#wendy does NOT

[twelvemonkeyswere]

the whole Terry Pratchett vs Adaptations section of the book is brilliant, but nothing stands out as the whole ordeal between Terry, Tiffany Aching, and, I kid you not, Sam Raimi.

I cannot emphasize the psyche damage I took from that last sentence, I was completely unprepared:

he wasn't pleased with the script at all:

and you know shit just got real:

and its inevitable end:

all this put into perspective, however, an earlier quote in the chapter:

[maspers]

So I decided to try my hand at creative writing

Don always wakes up at 5:30 each morning. Enough time to go for a jog, shower, and eat breakfast, before heading to work at 7. Working in the management team for a stationary company is occasionally scary (Don does not deal well with bright colors) but is still rather fulfilling. A quiet life, a change of pace from his youth. Don is well liked in the workplace, often taking his coworkers out to lunch. He's able to do this because of the nest egg he's got saved up. Technically, Don would be pretty close to retiring, but he doesn't want to. Sure, he's getting on in years, but he needs something to do. A slow, quiet life. Just enough activity to keep things exciting for an old timer like him. 

Work ends at 3. Don likes his shift. Gives him most of the afternoon to go fishing. He's planning on having steak and stout pie for dinner. A newer recipe, one that Don found online. It'll take a while to prep, but Don has the time. Taking things slow is exhilarating in its own way. Don has learned that it's not necessarily about the destination, but rather it is about the journey. You never know what could happen. Maybe the Steak will need more spices. Maybe he'll need to make a substitution because he forgot one of the vegetables. The possibilities are endless. Then, at around 7:30, Don plans on going to bed. Sure, it's a bit early. But his health has been holding out well despite his age, and Don hopes to keep it that way. Oh yes, Don thinks as he drives home from work in his '04 Corolla. This is going to be another relaxing day. 

But his hopes are dashed when he sees the pickup truck out front, on the driveway. The driver has a reputation, but thankfully Don's recently-trimmed rhododendrons are still intact. The driver stands outside, accompanied by two others. His belt has expanded a size, and his beard has grown out and turned pepper gray, but the gallon hat on his head still looks brand new. He looks up and gives Don a sympathetic smile. 

The young woman next to him has a much more sour look on her face. Don didn't think the girl could grow up, but here she stands, clad in a sweater and capri pants. Her red hair is a darker, browner shade, but it's clear she takes care of it. Her scowl of disapproval has always seemed a permanent fixture. 

Jack, of course, looks the same as he always has.

"No," Don groans. "I'm not doing this again."

"Aw, come on pardner," the Driver says. "You know we wouldn't have come if we didn't need ya." 

"I still say we *don't* need him, for the record." says the girl. 

"Don't be so frosty," Jack corrects her, kindly. He turns to Don. "We really are sorry, Don. We wish it didn't have to be this way. We've all got lives too, you know."

"Then go back to them," Don refutes. "We're not friends anymore, Jack. None of us were to begin. We were rivals, all of us bickering and fighting. You three only started acting all friendly when I said I was done."

"Hmph. Believe me, if I could turn around and go back home to Jimmy instead of hanging out with you old fogies I would," the young woman complains.

"Honestly, I don' disagree." The driver looks solemnly at his truck. "I mostly use this ol thing for hauling turnips these days. But see, there's a problem a-brewin, and the four of us are the only ones around to deal with it."

"And what would that be?" Don asked. 

Jack's unmoving eyes pierce through him. "The King is back."

Don groans again. "How?"

The girl rolls her eyes. "Does it matter? He's back, and we need to take him down. For good this time."

"Last time, we were all fighting amongst ourselves. When he finally went down, we were all too distracted by each other to make sure that we'd actually finished the job. This time, if we all work together, we could take him down easy. A simple job. In and out."

"Don't say those words," the girl mutters under her breath, "You'll jinx us."

"And there's really nobody else?" Don asks

"Who else is there?" the driver asks in return. "Bunch of naive young'uns and withered corpses that make the lot of us look young. And more importantly, is there anyone besides you that we can be confident in? Everyone else is variable. You, pardner, were always guaranteed to do what needed to be done."

Don walked over to the truck. He looked in the back. Burgers. Sodas. Fries. An assortment of sandwiches and breakfast goods. Ice cream in cups. It wasn't much. 

"It was all we could scrounge together on a short notice," Jack explains. "None of us really went out of our way to stockpile. We all thought we were done, like you. But it should be enough."

"It won't be enough," Don says. "Not how it is. You need sauce. Mac sauce, and lots of it. Get a heat lamp set up, keep the food warm. You need at least twice that amount of nuggets. And for heaven's sake, put some salt on those fries."

"So does that mean yer in?" the driver asks. 

Don turns, and looks over at his house. A quiet life. Grays and browns. He hadn't even gotten to put his steak and stout pie in the oven. He'd have to cash in some vacation days too. Don didn't want to leave it behind. 

But the house wasn't going anywhere. And as much as Don hated to admit it, his former peers were right. He was needed. He couldn't trust this job in the hands of anyone else. 

He turns back. "Fine. But we better make this quick."

Jack's unmoving smile seems a tad more genuine. The driver whoops a yeehaw. "Let's get yer stuff loaded up!" he proclaims. 

The young woman quickly hides her own small grin. "Hurry it up, then," she says angrily "I know you keep your food frozen, you heathen. Get it thawing."

Don smiles, and rolls his eyes as he goes to get his old work clothes. He'd never admit it, but he's missed this. He puts on his old suit. The yellow is a bit faded, but it'll do. He finishes packing up, then they all pile into the truck. 

Then Arby, Wendy, Jack, and Ronald McDonald went out to save the world. One last time.

[bootleg-grandpa]

Finally decided to rewatch the show

It's been 10 years and holy shit I forgot how much I loved it

[starryemeralds]

pines pines pines!!!!!

(reference is this art by joe pitt)

[Image description: digital art of the Pines family from Gravity Falls, posing for a photo. Stan has his arms around Dipper and Ford, with all of them grinning. Soos is making a peace sign, and Mabel is sticking out her tongue. Wendy has a relaxed smile. End ID.]

[sage-nebula]

Thinking about how important it is that Wendy is a part of the Pines family. (Because she is, as much as Soos is. It's why she's in the family photos, such as the one representing Ford's happiness at the end of The Book of Bill.)

We don't know too much about Wendy's home / family life. Unfortunately, we don't a single Wendy-focused episode, and we don't get to learn too much about her outside of how she interacts with the main characters. But here is what we do know:

Wendy is the oldest of four siblings, with three little brothers. Wendy herself is 15. We are never given ages for her brothers, but given the photo that she shows Dipper of her younger self in "Double Dipper", I'm guesstimating that the youngest Corduroy brother (Gus) is about 6 in the present day. This is because young!Wendy was wearing braces and also noted to be "freakishly tall" for her age, and Gus was wearing a diaper in the photo (but standing on his own). Braces can take two to three years to be removed, and Wendy doesn't have them in the present day, meaning she was probably around 11 or 12 in the photo. Meanwhile, Gus was in a diaper but able to stand, meaning he was probably a toddler, likely around 2. So in the present day, Wendy is 15, Gus is around 6 (depending on if Wendy was 11 or 12 in the photo), and Marcus and Kevin (the middle brothers) are between 14 and 7.

Wendy's mother died when she was young. Given the age of Gus in the photo, we can estimate that Wendy's mother died when Wendy was, at youngest, 11 or 12 -- so, three or four years pre-canon. (Because any earlier than that and Gus couldn't have been born.)

Wendy's father is Manly Dan, who shouts just about every line of dialogue he has and routinely breaks things, including in his own house, albeit sometimes by accident. He also spends most of his time in a biker bar, though we do know that he does love his children. (e.g. is seen with the boys on both family fishing day and Summerween, is seen taking Wendy out for breakfast in "Dipper vs. Manliness").

Dan is the reason why Wendy has a summer job. As she says in "Gideon Rises", "If I can't work at the Shack, my dad's gonna force me to work at my cousin's logging camp up north." This implies that Wendy has to work somewhere, per a rule of Dan's.

In "Into the Bunker", Wendy has this to say when she comments on how she's excited to be going on an adventure with Dipper and Mabel: "It beats cleaning up after my dad at home." She says this with a frown, in a grousing tone. We're then treated to a clip of Dan breaking apart the cabin as mentioned above.

In "Society of the Blind Eye", before she's about to have her memories erased, Wendy confesses thus: "I'm stressed like 24/7. Have you MET my family?"

Wendy dreams about her mother every night. The glimpse of her dream that we're shown depicts her receiving a comforting hug from her mother.

The conclusions that I draw from the above are thus: prior to her mother's death, Wendy had what amounts to a normal family life in Gravity Falls. The Corduroys were a two parent household, her mother was there to help balance Dan out and raise the kids (Wendy included), and Wendy could, well . . . be a kid. It's possible, even, that some of Dan's more worrying traits (such as spending the majority of his time at a bar) didn't exist when Wendy's mom is alive. It's pure speculation on my part, but it's possible that Dan feels compelled to go to a bar to be aggressive (and drink, even if we don't see it because it's a kid's show) because that's how he processes his grief over his wife's death, away from his children's eyes and ears. He's trying to be a responsible father and not hurt his kids, while at the same time still not handling things in the most healthy way.

But back to Wendy. Once Wendy's mother died, the dynamic in the Corduroy household shifted. Dan was hit by the tidal wave of grief that comes with losing a spouse, as well as the sudden onslaught of being a single father to four children, one of whom was very possibly still in diapers. And if my speculation is correct and that he took to going to the bar to deal with his grief, then who is left to change Gus' diapers and get him potty trained? To operate the stove or oven or microwave to make sure that the boys (who would all be under age 10 at this point) got fed, and to make sure she got fed herself? To, in her own words, "clean up [her] dad's messes" when he was at home to make them by breaking apart the house with his own head?

Wendy.

Wendy was a child herself when her mother died, but she was the oldest child, potentially freshly into middle school while the boys were still in elementary, and the oldest daughter to boot. The girl, expected to know how to do "girl things" like cook and clean. I'm not saying that Dan told her to do these things, but we know from Wendy's personality that she is protective of those who need it (e.g. Dipper and Mabel) and, more importantly, that's her home and her family, and she does love them (she makes this clear in the Weirdmageddon episodes numerous times). She wouldn't let her little brothers starve, wouldn't let her youngest sit in a filthy diaper, would try to pick up the house if her dad and brothers wouldn't. Wendy would step up to do it out of necessity, even if she hated it and felt stressed out about it, especially while also feeling the crushing grief that comes with having lost her mother.

So Wendy, having lost her mother at a young age, probably had to step up into a pseudo-parental role in her own house, trying her best to fill the void that was left by her mother's passing even though she was only a child herself. And this is why she's "stressed, like, 24/7." Because not only are her father and brothers loud and chaotic (especially with Dan raising the boys into miniature versions of him), but because it's her responsibility (spoken or no) to keep the house in as much order as she can. It's little wonder that, outside of the movie that she and Dipper are watching in the beginning of "Into the Bunker", Wendy seems to spend as little time as possible in her own home.

So, how does this fit into it being important for Wendy to be part of the Pines family? Or, worded in a better way, why it's so important that she has the Pines as a second family, and the Mystery Shack as a second home?

As I said above, once Wendy's mother died, her ability to be a child in her own home effectively ended. Again, to make it clear, Wendy doesn't hate her family. In fact, it's the opposite; the Weirdmageddon episodes make it clear that she still loves her father and her brothers very much. But "Society of the Blind Eye" also makes it clear that they stress her out. She has a lot of complicated feelings, something that's understandable given her complicated situation.

But because she has to help keep the house together when she's at home, that means she can only really be a kid (or teenager, as the case may be) when she's outside of it. She has a lot of fun doing this with her friends, but sometimes a teen does need a home to relax in. And for Wendy, that home is the Mystery Shack -- and yes, that includes when she's on the clock.

Now, I know what you may be thinking: it's stated that Stan is a terrible boss, that he barks orders, that he yells -- how is that any different from her father? Well, I'll tell you how: the only time we actually see this is in "Boss Mabel", in which Stan being a boss who yells and barks orders at his employees is a plot point meant to create the conflict for the episode. Otherwise, we never really see Stan being an awful boss, and in particular we never see him being hard on Wendy. In fact, I would argue we see the opposite.

Here are things we know about Wendy's behavior at work, and Stan's response to her behavior at work:

Wendy constantly reads magazines while working the cash register, often right in front of Stan. Stan never tells her to put the magazine away.

Wendy often puts her feet up on the counter. Stan never tells her to take her feet off the counter.

Wendy goes up to the roof "all the time, every day" to the point where she has a chair and cooler up there. ("The Inconveniencing"). We don't know if Stan knows about this or not, but it's hard to believe he wouldn't if Wendy goes up there as much as she says she does.

When Stan told her to hang signs up out in the woods, she said, "I would, but I can't . . . reach . . ." while making no effort to get up to get the sign, and not removing her eyes from the magazine or her feet from the counter. Stan simply said, "I'd fire [. . .] you if I could." i.e. she got away with it 100%. ("Tourist Trapped")

When Stan double checks with Wendy and Soos that they'll wash the bathrooms while he's gone, Wendy says, "absolutely not" with a salute. Stan laughs and then says to stay out of trouble, not caring at all. ("The Inconveniencing")

Wendy was supposed to work the ticket stand all night at the party. She quit about ten minutes in and blatantly joined the party. Stan had to have seen her. He did nothing. ("Double Dipper")

Wendy claims in "Boss Mabel" that Stan doesn't let her have friends at work. In contrast, we see Robbie visit her at work all the time throughout their relationship (e.g. "Fight Fighters", "Boyz Crazy"), and Stan even comments on "is that the guy that's always making googly eyes at Wendy?" but otherwise has no problem with it. So again, it was a conflict invented for "Boss Mabel" that otherwise doesn't exist.

And that is just off the top of my head. The point is, Wendy is perhaps treated the easiest of the staff at the Mystery Shack. She's blatantly lazy and snarky and the most Stan ever does is grouse that he would "fire [her] if he could."

And this is a good thing.

The Mystery Shack, even if when she's on the clock, is clearly a place where Wendy can relax. It's somewhere she feels comfortable, rather than stressed. Yes, she's working -- but she's putting in the barest minimum effort because the stakes are the lowest they could possibly be. Because even though Stan grouses and complains about how little she cares, he won't fire her. He says he can't, but let's be honest, he could. One could argue that he'd be out a cashier, but he already is when the school year starts and Wendy has to go back to school. The Shack doesn't close down then, so it wouldn't close now if he fired Wendy.

But he won't fire her, because he knows that if he did, she'd be sent up north to her cousin's logging camp, a job she would hate and that would add on to the stress she already has from her home life. Stan has been in Gravity Falls for 30 years; he's been there since before Wendy was born. He knew her mother. He remembers when her mother died a few years ago. He probably saw how Dan's personality changed, how Wendy's personality changed from a more carefree little girl to a little girl who had to act more carefree than she actually was because she won't ever dare let anyone know she's anything but tough as nails, kinda like the guy he sees when he looks in the mirror. So he'll grouse at her about her laziness, and she'll complain about how much she hates having to work, but he'll also never hire another cashier even during the school year when the Shack maybe could use the extra help, and she knows that he both has an orthopedic back pillow and where it's kept, and that's as much as either of them will say about it. (Source for the orthopedic back pillow: "Soos and the Real Girl").

Wendy spends time at the Shack that would otherwise be spent at her home. When she decides to leave Tambry's party early, she goes to hang out at the Shack and watch movies with Stan, before the twins or Soos arrive ("Summerween"). She's likewise hanging out with the Pines and Soos watching television despite work clearly being over in the beginning of "Dreamscaperers". Wendy can relax at the Shack, can be in a home environment where she has no responsibilities, where she can simply be a teenager without also having to be a pseudo-parent. She can be a big sister figure to Dipper and Mabel without the added responsibilities of having to make sure they're fed and brought up right. She can be snarky with Stan, and he'll be snarky back, and there are no risks or consequences at all.

It's important that Wendy is a member of the Pines family, because here there are no complications for her. She loves her original family, but things got difficult when her mother died, and they won't ever stop being difficult. But things aren't difficult with the Pines. In a way, being with the Pines is as comfortable as the hugs she gets from her mother in her dreams every night. Being with the Pines feels right. It feels safe.

It's good that Wendy has them. It's important that Wendy has them. And fortunately, she always will.

[zannolin]

peter pan (2003)'s portrayal of peter pan is so unhinged like. he can never die. but he can never live either. he'll never have to grow up. he'll never get to grow up. wendy could have convinced him to leave but what would have happened to neverland, which falls into a wintry darkness if he so much as leaves for a night, if he'd left for good? he has the world in the palm of his hand. it's a very small world. it would just as soon kill him to be sure he's paying it mind. everyone gets a satisfying ending except him. everyone changes except him. he's stagnant. he's constant. he's eternal. he's not a boy—he's a story. and sometimes that's the loneliest thing to be.

[metaphysical-human-being]

I wanna see an au where both twins get sucked into the portal. I wanna see the shack be abandoned for weeks on end. I want to see fiddleford go back trying to apologize or get an apology or something and see them missing. I want there to little to no fanfare. I want people to just assume them dead but fiddleford knows better. I want him to dedicate himself to getting them back and also hey he needs money and hey lets give tours or maybe just make gadgets? idk mystery and years go by and suddenly he gets a knock at his door and its two twins that are like idk 15? 16? who ran away to gravity falls to the last known location of their missing great uncles and want to help him and its a longshot but they do and

[mattelektras]

no magic is without a cost.

[askthekoopsandjr]

So, group, is Lord Bowser dating someone?

[palskippah]

Hi! Some human koopalings c:

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

cracking open a cold one with the boys

[happilychee]

fairy tail dragon slayer headcanons pt. 1

♡ what the first gen and second gen dragon slayers eat is pretty self-explanatory. all of their elements are... somewhat tangible. sting and rogue though? they're still figuring it out. rogue wonders if he can eat someone else's shadow, and sting immediately volunteers himself. "for science!" he says. the result is that sting almost passes out. oops. he insists they try on their friends, much to rogue's displeasure. the results are that sting is the most susceptible, then yukino, rufus, orga, and minerva is the least susceptible to magic drainage. sting insists rogue tries to eat an inanimate object's shadow, and nothing happens to it, so they decide that's the way to go.

♡ when wendy eats air, the oxygen levels thin. she has to be careful or she'll cause her allies and enemies alike to pass out. when sting eats light, the area gets darker and darker. this is great for rogue, who starts eating the shadows, and they manage to balance each other out.

♡ sting insists that different types of light taste differently. his favorite is light from golden hour, right when the sun is dipping below the horizon. moonlight will do in a pinch, but it's so diluted that it takes way more of it to recover sting's magic. he also gets sick if he eats too much moonlight.

♡ pantherlily already has transformation magic and enhanced strength, and carla learns to transform so she can help wendy fight. the other three exceeds feel... a little left out. happy learns how to fly faster and for longer (though he still complains about lucy being heavy). lector goes to porlyusica and wendy to learn some stamina regeneration spells for sting. everyone is surprised when frosch, completely on their own, manages to learn an adorable light spell that creates floating pink bubbles. rogue can consume the shadows from them without worrying about draining frosch's magic, and he spends the entire afternoon crying about it.

♡ dragon slayers are a bit like crows. their way of bonding with someone is through gifting trinkets. natsu will bring lucy, erza, and even gray pretty rocks or seashells that he's found on jobs. wendy picks up a new craft or hobby every week, so the members of fairy tail are constantly recieving handmade accessories from her (gajeel helps during the metalsmithing phase). gajeel does not buy cute things for people. he is like a dad in the fact that, when juvia mentions she wants watermelon, he buys her 20 watermelons. walking math problem fr.

♡ laxus has mixed feelings about his more draconic features and habits. he's never loved his magic because of the way he got it, and the memory of his father basically torturing him as he inserted the lacrima will stay with him forever. he tends to suppress dragon instincts more than anyone else in the group, and they all scold him for it. on a rare occasion, laxus will give in and buy something shiny (like a hairclip) for wendy. she has a little jewelry box for them that she guards fiercely.

♡ cobra considers himself more of a flying snake than a dragon. he once drew a picture that sent everyone into a laughing fit. he prefers to stick with the old oración seis crew, but the guild dragon slayers are always happy to see him when he stops by with crime sorcière.

♡ sting, because of his heightened senses and his affinity for light, prefers nighttime. the day can often be overwhelming, and overexposure to bright settings and lots of people leaves his skin buzzing. he likes to sit in the dim guild hall, leaning against the cool stone wall, as the chatter of the crowd quiets down with the setting sun.

♡ dragon slayers all have the Bite instinct. some exercise a degree of control about it, and others go crazy with it. wendy will very gently nibble on erza or mira's arm when she's in the mood, and sometimes she does it absentmindedly. natsu, on the other hand, is an absolute menace. multiple of erza's armor sets have natsu-shaped bite marks on them. he tends to go after her the most because he knows he won't hurt her with the armor. when natsu's more calmed down, he will chomp on lucy's shoulder. gajaeel copes by eating all of fairy tail's silverware (mira starts buying ceramic spoons), but when levy offers her wrist to him he can't help it.

♡ rogue is another one who doesn't really bite people. he, very rarely, nips at frosch's ears, which causes the exceed to giggle. sting is a Biter like natsu, but with slightly more decorum. he really wants to go at it but will restrain himself because most people aren't willing to be treated like a chew toy. luckily for him, gray and cana aren't most people! because they both wear pretty exposing clothing, gray and cana have no qualms about showing off sting's bite marks on their skin. sting always turns bright red when they tease him about it.

♡ laxus and cobra don't really feel the Bite instinct due to being second gen, but cobra is a little shit and bites people for the fun of it. laxus is completely unbothered when natsu clings to him like a koala and gnaws at him.

[alienstickerz]

Some good ol doodle dump, wow I sure love Oregon people

[the-meme-monarch]

i think my only real complaint abt gravity falls is i don’t feel like i was made to Care about the the people on the cipher wheel and therefore wasn’t really. made to care about Whatever the ‘stand on the cipher wheel and hold hands’ plan was. like yeah they don’t even end up defeating bill with that anyway and that’s fine to me ! it’s really interesting to me that The Prophecy doesn’t come to pass. but i feel like they just didn’t set up those stakes. they showed the cipher wheel like Every episode for a flash after the intro. i feel like i was Supposed to care. they’re Telling us these characters are important but then they kinda just Weren’t. i just think it would’ve been nice to have had episodes centering each of the other people on it to solidify what their place on the wheel Means. these were supposed to be the people destined to see bill’s defeat. i’m not certain most of them even know his name. we could have had a wendy centric episode

[dekuspiracies]

hc: bakugo, trying to make some extra money to put towards dekus hero suit fund becomes an uber driver. he makes every 20 minute trip in 12 minutes and has 5 stars despite being loud and abrasive

[kennytheworkingclasshero]

Kyle and Wendy are both characters that care very much about social issues and have a very angry/passionate streak. It’s also interesting that Stan, a character who has gained a reputation for not caring about much, surrounds himself with these people; Kyle being his best friend and Wendy being his girlfriend. What does that say about him?