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measuringbliss · 1 year

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Reading through His Dark Materials (Book 2) 1/2 (Chapters 1 to 9)

Let's keep reading vol 2 of His Dark Materials (the books and saga have completely different names in France lmao)

I read the 1st book in a day, during my first year at university, during classes. It was, like, 3-4 years ago. I read a bit of the first chapter of Book 2 back in September but didn't continue. I'm doing this right now.

So Will meets "Lyra", whose Daemon is named "Pantalaimon"... like Book 1 Lyra. But she can't be Lyra, right? OG Lyra? I remember she followed her father back at the end of Book 1, but... Hmm... I didn't remember Lyra being so wild and like, not knowing how to cook. Huh. *grumbles* But she doesn't have the same surname...

...Is she Lyra's evil twin?

(don't answer questions by the way, it's mostly for myself)

...AND SHE HAS THE ALITHIOMETER.

And she thinks about Iorek (aka the cute big bear). I guess she's Lyra. Huh. Hmm.

(I have to say the town description made me think of Lurelin Village in BOTW, I had the music in my head reading those parts)

CH2

Serafina Pekkala is a lesbian. I feel like she is. She's part of the Lobby. *sees mention of big snuggly ferocious polar bears* god i need a bear... Fra Pavel was mentioned in the first book, right? I remember that name. Mrs Coulter says that Lyra was "conceived in sin and born in shame", what does that mean exactly...

Is the thing with the tree branch something that happened before? Doesn't ring a bell. Huh. (Edit: Yep. It's mentioned at the council later in the chapter. Nice.)

Anyway, Mrs Coulter obviously sucks but I always forget how cruel she is. It was a violent scene. Philip Pullman didn't seem to pull many punches, writing these books.

Lord Asriel's butler "knows him better than any woman ever could"... They fucked. Lord Asriel is an god-killing bicon. We stan! We stan so much! He's done nothing wrong ever.

(Serafina Pekkala is definitely not straight)

So Lord Asriel really fucks, huh? Mrs Coulter, Ruta Skadi, Thorold... Okay, so Lyra's other surname was given to her by Iorik. I guess I can definitely conclude both Lyras are the same characters. Yay!

Ruta mentions circumcision and wow, Pullman really has *beef* with some people... Love it for him.

CH3

It's actually fascinating seeing Will and Lyra interact. Of course she'd look at him weird for suggesting she'd wear jeans...

CH4 (this is the moment I switched from The Matrix score to The Fast and the Furious, it's just a fun tidbit, don't question it)

Quick question/theory: Is John Parry (Will's dad) Lord Asriel? Maybe he found a window to change world and couldn't get back, but that would have certainly motivated him to find a way back, and it would have inspired him to seek other words, and thus question the Church, etc. It would create an interesting parralel between Asriel and Will. I hope Lyra gets to see a picture of the dude and exclaim "Wait a minute...". WAIT, ACTUALLY, THAT WOULD EXPLAIN WHY PEOPLE WERE MEDDLING WITH WILL'S LIFE. Omg. I should reread the first chapter... *does exactly that* Hmm. Intriguing.

I wonder if those "ha those things are exactly the same in both worlds" (the initials engraved in the stones, what Lyra sees at the museum) are supposed to be hints, or just coincidences, as in, "some things find a way to happen regardless of obstacles" or if I'm supposed to imagine that both worlds resonate so much that they corrupt each other in some way.

(side note: the first F&F score is surprisingly good?)

I was hoping the old guy spying on Lyra would be an ally, but he's described as having penetrating eyes, a pointy tongue, and the word "rot/putrefaction" is mentioned. (I'm reading in French so when I cite the text, it might not be accurate, but if you've read the book you'll know what I mean.)

I'm starting to wonder what's the goal of the alithiometer. Obviously, it has some sort of conscience; is it truly trying to help Lyra? It seems, you know, magical. Godly. Are we going to meet its creator? I mean, if it's G-man, probably at some point, right? Anyway, Lyra, please read the old guy's card. I'm curious to know his name and stuff. Anyway, if the alitiomether is guiding Lyra to help her find John Parry, aka Will's dad, aka possibly Lord Asriel, does that mean the alithiometer is on his side? Well, maybe not. Huh.

I find it interesting that Lyra adopted the name given to her by Iorik. Anyway, Pullman throwing shade at the underfunding of researchers, we love to see it.

I wonder if the Dr. Malone will stay Lyra's ally for long, I got a bad feeling...

The archeologist is raising my "WILL'S DAD IS LORD ASRIEL" flag even higher. Or maybe "the physician". In both cases, I'm convinced John is linked to Lord Asriel. Okay, maybe this is more likely. I'll keep both theories. Was the reporter the old guy that Lyra met at the museum? ...Or one of Will's agressors. That works too.

At this point, I'm begging Will and Lyra to use the documents they have in their possession; Will his father's writing case, and Lyra the old man's card. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the attorney is about to die.

CH5 (we're now listening to Norn9's videogame score)

Lyra and Will's methods of being discreet both have merits.

(I'm annoyed that Norn9's main theme only appears on the main menu; it lasts almost 6 minutes, is pretty great, but you only hear 10 5 seconds of it if you play normally. But I much prefer the next track.)

The cat can't lick its own ear now, can it? ...Can it? Anyway, Will's finally reading the letters!!!!!

After reading them (and finishing the chapter)... Hmm. This man does not sound like Lord Asriel. Huh. I hope Will and John get to be reunited.

CH6

Oh. That's where I'm realizing I kind of don't care about Lee Scoresby but... sure.

A witch wanted to be the dude's wife? She must have been pretty horny.

I was pretty uninterested at first, but the Magisterium planting men in research stations? Now, that's juicy! AND HE ATTACKS LEE?! OH MY GOD OK.

Maybe Grummann's a zombie. I saw that word-drop earlier!! I noticed it!!!!!

Anyway. This infodump is so interesting. Side note: While in English, Book 2 is called The Subtle Knife, in French it's called La Tour des Anges--the tower of angels. So we got a namedrop. Huh. Maybe what the philosophers used to open worlds was said subtle knife?

So Lord Asriel creating a passage between worlds fucked over Citagazze and its world. Huh.

I feel like Ruta is gonna die. Please don't die, I like you.

CH7 (Now listening to La La Land Records's release of the Spider-Man 1 score)

Nooooo give me Ruta back, I need to see her encounter with Lord Asriel...!

Omg. Shifty people are investigating Lyra and Dr Malone? Oof. WHITE EYEBROWS? OMG. LYRA RUN. (This feels like a horror novel.) OH MY GOD THEY NAMEDROPPED WILL AAAAAAAAH LYRA GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. AAAAAEFJZEDIOHJZEOEDPDZKOZEPDZEKOPZDEJZIZEOZEI

oH dear this is terriyfing OH GOD NO LYRA DON'T STEP INTO THE CAR NOOOOOOOO

OKAY THEORY TIME: THE OLD GUY IS GOD. IT'S FUCKING GOD PLAYING WITH LYRA. UGH.

OG MY GOD HE STOLE IT?! HE STOLE IT?! OH MY GOD. OH MY GOOOOOOD. OMG. OH. I CAN'T. I WASN'T READY FOR SUCH INTENSITY. WHAT THE FUCK.

Narratively speaking, removing the alitiomether from Lyra's hands is great because it was starting to become a bit of a cheat code (though I wasn't complaining about it).

Is the book going to end with Will finding his dad? Would be a nice parallel.

So the card... wasn't especially enlightening to me. Oh well. According to Google Reviews, Limefield House has very comfortable beds! Oh but wait, it's situated in Livingston. The one in Headington is strictly fictional. Google Maps does indicate roughly an hour to go from the center of Oxford to Headington so I guess Pullman knew the area pretty well.

GOD. I was planning to stop this reading session but this got so interesting.

CH8

You know what this reminds me of? Ulysse Moore. *nobody reacts because nobody has read those books* Well I have! The first 9 books, I believe. Began with volume 6, then read them all in order. It got really aimless with 7, if you ever decide to read them, stop after 6, it offers a nice conclusion. ANYWAY. DOORS TO OTHER WORLDS. KEYS. SECRETS. PEOPLE WITH FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE. SECRET CLUBS. I'm just now getting why I was thinking of this series this whole time.

Pantalaimon turns into a bear and I swoon <3 Bears <3 <3 <3

I didn't expect such violence, but I remember Iorik's fight in the first book being pretty harsh too. Anyway, Dancing with the Bears just turned into friggin' Saw.

This book is gonna end with Will creating a passage to the land of God or whatever with the knife after having found his father. I'm not sure yet on whether Will's dad will die or not.

Oh, Pullman is shipping Lyra and Will. Okay. Sure.

I feel like the Specters are an allegory for the climate change.

CH9, can't stop, won't stop

OMG MRS COULTER. OMG LORD BOREAL. OMG. CITAGAZZE WAS THE CROSSROADS?!

It's so funny seeing this asshole dump the whole plot to ~Marisa~. "Spectres? We don't have time for this. But I'm still gonna tell you!"

anyway I HATE THIS FUCKING MONKEY OH MY GOOOOOD and OMG IT'S THE CAT!!!! OH NO IT'S GONNA DIE ISN'T IT?! ;-;

Okay I've almost reached 2/3 of the book in one sitting, it's almost 2am, I should eat and sleep for a bit

I hope y'all enjoyed this ridiculous post

#his dark materials #the subtle knife #books #literature

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trippin-over-my-fandoms · 2 years

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Hi so if this is a weird ask yet what are your thoughts on what Allison did to Luther.

I was furious! Livid is probably a better word but when they kissed I had to pause the show and go vent to my sister bc “of all the comic book things I’ve been hoping for and THATS what they give us?” I’ve been rooting for Mr. Pennycrumb (sad he couldn’t be Five’s dog but he still made it in!) and the twins reveal (which we won’t get but ah well I can live w that) so to get the non-consensual Luther/Allison was a massive shock. But other than the initial shock and anger I had/have some other feelings!

I was actually fearful it might cause a rift between Luther and Sloane actually! Ever since Allison first saw him with Sloane actually I feared that- even before 3 came out! I worried she might rumor one or both or maybe even just say something off hand. Which it’s very interesting to me that the kiss was the only thing netflix did. Luther didn’t even bring up his past with Allison to Sloane (and I’m wondering if there’s a season 4 and crossing my fingers Sloane is okay if it’ll happen then), instead they made Sloane/Luther the “the world is ending but we have each other so everything is okay actually” couple. The sunshine couple in short. Which is fine! I love them as is- but there was certainly a drama opportunity there! And maybe they didn’t go with it because it would have drawn it out and maybe they wanted to steer clear of a full blown love triangle side plot with everything else going on.

Overall I think the direction the took Allison in this season is so, so interesting. I mean, in season one she’s definitely entitled and used to getting what she wants with her power but her divorce and losing connection with her daughter because of it clearly shook her that set her on the “I’m done using my ability to get what I want” path she’s on in season 2. And then in season 2 she’s undergone this massive transformation- she’s a progressive icon making waves in desegregation movements and shes made a real like for herself without cheating her way through it. So to end up in season 3 for all of that progress to disappear and then some, to the point she’s literally in her villain arc- is so interesting. I’ve never been a Allison fan like I am a Luther fan, like the other siblings I love the academy but am very much obsessed with Luther, so I’d be so curious to see how an Allison stan would view her change. I enjoyed it, I think it’s interesting, but it’s certainly shocking. I can’t wait to see how she further develops in season 4 (fingers crossed!). And it’s also as Emmy said in a video on that exact scene- trauma shows itself in a lot of different ways and for her it’s just spewing out into anger and a coldness she’s never seemed to let herself experience before.

I really liked how moments before Luther actually stood up to her. Which he doesn’t do really at all in regards to any of his family. Him telling her she can’t just use him like that whenever she wants was a big move- as big of a move as the “family shouldn’t hurt this much” line from season 2 when talking to Lila about the Handler but also acknowledging his own pain in regards to Reginald. Luther has been getting some massive character development arcs that are actually pretty subtle which makes me really wanna go back and watch all three seasons over to see if I can pick up on that for any of the other siblings- it may even provide more insight to Allison. Because I am an absolute sucker for why people (more specifically characters) do what they do and what leads up to those actions.

I think the moment it happened she definitely got vibe checked but it did not change her attitude. Possibly inflicting a “well I clearly can’t ever do anything right and I’m always the bad guy so I might as well be that” kind of mentality.

This became such a tangent because I have so many season 3 feelings! So uh, TL;DR, that was not the comic book accuracy I was expecting, it shocked me and I had to take a second to calm down! I don’t hate Allison but I definitely don’t like her actions! I’m interested to see what happens in wake of that moment, and if it’ll ever come up between Sloane and Luther!

#tua s3 #tua s3 spoilers #the umbrella academy #luther hargreeves #allison hargreeves #anon #asks #sloanes thoughts

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waddlesmom · 1 year

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𝑀𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓁 𝒫𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈 ;; 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀

Bisexual ⋆ She/Her ⋆ Twenty-Three

Occupation ;; Student & Mystery Shack Employee

♫ Currently Playing ♫ ;; Chaise Lounge by Wet Leg

☀ Virgo ☾ Taurus ↑ Capricorn

Being born a twin was the best according to Mabel because then you always had a built in best friend and Dipper was hers. From a young age she knew exactly what she loved and exactly why she loved it. That included things like unicorns, glitter, sweaters, crafts, and no one was going to change that. Not that their hometown wasn’t interesting but compared to Echo Isle it most certainly was. They were thirteen the summer it happened. They’d gone to Grunkle Stan’s again and it was supposed to just be a normal summer. Then Dipper found this book blah, blah, blah. Little crazy stuff here, little crazy stuff there, and her teenage brain was blown. Sure she was already imaginative but then they’d discovered a world so much bigger than that. Then they started to go back every summer and it turns out Dipper kind of is a genius and was able to figure a lot of it out. Of course she was there for lots of moral support and a glass of orange juice. After graduating it was an obvious choice for them to move there, it had felt more like home then home ever did any way. Not to mention Mabel wasn’t quite ready to not be with her twin yet and they both had the same idea. Now that she is enrolled in school she is trying her best to narrow down exactly what she wants to do first, that is. She has all these dreams she wants to achieve but right now she’s just focusing on one.

Living with their Grunkle is fun or so she thinks so. She gets to live with her favorite people

Mabel lives every day enjoying the ride and she can find the bright side of just about every situation. How can something be bad if you draw a smiley face on it?

Sometimes she knows she can be a little much but that’s just how she is. It’s not like Mabel doesn’t have the best intentions it’s just not that everyone appreciates it. People didn’t always think it was ‘cool’ to still like unicorns and wear funky sweaters. She was able to shake it off, continuing to sing off-key to the tune of her own drum.

Mabel is unforgivably herself. Sometimes it can get her poked fun at (usually by Pacifica) but she tries to make the best of it. You never know when just a smile could make someone’s day better, after all!

She is currently studying art in school. The thing that has always seemed to come the easiest to her was art, it started with a lot of glitter and still does to this day.

There are lots of different things she wants to become, of course most of all would be the first female president but she tries not to get too ahead of herself. Right now she’ll stick to just getting through college.

Mabel’s most prized possessions in the world are Waddles her pet pig and her sweater collection. She’s been slowly building it for years. Between making her own, thrifting some, occasionally buying one she absolutely had to have.

Sometimes she struggles without Dipper. She can get lonely when he always wants to go off and solve all his mysteries. It isn’t like she doesn’t love Soos, Candy, or Gretchen but he’s her other half. Not that she isn’t happy he’s busy solving something, she just wishes he’d take her with him, afraid to be left behind.

She wants to find love, as cliche as it is. All she’s ever read about are these epic romances and that’s exactly what she wants or maybe a meet cute. Sometimes she worries that no one is ever going to like her the way she is. Mabel knows she’s different but she hopes at least someone will think it’s cool.

There’s a lot of insecurities she doesn’t really talk about. She doesn’t want it to show but Dipper can usually see right through her. Mabel isn’t always sure if she’s good enough. She has these big goals for herself and sometimes if she thinks about it too long she gets scared of reaching them. As much as she tries to keep her chin up she can sometimes get down but tries to never let anyone see it when she is.

As ready as she is to feel like a grownup she is scared about what they means for her and her brother. Mabel is glad they aren’t separated but is worries it’s a matter of time until they will be.

#✨ 🐷 🎀 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝒶𝒷𝑒𝓁 🎀 🐷 ✨ ( about. )

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anistarrose · 3 years

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gravity falls, redemption, and happy endings proportional to selflessness

Unlike many other modern cartoons of comparable acclaim, Gravity Falls doesn’t build up complex and nonlinear redemption arcs for its villains — but it does still tell a story about change and second chances, with nuances that are reflected outside of just Stan and Ford’s arcs alone.

The elder Pines twins set aside old grudges to save the world and their family, but that act rewards them with a happy ending and a chance to fulfill an old dream. Meanwhile, Gideon Gleeful turns against Bill because he knows that it’s what would make Mabel proud, and eventually, he decides to take his newfound chance at being just a regular little kid.

Arguably, even Bill mirrors these arcs to an extent. After years of terrorizing the multiverse, he finally invokes the Axolotl’s rule — he expresses a willingness to change, and is granted a second chance in return — but because he’s Bill, and much more terrible than the aforementioned characters, he makes that decision for much more selfish reasons.

[image description: a screenshot from gravity falls, showing bill cipher burning up in stan’s mindscape. end description]

Stan and Ford are at last compelled to change when it becomes the only way to save the world, and especially their loved ones, while Gideon changes because Dipper convinces him he should try to be worthy of loving. A hint of selfishness remains in Gideon’s behavior — he still wants to be Mabel’s hero, after all — but ultimately, he does change because it’s the right thing to do. He changes for Mabel, just as Stan and Ford change for their family.

But on the other hand, Bill only changes for himself. Even then, it’s only as a last resort — he only invokes the Axolotl, accepting the condition of “a different form, a different time” when he’s about to die, and all other routes of self-preservation have failed him.

Bill isn’t choosing to reflect on his mistakes and mature past them, and certainly not choosing to do anything because it’s right or it’s selfless. So it’s only fair that though the narrative gives him a second chance, it does not reward him as much as it rewards characters who start making heroic choices instead.

His second chance, however it may manifest, does not come on the terms he would’ve chosen — the Axolotl, implied to be Bill’s benevolent counterpart, will put him somewhere where he’ll have an opportunity to do good instead of evil, not somewhere where he’ll be able to keep torturing the Pines or restart Weirdmageddon.

And maybe someday, a new perspective or a clean slate will give Bill the push he needs to really start his redemption arc, to start making better choices and rejecting old bad ones — but as it stands, Stan and Ford and even Gideon have gotten happy endings, because they acknowledged they made mistakes, and chose to grow from it.

As far as we know, Bill hasn’t. Yet.

#gravity falls #bill cipher #stanley pines #stanford pines #gideon gleeful #gravity falls meta #rosalia writes meta #obligatory asterisk on that final ''yet''#bc time has no meaning so bill's redemption could've already happened #(in fact my favorite hc is that it already has)#but you get what i mean #long post #eyestrain #(for that death scene screenshot)

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ramblesanddragons · 2 years

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@jikanet-tanaka You’re a genius why haven’t I done this already. I swore all of these would be short but I wrote this in a fever pitch on my desk shift. I might have to come back to this idea.

Gemini

They were twins. Nobody could tell them differently. So what if their fathers were different? They never cared. Well Stan never cared. They came out at the same time (well Ford came out 15 minutes earlier but who was counting that) so that made them twins damnit.

No one would ever say who Stan’s father was. He also didn’t care about that. The only reason anyone knew his father wasn’t the king was because that dumb oracle didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. Whatever, his mother could have been a better oracle, but she was stuck married to his stepdad. Stan figured he wasn’t left to die in the wilds as a child for a reason though, so his dad had to be someone of influence. If they were someone important, Stan wished they’d come and punch his stepdad in the face for the way he treated him. About age 11 Stan gave up on that idea so he did his best to avoid the old king.

He spent most of the days of his youth with Ford by the ocean. Spartans weren’t known for their sailing skills, but they were going to change that. They found an abandoned boat and started to fix it up when they had the free time. Their plan was to sail away from Sparta as soon as they could. Ford didn’t want to be king, he wanted to explore. There were tales of monsters out on the ocean, and he wanted to see them all. Stan was more focused on the monster’s fabled treasure but really that didn’t matter. He just wanted to be with his twin. As they grew older though, the time they had together became less and less.

Ford was being trained to become the king of Sparta. Not only was he receiving the same fighting lessons Stan was, but he was also taught philosophy and math and all that other fancy stuff. The only thing Stan ever cared to learn was how to navigate by the stars. That’s all he’d ever need beside the fighting skills.

He was a much better fighter than Ford and normally that would be celebrated in a Spartan family, but not his. The king never gave him the time-of-day except to yell at him for distracting Ford. Stan counted the days until they were of age. When Ford was done with his studies they’d sail away and start an adventure all their own.

He was an idiot for thinking that would work out.

As he leaned agist the railing of the Argo he sighed. Jason’s crew was decent. He didn’t mind sailing with them. Not like he had that much of a choice. Stan had accidentally messed up an arranged marriage for Ford. It wasn’t his fault the lady kept trying to seduce him! He kept telling her she had her twins mixed up and then she got all hurt when Stan rejected her. She told everyone he tried to kill her. What a bitch. Ford almost looked grateful to not have to marry, but still didn’t say anything as his father banished Stan from Sparta. If he ever set foot there again, he’d be killed.

Maybe when Ford was king, he’d reverse the decision. Maybe not. Stan didn’t care. Hercules suddenly clapped him on the back. The act brought him out of his thoughts and nearly threw him off the ship. He had to remember the guy meant well and was thankful to be picked up from the middle of nowhere.

“So, I hear King Amycus is a boxer. We need to deal with him. I can do it if you’re too busy moping around.”

“Oh no way! He’s mine!”

…

Funny thing about being on the Argo. Turns out it was a great way to discover you’re immortal. Stan hadn’t tested the limits of his immortality, but he wasn’t going to push it. He should be dead several times over at this point, but he kept on going.

So, his dad had to be some sort of god right? Stan still didn’t care. Whatever god it was certainly didn’t care about him. He promised himself to never call on his godly parent...until now.

He only returned to Sparta because there were rumors that Ford had become king and gone mad with power. Those sorts of rumors stirred up other rumors about assassination and Stan couldn’t let that happen. Ford might have turned his back on him, but he was still his brother.

He expected to meet resistance, but people almost seemed glad for his return. They apparently thought he would take over as king and do something about that “six fingered freak” on the throne. After slicing the guy dumb enough to say that to his face in half Stan made his way to Ford.

Ford had gone mad in a way, but it wasn't his fault. He was under the control of a sorcerer name Cipher who poisoned his brother’s mind. Ford was able to shake off the magic in time to save Stan from Cipher’s blade, not realizing that Stan was immortal.

Stan held Ford as the sorcerer laid dead on the ground. Cipher was no match for Stan’s rage.

“Ford, you idiot! I can’t die! Why did you do that?”

“You can’t die? Huh, that’s new,” Ford joked between coughs. He began to fade. “Stan I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you all those years ago. Forgive me.”

“No! I won't forgive you if you die on me!”

Ford didn’t respond. Stan looked to the heavens and screamed.

“HEY! WHOEVER YOU ARE! YOU HAVEN’T DONE A THING FOR ME MY WHOLE LIFE! FOR ONCE GET YOUR DEVINE ASS DOWN HER AND SAVE MY BROTHER!”

For a moment there was nothing. Then a strike of lighting hit ground. Before him, standing in a sizzling crater, was Zeus. It had to be him; no other god traveled by lighting. Stan gulped. Of course his dad would be another asshole, but he bit his tongue and, as respectfully as he could, begged Zeus for help.

“I’ve never had one of my children yell at me like that before,” Zues muttered.

“Sorry, I’m a little stressed.”

“Hmmm.” The king of the gods looked Ford over a moment and tutted.

“He has no divine blood in him.”

“Give him mine then! I don’t care!”

“You care so much for him even after he turned his back on you?”

“You saw all that? Never mind, we can work out our issues later if he’s alive to do it. Just...please. I’ve never asked anything of you, and I never will again.”

“Very well. Place your hand on his chest.” Stan followed orders and watched as both of their bodies glowed. Ford gasped back to life.

“Ford!” Stan held him closely and listened to the sound of his twin’s breathing. When Stan looked up to thank Zeus, the god was gone.

...

“Hey Stanley, am I crazy or is that a new constellation?”

Ford stopped taking notes and pointed to the sky. Stan stopped coiling the rope he was working on to look. New constellations didn’t just appear even if they had sailed far away from home by now.

Ford wasn't wrong though. In the sky was a new shape. They worked together to map it then connected the dots.

It was a pair of men.

A set of twins.

“Damn, guess I really impressed my old man...not too shabby huh Ford?”

Ford smiled widely. “No not too shabby at all.”

#my writing #gravity falls #greek mythology #gemini #this was too long but I wanted to add more

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hootcifer · 3 years

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talking about toh | season two, episode eight: "knock knock knockin' on hooty's door"

holy shit

sorry this was a few days late, i was equal parts busy and lazy.

previous | first | next spoilers under the cut, as always

the beginning

awww hooty’s writing to lilith! like he promised!

btw, just so you guys know, i’ll be referring to hooty with he/they pronouns, because it makes sense to me. also i use he/they and i’m a hooty stan so it works.

I realize now that i spelled “hootsifer” wrong in my url. oh well, i like “hootcifer” better anyway. (also the url “hootsifer” is taken anyway)

oh no, hooty feels unimportant! i’m sure the large majority of the fandom is okay with this, but i’m not! poor thing.

i found it adorable that luz wants to find a way into amity's heart (even though she's had a place there since grom). how she would use the echo mouse for that, i don't know.

luz saying "we have to go" was almost a direct parallel to amity saying "I GOTTA GO" in "wing it like witches".

king's plot

i love how king is going through his angsty teen phase. that's hilarious.

why the fuck does hooty just eat people?! and then just act like that's an okay thing to do?!

i think it's a fun detail that hooty is wearing king's teacher hat from "the intruder". i love little things like that.

i like how this episode gave us some lore as to how demons on the isles work. they emerged from the muck of a decomposing titan? that's dope! it's also cool how there's three main types of demons.

hooty is a worm?!

on the board with all the bug demons, i recognized the butterfly alador kept chasing in "escaping expulsion", as well as adagast from "witches before wizards", the bear trap demon from "the intruder", and the kindergarten teacher from "i was a teenage abomination".

it was neat to see the fairy from "a lying witch and a warden" and the butterfly... thing from "witches before wizards". more neat continuity stuff!

what did king say with his dance? i'm very curious.

maybe king didn't want to talk about the cocoon, but i certainly do! what the hell happened?!

because of some of the images in the background when hooty was talking about demons, we can infer that some students of hexside are demons and not witches. i wonder if witches are more powerful than demons, or if they're on the same level.

other biped demons i recognize are the bounty hunter, tibbles, one of the pirates, warden wrath, and braxus.

i also saw a cat-person. are catgirls and catboys a thing on the isles?

i like how tiny nose and hooty are friends. somehow, it makes sense.

was tiny nose playing on a nintendo switch? that's cool.

we got to see even more past demons from the section about beasts, such as the ratworms, the echo mouse, the trash slug, the selikdomus, the slitherbeast, and the snaggleback.

has tiny nose's voice changed, or is that just me?

i'm really curious as to what the heck king is. is he a unique kind of demon? a hybrid, maybe?

i thought it was sweet that hooty and tiny nose tried to celebrate king for who he is, even though it just made him sad. they're trying.

eda's plot

hooty had a good point in wanting eda to sleep. sleep is important! says the guy who regularly stays up until at least midnight.

i completely understand hooty's fear of the owl beast. remember what happened last time?

the cookies hooty made were very cute. i loved that.

hey, the sleeping nettles are back! the same thing luz and hunter used a few episodes back to put kikimora's steed to sleep.

we got to see eda's dad! we know very little about him, but we did see him. also, did he look like nigel thornberry to anyone else? no? just me? okay then.

it broke my heart seeing raine and eda breaking up. it was neat that we got confirmation that they were together!

eda clearly regrets pushing raine away. poor thing.

who is the cloaked figure? i've seen a lot of theories that it's amity, but that makes no sense. i don't think she was even alive at this point. it could be odalia, though. that would be a cool twist.

the little owl beast was so cute. i want a plush of that.

HARPY EDA! holy shit, she's so cool. top tier character design.

luz (and amity)'s plot

you better bet your ass i have a lot to say about this! plot! okay, let's start from the beginning.

i was really hoping we would get some mutual pining lumity this season, and by god did it deliver! luz referring to her as a "cotton-candy-haired goddess" was too cute.

from what she said, it sounds like this isn't the first time luz has tried to ask someone out. she's so afraid of getting rejected. wait a minute, amity was afraid of getting rejected too! that's a parallel i didn't even realize!

i wasn't expecting to see amity this episode! it looks like her parents let her keep her purple hair. that, or the twins are using illusions to hide her hair from their parents.

i love how hooty's solution to getting amity to the owl house is to straight-up eat her. that's one way to do things.

i really want to know more about house demons. are there more than one? are they all bird-like? are they born as houses or do they just inhabit houses? so many questions and not enough lore!

the way luz interrupted amity when she suggested "forgetting" about what happened in front of blight manor reminded me of how eda kept interrupting king last episode when she thought he was going to tell her he was planning on leaving.

i'm not gonna lie, i skipped through the majority of the tunnel of love scene. that kind of thing gives me second-hand embarrassment like you wouldn't believe.

my heart shattered into pieces when amity said that the idea of her adting luz was stupid. she obviously doesn't believe it, but she's probably been trying to convince herself of it.

this part had me terrified that the lumity plot for the episode would end there. thank goodness it didn't, eh?

the ending

AAAAAAAAAAAA

okay, okay, let's start from when hooty freaks out for a third time, after the tunnel of love.

i thought it was funny how hooty ripped himself out of the door in order to run (?) away. at least we didn't have to hear all the sounds this time.

wait, "things always get weird when hooty's upset"? has this kind of thing happened before?

gosh, the part where king's voice powers saved luz and amity was so cool. i saw somewhere that the animator wanted to reflect the lesbian and bi flags and they did a great job.

eda encouraging luz to ask amity out was so cute. we stan a supportive mom, always.

and then comes the scene everyone's been talking about. oh my gosh, this was done so beautifully! it was equally awkward and cute, the way it should have been, and the fact that they both asked each other was perfect!

LOOK AT HOW HAPPY AMITY IS WHEN SHE SAYS YES!!! this is the happiest we have ever seen her, and it's adorable.

something i really love about this scene is the fact that they didn't say "i love you" or even kiss, like what seems to happen in a lot of confession scenes. they just held hands. it was probably one of the most realistic confession scenes i've ever seen. it kind of reminded me of when my gf and i got together.

oh yeah, that's right! they're officially together!!!!!!! FINALLY!!! i was not expecting anything that happened in this episode, but out of everything this one was the most surprising. holy SHIT! we have a canonically sapphic couple! in a disney cartoon! a disney cartoon!

honestly, i hope everyone has gained more respect for hooty after this. they've helped further the plot more in one episode than anyone else has done throughout the rest of the show.

we got to see king's dad properly for the first time! i don't think we'll see him in "eclipse lake", but maybe we will in the episode after that? i hope so.

everyone's freaking out about hooty eating the letter but... can't they just... throw it back up? like they did at the beginning of "really small problems"?

predictions

to my knowledge, the next episode is going to be about amity looking for an ingredient for the new portal. i also know that eda, king, and hunter will be there too. i don't know what to expect, but i am very excited. until next time!

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samwilsonshandsandass · 3 years

Text

I Think I'm Seeing Triple

Pairing: Sam Wilson x Sam Wilson x Sam Wilson x reader x Bucky Barnes x Bucky Barnes x Bucky Barnes Summary: You just want to get settled in in your hotel room for a weekend conference, when your room is also given to two other attendees of the conference. And then something happens no one can explain and four surprise guests are also in the room Warnings: Smut, oral (f and m receiving), spanking, choking Word count: 3240 A/N: @keanureevesisbae were suffering together because of a post with four pictures each of Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan and then I had a thought and got some inspiration.

You went up to your hotel room after the first getting to know each other event at the weekend conference you had to go to. You hadn’t even put your shoes near the door when it opened and in came two other attendees. You knew who they were, had seen them all over the newspapers and also columns. Sam Wilson aka Cap and Bucky Barnes aka… he wasn’t the Winter Soldier anymore and you didn’t know if he wanted to claim that title to morph it into something good or if he was called something else. So, Bucky Barnes.

Before you could ask them what they did in your room, and how they got a key card when it was clearly booked, and before they stopped their bickering about who was the blanket hog, there were two flashes of golden light and from each flash tumbled a pair of men identical to the pair of men who just walked into your room. Just their clothing separated them from each other.

“Who are you?”

Sam Wilson asked and looked at someone who seemed to be his friend. Although that friend had entered the room beside him.

“I’m Bucky” The one spoken to, said.

“No, I’m Bucky!” A third version of the man said.

“And you?” The one who seemed to be the actual Sam, wanted to know.

“Sam.”

“Who am I then?”

“My less attractive twin?”

“Ha-ha.”

“So, There’s three Sams. And three Buckys. That’s not weirder than other things we were confronted with. And you are?” The Bucky who had entered the room with the first Sam questioned and looked at you.

“Y/N” You answered slowly. “And why are all of you in my hotel room?”

“We’re here because the person at the reception told us this room was available. We’re last minute additions to this weekend conference” That was one of the Buckys. He gestured to himself and one of the Sams.

“O- kay. And you four?” You looked at the seemingly identical versions of the Sam and Bucky who were supposed to be here.

“There was a flash, everything went cold and now we’re here” The third Bucky replied.

“We had something similar happening” The Sam in the middle said.

“Alright. Okay. Cool. I’ll just be blunt and say I wouldn’t have been opposed to one Sam and Bucky being in the same room for an entire weekend” You mumbled after you looked shortly to the heavens.

“You do know we’re supposed to actually attend meetings and workshops and networking events, don’t you?” The Bucky you dubbed “Bucky number one” asked you.

“Stickler for principles…” Sam number one grinned. “I know you. You’d do anything to get out of at least the networking events.”

“Of course I would! Still doesn’t change the fact networking just means getting drunk and fucking someone just for the sake of fucking someone. I’m not for that. And I can’t get drunk.”

You saw the other two Bucky’s nod in agreement.

“So, that’s the defining trait of the different Bucky’s” Sam number two smiled.

“As if you like what comes out of these events” Bucky (you couldn’t say which) grinned back.

“No, I’d cook for someone first. Be a gentleman.”

“See. And I’d take her dancing.”

You cleared your throat.

“I still don’t understand all this” You stated.

“Me neither” Bucky number three. “Maybe we could each explain the basics of yourselves.”

“Good idea. So. In this universe, my universe, you” You sat back on the bed and pointed at Sam number one, “were a para rescue and then used what you learned during that time to save the world. And you” You looked down at Bucky number one who was laying on your belly, “were a P.O.W. during World War II and then basically got turned into a human weapon and got frozen to keep your body the way they needed it to be. You were found and then, a year later in probably the technologically most advanced country on earth you finally got freed for good from it all and now use your skills for good as well. With him as your partner.” You pointed at Sam number one again.

“Wait. You had a second World War? We only had one. You know, the one from 1914 to 1918?” Bucky number two asked. “What happened in your universe?”

“The Germans thought the cure for their humiliation in Versailles could only be coped with by committing genocide and reaching for world domination.” Bucky number one explained. “And my best friend got quite big and muscle-y because of that. Why didn’t the Germans do in your universe what they did in mine?”

“Some Germans had their heads on straight. Fought back when the political landscape of 1920s Germany was close to morphing into street terror and they succeeded. They stayed a democratic country and that was that.”

“My Steve got all the muscles as well.” Bucky number three smiled. Then it fell from his face. “We actually served together, after he changed like that. When the Germans and their allies were defeated, Steve went on to train new recruits back home and I went to Korea.”

“So, you aged normally. How come you’re here now with a body like back then? And why are you also looking like that, when there even wasn’t a second world war and in theory you should’ve lived a long live and, no offence, be long underground?” You wondered and looked between Bucky number two and three.

Bucky number two snorted. “I know what you mean. After school, I actually got a scholarship, one of the few back then, for Teachers College, which is a part of Columbia University. I became a Math and Physics teacher. After some years, the university offered a few places in an experimental study about nitrogen and cryogenesis.”

“And I suspect you accepted one?” Sam number three asked.

“Yep. Wanted to see what progress the future made in science and to have the body and age and mind to enjoy it all fully.”

“That takes being a nerd to a whole new level. I thought the Bucky I know was flexing!” Sam number one exclaimed.

“Just because I could read the Hobbit when it came out and you couldn’t?” Bucky number one shot back.

“You read that, too?” Bucky number two and three exclaimed.

“No matter the universe, they’re nerds” Sam number two mumbled.

“And you two? What happened with you in your universes?” You looked at Sam number two and three.

“My and Sarah’s parents died quite a few years ago. My nephews were little, and yet, I thought I’d help my family more if I went off to the air force. Sarah wouldn’t have that and then the community got wind of my plans and they kept me there” Sam number two smiled. “I took over more of the workload to keep our fishing business afloat so Sarah could focus more on the kids when they were really little. When they got bigger, we shared the workload more equally and still do that now. Haven’t regretted not moving away one day.”

“I also didn’t move away. Well, not entirely to Washington, after our parents died. I worked my ass off to get into an undergraduate program for social work and now I’m working as a counselor for families in tight spots in St. Bernard” Sam number three told.

“Okay. This is quite much, but I can work with that. Or at least understand more. Want to know something about me?” You looked around at the six men around you.

“Isn’t that confusing for you?” Bucky wanted to know.

“On every level, yes. So, I’ll just concentrate on the fact there’s six handsome and hot guys and just one of me.”

“That’s certainly something” Sam smiled.

“Yeah” You laughed quietly and took his hand.

You felt him stroke the back of your hand and move towards you. With a half smile and half lidded eyes, he pecked your lips. He moved back slowly. You cradled his head in your hand and pulled him in again, scratching his head all the while and earning a moan. You moved your lips against Sam’s, sucking his tongue into your mouth. He chuckled against your lips and moved back again. This time just enough to be able to bite your lips and then move his tongue against your lips again.

When he allowed you to breathe, another Sam asked: “You gonna hog her all for yourself or let us have a piece, too?”

“As if I’d deny myself the joy and pleasure of all of you…” You simpered.

“Well then” He pulled you up to stand and walked you to the middle of the big, fluffy rug in front of the bed.

Sam stood in front of you. With a faint smile, he unbuttoned button for button on the top of your dress. At the same time Bucky knelt behind you and let his hands wander from your ankles to the hem of your panties. He pulled them down slowly, until they caught on the hem of your stockings. Bucky pulled them down as well and put them on the ever growing pile of clothes near the foot of the bed.

“Would you look at this body!” Came from the direction of the bed, where the other two Buckys sat when the Sam before you let your dress fall from your body.

“God” That drawn out moan came from the loveseat with two Sams on it.

You smiled and opened your eyes, looking around to see the four men naked and teasingly stroke their cocks.

“C’mere baby” Sam purred.

The two men who had just undressed you went over to the bed. You stood in front of the loveseat.

“And where am I sitting?”

“Laying” Sam smiled and pulled you down.

Your torso laid across the legs of the Sam sitting left and your thighs across the Sam on the right. You wiggled your ass jokingly until you felt a gentle spank on the right cheek.

“We’ll be the ones to make you move, baby. You just relax and take it” Bucky said from the bed. You had no idea which one.

“Although that doesn’t mean we’ll be soft” Another Bucky said. You could hear the smile in his voice.

“I don’t think she wants us to be soft. Well, maybe a little?” The Sam who had your torso laying on his legs, questioned.

You looked up at him and opened your mouth to answer but before you could, he slipped two fingers into it. His other hand wandered to the nape of your neck. He started massaging it, and with a guttural moan, you spread your legs.

The Sam with your legs on his thighs now kneaded your butt, lulling you into a sense of security and comfort.

Then came the first spank. Pretty light, on the left butt cheek. You squeaked in surprise.

Before you could say anything, he landed a slightly harder spank on the right one. You whimpered.

The third spank was even harder, on the left cheek again.

The fourth spank made your ass cheek jiggle and yourself moan.

Sam continued in that tempo and alternated the cheeks with every other spank. The other Sam moved his fingers in and out of your mouth at a different pace, not giving you a chance to get used to just one rhythm.

From the couch pants and moans could be heard. Sam didn’t let you move your head, squeezing instead of massaging your neck each time you wanted to look in the direction of the bed.

“No looking, baby. You just feel and hear.”

You nodded as best as you could and felt a visceral need in your core. You tried to alleviate it, humping the side of Sam’s thigh.

“You need something more, baby?”

You mumbled around the other Sam’s fingers.

“I’d say that’s a yes” The Bucky in the middle of the bed grinned.

“C’mere baby.” Both Sam’s helped you up and got you in front of the bed.

You looked up at Bucky and he petted your cheek.

“Ready?”

You nodded and knelt in front of Bucky and another Bucky pushed your head down to make you take everything until you gagged. They both gave you short periods of reprieve when one of them pulled a little back until they made you gag again. With each gagging noise you made, you felt yourself getting wetter.

Suddenly you felt the tip of a cock between your ass cheeks. With a sigh, a sigh as if he came home, the man behind you penetrated you slowly, making you feel every inch. Bucky pushed you down quickly. The pace made your eyes water and a tear fall but that didn’t keep you from recognizing that beautiful brown skin in the corner of your left eye.

“We’re so good, we make you cry?” Sam grinned, showing his canines.

You nodded once when you heard a growl above you. Suddenly your mouth was empty and not a second later long ropes of cum hit your face.

You opened your eyes just in time to see Sam’s hand rubbing your clit as he pulled your back close to his chest. You felt the warmth of his chest and his accelerated heartbeat at your back. He bent forward to caress your neck. Sam kissed your neck and bit every spot he had just caressed. You bucked against him, trying to get him moving deeper into you. You felt him smile against your neck where he had just sucked. He pressed his index and middle finger to your clit. He tapped it and with two further movements, you felt him squeeze your neck and with a long whine you came.

You wrapped your hands around Sam’s left wrist and that did it for him. You felt him spurt into your core and your legs trembled a little with the aftershocks.

“God…” He moaned into your neck and kissed it.

“J- just me” You mumbled in a haze with a grin.

You heard several chuckles from the bed. Someone pulled you slowly up and put you on the bed. Several people stroked your body and kissed you softly. You, in turn, caressed Sam’s face and could almost hear him purr under your touch.

When you felt like you were in the here and now again, you laid on back on the bed, the head in the lap of one Bucky with one Sam kissing the life out of you. He had his hand wrapped around your throat and squeezed now and then. You were moaning and whimpering continuously but you didn’t know why exactly. Maybe it was because Bucky massaged your head. Maybe it was because Sam choked and kissed you so beautifully.

And maybe it was because what happened between your legs. Looking down your body, spread out like a feast, you saw one brown haired head. Two strains had escaped the low bun and stuck to his face with his spit and your slick. Next to Bucky, there was Sam. This was the Sam with longer curls. Perfect to rake your fingers through and pull him even closer to you.

Both of them licked, nibbled and sucked on your private parts and on the tighter rim a little below. Occasionally they bumped heads and shoulders, chuckling each time. Each chuckle sent vibrations through you and made you pull their hair. Every time you did that, they moaned. Even more vibrations went to your clit. A vicious cycle.

Until they stopped everything.

Although you wanted to form words of protest, nothing articulated came out of your mouth.

You saw the two grinning at each other and they rammed three fingers each in you. Three in your pussy and three in your ass. You could only moan and your back arched up.

Bucky attacked your g spot right away and Sam hammered into your ass. With the contrast of that to the kissing of the other Sam and the head massage by the other Bucky, you couldn’t focus on anything, just letting it happen. Out of the blue, you sensed something warm and wet and occasionally sharp on your nipples and your neck. You could only guess that was because of the other two.

With one more come hither motion of Bucky, you screamed into Sam’s mouth and came. You felt your walls spasm and spasm and spasm. Yet, Bucky didn’t stop. Each time your pussy let up, there was another come hither motion and Sam hadn’t stopped fingering your ass once.

Sam and Bucky bit your nipples until they were swollen and the Sam who still had his hand around your neck, squeezed.

Your body, that hadn’t ceased moving since your scream, spasmed as a whole and then everything went black.

---

As you came to again, one pair of Sam and Bucky were grinning up at you and two pairs were grinning down at you.

“There she is again” Bucky smiled.

“I take it you’re satisfied?” Another Bucky asked you cockily.

You nodded, panting.

You were maneuvered until you laid on a mountain of pillows. From that position you could see all six men gripping their erections. Your body was sweaty, spit from six men clung to it, your face was painted with the cum from one of the Bucky’s and between your legs there was a mess of the cum of one of the Sam’s and yours. Still, you wanted more. And you knew how to get it.

You made grabby hands, decidedly close to the men’s cocks. They grinned and moved closer to you.

“Please?” You made puppy dog eyes at them.

“How can you say no to this very beautiful and very naughty girl?” One of the Sam’s mumbled to himself.

“You don’t, never!” Bucky answered and started jerking faster.

You licked your lips and sat up a bit. You didn’t want to miss one second of this show. Their hands went over their cocks, faster and faster until the six faces contorted in pleasure and you saw your belly and breasts be painted by their cum. It was accompanied by several growls and whimpers.

You smiled tiredly, when the six collapsed around you. You pulled them closer, reveling in their warmth.

“Gimme some minutes, doll” Bucky whispered into your ear.

After some time, he went and got several warm wet washcloths. He and another Bucky cleaned you up softly. Only after that, did the men clean up themselves. You turned on your side, tired and sated. Sam pulled you into his chest, Bucky molded himself to your back and put his legs over yours. The other four cuddled up to you three in the middle, making you a tangle of seven people in the middle.

“Does one of you know when the first meeting of tomorrow starts?” You yawned.

“At nine” The Bucky of this universe mumbled.”

“The cyborg strikes again” A mix of a yawn and smile was audible in his voice. “Do we have to attend that?”

“I think so.”

“Ugh. And what about the four not from here?” Sam wriggled his arm free and hugged one Bucky and one Sam to his back.

“No idea” The Sam hugged by Sam shook his head.

“Let’s sleep for now. We can worry about that tomorrow” The Bucky between the two Sam’s said.

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alexwritesfiction · 3 years

Text

-> About Me (navigation)

Call me Alex. Born 2006, i’m a native indian student in high school. i like to write excessively in freelance times and make oddly specific playlists. 5SOS, One Direction enthusiast. It’s all about the aesthetic <3. I really love cats so please flood me with them. I love using emoticons :)

-> About My Writing

I mostly write contemporary fiction with diverse character representation. Number one enemies to lovers trope stan even though found family comes a close second. I also write fantasy (i love worldbuilding) and different genres to refresh. requests for drabble and fics are open! but it might take time since i get flooded sometimes.

-> About My WIPs (masterlist)

One Shots and Drabbles in Masterlist

Let Me Know To Be Added To The Taglists

Hey Micah (ongoing)

In which ayla has been in love with her best friend for as long as she has known life but his fate has other plans for him and alyssa.

“and i know in the depths of my heart that whatever happens to the three of us, we’ll always make it though. back to each other. home”

tw // major character death

Oblivion Of Everything (camp nano)

In which ten nights and a whole lot of coffee changes the connections between an insomniac and a sleepyhead, who just want to know what life is.

“whatever you do, don’t fall asleep” “well that’s ironic”

tw // insomnia

Noah And Peyton

in which two 15 year old best friends agree to date each other if they can’t find love till 19, and Noah is determined to not let Peyton’s relationships last.

“we made a pact, pey, and i’m just following it. break my heart, but don’t break the pact. or it’s gonna break us,”

best friends to lovers | diverse | coming of age | teen fiction

tw // eating disorder // assault

Xavier

in which a gang leader’s daughter is arranged to marry the world’s biggest mafia leader. Xavier Blackheart has been putting up a shield all his life, only to be ripped apart by Catherine’s diamond dagger, and she’s the queen he never asked for.

“i’m a spitfire, and he’s ice cold. i wait for the day he’s gonna melt and i’ll finally be able to see the boy beneath him. because as much as i hate to admit it, i know he’s there, trying to hold on to life while the world crumbles around him,”

tw // violence and gore // assault

She’s The Man

in which a neurodivergent girl dresses up as a boy to attend the most elite prep school to study and change the world, and she does. with the help of two twins, no less.

“I’d never really wondered how i’d look in a boys uniform. Until today, of course,”

“I might be able to live without one, because life goes on whether we want it to or not, but i certainly don’t want to. Live without you, that is. My world has two suns and i’m just as grateful to be their whole universe.”

Ashton Garcia and the Teenage Side of Things

in which a non binary pansexual Ashton Garcia tries to discover themselves while still struggling through the hell that is high school. coming out? therapy? fake friends? what has their life come to? they try to find all the answers by themselves, and realise along the way that sometimes, it’s okay to be different and it’s okay to accept help. they’re not alone, not if Tyler Jones has anything to do with it.

“the words on the billboard blurred as my clothes became wet in the rain and i couldn’t believe that, standing there, someone accepted me more than i accepted myself. and what do you know, it was a mind boggling feeling on its own,”

tw // minor transphobia and homophobia

Breathe - letter side project

a project that will contain letters for aesthetic topics and just normal every day things observed through the eyes of a visionary, with all of the freshness of new ideas and optimism and deep things. a salvation of sorts. words that are too different to merge into works but too important to not share with the world.

“it was a cluster of lost droplets falling onto the ground with ferocity, as if they'd lost their way home and had surrounded us with melancholy. seems that someone unravelled the bright cloud and poked it enough for it to break, to turn dark and broken and finally let go of the weight it was holding. only if the sun had been shining now, the sadness could have been converted into a beautiful spectrum of colours, a companion to the endless tears of the cloud, a smile in the darkest depths of the broken world.”

aesthetic | letters | philosophy | visionary | deep

We’ll Never Die (5SOS fanfic) (30k)

in which michael clifford and his fan meet on an airplane and the walls he’s built fall for her.

-> Do Not Interact

TERFs / queerphobic / racists / ableists / nsfw

-> Tag Lists

1. everything

@neptune-falls @metanoiamorii @thescatteredscribbles @little-boats-on-a-lake @talesofsorrowandofruin @w-l-ink @baguettethebooklover @euphoniouspandemonium @wannabeauthorzofija @lady-of-himring @the-writing-avocado @ink-fireplace-coffee @your-local-bi-disaster @a-completely-normal-writer @felonyfairy @cool-but-confused @47crayons

2. Hey Micah

@mel-writes-with-her-dragons @zoya-writes

3. BREATHE

@zoya-writes @unbalancedscale @just-colorful-regret

#about me #writeblr intro #writeblr reintroduction #writeblr introduction #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writers of tumblr #writer #hey micah #writer memes #spotify #writers kit #poetry #poets of tumblr

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hakuoyuki · 3 years

Note

Hi! So I trust your opinion about Ikepri a whole bunch! Im a huge Licht Stan! Is it worth it to get that story just released with him and Nokto? I don’t wanna waste my money before his route!

Hello! So my friend just got the story this morning and after reading it together with her, my verdict is that it is indeed worth getting!

There is a few changes there and there (most are minor changes but there's a few specific lines that got changed. Everything else is pretty much like in JP.

There are however, a few specific changes (2 major, 1 minor) that changed the context/nuance of the message coming across so I would like to take this opportunity to highlight those here.

If you keep these points in mind, the rest of the story pretty much stays the same (true to context) so it certainly is worth getting (especially for the bit where the twins were reminiscing 🥺)

(Comparison under the cut due to story spoilers for The Beasts’ Day Off ～Nokto & Licht Episode～)

Major Change #1

ー

Nokto: It's something that makes you ashamed to the point that you can't say it. In that case, let me guess.

ー

ENG

Nokto: There must be something you feel so guilty about that you can't talk about it. In that case, I'll try to guess what it is.

ー

In ENG, they changed the word "ashamed" to "guilty" which I do no know why they did that because it does not even make sense for the context of the situation here.

ーーーー

Major Change #2

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Nokto: You're trying to do the same thing with Belle here. I wonder if that's why it's making me feel all nostalgic butーー

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ENG

Nokto: You want to do the same thing for Belle. So, that must mean you're attached toー

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Notice how the last half of the sentence was changed here in ENG to be focus on MC instead of how the original focused on Nokto's own feelings toward what's going on. (Again, why did they changed this 😭)

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Minor Change

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Nokto: It's like that so, sorry! I'll play with you next time?

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ENG

Nokto: So sorry, ladies! Come see me again some other time, won’t you?

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The minor change here is the subtle difference in the way Nokto reacted to the women in the scene.

Everything else stays pretty much true to the original except for the 3 bits I highlighted above here 👀👌

#asks #ikepri #ikemen prince #イケメン王子 #cybird ikemen series #cybird #ikemen series #nokto klein #licht klein #ikepri nokto #ikepri licht

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one-true-houselight · 3 years

Text

Five Times Stan Wondered How Ford Would Feel, and One Time He Didn't Have To

1982

It was weird, being at his own funeral. Stan had certainly thought about faking his own death before, but he'd never had the time, or the ability. It's not often you get a chance to take over your identical twin's life as a cover story.

It was the kind of story he would have told Ford to make him laugh when they were kids. The ultimate twin swap. The thought put a lump in his throat as he stared out at the small number of guests. An uncharitable part of him noted that Ford would probably have had more mourners.

A different, desperately scared and guilty part, wondered how Ford would feel if he was here, at his brother's actual funeral. Would he be sad? Would he remember the good times, or would he just see a broken machine, a crumpled bag of toffee peanuts?

Would he even come?

Stan breathed, trying to convince himself he was simply pursuing this train of thought so he could impersonate Ford more effectively. He hoped his performance was more effective than that effort.

He sat on a bench and reflexively massaged the sides of his hands, where he'd made it look like extra fingers had been removed. To his surprise, Shermie came over and sat next to him. "You doin' ok, Stanford?"

"Yeah," Stan replied, hoping his illusion would hold. "As ok as I can be, I guess."

Shermie put a hand on his shoulder, and Stan kept himself from flinching. People hadn't put their hands on him for much beyond violence in...a while. "I know you and Stanley hadn't seen each other in a while, and it ending like this is probably difficult for you."

Stan shrugged, and thought once again; how would Ford feel right now, if the last time he'd seen Stan had been when he closed the curtain on him all those years ago, and not a brother desperately reaching for him as he disappeared through a swirling portal?

He figured it was wishful thinking when he replied, "I think I was done with anger, at this point. I just wish I had told him how I felt sooner."

1992

Stan was rummaging through the closet when an object fell from between some coats and landed at his feet. He picked it up to find it was a worn, six fingered glove. His first instinct was to drop it, as if it had burned him, but he didn't. He just stared at it for a while, thoughts wandering to the man who once wore it.

He kept holding it as he went back to work, (Stan was never one to stand still for too long), cleaning the gift shop, adjusting an attraction, locking up the earnings, entering the code on the vending machine. As he worked, he wondered what Ford would say if he was here right now. Probably something about scientific integrity, he thought with a snort. '

He wondered if he'd appreciate how he finally figured out a way to make money, if he'd laugh at the times Stan had had to punch something supernatural. It was certainly in character: Ford being the one ready to research and record phenomena, while Stan was the one coming in to punch it, or kick it, or sic a knife-wielding possum on it. They had made a good team. Maybe they still would, if-

No. Thinking like that didn't help, it wouldn't bring him back. To be fair, he didn't know if this would work, as he surveyed the broken portal looming from the darkness. But he had to try. He had to.

He hoped Ford would be proud of him.

1999

Stan sat straight up in Shermie's kids' living room, fingers tapping wildly. When he'd gotten the call, he had run to the PA to close the gift shop immediately so he could pack. And now, after breaking more traffic laws in a day then he had thought possible, he was here, and he was about to meet-

"Stanford, meet Mason and Mabel." His niece and nephew walked in, each holding a baby. His breath caught in his throat. He had known they were twins, of course, he wasn't an idiot, but now, seeing these two bundles with the same face poking out over blankets, the fact hit him like a train.

"Looks like twins-" run in the family, but he couldn't say that. Shermie had agreed (reluctantly) to not mention Stanley to his family, given the tragic circumstances, so the comment would have been nonsensical to them. So he just smiled at his new great niece and nephew.

"They sure do, Stan. Want to hold them?" Stan's eyes widened slightly and he nodded. The babies were handed to him, one in each arm, and he looked down at them, tears in his eyes. Mabel's eyes locked onto his gold chain and she batted at it, entranced at the light bouncing off of it. Mason had a large birthmark on his head, like a constellation, and seemed fascinated by the tassel on Stan's hat.

"Hey there. I'm your Great Uncle Stan," he whispered, his words sliding together a little from emotion.

Their mom chuckled. "Sounded like you said 'Grunkle Stan'. It's usually the kids who give you the nickname."

Stan laughed, startling the babies a little. "You know what, I think I like Grunkle Stan better. 'Great Uncle' makes me feel old."

"Don't tell that to Dad," joked his nephew before standing. "I'll go make some lunch."

Stan made to stand up, but was pushed back into his seat. "You stay with the kids, it's fine."

Stan nodded and looked to the twins' mom, who had fallen into a chair across from him. "How are you holding up?"

She shrugged. "Twins are hard, but they're sleeping better than I expected. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were helping each other sleep."

Stan laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised, these two look smart." Mabel looked up at him and blew a raspberry. Mason sat up, then immediately fell forward into Stan's chest. He looked up and smiled, and Stan absentmindedly tapped his forehead. "Quite a birthmark he's got."

"Yeah. Shermie joked that we should call him 'Dipper'. He said it was like calling you Sixer-" She stopped suddenly, blushing. "Sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, no," said Stan quickly, his hands flitting to the scars on his hands. "I didn't mind that name. It certainly wasn't the worst thing I was called." It flowed easily, saying I. He had been Stanford for 17 years now, after all.

The conversation moved on, the twins crawling over him as he chatted and laughed with their mother. But his thoughts were elsewhere, pushed to a familiar place by that nickname. He didn't know how Ford felt about having his own kids, but he knew he would have loved to be here, to see these kids. Maybe he could give better advice about Mason.

Did he and Ford ever comfort each other, before they even knew what those words meant? Stan couldn't remember a time that he wasn't aware of Ford, a time before that night when they weren't by each other's sides. How would Ford react to see another set of Pines twins? As he looked down, he wished they never lost each other the way he and Ford had lost each other. It was the best blessing he could think to give them.

July 2012

Stan sat in his chair, stunned. That morning, he had followed the sound of excited kids shouting to find that someone had found Ford's old room As he'd walked in, hoping they wouldn't ask him too many questions, he had glanced over and seen them sitting there, as if Ford had left them there minutes before. He had always had a bad habit about his glasses.

With a look at the kids, who were distracted, he grabbed the glasses and shoved them in a pocket, covering his reeling mind with announcing a competition. He made it through the day, not internalizing much. Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure there had been something going on with Dipper and Mabel, but he just hadn't been present enough to figure out what. It seems like they were figuring out whatever it was, so he was just left sitting in the dark, staring at a pair of glasses.

He was so close. Was Ford even alive? He had to be. He had been working on this for thirty years, he had to believe that Ford was out there. What was Ford doing right now? Had he found some nerd school? Stan smiled at that, and tried not to imagine the many, many less attractive options.

He heard footsteps upstairs, and he contemplated what Ford would have done that day, with the kids. Maybe he would have had a reasoned discussion with the kids, about boundaries and choices. Or maybe he would have seen his own resentment reflected in those kids' eyes, and…

He had spent thirty years as Stanford Pines, and had slowly weaned himself off of trying to act as he thought Ford would. But even if he hadn't, he would have started now. Because if he couldn't stop the curse with him and Ford, he would not pass it down to Dipper and Mabel. He had to believe that siblings were not doomed to fail, he had to believe that he could help these kids out from a shadow they didn't know they were under.

And even though he didn't believe it, he hoped he could get Ford and him out too, someday. He hoped Ford would want to come.

August 2012

Ford was here.

Thirty years of work, and Ford was in the next room, bemoaning what Stan had done to the shack.

Figures.

"You know, Ford, standing around yelling at the Mystery Shack isn't gonna change anything," he called out. Ford walked into the room, eyebrows furrowed.

"I still don't understand why you had to take my identity," said Ford. "Wouldn't it have been easier to fake my death?"

I didn't know if it would have been fake He shrugged and replied, "Do you know how many crimes I've committed? It was better that way."

"I can imagine," muttered Ford, with more venom than Stan liked, but no more than he expected.

"Hey, you know a lot of crimes were to get you back."

Ford snorted at that, but fell quiet for a moment, staring at his own hands. Finally, without looking up, he asked, "How'd you fake the hands, Stanley?"

"Said I cut 'em off." He held up his hands to show the faded scars, and Ford's eyes widened slightly.

"You gave yourself scars?"

"Yeah. I've got enough of them." Stan did not mention that, as much as these scars had hurt, they had paled in comparison to how he had felt watching Ford get pulled away from him.

Ford stared, almost transfixed, at Stan's hands before abruptly standing up. "I should keep working," he muttered and swept off.

Stan crossed his arms and muttered, "Man, I thought I had been too grumpy as you." He laid back and sighed. Thirty years he had sat and wondered about how Ford would feel, how he'd react, what he was missing. And here they were, together again, and Stan still didn't know how the man felt. Not really. Yes, the punch had been a good clue as to some of it, but...He didn't know what had happened to Ford out there. He didn't know how it felt to be back. Was he disoriented? Scared? Excited? Overwhelmed?

Damn it, why wouldn't Ford let him help? How could he not see that Stan still cared about him? How much he missed him?

Maybe because you haven't told him, a voice said. Yeah, well, turn about's fair play, Stanford…

He shook his head. He had 'til the end of summer. He could still fix things. If he could fix an interdimensional portal, he could fix his relationship with his brother, his twin, his best friend…

Right?

September 2012

Stan sat on the porch of the Mystery Shack, watching the sun go down. Ford walked out and sat down next to him. "How are you doing, Stanley?"

"I'm fine. Mind feels good. You?"

"I'm...I'm good." Ford took a breath. "I'm sorry, Stanley."

Stan looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Didn't we do this already?"

"Not really. I may have apologized for certain events, but...I never told you that I'm grateful, not really. After everything you've lived through, all the things I caused, you gave your life over to bringing me back. You sacrificed your mind to save me, to save the world. And I never, I could never acknowledge before now how good a person you really are."

"You really don't need to do this, Ford, I know how cool I am-"

"No, you don't. Stanley, you think that you have to act like this to make up for something. I let you think you needed to fight for redemption after that science fair, and you've been fighting your whole life, never understanding that you are enough. I just want you to know that people see you, that they know you're a good person. The kids, Soos...me. You deserve to know how I feel." There was a pause as Stan gathered his thoughts, but then he started laughing. Ford furrowed his brows. "I'm not joking, Stanley. You are worthy of love, and-"

"No, no," said Stan, putting a hand on Ford's shoulder. "I...you're right, I don't have the best self esteem, but that's not it. I've spent 30 years wondering how you'd feel, what you'd do. And now, now I finally know." A single tear streaked down his face. "Thank you. I really think I needed to hear that."

Ford pulled him into a hug. "I only wish I could have told you sooner." At that, they both started crying in earnest, and Stan knew he finally knew how his twin felt.

Like him, he felt love.

#stanley pines #ford pines #stanuary #angst #BROTHER BONDING #STAN BEING SCARED #also Stan meeting baby dipper and mabel #it's also on AO3 I don't know how crossposting works lmao #gravity falls #i write sometimes #is this good?#maybe?#but we're having fun here

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portalford · 4 years

Text

I Can Picture You So Easily

AO3

It hits Stan at the stupidest times.

Well. That makes it sounds like Stan just forgets, when really it never quite goes away — sometimes it’s just more.

Like now.

He’s looking in the mirror — he found it tucked way, way back in a closet (and he’s gonna skip right over that because when he got here the mirror in the bathroom was broken, cracked until you couldn’t see a thing and why was Ford—nope) — and he’s trying out a new look for Mr. Mystery.

Gotta keep it fresh, right? Accessorize?

Glasses aren’t accessories, unfortunately. He can’t go without them anymore.

(Really, he needed them years ago, but he was too stubborn to admit it, or too broke, or whatever, but he’s literally tripping over his own feet now. Needs must).

Ford wouldn’t be caught dead in this getup. No sense of fashion. So that’s fine.

The glasses—

(Ford started wearing glasses when he was six. Stan had laughed himself silly when they went to the drugstore and tried on the biggest, most obnoxious frames they could find. Ma had scolded, but she’d been too distracted checking price tags to do more than scold.

In the end, they went with some cheap horn-rimmed frames that Stan wouldn’t be caught dead in even now. Old-man glasses, at six. But that was Ford all over).

—they bring some stuff up. The twin thing sucks, sometimes.

(Looking in a mirror and seeing the changes, the lines in his face, the grey in his hair — does Ford have crow’s feet now? Is his hair going silver? It was always unmanageable — is it thinning like Stan’s is now, or is it still thick and flyaway, like it was when Ford was sixteen? Did he even live long enough to get lines in his face and aches in his joints, or is he forever twenty-eight, dead somewhere in the universe?)

Time to stop thinking.

Notice the differences.

Stan’s ears and nose are bigger than Ford’s, always have been. He’s heavier and his shoulders are broader.

(Has Ford gotten bulkier, fighting to survive? Or is still he halfway to gaunt, like the last time Stan saw him?)

Definitely time to stop thinking.

Stan flashes a smile, and yeah, that’s all him. Cheerful, magnetic, and a hundred percent fake.

Time to work the crowds.

*****

There’s an ad for the nice ink pens Ford saved up to buy when he was fourteen.

Stan turns it off.

*****

Mabel finds a picture, once.

“Grunkle Stan!” Her eyes are all lit up as she shows him the torn photograph. “I found this under a floorboard in the attic!”

If Stan ever had any doubts about his poker face, he can lay them to rest now. It’s all on the ropes and his expression is perfectly level, maybe even a little curious.

Mabel is still talking. “I didn’t know there were pictures of you before you were all old! Do you have any others?”

Oh.

Stan still forgets sometimes, even after everything, that most people can’t tell him and Ford apart.

He knows better.

The young man in the photograph is unmistakably Ford, taken while he was living in Gravity Falls. He’s got his head bent over that journal of his, but the photographer managed to catch the eager light in his eye, the edge of his smile.

Stan wonders who that photographer was, all those years ago.

A tug at his shirt reminds him he’s not alone, and he definitely can’t get messed up about this picture of his secret twin brother.

Mabel’s face has fallen a bit. “Grunkle Stan? Are you okay?”

Stan gives himself two more seconds to look at the picture — Ford just looks so happy; Stan can’t even remember the last time Ford looked like that, even before it all fell apart — and turns to Mabel.

“Yeah,” he says. He smiles and ruffles her hair. “Pretty good picture, huh?”

*****

The name is the worst.

Stan never thought identity theft could involve so little fun.

Usually he can get away with just “Stan Pines,” and that’s fine. That’s his name. That’s who he’s supposed to be.

Sometimes, though, that’s not enough for whoever’s asking.

“What did you say your name was again?”

He smiles. Lays it on thick. “Stanford Pines.”

“Could you sign here?”

He does. His blocky, uneven handwriting looks even worse than usual where he’s expecting to see neat, flowing script, the way Stanford Pines is supposed to be written.

“This is Stanford Pines,” someone will say. “Mr. Mystery.”

Stan smiles some more. Yes, Stanford Pines is certainly that.

Gideon is the worst. Stanford this and Stanford that and Stan’s never wanted to punch a child so much in his life.

“Stanford Pines!”

He smiles, and he lies.

*****

Dipper halfway drives him nuts sometimes.

It’s not like the kid’s a mini-Ford — he reminds Stan enough of himself, sometimes, though Stan’s not sure that’s great either — but he’s got the brains and the stubbornness and the love of weird nonsense, for sure.

He’s also got that obsessive edge, the drive that sent Ford right off the metaphorical cliff.

Usually Mabel tags along on the weirdness hunts — they make a day of it. They go out, just the two of them, and come back laughing and joking and shoving at each other.

That’s enough of a painful reminder, but sometimes Stan will catch Mabel sitting by herself, coloring or crafting with a little less energy than usual, and he’ll realize that Dipper’s buried himself in monster theory again.

He tries to keep the kid busy with chores and hustle, but it’s a losing battle.

It was the first time, too.

*****

There’s this old song that Ford used to love when they were younger.

It’s got no words, and Stan used to make fun of it — what's the point of a song with no words? But Ford insisted it had Meaning, capital M.

It comes on the radio now and then.

Depending on how masochistic Stan is feeling that day, he might let it play.

He still wonders what Ford heard in this song, and if Ford would hear it now.

*****

He realizes, one day near the end, that he’s been Stanford longer than he’s been Stanley.

What’s the point, really? What does a name matter if it’s so easy for someone else to take your place?

(Did Ford matter so little, in the grand scheme of things, that not one person could recognize him in a place he lived for six years?

Does Stan, in a place he’s lived for almost thirty?)

If he could just stop catching Ford in his reflection now and then, that’d be great.

*****

It’s not any better once Ford gets back (once Stan brings Ford back, the ungrateful bastard).

“Stanford!”

Stan’s got a smile on his face before he even turns around, and what’s wrong with him that he’s halfway made this lie into a Pavlovian response? Someone calls him Stanford, he smiles and lies.

(Stanford — the real Stanford — is in the basement right now. He doesn’t even exist, as far as anyone else is concerned. Stan is Stanford, Stanley is dead, and Ford is a nonentity.

What a life this is).

*****

“So how was it?”

Stan grunts. “How was what?”

Ford rolls his neck, wincing a little as he works out the unavoidable crick from hunching over a drawing for twenty minutes. “Being me.”

Stan shrugs. “Wasn’t hard. We’re basically the same person, y’know.”

Ford snorts. A long time (a lifetime) ago that comment might have gotten him worked up, but he’s steadier now, softer around the edges. “Very funny. I saw your lease renewal. You didn’t even change your handwriting, for heaven’s sake.”

“Ford, I rolled up to town, said I was you, and started a tourist trap. You had a total personality transplant and nobody noticed.” Stan grimaces. That sounded really bad.

Ford’s expression has gone rueful and a little sad at the edges, but he doesn’t seem like he’s about launch into full-blown self-recrimination, so that’s fine. “Yes, well. That’s what happens when you isolate yourself for six years and your only friend erases his mind to cope with the mistakes you made.”

And that’s Ford trying to shoulder all the blame again, but Stan keeps his mouth shut. They’re both too comfortable to argue right now. “Being honest — for once — it kinda sucked.” Ford’s looking at him, open and encouraging, so Stan keeps going. “Everyone thought I was you, and it—I wasn’t. I didn’t want to be.” Stan shrugs. “I wanted you you.”

Ford smiles, and it’s a little more worn than Stan remembers, but it’s real, and it’s him. “I understand. I met a few parallel versions of you on my travels, and they were you, but — they weren’t really you.” Ford closes his journal (his new one) and sets it aside, tipping his head back over his chair. More playfully, he adds, “I wouldn’t want to be you either, Stanley.”

Stan laughs. “Yeah? Couldn’t handle the salesmanship?”

“Have more self-respect than to wear any part of your wardrobe.”

“Says the man who wears sweaters in the summer.”

Ford lifts his head and smiles, and this time it’s almost exactly how Stan remembers — quick and a little crooked. “Fair enough.” Ford stretches, rolls his neck again. “For what it’s worth, Stanley, I am glad to be back.” A wry look. “Even if it’s going to take ages to sort out the criminal record you gave me.”

Stan slouches deeper into the couch. Any further and he’s going to slide off, but that’s a risk he’ll take. “Yeah, yeah. Talk to me when you’re legally dead.”

“You did that.”

“And?”

“I legally don’t exist.”

“I was trying to learn theoretical physics at the time, Stanford; cut a man some slack.”

Ford laughs, quiet. “Did I ever thank you for that?”

Stan cracks an eye open. He didn’t realize he closed them. “What, learnin’ physics? Because I’m pretty sure that’s some of the stuff that’s not coming back.”

Ford rolls his eyes. “For saving me.”

“Hm.” Ford’s thanked him several times, but lately it’s been less Ford kicking himself and more Ford cautiously trying to engage in the old back-and-forth they used to have, and Stan can get behind that one. “I dunno. Might have to say it again.”

“You’re burning through my gratitude very quickly,” Ford says mildly, “but all right. Thank you for saving me. You knucklehead.”

Stan never got called that when he was Ford. He thinks he’s missed it, at least the way Ford says it — like it means something completely different.

“Uh-huh.” Stan’s eyes are closed again. He figures he’ll just leave them closed. “Missed you too, nerd.”

And maybe there’s something to be said for being your own person.

It feels pretty good.

#gravity falls #gravity falls fanfiction #stanley pines #stanford pines #back on the angst with a happy ending train #feat. a side of introspection and melodrama!#i love it here

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thelastspeecher · 3 years

Text

Egg Stan Origins

In my notes earlier today, I saw that someone had liked one of my Egg Stan ficlets, and I decided to reread said ficlet. And then before I knew it, I was writing stuff for the Egg Stan AU, because I can’t control myself. So here, have...whatever this is.

——————————————————————————————

Ford slowly drifted back to wakefulness. As he opened his eyes, a fish darted across his field of vision.

Shit! I’m underwater! Panicking, Ford began to swim for the surface, before realizing that he wasn’t drowning. He let himself sink back to the ocean floor. Why can I breathe underwater? He held out his hands to inspect them. His mouth went dry. Thin, red webbing stretched between his twelve fingers. He looked down at his legs. Or rather, where his legs used to be. In their place was a large, extravagant tail with golden scales and red fins.

“Fuck,” he whispered. He ran a hand through his hair.

I’m- I’m a merman? How did that happen? He racked his brain, desperate for answers. The creature! The last thing he remembered was being on the ship, with a massive sea serpent bearing down upon them. When the serpent opened its mouth to spray venom at him, Stan had jumped in front of him to act as a shield. Stanley!

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Ford muttered, frantically looking around for his twin. There weren’t any other mermen in the vicinity.

Maybe he avoided this fate? Doubtful. Ford’s eyes landed on what looked like a large fish egg, partially buried in the sand. He swam over, rendered clumsy by his new tail, and gently lifted the egg from the sand. The egg was red but transparent, allowing him to see the very young mer curled up within. Is this- is this Stan?

“No. That’s not possible.” Ford spoke aloud in an attempt to convince himself. The mer in the egg suddenly twisted around, revealing its face. Ford’s heart plummeted. The mer had a face he recognized well. No one outside their family had that large, ruddy nose. “Stanley…” Ford held the egg close to his chest, panic rising.

Stan’s been turned into a mer child still in utero. I’m fully grown, but a merman. What am I supposed to do? Suddenly, his ears picked up the sound of voices in the distance. He swallowed nervously. I’m not one to typically ask for help, but I don’t really have a choice, do I? Ford swam towards the voices. As he got closer, he saw the source – a young merman and mermaid, probably related, judging by their similar features.

“Excuse me,” Ford called. The merman and mermaid changed course, swimming over to him. “I- I need some help.”

“Why aren’t ya speakin’ Mermish?” the merman asked in thickly accented English. His tail was a burnt orange, contrasting with his dark hair.

“I wasn’t aware that merfolk had their own language,” Ford said. The merman and mermaid looked doubtfully at each other. “I- I’m human, you see, and-”

“Uh, if you were a former human, you’d have a belly button,” said the merman, sounding suspicious. Ford looked down. His jaw dropped.

“What the-” He stared at the completely smooth skin where his belly button had previously been located. “I don’t- I don’t know how that happened.”

“Who’s this lil feller?” the mermaid cooed, peering at the egg Stan was in. Her accent was just as thick as the merman’s. She and the merman had the same large nose, but her hair was caramel-colored, matching her pale yellow tail.

“My twin brother. What happened to make me like this, it- somehow it affected him more severely and-”

“What’s a twin?” the merman asked.

“A sibling born at the same time as you.”

“Yer claimin’ this cutie is from the same clutch you hatched from?” the mermaid asked.

“Yes? No? Look, I don’t understand your mer terminology, I’m human!” Ford burst out. The merman and mermaid exchanged a concerned look.

“It’s okay,” the mermaid said soothingly. She held out her hands. “I can take yer brother so’s ya can swim better.”

“No!” Ford held Stan’s egg even tighter. Stan swirled around in the egg. Alarm flashed in the mermaid’s eyes.

“Okay, okay,” she said. “I won’t take ‘im. But I think that it might be best if ya come with us to our house, at least fer the night. It’ll get dark soon. The guppy eels come out when the light fades.”

“G-guppy eels?” Ford stammered.

“They eat eggs ‘n guppies,” the merman said. Ford’s heart leapt into his throat. “Are ya goin’ to come with us, stranger?” Ford swallowed.

“I don’t really have any other choice,” he mumbled. The merman patted him on the back.

“That’s the spirit. Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of room fer the both of ya.”

-----

By the time Ford and the merfolk arrived at their destination, a large underwater cliff face, he was exhausted. Not just physically, though the swim had been more taxing than he expected. He was also mentally weary from the immense amount of information he’d learned from the merfolk. Apparently, humans did turn into mers on rare occasions, but when they did, they kept their belly buttons. In addition, mer eggs were laid in massive clutches and kept in something called a “guppy basket”. His hosts had assured him that they had a guppy basket where Stan could go.

But he’s not leaving my sight. The merman, whose name was Lute, looked at Ford with some amusement.

“Yer a bit out of shape, ain’t ya?” he asked. The mermaid, who was named Angie, punched him.

“Be nice,” she chided. Ford’s initial assessment of the two being related was correct; they were siblings.

Not just siblings. Clutch-mates. From what Lute and Angie had told him, clutch-mate seemed to be the closest mer analog to a twin. Clutch-mates were siblings that hatched from the same clutch of eggs, though they sometimes hatched days apart.

“I’ll go alert the folks we’ve got a guest,” Lute said. He opened a door into the cliff that Ford hadn’t seen and ducked inside. Ford looked askance at Angie.

“It’s an optical illusion thing,” she said with a shrug. “Unless ya know where the entrance is, ya can’t find it.” Of the two siblings, she seemed the kinder and gentler, taking what Ford said at face value. Unlike her brother.

Though she could just be humoring me. I’m fairly certain they think I’m having some sort of nervous breakdown. Angie smiled at Ford, then opened the door. I’ll take humoring me over mocking me.

“C’mon on in,” she said. Ford reluctantly swam inside. He was in a pleasantly homey living room that, if it weren’t underwater, could be mistaken for belonging to a human family. Potted plants lazily swayed from small currents. A middle-aged merman and mermaid sat on a couch, speaking with Lute.

Presumably, these are Angie and Lute’s parents. One of the many things he’d been told during the swim was that merfolk lived with their parents until they had a mate, after which they would find their own place to live. As unmated merfolk, Angie and Lute had yet to move out. Lute was a carbon copy of his father, with the exception of his tail color; his father’s tail was blue. Angie looked exactly like her mother, down to her tail color, but had her father’s large nose.

“This must be the poor young man you found,” said their mother, catching sight of Ford. She got up from the couch and swam over to him. “Hmm…” She looked him up and down. “What’s your name, son?”

“S-Stanford Pines.”

“That’s not a mer surname,” the mother commented idly, still looking at Ford with a thoughtful gaze. “But it is a human one.” She smiled. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Sally MerGucket, but if ya like, ya can call me Mrs. MerGucket.”

“Mrs. MerGucket,” Ford mumbled. Mrs. MerGucket nodded.

“My mate Mearl is on the couch.” Mr. MerGucket smiled warmly at Ford. “It looks like you could use a guppy basket fer that egg.”

“No, he’s going to stay with me,” Ford said firmly.

“Of course he will,” Mrs. MerGucket said, sounding surprised. “The basket will go in the same room ya sleep in.”

“…Oh.”

“Come with me, dear. I’ll show you to yer room fer the night.” Mrs. MerGucket took Ford’s hand and led him out of the living room, down a hall, and into what was clearly a guest bedroom of sorts. Under normal circumstances, Ford would ask a million questions about the furniture in the room, particularly the bed, with a frame made of what appeared to be living coral.

I don’t feel much like asking questions right now, though. Ford looked down at Stan’s egg. Through the membrane, he could see Stan sucking his thumb. Mom always hated when he did that.

“Stanford.” Ford looked up. Mrs. MerGucket sat on the edge of the bed. She patted the bed. “Sit with me.” Reluctantly, Ford swam over and sat next to her. “May I?” Mrs. MerGucket held out her hands. Ford shook his head, keeping Stan close. “That’s quite all right.”

“You don’t believe me, do you?” Ford asked quietly. “That I used to be human. Your children certainly don’t.”

“Yes, they’re convinced that ya hit yer head,” Mrs. MerGucket said. “They were worried fer yer health, as well as the health of the egg, since a confused guardian ain’t a safe one.”

“You’re dodging the question.”

“I didn’t mean to.” Mrs. MerGucket sighed. “Stanford, I believe ya.” Ford’s head whipped up. He stared at her. “I suspect my children would, too, if they weren’t used to human behaviors.” Ford frowned.

“What do you mean?” he asked. Mrs. MerGucket gestured to her torso. Ford’s eyes widened. Unlike her mate and children, Mrs. MerGucket had a belly button. “You’re…”

“Yes. I used to be human. Since I helped to raise my children, they don’t realize yer behaviors ‘n tendencies ‘re human through ‘n through. But I’ve spent enough time among merfolk to tell ya used to be human, too.” Mrs. MerGucket looked at Ford thoughtfully. “Well. Either that, or ya were raised by humans. But I suspect you’d be a tad more traumatized, were that the case.”

“I’m feeling fairly traumatized at the moment,” Ford mumbled. Mrs. MerGucket put her hand on his shoulder.

“Son, you can stay here as long as ya like, okay?”

“I just want things to be the way they were yesterday,” Ford whispered.

“I understand. Unfortunately, I ain’t sure whether there’s a way to do that. But we’ll do our best to help. Once we hear yer story from ya, rather than from Lute, we’ll have a better idea of what happened to ya. But that can wait until you’ve had some rest. You ‘n that lil egg have been through a lot today.”

“Yes,” Ford said, his voice breaking. “We have.”

“I’ll bring ya the guppy basket to put the egg in, okay? And once that’s done, ya can get some sleep.” Ford nodded woodenly. Mrs. MerGucket left the room.

“Stanley,” Ford whispered helplessly to the egg that had been his brother. “What- what are we going to do?” Stan offered no answers, merely curling up tightly within his egg.

-----

Stan’s egg rocked back and forth within the guppy basket.

“Be patient,” Ford chided as he combed his hair. He’d learned the hard way that if he didn’t comb regularly, small crustaceans would take up residence in his thick curls. After spending a few months with the MerGuckets, he felt more or less settled as a merman.

At the very least, I feel less like a fish out of water. Ford managed a small smile at the almost pun. Every day, he learned more about merfolk and mer society from the MerGuckets. They had yet to determine what sea creature had transformed him and Stan, however, and as a result, were no closer to reversing the process. I suspect Mrs. MerGucket was right. What happened to us can’t be remedied. His good mood evaporated. Stanley and I are stuck. Said stuck egg abruptly rolled in the basket.

“I told you to calm down,” Ford said, swimming over. He wasn’t sure how much Stan was aware of in the egg, nor how much he would recall when hatched, but couldn’t shake the habit of talking to the egg like nothing had changed. Like Stan was still his stubborn, adult self. “I’ll put you in the sling in a moment.” The egg rolled again. “Fine!” Ford grabbed the egg sling off his dresser and put it on. While it was impossible to carry an entire clutch in an egg sling, merfolk used them to keep close eggs they were concerned about.

Luckily, I only have one egg, so transporting the full clutch isn’t an issue. Ford froze. No. Did I just- did I just think of Stan as being my child?

“Everything all right in here?” a voice asked. Ford looked over his shoulder. Fiddleford treaded water in the doorway, smiling at him. A few days after Ford came to the MerGucket home, Fiddleford, Angie and Lute’s older brother, had returned home from an internship. Very quickly, Fiddleford had become Ford’s favorite of the MerGucket children. Angie was kind and quite brilliant, but rambunctious in a way that reminded Ford of Stan and was thus painful to be around for long. Lute was abrasive and curt, and still didn’t seem convinced Ford was telling the truth.

Fiddleford, however, was gentle and warm, with an intellect to rival Ford’s. The fact that Fiddleford was obsessed with human culture, and thus fascinated by Ford’s stories, only served to deepen their connection.

“Yes, everything’s quite all right,” Ford said. He carefully placed Stan’s egg in the sling. “Stan’s just being difficult this morning.” Fiddleford swam over, frowning.

“He’s just an egg. How could he be difficult?”

“Oh, he’s been moving around a lot.”

“He…” Fiddleford’s eyes widened. “How long has this been goin’ on?”

“A couple of days. Why?”

“Stanford, eggs start movin’ when they’re gettin’ ready to hatch,” Fiddleford said gently. Ford’s mouth dropped open. “I reckon ya might want to put the egg back in the basket.” Numb, Ford did as he was told, removing Stan’s egg from the sling and gently setting it inside the guppy basket. The egg began to rock and roll in earnest. Finally, a tiny hand punched through the egg’s membrane.

“He’s…” Ford whispered. His voice failed him as he watched a newborn mer crawl through the hole. “He’s…”

“Quite the looker,” Fiddleford said quietly. The newborn mer, with fins and scales a drab green color, scrunched up his face and began to cry.

“What- what do I-” Ford asked desperately. Fiddleford scooped up the newborn mer and gently placed him in the egg sling Ford still wore.

“Newborn guppies like to be held,” Fiddleford said.

Right. Mer children are referred to as guppies. And they don’t get their mature scale and fin colors until adolescence. Ford stared down at the guppy curled up in the sling. He was the spitting image of old family pictures of Stan. Which makes sense, given that he is Stan. Ford hesitantly stroked the guppy’s cheek. The guppy leaned into the movement with a soft crooning sound. …Is he?

“Is somethin’ wrong?” Fiddleford asked hesitantly.

“I…” Ford swam over to his bed and sat down. Fiddleford followed, sitting next to him. “I think that some part of me expected the Stan I knew to hatch from the egg. That he would be himself, with all his memories and quirks, but…a child.” His voice began to quiver. “That obviously isn’t the case. He’s my brother, but not- not really. Despite my best attempts, I’ve lost him.”

“Don’t think of it that way,” Fiddleford said. He placed his hand on Ford’s shoulder. “Think of it as him gettin’ a fresh start. Ya told me how yer pa wasn’t kind.”

“No, he wasn’t.”

“Well then, this is a chance fer him to get the kind of father he didn’t get the first time,” Fiddleford said gently. Ford swallowed.

“…Yes. I- I suppose you’re right.” He removed the guppy from the sling to nestle in his arms. The guppy looked up at him with curious brown eyes. Ford carefully removed stray bits of egg from the guppy’s thick, brown curls. “Hello.” The guppy cocked his head, interested. Ford held him close. “It’s good-” he started. His voice gave out. He took a deep breath and tried again. “It’s good to see you again, Stanley.”

#I haven't written MerGucket content in a hot minute! it's nice to write it again lol #even if it is for this unnecessarily complicated variation lmaoooo #but at least this is the intro for the AU so I don't have to explain it lol #Egg Stan AU #MerGucket AU #Stanford Pines #Lute McGucket #Angie McGucket #Ma McGucket #Fiddleford McGucket #McGucket Family #ficlet #my writing #my stuff #speecher speaks

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1ddiscourseoftheday · 4 years

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💀 Sat 3 Oct ‘20 🎃

Harryween may have been pushed back to next year, but you know who always come through for us in the clutch: Liam! The LP show logo on veeps has changed to a version that's a carved pumpkin with spoopy flames inside, suggesting a halloween event. How will Liam top the costume he already wore at his birthday stream? I'm aflutter with chills of anticipation... Also he finished the skull drawing he started on his livestream the other day and captioned it “getting ready for Halloween.” I'd have been wildly impressed anyway, but seeing it go from a pencil outline to a shaded masterpiece makes it even more impressive. This fandom is full of things that seem too improbable to be real, and Liam being not just an incredibly talented musician but also a one-time olympic level runner and skilled visual artist with a miraculous kidney who once saved someone from a burning building comes in ahead of even the frankly unrealistic number of identical twins we have to deal with, someone really needs to speak with the writers about dialing it back a touch. Who does they think he is, James Bond or something?!

Charlie Lightening (who was on hand 24/7 at the time of the Walls release and shared with a fan the anxiety he and the rest of Team Louis were feeling about whether it would do well) posted about the album's unexpected return to the chart this week, saying “shoutout to the fans who made this happen. I've seen [their] support globally it's something else,” and Jamie Hartman, who Louis credits with finding him the sound he wanted in their work together, also thanked fans (“[Louis] has some of the most amazing fans in the bloody world!”) and said he “was with him all week making some new magic so it was perfect timing.” Jamie tagged the wrong account for Louis but that's okay since he would have been able to congratulate him in person anyway while they banged out the “four songs in four days” Louis just told us about! What a welcome interruption that wild fan intervention must have been and the perfect boost for those new tunes- talk about a win for fans.

Niall says “we're back!” with a OOTD post and a 9 song playlist for BBC1, so Niall stans who feared that his recent tweet about taking time out might mean we wouldn't hear from him for a while can turn those frowns upside down! I believe he meant not that he was going dark and disappearing but simply that he doesn't plan to release new music while promo and touring are still hampered, which certainly makes sense given the interruption of the Heartbreak Weather release, and his continued media presence would seem to confirm this.

Hey, do you know who else ISN'T James Bond? Well, all of them (even Louis, he was the evil cat), but only one of them went on record to say so today; Harry. According to his team rumors published in the Daily Mail saying he was in meetings to star in the franchise, “aren't even remotely true.” And last but not least, add a name to the varied and bizarre assortment of celebs who have praised Harry: Jon Bon Jovi, who said, “Harry Styles is the real deal. He’s really great.” Someday we'll have to compile that list; it will be thousands long and genuinely the funniest most random possible assortment of people, I'd love to be at that dinner party (but ofc not really as that would be very unsafe and unlike n*zi politicians I would not want to see the Harry fan club suffer the consequences of careless socializing.)

#liam payne #louis tomlinson #Harry Styles #Niall Horan #Eleanor is taking Cliff out again at last! but by driving to the park not walking him over by Louis' house #presumably because she stays at her place and out of the way when Louis is in residence #oh look Jamie lives right near Oxford how about that looks like I was RIGHT HMMM #I hope everyone who harrassed those poor fans on twitter saying they were lying feels bad #I hope Louis and Cliff had a great trip up there and got some nice walks in #Jamie also has a dog named Harry who looks an awful lot like Bruce WHY IS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS #you know what though I actually remember being in London years ago and being like #why does everyone here have the same like 3 kinds of dogs only #not like here in the states where it's just thousands of kinds like I didn't think that was real I figured it was just me but...#now I'm wondering if maybe I was on to something??#anyway Cliffy's RAINCOAT OMG I LOVE pampered boyo in a hoodie PRECIOUS #also: Liam is a Gary Sue why are you booing me I'm right #if this were a fic I was betaing I would have Things to Say about the Liam OC #charlie lightening #eleanor #cliff #Jamie Hartman #theLPshow #3 oct 20 #bon jovi #okay nice I see tumblr just fully erased my final edit before posting great great #the fact that naill and lewis are hanging out can go in tomorrow but for todays tags i DID want to say #that all those happy little new family outing posts the last few days from nick and briana?#Tammi posted stuff showing the whole family was there LMAO #FAKE FAKE FAKE #tammi doesn't trust briana to watch her kid any more than we would tbh lol

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fallen-gravity · 4 years

Text

awaken the stars, ‘cause they’re all around you

Stanford Pines never really believed in soulmates.

He can't imagine the idea that there's one person out there for him in the multiverse who would stop at nothing to love him for who he is, despite everything he is and everything he's done. He can't imagine that someone out there is meant for him, someone who will stand by his side until the end of time.

Or maybe he'd just been looking at it from the wrong angle.

Notes:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, @stariousfalls!!!!! I can't believe we've been friends for upwards of five years now?? You've been a huge inspiration of mine from my first day in the gravity falls fandom back in late 2014, and now you're one of my closest friends. I've been spending the last week and a half working on this behind your back, because I wanted to surprise you with a gift I thought you'd love!!

7.5k words of fluff was....not my original plan, but fluff brain wanted to go feral for you, I guess.

Huge, huge shoutout to @ariasofelegance for helping me keep my mouth shut about this, I absolutely would've internally combusted without your help & support

AO3

Ford never saw the appeal of romantic relationships.

One night when he and Stan were kids, they snuck downstairs in the middle of the night after their parents were asleep to dig through Pa’s “Secret stash” of movies he thought he was good at keeping a secret. They’d thought for sure they’d be coming across bootleg cuts of action movies that were still playing in theaters, or documentaries about how all of the politicians in power were secretly aliens.

What they actually found was much more…sensual. They were both horrified, to say the least, but each time Ford had to turn away to prevent himself from gagging, he’d hear Stan beside him struggling not to laugh.

For years, Ford was convinced coming across those tapes before he was old enough to fully comprehend what was happening in them is what had turned him off to relationships altogether. It certainly didn’t help that he was never able to experience romantic relationships firsthand, as every time he tried asking someone out in high school he’d just be laughed at or called a freak.

Though college was another story entirely, his feelings towards romantic relationships never seemed to change. He went out with a girl from his dungeons, dungeons, and more dungeons club for a few weeks, a guy from his advanced physics class for almost two months, and even tried going out with Fiddleford for upwards of nine months, but he never felt that deeper connection with any of them, no matter how much he wanted to feel that connection.

It’d be forty more years before he learned the term aromantic, but when he was still in college he would brush off his parents’ questions about his relationship status by telling them he was too busy working on his thesis, which technically wasn’t all that far from the truth anyway.

Still, the faint sense of yearning never seemed to leave him be. Whenever he found gaps in his schedule, he would spend hours in his university library reading up on the science of relationships and their place in society. Though he no longer remembers most of the papers he read, one scientific study that’s always stuck with him was a dissertation written entirely on the concept of soulmates.

Everyone has a soulmate, the paper claimed. Though it may be decades until you properly meet, your path always leads to the moment that you and your soulmate are finally united. Once finally together, not a single force on earth can tear you apart. Even if you are apart physically, the stars will always align to bring you together. Weirdest of all, the paper mentioned soulmarks, which were described as “the phenomenon that a person’s very soul is marked with a piece that belongs to their soulmate, which may appear as a physical anomaly on a person’s body, such as an oddly-shaped birthmark”.

Ford had thought for sure that somebody must’ve moved a romance novel into the sociology section of the library as a joke. The only sort of anomaly he had going for him was his polydactyly, and thinking too much about how that could connect him to a single person who was destined to love him gave him a headache.

Nowadays, though, Ford tries not to give it much thought. He’s perfectly happy right where he is, watching the sunrise from the deck of the Stan O’ War II through the steam visibly rising from his coffee mug.

He sighs contently.

“Mornin’” Stan’s voice sounds beside him, gruff with sleep. When Ford turns to look at him, he’s rubbing at his eyes with one hand while he holds a steaming cup of coffee in his other. He’s already donning one of the sweaters Mabel mailed to him, a deep blue with a tropical island and a treasure chest stitched across the chest.

Ford smirks. “You’re up early”

Stan cocks an eyebrow as he sips from his coffee. “A’course I am. I always get up early when we’re docking to see the kids”

Ford blinks, the teasing smirk on his face melting into a gentle smile. “That’s today?”

“Haven’t you checked the calendar lately?” Stan tosses a second handmade sweater at Ford. This one’s the same shade of maroon as his journal covers, and pictures an angry cycloptopus squirting ink towards the bottom left corner of the sweater. “The kids are on spring break. They talked to their parents about letting us have ‘em all week”

Ford is quick to pull the warm sweater over his head. “All week?”

He can’t help sounding like a broken record, but it’s been months since the last time he saw the kids face to face. Sure, they talk over video at least once a week, but nothing beats seeing their smiling faces and having them nearly tackle him to the ground in a hug in-person.

“Heh, you miss em too, Sixer?”

As little as two years ago, Ford would’ve flinched at the nickname. But Bill is gone for good, and Ford knows that Bill is gone for good, and Stan made a promise to do anything in his power to help him reclaim the nickname. He brings his mug close to his face without taking a sip, allowing himself to take in the warmth in his hands and the steam in his face.

“Not as much as you, clearly” Ford smirks, and Stan crosses his arms over his chest.

“You bet I missed them more than you. I’d been taking care of them all summer before you showed up and fell in love with them in half that time”

Ford smirks as he finishes up his coffee and heads into the navigation room to set their course. “By that logic, wouldn’t that mean that I miss them more, since I had less time with them?”

“Hey!” Stan groans as he follows him into the room. “It does not. It means that you don’t know them like I know them, genius. Everyone knows that it’s all about how much time you’ve spent with a person that determines how close you are with them”

Ford laughs as he enters the coordinates they need to get to the seaport they were meeting the young twins at. From the looks of it, it’d be three hours before they arrived.

“Mm, and who put that study together? Was it you?”

Stan doesn’t reply with words, just a noise that sounds halfway between disgruntled and baffled. It makes Ford laugh even harder, and he wipes at his eyes with a wrist. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Stan’s overdramatic pout melt away until he’s laughing too.

The sight of it makes the smile on Ford’s face widen. It’d been decades since the two of them were able to just be like this. It’d been so long since the last time Ford heard Stan’s genuine laugh that he’d gone and forgotten what it sounded like altogether. When he was still traveling the multiverse, he searched far and wide for a shred of hope, something to keep his anxieties and nightmares from catching up to him.

What a fool he’d been to ignore his childhood memories of home.

The trip is a quiet but familiar one. Ford can’t talk much when he’s steering because he needs to be on constant lookout, but Stan remains in the room to talk at him and keep him company anyway. The sun is well over the horizon by the time they reach the seaport, and call it instincts, intuition, or something else entirely, because Ford spots the kids sitting on a bench in the near distance the moment he and Stan step foot onto the dock.

They’re squished closely together, watching a video on Mabel’s phone. Whether they’re aware of it or not, they’re swaying their legs back and forth underneath the bench in perfect unison. On the ground beside them are their backpacks, overstuffed with so many things that both of them are popping open.

Most importantly, neither of them have noticed that Ford and Stan are approaching them.

Ford exchanges an amused glance with Stan, and clears his throat to catch their attention.

The phone nearly stumbles out of their hands in shock when they look up and meet their eyes.

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel squeals, standing to sprint past Ford to knock Stan off of his feet. Ford chuckles at the sight, but not quickly enough to hear Dipper’s “Great Uncle Ford!”, and before he knows it he’s hitting the floor too. The young twins are laughing messes, and stumble over each other as they try to stand to their feet and help their Grunkles up.

Mabel spits out the hair that stuck to her mouth, and pulls a hair tie seemingly out of thin air to tie her hair up into a ponytail. It’s only now that Ford realizes that she and Dipper are also both wearing sweaters, and if Ford had to guess, it looks like Mabel made both of these sweaters as well. Mabel’s is a galaxy print with actual twinkling stars, and Ford makes a mental note to ask her later what she did to make it glow like that. Dipper’s is also space themed, though his pictures the big dipper splotched across a black night sky with a bright orange meteor shooting through the center.

“You have to tell us about everything you’ve encountered”, Dipper beams, once Stan finishes brushing himself off.

Stan cocks an eyebrow. “Two years’ worth is a lot to get through, kiddo”

“Exactly!” Mabel beams, turning to pick up her backpack and put it on. “Which is exactly why you can tell us on the way to the hotel!”

“Hotel?” Ford and Stan ask in unison.

“Surprise?” Dipper giggles. “Our parents rented us a hotel room for the week cause they figured you’d appreciate some time away from the boat”

“It’ll be like our summer in Gravity Falls all over again!” Mabel grins. “But in reverse! You’re in our territory now”

Stan laughs. “You’re the boss, kiddo”

“You bet I am!” She beams, and hands Dipper his backpack. “Now c’mon! If you tell us all of the horrors you’ve encountered out at sea, we’ll tell you about all the horrors we’ve encountered in high school!”

“I...think I remember those horrors pretty well already, thank you” Ford smiles sheepishly, adjusting his glasses. “But we’d be more than glad to tell you some of our own stories”

It’s a short walk to the bus stop, but Ford honestly wouldn’t mind if they walked all the way to the hotel on foot if it meant an extra half an hour with the kids. They’re just as eccentric as he remembers, attached at the hip but still wildly different people all on their own. Dipper’s still hanging on to every word he’s saying, and Mabel’s still skipping along like she’s in her own world.

Once they reach the hotel and check in, Dipper collapses face first onto one of the beds the moment he steps into the room, groaning.

Stan smiles. “Something bothering you, kiddo?”

He turns on his side to look Stan in the eye, his face smushing into the pillow. “Mabel didn’t let me get any sleep last night. She insisted on getting to the seaport three whole hours early because she insisted that she had this gut feeling that you guys would have the same idea and we’d magically show up at the same time”

Mabel pouts, and sits on the bed besides him. “Well it’s not my fault you stayed up late reading that dumb book of yours. Plus, would you rather have kept them waiting for three hours?”

Dipper removes his hat and places it on the table beside him, exposing just enough of his forehead through his hair to reveal his birthmark. It has the same faint glow to it as Mabel’s sweater, and Ford wonders how the two could possibly reflect off of each other.

“Their boat has beds and a fully stocked kitchen, Mabel. They can afford to wait. All we had were those strawberry pop tarts that you ate five minutes after we got there”

Ford can’t help but smile softly at their banter. He missed them so, so, much more than he could’ve ever imagined. He’s got half a mind to stow them away on the boat at the end of the week and homeschool them both himself so he never has to be apart from them again.

Apart. The word still feels like a knife twisted into his chest. There’s nothing he regrets more than trying to separate the young twins from each other two summers ago because he’d been so caught up in projecting his own fears onto the pair. He’d tried apologizing to Mabel over the whole ordeal, but she stopped him before he could even start to tell him he had nothing to worry about.

He only wishes he could learn to forgive himself as easily as she did.

“...Can we, Grunkle Ford?”

He blushes. Had he just said all of that out loud?

“Can we...what?”

“Take the boat out! Not right now, since Dips is being a grumpy-grump and insists on wasting precious time with a nap, but we’ve been talking about it all week”

From across the room, Stan snorts. “Let me get this straight,” he takes his jacket off and hangs it up in the closet. At this point Ford swears his eyes must be playing tricks on him, because Stan’s old burn scar is glowing just as Mabel’s sweater and Dipper’s birthmark are. “All the time you spent groaning and complaining about fishing every time I took you in Gravity Falls, and now you’re asking to go fishing?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a joy ride,” Dipper yawns from under the covers. “But if agreeing to go fishing is what gets you to say yes, then sure”

He’s smirking under the covers, Ford can tell, because he inherited that expression from Stan.

Stan’s about to bite back, but Dipper must not have been exaggerating about how long he and Mabel were waiting for them at the dock, because he’s already out cold. Stan smiles at him, gently ruffling up his hair before he takes a seat on the adjacent bed, kicking his shoes off so he can kick his feet up on the bed and relax. Ford sits beside Stan, and Stan slings his arms behind him to support his head in his hands as he glances over at Ford.

“They make you wanna retire the whole ‘treasure hunting’ thing and move into the city to be closer to ‘em too?”

Ford chuckles. “I’ve already considered hiding them away on the boat twice today already.” He taps at his chin. “Though I suppose that moving in with them would go over better with their parents then taking them away to live on a boat”

“Hmm…” Stan taps at his chin as well. “Being stuck in the same stuffy high school for four years, or living on a boat traveling all over the world whenever they feel like it? I dunno about you, Sixer, but I have a pretty good idea on what the kids would prefer”

“Grunkle Stan? Grunkle Ford?” Mabel’s voice suddenly chimes in, and Ford blushes, wondering how much of that she just heard.

“What’s on your mind, pumpkin?” Stan asks.

“Well, uh, Dipper was right about us only eating once really early this morning, and I was wondering if you’d be willing to, uh” She twirls her hair between her fingers. “Cook something for us? For old time’s sake?”

Okay, it’s settled, Ford’s never letting these kids go again.

“Sure, kiddo. Soon as your brother’s up we’ll head right back up, okay?”

“Okay!” she beams, and crawls back into her side of the bed, staring at Dipper like she can will him into waking up on command.

Though Ford would’ve been okay if they’d had to wait hours for him, it’s really only about twenty minutes before Dipper opens his eyes again and nearly shrieks in surprise at Mabel’s face hovering three inches from his own. He smacks his hand into her face to shove her away, and she giggles as she rolls off the bed and onto the floor.

Beside Ford, Stan smirks. “Better get up before we leave without you and all our food goes to Mabel, kiddo. You’ve got plenty of time to crash in Ford’s bed on the ship, since he never seems to use it anyway”

Dipper yawns, rubbing at his eyes as he kicks the covers off. “I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen asleep”

“I didn’t realize you were even capable of sleep, bro-bro” Mabel punches him in the shoulder as she walks past him to put her shoes on. He glares at her wordlessly, and Ford has to cover up his snicker with a fake cough.

This time, the bus ride and the walk back to the ship are a quiet one. Ford never really lets himself let his guard down and relax for an extended period of the time, so he cherishes any moment he can get where he finally feels like he doesn’t constantly feel the need to check over his shoulder for signs of danger. Most of the time, if you asked him about his heightened senses, he’d call them a curse. But on days like these, when he can hear the birds chirping and the waves smacking gently against the boats in the seaport, he’d almost go as far as calling it a blessing.

The kids take a seat at the dining table as soon as they enter the kitchen, and Stan grins at them from over his shoulder as he clicks the stove on. “Whaddya say, Stancakes?”

Dipper and Mabel grimace in unison. “Ewwww, Grunkle Stan, you promised lunch!” Mabel scrunches her nose, and Stan’s grin only widens.

“Ah, ah, you said like old times. That means I get to decide what to make, and you have to eat it because I’m your legal guardian”.

“Well I wasn’t even awake when you were talking about old times, so I’d say that cancels out” Dipper crosses his arms over his chest, and Ford can’t help but smile warmly at the three of them as he reaches into the cupboard for his favorite coffee mug. The younger twins clearly had just gotten two copies of the same mug, but crossed both of them out so they’d say #1 GRUNKLES on them instead of #1 UNCLE. Stan has the other one, of course, but he keeps it on his bedside to hold small treasures and keepsakes because it’s, in his own words, “Too special to waste on something as ordinary as coffee”.

Ford sits himself in the seat between the younger twins at their okay, and after some back and forth banter between the four of them, they end up settling for burgers. Truth be told, this is the first time Ford’s eaten a meal in a group larger than two since the last time he and Stan visited the young twins in the winter, and he can’t help but smile into his food at the thought. The closest he’d come even remotely close to eating with others in his research years was his very, very brief time at the truck stop diner, and the experience had soured his view of...well, other people for near decades.

Now, though, he’d burn his own research dozens of times over before he’d even consider eating alone.

Stan’s chair scraping across the floor as he stands pops Ford out of his bubble of serenity.

“Now that that’s taken care of,” Stan cracks his knuckles, smiling mischievously at Dipper and Mabel. “I think I remember a couple of kiddos finally promising their Grunkle Stan he could take them fishing”

“Promise is a strong word-” Dipper starts as he stands to place his plate in the sink, but Stan’s already placing a fishing hat on his head before he can finish his sentence.

“Course you did! You wanna take our baby for a joyride, you gotta earn it first”

Dipper turns to Ford, like he’s expecting him to back him up.

Ford chuckles. “I don’t know, Dipper. That sounds perfectly reasonable to me”.

Dipper scoffs, sitting back down at the table. Mabel laughs.

“Aww, C’mon, Dipper! Aren’t you all about the supernatural? For all we know, Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford could be harboring magical glowing bait that only attracts, like, magical talking fish men, or something!”

Dipper raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t you just receive a bottle message from Mermando last week?”

“Exactly!” Mabel flashes a grin. “That must mean that he’s in the area!”

Stan laughs. “You tellin’ me you only agreed to go fishing so you could kiss and make-up with your long-distance fish boyfriend?”

“Grunkle Stan, what kind of person do you take me for?” she gasps. “He’s married! You know I would never want to break apart such a loving couple!”

Ford’s smile only warms. Where else could he partake in such a conversation that doesn’t turn heads and result in judgmental whispers? Where else can he just be like this, surrounded by loved ones who are just as weird, just as out of the ordinary as himself? In his younger years he thought for sure his place would be among the monsters and cryptids everyone in his childhood made him out to be, but even in the weirdness capital of the country he felt more alone than ever.

“...Don’t think you’re immune, Sixer” Stan’s voice cuts into his thoughts, and before Ford can ask what he means Stan is smacking a homemade fishing cap on his head. “It may ruin your badass image when we’re monster hunting, or whatever, but we’re fishing with the kids.” Stan gestures to them with his thumb. They’re already outside, leaning over the railing to look out at the water in a perfect mirror of each other. “If they have to embarrass themselves by humoring me for a few hours, so do you”

Ford waits for Stan to join the kids outside before he takes his hat off to admire the stitch work. It’s not perfect, and nowhere near the fancy embroidery he and Stan have found in various markets across their world travels. But it’s personalized, and Ford knows it comes from a place in Stan’s mind that’s been stuck behind lock and key since he was seventeen.

Ford runs his hands along each individual letter, which reads POINDEXTER, before placing it back on his head to join the others outside.

Stan has, miraculously, already pulled out his joke book. Stan’s laughing too hard at his own joke for Ford to really make out what the punchline is, but the younger twins’ collective groans is all he needs to know about it. When Mabel notices him stepping out of the doorway, though, her expression shifts entirely.

“So…” she draws out, stepping towards him. “Is there a trick for attracting merpeople to your boat? I mean, asides from being super cute, obviously”

Ford chuckles, taking a glance behind her to make sure that Stan is out of earshot. “Stan’ll kill me if I tell you this, but they’re really attracted towards shiny things. If you tied one of his gold necklaces around a fishing pole and dangled it into the water, the boat’ll be surrounded in minutes”

Mabel offers up her pinkie finger. “I won’t tell him if you won’t”

Ford interlocks his pinkie with hers, smiling. “I think he’ll notice when a whole family of merpeople show up”

“Hmmm…” Mabel taps at her chin with her free hand, visibly mouthing a plan to herself. “Oh! I know! Come with me,” she beams, and before Ford can even open his mouth to respond she’s already dragging him back into the kitchen. She kneels down on the floor and opens the cupboard below the sink. “Got any empty bottles I can use?”

Ford blinks. “Empty....bottles”

“Yeah!” Mabel pulls a neatly folded piece of paper out of her skirt. “If I can send out my response letter the same time we throw Stan’s necklace over, he’ll never be able to tell the difference!”

“Wait, wait” Ford shakes his head. “You really are dating a merperson?”

“Listening skills, Grunkle Ford” she taps at her forehead, folding the letter back into her pocket as she continues to dig through the cupboards. “Used to date. We met at the Gravity Falls Public Pool, where he was stuck, but then I drove him to the lake in a golf cart I stole from the pool grounds because he really missed his family, and then he was my first kiss, and then we were in a long-distance relationship for like, two months, and I kept every single bottle he sent me, but then we had to break up because he was arranged to marry to prevent a big undersea war.” She picks up a bottle, shakes it, and puts it back when it’s too full for her liking. “I know it sounds, like, super complicated, but it’s all okay, because we’re still pen pals!”

Ford laughs, shaking his head. “No, Mabel, I had to ask because I, uh…” his cheeks warm, and he clears his throat. “Before I...came to term with my orientation, I...dated a merperson too”

The bottles in the cupboard rattle as Mabel’s head smacks against the doorframe. She’s rubbing the spot where her head hit, but there are stars in her eyes. “Really?”

Ford’s cheeks burn even hotter. “Yes,” he whispers, and takes a knee so he can get at her eye level. “Technically he was a siren, but yes, we dated for about a month. He promised me he wouldn’t entice anyone else while we were together, but I guess there wasn’t anything...there.” He turns to help her shuffle through the cupboard, and finds a near-empty bottle of olive oil that’s definitely been sitting down there for at least a year. He hands it off to Mabel, smiling. “I’m glad that things worked out with you, though”

To his surprise, Mabel drops the bottle and throws her arms around him in a hug. “I can’t wait to introduce you! He’s gonna love you”

Ford huffs a quiet laugh, and pulls her close as he winds his arms around her as well. The hug only lasts for a few brief moments, but it feels to Ford in those moments that time itself had stopped. Mabel stands, taking the bottle in one hand and offering to help Ford up in her other.

Mabel places the bottle in the sink and turns the water on to rinse it out before she turns back towards Ford, stretching her arms up in the air as if she were warming up for an exercise. “Alright, here’s the plan. You tell me where Grunkle Stan keeps all of his jewelry, and I’ll sneak in and take his necklace while you distract him. Got it?”

Ford smiles. “Got it”.

As Mabel splits away for Stan’s bedroom, Ford heads back out to the deck. Dipper’s leaning over the side of the boat pointing at something jumping out of the water, rambling excitedly to Stan beside him. He’s holding his fishing hat in his hand to stop it from blowing into the water, and his hair is bouncing in the breeze. It’s just enough for the edge of his birthmark to poke through his bangs, and even in broad daylight it seems to be emitting a faint glow.

“I found it!” Mabel cheers, bounding up from behind him. She’s wearing the chain around her neck, and for some reason the gold seems much dimmer in contrast to her sweater. She takes it off and hands it to him. “You wanna do the honors while I go and throw this overboard?”

Ford smiles, ruffling her hair. “Sure thing.” He walks over to where Stan and Dipper are chatting and picks up one of the extra fishing rods. Making sure that Stan’s too engrossed with his conversation to notice, Ford starts wrapping the chain along the line, and at the signal from Mabel, he tosses his line as far from the boat as he can manage.

Five minutes pass before Mabel squeals so loud that Ford’s afraid his glasses might shatter. He reaches for the gun he knows he’s got stashed in his pants pocket, but when he turns to run to her aid she’s leaning halfway over the boat wrapping her arms around a young merman in a tight hug.

“...so good to see you again!” She’s beaming. “I didn’t think you’d be able to find us so quickly!”

“Yes, well, you were easy to track down after we figured out the coordinates to the seaport” the young man says in a thick Spanish accent. “It is good to see you too! My family was so excited to meet you”

“Your family?” she gasps. “Did they all come with you?”

“Of course!” he grins. “We merpeople are very family oriented. Wherever we go, we go together”

Ford winces at the uncanny familiarity of the statement. Mabel must recognize the statement too, because she responds with “Oh, that reminds me! There’s someone I want you guys to meet! Wait right here,” she says, and comes bouncing back over to Ford. Taking his hand in her own, she starts to drag him back to where she’d just been leaning. “C’mon! He’s the one I was just talking about!”

Three more merpeople emerge from the water when she gently knocks on the side of the boat again. “Grunkle Ford, this is Mermando!” she grins, gesturing to the young merman she’d just been conversing with. “He’s the one I helped reunite with his family after they were separated by tragic circumstances.” She wraps her arms around Ford in a side-hug. “Mermando, this is my Grunkle Ford! He was also separated from his family by tragic circumstances, but I helped with that too!”

Mermando laughs. “Even when you think it’s the end, family always finds its way, doesn’t it?”

Ford laughs, shaking his hand. “It always seems that way to me”

“Awwww!” Mabel squeals. “I knew you’d get along!” She grins, and turns her attention back towards Mermando. “Before I forget, though, did you see where Grunkle Ford threw that gold necklace? If I don’t get it back my Grunkle Stan’s gonna kill me”

Mermando laughs again. “I was wondering if that belonged to any of you!” He takes off his shell necklace to reveal that he’d put Stan’s necklace on around his neck. He takes that off, too, and offers it to Ford. “I much prefer this one, anyway” he clicks his shell necklace open, revealing it to be a locket with a picture of his family inside.

Ford takes the gold necklace back, and he means to thank him, but a bell ringing from elsewhere in the port interrupts him before he can open his mouth. Mermando turns to Mabel, taking her hands in his own. “We must go. I’m so sorry we have to leave so soon, but we merpeople recognize the sounds of fishing boats very easily. We’ll try to come back later this week” He opens his arms for her once more, and Mabel wraps his arms around him in a quick hug before she watches him and his family swim away.

“I am so glad that all you were doing was hugging,” Dipper shudders as he and Stan approach Ford and Mabel. “I’m not sure my stomach could handle witnessing you two kissing a second time”

“Awww,” Mabel punches him playfully in the shoulder. “You’re just jealous that I had a boyfriend before you did!”

Dipper cringes. “If you having a boyfriend before I do means I didn’t have to be the one dating a fish, then I’m glad you were the one who got stuck with him first” He punches her back, and gestures at Stan over his shoulder with his thumb. “But anyways, I came over here because Grunkle Stan says he wants to get out on the open water before everyone else gets the idea, or something”.

Ford pockets Stan’s necklace and makes a mental note to put it away sometime later tonight when Stan is too distracted to notice. “Tell Stan I’m going to untie the rope from the edge of the dock, and when he sees me back on board we’re all set to go.”

Nodding, Dipper bounds off towards the navigation room where Stan must be waiting, and Ford steps off of the boat to take care of everything else. On the way to the bow, he traces a hand along the white painted STAN O’ WAR II, and a feeling of warmth sprouts in his chest. Once back on board, he waves to Stan as he passes besides the navigation room once more, and takes a seat on one of the beach chairs they liked to keep aboard.

Most days, Ford prefers to be the one at the wheel. But every once in a while he just wants to be. All he wants to do is lean back in one of their beach chairs and let the sun warm his face. It’s a good kind of warm, the same way spending time with the kids and heavy rain hitting his bedroom window and planning new escapades with Stan feel warm. After so, so long of only knowing unbearable burns, it feels indescribable to have a constant back in his life that heals, rather than hurts.

“Mind if we join you?” Dipper asks, and Ford glances over to see both of the young twins dragging a chair behind them.

Speaking of healing constants.

“Sure,” Ford says, and can’t help the warmth spilling through his tone. They pull their chairs up on either side of him, and curl up to enjoy the warm breeze. Dipper places his hat on his lap to let the wind blow through his hair, and Mabel stretches her arms out behind her head to act as her own pillow. Ford chuckles silently at the pair, and closes his eyes to let himself relax.

All is quiet when Stan finally finds them a spot out on the open water without a single other boat in sight. The water is nearly still, save for the occasional small wave that gently sways the boat. The sun is at its afternoon high, turning the water beautiful shades of teal and aqua. Fishing is tedious, but it’s careful work, and gives Ford something to put all of his focus into. Two whole hours pass before any of them catch a thing, and Stan laughs himself to tears when it’s Dipper who pulls up a single sardine.

Typically Ford prefers much more immersive activities, but right now there’s nowhere else he’d rather be. The sun is starting to set before they realize they aren’t going to have much luck catching anything, and instead decide to take the boat for another ride around the harbor to look for a better place to eventually watch the stars.

“...Great Uncle Ford?” Dipper approaches him shyly once they’ve anchored the boat.

“Yes?”

He tugs shyly at the edge of his sweater. “I…” he starts. “I know you’ve told me that the multiverse was dangerous, and all, but...was there ever anything you enjoyed about it?” He pauses. “What were the sunsets like?”

Ford chuckles, patting at the seat beside him, and Dipper’s eyes light up as he sits down.

“You’re right,” Ford starts, folding his hands together. “I wouldn’t wish what I went through on even my worst enemies, Dipper. It was practically impossible to get any decent amount of sleep and even harder to find food digestible by human kind. I lost some of my best years to the multiverse when I could’ve gone on to become the most renowned scientist in the world.” Ford turns his gaze away from the sun setting on the horizon to meet Dipper’s eyes, but he’s frowning, eyes cast downwards towards the deck of the ship.

“But,” Ford adds before the poor kid can get too lost in his own head, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It definitely had its perks.” He smiles. “The sun in Dimension 18.2 would emit a sound that mimicked a lullaby every night as it set. Dimension 47’23 had three moons that would shift phases before your very eyes. I haven’t told Mabel because I’m afraid she’ll try activating a portal of her own and run away, but in Dimension 25-12, everyone and everything looks like a watercolor painting. There’s danger in the multiverse, but there’s beauty in equal measure”

“Do you ever miss it?” Dipper fiddles with his hands, like he’s trying real hard not to say the wrong thing. “I mean, I know you don’t miss being lost, or having no idea if you’re ever going to see home again, but...is there any dimension...where you could’ve seen yourself staying, if you thought you couldn’t make it back?”

Ford shifts in his chair so he doesn’t have to twist his neck so much to look directly at his nephew. “Occasionally,” he muses. “I met the most friendly faces in Dimension 52, so my mind does tend to wander there from time to time” he smiles. “But rest assured, there is something in this dimension that makes it my favorite”

“Oh yeah?” Dipper’s eyes light up. “Over every other dimension you’ve passed through? What is it?”

Ford gently nudges Dipper’s shoulder. “You and your sister”

Dipper’s cheeks turn bright red, and he looks as though he’s struggling not to bury his face into the collar of his sweater and disappear. “Really?” his voice squeaks.

Ford nods. “Everything I had in those other dimensions were fleeting, Dipper. At a moment’s notice everything I grew to love could disappear in the blink of an eye. The very thing happened to me in Dimension 52. When I fell asleep, I woke up in a new dimension I didn’t recognize. Things may have been more advanced, and there may have been dimensions crafted to give you your greatest desires, but in the end nothing ever lasted.”

Now it’s Ford’s turn to divert Dipper’s eyes, gaze casting towards the floor. “Stan was cut from my life completely in the dimension that claimed to be a perfect world. I had nobody. Even in dimensions that actively worked towards my happiness, I was all alone” Ford shakes his head, and turns his gaze once more out on the horizon. The sun is still touching the horizon, but it’s dipped just low enough that some of the stars are beginning to show in the sky.

“But...here, at home, everything is consistent. I don’t have to worry about waking up in the morning to find that everyone I love is gone. I can keep everyone in arm’s lengths, even when Stan and I can only communicate with you and your sister over a video call. I’m…” Ford gently squeezes his hands to reassure himself that this is real and now. “...happy. Happier than I’ve been in decades��

Beside him, Dipper yawns, and when Ford spares a glance over at him he’s smiling at him sleepily. “We’re really happy you’re here too, Grunkle Ford” he murmurs, and his eyes slip closed. Ford’s cheeks flush pink, and he has to choke back a laugh because that’s one of the first times Dipper’s felt comfortable enough to call him Grunkle.

Ford stands, so as not to wake Dipper from his nap. A small glance to his right and he catches a glimpse of Stan and Mabel leaning against the side of the boat watching the sunset just outside of earshot of his current conversation with Dipper.

“You finally bore him to sleep with all your nerdy science talk?” Stan asks as he approaches, sparing a glance behind him at Dipper. “Was starting to think that the poor kid would never get a nap in”

“Yes, well,” Ford smirks. “I’m sure it helped plenty that you bored him to death by taking him fishing first”

Stan gasps in mock offense, and slugs him in the shoulder. “Hey, at least I’m engaging them in something they can actually interact with, unlike your kooky alien stories, or whatever”

Ford can’t help the laugh that escapes him. “Bold statement coming from the man who dedicated thirty years of his life rescuing me from said kooky aliens” he says, returning with a punch of his own. Stan opens his mouth to argue back, realizes he has nothing to say, and closes his mouth. The sight of it makes Ford laugh even harder, keeling over and slapping a hand on Stan’s shoulder to support himself. It must be contagious, because it’s not long before Stan is laughing too.

Ford removes his glasses to wipe the tears from his eyes, and cleans off the lenses with the edge of his sweater. Once his eyes adjust after he puts them back on, his throat nearly catches in his throat when he glances back out towards the water. He’s just able to catch a shooting star before it disappears over the horizon, and the boat’s just far out enough on the water that there isn’t an ounce of light pollution obscuring the rest of the stars in the sky. He takes a few steps back so he can look up and admire more of them at once, and if he looks close enough he can see them twinkling.

Before he can ask the others if they’re seeing the same thing, a bright flash of light coming from somewhere on the boat cuts into his thoughts. He turns, to make sure that none of the lights in any of the rooms are on, but no, they’d turned those off when they’d started fishing. Scratching at his head, he turns to Stan and Mabel to ask if they have any idea where the light is coming from, but that question catches in its throat as quickly as it formulated.

They’re the ones emitting light.

Or, rather, Mabel’s sweater and Stan’s shoulder, approximately where his burn scar should be. Those are emitting light.

...Surely it must just be the reflection of the starlight on the water, right? That same bright light must have woken Dipper from his nap, yes?

He turns heel to ask Dipper the same question, but freezes in his tracks before he can take a single step forward. Dipper’s forehead is glowing too, the same way it has since he and Stan docked the boat this morning.

It...It can’t be, can it?

Gripping his forehead, Ford takes a number of steps backwards until his back hits the wall. Maybe...maybe he just needs to call it a night. He’s been awake since sunrise, maybe his vision is just blurring because he needs to lie down?

He waves his hands in front of his face, but no, those don’t look any different. He squints, to make sure his hands aren’t shaking, but no, they’re perfectly still.

He squints at Stan and Mabel, just to try and see if his eyes are watering, and-

He gasps.

Mabel’s sweater, Dipper’s forehead, Stan’s shoulder; they’re not glowing; they’re twinkling like the stars. It was hard to tell in broad daylight, but now that they’re surrounded by a thousand shining stars, the resemblance is unmistakable.

But...that’s not possible. If he can see them twinkling, but none of them have said anything about it, that could only be if those were…

...soulmarks.

Ford suddenly feels like he’s going to pass out.

He slides to the floor.

Is...Is that even possible? Ford thought for sure that study he read years ago was nothing but a joke. Someone...who does everything in their power to bring you two together, no matter the cost? Someone who, even though you may not meet for decades, will feel as though you’ve known each other their entire lives? Someone who will do anything for you, no matter the personal expense?

Someone...someone like Stan, who spent a painstaking thirty years teaching himself quantum physics to rescue someone that anyone else would assume dead? The man who sacrificed his very mind, his very life, so he could be spared physical torture?

Or...someone like Mabel, the first friendly face he saw after emerging from the portal? The one who forgave him so easily after he tried to separate her from her brother? The one who insists on calling him a good person, despite all of those he knows he hurt?

Or...Dipper? His kindred spirit in all things supernatural? The one who, alongside his sister, sacrificed himself as bait for the most dangerous being in the entire multiverse? Who saw memories of him at his very worst, and apologized to him for snooping?

After everything he’s been through...could things really work out that well in his favor? To not have one soulmate but three, and the guarantee that they’ll never leave, because they’ve already expressed how they love him so?

There’s a tear streaming down his cheek at the thought, but he’s too distracted by a fourth light suddenly emitting from...himself to really notice.

He spares a cautious glance downward, and notices a pulsing light emerging from his chest in perfect time with his heartbeat. If he looks closely, he notices that the light travels down his arms and ties itself into a translucent bow around his fingers. If he looks closer still, the light looks as though it’s slinking faintly across the deck of the boat and reaching towards the gentle twinkling of Stan and Mabel’s marks.

Ford places a hand to his forehead, throws his head back, and laughs his throat dry, paying no mind to the tears pouring down his face.

#gravity falls #my writing #syd #cool kid squad 2.0 #ILYSM FRIEND

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