#especially on bill's part i need to know if the 'nightmare realm as his own bubble' parallel is true so so SO bad

[mechieonu]

can't believe they're becoming canon in 2024

[legobiwan]

This is such a telling page for Ford. Not only does he detail his social missteps and admit to being lonely in Gravity Falls, despite the scientific wonder of the place, but he also uses what I call "Fordese 2," a scrambled version of the "Fordese 1" code we were first introduced to in Journal 3 to label himself a "six-fingered freak" and to state that "Stanley would have made her laugh." (Her, being the waitress Ford tries out his nerdy science joke on, which goes down like a lead balloon despite the fact that it is legitimately funny, given the right audience).

It's like Bill says. "Ego of a king. The insecurity of a circus freak. And totally isolated..." (Funny enough, Bill could probably turn those exact words on himself, as well.)

Ford so wanted Gravity Falls to be the place where he'd finally fit in, the puzzle to his misshapen puzzle piece.

And as we see in the missing Journal pages from BoB, that was not to be the case. And worst of all? Ford blames it on his hands at first, but the reality is that he says that "Stanley could make her laugh," meaning Ford's "freakishness" (as he would put it) has less to do with his six fingers and much more to do with Ford's personality and the way he interacts with others.

This is actually worse. Fingers, you can fix, if you want to. By the time you're an adult, most people probably wouldn't care. But to Ford, his fingers seem to be more a manifestation of something internal, something he feels is fundamentally broken about him and that's just the absolute worst hell to be stuck in.

So yeah, it's hardly surprising Ford fell so hard for Bill's shenanigans (and you can define "fell so hard" however you want, although that karaoke page in BoB is especially damning). Here's an interdimensional being who not only can guide you to unlocking the secrets of the universe and propel you towards scientific fame and glory (and thus shoving every taunt, invective, side-eye, and eye roll ever hurled at you over the decades down your tormentors' throats) - but he's (on the surface) completely glib about being a freak himself.

For Ford, this must have been like finding a shady, sparkling oasis after thirty years of trawling through the desert (especially after Stanley's "betrayal" - Stanley, who along with Fiddleford, being the only person Ford felt like he could be himself around and still be accepted as a human being).

Now, is Bill trying way too hard to show how much he doesn't care? Uhhh, yeah. Bill has almost the same hangups as Ford. Labeled a freak for a genetic mutation and ostracized by his peers. Has a rare gift in that he can see not only into the third dimension but can see even past that, into possible dimensions and futures, which is a wild skill to have. Compare this with Ford's gigantic science brain and academic overachievement. Same deal. And not only this! Bill, in an attempt to prove what he can do with his "freakishness," to prove his worth and place in the universe - he tries to show off something to the denizens of his dimension (we don't know yet what Bill did), only to end up slaughtering his entire dimension. Ford was a hair's breath away from doing the exact same thing with the portal. Because we know from Journal 3 that part of his motivation is to be famous and get accolades for his work, and that maybe "girls will finally talk to me." (Which, Fordsy, let's be real here - I don't think you're actually into these "girls" for real, but you want the acceptance that comes with fitting in with societal standards, and getting a state-sanctioned girlfriend is exactly the type of thing Ford would want to make himself feel "normal.")

Anyway, the point being that if Ford had succeeded with his initial portal attempt, he would have basically wiped out his own dimension. Just. Like. Bill. And it makes you wonder - yeah, yeah, Bill wanted to party, Bill needed out of the Nightmare Realm, Bill's a psychopath who enjoys destruction.

But honestly? I think part it all was that Bill wanted someone like him. His own puzzle piece. Another monster. A being whose collateral damage in the quest to justify their existence in this universe ends in wholesale slaughter.

And Ford had the capacity to easily fit that mould.

[robinsarm]

Heya!! Can I get some sleepy Quentin headcanons? I'm on a "monster befriends human" kick, so maybe something involving that? You said you needed ideas, so here ya go?

Sleepy Quentin, huh, @chaoticlovingdreamer? I think I can scrounge up a couple >:3

I assume that a lot of people see Quentin as a pill or caffeine fiend, especially while he lived in the real world. But what I think some people forget is that he also has ADD/ADHD as stated by his movie. Do you understand what lack of medication and exhaustion does to a person with ADHD? It's not fun, I'll say that much.

When Quentin is really hitting the bottom of his energy tank he gets more and more distant from everyone else. He'll stop talking, start sitting further away from the fire, and intrusive/depressing thoughts start to riddle his mind. Since a healthy dose of sleep isn't on the menu for Quentin usually, he'll start to cope with his exhaustion in other ways; other ways that aren't healthy and can be left up to the imagination for now.

Some of the survivors that have been there the longest have learned to spot these signs from Quentin before he begins "coping". They'll immediately get up and take him for walks or bring him back to the fire and in front of 20+ other sets of eyes. Claudette, Ace, Meg, and Laurie are usually the nicest and manage to cheer him up faster than anyone else. Steve, in recent years, has also grown to notice and make sure his teammate is okay.

Have you ever seen the joke of someone getting hit in the head on a cartoon and they fall flat on their face, knocked out? Visualize that, and realize Quentin does that on a regular basis just without the hitting part. Like someone with narcolepsy, when Quentin’s brain and body are tired of being awake, he’s out like a light; heaven forbid he’s standing near anything sharp when this happens. From time to time, Quentin will just suddenly fold like a GMOD player hit their kill key. There’s no waking him up for a while after that. So far, it’s never happened in a trial; who knows why, Quentin is just grateful for that much. 

When Quentin is tired and actually decides that he’d rather sleep then Collapse™, he will pass out just about anywhere. On the logs, in the bushes, up a tree (won’t do that anymore because he’s prone to falling out of said trees), on someone. Quentin has no shame when it comes to finding a place to rest his head for a minute and the others, for the most part, are fully understanding.  

Sleepy Quentin can also be confused with what Drunk Quentin would look like, only in his movements, however. I’d compare it to those really yanking pulls that Boiled Over can do in-game that just send the killer 5 meters to the left. Yeah...Quentin will do that a lot when he’s really tired. It’s normal to see him firmly planted on the ground when he’s extra tired just so he doesn’t fall into something or someone. (He took out a game of Blackjack that Ace and Bill were playing and felt incredibly bad afterwards) If Quentin can help it, he won’t move when he’s on the very verge of passing out. 

Not so much headcanons but two scenarios I’d like to imagine have happened to Quentin:

I.

Quentin doesn’t sleep due to Freddy’s constant torment that he resumes every time the survivor falls asleep. But Quentin isn’t the only one Freddy torments. It’s been known that Freddy will hop from person to person if Quentin goes for too long without sleeping. However, the killer once made the mistake of pulling the same shit on the Legion which earned him a proper beating from the four teens afterwards. Because of this, the Legion made sure that the Nightmare can’t enter Ormond unless he’s in a trial. 

(I have a personal headcanon that killers can ask the Entity to block a different killer from entering their realm if given proper reasoning, and that’s how I’d see the Legion being able to keep Freddy out of Ormond)

Quentin, by an odd string of occurrences, ends up at Ormond and gets to talking to the killers - since they’re in a good mood. One of them brings up how shitty Quentin looks and actually offers if he’d want to sleep there for a bit. Quentin, taken slightly off guard, shrugs the invitation off, explaining Freddy would just show up and start attacking him again. The Legion, ever so boastful, counters with their story and clue him in on the fact that the Nightmare can’t enter the realm outside of a trial. Quentin’s not buying it but the killers insist just to prove themselves right, eventually having to hold the boy at knife-point to get him to stay and sleep. After a three hour, uninterrupted nap, Quentin wakes up and realizes they were telling the truth.

Regardless, Quentin doesn’t trust the Legion. However, if he’s feeling exceptionally tired and has a few 100k bloodpoints lying around, Quentin will pay the Legion to let him sleep for a few hours, undisturbed. They’re happy to take his money and he’s happy to sleep off his exhaustion.

Still, Quentin does sleep at the fire on occasion; he does only because of the fact Freddy wants him. If Freddy can’t get to Quentin, he’ll start tormenting and hurting his friends. Since Quentin doesn’t want that, he keeps his trips to Ormond few and far between. 

II.

There’s one killer Quentin never thought in his life he’d manage to “befriend” outside of trials. Slinger is a fat no; the man is still a hard-ass to everyone other than Zarina. The Yamaoka family keep to themselves and kill anything on sight. The original four are apathetic towards everyone. Michael, Freddy, Ghostface, Pinhead, Nemesis, Pyramidhead - all psychopathic monstrosities that earned their own circle in hell. I could go on.

No, of all the killers to actually show any sort of compassion (or just lack of hostility) towards Quentin was the Demogorgon. 

It started during a horribly unfortunate trial on Azarov’s. Felix and Yun-Jin were long since dead, leaving only Quentin and Feng to do the last two generators. The thing was, Feng seemed to be trying her absolute hardest to screw Quentin over every time the killer got close. She ran in front of him while they were both running from the killer, she blocked pallets, blocked windows, if the killer got close she immediately hid behind anything large enough. Sure she apologized at the beginning of the trial, but those quickly trailed off. Quentin just wasn’t in the mood for it. So, when he went down for his third and final time due to Feng’s not-so-subtle body blocking, Demo surprised both of them by not picking up the boy immediately. Instead, the killer hunted down Feng (for all of 20 seconds) and threw her onto a hook immediately, not leaving her until she was dead and gone. Quentin had the foresight to bring Unbreakable before entering the trial, so, by the time Feng had reached second stage, he was up and running. 

Even though hatch was visible before Feng died Quentin couldn’t find the damn thing to, literally, save his life. As he ran back into the territory where the killer was last, Quentin’s hope began to dwindle more and more as he heard and saw nothing. Demo, seeming to appear out of thin air, found him first and shred-tackled him into the dirt. On his back, Quentin thought he was going to be mori’d for sure, but then something...worse happened. The killer regurgitated Feng’s med kit onto his chest then stepped off and away from Quentin. Quentin didn’t know whether to thank the killer or puke himself. The amount of slime and saliva that drenched his clothing and neck had him pressing his mouth shut tight. What the hell is this killer doing? was the only thought in Quentin’s mind as he pealed the kit from his chest. 

Quentin didn’t believe that Demo could sit on his haunches like a dog before that trial, but he does now. 

The killer only watched as Quentin used the non-soaked medical supplies on himself until he was fully healed. Afterwards, the killer rose and started walking towards the killer shack. When Demo realized Quentin wasn’t following, it turned back, pathed behind the survivor, and herded him towards the decrepit building. Quentin had seen a lot when it came to weird shit, but this experience was quickly climbing the list. Rounding the far corner of the shack, Quentin found the hatch humming where it usually was. He turned and saw the Demogorgon, not trying to stop him but lying down like it was ready to take a nap. 

Quentin pointed to the hatch with his free hand. “I can have that?” The killer, not understanding human speech, looked down at the hatch then back up to Quentin. The survivor figured that was good of an answer as any, thanked the killer with a shaky voice, and hopped into the backdoor exit. 

Ever since that trial, Quentin has had this weird relationship with the Demogorgon. It’s fully based off the killer’s mood at the time, but for the most part, the pair seem to respect one another at the very least. Some trials, Demo will slaughter everyone mercilessly; others, the killer attacks everyone but Quentin. The survivor hasn’t found any rhyme or reason to the killer’s decision on how to treat him that day, but he’s grateful for the break when they come. 

[flamesdemon]

• about my cipher canon, there are some things i would like to say

• something that i think differentiates me from uhm possibly other ciphers is that i didn't have friends in the nightmare realm. like, those guys that appear in the show, the henchmaniacs, they didn't exist in my canon. and i think that makes things very different for me.

• because i was alone in the nightmare realm, when i met stanford, i clung to him. yes, my main objective was to merge the human realm and the nightmare realm from the start, and that's why i reached out to stanford in the first place, but when we became close, it was kinda inevitable. the weird part of it is.. i probably wasn't supposed to feel attached to him that way because as far as i can remember, demons don't form friendships like humans do, what demons call friends are just uhm.. partners in crime, not people you like to spend time with.

• from then on it was a rollercoaster. stanford discovered my main goal and felt betrayed, and at that time i didn't think nothing of it? i didn't knew that i was atached to him, that i considered him a friend. he tried to destroy everything we worked on and that goes pretty much like the show canon until.. uhm.. the twins appear.

• i started observing the rest of the pines family, maybe in hope that they would do something to bring stanford back? so maybe we could be friends again? deep inside me, yes, that's exactly what i wanted, but i didn't even tried to think about this, because the idea was so weird to me. and i don't remember how me and pinetree dipper even started talking semi regularly, but i'm pretty sure it wasn't like the show canon either.

• there was a point were i was extremely attached to every single one of them, dipper, mabel, stanley and.. stanford, but he was still missing. but still, even if i liked to spend time with them, i'm not sure if they felt the same about me. especially dipper, i'm pretty sure he hated me for some reason? i really don't know why, i can't remember why, but i think he probably knew what i was trying to do. i never really abandoned my plan, i tried to focus on it all the time, so i wouldn't realize what was happening between me and the pines family. i didn't want to admit that they were fun to watch, fun to and hang out with and especially i didn't want to admit that i considered them friends.

• but that didn't last forever, because stanford came back. when that happened, even the part of the family that felt neutral about me started to hate me. stanford told them that i manipulated him, which i kinda did so fair enough, but that pretty much destroyed any kind of positive bond between us. that's when i decided to go 100% on my plan, because now i had stanford there and maybe i could use him to help me again.

• i don't remeber how it happened but when the weirdmageddon started, the first hours i was the happiest i've ever been, i mean that was my dream since i don't even remember when! but.. uhm, after some time.. i didn't felt happy anymore. i was alone again, why did it matter having my own paradise if i was alone to enjoy it?

• my sadness became anger. i was angry that i wasn't happy, why wasn't i happy? so uhm.. i might have kidnapped stanford to help me sort out my feelings. i can say he wasn't very happy about that. i tried to talk to stanford and he kept thinking that i was hiding something from him, that "someone like bill cipher would never need someone to help him with his own feelings". ehrm, somehow i actually got something important from this conversation. and that was the moment i realized, without the pines family i couldn't be happy, because i grew attached to them, because i considered them my friends, even if the feeling wasn't reciprocated.

• using stanford as a captive, the rest of the pines family came to my fortress. i tried to talk to them, to make them understang my feelings, and i said that i wanted them to stay with me because i liked them, but it's very obvious that they didn't believe me. if they had, i wouldn't be here today. well, what happened next is they defeated me, no, i didn't even tried to fight them, i was probably too devastated to be angry with them.

• who would've guessed that the agent of chaos, bill cipher, was so emotional, and so deeply connected with humans?

[jamiebluewind]

Fantasy High Theory: Fabian has an eating disorder

TW: eating disorder symptoms, anorexia symptoms, abuse mention, death mention, violence mention, gun mention, alcohol mention, drug mention, trauma mention, smoking mention,...

Word Count: about 2100

I know this is a big assumption to make with what we have, but I couldn't ignore all the data and the warning signs. In fact, I think that even if Fabian does not have an eating disorder at this time, he's certainly at risk for one and needs the issues addressed before it gets worse.

Before I get into it, let me remind everyone that I am about to talk about a very heavy subject. Remember, stay safe and consider the warnings before you continue. You can always message me for a summary of the red flags or for an edited version if you need it. I would rather you be safe than to have you're like on my theory.

Okay? Okay. Let's start by defining a few things.

Eating Disorder: Any of a range of psychological disorders in which people experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors and related thoughts/emotions. People with eating disorders typically become pre-occupied with food and/or their body weight/shape.

ARFID: Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder is an eating disorder characterized by eating very little food and/or avoiding eating certain foods. It does not include having a distorted body image (as occurs in anorexia nervosa) or being preoccupied with body image (as occurs in bulimia nervosa). People with avoidant/restrictive food intake may not eat because they lose interest in eating or because they think eating has harmful consequences. They may avoid certain foods because of their color, consistency, or odor. When it becomes more severe, it can cause substantial weight loss, slower-than-expected growth in children, difficulty participating in normal social activities, and sometimes life-threatening nutritional deficiencies.

Anorexia nervosa: Diagnosed when patient BMI (body mass index which is a rule of thumb measuring body size vs mass) is low for their age and height. Severity is classified as mild (BMI of greater than 17), moderate (BMI of 16–16.99), severe (BMI of 15–15.99), or extreme (BMI of less than 15). Hallmarks of anorexia include limited food intake, excessive monitoring of the calorie and fat content of food, fear of being “fat”, problems with body image, denial of low body weight, excessive exercise, food rituals, cold intolerance, mood swings, sleeping issues, chronic fatigue, distorted body image, and many more. Eventually, the body goes into starvation which cause a lot of bad symptoms.

Atypical anorexia nervosa: All of the criteria for anorexia nervosa are met, except the individual's weight is within or above the normal range.

Again, ANY BMI can still mean a person has an eating disorder. It is NOT confined to those that are underweight. The BMI is only there as a red flag and to help classify severity of anorexia. I want to make this very clear, not just for my theory, but for the people reading this who recognize parts of it in themselves or others. I'm about to give an example that gets... personal in order to show that people who don't fit the stereotype of being underweight can still have an eating disorder. How personal? My own.

I am overweight to obese (depending on the doctor and the range). I don't exercise much. I eat pretty well around friends. But I have an eating disorder. I just... don't get hungry most of the time, so I forget to eat a lot more often than is healthy. A LOT more. I've been to the hospital a few times due to dehydration. I've collapsed because I literally forgot to eat for two or three days. I could have died at one point because despite being overweight, I was eating so little that things just... stopped working. Again, I was overweight. People and doctors thought I was just lazy. I was told to eat less and exercise more. Even my blood tests came back fine until one day, they didn't. And even then, nobody listened. Somebody doesn't have to look how you expect them to in order to have a problem. Also, don't be afraid to reach out for help if you feel like some of this hits close to home or someone you know is showing symptoms. It's okay to need help.

So remember, eating disorders can affect anybody with any body. The important thing is to be kind, supportive, and encourage professional help such as cognitive therapy.

****

Now to list Fabian's risk factors (I only listed the ones I believe he has)

Dysfunction family: This is a big risk factor for Fabian. His father is chaotic evil and (despite loving his son) puts massive pressure on him and tries to make him conform to his ideal for most of Fabian's life. Fabian has seen his father abuse his crew and snap at the drop of a hat. His mother has been a heavy alcoholic and mostly absent his entire first 16 years and when she gets off alcohol, she puts an extreme amount of pressure on him herself.

Abuse: This is another big one. His parents have been verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, neglectful in a variety of ways, controlling, manipulative, isolating, and his mother rested his food intake. He could have also been physically abused in the guise of sparing.

Genetics: Fabian's mother is very slim. Using images of weights and comparing it to her shape, she in fact fits the underweight shape which may or may not imply a genetic component depending on if the normal body shapes are different for high elves or not.

Exposure to warped body ideals and weight stigma: Exposure to "body ideals" in places like the media (especially if at a young age) can increase body dysfunction and eating disorder risk. Weight stigma can make this worse due to discrimination and stereotyping based on a person’s weight. Fabian has actually been exposed to this a lot due to his father and the crew. He's a kid around very strong muscular people and he feels pushed to get stronger to live up to his dad. It's also very easy to imagine that crew members who were not strong or active enough got a very bad reaction from his father, which would reinforce the ideal. Some of this is conjecture, but it's not so far outside the realm of possibility to be impossible.

Participation in sports: He's on the Bloodrush team and is a fencer.

Pressure to have a certain body shape from family: I think this risk factor is there too, especially when his mother takes over training.

Bullying/Teasing: Fabian was actually bullied by peers when he first starts school, but I believe his parents were bullying him long before that.

Trauma and PTSD: Oh boy, is this solid. He was most likely traumitized by his parents before high school. He saw two new friends die the first day of school and nearly died himself, only saved by Riz. He watched two teachers die by gunshot right in front of him (and a staff member killed by bludgeoning). Fabian mentions having nightmares about Riz killing Daybreak which might have been due to it being via gunshot. He was forced to kill people due to the situation he found himself in. The person who was supposed to have been helping them the entire time (Biz) turned out to be an evil dude who trapped one friend in a palimpsest and wanted to capture another. He was stuck in jail for weeks! His family was attacked, his home was damaged, and his dad died (and by his hand no less). He and his friends almost died to a dragon. That's a LOT of trauma for a kid to try to process and Jawbone mentioned that he never came to visit him, so he probably dealt with a lot of it on his own.

Low self-esteem: This is unfortunately something else he has. Despite all the bravado, he doesn't know how to be a friend or have people like him for who he is (instead of who his parents are or how much money he has). He tries to put up a cool front, but he judges himself very harshly.

Perfectionism. One of the strongest risk factors for an eating disorder is perfectionism, especially self-oriented perfectionism, which involves setting unrealistically high expectations for oneself. If they fail to meet their high expectations, the person becomes very self-critical. Fabian has this type of perfectionism.

History of an anxiety disorder: This one is reaching, but possible. People often show signs of an anxiety disorder (generalized anxiety, social phobia, OCD,...) before the onset of an eating disorder and Fabian stays on edge a lot, worries excessively, puts up a front, and deals with nightmares.

Substance abuse: Fabian has had alcohol and drugs before the age of 16, his parents almost encouraging it. He smokes regularly. Addiction runs in his family as well with his mother being an alcoholic and his father doing multiple drugs. Neither parent even hides the fact that they take drugs and drink alcohol to excess, the crew probably took drugs and got drunk in front of a young Fabian, and Bill offered drugs to his friends upon meeting them.

History of using weight-controling methods and dieting: Fabian exercises a great deal. He skips meals. He has a limited number of things he will eat. There is a lot of evidence to back this up.

Limited social networks: This was a HUGE issue before high school. Fabian was very isolated. He had no friends, limited social activities, and lacked proper social support. Recently, he's been skipping class exclusively which on top of smoking a lot, puts distance between him and other people.

Long story short? Our boy is at risk. Big time.

****

List of common signs of eating disorders (including anorexia)

Limited food intake: Seen when he has mostly protein smoothies, his mother tries to give him limited rations, and when he refuses to eat with his friends more and more as the series goes on. The first incident of it was in Cool Kids, Cold Case where Fabian refused the food he was offered on two separate occasions, passing it to Riz both times. Once was after the battle with Daybreak and being stuck at the police station a good while. The other was when the teens were hanging out at Riz's appartment when Sklonda got takeout. Fabian's mom also makes him earn food as seen in the live show. This mentality could have very well been internalized, even with Cathilda there to try and give him more.

Excessive monitoring of the calorie and fat content of food: He worries about empty calories, how fattening something is, and removed the cheese from a slice of pizza and dabbed the oil

Fear of being “fat” or in a shape that is not the ideal: In episode 1 of season 2, he is very preoccupied with staying trim and tight.

Excessive exercise: He exercises who knows how long every morning plus for Bloodrush plus the times outside of that

Food rituals: This is interacting with food a certain way (like small bites or how it's prepared) which causes anxiety when not followed. The pizza event might be one, but it's hard to say without a pattern.

Sleeping issues: Fabian has issues with sleeping, dreaming, and nightmares. His father confirmed this and he himself mentioned his nightmares.

Weight loss: By comparing his previous official artwork with his new official artwork, it's easy to see that Fabian looks visibly thinner. He's also VERY cut. (very defined muscles requiring very little fat) for his age. He was muscular last year sure, but his chest and abs are much more defined this year. Being that cut means that despite how muscular Fabian is, he has been eating less and probably doing fat burning exercises, getting a lot of his nutrition from multivitamins and whey, and would have less energy than normal.

Negative energy balance/chronic fatigue: This is only a possibility, but it deserves being mentioned. If this is going on, it puts a spin on some of Fabian's other actions in season 2, episode 1. He showed up late on move in day and didn't really move anything (just carried a book), which might have been a character thing, but could have also been because Fabian is running on empty and capable of things like adrenaline fueled busts of energy, but otherwise dealing with low energy and fatigue.

Also, Fabian is smoking now which works as an appetite suppressant as is common among those with eating disorders.

(Signs with no evidence as of this post: problems with body image, denial of low body weight, cold intolerance, mood swings)

~*~*~*~*~*~

TLDR: Fabian is showing a lot of symptoms of an eating disorder and also over a dozen risk factors. The number of both is substantial enough to see a pattern. Enough that I sincerely hope that it's acknowledged during the season because if Fabian does not have an eating disorder, he is at substantial risk of developing one.

PS: I know it's data heavy, I might have missed a few things, and it could be totally wrong, but I seen enough there that I thought it might make for a solid theory. D20 is no stranger to heavy subjects and I think if they do cover it, they will do a good job (as always). If they don't, I still learned a lot making this theory and maybe a few of you will as well. ^_^

[idratherbeariotthanindifferent]

I've always wondered, especially with your Fortune Teller Series, what your idea of Chase's life is like. Like, what's his story and what's your story for Marvin? I really adore that series & seeing your latest piece with Marvin & Anti, I was just curious if it's connected to it indirectly, like a part of Marvin's life.

hi hello hi! sorry for the late reply, I only just got home and saw this! also, sorry this reply grew to be of novel length, and a weird mix of story/explanation, I’m just so jazzed to talk about this series???? Thank you so much for asking! So, I sort of have two answers for this but this particular answer is just how I see them relating specifically to the FT!AU :D

Essentially, this AU is my idea of sort of what happened around the anti-chase encounter at the end of dark silence (but kinda different than that exact ending)! The backstory is that, when Chase was going through all his rough, dark moments (like the stuff from the original Chase video, minus the shooting), a demonic entity latched on to him. It started taunting him in small ways, (leaving cabinets open that he thought he closed, breathing down the back of his neck in what could have been a breeze but not quite, standing just at the corner of his vision to where he swears, he swears there’s something there watching but when he looks, there’s just his empty, quiet home), and it began to feed on Chase’s disquiet and unease. 

And then it got hungrier, and things started escalating. Chase burnt himself leaning over his stove burners that were turned up to full heat, though he never turned them on, he was shocked pretty harshly quite a few times by his outlets sparking, despite the electrician telling him that nothing was wrong with his wiring, and he still swears that something tripped him that time he took a spill down his staircase, throwing out his shoulder, (though most people figured he was just drunk when he told them about what happened. He wasn’t. He knows he wasn’t. There was something there, he knows he saw something). The entity feeds on Chase’s misery and struggle, and so it watches what he loves the most in order to bring about the most powerful reactions. It plagues Chase with nightmares and makes every single day a little more challenging, a little more emotionally exhausting, and it revels in the downward sag of Chase’s shoulders, in the purpling bags beneath his eyes, in the reach for a glass of whiskey instead of an early night.

But then, Stacy has to go away on business, and she needs Chase to watch the kids while she’s away. He’s just so overwhelmingly happy to have them in the house again, to have noise and laughter and these bright splashes of home and love and the good kind of mess – the kind that means someone else is here, that someone else is existing and creating in this too empty space, where “sorry dad, I accidentally spilled paint on the carpet!” is a thing of joy. But the entity grows restless and furious, as it begins to be starved. And so it decides to remove the problem by taking Chase’s son and daughter to its realm. It then tries to take Chase, as well, to torture and feed on his grief. But something gets in the way. Marvin, in the FT!AU, is primarily a seer, though he also has a hell of a lot of power that he typically tends to avoid using. He does street readings and busking, mostly, (though he’s done some serious house and personal cleansings before, to banish dark energies. However, he’s also done his fair share of dark spells for the right price, so long as he agrees with what’s being asked of him). He doesn’t really know Chase, but the man had stopped quite a few times to watch his performances, and always made sure to chat and hand him a few bills after each show. They aren’t friends, exactly, but Marvin still finds himself enjoying their conversations, and he did feel sort of bad when it seemed like Chase had a lot of stress going on in his life, last time they spoke. He absolutely did not worry when he didn’t see Chase for a long time after that. 

When Marvin happened to encounter Chase again, for the first time in a few months at another one of his street performances, this time Chase was with his kids. And something in his magic core pulled and said pay attention. He shrugged it off, maybe one of the three had some latent or dormant magic, though there was something disquieting about the energy he was feeling. After the performance, Chase’s kids came running up brandishing handfuls of change like precious jewels to dump into his case, talking over each other about “how cool that was, how did you do that?” and “where did those cards go?? also wow your makeup is awesome!” 

He does a little showing off for the kids, makes colourful sparks in his hands that they gasp about, and while they’re distracted he tries to read their energy to see if he feels that same unsettling something that he caught before, but nothing comes through. He extinguishes the sparks and does a showy sweeping bow as he watches Chase come to gather the two to leave. Something pulls again, but before he can get a read on Chase, someone else comes up to talk with him about the performance and he loses the trio to the crowd. 

Marvin continues about his day, but he can’t escape that wriggling feeling of not-right in the back of his mind, and he’s not surprised to feel it grow into the kind of migraine that means a vision is trying to come through. He Sees the family he encountered, and he watches as the entity takes the children and takes the father. When he comes back to himself, his heart is racing in a way it never has. He has never felt an entity this powerful before. He has to try to do something or that family will be destroyed. 

So he races to the place he saw in his vision and tries to intervene before it’s too late, but something goes wrong. The children were already taken to the realm, and when Marvin tried to pull Chase back away from the entity, they both grabbed one of his arms at the same time. Something shattered, and reality faltered. In the split second of them both holding Chase, something came through the energy flow, and Marvin felt something dark and ancient worm its way into his core. 

When Marvin woke up, he was only half in control of his actions. He was in what looked like a fortune teller’s tent, and he watched as his own hands wove puppet like dolls over a crushed velvet tablecloth. He could feel the dark presence inside him pressing against his mind, trying to get back to the rest of the entity. Everything went blank, and he only seemed to come back into himself once the puppet was complete. As he felt himself take control of his body, he tried to understand all that had happened. He’s not sure, but he thinks that when he interrupted the entity trying to pull Chase into its realm, part of the entity’s dark energy came into him through his open magic channel, weakening it, and they got stuck in this in-between realm. He just hopes he has enough power over the energy infecting his core to help himself and everyone get home. When Chase woke up, he felt numb. Something was wrong, this whole world he was in wasn’t right, but he couldn’t find it in himself to truly care. Everything was blissfully numb. No more stress, no more worries, no more fear (no no no no no where are they, what do you want from me), no more anything. Everything was totally the way it was supposed to be. Right? TL;DR: in the FT!AU, a demonic entity is feeding off Chase’s misery and takes Chase’s kids to its realm to heighten that devastation, but when it tries to take Chase, Marvin, (the seer and all around magic boy who had a vision of this all happening and wanted to try and help stop it), intervenes, which shatters reality and gets them all stuck between realms. The entity gets weakened in the interaction as Marvin accidentally takes on some of its dark energy in the intervention. After which, the entity is still lurking but weakened, Marvin loses control of his body for periods of time, and Chase goes numb.So!! that’s basically where/how this AU series starts! One day, I hope I’ll write it all out in a proper story! Thank you so much for always having such kind things to say about my art, and especially about this series! I am always 100% down to talk about it so please feel free to ask anytime you like! Also, the new drawing I did of Anti VS Marvin isn’t totally related to this series, but it’s definitely something I could see potentially happening within it to a degree! Hope you have a great day/night/whenever! 

[pokelolmc]

Gravity Falls: A Hypothetical “Journal 4″?

Okay, so Ford is one of my favourite secondary characters in Gravity Falls, but he’s one of my most nitpicky at the same time. I know that I probably shouldn’t be looking too far into it, but I seriously can’t stop thinking about this, I’m a nitpicker and I have way too much time on my hands. (Plus, the fandom is a collective conspiracy nut that thrives on theories and over-analysis). Oh, Stanford fucking Filbrick Pines, do I have some nits to pick with you!

I’ll probably post some other ones later, but this one is really long – a nitpick that turned into a speculative headcanon, so I posted it on its own (but, knowing this overanalysing fandom, I probably came pretty late to the table with this one. I have no idea if anyone’s talked much about this kind of theory/headcanon/concept. If you want to take a look, at my specific “evidence” and discussion anyway, take a look.)

THE COAT POCKET

Okay, in a moment of very belated Fridge Logic, I noticed something from his second ever appearance in the series (counting his “Time Traveller’s Pig” cameo), from the cliffhanger of Not What He Seems:

Why does he have this pocket for his Journals in the side of his coat?

I know that it’s supposed to be for the moment where we see his six-fingered hand match up with the one on the Journals for a dramatic reveal, but…really? Why?

Obviously, it was made to hold the Journals (at least, his most current one), and it even has a quill for writing, but he wouldn’t even have need for it in this coat in the first place (especially with a quill, which seems very impractical for someone like Ford when he’s written with pen and pencil so much before then, as seen in A Tale of Two Stans in his flashback of his college studies…unless he intends to only write his entries in invisible ink from then on).

Need I remind you that Ford never, as far as we know, had this coat during his time spent conducting his research in Gravity Falls (confirmed to be from 1975-1982 in Journal 3). We don’t see his full wardrobe or anything like that in his 30-years-ago flashbacks, but we don’t need to in order to know that he couldn’t have really had it:

When Ford gets sucked into the Portal, he’s not wearing this black outfit at all.

He got sucked into the Portal with absolutely nothing but the (different) clothes on his back and whatever was in his pockets…so, unless he’s secretly The Doctor and he stashes entire emergency outfits in his bigger-on-the-inside pockets, that black outfit was never something from his home dimension and he never had it before he got sucked into the Portal.

So, if he never had this black outfit before he got sucked into the Portal, why does he need to have any sort of empty Journal pocket sewed into it?

After all, by the time Ford got pushed into the Portal, he was no longer using the Journals. He called Stan to his lab, his fight with whom was the sole reason he was sucked into the Portal in the first place, solely to ask Stan to take his only Journal left and hide it as far away as possible.

(“Remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat? Take this book, get on a boat and sail as far away as you can! To the end of the earth!”)

By the time Ford fell into the Portal, his Second and Third Journals were hidden, his first was with Stan, and he wanted so little to do with his Journals that he never wanted to see them again, let alone carry them anymore. Then, after going through the Portal, he spent 30 whole years on the other side with no access to them (when he, obviously, acquired his black outfit). There was obviously no need for him to sew that Journal pocket into his outfit. You could say that maybe Ford decided he needed his Journals again for his old information on Bill, and sewed it in anticipation just in case he ever made it home. However, having only one pocket doesn't make sense because all his information on Bill is across both Journals 2 and 3. Not to mention, according to the real Journal 3 (post-Not What He Seems), Ford said that he never expected he would make it home, and he was already in the middle of fighting Bill and his goons in the Nightmare Realm with the finished Quantum Destabiliser when Stan opened the Portal and brought him back out, so needing his old Journals again wasn't really necessary. So, does this pocket have a point…?

Maybe, during his time on the other side of the Portal, he decided to write another Journal about some of his interdimensional adventures (either a new volume in the existing series or the start of a new series separate from his Portal-superweapon-recipe first three volumes). However, when he emerges from his time on the other side of the Portal in Not What He Seems, the pocket is empty (allowing him to place Journal 1 inside). This means that he could have, perhaps, written a new journal, but lost it at some point during his travels, whether intentionally or accidentally. This would also explain the quill in the pocket; he obviously used it to write in some book he kept in the pocket during his travels throughout the multiverse, and the only time he ever – apparently – uses a quill to write is when using the invisible black-light ink (referring to the pictures of his invisible ink well and quill on the page of the Third Journal where he writes that he will start using invisible ink. Also, we only ever see him write his normal Journal entries with pens in the Journal-writing flashbacks in A Tale of Two Stans).

We don’t see any sort of ink container in his Journal-shaped pocket, but if he did have a pot of invisible ink on his person at some point during his travels, it would make sense; if Ford were to keep a journal about his multiverse adventures so he could go back over things like notes for the Quantum Destabiliser, he would probably put them all in code or invisible ink to hide from dangerous “prying eyes”. (Though, with the apparent advancement of other dimensions in Gravity Falls – after all, the Quantum Destabiliser’s complex parts exist only in other dimensions and the Infinity Sided Die is known, and outlawed, in 9000 dimensions – putting it in code or invisible ink would seem a bit crude, since it could probably be uncovered by advanced technology if his new journal was ever confiscated.)

However, there isn’t much solid evidence to back it up – although there is still also some (weak, but still potential) evidence from the real-life copy of Journal 3 (which, need I remind you, is canon), that could potentially back it up (or just as easily go against it).

In the third section of Journal 3 (when Ford starts to write in Journal 3 again after he gets it back after AToTS, continuing after Dipper’s entries about the summer) he writes at the end of his entry on Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons:

“I told Dipper about the rift. But when he asked me where I’ve been for the last 30 years, I had no idea how to begin or what to reveal. I’ve been trying not to think about it, but perhaps writing about some of it here will help me get my thoughts in order.”

He also writes, on the page “My Travels” (about his interdimensional travels – the page with his infamous “Rick was here” wanted poster) he writes, “To fully chronical my adventures would take 10 volumes, but here’s a catalogue of some of the most outlandish dimensions I saw…”

The fact that he had no idea where to start when explaining his adventures in the multiverse to Dipper might potentially suggest that he has no idea where to start because he didn’t pay attention, or remember, all of it in enough detail (suggesting he may not have recorded a lot of it down for the sake of memory). Or, it could suggest that, since he never wrote much of it down/put it into words (let alone in a continuous journal), he doesn’t know how to put it into words when explaining some of it to Dipper. In fact, if Ford had written a whole other Journal about his journey on the other side of the Portal, you think he could’ve just gone “Actually, I wrote a whole other volume on that stuff. Here, Dipper, Journal number 4 – knock yourself out!” However, when you look at this a little further, it could actually – instead – work in favour of Ford having an “extra journal”.

After all, if he did write in this hypothetical “Journal 4” (or whatever it was), he was writing it for himself, with little censoring of some of the, undoubtedly, extremely bizarre (or possibly traumatising) things he saw. If he ever wanted to share this with Dipper, and he did have a journal covering his interdimensional travels, he would likely not share it as Dipper is only twelve, and he wouldn’t want to outright traumatise him. Dipper may have seen some scary stuff thanks to Journal 3, but anything outside of their home dimension could be potentially far worse. This could be supported by Ford claiming that he doesn’t know “what to reveal”, indicating there was indeed some very sensitive or dangerous content in his travels that he doesn’t want to hand over uncensored records of for Dipper to read indiscriminately. Besides, if we remember the fact that the pocket was empty at the end of Not What He Seems – possibly meaning he lost the new journal somewhere in the multiverse, as mentioned earlier – then he couldn’t hypothetically show it to Dipper anyway, in that case. So, as much as not telling Dipper about his “new journal” (when it would have been easier than explaining to him) could refute the existence of another journal, there are still plenty of reasons Ford could have (or have had) one, but not shown Dipper. In fact, Ford specifically writing “perhaps writing about some of it here [referring to Journal 3]” could indicate that he had also written about his journey through the multiverse somewhere else, and writing it in Journal 3 could help him recover memories of what he wrote or experienced.

The quote that “it would take 10 volumes” to write about all of his interdimensional adventures is a bit vaguer. On one hand, you could take it literally (which most people probably wouldn’t), or you could say that he was making a hyperbole (like people say “I’ve been waiting for a million years”) or an educated guess (since he had three Journals covering six years, having ten to fifteen volumes covering 30 years isn’t a totally random guess). That it’s because he actually wrote his travels down and it actually took that many volumes is probably less likely. The “would take”, to me at least, suggests expectation, like he is assuming that writing everything out in full would take that long, either because he wrote some of it down in a journal, but not all of his travels in full, or he didn’t keep a journal of any of it at all. Either way, according to this quote, he likely doesn’t know for certain how many volumes it would take to write it down in full. Because of this, it could potentially indicate his recording in another journal – just as much as it could refute it.

Bottom line: Did I just overthink a Disney cartoon? Yes. Was this evidence pretty shaky? Yes. Was this really, really long? Yes. Is this more just speculation or an interesting headcanon than a theory? Definitely. Has someone already thought of something like this? …Knowing the Gravity Falls fandom, most probably yes.

However, at the same time I think Ford having written (and possibly lost) another journal about his travels in the multiverse could make for an interesting concept…especially if it comes back to bite him in the ass later.

[multifandombitxh]

Title: Not Much of a Life, But It Has Its Perks Pairing: Dwight Fairfield x Jake Park Summary: Life in the Entity’s realm is cold and unforgiving but sometimes it’s not so bad. Chapter Genre: Angst/Fluff Chapter Warnings: Language, Death (not really) of a character Chapter Summary: Nea confides in Jake. Meg, Claudette, Laurie, and Dwight are sent on a trial. The group at the fire is forced to take shelter in the forest. Jake comforts Dwight when he returns from the trial. A/N: Everything after the Hag isn’t involved yet. None of those characters are in the story just yet, fyi lol

II: Cypress

“Jake, wake up.”

“Not even sleeping.”

“Well, wake up anyway.”

Jake opened his blood-shot eyes to see a very blurry, very out-of-focus Nea. He rubbed his eyes with his palms and yawned, then stretched his arms above his head. “What is it?”

“I saw something,” Nea said, her eyes darting around. “Okay, three somethings. Out in the woods.”

“What were you doing out there?” Jake asked. He was suddenly fully awake and any traces of sleep deprivation were shoved to the back of his mind. “Don’t you remember what happened to Meg?”

“I know, I know,” she sighed, “I couldn’t help myself.”

“Well, what did you see?”

Nea looked over his shoulder, staring intently at the forest behind him and drawing her eyebrows together. “I saw people. Real, actual people, like us.”

“Maybe it’s just new people showing up like Bill,” Jake said, barely believing his own words.

“I wanted to go after them, but my gut was telling me not to.”

“Probably for the best. It could have been anything.”

She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “Do you think they were real? Or do you think it was the Entity messing with me?”

Jake stared at his friend, trying to come up with an answer and failing. He didn’t know. There was no way to know, unless they ventured off to find out for themselves. Which was a bad idea, but…

“Don’t worry about it right now,” Jake said after some time, “Just try to get some sleep, and stay away from the edge of the woods. Don’t go out there anymore unless you have to, and don’t go alone if you do.”

Nodding, Nea turned and wandered away. Jake made sure to watch her, he wanted to be certain she wasn’t too close to the forest, just in case. He sighed in relief when she laid down beside Claudette, facing away from him. It took some time for him to actually get to sleep himself, but after forcing himself to ignore the whispers that drifted on the wind, he managed to shut his eyes and fall into a dreamless sleep.

When he opened his eyes again, the fire was still burning as it always did, crackling in the silence and offering a small and fleeting sense of comfort. It was the only comfort any of them ever got, being around that fire. Jake always wondered if the Entity did all of it to taunt them, giving them a place to sleep and socialize without the threat of being torn apart if they so much as moved too quickly.

Jake looked around the fire and noticed that Dwight was gone, as well as Laurie, Meg, and Claudette. His heart sunk when the realization hit him, but it wasn’t a foreign feeling. Any time someone was missing, the others knew what it meant. It was nothing good. He hoped they’d all make it back from the trial in one piece.

If there was one thing Jake hated more than being stuck in that nightmare of a place, it was being left at the fire when the Entity chose who to take in the night. It made him feel helpless, knowing that they were being chased and hooked and there was nothing he could do to help them. That was probably a part of the Entity’s games, too; it separated them, then tortured one group physically, the other emotionally. What a fucking joke.

There was a rustling behind him and he turned quickly, searching the dimly lit forest for any signs of life and coming up empty. It had to have been close to dawn, with how dark blue the atmosphere was, so that didn’t help him to see what it was that made the noise. He squinted and leaned forward to try and get a better look, but he still hadn’t found anything.

“Mornin’, sunshine.”

Jake’s heart stopped in his chest, Bill’s voice startling him. He turned to face him and released a shaky breath. “Jesus, Bill, you scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry,” he apologized, half smiling and taking a seat beside Jake. “Didn’t mean to disturb your bird watching.”

“I wasn’t-” Jake started, “Just- never mind. What’s up?”

“Just thought I’d stop by and chat,” Bill replied, lounging against the bench and removing his hat. “Figured maybe you’d be more pleasant after sleeping. Guess not.”

“I really don’t have the patience for this.”

“None of us do. Face your problems, kid, quit ignoring shit that bugs ya.”

“Look, I don’t need you trying to be some kind of shitty mentor or whatever it is you’re trying to do,” Jake fumed, standing from the bench and glaring down at Bill. “I can handle myself. We all can. You’re not our fucking father figure just because you happen to be the oldest person here, so lay off.”

It took him a few seconds, but Bill cracked a smile and stood, laughing heartily and clapping Jake on the back. “That’s exactly what I was talking about. Stand up for yourself, Jake. Don’t take shit. Glad you finally learned how to do that.”

“What the hell are you on about?” Jake asked, sounding dumbfounded.

“I saw how you people work together yesterday,” Bill explained, “You do a lot for these people, maybe too much for what they give back, especially that Ace. Put your foot down once in a while.”

“I don’t help them because I have to,” Jake said, “I help them because I want to. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not let my family get killed knowing I can do something about it.”

“So these people are your family,” Bill stated, “Even Ace?”

There was a long pause, then Jake finally answered.

“Even Ace,” he sighed, “I don’t like him but he’s here. He’s a part of the group… so are you.”

Bill nodded a few times and stared Jake down, observing his features and smiling to himself. “I think we’ll get along just fine, kid.”

A loud, booming noise crashed above them, making them both jump and look up at what was supposed to be a sky. Dark gray clouds loomed above, looking filled to the brim with rain, threatening to dump water on them at any second. Jake hadn’t even noticed just how dark it had gotten, or how quickly.

“What do we do?” Nea asked from across the fire.

“Not a lot we can do,” Ace replied, hands on his hips and staring up at the storm. “We either stay out here and get rained on, or we go into the woods for shelter.”

Everyone looked around at each other, the same, anxious expressions on their faces. A few drops of icy water were beginning to fall from the sky and another crash of thunder shook the earth, both urging them to make a decision quickly.

Jake looked over his shoulder at the forest and let out a frustrated sigh. “We know what’s in the woods, right? We know what to expect, but this has never happened before, we’ve never had rain. It might not even be rain.”

“What else would it be?” Ace asked.

“I’d rather not find out if it’s all the same to you,” Bill said, shivering once against the quickly chilling air.

Sighing, Nea began making her way to the treeline. “Let’s go. Watch your step, keep your eyes peeled for traps.”

Dwight counted in his head how many generators were left and came up with two, counting the one he was already working on with Meg. She’d picked him up after he’d been left on the ground- which was happening more and more- but it wasn’t easy, seeing as though the Hag put a perimeter of traps around him. It was eerily similar to how to Trapper acted with Jake.

It was obvious to everyone that the Trapper had a bone to pick with him. It could have been the fact that he had things Jake could- and did- break, and after so long, the frustration would undoubtedly build up. It could have been how much of himself the Trapper saw in Jake; what with their similar pasts with their fathers. The only difference was that instead of walking away like Jake did, Evan had stayed by his father’s side until the bitter end, which only turned him into the monster he was now. Maybe not physically, but it was clear he’d been a killer in his mind far before the Entity got a hold of him.

The strange chemistry with the killer made Jake uneasy. It was bad enough that he had to watch his step any time he moved, or had to check for traps under someone who’d been hooked. But it was as if he was under Evan’s watchful eye, and not in a good way. God help him if he took down too many hooks, or broke one too many traps.

The others had asked Jake to teach them how to sabotage before, but he always declined. Sure, it would help, and would definitely take some of the weight off his shoulders, but he couldn’t risk putting anyone else in the position he’d been in so many times before. The thought of Dwight or Nea bleeding out or stuck in the dungeon tied knots in his stomach. He didn’t want them to carry the same burden he did.

Dwight heard the sound of a generator being finished and a flood of relief washed over him. He and Meg were three quarters of the way done with theirs, and it was now the last one. It became much more difficult to pass skill checks with the added pressure, but they finished it regardless. The sound of the siren filled their ears as they made their way to the nearest exit gate, hearts racing in their chests.

“I haven’t seen Laurie this whole time,” Meg said to Dwight as he pulled on the lever to the exit gate.

“Neither have I,” he replied, glancing over his shoulder once.

“Do you think she’s with Claudette?” Meg asked.

“I hope so,” Dwight said, “Teamwork makes this bullshit go faster.”

As if they’d summoned her, Laurie emerged from the trees, coming from the same direction Dwight and Meg had. The sound of steel scraping rock filled the air as the gate opened, so Dwight quickly ushered everyone inside.

“Have you seen Claudette at all?” Meg asked Laurie.

“She was right behind me on the way here,” Laurie replied, turning back to the arena and searching with her eyes.

“We should go find-” Dwight began, stopping mid-sentence when he spotted her in the distance. “Never mind, she’s over there.”

Noticing the open door, Claudette burst into a sprint, thoughts of getting the hell out on her mind. The problem with that was that she hadn’t been paying attention, and tripped a nearby trap, making everyone either gasp or jump. She increased her pace and suppressed the urge to look behind her, and they all prayed that the Hag wasn’t close enough to teleport.

Dwight ushered her inside the exit as the trap- now the real thing- hunched forward, making her way toward them at an alarmingly fast rate. Maybe a little too fast, Dwight thought.

And then it hit him. Both literally and figuratively.

They’d seen it before. The moment the exits were powered, the killer became stronger, faster, and angrier- knocking them down with one single blow as opposed to two. It was terrifying, to say the least. He’d realized this was the case milliseconds too late as he turned to tell the others to run, then felt a razor sharp talon connect with his back, sending him flying onto the stone ground beneath.

He looked up in time to see the Hag chase the others out of the exit. Dwight began to crawl forward, willing himself to move as quickly as he could, but it was no use. She picked him up and carried him from the exit, only to drop him back onto the ground seconds later.

Confused, Dwight looked up at the Hag from the ground, and he swore on his life she was grinning at him. A wave of terror ripped through him once he realized what was coming, and like a storm made up of teeth and claws, she was upon him.

“How long has it been?” Nea asked, having to shout over the sounds of the rain.

“Hours, probably,” Jake replied. The four of them were huddled up under a large tree, their limbs pulled close to their bodies. He’d removed his jacket and placed it over Nea, seeing as though he would be more than warm in just the sweater he wore beneath.

The air was frigid, and had been since the rain had started. None of them felt safe, not even a little. Jake couldn’t shake the thought of what Nea had told him that morning, about seeing people in the woods. It sent a shiver up and down his spine, which didn’t exactly help against the cold.

Something disturbed the bushes behind them and they all turned.

“I told you, something’s out there!” Nea hissed to Jake, who responded by holding a finger to his lips.

The group watched in suspense as the rustling came closer, barely loud enough to hear over the sound of the storm. In his head, Jake tried to decide which was worse; one of the killer’s pouncing on them, one of the people Nea had seen earlier that day, or something else entirely. He came to the conclusion that all three at once would probably take the cake.

“Is it raining?”

Meg, Claudette, and Laurie emerged from the brush, hugging their arms around their torsos. Water dripped from the ends of their hair and onto their faces.

“Welcome back,” Ace greeted, “Hope you one of you knows how to treat hypothermia.”

“Where’s Dwight?” Jake asked abruptly, standing and shielding his eyes from the rogue drops of rain slipping through the treetops.

None of them responded. They all averted their eyes, sadness lurking beneath them. His heart dropped into his stomach and scrunched up into a ball.

“He didn’t make it, did he?”

Laurie shook her head. “She got him at the last second.”

Sighing, Jake ran a hand through his hair and slid back onto the damp ground. “Fuck.”

Eventually, the rain came to a halt, and when it did, everyone sighed in unison. Jake’s ears were ringing and he felt like his heart had slowed down exponentially. Sure, it was rare for everyone to come back in good condition, but this was Dwight. Something could have happened after the others had escaped, something worse than being put on a meat hook or bleeding out on the ground. He passed it off as paranoia and shook all thoughts of it from his mind. Dwight could handle himself.

When they returned to the fire, it was still burning, which surprised them all.

“This place makes no sense,” Meg said, angrily kicking a rock. She looked upwards to the sky and outstretched her arms before shouting, “You hear that? YOU’RE AN ENIGMA, YOU STUPID MOTHERF-”

“Meg, come on,” Jake said, trying to hide the laughter in his voice. Maybe he shouldn’t have found it funny, but watching Meg try to roast the Entity was pretty comical, if he was being honest.

“I hate this stupid place,” she muttered, taking the braids out of her hair and placing the hairbands on her wrist.

“We all do,” Laurie said, smiling at her. “But it’s probably not a good idea to make it angrier than it already is. I don’t wanna get rained on again.”

“You’re tellin’ me,” Bill chuckled, “We’ve been in this shit for hours now. You ladies showed up right at the end of it all.”

For the hundredth time that day, something shifted in the woods, causing all kinds of noise. It sounded clumsier this time, less precise than anything Jake had heard so far. Whatever it was, it was getting closer, and the others were already at attention. How many times that day would they have to wait for something horrible to stumble out of those god forsaken trees?

When Dwight stepped into the clearing clutching his stomach, Jake wasn’t sure if he should have been relieved or worried out of his mind. He settled for a mixture of the two as he stopped Dwight from falling flat on his face.

“What happened?” Meg asked, approaching with the others.

Dwight didn’t respond; he only shook like a leaf and hung his head, and that was all Jake needed to know the answer.

“She brought a Mori, didn’t she?” Jake asked softly.

Dwight nodded, and Jake felt his heart shatter in his chest like glass.

“Mori?” Bill asked, glancing around at the others. “Like a Memento Mori? Those creepy little shrunken heads?”

“It lets the killer kill one of us on its own,” Ace said, “Or all of us, sometimes.”

“Meg, who was it?” Jake asked, still holding Dwight up. He was basically dead weight in his arms.

“The Hag,” she answered, but not before hesitating.

“So, what, they just stab ya a few times and that’s it?” Bill asked, “Doesn’t sound so bad.”

“They don’t just stab us,” Claudette said, sounding vaguely annoyed. “It’s always different. They all have their own way of doing it, and it’s always horrible.”

“The Hag’s is the worst,” Jake said softly, staring down at Dwight with concerned eyes.

“Do we have to talk about it?” Dwight asked in a hoarse and quiet voice.

“No, we don’t,” Claudette said, “Let’s all go warm up by the fire and give Dwight some space.”

The evening was spent in almost total silence. Jake hadn’t left Dwight’s side since he’d returned, and he didn’t intend to. The thought of him being left alone with the Hag to be eaten alive made Jake sick to his stomach. He would have taken his place in a heartbeat if he could have.

Dwight was sitting next to him on the ground, their backs leaning against the bench. At Nea’s request, Jake transferred the jacket to Dwight, who now had it hanging loosely on his shoulders. He was staring blankly into the fire, his eyes distant and his shoulders slumped with his knees pulled up to his chest. The others had decided to clock out for the night, and after such a long day, Jake didn’t blame them. He glanced over at Dwight, his heart heavy in his chest..

To Jake’s surprise, Dwight cracked a smile. “Y’know, we always joke about how the Wraith purrs like a cat, but the Hag scratches like one. I had a cat once when I first moved out of my parents place. His name was Captain Peanut Butter, since he was the same color as peanut butter. ‘Captain’ was something my sister added to his name. ‘He just looks like a Captain,’ she said. I wasn’t supposed to have any pets in the apartment, but I kept him anyway. He loved to scratch anything he could get his paws on, y’know, like most cats. The rug, the couch, the carpet… mostly me, though. He had a thing for scratching my feet any time I ignored him. He also liked eating bananas, which was weird.”

A few silent moments passed and Jake couldn’t figure out what to say.

“I miss that little guy,” Dwight said softly.

“Dwight…” Jake trailed off.

“I know, I’m rambling,” he replied, “I just… I’m trying not to think about it.”

Jake glanced down in his lap, then at the fire, then back at Dwight. He felt his insides shrink at the blank expression on his face. It was hard to see any of them like this; it wasn’t a rare occurrence for one or more of them to be sacrificed at the hands of the killers, but this felt so different to Jake. It felt personal, and he wasn’t even there.

He gathered his courage and reached out, placing his hand over Dwight’s, which was resting atop his knee. Jake watched as he visibly tensed, and he thought about moving his hand away, but before he could do or say anything, Dwight launched himself into his arms.

Without even really meaning to, Dwight had reached out and latched onto Jake, locking his arms around his shoulders and doing his damnedest to keep his composure, but failed miserably. His body began to shiver as it had when he’d first stumbled into camp, and that was all Jake needed to slowly but surely circle his arms around Dwight’s torso, holding him close and muttering empty reassurances into his hair.

He’d never been good with these kinds of things. Handling his own emotions was hard enough, but handling someone else’s? Nearly impossible. This time, however, was strangely different. It didn’t make him queasy to be that close to another human being, it didn’t make him cringe whenever he whispered something comforting, it didn’t bother him. Whatever the reason, Jake was not about to question it, so he simply stayed there with his face buried into the side of Dwight’s neck, nothing else on his mind but making his friend feel safe again.

It wasn’t long before Dwight had cried himself out and began to doze off in Jake’s arms. Realizing this, Jake shifted him into a slightly more comfortable position by wrapping one arm around his shoulder and letting him nestle against his neck. After a while, his breathing became steady, fanning over Jake’s neck in soft, warm waves. The therapeutic sounds of Dwight snoring gently under his ear soon made Jake’s eyelids heavy, and he eventually joined him in sleep.

But not before exchanging knowing smiles with Meg first, of course.

[iprincezzinuyoukai]

BillDip Week 2017, Day 3: Angst

If any of you enjoyed Peter Pan (2003), you probably like this chapter.

Notes and Warnings: I won't call this Peter Pan AU, because it's not, only inspired by the scene and the time when it is set.

He can't be of both

He didn't like to fight with Pine Tree, Bill Cipher abhorred the idea of having to fight with his favorite person. Especially when he knew that it was really his fault and that he had only made it worse.

At first it had seemed like a funny prank. Yes, he admitted that his sense of humor was a bit odd, bizarre he dared to say and of course his pranks ended with Pine Tree very upset with him – For a few seconds, and then Pine Tree laughed, hugged him, and smiled... Now what Bill Cipher had received from Pine Tree had been a punch in the face, cries of reproach, tears of sadness, and Pine Tree leaving him. Then he exploded into hundreds of cerulean flames, literally.

His fangs pierced his skin, letting some gold Ichor slip between his lips. Bill wiped the Ichor with his wrist, brushing against where the thump Pine Tree had given him was still pounding. He didn't mind the pain, he rarely felt physical pain – But the words were already another matter. A matter that began to take on importance since he took Pine Tree under his wing.

The demon stopped jumping on the roofs of the big buildings. Bill massaged his temples by remembering that he could fly and that there was no need for the stupid sport he had been playing seconds ago. Recharging on one of the smokestacks ejecting black smoke, Bill noticed that the transformed landscape was familiar.

He had finished where everything had begun.

It had been a night like this when he first met Pine Tree. The nights in this great city were cold, windy, and dark, unless it was a large mansion with bright lights that could leave you blind and people dressed elegantly attending their parties. Of all the large houses with their windows closed and their lights off, Pine Tree's was the only one open and with a dim candlelight.

Out of curiosity, Bill had come up to see who had been the naughty human who had decided to break the rules that night. Pine Tree was sitting on his bed, the blanket covering half a body, with a book on his legs – Bill still remembers that the cover of the book was a red color with golden letters – And Pine Tree was crying.

Bill didn't know what made him stop to look at him for a while. Those tears weren't tears of fear, nor were of pain. They were more like tears of sadness. Bill didn't perceive that the then-ten-years-old child's body had any bruising or physical injury, this was a much deeper one.

Would it be rude to meddle in the boy's mind to know what made him cry? Or was it better if he asked him directly? Smirking, Bill materialized for the first time in a hundred years and taking on a human appearance he came in like the wind to the boy's room.

As Bill rose to his feet, elegantly shaking the dust of his black and gold clothing, he floated up to the boy's bed, who covered himself half-face with his blankets. “Good night,” Bill introduced himself, “Name's – ”

“Help! A thief!”

Or so he tried.

Quickly Bill jumped on the boy's bed and covered his mouth with his gloved hands, the boy still didn't calm and struggled to try to take his hand off. Bill had another idea.

His body was covered in blue flames scaring the child at first but when they disappeared the child's eyes opened when he saw a golden-brick triangle, with a black bow tie, a black top hat floating on the tip of the triangle, and a black cane floating by itself.

Seeing that the boy had calmed down, Bill drew his hand from the boy's mouth, sighing wearily, “Name's Bill Cipher.” He finished presenting himself. “The Dream and Mind Demon.”

“What?” The boy looked confused and frightened, “Demon? But I thought they had horns and tail – ” Or at least that's what his Great-Uncle had described to him and his sister.

“Kid,” Bill said floating, startling the child even more, “You should stop believing in everything that adults tell you and start having a mind for yourself.” Bill felt a little sick for having said those words in that tone when he saw how sad the boy's face was, “But it's okay, just for this I pass it.” Those words seemed to rejoice the boy as his face turned a reddish color.

“Mr. Cipher,” The boy spoke politely though Bill could feel emotion and impatience in his tone of voice, “What do you do in my room on this cold December night?”

“I don't know.” Bill walked away from the bed and floated in the middle of the room, watching everything around him, a shelf full of books as well as a trunk with toys inside, a blue circular rug, a closet with the doors closed, it did not look like this child asked too much unlike the other children's rooms he had seen some other nights, “You tell me.” Seeing the boy's confused face, Bill continued talking, “You were crying bitterly just minutes before.”

Originally this had been a room of twins but as both grew their parents decided to separate them. He and his sister hadn't been sent to the same school and very rarely had they been able to find each other at home if it wasn't for the weekends. His father had begun to take him to the bank where he worked to learn what in a few years would be his. His mother got complaints from his school about not getting enough attention to his respective classes, causing his mother to take away most of his favorite toys and books until he got good grades. All this culminating with a stress and fear of growing up inside him and ending up fighting with both his parents and his twin sister.

His father didn't raise his hand but he didn't leave him without a punishment. That night they would go to a party in the mansion of the bank owner, except him.

“And they left you alone?” Bill felt a little worried, and he thought his father was terrible.

The human child shook his head, “There is a maid who helps my mother living on the floor below but I think she must be asleep already.” One of the rules was that when the clock struck ten thirty at night, the lights in the house must have been turned off.

Bill looked down. There was actually one more person in the house. “And what are you going to do?”

“Me?”

“Yes, are you going to rebel against your family and create your own path?” Bill approached the boy, sitting down on the bed.

“I don't want to make them angry, but I don't want them to keep trying to impose their adult rules on me.” The boy said with such a decided tone that made Bill begin to have an idea.

“So, would you like to come with me to the Nightmare Realm?” Bill asked excitedly as he walked away from the bed and pointed with his cane to the window. “At Nightmare Realm you'll never have to worry about adult responsibilities and rules. You can be who you want to be.” Bill watched as the child's eyes glowed like stars, Curious, he noticed that there was a curious constellation-shaped spot on his forehead, Maybe it was his destiny to go to Nightmare Realm after all.

“But what about my parents and my sister?” The idea of going with Mr. Cipher seemed wonderful, and he almost contemplated the idea of going with him. Almost.

“What about them? Don't you say they don't take your opinions more seriously?” Bill, seeing the boy's still doubtful face, added, “Look, this is your first chance to do what you want – If you want to come with me, fine. If you don't want to come with me, we'll be just as well. After all, it's you who make the decision. I won't force anything you don't want.”

The kid bit his inner cheek, looking down and moving his head in both directions, finally returning to look at him. “Will not I have to sleep early?” Bill denied, “Will not I have to eat food that I do not like?” Bill denied again, “Will I always be able to play and read without interruption?”

With more questions than he liked to do and not do the kid seemed even more excited than inadvertently a foot was already out of his bed.

You can be who you want to be, resounded in his childish head.

Bill and the boy were already standing in front of the window. Bill decided to change his shape to help the boy travel with him while he waited for his new little friend to put on a coat to withstand the chill of the night.

“I can't fly.” He said as he raised his first foot to the edge of the balcony.

Bill smiled and he came out of the room first, floating in front of him, “Just take my hand, I'll guide you all the way to your new home.” The Dream Demon stretched out his gloved hand, patiently waiting for the little one to take it. “By the way,” He said, interrupting when the boy had raised his hand, “I never asked your name.”

The boy's cheeks reddened, “Mason Pines, but everyone calls me Dipper.”

Mason? Dipper? “What uglier names.” Bill said not seeing the boy's hurt look. In the nearby park there was a pine tree decorated with colored lights, Bill snapped his fingers, “Pine Tree, you're Pine Tree now.” That was a much more appropriate name for a child like him, “Do you like your new name?” Bill smiled at Pine Tree.

Dipper – No, Pine Tree smiled happily, now everything was clearer to him. “I love it.” And he took his hand.

Bill sighed, steam came out of his mouth as soon as his lips parted. Walking to the edge of the roof he looked down, not knowing what to expect from the place that had once been Pine Tree's home years ago.

“I wish I had never met you!” Pine Tree had screamed furiously and then turned around to disappear between the interrupted party that the Nightmare Realm demons had.

Bill shook his head violently, waiting for those words to disappear from his mind, to bury them deep inside and never to appear again in his infinite life. But he could never ignore Pine Tree's voice, every word his Pine Tree had said was always stuck to him.

His amber eyes saw that the window where it had once been Pine Tree's room was open and with the light on. All other windows in the house were closed and although the lighting was low Bill could see silhouettes of people inside. Carefully, waiting to be ignored, Bill crept along the walls of the house until he reached the open window.

There was an old woman sleeping in a rocking chair a few steps from the window, her reddish brown hair combed in a bun had gray locks of hair, her red nightgown covered her from the cold that struck her. Her face may have been that of a woman in her thirties but the wrinkles and dark circles made her look fifty years old. In the bed that once was Pine Tree's, was a girl of his own age sleeping, her hair was as brown and curly as his Pine Tree's, with the exception of being so long that it was scattered all over the pillow, her breathing was slow and calm though Bill could see her shiver under the covers.

So these two women must have been Pine Tree's mother and sister. Why were they here in his old room? Were they not the ones who put him aside and filled him with suffering and anguish? Pine Tree was much better without them –

“Dipper.”

Bill looked at that woman asleep in the rocking chair, her pale lips whispering Pine Tree's old name, with nostalgia and sadness. She was waiting for her son to return to their side and they became a family again.

“Dipper, please, come back.”

“I wish I had never met you!” The words echoed in his head again.

What if Pine Tree decided to visit their old house one day?

What if Pine Tree decided he wanted to see his family again?

What if Pine Tree decided to abandon him and never see him again?

“I wish I had never met you!”

Bill squeezed his hands furiously and his sharp teeth pierced through his lips, causing the golden Ichor to run again from the corner. His frown creased and his amber eyes were dyed a deep red, the gold disappeared leaving only the black of his suit.

No. Pine Tree wasn't going to abandon him, not after he had brought fun and joy into his life, and Bill's. In more than fifty thousand years he was happy and couldn't lose him now, not against them!

“He can't be of both, Madame.” Bill whispered quietly, though inside he wanted to burn this whole place to ashes.

Carefully Bill began to slowly lower the window, hoping that both women would continue to sleep.

Tap.

Mabel's brown eyes widened. Their room suddenly felt warm, perhaps her mother had put another candle near her. Shaking her head a little, she noticed that it was the same candle now half burned, her mother still sleeping in the rocking chair and the window closed – Mabel shook her head violently in every direction of the room. There was no one but the two of them.

“M-Mom!” Mabel screamed warning her mother, getting out of bed to run beside her mother, “Mom, the window is closed!”

Bill had already closed the window completely, but as soon as both women ran to the place they slowly began to raise the window again, Bill made a little more effort to keep it down.

“Jonathan!” The woman screamed in despair, “The window can't be opened!”

Steps running up the stairs were heard and suddenly there was a third force putting pressure on the window.

“The window has to be open!” The daughter cried out sadly, “Dipper has to know we're still waiting for him!”

Bill gave up. Just as he stopped putting pressure on the window and it opened again he was expelled, climbing quickly to the roof and watching the family of three look out in all directions, once they three entered Bill heard the disconsolate weeping of both women. They all missed Pine Tree. For a moment Bill felt a bit of empathy for them.

Rising again, Bill turned and jumped between the rooftops, moving away from that house forever. He expected that. It was better if he went back to the Nightmare Realm and do what he had planned to do.

Bill was caught in a hug when he had barely taken a step in the Nightmare Realm. Surprised he saw a bunch of chestnut hair and the owner of the hug was shaking.

“Where were you?!” Pine Tree asked frightened, there were tears threatening to come out of his mocha eyes. “You don't know how worried I was when everyone told me that you had exploded at the party!” Pine Tree hid his face in the Mind Demon's chest.

Bill was still, Pine Tree had missed him. He had been terribly worried when he had disappeared and was even about to cry. His hands moved around the before-human's small body.

Pine Tree missed him, not anyone else.

“I'm so very sorry.” Bill stroked Pine Tree's head, his chin dropping gently over Pine Tree's head, holding him tighter, hoping Pine Tree would understand how sad he was when he was left behind, “I'm here.” He comforted him, “I'll always be here for you.”

[fountainpenguin]

So... In your "Zone Swap" idea, does Jazz figure out Danny's secret like she does in the main series? And if so, does she try to help keep his secret without letting him know she's figured it out?

Heh heh. It’s not much of a secret, really. I’ll jot out some AU basics here because I’m still trying to figure them out myself and decide where Jazz fits best in the AU. This is kind of a rough draft, so details may change later. Skim to the bold parts if you want to see the answer to your actual question; this first part is just some “ChalkZone” babble as I gather my thoughts on secret identities.

My goal with ZoneSwap is to swap some signature parts of both “Danny Phantom” and “ChalkZone”, but still keep the characters as in-character as possible where I can while taking into account all the ways the worldbuilding has been flipped and taking creative liberties as necessary (like making Tucker a ghost to give Danny motivation to visit and protect the Ghost Zone).

As a result of this swap, Rudy can now “go chalk”, turning into Snap, and even use the magic chalk in the RealWorld (though the effects only last as long as he stays in chalk form, and erase when he switches to normal). I’ve said that he can switch at will, but really, he needs to be standing inside a closed chalk shape like a circle or a square or whatever. If he can’t find one and he doesn’t have chalk of his own on hand, he’s stuck.

He can no longer create portals at will, and has to find them instead. I think they pop up on certain chalk surfaces at random, kind of like the Ghost Zone ones do: for example, instead of drawing the underwater portal in “Water Water Everywhere”, it would have opened itself, flooding the quarry, and Rudy only would have known about it once it started attracting attention. 

I can’t decide yet if he would have tried to repair the breach while in regular form or chalk form. Hmm. I’m thinking the ZoneSwap version of this episode would share some similarities with “Life Lessons” from “Danny Phantom”, by which I mean that Reggie would go chalk and try to help Rudy save the town.

Ooh, yes. They go chalk and have to act like they get along in public because the whole town sees them and thinks they’re superhero and sidekick or something, even though they can’t stand each other. Then when the rain finally arrives, he and Reggie end up stuck under a ledge or something in the quarry / nearby area and have to watch the water rise while Penny runs frantically off in search of an umbrella, heh heh. 

As much as Reggie doesn’t care for the wonders of ChalkZone, he still appreciates the world as his escape from reality, and he doesn’t want to see it found or destroyed. Presumably, he’d use his cape like a scarf to hide his face and better conceal his identity. Gotta have secret identities! (So, for the most part, it’s Rudy who has the secret identity now, not Danny).

Rudy also has to deal with dangerous Zoners escaping into the RealWorld, and Reggie the Red, Vinnie, and Terry are bigger threats too. Finally, he’ll dissolve in water if he’s in chalk form and it will hurt a lot.

Danny, following his being zapped by his parents’ basement portal, still has ghost powers, but in this AU they only work in the Ghost Zone. Even though the Phantom look doesn’t carry over, he still calls himself by that name when addressing other ghosts, because they feel more comfortable with him that way.

He still has ghost enemies, but makes lots of ghost friends too, including Tucker, who’s been dead for the last two years. He can also create portals into the Ghost Zone through the thermos at will, but only so many before the thermos has to be recharged. Probably by dipping it in the portal in the basement and filling it with “ghost soup”.

ZS!Danny’s entire deal is, whereas Rudy is a fighter now, Danny becomes a lover kind of by default. For some reason or another, ghosts can’t survive outside of the Zone for longer than a few hours or days (not sure how long yet, but preferably hours for plot reasons). This might be because they can’t breathe, or they can’t maintain their connection to the world (the assumption being that the Zone is the only thing that keeps them grounded) and they fade away permanently.

There would need to be a definite negative association with fading for Danny to react the way he does, so perhaps instead of just fading, a ghost becomes “corrupted” when away from the Zone too long. They might start to dissolve, losing pieces of themself and some of their sanity. Ghosts who were once friendly, helpful spirits might transform into bitter nightmare creatures and act like feral or even rabid animals. Yes, now we’re getting somewhere.

Anyway, unfortunately, lots of ghosts either don’t know this, or believe it won’t happen to them (Imagine the stories that get in the news sometimes about parents putting their kids in risky situations at national parks, such as by spreading honey on their children to attract bears. Or compare it to teens who regularly have unprotected sex but don’t consider the possibility of getting pregnant or contracting STDs. That sort of mindset. “This is the kind of thing that happens to someone else”, “I’ll be careful”, “I know what I’m doing”, etc.)

Let’s face it: The Human Realm is attractive to ghosts. Technus wants to get his hands on all the flashy electronics that Walker doesn’t allow in the Ghost Zone. Skulker wants to hunt. Box Ghost wants to add to his collection. Ember wants to play her music in front of adoring teen crowds. Tucker wants to hang out with his friends. Other ghosts want to explore, visit friends and family, or just simply cause trouble.

Danny has watched his parents chase down countless of these “rogue” ghosts that I compared to feral, rabid animals here. And they’re terrifying. After reuniting with Tucker in the “pilot episode”, I presume, he learns some missing pieces from Tuck and puts together this whole “being away from the Zone too long makes these ghosts lose themselves”. 

So, he and Sam take it upon themselves to inform all the ghosts about such dangers / keep tabs on which ghosts are out and prioritize which ones need to be caught and returned first. Unfortunately, Danny probably gets pegged as a liar or something, so few ghosts are willing to go quietly back to the Zone and he has to lure them into the portals he creates with the thermos.

And there are some ghosts who are well aware of the danger, but come to him seeking aid, so he has to solve their problems, I guess. Something like that.

Basically Danny’s existence revolves around befriending the restless spirits he can and trying to better their afterlives while having a strict “ghosts are supposed to stay in the Ghost Zone” policy that no one listens to (especially a guy named Vlad who wants to exploit ghosts in some way, possibly by making them pay to leave the Zone? My original idea was that he firmly believed ghosts should be free, but I’m not sure how that will work with this “rabid ghost concept. And later in the series he’d start sending them Danny’s way by painting him as a villain for trapping him… I’m thinking Vlad had a daughter named Ellen who just recently died and he’s also trying to find her. Hmm… Thoughts?)

And of course, on the flipside, Rudy plays hero by keeping Skrawl, Craniac, and various other baddies in ChalkZone while at the same time keeping Vinnie and Terry out of it, and dealing with his school life and Reggie. He has to go chalk in order to draw stuff with the magic chalk, and he’d draw lots of things to fight for him (as opposed to attacking physically) while of course sticking to his oath to never again draw a living thing because he can’t handle the stress.

I’m loosely trying to imagine these two shows as if they were designed and written by the writers of the opposite show, therefore resulting in CZ being a darker and more actiony show and DP being cuter and more focused on world-building. That’s kind of tough though, because I can’t just remove all the awesome worldbuilding from “ChalkZone”, and a show about teenagers and ghosts tends to be angsty by default. I’m trying to find a middle ground.

To answer your actual question, everyone in Amity Park thinks ZS!Danny is a loon who runs around being a goofy ghost hunter like his parents. Since Danny can’t use his powers in the Human Realm, Valerie is Amity Park’s big hero. Instead of Phantom getting his name dragged through the dirt, the citizens of Amity Park by default attribute all of Danny’s good deeds to her, even if she only showed up at the very last minute when the cameras arrived. It’s equally as annoying to him as it was when everyone considered Phantom a villain.

Jazz would have to go into the Ghost Zone to realize that Danny has these ghostly abilities. In the Human Realm, he has to chase ghosts while fully human. Their parents would obviously be thrilled that he wants to join them in the family ghost-hunting business.

BUT Danny is trying to help and rescue ghosts, while his parents want to catch and study them. I think the big secret for Jazz to learn in this AU would be that Danny is using the portal despite their parents thinking it doesn’t work. 

She would learn (possibly during that “Snap Out of Water” parody that I nicknamed “Tuck, Tuck, Loose”) that Tuck is a ghost now, and Danny and Sam are friends with him and regularly sneak off to visit the Ghost Zone. I think she would want to be helpful, but her helpfulness probably has its limits.

Jack and Maddie, I guess, would be very worried/upset with A) Danny for befriending a ghost behind their back, B) the fact that he’s been getting in their way and preventing them from catching ghosts, and/or C) having potentially dangerous adventures in the Ghost Zone, or something along those lines. Once Vlad becomes involved, that would add another factor into the equation.

OR! About a year ago, Bill Burnett (one of “ChalkZone”’s co-creators) confirmed that a human who spends 24+ hours straight in ChalkZone will turn into a Zoner permanently, and said that if the show hadn’t stopped airing, we would have met a “British aristocrat kid” who had suffered this fate, and who teamed up with Skrawl in a big special episode (and Bill hints that this is why Skrawl kept stealing magic chalk since only a human can use it, even though we never found out why he was doing this in the show itself). 

So, I could take that detail and add it to this AU too- ZS!Jazz might find out through her parents (or probably Vlad) that the more time ZS!Danny spends in the Ghost Zone, the more corrupted and “rabid ghost-like” he’ll become (possibly because he’s half-ghost, so Sam might be immune). She might tell Danny this, but he would be upset, and they’d get into a fight over who knows more about ghosts, since he’s the one who’s visited the Zone more. 

Maybe he would begin showing signs of feral/rabid corruption, and she has to keep this from their parents while she struggles to find a cure, despite Danny constantly snapping at her that he’s fine and she needs to get off his back. With him being partly dead, maybe he suffers the same way as the other ghosts when he’s not in the Zone, but his development was delayed. So like, he can’t stay in the Ghost Zone without negative side effects, but he can’t stay out of it without negative side effects either.

If ZoneSwap were a show then Danny would probably show subtle signs the whole season, but the topic of his corruption would probably be the Season 1 finale or something, or maybe Season 2 (Personally I like the idea of Dash building a thermos of his own - possibly with Vlad’s help - as the last scene of Season 1 so he and Danny have the same weapon as a nod to Reggie and Rudy both using magic chalk in “Reggie the Red”, so we’ll make it Season 2).

So yes, in a way, Jazz would discover Danny’s ghost side. Even if he doesn’t become the same exact Phantom he does in canon, he’s still half dead and would presumably be of interest to his ghost-hunting parents, so she does her best to keep him off their radar.

I’m still kind of working out the details, but I’m getting there! I have some vague plans for this AU already figured out, but most of this I’m making things up as I go and get to answer Asks like this~

[cubicscubedemon]

Good End

((This drabble is basically the beginning and the logical end of the permanent puppetry verse.))

………

Well, what to do now?

The end times had officially been a flop. All of Bill’s other creatures and underlings had vanished beyond the Shape’s ability to track them, along with Bill himself. The Nightmare Realm was now permanently closed and going through the last stages of its precarious lifespan. The only option had been to flee to anywhere that might support incorporeal form. There was nothing for it but to hide out in the Mindscape, alone, until a better opportunity came along.

The Shape found that opportunity in a body lying in the trees at the outskirts of a town. Still living—some substance or other had left the human mind that would normally be within wandering the Mindscape. The Shape approached the projection and put on a gentle, ethereal voice that didn’t quite need words. Do you mind if I enter?

If the human in question had been in a more lucid state, their reply would have sounded like: “Is this part of that cosmic consciousness thing they talk about?”

Absolutely, hummed the Shape. So, may I?

By now the human’s mind was drifting off in another direction, figuratively and literally. “Sure, I guess…”

Thank you, have a nice trip! the Shape called after the departing form, before diving into the now completely unoccupied body. Fingers twitched. Knees bent. Two eyes opened, and the Shape hauled themself to their feet. That was easy!

Once they had gotten used to walking (which took a while and scared a good decade out of a passing truck driver), they hiked down the road to figure out where they were in relation to a certain small town in Oregon. They had questions that needed answers.

…..

The full picture of what had happened in August of 2012 came to them in bits and pieces. It took longer than they expected—but then again, maybe it was understandable why the townsfolk were hesitant to speak at length to the stranger with magenta eyes that lived under a bridge in the park. One summer, after a complaint from a tourist to the sheriff, the Shape got thrown out. So they took up residence in Gravity Falls’ junkyard, and thought about the holes remaining in the story they had so far.

In the future, they sometimes wondered if they were really happy to have those holes filled in.

It was discovering Bill’s statue that finally made things completely clear. They had slowly put together its existence and whereabouts by eavesdropping on conversations between children. One part superstition, one part teasing, one part a strange reverence. They knew why their elders never spoke about the thing if they could help it.

“It’s in there? Really?”

“Yeah! Wanna see?”

“But—what happened to Ethan—“

“Well, he got better, didn’t he?”

“Nothing even happens if you don’t say his name.”

“Whose name?”

“Shhhh!”

…

“Hey, who’s that walking in?”

…

They knelt in front of the statue for nine hours. They didn’t say a word. They didn’t even touch the stone surface, always slightly warm even in the cool of the forest shade. They just stared and stared into the great lifeless eye, like they were hoping it would shift to look at them, or into them, instead of through them.

All their life in the Realm, all trillion-odd years of it, they’d imagined themself to be someone who threw off their chains, forged their own path instead of following one imposed upon them. Here, alone in the woods, they recognized that for a lie they’d told themself endlessly. They hadn’t accomplished anything more than following the triangle before them to the end. They were never going to see him again, and now they had no idea where to go, or whether there was anywhere to go.

It was all going to end here for them, too.

…..

But the Shape thought less and less about the end as time wore on. They couldn’t help it. There were just so many things to do!

For a while they entertained ideas about somehow escaping Earth and striking out into the Multiverse at large, but despite the many nights they stayed up by candlelight writing and sketching out their plans, nothing ever quite came to fruition. They occasionally told themself that progress was so slow because they lacked resources, or guidance, but mostly it was because they were distracted by other parts of their daily life. In time, they let go of their single-minded determination, and the Great Escape became nothing more than a daydream.

They liked building new additions onto the house they crafted in the junkyard, not far from where old Fiddleford McGucket used to live before he submitted his patents. Over the years their home became a sprawling, nonsensical structure that twisted all around the northeast corner of the yard, with multiple levels and trapdoor windows and even, at one point, a tower, until the sheriff made them take it down in exchange for being allowed to continue building underground.

And so the Shape turned the space beneath their home into a warren of tunnels and cellar rooms, taking the soil all the way up to the part of the roof that got the most sun. They’d discovered that they enjoyed gardening. (It was almost like a whole little world you could build! Imagine!)

In the spring, they buried baskets worth of pinecones up there, and once they had some saplings, took the baby trees to the edge of the forest they knew Bill rested in. All in all, they were responsible for increasing the reach of that section of the woods by over four hundred feet.

…..

In summer, they hung around the diner, drinking glass after glass of iced coffee and making small talk with truck drivers and road tripping college students as they passed through. They loved learning, and learned quite a bit indeed during these times. They got more pleasant to talk to, although they never lost their edge of…peculiarity. Depending on the day, you could find them either telling jokes that made one side of the diner chuckle and the other shudder, or deep in conversation about some esoteric topic with a few young people, entranced at how much first-hand experience this old stranger seemed to have with things they’d never known except through their books.

It was during one of these seasons that they started giving out a new name.

“Everybody, I want ya to meet…uh…say, bud, what’re you called?”

“Hm? Oh! I’m… Mm…Em. Call me Em.”

‘Lazy’ Susan Wentworth, who by now was half-retired from the diner, fixed her good eye on them. “Finally grew outta those other nicknames?”

‘Em’ stuck out their tongue at her in the most deliberately childish manner they could.

(But they figured there was some truth to what she said.)

…..

One autumn, they spent so much time in the library that the staff hired them. For the first few weeks, they didn’t know that this had actually happened, until their paycheck came.

“Em, dear, do you have a bank account?”

They thought of the small fortune they’d once won on Lottocron 9, and found they couldn’t remember which dimension’s banks they’d stored it in. “Not here, no. Why?”

“Well, I need to give you your pay.”

“Thank you! Pay for what?”

“Em, what did you think you were doing here for the past month?”

They shrugged. “Staying out of the rain?”

…

“I think they must hardly know the difference between work and play,” the head librarian told her co-workers over lunch in the back room.

“Still not sure about this,” one of them muttered. “Have you heard about what happened when Susan let them into the diner kitchen?”

“We haven’t got a deep freeze here!” the head librarian protested.

“I know you’ve got a soft spot for those in need, Lorraine, but you know they’re a…well…” the other woman pointed ceiling-ward and drew an X-mark in the air with her index finger.

“Well, yes, but that’s beside the point.” Lorraine picked up her fork in that way which meant she was keeping the upper hand in this little debate. “I’m from Coburg. They’re from some other planet or wherever. What’s the difference?”

…..

In winter, the town slept, and so did Em. They already had a lazy streak the rest of the year, but during the coldest part of the year they were especially sedentary, hardly leaving their junkyard house except to buy groceries and smokes, check on the saplings from the previous spring, or to sit on their own porch, having a cigarette and watching the ice twinkle on all the rusted metal around them. The rest of their time was spent in the cellar rooms, writing. They could fill up a four inch notebook in one season, but never shared the contents with a soul.

For all their gregariousness, they really did prefer to be solitary much of the time. One winter, a few middle schoolers were aiming snowballs at their windows. After several good shots and a cracked pane, Em emerged, the town weirdo, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, to return fire. The kids quickly found out that Em favored snowballs that contained shards of ice.

Later, those kids would buy Em cocktails at the bar, and joke that they were doing it for forgiveness. “Maybe I’ll consider the debt repaid next year,” Em always said.

…..

The passage of time, once something they couldn’t bear to consider, became a thing of fascination for them. Year after year, they watched Gravity Falls change with the seasons, and the transformation was not only dependable but fluid and beautiful. Em sat on their porch and thought about the way blood rose in a bruise and flowed away, and how comets stayed inert and frozen until they flew close to the sun, when ice and vapor streamed out behind them. Cycles were not a new concept to them. But they’d never had the chance before to truly understand what they were and what they meant. They used to think time was something small and divisive, a cell one had to break out of to achieve anything.

“But it looks downright grand from in here.”

…

Em lived about thirty years in Gravity Falls. Long enough for time to catch up with them. They did not get many visitors, but late one October, as the town’s thoughts were turning once again to the day the sky had torn open, a librarian entered the junkyard to see why they hadn’t shown up the day before.

It was determined that Em passed in their sleep, and that the cause of death was their smoking habit.

Found in their house was the following:

- Seventy-nine books they had stolen from the library, mostly nonfiction

- Dozens of batches of Halloween cookies, still not ideal but better than when they’d started baking

- The deed to the junkyard, which they took under the Finders Keepers Law

- An elaborate system of booby traps

- An entire cellar of homemade mechanical…things…that eventually got donated to a museum in another city, but were not displayed for the next decade

- Eight Cubics Cubes

- Hundreds and hundreds of letters to Em from several mystery correspondents. About 40% of the envelopes were marked with the Eye of Providence: these invariably contained deeply encrypted contents. None of those particular letters were more recent than over fifteen years ago.

- All of their notes, amounting to over six thousand pages. Much of it was also in code. Many drawings were included, of intricate geometrical patterns and charts, and alien machinery, among other things. The parts that were in readable English were a simple diary: these parts grew to outnumber the unreadable parts the more recent the writings were. Despite the library’s pleading, all of Em’s notes and letters were taken away that same day by an anonymous man in a brown leather jacket.

The funeral was very modest, but a few people still came to pay their respects. Lorraine was not there—she had died several years before—but most of the rest of the library staff were, along with a few regulars from the diner. The new head of the library had the wisdom not to make the eulogy very long.

“Em doesn’t have any kin that we know of, but I think they would’ve been alright with me saying a few words, instead…”

“They were always friendly enough to us. Did good work at the library. That’s not to say there weren’t some hiccups from time to time, but mostly they were a good librarian. They were a chatterbox, though, I remember they would go on about the strangest things…things that sounded like big old fibs until they’d take out a book and show us what it all meant. Y’all remember that business with the telescope and the dinosaurs?”

The assembled knew they were never Em’s friends. That had become clear to them that morning, as they watched the remains of Em’s private life come to light. The diary entries never once spoke of anyone in Gravity Falls as more than a passing amusement or curiosity. 

In the end, human life was still just a game, and Em had only been playing along. Until the end of the game had caught them unawares. Was it still ‘natural causes’ if you let yourself die accidentally?

“They did alright in the end, I think.”

The first spadeful of cold soil hit the casket.

“God rest their odd soul.”

[featherwriting]

Whatya Want From Me...? - Ch. 4 : In The Shadows

Read on Archive Of Our Own

A while after Eryn’s 18th birthday, Bill and her took a break on their research. They had been working during the whole winter’s holiday, and they were still in a dead end. Even Eryn had started skipping sleep in order to keep searching, hoping to finally found something.

Bill hadn’t said anything but Eryn had the feeling that he was losing hope. It was kinda strange, feeling him like that. It was letting Eryn with a bitter taste in her mouth. She hated feeling so helpless, especially toward Bill. A part of their cohabiting was that Bill often shut himself down from her body in certain moment of her life. He had basically explained her how this worked: he was still in her body, but he could manage to contain himself to her mind only with some effort, shutting himself from her senses and so allowing her some privacy. She’d have to call him mentally to reach him, and it was not always easy when he was not focusing on hearing her, so they usually just agree on how long he would be gone before he’d came back. He used to do that only when she had to go to the bathroom or change clothes, but lately he had been shutting himself down without apparent reason, like he just wanted to be alone. Eryn hated that. Not only because she felt helpless toward him, but also because she was feeling uneasy staying too long without him now. The silence in her head was painful, and she couldn’t help but feel terrified at the idea that she would have to live without him for good one day. He had made her addicted to him. And she hated it. She hated him for that. And still, she loved him so much.

She took a sip of her peppermint tea and sighed while looking at the book she was reading. It was a collection of small novel about fantastic creature that she had found on her school’s library. She had first took it because she thought that she could find something in it to help Bill but it was just kind of a goofy work actually. She was clearly not going to find anything in a book that was telling “The Wonderful Tale of the Leprecorn” or “The Curse of the Truth Telling Teeth”. But some of the stories were fun to read, and so she was just reading the book to kill time before Bill decided he was willing to come back.

She turned the page. Uh, a new novel already? She barely remembered what the last was about. Something about gnomes assembling to create a giant gnome, of something. Honestly she wasn’t really paying attention to all of this… – She turned another page – She was too worried about Bill to enjoy her book, actually. She wasn’t even sure why she was trying to read, but it was better than just staying on her bed, doing nothing and just worrying for that damn triangle. – She turned a page – Beside, Bill would probably make fun of her if he found her waiting for him. She sighed. The illustration on the right page was looking a lot like Bill. – She turned the page – That was ridiculous. Even when she tried not to think about him, she ended up doing only that, at a point that she was seeing him on this silly book. Wait a minute, what?

She went back to the last page. No. way. That was not just her mind playing with her there, it was Bill on the illustration!

-Shit, Bill! Look at this!

No answer. She groaned. Of course, he had shut himself down. He couldn’t hear her. And she had no idea when he would deign come back. She went back to the beginning of the novel and started reading it, this time giving it her full attention. It was called “Fear the Beast With Just one Eye” and was talking of a powerful being, living on earth long ago. He was bringing madness on the world, playing with the law of nature by making the waterfall flowing toward the sky on the snow falling on summer. His favorite place on the world back then was Egypt, where he even fused human and animals for fun. He managed to make people believed those were gods and used them as a pretext to make Egyptians do whatever he wanted, even making them build huge monument shaped like him.

Eryn sighed and chuckled. Damn, she had understood by then that Bill was an asshole but this was a bit too much. Still, the very idea that he had made Egyptians build the pyramid for him made her laugh. That triangle was a fucking megalomaniac. She went back to her reading.

According to the book, a group of powerful human sorcerer eventually got tired of his shit and trapped him with the help of a zodiac, banishing his mind to the nightmare realm and sealing his body in a nearby mountain. Damn, there was even a map! She checked on her computer. The place on the map did exist, and there was even legend about it being cursed because a lot of people went missing there.

She bit her lips. All right, this might not be true, but for know, it was the first time they had a trail. Bill had to see this. She closed her eye and try to empty her mind, focusing only on the idea of reaching him. “Bill?”. No answer.  “Bill, please”. Still no answer. She took a deep breath and focused a bit more. Reaching him was always difficult. “Bill. Come on, where are you?”. She heard a muffled sigh. He had heard her, but clearly he didn’t want to listen to her. “Bill, you have to come back. I’ve found something.”

He groaned, and Eryn was relieved to realize the sound was coming from her throat.

~All right girl, I’m here. What is it?

She looked at the book and opened it at the page with the first illustration. She could suddenly feel his excitement. This clearly had gotten his attention. He started reading and turning the pages, eventually reaching new pages that Eryn’s hadn’t even seen because she was such in a hurry to show him what’s she’d find. He was a fast reader so she had barely the time to read those pages, but apparently he had managed to break free and gained a new physical form, and then caused quite a mess in a small town called “Gravity Falls”, before being defeated. The novel was ending with Bill’s death.

~How in hell… he mumbled

He closed the book, keeping a finger inside it to not lose to page, and looked at the back of it. Eryn’s realized he was looking for the name of the author, and he quickly found what he wanted.

Tyrone Pinetree.

There were a few seconds where in didn’t say anything before he started laughing.

~Oh my god this is too good!

He was unable to hold himself. Apparently, this was something hilarious. His laugh started being hysterical. He was laughing so much they couldn’t breath anymore.

“Bill, we have to breath damn it” she told him mentally, unable to speak out loud because of his laugh.

He took a deep breath and started to calm down, but Eryn could still feel his delight everywhere inside her mind.

~I can’t believe it, you did it. You really did. I swear, I’d hug you if I could, girl.

She felt her face reddening. Feeling him so pleased and so happy was heartwarming. And it was thanks to her. She had done it! She managed to help him. And she had done it by herself, while he was not there. It was some kind of a victory for Eryn. But the simple fact of feeling him so overwhelmed with joy was the best reward, even if she wouldn’t have mind a hug from him.

-So… The stuff on this book are true?

~Hum, yeah, about that… he started, tensing up a bit, you know…

-The frigging pyramids, Bill, seriously? Do you need help to carry your ego?

~That’s… The only thing you have to say after reading this?

-Listen, Triangle Boy, I’ve known for a while that you weren’t really the good guy you pretended to be when we met. Of course, I didn’t think it was that bad but... Seriously Bill, I don’t care.

Bill stood still for a few seconds, and then dropped the book before grabbing the cushion on her back and held it tight against her.

-Huu, what are you doing?

~Keep quiet and just pretend I’m hugging you, Little Deer…

She blushed and started holding to cushion too, and everything around us disappeared. There was only the two of them, hugging, and nothing else mattered for the next minutes. Eventually, Bill released his grip on the cushion and break their connection.

~And just so you know, my ego is fine, thank you.

-I have no doubt about it. So, now what?

Bill picked up the book and managed to find back the pages of the novel. He showed her one of the illustration, where he was circled by some kind of wheel covered in signs.

~See this? That’s the zodiac they used to trap me. It’s also with that thing that they’ve sealed my body. We need to get rid of it in order for my body to be freed. But I have no idea how.

-Hum. Maybe we could try to find the author of that book? See if he knows anything else?

~You’re right, I’m pretty sure the little fuckers know how to do it, but I doubt he’d tell me.

-Wait, you know him? She asked

~Damn yes. He’s not using his real name but it’s not like he was really subtle there. He could as well have called himself “Not Dipper Pine”.

-How can you be sure, then?

~He always wished his name was Tyrone. And Pinetree? Damn, I’m the one who came with that nickname. And the fact that he know so much is a pretty big clue. He’s great uncles are the one who nearly killed me.

-Oh, wow. Not a big friend of yours then.

~Definitely.

Eryn keep quiet a while. She had learned quite a lot of stuff about Bill the last hour, and they were closer than ever to free his body. They couldn’t stop there. Sure, Tyrone Pinetree – or Dipper Pine, whatever his name was – wouldn’t give answer to Bill, but she was not Bill. Maybe they could somehow trap him into giving the information they needed?

-Would you be able to tell where he’d be?

~Well, sure, but I’ve told you, he will surely not be willing to help me.

-Seriously Bill, have you looked at yourself in a mirror lately? You’re not exactly “you” right now you know.

~That’s… Hum. Yeah, you’re right. What are you suggesting?

-Maybe I could pretend I’m some kind of fan? Start talking to him like I’m just trying to figure stuff out because I’m interested by the back story or stuff. Or told him I’m writing a fanfiction and want to get a little bit more information?

~Going for flattery, he? Wouldn’t be the first time a Pine falls for that… You know what? This might work. All right, girl, let’s do this.

-Bill, wait. She stopped him, feeling that he was going a bit too optimistic, even if you find him, we still have to manage to go to him.

~Don’t worry about that, this won’t be a problem. Get dressed while I’m looking for him and we’ll leave as soon as I’ve localized the boy. And don’t worry about my eye, I’ll take care of it myself.

-The boy? So he’s young then?

~He’s barely older than you, yes.

Eryn went to her dresser. If he was about the same age as her, this could even be easier than she thought. She smiled when she noticed the blue dress Bill had offered her for her birthday. She would have love to wear it, but it was probably a bit too much. She took a white blouse and a tight jean, and started tying her hair in a ponytail. She looked at herself, not completely satisfied. There was a blue blaze around her, and she had a blue blazer over her blouse. She smiled at the sight of a little rhinestone deer on her pocket.

-Thank, Bill, that’s exactly what I needed. She said while taking a bag before stuffing the book in it.

~You’re welcome. Ready to go?

-Well, yes but how-

~Just let me do my things.

Bill snapped her fingers and she was completely wrapped in blue flames. When they disappeared, she was in an alley she didn’t know. She gasped. Oh god, did he just teleported them?

~That’s right, teleportation. It’s really useful.

That was awesome. But Eryn was suddenly feeling quite uneasy.

-You’ve, hu, catch quite a lot of my thought without me wanting to, lately…

~You’ve probably been a bit less focused. Why, you have stuff you want to hide?

-Of course not, what could I possibly have to hide from you?! She answered, a bit nervous

~Well, whatever. I’ve managed to find Pinetree. He’s heading to that cafe across the road. You just have to go there and find a way to start a conversation. So, the second you leave this alley, I’m letting you handle the situation.

She nodded, and felt her eye burning with Bill’s magic. She moaned.

-Seriously Bill, that’s really not my favorite way of hiding your eye...

He didn’t bother answering and she sighed. She didn’t know what he had in mind but fine, if he wanted to do it like that… She went out of the alley and crossed the road, entering the cafe. The place was relatively empty, except for a young man at the counter.

“Yep, that’s definitely him.” Bill’s voice echoed in her head.

“Let’s do this then”

[Start from the beggining]

[Chapter 3] - [Chapter 5]