for a new world to conquer as his own. He settled on the in-between dimension now known as the Nightmare Realm some centuries ago, but as you’ve likely heard, that world is not meant to exist for much longer. He’s set his eye on several other dimensions in the past, but at the moment, he seems by far the most preoccupied with laying claim to your very own Earth. It’s hard to say why he’s so dead-set on making that planet in particular his own, but-”

“But he won’t,” Ford interrupted, his expression stony and severe as he cleared down at one of the images of Bill laying before him. “I’ll make sure he won’t.”

Jheselbraum finally smiled at this. “You know, Stanford, you claimed that your mission to defeat Cipher had selfish motives based wholly on matters of vengeance, but… I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit. Anyone willing to lay their own life down for the sake of the world they call home is nothing less than a hero. At least…” she trailed off, her smile turning just a bit more mysterious as she glanced away from the author. “That’s what I’ve come to believe.”

Ford cleared his throat, admittedly flustered for reasons he couldn’t quite place as he loosely repositioned a few of the bandages still wrapped around his head. “Y-yes, well, whether I’m hailed as a hero or not hardly matters to me. Just as long as I’m finally able to give Bill what he rightfully deserves…”

Strangely, the oracle said nothing to this, her smile gone as each of her eyes focused in on the author intently. Ford froze under her scrutinizing seven-eyed gaze, a gaze that almost seemed to be searching for something. And when it seemed as though she finally found that something, all of her eyes blinked at once as she let out a small, almost amazed gasp as she looked back to the author who was still watching her curiously all the while. “Stanford… forgive me…” she said, her voice soft, revenant even. “I promised I would not glimpse through your future without your permission, but… I must tell you… you have the face of the man who is destined to stop Bill Cipher from conquering your world…”

“R-really?!” Ford balked, startled by this information, though the mere thought filled his chest with a warm burst of pride. He had the highest of hopes that he would be the one to bring Bill down, but to hear the accomplishment of that goal be all but confirmed by an all-seeing oracle herself was so exciting he could hardly stand it. 

“Yes,” Jheselbraum nodded intently, placing a hand over his on the table. “And in your bloodline flows the strength and determination to destroy him, and all of his evil intentions, once and for all!”

“Incredible…” the author leaned back in his chair, unable to suppress a relieved, elated smile upon hearing such an idea. “A-are you sure?” 

“...Well…” the oracle paused, pulling her hand away as her gaze drifted toward one of the many tapestries hanging from the wall. This one, like many others that decorated the mountain shrine, depicted a peculiar, almost lizard-like creature, one that always seemed to be wearing a calm, amicable smile in every depiction Jheselbraum owned of it. “Only The One Who Watches truly knows…”

“The One Who Watches?” Ford asked, confused. 

“..You’ve never heard of it?” the oracle seemed genuinely surprised at this. “How odd. Just about every being in the multiverse is aware of the Great Axolotl.”

“...Isn’t an axolotl some sort of amphibian?” the author asked, still not following. 

“This Axolotl is no mere amphibian,” Jheselbraum said, rising from her seat to face her tapestry of the creature. “It is a timeless, infallible, benevolent being that possesses immense power, far greater than the false might Cipher pretends to wield. From its home between time and space, it spreads its goodwill and kindness to all who dwell in the multiverse. It is even the source of my own gift to gaze through the sands of time as it grants me an open window to look into the future that it weaves. The One Who Watches is the decider of fate across all dimensions… and I believe that its very own intervention was what led me to find you and bring you here, Stanford.”

“Hmph, well then, I’ll take your word for it,” Ford remarked almost sardonically. 

“You don’t believe me,” Jheselbraum inferred, glancing back at him. “Very well. But you should know that there is an ancient prophecy, passed down by the Great Axolotl itself, that speaks of a chosen one…”

“A chosen one?” Ford smirked. “That sounds a bit cliché, don’t you think?”

“Still not interested?” the oracle pressed with a faint smile. “Well, you might be after you learn that the Axolotl’s chosen one is destined to be the one who will put an end to Bill Cipher… forever.”

“Forever…” Ford repeated, his former amazement swiftly returning. “S-so this… so-called ‘chosen one’... You don’t think it could be-”

“You?” Jheselbraum asked knowingly. “I suppose it could be… But even then the true identity of the chosen one is something that the One Who Watches has not permitted me to see, at least not yet. But I believe that if it were you, Stanford, than the Great Axolotl would be making a very good choice when it comes to its chosen one... “

Ford was so deeply gratified and flattered by such genuine encouragement that he scarcely even knew what to say. Jheselbraum was quick to fill in his stark silence however with an offering to raise their already high spirits even more. 

To commemorate Jheselbraum’s hopeful prophecies, we spent the entire night partying and drinking Cosmic Sand--the very same kind Time Baby himself consumes (it’s very sweet though quite strong, like finely aged wine, which is somewhat concerning given that a baby is known to frequently drink it). We had much to be happy about, for as far as Jheselbraum’s glimpses through time were concerned, Bill’s defeat wasn’t too far off into the future. And the mere thought that his cruel trickery would finally be wiped from the cosmos for good was well worth celebrating. 

When I awoke the next morning, she was gone and I was in another dimension entirely. It was time to continue my quest. 

I sometimes wonder where she is now and if by chance I’ll ever see her again… And if the prophecy she spoke of, as well as the One supposedly behind it, is real after all…

Unlike the dimensions I’ve already described, many dimensions in the multiverse are ‘parallel Earths’, very similar to my dimension, but with a few major differences. There are parallel Earths where dinosaurs still rule (one way or another). And ones where dolphins (rather than Homo sapiens) took over as the dominant species after the dinosaurs went extinct. (These dolphin Earths invariably have the best water parks.) There’s a dimension where all music is just screaming, one where tennis balls chase dogs, and one where everyone is the same--except they’re all babies. I didn’t linger there for too long--I don’t care for being spit up on. 

But after nearly 30 years of dimension-hopping, I came upon a parallel Earth almost identical to our own. There was at least one crucial difference. 

But that difference was far from obvious when I first arrived there. Because when I initially step foot into that much more fortunate dimension, I couldn’t help but mistake it for my very own instead. 

Ford could scarcely believe his eyes as he ventured into this new dimension, one with trees, and grass, and a sky that were just like those of his very own home. Even the crisp springtime air smelled just as pleasantly familiar as he remembered Gravity Falls’ being as he walked through the practically identical forest. Never in the course of the past 30 years had he been to a dimension as similar to the Earth he knew as this one, and yet, he was quick to find that the two dimensions weren’t just alike in aesthetics alone. 

For soon enough the natural peace of the forest was broken by voices approaching from the opposite direction Ford was traveling in. Wary as ever, the author slipped behind a larger tree just in case the denizens of this dimension proved to be hostile. And yet, when the group traversing the wood finally came into view, he was completely floored to see that they were none other than a quartet he thought he’d never see again: the Crystal Gems. All four of them looked practically identical to how he remembered them, save for their different outfits, though that hardly fazed Ford as he made the most of an incredible opportunity he thought he’d never get again. 

Upon so much as spotting his close friends again for the first time in nearly 30 years, Ford didn’t hesitate, instead throwing all logic and caution out the window as he rushed out from his hiding spot to greet them. “Rose!” he called first, absolutely elated as he ran up to the Gems, completely breaking through their former conversation. “Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl! I-I can’t believe it! It’s you! It’s really you!”

“Uh… yes…?” Rose raised a confused eyebrow as she offered the author a quizzical smile. “Are you feeling alright, Ford? You’re much more… excited than you usually are.”

“Did ya discover some cool new sciency thing again?” Amethyst asked with a playful smirk. “What was it this week--and don’t bother telling me about it unless it’s a way I can shove eats into my gut faster than I already do.”

“Oh, please, Amethyst,” Pearl rebuffed, rolling her eyes. “Stanford must be excited about his odd new attire! From what I’ve observed, humans often tend to celebrate very simple things such as new clothing and the anniversary of the day they came into existence. Though I don’t know if I’d consider clothing like that to be… too exhilarating.” She frowned, looking over the author’s dark, tattered travel attire critically. “No offense, Ford.”  

“W-what? No!” Ford shook his head, confused. “I-I don’t understand, you all are acting as though I haven’t been gone for the past 30 years!”

“Um… because you haven’t?” Rose pointed out, just as bewildered. “I’m sorry, are… we playing some sort of strange game here? Because if we are I’m afraid I don’t really know the rules.”

“No, this isn’t a game, Rose,” Ford retired firmly, earnestly. “It really has been 30 years since the last time I’ve seen any of you! Don’t you remember? The portal? Bill? Anything?”

“Bill?” Amethyst piped up. “Pfft, we haven’t talked ‘bout that square of a triangle in forever!”

“Mostly because we haven’t needed to…” Pearl muttered disdainfully. 

“This… doesn’t make any sense…” Ford said, more to himself than the Gems. “Maybe I ended up in some sort of bizarre time loop? O-or perhaps I could have time traveled in general? I have been through much stranger over the past thirty years but still…”

“What’s science man goin’ on about this time?” Amethyst wondered as the author continued to anxiously mutter to himself. 

“I have no idea…” Pearl shook her head. “But he certainly is acting odd…”

“I’m starting to worry about him…” Rose noted fretfully. “Can you make any sense of what’s going on here, Garnet?”

Garnet simply nodded, adjusting her shades before addressing her companions bluntly. “That’s not Ford. Or at least, he’s not our Ford.”

“What?!” Rose, Pearl, and Amethyst all exclaimed, startled by this news. They reacted to it rather recklessly, each of them summoning their weapons in short order and turning them on Ford, who was more than startled by the sudden hostility as a result. 

“An imposter!” Pearl accused hotly. 

“Who are you and what you have done with the real Ford?!” Rose asked, her shield and sword both at the ready. 

“I-I am the real Ford!” the author protested, stumbling backward.

“But again, not our Ford,” Garnet interrupted calmly. 

“What’s that supposed’ta mean?” Amethyst asked, baffled.

“Maybe we should go see Fiddleford,” Rose suggested. “He might be able to help us figure this out.”

“Oh, excellent idea, Rose,” Pearl readily agreed. “He has been working on cloning technology recently. Maybe this Ford is the product of one of his experiments!”

“Wait, Fiddleford?!” Ford’s eyes widened at the mention of his former partner. “Y-you’ve seen Fiddleford recently? Where is he? More importantly, how is he?”

“Well, you can come see him for yourself,” Rose beckoned the author to follow her and the other Gems. “I’m sure he’ll be just as amazed as we are to see another Ford out and about.”

As curious as he was, not only to check in on his old friend but also get to the bottom of this peculiar mystery, Ford didn’t hesitate to follow, even if Pearl and Amethyst still watched him much more suspiciously than Rose and Garnet were. “But don’t think we won’t be keeping a close eye on you…” Pearl warned him as she held up the tail end of the group. 

“Yeah, ya dirty “Fordposter”!” Amethyst teased, elbowing the author hard in the knee as she impishly ran past him.

Even so, Ford took their misgivings, both serious and insincere, in stride, letting out a small sigh of relief as he simply allowed himself to relish the feeling of being in the company of his dependable friends once more. Even if he wasn’t entirely sure they were exactly the same as the Crystal Gems he once knew. “It’s hard to believe how much I’ve missed this…” he muttered contentedly to himself, hoping against hope that, even despite how strange the Gems seemed to be acting, he really was back in his own dimension after all these years after all. 

But he wasn’t. 

Because the differences between this dimension and his own became instantly more apparent as the Gems led the author to where he knew his house should have been. And yet, the homey little shack had received quite an impressive surrounding expansion in the form of a sprawling complex of buildings and structures, one that still featured the Gems’ iconic temple as a fixture of its forested background. Upon seeing the impressive structure, Ford had a multitude of questions, none of which he knew how to properly pose to the Gems as they continued to approach it. Even so, one of those questions was answered as they passed by its sign, which simply donned the campus as the “International Institute of Oddology”.

The Gems seemed to have exclusive access to the institute as they bypassed its front office entirely, entering into its complex series of busy hallways with ease. Just about everyone employed in the building seemed to know the Gems and regard them with friendly pleasantries, though even that paled in comparison to the immediate respect everyone paid Ford in particular. Whenever one of the plentiful lab-coat clad scientists passed him by, they greeted him with excited waves and chipper tidings in which they referred to him as “Dr. Pines” or “Professor Pines”, two titles that Ford had never really gone by before (even though he technically could, given his multiple PhDs. Still, despite this strangely warm reception, nothing could have prepared the author for when the Gems took him into a large, futuristic lab, filled to the brim with just about every scientific tool and tech imaginable. But as astonished by this incredible sight as he was, Ford quickly found himself even more dumbfounded as the Gems led the way to the only other person presently occupying the lab at the moment. None other than Fiddleford McGucket himself. 

“Fiddleford!” Rose greeted the inventor brightly as she hurried over to him first. 

“Oh! Howdy, ladies!” Fiddleford glanced over his shoulder from whatever he was working on. Unlike the Gems, time had actually had an impact on the inventor, though even despite his shallow wrinkles, short beard, and grayed hair, he’d managed to age rather well just as Ford had. “Ya’ll came just in time! I was just about to-” Fiddleford stopped short, swiveling around in his chair to send a peculiar glance Ford’s way. “Stanford? What in tarnation are you wearing?”

The author largely ignored his question as he instead stepped forward, past the Gems, so he could look his once-treasured colleague in the eye for the first time in three decades. “F-Fiddleford… I-” 

“Fiddleford!” Before Ford could even utter another word, his own voice echoed through the lab, albeit from a different source entirely. As if this entire situation wasn’t already shocking enough, Ford was absolutely floored to see himself enter in through the far side of the room. By all accounts, this other author looked strikingly identical, the only real differences in appearance lying in his clean-shaven face and equally clean scientific attire. He wasn’t paying much attention as he approached the mutually baffled group, leafing through a stack of papers as he addressed his partner evenly. “So I was running the numbers on that new modulator we were working on and-” He stopped short as he finally glanced up, only to notice his near mirror match standing just a few feet away from him. “Ugh, Fiddleford, what did I tell you about stealing samples of my DNA for your little cloning side project?”

“Uh… I-I shelved Project Double Vision ‘bout a week ago, Stanford…” Fiddleford noted, his eyes wide as he looked between the two Fords just as incredulously as the Gems all were. 

“Oh,” the other Ford said simply as he looked back to his double. “Then this must simply be the case of yet another deluded, overly-obsessed fan. Well,” he addressed the other author, pulling out a surprisingly threatening taser pen as he eyed him critically. “I don’t know how you managed to outwit both security and the Gems here, but I can assure you that we here at the IIO absolutely do not tolerate such-”

“W-wait!” the first Ford interjected hastily, running with the only reasonable guess he could make about this situation, given the bewildering evidence he’d seen. “I think I know what’s going on here.”

“Oh, do you?” the other Ford raised a dubious eyebrow. 

“Great!” Amethyst chimed in bluntly. “Then do ya mind filling us in?”

“Yes, please?” Rose added, still clearly quite confused. 

“W-well, you see, as far as I can tell, I’m not actually from this dimension,” Ford said, ignoring the sting that came along with admitting that fact. Admitting that he hadn’t really made it home like he’d once thought after all. “Even though it does look practically identical to my own. B-but I have been wandering the multiverse for years now and in that time I’ve come across many parallel dimensions to my own, so the only logical explanation is that this is one of them!”

“Golly!” Fiddleford immediately shot up from his seat upon hearing this. “A near-completely identical parallel dimension!? What are the odds of that?!”

“Now, now, Fiddleford,” the other Ford cautioned, still sternly eyeing his counterpart. “Don’t get too excited. After all, this… supposed other me doesn’t really seem to have much in the way of proof in regard to his claims…”

“Oh, really?” Ford met his double’s skepticism with a simple, succinct response as he held up one of his hands. The other Ford balked at the sight of it, glancing between it at his own similarly unique six-fingered hands before reaching out to touch those of his double to authenticate them. “Unbelievable…” he muttered incredulously. “They’re actually… real… I hate to say this but… you might just be from another dimension after all…”

“Can we skip to the part where we just assume that he is from another dimension?” Fiddleford asked eagerly. “Cause that’s far more excitin’ than just speculatin’!”

“Well even if this Ford is from another dimension,” Pearl cut in with a scowl. “How can we be so sure that he’s anywhere near as trustworthy as ours? He did mention Cipher, of all beings when we first found him, after all.”

“Ugh, now there’s a name I haven’t heard in ages…” the other Ford muttered disdainfully as Fiddleford shuddered fearfully beside him. “And I’d just as soon never hear it again for the rest of my life. So what business do you have with… him?” 

“I assure you, the only ‘business’ I have with him is putting a stop to his treachery once and for all,” Ford affirmed coldly.

“Wait…” Rose spoke up with a frown. “You mean… you haven’t already done that where you’re from?”

“...What do you mean?”

“Oof, well if you actually are from some parallel dimension, then I don’t even want to know how much of a disaster things are there if you’re still dealing with him,” Alternate Ford shook his head. “Because here all it took to keep him from slipping into our reality was a basic Dimensional Vortex Neutralizer to optimize the portal away from the Nightmare Realm, allowing us to safely use it as we please.”

“W-wha--when in the world did you find time to invent something like that?” Ford asked, admittedly wishing that he had done the very same before it had been too late. 

“We all did it together!” Rose smiled warmly. 

“It was pretty easy between the six of us,” Garnet added as coolly as ever.

“Yes, if I remember correctly, we reconvened to devise the schematics for it right after I sent Stanley away with my first journal…” Alternate Ford mused thoughtfully. 

“Wait… your Stanley actually listened to you when you told him to take the journal and leave?!” 

“Yours didn’t?”

“Ugh… of course, he didn’t…” Ford groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly. Suddenly, the basic differences of this dimension were becoming all too clear. The split had resulted from a moment so simple, so singular that it might not have mattered at all when it actually happened, but now it clearly did. Because his Stan refusing to take the journal away had been the very reason why he’d wound up sucked into the portal in the first place. And the Stan of this dimension agreeing to do so was the very reason why his alternate self stood before him today.  “Honestly, I’m surprised that any version of Stanley actually would, given how frustratingly stubborn he is…”

“Well, here I suppose he was just a little… less stubborn than usual,” Alternate Ford shrugged. “Either that or he had a moment of genuine clarity for once in his life. Even so, we made good on the advantage splitting the journals up gave us, built the Neutralizer, and we haven’t seen or heard from Bill ever since.”

On this Earth, I was never pushed into the portal by Stan. 

On this Earth, my brother listened to me and took Journal 1 away from Gravity Falls. 

On this Earth, I reunited with Fiddleford and Rose and the Gems, and together, created a Dimensional Vortex Neutralizer that allowed us to use the portal without any risk of a connection to Bill’s Nightmare Realm. 

And as a result of those rippling turns of fate, on this Earth, my parallel self was a celebrated star of the scientific community. With the help of Parallel Fiddleford and the Parallel Gems, over the years, he had amassed a wide array of incredible discoveries and inventions, all of which he had publicly published through his journals. And as other scientists read through those journals, it didn’t take long for more aspiring brilliant minds to flock to Gravity Falls, like a moth to a flame, all of them looking to my parallel self for direction when it came to investigating the town’s previously unheard of anomalies. That building community of scientists came together to turn his small cabin in the woods into the sprawling International Institute of Oddology (of which my parallel self was both the founder and chief researcher). And as my parallel self detailed the differences of both his life and his dimension to me, one thought ran paramount within my mind above all else. That this life of success and recognition could have just as easily been my own… ff only Stanley had actually listened to me for a change instead of thinking only of himself like he’s always done! 

When it was my turn to spell out the details of my vendetta against Bill to my alternate self and his friends, obvious interest was mutually peaked among them all. Parallel Fiddleford’s knee began to bounce with the agitation and excitement as my very own Fiddleford used to carry, and the Parallel Gems all whispered anxiously, yet eagerly to each other. Parallel Rose was every bit the heroic spirit as the Rose I knew as she seemed by far the most intent on seeing Bill be brought to justice, a sentiment my parallel counterpart also keenly shared. Although their dimension was safe from Bill, they all understood the threat Cipher posed to the wider multiverse. They all agreed to do whatever they could to help. 

I showed them my unfinished Quantum Destabilizer--a weapon I was designing to blast Bill into non-existence. The problem, my parallel self theorized, was the power source. In all my travels since leaving Jheselbraum, I had never come across an element that had both the necessary power and the required stability. Parallel Fiddleford piped up with a suggestion, an element that he had discovered in the Paradox Dimension. It was inert when visible, but highly radioactive when hidden. He called it NowUSeeItNowUDontium (a unique flair for language was something else he had in common with my Fiddleford). 

Even just a small sample of the element would be more than enough to get my Destabilizer up and running. The only issue was that NowUSeeItNowUDontium (what a mouthful!) was a notoriously difficult element to work with given just how potentially toxic it could prove to be to humans at the seemingly random points it blinked in and out of existence. That’s where the Parallel Gems came in. As unaffected by radiation as their non-organic forms are, they were able to handle the element with ease, and fortunately, Parallel Pearl in particular was well-versed in working with it thanks to past experiments. 

While the Parallel Gems did their part, I spent the next several days tinkering and making minor adjustments to my blaster’s design, working alongside Parallel Fiddleford and my alternate self to perfect it into a weapon to bring Bill to his swift, much-deserved end. Those few days were filled with plenty of scintillating discussions about the multiverse, parallel dimensions, and of course, the various distinctions and differences of this dimension in particular. The more my parallel self detailed the countless highlights and accomplishments of his lengthy career, the more I wished that my own path had run the same as his as opposed to the ruin I ran into when I was younger. This version of myself had gotten everything I had only ever dreamed of: fame, respect, and the chance to hold onto close friends that I had fallen away from so long ago. And while I didn’t envy him to the point of wanting to take all that he had away from him, I had to admit that if I had even just a fraction of the good fortune my parallel self had known, then perhaps my life would have turned out far different than it had ended up going. 

As much as I might have wanted to revel in my parallel self’s success, it was clear that there was literally no place for me in this dimension. Even if I could have stayed there for the rest of my days, my own conscious would not have allowed it. I still held onto the vow I had made close to 30 years earlier to destroy Bill Cipher. And after about a week of finalizing and finishing my Quantum Destabilizer, it was finally time for me to do exactly that. 

“Are you sure you have to go?” Parallel Rose asked as everyone prepared to see the author off on his way. 

“Yeah, havin’ another science man around could be fun!” Parallel Amethyst quipped as impishly as ever. “‘Specially if he can finally invent that food shovel I’ve been asking for forever now!”

“I have to admit that even though I was somewhat… distrustful of another Stanford just randomly showing up out of the blue, it was still a pleasure working with you all the same,” Parallel Pearl grinned, cordially extending her hand out for Ford to shake. 

“Safe travels,” Parallel Garnet bid him succinctly. “And don’t worry about your cellmate when you meet her. You’ll see her again eventually.”

“Um… thank you?” Ford frowned, confused by this strange, cryptic advice. 

“Go take that Quantum Destabilizer ‘n show that rabble rousin’, no-good son of gun Cipher what for!” Parallel Fiddleford cheered with all of the southern zeal Ford was familiar with when it came to his own Fiddleford. 

“For the sake of your dimension, our own, and countless others exactly like both,” the parallel author began intently. “I wish you luck. Or, uh… I wish me luck? Huh. Even after a week this is still confusing.”

“Thank you,” Ford nodded warmly. “All of you. I have no doubts that our hard work will go a long way toward putting a stop to Cipher and his tyranny once and for all.”

“We can only hope,” Parallel Ford agreed as the others fondly began to wave the author off. 

“Happy trails, Other Stanford!” Parallel Fiddleford called cheerily. 

“I hope you make it back home someday!” Parallel Rose added just as brightly. 

“And if you don’t make it back to your own dimension, then you’re always welcome to visit ours any time you’d like!” Parallel Pearl chimed in somewhat obliviously. 

“That’s not very likely to happen,” Parallel Garnet pointed out, though she didn’t explain much more beyond that. 

Even so Ford continued on his way back into the woods, savoring his last few moments in this world that was so very much like his own before he ultimately left it entirely. 

After 30 long years of planning in the shadows and biding my time, my chance finally seemed to have arrived. With the finished Quantum Destabilizer in tow, there was nothing keeping me from returning to the place where this nightmare had begun to put an end to the one who had woven it in the first place. 

I was finally ready to go back to the Nightmare Realm and face Bill Cipher. 

And yet… the dimension I ended up in next was about as far from the Nightmare Realm as I could have gotten… and pitted me against a threat that was every bit as dangerous as Bill: 

The Gem Homeworld and the Great Diamond Authority. 

Next: 

[tetsuwan-atom]

STORY ARCS - The Mighty ATOM

This has been a long time coming.

With roleplaying with a certain partner for a long time, as well as constantly making new Villain headcanons (another coming soon), I have made the jump to introduce Story Arcs, to those who are interested! These are big plots in the Tetsuwan ATOM/The Mighty ATOM setting, involving Bowen Chuuno’s adventures against many of the adversaries listed here. These are available for anyone to take part in and each version will be specific to their muse interactions. Plotting is recommended!

The following Arcs are as follows.

Woke Up This Morning - This is the first Story Arc and it basically introduces you to the initial setting of Bowen Chuuno vs the X, a terrorist organisation bent on taking down the United Government, causing untold chaos toward it’s citizens. This is a 4 part arc, going through different bosses and interactions. There’s action, drama, politics. It is set in Authrum, the central United Government universe, giving an idea of where Bowen works and what goes on in the epicenter of this multiversal entity.

Father’s Day (Working Title) - This one is centered around Atlas Ethinger, Bowen’s father. It is based on an old RP I had with a friend some years ago. It goes into the story of how he came to be where he is and the difficulties in stopping him. It is also a lesson into what happens when another, reckless department decides to take matters into their own hands.. and the catastrophic results it produces. This one isn’t as long as Woke Up This Morning, but it is considered to be more serious in nature, diving deep into drama and reflection. You go from the basics of Woke Up This Morning right into the deep end with this adventure.

Exterminator (Working Title) - A short story to make you think. Bowen Chuuno has been tipped off about a cult that worships the Darkness, lead by a man reported to be a descendant of a historic tyrant. An investigation into the matter confirms the rumour to be true and a hunt for the man begins. But what will you find when you reach this village? Is the man really the evil monster that is claimed in his bloodline? Is the tale of Good and Evil really as black and white as you think it is? The main antagonist in this story is Lucius Einholt.

Innocence in Hell (Working Title) - This one I’m not sure how long it’s going to be, might be a single story or have a few parts. This one dives into the introduction of Tenma and his swarm of manifestations, consuming universes one by one. His presence brings to the forefront one of the darkest days in the history of the Ministry of Science and the corruption that was an era long ago. With so much time passed, many fear the being is too far gone and that the only option is to end him, but what if the trapped, tormented soul, that has been enduring such agony, for so long, can be saved?

White Feathers (OPTIONAL) - This one is meant to be a short story. Not really a lot of action in this one, more to do with drama and politics. Tensions are running high between the United Government and a new problem, a corporatocracy whose greed and ignorance rapidly grows by the minute. Bowen Chuuno is worried about what could come about, bringing up a painful memory of his youth. With his relations and connections, can he be protected from the brink of war? This one tends to be an optional arc that brings about Bowen’s past and the trauma he once went through, as well as the politics of argumentative Ministries, to prevent history repeating itself once more.

Marine Express (OPTIONAL) - The Suburban Transport Authority has finally completed one of it’s most ambitious projects, an undersea railway connecting two cities. Bowen Chuuno is selected as part of the maiden trip’s inaugural crew. What drama and suspense will this day bring? Sort of based on the movie and looks a bit into the STA side of things. It’s one I have to work on a bit before I can really consider it.

The Genocidal Automaton (Working Title) - Planets, universes, wiped out in the blink of an eye, energy readings coming from a single individual point to the source. Stories of a robot that senselessly kills everything in sight, humans, gods, without any emotion or reason. An uncontrollable killing machine programmed only to destroy. Can it be stopped? Is it too strong? What if there was another way? This one focuses on Zero, a new addition to the cast. Lots of fighting, as well as investigation. A race against time, to stop the worlds you love from being nothing more than a single sentence in the novel of history.

The Mechanical Mastermind - This one is based off of an RP I’m currently having with another good friend of mind. A new inter-dimensional device is being tested by Bowen Chuuno in one of the Ministry of Science’s field testing facilities. Suddenly, militia storm the facility, with only one goal in mind. A chase ensues, to claim back something so dangerous in the wrong hands, it could spell trouble for the multiverse. But not all is clear cut.. nor as it seems. What if the real objective is something else entirely, and all Bowen is doing is being lured into a dastardly trap? The main villain in this story is the Madman. This story also has the potential, depending on the direction, to branch off into another arc entirely. Or, alternatively, said arc can occur on it’s own.

Shadow Rising (Working Title) - This is the story arc that can occur right after the Mechanical Mastermind or standalone, depending on the story. The premise occurs differently depending on the route chosen. Not everyone is perfect, not everyone is good. What if that niggling side, your dark side, your evil side, had a mind, a body, a will of it’s own? What would it look like? What will it do? You can’t let this thing loose out in the multiverse. It’s too dangerous, not a being like this. It could be capable of anything. The cutest, kindest, most loving individual, too, has one of these sides.. and it’s now loose, causing havoc wherever it goes. Will Bowen Chuuno be able to overcome the very being that is his own flaws and fallacies? A being on the extremity of his opposite, that represents everything he is against, everything that he is not, a negative, to the positive? This arc in it’s entirety is considered to be Part 1 of a bigger, two part story.

The Wrath of Hadron (Working Title) - The passing of time can wake up the dormant, the things that can come back to haunt you. An individual sheds his skin of his past, to become his own person, to create his own identity, life, movement, to go beyond what he was only capable to do. He seeks conquest, revenge, to erase the blemishes in his memories and unfinished business. The one person he has to eliminate to vindicate his soul of his existence and to then bring the multiverse to it’s knees. This is not the same man you saw once before, he has become the ultimate of himself.. and he has his sights set on you. This new found darkness has a new face, a new resolve.. and a new name: Hadron. Bowen Chuuno has to finish off what he started, to swallow his morals and put an end to this man’s terror, before it all gets out of hand. Can he do it? Can he face someone so in tuned with energy, science and magic, the closest thing to an Ultimate Being, whose very existence... comes from Bowen himself? This is Part 2 of the story that comes from Shadow Rising. Both parts involve the same character, which is to be written.

---

There may be more coming in the future, these are what I have in mind and are meant to be written through in order, save for the optional ones. May be one more coming soon to add to this too. If you are interested, send me a message and we can get to plotting! I look forward to bringing these stories out and exploring more into the universe that I’ve created. Just writing the descriptions to these is ever the more exciting! I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and I feel it’s going to be, while a big challenge, an incredible journey as well.

If you have read all this, thank you! It means a lot to me. If you’re interested, I look forward to hearing from you!