#didn't rule out the holograms though i guess

[serious-goose]

ABBA confirmed there won't be a reunion at Eurovision 2024. Still wearing my tinfoil hat and convinced the jury rigged the votes towards Sweden, which means it wasn't even worth it lmao

[lovelopmon]

So, your DF sequel has those four kids in Episodes 40 & 41. Which Spirits will each one get and why? Where are Takuya, Koji, Zoe, JP, and Koichi in all this?

First ask, woo!

When deciding what spirits went to what kids, my main deciding factor was color palettes.

Lmao, it sounds silly but look:

Each of our protagonists' color palettes reflect the spirit they're assigned to (though a first time viewer who looks at this picture could guess that Koji, J.P, or maybe Zoe were associated with water due to the blues in their ensemble).

With that in mind, Chiaki gets the Spirit of Water and Teppei gets the Spirit of Earth.

And if we're going to follow that rule strictly, then that would mean Katsuharu gets the Spirit of Wood and Teruo gets the Spirit Steel, since Katsuharu's color palette has more hues of brown than Teruo's...

HOWEVER

Given that we know the most about Katsuharu, and the fact that he's a leader, a bit self-aggrandizing, and a former bully, his personality parallels Mercurymon, who manipulated others into getting his desires fulfilled, acted on his own accord, is the most notorious, and although he wasn't the leader of the Corrupted Spirits, he was arguably the most capable.

So instead, I wanted to give Katsuharu the Spirit of Steel and Teruo the Spirit of Wood.

But at the same time, it'd be interesting to give the Spirit of Steel to Teruo, a character we know little about. It's tempting, if I change it last minute, no I didn't lmao.

The premise might need a bit of reworking, but initially, the six Digidestined had received messages on their cell phones telling them to meet at the Shibuya Station four years later after the events of Frontier. However, for reasons, Tommy doesn't make it and the others wait for as long as they can before heading off.

A year passes and Takuya, Koji, Zoe, J.P, and Koichi are still missing. Tommy not only is worried, but suspicious. Time didn't pass during the first visit to the Digital World, so why now? What's even more strange is that other unidentifiable creatures seem to be teleporting in and out all over the world, as if they're fading out like a hologram. So when he receives a second message calling him to the Shibuya Station, he doesn't hesitate.

Long story short, he and the gang find out later that their spirits have been corrupted by the new big bad. Sort of like the popular Swap AUs I see floating around, however, this time they've got Tommy leading the charge (and a double agent who might be used to a certain darkness and might have had an aversion to it).

[thewidowsghost]

The Daughter of the Sea - Chapter 8

(Y/n)'s POV

I know someone at camp resents Percy and me because one night, I come into the cabin alone and find a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article takes me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I get, the more the words float around on the page.

GIRL, BOY, AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT

By Eileen Smythe

Sally Jackson, son Percy, and daughter (Y/n) are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.

Mother, daughter, and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.

Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.

Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his sister's and his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson, (Y/n), Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free Crimestoppers hotline.

The phone number is circled in black marker.

I wad up the paper and throw it away, flopping down on my bunk on the far edge of the cabin under the window facing the sea.

I remain silent as Percy walks into the cabin, flopping down onto his bunk as well.

That night, I have the worst dream yet.

I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.

About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked, and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.

Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.

I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!

The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.

Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down!

The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.

I wake up, sure I'm falling.

I am still in bed in Cabin Three. My body tells me it's morning, but it's dark outside, and thunder rolls over the hills.

A storm is brewing.

I hadn't dreamed that . . .

I hear a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.

"Come in?" Percy asks, sounding uncertain.

Grover trots inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see the two of you."

"Why?" I ask, peeking through the curtain separating mine and Percy's side of the cabin.

'He wants to kill . . . I mean, I'd better let him tell you."

Nervously, Percy and I get dressed and follow, sure we were in huge trouble.

For days, Percy and I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that we were declared children of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figure it's just a crime for us to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating on the best way to punish us for existing, and now Mr. D is ready to deliver their verdict.

Over Long Island Sound, the sky looks like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain is coming in our direction. I ask Grover if we'd need an umbrella.

"No," Grover says. "It never rains here unless we want it to."

Percy points at the storm, 'What the heck is that, then?"

Grover glances uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."

I realize that he's right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.

But this storm . . .

This one's huge.

At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin are playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysius's twins - Castor and Pollux - are walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everyone is going about their normal business, but they look tense; they keep their eyes on the storm.

Grover, Percy, and I walk up the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sits at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sits across the table in his fake wheelchair. They are playing against invisible opponents - two sets of cards hovering in the air.

"Well, well," Mr. D says without looking up. "Our little celebrities."

I wait.

"Come closer," Mr. D says. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortals, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."

A net of lightning flashes across the clouds; thunder shakes the windows of the house.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus grumbles.

Chiron faints interest in his pinochle cards and Grover cowers by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.

"If I had my way," Dionysus says, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron puts in.

"Nonsense," Dionysus says. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."

"Mr. D - " Chiron warns.

"Oh, all right," Dionysus relents. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rises, and the invisible players' cards drop onto the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you two must do."

Dionysus picks up a playing card, twists it, and it becomes a plastic rectangle. A security pass. He snaps his fingers. The air seems to fold and bend around him. He becomes a hologram, a wind, then he is gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.

Chiron smiles at me and Percy, but he looks tired and strained. "Sit, Percy,(Y/n), please. And Grover."

We do.

Chiron lays his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.

"Tell me, (Y/n)," he says. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

Just hearing the name makes me shudder.

Chiron probably wants me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I don't feel like lying.

"It scared me," I admit. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."

"You two will meet worse. Far worse, before you're done."

"Done?" Percy asks. "With what?"

"You're quest, of course," Chiron says. "Will you accept it?"

I glance at Grover, who is crossing his fingers.

"Sir," I say, "you haven't told us what it is yet."

Chiron grimaces. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder rumbles across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I can see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus," I guess. "They're fighting over something valuable . . . something that was stolen, aren't they?"

Chiron and Grover exchange looks.

Chiron shoots forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"

"The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And...I've also been having these dreams."

"I knew it," Grover says, his eyes bright.

"Hush, satyr," Chiron orders.

"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes sparkle with excitement. "It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine," Chiron strokes his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, (Y/n), you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

Percy laughs, looking nervous, "A what?"

"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warns. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."

"Oh."

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron says, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And it's missing?" I guess.

"Stolen," Chiron corrects.

"By whom?" I ask though I guessed what he was going to say.

"By you two," Chiron says and Percy's jaw drops.

"At least"—Chiron holds up a hand—"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon argued. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"But I didn't - We didn't -" Percy goes to say.

"Patience and listen, child," Chiron says. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you two as his children. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief.

"But we've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"

Chiron and Grover glance nervously at the sky. The clouds don't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They are rolling straight over the valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.

"Er, Percy . . . ?" Grover says. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggests. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam...." He looked at Percy.

"The Golden Net?" I guess again. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods trapped Zeus in it and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler?"

"Correct," Chiron says. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you two have come along—the proverbial last straw."

"But we're just kids!" Percy protests.

"Percy," Grover cuts in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, and that he's father, not one, but two mortal heroes who might be used as a weapon against you . . . Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"

"But I - we didn't do anything, Poseidon - our dad - he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?" Percy asks, and I remain silent in thought.

Chiron sighs. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a fullfledged war would look like, Percy? (Y/n)?"

"Bad?" Percy guesses.

"I'd guess that it would be like nature at war with itself," I say and Chiron nods.

"Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight," Chiron adds to (Y/n)'s statement.

"Bad," Percy repeats.

"And you, Percy and (Y/n) Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."

And then, it starts to rain. Volleyball players stop their game and start in stunned silence at the sky.

We had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of us.

"So we have to find that bolt," I say. "And return it to Zeus."

"What better peace offering," Chiron says, "than to have the son and daughter of Poseidon return Zeus's property.

"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?" Percy asks.

"I believe I know." Chiron's expression is grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago...well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"Why can't you tell us where the bolt is beforehand?" Percy asks.

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."

I swallow thickly. "Good reason."

"You agree then?" Chiron asks.

I exchange a glance with Percy, then Grover, who nods encouragingly.

Easy for him, I think. We're the ones Zeus wants to kill.

"All right," Percy says. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."

"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron says. "Go upstairs, Percy and (Y/n) Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

. . .

"Well?" Chiron asks us.

We slump into our chairs at the pinochle table. "She said we would retrieve what was stolen.

Grover sits forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!

"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron presses. "This is important."

My ears are still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She said we would go west and face a god who had turned. We would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover says.

Chiron doesn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"

"No," Percy says. "That's about it."

He studies Percy's face, then meets my green gaze. "Very well. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

I get the feeling he knows we're holding something back, and he's trying to make us feel better.

"Okay," Percy says, looking anxious to change topics. "So where do we go? Who's this god in the west?"

"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron says."if Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain."

"Someone else who wants to take over?" I guess.

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

"Hades," I say, raising an eyebrow.

Chiron nods. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."

A scrap of aluminum dribbles out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh - what?"

"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminds him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."

"Yes, but - but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protests. "Especially if he has found out Percy and (Y/n) are children of Poseidon . . ."

"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continues. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy and (Y/n) to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill these young half-bloods before he can take on the quest."

"Great," I mutter. "That's two major gods who want to kill us."

"But a quest to . . ." Grover swallows. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in someplace like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."

"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy and (Y/n) must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."

A strange fire burns in my stomach. The weirdest thing is, it isn't fear. It's anticipation. The desire for revenger. Hades had tried to kill me two times so far with the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It is his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he is trying to frame me, my dad, and my brother for a theft we hadn't committed.

Grover is trembling now; he'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.

The poor guy had to complete a quest with me and Percy so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that is, but how can I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said we were destined to fail?" This is a suicide mission.

"Look, if we know it's Hades," Percy tells Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus and Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."

"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron says. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades—and I imagine Poseidon does—they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"

"You're saying I'm being used," Percy says.

"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon had claimed you and (Y/n) now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs the two of you."

My dad needs us.

Emotions roll around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I don't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.

3rd Person POV

Percy looks at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"

"I had my suspicions. As I said . . . I've spoken to the Oracle, too."

(Y/n) gets the feeling that there is a lot he wasn't telling them about the prophecy, but she decides that she couldn't worry about that at the moment. After all, she and Percy were hiding back information too."

"So let me get this straight," Percy says. "We're supposed to go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check," Chiron says.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."

"That's about right."

(Y/n) looks over at Grover, who gulps down the ace of hearts.

"But I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asks weakly.

"You don't have to go," Percy tells him. "I can't ask that of you."

"Oh . . ." He shifts his hooves. "No . . . it's just that satyrs and underground places . . . well . . ." He takes a deep breath, then stands, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his t-shirts. "You saved my life, (Y/n), Percy. If . . . if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let the two of you down."

Percy feels so relieved that he wanted to cry, though he didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover is the only friend she'd ever had for longer than a few months. Percy isn't sure what a satyr can do against the forces of the dead but he feels better knowing he'd be with them.

"All the way, G-man," Percy turns to Chiron. "The Oracle just said to go west."

"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."

"Where?"

Chiron looks surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

Percy's POV

"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane -"

"No!" Grover shrieks. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"

I shake my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me and (Y/n) anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.

"Percy, think," Chiron says. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."

Overhead, lightning crackles and thunder booms.

"Okay," (Y/n) says, not looking up at the storm. "So, we'll travel overland."

"That's right," Chiron says. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered if you will accept her help."

(Y/n)'s POV

"Gee," I say, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a suicide quest like this?"

The air shimmers behind Chiron.

Annabeth Chase becomes visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, Seaweed Brain," she says. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."

"If you do say so yourself," I say. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"

Her cheeks flush. "Do you want my help or not?"

The truth is, I do. I need all the help I can get.

"A quartet," I say. "That'll work."

"Excellent," Chiron says. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashes. Rain pours down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.

"No time to waste," Chiron says. "I think you should all get packing."

Word Count: 4018 words

[overlyimmersed]

Nightmares and Daydreams

A Gravity Falls AU.

Hi @verysorrytobother​ Stanticore anon, revealing my true identity to share this with you! I wasn’t sure how a post this long would go over as an ask, so I decided to do it this way. I hope this is ok.

I’ve been working on this for a while and I hope it goes over well enough. The artwork took me the most time.

As a car crash victim is slowly dying, her mental self panics in the mindscape. She's offered a deal to save her life. Let the game begin.

(Content warnings: Blood. Descriptions of serious injuries.)

"What..." she whispered to herself, staring at the other in disbelief.

"Yep!" he confirms, in a high-pitched, grating, inappropriately upbeat tone, "Dead as a doornail, kid!- Well technically you still have a few more seconds till you brain totally ceases to function. Better make up your mind while you still have one!"

She's still staring dumbly at him. How can he be this nonchalant about it?! A half second ago she was sitting in the front seat of the family truck, a totally routine trip to the store- she never liked trucks but her dad's a carpenter so they need the hauling space. At least it's a pretty shade of blue- and the next she's here, laying face down in a black void with this prick this- this...All Seeing Eye? He's like the Illuminati symbol, but with arms and legs and a top hat. Caution sign yellow and talking to her- or at her. Bill. Freaking. Cipher. Every time he 'speaks' he flashes with light- no mouth so does it really count as speaking? More like his voice is being projected right into her mind- ... And he's telling her that she freakin died! Can't he see how messed up this is?! Can't he sympathize at all!? Then again, it's Bill. She ought to know better.

She ought to know better. She's seen this show a hundred times, she knows nothing good comes from dealing with Cipher. But she doesn't have time to be careful, she doesn't have the luxury of weighing options.

"Tick-tock, Car Wreck!" The obnoxious voice insists again, forcing her out of her stupor, his outstretched hand now alight with blue fire.

Her face scrunches up in a loud cringe, eyes screwed shut and teeth bared, and she swings her hand till it lands solidly in his. Crazed cackling resounds as the deal is struck, but it falls to simple soundtrack as her senses try to sort out what's going on.

She'd expected the blue fire to burn, or at least feel like something, but it didn't. Instead her entire being is flung into a...whirl? Free fall? Something that makes her stomach jump into her throat, and gives her vertigo.

The sensation stops suddenly, only to be replaced by a cacophony of new perceptions. She isn't sure which strikes her first, the sounds or the smell. Shrieks of agony and terror make up the next track of this bizarre playlist, punctuated by the reek of burnt hair. When her eyes fly open to try and make sense of it all, they have no luck. The sight that meets her is a sky of surreal, swirling, bastardized ribbons of every hue, like being inside a filthy bubble. Floating strewn about the space are pockmarked asteroids, and little else.

"So what'd ya think?" The grating voice rejoins the discord, drawing her shell-shocked gaze. "Home-sweet-home, huh? Well don't worry, you won't be here for very long. A deal's a deal, Car Wreck." With that que, and a snap of his fingers, she's falling again. This time untethered and unaccompanied. It takes her a moment to realize the scream ripping though the void is coming from her own throat. Once it hits her, so does something else, and the world goes black.

She wakes some time later, maybe moments maybe days. She has no way of knowing. She pushes herself onto her hands and knees, groggy and disoriented. It takes her a moment to notice the texture under her hands and focus her vision on it. It's grass. She sits up and looks around. "oh..." she says to herself, taking in the scenery. It's lovely, a grassy, sun soaked field. The sky made of churning colors like the last place she'd been, but they're pastel and much prettier. A warm breeze brushes past her face and she takes a deep breath of it, it smells sweet and warm, heavy with the scent of growing things, and for the first time since this started she finds some peace. Peace which is quickly shattered by a familiar, grating voice.

She jumps and whirls around so quick she falls onto her butt. There, floating just inches from where her head had been, is Bill. Laughing at her of course.

"Whoops! Didn't mean to scare you there, Car Wreck!" he claims, moving through the air to look around, then turning back around to look at her. "So how do you like the new digs?"

There's a beat of silence where she just stares at him again, but quickly she shakes off the shock and tries to respond. "Uh...It's nice." She lets her eyes roam around for a second, before returning to Bill, "Where are we?"

"This is the Realm of Daydreams! Your new HQ!" he answers, floating around behind her and making a grand gesture with his arms.

She turns her head to follow him, "Daydreams? HQ?"

"Yep! This is where you'll hang out when you're not puppeting your little pawns." He turns around to look at the scenery more himself. "Kinda dull if you ask me. Maybe you can do something about that!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh you know, some pillars of anguish, an alter of unholy fire, maybe a blood fountain or a couple of-" he gestures with each suggestion, like a landscaper creating a vision, until she cuts him off.

"No I mean," she finally pushes herself to a stand, teetering a little till she finds her balance. "Pawns?"

He turns back to her, "Oh yeah, which ones do you want anyway?" he waits a beat for an answer, but she just stares back at him, clearly not following. "Ugh, our deal?"

He hadn't really told her what the deal was, just mentioned a game and a second chance. "Uhh, I don't think you-"

"Oh right, you flesh bags need everything explained to you." he groans, rolling his eye, "Alright, here's the deal. We're gonna play a little game," he holds out his hand and a little hologram like projection appears showing an aerial view of a town. "and the people of this hick town are gonna be the pieces." ten little blue stick figures appear in the center of town, each with a little symbol above it's head. "If you win, you rejoin the land of the living!" a little magenta stick figure pops into existence next to the others and they all do a little happy dance. "If I win..." suddenly the whole projection goes up in flames, and she jerks her head back instinctively, "You burn with rest of those worthless mortals!" He bursts into a fit of maniacal laughter, which actually gives her some times to recover.

After a second of shocked staring, she blinks a few times then puts on as neutral an expression as she can. "Ok. So what are the rules?"

"Simple!" he answers, cutting off his laughter "We can't directly manipulate each other's pawns, and we can't interfere with the other's powers."

"That's it?"

"Yep. Everything else is fair game"

"Ok...What are my powers?"

"Same as mine! Except you don't have to wait till someone falls asleep to get in their head."

"I see..." her eyes wander to the ground as she contemplates the information, and her hand reaches for the longest of her three necklaces to idly play with the spiked pendant. "So you can talk to them in dreams, and I can talk to them in daydreams."

"Bingo!"

She scrunches her nose a little, thinking of a few ways that could end up being annoying. "Alright, anything else I need to know?"

"Hmm, nope! That just about covers it. All that's left is to pick our pawns, I'll even let you go first!" And with that ten, glowing, blue symbols appear between them. She looks them over carefully, she knows who each symbol corresponds to- supposing the cartoon from her world is accurate. She considers the six-fingered hand, if she takes him out of Bill's control from the start that derails his whole plan as she knows it. But, then she'll have no clue what's up to at all, at least by letting Bill have the pawns she's familiar with she has a chance at guessing his moves. She reaches forward and touches the shooting star, it turns magenta and floats to hover closer to her.

"Interesting." Bill comments, though his tone doesn't sound very interested, as he makes a simple motion with his eye and the six-fingered hand settles beside him. She chooses the fish looking symbol next, and Bill's second choice in the pine tree. They go back and forth till they have five symbols each, Bill having the the six-fingered hand, the pine tree, the llama, the stitched heart, and the pentagram. While she has the shooting star, the fish, the bag of ice, the spectacles, and the question mark.

"Welp, that settles that. Nice picks you made there, lets hope they work out for ya, Car Wreck"

"Could you not call me that?" though it hardly sounds like a request.

"And what else should I call you?" Bill asks, collecting his symbols into one hand and placing the other on his...hip?

"How about my name? It's Maranwe."

"But Car Wreck fits you so much better! Just take a look!" he quips, snapping a full-length mirror into existence. Maranwe turns to look and gasps in horror. Bill breaks out into more cackling, "Well my work here is done! I'll let you get cleaned up, see ya around Car Wreck!" And with that he fades from existence.

Maranwe just stares, even as Bill disappears from 'her' realm, she can only stare at her destroyed refection. Her hair is messy- and she almost laughs that that's what her brain zeros in on first-, It's also dirty, some of the mess is actual dirt but several spots are matted with half-dry blood. Her face is in a similar condition, smeared with dirt and blood but she can see the wounds there. Scrapes and still oozing cuts, bruises forming on one cheek bone and under her eyes. Her nose isn't quite right...broken probably. Her vision skims over her whole body for a second, making note of similar injuries where tears in her clothes reveal them. It's not as bad as she would expect a car crash victim to look- "except for that" Her mind screams suddenly while all her mouth can do is gasp, as her attention lands dizzyingly on her neck. It's...purple, but also red? There's no spilled blood but it still looks ugly, and the worst part is the...bump. It's not hard to figure out that it's a misaligned bone. Without the pain to tell her she never would have noticed, her neck is broken. Very broken. How is she holding her head up right... Probably because this isn't actually a physical body. She wonders if this is what killed her, or if there's something inside, something she can't see, that did the trick.

Whatever it is, she can't be seen like this. And she really really doesn't want to look like this for her own sake. Bill said she could 'clean herself up'? How exactly... She thinks about how Bill's powers tend to work and tries to concentrate on a cleaner, less beat up mental image of herself. She lifts her hand to her cheek and grazes her finger tips across it, a trail of sparkles follow the touch and the skin underneath returns to normal. She relaxes a little, watching the disaster wipe off her face like cheap make-up. She keeps the image in her mind and closes her eyes, cupping her hands in front of herself and imagining the sparkles pooling in them. Then she splashes the sparkles over he face, like a girl in a face wash commercial, and imagines the glittering dust washing over her entire body, cleaning away the mess and injuries. And when she opens her eyes, that's exactly what's happened. Her reflection shows her whole and unwounded, even her clothes are fixed.

The next thing she does is smooth her hair down, mostly an instinct since it's still messy, and the sparkles trail after her hands, tidying the strands as if she'd just brushed them. She watches her reflection's mouth quirk up a little in a small smirk. So she can just change what she looks like by imagining it? That figures, this is a place of daydreams that's kind of how they work. She knows exactly what to do with this, she's known since she was a kid what she's change if she could. She places the backs of her hands next to her ears and flicks up, sparkles spray up with the motion and her normal human ears, turn to wolf ears the fur the same chocolate brown as her hair. Her smirk blooms into a full blown smile, and she tilts her head to get a better look at them, watching them move as she tests them. It's like they're real! Next is the tail of course, it's mostly brown, with some silver down the top and a black tip. Then she looks down, and taps the toe of each of her shoes against the ground in turn, as she does they become the compressed paws of her own design.

"That's insane..." she laughs to herself. She's actually turning herself into something else, her own made up alien species. And she just can! With the big changes out of the way she works out the details; pupil shape, fang length, and straightens out a few asymmetries and insecurities she's always had about her body- after all why not? When she's done, she can't help admiring herself a little, turning this way and that in front of the mirror, her perfect image of herself. Well- almost perfect. She snaps her fingers and in the same dusting of glitter, her shirt changes. What was before a loose grey t-shirt with the word "nope" written across it in cursive, as been replaced by a cropped sweater, banded in 3 colors; white at the top, then light blue, then dark blue. She lifts it to look at the crop top under neither, it's just plain white. She decides she doesn't like it that way, so it changes to a cropped version of the t-shirt she'd had before. With that taken care of she lifts her arm so the over-sized sleeve falls down and she can see her forearm, which is covered by a light blue arm warmer with white lace around the edges. Perfect. At least for now. She can change later if she decides she doesn't like the arm warmers.

She giggles to herself, invigorated by the makeover and the sense of control she has now. She turns from the mirror and skips a few feet across the grass, the symbols she'd chosen follow her, floating loosely like beads suspended in gel. She laughs a little as she watches them, and idly reaches for her necklace again, but this time her hand just meets the soft knit of her sweater. She'd forgotten to add them into this new look, so she just wills them into place; three different necklaces of three different lengths. Her hand finds the middle length first, the pendant is designed to spin so she plays with it while her mind starts to wander. She starts thinking of plans for winning this game, what she might say to each other 'pawns' and who to use where and how, even letter her thoughts wonder about the new life she'll have. Cipher's hologram suggested she'll stay in Gravity Falls, which would be cool but what about-

The sound of screeching tires and twisting metal cuts her thoughts off clean and she whips around to find the source of the noise, but her fear turns to confusion when she sees...nothing. She stands stock still, her mind running over only vague impressions of thoughts relating to what she just heard, until another loud sound whips her back around. This time she actually sees something, like a huge firework in the pastel oil-slick sky, accompanied by Bill's obnoxious voice echoing through the space.

"Let the game begin!"

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Brain Freeze”

Written by: Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: John West, Angela Zhang

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

An actual one may be preferable to this.

Gold is probably the last thing I think of when I think of the reboot, but that's how this episode starts, anyway. Specifically, it's a field trip to a golden train filled with various golden things named "Fort Knox On Tour." Unfortunately, despite being called Fort Knox, it isn't anything "like Fort Knox", as there's no real security here.

After touring around that train to make any joke they can think of involving gold, including this line that sadly hints at what level of intelligence Blossom is going to be at in this episode:

Blossom: It says here that each gold bar is worth its weight in gold!

No, really?! Anyway, the class gets to have a picnic with their bagged lunches. As soon as the Reboot Puffs open their bags, a monster comes out of it.

That is, Sitcom Dad, showing up via pink hologram. He tells the girls about how much they overdo it on the sugary snacks. He specifically tells them to not buy any candy with their pocket change, and that they should enjoy the healthy food he packed for them.

They tell themselves that it can't possibly be that bad, until they take a good look at them.

Broccoli, turnips, and a block of tofu. They all act disgusted at this. Even Blossom refuses to touch that strange bean curd. One would think she would be the one expressing the virtues of healthy eating. At least she's not the annoying one in this episode, at least not for that reason.

The Powerpuff Girls might actually eat healthy food for once instead of all that ice cream, and someone has to save them from this predicament!

Enter Moo-Joo Moo Moo, with his new brand of ice cream! The Powerpuff Girls can't possibly fall for this, and sure enough, Blossom has to tell the girls not to jump at this opportunity. Oh, not because she clearly recognizes this overly-large-headed ape handing out ice cream, but because the Professor didn't want the girls to spend their pocket change on sweets!

Moo-Joo Moo Moo: It's free!

The Three Maroons: LOOPHOLE!

Yes, even Blossom exclaims excitement over disobeying her dad. That ice cream must be that tempting! Bubbles then feels like this guy is familiar, but Moo-Moo reassures her that he's only familiar because Moo-Moo's head is on every cone! At this point, why not just have him say "because I'm not Mojo Jojo"? Might as well make us suspend all of our disbelief.

Either that reasoning worked or they just really want that ice cream no matter who gives it to them, as the Powerpuff Girls get their free cone. They take their first lick, thinking about how to thank this random stranger for giving them sweets that will not give them the worst brain-and-everything-else freeze ever.

Sure enough, that ice cream gives them the worst brain-and-everything-else freeze ever, as they immediately freeze and drop to the ground. This strange man offering the Powerpuff Girls sweets reveals himself as Discount Jojo.

Everyone else in the vicinity was also taken in by this stranger offering ice cream, so he's able to do what he wanted to do: steal that train full of gold. As said before, we never really see any security. There is the train conductor, but it turns out, he was enamored by all the ice cream, too.

So enamored, Jojo is able to throw him out of the screen to the ground, causing a glass shattering sound effect! Seriously, Jojo just murdered someone on-camera, who said this reboot was toning down the violence?

Eventually, the Powerpuff Girls break out of the ice, realize what's happening, and chase after the train. Unfortunately, they're still holding that ice cream, and they just can't resist taking another lick from it.

See, the ice cream also happens to be formulated with something highly addictive. No, really, that's what Blossom says; one can make their own conclusion on what exactly it is. Buttercup just says its chocolate chip cookie dough, even though she's constantly holding a chocolate ice cream.

The ice cream is so addicting, that the Powerpuff Girls just can't help but take a lick every few seconds. Blossom does manage to slap it out of Buttercup’s hands at one point, but in the next scene, she just pulls it out without any explanation. To be fair, that's the only time that happens, and they do show that Discount Jojo was busy making tons of ice cream vending machines.

At least, I think that's what these are, as they only really show up in one scene. Maybe if the Reboot Puffs chose that one that says ooJ-ooM ooM ooM, they'll get the antidote to that highly addictive material.

The girls desperately try to smash Discount's face in, while Discount Jojo is relaxing on the hood of the train knowing fully well they're just going to stop in mid-air, lick the ice cream, and freeze themselves. It's just the same scene over and over again; it barely even counts as a montage.

After effortlessly escaping, what is he going to do with all of that gold from that train? He apparently already had enough money for those vending machines, so it's not like he needs the money.

Make a giant solid gold wrecking ball on what looks like a water tower to destroy Townsville once and for all! Seems like it would only level the area around this wrecking ball, but what do I know, I'm not an ice cream inventor.

But, uh oh, there's a giant kink in the cable which, for reasons the plot needed to work with, causes the computer controlling the wrecking ball to not budge until it gets fixed. Jojo tries, but he ends up getting tied up in the cable.

Since the error has been corrected, the wrecking ball swings him around town. Essentially, this is just the wrecking ball joke from The Simpsons Movie, except they have to have him say something along the lines of "oh no, the knives factory!" The comic timing is practically non-existent here.

Discount Jojo: Oh, thank goodness, the pillow factory!

This will be a complete shock to everyone: he's not going to hit the pillow factory. In fact, I knew right when this gag started that he was going to joke about a pillow factory and miss it. Instead, he hits the broken glass factory, after talking about how he's going to hit the broken glass factory. After that, he asks why it even exists. See, our ideas are so absurd, laugh, damn it!

As the Powerpuff Girls take a very long time to get to Townsville due to those aforementioned vending machines/R2D2s, they take another lick from the ice cream and, while frozen, they get hit by the wrecking ball. It tends to happen even when they're not frozen.

After seeing Discount Jojo cry about how he didn't want this to happen and that he needs help while being swung around, they come to the conclusion that Discount Jojo is tearing up the town, and they must stop him. To be fair to the Puffs, they're not entirely wrong. Their first course of action is to, in Blossom's words...

Blossom: RESIIIIIST.

Giving this episode some semblance of credit, they don't really do any of those off-model weird faces in this episode. I mean, this face is certainly more eye pleasing than those faces from Buttercup vs. Math. Unfortunately, resistance turns out to be futile. They try to drop the ice cream, but they can't, even though they did smack it off each other's hands earlier in the episode. They then try to hold it but not lick it, because that worked the last fifty times they tried that. Of course, that doesn't work either.

Eventually, Blossom figures out that the only way to break the habit is to stop thinking about it. While staring at this swinging ball on a pole, Blossom sees a similarity between this and another childhood sport that could easily distract her from that strange ice cream.

That is, tetherball. We even get a history of tetherball! It's just like one of those scenes from Teen Titans Go where they ramble on about the history of something, minus any attempted humor. They even have this diagram show up, but there's only scribbles here. I get that they didn't want jokes that wouldn't translate to other languages, as they never do this for the visuals, but it feels like a missed opportunity.

Using this knowledge, Blossom is able to RESIIIIIIST the ice cream and hit the golden wrecking ball as if it was a tetherball. And yes, I wasn't kidding about this reboot not wanting to have tetherballs hit on camera, as each hit is covered up with a hit flash. Sure, Discount Jojo is tied to it, but it's not like he's being directly hit by them. What's even worse is that these hit flash seem to last a whole second and are completely still this time. It is like those accursed Nike swooshes from Season 1 with even less effort!

While Blossom and Buttercup are perfectly distracted by tetherball, Bubbles needs to have a little more convincing. I guess the other side effect of the addictive ingredient is that it turns you into a reptile. Just ask that one drug dealer from that one PSA. Yesssssss!

Their solution: make up a song about a bunny that can only be sung while playing tetherball! No, not that Bunny. Blossom and Buttercup begin while continuing their bashing of this clearly-in-peril-though-it-was-caused-by-his-own-evil-intentions Discount Jojo.

Okay, so they can hit the tetherball on camera if they're singing a song about bunnies. Wow, this censorship is weird. This song just sounds like they're just making it up as they go along...which is exactly what's happening, so good job! Eventually, Bubbles comes in just to save Buttercup from coming up with something that rhymes with "say".

They hit the tetherball so hard that it spins all the way around, causing the whole mechanism to fall apart. Seems like a cruel punishment, but he did outright murder that train conductor, so it's okay. All that tetherballing made the girls hungry, and Blossom suggests they eat those healthy lunches. A few seconds of thinking, and they all decide that's a bad idea, even Blossom. Who can save them from this predicament?

Turns out, having an entire wrecking ball mechanism fall right on top of you does not even give Discount a scratch. Even if those hit flashes didn't exist, the impact the Reboot Puffs had is just completely erased by this ending.

He even repeats the same exact idea with the same exact name, except with chocolate rather than ice cream. No, really, the episode ends with the Powerpuff Girls saying "hmmm" to this, so we can assume he even succeeds, too! As the Powerpuff Girls say, always accept candy from strangers, especially strangers that gave you addictive-ingredient-laced ice cream! What a great message for the kids.

Does the title fit?

They're getting frozen by this ice cream. Not much brains in this one, though it's possible that was supposed to be a reference to Discount Jojo being the villain here. Hmm.

How does it stack up?

I just couldn't find anything to like about this episode, and trust me, I look for any sign of quality in these. It's slow, monotonous, and there's so much wasted time here that ruins any bit of comedy they could have had. Just give me the tofu.

Next, ignorance would be bliss, but instead, I get to do the exact opposite to Bliss.

← Oh, Daisy! ☆ Lights Out! →

[silverfoxoath]

Of Enigmas and Games

Chapter 1.

My name is Darcy Lewis, and I have a secret that no one knows. Well actually I have several secrets. My main secret though is universally shared with several others. You see, one day, many years ago the four of us sat at our computers to play a game. Oh, but not just any game, no. We sat down to play a game called SBURB. Stupid, I know, but we were dumb kids who didn't know any better at the time.

Luckily two miraculous things happened, we had both a Time player AND a Space Player, and our session collided with the giant clusterfuck masquerading as the Alpha, Beta and Trolls mixed session, causing our ultimalely doomed session to be saved and allowing us to create our own universe, officially winning the Game. Of course, since we helped save the old universe the others decided that our new universe was viable and helped us create it, ultimately tricking the Game and "winning" officially.

When we started to figure out what we wanted in our universe, several things immeadiatly became clear, sylladexes and strife specibi had to be done away with, for everyone except us, the protectors of the precious new universe. Well okay, the new Alternia will still have strife specibi, they kind of need it with all those horrorterrors running amok. With massive effort from ALL the Space and Time players we completely abolish the Game from our new universe. Though since we created the new universe we did get to keep our godtiers.

After intense debate we decide to split up, each of us choosing a time and place to settle, posting it on our memo board to make sure everyone else knows so that no time paradox shenanigans happen accidentally, they of course still will happen on purpose, but at least we are now prepared for it. I myself choose to settle in the year 1999, in Amarillo Texas, of fucking course as soon as we enter our new universe the Game gifts us with one final FUCK YOU by de-aging us to 13 years old, aka the age most of us started playing.

Unlike the others, I had no guardian, and as such I was quickly scooped up by foster care and shuttled off to various foster families, each with new and differing rules. Since I had my sylladex I always had my weird iPod/computer/hologram projecting thing, of course I also had my iGlasses, which were my glasses combined with my iPod monstrosity, which I used to update the others of my status, regardless of time, due to shenanigans. Once I was settled in I researched our new universe, you see even though we created it, we didn't control everything that happens in its creation, we just gave it a series of demands I guess.

The first thing I discovered was that Superheroes apparently existed on this new Earth, specifically Captain America, even more specifically the Marvel Cinematic Universe Captain America. Over the course of each of us(from my session) settling in, various things became apparent for each of us, I found superheroes were real, the Prince revealed that the mafia was still around and could use magical fucking rainbow flames, the Seer revealed a world of actual magic, like actual spell magic with a school and everything, and our friendleader the Page revealed that supernatural creatures like face-shifting vampires were real. To me when all that stuff was revealed it made me think that I was stuck in a particularly bad fanfiction.

But anyway, after five years of utter bullshit and fuckery I turned 18 and decided to go to college. I chose to major in political science, just to see how much better we could have played the Game. As for universities? I chose at random, applying to places and when they were accepted I added them onto my wall until it was completely covered. I threw darts at the wall and the most landed on choice was Culver University. I quickly made arrangements to live on campus, informing my friends via memos, in case they needed me.

I spread my college year out, ending up as a 20 year old senior missing 6 college credits. Honestly that happened completely on accident, you see a pervy professor thought that he could bribe me with straight A's in his class in exchange for sex. I of course took exception to his disgusting depraved idea and tased him(because we all swore we would learn a non-lethal weapon to deal with idiots who didn't quite deserve to die, but needed a reminder to stop being so DAMN dumb.)

But anyway yeah I'm missing crucial credits I needed to graduate, so I started looking for a solution. Luckily I found an internship that accepted me, had all the credits I needed, and peaked my interest. It was for a Jane Foster, it seems she needed someone to help her with her project in New Mexico. I asked around about her and the only feedback I got was that she was "a star crazy idiot with foolish ideas." But I didn't care, crazy people have more fun, so I flew(in a plane) to New Mexico, posting on my memo what was happening so that the others wouldn't freak out when they couldn't find me at college.

Months passed as I went from antisocial, barely there intern, to social butterfly, internet obsessed Jane-wrangler. Everything shifted when Jane called in her mentor, Erik Selvig, in. I had two scientists to lool after, so I rolled up my mental sleeves and got to work making sure my scientists ate and slept in between breakthroughs and various anomalies.

The others were highly amused at my current occupation. Hal and Eli gave me all kinds of shit about it, saying that Jane and I were soul sisters. I told them to fuck off and go reprogram a robot and tell the crows I said hey, respectively. My best friend was super nice and sympathized with what I was going through.