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crossdressingdeath · 1 year

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You know, thinking about it, I was wrong before. Nico has more reason to trust Hades than Percy does Poseidon at the time of the incident in TLO!

If you think about it, Percy's only evidence that Nico should've known it was a trap is that "[Nico] know[s] what [Hades]'s like", but... Nico's view of Hades would be much different from Percy's. Remember, Nico has a room in the palace at this time; Hades couldn't send him to his room the way he does later if he didn't have a room to be sent to. He's been living there! Hades allows him to live there! At this point Nico doesn't know that Hades used to visit him, Maria and Bianca regularly or that he actively stepped in to protect Nico and Bianca from Zeus and keep them safe until the time of Titan's Curse, but he does know that Hades is letting him live in his palace. Gods don't do that. Percy has to nearly die to even get a brief visit to Poseidon's palace, and he very openly knows that Poseidon wouldn't have claimed him to begin with if he didn't need him. Not to mention Poseidon has that whole thing where he explicitly tells Percy he wishes he didn't exist, which... is the sort of thing that's gonna have a negative impact on how you view your dad.

So when Percy says that Nico knows what Hades is like, what he's saying is basically... "The Underworld is evil and Hades is evil, how could you not know that," which is kind of an incredibly shitty thing to say to the child of Hades living in the Underworld? I mean, it is kind of just "You shouldn't trust your father because I think he's evil and the Underworld is evil", if I was Nico I'd be very concerned about what Percy thought of me when he started spouting that shit. Anyway, while Hades is far from a good father at this point in the series Nico still knows him as the father who is letting him live in his palace because he has nowhere to go, stepping well outside the usual bounds of gods interacting with their kids in the process. Hell, unless I've forgotten something (possible), it's entirely possible that by this point in the timeline Hades has already told Nico about Camp Jupiter (which would show a huge amount of faith in him, again above and beyond any other godly parent). Hades can be kind of a dick because all gods are dicks to their kids, but Nico has no particular reason not to trust him! Especially given Nico has exactly zero other adults in his life offering him any support and at this point in the timeline he doesn't remember his mother, so Hades is basically all he's got and he has no points of comparison other than his also-a-child sister who kinda sorta abandoned him (not going into her reasoning here but it was A Thing that would probably influence the way Nico thought about... caregivers, I guess, for lack of a better term to describe the twelve year old put in charge of her little brother) and Minos (who is... Minos. Enough said). It makes sense that when Hades says "Do this small thing for me and I'll tell you about your mother" Nico believes him, because while Hades has been awful to Nico at times there's no evidence that he's ever lied to him. Why should Nico doubt his father who gave him a place to stay when he had nothing and no one just because that father happens to be Hades and the place to stay happens to be the Underworld?

...Also in hindsight knowing just how much Hades spoils Nico (for a godly parent at least) in the future makes the "You know what Hades is like" thing kind of hilarious. Ah yes, the guy who gives Nico a place to stay when he has nowhere to go despite gods Not Doing That, tells him at least some of the gods' most guarded secrets and essentially takes it on faith that he'll keep his mouth shut, lets him get away with breaking the law that the dead stay dead without even a slap on the wrist, promises him a place in the palace when he eventually dies (which may or may not imply that Hades intends to make Nico a god when he bites it, but it's certainly not normal procedure for Underworld kids), tells him to his face he deserves everything, and backs up that claim by fulfilling his wishes with no payment required or debt accrued just because Nico asked if Hades thinking he deserved everything meant he'd do so (because Nico is a little shit, we love to see it) despite Hades claiming that wasn't actually what he meant. Why would Nico trust that guy? (I know, I know, it's not proof of anything at this point because most of that hasn't happened yet. But it is funny how completely Percy's claim that Nico should distrust his dad is eventually proved wrong by Hades spoiling his kid rotten.)

#riordanverse #nico di angelo #hades pjo #tsats spoilers #i guess? a little bit #anyway percy claiming that nico should've distrusted hades basically on principle becomes so funny #after it becomes super apparent that actually even by hoo nico could probably get anything he wanted from hades just by asking #meanwhile percy basically never talks to his dad #like if we're talking about whether one of these two should trust his father i don't think percy comes out on top!#which makes this whole thing pretty entertaining in hindsight

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stormblessed95 · 3 years

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I just happen to think about fanservice or acting it out for the camera a lot lately. I'm going to unfollow the jikook tags most probably after this, too much mess in my head. But I just wanted to share this and maybe seek an opinion.

Many say that jikook is fanservice but many also say that if it's fanservice then they should be given Oscar. But again many say that they are the worst at acting and that's when we get obvious jikook moments.

So my question is if they are bad at acting and controlling their emotions, how are they able to act platonic 90% of the time, if they are couple? It's just the 10% we see as suspicious couple moments.

The question itself is like an infinity loop in my head...

Jikook-bad at acting-hence couple vibes/flirting.

Jikook-good at acting-hence fanservice and nothing to see there.

I'm doubting myself at the moment for joining BTS fandom this year. The stuff on internet is too too much. I want to be less exposed to their personal lives (bombs, behind scenes, memories...) and be only exposed to their music (like 1D or Taylor Swift). In fact I never even knew Larry was a thing until I came to know about BTS ships. Possibly because I was younger during one direction time and I didn't explore much. Taylor and Harry thing I knew but again I didn't research much or follow blogs the way I am doing for jikook 😂

Ah I'm going crazy... Anyway if this makes sense, please do let me know your thoughts on "acting" thing. You can edit out the mention of other artists if that's against your blog guidelines.

Hello. You sound stressed. Take a few deep breathes and relax. To start, don't get so overly invested that you cause yourself any type of mental strain or stress or anxiety. Remember that the relationship we have with BTS is a parasocial one. They don't technically owe us anything. If it would be best for your mental health to take some steps back and only focus on their music, do so! There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you ever just need to talk, we are here for you! 💜 there is a lot of content as well as a lot of music out there, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by it all.

Second, I would advise you as well to follow through on the plan unfollowing all of the jikook tags or any others. Curating your timeline, either here or Twitter or any SM sites is so important. There are literally millions of fans in this fandom and there is a very loud and very toxic minority. Follow the accounts you like and that you trust and that puts out good content and remains respectful in their opinions. The only tags on here that I follow are ones for my favorite book series, that way my home page is only the people I follow popping up or book quotes/art. And on Twitter, I follow the tags for the artists and that's it. My timeline is curated pretty well to people who I want to see on there.

Third, BTS do not really do fanservice. They used to in the very early years, but not any more. They really do pride themselves on showing ARMY true and genuine interactions and genuine emotion and how they truly feel. It's important to them and it's part of what makes them so special with all the extra content they share. Dismissing their bonds (any of them) as fanservice is truly very disrespectful and i wouldn't pay much attention to the people who try to say that BTS are acting when they do things together. I would recommend you read my posts about BTS & Fanservice from my masterlist to get more detailed information about that. There are 4 posts total about fanservice, they are under the important posts/asks topic. I'll link that whole topic post here:

Yes. Jimin is for sure the worst actor in the group. Jungkook isn't much better. So, no, they aren't acting. I will also say that i disagree that they act platonic 90% of the time. But I'll also say that they don't act LOUD all the time, which is what can be mistaken for platonic. I don't know how old you are or what your relationship experience looks like. You talking about One Direction and being too young makes me feel old and I'm still young dammit. I was in high-school during the big 1D craze. I didn't get into them too much, but I did enjoy some of their songs. Besides the point. Relationships are not over the top loud declarations of love 24/7. Not even half the time. Especially not when you are with a bunch of other people, which is where we usually see Jikook, surrounded by their friends and their Staff. And even then, they sometimes very much so come off as THAT couple that can't stop making everyone else feel like they are third wheeling.

To put into perspective, lets make it personal. I've known my husband for 11 years (similar to the time frame KM have known each other.) We met and became best friends when I was 15 (close to the same age JK was). We were best friends for 2 years, before we had our first kiss at 17 (similar to the whole friends to Lovers thing KM supposedly have going on). It took another 6 months after that for him to ask me to his girlfriend, of which we made out those entire 6 months and went on "dates" and none of our friends even suspected that things changed between us until we told them we were together and confessed to have been figuring things out for the past few months. We then got married at 19 years old. We have now been married for 6 years. We are ANYTHING but platonic. Platonic moments does not negate all the none platonic moments. Lovers CAN be best friends and have simple best friend moments too. In fact, I would say that having your lover also be your best friend would make that relationship stronger and give you a much firmer foundation to grow upon. I cannot tell you the amount of silliness and just friends things my husband and I do. Doesn't change the fact that I'm so in love with him I don't know what to do with myself sometimes. Silliness over what anime to watch next or shouting matches of "you suck, you lose" whenever someone wins whichever stupid bet we placed or the race that was suggested doesn't change the fact that we enjoy each other in very non platonic ways. Him playing video games in the other room and me sitting here typing up a blog post while listening to music and us having no interaction for the past few hours doesn't negate our marriage.

Silly dances and Goofing off just continues to show their close bond, the way they have fun together. It's not acting or hiding their feelings, it's still all there. Being in love doesn't mean you are constantly melting into a puddle or trying trying cop a feel. Lol sometimes it means having fun with your best friend. Sometimes it means having fun separately with your other friends or doing your own thing and coming back together later at home and getting to talk about it or relax. And the best friend moments don't take away from the romantic ones or all the SK couples traditions they have done together, if anything, they add to it.

Hope this makes sense and helped a little bit. Maybe help break that infinity loop going on in your head too? If you ever want to talk about it more, you are more than welcome to DM me. Sorry for rambling, but you should all know by now.... this is just what I do here 😂 again, thanks for the ask. Hope you check out those fanservice posts! Hope this helped! You can of course form your own opinions on things and what you think KM are or aren't. Or just simply, let it be and not worry too much over it. 💜

Hope everyone has good day/night!

PS. For anyone who is a reader... Percy and Annabeth from the PJO series is the ultimate friends to Lovers romance in a fictional world and so sweet. Lol plus, they have oodles of what could be considered only platonic moments and they are still such an iconic OTP

#jikook #kookmin #jikook best friends and lovers #friends to lovers is one of the best tropes for a reason #it builds the best relationships

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a-non-ymouswriter · 3 years

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Owl anon

Okay I think I can attempt to answer with what Wilbur would think of Theo/Toby, because I spend a lot of time analyzing my guy, c!Wilbur, and this is c!Wilbur we are talking about.

So, first and foremost, we gotta remember a thing: Wilbur lies. My dude lies, that oath is bullshit lol. Second, he is conflicted. He has a fucked up black and white view of the world where he is the bad guy.

We know that in canon Wilbur's first urge was that he was gonna gut Dream for what he did to Tommy. He doesn't know everything that happened in Exile, but everything he saw made him decide "oh hell nah" as a default response.

The reason he views Dream as the hero: he literally saved him from Hell. If it was, say, idk, Phil or Tommy or anyone else that would have saved him, Dream wouldn't have been his hero anymore. Also, Wilbur doesn't know why Dream got locked up in Pandora. He thinks that it's because Dream didn't let people fill in the power vacuum left by him.

So, that makes me and other theorists see Wilbur in canon as a ticking time bomb. He has conflicting views on Dream, and, as he'll learn new info by himself, his opinion may change, meaning that it could be he could work with Dream, then decide to deck him because it's not worth it. He hurt people he cared about and he will continously. Of course, we gotta see what will happen, but yeah.

So, that could mean Wilbur may leave Dream behind in Rewind. On one hand, this is not the Dream that did shit to Theo, on the other, he saw the same abuse Theo went through. It may be uncomfortable enough to force that decision onto which opinion he settles on.

Wilbur may actually leave Dream to fuck off with Theo, because he has a new lease on life, and go back to Tommy.

Why Tommy? Well, this is where I give insight as a person with paranoid thoughts: so Wilbur had a paranoid spiral in Pogtopia, and the one person he latched on and continues to in canon is Tommy. Tommy has been a constant in his life, and he trusts him. Not fully, as he still hides things from him, but enough so he doesn't worry about Tommy fucking him over, and he wants to protect him. Wilbur is scared of being alone, man.

So trust is important, and Wilbur, I think, would latch onto Tommy even in this scenario, after seeing how changed Theo is. Wilbur may try to rope Tommy into various shenanigans. Which brings us to Toby.

So, Wilbur never really disliked Tubbo, as far as I remember. The spy thing was honestly tame and I thought myself Tubbo was a spy in Pogtopia, but, by Wilbur's reaction to the execution, you can tell he cared about the kid, man. He didn't want him hurt.

I would say his view of Tubbo is neutral/positive. Toby, on the other hand... Toby is Tubbo with much more experience and trauma. Wilbur may be closed off to him, as this is an entire different person and he wasn't that open to Tubbo to begin with. I could see him try to get Tommy away from Toby, out of fear of being left behind, or, paranoia that Toby may hurt Tommy because of the scar Theo has or something. I mean, he made in canon a sword to take and go at Quackity if he was hurting Tommy.

Toby and Wilbur interacting would definetely be interesting, because I feel that in canon meets rewind deadass that could be how Wilbur gets redeemed? Like, in canon we have inklings that show that Big Q is how Wilbur may open up, but in this scenario, because of some common things, it may come up at one point?

Though of course then there's the question of what Wilbur wants to do with his new lease in life in this timeline because in canon Wilbur is looking for a purpose. He's taking a backseat and kinda wants to help out, but not be in charge (aka why he wanted to join Las Nevadas, then decided to fight the status quo by becoming competition).

That's all I can say on this so far. It's a word salad and long but eh.

interesting, interesting. i liked the word salad so dw about that

with this information i definitely could see toby cautiously confronting wilbur about everything and becoming someone wilbur could talk to- toby won't bullshit him and will be blunt to his face, and he won't take any bullshit from wilbur and will wave off most of his manipulations. i say most because i know that specific ones will still set him off or at least make him angry but yeah i can see the wilbur redemption arc coming in.

if given time to talk and the both of them having mostly clear objectives on the table (mostly caring tommy ofc) then toby would be less... i forget the word, but he'd let wilbur interact with tommy more often, he'd still be cautious and wary and if wilbur makes tommy upset then he'll still do something about it but probably with less violence and just more smacking sense and shit into wilbur.

also it'd be advantageous for toby to gain wilbur's alliance and help when it comes to theo and dream themselves. dream might not be the same here, but he's hell of a lot more broken and possibly more unstable thanks to quackity. that's not good for theo, who was already heavily codependent with dream before. it's rough to say just how the two of the broken masked men will fair together.

#anon ask #owl anon #thank you so much owl anon #now i know who to go for for wilbur if i need anything :D #rewind meets canon

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roseverdict · 3 years

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More Than He Seems (Part 5)

hey guess who's back with another one of these that's right it's me ya gal *slaps this up like one of alex hirsch's naturally-secreted sticky hands*

see what i meant about having trouble with updating consistently? sajnslfjsofjso i'm still trucking along though so don't count me out!

i'm also doing some mild finagling of the timeline so it fits better in my brain. as far as the guys going through their enemies-to-brothers speedrun goes, nothing's really changed, i'm just working with what i've learned from journal 3 since starting this whole thing.

content warnings: nothing beside stan's continued case of foulmouth-itis :D

Masterpost!

When they finally got back and dropped the unicorn chest on the floor in the front hall with a clunk, Stan stifled another yawn. "So, you mentioned…y'mentioned mercury and moonstones?"

"Yes. If you could take the unicorn hair and start gluing it around the perimeter of the house, I will locate the other ingredients and arrange them inside." Ford nodded, opening the chest and pulling out the drawstring bag containing the hair. "Make sure there are no gaps. One hair's width ought to be enough, at least to start."

"You got it." Stan tossed up a sloppy salute, then took the bag and headed back out, swiping a bottle of glue from a nearby stack of junk as he passed by.

The burst of cold air from outside helped snap Stan out of what had been shaping up to be a sleepy daze, and he gave his cheeks a few quick slaps to get the feeling back into them. He'd pulled off more all-nighters in a row than this, though he wouldn't tell Ford for fear of never living it down. He just had to stay awake long enough to kick Bill to the curb-

Stan grimaced.

That was a bad analogy.

He just had to stay awake long enough to make sure Bill couldn't mess with Ford anymore-

There. Much better.

-and then he could go crash on the couch or something. Sure, Ford had mentioned a spare mattress the night before, but Stan wasn't counting on his charitable mood lasting now that he'd gotten some sleep and begun work on a plan. Once he had peace of mind, he'd probably be back to the tense distrust from when Stan had first shown up.

And wow, had everything really happened in the past twenty-four hours? (Well, two or three days, if he started counting from the moment he'd gotten the postcard.) Maybe it was the all-nighters talking, but Stan already felt a lifetime away from that shitty motel room in Dead End Flats.

Hopefully Rico wouldn't expect "Hal Forrester" to just up and run so quickly. If he somehow found out where Stan had gone, or heaven forbid, why he'd come here so fast…

He shivered, despite his jacket and the sweater Ford had given him, and stepped off the porch.

One enemy at a time, Stan. One enemy at a time.

He had to get down to business.

〜〜〜〜〜〜

Stanford watched Stanley go, then turned to Entryway Tools Pile #3. If he remembered correctly, his moonstones ought to be somewhere inside, beneath the books that had previously been supporting the bottle of superglue. It shouldn't be too difficult to relocate them and strategically place them around the house. After that, it would be a simple matter to get the mercury from the basement and cast the preparatory enchantment that would allow him to sprinkle it along wood and metal alike without causing any unwanted chemical interactions.

(He briefly recalled a particularly eventful highschool chemistry class. Stanley had somehow gotten his hands on gold leaf and had insisted on "feeding" it to their mercury sample, "Mr. Nerdcury." He'd amalgamated three whole sheets before the teacher had caught on and written him up.)

He shoved the thought aside and rolled up his sleeves, approaching Entryway Tools Pile #3. There would be time to unpack his memories of highschool (and the associated conflicting emotions) once the cabin was warded.

All he had to do was locate the moonstones.

Four Tools Piles, two Books Piles, and one Doorframe To The Head later, Stanford had to admit that he was having more trouble finding the gems than he'd initially planned for. He'd intended to have both them and the mercury in place already, giving him time to go outside and check Stanley's work on the unicorn hair, but he just couldn't get to them!

In a stroke of cosmic irony, as he had that thought and slammed a door with a bit too much force, Kitchen Books Pile #2 destabilized, sending the uppermost books and accompanying mugs of days-old coffee sliding to the floor with a clatter.

Innocently sitting in plain view were the moonstones.

For a moment, the only movement in the house came from the oozing of globs of what had once been coffee, slowly spreading from where the now-broken mugs lay.

Then Stanford's eye twitched.

Now, Stanford wasn't the type to get explosively angry, especially not when he himself caused whatever riled him up. Even so, it took all his self-control to keep from yelling and kicking the nearest wall.

He still indulged himself with heavily stomping across the room and snatching the moonstones up with a bit more force than he normally would have.

Hurriedly tucking the moonstones into his pocket, he swept through the house and darted down into the basement.

He was shaking.

In part of his mind, it made sense. He was getting so close to staking out a Bill-proof safe space, it would be surprising if he wasn't having at least a little bit of an adrenaline rush.

The rest of his mind told that part to shut up and concentrate on keeping his hands steady. He didn't want to spill the mercury before it was properly warded, and especially not in a room as full of metal as the basement.

Besides, having to punch in the elevator access code multiple times because his finger kept twitching to the wrong buttons was getting annoying.

Finally, he managed to get the elevator open, and he very nearly hurled himself inside. He hit the button for Basement Level 2 and leaned back against the wall, letting the quiet rattling of the elevator's descent soothe him a little.

He took a deep breath.

He let it out.

He was almost there.

He was almost safe.

The elevator doors opened, and Stanford hurried into the study, staunchly keeping his gaze firmly locked on the cabinet containing his various elemental and chemical samples.

(Even with the sheet thrown over his memorabilia…it still felt like Bill's ever-watching eye was burning a hole in the back of his head.)

Project Mentem sat in plain view, but he only offered it a passing glance as he passed it. Maybe once he had space to exist outside of Bill's influence, he could try to finish it properly, but right then, it was just a fancy-schmancy computer with half its innards spread out on the desk.

The sealed flask of mercury quickly went into the pocket opposite the moonstones, and he fled the study as fast as he dared.

With the ingredients for the protective barrier at hand, rising back up to the ground floor, Stanford let himself chuckle. It may have come out as a bit of a manic giggle, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

He was almost safe.

〜〜〜〜〜〜

Stan wiped at his forehead and glanced along the edge of the house. He just had one more wall to glue the hair to, and he'd be done.

He turned back to the work he'd done so far and groaned. He didn't want to rush for fear of somehow doing it wrong and making the barrier thing not work, but he also didn't want to stay out much longer when it was so cold out and the sun had dipped beneath the trees.

He shivered. He'd been doing that a lot.

(That probably wasn't good.)

It was probably nothing worth worrying over. This was an Oregonian winter, after all. It'd be surprising if he wasn't a little chilly.

He squirted a line of glue along the foundation, then started applying the unicorn hair to it, one strand at a time. He'd run out of Pink's hair somewhere around the porch, so now he was down to Blue's and Celeste's…probably. He might just have Celeste's at this point, actually, since hers was in every possible color.

Eh.

Hair was hair.

At least the other two unicorns had gotten Celeste to stay still long enough for Ford to cut her hair, as opposed to Stan's rip-and-tear approach.

Stan slowly worked his way down the wall, only pausing at the sounds of activity from inside for a moment. It seemed Ford had finished setting up the moonstones and whatnot inside, if the burst of mad scientist cackling meant anything.

…or maybe Bill was back.

Stan peered through the window to see Ford in the middle of sprinkling something along one of the doorways. He didn't seem to be acting like Bord, but Stan still wasn't sure…

Ford stood tall and turned to head for somewhere else in the house, and when Stan caught sight of them, his eyes were his own.

Stan let out a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding, but another thought quickly struck him.

If it really was just Ford, then that meant he'd spent long enough out in the woods on his own that he didn't really care about whether he sounded like the guy who'd made Frankenstein or not.

(He heard the echo of a highschool-aged Ford fondly correcting him. "No, no, Frankenstein was the name of the doctor. The creation was called Adam or the modern Prometheus.")

Aaand back into the repressed memories that went!

Stan had a chance to make up for breaking that damn perpetual motion machine and sending Ford down a path that led to him cackling like a mad scientist in a cabin in the middle of the woods, and he was not gonna fuck it up. He knew he'd made many names for himself, but he'd shift into a kid and eat his own car in one sitting if he ever gained the title of "The One Who Fucked Over Ford's Life Twice In A Row."

(If anyone were to call him a sap without self-preservation instincts, he'd be as likely to outwardly agree with them as he would be to knock out their lights, but it didn't make them any less right.)

(It didn't make it any less painful when he tried to change it, either.)

He let himself get buried in his work, painstakingly flattening each strand of unicorn hair along the line of glue and ever-so-slowly reaching the end of the house.

Stan glanced at the bag of hair- not quite empty. There was still roughly a handful or two of hair inside, but the last hair's-length of glue shimmered up at him, ready to be used. It seemed Ford would still have some unicorn hair to test on once everything was said and done.

There was nothing else for it.

Stan lifted a rainbow strand and laid it across the glue, closing the edge of the barrier.

The moment the barrier was sealed, a blue light glimmered from the unicorn hair all around the house, and an unearthly shudder ran up Stan's spine. Static tingled along his skin, though most of it centered itself around the burn on his back.

Stan had the distinct impression his worth was being weighed.

Maybe it was a supernatural thing.

Maybe it was a hunch.

Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Whatever the reason, the stifling feeling of judgement quickly lifted, replaced by the odd sensation of mentally being patted on the head for a job well done. Blue light on the edge of being ultraviolet shot out from the unicorn hair and formed a circle around the cabin, making Stan's jaw drop as he whirled around to watch. The light crawled up through the air and closed into a dome around the house, countless sigils of all kinds lighting up in midair before fading away. In his mind's eye, (and he half-mused that he could only see it because of his not-quite-humanity,) he could still see the afterimages hovering around the cabin, twinkling faintly like the snow.

(He wondered if any of them matched the one on his back.)

"Welp. That's definitely magical." Stan stated, shoving those thoughts aside in favor of pushing himself to his feet. He grunted as his legs made it Very Clear how unhappy they were with him, but he still set off for the porch, ready to get out of the cold. "Wonder what Ford'll think of my glue job. The glowy blue stuff means it shoulda worked, right?"

Right.

It had to.

Stan yawned and poked his head back into the house. "Hey, Stanford, I think the barrier's up."

He didn't get an immediate reply, though it sounded like Ford was rummaging through some stuff in another room, so Stan took it upon himself to shut the front door behind him and follow the noise. More kinda-visible afterimages shimmered along the walls as he walked, but he didn't really pay them much attention. As long as they didn't up and disappear when they were needed, Ford would be fine.

Finally reaching the room Ford had gotten to work in, Stan knocked lightly on the wall. "Stanford, I got the unicorn hair thing done. Where should I put the rest of-?"

Ford's head popped up from between two stacks of junk, and the haphazard pile on the table(?) next to him slid to the floor.

A bedpost came into view in the newly-created gap in the mess.

Ford blinked and readjusted his glasses. "Ah, Stanley. When I saw the magical light burst from the moonstones and mercury as I finished setting them up, I figured you must have completed the outermost barrier."

"Uh, yep. You've still got a bit of hair left, too." Stan nodded and gave the pouch of unicorn hair a little shake, then glanced around the room a little more. "What's, uh, what's going on in here?"

"Didn't I mention getting the spare mattress ready for its original purpose? I could have sworn I mentioned it." Ford murmured to himself, scratching the scruff on his chin in thought.

Stan's eyes widened.

Oh.

Ford had meant it.

"Oh, yeah, you did say something like that." Stan managed a quiet chuckle. "Guess my mind's all over the place lately, is all. Must've forgot."

Haha. Right. "Forgot."

"…well, once the bed is clear, I would recommend you get some rest." Ford eventually said. "Operating on low sleep in such a high-stakes situation is a recipe for disaster."

Stan nailed him with an unimpressed stare. "Oh, hello there, Mr. Pot. I'm Mr. Kettle."

"Wh-?! Buh-! It was different before you arrived!" Ford protested.

"I know, I know, I'm just saying." Stan shrugged and let it go. (For now.)

At that moment, his stomach rumbled, startling him and making Ford jump. Stan forced a shaky grin. "So, uh, got anything besides peas?"

Ford mirrored it. "Only if canned beans and brown meat suits your fancy."

"Damn." Stan snapped his fingers in defeat. "Well, it's better than nothing. Let's go eat something."

He backed away from the door long enough for Ford to get past, but before following him back to the kitchen, Stan gazed at the unburied bedpost for a moment longer.

A small smile grew on his face, and the dust in the air started getting a bit too close to his eyes for comfort.

Even though it wasn't going to last, even though there was no way it could last, Ford didn't want him gone. It certainly wasn't the resounding apology or reconciliation he'd hoped for, but…he could pretend.

He'd pretend for as long as he was able.

"Stanley, are you coming?"

He blinked rapidly, then turned back to Ford. "Yeah, yeah, don't get yourself all worked up."

〜〜〜〜〜〜

That night, Stan slept more soundly than he had in a decade.

He slept, and he dreamed.

〜〜〜

Colors streamed past him in every direction.

In the usual way of dreams, while he couldn't see himself, he Knew he was riding along one of the colorful streams, floating down it like a river.

A ways downriver, on one of the offshoots that had split off from his own somewhere upstream, a blinding ball of light shot up and into the nonexistent sky before falling back down. Instead of landing in the same offshoot, however, it crashed into his stream, sending a wave as tall as his brother's cabin racing up towards him.

He sucked in a breath and braced himself, but the wave merely passed through him with ease.

He spun around to watch the last of the waves sink back into the regular rippling of the river, back where it split off from the parent stream.

Much in the way he Knew where he was, he Knew without checking that he was heading straight for the crashsite of the blinding light.

He turned back to face the oncoming light, squinting as it approached-

-and the river around him lit aflame, ice burning him as a manic laughter rang through his skull.

He found himself gathering the light together and clinging to it for dear life, even as the river bucked beneath him and gave way to the endless nothing, nothing, nothing, and the light was screaming, screaming, screaming, and he was falling, falling, falling-!

〜〜〜

In the cabin in the woods, Stan snapped awake in a cold sweat.

Whatever he'd been dreaming about quickly faded to the back of his mind, leaving only an unshakeable sense of foreboding.

Having dealt with nightmares before, however, Stan just shuddered and rolled over. He had to get his sleep while he could, after all.

He drew the blankets closer to himself and shivered.

He was fine.

〜〜〜〜〜〜

fun fact mercury amalgamation is a real thing and it's fun to watch and definitely a pressing concern if the unicorn barrier needs ford to, and i quote, "sprinkle some mercury" in places all over the shack :D join me in the mercury rabbit hole if you dare

#rosie writes #gravity falls #gf #mths #mths update #shapeshifter!stan #stan pines #ford pines #mullet stan #paranoid!ford #*john cena voice* Are You Sure About That? :)#there's nothing foreboding going on here nosiree!

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