#anyways its the usual unfinished bc this is the best i got

[kristartz]

I miss them

[mirohtron]

HEY GIRL

Watched / read anything good recently?

was watching dungeon meshi but then that gay ahh bath scene came on and my moms in the room w me so like 💀💀💀💀 reading 1984 rn bcs assignment, im ten pages in bcs i keep fawking playing honkai star rail 😭😭😭 omg, but i was in the midst of watching dil se before i realised i was getting distracted too easily and it was keeping me from enjoying it properly. was only watching it bcs i couldnt find bombay (1995, not the city 💀💀) anywhere. probs bcs nobody gaf abt archiving desi movies 😭😭😭😭 its tough out here, but like for dil se honestly i rlly liked the screenplay and the way it was directed even tho like . i literally only got to the first song of the film 💀💀 even then. also oh my god srk has not a SINGLE dancing bone in his body like ive bitched abt it before but oml hrithik roshan and tiger shroff are actually carrying the reputation of bollywood's male actor's dancing abilities on their back....now if only theyd stop FAWKING taking up propaganda films 😭😭😭

i actually kinda need to leave a separate paragraph for how bad srk dances like its not just when he was young...in chaiyya chaiyya literally EVERYBODY is on beat except him....and it KEELS me because ure telling me u cant keep tempo ??? brother 😭😭😭😭😭 but ok even in the present like, he stays on beat (barely) but hes SO STIFF?? i like saw some clip of him dancing with an actress, it mightve been deepika padukone in happy new year ??? oh my god it was SO bad. he was SO stiff. it KILLED me. bollywood actress go through HELL but sanjay dutt srk and a bunch of other male actors get away with not being able to dance well 😭😭😭😭 my queen kareena kapoor took dance classes before filming k3g yet srk and amitabh bacchan got away w shava shava....Sick and Twisted world we live in like....anyway i actually dk if thalapthy vijay is a bhakt but this is y he solos even tho i have verithanam trauma....sings n dances well etc, this is y bollywood flops consistently actually

pls take that paragraph lightheartedly if ure desi 💔 ok anyway

the god of small things by arundhati roy is good....i only read like 20 pages tho but ik plot 💀💀💀💀 i think the seven moons of maali almeida might also b good, its by shehan karunatilaka

ok last unfinished thing im gna recommend....Hot Tkae but....i liked saltburn...i still have the 2nd half of the movie to finish (stopped some time after the reveal) but again, ik the plot 😭 i still have some problems w it tho but its not rlly abt the hypersexuality. cinematography fucked. 4:3 aspect ratio choice? ATE. SO BADD. but ill also need to finish the film. but tbh its obsessed boy x rich boy trope wasnt rlly handled well in my opinion, micah nemerever's these violent delights solos in that area. and i think the story is flawed

ok NOW. i liked fleabag. actually i LOVED fleabag. think its a masterpiece. both seasons but esp the 2nd one (felt more refined but compared to other shows, s1 SOLOS). the boys s4 is dropping!! invincible s2 was alr i bet the animation studio suffered hard tho bcs wtf was that style change mid season 😭😭😭. and i don't rlly think the direction in which Nolan's character arc is gna go to will turn out that great? also, i loved gerta gerwig's ladybug! its actually crazy how she made ladybug and barbie both . one is amazing. the other is well uhm.

oh also i liked inglourious basterds and pulp fiction . quentin tarantino kinda looks like a walking talking serial killer mugshot tho i saw an interview where he was asked why kill bill had so much violence and was honestly surprised by how girlypop he was. not forgetting him choking diane kruger on set tho !

watched batman begins. it was aight 😭 rewatched matt reeves' batman right after. liked it betterr. i LOVEDDD heartbreak high, s1 and s2 !! usually with shows i only like s1 best, but w heartbreak high i literally ADOREDDD s2, the finale was so good !!! im also watching the gentlemen (the show) rn, and i rllyyy like it hehe. tried watching tick tick boom again bcs I'd actually dropped it midway when it had first released bcs that one scene where she was like "you're thinking of a song rn aren't you" was so stress inducing that I had 2 click away 💀💀 n then i forgot abt it. picked it up again and omg it's actually so good how did I miss it the first time 😭😭😭

oh yeah I also liked the fall of the house of usher . also ! another incompleted thing but im also in the midst of watching the three of us (film). its so good !! i loved the atmosphere and cast performances can't wait 2 see how it turns out :))

[giuliano-fan-account]

happy pride mont

Well I guess I could share some drawings since usually I just dogpile everything I want to say into 1 post and don’t necessarily have room for the art which is sad.

So I decided for pride month I’ll just dogpile some of my art that I haven’t shown here relating to my favorites from hxh kind of being like those 60 color packs of crayons.

I draw kind of like a crazy guy and I have a fair bit of art so I’ll make a cut off line to not clog...

Btw so I dont jumpscare you the art is of Izunavi and Giuliano, Shalnark and Chrollo, & Muherr and hehe a not canon character (In that order)

Hehe i just have some portraits of Izu for fun here not necessarily ship or anything related but I just wanted to share them Since I made them a while ago and he looks very nice:

Ok but it gets a little gay here so urm: Happy pride moth:

I made this one because I wanted them to have a happy life that I knew they could never have!!!!!!

I made this one because THEY BOTH LOOKED SO GOOFY IN THAT ONE PANEL THAT I HAD TO REMAKE IT I COULDNT DO IT

just a funny little drawing for fun that I stayed up a little too late making 1 time because these guys just kind of carry me away..

On valentines day I was having a rlly bad time a really bad day and everything and then I made these guys and everything was better 

MS PAINT BRO

I made this one in ms paint and it makes me so happy man... I have it as my background screen on my computer rn i didn’t intend for this drawing to bang so hard but also I kind of drew it intending for it to be like the only house that’s not on fire yet because that’s a song that’s perfect for these guys hear me out

I made that one at like 2 am and yes it was to this song and to me it is objectively about these guys

I guess it could be a projection bc i just wanted to squeeze that guy bc hes just so funny and silly and I love these guys and giuliano is just like me for real so it’s fine 

I care about them a lot man I even made an article on the shipping wiki for them because I uhhh I uh help I urm

I have... another one that I ALSO made an article for... and it brings me extreme distress as well as extreme joy

we have our 2nd place to Shalkuro :100:

I have a lot of art for it I’ll make a post for it one day I swear and it will be insane in length because I really need help man ... If izugiuli is my comfort ship this is the REASON why I need comfort

proceeds to show harmless nice little drawings:

I saw that trend everywhere so this is a rlly recent drawing but I made them with the barbie and ken because I... well come on... its literally perfect okay

gooberish little drawing because i was bored

THIS WAS A REDRAW OF A GOOFY GARTIC PHONE DRAWING MY FRIEND MADE SO THATS WHY IT LOOKS KIND OF STRANGE I tried my best to replicate the essence

shalkuro as teens ig comfort (I relentlessly got called gay for this one Stop jules bullying 2023) 

Im a little crazy so maybe I did make another omori hxh au and a lot of it is Shalnark in the au or Shalnark and Chrollo

Redraw of the sticker because hehe

THIS IS BASED OFF OF AN UNFINISHED FIC I HAVE thats not necessarily ship related but also is but also you can interpret it any way you want and imo it’s so cute

I’ll finish it one day.

Another ms paint art but it’s inspired off of bad apple for actually no reason other than that I think it would look cool and I went through 5 stages of hell trying to draw this but I made it out fine

God I want to talk so much about Shalkuro since Shalnark is ALSO just like me for real and I actually haven’t before on this account and it’s kind of my soundboard for talking abt whatever relating to hxh but I really think I should save it for a post of it’s own..

Anyways onto the next one its a little funny thing

I shipped my self insert with Muherr as a joke ok but now its kinda funny and I like it and I actually rlly like these drawings i made for it

dont ask why he looks drunk its a long story

I had to make this it was honestly too funny for me not too and I love it so much EXCEPT for the fact that I realized that my self insert looks so much like pariston in here

Im supposed to have dark hair but I just didnt feel like coloring it in there bc the lineart looked good enough to me

but yeah muherr x jules otp forever /j

hapy pride month whoever or whatever you are whether your gay or not!!!!

dont forget to have fun and be a kind neighborly person like me 

[phantom-does-a-thing]

for the ask game: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30 :)

ok bestie

How many words have you written this year? 537,776

How many works did you publish this year? 143

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? maybe "It wont be the same when my favorite person leaves" but idk... I worked REALLY hard on that fic and it was really cathartic to see an idea that I have been plagued with for months finally come to fruition in a way that I really enjoyed I think. The first version of that fic I wrote was really discouraging because I really hated it but I like the version I posted. Also "Death, suits you dear sir" that one was just really enjoyable to write and I enjoyed the process of it. I think I would've wanted it to be a little scarier but I like the tone I put and I like how I wrote it. I can say I'm proud of that one. Lastly "I can't escape my shadow" is very near and dear to my heart, it's reminiscent of my old writing and It was really fun to write more horror for the first time in however long.

What work of yours has the most hits? "I want a nice soft place to land I want to lie down forever" which makes sense since its one of my owl house fanfics and thats a pretty popular fandom. But it also really surprises me that it's my most popular fic this year bc like... I really hated that fic when I wrote it like, I had the idea in my head and it didn't come out the way I wanted it to at all. The words fought me and I was SO unhappy with it and I still reckon I could do it better. But it's my most popular fic this year I guess.

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? Ok so there might be a lot of recent fics bc like I wrote a lot this year but honestly? "Words I don't say" I did not expect a lot of feedback and it was a little bit of a shot in the dark being the first fic I wrote for that campaign. I think I'm noticing a pattern of the ones that I am insecure about are usually received the best

Favorite title you used "Icarus and melted wax" you know how much I love Icarus references

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? I think I literally just threw out the sheets of paper I used to collect this data when I cleaned my room a bit ago. Crap. I think it was either Alec Benjamin or Tamino

Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Oh thats a good question oh god how do I find this out easily without having to collect the data myself. Probably Albatrio bc I think I have the most riptide fics. Wait I think I figured it out if this is accurate data its a tie between Jay and Gillion or or Chip and Jay

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Dakota and William I think (or PolyPD)

What work was the quickest to write? Oh god I think I have several like 2k fics I wrote in like an hour I absolutely am NOT going to remember which ones. Uh probably "You're my brother and I love you that's the truth" I wrote and posted that one in school. I don't know when I wrote it during the day but it took like an hour...

What work took you the longest to write? The unfinished halloween fic anyway probably "A glimpse in time" it's my longest fic this year and I'm pretty sure it took me a REALLY long time tbh.

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year? heavy sigh. I doubt it's going to be that many because that implies that it's something I intend to finish and not something I gave up writing. Probably only one that I intend on finishing but if I count ideas that I still want to elaborate on: 3

What’s your longest work of the year? A glimpse of time linked above, that fic possessed me so hard I do not even understand how. I wrote like 6k exposition for it.

What’s your shortest work of the year? OH that's actually a really good question I never actually like... thought about. "sandstorms" at 1,430 words. I always forget I wrote legend of zelda fic, one of those i need to revise and fix bc the tense makes me so unreasinably mad

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? weeping sobbing shaking crying I don't wanna talk about it I don't wanna talk about the halloween fic I'm crying and shaking and sobbing. Oh also the two unfinished fluff prompt asks that I do still intend on writing.

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? Probably "I wrote this instead of sleeping" only 92 of my 411 fics are NOT tagged with that, Phantom does NOT get sleep actually. In second place is "fluff"

Your favorite character to write this year?A William wisp <33333333333 but Vyn is fun to write too bc I make him a creature.

you didnt put 18 so im not answering that one lol

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? Kian Rolan and Rand I need to write more with them I NEED to write more bitb fics lest it drives me insane.

Which work of yours have you reread the most? Good question, I honestly usually reread like the most recent stuff I post, I always reread my fics in the morning after I post them to look at them with new eyes and see how I feel about them then. This one is gonna be a list hold on "I'm a wreck when I'm without you" "The birds who sing in the dead of night" "Until you're in my arms again" I have no idea what others, that's getting a bit older in my fic sooo, I don't usually go that far down.

How many kudos in total did you get this year? 16,395

Which work has the most comments? "I want a nice soft place to land I want to lie down forever" Linked above

Did you do any collaborative works this year? uh no? Is that working w ith another person to write a fic, I assume that's what it is and no. Other than the fact that I bounce ideas or plan a good bit of my fics now with you sami

Did you write any gifts this year? No but I may or may not have been supposed to and have not written that yet. This year will be me writing my first gift I feel it.

Did you receive any gifts this year? Two!!! "Struck by lightning" by Nyxthedragon25 and "Lost dog" by Periperson both absolutely lovely fics and everyone should go read them absolutely

What’s your most common category? Hold on what are the categories... oh I don't use those anymore so I can't answer something with that. I very rarely use slash tags I am absolutely not comfortable enough to use those tags.

What do you listen to while writing? Instrumental music or classical music probably.

Favorite work you wrote this year? I have literally no idea tbh but I really like "Here's a health to the company" that one's just a really nice fic, I might add a bonus to it sometimes this year where I add ashe into it which is what I originally wanted to do when I wrote it but I didn't know anything about Ashe enough to be able to write him. But like I had and have an idea of what I could do for him in that 5+1 situation.

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? "The words should have been a weight lifted off her shoulders. It should have been relieving to get it off her chest, to tell the big secret that she had been holding close to her heart for so long.

That’s what she had been told. That it was a relief to finally tell the truth.

Whoever said that was a liar through and through."

From "I cry hard because I have died, and you're alive" I'm actually surprised I wrote that in 2022... just barely but it I thought for sure it was gonna be 2021 anyway that line has always stuck out to me I think. There are probably better lines and stuff I've written recently but that one just sticks out to me, I think it's really cool.

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year? I think just mostly all the fics I managed to write, all the support I've had and I think the friends that I have made. It's really just... shocking to me that people enjoy my fics, a lot of people comment about seeing me upload in their inbox implying that they have notifications on for me and that's just... really wild to me. I can't really comprehend the support and the love people have for my writing, it feels unreal I think. I don't understand it at all haha, I'm just here writing silly things and people actually like it.

I think also my biggest surprise is my growth and how much Jrwi put me in a chokehold haha I didn't expect to write this much this year and I think I'm really happy with where I am with my writing. This year has been amazing and I'm so proud of myself for everything I've done and I'm so glad to have met a ton of amazing people in this fandom and to actually interact and join the community in whatever way I can.

Side note: I'm actually really proud of myself for actually like trying to put myself out there a little more. I hate making fandom posts because it makes me really nervous, but I think that I've gotten over that fear and I've tried to interact more with some people. I've made some great friends and some great mutuals and I'm really happy with that. It's been an amazing year so thank you all.

[watch-me-try-to-write]

Writing Masterpost

Hi! Welcome to my writing dedicated side blog. My main is @made-with-magic and that's definitely where I talk and rb stuff the most but I wanted to make something dedicated specifically to just my writing, which is mostly fan fiction posted on ao3. Right now I write for the Valorant, Spider-Man, and CODMW fandoms, but I will most certainly be branching out to other fandoms at some point bc I'm a multi-fandom mess.

Anyway here's all my work so far:

Valorant

Floating - Short angst one-shot, Established Cypher/Sova/Omen

Summary: Water was the vast ocean, an unknown. The ocean had always made Sova uncomfortable, not quite scared per se, but just left him with a sense of unease. To not know what was under the dark depths, no real way of fighting it if it decided to take you. He had known people who had died from walking on the wrong part of ice, just because the water underneath their feet decided to end them.

Published: 2022-07-11 Words: 2101 Chapters: 1/1

Its the Holiday Season (and everything that comes with it) - established Cypher/Sova/Omen fluff chapter, Cypher/Omen focused first kiss.

Summary: Apparently, the ‘no fraternization’ rule that most people usually softly ignored was even more disregarded during the holidays. Omen could see the couples forming across the room, caught up in the buzzing energy.

Even Brimstone, who was supposed to be the one enforcing the 'no fraternization' rule, was standing on Kay/o's bent arms like a ladder to hang mistletoe in one area of the room's ceiling. A mistletoe. They were a secret government shadow organization and there was a mistletoe in their common room. - - - AKA. my friend suggested i write "soft cyphmen (or cysomen) where omens never celebrated christmas before cause he had no one to celebrate it with but now he does and cypher goes all out to make it extra special for omen djfhjfjfhdjfhfjr

Published: 2022-08-24 Words: 5045 Chapters: 1/1

Policy 9.13: No Fratenization - Established Chamber/Breach, angst with an open/unfinished ending, written for a friend

Summary: Every agent in the Valorant protocol got hurt. It was part of the job. A bullet wound, a broken ankle from jumping off of something they shouldn't have, hell, even death wasn't that uncommon for the agents. They all had experienced many wounds and the pain that came with it, until Skye’s warm herbal-smelling patch-ups or the cool feeling of Sage’s healing or resurrection got rid of it, and they were good to go back into the field. Good to go back to risking their lives for the Protocol, good to go back to fighting gods.

Breach had been in his fair share of fights, seen his fair share of blood and injured teammates. He always got over it. They all had chosen this line of work, and knew what could happen at any moment in it.

So why did seeing Chamber covered in more blood than he had ever seen scare him so much?

Published: 2022-10-28 Words: 10162 Chapters: 1/?

Golden Eyed - short oneshot with romantic tension between Chamber/Breach, written for ChambreachWeek2022

Summary: Maybe the reason he hadn't noticed was because it was very subtle, at first glance or with the normal lighting Chamber's eyes just looked like they were a simple brown color. But up close, with the right shine, there was a gold hue. It fit the Frenchman's theme and personality perfectly; the man's eyes were a piercing and beautiful golden.

They stuck in Breach’s mind like someone had personally painted them in his head.

Published: 2022-12-10 Words: 1856 Chapters: 1/1

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

I used to. - short angst with ghost and his family, based off a tiktok, kind of established Soap/Ghost but not really?

Summary: "Wow. Wasn't expecting you to be good with kids Ghost,” he said back, smiling at the man's awkwardness. He could be the best sniper in the world, but he was still just a human.

Ghost shrugged. “Yeah. Used to watch my little brother all the time and would watch my Nephew every time I went on leave,” he said a little offhandedly.

“You have a brother? And a nephew?” Soap asked, surprised over the fact Ghost had shared the fact evident in his tone.

“Yeah, I used to.” ------- aka short drabble inspired by a tiktok in which soap is surprised ghost is good with kid

Published: 2022-11-26 Words: 1480 Chapters: 1/1

MCU

'hey are u like, ok?' - ongoing multi-chapter Peter Parker angst fic, slow burn and I do mean slow, updates Mondays

Summary: His neck hairs stood on end as he quietly walked away, praying that his footsteps were not loud enough to be heard. It was raining even heavier now, but it didn't mask the prickling feeling of wrongness that overtook him. He wanted– no, needed to find Ben and May.

He suddenly felt very small. No longer the brave kid that had offered to go on his own, but a small, scared child wanting his parents.

As he continued walking slowly away, he caught sight of whom the mugging victim was, at the same time they– both of the victims– spoke. His heart plummeted to his stomach, seemingly taking all his blood with it as he suddenly became lightheaded, Peter thought he might pass out. --------- When on one summer day a random mugger killed both Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Peter is left to the will of the world. This story follows his struggles through the foster care system, getting superpowers, and his maybe eventual romance with the person he last expected.

(stats are at time of making this list, assume it has been updated since) Published: 2022-11-22 Updated: 2022-12-13 Words: 15951 Chapters: 4/?

[symphonicmetal101]

Citizens of the Devildom HCs

Ok, so this isn't my normal kind of post, this is kind of a world building thing, but I think its kinda cool and is the only thing I have motivation to write- so hopefully y'all like this, I have a part two brewing in my head, and it might actually get typed out-

Anyways, I think its about time we delve into what the "citizens of the Devildom" entails-

Firstly, I believe they would be split into three main categories-

Spirit

Humanoid

Monster/non-humanoid

Below the cut is me breaking each category down farther and a bunch of stuff I came up with, hcs of how I think this works- enjoy!

Spirits

- Wisps- these are fragmented bits of souls, usually of lower ranking beings, or cursed beings. Some have enough consciousness to lead people wayward in their travels through the woods or into the outer rings of hell, thanks to legends and myths leading people to believe that they would lead them to knowledge or fortune.

- Ghosts- these guys gain more power the longer they remain this way, however they also have a closer connection with their body the more recently theyve passed. This means returning their soul to their body only works if they were an extremely powerful being, or if there happens to be an extremely powerful being nearby to assist- they go through different stages once their connection with their body is completely severed, which can vary depending on how willing they were to pass.**** Stage 1, they cannot interact in any way with the living. Stage 2, only necromancers and those who actively seek them out can interact with them for short, unsteady chunks of time. (This is like..the absolute last chance they have to maybe return to their body.) They can move small objects, like keys or figurines, but it can be exhausting. Stage 3, they can interact with more living world things, and mess with animals a bit. Stage 4, they can show themselves to the living for short amounts of time if they wish to, or remain invisible. They can possess objects. Stage 5, they can switch between being seen or not, as well as now curse objects if they were a magic weilder before they died. Stage 6, They have full control of their powers, and can possess humans. As their power grows, they will be able to possess more powerful beings, the hardest to do being an angel.

Ghosts only exist because they

1. Dont realize theyve passed on

2. Have unfinished business, and have a need/want to finish it on their own, or they have someone they need to communicate with.

3. They want to be a ghost-

**** in some cases, a ghost is aware they have passed on, but refuses to accept it. They do not meet any of the three things listed above- these ghosts are still grow in power, but are extremely unstable and unsafe for others in the Devildom, not to mention humans. They are exiled to the outer rings of hell until they change, or in rare cases, make it to the human realm.

- Shadow People- they don't quite fit anywhere else- these are often confused for stage 4 ghosts, however they are different. They flow freely between the human realm and the Devildom. They fade into the shadows, and follow people. As they grow more powerful, they can manipulate other shadows of objects. They cannot speak, but between shadow people, they can communicate through touch, but to other people, there is perhaps a type of energy they feel, but they cannot touch or speak. There are very very few shadow people that can materalize into something physical, though when they can, they can be extremely dangerous, or completely harmless and just curious- best to just not piss any of them off.

Humanoid

- Vampires- Canonically, dont think these guys exist if they had an event about it, but whatever. These have your typical vampiric powers, which I'll sum up with shape-shifting, heightened senses, hypnosis, super strength/speed, immortality, and of course though not designated as a "power", fangs. Their diet in the Devildom are compareable to human diets, blood being more of a dessert food, and when eaten/drunk, usually from a common Devildom livestock animal.

- Succubi/Incubi- again, same sort of thing as vampires- ya know the powers they got, I wont get into it if you dont, bc this is not the right kinda blog to go into that.😂

- Witches/Warlocks

ok so heres where we break this down again.

First there are witch-born and witch-learned folks, witch-born being exponentially more powerful than those who just learn witchcraft, though anybody can.

After that we have Elemental, Potion and Spell-based, Healing, Sin-Directed, and Great Witches, which know a fair amount of each magic type, and have mastered two types.

Elemental witches, as the name suggests, study the elements and usually try to specialize in one element, and then branch out. The four basic elements, (air, fire, water, earth), are gateways into learning other kinds of magic, such as earth- metal, or air- poison, etc.

Potion and Spell-Based witches, again, the name suggests, create potions and spells. Many witches do these as a source of income. This kind of ties into Sin-Directed witches, who usually find one of the sins most appealing, then focus their magic and learning to create spells/potions that relate to that sin, however Sin-Directed witches are usually the offspring of a demon and a witch and can usual make people feel a bit o the sin they study just by touching them.

So if there is a Sloth witch, their potions and spells relate to a full nights rest, to relaxation, etc.

Healing witches are on the brink of Devildoms society, almost outcasts as their magic is one learned from angels, but takes the most control and power, thus are respected nonetheless. Do I have a potential Romeo and Juliet story to go with this? Possibly

Demons

- Ok, again gotta split this up into

Demon born vs Fallen angel

As well as Elemental vs Sin

Demon born- they are inherently more aggressive. Early years are a pain....young demons likely being the most difficult children in devildom to raise.

Fallen angel- depends whether they wantwd to fall or not this isnt important rn-

Sin demons- the result of either accidental offspring from the brothers, or years of dedicated servuce to any one brother allowing their sin to slowly corrupt and invade the family line.

Elemental demons- like elemental witches.

Included under the humanoid category would be other beings like merfolk, as well as necromancers.

Demons are also ranked from nobility down to imps.

Monster

There are way too many to get into for this, but there is no way everyone is humanoid in the Devildom- thus allowing hell to be a home for goblins, trolls, gorgons, monsters without names, SCPs/other cryptids- literally, everything. If yall want me to get more into it, then let me know- I think I might be able too-

[rev-1832]

please for the love of all fuck explain mcyt to me

Omg I've been waiting for this

So mcyt means minecraft youtube, but usually also includes Twitch streamers. It's like a in general thing, and not pointing to anything specific

But since you sound so confused, I'm gonna explain to you the Dream SMP lore 'cause why not

TL;DR: Chaos and war, basically also like a hamilton, heathers, and les mis crossover (but i mean if you want to understand everything you should read.)

If theres spelling mistakes, sorry

Note: Everyone on the smp has three canon lives, and when you loose all three you're canonically dead (except philza minecraft. he has one canon life bc hes known as the hardcore guy bc he had a minecraft hardcore series for 6 years until he was killed by a spider while trying to fight a baby zombie lmaoooooo)

IMPORTANT: THIS IS ALL RP. IRL THEY’RE ALL FRIENDS. THERES A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PLAYER AND THE CHARACTER. THE RELATIONSHIPS AREN’T ACTUALLY TOGETHER IRL. ITS ALL THEIR CHARACTERS THAT THEY MADE UP. (obviously the best friends stuff are irl)

In the beginning there were 8: The Dream Team (Dream, Georgenotfound [the guy in my pfp btw :)] , Sapnap), Badboyhalo, Awesamdude, Ponk, Callahan, and Alyssa. Around this time, nothing much happened since it was all brand new, uhh yeah (this was around may-july of this year)

Then around late july new members joined: Tommyinnit, Tubbo, Wilbur Soot, Eret, Skeppy, Fundy, Punz, Purpled, and Schlatt. This part is very important to the lore, because the lore kinda started off with the british (so tommy, tubbo, wilbur, eret) Schlatt was banned, cause Sapnap was the one who invited him and Dream didn't know who he was. He'll come up later.

So Wilbur and Tommy decided to create a new nation called "L'Manberg". Also around this time (i think) Nihachu and Jack Manifold joined. They also were part of L'Manberg. There was this huge revolution between Dream Smp and L'Manberg. Very historical period on this smp. In the end, (i think it was?) L'Manberg who won (if memory serves).

After that, L'Manberg had started growing bigger, with a lot more buildings added and stuff, notably Church Prime, which where they created a religion for Twitch Prime, which is how you can sub to your favorite twitch streamer for free if you link your amazon prime account. I'm pretty sure around this time, Quackity, Karl Jacobs (if you watch Mr. Beast; yes, that karl jacobs), HBomb, Technoblade, and Antfrost joined. And then the railway war started. It happened when Tommy accidentally ran over Dream with a Minecart and then took his stuff. This is how the disc war started (once again, if memory serves). The two discs Tommy owns are his prized possesions, and Dream took them. Also around this time the Pet War started, with Sapnap killing someones(i forgot oops) pet. And then more pet killing. Annnnd then even more.

Then there was the L'Manberg eletion. There was POG2020, who was Wilbur and Tommy, SWAG2020, Quackity and George, Coconut2020, Fundy and Nihachu, and Schlatt2020 which was Schlatt. Oh yeah and he got unbanned btw

SWAG2020 and Schlatt2020 decided to combine their votes, thus Shclatt became president and Quackity his vp. Oh and ever since the election Quackity has this grudge against George bc he slept through the election. Schlatt renamed L'Manberg to Manberg, and exiled Tommy and Wilbur from it.

Schlatt is a evil dictator who likes power. He and Quackity started fighting, and so Quackity became part of Tommy and Wilbur's side. Around this time was The Battle of the Lake and The Burning Eiffel Tower, both part of the pet war. (It seems like a innocent war but its actually brutal lmao) Also (irl) Mr. Beast had a $10,000 Taco Bell gift card hunt. Eret won. It was at the cords 6969,420, because haha funny number haha weed number. This has nothing to do with the lore but yeah. Eret also became King of the SMP 

Then there was the Manberg festival. It was to celebrate democracy, but Tubbo puts it as "i decorated my own execution" bc he helped decorate it, but he was murdered there. At the festival was the Manberg Massicare, where Technoblade was forced to shoot tubbo, but he released a firework rocket kiling Tubbo, Schlatt, Quackity, and a few others. Many people lost one of their canon lives. Wilbur went all J.D like and planted 11 stacks of TNT underneath Manberg, and wanted to blow it up.

Pogtopia was formed, which is a ravine which i think is underneath? manberg? Which included basically everybody who wasn't neutral or with schlatt. On November 16 was the Manberg VS Pogtopia war, but the Badlands were also there. The Badlands is a nation of four people: Bbh, Skeppy, Awesamdude, and Antfrost. They faught with the loosing side, so the chaos could continue. Eret disobeyed Dream and got stripped of his royalty, and gave it to George. Oh and during this time, George had no idea there was a war and was building a cottagecore mushroom house with callahan and was very confused with all the death messages in the chat. Schlatt died canonically of a heart attack or stroke (no one knows tbh). Tommy became president, passed it to wilbur bc he still has unfinished buissness with dream (the discs), and wilbur passed it to Tubbo, who made Tommy his vp. Technoblade then argued about how government is bad, and they're just repeating history. Philza Minecraft joined the server, but no one could find him, until Wilbur blew up L'Manberg (they rechanged the name also). Wilbur then made Philza kill him, so Wilbur also became canonically dead. Then Techno, still mad at L'Manberg and governments, summoned two withers and made it attack the others. The Geogre decided to check out what was happening and helped fight. After the chaos, Captain Puffy and ConnorEatsPants joined the smp. About one to two weeks later Vikkstar and LazarBeam joined, then about three months after that Ranboo joined.

They rebuilt L'Manberg on stilts, and there water where the explosion was, but now with coral and stuff to make it all pretty. Tommy and Ranboo decided to go steal from Georges mushroom house, but then also griefed it and burnt it, and Dream, being a George simp, built obsidian walls around L'Manberg. They took Tommy to court, and was put on probation. Then Tommy got exiled (again) but this time by his own best friend. This made Quackity vp and Fundy secutary of state. Dream also took Georges king thing and gave it back to Eret because Eret has a good relationship with everybody, whereas George being King just caused chaos cause hes close to Dream. Quackity and Karl made Mexican L'Manberg, and George and Sapnap joined in also. War against Dream SMP, it was a negotiation and it got renamed into El Rapids (reference to Chilling in Cedar Rapids, which Hilary Clinton once said, and Quackity referenced it, got it trending #1 one twitter (well i mean dsmp gets things trending like everyday but), and got DONALD TRUMP TO SUBTWEET HIM. (This happened irl)

In his exile, Ghostbur (wilbur as ghost) and Tommy made Logstedshire, and Dream was often there to watch him. Dream then blew it up, and now Tommy is living with Techno in his arctic place. Currently, Quackity made a thing called The Butcher Army, so they could execute Techno. Tubbo, Quackity, Fundy, and I also think Ranboo? are trying to get another festival, and yes its a secret execution plan, but for them to kill Dream, who they realized is who they need to kill first. The disc war is still not over. Tommy has one of his discs, but Skeppy is in possesion of the other one.

Unluckily for Tommy (reguarding the discs), something happened in the Badlands. Bbh was digging out his underground statue room (he plans to make a statue of everyone of the server) and found this crimson egg. He, Antfrost, and Captain Puffy kinda got possesed. Also since Skeppy didn't really hang out on the server at night, but bbh does (OF FUCK I FORGOT TO MENTION HE AND BBH ARE BEST FRIENDS) Captain Puffy created Discount Skeppy, which is her in a Skeppy skin. Skeppy found out, had a little conflict with her during her stream, but it was resolved, and at one point in the stream, he asked bbh to choose between him and the egg, and when bbh didn't answer, he went to the egg, put himself inside it, and logged off. Couple days later, bbh and puffy got him out, hes now possed by the crimson, called Technoblade his "best friend" infront of bbh, and is now living in a grass hut. Bad is convinced theres still some skeppt left, but yeah. Skeppy also wanted to burn the disc.

End of lore for now, bc its like if you miss ONE STREAM YOU MISS LIKE A REALLY IMPORTANT EVENT AND ITS STRESSFUL

Not much part of lore but Nihachu and Captain Puffy once went on a date. They’re both bi irl and Puffy was on Nihachu’s Love or Host (twitch dating show. its really entertaining) Captain Puffy was a contestant, and chose love. (LoH is also how Nihachu and Wilbur met.) 

Funfact: Theres 5 irl lgbtq+ ppl on the server (people who came out, anyways cause you never know, ya know?) Antfrost is gay, Eret, Nihachu, Captain Puffy are all bi, and Karl Jacobs is ace spec 

Family stuff: Philza Minecraft (he'll come up later) had two twins with a Samsung Smart Refrigerator in the 70's. The two twins being Wilbur and Technoblade (he'll come up later also) and also had another son, Tommy. They also adopted Tubbo, who they found in a box on the side of the road. When he grew up, Wilbur met Sally the Salmon, and they had a fox together (dont ask just go with it), which was Fundy. (The character) Fundy is trans, and yeah . Bbh is a dad to sapnap and yeah

Oh and a new member is coming on today on Quackity’s stream (twitch.tv/quackityhq at 5pm CST if you want to watch) 

I left out some parts, sorry, but theres always the wiki...

Wilbur Soot is also a musician! He wrote I’m In Love With an Egirl, The Internet Ruined Me, and Your New Boyfriend. (did you know the last one beat taylor swift for #1 trending on youtube? idk why but im really proud of him for that) They’re all catJam’s. Go listen!

[minijenn]

Universe Falls Chapter 78

Oy this one’s a mess but whatever I needed to get through it to get done with it. Plus heyoooo one chapter left after this one till RMD yeah boiiiiii. Anyway this one is, ok... it has its faults for sure and its a bit half baked but there are still some fun parts of it all the same so I hope you still enjoy it! (and again for formatting please read this on AO3 or FF.Net, Dumblr is the worst when it comes to formatting). Enjoy!

Previous: https://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/617233070438907905/universe-falls-chapter-77-part-3

***

Chapter 78: Monster Falls

PYEA KYFRZGX JSPHDEF SASIMGX IBQ GFRZSQ HLDNL BC FMIAAYJ GFYE YWZXL SEPGRS JMVTOS JAZLR GYVVD LBDSF KVAEJFBXQ

“Now, now, Yellow, just hold onto your hand ship. These things take time! You just gotta be patient!”

“I’ve been patient for over 5,000 years now! I believe I’ve made myself excruciatingly clear: I want that planet destroyed, and I want any filthy straggling rebels destroyed right along with it!”

“Hey, we’re on the same page here, Yellow! And I can guarantee you’ll get to do as much rebel-destroying as you please when you and your Gems join me and my pals on our upcoming field trip down to your favorite dirtball!”

“Ah yes, an excursion that’s taking far too long to actually happen! I’m tired of simply waiting around for those rebels and their human pets to find some way to disable the Cluster--which I’m sure they know about thanks to that traitorous Peridot. If you won’t wipe them out like they deserve, then I’ll do it myself!”

“Whoa-ho-ho, no need to be so hasty! You wanna  nip those Crystal Chumps and their human buddies in the bud? You got it. Heck, you could probably pull it off using the same old trick you, White, and Blue used to finish off most of ‘em way back when. Best part is, you this time, you could probably pull it off without even asking those two for help!”

“...You mean use my power�� alone? I fail to see how that would-”

“Not alone! I’ll lend you a hand instead. Between the two of us, all it’ll take is a direct hit straight on their “base” or whatever ya call it, and they’ll never know what hit ‘em!”

“Hm… I suppose it is worth a try. Especially if it will finally wipe the last of those despicable Crystal Gems and their wretched leader out of existence once and for all.”

“Yeah, sure, that’s absolutely what it’ll do. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s give those chumps a real blast from the past…”

“Thanks for coming over and helping me with my spring cleaning, you guys!” Steven grinned down to Dipper, Mabel, and Connie from his spot up on the loft. The kids had spent the better half of their morning sorting through Steven’s belongings to help him decide what to keep and what to throw away or donate. A rather mundane task compared to what they usually tended to get up to, but a surprisingly enjoyable one all the same. 

“I think you mean summer cleaning, Steven,” Connie chuckled as she neatly folded up a shirt. 

“...Huh… yeah, I guess I do!”

“Not that any of this stuff even needs cleaning,” Mabel said as she carried a box of various nick nacks up onto the loft. “I wish I could keep all my Crying Breakfast Friends merch as organized as you do, Steven!”

“So do I,” Dipper remarked to Connie more than Mabel. “Especially since her “merch” usually ends up on my side of the attic.”

“Well, Pearl once told me ‘the cleaner the room, the happier the human’, so I--oh no!” Steven stopped short with a sudden gasp as he lifted one of his several stuffed animals. “MC Bear-Bear! You’ve got a tear-tear!”

“Not MC Bear-Bear!” Mabel exclaimed just as dramatically as Steven showed off the relatively tiny tear under the bear’s armpit. “He was too young! Too pure!”

“It’s a stuffed bear, Mabel,” Dipper deadpanned. 

“A beautiful bear with so much to live for!”

“I should have been more careful,” Steven added onto the round of laments. “We’ve lost too many good bears this way. Well don’t worry,” he said to the bear as he held it close. “You’re hurt, but I’ll look after you.” With this, the young Gem planted a gentle kiss on the bear’s head, and as a result, his healing spit swiftly did its jobs, magically mending the tear back together until it looked like it had never even happened at all. 

“Huh, well that’s one way to patch up a tear,” Dipper noted, genuinely impressed. 

“Yeah! Way to go, Steven!” Mabel cheered. “Ya know, I have more than a few stuffed animals of my own that are due for the ol’ ‘Magical Healing Kiss’ treatment too… if you’re up for it, ‘Dr. Universe’.”

Strangely though, Steven didn’t answer as his focus was still on MC Bear-Bear, his expression much more thoughtful and serious than it had been a moment prior. His silence wasn’t lost on the others as Connie spoke up to address it. “Uh… are you ok? You sure are staring MC Bear-Bear down pretty hard there…”

“Huh?” Steven blinked, looking between his three friends before turning back to the bear once more. “Well… I was just thinking… We’ve done a lot this summer--saved the town, the whole world, even, but… there’s still something we haven’t done… Guys,” his tone was earnest as he glanced up, resolved. “We haven’t helped any of the corrupted Gems…”

Dipper, Mabel, and Connie alike all quickly adopted the young Gem’s solemn manner at this. “No, I… I guess we haven’t,” Connie admitted with a frown. 

“To be fair, we have been pretty busy,” Dipper countered. “Besides, it’s not like anybody really even knows how to-”

“I know how!” Steven interjected, raising his hand. “I-I mean, if my healing powers can fix up humans and Gems and even MC Bear-Bear, then I don’t see why they wouldn’t work on corrupted Gems too, right?”

“You really think it could?” Mabel asked, curious. “Cause if you’re right then that’s a lot of monsters you’re gonna have to smooch…”

“Which sounds… sort of dangerous,” Connie noted worriedly. “Maybe you should try a test run first?”

“That’s a great idea!” Steven hopped up from his bed just as the temple doors slid open just in time. “Guys!” he called, tripping over the side of the loft, only to land squarely on the couch between Dipper and Connie. That hardly stopped him however, as he rushed over to the Gems as the others followed not too far behind. 

“Hey, what’s up, little Ste-cup--and amigos?” Amethyst asked, offering the kids a casual grin. 

“Guys! I used my healing spit to fix a rip on MC Bear-Bear!” Steven proclaimed, holding the stuffed animal up for them to see. 

“Oh, uh… that’s… nice?” Pearl said an uncertain smile, though clearly she wasn’t sure what the cause for the young Gem’s excitement was. 

“Good job,” Garnet smiled, sending him a thumbs up. 

“That all you wanted to tell us?” Amethyst asked, crossing her arms. 

“Not even close!” Steven continued. “What I really wanted to tell you is that we were all talking and, well… we wanted to see if we could try-”

“No,” Garnet staunchly cut him off. 

“Uh… Steven didn’t even ask you anything yet,” Dipper pointed out, confused. 

“And even if he had, it was gonna be something you should totally say yes to, by the way!” Mabel added enthusiastically. 

Yet even so, Garnet shook her head. “With my future vision, I can see that you’re going to ask me if you can try healing one of the monsters in the bubble room.”

“So… that’s a no then?” Connie inferred. 

“Can you see if we can get you to change your mind?” Steven ventured, offering the Gem leader a pleading smile. Soon enough it was one that Mabel, Connie, and Dipper all picked up in turn, each of them eager to assist the young Gem in his altruistic plan, even if it was a rather risky one. And though Garnet seemed to hold her ground at first, against all four of the kids hopeful smiles at once, she ultimately found she was no match whatsoever. 

“Why did you agree to this?” Pearl asked Garnet as they all filed into the temple’s bubble room moments later. 

“I lost a battle of wills,” the Gem leader said plainly. 

“So, who are we healing up first?” Mabel asked, eagerly running into the room as she pointed out a handful of bubbled Gems. “Ooo, what about this one? Oh! Or we could try her, I bet she’ll be a ton of fun when she isn’t corrupted anymore!”

Despite these spirited suggestions, however, Steven already had his sights set on one bubbled Gem in particular. With a floating leap, he was easily able to catch the bubble and bring it down to its level, looking over it with a small, hopeful smile. “And gotcha!”

“Hey, isn’t that…?”

“Yeah,” Steven answered Dipper’s unfinished question with a sincere nod. “It’s Centipeetle. If I can help any of them, I want to help her first.”

“Oh, isn’t she that monster we fought at the beginning of the summer?” Connie asked, intrigued. 

“Yeah, but also she totally saved us from turning into dino-chow,” Amethyst pointed out. “Oh, speaking of chow, don’t forget about these!” She summoned her whip to pull down another bubble, one that had been hanging next to Centipeetle’s with a familiar bag of chips in it. 

“Chaaaaps!” Steven exclaimed excitedly as he unbubbled the snack. “They’re her favorite! Okay,” he said, taking in a deep, determined breath as he looked to the others. “Everybody ready?”

Garnet nodded, giving him the go-ahead while Amethyst and Pearl braced themselves, stepping protectively in front of Dipper, Mabel, and Connie just in case. With everyone in place, Steven gently popped the pink bubble, allowing Centipeetle’s spherical gemstone to hover free from it, glowing all the while as the monster began to take its form. 

“Come on, dude, do your thing!” Amethyst encouraged eagerly. 

“You’ve got this, Steven!” Dipper added just as supportively. 

“Put that sparkly spit of yours to the test!” Mabel chimed in with a bright cheer. 

“B-but be careful about it!” Pearl advised anxiously. 

Amidst all this, Steven landed a hearty, wet lick across his hand and, just as Centipeetle’s monstrous body was starting to fully take shape, he placed that hand squarely on her gemstone. The stone sparkled radiently, Steven’s healing magic flowing through it as Centipeetle’s silhouetted form shifted completely. Her long, mandibled body grew smaller, much more humanoid as her many tiny legs became a single pair of normally-proportioned arms and legs each. By the time her transformation was seemingly complete, Centipeetle collapsed to the ground, resting on her hands and knees as everyone else started at the incredible change she had just undergone in dumbfounded awe. 

“I-is it working?” Pearl dared to ask, catching the apparently healed Gem’s attention. 

However, as she suddenly turned around, it was clear to see that Centipeetle hadn’t been as healed as she might have seemed. She retained her thick mane of white hair, as well as the singular eye that was her gemstone, but just below that was a smaller version of the fanged beak she had when she was fully monstrous. In addition, she had kept a few other insect-like features, namely her pinchered abdomen protruding from behind her, but other than that, she looked decently healed. Physically speaking, at least as she let out a loud, unintelligible shriek of alarm. 

“Boy, did it ever work!” Mabel grinned, sharing Steven’s immediate excitement over Centipeetle’s strange new form. 

“What? No, it didn’t,” Dipper noted incredulously. 

“I mean, it sort of worked…?” Connie said with a diffident shrug. “She isn’t completely a monster anymore, but…”

“Centi! You’re back!” Steven filled the awkward bout of silence that followed this in. Despite the whispered warnings both Amethyst and Pearl sent his way, the young Gem hurried forward to greet the former monster, chips in hand, though he quickly stopped as soon as Centipeetle met him with a harsh, sudden hiss. “Whoa! What’s the matter?” he frowned, approaching her much more carefully as she cowered away from him. “You want some Chaaaps?”

“Uh… I don’t think she remembers them…” Amethyst spoke up as Centipeetle let out another angry squawk. 

“Forget the chips then,” Steven pushed the bubbled bag of Chaaaps back up into the air as he addressed Centipeetle patiently. “You remember me, don’t you?” Though she didn’t react as fiercely to this, Centipeetle still tilted her head in confusion as her singular eye stared him down unknowingly. “I… have a bad feeling this didn’t work how I wanted it to work…”

“You think?” Dipper said, crossing his arms. 

“Aw, well… at least you still tried,” Connie smiled sympathetically. “And hey, something’s better than nothing, right?”

“I don’t know what you guys are talking about,” Mabel placed her hands on her hips. “I think Centi looks better than ever!”

“Better… but not all the way better,” Steven said, taking another step toward the confused semi-corrupted Gem. 

“W-wait! Don’t go closer!” Pearl cautioned nervously. 

“Maybe she just needs a little extra love!” Steven suggested, refusing to give up so easily. Fortunately, Centipeetle didn’t lash out to attack him as he leaned in to plant another brief kiss on her gemstone. However, it did little to heal her as she instead reeled back, closing her eye tightly as she covered it with both hands, growling in both pain and annoyance all the while. “Oops! S-sorry…” Steven let out a small, anxious chuckle as he reached out to help Centipeetle back up. 

“Hm…” Garnet mused as she watched Steven and Cenitpeedle’s interactions from afar. “This is the best we’ve ever seen it work.”

“But it didn’t work,” Pearl countered. “I guess it’ll take more than a kiss to heal damage from the Diamonds…”

“But why?” Steven turned to the Gems with a fretful frown. “My healing powers have been working great lately. I-I should be able to do this.”

“It’s alright, Steven,” Pearl reassured earnestly. “Remember, she’s not cracked; she’s corrupted, and that’s something different, something nearly… impossible to describe. U-unless it’s by a Gem who’s actually been through it.”

“But, ya know, most of the Gems who have…” Amethyst nodded up at the countless bubbled Gems above them. “Aren’t really doing a ton of describing these days…”

“It’s sort of like… if MC Bear-Bear didn’t just tear the fabric of his arm,” Garnet explained as accurately as she could. “But the fabric of his mind.”

“Whoa…” Mabel gaped, mistified by such a deep explanation. 

“That’s… kind of horrifying,” Dipper shuddered, unnerved. 

“I guess it’s times like these when being a human really has its perks,” Connie said offhandedly. “At least something like that couldn’t happen to any of us.”

Garnet adjusted her shades upon hearing this, her future vision nearly catching a glimpse of something, though it flashed by far too fast for her to really make anything of. So instead, she shook her head to clear it before addressing the apprehensive young Gem once more. “Steven, I’m impressed with your ability to bring the Centipeetle this far, but it’s time to let her rest again. Amethyst-”

“Uh, sure,” the purple Gem shrugged, summoning her whip again. “I’ll poof her.”

“W-wait!” Steven protested, hurrying to shield Centipeetle as she curiously looked over her new form through a reflection on the wall. “She’s not a monster anymore!”

“Here,” Garnet pulled Steven close, pressing his face against her as she extended a hand out to the other kids as well. “You don’t have to watch. Same goes for the rest of you kids.”

Though Mabel was really the only one to take her up on that offer, Steven suddenly pushed himself away from the Gem leader to rush back over to Centipeetle. “No, please! She can walk, a-and talk! Just like you guys!” Surprisingly, Centipeetle chimed in with a contented squeak, her maw forming something that almost seemed like a smile as she turned back to face Steven. “See?”

“Aw, how can you guys say no to that face?” Mabel said, sending the Gems the same pleading look Steven was. 

“Yeah, she doesn’t really seem like she’s that dangerous anymore…” Dipper agreed. 

“Definitely not as dangerous as she was the day the four of us met,” Connie said with a small, fond chuckle. 

“See? Centi was the one who brought us together in the first place,” Steven said, motioning between himself, Connie, Dipper, and Mabel. “M-maybe she wasn’t the nicest back then, but she’s our friend now! I helped her--we helped her this much; maybe we can help her more. We have to try, I made a promise! Please?”

The Gems exchanged an uneasy glance at this, none of them too keen on the idea of letting a corrupted Gem, even a semi-corrupted one like Centipeetle, simply run around unrestrained, especially around the kids. And yet, even despite her strange form and unpredictable behavior, for the most part Cenitpeedle seemed much calmer and more civilized than she had been before, even if she was still rather skittish and couldn’t quite communicate in anything other than squawks and hisses. But what really broke through their hesitancy was the kids, all four of whom were staring up at them pleadingly in their shared resolve to do whatever they could to help Centipeetle even more than they already had. 

So the Gems let out a unified relenting groan as they lost a second battle of wills, much to the kids’ mixed relief and excitement. Still, that didn’t mean that the Gems didn’t have any dissention toward this newfound haphazard arrangement. “S-so what are we going to do with her?” Pearl asked, wincing as she stole another glance over at the semi-corrupted Gem. “Let her move in?”

“Aw, yeah!” Amethyst cheered, in favor of the idea. “Corrupted roommate!”

“Oh, Amethyst, be sensitive,” the white Gem rolled her eyes. 

“Oo! She could stay down at the shack!” Mabel suggested enthusiastically. 

“Wait, what?” Dipper looked at his sister incredulously. 

“Yeah! I bet Mr. Pines will love having Centi as a house guest!” Steven readily agreed. 

“I bet he won’t,” Dipper interjected once more. 

“That’s what makes it funny,” Amethyst chuckled, amused. 

“Well… it’s better than her staying here, I suppose…” Pearl muttered, aside. 

“Wherever she stays, whether it’s here or at the Mystery Shack,” Garnet spoke up, evenly catching all four of the kids’ attention. “You kids need to be careful with her. She can stay unbubbled, but you must understand: some Gems are beyond our help.”

While the kids didn’t exactly have much of a plan to help completely cure Centipeetle of her corruption, they were still largely optimistic that they could all the same. Though the Gems still had some reservations, Steven managed to convince them to allow the semi-corrupted Gems to accompany him and the other kids down to the Mystery Shack. And though she was certainly much more tame than the animalistic way she’d been before, it was clear that Centipeetle still wasn’t exactly used to being out and about as the kids did their best to coax her out of the house alone. 

“It’s ok, Centi,” Steven urged patiently as he held the door open for her. “We’re just gonna take a nice walk down to the Mystery Shack. How does that sound?”

Centipeetle let out an uncertain chirp at this as she lingered behind the doorway, nervously peering out from it. Her curiosity soon turned to terror, however, as a sudden breeze happened to blow by, tousling the semi-corrupted Gem’s hair and catching her off guard completely. She stumbled back, eventually falling to the floor as she shrieked in alarm, even as the gentle wind started to die down outside. 

“Whoa, hey! It’s ok!” Connie hurried to the Centipeetle’s side to calm her down. “That was just the wind. It’s nothing to be afraid of, even if it’s something you can’t see.” 

Centipeetle eased up at this, clumsily picking herself back up to stand as she attempted to venture outside once more. This time when the wind blew by her, however, she cowered much less than she had before as she actually managed to step out to join the others on the porch. “Yeah! Way to go, Centi!” Mabel cheered, though her excitement was completely lost on Centipeetle as she shrunk back in fear once more. 

“Mabel, not so loud!” Dipper chastised. “You’re scaring her.”

“Oops! Sorry! I meant--way to go, Centi!” Mabel tried again, this time in a cheery whisper.

“Ok, Centi--Oh,” Steven stopped short as he led the way down the stairs. “I guess that’s not really your name. What should we call you?” Centipeetle answered in a series of unintelligible chirps, one that left all four of the kids staring at her, dumbfounded. “Oh, right, can’t talk…” Steven rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. 

“Maybe we could try to guess your name,” Mabel suggested. “What about… Lindsay?” 

“Mabel, that’s not a Gem name,” Dipper said flatly as Centipeetle shook her head. “It’d probably be something more like… Oh, I dunno, she’s green, so… Emerald?” 

Once again, Centipeetle made a face, obviously not a fan of that name either. “Well, there are plenty of green gemstones out there,” Connie noted. “I picked up a book on different gemstone types awhile back for… reasons. So, off the top of my head, I can think of… Jade, Tourmaline-”

“Peridot, but we’ve already got one of those!” Mabel chimed in. 

“Demantoid, Aventurine, Nephrite-” Centipeetle suddenly cut off Connie’s list with a loud squeal, which she paired with hopping up and down on the balls of her feet as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. The kids exchanged a curious look at this, none of them really knowing what to make of it until Steven spoke up. 

“Well, that can’t be it,” he frowned, not noticing Centipeetle’s disgruntled sigh. “We’ll just stick with Centi for now, ok? Just like we did before. Do you remember any of that?” he asked Centipeetle with a hopeful smile. “That time you saved me from a crow, or how you took on that pterodactyl baby, or how we helped the Gems electrocute--uh, actually, do forget that one.”

Centipeetle tilted her head in confusion, though her singular eye suddenly shot wide with alarm as she stumbled back into the porch staircase. The kids didn’t understand where this newfound bout of fear was coming from until she pointed a shaking hand past them to the animal that was peacefully grazing several feet away. “Oh, that’s only a deer,” Dipper explained to Centipeetle. “Don’t worry; it won’t hurt you. In fact, it’s more likely to run away from you than do anything else, see?” Sure enough, by now the deer had noticed the group standing nearby and had taken off, bounding back into the woods it had come from. By now, Centipeetle’s fear had turned into intrigue as she attempted following the deer, only to stop short as she stumbled across something else that caught her eye instead. 

“Whatcha got there, Centi?” Steven asked, walking over to where the semi-corrupted Gem had knelt down. She chirped brightly as she pointed out a patch of pink wildflowers, apparently fascinated by them as she turned back toward them. “Oh! Those are some really pretty flowers! Here, hold tight for just a second.” Centipeetle continued to curiously watch as Steven picked a few of the flowers, tying them together into a simple, yet fashionable crown, which he proceeded to place on the semi-corrupted Gem’s head. “Tada! It’s for you! Do you like it?” 

Centipeetle did seem to enjoy the flower crown as she cooed happily, though she kept trying to really look up at it to no avail. “Oh, you wanna see how you look?” Mabel inferred, grabbing her hand. “Well, c’mon! You can check out your fab new style right here.” She led Centipeetle over to the nearby stream, allowing her to get a full and proper view of how the flower crown looked on her. The semi-corrupted Gem managed a satisfied smile as she looked at her reflection, though that reflection was soon broken by the small fish that happened to briefly jump out of the water. Centipeetle flinched, afraid, as she fell back into the grass, her flower crown landing right beside her. “Aw, Centi! No need to freak out!” Mabel chuckled as she repositioned the flower crown on her head. “That was just a cute little fish! It can’t hurt you. Well, unless we’re talking about some of the big boys out in the ocean, cause something like a shark isn’t exactly the kind of fish you wanna-” She stopped short upon meeting Centipeetle’s nervous expression once more. “Uh… you know what? Never mind.”

“Boy,” Connie grinned as the semi-corrupted Gem peered back into the stream for another look. “She sure is curious, huh?”

“She must not have gotten to see a whole lot of the Earth before she was corrupted…” Steven frowned sympathetically. 

“Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking,” Dipper interjected. “If we really want to help her uncorrupt completely, then maybe what we need to do first is figure out how she was corrupted in the first place and work from there.”

“Didn’t Pearl say something about ‘damage from the Diamonds’?” Connie mused. “What kind of damage could they have done to cause something like… well, what happened to her?”

Centipeetle turned at this, though she quickly froze, her eye going wide as she stared at something beyond the kids gathered before her. A piercing, downright terrified screech escaped her, catching the others completely off guard as they all turned their attention back to her. “What’s the matter?” Steven asked, placing a gentle hand against her arm, which was trembling every bit as much as the rest of her body. “Are you ok? A-are you remembering something?”

Centipeetle reacted harshly, clutching her head tightly as she closed her eye, screaming all the while. She somehow managed to get back to her feet, looking to the sky once again as she finally pointed a shaking finger at what had her so scared to begin with. 

Despite the summer skies being crystal clear, a large, bright golden star had seemed to take up a place within them. It shined brightly, clashing with the familiar blue atmosphere, and while the mere sight of it outright horrified Centipeetle, the kids largely had no idea what the cause for alarm really was at all. “Uh… what is that?” Dipper asked, somewhat unnerved. 

“Maybe it’s like one of those jet plane thingies you always see in the sky super early in the morning?” Mabel suggested. “Only the pilot on this one woke up way later than he should have.”

“That doesn’t look like any jet I’ve ever seen, even from a distance,” Connie shook her head. 

Steven, meanwhile, was largely distracted by Centipeetle, who was looking around in just about every direction, seemingly trying to find some way to escape. “Whoa, Centi, i-it’s alright,” he advised, grabbing her hand. “You don’t have anything to be afraid of when you’re with us!” The semi-corrupted monster was hardy listening however, as she looked back to the “star” once more. It flashed brightly, but briefly, and that alone was to throw her already palpable alarm into an all-out panic. With a manic screech, she pulled her hand out of Steven’s and took off, running off into the forest as fast as her newly-reformed legs would carry her. “W-wait!” the young Gem called, intending on running after her until Connie reigned him back in. 

“Uh, S-steven?” she grabbed his arm, directing his attention up to the “star” once more. By now it was practically burning yellow in the sky, yet it hadn’t moved, hadn’t done much at all until it suddenly dialated dramatically. 

And then, before anyone had any time to say or do anything else, it exploded. 

A bright, blinding golden light flooded the entire area, spreading out far and wide across all of Gravity Falls at a supersonic speed. It overtook nearly everything, from the temple to the shack to the forest to downtown, even as far as the lake and the outlying countryside, all centralized solely on the tiny timberwood town itself. In its wake it covered everyone, humans, Gems, and magical or mythical creatures alike (though only one group among those three would emerge from it unscathed). And as it shined upon them all, if its overpowering, devastating radiance hadn’t momentarily defeated them, they might have heard the briefest bout of twisted laughter, accompanied by a single voice raised in vengeful song. 

And just as quickly as the light had come, it was over. It faded, leaving the sky crisp and clear and blue once again. Slowly, nature reawakened after being so sharply silenced as gentle birdsong filled in the late morning air once more. That quiet din was what first roused Steven, who sat up slowly, placing a careful hand against his now-aching head as he did. And yet, before he could even really get his bearings back, the first thing he happened to notice was that his hair strangely didn’t feel much like hair at all. Rather, it had a much softer, lighter texture, almost akin to flower petals, which made the fact that his fingers were seemingly much sharper than he knew they should have been all the more bewildering. Confused as he was, he tried to stand, though as soon as he got to his feet, he received a sudden, involuntary boost into the air. Briefly, he thought he’d accidentally activated his floating powers, until he happened to notice the series of sturdy green vines that were somehow propping him up. 

“Huh?” Steven frowned, glancing back only to see that the vines didn’t just seem to be coming from behind him, but from him. They sprouted from his back, and a few of the more thorny ones had twisted themselves around his arms and legs, though those thorns didn’t dig into his skin, which was an odd shade of pale pink. “W-what is all this…?” he wondered to himself, briefly glancing up from himself to look around. The first thing he realized was that Centipeetle was nowhere to be found, having run off into the woods just moments prior, a thought that worried Steven far more than his current peculiar condition did. “Oh no! Centi!” he gasped, alarmed as he searched for any sign of her. “Where are-”

“Ugh… Steven…?” The young Gem immediately stopped short as soon as he heard Dipper’s voice somewhere nearby. Despite his attempts at turning around, the vines suddenly did so for him as they somehow moved on their own accord. Still, Steven ignored how startling the vines, the thorns, and even the surprisingly sharp claws he now had were, in favor of checking on the others instead. 

“Dipper! Are you ok--Ohhhhh my gosh!” Steven’s jaw dropped in shock as soon as he actually looked at Dipper, who had just started to partially pull himself up off the ground. 

As he did, however, he clearly noticed something was off, particularly about the texture and shape of his nose and ears. “W-what is…” Dipper trailed off as he tried to properly sit up, only to not receive the sort of usual feedback he would have expected from his legs. “Why… why can’t I-” He cut himself off with a sharp, frightened gasp as soon as he so much as caught sight of the lower half of his body. Because by all accounts, it looked identical to that of a deer’s, complete with not just two, but four long, lithe, thin legs, brown fur spotted with specks of white on his back, and even a tiny tail that was currently twitching out of immense agitation. As he fully took in this inexplicable shift, Dipper let out a tight, terrified cry that didn’t sound exactly human, though he didn’t seem to care as he gripped his front set of legs to confirm that they were, in fact, actually his. “W-what’s going on?!” 

“Whoa, Dipper!” Steven exclaimed in equal awe as he leaned forward as much as the vines would allow. “You’re like… some kind of deer-centaur! A deertaur!”

“Ok, two things,” Dipper said crossly amidst trying to position his new, rather awkward set of legs to stand. “One, I’m pretty sure that’s not what this is called and two... WHAT? WHY? HOW? What happened to me?! What happened to you?! What’s with all the vines? Why does your hair look like a bouquet?”

“It does…?” Steven frowned, reaching up to thumb one of the “petals” that now apparently made up his hair. “Huh.”

“Seriously, what happened?” Dipper reiterated as he made his first real attempt at standing up. And yet, as unused to his strange new form as he was, balancing on his feet, or hooves, rather, proved to be quite a challenge as he unsteadily wobbled before ultimately falling right back to the ground clumsily. “And why a deer?!” he let out a small, frustrated huff through his now pert, black nose. “It’s not even like they’re even my favorite animal or anything! This makes no sense!”

“W-well, if it’s any consolation,” Steven began with a small, reassuring smile. “You do look pretty cute like this.”

Dipper flinched at this, but said nothing in response as he crossed his arms and glared away, blushing, at least until he picked up on something else. “Hey, wait a second, where’s-”

“Oy, what smells like fish…?” Mabel suddenly spoke up as she finally started to wake up herself. She let out a long yawn, not noticing the dumbfounded looks Steven and Dipper were both sending her way as they realized she’d also gone through an unnatural transformation. For her own part, however, it took Mabel a moment or two to register that transformation as she sat up and stared directly at the scaly pink finned tail that had taken the place of her legs. “Huh… Well that’s new,” she noted, glancing over her now-webbed hands before balking at her tail again with a huge gasp. “OH MY GOSH!” she practically screamed, stars in her eyes as she hugged her tail excitedly. “I’m a mer-ACK!” Mabel sucked in another sharp gasp, an involuntary one this time as her breathing grew short and shallow, her eyes widening in panic as she gripped her throat frantically. 

“Mabel!” Steven and Dipper both exclaimed in concerned alarm. On impulse, Dipper rushed to get up to help her, completely forgetting about the current state of his legs until he inevitably ended up tripping and faceplanting right back into the grass again. He didn’t let that stop him however, as he prepared to try again, he happened to catch sight of something Mabel apparently hadn’t as she haphazardly threw off her sweater so she could breathe easier. “Gills…” he gasped in realization. “She has gills! She can’t breathe! Steven, she needs water! B-but I can’t-”

“I’m on it!” Steven readily agreed, his vines moving in accordance with him this time. It was almost as if they knew exactly what he was thinking as they kept him propped up, essentially “walking” him over to Mabel, who was still gasping and choking on air that wouldn’t do anything for her now. While Steven tried to help her himself, the vines did that for him too as their tips gently coiled around her arms before they swiftly pulled her into the nearby creek, submerging her completely. 

Both Steven and Dipper waited for an anxious beat for Mabel to emerge from the relatively shallow water, though when she did, she let out a rejuvenated sigh of relief as she perched herself against the side of the creek. “Ah! Much better!” she grinned happily, splashing more water against the small pink gills on her neck. “Guess I just needed to wet my whistle! So, whaaaaaaaaaaaaa-?!” By now, Mabel finally noticed just what had happened to Dipper and Steven, and as soon as she did, a huge, delighted smile broke out across her face. “Ohhhhhh, Steven! Dipper! You guys look so adorable!”

“Uh, thanks?” Steven chuckled. 

“Ugh, this is just gonna keep getting more and more embarrassing, isn’t it?” Dipper scoffed, dryly. 

“Embarrassing? Bro-bro, what are you talking about? This is amazing!” Mabel proclaimed, flopping back into the creek behind her so she could admire her tail fins noce more. “Check it out! I’m totally a mermaid! Oh, if only Mermando was still here! We could be the cutest mer-couple ever, and have mer-babies, and live in a mer-castle under the sea! And sing mer-songs all day!”

“Yeesh,” Dipper rolled his eyes at his sister’s flights of fantasy. “You would enjoy this, Mabel.”

“Hey, has anyone seen Connie?” Steven asked, glancing around in newfound concern. “I haven’t seen her since all this happened. Do you think maybe she could have gone after Centi when she ran off?”

“What are you talking about, Steven? I’ve been here this whole time!”

Steven, Mabel, and Dipper alike all froze up at this, each of them looking around for Connie upon hearing her voice, only to find no sign of her anywhere. That is, until she happened to reappear out of nowhere right in front of Steven. All three of the other kids let out a startled round of alarm at this, though Connie didn’t share it as she let out a small sigh of relief instead. 

“Ah, finally you guys can actually see and hear me!” she exclaimed as she hovered up into the air a bit. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for the past several minutes, but it’s like you all just kept staring right through me!”

“Aw, sorry, Connie!” Steven apologized earnestly. “We didn’t mean to! But I couldn’t see you until now, much less hear you!”

“C-Connie?” Dipper spoke up, trembling slightly until he caught himself doing so. “A-are you… I-I… I don’t know how to say this, but… I-I think you might be-”

“Oh! A ghost!” Mabel guessed bluntly. “I got it right, didn’t I?”

“What? A ghost?” Connie shook her head incredulously. For her part, she largely looked the same as she always did, though like Mabel, her legs had been traded in for a tail, albeit one that wasn’t anywhere near as fish-like. But even beyond that, she had taken on a pale blue parlor, her entire body being more or less completely translucent as it radiated with a dull, unearthly sort of glow. That, paired with the fact that she was able to float above the ground freely, added up to far too much evidence for anything else to really be true, as much as Connie wished something else was. “Oh my gosh, I-I think you guys are right! I-I really am a ghost! B-but why? And how--wait, no, I don’t even want to think about how! A-anyway, w-what happened to you guys? To all of us?!”

“I think I know what happened,” Mabel said as she pushed herself up out of the stream a bit. 

“Really?” Dipper asked, skeptical as Steven began to use his vines to help him properly stand. “You know what happened to us when none of the rest of us do?”

“Of course, I do,” Mabel grinned proudly. “We all got turned into totally awesome magical creatures! I mean, think about it: I’m a super sparkly mermaid (with a tail in my favorite shade of pink, might I add!). Connie’s a really cool ghost why can fly and turn invisible-”

“I don’t know if I’d call either of those things ‘cool’ in this instance…” Connie frowned as she accidentally phased her intangible hands into each other. 

“Steven’s, uh… w-well he’s some sort of flower… guy… person… thing…” Mabel ventured, uncertain. “B-but that’s awesome, since pink is totally your color.”

“Oh, you think so?” Steven grinned, looking down at his light pink arm with a newfound sense of fondness. 

“And Dipper is a super cute deertaur!”

“Again, I’m 100% positive that’s not what it’s called,” Dipper spoke up as he stomped one of his hooves down in annoyance. “Also, would everyone please stop calling me cute?!”

“Maybe once you stop being cute,” Mabel chuckled with a teasing smirk. 

“Which will be never!” Steven added much more earnestly. 

“Ugh, look,” Dipper began, addressing the enthused pair evenly. “I don’t know if you guys realize this, but this is serious. We just got turned into monsters, or magical creatures, or whatever, completely out of the blue. Something like this doesn’t just happen, not even here in Gravity Falls. Something caused this, and we need to figure out what it was so we can find a way to undo it and get all of us back to normal.”

“Aw, but I like being a magical mermaid!” Mabel pouted. 

“Do you like not being able to breathe outside of the water?” Dipper countered flatly.

Mabel flinched, recalling the frightening experience she’d just been through moments ago, an experience she certainly wasn’t keen on going through again anytime soon. “I… see your point.”

“Maybe that star had something to do with it…” Connie mused, looking up to the now-empty sky. “It was the last thing any of us saw before we woke up like this, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Steven agreed as his vines formed something of a seat for him to recline on. “Oh, thanks!” he said to the vines themselves before returning to the matter at hand. “Plus, Centi seemed to be really scared of that star. She might even know what it was! Maybe if we can find her, then she can-”

A sudden thunderous clamor cut through the conversation like a knife, a clamor that came from the temple, to be precise. The chaotic noise only amplified as the front door burst open and, as opposed to any of the Gems, what seemed to be a monster jumped outside instead. It wasn’t very large, though it was just a bit bigger than the kids, with a purple, bulky four-legged form and a full, thick mane of lighter lavender hair. It unleashed what sounded like a wild howl as it pounced off the porch, its clawed front arms allowing it a square landing on the ground. It didn’t seem to have any eyes, with a set of bright purple horns in place of where they would have been, but it still managed to spot the kids gathered just a bit down the hill from it. The monster’s toothy maw split into an expression that was almost akin to a grin as it made an animalistic sound that sounded a bit like a laugh, though it was still completely unintelligible. Its apparent excitement prompted it to stampede toward the group at a rapid pace, much to their shared alarm,, and at least in two cases, outright fear. 

While Mabel and Steven simply gasped in surprise as the monster rushed for them, Connie completely disappeared into thin air, not even making a single sound or uttering so much as a word as she did. Dipper, on the other hand, froze up, his eyes wide but his expression otherwise largely vacant and unreadable. And as the monster drew even closer, he suddenly took off, somehow completely capable of using his new legs, which he couldn’t even properly stand on mere moments ago, galloping at full speed into the nearby woods. Mabel let out a startled cry as she watched him easily leap over the stream she was sitting in before he disappeared into the forest just before the monster could arrive.

“Wait! Dipper!” she called, frustrated by her inability to get out of the water to go after him. Both her and Steven were met with an all-new concern, however, as the monster suddenly slammed down right in front of them, focusing on the young Gem in particular as it reared low with a small growl. 

“S-Stay back!” Steven warned, summoning his shield to ward off the beast. The monster leapt at him anyway, however, barreling into him and knocking him to the ground, even despite his vines trying to keep him upright. The young Gem braced himself for a vicious attack as his shield disappeared, yet instead, he was met with a sudden, wet lick from the beast’s large tongue. “Huh?” Steven frowned, looking back up to the monster, who still had him pinned down, but was now panting happily. Though he was already confused, his bewilderment only grew tenfold as he happened to notice the very familiar purple gemstone resting on the monster’s chest amidst her unruly tufts of hair. “Wait… A-Amethyst?!”

The beast nodded vigorously, finally stepping away from the young Gem as her long, messy tail wagged excitedly. While his vines picked him back up above the ground once more, Steven exchanged an uncertain glance with Mabel before he looked to who he could only assume had to be Amethyst once more. “D-Did… you shapeshift to look like this?” 

Amethyst shook her head, apparently unable to properly speak. She turned her attention back up to the temple, where another monster seemed to be stomping out, though it was much easier to discern the identity of this one from its appearance alone. 

“Garnet?!” Mabel and Steven exclaimed in shock as the creature the Gem leader had turned into jumped down from the porch to join them. There was no mistaking her, namely because of her pair of heads, one of which bore semblance to Ruby in coloration, though the only feature of her face was a fanged maw, while her other head was clearly Sapphire with her singular eye and long blue hair. The rest of her body was much more akin to Garnet herself, though quite twisted, her arms massive and muscular as they reached down as long as her much shorter legs did, her huge clawed hands acting more as her main form of transportation as she slowly lumbered forward. She towered high over Amethyst and the kids, letting out a low, inhuman groan that almost seemed to be a greeting, though despite her admittedly mangled appearance, she seemed just as calm as she always was. 

“Garnet… Amethyst...” Steven looked between the monstrous pair, quite shaken. “W-what happened to you? And… where’s Pearl?”

This question was met with a sharp, high pitched squeak from above as a large shadow briefly covered up the sun. That shadow had been cast by a large, majestic bird-like creature, one that nervously touched down to join Garnet and Amethyst. There was no question this was Pearl, from the tell-tell gemstone on her now-eyeless head, resting just above the long, pointed beak she now bore. Her form was sleek and graceful, with a thin, curved, swan-like neck, wide, sweeping peach and white feathered wings and a set of long, narrow legs that carried the same spiraled design as her spears. Pearl let out another unintelligible shriek, one of apparent surprise as she caught sight of Steven and Mabel, her wings flapping anxiously, at least until she heard Amethyst’s amused gruff cackle beside her. The white Gem shrieked shrilly at her in annoyance, though she merely kept on “laughing”, at least until Garnet silenced them both with a heavy, commanding grunt. 

“No way…” Steven shook his head incredulously. “I-it really is you guys! A-are… are you… corrupted?” 

All three of the Gems reacted to such a claim in shock, Pearl fiercely shaking her head as Amethyst tilted her head, confused. Garnet remained still and silent, though after a moment of thought, both of her contrasting heads finally nodded, much to the shock of her teammates. An argument of various squawks, roars, and groans erupted at this as the Gems “communicated” with each other, though neither Steven nor Mabel could even hope to make out what they were trying to say. 

“This is so weird…” Mabel frowned, leaning against the creekbank. “Aren’t corrupted Gems supposed to be all wild and crazy? Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are just… acting like themselves.”

“Maybe they’re not entirely corrupted?” Connie purposed as she suddenly reappeared, catching Steven and Mabel off guard. “O-oh! Sorry! I really gotta learn how to control this whole randomly disappearing thing better…”

“But… why do they still look like monsters?” Steven wondered, catching the attention of his guardians. “I know you guys can’t really… talk right now, but… you can still understand what we’re saying right?” All three of the Gems nodded, though what little their malformed expressions alone could convey told they were just as baffled and concerned as the kids themselves were. “So… you’re all basically half-corrupted then… just like Centi! Man, I really wish she hadn’t run off earlier; she’d be so much in figuring all this out!”

“Speaking of running off…” Mabel said, turning back toward the forest. “It’s ok, bro-bro, everything’s cool! You can come out now! There’s nothing to be afraid of out here.”

“I-I wasn’t afraid!” Dipper protested as he peeked out from the tree he had taken refuge behind. “I-it was just really loud and a lot of things were happening at once and I… might have panicked. J-just a little!”

“Well, deer do have a reputation for having a pretty sharp flight response whenever they get startled, so that might explain it,” Connie pointed out. 

“Ugh, great…” Dipper sighed as he fully emerged from the forest. “Just another reason to find a way to get us all back to normal as soon as possible. Especially for you guys,” he said, flinching as he looked to the Gems in particular. “You three look--uh… y-you look great!” he played off whatever he was going to say with a nervous laugh. The Gems didn’t quite buy it however as Amethyst teasingly stuck her tongue out while Pearl squawked, apparently flustered as she nudged one of her wings with her beak. 

“Wait a minute,” Connie interjected. “If that star, or whatever it was, somehow transformed all of us, then… maybe we weren’t the only ones affected by it…”

Everyone else took pause at this alarming thought, especially as they all happened to look down the hill toward the Mystery Shack. As they did, Dipper and Mabel in particular exchanged a nervous glance as they both considered exactly who else could be going through the exact same thing they currently were experiencing. “You don’t think…?”

Unsure of what they’d find, once the group of monster-turned kids and externally-corrupted Gems arrived at the Mystery Shack, Connie volunteered to head in first since she could more or less slip in unseen to scope things out. The only problem that arose with this came from Amethyst, who suddenly, impulsively decided to join her right as she floated toward the gift shop door. Connie stopped just as Amethyst rammed into the door horns-first, easily breaking down as she stormed in, eager to find Stan and show him her new form, much to the alarm of everyone else outside. Pearl let out a frantic squeal as Garnet slammed one of her heavy hands to the ground in an attempt to reel Amethyst back in, though the purple Gem, rowdy as ever, hardly paid them any mind. Likewise, the kids also watched with concern as she rushed inside, ensuing a chaotic clamor almost immediately as she haphazardly crashed into several display cases and quickly catching Stan’s attention, just as she’d intended. 

“Augh!” the conman shouted furiously from inside. “What in the--wait, Amethyst?! N-no, no, no, no! You better not--” He was cut off by another huge crash, one that promoted Pearl and Garnet into action while the kids stood by just a bit past the door. 

“Oh man, I wish we could see what’s going on in there!” Mabel exclaimed, leaning out of the small swimming pool Steven and Dipper were filling up for her. “I bet Grunkle Stan is totally freaking out!”

“Uh… I don’t know if that’s entirely accurate…” Connie frowned as she peered into the shack just as Amethyst scurried out of it, laughing all the while. Likewise, Garnet and Pearl both stumbled back themselves as Stan tried to burst out of the shack, revealing that, much like the kids, he’d gone through a rather monstrous transformation himself. 

By all accounts, it seemed as though the conman’s skin had turned to moving stone based on its rough, gray texture. Beyond that, both his fingers and his tones bore sharp, talon-like claws as he sported a small set of stony horns just above his now acutely pointed ears. But his two most notable new features were his eyes, which seemed to shine a bright, almost ominous kind of yellow, and the wide set of pointed wings on his back, which were currently caught on the doorframe, essentially holding him in place as he angrily tried chasing after Amethyst. “Ugh, again? Seriously?” the conman growled in annoyance as he somehow managed to retract his wings in a bit. “I’m already sick of these stupid things. And as for you, Amethyst, I--aye, yi, yi…” Stan trailed off, shock overtaking his expression as he noticed Pearl and Garnet’s changed forms too. “Yeesh, and I thought I had it bad between the new wings and the horns. You three look terrible!”

Pearl let out a harsh, offended hiss at this, though Garnet didn’t really respond. Amethyst however, let out a teasing roar, one that Stan didn’t seem to follow at all. “Uh… what, are you guys done speakin’ English or do you just expect me to understand ‘monsterese’ now?” he asked dryly. 

“Uh, actually, Mr. Pines,” Steven spoke up. “They can’t really… ‘talk’ right now…”

At this, Stan stole a glance over at the kids, only to balk in bewilderment at each of them in turn. “W-wha… what the heck happened to you kids?!” he asked, stepping over toward them. “Dipper--or Steven, I don’t care who since either of you if not both is usually behind anything wacky or magical happening around here--explain. Now.”

“We would if we actually understood what happened to begin with,” Dipper replied, crossing his arms.

“Well you better figure it out!” Stan snapped, irritated. “Cause I don’t know how you expect me to send you runts home to your parents with you looking half like a deer while your sister’s flopping around like a fish outta water.”

“Aw, it doesn’t sound anywhere near as magical and cool when you put being a mermaid like that…” Mabel cringed as she popped her head out of the water after refilling her gills. 

“You won’t have to send us home looking like this,” Dipper countered, resolved. “Because we’re going to find a way to undo all of this and get everyone back to normal.”

“Yeah!” Steven, Mabel, and Connie all chimed in support of this plan. 

“Oh really? That’s awesome, dudes!” Soos exclaimed as he stepped outside of the shack. Upon a first glance, he seemed to look just as he always did with no peculiar transformation in sight, at least until a piece of his arm quite literally melted right off. 

“Uh… Soos?” Steven spoke up, all four of the kids looking to the handyman in immense concern. 

“Oops,” Soos scooped up the strangely mouldable clump of his arm and easily slapped it back on as if it had never fallen off to begin with. “I’ll tell ya what, being made of clay may seem like it has its perks, but it’s starting to get way less cool the more times a chunk of me randomly melts off…”

“Could you at least stop melting all over the shack?” Stan asked dryly. “The last thing I wanna do is clean up bits of Soos off the floor.”

“Sorry, Mr. Pines,” Soos apologized as he smoothed up the side of his cheek before any clay could drip off of it. “I guess clay and a hot summer day aren’t a great mix…”

“Ugh, consider yourself lucky, man,” Wendy spoke up as she came out of the shack herself. “At least you’re not covered in fur…” 

“Whoa, Wendy!” Mabel exclaimed in fascination as Dipper, Steven, and Connie looked to the cashier in shock. “Are you-”

“A werewolf? Ugh, yeah, I guess,” Wendy rolled her eyes as she absently scratched behind one of her now rather dog-like ears. Sure enough, her entire body was covered in thick red fur to match her hair color, and alongside that she bore a bit of a snout with a wolfish nose and plenty of sharp, fanged teeth to match the sizable claws on her hands and feet. Yet despite her rather canine appearance, she was still perfectly able to walk upright, which was apparent enough as she leaned against the side of the shack, annoyed. “All those movies with the hot shirtless werewolves totally oversold this, by the way. The real deal totally sucks between being hot and itchy all the time. So if you guys are dead set on getting us all back to normal, then more power to you.”

“Don’t worry, we will,” Connie assured, though her confident smile quickly fell. “If only we knew where to start…”

“Maybe Great Uncle Ford can help,” Dipper suggested. “After filling up three whole journals, it’s safe to assume he is the resident expert on magical creatures around here. Where is he anyway?”

“Ugh, please don’t get me started on Ford and all those stupid riddles he’s been throwing around since this whole mess startled,” Stan huffed crossly. 

“Riddles?” Steven asked, confused. 

“Precisely, my boy,” Ford interjected as he rounded the far corner of the shack. For his part, his appearance had taken on something of a lion-eque motiff, with golden-brown fur, a long, thin tail, large (but still six-fingered) paws, and even a rather feline nose. But what set that motiff apart were his wings, just as wide as his brother’s, though bright and colorful and feathered instead of grey and stony. He only briefly regarded the Gems and the kids’ changes in appearance, seemingly not alarmed by them at all as he continued just as calmly. “For instance, what do you call a creature that’s steeped in ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology and has a penchant for presenting all who cross its path with puzzling riddles?” 

“Annoying?” Stan ventured, sending his brother a bored look. 

“No, Stanley,” Ford countered flatly. “A sphinx. Which seems to be what I’ve turned into. Maybe you’ll have an easier time figuring this one out: what’s the term for a creature that’s made of animated stone and also happens to be what you’ve become?”

“I’m sticking with my first answer and saying annoying,” the conman reiterated, glaring back at his unwanted set of wings. 

“A gargoyle, Stanley, a gargoyle,” the author huffed, exasperated. “Come on, that one wasn’t even hard at all.” 

“Yeesh, if you’re gonna be a wisecracking know-it-all, then can’t you just get to the point about it?” Stan rolled his eyes. “Do you have to keep at with all these pointless riddles?”

“...Yes,” Ford said bluntly before turning to the kids. “Anyway, children, do you know what a living, human-like being made of an earthen material such as mud, rocks, or in this case, clay,” he nodded over at Soos. “Is called?” The kids exchanged an uncertain glance at this, though it wasn’t long before the author filled in with an answer to his own riddle once more. “A golem. A clay golem in this particular instance, I believe.”

“Oooohhh so that’s what I am,” Soos mused, fascinated. “And I was just gonna keep calling myself “Soos: Clay Edition” but a golem sounds way cooler.”

“Furthermore,” Ford posed another riddle. “A creature with the arms, head, and torso of a human, but the body and legs of a deer is called a…?”

“A deertaur!” Steven and Mabel both chimed in with an enthusiastic answer. 

“Ugh, for the last time, you guys, that’s not what it’s called!” Dipper protested, his tail flickering in aggravation. 

“You’re absolutely right, Dipper, that’s not what it’s called,” Ford pointed out with a knowing grin. “You’re actually a cervitaur.”

“Eh, that doesn’t have nearly the same ring to it…” Mabel said, looking to her brother dubiously. “Grunkle Ford, can you do me next!”

“Mabel,” Dipper cut in, shaking his head. “We already know you’re a-”

“A creature that’s half girl and half fish would be known as…?”

“A mermaid!” Mabel immediately guessed. “I know because I am one! Right now!”

“Correct,” Ford nodded, pleased. “Now… hm… this one is a bit trickier. A physical spirit tied to… well, traditionally trees, but I suppose just about any form of flora works, as is the case with Steven here, so that would make him a…?”

“Uh… Mabel guessed flower guy earlier so, I’ll go with that?” Steven suggested, though he really had no idea himself. 

“Actually, my boy, you’re what’s known as a dryad,” Ford corrected. “Or more accurately, the male form of a dryad, a drus. A rose drus, from the looks of it…”

“...It had to be roses, didn’t it?” Steven muttered to himself as he rubbed his thorn, covered arm apprehensively. 

“Now, rounding things off, a creature that’s wolf-like in appearance, but-”

“It’s a werewolf,” Wendy interrupted boredly. “Already figured that out as soon as I realized I had a tail, man, it’s not that hard.”

“Ah,” Ford said somewhat awkwardly before continuing. “Then how about an immaterial spector that’s-”

“A ghost,” Connie readily filled the answer. “Sorry, Mr. Ford. We… kind of already figured that one out too.”

“...Very well then,” the author noted as he glanced over at the Gems. “As for you three, I… can’t quite seem to think of anything-”

“Oh, thank god,” Stan said, breathing a sigh of relief. 

“Are… are they… corrupted?” Ford asked the kids in particular. 

“Sort of?” Steven shrugged. “They’re still themselves though, right, you guys?” The Gems let out a variety of unintelligible answers at this, but all of them seemed to confirm this to be true. 

“Fascinating…” Ford adjusted his glasses as he looked over each of the Gems’ semi-corrupted forms. “All of this is just so… fascinating! I could fill up an entire journal alone with all of the scientific discoveries to be found here! And while I’m on that note, another riddle! What’s-”

“No!” Stan quickly cut him off, leaping forward with a powerful flap of his wings to practically tackle Ford to the ground. “You are not asking another one of your dumb riddles on my watch!”

“...Well, you could have just asked, Stanley,” Ford huffed, pushing his brother off him. “You didn’t need to be so extreme about it.”

“Oh, hey!” Steven cut in, pointing to a familiar van driving toward the shack. “Looks like Dad’s on his way here!”

Sure enough, Greg’s van pulled up to a sudden stop in front of the group gathered outside the shack, with the former rock star poking his head out the window frantically. “Steven!” he exclaimed, startled by what had happened to both his son and the others. Greg himself had also undergone a rather alarming transformation, as he was seemingly wrapped in browning bandages from head to toe, with what little skin showing between those bandages looking drastically pale and almost lifeless. Yet he hardly seemed to care much for his own appearance as he threw the van door open to check on his son and the others instead. At least until one of his bandages got caught up in the door as he slammed it shut. “Aw, not again!” he huffed, pulling the bandage out before hurrying over to Steven. “L-look at you!” he exclaimed, practically having to look up at his son thanks to the vines still holding him aloft. “Are you ok? Is everyone ok?”

“Yeah, we’re all fine,” Steven nodded. 

“E-even the Gems…?” Greg asked, sending them a worried look. 

“Yeah, they’re ok too,” the young Gem mustered a small smile. 

“Ah! Here we go!” Ford piped up with a brand-new riddle. “What would you call an undead creature typically wrapped in cloth bandages to try and preserve the decaying body?”

“U-undead?!” Greg balked, glancing down at himself fearfully. 

“Join the club…” Connie spoke up as she hovered nearby. 

“A mummy! Greg’s a mummy! Geez!” Stan swiftly answered, shoving his brother out of aggravation. “What did I say about the riddles?!”

“Oh, honestly, Stanley! You don’t have to be such a brute!” Ford took a swing at the conman with his claws, only for them to hit solid stone instead.

“And you don’t have to be such a pain!” Stan countered, utilizing his wings to gain the literal upper hand over the author before he could lash out again. Ford didn’t let him get away that easily as he also managed to take flight, and soon enough both brothers were engaged in a midair chase that everyone briefly stopped to watch before returning to the matter at hand. 

“So yeah, like Steven said, we’re all doin’ pretty good,” Soos reiterated obliviously. 

“I-I can’t believe this whole monster thing happened to all of you guys too!” Greg exclaimed, running a hand through the hair that was sticking out from under the bandages. 

“What do you mean ‘too’?” Dipper asked, confused. 

“Haven’t you seen the news?” Greg asked, incredulously. 

“Oh, yeah,” Wendy spoke up as she pulled the latest town news report up on her phone before holding it up for everyone to see. “Check it out.”

“This just in,” Shandra Jimenez, who seemed to have been turned into a harpy, reported urgently. “Monster madness has taken over Gravity Falls! Residents all over town have reported being suddenly transformed into magical or mythical creatures.” Sure enough, the accompanying footage proved this to be true as every citizen shown seemed to be some sort of monster or cryptid or creature, each in some varying level of surprise or panic over their new forms. “The cause for this town-wide transformation is still unknown, but experts believe the large flash of bright light that encompassed the entire area earlier today might have had something to do with it. For now, residents are advised to continue on with business as usual until some sort of cure can be found. We’ll be back with more details at 5, but for now, I’m Shandra Jimenez, and it’s time for my hourly preening session.” With a loud squawk, the anchor signed off to pick at the feathered wings that had taken the place of her arms and putting an end to the news briefing in the process. 

“T-this is happening to the entire town?!” Dipper asked in disbelief. All four of the kids exchanged a startled glance at this as they realized this problem was much more widespread and far more serious than they first thought. Which, of course, would only make finding an elusive solution for it much more difficult than they had originally hoped. 

“Yeah, it is, and somebody better do something about it! Soon.” 

“No way…” Dipper gasped as he was the first to notice who was emerging, or rather slithering out of the nearby forest. “Pacifica?!”

Like all of the others, Pacifica’s appearance had drastically changed, primarily by the way of her legs being replaced by a long, light gold, snake-like tail. That reptilian theming continued with her hair, which was no longer really hair at all but a horde of snakes, each of them alive and autonomous as they moved about on their own accord. The heiress-turned-gorgon clearly cared little for her own snakes as she pushed the unruly reptiles back as they hissed and maneuvered about freely. Yet her frustration quickly fizzled into shock as she spotted the group of various creatures and monsters in front of the shack, though she focused most of her concern on her boyfriend in particular. 

“Oh my gosh!” Pacifica exclaimed, clumsily slithering over to her as Dipper tried to meet her halfway every bit as awkwardly on his still rather unsteady legs. “D-Dipper, you… look-”

“Please don’t say adorable,” Dipper interrupted, deadpan. 

“...I was gonna say like a deer, but…” Pacifica couldn’t help but crack a small smile at this, revealing her new set of sharp fangs. “You definitely look better off than I do right now…”

“What? N-no!” Dipper countered, trying to reassure her as best he could as he suppressed a nervous cringe as one of her snakes drew in a bit too close to him for comfort. “You, uh… you look…”

“Don’t lie,” the heiress warned coldly. 

“...S-snakes,” Dipper finished, unable to really say much else as he realized he was slightly trembling again. 

“Yeah, snakes,” Pacifica scowled, reigning her snakes back again as several of them started crowding around Dipper, their almost hungry stares making him quite uncomfortable. “Please tell me you’re working on a way of undoing this whole mess…”

“Of course, we are,” he said, suppressing his sudden anxiety as he took her hands to comfort her. “We’ll figure something out, I promise.”

“AW!” Mabel suddenly gushed from her pool. “Even like this, you guys are still the CUTEST couple ever! What I wouldn’t give to have my camera on me! Though then again, maybe it’s better that I don’t… I don’t think it’s waterproof…” 

“Oh, come on, really?” Pacifica asked in disbelief as she glanced over at Mabel. “You got turned into a mermaid? I wish I could have been that lucky…”

“Tell me about it,” Connie sighed as she suddenly materialized right beside the heiress, startling both her and her snakes in the process. 

“Ok, everyone,” Dipper addressed the others, outside of Stan and Ford who were still engrossed in their petty brawl above. “Let’s get back on track. We need to start looking for some way to get all of us back to-” A high, loud screech abruptly cut him off as it echoed through the air, though it didn’t take long for everyone to discover the source of the noise as it came from above. Stan and Ford’s ongoing argument was only briefly interrupted by the arrival of a winged creature that suddenly blazed right past them both. That blue, jellyfish-esque creature was apparently holding something with its thin set of lengthy tentacles, a much smaller, bright green, six legged spider-like monster. While a pair of such peculiar creatures would have normally been cause for alarm, as the jellyfish gently set the spider down on the ground before coming to hover just above it, it soon became very apparent to just about everyone exactly who these creatures, or partially corrupted Gems really were. 

“Wait a second…” Steven said, focusing on the familiar gemstones on each of the monsters. “Isn’t that-”

“Oh my gosh! Peri!” Mabel practically squealed with delight at the spider-like form Peridot had taken on. “You look so CUTE! You’re like an itsy-bitsy Gem spider! If I could get out of this pool, you better believe I’d be giving you the biggest hug right now!”

Peridot let out a flustered hiss at this, her large, dark eyes narrowing in apparently frustration and embarrassment as she stomped her two front, disjointed legs down in annoyance. An apparent testament that the green Gem still retained her annoyance at being referred to as small, even in her now largely-corrupted form. 

At the same time, Dipper was completely caught off guard as the jellyfish creature suddenly flew over to him, remaining completely silent as several of its long tendrils reached out toward him. Immediately, his relatively new panicky instincts washed over him as he froze up, staring at the monster with stark, fearful, yet quiet alarm. The creature quickly noticed this and drew back a bit, seemingly confused and concerned, though it was still unable to make so much as a sound to convey either of those things. 

“Uh, Dipper?” Steven placed a steadying hand on his shoulder as his vines carried him over to him. “I… think that’s Lapis…”

At this, Dipper quickly snapped out of this forceful bout of shock, recognition filling his features as he spotted the teardrop shaped gemstone that was clearly visible through the jellyfish’s somewhat transparent blue body. “L-Lapis…?”

Lapis “nodded” as much as she could in her current form, slowly reaching her tendrils out once more so she could better see how Dipper had changed too. This time, he allowed her to, albeit a bit anxiously as one of her naturally wet tentacles found a gentle spot against the side of his face. “Uh… s-sorry,” he said, backing up a bit. “This is just… really weird…”

Though Lapis didn’t really respond to this, Peridot certainly did in a series of plaintiff hisses as she skittered around in apparent frustration. “Yeesh, even like this she’s still a loudmouth,” Pacifica noted to Connie and Mabel, aside, both of whom couldn’t help but agree. 

“So, you guys got corrupted--er, s-sort of corrupted too, huh?” Steven asked Lapis and Peridot, who both nodded in what almost seemed like resignation to this fact. The young Gem let out a small, fretful sigh as he took a moment to glance over the pair, as well as other Gems’ rather monstrous forms. Likewise, he took another moment to take stock of what had happened to his father, to Soos and Wendy and Pacifica, to Stan and Ford, to Mabel, Dipper, and Connie, and even to himself. For whatever reason, they had all undergone some kind of unknown, and in most cases unwanted, transformation, one that had disrupted their lives and left them all with more questions than answers as they tried to adapt to what had so suddenly happened to them, a plight that faced  the entire town and everyone in it, Gems and humans alike. And while Steven knew Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl weren’t particularly equipped to save Gravity Falls from such a plight as they usually would have, he figured that someone else would just have to step up and do exactly that in their stead. 

“All right, enough is enough,” Steven said, his tone stern and serious as he looked to Dipper, Mabel, and Connie. “We need to do something about this.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time,” Dipper huffed, his tail twitching in slight aggravation.

“I know…” Steven admitted as a few of his vines curled back in embarrassment. “B-but this time, let’s actually do it! We can find a way to undo this and get all of us, everyone--the whole town, back to the way they’re supposed to be, I know we can! So, are you guys up for another mystery?”

“You bet!” Mabel eagerly chimed, slapping her hand over Steven’s as he extended it to the others. “Mystery Kids!”

“Mystery Kids,” Connie agreed, hovering her hand over the others even though she couldn’t really touch them herself. 

Dipper sighed, though he did so with a warm, resolved smile as his hand joined the pile. “Mystery Kids.” He paused right after this, however, as he stole a glance over at Pacifica, who stood on the fringes of the group, glancing away awkwardly as even her snakes seemed to hang low and quiet. She started, however, as she caught sight of Dipper silently motioning her to join them. Considering her less than stellar history with the other members of the group, she hesitated, but she ultimately folded upon meeting her boyfriend’s soft, reassuring smile. 

“M-Mystery Kids…?” Pacifica ventured as she slithered over to the group and placed her hand atop theirs. Steven, Mabel, and Connie all offered her the same eager, welcoming smiles, which helped to set her at ease just as much as Dipper reaching up to lightly, supportively squeeze her hand did. 

With another daring cheer, the four--now five--Mystery Kids solidified their brazen mission to uncover the truth behind what had happened to Gravity Falls and find a way to solve it. A lofty, brazen goal to be sure, but one they felt largely equipped to handle; after all, they’d faced impossible odds like this more than a few times before. 

“Ok,” Dipper said as they all retracted their hands. “Let’s get started.”

“Good luck, dudes!” Soos encouraged with a bright wave, though his hand ended up melting off his wrist before it splattered onto the porch. “...Oops.”

“Uh, you guys might wanna hurry up on that,” Wendy noted as she watched the handyman reclaim his hand with a concerned frown. “I don’t know how much longer Soos can hold out with it being this hot out. Or how much longer I can hold out either for that matter…” she growled, scratching away at her own thick fur. 

“Wait, hold up,” Stan cut in as he finally came in for a landing, Ford following not too far behind him as their disagreement had reached a stalemate. “The entire town is cursed or something, and we’re just supposed to rely completely on you kids to get us all back to normal? N-not that I don’t trust you four, but you gotta admit you’re a little wet behind the ears. In some cases, literally,” he nodded over at Mabel. 

“Guilty as charged,” Mabel chuckled, showing off her now fin-like ears, which were, sure enough, soaking wet. 

“Stanley, don’t be so inconsiderate,” Ford scolded. “After all, who has accomplished impressive feats of discovery and problem solving through pooling their respective talents together on several occasions over the past few months alone?”

“We have!” Steven proudly proclaimed.

“Exactly,” the author nodded, ignoring his brother’s irritated glare over yet another riddle. 

“Well, you kids have definitely got my vote of confidence,” Greg soundly agreed amidst resecuring a loose bandage around his arm. 

“Thanks, Dad,” Steven grinned, leading the way toward the forest. He stopped short, however, in front of the Gems, all of whom, including Lapis and Peridot, regarded him affectionately as best as they could, even if they had to do so without using words. “Don’t worry, guys,” he assured them with a hopeful smile. “We’re gonna fix this, no matter what it takes. I promise.” Though none of the Gems could properly express it, their pride was clear through the round of various indiscernible, yet clearly happy cheers that rose up among them. Their warm support only gave a boost to the young Gem’s smile as he turned back to the other kids. “Ok, you guys ready to go--oh…” 

His question was answered before he even finished asking it, for while Connie was able to freely hover just about anywhere with few problems, Dipper and Pacifica were still quite unsteady on their hooves and tail respectively and Mabel was essentially confined to her tiny kiddie pool (which her long tail was actually halfway sticking out of). “Uh… right,” Steven let out a small laugh, realizing that the others didn’t have an autonomous set of vines to tote them around like he currently did. “We should probably figure this out first…”

The solution when it came to transportation was actually pretty simple, and a large part of that came down to Steven’s several sets of sturdy vines. As intangible as she was, Connie couldn’t really do much to help, but Steven hardly minded as he allowed both Dipper and Pacifica to cling onto a few of his vines, as well as each other, for support as they began to make their way through the woods. Mabel had been a bit tricker, but they’d eventually devised an idea upon finding an old pair of skateboards stored in the back of Greg’s van. It took a bit of doing (namely in getting Stan and Ford to cooperate long enough to work together to lift Mabel’s pool onto the boards) but eventually the pool itself was fully mobile and ready to be pulled along by a few more of Steven’s vines (of which he fortunately had plenty to spare). And just like that the small, but enthusiastic group set out on their daunting quest, though exactly how they were supposed to go about it still wasn’t exactly clear. 

“So… what are we out here looking for anyway?” Connie finally posed the question that all of the others had been thinking. 

“A way to get everyone back to normal,” Steven replied with a steady grin. 

“Ok, but like… how?” Pacifica asked, just as confused as Connie was. 

“Uh, well…” Dipper began, exchanging an uncertain glance with Steven. “We… don’t really know what we’re looking for exactly. To be honest, a lot of the times when we do this, we just tend to look around for a bit until a solution just sort of comes to us.” At that exact moment, the entire group came to a grinding halt as something, or rather, a certain semi-corrupted Gem to be exact, abruptly fell out of the canopy of trees just in front of them. “...Like that.”

“Centi!” Steven exclaimed as he reached a vine out toward the disoriented Gem to help her up. “You’re back! A-and… whoa, you look just like you did before!” Sure enough, Centipeetle hadn’t been transformed whatsoever like all of the other Gems had, for she still retained the same semi-corrupted appearance she’d had since Steven had tried to heal her. Likewise, she still seemed to have a rather skittish mindset as she cowered away from Steven, not seeming to recognize him or any of the others in their strange new forms. “Hey, i-its ok!” he said, pulling his vines back a bit so he couldn’t scare her any further. “It’s just me: Steven! I know I look a little different right now, but you don’t have to be scared, ok?”

Centipeetle eased up a bit at this, looking Steven up and down before calming down as she met his comforting smile. She let out a somewhat confused chirp as she walked over to him, and that confusion only seemed to grow as she looked over the other kids as well. 

“So this… “Centi” is a friend of yours?” Pacifica asked Dipper to gain a better sense of context. “Yikes, it looks like she got hit by this whole monster thing really hard…”

“Um, actually, she looked like that before any of this happened,” Dipper carefully pointed out. 

“...Oh,” Pacifica glanced away awkwardly. “My bad…”

“I don’t understand,” Connie spoke up as she flew closer to Centipeetle, who flinched away from her slightly. “I know she’s already partially corrupted, but why didn’t she fully turn back into a monster like the other Gems did?”

“Good question,” Steven said, watching as the semi-corrupted Gem sauntered past him. “You got hit by that light too, didn’t you, Centi? Do you have any ideas about what might have happened?”

Centipeetle didn’t respond as she was instead far more fascinated in the small pool Mabel was sitting in. Or rather, the pool that Mabel had completely submerged her entire head under for far more than just a few mere minutes now. 

“Oh my gosh, Mabel!” Dipper gasped, not hesitating to stumble over to her as fast as he could. Though her tail was hanging over the side of the tiny pool, the rest of her body lay face-up under the shallow water, her expression completely blank as she stared up at nothing at all as her gills “breathed” in the water surrounding her at a steady, synchronized pace. “Mabel!” Dipper reached into the water, grabbing her by the shoulder to rouse her from this bizarre trance. It worked as she gasped, darting up with a start and unintentionally splashing her brother in the process. 

“W-whoa!” she exclaimed, pressing a hand against her head. “Uh… sorry,” she offered Dipper an apologetic grin as she noticed he was now dripping wet. “Not sure what happened, I guess I sorta zoned out there. Oh hey! Centi’s back!”

“Ok, can we not backtrack here?” Pacifica asked, somewhat impatient. “We’re supposed to be finding a way to fix all this, remember?”

“Right,” Steven soundly agreed with a hopeful smile. “And I think Centi might just be the key to helping us figure that out.”

Centipeetle tilted her head, letting out a curious coo at this, yet a few of the other kids weren’t so convinced. “Uh… Steven? I know you still want to help her, and we do too, but… we sort of have bigger problems to deal with right now, don’t you think?” Dipper asked apprehensively. 

“But Centi was corrupted, just like the Gems sort of are now,” Steven pointed out. “And whatever corrupted them transformed the rest of the town too. So maybe whatever did that did this too!”

“But we still don’t know how corruption even happens to begin with,” Connie noted with a frown. 

“Maybe we don’t, but Centi might!” Steven turned back to the semi-corrupted Gem. “What do you say? Do you remember anything from before you--I-I mean… from long ago?”

Centipeetle took a moment to ponder this question before she answered it with a surprisingly enthusiastic nod. Likewise, she began to explain, albeit in her usual language of inhuman squeaks and squawks, none of which any of the kids could even begin to decipher. 

“Well, this isn’t gonna work,” Dipper remarked flatly. 

“Oh! I have an idea!” Mabel raised her hand. “If her memories are still in her head, we just gotta draw them out. Literally! Through the language… of ART!”

“...Or she could just write it all down,” Pacifica countered much less dramatically. 

“Yeah, that would probably be a little easier,” Connie nodded. 

“Now, if only we had some paper and a-” Steven stopped short as Dipper suddenly pulled both a notepad and a pen out of his vest. 

“I never leave home without them,” he said with a proud grin. “Especially since you never know what you’ll run into next around here. It never hurts to be prepared.”

“Dork,” Pacifica teased, lightly elbowing him, which he was more than happy to accept given the flirtatious nature of the gesture. 

“Ok, Centi, check this out,” Steven said, writing his name onto the first empty page of the notepad. “Ste-ven. That’s me! Can you do that?”

Centipeetle nodded, taking the pad as she began to scribble something down onto the page. When she was done and presented her work to the kids, however, the series of jagged, mangled lines she’d drawn didn’t bear semblance to any legible words at all. 

“...You know, maybe having her draw might not be such a bad idea after all…” Connie said somewhat fretfully. 

“Yes!” Mabel cheered. “Art always wins!”

“Ok then, let’s try this,” Steven sketched out a quick stick figure sketch of himself so Centipeetle would understand what they wanted her to do. “You can tell us whatever you want to through pictures! You try it.” 

Centipeetle reclaimed the pen and pad and began to do exactly that, sketching something out in record time before showing her work to the others. “That looks like… some kind of spaceship…” Connie inferred, hovering above as she glanced down at the Gem’s rough, yet understandable drawing. “Is that how you came to Earth?”

Centipeetle nodded, flipping the pad to a blank page as she started doodling something else. “Ooo, they look like you!” Mabel pointed toward the trio of stick figures that bore a passing semblance to the semi-corrupted Gem. “Centi, did you used to roll with a super cool crew back in the day?”

Centipeetle let out a happy chirp at this, pointing to herself with something of a proud smile. “You were a captain?!” Steven gasped, stars in his eyes. “That’s amazing! Sorry, I mean--that’s amazing, sir!” he chuckled with a playful salute before he happened to catch himself. “Oh, right, you guys don’t salute like that. It’s more like… this, right?” The young Gem awkwardly tried to cross his arms, though he couldn’t quite position them in any sort of comfortable manner. “Ow! Oh, this looked so easy when Peridot did it....” It didn’t take long for Centipeetle to catch onto what he was trying to do as she showed him the corrected cross-armed salute. “Oh yeah! Like that!” Steven nodded as the semi-corrupted Gem let out another noisy chirp before she resumed drawing out her tale once more. 

“Ok, so… you’re saluting someone…?” Dipper guessed as they all gathered closer to watch Centipeetle draw. “Is that your commander or something?” The semi-corrupted Gem nodded, pointing back to her drawings with another pointed squawk. ‘

“She gave you an order,” Connie continued inspecting the drawings. “And you and your crew got on your ships and--oh, lots of ships. Heading through space to… Earth.”

“You landed and started building stuff,” Steven mused as Centipeetle sketched out the start of Homeworld’s colonization of the planet. A colonization which soon turned to a violent conflict. “But then… the Gem war! You joined the fight…” Centipeetle’s drawings grew a bit more aggressive and hectic as her hand started to shake. She swiftly crossed out several of the Gems she had drawn, symbolizing their brutal ends that happened so long ago. “You and your crew kept going…” Steven faltered as Centipeetle suddenly ripped half of the page she was working on, tearing away her fellow crew members away from her. “You got seperated, but you were still fighting. Then, new orders from your commander… to retreat. Everyone’s running-” The sketches shifted to a massive crowd of Gem soldiers fleeing from some unknown, unseen threat. And among that crowd was Centipeetle, lost in the shuffle and hopelessly confused as to what was really going on. “But from what? You don’t know. Where’s your crew? Where’s your ship? You stopped.” Centipeetle froze in her drawing, captivated by the sky as a large star, three stars rather, appeared in it. “You heard something--from the sky, a sound. A song? And then…”

Centipeetle tore the last page away entirely to a completely blank one. She covered that empty page with her hand as tears started to slip out of her eye and splash down onto the paper, dampening it as she let out an agonized sob. “C-Centi?” Mabel spoke up, concerned. 

“That light…” Dipper began in dawning realization. “That’s the same light that hit the entire town! Where did it come from?”

Centipeetle whimpered once more but drew one last image upon the empty page: the familiar symbol of a trio of diamonds. “D-damage from the Diamonds…” Steven whispered, his eyes wide with alarm. 

“Uh… what does that mean?” Pacifica asked, largely out of the loop compared to the others. 

“It means… none of this makes sense…” Connie shook her head incredulously. “The light from the Diamonds corrupted Gems back then, but… it didn’t work on humans before… did it?”

“N-no, it… it only worked on Gems, like Centi…” Steven frowned, recalling what Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl had told him of corruption before. “But this time, it only affected the Gems’ bodies, not their minds like it did with all the others… And it did work on humans… So, what’s different now?”

“Bill,” Dipper said starkly, panic filling his expression as he recalled a very significant, very frightening recent revelation. “H-he’s working with the Diamonds now, o-or at least Yellow Diamond, remember? What if they teamed up to do this to us?!”

“B-but why would they-” Steven didn’t get a chance to finish his question as Centipeetle suddenly caught his attention. The semi-corrupted Gem was hacking horribly, acid spilling out from her beak-like maw as she abruptly collapsed to the ground. “Centi! Are you ok?!”

Centipeetle let out an anguished cry as light enveloped her arm, forcibly mutating it back into its previously short, insect-esque appendange. “W-what’s happening to her?!” Mabel asked, leaning out of her pool worriedly. 

“She’s reverting!” Steven exclaimed, alarmed. “Here, I’ll heal you again!” The young Gem hurried to do so, swiftly licking his hand and placing it against Centipeetle’s gemstone. She reacted harshly, however, her eye slamming shut as her arm glitched out, but ultimately stayed corrupted as the rest of her body began to do the same. “W-why isn’t it working?! How can I help you?!” 

All Centipeetle could respond with was a loud, piercing, pained screech, one that echoed through the forest and set off a series of varied responses in the process. As startled as she was, Connie was no longer able to keep herself visible as she abruptly disappeared into thin air once more, despite Steven’s desperate plea for her to stay. Likewise, as horrified as he already was by thoughts of Bill and the Diamonds and their twisted alliance, Dipper found he was completely helpless to resist his new flighty instincts overwhelming all sense of reason and logic as they prompted him to flee, running swiftly off into the forest, even as Mabel and Pacifica both tried and failed to reign him back in. 

And yet, Dipper and Connie weren’t the only ones to take off out of fear as Centipeetle started doing the same, distressed as she startled scrambling back through the woods herself. “E-everyone, wait!” Steven called, distraught as he realized things were only going from bad to worse. 

“W-what do we do?” Mabel asked, immensely concerned. 

“Uh… um…” Steven stammered, racing to come up with some sort of plan, which he surprisingly managed to do in record time. “Pacifica, can you go look for Dipper?”

“Um, yeah, I’ll try,” Pacifica agreed, more than willing to do so, even if she wasn’t entirely sure how far she’d be able to go on her difficult to maneuver tail. 

“Mabel, you… stay here.”

“Yeah, I… kinda can’t really do much else,” Mabel noted, pointing to her tail. “Oh! I know! I’ll see if I can get Connie to come back!”

“Great,” Steven nodded as his vines turned him around. “I’m gonna go after Centi. I’ll be back soon!”

“Good luck!” Mabel called after both Pacifica and Steven as they set off on their own respective missions. She paused a moment after they were gone, more than set to call after Connie in the hopes of getting her to appear. Yet just before she could, her own bizarre newfound instincts took over as she silently plunged herself back under the water of her pool, unable to really do anything else, even if she could have tried. 

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Steven to catch up to Centipeetle given how surprisingly fast his vines could carry him. The semi-corrupted Gem had just broken through the edge of the forest, apparently heading back toward the temple, yet as Steven did the same, he was quite taken aback by what he saw happening at the Mystery Shack. 

The entire area was awash in chaos as it seemed as though almost everyone who had gathered there had also fallen victim to whatever instinctual impulses that came along with their new monstrous forms. Stan and Ford had apparently gotten into another brawl for whatever reason, though this one was much more violent and aggressive as they chased each other around the sky again. Wendy attempted to follow along on the ground, running on all fours as she growled almost ferally, and though she missed Centipeetle, she did notice Steven and tried chasing after him as well. The young Gem narrowly managed to avoid her using his floating powers to jump on top of his father’s van, though that hardly stopped the frantic scene on the ground below. Soos seemed to have tucked himself away inside the shack to avoid melting any further, and Greg was seemingly nowhere to be found, at least until Steven peeked into the back of the van to find his father sleeping soundly within it. 

“D-Dad!” Steven exclaimed, hurrying to his side, only to notice Greg’s arms were crossed squarely over his chest, much like a traditional mummy’s would have been. “Dad, wake up, please!” he shook his father’s shoulder to try and rouse him, though it didn’t do any good. “D-Dad…?”

A sudden screech quickly caught the distraught young Gem’s attention, one that came from Pearl, who he realized was standing right behind him alongside Garnet and Amethyst. While Lapis and Peridot had taken to the sidelines, unsure of what to do, the main trio of Gems had been doing their best to ease the mindless uproar between the others, though there wasn’t much they could really do with their forms as monstrous as they currently were. “G-guys, what… what’s going on?” Steven asked them, realizing they were much calmer than everyone else seemed to be. “Why’s everyone acting so weird?” 

Though she couldn’t really give a proper answer, Garnet replied in the form of a low grunt, nodding up toward the sky, or rather, toward where the apparent corrupting light had come from. “C-Corruption… yeah, we know,” Steven nodded, “We think it might have been Bill and the Diamonds this time, but they... “ He gasped as the newfound, horrific realization struck him. “They corrupted everyone’s bodies… but only the minds of the humans! That’s why they’re acting like this! W-we have to help them! B-but how?”

The Gems seemed to agree, though the only way they could really convey their idea to do so was to step aside so Steven could see Centipeetle, who was still frantically making her way up to the temple. “Centi?” the young Gem wondered anxiously. “D-do you think…?”

The Gems exchanged something of an uncertain glance but ultimately they agreed that the semi-corrupted Gem would be their best course of action right now. Something Steven couldn’t really argue with since he was largely out of ideas himself. “Right,” he nodded, his vines starting to pull him forward so he could follow her. “You guys stay here and keep everyone safe. I’m gonna find a way to fix all of this. I mean it this time.”

Even if they couldn’t exactly speak, the Gems still sent him off with a chorus of warm, proud well-wishes, voicing their firm belief in their young ward just as well as any words could have. Their faith did give Steven something of a confidence boost, but as he set off after Centipeetle he couldn’t help but feel quite worried all the same, especially now that the stakes seemed higher than ever before. What if he couldn’t find a way to return everyone to normal? What if his friends, his family, possibly even himself with time, were all eventually lost to their monstrous forms and mangled minds, just like previously corrupted Gems like Centipeetle had been centuries ago? 

These were all thoughts Steven could hardly bear to face, so he decided to embrace the opposite instead, the hope that he would find a solution. That he could fix this and save everyone, just as they were all counting on him to do, even if they didn’t even realize it. 

The young Gem burst into the house just moments after Centipeetle had, finding her propped up against the warp pad as she desperately tried using it. No teleporting light emerged from it however, much to the semi-corrupted Gem’s distress as her leg started glitching back into its previously corrupted appearance. “I-it’s not working because you’re corrupted,” Steven noted, hurrying over to her. “Where do you want to go? The battlefield you fought at? Your ship?”

Centipeetle squawked out an immediate response to this, though Steven still didn’t quite understand. “Is there something on the ship that can help you? That can help all of us?” The semi-corrupted Gem only screamed louder at this, slamming herself down onto the warp pad as she practically begged him to use it. “O-ok, just… hold on,” Steven said, grabbing her hand to calm her down. “I’ll get you there.”

Despite his own condition, fortunately Steven was still able to use the warp pad as usual. Its light enveloped them both, taking them to the very same abandoned Gem ship that Peridot had tried trapping them in what felt like ages ago now. As soon as she so much as spotted her ship, Centipeetle took off, running through the jungle as she called out for someone she only barely remembered. “Hey! Wait!” Steven ran after her, or rather his vines did, at least until Centipeetle suddenly stopped short. The corrupted Gem unleashed another agonized scream as she collapsed, clutching her head in pain as more traces of her monsterous form began to overtake her: her multiple tiny legs, her lengthy, multi-tiered body, her long, pincher-like snout. As this horrific, slow transformation continued, Steven briefly watched in frightened alarm, before he took the initiative, gently latching onto her with a few of his vines. “You want to get to the ship? Then let’s go.” As unable to walk as she was, Steven let his vines hoist Centipeetle up as she continued whimpering loudly, her form continuing to unsteadily shift as her mind tumbled into madness all the while. Yet despite her wild manner starting to flood her once more, she still somehow recognized Steven, still somehow trusted him to take her where she longed to be. And sure enough, that’s exactly what he did. 

The young Gem carefully set Centipeetle down just as all traces of her once human-like form gave way to her former corruption. She squeaked pitifully, acid dripping out of her maw as she looked to Steven almost pleadingly. He shuddered, wishing he could do so much more to help her, but for now, the most he could do was open the door to her abandoned ship and let her back inside of it for the first time in eons. 

Silently, Steven followed Centipeetle inside the derelict vessel, only to find that they weren’t alone. Two other creatures, identical to the corrupted Gem, had scaled its dusty walls and had taken up shop there, though as they noticed Centipeedle herself, they greeted her with cheerful chips of greet. “Other Centipeetles…?” Steven wondered, watching as his own corrupted companion scurried over to join the pair. “T-they’re your crew… aren’t they?” 

Centipeetle stopped short at this, turning back to Steven as she skittered over to him once more. He offered her a small, sad smile that was quick to fade as he looked between his corrupted friend and her crew. “I-I… I’m sorry….” he sighed morosely. “I wish there was more I could do to help you. T-to help everyone! All of the other corrupted Gems, and especially everyone back in Gravity Falls right now! They’re all in danger and I-I… I don’t know what to do to save them! My friends… e-everyone I know needs my help, a-and I… I can’t do anything for them…”

Tears started to well up in the young Gem’s eyes, yet before they could fall, a gentle, almost kindly chirp from Centipeetle caught his attention instead. The corrupted Gem pulled her lengthy form up a bit so she could gain some height over Steven, and then, in much of the same way he had done for her before, she delivered a soft “kiss” of sorts upon his forehead using the very tip of her beak. It wasn’t much, but in a strange way, it offered him exactly the sort of comfort he needed at a hopeless moment such as this. 

He mouthed her a silent ‘thank you’ as she turned again to join  her crew, all three corrupted Gems chirping warmly amongst each other as they reunited after centuries of painful separation. Steven stood by, watching them for a moment or two, his mind lingering on Centipeetle’s “kiss” all the while. And the longer he thought about the touching gesture, the more it made him think about how his own healing kiss had, at least in some way, truly worked to partially cure the corrupted Gem, even if it hadn’t really worked as well as he had hoped. Yet still, it had worked on some level all the same. Which made him start to wonder if it could possibly work when it came to another, newer kind of corruption instead. 

Steven wasn’t exactly sure what the result would be as he glanced over the back of his now-clawed hand, but as he looked to the vines sprouting from his back and thought about the pink petals that had overtaken his hair, he figured it was at least worth a try all the same. The moment he so much as skimmed the back of his hand with a gentle kiss, however, he found that everything went completely white and numb, until just as quickly, everything abruptly returned. 

Except plenty of things didn’t. Because instead of being involuntarily propped up on vines as he had been all day, the young Gem found himself sitting on the floor of the abandoned ship with not a single vine in sight. His skin had regained its usual pallor as opposed to the unnatural shade of pale pink it had become and his hands and hair, he found, were both just as normal as non-floral as they should have been. “I-I… I healed myself?!” he gasped, jumping to his feet, though he just as quickly collapsed to the ground. “O-oops, guess I gotta get used to walking around on my own again, b-but still, this is great!” He grinned brightly up at the trio of Centipeetles curiously watching him from above. “Thank you,” he said to Centi in particular. “I-I know my powers won’t work on you guys, but… maybe someday they will. And when they do, I’ll come back for you first, Centi, I promise.” Centi let out a bright, affectionate chip at this, one that Steven couldn’t help but return with a small, joyous laugh of his own. “B-but for now, I’ve gotta get back and see if I can help everyone else!”

Steven wasted no time in doing so, waving one final, fond farewell to Centi and her crew before he took off to return to town. And all the while, the trio of Centipeetles remained aboard their broken vessel, happy to be, if nothing else, together again, just as they had yearned for all that time apart. 

As soon as he warped himself back to the temple, Steven rushed out of it, running as fast as his admittedly sore legs could take him in place of having his vines tote him around. The chaos unfolding at the shack had hardly changed in the time that he’d been gone, withe Gems desperately trying and largely failing to reign the maddened humans among them back in. Still, as soon as they spotted Steven in his usual appearance, the Gems were all quick to hone in on him in rapt, excited, fervent attention. Still, despite the crowd, Steven steadily got to work, even if he did have a few doubts about whether or not his plan would really work at all. All the same, he started with Amethyst, landing a brief kiss against her muscled arm, one that, sure enough, enshrouded the purple Gem in light before reverting her form back to how it usually should have been. While grateful for Steven’s assistance, Amethyst did have the slightest complaints, namely that she had found her corrupted form to be rather fun and enjoyable, something Pearl readily disagreed with as soon as the young Gem healed her up next. Garnet was more than relieved to have her future vision back on hand as Steven healed her, and with her usual level-headedness, she got her teammates into action to round up the scattered humans while the young Gem healed Lapis and Peridot next. 

It had taken some doing, but between the three of them, the Gems had managed to round up Stan, Ford, and Wendy just as Steven finished off returning Greg and Soos to normal. The trio was still quite rowdy and untamed, which made approaching them a bit of a challenge for the young Gem, at least until Amethyst came up with the idea of a spray bottle on them. Miraculously, this managed to work as Steven mixed in a bit of his own healing spit into the water before the Gems spritzed the aggressive group with it, healing them in short order and leaving each of them quite embarrassed when they realized what had happened. 

With everyone at the shack healed up, Steven made it his immediate mission to find his scattered friends in the forest, a mission that the Gems were more than happy to join him on. Lapis took to the skies alongside Peridot to try and find any signs of Dipper (and Pacifica for that matter) while Steven and the others took to the ground to regroup with Mabel and hopefully Connie. They found the latter first, who had managed to reappear and nearly flew right into them while searching for the young Gem herself. As surprised as Connie was by how Steven had managed to heal everyone, they both found a unique challenge when he tried to do the same for her given her currently intangible form, one that he couldn’t seem to touch at all. That is, at least until Garnet suggested that they fuse. It was a bit awkward and difficult to do so, yet somehow, it worked, with Stevonnie taking on a partially physical form, though they did still hover above the ground while retaining something of a ghostly glow. Still, it was enough for the young Gem’s healing powers to work as they kissed their own arm, returning not just the fusion, but Connie herself back to normal once they warmly unfused. 

Since she was essentially unable to go anywhere else, Mabel had remained in her spot in her pool, staying under water the entire time so she could breath easier. Her expression was absolutely empty and she remained completely silent, even as Connie began propping her up out of the water so Steven could heal her. And as soon as he did, Mabel immediately snapped right back into her usual chatty self, even if she was a little disgruntled by her now wet skirt, socks, and shoes as she finally got out of the pool, able to walk on her own two returned legs once again. 

By then, Lapis and Peridot had returned with their report that they had spotted Dipper running off deeper into the forest. Not wanting to waste any time, Steven, Mabel, and Connie all raced to catch up with him, though when they found him, he wasn’t exactly alone. Pacifica had also managed to find him, though by now her newly predatory instincts had overtaken her as she cornered her frightened boyfriend as both her and her snakes prepared to take on their easy prey. This tense confrontation was put to a quick end as the other kids arrived to break it up, with the girls making use of the spray bottle on Pacifica while Steven managed to keep Dipper from slipping away again with a well-timed bubble so he could properly heal him. And as soon as the couple were both back in their right minds and usual bodies, they both soundly agreed to never speak of what had almost just transpired ever again. 

From there, healing the rest of the town from their monstrous plight was quite a daunting task for Steven and the others, though the spray bottle scheme did make doing so quite a bit easier. All it took was one spritz to each citizen-turned-creature and they were back to their usual fully-human forms. With the Gems and the Pines teaming up together to spread out through the town, it was only a matter of hours before every impacted resident had been healed (even if most of them had no idea exactly what the water that had done so actually contained). Still, the general consensus was a glad and grateful one amongst its citizens as Gravity Falls slowly but surely started getting back to normal (or at least as normal as the strange little town could be). 

“And that should be everyone,” Garnet noted, relying on her future vision to confirm that their mission was complete. While a handful of the others who had lended a hand had already headed back home, the kids and the Gems were the last to dole out healing to any remaining stragglers. And with the last few townsfolk healed and human again, the sun was just starting to set as the last of the group began to make their way back to the temple and the shack as well. “Good job, Steven.”

“Yeah! Magical healing powers for the win!” Mabel cheered as she ran alongside the young Gem. “Seriously, I’ve never missed having my legs this much!”

“And I’ve never missed having only two,” Dipper readily agreed with a sigh of relief. “Let’s just hope something like this never happens again. I don’t know if I can handle the whole “mindless deer panic” thing again.”

“Well, if it does ever happen again,” Connie spoke up, glancing over at Steven with a fond smile. “We know who we can count on to save the day next time, right?”

“Wrong,” Steven finally spoke up, his dejected expression more than apparent. “I couldn’t save everyone. You guys were right,” he looked up to the Gems. “I couldn’t help Centipeetle..”

“You brought the Centipeetle back to her ship,” Garnet said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You brought her back to her crew. They were waiting for her there. They didn’t want to leave her behind.”

“Wait…” Steven raised a confused eyebrow. “How did you know any of that?”

“She told us,” Garnet held up the previously discarded notepad Centi had sketched her story in. 

“Her drawings…?” Steven flipped through the book, perplexed. 

“Her writing,” the Gem leader corrected. 

“It’s actually decently legible!” Pearl pointed out the seemingly unintelligible scribbles Centi had written out. 

“Wow!” Steven grinned, glad that someone could make it out where they hadn’t been able to. “Um… did she mention anything about… the corrupting light?”

“Mm… no,” Pearl shook her head as she looked through the notepad. “Why do you ask?”

“Well…”

“Cause the light that turned everyone into monsters was totally the same thing!” Mabel interjected. “Or at least we think it was.”

“We also think Bill might have had something to do with it,” Dipper added disdainfully. “That’s why it actually worked on humans this time.”

The Gems exchanged a worried glance upon hearing this, none of them liking the idea of Bill and the Diamonds collaborating, especially on something like this, however plausible it might have been. Yet even so, they did manage to find a few holes in the kids’ theory all the same. “Uh, if it was corruption, then how was Steven able to heal us all up when he couldn’t do the same for your girl Centi?” Amethyst asked, confused. 

“I… don’t know,” Steven frowned, puzzled. “Maybe it just wasn’t as powerful this time? Even with Bill’s help?”

“Or maybe it was only one of the Diamonds instead of all three…” Garnet muttered quietly before Pearl quickly cut in. 

“W-well anyway, I suppose it doesn’t matter that much now that it’s all over and done with!” the white Gem exclaimed with a bit of a forced smile. 

“But… if Bill and the Diamonds can do something like this, then don’t you think we should be worried about what they’re planning next?” Dipper asked warily. 

“I-in the long term, yes…” Pearl ventured somewhat anxiously. “But for now-”

“For now, we won,” Garnet interjected. “Let’s celebrate that instead of worrying about what’s to come.”

Though Dipper let out something of a disgruntled sigh at this, the other kids largely agreed, especially Steven. Because just a few hours ago, he had thought he might have very well lost his friends and his family for good, to something that had been far out of anyone’s control. Yet now, through a miraculous turn of fate and a little of his own miraculous magic thrown in, here they all were, together and back to their normal selves again, just as they should have been. Well, almost all as they should have been. 

“Hey, Pearl?” Steven began, glancing down at the notepad once more. “Can you teach me how to write in Gem?”

“Oh, Steven, it’s very complicated,” Pearl said with a small smile. “And you won’t have much use for it.”

“Oh, I just want to know a few things like, ‘Hi, how are you?’, ‘Where’s the bathroom?’ and-” Steven stopped short as he flipped to the last drawing Centi had left behind, of the trio of diamonds representing the ones who had damaged her, and so many other innocent Gems in the process, seemingly beyond repair. Or at least it was for now, something that he could only hope to somehow change someday for Centi and her friends, just as he had for all of his. “And ‘I’m sorry’...”

Next:

[nativemossy]

Cap-IM Rec Week 2019 - Wednesday

Rec Week- Angsty Wednesday @cap-ironman 

Don’t forget to leave kudos and comments for your hardworking authors! they deserve the credit for the hard work they put into entertaining us with their fabulous works of art!

disclaimer: i genuinely struggle with the difference between angst and h/c, so the way i’m differentiating those lists is (mostly) by what the author tagged. 

the stillness of forgetting - by nasa

“Who are you?” Tony asks every morning when he wakes up and finds Steve lying next to him.

“I’m your husband,” Steve always replies.

-

aka Tony has Alzheimer's.

why rec?: ouchie, this one makes me cry a lot, so I don’t read it often. memory loss fics really get to me, so if thats something youre interested in this has it in stock! its so heartrendingly sweet and i just love it a lot

Orbital Mechanics - by Sabrecmc

Freshly out of the ice, Captain Steve Rogers definitely does not want to Bond with anyone. Until he does.

(Steve's POV for Celestial Navigation)

why rec?: tbh i’d recommend anything of Sabres (and multiple times at that - hence why i posted abt this on monday as well), but Celestial Navigation and by extension Orbital Mechanics both have permanent places on my instant classics list. just a lovely fic all around.

Something Death Can Touch - by thatdammeddame

Tony nearly dies in the field on a Saturday.

Steve breaks up with Tony the Wednesday after he's released from hospital.

why rec?: sad!! with happy ending!! its got a nice round conclusion, everyone comes full circle and is better for it.

Like A Comet Streaming On - by Sineala

Tony escapes Afghanistan with a functioning Iron Man suit and a perfectly normal heart. He even manages to bring Ho Yinsen home safely at his side. But he may as well have lost everything... because his wolfbrother is dead. Six months later, the Avengers find Captain America, frozen in ice, miraculously alive. Everything and everyone Steve has ever known is gone -- except his wolfsister, the recipient of the lupine version of the super-soldier serum, who was frozen in his arms. Tony has everything but his wolf. Steve has only his wolf. This is how their lives fit together.

why rec?: another fic that lives in my phone and travels with me - this is an instant classic for sure. i feel like i’ve recced this before no but i will be reccing it’s “fanfic of a fanfic” in tomorrows post, so I have talked about it. I love the psychic wolf premise, I hope to maybe do something in the future with it, though I could never dream of coming close to this amazing fic. If i’ve read this once i’ve read it dozens of times and loved it more each time. 

Wait & Sea - by Lenalena 

In which Tony and Steve get sent on an undercover mission aboard a cruise ship to make contact with Hydra. In this AU the military has kept the discovery and defrosting of Captain America a secret, so Steve and Tony have never met before. Yet they are to pose as newlyweds....

why rec?: tagged as angst and humor and if memory serves that’s exactly right. perfect blend of the humor of the identity porn trope with the angst of constant misunderstandings. 

Born From The Earth - by venusm

Tony Stark's born an omega in a world where that means he's supposed to follow certain social rules. He becomes Iron Man anyway: Fuck biology.

If only his biology (and the world) would quit fucking him back.

why rec?: i debated real heavy about including this because it’s technically steve/tony/omc, but hear me out: A great part of this fic focuses on the developing relationship between Tony and Steve, as well as Tony’s relationship with himself and the world around him. This is, hands down, my favorite fic of all time. as far as writing in general goes it’s right up there with my favorite authors. if i could only read one fic for the rest of my life this would undoubtedly be it - unfinished or no. i cannot even begin to impress upon you how much I love this fic. I can only aspire to write like this. the author makes you angry when they want you to be angry, sad when they want that too. It’s a beautifully orchestrated rollercoaster of emotion and I fall a little more in love every time I read it (which is frighteningly often).

Never Too Late for Love - by Sineala

Steve has always believed that a soulbond is a blessing -- a rare and beautiful miracle, joining the thoughts and feelings of two people forever, from the first time they touch. Steve knows he's not going to be one of the lucky ones. He knows Gail isn't his soulmate. But he loves her, even if they're not soulmates, and he's going to do right by her. After the war's over, he's going to marry her, and they're going to settle down. They'll buy a house. They'll have children. He'll see his family again. Maybe Bucky will live next door. It's going to be a good life. He doesn't need a soulbond. He'll be fine without one.

Then Steve wakes up sixty years in the future to find that his wonderful life has moved on without him. His family is long dead. His fiancée married his best friend. And the only purpose he has left is leading the Ultimates, a misbegotten team of superheroes with flaws too numerous to count. Steve hates everything about the future -- but most of all he detests Tony, flashy and flirtatious, who embodies everything Steve hates about a world he never wanted to live in.

And, oh, yeah, Steve has a soulmate after all: Tony fucking Stark.

why rec?: so much relationship angst. so. much. angst. Steve has to get his ass in gear and his brain into the 21st century, and Tony probably needs to go easy on the poor guy. its also ultsfic, which I’m usually not a giant fan of bc of the assholery but the dynamic works for me here

Senseless - by Scavenge4Dreams

Blinded, deafened, exhausted, injured and afraid, Tony raised himself up into a defensive position, the knife coming up just like Nat had taught him.

“That had better fucking be you, Steve Rogers- it had better be you. Fucking disarm me. If you let me kill you, I swear I will be very, very pissed.” Tony snarled, sure it was Steve approaching. Had to be. Had. To. Be.

What if it wasn’t?

why rec?: it’s been a while since i’ve read this, but I remember this being a good one that involves a rescue, injury recovery, and some eventual upon a brief reread I can say that this fic also has established relationship going for it! it’s tagged angst but it’s definitely got it’s fluffy parts and a really fun ending

Thrust Issues - by Sineala

A battle gone wrong leads Tony to the unexpected and pleasant discovery that Steve is much more well-endowed than he could ever have imagined. But when Tony learns that Steve has never actually been able to sleep with anyone because of his size, Tony does what any good friend would do: he offers to relieve Steve of his virginity. Personally. Tony's determined, Tony's methodical, and Tony has a plan. He's going to get Steve laid. Tony just needs to make sure Steve never finds out that Tony's in love with him.

why rec?: look at this point i think we can all agree that i might be a little bit of a fan of sineala’s. just wanted to throw that one out there to start us out. 

so my rec has little to do with the oodles of pining angst (of which there is plenty) and much more to do with there being a specific line in this fic that boils down to “friends fist friends right?” and I think of it at least biweekly. the rest of the fic is beautifully written and the characterization is to die for, plus its got a lovely happy ending!

She - by isozyme

Iron Man is strong and muscular and masculine, and Tony Stark wears a three-piece suit and walks with his hips stiff.  No colors other than navy or muted red. No prints bolder than a pinstripe. No luxurious silks and linens. His outfits are tailored to hang crisp and straight, his slacks hemmed to a conservative medium break.  The public won’t know. Nobody will go digging deeper, for classified ads and witnesses who remember him from half a decade ago. Steve will never find out all the ways Tony’s ruined himself.

why rec?: i’m putting this here just in case I don’t make a post for Sunday. This is one of those fics that hurts so good - it’s so well written sometimes it makes my teeth ache because it’s so sad and as the reader you can see all the pieces but a character cant. I love that feeling, its a great feeling. Some of this stuff can hit close to home so heed the warnings and read the tags!

[verritytorres]

calron fake dating au - unfinished outline

THROUGHOUT ONE MONTH (OCTOBER 2017)

·      still not fully clear on why they fake date but we getting there

o   call announces it for shits n giggles at a party on Thursday night (drunk? to celia the gossip queen?) then morning after everyone’s like “oh congrats on finally dating aaron btw!” “what”

o   aaron’s pissed at first cause that’s actually a shitty thing to do also he’s been pining for going on two years now do u have any idea what this does to his Heart

o   that is, until something happens that convinces him

§  some bully fuckers in the locker room after soccer practice like “who we gonna get today, chad?” “well everyone in here is off limits so--” aaron chimes in “what do you mean… off limits” “look youre a respectable guy so we treat you right, always have. teammates honor and all that. so we get at other people instead” (cue Dark Aaron) “and who are these other people” “that scrawny guy hunt for example” “oh, you mean call hunt my boyfriend?” “your…what?” “you heard me. if you fuck with him, you and I might have a problem. and nobody wants that.”

§  later, aaron texts call “I’m in.”

§  “sweet. what changed ur mind?” “That’s not important.”

·      the only person that knows is tamara bc helou its tamara they don’t keep secrets from each other

o   STUDY SESSION AT THE GABLES FRIDAY AFTERNOON (they all in the same regular algebra class cause theyre gay and therefore not great at math):

§  t: yo btw have you guys dealt with the whole “youre dating” rumor? if anyones been giving you a hard time tell me so I can eliminate them off the face of the earth

§  c: actually, aaron and I are just gonna roll with it

§  t: wait. youre actually gonna date?

§  c: NO no no no we’re gonna fake date. scam the fuck outta the school also it’s a bit too awkward to go back on it now for me so

§  t: (turns and gives aaron a Look cause she knows this fuckers been pining forever) are YOU on board with this?

§  a: (busies himself with his hw to hide his blush) yeahsurewhynot

§  t: (looks up and shakes her head) this is gonna end badly, calling it now

o   t: math is acephobic. im asexual and its inconveniencing me

·      Saturday! aaron goes over to the hunt household to hang out like he usually does

o   alastair loves him

o   alastair: so when did this happen?

o   call, who is sitting knee-to-knee w aaron on the couch like he always does: when did what happen

o   alastair: (gives him a Look) the watsons came in this morning. Brenda told me the news, im just surprised you didn’t tell me

o   call:…..what news…….

o   alastair: you two are dating, right? which im totally fine with btw, i had a boyfriend back then too, and im really happy for you, youre both mature enough that I don’t have to give the whole speech—

o   call and aaron are looking at each other in Horror

o   call: OKAY THANKS DAD WE’RE GONNA WALK HAVOC NOW BYE (nyooms outta the house with aaron and havoc in tow)

o   out in the park

§  c: so I guess we gotta find out how to sell this whole (gestures between himself and aaron) thing

§  a: (snorts) thing?

§  c: yeah thing. if my hermit dad knows, then we can assume just about everyone in town knows too. which is not the idealest

§  a: why’s that?

§  c: cause then we gotta act all coupley to everyone or else they’ll be like “wait a minute…are they really dating??”

§  a: well, not with everyone. tamara knows

§  c: yeah, that’s one person in a whole townful of people

§  a: we spend the majority of our time with tamara though

§  c:….point. we still gotta sell it to everyone else

§  a: it cant be that hard, just hold hands a little here, drop some compliments there

§  in reality aaron doesn’t wanna do Big Couple Things or else he might literally spontaneously combust. its possible, hes read abt it

§  c: oh come on, no one gonna buy that. we gotta pull out all the stops

§  a: (cursing silently) like?

§  c: hugs. general lack of personal space. kiss on the cheek, maybe. pet names.

§  a: (calming his crazy heart) oh. I see.

§  c: as long as youre alright with it, of course! I don’t wanna do some creeper shit and like accidentally assault you

§  a: nonono I get it im alright with it. (pause) we should uh..have some signal, though

§  c: signal?

§  a: in case one of us goes too far or something. nothing too obvious, but just obvious for us to notice

§  c: hm. ok, how bout asshole?

§  a: (bursts out laughing) asshole????

§  c: (grinning) yeah, asshole. I never call you an asshole, you never call me an asshole. so if you say “youre a bit clingy there, asshole” I know I should back off

§  a: that- that hardly sounds affectionate

§  c: well duh you gotta say it in an affectionate way. like this (sticky sweet voice, batting eyelashes) “asshole”

§  a: (still laughing) okay. asshole it is.

§  theyre both quiet ntil aaron speaks up. “I do have one request”

§  “which is?”

§  “this is gonna sound weird, please don’t ask but…don’t kiss me. not unless I tell you to.”

§  call looks at him like ??? then says “sure, man. nix on smooches. you wish you had a taste of these bad boys, though.”

§  aaron turns away bc hes a blushy boi. “youre making it weird.”

·      Monday rolls in

o   call is in Zombie Mode making himself coffee on his antique expensive coffee machine (the best Christmas gift ever thanks alastair)

o   alastair, making pancakes: shouldn’t you bring an extra to school today?

o   sleepy call, pouring himself a solid triple shot of espresso: whaddya mean

o   alastair: if youre gonna be dating aaron, you gotta treat him right. bring out the big guns, you know

o   call, suddenly wide awake: what????

o   alastair: I will not have that boy deprived of real boyfriend privileges

o   so call leaves his house with two coffee cups

o   he walks over to where he knows aaron is at the time (music room, playing piano)

o   before he heads in he looks inside and just. stares at aaron playing the piano. gay descriptions galore

o   aaron hits a wrong key and swears

o   c: well that’s a big word

o   a: (practically jumps out of his seat, swearing again)

o   c: and that’s an even bigger one

o   a: oh, its you. good morning, call

o   c: morning, snookums

o   a: (smiling tentatively) snookums? is that really the best you can do

o   c: that’s just scratching the surface, and also its Monday morning so im not at my peak. anyway i brought you coffee

o   a: thanks. already “pulling out all the stops” I see

o   c: I plan to be an especially doting boyfriend (glances at the door, sees a few people staring at them) I..gotta get to my locker (kisses his cheek, aaron goes rigid, call whispers at his ear) we got an audience. see you at lunch

o   aaron sits there for a while after call leaves staring at the ceiling and asking himself why

·      lunch in the magisterium high caf

o   jasper: I JUST—I STILL DON’T GET IT

o   aaron, biting calmly at his sandwich: what don’t you get

o   jasper: there are at LEAST a dozen guys in this school ready and willing to go out with you and you go with CALL

o   call, resting his head on Aarons shoulder, much to Aarons chagrin: its ok dude you can just say youre jealous

o   jasper: YEAH A LITTLE. Aarons like…the best catch out here. the golden boyfriend. the guy that would tell your parents “yes sir ill have him back by nine thirty sharp :)”

o   aaron: I wouldn’t say that to alastair

o   call: yeah you would (turning back to jasper) who are these dozen guys? I gotta know whos planning to fight me so I can know their weaknesses beforehand

o   jasper: kai hale, for one

o   aaron: hmm. he is kinda cute

o   call: HEY

o   jasper: definitely cuter than hunt

o   aaron: is there something particularly wrong with call?

o   jasper: OPEN YOUR EYES HES A TRASH MAN

o   call: takes one to know one

o   aaron, shrugging and finishing his sandwich: maybe I like trash men

o   call laughing his ass off, jasper groaning: youre killing me, stewart. youre literally causing my cells to stop functioning

·      study hall w aaron and tamara

o   t: (has been frowning at him for the past 10 mins)

o   a: okay you clearly want to talk about something so out with it

o   t: are you sure about this thing with call?

o   a: what, the dating thing?

o   t: the fake dating thing

o   a: right. its fake. yeah im fine

o   t: we both know that’s a lie, aaron. we don’t lie to each other

o   a: (sardonically) yeah well. ive been lying to him since we were freshmen

o   t: having a crush isn’t lying, per se, but that’s besides the point. im worried about you, man. I don’t want call to hurt you accidentally, and then consequently be hurt himself by not knowing how he hurt you, cause then ILL be hurt by best friend collateral drama

o   a: I get it, tamara

o   t: then I reiterate: are you sure about this?

o   big internal monologue

o   a: yeah. im sure.

·      INSERT SLOW BURN

·      CARNIVAL

o   it’s the fall festival since its October theres pumpkins everywhere and haunted houses and candied apples and hay bales and rides and its lit

o   the iron trio+jasper go always

o   theyre walking around, aaron looking at the decorations, tamara call and jasper arguing abt which haunted house to visit first

o   c: the mansion is the obvious choice just sayin

o   j: but theres a haunted hospital ffs

o   c: ive been in enough hospitals to know for a fact that they are all haunted so that doesn’t excite me as much as a MANSION

o   t: how bout…we happy medium at…the graveyard one

o   a: how bout we don’t go to any of those and just go to the roller coasters instead

o   t: aaron, I love you, but youre a weenie sometimes. you can wait outside if you don’t wanna go

o   a: im not leaving you guys alone! (catches calls eye, glances at jasper, call nods a lil, aaron drapes his arm round calls shoulders) who am I to let my boyfriend into that scary place alone?

o   c: (smiling and rolling his eyes) its not that scary, but I appreciate the offer, sugar

o   aaron? oh yes he is dead

o   j: (GAG) youre going to give me diabetes with all these sweets

o   t: (mischievous smile) I dunno, jasper. ever since they started dating they’ve been acting kinda the same as always

o   aaron Tenses, call raises an eyebrow at him then turns to tamara

o   c: what were you expecting, rajavi? showers of pda everywhere?

o   t: oh come on, if any one of us is going to be That Couple its you two.

o   a: LOOK THERES CARAMEL APPLES OVER THERE (nyoom)

o   turns out the haunted whatevers are not open yet, they open at nightfall, so they head to the roller coasters

o   surprise surprise call hates roller coasters

o   “if I die I want you all to know that you are not written into my will therefore I owe you nothing”

o   hes clinging to aaron the whole ride and aaron is like if theres a god up above…….

o   then they reach the hay bales and jaspers like “im gonna head over to the bumper boats w tamara you guys can wait here or do whatever I guess”

o   “we’re just fine going with you guys??”

o   jasper looks at call weirdly and says “um, no youre not. you lovebirds need some alone time. get your 10 things I hate about you on in these haystacks.”

o   they get redder than the ripest tomatoes

o   t: UHHH HES RIGHT BYE GUYS (N Y O O M)

o   they just stand there awkwardly for a while when call says “wanna head over to the carnival games” “please”

o   they walk over to the game area in a kinda uncomf silence until aaron breaks it

o   “what did jasper mean by 10 things I hate about you?”

o   call stares at him “are you serious right now”

o   aaron looks at him meaningfully

o   “oh my god. oh my god. have you never watched 10 things???”

o   “no?”

o   “oh my god. dude. its just like star wars all over again. we’re watching it, no excuses.”

o   aaron smiles at him “okay. whats it about?”

o   “well if I tell you that ruins the whole goddamn surprise, doesn’t it, pumpkin?”

o   he laughs. “it does, doesn’t it.”

o   they get to the carnival game: the hammer game. the biggest prize is a huge stuffed monkey

o   aaron turns to call grinning and calls like “you do know this game’s rigged right. theres no way you can win.”

o   but of course. aaron wins.

o   call is just gaping at him and whispers “you fucking beefcake you.”

o   aaron says “here’s your prize, boyfriend” and fucking winks

o   is call dying? we don’t know this aint his pov

o   c: it looks like you

o   a: thanks

o   call suddenly looks behind aaron with wide eyes and grabs Aarons hand so Aarons brain goes like WHAT…..

o   “heads up,” call whispers, “group of classmates at eight o clock”

o   AY ILL KEEP WRITING LATER GOTTA ACTUALLY START OR ELSE I NEVER WILL

·      call and tamara have always attended every one of aaron’s soccer games, but for some reason this one felt different

o   theyre cheering frm the side with their banners as always (banners say STEWART FOR SOCCER GOD and LUCKY NUMBER 8 and most recently THAT’S MY BOYFRIEND!!! maybe that last one makes this different)

o   its also rainy as heck the banners had to be laminated this time (do not underestimate being friends w a rich kid)

o   they both in they raincoats while Aarons in full soccer gear in the RAIN rifp

o   but the team is falling behind so theyre like FUK OUR CHEERING ISNT WORKING WHAT WE DO

o   at halftime

§  t: lets get the fuck down there we gotta give him a pep talk

§  c: what r we gonna say

§  t: HELL IF I KNOW LETS JUST DO IT

§  so they head down to where aaron is sitting, drinking from his water bottle

§  c: cant you just tilt your head back and stick your tongue out in this weather

§  t: shut up. aaron we are here to peptalk you. (INSERT PEPTALK IDK HOW TO PEP)

§  exit tamara

§  a: (wince) we’re that bad today, are we

§  c: yeah youre kinda sucking

§  a: well that’s not the supportive boyfriend comment I expected

§  c: doting. I said I was going to be doting, not supportive. and definitely not a liar

§  a: whatever. tamara’s pep talk helped, so I guess ill get my head in the game

§  coach rockmaple blows his whistle for the team huddle. aaron salutes call with two fingers before standing up to go and then call blurts “ice cream. on me. if you win the game, that is.”

§  aaron stares at him and then smiles. “you’re on.”

§  TEAM MAKES A HUGE COMEBACK AND WINS THE GAME!!!

§  everyones celebrating and grinning and cheering and call catches aarons eye and theyre smiling, smiling, smiling, and suddenly call finds himself right in front of aaron and aaron is cupping his face and its raining and it sounds like something out of a movie and his face is so close and aaron’s freckles are covered in droplets and so are his lashes and call never really thought about it but if he leaned in, tilted his head just a bit, they would be kissing, and call could pass it off as having an audience—

§  aaron pulls call’s face towards him and kisses his forehead, leaning his head to call’s ear to say “you owe me an ice cream.”

§  and call’s heart all but leaps from his body, he feels lightheaded, and aaron looks fucking beautiful like this, his eyes alight with triumph and joy and something else

§  he doesn’t think till he gets home that wanting to kiss aaron for real wasn’t part of the plan.

·      they first kiss at a party cause everyones like KISS KISS KISS so call (lightly drunk) cups Aarons cheek and leans in. aaron.exe has crashed is not working holy fuck this is the best thing ever and all those gay ass descriptors. everyone cheers in the bg

o   call is dronk, aaron is driving him home, call is being supper chattery and super flirty (think: drunk Laurent)

o   alastair is sleeping so aaron has to make sure call is quiet when going to his room

o   a: (a lil breathless cause hes basically carrying call) be quiet, your dad is sleeping right there

o   c: (winking with both eyes) what do I get in returnnnnn

o   a: oh my god

o   aaron finally gets him to his bed, drapes him on it and tucks him in, hes about to lean away when call grabs his shirt collar to keep him there

o   “aren’t you gonna give your fake boyfriend a proper goodnight?”

o   AARON.EXE HAS CRASHED HE IS DEAD HE IS GONE GOODBYE

o   “youre drunk. i—we can’t—youre not yourself right now. goodnight.”

o   “mm. alright. you owe me a kiss, though.”

o   aaron huffs. he cant breathe right. and just because its 3 am and hes feeling reckless after kissing him tonight and call’s just about asleep and he probably wont remember this in the morning, he whispers, “sure.”

·      THE BREAK

o   Aarons leaning on his kitchen counter, trying to look casual but ultimately failing. call has a sneaking suspicion as to why hes acting this weird but by god he will not say it. its too embarrassing on its own.

o   “so.” aaron says. “you kissed me last night.”

o   fuck. dammit. “did i?”

o   “yeah, in the middle of the party. everyone was watching.”

o   call spots himself a loophole and hell if he doesn’t take it. “sweet. looks like drunk me was up for a show.”

o   “what do you mean?”

o   “well, it was a full party. this whole thing is build on other people believing we’re together

o   “’sides. it’s all just fake anyway.”

o   aaron stops, his hands fists. “right,” he croaks. “its all fake.”

o   “dude…you okay?”

o   “yeah. yeah im fine.”

o   “don’t lie to me aaron, i can see youre upset. spit it out.”

o   aaron takes a deep breath and quickly says “is it really all fake?”

o   call freezes. his mind replays last week’s game, and the subsequent breakdown he had because he likes aaron. and fuck. fuck. he swore he was being quiet about it.

o   “yeah,” he says after a while, forcing the words out. “it was always fake, that’s the idea.”

o   “lately, it hasn’t felt fake.”

o   call’s stomach drops. “if you ever needed to stop you could’ve just said—“

o   Aarons eyes are closed. “last night didn’t feel fake.”

o   because it wasn’t, because im a shitty human who fell for you and since I did this has all been horrible self indulgence, because I like you and you don’t like me.

o   “well it was, so I don’t know why youre making such a big deal out of it.”

o   call hates the things that come out of his mouth.

o   something in aaron seems to catch fire, his eyes fly open and he’s angry, call has barely ever seen him angry at him. “it’s a big deal for me, you kissed me”

o   “I didn’t—I didn’t mean to!”

o   “then if you didn’t mean to, why did you!”

o   calls head is spinning, he doesn’t know what hes doing at this point. “I was drunk, aaron, people fuck up when theyre drunk”

o   “I told you not to kiss me, but you went and did it anyway, do you have any idea how that felt—“

o   “I don’t, aaron, because I don’t feel the things you feel!”

o   aaron freezes completely, his eyes wide

o   “right. I forgot. sorry. right.”

o   theyre quiet, and call knows he fucked up. he doesn’t know exactly how, but he knows.

o   “I…I gotta go. bye.”

o   aaron slams the door behind him, call hears the car door slam and aaron driving away before he manages to whisper “wait”

o   but its too late. hes alone.

o   well, not alone. havoc noses his waist and looks up at him with huge, worried eyes.

o   “come on, boy. lets go for a walk.”

o   he ends up at the park—the same park he first discussed the thing with aaron. he sits down under a tree and rests his head on his knees, havoc cuddling up to him.

o   he kind of drifts off, loses track of time. his mind is kinda blank right now. he knows that’s probably a shitty coping mechanism but what the fuck can you do.

o   he doesn’t want to do anything right now. he doesn’t want to deal with anything or anyone right now.

o   he doesn’t want to feel anything, because feeling is what got him into this mess in the first place.

o   he’s so wrapped up in his personal void that he doesn’t hear the footsteps behind him until he hears jasper say “you look miserable.”

o   call doesn’t look up. “fuck off, jasper.”

o   he does not fuck off. instead call hears leaves crunching  as jasper sits down next to him.

o   “he’s at tamara’s. been there for the past hour.”

o   “didn’t ask.”

o   “but you wanted to know.” calls quiet at this.

[edelwary]

when you were first getting into art, what and how did you draw? (like did you just doodle ur masterpieces on pieces of paper and posted-notes or did you have a proper sketchbook) how did you find motivation? bc ive been trying to draw but I always get unmotivated and stop while still wanting to get better just by doing nothing.

REALLY LONG, LOTS OF ADVICES FOR ARTISTS : 

TL;DR ; skip to the HOW TO ACTUALLY FUCKING DRAW part bc i have a megaton of shit to say lol + The MOTIVATION part 

mmh… I’ll get into details with this one tbh bc it’s a long ass process ahah : 

I live by the sea ; when i was youung i used to draw TONS of boat, but like, dollhouse boats, you could see the insides and stuff ; i loved to add tiny details and stuff, and imbricate everything together !

around 8 or 9 yo, i went to the public library with school and discovered the wonderful world of mangas ! I basically… Copy pasted an entire Mermaid Melody tome x) 

For about 2 years i alternated between reading mangas and trying to copy them ! Then i just kept drawing in the margins of my schoolwork for about… 5 years ! I have a Fuck Ton of sketchbooks of that time, it was… The start. Lol. Never say it’s bad because it’s never bad, just not there yet !!

Around my 13 yo, i went every saturday, for two years, under a bookstore ; there was a cave, and drawing classes ; that teacher was mean and harsh and stuff, but like… Not really. He would take away my eraser for the class, force me to use pencil, to draw something else (bulky boys instead of magical girls). 

I’ve learned a lot, more in terms of How To LEARN to draw than to draw itself, but i still progressed a LOT !! 

Then i kept drawing by myself for a year and i really worked hard on it ; about hours a day, trying watercolors and stuff ; i have a real problem with colors in traditionnal art, but i’m much better with lines (i should scan some RAD stuff i made in the weekend, yall ive never done anything this good i stg i dont know why i always forget im so much better on paper) 

This gets us to my sweet 16 ; i have to year of advance, bc i got ‘’’promoted’’’ idk how to say it ; anyways, i entered my (current) animation school for the first year at 16; vERY IMPRESSIVE AND TERRIFYING. 

And i learned. A fuckmegaton. Of shit there. 

Now i’m going for my third year there and i can make photorealistic marmora blades and cyberkpunk decors if i want to and that’s rad, but here is

 HOW TO ACTUALLY FUCKING DRAW : 

I have one HYPER important advice, and i’m keeping it to heart since i’m like, 11 : Have. Sketchbooks. Please !!! It’s very important. Here’s why : 

You keep everything with you in one place. You have 1 sketchbook, it’s basically easy to take every where (a A5, or A4 are pretty easy to carry, i have like, 12 of those, and around 8 of A3) 

You keep track of what you’ve done. It’s super important, bc first you can cry of laughter at your old stuff bc its cute but not so good, and second, you can just be like ‘holy mama’ and see how much you’ve improved

It’s very important to be organized. I WORK in art, and trust me, if there’s something that i’ve learned this year through tears and missing files and bugs : Be. Impeccable. Now if it’s for fun, go a little loose, and just have a folder for art on your computer, and a sketchbook, no need to stress, but the better you try to keep a record of where is what, the better you’ll see whats wrong

Notebooks are friends !! You can draw, write, glue stuff, make notes, lists, everything !!! I have my life in those. It’s more important to me than any of my phones. 

Be proud of it. Like, not everything, duh ! But try to tell yourself than it’s like a RPG ; even if it’s only 2 xp here and there, one day you’ll beat level 40, and that’s super important : art is. Fuckin. Long.

I cant stress it enough. It’s soooo long !!! SO LONG !! it’s years. It’s like karate and fishing and ANYTHING. To be good at it, it takes time, but it WILL COME if you keep trying. There’s no secret passage. 

You’re gonna me it, believe in me who believes in you. 

Use. References. 

Coming from a little shit who’s got a really good visual memory, that can sound like bs, but i stg everything is always AT LEAST twice as good if you’ve used a visual support. 

I’m not saying COPY EVRYTHING (even though thats a good training) I’m saying, if you really want to do that asian tiger, please have at least two or three pictures of it nearby. Take photos of your hands, and stuff ! 

Make it harder. 

No eraser. 

Paint. 

I draw all my backgrounds on my sketchbook with INDIAN INK; no returns, no refunds. 

Ink, Ink, INK !! Don’t allow mistakes.

And if you make mistakes :

New page, restart

It’s okay

It’s for you

I once started back again a whole EXAM bc it was bad, i got one of my best grades 

You’ll improve and be more assured if you know you just have to DO IT. Trust me. It’s VISIBLE; if you can erase, you fidget and hesitate and ‘’kbeujebez hahhaaa idkkidsd’’ ; stop ; do it, and if you don’t like it ? Try again, there’s no time limit

Draw as large as you can 

There’s no interesting story here, it just helps. Bigger movement of the hand, more place for details, breathing lines

Thin lineart helps

Thinner. Make it even thinner

Break the rules, but not the ones that structure your art 

Big lineart ? Why not

Unfinished lines, vaporeous colors ? Pretty

Cubism is actually based on extensive and intense practice of classical art, it’s not wibbly wooblly ; the anatomy is more correct than you think 

Structure and composition are important, but so is movement and life ; choose your fighter ; mine is fluidity and fun, i’m like, a rogue/archer in drawing. Some people are dwarf fighter. That’s amazing and great. 

Don’t be afraid to do nothing

Pages and pages of my sketchbooks are actually just lance facing right and smiling, you know… 

Sometimes it just doesnt work : two ways :

Take a break, Kiki’s delivery service style

Keep trying, break your art until it obeys and comes back

Take breaks. Breath. 

Don’t compare. I do it, it doesn’t help at all. You’ll make it ; and if you compare, keep in mind that everyone’s different

I’m not gonna lie, it’s NOT easy, it’s even hard 

But I really, really think it’s worth it 

MOTIVATION :

My main bitch 

I’m always pumped for art because i can LITTERALLY NOT do anything else ; i love reading and writing and stuff but at the end of the day i just want !!! to draw !!!! aaaaaa-

Fall in love with it, and with the possibilities ; i have stories to tell, tell me yours ! Do your best, one day it WILL work

Actual advices : 

I have an inspiration blog where i just reblogs stuff i like to draw them later

Find a picture, copy it. Do it again. Change the characters (i have 2 ocs and Lance and Keith as default characters) in the pic. 

Like an artstyle ? Break it to its very core, analyse it, copy it, redo it, trace it and ABSORB it. Don’t copy/past, LEARN from your heroes.

Do what you like. I have 86578 pieces of voltron, this is not a coincidence. I have ENDLESS ideas for this show, wtf. 

Try new things. Buy indian ink im begging you. It’s so cool. 

Have a game with yourself, or a challenge. STICK TO IT. 

Study. When you’re bored, usually it’s because you’re stagnating. Make it harder or do hands until you cry. 

Love your backgrounds; make backgrounds, study trees, and tokyo streets, and venice’s bridges. Decor is just as cool as characters, if not more

Mess a little with everything. My roomate more than one found me stained from head to toes trying to DO STUFF 

Draw outfits. Draw what you want but can’t afford 

MAKE YOUR LIFE A COMIC. Remember those sketchbooks ? Make a comic a week/month/every full moon, whatever, and draw your life (mine’s the roomates au lol) 

Prompts blogs are cool too 

Make fanart of a fic you liked ; you have the characters and the pose already, you just have to illustrate ; double bonus, you probably will make a writer’s day, if not year !

That little movie that plays when you listen to your favorite song ? DRAW IT

Your favorite scene in your favorite movie ? Redraw each shot. On post it. Plus it looks awesome afterwards to have the infamous TREX scene of Jurassic Parks in post it

Get bored. That’s inevitable. Dance, scream, get back to it. Walk, draw everything you see. 

Make a paper google map street view : Take a walk : every 50 meters, draw what is in front of you. 

Snapchats your friends. Draw their snapchats when they answer 

Draw maps. Invent places. Invent bikes, and hovercrafts, and monsters. Make your everyday inventory. Make your life a video game, and do the concept arts of it. 

FETCH your inspiration. I have approx. 20 artbooks, full of drawings and concept arts of my fave movies/games ; take what you like and add it to the story you have since you’re 8. We all have one. 

Ask for it ; your sis, your mom, me even ! If you dont have ideas, someone will have them. 

WELL i’m gonna stop there, even though i got like, 9864567 more to say, but with this you should be fine ! Anon, i’m rooting for you ! we all start somewhere, just hold on!!!! 

[saskiavalentineapologist]

Can you tell me more about Jubilee and DeLune? Jubilee is your character, right? They both sound like great characters!

ANON YOU JUST SAVED MY LIFE

hooo ok. ok so. ok so listen. listen.

we gotta get something out of the way realquick: whenever i talk about DeLune and Jubilee–or really just DeLune–i getso incoherent and flail-y i just. i love DeLune so much, she’s been in mythoughts every day for the past month+ no lie

ok so. @fatalcookies​ createdDeLune as an npc for a campaign she’s going to run, in which I’m going to be aplayer, playing as Jubilee Waters, the gayest tiefling you’ll ever meet (as ofyet, there has not been a single game. I’m obsessing over a character i haventplayed as and her girlfriend. i know. I’m ridiculous)

..let’s introduce Jubilee, then DeLune, theni’ll talk a little about their relationship and maaaaybe go into the au’s I’vecooked up for them. that sounds good, yeah let’s do that

Jubilee Waters. she’s from a small mountaincommunity where tieflings are more accepted than in other places. This mountaincommunity is also known for its arts

Jubilee was abandoned on the church ofPelor’s doorstep at birth, and was taken in by one of the people whoworked in the church, a laborer/cook/whatever they needed her to be named MariaWaters.

Jubilee grew up healthy and strong, and wasquick to pick up the ways of both a cleric and an artist; shaping her own hornsinto works of art and also taking up painting as a hobby, all while training tobe a holy warrior who fought in the name of Pelor, god of the sun. She excelledat the healing arts, and it was only because of her desire to help peopleoutweighing her need for glory that she went down the cleric path instead ofthe paladin path. (that and i reallllly wanted to play a cleric, because ihavent yet)

except her mom didn’t want her to go out andadventure, because it was too dangerous. That was a point of contention for along time between them. Jubilee wanted to go out and help people, and hermother wanted her home and safe.

Eventually, Jubilee’s mother passed. Jubileestayed, mourned, and before too long had passed, she was out on the road,heading to destinations unknown in a quest with a single goal: help peoplewherever help is needed. 

Eventually, she meets the group she’ll betraveling with in-game, and she goes on her merry way, eventually meetingDeLune

(I’ve been informed that DeLune probably won’tshow up until about halfway through the campaign, which on one hand makes me :(but on the other hand has built up the Hype of meeting her so much that i thinkwhen Jennie says “and in walks a half elven businesswoman” or somethingalong those lines I’m literally going to burst into tears of joy)

DeLune Candor…im trying to decide how much ican talk about.

you know what? i don’t think any of the otherplayers follow me, so the chances of them seeing this post are slim to none.I’m going in guns a’ blazin’

Her full name, I’ve found out, is Claire DeLuneCandor (which “Claire DeLune” means moonlight so they’ve already got thisgreat sun and moon dynamic going on which makes me Weak)

DeLune Candor is a ~55 year old (or theequivalent in half-elven terms) inventor turned businesswoman who is currentlythe head of a large family business that specializes in trading. The businessis booming, and it’s exclusively due to DeLune being at the head of thebusiness. She tries her best to run an ethical business, she’s a pointy-earedcapitalist, and i love her with my whole heart oh my god

She’s a workaholic, she is Fancy to the extremeand has quite the refined taste. She doesn’t like mincing words, she’svery direct and to the point, and she’s…i was going to say she’s perfectbut she’s not, she has flaws, but she’s so My Type that it hurts me and as suchi tend to gloss over her flaws.  I love her with my entire heart, flawsand all tho?? I say i would die for a lot of characters but i would live forDeLune.

OH HOW COULD I FORGET!!!!the song that inspired this character is this song and the woman singing? Shirley Bassey?? is the voice andface claim for DeLune so you Know I’m all about this song, i’ve probablylistened to it a hundred times. i love that song

DeLune…..DeLune actually has a daughter namedCeleste who is around Jubilee’s age which makes things sorta awkward sometimesbut shh shh its perfectly fine shh it can be funny sometimes, ill get into that in a minute

she’s a huge lover of the arts and thesciences, having been an inventor at one point. the love of the arts manifestsitself in her giving patronage to many different artists and commissioningworks and stuff like that Its Good

hrrmm what else is there about DeLune that ican rant about. god i just. ok i just love her. i love her so much?? and shehurts me sometimes for reasons I’m not sure i can disclose at this point. to besafe I’m not going to go too much into it but…she gave up a lot for thefamily business. and i just want her to be happy and relaxed and without toomuch stress

Their relationship…hoogh

ok so they meet, right. and DeLune isimmediately interested in Jubilee’s horns, because they’re works of art andshe’s intrigued with how they came to be. And when Jubilee tells her that she’sbeen working on her horns since she was ten, and that they still require upkeepand management….DeLune has this “holy shit” moment. bc?? here let mefind a direct quote:

“–these are the work of a literallifetime and peoples’ /lives/ are the work of a lifetime and they can’tmaintain as much focus as this 90% of the time.”

so yes, DeLune takes notice in Jubilee becauseof her horns. And Jubilee like. she saw DeLune and she just got this momentof “holy moly I’m so gay” so like?? They both were somewhat interestedfrom the start, and it just evolved from there.

i imagine Jubilee tried to beat around the bushand be subtle about trying to get DeLune to date her but DeLune saw rightthrough it and was just like “…do you want to date me? is that whatyou’re getting at?” and jubilee was like “yes. yes yes yes please godyes"

and so?? they date??

and things go well!! they click reallynaturally and they enjoy each other’s company. They go to a variety offancy places and Jubilee is terrified each time because she doesn’t want to sayor do the wrong thing and end up embarrassing DeLune, but DeLune teaches herthe basics of fancy etiquette and that puts her at ease

…jennie and i have had a conversation abouthow DeLune just completely roasts someone who dared to make a comment aboutJubilee being a tiefling and honestly i saved that whole conversation and iread it when i get sad bc DeLune utterly destroying someone is just So Good

They have their arguments and theirdisagreements because Something (I don’t know what it is) happens around thesame time they meet each other that puts DeLune on edge and so there’sdefinitely conflict regarding this thing. I don’t know what it is but I know inmy soul that its going to hurt me whenever i find out

Hrmmm what else is there. I mean. they fuck. alot. like a lot a lot. god i love them. i just. god i love them.

and this is a thing that makes Celeste and Jubilee’s relationship kind of tense like?? Celeste doesn’t blame Jubilee for getting involved with DeLune, but she DOES blame DeLune for getting involved with Jubilee. and so

ok we’ve had this scene thought out where Celeste comes into the kitchen one morning to see Jubilee dressed in just a silk robe, hair a mess and out of it’s usual braid, leaning against the counter and drinking coffee. and they make eye contact and then that’s how Celeste gets confirmation that yes, her friend is banging her mom and I’m just over here like god fucking bless. 

honestly I’ve saved that conversation too and it makes me giggle because Jubilee just. she sees celeste and she’s like “hi!! good morning!! do you want some coffee??” and celeste is just. no nonsense like. “Jubilee. were you sleeping with someone tonight?” and jubilee makes this face and it cracks me up every time. 

and jubilee just makes the smallest “yeah” ever and celeste just. “and it was my mother, wasn’t it.” not even a question. she knows. but jubilee answers anyway, with another tiny “…yeah.” and then she just “please don’t be cross with her”

and then celeste breaks out the whiskey despite it being like. you know. breakfast. and god i love this family theyre so dysfunctional but god i love them

what else is there. they may or may not go to a small house in the countryside after everything is said and done, somewhere DeLune can make things and somewhere Jubilee can have a quiet life again. just the two of them, after DeLune gives up the reigns on the family business and god i love them. if there’s anything about them that has almost made me cry it’s this idea of them living a quiet life together, somewhere with a small workshop for DeLune and space for Jubilee and her god.

like. jennie killed me with this line:

a small little workshop, pen and paper, and a lover in her bed

…beautiful things they made together

artisan rugs are left back at a different home that she visits,sometimes, when she needs to–and besides it’s not half so beautiful as thesmile on Jubilee’s face when DeLune hand-feeds her a grape and catches atrickle of juice from the corner of her mouth with her thumb

AND OH!!!! THE PAINTING!!!!

ok so you know how jubilee paints?? she did a portrait of DeLune that she purposely left unfinished to represent that all things are a work in progress and GOD can you tell how much i love them yet they’re so good

but god, all i want is for them to be happy together. that’s all i want. i love them so much it hurts me

ok let’s get into those AUs

ok so. the aus. i made a list here of those aus but on one of them we’ve gotten real deep man

ok so. we havent gotten too deep into vampire/vampire hunter au but?? there’s some choice symbolism

i initially thought of DeLune as the vampire and Jubilee as theperson sent to kill her but they fall in love and run away together. the symbolism would be pretty choice here, DeLune representing the night (as her name means moonlight) and Jubilee with her divine connection to the sun, right

but I’vethought about it some more and the other way is also pretty choice like.

Jubilee as a prominent religious figure who had a fall from grace when shewas turned into a vampire. she fled, disgraced and outcast by the religion she had known for her whole life. and DeLune is theperson sent to hunt her down because in this au she’s probably like a goodwizard or something who knows. and so she finds this vampire and DeLune isgoing to bring her back alive, but they fall in love and run away together. but the SYMBOLISM

….Jubilee’s still a cleric of pelor, right. but now the sun burnsher and she can’t find solace in her god. but you know what light doesn’t hurt vampires?

MOONLIGHT

DeLune, symbolically the moon, giving her light and hope in a way thatdoesn’t hurt her. god i love the symbolism with these two its Good

and. then. the au we got deep in right.

crime boss au

an au where Jubilee is the new cop investigating this mob family, and falls in love with DeLune in the process.

one problem.

DeLune, unbeknownst to Jubilee, is the mob boss. she’s the leader of this crime family. she’s the head of the syndicate, and she knows that Jubilee is investigating her.

She, to her credit, tries to dissuade jubilee, tries to turn her away from her path because she knows that whatever happens, the outcome will hurt her. but Jubilee is bound and determined to make a difference, and she doesn’t heed DeLune’s advice

and Celeste shows up?? and she wants to tear this business apart to get her mom out, and her and jubilee team up because even tho jubilee doesn’t know that DeLune is the head of the mob or that Celeste is DeLune’s daughter, they have similar goals

and how does celeste find her, you ask? well. Jubilee lives in kind of a rough neighborhood, and has had her fair share of shitty things thrown at her, right. after Jubilee and DeLune started dating, all that stops.

so celeste tracks where things aren’t happening to determine where her mother has influence, and finds out that this cop is a link.

and then one day they’re working on something and Jubilee just like. stands up and starts getting ready and she’s apologizing and saying she’s late, and Celeste is like “?? late to what??” and Jubilee replies “I have a date with my girlfriend DeLune”

…and that’s how Celeste finds out just how Jubilee is linked to her mother. and god its so good bc she’s just. shocked. like. no. no this. what. 

and so eventually, in this au, Jubilee goes into somewhere undercover to try and find out more about the mob, and gets caught. she’s cornered, on the ground, surrounded by people with guns, and then there’s the clicking of heels on linoleum and there’s DeLune. and all these people who were being threatening just stop

and DeLune kind of helps her up, dusts her off, and leads her out, all in silence, with only a biting retort to one of the henchmen who protests about Jubilee knowing too much. 

and then. hoo this kills me. when theyre out of there and in the car, DeLune just says kind of quietly “Idid ask you not to dig too deep, darling.”

hooo boy that hurts me

so then DeLune takes jubilee back to her house and celeste is there so there’s a mother daughter reunion, and they go inside and jubilee almost just completely fucking loses it and she’s like “you know? if you were just a part of the syndicate i think i could’vedealt with that. but the boss?!” and then she gets real quiet for a moment and just. “how much of it was real? how much of it was you trying toget another cop in your pocket?“

and so celeste just nopes out of there and DeLune and jubilee have a long conversation where Jubilee is passive aggressive and petty to the extreme. 

like DeLune basically tells her it’s easier to deal with when Jubilee’s angry in response to Jubilee losing some of her anger and getting kind of soft over the course of the conversation. so Jubilee’s like. “she wants me to be angry? fine. i can do that”

so she kicks her out of her house

and then soon after that she goes and she takes all of her things out of DeLune’s house. and DeLune has this heartbreaking line of “If you wish very much to be so utterly removedfrom me, only say the word. I will make certain you never see me again.”

and jubilee doesn’t respond. she just leaves. because she knows in her heart she wants to mend things, but at the moment she needs to process everything that’s happening. she isn’t processing it well bc she doesn’t deal with negative emotions well but she’s trying bless her

and so Celeste and DeLune and Jubilee tear down this mafia right, and then. god i love them. so DeLune and Jubilee agree to give it another shot after another long conversation, and that they’ll meet for lunch sometime and see where it goes

and. like in canon DeLune and Celeste’s relationship is strained at best, and so this au reflects that. but in this au i get confirmation that they definitely 100% make up and that gives me Life

so yes, that’s DeLune and Jubilee. god i love them. thank you so much for asking about them, you have no idea how hard i was laughing when i got this message bc i was like “I ACTUALLY TRICKED SOMEONE INTO CARING ABOUT THESE TWO OH MY GOD” and honestly? writing this up was a delight, thank you again for asking this anon!!!

[everythingmustgo]

Could you describe me; Pisces sun/mercury, capricorn moon, cancer rising/mars, aries venus! Def never felt /behaved like a capricorn moon except in high school, maybe u could tell me why hhahah??

okay so pisces r literally my favs I love them !!! ur super emotional and empathetic and u feel v connected to the world in a way thats quite deep and spiritual. full of understanding for just abt everything, able to empathise unconditionally. often leaves u in a state of distress tho bc u can b a bit of a pessimist, focusing on the things wrong and feeling as if u hav a responsibility to change it. pisces want to help people, bc they hav such high empathy they feel other peoples emotions as strongly as their own and are incredible listeners. u will always feel safe w a pisces, and they will always help u sort thru ur problems. bc its ur mercury too its likely u feel mentally connected and that clear headedness is a strong part of ur personality, ur thought process follows the same structure as ur core personality bc theyre both pisces. u straight up KNO, if there was ever a mind reader its a pisces sun/mercury. ur ideas r out there nd progressive nd sometimes people think theyre weird nd dont understand but theyre usually great. not problem solvers, so theyll help u figure out how to deal w things emotionally rather than find u a practical solution for u, but bc its ur mercury ur ideas and advice are going to b v much inspired and from the heart and in tune w what the other person needs bc they always kno EXACTLY what that is. HOWEVER bc ur a cap moon this may actually not b tru! caps r Very much practical solutioners, so if ur in a situation where ur emotions come into play ur instinct is to fix it immediately, figure out how to deal in a rational, pragmatic way. pros nd cons kinda guys, tries to figure out the best solution for everyone so good mediators in arguments. faces up to their feelings, not ones to hide things. they hav a problem, they address it, someone else has a problem, they address that too. cant stand unfinished business. its a tricky one bc pisces r sooo emotional and rely so much on intuition but caps r more on judgement and outward perception of the situation than inner instinct and strong gut feelings. so to me this would suggest that the more strongly u feel abt a situation, the more inclined u are to act on it and the more compelled u feel to rly do smth in the practical sense nd fix the problem rather than b a bystander who simply offers emotional support. there could b a lot of reasons u dont relate too much to ur cap moon! it could b that ur closed off from ur emotional side which would be p hard on a pisces I gotta say, if ur emotionally disconnected its likely ur feeling completely lost nd alone nd probs v confused. i kno w me at least I didnt relate to my sun sign for years and I think thats bc of 2 things, one being that ive never had a strong sense of self even as a kid I was v disconnected so I more recognised my moon sign as personality and two being that this is actually quite common in young people, even if u develop a sense of identity at a young age, this develops over time nd ofc ur not gonna stay the same ur whole life! ur moon sign represents qualities u are born w while ur sun sign represents qualities u will grow into. i always felt v strongly a pisces nd never a leo but as ive got older ive recognised far more leo qualities in myself and I love it! I kno this mayb isnt relevant to u but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway. u might simply just not find urself in that many situations where ur emotionally stimulated enough for ur moon sign to affect u. if ur in a part of ur life where ur emotionally flatlining theres not gonna b any reason for ur moon sign to come into play. u might hav related more in high school bc high school is quite an emotional time, ur a teenager ur full of hormones ur havin a crazy emotional ride its v likely ur moon sign affected u a lot during these years. lastly, check ur dominant sign !!! I kno im saying this in like every ask but srsly u can learn a lot from it, it can affect u in every aspect of ur life esp where ur other signs r less prominent so check ur dominant, if ur moon is a weaker part of ur natal chart ur dominant may b shouldering most of the work. cancer mars nd rising means that the way u show urself to others and the way u take action in situations r v closely related, people see u for ur mars which is ur ambition nd determination, and how u go abt achieving ur goals. again this is watery so u always listen to ur emotions and ur intuition, u hav a lot of passion for what u want and when u care abt smth u go after it w ur whole heart. people see u as driven in a v pure and passionate way, going after what u want in the world. however if this goes wrong for u, its not easy for a cancer mars to recover from this. if u try ur best nd the world lets u down, u take it v personally, ur hurt and bitter and it takes a lot to get u to try again. I become jealous of others success bc u feel u deserve it just as much, if not more. cancers mars will shoot u the fuck down if they feel they hav to. if they get the choice between u or them, they save themselves every time. cancers r sweet nd caring nd hopeful but they can also b ruthless. its likely this attitude of urs causes u a lot of distress seeing as ur pisces moon means u can empathise strongly w the people u pick urself over, and will feel guilt that u didnt support them. people also see u as someone who is caring but self centered as this is how u show urself, but u might feel uneasy that this is how ur seen. ur recognised as emotional and relaxed abt this, but its ur emotional nature that means u need a lot of self attention. cancers feel things strongly as do pisces and its likely when ur passionate abt smth, u dont hav room to feel other peoples feelings abt it, or at least no room to address them. when ur upset nd someone else is upset, u hav to tend to ur own needs before anyone else. im gonna quickly cover ya venus before finishing lol okay so when it comes to love nd feelings for other people ur a lot bolder than in other areas of ur life. if u like someone, they kno it! u go after them and express ur strong feelings. u hav high standards for friends nd partners, but also always need to b the Leader of the two, ur by far the dominant one in the relationship. if ur w another fire sign, esp another aries, there may b conflict! it both gonna want to b the dominant one. ur spontaneous nd express urself w sweeping acts of romance or friendship. aries r all out or nothing kinda people. u also require constant change and challenges meaning u might have a lot of change in ur relationships, u move on from people easily if the relationship becomes too comfortable, u need friends and partners who challenge u and u can hav adventures w, or ur gonna end up w a string of people u had fun w before getting restless nd moving on. hope this helped!

//no more til ive finished the ones in my inbox pls//

[july-19th-club]

Century 12

aka, My Very New Very Unfinished Immortal People Short Story, bc some of you asked for it and let’s be honest, I wanted to share it anyway

read ON

One of us has died.

          The strangest part about it is that the dead woman—she was a woman, from Argentina, short and stout and always wore her hair in a thick bun and sold handknit products online—was one of our youngest. Only on Century 3, she’d been doing well. That we knew of. She kept in touch, had been saying on the forum that she was going to bring treats to the meet, something homemade. And then three weeks before, when most of us were planning or packing or already en route, we all got notices on our group messages—she was dead.

         Suicide, of course. It’s all my seat partner on the plane talks about on our way over. He’s a long-legged guy from New York—long enough for it to give him an accent, anyway. He’s businesslike and well-dressed, but looks cramped and crumpled in the airplane seating. He’s doing good right now, he says. He’s in a stable relationship; they just adopted a new cat. He shows me pictures—a young, impossibly handsome blue-eyed man proudly holding up a disgruntled orange tabby. 

          “Found him in an alley. His name’s Mewcutio,” says my seat partner—and then he cracks a grin. “The cat, not my boyfriend,” he amends.

          “It’s so good right now,” he adds, looking at me earnestly. But I don’t know whether he’s trying to convince himself or what. Relationships—I gave up on those a long time ago. And this guy looks like maybe he did too, for a while. His face, when he talks about his blue-eyed boy, is a mixture of adoration and mourning.

          It’s not hard to guess why.

At the meet, we don’t sit down and break out a session immediately. That’s what local groups and semilocals are for. The coping, the therapy. This is a celebration for us—the precious few, to gather every ten years and remind each other that we’re still here, that we can and will and must by nature endure. For some of us it’s the thing that saves us. For others, it’s a reminder of how unsavable we really are.

          Upon arrival, we split up in the entrance to the hotel—we’ve booked over half of it for the occasion, as we do every ten years in a different venue in a different country—and we look for old friends. My seat partner and I walk in opposite directions, and in my head I wish him a good fifty-sixty-seventy with his blue-eyes. It’s the best they’re gonna get. I watch him jog down the steps and I take the elevator upstairs. Julie and Kim Mbege are already in the room they’re sharing. They’re sisters, which is rare. It’s not like anyone picks this—it just…happens. Family members who both get it are as rare as…well, as rare as the Argentinian doing what she did. As awful as it is, who we are, what we have to look forward to—it’s rare that we let go of it.

          Except…as the Mbege sisters and I sit on the made-up beds and chat and drink ice water from the minifridge, we can all taste it. The atmosphere has changed this meet. What normally feels like a giant, strange, supportive family reunion has taken on the tone of a tense political summit. Whispers are everywhere. Julie and Kim tell me that on their flight over—from Johannesburg; I can’t imagine the layovers—they were joined by the groups from Lesotho and Botswana. It’s all anyone talked about there, too. When we head downstairs we’re interrupted by Brazil and Chile, which is uncomfortable mostly because the Argentinian was apparently the only one of us from her country. That meant that these people were her semilocals; they actually knew her. In the crush of gossip and discussion, they’re subdued. They don’t know how she did it, they say, and they don’t want to know. It must have taken an enormous effort. They don’t think she left a note of explanation, or if something in particular in her recent life drove her to it.

          I tell them about my new pal from the flight over. “He’s dating,” I say. I suddenly feel worried for a near stranger. “But his partner, he’s not one of us. He says he’s so happy. Do you think that’s what happened to the Argentinian? She got too happy?”

          Getting too happy is a real concern for us. It leads to all sorts of shitty things, like engaging in relationships that are headed for the cliff edge. I haven’t dated seriously since…has to be…who was on the throne then? George II? I want to say it was. I was in Scotland, then. After that time I swore off closeness to people who weren’t us, very deliberately. We discussed it in my local group. And I realized that the only way to survive—the only way to not pull an Argentinian—was to swear off things that brought me to that place of sharp darkness, the pit you can’t claw out of. I spent a long time in that place. I know how bad it is to be there and have no discernible way out. I know how to avoid it, how it’s the worst feeling in the world, as easy to enter and hard to leave as quicksand, which I was once ensnared in and which is the only natural, physical thing that has ever really made me scared for my life.

          So now I avoid it, and I spend most of my time with others of us or with people who won’t worry if I don’t stick around. I’ve gotten close a few times to missing them after I’ve gone—but that’s how it works. It’ll always be like that. And I’m lucky in that I have a fairly big local and semilocal, and that I have friends out elsewhere in the world. We keep each other together. We call each other at four in the morning when we’re having a bad one, and somehow, we make it work. Even if we’re missing something all the time—faith, like Julie’s friend Clark—love, like…well, me—a sense of reality, like my new buddy on the plane—we find ways to fill that gap, for long enough that we can survive it.

          That’s what it’s really about.

Julie and Kim and I take on the bar downstairs dressed up, and we mingle with the non-meet guests at the hotel. They look breakable to me, always have. There’s a—speed—to them. Like hummingbirds or the clear, slender bugs you can find skating on the surface of a pond. Across the room, there’s a lot of whooping and hollering and synthesizer, someone’s trying to start a party—Kim points, and we all stop and stare, right in the middle of a tourist gang also staring. 

         “I think it’s The Stuntman,” Kim says.

          I’ve never met The Stuntman in person, but I know him by sight. He’s somewhat famous, not just among us but in the rest of the world too. He’s not much to look at—a tall, scrawny Irish teenager with wild hair and a frail figure—but when you get a close-up, you see big mournful eyes and delicate facial structure, boyish and brittle, like an early Bob Dylan. He’s really quite attractive then, mostly because he looks so mortal.

          That couldn’t be further from the truth. The Stuntman is one of our newest, and everybody knows who he is by reputation. His personality is said to be infections—filled with manic, hyperactive energy. He’s vulgar, unflappable, loud, YOUTHFUL, arrogant. It’s understandable. The first ten or twenty years are always like that. You’re drunk on the future because you don’t yet fully grasp exactly how heavy that future will settle on your bones. But The Stuntman has another gift that contributes to his particular reckless abandon—not only can he not age, he cannot die period. It’s a rarity so extreme that some people refuse to believe it’s actually possible. Some people even say that Jesus himself had that ability—regenerative immortality. Of course, since nobody’s seen Him for two thousand years and only a handful of us are old enough to have lived parallel to Him, it’s likely that the Jesus thing is faker than The Stuntman.

          The Stuntman is nothing if not visible. He blared onto the sensation-TV scene eight and a half years ago, hailing from a tiny factory town and quickly rising in international notice. Now he’s got this show, Live to Die, in which he tests rumored ‘killer acts’ and then, if it turns out they’re actually fatal, resurrecting himself over and over and over and over again. He doesn’t seem to care if most of his viewers think it’s an elaborate magician’s act. He knows that some of us see everything he does.

          The rumors are that he’ll probably stage something this week. It’s his first international meet, and he won’t be able to resist the attention. And before the Argentinian, we were looking forward to it, everyone talking about how he’d try to top his biggest tricks.

          But this is after the Argentinian. And watching him downing inhuman amounts of booze, the alcohol poisoning negligible when you know for a fact that you’ll wake up eventually, I think that he’s dancing a fine line between performance and something far more dangerous.

          The girls and I make our way through the buffet-style dinner spread, and bring canapes and drinks out to the poolside. I set a little plate of lemon-scented mussels and a glass of champagne in the special holders on my deck chair, and we stick our legs out long and coconut-oily to bask in the evening. Julie tosses us pairs of neon-rimmed sunglasses, and we lounge. The pool gradually empties while guests go back inside for food, then fills up again as they come outside for drunken games of chicken in the water. The smell of chlorine rises up past the bubbly and anchors me down, its sharpness clearing my head.

          There’s another commotion around 8:30, as the sun starts to sink past the bluffs beyond the resort. “He’s here,” somebody says, and Kim waves across the pool to the speaker.

          “Who?”

          “HIM.”

          “Oh,” says Kim, raising her sunglasses onto her forehead, and flips a few stray twists of hair back over her shoulder.

          I don’t need to know what they mean by HIM. Rembrandt – sorry, Mounet – sorry, Reeves – is the rarest of birds. Despite being Century 7-plus, he actively relishes his eternity, not in the brash, destructive way the Stuntman does, but in the way that you’d think we all would. He puts himself in the spotlight – as an artist, usually – never enough to be overwhelmed with celebrity, but enough to be memorable. There are even rumors out there: he’s a vampire, he’s immortal, he’s a time traveler. They’re idle rumors, the kind of thing people create conspiracy photosets of when they’re bored on the internet – but they’re rumors anyway. It’s not about vanity, I think, for him: just proof. I exist in a way that I should not. I have been and am still here.

          The downside, I’d imagine, is that to be visibly immortal, one must be constantly reinventing oneself – not just moving to new locations with slightly new papers, but changing identities entirely, complete with fake deaths and paper trails that aren’t just ruined, but burnt away completely. That’s got to be harder now than ever before, and soon enough, the man will have to come up with a public ending for himself. A plane crash, maybe, or a mysterious accident. In the Victorian times, if one of us got too heard-of and had to disappear, then illnesses used to be popular. Tuberculosis. Cholera. The ever-ubiquitous Brain Fever.

          In the meantime, he’s the closest thing we’ve got to a unanimous leader. Generous, tall, striking, adjacent to universally handsome, friendly to all – the kind of person you’d put your trust into in a crisis, believing that they could, if not fix the situation themselves, at least make you feel better about it until the proper authorities saved the day. As he enters the deck, long-haired, neatly bearded, holding a wine glass, we all turn, consciously and subconsciously. The atmosphere quiets down a little, the desperate fun-having slowing its pace. Tension dissipates. It’s all right, the new mood says, to mourn or be afraid. You don’t have to put on a brave face. The One Who Is Comfortable Enough For All Of Us is here.

Author’s Notes: ayyyyyyy hope you liked it don’t be dicks and repost this shit it’s original content right here