#I actually have a whole plot for this and everything

[xmaruu11]

Hello! Fellow comic writer here ^-^ Hope you and Doody are taking a little downtime after the recent update!

I discovered DH just after the Mother Spore arc, and I was curious how quickly the series grew to the audience it has now. Was it steady and gradual or did something give it a boost all at once?

I HAD THIS ASK SITTING IN MY ASKBOX FOR MONTHS CUZ I WANNA TALK SO BAD ABOUT IT !! BUT LIFE HAPPENED AND I COULDNT

Get ready for story time!

A lot of people think DDVAU started in 2024, after mother spore. But it didn't. Yes the boom of the story was January-February 2024, but the story has been going on since 2022, November 2022.

When we started DDVAU Doody and I were both University students, in our second year im pretty sure, so the updates didn't have a schedule and there wasn't an overarching plot. The idea for the mother spore arc happened in january / february 2023. But at that point we were working on chapter 10 and the valentines special. And then life happened, personal stuff happened and we took a hiatus until August 2023, and then December 2023. Again, it took,, time...

DDVAU had a small following at that time, and both of us were okay with that, we weren't expecting the amount of support it had during that time (2k notes per update), we felt overwhelmed with love at that point!

Then mother spore part 1 happened, december 2023. That was the first time I decided to go crazy on twitter and start posting with // DDVAU spoilers, and just be a fan of my best friend work. I didn't know that by doing that, it called a lot of people attention. This chapter ended up in a cliffhanger AND it showed a lot of other characters that we never shown before, so a lot of people were interested because their favorite guy appeared! Also we had multiple pretty cute moments between characters. Then people started livetweeting and sharing their opinion using DDVAU spoilers. It kinda snowballed after that. People asked what it was and people shared.

Doody and I thought it was gonna just be that, one simple update and then it stopped. BUT IT DIDNT! Then February 2024, Mother Spore 2 came out, and the whole process of last time repeated. And since this one had more action, everyone was more curious and more interested in what was going on. I keep tweeting and interacting with fans, cuz I am patient 0, DDVAU biggest fan.

THEN the DDVAU server happened, and a lot of people started joining, and I joined as well. People shared fanart, theories, we were able to chat and be nerds with each other. It build up hype for the next hiatus since again.. Doody and I were still university students.

Mother Spore and the end of volume 1 dropped in August 2024. The process repeated again, I also streamed again to keep the hype up. Doody and I yapped for hours and shared fun tweets and live reactions.

AND THEN, the first merch drop happened and once again people were surprised and sharing their thoughts and ideas and everything. Then our lovely friends and guys at the DDVAU server, planned an entire Zine for christmas to surprise doody and I, which again CRAZY!!

Then volume 2 happened, we started uploading it to webtoon and just kinda, kept doing what we like. The monthly schedule helps to build up hype, monthly streams and just,, having fun with my friend helps a lot.

But of course, nothing would have happened if we didnt have so many lovely and wonderful people that just support everything we do. All the lovely people who buy merch and support the kofi (since its the only way we actually get paid as an indie project), all the lovely people who are in the discord, share on twitter and tumblr and tiktok and literally anywhere.

Its always great and so lovely :D

DDVAU growth didnt happened overnight, we worked for a year before mother spore exploded, and then we just kept sharing our passion and love for this story, causing so many more people two get interested.

This is a dream came true, and I wanna thank everyone for letting us live in it

[deancasforcutie]

#there were absolutely these two highly public incidents #plus some remarks from Jensen that were thoroughly divorced from tone and context #and therefore have been popularly interpreted in ways I don't necessarily think were his intention #which added to the persecution complex given that it seemed #(based on out-of-context screenshots of someone else's secondhand tweet accounts of con events) #that one half of the actors involved in the ship wasn't cool with it #which based on [checks notes] literally everything Jensen has done and said for more than half a decade now #is CERTAINLY not his current position if it ever was his position at any point in the past which I don't agree with #but anyway that's a whole ass digression #the point is that the fandom has been hella toxic #and the bronly/wincest alliance absolutely made it their life mission to bully the ever living shit out of the heller crowd #but I have said it before and I'll say it again that I think the two issues got conflated in people's memories #the toxicity and destiel hate was coming from inside the house #it was wincest shippers and bronlies calling hellers crazy based on all the documentation I can actually find evidence of #but I think Misha making a point to say you're NOT crazy #as an indirect response to Chad Kennedy sticking his foot in his mouth #ended up crossing the streams so to speak and now people have the two things all jumbled up #yeah destiel shippers got treated like shit there's no question about that #but the vast majority of that mistreatment came *from other people in fandom* with only a few high profile incidents #from people actually connected to the show (again none of whom were writers) #and I don't think the fact that supernatural was a punchline on tumblr for like ten straight years helped at all (via @ilarual)

#yeah all of that and prev's tags #because let's sit down for a moment and reflect on how things get misinterpreted/blown out of proportion/out of context *now* #when there's often video of the 'incident' eventually. how hard it is to get the corrections to have the same reach as the 1st rumors #so imagine what might have been happening over almost 2 decades and with the particular makeup of the early days fandom (via @ironworked)

#this!! no writer and no EP has ever called destiel shippers crazy or that we were wrong to see it #while we do have many receipts of writers and also people from set dec and so on thanking fans for noticing things #that they put things there to be noticed #and confirmation from writers on intention wrt some destiel plot points such as Cas as Colette #and writers from spn liking destiel positive tweets #destiel #spn #there definitely were some dramatic fandom incidents with a few people from the show in various positions over destiel #none of them were in a position to dictate story #they're allowed opinions of their own but it's wild how nobody comprehends that barging into fandom spaces #trying to tell destiel shippers how to think might have been a tactless mistake lmfaooo you think maybe?? just maybe??? #it's not ALL THE SHIPPERS' FAULT #especially considering that back when on twitter we literally couldn't have a positive exchange with anyone from the show about destiel #without antis barging in to concern troll and create false drama #so be wary of false narratives -- destiel friendly people sometimes get fooled by the dialogue of antis (via @dotthings)

Hi! Idk if you’re the right person to ask this question but your blog seems massive so here goes: I’ve seen a lot of people saying that the SPN writers have called us crazy for noticing the tension between Dean and Cas, but I can’t find any evidence of it, like at all. If you happen to know where this can be found, could you link it to this post? Thank you soo much lol

The truth, to anyone who still says that:

All that actually happened: CW exec named Chad Kennedy who by his own admission "did not create story" said in 2013 that he hadn't been pitched Destiel as something happening in the story, internet proceeded to burn him to the ground blaming the writers (which, again, he was not), this inspired Misha's "you're not crazy" tweet which unfortunately got telephone gamed as if anyone ever had "called us crazy." By all accounts over the past 12+ years, no writers ever actually said anything of the sort.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Some people actually believe that Chat Noir and Adrien the model are both masks that Adrien is putting on, and that he doesn't know who he really is. Do you see any reason to believe that?

That's a complicated question because what does it mean to know who you are? Most people are constantly growing, changing, and learning new things about themselves, leading to better self awareness. How much self awareness do you need to have before you can say that you know who you are? I don't know if there's even an answer to that question!

Similarly, what does it mean to call Adrien and Chat Noir "masks"? Is this saying that everything Adrien does is a lie? A general observation that Adrien is a people pleaser who tries to be what he thinks people want him to be? A statement that Adrien is still finding his place in the world? Not sure I agree with the first two arguments and the last argument feels like a given for most characters in the show. They are all teenagers, after all. That's a prime age for self discovery and a good message for kids, making this one of the rare areas where it makes sense to embrace the character's age in a realistic fashion!

Further complicating this question is the fact that Adrien has some truly terrible writing. His character is a vibes-based enigma with almost nothing of substance to go on. It's a big part of why he's popular! He's incredibly easy to project onto without blatantly contradicting canon, making it easy to create all kinds of fan content that feels reasonably in character to other fans.

To show you what I mean, let's look at one aspect of Adrien's character and discuss the subtle ways that it makes no freaking sense. Note that this isn't meant to be an argument on how to write Adrien the "right" way. There really isn't a "right" way to write him because canon is swimming in contradictions. This also isn't meant to be me dunking on his character. I think he could have been great! This is a discussion on character design and how Adrien was failed pretty hard. He's the character equivalent of the season four plot. A recent ask accurately described the way fans approach that plot: people pick which narrative they think the show was showing based on who their favorite character is.

The same is true for Adrien. Fans pick the version they think the show was showing based on the traits and backstory elements they like the most as the following will hopefully prove.

Is Adrien repressed to the point where he's basically a blank slate?

Throughout the series, we're told that Adrien was homeschooled for his entire life. Prior to canon, he never had friends. Never went to concerts. Never did much of anything, really. At times, this makes his character feel like he was born yesterday because how can someone reach 14 with so little life experience?

The episode Wishmaker is built around this characterization of Adrien. In that episode we learn that Adrien can't remember having any sort of childhood dream or obsession. He doesn't even offer something nuanced like "well, I loved pirates, but I don't think I ever wanted to be one." As far as he concerned, he never had any dreams at all.

When he's hit by the episode's akuma, we flash back to when he was a literal infant and learn that Adrien's childhood dream was being whatever his parents wanted him to be:

Adrien: When I was a kid, I always wanted to be what my parents wanted me to be!

Wishmaker is also the episode where we learn that Adrien still has no hopes or dreams:

Adrien: My father arranges it all for me, but when I think about what I really actually wanna do, nothing! My mind is empty!

Viewers who look for logical writing probably expected this to lead into an arc where Adrien figured out what he wants to be. That is not the case. Confrontation - which takes place a whole season later - sees all of the teen characters declare what they want to be when they grow up. Adrien is the only one who has nothing to offer, leading him to write this as his official statement about what he wants to pursue in lycée (rough equivalent to American high school):

I've been thinking a lot, and still not know what I would like to do later in life. The only thing I know for sure is that I love Marinette Dupain-Cheng. But I guess that doesn't really help you. I'm sorry. Adrien Agreste.

Put this story line together and you get a picture of a character who has never been allowed to express himself. Someone whose life has been incredibly controlled to the point where he has no idea who he is on his own. A blank slate of a person. There's just one problem with that read: a blank slate could never create Chat Noir.

In Origins, Adrien was handed a magic ring and told that he was a superhero now. His immediate reaction to that information was to run off into danger, not even waiting until he learned how his new powers worked:

Plagg: Claws out! That's how you transform. Adrien: Got it. Plagg, claws out! Plagg: No, wait! I haven't finished explaining!

And when he meets his new partner, he's immediately comfortable talking to her, ready to have fun and joke around:

Cat Noir: Well, hey there. Nice of you to drop in. Ladybug: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose. Cat Noir: I bet you're the partner my kwami told me about. I'm... Cat Noir. Yeah, Cat Noir. And you? Ladybug: I'm Ma... err... Mar... uhh... (pulls the yo-yo and it hits Cat Noir's head) Madly Clumsy. I'm so clumsy. Cat Noir: No sweat, clumsy girl. I'm learning the ropes too.

All of this goes against the blank slate message we were given in via Adrien's backstory and episodes like Wishmaker and Confrontation.

People aren't born knowing how to crack jokes and flirt. Those are skills that you pick up by engaging with media that has that content and/or by engaging with other people who exhibit those behaviors. People also aren't born knowing how to interact with others. That's yet another skill that you learn though experience and it's worth noting that it's not a single skill. Casually interacting with people your own age is a very different skill from interacting with your parents' friends or with your coworkers.

In other words, Chat Noir is clearly not be the product of someone who was locked away from society, forced to live a life devoid of joy and self expression. He's too polished for that. If you're going to take your repressed character and have this be their instant reaction to the prompt "hero," then they can still be repressed, but they won't be repressed to the point of being a blank slate. The pieces simply don't fit together unless you add in something like the repressed character being an actor in a show about superheroes.

With the backstory we're given, it would make infinitely more sense for Adrien to start out as Catwalker and become Chat Noir as the series went on, but that's not what canon did. Adrien starts as his most extreme, fun-loving self which means that he had a self to express!

These facts beg some obvious questions: if Adrien was so repressed that he can't even think of a thing he pretended to be when he was a child, then where did Chat Noir come from? At what point in his life did he learn how to have fun and pun? Why does he think that his over-the-top flirting style would work? Where did he even learn it? How did Adrien learn how to interact with people his own age? Your guess is as good as mine.

Some More Contradictions

The above is just one example of what I mean when I call Adrien a "vibes-based enigma." The facts of his character don't add up to a real person, so people just kind of go with the vibes they get from him and write his character based on those.

Here's another example: it's pretty popular for people to say that Chat Noir is Adrien embracing freedom, a take that makes perfect sense given his backstory and the way he's played in Origins. However, it's hard to call this canon. Outside of Origins, there's not much in canon to back up this read. Adrien never talks about Chat Noir giving him freedom and there are even multiple episodes that arguably go against that read.

Kuro Neko and Kwami's Choice both see Adrien give up his ring for reasons that have nothing to do with how fit he is to be a hero. On both occasions, he doesn't weigh the pros and the cons of this choice or even regret the choice after it happens. That's a pretty strong mark against the freedom read. If giving up Chat Noir is giving up his freedom, then giving up the ring should be a much bigger deal. We also don't see him using the ring to sneak out outside of akuma attacks and other hero responsibilities. I think Glaciator may be the only time that Adrien used the ring for personal reasons. So does Adrien value freedom and if so, how much? No clue. It's the audience's choice.

What about Adrien and Chloe? How close were they as children? No clue. Audience's choice.

How much did Emilie and Gabriel use the rings when Adrien was growing up? Are there any senticommands still controlling him to this day? No clue. Audience's choice.

Does Adrien enjoy any of his extra curriculars? He seems to like fencing and playing the piano, but is that just him making the best of a bad situation? And did he get to pick any of these activates or where they all forced on him? No clue. Audience's choice.

How did Adrien manage to grow up without any friends while being an avid fencer and also apparently playing basketball? Two sports that usually involve teams! No clue. Audience's choice.

How did Adrien get involved with modeling? Whose idea was it and where did the idea come from? Did he ever enjoy it? How old was he when the modeling started? No clue. Audience's choice.

Where did Adrien learn to pun? He says that his father has no sense of humor, so it clearly wasn't from Gabriel. Did Emilie like puns? No clue. Audience's choice.

Why did the Agrestes keep Adrien locked away? Why was Chloe allowed to be around him? How often was she allowed around? Was he allowed other friends? If no, then why not? If yes, then who? What lead Gabriel to suddenly change the rules and let Adrien have some freedom? No clue. Audience's choice.

What about Adrien and Felix? Were they ever close or was Felix always cruel? Adrien doesn't seem to view Felix as a bully, but we never see Felix be nice to Adrien so I have no clue. Audience's choice.

Why does Adrien act so different as Chat Noir vs Adrien? No clue. Audience's choice. You can probably come up with something more coherent than the kind of bs things the writers say about this one.

I could go on but you hopefully get the picture. Or more actually, the lack of a picture.

As a quick side note: it's perfectly normal to not give the fine details of a character's backstory, but that's because most characters have uninteresting backstories that don't need elaboration to make sense. For example, learning that Marinette wanted to be the knitting fairy when she grew up doesn't raise any questions about her childhood. It's just a cute fun fact. Learning that Adrien had no childhood dreams? That raises all kinds of questions that genuinely matter to the story and his character, but we're never getting those questions answered. The more the story goes on and the more hints we get, the less Adrien's character makes sense especially once you add in the sentibullshit.

Final Thoughts

There's no way to put the puzzles pieces of Adrien together and get a solid character which means there's a wide range of valid approaches to Adrien's character. On top of that, canon has not done a lot to develop the finer details of his backstory so there's a lot of room for interpretation there, too. As I said above, that's one of the reasons why he's so popular. He's very easy for people to project onto without blatantly going against canon. Stick to the very basic facts of canon, keep him in his core roles, and your Adrien will probably work for most fans even if he's wildly different than someone else's version.

I can give you my thoughts on what to do with Adrien, but much like my approach to Nino, it's more about shaping Adrien into a character who fits the story and his core roles than it is about making canon Adrien work because canon Adrien doesn't even work in canon! My lore bible has pages of notes on Adrien because canon gave me so little to work with and it's so important to get his character right! Before I move on, I'll note that Adrien is a stronger character than Nino, but not by much. Cardboard is stronger than tissue paper but you're not making houses out of either of those!

In case anyone was curious, I cannot say the same for Marinette and Alya. While they've also been hit by the inconstant characterization bat, their roles in the story and the handful of things that are consistent about them make them strong characters. Or, at least, strong in the world of Miraculous. I wouldn't call them strong in most shows, but in this one they're about as good as we're ever going to get. At the very least, they doing better than characters like Nathalie, Nino, Lila, and Adrien!

As a quick pass to show what I mean so you can contrast this with Adrien: Marinette is creative, a natural leader, and quick to overthink. Alya is inquisitive, likes to put together stories, and has almost no self preservation instincts when it comes to getting a good story. While Adrien has some consistent traits like him being a loveable goofball, his traits are way more generic than the girls' traits. He's especially weak when compared to Marinette which is frankly an insult to both of them since they are supposed to be a couple and you generally want strong characters for the main couple of a long running show. Side characters can afford to be less developed because they don't matter that much. You develop the character to the level needed for their role and Adrien is so underdeveloped that he's basically raw dough. Enough substance that you have a general idea of what he's supposed to be, but nowhere near ready for consumption, thus so many final forms feeling valid to fans.

[atailof2kitties]

Saw you said you were seeing Harold Fry last Saturday. Would love to know your thoughts!

Omg hi!

So yes I booked this production because of Jack Wolfe's casting, but I also recently finished reading the book, thoroughly enjoyed it, and was looking forward to seeing how they’d adapt it.

First time going to Chichester for a show and it felt perfectly suited to its venue. It's a lovely, intimate theatre surrounded by greenery. If you know your UK regional producing theatres, it reminds me of the Watermill in Newbury but designed with far better sight-lines and though still intimate, less 'snug'! There's room for actors and audience to breathe haha.

I think maybe the Balladeer role could have been better clarified. He’s in this odd space as the show stands at the moment, where he begins the show, but is a narrator, has small interactions with Harold but not with any other character, until he suddenly turns on Harold.

I think because we’ve seen Jack in a role like this before, it gets away with it, but I don't know if the act 1 ending plot twist works as it stands.

This is also because the musical decides on an act 1 end plot twist, which doesn’t actually feel like much of a twist. Maybe because it’s two twists in one— Jack is not only the narrator, but also Harold’s son, who is dead, it’s maybe too much information at once? In the book the fact that David is dead and has been the whole time is revealed only very near the end, and I think the show could have been worked to have David’s death revealed in ‘Dear Girl in the Garage’.

I wish there were more interactions between Jenna Russell and Jack. I loved their duet of Beautiful in Sondheim on Sondheim, and it feels odd that yes, she has her own character arc, but she feels quite secondary. I actually think if Jack as Balladeer responded when Maureen talked to David might've sorted out a few issues. I love that the Balladeer is on stage for almost the entirety of Act 1, but I think more could've been done.

I loved the fleshing out of David. I of course (because I'm me and I record nearly every show I see!) recorded audio and ended up exporting the individual songs onto my apple music, but I keep having such an urge to relisten to more of Jack’s straight acting. Scene about his parents missing his graduation, devastatingly flippant. The disappointment he’s concealing.

And ‘where is it then? All this everything.’ Which I've realised Jack intones differently in my recording than the other audio.

I prefer it this way. David's characterised by this forced flippancy. He's very honest, but maybe afraid of coming off too sincere? So he talks like it's all a joke.

But yes, ultimately I got everything I wanted out of the show. It's a near-perfect adaptation, and I think even my issues could be reworked if it had a future life (maybe uk tour if not a London transfer?).

Jack was lovely at stage door. Came out much later than everyone else and seemed pleasantly surprised and humbled that people were waiting. He came out, saw the (four haha!) fans waiting and immediately apologised saying he didn't realise anyone was waiting. He’s also well aware and can find humour in the incredibly specific type casting that’s happened haha.

[placingglaciers]

Ugh, this whole Rose/baby situation is driving me nuts! This could go several ways, so this is just me having fun, as my theories never come true lol. (Note: Though I 100% know Nick loves June and baby Holly, I believe Nick does care about Rose and their child. I don't think he's the type of man who would abandon his family, considering he has been abandoned by his mother and had a "difficult" father.) Warning, this gets dark. :(

Both Rose and the baby die. This is the avenue we're all going towards, it seems. This is the easiest way to free Nick from his Gilead obligations and have him fully commit to the resistance. After all, with no family tying him down, could this allow him to not be a Commander anymore? This will also allow him to love June freely and be the family he always wanted. If we're talking "redemption," this could work. I just wish Rose meant something more to the plot. However, this solution runs the risk of being the most boring because *gasp* who would have thought?? lol

Only Rose dies. This could be a little interesting. Though I don't think Wharton will take it well. Would he somehow blame Nick for it? Would he punish/force Nick to marry again, thus prompting Nick to defect? Another Gilead-issued wife? I think he's tired of it! While this does allow Nick to be with June, there is still the baby. Could June care about another woman's child? I think it would only be fair since I believe Nick cares about Hannah. But smuggling out another baby might prove to be difficult...

Rose lives, but the baby dies of "natural" complications. I feel like Gilead strives for as natural a birth as possible, but what happens if that is the very method that kills the baby? What if they're not willing to do a C-section? What if they wait until it gets "bad enough," and then it's too late? Can you imagine Rose, but especially Nick, begging for them to do something that they are perfectly capable of doing? I feel like this would be the chance to reference what is actually happening in real life, bringing the show's relevance to today's society. This could be an avenue where Rose would die in the process, but if this show dared to be a little more interesting, maybe this would be the moment when everything changes for Rose. Her baby died an unnecessary death at the hands of Gilead. Sadly, again, I don't think they care enough about Rose to give her a "redemption arc." Maybe they'll somehow make Rose double down on Gilead, and Nick just checks out to be with June, haha.

Rose lives, but the baby dies on purpose. A surprise twist would be the baby actually being a girl and not a boy. A bunch of Commanders (dare I say a generation?) just died thanks to the Handmaids. I know it would be greatly out of character for Gilead to kill a baby, so I'm aware how weak this theory is, but I do believe Wharton is evil enough to maybe just do it. The future of Gilead needs to be preserved by strong, leading men, right? No doubt this would make Nick leave Gilead, and maybe Rose too. This could also bring cultural relevancy to female infanticide, an issue that is still prevalent today.

Rose lives, the baby dies, and Wharton suggests a substitute. So the baby could die from birth complications (natural or not), leaving a Gilead couple childless. Uh oh! Nick and Rose could try again. But why wait? Based on the talk with Nick in 6x06, we can believe that High Commander Wharton has the power to know and find out just about anything. What if he learns baby Holly's existence/location and threatens to bring her to Gilead? If it is just a threat, we know for certain Nick will do everything in his power to not let that happen. This could smoothly lead into The Testaments, having Nick and June go underground and give Holly to foster parents. I'd love to see this the most. Especially if it'll give us a June/Nick/Holly scene that would absolutely tear my heart apart. :(

Both Rose and the baby live. If this does happen, then I guess we'll be in for seeing one miserable Nick Blaine lol. As I said in the beginning, I'm sure Nick cares about both of them, but this is clearly not the life he wants. This will only make Nick's "redemption" more complicated, and maybe even nonexistent. And we could basically forget about a happy ending with June and Holly altogether. That is, if Rose puts her allegiance in Gilead. If, somehow, Nick could convince her that Gilead is not the place to raise their child, then maybe he can get them out? But this might take a lot of work, especially with Wharton breathing down his neck. Maybe Nick kills him? And Rose probably wouldn't care because he probably abused her. :( (Also, is it just a coincidence that both Rose and Nick have the same parent issues??)

Any of these theories could work, probably if the finale ended up being like, four hours long lol. However, considering the time crunch, I doubt any of this would happen, at least not well. But it was still fun to imagine! (And by fun, I mean absolutely heartbreaking. :( )

[ratofthenest]

i despise the idea that Tim Drake's character has some sort of huge "problem" arrrgehebeh

for starts, when it comes to Tim the title "Robin" was never a regression or a starting point. unlike Dick and Jason, Tim's character wasn't written to just be "Batman's sidekick" like they were. the whole point is Tim was... perfect. everything Batman could ever need and more on the field.

Dick quit being Robin once he start university, picking up the mantle of Nightwing. Dick started out as Robin REALLY young, and the whole thing was a nickname from his parents. he became Robin to avenge them, and then stayed afterwards to continue to help people. he was a really good Robin, too! there's a reason so many people like him. he's like, what every sidekick dreams of becoming, yk?

similar situation with Jason (but not really?). he starts off a completely different person from how he is portrayed today, and especially after his death? there was no way he could go back to being Robin after all that. Either way, Jason started out with that same REALLY strong sense of justice Dick had (although, let's be honest, Jason has always been a little violent with his delivery of it)

[Side note: these are brief, 2 paragraph overviews and obviously their characters are so much more convoluted than this, but this post aint about them!!]

Tim? Tim doesn't come from a broken background, which sets him apart from the first two Robin's immediately. he starts off with both his parents alive and well, and he's a white rich kid. He didn't have an incentive to become Robin, yet he did it anyway, completely for the sake of "saving" Batman. after Jason flopped with the readers, the writers went ahead and did a 180° with Tim. he was created with the idea of someone who was nearly perfect for the position. someone smart, adaptable, charismatic, and likeable. and hey, it worked really well when he came out, too!

this really makes Tim standout from the other Robins, though. sure, being Robin was definitely a learning process, and it's not like he immediately knew how to do everything right off the bat, but he learned quick! like, really quick! there wasn't necessarily an urgent need for him to take up a new title as a way to show he's "grown up" because he's already mature as hell as is. what's there to progress to when he was literally molded for this?

now, the issue of Red Robin. Tim took up that title in a time of pure crisis. the mantle was born out of grief, anger, and the desperation to bring Bruce back home, no matter what. Anyone who's read the Red Robin comics can tell you how he was crashing out throughout it. through my eyes, if he's ever to drop the Robin mantle, it certainly shouldn't be to go back to Red Robin. Does that mean I think he should stay Robin forever? No! Course not!! but I also think the writers need to pause and actually think about the kind of character his is before deciding to make a mantle that's purely Tim, if that makes any sense.

all that aside, it's important to acknowledge that Tim started off as a narrative tool. a support character ready to go at any given moment through other people's stories, not just Batman. countless times we see DC utilizing Tim just to progress the plot, which isnt inherently a bad thing, but it does explain why he's such a wild card in the comics lol

his character changed a LOT from the 90s to the 00s, and he's gone from a character at Batman's side 24/7 to a character who gets sidelined more often than not. and with everything else going on in DC rn, im not surprised he hasn't been in the spotlight for a hot second. but hey, i heard there's some possible content coming out for him this and the upcoming years so yay?

final thoughts: it'd be pretty fucking hard for a writer to properly write a good transition for Tim from Robin to something new. he can't be Robin forever, obviously, but there's no reason to put such a rush on it, especially when DC seems to forget his portrayal 90% of the time lmao. anyway i love tim sm

I hope this ramble made the slightest sense it's the middle of the goddamn night and the words are starting to blur together

[lover-of-mine]

I agree with your last point, but what do you mean by they’re scared to write established buddie, like you think they wanted to explore Eddie being gay first? Or they wanted to drag out a plot line of them getting together

No, no, I think they are stuck in a corner. And they have been since s5. The foundation for buddie is there. They have everything. They even have a kid. We saw them fight, we saw them save each other's lives, we saw them hang out, we saw them be domestic, we saw them be fully feral drunks. Slowburns thrive on the tension and most shows fumble their slowburn once the tension is resolved because playing the tension is all they know. But buddie doesn't really allow for them to force tension back in the tropey way most shows tend to do. Because they've done it all while best friends. They suck at lying to each other, they are great at the whole it's you and me vs the problem not you vs me, they actually do have good communication if they are allowed to talk (again, all they need is one honest conversation for lines to be crossed and the show doesn't want to give them space to do that, so much so the show isn't letting them be alone, take Eddie's startled "oh man I'm gonna miss you" or "I don't know what I'm gonna do without you" for instance, if you remove the threat of "I'm about to leave" from them and allow them to talk, really talk, they will figure things out, it's why things keep happening with other people in the room), they saved each other in many ways, from Buck giving Eddie hope to be alive to Eddie literally restarting Buck's heart. They have it all, which means they are hard to write as an established couple without putting too much focus on them for an ensemble show or fully fumbling them by adding unnecessary tension. Especially if they are working together. I don't particularly think they want to drag the getting together part of, so much so that the way they handled it in s8 was just not talk about it and fully remove Eddie from multiple episodes. If they wanted to drag it out because they want this to feel earned somehow, the dragging it would be more satisfying. I think they reach a point where the solution for everything is letting them talk and getting them together and then they panic because they don't know if they can make established buddie as good as the lead up. But the more they delay the getting together, the more insane the lead up gets and the more intense the established part would have to be, so they are caught in a deadlock. At this point, I legitimately think they are scared of writing buddie as a couple because the pressure to make it good is insane. Buddie getting together would be historical. But that's also a scary concept to write when so much of the show ends up relying on them. Just see the way they used ryliver to calm people down. I legitimately think they don't know how to deal with how getting them together would affect the way they need to write the show.

[fraddit]

Those of you who know me know that I'm kind of terrified of posting my thoughts publicly like this but well... here goes. Apparently, I feel strongly enough about this to step outside my comfort zone.

It actually was bad writing to skip Buck and Eddie's reunion in the funeral ep. And it actually was bad writing for Eddie's Texas arc to resolve with Chimney's speech the way it did.

Under the cut, so people can avoid as desired.

When Eddie decides to move, Buck is again, heavily involved. He's an integral part of this section of plot. Multiple episodes devoted to how Eddie moving will affect both of them and their relationship.

Preface that obviously this is all just my opinion. If the episodes worked for you, that's great. I'm not the boss how anyone reacts to things they watch.

The Chris moves to Texas and Eddie follows him plot has, from the beginning, been anchored around Eddie and Chris and Buck. Buck is the reason Eddie ended things with Kim. Then everything exploded and Chris was gonna leave. Buck's involved there too. He can't convince him to stay. Buck and Eddie were both shown suffering over Chris's absence.

Here's the first error. This much narrative weight on Eddie leaving, necessarily sets up narrative weight for his return. We see the goodbye. We need to see the hello.

I saw a bunch of excuses about things like the impossibility of renting an airport etc for a minor scene. First, it's not minor. Second, the reunion didn't need to be at the airport. Eddie can show up at the house. He caught an earlier flight and didn't want to interrupt anyone's funeral preparations, so he called an uber. Done. Fixed it. This isn't the only way to do the scene either. But it's one possibility using the sets they already have. That's what writing and especially TV writing is. Getting the narrative beats you need within the time and budget you have available. It's all made up! If it's not possible to film Buck picking him up from the airport, Buck doesn't need to pick him up from the airport!

Then, 8.17 continues with the Eddie and Buck and Christopher of it all. Again, this character grouping has existed for literally this entire arc's run. Which again, started all the way back in last season.

Eddie brings Chris back to LA for Buck. We're so close to resolution here. Everyone's where they should be, but Eddie's still planning to go back to Texas. He just needs a final push, a moment of decision.

Somehow doing all that rescue work with the team doesn't change his mind? And so Chimney just yells at him that he's not leaving again, and that's that, apparently. Chimney has not been involved in this plot ever, at all. But for some reason he's the one who ends it.

The only reason Eddie was staying in Texas is because he believed that's where Chris wanted to be. But now that's not important? Did Eddie ask him? Why has he suddenly changed his tune about Chris getting to have a say about living in Texas vs LA. Or did Chris really want to live in LA the whole time and Eddie just needed to ask him about it? None of this is important apparently.

It was important enough for Eddie to buy a house in a different state, when apparently he was only renting in LA the whole time. But it's not important enough to have even one scene about it to resolve this, again, season long arc.

I'm sorry. I love Chimney Han and I love his friendship with Eddie. But this wasn't properly connected to any of the beats that lead up to this episode. He's not properly connected to this arc in a way that makes him telling Eddie to stay and Eddie saying okay an appropriate resolution.

They could even keep all the Chimney stuff in and it still be effective and fine IF there were another Eddie scene after the fact about HIM deciding and HIM talking to Chris about it and THEM deciding together. Because that's what's this has all been about right? Eddie and his son working out their issues together. And if it doesn't happen on screen, it doesn't count as an actual narrative beat with emotional weight.

The way it actually happened on screen, Chim told Eddie to stay and so Eddie stayed, because without an actual scene about, Chim's speech is officially the last beat of on screen, causative, forward motion in that arc.

I'm not doing the writer's work for them. We can all imagine how Eddie actually decided for himself because he was already 95% of the way there and just needed a push and he talked to Chris or didn't or whatever else happened off screen. But it isn't actually canon. It didn't happen on screen and it doesn't count as proper emotional or narrative resolution to the Texas arc.

Any proper resolution to this arc, which has, from the very beginning, been centered exclusively around Eddie, Chris, and Buck, necessarily should have involved Eddie, Chris, and Buck, and it should have happened on screen.

And 8.17 already set everything up for it! It was the world's easiest pitch to hit. It was tee-ball, and they missed it.

[bugofmanynames]

update on the skinsuit guy lore 🔥🔥

uhhhh so i should probably confirm their names so i came up with the names a while ago but i didn't really know which one to give who so i just used the names for them interchangeably and in an earlier post i called this dude here simon

but i decided recently to swap their names around and keep it that way so just to clear up anything that dude's name is now jett and the spooky looking dude (aka young skinsuit guy) is simon

so AS FOR THE LORE simon and jett are coworkers and presumably friends. i genuinly don't know what the hell their relationship is, whether they're best friends, simon is framing his feelings for this dude as unimaginable hatred because he can't even fathom the concept of love, they're some kind of metaphor, or if they just genuinely hate each other, so i guess it's entirely up to interpretation.

basically jett's everything simon isn't, even though simon worked almost twice as hard to get where he was and jett just had it all handed to him on a silver platter, he has a stable, well paying job, a spouse and a daughter, and eventually simon reaches a breaking point and starts gathering as much intel as possible to plot his murder.

one day jett's just going about his day and simon pops out of nowhere and straight up jumps him and drags him into some kind of backroom where he proceeded to skin this dude alive as soon as he regains consciousness and dumps him out in the middle of nowhere, leaving him there to die a slow painful death. Meanwhile simon immediately gets into action, destroying any records or evidence of his own existence and poses as jett, even going under his name and everything.

simon's able to pull himself off as him pretty well, at least for a good bit until his facade slowly but surely begins to slip (quite literally too) and everybody's starting to realize that's there's something wrong, and eventually they begin to figure out that he isn't jett at alll and in the end, he loses everything because he tried to pursue something that was just always out of his reach.

anyway so where redacted comes in, simon/"jett" is miserable as hell but then this sad naive orphan comes into the picture and he sees them as the perfect opportunity to start from a fresh slate (identity theft again) and pretends to take them in, and at first he acts nice to lure them into thinking that he's safe, until they began doubting him as he slowly began to reveal his intentions, but he started emotionally manipulating them into thinking that he was the only one who cared and kept them safe and basically just made them an unhealthy amount of dependent on him. As part of "redacting" them, he basically did the same thing he did to himself and erased any previous information of their existence including their memories, making them literally nobody.

anyways so that's the backstory update and have some other random stuff about the characters

jett's daughter is named Shermy!!!!!!! she's like probably in her 30s in the current time of the story but i thought it'd be kinda funny if when she was a kid when simon took over jett's life he realized that he has a kid. And he just doesn't know how to be a father so he probably just let her do whatever she wanted and she thought that he was the coolest parent ever even though it wasn't even her actual father. doppledad

also i think it's probably important to mention that when simon was a kid he killed his parents by setting their house on fire. He was the only one who made it out alive, so he still has a bunch of scars from the burns he got. He was already kind of a disturbed child, so honestly that whole thing only messed him up more and made him into a deranged adult.

anyway yap over sorry if you read all of this

[809eddie]

i love filler episodes. but this finale literally felt like a filler🤧 i was not in fact moved in any way, until the last bit of the episode. the wilson family scene was so cute. them all gathered around the han’s, love. and while i loved eddie showing up and coming up with a plan in the emergency, that emergency did not need to be almost the whole episode when this was supposed to be the finale

i felt similarly with the bobby funeral episode: i could’ve not watched that or the finale and it wouldn’t have really mattered (plot wise). because there was not much that actually happened

i DO love a filler episode!!!! i feel like earlier season of 911 were sooo much better at this like. calls are just there to reinforce the character arcs and parallel whatever our 118 members aregoing through. and like. 813?? filler episode. we moved eddie along in his texas plot, but then proceeded to forget it entirely for the entire rest of the season. hen forgotten birthday?? really good imo, but proceeded to forget hen for the entire rest of the season (and didnt even set up her turning down captaincy OR mara adoption??)

srsly the wilson family scene was SO cute. denny banging the gavel??? i would die for him. i wish it had been expanded or even mentioned at the start of the episode so that there was an added scene of urgency to the disaster. like building collapse? fine. building collapse when hen needs to make it home bc she and her wife are adopting their daughter??? THAT would give a sense or urgency and risk and stakes in the whole thing.

same with maddie if she went into labor during the disaster. NOW there's a crucial and urgent reason to want chim to get out of this situation Right Now.

also so true 816 and 818 could lowkey be skipped and u would just infer everything important from context clues in the next episode.

[taylorklosscomeout138]

Im blocking out the user because this is by no means directly towards them, but more so to address this tired recurring sentiment that will never get our community anywhere.

This is going to be a long rant too at that.

Y'all say you want community, then your actions prove everything against that. All these divides have been caused within the gaylor community ourselves. Please tell me who's approval we are trying to gain here???

I think y'all lost the plot a long time ago and forgot that we are all hated the same in the eyes of hetlors and antis.

This entire "I'm a Kaylor but I'm not like THOSE people, I'm different than THOSE Kaylors" is extremely pick me and it is exactly the same thing as the expression "Don't eat me bear, I'm one of the good ones!! You should only eat them they are the problem!"

And then you know what's going to happen? The bear might eat us first, but you're next. They aren't gonna accept you with open arms because you create divides to boost your place in the community just a little higher than another's. It is pointless.

Infighting gets us NO WHERE. In fact in the passed few days I have witnessed homophobic swifties enjoying that our community is at odds and broken off into sections and debates.

Did y'all know you do not have to have the exact same gaylor beliefs to still be in the same WHOLE community? I know it's so shocking but you actually don't have to believe everything I do to be my friend or civil counterpart within the community and neither do I vise versa.

I have 0 problem with people not being late stage Kaylors or even people not being Kaylors at all. Lore is up to interpretation, and sure I think there is a ton of evidence that backs LSK but I don't need you to agree because that's not the root purpose of the gaylor community.

It becomes a problem when people pick fights and insist that someone is wrong and must change their mind or call beliefs insane or crazy as if that isn't the most ironic thing to do because newsflash it is has never been a secret that everyone who isn't a gaylor, thinks the concept of gaylor is insane.

Everything Taylor does revolving gaylor IS crazy to go to the lengths she does. We are fresh off of an era of her depicting herself in a psychward like?????? There just has to be some kind of cognitive dissonance. Gaylor lore is built off of being willing to believe something crazy because there can only be so many coincidences before it's a fact and no longer a theory.

But the saddest part to me is to see our own community resort to the SAME harmful tactics that hetlors used against all of us for years. It is so hypocritical and disgusting truly. Like really??? Gaylors deliberately going into the safe spaces of other gaylors to call them insane and tell them to take their meds just because they don't agree or see the same as to why some people believe differently?

And somehow said people doing this don't see how they are behaving exactly like antis???? Especially the ones I've seen go into late stage Kaylor spaces, screenshot people's videos or comments of analysis that are literally backed by evidential reasoning and then PLASTER it on Twitter of all places?? The nastiest most unsafe place for us?? And some of the people who get put on there don't even have a Twitter for this community--- for that very reason that Twitter swifties are absolutely insane.

And we are just completely okay with setting up our own to potentially face horrendous threats and harassment all because you don't agree with something they think? Grow up. No one required you to believe what they said and no one asked you to invasively intrude onto their account looking to create an issue.

Who cares if people are wrong?????? Then they'll just be proven wrong and the world will keep spinning, but what in yalls minds makes you think it's okay to subject fellow queer people to harmful environments over a difference in opinion? If you don't agree scroll this is the exact same thing we always said about antis. It's no different.

Now let me ask this, what if who you're doing all that over ends up being proven right??? Do you not grasp that you would have put yourself in the same embarassing positions antis will be when Taylor does formally make it clear in a world wide gesture that she's queer?

Except the context is simply going to be you having to reflect on all those hate tweets you still have up and harassment of people who you swore were wrong. It leads to nothing but embarrassment and again it is pointless.

You are getting nothing out of striving to put parts of the community below yourself other than a delusional temporary feeling that you aren't the most hated of the Taylor community.

That's clearly what it's about at this point and we see the same thing when it comes to LGBTQ+ swifties who are antis vs Gaylors. We're all queer yet antis insist they are the better gay of the community because they don't speculate or look into queer flagging and they're not weird and invasive like us.

Except at the end of the day we still all share the same root commonality that we're all LGBTQ+ and all hated for that and nothing will change that we are all looked down upon by homophobes for that. But still divides are insisted, so someone has the upperhand.

In which in this case that's substituted by the bottom line purpose of gaylor that encompasses us all which is the belief that Taylor is LGBTQ+ which all anti-gaylors and homophobes hate us for no matter what type of gaylor you are, and the divides are the conflicting beliefs when it comes to muse discussions.

I am not saying we need to all hold hands, skip, and sing songs around the campfire, I'm just saying if you can't get along or bare to be civil with someone who has a different gaylor view then avoid certain sections of the community. Don't interact with them. Certaintly do not seek out their content or purposefully use your platform to get them attacked or try to get a hit tweet off of making fun of them. It is literally getting us no where, it is extremely immature for grown adults to be doing, and it so exhausting and sad to witness daily.

Wrap all that up by tomorrow. Especially with where we are at right now politically with LGBTQ+ rights, putting any queer / trans gaylor on that awful app in the context of a hate tweet knowing there is 0 restrictions and Swifties have no limits to what they'll say and do to others is simply out of touch.

[major-comet]

I think the thing that I find so beautifully frustrating with andor is that it’s so good that I look at the stuff that needed a bit more screen time in season 2 (there's a few but i'm gonna focus on K-2 for this post because I have the most concrete thoughts about him) and I cannot for the life of me think of what story element I would mess around with in order to make room for it.

Like, I desperately wish we had gotten way more K-2SO in the show, even just within the final arc, but I don’t want to even muse about touching episode 10 because it was just perfect. It gave me everything I had been wanting for Luthen and for Kleya in particular, and showed the start of the beautiful collapse of everything that Dedra had been working for, and the thought of losing any of that so we could cut to Kay, Cassian, and Melshi on Yavin just doesn't feel right at all. Even though the scene of the three of them in the Yavin tree house is probably one of my favorites from the whole show!

The real answer to fix the Kay problem is that he needed to be introduced earlier so we could actually see more of the growth of his and Cassian's friendship and their trust in each other as partners out in the field. But again, if you ask me where I would put him within the show we have now I hesitate on an answer.

Out of all of Cassian's arcs this season, the only one I think could have been reworked to fit Kay in there somewhere is maybe the first one, with the Maya Pei brigade. I like that plot line a lot, but it's the least imminently critical to the rest of the season - can't really cut the Ghorman stuff and obviously the extraction of Kleya in the last arc is vital.

So sure, we imagine a version of the show where instead of that, we get some different introduction / reprogramming of Kay. great cool wonderful, now we have him for the next few years. But if we're not changing much else, what would he actually do? He wouldn't be able to follow Cassian to Ghorman the first time because what business would Varian Skye have with a k-x droid? So, okay I guess he could stay with Bix in the safe house - which could actually be interesting. Bix feels stifled by how over protective Cassian has been, and now he goes off on a solo mission for Luthen and leaves her in the hands of an imperial security droid. Could be some interesting development for Kay while he's still kind of getting his footing with things.

But what about the third arc?

Our options here are either Kay stays with Bix again - not happening - or he goes with Cass and Wil to Ghorman. Like the safe house, we know that Ghorman isn't a logistical filming issue because we've seen him there. But again - what business would a news reporter from a unknown network have with a K-X droid? So Kay would have to stay with the ship, likely until he realizes that everything has completely gone to hell and makes his way out there to attempt to extract the two of them. Obviously being able to get by with relative ease since there's supposed to be K-X units in the area. But he would just get sidelined again when it's time to extract Mon for the same reasons. And I already said I can't think of how I would squeeze more of him into the final arc.

It would be really interesting though to have Kay around while Cassian is starting to seriously verbally doubt his ability to continue on in arc 3. Throughout season 2, Cass's life long struggles with being a survivor and with feeling like he has no autonomy are starting to come to a head, and in the aftermath of being a survivor once again after Ghorman, he's scared and desperately wants to make the choice to stop.

But if Cassian stops, what happens to K-2SO? It's made very clear to us throughout all of the supporting media of this era that K-2 is generally seen as Cassian's responsibility above anyone else. Droids fundamentally do not have rights in Star Wars, and this very much extends to the rebellion as well. From supplemental books and such, we know that Cassian has staunchly refused any attempts by the alliance to make Kay less autonomous, more compliant. Kay is a one-of-a-kind individual and Cassian likes him that way, wouldn't want him to be anything else.

If Captain Andor disappeared, would anyone else's word have enough sway to keep Kay from being fitted with a restraining bolt? To keep the Yavin droid techs from mind wiping him? Considering that Draven and Bail don't even generally deign to use his name, simply calling him "droid", I think we know our answer.

So how would Kay react to hearing Cassian say he's done, that he wants out? Kay and Cass are great friends, and work very well together in the field, but an undeniable part of their relationship is that in one way or another, Kay is dependent on him in order to maintain his autonomy and his place within the rebel alliance.

And more pressingly for this post - would the show even have had time to actually explore any of that?

Andor is so good that the parts that aren't quite as good are almost as interesting to think about as the stuff that's phenomenally done.

[tswwwit]

Here's a thing!

Containing: Bill as a widower, a surprise reincarnation, and dire threats of matrimony.

Despite how things turned out, Dipper has no regrets.

Okay. There is one: Getting caught in the first place. 

But other than that, he’s lived his life the way he wanted to. Everyone told him joining the resistance was a terrible idea. That he had a bright future ahead of him, that he was smart, to not throw it all away for a useless, impossible task. 

Like he could ever do anything else. 

Even at the end of things, Dipper’s proud of what he accomplished. He helped so many people. He picked his fights carefully and mostly had them work out in his favor. He did the best he could, pushed himself to the very limits of his abilities, and it worked so well.

Bright future his ass. Fighting got him further than anything could. When you think of what he’s done. Where he’s clawed back territory. Who he’s saved-

A pang goes through his chest. Dipper ducks his head, hissing against the gag between his teeth.

Okay, second regret: Not saving more people. And not avenging others. Three regrets isn’t so bad. Right?

God, what else could he have managed, if he hadn’t been stupid. If he hadn’t slipped up this one time, if he could have escaped. If he could have- 

“NEXT!” 

Bill Cipher’s voice rings through the room. Two claps punctuate the statement, and the line moves forward. 

Claws dig into Dipper arm, tighter than before. While they still don’t break the skin, the way he’s dragged forward has him hissing again. His skinned knees burn as they slide against stone, and the pain reminds him not to let up his guard.

Not here, in the Fearamid. There’s no worse place. 

In a way, he’s kind of lucky. The massive pyramid that makes up Bill Cipher’s headquarters and fortress has never before breached. No member of the resistance has made it into the command base of the terrible demon who rules the west coast. 

Dipper never thought he’d end up here, ever. The closest he’d imagined was in vague daydreams. The impossible kind where he had amazing powers, spouted cool one-liners, and could smash through the entire awful fortress to kick Bill Cipher right in his angles. 

“Ugh.” Bill’s groan resonates through the room. “Why the hell would I need gold? Real crappy offering.” Another clap, then, “NEXT!”

Being tribute wasn’t exactly on Dipper’s bucket list.

So here he is. Dragged along by his captors to be one more present for the Nightmare King himself. 

Demons try to slake their master’s insatiable greed with an endless parade of presents. The raiding never ends. The looting, the theft, the bribes - everything, everywhere gets poured into the coffers of this monster. Nothing is enough for him. It never will be. 

So it’s pretty weird that Dipper’s here. By himself. 

A hundred humans at once might provoke a passing interest. A few tons of liquor or - apparently not gold, no wonder that assassination attempt failed - could also catch his eye. Only the most elaborate, creative gifts might gain a bit of his favor, which is hard to get on a good day. 

One human who really made Bill’s day worse, though? That might get a second look. Dipper didn’t think he was that big of a deal, but it would be kinda cool. 

Or he wasn’t, and his captors will twist him into a new flesh configuration once they reach the front of the line, like performance art. Or he has been a pain, and when Bill finally gets his hands on him and can do whatever he wants to him, he’ll do unthinkably horrible -

No. Dipper can’t think like that, not now or ever. Fear won’t help. It never helps. 

Terror one of Bill’s tools. He thrives on mortals cowering before him, and Dipper won’t do that. 

He shakes his head to clear it, and gets the hood shoved further down for his efforts. The thin string around his neck draws tighter as a demon adjusts the cloth. Then it plucks at it, in an apparent attempt to make its captive look more ‘presentable’. 

“You sure it’s-” One of the demons mutters above him. Another pluck at his hood pulls it upwards, and he hears a smack.

“Shh! Don’t show everyone ‘til we take credit,” insists the leader. Tension makes his voice rough. “You saw it. Just like in the pictures. Boss’ll love it.”

Sounds like they’re trying to reassure themselves rather than actually thinking this will go well. Dipper snorts. Amusement on the gallows.

All four demons shush him. He can practically picture them holding fingers to their mouths in unison, hissing at their captive. It makes him snort again, and a hand shoves his head down.

Shushed, of all things. The sheer absurdity makes him want to laugh.

Being captured was bad enough. All his hypervigilance turned out useless when it really counted. Everything he’d taken notes on, the plans, the studies - none of those mattered when he was dangling by his ankle from a snare in the woods like a helpless animal. 

But the way he was taken captive? That was notable. A realization that only hit once he was stuffed into a box and had nothing to do except think - but an important one.

For one, most demonic traps leave their victims in multiple pieces. And for another, he wasn’t devoured afterwards. There was an odd amount of caution involved in his handling for a human with so little magic. Almost like they were frightened of doing it wrong.

And after that, he should have been smacked around and beaten for his defiance. Hell knows he didn’t take this bullshit lying down. But instead of ending up with open wounds and a broken jaw, there’s a bag over his head and rough cloth gag to shut him up.

In fact, aside from a few bruises and scrapes, Dipper’s perfectly fine. By all demonic standards, his entire kidnapping makes no sense.

Unless you know what Bill Cipher likes to do to humans.

Dipper tries to swallow past the lump in his throat. He hadn’t wanted to think of it. Now the idea won’t stop popping up, cold grey swimming through his thoughts. 

There aren’t many pictures of Bill’s ‘sculpture’ garden. Most aerial shots just get the gist of it, a field spotted grey against green. Stone hands reaching for the sky or clutching their faces, thousands of bodies screaming for their life or hunkered down to the ground -

Swallowing again doesn’t help. His mouth is too dry, even when the gag is damp between his teeth.

Soon he’ll be one of the thousands of ornaments Bill makes of human lives, instead of killing them nice and clean. Another trophy. 

Maybe it won’t hurt? Dipper hopes it doesn’t hurt. He hopes that that’s what he’s here for, rather than anything more creative. But it’s the only fate that makes sense. 

A bit of cold comfort, then. He might not be mutilated. If he’s ‘just like the picture’ - whatever that means - then Bill will want him to stay exactly as he is.

It sounds absurd. But who knows? Odds are Bill Cipher has a type, and Dipper will make an exceptionally pleasant sight once he’s permanently a part of his estate. Maybe he’s got a thing for rebellious, fashionless nerds having the worst day of their life. Whatever goes on in that triangular brain is too weird for Dipper to fathom.

He hopes that being a statue is peaceful. Or at least not too painful. That it happens in a flash, like he’s seen in video. And if he’s lucky, the company he’ll keep for the next… forever might include his -

“Bo-ring,” Bill interrupts the next offering before the demon gets three words into their speech. “I’d say do better next time, but guess what?”

Two claps this time. Something explodes with a splatter, close enough that Dipper and his kidnapping coterie all flinch back.

“There won’t be another.” Bill finishes. He pauses for laughter at his dry semi-joke, then claps once more. “NEXT!” 

The line of supplicants moves forward. Dipper’s knees skid across the floor as he’s dragged forward, sliding to a stop as his captors pause in their line. 

They must be pretty far at the front by now. The group of demons in front of Dipper’s speaks excitedly to an unresponsive audience. He swears he hears a yawn. 

Impressing Bill Cipher is difficult at the best of times. Doing it with one single human seems reckless even by Dipper’s limited knowledge, but excited murmurs keep darting over his head. 

Either they know something he doesn’t, or there’s another factor in play. And hell, considering the tributes Dipper’s overheard, they could hardly do worse. Nothing’s impressed Bill so far. At best he’s waved off their offerings to be piled up with all the, quote, ‘other crap’. 

The latest batch doesn’t fare any better than the previous one. Like last time, Bill groans and something goes ‘splat’. A sprinkle of unknown fluid hits Dipper’s knees, soaking into his jeans. 

“Ugh,” Bill groans, low and extended. It seems like it’ll go on forever, until he hears, “NEXT!”

Dipper’s shoulders tense. His jaw clenches, arms and legs pressing against their bindings. None of which stops him from being pulled along in his kidnapper’s wake. 

This is it, then. Facing the lord of dreams himself, eye to… cloth, Dipper doubts he’s going to get a real look at him. 

Which might be for the best. Word is that Bill can manage terrible things to the human psyche, given the chance. Dipper’s very human, and he doesn’t have enough magic to defend himself even if anyone knew how to manage it.

So maybe it’s okay that he’s a little terrified, because it’s natural. And even more importantly,  Bill won’t see it. 

“My lord,” The demon that captured Dipper speaks in a gravelly voice. He’s a green-gray lizard creature, with several eyes, and his sheer amount of muscles belies a sharper mind than usual. Anyone who fought him might have made that mistake. “I found you somethin’ really cool.”

He sounds strangely excited about presenting a single mortal to his king. A hint of pride, maybe, that he kept it so intact? It could be difficult for demons, because Dipper’s sure never heard of it before.

His thoughts are interrupted by a slow push, sliding him forward across stone. Careful force, that lets him keep his balance instead of planting on his face. At least he’ll face his fate upright.

One more tribute. Sitting in front of a king, in a crowd of monsters, Dipper has his pride. And he will not bow. 

And the response from Bill Cipher is… probably not what the leader wanted. 

Dipper hears another groan, followed by a heavy sigh. “Wow. A human. Never seen one of those before.”

Ah, great. Sarcasm. Bill Cipher sounds as impressed with Dipper as he was with the dozen tributes before him - bored, tired, blase. 

Dipper straightens his back, oddly offended. Wait, he doesn’t suck as tribute, right? Part of his pride hinged on his captor not being an idiot. It made losing less embarrassing.

“Ugh. Seriously getting tired of this crap.” Bill’s voice has a tinge of annoyance to it. Kind of a whine, even. “Like I don’t have enough in the rock garden already. The shine rubbed off that apple a while ago.”

“Er,” The lizard demon hesitates. “Uh, well. Nah, see, there’s-”

“Eh, whatever.” With another sigh, Bill snaps his fingers. “Alright, one statue, coming u-”

“Wait!” 

The crowd hushes. A few gasps, a couple whispers at the sheer audacity. Even Dipper twists to look at his captor in sheer surprise. A useless gesture, he still has a hood over his freakin’ face. But, like. What? 

That gruff voice burst out so quickly that it sounded almost defensive, and - what the hell is going on?

The too-busy hall has gone eerily quiet. Even the mad Nightmare King doesn’t speak, probably surprised at this act of open defiance.

“I- sorry, sorry, my lord. But, like, you’re gonna really like this one.” The demon continues, rapid like he’s on the verge of panic. But insistent, too. A tense excitement runs through his words. “You gotta take a look.” 

Dipper blinks in a fruitless attempt to clear his eyes. Stupid fabric over his face. He’s flying blind here.

He wishes he could see everyone’s reactions. Mortals bore Bill at best. Aside from making them into decorations, he barely bothers interacting directly. One young human shouldn’t make a demon yell at Bill Cipher. He shouldn’t matter, or be important, or even register as anything. What the hell?

The crowd stays deathly silent. Bill doesn’t speak. A slow tapping of fingers thuds like a drum in the quiet, a slow contemplative beat.

The Lord of Nightmares holds his own counsel as he judges this outburst. Weighing his options.

“Huh,” Bill says, a second after Dipper thought everything would explode - “Got a lotta confidence in your prize, I see! Guess that’s kinda interesting.” His voice grows louder as he approaches, but there aren’t any footsteps. This monster floats. “Whatcha got there?”

“Well, he was runnin’ about messing up some stuff, and, well, we saw him and - y’know.” The lead demon continues babbling, voice rising to a squeak. Bill must have closed the distance, meeting him eye to multiple eyes. “And! And we made sure not to leave a mark or anything, we was real careful.” A beat of pause; presumably Bill giving him an askance look. “Aside from tying ‘em up, yeah? He woulda run off otherwise.”

“Huh.” Bill says, again. More thoughtful now.

The same thing Dipper might have said, if he wasn’t gagged. True, he hasn’t been beaten up for fun, or toyed with, or devoured. But he’d guessed it was to leave him a more presentable statue. 

Said Nightmare King must be very close by now, intrigued by the semi-sales pitch - or maybe because there’s a secret. Dipper can feel warmth in front of him, radiating from an unseen source. 

Another drumming, fingers on metal. Then, with a hint of a shrug. “Alright. Show me.”

The hood whips off, and Dipper gets a dizzying look at a massive room, black stone bricks and red lines, demons everywhere. Adjusting to the light takes a second, until his eyes land on the shape in front of him.

Dipper blinks a few times - then glares at this jackass.

Bill Cipher, King of Nightmares, conqueror of half the country and weird goddamn asshole, blinks right back.

Dipper’s seen this monster before, though not in person. Cipher’s always on the news. Appearing on TV and in print, whenever he conquers another piece of territory. His pictures are in magazines, photographs in articles, he has a few intimidating ad spots online - he’s everywhere, even on some forms of cash. It’s impossible to avoid this stupid shape.

And wow, none of that is photoshopped, huh. Turns out Bill’s exactly as weird as advertised. Polygonal and golden. Noodly limbs, top hat, everything.

A total, monstrous asshole.

Dipper strains at his bindings, rising up on his knees. Unfortunately, the gag’s still in place, so instead of cursing this jackass out like he wants to, it’s all muffled shouting. 

Bill Cipher goes perfectly still. He hovers in place, a motionless midair shape.

His single eye has a split pupil, and it meets Dipper’s own without moving. Or blinking, either, even though it’s been long enough that Dipper gave up trying to match it.

He’s just. Staring.

Which is… honestly getting eerie. The motionless focus, the impenetrable gaze. Not intimidating, of course. But weird.

Dipper drops back with a huff. Great. He’s having zero effect on this guy. Not even annoyance, and he hoped there’d be some. 

As a last ‘fuck you’, he lifts his bound hands in Bill’s direction, and flips him off.

Bill’s pupil narrows to a single thin line. He makes a strange, back-of-the-throat sound without any visible neck. Like he’s choking.

“So, uh,” The lizard demon rubs at the back of his neck. Greenish sweat pours down his scales, and he wipes it on his tunic in short swipes. “Do you-”

“Shut up and gimme.” Bill interrupts. He darts forward in a blink of motion, making grabby hands in the direction of Dipper’s face. “Gimme gimme gimme!”

Neither Dipper nor his captor have time to react. Bill simply seizes him by the shoulders, hauling him away from his captors and onto his feet so fast his shoes leave streaks on the floor.

“Mh!” Dipper yells against his gag, stumbling to catch his balance. It isn’t the most eloquent protest, but he hopes the ‘you jerk’ gets across anyway.

While Bill’s hands are relatively small, they’re impossibly strong. His grip on Dipper’s biceps feels close to bruising, slightly shaking in its intensity.

Bill tugs him closer. The bizarre pupil flashes through a series of shapes too rapid to parse. A second later it flips horizontal, sweeping a beam of light up and down Dipper, head to toe. 

While it doesn’t feel like anything, Dipper does his best to wriggle away. He hopes it messes with whatever scan this bastard’s doing. He hopes it’s as annoying as this demon is. A kick aimed at one of Bill’s floating legs didn't land, but it was worth a shot.

Bill ignores his struggles. He laughs at the kicks, which deserves more kicking. He wraps those horrible noodle arms around Dipper's biceps like ropes and giggles when Dipper growls at him, flickering side-to-side in weird, glitchy glee. 

The sound of his stupid laughter makes Dipper want to fight him all the harder - useless, of course, those arms only look noodly. They’re super-magically powered. But that doesn’t mean he won’t try. 

“Oh.” Bill says, lower than before. He draws Dipper close, bringing him almost within headbutting range. “Oh, now this is beautiful.”

“Mh?” Dipper tries to glare to poor effect. Confusion and anger keep jockeying for space in his head, and he’s pretty sure it shows. 

And Bill starts laughing, high and loud and wild. He’s glowing now, surface lit from within with a bright golden light.

“Well! Gotta say this is interesting!” Bill pushes him back slightly, at a human-ish arm’s length. Though he still keeps a solid grip on Dipper’s arms , squeezing tight. “But man, this wrapping’s crap! What happened to ribbons on presents, guys?” His eye rolls. “Lemme fix that.”

With that said, he grows a third arm from one of his sides and snaps his fingers.

The cloth of Dipper’s gag parts like it was clipped with scissors. The bindings on his wrists cleave open, the chains on his ankles explode off his socks, and it’s only because Bill’s still holding him upright that Dipper doesn’t fall over out of sheer surprise. 

He wipes at his mouth - spitting out threads in the process, he’d really been trying to chew through the gag - and coughs. With his wrists untied, he can flex his fingers and drop his arms to his sides, hands clenched into fists. 

Because now he’s… free-ish. For some reason. With Bill holding onto him there’s zero chance of getting away, but still. 

Dipper works his jaw a little, to loosen it. Rubs his wrists to ease the low ache. There’s a huge crowd of demons in this immense hall, so. No escape routes, not when the place is packed with monsters like a can of sardines. 

Eventually he has to admit he’s wasting time. The big problem is right in front of him, if he can just. Face it. 

Taking a deep breath, he turns his head to look at the worst creature in the entire goddamn world.

Bill’s lower eyelid has risen up in a curve, kind of like a smile. Still laser-focused on Dipper’s face, boring into him as if he could see into his soul. Or maybe plotting a laser course through his prefrontal cortex. 

But there isn’t any mockery. No taunting or yelling or stupid puns. None of the typical theatrics that you’d see on a news report. Just… more staring.

Dipper clears his throat. He tugs at the collar of his shirt. 

The whole room has gone so, so quiet. He didn’t think it could get quieter than before, but that was people glancing at each other, waiting for a chance to leave the crime scene. A hush littered with bits of gossip and gasps, warnings passing between the crowd. 

This silence is an indrawn breath. Held in anticipation. 

So. Here he is. In front of the greatest, most powerful monster in history, and instead of being a cool dramatic confrontation, with like. Action, or a witty back-and-forth - it’s just awkward. 

“Well, sapling?” Bill prompts, eye narrowing. He releases Dipper’s arms only to point directly at his face. Like he's accusing him of something. “Got anything to say for yourself?”

Dipper breathes in deep. 

Okay, then. Space to talk? A chance to say whatever he wants?

Yeah. That he can work with.

“Fuck you, Bill.” He spits out the words, putting all the hate in his heart into the venom of his tone. He steps forward, getting right in this asshole’s… face? Surface? Whatever. “I hope you die. In a fire. And that your ugly-ass pyramid falls on you, and you get crushed in the rubble, and - and that your exoskeleton gets melted down for scrap, because you just suck that much.”

Bill… says nothing. No magic twists Dipper into a terrible shape. No pain jolts through his body.

And when Dipper dares to look him in the eye, his face reflects back from the infinite depths of Bill’s pupil, blown wide from the tiny slit of seconds ago. By this point it’s nearly a circle. Which is weird, and kind of intimidating - 

But he’s not made of rock yet. Bill hasn’t retaliated, probably because he’s too stunned to react. And fuck him. 

“And another thing,” Dipper continues, less steadily now. He didn’t have a speech prepared. But since he’s not dead, hell, might as well make the most of it. “You’re dumb as hell, and I hate you. So much. You’re the worst thing that could ever happen to m-”

Something goes ‘splat’ just beside him, making him flinch. Another wet sound lands nearby, followed by another, and another. A slow patter that builds in pace, rapid and thick. 

Dipper stares in horror as literal, throbbing hearts pop up and circle around Bill Cipher’s top hat, spinning in a rapid circle. As more manifest, old ones fall to the floor like the world’s worst rainstorm, spattering red across the stone. Even his pupil is that same friggin’ organ now, pumping away in silhouette. 

“Aha. Ha ha!” Bill’s voice raises in pitch with his laughter, and his fingers wiggle in anticipatory glee, just before his arms extend and coil around Dipper’s body, pinning his arms to his sides. “HA HA HA HA HA!”

Dipper opens his mouth to protest. Rather pointless in retrospect, though he does get out a “Hey!” as he’s lifted off the ground.

That stupid heart-rain has stopped, at least. Now it’s just Bill, glowing incredibly bright and giggling like the complete madman he is. 

Dipper kicks out in protest, swearing and struggling. Bill’s dumb noodle arms have some give to them, but they’re wrapped tight enough that it doesn’t matter.

“YOU!” Bill’s voice was already loud, but now it resonates. Filling the hall with a boom, ringing against the walls. His eye has blown out to a circle again, and in the depths a few strange, starlike dots glimmer. “Of course it’s YOU! Nothing was gonna keep you away, was it? And now you’re back!”

This is the point where Dipper would protest again. Or threaten, or question or - something. 

But it’s pretty hard to get words out when an insane demon is spinning you around like a carnival ride, complete with fireworks overhead. 

Below him the crowd cheers, a raucous chorus. He could swear more demons are pouring in by the second into an already packed hall. Lights are going off and on in a strobe, with the pop of fireworks ringing overhead. Music blares from one corner, then another as stereo sound kicks on.

Between the explosions, the lightshow, the noise - Dipper would try to figure out what the hell is going on, if he weren’t trying not to be sick from the spinning.

Bill doesn’t seem to notice any of this, focused on the human he’s captured. Eventually he slows, letting Dipper touch solid ground again Dipper with a glimmer in his eye that instantly makes him wary. Something is up, and he doesn’t know -

“I know just what to do with you, kid.” Bill says, eye narrowing. Two hands come up and cup Dipper’s cheeks, strangely warm - “C’mere!”

Watching Bill’s eyeball drop back into its socket, and the huge, sharp teeth emerge from the mouth where his eye should be, Dipper knows immediately that this. This is how he’s going to die.

Then the eyelids purse into lips, and Bill hauls him in face-first. 

“Mmmmwha!” A long, exaggerated sound. Pretty dramatic, really. Bill draws back, eye smiling at Dipper as he squeezes his cheeks with both hands. “Oh man! You have no idea how long I’ve waited for that!” 

“Whuh.” Dipper says, intelligently.

Bill cackles, chucking Dipper under the chin, then tickling it with a couple fingers. “Ha! Did one little smooch rock your world?” His eye wiggles, with horrible, terrible implications. “Don’t worry, there’s way more where that came from!”

Dipper reels from the sensation of having his whole face - not eaten, or rearranged, but - His legs totter, but the arms around him keep him upright.

A million questions whirl around. None of them have answers. They simply spin and spin and spin until Dipper’s brain feels blank, like - 

Oh. Okay. 

Intellectually, Dipper knew that Bill could break minds. He just thought it’d be more gory and torturous. For some reason. 

“And as for you-” Bill turns towards the cluster of demons that brought Dipper here, to this weirdo showcase. Under his gaze, even the most terrible monsters cluster together with nervous smiles. “Who’s in charge of your little outfit?”

Tentatively, arm shaking, the leader raises a hand. Bill’s eye snaps to it and he floats in, right in front of the lizard demon’s sweating, scaly face. 

Then his lower eyelid rises in that strange emulation of a smile, and he gives him an incredibly hard high-five. 

“Alright everyone, listen up!” Bill proclaims, turning towards the crowd. Grabbing the lead captor’s wrist, he raises it up like a winning prizefighter. “These guys get free drinks for the next two millennia!”

 A cheer rises up from the crowd. The lizard demon’s mouth purses in a ‘o’ of delight, hands fluttering at his cheeks like a human winning a gameshow.  Dipper spends a moment staring at the frankly bizarre site of a group of demons clutching each other like giddy highschoolers, bouncing in a circle.

“You heard it here first, guys! The boy is back!” Bill shouts. He whirls in a full circle, nearly giving Dipper a heart attack. It feels like any moment he’s going to fall, even when he’s wrapped up - “And you know what that means?”

Gasps bubble up from the gathered demons. A susurrus of voices starts, fluttering back and forth in the crowd.

‘Party’, is whispered from one corner. Another careful voice ventures to ask, ‘Party?’.  The word repeats, flickering in and out of hearing as it spreads through the crowd. Off in the back a single voice lets out a loud ‘Wooo!’

“That’s right!” Bill is so, so loud, and so, so pleased. He holds Dipper overhead, bouncing him up and down. “Iiiiit’s PARTY TIME!”

An explosion of confetti covers the room. A disco ball drops from the ceiling, music bursts from unseen speakers, and Bill sets his captive down on the floor next to him. His arms uncoil, spinning Dipper around like a top until he thinks he’ll fall-

As the room reels around him, Dipper reaches out for the closest solid surface, leaning on it until the room stops whirling around him. 

If the surface happens to be the worst asshole ever, well. He didn’t have any other options. 

“Hell, free drinks for everyone tonight!” Bill shouts, to a huge, monstrous cheer from the crowd. Part of the room has transformed into a long bar, and a good third of the demons are already rushing towards it. “Get while the getting’s good, guys!”

Watching the stampede, Dipper’s too surprised to move, until the demon under his elbow does it for him. 

“Stick close, sapling. These guys can get pretty rowdy!” Bill says. His metallic surface is warm, not quite hot to the touch. The corner pressing into Dipper’s side, though, that’s annoying. “Don’t want you getting lost again.” 

A tight belt wraps around his waist and makes him startle - but it’s just Bill again. A small black hand pats his stomach twice before taking hold of his shirt.

And Dipper’s standing here, not dead. Not a statue, not an experiment. Kind of an offering, maybe, but a weird one. He’s just…

Standing beside Bill goddamn Cipher, unharmed by the most unhinged creature in the universe. And why the fuck is that? 

An explanation has to be nearby. A reason. For everything. 

Why he’s here. Why he got this reaction. Why this Bill is so not like the Bill on the news, and maybe even why demons are chanting ‘chug chug chug!’ to a monster bodysurfing the crowd, drinking from a bottle the size of his arm. 

Dipper feels a glass pressed into his hand, cold with a slender stem. He holds it absentmindedly, glancing around the room and the raucous party kicking up, trying to find sense in the nonsensical.

The hall is huge, so. Fits a party atmosphere, he guesses. Bill himself has one ropy arm warped around his waist, with a grip on his shirt so tight he’s pretty sure it’d tear if he took off running. Behind them is the dais where Bill reigned over the tributes, making each and every decision from his throne - 

Dipper does a double-take, glancing back over his shoulder.

A second throne sits next to Bill’s on the dais. Way harder to spot, though; it lies in shadow, unlike the brightly lit rest of the room. The dark grey blends with the shaded light until it nearly matches the black walls. A seat too small for any human-sized person, and too human-shaped for any different kind of person. Instead of either, a painting rests on the seat. 

Easing out of Bill’s grasp is impossible, but with effort Dipper manages to twist around for a better look. 

The painting is set in a gilded frame with elaborate designs - mostly triangle based, no surprise there - but the picture itself is of a human. 

Sitting in the smaller throne is a portrait of a young man. Messy brown hair and a lean build, wearing casual clothes and a faint half smile. His head tilts towards the viewer, as if they just caught his attention. His expression looks like he heard a dumb joke and is ready to retort, amusement shining in his dark brown eyes. Beneath his bangs a series dots and lines in pink stands out, like a strangely shaped… birthmark.

Dipper’s hand flies to his chest. His heart feels like it’s stopped for a second. 

No, wait. That can’t-

He whips around, getting a ‘hey!’ from Bill who nearly spills his martini at the motion. Dipper smacks him out of the way, his hat is blocking the view.

Now that he’s spotted them, they’re impossible to miss. One portrait hangs out to the left of the throne, sleepy-eyed and cowlicked hair blinking in the viewer's direction. On the right a shirtless human lounges on a couch, jeans slightly undone. Another hangs from the ceiling of all things, glaring down at Bill’s throne from above like an annoyed god.

Shit. The pictures. 

They all look exactly like Dipper. 

“Geez, aren’t you squirmy? Ha! Figures!” Bill says, floating closer. When one of his arms loops around Dipper’s neck and he tousles his hair, it meets a man gone still as a statue. “You’re always a pain in the angles! It’s adorable!” 

“What the fuck is this.” Dipper can’t even make it a question. His voice is too tense to rise at the end. 

Bill’s eye swivels from his face, to the portraits, then back again. It rolls in its socket so far back it comes around again. “You. Duh.”

“How-” No, that’s not the right question. “What- Wh- huh?” 

Not his best showing. Words aren’t working right; they fail him along with his usually organized thoughts. Dipper can’t concentrate. His mind filled with too much weird and why and - in an insane section of his brain - an incredulous, really, Bill?

“Oh, that.” Bill says, flicking away dismissively. He gestures over the portraits, the party, and then at himself. His arm makes another loop around Dipper’s neck, loosely draped. “What’s to wonder about? It’s simple!”

“Is it.” Dipper says, flat. He stares forward, even as the arm snakes around and around his torso in two loose loops.

“Absolutely!” Bill’s voice drops as he closes in. Not quiet, but muted enough to not be heard over the party crowd. “See, you got away from me once, kid. And fair enough, that’s what mortals do!” The stem of the martini glass shatters in his grasp, and he drops the remains with a casual flick. “They die on ya!” 

Dipper glances at the portrait on the throne, then back to Bill. Tries to swallow, though his mouth feels dry with a sudden, looming realization.

“But there’s no escape this time. Never again.” Bill's eye narrows, so close to Dipper's face it's nearly touching. “Prepare for happily ever after.”

[keferon]

May I ask what were the best transformers media you ever saw/read?

Well Transformers Prime, Transformers 1986 and IDW comics are having the first place that’s for sure

And then the second place is kind of shared by Fall of Cybertron, Exodus, Prime wars trilogy, Robots in disguise(2001) and Transformers One.

The third place goes to G1, Animated, Earthspark, Armada, War for Cybertron Netflix series, Aligned Robots in disguise, Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts and Cyberverse because I only liked some little parts of them.

And then I also saw some of the Bay movies, Victory and Headmasters and didn’t like them at all.

Separate first place for J-Decker. It is not exactly Transformers but it is a show about giant robots and I loved it

[stellar-collective]

Ollie didn’t know what he’d been expecting when that door opened, but this wasn’t it. As far as he’d been told by everyone at the Agency, John Juniper was dead. And also evil. But mostly dead. How many of the million questions suddenly going through his head was he allowed to ask?

He decided to start with the one least likely to get him in trouble.

“Now, hang on—“ Ollie held up his hands. “I’ve seen the news and read your files, but why did you think I was dead? How do you even know who I am?”

They had met once before, that was true, but the meeting had been so brief and accidental that Ollie had a hard time believing Juniper remembered him.

“When the Fabricator plans for someone to end up dead, they end up dead.” Juniper replied, his voice clipped. “You were just barely memorable enough for me to connect your face to the kid she was sticking in one of her death traps. But you know, I could ask you the same thing. Not how you know who I am, that’s obvious, but if you’re here with Agent Phoenix…”

He trailed off, then turned to Phoenix with a look halfway between disbelief and rage. “…Don’t tell me you brought a guy that doesn’t even have the security clearance to know I’m alive to my house.”

Phoenix blinked a couple times, then smiled guiltily. “Ooh. I knew I’d been forgetting something.”

Juniper threw his hands up. “How do you even still have a job?!”

“Relax, JJ! He’s a friend! You can trust him.”

Juniper huffed a sigh. “Ugh, whatever, just— come inside.”

first ~ prev ~ next

and enter John Juniper!! wanted to pull in more of the cast :] he lives in an Agency provided house just a short drive away and is constantly bothered by surprise visits from Phoenix and/or Reginald. he doesn’t mind half as much as he pretends to, though

Phoenix did tell Ollie about him, but they only referred to him as JJ and fully forgot to provide a shred of context. oops!

[dykedvonte]

Reading MW takes on Twitter is like reading a summary of the Bible from someone who only watched like a Family Guy family special about it