#this is directed at all my discord buddies

[canadian-pug-cartel]

I really hope people can tell that im just yapping half the time

I really need people to know in a week im forced to go back to normal and take my normal pills™️ so im acting as deranged as i can rn

[xoxiu]

baby, it's you - ot7 x reader

chapter one

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summary: you get kidnapped while on a school trip to korea and get sold into south korea's luxury littles market. the most famous idol group wins your auction.

tags/warnings: forced infantilism, little!reader, diapers, noncon drug use, kidnapping, minor ed behaviors, attempted sa (cocsa?), spanking, diapers, caregivers!bts, force-feeding, language barriers,

Namdaemun market seemed never ending. So many vendors lined the streets with delicious street food and handmade clothing and accessories. You and your three friends walked the market together under the buddy system, a mandatory requirement put in place by your teacher. It was made very clear that when left to your own devices, be in a group of at least three people, and less than six. Although there were a manageable number within your group, you still found yourself doing a headcount every other minute. 

"Oh my gosh, y/n, this would be so cute on your baby sister!" Marissa exclaimed, making a beeline to a small stand selling child-size hanboks. You and the rest of your group quickly followed behind, shaking your heads at Marissa's actions. The entire time you were in the market, she was constantly running off to various vendors. 

The hanboks were obviously all handmade by the older woman running the stand- you admired the intricate design of a pale pink piece in particular. 

"They all look too big- Lainey is only 2 years old..." your words trailed off as you looked amongst the various color options. All of the hanboks were much too big for your sister, being mostly toddler sized. 

The more you and your friends stood at the stand, the more weird you felt. Perhaps it was just your imagination, or paranoia, but you couldn't help but feel someone watching you. The fact that every time you glanced at the old shopkeeper she would immediately dart her eyes away from you was not helping anything. Finally, the woman spoke up as you began to walk away. 

"I have smaller sizes in the back, if you'd like to look," she said, making your group all look over in her direction. The four of you were silent for a minute, exchanging questioning glances, before Marissa spoke up. 

"You go find Lainey's size; we'll wait for you out here."

The woman ushered you inside rather enthusiastically. She followed you into the building, and closed the door behind her. The rather loud 'thud' made you jump and turn to face her, curious as to why she would suddenly close the previously open door. Before any words could be exchanged, you felt arms wrap around you, pulling you into a back room of the shop. 

You tried to scream out for help, but the hand around your mouth muffled any attempt to cry out. Quickly you felt yourself go into full panic mode, hyperventilating and squirming to try and escape the grip on your body. There had to be at least two men holding you, as you felt arms around your waist and arms, as well as various hands all over. What you could only assume was a pillowcase was slipped over your head, making the already dark room even darker. At some point the hand over your mouth was removed, now holding your wrists together behind your back. 

"Calm down, calm down," they kept repeating, but you had no idea what they were saying due to the language difference. You could, however, hear the desperation in their voices. All you could do was cry, letting out sobs and pleas to be let go. 

You could feel the tightness and tackiness of duct tape being wrapped around your wrists, leaving you unable to move them beyond maybe half an inch. Your mouth was soon covered as well, leaving your lips tightly shut from the tape. 

Hands gripped you under your armpits, lifting you up onto a platform of sorts. With the freedom you still had, you kicked your dangling legs wildly, making it harder for the men to tape your ankles as well. A sudden stinging and tingling in your cheek made you freeze out of concern. The sound of the slap did not register in your head from the pure adrenaline in the moment. Only the pain broke through your focused senses. 

The men used your stunned stillness to tape your ankles. Once they were sure the tape would hold, they jumped onto the platform next to you. You felt the shakes and bounces from their jump- you were in a truck trailer. And there were easily four men pulling your body further into the trailer. 

You were pushed down onto your stomach with a boot resting on top of your back. Nevertheless, you continued to squirm to the best of your abilities, desperately trying to do something. What that something was, you weren't entirely sure. All you could think about was getting free and running far, far away. 

As you squirmed in pain and whimpered, the men above you were having a casual conversation in Korean, even having the audacity to laugh and joke around. 

The foot was removed from your back as the engine started up. The men all sat down along the walls of the trailer, watching and laughing as you were forced to slide and roll with every jerk and turn along the road. One particularly harsh stop caused you to tumble your way into two of the men. You cried and squirmed harder, not wanting to knowingly be so close to your abductors. 

A sharp pain shot down your arm as you were stabbed with a needle in your upper arm. You panicked more, not liking being injected with some unknown drug. Another jab was made in your lower back, and soon you felt your body go numb. Your sobs and squirms soon died down as the drugs took full effect.

———

The sound of feet shuffling on the floor and people talking greeted you as you slowly came to. You groaned, not appreciating being awoken from a comfortable slumber. It took you a moment to open your eyes due to your exhaustion and the brightness of the room you resided in. Everything was a blinding white- the lights, the walls, everything.

With half lidded eyes, you turned your head to look at the two other people in the room. Neither of them paid you much attention, failing to notice that you had awoken. Your body had been drained of all energy, allowing you to only release a small, pitiful moan instead of the loud scream you wanted to make. 

Two pairs of eyes turned to face you- the man was rather shocked to see you awake, while the woman looked pleased. All you wanted to do was jump off the exam table and run as far as you could, but the fact that you couldn't feel your fingers or toes ruined that plot. 

"y/n, it's so nice to see you alert and awake!" The woman said, walking towards you. She bent down to be eye level with you, running her hand through your hair. Although she was speaking English, you still had a hard time processing her words. 

"Doctor Park is going to be examining you to make sure you're all good and healthy, is that okay?" 

You desperately tried to shake your head and let out a 'no'. Out of every possible situation in the world, having to be examined by a strange man had to be one of the worst. Especially when you are unable to move or speak. 

The man, Dr. Park, said very little to you. He sat down in his chair and rolled his way over to you, quickly taking your vitals. He spoke in Korean, mainly addressing the woman from what you could tell. Everything was just overwhelming- the finger heart monitor, the blood pressure cuff, and the ear thermometer all happening at once made your head spin out of fear and confusion. 

"y/n, you need to stop shaking your head, dear." You hadn't even realized you were moving anything, better yet your head. Ultimately you listened to the woman, fearful of what would happen if you didn't cooperate. 

As the examination went on, you felt your stomach ache more and more. Closing your eyes and turning your head away from the doctor helped slightly, but the urge to vomit still remained. 

The door to the exam room opened, allowing a nurse pushing a cart into the room. You strained your eyes to try to see what was on the cart. Various small bottles and needles were scattered across the cart, with what appeared to be a pacifier inside a clear plastic container. 

You quickly made the connections to what was going to happened. Not liking it, you began to whine and whimper more, violently shaking your head and trying your best to move the rest of your body. No one paid you any mind, however, and continued on with the procedures. 

The nurse picked up the pacifier box, and took out the pale pink pacifier. Despite your best efforts, she easily popped the soother into your mouth. You tried your best to spit it out, but your tongue felt too heavy to properly push the pacifier out with it. 

You watched as the doctor began to prepare the syringes, not entirely sure what was inside of each bottle. Not wanting to watch the needle enter you, you tightly closed your eyes until you saw random colors. Surprisingly, you didn't feel a single poke of the needles. You slowly relaxed your eyelids as you felt a comforting warmth fill your body. Your breathing began even and calmer, and soon you felt yourself fall back asleep.

[slycopersicum-in-disguise]

Mostly buddie and bucktommy thoughts, but some general fandom feels too

I am glad Buck is canonically bi.

I am very sad Eddie is not canonically gay.

I want Buck and Eddie to get together.

While things in TV can turn on a dime, it looks clear from the most recent episodes that they don't intend to have buddie be a canon relationship.

At the start of the season I was very enthusiastic about the character of Tommy being around long-term.

I am not feeling any chemistry between Buck and Tommy when they are in scenes together. This isn't just because of my buddie shipping goggles - as much as I disliked Buck and Taylor together, they did spark off each other. I am just not feeling it from the other BT.

I am really disappointed by the structure of the few scenes with Buck and Tommy that we did have. If Tommy had turned up in a slightly silly costume to the party and still had had to leave I would be finding it hard not to love him. If they had just switched the dinner date scene around and started with the daddy kink flirting and then had Tommy go beyond that to ask if Buck was actually OK after Bobby's coma, I would be thinking that with enough time we might see as much of a connection between them as we see between Buck and Eddie.

Depressingly, I don't think the writing teams are trying to drop us subtle hints that Buck/Tommy are inherently doomed, I think they are just fucking up. Which doesn't bode well for future scenes between Buck and Tommy being something I will enjoy.

While I want Buck and Eddie to get together and didn't think their previous LIs would have been good life partners for them, in the fandom there was a lot of deliberate misreading of scenes involving the women and a worrying level of hate directed towards the actresses. Yes, there were some justified callouts about the actions of some of the actresses. We should never, ever accept bigotry. But we all know we have seen actual full-on misogyny from many fans too.

I read 911 fandom posts on many platforms and I have seen this behaviour on Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Discord, you name it. While we would love to think the people on whatever platform we don't use are the horrible ones, I see it across the board.

That deliberate misreading of scenes and cruelty towards real people is now spreading to both Eddie and Tommy, and their respective actors. Part of me wants to flippantly say "Diversity Win!" but racism and homophobia are wriggling their way into 911 fandom posts and we need to do better.

I am feeling gloomy about S8. I don't think a summer break is going to fix any of the issues I have with the show. If you love how things are going then I am happy for you! I'll probably still boost the gorgeous fanart and insightful metas that I often see. But this is a reminder to others, and to myself, that if a show is making us sad, we can just go watch something else. It's OK. We're OK.

[ckret2]

If you don't mind my asking, what is your outlining process like? Is it a bulleted list of scenes, or paragraphs describing what you want to happen? How thorough is it, and how much do you just figure out as you go? I'm about to attempt to write a truly longform fanfic for the first time, and I've been a fan of yours long enough that I feel you probably have some sage wisdom on the matter.

You know what, I get this question with some regularity, so instead of trying to remember how I explained it last time, I'll just drop one of my outlines so I can link this the next time someone asks. Here's my full outline for chapters 33/34/35. Copy/pasted from my plotting sessions in discord with my writing buddies.

This is in two parts. The first part is my actual outline, which I ALWAYS had open while actually writing the chapters—I recommend open my outline and the finish chapters side-by-side so you can see just how closely the chapter follows the outline. My outline is VERY LONG and VERY DETAILED, down to exactly what happens in the conversations; this is because I've found that, for me, "write out THE ENTIRE chapter WITH all actions & dialogue (but writing it super badly)" + "writing the chapter well (but not needing to think about actions & dialogue AT ALL") is much, much faster than "do a simple outline (but figure out the action, dialogue, and how to write it well all at once)".

And the second part is a bunch of snippets from other plotting sessions where I was figuring out how to fit the tooth fairy arc into the whole fic, so you can see how I work on overarching plot lines.

Anywhere there's a "####" divider is a separation between different plotting sessions on different days. Anywhere text is in "[brackets]" it's either a paraphrase of something one of my writing buddies said (I don't post direct quotes publicly) or some kind of note to myself.

####

[This part is my actual outline I used to write the chapters]

So! Stan's having breakfast. Bill comes into the kitchen, plops down, "gooood morning—" "go away."

"Haha funny. Anyway! I need you to take me to your dentist." "No. I took you to the mall, you almost made my niece cry, my brother left a Shopliftaholics Anonymous flier on my bed, and all I got out of is was a crummy ring. You wanna go anywhere, talk to Soos."

Nope, it's gotta be Stan. (he doesn't wanna hang out with that loser Soos anyway.) Bill's trying to get fillings, and Stan's dentist does them for free.

Which is true, but it's weird that Bill knows that. Stan's dentist is some weirdo operating out of a back alley, with a weird pay structure. He charges normal dentist rates for regular dental maintenance, but he does gold fillings for free, and he'll pay YOU if he needs to pull your teeth. He's great! Stan hasn't had to pay for dental care in thirty years! Stan also wears dentures now, but hey, at least they were free.

So, since it's Stan's dentist, he's the only one who can take Bill. Stan sees where Bill's coming from; but he says no, because he doesn't wanna.

Okay, bill's gonna try another tact.

Stan, Bill is a simple creature. A simple creature who's used to being coated tip to base in a thin layer of pure, lustrous, 24 karat gold. Having skin makes his skin crawl. He doesn't *need* any dental work done, his teeth are fine, but he'd really, *really* like to have just a *bit* of gold, *somewhere* on his body, so he feels a *little* more like himself in his final days. (you're losing my sympathy by the second, cipher.) ... And then once he's dead, he supposes he'll be leaving behind a corpse with a mouthful of free gold that whoever's disposing of his remains can do whatever they want with, do you catch his meaning Stanley?

That's absolutely *disgusting.* ... But okay, he's bribed! ...... They're not telling Ford about this, right? Right. They're shaking on it. Agreed. They'll take this to their graves. ... Or to Bill's grave, anyway.

Hey, it's free gold that Bill is offering him totally voluntarily. After all the trouble this demon's brought into their lives, the LEAST Stan can get in return is a little financial compensation.

Great! Deal made! Time to go get the cursed friendship bracelets and then they can head out—

Ohhh no, Stan isn't trusting a bit of colored lace and some mystical hocus-pocus to keep Bill contained. They're doing this PROPERLY. He's gonna MAKE SURE Bill can't escape. They're going to Soos and getting the REAL, METAL handcuffs from him. Try to get out of THAT! Now... to the car!

... Bill's right wrist is cuffed to Stan's left wrist. This puts Bill on Stan's left side. How are they gonna get Stan in the driver's seat.

... Does Stan want Bill to drive— NO, no, NOPE, he is NOT letting Bill drive, under ANY circumstances, NOT a chance. Okay fine so how are they doing this.

Cue Stan driving with Bill cuddled up against his right side and Bill's right arm stretched across Stan's chest. It's very intimate. Very romantic. You can practically hear Unchained Melody playing in the background They are both so very very uncomfortable.

[imagine a gif from Ghost]

Exactly like that but imagine them grimacing in disgust the whole time

Definitely one of the worst experiences Stan has ever had handcuffed in a car.

So after a VERY unpleasant drive they park, get out—and immediately cross paths with Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland. Stan's like ah great, last thing they need, police nearby while they're doing something weird. Well, if they don't make eye contact and go about their way—

Bill waves like HI DARRYL, HI EDWIN, HOW'S IT GOING? WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING HAHA and they're like OH HEY GOLDIE HOW'VE YOU BEEN, DID YOU HAVE A NICE SUMMERWEEN and Stan is like "*Bill what do you think you're doing getting their attention, do you want them asking questions*" and Bill goes "🙂 I did not think this through 🙂"

Which is of course when they go "hey why are you handcuffed to Mr. Pines? You need some help there? I bet we've got a key that matches that handcuff model" and oh Stan BETS that Bill would LOVE to accept that offer and go traipsing off into town with the cops, so he goes "NOPE, that's fine, thank you officers, but we're keeping the handcuffs on. ... Because. They're necessary. ... For me. ... Because I'm old. ... It's to keep me from wandering into traffic."

Bill's a quick liar, he goes haha yep that's true!! This guy's cataracts are so bad, sometimes he asks us if he's dying because all he can see is a white light at the end of a dark tunnel. And the way his mind's going, woof—" "(all right you don't have to lay it on so thick)" "—he's so addled it's like he's completely forgotten the last century of transportation advancements, he'll just walk right off the curb and expect the horse-drawn carriages to stop for him—" "Hahaaa, but we won't bore you with my medical history! *C'mon,* Goldie, you're gonna make me *late* to my *heart doctor appointment.* You don't want my life on your hands, do you." "(You know, I think I kind of do.)"

The cops are like, you can't see? didn't we just see you get out of the driver's seat of your car? and they're like ......... Goldie's giving him directions. 😃

Oh! That makes sense. Okay. They'll let them get to their doctor's appointment. They wander off like y'know i think Goldie's a step up from that seeing-eye bear

They look at each other like, all right, good improv, you're not bad. They can respect each other for that. Stan thinks Bill wouldn't be bad to run a con with if he were literally anybody other than who he is. Okay, on to the dentist.

So the dentist's office is a little garden shed around back behind some other totally unrelated business. Whatever business I can think of that would be funniest. It's a ramshackle nightmare. The dentist, also, is a ramshackle nightmare.

[candy store]

He's surprised to see Stan there, on account of the fact that Stan has no teeth. Because the dentist pulled them all. ... he's not mad is he

No, no, the dentures are great! They're lower maintenance! Sort of. In a way. Anyway, he's here to refer a new customer! ... does he get any kind of referral bonus or

Yeah have a uhhh gold coin or something, here. Okay! New customer! What can he do you for?

Fillings! Okay, on which teeth? Whichever he thinks would look best with some! Dealer's choice! Bill's leaving it in his hands! All that matters is that currently Bill's teeth do *not* have any gold in them, and he'd like that to change by the time he leaves.

The dentist gives Stan a look like "is this freak serious" and Stan sorta shrug nods like "yeah he's serious" and the dentist is like okay!!! Super! This'll be fun! Let's see what he has to work with.

The dentist is amazed at Bill's teeth. Wow. So clean. Perfectly white. Did you just get these cleaned, where'd you get it done at? No? Well, looks amazing. And no wear at all, remarkable... Do you mind if he takes a few pictures? Have you ever considered having any of these pulled?

Stan's like yeesh, he forgot how creepy this guy is. He's like a serial killer crossed with a nerd with a tooth fetish.

Well, the dentist is sorry to say that all of these are pristine. Not a hint of cavities—not even plaque. It'd be a shame to drill them. You *sure* you don't want one pulled...?

Stan is 😬 but Bill is handling this like it's a totally normal question for him to be getting. Y'know what, just the fillings today—but who knows, maybe he'll feel naughty and be back in a couple of weeks haha. Just pick a couple of your least favorite teeth to drill into!

Okay, suit yourself. Let's gas you up and get drilling.

This is the first time Stan's had an opportunity to watch the dentist at work. Which is how he learns for the first time that he saves all the little tooth dust & shards off his drill in a tiny Petri dish. Yeesh. He's an even bigger creep than Stan thought.

Bill doesn't handle the gas well. It's not that it makes him sick or anything. He just forgets how to human. The dentist tells him to hold his mouth open and he holds his eyes open until they water. He keeps forgetting his mouth is occupied and talking to the dentist while he trying to drill. When he's let go, he heaves himself off the chair and immediately falls on the ground because he expected to float. Stan has to support him to the door and he keeps trying to walk sideways. Bill doesn't mind, he feels great! Waves at the dentist as they leave. Thanks for the gold, Atlantis is rising as we speak, you have seven years to prepare for the plague, tell the little lady he said hi! Byyye! Stan is desperately trying to drag him out the door, he turns to Stan like "I made up the bit about Atlantis" "okay now shut up and stop saying weird things"

But not the plague part

The fic *does* take place in 2013

They're driving home. Smushed together all intimate-like. You can almost hear Careless Whisper playing. Except this time Bill is loudly and terribly singing along. He keeps trying to take the steering wheel and turn it like a kid playing in a toy car and Stan has to keep swatting his hand away. Bill's like "I can't feel my tongue at all! I bet I can chew it off!" "Don't do that." "The last time my mouth was this numb, my girlfriend had just gotten done with me, haha. I was almost blind for the next hour from all the spores—" "I swear if you don't shut up—" "I just realized I haven't gotten any action since I died. Wow. This isn't a weird time to bring that up, is it?" "Bill if you say ONE MORE weird thing you're riding home on the roof of the car."

Bill is quiet for three seconds. "Your arm's really beefy! What's your favorite flavor of cancer?"

Mabel: "why are you on top of the car?"

Bill, eyes wide, hair disheveled, one arm hanging through the driver's door, sprawled out desperately clinging to the roof like his life depends on it: "I don't know, it's all a blur." (Note to self, mention Mabel and dipper are heading out for a sleepover or something)

Well, *that* was fun! 🙂 Bill thinks it was fun, anyway. Stan doesn't agree. Anyway, where's Soos? They need the key to the handcuffs.

Soos is having dinner with Melody's family this evening. They call him to ask where the key is. Haha, sorry dudes! He totally forgot he still had it. Yeah, it's on his keyring. Is that, like, gonna be a problem, or...

Well—pff—when are you gonna be back?? Uhhh he's not sure, kinda late maybe. Well, can he duck out and bring them the key? Uhhhh he WOULD but, he's REALLY worried about impressing Melody's parents, and the casserole's about to come out, and he thinks they might judge him if he leaves, and it would probably ruin dinner... Okay FINE, then what if they drive over to get the key? ("STAN CAN I DRIVE THIS TIME—" "ABSOLUTELY NOT") Oh sure, they can drive over if they want—anyway Melody's parents' place is in Portland.

Which is waaaay outside the barrier around Gravity Falls

Welp. That ain't happening. Looks like they're stuck.

... They could call Blubs and Durland—?

NOPE Stan is NOT calling the cops for help NUH UH, he'll WAIT ALL NIGHT if he has to. ... so. What do they do until then.

Cue them grumpily watching a game show together. Bill refuses to sit in the living room with Stan so Stan's on the couch and Bill's sitting in the entryway on the stairs and their handcuffs are strung through the doorway. Hey Stan, still glad you went with the handcuffs instead of the friendship bracelets? Shut up.

Bill's shouting out the answers to every question on the show almost sooner than they're displayed and eventually Stan is like, man, we'd clean up if we put you on this show. No one would ever figure out how you're cheating. And Bill's like HA, listen to you!! If you were Ford you'd be mad that I'm giving away all the answers before you can guess!! That's the great thing about you, Stan, you don't get irritated at Bill for stupid little reasons, you're more fun. HEY FORD DID YOU HEAR THAT, STAN'S THE FUN TWIN— And Stan's like shut up you idiot ford's in the basement he can't hear you. And what are you talking about, you irritate me all the time. I'm constantly infuriated by you. And Bill's like, oh, well, i guess i just don't care when you're irritated then lmao.

Stan's like what's with you anyway, why are you so obsessed with Stan's brother. And bill says SDFHFJF?? DSFKLGLJ??? FLKJFHGD???? EXCUSE M. EXCUSE ME?? OBSESSED??? MOI???? I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT

Is it OBSESSION to SOMETIMES PAY ATTENTION to the one person in the house he HAPPENS to know best and to whom he HAPPENS to be a teacher and muse and friend— and Stan's like oh that's a load of bull, you're not ANY of those things to him. Friend?? Friend???? HE WANTS YOU DEAD and Bill's like WELL IF THAT'S *SO* then doesn't it also make plenty of sense to keep an eye on, you know, THE GUY THAT *KILLED* HIM, like there's nothing mysterious about why he'd focus a *little* on that person—

THAT'S IT, THAT'S JUST IT!!!! There are TWO people who killed Bill, remember? That was a two-man con he fell for! But he keeps treating Ford like he was the only one there! If Ford's in the room, he's the only person Bill talks to, and if he ISN'T in the room then Bill's yelling across the house for him, and Ford wants less to do with him than anyone else, what the heck, it's creepy—

Only *one* person killed Bill. Stan's not the man who killed him; he's just the place where Bill was killed.

And that baffles Stan into shutting up a second.

Bill's like, do you even remember what happened in your brain?? and Stan's like :/ so Bill's like LMAO!! We were both trapped in there when Ford fired the gun. Completely powerless. Stan was weeping and begging for a way out even, but there was nothing Bill could do by then— and Stan's like all right I KNOW that THAT didn't happen! so Bill's like fine fine okay all right you got me, we actually had this big psychic laser fight, imagining up all sorts of fantastical weapons. And Stan's like, ehhhh, all right, that sounds more like me. And bill says but it was all IMAGINARY, it was a vast illusion, at that point there was nothing I could do to you and nothing you could do to me. We were just two victims locked inside a burning house as it came down around us. YOU didn't kill me, you didn't have the POWER to kill me. And Stan just, gives him this discontented look. Hm.

Oh, oh wow, okay, Bill sees what's going on. Stan's jealous, isn't he. He thought offering up his body to be the scene of a murder finally made him a co-star instead of a sidekick. All their lives, Ford got more attention from daddy, more attention from the teachers, more attention from the WHOLE WORLD—and Stan finally thought he'd at least get a little attention from the big bad living nightmare. Just because he let his brother shoot him in the head. You weren't special enough for anyone else, why do you think you're special enough for Bill?

Oh yeah?? Well he bets he's special enough to break Bill's face— jerks him by the chain into the living room, fist raised; and Bill immediately pulls back as far as he can and tries to shield his face.

As a helpful reminder, Bill's death actually went like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D3adyJQDqI so 1) he is VERY much lying to Stan, and 2) getting punched in the eye by Stan in the living room is still echoing in his nightmares.

So there's a split second where Bill is absolutely blind with terror, gets out a strangled "NO—!" and then they both freeze and stare at each other. Stan knows what just happened. And Bill knows Stan knows. And Stan knows Bill knows Stan knows.

Bill immediately plays it off, "come on, I just got all this dental work done, at least give me a couple days to enjoy it before you pound it in. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mine having a flatter face, all these bones and cartilage jutting out never did feel right—"

Stan feigns a punch. Bill flinches. Stan laughs at him.

And what's Bill gonna do? Fight him? He is not trained in 3D brawling. He tries, very hard, to explode Stan with his brain. This usually works on people who are annoying him. But alas. "If I had one billion-billionth of my power back I'd have already destroyed you—!" "But you DON'T, sucker!!" Bill screams in frustration and stomps off to go sulk somewhere

Aaand is immediately jerked back because of the handcuffs. Whoops.

"... Whatever I don't even care about your stupid aggressive mammal posturing. It's fine. It doesn't bother me. I'm calm. You're just making yourself look stupid. ... I wanna go to bed."

####

So!! Attempting plotting. When we left off, Bill wanted to go to bed. Which is a problem since he's still handcuffed to Stan

Cue Ford going "Bill. Why are you sleeping on the floor in front of my bedroom door."

Well you see, STAN got them handcuffed together until morning, and Bill tried to be accommodating, but Stan doesn't want to sleep in the attic and won't let Bill sleep in the guest room— (Stan yelling "and Mr. Accommodating here refuses to sleep in the living room") —so the best compromise they've got is sleeping on the floor with the handcuff chain strung under the guest room door, see. Does Ford want in? It'll take a little coordination to get the door open but they've done this once before—

Ford's not messing with this. He's sleeping in the basement. Good night.

At some point in this I've gotta establish that Mabel and Dipper are out of the house for the night. Maybe they're just leaving as Stan and Bill get home. Anyway the point is Bill and Stan are effectively at home alone for the night. Maybe Soos's grandma is still there, she's a little old lady, she wouldn't be much help in a fight

So. Somehow I've gotta get them from being asleep to getting woken up by the dentist being in the house, with the tooth fairy. There's some transitional material I'm missing that I've gotta fill in later.

Maybe Bill wakes up with the dentist's tools already in his mouth, ready to pull. Waking up at 2 am to invasive dental surgery. Bill's like, hello, very forward of you.

[horrified face]

That WOULD be a more appropriate reaction, if Bill weren't so weird.

Bangs on the door to wake up Stan, WE HAVE VISITORS, WAKE UP

Dentist realizes that Bill is stuck in place with the chain, pins him against the wall, and tries to go for his teeth. STAN SURE IS TAKING HIS TIME— Stan gets the door open just in time, Bill tumbles into the guest room, Stan goes wtf why is the dentist here?

The dentist goes uhhhh he just wanted to check on Bill's fillings, yeah, he thought one of them might be a little loose— Bill's like cut the crap, your boss put you up to this, what the heck does the little lady want with his mouth?

Stan's like what? What "little lady," this guy is self employed, what are you talking about— and Bill goes the TOOTH FAIRY, genius, why did you think your dentist pays YOU to pull your teeth! Who'd you think was funding him?! And, well, Stan can't say he ever put much thought into it. He just sort of took this whole thing at face value. But like the tooth fairy is fake right, like that's just stupid—

Which is when a fairy wearing baby teeth jewelry pops her head out of the dentist's bag. Stan's like oh well never mind, just one more crazy thing happening in this town. And Bill's like oh shit she's actually HERE, the situation just escalated significantly.

I've decided the tooth fairy's name is Pearl E. White.

Bill skips straight to addressing her by first name, which disconcerts everybody, not least of which is the tooth fairy herself. Lady, if you were toeing the line of your treaty any harder, you'd be tripping across it. What are you doing here and what do you want?

She's WELL within the bounds of the treaty, she hasn't laid a hand on Bill and she's not about to start, and she's been offering MORE than adequate financial compensation— Bill's like oh yeah I bet the queen would have something to say about you ordering your helper to rip out someone's teeth in the dead of night— and Stan's like hi, question, what the Fuck are you all talking about

Oh Bill can explain, Bill knows lots of things! So this fairy here has a *thing* for teeth. To the extent that she got into a habit of stealing them straight out of humans' mouths! And went so crazy over it that she actually dragged a fairy court into a war with humans over her teeth-stealing habits! Currently, she's only allowed to accept *already freed* teeth that are *voluntarily* offered to her by the owner, which is why she started bribing kids with money.

She starts getting into a gray area working with hired dentists—once a tooth has been handed over to a dentist, that dentist becomes its "owner," and can give that tooth to the tooth fairy—buuut the fact that he *extracted* the tooth puts it on shaky legal ground. Really, Bill thinks the only reason she's been getting away with THAT racket so long is because nobody's raised a legal challenge to it yet. Probably because most humans don't know it's even happening. And with the price of dental work being what it is, yeesh. But—by *any* reading of the treaty, hiring a human to nonconsensually rip out teeth on her behalf is beyond the pale. So she'd better have a good explanation for this!

Yeah, she does have a good explanation for this. SHE WANTS BILL'S TEETH! She'd do ANYTHING for one of his teeth! They're the most amazing teeth she's ever seen!!!

The dentist is like, holding her back from lunging at Bill's face

Okay, great! Fantastic! Bill's not above a little bargaining and he's not too attached to this body—so how much gold you got on you, kid?

Oh no, she's not bargaining. Bill already knows too much, she's NOT about to get blackmailed by a human, and she's not going back to fairy jail. So here's what she's gonna do: she's gonna have her guy rip out every one of Bill's teeth, and then rip his head apart to destroy the witness, and the only negotiating Bill gets to do is on whether or not her guy uses the local anesthetic. What's it gonna be?

Stan cuts in like hi, hey, listen, he'd love to see Bill's head get ripped apart, but—crazy thing—it turns out there's 50/50 odds that killing him will lead to the end of the world, so maybe let's talk this out—

Tooth fairy points at Stan like he's got nothing left of interest to me. He's a witness. Kill him too.

Right, cool cool cool, hey Stan you know that spell Ford's got on Bill? Well if Bill casts it on the dentist, can Stan handle things from there?

Yeah, Stan sees where Bill is going with this. The dentist & fairy don't expect Bill and Stan to lunge for them; Bill casts the can't-use-doors spell on the dentist, Stan drags Bill with him into the hallway, Stan slams shut the door, and now the fairy's bellowing OPEN THE DOOR YOU IDIOT and the dentist is yelling HOW????

They retreat to the entryway. From there they can go out the front door, into the kitchen, into the living room, or upstairs. I need to keep them from just going out the front door, I'll need to think up an excuse for that later. Something magic maybe idk. I also need to keep them out of the kitchen, but that's a likely dead end unless they feel like climbing over the kitchen table to break a window. Basically, I need them to be limited to the living room or upstairs.

The living room is the better option—it has a door to the gift shop, and the gift shop has a door straight outside, as well as doors to the mystery shack museum & the hidden elevator to the basement, lots of great options in there. But Bill drags them upstairs instead. Bill you idiot what are you doing, this is obviously the worse direction??

Shut up we're going this way and Bill doesn't care what Stan thinks about it.

Why are we going this way?? How the heck do you expect to get out of here from up in the attic?! Bill doesn't know, it just seemed like a better idea! There should be a ladder in the storage over the kids' room, maybe they can take that and get down out a window, come on

Meanwhile the fairy is hollering about how YOU DON'T DESERVE THOSE TEETH, THEY'RE TOO GOOD FOR YOU! They're the most beautiful, pristine, unblemished, perfect teeth she's ever seen in her life. (Bill's like "are they really that great?" and Stan's like "eh, a little asymmetrical, honestly.") She's NEVER seen adult teeth so pure and HE'S RUINING THEM by carving out chunks of PERFECT TOOTH to put in unnecessary fillings! He doesn't have the right to those teeth, she deserves them! ("Hey Bill so you knew my dentist was working for the tooth fairy?" "Yes." "And you knew she goes crazy for nice teeth." "Yes." "And it didn't occur to you that she'd be outraged by you carving up your new teeth." "It's in the past, Stanley, focus on the present.")

—and she doesn't even KNOW how he got MAGIC TEETH! Fully adult teeth in a fully adult mouth but SOMEHOW they're barely a month old! It's unbelievable! She couldn't believe it herself until she saw his mouth with her own two eyes! She MUST have those teeth, as soon as possible, so she can preserve them like this, who knows if she'll ever find such a novelty again— Ahhh, so THAT'S what's motivating her. Welp, nope, sorry, Bill didn't see that one coming at all.

... hey, she's been buzzing around shouting at them but they don't hear her trying to help her dentist OR coming after them directly, what's she up to? Stan leans out the door to look into the main attic.

Huh, weird. She's just flying in a circle with what looks like a container of veggies from the fridge?? He thinks it's the sliced portobello mushrooms

WHAT!! OH THAT LITTLE CHEATER IS MAKING A FAIRY RING, THAT'S NOT FAIR—

Aaand poof, the dentist appears in the ring. The fairy must have already made the matching ring downstairs.

The dentist still needs a dumb name

[Drilliam]

Dr. Illiam. It was william but the W fell off his sign

[any relation to dr acula]

Went to dental school together. Dr. Acula kept mislabeling teeth, he always thinks the canines should be longer

He switched career tracks and became a phlebotomist

and speaking of drills — Fairy yells GET THEM, the dentist reaches into his dental tool bag, and pulls out a drill. Not a dental drill. A drill.

They slam the door. The dentist goes AW, F— AGAIN??? The tooth fairy's like JUST BREAK THROUGH IT, YOU HAVE POWER TOOLS

Bill has an idea. Stan, open the window, Bill's tying bedsheets (from Dipper's bed) together. Bill doesn't expect them to climb out that window, does he? No, he expects the *fairy* to think they went out that way, and they can hide in the closet until the fairy and dentist are past them so they can run downstairs.

Stan doesn't like the idea of hiding like cowards instead of fighting. Bill's like I can see a dozen futures that end with our brains splattered across Mabel's dolls you do NOT want to fight against power tools now COME ON

So they hide in the closet. It's uncomfortable in here. They're trying to stay quiet and listening to the dentist mauling his way through the door. Okay smart guy now what? What'll they do when they get downstairs?

Whispering at each other, "Why that way? Why not the living room, it's a lot faster to get out through the gift shop." "... Yeah. Fine—" "What's the matter, Bill, you got a problem with the living room?" "What? No, I SAID fine. It's fine." "It took you a long time." "I was trying to figure out if that was the fastest way out—" "Oh, really??? You sure you aren't SCARED to go in there with me? You think I haven't noticed how you bolt out of the living room any time I come in? Or how you flinch every time I raise my hand?" "... I don't know what you're talking about." "Do you REALLY think I don't remember how you died." "..." "As if I could forget the best moment of my life. Watching you on your knees, begging for mercy, while I put my fist through your face like a cheap mirror—" "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" "ADMIT IT! ADMIT THAT I KILLED YOU TOO! I PLAYED JUST AS MUCH A PART IN IT AS HE DID!" "YOU DID *NOT* KILL ME, YOU *COULDN'T* HAVE KILLED ME, I'M NOT *CAPABLE* OF BEING KILLED BY SOMEONE LIKE YOU!" "*THEN WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF ME!*" "*I'M NOT AFRAID—*"

Unsurprisingly, the dentist puts a drill through the closet door.

####

For now though: Drilliam is drilling. Bill and Stan are screaming. Bill's shouting IS THIS WORTH IT?? WAS GETTING YOUR DENTAL SCHOOL LOANS PAID OFF WORTH THIS?? DO YOU WANNA BE A MURDERER MAN and he's sobbing I CAN'T STOP NOW, I'M IN TOO DEEP this man is having the worst night, like sure he's obeying the tooth fairy but it's clear she's the bloodthirsty one here

Okay count of three Stan and Bill are kicking the door open. Bill falls flat on his ass and has to scramble back up but they manage to wedge the dentist behind the door in a corner with his drill stuck in the door. Waving at their faces, menacingly. Stupid cordless magic-powered drill. The fairy's buzzing in their faces making them swat at her, the dentist starts to wiggle out, they give the door one last hard shove to knock him off balance and then run for the stairs.

And, of course, they continue the most important discussion as they go. "WHY DOES IT MATTER to you so much whether Ford killed you or Ford *and me* killed you? Why is it SO hard to admit that I threw a punch that took you down?!" "You DIDN'T kill me, you CAN'T have killed me because YOU DON'T MATTER. YOU AREN'T IMPORTANT." "Dsklfslkjf NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO *KILL* YOU?! HOW DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE?!"

And Bill senses he's found a weakness he can needle. "It's true! I've looked into countless universes and you just don't matter! No matter where you go or what you do, you just AREN'T IMPORTANT! If *anything*, all you ever do is make things *worse.* You know, I first tried to work with Ford in a universe where *you don't exist*? And I couldn't do it! He wouldn't give me a chance! Because YOU weren't there to ruin his life and make him desperate enough to turn to an alien, and YOU hadn't spent your whole childhood *training* him to put up with a manipulative con artist's lies—so he'd be *ready* when he met me. Isn't that funny, Stanley?"

Bill's dragged them to a stop now so he can rip into Stan: "You were stillborn in that universe. Your brother had to grow up without a twin watching over him—so he actually learned how to make friends. Your mother was DEVASTATED that she'd lost you—but you know what's funny? I think your family loved that dead baby you more than they EVER liked the disappointment you turned out to be—"

And That's When Stan Punches Bill As Hard As He Can

Bill goes DOWN. There is blood everywhere. Oh shit Stan didn't mean to do that much damage are you okay?

And THAT'S when Stan realizes that they're in the living room. Right where Bill died. Bill goaded him into it

And Bill holds up a tooth, like, thanks for the tooth fairy bait. (Staring Stan dead in the eye with this look like, SCARED OF YOU, AM I?? WHO'S SCARED NOW)

And Stan... Stan is really big on macho, "face your fears," "stand up for yourself," "fight back" displays of masculinity. Stan's figured out Bill isn't much of a physical fighter. He might never be able to throw a punch. He's got tiny little baby hands. But—but—if his response to "I think you're scared" is plunging himself directly into the situation he's scared of, making it as terrifying as possible, and taking it without flinching... Stan, grudgingly, has to respect that. He doesn't WANT to respect that. But it's the kind of thing he respects. [when it comes to fighting, he might be able to dish it; but he can take it]

So now he kinda sorta grudgingly respects Bill. ... But also kind of feels bad for Bill? for reasons he can't quite specify. (Because it's the kind of desperate-to-prove-himself stunt that a younger Stan would have pulled, when he was scared and alone and homeless and trying to earn his fortune and a macho mask was the ONLY thing he had going for him. And he's never seen Bill like that before—all he ever saw was Mr. Big Shot Triangle who always had everything under control up until he was tricked into dying. It's never occurred to him that Bill is scrambling too. That Bill might also be lost.)

(It doesn't escape Stan that, in Bill's efforts to get under Stan's skin, Bill slipped up and called *himself* a manipulative con artist.)

But no time to wax poetic, Stan's not an introspective guy. Tooth fairy bait! A whole entire tooth! What are they gonna do with it?

I still need to figure out this part. They've gotta set a trap to catch a fairy, they've gotta separate her from the dentist, and they've got to do it extremely fast, because being stuck behind a door in the attic isn't gonna hold the dentist for THAT long

What kinda stuff traps fairies. My initial thought was "salt rings" but no i think that's demons. Not sure that works on fairies too

[iron. Not a clothes iron]

idk, chucking an iron at a fairy's head...

Like that post that's like "i know traditionally it takes a wooden stake to the heart to kill a vampire, but i think we oughta give hitting them with a pickup a shot"

It'll probably be something in the gift shop, since they're getting corralled that way. Stan hears them coming and shoves Bill through the door and follows after him. This is a very baffling experience for Bill, as the door was previously closed, and Stan didn't open it, and yet Bill is going through it, and he does not understand enough about doors to make sense of this. (It's a swinging door, it doesn't lock or latch.) The dentist is coming at the door ready to drill it (he doesn't understand swinging doors either) and obviously if he tried to hit the door it'd just swing open which would be bad news for them so Stan is like HOLD IT, that door is LOAD BEARING, if you start hacking holes in it the WHOLE SHACK COULD COME DOWN ON US! And the dentist pauses like. Now that doesn't sound right, but i don't know enough about doors to dispute it.

A load bearing door. ... that swings.

The fairy's like WHAT ARE YOU STOPPING FOR YOU IDIOT, HE'S LYING, DOORS DON'T WORK LIKE THAT— and Bill's like HEY CHECK THIS OUT. Waving his tooth around. YOU WANT THIS???

She's so outraged, YOU KNOCKED IT OUT, what if you CHIPPED IT, she's zooming for it

And Bill chucks it in... something. Undecided. Maybe I'll decide what it is later and then cleverly find a way to foreshadow it earlier in the chapter. Anyway it's totally an effective fairy trap, possibly made out of iron.

BAM, now she's TRAPPED. The dentist is dropped down on the ground to peer through the gap under the door (there's like a three inch gap at the bottom of the door) and goes NO and pounds the door. It swings a few inches open. He stares in bafflement. It swings back and hits him in the forehead. At least Bill's no longer alone in his suffering re: the mystery of doors.

Right! Looks like they've got a proper hostage situation here, don't they! If Drilliam would please drop the power tools and back away from the door. Very good. Stan picks up his bag, holds the dentist at drill point, and tells him to get walking, he'll escort him outside. Stan doesn't trust Bill with power tools, so he can stand guard over the fairy.

... which means Bill is alone with the fairy.

*So*. Bill believes they were negotiating? 🙂

She's not negotiating ANYTHING with him. Look at what he did to this poor tooth. She's hugging it.

SHE'S obeyed the letter of her treaty, even if not the spirit, and when the fairy court hears tell of this they'll back her up and come free her, and oh, THEN Bill and Stan will be in trouble—

WAIT I JUST REALIZED. HOW CAN STAN LEAVE IF HE"S HANDCUFFED TO BILL.......................

See this is wh. This is why i outline. This is. The reason i do it. Invaluable process.

Maybe the handcuff broke when Stan punched Bill. Turned out it was a cheapo flimsy chain. Maybe they're still handcuffed together and I'm just gonna have to dial back how much Bill can say to the fairy because he knows Stan is listening.

I feel like separating Stan & Bill's cuffs would be a cop out, unless I can make it a really good moment

You know what, if bill had an opportunity to talk to the fairy alone, he would've tried to rope her into getting him some help that i do NOT know how to pay off. I was gonna have him promise a tooth off of his stone corpse in return for Assistance (As Yet Undecided), but i feel like giving Bill an in with some nebulous organization of fairies might be giving him too much power too soon?? Like, "what COULD he do with a huge favor from a fairy" versus "what do I want him to currently be ABLE to do" + "what do I want people to THINK he can do," a fairy favor might be too much??

I'll try rolling with them still being chained together, see how i like that. Okay so ignore what i just said, Bill is going WITH Stan to kick out the dentist—they just shove him out the gift shop door and he stands out there making sad puppy eyes at them—and then go back to negotiate with the fairy.

And her buddies are gonna be mad when they come to get her!

Bill's like, but that's assuming they come for her, which they might just not, once they hear where she is. IF they hear where she is. She DOES know where she is, right? (Sure she does, this is the Mystery Shack.) And she does know who owns it, right? (Sure she does, he's right there—) Who REALLY owns it? (...) Are you *sure* they'll come for you here?

It doesn't matter who owns this place, HE'S been gone for decades— Oh, has he? You sure about that? You didn't think it strange that an odd person with magical teeth and weird eyes—a real bonafide freak—happens to be in this shack, getting escorted around by handcuffs? That didn't make you ask any questions?

Stan puts a threatening hand on Bill's shoulder like *hey, easy how much you spill*—most people don't notice Bill doesn't look quite human until he points it out—and seeing *that* gesture terrifies the fairy more than anything else Bill said, like oh shit, he's not bluffing, she's been hunting somebody else's prisoner.

So how about this. If *she* promises to leave and never harass them again, *they* promise not to wake up the jailer and ask how he wants to deal with her. Because Bill just wants to be left alone, and he assumes Stan just wants to go back to bed—but *him,* oh, he wouldn't hesitate to pin her wings to a board. Sound fair?

Yes, yes, it's fair, she'll leave them alone! Just let her go!

Great. 🙂 Oh, and one more thing. His payment for that tooth?

She gives Bill a gold tooth. 😠 And they let her go. She's a fairy, her word's as good as law. If she promised not to bother them again then she won't. Can't lie.

... so. What was all that about the true owner of the shack?

Oh haha yeah! Fordsy's got a bit of a reputation around the town's paranormal community. He actually wasn't much more personable with the freaks he was studying than he was with the other humans in town—he had a tendency to catch, study, release. One or two times he *didn't* release. Rumors grow with time. And well, if it's useful to pretend to be one of his specimens...

The idea of keeping a person (a person!) prisoner to study does Not sit well with Stan. "You're *not* one of his specimens." "No? Has he been studying me?" "Of COURSE not" but now he's thinking about it.

... Well. Back to sleep? ("Are you gonna let me sleep in the guest room now?" "*No.*" "Aww, I thought we'd bonded a little!" "After all the horrible shit you said earlier??" "Haha you're too sensitive.")

......... WAS the horrible shit Bill said true? Or did he just say it to get a rise out of Stan.

Naaah, he just thought it would be funny to make Stan mad. He never saw a universe where Stan and Ford weren't inseparable as kids. But then he never dug that hard. It wasn't one of his priorities.

Stan doesn't think Bill's telling the truth now; but Stan doesn't think Bill was telling the truth earlier, either. Bill's not telling Stan what the multiverse is like; Bill's telling Stan how he wants Stan to feel. Bill *could* have said everything he'd said was true, but he didn't.

"You're not a half bad liar, Cipher. It's too bad you're a lousy dirtbag bent on world domination, or you could've made a decent partner-in-crime." "Yeah? Well, my schedule's clear, I'm bored, and running a two-man con sounds fun. Let me know." "Don't count on it."

The end.

Epilogue: next morning Ford goes "did you two sleep well?" (He's not actually asking Bill he's just asking Stan. He hopes Bill got an annoying crick in his neck that'll never go away.) "Oh yeah, no problem. Got comfortable and didn't move all night." "We barely even noticed the handcuffs. Slept like babies." Well, Ford's relieved nothing weird happened last night.

There's a knock at the door. He'll get that.

It's a very sad and bedraggled dentist. Can he please have his ability to open doors back? He had to sleep outside last night. 8,C

... only the person who cast the spell can lift it. Hey Bill, get in here. "Slept like babies," huh?

The end end

####

[everything after this is various points in other conversations where I was discussing the where & how the tooth fairy arc would fit with the overall story, to show you what kind of plotting-over-time I do for the big elements of a story.]

You know what I'm gonna go with a tooth fairy. The show's featured gnomes, mermaids, subterranean dinosaurs preserved in tree sap, and Cupid. A tooth fairy works.

A dentist who worships the tooth fairy. The fairy gets a glimpse of Bill and goes "WOW I've never had ALIEN TEETH before! *Bring them to me.*"

[hell yeah alien teeth]

####

And probably the chapter after that is gonna be Stan Takes Bill To The Dentist. Where Bill goes "you don't have to worry about me running off, we can use the friendship bracelets." "Oh ill friendship bracelet YOU. And I'll do it WITHOUT MAGIC." *slaps actual real handcuffs on himself and Bill. Loses the key.*

####

He played himself. I think I'm gonna have them be handcuffed through the ENTIRE tooth fairy arc. I think it would be really funny.

Ford like "Bill, why are you sitting in the hallway outside my guest room."

"Because SOMEBODY decided to HANDCUFF US TOGETHER and then LOST THE KEY so I have to SLEEP IN THE HALLWAY with the HANDCUFF CHAIN STRUNG UNDER THE DOOR. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, *STANLEY.*"

"Right. ... I'm going to sleep in my lab tonight."

####

Things going on:

- Stan unwillingly getting dragged into his "befriending the evil triangle" arc. Woe, friendship be upon ye.

- Bill copes with traumas by setting himself up to relive them until they stop hurting. Burning down your dimension devastated you? Become a serial arsonist, stare into the flames over and over again! Flinch every time the guy they punched you to death raises a fist? Goad him into following through, now it's not scary anymore!

####

Where I am right now: Mabel has just won Bill's loyalty forever. Where I need to get to: the next "episode," which is *probably* gonna be Stan taking Bill to the dentist and getting tangled up with the tooth fairy, unless I come up with another plot I think might be more appropriate to come first. I feel like I can't just hop straight into the next episode, because Mabel's JUST befriended Bill, so I need to spend a little time showing them BEING friends so that that convincingly sticks. And I can't "just" show them hanging out coloring pictures or whatever, I've gotta have something, like, *happen.*

####

Today's mission: figure out how to jigsaw in all the plot points I need to establish before the season one finale (when [SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS].)

I've made a list of all the things I'm pretty sure need to happen:

- Bill makes progress on lucid dreaming 

- Stan emotionally invests in Bill

--- ( this will be the Tooth fairy arc)

- Ford decides Bill isn't gonna kill them

--- the eclipse

- Ford likes Bill a tiny bit

- Dipper decides Bill is harmless

--- (I'm planning a gag where bill gets accidentally locked in the bathroom all day, this'll achieve that)

- Dipper decides Bill might be useful

--- (The eclipse)

- Bill makes contact with cultists

--- (cultist visits shack looking for bill)

- Bill finds a way to sneak outside

- conversation with dipper about the third dimension

- Fiddleford finishes the gun

--- (this will probably necessitate another Fiddleford visit)

This isn't everything that COULD happen before the season 1 finale, but it's the BARE MINIMUM everything that needs to get done.

####

There's plenty of other things that could happen before or after this, but i might need a better idea of how I want to shape season 2 before I can decide what to put before and what to put after

Like, the monster truck plot. I'm toying with whether I want it before the s1 finale (which would mean Bill can use Gideon to make contact with his cultists) or after (which would mean [SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS])

Somebody else put this together into a coherent plot arc for me o|-<

I keep pushing back writing the tooth fairy arc because i keep going "no wait, i thought of something else i need to do first—" and part of that is because, i feel like, once the tooth fairy arc happens, that kicks in gear Bill interacting with Gideon (because then he's got a gold tooth), which naturally leads to the monster truck arc, which is a big event, so anything that needs to happen "early" in the fic needs to happen before then—but if i do decide to push the monster truck arc to later on, that's less of a concern. Instead I could spend more time on foreshadowing Bill messing with Gideon.

[vote push it back]

you may have a point. The main thing is if i push it back, it would make the most sense to go in season 2 (when [SPOILERS SPOILERS]), BUT: one of the things I'd *like* to do with the finale is [SPOILERS SPOILERS x100] which needs Gideon. (Alternatively, I could make up some new, lower-key method for Bill to get Gideon under his thumb without meeting him at the monster truck rally—but I'd have to think up some Whole New Plot that's Interesting enough for that.)

####

Okay so i think my rough roadmap is. Tooth fairy plot -> Gideon chapter -> the axolotl eclipse -> the season finale. These four events contain most of my "MUST be done before the finale" events

####

I think the "makes progress on lucid dreaming" can be achieved during the Gideon chapter. I can bookend the chapter with a couple of his efforts, to show how he progresses over the chapter. *Maybe* I can shove one into the tooth fairy chapter, have a dream be interrupted by the dentist waking him

Yeah, there are two dreams I know I want to happen; a replay of Bill's mom dying where he "remembers"/admits that when he realized he hurt his mom, he *kept on pushing*; and a second replay where he seizes control of the dream and rewrites it so that it's like a big fun gory game (and thus re-burying the traumatic reality of what happened). I can put those at the beginning and end of Gideon's chapter.

####

Okay I think my current road map is:

tooth fairy -> bill figures out how to sneak out/dipper finds bill locked in the bathroom -> Gideon (+lucid dreaming) -> (Bill talks to Dipper about how he perceived the universe, leading to) The Eclipse -> Ford brings home a copy of Flatworld, letting the kids learn more about Bill's backstory/Fiddleford tells Ford the gun is ready, leading to -> the season one finale.

We're in the final stretch! No more random diversions, probably!

####

[rosetyler42]

Here's another Incorrect Quotes Gem from Discord:

Something I thought of for a pissed off WIR-Verse Ericka to Memory Joey at some point.

From Storks

Ericka: "You and I are not a team. We are nothing. There is no 'we.'", ***gestures around*** "This is all your fault."

"This."

***Throws her arm in the Ink demon's direction***

"This."

***Gestures to Twisted Alice***

"This!"

***Gestures to Buddy Boris or a Searcher/Lost One***

"ALL OF THIS!!!"

***Gestures around to the whole Cycle***

"A good day to you, Mr. Drew. A good day."

***Starts pulling Mavis, Johnny, and the others away.***

@black-ak9 @wingingfromthezing @howling-nightmare @sammy-lawrence-my-beloved @heartsong1994 @lovelylivelyv

[ninjagirlstar5]

Ok we know primal's opinion in Green becoming cronically online but what IS her opinion in BLUE being a nether wart addict and an alchemist

I've actually talked about this before with my buddy on Discord, so I'll just elaborate on some of those, Primal's opinion on alchemy, Blue's role in the group, and some of the headcanons I have for her values.

While Blue is more of a pacifist and only fights when he has to, he's still the medic of the group through his alchemy. Medicine was something he was far more interested in than fighting, unlike his twin, Green, and Primal respected both of their wishes when they were little. She taught him how to heal cuts and bruises, what plants and herbs work best for certain types of injuries, and how to make medicine. I headcanon that Primal believes that being strong is important, especially in her way of life, but so is being smart, and she values a person's role and function to a group rather than whoever is the "strongest" as an individual. While Blue doesn't like fighting (unless he had to), he could still be helpful by providing help through his growing knowledge in medicine and healing their family, having the role of a doctor. Primal saw his little spark of interest and tried to nurture that as he grew up until Blue and Green went missing. So she sees the value of Blue's healing potions from his alchemy.

That being said, it would also depend on how Primal would see buffs and debuffs when it comes to Minecraft's alchemy and potion system. So I decided to form my thoughts out on this by comparing Blue's alchemy to The Box scene in AVA S3 since both have similar uses, just with different methods (Blue's potions offer buffs for allies and debuffs for enemies, which can be carried around, while The Box can be used to enhance victim's abilities while downgrading and taking away Chosen's powers amongst other things in an enclosed area). My friend and I talked about how the Mercs may feel about The Box scene from what we could tell from their body language on Discord, and I personally headcanon that Primal wouldn't really be in favor for it. She considers victim using The Box to boost her abilities and take away Chosen's powers to be cheap as she's all about the hunt and reaping the rewards after a long and hard fought battle. However, it doesn't mean she looks down on trickster tactics either since she knows that just strength alone won't allow you to catch your prey, you need to be smart about it as well. If creating traps and doing "dirty" tricks is more efficient in capturing, stopping, or even killing your prey, then by all means go for it. She'd do it herself in a heartbeat, too. It's why she wasn't against using the glitch bullets from the hoverbikes or the taser guns that the rest of the Mercs used even though she never used one herself. Primal understood that Chosen would be near impossible to capture without them due to his powers and it's her job to take him in, as that's what RocketCorp (a.k.a. victim) ordered her to do. So she'll do what's necessary for the job, for the group, but prefers her own weapons if she feels like she could accomplish a task without RocketCorp's tech. And initially, she chose to remain silent about her displeasure on victim's use of The Box since she can tell that Chosen is a fighter despite all of his running and avoiding direct fights with the Mercs, and would decimate anyone that would get close without the proper restrictions. victim couldn't get her answers without them and she can't exactly judge her for that. Even when she finds it unpleasant to watch victim purposely and slowly strip Chosen's of his abilities and even used them against him multiple times with Agent's help in a situation where he had no way of escaping in the first place (probably), she accepted that it was necessary.

And then victim takes out the memory device and slaps it onto Chosen's face, and Primal's feelings go from "this is disturbing but necessary, so I'll just take the time to sharpen my weapon in case anything goes wrong" to "oh you just wanted to do this, not because you needed to do this." Because the minute that device is used, Primal would see how unnecessary it was for victim to torture Chosen in that way since she could've just debuff their powers, tie them down to the chair, and then slap the device on almost no problem to find the information she seeks. Chosen was already captured prey. victim probably didn't need to go as far as she did, not with the memory device she has on hand. So Primal would find it distasteful after all of that. Not to mention how it would most likely backfire on them later since beating someone down doesn't necessarily mean they would just give in. If anything, it may do the opposite and give Chosen the incentive to fight back even harder the next time they get a chance. "If you beat a dog into a corner, don't expect it won't bite back" kinda thing.

Unlike her feelings towards The Box, though, I think she'd be far more accepting of Blue as an alchemist due to it's usefulness as a role. As mentioned earlier, she'd respect Blue as the medic of the group since that in itself is an important role to take. A group can't function well if none of them know how to heal themselves up properly and can end up succumbing to simpler injuries and sickness as a result. So Blue's role as the medic would allow his friends to recover and keep doing what they need (or want) to do. As for the other alchemy potions, while she'd probably find it cheap, she can't deny that these offer their own benefits when it comes to a fight or hunting down prey even. Hell, if the kids end up in a situation in over their heads and have to fight for their lives, Blue can easily sway the battle into their favor with his buffs and debuffs and Primal isn't going to scoff at something that can protect her children's lives and boost their chances of survival. So she'd ultimately respect Blue as the medic, and would file his "ability to think outside of the box with his potions" under trickster tactics that she accepts as a suitable form of fighting.

As for Blue's netherwart addiction, Primal...probably doesn't understand their need for it. Mostly because netherwarts don't offer any benefits, not even to appease hunger, and they would need to brew it into their potions in order to create the base of buffs and stuff, not, like, eat them. And when Blue tells her about the events of AVM S3 and how their addiction was used against them TWICE to lure them into a false sense of security and essentially get them out of the way, Primal would probably start intervening at that point since it becomes obvious it's a weakness that has been exploited more than once. But she's probably not very successful at first since she wouldn't have the knowledge on how to deal with addictions and tries to get him to stop altogether before learning that being forceful about it isn't going to help Blue and would need a softer, understanding approach to the whole ordeal and the underlying reason why they're addicted to netherwarts beyond just "they think it tastes good." (It probably doesn't help that Green and the rest of the CG kinda just...accepted that Blue is addicted to the stuff and end up enabling them by just doing nothing about it. Hell, they cheered when Fake Blue proclaims that they found their netherwarts when they first "reunite" back when the Witch was introduced. I know it's just a running gag in the show itself and is part of Blue's character, but it's a little...concerning...that his friends (and his twin brother, in my headcanons) aren't trying to help them get off of this stuff.)

Primal is trying her best to help Blue through his addiction, but she also...just doesn't know how. So she'd probably have to ask someone else for help, like Hazard or even Ballista.

[finishwhatyoustarted-event]

Tools Tuesday - Motivation to Start, and Setting Goals - Sept 3

It’s the first Tuesday of the event, so it’s time for a Tools Tuesday! Tools Tuesday is a weekly part of the Finish What You Started event where I share various resources I have found to help everyone complete their WIP. Have a resource you want to share? Send it in a message and I’ll take a look!

Today is about motivation to start and setting easy goals to keep the momentum going.

Starting a project can be the scariest part. Good news! If you’re participating in this event, you’ve already completed that step! But finishing is daunting, especially for long projects with no end in sight, or ones that you’ve struggling with for a long time.

When you have a big project, especially one that you may have started and put down years ago, it can be intimidating to pick it back up. Give yourself a few minutes to review what you already have done. Read through the last part you wrote, read your notes, check the pattern, etc. If you need to, make notes about what you have, where you remember you wanted to go, and what is inspiring you now. That scene you got stuck on might make sense now, or you see another angle you could draw that tricky pose from. You could even go in a whole new direction.

Be kind to yourself if you feel stuck. You can't intimidate or yell yourself into productivity!

When you’re ready to work, it can help to do some warmup stretches, especially for artists and sewists, but writers, musicians, and others craftspeople benefit from a good warmup stretch too! If you’re on the discord, check the general resources channel for wrist stretches. And stretch during breaks! This is a stretch guide I keep on my phone, to remind me to loosen up. made by @/tizzymcwizzyALT

[basic ID, more in alt: an infographic of a pink figure demonstrating a variety of hand, arm, and upper body stretches. End ID.]

If it’s not distracting, set the mood for your work with an applicable playlist or soundscape. Make sure you won’t be interrupted or distracted during your work time by silencing notifications and minimizing other windows. Let yourself focus on this one thing.

When you do start, set a small goal. It can be word count based or time based, whatever makes sense for your project. Make it very achievable: maybe just five minutes or 100 words. The thrill of reaching that goal can help carry you through another 5 minutes, another 100 words. If you struggle just to get through that goal, congratulate yourself on making your session goal! You can go do something else now. Decreasing the pressure on yourself can help get creative energy flowing. When you make your goal consistently, you can up it, but not too much.

There’s a famous anecdote that whenever author Terry Pratchet sat down to write, he set a goal of 400 words. Whether he wrote more or not, he did his 400. By the time of his death, Terry Pratchet had written and published over 40 novels. For myself, I like to set session/day goals, weekly goals, and monthly goals. That way even if my progress isn’t linear, I can see myself approaching where I want to be. Incremental goals can feel really good! But if holding yourself to a number doesn’t help, find what does.

If you want help from others also working on wips, come join the discord! We have a space for accountability buddies to help keep you on track and a place to write during timed sprints, as well as many resources. This link should not expire!

These all might feel obvious to you, but maybe someone else hasn’t considered them before. What gets you motivated to work on your wip? Do you have any tricks that always work for you? Share them with your fellow participants here!

[ceasarslegion]

The DNI that made you do math to use it?? 👀👀👀

Youre the first one who asked, so you get the answer.

This person was one of the other two weirdos from the Half Life RP discord server i teased at in this post earlier this week:

Once again, i want to disclaimer that this is not a callout post, I will not be giving any details that could be used to identify this person, and I will not be posting screenshots this time because they are still active on tumblr afaik. I dont want this to be used to bully anybody, this is just meant to be my personal experience with my specific side of this story. You can DM me directly or throw in a private answer request in an ask if you want screenshots, but only people i already know and trust not to cyberbully them will get a direct link to the DNI. The person in the story I linked is no longer active anywhere online, which is why I provided screenshots in that story.

And before i lay out the DNI details, I just want to say... there is a FINE LINE between requesting accommodations for a mental illness and infantilizing yourself. I can handle the former just fine, I will do all I can to help, but if you're a grown-ass adult babying yourself and then going "waa im autistic i cant do anything" i have ZERO tolerance for that. Buddy, I'm autistic, and I'm telling you to grow the fuck up.

Yeah, this person was one of those. They were over 18, and had public breakdowns about how everything was just soooo hard for them and everybody else was being problematic and ableist for *checks notes* asking them to wait in a line that was a little long for a new phone plan. Real example, they were screaming and crying in the vent channel because the line at a verizon store was a little long, and implying their father was ableist for asking them to wait for 20 minutes. Buddy, there are some things you JUST need to deal with in the real world regardless of whatever mental soup you have going on. If your autism is that bad, the solution is looking into things like noise canceling headphones, sunglasses, etc. But the world will not stop having lines that you just need to wait in sometimes because you dont like them.

I know that sounds harsh, but they werent exactly the type of person im willing to give the benefit of the doubt to. The majority of their problems were entirely their own fault, and they were clearly enabling and feeding the harder parts of their autism rather than doing anything in the way of learning to cope with it. I am terrified of spiders, like full on panic-inducing terrified of them, but I throw hands at them instead of running or freezing up. One time, I posted a photo of this gigantic-ass spider that was in my dorm room after I screamed and squashed it with my heavy duty winter outdoor patrol boots (im a security guard, not a cop, before anyone draws the wrong conclusion from that), and they proceeded to vague about me IN THE SAME SERVER about how problematic and insensitive i am for triggering their arachnophobia. My brother in christ when did you ever say you were triggered by spiders? Do you expect me to read your fucking mind?

Another instance was when they asked for the role to access the nsfw channel. They were over 18, so it was granted. They then got mad at us whenever we got horny on main in the sex channel because they were only there for the dirty jokes (that were posted in the main server anyway because none of us consider JOKES to be inappropriate). They literally asked for the sex channel role and then claimed we were being problematic because we talked about sex in the sex channel when they were uncomfortable with sex. And they had borderline puritan attitudes around sex. They acted like sex was icky and gross and should never be discussed around them lest it corrupt their pure innocent soul. Yeah thats your own fault chief, grow the fuck up.

Some lightning round stories: they broke up with their boyfriend purely because he liked "irredeemable media" and when said boyfriend said they were being a total dick for that, they proceeded to whine and cry that he was actually being abusive and terrible for being upset that he was dumped over the fucking movies he liked of all things. They once sat outside their little siblings recital and complained that their parents were problematic for not charging their switch enough because it died at the same recital they couldnt be assed to sit in for because "waaaa its too boring and thats bad for my autism." Didnt even TRY, just sat outside the door playing switch and then complained that their parents didnt charge their switch enough. Can you not plug something into a wall your damn self.

Needless to say, i didnt like them very much. I can handle legitimate accommodations, but they were just so self-infantilising that they gave the rest of us a bad name. Your autism is not an excuse to act like a fucking baby. You are not made of porcelain, you will not shatter at the slightest touch, being uncomfortable is a part of life youre going to have to deal with. Its not your autism at this point, youre a grown-ass adult who throws a tantrum when the line is a little long. GROW. UP.

Now that that rants over, lets get into what the DNI on their blog was like, because this behavior from them that I just outlined really contextualizes it.

Their DNI had two tiers. The first was "red flags," which meant that if you met any one of them you apparently werent allowed to interact. Of this included your typical nazis, pedophiles, terfs, and... beastars fans. No word of a lie. Being a fan of beastars was apparently just as bad as being a nazi. What did my boy legosi do to you? (Side note: i am forever enamored with how these people seem to think that theres people out there who both self-identify as nazis and would respect a DNI. I didnt even respect that DNI. I didnt interact with them because i thought they were a terrible person, but i did not take that DNI seriously. I was openly posting about beastars in the same server LMAO) and it wasn't just beastars, there was a ton of media that i didnt even know had discourse around them that they listed as red flags if you ever touched. Amazing.

The second tier was "yellow flags" which meant that you werent allowed to interact if you met any 3 or more of them. Here was mostly media, including homestuck fans, neil gaiman fans (WHAT DID NEIL DO TO YOU), and harry potter iirc. (WHY DID YOU SINGLE OUT BEASTARS?? WHAT DID MY BOY LEGOSI DO TO YOU) my favourite part of this though, was that republicans were listed under yellow flags. Apparently its worse to be a beastars fan than a republican. We arent gonna fucking make it

[highway-tuna]

'777' (Chapter One)

pairing(s): Jake Kiszka x Reader, Josh Kiszka x Reader

wc: 3.4k+

warnings: depictions of anxiety, alcohol, swearing

Masterlist

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

The loud slam of a palm hitting wood right beside your head shocks you straight out of your sleep, perking your head up and looking around. The scenery around you starts to piece together in your head that you didn’t go home last night, but instead fell asleep in the back office of the bar. “Jesus, hun. Again?” You whip your head to the direction of your boss, Eleanor, standing over your shoulder. Running your hands over your face and wiping the sleep out of your eyes, a yawn is the only thing that leaves you before any excuse even comes to mind. “At least you made it to the back this time.” She chuckles and shakes her head, collecting whatever she came back here for. 

“Sorry, El. Sorry. I was closing up last night and I-”

“You’re fine, kid. Just try not to make this a habit. Well… anymore than it already is.” She claps an assuring hand against your back. Eleanor’s been your support system for the last couple of years, almost like a mother figure since you lost yours. Hell, your job at El’s bar has practically been your entire life since you started working there years ago. Everyone here has become almost family to you, even some of the clientele. Which is morbidly ironic for you, all things considered. “You hoppin’ on to help? Because if I were you, I’d probably wait until tonight. We’re gonna be busy as shit.” 

It wasn’t uncommon for you to pick up shifts, sometimes even showing up to work off the clock. Just to help out. Just to be helpful. Was it probably illegal? Sure. Did you have a problem doing it? Not at all. There wasn’t a bone in your body that knew how to relax, take the day off. No matter how many times Eleanor would try to shoo you away to do so.

You tilt your head at her with slight confusion before taking a glance over at the perpetual calendar on the messy desk. “Oh. Friday night shift, yeah,” you mutter, mostly confirming with yourself. Time must really be escaping you lately, not even being aware of the days of the week. It’s been stressful. Especially with the anniversary coming up, you’ve been doing everything you possibly can to avoid your own thoughts.

She shakes her head, chuckling. An almost sly smile crosses her lips; a cat that swallowed the canary type of grin. “Not just that. There’s a big concert happening at the arena around the corner.” Her eyes narrow as if she’s testing you, clearly trying to garner some sort of reaction. You mirror her with an aura of confusion. “A homecoming concert…?” Whether it’s the brain fog from just waking up or simply not being in the loop, the discorded staredown continues. “Your buddies, those Greta boys! They’re back. Y’know, I’m awfully proud of them. My daughter’s actually a big fan...” 

Her tangent goes on, but it fades off while you process the information you’ve just been given. They’re… here? Sam and Danny, Josh and Jake are here? On top of the spiral of thoughts, your body reacts as well: stomach twisting in knots, heartbeat picking up, that tingling sensation in your limbs. You won’t even see them. You try to reassure yourself. There’s no way they’d come into this bar of all places. Rich, famous rock stars have better places to be, better things to do than trudge up the past. They probably wouldn’t even recognize you if they saw you. Would you even recognize them?

“(Y/N)?” El calls out your name, bringing you back to earth. With the slight shake of your head and a couple of blinks, you look back at her. “So are you hoppin’ on now or later?” A sigh escapes you while you wrestle with your options. You’re not even scheduled today. You could just go home… not that you want to be there either. You could hop on now and try to leave before the rush. Like an asshole. 

The chair beneath you screeches as you stand from it, bracing yourself against the desk. “I’m gonna grab something to eat first. I’ll… hop on when I get back, alright?” She gives you a wary smile and nod, letting you on your way. Practically storming out of the office, one of your coworkers catches you on your way out, just before reaching the door. Calling out your name in that shrill tone of hers, you debate even turning around. One hand already on the door, you whip your head around to respond, “What, Syd?”

Sydney’s the newest hire around here and as much as you hate to admit it, she’s basically already up to par with everyone else, both in skill and in relationships. Like the prettiest, daintiest little puzzle piece, she fits in perfectly. You’ve got no actual bad blood with her, but sometimes, you can’t hide your envy. She’s beautiful, she’s young, she’s great with people, the whole package. Unfortunately, she’s nice too. Her kindness blows every bitter feeling out of the water.

“Leaving already?” She asks, her head cocked to the side.

“Stepping out for food.” You push the door, ready to step out before she calls your name once more. You hide the roll of your eyes before turning to face her again. “Yes, Sydney?”

“Sorry, I could just ask you la-”

“Well, you’ve got my attention now. Go.” You hate being so stern, but she’s unfortunately caught you at a bad moment with the recent revelation that a whirlwind of history is performing around the corner from you. Your brow raises expectantly at her, waiting to finish her thought.

A sudden wave of nervous energy radiates from her which strikes you with guilt. “Right, yeah. Do you think you could cover part of my shift? Like twelve-ish onward? Only the last two hours, right?” Your face falls, for reasons unbeknownst to her, but she takes that as a cue to try to correct the situation. “It’s totally fine if you can’t. Or don’t want to. I get it. I just… I’ve been talking to this guy and he’s-”

“Yeah, I’ll take it.” Her smile’s uncontrollable and she’d probably shower you with praise and thanks if you hadn’t walked out as soon as those words passed your lips. You could’ve said no. You didn’t have to take her shift. Again, could’ve just left, but no. You never take the easy way out. As much as whatever feelings burn you up inside, you’d rather face it head on than be a coward.

Mindlessly walking to your favorite local eatery, a cacophony of screams and cheers cause you to stop where you stand. Right in front of the arena’s box office. A swarm of people seem to be clamoring around a general spot. Curiosity gets the better of you so you stick around, watching from a distance. The voices amongst the horde become clearer.

“Oh my god, Danny!”

“Sammy, hi!”

“I love you, Jake!”

A wry smile forms across your face. You can’t even help it. Luckily, the distance as well as the crowd block any view you might have had of the guys. Even luckier the same applies for them to you. It’s a funny situation that leaves you feeling empty. Only feet away stands a key to your past, a bittersweet trip down memory lane. The massive screen above the venue showcases tonight’s act. Greta Van Fleet. They’re bigger than ever, huh. They’ve grown, they’ve changed. You can barely recognize them. Especially the twins you once knew inside and out, who once knew you all the same. Taking a deep breath and one last passing glance at their ever adoring fans, you shove your hands into your pockets and keep walking on your way.

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

“A band?” You can’t hide the bewilderment in your voice as you sit straight up from Josh’s bed. “But what about all of your film stuff? You’re just dropping that?” The twins were always wrapped up in some musical endeavors, but to make it a main focus was completely out of left field for Josh especially with us graduating in a couple of years. His sights were already set on going to film school.

The bed shifts as he sits up beside you, completely unfazed by your shock. “Don’t think of it as dropping it. I’ll get back to it. Or I’ll do it simultaneously.” Before you could interject, he continues. “Jake has really big plans w-”

“And so do you, Josh.” Your brows furrow in his direction. 

“Sunny,” he speaks your nickname, loving but firm. His gentle hands find yours, interlocking fingers. “I know what I’m doing. I have a lifetime ahead of me to do everything I want to do. Right now, I want to help Jake do what he wants to do.” You sigh, knowing full well he won’t change his mind. You can see it in that determined glint in his eyes. Or maybe it’s the fact that both him and his brother are established stubborn asses. For better or worse. He lightens the mood with a hearty chuckle. “Hey, you get to be our number two biggest fan.”

“Who’s number one?”

Without missing a beat, you both come to the same conclusion. “Mom.” Karen Kiszka was the mother you never had. You were intertwined with the entire Kiszka family, but there were never ending pleasant things to say about Karen. She doted on you as well, treated you as if you were one of them. There were times you’d go to the Kiszka household to find the boys busy so you’d just spend time with her, helping around the house. It was a breath of fresh air compared to your home life.

“I could be your number one roadie, packing your shit up and following you guys around.”

Josh raises his brows with clear mischief. “Or our number one groupie?” The mere mention sets your cheeks aflame with blush. With a look of offense, you withdraw your hands from his to hit his shoulder. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” He raises his arm to block the weak attacks.  

“You’re disgusting, Joshua.”

“Hey, I was joking. I’m not interested in groupies. Jake, on the other hand…” You roll your eyes and groan, cringing at that thought. It’s not surprising though. The second Jake could think about girls without the fear of cooties, he was off to the races. He never concerned himself with you, but maybe that was just because you’d always been around. 

As if on cue, Jake comes barging into the room. His mouth opens to speak, but he’s swiftly cut off. “Do we not knock around here, brother?” Josh complains for the sake of complaining. Jake raises his brow as his eyes dart between the two of us.

“Is there a reason I should’ve knocked?”

You have no time to react as Josh wraps his arms around you, pulling you close. “Maybe I was spending one on one time with our number one groupie.” Laughing at his antics, you push him off of you and shake your head. Crossed arms as he leans against the doorframe, Jake simply watches our dispute. 

“Stop calling me that!” You snap at him with laughter in the midst before hopping out of the bed, standing beside Jake staring at his twin with a look of disapproval. “As you can probably tell, Josh let me know about your little band.”

“And?” He smirks, a teasing glint in his eyes. “Wanna join, sunshine?” You narrow your eyes at him as both boys snicker.

“I’d be no help there. I can’t even play anything.”

Josh gets up from the bed and heads towards us, stretching. “Jake’s teaching Sammy the bass. I’m sure he could teach you something too.” You lock eyes with Jake as his twin offers up his services. A silent exchange is made; Jake is willing to teach you and you shrug at the notion. It’s not a yes, not a no, but you’re definitely not joining a band. Josh pushes past the two of you, walking down the hall.

“Where’re you going?” Jake asks, “We’ve gotta practice. Sam just got back, let’s go.” Josh looks back and rolls his eyes at his brother. As the boys began to get together and set up, you simply lingered around, trying not to be in the way. You got a sudden feeling that you were intruding. A reassuring hand squeezes your shoulder. Jake speaks quietly, Josh and Sam clearly too distracted to hear what he was practically whispering to you. “You can stay and watch… if you want, sunshine. I know your dad’s-”

Before he could even finish, you nod frantically. “Yeah, yeah. Thank you.”

“Mom wouldn’t mind you staying the night. I know you say no everytime, but the offer’s out there.” One more squeeze before he lets go, returning to his brothers. You’d love to take the offer. If only you could.

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

Your lunch (that just so happens to be your first meal of the day) is quickly wrapped up by the fact that your stomach can barely settle to eat so after finishing what you can, you head back to El’s. The afternoon shift moves pretty swiftly into the evening where things quickly start to pick up. The usual Friday night crowd pours in, working everyone out, but once eleven rolls around, things get out of hand. A horde of very wild and very sparkly people flood into the building. A group you could only assume came from a certain nearby concert. With one deep breath to prepare yourself, you plaster on your very best customer service voice and smile. 

Drinks are flowing and service is booming. Transactions go well if not for the occasional nagging in the back of your mind when you hear the fans speak excitedly about Danny, Sam, Josh, and Jake. It’s another strange reminder of your circumstance, hearing them speak so casually about ghosts of your past. Even El, who knew about your connection, rarely spoke of them to you at all.

As you're finishing up a drink, you hear your name being called out over all the chatter. You turn to see Syd wiping her hands on a bar towel before approaching you. “I’m heading out. Are you sure you've got everything handled?” She asks, almost absentmindedly. Her eyes scan every patron in the bar. Ah, her date or whatever. Before you could give her the okay, you get pulled away to deal with another person. Order, drink, and payment; the transaction’s complete. Returning to Syd, you see her leaning over the bar, speaking directly into a guy’s ear. 

He looks a little shady if anything. A hat, sunglasses, and a hood… inside a bar. If that doesn’t scream suspicious. You nudge her and give her a polite thin lipped smile as you get closer. “You’re good to go.” The shady man turns to you and clearly gives you a once over. Creeps at the bar are common, but to see Syd about to leave with a guy like that causes a sense of worry to fill you. We’re all grown adults, but the least you could do is get some information on this dude. “Actually…” You face the man and extend your hand. “I’m (Y/N). Your name?” The second the two of you touch, you manage to get a closer look at him and deeply regret this whole interaction.

“(Y/N)? Like (Y/N) (Y/L/N)?” His jaw goes ever so slightly slack as he scoffs in disbelief. “Holy shit. It’s-”

“Hi, Sammy.” You immediately withdraw your hand, nervously running it over your face. “Sorry, you two have a good night.” You gesture to both him and Syd, quickly turning away to return to your work. Hoping and praying that he takes the hint and leaves you alone, that Syd just somehow understands and takes him out of the bar, you try to keep a straight face as you talk to other bar goers. Honestly, he should leave for his sake too, drawing a crowd would be a terrible idea. Although, Sammy has always been one for terrible ideas. 

You hear your name being called out once more by the dreadfully familiar voice. Trying not to give him direct attention, you tend to someone around him. “(Y/N), I’ve gotta tell the guys you’re here. This is an insane coincidence,” he speaks out and whips out his phone.

Hunching over, you lean low to speak to him. “Sam, you should go, there’s a ton of your groupies here and I don’t want to have to play bodyguard, alright?” It felt bad to be so short with him, seeing how happy he is to see you, but you don’t have much of a choice here. Stuck behind the bar, you can’t really get away.

“When do you get out?” Not taking no for an answer here.

Sighing, you prepare yourself to be firm, ready to just kick him out when Syd chimes in from behind you, “Oh, she gets out at two.” So much for not having a reason to dislike her. “El would probably let you leave early if you asked.” The anger behind your eyes can barely be hidden.

“Eleanor’s still here? I should say hi to her,” Sam turns towards Syd with an expectant look. She nods and guides him out of sight, presumably to the back office. How well do they even know each other? How do they even know each other? More pressing matters plague your thoughts. The rest of the guys are going to know you’re here. Jake and Josh will know you’re here. Will they want to see you? They will, but why? They shouldn’t. They should just take their fancy instruments and go. Like last time. 

Your body goes on autopilot as you continue to make and serve drinks. You jump at the feeling of a hand on your shoulder. “Hun, I’ll take over,” El gives you a sweet smile. “You should go see your friends, (Y/N).” It’s a command disguised as a charitable gesture. How her eyes pour into yours, she’s begging you to go. “It’ll be good for you.” The seething child inside wants to lash out at her. What would she know, right? She can’t tell you what to do. But the memories swirling in your head and the empty feeling in your chest reminds you that she does know. She saw you at your worst. 

Weakly, you nod wiping your hands on your shirt before leaving from behind the bar to the back office, collecting your belongings. Sam and Syd seem like they were almost waiting for you outside the backdoor exit. You inhale and exhale, closing your eyes just for a moment. As you walk up to them, Sam’s beaming with excitement. He takes off his hood, hat, and sunglasses, finally allowing you to get a good look at him. Over half a decade since you’ve seen him, he’s really grown up. Long hair, longer than before at least. Facial hair, very unlike how baby faced he was when you last saw him. But the Kiszka blueprint was still there.

You let your guard down and give him a genuine smile. Let’s try this again. “Hi, Sammy.” He doesn’t even respond, simply pulling you into a tight hug. It practically knocks the wind out of you.

“I’m sorry I had to hound you at work, but Josh would’ve had my head if I saw you and just let you go.” Just Josh? You chuckle and nod, slinking out of his tight grasp. “You should’ve come to the show tonight, you could’ve messaged one of us or-”

“Yeah, I didn’t know.” A half truth. 

“Oh, our biggest fan didn’t know?” He teases, nudging you lightly. When you flatly laugh, a lull falls between you two. Between you three actually. Syd clears her throat, bringing all eyes on her. It’s as if you two forgot she was there. “We’re uh- actually headed to an afterparty of sorts. Everyone’s already there.” In an attempt to self soothe, you wrap your arms around yourself, fingertips pressing into your flesh. “You have to come with us. C’mon.” 

The urge to turn around and head back into the bar or reluctantly just go home is extremely intense, but then you recall the look in El’s eyes. “That’d be- yeah, sure.” You gaze down at yourself, looking less than presentable. “Is there a dress code or something?”

Sam drapes one arm over your shoulder and the other over Syd’s. “Nah, you’re fine.” He laughs as we all start walking away from the bar. “If anything, you could work the bar over there. That’s probably where you’ll find Jake, anyhow.” Jake and alcohol has always been a recipe for disaster in your experiences. Fun.

[inclusiveplurality]

An actual server for a media property we were interested in before seeing how deeply sysmedicalist the creators were said that it's "against discord TOS for littles under 13 (or 12, can't remember) to be active on discord".

That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works. All discord cares about it body age. You can be a system made entirely of 0-11 year old littles and still be able to post on discord, because all that matters is the year your body was born.

Truly hate how people are about littles. "I am not comfortable talking about this subject with a little or engaging sexually with them" is a boundary. "Littles are not allowed to talk about this subject or be sexual" is controlling, toxic, and depending on your relationship with the system in question, can cross the line into abuse. (I'd say usually it doesn't on discord, but it's worth noting.)

It's what I call "building your fences in other people's yards". You have a right to state you're uncomfortable interacting with people in certain ways, including mutually discussing certain subjects. But as soon as you infringe on another person's right to exist as they are or to discuss things not directed at you in a public space, you're not putting a boundary on your own property line any more.

REAL. a lot of online plural spaces have a really NIMBY-ass attitude about how other systems function and like. what their members want and how they navigate the world. like buddy you are not functionally different from the HOA karen telling me i can't paint my trashcans purple. you're just doing it on discord dot edu instead of in my neighborhood.

[chaos0pikachu]

Hi chaos,

I don't know if you've heard of the Ohm-Nanon fans going to Nanon's concert wearing Ohm masks but it happened? (I don't know how to end that sentence.) (Sorry, English isn't my first language.)

You have written about parasocial relationships so I wanted to ask why are people still involved in Ohm-Nanon? Bad Buddy ended so long ago and they are still doing all this. What makes Ohm-Nanon so special? We haven't see such huge bad behaviour from other pair brands.

Please never ever apologize for how you sound in English which is a dumb broken language anyway lol fr you're English is great

anyways um, what in the fucking purge?? lmao sorry the masks thing is just taking me out I'm imagining it and the image in my head is giving kdrama to the max with the discord music and everything lmaoooo

I had not heard of that b/c I don't follow actors like that at all this is very much Brand New Information.gif for me whew wow

Soft disclaimer here I am not an expert behavioral science or anything related so like, anything I say in regards to this is based only on what I've read, can link to from experts in the field, and speculation.

I don't think OhmNanon are necessarily "special" tbh like this behavior is extreme but I wouldn't call it "new".

In western fandom you had or still have fans behaving like this we just call them "tinhats".

Like, take Larries for instance, Louis just spoke about it in an interview that nothing he can say will deter the conspiracies theorists so he's kinda stuck. This article from VOX is old (2016) but it features a pretty clear cut timeline of the theories, and obsession tinhats have with Larry. Even before Larry there was J2 (Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki from Supernatural):

I want to note that One Direction stopped being an active band in 2016, almost 8 years ago. And neither Harry nor Louis have been spotted like, hanging out~~ in public for almost that entire time. Meanwhile Jared and Jensen have been been married to their wives since 2010, almost 15 years.

To play fair, Caitríona Mary Balfe (best known for Outlander) is also at the root of a tinhat conspiracy with her costar Sam Heughan. Caitriona has been married since 2019.

Western fandom likes to pretend this environment of fan entitlement, and obsessing over costars relationships is an East Asian entertainment only thing. I thoroughly disagree, and I'm sure the people involved in these various tinhat conspiracies, many who have been thoroughly and ruthlessly harassed along with their spouses, family, friends, and anyone else caught in the crossfire would also disagree.

For me the only arguable difference between like MewGulf and Larry is MewGulf played up skinship as a means of capital and for work, while Louis and Harry were just two dudes in a band.

[I even watched the old school MewGulf videos of them during Peak Fanservice Era and I gotta say it's all so obviously hilarious fake and played up I would have never taken them seriously as a true blue couple. They reminded me more of Adam Lambert making out with his bassist during his FYE tour (Tommy, who from what I remember is straight but idk 100%) for the fun and rock n roll of it all.]

I'm getting off track, I don't think OhmNanon are "special" by-the-by because I've seen this entitled and obsessive behavior with other tinhat ships. The length of time doesn't really matter, what matters is sunk cost fallacy:

"the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial."

Fans have invested time, love, and literal money into Ohm and Nanon, therefore giving them up - and thus giving up the "community" they've build with other Ohm and Nanon fans - is unthinkable and painful.

Combine that with general fan entitlement towards public figures, the para-sociality of believe you, individually, know what's "best" for this person - aka this STRANGER - and there's a belief that you can change or force an outcome that suits your needs and wants.

There's a lot of dehumanization involved in fan entitlement, ppl stop viewing public figures - especially actors and musicians - as products rather than people. And with a product if you leave a bad review, and enough bad reviews the company will fix and change the product.

But people aren't products, and you can't force them to do what you want or be who you want them to be just because it upsets YOU individually.

So at the end of the day, what's gonna happen with Ohm and Nanon? Well, they'll probably just keeping doing what they do. Filming their individual shows, maybe one of them will do another BL - I think Ohm already has one in the works? - and try to move on with their lives. They're coworkers and from what I've seen seem fine being coworkers. I'm not interested in speculating what their relationship is, or was, publicly, they've said they're fine with each other so I'm very es lo que es about it.

For fans, well they're probably slowly taper off eventually with only a core group of "true believers" or whatever like some MewGulf, BrightWin and others have. As fans I think the only thing we can do is discourage the behavior, and be empathetic towards the people being harassed.

Now I'm gonna leave you with my favorite debunk of a tinhat post:

[sio-writes]

Movie Night

I challenged myself to write a short blurb in under 1k words, and we capped in at 998 (hell yeah!)

I've been inspired by my writing buddies in the fantasci discord server, so have a bit of a Hero/Villain interaction. It's a bit out of my usual wheelhouse but I think I did the concept some justice! There's some mild swearing but that's all c:

The steam from the shower nearly chokes the small apartment, but Hero wouldn’t turn down the temperature if their life depended on it. It’s the easiest way to release the tension in their joints, ease the tightness of their muscles after beating back Supervillain for the third time this week. It was a victory hard-won, and Hero was still finding bruises and scrapes that they hadn't felt during the heat of battle.

The shower also acts as a ritual of sorts, one that started out of necessity - saving a city was a hard job, and then as Hero got better at that job, the ritual just kind of stuck.

Scrubbed and dry with fresh bandages over the worst of the injuries, Hero knocks back several ibuprofen and changes into pajamas. The fight took everything out of them, and they want nothing more than to relax for the rest of the evening.

Which of course invites a knock on their door, and Hero knows exactly who it is. They barely have a chance to unlock the door before Villain pushes past them and into the apartment. They pace the small living room as Hero closes and locks the door, then turns an accusing finger in Hero's direction. "I can't believe you!"

"You saw the fight, huh?" Hero asks, leaning on one shoulder against the wall. "I assume you have notes?"

Villain's eyes widen, indignant. "You bet your ass I do! Never fight Supervillain alone, your own words! And what do I see on TV first thing in the morning? You! Being flattened into the fucking Metrix high-rise!"

Hero cringes, hating that Villain is right. "It's not like I planned it. I did call for help, but by the time everyone else got there, Supervillain was long gone." They shrug, and the movement pulls at a nasty gash over their back that makes them wince. They kick off the wall to step around Villain, and then flop dramatically onto the couch, ignoring Villain's increasingly indignant stare. Standing takes effort, plus it hurts, so if Villain wants to yell at them more, they'll have to do it from down here.

"Don't you care that they might--"

"Wanna watch a movie?" Hero interrupts, reaching for the remote.

Villain sputters for a second, but this song and dance is nothing new for either of them. One gets hurt, the other gets upset, they brush it off and continue on. So after a long-suffering stare, an arm movement like they're a bird taking flight, and a hefty sigh, Villain drapes themself over Hero's couch as Hero fiddles with the channels.

“Anything but the news,” Villain says.

Hero flips to a channel playing a movie— they haven't seen a proper movie in months— and Villain grunts their approval.

Normally, Hero enjoys war movies, but those pain pills kick in fast, and before the opening credits are over, Hero’s already struggling to pay attention. It's an older movie, made in the 70's, something about the Cold War, and there's so much talking and so little action that Hero is fighting to stay awake, until Villain starts on a tirade.

"It's just like the government, eh? Fuckin' politicians, they just waltz all over--"

Hero groans, thumping Villains leg with their fist. "Knock it off. I heard nothing but this all damn day."

Villain scoffs, cutting off their rant but still broadcasting their frustration. They turn their attention back to the movie, and in sympathy, Hero pats their knee where it's draped over their own legs. "Things'll get better, you know they will."

Villain scrunches their face in displeasure, sinking into the couch as they cross their arms over their chest. "Not fast enough. People are dying."

Hero sighs through their nose, fond yet exasperated. This argument never seems to stale, no matter how often it comes up. They never reach an agreement, only until they run out of talking points and one gives up. Currently Hero is in the lead at 43-42.

At a commercial break, Villain reaches out to gently brush their knuckles over a large purple bruise on Hero's ankle. “This looks bad.”

Hero hums, noncommittal. Supervillain had actually broken that ankle, but with Hero's accelerated healing factor, it was back in place before they got home, and the bruise will be long gone before the weekend's over. “I mean, you saw the fight.”

“You should be more careful around Supervillain,” they say, serious. “They don’t have a conscience like I do.”

Hero scoffs, smiling. “Didn't you gut-punch me last week?”

“I was aiming for the senator," they mumble, looking down. They look back to Hero, eyes still hardened. "They’ll kill you given the chance.” Villain’s expression brokers no argument, and Hero holds their gaze for a moment. Hero’s easy smile fades, taking in the concern of Villain’s expression.

“Don’t worry about me,” Hero mumbles. “It’s part of the job.”

“An avoidable part.”

Hero rolls their eyes. "I can't just quit, and I--" Hero squints at the screen. “What the fuck is that?"

It's not a distraction this time, Hero genuinely can't make heads or tails of why this plane is sitting on its ass-end and taking off like the space shuttle.

Villain sighs, turning their head back towards the TV, and then they perk up. "Oh, that's a Lockheed XFV-1," Villain says easily before tossing back popcorn into their mouth. Hero didn't remember making popcorn, and couldn't recall Villain making any - they must've made it when Hero dozed off.

"It was made for vertical take-off and landing," Villain continues. "Like a helicopter, but shaped like a plane. Oh! That one's a Lavochkin-LA, super big during the Cold War."

Hero squints at them. "Are you a history nerd?"

Villain flushes. "Kind of? I'm not as keyed-in as some people." They snort, and their smile is lopsided. "Don't tell anyone, it'll ruin my street cred."

Hero recognizes an olive branch when they see one, and they smile easily. "I won't tell anyone. Hand me some popcorn."

[sentientcave]

Hi! 👋 Feel free to ignore or to only answer one!

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

Hi @dozeydaisy! Appreciate you dropping by (:

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

Often other works-- I'll see something I like and it gets put in the soup (brain soup) to simmer away. I can usually draw a direct line to the things that gave me ideas, like Don't Leave Me Locked In Your Heart and Neighborly/The Rear Window had direct impacts on Retirement Party. One of my novels was inspired by a tumblr post of someone talking about how Rahul Kohli would make a really hot werewolf.

I'm basically pulling threads I like from everything I see and hear. Books, tv, movies, music. Also my friends! I talk to my buddies in the discord (the gay people in my phone) and we discuss hot men philosopher-style.

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

Yes! I wouldn't say my research is particularly deep for all aspects, but I do research as much as I can to make sure that important story elements feel grounded in reality. Wikipedia is a beautiful lady to me and we are in love.

Fan Fic Writer Ask Game!

[dsnzfb]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers (ू•‧̫•ू⑅)♡ No pressure though!

🥹 omg youuu

1. My ocs!! They hold a permanent and deep place in my heart and brain and I love thinking about and talking about them w people 💖

2. Whatever the hell I'm hyperfixated on at the moment. It's an indie game with a small fanbase right now so I can't say it here or I might be found 💖 but previous hyperfixations give me joy still too! Sonic Adventure 2 (actually the entire sonic franchise), Final Fantasy IV, Megaman, Gundam, Puyo Puyo, Hollow Knight, all of it. I find such joy in stuff like that, it makes me happy.

3. Good food! My appetite isn't quite back yet to how it should be, but when I'm back to my usual fatso shenanigans you KNOW I'm gonna have me some sushi, burgers, yakisoba, anything comforting and warm. I love food!! I love enjoying food! I love sharing food!

4. Creation. I love drawing and writing stuff. I don't do it as much as I'd like to, but you can only do what you're able to, right? Don't be hard on yourself and burn yourself out, take things at your own pace. I'm just recovering from my animation burnout, so the joy in creating things is relatively new after the past 2 years have been create create create for 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. There's only so much you can continue to come up with when your animatics leave a LOT to be desired, usually being like, one picture per scene and little-to-no character direction. And the AMOUNT of full shots with 6 characters that last AAAAGES... Girliepops, zoom into the heads more, please... Anyway, I'm complaining now. I'm happy that the show's over so I'm making things for me! Maybe I'll actually do some animation for myself in the future.

5. Spending time with my friends! This sounds SOOOOO fuckin cheesy, but I've been spending a lot more time with my buddies recently. We don't even end up doing anything, we just chat, eat, show each other memes, and watch silly stuff on YouTube together. Even friends on discord are bringing me joy recently! I appreciate whenever anyone chooses to talk to me 🥹 my mental health has been rocky for a long time, but new meds and new friends are helping a whole lot.

[shoggothkisses]

The Narzissenkreuz Adventure: Initial Thoughts

I want to make sure I write these down before I forget them, so please don't consider this post an "in depth" lore rant so much as some preliminary thoughts I hope to delve into later!

SPOILERS FOR FONTAINE UNDER THE CUT

First: names. Oh my god. Friends will attest that I've been screaming in Discord for the last few weeks, "WHY IS THE FROG NAMED JAK!?," with no context. Now I finally have an answer, and I am sated (for now). While the names of the actual water constructs aren't inherently important - they even say so themselves - we can now conclude that Mary-Ann / Ann pulled the names of people who lived and worked around her at the Narzissenkreuz Institute for the characters in her children's stories. We have Jak(ob Ingold), Al(ain Guillotine), Rene, Kate (possibly Karl??) and Petit Chou (this one is a stretch, but since Chou and Basil Elton are both named after vegetation, I think that's who Chou is supposed to be.)

Also I love that they decided to make Mary-Ann a direct reference to Alice in Wonderland (Mary-Ann is the name of the housekeeper the White Rabbit mistakes Alice for; and the Narzissenkreuz Mary-Ann is a caretaker and governess for the children).

Platonism has SO much weight in Fontaine, and especially here. Ashikai made a video recently that references the Veluriyam Mirage and Plato's Allegory of the Cave, and this time around we have characters who blatantly announce that their physical forms and names have nothing to do with their essence. In their minds, their "purpose" in the story is who they are. This is highly likely to be a reference to Aristotle and Plato's believe in animism and essentialism - all things have souls and the soul is the true form of the self.

JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES!!! This made me extremely excited. The Adventure Team says that "our purposes are our essences," which feels very archetypal. Kate is not Kate, but The Battle Hardened General. Narcissus is not Narcissus, or even an Oceanid, but The Dragon. Ann is not Ann, but The Hero. The repetition of certain archetypes in every single nation we've been to has made me spin in circles the whole time I've been observing it. There have been MANY archetypes that have repeated themselves in each nation (a Dragon, a Dragon-Slayer, a Holy Bird, a Big Tree, etc.) - and if things like archetypes and the collective unconscious are real and have a real effect on the events of Teyvat, it brings up two more questions: which of these archetypes were the "first," and how many times will they keep repeating?

"THE RULE OF THREE IS AN ANCIENT PRINCIPLE" DO I NEED TO SAY MORE? yes. yes i do. SO. despite poking through BOTH Aristotle's Rhetoric and his Poetics, while he loves listing his premises and theories in groups of three, he doesn't actually mention WHY he uses the number three so often. It's more likely thanks to our buddy Pythagoras that the number three is considered a Special™️ number, because he thought that (since it's the sum of all numbers beneath it - 1 + 2), he believed to be a "noble" number representing unity and harmony. Hence, why it's shown up everywhere from Christianity to neopaganism to writing to business marketing (!?) since.

THE NARZISSENKREUZ DOMAIN IS AN ENDLESS DOWNWARD SPIRAL WITH EACH LEVEL ON TOP OF ONE ANOTHER AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS GOING TO BE A LONG TOPIC FOR ANOTHER DAY

The only other time we've seen Paimon have such a strong response to a domain was under The Chasm - which was also a time loop of sorts. We've also seen (especially via the Sabzeruz Samsara) that she can't tell when we're stuck in a time loop. She can only feel its effects via fatigue and dizziness. This definitely has to be important.

So these are artifacts right. The pocket watch and the feather. These are symbols of aspects of Ann's story, so they're parts of an artifact set? They hold parts of her soul? We're all on the same page with that right!? RIGHT??

It's not given its proper name, but the Jabberwock's Holy Sword is quite obviously the Vorpal Blade, a well-recognized dragon-slaying sword from Lewis Carroll's poem "The Jabberwocky," which features in Through the Looking Glass.

Speaking of all the Alice references in this world quest - the final chapter of TtLG ("Who Dreamed It?") is a little unnerving in a Genshin context, since "what is life but a dream?" implies that, if whoever is dreaming of Teyvat(?) ever wakes up...well. Let's hope the collective unconscious thing is a more accurate representation for how Teyvat works, since then everyone would have to wake up for the universe to disappear.

EDIT: Ann mentions three cities/civilizations while we're in the Looking Glass Domain: Yith, Arcadia, and Hyperborea. I've posted an explanation about Yith in my Lovecraft References post but I want to mention the other two really quick! In Greek mythology, Arcadia was supposed to be an unspoiled paradise outside of human civilization, where the god Pan lived alongside a bunch of nature spirits (dryads, nymphs etc.). Hyperborea, meanwhile, was a city "beyond the reach of Boreas (the North Wind)," inhabited by people who worshipped and were beloved by Apollo (god of being Booked and Busy, apparently). The former wasn't so much a utopia as a place where supernatural entities could chill away from humans (which reminds me of the lost kingdom of the Seelie?), while the latter was a maybe-real, maybe-not utopia inhabited by 10-foot-tall blondes.

THAT'S ALL I'VE GOT FOR NOW BUT. but if you want to chat about things that happened in Narzissenkreuz, my ask box is open!!

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 10: Leavetaking

I feel like saying "Hello" at the start of these is silly, but I don't know what else to do to start up each section of this reread! This reread is filled with more spoilers than a Cliff's Notes Omnibus, so if you're trying to avoid them you should avoid this post too. Run away like the gang is skipping town!

This chapter has Moiraine's staff for its icon and I think it's just because she's taking charge of everyone's fates now, or trying to. The Wheel's gonna weave though, whether she likes it or not.

“I looked,” Perrin replied. “There’s nobody here but us. Why would anybody hide—”

Why would anybody try to destroy your hometown, Perrin? I think people think you're slow because of stupid questions like this.

Rand thought about flourishing the sword, but Lan being there stopped him. The Warder was not even looking in his direction, but he was sure the man was aware of everything that went on around him.

Rand's constant need for Lan's approval in all things is wonderful and I'm going to point it out every time it happens. If you don't like it, join the people afraid of spoilers.

“Master Luhhan made it about two years ago, for a wool-buyer’s guard. But when it was done the fellow wouldn’t pay what he had agreed, and Master Luhhan would not take less. He gave it to me when”—he cleared his throat, then shot Rand the same warning frown he’d given Mat—“when he found me practicing with it. He said I might as well have it since he couldn’t make anything useful from it.”

A DIscord buddy of mine said that Perrin is basically what happens when King Arthur grows up next to Crystal Dragon Jesus, and boy is he desperate to prove it, since he also has a weapon inherited from a father figure but it's nowhere near as cool as Rand's Bladed Certificate of Badassery.

Anything can be a weapon, if the man or woman who holds it has the nerve and will to make it so.

Lan, meanwhile, once accepted a challenge to defeat a rampaging Trolloc army by using all the items in an abandoned Borderlander farm once each. Kind of a shame that we end up sticking mostly to traditional weapons and magic as the series goes on; stuff like Rand boiling the Trolloc with the kettle always has an extra fun element.

“We left notes,” Mat said. “For our families. They’ll find them in the morning. Rand, my mother thinks Tar Valon is the next thing to Shayol Ghul.” He gave a little laugh to show he did not share her opinion. It was not very convincing. “She’d try to lock me in the cellar if she believed I was even thinking of going there.”

Frankly Mat, I think that as long as you weren't being dragged off in irons, your mother would be quite happy to have you out of the house for a few months to grow up and not cause trouble.

Also, it's really weird that Perrin only mentions the Luhhans and not his own family. I'm aware that as Perrin is an apprentice he needs his teacher's approval to do things, but you'd think his parents would have a problem with this too. I hope Perrin actually left them a note too instead of just Luhahan; it would really suck if he missed this opportunity to say goodbye what with their imminent demise.

“Not without me.” Egwene slipped into the stable, a shawl-wrapped bundle in her arms. Rand nearly fell over his own feet.

One of my favorite things about the story is that our young lady is jumping at the chance for adventure and taking every opportunity to get while our young gents are being painfully dragged towards their doom. Egwene's not a ta'veren because the Pattern doesn't need to drag her around by the heels like it does with the layabouts; she's probably already planning on becoming Amyriln and she doesn't even know she can channel yet.

Do you think you three are the only ones who want to see what’s outside? I’ve dreamed about it as long as you have, and I don’t intend to miss this chance.

Sadly though, she does have a tendency to project. Absolutely none of the boys are leaving out of curiosity about the outside world; camping trips to the mountains are as far as they're interested in going.

A startled expression darted across Lan’s face. It was gone in an instant, leaving him outwardly calm, but furious words erupted from him. “No, Moiraine!”

It may seem a bit strange for stoic Lan to be having this outburst, but I stand by my fake dialogue from several chapters ago: dude is (rightly) convinced that Rand is the real deal and (wrongly) convinced that the others are just a waste of time. Now Moiraine's not even adding plausible candidates to their entourage, and who gets to hide all of their tracks? Lan. Dude might be loving the idea of becoming the Dragon Reborn's personal sword sensei, but babysitting the rest of these idiots is making him long to just go die in the Blight like he was going to twenty years ago.

“That will not be possible,” came Thom Merrilin’s resonant voice from the hayloft. Lan’s sword left its sheath this time, and he did not put it back as he stared up at the gleeman.

If this chapter was from Lan's POV, this is the point where his internal monologue would be lots of funny Borderland swears. And jeez Perrin, you "didn't think" of looking in the loft? That's like the most obvious hiding place!

Thom put his feet on the stable floor and turned from the ladder, brushing straw from his patch-covered cloak. “In fact,” he said in more normal tones, “you might say that I insist on traveling in company. I have given many hours over many mugs of ale to thinking of how I might end my days. A Trolloc’s cookpot was not one of the thoughts.”

Also, Thom may be using the Trollocs and lure of Tar Valon (not quoted but mentioned earlier) as excuses, but they're both BS. He knows damn well that he's not a target and that Moiraine's party is, so joining them only increases his risk. Further, he has no reason to go to Tar Valon unless he's ready to die by trying to off whatever Red Ajah witches killed his nephew, and right now he doesn't even know their names. He's just worried that one of the boys - all of the boys - might have the ability to channel and that they're being led to their doom, and he's willing to put up with a lot to save them if that's the case. Nobody in this stable is a paragon of morality, but they all have the hearts of heroes. As far as I'm concerned, all of them EXCEPT Mat (who doesn't wanna be) are bound to the Horn and this is just one hell of a crossover episode.

“Bela,” Rand said, getting a look from Lan that made him wish he had kept silent. But he knew he could not dissuade Egwene; the only thing left was to help.

Speaking of good hearts, I love the way that the EF5 are almost incapable of getting along but will still assist each other at nearly every opportunity.

The only horse left riderless was Cloud, a tall gray with a black mane and tail that belonged to Jon Thane, or had. 

Rand started this story with Bela and now that he's realized he's eight or nine years overdue for a properly mid-life crisis, he's traded her in for a racing model. Boy is gonna go through a lot of horses before this is over. Current horse count: 2

(There is no way I will remember this count by the time we get to the third horse, let alone the finale.)

“Wolves!” Perrin exclaimed, and the Warder favored him with a flat stare.

Foreshadowing! Boy deserves some since he hasn't really had much yet.

“Two Dha’vol Trollocs would have them all for breakfast,” Lan muttered when the sound of their boots had faded, “but they have eyes and ears.” He turned his stallion back. “Come.”

We don't know much about the Trolloc bands, but we can probably gather from this that the Dha'vols (guess the etymology!) are some of the least threatening.

Rand peered at the high-peaked houses in the dark, trying to impress them on his memory. A fine adventurer I am, he thought. He was not even out of the village yet, and already he was homesick. But he did not stop looking.

Don't be too hard on yourself, Rand. You're not coming back, not in this lifetime, and maybe even not in the next. Also your home is several miles away so you're further off than all the others.

A black shape flew slowly across the silvery ball of the moon. Rand’s involuntary jerk on the reins halted the gray. A bat, he thought weakly, but he knew it was not.

Meet the draghkar. I'm not quite certain where their name comes from (it seems to be a dragon variant), but they're pretty obviously (suc/in)cubi with hints of siren or vampire. Like the other variants of Shadowspawn seen thus far, draghkar are made from human beings, which makes me wonder: is there some sort of Fade equivalent to them, like what Trollocs have? Or is the genetic manipulation severe enough that the channeler gene doesn't exist in them, so no such throwbacks occur? Both options are frightening in different ways.

Also note that despite being potentially really effective threats against our heroes (one almost takes out Moiraine in book two after all), they pretty much drop off the face of the earth after book five or so. Sanderson brings them back for the Last Battle though, but sadly not in a way that really lets them shine. It might have just been too hard for either author to keep coming up with organic ways to include them that didn't end too much like previous encounters or with the readers going, "Yeah that person should be dead now." Or maybe the gholam ended up filling the same sort of niche too well.

It was Thom Merrilin who answered her hoarsely. “In the war that ended the Age of Legends, worse than Trollocs and Halfmen were created.” Moiraine’s head jerked toward him as he spoke. Not even the dark could hide the sharpness of her look.

Moiraine was born eons too late-early to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, but if she could see it, like me she would absolutely hate it when Picard asks the away team what's happening and Riker answers, "Trouble" or something else that is only an answer in the most useless sense of the word. She really doesn't appreciate it coming from someone who knows they need to be quiet and whose contributions are doing nothing but scaring the children she's trying to kidnap. Thom, meanwhile, really doesn't appreciate it when women are Aes Sedai in his presence. Naturally, Jordan thinks they're soul mates.

But that's an unsatisfying romance for another book, and we're closing out another chapter, bringing us closer to the somewhat unsatisfying romance in this book! Next time: The Road to Taren Ferry!