#just found out portal and half life are in the same universe what in the hell

[ironmanstan]

Ive accidentally developed fixations

[abyssalzones]

can you tell us about your interpretation of the better world universe!!!! especially curious how stan/mystery trio works into it

hell yesssss I definitely can. ABW is maybe my favorite niche gf thing and probably the only "AU" I care about but that may be due to the fact that it's an AU that exists in the canon and we know so little about it. so it has an established foundation that you're left to fill in the details with yourself... it's like a poke bowl to me. you can put anything in there

and since I felt like it here's a bonus pic of them living their best lives pestering ford

[explanation-y stuff under ze cut because I got very longwinded]

as for specifics of how I see everything working out, there's a few key points that establish why things happened differently from canon, the most important being:

Stan agrees to hide journal #3 somewhere

Ford reunites with fiddleford and they begin working together again

both of these are already confirmed in canon, the first being the most obvious "schism" between timelines. literally everything in ABW is the way it is because stan made a different decision. kind of crazy in terms of its implications: I feel like that moment in the basement is a really good example of how stan gets so few opportunities to shape her own life (while ford is in the picture...) because of her role as the 'black sheep' twin. it's not exactly a premeditated decision to push ford into the portal, it's her acting on feelings that have been bubbling unaddressed under the surface for 10-something years at that point, and only then does she have any sort of power over the "narrative" of both her life and the story itself, something that from her pov has been ford's story. and in the canon timeline, she says no.

so like, what the hell made her say yes in ABW's timeline? this question kind of haunts me because I feel like it has to be entirely dependent on what the inside of stan's head looked like at the time. it's possible something influenced her, but overall I think it's more interesting if ford did and said all the exact same things up until this point and it really was entirely dependent on stan's decision internally.

so stan says yes, goes on a big trip to the other side of the world somehow, and buries journal 3 somewhere probably never to be found again. yay! but, uh, going on a trip like ford was suggesting would... take weeks. that would leave ford alone again. and not to have my established thoughts informed by new material or anything but bill did give him 72 hours.

so, next order of business: how in the fuck would ford convince fiddleford to rejoin him??? I'm unsure between journal 3 and tbob's information how ford may have tried to reach out to him but it seems like fiddleford was pretty adamant about staying away from that guy, out of guilt or fear of bill/the portal or both. I don't think logically it would just be a matter of ford calling him enough times or finding out where he lives- and I think that's kind of getting away from the point of why ABW is the way it is too. if stan is suddenly making decisions that are influencing ford's life, I think it would be similarly interesting if fiddleford also possessed some unique autonomy in this scenario.

aka I think ford got fucked up badly (possibly involving losing an eye) and fiddleford found him half-dead while trying to burn his house down. [mabel voice] romance!

to clarify: I don't think fiddleford is obligated to take care of ford. a major part of him leaving the project was finally making the decision to leave a situation that was hurting him, that he'd been staying in entirely because he still cared about ford and felt on some level he could still help him (which gets broken with "I don't need you!") and I think that's a very reasonable decision on his part. but I also do have to think about all the times ford has been "the hero" in situations where fiddleford ends up hurt and helpless because of something traumatizing. I think it'd be fascinating to see that reversed and have fiddleford actively making the difficult, messy decision to take care of that guy even when they're on miserable terms. and so begins like a solid week of these two desperately trying to look out for eachother in a nightmare scenario where one of them probably needs to go to a hospital + keeps getting possessed off and on and the other is going through the worst addiction/withdrawal cycle of his life irt the memory gun. yay! (part of the reason this even works To Me also is heavily informed by the lack of secrets: if fiddleford is actively dressing that guy's wounds he can't really keep it all to himself anymore. crushingly intimate perhaps...)

stan gets back eventually. such is the context of this pic

from there it's a nebulous grab-bag of things I think could happen up to the foundation of the institute.

how do all three of these incredibly fucked up individuals get along? well they don't but then they do.

how do they get bill out of ford's head without performing amateur brain surgery? idk. my best guess is a fiddleford and stan bonding trip into ford's mindscape that potentially helps answer the first question. possibly utilizing the memory gun. shrugs.

what's up with that one picture you drew of parallel fidds holding the memory gun up to ford's head? well. okay that one might or might not be something that actually happened but the idea was just that ford is coping badly with a few specific things and I liked the idea of fiddleford "holding onto" something for him to remember and work through later when he's ready to deal with it, it's an interesting reversal of how he's normally more of a memory sink.

from the point in canon about them stabilizing the portal so that bill can't use it to get into their dimension anymore onward, I think it just becomes a matter of them living the lives they could've always had in canon without realizing it. hence "a better world." some cool tidbits I like to think about:

stan gets to transition much earlier (late 1990's perhaps?) and probably starts going by "lee" instead

she's also the institute's CMO and is mostly in it for going on business trips abroad with ford. and the money. obviously.

the institute probably also legitimately changes the world on a sociopolitical scale outside of just interdimensional travel since their research renders them uniquely untouchable and all three of them are trans (I'm cartoon logic-ing a little bit here just let me have this one)

ford is the eccentric bill nye esque face of the company, fiddleford is the backbone. that isn't to say ford doesn't do anything as I think he'd always moreso be in it for the science than the fame (though it is nice to be more than comfortable financially) but it's an open secret fiddleford keeps tabs on literally everything, he's still very security-oriented.

the northwest family now has a more prominent ongoing rivalry with the pines family that could be very funny to think about. they've taken all the LOGGING JOBS with their damn SCIENCE

part of the reason I thought ford should lose an eye is because I think having him wear an eyepatch would be a neat way to parallel stan's "role" as mr. mystery visually! stan wears an eyepatch for no legitimate reason to keep up appearances as a schlocky tourist trap host, but it also alludes to her being more than she seems under the surface. ford's eyepatch does sort of have a legitimate reason to exist, but he also could just wear his glass eye and it would probably be less "conspicuous." he chooses the eyepatch instead because it's part of his image as Stanford Pines, Founder of Oddology, and because it keeps him safe. there's also a little residual scarring there from damage to his eyelid/tarsal plate which could easily represent him hiding the more "damaged" aspects of himself under his successes. ouch.

I'm unsure if ford and stan would ever feel comfortable getting back in touch with their parents. I know a lot of people go that route with fan material but I don't think they should have to. I think they're much happier now having healed the rift between them on their own and getting to live successful lives for themselves, rather than to prove something to their father.

that being said I do think fiddleford gets in touch with emma-may and his son again and they end up on better terms with time and a Lot of effort. tate's family is now composed of his father, mother, "uncle" ford (in the ye olde gay closeted sense of referring to your dad's partner as an uncle), and auntie lee, and I like to think they go out on trips to the lake together often :]

also ford and fiddleford tie the knot unofficially (in the eyes of the government anyway) in 1990. owed to stan somehow getting "ordained" as a rabbi. don't ask me how.

the pines twins start visiting the institute from a younger age than they do irt visiting stan in the show-- but they're only permitted to come along on heavily-supervised interdimensional excursions once they turn 12. cue antics!

anyway, hopefully this extremely longwinded and loosely structured mess helped answer your question. I like ABW sooo so so much you guys

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Mythic Phantom

This is a little something I whipped up over a while thinking about merging the DP and Riordanverse universes together, and I thank @geraldmariaivo for helping me think my way through it. If you want the ao3 version you can find it here, and I hope you enjoy the fic!

Most Underworld Gods felt it when Vlad’s current permanent Portal opened, but they all Felt it when Danny’s accident happened. A child’s death throes is hard to ignore after all. Pantheons world wide decided that was America’s problem, and Hel decided it was Persephone’s problem, and Haides felt it would close on its own. No gate to Khaos can stay open for long after all.

When Ember went globally live, Muses and Music Gods and Hypnos heard the way she sang, called out to the mortals to never be forgotten. Danny and Tucker dealt with her swiftly enough that she was remembered, noted even, but disregarded.

When the Fright Knight’s sword was drawn, many Fear Gods turned toward Amity, but Danny dealt with it swiftly. Most regarded it as an anomaly but Phobos and Deimos sent subordinate spirits to investigate the town and report anything interesting.

Hades and Persephone noted the invasion of Ghost Cops and saw that Danny had it handled in only a few days, which they would count as a quest fulfilled. Clearly, Amity Park was a contained issue, and the Master Bolt had gone missing by now so they have other things to deal with. The House of Life have some reservations but agree.

Then Pariah Dark got out, and the Gods scrambled to do something about that. In only a week however, He was dealt with too.  A closer eye was warranted. By everyone, not just the Observants.

Whoever these agents were, be they half-bloods or spirits or even minor gods, most wouldn’t see Young Blood and thus would fear Danny was losing it too. When he calmed down, they’d sigh in relief. The two future Ghost Villains who show up outside of the do-over would raise alarms at how fast ghosts can progress, but hey, it’s handled.

When the Hellenic spies are pulled back home for safety during the winter solstice, pleasantly surprised by Ghost activity dying down at the same time, Artemis and Luna, Khonshu and more felt something wrong happening as the Ghostwriter possessed the moon to speak.

When Duul Amon returned to the land of the living, the House of Life sent agents to the town, and Tucker Foley was immediately offered magic lessons. His is power over stone and steel, glass and gems, as well as an ear for the voices of machines. Between terrakinesis and technopathy, Tucker’s limits with his staff became only what he understood about technology.

Then entire copies of the Ghost Boy (Prince? King?) appear, attacking him, manipulating him for the elder, but he lets her go free after he’s rescued? Truly fascinating. Psychopomps keep an eye on Elle wherever she goes - she’s always very close to melting after all. The titan army also keep an eye on her, a powerful being both like and unlike the Gods, much the same as a Titan, Giant, or Monster.

Then the Reality Gauntlet is found by a mortal man, a rogue Magician, while the boy is busy trying to stop it and save the world, Lydia is keeping House of Life magicians and even Odin’s Ravens from finding Freakshow, so some Camp Jupiter heroes are being sent on a quest to deal with him. Then he gets the fucking gems and turns the world into a circus for 10 minutes.

Before the Boy tricks him, takes the Gauntlet, resets the world to before his identity was revealed to the world, (though perhaps not quite fooling the memories of Gods, who Are the world) and destroying the Gauntlet and gems in a single blast.

An artifact presumed by the Ghost Investigation Ward to be powerful enough to destroy the Infinite Realms, reduced to molten ash by one burst of power.

What to do about the young Phantom is a matter of discussion during the solstice meeting on Olympus.  Hades is sent to investigate the boy and finds that he is a godling of Kaos Themself, which sparks yet further debate on what to do when Artemis goes missing.

But then the Son of Hades stumbled upon Elmerton and witnessed a duel between Gods firsthand.

Danny Phantom faced off against Vortex, the ghost of all weather and sky and storm gods who had faded over the millennia, all on his own.  Even in defeat, Danny stole half of Vortex’s power, and less than a week later, he defeated the calamity that even two pantheons worth of gods could not.

The Titans would be horrible for humanity as a whole, and the Olympians were bad for half bloods as well.  Danny Phantom, however, could be just what most half bloods were after.  He needed training in mortal form, clearly, but that could be an angle for Nico to use.

[appleblueberry-pie]

Honestly trauma bonding is the way to go 😌✨

Reader who adopted a child and loved them more than anything in the world, since she had no family or pets (being spiderwoman is a sacrifice, after all.).

Reader's Green Goblin killed their child brutally in front of her, leaving Reader with immense trauma and depression. (After torturing and then killing GG in the same gruesome way as he did with her child)

Reader who abandons being a Spider-person and goes back to her old job, being a professional gymnast.

Miguel who finds Reader's world, and asks who there isn't a Spider there if the canon event of the radioactive spider biting someone happened long ago.

Miguel who investigating, finds out that Reader is the spider there, however they abandoned their heroic life (mostly because of backlash from the media)

Miguel who one day goes to Reader's house to get answers, first explaining who he is and what the fuck that orange portal is 💀

Miguel understands how Reader feels and explains his backstory, and persuades (forces) Reader to join the Spider Society.

Miguel, that slowly falls in love with Reader and turns into an obsession. Maybe in the future, he can give Reader his kids so they won't have to grieve as much for their dead kids.

You were meant for him.

He shouldn't say that, but no bone or muscle in his entire body disagreed with this statement that he is claiming.

He fell in love with you before he even realized it and happily accepted the fall, knowing just from how you spoke to him, that you know how to love. You love the way that he wants to be loved. And he wants that. He wants you.

He was so goddamn in love with everything about you. He loves the way you speak, the way you carry yourself, the way you look at people, and the way you look at him.

He wants those eyes on him all of the time. So, he tries to work for it.

You looked so tired every single day. Since he found you alone in your apartment of your universe, he knew you held luggage no one else had behind them.

He wanted to at least take half of the weight off of your shoulders. He wanted to brush the midnight tears off of your face. He wanted kiss your callused hands. He wanted to have you.

He truly believes he can fix you.

"There is no fixing me. Nobody can save me."

He had never been so tuned into a conversation before. Mask off, sitting across from you in your living room, on the edge of his seat, staring into your iron eyes. You didn't want to let anyone back in again.

Hearing about your past only made him more determined.

"I can't put that suit back on again.....no. I killed enough people and killed off enough of myself. I don't benefit from that life anymore. Hell, my own city that I fought for doesn't want me anymore. Why the fuck would I even bother trying??" You try to laugh it off and killed the rest of your drink.

"The only person that could make me put that back on is the one I did all of this bullshit for."

You let the silence grow for a little to collect the words building up in your throat. But to speak it was a different battle.

"S/he was mine. S/he was all I had. Every day I had to wake up and go to sleep seeing her/his face, and it's all I needed to continue living another fucking day. And s/he's gone! I thought sparing lives would do me good, and now my babygirl/boy is gone. What the fuck am I supposed to do?" You whispered the words, as if it was forbidden to even speak them aloud.

And every single word you spoke made Miguel feel like he was living in your skin. Every question you asked, everything you said you felt is so close to experience of losing his little girl, it makes him nauseous. He only knew you for a few hours and already wanted to hold you in his arms.

"I can't....I just...can't put that thing back on. I really can't. I'm sorry." Your words slowly turned into a mutter as you fidgeted with your hands.

He doesn't know how many hopeful "yes, you can"s he whispered back to you with comforting (consensual) hugs before you had on that damned suit again and was in the middle of HQ.

His room was quiet. Peaceful, as he typed away on his technology you weren't interested in at all.

You felt so naked in the suit, but for some reason, it made you feel more secure than you'd ever felt these past few years......maybe this would be okay for now.

Miguel looked back at you, seeing you staring off into the distance and stopped typing to place his hand on your shoulder.

You looked up at him with those sad, tired eyes. Just seeing your face as clearly as it was, it continued to give him hope to be the one to support your during your healing process. You clearly needed the help. And if anyone could do it well, he was certain that it would be him.

[rboooks]

In The Royal Consort:

I just imagined a scene where Danny accidentally cried or bleed and that makes the favorite assigned bodyguard appear all spooky and knightly

Fright Knight

The second one drop of blood or tear hits the floor the sun suddenly is covered by clouds and this chilling sensation travels to everyone's spine (Clockwork laughs)

Danny hides his face between his hands cause: omg this is so humiliating, why does the knight have to be so protective!? He isn't a kid! In fact, Danny is stronger than him!

But everyone around just assumes they started a war by hurting the very loved spouse of a very powerful king

Fright Knight walks through a portal and points his sword to the persons that hurt his Lord and spoke all scary and well, frightening

Meanwhile we have a combination of Danny and Batboys trying to calm down the situation (Danny casually hits the ghost all: dude! Relax! Everyone has a mini heart attack)

John Constantine is having a panic attack when he sees the news (you just know someone was making an live all the time) cause this powerful entity surely has to be the assigned protector of Prince Danny and if he appears it was to avoid that the king himself drains his husband when he's already hurt but that only means he was probably furious waiting for an explanation!!!

Danny just wanted a coffee that Tim told him (he just wanted like, enough caffeine that would kill him)

---------

On the other hand, you just know Twitter is going crazy

People are having passionate debates about the situation, maybe for Danny's age, Is necrophilia?, Fanfiction and fanart, Ghosts aren't real and everything is just a government plan, who's Danny and why he was selected and a Buzzfeed Unsolved/The Watchers video (Ryan spends half the video laughing cause he was right! Shane is 😐🙂 well I didn't expect that but at the same those places they went weren't haunted)

Director movies are watching the news, wondering if they can make a movie about them (normally they'd said that they have to wait to them be dead, that is the norm with royals but like... Dead or not is the same here, isn't it? Can they or not make movies and series about them?

Danny is suddenly the subject of everyone's curiosity. His life, photos, his friends and classmates are on the news and internet all the time

People are just asking why him? What makes Danny Fenton, a normal teenager, so special to have one of the more powerful and mighty entities in the universe so found on him? So in love?

Government/criminal societies/companies are making plans of seduction the king and becoming his consort too maybe stealing Danny's place so they can have access to Phantom wealth and power

This situation is just to say: a ghost appears to attack him while he's in public with a lot of attention from paparazzi and passengers (a friendly attack causes he's far away from his lair and they're checking? A rebel trying to take the throne?) One of the Batfamily tried to stop him but didn't have the weapons to stop them

Danny has to defeat him in his human.

But Danny doesn't even look scared, he just attacks him like a professional, like if defeating this powerful entity was nothing to him and after a few minutes he has the ghost in the thermo and Danny looking normal

I, for one, I'm sure that people would find that very hot of him and the internet reaction would be like: for that reason 😯

Danny went from being an invisible loser to "Oh shit, he's kind of hot" overnight due to the internet hyping him up. There are thirst edits all over the internet and people are eating it up, especially when Wes' blog leaks out footage videos of him doing crazy flips and ghost fighting as a human.

Meanwhile, Fright Knight is screaming, "I will protect my liege's chastity!" which is really not helping Danny.

[lee-hakhyun]

Since you have no means of escape, let me tell you about my Merlin AU for ORV :D I haven't watched Merlin past some clips, making it clear, i just leveraged a very fun setting. Merlin spoilers ahead though.

Kim Dokja is the warlock servant who gets unceremoniously tied to Prince Yoo Joonghyuk by the whims of fate, meant to help guide him to become the Once and Future King. KDJ must keep this sunfish safe from perilous situations while hiding his magic, because magic is outlawed in the *flips notes* N'gai Kingdom.

Among this cast is fellow servant Yoo Sangah (Gwen), the king's ward Han Sooyoung (Morgana), a dragon in the basement (either Abyssal Black Flame Dragon or the Fourth Wall) the knights Lee Hyunsung and Jung Heewon, and on and on it goes.

In my head things would probably run similar enough to the show with the exception that every once in a while KDJ sees some strange cloaked figure that he can just feel the magic brimming off of, helping him in subtle ways when things get really tough. Who is that secretive figure helping him out?

KDJ kind of lets his guard down, able to trust this seemingly friendly (if extremely gruff) man with his magic in a way he can't with YJH. They don't have the same camaraderie, but it's still a comfortable companionship regardless.

And then this mysterious person kidnaps KDJ.

YJH and friends chase the evident sorcerer that kidnapped KDJ all the way to the ends of the Earth, having to combat power unlike any they'd seen before - until at a rift in space, this man finally uncloaks himself to reveal someone sharing YJH's face. It has to be a trick. It has to be.

But the man not a perfect reflection; he looks aged, older and wiser and with an undercurrent of grief that keeps him clutching KDJ to his side. KDJ is a warlock, the man claims. One that would, despite what YJH believes of magic practitioners, would give his heart and his life for over and over an ungrateful spoiled prince until he had nothing left to give.

And then he jumps into the portal. Into a parallel timeline/potential future.

This is where we get into spoiler territory for Merlin; in the series, Morgana betrays Merlin and Arthur, and Arthur kind of dies. In this AU, HSY and YJH were prophesied to experience the same thing, except KDJ gave all of his magic to abort said prophecy because it sucked and died, so now everyone in that particular future is in mourning.

Which is why, when the broken prophecy causes a rip in dimensions and into the past, YJH and HSY teamed up to nab KDJ from that other timeline. The people who MADE that prophecy though (either Olympus or the King Arthur legends from the universe of ORV's Main Story who are unhappy they didn't get the spotlight there, I'm not sure yet) are mad at KDJ for not following the prophecy and want to gank them. The future YJH (who will be referred to as SP for now) and future HSY have apparently become terrifyingly adept at fending off actual gods, but for how long? And how will KDJ get back to his original dimension?

Meanwhile, Prince YJH and friends desperately try to find a way to where SP had taken KDJ, as the rift had closed with their departure. Swallowing his pride and the biases that had started to form, he looks to powers he would never have trusted before...

(And somewhere in the future timeline, with the arrival of a reader to the world once more, a struggling writer finds himself startled to see a half-dead, malnourished young boy at his doorstep. To this boy that now rests in his home, he tells bedtime stories and fairy tales that he has no idea are now set to become another prince's adventure.)

This was very much abbreviated from the original thoughts I had, but I feel like I figured out a bit more of the details that I couldn't before (like what's going on with OD). Sorry for making your submission box my unwilling sandbox, but I hope you found some enjoyment out of it :>

[lizzienoodles]

What's Gail and Erica's deal?

this is the correct question to ask me!!!!!!!!! 😃😃😃😃

Erica and Gail are twin sisters who share a superpower. When they were young they were part of the Fledge Fighters team (my old webcomic.) Now that they've grown up with me I play around with them in a big Marvel AU sandbox of my own adaption.

the personalities

Erica is bright and energetic and has so much unmedicated ADHD, loves fashion, makes friends wherever she goes, and would go to great lengths to help others, which is what makes her a great superhero but also keeps her overcommitted and overextended.

Gail is the opposite in most ways- subdued, introverted thinker, a bit of a slob, and not blessed with much (if any) natural empathy. But she's brilliant and widely knowledgeable, which you'll find out if you manage to actually get her to talk to you. She's also narcoleptic, so basically sleep deprived all the time no matter how many naps she gets.

Gail basically spent her life up to her mid-twenties doing whatever Erica wanted, and Erica put more work in fostering Gail's non-existent social life than was healthy. The two couldn't think of life without the other, and found it difficult to separate their individual needs.

the big trauma

Then they went through a catastrophic world-ending event where they got portaled through spacetime to another universe and for the first time in their life, were separated (by a few hundred miles and about six months.) Instead of having each other for balance, they both veered harder into their opposite demeanors to the point that when they meet again after spending three years apart, they're unsure if they can ever be as close as they were when they were younger.

Erica had a bit of a crisis when she realized her sister was not anywhere on the new earth, dated Thor briefly, then ran off to join the Guardians of the Galaxy, so she was off-planet by the time Gail showed up.

When Gail found herself alone, she immediately quit the superhero thing, and became a morally-grey (at best) security specialist who works for whoever pays best or provides an interesting challenge, and gets involved with a crime boss named Valentine, who she's working for when she gets mixed up with Loki.

the powers

When they were teen superheroes together, they thought that they just had the same powers with different specialties, but separated they also realized that it was more like they each had half of a power.

Erica can create huge air currents where none exist and control them in broad strokes. Most of the generative power comes from her. She prefers to work big, even getting to the point where she can create hurricanes. She can also fly on her own.

Gail's air manipulation comes down to directing its flow, and it takes a lot for her to actually build up a wind that could rival a large fan. She also lost the ability to fly. However she can precisely tune into the molecules and pressure, so she uses her powers to do quiet, subtle things like building up pressure in a room or redirecting an existing airflow.

It's like you can see Gail's villain arc beginning in this moment.

Together they can create AND precisely control extremely powerful winds, but they've gotten pretty good at their solo acts by now. The whole thing with Gail becoming a villain has put a big damper on their relationship, but in the end, they're still sisters and love each other dearly.

[guardianoflightanddarkness]

An unpopular opinion about Gravity Falls: Return to the Bunker fanmade episode

(SPOILERS)

Okay, first of all, I want to make perfectly clear that I fully respect the crew and the job put in this episode, seriously, it's a blast to have such passioned fans that keep the fandom alive after 11 years and more to come, and honestly, I would want to see more projects like these and The Woods and Tales of Weirdmaggedon returning.

I was honestly very hyped up with this episode since I found out it was in production, so of course having it full yesterday was an awsome surprise. The art, the storyboard, the staging, the editing and the cast was an easy 10 out of 10, and I have absolutely zero complains in the audiovisual part.

However, sadly, to me, the entire thing comes crashing down with the plot and the narrative, by basically changing and missunderstanding the main characters, specially Ford: yes, it's no secret that Ford has trust issues, I think that was pretty clear after he FELT (not saying they did, but that's his perception) betrayed by his twin brother (sabotaging his project and keeping quiet about it, accidentally trapping him in the multiverse for over half of his life during a fight he started it, stealing his house, his identity, mock his entire carreer for money and then starting the portal that almost destroyed the world), his best friend from college (who created the memory gun and used it against him after starting a cult), his pet (the Shapeshifter tried to kill him and Fiddleford) and his muse (who manipulated him, lied to him, possessed and tortured him for decades, not to mention unable to sleep in peace until he got a plate in his head, and being hunted down accross the entire universe for 30 years), alongside all the stress of re-adapting to his dimension, contain the rift and keep Bill at bay.

So yes, Ford has reasons to be the way he is, but the problem is, the Ford we see in this episode is NOT the same one we saw in the TV show or in Journal 3: Ford can be bitter, and like I said, has trust issues, but he is not an ass for the sake of it like they portrayed him here, specially towards Mabel: yes, true, they didn't spend that much time together, but the little times we saw Ford interacting with her or even just talking, or even his entries in the journal, he shows how much he adores her, he only has praise for her ("I like this kid, she is weird!", "She has a magnetic personality!", "You are a good person, Mabel!"), and openly trusted her with a crossbow and sent her to a mission to protect the Shack. This one is openly hostile to Mabel, refusing to wear her sweater because it's hot (WTF, you are LITTERALLY wearing one!), downright telling her he doesn't trust her when he did before, and even saying he likes Dipper because he listens and obeys blindly. Ford LOVES these kids and always showed it, and yet the man in this episode doesn't seem to give a crap about anyone's feelings by being a jerk without a logical reason.

Which brings me to the next point: his reunion with Fiddleford makes NO sense considering that we saw Ford BLAMING himself over and over for what happened to Fiddleford, we litterally see him thinking he hates him and actually displaying remorse, and Fiddleford showing compassion and forgiveness. Instead here, we see Ford treating Fiddleford like dirt just like he did before the portal incident 30 years ago. And Mcgucket doesn't act like Mcgucket himself either, not to mention how the writing ignores how unstable he can be, ("Dude, Mcgucket would never do that!", sure, let's ignore this is the same guy that creates huge terrifying destructive robots that reck the town on a wim like his son not paying attention to him, his wife divorcing and not getting invited to a friend's party).

The entire episode's narrative and characters bash Ford for his trust issues and traumatic experiences instead of tackling down his trauma propperly: I mean, the show EXPECTS Ford to ignore ALL his traumas for over 3 decades and trust not just Mabel, which would have been understandable, but Soos and Wendy, who he doesn't even know, with the rift, you know, the thing that can destroy them all, and then gets punished for not doing so, and paint him as an ilogical paranoid that puts down everyone around him. None of them show any empathy towards him, and they are quick to antagonize him over it and directly blame him for EVERYTHING that happened in Gravity Falls, and the narrative reassures that they are in the right, pointedly ignoring not just all Ford's trauma but everyone's own actions into all the mess that happened over the summer. For crying out loud, the narrative shows more compassion, understanding and sympathy towards the fricking Shapeshifter and blames Ford for the experiment's fate, the monster ACTUALLY having the gal to say that Ford can't change, that he promises to change but then backtracks and keeps going (ironic that this is accused to Ford, of all characters in this episode) and then getting a fricking REDEMPTION and romance partner that he didn't deserve while ignoring he tried to kill Ford and Fiddleford back in the day, traumatizing the latest one, and tried the same with Dipper, Mabel, Soos and Wendy. But hey, nevermind, he just needed some love, he deserves to be happy, NOT YOU, FORD!....I swear, I can't with this.

And that fricking final...WHERE do I even start with that? Ford was affected and TRAUMATIZED because of the ray gun, he was a victim of it, he was the one who tried to stop Fiddleford from using it on himself MULTIPLE times, and who struggled to do it with Stan and broke down after being forced to do so, to his own brother, and only felt a bit relieved after they got his memories back. And you're fricking telling me he would use it on his 12 year old NIECE and friends AFTER they patched things up and he came clear, breaking THEIR trust?! No, sorry, no, that's just so out of character from Ford I don't even know where to start. I know this was done by force in an attempt to make it fit with the canon story, but it just doesn't match not just because of being completely out of character from Ford, but because it still causes bigger issues: he didn't use it on Mcgucket, therefore Mcgucket KNOWS about the rift and about Ford, therefore it breaks the canon of their reunion in Take Back the Falls since in Ford's words, "Fiddleford, I didn't see you since we parted ways, you must hate me". And then the famous lines of "How am I gonna protect the rift?" Honestly, this entire scene, if not the entire episode, just felt like the writers were just trying so hard to take any accountability from Mabel in handling the rift and just blame it on Ford and screaming "SEE?! YOU SEE HOW MUCH OF A JERK FORD IS?! MABEL DID NO WRONG, IT'S FORD'S FAULT FOR ERASING HER MEMORIES, HE IS THE JERK AND THE MAIN ANTAGONIST OF THE SERIES, WHAT A JERK!". And sorry, this still doesn't fix it, because while Mabel didn't know what the rift was, she still KNEW it belonged to Ford (Blendin told her) and that it belonged to his expedition for, in her own words, "Save the world or whatever", and Blendin telling her to steal it ("your grunkle won't even know it's gone missing!") and she agrees. So yeah, while she didn't fully know what she was taking, the fact that she knew it was something that belonged to her grunkle and that he took to his expedition was enough for her to know to NOT to take away, specially without his consent. This episode just tries so hard to paint Ford like the biggest asshole just to place Mabel and the others in a better light and ignore anything they do, so much that it breaks canon.

And Dipper's and Stan's subplot...I dunno, it felt completely unused, and once again, placing the ball on Dipper, Stan accusing him of ignoring him for a month (which makes zero sense because, Ford came out of the portal barely 2 weeks before Weirdmaggedon, there's no way a month went by, and on the top of that not making any sense considering this happened POST Dungeons, Dungeons and more Dungeons where these two had patched up, so this argument makes zero sense). This one specially dissappointed me because, the same way I wanted to see Ford and Mabel bonding, I wanted more scenes like that with Stan and Dipper, specially when we seemed to finally address the fact that yes, Stan and Dipper didn't spend that much time with him. The problem is that the narrative of the episode blames Dipper entirely and ignores whatever Stan has done wrong in regardless of their relationship that easily made Dipper distant with him: not the teasing, not the hard work to "tought him up", not his unfair treatment towards him in comparison to Mabel, not the fact that he LIED to him for the entire summer and broke his trust, nothing. In fact, just when Dipper loses his patience and actually starts to understandably tell him off putting ALL of these examples, Dipper's callout falls on deaf ears, litterally, because Stan doesn't pay attention to Dipper and is panicked due to the monster behind him. Then after that, ALL of that is forgotten, they don't patch things up, and Dipper is the one who has to apologize to Stan, after Stan, once again, not just kept him from hanging out with Ford, after he had promised he would let him go in Dungeons, Dungeons and more Dungeons, but also lied to him and got them into a bigger mess. But no, Dipper is the one who apologizes and is supposed to trust Stan...because of reasons, even if they didn't talk anything out or solved anything really.

The jokes honestly also felt flat and I only honestly enjoyed the Shrek 2 reference.

So yes, while I think that from terms of art, voice cast and edition this episode is amazing, the narrative, the characterization of the main cast and the development is attrocious. Honestly, it feels more like a bad fanfic hating on Ford (and to some extent, Dipper) and portraying him as the biggest jackass on earth and the reason of everything going wrong. This is not how the characters behave. I seriously have to wonder if the writers even watched the show, let alone read Journal 3 and Lost Legends.

[mischiefandmedicine]

Very Full - Chapter 15: Shallow

Summary: Melara breaks things off with Loki.

Word Count: 2,758 words.

Chapter Warnings: Anger/angst, arguement.

Soundtrack Link

This Chapter's Music Inspiration:

Shallow sung by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Very Full MASTERLIST

Previous Chapter

A/N: Reminder that I do not own the rights to the lyrics.

Let me know if you would like to be added to the taglist!

Saoirse’s eyes darkened as she eyed her father. “Likely story, Loki. You always have an answer for everything and that’s what you said to her before dropping her off in the sickbay and disappearing again?”

“It’s what happened, daughter,” Loki said through clenched teeth.

Silence blanketed the father-daughter duo for a few moments before Saoirse dared to confront Loki again. “So tell me more, because I know that’s not the only argument you had just before she died?”

Loki’s eyes widened as he snapped his gaze to Saoirse, “You knew about that?”

“Of course, I knew,” Saoirse jabbed. “I heard her talking about it.”

“With who?” Loki shot back.

“Clint.”

“That…,” Loki stopped himself. If he were to continue to make progress toward his relationship with Saoirse, he would not be able to insult the man she thought of as a surrogate father. He looked up in the direction of his throne, seemingly cross with the universe and himself.

Saoirse raised an eyebrow, amused at the fact that Loki, the god of mischief and lies – or certainly the god of half-truths – had been rendered nearly speechless. “Listen, Loki,” she sighed heavily, shoulders adjusting before continuing. “I know Mom was everything to you. But really, what did you two argue about? It changed her…it changed everything.”

“I…,” he shrugged, “fucked up.”

***

At the very edge of existence, where time unfolds like an infinite tapestry, Loki, the erstwhile God of Mischief, now the weary steward of chronology, sat enshrouded in the vast silence of the void. The fabric of reality stretched before him, a complex weave of possibilities, each thread a life, a choice, a world. And there, amidst the myriad strands, one thread burned brighter than the rest – a golden arc that bore the essence of Melara and Saoirse.

This singular branch of time, suffused with the fierce light of their existence, grew rampant, unchecked by the usual cold decree of the Time Variance Authority. It was a living testament to the will of Melara, and it thrived, consuming the adjacent threads in a conflagration of potentiality. Each moment it spread, timelines vanished, snuffed out like candles in a tempest.

Surely, in the time before Loki had taken his throne, Melara might have been considered a threat to the Sacred Timeline. She would have been taken through the same portal, through the same halls he had once walked through with Mobius and Sylvie at his side. Melara would have been brought before someone like Judge Renslayer and would have been pruned before she had even met Loki that night in the bar.

Or, perhaps, if she had not met Loki, she would have been spared.

Loki, once the harbinger of fire and chaos himself, found his resolve tested as never before. He had reveled in the disorder of the multiverse, had danced in the dissonance of fractured realities. But this – this was anathema to him. For the branch that surged with destructive life was not just any sequence of events; it was the one that cradled his heart.

With hands that could conjure worlds and ruin them just as swiftly, he hovered over the expanse, the light of the branching timeline casting an otherworldly glow upon his features. His eyes, ancient and deep as the cosmos itself, reflected a storm of conflict. To intervene could mean salvation; it could also mean annihilation. The balance of the multiverse teetered on the brink of his will.

How easy it would have been to let it be, to watch as the fire that was Melara and Saoirse’s existence consumed all. Yet, within him, a battle raged – a war between the duty he had to the cosmos and the love that tied him to that perilous branch of time.

He recalled the words of Melara, her voice a melody that could quell the rage of stars. She had spoken of choice, of destiny, of the threads we weave with our actions. And Saoirse, his child, his legacy – she was the embodiment of that indomitable spirit.

To watch her timeline burn through existence was to watch her very essence claim the multiverse as its stage. Yet, the cost was too great, the risk too dire. The branching timeline was a pyre, and he, in his love and his fear, was the one to feed it or extinguish it.

Loki rose, his silhouette etched against the backdrop of time. With a gesture, a snap of the fingers, he could prune the branch, and reset the balance. But to do so would be to prune his heart, to cut away the part of himself that, against all his nature, had found something worth preserving.

The decision weighed upon him like the gaze of the Norns, the fates who spin and measure and cut the threads of life. In the silence that stretched like an eternity, he felt the weight of every life that hung in the balance, every timeline that flickered in the shadow of the one he cherished.

He turned away, a figure torn between worlds, his cloak a banner of his turmoil. “No more,” he whispered to the void, to the watchers unseen, to the daughter he so loved. “I will find another way.”

And with those words, he set himself upon a path that wound through the labyrinth of time, seeking a solution that would spare the branch, that would save the flame of Melara and Saoirse. For in his heart, a new resolve had kindled – a resolve to protect, to preserve, to love not in absence, but in the very face of the end of all things.

Thus, the god of stories, once feared and reviled, became the guardian of the most precious narrative of all – the story of a woman and her daughter, whose lives had become the center of his universe, the core of his very being. At that moment, at the precipice of time, Loki transcended his own legend and became something more – a father, a protector, a figure of myth who would defy fate itself for the ones he loved.

But it was there, beneath the ebon shroud of the cosmos, that Loki sat, towering above it all on his throne, the Asgardian god of mischief, etched against the endless void. He stayed silent in counsel with himself, his thoughts a torrent of celestial quagmire, when the fabric of reality quivered, pulling him away. It was Melara, her image flickering, a projection across the bounds of space and time, come to parley like the few times she had before.

“Loki!” her voice, a meld of defiance and desperation, pierced the silence that enveloped the end of all things.

He turned her way, his countenance a mix of dread and longing. “Melara, haven’t I warned you against this?” he asked, his voice bearing the horror of seeing her after their recent spat. “The strain it places upon you is too great; it nearly took both you and Saoirse from me the last time.”

Melara had requested more time with him, perhaps even projecting herself to be at the throne, because Loki often found himself occupied with fighting the branches of time he had to rescue from entanglement with hers. He wanted to protect Melara, instead, she felt that he had overreacted.

Here and now, Melara stood firm, her spectral form radiant and indignant. “I won’t be coddled like a child,” she retorted, her eyes blazing, rivaling the stars themselves. “Nor will I be swayed from seeking you out. My path is mine to choose, Loki, not yours to dictate.”

Their discourse was a tempest, a clash of wills as old as the stars that bore witness to their strife. Loki, with a wave of his hand, summoned the threads of time, displaying the singed skein that burned out of control as the result of Melara’s last visit. “Look! Look at the cost of your stubbornness,” he implored, “what it did to you and the strands of time.”

Loki’s eyes were glassy with the tears that formed thinking about how weak Melara had been during Saoirse’s birth. He thought of how he and Evelyn fought over what they should do to support Melara as she recovered – both from the encounter and finally the birth.

“I can’t lose you,” he whispered. His visage now a canvas of torment, turned away. “You cannot comprehend the burden of my station here, ‘Lara. My charge is to the whole of existence, not solely to the desires of…”

“Your heart?” Melara interjected, her words cutting through his protestations. “Is it so burdensome to admit that your heart, too, yearns for the warmth of companionship?”

“It’s not that easy, love,” he pleaded. 

“You hide behind the opulence of your station. You use this duty to the multiverse as a shield against the vulnerabilities of love and attachment. I thought we were past this!” she yelled.

Loki’s eyes widened, unsure of how to continue. “I have made so many sacrifices. For you, for us, for…Saoirse…but most of all for the greater good. You have no idea what I gave up to become the kind of god I needed to be.”

Melara’s projection wavered, the strain of her presence at the end of time manifesting as cracks upon her visage. “Then perhaps it is time I made my way without you,” she declared, her voice quivering with a potent mix of fury and sorrow. “If your burdens are so great, Loki, be unburdened by me.”

Loki reached out, his hand passing through her flickering form. “Melara, do not be rash,” he pleaded, the edge of panic in his voice.

But she was resolute. “No, Loki. I will seek my own destiny, one not overshadowed by your constant lamentations. I’ve been doing just fine without you anyway!”

And with that, she severed the connection, her image dissipating like mist at dawn. Loki stood alone once more, his heart a chasm from which no trickery could salvage him.

***

Saoirse’s voice rose, a tempest unleashed, as she confronted Loki, “And that was it?!” The words echoed with a palpable mix of shock and betrayal, her disbelief at how readily he had seemingly abandoned Melara.

Loki’s countenance remained a mask of calm indifference, a stark contrast to the maelstrom before him. “You know how your mother is…” he began, attempting to explain the unexplainable.

“Was, asshole!” Saoirse corrected fiercely, the past tense searing through the conversation like a blade. Her use of ‘was’ hammered home the reality of her loss.

Loki’s façade cracked, a flicker of pain in his eyes betraying his aloof demeanor. “Indeed, Melara possessed a spirit that defied containment. I thought granting her the solitude she sought would allow time for tempers to cool, for a reconciliation I desperately hoped for. Never did I think…” His voice faltered, the words dissolving into the silent void.

Saoirse’s anger did not abate. “Well, guess who was left to pick up the pieces?” she demanded.

Silence was Loki’s only retort, a heavy, tangible thing that settled between them.

“Me!” Saoirse declared with a venomous thrust, punctuating her solitary burden. Yet, after a moment’s reflection, her expression shifted, a wry smile playing upon her lips as she added, “Well, Clint too…”

The mention of Clint brought a subtle shift to the conversation as Saoirse told her side of the aftermath.

***

After the projection faded, Melara found herself alone, the silence of her quarters in the Avengers compound pressing against her. The ghost of Loki’s presence still lingered as she wrapped her arms around herself, as if to hold together the pieces of her broken heart. Though she and Loki had their differences – he a god, as he often reminded her, and she a mere mortal – and it certainly had not been the first time she thought she had washed her hands of Loki. This time felt different to her.

Melara took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling with the effort of trying to dispel the turmoil within. She was tired of fighting, of trying to bridge the gap between her world and Loki’s. She needed something to anchor her, something real and tangible. That’s when the distant strumming of a guitar reached her, drawing her out of her room.

Clint Barton sat in the common room, his fingers coaxing a melody from the strings. Melara approached, drawn to the comfort of the familiar sound.

He looked up, his eyes kind and knowing. “Everything alright, Melara?” he asked, his voice the embodiment of solace.

She shook her head, the turmoil within her begging for release. “Loki and I…we had a…disagreement,” she confessed, the words heavy on her tongue.

Clint patted the seat beside him, an invitation. “Want to talk about it?”

Melara sat, the proximity to Clint and his music calming her frayed spirit. “He’s so far away, Clint. Not just in distance, but in understanding. He’s lost in his duty, and I…I can’t compete. How could I ask him to give up such an important task?” Her voice faltered, the pain of the argument still raw.

Clint listened, his presence a silent strength as she poured out her heart. When she finished, he simply strummed a few chords before speaking. “Loki’s always been a hard read, even when he was in my head. But he’s not the only one with a story to tell, Melara. You’ve got your own, and it’s worth singing about. I’ve heard your songs.”

Encouraged by his words, Melara smiled. “Hey, I recognize this song.”

Clint returned the smile, picking the strings gently, the tones echoing off the stark concrete like a concert hall. He fell silent as he played the opening chords to a song that Melara knew well. What surprised her the most was when Clint opened his mouth to sing:

Tell me something, girl. Are you happy in this modern world? Or do you need more? Is there something that you’re searching for? I’m falling. In all the good times I find myself, Longing for change, And in the bad times, I fear myself.

            Clint’s eyes sparkled as he seemingly reflected on the years past when he truly did fear himself, the darkness that had followed during the blip when he had lost his family. He knew the pain Melara felt in Loki’s absence. He also knew how Saoirse longed for her father to be more present. As he played, he turned his head as if to tell Melara to join.

Tell me something, boy. Aren’t you tired tryin’ to fill that void? Or do you need more? Ain’t it hard keepin’ it so hardcore? I’m falling. In all the good times I find myself, Longing for a change. And in the bad times, I fear myself.

            The music was a testament to her resolve, to the path she would forge on her own terms. She sat up taller, stretching her arms and fingers wide, singing to the heavens above, hoping that Loki could still hear her voice.

I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in, I’ll never meet the ground. Crash through the surface, where they can’t hurt us, We’re far from the shallow now.

            Their harmonies echoed off the walls sweetly as they leaned into each other, bittersweet smiles.

In the sha-ha, sha-hallow, In the sha-ha, sha-la-la-la-low In the sha-ha, sha-hallow We're far from the shallow now.

            As the last note faded, Melara felt a sense of clarity. She leaned closer, her forehead meeting his. “Thank you, Clint,” she whispered, a smile gracing her lips despite the tears that lingered in her eyes. Between friends, this tender moment left Melara aching for Loki. Clint pulled away from her, nodding knowingly. “Anytime, Melara. You and Saoirse, you’re family.”

She rose, feeling the weight of her encounter with Loki still upon her shoulders, but tempered now by the support of her friend. “I think I’ll go see Saoirse,” she murmured, her spirit lifted by the prospect.

Clint watched her go, his guitar cradled in his lap. In the chords and the quiet, he had offered solace, and in doing so, had reaffirmed the bonds that held their unlikely family together.

***

“She never knew that I had watched her singing with Clint. I ran back to my room and pretended that I had been asleep. And mom tucked me in, kissing my forehead for the last time at the compound…” With the last word, Saoirse’s angst fell away, giving way to tears that pooled in her glowing eyes as she thought of the events leading to her mother’s death.

---

Taglist: @mischief2sarawr

[spectacled-renegade-writes]

An Early Start - Chapter 12 - Danny Phantom

Ao3: Here | Masterpost: Here

Ao3 Description: The accident that turns Danny half-ghost happens when he is four years old and leaves him trapped in the Ghost Zone. Clockwork finds him and takes him in to raise. But what happens when Clockwork sends Danny back to the human-world ten years later when a permanent portal appears?

Chapter 12:

Sam and Tucker were anomalies indeed. On one hand, they were very different from the other humans he’s met but on the other, they are very much alike. Part of Danny thought he should stop thinking of himself as different from them, and by that he meant humans in general. After all, he was still half-human, and he'd been a human before he became a ghost. Still, he'd spent most of his life in the Ghost Zone, as a ghost, being raised by a ghost. So, his internal struggle continued.

But Sam and Tucker, they fascinated him.

Turns out their favorite hangout was the Nasty Burger. They went there nearly every day after school.

“U-L-T-R-A R-E-C-Y-C…” Danny trailed off, his fingerspelling uncertain and his expression confused. “I don’t even know how to spell that.”

Tucker laughed, “You and me both, dude.”

“What… is it exactly?” Danny asked.

“I don’t eat anything with a face.” Sam replied proudly.

Danny nodded. Fascinating indeed.

“So,” Tucker said, eating a fry. “What kind of things do you like to do for fun?”

Danny thought about it. Explore the Ghost Zone. Learn new things about the universe from Clockwork. Hang out with his ghost friends. He realized none of these things were answers he could say. So, he shrugged. “Read, I guess. Stargaze.”

“That’s it?”

“I think those things are awesome.” Sam interjected.

“Yeah, well,” Tucker said. “I guess they’re cool and all but what about the flair? What about living?”

What about dying?

“I’m just saying,” Tucker continued. “We’ve gotta show you the ropes.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “The ropes?”

“I guess Tucker’s right.” Sam said. “You’re from out of town. We need to show you what qualifies as fun in a place as boring as this.”

Danny smiled. “Lead the way.”

So, lead they did, and the place they took him was surprising. An abandoned town house at the edge of the city. It was decrepit, covered in moss and vines, and nearly falling apart. “Tucker and I found this place a few years back,” Sam explained. She gestured to the graffiti on the walls. “And it seems like we weren’t the only ones. But, no one’s ever been here at the same time as us. We come here when we’re bored.”

Danny looked around. The Ghost Zone had a few places like this, minus the graffiti. He’s never actually seen graffiti before. Is this the human word for art? He second guessed himself, maybe he remembered less than he thought.

“Cool, right?” Tucker said as Danny ran a hand over one of the art pieces. “Graffiti was never my preferred medium but Sam’s all about it. A few of these pieces are hers. They’re all upstairs though.”

Danny turned to Sam. “Show me?” So they did. They took Danny upstairs, to a room off the left, and showed him in. The room itself obviously used to be a nursery, a broken cradle and collapsed rocking chair, and the peeling, painted ceiling showed old drawings of clouds. Now, though, the room was covered in dust, cobwebs, and tetanus. Sam directed Danny to her wall.

“My stuff’s over here. It’s mostly just spiders and death, so, you know, everything goth.”

Danny examined it. She was very talented. Despite its gloominess, its attention to detail gave way to the fact that she put a lot of heart into it. He smiled and gravitated toward the ghosts in the corner, definitely unlike any ghost he’s ever seen. Sam’s ghosts were less corporeal and more wispy, translucent even. Danny recalled his own art lessons with Clockwork. He was still very young at the time and he remembered how frustrated he got that he couldn't make his hand recreate the thing he was looking at. “Patience.” Clockwork had said. “Some talents come naturally but others, they take time and practice. Not everything in existence comes easily but that does not mean we should quit. Practice and patience blossoms our proudest creations.”

Danny only realized years later that Clockwork was teaching him two lessons that day.

“Here.” Danny turned around and saw Sam offering him a spray can. “You make something.” She encouraged.

Danny looked down at the spray can then back up at both her and Tucker. Both of them had this half encouraging, half impish expressions on their faces. His hands fumbled uncertainly as he spoke, “I’ve never use those before.”

“It’s easy,” Sam said. “You just point and spray. Just make sure you have the nozzle pointed away from you.”

Danny looked to the wall then back to his friends, and chewed the inside of his cheek. “What should I make?”

“That’s the beauty of it,” Tucker declared. “You can make whatever you want!”

So, not seeing any other reason why he shouldn’t, Danny took the spray can. Sam crossed the room and opened the windows to let out the fumes. “Wait,” she said, walking back and digging through her backpack, she pulled out a bandana and handed it to Danny. “If you’re gonna work with spray paint, you should cover your face. Here, tie this around your head.”

At first Danny thought she meant his entire head, which confused him for obvious reasons, but when he saw Sam and Tucker tying bandanas of their own around their mouths and noses, it made a lot more sense. He did as instructed, and turned to find a blank space on the wall.

A clatter sounded next to Danny and he saw Tucker had dropped a crate with other spray paint colors next to him. Danny looked at the one in his hand, it was blue. He could work with that. His friends stood back and watched the magic happen as Danny began to paint.

It was surprising at first, using the spray cans, but he quickly figured it out, and inspiration struck. Sam had painted goth things, things on her mind, so Danny did just the same. His friends watched in awe as a picture of something fantastical and otherworldly came to life before them. When Danny was done, he took a step back.

“Wow.” Tucker said.

“Yeah.” Sam agreed.

Danny painted Clockwork’s tower. The home he grew up in. The home he longed for. A day hasn’t gone by since being in the human world that he hasn’t ached to return. He missed his room. He missed the weightlessness. He missed his father, the one who raised him, taught him everything he knows. He missed Clockwork.

“That is awesome, dude!” Tucker exclaimed. “It’s like medieval meets sci-fi or something. What do you call it?”

Danny weighed the pros and cons of telling them the truth but in the end, it’s not like they’d ever know. “C-L-O-C-K-W-O-R-K-S T-O-W-E-R.”

“Clockwork’s tower?” Sam asked.

Danny shrugged.

“That hardcore, man.” Tucker approved and Sam agreed. Danny felt a sort of warmth blossom in his chest. Even if they didn’t really know, it still felt nice, in a way, for his friends to approve of his home. Sam closed the windows and they showed him more of the house.

Back downstairs, Tucker led them to a pantry. “This is my favorite feature of the house,” he said. “And here’s why.” He shone a flashlight he’d procured from his bag and shone it in the dingy little closet, onto the far wall. “Now these are trade secrets,” he warned. “So you can’t tell anybody.” Danny zipped his lips in response. Tucker moved into the pantry and pressed a hand hard onto the back wall. A moment later a soft click sounded, and Tucker removed a secret panel. Behind it was a shelf filled with snacks, CDs, a radio and a first aid kit. “Secret compartment. Found it by accident.” He smiled smugly. Sam pushed past him and grabbed a bag of chips.

“No one else has found it,” she said. “So we made it into our little emergency supply storage, and restock it often.” Sam grabbed another bag of chips and threw it to Danny. “But we mostly just use it to hide snacks when we hang out.”

Danny smiled. Being in the human world was hard but Sam and Tucker, they made it easier. The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon snacking, listening to music, and chatting the day away.

-

When Danny came home later that evening after hanging out with Sam and Tucker, he got bombarded by his parents the moment he stepped through the threshold.

“And where were you, young man?” His mother demanded. Despite her tone of voice, she looked more frantic than angry. In fact, both of his parents looked worried. Danny didn’t understand why until Jazz appeared from the kitchen.

“Danny!” Jazz exclaimed, running toward him and hugging him tight. “Where were you? We were worried sick!” She let go but kept her hands on his shoulders. “You can’t just disappear like that.”

Ah. Disappear. Now it made sense. He’d done that ten years ago, hadn’t he? It hadn’t occurred to him that he should tell them where he was going. He never needed to tell Clockwork, Clockwork always knew he’d come home, and Danny was certain Clockwork knew where he was at all times. But Danny wasn’t with his ghost family, he was with his human one, and his human one didn’t know he’d come home. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his notebook. I’m sorry. He wrote. I didn’t know I was supposed to tell you what I was doing.

“So,” Maddie asked. “What were you doing?”

Hanging out with my new friends. Danny answered.

All three of them lit up at that, worry dissipating immediately. “Danny,” Jazz beamed. “You actually made friends!” She hugged him again and Danny felt suffocated. “I’m so proud of you!”

Danny wormed his way out of his sister’s embrace and took a step back to breathe. He loved her, as much as Clockwork, but he needed his space. Jazz seemed unaffected, she was just so happy. Danny wasn’t surprised. The past three days the last thing she said to him before splitting up for class was, “Have fun! Make some friends!” It’s his fault he hadn’t told her until now. It honestly just hadn’t crossed his mind.

“Well,” Jack said. “If you’re going to be hanging out with friends after school, we need to get you a cell phone, and teach you about ghosts!” Danny tilted his head. Jack took him by the shoulder and began to lead him to the basement. “If you’re going to be out and about, you need to learn how to protect yourself against those spectral spooks.”

“Dad!” Jazz opposed. “Danny does not need to be a part of your crazy ghost hunting ventures! He’s just a kid, not some kind of experiment, or a mentee.”

But Jack did not listen and instead took her by the shoulder as well. “Good idea, Jazz! You can both learn how to defend yourselves!” So, he led both his children to the basement, where he promptly began his ‘So, you want to be a ghost hunter’ speech. Danny and Jazz sat in chairs next to each other as Jack spoke. He introduced the Fenton Thermos, a device which captured and contained ghosts, and turned to retrieve his next weapon.

Jazz’s simmering frustration finally boiled over and she stood from her seat, and marched over to her father to give him a piece of her mind.

It was impeccable timing too because the moment she did, the ghost portal opened and two ecto-pusses exited it. Danny stared. They stared back. Jazz and Jack remained oblivious as they bickered with their backs turned. “You can’t be here,” Danny whispered, and wow. It felt so nice to speak in Ghost Speak again. He didn't mind signing, and he was fluent in it, but Ghost Speak felt more like his native language, and it was what he was most comfortable using. The ecto-pusses continued to stare. They seemed to realize they were looking at the ward of Clockwork. Danny glanced again to his sister and father, and back to them. “It’s time to go back.” The ecto-pusses gave one final glance at each other before turning to flee back into the portal. Not a moment too soon, too. The second they vanished, both Jazz and his father turned back around.

“Come on, Danny.” Jazz said, taking his hand. “Let me help you with your homework.” Danny let Jazz drag him out of the lab.

However, later that night, Danny snuck back down and stole the thermos for himself. It was only a precaution, but he knew he wouldn’t be dealing with just ghosts who would flee at the sight of “Clockwork’s ward” forever, and he’d need to use it if he couldn’t talk them down.

A ghost like that appeared the following Monday.

Danny walked in to school and met his friends by their lockers. Tucker was fuming about something and Sam seemed proud of herself. Danny zipped the book he was carrying into his backpack to free his hands before he spoke. “What’s going on?”

“Sam,” Tucker pointed an accusing finger at her. “Committed an atrocity that which mankind has never seen!”

Danny’s eyes widened and he turned to Sam. She only scoffed and said, “Oh, quit being dramatic. I only changed the lunch menu, get over it.”

“I will not,” Tucker insisted. “You took away all the meat! You can’t take away a carnivore’s meat!”

Danny’s panic quickly subsided to amusement. He still had trouble remembering to eat in the first place so what he ate didn’t really matter to him. He listened to his friends’ silly argument as he made his way to his own locker, and watched through spiteful notes passed during class, and continued to listen between classes, all the way to lunch.

As Danny held out his tray to the lunch lady, and a piece of bread with grass was dropped on it, even he had to agree with Tucker on this one. There was a lot about the human world Danny still didn’t know about but he was certain you weren’t supposed to eat grass, and judging by the looks on the other students faces, he was right. As he sat his tray down at their usual table, he looked at what was supposed to be considered food and said, “This is grass.”

“Right?!” Tucker agreed. “Grass. From the ground. Not food, Sam!”

But before Sam could argue back, Mr. Lancer appeared behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Ah, Ms. Manson. The school board wanted me to personally thank you for ushering in this welcome experiment to our cafeteria.”

Tucker, on the other hand, seemed distressed. He sniffed the air and said, “Meat. Near.”

Earlier, Tucker said that meat heightened your senses, and he proved it by correctly guessing what Danny had for dinner the night before. Danny had been impressed but he still wondered if what Tucker said was true or not. Tucker’s proclamation was seeming more and more plausible by the minute when Danny saw a fretful look cross Mr. Lancer’s face as he quickly said, “No, no, the rumors about the all-steak buffet in the teacher’s lounge are completely untrue.”

Danny couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Maybe he’d sneak in and steal one for Tucker. It’d be nice to step out of the dreadful cafeteria anyway, he still wasn’t used to this place... honestly he didn’t know if he ever would be.

“Thanks again,” Mr. Lancer said as he walked off.

“Yeah, thanks for making us eat garbage, Sam.” Tucker pouted.

“It’s not garbage! It’s recyclable organic matter.”

Danny narrowed his eyes and Tucker said, “It’s garbage.”

Danny didn’t have much of an appetite anyway so he passed his plate to Sam and made to stand up to put his tray away. But he didn’t even manage to stand before two things happened at the same time. One: His ghost sense went off, and two: Dash stormed over to him yelling, “Hey, ghost boy!” In Danny’s week there, the term had become an insult he heard whispered behind his back daily. He mostly found it amusing. If only they knew. But Dash, for whatever reason, decided Danny would be his new favorite victim. Apparently there was something about Danny that didn’t sit quite right with people and Dash took offense to that. Dash held up his tray and said, “I ordered three mud pies and you know what I got? Three. Mud pies. With mud. From the ground!”

Danny really didn’t have time for this, not with a ghost around, so before Dash could grab him by the shirt, he took the mud off Dash’s tray and chucked it across the room. The rest of the cafeteria excitedly followed suit and began a food fight. Dash was hit in the process and successfully lost focus of Danny. Danny used the opportunity to sneak off to the kitchen.

When he entered, he recognized the ghost inside. Danny transformed and floated over to her. “Hello,” he said.

The ghost of the Lunch Lady turned around and stiffened when she was greeted with Clockwork’s ward. “Oh, hello there, dearie.” She said in a sickly, sweet voice. “I heard rumors that you were no longer in the Ghost Zone. I’m just here because it seems… well, somebody has changed the menu. Do you know who that might be?”

Danny wasn’t stupid. He knew about her short temper and what would happen if he told her the truth. So, he lied. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I’m sure we can work something out.”

The Lunch Lady scowled at the “Ultra-Recyclo-Vegetarian” cookbook in her hands. “Today is supposed to be meatloaf, but I don’t see any meatloaf.”

“You were the lunch lady at this school?”

“That’s right, dearie,” said the Lunch Lady. “And my balanced meal plan never changed, even after I passed. Now, it has changed, and I can’t stand for that. I’m sure you understand. Would you help me fix it?”

Danny chewed his lip. There was only one way this would end. He desperately tried to find the words to create a second way. So, he tried empathy. “I… I didn’t want to leave the Ghost Zone.” He said. “But, Clockwork told me I had a mission, so I had to. It’s been a big change and a lot of it is uncomfortable, but there are things that make it bearable, and make me realize things will get easier, that it’ll be okay.” He could see the lost look on the Lunch Lady’s face, her obvious confusion with such an abrupt change of subject. Danny pressed on. “So… with that being said, maybe it’ll be okay for you, too. I know the lunch menu changing is uncomfortable but… maybe it’ll be okay? Maybe you just need time.”

For a moment, nothing happened. For a moment, the Lunch Lady just blanched. Then, quick as a whip, she snarled, and her hair turned to flames. “No!” She cried. “The menu has been the same for fifty years! It will not be changed!” With a ferocity of a lunch lady scorned, she charged at Danny. “I will change it back and if you’re the only thing standing in my way, so be it! Clockwork can’t protect you here, boy!”

Danny quickly threw up a shield and thwarted her attack. “I don’t need Clockwork to protect me!" He yelled. "I can protect myself! I don’t want to fight, but I will if I must!”

The Lunch Lady let out a howl as she charged once again. Danny knew it was dangerous to fight in such a confined space, with so many humans near, so he went intangible and flew through the ceiling, the Lunch Lady following suit. Danny raced down the hall, Lunch Lady hot on his tail. He had an arsenal of attacks at the ready but he didn’t truly want to hurt her, so he hesitated which to use. He turned another corner and found himself greeted with a group of students. He quickly b-lined toward the floor and found himself in the school's basement, surrounded by none other than boxes of meat. “Can’t we talk this out?!” He yelled.

“No!” The Lunch Lady boomed. She raised her arms and meat came flying out of the boxes and began to assemble around her, creating a meat-based armor. “I control lunch! Lunch is sacred! Lunch has rules! No one will stand in my way!” She threw her arms out and a flurry of meat came flying towards Danny. Danny quickly threw his hands out and the moment the meat made contact, it began to freeze, starting from point of contact and traveling up, eventually engulfing the meat monster completely.

“I’m sorry.” Danny said. The Lunch Lady was completely frozen in ice so Danny soared to his locker, grabbed the thermos, and returned within seconds. “Clockwork tasked me with protecting the humans. So, I had to fight you. I’m sorry it had to be this way.” Danny popped the lid off the thermos, pointed it at the Lunch Lady, and clicked the button. The Lunch Lady yelled as she was sucked inside and Danny winced. Being half-human didn't negate the fact that he was also her kind. As he touched down and returned back to human, he felt a sick feeling in his stomach. He held the thermos close to his chest.

Danny walked silently down the hallway, back to his locker. He wanted to puke. Saving a ghost from another ghost is one thing, like the time he saved Wulf from Skulker, but despite the fact that she wanted to cause harm, it felt wrong choosing one species over the other. What was worse is that… even though he would never bring harm to humans, in his heart he still preferred ghosts. But the moment Danny felt like he was going to cry was also the moment he felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder. He looked up to see the disappointed face of Mr. Lancer. “Mr. Fenton. My office. Now.”

Danny had no choice but to follow. The adults in this school still did not scare him as they did the others, but he was trying to follow their rules. When Danny entered the office, Sam and Tucker were there too. They stared at him in a way Danny couldn’t quite explain. He took a seat next to them upon Mr. Lancer’s request.

“Now, Mr. Fenton,” Mr. Lancer sighed, taking a seat at his desk. “I am aware you have… been through a lot, but that does not absolve you from the rules. Now, this is your first offense so I will give you a chance to explain. According to Mr. Baxter, you started the food fight in the cafeteria with your friends. Now, why would you do such a thing like that?”

Danny didn’t know what to say. He glanced to his friends but they only continued to stare back with those unreadable expressions. Well, hopefully one of them would snap out of it to translate for him. “It was the only way to get Dash away from me.” He signed. Luckily, Sam did in fact snap out of it and became his translator.

Mr. Lancer clasped his hands together on his desk and leaned back. “If another student was giving you a problem, then you should have asked for help.”

“How? I can’t speak.” Danny deadpanned. He saw the way Mr. Lancer flushed at that.

“Right, well, be that as it may, actions still have consequences. So, the three of you will stay after school and clean up the cafeteria until it’s spotless. Understood?”

His two friends groaned and Danny spoke up again, but Sam didn’t translate this time and instead said, “Danny, you don’t have to do that.”

“Come on, Sam,” said Tucker, a hint of pleading and hope in his eyes. “If that’s what the man wants to do, I say let him.”

“Will someone please tell me what is going on?” Mr. Lancer demanded. Danny looked pointedly at Sam and gestured to the teacher. Sam sighed.

“He said he’s the only one at fault. Tucker and I didn’t help start the fight. He started it on his own.”

“Noble,” Lancer hummed. “Admirable. But, according to Mr. Baxter, all three of you are at fault, so all three of you will receive detention.”

“But –“ Tucker tried to argue.

“No buts,” Mr. Lancer interrupted. “I will see all three of you after school and I will be calling your parents.”

Tucker slumped in his chair and mumbled, “Figures.”

Danny felt bad. He'd had to think on the spot but he should have thought of something better. Though, he just knew if he ran, Dash would’ve followed. He stared down at the thermos in his lap. He felt even worse now. Staying after school meant that much longer the Lunch Lady would be stuck in such a tiny space. Vaguely, he wondered what it was like in there. He didn’t want to find out. So, after being excused, and given hall passes back to class, which have started back up by now, Danny decided to take a detour. “I’ll meet you back in class.” Danny told his friends.

“Where are you going?” Tucker asked.

Danny looked down at the thermos, held in the crook of his elbow, then looked back up to his friends. “I need to stop by my locker.”

“We’ll come with you,” said Sam. “Beats going back to class just yet.”

Danny chewed his lip. He counted two times now that he thought of the wrong thing on the spot today. He never had to deal with stuff like this in the Ghost Zone. “It’s fine. It won’t even be that long.” He saw the way his friends glanced at each other. Saw the way their faces changed back to that indescribable look. It left a bad taste in his mouth. Did he do something wrong? Were they mad at him for getting them detention? Not knowing what he did to upset his friends was killing him but he didn’t have time to address it yet.

“Okay, Danny,” Sam said. “We’ll see you in class.” Danny watched as they walked away, remained rooted to the spot until they turned the corner. When they were gone, he stepped in to the nearest bathroom, made sure the coast was clear, and transformed, then proceeded to turn invisible and intangible, and fly home as quick as he could to release the Lunch Lady back into the Ghost Zone.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ao3 Notes: First extra long chapter! Fun fact: The chapters where I need to do an episode rewrite are my LEAST favorite chapters to write. Even so, I hope I still did a good job for you lovely readers. There will only be a few chapters like that but they are necessary for the plot. Once again thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day/night! :D

[one-of-tankhuns-neurons]

I cannot tell you how terrified I am of rewatching 180 degree longitude passes through us

We all know most first-watch moments are to experience the whole thing, feel it, have it wash over us and let everything be skin and rain, sensation and aftertaste. Then we have rewatches, the ones that allow us to analyze and look closer and peel each layer carefully while bearing our own emotions alongside it... I happily do it for all shows I believe require attention and have details and crumbs leading to better understanding.. but this show.

It ate me alive.

It's been nearly two years yet my chest aches and my eyes feel like they're holding back a storm with just a single stray thought finding it's way to In's house in the middle of the mountains.

It punched a hole in my stomach with so much strength the skin is torn and I dream of the echoes of the impact.

It's the theatre in it, it pulls me in and reminds me of my youth, making me feel from the start that smell of mold, the sting of paper, the darkness of the theatre and the brightness of the stage... I don't know how to describe it.. it's a whole different universe and it's a scary one, because characters in theater are alive, and shifting, and they look at you through eyes you are familiar with. Theater is a form of sorcery I dare not mess with, but this show makes it real once again. It's the colors. The blue city, the green forest, and the grey unknown.

It's the lines. Every wall, every fold, every doorframe tracing an abyss, or a bridge or a portal to a different time. It's the half built bridge. The everpresent reminder of what if's; of fear and cowardice, of a love that's uninished and a life that doesn't want to be found. It's the unknown, the dark nightyet the blinding and shaming light of day. It's the caged bird. One time my feelings were eating me alive and Wang and In jumped out of the mirror as I was breaking down and I could hear Wang's voice growling "stop crying Icarus, can't you see there's no sun?" Do you se what I mean now? They come alive. Once they're let out they live inside people forever. It's the lonely whale... but was it really In? It's the acceptance speech It's the looking through chopsticks It's the way they speak of wine It's the barely grazing of skin It's the horror of a ghost you carry inside you It's the angry love It's Rosalind...right? Rosalind? That was her name? Rosalind? It's a phone that rings but no one picks up I am scared that when I enter that house again I will feel everything in my bones once again. I am scared that I will see more, the layers and the deep ocean beneath my surface and drown in it... But at the same time I am afraid that I will break the spell and make it mundane. I will come to realize it's just a story on a screen and I will no longer be scared of it and I'll lose the last of my real emotions. So I think I'll keep it safe until I begin to forget it. Or maybe I will become Wang and never find In again no matter how much I long for it. They will be a memory and I'll keep the nostalgia and the horror of never seeing eachother again as part of how real it was for me. I'll dust off a picture from time to time and remember. Deep in the night, I'll think of when I cried for several hours and I felt like throwing up my everyinside. I was not sad, I was ripped apart and it took months for me to rebuild what was left.

I can't write anymore, I need to clean the floor before the blood stains the carpet.

[engineers-curry]

Please bear with me, I have super brain rot for another royal merc/gewis AU 👀

(Beware, the rough idea is pretty long under the cut)

Basically, George is a super normal guy, with a super normal life. And then he stumbles into a parallel universe.

One second he opened the door of his patents little garden hut and stepped inside, the next moment, he's in a totally different room. Clothing, hair, everything still the same but everything around him looks different. George things he's just having a weird moment and steps outside again but his parents' garden is gone.

There's a freaking palace in front of him and he's standing in the huge garden of it and that's definitely not his parents house.

Suddenly there's people running over to him, ripping him inside on his arms and yelling at him and George needs a moment to get his brain working. They scream at him about running away again, that he's only causing trouble and chaos, that he endangers everyone with his behaviour and that they have to report it to his father, the king.

The king (toto) continues to scream at George, because he is apparently George's father now. And George hears a list of his wrongdoings while still having no clue what is going on, the advisors (James v, James a, shov, bono, riki) yelling at him too for pulling pranks and apparently faking a kidnapping a few weeks ago.

Then he gets locked into his room (a giant, nice bedroom tbf) without another comment and needs a good hour to even start to comprehend what's going on. Everyone hates him suddenly, nothing is like he's used to know and on top of that, he's a prince. Way to fucking go.

George learns quickly that everyone was very serious when they locked him away, he's not allowed to leave his room, see anyone, only his guard Mike brings him food and the advisor called Riki drops of tasks for him to do study work. Nobody talks or looks at him. And because George is so bored and so scared to do more mistakes, he busies himself with reading all the books in the room to fulfill his tasks, finding his other self's diary hidden in a dark corner.

There he finds detailed descriptions of evil George's shenanigans, how much he hates the palace and wants to escape and that he found a way to switch places with other dimensions. And that the portal is in the garden hut of the gardens, making the two George's switch places when they entered the doors at the same moment. George is shocked but it gets worse when he finds out there is no way to get back - he is going to be stuck in a universe where everyone hates him now.

Unbeknownst to him, Mike and Riki start finding things suspicious. Prince George never did his tasks and when put under arrest, tried to escape within minutes. But apart from the fact that he stood in the garden a few days ago in weird clothes, he also studies properly now and seems far more quieter than before. So they agree on keeping an eye on him, not sure if it's an act or if there's really something off. None of the James's believe them, telling them to not fall for it.

Then, one night, someone breaks into George's room and tries to kidnap him. George is thankfully half coherent to scream for help, alarming the guards, who are able to fight off the intruder. But because his other self faked a kidnapping before, Toto is beyond furious and accuses George of having done it again for attention. Within the same night its decided that George is sent away to rhe other half of the kingdom, until Toto finds a suitor to marry George off and hopefully gains control over him.

George is too traumatised from everything ro fight back, bordering a panic attack when he's finally back alone in his room. In the darkness, he feels like all the shadows are moving and that someone still tries to get him. He can barely sleep the next nights, scared of being alone in his room and even more, closing his eyes. Mike grows worried with how pale and sick George looks, he vows to stay with George during the nights, suspecting slowly that the kidnapping was not planned and left its traces.

George gets proper sleep for the first time in days and half ashamed for his behaviour, thanks Mike for his help the next morning. Which sets off more alarm bells for Mike because that's definitely not the Prince he knows. But it doesn't matter, because George is then send away with Mike, Riki and another guard called Lewis (👀👀) to some lonely house, far away in the countryside.

Riki forces him through endless etiquette lessons and long lectures on how to behave towards his future husband, before Mike and Lewis at least allow him one or two hours outside. And Lewis is the first person who's genuinely nice to George. No disgust in his eyes, only warmth and George slowly starts feel safe. Mike seems to still be vary and cautious but also starts to realise that Pribce George must have changed this time.

It all takes a turn for the worse when George is kidnapped yet again. Lewis and Mike get easily overthrown and George wakes up in an unknown basement, alone and tied up.

In the meantime, he doesn't know that all three of his companions got badly hurt and his father is raging about George fleeing, endangering other in his eyes. Only when Lewis wakes up after a few days, he can clarify that it didn't look like a planned escape attempt and that George seemed terrified. Mike and Riki also explain the changes they witnessed and then Shov finds the diary. With detailed descriptions of the parallel universe escape and George filling it with his own story, how he learns everyone's name and just rants how bad he feels for enduring what the other George did.

It clicks now for everyone why George seemed to weird all the time, compared to what they knew. But it has also been a few days and George is doing absolutely miserable, losing all hope that he'll ever be safed.

It's a last minute action, with Lewis leading the rescue troupe of guards, saving George from the hands of the tyrants that captured him. He himself hasn't recovered properly yet but the adrenaline and George hanging in his arms keeps him going, bringing him back to the palace.

Once George recovered, the advisors and his father/Toto offer him apologies. They try to find a way to send George back, understanding that George is also another victim of evil George's shenanigans and don't want to keep in a world where he does not belong. But as expected, nothing works and they decide then that George simply fills the Princes role, because he's doing a better job anyway 👀👀

(Lewis would also confess he's kinda happy George stays)

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

My Thoughts If Blitzwing & Husk Found Baby Steven (And Became His New Dads)

[Note: Do Not Reblog Without Permission.] 

so almost everyone loves the crossover ship that is Blitzwing x Husk....

so is it weird to have a thought that if those two found Baby Steven in like some Crossover Au and Alternate Timeline type of way....

the two of them becoming like Baby Steven’s Dads, and like this taking place in a Alternate Timeline when Pearl had taken out Steven’s Gem he was a baby...

I know that Steven Universe wouldn’t be in Hazformers (by Blitzy-Blitzwing)

this is just a type of what if type thing, and if Blitzwing and Husk EVER had baby together, they would end up becoming the Dads of a Half-Human & Half-Gem.

Baby Steven could end up in Hell, because of a portal, and I.M.P were send to go after Marty (Sourcream’s Bio-Dad and the Ex-friend and Ex-Manager of Greg.) but they end up missing him, so they could of put a “to hit later” on to their to do list....

even after Pearl made a big mistake in separating Baby Steven’s Human & Gem Halves, but when falling from the red sky in the Pride Ring....

the two halves ended up re-fusing back together, and maybe at the same time after doing that, when Blitzwing is flying, he ends up catching Baby Steven who now had been fused back together, but because of the near death experience, he ends up really sick.

my Fan Headcanon is that if a Half-Human & Half-Gem doesn’t fuse back together on time and the time limit is up, then the human half will die.

and because Baby Steven would be much smaller and is still a baby, it could be possible the time limit would be much shorter, possibly around maybe almost the same as a Irken without their Pak.

it be funny if Alastor found some way to poke fun at Husk and Blitzwing if he found them with a Baby, who seems like a normal human baby, but the body and hair is all pink.

yeah, because of the whole near death experience, Baby Steven could of technically been half-dead, but his gem ended up bringing him back to full life once his two halves fused back together.

he can still age, it’s just gonna be a SUPER long time before he ages and grows up both physically and mentally.

and well Hell Years are different from the Years in the Mortal Realm...

plus it might be possible that Baby Steven would still have healing powers.

not everyone has to take this weird idea seriously, I just like the idea of Husk x Blitzwing becoming Dads to Steven Quartz Universe. XD

Blitzwing might be the Dad that makes funny faces, even when he is switching from one face to one of the other two...

and Husk would be the Tsundere Dad who likes playing cards and drinks.                                

[sleepii-moth]

the fact that fnaf after everything with its creator still has adult fans and is getting new merch, games, and other things made for it is wild to me. regardless of how you feel about death of the author or whatever, the new fnaf content that is being made is getting less and less coherent plot wise and the gameplay is getting repetitive. From an objective standpoint i think that the first fnaf game was never meant to be what the series became. As someone who has a general knowledge of how games are made, especially when it comes to narrative driven games, it was clearly meant to simply be a gameplay focused horror game with a little story thrown in to give some cool backstory and add some mystery, and then maybe there'd be a few more games in the series that expand on the mechanics and elaborate on the story a bit but its pretty reasonable to assume that the story of the game was meant to be mostly up for interpretation and that as a series, it wouldnt be too long. Unfortunately though, it ended up gaining fame and people reading more into it which definitely contributed to the series being what it is now (and also yknow.. money is another reason.) It sort of ended up having a certain Supernatural (tm) effect where it kept getting worse but people still watched it which i guess answers my question of why people still like it (because people arent willing to let things they like go even if theyre bad) but that is an unfulfilling answer to me and theres definitely a more fulfilling one

so im wondering now.. are people (not counting kids for a reason) who still like fnaf holding onto the series because they liked the concept (of animatronics, a sprawling mystery, and other things) and have never found or heard of other things that share those same concepts? Or is it really just simply holding onto things that are nostalgic to them? Im genuinely curious because i have been into things that just got bad because they went for too long or tried to do convoluted things with the story that i just moved on from. I still remember when i was younger i watched supernatural with my sibling, and did really enjoy it, we got pretty late in the show before my sibling told me they thought it was getting worse and didnt want to watch it anymore. Of course as a kid who didn't really even know how to tell if a form of entertainment was bad, i was a little upset and didnt understand why but agreed anyway. And so we stopped watching supernatural and watched other things together like steven universe that we ended up liking way more. Occasionally there would be tv show or anime that just ended up sucking and from then on we just stopped watching it and watched something else.

I think the reason i fully stopped liking fnaf was partly that i recognized the content i was watching for it (like lets plays or theory videos) were getting worse and i also just grew out of it? As the years went on i got into other games like half life or portal that had way more fulfilling stories to me that i enjoyed a lot more so fnaf just became something i didnt care about. fnaf is like the cracker barrel of video games to me, i went there as a kid because other people liked it so i was supposed to also like it and mostly really liked it because it was restaurant food and to a kid thats better than anything you get at home (and also they have little toys), and then one day when i was older and had gone to more different places i sat down, ate my food, and thought "wow this is bad actually," and never ate there again. And all of that is to say i really do wonder if the majority of adult fans of fnaf still like it because its one of the few games theyve engaged with in their life, and that if they were to expand their palette, try new things, and look back on their interests, then theyd be able to more easily accept its (and its creators) problems and move on from it as purely a thing of their past. because i promise you, there are better things out there, not everything is cracker barrel or supernatural, theres genres youve never even heard of, games that no one knows about waiting to be played, theres the sprawling mysteries of Outer Wilds, the gut wrenching horror of Devotion, the captivating characters of Psychonauts, the expansive world building of Half Life, there are so many better things out there made by better people. Letting go of something doesnt hurt as much when you have more things to enjoy. There are better things out there, you just have to stop looking in the same place.

[spookberry]

Heve you talked about Danny's background for your normie au? 👀👀 Like did he gain his powers from the accident or was it something else? How did he find out about monster high and why is he a student there? What about his parents? Do they know? Did they decide to enroll him there so he'd be around similar kids his age? Or did Jazz have something to do with it?

There's so much i wanna know !!!

Anyways, I love your au and what your doing with it. I wait patiently to see what else you do <333

theres so much I wanna know to lol! There's just so many different fun ways to take it that it's kinda hard to decide ^^; Tho for my Half Normie AU I had kinda imagined everything is actually kickstarted by Tucker finding out he's a werewolf. Up until then everything's just kinda the same? Kicking ghost butt back into the GZ and struggling in school. Ya know the drill... sneaking suspicion I'm gonna make this long soo

Danny is a first-generation monster, as Ghosts tend to be(in monster high anyways) and did still get his powers from the portal accident! There isn't really any reason for him to fight or anything so now his powers are all just nifty little party tricks for the other ghouls to ooh and ah at.

He is also generally as unconnected from the Monster World as one would be in his case(I kinda think it'd be funny if his folks thought New Salem's Monster Inclusivity thing was some kinda tourist gimmick hoax. Similar to how outsiders think Amity Park is just some ridiculous Bit that the whole towns in on). Then ya add in how in the MHU(Monster High Universe hehe) its pretty well understood that most monsters have sorta formed their own independent communities away from each other, only really intermingling in big cities with large monster undergrounds. Such as fondly nicknamed Boo York, Hauntlywood, or New Goreleans etc. etc.

I just think it makes the most sense for Danny to be a lil blindsided by the concept. Takes a short lil moment to process, before being like "yeah that checks out"

It's really not until Tucker tells him about this school in New Salem that his parents are planning on sending him to because of his newfound wolfy appendages and whatnot. That Sam and him hear about this place. Sam is... undescribably mad about Not having a reason to transfer there too at first btw.

Which also! New Salem is in Oregon so like,,,,,, Gravity Falls??? no, Ya know what that's a different au for a different time

I'm not entirely sure how Danny winds up transferring there afterward, but the timeline I think vaguely goes as such:

One of Danny's Regulars(maybe Technus? I kinda think itd be cool if he becomes a teacher there later on) winds up at monster high and either Tucker calls up Danny or he had his own lil sneaking suspicion and followed on his own as well. And that whole hullabaloo is the ghoul squad's first introduction to Danny Phantom. (he does get asked if he's related to Operetta). There's like a whole drawn-out plot, probably, that I haven't exactly nailed down. Lots of running around keeping secrets from the ghouls and befriending monsters that just kinda Get It. Like Jackson and Operetta!

Eventually Headmistress Bloodgood and Jazz team up to just have him enrolled there, Jazz deals with the human side of things while Bloodgood gets him set up with a place to stay maybe? Do you think they'd just make him his own lil ghost portal to travel back and forth or would he just Live There Now? Cuz Monster High does also have a dormitory too. I think both.

I'm also thinking its prob like two years into being a Halfa for Danny so he's like 16. And the ghost activity in Amity Park has kinda found a rhythm and calmed down. Not as life-threatening. People know how to protect themselves, and hey! There's always Val and Danielle around at the least. Malevolent Spirits get a permaban from Monster High after the whole fiasco with the Red Lady literally kidnapping people to trap for all eternity in her Misery School.

[chushanye]

am fuckin. thinking ab how the mayor said "nicolas close is right here" and just. why are the fbi looking for nick??? do they know hes a demon??? was that a code word??? she called him close not foster, was that anthony accidentally saying close instead of foster (though he did say foster in the last ep so???) do they think taylor is nick? they prolly look similar enough to be confused as the same person then. they WOULD both have half demon and half human dna (nick with jodie/glenn and morgan and taylor with nick and cassandra(?)) how tf are they able to do that portal thing, the fbi got the sauce??? hnnnngggggg. thoughts. many thoughts.

@greiiliss has informed me that Anthony corrected himself on discord, saying that he meant to say Nicholas Foster, but got confused and misspoke. So, unfortunately, no deeper plot to examine where Nick went back to his old name.

However, as seen in this post, Glenn gave his DNA to the FBI and so did, apparently, Taylor when he did the 23andMe test. Which we know gave him results that he is "partly non-human". I'm guessing FBI is looking for Nick because he's a literal demon in what is supposed to be a warped version of "our" universe. Of course, the FBI would wanna get their hands on anything supernatural so they can contain, dissect, document and exploit the creature to its full potential. Since the FBI found something non-human in Taylor's DNA, they must've tried to track down his family lineage, and came across records of a half-demon kid from 25 years ago.

In the life simulation sequence, Taylor remembers seeing two men "on fire, but really chill about it", but Cassandra claims that Nick just "looked like a guy, a normal guy". Cassandra could be lying, or Nick could have a human disguise and those two men on fire were not him but Jodie and Glenn instead. Since Jodie is a full demon and Glenn is dead, it would make sense that Nick as the half-demon would be the one out of three of them with a possible human form. What I'm trying to get at is that the fact Nick even HAD a kid and that we know someone from the Close/Foster family was there long enough for Taylor's baby self to remember them implies Nick may have spent an extended period just...doing some shit in "our" world. Who knows what that could've been. Maybe he caused enough trouble or curiosity to spark the interest of the FBI.

As for why they want Taylor - Anthony said in the episode they are only kidnapping him cause they think Taylor is the key to "helping them find this Nick Close (again, he meant Foster) person".

How did they do the portal thing? Uhhh FUTURE, TECHNOLOGY. INNOVATION. idk

Do they have the sauce? I guess we'll find out.