#So it’s nice that she got to have some fun with her science stuff!

[janamensch]

Wow today’s episode of Aerois was so fun!! I really enjoyed the part with the Spellclash so I wanted to draw it, really good episode!

[muikitoo]

Hi,Ummm,good morning/night

Can I request something regarding the Rottmnt boys,I want them their love at first sight with a female reader in a school ay(More like a mix between the Yokai/mutant/human society

(No rush,It's ok if you don't want to do it and stuff,It's totally fine to take your time☺️,Have a nice day/night)

Love at first sight

Aged up! Rottmnt x fem! Reader

(somewhere around their 20s)

Warnings:

None

A/N: this was so hard to do for me for some reason (especially Mikey and Raph), i had to think for a few days for certain scenarios and this might come late bc i rlly want it to be good. Im sorry if it isnt what u expected 🙏

You were an English teacher who recently started working at a new school. Youre quite nervous, but exciting at the thought of what awaits you with this sudden change.

Donnie

- Donnie was one of those strict science teachers that nobody dared to underestimate.

- At first, he didnt seem too interested when he heard of a new teacher who started working there.

- hes never even been a romantic type, he honestly didnt care and let fate decide if he gets a partner or not.

- When he saw you for the first time though, he thought he might be hallucinating.

- "Oh sweet Galileo help me.."

- you probably immediately checked his "cute but mean" type without even saying a single word

- He became more interested in you, talking to you more often, even at times asking u to meet up during the break.

- "Hey, uhm.. Could i maybe interest u in some coffee during the break?"

- he thought all of this "romantic feeling" thing wasnt real, but he seriously cant help but fall for you.

Leo

- Leo is obviously the laid-back cool Spanish teacher.

- Almost every student liked him, he was chill and even jokes around

- (he once drew donnie on the board with a huge forehead and wrote "megamind" next to it)(no, donnie did not take that well)

- He was quite interested when he heard of a new teacher, hell he was probably the first one to interact with you out of his brothers

- The second he saw you, this mf fell straight face down in love with you

- "oh mi gosh thats the new teacher?! Shes gorgeous! Do you see her Donnie?! You see her?! Oh i so need to get her number!!"

- tries to act sly and flirt with you

- and fails miserably

- "Hey there hermosa, how do you feel about a date? Ya know, just you and me? *Wink wink* *leans on wall, trips and falls miserably*"

- (A/N: i cried writing that)

Mikey

- Mikey is the sweet art teacher and students enjoy being around him, but yet again they probably wont dare to underestimate his "Dr. Delicate touch" side

- He was quite excited when he heard about a new teacher.

- When he saw you, he suddenly felt nervous and flustered. And he knew why.

- at this point, everyone but you knew abt how he admires you, a little more than in the friendly way.

- He couldnt get the courage to go and talk to you, which put Dr. Feelings to shame

- When you actually started talking tho, you got quite close.

- Youd be with him almost every break

- You would often stay in his classroom/art studio and watch him paint during the lunch break

- and during those times he even asks u to pick his colours

- "Hey Y/n, which colour do you think would suit the ladies dress more? Red or blue?"

- Sometimes you even jokingly ask to be his model, but in all honesty he doesn't mind at all

- you guys were an inseparable duo, and he caught himself falling more and more for you

Raph

- He's the PE teacher, hes fun but strict when he needs to be.

- He doesnt mind that theres a new teacher, hes quite excited abt it actually - he would gladly want to meet you.

- First thing that catches his eye is that he thinks youre really pretty.

- He's most likely stuttering during ur first convo now😭

- Hes super sweet, bringing you coffee and/or lunch, helping u out with random teacher stuff, checking up of u, ect

- "Hey! How you feeling? I brought you some coffee.. if youd like."

- Hes so shy, but he cant help but feel his heart flutter every time you thank him or show appreciation towards him

A/N: Raph was so hard and i know it's not accurate at all. Ive literally been beating my ass up bc of him cuz i didnt have any ideas😭😭 this took super long and I'm really sorry about that, i hope it turned out the way u wanted🙏 anyways its 1AM so im js posting this cuz i have nothing else to do😔

[lowkeyrobin]

Platonic Phoebe and Trevor x Gary Grooberson’s teen kid reader and adjusting to being stepsiblings?

OH MY GOD YES BRO RJSKDMSNSN ; I did my best pls bare w this 💀💀💀

SPENGLER SIBLINGS ; stepsiblings

summary ; youre Gary's kid and you have to adjust with two new stepsiblings

warnings ; language

disclaimers ; your mom is nonexistent/Gary adopted you. it's not a topic brought up at all I don't think but you can choose, ik some people don't like kid of ___ reader or ____ sibling reader so beware lol, takes place between afterlife and frozen empire so no spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched gbfe yet, reader can drive/is around Trevor's age

word count ; 675

masterlist

it's so awkward at first

especially since you've never had siblings before so it's like they're teenage roommates

like okay your parents are dating or whatever but like, ew?

except you're living with them, not the other way around

both gary and callie are trying to urge you to interact but it's just not happening

you're not really a ghostbuster either, you aren't smart in the sciences and aren't into the whole ghost thing anyways

you're more into traditional ghosts anyways, not the ones that show up in broad daylight and need to be trapped by proton barriers

it's very rough at first

you connect with phoebe first, as a once in a blue moon experience happened, she wanted to act like a normal 14yo and go get ice cream

Callie couldn't take her because she was busy helping trevor with work stuff and told her to ask you

she was like 🤨 and like... "okay?-"

she asks and you look at her like 🤨😊

you guys go get ice cream and she tells you all about the shit you pass on the way there and back home

you surprisingly end up bonding over the struggle of talking to others like normal people and being well reserved with little to no friends

then comes the bonding over a certain book you both liked

the whole car ride home is oasis on the radio and chatter about this book, and going the longest possible way home because you didn't want this bonding moment to end

you sat in the car after phoebe got out, just sitting in silence

you were kind of in awe yet saddened the moment had ended because you were bonding so well

after that she clearly sees you in a new light and looks to you for your wisdom and clear view of the world when she's wrapped in her own madness and needs untangled

you were the trusting older sibling she needed since trevor never really understood the proper being there for your sister thing

they're proper siblings and whatnot but it's not like they go to each other if it's not to shit talk people

you're like their mediator and therapist sibling

getting through to trevor was much harder

you ended up finding him a job and he was like 🤨😒 when you showed him

"oh- uhm, sorry. I was just trying to be nice" and you quickly scramble away

he's just confused cause like ??? you never talked, he didn't even know how you knew he was looking for a job

he comes into your room a couple hours later like "Hey sorry I acted all weird, thanks"

and that's it

bonding with him is so hard, and Gary and Callie are like "okay go fucking do something"

you're all (spengler-groobersons + podcast bc phoebe needed a friend her age) out at an amusement park, and these mfs ditched yall at the carousel next to the bathrooms

and they weren't picking up their phones

you were basically forced to interact now, which was much less awkward in an amusement park

you guys ride some rides and get some food as you frequently call your parents

you finally find them, phew

but you two obviously made a little friendship and had fun together

took a little longer to get used to each other but you're fine now

awkward teenager shit yk?

in general, the three of you now are super close

trevor is your hype man when it comes to talking to people or doing something out of your comfort zone

phoebe is your hype man when you talk to her about maybe wanting to be a ghostbuster / study ghosts

you're the driver for the three of you, callie doesn't trust Trevor with driving, considering how he was driving the ecto1 when he first got it usable again, and obviously, phoebe can't drive

after a few years you're basically just like normal siblings

you three have a sibling group chat and it's 90% you sending memes, Trevor sending random tik tok links and phoebe begging you two to stop blowing up her phone

spenglerson siblings 🔛🔝

[tomwaterbabies]

disneyland happenings

featuring varian and hugo. since thats what our costumes were

^(us trying to be very spooky) (there is a lot below btw lol)

someone asking if i (dressed as hugo) was from atlantis. surprisingly this only happened once

we went to kingdom hearts mickey first bc that was gonna be a popular one the rest of the night. the idea of varian in kingdom hearts is definitely really funny. i do not go here im just being honest

OH. new addition to the costume. i had olivia with me as a shoulder friend

met bruno from encanto who commented on her. we talked about our rodent friends he was very nice. he said he brought "all 200" of his rats with him and wanted to help feed them and knows mickey is a big mouse so maybe we could ask him. i said we could just steal some food. varian got mad

went over to see sid from toy story because he seemed like a mean little bitch. he was a mean little bitch. i may have said that his creations could use a little work but thats no reason for him to say "your mouse needs a little work" and "i hope you kept the receipt".... cunt

laughing about how mother gothel was no longer part of the characters to meet. "they killed her forever this time" etc etc

watching the parade and varian almost jumping out of his skin when mother gothel was in the parade. her ghost

we went to this thing called villain's grove which was a bunch of light and effects n stuff through their little forest area. it was mostly a cool immersive experience so most of the footage is on the Lights And Effects Themselves but here's a few of us that look cool lol. gay tunnel (maybe not) (that segment was themed after frollo)

met hans from frozen. we absolutely had no clue he was going to be there it was pretty funny. you may guess that my friend @kristoffs-lullaby (varian cosplayer) is a frozen enjoyer. so we hopped in line to see him

hans asked if varian's alchemy balls were some sort of magic or enchantment and you'll Never guess what varian responded with

though explaining its alchemy and science and all that didnt really make him feel better. he even asked if its something that would be in danger of bringing in an "eternal winter". varian did not like that :)

saw dr. doofenshmirtz (?) i didnt watch that show. he was pretty fun to meet though. i know some people dont like his creepy ass design, but i do, its fun and weird to me. he wanted to collaborate with me and varian since we're scientists. really funny to have him say "i'll have my people call your people". a possible strange message that rapunzel will get later /j

also encountered hades. though our friend @iammisswow was with us and so i had him focus on her since shes a big hercules fan. the visual was hugo getting this scary man's attention to be put on someone else by calling her out. it worked obviously. "oh SHE is a HUGE fan of hercules"

madam mim from sword in the stone didnt really have as big of a crowd so we actually talked with her a pretty good amount. shes SO fun. lots of discussion about magic vs science and how she thinks knowledge is stupid. you can imagine how we of all people felt when she said "KNOWLEDGE is not power, MAGIC is power". she also liked olivia (she thought she was a familiar)

meeting judge doom from roger rabbit was kind of scary LOL. very intimidating man. but his area had vats of chemicals and all that so you can imagine we had fun with that. WE can be trusted. obviously.

nervously just nodding our heads as judge doom tells us to come to him if we have any information regarding where "that rabbit is" (we are not doing that)

and also we saw ernesto de la cruz from coco. we were actually able to catch him right as he started performing which is rad but i dont actually have any interactions to tell u about here it was bad ass though

and, unbeknownst to Hugo (as in i also didnt know about this), varian had a surprise for him. he had a whole... horribly genuine and flustery spiel to say about messing around in his lab and all that and made something for hugo. which was a necklace with a piece of colored glass-like material (teal) in the shape of a heart. hugo handled that whole situation really well (lie)

ANYWAYS ! that's it. i've mentioned before but Disneyland Trips will be retired really soon since I'm not too fond of a lot of their wack shit right now, but wanted to share some of the last bit of enjoyable times to be had there before that happens

[rosemarydisaster]

The Batfam and cooking

Alfred: we have so much canon info about this one. He takes pride in meeting the demands of his grandkids, but the kids sometimes just pretend to like it for his peace of mind.

Bruce: No. And I don't mean in the meme way. He's more than capable of sustaining himself and following instructions. He also chooses to subsist on those "nutritional milkshakes". Like to him is not a matter of learning how to cook, he's a chemist measuring his exact nutritional needs in a cup. It's disgusting and he shouldn't be allowed near the blender.

Barbara Gordon: not the best, not the worst. She has cooked, she will cook again. She's also not trying to make anything too fancy. She prefers take out mainly because she has (and will again in the future) burnt her food to a crisp because she got distracted with oracle stuff. A quick check while the potatoes are in the oven is a very dangerous thing.

Dick Grayson: he would love to be that guy that takes Instagramable pictures of his food. Sometimes he manages to do just that, but that's not sustainable for him. He has a few fancy recipes he likes to bring out to impress people or to feel like a responsible adult. Most of the time he's sauteing random vegetables with some rice and chicken and calling it a day. It's good, healthy and filling but is not much in the great scheme of things. I feel like he'd make really good salads too for some reason.

Cassandra Cain: she's not very good at being people. Cooking is part of that, a survival skill and not much more. She really appreciates nice food but doesn't see the point in learning herself when her time is better spent elsewhere. I can see her breaking into the other's houses to join them for dinner because she forgot to make her own.

Jason Todd: this man cooks. I don't care if the whole "Alfred's favorite" thing is a bit fanon, it's fun fanon. I think that since he is aware of how they lie to Alfred sometimes, he'd be an even better cook. He's the kind of guy to make any recipe work first try, even if he keeps workshopping it until it's perfect. He's also very neat and cleans after himself. Cooking helps him wind down after a hard night. If he messes up though he might cry.

Stephanie Brown: she took the whole "cooking is like science" and decided to be a mad scientist. Her cooking works for her because she has crazy tastes. Like she'd make a salami and Nutella sandwich and consider it her Magnum opus. She loves baking too just so she can fuck around and find out. Steph usually leaves the mess there until she needs the space to cook again. Not because she's dirty it's just that she gets so caught up in trying the final product she forgets about it. She stresses the fuck out of Jason.

Tim Drake: he's more of an utilitarian, closer to Cass. He learned a few simple recipes when he was a kid and that's all he needs. Through the years he's had to add a couple more to make it more balanced and fit his needs (first with the increase of physical activity and then the asplenia). He has a very healthy but very limited diet. He refuses to add anything else because there's no need. He already knows how to cook the things he needs and likes well, thank u very much.

Duke Thomas: this man can cook. It takes him a while to get into it, but he has great instinct for it. He's more of a "vibes only" kind of cook, which makes him an awful baker but Alfred has the sweets covered anyways. Part of his process includes picking the spices from the back of the rack that Alfred pretends don't exist. He's creative but not in as much of a messy way as Steph. And unlike her, he does have functioning taste buds so sometimes he ends up a victim of his own hubris. Most times it works out for him.

Damian Wayne Al Gul: he helps his siblings whenever he mooches food from them (because Alfred is the only one that tolerates idle hands in the kitchen). He loves Jason's cooking but he has more fun with Duke and Steph. They allow his input and suggestions which makes him feel like he's contributing. He prefers Duke though, because his success rate is higher.

[catacombbee]

school bus graveyard headcanons because im thinking about them

and because im projecting

just general / random headcanons

Tyler has arachnophobia and entomophobia. creepy crawlies are a HARD NO for Mr. Hernandez. Jackass bullies? No problem. Phantoms trying to eat him? Easy. Tree? Been there, done that. Fucking spiders? get it the FUCK away. mans has a visceral skin crawling reaction to even SEEING something creepy crawlie. it's one of the only things that makes him seriously panic other than yk someone being hurt

Ashlyn has autism yes this is basically canon i think. BUT Ashlyn has a lot of texture sensitivities both with clothes and with food. itchy scratchy clothes are a no. she cannot stand t-shirts keeping their tags they rub and scratch her neck and it makes her want to scream. she cuts the tags out before wearing anything. and food she can't have anything too squishy or tough or else she just loses her appetite entirely.

^^ to build on the clothing tags. everyone else in the group cuts the tags out of their jackets/hoodies and some shirts so if Ashlyn wants to borrow something she can be comfortable

Aiden is down bad for someone wearing his clothes. this can apply to any ship you want, i like him with Ashlyn Tyler or Logan (ive like never seen any talk abt Aidgan? Loden?) but regardless. whoever it is Aiden likes he gets so giddy butterflies giggly seeing someone wear his clothes. this is moreso for Ashlyn or maybe Logan because Ashlyn is so much smaller than Aiden that his sweatshirt would probably hang off her and Aiden would just abdjshfkefbns she's so cute!! this is mostly an Aidlyn hc for me but Logan would also be cute in anyone else's sweatshirt

uh if it's not clear by now im a multishipper ive said it before BUT i like Tyben a lot. they find calm and quiet in each other and bond through expressing themselves through something much healthier: music. i adore Tyben. AND because of Ben in the canvas webtoon: Tyler calls him ladybug. "Hey ladybug" "It's okay ladybug ive got you" "ladybug, you okay?"

kinda related to previous one but like blush hc. Ben does not blush. maybe a little pink on his cheeks. but his EARS. his ears get so RED when he's angry or when he's flustered. his face might be 😐 but you look at his ears and they're red you know he's flustered

ALSO everyone learned ASL for Ben so he didn't have to just use notes n stuff. Aiden was already learning but everyone else picked up on it

Logan likes compact spaces, they male him feel safe and secure. Like the tire! He feels very nice and snuggly in his tire. But also like. under beds. in closets (haha). one time they played hide and seek in Aiden's house and Logan won because he fell asleep curled up in an empty cabinet. Logan loves being little spoon because he just fits snugly in everyone's arms

it's been mentioned Tyler plays guitar, but i hc that he's also a really good artist. because he got into baseball for a scholarship he's kinda dropped both art and music, but in getting to know the others and especially Ben he gets back into playing music which leads to him drawing again. he doodles pictures of his friends and they realize what a good artist he is. that's how he realizes he actually has passion for creativity and decides he wants to be a tattoo artist.

(i was writing a tyden tattoo artist Tyler au on a reblog draft from a post @\the-killies made and like forgot abt it. someone peer pressure me if you think that sounds like snth you wanna read. it was probably over 1k words by the time i forgor)

Taylor likes mechanics (cus. the club) but she also knows some programming. this is solely because I think Taylor would like making little robots just for fun. Aiden would beg her to make him a little robot like that one companion toy robot Cosmo

in canvas sbg Logan brought a bunch of clothes for them to wear in the pictures/videos they took. so. Logan likes cosplay and renn faires. History is one of his favorite subjects (the other being science. english/literature is a very close third. he doesn't dislike math just isn't his favorite) so he has a lot of clothes from different time periods because of the renn faires he's been to.

This is a really unhinged headcanon and isn't something ive ever thought about before but thinking about Logan having outfits and stuff made me think who would be the most likely to be a furry. and no not Logan. it would be Aiden. hes rich enough to splurge on his fursuit. THIS IS A JOKE I DONT HC HIM AS A FURRY THIS IS A "WHOS MOST LIKELY TO" PLEAS

Aiden's favorite subject is history, he likes reading about wars but he also enjoys learning about other cultures and differences from how we live in modern day America. Aiden would probably study anthropology just for the fun of it. he and Logan bond over their love of history. Aiden can't remember what he had for lunch yesterday but he can tell you every little detail he knows about the Civil War start to finish, dates and names and locations and all.

this is a really weird hc but. Ashlyn is an amazing rapper. there was a karaoke night and one song someone did had a rap part coming up and they were like ahaha it's too fast for me and Ashlyn just stood up. took the mic. and fucking blew everyone's minds. and then she sat down like she didnt just rock their world

this last bit is self indulgent. assuming the phantom world things don't last forever, the kids get therapy eventually :D

^^ building on that, Ben specifically, he lives in my head rent free. i love him sm. Ben gets therapy for not just the phantom world things but everything beforehand. slowly and surely, starting with Aiden and Lily and maybe whichever person he's shipped with, he starts talking again. Some days are better than others, sometimes he gets quiet again, other times he goes for days talking as much as anyone (except aiden he yaps.) everyone almost cries when Ben is doing something and begins singing to himself because they realize he's better

im gonna do like gender & sexuality headcanons too,,, maybe later. might do silly ship hcs too cus i ship so many pairings here

[catchyhuh]

CAMPINGG YAAAY

everyone look at this image and imagine a beautiful world with me

lupin:

the first to suggest it and the worst at it. there’s a difference between “we HAVE to camp for a few nights” and “we should TOTALLY camp out you guys!!” so sure, he can survive it easily… if it’s framed as a necessity. but when its supposed to be a fun thing, ehhhh

getting all the shit together, finding a safe enough spot to set up, struggling through dinner and how to get rid of the trash right AND how to pitch the tent…

it’s the little things that keep drawing him back to it though. he hates working with the tent, but after the initial wave of irritation, he thinks back on the others laughing before asking if he needs some backup there and he’s like. yeah that was probably funny. he loves the sound of a forest at night too-- usually he can’t sleep when it’s too quiet, but with the trees rustling and bugs chirping and all that, it’s a nice, consistent sound machine. so he tends to forget how grouchy he got last time they went all because he starts thinking about when they all laid down and just stared up at the sky for nearly an hour

jigen:

bitch is like a cockroach he can easily survive any conditions at all. but that doesn’t mean he isn’t complaining

despite his. jigenness, he’s probably the one that gets the most actual enjoyment out of it. every other vacation they could take kind of still feels like a job, in his head. he can’t fully, totally relax in some luxury hotel, even if he enjoys it, because subconsciously, his brain is figuring out where the cameras are, the quickest route back to the car from their room, etc etc. camping is different just because it's SO isolated, it's SO different from anything else. so when he pulls his hat over his face and leans back in a beach chair they took from some resort in miami, he actually does feel totally at peace

unfortunately though as the guy who specializes in taking apart and putting back together doohickeys (read: giant real life fucking guns) he always ends up being the guy to read the manual and go “guys its a solar powered lantern. there is no switch. you just let it sit in the-- you keep it in the box this WHOLE TIME?”

fujiko:

also has a bit of that jigen thing where she feels like she can actually, completely and totally relax like this. you’d expect her to be the fussy type with camping but-- no. she’s not sleeping in the damn tent if she can help it, but getting a camper and just enjoying their little opening in the forest is pretty sweet. fujiko (and this is the case for a lot of things) is really the main one who truly understands her own limits and just Doesn’t Care beyond that. who gives a shit if its “real camping.” she’s having a good time

secretly kinda loves packing for these things and imagining all kinds of one off freak scenarios that would happen to justify needing some of this shit. “be sure to bring the flashlight in case somebody has to piss in the middle of the night” bullshit. “be sure to bring the flashlight in case we find a cave with a huge mouth that somehow leads to a long forgotten crypt” NOOOW you’re talkin!! it’s all about the essentials-- sunscreen, long socks, backup snacks, and, of course, the cursed amulet that’s SO cursed it’ll just ward off anything else that tries to fuck with them. nobody handles it like fujicakes

despite all this she’s not often one to suggest camping because she, uh. kinda forgets how much she enjoys it until it’s like, actively happening. she’s like you guys WANNA camp….?? really? and then the minute they arrive she gets all smiley and happy about being so close to a lake and seeing all the frogs and stuff like she’s a little kid in science class

goemon:

goemon uh. kinda does this all the time. just for himself. they’ll be in a nice hideout and if its isolated enough to the point passerby won’t look up and go “is that fucking goemon ishikawa the thirteenth chilling on the roof” well. yeah he chills on the roof. you know he loves that

but when they actually go CAMPING camping, he tends to go in a bit too much. like, he won’t use the little portable stove, gets downright offended if he’s offered bug spray, sometimes he gets so stubborn he’ll insist he doesn’t even need a tent! 

when it’s all said and done he almost subtly picks fun at the others for so obviously not being the type of people to enjoy camping like normal humans do. he’s seen 7yos with more survival instincts. uh ignore the fact that he stayed outside of the tent on a cold night because he was “strengthening” himself and he got like suuuper sick ignore that f

zenigata:

ALL IN OR NOT AT ALL PUSSY!! if you want neat, easy camping GO GET A CABIN! this is all about the CHALLENGE baby this is all about ROUGHIN IT!! no hate if you arent cut out for it but… heh… maybe consider a cozier vacation next time. we’re cooking shit over a campfire here we’re preparing to fight entire goddamn bears if necessary THIS IS THE BEAUTY OF NATURE! THIS IS TOUGH GUY TIME!!!!

he didn’t sleep at all last night because he set up his sleeping bag wrong and the tent collapsed on him at 4 am. don’t worry though the others only laughed at him for twenty minutes before helping him out of his nylon prison

so yeah, if its a necessity, he doesn’t have a problem with it at all. but if you frame it as a special trip, good fucking god help you. he says he loves it! and maybe he does a little bit, buuut he. tends to get a bit overzealous. like immediately. like as soon as they arrive he gets all serious about trees n shit, and then just 8 hours in he’s bundled up in one of fujiko’s gigantic velvety blankets by the fire like “snnf… pass me the trail mix.” he eats all the reese’s pieces out of it. they hate him so much

[bull-shit-suji]

kuro modern au stuff that i word vomited into my notes app

kind of a Vincent summoned sebastian to save ciel so ciel doesnt actually owe sebas anything

amnesia? idk

single dad moment! except theres this other dad whos kinda find.. (cough agni)

i think vincent was like do NOT let ciel know ur a demon so sebastian keeps it a secret but he doesnt have a good handle on like. Humans. so he kinda does a bad job and ciel definitely knows that he's weird but doesnt say anything. will go out of his way to gaslight you when sebastian does weird shit because he thinks its funny

"hey uhh is your dad levitating?"

"no?"

"he's flying above the school rn"

"that's a bird"

u think suddenly being a butler is hard? have fun being a dad bitch

alois is there but thats complicated. claude and hannah are DIVORCED but on decent terms (i think claude is like. toxic alpha male podcast type guy) and claude sees alois on alternating weekends!

are they demons? i dont know

i think ciel and alois can be friends. platonically. alois would probably say yes if ciel wanted to be romantic but i Promise you he does not. they are just pals :)

im saying ciel has a crush on elizabeth because i can (she's not his cousin here). emo boy x sunny church girl. said sunny church girl has to ask the mcdonalds employees for the blue raspberry slushie they forgot to put in ciel's order because emo boy is too scared.

IM 13 EVERYTHING SUCKSSSSS

grelle is actually living her best life transitioned with anne so they are ciel's aunts on his late mom's side. i think grelle likes ciel. mom figure moreso than anne is.

ciel owns four bongs and definitely a vape or two. come on now

he's also probably got celiac and is lactose intolerant he is just a feeble boy i think

he listens to twenty one pilots. sorry! sorry.

ciel is goth alois is punk those r kinda just the rules

ciel is insanely smart top of the class this shit is easy for him.

yells at sebastian daily. figured out what happened with his real parents around the age of uhhhh 12 or 13? has been an absolute terror ever since

"it was really nice of your dad to bring cookies for the field trip!"

"i hope he fucking chokes on one"

"oh!"

sebastian and claude are pta rivals.

"is this lemon bread store bought? my, how... efficient!"

"you made these from scratch? i can tell."

"i've never seen an interesting looking salsa! very exciting."

ciel purposefully invites alois over constantly bcus it pisses sebas off. alois is Terrified of that man.

"go grab the chips from the kitchen"

"but... what if mr michaelis is in there?"

"mr m- you mean my dad? tell him he can shove a faucet up his ass"

"id rather die on the spot"

sebastian will yell at ciel and is maybe a little emotionally unavailable but he's trying!!! it's hard :(

does that Dad thing where he comes into ciels room and is like hey bud......... what r u up to..

ciel and seiglinde r also palls. the smartest people in school

lizzie is a JOCK. she plays softball.

alois is a theater kid come on now

ciel is best at writing and literature analysis, specifically fiction. enjoys history, language, and Some sciences as well.

nerd

au where myspace is still a thing ciel has a myspace account

he definitely writes shitty poetry

wants to major in business

alois is a glee and pitch perfect truther

[ennabear]

hii !! 🫶🏻 just discovered your account and i love it !! :) i was wondering if you could write some more headcannons about ellie? like, what job would she do? etc. i like to think that if she existed today, she'd probably be an illustrator for children's books !! that'd be so cool, tbh. i can see her making books about space or dinosaurs, and going to book fairs at schools to meet kiddos and talk to them about it. (crossover with professor!abby who used to teach little kids 🫶🏻🫶🏻) aah. sorry for rambling. but like, i just think ellie would have a blast if she existed today. like with all the museums ?? all the new ways to make art ?? but anyway !! what are *your* headcannons for modern ellie !! 🪐🫶🏻

modern!ellie’s job!! (hc) 🦕

thx for the request bae cause this made me smile so big. i have SO many hcs for modern ellie like i’ve been waiting for this moment!!!!! also dw about rambling i love to hear your thoughts 🤗

ok for starters i think ellie would be a nerd in high school. i know that some people headcanon her as a jock or a stoner (and that ellie has a special place in my heart) but i definitely think she’d be the opposite tbh. i imagine her with only a few friends (dina, jesse, cat). and i also think she’d have insanely good grades because she’s just smart like that. and all of her teachers love her because even though she’s quiet, she’s really kind and creative.

also i think her family would be just her and joel and maybe a dog. like imagine her spending her weekends getting guitar lessons from joel and then taking her dog on a walk and documenting it in her journal. she would fr have such a blast!!!!

for college i definitely think she’d major in astronomy/astrophysics or maybe art history?? and in her last years of college, she’d get a job as a secretary for a science museum. honestly, she didn’t hate it, but she was super jealous of the tour guide because she got to take all of the cute little kids on a walk and talk about the fun stuff while ellie had to sit behind a desk all day. but after begging her supervisor enough, she’d get promoted to tour guide after the mean old lady who used to do it retired.

and guess what??? the kiddos loved her!!! she always made sure the kids were having a great time and she knew a lot about what she was talking about, whether it was dinosaurs or planets or volcanoes. and the joke book came everywhere with her!! absolutely nothing made her happier than hearing the little monsters giggling and squealing about a joke that wasn’t even that funny.

abby and ellie would become good friends because of the time abby took her class to the museum on a field trip. they ended up actually really liking each other, especially because they had so much in common. and sometimes after work they’d meet up at a bar and talk about life, it was nice for them to both have a new friend who was equally as nerdy.

ellie would be a tour guide for quite a few years while abby got her doctorate. a few years after abby became a professor, ellie tried out illustrating a childrens book for a local visitor at the museum who was really fond of ellie. it was nothing too big, but she was really proud of it.

after she finished the drawings for the book, she wanted to try writing one of her own. so she decided to write a textbook for kids about dinosaurs with her own illustrations and a joke on every page.

safe to say it was super successful!!! she ended up going to local elementary schools and educating the littles about the different types of dinosaurs and each era they lived in. and you better believe old man joel was so proud!!!! his little girl ellie that he used to take to dinosaur museums was now writing her own dinosaur books!!!

i think eventually she’d quit her job at the museum and focus on being a writer full time, along with keeping art as a hobby. and i can 100% see her getting married and adopting a kid just like joel adopted her, and she’d pass on all of her science knowledge to her mini self. also i think she’d mainly only write science textbooks for kids, but may end up publishing a sci-fi novel or two.

i think that’s all :3 thanks for the ask sweetie pie ilysm 🫶

daily click / israeli themes in tlou

[annabtg]

Okay so what are your favourite lilypad hc's? 🤩

Oooh Lilypad hc's?? Don't mind if I do! 🤩

As previously stated, Sirius is very soft for Lily. To the point that makes everyone go "who is this guy and what have you done to Sirius Black". They will tease each other, have their arguments at times, but he never snipes with malice at her or show her this bored/haughty side others see.

Lily is very much the same right back. I think they have this mutual understanding that the other hasn't got much love in their lives and they've put up shields to protect themselves; so they try to be a safe place for each other. They know the other appreciates and understands them and they find comfort in each other.

They are very handsy and physical. You will always find Lily sitting on his lap or Sirius holding her close. Not kissing and snogging in front of others, however. That's something that's only their own.

And god damn it they need their alone time. Every day. They look like such a balanced and cool couple to outsiders, with how they're not jealous and have their separate friends etc., but if they don't have some alone time every day (night, preferably) they will burst.

They do a lot of Muggle activities together. Go bowling, play poker, go to Muggle concerts. Sirius loves discovering new activities and Lily takes pleasure in showing/teaching him.

Unlike James, for whom gift-giving is a love language, Sirius and Lily are not very much into presents. They will give each other a gift on some special occasion, and it will be very thoughtfully chosen, but they're just as likely to leave a birthday go without a present if they haven't thought of anything good. Sirius has given Lily a couple of pieces of jewellery that she always wears and that's it for giving her any more wearable stuff. No clothing items, no lingerie, nothing like that. But he buys her these nice dress robes she needed to go to that wedding/event thing, because they went shopping together and why the hell not.

Books. Books books books. They are book nerds, both of them. Not literature, though - spellbooks, potions guides, science books, encyclopedias. They read them for fun and nerd out exchanging fun facts.

They're not the outdoorsy types the way James is - they're more activity oriented, like "let's go on a motorcycle ride" or "let's go stargazing" (they love stargazing together, and it's a very special activity for them). They won't just go out for a walk or a picnic.

They're also not foodies. Idk they just aren't. They both love tea, though.

They don't meet each other's family. Like, even in a universe where they stay together all their lives and there's no war and whatever, Lily drifts away from her family and Sirius is her person. I guess she invites them to the wedding, if there is one, but she doesn't care for family dinners and keeping in touch etc.. Being with him in all its effortlessness makes her realize there are some fucked up dynamics in her family that she doesn't need to put up with, and she definitely doesn't want to put him under their scrutiny.

Because yeah their being together is effortless. If it weren't, they wouldn't be together. Sirius would never make an effort to win a girl or change for anyone. He's a take it or leave it sort of person, and they just happen to fit so well they get and stay together.

And this is why if/when Lily falls in love with James, Sirius is like "okay then" and lets her be. What do you want him to do, beg? Put on a show to win her back? She's her own person with her own feelings. And James is a pretty great guy, actually, so good for her, really.

But there is no world in which they stop being physical. They may or may not stop having sex, but Lily would never get into a relationship with anyone who expects her to just stop sitting on his lap or snuggle close to him on the sofa. Their relationship, however long it lasts, is very deep, the kind of thing that leaves feelings that never go away, and their physical intimacy stems straight from that.

Thanks for this ask, I had a blast writing this :D

[hedgehog-moss]

hi! Just wanted to ask what you’ve been reading lately? I love seeing your book recs! Also what are some of your favorite books ?

Hi :) I've read some disappointing stuff lately, so I decided to start two books from my to-read list that felt like safe bets—Samantha Shannon's A Day of Fallen Night and Elsa Morante's Lies and Sorcery. I'm enjoying both so far!

I've read interesting nonfiction this year—Empire of Pain, about the Sackler family; Erich Schwartzel's Red Carpet about the role of the movie business in cultural hegemony; and Laure Hillerin's biography of the Countess Greffulhe, who was a fascinating woman. She was the real-life model behind Proust's Duchess de Guermantes character, and a really influential figure in the arts & sciences in the early 1900s—she financed the first productions of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, frequented Rodin's studio, helped Marie Curie find the funds to start her Radium Institute... It was a good read. I also read a biography of Anne Perry by Peter Graham, which was so-so—the story of the murder is morbidly fascinating but the way it was told had too many trivial details and not enough depth.

Worst nonfiction books of the year so far were Niall Ferguson's Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe which didn't seem to have any point to make, and François-Guillaume Lorrain's Scarlett which was marketed as a fascinating new look into the making of Gone With the Wind but actually the author just watched his DVD's behind-the-scenes bonus content and diluted it into 300+ pages of rehashed anecdotes, it was so pointless. I found it on the "Vos libraires vous recommandent !" shelf and now I feel betrayed by that bookshop.

As for fiction, I've enjoyed Ira Levin's A Kiss Before Dying, it felt very dated in a fun way, everything about it felt intensely 1950s. Was very disappointed by Silvia Avallone's Acciaio, I'd heard good things about it but it was so joyless and meh. Álvaro Enrigue's Ahora me rindo y eso es todo was a bit disappointing in the second half, but the first half was good so I'll try other books of his. Pierre Lemaitre's Miroir de nos peines was fun in an expected way—I mean those who enjoyed the beginning of his Au revoir là-haut trilogy will enjoy this one too as it's more of the same. And I also had a good time reading Catherynne Valente's Radiance— similarly if you already like her writing style you'll probably enjoy this book. (I was listening to this as I read it and it fit really well with the floaty-nostalgic-unearthly atmosphere of the book, it's always nice to accidentally find a good book-soundtrack that enhances the experience! Now I can never listen to it while reading again as it's too intertwined with that story.)

And I really liked Madame de Staël's Delphine but I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone, it's very 18th century (though it's from 1802). If you enjoy idle noblewomen writing each other 20-page-long letters in gorgeously long-winded 18th-century prose about how the Viscount of Something glanced at them from the other end of a salon and nothing else happened and now they're having agonies then you'll love this book, it's 900 pages of this. I can't get enough of it personally, and I found it hilarious that these aristocrats had such low-stakes problems considering the story starts in 1790. They didn't notice the Revolution, they were too busy writing tormented letters about extramarital glances.

Some books I've added to my kindle recently: Virginia Feito's Mrs. March, Simon Schama's Landscape & Memory (someone I follow on GR described it as "monstrously bloated" while the NYT blurb diplomatically calls it "a work of enormous scope" which made me laugh), Seyhmus Dagtekin's To the Spring, by Night, Margarita Liberaki's Three Summers, Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Dawn Powell's A Time to Be Born.

This got long, sorry! You can have a look at my 5- and 4.5 star shelves on goodreads, for some of my favourite books of the past few years :)

[professorofcosplay]

Murder Drones Headcanons since I have brainrot

— Uzi loves playing Mario kart with N since he’s a terrible driver because she always wins. She’s not above that. 

— Tessa wanted to be a hairdresser or in R&D for computer science when she grew up and loved practicing on her drones. She was leaning towards hair, though she had a knack with drones. You can imagine what her parents thought of these career leanings.

— J actually changed hair/wigstyles quite a bit because of this. The wildest “phase” was bubblegum pink. Her parents made her throw out the mohawk wig. :(

— J genuinely loved/loves Tessa, possibly even more than any of the others did; she just also faced the most punishment since she was the drone with Tessa the most and therefore she was the easiest to get ahold of. Thus, she faced Tessa’s parents’ wrath more often and was even more afraid of them than the others. This led to a sort of learned helplessness/submission in her that was hard to unlearn. 

— J is actually very, very self conscious. She’s isn’t a bully just to be a bitch but because she thinks it will save her from being the focus of someone’s wrath. Scapegoating at its finest. (Though she still is a bitch.)

— J steals the wigs from workers she kills and wears them sometimes. She doesn’t know exactly why; it just feels oddly familiar. 

— The three DDs all snuggled like a pile of puppies in the space pod when in sleep mode. The pod can be programmed for a destination but has to be piloted (or lack thereof) to the surface so they could just snooze until initial descent (and they did!). 

— Antifreeze is the drone equivalent of Monster energy drinks, so, naturally, Uzi lives off the stuff. 

— Most drones actually make their own wigs!   A lot of them are from thin wires they’ve scavenged from Copper 9’s wreckage, though there’s some made from melted plastic like faux hair human wigs. 

— Thad collects Nerf guns. They’re more fun than the real thing for him. That’s one thing Uzi and Thad can chat about for hours. 

— Thad and Uzi also collaborate (and compete) on pranks!  They have a prank hit list of workers they want to mess with and whoever checks everyone off first is the winner. Their favorite was replacing Lizzy’s lip gloss with oil. Cruel, yes, but the gross-out factor had them in stitches for at least an hour. 

— Thad has a JROTC-like chapter of the WDF as an after-school club. It’s mostly just LARPing with his Nerf collection.  

— V bites the tips of her claws as a nervous habit. They’re a bit dented and scuffed because of this.  

— Khan is a magnet user to cope with the stress of the colony’s existence on his shoulders, the loss of Nori, and single parenting. He doesn’t really tell anyone about it and is pretty high functioning. 

— N is a huge fan of stickers!  He has found a few packs of them and loves decorating himself/paper/Uzi’s hoodie when she’s not looking/pretty much everything them. 

— V and J are girl’s girls.

— Lizzy has painted V’s claws Barbie pink before. V absolutely adored how it turned out.

— Doll was adopted by Lizzy’s parents after her own family died and while she hides out at her old home to hide her consumption of oil/etc a lot of the time, she actually lives at Lizzy’s; this is why they’re so inseparable. 

— Speaking of Lizzy, the only one to mourn Doll’s loss will be Lizzy and her family, though Uzi will make every attempt to give her and what’s left of her parents’ remains a decent resting place.   — Humanized Khan is buff.

— Khan once threw Uzi a birthday party. None of her classmates showed up (though Thad did send a very nice card) so she only got one present. Guess what it was? 

[starlightswordfight]

"jeremy if this is another hc post I'm going to kill you" bad news

castaway nonsense PART TWO

– schnauz is deathly afraid of water. it unsettles him deeply, largely because of past experience. do you SEE his treasure catalogue entry for the blue paint?? who "swims out" for the "last time" in a swimming pool???? someone fucking DIED

– on a slightly similar note, he laughs when he's nervous!

– he is Perpetually Nervous

– I think molly would REALLY like the evil skeleton wizard memes that have taken over my brain for the past several years. "not me being evil shadow skull" and no one knows what the fuck she's talking about

– molly writes fanfiction

– will let people borrow her camera if you ask nicely

– speaking of molly. her and patch and dash should be best friends forever. same home planet and they all do stupid shit. jin is also involved and they're the voice of reason

– dash has a lot of fidget toys. on him at all times

– wears those jackets where it's just an anime character wrapped around them all the way all bizarre like. he doesn't think it's a good design by any means it's just really funny

– frisé's favorite instrument is the didgeridoo

– also she's intersex. I can do whatever I want

– hitting frisé with the singing/humming/tapping on stuff as stims beam

– construction work is super fucking loud so I think corgwin just would not be bothered by sudden/incredible noise anymore. it just reads as background stuff to him! that or he like genuinely isn't picking up on some of it at all, it doesn't register. frequent tinnitus haver. he might be going deaf

– corgwin is tumblr famous. the pikmin universe tumblr equivalent anyway. inspired by the headcanon generator that told us in the pikmin server I'm in that charlie lit a school on fire and got away with it and that the rescue corps killed princess diana

– think about it. he'd share fun building facts. niche internet micro celebrity and everybody loves him

– lapi is also tumblr famous

– he likes frolicking around outside For Enrichment but he also does it in the rain and sometimes comes home sick

– guilty of making sketchbooks into renderbooks and taking several years to complete them. "but it has to be perfect" That Is The Devil Talking

– horatio is not immune to the fog

– he has a VERY specific skillset. like. like stupid specific. the guy is the most proficient xylophonist you've ever met but he can't cook. knows how aeronautics works but his phone call game is BAD. give him an old movie from decades back and he can tell you what it is and who acted in it and exactly where he was when he first saw it, easily. if you ask him for directions anywhere he'll crumble and die

– he wrote his ID badge like that. it was fully and completely on purpose. horatio thinks it's funny as hell

– françois really likes bugs! sees them all the time in his work even if his studies are flora centric. while on pnf-404 he probably talks about it a LOT with dalmo. botany/environmental science major who minored in entomology

– I just do not think he'd be afraid of them and that is beautiful. he allows nothing to dissuade him. he has pet spiders it is wonderful

– OKAY YOU KNOW THOSE THINGS YOU CAN GET AT THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER AND IN OTHER PLACES WHERE IT'S LIKE ROCK SAMPLES FROM FOREIGN SPACE BODIES?? AM I INSANE??? in the little capsules and shit ????? yeah kit has those

– astrophysics lover. adores space science. worked at a planetarium before meeting osa. I don't remember if this contradicts the established lore and I am too tired to go back and check so if im wrong you can pelt me with stones and tomato

– osa lets him ramble on about it but in all honesty he does not know what the fuck kit is talking about half the time ever. ever

– vice versa! osa also has a huge nerd thing and it's world history. which makes sense for an archaeologist. I don't mean modern history either I mean ANCIENT

– fawks would unironically endorse the idea of a cybertruck but it never comes to fruition because everyone says it's stupid and he feels insulted and he gives up and sulks about it

– but he'd specialize. I know he would. he gets specific with it. good for him! my money is on prehistoric archaeology, stuff back before written text, and language, and any history that could be recorded with the power of words. which is why travelling to pnf-404 was so fucking important to him, he's been trying to construct something that would fill in the gaps of that lost starfolk history and this WAS the exact sort of thing that he was looking for

– technically they're doing geoarchaeology together. yes that's a subfield

– he is a tech bro and everybody thinks this is stupid and dumb also

– chewy

[doyouknowbtsswag]

I Found You |Su-Hyeok|

(Spoilers)

I tapped my pencil against my desk listening to whatever the teacher was saying. I looked at the board and saw some notes to take. I took my time writing wanting it to be neat. I try my best to look presentable, wanting to meet my parents proud. It's not like they were strict I want to make them proud even though they aren't pushy. It's nice hearing my parents talk to my family about my grades. It wasn't just for them, I wanted to impress Su-Hyeok. We've talked before and we're pretty good friends but I want to be more. Will he know that? Absolutely not, I like being with him and I don't want to ruin our friendship even if I wanted more. I smiled to myself waiting till the bell rang so I could talk to him on the way to the cafeteria. He'd go sit with his friends unfortunately for me, I lost a friend because I wasn't cool enough so I end up talking to random people every day. I wasn't that talkative but I managed to talk to two other girls I wanted to show her I didn't need her. Once the bell rang I packed up my stuff and went outside the classroom to wait for him.

"Jesus, you scared the shit out of me," I said looking at Su-Hyeok grinning.

"Your so easy to sneak up on" He chuckled as a smacked his chest lightly.

"I am not, I just didn't expect a random voice to be right behind me," I said as we made our way to the cafeteria. "How was class?"

"Boring"

"Fooling around?" I asked jokingly raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe," He said smiling.

"Well my class wasn't that great either, I felt like I was going to fall asleep" I sighed. "But I have to work hard"

"No, you need to relax a bit." He said putting his arm around my shoulder in a joking manner, unfortunately. "You need to do something fun and not spend all your free time studying."

"I'll have you know I binge-watch shows and listen to music"

"Didn't you dance and sing in middle school?"

"Yes"

"Do you miss it?"

"Every once and a while I regret quitting," I said. "But there's nothing I can do now"

"You could still sign up," He said. "I'll even watch you perform"

"Maybe" I smiled.

"That should be a yes," He said. "I want to see you dance at least once"

"Like I said maybe." I smiled as he took his arm off my shoulder as we made it to the cafeteria.

"Can't wait for you to say yes later today" He said before walking over to his friends.

I sighed and looked for On-Jo and I-Sak. I saw On-Jo wave her wand to signal me over. I walked over and sat next to her.

"Why is your face all red?" On-Jo asked as I brought out my lunchbox.

"Su-Hyeok" I mumbled. "He's so oblivious"

"Everyone knows about your little crush except him," I-Sak said pointing her chopstick at me. "Just tell him"

"Absolutely not"

"Oh come on," On-Jo said.

"I don't want to lose him," I said taking a bite out of my apple. "I'd rather suffer"

"Don't be overdramatic" I-Sak said

"I'm not"

"Anyways how did you do on the test in Science?" I-Sak asked.

"I got a 95," I said proudly.

"I'm surprised it's not a 100" On-Jo joked

"Oh whatever," I said nudging her smiling. "And you?"

"Looks like we've got to clean up," She said changing the subject. "We'll be back we're just putting our trays back"

"Alright," I said watching them leave.

"Hey, Y/n? I know we don't talk much" I looked up and saw Cheong-San standing in front of the table. "Could you help me out with something?"

"Uh, sure? Depends on what it is" I said packing my lunch box.

"Can you tell On-Jo to meet me in front of the school later, I have to tell her something"

"I think I know what it is so of course" I grinned as he blushed.

"Don't tell anyone okay?"

"I won't," I said standing up. "Good luck"

"Thank you"

"Don't mention it" I smiled and watched him walk away.

I stood waiting for On-Jo and I-Sak to come back. I started to daydream till I heard a bunch of steps. I looked over and saw a bunch of students running in the cafeteria. Someone closed the door on the rest and banging was seen through the glass that it shattered open. Students flooded the cafeteria as chaos quickly spread. I was getting bumped into left and right. I stood up on the table to see what was truly going on. My heart dropped at the sight. People eating others and quickly turning into monsters to spread whatever was going on. I looked around for a place to run but it was almost impossible to leave. The sprinklers went off making everything worse. I saw Cheong-San help On-Jo go through a window and sighed in relief at least one of my friends will survive. I felt an arm tug on me and saw Su-Hyeok pulling me down by my hand.

"We have to go," He said as he grabbed a chair as if it was a shield to run outside. I almost slipped on but quickly caught myself

We ran to the stairs and I followed Su-Hyeok. I wasn't bothered to pay attention to the fact that we were holding hands. We stopped seeing a man on top of a ladder before falling down. As they were distracted we moved the ladder so we were able to get to a window.

"Be careful" He said as he climbed up The window opened and he was pulled through. I started to climb but the ladder started shaking. I looked down and saw a few zombies grabbing the ladder. I felt a hand grab mine as my breathing became shakier. The ladder officially collapsed and the only thing keeping me from the ground was Su-Hyeok's hand. "Don't let go! I've got you okay?"

I looked up horrified and Su-Hyeoks face mirrored mine. I had nothing to grab onto and my hand started to slip from his.

"Hold on a little more okay?" He said panicking. "I'll pull you up I promise! Guys help me!"

I felt more force pull me up but it made my hand slip more. His eyes were tearing up as he looked at me. He was using both of his hands but they kept slipping. I looked down and saw that the zombies walked away from where they just were. I could make a run for it and find someplace to find safety.

"I'm sorry" I whispered as my hand slipped from his.

I fell to the ground and quickly got up running for my life.

"Y/n!" He yelled trying to get down the building but his friends pulled him back.

His scream drew all of the zombies to that building point but I still had to close calls. I never looked back as I kept running forward. I looked at the big tree coming up close that led to a classroom window.

"Here I go" I whispered and did my best to climb the tree I yelped as I saw my foot being grabbed at.

I stomped on it with my other foot holding the tree branch for my life. Once the hand let go I made it to the top. The branches kept creaking as I slowly made it to what looked like the music room window. I looked through the window and saw the coast was clear. I carefully opened the window and climbed in. I sighed in relief until I heard the piano go off. I looked over and saw a girl trapped underneath the piano. I slowly moved back until I fell out of the classroom. I closed the door and noticed that she wasn't going to escape from under the heavy object. I sighed quietly sitting against the wall closest to the window. Fear finally had time to take over as I sat and watched what used to be my classmates bang against the window of the classroom or walk away bloodied with no emotions. I dug my head into my knees crying softly. A day passed by and my head hurt from crying all night and not sleeping. I was too scared to close my eyes just in case a zombie came in. The hallway silence was filled with a bunch of noises and I quickly got up. Before I could do anything the door opened and shut as I started to climb out of the window.

"Y/n?" I heard a familiar voice say. I turned around and saw a person holding a guitar in a bloody uniform.

"Cheong-San," I said stepping down from the window. "You're alive"

"I thought you died," He said as we whispered back and forth looking at the door in front of us.

"Is Su-Hyeok okay?" I said urgently.

"He's safe, don't worry," He said putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Thank fuck" I whispered.

"Stay back," He said referring to the girl under the piano.

"Don't worry she hasn't moved since yesterday."

He just nodded a few minutes later we heard voices come from the intercom. I flinched and hid behind Cheong-San as the Zombies ran to the speakers.

"Cheong-San are you there?" Dae-Su said over the intercom.

"Cheong-San do you hear us?" My heart rate spiked hearing Su-Hyeok's voice over the speakers.

"Told you," Cheong-San said rubbing my back.

"It's me Su-Hyeok. We'll come to you so stay put got it?"

"Don't come here Moron, you can't come here" Cheong-San said walking to the speaker as if it actually does something.

"Shh," I said and continued to listen to what he was saying.

Su-Hyeok kept reassuring Cheong-San they were coming but little did they know it took my whole power to get him to shut up to listen to the announcement.

"And Y/n you better be safe okay? I still have to get that yes from you so I can see you perform."

I nodded to myself but saw Cheong-San planning his escape. I grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the window. "Stop it!"

He was about to fight back till On-Jo came over the speaker.

"Cheong-San please stay still," On-Jo said making him stop fighting my grasp to leave. "I know you never listen to me but listen just this once"

This took Cheong-San out of his dazed state and sat on a desk his head in his hands.

"They'll be fine," I said sitting across from him. "Believe in them okay?"

"Yeah...."

This time music did blare in the speakers as I watched the zombies run to either side of the hallway. My leg bounced anxiously waiting to see if anyone ends up coming to get us. After what felt like forever we heard footsteps coming from the hallway and the door opening. I looked up and saw a group of people. Dae-Su went up and hugged Cheong-San and On-Jo looked over.

"Y/n?" Hyo-Ryung said. "I did see you on the drone camera"

"Drone camera?" I asked confused.

"Never mind that I'm glad your alive" She smiled.

"Where's Su-Hyeok?" I asked as On-Jo hugged me I started to struggle in her grasp trying to leave. "Where is he?"

"He was behind us," Dae-Su said.

Suddenly the door started to bang frantically. There was a voice telling us to let them in. Cheong-San hesitantly opened the door as Nam-Ra and Su-Hyeok ran in. I made eye contact with Su-Hyeok who ran up and hugged me.

"Thank god your okay," He said his voice shaky. "How did you do it, I thought I lost you"

"I thought I lost you too," I said I pulled away from the hug to look at him directly. His face was bloody and he had a bruise on his face. "What happened?"

"That's not important" He smiled gently. "What's important is that I can see you again"

"I should've told you this before but I really like you, when I was stuck in here I thought that I would never see you again and you wouldn't know my feelings. I got scared that I wouldn't be able to tell you and-" my rambling went off as I felt a pair of lips on mine.

"It's okay, I'm here" He cupped my cheek. "And I really like you too so don't scare me like that"

"I won't ever again"

"Promise?"

"I promise," I said hugging him and he let my hair. The soothing made me feel like collapsing from exhaustion but my happiness kept it away. I heard two people clapping at our confession.

"Shut up," Su-Hyeok said.

Even though this is one small moment in the hell hole that we have ahead of ourselves that I'm not sure I'm ready for it. This moment was the happiest little did I know the chaos that was just beginning.

[zarvasace]

1931 Vampire AU!

For those unaware, I wrote a bit of a neat Linked Universe setting AU last year that I haven't done much with, but I really like it and want to share a bit more about it! Links to the existing fics where relevant.

The series on AO3 is here!

(It would also be fun to develop this AU a little more, and I'd like to draw some stuff for it, so if you send in an ask about it, I might answer with a doodle. ;) )

AU basics: a hidden magic world in America, the year 1931 after WWI. None of the boys are human (except Twilight, at least at first), but they all think they're hiding magic from everyone else, at least for a time. :) There are a lot of magical peoples in this world, organized in their own ways, e.g. merfolk kingdoms, fae courts, the vampire councils, entire hidden cults, and hunter organizations. Ganon exists, but he's a hidden threat that they've all faced in one way or another.

Character summaries!

Wind: the focus of this AU. (The original fic was an excuse to make him very cool.) He was born 1696 in Florida ish, at the height of the golden age of piracy. He was turned into a vampire by Tetra in about 1710 and is eternally physically 14. He sailed with her crew (all pirates) for a few decades. She was invited to the western vampire council in Spain in 1750 as the vampire pirate queen, but... stuff went down. (fic: Body and Soul Marooned) She and her whole crew died, along with a lot of vampires. Wind survived, getting a nice angsty scene in there where they said wedding vows as she died, and went on to try and warn other councils about the upcoming massacres. Because most vampires died during that time, Wind is one of the oldest vampires still alive, and most who survived that time owe their lives to him.

Warriors: the secondary focus of this AU. He was a legitimate soldier during WWI, proper age and everything. When Wind enlisted, Wars took it upon himself to guide this seemingly young kid, and got killed doing so. Wind turned him into a vampire, not wanting him to die. (fic: In the Chill of Battle) He has a fun relationship with Wind, both of them taking the big-brother role in turns. Wars is a younger vampire, but his brain and body was able to mature more, so. Before Wars knew Wind, he was also captain of a division with Time, not that Time remembers that right off. Wars acts the responsible adult, so he gets them both hired as part of Time's team.

Time: he's Twilight and Wild's uncle. When he was a kid, he was whisked away to Faerie and replaced by a changeling for a few years. He fought his way back to find that time had passed differently for him, so he's mentally older than he appears. He didn't get out without being touched by the fae, and is beholden to some of their rules. He's the only one old enough to have enlisted in the military at a legal age, and used his status as a veteran to get a job at a local police station as a sort of detective. That's how he collects all the boys. :)

Wild: half-vampire. He's aging slowly, but still aging. He's close to Twilight, but always felt like he didn't exactly belong. Vampires as an organization don't believe there are many dhampirs out there, and don't like them, but a few underground cells have been organizing. Wild had a few run-ins with them. He's aware of a lot more magic than people think he is, having networked out to several kinds of magical peoples. The Yiga are a cult of shapeshifters that are out for his blood. (fic: Caged) He joined the team when the existing members came to save him and Twilight from them, later in the "story." Wild is one of those in the group willing to do Mad Science. :)

Twilight: is human. He dealt with Wild his whole life, so he's aware of vampires, but not much else. Over the course of the "story," he gets turned into a werewolf, so all of the boys get to deal with that.

Sky: he's a lynchpin of the team! Without Sky, not everyone would be there. He's an air elemental by birth, fairly important in those familial circles but mostly separated from them these days. His natural form is not exactly... physical. He knows Time from the war (he enlisted at too young an age near the end, and didn't see much combat, but made connections), Legend from some of what Legend did (aka everything, but specifically some merchant connections in this case), and found Four on his own. Sky doesn't count as fae at all, but he's in-tune with the environment and flow of magic around him. (He's not happy about the dust bowl.) He is pretty oblivious to the others being magical, though.

Four: he's rather disconnected from the others, in terms of backstory. To understand him, you have to know that there are six courts of the fae: one for each season in the wheel, with a light and a dark in the center and outside. Four grew up in the Light Court, full fae. One of the princess's Minish advisors betrayed the Light Court and gave power to the Dark (hi Vaati), and Four helped to restore balance. In the process, he had to change. The courts didnt generally trust each other, so Four split into four fae with the help of magic, one for each seasonal court. More magic and betrayal happened, and Four is semi-stuck as a Dark fae now. He can become a shadow and hide in other shadows, but he's vulnerable to light in general. When he left Faerie for the mortal world, he found Sky, who pretty much adopted him as a little brother. He's very protective of Sky.

Legend: is a prince of one of the merfolk kingdoms. He saved each of the underwater kingdoms at least once, then ventured to the surface to find more wrongs that needed righting. He isn't obvious about it, but he has a good heart. He's kind of sort of employed as a spy and informant, but he focuses on supernatural issues. He's more of a special ops agent than anything, though he does like to find people who'll pay him for doing what he wants to do anyway. He's been practically everywhere and done practically everything. He definitely heard of Wind, but didn't connect the dots right off. Merfolk aren't considered fae, but his particular family line made contracts with fae long ago, and he has some of their geases in a lightened form. He figured out pretty quickly that everyone was magic and trying to hide it.

Hyrule: is full fae, like Four, but of the Spring Court. He lived in the human world his whole life, a street kid who had to keep his fae nature tightly under wraps, which could get difficult around the promises and names and iron of daily life. He moved around a lot. He was captured for a year or two by unscrupulous scientists and rescued by Legend, who took him to Sky and Time. (fic: EPISODE SEVEN: Lost and Found) He's the resident healer and mad scientist.

Other Fics

More Than You Can Chew: the beginning of the "story." Starts with Wars confessing he's a vampire, and then they go rescue Wind, who's been captured by wannabe hunters.

Council: sort-of ongoing fic about Wind taking the rest of the Chain to the latest vampire council meeting. >:)

[videogamelover99]

[Gravity Falls] Waking Days Ch. 3: The Master of the Mind

Summary: Bill Cipher is reborn, but not in the way he would have wanted. Stuck as a mortal and relying on those who brought his downfall, he realizes that maybe he didn't lie as hard as he should have. [AO3 Link] Characters: Bill Cipher, Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines, Stanford Pines, Stanley Pines, Jheselbraum the Unswerving, The Axolotl Pairings: past BillFord Rating: T

A/N: Hope you like this new chapter! Thank you to @megxolotl and @nexstage for beta-reading. Enjoy!

---

The mindscape opened up around Bill, casting the Mystery Shack’s living room in fuzzy greyscale. Bill’s human prison lay beneath him, fast asleep on the couch. Human astral projection wasn’t exactly rocket science, but the cute little speck of power he’d retrieved from the rift gave him access to something far better: the squealing minds of others. His projected consciousness could take any form he wished, and it was a blast to have his snazzy three-sided form back, if temporarily.

Ha! Couldn’t have predicted this, Frills?

He had some housekeeping to do. The mindscape let him interact with his mind, and Bill spent the first night eagerly sorting through the scraps of information his memory was trying desperately to hold on to. A human mind was not meant for trillions of years’ worth of memories, and it had a pesky habit of prioritizing things that it deemed “important”, and throwing the rest out with the garbage. Bill had to dig stuff up from a pile of discarded and disintegrating memories and cram it into corners it couldn’t escape from. It was like lying about cleaning your room, only to shove everything under the bed and hope Mom wouldn’t notice.

Once he was sure he wouldn’t lose whatever remains of his infinite knowledge left to him, Bill finally got to the real fun. He poked around the town, invading sleeping heads and only causing minor chaos in his wake. He didn’t want to give himself away that easily. 

Well. Lazy Susan sure liked cats.

Dipper’s nightmare of fighting parents and disintegrating nuclear families took a backseat to one about twelve-headed pigs. 

One peek into Sheriff Blub’s brain: it was a play-by-play of Mabel’s trashy romance novels. 

One peek in Deputy Durland’s brain, and he had to pour caustic soda in his eye. Humans were such freaks.

There were two minds Bill had to keep from, if only for now. Sixer was too likely to recognize his presence. As for Stanley…

He didn’t want to see Stanley’s mind ever again. 

Bill kept searching. One of these small-town hicks was bound to find another rift, another crumb of his power. All he had to do was play nice.

It was only a matter of time. 

—

Learning to play nice, however, was harder than it looked.

"So, anyway, this is why-" Mabel Pines' cheerful voice grated on him as she prattled about something one of her little friends did. They sat on the floor in the attic, surrounded by a pillow fort the twins had constructed, and Bill attempted to look like he was listening. He noticed the stained-glass window that used to hold his face had been replaced by some boring plexiglass. Boo. 

"Hey, Billy-"

"I told you not to call me that," he snapped. "What?"

“I’ve decided,” she said it like it was a monumental announcement. “I’m going to help you!”

Well, that was easier than expected. “Finally got a taste for world domination?”

“Nope, try again!”

“You’ve come to your senses and realized replacing all the eggs in the fridge with baby heads is the most hilarious thing ever?”

“Wrong again! I’m gonna help you…” Mabel stood up on her bed and struck a dramatic pose. “Be a better person!”

That sent him into sudden fits of hysterical laughter.

“You might not believe it now, but I do!” she jumped off the bed, her face deathly serious. “Being a good person is like sports, you get better at it if you practice. All you need is the right coach!”

“You lost me at ‘person’.”

“You’re a person, silly!”

“That’s the problem.”

“No, it isn’t!” She flung open one of the drawers and took out a sketchbook. “Here.” She flipped to the right page and pointed at a drawing of a triangle with an eye and a big angry eyebrow. Pretty good. The flames were a nice touch. “This is you, and this…” She drew a line through his face and colored everything below in red. “Is your badness level.”

“I’m not a fluffy marketable blue alien created by a gaslighting, monopolistic entertainment company.”

Mabel learned to ignore his asides. She looked him up and down and pursed her lips like she was conspiring something. It was kind of adorable, but Bill was pretty sure that whatever it was would occupy the rest of the day with pointless side quests, and he needed to get a move on if he wanted to find more rifts. 

“Oh wow, would you look at the time! Catch ya on the flip side, kid-” He made it to the door before Mabel appeared before him, blocking his only escape. 

“Not so fast, mister. Hey!” He picked her up and deposited her out of the way. Weight was still an annoying concept, and she was heavy for her size. 

He was halfway down the stairs when she said: “I’ll get Grunkle Stan to drop that grudge he’s been carrying!”

That made him pause. Walking around the shack without worrying about the old geezer’s retaliation for those pranks would be nice.

He climbed back up and plopped down on the pillow fort. Mabel looked way too smug for someone who was just picked up like a delivery package, so he flipped her hair over her face. “You’ve got one hour,” he said as she sputtered and coughed up hair.

—

Lesson 1: Apologies. Know how to admit you’re wrong!

“Hey, Fez.”

“What do you want?”

“My bad about the glue shoes.”

“Is this some kinda trick?”

“Me? No way, never. By the way, you might wanna check your bed for blood-sucking gnomes. Not for any particular reason.”

He got away before the rolling pin Stan tossed could hit him. Mabel facepalmed.

—

Lesson 2: Good Deeds. Do something without expecting anything in return.

“Why, thank you. Such a nice young man. My sight had been bad ever since my cataracts set in.”

“Sure. Woah, this weighs a ton!”

“Oh! I brought cookies, my secret recipe. I can only bake them once a year, and I wanted to give something to the grandkids.”

…

“My, this bag weighs a lot less than I remember.”

“Look at you, so strong from all that heavy lifting!”

“Oh, I suppose so!”

The old lady left, and Bill held out his armful of cookies. “Want one?”

Mabel angrily munched on the stolen treat.

—

Lesson 3: Compliments! Say something nice about someone else!

“Hey, what a haircut!”

“Oh, thank you!”

“Reminds me of this one guy I met from Dimension 323. Had tentacles for teeth and teeth for eyes. Great guy, he’d make this crazy cocktail out of pineapple juice, vodka, and fingernails…”

They watched as the man shuddered and scrambled away, his face turning green by the second.

“Can’t handle a compliment. This guy’s got issues.”

Mabel groaned into her notepad.

—

“So, how’s it going?” Dipper trailed off when his sister let out a moan of pure anguish. “I’m guessing not good.”

“This was awful, Dipper!” Mabel leaped to her feet from her sad curl on the pavement and paced back and forth. “I’ve tried everything! Compliments, apologies, acts of kindness, it’s like he can’t do anything unless he gets something out of it or makes someone miserable because he thinks it’s funny! Who lives like that?!”

“Bill.” 

“Aaaagh!” Mabel tugged on her hair in frustration.

“Hey, maybe it’s time for a change of plans,” Dipper offered. “I mean, I told you. The guy is the worst. Maybe you have to accept that he’s terrible, with or without your help, and move on.”

“I can’t."

“Why?”

“Because I brought him back!”

Dipper frowned. “Mabel…”

“I shook his hand, right? So I’m responsible for him.” Mabel stopped pacing and scowled at the ground. “I don’t want him to end up hurting anyone because of me.” She looked at the bench some twenty feet away, where Bill lay sprawled on the seat, fast asleep. “And now he’s napping.” She said, a little bitterly.

“He’s been doing that a lot lately.” Dipper sent the ex-demon a suspicious glance. 

“Yeah,” Mabel went quiet. 

“Let’s go wake him up and give him a piece of our mind.”

Mabel yanked him back by the arm. “Dipper, wait! Just…just let him sleep, okay? He probably needs it.”

Confusion, exasperation, and a fond sort of pride all fought inside Dipper. “He doesn’t deserve your sympathy, Mabel.”

“Well, I’m giving it anyway,” she huffed. “Because I’m a good person!”

—

He didn’t have a lot of time, out in the open like this, but hey, he worked with what he got. Bill peeked through a dozen minds or so, no sign of a rift or anything like it. The guy with the haircut was still crying in the bathroom. Nice.

“Come on, give me something.”

He knew there was more than one rift. He knew, because this town had a habit of attracting chaos and entropy and because a calamity of this size wouldn’t stop at one little crack.

A calamity of this size would destroy you, too.

Ugh, not him. 

You invoked me. I am always here.

Oh yeah? Ever heard of privacy? Boundaries? Not being a creep?

This is coming from someone whose main occupation was watching everyone and everything.

…Touché. 

Even you cannot escape what’s to come.

They’ll see about that, won’t they? Once he had his powers back, some multidimensional rip in the fabric of the universe wouldn’t be much of a problem.

You are a fool.

“And you’re an irritating, holier-than-thou waste of space!”

He didn’t realize that he’d yelled it out loud, into the mindscape. But he had, and the Axolotl was silent for a moment before he once again spoke: Pursue this for as long as you wish. It is fruitless. You cannot escape your vow to me. 

“Yeah yeah. Get lost.”

And he did. Not really, Bill could still feel the Axolotl’s presence hovering somewhere nearby, and it drove him crazy to know everything he did was being scrutinized by some huge, ugly, annoying- 

Huh, that was weird. 

The mind he found nearby, well, there was something off about it. It was hard to notice, like a hiccup in space-time, but Bill has done this song and dance for eons. The girl herself was fast asleep, her head on the storefront counter. Bill vaguely recognized her as that enthusiastic cashier girl who vowed to destroy all clothing without pockets. Heh, fun times.

He floated up next to her and poked the distortion with a finger. 

There it was again. Sparks, glitching for a split second before fading out. It was a lot like the static aura surrounding Mabel’s pet pig.  

Bill stared at it for a few moments. Then he laughed. Weeks of mind-numbing human boredom and now finally, something interesting.

He hesitated, for a moment, on whether or not to enter the cashier girl’s mind. It wasn’t like anything could happen to him in the mindscape, not really, but-

Scoffing at the idea, Bill let himself right in.

“Woah!”

Cashier Girl’s exterior sure matched her interior. A dark hallway of a nightclub filled with punk rock posters by groups from the 90s, complete with DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM graffiti was about what Bill had expected. And hey, he could respect consistency and vision, if anything. Anarchy was still his wheelhouse, even if it was packaged in outdated punk rock aesthetics. 

What he was pretty sure didn’t belong there were the tendrils of white static, crawling around corners like a glitched-out video game screen. 

A sharp, colorful tendril reached out toward him. Bill swatted it away. “Back off, pal. You’re picking a fight you can’t win.”

The tendril quickly retreated, cowering in the corner. Man, it felt good to be back.

“What are you supposed to be?”

Bill didn’t jump. He definitely didn’t screech, and summon a handful of flames he quickly snuffed out. Because he wasn’t startled, Bill couldn’t startle, he was the All-Seeing-Eye!

“Hey, man, you ok?”

That was when he realized the posters weren’t rock bands, but memories. On the poster behind him, Cashier Girl was looking at him as she sat under a large willow tree, on top of a black and white colored picnic blanket. 

So maybe spending so much time trapped in an awkward meat sack made him rusty. Bill straightened his tie and pretended none of that had happened. Because it didn’t. “Heya. Nice digs. Great decor. The fluorescent lighting really brings the whole eye-sore together.”

“You’re a triangle,” said the girl.

“Yup,” said Bill.

“How does that, like, work?”

It was awkward, having a conversation through the metaphysical representation of the border between someone’s memory and their mind, so Bill let himself in, settling on the other corner of the picnic blanket, one leg crossed over the other. “Hey, not my fault humanity’s dimensional awareness started and ended at the number three! You think your pencil drawings don’t watch you while you sleep?”

Cashier Girl reached out a finger toward his side, which Bill slapped away lightly. “Yeesh, what’s with all the unwarranted touching in here? You got a problem or something?”

“Sorry, it’s just-” She angled her neck around him as if checking if he was actually flat.

“Hey, kid, my eye’s up here.”

“Uh-huh.” She looked at him up and down again, “Are you like, the Hat Man or something?”

“Did you seriously compare me to that miserable gangly hack?” Bill rolled his eye. “He can’t even manifest without allergy pills! Nah, kid, I’m the dream demon real deal,  your good old pal Bill-”

Wait. 

“Demon, huh? Cool,” the girl frowned. “You kinda look like all that graffiti in the town I work in. Gravity Falls?”

“Wow, what a crazy coincidence. DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT!”

He took in his surroundings a bit more. It was pitch black, with a small, cool breeze blowing through the grass underneath the blanket and shifting the strands of willow above them. Behind the tree was a small clearing filled with gravestones, green and mossy with age. A plaque on the rusted-up wire fence read FAIRVIEW CEMETERY.

Fairview wasn’t far from Gravity Falls. So this kid was an out-of-towner. Luckily, she didn’t recognize him.

Cashier Girl shrugged. “I come here all the time.” 

Ding! Another point for manic pixie dream girl! Three more and we might even find a sad, mediocre boy to attach!

He didn’t say that out loud, obviously. “Gotta respect your gusto, kid! Say, how’s about you tell your old pal Bill about whatever’s going on there.” He pointed at the window to the rest of the mindscape. From this side of things, it looked like there was a poster floating in the air.

“Oh, that,” Cashier Girl frowned. “That started a while ago. Ever since I got that job at the mall.”

“And did you see anything… weird?”

“Yeah, I mean…” She shook her head, looking frustrated. “There was this like, multicolored light?”

Now they were getting somewhere. Lemme guess, a tear in space-time did some damage to your psyche. Bill extended his arm until it was three times as long, looping it around the girl’s shoulders. “Lay it on me! Consider it a free consultation: you’re talking to the Master of the Mind, you know,” he winked and manifested two cups of tea in front of them. 

The girl tentatively reached for hers. “Well, there was this like, tear. I think? In a wall. Inside it were these oil-spill lights?”

She was gonna lead him straight to the jackpot. After days of frustration and nothing, Bill felt like cackling. “And lemme guess, you touched it, and it backfired?”

She shrugged. She looked down at the tea and made a face.

Bill floated toward her until his eye was inches away from hers. “Where did you see it?”

“Oh, um,” she put her finger to her chin, frowning. “I don’t remember.”

“Ha! Obviously, I should’ve-” Bill’s excited speech stopped short. “What do you mean, you don’t remember?”

She shrugged again. “Sorry. It’s like there’s this static.” She pointed to her head.

Bill rubbed his eye in frustration. “Do you remember anything? At all?”

“Well, it was dark.”

“ And?”

“And…I think my boss was there.” Cashier Girl frowned in thought. “Wait, why would she be there?”

“...Great!” He threw his hands up. The teacup fell onto the blanket, tea spilling and staining the cloth. “Okay! Sure! I can work with this! Who’s your boss, kid?”

“So how do I get rid of it?”

“What?”

“You said it’s a ‘free consultation’,” said Cashier Girl. “So how do I get rid of the gross staticky stuff?”

Bill looked back through the poster at the rest of the mindscape. The Cashier Girls in the other memories were watching them curiously. The spiderweb, static-like tendrils wiggled around like maggots. “How’s about this: I’ll know how to get rid of it if you tell me where I can find your boss.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” He floated up to her eye level. “See, this kinda stuff is hard to get rid of. It’s like a curse, it eats away at you, body and mind and all until you’re nothing but a big sad pile of madness in a white-padded cell!”

“Oh.”

“So, the only way to clear the gunk: find the origin point. Capiche?” He waved his hand in the air. “We’ll do a little cleansing ritual, you know, nothing fancy, get all the tough stains out, and voila! Brand new mindscape! Madness-free! How’s that sound?”

“Yes?”

“Great! It’s a deal!” He reached out a hand, expecting the familiar crackle of blue flame to appear. But it was just his hand, and for a moment Bill simply stared at it, momentarily forgetting the last few weeks. Right. Can’t make binding deals anymore. That frilly bastard took that, too.

The girl hesitantly shook his hand. “Deal.” She paused. “I’m not, like, gonna find out I owe my firstborn to you, right?”

“Psh, why would I want your firstborn? Babies are smelly tyrants with too much time on their hands. Just help me find that rift, kid. The rest’s on the house.”

“Okay,” she said hesitantly. “By the way, is there an eyeball in this tea?”

—

“Look at you,” said Jheselbraum as she knelt by the translucent barrier that held Waddles. The monstrous, corrupted pig oinked in several different voices.

“Mabel is convinced that’s him demanding treats,” Ford said.

“Of course, it is. I speak pig.”

“You do?”

Jheselbraum held his gaze for a good moment before laughing. “No.  But I’m flattered you would think so.” She took a carrot from a nearby bucket of treats Mabel started keeping in Ford’s study and pressed a button to lower the barrier enough to toss it in. The carrot landed between three hungry, gaping pig mouths, and they fought each other as they devoured it. 

“Is there a way to fix him?” Ford asked.

“Maybe. The energy that did this to him came from Bill’s dimension, but it’s more than that. It’s the same energy that’s feeding those cracks.”

“So if we find a cure for Waddles….” 

“We will find a cure for the rift.” 

Stanford watched the pig blink at him as if expecting more treats. For the first time in a long while, he felt the glimmer of optimism rear its head in his heart. “Let’s get to work, then.”

—

Stan walked past Greasy’s, noticing the unusual crowd at the door. That ratty little diner never got this much traction, even during tourist season.

He was tempted to snoop around, if only to find out what they were doing and how to steal whatever new gimmick got those people through the doors. Shrugging off the mantle of Mr. Mystery was harder than he realized. 

Maybe later. As he reached the general store, he tried the handle. It didn't budge. 

Huh. The store had pretty damn consistent working hours for 30 straight years. He peered through the window. 

“They’re not in,” said a voice. Stan turned and saw one of Wendy’s teen friends. She didn’t look up from her phone as she said: “Everyone’s been holed up at Greasy’s.”

“Oh yeah? What’s at Greasy’s?”

“Beats me, some kinda town meeting. It’s been crowded all afternoon.”

Stan swallowed nervously and looked back down Main Street at the bustling diner. His first worry was that their attempt at hiding Bill had turned out pretty lousy, and the thought of a parade of justifiably scared town citizens filling their yard, carrying pitchforks and torches, did not make him any less nervous.

“Guess I should check it out,” he said.

“I literally don’t care,” said the teen.

—

“There are a few materials we could try,” Jheselbraum stood in front of the chalkboard and scribbled out a formula while Stanford watched from his desk chair. He hadn’t slept well, but that hadn’t been unusual for the past few weeks. He did his best to focus as his interdimensional friend dropped the chalk and picked up something she’d brought with her: a purple, semi-translucent scarf. “Imagine the fabric of existence as a tightly interwoven net. It’s hard to break, but with enough torn strings it can come apart easily. And strings are most easily torn at the seams,” With that, Ford watched, surprised, as she tore the scarf in half with her hands.

“Er, that wasn’t anything valuable, I hope?”

Jheselbraum stared at the torn pieces in her hands, realizing what she’d just done. “...I’ll make a new one.” She tossed the pieces aside. “The rift is a tear in space-time, most likely to be found at the seams of a dimension, where reality is the weakest. And the more they appear, the more likely it is for the entire fabric to come undone.” She gestured to the chalkboard. “The fabric of reality is made of logic and systems, not cloth, but the principle is the same.”

“And the tear was made by a high concentration of weirdness?”

“Yes. Weirdness, chaos, entropy, whatever you wish to call it.” Jheselbraum pointed at the first half of the formula. “Chaos is an imbalance, a surplus of energy. Without Bill Cipher as an agent to channel it, the Nightmare Realm is overflowing with that energy. Your dimension will be the most affected, having been the one directly in contact with the Nightmare Realm a year ago. But there are ways to channel that energy, ground it, using magically made materials. If we create some of them, and test them-”

“We can sew the hole in reality back together.”

“You’re catching on.” The Oracle smiled. 

But Ford was busy thinking of something she’d said. “‘Without Bill Cipher’. You mean he’s been preventing this?”

Jheselbraum’s smile instantly vanished, replaced by mild annoyance. “Yes and no. Technically, he caused this a year ago when he tried to take over your dimension. But he was made of that energy, and energy doesn’t just go away. When he died, all the power that he wielded got stuck in between this world and his.” 

“It’s either Bill or the universe ending?” Stanford swallowed. “Doesn’t seem fair.”

Jheselbraum just shrugged. “The universe doesn’t exactly care about fair.” She stared at the chalkboard for a moment, brow furrowed. It was much easier to read her expressions now that she had a human face. “There’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“What is it?”

She tapped the numbers she’d scribbled down. “Even with the surplus of energy, it shouldn’t be… altering matter. Not at such a rate anyway. It takes millions of years for a lifeform to be corrupted like that. But with Waddles, it seemed to happen within minutes, if not seconds.” She shook her head. “Entropy is inevitable, but it’s not instantaneous. It’s almost as if whatever corrupted Waddles pushed it forward.”

Ford shuddered. “You’re implying it was done deliberately? By someone?”

“…I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion just yet.”

“Bill,” Ford said immediately. “If it was anyone-”

“It wasn’t him,” she said calmly. “He’s powerless.”

“Or he wants us to think that!” Ford ran a hand through his hair, thinking of all the worst possible scenarios. Had Bill been playing them all for fools? Had he really been at their mercy this whole time? Or had he just been waiting for the right moment?

The Oracle regarded him with an unwavering gaze, almost like she knew exactly what he was thinking. “Ford, he’s a drama queen. And horribly impatient. Do you really think he’s spent so long pretending and putting himself in humiliating situations on purpose?”

Ford breathed out slowly. “Alright, I see your point. But J-…” he suddenly remembered that she’d gone by a different name at some point, and felt a rush of shame that he’d forgotten it. “Nora? Forgive me, I’m not sure what you prefer.”

Her gaze softened momentarily. “I’ve gone by many names. The one you know me by is just the latest. The other one…is very old.” She looked past him. “Call me whatever you like.”

“Nora,” he amended. He felt a little thrill at addressing such a renowned creature by a name he assumed not many knew. “If it’s not Bill…”

Then what could have done this?

---

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