#and it was the nightmare dimension when he accidentally made reverse

[alastyr-not-alastair]

I absolutely love making Sabre a mad scientist/engineer because of the fact that majority of the machines he made worked on pure vibes and prayers and that’s basically how engineering works anyway

Like literally he would bullcrap a machine together in about 10 minutes, say “okay since this and this are connected it should work idk” AND THEN IT WOULD WORK EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED

[ekat-fandom-blog]

Masterpost thingy 3

Unless stated otherwise, all of these are prompts and sometimes they're still prompts even when stated otherwise. First masterpost here. Second masterpost here. (also some of them explicitly say "prompt" because adding a description seemed pointless or I was being lazy)

Thought Experiment - Billy shares his powers with the Avengers.

And All Hell Breaks Loose - Harley runs into Valerie while a nearby cult summons a hellhound.

Parental Mentor Figure - Batman tries to be a mentor figure to Dani.

Vlad annoys Sinestro - prompt

Pirates - Wondergirl and Johnny 13 get stuck in the PotC dimension

The Wish - Tim makes a wish.

De-Aged - Dick, Jason, and Tim get de-aged.

Titans Tower - Dani crashes in Titans Tower and finds Jason beating Tim.

Insults - Zatanna insulted Dairy King.

All-Blades Torture - my thought process on how you could use the all-blades to torture someone. also a link to a fic.

Time Loop Soulmate - Jason loops the day he planned on beating up Tim in Titans Tower.

Shared Custody - Clark and Lois adopt Dani and Dan, Bruce adopts Danny and Jazz. Suddenly, the three have 13 kids.

Don't Mix - Ectoplasm and Lazarus Pits don't mix.

Ring - Technus overshadows a lantern ring.

Star City - Star visits her aunt, Dinah.

Reverse Batfam AU - my take on reverse batfam. it's kinda a prompt.

Silent room - just wondering how the silent room would affect the supers with super hearing.

Pandora's Box - Ends up in Dr. Sivana's hands.

Maddie and Jack meet Mr. Freeze - prompt

Shifty - Dani finds a shifter group.

Accidental Dimension Travel - The trio wind up in DC universe.

Reflection - JazzxSelena soulmate au where your reflection looks like your soulmate.

Obedience - Dani gets cursed.

Puppet King - Danny's part of the Teen Titans

Important things - BillyxDanny soulmate au where an important event that happens during your soulmate's day is written on your arm.

Normal Day - FlashFam and Danny's timestream shenanigans prompt.

Halloween Cat - Danny turns into a cat.

Flower Scars - SamxValeriexStephxCass soulmate au where your soulmate gets little flower "tattoos" where you got hurt.

Family Reunion - Danny is adopted by Clockwork, Diana gets an invite to a family reunion.

Worst Enemy, Greatest Ally - dpxdc soulmate au

Color Stripe - DanixDick soulmate au where there's a stripe of color on everyone's wrist in the color of their soulmate's hair.

Secret Payment - The batfam sneakily pay their civilian informants without anyone's knowledge.

Run into you - DannyxBart soulmate au where you die on your 18th birthday if you don't find your soulmate.

Time's Ticking - DanixBilly soulmate au where there's a timer on your wrist that counts down to when they meet their soulmate.

No Dick Grayson AU - dick grayson never exists/never joins the bats and how the fam changed

Words - Danny goes to Gotham. soulmate au where everyone has a set number of words they can say unless they're with their soulmate.

Pit Madness - Dan gets stuck in the back of (insert dc character who's been dunked in the pit here)'s head.

Flower Scars - all scars appear as flowers

The Giggle - Dick's nightmare giggle followed him into adulthood

Hiding an Injury - Dick finds Dani in his apartment after patrol

Switch - Danny and Jason switch bodies cuz they resurrected at the same time

Symbiote - Constantine gets stuck with symbiote!Amorpho

Letters - Soulmate au w/ TuckerxTim

Mythical au & Part 2 - Alfred's a guardian angel, Bruce adopts Danny and Dani

Tarot - i chose who i thought works best for major arcana for a dc tarot deck

Obsession - Dani made a game out of trying to figure out other ghosts' and halfas' obsession. Bruce is a halfa.

Thrown under the Bus - Tim gets hit by cuddle pollen and chances upon Danny.

Soulmate AU - dpxdc. soulmates teleport to each other on their 16th birthday.

Eye Color - soulmate au where everything's black and white except for things that are similar in color to their soulmate's eyes. TimxDanny

Important PSA

[frostandflamesfanfic]

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Stranger (Strange x Reader)

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Stranger (Strange x Reader)

Pairing: Stephen Strange x Reader

Word Count: 3.1k+ words

Warnings: a few curse words and implied suggestive content

Summary: It’s Valentine’s Day at the Sanctum and Strange is ready to make up for his past mistakes. He just hopes that you can forgive him. What happens if you accidentally misread his signals?

It was a relaxing Valentine’s morning in the Sanctum. Even with the hole in the ceiling, sunlight streamed through the cracks of shades you had hung in the windows. Instead of the typical ambience of training and fights against the dark Mystic Arts, there was hardly a sound echoing against the walls…save for an occasional clink or clatter from the kitchen. 

If anyone else had walked past your and Stephen’s shared bedroom, they would have thought for sure that the room was abandoned. However, if they had dared to venture further into the chambers, they would have noticed a human-shaped lump cocooned within the warm sheets. It was a position that you had grown accustomed to at times over the years. Being married to the previous Sorcerer Supreme wasn’t the greatest when it came to late-night snuggles and warm restful nights. You always did your best to refrain from complaining. Your husband was saving the world, for God’s sake! But there were always some nights that the challenge became entirely too difficult. 

After life returned to normal after the Blip was reversed, you found yourself wanting to spend more time with your husband. It wasn’t that uncommon of a desire, given you both had only been married about a year prior to the Blip occurring. It was meant to be the honeymoon phase, your friends had told you. A year of bliss and the inability to keep your hands off each other. You were surprised to find that spark never faded for you during the Blip. In fact, the moment you locked eyes with your husband across the ruins of the Avengers compound for the first time in five years, you had launched yourself into his strong embrace.

Stephen had been quick to comfort you, running a shaking hand through your hair and trailing a thumb against the new wrinkled creases by your temple. “It’s alright,” his lips murmured against your forehead. “It’s over now. I’m home.”

Before he had Vanished, Stephen had never struck you as much of a touchy-feely type of person. It would always be subtle displays of affection, especially in public; a kiss to your cheek or forehead. When you two managed to have time alone, you would be ready to open yourself up to Stephen, but he appeared distant. You never pushed him out of his comfort zone; he would appear to want to engage with you, but every extended kiss would have its end. Stephen would find himself being called away at a moment’s notice, something you swore would cause him to leave the room in relief. 

You had tried not to let it bother you, but when the two of you made the commitment to love each other in front of your closest friends, there was only so much you could take. It hurt to have him not look at you with love when he walked into a room, to not have him make the pain of a bad day go away by holding your hand. The night before Stephen had been taken into space during Thanos’ invasion of Earth, you had taken a chance and confronted him about his worrisome behavior. . . 

“Am I nothing to you?” your voice was already on the verge of breaking as you stood in front of your husband. He looked how you felt: like crap. Stephen had returned late in the evening after a battle with Nightmare in the dream dimension. It had been a long day and he had looked forward to seeing your face. Now here you were, questioning the strength of your relationship. “You won’t even hold my hand anymore! What did I do wrong, Stephen? Why won’t you love me?” 

“I do love you!” Stephen exclaimed, slightly shocked by your outburst. He thought things between the two of you were good…what had caused this sudden doubt?

“Really?! Then why won’t you touch me?” Tears had gathered in the corner of your eyes at this point, your emotions coming to a head. “Why can’t you hold me anymore? You rarely kiss me like you…like you actually love me. If you want to be done, I can go. I just want to know why .”

“I don't want to…” he stammered, a flicker of fear reflecting in his gray-blue eyes. “I don't want to do something wrong and hurt you. After the accident, after my hands… I couldn't do the things I used to.” Stephen cleared his throat. “Not to sound conceited or anything, but what I could do... I don't want to have you feeling dissatisfied. I don't want to be a disappointment. You deserve more than that- you always have.”

What you didn’t know that evening as you dared to let hope creep back in was how Stephen had made a vow to himself. He wouldn’t let you feel neglected anymore. He was a man on a mission from that moment on. You would know how much he loved you, even if he couldn’t do the things he used to. He would find new ways to show you his heart just as you showed him yours. Unfortunately, the multiverse had other plans in store for you both. Instead of spending more time together, like Stephen had planned, you had spent five years apart. 

Upon his return to the Sanctum, there was something different about him. His eyes held a playfulness within them every time you locked eyes over books in the library. When you would train, Stephen would put a pause on your sessions to correct your form, his touch lingering just a smidge longer than it should have. At night, he would always try his best to make it home to say goodnight and lay down alongside you in your bed. It didn’t matter if he was in the middle of a battle. Even though it had only been five minutes for him, Stephen had lost five years with you. He planned on doing whatever it would take to find a way to remind you how much he loved you.

Once a week, he ensured that you would be able to spend the evening together. He would pass his responsibilities onto Wong, allowing himself to relax with a meal, movie, or sometimes both after a long day of protecting the multiverse. The night before, Stephen had taken you to a candlelit dinner overlooking the lantern-lit canals of Italy. You had told him it was too much, but he merely gave you a small smile and pressed a kiss to the top of your hand before leading you into your seat. You could feel your cheeks flush a tint of red as he sat in front of you, a feat only he could manage – something Stephen was undoubtedly proud of. 

He knew you hated dressing up, but to him, you were the most beautiful thing on the planet. Being a multiversal protector, Stephen had seen his fair share of beauty. The rising cliffs of Gaelon, the morning dew in the Realm of Knowledge… yet none of these views could compare to the one in front of him. You were his home, the person that made him feel safe. When he had left, you had been by yourself for so long. He was determined to protect you forever and he had found the perfect way to show it.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

A sleepy groan made its way past your lips as a suspicious aroma roused you from your slumber this Valentine’s morning – the first holiday you spent together since before your wedding. It was a smoky scent, something you weren’t used to. Confused, you allowed your head to lift from the fluffy pillow paradise and frown at the stench. Did someone set fire to the Sanctum? A feeling of panic rising inside of you, you slipped on your sling ring and charged out of the bedroom while using a spell to transform your attire into battle robes. Your frantic journey led you to the kitchen, where you saw Stephen shaking an aluminum-shelled toaster into the sink. After you got over the initial shock, a laugh slipped past your lips as a piece of toast shattered into black dust once it made contact with the marble countertop. 

Your sorcerer of a husband must not have heard you coming because he nearly dropped the toaster with a jump. As he was greeted by another round of loud laughter, Stephen frowned at you. “I was going to make you breakfast in bed,” he bemoaned, “but as you can see…” He gestured to the mess he had made across the granite counter. Your eyes widened as you took in the scene. Flour was strewn about the kitchen, raw batter dripping from the side of a bowl. There was bacon in the pan, most likely the smell that roused you from your sleep. “I forgot I couldn’t cook.”

“Breakfast in bed? What did I do to deserve this?” Stephen mumbled an answer, something you weren’t really able to hear. Confused, you lifted an eyebrow and took a step closer. “Say again?”

“Uh…” Your husband appeared lost in thought for a moment, gaze staring directly into yours. 

“What’s the matter, doctor,” you teased, looking up at him with a mischievous glint in your eyes. “Cat got your tongue?”

That seemed to snap him out of it. He shook his head and lifted up a plate which contained only-slightly-burnt heart-shaped pancakes. “I said, ‘let’s eat.’” He smirked as he started to walk over to the table. “But the cat is more than welcome to get something else later. I see you’ve taken to wearing my clothes again.” Even as you turned around, you could feel his gaze lingering on your hips, which were barely accentuated by the flowy fit of his shirt against your figure. 

“I suppose I have,” you stammered. A warm flush crept up your neck as you took your place at the table. You had nearly forgotten your own attire, as you had hastily thrown something on from the pile of clothes you two had discarded on the floor during the previous night's adventures when you thought an attacker had infiltrated the Sanctum. You could feel your cheeks reddening as the memories of last night danced in your mind. Stephen always made an effort to be gentle with you, to never go too far to the point you wouldn’t trust him. Yet there would be sometimes he let himself go and allowed himself just to feel and be in the moment with you. It was those times you wished would last forever. It was just the two of you against the world and he made you feel like you were the most important person in the world. 

“About damn time, too,” Stephen’s voice broke you from your thoughts. “That shirt looks better on you than it ever did on me, by the way.”

“That was about the crappiest pick-up line I ever heard.”

“Hey, you already married me once.”

“Once?” you asked, eyebrows lifted once more.

The sorcerer in front of you went silent as he lifted a piece of pancake to his lips and grimaced at the loud crunch that soon followed. You had to fight yet another temptation to let loose a laugh that threatened to make an appearance. Stephen paused for a moment to take a drink of coffee before pushing down another bite of pancake. “Peter said he would stop by with Morgan at the deli tomorrow,” the casual comment seemed almost too domestic for your lives.   

That had been another change in attitude which had caught you completely by surprise. Stephen suddenly had a newfound interest in families. The potential of kids had never been an option for you both, you had thought. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a possibility. The two of you were perfectly healthy and young enough to start a family if you wanted to. With your busy schedules, it just didn’t seem like a great or safe idea when you were first married. The threats that you and Stephen battled on a daily basis, mystical or not, would love to have another weakness of yours to exploit. A defenseless child would be way too easy. 

Shortly after Stark’s death, it wasn’t uncommon for the young Peter Parker to visit with the late Avenger’s daughter, Morgan. Even though your husband would grow frustrated with the mess of web fluid and book forts in the library, you could tell he had a soft spot for the children. It was around this point Stephen had begun to drop comments about the idea of having a family. During your trips to the deli, he’d point out the parents and their children having lunch after a soccer game. He’d tell you about the children he managed to save across the dimensions. . .  

Your curiosity overtook you this morning as you took a bite of pancake. “Did you want to ask me to have a baby?” you couldn’t help blurting out the question. 

Stephen choked on his food. “What?” he asked. 

Oh God, did you completely misread this? “Do you want a baby?” you asked the question again slower this time. 

“What makes you think I want a baby?” You couldn’t get a read on Stephen’s face. Was he confused? Surprised? Agitated? You just wished he’d give you a solid reaction. Just rip the bandage off before it was too late. 

There were two ways you could handle this situation: either you could try and charm your way out of it, or you could come clean and share how you felt. Considering the last time you had bared your soul to your husband, he had disappeared with half of the population, maybe the former would be your best bet. “You said your shirt looked better on me,” you tried to keep your voice calm and low. “I think it could look better somewhere else…”

“I agree, but what does this have to do with me wanting a baby?” The look on Stephen’s face made you reconsider. He had a glimmer of amusement sparkling in his blue-green eyes, but the rest of his expression remained confused. Maybe you really did misunderstand the signals. 

“With everything you’ve been saying about the kids,” you caved into your insecurities, “and with how you’ve been acting lately…”

“...you thought that meant I wanted to have…”

“A baby, yeah.” You felt more embarrassed than anything. If Stephen really didn’t want to have a child, why would he be acting like this? It wasn’t that you didn’t appreciate the things he did and how he made you feel, but it seemed…

“...strange…” you didn’t even realize you spoke aloud.

Your husband furrowed an eyebrow. “Yes?” 

“Hm? Oh! No, not you,” you tried to explain. “I was just thinking about something str- er, odd.”

Stephen leaned forward in his seat to look at you with a concerned expression plastered across his face. “What’s wrong, darling?” he asked, the term of endearment causing a warm feeling to bloom in the pit of your stomach. 

“Why are you doing this?” you regretted the question the minute it left your mouth.

“Doing what?” Stephen frowned. “Loving you? Treating you like I should be?”

You couldn’t help the stare you gave him. “What?” you asked after a moment, sure you had misheard him. You had to have. 

“I love you,” he said simply. “I don’t need to want something in order to love you. In fact, I have been trying to ask you something.” His lips quirked into a devilish smirk. “But it’s not about having a baby.”

You frowned. “What do you mean?”

Stephen reached over the table and grabbed your hand. “For me,” he cleared his throat. Why was he nervous? “I haven’t been gone long. If I think about it, I can still see you standing here asking me why I stopped loving you. The truth was, I never did. I was afraid to show you how much I cared. When we first got married, I was never truly there. Even though I loved you, I had left you…in more ways than one. By the time I finally realized it, it was too late.

“I had lost out on so much- we both had. Damn it, five years was such a long time. I thought you had moved on, I wanted you to move on. You deserve someone better than me. When I saw you after I came back, you showed me I still had a chance. I could fix things. I want to be able to change things between us. I just…I want you to give me a chance.”

“Stephen,” you asked with a confused smile, “what are you talking about?”

His fingers traced their way up to your left ring finger, eyebrow lifted in silent question. When you nodded, he slipped a single ring off of your hand – the engagement ring he had given you nearly six years ago. It had been his grandmother’s and bought with his grandfather’s life savings. It was a simple engagement band with a single diamond embedded in the center. Shortly after your marriage, Stephen had attempted to get you a more expensive piece of jewelry, but you had refused. The story was beautiful and a reminder of a love story you wanted to have with your husband. “You’d have to pry this ring off of my cold, dead body,” you had once said. 

You had gotten so engrossed in your thoughts, you didn’t hear Stephen softly calling your name. “If you’ll let me,” he said. “I want us to try again, to have a fresh start with you. I want to give you the life you deserve. So…” Stephen took a deep breath before he pushed his chair back to get down on one knee, eyes locking onto yours. “Will you renew your vows and marry me…again?”

You slapped a hand to your mouth. Was this really happening? 

“...uh, darling, I…kind of need an answer here. I can’t stay like this forever.”

His response was a heated kiss and a hand into his hair. “So…” Stephen drawled. “I’ll take that as a yes, then.” 

“Oh. Yes.” You kissed him again.

He grinned and situated your legs around his waist before connecting his lips with yours. You let out a small gasp as you noticed he was starting to move out of the kitchen. “Wait, Stephen,” you got out between his attack of kisses. “What- what about breakfast?”  

“Pancakes can wait. Besides, you said that shirt would look much better somewhere else. Let’s test that theory, hm?” he remarked with a smirk before he kissed you again and headed toward the bedroom.

=====================

Author's Note: So it's been a while since I've officially updated this blog with any new content, especially Strange-related. I've been in a bit of a writer's slump for a bit too, on top of my crazy schedule, but hoping to change that in the next month or so. To help me out, don't forget to leave a comment, a like, and maybe even a cheeky reblog? It lets me know what kind of work you like or want to see from me!

[im-totally-not-an-alien]

Final fantasy 7 prompts number 74

1. Zack rocketed out of the slide and strait into the nearby wall. All Angeal had to do was glance at the food tray lying next to his student to figure out what happened.

"Zack-!" He began, intending to chastise his protégé. But whatever he was about to say was lost when a blur of black and silver shot out of the slide. The next thing he knew, Sephiroth was staring cooly up at him from his position on the floor, his own tray abandoned a few feet away from them.

Zack started laughing

Aka Zack can convince anyone do do stupid shenanigans with him, not just Cloud

2. Zack and two other 3rds found a large pile of scales, laying curled up on the beach while out on a mission. They surround it and are preparing to pounce when the serpentine body unravels to show the torso of a man.

The three freak out a bit and ironically yell at the man to stay calm. The blond just blinks at them before rising up and up and...the man was the snake. Or was the snake a man? Either way, Zack ends up befriending him and bringing him home as a suprise birthday(?) present for the General. Seph needed a friend, and Spikey would be perfect!

In the meantime, Naga! Cloud lives as Zacks secret roommate

3. A were-chocobo is running around Shinra tower and Cloud is fed up with people assuming that it's him

4. Sephiroth accidently gets left alone with an infant and he panics for a while before excepting his fate

(Its funnier if its insane sephiroth)

5. A Sephiroth fan stalks time traveler Cloud, believing him to be a threat to their precious idol.

They find out something important and foil all of the blonds plans

6. Willingly walk into the lions den and let reunion take over. The implants will let you keep your rationality without alerting Sephiroth, mostly by creating feedback that makes the madman hear whatever he wants to hear. For all intents and purposes, you will appear to be his perfect puppet. Thats then you'll stab him in the back. Literally.

At least, that was the plan...until Sephiroth started hugging him and sobbbing. Then the silverette started talking about feelings and how neither of them would ever have to be lonely again. Cloud was honestly a little scared by this seemingly sudden mental breakdown and couldn't help but wonder what exactly Sephiroth was hallucinating from the feedback

7. Cloud cut through the fabric of spacetime, just barely managing to escape his silver haired stalker yet again. He didn't even have time to be relieved however, as a Cait Sith popped out from behind a nearby tree. "Oh, hey Cait." He greeted casually.

The robot didn't reply, choosing instead to stare at him in silence. Odd, considering "Cait Sith" was a chatterbox, even on a bad day and Reeve would never be so rude. "Reeve?" The blond asked, concerned.

The cat recoiled, as if startled by something before running off. "Huh." He made a mental note to ask Reeve about his Cait Siths when he got back to his home dimension.

A slight tremor made him pause. Looking to his left he found the source: a litteral stampede of Caits! And they were headed right for him!

He later learned this was a world where he was the villain instead of Sephiroth...after he was captured, of course

8. Cetra! Lorekeeper! Cloud laid his mother to rest after her sudden passing, but instead of taking over her duty as guardian of the sacred sights, he decided "Well, the planet is doomed anyway." And set out to walk in the footsteps of his ancestors.

He just wanted to see the world beyond the snow-covered pines and travel the old nomadic routes carved out by his kin. Kinda like a final lap, to say goodbye. Too bad there where so many people wanting to kidnap him...kinda puts a wrench in his plans.

Based loosely on the song Lullaby of the Moon by David Vitas. I like the twist at the end

9. Shinra and Wutai role reversal au

10. Au where Sephiroth didn't actually die in Nebilhiem. He came to inside the mako and swam away and contemplate his life decisions and decided to fake his death. (The events of OG, AC, etc remain unchanged)

He can't bring himself to actually cut his hair, so he dyes it and ties it back into a ponytail.

He lived through all of the tragedies, living life as a normal everyday worker...until a man with a crimson cloak walks into his life with the blond from his nightmares.

11. Sephiroth is terrible at cooking, despite following instructions to the letter.

Every year he makes these amazingly awful cookies. No one was brave enough to tell him that his food tastes like burnt mud, so he obliviously assumes that people are avoiding him out of fear. (He's kinda right.) So he hunts people down and gifts them to whomever he manages to catch, looming over them ominously with a blank expression until they eat.

This year, Zack gets caught.

12. Time traveler Cloud accidentally winds up mentally connecting with just about all of SOLDIER after his connection with the Sephiroth of his timeline is severed.

Instant regret. On the other hand, all the information flooding through his head is great for sabotage! :D

13. Time traveler Sephiroth and Genesis getting into arguments, which leads to Sephiroth telling Angeal about Gens recent (illegal) escapades.

Gen threatens to dye Sephs hair rainbow, and the silverette calls his bluff

Sephiroth is still wondering how Gen managed to do it...and so well too...

14. Time traveler Cloud au, buuuuut he somehow accidentally bodyswaps with Angeal.

Both are confused.

15. Veld slumped in his chair. The vice president was not making his life easy, that was for sure.

He glanced up to stare at the ceiling, only to find something unexpected there. An envelope was literally duct taped above his desk. How long has that been there?

Upon actually reading the letter inside, he quickly holsters his gun, grabbed a few extra rounds of ammo and walked out the door

[gigis-ff-blog]

last time here we go

so you all probably expected this by now. but I’m not uploading this fic series anymore. I just cant find the motivation and with the amount I was planning to write its just became intimidating. I’m also going into my junior year(11th year) of high school, and that’s already stressful. and I’m really disappointed in myself that I never finished even the first book. but if you guys wouldn’t mind I would love to share my ideas and concepts that were supposed to be present. I might work on them in the future though.

CHARACTER DIFFERENCES

so unlike the anime, Dedede and Escargoon were supposed to act as good guys. Dedede was supposed to turn evil after being manipulated by Nightmare, who was so afraid by Kirby that he absorbed to much power than he could handle, became corrupted, and corrupted a king just to get rid of them. NME was supposed to be like a friendly group and were just supposed to be people that others could hire and pay for goods and services. Adaline would have been the salesman’s adopted daughter also. 

Characters like Marx, Dark Matter Swordsman, Dark Meta knight, and other villains would have had redeeming arcs as subplots. Susie was also supposed to have a more compassionate personality, albeit still snarky and all about herself. Necrodeus and Nebula were also supposed to be the co rulers of the underworld at a certain point. Axe knight was supposed to be related to them.

The Galaxia would have also had a spirit form, kind of like FI from Zelda, but more tired and motherly. This would have been the same for the mirror Galaxia as well. Sirica and Joe would have appeared as siblings under Meta’s care. Meta would have also had very cheap disguises (like an old fisherman’s disguise.)

Void would have also been reborn as a baby orb.

PLOT DIFFERENCES

The plot of Meta Knight Returns would have taken place just before that of Amazing Mirror. Where Meta knight would have left for the amazing mirror in hopes of regaining his lost family.However he would have been foiled by Dark Meta Knight and would have been trapped in the mirror world. Dark would have stolen the Galaxia and went to the Halberd to try and take over dreamland. The Galaxia would have been stored in a secret place in the Halberd as Dark wouldn’t be able to wield it. Eventually, the crew and Kirby would find this out and collaborate in taking him and the ship down.

Canvas curse and Rainbow curse would have had Adaline and Bandanna team up with Kirby. the stories would also lead in to Adaline’s past and character development.

A subplot between Morpho Knight and Meta knight would happen within the events of Mass attack. This would lead to character reveals like Aqua Knight being revealed. The Galaxia wielders would have had a big role in this story and it would have been the first time Galacta was seen.

The backstory of Sectonia and Dark Meta would have been explained. Dark would have taught Sectonia how to wield a sword and would have befriended her. Sectonia would have accidentally found a corrupt power within the Mirror that would have changed her to the evil queen bee she was.

Susie, Kirby, and Galacta knight were supposed to be part of a subplot in the Planet Robobot story, which would set up her and Kirby’s backstory which would take place in another dimension. In this, Kirby was supposed to be made of the same matter Void was made of, Except Susie would care for Kirby and tell them stories about her Dad and how she was always told that she was amazing. A cataclysm that would lead to a big crack in Galacta’s seal would have caused them to try and escape as Susie knew about how dangerous Galacta was. They would have eventually escaped on a ship Susie made, eccept she would have been hit off of the ship and found by The Haltman Company. 

Another subplot I Robobot would be how the halberd crew and the clones were both trying to work together and free Meta and take back the Halberd from Haltman. Eventually, Susie would join in becoming disgusted by how corrupt her father and the company were becoming.

Team Kirby clash deluxe would have been in a parallel dream universe visited by Susie

Kirby Star allies would have had each group of Dream friends given their own story in the narrative, eventually leading to a big climactic meetup at the end. Flamberge would have teamed up with Morpho and a fight would break out with the three sisters after Fransisca was hurt about “Why are we even in this cult? For Him. He took our hearts and hurt Fran. He’s not the same.”

The ancients, the GSA, the four heroes, Void and Galacta knight, and Morpho knight would have all had a big story of their own describing a war against Matter, and a gigantic calamity. There would have also been mentions of a war with Floralia and the Underworld. Meta would have been a child and one of the four heroes in the war against matter and an adult during the calamity.The calamity is what would have actually been the death of Garlude and Joes father. The war against matter would have involved the GSA and Nightmare on the same side. Morpho knight would have been related to Meta in some way before their demise. Galacta was also going to become corrupt with to much matter, causing a calamity that would combine all forces against one big death orb. Galacta, Kirby, and Void would have all shared the same person. This section of the story would reveal this. A prophecy involving Kirby’s adventures would have also been mentioned.

An ending was supposed to be written involving Galacta knight and the crumbling of the universe. This would be when they had broken free and started wreaking havoc. This would have painted an apocalyptic dreamland. Galacta would have killed off characters one by one GOT(I don’t watch or like this show) style with epic fights. They would have also consumed Kirby and Voids matters, including their souls. Galacta would have ripped holes in time and space and ruined everything till there was nothing left. Void and Kirby would have fused inside Galacta’s conscience and fought them there, Galacta’s soul would have been fought with Kirby and Voids combined soul. Eventually, all of them would become one and reverse time using the time ability and restore things to the second before the apocalypse started. From then everyone would live normal lives. Susie would also create a machine that would have brought back morpho knight from the dead to they could live a new and better life. 

Kirby café. It would have been a thing.

SAILOR DEE

Sailor dee was supposed to act as a main supporting character and secret Meta Knights spy, who would end up helping Kirby, despite being afraid of them in the beginning due to the GSA records Meta knight gave them.  Sailor’s backstory was supposed to reveal that they left their home and sailed away because they felt as if they were not wanted and forgettable once Bandanna started becoming closer to the kings court after his megaton punch world record break. this would lead to Sailor finding the Meta Knights. Sailor was supposed to get a more major character arc, becoming a more strong and confident person. Eventually Sailor would become the force that leads the Meta Knights when Meta is MIA. Sailor would have also been a Galaxia wielder. 

A feud during Amazing mirror would have led Sailor to go off and try to save the world themself, without Galaxia and the knights, who Sailor feels abandoned them. Sailor would get into a fight with Dark Meta, a fight where Silver Galaxia would create a blast that tried to save Sailor, but knocked them into another dimension with Marx, Dark Matter Swordsman, Nightmare, and Morpho. Together they would all work to make it out. They would all master different abilities. this plot would lead to the Morpho knight subplot in the Mass Attack story. Sailor would become Aqua Knight in the end.

ADALINE

Adaline’s backstory would begin as a lone magical waddle dee artist would travel to Shiver Star to test his artistic ability and reanimate the lost and forgotten life forms using soul matter paint. Adaline would be the waddle dee’s child and would grow up to watch her father figure create new sisters and even planets(patchland) out of magic. Eventually. The painter would become corrupt, and attempt to create a painting army to take over the galaxy. Vividria enlisted the help of NME to stop the galactic takeover before it started by separating paintings and sealing the painter inside the magic brush. The dude would have time to think in there. Adaline would then be taken in the Nightmare family’s care. They would also create a brother to her, Paint Roller. Vividria guards the artists moon.

MORPHO

morpho would have been Meta’s younger sibling. Both would try to escape the All Matter Castle after being hurt by Void after Void-a baby God ho had no idea what it was doing-was manipulated to hurt them. Meta made it out. Morpho didn’t. Morpho was killed and taken to the underworld. there they met Necrodeus, who gave them the role as a grim reaper. Necrodeus always felt sorry for Morpho. 

Morpho was trapped before they were killed. as Meta escaped he promised he would go back. However, Morpho was told in their final moments that Meta left them to save himself. This would spark their revenge.

After Morpho’s revenge failed, they would have had an emotional talk where they would basically hug and cry and clear things up before the light took morpho back. In the series end, they would be reborn with new memories in a new life around people that would love them.

HYNESS

Hyness would have started out as a normal part time cleric / part time nanny. He knew all of the sisters as he was their nanny. when families abandoned in blizzards, infernos took lives, and when all seamed gone. Hyness took them under their wing. But like literally anyone else at this point he became crazy with power. His dark powers left him after KSA and he felt guilty to the point of tears after he realized what he had done. He did everything he could to make it up to them.

VOID

Void would have been a baby God found by the ancients. Their power would be manipulated by other people until they were convinced that what they were doing was ok. The four heroes tried to reason with Void but to no avail.Once Void was sealed their manipulators were ended. Sir Arthur became the new leader and the era of control was over. Galacta Knight absorbed their power however and started the calamity…

GALACTA

Galacta was Kirby from a future time and history that had a cataclysmic event involving the fusion of Void and Kirby. Everything in the dimension was wiped out in this event. This dimension became “another dimension.” Galacta knight absorbed Void’s sealed matter and became overwhelmed with power. Galacta would be sealed tearfully by Meta as they both knew each other because they were both family to one another. Galacta would reawaken themself, and cause havoc throughout time and space. Galacta, Kirby, and Void would all fuse, fixing everything and ending off the series on the same hill Kirby crashed on.

THATS IT I HOPED YOU ENJOYED PLEASE COMENT AND REBLOG I SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON THIS I LOVE YOU ALL AND WHO KNOWS I MIGHT WORK ON THESE AS SIMGULAR STORIES LATER. THIS IS MY FF BLOG NOW. THANK YOU LOVE YOU ALL IM SORRY THANK YOU!!!!!!!!111111!!!!

[sombrcstar]

// could you talk about some of rev!ford's main goals? how does his relationship with stanley compare to their relationship in the prime universe?

help me develop the rev boi! || accepting!

Seeing as they had the same upbringing as their canon counterparts, Ford and Stan are actually really heckin’ close. Unfortunately, that includes all the misunderstandings and the break-up after the West Coast Tech Incident. Stan still cost Ford his  ‘ DREAM SCHOOL ‘  and he went to Backupsmore as a result.

During Ford’s documentation of the journal - and honestly this is clear in the CANON journal - he thought about his brother a lot. There’s a lot of anger and resentment, but also sadness. Unlike Prime Ford, he actually does something with this.

Sometime after his roadblock in research, after he met Will Cipher, construction of the interdimensional portal began. Its goal was to explore the multiverse and to investigate the unknown. Although Reverse Ford has just as much hubris as his prime counterpart, glory and science wasn’t the ONLY reason he was in this for. To start with.

The main reason for its creation was because when he was a kid, Stan constantly talked about exploring the world together. Ford was giving him what he wanted, out of guilt and perhaps apology - except, you know, multi-verse sized.

He wanted the portal completed by their birthday, and intended to invite Stanley over on that date to surprise him. But of course, that ended badly.

Although Ford was ecstatic about the gift, eager to reconnect with his brother - Stanley sensed something off about him. This was because Ford had been dabbling in DARK MAGIC, and the lilt to his words concerned him. He was planning more than casual adventure and Stan felt it.

Knowledge of the unknown wasn’t enough. Glory wasn’t enough. For scientific pursuit WASN’T. ENOUGH. Ford wanted POWER.

After Ford’s excited ramblings went south and Stan called him out on it, an argument and the FIGHT broke out. Stan had decided this mystery nonsense had changed his brother for the worst and tried to confiscate and BURN his journal.

Now - here’s the bridge. There are subverses to this little point in time.

IN THE FIRST VERSE, events transpire as they did in canon. Stanley accidentally pushed his brother into the portal and spent the next 30 years trying to get him back.

Over those thirty years, Ford is… well, he’s not even sure how to describe it. He’s angry, certainly - but feels a sense of failure because his plan to reconnect with his brother, what he THOUGHT was the right thing to do, fell through. And at the same time, he feels a sense of betrayal because it felt like Stanley was throwing everything he’d sacrificed for the portal back in his face. It was for THEM, after all.

As he travelled dimensions, investigating and gaining power, he developed a sense of APATHY and tried not to think about it too much.

It’s to be noted that although he cares for his brother greatly, in this verse there’s a lot more bitter resentment towards him.

Interactions after his return are extremely TENSE because Stanley knows what he is. But nonetheless, Stan is family…

IN THE SECOND VERSE, events tranpsire differently. Seeing as this IS Reverse Falls, Stan was the one pushed into the portal. It was an accident, something Ford didn’t mean for ( and honestly what clicks is that one scene in canon where he immediately regrets causing Stanley that burn ) .

Ford spent the following thirty years trying to get his brother back, sending out scouts that often time didn’t return. He even left himself a few times, though the Nightmare Realm’s inhabitants didn’t take to that kindly so he didn’t get very far.

Stanford had terrible luck throughout this, and didn’t want to assume the worse. He couldn’t deal with assuming the worse.

He was slowly losing his mind with guilt, and resorted to the most drastic measures he could think of. The usage of dark magic became a constant habit, one that only WORSENED his mindset - and eventually, ethics and empathy got thrown out of the window.

Stanford didn’t care about what anyone else wanted, or whether it was wrong. He was getting his brother back. That was the right thing to do.

When Stanley returns, Ford is ecstatic - relieved. All his sacrifices, all his hard work; it paid off. He did something RIGHT for once! His brother is alive and (mostly) well - and he’s just so happy to see that! He’s happy that his brother’s back home!

However, Stanley is less than grateful and Ford gets decked across the face just as his prime counterpart did so to his twin.

Ford is speechless, misunderstanding - though eventually explodes into fuming rage. He’d spent THIRTY YEARS, driving himself to the point of madness trying to get his brother back, and this was the thanks he got. Unlike Prime Stanley, his rage is more than just bitter resentment.

Saving Stanley was his entire goal for the last three decades; to doing something GOOD. The fact that meant nothing, coupled with his overwhelming guilt and outrage, made him snap. What was the point of it all? You didn’t get acknowledgement for it anyway. That situation doesn’t end well, and needless to say, when it does - Ford wanders off a deeper end before.

Maybe it’s just the ANGER and the punch in the face talking, but his interest in levelling this wretched town just spiked.

TLDR: Ford cares greatly for Stanley, and in one verse risks a lot for him. Unfortunately his anger / apathy gets in the way off things.

[evenstevensranked]

#12: Season 1, Episode 15 - “Heck of a Hanukkah”

After sneaking a peek at -- and accidentally breaking -- all of his family’s Hanukkah presents, Louis gets grounded for the holiday and believes the Stevens tribe would be better if he was never born. He travels through time and space “It's A Wonderful Life” style thanks to the guidance of his great Bubbe Rose, who shows him what a world without Louis Stevens would actually be like. 

First off, I'd like to point out that I own this episode on an official Disney Holiday DVD. So I took that as an opportunity to have HQ screenshots for once!!! :) But, yes. This is the obligatory "Christmas episode" which I’m pretty positive every single TV series has. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Christmas episodes can tend to be forgettable and generic. This one, however, is such a classic. 

One thing I wanna mention before we dive into this thing: This episode is filmed weirdly. It has a very “soap opera” feel to it? Is it possible that it was shot at 60fps? That’s the only explanation I can think of. It always bothered me that this is the only episode out of all 65 that looks and feels entirely different than the others. I wonder why that is...? That being said, I always had such fond memories of this one.

It opens with Louis snooping around in Ren’s closet for their Hanukkah presents. (“Give it up, Louis. You are never going to find them!”) But, you see... he’s determined to find them because he’s Louis Stevens and this is what he does. 

This leads into a bit where Ren chases Louis into Donnie’s room and Louis “accidentally” (but Shia is obviously doing it purposely) knocks over all of Donnie’s trophies on the way out. THIS BOTHERS ME SO MUCH! What the heck?

He’s literally fine, and then... he just sticks his arm out, lol. Also, are all of the shelves magically connected? Why do those upper shelves collapse when Louis only wrecked the lower one? Questions. 

Louis keeps running and eventually ends up in the basement. He concludes that the presents must be down there somewhere. They chose to add this weird effect here where Louis’ mind works like a high tech computer, allowing him to scan and successfully know where the presents aren’t just by looking at the potential hiding places:

He doesn’t even TRY to check these places. He just knows. I swear, when I was a kid I genuinely thought this was some plot twist and Louis was actually a cyborg like Cookie from “Ned’s Declassified” this whole time or something. 

Of course, Louis finds the presents in a trunk with the clever message “Louis, please clean out this trunk!” taped to it. Yeah, the reverse psychology alllllmost worked there, but Louis is smarter than that.

Meanwhile, Eileen is cooking dinner upstairs. She’s casually telling Steve, Ren and Donnie the story of Hanukkah for the first time in years while they help her prepare. Since they’re distracted by the tale, Louis manages to smuggle all of the presents out of the basement and sneaks right past his family. I love that they actually wrote the Stevens Family as half Jewish on Eileen's side specifically, though. I mentioned this recently! It totally mirrors Shia’s real life and I think that’s pretty cool. 

Notice Louis hiding behind that pile presents he’s carrying on the far right lol

Having them celebrate the Jewish holiday for the “Christmas” episode is pretty nice too. I think this might’ve been my first exposure to the Jewish faith now that I think about it. Eileen’s little story of Hanukkah works subtly here. It's educational in a non-preachy way, which is an absolute feat in comparison to other Disney shows that hit you over the head with the intended lesson of the day (I’m looking at you, Girl Meets World...)

Louis rushes upstairs to his room where he hides under the covers and RIPS OPEN EVERY SINGLE PRESENT. Okay. I understand and remember the anticipation of the holidays and wanting to know what gifts you’re getting... but to actually OPEN every single one?!?! Like, really Louis? Whatever happened to simply shaking a gift and trying to guess what it is? Honestly. Was he planning on rewrapping all of them?! How? 

Just as Louis finishes opening all the gifts, Steve calls for him and comes walking upstairs wondering what he’s doing up there! Louis panics and tries to stash the gifts somewhere all bundled up in a sheet. His room is a pigsty and his closet is beyond full -- so the only place he can think to put them is OUT THE WINDOW!!! Yeah. The bundle of gifts goes tumbling down the roof and splatters all over the driveway. The entire family march up to his room piiiiised off as they stare out the window at the trashed gifts. 

"Hey! It's not my fault we live in a two-story house! I have always said that I like ranch style!" -- Louis Stevens. One of my favorite quotes ever.

They throw in a line from Steve here “Is this gonna happen again next week when my cousins are here to celebrate Christmas with us?!” simply letting us know that Steve’s side of the family is likely Christian/Catholic... which also mirrors Shia’s real life. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks this is kinda awesome? Not only because they seemingly wrote that around him -- but as someone who’s biracial, I just love to see any sort of blended family represented in TV/Film. 

Eileen grounds Louis for Hanukkah and The Remorse™ seeps in. Louis flops on his bed all depressed with the words of his disappointed family reverberating in his head. They make a point to emotionally pan over to this family photo on his bedside:

THIS IS SO CUTE! We see near-identical photos to this throughout the series, but this one is so happy and genuine looking. Does Ren have Louis in a loveable headlock?! Precious. 

This fades into a MIRROR TALK!!! Yesssss. I think this is the last we ever see of these lovely talks before they mysteriously stopped. :( But, hey! It’s a powerful one to end on! Louis thinks out loud as usual and says that he doesn't belong in the Stevens family -- that they'd be better if he was never born. 

Enter: his Bubbe Rose! (”My Boobie WHAT?!”) The ghost of his great great great great grandmother, played by Donna Pescow in some serious age makeup!! She comes flying through his bedroom window right on cue ready to take him on a ~magical journey.~ There’s a wonderful, perfectly timed Louis Scream here. There’s also a bit where Louis doesn’t believe that she’s a ghost, so she makes herself disappear and Shia presumably ad-libs looking for her between his box spring and mattress. This always cracked me up. 

That scream. You can hear this gif. 

Bubbe Rose is apparently Louis’ grandmother from only 4 generations ago but says that she has 7,000 grandchildren. How does that make any sense at all? lol. SOMEONE must’ve got busy in that family. Anyway... They embark on their journey by flying around the moon a few times and over the city, leaving a trail of rainbow light behind them. No biggie. They pretty much look exactly like the “The More You Know” shooting star:

“AHGHHH! WE’RE FLYIN!!”

They land (very roughly) right outside of Louis’ house. Except, it’s not really Louis’ house anymore. Bubbe Rose explains that they’re in a dimension where he was never born. Once again, Louis doesn’t believe her even though she just took him flying around the moon. He slaps himself in the face to prove that he is in fact born, but Bubbe Rose insists that his family will not be able to see or hear him. Louis thinks it’s a load of malarkey. He sarcastically shouts “Whatever you say! Give my regards to Casper, okay?" as he marches into the house like he owns the place. I absolutely love that Casper line. Oh my god. 

As soon as Louis walks into the dining room, Steve seemingly turns around to greet him with his arms outstretched “SON!” but... well...

Honestly, that’s some great CGI for a 2001 Disney Channel show. Wow!

Turns out they’re actually greeting their alternate son named Curtis (Played by Chris Marquette, who you’ve definitely seen in a zillion other things) and he's the polar opposite of Louis. He’s a perfect student and top-tier athlete... But, there’s one little catch -- he’s a complete and total demon child. And no, not the “Louis Stevens” brand of demon child but literally “The Omen” brand of demon child. He is a nightmare. Curtis tells the family that he was voted “Best All Around Student of All Time” by the school board which is definitely not a real award. Louis feels like a loser and a letdown to his family in comparison. 

Remember that happy family photo they made sure to show us earlier? Well, now we get this alternate dimension Stevens family portrait in contrast: 

Yeah. Not as happy. 

Louis is sitting on the stairs gazing at the portrait when Bubbe Rose randomly appears on his lap. (“AGHHHHH! Can you stop with these landings?!” haha!) At first, Louis thinks his family would be 100x better without him. Like, he actually looks at that portrait and believes that they look so much happier, which is obviously supposed to be a joke lol. He hates what the magical journey has taught him and makes sure Bubbe Rose knows: 

We go on to learn that Louis' absence has somehow thrown off every member of the family and their personalities. Ren's an edgy, messy, wild punk chick with a boyfriend named Spider. Donnie's a "wuss" (Louis' words) whose only accomplishment and prized possession is a tiny trophy he won for a 1st-grade spelling bee (His winning word was "Ride: R-I-D-Silent E,” which he frantically repeats to himself for comfort whenever he feels dumb.) Louis is just sitting in Ren’s room observing this warped iteration of the Stevens family when Curtis walks in and berates Ren and Donnie for talking so loudly while he’s studying. Suddenly, Bubbe Rose discreetly appears and softly kisses Louis on the head, magically making him visible to everyone now. Curtis tells Ren and Donnie to get rid of him and Louis is so confused. Oh, man. It gets hilarious now. 

Ren and Donnie are all like ‘who the hell are you?’ Louis insists “No, you can’t see me I’m invisible” lol. When that doesn’t work, he scrambles to come up with an identity. ("I’m Louis Steve-o-saurus... And I’m a foreign exchange student from Pennsylvania.”) I love how that’s a good enough explanation for Alternate Ren and Donnie. They just accept the fact that this random kid they don’t know appeared out of thin air in their house. Louis says “your brother’s a creep” and that’s all it takes to set off a heart-to-heart convo. 

Punk Ren is actually kinda great. 

They sit down and tell him "You have no idea what it's like to be related to someone who's perfect at everything they do" -- Obviously, this is not true and Louis knows all too well. He relates and explains that you have to "focus on your own good qualities" to deal with it. You can tell that he’s teaching himself the lesson as much as he’s teaching it to them.  

It cuts to Alternate Ren and Donnie heading downstairs to ask Eileen and Steve if they can have a friend come over for Hanukkah dinner. Louis quietly follows them down to the kitchen and interjects “Uh.. Hi, there!” from the doorway. Steve turns around and shouts “WHO.. WHO’S THAT?!?!” so loudly. Tom Virtue is always so extra, I love it. This brings us to one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. Good lord, I love this so much: 

"I mean, I have a family. It's just, we don't... celebrate........ dinner.”

Things go from 0 to 100 after Louis offers to put their chicken in the oven and accidentally drops it. The entire family starts dying laughing because they never have any sort of fun thanks to overbearing, controlling psycho Curtis. It’s hysterical to me. When he first drops it, the silence that follows cracks me up. Then I laugh even harder when he purposely drops it a second time. It’s so good. I feel like Shia is just going to town with the whole dancing chicken thing. (“IT’S FREESTYLIN’!!!!!”) He goes on to put the chicken on his head and it’s great because the thing is obviously hollow and rubber lol. Can you imagine if a stranger actually did this, though?! That’s what makes it so freaking funny. If a random kid came into my house, dropped my chicken, put his hands all over it and proceeded to put it on his head and dance around after knowing me for a grand total of 30 seconds... I’d call the police so quick.

Curtis sees them having a good time and can’t stand it. He decides to frame Louis for stealing the family’s Hanukkah money. Ugh. Curtis interrupts the chicken train dance Louis is leading (see cover photo) and announces “someone has pilfered the Hanukkah money!” Donnie rejoices (much like in The Even Stevens Movie after they’re told they’ve been shunned lol) and Curtis clarifies “That means it’s STOLEN, PEBBLE-BRAIN!” Which is so mean, but so funny to me. 

The family goes over to the coat rack/table in the hallway where Steve left the envelope of money. Curtis helps him look and immediately “finds it” in Louis’ coat pocket. Wowww. He says “He’s a bad man, Mom,” like a little innocent baby before turning into a possessed devil child behind everyone’s backs. This kid is seriously so evil. 

This dramatic shot is accompanied by sinister music. Actually, dark/disturbing music plays whenever Curtis is on screen. It’s pretty funny.

The family starts interrogating Louis and he explains “I didn’t wanna steal any presents! I just wanted to be with you guys, my family.” And Steve goes OFFFFFF! “WHAT?! You come here and dance with our chicken and suddenly you're family?!" HAHAHAHAHA. Curtis has the phone ready to call the police -- took ‘em long enough! The family surrounds Louis and holds him down. Louis asks for Bubbe Rose to rescue him, but when that doesn’t work he clicks his heels together and chants “There’s no place like home.” Once again, an incredibly solid pop culture reference! It’s not a very original reference to make, but still! This show made a lot of timeless writing decisions and I can’t get over it. Sort of like Ren at the end of “Influenza,” Louis screams at the top of his lungs and wakes up back in the right universe, lol. 

The back-to-normal Stevens family decide that Hanukkah isn’t nearly as fun without Louis and un-ground him. They all head downstairs to light the menorah and sing a traditional song. Yay! It’s heartwarming.

Also like “Influenza,” it turns out that it was all a dream! OR WAS IT....?! Bubbe Rose makes an ACTUAL public appearance that night bearing magically repaired gifts! Whooaaaaaa! She pretends to be some random lady who was jogging by their house and noticed perfectly fine gifts in the trash. The family is shocked that everything is back in mint condition! And just like that, Bubbe Rose disappears and leaves them wondering how in the heck.....?! Bubbe reappears outside the kitchen window and shares a hush-hush lil moment with Louis. Awww. 

And that’s it!

This is such a cute episode. The “It’s A Wonderful Life” trope has been used to death in TV and film, but I really like how it was done here. You can always count on Even Stevens to bring its own unique flavor to anything. It works perfectly here because it organically continues the Louis narrative of him feeling like an outsider in his family. I love to see consistency like that. It also shows just how unique and important Louis really is to his family and their happiness. Although this is a “holiday special” episode, it still manages to feel like regular one to an extent and I love that. It’s a super engaging story full of heart and laughs. That chicken scene tho... Oh man. 

Also! In the end credits, they wrote “Bubbie Rose” with an ie, but I looked it up and the traditional way to spell it is “Bubbe” apparently. So, that’s what I went with! 

This episode’s Redbubble design is of Louis yelling the infamous boobie quote comic book style lol. This actually inadvertently makes a fantastic thank you note/greeting card and is available here. HAHA! I tried to stay true to the show’s color scheme of green/blue/purple as well. 

Thanks for reading!! 

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[ihfsttinuf]

Screw It, I’m Making a Webcomic

So, as I made it abundantly clear on Twitter mere moments ago, I have a real honest-to-Glob New Year’s Resolution for 2017.

I am going to create a webcomic.

I am going to write a sequential art narrative which I will draw and provide various artistic accoutrements to and post it on the Internet. This is going to happen by the end of this year. I am doing this.

Perhaps this sudden outburst and declaration of artistic intent seems a bit out of left field, both in its overtones of grandiosity and relative lack of context given what most of you guys know about me. So let me provide some of that much needed context, both to show you why I am doing this and what I am really saying, which is probably even more ambitious (and maybe pretentious) than you think it is.

I’ve been writing weird little stories and drawing accompanying illustrations for them since I was a wean, as most of us did at that age, but since that point I’ve never really stopped. At a very young age I encountered not only excellent children’s books ranging from the charming and heartwarming to the downright mind-bending—Peter Sís and Henrik Drescher were big in my household—but also illustrated works whose contents and subtext were far too old for me yet entranced me nonetheless, particularly the works of the great New England illustrator and satirist Edward Gorey. By the age of six or seven, I had memorised “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” and would recite it with morbid glee to anyone who would ask (or didn’t). I discovered books through Gorey’s cover illustrations, first accidentally discovering the alternate history genre through his work on Joan Aiken’s Dido Twite series, and was only drawn deeper into John Bellairs’ junior Gothics when I discovered that Gorey had provided the frontispiece and dust jacket to every one of the entries in the series he’d written up to his death—which I mourned, with a mix of vague incomprehension, sorrow, and creeping disappointment. I was eight at the time.

Parallel to this, I spent a lot of time at my town’s local art centre, which provided free classes in all sorts of artistic endeavours. I took most to theatre and improv in particular—I was a wee ham; now I am a large ham—but what stuck with me was drawing and, to a lesser extent, animation. As I fixated on Gorey’s superficial techniques and aesthetics, the simple sunken eyes and odd little triangular noses, I’d also more subtly acquired his less obvious techniques: The way he used cross-hatching and simple, intense linework to suggest different textures entranced me, and indeed still does. I am told that a very strict art teacher, who I thought disliked me and of whom I was somewhat afraid, freely admitted that a sketch I’d done of a horned figure playing a flute on a rooftop by the light of the moon had taken her breath away.

Which is not to say that I was, or am, some prodigy of form, or that I lacked for more prosaic influences. The former, I will get to, but the latter is best expressed in the fact that a recurring scene which I have since revised and transfigured many, many times began life as... well, thinly veiled Darkwing Duck fanfiction, minus the duck part, given a sound twist of Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter”. I was maybe eleven or so at the time.

It was in one of these classes that this weird little scene deep beneath a ruined graveyard was born. It was also there that I made plans for an elaborate series of beast fables, set in a world quite unlike our own.

It is perhaps worth noting that one of the handful of these early sketches which sticks in y mind to this day was a tale of two young male lizards falling in love only to be torn apart by a disapproving society. Even at an age when I was functionally unaware of homosexuality and bemused or outright repulsed by what I knew of sex, a queer romance was perhaps the most emotionally intense thing that I had conceived of up to that point. But I digress.

The setting in question and certain characters in it would perennially re-emerge in my other writing, which I was quite certain would be my career path throughout late elementary and middle school. In seventh grade, I was part of an experimental programme where middle and high school students were allowed to enrol in a creative writing course at a nearby university. Only two students wound up attending: Myself, and a classmate of mine who had skipped a grade and would later become known in my high school as something of a mad and insufferable genius. (We got on pretty well.) After several semesters of studying poetry and short fiction, there was a presentation. One of the selections I made for my reading was a list-poem, from the perspective of an older character trying to live day by day with the memory of his deceased wife hanging over him, with the distinction that the final entry was a reminder to keep his claws neatly filed.

It was around that time that I began to come under the influence of Thomas Ligotti, and it was with this exposure to the refiner’s fire of such elegant horror—the kind that brought the same sort of visions into my mind that Gorey brought to the page—that I realised what form my true opus should take, at least in plot. I took it with me into high school, and beyond into the wilderness of these past six-and-a-half years of confusion. The polestar of this mad endeavour formed here.

I had been thinking a lot about epic high fantasy at the time—I was eleven when The Return of the King hit theatres, and I had read enough in the genre and in styles adjacent to it to be aware of the tropes—and it occurred to me that the moral framework and cosmology of a lot of such works rang a bit hollow to me, not because right and wrong did not exist, as certainly people do good and bad things to one another all the time, but because there was always this sense of certainty that the side one was meant to root for was indubitably in the right and some great objective force of Good deemed it so, blessing their struggle against a force similarly ordained by some great objective Evil. It was that last dimension which particularly irked me. It felt reassuring in the most painfully reductive and philosophically trite way possible. And so often the battles were so... literal. I never much cared for war films to begin with, and by putting such struggles in a fantastical framework, you subtracted the one thing that made war films kind of neat: The recognition that these were people doing the fighting and the killing. Not symbols, people.

Very middle school analysis, yes, and unfair to some things I quite enjoy, Tolkien included, but the ultimate conclusions were the important part.

Which is where Ligotti comes in. Much has been made of his non-fiction opus The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, but in terms of his philosophy and its influence on my thinking at the time, I’d rather stick to his fiction, as that was what I was reading and that is what made me. In brief, Ligotti is not a reassuring writer. The universe of his stories reflects his views of our own, which are, in essence, a wholesale rejection of the commonly held notion that human consciousness and life in general are good things that we should all be even remotely enthused about, instead proposing that the very idea that we are aware of ourselves and that we should think of ourselves as individuals for whom some higher power might just be watching out is more likely an obscene and sadistic joke on that hypothetical power’s part or else, more likely, a horrible accident. His stories are filled with personal totems and surreal motifs, the fates of his characters determined by blind chance or the detached malicious prankstery of a party with whom they cannot bargain or reason, the sadistic frenzies of Poe’s maniacal villain-protagonists writ large, often on a cosmic scale. There is the feel of a nightmare and yet also of the sleepless hours after, alone in the dark, thinking, where wakefulness and dream bleed between one another and all the world is a nightmare to which the hells of sleep might well be preferable.

If I’ve lost you, well, I’m sorry; but you and I probably have something to talk about if your first reaction to all this was, “I’ve certainly had *those* days.”

And if you’ve had enough of those days, the rest probably follows easily enough.

Wouldn’t it be interesting, I thought, if one took that quest narrative key to so many epic fantasies, and put it through a world where the rules of the game were so utterly reversed? If our well-meaning hero—of course, as in Tolkien, basically some poor backwater schmo, by no means stupid nor necessarily naïve but very, *very* far from the classical man of virtue—were to bear with him some artefact of power that could, perhaps by its very existence, rend the veil of normalcy that should keep all of the sane and happy citizens of this world from confronting what writhes beneath all that they see, what might he choose to do with it, particularly if he were, say, by some inexplicable invisible bond, *tied* to it?

Now, what makes a fitting antagonist for such a tale? What sort of character provides the ideal foil for a kind-hearted soul confronted with all the horrors of what may be in a neat little package? Rather than some cosmic sadist intent on throwing us all under the bus, why not something a bit scarier: Another kind-hearted soul. Someone who has seen behind the veil their whole life. Someone who has seen the truth and the agony of this world and seeks nothing less than perfect closure

And there it was.

And then it began to get complicated.

For every character that I created to flesh out the story, another came into being, and I wanted to know more about them. A side-plot salvaged from some other silly project merged seamlessly into the new whole, and suddenly there were whole new plots, full of new characters with motives that I wanted to understand. Characters grew, changed, lightened and darkened as my thoughts steeped. Exposure to other writers through classes and forums and variably disastrous shared writing projects made me realise what I did and did not know, what I could and could not do.

It was also in high school that I began taking music seriously, first toying around in Garageband and singing in the school choir and then as part of a band with several close friends. I wrote a lot of poetry, and I sang a bit, so we had lyrics; I still drew sometimes, so we had art when we needed it, although we rarely needed it. I was always ambitious with my lyrics: One of our most successful songs was structured to simulate one character murdering another during a snowstorm in a glade where they had played and hidden as a child. Morbid character studies were common; I was always taking grim little vacations in people’s heads, my own or otherwise. Informed by my middle school studies of haibun and my lyrical adventures, my prose grew more experimental, collapsing into poems or switching into strange persons and tenses. My mind was full of images, yet where to go with them?

My path to sequential art was an odd and rocky one. As mentioned, I loved picture books and illustrated stories as a child, and while I failed to touch upon them earlier (mea culpa!), Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side were pretty important in their own right. I even attempted to create something of a running series at around the time I was in that poetry programme, mainly for the amusement of myself and a very affable art teacher who found the premise amusing. It was only a year or two later that I would read Doom Patrol—the first superhero comic that I would ever admit to liking, and still one of the chosen few—and realise that Grant Morrison, the bastard, had stolen my idea before I’d even been born: Of killing one’s own imaginary friend, only to be tormented by their vengeful spectre years after the fact at the least appropriate of times.

But the comic idea sort of fell by the wayside for the longest time, for the simple reason that I am, to my own mind, an atrocious draughtsman. I cannot reproduce figures to save my life. Hilarious, seeing as I can draw you a teeming alien cityscape, or a perfectly detailed mosquito in flames, but in terms of doing the same thing twice, I’ve spent years hanging my head in shame and self-loathing.

The secret is, though, not that I couldn’t learn this, but that for such a long time, pride had kept me from allowing myself to be bad at things until I was good. As someone to whom a lot of fairly complex ideas just come naturally, someone who just absorbs information like a souped-up Dyson vacuum, the idea of having to draw the same damned thing ten thousand times just to get decent at drawing that same damned thing was a horrifying prospect. It still is.

I got pushed into it. My own fictions put a knife to my throat and told me, “This is what needs to happen.” But it took two different interconnected experiences to understand how, both courtesy of my boyfriend being a huge dork.

The first was his recommendation that I read LAMEZINE 02, at that time the latest salvo from the wonderfully deranged comic artist Cate Wurtz, then going by the moniker Partydog; the second was his use of a Bec Noir avatar on a forum we’re both on, which got me to finally bite the bullet and read Homestuck.

Wurtz’ Lamezone comics are a trip. Her art style is by most technical standards fairly primitive, but it’s a very *refined* jankiness, part and parcel to her overall embrace of scuzzy punk ‘zine aesthetics, immediately recognisable and all-around immediate. Her approach to story and tone is just the same, at once surreal and ridiculous and incredibly emotionally potent, ranging in tone from giddy B-movie absurdity to crushing Carver-esque sorrow, composed of as many little side-stories that flesh out what sort of world these characters live in as of its “meat” and all the better for it. The way that her comics are often framed only adds to the ambience: DVD menus of hit TV series that never existed, tales from the everyday lives of people living on the precipice of madness (and/or suburban Kansas), the wild Lynchian adventures of a man who talks to the spirit of the good ol’ USA through Twitter while traipsing through other people’s comics and the comment sections on furry porn sites. She was even working on a video game at one point about a woman trying to battle her way through deformed iterations of her past selves while maintaining a sufficient ganja supply. I have no idea if that’s still happening. It looked awesome.

Homestuck has already had much said about it, so I’ll keep it brief. Comparisons to Pynchon are not unwarranted. It takes the hypertextual potential of the webcomic to the next level, and is longer than many novel series. The art is, quite intentionally, all over the place, and uses collage surprisingly effectively. The story is a beautiful mess that is, fundamentally, about the process of storytelling and how “things that happen” become “stories” in the first place. It’s very oblique about this, and generally quite funny.

And so I looked to the story I was writing.

I looked at the multiple plotlines growing out of one another, intersecting, snakes devouring their tails, thematic parallels on parallels, spirals of mental imagery with bits of torn wallpaper making the fabric of waistcoats and cathedrals made out of lines of scripture and trees bearing watches like fruit, and I went: “This should be a comic! A hypercomic, in fact, McLuhan-style! This should be a wondrous blend of visuals and text and...

“I...

“I can’t draw. Fuck me. I should stick to prose, like a good loser. Get rejected that way instead.”

So I waffled. For months. And then for years.

But you know what?

I’m done waffling.

Limitation is power in its own right. Ever since I learned of Oulipo in that long-ago three-person poetry class, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of innovation through defining what you cannot do, or what you must do, no matter what. Of forcing yourself to start from a set place or end at one, no ifs, ands or buts.

I am limited. Within that, I am omnipotent.

I am going to draw this comic. I am going to write it and I am going to draw it even if it starts out looking like total shit and the process drives me half-insane. If things that I love, in sequential art but also in music and painting and writing and animation and all sorts of other forms, can make a perceived deficit into a key strength, I can do it, too. Even if I can’t be a classical master, I can be the best at that crazy thing I do.

I guess this is also my grandiose way of saying “fuck last year,” where I made so much progress that felt so thwarted by external circumstances and my own failings, and where so much went wrong for so many of us. So I’m embracing this year as a year of progress. Even if everything else sucks, I’ll be running up that hill.

And just so there’s no mistaking it, I will still be making music and probably writing at least a smidgen of prose fiction and poetry on the side. In the former category, I might even start a band.

Oh, wait. We’re not doing half-measures any more.

I’m starting a band, too.

Tell your friends.

Happy 2017, everyone, and have a lovely rest of your night.