#scrapbook of the unexplained

[thethistlegirlwrites]

15 for all of them?

15: Is your character dangerous? Do they think they are? ...for the squad!

Thank you so much for the ask!!!!

--- Compass

Sierra - Yes and yes. Sierra was a vigilante vampire hunter before she was recruited by an agency, and she is the sort of person to shoot first and ask questions later. She's honed her skills and is well aware of what she's capable of.

Pete - More than he thinks he is, actually. Pete doesn't see the results of his work as often, given he's on the forensic accounting side of the hunting process, but he's capable of unleashing a lot of chaos on an organization if he finds the right financial pressure points.

Shay - Yes, but he's LESS dangerous than he believes himself to be. Like most vampires who are not turned hunters, Shay doesn't really know what vampire un-life is like, and thinks that he will remain in the bloodthirsty fledgling phase permanently. Thus, his lack of resistance at being taken to what is basically a death sentence.

Saanvi - Saanvi is dangerous if cornered, and she doesn't always realize that until the time comes. She reacts in a moment, without a lot of planning as to her responses to danger.

Wren - Wren is very dangerous, but occasionally overestimates her intimidation factor, which is how she sometimes ends up on medical leave. She's a master manipulator, though, and doesn't often need to rely on her brute strength.

Joey - Joey thinks she is much more dangerous than she actually is, with the caveat that if you are a threat to her family or the people she considers family, she is the shadow you don't see coming until it's too late. But in terms of how dangerous her vampirism makes her, Joey is much like Shay in that she doesn't fully understand how being a vampire can progress and how it can be controlled.

Nico - Nico is dangerous, but keeps it under control. He was a hunter before he turned, and working with a bit of a rogue type of agency besides, so he has a skill set from that as well as his vampire powers. And never, ever, underestimate a threat from the cleaning crew. They KNOW how to sanitize a crime scene.

--- Magic & Silver

Robin - Robin's opinion of how dangerous he is shifts over time. Sometimes, he feels like his fae powers are a curse, and he's wondered if he's in some way responsible for his mother's death, but for the most part, he understands his spot in the natural order and where he falls on a 'food chain'.

John - John is dangerous and definitely knows that. He's been trained since he was a child to know how to hunt and kill vampires, and he likes his dangerous side, actively pointing it out whenever possible.

Kira - Kira made herself dangerous. She taught herself to kill vampires, and gained a reputation as a vigilante before being folded into an agency. She's a force to be reckoned with because she's never let anything slow her down, and as a black Deaf woman she's had plenty of things standing in her way.

Emma - Emma is dangerous and proud of it. It's an asset in her line of work. She's got more morals, and more of a soft side, than she shows the world, but she actively projects the image of a heartless, power-hungry vampire to everyone but her closest friends.

Cody - Cody is probably the least actively dangerous to anyone but himself member of the M&S crew. He's been known to make snap decisions and to trust people without a lot of reason given, but that's also how he and Robin met, so it's worked out okay for him.

Maira - Maira is a master of political manipulation. She doesn't need to be physically dangerous to be intimidating. She's good at reading people and using their secrets against them at the right time. Thankfully, she uses her powers for good.

--- Scrapbook

Lina - Lina is dangerous if you do something to make her see you as a threat. She's a journalist, so she's good at playing the long game, but once you are in her books as a villain, it would take a lot to get you back in her good graces, and she WILL dedicate herself to taking you DOWN for good.

Matti - Matti is technically dangerous by nature of what he is, but he's grown up knowing what he is and how to control it. He's like a big dog, looking scary but really just wanting to be friends, even if sometimes that means you get a bit squashed.

Jim - Jim is potentially dangerous, because he has fae magic he doesn't even know he has, much less how to control, but for the most part it's benign stuff like glamours and plant affinities that the danger is in knowing how to use and actively manipulating. He doesn't want to hurt anyone with any of it, so unless it was defending his life, even his lack of control won't do much more than cause some weird looks. If he's put in mortal danger, or one of his friends is, though, there's every chance the magic will break free on its own.

From this ask game

[fangirlingpuggle]

Mable and Ford's guide to home pyrotechnics.

Ford sees that Mable loves "nerd stuff" if its maximized for chaos.

(Bill encourages this. Sixer could stand to go a little more feral. As a treat. A treat for Bill.)

Mable showing Bill her scrapbook and art ("see, I like drawing too!).

Bill tries smile dip? Or he's Very Concerned for Mable's welfare because of The Beast/Das Flavour Pup.

YES!!!

Mabel does so may more episodes of Mabel's guide to with both Ford and Bill...so mcuh chaos...so mcuh property damage and so much glitter.

Bill revels in the chaos. This is better than world domination so mcuh fun bonding with kids.... and he thinks Ford looks every handsome while setting everything on fire.

They also both help Dipper with guide to unexplained, lots of exploring mindscape and other dimensions.

Mable and Bill drawing together, her seeing all the red and blue triangles and finding out about Bills parents (Her 'grandparents') and makes a college for him with triangles and stars.... Bill gets very emotional. (She also does family portrait with all of them) she does this while he's still at the theraprism. His wall ends up covered in these pictures (As well as letters from Dipper, like his own journal entries) Bill not frantically drawing red and blue triangles all the time drawing new stuff, pictures for dippers journals or scarp booking for Mabel (Also letters to Ford)

The axolotl watches on smiling.

Bill taking smile dip... things get.... bad and weird and then worse. Weridmageddnon only weirder and more intense and only for an hour until the sugar crash... collective agreement we never talk about this again. Bill doesn't even remember the sugar crash is as bad as the hangover form that one karaoke night.

Stan has to stop Ford from trying some for science.

[annakwashere]

Character design rant part 2! - Colette 📖

a lot of text incoming (2/3)

Colette has undoubtably one of my favourite human designs, for a multitude of reasons. Starting off, her shape language is excellent. While there are a bunch of circles and ovals, mainly on her wide eyes and “accessories”, triangles dominate her look; they can of course be found on her shap teeth and eyelashes, but also on her eyebrows, multiple parts of her hair, the ends of her jacket and even her pose (it’s very noticeable in the legs). Her white hair adds onto the feeling of non-humanness that mostly comes from her facial features and mannerisms, along with the pale skin and eye bags it makes her look unhinged and a little sickly.

The light blue of her shirt while bright isn’t super eye-catching, and the vision is instead drawn to her face and upper chest, which is where it should be. The red jacket and bright pink scrapbook could be distracting, especially due to the pins on the former, but her long sleeves cover them both and fix the problem.

Speaking of her sleeves: because of their excessive length and straps hanging from it, it looks like an unproperly-worn straitjacket, one of the main elements that communicate she’s not fully mentally stable. Her headband, choker(?) (or collar or necklace idk what that thing is) and “rings” resemble the decorations on her scrapbook, a neat detail that hints at just how important it is to her (as shown trough both voice lines and just by how close she keeps it to her chest in both the animations). No wonder that’s the case, since Colette’s main character trait is, you guessed it, collecting things belonging to the bralwers, who she’s obsessed with, hence the pins of her favourites on her work jacket. Even the choice of said favourites is quite interesting: Spike, a mute cactus that’s both a mascot and also a menace with a psychotic nature; and Piper, a baker who’s implied to have a dark past she doesn’t want to share.

The contrast between the messiness of her general look is very opposing to the elegance of her work uniform, worn properly which could signify her devotion to her job. I feel the same in regard to Colette’s hair being messy on the front but neatly tied to the back in small, low ponytail using another strap similar to the one on her sleeves as a hair tie She’s very energetic and creepy, it couldn’t have been shown any better than this.

This isn’t really part of the visual design but I also believe that her voice is no less than perfect: Colette sounds exactly the same as she looks, a scratchy, slightly high-pitched and somewhat unsettling voice delivered in a very exaggerate fashion.

(Here’s some less-serious thoughts)

There’s also quite some variety in her attacks, even just on the default skin and they’re all so unbelievably adorable

There’s just something so unexplainably endearing about them, the pins and her hypercharge icon do the same too

Look at that kissy face! The mischief in their little eyes! Her face going “:3”and the way her sleeve droops over her hand is so cute!!

Either way if you got this far, thanks for reading! Third and last part will be Griff.

^ previous part

[disneydarlin]

Gravity Falls Shorts —Aesthetic

Animated Shorts Description

Follow the Pines Twins on their little adventures in Gravity Falls. Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained. Mabel's Guide to Life. Fixin' It with Soos. TV Shorts and Mabel's Scrapbook.

[perfectionistkilling-me]

Hazbin Hotel Paperwork

An observation about fandom that I have never been able to unsee is that "Original Media is usually taking place during a disruption from the main characters Day-to-day life. Meanwhile a lot of fanfiction takes place in the downtime. Meaning unsuspecting fanfic writers have to come up with what these characters actually do in their boring adult jobs. Often with little experience in what these jobs are like. The end result is a lot of fanfiction starting with our main characters staying late in the office doing miscellaneous, unexplained paperwork"

So, with that in mind. Here are a bunch of miscellaneous paperwork/paperwork adjacent tasks for each Hazbin Hotel Character.

Charlie

Property Taxes. There is no way property tax doesn't exist in hell.

Planning group therapy sessions. Probably with several behavioural psych books and self help books and So So many sticky notes and highlighters.

Generally freaking out surrounded by crayons, loose paper, several bulletin boards and red string.

Vaggie

Planning and reviewing training regimens. Looking for where she can improve.

Maintaining her weapons. Also maintaining any other weapons in the hotel because poorly maintained weapons are a safety hazard and under absolutely no circumstances is she letting Niffty or Alastor do it.

Being a soundboard for Charlie's planning, and probably consoling her about property taxes.

Alastor

Actually doing the taxes when Charlie gives up. Also every other bill payment. He is the accountant.

Managing whatever weird network of smugglers and killers required to get a whole forest and a deer into his room. This probably required a lot of weird phone calls.

General tinkering. Everyone knows old technology is a fickle mistress. Alastor absolutely has at least one radio that has to be poked, prodded and shaken to work just right.

Angel Dust

Probably has the most actual paperwork.

Reviewing filming schedules, scene requirements and special requests.

Learning lines. Script writing in Porn Studios is also most often done by the director or whoever says yes. Considering Val has maybe 3 braincells and shit eyesight. Angel has probably written a script or two as well.

Making marketing content for upcoming projects. Filming whatever hells version of Cameo is. (Cumeo?)

Husker

Bar inventory and orders. Date and Time labels on the perishables. Please imagine him with his clipboard right in his face and brow furrowed.

Sealing anything sugary in about 10 layers of cling film. (Do you want hellants. This is how you get hell ants.)

Cutting limes, longing for the days when he had barbacks. Pouring himself a glass of whiskey and then going back to cutting limes.

Sir Pentious

Drawing diagrams of inventions. Having a long drawn out internal debate about whether he needs to make a specific part custom or if he can just order the part. Vocalising this conundrum to the Egg Bois only to be met with "Fingers are just Toes with delusions of grandeur"

Looking at a perfectly functional small scale prototype. Looking at a full scale version of the same prototype, built to the exact same specifications, wondering why it doesn't work. Looking back at the small scale prototype, holding it lovingly, asking it why it's brother doesn't work.

Honestly, just document any weird shit you see your engineer friend do and it's probably Sir Pentious.

Niffty

I was going to say Niffty does not have paperwork, Niffty has an ongoing war against dirt and roaches in which she is a valiant soldier. But thats too easy.

She is Alastor's paper shredder.

Updating her scrapbook of bad boys with photos, hair, teeth and occasionally other. . .things.

[pinkrose787]

Trolls: A Twist in Time Chapter 2 Sneak Peek!

The entire chapter is done. I just refuse to post it until Ao3 is back up. Probably will be posted in a few hours. Maybe noon EST (no gurantee, depends on class and when I wake up).

Anyway, here's part of the chapter.

Sneak Peek:

It’s been a week since that wind blew through the bunker. Branch has checked and rechecked everything a thousand times since then. Everything is in order. Exactly as it should be.

Well, not exactly.

There’s been some unexplained phenomena happening.

Sometimes, for just a brief moment, a room or area in the bunker will look different. Usually, from far away.

When he glanced at a wall there was a picture hung on it. It was hard to tell from the distance, but it looked like a photo of him with his brothers. When he blinked, it disappeared.

Another time one of his storage shelves looked like it was filled with scrapbooks. All of them were different colors and sizes. When Branch approached the shelf, they warped back to the ration jars that they should have been.

There aren’t any pictures on his walls, especially not any with his brothers. And he never has had a shelf filled with scrapbooks. He’s only ever had just one scrapbook, the one with him and his grandma. There’s never been more than that.

Not to mention, Branch has been having strange thoughts.

Yesterday, he went to go grab something from one of his storage rooms. When he grabbed the doorknob he thought, “Wait, this is Floyd’s bedroom. I should knock.”

Which is wrong. Completely. Entirely.

He hasn’t seen Floyd since BroZone broke up. Plus, Floyd has never been in his bunker much less had his own room in it.

Then there’s been these strange dreams. Normally, his dreams are nightmares. A confusing horrifying montage of every single trauma that Branch has gone through in his life.

But these new dreams are sweet and pleasant.

These dreams show him a world where he went with Poppy to Bergen Town. Where Bergens are no longer a threat. Where he ends up making friends. Where he dates Poppy. Where he sees his brothers again after so long. Where he’s happy. Where his life is great. 

But these are all dreams. Nothing more.

Just his brain cruelly taunting him with images of what could have been had his life gone on a different course. If anything, they’re crueler than any nightmare he has. With them, he has to wake up and face the depressing bleakness of his life.  

Maybe, it’s all the time he’s spent in the bunker getting to him. It has been a couple of weeks since he last saw the sun or other trolls. As much as he hates admitting it, he does need to be around other trolls, even if that is just him watching from a distance.

And he is running low on some supplies.

He grabs a backpack and heads towards the elevator out of the bunker. 

[slonechnik]

tsuna hanging out with kyoko and haru event 60 dead 47 wounded

hes half an hour before time and they're an hour late, a dog just ate half his shoelace and tsuna himself has injested triple the advised dosage of antacids, the concrete itself is judging him, hes checking if hes at the right place for the fifth time as we speak, somewhere out there gokudera is adding Another page to his uma scrapbook and starts feeling uneasy for reasons unexplained bc bianchi isnt even in namimori for the week, shes vacationing in mafia land

[zilabee]

Sticky Fingers, by Joe Hagan:

- I love that Jann Wenner hired Joe Hagan to write his official biography, and then agreed not to have any editorial control over it.

- I love that he made a whole career out of interviewing people and then writing down things they didn't want him to write down, and he still went into the whole thing sure it wouldn't happen to him.

- I love that he handed over all these letters and records and contracts and taped conversations (there was a bit in the seventies where they just taped every phone call) from this enormous archive, dating back decades, and gave the author access to almost everyone involved. I love that they were all just honest about what a shit Jann was and Joe Hagan wrote that down.

- I love his mother. And his wife. And Annie Leibovitz. They're easily the three most interesting people in the book.

- I love the bit where he is having an affair with Art Garfunkel and his wife is having an affair with Paul Simon and it's very unclear who is trying to hurt who the most.

- I'm sad that Paul Simon refused to be interviewed, I assume he assumed that an official biography wasn't the place for all his feelings of writhing hatred, but it was, it really was.

- I love that it makes it so clear what a shit magazine Rolling Stone always was, and how zero care Jann Wenner had about any of the politics. Rolling Stone was never actually a voice for anything more than very needy men wanting to seem very cool in their wanky little minds.

- I genuinely love how actively he was against the political side of it all and didn't understand why he would care. I love that he purposefully decided it should be a gossip magazine full of drivel.

- I love the bit where the few political writers at Rolling Stone who still hoped it might stand for something, rebelled. And they published stuff they wanted to publish while Jann was out of town and it was their best selling issue and he immediately gladly took all the credit for it, while his writers seethed gently. I love that it happened twice.

- I hate that it felt like every time he was on the cusp of ruin a major star would die and boost sales and everyone would pretend he was wonderful again.

- I love the bit where Jann was probably having an affair with Richard Gere and he pasted shirtless photos of him into his scrapbook.

- I love that he keeps a scrapbook of invitations, letters, photos and articles as proof that famous people love him and like him. I love that Joe Hagan describes it as: The physical evidence of the story Jann Wenner told about himself. <3333

- I love how often people fall out with him and then NEVER speak to him again. I love that there's almost not one big thing you can point to about why he's a dick... I mean no, there are things, there's a moment early on, where he has sex with a girl and then has a dinner party the next night and uses their stained sheets as a table cloth in order to embarrass her, you know, there are a lot of things you could point to. But I think what I mean is there are also just SO MANY different ways he's just dreadful that it's almost unexplainable. He's incompetent and needy and horrible and just excruciatingly wanky. But he's not like a cartoon villain. He's just a bubble of disgusting ego.

- I think there was maybe one bit where I started to feel a bit sorry for him, like I guess if you tell someone everything about yourself, and how wonderful you are, and then they interview all your friends and you expect them to write about your magnificent business empire and how golden you are then... it's hard if this is the book they write. But whatever. I don't care enough to care, I just sat back and enjoyed the truthiness.

[subwaytostardew]

(Last one I promise, just an idea that I had right before I fell asleep.) Maybe Emmet takes us out to scenic locations around the Valley for a photoshoot! The Beach, The Secret Woods after we clear out the slimes, Cindersap Forest, etc.

Ooooo I think Thylak will like that! That sounds nice too! I know one of the reasons why Emmet is making a scrapbooks and stuff - is to show his friends and family what he and his brother have accomplished.

He also always wants somthing to look back on - so yeah! That could work! Bravo! Fiction!

Though I think the farmer would have say on all the best spots because after all - they know the valley like the back of their hand unlike Emmet who... would probably get ambushed by a slime... (Poor guy.)

But that just means the farmer gets to show all the wonders and (Eldritch Horrors) of Stardew Valley.... like saying hi to your friendly neighborhood Shadow creature Krobus!

Don't worry Emmet you're in good hands... Just don't go behind the Railroad. Or in the mines. Or deep in the forest. Or anywhere else where weird and the unexplained things occur. Be for an interesting scrapbook though.

Like Gravity Falls books. LOL.

◁ - Station Stewardess Kade

[radio-guts]

about to do a tandem interest run

Sherlock & co. X journal 3 + tales of the strange and unexplained X Marcys journal (I need the scrapbook, comic book, and book of Bill,)

wish me luck

[quixilvers]

thesis statement

hey, i'm peebs/bee. this is my oc blog where i might also talk about personal writing projects. the jury's still out. i've sort of always wanted to archive all my oc posts in one place like a scrapbook but i don't have the pinterest-user's temperament, so tumblr it is. enjoy if you browse!

rough tag explanation under the cut -

i like emojis. i think they're cute and fun. sue me.

🍰 - my "slice of life" ocs. i dreamt up a lot of these characters in high school and they've done a lot of growing with me over the years, but i don't have any particular story for them. i just sort of shake them around in a jar every few months.

👑 - AFT, aka "abstract fantasy thing," the first attempt at a fantasy novel i ever made. i had a lot of grand plans about shady political plots and faked deaths and forest witch macguffins that never quite came together, but i was also 15, so.

💀 - "necromess" (can you tell that placeholder titles are killing me?), my high school necromancy novel. the rough outline is that a band geek with necromantic powers (largely unexplained, a la pushing daisies) accidentally hits the star lacrosse player with her car in the middle of the night and is forced to bring him back to life, but he doesn't come back quite right. to fix him she has to get to know him through the popular crowd he hung out with, and she might uncover a more sinister plot by the school's queen bees along the way.

🌲 - the coparenting emoji. all of these ocs actually belong to my best friend snail, but we've been writing together for over a decade now, so the line of who actually owns whom is in constant flux.

🔍 - mystery girls. this is a small-college murder mystery i started developing while attending a small college. go figure. when max's boyfriend justin turns up dead, she's forced to link up with justin's sister jessamine, justin's tutor yvette, and rylan, the last person to see justin alive, if she wants to figure out what happened to him. they all kind of hate each other in a homoerotic way.

✨ - "refraction," my magical girl group. this is another one that never got off the ground, but i wanted to try my hand at writing epic fights and conceptualizing fun and unique powers.

🔮 - "noire," my urban fantasy detectives. i'm talkin dingy smoky office with a frosted glass door. i'm talkin run-ins with the mob except the mob is comprised of gatormen. i'm talkin magical freelance autopsy. this is a vibes piece first and foremost.

⚔️ - QST, or "quest" if you're regular. high-fantasy prophecy story in which the chosen one must march toward his death knowingly, because he's just that selfless of a guy, while the wizard guiding him forth and the rogue tagging along to "make sure he doesn't fuck up" fall deeply in love with him. and each other.

🪦 - "spectral distancing," a short story i wrote during pandemic isolation. it follows cleo, a college kid with a summer job cleaning up graves, and the ghost of a dead woman who follows her home. having recently lost her older sister to a car accident, she handles this new visitor in an extremely well-adjusted way. her friends murphy and will exist in the background to support her and also so i can dream up increasingly indulgent ot3 scenarios with them.

🌙 - "a night in castle de lune," aka "whoops, all monsterfucking!" nell needs a magical cure for her brother's illness and sneaks into the creepy vampire castle on the outskirts of town to steal it from his hoard. a whole host of creatures stands between her and her goal—but she'd do anything to save her brother.

to reiterate, mostly i'll be archiving my main blog's oc posts and categorizing new ones here, but if the spirit moves me i might post writing excerpts too. thanks for reading if you made it this far 💚

[thethistlegirlwrites]

Lab Rat Fox

Went with an alt prompt today and an OC I haven't played with for a bit (who was hoping I forgot him), Will Bauer!

It was almost easier, when the nightmares were something he could believe he woke up from.

He knows, now, it didn't change anything. Wasn't going to erase the magic in his blood, or magically turn him into the human son his father wanted.

All hiding his real nature from him had done was cut him off from the truth. From his chance at learning to control it before it controlled him. Before it turned him into something feral and dangerous.

He can almost understand the cage.

It didn't have to be this way. He's seen the others, now. Others like him. Who don't have to fear the other side of who they are, who know it and control it and maybe even love it.

But he's too far gone for that.

He's never fought to get out, not like the wolves here with him. The others think it's because he's afraid of his father, or because he doesn't believe he can escape.

He's not afraid of his father. He's afraid of himself.

He might be able to escape these bars, but he can never escape the monster in his blood.

He wants his father to be right. For there to be some way to undo the wild side tangled in his DNA, for some trick that pulls on the threads and unravels it all like a snagged sweater.

But maybe, even if it worked, he'd unravel so far there'd be nothing left.

Maybe, that's the only fate left he can hope for.

@nade2308 @whumptober @catwingsathena

[cheemscakecat]

This. I don’t hate Mabel, but I find her character hard to watch because she makes Dipper feel like he has to accommodate her needs, ignoring his own.

Given how quick she was to say “And I’m not gonna let you ruin it with one of your crazy conspiracies!” In episode one, I bet the parents do the same thing. All the time. Favoring Mabel and her crafts over Dipper and his theories.

Now he’s back in Piedmont and probably clinging to the idea of seeing Gravity Falls next summer, since that place actually feels like home. But if the parents found out about the events of last summer, Dipper may never get to see his uncles and his friends, like Wendy, Pacifica, Candy and Multi-bear.

Now that the Book of Bill has been revealed to appear to certain targets, with different content depending on the person, I honestly think Dipper is going to give into temptation to read it. Bill absolutely hates his guts, but he knows how useful Dipper would be if manipulated. He’s done it before.

Bill went mad because of knowledge his people didn’t understand or accept. Dipper already feels superior to “small minded” people who don’t believe in the supernatural. It’s written in code on the certificate in Dipper and Mabel’s guide to the unexplained. Bill could spin it as “Oh, we’re the same!”

I’m not sure how the book is going to pan out but I have a some potential ideas based on this scenario [its long]

Bill gets Dipper to do some sort of ritual now that they’re “friends”.

Mabel knows Dipper has the Book of Bill and tries to stop him reading it. If Dipper attempts 1, Mabel may show the book, her last summer scrapbook, or Dipper’s journals to the parents to get this stuff taken away. But he snaps at her for controlling him yet again, and falls deeper into madness.

Bill related to Mabel over escapism, and the Axolotl said he’s lying about being happy and misses home. Maybe the powers that be want Bill to interact with Dipper because he’ll actually bond with him. [Probably not].

Dipper runs away from home because he thinks his parents will never let him go back to Gravity Falls. [2] And because being “the smart twin” isn’t good enough, they favor Mabel for being the normal one. Causing Mabel to have to think about that.

Dipper runs away to Gravity Falls and tries to say goodbye to everyone he’ll never see until he’s grown and free. He also tries to bury his journals and/or the Book of Bill, depending on what his parents confiscated. He knows he’ll be tracked down, so he wants to see the town one last time.

Instead of running to Gravity Falls, Dipper goes to a local park and tries to do Bill’s ritual again. His family would have to save him from whatever he turns into as a result, or the version of Bill that emerges.

In either 5 or 6, Ford and Stan meet up with the parents and Mabel, revealing the truth about Ford and anomalies. This would tell the parents that they’ve been dismissing something real and driving their son away. Meeting Ford would show just how many secrets Dipper was stuck keeping, and how much he wanted to be in Gravity Falls.

In 5, the family manages to hunt down Dipper in Gravity Falls, with Ford and Stan’s help. His parents agree to let him keep the journals, but not the Book of Bill, and Dipper accepts these terms. Mabel apologizes for making him feel like he had to go along with what she wanted to do.

In 6, weirdness is unleashed on Piedmont, but there’s still time to contain it. Dipper is going to be doing one of three things; 1. Bill isn’t back yet, so he still needs to do another ritual to summon him into reality. 2. Dipper gets contained by Bill in something like Mabel-Bubble, and the family sees his true thoughts and feelings when they go to free him. 3. Bill takes control of Dipper’s body and the family has to stop their kiddo from getting destroyed in the process of Cipher’s second attempt at a physical form.

In 9.2, Stan sees how much teasing Dipper was hurting him and feels guilty; Ford realizes that Dipper did need an adult who went through a similar string of mistakes, to keep him away from Bill and other monsters who would prey on his curiosity. Even if it wasn’t the pair of them alone in Gravity Falls, Dipper needs someone who “gets it” to give him good advice and protect him. Mabel realizes that Dipper felt like he could never do his own thing, or she’d freak out again. And that he doesn’t have Piedmont friends like her; he has Gravity Falls friends.

Dipper and Mabel’s parents realize that favoritism drove Stan down his path of committing crimes and Ford to try to fix everything himself. And they’re causing the same problems by favoring Mabel and complimenting her interests, but not giving Dipper’s interests the time of day. I also think Mabel and the parents would see that Dipper goes by Mason in the bubble, and have the stunning thought that they haven’t called him that in years. They haven’t used his real name in years.

After the resolution of all three 9 scenarios, it’s decided that Dipper should be kept in Gravity Falls. To the people of Piedmont, it’s like magic house arrest and keeping him from ever wrecking their town again. But to the people of Gravity Falls and the family, it’s a way to justify letting people process weirdmaggedon and to help Dipper get the help and support he needs. The book of Bill would stop targeting Dipper, though the other copies still exist and are looking for other people to manipulate.

For the record, I don’t hate Dipper and Mabel’s parents, but I think they don’t see how much they favor their daughter. They probably feed into her co-dependence by rewarding her with more attention and supporting her interests. But they see her as the twin that hasn’t grown up, not the better twin.

Because Dipper is considered more mature and wants to be mature, they almost… forgot that he’s twelve/thirteen and still needs someone who cares about his dreams and interests. To them the supernatural is like a stumbling block on Dipper’s accelerated path to growing up, not an important part of his identity and his aspersions.

I also think they took one look at his matted hair and lack of hygiene, realized Stan didn’t enforce proper hygiene, and yelled at him over the phone. Which Dipper or Mabel overheard, leading the poor kid to think they would cut off access to Gravity Falls in a heartbeat.

Mabel couldn’t comb the mats out of his hair, and she knows pretty much everything about getting candy, gel, and other messes out of her own. It might actually have been bad enough that they had to shave him like a neglected cat.

For those who don’t binge pet grooming or Animal Cops, if the fur looks like a solid mat, like in the middle, it’s gotta be shaved off. The hair gets twisted and tightened enough to get heavy and leave bald patches. The groomer didn’t do a bad job shaving, those light spots are from the matting pulling the hair away.

Now, the police in Gravity Falls are pretty bad at their job, they wouldn’t press charges. But in California, in a prissy neighborhood like Piedmont, the parents could get in massive trouble for letting the hair get that bad, even if they weren’t the ones in charge over the summer.

I don’t think they want to cut ties with Stanley, or that they’ll be looking for a reason like Dipper would fear. They’re just genuinely appalled and angry that Stan didn’t make their son bathe, wear clean clothes, or come his hair. Mabel ate all that candy, but she keeps herself well groomed and clean, so I bet she brushed well enough that they didn’t notice.

Finding out that Stan was trying to find his twin would help ease some tension. An old man pushing 70 isn’t sleeping enough at night, and keeps falling asleep in his chair between tours. And the reason is because he’s trying to save Ford, who may or may not be dead or unreachable, and has been for the last 30 years.

That, and Stanley was dead and buried as far as any Pines knew. Him wanting to see his great niece and nephew despite everything, despite the mental health strain he was going through would be more sympathetic in their eyes. At least I think. It’s not like they’ve been established to be Filbrick 2 and 3, I hope I didn’t made them sound like they are.

Looking back the ending of Gravity Falls while thinking about endings of other series like Amphibia and The Ghost and Molly Mcgee, Weirdmageddon has a message that is underwhelming when it comes to Dipper and Mabel's relationship and Mabel's potrayal in the show.

This isn't about Mabel getting tricked by Bill. She is a 12-13 years old that in that context she was feeling really bad and not thinking well what she was doing. That isn't relevant to the topic at hand and honestly it isn't a problem she did that, it does makes sense in the episode it happened.

What i have an issue is how the narrative makes Dipper feel bad about considering staying studying with Stanford. This is something that Dipper was interested in and he was very fascinated by anything that was paranormal related. Stanford himself told Dipper he had a lot of potential and the kid was digging into it.

Mabel lashing out and not liking the idea of Dipper staying with Stanford is understandable in the episode Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future. She doesn't seem to have much friends back in her home and her parents are implied to not be the best. She gets scared of Dipper leaving, that's a reasonable fear for a kid to have.

However, as i mentioned before, Dipper is made feel bad about considering choosing something he wants to do. It isn't Mabel who has to learn that things change and sometimes this brings things we don't like. She doesn't exactly consider what Dipper wants for himself, she mainly cares about how ¨she is going to be alone¨ and making her brother feel selfish for choosing his own path or do something that could make him happy.

Yes, she learns that things can't stay the same forever and they are growing up, that itself is a pretty good development for her and overall a good message to teach.

Yet her being codependent on Dipper doesn't get brought up nor addressed, in fact the series seems to praise this behavior of hers. In how Dipper has to do what she wants if not he is a bad brother. Mabel's clinginess and controlling behaviour to an extent isn't called out, which that itself is a problem.

Small: I want to add an extra point here that Mabel does have a short scene near the end of the episode that she tells Dipper that she won't get in his way if he wants to stay with Stanford and she was ¨acting nuts¨ in the dream bubble. This is good for her but it does still feel in part that her issues weren't fully acknowledged and it doesn't help she didn't say until after Dipper told her that he was going to stay with her and not be with Stanford, which is rather questionable in my opinion.

In contrast in Amphibia, Marcy Wu has a similar arc about change. The series explores how she can take her escapism too far and how she can be very selfish in plenty of ways, something that is potrayed as an aspect she has to learn from and realize that it isn't healthy.

Her being too codependent on Anne and Sasha and their overall friendship is potrayed as toxic and the series explores this relationship a lot, having the girls grow over time and think about different aspects they have to work on.

In ¨True Colors¨ it is revealed that Marcy Wu learned about the Calamity Box the same day she got told by her parents that they were moving away. Very afraid of having to leave her friends behind and having to be alone in a new city, she found the Calamity Box and told Sasha and Anne about it. Worth of mentioning she didn't know if it would work but it was a desperate act of her just to not having to move away from her friends yet.

When Sasha and Anne find out about this they are, not surprisingly, very pissed and push from Marcy away for a moment, making Marcy realize her mistake and eventually apologizes for what she did.

In ¨All In¨ Marcy finally comes to terms with how she can't force Anne and Sasha to be the way she wants them to be and that her codependency on them isn't a good thing. She realizes that has to move away to her new home at some point, that things change but that doesn't mean the three of them have to stop being friends.

As you can see, there is a clear difference between how Mabel Pines and Marcy Wu’s characters and flaws are potrayed in the narrative. While Gravity Falls makes Mabel’s codependency and controlling behaviour to be something acceptable and that Dipper should conform to, Amphibia does the complete opposite and presents Marcy Wu’s actions as flaws she has and that can hurt other people, including her friends. She is the one that has to make a change and understand she has to work on herself if she wants to have new friends and keep these relationships as times moves on.

Since we are on topic, one thing that really bothered me is how Mabel created a version of Dipper that is ¨cool¨ and says yes and goes along with everything she wants to do. (Weirdmageddon Part 2)

This has… interesting implications of how Mabel believes that relationships should work, or at least with her brother twin Dipper. A lot has to do with how she and Dipper have very different personalities and she maybe wishes that he was more like her, but expecting someone else to say ¨yes¨ to everything you want is a toxic mentality to have. And the episode itself doesn’t address this enough, it doesn’t bring up to Mabel she can’t expect people to work like this and she should try thinking more about what others wants.

Lets talk about The Ghost and Molly Mcgee. In this series Molly Mcgee often has episodes where she has to learn certain lessons. One of them she learns over time is that often she has to give up control and let what others want to do instead.

A good example of this is ¨Ready, Set, Snow!¨ in which she is constanly trying to make Libby and Scratch to go and play outside in the snow with her without considering they would rather stay inside and sit near the fire for the moment. She spends most of the episode trying to find ways to make them go outside until she gets angry and goes out on her own. She has… quite of a mental breakdown in a sequence song. Scratch goes to check on her but he tells to her that she can’t do always what she wants and what it is important is for her to be spending time with her friends. Molly realizes she was wrong, goes back to the house and she apologizes for how she acted.

Molly has quite a lot of episodes like this, and all this becomes important in the series finale ¨The End¨ when she sees that Scratch has to go back to be Todd even if that means forgetting the memories he got as a ghost, her included. She tells Scratch that she is going to miss him a lot but she knows that forcing Scratch to stay wouldn’t be right. She encourages Scratch to go and ¨live his life¨ because she cares about Scratch being happy.

Similar to Marcy Wu, Molly learns that she can’t force people to do what she wants and she has to let them choose for themselves. She knows that encouraging Scratch to do what he always wanted to do as human is the right thing to do, even if it means saying goodbye to him.

I do understand the idea that Gravity Falls was doing at with something among the lines of ¨Dipper and Mabel not repeating the same mistakes that their uncles did¨ but that doesn’t mean Dipper has to give up his dreams at expense of what Mabel wants. As Dipper said in VS The Future episode: he can still visit and they can still talk to each other. They don’t have to fall apart the same way Standford and Stan did. Just like in Amphibia, if Marcy still was able to remain friends with Anne and Sasha over the years, the same can be applied to Dipper and Mabel as siblings.

If not, it could be rewritten in a way that makes Dipper reconsider that he would like to wait a few years before joining Stanford in his adventures. That he is still a kid and wants to spend a while longer figuring himself out and be with Mabel before making a decision. That way it feels more like a decision he wants to do for himself and goes along with his character arc that he doesn’t have to rush to grow up.

As for Mabel, she has a lot of growing up to do. She has to learn overtime that Dipper is his own person and he can take is own path. That if she wants to have friends or have in general healthy relationships with others, she can’t make it always about herself and people have their own needs as well. She would have to work on her codependency and clinginess she has on others, specially her own brother. This would help her with being a more mature capable individual when she grows up.

This post on itself isn’t me hating on Mabel’s character since she has moments she can be good and i feel a lot of her behaviour comes from not being taught properly and being a teenager. The problem is that the series doesn’t address this behaviour enough and, as result, it comes off as the series giving an unintentional underwhelming message of potraying Mabel’s issues as something that should be acceptable and not her having a dynamic with Dipper that comes off as toxic. It is important to understand to learn to support others and not always make things about ourselves. That sometimes relationships change and we can’t force people to be in a specific way.

[amelia-o-gabble]

NAME: Amelia Gabble-Pines Gabble OCCUPATION: European Press Prize Winning Investigative Journalist, NYT Bestselling Author BUSINESS DESCRIPTION: N/A CURRENT LOCATION: London, UK RELATIONSHIP STATUS (IF APPLICABLE): Separated - from Mason ‘Dipper’ Pines; engaged to Jasper Calloway CHILDREN (IF APPLICABLE): Sparrow Pines and Starling Gabble BIOGRAPHY: 

Amelia Odette Gabble (formerly Gabble-Pines) has made monumental strides in her field of journalism. From exposing wrongful Magick treatment to uncovering the truth behind some of the biggest mysteries of the decade; she has earned three European Press Prizes with her prose. And she just couldn’t put the pen down; her skills translated quite well to novelization. While living in Gravity Falls, Oregon her mind conjured up a duology. A world in her head that kept her from reminding herself she was stuck in Small Town, USA with a man whose passion didn’t seem so endearing anymore. 

She tried to make herself feel the love she once had for Dipper. In Swynlake, demonology brought them together; their dual passions for the unexplained gave them everything to talk about. Then after their girls, Amy found herself not caring to talk to him at all. She called out of decency, she was being civil. If she wanted to be mean, she would have told him that he was killing her. That she’d found someone in London who brought back her spark. 

Instead, she took Starling, the twin who took most after her mother, and erased any trace of him from their lives. She’s written a few more books since then, mysteries comparable to the great Agatha Christie. Her daughter is proud of her mum, she’s never wanted for anything. Except for her mum to be happy again. As happy as she was in that old wedding photo she found tucked away in a scrapbook in the dustiest part of their library… 

[thethistlegirl]

Happy Blorbo Blursday!

Asking everyone the same question cause I'm on a flashback kick with my characters. For whichever Blorbo you love most right now: What did they wanna be when they grew up? Were they ambitious or carefree? Did they reach their goal?

And nearly a WEEK later I answer this...

Currently I'm thinking about one of my OCs, Jim. He thought he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up, but then realized after a couple years of medical school that it wasn't for him. He quit school and now he's just sort of aimlessly drifting trying to find a new passion, which he hasn't, yet.

Thanks for the ask!

[pinkrose787]

Trolls: A Twist in Time Chapter 2!

Summary: It's been a week, since Creek changed the timeline, but the old timeline is managing to worm its way into the new one.

Ao3 Link

Chapter 2

It’s been a week since that wind blew through the bunker. Branch has checked and rechecked everything a thousand times since then. Everything is in order. Exactly as it should be.

Well, not exactly.

There’s been some unexplained phenomena happening.

Sometimes, for just a brief moment, a room or area in the bunker will look different. Usually, from far away.

When he glanced at a wall there was a picture hung on it. It was hard to tell from the distance, but it looked like a photo of him with his brothers. When he blinked, it disappeared.

Another time one of his storage shelves looked like it was filled with scrapbooks. All of them were different colors and sizes. When Branch approached the shelf, they warped back to the ration jars that they should have been.

There aren’t any pictures on his walls, especially not any with his brothers. And he never has had a shelf filled with scrapbooks. He’s only ever had just one scrapbook, the one with him and his grandma. There’s never been more than that.

Not to mention, Branch has been having strange thoughts.

Yesterday, he went to go grab something from one of his storage rooms. When he grabbed the doorknob he thought, “Wait, this is Floyd’s bedroom. I should knock.”

Which is wrong. Completely. Entirely.

He hasn’t seen Floyd since BroZone broke up. Plus, Floyd has never been in his bunker much less had his own room in it.

Then there’s been these strange dreams. Normally, his dreams are nightmares. A confusing horrifying montage of every single trauma that Branch has gone through in his life.

But these new dreams are sweet and pleasant.

These dreams show him a world where he went with Poppy to Bergen Town. Where Bergens are no longer a threat. Where he ends up making friends. Where he dates Poppy. Where he sees his brothers again after so long. Where he’s happy. Where his life is great. 

But these are all dreams. Nothing more.

Just his brain cruelly taunting him with images of what could have been had his life gone on a different course. If anything, they’re crueler than any nightmare he has. With them, he has to wake up and face the depressing bleakness of his life.  

Maybe, it’s all the time he’s spent in the bunker getting to him. It has been a couple of weeks since he last saw the sun or other trolls. As much as he hates admitting it, he does need to be around other trolls, even if that is just him watching from a distance.

And he is running low on some supplies.

He grabs a backpack and heads towards the elevator out of the bunker. 

-----------

Creek walks through TrollsTopia. The colors of this new better timeline seem brighter. The wind that flows around him feels fresher. The bird songs sound sweeter.

Maybe that’s just because his life is better than he could have hoped it would be.

He’s the king now. That certainly wasn’t one of his goals when he changed the timeline, but he isn’t going to reject it. This is the highest status that he can get. With that status comes mass amounts of respect from trolls of all tribes.

The one thing he isn’t sure about in this timeline is the fact that he’s married to Poppy.

Despite being married to her, he doesn’t love her.

At least, not romantically. She has always been such a great friend to Creek, and he admires her for that. Even after his betrayal in the original timeline, she didn’t fully shut him out.

From his memories, the relationship started shortly after Chef attacked Pop Village. She asked Creek out. Telling him that the attack on the village made her realize that she never got to tell him her true feelings. That if she died that day, it would be her only regret.

Of course, he accepted going out on a date with her.

Rejecting her would have only damaged his social reputation. He wouldn’t have really had a good reason. He was single and seen as one of the most desirable trolls in all of Pop Village. To everyone else, it only made sense that they would end up together.

Part of him feels bad for playing with her heart like this. She does deserve to be with someone who is genuinely in love with her and wants to be married to her for reasons beyond social status and becoming ruler of Pop Village. 

But as long as Creek plays the role of doting husband and beloved king, she’ll never know. Which means she’ll never get hurt. It’s as they say, no harm no foul.

On his walk, he spots someone familiar off in the distance. A grey troll wearing a leaf vest.

To his surprise and joy, it’s Branch.

The universe has once again provided Creek with another wonderful chance. Now, he gets to look upon Branch’s face and see that he’s living a life that he deserves completely. The misery of Branch’s life compliments the splendor of Creek’s new life.

It doesn’t seem like Branch has seen Creek yet. Which is great! If Branch spots Creek before he can get to him, he’ll run away. Then Creek won’t get to rub his wonderful new life in Branch’s face.

He can’t have that.

Creek must approach Branch as though he’s approaching a baby deer. The slightest snapping of a twig could send Branch running away. Thankfully, during his time outcasted from Pop Village, he learned a lot about stealth. This is no different than when he had to hunt bugs.

Dodging the twigs and fallen leaves on the ground is like a dance. A dance that Creek must execute perfectly.

One that he manages to do without a single misstep. Not slipping up a single time. He’s closer to Branch than he’s been in months. At least, in this timeline. “Hello, Branch. Long time no see.”

“Augh!” Branch shouts. He jumps up into the air.   

Creek suppresses his urge to laugh. Seeing Branch so startled is glorious. Plus, he’s kind of cute when startled. But he can’t laugh. Branch will storm off if he does.

Branch looks at Creek. His expression shifts from one of fear to one of annoyance. “Oh, hello Creek.”

“I do believe you mean King Creek.”

Branch rolls his eyes. “Yeah. Whatever.” His eyes narrow. “What do you want?”

“Well, I haven’t seen you in so long. I was starting to get worried. And as king I would be remiss if I didn’t check up on you.” He’s not going to miss a single chance to rub his new life position in Branch’s face.

“I’m fine,” Branch says brusquely. “I don’t need you checking up on me.”

The novelty of rubbing in his great new life is quickly disappearing. It’s replaced with pity. The same pity that Creek used to feel whenever he would see Branch before everything went wrong in the original timeline. 

Branch pushes Creek’s arm off him. He takes a few steps away from Creek. “Like I said. I’m fine. I don’t need you checking up on me. And I especially don’t need to go to one of your stupid yoga classes.”

“Oh, Branch. You can lie to yourself and everyone else, but I know the truth.” He leans in towards Branch. “This isolated life is killing you. You want to be among your fellow troll. But you’re more scared of being rejected than any threat of Bergens.”

The best part about what Creek’s saying is that it’s true. He knows it for a fact. Branch was happy in the last timeline. Of course, it was after he did what Creek had always told him to do. So annoying to be right and never be given the credit for it.

Now, in this better timeline he can fix that. Though not as fun as gloating, it will probably be just as gratifying. And the best part is that Branch will see Creek as a hero. The kind and brave troll who guided him to the light. He’ll owe his life to him.

Branch looks at Creek with an expression that a mixture of disturbed and perplexed. His face quickly changes back to its default expression of annoyance. “What do you know about me?”

Creek walks towards him.  “Lots of things, Branch.” Branch backs away from him. “Like I know that you were Bitty B in BroZone.” He backs Branch up against a tree.

 “It is such a shame that your brothers never came back for you after the band broke-up. Leaving you to be raised by your grandma. That was until she was eaten. Which was your fault, wasn’t it?” He places his arm against the tree, pinning Branch against the tree. “You were too busy singing to notice Chef grabbing her.”

Branch starts digging his hands into the tree. His breathing becomes heavy. Looking into his eyes Creek sees his pupils dilate. “How the hell do you know any of that?”

He leans in close to Branch. His face less than an inch away from Branch’s. “It’s like I said. I know every single thing about you.”

Branch pushes Creek away. “Get the hell away from me!” He races off into the forest, far far away from Creek.

For a second, Creek considers if he made a mistake. Overplayed his hand and scared Branch away for good. Ruining his chances at being the one that Branch admires.

But that’s silly.

He only became happy in the original timeline after facing all his trauma. Plus, if he didn’t use all the knowledge he purposefully collected about Branch in the original timeline then it would have all been for naught.

Branch can’t stay in his bunker forever. A few weeks maybe. But he won’t last any longer than that. As much as he wants to deny it, he needs other trolls. Even if that means standing in the distance and observing.

Pleased to know that he’ll be seeing Branch again, Creek continues his walk through the forest. His work making this the best possible timeline isn’t done just yet. There’s still a few minor details that he needs to work out.  

----------------------

Poppy walks along the unkempt path to where Branch’s bunker lays. The sunlight streams through the trees. Colorful wild flowers lines the path. A cool breeze passes by. She feels a sense of peace as she walks towards the bunker. One that she hasn’t really felt in the last week.

That horrible feeling of something being wrong never left her like she hoped it would. If anything it has only gotten worse. Yesterday morning, when she woke up she was surprised to see Creek laying in the bed next to her.

Which makes no sense. They’ve been married for well over a year now. Of course, he was in the bed next to her. He always is. It was as if she had forgotten that she had ever married him.

This whole wrongness seems to be bleeding out into the world.

There’s a photo on her dresser of her and her dad. It was taken only a few months ago. But when she looked at it this morning, she could have sworn there was a third person in the image. A troll who looked a lot like her, but taller and with wild blonde hair.

When she did a double take, the photo was back to the way it was. Just her and her father.

Right now, none of that matters.

She’s on the way to deliver another invitation to Branch.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to see him last time when she dropped off the invitation. She’s used to it. Still, she wishes she could see him again so badly. Over the last couple years, she’s missed seeing his grumpy face among everyone else’s.

Maybe he needs some time to feel safe again. He has to figure out that the Bergens aren’t coming back for them eventually, right?

Then again, even before the attack he was always convinced that there were Bergens lurking in the shadows waiting for the right opportunity to attack. If only she knew what caused such a deep terror of the Bergens, then she could help him.

The bunker now stands before her. She knocks on the boulder that’s probably to door to the bunker. “Hey, Branch! I’ve got an invitation for you!”

There’s no response. There never is.

“Right, well you know… I’m just going to leave it on the welcome mat!” She places it down. “Come to the party! Everyone misses you!”

Right as she turns to leave, she sees Branch.

Instantly, her heart is filled with joy at seeing her old friend again. A smile lights up her face.

Branch seems to be in a rush like there’s something chasing him. It isn’t fully unlikely given that there are some predators this far out from TrollsTopia. But there doesn’t seem to be anything.

This could be Poppy’s one opportunity to talk to him. “Branch! Hi! It’s been so long!” she calls out to him. Waving at him at a speed of 1000 wps (waves per second).

He stops in his tracks right as he gets to the bunker and her. “Hey, Poppy… What are you doing here?” His voice is shaky.

“I was dropping off this invitation! But now that you’re here, I can give it to you in person!” Poppy picks it up off the mat and hands it to him.

His eyes glance down at the brightly colored invitation. His hands are shaking as he holds it. He’s breathing quickly, but she doesn’t think it’s only from the running he’s been doing. “Thanks.”

“Are you okay? You seem really freaked out!” She starts looking him over for injuries. Maybe something happened in the forest and he’s injured. But there aren’t any cuts or bruises. At least, not any significant ones.  

“What? No. I’m fine. I swear.” Branch backs away from her.

“Are you sure? Your hands are shaking.” She reaches out to grab his hand.

“No!” Branch pulls his hand back. “Look, I’m fine. Really. I actually need to get into my bunker now to do bunker… things.”

Branch opens the doormat and jumps in.

That’s not what Poppy was expecting Branch to do. Like at all. “Hey, if you need to talk, you can talk to me!” she shouts at the doormat. “At least, don’t be a stranger!”

There’s no response. She wonders if Branch can even hear her down in the bunker. Maybe all the times she thought she was talking to Branch, she had really been talking to the ground.

Poppy sighs. The first conversation with him in two years and it barely passed for a conversation.

Worst of all, she was so distracted by how shaken up he was that she forgot to hug him! The first chance in two years to hug Branch and she missed it!

She heads back on the path towards TrollsTopia. Even though Branch lives right outside TrollsTopia, and even though they just talked, Poppy misses him.

She feels a deep ache in her heart. They’ve never been that close. Not as close as Poppy is to some of her friends like Smidge and Biggie, but her heart still aches as if she’s missing her best friend.

“What are you doing out here, love?”

Poppy’s heart leaps upon hearing that voice. She instantly turns around. “Creek!” Somehow, he’s behind her. Which is strange. She should have seen him on the path in front of her.

She pulls him into a hug and gives him a quick kiss. “I was just dropping off an invitation at Branch’s bunker!”

“Ah, you’re still on that?” His face falls a bit when he hears that. “You know he’s a lost cause. No one’s talked to him in years.”

“He’s not a lost cause. And you’ll never guess what happened?”

“What happened?”

“I actually managed to talk to him today!” She has a beaming smile as she says this. Creek should know how much of a massive milestone this is. The first contact with Branch in 2 years. 

Creek’s jaw drops. “You talked to him? Like really talked to him? Not you saying something and him running off?”

Poppy nods her head vigorously. “Yes! I talked to him! Not for very long. But still, I talked to him! That’s progress!” She’s so excited that she’s practically bouncing. “Soon, he’ll be back to his pre-Bergen attack self! And after that he’ll be on the road to happiness!”

Creek gets a soft smile on his face. “Well, that’s great. Just out of curiosity, what did you two talk about?”

“Not really much. He didn’t really want to talk. Something had him really freaked out. And I mean really freaked out. He practically dove into his bunker to get away from what it was.”

“And he didn’t happen to mention what that thing was?” He looks away briefly as he asks that question. Probably trying to see if what freaked out Branch stuck around.

“No! He didn’t!” She throws her hands up. “There wasn’t anything that was chasing him. He didn’t seem injured. He was just really scared.” She sighs. “I wish I knew why.”

Creek puts his arm around Poppy’s waist. Instantly, she feels calmer. He has a way of bringing Poppy down when he needs to. “That’s how he is. Scared of everything. Knowing him, it was probably the sound of a branch breaking.”

“Yeah, it was probably nothing.”

Creek takes Poppy’s hand, his arm still around her waist. “It’s really sweet that you want to help him. In fact, it’s one of the things that I love about you. But you need to understand that sometimes there’s something wrong with someone on a fundamental level. And with these people, you have to understand that they can never truly be fixed.”

“I know.” Poppy rubs her thumb over Creek’s hand. “But still, even if he won’t ever be like everyone else, he doesn’t deserve to be sad and alone forever. I think that with time he can be happy.”

There’s something deep within Poppy that tells her that this is a fact. That Branch is more than capable of being happy. And she can practically see what he’d look like happy. His true colors back with his hair a blue that’s so deep it’s almost purple and his skin a vibrant sky blue. He looks so beautiful.

She wishes that she could see him like that in person. 

He lets out a heavy sigh. “Maybe not. Look, love. There are thousands of other trolls in TrollsTopia who are far more deserving of your time than him. Trolls who want to be your friend and would jump right at the opportunity to spend time with you.”

This conversation has gone the same place it has hundreds of times. It always ends up with Creek telling her that Branch isn’t worth the time, and her insisting that he is. It’s so tiring having the exact same argument every single time.

Poppy lets go of Creek’s hand. “Maybe you’re right, but I’m not ready to give up him just yet!” In fact, she has no plan on giving up on him ever. She’s only saying this to stop the whole argument from playing out again.

He brushes his hand against her face. “You understand that I don’t want you to get hurt don’t you? Someone like him will only bring you down, and I would hate for that happen.”

“I know you’re trying to look out for me, but I can look out for myself just fine.” That came out a bit harsher than what Poppy meant to say.

Creek sighs. He lets go of her. “Am I really such a bad guy for not wanting my wife to keep going to a remote part of the village to see a dangerous loner?” 

“Branch isn’t dangerous.” Never once has Poppy ever felt threatened by him. While he can be harsh at times, he’s never attacked or even threatened anyone.

“Love.” Creek turns Poppy’s face towards his own. “He’s a paranoid hermit who stockpiles weapons against whatever he deems as an enemy. What happens if he deems you a threat? I don’t doubt for a second that he’d attack you. And I don’t want that to happen.”

“He wouldn’t.” She brushes Creek’s hand off her face. “Branch would never hurt me.”

“That’s what people say about wild animals. They claim that the animal loves them and would never do them any harm. Then the next day, their beloved animal gets startled and rips out their throat.”

She stares at him, if only for a second. How could he even make such a comparison? “But he’s not a wild animal. He’s a troll like you and me.”

“Is he? Because you know what trolls do? We sing, we dance, we party. What we don’t do is stay by ourselves alone in an underground bunker.” He leans in towards Poppy. His face inches away from hers. “You need to face reality, love. He’s more animal than troll.” 

She takes a step away from him. “Where is this coming from? I know you have never liked him, but that doesn’t mean that I can never see him.”

“Unbelievable. You would rather spend time with someone you barely know over your own husband.” Creek crosses his arms. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you’re in love with him.”

“What?” Her heart starts pounding at the accusation. “No! You know that’s wrong. I only love you.”

“No. Don’t deny it. I see how it is.” Creek turns away from Poppy. “If you want to spend time with him, then go. I won’t stop you.”

He starts walking away.

She feels her head spinning. Her stomach twists with nausea. None of their arguments have never gotten this bad. Normally, they can barely be called arguments. More of minor disagreements.

“Creek, wait!” She starts jogging to catch up with him.

He stops and turns to look at her. His brow is furrowed in an expression that Poppy has never seen on him.  “What?”

It sets in how badly she messed up. Almost nothing interrupts his zenness. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just Branch is so important to me-”

“And I, your husband, am not?” he scoffs.

“No! I mean… You are!” Usually, she’s so great with words. Why does this have to be the one time she stumbles? “You’re the most important troll in the world to me!”

“Well, it sure doesn’t feel that way.” He crosses his arms and turns away from her again. Her stomach drops when he does this. “With the way that you’re always making invitations and running off to drop them off. You know he doesn’t appreciate them, right?”

“He does appreciate them! I know it!” Well, she doesn’t know that for sure. He could be throwing them in the trash the first chance he gets. Something in her tells her different. That he treasures each one of them.

“If he truly did, he’d at least thank you.” He doesn’t turn to look at Poppy when he says this. She wishes he did. She hates it when he refuses to look at her. He does it every time he’s upset at her.

“He did! “When I handed him the card today, he thanked me!”

“Oh, so one thank you,” He holds up a single finger. “For what? Hundreds of invitations.”

True, he doesn’t thank her for them. That’s not his fault though. He never has the opportunity to. “Yes. But it’s the fact that he did this one time that matters. That means that all the other times, he said a silent thank you.”

Creek lets out a heavy sigh. “You know what? Your negative energy is suffocating me. I need some space.” He walks away from her again. “Figure out your priorities, Poppy, because I will not be playing second fiddle to a deranged pariah.”

With that statement, he walks away. Not towards TrollsTopia, but deep into the forest.

She wants to chase him again. Try and clear everything up. If she finds the right words, then he’ll see her side. The issue is he keeps misunderstanding what she means. It almost feels deliberate.

But that can’t be true. He has no reason to do that.

This fight was her fault. She should have known better. When Creek told her that she should give up on Branch, she should have completely agreed, even if she didn’t mean it. Just so that they wouldn’t have spiraled into an argument again.

Maybe he’s right. Giving invitations to Branch keeps causing them to fight.

And for what? One five second conversation in two years.

As much as she cares about him, is helping him really worth destroying her marriage over?

She feels like she’s being torn half. If she keeps trying to reach out Branch, then her husband is going to leave her. If she stops, then one of her closest friends won’t have anyone anymore.  

Even with her mustering up all the optimism she can, it’s clear. There’s no winning in this situation. No matter what she does, her actions are going to hurt someone she cares about and they’re going to hurt herself.