#the rabbit writes apparently

[musewrangler]

It's 8 am and I am researching who invented baking powder. For my enrichment. But here's the thing---at some point, all of these foods and ingredients had to be put in someone's mouth. To test. Wild.

[sourapplesauces]

why is gregory's age so confusing...

like how do you expect me to believe this little guy might be a highschooler in security breach?! (according to the books at least)

if you go to GGY in the TftP, his friends Tony and Ellis are both in seventh grade, and since Gregory shares classes with them its easy to assume he's in 7th grade too. Tony is 12 which is the average age for a seventh grader (12-13). And of course Gregory could be younger, but he really cant be any younger than 11 during GGY.

And since then, a year or two passes before Security Breach happens. (while its up to debate in my opinion its been 2 years). so if you do the math... he's most likely 14 (but his general age range is 13-15 (!)) which would make him a freshman in high school?!

tldr; Gregory is a freshman in HS... he's just a short king

[the-fandom-crossroads]

Just read through A Glitch in Time for the first time and it woke up the Danny Phantom brain rot. I came up with this world building head cannon but I have no idea if it's already been thought up in the years since I was last in the fandom. So I figured I'd share it and see if there's like already fics or posts about it.

No A Glitch in Time spoilers in this!

So my idea is that the Ghost Zone isn’t so much another dimension but instead another location in Earth’s dimension. Specifically the liquid mantle of Danny’s earth isn’t made up of magma but instead ectoplasm. The Ghost Zone is the center of their planet.

That’s why if you blow up the center of the ghost zone the human world goes too. Or if you hit the human world with an asteroid the ghost zone goes. Because the human world is just the outer shell of the ghost world.

Fell down a rabbit hole and apparently this is already a physics question? Link It’s called the Shell Theorem and basically you’d float anywhere in the hollow shell planet because you are being equally pulled from the edge closest to you and farthest from you. In our case the hollow shell if filled with ectoplasm instead of like empty air.

It would explain why gravity is “optional” in the zone. Because the closer you get to the gravitational center the more the rules of gravity get wonky. If you’re standing on a floating rock in the zone there’s gravity to hold you to the rock, but jumping off of it means you just float there. The ghost zone rocks move because earth is spinning and that shifts around the ectoplasm soup the lairs are floating in.

The Ghost Zone is usually depicted with a spiral or spherical layout. Newer lairs farther out and the oldest lairs farther in. I know there’s already headcanons about what’s at the center or core of the ghost zone. But the point is everything in the zone is floating around this central point making it very easy to move the ghost zone map into the center of a globe. Easier than saying it’s a parallel dimension when one is confined to a flat plane and the other builds upward and outward in all directions. The infinity map always confused me with that fact that it's a flat scroll instead of like Treasure planet’s space map.

When someone dies the intangible soul is no longer anchored to the surface of the planet. The Soul is pulled through the solid crust layer pulled towards the center of the planet and if they have a strong enough “purpose” they gather enough ectoplasm to form a ghost around that core purpose. If a ghost core isn’t formed to collect ectoplasm around the soul to form a ghost body the soul gets pulled all the way to the center of the planet where it stops because gravity is pulling it equally from all directions. All the souls clump together to form KINGDOM HEARTS!!! Sorry wrong fandom. But it probably holds onto the souls until a new body is born in a form of reincarnation. Jack NightingGale is my only point for this. But like it’s literally Jack Fenton only 200 years ago.

Ghosts that finish their unfinished business or “fade” simply release their soul from their ghost cores so they can return to the core of the zone and rejoin the reincarnation cycle again. You don’t want to carry hangups from your past life into your next one so the zone is supposed to be a chance to work through those. That’s why even tho ghosts don’t “die” of old age there are more young ghosts than older ghosts.

The reason ghost activity was low to non-existant before the Fenton portal is because of how much energy/ectoplasm a ghost had to use to get through the solid crust layer. There isn’t a lot of ectoplasm on the surface usually so they couldn’t replenish what they spent on the trip. You had to be an insanely strong ghost or save up a large amount of ectoplasm to be able to make the trip and then make your form visible and physical on the surface. So the only ones who did were ones that had to come up because of their purpose which leads to the assumption all ghosts have “unfinished business”. They also had to pick and chose what they spent energy on. Physically touching things and pushing things over, or being transparent and slightly visible to the living. Willowisps or floating balls of light were only their cores visible with the ghost not having the strength to form a full body of ectoplasm in the human world.

Natural portals were basically random volcano explosions and rarely used because you didn’t know when the eruption would end. If the portal closes and you’re stuck on the surface you might not have enough energy for the long way back. Also they spit you out in a random location and time. Any ghost with a strong desire to return to the human world have a specific place in mind.

Amity Park is YellowStone. A place where a pocket of magma in this case ectoplasm is extremely close to the surface. The Fenton’s poked that pocket otherwise there wouldn’t have been enough ectoplasm for the portal to pull from initially. That’s why the college portal fizzled out so quickly it pulled in all the nearby ectoplasm and then just died off like a fire without wood. The Amity portal is a geyser spewing ecto energy into the town and an Express Elevator all rolled into one. Ghosts can now make it to the surface without spending all their ectoplasm to do it and then there’s enough ambient ectoplasm to keep them stable for a while before having to return to the Zone. So weaker ghosts like the lunch lady and box ghost use it. Ghost animals like the ectopi and Cujo use it. Ghosts like Ember and Skulker who could feed their obsessions just fine in the zone use it cause at the end of the day there’s more humans than ghosts on the planet.

But the “nice” ghosts stay in the zone because they don’t feed on feelings that are hard to get. Frostbite “feeds” on the feeling of safety or calmness of his tribe. There is no reason to leave the far frozen to accomplish this so he doesn’t. Pandora doesn’t feed on emotions but her soul purpose is to protect her box so no one ever opens it again. Again no reason to leave the zone.

The Next bit got a little rambly with me explaining my thoughts on ectoplasm=calories for ghosts and how that affects fights and danny’s powers. So I’m just gonna like make that a second post? Sorry this one got long.

Tldr; What if the ghost zone was the liquid mantle part of Danny Phantom's Earth?

Like I said I don’t know if folks have already talked around this idea. Heck I might have read a post about it years ago and forgot. The main headcanon I remember is the spiral ghost zone where lairs spiral out from the center of the zone like a galaxy. But I know the Phandom has combed over every frame of the show at this point. So I’d love it if ghost planet core headcanons are already out there and yall can share some links. Or if there’s any thoughts you’d like to add to the idea. Please do!

[hrh-spinach]

Did you know there are MANY KINDS of CAR JACKS?!?

so many.

SO SO MANY

[rabbitdarling]

Can you call my smut fic a smut fic if by 8k there is still no actual smut to be had? Sure there's some groping and some kissing but smut smut? Nahhh, homeboy is too busy staring in awe at his lady love to get down an dirty with her.

Also, this was supposed to be a sex-pollen fic, and all that did was just bring down inhibition, just a tad for homeboy to be more forwards. So yeah, I somehow managed to fail at writing Sex-pollen smut.

[sesshy380]

I must love putting TKB into angsty situations a bit too much, because I had one of those vivid dreams that even though I don't remember all of the details, I remember a lot of the important basics and it won't leave me.

It would make a great heartshipping story too (you read that right).

[metaphorical-goblin]

ya girl is wearing her writing hat which means she will be writing for at least 30 minutes

[tempests-bards-and-birds]

i need to stop watching playthroughs of psychological horror games before i go to bed

[bejeweledbaby]

are we all in agreement that steve harrington is literally jack schlossberg

[wacem]

I've got roughly 60 tabs open in my browser right now, filled with very geographically focused historical research from four different time periods. And I've got two more timelines in mind that I haven't even touched yet. Either we're gonna have a whale of a fic series that absolutely nobody asked for, or I'm gonna come away with weirdly expert knowledge about some times and a place I've never been to... and nothing to show for it.

Could go either way.

[drawnaghht]

SRTUC and the "3D vs 2D" toons

a little animation prediction:

...10-15 years from now, the kids growing up watching things from their parents' handheld devices are gonna be nostalgic for their cocomelon's and will be wondering, "why aren't there any good 3D cartoons like in their childhood??" just like how ppl in each generation have always been nostalgic for the entertainment of their own childhood haha x3

this little anecdote is smth I've slowly kinda realized after thinking abt the whole "3D vs 2D" mindset ppl have about animation in general. i've been seeing a lot of complaining online abt 2D cartoons and indie cartoons in general and I'm wondering.... when will the criticism end? Just 8 months ago, people would have shared the sentiment, "more indie animation! hollywood is starving our artists!" but now from online fans, I see a lot more of the sentiment of "this thing sucks" or in the case of Rise TMNT for example, "we were too late for this show".

People like 2D animation, but any time there's a new show out, people either don't give it a chance (thinking of my old faves, like Motorcity and Sym-bionic Titan, but also many others). Or like with Moon Girl, people seem to ignore it more than talk about it. Is it because it's a Marvel show? it's like the spiritual successor to both ROTTMNT and LMK, but also BH6 a bit?? it's good. animated by Flying Bark (known widely for Rise and Lego Monkey Kid) with supervising director Ben Juwono, story artist on BH6 and Glitch Techs. and there's lots of other cool ppl on the crew

also just, I'm thinking again abt how the 1st reactions from many different fans and viewers in general was so... strong. People reacted so badly to the 3D in SR, and it didn't make much sense to me, because personally, as someone who's seen many animated films and series since Toy Story in 96, it looks better than just "fine". the art direction in the show actually looks great to me. I do notice smaller animation or model/render mistakes but tbh they are so few and inbetween, that usually does not break enjoyment for me when it comes to 3D tv. So a lot of the hate that the "3D style" gets still doesn't make sense to me.

now I see that it's probably bc ppl are still used to 2D being their preference or something they see as better.... and maybe not entirely just ppl being tired of certain 3D rendering styles. A few thoughts...

So alright, it does not look like disney or like Sony artists' work with Spiderverse and later films. "Styles" or approaches to rendering which ppl are used to or have come to expect from all animated features and even animated series now. But it's still unique and strong in its own way. It doesn't look like Trollhunters either, 99 pictures' previous series of works, and I find that a good thing. it's been a long time since Trollhunters was in development to when Samurai Rabbit started 3D development.

The show is stylized in a way where it takes into account the work of all the visdev artists while also juggling the task of making anthro animals look animal-like and cartoony, but not too cutesy or too smooth either. It seems to follow the visdev art a lot. So there are many considerations to balance in the style. They also used many budget-saving methods, i.e. the changing walls of the city so they would have more variety without modelling a lot of buildings, or how scenes were rendered in a way to save time and space. Or cut character's legs off via camera view bc it's not important to see leg etc. So for the result they got on the show, it looks fine and quite often also nice. Again, the art directions saves the show from a lot of the smaller mistakes and ties it nicely together. One thing that did bother me a bit more was the crowd-characters style, both in 3D and 2D. To me they look a bit ugly and like they don't quite go together with the main cast "drawing" style, but again lol, you cannot splurge on everything when you're on a TV budget and imo it's not a huge loss.

I do like however how this show avoids what a lot of videogames do (for good reason), and what some 3D shows seem to also do. Everything looks like it's at the right size. Like the characters and objects/scenery/city they interact with feels tangibe, despite any technical shortcuts mentioned before. It looks really nice to my brain, especially knowing what many of these things look and feel like irl. I also enjoy that they've made the simple choice of making the characters more "furry" looking anthros and "less human" - so they don't feel awkward for having too many human traits and less animal traits. Or like animal heads with human bodies with the wrong proportions. Sometimes these things just work better in drawings and 2D vs 3D. Smart choice to not overly humanize them when they're already walking on their very human-like cartoon legs.

Lol maybe I've just seen much uglier things in 3D than what kids these days are used to. It does feel like with Samurai Rabbit in general, it's another case of a show coming out a bit too late for the changing tastes of viewers now. But then again, if we consider how many of these criticisms are coming from teens, who maybe just have a different taste and preference (e.g. they haven't seen maybe early 00s stuff so they judge all 2D to be superior bc they're tired of 3D? could be anything like that). And the other contingent I see are some older adults in their 30s/40s who are critical of animation in general, or they don't like how it's not a direct adaptation of Usagi Yojimbo. I remember a quote my sibling throws around about fans like these: "and baby food doesn't taste as good as it used to!!!" and I find she is right haha, some people have way too many opinions about shows which are not for them at all. Like, move on and watch something else x3 It seems it was popular with the indended demographic of kids ages 6-11, so, if that's something that helped the show, good. That's nice.

BTW, on that last note, been meaning to say this for a long time, but imo, it's actually good that the show wasn't a direct adaptation. Think about it. How many adaptations have you seen where people don't complain about how xyz part was left out? Or how they didn't capture the essence in their style? Stan and crew worked with what they got from Netflix, and I find that admirable on its own, seeing how Netflix treats many of their animated shows nowadays in general. Not just cancellations, but other things like contract disagreements and changes to a show. It seems with the last 2 years, the halcyon days of Netflix are over. Even though animation was the thing holding the entertainment industry in the US up during the pandemic, it and its workers are treated unfairly by the megacorp, who have also revealed that they're losing money in general. And from interviews and articles, it seems this show also had hard times, in terms of getting an adaptation at all (it was changed and NF asked them to do it about a younger Usagi instead, something like that), so they got the short end of the stick, but dealth with it. When Candie and Doug, the showrunners, were brought on board, they were told that it had to be for a younger audience, so a younger Usagi and the solution was to make a descendant. But that freed the show up a lot more than it would have been before. Now, instead of deciding on what favourite UY story to cut, the crew could instead focuz on making a complete story and rounded characters without stepping on Netflix's toes. It also seems the show had really enthusiastic execs and producers in general. So in the end we got a show with descendants of some of the comic's cast, who just happen to also be like retellings or their own versions of some of these characters (like Chizu and Kitsune for example)

saying all that.... lol if this show does come back, it'll be a while again and 3D preferences and styles would be changed again... I wonder what kind of visual style they would opt for if there was a new series based on Samurai Rabbit or based on other Usagi Yojimbo series, like Chibi Usagi or Yokai Hunter.

there's also of course just the factor that a lot of animation fans might be coming from a different place compared to fans of other media and are a lot more critical about what they watch. Never really been big on liveaction fandoms cuz I only watch liveaction stuff w my family as a fun activity to do, but i get sorta bored otherwise (so personal preference). I do know ppl complain abt their liveaction shows too but... it seems from this far away, much less whiney in some way. Like ppl being used to it and moving. But animation criticism always seems to be coming from an ungenuine or unfairly angry place. I don't know if it's the combo of "nostalgia nerd"-like youtuberisms having an influence on this, or just general negativity, but it's definitely something that's sorta become more boring/annoying to see. If you're critical of everything, eventually you sorta have nothing to criticise, or at least, nothing to enjoy.

but hey, if the general taste preference is still 2D, that's great! that's nice. I also still prefer 2D even if 3D is something I've worked with and something i've become accustomed to in animation in general. I just wonder where this mindset comes from that animated things have to be absolutely-infinitely PERFECT, or else it's not worth the watch.

I've definitely been in this camp of cartoon haters myself in the past... maybe not so much looking for perfectionism, but trying to see things I liked from an adult POV... but thankfully the early 00s we didn't have internet access i my family yet so no one else saw lol. As a kid, I genuinely thought that to be an animator, I have to learn how to be critical of every movie and animated thing I see. But animation brings me a lot of joy even when it's not "objectively" good... I wonder when more people will catch up and see their old mindset from a different point of view. I just find it sad that critics and internet drama seemingly have a much bigger impact on a show's success than say, the actual demographic watching it, or sales or whatever.

Anyway, if you read this far, thank you! I would offer an internet cookie, but it seems so here have a SR! Gen, representing how tired I am after staying up too late to write this haha x3

Anyway, good night, if you like a show or really enjoy it, pls watch it and share the word about it, that seems to do good.

Night!

[durn4h]

How did I never know that my favorite professor got his PhD at Johns Hopkins?

[pitohuimaki]

agree. there's nothing better than to present a straight, high class, squeaky clean member of society and then have life throw them down the stairs.

like when sugou gets a beard in the parking scene. where did that come from. has he not shaved in days? wha happened, business man?

this just made me go back and check that scene and he doesn’t have a beard he’s just greying 😔😔 pic for proof and also entirely unrelated to every joke i’ve ever made about pito’s knife kink

[missempanada]

How to help the people in Spain

As you may have seen online, Spain is going through a flash flood since October 29. It's mainly affected the Community of Valencia but also some parts of the south-west and the cold drop is now moving to the north-east.

95 bodies have been found at the time I'm writing this (edit: 205 now), there's still people missing and entire towns are isolated as they don't have electricity and their roads have been destroyed. A lot of people don't have tap water or any means to cook. If you're wondering why people didn't evacuate beforehand, it's because authorities didn't care enough to warn people so technically everyone had to go to work and school. Though politicians should be held accountable, the most important thing at the moment is to help those in need. So here's some ways you can help both people and animals that have been affected.

NGOs and fundraisers

MOST NEEDED AT THE MOMENT: You can donate to Valencia's food bank by making a transfer to this bank account: ES86 2100 2806 6402 0009 8998.

Horta Sud is a county in Valencia that has been the most affected by the floodings. People are leaving their houses because they're scared of the infrastructure getting damaged and even walking by foot to Valencia capital to get food. You can help those families via this gofundme.

Hambre Cero is a Spanish non-profit that was founded after the earthquakes in Indonesia. They will be giving food to those who need it. Here's different ways you can donate.

This gofundme is joining efforts with the town hall of Valencia to help people who have lost their homes.

Una copa por Valencia ("a drink to Valencia") is a campaign organized by Spanish influencer David Aliagas. The idea behind it is to donate the amount of money you would spend on drinks on a night out. He'll be joining effort with local non-profits. You can help here.

Here's a thread of artists that are accepting commissions in exchange for donations for Valencia.

Spanish Kpop fans are organizing a collective fundraiser.

EDIT: took Cáritas and Spanish Red Cross out of this post after this tiktok made by a volunteer went viral and a lot of people posted their experiences working for these NGOs. Apparently they're not distributing food. Instead they're telling people not to send more food and send money instead so they can keep part of it.

Help people directly

Help Sara, Steven and Bruno rebuild their home in Valencia.

Help this high school teacher buy a new car to get back to work.

Raúl was about to open his barbershop on October 31 but it was destroyed by the flood. Please help him get his dream back.

Help the neighbours of Aldaia (Valencia) rebuild their homes.

This artist has been affected by the floods and lost their car. They've opened emergency commissions.

You can help rebuild the town of Letur (Albacete) by donating to this gofundme that's directly coordinated with the town hall.

Rebeca is a seamstress. Her studio was both her workplace and a place were came together for a sewing club in the afternoons. It was destroyed by the flood. You can help her rebuild it here

Animal shelters

Refugio Minipow was home to 50 rabbits and guinea pigs. Thankfully, the owners were able to move all the animals to their homes and those of their neighbors, though the shelter itself has been destroyed right after recent renovations. There's different ways to donate here.

El Refugio de María a dog shelter in Sueca (Valencia), is completely flooded, leaving the dogs visibly distressed, as shown here. You can donate to PayPal maria.g.may@gmail.com

Modepran is a dog shelter in Campanar (Valencia) where infrastructure damage has left some dogs without a proper sleeping area. You can donate through PayPal here.

Gatos Campo de Gibraltar is a cat shelter in Los Barrios (Cádiz). need of assistance for relocating cats to new homes and rebuilding damaged facilities. You can donate to their PayPal gatoscampodegibraltar@gmail.com

Protectora San Antón is an animal shelter for cats and dogs in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). The entire place is flooded and the animals don't have a comfortable place to sleep in. Cats can't even walk on the ground. You can donate to their PayPal protectorasananton@hotmail.com

I'll be adding more as I find them. Thank you everyone for your help.

Edit: adding this because I keep seeing people on Twitter and Tiktok say it makes no sense to give money to people in a "first world" country. I need you people to understand that living in a western country doesn't equal politicians caring about you.

This whole thing started because politicians weren't doing their job and they're still not doing it. People (literal civilians, not firefighters or policemen) are literally pulling bodies from under cars and putting them inside the trunks so children in the affected areas don't see them. There's underground parkings still flooded by water and we don't know how many people may be inside them.

France offered to send us 200 firemen and the Ministry of Interior literally REFUSED. Some of these French firemen came on their own anyway. But that's what our politicians are doing. Negating help and pointing fingers at each other so they don't seem guilty.

[burrowlvrr]

— MORTGAGE MISCHIEF, joe burrow.

PAIRING: Joe Burrow 𝔁 Black!Wife!Reader

GENRE: Husband & Dad Joe

SUMMARY: In which — Y/N caves in and makes a TikTok account, and it doesn't take long for her to try to prank her unserious husband.

NOTE: I love this trend on TikTok so freaking much, bro, I just couldn't help myself. I wish there was more pranks going around TikTok so I could write another one lol! Feel free to send me more ideas and suggestions, enjoy!

UNIVERSE: Tenderhearts & Touchdowns!

Y/N had never been the kind of person to keep up with social media trends. Her Instagram was mostly filled with family snapshots, vacation photos, and the occasional throwback post from her college days. TikTok, though? That was a whole different ballgame.

She’d heard the buzz about it, of course—the dances, the memes, the endless rabbit hole of videos that could steal hours of your day—but it wasn’t really her thing.

That is, until some of Joe’s fans started flooding her DMs.

It wasn’t unusual for her to get messages from fans, most of them kind and supportive, occasionally sprinkled with the usual social media chaos. But after a family photo Joe posted went viral—a candid shot of the two of them laughing while their kids played in the background—her inbox blew up.

Several people had suggested she start a TikTok account, saying things like, “Your family is so cute, we’d love to see more of you guys!” and “Please post more videos of Joe being a dad; it’s the content we all need!”

At first, she brushed it off. The idea of putting her family out there in such a public way made her hesitant. Their life was private, cozy, and real—did she really want to open that up to the internet? But the messages kept coming, and her curiosity eventually got the better of her. One evening, after the kids were asleep and Joe was watching game highlights, she downloaded the app.

It didn’t take long for TikTok to reel her in. The first few days, she lurked quietly, scrolling through endless videos of clever pranks, hilarious parenting fails, and, of course, a whole section of TikToks dedicated to football wives and girlfriends. It was the pranks that hooked her.

Women were pulling the funniest, most creative stunts on their unsuspecting husbands—pretending to be mad over made-up arguments, mispronouncing their favorite athletes’ names, and her personal favorite, casually dropping bombshell “confessions” to see how their partners would react.

She couldn’t resist.

“This would be perfect for Joe,” she’d said to herself one night, already grinning at the thought. He was so even-keeled most of the time, but his sass came out when he was caught off guard, and she couldn’t wait to see what he’d say.

So, Y/N started posting. At first, it was just lighthearted videos of their kids, like Hudson and Elijah racing each other in the backyard or Sawyer trying to crawl after their dog, who always managed to stay just out of reach. The comments poured in, full of love and laughter, and she started to feel less nervous about sharing these little moments. And then came the pranks.

She eased into them, starting small—things like pretending to forget what day of the week it was or asking Joe if she could switch his game-day hoodie with one of hers. His reactions were gold, and her videos started gaining traction. She didn’t know how many people would find it so funny, but apparently, the internet loved Joe Burrow getting pranked as much as she did.

Which is how she found herself, phone in hand, ready to execute her latest and possibly best trend yet: the “I can’t pay the mortgage this month” prank.

The living room buzzed with the quiet hum of family life. Hudson and Elijah were seated cross-legged on the rug, their faces scrunched in concentration as they connected Lego pieces, the colorful blocks scattered across the coffee table like a mini construction zone. Sawyer, their youngest, was on the floor nearby, rolling lazily on her playmat while holding her bottle with both hands, occasionally babbling nonsense to herself.

Joe was stretched out on the couch, the epitome of relaxation in his gray hoodie and sweatpants, his wife’s legs comfortably draped over his thighs. His focus was glued to the MMA fight playing on the TV, and he absently stirred his spoon around a bowl of cereal balanced in his hand.

Every so often, he’d let out a low, “Oof,” reacting to a particularly hard punch or takedown, his body slightly tensing with the action on screen.

Y/N sat beside him, phone in hand, scrolling through TikTok. She stumbled across the trend a few hours ago, and decided that now was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Glancing sideways at Joe, she smirked to herself. This will be fun.

She adjusted her phone subtly, angling it to record, and cleared her throat dramatically. “Joe?”

“Hmm?” he murmured, not taking his eyes off the screen as he scooped another bite of cereal.

“I need to tell you something,” she said softly, injecting a hint of nervousness into her tone.

Joe didn’t look up. “What’s up, baby?”

“Don’t get mad at me, okay?” she added, biting her bottom lip to suppress a grin.

That got his attention. Joe’s hand froze midair, his spoon hovering over the bowl, and he turned his head toward her, squinting slightly.

“What? Why would I get mad?” His sharp gaze shifted to the phone in her lap. “Wait… why’re you recording? You pregnant again?”

Y/N burst out laughing at his assumption, unable to keep up her serious facade. “What? No!”

“Are you sure? ‘Cause that’s how you told me about Sawyer,” he replied with a smirk, leaning back on the couch and rubbing his free hand over his face.

“You just pulled out your phone, started recording, and bam—‘Congratulations, you’re gonna be a dad again!’” Y/N rolled her eyes but couldn’t help giggling. “I’m serious, Joe. This is important.”

“Alright, alright,” he said, setting his cereal down on the side table and shifting so he was facing her fully. “What’s going on? And why are you being all dramatic about it?”

Y/N took a deep breath, steadying herself before delivering her line. “I, uh… I won’t be able to pay the mortgage this month.”

Joe blinked at her, his brows knitting together in confusion. “Girl, what are you talking about?” His tone was casual but tinged with disbelief.

She tried to keep her composure, clasping her hands together as if pleading. “The school’s on winter break, so my paycheck isn’t going to be enough. I just—ugh, I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

Joe stared at her for a moment, his expression unreadable. “Okay, wait. How much is the mortgage?”

Y/N’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. “Uh… like… $2,000?” she guessed, feigning confidence.

Joe’s mouth twitched, and he let out a low chuckle, shaking his head. “Babe. You don’t even know how much it is, do you?”

“Well…” she stalled, trying to recover.

“That’s what I thought,” he said, leaning back against the couch and crossing his arms. “You’ve never paid the mortgage.”

“I know!” Y/N blurted, throwing her hands up dramatically. “I was going to as your Christmas present, but my paycheck won’t be enough now!”

Joe’s brow furrowed again, but this time his lips quirked upward, unable to hide his amusement. “So let me get this straight. You don’t know how much the mortgage is. You’ve never paid it before. And now you’re stressed because your Christmas present was gonna be paying it, but you can’t?”

“Exactly!” she said, doubling down.

For a moment, Joe just stared at her, then he broke into a deep laugh, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You’re crazy,” he muttered, shaking his head. Grabbing his cereal bowl, he leaned back against the couch.

“Don’t worry about it, babe. I got it.” He scooped another spoonful and took a bite like it was the most casual thing in the world.

Y/N couldn’t hold it in any longer. She burst into laughter, clutching her stomach as she nearly dropped her phone.

Joe raised an eyebrow at her, still chewing. “What’s so funny now?”

“It was a TikTok prank!” she wheezed, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

Joe’s smirk deepened as he shook his head. “Yeah, I figured. There’s no way you were being serious.”

“You were so calm about it, though!” she said, still laughing. “I really thought I’d get a bigger reaction out of you!”

“Nah,” Joe replied, reaching over to pinch her ankle playfully. “You’re too bad at lying, babe. Next time, at least Google how much the mortgage is first.”

From the floor, Hudson looked up from the Lego set with a curious expression. “What’s a mortgage?”

Joe snorted, pointing his spoon at his son. “Something you don’t gotta worry about, buddy.”

Elijah chimed in without looking up from his Legos. “Mommy’s bad at pranks.”

Sawyer let out a happy babble from her playmat, almost as if she agreed.

Joe laughed, pulling Y/N closer with one arm. “Looks like the jury’s unanimous, babe. Better luck next time.”

[echosthroughthedoorframe]

I had the same thing happen to me when Zootopia came out lol.

I'd had a story idea a few years before it came out of a world of animals which had recently become sentient. The main characters were a fox and a rabbit and they were going to run around the wilderness changing other animals' minds about the predator/prey relationship while solving some curse that was spreading across the land or something.

So the vibe and visual setting was totally different and a LOT darker cuz predators were still eating prey animals. But I knew that people were going to see the fox and rabbit and surface level theme and immediately be " LiKe zOoToPiA?!?!" Or at least be like, "oh, like Zootopia but earlier on before everyone started getting along?" Which like, yeah kinda I guess. Zootopia is what I could imagine this world eventually becoming if the protags get what they want. But it sucks that I'll never be able to prove I had the idea before the movie came out y'know?

So that story got backburnered a bit, I still want to make it though.

You ever see some big budget production resemble an idea you had in high school and feel like throwing up a little