#lemonhopes room

[sttinkky]

Mentally im here

#stinkiy #adventure time #lemonhope #lemonhopes room #fiona and cake #jake and finn #lemongrab #candy kingdom #land of ooo #princess bubblegum

[pattercakebakersman]

Traveller of the positronic

 Summary: Princess Bubblegum has salvaged what remained of Lemongrab 2′s soul and placed it in a robot body so they can continue their duties as Lemongrab’s companion.

Word count: 1.1K (this is more of a drabble basically nothing happens! I might write a bit more if people want)

“Good riddance. Finally she has gone.” Lemongrab 2 watched Princess Bubblegum leaving from the window. They remembered the last time they saw her before their death, a single pink plait winking out of sight over the black wall of a fortress. At first they’d hoped that maybe despite the apathy she’d always had towards them, she would come back and they would be saved. But days became weeks, and the weeks of darkness stretched out forever. They came to realise in their heart and soul that she would never value them enough to come back for them. To her they were just a toy like all her other creations, and a broken one at that. And broken toys got discarded.   

Or fixed. 

Lemongrab 2 looked down at their new body, turning their hands over and over, listening to the click of the metal joints as they did so. Their entire body was made of a shiny, silvery chrome metal that made all sorts of clacking and scraping sounds as they moved, and they could hear a faint whirring from inside their head, which had to be the sound of them thinking with a brain made out of cogs and wires. The only organic thing they had left was the soul stone in their chest. 

They put a hand over the metal compartment it was kept in. The princess had taken their soul after it was released by death, and placed it in the stone. So now, they could inhabit this body she’d created for them. 

“And what about brother’s soul-” they’d asked in a panic, “-is…is hee?” The thought of having to see him again was so frightening. He would be so angry at them… Lemongrab 1 had never wanted to die, and especially not at the hand of someone he viewed as miles beneath him. It had taken them a long time to realise it, but they’d never really been a person in his eyes. Just a plaything. And when his plaything didn’t do what he wanted, he did what any petulant child would do and smashed it into pieces. 

“Your brother is gone.” She said it softly, as if she was breaking sad news to them. But they’d been overjoyed. He was gone! He’d never hurt them again! Gone! They were free! And then they had felt so, so awful for feeling that way. He was-had been, their brother. If it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t even be alive. They’d never see his face, or hear his voice, or know if things would ever get better between them. They’d killed him. They were all alone now. It was nothing to be happy about. 

They looked over at the figure sat completely still in a chair in the middle of the room. His back was to them, so they could only see the network of stitches going across his back. 

“I suppose it is just the two of us, hm.” They squatted slightly in front of the slumped over, deadened lemon in front of them. His head was lolling over without any strength to hold it up, and his eyes were glazed, staring at them aimlessly. They cocked their head to the side with a robotic whirr and studied his face, searching his stitched together skin and sewn up lips for a flicker of familiarity, for the last person they wanted to see. But the only thing they saw was a reanimated corpse with no mind of its own. Or at least not yet. 

“Mee…” the thing crooned to itself, “Wee… wee…” it let out a groan. “I. Hee… Iiii… Iii…”

“Tell me about it.” They muttered. So this was it then. They were stuck with babysitting yet another Lemongrab, as if that hadn’t gone terribly enough the last time. 

They backed away from the listless figure. Yes. It had gone badly last time. But they weren’t going to let themselves get hurt this time. 

“Lemonhope…” they didn’t take their eyes off the figure, “are you still there my precious?”

“Yes.” came a small voice from the doorway. Lemonhope’s cut had been bandaged by Finn, and the Princess had offered Lemonhope a chance to stay in the earldom as a champion. She wanted him to be a knight. She thought he was a hero. But they’d looked at him from the work table they were lying on and seen who Lemonhope really was: a very small boy who’d just killed his father. 

He’d killed them too. 

“Hope. Come here.”

Lemonhope didn’t budge. “What are you going to do to me?”

They turned to look at him. “I will not hurt thee… very well, stay where you are.” They crouched down in front of him and tried to smile, but the metal mouth didn’t obey them. It was frozen in an expression of permanent apathy. “You did what had to beee done. I know it was unpleasant, but we are all free now.”

Lemonhope didn’t look any happier. “You are free now.” They added. 

“I will never be free.” said Lemonhope. 

They didn’t disagree with him. “You can stay in the earldom as long as you want- not as a champion but as a lemon. I will not force pretenses on yoouu. And… as much as I long for you to stay, I suspect you do not share myyy desire.” 

Lemonhope shook his head. “I don’t want to stay here. I want to have adventures and do stuff, I’ll come back when I’m bored. Which will probably be in a thousand years.” he shrugged. 

They would have smiled if they could. “I see. But until then, your cut needs to be taken care of.” 

“Yes. Is he going to stay like that forever?” Lemonhope asked. They glanced over their shoulder at the body and then looked back. 

“The princess said his brain and body will reknit and he will be a whole lemon, not just two halves. But when that will be… I cannot say.” They also had no idea what kind of person would emerge from the merging of two minds and two memories. “I shall be the sole leader for now.” 

It was an overwhelming thought. Their brother had never allowed them to handle the family finances and expenses - all the record books and bank letters were locked away in his room, and politically they never had a say in how he ran things. They were both earls on paper but in reality he was created in a special lab and engineered to be the heir of the candy kingdom, he’s actually briefly ruled over it, he had royal blood in his veins. They’d been created in a pantry and the only thing they had in their veins was lemonade. But now they had nothing at all, just wires. Could they really take his place? 

Did they even want to? 

They slid a hand under the other Lemongrab’s armpit and hoisted him to his paralysed feet. “Help me lead him to theeee guestroom.”

#lemongrab #my writing #adventure time #lemongrab 2 #lg2 event

[bossmodeplus]

It’s been a hot minute since I last saw both parts of Lemonhope and goodness does it hit like an emotional truck. 

Lemonhope clashes with PB’s ideals: freedom vs responsibility. In Lemonhope’s mind, he is free to do whatever he desires and he has that right. On its own, it’s not a terrible hill to die on. But given the context that his own family saved him, it’s a really awful sting of a response. This is illustrated with PB offering LH two cupcakes. LH argues that Finn can get his own cupcakes and pouts at the prospect of offering him one of his. 

LH spends the bulk of the episode going about things his own way, even after PB’s visit to Castle Lemongrab. He sees a ship passing by a town and stows away on it. The boy realizes that he is a horse with no steed free to make his own path. The quiet peace of the dream is upended by pink footsteps and a half eaten Lemongrab 2. It’s a really nice symbolism that PB is trying to pave the path for him/LH feels smothered by her and that Lemongrab 2 sought LH to escape his situation.

Eventually the ship crashes and its resources dwindle, leaving a weakened Lemonhope to find resources himself. 

Freedom to get water.

LH finds himself in a desert and laments that a cloud above could be free to produce water. But it doesn’t. He comes across Phlannel Boxingday who gets the boy’s plight of doing whatever whenever. Phlannel also states that sure, Lemonhope is free to do as he chooses but he can also save his family in Castle Lemongrab. This is prompted from talks of the boy’s dreams, another of which being that he feels literally bound over the state of his family. Boxingday cannot do so because of treaties (PB talked of being impeded by the same earlier on....). Phlannel also inspires LH to use his harp as a means of helping them both.

The young boy goes back to his own place of conception, the very place which caused him misery by a now, enlarged despot Lemongrab. The corrupt ruler has gone so far as to engorge on Lemongrab 2, who urges the boy to use his harp. The harp is played, causing the despot to explode and with that LH frees his brethren from totalitarian clutches. 

The ruler isn’t dead, however, as PB knits him back together. She states that the ruler is vestigial and his brain will ‘knit’ itself back after some time. Bubblegum asks the supposed ‘heir’ if he’d like to rule Castle Lemongrab considering its original ruler was usurped by him. LH only comes back because he wanted Finn and PB to stop worrying over his welfare. He departs, leaving a disappointed Finn and PB. Bubblegum tells Finn that she even whipped a new room for him as well as a song.

Cut to many years later and we hear Princess Bubblegum’s song of the young child who turned down the crown. It’s a celebratory song juxtaposed to sadly ambient chords and the silent melancholy of abandoned civilization. It’s a harsh metatextual reminder that nothing lasts forever.

He revisits the castle, though this time on his own terms. It no longer holds the oppressive atmosphere synonymous with its halls. But there’s nothing celebratory that comes of traversing these halls one more time. Everyone’s gone. The end of the two parter sees LH sleeping in respite.

For how self-serving Lemonhope was being in the beginning of his episode, this doesn’t feel like some poetic justice or karmic payoff. It doesn’t feel like a win, either.  There’s a lingering sadness in the end for a few reasons. The destruction of civilization aside, there’s the rough duality of freedom. If you go though life as LH did, it’ll prove very lonely. ‘I don’t owe you anything’ goes both ways. If you don’t do anything for anyone, no one has any obligation for you to lean on them when times get tough. When you get vulnerable, all you’ll have is you. There’s also the theme of extancy being sobering. Hundreds of years is a long time and in that time you’ll see your peers as well as loved ones die. LH will spend the rest of his days with no one. 

#adventure time #princess bubblegum #atimer #finn #bosstext #correct me if i'm wrong

[t4t-lumpygrab]

rambling about my Croak Dream fanfic and lemongrab 1 and 2′s relationship: 

edit: here’s the actual fic link lol 

also I just hope it’s clear in my fanfic that I do NOT subscribe to the idea that lg2 was treated better than their sibling, or raised with more love. Lg1 was a very unstable and volatile person to be around, especially when you think about them having to share child rearing responsibilities with the lemon children (what I think the lemon sweets argument was largely symbolic of). And any preferential treatment they were given by pb would have been a) conditional and dependent on them fulfilling the role they were created for. Like they were created for the sole purpose of making their brother happy and keeping him out of trouble, that’s an unfair expectation and also doesn’t leave any room for them to become their own person OR leave any room for them to speak up about being abused or mistreated by their sibling. So any positive treatment they got was dependent on other people overlooking the abuse and not recognising them as a person outside how useful they were as a tool for keeping their brother out of people’s way. (In addition pb being careless in her treatment of them is something that causes a huge rift between lemongrab 1 and 2 in my fic, not saying lg1′s behaviour is her fault he is his own fucked up little guy BUT there is this idea in the fandom that pb loved lg2 more and I wanted to explain my complicated thoughts on this idea, because essentially I disagree)

and b) any preferential treatment pb showed them ultimately meant nothing because she still neglected them to an overwhelming degree, to the point where lg2 was being physically abused in horrific ways and she had no idea. And after learning this she basically abandoned them and made Lemonhope deal with it. 

like the reason I’m bringing this up is because even though this is what I think about the character, none of this is openly stated in my fic because it’s not how the characters see their own situation. Lemongrab 1 is convinced that his sibling is having a better time than he is because of his own jealousy, incorrect perception of how he treats them, and projection of his insecurities. In addition, he doesn’t fully view lg2 as a person because they were created FOR him as a companion, so he views them as an extension of himself and also as a toy he can do w/e wants to because their personhood doesn’t really matter. And lg2 doesn’t realise they are being abused because they’re being manipulated by the people around them, and also this sort of treatment is all they’ve ever known. 

And yeah there is a certain level of understanding and love between them. and they do have positive memories of each other and have had “better times” but that’s because painting abusive dynamics as immediately recognisable as abusive, and as entirely negative leaves out that lovebombing is an abuser tactic, and that abusive relationships will often have nice patches, or times when the abuse temporarily ceases. And abusers do this to convince their victims to stick around for the good parts. So lg2 romanticising times their siblings was nice to them is something that should be taken with a pinch of salt basically. 

Anyway that’s all. I just have a lot of thoughts on their dynamic and while I want to write the characters and their feelings accurately I also want to explain how I actually see them. Basically don’t take what a fictional character says or thinks about themselves or other people at face value lmao there is other stuff going on that they aren’t aware of or are unable to see bc of their issues. 

#my writing #croak dream #analysis #cw abuse #charliecore #lemongrab 2 #lemongrab 1

[imagine-lumpygrab]

I see you reblogged a writing prompt list so if possible may I request... Number 3 for angst or number 14 for fluff... Take your pick whatever inspires you more

Surprisingly, in spite of my natural leaning towards fluff, I was inspired by the angst prompt: “Why are you awake right now?”

It did turn into fluff after a while though, so... oops :D

––––––––––––––––

The Storm Cloud

(for @charliecharlo)

The city full of lemonpeople was very quiet during most nights. Most citizens of the earldom had similar sleep patterns and went to sleep at the same time, after all, but there were exceptions. A small boy in a house on the outskirts was finishing up his new sculpture. Elsewhere, a mother of two was checking on her children (who she’d planted, grown and raised herself, mind you) for the last time before going to bed.

Just like the city, the castle towering over it was, too, very quiet. The earl of Lemongrab himself, though, was wide awake, and the longer he stayed awake, the more suffocating the silence around him seemed to be. He’d grown accustomed to being around people in these last few months, he spent some time with Fern after they both got candified, he appointed several meetings with princess Bubblegum in an attempt (made on both sides) to fix both their personal relationships and ties between the kingdom and the earldom, and he was planning a small reunion tour with a music band his first predecessor used to be in, The Unacceptables. So far he’d only texted with them but tomorrow they had a band meeting planned and he wandered how it would go.

Would they even come? Weren’t like two of them dead? What are they going to say about him being dead for a while?

As the night progressed, he decided to at least be productive if his anxieties wouldn’t let him sleep. He could try and write a new song, at least he’d have an offering for the band meeting. So, not really knowing if there was even anything to write, he took a small notebook and a pencil he kept in his nightstand’s drawer and ventured out into his castle. Wherever he went, gentle light of lanterns appeared seemingly out of nowhere, lit up by the servants living in the walls. On other nights, he had a tendency to notice a small delay as those in charge of night lights were only starting their shift and he would probably tell them to be more responsible when on duty, but tonight he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He had more important stuff to overthink.

Finally, he settled with sitting down to the empty dining table in one of the biggest rooms in the castle. He remembered Lemongrab the Second’s proposal of getting rid of it and turning the hall into a ballroom once. He also remembered Lemongrab the First’s hesitant agreement, as the “original” earl of Lemongrab didn’t particularly like the crowds at the time. Later, the idea almost turned into a fully planned project when the older brother started a band and grew to love the attention their fans showered them with.

So ironic that he’d been destroyed by music only months later, along with his clone.

Lemongrab shuddered, at times he could swear to have heard Lemonhope’s harp again, echoing through his home, through his mind, soft melody piercing him and tearing him apart bit by bit. It took a while after he was stitched together to muster up the courage to start listening to any sort of music again, and whenever there was a harp in the room he needed desperately to be anywhere else. Thank Glob most people who knew him understood that.

He tapped the flat end of his pencil against a blank page of the notebook. What did he feel like writing about?

His mind went blank.

Now that he had decided to write something, he didn’t know how to start.

Any given word he could think of felt wrong.

He couldn’t even start the first verse.

“Well this is annoying,” he spoke out loud, partly to fight against the silence wreathing around him, but that only seemed to draw it closer to his skin, embracing and crushing him, why did it feel like that, why did the silence feel so… tangible? Why wasn’t he asleep, he should be asleep, was it bad that he wasn’t asleep? Was he doing something wrong? Was something wrong with him – again??

Lemongrab gripped the pencil tighter and shut his eyes tight. His annoyance slowly but surely morphed into something else, something darker, anger, most likely. Yes, that was it, anger was the right word. He had survived the end of the world and he survived the elemental powers of Ooo getting out of hand and he had survived his own death, why did it feel like he shouldn’t have, why did he feel like he was doing everything wrong, what was the meaning of this?!

A tap on his shoulder wrenched him out of the panicky state he was slowly succumbing to. As he opened his eyes, he realized he was pressing his forehead against the blank paper and the pencil he held was moments away from snapping in half.

Next to him was standing one of the servants who lived in the walls. He was holding Lemongrab’s phone, which was at the moment buzzing. The name on the screen made him sigh in relief: it was Lumpy Space Princess. Just the person he needed to talk to. She’d recently movies back to the Lumpy Space for her official coronation and to deal with paperwork and administration related to the process, and even though they called each other all the time, it couldn’t quite compensate for her absence.

Trying to compose himself as to not sound like he just almost had a mental breakdown, he took the phone and picked up. “Hi–”

“Why are you awake right now?” his girlfriend’s voice came through, sounding a little scolding and more than a little worried.

The question caught him off-guard. He squinted his eyes in confusion: “How… how do you even know I’m awake?”

He heard her make the quiet “psh” scoff she made whenever she was about to state the obvious. “Well, you don’t sound like you’d just woken up. You sound like you’ve been up and about for a while before you picked up the phone.” She paused for a second and then added: “Also Bubblegum texted me saying she saw light in your castle with one of her new drones.”

Lemongrab sighed. Of course she did. “That’s mother princess for you, I guess,” he mumbled while standing up from the desk and walking over to a window, trying to spot the drone. He saw nothing, however. Either it was far away or gone already, but it didn’t help his mood any.

“Yeah.. but she cares, LG,” LSP offered, trying to soothe his annoyance. “I think she’s just been on edge since experiencing the actual end of the world and her own family declaring war on her.”

“I’ve been on edge too!” Lemongrab exclaimed, throwing his hands up even though she couldn’t see the gesture. “And you don’t see me stalking the candy people! …not anymore at least.” He groaned, the lack of sleep was getting to him and princess Bubblegum spying on him, even if from afar, was only worsening his already fragile state.

And even if she was in a completely different realm at the moment, he knew LSP could tell he wasn’t feeling well. “Lemongrab, why don’t you tell me what’s keeping you up?”

“You should be sleeping too, though.”

“Eh, I’d spent the next three hours watching cat videos, talking to you is always cooler. Now, what’s on your mind? Spill it.”

So, he decided to spill it. “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d write a song for the band meeting tomorrow, but instead I had a meltdown, I think.”

“What?!”

“I’m fine now though!” he rushed to assure her, but it didn’t seem convincing even to him. Is he really fine? He didn’t feel fine. But he didn’t want her to worry, either.

“I know you don’t want me to worry,” she spoke up, and for half a second he wondered (not for the first time) if lumpy space people could read minds. “But you know it helps to talk about stuff.”

He let go of the pencil, giving up on song-writing. Obviously, his muse decided to evade him for the evening. Instead he wrapped his free arm around himself in an attempt to chase away the impending feeling of loneliness. How could he feel so alone when all around him there were the lemon citizens and how could he feel like he was missing more than a few pieces when he was out together with more pieces than he dared to count? How could he feel so…

“Wrong,” he admitted to her. “I feel wrong.”

She kept silent. She knew there was more to it.

He continued, if only to protect himself against the silence. Also because he really wanted her to know. He wanted her to understand, and he knew she would. She always did. “I was… I was okay earlier today, I was okay yesterday, I was okay a week ago, but tonight I feel horrible, I feel stupid and I hate everything.” Mostly myself, he didn’t say out loud. “And I feel wrong for being annoyed and tired and angry when I don’t have anything in particular to be so annoyed and tired and angry for, you know?”

“Oh, baby,” she said softly. She desperately wanted to be there, to hug him and kiss him and hold him until he fell asleep. But she couldn’t. So she settled for the next best thing. “Most people have these intrusive thoughts from time to time, that we’re somehow broken. Let’s face it, most of us are. But that’s good.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. Scars and imperfections show that you’ve lived. Having a writer’s block is normal, and being in a horrible mood from time to time is normal too. You know, I really miss you, and sometimes I catch myself lashing out at mom and dad because of it. But I think they know I’m just irritated, because they’re always chill about it.”

Lemongrab couldn’t help but smile a little. He did have an opportunity to meet her parents already and they were the sweetest people he’d met in a while. And as much as she tried to act cool and tough, LSP had proven to him on numerous occasions that she could be just as sweet. Like now. Now, she was making him feel better. “I love you,” he informed her, because even if it was out of nowhere, it just… seemed appropriate.

“I love you too,” she responded and he could almost see her gentle smile. “Don’t worry about anything, okay? You’re strong, I’ve seen it, I know it. But even the strongest people have to take breaks. What I’m trying to say is, if you can’t write anything, don’t force yourself into it. Go hang out with the camel or the pegasus if you still don’t feel sleepy,” she offered.

He was about to follow her advice, honestly, why not? He told her once how the second earl came up with that idea a while ago and Lemongrab still spent time in his stable sometimes when he was feeling down. He suspected he wasn’t the only lemoncreature to do so, too.

But his eyes wandered down to the table, and the notebook, and the pencil, and he blinked. And just like that, the exact words he was searching for popped into his head. “Wait, stop,” he spoke up to interrupt LSP as she was still trying to think of more stuff to calm him down. “What rhymes with ‘us’?”

She hummed, pondering the sudden question before answering: “Maybe ‘thus’?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, setting the phone down and catching the pencil like a hawk snatching up its prey. “Yeah, that’ll work!”

“What, what will work?” Her voice was laced with excitement as she realized: “Did you get an idea for a song??? Oh my Glob am I your new muse? I’m a totally awesome muse.”

“Hold on for a second.”

“Sorry, I’ll stop talking. Write your heart out.”

And as he wrote the lyrics down verse after verse, he believed he might have done just that. When finished, he read the lyrics back to LSP and the sheer excitement in her voice as she gushed about how wonderful his work was melted away his remaining discomforts.

“It’s not exactly our band’s genre…”

“It’s not set in stone, you can come back to it later. Or make it the special song for the end of the night, you know, a goodbye song after a good concert. Whatever you do with it, it’s gonna be awesome,” she assured him. “Am I right or am I right?”

He grinned. “Both.” Just then, he let out a yawn.

“Aha! I heard that! You’re going to bed right now, mister!” she said half-jokingly.

He chuckled softly and complied. For whatever reason, he suddenly felt like he could doze off right then and there, but he’d done that a few times before and when Bubblegum found out, she scolded him for hurting his back that way.

Before settling back into his bed, Lemongrab wished LSP a good night and thanked her for being there for him. She replied with a smug “always, my dearest lemonboy,” and hung up shortly after.

And before he fell asleep, a melody of the song he’d just come up played softly in his mind, for once bringing not bad memories, but a sense of ease and warm, gentle embraces.

Little drops of blue

Keep falling down and touching you

It’s the sky weeping

Over the tragedy you’ve been through

Little broken heart

Keeps getting ripped and torn apart

No ugly strings of yours

Can fix what never had to start

Little broken us

The rain will keep on weeping thus:

“Go touch the strings now”

And ugly turns vibrant, just because.

Little drops of blue

Keep falling down as I kiss you

It’s the sky weeping

Over the truth that I love you.

[animation-recaps-by-sean]

Adventure Time-Come Along With Me Recap

The fun will never end it’s adventure time! Spoilers below. 

After Sym Bionic Titan wasn’t renewed for a second season, a coworker told me that Adventure Time better turn into something great. Little did he know. Adventure Time came right when we needed it.  This is bittersweet for me. My first review for this blog was for the season six episode “Breezy”. It’s still my least favorite episode. And the rest of season 6 didn’t really help matters. But the show bounced back, next season. And was still one of the best on tv to the end.

Due to a series of circumstances involving Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a lightbright, and the city of Boston, Cartoon Network got a new head executive who wanted to move the channel in a new direction. He greenlight a series of reality shows and launched CN Real in 2008 planning to move away from cartoons completely. This move was universally hated by everybody and cost the channel millions. Fast forward to 2010 had Cartoon Network premiering it’s first cartoon since the failure of CN Real. It didn’t just save Cartoon Network it saved cartoons. Cartoons were kind of fading from television. Nick and Disney didn’t have a lot of animated shows at the time. And there was a lot of stuff like Adventure Time at the well... time. It’s hard to image since how cartoons have built off it’s style, but Adventure Time really was a breath of fresh air. If we didn’t have Adventure Time we wouldn’t have had Gravity Falls, Steven Universe and so on and so on. It showed everyone that cartoons could be funny and smart too.

It did have issues. Particularly in season six when the show started to by its own hype. And the gave everyone daddy issues. And I mean everyone. Finn, Marceline, Lemonhope, Jake, Jake’s kids, Jake’s brother, Jake’s grandkids. But they did improve season seven going onward by grounding the lore and the story based on the characters. I think deciding ending the series forced them to address interesting lore points.

Speaking of the ending, let’s talk about the finale. It begins a thousand years in Ooo’s future, seen in Lemonhope and Graybles 1000 +. We join Shermy and Beth, who looks like a decedent of Jake and Ladycorn, as they try to topple a Prize Guard Guardian. They fail but gain the ire of a futuristic banana guard. The duo also find an old metal arm. Finn’s metal arm. The return to their house, which is Marceline's house. The two decide to find the King of Ooo to see if he knows anything about it.

The duo travels up a mountain to the King’s house, who turns out to be BMO with a crown and a sheet tied to his face to mimic a beard. Shermy and Beth look around the room breaking a lot of stuff. BMO asks them to leave but the show him Finn’s arm. BMO remembers his old friend and how he lost his arm at the end.

We go back a thousand years. Finn and Jake see King Man and Betty doing something with the unconscious Maja. The three disappear. They report it to Bubblegum who is planning a defense against Gumbald and his army. Both Finn and Marceline warn Bubblegum about the war. The show is framing them in the right but I disagree. Look, war is bad, I get that. But you gotta defend yourself. This isn’t a cold war equal power kind of deal. Gumbald is gunning for Bubblegum. Ask Neville Chamberlain how well appeasement works.

Bubblegum discovers a spy forcing her to launch the attack now. Gumbald, who knows his spy was caught, knows what she would do launches an attack himself. Before the two forces duke it out Finn throws a potion he got from Nightmare Princess back from that episode set between the island and elementals mini series. Finn, Jake, Gumbald, Fern, and Bubblegum are hit and trapped in a shared dream. Finn tries to get Gumbald and Bubblegum to talk it out but the two fly off to dream fight. So Finn tries to get Fern to listen to him, but that’s not working out for him either. Jake meanwhile, conjuring up his brother, goes looking for something in there shared minds. He finds what he’s looking for. Finn’s vault. Finn tries to explain that he has issues just like Fern but Fern insists that he’s the only one who angsted. Trust me Fern, Finn have angsted plenty, just watch season six.

Jake comes in with the vault and opens it releasing a bunch of bad memories. Fern sees that Finn does suffer and Finn and Jake are transported into Fern’s head. The episode does rush past the bad memories without much thought. But I get they only have so much time for the episode. They find that grass octopus holding Sword Finn. Finn kills the grass ocotpuss and frees his time displaced counterpart.

Meanwhile, Gumbald gets to experience running the candy kingdom while Bubblegum lives turning into a candy person. The two get a better feel for each other.

The five of them meet up at the beach. Fern starts to distagrate but Jake assures him it’s just a dream. They wake; but Fern is still disintegrating.  Can I just say I love LSP’s “Oh no, there dead! Oh wait there fine.” It just really cracked me up. Gumbald and Bubblegum go to hug it out but at the last moment he pulls out the candy juice. But Lolly trips him and it spills all over Gumbald turning him back into punchbowl, saving Bubblegum. Guys, I feel so validated.

We cut back to the future and Beth thinks that BMO meant the end of the war, but no BMO meant the end of Ooo. Because as soon Aunt Lolly and Bubblegum makes peace, King Man comes crashing down, telling everyone he donked up. Bad. The chaos demon Golb comes down with an unconscious Maja and Betty in a trance. Somewhere deep in Ice King, Simon flashes back to him and Betty discussing GOLB. Back in the present, GOLB turns a bunch of people into a giant monster. The army Gumbald had recruited flees. Boy they were pointless to bring back. Bubblegum turns to the banana guards. She asks them if the will obey her orders. When the yes, she orders them to run away for their lives. Which they do.

King Man and Finn bring Ice King to Betty hoping he can snap her out of trance. Ice King sings the Fiona song. We never got an answer for that Fiona transmision plot line did we? Betty is not happy but that frees Maja who laugh at her chance of revenge. She is promptly overloaded by GOLB’s power and explodes. GOLB than eats Betty, Ice King, and Finn. Biting off Finn’s robot arm in the process.  

The monster goes on a rampage and smashes Bubblegum, sending Marceline into a rage. She knocks back the monster and attend to Bonnie. After the two talk, the girlfriends kiss. Good for them. It was never my ship but it was a huge part of the fandom and they deserve to be canon.

Jake fights the monster, who smashes the tree house and BMO’s face. BMO picks up a smashed tiny Jake and sings ‘Time Adventure’ the last song Rebecca Sugar wrote for the show. While singing the monster couldn’t attack them. Bubblegum realizes that creatures of GOLB are creatures of disharmony. And thus are hurt by harmony. So the cast begins to sing.

Meanwhile, trapped in his stomach, Betty and Simon are reverted to their premagic selves. The crown itself also switches to it’s prewish state. Betty and Simon are finally reunited, only to have to face of death. Finn fruitlessly punches the walls. But the song gets through and opens up GOLB’s stomach. Simon and Finn escape while Betty ops to stay behind to use the wish crown. She wishes for what she always wanted, Simon safe. Betty fuses with GOLB and disappears. The crown falls with a clang. I feel the show was a little harsh towards Betty’s quest to save Simon. It’s not her fault that Magic Man transferred his insanity into her.

Gunther picks up the Ice King’s crown and Jake reminders everyone that Gunther is a powerful space demon. But the crown just turns him into a smaller version of the Ice King head from the Garybales episode. Fern distagrates for real and Finn and Jake planet him were the tree house was.

BKO finishes his story. Beth and Shermy thought it was a story about the end of Ooo. BMO tells them it was. They asked what happened to everyone. BMO says they lived their lives. As the two leave and giant Sweet P can be seen walking in the background. They walk to the giant tree and Sherny pulls the Finn sword at of the top.

We cut back to Finn and Jake at the song hole, who sings the ending theme. We see flashes of everyone. Gunther marries Turtle Princess. LSP is crowned queen of Lumpy Space, Simon tries to find Betty, Marceline and Bubblegum cuddling on the couch, Susan and Frieda are still exploring, and Minerva leading the humans to Ooo.

I am bummed that we didn’t get anything with Finn and Huntress Wizard. I thought they worked as a couple and we spent a good chunk of the series dealing with Finn’s love life and would have liked some resolution to that. Also, why are the candy people in stasis in the future?

I think the final episode could have used another 15 minutes to flesh some stuff out. Other than that it was a great ending. I was a little worried we were gonna get a bad or strange ending, but I was happily wrong. It was bittersweet in some ways but did right by most of the main cast.

3 ½ out of 4       

#adventure time #adventure time spoilers #adventure time finale #come along with me #the ultimate adventure #finn and jake #princess bubblegum #Marceline the Vampire Queen #ice king #cartoon network #animation recaps by sean

[coolmiddlename]

Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations review

Woop! So after completing the fourth and latest adventure time game to get a home console release, I am able to tell you what it’s like. 

TL;DR: If you are a fan of the show, this game is absolutely worth your time. 

Voice acted by the regular cast, displaying many locations from the cartoon, and packed with Adventure Time’s signature realist-absurdo humor, Finn and Jake Investigations is the greatest AT loveletter that has been released so far. I had to check who wrote it because I was certain that Pen or Adam must have been involved, but Wikipedia says that it was all the work of David Ellis!! Mr Ellis must be a devoted fan of Adventure Time because everything in this game was so spot-on. The characters talked how you’d expect the storyboarding crew to write them, including random background characters like that poor candy person, and references to what happened in the show were so precise. They heavily reference Secret of the Nameless Kingdom, the previous game, as well as many episodes all the way up to the second Canyon ep (though the game takes place marginally before then). I counted 2 continuity issues in the entire game which is even less than in Pen Ward-storyboarded Explore the Dungeon, and even then they were very minor; They acted like Lemonhope had his own flute when it was actually Finn’s and he reclaimed it at the end of Lemonhope’s twoparter, also they had the Gumball Guardian repairing damage that Darren and Maja made to the kingdom when they didn’t even reach it. Once again, very nittpicky. By comparison being able to reference eps like Wizards Only Fools, Chamber of Frozen Blades, Box Prince, The Red Throne... having the DLC be based on Furniture and Meat, giving a backstory to the freaking Huge Kingdom zombies.. only someone who has been playing lots of attention could pull it off. 

The environments too, nearly every room you see in the game is ripped from AT itself and they try to give it a sensible structure which the show didn’t bother with.  Everything is well-textured despite the models being cartoonish, so it’s got a lovely uncanny valley feeling, perfect for Adventure Time. Ice King’s beard has frost in it, PB looks like shes actually made of gum, Finn’s clothing looks like fabric, and the Banana Guards look slightly bruised. I have no criticisms of this art style except for how poor the animations are, especially the cutscenes, but for some reason they don’t feel gamebreaking. 

As for the gameplay itself... Well, the game is veeery slow and it’s frustrating when you can’t find the next thing to do because it’s hidden behind some obscure sofa recliner which is what happened to me in the Ice Kingdom. I had to rely on the game guide to avoid being stuck for hours looking everywhere. It’s not a challenging game, and I don’t think you can even lose. The combat is... not the best, but the use of combos and swords a step up from ETDBIDK’s booooring single button mashing, and combat is sparse enough that it doesn’t matter anyway! i think there was meant to be a treasure system but it was taken out last minute? because thered be,,,, nothing to spent treasure on lol. 

If you want a great puzzle game, go play some Professor Layton or Phoenix Wright. If you want a challenging Adventure Time game, go speedrun Explore The Dungeon Because I Don’t Know, or... Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, a much better experience more in the spirit of AT. There’s also Hey Ice King Why’d You Steal Our Garbage? which is honestly kinda decent but gives no incentive for fighting enemies.

If you want a game that takes advantage of the world Adventure Time takes place in, is entertaining for all fans of the show regardless of age, and would be amazing to play alongside young children, Finn and Jake Investigations is the experience you’re looking for.

#atimers #adventure time #finn and jake investigations

[atfubblegum]

Gumbald, Bubblegum and the candy kingdom

It is in latest episode “Three Buckets“ we finally get to meet Uncle Gumbald. He takes the remains of Fern with him in a bucket. (Finn did accidentally cut Fern to pieces.)

But we have seen that G before didn’t we?

In episode S05 E51 Lemonhope story part 2, we can see Lemonhope walking somewhere on the land of OOO in the far future. We can see the G on a crashed plane. Is something gonna happen? A big war?

In episode S07 E26 The thin yellow line we learned from a banana guard how the first candy people rose against Princess Bubblegum and she transformed them into to hideous monsters.

We can see how Uncle Gumbald is thrown into prison. What his exact role was in the rebellion is still unclear.

In a far earlier episode S04 E18 King worm, we can see Finn being trapped in a dream by the King worm.

Finn's dream seems to foreshadow future events: 

When Finn sees himself in the mirror, his reflection has a pointy nose, a mechanical arm, and bigger eyes. 

The Lich's appearance in the dream foreshadows his return in the season finale. 

The Gunter monster foreshadows a later episode 

Finn turning his and Jake's feet big is dreamed again by Jake

We also have a scene where Finn has a crown, sits on a throne next to princess Bubblegum. She calls him “HUSBAND”.

Obviously this scene has not happened. (yet?)

But What symbol can be seen on top of the throne? A G again. From Uncle Gumbald?

The same G on top of the room, in center and above on the walls.

This is pure speculation, but could it be that this scene is actually about Gumbald’s future role in the candy kingdom?

Could it be that Gumbald will becme king of the candykingdom? He did rose against The princess before. didn’t hé.....

Will he do it with force, or maybe marry PB?

What are your thoughts?

#adventure time spoilers #adventure time #thin yellow line #three buckets #uncle gumbald #gumbald #princess bubblegum #king worm #princess #bubblegum #fern #fern the human #finn #finn mertens #banana guard #candy people #candy kingdom #marry #rebellion #cartoon network #bonnibel bubblegum #bonnie #lemonhope #candy

[gracefulswansofnever]

Adventure Time has a lot of episodes overall that fuck me up. Some single stories, some larger scale ones, and also others that are way bigger than time and rumble along in the background as the show progresses. But by far, one of the best episodes is 'Puhoy', where Finn goes into a pillow fort and ends up in an alternate pillow dimension. He lives out his entire life there, always seeking a way back home but living in the moment nonetheless. Eventually he dies there & subsequently returns to the normal world. Jake asks him what happened/what his dream was about. Finn says he can't remember. And that's kind of it. An entire life lived out in full that ultimately vanishes into nothingness, and resides in nobody's memory, like those very vivid dreams you have and cant really remember after waking up. I come back to this & other select episodes every so often. They always have the same existential impact on me, no matter how many times I watch them. Like the whole story of the Lich, the wish granting timeless room of Prismo, the alternate dimension where Finn and Jake were "normal", LemonHope's long long looong travels and subsequent return to find the world and kingdom died long ago, and of course the entire story of what happened to the world + how old Simon and Marceline are.

[pattercakebakersman]

Birds of a Feather - Chapter 7 (1.6K)

Cws: graphic depictions of abuse against family and children including physical, emotional abuse and manipulation, degredation, guilt tripping, love bombing, child neglect and children being shamed, food insecurity, lack of bodily autonomy due to being abused, violent men/father figures, invasions of privacy and stalkerish behaviour. I advise that people under age 15 don’t read this one as it does get quite disturbing. 

“Are you excited for your surprise?” Lemongrab asked sweetly as he walked arm in arm with his sibling. 

“Oooh yes!” Lemongrab was happy and that meant the other Lemongrab was happy, two identical smiles reflecting each other as faithfully as a mirror. Things hadn’t been so sweet between them recently, but their brother seemed in good spirits. He was affectionate and warm today, they wanted to make the most of it. They were excited for their surprise - he never gave them any presents, even on their birthday. Maybe it was a really big present to make up for that? 

What they didn’t bring up was that they’d learned last night that he’d been coming into their room and watching them sleep. 

He smiled at them, and let go to press a button that opened a sliding door with a hiss. He took a step back and said theatrically “Youngest first!” 

Lemongrab skipped into the room and looked around expectantly. They scoured the floor for any boxes with big bows tied on them but there was just a chamber at the far end, built into the wall. There was a door that locked with a keypad, and a metallic structure with a hole in it like a TV set without any glass. In the middle of the room was a stand with a lever on it. 

"Brother what is this?" 

He squealed. "OOOOH my rigamarole do you not recognize?" 

"This is the room we first met in." Brother was so sweet. He had brought them to this special place for their surprise. 

"You will love it. You will beee so happy! Hm! And weee will be closer, as we should be." 

Lemongrab left and when he returned, he was trailing Lemonhope behind him like a balloon. Lemonhope was so short he had to stoop to hold his hand, making him look even more spindly than usual. 

He led Lemonhope to the edge of the structure and picked him up, placing him inside the TV like box. He stepped away and pressed a few buttons. The machine hummed with power and a wall of lasers beamed on, locking Lemonhope behind it. The box had turned into a cage. 

Lemongrab 2 felt immediately that there was something very, very wrong. "Brother what are you doing?" 

"I am getting things ready for our game!" 

They glanced at Lemonhope, who had backed into the corner, looking frightened. "What game is this?" 

"You are the younger lemon. You must be educated. I have neglected to teach you how to play by hurting. But I will amend this error. Watch me and learn." He stood behind the stand with the lever on it. He looked lovingly down at the sticking out metal handle and fondled it, rubbing his hands over the contraption while giggling to himself. Lemongrab 2 forced a smile, because that was what they were supposed to do when their twin was happy, but they still didn’t understand what he was doing. 

He put his hand on the lever and flexed his fingers before gripping it. He looked straight at Lemonhope with a strange mix of scientific detachment and pure joy on his face. “Let’s see now… pup gang got 4 units.. Trespassers got 10 units… disobedient children get hmm… 4 units tooo start with.” 

He pushed the lever up and Lemongrab watched as the floor cracked with electricity, turning the child inside into a spasming, screaming mess. Their brother pulled the lever back up with a woop and the floor under Lemonhope’s twitching body cooled. Lemonhope turned on his side, clutching his stomach and wheezing. He seemed to be in great pain. 

Lemongrab was about to run to him when their brother grabbed them by the upper arm and they froze. “I caught him playing the harp, despite myyy forbidding it. He must have broken into myyy private space to retrieve his devilish instrument. He has disrespected me for theeee final time.” Lemongrab said darkly, looking at his handiwork with no remorse. “All of you. All of you have disrespected me for the final time. I will tolerate nothing.”

Lemongrab 2 realised what must have happened. They hadn’t taken the harp away from Lemonhope after their lesson. “Was he playing… lemon musics?” They asked in a small voice. 

“It makes no difference to me what he was playing. That ugly boy with his ugly noises.” Lemongrab spat, “No. It cannot be allowed to continue.”

Lemonhope pushed himself to his knees and said in between gasps. “L-Lemongrab said I could…”

They wished he hadn’t said that, they immediately felt their brother’s gaze on them like a flood light. His hand tightened its grip. “What?”

“Lemongrab gave me the harp.” Lemonhope repeated. 

“Lemongrab is this… true? Have yoouuu disobeyed your brother, who’s word should be law to you?” He sounded more hurt than angry, but he wouldn’t stay that way for long. And when he became angry at them… There was a lot of space in that electrocution chamber. More than enough. 

“No! I-I didn’t!” They wished he’d stop touching them bt they were too terrified of him to wrench their arm away. “It was not like that.” they pleaded. 

“So. Lemonhope is not only a bad child, he is also a liar.” 

“Lemonhope didn’t mean to hurt you-” they said quickly. They tried to stroke his arm, to fix things. “it, it will not happen again!”

His eyes swivelled around to look at them. “I asked you to take responsibility for the boy, did I not.”

“Brother I will! I will! I-I am sorry I have not been a good boy.”

Lemongrab’s face broke into a strange, knowing smile. 

“Of course yooouuu have. You are a very, very good boy.” he said sweetly, “You are sooo responsible.”

“I am?” 

He nodded and put a hand on their back so he could guide them around to stand in front of the lever. Lemonhope was directly ahead of them, cowering behind the forcefield. 

“That is how I know that you will enact his punishment yourself.”

Lemongrab wanted to stop it. But the thought of being locked in there with Lemonhope, and of jerking around on an electrified floor, was horrifying. So instead they said; “how much should I give him?”

“It is your choice.”

“Disobedient children get 5 units… 6 units for liars?” 

Lemongrab’s eyes widened. He smiled at them. His smile grew bigger and bigger, with more and more teeth creeping into it. 

“7 units?” They asked, unsure. 

“For youuur first try? My my! What an appetite! Very well.”

Without taking their eyes off him, they pushed the lever. Lemonhope began to scream again. 1 unit - 2 units - they found counting the numbers was helpful, it gave them something else to focus on - 3 units - 4 units - 5 units - Lemonhope began to scream their name - 6 units - 7 units - Lemonhope fell silent. The only sound was the crackle of electricity. 

They held the lever there for what felt like ages. Their brother stared at them, unblinking, still smiling. He looked so happy. They must be happy too. If it was his way to play by hurting, then it must be right. 

They pulled the lever back to them, shutting it off. Their brother nodded once, and then went to inspect their victim. Lemonhope was curled up on the floor, completely still. He turned off the lasers and rolled him over. 

“He has fainted. Hm.” He observed, and they both watched a thin trickle of blood pour from his mouth. He must have bitten his tongue. But other than that he was fine. Not hurt. It had just been a harmless game. 

Lemongrab stood up and turned to face his sibling, who was stood with the lever in between them like a shield. 

He stretched his arms wide as if he wanted to embrace them. “Brother! Brother brother myyy brother! My darling my precious my sweeeeetness!” He ran over to them and swept them up in his arms. “You doooo share my lemony ways! You have learned how tooo play as a lemon does, mmm! Prideful and joyous day!” 

Lemongrab 2 nodded, still dazed and he let go of them. It was a big day for their twin, he shouldn’t over-do it. See, he could be so thoughtful and considerate- their brother had better appreciate it.  

Their twin looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. He supposed they were- they had first me in the reconditioning chamber, but he had never shown them how to use it properly. Now he had, and they were complete. “We have not nuzzled in far too long. Let us renew our brotherly union, as a celebration of your rebirth.” He said and put his hand on the back of their neck. 

They pushed their forehead against his with more force than necessary. Lemongrab 2 felt so confused and scared, and their brother was warm. The gesture was familiar and comforting -it reminded them of when they first met and how happy he’d been to see them, and how affectionate he was with them when he thought they were asleep and didn’t know what he was doing. It felt like being loved by him. He was so happy with them. For the first time in months, he was happy, completely, utterly happy, with who they were. 

“I have succeeded in reconditioning you. Everything will be better now that we are the same again.” They nodded. “I have remade you in my image like a glob. 

Lemongrab put his arm around them and led them out of the room. They resisted the instinct to look over their shoulder to see if Lemonhope was still lying bleeding on the floor. 

#birds of a feather #pain #and w that! the first half of the fic is out :) #hope yous have found it interesting

[pattercakebakersman]

Birds of a Feather - Chapter 6 (800)

Cws: graphic depictions of abuse against family and children including physical, emotional abuse and manipulation, degredation, guilt tripping, love bombing, child neglect and children being shamed, food insecurity, lack of bodily autonomy due to being abused, violent men/father figures, invasions of privacy and stalkerish behaviour. I advise that people under age 15 don’t read this one as it does get quite disturbing. 

Lemongrab slowly opened his sibling’s door so as not to wake them. They had kept the curtains open, so the room was bathed in silvery moonlight, everything the greyish colour of a moth’s wing. 

He could see their outline under the blanket and he studied it for a while. This was what he looked like from the side. He imagined that he was someone else looking down at his own sleeping body, and that was his head poking out from the covers. 

They had left their diary open on the vanity table. Lemongrab stroked his fingers over the page, delighted to be seeing something they didn’t want him to. He avoided looking at his reflection in the huge mirror. 

Mmmmmm diary how dare you, 

Housekeeping:

Children must be bathed tomorrow. The hosepipe is in the shed somewhere. 

Ask brother for more bleach 

A window in the east wing has been broken. 

FEED THEM

Stables have not been mucked out in aaaa while. Hm. Oh dear. I’m sorry babies. 

Lemonhope seems happier. I believe my plan is working. Lemonsnail has been eating the grass and getting sick again, I do not know why he does it. 

Lemongrab frowned, always Lemonhope! They never should have made subjects. He hadn’t realised he would have to share his twin with them, and he hated sharing. He flipped through the book for any mentions of him. 

Things are not going so well between brother and I. I know he does not mean to hurt my feelings so it is pointless to be angry at him, but glob. I do wish that. No. It is blasphemy to think such a thought. I love my brother. Everything is fine. 

But if he does something like that again… let us hope it does not come to that. I love him so dearly. Why am I never good enough for him? I want to be respected too…  

Lemongrab closed the book and resisted the urge to hurl it at a wall. Now what was the meaning of that? He hadn’t hurt their feelings, they were his brother. He hadn’t given them permission to be upset at him. Where did he go wrong with them? He hadn’t raised Lemongrab to be like that. 

Lemongrab sat on his sibling's bed and watched them sleep. When they were sleeping they slipped back into the childlike innocence they'd been made with. The way they curled their fingers round the blanket, the way their nose pressed adorably against the pillow, it was overwhelming. He listened to the sound of their breathing and watched how their eyelids twitched occasionally, he hoped they were having a good dream. In moments like this he wanted them to have good things. 

Lately Lemongrab had been sullen, withdrawn, quiet. Like a smaller version of themselves. Once they'd taken up the whole castle as they ran up and down the corridors, drew all over the walls and played in every room. Now he barely noticed them in the corner. Let us hope it does not come to that. Come to what? Why did they think he disliked them… it wasn’t that he disliked them, or glob forbid that he didn’t love them (they were Lemongrab after all, how could he hate a part of himself?) it was that they did things he hated. He had to punish wrong doing, didn’t he? Why couldn’t they understand that. Weren’t they the same as him? 

Lemongrab realised he had no idea what his twin was thinking anymore. He knew how he thought and how they were supposed to think, but he could no longer be certain of what was going on inside their head. That was the one part of them he couldn’t get to. He could control what they dressed like, and what they ate, and when they were allowed to leave the house. But the idea that his twin had been keeping secret thoughts just for themselves, when everything that was theirs should also be his… it was humiliating. He was an earl! 

But he was also their brother. What was it they said? Brothers should not fight or mistreat one another. He'd called his brother ugly, he'd taken their food at mealtimes, he'd taken their toys, and their clothes, and so much more that couldn't be seen physically. And in return what had he given? He'd given them two brown mud stains on their uniform. They were afraid of him, he realised. Terrified. And he enjoyed it. 

But it still weighed on his conscience, as small as it might be, that his brother had been happy once and now they weren't. 

Lemongrab rested his forehead against his sibling's head. Closed his eyes so there was just the warm patch on his face where they touched. 

“Your flesh is my flesh…” he thought, “your skin is my skin… your body is my body. Better than me, you are mine.” 

He stood up and left, slowly closing the door behind him. Lemongrab 2 opened their eyes and waited, not breathing, for his footsteps to fade into the night. Then they slipped out of bed and went to lock their door. Their hands were shaking as they fumbled with the old fashioned lock. It wasn’t until the door clicked shut that they felt they could breathe again. 

#birds of a feather #look out for the next chapter tomorrow.. one of the creepiest things I've ever written for this fandom

[pattercakebakersman]

Birds of a Feather - Chapter 5 (1.3K)

Cws: graphic depictions of abuse against family and children including physical, emotional abuse and manipulation, degredation, guilt tripping, love bombing, child neglect and children being shamed, food insecurity, lack of bodily autonomy due to being abused, violent men/father figures, invasions of privacy and stalkerish behaviour. I advise that people under age 15 don’t read this one as it does get quite disturbing. 

The lemon children scampered away from the doorway with frightened yelps as Lemongrab advanced and kicked the door open with a loud shriek that echoed through the courtyard. Lemonhope, who had been peeking through the window down at what was happening, went to go hide until Lemongrab had calmed down and it was safe to go out, taking the harp with him. 

“Nobody respects ME!” Lemongrab screamed, slamming a fist into the wall and leaving a dent in the yellow lemon printed wallpaper. 

“I respect you!” Lemongrab 2 said quickly, hovering behind him like an anxious insect. 

Lemongrab didn’t look over his shoulder. “You do not respect me…”

“I do.” They said firmly. 

Lemongrab had now reached the end of the corridor. He turned his head as if considering whether he should look at them, and then turned it back. “If you respected me you would do everything that I want.” he said in the dejected voice of a small child. 

 Lemongrab vanished up the stairs and they ran after him, chasing the sound of his green boots hitting the stone steps with violent thwacks. “Do I not make yoouu happy?” they shouted, their plea echoing in the hollow stairwell.  

Their brother’s disgusted face appeared over the bannister. “Happyyy? How can I be happy with someone who does not even like me!”

He vanished and they stayed still for a moment. Didn’t even like him? Why would he say such a thing? They slowly climbed the rest of the stairs with a sinking feeling in their stomach. Didn’t like him… now that couldn’t be true. They’d been created to be his brother. Of course they liked him, it was built into who they were, and all they could ever be. Of course they liked him. They didn’t have a choice. 

Lemongrab had left the door to his room open, and hadn’t turned on the lights. He was lying on his bed, curled up like a question mark. In the shadowy room his black uniform made his limbs and body fuse together, so lying there he looked like a huge black leech with a bulbous yellow head and green tail. He hadn’t taken his boots off, they noticed. 

They peeled back part of the curtain, letting their shadow fall on his face. One of his dull white eyes opened and stared up at them icily. “Brother of course Iiii like you...” they soothed, but he just growled. 

“You and theee children…” he said bitterly, “do not think I have not noticed yoouur favouritism. Your little Lemonhope, your little Lemonlamb, all your little babies. Oh you would do anything for them I am sure.” 

Lemongrab 2 didn’t have anything to say. 

“You do not respect me.” Lemongrab repeated, “Nobody respects me… Nobody does what Iiiii want them to. I just want people to do what Iiii tell them to. I want to play with my children the way I want…” Lemongrab flipped over and wrapped his spindly arms around himself. He was shaking slightly, someone who didn’t know him as well wouldn’t even noticed. His body heaved as he held back a sob and the shaking intensified. 

“Lemongrab-” 

“No one wants tooo play with me… No one cares about meeee…” Lemongrab wailed. “Is it so hard? Is it so hard tooo make me happy?” Lemongrab swivelled his head around so it was facing backwards, glaring at his sibling with tears in his eyes. “Is Lemongrab so disgusting to you that you just want to make him miserable?”

“No brother.” They knelt on the bed and reached for him. “I love thee…”

He rolled over to face the right way and wiped the clot of snot that had formed at the base of his long nose. “Then obey me.”

They held onto his lower arms and lay on the bed next to him. “What do you want?”

“I want you to tell me that you love me again.”

“Brother of course I love you.” 

Lemongrab lay down next to his sibling, propping himself up on his elbow after pulling his arm out of their grasp. That way, he could look down on them as the two of them talked. “Do yoouu love meee very much?”

“I do love you very much.” they said sincerely. 

“Do you love me more than anyone?” he asked.

“I dooo love you more than anyone.” they replied faithfully.

Lemongrab smiled and they felt warm inside. “Who do you love more, me… or Lemonhope?”

They concealed their confusion at this question. “I love you.” they said firmly. Lemongrab bent over them, studying their face carefully for any signs they were lying. 

“And Lemonlamb?”

“I love you more.”

“And Headlemon?”

“You are my most beloved.”

“You love me more than all our boys?”

Lemongrab smiled up at their sibling. “Out of all my boys… I love yoouu the most.”

Lemongrab seemed content with this. He flopped down on the bed next to them and let his sibling curl up around his side. He idly reached up and stroked their skin - the same bumpy lemon texture as his own, as if their body was another limb connected to him. An identical extension of himself created to adore him. 

“Do you even love me more than yourself?” he asked. 

“I do.” Lemongrab relaxed and rolled over from them. They were both curled on their sides, and all they could see was the back of his head and his sloping, relaxed shoulders. They must have seen this view hundreds of times, following him around, waiting for him to look over his shoulder and see them standing there. 

“Brother,” they asked eventually, “who do yoouu love most of all?”

“Hm…” Lemongrab sounded thoughtful. They held their breath in anticipation. “I love Lemongrab the most.” He said eventually. He finally turned to face them and smiled, then said, “Get on the floor.”

For a moment neither of them said anything.

“What?” they asked. 

“Do it.” he almost hissed it and then softened his voice. "please." 

They sat up and clambered off the bed, dropped to their knees and then to their stomach, until they were lying on the floor with their face turned towards the bed. They could see the outline of the suitcase the harp had been kept in under the bed, and when they trained their eye upwards they could see their brother’s face looking down at them. “Whyyy am I on the floor?”

"Hm. Roll over so Iii can see your face." he said without answering their question. 

He reached down and stroked a finger up and down their nose. Then he swung his legs off the bed, dangling his two green boots above them. 

He placed his feet on their stomach, and there was a painful pressure as he wiped the mud off his boots. Their shirt was pulled up by his swiping motion, revealing a sliver of yellow skin above their blue belt. 

"Yes yes, yoouu have been a good boy today.” their brother said with palpable satisfaction in his voice, “Hm… I will show you your surprise earlyyy. Hee hee early! Now get out. Get out. I want to have nap-time." He rolled over under the sheets and soon he was breathing deeply. He still had his boots and uniform on. 

Lemongrab sat up and pulled their shirt down to fully cover themselves, though they still felt horribly naked even after they’d made sure not a single centimetre of skin wasn’t covered by their uniform. They stood up and stole out of the room, closing the door behind them quietly so as not to wake him. 

The lemon people who'd been bullying Lemonhope saw them go by and they were embarrassed about the two brown mud stains on their stomach. They worried it was written on them what he'd done. It felt humiliating.

They wondered if he always slept in his clothes without taking his shoes off. How much mud and dirt was there in-between his sheets now? And how had they never noticed.

#birds of a feather #like I said last chapter. #it's all going downhill

[pattercakebakersman]

Birds of a Feather - Chapter 2 (1.2K)

Cws for the whole fic: graphic depictions of abuse against family and children  including physical, emotional abuse and manipulation, degredation, guilt  tripping, love bombing, child neglect and children being shamed, food  insecurity, lack of bodily autonomy due to being abused, violent  men/father figures, invasions of privacy and stalkerish behaviour. I advise that people under age 15 don’t read this one as it does get quite disturbing.

The other lemons noticed that Lemonhope's head had been weeded of its hair. He wandered around like a shorn sheep, drifting in and out of the castle’s cold rooms. Maybe he was looking for where his harp had been hidden? But Lemongrab had made sure he wouldn’t ever find it again. Their brother had placed it in an old suitcase, wrapped a chain and lock around it, and slid it under his bed. He’d placed the key on their tongue and forced them to swallow it. When they pressed their shrinking stomach they could feel its metallic, painful outline on the walls of their organ. But most of the time they forgot it was there at all. 

They had other things to think about. 

Lemongrab peeled the soily gloves off their hands and tossed them with the other gardening tools. The lemonjon trees had needed weeding and watering, not to mention pruning. They’d checked the leaves for discoloration and disease with their heart in their mouth because the earldom couldn’t afford to lose its crop this year, but thankfully, the trees were all safe, and bunches of candy were beginning to form on the branches. They’d have food soon. Everything would be fine. Acceptable, even.

A dark flash made them turn and look up at an empty window. They realised their brother must have been watching them toil away and they suddenly realised how soily their blue boots had become, and felt embarrassed. They rushed into the castle to get changed. 

The empty, windowless corridors flickered with harsh lamps as they made their way to their room, walking past a group of noisy lemon people without a second glance and then stopping in their tracks. Had that been-?

They stepped back into the doorway and watched carefully. Lemonhope had been pushed up against a wall, and several of his siblings were crowded around him. Unlike Lemonhope, they were dressed in black, designating them as their brother’s creations. One of them poked his head and they all laughed. Lemonhope barred his sharp teeth but didn’t say anything. One of them pulled him forward and they circled around him like vultures. The one that had pulled him reached out their yellow hands and shoved him, hard, onto the floor.  

Lemongrab ran up and yanked Lemonhope out of the circle. They put a hand on his shoulder and pressed him to them. "What is this?" they demanded. 

The lemon children huddled together, silently and sullenly. “I said what is the meaning of this?” they repeated. 

The children looked at each other sheepishly, Lemonhope turned to bury his face in their stomach. 

"You are behaving unacceptably!” They scolded, “Lemon children! Did me and brother make you from nothing to tease one another?" 

"But Lemonhope is a bad lemon.” Said the one that had pushed Lemonhope over, “Father says so." 

"Lemonhope is your brother. Brothers do not mistreat one another. Does my brother mistreat me?" 

"No…" 

"You defile our royal example with playground bickering.” Lemongrab said in a stern voice, still gripping Lemonhope. “No more of this." 

"No more of what?" came a voice from behind them. 

Lemongrab turned and saw their brother standing in the doorway. The lemon children they’d been reprimanding ran up to him, and he crouched down to pet them while grinning. He patted the one that had pushed Lemonhope over on its bald, hairless head and giggled as another, smaller lemon with wings tried to crawl into his lap. "Lemongrab says we are not allowed to play with Lemonhope how we like." whined the winged lemon as he placed them back on the ground. 

"They weren't playing! They were bullying me." Lemonhope said sulkily.  

Lemongrab looked up at his sibling with a faltering smile. "And you believe Lemonhope?" 

"I saw it happen." they stated. 

"Hm." 

"Brothers should not fight." they said. 

Lemongrab was silent for a moment as he studied the two of them coldly. His eyes flickered to Lemonhope, who they were still holding, and then landed on their face. They let go and stepped away from him, only then did he visibly relax. "No they should not." he said distantly. 

Lemongrab pushed his children aside and squatted in front of Lemonhope on his haunches with his elbows on his knees, resting his chin in his hands. Lemonhope avoided looking into his big, white eyes. "Why were you… being teased?" he asked. 

"They said I'm the ugliest lemon. And that my harp is awful." Lemonhope mumbled. One of the lemon people snickered. 

Lemongrab let out a bark of a laugh. "They are attempting to recondition him! Of course without the proper equipment they are to beeee unsuccessful." he said fondly. 

Lemongrab 2 bristled at this. They’d had him backed up to the wall and sprawling on the floor, there was nothing to laugh about. "They were pushing him around.” Their brother raised his eyebrows but didn’t seem to care. “Nggh… they hurt him." 

He finally turned his head around to face his subjects. "Is this true, myyy babies?" The lemon children stopped snickering and looked at him guiltily. "Hm! I see!" 

"Brothers should not fight." They repeated.  

Lemongrab stood up and approached them. He was an inch taller than them, and wearing heeled boots so he looked down on them as he put his hands behind his back and flashed them a thin lipped smile. The points of his sharp, pike-like teeth were visible through the crack between his lips. “Aaand how should brothers be?” he asked sweetly. 

They were caught off guard by the question. “Brothers should be loving and lemon sweet with one another.” 

He looked at them for a while and then nodded. "Brothers should not fight.” He turned to address the lemon children. “Cease this behaviour.” 

The lemon people scampered out of the room, leaving the three of them alone. 

"How old are you now Lemonhope?" He asked.  

"8 your honour." 

"8? I thought you were younger…. That iiiis not acceptable. Hm. Make yourself younger. You were much better when you were little.” Lemonhope glanced at Lemongrab 2 expectantly over his shoulder and they offered him a weak smile. “You did not have any of that horrible hair…"

He stroked a hand over Lemonhope’s head and wrinkled his nose at the fuzz beginning to grow back. “Shave yourself again immediately.”

“Yes master.” Lemonhope said in a clipped voice and left the room as fast as possible. He didn’t glance up at them before hurriedly shutting the door this time. It hurt them. 

Lemongrab stalked over to them again. “Brothers should be lemon sweet with one another, hm?”

“Yes.” they said, unsure. 

“You have not been so sweet lemon sweet with meee recently. I see you ngh strokiiing our boys but you have no strokes for me,” he hissed angrily, “who should be dearer to you than all! You set a bad example for our children, you shirk youuur companion duties… it is no wonder Lemonhope is such aaa difficult child, and that he cannot get along with others. When he has your example too follow.” 

“I am sorry. I did not think you wanted…”

“You would tell me what I do and do not want?” He laughed again, as if just a second ago he hadn’t been seething at them. “You are reckless, yet I admire you for it.” He offered them his hand and they kissed it obediently. “Yes. Yes that is myyy rigamarole. Attend me,” He linked his arm around theirs, “I require your assistance.”

#my writing #birds of a feather

[pattercakebakersman]

Birds of a Feather - Chapter 3 (700)

Cws for the whole fic: graphic depictions of abuse against family and children  including physical, emotional abuse and manipulation, degredation, guilt  tripping, love bombing, child neglect and children being shamed, food  insecurity, lack of bodily autonomy due to being abused, violent  men/father figures, invasions of privacy and stalkerish behaviour. I advise that people under age 15 don’t read this one as it does get quite disturbing.

Lemongrab’s room was much bigger than theirs, with a huge four poster bed that had heavy, draping curtains around it. Underneath it was the suitcase with Lemonhope’s, no, with Lemongrab’s old harp in it. He had a rocking chair in the corner and an ornate carved table by the wall, where his letter writing equipment was. Like the rest of the castle there were no windows so the room was lit entirely by a lemon shaped lamp, and by glow-worms kept in cages. 

He picked up some clothes that were draped over the chair and tossed them over his shoulder blindly, causing them to totter about trying to catch them. “Take theeeese garments and model them for me-” 

“Oh?!” They never got to wear anything other than the white version of his uniform. On the rare occasions he took them with him out of the castle they were forbidden to leave (which was for their protection. The outside world was a dangerous and judgemental place for a Lemongrab) they were amazed by all the different dresses the princesses wore. They tried to imagine what it felt like to feel the breeze on your legs and the flutter of fabric around you as you spun. They’d once sat at his writing desk and written a letter to the Princess asking her to send them a dress for their birthday, but she never replied. And she didn’t send them anything. It had been so long ago that they’d forgotten all about it, and resigned themselves to a life lived in their brother’s hand-me-downs. They held up the black jacket he’d tossed their way. “These are for me tooo wear?” 

“I need to see what they will look like on me before I wear them toooo theeee political summit. Change.” he snapped his fingers in their face. “Now.”

Lemongrab looked around the room for a place to change. “May I go on the bed?”

“Why?”

“To change behind the curtain.”

“What? Why?”

They held the fabrics to their chest anxiously. “I do not want you to watch me.”

“I do not understand… you changed before me always with no complaint.” he grumbled. It was true, when they’d lived by the sea and shared a bedroom they’d had no issue with doing anything and everything with their brother, but that had been a long time ago. “We are the same body. We are both Lemongrab.” he sounded confused and even hurt. 

“You have no secrets from me.” 

It felt like a damnation, they wished they did have something that was theirs alone. “I do not want you to see.” they said quickly and climbed on the bed before he could protest. They pulled the curtain over, separating them with a wall of thick, opaque fabric. His bed smelled slightly musty, and lemony like himself. He hadn’t changed his sheets in a long time it seemed. 

“Smells gross…” they thought, as they peeled off their uniform and folded it up. Their brothers clothes were a different, silkier fabric than his usual clothing. The shirt was bone white with ruffles going down the front, and the jacket had a clean, silky lining that it felt good to wear and move in. 

They pulled back the curtain and climbed down off the bed. 

“Hmm…” He took their jacket lapels in his hands and tugged the jacket from side to side, then inspected their sleeves. “Turn around-” he made a circular motion with his index finger, “-so Iii may see theee back.” 

They didn’t like having their back to him, knowing he was inspecting them so closely. “Turn so I can seeee my side profile.” 

Lemongrab stood facing the wall. He took their chin in his hand and swivelled their head around like a doll’s. Turning them this way and that so the room swivelled round with them. They looked only at the wall, and not into his eyes. He sighed. “I am so very ugly… ah well… The suit does nothing for me. I will wear my uniform. You may leave.” 

They were silent, and didn’t move. Then they slowly turned their head to face him, with their eyes full of hurt. “You think I am ugly?”

“I think weee are both ugly.” he said dismissively, “Now go.”

Lemongrab picked up their clothes off the bed and left, not wanting to be told a third time.

#my writing #birds of a feather #shortest chapter is this one I think? anyway. lil moment between them.

[pattercakebakersman]

tis friday so woe fanfic excerpts be upon ye. [transcripts of screenshots under cut] 

1 - No one had been in the lemonsweets cabinet since the night everything changed. Or rather things had been changing before that. There were arguments and slaps, threats and outbursts, Lemonhope wasn't like the other children. Lemongrab wasn't like the other lemongrab. It wasn't that things changed, it's that after that night there was no going back. Maybe that was why no one had ever gone back there. The chairs were still tipped over from the struggle, coated in dust. The cupboard door hadn't been closed. Moths had crawled in and eaten Lemonsweets' hats, leaving them filled with holes and bitemarks. Lemonsweets' room was still untouched. His bed was unmade like a real child's. And he himself was still shattered in pieces on the floor. He reminded Lemongrab of what he must have looked like after the explosion. Shards of yellow flesh strewn all over the floor. Waiting for someone to put him back together. 

2 -  He sometimes wandered the earldom like a zombie looking at the lemon people working, how they’d glance up at him so fearfully, the conversations he wanted to join in with becoming hushed and silent. He sat under the tree near the cemetery, pulling up the grass while watching them play with his painted hands leaving yellow powder on the ground like pollen. It looked like his body was disintegrating, rotting, falling apart. He felt like if he tried to run around and jump the way they did the red thread holding him together would snap, and his limbs would crumple like a shattering doll. It was better like this. Up in the castle he couldn’t hear them, his tower silent as a mausoleum. The lemon people had been built so Lemongrab wouldn’t be alone, but that was exactly how he’d ended up.

end transcripts. 

#lemongrab #adventure time #my writing #hee hee #first one is from a scrapped thing I may yank this out of and make into its own fic #second is from Orpheus

[t4t-lumpygrab]

Some thoughts I’ve had about lemongrab 2 in terms of defining them a bit more as a character so they’re not just a punching bag: 

-So I’m constantly thinking of the rock bandits video game where lg2 wants to join their brother’s punk band. So yes. lg2 is a rockstar to me. I like to think lg2 played bass guitar as a more supportive role that fits with their personality, and also idk, Marceline fan I think. Lg2′s favourite music is riot grrl punk I just think the themes of autonomy and the denial of autonomy and anger against injustice and gendered violence and abuse would really resonate with them bc of their experiences. They had a pretty extensive CD and tape collection and would listen to Bikini Kill and Mommy long legs in their room and try to play along. Also they would do little concerts for the lemon people and try to teach them to play instruments too. Like we see that Lemongrab 2 was supportive of lemonhope so I think they would have played music with him.

-lg2 can also play the harp and piano. But Obviously had to hide this. 

-Fashion wise Lg2 really liked to wear punky clothing and do weird makeup and dressed quite gnc. I view the white outfit as more of a uniform they have to wear or are expected to wear, but it’s not quite a representation of how they actually feel and express themselves. 

-Also Lg2 had their own room and would like... put band posters up and stuff. Also photographs taken of them and the lemon people, like imagine a tacky teenagers’ bedroom (I say as if my room doesn’t look EXACTLY like this). 

-Lemongrab 2 looooved horse riding and loved their pegasus! I think it would be cool if they entered like... competitions and stuff occassionally so they have a few trophies. Also they loved anything that had horses in it. Like those trashy horse girl movies... cowboy stuff... my little pony... loved it. Definitely had a mlp toy collection and I mean a proper extensive collection like they had toys from the 80s and stuff. Absolute horse fanatic. 

-I think lemongrab 2 should have had some friends at least. They had some cloud people friends in the cloud kingdom that they would go visit and hang out with by flying up on the pegasus. They’d go to like... cloud parties and things and come home slightly drunk and try to hide it from people because they were embarrassed. 

-Nonbinary. No biney. I think lg2 was pretty much fine with all pronouns but was uncomfortable with being read solely as a man, like the whole being made as an exact copy of their brother and expected to have the same gender and expression as him was an absolute dysphoric nightmare and they never really had a chance to explore themselves outside of that. I think lg2 like.... suspected something was up with them gender wise and then realised they were trans halfway through their lifetime but couldn’t ever come out to anyone because they were already being treated so terribly and didn’t want to show any vulnerability or risk the abuse getting worse. 

#lemongrab #lemongrab 2 #cw abuse #cw alcohol #alcohol mention #yeahhh... #crying weeping I'm so sad Im so miserable #torn between loving lg3 more than anything but also wishing lg2 had survived and healed from being abused and abandoned all their life